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[Music] Good evening and welcome to the township of Clark Council meeting it is Monday March 17th 7:30 p.m roll call please council member Hoff here council member Hund here council member
Maserella here council members Maniniti and Okconor are absent council member Tol here council President Smith here please stand for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all this meeting is in compliance with the open public meetings act as adequate notice of this meeting has been provided
by mailing the annual schedule of meetings to the star ledger Union County Hawk Union County Local Source and Tap into Clark by posting such annual meeting schedule on the bulletin board and town hall reserved for such announcements the official website of the township and the proper filing of
said notice formal action may be taken at this meeting thank you can I get a motion to suspend regular order of business moved thank you Councilman Tol thank you Councilman Hund all in favor any opposed all right we're going to move to police
department promotions uh Captain Akaboo and Mayor Albanesey's and Captain Lot good evening everyone okay good evening everyone welcome um
tonight it's a pleasure to be here um with the families and friends of our two officers who are getting promoted and actually I'm going to um have Captain Mike Aaboo talk about our candidates if you would or however
you want to do it yeah I'll go first and Okay excellent very good thank you Mayor good evening Mayor Angel Albanesey's Business Administrator Jim Olrich Council President Bill Smith council members township clerk Edith Merkel
distinguished guests family friends and community members i would like to welcome you all to the John Laser Memorial Courtroom and to our promotional ceremony my name is Mike Akabu for those of you that do not know me I'm the commanding officer of the patrol
division but before we begin I would like to take a moment of silence for the fallen New York police detective Joseph Asona who is only 26 years old detective Asa was shot and killed on March 7th his funeral was this past Friday may he rest
in peace all right thank you also before we begin I'd like to introduce Lieutenant Sophia Santos of the Union County Prosecutor's Office she's here with us it's an honor to stand before you today as we recognize and celebrate an
important milestone in the careers of Sergeant Andrew Maduros and Detective Sergeant Michael Chachio today we officially mark their promotion into the rank of sergeant and detective sergeant a position that carries not only greater responsibility but also trust and
confidence of their peers leaders and community they serve stepping into the role of a sergeant means not only leading by example but not I'm sorry not only leading example not only leading by example but also guiding and mentoring others fostering
teamwork ensuring the values of justice fairness and accountability remain at the core of everything that they do and most importantly I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to all the family members present here tonight your support and sacrifices are the bedrock
upon which our officers stand strong we understand the unique challenges that come with supporting law enforcement professionals and your unwavering encouraging and is invaluable so I'd like to call on Sergeant Andrew
Maduros you could bring your family up as well so um you could come right here sergeant Andrew Maduros graduated from Ryder University in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in finance in 2013 he
graduated from the state of of New Jersey Police Training Commission in Somerset County sergeant Maduros was hired by the Middle Sex County Sheriff's Office where he served from June 2013 until March 2015 in April 2015 Sergeant
Maderos was hired by the Clark Police Department where he was assigned to the patrol division in 2018 Sergeant Maderos was detailed to the Union County Prosecutor's Office as a detective with the homicide task force until 2019 sergeant Maduro returned back to
the patrol division for about one year until 2021 sergeant Maduras was then appointed as a traffic detective with the Clark Police Department's traffic bureau from 2021 until 2024 during the course of his service Sergeant Maderos is the
recipient of the honorable service award in 2015 a life-saving award in 2018 and a platoon award in 2023 sergeant Maderos is a certified traffic safety specialist among other traffic specialty certifications he attended the New
Jersey State Police 26th annual advanced homicide investigations course and federal bureau investigations and crisis negotiation congratulations Sergeant Maduros we are proud of you and we look forward to the positive impact you will continue to make in this new chapter of
your career congratulations who's going to hold the Bible okay repeat after me i I state your name andrew Maderos do solemnly swear Do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the
United States and the State of New Jersey in the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in
this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of the office of all the duties of the office
of police sergeant police according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability for the township of Clark so help me God for the township of Clark so help me God
[Applause] yes good evening i'd like to invite Detective Sergeant Michael Chachio and his family up so it's my pleasure to swear in Detective Sergeant Chachio tonight he
was a Marine Corps veteran who served in the United States Marine Corps from 2005 and until 2009 he was deployed to Iraq between 2005 and 2007 and he was part of the Anbar
awakening action in Alanbar province after he came back from the Marine Corps he enrolled in the John J criminal Justice College and he graduated in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice after that he went on to further his education at Fairly Fairly Dickinson
where he graduated with a master's degree in 2012 sergeant Chachio got his start in law enforcement when he was hired by the Middle Sex County Sheriff's Office in 2013 and we were lucky to have him transfer over here in 2015 where he was
assigned to the patrol division he served in the patrol division for three years and then came over into the detective bureau with uh then Captain Grady and he was in the detective bureau from 2018 into 2021 when he was promoted to sergeant and moved back out into the
patrol division and assigned to a night shift sergeant Chachio came back into the detective bureau a few weeks ago he's been doing a very good job since he has been back and in the course of his service here at Clark PD he's been the recipient of two platoon awards so again it's my pleasure to congratulate
Sergeant Chachi on his promotion to the position of detective sergeant and Mayor Alvinise will now swear him in officially okay repeat after me i state your name i Michael Chachio do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I I will support the
Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the State of New Jersey and the State of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United
States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully And that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of the
office of Detective Sergeant all the duties of the office of Detective Sergeant according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability for the township of Clark so help me God for the township of Clark so help me God congratulations thank
you congratulations everyone thanks do you want to you want to get that pinned on yeah yeah do you want to Can you do it with the baby
want me to hold the baby no baby's like me try and hold that one she bites really yes do that yes i just want to congratulate both
Andrew and Michael um what's very impressive is the the way that they achieved all that they did first of all being veterans and then immediately going on to not only getting a bachelor's degree but advancing their
education so far so I wish them the best of luck um enjoy it enjoy the time and stay safe thank you very much we're going to take a two-minute recess if anybody would like to leave at this
time and again congratulations to Sergeant Manderos and Detective Sergeant Chachio okay at this time I'd like a motion to resume regular order of business councilman Maserella thank you second by Councilman Tol all in favor any opposed
all right now we're going to move to communications from the mayor and reports of township officers mayor Albanesey's thank you Mr president um first thing I want to mention is that we at our workshop meeting uh we talked about a project that was brought to my
attention regarding our veterans um Bill Duffy former police captain here in Clark for many years um contacted me and spoke to me about the fact that we have monuments in front of the high school that we uh where we have our ceremony
each year on on um Memorial Day to honor our fallen heroes and there are five individuals who served and died um for us for our freedom for our rights and uh we'd like to or what he proposed was
that we try to put some monuments in we discussed this at the council meeting and we went ahead and sent out some information to the public and we've been getting donations in quite rapidly and we are hoping that um we can reach our target we're about one-third there at
this point um if we can reach it by April 1st then we can complete the monuments uh for the Memorial Day celebration this year if you're interested you can either drop off a check um or cash at town hall or you can um pay by credit card there's
information on our website if you scroll down the front page you'll see the information of where you can donate and really any donation small or large uh all are appreciated and um we're really
excited about um completing this program and um also Bill has in mind a um a book that he would put together and he has he explained and there's a video about it um he was an officer and he went down a
tour of duty and he saw a street named Joseph Street and it had a gold star on it and he asked the officer what what was that all about and they said well that's that means that person was a veteran and at that point we didn't have all the streets named after our veterans and Bill cited um so much information
and explained that what he did to find out no one had information about all the veterans that had died um he went to the Elizabeth Library went into the microfich and started from the beginning of World War II to the end and
he said he just spent days and days and he really just fell in love with the task and he's actually done this in 10 other towns in New Jersey where they've built monuments so I just wanted to mention that um point if you're interested and obviously no matter what
we'd like to see you at the Memorial Day parade it's coming up and it's a it's a great time to um remember those who did fight for us and gave everything their lives um Women's History Month um gee
there's a couple of things that I I thought about talking about but just one that sticks out in my mind was um the um right for women to vote um I was going to do a little quiz you know was it 1869 was it 1840 was it
1920 um actually the women got the right to vote in 1920 but the movement actually started in 1840 and there was a particular woman named Alice Paul who was from New Jersey and her mother was a suffragette you
know who fought for women's rights and obviously Alice uh um fell in line with her mother's u ideas and fought very hard for that and ultimately um uh well Alice Paul was as I said from New Jersey
she was born in Mount Laurel in 1885 and in 1920 the United States Constitution was changed by the 19th amendment and women were given the right to vote and uh there is an uh a movie on HBO Max which is came out in 2015 which is a
very good if you're interested in the topic and history it's called Ironjawed Angels and there's some famous actor actresses in it and um if you're interested you can check that out um the other thing that I want thought
about in in speaking on this is um women from Clark that impressed me uh quite a bit and one of them was Sister Donna Marie O'Brien and recently um I was at the
gala that um St john the Apostle Church had and they honored her it was it's their 75th anniversary this year and what was interesting was her path in life was education and she became a
principal at the school and was there for 34 years and it was just I guess fate or luck because normally a an individual would not be a principal for that long a period so she was there for 34 years but
she really um did an amazing job in uniting everyone and in the community and also all the students and and families that in that community um uh she's really
remarkable and I think a very strong woman and we had the pleasure of um having her give the um uh induct the introduction and the benediction um at our swearing in on two occasions
and then she retired she's still working it's amazing i don't even know how old she is but she hasn't changed one bit she's got as much energy as ever and um I really wanted to acknowledge her as being one of the greatest women um in Clark I would say in the past hundred
years at least and we'll we'll see if Brian agrees with that later when he speaks and um as far as other things that are happening um just want to mention we had a an incident in town and
um not monumental but you know uh when things occur what we'd like citizens to do if you could call the police first what we see is a trend of people will post things on Facebook and then maybe
20 minutes later call the police and really it doesn't help the situation so if you if you see something really just say something and contact the police and we can take some action and you'll see we're going to be doing some other things some other safety uh safety
ordinance that'll be issued tonight and we'll we'll discuss that at that time um I that's all I have right now thank you thank you Mayor Albanesey's council member Huff thank you very much um as the liaison to the library I have a few
updates from the library they wanted me to pass on that they had a total of 8,075 visitors for the month of March and recorded 6,156 website views we had a great tour of their last week or two weeks ago and I continue to just be amazed at all the
things the library offers so coming up they have a Friends of the Library costume and jewelry sale book sale and puzzle sale on April 5th there's the Great American Song Book with the Florian Chance Jazz Combo and Adult events on Tuesday April 8th they have Hopes Promise with a therapy horse for
all ages the week of spring break Monday April 14th at 3 p.m and they have a family night uh movie night that's occurring on Thursday April 17th at 6:30 p.m and finally the vinyl revival in April on the 28th at 7 p.m so you can go
on to the website and see all the information they have about it and that's all I have on the library thank you thank you Council Member Hund thank you Council President um I have the February 2025 police report for the police department obviously for we saw a total
of 1,633 calls for service including but not limited to 88 for ambulance requests 68 alarm calls two for burglaries three for fire department requests two fraudulent identity theft eight motor vehicle and
residential lockouts 67 motor vehicle accidents 16 shoplifting and theft and 1,259 9 and 11 calls there was a total of seven adult arrests including but not limited to
five for shoplifting and two for warrants the Youth Aid Bureau handled a total of 15 cases including but not limited to one for burglary two for shoplifting five for offenses against the family two for truency and three for other offenses and as the mayor
mentioned before with regards to situations that occur in town um we would ask if you would call the police department before you when you pick up your phone instead of going on Facebook first and then calling the police department it would be very helpful um
with issues that may occur in town that concludes my report thank you thank you Council Member Maserella yes thank you Council President this is my DPW report for this evening electronic drop off will be March 29th
uh from 9:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m and the um DPW facility behind this building um ID will be required so please if you have any items um make a note of bringing them uh spring cleanup begins next week
March 24th through April 28th um you can now start to put your debris out for spring cleanup however please try to leave about a 1 ft distance from the edge of the debris to the curb line
this will ensure that if there is a big rain event uh that debris will not go into catch basins and and clog them so please remember that and to schedule any DPW uh services go to
www.ourclark.com and click on the tab for online services they will navigate you through um tree permits bulky and appliance pickups tree trimming tree removal permits mulch deliveries and etc
but please go on that site it'll give you a whole listing of the of that and please let um our DPW forces know beforehand um what items you have for appliance and metal pickup because they're different
vehicles that will pick that uh material up bulky and appliance pickup appointments are required for those and it um please remember to do that the Thursday um before your scheduled pickup week um
mulch deliveries will start on March 28th a small load is approximately 2 to three yards a large load is approximately 5 to six yards it's free of charge so schedule that and we'll be
happy our DPW forces will be happy to deliver it and if any if you need any more information please don't hesitate to um contact DPWClark.com for more information thank you that's the extent of my report thank
you i'm going to go back to Council Member Hun to do the fire department report i apologize i'm reading the report for Councilman Niti who's not here tonight so in February the Clark Fire Department responded to 34 calls bringing the total for the year to 75
key incidents included multiple odor and alarm related calls five motor vehicle incidents including one on the Garden State Parkway where CFD assisted Cranford with the extraction of the occupant one call regarding a down f downed wire from a fallen branch one
call for smoking light pole both calls were with assistance from PSCG and one call for a flooded basement on Lexington Boulevard u we'd like to extend his gratitude to the dedicated members of
the Clark Fire Department for their continued hard work in keeping our town safe the full fire department report is available in the clerk's office and that concludes Councilman Niti's report thank you thank you Council Member Tol thank you Mr president from the Clark
Environmental Commission this Wednesday the 19th of March the Environmental Commission will have a meeting in room 30 also known as the history room in the Brewer Municipal Complex we ask you it's open to the public for the members to come out and have a vigorous discussion on mother nature and what we can do to
help it by basically living in its world so we thank you Mr president that's all I've got for tonight and we'll see you hopefully at the Environmental Commission this Wednesday at 7:30 in room 30 bye thank you from the pool and recreation
report uh programs for the spring and summer classes are available online at hourclark.com under the community and recreation tab sign up as soon as possible uh so classes do not have to be cancelled for low enrollment the summer
recamp registration and Clark community pool applications are also now available online and in person the rec summer recck camp does fill up quickly so we ask that you do register as soon as possible on Thursday March 20th which is
this week the New Jersey Devils are hosting the Clark family night at the Credential Center in Newark you can register on the Devil's website to acquire uh seats in the Clark section uh looking ahead we have the annual Easter
egg hunt which will be held on Saturday April 12th from 12 to 2 at the rec center and also the Clark Little League and Clark Girl softball parade will be held on Saturday April 6th at 9:00 a.m and the Memorial Day parade obviously
will be on Monday May 26th at 9:00 a.m if you have any questions on any of these events you can stop in the recck office or and contact Ralph Bernardo or Emily Lambert and the phone number is 7324288400 okay that's the end of our reports at this time we will move on to
ordinances appropriations and claims public hearing on proposed ordinances thank you Mr president for the record no objections have been received in connection with the proposed ordinances first ordinance is 25-04 an ordinance
amending chapter 114 entitled certificate of compliance okay at this time I will open up the meeting to the public on this ordinance only if anyone would like to come forward please do so on this ordinance okay seeing no one I like a
motion to close the public hearing so move thank you Councilman Tol thank you Councilman Hunt all in favor i any opposed okay okay at this time I'd like a motion to adopt the ordinance so moved thank you Councilman Tol can I get a second second that please thank you
Councilman Hund jim you have anything to add again we've discussed this at our um executive sessions in our last uh public meeting this is just to change the def or the title from certificate of compliance which is a defined term
within the uh DCA uh to certificate of resale whenever someone's doing an inspection on selling a building great thank you anyone else have any questions or discussion okay roll call please council member Hoff yes
yes hund yes maserella yes tol here yes council President Smith yes next ordinance is 25-05 an ordinance amending section two of chapter 122 entitled fees okay at this time I will
open up the meeting to a public hearing for this ordinance and this ordinance only if anyone like to come forward please do so okay seeing no one like a motion to close the public hearing thank you councilman Tol can I get a second second thank you Councilman Maserella all in
favor any opposed all right can I get a motion to adopt the ordinance some moved thank you Councilman Tolk can I get a second i'll second that please thank you Councilman Hun jam you have anything to add for this i'll just I'll address two and three at the same time and as we
discussed this is just to break out the fees associated with construction and zoning into the two respective sections uh 122 is going to include all the um construction fees and uh the next item number
325-06 would be breaking out all of the zoning related fees so it used to be all part of one uh fee schedule we broke them out and put them in the respective um sections of the u of our ordinances great thank you anyone else have any
questions or discussion hey roll call please council member Hoff yes hund yes masarella yes tol yes council President Smith yes ordinance adopted number three is ordinance 25-06
an ordinance to amend section 38 entitled interpretation of zoning provisions administrative officer and section 51 entitled fees established of chapter 195 entitled land use and development of the code of the township
of Clark okay at this time I will open up the public hearing on this ordinance and this ordinance only if anyone would like to come forward please do so okay seeing no one like a motion to close so moved thank you Councilman Tol second please second thank you
Councilman Maserella all in favor i any opposed okay at this time need a motion to adopt the ordinance so moved thank you Councilman Tolga a second i'll second it thank you Councilman Marzarella uh Jim already explained it does anyone else have any questions or
discussion okay roll call please council member Hoff yes hund yes maserella yes tol yes council President Smith yes ordinance adopted next is ordinance
25-07 an ordinance to adjust civil service ranking of job title of public works repairer okay at this time I'll open up the public hearing on this ordinance if anyone would like to come forward please do so okay seeing no I make a motion to
close the public hearing i'll move it thank you Council Me i get a second i'll second it thank you Councilman Hun all in favor any opposed okay at this time I needed a motion to adopt the ordinance yes I'll move that thank you Council Marvel i get a second second thank you
Council Member Huff uh Jim you have anything to add to this yeah this is just a you know we're adding the title to be consistent with the civil service titles uh this was already discussed with the blue collar union who is 100% in favor of the change
great thank you anyone else have any questions or discussion okay roll call please council member Hoff yes hund yes maserella yes tol yes council President Smith yes ordinance adopted number five is
25-08 an ordinance to create the position custodial worker and to fix minimum and maximum salaries okay at this time I will open up the meeting for the public hearing on this ordinance if anyone would like to come forward please do so okay seeing no one I'd like a motion
to close the public hearing move that please thank you Councilman Hun can I get a second second thank you Councilman Maserella all in favor i any opposed okay i need a motion to adopt the ordinance anybody well moved thank you Councilman
Tol can I get a second second okay all right thank you Council Member Huff any discussion jimmy you have anything to add as we discussed we uh formerly had an outsource company doing this we're bringing someone in house um and this is to set up well we brought someone in
house already but this is to um establish her title great thank you anyone else have any questions or discussion on this okay roll call please council member Hoff yes hund yes masarella yes tol yes council President
Smith yes ordinance adopted okay we're going to move to introduction of proposed ordinances first ordinance for introduction is 25-09 an ordinance to amend and supplement chapter 347 entitled vehicles
and traffic adding article 11 motorized bicycles and scooters section 347-65 motorized bicycles and scooters of the code of the township of Clark i get a motion yes I'll move it thank you Council Meer thank you Councilman Hun
any discussion jim you want to add anything to this yeah so this has been a request for a little while uh more than a few months uh just the people who are riding the motorized scooters around town um it primarily breaks it out into a couple of
things you know low-speed motorized vehicles high-speed motorized vehicles um and which one uh you know the high-speed motorized vehicles require license registration insurance bunch of um things that the low speed do not um
that the operators have the same rights and duties as the motor vehicle drivers again consistent with uh t New Jersey state law title 39 um and that the New Jersey law takes precedence in any in the case of conflicts with this ordinance uh
primarily it's going to regulate dangerous operation uh what's required equipment reckless operation helmet requirements um keep right and in single file uh sticker requirements um and this came
up in our executive meeting sticker requirements is not an inspection sticker it's actually the specifics on the um the vehicle uh that comes from the manufacturer uh obviously no sidewalk uh riding and no carrying of articles um there's also some parking
restrictions in there however the key is that is prohibitive riding areas uh Township of Clark property and Board of Education property we're also working with the uh major property owners within the township to get their approval to
enforce this on their property and you know and then there's a a fine with mand mandatory court appearance um I think I got it all did I get it all captain yeah so that's you know overall um you know
what what it says for the public great um before I get to Mayor I was just going to sum it up i mean this is all about safety for citizens walking on the street and for those riding these vehicles so we've seen as as James
mentioned you know incidences where there's been concern where there's a lot of people around especially on the on the uh lots of the school township property so um we're being transparent we want everyone to know about what's happening
so please take note if you have family members grandchildren um friends who are on these scooters take a look at the rules so you understand them thank you thank you Councilman Maserella yes i'd just like
to add um that this uh only encompasses township owned properties and township roads correct Jim currently yes we are yes it does not include any county properties or anything like that no yeah and like like right we we don't have
county properties on this yeah right just wanted to make sure and we are working with the private property owners like I said um but we got to get an agreement with them to be able to enforce it within you know if claw comments wants it if the target wants it if you know Starbucks Hackac Meridian
etc um if they want to so we're going to go to them and you know they would have to authorize us to enforce it within their property i guess this would be a question for the benefit of the residents uh for I guess uh Captain Lad or Aabu does um um there any prohibition
of uh of writing this uh for any age limitations on it like children captain Lot you want to come up to the microphone thank you so everything for age limitations goes back to title
39 so anything that's a low-speed vehicle is treated the same as a bicycle so the low-speed vehicles have the same have no age restriction because essentially it's a bicycle right what differentiates what you need a license for is when it moves into a high-speed
vehicle if it's a high-speed vehicle then it's governed by the laws for licensing under 310 and there's a couple different sections there so if it's a if you're under or if you're 15 you you can get a moped license right so if you
don't have a regular driver's license you need a moped license to operate a high one that is defined as a high-speed vehicle um because essentially it's an electric moped so you would need either a moped license or a driver's license if you have a driver's license you do not need a moped license you could operate
that at any time so basically to operate one of the higher speed ones you would need to be 15 eligible to get a moped license and have a moped license or a driver's license but anything that's low speed the scooters things like that those fall back to the bicycle rules i'm
sorry they fall back to the title 39 bicycle rules okay yeah they're essentially a bicycle if it has pedals it's a bicycle is the best the best way to think about it is the ones that are high speed don't have pedals right the ones that are low speed those are the class one and two right those have
pedals and then you have the the scooters which are easily differentiatable from those but the the class one and twos will have pedals on there so if you see pedals it's it functions like a bicycle okay thank you thank you Captain A anyone else have anything
okay roll call please council member Huff yes hund yes maserella yes tol yes council President Smith yes public hearing on this ordinance will be April 21st [Music]
next ordinance is 25-10 an ordinance to amend chapter 117 entitled clothing donation bins section 117-7 limitations on the locations and numbers of clothing bins of the code of the township of Clark i get a motion
move that please thank you Councilman Hunk i get a second second thank you Council Member Huff any discussion yeah there was a request of you know some of the council members uh to permit clothing bin donations uh for veterans
organizations uh the only exception would be that they it's a veterans organization they still have to comply with all of the other requirements of cleanliness periodic pickups um what they can take and what they cannot take and you know so everything else is the
same the only exception is to add the two veteran organizations the American Legion and the VFW but again they still need to comply with all the other requirements of the ordinance right thank you anyone else have any questions or discussion on this okay
roll call please council member Hoff yes hund yes maserella yes tol yes council President Smith yes public hearing on this ordinance is April 21st uh the next two ordinances are bond ordinances the supplemental debt
statement has been submitted to the Department of Community Affairs for the following two bond ordinances the first is 25-11 bond ordinance to authorize the making of various public improvements and the acquisition of new information technology equipment and a new
automobile vehicle including original apparatus and equipment in buyin for the township of Clark in the county of Union state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $1,50,000 to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the
issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds great thank you can I get a motion i'll move it thank you Council Meerella get a second
second thank you Councilman Tol uh Jim you want to add anything this is basically taking the uh road uh capital road improvement putting it together with the new vehicle and some IT equipment correct correct i mean it's primarily the you know the street
repavingment um the acquisition of the new automotive vehicle is the new ambulance so we're looking to purchase the ambulance for our volunteer ambulance squad and the last one is just to upgrade servers and computers
throughout the township our current server is at end of life and we want we we need to upgrade it uh you know to continue with the software because they're gonna out um the software is no longer going to be available for the the age of the server thank you anyone else
have any questions or discussion this okay roll call please council member Hoff yes hund yes maserella yes tol yes council President Smith yes public hearing on this ordinance is April
21st next is ordinance 25-12 bond ordinance to authorize the making of various public improvements and the acquisition of a new firet truck including original apparatus and equipment in by and for the township of Clark in the county of Union state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of
$3,340,000 to pay the cost thereof to appropriate state grants to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds i get a motion
i'll move this thank you Council Me i get a second i'll second it thank you Council Member Hoff uh any discussion go ahead Jim yeah this is the um second part of the Valley Road so we last year we received the DOT
um grant and we bonded for the rest of it for the first section of Valley Road this year the second we did not um initiate the paving because we didn't want to you know shut down Valley Road twice you know in two consecutive years so in the spring we're going to start
from one end over by St john's and take it all the way down to the other side uh it's probably going to be you know somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 weeks and it's going to be an extensive uh an extensive project that's going to
obviously delay people but I just want everybody to know that that's why we're doing this the um second item is the ladder truck for the fire department we did receive the $ 1.5 million grant from
uh Senate President Scutari uh we again thank him for that u that money and we're going to end up you know somewhere in the neighborhood of $800,000 uh when it's when all said and done uh because this is this includes a lot of additional equipment we don't know what
it's going to be there's a 3 and 1 half year um order time so we're not going to even see this for another 3 plus years and you know we'll we'll see what that number ends up being and last but not least is the Robinson House uh you know we it's we have to replace the roof uh
it's a historical building i didn't realize how much goes into an historical building but between needing a historical architect engineer and contractors the the roof replacement is going to be somewhere close to
$350,000 we did receive a grant of uh about $145,950 leaving us with about $200,000 we are still looking for other grants um I wanted to include it this year in our infrastructure grant program however we
have to spend the infrastructure grant by December 31st 2025 so this is not going to be done just given all the work that we needed to do and um so I had a discussion with our engineer we'll see where we are in
2026 and maybe apply for you know some relief from the county infrastructure grant in 2026 so this may or may not be the the final number for us to move forward we have to make sure that we have enough money to pay for between the grant and the bond thank you for the
explanation Mayor Albanesey's yes i also want to thank uh Senate President ScQatari for the wonderful $1.5 million and this all together there are grants in each one of these items getting a grant for the truck for the road or and
also for the roof and when you aggregate it all it's 62% of the money we're we're getting 62 cents on the dollar that we're investing here which is phenomenal so great job and um yeah we hope to continue getting
more grants like this thank you great thank you anyone else okay uh roll call please council member Hoff yes hund yes maserella yes tol yes council President Smith yes
public hearing on this ordinance is April 21st uh we'll move to payment of claims i know Councilman Okconor did review all the bills for the month in the amount of $320,57769 now we'll move on to citizens hearing on the
agenda you want me to read this uh or you want to read it i'll read it sure okay all right i'm going to open the meeting to the public the public comment portion of the meeting is to allow the public to bring to the council's attention their concerns or comments in accordance with
NJSA 10 col4-12A and decoded the township of Clark each person addressing the council shall give their name and the town in which they reside to the clerk all remarks shall be addressed to the council as a body and shall not exceed 5 minutes in duration at the conclusion of
the statements or questions from a member of the public the council president as at his discretion may choose to respond or not respond so at this time I'd like to open up the meeting to the public if anyone would like to come forward please do so good evening Dillia Collins Clark um I'm
commenting on resolution uh 11 supporting the humane pet store bill i'm happy to see that's on the docket for this evening and I hope that it comes to fruition i have a question on resolution
12 authorizing the mayor to execute the fourth amendment amendment to the agreement between Hyatt Hills Golf Course Commission and the Razer Trust owner of Hyatt Hills Golf Course what is this amendment
you have any other questions we'll answer it when you're finished that's it that's it okay st patrick's Day okay same to you Dillia thank you um do you want to do it now or wait till we I could take it now okay go ahead Jim
so the amendment is just to extend the agreement to 2030 um it's you know we used to have a commission that had representation from Cranford and Clark don't hold me to the numbers i think it was four and three you know but there was seven people um so it was four from
Clark three from Cranford uh the the pro the whole project is really run by the golf course so what they decided probably mid 201 I don't know 14 15 in that area um
they came up with a change in the agreement to have only the mayor of Clark and the mayor of Cranford on the board because there was no need for meetings or anything like that and primarily to maintain the commission uh of the golf course so what they ended up
doing is it expires every five years we can cancel it at any time right so um you know if we don't want to do it anymore we could um uh you know cancel the agreement as can they any time through 2025 if it's not uh 2030 if it's
not ex if it doesn't expire by 20 u if it's not renewed by 2030 it automatically expires so I mean that's it it's nothing crazy great thank you anyone else like to come [Music]
forward okay seeing no one I'd like a motion to close this portion so moved thank you Councilman Tol can I get a second i'll second that thank you Councilman Hun all in favor i any opposed all right we'll move on to resolutions first resolution is the council as the
board of health accepting and approving the 2024 annual health report okay get a motion move that thank you council member and thank you council member Hund any discussion basic year-over-year just
approving the annual health report yep yep um so on in your um in your package it just really goes through the number of inspections reinspections what type of complaints we had what type of administrative um you know items we have summones
issued so it really is just a an overall high level summary of everything that the health department did in 2024 it's required by law um you know again there's nothing in here that you know seems to um jump out i sit down with the
uh health officer every quarter and just go over the numbers number of inspections grease trap inspections um things along those lines so this is just a a summary of all of our our meetings great thank you anyone else have any questions or discussion okay roll call
please council member Hoff yes hund yes maserella yes tol yes council President Smith yes okay number 11 is supporting the Humane Pet Store bill S2511A451 to prohibit the sale of cats
dogs or rabbits in pet stores for the protection of animals as well as consumers i get a motion so moved thank you Councilman Tolk can I get a second second thank you Council Member Huff uh any discussion right thank you Mr cohen yes
i'm glad Mr cohen did bring this to our attention at the workshop meeting and hopefully the state uh uh gets on top of this and uh passes them uh roll call please council member Hoff yes hund yes mazerella yes tol yes council President
Smith yes okay number 12 is authorizing the mayor to execute the fourth amendment to the agreement between Hyatt Hills Golf Course Commission and Racer owner of Hyatt Hills Golf Course i get a motion
i'll move thank you Councilman Tol get a second i'll second that please thank you Councilman Hun any discussion i know Jim just explained it all anyone else have any questions okay roll call please council member Hoff yes hund yes maserella yes tol yes council President
Smith yes okay number 13 is ratifying the exigency action taken by the business administrator to remediate a sanitary sewer main break on Prescott Turn in the amount of $7,500 i'll move that thank you Councilman
Member Tol uh anyone else second please i'll second that thank you Council Member Hun any discussion i mean it's it's self-explanatory i just want to let everybody know that we're still looking into what caused it um one of the things is the resident was doing
work on their lateral at the time and then there was a crack in the um the sewer line we had to get it fixed we had the contra a there was a contractor on site working on that line we just thought it was prudent to just get it fixed at that point and pay for it
this so that we did this on an emerging basis thank you uh roll call please council member Hoff yes hund yes maserella yes tol yes council President Smith yes consent agenda
resolutions the following items are considered routine and non-controversial items by the township council and will be enacted upon by one motion there will be no separate discussion for these items unless a council member so requests in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda to be
discussed and voted on following the approval of the remaining items listed on the consent agenda first item is appointing Juan Paloo and Joseph Cancina as members of the Clark Volunteer Fire Department
effective March 17 2025 next is authorizing the tax collector to apply sewer account balance adjustments as credit in the amount of $29,457.90 number 16 is authorizing the tax collector to refund overpayment of sewer fees in the amount of
$1,400 and 17 is authorizing the tax collector to refund overpayment of taxes in the amount of $2,63522 you get a motion to adopt the consent agenda move that Mr president thank you Council Member Tolk i get a second i'll second that please thank you Council Member Hun roll call council member Hoff
yes hund yes maserella yes tol yes council President Smith yes any new business on the calendar there is no new no new business great thank you all right now we're going to move to public comments i'll open the meeting to the public the public comment portion of the meeting is to allow the
public to bring to the council's attention their concerns or comments in accordance with NJSA10 col4-12A and the code of the township of Clark each person addressing the council shall give their name and the town in which they reside to the clerk all remarks shall be addressed to the
council as a body and shall not exceed 5 minutes in duration at the conclusion of the statements or questions from a member of the public the council president at their discretion may choose to respond or not respond at this time if anyone would like to come forward please do so
good evening John Greavves from Clark um I guess real quick uh there was that issue that you guys mentioned about uh people reporting things on Facebook instead of calling the police uh was that referencing the There was a bomb threat at the high school is that what
that was referencing no okay all right um what was it referencing oh there was some vandalism so Oh graffiti painted yeah I think I did see that i And I I agree with you guys that I definitely should call the police instead of uh
putting it on Facebook i I did see that um the other question I had was I heard that the uh parking lot at Bartell Park uh the construction on that that was that's not going to happen is that correct correct um I I heard someone say
that that was because the residents had said that they didn't want that is that the case as well uh yes the residents came to a meeting they uh Matt came to us with a letter and they did not want a parking lot uh across the street from their houses so we decided to take it
off the uh program correct Jim okay just uh another question related letters so that was that was the fund for that was from bonds from last year what what happens with that money that for that particular as we discussed at the
meeting when we did we added a street I don't remember what street we added to pave okay so you just moved it to a different street they were paving yes so that's why if you read the bond ordinance it indicates that we can if the b if the bids come in less or there is money left over we could actually go
to other roads that are on the list of streets to be paved okay um so uh regarding uh last month uh I had mentioned stuff about pilot and the the mayor mayor Albanese had said that you know maybe there were some suggestions that people might have um I just had a
few things that I wanted to say about pilots you know I have some things about that I'm worried about um so my main suggestions when it comes to pilots is you know in general don't really give pilots to residential properties because it adds
students to the school but it doesn't add additional funding to the school budget to offset the the cost that those those students bring um I think that's probably one of the biggest issues um I know that you guys have a an ordinance that you had enacted a few
years back that um after a pilot was initiated uh like on Walnut the Walnut Hill Apartments that the money that they would have received uh is given by the town to the school budget but the issue that I have
with that is is that it's it's based on the amount that was given before the development so like Walnut Hill um I think that the school was getting about $50,000 a year um before it was developed and now it's you know if if they had been a normal tax structure it
would be over $500,000 they'd be getting so they're getting $50,000 instead of the 500 um I re recognize it's hard to find that money but um at the very least that that that ordinance I believe is specific to Walnut Hill at the very least um I would say extend it to all
pilots um and then um the other thing is is that in a pilot the town actually gets more money than they would under a normal tax structure um so I was basically thinking maybe we could figure out how much they would
have gotten under the normal tax structure and whatever excess that could go to the school or at least a portion of the excess and you know maybe that doesn't have to be all of the excess but it could be tied to the number of students that are going to the schools from these different properties um and
then you know lastly I would just say you know the negotiations for the pilots I I would just like to see you guys be a little tougher um so like for CubSmart um I believe it's a 30-year tax exemption and they pay 10% of their revenue um
and I I believe from what I've read that 30 years is the legal limit it's illegal to give them a higher um amount of time and 10% of the revenue is the legal minimum that they can give so it's literally illegal to give them better terms than that and you know I'd like
to have you know better terms for the town in that sense i do know that there are escalations over the years and it's not exactly that the entire time but um you know it just seems to me that the overall benefit to the town doesn't always even out and it especially
affects our schools and you know the shortfall that the schools don't get the average taxpayer has to shoulder on their own and so those are the general suggestions um I appreciate your time and uh have a good night thank you thank you Mr greavves
hi Larry Cohen from family New Jersey i just want to thank you very much for your compassion for animals and your obvious uh understanding of this issue and support for it um that makes it a unanimous 10 out of 10 towns in district
22 supporting this now and I really hope that makes a difference thank you so much thank you i didn't know I was speaking for Mr colin he was right here right hi happy St patrick's Day everyone uh
Mary Semler 56 Conger Way um and I was just wondering if someone could provide an update to the citizens about um we talked probably about six months ago about the solar projects um that were supposed to be installed on municipal properties and where we are um with
approving and getting that project started so there's some people I know we've been doing a lot of things a lot of uh salespeople here in the town talking about installing solar so um I wanted to just get a followup about our municipal buildings thank you
thank you all right seeing no one else coming for like a motion to close this portion so move that thank you Councilman Hunt and that Councilman Tol second all in favor i any opposed jim do you have any update
on the solar yeah we're still working with the roofing vendor so we're going back and forth on what needs to be done what needs to be supported you know it's like anything else um you know we did some work in the bathrooms and we had a a
slight setback from you know walls just weren't secured as we thought they were behind it uh similar to this we have to look into the roof so we had a uh last week I believe he was up there again uh just trying to get us the the
numbers so they don't want to put solar panels on a roof that's going to have to be changed in 5 years right so we're we're still working with it you know these things take a little bit of time great thank you um on the pilots I'll try to address
it again Mr greavves um the zoning board zones properties in this town for certain buildings the property across on the Holiday Inn was zoned for residential commercial correct u Jim
um a developer came to us um offered to build a development on there and first word that's out of his mouth was I'll do it if uh you do a pilot agreement with us if we said no that property would still be sitting vacant uh when we ran the numbers at the beginning of the year
the enrollment was down 34 students total in the district i'm not sure exactly where it is now and I'll get updated numbers for the next meeting the board of ed has never come to us and asked for more money we opened up that
conversation with them many years ago we went into pilot saying if you need more money come speak to us and we will address it um but to our knowledge they have not come to us so our thought process was to give them the amount of money they would have gotten on that
property to keep them whole and for the town to help recoup some money or well some of the money or a little bit of the money on all the tax appeals that are going to happen and that have happened and will continue to happen of course on
tax appeals the township is 100% liable to pay for that uh but we collect taxes again 55% or so for the schools 25% for the town and 20 something% for the municipality so it's not fair that
the township of Clark has to foot the whole bill on tax appeals mayor go ahead um so after all the discussions we've had after the various meetings I did get in touch with the superintendent i sent him an email and uh also spoke with him
and this is not affecting their budget now when I say that I mean they're getting the cash that they need to run the schools okay everything that they need goes into their budget and then is passed on as
taxes so I know that Mr greavves will say "Well then you're you're you're splitting the pie up differently amongst people." Yes that's true but when I look at the council and myself not many of us have children in school so it's a fact of life that
others I had my day when my kids went to school and the others were supporting them and it's just a cycle that goes on you know when your kids get bigger they're not in the schools anymore so you're paying do you say "Oh well you I'm paying more
taxes." It's that's how it works you own a home you pay the taxes um the bottom line of it is to address the concerns of citizens about whether the schools are getting less money um they they are getting what they need
because they will come up with a an amount of money they need and that goes into the taxes that are build the point that the president was making is when there is an appeal we don't go back and ask the school for money we don't go back and
ask the county for money the town pays that so they must keep extra money in reserves for those situations so there's a lot of different dynamics that occur um now one of the pilots that was built was a commercial
pilot and that's what was suggested don't have residential but don't forget looming over us and I didn't address it or speak about it again tonight the state came out with the fourth round of housing long before
everyone completed their third round and right now there's 129 159 towns out of 400 uh 564 that are protesting because there's areas that were cited for building um where they
can't build so I don't want to go down that but the bottom line of it is we need to build the housing we need to sort out by June 30th what our plan is and every February 15th going forward we have to figure out a plan so that we can
explain how we are going to fulfill our commitment of affordable housing so and plus I think we want to be a residential community we are a residential community we don't have a lot of commercial things going on this is a suburban town we want
to keep it suburban um at least that that would be my goal um now to put the matter You know to add on to that we're probably the only town in the state I believe that is giving pilot money back and it was almost a struggle to be able
to do that so I think we're um attacking this in different ways and the bottom line thing that I want citizens to remember is the schools are getting the money they need to run their operation and that's the most critical thing
secondary we have blighted properties in the town and we want to work with developers and we want developers interested in coming here and working with them to take care of those issues which is some of the people in this room come up and they ask what's happening
with this blighted property what's happening with the old AMP etc so we are trying to address that and those are the goals that we're trying to achieve right to clarify one of the comments you just made so the CL flight to the public we
believe if we're not we're we're one of the only or the only town in the state of New Jersey who's actually given money back from the pilot to the schools every other town who collects a pilot is keeping the money so we did not have to give the schools anything but we wanted
to do what was right for the the town well that's not to say I mean there are towns for example Woodbridge they do a lot for their schools just as we have done here during all the administrations I've been here we built the parking in
front of the school in front of the high school that was paid by the taxpayers the first um turf field paid by the taxpayers for safety reasons we built the driveound um at Valley Road we built
the bumpouts at the schools so that kids could d get dropped off safely at the schools so those are all paid by the taxpayers for the safety of the children because we work together we have a lot of shared services with the schools to
save money and to perform better services so this is just an ongoing thing we've been doing for years now here and I'm sure I left out a lot of the projects well I guess we built the uh uh skate rink we move that from K
over to Henley um great thank you that's it all right i think we've spoke enough about that at this time we'll move to professional comments mayor Albanese do you have anything to add um just to remind residents that we have our
resident guide and um I just ask that people sign up for the newsletter there's a lot of new things that come out each week and you can just see what's coming up i one thing that I saw that was of interest to me is and maybe you know you look in your garage you want to clean it out it's time for
spring you have all these old chemicals cans of different paints and things that have a little bit in it and there is going to be a recycling drive it's not it's over in Scotch Plains in a at the end of April i think it's April 29th so if you have um things of that nature you
cannot recycle them with our bulky pickup uh it's dangerous to put them in garbage cans because of the machines that are used so that would be a safe way of disposing of those items that's it thank you council member Hoff you have anything to add
i do i just want to say congratulations to our CPD promotions for Sergeant Midaros and uh Detective Sergeant Chichiro tonight i think I'm pronouncing that correctly but sorry sorry um I want to say thank you congratulations and stay safe and to um
continue congratulations and thanks and stay safe to our newest um Clark uh fire department volunteers thank you thank you council member Hunful member Huff took exactly what I was going to say so my portion will be very short so congratulations to all of
them and the main portion stays safe thank you to our police department as usual for the wonderful job that they do every month at keeping the town safe we were discussing earlier tonight um how when most of the council members are driving around town we're passing a
police car um seeing the activity of that they're out and about around all around town so again thank you for that and continued support from our end to to everything that you need that's all I have to say thank you thank you Council Member Maserella yes thank you Council
President uh first um to repeat what uh Councilwoman Huff has said congratulations to two two police officers for their promotions and to dubtail on what Mayor Albanese had said earlier as far as um to the residents
try to refrain first using social media if you suspect something or see something that you're uncomfortable about call police call our police department first you could certainly use social media as much as you want but the
fact is if you want a quick response rather than using social media and talking about it call our police department they're going to respond quickly they're not going to get upset with with anyone um they're going to
come out and uh ensure your safety so please remember that and again as I've said in the past u remember to lock all your vehicle and your homes um when when you're home or going out
and all of that we don't want to have anybody enter into your home and that's a good deterrent if you lock your vehicles and your home doors so until next month be safe well and God bless thank you
thank you Council Member Tol thank you Mr president i'm just going to do a couple things uh before the meeting we got a tour of this building uh we saw it when it was under construction it was all just metal beams and things to the captains thank you for that that gave us a new insight of what the officers are
seeing every day by coming into work to um Detective Cap Detective Sergeant Michael and Andrew good health to you on your tour duty and to your families that you go home every night safe to them because that's what it's all about and we appreciate you putting your time and
your efforts into making us safe this whole township is based on one thing a strong police department and that's those men right sitting in the second the second row behind Al Councilman Albar are are symbols of our leadership of our department and we thank them for
everything they do so with that said every month I usually give a report of who's passed away in this township because it's important to recognize those special people who touched our lives and tonight I have somebody very special his name was Dr barry Orange he
was 84 years old he had his business his Lexington animal bu veterinarian shop right next to the Clark Post Office now you probably never heard of him never knew anything about him unless you had a dog or a cat or any other type of animal this is a gentleman who came to work and
gave his life to the four-legged fur dogs and creatures of our town if you ever had a dog and your child had that dog or that cat and it was very special to him and he got sick there was only one place to go it was Dr orange's Lexington Village Animal Hospital i got to know Dr orange
through through Nancy and Bruce Laramore who run Noah's Arc Animal Rescue in Clark because Dr orange went and volunteered his time to help them with dogs that were dogs or cats that were caught or strayed orphaned who were injured in the roadways of Clark the
Clark police would pick them up and bring them over to Nancy and Bruce over on Lake Avenue and they were on Noah's Arc Animal Rescue and they help those animals that need that extra assistance and it was Dr once there was an animal brought in and whatever night whatever time of the night Dr orange would go out
out of his warm bed and go over to visit new Nancy and Bruce or go to Clark PD and help get that animal to that needs needed a doctor's care instead of being sent out and I know our uh Dia Collins is in the audience and she can talk more about Dr orange because she worked with
him there are a lot of people in this township but Dr orange was not just a person he was a saint who was brought to this planet to do great things and we will never forget his sacrifice and his dedication to the four-legged fur dogs I
call them we also lost in township Scott Carl Winter an ALJ class of 76 alumni and he was a Clark American Legion Post member he was the dear brother of Jay Berg Winter and Nancy i've known these people from town for almost 50 years but
Scott was Jay's younger brother and he was somebody from the township who touched other people's lives and gave up of himself service as well as being a member of the post 328 our condolences to the Winter family on the loss we will always be here for you frank Maserella
says it best we're here to serve you we're here to help you make a better Clark and that's all I got tonight i've talked way too much i'll get into saints and other people another time but thank you if you have a problem you have a need that's what we're here for give us a call thank you Mr president thank you
Madam Clerk do you have anything to add no thank you business Administrator Oric anything yeah I got uh two things uh first is Altise is going to the BPU on March 19th that's optimum uh so they're
if everything gets approved for at the BPU they would targeting sometime around second quarter to third quarter of 2025 to start rolling out um services to the township so uh just giving everybody an update on that i gave everybody an update at the executive meeting but I'm
sure the citizens uh would like to know that on the pilot a couple of things I just also wanted to bring up uh one of the key things as Mayor Albanesey's brought up is the affordable housing requirements also and you know just as
some examples you know some towns Milbour had a $115,000 fine for not um complying with affordable housing anglewood Cliffs is one that gives between the um settlements and insurance uh settlements
and legal bills it was over a million dollars wayne um also paid a penalty of $141 uh,000 because they weren't complying with the affordable housing so this is one of the ways that we can apply for affordable housing um the other thing is the cube smart while
you're right that there is a 10% what was failed to discuss was the it's escalates across the term of the 30 years so the first 5 years it's 10% second 5 years it's 10 12% third five so that's 11 to yeah 11 to 15 it's 11% 16
to 20 it's 11.5 uh 21 through 25 it is um 12% and then it goes to 12 1.5% so while yes you're it's correct for the first 5 years it actually does
escalate throughout in addition there is over the time period that they either will pay that amount or a percentage of the total tax in the uh that's associated with the building and that also escalates throughout so there is a
potential that they would be paying more than that depending on um what the number is so I just wanted to make sure that we're clear on that that it's not 10% for 30 years because that's not the truth right thank you counselor you have
anything no I do not thank you uh the only thing I have in closing is I misspoke earlier the Clark Little League and Clark Softball Parade is April 26th not April 6th again April 26th at 9:00 a.m is the parade and that's all I have this evening so I'd like a motion to
adjurnn thank you Councilman Tol get a second second that thank you Council Member Hun all in favor any opposed all right see you next month thank you