e e e e good evening and welcome to the township of Clark council meeting it's Monday February 28th 7:30 p.m. roll call please council member Hoff is absent council
member hund here council member masella here council member Mani is absent council member OK Conor here council member toll here council president Smith here can you please stand for Pledge of Allegiance in a moment of
silence to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all this meeting is in compliance with the open public meetings act as adquate
notice of this meeting has been provided by mailing the annual schedule of meetings to The Star Ledger Union County Hawk Union County local source and tap into to 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 at this time we'll move to Communications from the mayor and reports from Township officers mayor albanes thank you president Smith um
good evening everyone I um the clerk mentioned that we have our new council person at large on board uh so we're happy to welcome Jessica hofkin Cella she was sworn into office at a special council meeting on February 3rd 2025 and
as we discussed in the January meeting the Republican Party had only 30 days to submit the names of three candidates and then the council would convene interview the candidates and select one to fill the seat for the open at large position I previously held and that that position
will be held until the election in November as was explained at the last meeting um and then once elected she can fulfill the three remaining years of the term um I'm pleased to say that the council had three excellent candidates
to select from so so it was a very tough decision to make and uh as I said Jessica Hoff was selected um unfortunately due to her previous commitment um out of town she's unable to attend tonight's meeting but she did attend the council Workshop
meeting on the night of um her induction and um also was at the library Board of Trustees meeting last Tuesday um just so you know that Jessica's Family moved to Clark well her family moved to Clark when she was a little girl when she was 5 years old so
she grew up in Clark and uh she and her husband are raising their three children here so I wish her the best um she's a welcome addition to the council and I look forward to working with Jessica as our new council member at large in that regard um I did also attend the library
board of directors meeting I'll give the library report uh the library had 7,196 visitors uh at the library and recorded 6,491 website visits and that's that's really remarkable uh when you consider the
population of Clark I'm sure a lot of people go there frequently so they they count over and over um friends of the library uh who contribute greatly to a lot of the programs and also to the wish list of the um different uh department
heads that handle the youth uh uh adults programs Etc uh they donate a lot so they're going to have um a costume Jewel sale which has been working out very well for them it's done at many libraries and that'll be held on Saturday March 1st from 10: to noon and
um all items are A Dollar Cash Only and um on um March 13th at 7 p.m. they're going to have Alice depoy uh do an adult event and she'll be um reenacting Queen Victoria she's an excellent performer
and uh hopefully you'll if you're interested in that part of History um um you'll you'll attend that um outsmart the scammers an adult program uh an adult event on Wednesday March 19th at 11: a.m. to uh listen to current trends
and scams how to protect yourself and what to do if you become a victim and that's being presented by the Union County prosecutor's office and I see that the uh Captain here uh shaking their heads yes that that's a program that's coming up um probably they're participating
in um there'll be New Jersey makers night all this event is for all ages um and so what makers are is just an opportunity to use the various um um materials and equipment that the library
has been purchasing libraries have changed over the years um they'll have Lego engineering challenges there'll be various maker stations they'll demonstrate how the 3D printer Works um they have sewing machines um so they'll be making other things such as custom
buttons with some of the other equipment and they'll also be having a raffle so if you're interested in that um that's on Thursday March 20th between 6:00 and 8:30 all ages are welcome and then um finally the last program is The Hunger
Games escape room and movie teen night event and that'll be held on Thursday March 20th uh between 6:00 to 8:30 as well and they they'll be releasing um celebrating the release of The Hunger Game book which was just recently
released um so they'll have an the uh escape room will be themed by The Hunger Games um moving on couple of other items that I want to mention
um okay recently um you may have heard of the program um stay New Jersey and it was put forth um by the legislature to um encourage citizens to stay in New Jersey and if you um uh our tax
collector Laura caliguire and myself were at the New Jersey League of M municipalities in November and we were able to gather some information about the program um because usually people go to the tax collector they go to town hall and they want to find out you know
where's my um property freeze book what what do I do to get my tax refunds Etc so some of you may have received a book that looks like this it's now called the 2024 P1 and um so instead of getting the PTR
booklet or the senior freeze booklet this year you're going to get a booklet like this if you've been in the program if you haven't and you are eligible then you'll have to get a booklet so I don't know if anyone has received any of these yet they're kind of hard to get it will
be coming in the mail now what's going to happen is this year in the past you would go to the tax collector you'd get a form filled out and they would uh attest to how much you paid in taxes in the prior year that is going to be taken out of the program um
I don't want to get too much into the weeds but um on our website we have this flyer here uh it covers the senior freeze the first part of the program the anchor program which is not age limited
it's based on income and then the new program called stay New Jersey which is based on age and also income now to um I don't want anyone to get uh overly uh concerned you still have till October 31st to file all the
forms and there will be some forms that you can file online um there is a big disclaimer right here and everywhere everything else that I've read about it and that is is it depends on the state budget whether you're going to get the money back okay and that's true of anything
though uh any commitments that are made by uh a governmental agency um so tonight my goal is number one bring this to your attention uh you may qualify and uh second point is to let you know that there's two information
meetings that we're going to be holding okay the first one's going to be on February 27th and this will all be advertised on our website um next Thursday at 1 p.m. in the cafeteria so it's February 27th 1 p.m. in the cafeteria and then the second
event will be held here right in this room on March 4th two weeks from now on Tuesday March 4th at 7 pm uh we'll we'll have a question and answer session we'll explain what we can about the program and we'll probably have some printed
copies of the document and copies of questions and answers about that moving on I just want to briefly talk about um the affordable housing we took some actions last month uh we had a
special meeting convened on January 30th and for the those of you to just kind of put the world in perspective there's maybe about six or seven states in the United States that have some type of affordable housing program s and you can imagine it's
California uh connectic uh Massachusetts New Jersey Texas and maybe a few others I think Oregon is also one of the uh states that has programs such as this um the program in New Jersey has been
around for about 50 years um stems from the Mount Laurel case in 1975 I'm not going to give a history lesson on it I just want to tell you what you need to know and that's basically that all all the towns in New Jersey Democrat Republican it really doesn't
matter um every town is faced with the challenges of affordable housing um it's a little bit easier for the big cities for us here most of the towns are 98% built there's not you have to wait for properties to become available to
achieve your goals so it's it's really um overwhelming uh there was a form a law passed in uh 2024 and um in October they released information about the calculations that
were done based on each County and uh we got our allocation of what we need to deal with and um I get to my notes here um so our allocation our new allocation
of affordable housing requirement was 166 we still have 71 left from the um last allocation that needs to be addressed um it's important that we met on January 30th because we had a deadline to meet of January 31st to get
our information in and that filing was completed um the next step is to work with uh we have some great Consultants we're working with to make sure we comply with everything and everything is assembled by these experts and run by
the administration um so that we can meet the deadline of June 30th of having our first plan and then going forward in future years uh each year we'll have a reporting deadline of February 15 the the aim of this law is to streamline the
process so that we can meet our affordable housing obligations so while the process may be streamlined um as I said um it's it's it's a challenge for everyone to deal with all the infrastructure issues and the avail a
ability of where to put these places um finally um if you haven't heard um about the reservoir the conclusion that um there will be no construction on wendl Avenue
uh window uh Drive um that information was put on our website we had a release on that so we're very thrilled to hear about that U it seems so long ago now but um I know there was a lot of excitement about it and finally I'll
I'll be uh in trouble with Liz if I don't mention that we have our resident guide available online and it has a lot of good information so that you know when to put out your recycling um appliance pickup bulky pickup where to
get information and um and how to get information on what isn't included and uh that concludes my comments for this evening mayor you have a couple of appointment ments okay thank you I will read the [Music]
appointments for Library Board of trusties Nathaniel CLE for Union County development Revenue sharing committee Jessica Hoff public improvements for the um year um from February 18th through
12325 Angel albanes myself will be the alternate for the one-year term February 18th 12 3125 also on that same committee great thank you mayor albanies um councilman Steve hun thank you Mr
President tonight I have the Clark Police Department monthly report for January 2025 we saw a total of 1,746 calls for service including but not limited to 139 ambulance requests 71 alarm calls one burglary five fire
department request Quest six fraud identity theft 13 motor vehicle and residential lockouts 82 motor vehicle accidents you had 13 shoplifting and thefts and
1, excuse not one 1,000 excuse me again 156 911 calls and 1,90 miscellaneous calls there were a total of eight adult arrests including but not limited to one for sh uplifting four for warrants one
for resisting arrest and one for simple assault the youth Bureau handled a total 12 cases including but not limited to one for defyant trespass two for harassment three for offenses against the family one for truancy four for all
other offenses and that concludes my police report thank you thank you council member mazarella yes thank you council president this is my DPW report for this evening uh firstly please remove all Nets from the roadway to
avoid damage to them and our vehicles during any snow events and our street sweeping efforts uh the electronic drop off will be February 22nd weather permitting 9:00
a.m. to 1 p.m. in the DPW Yard behind this building ID will be required uh you'll be happy to hear that spring cleanup will begin midm March through April 25th but now ladies and Gentlemen
please refrain from placing any spring debris in the roadway until March 17th please make a note of that um branches and leaves um are to stay on your property
until then until the spring cleanup if they're in the roadway uh DPW will put them back on your property so please remember this bulky and appliance pickup will start March 2025 weather permitting of course um
appointment required the week before your scheduled pickup and you can email DPW hour.com for more information or www.car.com for any additional schedules
and Pickups thank you that's the extent of my report thank you council member ' Conor thank you from the finance uh committee we continue to work on the budget and are expected to have it filed with the state by its deadline from the Clark volunteer emergency Squad in
January the squad was busy bringing on one new probationary member and two Cadets we held our annual installation officers at our January meeting and we're grateful for mayor Albany to swear in the new officers
Squad medical director Dr latiza and the squad hosted a stroke class for area squads at their building the call Vine was as follows there were 103 calls in January with four mutual Aid calls this does not include any calls that they were
dispatched on and canceled total hours responding to calls is approximately 672 man hours and this of course does not include the hours the members are at the squat house but not on calls year today call volume is 103 with regard to membership for those who would like to
assist the squad but may not have time to do EMT training we are accepting applications for people who are interested in becoming drivers for the ambulance must be 18 years of age with a clear driving record they will be hosting a driver's training program this Saturday February 22nd from 8:00 a.m. to
3:00 p.m. for anyone interested anyone interested can email the squad at membership Clark .org and they continue to service the Community they will be offering a baby safety class in April open to all who would like to see and practice choking
CPR demos and safety tips for parents and grandparents the squad hosted two blood drives and is looking to expand the number each month as the need for blood is increasing the squad will be teaching AED class to Township employees and plan on having additional classes in
April it will only take 30 to 45 minutes to learn how to do compressions and applying AED we encourage as many people as possible to attend respectfully submitted Lorie Sheldon trustee that concludes the report thank you thank you council member DOL thank you Mr
President I'm just going to say a couple words piggybacking from our mayor alanes Angel about the reservoir the reservoir as you know for years back we've been asking the county and the state to dredge it the county decided to dredge it but then they dropped in a little
extra on it we're going to put it in turn into an amusement park which was ridiculous but because of the efforts of a ground Roots group where I saw for the first time in a long time democracy in Action a group you saw these signs appearing all over the town even out of
town Sav the resi down in raway down in Colonia Cranford all over the place and these ladies we had three of them in the audience today I'm going to ask the council president to abide by could we have these three ladies step up because these three were the backbone of the entire organization that was able to
alter not just the county but the state have the state remove the proposal of now allowing boting to go underneath to stop it from going underneath the reservoir I'd like to mention Nancy to Tois please stand up Nancy Ellen Mulligan tiller and of course dilia
Collins these are three backbones of this Township that deserve a moment of our respect and credit for everything you did to save that Reservoir to make sure that ridiculous proposed boat dock was left at the end of window place it would have destroyed an entire neighborhood but because of those ladies
and there who are other ones who are not here tonight the save the resi group deserve our respect and our thank you and that's what I wanted to say to you earlier and I said it tonight we thank them because they took the time out of their lives to stop something that was dumb the idea of dredging great idea voting absolutely great idea but the
turn around and start making it into amusement park stupid and that's why those ladies fought against something brought democracy and the principles of We the People to reality and I thank you Madame mayor for support the former mayor Bon s Bono for his efforts and to those ladies who went to every meeting
County down when we went had to go to the do went down to the dot in Woodbridge and talking to State officials to say it's a bad idea and they listened and it was because of them one final thread it was saved and done the way we want it we the people thank you Mr
President thank you from the uh pool and Recreation registration for spring Recreation programs is available online beginning March 1st and as always you can stop by Ralph ard's office uh in the Brewer Recreation Center uh also
registration uh numerously pool memberships begins on March 1st I know it's freezing outside it might be a little light snow this week but uh if you're interested in registering for a pool membership uh that information will also be online all information is on our website at
www.car.com we could contact Ralph Bernardo or em Emily Lambert in the rec office at 732 2 428 8400 um to fill some positions that were formally held by mayor albanes I'm going
to appoint Jessica Hoff to the finance committee to the Parks and Recreation committee liaison to the board of education and liaison to the library okay at this time we'll move to ordinances Appropriations and claims
introduction of proposed ordinance thank you Mr President the first ordinance is 25-4 and ordinance amending chapter 114 entitled certificate of compliance I get a motion I'll move that Mr President thank you council member tol get a second I'll second that please thank you
council member OK Conor any discussion Jim you have anything to add yeah this is to um comply with the DCA requirements we're just changing the name it's going to be now called a certificate of resale when someone's selling that house um a certificate of compliance was a defined term within the
DCA and to comply with their uh requirements we just made this change so it's really just an administrative change there no change to the document per se great thank you and just to clarify DCA stands for Department of Community Affairs for those who didn't know
correct thank you get a roll call please council members hund yes mazarella yes o' Conor yes tol yes council president Smith yes yes this ordinance will have its public
hearing on March 17th next is ordinance 25-5 and ordinance amending section two of chapter 122 entitled fees I get a motion please thank you council member to get a second thank you council member hun any
discussion yeah this is just a follow on with us updating chapter 195 and we broke out the zoning and the construction fees in separate um separate sections of our ordinance book now you know the construction is in the
construction zone uh section 122 which will be the next item and the zoning will be in 195 that's it thank you for the explanation anybody else okay a roll call please council members hund yes
mazarella yes ok Conor yes tol yes council president Smith yes public hearing March 17th next ordinance is 25-06 an ordinance to amend section 38
entitled interpretation of zoning Provisions administrative officer and section 51 entitled fees established of chapter 195 entitled land use and development of the code of the township of Clark I get a motion I'll move Mr
President thank you council member tol get a second I'll second it thank you council member mazarella Jim you have anything to add me this is the same thing that we just discussed on the fees for 122 the only thing is we clarified the role of the administrative officer and the appointment of the
administrative officer great thank you a roll call please council member hund yes masella yes ok Conor yes tol yes council president Smith Yes again March 17th public
hearing next is 25- seven an ordinance to adjust civil service ranking of job title of Public Works repairer I get a motion I'll move that thank you council member masella get a second second that please thank you council member
hun Jim this update is to be consistent with the Civil Service definitions of job and job responsibilities we've already had the discussion with the blue Cola Union they have no issues with it um and as soon as the ordinance is um is approved we will update the contract
great thank you uh roll call please council member hund yes maella yes ok Conor yes tol yes council president Smith yes March 17th public hearing next ordinance is 25-8 and ordinance to
create the position custodial worker and to fix minimum and maximum salaries I get a motion up please thank you council member can I get a second I'll second that please thank you council member OK Conor any discussion Jim anything this
is another position we adding um to our salary ordinance it's a civil service position we used to have a building maintenance and um just based on job descriptions it is more of a custodial services and this is why we're adding it we um prior to this so I guess year and
a half ago we actually outsourced it uh we brought it back in we hired somebody and now we got have a consistent title great thank you roll call please council member hund yes mazarella yes ok Conor
yes tol yes council president Smith yes and now we're going to move to payment of claims council member o Conor thank you I have reviewed the bills for the month tolling $227,800 77 cents great thank you at this time
we're going to move to the citizens hearing on the agenda agenda this time I'm going to open the meeting to the public the public common 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 col 4-2a and the code of the township of clerk 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 five minutes in duration at the conclusion of the statements or
questions from member of the public the council president as discretion may choose to respond or not respond so at this time if anyone like to come forward and speak about anything on the agenda hello Mary semler 56 Conger way um and I just have one question for uh
clarification regarding the um custodial work and bringing that inhouse a back inh house which I'm really usually always in favor of of um but is there a um can you kind of tell us the idea behind this and is it a cost savings to
us as taxpayers to have instead of paying a private entity to actually pay an employee of uh the township of Clark go ahead Jimmy you want to address it um it will be more expensive to do it this way but we think that we're going
to have a better quality of person um we had a lot of turnover which was obviously a concern this way we have someone who is receiving a salary benefits pension um and we believe that uh we would have a you know better
long-term um relationship with the person okay very good thank you thank you anyone else like to come forward on agenda items okay this time I like a motion to close this portion thank you council
member tol and second councilman hun all in favor I all right any opposed when you're ready Madam clerk we'll move to resolutions the first resolution is establishing a Mount Laurel subcommittee and appointing members to assist the Township in addressing its affordable
housing obligations can I get a motion move that please thank you council member hun can I get a second second thank you council member tol any discussion Jim you want yeah we had a couple of um preliminary meetings with the planner the new attorney that
we brought in to help us with affordable housing our Township attorney and engineer going through you know the next steps one of the things we wanted to make sure is throughout this process that we will be doing um you know keeping everybody informed have
different um Insight again it's going to be the it's got to go to the planning board for approval has to go to the council for approval um so we we wanted to do is create a a subcommittee it's not going to be a a heavy be lift but it's you know keeping people apprised of you know the process what we're doing what we're looking at where the overlay
zones potentially may be and we have to get this all done by June 30th so it's a very tight time frame so this way having people involved more as we're putting together the plan um we think that makes makes
sense thank you Mr President yes just a quick comment ladies and gentlemen what we're doing here tonight is trying to make sure that it's kept in a house if we don't do this somebody else is going to be making decisions on Clark and Clark's history and where things go we
want to control our own future and those that are a part of the community and letting us make those decisions tonight we are able to do that you go out and somebody a judge or somebody else doesn't have a clue what Clark's all about or who the people are and what happens they make a decision that's we
feel in the worst ways or in positive ways whatever we want to take care of it and it's best to do it inhouse thank you Mr President thank you council member tol anyone else any comments discussions all right roll call please council member hund yes
mazarella yes ok Conor yes tol yes council president Smith yes next resolution is authorizing emergency temporary Appropriations for the current fund I got a motion so Mo thank you council member OK get a second
second thank you council member hun any discussion Jim just a standard as we're finalizing the budget we you know just they call it as we discussed at the workshop meeting in our last meeting they call it emergency it's not an emergency per se it is you
know we're we're just using part of our budget so we could spend money as we finalize the budget that's a percentage of last year's budget correct correct thank you uh roll call please council member hund yes masella yes ' Conor yes
tol yes council president Smith yes next is authorizing emergency temporary Appropriations for the sewer utility we got a motion yes I'll move it thank you council member masella get a second I'll second that please thank you council member o Conor uh same as the budget but
this is for the sewer utility it's a percentage of last year's budget and allows us to uh run the sewer utility uh anybody else have any questions good uh roll call please council member hund yes masella yes ok Conor yes tol yes council
president Smith yes number nine is authorizing emergency temporary Appropriations for the pool utility I'm going to move that can I get a second I'll second thank you council member hun same thing with the pool uh we take a percentage of last year's budget and this allows us have money to
start the pool year if the budget isn't finalized but it probably will be by April 1st correct councilman o Conor yes all right thank you uh call please council member hund yes masella yes ok Conor yes tol yes council president Smith
yes number 10 is authorizing the police chief to issue additional clothing bin permits for the year 2025 okay get a motion please thank you council member hun get a second I'll move it thank you council member mazarella any uh
discussion um these are just two additional bins that we're putting in place uh as we made the change a couple of months ago to the ordinance to permit them in the GC and the LCI zones so these are just two that are going to go into those areas great thank you a roll call please council member hund yes
mazarella yes ok Conor yes tol yes council president Smith yes the next set of resolutions is the council acting as the pool utility and it will be uh moved and seconded as a group so number 11 is authorizing and
directing the council president as the chairperson of the pool utility to enter into employment contracts for the positions of pool manager and assistant managers next is extending the pool food concession contract with Clark concession operations LLC for an
additional two-year term at the sole option of the Township in accordance with the 2024 bid specifications and 13 is extending the pool maintenance contract with aquatic Service Incorporated for an additional one-year term at the sole option of the Township in accordance with the 2024 bid
specifications I'd like to move that can I get a second please yes I'll second that thank you council member mazarella any discussion Jim you have anything to add no um as the clerk said we are extending them it was based on the bids
um we have had no issues with uh either one of the food vendor or the um the pool maintenance workers and you know for the you know manager you know Bob kahill Ricardo and Jennifer have been there for you know quite a while and you
know we we're happy and we want to continue to you know keep working and keeping the pool as great as it's been for the last few years that I've been here great thank you uh roll call please council member hund yes masella yes ok Conor yes tol yes council president
Smith yes okay at this time we're going to move to consent agenda resolutions okay uh want me to read that I can read it if you want okay sure good ah uh 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 confirming the mayor's appointment of Nathaniel C as the mayor's alternate member of the library Board of Trustees next is authorizing the tax collector to make the proper adjustments for 100% property tax exemption of block 81 lot 33 in
accordance with a directive from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs next is authorizing the tax collector to make the proper adjustments for 100% property tax exemption of Block 17 lot 3 in accordance with a directive from the United States Department of
Veterans Affairs 17 is is authorizing the tax collector to apply sewer account balance adjustments as credit in the amount of $522 18 is authorizing final payment to ajm Contractors Incorporated for proposed parking lot for Bartell Park
and various other Capital Improvements in the amount of $1,313 and finally supporting publishing legal notices on official government websites thank you I get a motion to adopt the consent agenda no moved thank thank you council member tol could get a
second thank you council member o Conor uh roll call please council member hund yes mazarella yes ok Conor yes tol yes council president Smith yes is there any new business on the
calendar there is no new business thank you okay at this time we're going to move to public comments I'll open the meeting to the public the public comment portion of the meeting meeting is to allow the public to bring to the council's attention their concerns or comments in accordance with
njsa 10 col 4-2a 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 five minutes in duration at the conclusion of statements or questions
from a member of the public the council president as his discretion may choose to respond or not respond so at this time if anyone like to come forward please do so hello uh John Grieves 30 Parkway Drive um last month I came here and I
brought up the fact that the mayor had to resign because he was convicted of two crimes and you guys didn't really put out a public statement that expressed any addressed that very much and I was disappointed um but you know there's nothing I can do about that but I was
further disappointed at the response because the response turned out to be very much attacking me for bringing up the issue and I didn't think that's appropriate you know I know that you know there's intention we don't always agree on
things but it hurts the discourse when people bring things up and they get attacked so for instance it was implied that I was you know attacking the schools attacking the teachers you know I I'm criticizing your decisions that's
how we do it here in America you know and I'm allowed to do that and I I think that it's important to have a discourse where there's criticism you know and I don't think it's right to you know to basically say that criticism of you is attacking the town it's not you know I
mean I look at the teachers I've been the one saying we want to pay them more I look at the schools I'm saying I want them to have more resources you know I I I look at them honestly you know unfortunately recently as victims of the decisions that you
guys are making sometimes and then furthermore I get you know it's implied that because I haven't lived here long enough and this is going to be my fifth year here um my opinion somehow matters less I don't know where you guys get that from but you know I I I'm father of
two young children I can't sit here and wait 10 years until they grow up in you know graduate college 10 15 years and then not my opinion matters that's not cool that's not how I'm going to do it um and then you know it's also was said that you know if I don't like things
here I can just move well no we criticize here in America you know I mean I the way I feel about it is if you don't like criticism as as an government official and if you don't like first amendment I mean you can move out of America I I don't know why that's me
saying that there's some issues in the town and I want to bring them to light that's a reason to leave I I'm not someone that runs away from problems here to face the problems that's why I stand up here and bring up the issues I do so that said the issue that um I would like to bring up today and I hope the discourse is better than it has been
in the past is the pilot program that seems to be about to happen or about to be brought to the council uh regarding uh Westfield Avenue we we talked about it I think uh last year in June or July and it's 39 units it's going to probably
put some additional students in our schools and the schools are not going to get any additional funding for that that um I also think that you know based on what I saw at the planning board and I there may be more or less I don't have the exact um thing off the top of my head but there were a lot of concessions made to allow the property to actually be developed in the first place um the
parking is really tight there's no sidewalk in the back the setbacks from the street are minimal and um you know if we're trying to develop a business district you know it's a property that is replacing two existing businesses with one commercial unit that's actually
smaller than the existing ones so it doesn't seem like a great deal there was concessions made I don't think giving further concession further money that um you know making a deal with a developer further um is appropriate especially if there's going to be 39
units and there's going to be no additional funding for the schools because schools might suffer but also you know if if the schools aren't suffering that means that the residential taxpayer is making up the difference so please on that uh so the other thing I would like to I actually
can't see the agreement um I asked for it and it wasn't available for some reason um so it would be great if we could actually see the agreement because if it's anything like the previous ones um I I don't think it's a good deal maybe there's some other things that you guys are negotiating that I wasn't able
to see so I I'd like to basically ask you to if it's anything like the other agreements not approve it and let's see what the agreement is so that we can know what's going on thank you thank you Mr Groves anyone else like to come forward good evening dilia Collins 72 Georgia
Street I have some questions regarding some of the affordable housing issues that are in the state of New Jersey and also in Clark um I remember last year Mr Smith you had tried to explain to me how come we had given Monies to renters at
specific how housings in Clark towards their rent and will we have to afford more of that in 2025 or in the next 10 years towards giving residents tenants
money towards their um rent um also in the affordable housing trust fund there's the in home Home Improvement program that was introduced at one of the council meetings and I was wondering if there's any funds still available for
that and um I was reading an article regarding uh affordable housing and it said that um out of the affordable housing 65,000 home uh units will have
to be in the next 10 years and it also require I'm sorry 84,000 and it also inquires that Rehabilitation of 65,000 in in the next 10 years is there a way that we can
apply this to any of our existing apartment units in town to make them become an affordable towards our affordable requirement with the state we do have several apartment complexes that I'm not
sure if they have affordable units in them um under the town ordinance and I don't know if I'm reading it correctly under 66.4 it says new construction affordable
housing for one unit one bedroom applies to one and one half person what's a half a person we'll answer when you're done good I'm sorry so we'll answer when you're done I don't want to take up your your time number six and the new
construction and letter B okay okay and any movement on the uh property owned by Garden communities on Westfield Avenue the old any
movement okay okay all right thank you I want to take up your time when you're finished we'll you can have a seat we'll answer some of the questions thank you anyone else like to come forward Nancy tasus 43 Colonial Drive Clark um thank you councilman tol for the
recognition it was totally unexpected and if we would have known we probably would have worn our green t-shirts for one last time but uh we weren't prepared for that on the affordable housing I'm still trying to get it straight in my head in terms of the number of units in
total for Clark because the present need is 71 and the proposed need is 166 so does that mean that there are some that are already completed so we have really at the end of the day we'll have more than
267 units that's my first affordable housing question um next is on the subcommittee the Mount Laurel subcommittee will the zoning board also have a spot on that committee
I heard the planning board mention but I didn't hear the zoning board so wondering if they would be on it on number 18 of the uh resolutions about a parking lot for Bartel Park I
did kind of hear and I don't know if this is included in number 18 about the plan for putting in a turf field in Bortel Park is that part of 18 or is that something else that's under an investigation or consideration at
turfield there are a lot of parents that are having issues in other towns with tur Fields being installed and the the consequences possibly with the kids playing on tur Fields with the material that's used etc
etc and I did attend the library presentation with George and Martha Washington and it was really very good and I would encourage anyone to go to the library presentations where the people present themselves the costume
and talk about their lives because you really feel like you were put back in time I think sometimes they might be available on YouTube afterwards but just in case going there is really a lot of fun and the last is really and a
personal kind of an opinion um a I guess a perception or what I see happening in government not not only here in the County government and I don't want anybody to take this personally because I'm very happy with the government in
Clark New Jersey so don't take it personally but I did get the impression with the new councilman at large that there was an assumption that this person would get voted in in November and I would like to see a lot
more participation from Republicans in Clark in particular with running for office and I just don't ever see a lot of of activity of people running in for office there seems to be somebody comes in can't complete the term somebody else
comes in becomes an incumbent and everybody knows it's difficult to get an incumbent out not that I want to get anybody out but I'd like to see PE I'd like to see the public vote on the government and not kind of just the
council vote on the government it happens over in the county I've been going to the county meetings they seem to have a St of doing it over on the county meetings I mean when I listen to the people talk they came in because somebody left and I'm kind of wondering did that person not know that he or she
was going to leave and it just seems to be a little bit contrived I'm not PL saying that that is the case but I guess for the people that might be watching on TV and for kids that are in school and I'd like to see some people step up and do some running for office
around here especially good Republicans that'll keep the town a uh a red town thank you thank you nany good evening Ellen Mulligan 461 Place Clark um I want to thank the mayor council and former mayor for standing
behind the Clark Reservoir Committee in our fight against the amusement part Park and the window Place boat ramp um I will continue to uh fight for for dredging and keeping
the reservoir natural and also bring to your attention about this 8600 square foot boat house that's going to be beh between St Agnes and jice drive and there's like no need for something that
big for a boat house um the in space that's supposed to be open open space and used at that and um the last snowstorm we had DPW did a wonderful job plowing and salting our neighborhood thank you very much great thank you
Alan anyone else like to come forward okay seeing no one I'd like a motion to close this portion thank you council member tol I get a second second thank you council member mazarella all
in favor I any opposed all right before we jump over to Mayor and councel address some of the comments that the public uh made uh Mr Greaves the pilot program and Jim jump in or mayor albanes if I'm going off
course a little bit the uh pilot program was implemented by the state to help areas in need of Redevelopment for Builders that come in and make it advantageous for Builders that come in and want to develop if um pilot programs weren't offered
most of the development would not happen uh for example the um cross on the Holiday Inn on Walnut AV the there were some rundown factories old buildings there dilapidated buildings uh I believe the
Builder approached us came with the plan uh first thing out of the Builder's mouth was I want a pilot program is that correct all right thank you um and if we said no on the pilot program the developer would have walked away what we
do with the pilot program the taxes on the building again we take 95% and we give the county 5% we don't have to give the school any money but we do give the school the same amount of
money they were making on that property and in most of the pilot agreements we've made we have put uh in a few years down the road we can readdress it and increase it if the school board comes to us uh the school board as of today has not and the school board has been
running surpluses correct so far correct thank you um I don't know what else you want to add on the pilot program yeah a couple of things um one is just to clarify the money that we give to the school is part of an ordinance so it's
not a resolution can't be changed unless you have a you know a majority of the council people change it and um so that that's number one number two is part of the pilot program as uh Mr gavves can see opened all the documents on the
previous ones he knows that there is a finance agreement the financial agreement actually lays out each one of the components of you know the building so how much it's going to cost to build what was the acquisition cost what was the you know running cost how much money is expected to be made in addition to
that how much money that they would be paying in um pilot uh as the pilot agreement goes on you know between 0 and 30 years there is a classification of you know you would pay
either the pilot or 40% of the property taxes that would be due 60% 80% then 100% so it's always the higher of the two in addition the pilot agreement uh has a limitation of income that they can
make off of the uh um building and if any excess would actually also come to the town so it is a way to help us um satisfy our affordable housing requirements at the same time you know
give an incentive to a developer to uh build those type of buildings uh quite honestly if there wasn't a need for affordable housing and us to meet affordable housing you know there'd probably be a less of a need uh for
pilot agreements however when a developer is going in and you're telling and this is actually some of the numbers I was pulling up I was yeah for um ny's response but you know for a developer at woodrest to have 66 units that are
affordable so that's less than market rate for Walnut Hill to have 28 and Brookside to have six right no one's going to do a development without that type of you know without some type of assistance if they were paying full property taxes on the assess value of
the property you know it's going to be very hard to find anybody to do it and we're no different than any other Town cranford's doing it Westfield's doing and you saw what happened you know Westfield won right so it's not it's not that we're doing it and it's not that even Westfield wanted to do it or any
other Town wanted to do it but this is a ends to the mean to um to satisfy our affordable housing requirements at least from a um uh the highlight so if we didn't do it they would just go someplace else
well it's not even that they would go someplace else I mean we would have a a vacant property that you know we would you know who knows if they put a supermarket it doesn't help us with our affordable housing so guess what we got to find another overlay zone so where are we going to put it put it over I
don't know golf course I'm just throwing that out there it's not going to happen because the golf course is deed restricted um but you know with that being said you know we still have to come up with a place to put that and if we go and say guess what garden homes you're going to pay 100% of your
property taxes are going to say okay we're going to take our money and invest it elsewhere and you know okay we might get a brand new shiny Supermarket but we're not we're not going to be moving towards our affordable housing goal so in 10 years from now I'm not sure what's
going to happen if I had a crystal ball it would be great but you know if we don't hit our Targets in 10 years from now there will be repercussions what there will be who will be in what administration will be there I have no idea you know is it you know uh you know let's make the old
College try you know and you know we're closer than anybody else I don't know but I can't speak to what's going to happen um you know in 10 years from now plus you can have commercial properties um that are drawn into towns
under Pilots for different reasons jobs come into the town business comes into the town no impact on schools okay but here we we have a conflict with the housing but I'd be interested in hearing what John has to suggest does he like it
the current way that it is U or what's his solution as far as the question about the financial agreement we don't have a financial agreement to show you as uh Mr Al said you've seen the different Financial agreements they're pretty much uh available in every town
they're pretty standard because we're competing as Mr Al said with other towns that are looking for the same thing to accomplish thank you um and also out of the money we get from the builders we put the some of the money away into the trust fund correct and that trust that
was another one question you want to address that answer one yeah so um yeah so we put the money into the trust fund so one of the U uses of the trust fund money permissible uses is uh appliances so we could actually give them money for appliances for the affordable units have
to be the same type of appliances but we could offset it we could offset rent we can you know give them additional amenities and you know the easiest way for us to do that as opposed to getting into you know there's even with the appliances there are some Energy
Efficiency requirements so the easiest way for us to do that is to give them the one month's free rent when they um and we we fund it out of the um the affordable housing trust fund thank you uh and how about the say the apartmentss
on the Lexington Boulevard um those possibly become an affordable housing so that is part of the discussion that we're having with the planner and our attorneys and it'll you know come up with this at this subcommittee we're doing a
windshield audit I think it is called or something like that so the um the construction code official will be going around town looking for units problem is that we could rehab so we could go to and let's just use lexicon as an example
again just using as an example um there's 10 units we want to rehab the and we could go in there say we're going to spend $25,000 rehabbing these units um bringing them up to you know current standards problem with that is then it
deed restricted for the next 10 years so the landlord could only take in uh rent that's less so it would have to be you know back to you know concerned with the pilot you you're going to have to offset some of that rent with the um with the
affordable housing trust fund because no one is going to agree to uh deed restricted if I could get $2,500 and now I'm only getting ,000 um you put $25,000 into it but it doesn't do anything for my bottom line I still got the same taxes to pay I still have the same utilities to pay I still
have the same maintenance common area charges to pay so that's not going to be something that people are going to say hey by the way way thanks for the $25,000 and now I'm losing $1,500 per unit per month thank you um deal on the one and a half persons each of the affordable housing units when they come
up with the number it's a percentage so if it's one and a half then it's actually going to get rounded up to two on that correct it's an average average all right um Bortel Park there's no new turf field going in there I did not hear it I
have there a turf field there already and we're just putting a parking lot we actually pulled the parking lot you know so U the only thing I know that's going on at um Bartell is I believe I didn't I didn't get the confirmation but they um fixed the the fence that was taken out
by the some car at some point and lastly any update on the oldp property on Westfield old & property is its status quo um as we discussed at our executive meeting uh the Citizens Bank was um they left the Citizens Bank on
February 17th 2023 it has just turned two years that's one of the criteria to you know start the condemnation um proceedings as we discussed in probably September October August sometime around there um we had
that discussion that it didn't make sense to start moving forward with a condemnation again condemnation is not you know quick easy and cheap right so especially that you got two de Pockets got homes you know a billion dollar
company or billion dollar asset company um I don't know about their revenue but definitely billion dollar asset company and Citizens Bank right so you have two Deep Pockets that are going to fight us on it so the best way to do it is you know have negotiations so it's not you
know at at this point there has been no significant change um in any of the discussions I think to add on about the point about fighting with these developers such as garden homes they have projects all over the country they'll just wait wait you out let you
wait wait wait drag it on drag it on you know just reflect back on everything we went through with uh Jack's tavern that property the owner not agreeing that one on for 15 years before we got the CVS there it's it's it's these things just
drag on and on and that was a those were owned by people in the town that property just there were three partners thank you council member o Conor yeah so I'm just going to go back real quick to the to the pilot and I know we've talked about it three or four times but it's
more of a big picture right it's not one little piece of it you have to put all the pieces together to really understand it so it's not just about one thing but like you said Jim it's about hey where are we going to be in 10 years and how do we get there and if we're not we're GNA we're going to get
ramifications so I think I said this is like the fourth time I think we're good thank you I don't know we'll see thank you anyone else on this all right we're going to move to Mayor there were a couple more questions I just wanted to finish with ny's so the affordable
housing units that we have are the 66 at woodrest six at Brookside 28 at Walnut Hill then we also have three group homes that have um 10 10 units so that's what we already have um and I did send you you know what the proposal is based on
the last um plan you know obviously we're going to update that to you know the new standards um the other question you had is the um zoning board zoning board only really enforces the law right so the planning board makes the determination on how the layout's going to be in
throughout the town um the zoning board is okay this is what the rules say do we want to make an exception to that so there is not going to be anybody on the Zoning Board in that subcommittee because it primarily is not their responsibility the planning board does the planning does the master plan you
know make sure that any um ordinance that we have is consistent with the master plan so they're more of the administrative I don't know what the official legal term is but they're more of the administrative um portion of that um I think one of the other questions
that Nancy had was um we have 71 units left to fulfill the remaining requirement that we had and then the66 gets added on to that for the 237 one other thing I want to point out
that is um land taxes are not covered in a pilot land taxes are independent you just pay the land taxes small piece but sometimes not thank you all right we'll move to I think that's all the questions that were asked thank we missed any come and see
us afterwards all right uh professional comments mayor albines anything t no just to uh say that I know we have the um basketball tournament going on so if you can make your way over there to support it that would be
fantastic um they set a record over 200 teams so uh I hope everyone's enjoying it thank you thank you council member hun just want to uh as we did a couple weeks ago for Council woman halfof
welcomer welcomeing her to the council and looking forward to working with her um as an councilwoman at large and to nany's point there will be an election it's not people still have to come out and vote for
whomever runs for that election in November so if we we can't appoint we appointed someone now but we can't appoint someone in November that's that's an election process so if there's a someone comes out and they want to run against Jessica they're more than
welcome to and then we go through Pro you know the election process but no in November we're not appointing anyone it's an election thank you council member masella yes thank you council president firstly uh want to thank you ladies for
your interactions on the um Reservoir um working together with Council and mayor um has proven that the county had decreased the scope of that project so I
want to thank you um for your for your efforts um and um lastly uh please ladies and gentlemen if you see or hear something um don't hesitate to call our Police Department if you're
uncomfortable about something they're going to come they're going to ensure your safety so um until next month be well stay safe and God bless thank you thank you council member o Conor thank you I normally don't like to repeat but I will because it was such an effort by the reservoir committee congratulations
on getting done what you got done and uh getting the boat ramp off of Wendell place um as councilman masella talked about as leaz on to the DPW um it's going to be tempting to put out your your your branches and your
leaves and do your cleanup but remember there Al are always usually uh late snowstorms so having that in the road with the plows coming would be an issue um continue to volunteer I know lot of people that we see here sometimes do a lot of volunteering again Clark is a big
volunteer town the fire department the the emergency Squad and of course we have coming up in the spring baseball and softball which they're all um volunteers and please remember you know I'll say this again your child is not a professional
player the umpires and referees are not professionals they are not getting they are not getting trained at the NCAA or professional level they're doing the best they can so please be a good example for your child and uh teach them sportsmanship and I know most people do
but sometimes there's always that one and um it's the kids time to enjoy so let them enjoy it thank you thank you council member tol thank you Mr President I'm just going to have to ask the president and the administration for the record there is no new parking lot
going in Bartell correct no as you know we pulled it from the bond that's correct so ladies and gentlemen and I I don't want my phone blowing up in the next couple days because when it gets out there that oh they did something for Bartel Park they voted on something I want to explain we
had something out there to put parking in there but the residents raised a voice of objection and we appeased them and we said no to the objection mayor at the former mayor said no we don't need it then if you don't want it you don't you're not going to get it we've been still trying to deal with issues on
Bartell and I just want to speak in my moment tonight Bartell Park place which goes back to 1912 the original section off of Westfield Avenue to King Street then it becomes the parking lot nightmare for our council members to address because the speed
zone goes from it should be 10 miles an hour down that strip but I've asked the police to put a trailer radar trailer and they Captain lot Captain thank you both of you for your assistance on the residents that just have to be heard so we're dealing with a lot of issues on
Bartell but parking was a major issue and then the Town Council acted quickly to get a solution and our former mayor worked very hard along with his Council to get a solution to get those cars when they come to the events either at the dance studio or at the soccer field to
get the cars off the streets to make it safer because we had an issue a couple years ago and councilman Mr President will remember this when an ambulance tried to get through there and it was bottlenecked because cars were double parked a safety issue where a crisis almost was it was averted but because we
as a council trying to come up with solutions to the problems and sometimes we just rubber stamp or sometimes we do other things but we try to get them done professionally by the police advising the the professional Consultants to do what they're supposed to do to get the
solution to a problem now I just wanted on the record tonight February the 18th that there is going to be no new parking in Bartell Park but we'll never stop fighting for the residents in that area and the youth leagues that use that if
they work with us and follow the laws a parking because we have a lot of no parking permits out that area to please follow the rules and don't double Park and do other things and don't speed down Bartell Park and a lot of the other streets in this town thank you Mr President that's all I got tonight great thank you Adam clerk you have anything
to add yes please I just want to explain that the only reason it says Bartel park on the agenda is because when the bid specifications are written they have a title the bills are paid paid to the project name and the account it comes
out of the same account so just to be consistent this is simply a final payment this company did other road work for us even though the parking lot was removed so the only reason it says Bartell Park is that was part of the
title of the bid specifications originally thank you thank you Jim you have anything to add yeah the only thing I'd um like to add had a couple of emails after the the
wind storm and branches came down um and if we were going to have a a special pickup we are not going to have a special pickup primarily because we don't have place to store the branches right so DPW Yard small as it is we have you know the additional trucks for snowing snow plowing and um salting uh
we have the mulch piles that we hav't started moving out yet because we usually start moving those out in in March so we can um get more room back there uh when we have some sometimes when we have big storms we set up a a temporary drop off point that a collection site and drop off point
usually at the pool with the EP approval it's a whole process to get that the storm just didn't reach that magnitude that we needed to do something in that way um you know I know it's a little bit of an inconvenience that got to store the branches on your property but you know we're less than a month away from
March 17th and getting the um getting the branches started to be picked up so uh so that answers that question like I said I got three or four emails on if we were going to you know do a special Branch pickup we are not we do do it when obviously uh we have a big storm but that's a whole process to have
another location to um to store the um material thank you councelor you have anything ahe no com report all right thank you um I also want to thank uh the past mayor May iies and our business administrator Jim for all their
negotiations and discussions with the county and obviously thank the reservoir committee for uh being a loud voice out there which helped uh helped convince the county and then eventually uh push the state to uh allow the boats to go underneath the parkway so um with that
said I have nothing else oh the basketball tournament real quick there were over 200 200 teams um from all over the state as for uh North as Montville and as far south as wall uh and as far west as Monroe
Montgomery um we had there's 383 games going to be played we played 167 over the four days uh I know manise Tarantella bastos uh Bagel um Clark bagels and all the other places Dunkin Donuts uh and all the
other establishments in town O'Brien was another one uh did see a lot of extra business so uh that basketball tournament did help uh the local economy so with that I have nothing else to say I'd like a motion to adjourn so moved thank you council member tol second second thank you councilman okon all in
favor I any opposed all right see you next month