We'll see. without a doubt. Good evening and welcome to the Township of Clark public council meeting. It is Monday, September 15th at 7:30 p.m. Roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff here. >> Council member Hund
>> here. >> Council member Maserella >> here. >> Council member Maniti >> here. >> Council member Okconor is absent. Council member Tol >> here. >> Council President Smith >> here. Can you please stand for the pledge of allegiance and then a moment
of silence to the flag of America. As adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by mailing the annual schedule of meetings to the star ledger, the leader, 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. >> Great. Thank you. Before we give all the communications and township reports, uh,
Mayor Albany is going to ask you to go up to the podium. I believe we have Gary is here to be sworn in on the planning board. Okay. Why don't you come on this side? Okay. Um, if you're going to raise your right hand, put your left hand here and
repeat after me. I, Gary Grinkowski, >> do solemnly swear >> domly swear >> that that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> that I will support the Constitution >> 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 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 >> impartially and justly perform >> all the duties of the office of >> all the duties of the office of
>> class 4 member of the planning board. class member of the board. >> According to the best of my ability >> according to the best of my ability >> for the township of Clark. >> for the township of Clark. >> So help me God. >> So help me God.
>> Congratulations. Let's take a picture. Then I want us to say a few words about you. I >> make >> sure you speak in a microphone. >> So, um I met Gary uh and his family because his son studied martial arts.
He's an excellent athlete and uh really was probably the best student I ever had. Um, so we miss him, but uh Gary uh uh retired recently and he's very active
in the pickle ball association. So if you want, you're on the board, right? >> The board of directors. >> Um so we can't stay out too late when they have early games on uh >> on uh Sunday morning. But um Gary has a
distinguished history in his profession of um as a builder, carpenter um also programmer for many years. How many years did were you involved with that? 30 years of programming and um >> 12 years in
>> 12 years in carpentry >> and property management as well. So you've had a lot of different um hats to wear. um I think that will help you um as a member of the planning board and we're so happy that you've decided to
join us >> and uh we're all excited and congratulate you >> and uh thank you very much. >> Thank you. [Applause] Gary is Gary's going to replace uh Joe
Oransio the unexpired term through December 31st of 2028. Mayor uh you want to comments on that um on this section. So, we I I'm accepting the resignation of planning board class 4 member Karma Ricardo effective August
25th and Joe Aransio effective September 9th. Thank you. And um we're pleased to uh appoint Bill Gribs Jr. as class 4 member to fill the unexpired term of Carmen Bracado until
December 31st, 2027. And we're appointing Gary Grantowski as class four member to fill the unexpired term as you mentioned of Joe Oransio until December 31st, 2028.
Okay. So, I'd like to go on to my communications. Um, as I mentioned at our last meeting, um, we encourage everyone to come out and vote tomorrow and hopefully support the bond for the
school system. Um, you probably got a postcard and right at the top it says, you know, this has a zero impact on taxes or no impact on taxes. And, uh, I tried to come up with a little little analogy of what that means. Well, how is it zero impact? Well, it's kind of a
bond is like a mortgage. You take out the bond and then you pay it off each year just like a mortgage and you pay interest as you go. And um that's what's been going on. They've paid down that bond and now they need to borrow more
money for their capital projects that were advertised and listed, principally roofs, communication systems, other repairs that are needed, various playgrounds, etc. So, I encourage you to come out and vote tomorrow. Um, if you haven't, some probably have voted
already by mail. And, uh, the polls are open from there's a little note on that. And our clerk is going to clarify this point. >> 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. >> 6 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. So, plenty of time to come out and vote. So, um, we
appreciate that. Um, next item I wanted to talk about was last Thursday it was 911 and uh, I've gotten a lot of feedback from some of the people who watch the program on TV. But first, I just want to say thank you to all who come every
year. We really appreciate it. Um, you know, it it means a lot to the family. Um, Roseanne got in touch with me. She was with her daughter Annie uh, down in North Carolina, so she couldn't make it this year. and you know it's she's with her family and it it's hard every year
to do that but this ceremony that we had this year was very special. It was a little bit different um than what we have done in the past and I just want to thank uh Liz Cle uh for coming up with um some new ideas on the program and we already were talking about things we
might change next year about some of the prayers that are given to have the various organization give those prayers. Um, and then also in particular for our council President Bill Smith and uh, Councilman Pat O' Conor who collaborated
with Liz on how each role would be played out. So, it was very touching, very moving. Um, you know, many of the people that were there, they they were adults when they were on the day it happened. So, they have different
memories. But when I looked over at our firefighters, we had a lot of young firefighters thankfully and we appreciate them. Um, most of them were either two years old or weren't born yet. So, it was, you know, we count on
what they learn in school and from going to these ceremonies to learn the importance of that day and how to remember it properly. Um, we did miss uh one person in particular, uh, JerryQarro. He's always coming every year and
talking to us about um all different ways that people were affected by 9/11, affected by it maybe last year by someone who died from injuries from the exposure or people who were touched by it and letters that were written and
from all different um aspects of the event. So, we missed him very much. We appreciate Matt's singing. um you know he's that's priceless to have him there and to have everyone sing the Star Spangle Banner which I feel is very important um to hear and participate in.
So that's that's all my comments um right now. And uh yeah, as as Jim's writing me note, yes, Roseanne was traveling with uh Annie, so yes, thank you. And um we hope to see her soon here back here in
Clark. Uh, that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Mayor. >> Councilwoman Hoff, >> I think the mayor just did a great job. Um, there was a an excellent email and a Honeywell alert that went out about the vote for tomorrow from the board of education perspective with the the
mayor's analogy um as she just said about to support it um tomorrow. So hopefully everybody comes out to support that for our district. um the library uh report um essentially in August the library had over 8,974
visitors and recorded 18,165 website and social media visits. The there are several events happening in the fall. Um the fall fun into the library openhouse in particular is their big event. It's happening Thursday, September 25th from 6:30 to 8:30 at
night. They're having a scavenger hunt and an escape room. um donuts, pumpkin painting, crafts, etc. It's a great way to celebrate the library, to visit it, uh and meet the staff and just have a great time for the beginning of fall, as well as several other events that are taking place with the friends of the
library puzzle book and jewelry and costume sale on the 27th. They're having uh Dick Clark's American Band Stand at the Hop Dancers on Tuesday, September 30th. For teens and adults, they're having the ghost of Hannah Caldwell on Monday, um, October 6th at 7 p.m. And
for children, they're having the Halloween family story time on Thursday, October 9th. Oh, lastly, they're also on October 16th having a Halloween escape room. So, all of these things are found on their very robust social media pages. The flyer about the family uh, Fall Fest
is there, Fall into Fun at the Library, and um, hopefully everybody um, is able to come by and check it out. I think our library is exceptional and uh I just want to say um I've went to a few of the back to school nights so far. Tonight's the last one for Valley Road or excuse me, tonight's the last back to school
night um that's taking place at Valley Road and I think the school year has been kicking off to a great way and I'm great very grateful for that. And that's all. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilman Hund. >> Thank you, Council President. I have the police Clark Police Department report
for August 2025. We saw a total of 1,862 calls. 766 were quick came via 911 for services including but not limited to 119 ambulance requests. 89 alarm calls,
one attempt to attempt burglar burglary, 72 fire department requests, five fraud, identity thefts, four motor vehicle and residential lockouts, 69 motor vehicle accidents, 21 shoplifting and thefts and
1,482 miscellaneous calls. There was a total of 15 adult arrests, including but not limited to two for warrants, 10 for shoplifting, one for theft, one for criminal mischief, and one for simple
assault. The Youth Aid Bureau handled a total of 20 cases, including but not limited to one for burglary, one for theft, six for shoplifting, and one for short-term custody. And that concludes the report for August. >> Thank you, Councilman Maserella.
>> Yes. Thank you, Council President. This is my DPW report for this evening. Uh, electric drop off will be uh at DPW yard behind this building on September 27th from 9:00 a.m. to 100 p.m. Your IDs
required um for grass pickup, please, ladies and gentlemen, grass clippings only. No branches, twigs, plastic, etc. Our DPW staff will be conducting random checks
of the grass and the leaf bags and if there's something in there, they will not pick it up. Uh we have been having a lot of other debris in the in the grass bags. Please keep it grass clippings only. To schedule any DPW services, go
to www.ourclark.com ourclark.com and click on the for and the tab for online services. This covers permits, appliance pickup, tree trimming, tree
removal permits, potholes, etc. For your bulky pickup, no appointment is required. Um, you just put it out by ward and we're picking up, as I said, by ward. It must be out curbside on 6:00
a.m. on the Monday of your prescribed pickup. Okay. Um, small items must be bagged. Paint and chemicals will not be permitted or picked up. Please refer to ourclark.com
website for acceptable and unacceptable items. Please remember that. Appliance pickup appointments are required by Tuesday, the week before your scheduled pickup. Please let us know what appliances and metal pickup you would
like to have pick up picked up. Final branch pickup for this year for 2025 can be placed out this week for on uh on September uh 22nd. must be
curbside at 6 a.m. Please remember this. DPW has been busy with creek cleanup. Please do not put branches, grass, leaves, firewood, recycled,
totes, or other debris on the river edge banks. Um, we have removed over 120 yards of debris. so far. So, we don't want to
have a event where we we get a large rain event and all the debris from your yards go into the creek. What's going to happen? It's going to block up everything and everybody in the area of the creek is going to flood. So, please
remember, don't put any of the branches next to the river uh bed or in the river. Email dpwrclock.com for more information. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilman Meniti. >> Uh, thank you, Council President. I'll be doing uh the fire department report
and the emergency squad report. So, in August, the Clark Fire Department responded to 74 calls, bringing their total for um to 452 for the year. Instances include 10 for fire related, eight for rescue and emergency management, 12 for hazardous conditions,
10 for service and good intent calls, 32 related to false alarms, and two for special incidents. The Clark Fire Department is looking for new members. If you or anyone you know is interested in joining the department, please contact the fire department through
their website at clarkfd.info. That's clarkfd.info. And as always, I would like to thank the members uh of the fire department for their dedication and hard work keeping our residents safe. Clark volunteer emergency squad report.
Recent squad activities. In August, the squad added one new probationary member. Squad currently has ambulance 515 back and awaiting state inspection. Anticipating habiting in service within a week. Please check for the recent fund drive request and support us the best as
you can. Congratulations to our three probationary members that completed their EMT training at Union County College um and passed a national registry certi certification exam on their first attempt. Congrats to Derek
Calderon, Mattie Caputo, and Steven Zwartac. Call volumes are as follows. In September, we responded to 120 calls with two mutual aid calls. This doesn't include any calls which were dispatched to and cancelled on. Total hours
responding to calls is approximately 773 manh hours. This does not include any hours the members are on duty when not on calls. Year-to-date call volume is 917 calls. As for our membership, for those who would like to assist the squad
but may not have time to do your EMT training, we are accepting applications for people who are interested in becoming drivers for the ambulance must be 18 years old with a clear driving record. Anyone interested can email us at www.rcl
rclark.org or membership at rclarks.org. That's membership clarks.org. service to the community. The squad hosted four blood drives in August, but will be back in its monthly schedule for
the fall. The squad attended National Night Out and studied multiple house fires with one patient transported to RWJ Coopermanman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston. Respectfully submitted, Lorie Sheldon, Trustee. That concludes my reports. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Councilman Tol. >> Thank you, Mr. President. from the Environmental Commission's desk of the chairman Mark Hayden. The annual reservoir cleanup's coming up this Saturday, October the 18th, from 9 to 12. That's they meet in front of the circular driveway of the Burough
Municipal Building. They get together and they take the teams and they go out and they tackle the reservoir to get this kind of stuff off of the waterways. We want to keep our mother nature and our bit of Clark clean, safe, and enjoyable. It's a beautiful site, especially this time of the year with
the seasons just about to change and about another couple weeks, but it's just to come out and help mother nature and to teach the kids the value of keeping God's nature needs a little assistance from time to time. Um, the other issue I was going to talk about is
Demen and Riverside Drive. This past Saturday, my phone blew up from a dear friend and neighbor, and that person called me to tell me there was all hell breaking loose on Deman Avenue. uh culde-sac, excuse me, Riverside Drive. I'm not going to mix the two together. I'm going to go slow. It started at
Denman and went over into the backyards of Riverside Drive. If nobody knows where that is, that's right over Westfield Avenue Bridge on the left, that little culde-sac. And what happened was somebody on the Parkway decided to steal a car and ended up being chased by Woodbridge PD and the state police. and
they ended up not getting off at exit 135. They ended up dumping the car and getting into the backyards of the residents at Denman Avenue. Denmond Avenue is on the Westfield Avenue curve. I'm not going to give you directions right now. I'm just going to say to you all hell broke loose where a fugitive was loose in the streets of Clark went
from Demond jumped into the backyard of Riverside Drive and the residents culac the residents were again put in a situation where thank God for the state police the Woodbridge police and our own Clark police that were there to assist to make sure our residents were safe.
when your phone rings from your your constituents that they tell and they're telling you what's going on. They want to know the answers and when we can just get them that information from our Clark police making sure they're safe, which I was able to get there the next day and be there to hear their grievances, not just on that issue, but other issues
like road conditions, which we're going to address in the coming days. But for now, I just want to publicly thank state police, Woodbridge police, our Clark police for being assisting in anything they can to keep this township safe. It's the number one thing we've got to do. That's all I've got, Mr. President.
Thank you very much. >> Great. Thank you. Uh before I do the pool and wreck report, I just want to thank all the senior citizens who uh turned out for the barbecue today at the Deutsche Club. It was a great turnout and also want to thank all the citizens who attended the 911 ceremony last
Thursday. Uh in regards to pool and wreck, uh the pool closed on Labor Day and the day after they had the doggy dip which was another success. Uh registration for the fall classes is ongoing. Ralph ask if you're interested,
please sign up as soon as possible, so none of the classes need to be cancelled. The Union Italian-American Festival will be held on October 9th through the 12th in the parking lot of the Brewer Recreation Facility. Uh it's a great community event. Uh if you are
interested in volunteering, please contact Ralph Bernardo at 732-4288400 or email rb bernardo@ourclark.com. And all proceeds from the UNICO festival are given back to the community in the form of scholarships to high school seniors as well as donations to Clark
organizations and other worthwhile charities. And lastly, the annual trunk or treat is scheduled for Saturday, October 25th from 12 to 2:00 p.m. in the Brewer Recreation parking lot. Ralph added a few things to the event this
year, but there'll be the rides, games, contests, plenty of candy, and much more. And the PBA helps run that with Ralph. If you are interested in donating two or three hours of your time and your vehicle and some candy, please contact Ralph as we always do need more people
to give out candy. And that's all I have this evening. All right. At this time, we will move on to ordinances, appropriations, and claims. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh for the record, no objections have been received in connection with the proposed
ordinances. First ordinance is 25-26, an ordinance to amend chapter 248 entitled peddling and soliciting section 248-4B13 of the code of the township of Clark. >> All right. At this time, I'm going to
open this to the public hearing. If anyone would like to come forward on this ordinance and this ordinance only, please do so. You'll have five minutes of duration. Okay. Okay, seeing no one, I'd like a motion to close. >> Moved. >> Thank you, Councilman Manetti, and
second, Councilman Hun. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay. Can I get a motion to adopt the ordinance? >> I'll move that, please. >> Thank you, Councilman Hun. Can I get a second? >> I'll second it. >> Thank you, Councilman Maserella. Any discussion? Jim, do you have anything to add?
>> Um, just as a summary, this is to be in compliance with the new contractor for state fingerprinting. So, we're just changing our ordinance to be consistent with the new law um new vendor. >> Great. Thank you. Anyone else have any questions? Okay. Roll call, please.
>> Council member Huff, >> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes. >> Council President Smith, >> yes. >> Ordinance adopted.
Next ordinance is 25-27, an ordinance to amend chapter 347 entitled vehicles and traffic section 36A entitled left turns of the code of the township of Clark. >> At this time, I'll open up the ordinance for the public hearing. If anyone would
like to come forward, please state your name and the town you live in. You'll have five minutes or duration. All right, seeing no one, I'd like a motion to close. Move. >> Thank you, Councilman Tol and Council a second. Councilman Hun. All in favor?
>> Any opposed? Right. Can I get a motion to adopt the ordinance? >> Move, Mr. >> Thank you, Councilman Tolk. Could I get a second? >> Second that, please. >> Thank you, Councilman Hun. >> Jim, as we discussed at the last meeting, the U workshop meetings, there
are six changes. Uh come uh that's a lefth hand turn coming out of Manny's Hackinac Meridian the Exxon on Central um Westfield Avenue for the new Seven Brew uh the Clark Bagels or behind Clark
Bagels and then Hyatt Hills. So these are the changes that we're making. >> Great. Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff, >> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. Council member Tol. >> Yes.
>> Council President Smith. >> Yes. >> Ordinance adopted. >> Next ordinance is 25-28, an ordinance amending chapter 3 entitled administration of government, article 6 entitled township clerk, section 3-14 of
the code of the township of clerk. >> Okay. At this time, I'll open a public hearing on this ordinance. If anyone would like to come forward, you have five minutes or duration. Please state your name and the town you reside in. Okay, seeing no one, I'd like a motion to close. >> So moved.
>> Thank you, Councilman. Get a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Councilman Tol. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay, I get a motion to adopt the ordinance. >> A motion. >> Thank you, Councilwoman Hoff. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Councilman Tol. Jim, do you
have anything to add other than we're just establishing deputy township clerk position >> and identifying what their responsibilities are? That's it. >> Okay. Thank you. Anyone? Uh, roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff, >> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes.
>> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes. >> Council President Smith, >> yes. >> Ordinance adopted. >> Okay. Okay, when you're ready, we can move to introduction of proposed ordinances. >> Thank you. The first ordinance for
introduction is ordinance number 25-29, an ordinance to amend chapter 84 entitled animals to change the office to which an application for a license to operate a kennel, pet shop, shelter, or pound is made and to prohibit the sale
of dogs, cats, and rabbits right by retail pet stores in the township of Clark. >> Right. Thank you. Can I get a motion? Thank you, Councilman Tolk. Can I get a second? >> Second it. >> Thank you, Councilwoman Hoff. Any discussion? Jim, do you have anything to
add? >> Well, before we go through the details, I just want to make u a comment about this. Um, I'm pleased tonight that the council has put this on the agenda, and hopefully they'll fully support it, which I anticipate they will based on
our discussions and the presentation that was made to us. And um I can tell you I've meet been meeting a lot of people around town and they are very they were very excited when I told them about this. Um all had adopted pets or
uh you know from shelters from other other states that they brought in and were very um sympathetic towards this. So I'm pretty excited about this ordinance. >> Right. Thank you, Mayor. >> Yeah. So, I just want to make sure
everybody realizes it is the prohibiting prohibiting uh sale of dogs, cats, and rabbits, but we still have the option that a pet rescue organization wants to use space or do a an adopt a pet. I mean, we made sure that we would still
be available to do that because that's the whole intention is to drive people from buying pets that were in puppy mills to, you know, adopting pets. So, if we make it easier for them, that's also still going to be available to the residents. >> Great. Thank you. Anyone have any
questions? >> Okay. Uh, roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff, >> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes. >> Council President Smith,
>> uh, yes. >> The public hearing on this ordinance will be October 20th. Okay. Next ordinance is 25-30, an ordinance to amend chapter 195 entitled land use and development section 195-160
entitled permitted signs subsection D entitled LCI zone of the township of Clark. >> Get a motion. >> Yes, I'll move it. >> Thank you, Councilman Maserella. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Councilman Tol. Any discussion? Jim,
>> this is just to um clear up some, you know, gray areas as part of our uh regulations or our ordinances. So, in the past, we had people coming if they wanted to put uh additional signs on their buildings. This creates a framework that you could go in and not
have to have a variance for, you know, some signs. It can't be as big as the front sign. It could only be 75%. So we control it that way and it's similar to other um municipalities just to make it easier to avoid having to put in you know I won't say rubber stamp but um you
know >> cut out the red tape >> variances that you know don't really cause any issue to the um residents. >> Thank you. Uh roll call please. >> Councilwoman Hoff. >> Yes. >> Council member Hund.
>> Yes. >> Council member Maserella. Yes. >> Council member Maniti. >> Yes. >> Council member Tol. >> Yes. >> Council President Smith. >> Yes. >> Public hearing on this ordinance is October 20th. >> Great. Thank you. Uh Councilman
Councilman Menet, you going to do this for Councilman Okconor? I believe you reviewed the bills with him. >> Yep. >> We reviewed the current and capital expenditures received and encumbered through September 12th, 2025 in the amount of $348,1247. >> Great. Thank you. All right. At this
time, we're going to go to the citizens hearing on the agenda. I'll open the meeting for anything that is on the agenda. 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 or duration. At the conclusion of the statements or questions from a member of the public, the council president at his
or her discretion may choose to respond or not respond. So at this time, it's open to agenda items only. If anyone would like to come forward, >> good evening, Dillia Collins, Clark, New Jersey. Um, I'm so happy that Mr. Olrich brought up the portion of uh the
proposed ordinance 25-29 that it will not prohibit our local now our local rescue groups and our own um shelter in Newark to come into town to
do an adoption day. Um, usually at an adoption day, the purchase, not purchase, but when you adopt an animal, it's considered an adop, it's considered a donation, not a sale. Um, I have a
question on uh 25-30. What is an LCI zone? >> Limited commercial, industrial. >> Oh, okay. >> I think that's what it is. Yeah, cuz I tried to Google it and it didn't come up.
>> I think it's I think it's um limited commercial industrial. I could tell you I could I'll send you the >> You know, I never saw that before. >> Um >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dia.
>> Hi, Larry Cohen. Fanwood, New Jersey. I want to thank you so much for um introducing this ordinance and um your due diligence throughout this process, especially in indulging me. Um as I tried to inform you on this, I I I've
promised to um provide you with facts throughout this process, and I just wanted to give you a couple tonight. Um, I have been pouring through the breeder lists that the stores have submitted to their licensing towns. And I started
with the five stores that um, publicly call themselves the Coalition of Responsible Pet Stores. If you remember last time we talked about um horrible hundred breeders, these breeders that may not have official USDA violations
but still have egregious state violations or other issues that warrant them being on this notorious list. Um for these five stores, I found 10 horrible hundred breeders. Um that's a preliminary number. I don't want to give
a final number on a couple more until I get confirmation, but I think that number will go up. Um, and that's only five stores. There's 18 in the state. My strong guess is that the next time I see you, I will have gone through the rest of the lists and we will have a plethora
of um breeders that these stores are using that unfortunately have appeared on these these these uh these lists. So, I applaud you and I want to assure you you're doing the right thing and thank you again so much.
>> Thank you, Mr. Cohen. >> Hello and good evening. Uh, my name is Ariel Lefkovitz and I live in Jersey City. Um, I am a resident of New Jersey. um born and raised here and am also a public policy specialist with the Stop
Puppy Mills campaign at Humane World for Animals um formerly known as Humane Society of the United States. And I know that uh my friend and colleague Larry has spoken with you all previously on um the ordinance 25-29.
I just want to repeat his sentiments to thank you sincer sincerely for your attention to this issue for introducing this ordinance. I think that prevention is key when it comes to the issue of the puppy mill to pet shop pipeline um and
stopping that before it ever becomes a problem for the residents and pets of the city. Uh I also want to just offer myself as a resource. Um our team collects information on uh this issue and produces the horrible hundred report. Um so if there are any questions
that I can answer as we move forward, please let me know. Thank you. Thank you for coming out, Ariel. Hopefully you'll visit us again someday. >> Good evening. Uh John Gre Clark. Uh I just had a couple quick questions about
the um the IT uh contract that is in the agenda. Um it seems like the cost is around like $86,000 a year. Is that correct? Something in that. that ballpark though, right?
>> $80,956. >> Okay. Um, so I guess I was just curious, is that just for municipal services? Is that covering police and EMT and other things, too, or what what what part of >> Okay, so $80,000 a year just for the
municipal services. Um, and then the other question I had is is I was able to look and find the um there was a statement about how how the different vendors were weighed. Um, I was just curious because I only saw Mr. Alrich's signature on it. Um, we have the um the
IT director. I believe it's uh Mr. Cle. Was he part of the decision-m on that? >> He had input but the decision was mine. >> Okay. All right. So, just wanted to know those details. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Greaves. Anyone else like to come up on agenda items
only? Okay, seeing no one, I like a motion to close this portion. >> Thank you, Councilman Tol. And thank you, Councilman Hun, for a second. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay, when you're ready, madame clerk, we can move to resolutions.
>> Thank you. The first resolution is award of contract for information technology cyber security managed services to lawoft incorporated 15 Hamburg turnpike Bloomingdale New Jersey through the competitive contracting process. >> Thank you. Can I get a motion?
>> I'll move it. >> Thank you, Councilman Maserella. Can I get a second? >> I'll second it. >> Thank you, Councilwoman Huff. Anything else to add on that, Jim? >> Good. Um, well, we had a lot of proposals. We had actually had nine different um vendors coming in. Uh some
were a little out of our price range, you know, a million dollars plus for the work, but we evaluated the vendors and based on all of the analysis that we did, especially since lawoft is currently our desktop support uh
provider right now and would be able to manage all of our additional services that we need. This is critical from a cyber risk and perspective, but also from our cyber insurance. Um the some of the controls that we needed to put in
place will now reduce our co-pay and deductible to zero uh when we get to it. So, you know, god forbid there is a cyber breach. Um they do a a review after to make sure that you had what controls you have in place. and some of
the ones we needed uh third party providers to do it because we just don't have the expertise within within the township or the bandwidth. >> Thank you. Anyone have any questions? Further discussion? Okay. Uh roll call, please. >> Council member Huff,
>> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes. >> Council President Smith, >> yes. Next is authorizing the sale of certain
property located on block 125 lot 11 on Halliday Street which is owned by the township of Clark not required for public purposes pursuant to NJSA4A12-1 at SEC. >> Thank you. Get a motion moved. >> Thank you Councilman Tol. A second.
>> Thank you. Councilmani Jamie you have anything other? nothing other than it's a piece of property that, you know, we can we could sell off and get rid of the responsibility for maintaining, cleaning, um, and liability.
>> Great. Thank you. Anyone else have any questions? Okay. If not, roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff, >> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Tol,
>> yes. Council President Smith. >> Yes. >> Next is renewing participation in the Arrive Together program to enhance and support response to certain behavioral health crisis calls through June 30th, 2026.
>> Get a motion. >> A motion. >> Thank you, Councilwoman Hoff. Okay. I get a second. Thank you, Councilman Hun. >> Jim, anything to add other than >> No. I mean, this has been a successful Well, I say no and then I add, but um this has been a successful program that
we've had uh that we send a behavioral health expert out with the police officer in, you know, certain situations. We provide a police officer to the county and it's it's a county countywide program as do all the other municipalities. So, we support it. One
day it's our uh patrolman, you know, next day could be Westfield County Patrol. So, you know, this is a program that's been very successful over the last year and we're going to continue. >> Great. Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff, >> yes. Council member Hund,
>> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes. >> Council President Smith, >> yes. Number nine is award of contract to Stillow Paving and Excavating for the 2025 Capitol Road Improvements various
locations in the amount of $277,2642. >> I have a motion, please. >> I'll move. >> Thank you, Councilman Tolk. Get a second. >> I'll second that. >> Thank you, Councilwoman Hoff. Any discussion other than it's for the road improvements? We >> That's an easy one. That's low bidder road improvements. >> Yep. Very good. Thank you. And roll
call, please. >> Council member Hoff, >> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes. >> Council President Smith, >> yes. >> Uh, number 10 is authorizing assignment
of the current recycling contract from Grand Sanitation Service to Interstate Waste Services of New Jersey Incorporated. >> Thank you. Can I get a motion? >> Yes, I'll move it. >> Thank you, Councilman Maserella. Can I get a second? Thank you, Councilman Hun. I guess basically Interstate Waste
Services uh purchase grant sanitation and they're just assuming all the assets, all the contracts, and all their routes. >> Correct. No change in anything. And they've supplied us with all of their state required documents similar to what we went through when we brought in Grand originally.
>> Great. Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Council member Huff, >> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes. Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes. >> Council President Smith, >> yes. >> Number 11 is authorizing the mayor and
clerk to execute a developers agreement with G7B LLC, which is 7 Brew. >> I get a motion. I'll move that. >> Thank you. Um, Councilman, I get a second. I'll >> Okay. >> Thank you, Council Woman.
And any anything to add, Jim, or discussion or questions? >> This is um you know a standard agreement. It's for 1,5 Road. It's approximately a 5100 square foot building with 2600 ft of detached
canopy. Um and like we've done with all of these agreements, it just goes through that the you know, it memorializes everything that was approved by the planning board. you know, that the construction will be in accordance with the approved plans, that they're going to get the permits. Um,
that they're going to provide access to the township engineer for all uh approval ordinance approvals, disconnect all the abandoned and abandoned existing utilities. Um, ensure storm water management and JD regulations are
approved that they're going to um the RAN road driveway is going to be subject to Union County uh approval. They're going to pay all taxes and fees and deposits before building. They're going to have the bathrooms for the construction workers.
Uh they're going to have an on-site supervisor at all times. The they're going to be responsible for all utility cost um including NJT and sewer. Garbage recycling is going to be done at
the um developers expense. uh performance guarantees and you know pri the performance guarantees prior to the construction permits being issued. They're going to have a letter of credit insurity bond of $75,640.
Um they're going to have a safety and stabilization guarantee of $5,000 engineers escrow of $15,376 and inspection fees for the engineer and legal of 13,760. Um they're going to have to maintain
commercial liability insurance and motor vehicle liabilities, workers comp certificates to um and then all the certificates need a 60-day notice of cancellation. Um any defaults, they have a 48 hour
cure period. Um they may use streets for excavation construction but must must avoid damage and notify us within 24 hours in advance. Uh the agreements are going to be recorded in the clerk's office and acknowledge
um all site plans and res resolution material between the township and the planning board. So again standard wording high level that's all the things that they're agreeing to. >> Thank you for the detailed explanation. Uh, roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff,
>> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes. >> Council President Smith, >> yes. >> Number 12 is award of a non-fair and open contract for the Patriots Night
Fireworks display on October 3rd to Schaefer Fireworks in the amount of $6,350. >> Have a motion, please. >> I'll move it. Thank you, Councilwoman Hunt, and thank you, Councilman Hunton, for a second. Uh, this is basically we invite all the
uh all the veterans to the football game on Friday night, October 3rd, and we have a fire fireworks display. Uh, we introduce them all uh have them out at midfield, and the players run out with flags, and it's a it's a great event, and uh it's another fun thing and great
thing that the town puts together for veterans. Anything else to add, Jim? Or that's about it. All right. Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Council member Huff, >> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Tol,
>> yes. >> Council President Smith, >> yes. >> Okay. Number 13 is authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a memorandum of understanding with the county of Union and HVI services for leaf composting at the Union County
Conservation Center in the amount of $6 per cubic yard loose or $8 compacted. >> I have a motion, please. >> I'll move it. >> Thank you, Councilman Maserella. Second. >> Thank you, Councilman Huff. Jamie, you have anything to add? This is a county
contract that we're leveraging to get the best price in economies of scale. Okay. >> Thank you. >> It would be much more expensive if we were doing it on our own. >> Uh, roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff, >> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti,
>> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes. >> Council President Smith, >> yes. Number 14 is appointing Eric Gersonner as alternate one member of the planning board to fill the unexpired term of William Gri Jr. until December 31st,
2025 and appointing Matthew Cecil as alternate two member until December 31st, 2026. >> Get a motion, please. >> A motion. >> Thank you, Councilman Hoff. Get a second. >> I'll second it. >> Thank you, Councilman Meniti. Uh self-explanatory. So, roll call,
please. Council member Hoff, >> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes. >> Council President Smith, >> yes. >> When you're ready, we can move on to
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 of 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 Christy Vieiraa as alternate insurance fund commissioner to serve on the New Jersey Municipal Self-insurers Joint
Insurance Fund. 16 is authorizing the tax collector to make the proper adjustments for 100% property tax exemption of block 115 lot 4 in accordance with a directive from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. 17 is authorizing the tax
collector to settle a tax appeal for block 69 lot 12.0101 0101 as authorized by the Tax Court of New Jersey with credit issued in the amount of $23,756.32 and 18 is authorizing the tax collector to refund overpayment of sewer fees in
the amount of $5,916. >> Great. Thank you. I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Councilman Tolk. Can I get a second? >> I'll second that, please. >> Thank you, Councilman Hun. Roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff. Yes. >> Council member Hund.
>> Yes. >> Council member Maserella. >> Yes. >> Council member Maniti. >> Yes. >> Council member Tol. >> Yes. >> Council President Smith. >> Yes. >> Is there any new business on the calendar? >> There is no new business. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. We're going
to move on to public comments. At this time, 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 NJSA 10 col4-12A and the code of the township of Clark.
Each person addressing the council shall give their name and town in which they reside to the clerk. All remarks shall be addressed to the council as a body and shall not exceed five minutes of duration. At the conclusion of the statements or questions from a member of the public, the council president, his or her discretion, may choose to respond
or not respond. So, at this time, you can come up uh you have five minutes to ask anything or any comments. >> My name is Janice and I live on Demond Avenue in Clark. So, I had a question because of course the incident you were talking Can you lower the microphone and
speak into a little bit? >> Okay. So, the other day I was in my kitchen and I looked out and there was about eight cop cars. So, it's a little scary when you're on a dead end street. So, there was another incident on Thursday where there was a stolen white
box truck that came off the Parkway and that was the state police cuz they were looking in my yard. So, that happened on Thursday and then two days later on Saturday there was the incident that you were speaking of. Then a friend of mine had on her Ring camera on Lexington
Avenue, a white car that, you know, was being chased, ended up in her driveway, and the the person fled towards my my house. So, I was just curious if that was a different incident than the one that happened like the same night. Was
there two separate incidences or was that the same? >> I'm going to refer that to the police. Actually, Captain Akaboo, >> you can give her any input because it was one incident. >> Actually, if you do want to speak, if you can either sit at the chair, turn
that microphone on, or come up to the podium. >> Yes. I believe that was a two separate incidents. >> Okay. >> Um, from what occurred on Saturday night to the incident she was talking about on Thursday. >> So, that's right. And then Saturday, was that two separate or was that the same
person? I believe it was separate separate incidents. >> Three incences within two days. I mean, I commend that the police are amazing in our town. I love them, but it's like scary because
it's like I live on, you know, a dead end. So, I think what's happening is people are coming off the Parkway. They think my street is a through street. And I don't know if they need to put a bigger sign or do some I don't know what what the answer is, but like to have
that happen like within a few days of each other and three separate incidents is when a suspect is like coming through your yard or the state police have to call you and say, "Oh, can we check your shed?" That that's pretty scary because
I have a mom who lives with me who's 83 and I have a 18-year-old daughter who sunbathes in the backyard still. So, you know, I don't know if they could. So, the fence that would like line up against my yard, is that like the
property for the, you know, state or is that county or town? Cuz I'm thinking like maybe they could put barbed wire on the top to kind of deter them from climbing over. >> Do you know that fence if it's county or state? Does it run along the parkway or
along the reservoir? >> I'm on the Parkway. >> Okay. >> State. Yeah, I believe that's state. >> But just for the record, I'll uh I'll look into it more and I'll get back uh on that >> so we can have uh actual facts on that.
>> Janice, if you want if you want to just uh when you're at the end of the meeting, just give your number to the clerk and she can get that over to Captain Aaboo or if you have an email as well and he can get back to you. Okay, great. Thank you so much for coming up. >> Thank you, sir. Nancy Toaskcus Clark.
So when there's property that's sold like was um the the one that was discussed today, I'm just curious, is it a neighbor that is it next to the property that usually buys it or is it sold to somebody totally different and
they use it for something else? because I expect that it's a lot that's not a buildable lot. >> Goes to the highest bidder. >> Goes to the highest. So, they don't know what's going to wind up on that. >> The minimum bid on that property is 255,000 when I read the ordinance or the
resolution. So, uh yeah, the highest bidder and sometimes it is the adjoining homeowner on one side or the other. >> Um but most of those lots are smaller and are not buildable. >> So, you just kind of see what happens on them. I mean, if whatever they're going
to do with the lot would have to go through the construction department with the permitting, I guess. >> Yeah. If they want to make any change, have to go through zoning first, right? If they want to do anything with it. >> Yeah. Anything's going to have to if it's not if it's not a lot that's in
compliance, depending on what the issues are, it may have to go to zoning, may have to go to the planning board. Um, so it, you know, it's really, you know, depending on what they want to do and if they just want to add it to the house, you know, >> I can't tell you, I don't know the house
next to it. You know, maybe they have some extra property and they can, you know, subdivide it and do something. But again, it it was appraised by our independent appraiser who comes I'll put an estimated price. That's what we put in as the minimum price and then we send it out to bid. So, you know, sometimes
the neighbor gets it, sometimes a a third party gets it and and builds on it. >> Okay. I mean, it seems like a good idea to not have this miscellaneous property hanging around that we have to go and mow the lawn and rake glee and so on and so forth. Thank you. >> You're welcome.
>> So, the other question I have is on number 11. What is it on the resolution 11? Is there going to be a seven brew built in town? Maybe I missed out on a couple planning board meetings, so I don't really know about that. >> Yes, there's a there's a Seven Brew
going in on a corner of Westfield and Raritton where the Santandrew Bank was. The Sant Tander Bank's going to be knocked down and the Seven Brew is going to be set back >> property. Oh, >> okay. Okay. And that's I from what I saw, it's some type of drive-thru, get your coffee. >> I think it's just a drive-thru and walk
up. >> There's no inside. >> Okay. >> Correct. And the last thing I'll bring it up again, and I don't mean to be a a complaining neighbor, but it's more for the town to kind of explain why we would
have ordinances on the books, but not enforce them. Now, one we talked about were the signs that couldn't be on the easement. And I know the DPW was going around and taking the signs off. Well, I still see them on some easements. I'm not going to get into into that. But the
other thing is about the on street parking of commercial vehicles. And I mean, I don't really want to be calling up the police department complaining about my neighbors. And I try to be a good neighbor. I would do anything for my neighbors in the time of need. But me
as a taxpayer, I look at it from a financial perspective. And I'm paying taxes for a residential neighborhood. I think it's um R seven or exactly what number it is. 75. I don't know exactly
on the the zone it is. So, it just makes me a little bit, you know, if we want to let commercial vehicles park all over all residential streets, then get rid of the ordinance or give me a break on my taxes if I'm going to be having to look
at trucks and vans with commercial names on them and licenses, and some of them sit there for days and weeks and don't move. So, like I said, I would do anything for any of my neighbors, but it does kind of bother me that I pay taxes
for a residential area, yet ordinances are not being enforced. And I'm not saying to be mean about it. I don't really know what the per what they should do. Park in the driveway, park in the garage if they can, rent space somewhere. I see Emerald um emerald um
not landscaping sprinkler systems. They're parked at Mother Seat and I'm sure they're paying Mother Seat to park there. You know, there are different options in order to store your vehicle overnight instead of storing it on the street. I know it's convenient. You would just want to drive home and park your vehicle, but it's really not fair
to somebody that has to sit in their living room and look out their front door and see commercial vehicles and pay high taxes on top of it. So I mean one I brought it up one other time maybe a nice article in the Clark paper. I know
>> about 30 seconds of the five minutes. So >> you know just something like that. Maybe the may neighbors don't even know what the ordinance is. It might just be a letter to inform them what the ordinance is. So but just something to think about. Thank you.
>> Thank you Nancy. If you have specific uh instances or issues, there's no harm in either calling or emailing the clerk or emailing the business administrator, you know, saying so and so trucks been out here and then we can dispatch out our code enforcer and keep an eye on it and then enforce the codes like we're
supposed to. So what? >> Well, we don't we don't have police driving up and down the street. So we we have no idea like I have no idea how long a vehicle is parked on the street or in my complex. I live in a townhouse complex now in log cabin, but when I lived on Charles Street, I had no idea.
I know Mike from Beastro lived down the street from me and his truck was there during the morning and gone at night. So uh it was never there more than a couple days. So it it's unless someone observes it and informs us about it is we we don't know about it. So we really ask you to let us know. All right. Thank
you. Anyone else like to come forward? [Music] >> Um Jillia Collins Clark. Um, just wanted to let the listening uh and viewing uh audience know that Thursday night,
September 18th, the Union County Commissioners Meeting will be held. And uh if people have concerns regarding anything to do with the reservoir since they've uh put out a press release regarding what is being happening over
there. Um this is a statement that I put out even though they hardly ever respond to your concerns at these meetings. Importantly that your concerns are now visible and recorded on public record. So when you go there,
uh, some most there are towns that show the meeting on their public access channel. Uh, the county itself does not have a public access channel. So you have to search around on YouTube to find the county meeting. And I wanted to
know, the county had um said that they were going to be sending out to the township the new rendering of what they're planning to do at the reservoir. The And I was wondering if the town had received it yet.
>> Okay, thank you. Um, another question on rclark.com. You used to be go over go in and you could go to the pay online site and find out where lots blocks and qualif
qualifiers were. Now you have to sign in to go on to that uh area and um because that's how I find out who owns what property in town. I used to go on the the uh pay online site. Is there
somewhere else that I could go or do I have to sign on to that >> that I don't know the answer on? Uh >> Jim will check >> under pay online. >> Deal. You have any other questions? I don't want you to run out of your five
minutes if you have any. Well, he's looking at up. No, that's it. >> Okay. All right. Just make sure if you have any questions with the commissioners, you go and or you email them because they do respond not immediately, but we've gotten some
answers and uh with the dredging >> will affect quality I mean aquatic life and fish and turtles they may be eliminated. Yeah, you could pay online. You don't have to log in. >> No, no. I'm just trying to when I go to
find out who owns what property in town when you say >> Well, you can't because of um Daniel's law. >> Who? >> The owners of the property has been removed because of Daniel's law. We discussed that. >> So, is there another way to find out if you can go on the site anywhere to find
out who owns property in town? You probably would have to go and check with the tax assessor who then would know if there's a Daniel's law property and you know what could be released and what can't be released. >> Okay. All right. Well, I'm going to try first on this because I Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Do you >> say should we clarify that? So, Dia, so if you look up a street name, you'll see everything. >> Oh, yeah. >> What what Jim was saying is that anyone that's um to be excluded because of
Daniel's law, those will be excluded, but you'll see basically the others. Okay. >> Good evening, Martha Kamichoff, Clark. Uh it's been a busy couple days. Uh September 11th, I want to thank you for
airing on YouTube the entire service. First time in 24 years I was not able to attend. Uh but I was texting with Roseanne Thursday night and she said it was wonderful. So thank you for that. Um
Saturday, uh I live on Riverside Drive in the Culdeac. Uh what do we have? Five, six houses down there. And our ring cameras were all going off as all the police cars were pulling onto the street. Um
our neighbors were actually coming home from church and saw the guy jump over their fence from the fence on Denman. Uh it was very it was scary. Um it uh the occupant of the vehicle
obviously we knew fled on the parkway, you know, got out, jumped the fences, somehow got back over. I don't know how. Uh but I commend the Clark Police Department fully. Um their quick response along with Woodbridge and the
state police, we felt very safe, very secure knowing they had the whole situation under control. and we the neighbors thank you for that very much. Okay, that's Saturday. Sunday, thank you
Councilman Tol for coming into our call again. Um kind of called him, you know, there for a different reason, but um he he reached out to four of us, four of the houses were out on the street and he really
showed concern for all of my neighbors. uh he knows me, but you know, he he knows them just knocking door to door. And he showed the deepest concern for everybody's safety and that everybody felt secure in the area.
Okay, that was Sunday. Monday. Today's Monday. What? Mayor, Township Committee, thank you for the wonderful senior barbecue today. I think everyone that went there had a great time. Uh the music was great. People out
there dancing, dancing away. It was a uh a wonderful event and u you know police presence there by our administration was welcome as well. You know the the seniors like to see that. They love to see you guys. They love to see you know
the police. So I thank you for that as well. And I think that's it. I think I covered every day. Okay. So thank you. Have a good night. Thank you, Martha. Good evening again, John Greavves from Clark. Um, I just kind of wanted to talk
about a couple things. Um, the first thing was, you know, last meeting, you know, I I got a little frustrated because there was an interruption, but you know what? But I think that illustrates one of the things that I've kind of brought up is that, you know, sometimes this format of making
statements for five minutes um isn't always the best. Sometimes we need a little bit of back and forth where someone's speaking, maybe there's something you want to talk about and they want to go back and forth. And what I I wanted to see is if we can start having some town halls a few times a year. Um from what I can tell, the last
one was like in 2017 when there was the affordable housing thing. Um, but it's just not very common and you know I don't think that it's necessarily has to be some big event. Maybe it should just be quarterly or you know it doesn't have to be every meeting but I think that having a open public dialogue is
important and would basically make it so you know sometimes residents don't want to sit through some of the boring elements of the the town meeting in order to make their sentiments known. So there's that. Um, and then sort of in the same vein, you know, I I'm very um
in favor of transparency and you know, I I'd like to see the uh workshop meetings and especially the special meetings recorded officially. Um, I've been doing on my phone and you know, I've been doing my best job, but I think it'd be better if the town could do that officially. um you know uh the workshop
meetings are obviously a little bit less important than the special meetings but the because the special meetings are where actual business gets done and sometimes that's big things like a pilot was approved and there there's settlements in the past that have been approved at those um and then the other
thing was is you know this this year's budget um I feel like it was very minimal in the explanation of it um it was just a very short um statement read into the record um you know our county and our school board both provide presentations. Our county actually does
like an actual produced video and the school board does a like a PowerPoint. Um I don't think it has to be some grand spectacular thing but you know it's very common these days to see a PowerPoint presentation you know five minutes maybe
10 nothing crazy a graph or two showing where the money's going. I think that's something important and I think it'd be an improvement and it's something that seems well within the power of the the the council and mayor. Um and you know I wanted to say a couple things about
pilot again. Um I know that we disagree about that. Um so really I just sort of have some questions because it doesn't seem like certain things are coming out in it. So the the the issue that I have is the questions that I have is is if a developer is paying zero to the school
and you guys say the school gets all the money that they need and there's students coming to our school from that development, where does the money to pay for those students come from? And then
if there's already an ordinance requiring a set aside for affordable housing and the development like Walnut Hill uh got a pilot, what did the town get for that pilot?
You know, that reduction in taxes that they're paying that wasn't already legally required. We I feel like we should have gotten something extra in addition. And then um the pilot agreement um at some point it says something to the effect of that the
council sees that there's more benefit to the town than negative um than burden. And I'm just curious exactly what are the factors that you're looking at when you make that decision. And then
um just a curiosity thing that I had um a few meetings ago, there was the pilot property that was owned by the former um town um employee uh that got a pilot and then it was sold to another developer. I believe um Mr. Mr. Hund abstained from
that that vote and I was just curious why. And that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Greavves. Anyone else want to come forward? Okay. At this time on a motion to close
this portion. >> Thank you, Councilman Tol. Get a second. >> Thank you, Councilwoman Huff. All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Mayor, you want to address any of those comments? I just turn the microphone on.
>> Yes, it's closed. What I'll >> do is um go through some of the points I want to raise and then I'll talk about some of the the issues that were uh brought up by uh Mr. Greavves as well as some other thoughts about things we've discussed in the past. Um first first
thing I want to mention is um we're we just want to inform the citizens that through the program that we've an arrangement we have with public service when they tear up a road they have to pave curb to curve. We are
saving approximately $1.5 million in this program. So just want to point that out because it might not seem obvious. you know, it looks like we're doing roads, but all this is being funded by public service because they tore up the roads. And plus, it makes sense, right?
We don't want to build a road and then have them tear it up. So, it helps them to take care of things that they need to do and um not tear up roads that we've just ch paved. Um, second thing I want to mention is bulky pickup.
Um we have changed the operations so that um starting now or I guess it was a week ago or this this week once your ward is up um and I'll explain what that means. So we collect the bulky pickup in the first
ward the first week of the month. First Monday, second ward, second Monday, third ward, third Monday, fourth ward. Um, on the fourth Monday, you can put out your bulky pickup items on Saturday and Sunday and they'll be picked up either Monday or Tuesday. Please make
sure you don't have to sign up. You don't have to enroll in it. Um, DPW will come by and just pick up whatever you put out as long as it meets the requirements or what is permissible. So, please try to put out the permissible items. You can look online as to what
they are. So, I just want to mention that. Um, next item, as was mentioned, Patriots Night, if you're a veteran, if you know a veteran, please have them come out. We want to see all the veterans coming out that night on October 3rd to the
football game. We're going to have fireworks, etc. And the citizens want to honor them. So, please come out that evening. the pet ordinance. You know, we've been warned and I know some other towns that have gone through
this. Um there's probably going to be a lot of um lobbyists here at the next meeting who will be um talking against that. And I think we've made up our mind and have the facts that we have. But if you are a pet lover and you want to come
out, please do because I know they're out there. So, if you want to come out and talk and say your piece about it and interact with the community, as Mr. Greavves said, have your voice heard, please come out that night. Next item is uh I was reminded the other night or
yesterday. Uh I saw a little um uh raccoon paw prints. I have a new deck. I paw prints coming right up to my door, the window there. I guess they were looking in or looking for opportunities, whatever. But there have been, and it's very rare that this
happens, but there have been cases of rabies. Be careful with your dogs. Make sure they're not out in areas where raccoons might be because it's a serious thing, right? And we want to protect the animals. Okay.
Uh I think the first thing that Mr. Gre mentioned was, you know, having town halls. Um, I work in a town with 50,000 people. The mayor has a lot of town halls and we've had them here. I know when Jesse got on the council, she's
like, "I'm going to go, you know, I'm going to invite everyone to come and see me and talk to me." And I've done that, too. And um, no one shows up, one person. She had one person um, in a town with 50,000 people. Sometimes it's three people, sometimes
it's a dozen. But he still does them. And I I get it. But I have to say I do get a lot of dialogue. I get a lot of requests from people. So please don't hesitate. You can call my personal cell phone number 7323190234. Reach out to me. I'm happy to talk to
you. Some people feel more comfortable talking one- on-one about their issues or their their ideas. Um affordable housing. Uh I was at the GFOA which is the government finance officers conference last week and they had a
panelist a panel of top reporters in the state of New Jersey and one of the things that came up was affordable housing and I asked do the people understand affordable housing and they said absolutely not. It's they've tried
to boil it down um to give all the all the history of it in sound bites um what's happening now. It's a very complicated thing to understand. But I will say this, um,
the governor, uh, Governor Murphy changed some of the laws last year in 24 and we've gone through, uh, we we had previously gone through three rounds of requirements of affordable housing. We must have a plan
and we must build affordable housing. It is not a choice. It's not Democrat. It's not Republican. Everyone has to do it because that governor now has added more of a commitment onto our town. In the fourth round, we added 166 units. We
have 500 units to fulfill. How do we do that? How do towns do that? Um, we must build apartments or there are some other ways. Um, homes where there are people that are disabled
or, you know, different issues. Um the problem here in Clark is we don't have any homes or that are really for sale that fit the requirements. We as we mentioned in the past, we've met with consultants um and they said really we don't have
anything right now. I am working with one of the board of director members of the Ark of Union County. I met him um while I was out on the campaign trail actually by accident and um he said what some towns are doing is building an additional room so we can add a few
units that way but that's nothing compared to what we're required to do. So what do towns do? What's the solution? Um now there's a lot of demand for developers to come to towns and you know I don't want to build a lot of
housing in this town. We're we're we're overbuilt. Our infrastructure really can't handle it. We're also when you look around the towns that border us, they've built a lot of affordable housing all around the railroad stations, bus stations, what have you.
We don't have that situation here. We don't have buses. We don't have trains that can take people out. So, it's hard for those people that are in those units to get around. But at the end of the day, we're competing with all these different, you know, these vendor, these uh builders.
There's some very large builders. They work on a 10-year cycle. They buy inventory. They they take their time. They go where it's convenient, where it makes sense for them to work financially. Okay. What I'm trying to say is it's not easy.
We're competing with other towns to build affordable housing to meet our requirements. And these judges are serious. When they come to us and they're going to look at what we've done on the third round and the fourth round of housing, they're going to be tough. They're not going to be easy on us.
They're going to be very demanding. So, we have a tool that the Democrats created that Governor Murphy uh created uh that permits us to create pilots. So, instead of paying real estate taxes,
the developer makes an arrangement, a 30-year arrangement to have a structure of escalation that they would pay and a formula of paying for the items. And there's a a pretty specific outline that's provided that's followed. Now,
I've heard um Mr. Greavves say repeatedly, "We didn't make good deals. We didn't make good deals." I haven't heard him I don't know if he read the agreements, but I I think he has. He's probably has them all. He's probably oped every one of them. But I haven't heard him say one specific thing he didn't like about them. Just they're not
good deals. So, I think we're doing the best that we can. We need to be flexible in what we're doing and we think we're doing what's best for this town. As far as, you know, the felt mill over by Walnut, there weren't that many
businesses left there. It was old. It was outdated. So that happened to be one of the areas where affordable housing was built. So um hopefully gives you a little insight into it because I I went through
a big discussion with some of the people that I met in town and they said, "Well, why can't we build commercial properties? That's not going to fulfill the affordable housing requirement." So I'd be interested in hearing about what um uh Mr. Greavves thinks about that and
and what his solutions might be. Um I did have a few other comments I wanted to make because some people contacted me over the weekend. I guess the past few days there was a comment made about you know that the town um
you know in 2025 it's not the same as it was in you know 1995 and yeah times change. I mean, ever since the the wheel was invented, things change. They're always changing, but he feels that the township council um isn't
um in tune with what what's going on and doesn't make these changes. Now, for me, I've lived here 39 years. I wasn't on the council in 1995, but I was here in 2001. And I can tell you that we made a lot of changes here. It wasn't
overnight. Why wasn't it overnight? We didn't have a bag of money as we've talked about. We we talked about the fact that um I forget the exact amount of surplus that we had. Mr. Gre said, "Yes, you had a surplus, but he forgot
to mention what was also outstanding." And that was the liability for the police overtime or PTO time that they could have been paid out. And that was about the same amount. Not exactly, but it was almost zero. Um, but as far as things that changed,
we had to be fiscally responsible in the changes that we made. Okay? So, I can tell you when my kids were born in the 90s and there was virtually no recreation programs, no full-time recreation director, no robust summer camps for kids as we have now or the
plethora of summer jobs that we have. The former mayor, me, and the other members of council implemented a recreation program really that is the rival of many neighboring towns, towns throughout this state.
Currently, we have more than 100 programs offered to kids and adults in this town. And really, it's it's it's really I'm so proud of it. Um, when we got on council, Jim was on council with me. We ran together with S.
um we didn't have an addition to the library. We went to the council. there was a construction grant that was available and we and all members of council including the Democrats agreed that we would apply for the grant and we got the grant and
we had a drawing that would represent the addition and um on the night of the vote with a standing room only court chamber uh chamber council chambers uh they voted against it
I would say for political reasons, pressure from probably the former mayor and uh all those council people lost their election and um that was the end of that. So what were we going going to do and uh we said well you know what
what's the right thing to do? It's going to cost us now we lost the million dollars in grants but we still went ahead and did it. So we we went ahead and built the addition on the library with the taxpayers had to pay for it for that million dollars we lost. So again,
these are just examples, but I feel like I have to go through this because when you're just a few years here in town, it looks like they're not doing anything because sometimes, you know, it's like the tortoise in the hair. Tortoise wins the race. You do things slowly and progress gets made. Uh when I went on
council, I I remember the day we got elected, I I walked by town the Brewer building and it was all plyboarded up because they were all broken windows over there. It was terrible. Um the gym floors, uh you know, they they
were deplorable. Um since then, we've replaced the floors twice. We started with the top to the bottom. We repaired the roof. We put in air conditioning. We put in a generator. Um, like I said, we didn't do everything at once, but we
continually work on making changes, uh, you know, improving the fields, adding fields in the back of the building. That's that's the agenda of the council. That's the agenda of this council. That's that's my agenda to be, you know,
mindful of this youth, senior citizens, and families of this town to make it a great place to live in that we can all be proud of. and at the same time to be fiscally responsible. You know, we've had probably one of the lower tax increases this year. I know he talked
about the um presentation and I did mention what the main items were that increased our taxes and um when you look at the other towns, neighboring towns, their taxes went up significantly. So, yes, maybe they had to go into more detail and maybe we can do that. But um
if anyone has a question on the budget um that's definitely in my baywick numbers um so please ask me any questions you have. Um next thing I was told is he said um you
know the council is not in touch with change. the next generation needs more representation in Clark's leadership. Now, that can be taken many different ways. Uh, is it about elderly people?
Um, stale ideas? Um, I'm not sure what he meant, but he said the next generation needs more representation in Clark's leadership. Um, I think I I believe in leadership, it's more about qualifications, not age.
Um, furthermore, our seniors built this town. They paid taxes, invested in our schools. To say they don't deserve representation is wrong. And I'm not saying that's what he meant, but I'm not sure how to interpret it. Um, and based on the election results,
um, we re represent everyone that's here. So, if you're talking about the council, I I think the council represents the seniors, families, and the people in this town, not just one generation. A couple of other comments that were made like I I see and understand things
they don't typical of the comments made. Um I you know I have a better perspect perspective on local government um and understands the digital world and how we can use technology. We've made a lot of changes. Jim has been working on
a lot of changes in the town to make sure that people can, you know, pay their bills in many different ways. Um, so they don't have to go down to town hall. People are busy. They'd want to do things easily. So, I think we've been addressing those things. Um, and I think we have modern
technology. I mean, when I I have to say when I went to East Brunswick Township, that was the second town I worked in as a CFO. Yes. The individual I replaced was there for 44 years and I've made a lot of changes, a lot of technology changes, uh, making sure people have the
right tools they need to get their work done. Um, and pretty much talked about the tax abatements, so I'm not going to repeat that. These are some of the other points that I had before he made his comments. Um the last thing he said, he said he's
in favor of transparency and a couple of people said to me, you know, he blocked me from their his website. And I find it really amazing that an individual who talks about transparency
and um goes on and on about it. I mean, our meetings are recorded, the recordings are there. Yes, there are verbal recordings, but you blocked people from your website. And I'm sure you'll come up and say, "Well, I let them in." Yeah, but you were shamed into it. I mean, here
we're truly transparent. We do what's required. You say we do the minimum. No, we do what is required. Okay. The minimum may be equal to the required, but I don't hear many complaints about
people saying they didn't get enough information. I know you have a plethora of uh Oprah requests. Um I don't expect that will change, but um uh those those are my comments and responses. Not only those some of the things that I wanted
to say tonight and also to respond to the comments made. >> Do you want to conclude my remarks? Do you want to just address the last thing the zero taxes that the developer is paying and he's saying zero goes to the schools? >> Okay. >> Thank you.
>> Um Okay. First of all, you know, to explain to the citizens the each the county comes up with their budget, the school comes up with their budget, and the township comes up with the municipal budget. With all of those budgets, we come up with a rate of taxes
and an amount that we need to collect. We do the collection. We We suffer all the bad debts. If someone doesn't pay their taxes, we cover the schools. We give them their money. They get what they need. We are all sub subject to rules of the state of how much we can
raise taxes. And uh years ago with the schools, they used to vote on the budget. They got away from that. The state got away from it. They said, "Listen, as long as you stay within the maximum increase, your budget's fine." And as I said a few
months ago, and I I know they oped the email between me and uh Mr. Grande, our superintendent. Um maybe it wasn't you, John, maybe it was uh Mr. Schulman who opened that um discussion that we had, the email that
we had, and he said, you know, they got everything they needed and um as long as they're within that limit, um they're getting what they need. If they don't get what they need, there are ways that they can get what they need, they can put up a referendum.
Um as far as the pilots, now this town is very unique. There's maybe one other town that does it or two. Jim Jim knows the answer to this one because we had a hard time figuring out how to do it. What we did was we said if the schools were getting a certain
amount of money from taxes on a property that was now going to be a pilot, the township's going to take money and give it to the school. We don't know what they do with it. They use it for their operation um or put to good use. Let's put it like
that. And that's what we want to do and um that's one of our ordinances to fund that money back to the schools. So we have been doing that and we will continue to do that because it's an ordinance that we have to follow. Ordinance is the law.
>> Did you have anything else in mind, Mr. President? >> That's it. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you for um listening to that. >> Councilwoman Huff. >> Thank you, Mayor. I I feel like I'm super following you tonight because I
was going to talk about the bond and you talked about the bond and the 911 ceremony. Um having attended it every year and this being the first time I participated in it. Um it really was beautiful and just again I'm echoing the mayor, but I want to say it anyway. Um I know Liz did an amazing job along with
uh my colleagues up here um our president uh Smith and Pat O' Conor. Um, so it was I thought it was a really beautiful um authentic and emotional way to to highlight the that that very important day. So, um, thank you for
allowing me to participate in it and the efforts that went into it. Um, mayor, stop me if I'm wrong, please, because I'm still getting my feet underneath me. and you have a very amazing um long-standing history up
here, but also with your background um in your in your profession. Um but I think that makes us good balanced um with some of the areas that are not my strongest. But from my understanding, what you just explained about the pilot
program is the way you're following the laws and the rules for what a pilot program dictates. Hard stop. I wasn't a part of this, so I'm not taking credit for it. But what it sounds like happened is that the town council
adopted an ordinance, and just to be very specific about it, it's 2405 to ensure that the board of education continues to get its share of the tax revenue despite redevelopment programs that are in that pilot. And starting with April
10th, 2024, the township will allocate to the board of education an amount equal to what they would have collected on that property with a guaranteed minimum of from one of the numbers that I saw in the ordinance. It's like they're guaranteed I believe it's the Walnut Hill project or Walnut Hill
development um is contri we're taking $55,000 and change annually at minimum and providing that to the school district. If that's incorrect, please correct me. But it's it's a you know, statistics are interesting because it's math and it's
black and white, but it's also easily manipulated. Um, so I I just want to be clear. I understand, my understanding is that the pilot program on the surface does not contribute dollars to the school
district, but that the town council made a decision out of a way to be respectful of the taxpayers in town and everything else to keep the schools receiving some money that most other towns, to my knowledge, don't do that. And if that's
incorrect, if someone could correct me, that's correct. No. Right. But what we do that what I just said we do is what we do or what you guys decided to do and I get to be a part of it now. Um so I think that requires you know you know
misinformation's not a good thing. um whether you could talk about this on a grand scheme um nationally or whatever, but uh I'm just going to advocate that social media posts um are not where you should get
information when you can get organic information from the source and that applies to everything in your life. Um I think we're being given so many opinions and not necessarily um news the way we could. So I would just on a platform on a soap box just want to say that um
going back I went to my first Clark uh the senior barbecue today uh for the first time and it was amazing uh selfishly it was amazing because I saw a few of my old teachers and I got then they you know they they think my hair color is better now and it was very nice
to see them and I it's true and I got to but honestly like I walked up to a table and it was four of my former teachers that are still in town that are taking part in it that had such great things to say. Um, and you know, that's the opinion I put on social media today.
Mrs. Green still looks beautiful and is still fabulous and a whole bunch of people on social media agreed with her, agreed with me about that. So, I thought it was a really nice thing and congratulations to Ralph and the administration and um, everyone who put it together. I I thought it was fantastic. Um, and it was really really
nice to go and see everybody. So, um I'm just going to end with concluding that I hope everyone comes and uh supports the vote tomorrow for the tax neutral bond vote that is not going to um cost you any more dollars and will help do things that our school district very much
needs. So, please um while your children are home tomorrow, that's why because you're supposed to go out and vote. That's all. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Councilman Hunt. >> Thank you, Council President. To answer Mr. agrees question of why I abstained on that on that vote is the prior
interactions in my professional career with some members that were part of the ordinance there um and specifically noted not my real because of my real estate license
my full-time job I do every day for the last 28 years so don't want to mistake anyone thinking I abstained because it was a real estate transaction it was Not. So, if that satisfies you, Mr. Agrees. >> Okay. No, no, no. I'll just That's
That's all it is. Um, I wanted to congratulate, you know, I think the mayor and council member have covered a lot of the stuff that we're most likely everyone here would want to have covered. So, I'll just skip to some, you know, I agree with mo everything that they said. So, I want to congratulate uh
congratulations to Gary, Bill, Eric, and Matthew for being appointed to the planning board. Um, in the third ward, if you live there, you've noticed. If you have if you if you're traveling through, you've noticed. But if you haven't come over there, we've had a lot
of p roads repaved over there. Um, the main one being Valley Road. Uh, and then some small streets due to some PSCG work that the mayor had mentioned earlier. So, we have uh it's all right around the corner from myself and and Mr. Greavves. We have a
quite a few of the smaller roads were were paved over last week. Um my main concern with the repaving though is now that we have a nice smooth valley road. There's a me raceway mentality a
little bit uh where it's very easy to go over the posted speed limit there. So, I encourage the residents to maintain the proper speed there. And then also when they cut through on Ross because those are two main rows that people utilize and cut through. Um
and that was all that I had. So that's all my comments. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilman Masella. >> Yes. Thank you, Council President. Ladies and gentlemen, I have been here
from when this community was a failed community along with our mayor Angel Brian Tol, myself, Jim Olrich when this community was a failed
community and we all seen this evolved um to where it is today. And I thank you, Mr. Greavves, for your endorsement on our community. How
wonderful it really is. It's very safe, clean, relatively affordable community. And how we achieved that was not only ourselves, but with residents with clear eyes
to to communicate with us rationally. And we acted on most of those and we didn't on some. But the end of the day, this community
will still be a clean, safe, and relatively affordable community. And we will continue with that mission. We will continue to listen to all the residents. We will continue to act on things that
would be good for the community as a whole. Doesn't matter if you're Democrat, Republican, no affiliation at all. We're here in the same boat and we're going to do and continue to do what's right for our community.
And I commend our mayor for your statements that you had made before. And I don't want to dovetail on any of them. I just want to let the the residents know that we thank you for working and partnering with us all these years to
create create a community what was almost 30 years right mayor that we turn this community around all of us residents and we on council all the residents no matter what affiliation
you have and I get it I understand every cycle individuals will come up discuss what we're doing wrong with no viable solutions, no viable way about what they
perceive they will do for the community. Until they do that, I take their comments as just hyperbole, nothing. Um, the other thing I want to just mention
is our safety. If if the residents feel that they're unsafe in some way, whether it be now, especially that school is open and our children are walking around and there's a lot of
vehicles riding around. Please be proactive. If you feel uncomfortable about the speed of some vehicles or if they're they're driving in a hazardous way, we all pretty much have cell phones. Take a picture of the tag. Call our police department. They're
going to investigate it. They're not going to be mad at you. They're going to come out and they're going to they're going to ensure your safety. So, I think I've said enough tonight. With that, be well, safe, God bless, and
we'll see you next month. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilman Niti. >> Uh, thank you, Council President. Um, many times we see either on social media or here that Clark is compared to other towns. Um, we've seen it in the pilot
program, but I want to uh just address an interesting fact. Um, I pay property taxes in Tom's River and Tom's River is getting a 13% increase in their taxes mainly because of $22 million budget deficit for their schools. Now, that's a
number of reasons why. First of all, state aid cuts and things like that. But Tom's River Township tried to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy because of this big deficit and it caused the taxpayers to have a big increase in their taxes this
year. Um, the reason why I bring that up is because I think in my opinion that the board of education does a tremendous job balancing the budget. And I know for a fact that if they ever did need additional funding or they ever did have
a shortfall, they could come to this administration and ask for more. And as many of you know that lived in this town for any length of time, we haven't seen a 22 or, you know, 13% increase or $22
million budget deficit. Now, I I just bring that out because over the last two years, I've been hearing how the the the board of education is getting jipped, getting jipped, getting jipped. They're not getting the proper amount of money. And in the meantime, I didn't get a letter from the board of education saying, "Hey, we don't have enough
money. You got to give us more." Um but I hope um and I know that if that ever did come the situation they could go to the administration and ask for more. So um that's all I want to say about that. Um the second part of uh there's my second comments is that uh Clark youth
sports fall Clark youth sports are in full force. Um we see soccer at uh comp and uh you know Bartell so support our um fall youth sports and high school sports are back. um you know the uh Clark Crusaders are playing at home next
Friday night. Come out and support them. And finally um as the president of the ALJ booster club, the booster club is a nonprofit that raises money uh to give back to our student athletes at ALJ. Um we actually pay for um the student
athletic dinner in June where um all the athletes come out for their final farewell onto their colleges or whatever. Um we also give um 8 to 10 scholarships annually to student athletes. Um and this is our membership drive. So if you have a student in ALJ
um it is important to be a part of the booster club because uh you have to be a member of the booster club for three out of the four years to qualify for um uh a scholarship. And and finally, I think one of the greatest things that we do is that when you see um an athlete walking
around the township with their jackets on and that big letter, um we actually pay for those. So, it's important that we continue to raise money. You'll see us at the snack stand on Friday nights, uh cooking hamburgers, hot dogs, serving the community and the surrounding communities. But it's important and I
ask for uh you know all your uh uh contributions or uh can I say your uh membership is uh important and I thank you. Uh with that that concludes my comments and uh thank you council president. >> Councilman Tol. >> Thank you Mr. President. I'm going to
wrap up and the way I go. Let your voice be heard on September the 16, 2025. You have a house. You pay taxes. Your house is an investment. I don't have kids in the school system, but my house is my investment. What I'm saying to you is my
house is connected to the schools. The schools and the school administrators have asked for funding to do a long-term improvement of the schools to make the schools better, a better investment. My house, the schools. Why am I getting up and going voting tomorrow? Because the
schools have asked us to help them long-term investment for the property, the capital improvement projects and make those schools a part of our community for the next 25 years or plus. I won't be around, but I will hopefully my house will be in the hands of a young
couple who will turn around and say, "Hey, we we love this town. That's why my school my house is only down the street from come school. It's a walking distance. I'm investing in my town. I'm voting for my town. I ask you to do the same tomorrow. get up the hours the clerk I'm going to ask the clerk to repeat the hours tomorrow and you go to
your voting place where you went last November the 24th election 2024 and go tomorrow to vote for investing in your house your kids and the township of Clark's public school system we need your vote you got to help keep this town
growing let's get into the other issues Jennifer Martha I said it to you Martha at your street with your residents yesterday it doesn't happen in Clark. It's very rare. It's a strange strange set of circumstances where you had three
events. Now we hear three happening. It doesn't happen in Clark, but it does every 30 years or so. And I get went back and I thought when I left your street, Martha, I thought I remember there was an incident close to your house years ago where there was a gun gun battle. And I went back and I said
1999 a police car, police officer was following an somebody who broke the light at Brandt, came up Westfield Avenue and they went down Miller Avenue to avoid the cop. They went down Miller Avenue. They realizes a dead end and goes into the resi. They turn around, they come back out and the cops are
sitting there waiting for him. What does he do? He tries to run over the officer and he the officers open fired on the guy. They didn't kill him, but they stopped him in his tracks. He ended up in jail and spent a couple years in jail. I told the the residents on Riverside Drive my own personal experience growing up in Clark in the
Wild West days of 197071 when Billy Waterson was killed 1970 Labor Day. I lived on Fan Street which is right at the end of Gerche Street. Adam Street wasn't in yet. That comes in a year later. I'm sitting there sleeping. It's in the overnight. Labor Day is the big holiday.
The next day we're going to have a picnic. And what happens? There's a screaming siren at in front of my house. My father gets up to see what's going on and he sees a fugitive run across the front lawn and cuts between our house and the Zobro's house. The next thing there's a gun battle in our next door
neighbor's shed. They blew the shed apart. Clark PD, we love you. Blew the shed apart. The guy escaped out, went back down IB Street, cut around to Cornell, but Madison Hood Road was under construction at the time and the guy got away. Why? Because those really weird things happen. Not on a regular basis.
Thank God we have a great police department. And Frank Maserell and I say it all the time. Keeping this house, this township, our house, our town, our homes completely safe, clean, green, historic, always. Very simple. And the way we do that is having the best police
department, the best public works, the best community, and a good administration and mayor and council. We're here to do not just play games. I didn't go over and get lip service because now I got another issue that's come onto my plate about the street and the street condition on Riverside Drive.
Deman could use a little repair, but we're going to talk about that when I put things in for next year. But Martha, I promise you, one of one of Martha's neighbors turns around and goes, "Are you a politician? Are you going to BS me? Are you do I have to break your legs?" I said to her, "No, we're going to bring your request to the proper
channels and get the funding for it because it's not a big deal. You're in a dead end culde-sac where a criminal could thought it was a good place to go to. But we're here to make sure we hear what you need to make sure we are completely safe in community that you don't this resident Martha's neighbor.
She her little four-year-old stepped out the front door. She's on the porch. The mom's coming up behind her. They're going out somewhere. They just came home came home from church on Saturday. And there's a fugitive standing over there being chased by 10 cops from the state. And the mother looks at me and goes,
"What would you do?" I said, 'I don't have a 10-year-old, a four-year-old, but I understand you're concerned. It was insane. And that's why I said to her, "This got to be insane for that." Now, that child has a childhood memory like I do from 1970. Just insane that we've got to protect our children and protect our communities
and our homes. And the only way to do that is having the best police department in this state. And we thank you for that. Thanks, Mr. President. I'm going to continue working for my residents because that's why we're here. There's nothing else. Thank you. Thank you, Madame Clerk. You have anything to add?
>> Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to state again that the polls are open tomorrow from 6 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. The setup is slightly different. You're going to your same polling location, but when you get there, there
will be three machines and three different poll books to sign in. I don't know why there's such feedback. Um, and you can go you can go to any poll book, any machine. You don't have
to stick to your district. So, it should be quicker. Just get on the shortest line and you can uh vote quickly. So, it's just a slightly different setup. Three machines go in, vote on any machine you like. Okay. So, and other
than that, it's the same. >> Great. Thank you. Counselor, you have anything? >> Thank you, >> Mr. President. I think uh our captain some information that was uh inquired about >> just turn on the microphone.
>> Uh turn the microphone. >> I know. Okay. >> Good evening. So, um I conducted a uh check of several days back and it appeared to be only one incident um with that incident happening on Saturday.
Um and that was involving a New Jersey State Police unit with Woodbridge and it was for a suspect who was involved in a domestic violence incident. So, like Hanselman Tol said, um you know, it's right off the Parkway and you know, we have um several incidents that occur and
as you can see with, you know, um police response up and down the Parkway. So, uh but I'll talk to um Janice afterwards and um again, our main concern is um keeping the residents um safe. So, and
um that's what we did. We responded as a backup and we weren't involved in that incident. So, thank you. [Applause] >> Thank you, Captain Jim. You have anything? >> Um, yeah, I just confirmed LCI is again
limited commercial industrial district. So, that was um correct. And when we were talking about the arrive, I left the paperwork on my desk and officer in charge um Captain Akaboo was nice enough to reget it for me. But, you know, year
to date, we've had seven arrive um requests. So, again, it's for the safety of our citizens and and working with the county. Um that's all the comments I have for this evening, though. >> Great. Thank you. Uh I just want to remind the citizens that this weekend,
Saturday, and Sunday, is the townwide garage sale. Uh I believe there's a listing on the website. Is that correct? Or >> there will be. People are still signing up. >> Okay, great. Um just uh if you're driving around town Saturday or Sunday, just be extra careful uh because
there'll be a lot of uh people parking, walking on the streets. And uh last thing, just um again, want to thank everyone who turned out for the 911 ceremony as well as today's senior citizens barbecue lunch. And uh that's all I have this evening. Motion to
adjurnn. Thank you, Councilman Tol. Second. >> Thank you, Councilwoman Hoff. All in favor? >> Any opposed? All right. See you next month. Thank you.