Keith, if you guys could just slide down behind the mayor and the Yeah. Thank you. All right, we're going to begin the meeting. Good evening and welcome to the Clark Township Public Council meeting. It is Monday, May 19th, 7:30m. 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. All right, we're
going to stand for the pledge of allegiance and then a moment of silence after the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all. This meeting is in compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act as adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by mailing the annual schedule of meetings to the Star Ledger, Union County Hawk, Union County Local Source, and Tap into Clark. By posting such
annual meetings scheduled 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. Has everyone ever been to Disney World? Yes. All right. What do they do
at Disney World? Everyone move to the center of the aisles, please. So, if you can, if there's empty seats, please move over so some of the other guests can seat us. That'd be greatly appreciated. All right. At this time, I'm going to ask for a motion to suspend the regular order of business. So, vote for
Councilman Tol and second by Councilman Hund. All in favor? I. Any opposed? None. At this time, I'm gonna ask Mayor Albanese and Captain Akaboo. And is Captain Lock gonna join you? Please. All right, we're gonna do some uh police
department awards. Take it over, Mayor. Good evening, everyone. We'll get right down to business. Um we're going to first start with our swearing in of new officers first, okay? And then we'll go on to the awards
ceremony. Okay. This time I'd like to ask um Amateo Beido come up. You want to do hold on one second. Okay. I guess he introduced you. Okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna turn it over right now to our officer in charge, Miguel
Akabo. Thank Thank you, Mayor. What a beautiful crowd. Wow. Thank you all for coming. So, good evening, Mayor Angel Albanese, business administrator Jim Olrich, council president, Bill Smith, council members, clerk Edith Merkel,
distinguished guests, family and friends, and community members. And I'd like to recognize uh our new police director, Patrick Brady. Uh he's also with here with us. So on behalf of the Clark Police Department in the township of Clark, we welcome you to the swearing in of our
newest officers and recognizing excellence, dedication, and teamwork within our ranks. Tonight, we honor the values that define our service and the individuals who exemplify them. And again, thank you for joining us in this celebration. But before we begin, this
past week was National Police Week. So in 1962, President John F. Kennedy proclaimed May 15th as National Peace Officers Memorial Day and the calendar week. So, National Police Week pays special recognition to those officers who have
lost their lives in the line of duty and the protection of others. We will continue to keep all of the officers who lost their lives on duty and their families in our prayers. So, to begin, I would like to welcome police officer Emma Obidito and
his family to the front. So, police officer Emma, badge 505, graduated from the Professional Golfers College in 2011 with a degree in golf management. After nearly a decade in the golf industry and competing in tournaments, he made the decision to
pursue a career in law enforcement. He graduated from the John H. Standler Academy in June of 2023. Officer Beto began his law enforcement career with the Union County Sheriff's Office in September of 2023, serving until April of 2025. He
then joined the Clark Police Department, where he currently is assigned to the patrol division. Officer Beto resides in Scotch Plains with his fiance Monica and their dog Ali. He is an avid golfer and enjoys being outdoors. Okay. Going to administer the oath of
allegiance. I I say state your name. veto do solemnly swear do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the state of New Jersey in the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith
and allegiance I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established to the same and to the government established in the United States and in this state in the United States and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully I will faithfully impartially
and justly perform impartially and justly perform all the duties of the office of police officer all the duties of the office of a police officer according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability for the township of Clark for township of
Clark so help me God so help me God I put on not enough bad Very good. She is a pro. Get in the front. Sorry. All right, our next officer is um special law enforcement officer class
one Edward Fines. If you like to come up with your family, officer fly fines. Special police officer class one Edward Fines, badge 413, was raised in Clark alongside his parents Edward and Mary and his sister Jessica. He graduated from Arthur L. Johnson High
School in 2007. Driven by a strong interest in law enforcement, he went on to study at Union County College and Kane University, ultimately earning a bachelor degree in criminal justice. Officer Fines began his public
safety career in May of 2015 as a police dispatcher for the Westfield Police Department. Over the course of the next 10 years, he developed strong multitasking skills and talent for clear, effective communication under pressure. In April of 2024, he brought
his experience and dedication to our department as a police dispatcher. Outside of work, Officer Fines is a passionate sport fan, especially baseball, and is a proud supporter of the New York Mets. That's why I hired him.
That's right, B Mets. He enjoys attending sports events and concerts and values spending quality time with his family and friends. Congratulations, Special Officer Fines and Mayor Albanesey's would uh read off
of the oath of allegiance as well. You're going to repeat after me while here. I, Edward Fines, I, Edward Fines, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the state of New Jersey and and the state of New Jersey that I will bear
true faith and allegiance to the same that I will bear true, faith, and allegiance to the same. and to the governments established and to the governments established in the United States and in this state in the United States and in this state under the authority of the people. under the authority of the people and that I will
faithfully and partially and justly perform that I will faithfully and partially and justly perform all the duties of the office of class one all the duties of the office of class one special law enforcement law enforcement officer special law enforcement officer
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 Don't want anyone to get injured. Perfect. Awesome. Very good. All right.
So at this time uh each year we get together and we always think of our officers as fighting crime but in addition to fighting crime and keeping our t town very safe uh they also do a lot of life saving things And we're going to hear all about that because
each year we get together and we're going to have um our officer in charge, Miguel Akaboo, give out all the awards, but this is their annual awards ceremony. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Albanese. Congratulations to both
officers. Have a safe and successful career. So tonight we gather not only to celebrate the bravery, dedication, and unwavering commitment of our officers, but also to reflect on the crucial role that they play in safeguarding our communities. Clark, I would like to
extend my deepest gratitude to all of the family members present here tonight. Your support and sacrifices are the bedrock upon which our officers stand strong. We understand the unique challenges that come with supporting a law enforcement officer and your
unwavering encouragement is invaluable. So true. As we proceed with tonight's ceremony, let us celebrate the achievements of these remarkable men and women. Through their actions, they set a powerful example for us all. Inspire the
next generation of law enforcement officers. Come up. So, case number 2407615. I would like to call up Sergeants Michael Chachio, Sergeant Andrew Maderos, police officers Patrick Delhomme, police officer Brad Dustin,
police officer Timothy Lazowski, and police dispatcher Thomas Bazinski for their collaborative efforts on Saturday, March 30th, 2024, when they were dispatched to the Holiday Inn on a male peering into a
parked Amtrak vehicle. Upon arrival, along with holiday and security personnel, they were able to investigate using security cameras and apprehend the suspect, charging him with a fourthderee criminal attempt and a theft of movable property crimes. Thank you guys.
case number 2409583. It's uh the distinguished service award. I apologize. That last award was a platoon award for all our officers. Uh this goes out to Detective Joshua Weber. He's he's not with us today. Uh he's been in um about two
weeks of basic uh advanced crash training and it's uh it's a pretty it's a long ride from here to Washington Township, I believe it is. Right. So on on Saturday, April 20th, 2024, Detective Weber responded to Target for a shoplifter in custody with the at the
loss prevention office. The defendant was identified and about to be taken into custody when Detective Weber not noticed the defendant exhibiting unusual behaviors, disting himself from a bag that was identified as his and becoming increasingly nervous. Detective Weber
was concerned that the bag contained contraband, he identified the bag as a suspects before he could pass it off to his girlfriend who was also on scene. He then searched the bag instant to arrest and discovered a stolen firearm. Detective Weber was able to pick up the
susp suspicious behavior and utilize his legal knowledge to search the bag incident to arrest leading to the seizure of a stolen firearm which uh ended up being a Betta pistol. So congratulations. Next case is case
2410504. It's the exceptional service award, a platoon award, and a written accommodation. So for the exceptional service award, detectives Brian Seuss and detective uh Mark Detour and police officer Ronnie Taborta come up.
We also have a platoon award for Lieutenant Sergio Enrieks, Sergeant Christopher Tuio, police officers Ronnie Taborta, police officer Nicholas Kuros, police officer Brandon Pittz, and police officer Cassandra Kenny, detectives Brian Seuss, detectives Mark Detour,
detectives Daniel Joy, police dispatchers Kelly Leinsky, Charlene Hadley, and Edward Fines, and last but not least, a written accommodation for Detective Brian Seuss. So, this was a pretty um it was it was actually a phenomenal
job assignment. So, on Wednesday, May 1st, 2024, officers were dispatched to the Raritton Road area near the Garden State Parkway overpass to assist the man contemplating suicide. All officers, detectives, and dispatchers collaborated effectively to ensure the individual was
safely removed from the bridge. He was then taken by ambulance for a psychiatric assessment and necessary treatment. Detective Seuss maintained a monthly check-in with the individual, demonstrating a genuine commitment to his well-being and ongoing
support. Thank you very much, guys. Half of you go to the other side of the podium so we can get the picture. Perfect. Just like that. No reason, bro. Harper. Yes. No. Oh, I thought it was. Thank you. Case number
2416345 exceptional service award platoon award and written accommodation. The exceptional service award goes to police officers Brad Dustin, Brad McKenna, and Timothy Lzowski. The platoon award goes to Sergeant Omar Almeida, detectives Daniel Joy, Bruce
McDonald, police officers Brad Dustin, Brad Brandon McKenna, Timothy Lzowski, Patrick Delhomme, and police dispatchers Thomas Bazinski and Joseph Gribbon. And the written commendation goes to police officer Brad Dustin for their collaborative efforts. I'm I'm sorry.
For their collaborative efforts on Janu uh Saturday, July 3rd, 2024, while responding to a call which displayed commendable bravery during an incident involving a barricaded suspect who fired multiple shots into a residence. The encounter
posed significant risk to life and limb, but the officer's actions prevented death or injury to others. Their efforts included room clearing, victim resident evacuation, perimeter securing, and processing of the crime scene, and collecting evidence, which ultimately
led to the arrest and charging of the suspect. Thank you guys. Yeah. The same thing that we did before closers. Stand up. Thank you guys. An invertation. Case number
24-21300 platoon award goes to Sergeant Andrew Maderos, Theodore Mckon, Detectives Paul Cisnowski, Detective Mark Detour, police officers Michael Fabianuk and Tariq Ricks, and police dispatcher Ryan Waxin for their collaborative efforts on Friday, August
30th, 2024 when a United States Postal Service employee reported an individual attempting to gain access to the mailbox located at the Town Hall units responded to the location and the surrounding areas. After a moment, the individual was located and a brief foot pursuit was
initiated. With a team effort, the suspect was apprehended and placed under arrest. Thank you. and a written commendation to police officer Patrick Delhomme. He also he cannot be with us. He's on vacation. So, Officer Patrick Delhomme was involved in
an offduty activity that exceeded his normal job function and duties. On June 19th, 2024, Officer Delhomme was able to identify and help in the apprehension of a shooting suspect in the township of Irvington. Officer Delhomme went above and beyond the expected performance of
his duties to assist in apprehending a suspect who was a danger in the community. These efforts are a testament to his dedication to our agency and the state of New Jersey's policing efforts. And uh before I conclude, I I would like to recognize um we had an incident uh
last Monday involving uh three of our officers who displayed um bravery um heroism and just an an overall um dedication to wearing the uniform and life-saving measures. So, uh, Sergeant
Pedro Olivera, Officer Giovanina Prrisco, and Officer Tariq Ris, uh, Ricks, um, you know, their heroism was extraordinary in in saving the life of a crash drifting that was trapped in a burning vehicle on the Gardener State Parkway. Um, it's
been posted uh on our social media site. uh the news channels has been, you know, have been reaching out to uh Detective Captain L um for, you know, information on it. But um you know, I'm I'm very proud of these officers. Uh and I'm proud of everybody who wears the badge
and the uniform as well. Um so without hesitation and at a great personal risk to themselves, the officers pulled the victim to safety moments before the car was fully engulfed in flames. Their swift, selfless actions exemplify the highest standards of duty, courage, and
service. Officer Prrisco and Ricks were transported to the hospital for minor abrasion and smoke inhilation. Thank God that you know all officers are doing well and uh we wish him a uh we wish them well in their recovery. So, just wanted to put that out for the record.
So, thank you again for coming. I'd like to pass it over to Mayor Angel Albaneseise. And congratulations to all of the police, the fourth and fifth graders and and the for the basketball league. Thank you. We're going to take a quick 30 seconds
or a minute to allow to police. I know some of you have to get back on duty. If you would like to leave, uh, feel free to do so. Otherwise, you can stay and watch the awards for the basketball teams. All right. And now we're going to begin the awards for the basketball teams. I'm going to come on down with the mayor.
Okay. if you could move all the way into each row as uh Councilman Bill said. Hey, come on in. Come on in. If you can move down. Are there any seats? There's a couple of seats up here. This is a hard crowd to get a hold of,
right? You had spring break. We're here. Still thinking about basketball, right? No. Yeah. All right. For those who don't know me, I am Council President Bill Smith. I also officiate, so a lot of you may recognize me. I don't use these when I officiate,
but Mr. Alrella probably thinks I should use them, right? So, anyhow, I'd like to call up uh Jason Katz to come join us up here. So for for those of you who don't know Mr. Katz, he runs the Clark tournament.
He's done it for the last two years. So he's the one who coordinated over 200 teams to come into Clark over a three-week period to compete against our teams from Clark. Uh it's a huge undertaking. We told him it only takes a month and it took about six months to put this together. So he starts uh
sometime in end of September, October getting the information together and then starts soliciting the teams and he does a wonderful job. So I just wanted to acknowledge uh Jason Katz for a great job running the Clark. Uh I know the president of Clark Travel, Jason Ham, is here somewhere,
but he's going to come up with his team. So we'll acknowledge him when he when he comes on up. So uh have a seat. Anyhow, I'm going to turn it over to the mayor. We're going to begin with the uh fourth grade boys. Coach, yeah, I was just going to say first of all, it's just amazing that the tournament has grown to
200 teams and I think out of the past 20 years that have been on council uh prior to being mayor, this is the most teams we've had, I think, at this meeting. It's it's incredible to have five teams winning this year. So, great coaching, right? And a lot of hard work. And I
know there's a lot of talent as well. So, we're going to start with the fourth grade boys. I think first I'll call the coaches up. Greg Sucus, Manny Fontan. Yeah, they did. Mike Coochie. Okay, he's not here. And Robilia. All right.
Okay. I'm going to call out the team players. Uh when you come up, if you could just line up on both sides here. Later, we'll take a picture and we'll hear from the coaches as well. Uh Marcos Sucas, Lucas Fontan,
Dominic Cooi, Benjamin Ramirez. All right. Justin Sakoriak, Wyatt Ammith. Jake Fanino, Max Bonia, Brennan Daly, James Dollar,
Braden Cutlia. Did we miss anyone? Nick Leinsky. Yeah, that was a joke. That was a joke. We saved the best for last. You want to come down for a picture? Yeah. Come on down. Line up behind. Before we Yeah,
they can they can come down. Uh how about hearing from the coaches? Why don't you guys say a few words about what a great experience this has been? Hello everyone. Um super proud of this group. You know, we start off as, for those that don't know, Clark usually
starts off as an underassman third graders and we play up against fourth graders. And this group really, really tried their hardest last year. We're in very feisty group, competitive group, and we did very well with the understanding that this year was the year that we really going to go out for
it. And uh we did a great job. We won it. So, it was an awesome experience. I love these boys. They for the most part, they listen. and uh looking forward for years to come to hopefully see you guys again for multiple championships. So, thank you for the honor and uh thank
you. Now, let's see if we can get a picture in front. Yeah, get go in front here. Go up front. Okay, let's move up a little. Sure. You want Just a little. Yeah.
I gota go. I got to go. I got to go tip toe. Awesome. All right, everybody give me five. All right, so that was fourth grade boys. Yep. Okay, we're moving right along. Fifth
grade girls, coaches Kerry Feny and Bob Rey. Okay. Yes. Yes. All right. We're going to bring everybody up first. Charlotte Breedy,
Anna Hazo, Melody Lang, Nadia Malski, Madison Russo, Jason,
Kylie Spearnock, Sophia Suchek, Denver Williams. All right. Bridget Feny, Katie Ferrara. Congratulations. Kenna Hackne, Laya Mimola Rodriguez.
Okay, Carrie's not with us. All right, now we're going to hear from our coach. Well, so Carrie Camp couldn't be here tonight. She's not uh not feeling well, but uh she she's the the backbone that gets these girls to to play their best. Uh we we pushed them hard. Anyone that's
been in the gym, you hear it. Um, and I and I'll say this, the the girls were they they they grew a lot this year. We were we were worried being in the top bracket of of the Clark tournament against some of the big dogs. You know, you got to play the the tough teams like Hillsboro and Westfield, Cranford. They
were all great teams, but uh I don't know what got into these girls. They play they played their hearts out that entire tournament. I've never seen them play like that. Every every single one of them contributed, and I'll take a page out of Greg's book. They actually listened to us. It was it was it was great when that all comes together. So,
I'm proud of these girls. They know I love them. They know I love coaching them. Uh just missing Katie and and and Coach Kerry. But otherwise, congrats, girls. Yeah. Yeah. She's sleeping already, I think. I'll call her out, but uh but thank you. Thank you.
All right, we're gonna get the picture. tells me which way to move this way. You don't have to worry about Steve. Watch. See that? Elizabeth, you just can't get rid of me, huh? You just can't get away from me, huh? No. Do you want to take Okay, I'll take carries. Yeah. Did I say your name
right? Uh, greedy. Oh, that's Where's my friend? No, no, no, no. Come over here. Get right here. Get over here. Come on. Ready. Bridget. Bridget.
All right. Okay. Okay, next fifth grade boys. I did get to see that last game. That was amazing. All right, I'm going to call the coaches first. Jason Ham and Harry Street. Let me say a few words. Okay, go
ahead. I just want to jump in here. Jason is the uh president of Clark Travel Basketball. Uh he does a lot of work. He works a full-time job and he works his second and third full-time job putting all his time into Clark Travel Basketball. I'm a past president as well
as Councilman Steve Hun. So, we know the amount of work, but Jason, really, you put a lot of work in. So, I want to thank you for I know what you did, what I did, and I know what you're doing for the kids, so I appreciate. Okay, we'll call the players up first. Joseph Aglia,
Caleb Bilak, Alex Bonia, Christian Hernandez, Mike Fry, Lucas Ham, Hudson Miller, Jake Miller,
Jake Street. Where's Jake? Who's Jake? We called him up, right? Jake Street. Alexander Velovvic. Velovic. Not here.
Okay. All right. We're gonna have Jason. You want to say anything? Say a few words. So, I just want to thank the boys, the parents, everyone for just a great year that we had. everyone who knows kind of coming into the tournament. Um, you know, we really played our best at the
tournament. Um, we had a lot of ups and downs this year in terms of how many games we won compared to the year before, but that tournament showed that we could beat anybody in the tournament, anyone within the league. Every game we came out, we were always expecting to win. And in that tournament, we did. And everyone knows that when Wayne came in
to play us, they weren't expecting to get beat, right? Yes. And we beat him down. So, good job, boys. Okay, here you go. Okay, here you go. This goes really about them. Okay,
here are two teams that are moving up. And it was just wonderful that the both the eighth grade boys and the eighth grade girls won. So, we're going to pick the boys first. First, I'm going to have the coaches come up. Keith Alberella, Sean
Thompson, Wall-E, Alisia, Elisa. Sorry, Wall-E. Yeah. Okay. Eddie Alberella, Cody Alisia, Jack
Thompson, Estabban Romero, Drew Fora, Gavin O'Neal, Xavier Presy, Yan Luca Dilva,
Justin and Marello Serrano. All right. So, we had a uh we had a wonderful eighth grade season, our last uh our last round through Clark Travel Basketball. It's been an amazing journey since the third grade. to all the other coaches out there, don't expect your
boys to or girls to listen more as they get into the eighth grade because that's not that's not the case. U so again, we had absolutely wonderful season. It was our last chance at the Clark tournament and we were able to win. Um the group came together fantastically. Um in
addition, we really peaked through our Clark travel basketball career because we finished by beat uh defeating Lynden in the Central Jersey Championship and they're a perennial powerhouse. So, it was a fantastic way to win the last game we ever played together. Um, very proud of these boys. Uh, just want to thank
them and the families for the ride. It's been fantastic. Thank you. I don't recognize him without the hat on. Sean, where's your hat? You always have a hat on. That's the first time I got it. Okay.
Get close. Get close. My pleasure. Thanks for coming out. I know it's a lot of work. Yeah, that was one more team, but they're not. Okay. Eighth grade girls, coaches Pablo Verona and Eric
Norstein. Come on up. They're not here. Not here. Okay. So, just we're going to read off the names. They couldn't make it. Oh, okay. They had a conflict tonight. So, I'm just going to read the names of the girls on the team. Laya Ortega,
Ava Velovvic, Adriana Ventura, Jillian McMahon, Mahan, Camila Verona, Ellie Majuski, Ella
Northstein, Colleen Sullivan, Chloe Collier, Emma Ferrara. Congratulations, girls. Okay. All right. All right. Uh for the eighth grade boys team. So if you had a
if you were sick of coach Alberelli, you're still going to get him a few more years over to ALJ. So good luck with that. So he is the Keith is the JV boys coach at the high school if you don't know that. All right. At this time, uh you're more than welcome to stay, but I know you probably have homework or other practices or sports to go to. So we're
going to take a minute for everybody to leave and then we'll begin uh continue the meeting. Thank you. Congratulations everyone. Congratulations, guys. We'll be doing the You All right, we're going to begin the meeting. I'd like a motion to resume
regular order of business. Second. Councilman Hun first, second. Councilman Tol. All in favor? All right. We're going to move to communications from the mayor and reports from township officers. Mayor Albanese, I'm going to hold my comments for the
discussions during the meeting on issues that come up regarding the agenda and then I'll get back to you with a summary at the end. Great. Thank you, Council Member Huff. Yes, thank you. Um, there are a few
things that I wanted to just contribute tonight from the library perspective. We are not there yet, but very close to having um passes for the Met, which will be available for borrowing from the library. There's so many resources at
the library. So many amazing programs. Um if you think you know about it, I still encourage you to check it out and take a look between the 3D printer and everything else that I keep bringing up. But they have a host of events that are coming up in the next couple weeks. Um, so I encourage you to please look at their website so you can see everything
that's coming. Also on their social media channels as um I know they're doing a a session on adoption and assistance and preparing for doing something like that. So the the resources are really phenomenal. Um, that's the end for now on the library
and the board of education is having a bond referendum vote on September 16th which they are using to upgrade the district's facilities. They've submitted their application to the New Jersey DOE and have received a response. Um, there's a whole bunch of other
information that you can find out about that, but they're committed to providing the community with updates throughout the month of June and during the summer months. These efforts include they're sharing um referendum information in an overview video, printed and mail materials,
social media posts, local news out outlets, and a dedicated section on the district's website. So, one of the things that I'm learning, the more time I'm part, sorry, this is side like side note, but the more I'm learning, the more I'm a part of this, the information is out there. It is everywhere. You just need to go look at it between the
website and the channels and everything else that exists. all of this information that you would want to see. Um it's really fantastic. But again, I think they're inspiring greatness on social media if you want to follow them there. Otherwise, there's um a lot of information and more to come from that.
They are working on their uh budget preparation. They have some new hires. They increase the substitute uh pay rate from 130 to 140 per day. And there were a few other things. are working on a wellness policy for the annual school progress report that they're in
compliance and all in all the schools are roughly in the top third or higher and ALJ is ranking 120 out of 358 and that concludes my reports. Thank you. Go to Council Member Hun. Thank you, Council President. I have the
Clark Police Department monthly report for April 2025. We saw a total of 1,785 calls for services including Not limited to 108 ambulance requests, 60 alarm calls, one arrive call for mental health requests, two attempted
burglaries to motor vehicles, 17 fire department requests, 14 fraudulent fraud and identity thefts, 11 motor vehicle and residential lockouts, 71 motor vehicle accidents, 10 shoplifting and thefts, 182 911 calls, and
1,155 miscellaneous calls. There was a total of 11 adult arrests, including but not limited to two for DWI, five for shoplifting, one for simple assault, and one for warrant. The Youth Aid Bureau handled a total of 15 cases included,
including but not limited to one for shoplifting, five for offenses against the family, two forcy, and two for short-term custody. That concludes my report. Thank you, Council Member Maserella. Yes. Thank you, Council
President. Uh, this is my DPW report for this evening. There will be no electronic drop off in May this month. Please make a note of that. On grass pickup, I'm going to hold off and our administrator is going to elaborate on that later to his comments. Um, branch
pickup will begin May 27th with one pickup. Um, so you can place your branches out this week. Please make note of that. Bulky and appliance pickup appointments are required by Thursday, week before your scheduled um pickup
week. Bulky pickup items shall be bagged. Um there no paint and chemicals, please mixed in. Um June 4th, it will be a paper shredding event. It will take place in the DPW facility located behind
the police station here from 9 to 1. No plastic bags, cartons, newspapers, binders, or books. Thanks for your continual uh support on this. Um to schedule any DPW services, please
go on www.ourclark.com, ourclark.com. Click on the tab for online services that covers permits, bulky and appliance pickups, tree trimming, tree removal pickups, mulch deliveries, potholes, and access
accessories. Um, please let us know what appliances and metals are to be picked up. You could again email dpwrclock.com for more information. And I have one more comment from
DPW. Um, as Clark Public Works Department celebrates National Public Works Week, our public works department and personnel will be hosting a Touch a Truck event.
uh this Thursday, May 22nd, from 3:30 to 5:00 pm at our DPW facility behind this building in their yard, 315 Westfield Avenue. Um this event will um allow
for our public to uh look at our flatbed loaders, dump trucks, vacuum trucks, and other equipment. come out and uh meet our staff as well. Bring your kids out.
It'll be a perfect event for them to see what a fullsize Taco truck truck is about. You get the chance to go inside of it and I'm I'm sure they'll be very pleased with that. Um please, ladies and gentlemen, if you do come out for
yourselves and your children, wear closed shoes. Um, this is to protect your feet if you're walking around the equipment and uh, come out to this event for the township. It is a perfect event for our children. Thank you. That's the
extent of my report. Council member Man. Uh, thank you, Council President. Um, unfortunately, due to a mixup on my part, I do not have the, um, fire department report tonight, but I will update our community in our next report come u in our June meeting. Um, with
that being said, I would like to thank Chief Sarasa and all the members of the Clark Fire Department for a job well done and all the uh the support and, you know, keeping the town safe. So, I will update in June. Sorry about that.
Council member Tol. Thank you, Mr. President. Can't take him anywhere, but we do love him very much. Okay, so I'm from the Environmental Commission. The Environmental Commission will be meeting this Wednesday. Let me get the sound right here. This Wednesday, what's today? Today's the 19th, the 21st in
room 30 at Brewer Municipal Building. Anybody interested to joining us, you're welcome. Uh C Mr. Hayden, who is the chairman of the the Environmental Commission, has given me this message to tell you, the community of Clark, that there is no update on the progress of the Union County and the dealings of our
reservoir. They have not given any reports or any updates as of today. He's in touch with them. He works for the county, so he should know. So, we're going to find when we do have more information about the reservoir and what they're going to be doing, any updates about the change of plans, we will then
relay them through the administration and through the town. That's it. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. All right. From the pool and recreation department, registration for the Clark Community pool is underway. You can visit the township website at
ourclark.com and go to the swim utility tab for membership information. Uh registration for the Clark Summer Wreck program is going on as well. The camp is open to secondyear preK through 8th graders and the camp runs from June 30th
through August 7th. Again, all information is on the recreation tab on the hourclark.com website. Thursday, June 12th is Somerset Patriots Night. It's a fun night. Uh Ralph gets tickets for a whole section. If anyone's
interested in this event or has questions regarding the pool of rec programs, you could always email Ralph Bernardo at ronardo atourclark.com or call the rec office at 732-4288400. And lastly, I just want to mention uh
next Monday, May 26th, is Memorial Day, and it's our annual Clark Memorial Day parade, which kicks off at 9:00 am. There will be marching bands, there's floats, there's entertainers, a lot of township organizations, and many uh surprises that Ralph adds to the parade
each year. Please line the streets on Westfield Air from Fulton Street to ALJ High School to cheer on the participants. Once we get in front of ALJ High School, we will have a ceremony honoring our fallen heroes who defended this great country as well as dedicating
a new memorial monument. So, we do ask if you are home on Monday, please come on out and enjoy the day with us. And that's all I have on the pool and wreck. So, at this time, we're going to move on to ordinances, appropriations, and claims. A public hearing on proposed ordinances. Thank you, Mr. President.
For the record, no objections have been received in connection with the proposed ordinances. First ordinance is 25-13, an ordinance to amend section 33 of chapter 347 of the code of the township of Clark entitled vehicles and traffic. Okay. At
this time, I'm going to open a meeting to the public on this ordinance. If anyone would like to come forward, please do so and state your name and town you reside in. Okay, seeing no one, I like a motion to close. Move. Thank you, Council Member
Tol. Second. Thank you, Council Member Hun. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. I need a motion to adopt the ordinance. Move, Mr. President. Thank you, Council Member Tolk. Could I get a second? I'll second that. Thank you, Council Member Maniti. Any discussion? Do you have anything to add, Jim? This
is just a stop sign on um King Street and Bartell. Great. Thank you. Self-explanatory. All right. Roll call, please. Council member Hoff. Yes. Council member Hund, yes. Council member Maserella, yes. Council member Manetti, yes. Council member Tol, yes. Council
President Smith, yes. Ordinance adopted. Next is ordinance 25-14, an ordinance to amend chapter 240 entitled parks and recreation areas, article two entitled use of facilities, section six entitled fees of
the code of the township of Clark. Okay. At this time, I'll open the meeting uh for public hearing on this ordinance. If anyone would like to come forward, you have five minutes of duration. Please state your name and town you reside in. All right, seeing no one, I'd like a motion to close the public hearing.
Move. Thank you, Council Member Maserella. Could I get a second? Thank you, Council Member Maniti. All in favor? Any opposed? I need a motion to adopt the ordinance. I'll move it. Thank you, Council Member Maniti. Uh, Maserella and can I get a second? I'll second it.
Thank you, Council Member Hoff. Uh, any discussion? Jim, do you have anything to add on this? Well, this is, you know, as we've been doing, we've been going through all of our fees and, you know, into market standards. These fees have not been updated since 2009. Um so, you know, it's it's been a
while. Um the new fees for the gym it's $700 um per day. Uh cafeteria is 400, tennis courts are 200 per day, fields are 300, room two in the municipal building is
100, and then the pool would be $750. Great. Thank you for the explanation. Anyone else have any questions or discussion? All right, 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 is Ordinance 25-15, an ordinance to amend various sections of chapter 358 entitled motion pictures of the code of the township of
clerk. Okay. Thank you. At this time, I'd like to open the meeting public hearing on this ordinance. If anyone would like to come forward, you have five minutes of duration. Please state your name and town you reside in. Okay. Seeing no one like a motion to close the public hearing. Thank you, Council Member Hun. Can I get a second?
Second. Thank you, Council Member Hoff. And all in favor? Any opposed? I need a motion to adopt the ordinance. Yes, I'll move it to Thank you, Council Member Maserella. Can I get a second? Second it. Thank you, Council Member Tol. Any discussion. Jim, you have anything? Um,
this is just to make some changes to the ordinance we passed last year. Um, this puts us in the category of film ready. So, anybody, anytime anybody wants to film, they're going to look for towns that are film ready. It lays out the criteria for permits, turnaround times
for permits, fees, etc. And um so we're just updating it to the 2025 revised terms for the town to become or remain film ready. And that's through the state, correct? That is through the state. Correct. Thank you. Anyone else have any questions or want discussion on
it? All right. 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. Ordinance 25-17 is an ordinance regulating the use of the tennis courts and pickle ball courts on public property. 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 town you reside
in. Okay, seeing no one, I'd like a motion to close the public hearing. Thank you, Council Member Tol. Can I get a second? Second, please. Thank you, Council Member Hun. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. I need a motion to adopt the ordinance. I'll do that. Thank
you, Council Member Hoff. Can I get a second? I'll second that. Thank you, Council Member Maniti. Any discussion? Um, as we've been discussing at all the meetings, you know, between the um workshop meetings and our last uh public
meeting, you know, we want to restrict the use of the tennis courts and pickle ball courts to only pickle ball and tennis. We don't want to have people roller skating. We don't have people skateboarding, using scooters, etc. because it damages the surface. So, we put this ordinance in place to protect
the um investment that the town has made into tennis and pickle ball. Great idea. Thank you. Anyone else have any questions? All right. Roll call, please, Madam Clerk. 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. 25-18 is an ordinance to supplement. Ordinance 25-09 entitled an ordinance to amend and supplement chapter 347 entitled vehicles
and traffic adding article 11 entitled motorized bicycles and scooters and section 347-65 thereof entitled motorized bicycles and scooters of the code of the township of Clark. Okay. At this time I'll open a public hearing on this ordinance. If anyone would like to come
forward, please state your name and town you reside in. You have five minutes in duration. Right. Seeing no one, I'd like a motion to close the public hearing. Thank you, Council Member Hun. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you, Council Member Mazerell. All in favor? Any opposed? All
right. I'll have a I need a motion to adopt the ordinance. I'll move that. Thank you, Council Member Hoff. I get a second. I'll second that. Thank you, Council Member Maniti. Any discussion? Basically, we're just adding Clark Common, Starbucks, and Target. Go ahead, Mayor Alan. just going going to say that
yes, we are adding on the private um properties that we're interested in having certain um motorized vehicles excluded. Just want to point out that I had an interview with uh Captain um Lach and there's more information available online about um if you're considering
buying one, you might want to check out the different parameters regarding whether you have a motorized scooter that requires a helmet, whether you need to be a certain age, etc. and they're happy to inspect the items or go over any models that you're considering and uh it's all about safety. That's
basically what it comes down to. Great. Thank you. Does anyone else have anything? Go ahead, Council Member Hunt. Um, yesterday as I was walking to my car from the event that we had, Rock the Block yesterday, there were six boys,
I'm assuming they're boys, on motorized bicycles coming down Westfield A, making a right onto Emerald and then quickly making a U-turn. They playing tag or some form of a game. And as they made their U-turn, they turned right back
into a right a car turning right into Emerald. Luckily, there was no one injured or hit, but it's a very dangerous situation that we're talking about when they're when the children aren't obeying the traffic laws. This could have been a serious incident if
six boys on bicycles turned into a a moving vehicle making a turn. So, just want to say that that happened yesterday. So, again, we want to have our children's safety at the main point here and also the motorist safety as well. Thank you. Thank you. Is anyone
else? Okay. 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 is introduction of proposed ordinances. We have one ordinance for introduction 25-9, an ordinance of the Township of Clark, County of Union, approving the application and financial agreement for a tax exemption pursuant to the
long-term tax exemption law for 2729 Westfield Avenue Urban Renewal LLC for the construction of a residential project located at block 91, lots 8.01, 10.01, and 36 on Westfield Avenue and Washington Street. I get a motion. I'll
move it. Thank you, Council Member Maserella. Thank you, Councilman Hun. Any discussion? Get Jim or Mayor Albanesey's. I'm going to let Jim handle the details, but as you know, this is a pilot agreement and um it's been reviewed by the planning board, now
presented to council for approval. Um it's been in the works for quite a few months, and um we're happy to see it move along, and hopefully you'll support that this evening. Um, uh, Jim, do you want to add any comments on summary of
terms? Yeah, I'll go over the I'll go over the high level terms, uh, just so, you know, this has been in council's hands for a while, and I just want to make sure that the public understands what's going to be happening on these properties. Um, they're going to be constructing a fourstory mixeduse
building. It's there's going to be 3,000 square feet of retail. Uh there's going to be a total of 39 units, 12 onebedroom, 18 twobedroom, nine threebedroom. Uh of which six are going to be affordable. Uh the term of the
agreement is 30 years from the annual service charge date or 35 years from the effective date of the agreement. Uh and it only applies during the period that the project is owned by the entity qualified under the exemption law
originally. Uh from a financial terms perspective, the fee is going to be 12.5% of annual gross revenue, not net revenue. So every dollar that they take in, we take in 12.5%. Uh and then the percentage of the
tax otherwise due uh or the minimum annual service charge, which is the land taxes from the um last full year. And it's going to be broken out, you know, into um five different um
terms. So from year 1 to 15, it's going to be 12 a.5% the annual gross of the annual gross revenue or the minimal minimum annual service charge. And again, that is the land taxes from the last um year that the building that the
properties were together. Years 16 to 21, it's going to be the same 12 and a half% or 20% of the taxes that were originally due or the minimum annual service charge. Years 22 to 27, it's
going to be 12 a.5% or 40% of the taxes um or the minimum annual service charge. 28 to 29 is going to be 12 a.5 or 60% of the taxes. And then year 30 it's 12 a.5% or 80% of the taxes. There's four
payments. It's going to be like a standard tax payment. It's going to be on February 1st, May 1st, August 1st, and November 1st. Um in addition to those, the land taxes are going to be paid separately. So whatever the property value is, they're still going to be paying land taxes on the property.
Um and that's separate from the annual service charge. There will also be an administrative fee for the township for managing all of this because there's a lot of paperwork on the back end that we have to do between going through the financials and um doing all the manual billing of 2% of
the annual service charge that comes right to the town. Um they have to provide us an annual audited report within 90 days and ownership disclosures. The entity may terminate the agreement
voluntarily after one year uh with 30 days uh yeah 30 days notice and there are some additional off-site improvements. So, they're going to be responsible for uh water,
sanitary, sidewalk, curbs, street lighting, street trees, landscaping, pavement restoration, um and on and offsite traffic control improvements. They are, you know, they they're required to build as based on the con concept plan
that came through the planning board. they are required to have the affordable housing units which counts again against our requirement for the fair share housing units. Um each one of those six fair share housing units are going to be
deed restricted for 60 uh 30 years. So they cannot make any changes to them. They have to be affordable for 30 years. Um, and the income distribution is for those affordable units are going to be 13% for very low, 37% for low, and 50% for
moderate um income. In addition to all of the fees that they're going to be paying, they're going to be paying an impact fee of $125,000, which is going to be split into two payments um of 62,05 upon execution and 625 before issuance of the
final certificate of occupancy. Um and this is to offset the municipal um infrastructure services etc that we need to to get the property up and running. So high level that you know for the public that is the um that is the
the pretty much the high level of all the um terms of the deal. Great. Thank you. And as you may recall and just reminding the public this is part was part of our round three of affordable housing commitment. So uh we've put a lot of energy into focusing on
development um on the Westfield Avenue in the downtown area. So, this is uh one of those boxes that's getting checked hopefully and uh it'll take time to uh be patient to to complete it. Great. Thank you for the detailed explanation.
Does anyone else have any questions or any discussion up here? Okay. Uh have a roll call, please. Council member Hoff stayain. Council me uh you said abstain. I'm sorry. Council member Hund. Yes. Council
member Maserella. Yes. Council member Maniti. Yes. Council member Tol. Yes. Council President Smith. Yes. Okay. The public hearing on this ordinance will be June 2nd in the municipal building in room 30.
And now we're going to move to payment of claims. Council member Minetti. I reviewed the current and capital expenditures received and encumbered through May 12th, 2025 in the amount of 443,8314. Thank you. Right. Thank you. Now, we're going to move to the citizens
hearing on the agenda. 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 10 semicolon 4-12A and the code of the
township of clerk. 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 in duration. At the conclusion of the statements or questions from a member of the public, the council president has
discretion may choose to respond or not respond. So at this time, it's open to the public if anyone would like to come forward on agenda items. Good evening. Um, this is into the consent agenda resolution. You just give your name and town you reside in.
Collins, Clark, New Jersey. Okay. This is uh for anything on the agenda. Anything on the Okay. Number 18, authorizing the business administrator to u deliver a memorandum of agreement between the town Clark and
the county of union for the removal of the burn. I'd like to know is Tillia please speak into the microphone. You're not being picked up on the recording equipment. Okay. Do okay. What is the extent of this removal? Where does it
start? Where does it end? Whose property does it affect? Because I assume the burm is along the shore. I'm not that that burm is the burm that's right here that we use for the police firing range. Um they're putting a walking path behind
the police firing range. So we are removing the burm upon the request of the um county and the um the trust and because it doesn't make sense to have a walking path behind a firing range. Is that going to cost us or is it going to
be included in the county? No, it is going to cost us. It's our it's our burm. Oh. So, it depends on where we dispose of the the soil. We may actually make money on it, but we don't know yet.
Even though they're the ones that want to build the walkway. I'm just asking because we went to the meeting on th Thursday night and they they haven't even finalized. They just sent out a request for um proposal
for doing the engineering work. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, John Greavves Clark. Um, I just had a couple questions about the um the authorization to enter the the uh
pilot agreement. Um, so what was mentioned tonight, that was the first time I heard any of the details of the agreement. Was that that's not available on the website yet or is that publicly available because I know sometimes there's like a certain amount of time that it's before it's available.
Okay. So, there's that and then um there's supposed to be a public hearing on that and then you're saying it's going to be on June 2nd. Why um why why are we doing that in the room 30 and not here? And then I guess also why are why is the mayor or you giving them the
authorization enter the agreement before we have the public meeting? That's it. So, so basically we're doing it by the state laws, the dating or the timing on it. So it was introduced tonight and then it just so happens that
the public hearing is June 2nd which is the next meeting and at that time the public will be able to come up but it's like a workshop meeting. It's not like a regular it's a public meeting that's we're going by the state law Mr. Greavves. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank
you. Oh actually um if I could just ask one detail from um Mr. Olri about the um property. You said that there was like 3,000 square feet of business space there. I I remember the plans were much less than that, like like 800 square
feet, something like that. Did that change? The original plans were for about 3,000. They um they came in because they had to get the additional parking down to 800. So, it's going to be somewhere maximum of 3,000 square
feet. But the plans that I when they So, yeah, I know there was more, but then after they changed the parking to get approval, it it was reduced significantly. They could if they could make it work to 3,000, they're going to make it work to 3,000. But so so it it changed back to 3,000 it up to 3,000
feet. So it could be at that point. Correct. They got to fit the parking lot in. So yeah. So they can go up to if they can make it work, they can get 3 thou up to 3,000 square feet. The odds are probably not because they got to put a driveway and a parking lot in. Well, yeah. looked at the the plans and it it
but once the the actual plans are when everything finalized and approved by the so we everything's still got to be approved the final plan's got to be sent in to the um construction code official reviewed by the engineer reviewed by the
traffic um what do you call it the traffic planner has to be reviewed by our planner has to be reviewed by zoning and has to be reviewed by um what do you call it? Uh Rowway the
Rowway Valley Sewage Authority. I think that's it. And then, you know, just as long as everything is permitted. So, he can still go up to 3,000 square foot feet. I'm not saying he is. And he's probably going to be much closer to the 800 because it just doesn't fit. But
we're talking about the the Knights of Columbus, old Knights of Columbus place with the Ninja Sushi and the correct place. Okay. Because I'm sorry to keep going here. There was the planning board meeting. There were plans approved. There's gonna it's going to have it was sold or somehow changed entity. Is that what
happened? I no have to go through it again. What happened was they went in with the 2729 Westfield Avenue LLC. In order to do that, they needed to in order to get the um pilot agreement, you have to have an urban renewal LLC
approved by the county and approved by the state. Okay. So they transferred it over to the urban renewal. So now I think it's 2729 urban renewal LLC that was presented to the county and presented to the state for approval which that we have all of the approval.
So it is a name change not a ownership change. Oh okay. And it's has to go through planning again. No. Oh okay. All right. Okay. All right. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. So if I could just add on that. So we're introducing tonight. So, if anyone
would like to see the actual financial agreement, they can go to the clerk's office and see it. Thank you, Nancy Toscus Clark. I'm not even sure this is the right meeting to ask this question, but I'll throw it out
there anyway. Um, so behind my house, there's a very large house being built. Hold on, Nancy. Is this a Is this an agenda item? No. Okay. So, if you come back at the end and then you could talk about that. But yeah, this is just for agenda items at this time.
Okay. Seeing no one else on agenda items, we'll have a motion to close this portion. Was that council member Tol and second? Council member Hun. Thank you. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Now, we'll move to resolutions.
First resolution is the budget compliance resolution allowing the budget to be read by title. I get a motion that. Okay. I'm going to second that. So, council member Maniti motion. Council member Smith. Second. Any discussion?
All right. Can I get a 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 resolution is authorizing the township of Clark to assume the responsibility of conducting the annual budget examination pursuant to NJSA4A 4-78B. I get a motion. Thank you, Council
Member Maniti. And I'm also going to second that. Any discussion? Jim, you have anything to add on this self-explanatory? It's self-explanatory process we do uh did last year. Great. Thank you. Can I get a 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 nine is the public hearing on the municipal budget for calendar year
2025. Before I open it to the public, can I have uh council member Manetti read a statement? Sure. Um based on the 2024 and 2025 budget data, significant variances were identified and explained through the comments provided. Total
depart uh department expenditures have increased from approximately 30,850,000 to in 2024 to 33.6 6 million in 2025, marking a $2.75 million increase. This growth supports key
community initiatives and addresses both controllable and fixed costs. Of the 2.75 million, 1.7 million is allocated through projects funded by grants, including rehabilitation of the Robinson House and the acquisition of a new ladder truck for emergency services.
Strategic financial management has led to a reduction in debt services by 166,000 contributing overall fiscal health. Despite the budget growth, the average household will experience a tax increase of approximately $53 per
household. Controllable expenses accounted for approximately 570,000 of the total variance and reflect strategic decisions made by individual departments. For examples, the communications department saw a $23,000 increase due to investments on
on-site desktop support and cyber security monitoring. The clerk's office added 62,000 to the budget to hire a deputy clerk in the anticipation of a retirement of staff retirement. The police the public works department increased the budget to allow temporary
summer help and the tax collector's office adjusted spending to accom accommodate changes in billing services. These shifts represent targeted efforts to improve service delivery, streamline operations, and respond to staffing needs of all which fall within the
discretion of their management. Fixed expenses total approximately 765,000 of the overall variances were primarily primarily driven by contractual and non-discretionary obligations that the departments have limited flexibility to adjust. For his
for instance, the engineering department saw a notable increase tied to ongoing tractual engineering support and permit compliance efforts. The legal department's fixed costs rose due to anticipated increase in litigation and consulting needs. Similarly, public
safety departments, including police, fire, and emergency services reported rises in fixed costs related to unionmandated salaries, increased pension obligations, salary increases, and insurance premiums. These adjustments reflect structural costs
that support core municipal functions and are often dictated by labor agreements, state requirements, and multi-year contracts. In conclusion, the 2025 budget reflects our commitment to proactive approach in both discretionary
and non-discretionary areas. The detailed explanation provided for each budget range demonstrate the deliberate and strategic allocation of funds. This approach ensures operational enhance enhancements and continued essential services are achieved while maintaining
fiscal responsibility with as little impact on our residents as possible. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Maniti. Uh the beginning of your statement, did you mention Sorry. Did you mention what the U increase would be per household? $53
per house. $53 per household. Great. Thank you. I just want to make sure you could hear that correctly. All right. At this time, I will open the meeting to the public on the budget. If anyone would like to come forward, please state your name in town you reside in and
you'll have five minutes or duration. Hello, John Greavves again from Clark. Uh I just had a few questions on some things I noticed and um you know some of the things I understand you might not know off the top of your head but uh just uh let's ask and see what you guys um can answer. Um, so, uh, one of the
things that I was curious about was, um, you have the cell phone tower rental revenue. Um, that seems to be 500,000 this year and it was 660 last year, but I I believe uh, uh, there was the the
lease on the property was uh, bought out in 2023, so it makes sense the 660k in 2024, but um, I guess is there another tower that where's the 500k coming from this year? Or is it how does that relate? We ended up not using it last
year, so we're using it this year. Oh, so you just So it's not additional re It's not new revenue part of the thing. Oh, okay. Okay. Um and then, you know, I I brought this up a different time was the length of service award
program. um the last three years um the length of service award program I believe is you know um an award that's given to you know the volunteer firefighters after they've served for I think like five years or more they get a stipend of some amount I I don't know
the very gritty details but I know that for decades previous um it was funded at 60,000 a year and the last three years in a row it's been 1,000 and I just wanted to know what's going on there. Same answer as was in the last three
years. We have a surplus in the account. So there's no reason to fund it to the amount of $60,000. Every every ambulance squad member and every fire department member who have, you know, obtained their either number of hours, number of response calls or training requirements,
they get their money. So we have a surplus in that account. So I I did take a quick look at the the account on the financial statements for 2024, not 255, but it's close. Um there was like 265,000 added in like 2022. Where did
that come from? In 2022, what we did was there is a criteria in the um in the plan is you get the money but if you don't hit your five years, you we take it back. So those are all the recoveries that we have for the people who didn't satisfy the requirements.
So, like it seems like a lot like 265,000 in one year got re Well, if I was taking your money from you and it was wrong, that's our job. We went through it. We know who who the people were that didn't get the money. So,
think about it. You do it for four years at $1,150. So, that's round number is $4,500, right? So that's only 35 40 people, you know, depending on how many people were who didn't qualify. So there were people who didn't qualify at
various different stages that we took the money back. So that was the number. So it may seem high to you, but that was the correct number. Well, it was anomalous for the amount that I've seen over the years. That's I'm just asking. It just it was more than I'd seen in other It's the same answer I gave you last year. Um about the 200 about the
$1,000 and where the money came from. And then we had surplus in the account before. I just asked what was going on and I and I was curious if there continued to be a surplus. It seemed a little odd for three years considering that for the previous 20 years it was funded at 60,000 a year and then all of
a sudden three years in a row but I appreciate your explanation. Thank you. Um so the other question would be communications. Um, so this year it seems to be, you know, between the salaries and the expenses it's like
455,000 and last year was 250,000. So it's like $200,000 increased. And, you know, this didn't even exist in 2021. So I'm just curious what what was what happened between what what's the extra 200,000 for? If you look at the police department budget and
if you look at all the other department budgets, I took all of the IT budgets out of each one of the individual departments and put them in communications. So communications is also dealing with all of the IT infrastructure spends. We're buying the new server, we're buying new PCs, and
this way we control all of our technology expenses within one call center. In addition to that, we are um going out and it's further down on the agenda, but we are going out to bid to come up with a a new cyber security plan
so we can um achieve the advanced requirements for the New Jersey cyber GIF which is going to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of you know 60 $70,000 alone which is new firewalls, new um monitoring, 24x7 365 penetration um
alerts So that's where that money is going. Okay. You you said that if id looked at the police and the fire, I would have noticed that. But I mean, well, if you look, I'm just telling you where they are. You looked at the police, fire, um, clerk's office, you know, administration, all of those IT spends
were all consolidated in one space. Okay. So, thank you for the answer. You've moved it from, you know, other areas which were obviously related to communications to one. I I appreciate the answer. Thank you. Um the other question would be, you know, same with legal services. You
know, um in 2022 was 225,000. It it went up to like 450,000 and this year it's 400,000. Um you know, I know we had some problems the last few years, but I I I thought we were kind of past that. Is there still some things that are
ongoing? If you look, there's about $50,000 in legal fees associated with the um all of the tax appeals. So as we discussed at past meetings, the tax appeals have been coming in now. They started opening up the tax courts and
our legal expenses and a lot of the um you know decisions coming down for tax appeals will be you know coming. So we we also need to maintain that amount of money. Didn't I mean but in 2022 there was tax
appeals and years before that. What? If you look at the numbers, if you look at the numbers, they didn't go If you look at the numbers, a lot of those cases did not go to court. A lot of those cases for the last three, four years are coming to court now. Oh, so you're saying that people with the tax appeals, but they weren't necessarily going to
court. They were making an appeal. And well, the the appeals, you have different ways. We could actually go in and we could, you know, negotiate an appeal based on an appraisal that we get from um our appraisal. There's also appeals that come in based on revenue. and you know because the revenue
directly affects the value of the building. If the building is not bringing in the same rent um they appeal so then there's a whole process to go through you know what happened in COVID and a lot of people you know moved out of their offices and you know those
things take time to get through the system. So like I said we have about $50,000 associated with it. This way when you send your next Oprah in and you want to know how much we spend in legal expenses associated with um you know tax appeals, I could give it to you all in one place. Okay, that's that'll be the
John Greavves account. Okay, so you want to spend a little more to make sure that things are transparent and publicly available. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Not transparent and publicly available. So I separate it. Okay.
um insurance and bonding. It was 885,000 last year. Now it's 1.8. So it's like a 30% increase. Uh what what happened there? Um have you looked at any of your insurance bills? Are you talking about health insurance, house insurance,
property insurance, casualty insurance, uh workers comp insurance? Like you know, everything went up. Okay. I'm just asking um so streets and roads um you know this
year is 750,000 um previous years it's been you know 9,000 900 to over a million for many years in a row um what what's going on with the decrease is there did we well if you you
know been involved and again John these questions could have been easily sent to me in an email your predecessor in the last couple of years, your Michael Schuman. Now, he's he would send me an email and say, "Here's all my questions." Instead of sitting here with
the gotcha questions because and by the way, none of these are questions that are even close to being hard. So, I'm not really worried about it. I'm not trying to got you. I'm just asking. And this is a public hearing on the the the budget. I don't understand why it's a problem for me to ask the questions here at the public. It would be just as easy
to send an email and say, "Here's all the questions." However, but this is what it's for. I'm not trying to be rude. I'm politely asking the questions. I'm simply asking. I'm not trying to get a gotcha. I'm just There's things that just stood out to me. I simply am asking about them. Yes. I don't think so. This
year we we have the benefit of the ordinance that the council passed in 2022 of requiring all utility companies to pave um curb to curb and 50 ft past the furthest um cut this year. Don't
hold me to this number, but it's about 19 streets that the utility companies are paving. We're paving other streets and some of those helped us out from a priority standpoint. In addition, we want to make sure that we have proper bonding and we level our payments. Um,
we're going out for a bond for an ambulance. We're going out for a bond for a fire truck. So, we are, you know, we are paving more streets this year than we have in any past year. In addition, we're funding a fire truck. In addition to that, we're funding a
ambulance. Um, we're fixing the roof at the um Robinson House. And we're keeping our debt payments flat. So that's the reason why it's at $700,000. Okay. Um,
one last one was um, you know, the the recycling went up recently. You know, not I think it was two years ago it was like 300 and something thousand. Now it's like 600. What happened there? We're guessing the bid was opening tomorrow. I'm sorry. Say it again. We're guessing what that number is going to
be. The bid opening is tomorrow, but we had to put the number. Well, last year was 615 also and it was 3 something before that. what what happened last year that was it was a it was a public bid and those are the prices that we came and those are the most favorable prices okay all right you know I don't
think this really was that difficult I don't know why there was such hostility I this is something that I think is a problem when people see you acting with hostility towards me like this it makes them feel intimidated and not willing to stand up here and just ask the simple
questions and that's not good I don't know why you had to have such attitude about this. I'm just trying to ask simple questions. There's a few. You said they were simple and I was happy. Did I ask in a bad way or anything? Please. Five minutes has to be over at this point in time. I'm running a
meeting. Council member Maniti. He was asking questions and the BA was answering questions. So, he took some of his time. That's why I'm giving him the least. That was your last question. Yeah. Thank you so much. I don't think I'm being unreasonable here. So, we gave you 11 minutes, just so you know. Thank
you. All right. And just if I could add, um, I didn't sense any hostility. I think Mr. Oli was suggesting that perhaps if you're going to get into some details on questions such as this, it's better served for the public to
understand what's being discussed, if we have the questions in advance and can be bring the information, more specific information to the table. I'd like to go back to the first question that um, Mr. Greavves asked which related to LOAP which is a length of service
program for firefighters who participate in the program. Each year each participant has to get certain number of based on what they perform they qualify for points. You must attain a certain level of points to get credit that
year. You need to have five consecutive years of service. Sometimes you don't have five consecutive years, but each year that you're acrewing service, we put that money aside. Okay? So if John Doe
performs a service, we put the money aside and he performs for five years. Frequently what happens is people leave or they have changes in service. So what happens is that money goes back to the town. Do we know how many people? It's
not it's not like a constant thing. It's going to it's not going to be the same each year. It's on an individual by individual basis based on the volunteers and the money that's put in the trust. And if trust money is not going to be paid out to the participant, it goes back to the town. So I just want the
citizens to understand what we're talking about with that program. It's not going to be flat. When I when we introduced the budget, I talked about the increases in insurance. Um, we talked about the tremendous burden that's on the townships for cyber
security monitoring and all the other procedures and precautions that need to be made and the incredible insurance costs because we belong to a group when it when the towns get hit with cyber attacks and there's millions of dollars going out the door. We have to
participate and share in that. But if we raise our level of standards to a certain level, we get discounts. We want to be on the safe side with cyber security. And I'm very pleased with, you know, what Mr. Olri's
doing being extra precautious. Some towns really are overwhelmed by this, but he's right on top of it. And that costs money and that's what we're investing in because we do not want a cyber attack. I won't go further into the other items this time.
Thank you. Thank you, mayor. At this time, a motion to close this portion of the public hearing. Thank you, Council Member Maserella. Second, Council Member Hun. All in favor? I. Any opposed? At this time, I
like a motion to adopt the budget. Thank you, Council Member Maniti. And I'm going to second that. And any further discussion on this? Anyone have questions? Go ahead, Mayor Albanese. Yes, I'd like to thank our BA, Mr. Olrich, and our CFO, Christy Vieira,
who's here tonight this evening, for all their hard work on the budget. Um, as was mentioned, uh, the average family of a home, um, property value is 527,000. It's going to come out to about $4 per month to the taxpayers. We're pretty pleased with that budget. So, thank you
very much. Thank you for coming tonight. And, uh, we appreciate your support, council. Great. Thank you. Anyone else have any? Okay. 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. Budget adopted. Next resolution is designating block 105, lots 1.01, 2 01 and
26.01 located on Westfield Avenue, Broadway, and Joseph Street as an area in need of condemnation redevelopment. I get a motion, please. I'll move that. Thank you, Council Member Man. Second. Yes, I'll second it. Thank you, Council Member Maserella. Any discussion on this?
If I understand it correct, this is AMP and investors property and because the investor's property was deemed an area need need of redevelopment, we had to redo it to include everything on that property. Yeah. So again, there's
different criteria to um to make this condemnation redevelopment. Um and it hits actually in four of the different requirements. um substandard unsafe unsanitary condition um vacant for more
than two years. The AMP has been vacant since 2007 and uh as of March of 23 they closed the investors. So now that's also two years um obsolete layout and also part of our smart growth policy and um
process. So you know it hits all four of those and that's why we're we're looking to um name this. It went through the planning board. They did a whole presentation on all the details. I could bore you for hours um and I'm sure you don't want to, but that's the high level and those are the four reasons why um
it's going into redevelopment. And just to be clear, you only have to hit one of those. But they hit many. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else have any questions for the mayor or BA? All right. Roll call, please. Council member Hoff, yes.
Council member Hund, yes. Council member Maserella, yes. Council member Mini, yes. Council member Tol, yes. Council President Smith, yes. Okay. Number 11 is authorizing the mayor or business administrator and township clerk to execute a redevelopment
agreement with 2729 Westfield Avenue, Urban Renewal LLC, for the tract of land situated at block 91, lots 8.01, 10.01, and 36 on Westfield Avenue and Washington Street. We get a motion, please. Yes, I will move it. Thank you,
Council Member Maserelli. I get a second. Thank you, Council Member Hun. Any discussion or questions? Jim, microphone. That would help. Um, so some of the key, we went over, you know, the size and everything. Uh some of the key
items in this though is they are going to have 300 days upon the effective date to um to start the construction and then they have 20 months after that to finish it. So this is going to be probably somewhere in the neighborhood of a you
know almost a three-year process. Um, but you know, we we have them on on record and it's in the document on how long it's going to take them to get this done that it's they're going to fund all of the costs incurred by the township
including legal engineering reviews um all through their escrow account. the escro accounts need to be uh refunded within 10 days if they um if they over exceed their expenses and then failure to do so is going to
have a stop work order issued and the um you know we're going to we have the ability to issue a default notice on anything that they're not doing and you know they have up to 90 uh 30 within 30 days to cure it. We can extend that to
90 days if you know they're not following any of the procedures that are laid out in the redevelopment agreement and we can terminate the agreement if they um don't satisfy any of the requirements or if they stop satisfying
the requirements and we we have the oh and or if they don't get the mortgage. So if they don't have the financing we could also cancel the agreement. Uh so you know again It really is just a legal and binding contract between the township and what
their rights, responsibilities, and um needs need to be and those are the high level items that are within the agreement. Thank you for the explanation. Anyone else have any questions for the BA or mayor? Okay, roll call, please. Council member Hoff, abstain.
Council member Hund, yes. Council member Maserella, yes. Council member Manetti, yes. Council member Tol. Yes. Council President Smith. Yes. Number 12 is authorizing renewal of a contract with Gov Pilot for cloud-based
government management software and maintenance in the amount of $92,16.38. Get a motion, please. Thank you, Council Member Hun. Second. Thank you, Council Member Maniti. Any discussion? No, this is the the system that we use
to do all of our applications. dog license, cat license, report a concern, um inspections, food inspections, etc. So, this is um our online system and it is through a state contract. So, we didn't go out to bid. So, we leverage
the SHI state um SHI cooperative, not a state contract. Thank you. 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. Okay. Number 13 is authorizing the use of competitive contracting for information technology services and exploring cooperative service delivery. Get a motion.
Thank you. Council member Hung. Second it. Thank you. Council member Maserella. Any discussion? Yeah. So this is um you know one of the things that we were discussing is cyber threats uh ransomware fishing data breaches you know continue to increase. We've been looking around for someone who would you
know package all of the cyber security requirements that we need. We're lucky enough to have Nate Cle um who is an expert in cyber security working for us and we've had numerous meetings throughout the last you know six eight
months at different companies to do this. Uh at this point we don't have any that are within a state contract. So we're going to have to go out to competitive bid state contract or co-op. Um, so one of the advantages is if we
are um non-compliant or have basic uh coverage, it is a $50,000 deductible and 20% of the next $300,000 um as a co-pay if there's any uh data breaches. And the the level two
is upgraded to um you know, minimum security for level two would be a $25,000 deductible. And that's where we are right now. Um and then the advanced um security would be a zero deductible, zero co-pay. So right now we have a you
know a potential of a you know $25,000 requ um deductible in the event of a cyber breach. Uh we're going to be working with different um firms to come up with a strategic plan to uh mitigate those risks. In addition, we're looking
to also create it in a way that other towns can piggyback off of this agreement. So, for argument sake, if you know, Scotch Plains wants to do it, um they could piggy back off of our our bidding and all of the work that we performed because like I said, right now
there is nothing out there that um that' be an advantage. And the other advantage to that would be that we would get a fee for that service. So, as we did all the work, we did all the leg work and I think it's going to be somewhat successful across the um across the
state especially um as you know I'm a commissioner of the state cyber and you know this is one of the bigger issues that we've been running into all over. Thank you for the explanation. So, it kind of be a shared services agreement with surrounding towns.
It it would be similar to a co-op. It won't be a shared service agreement. So, we won't be providing the service. They would be able to piggy back off of our our work and our agreement and our infra or our um establishment of the infrastructure. Great. Thank you.
All right. Roll call, please. Council member Huff, yes. Council member Hund, yes. Council member Maserella, yes. Council member Mini, yes. Council member Tol, yes. Council President Smith, yes. Number 14 is award of contract to
Schaefer Fireworks for an through a nonfair and open process for the July 4th display in the amount of $18,725. I'll move that. Thank you, Council Member Tol. Second, Council Member Maniti. Thank you. Any discussion?
Yeah, this is the um same um company that does off has done fireworks I think pretty much since I was on council in 2000. Um, you know, we went out to the qualified purchasing agent went out and solicited three vendors. Um, Schaefer
Fireworks is the one we're going with who came in at 18725. Bay Fireworks did not respond and Garden State Fireworks is not available for um the 4th of July. So, we followed all of the purchasing requirements and the suggestion is to go
um with Schaefer for 18750. Thank you. 725. A 725. 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. Move on to the 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 discuss discussed and voted on following the approval of the remaining items listed on the consent agenda. The first item is authorizing the tax collector to apply sewer account balance adjustments
as credit in the amount of $13,150. Next is authorizing the tax collector to refund overpayment of sewer fees in the amount of $4,40. Number 17 is authorizing the tax collector to refund overpayment of taxes in the amount of $4,783.39.
18 is authorizing the business administrators execution and delivery of a memorandum of agreement between the township of Clark and the county of union for the removal of the burm on the property which abuts the Robinson's branch reservoir. 19 is amending resolution
25-94 to approve the use of the additional funding source authorized by bond ordinance 25-12 for the 2024 2025 NJ dot road project for valley road sections 1 and two. Number 20 is authorizing the police officer in charge
to issue additional clothing bin permits. And 21 is opposing the Department of Environmental Protections NJPAC rules due to their significant adverse impacts. Thank you. Can I get a motion to adopt the consent agenda? Move, Mr. Thank you,
Council Member Tolk. I get a second. I'll second it. Thank you, Council Member Hoff. 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. There any new business on the calendar? There is no new business. All right. All right. At this time, we'll move to public comments. Uh 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 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 a member of the public, the council president at his discretion may choose to respond or not respond. So at this time, if anyone would like to come forward, Nancy Tasqueus Clark. Um, so there is a house being
built behind me and the clerk has been very responsive to a couple Oprah requests I submitted and one of them did reference the uh town ordinance that controls the size of residential
properties and it does say 35 ft and that's what was came back in the oper request and it says third but if I look at that ordinance and it's for the R75 residential ial one family detached residential
district. Um the building dimensions maximum height shall be 35 ft and two and a half stories. So my question is what is a halfstory? Can a person stand up in a half story? Can rooms be built
in a halfstory? Are there windows in a halfstory? I just I don't know what a half story really is. what it looks like. When I look at the house behind me, it's very large. If you compare it to all the other houses on the street,
some of which are two stories. They're B levels. A lot of them are B levels or other styles. And this one, you know, is like a castle at the end of the block. So, my question is, how do I find out what a halfstory is?
Jim, you have any recommendation? Stop in the building department. I mean, I I I would have to talk to um Art, our you know, building inspector, zoning officer, and I'm sure we could get an answer for you tomorrow. Okay. Okay. Right. Thank you. Thank you,
Nancy. Tillia Collins, Clark, New Jersey. I have a question. I attended the planning board meeting and there was a gentleman there that was our planner and he had brought up the planning package regarding the upcoming
round of affordable housing such areas that need an improvement. Uh my question is, is that plan booklet available to a resident? And my other questions are who
chooses the areas that are in need of redevelopment? Why are some areas not considered and why are others that are established areas considered? And I know the fourth round is coming up
the end of June and I'm just totally confused of who makes the determination of what areas are considered in redevelopment if they're developed already. And I know certain areas like the old AM and the Knights of Columbus,
those areas have been deteriorated. But when he was speaking, he brought up about the um Clarkton Shopping Center. I mean, the area is old, but it's it's still viable. It there's businesses in there. There's people there there's
small businesses in there. And then um I forget one of the other areas, but there's other areas in town like Central Avenue behind Chili's going towards Bartell's that isn't a pleasant area. It's
manufact manufacturing or commercial. Okay, that's one question. My other question is I just read that we've appointed a new police director. What is the difference between a police director and a police chief and if the
chief is reinstated will some does the police director have authority over the police chief? And then we have Captain Akaboo who's the officer in charge. And then I assume that the public safety
director is a citizen and not a police officer. So I'm a little bit confused about the line of um who's in charge of what and who's in charge of who and do we need all
these do we have that much need for all these positions within our police department? if the chief is reinstated. Thank you. Thank you, Dia. Does anyone else want to come forward before we answer some of the
questions? Hello again, John Greavves from Clark. Uh, you know, I just wanted to come up here and talk about pilots again. Um, you know, uh, I'm just concerned. I'm coming up here. I know I've been doing this a
lot. I I would really just like to make it clear that I'm coming up here as someone who's a concerned resident. I'm not trying to attack you guys. I'm not trying to be someone that's, you know, trying to create a problem, but I'm trying to attack problems. I'm trying to see if we can notice some of the issues.
And I would like to work with you to fix the problem. I'm not trying to be abrasive. But, you know, when I bring up the issue with the pilots, you know, you guys say that um the schools get what they ask for. And that's true, but the
point I'm trying to make is who's the one that's paying that. It's not the developers that get the pilot. It's the average taxpayers. And that's something that I am concerned about. You know, you say that the town is generous in sharing, you know, for the Walnut Hill
like $55,000 with the schools there, but they were getting 55,000 before the development and there were zero students. Now they're getting 55,000 and there's 26 students going there. And at uh from the latest school budget, nearly
17,000 per pupil cost, that's over $440,000 in cost. I know that's not, you know, precisely how it ends up being um in in practice, but that's a a rough estimate. Um you say if they need more money, they could ask for it, but I mean, are they supposed to sit up here
at the podium and ask for it? I mean, I I don't know really the procedure that they're going to ask for it. I mean, you were quoted a blog post that I wrote that said that, you know, if they need more money, they can start a referendum, but that's exactly what they're doing this year. This year they're putting a
referendum up to get more money. Um you guys see that the enrollment is down, but that's not really the full story. Um the the latest school budget shows that the on roll subtotal is for
23 was 2273 and in 2024 it was 2273. I think you guys might have been counting the regular full-time which went from 1877 to 1865. But we actually increased the number of special ed students. We have some full we have six
full-time, three additional share time, and then there's regular shared time. So those students actually cost more money to um educate the special education. So I guess what I'm trying to say is my point, you know, I still think it has
validity when I'm talking about that. Um and then, you know, the school tax levy keeps going up. You know, in 2023 it was roughly 35,800,000. Last year it was 37 million and 7,000. That's a little over $1.2
million increase. The Walnut Hill apartment is getting a discount of, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars that's not being added to that and that regular taxpayers are paying that difference. You know, this year it's going up an additional 1.4 million.
It's it's a lot of money and you know I just think that you know as a residents do have to pay that but I I would like to see that developments are also paying their fair share too. You know I'm I'm coming with valid points I think and I think it's a
real problem and I'm trying to find a solution but it's it's really hard when you guys deny that the problem exists. you know, I if we could see that together that what what's going on and then work to come to
a solution, that's what I'm trying to do. So, I'm asking I'm saying there's a problem here. I'm asking you to see it and please address it. And, you know, with the next pilot and it seems like there's going to be more pilots there on Westfield Avenue. I recognize we had to incentivize
things, but I want to make sure that schools are taken care of as well as the average taxpayer. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Greavves. Anyone else like to come forward? Right. See, no one like a motion to
close this portion. Actually, before we close it, let's answer the questions. All right, Mr. Greavves, I'm not going to get into the pilot. We've gone down this road. I I'll take it for two years. Let me give me a second. Mayor,
um the bottom line is no. All right, let's close it first, then we'll speak. I motion to close this portion. Thank you, Councilman Tol and then Councilman Mezerella. Second. All in favor? I oppose.
The bottom line is a builder or developer will not develop these properties. So, if you want, we can keep these properties vacant like they are, collect the tax money on those properties, and let the town look like crap in those areas. We're trying to get this town developed, and part of the
state program to get these developments going. And an incentive is the pilot programs. We have reached out to the um board of ed and the superintendent. And I'm going to let Mayor Bon Mayor Bonos, mayor Albanesey's take over from here because I know you had communications with Mr. on day regarding the budget and
if they ever need any extra money. Okay. So, first let me explain the process. The school is its own entity and they have a elected officials that manage it. Okay. If the school cannot stay within
the cap, they can go out for a referendum. Now, this year there was a special allowance made for schools that didn't meet certain criteria, and Clark was one of them. and they could have gone out and gotten a larger budget, but
they didn't. I spoke with the superintendent. He said they chose not to go out. They did not need additional funding at this time. Their needs were met, but that was a special situation this year, okay? because a lot of
schools lost a lot of funding and unfortunately taxation with rep without representation occurred and the governor said no you can raise it if you want if you qualified and you didn't get enough
funding. Are you with me on this? Okay. So the school is independent. We don't give them money. We don't gather money for them. They are an independent entity. Individuals run for office for the board of education and they run it in accordance with
laws. Okay. The referendum that's going out is related to capital. Capital is not operations. Did the budget go up? Yes. Many of our budgets are related to labor. Labor has gone up. We have collective bargaining agreements
that have been negotiated that we have to adhere to. So that is how school funding works. And it's very simple if you look at the laws and I know you are interested in it and you continually ask that question. So I
suggest if you like I can send you the laws that I suggest you start out with to read and if you have any questions you can come and meet with me and I will happy be happy to answer your questions. But regarding the schools their budget is approved by the department of
education. We cannot give them money. We're governed by the uh DCA, Department of Community Affairs, specifically the Division of Local Government Services. Our budget goes to a different group to get
approved. Okay, so that takes care of the school um funding. I do have the email with me. If you want to see the email that I received from the superintendent, I can show it to you. He told me he has enough money. Okay. Um what was the other point on the
uh police chief? Um but no, John had a different question, right? He had a second one. Yeah. Oh, no. I want to get back to redevelopment. Sorry. Redevelopment.
You have videos of properties on your website, critical of the town and the administration of what they've been doing. You criticize it. Well, what developers are coming and knocking on our door, banging it down to build
there. It's been going on for years and years. People are tired of it. And we want to take action. And that means that we have to get developers who will be attracted to build within this town. Now, for the third round of funding for affordable
housing, we chose those properties. It's very hard to close deals there. When a developer comes in, they want a a reasonable size lot. They have to deal with all different owners and not everyone's on the same page. And you know what people think after a while? They think, "My property is worth a lot
because now someone else bought next door. Now, now I can hold out. It's kind of like in Atlantic City when you go down on the boardwalk and there's a little house in the middle. They never sold. We don't want that in our town. So, on one hand, you're critical. Tell
us not to uh make negotiate with these developers. We're competing with everyone in the state for these developers. So, I hope you take that into account and like I said, check out your own website where you look at the criticism
that was made in those videos going back years and making recordings of recordings of council meetings being critical of what had been done. Um, so we are doing our best in that regard and we we intend to get results. So, I think
that answers those two questions. Um, Nancy had the question about the roof. You can check with the construction official, but I think it's like if you get a cape house and the roof is peaked and when you go in the room, some parts you can't stand in because it's a peaked
roof. I think that's what the half roof might be or the half floor. Um, Dillia's question. Believe me, we've had for the past four and a half years, I thank all the officers working here
for everything they've been through and especially these two captains right here. All the hard work they're doing and it's not easy carrying all the bricks. We had supervision here from the county. They're gone. We are going to go ahead and we're
hiring a police director. Um, we're extremely fortunate. I can't tell you how lucky we are to uh be giving an offer to a director um of the
police who will be Pat Grady who grew up in this town, is dedicated to his profession, has worked almost 25 years in the public sector for the county and for our police department right here in
Clark and was a captain here and is well respected. Um he then left, went into the private sector and ran an operation from the ground up uh that is probably larger than most
police departments in the state of New Jersey. So he's got a plethora of experience and I'm pleased that he's going to be joining as the police director. Um a director does not carry a gun.
Um, a director will set the policies and procedures, go over the budgets, be a liaison to the administration. Um, and that's that's pretty much the difference. Okay. Hopefully that clears that up. Um, what will happen in the
future? We're going to take one step at a time. We've got to get back get everything back in control here in Clark. And like I said, I couldn't be happier to have um Pat Grady as as as the person who um we are able to engage
with this opportunity. Did you have another question? What was the other one? Two had to do with the property selected. Oh yes, thank you. Okay. It's a little confusing because we don't have any available properties
really, right? Everything that was identified in the third round was princ principally down on Westfield, but there were other properties as well. What happens is we need to identify since we don't have any available properties, we have to identify properties that have a
realistic development potential. Right now, we have zero properties available. The list of properties that you heard about at the planning board meeting, those are the realistic development potential properties that were identified. What does that mean? If one of those property owners sells their
property, a developer approaches them, they can sell it and qualify to redevelop on that property because we've identified it as a realistic development potential property and that's all it is because
that's all we can do at this point. Um, at the planning board meeting, uh, they should have advertised at this point for what's going to happen in June. The presentation was made by our planner Paul Ricky did a great job. Uh we're working with a team uh of people. Our um
planning board president's been actively involved as well and u moving ahead because we have our deadline of June 30th to meet um to present our plan to the state of New Jersey. We requested an extension. It was denied. similar to
what's happened to many communities in the state. We are working on many other areas um to meet our unmet need. So at this time we need to have at least 42 units that have realistic development
potential because whenever you have potential if you have a 100 units maybe 20 will be affordable housing. We're using a 20% factor. So hopefully all that makes sense. I know you're pretty much on top of all this, Dia. And hopefully that answers the two questions
that you had. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Albanese. Jimmy, you have anything to add? You're good. Thank you. Good. All right, we're going to move on to um mayor council professional comments. Do you have anything to add, Mayor
Albert? Yes, I do. Um, first of all, I want to thank the council for approving those minor changes in the motion p picture ordinance. Um, I want to thank Jim Olrich and especially Elizabeth Cle for all their hard work they did on this, so we wanted to keep it moving.
We're there's only about 30 towns that qualified for this. We did have a movie made here in town. We don't know what will come of it, but it's an opportunity for us to advertise that it's available and we'll see what comes. Um, yesterday we had the Rock the Block
event. Congratulations to our Chamber of Commerce for a ter terrific Rock the Block event yesterday. There was music, fun rides, and activities for the kids. Numerous vendors, and I heard some really awesome food trucks were there. So, uh, thank you for
that. I was going to announce our new director of uh, police, Pat Grady, but we've pretty much covered that. Um, primary elections coming up. For those who are registered as a member of the Democrat or Republican party, you can come out to vote. It's too late to
change your partisan uh, declaration. However, if you're unaffiliated and you would like to vote in either one of those parties, you can go to the polls and declare yourself as a member of one of the parties and vote on June 10th in the primary. you know,
your your vote will matter if you vote, but if you don't vote, it doesn't matter. Um, Memorial Day is coming, as was announced earlier. Next Monday, May 26, is Memorial Day. I hope you'll come out to join together for our township
Memorial Day parade and ceremony. Uh the parade starts at 9:00 a.m. We will hold um after the parade uh we'll gather in front of ALJ High School at the end of the uh procession where the veterans will conduct a ceremony to honor our
Clark fallen heroes and veterans and those currently serving in the military. So I want to again thank the many generous organizations and citizens who donated. We'll be commissioning, I'm pleased to tell you, we'll be commissioning the creation of four
plaques, uh, including fallen heroes from the Civil War to date that were previously missing. So, today the weather forecast looks good. So, we hope to see you there. And that covers everything I have. Thank you. Thank you, Council
Member Huff. All right. Try to make this quick. So, I wanted to say congratulations to the uh, basketball champs from the tournaments. It was great. It was um the girls were from my daughter's grade. The boys were from my son's grade. So, it was so nice to know most of the kids that were here. Um and it was so wellrun obviously by
Council President Smith and my perfect brother-in-law Jason and his team. So, I just wanted to acknowledge that. Um I wanted to say welcome to the our new police director, Grady, which I think as the mayor said is a fantastic addition because of the great experience, expertise, and the deep Clark roots that are coming forward. And congratulations
to all of our officers that were honored tonight. um especially on the heels of National Police Week, which kicked off obviously with that incredible rescue of the crash victim. Um quite frankly to me exemplifies why they deserve those honors and awards and appreciation. So please continue to stay safe. Um as a
DPW wife, I'm grateful and thankful every day, but especially this week. So just encourage you to show a little extra love to the DPW and thank you to ours um whose work is endless and quite frankly of critical importance. Um, I do want to say thank you to the finance committee, my fellow council members and
the administration, um, for the, you know, we talked about it before, but just for this fiscally responsible budget, I remember being on the board of ed, you know, five minutes or so ago, and we were looking at hundreds and hundreds of dollars and tax points and things that went up and I think $53 as
an increase um, just I think is is absolutely um, fantastic in light of everything that we're still doing. Um, I also think that from my experience, if I could just be personal for a second, obviously relatively new, I'm still the newest person to the council, um, I
obviously have questions and being able to ask them and get such clear answers, but even just sitting here and listening now to the BA, um, there's just such clear and like non-nefarious explanations that show, I think, what's very forward thinking, it's responsible,
and it's a transparency that quite frankly like isn't necessarily new. But all of these questions, I sat here and I'm just going to say it. Um, I sat here like kind of super impressed that with no advanced notice to sit there and see the BA answer everything so confidently.
Um, because in my world and I want to be very clear about this. In my world, before I ask my corporate or whatever questions, I always ask ahead of time because when I have my meetings, I want the answers and I want to I don't so I want to be very clear because it felt like there was like a feeling that
there's a suppression or some sort of like not a desire to ask questions. Um, submitting your questions in advance allows for you to get the answers now and not have it be a performative stand up and ask questions that don't go anywhere. I ask questions because I want to know what the answers are. So if you
you know I think people reach out they talk to all of us they talk to the administration all the time. So you should absolutely ask questions but just because you email your question in advance doesn't mean you're keeping it secret or hiding it from the public. It means that most people probably are not going to be like our BA and rattle off
the answers to the 7,000page document of the budget with all those things so easily and completely. So I appreciate that. I think that that was great. I know you've answered all my questions over and over again. Um, so I think asking questions are great, but to get answers then and now in a transparent
way, um, kind of brings around the answers that everyone's looking for, and it's not just performative. So again, I would say thank you for all the work that's been done yesterday. Like the mayor said, the rock the block was great. I'm going to dream about that one food truck and find Fairfield, New
Jersey for those potato pancakes again. And I'm looking forward to the parade on Monday. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council Member Hun. Thank you, Council President. Um, just again want to congratulate Pat Grady on his new appointment as a police director. Um, I've known Pat for many years. I know
his family very well. Someone's mic is on. They can turn that off so we don't have the echo. Thank you. Um, so congratulations Pat on coming back to town and being that police director to assist both Captain Lot and Captain Akaboo who as the mayor
stated have been under not incredible stress but having kept shouldering a large burden the last few years and now they'll be assisted with him and he'll help them through their way. Um to the police officers who were
honored tonight congratulations that was welld deserved. Uh shows our police force in action last week. We saw really in action and life- saving events and putting their li lives on the line. uh always want the police officers to be
safe out there but to do their their duties which they do very well and we're very thankful for that. So congratulations to them. Again, congratulations to the travel basketball program. Uh an outstanding year for them for the boys and girls. Um as was stated earlier to most teams that have won the
tournament, Councilman Smith and myself are past presidents. I know if we were lucky to have one team a year win the tournament, that was fantastic. So to have the number we had tonight is is spectacular. So, kudos to the coaches and the parents and the players for that. Um, finance team, thank you very
much. Christie, thank you for your first full term uh on the budget. Jim, thank you very much for you and your team doing what they had to do. Um, and members on the council here that were involved in that as well. $53 increase from from the town is spectacular
um and was well thought out and very fiscally responsible. Um, the mayor pointed out that we received a she had emailed the superintendent and the superintendent responded to her saying that they were not in need of any extra financial
assistance from the town. The pilot programs are there in order for the town to keep moving on. And without the pilot programs, as Bill already been said, developers will not come into town and develop a property where they're not going to make money. The world today is
about making money and that all corners of the world it's has to be driven by profit and if there's no profit for a builder to come in and do they will not do that. So the pilot program is a must to incent them to come here.
Uh and just get out and vote on the primary on the 10th. Thank you very much and I will pass this along. Thank you. Council member Maserella, please. Yes. Thank you, Council President. Um, just want to congratulate all the police
officers who received awards this evening and uh the two police officers that came on, the one um uh and the one special and the one police officer and all the police officers in our community and the fire and EMS services. You're
all heroes. you're here to keep our community safe and I really appreciate your efforts and I know all of our residents do as well. And ladies and gentlemen, as I say each month, if you see here um something that doesn't seem
quite right, call our police department. They're going to come down. They're going to come down quickly to ensure your safety. Um so till next month, be safe. Stay well. God bless. Thank you, Council Member Minity.
Yeah. Thank you, Council President. I'm going to address two things before I get to my uh prepared remarks, if that's okay. The first one is on the budget. Um the budget was introduced about 30 days ago, if I'm correct. And um over the last 30 days, not one person, any
citizen, anybody running for a political office has emailed, text, or called the business administrator to ask any questions. And I find it ironic that a person that will open a decade of tax appeals to review tax appeals over the
last 10 plus years would not take the last 30 days to ask questions about the budget and then they come into a meeting that's publicized that's on TV and then asks the questions that tries to catch the business administrator or someone on
council off guard. This is a person that wants to run this town. doesn't want to work for this town, doesn't like this town, and all he does for the last two years is complain about this town. We've been hearing about pilots for the last two years, and not once that same person
has never contacted, spoke to, emailed, text the board of education to see if they had enough funding. And then on his website, he writes about pilot programs from another town. And he says, "They do it right, we do it wrong.
we do it wrong. Everything in his eyes is incorrect about this town. And for the last two years, I've been hearing how much everything's a problem from the developers to the teachers to the schools to the board of education to the council to the mayor to our police
department. And I got to I got to tell you, I'm tired of hearing it. The problem is, Mr. Greavves, that you live in this town. You're not living this town. This is a great town with great people. You come up here, you say you want to work with us. You don't make
suggestions. All you want to do is catch us off guard. You say you have uh legitimate questions. They're not legitimate. They're here as a political ploy. That's all it is. It's all political to you. Not once you come up with any
solutions. Not once you say anything good. You even attended our Easter egg hunt and posted a picture of yourself. Not even the children of this town that were having a great time collecting Easter eggs. You were saying, "Hey, we were there. Where were your children in
that picture?" Or the Easter Bunny or the members of this community that were making pictures with the children of this town. It's all political to you. And I'm going to constantly remind the township of Clark how political it is. And I'm sorry to the people and the citizens of Clark that they have to sit
here for over an hour listening to this. We should be celebrating the accomplishments of the people around us like our police department got got awards tonight that have achievements in protecting this community. We should talk about next
door at 6:00 tonight that our student athletes received their varsity letters, some of them for the very first time. And not to mention that I won't see on your page about the tennis team that today won the county championship and is heading to the states tomorrow.
Our children, you're right, Mr. Greavves, are very important to this town. But start celebrating their accomplishments and their achievements and stop saying they're getting jipped and they're not being taught correctly and our teachers can't do their job. That's what you say. You say our teachers are no good. Our board of
education can't run anything and our devel I'm speaking. I didn't interrupt you. Don't interrupt me. You tell us about our developers and that they create these eyes in this town. It's on your website, not mine. where you talk about Walnut Avenue including 26 new
students in our schools, but you didn't talk about Cub Smart that didn't put any into our schools. So, your logic is Walnut Avenue should pay more. But what about Cub Smart? Should they pay less or should Miss Collins pay less because she doesn't have children at our school or should I pay more because I have a son
in my school? I'm just tired of hearing it. Maybe instead of sitting there and try to cause problems and make it a versus, maybe work with us and talk about the solutions and try to make it better. Tweak it to make it better. I'm done with you. I'm just tired of hearing it. I got to be honest. Again, Cadam
sounds like a really good time to have houses for sale and I'll ask you again. It's going to be posted in the paper, but when the hell are you leaving? All right. With that being said, I'd like to congratulate the police department. You know, again, um you know, all the hard work keeping our town safe. The students
over at Johnson tonight receiving their varsity letter congratulates them. I wish them all the best on their future endeavors. Um I want to thank the business administrator, the mayor, and Christy for their hard work on their budget. I mean, we should be thankful that with the rising costs of everything, insurance is going up 20 and
30%, you should know that you're a business owner, liability, workers comp, pensions, everything else going up, we're getting a $53 average increase. I'll take that any day of the week. Um, and then finally, um, I had one other thing. I'll skip it,
but, um, I just want to wish everybody a happy and safe Memorial Day. And, uh, I'm done for tonight. Thank you, Council Member Tol. I'm going to wing this one. Mr. President, members of the council, what did we see tonight? This is a room of politics and government and running a
community, but what did we really see tonight? What did we see in this audience? not political discord, but happy young faces of our township, our future. It's not about us. It's about them. Giving them a certificate with their name on it. That little bit of something at a
young age goes a long, long way. And investing in our future, not political nonsense. Those kids were so lit up because they were awarded for an accomplishment at an early age. And we must take that and look at that and say they are our future. They were great.
They deserve that recognition. Thanks to the mayor and the council for doing such a great thing. There's so many really good kids. Not all kids are athletic. I was not a jock when I was a kid. I was more of an egghehead, but I was a weird guy, too. That's why I ended up on council. What was I thinking? Let's get back onto a couple of issues. A lot of
things going on tonight. Those we lost. Sergeant U. Clark at age 101, US Army veteran serving in World War II at the rank of master sergeant. He was a participant in the Normandy invasion. He
lived in Clark. He died at 101. How do we ever re how do we repay that debt? Normandy. Did you ever see the movie Saving Private Ryan? That's what he lived. Not a movie or not a fictional interpretation, but he lived it. And he lived right here in this town. He could
have lived anywhere in the United States, but he chose Clark with over 60 some odd years of his life and lived here. That's something we would take a moment of. Now the next one. James Trinkoli, aged 50-year resident of Clark, US Army veteran serving in
Vietnam, serving also as a member of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary for over 25 years, who is my wonderful neighbor and a friend to the residents of Dorset Drive. I live on Dorset Drive. I have Enrique and Marina and their wonderful children next door to me. Then I have
Pat Grady next to me and I had James Concoli. What I'm saying to you is anytime it snowed, Mr. Concoli was out with his plow or his snowblower and Pat would be out there. I want to tell you what just happened tonight, which I just found out about. And when you're talking about Pat Grady, the type of person he
is. I've known Pat Grady for basically all of our lives. His father used to come over when he first bought the house next to me. What did he do? Mr. Concoli died in the beginning of April. He was sick. He was 80 some odd years old, but he was a neighbor and a friend. We didn't know he was sick. But what did
Pat do? Mr. Concoli died in the beginning of April. His daughter lives out of state. He only has one daughter. The wife died of cancer a few years back about 20 years ago. Pat Grady went over tonight because the neighbors are starting to say, "Well, when's going to take care of the lawn?" The lawn hasn't been cut since he passed in early April.
Pat Grady took his lawn mower and went over and cut it tonight. That's the kind of a neighbor he is. That's the kind of a director he's going to be. Not just, oh, I've got a badge. I got a title. He goes beyond that. Anybody who does that, that's a really good guy and has a good family and you shouldn't be questioning
things. It's not about, oh well, he's got another salary. What are you going to do about that? So, is that in his retirement? He's beyond that. There's Clark and there's beyond that. He's everything. And I highly recommend him for any position and support him a thousand%. Let's continue with
this. The resi. I'm driving home from work. I work south of here. And I come up to Parkway on May the 8th. It was a beautiful hot summer day and I'm driving up Parkway North. I got every time I get back into town, I'm happy because I know I'm back
home. Thank God. Even though the parkway stinks with zooming driving and traffic and everything else. But here's the story. I'm driving up. I cross into the borders of Clark, go past the Mass Road Bridge, and I'm going along parkway north doing about 60 miles an hour in my
car, right lane. I'm getting close to the resi and it's always gives a little flush flirt in my heart because I love the resi. I love this township. But then I saw something I have never seen before. I see kids on the Parkway bridge doing leaps into the resi. I thought
that was peculiar. I've never seen that before because I've been in this town. I swam in a resi when I was a kid. I was thrown in by the big kids and it was polluted. But we did those and those are childhood experiences, not good ones, but they were. So I continued up the Parkway. I got up on Brandt Avenue, drove down to Miller Avenue. That's
right next to the Parkway Bridge and I got out of my car and I called headquarters because there's kids swimming underneath the Resi Bridge and I'm like, am I going to be an ogre and just wrap these kids out? They saw me and they started swimming across the most treacherous part of the reservoir.
It is right behind Wendell Place where Mr. Harrison lost his life and one of the young youths of 1972. But they ran over and they jumped up on and ran up into the into the Wendell place area. I got in my car at cold headquarters and then I drove over to the Wendle place
area to see if I could find these kids. And one of the residents goes, "Yeah, they were just coming out of the woods. They're all wet. They're going up that way." So, but things like this shouldn't be happening because if we had another tragedy, that's not safe water and jumping off a parkway bridge. But they found few they found fun in it. And I
just hope to God if you see anybody out on the resi, call the police. Not the 911 number, but the 732 388-3434 number. Let them know there's somebody in the resi. They don't belong there because we don't need to have anybody get killed. It's they're too young. Enjoy life. I know it was hot
that day, but come on. Okay, last thing. Al Bar, Councilman Bar, Memorial Day is coming up. It's because of you we have the Memorial Day parade. It was done back in the 40s and the 50s. It used to be called Aman American Day parade that was held that was a precursor
to Memorial Day, but we never had a parade. The other towns did, but that guy right there in the blue shirt in the front row said, "Let's have a Memorial Day parade." I think we should honor the veterans. And the previous administration signed off on it. And because of him, he gets forgotten. Why? Because other people are running it because it's a it's a real professional
job now. And Al, thank you. Thank you for putting that and planting the seed for the next generation because they're going to have all the kids that are sitting there and seeing their first Memorial Day parade because of you and we thank you for that. Now, I got to throw this out there. Bill Duffy, Captain Bill Duffy,
Clark PD, retired, but Bill Duffy got a p passion p pension for history. I was the township of Clark. What was I thinking? Can tell you right now. It's a great subject and I love it. But you got to really be into your subject matter. And Bill Duffy picked up on those
because he saw the old memorial and saw the names and he goes, "What do we know about these kids?" And he kept going through each and every one. It's a passion with him. He's dedicated. He's a really dedicated guy and he's a great guy. And now he's adding more people to do you know how hard it is to get lost
in the history. I found James Bowman for him and that was just me going through an obituary from one of the Shepherdsteines who became a Cortis and it was just a little blurp in the bottom of the 1944 obituary for somebody else that we were able to get James Bulman.
But that's what Duffy does. He goes in and he finds any little connector. It takes years and hours and time of your of your life to go into microfich old newspaper accounts, cemeteries. Bill Duffy and I ended up in North Planefield for the James Bowman grade. There's a
grave for the guy. He got killed at the battle of Cold Harbor and he got brought back. His family brought him back and buried him in in um in Planefield. So again, this is life. This is Clark. I'm not going to sit. It's late guys and we're all tired.
But to Al Bar, Bill Duffy, thank you. I told my story of the resi. Please don't go swimming in a resi. You got pools. You got the town pool is a perfect place. And I know Bill Smith will tell you about that. He's next. The town pool is a place to go and swim, not the Clark reservoir. Clark reservoir once it's
drained and cleaned up, then the county will offer those offerings to you. And if somebody has discrepancies or there's nothing wrong with that, asking a question, but do it properly. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you, Mayor Albanese, I think you had something to add. Yes. Uh, well,
first one edit on what Councilman Maniti said. Very, very well done. I believe that the Oprah that was sent in regarding the tax appeals by Mr. Greavves covered 42 years went back to
1983. That was a lot of digging to do. We wonder where all the Oprah expenses come from. Well, that's a part of it. What did he learn? I'm not sure. But I have some really good news news flash for you. We received a letter from the
county today and we re we are receiving $250,000 for our capital project request which is rebuilding one of our substations. So, thank you to the commissioners of the county and I wanted to share that news tonight. Thank you.
It's great news. Awesome. Madam Clerk, you have anything to add? Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to clear up a concern that Mr. Greavves has he mentioned that he thought the township would be entering into the financial agreement uh prior to
the residents having their say. Uh what happened tonight is the ordinance was introduced. It will the public hearing will be June 2nd. Uh it will then be advertised on June 5th. There's a 20-day waiting period after that. So, it will
be effective on June 25th, at which time the agreement will be signed. Thank you. Thank you. Jim, do you have anything? Um, yes. So, we we do have Christy here tonight. Uh, and you know, she did a great job on the budget coming in late
and you know, worked through it. So, she did a great job and we really appreciate all the work she's done. um you know and you know we worked really well with the council um you know the finance committee just getting
through everything. So I appreciate all support and all the ideas that came out of the council. Um because you know working together is how we make it work and you know get through this process because it's never an easy process especially with all the curve balls that the state threw at us this
year and pulling grants at the last minute and making final you know last minute adjustments that we did but you know we got through it. Um, and now you know for my friend Brian Tol, I used to call you the Red Baron for driving around in that red Pontiac. So now I'm
going to call you the Cape Crusader for um flying around the town looking for um wayward kids swimming in the reservoir. That's all I have. Everybody have a good night. One one comment. Um Jimmy, you want to
mention something about the grass you said? Remember? Oh, I thought you did that during your um No. Yeah. So, everybody, we're having a lot of problems with DPW um with the grass and the leaves in the bag. Um you can't put
rocks, you can't put branches, and you really can't put the uh mulch bags. So, we're having uh it's when we take them to be dumped, they're contaminated and they won't take them. So, it's causing a
delay for our DPW. It's causing issues throughout the um the processing of the bags. And so, we we're asking everybody, you know, to be cognizant about what you're putting in there. It's only leaves and grass, no branches, no rocks,
and absolutely no plastic, right? It just is not, you know, the the damage it does to the um tub grinder, the rocks, you know, it's it it it comes back to us and we don't we don't need it the extra
expense and we don't need to, you know, start taking bags back from when we drop them off. So, if everybody just be please be cognizant of that. Councelor, you have anything? No, I do not. All right. Thank you. Uh
just two quick things. Uh Mr. Greavves on on the pilots and the last time I'm going to address the pilots with you. You continue to come in here and your concern is the school. Maybe you should run for the school board and maybe you should go to more of their meetings or
reach out to Ed Grande to superintendent and voice your concerns. Uh because that's seems to be the biggest concern. You're constantly coming here saying we're not giving the schools what they need. If you think the schools need more, go get on the board of ed and work out that. Um, again, the parade is
Monday. Please come on out and line the streets of Westfield Avenue. It is a great day uh in the township. Um, and hopefully we'll see you there. And that's all I have this evening. So, we will see you next month. Motion to adjurnn. Thank you, Council Member Tol.
Second, Council Member Manidial in favor. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. See you two weeks.