Look, I need a new I know. I told you got to stop eating it. I didn't touch it. Not yet. Okay. Good evening. This is the work session meeting of Monday, September 8th, 2025.
It's 6:04 p.m. Could you please stand and join us for 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. Thank you, Madame Clerk. Could you do the roll call, please? Council member Brusher, here. Council member Coyle. Council member Harris, here. Council member Patel here. Council member Vatiel. Council member Pointer
present. Council member here. Thank you. Um Madame Clerk, could you read adequate notice? Adequate notice of this meeting as required by the Open Public Media Act of 1975 has been provided by the annual notice sent to the Home News Tribune, the Star Ledger Desi Talk News India
Times on November 18th, 2024 and post main lobby mal complex on that same date. Very much. Um, so we go to number four, review of the minutes. Any questions or comments on the August 25th review of the minutes? All right, seeing none,
council president. Yes, I need to abstain from those minutes. You will you can do that on Wednesday. All right. Thank you. Um, all right. Unfinished business. We have the ordinances for further consideration, public hearing, and final
adoption. Um, do we have any questions or comments about ordinance 2253? Right. Seeing none, do we have any questions or comments about ordinance 2254? Okay. Any questions, comments about
2255? Good. Uh questions or comments about the last of the bond ordinances 2256. All right. Um moving on to 2257. Any questions or comments?
All right. And uh 2258. Questions or comments? All right. I have one question and uh Sonia maybe you can you can answer. Do you know is there an acreage amount? What's the acreage for this property? Do
we have that information that I believe it's in New York? Okay. Second. I'm just looking at the 2258 at the lot and block number here. We can come back to that if uh if you if you wouldn't mind. I I there is a map
here and I can look that for you. All right. All right. Should we come back to that one? I'm reading as fast as I can. Okay. Okay. All right. Uh while we wait for that uh ordinance 2259 questions or comments.
Okay. Well, that gave you about 15 more seconds. Okay. All right. Well, we'll come back. Council President. Yes. I I have a question on on the bonds in general. Um if I could address Ken Kender Roberts. Um
we're going out and getting bonded now uh for various things. And um my question is do we have a um a threshold on bonding uh and the amounts that we bond in? How does that correlate with
our budget? Yes, the state limits uh any municipal government to issuing no more than three and a half% of what's called their equalized valuation basis. That's what takes the average of a town's equalized
ratable value over the past three years. So if we look at our annual debt statement from the end of 2024, our net debt as a percentage of equalized valuation was 891%.
I mentioned the state allows us to go to 3 and a half%. So we're significantly under our debt limit. We have approximately 180 million of debt outstanding as of the end of 2024. Uh so with the allowable limit that we
can go, we could issue perhaps another $350 million in debt and still stay within the debt limit. Not to say that we would ever want to do that to afford it, but that's what we would have permissible. Uh the other part answer to
that question is we do work diligently to manage our debt service to try to keep it stable so we avoid spikes each year because as we're incurring new debt we're paying
off old debt or refinancing debt. So, we currently try to maintain in the municipal budget to keep total debt service under $12 million a year, which we've been able to do the past couple years and should be able to do for the
next year or two. Thank you. Thank you, Council President. Uh, still um missing the uh the acreage. Yeah, it's not in the ordinance. I apologize, but we will we'll get it for you. Okay. Council Vice President, do you want
Yeah. Okay. It's approximately an acre, just so you know. 27,000 on the northern property, about 15,000 on the southern property. So 42 plus or minus acres. About an acre, you're saying, give or take? Almost exactly.
Council president. Very good. Yes. Can I continue off the bond question? Would that be okay? Mhm. Uh so Kent, what will be our equalized debt debt ratio after these bonds pass? Give me a minute. I'll get that for you.
Thank you. Okay. Um moving on to six from the Department of Finance. We have A through I. Questions or comments? Okay. Um, I do have a question about the
Edward Burn G Edward Burn Memorial Justice Grant. Where does Where do these funds go? That's a police department grant. Okay. All right. Any is there any particular area in the EPD where that's going?
Let me just check with our captain if you give me a minute. Okay. Is he Is he Is he there? It's okay. A grant we've gotten every year for 40 years. I know that. Yeah. Right.
Forever. Okay. All right. Council President. Yes. I did have a question on H&I. I know we're just putting it into the budget, but what does that money get used for? For the community center digital connect project and the strengthening local
public health capacity program. Are you referring to number 7A? Uh 6H and 6 I. Sorry, we're just going out of order. So, if we could just go in order. Okay. I'd appreciate it. Which one are we working on first? The burns or the
health initiative? Oh, take it. Sorry, I think I jumped the gun there. Sorry. I think they're still working on the other binds. Okay. Right. Uh, do we proceed or do we wait? No, we can wait.
Okay. Fix H. Is that what we're working on? Uh I don't know if you got your answers, council president. Well, my question was it's fine in terms of G. So I think we're working on your question. H and I H and I uh H what would that money be
used for? I know this is just essentially putting into our budget and we're approving that. But like what would that money be? This is going into our senior services, but I will confirm with you. Okay. Oh, is that Are we done with that?
Uh, I guess, council president, I I believe the community I believe uh the business administrator was talking about the strengthening local uh the community center digital connect I believe is involved with the Stelton community center project. It was an add-on to the
initial three million grant that we got. Correct. We were once the city passed their budget, we were able to get additional funds. Thank you. Thank you, Council President. Okay. Thank you. All right. Moving on to Department of Health 7A.
Questions, comments? Council President? Yes. Is there an amount on this grant? It's 5,000. I understand from what I understand. Correct. Um it is going into our health department for additional education.
It's that was my question is did you say it's going for additional education? Correct. Uh related to senior our senior services um it's a fall prevention program. So there's some education to that um
that we're going to be providing. So this would be educating the seniors. Okay. Home safety. I got it. make sure that they're Oh, okay. Excuse me one moment. Raj, can we do something about the mics over by the business administrator and they're
kind of soft right now? Thank you. Uh, anything else on 7A? Okay, going on to eight, Department of Planning and Engineering. A Okay, from the Department of Public Works, A Nine.
Okay, Council President. Yes. Um um I'm good with this. I was just curious if on the last during the Edison Jets field I believe the original bleachers got moved to the opposite side
the visiting field. Am I recalling that correctly? There was um there was a change order in regards to the bleachers in regards to the football field, which I know this is separate. Um but the original bleachers
that were on the home field side, those were repurposed to the visiting field side. Correct. Correct. Correct. I just wanted to refresh my memory. Thank you, council president. Sure. Okay. Uh number 10, aid from the chief of police. Questions, comments?
Okay. Uh, Department of Water and Sewer 11A. Council President. Yes. Coun. Oh, Councilman. Uh, so I understand that we are renting two trucks right now. I just want to know what's the cost. Just so cur curious as to what's the cost of them and how long. Um,
are you referring to the actual resolution? It's 329,000. No, but that's where we're buying that truck. But currently, we're renting two trucks because for the department. How much is that renting costing us? Hold on one second. Is that part of our emergency services
contract? Because that usually runs about a million. Okay. All right. Thank you. But that may be all inclusive. So, let me just get that breakdown for you for the actual rental of the two trucks. Okay. Thank you. Uh number 12 from the township clerk,
the resolutions of recognition for uh A through C. questions. Okay. All right. We are at oral petitions and remarks. Yes, Esther. Esther Barkin Edison. Good evening,
council. I'm here tonight to follow up on a previous correspondence concerning a new threat to our environment and health, the Northeast Supply Enhancement Project, also known as Nessie. I know you previously passed a resolution
opposing the second gas power plant in Cisby and another in support of the New Jersey Climate Super Fund Act. I thank you for that. Although defeated twice before, Nessie, a project of the Williams Transco company, is once again
up for consideration with the full support of the Trump administration. This project would create new fossil fuel infrastructure to bring fracked methane gas from Pennsylvania through parts of Middle Sex County and then
under the Raridan Bay, which would be dredged and into New York. Part of this project also includes building a compressor station in Franklin Township, which is right on the border between Somerset and Middle Sex counties. The
coalition of environmental organizations known as Empower New Jersey and their many supporters oppose that project and I'm asking for your support as well in opposing it. A resolution from Edison Township Council opposing Nessie would
send a clear message to the New Jersey D and Governor Murphy, who does have the power to stop it, that we do not want nor need this project. Unfortunately, Governor Murphy has been vague and evasive on this issue, which is very concerning considering he was the one
that set these 100% uh clean energy by 2035. Okay. Um, members of the Edison community watching this meeting are also encouraged to submit comments to Governor Murphy opposing this project, but no later than September 24th. So,
why is this a bad idea? As a state and a community, we are backtracking on our goals to move steadily toward 100% renewable energy. And we've made steady progress in the areas of electric and hybrid cars, solar and wind energy, and
other sustainable practices necessary to address the dramatic and dangerous consequences of global warming. Nessie would reverse that progress. Methane gas is toxic both to the environment and our health. Pipelines that carry the gas
notoriously leak, risking explosions, damage to property, and contamination of our air, soil, and water. Methane is also a major contributor to global warming, which has led to so many catastrophic weather events. Building
new fossil fuel infrastructure creates more incentive to continue drilling and fracking for fossil fuels like methane, taking us in the wrong direction. and dredging the floor of the Raridan Bay and installing gas pipelines pose great
risks to our marine ecosystem as well as shipping, fishing, and other industries that rely on the bay and Edison is near the bay and we could be vulnerable in a catastrophic event. Studies show that New Jersey doesn't really need this
energy from the fossil fuel and we're not designated to get it. Yet most of the risk from the project falls on our communities. I've previously provided a sample resolution information concerning how you can participate in the D public
hearing which is September 10th. Unfortunately, you have another council meeting, but um you can learn more about the problem. And please use your voice to stand up for the health and safety of your community and your constituents.
Science is on your side. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you, Esther. Very good. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? Yes, sir. Can you give your name and address if you care to? Sure. Thank you. Uh, good evening,
council members. Uh, my name is Efra Morris. I am a resident at 236 Highland Avenue in Edison, New Jersey. And I've been a resident in Edison, New Jersey since 2009. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Okay, great. Um, so I'd like to take the opportunity to sort of speak about a pervasive issue that has existed over
the last 10 years plus in Edison on the corner of Washington and Marshall as well as on the corner of Marshall and Highland Avenue. There's a standing body of water that exists um on those streets. Um, and due to a lack of drainage in the I guess in the streets
or um proper drainage, the body of water exists throughout the year. The water exists throughout the summer, whether or not there's rain, whether during the winter, um whether or not there's any snowstorms, as well as in the spring and the fall. The body of water obstructs people with any mobility issues from crossing the sidewalk. There is a ramp
that goes down to the John Marshall School, which is routinely traversed by people every single morning trying to get to the school. It's also a religious observant area where people are using those crosswalks to cross on a daily basis. The streets have various different elderly people who are unable
to use the crosswalks, creating a uh danger uh to everyone who's trying to cross. We routinely request that the Department of Public Works look into it with zero response. During the summer, children play in it. There's mosquitoes, there's mold, there's a variety of other health concerns that need to be
addressed. And throughout the years, we've just sort of been um ignored um despite multiple requests. I have various different pictures which I'm more than happy to present. Those pictures represent times where there has been no rain. Um so it it is a standing body of water. Anyone who drives by at
any certain at any point in time. In addition to the mobility issues, there's obviously uh an aesthetic component uh that creates a a sort of I guess a an eyesore on the community. But the real principal issue is that you have children who cannot utilize the crosswalk. You have elderly people who
cannot utilize the crosswalk. You have people in strollers. You have people with walkers. During the winter, the area is completely footed over and iced over, creating a tripping and a slip and fall hazard. It's only a matter of time before somebody's seriously injured based on the inability to remedy the
situation. I'll be very short um because I don't have that much to say, but the issue is apparent. Anybody can drive by it at any given time and see the issue. Winter's coming. It's only going to get worse. I really urge the council to address it in short time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Can we
follow up with this gentleman? Do do you need do you need any more? Do you need any pictures or do you need anything from him? I I did receive um the request and looked into it. It's a PSCNG project. Um there's some additional information that I'm going to
Thank you, Council President. I spoke with Councilman Shuel earlier today. Uh what we need to do, sir, is we need to get somebody out there with eyes on it and uh we'll do that within the next day or two because we really need to see it. these these flooding puddling issues can be challenging. You're and there's a lot
of engineering sometimes that is involved and maybe sometimes it's a little easier, but we need to go out and look at it and we're going to take care of that now. Sure. First of all, thank you very much. Appreciative of that. This past weekend, there was children ages four, five, and
six that were playing in the water, licking the water, jumping in the water. Um, it's a real health issue, so the concern is real. So, anything that you can do to sort of expedite that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. Anyone else from the public? Yes, Tom.
Good evening. Tom is lucky with Circle. uh about these ordinance uh these bond ordinances that are going uh I guess up for vote especially uh what 2253 and 2254
they don't pertain to everybody in the township reading through the uh reading through 2253 the ordinance doesn't say anything it says uh uh payment will be by Edison But
with this with the uh water and with the with the uh garbage trucks with solid waste trucks, they don't it's not that's not township, you know, spread over the township. I I live in the north side of town where I've got private collection
because the town didn't want to at the time put in or buy the extra equipment to to uh satisfy the growth on that side of town. Likewise, I have Middle Sex Water, whereas now I don't have Edison water.
When these when these bonds come due or something like that, I I would appreciate and I would hope to get an answer that the ordinance would contain language so that not everybody in the
town has to bear the burden of the of payments of these bonds. The one thing, you know, that fall protection be great because when those bonds come through, all these seniors are going to fall down with their the new tax bill be to pay
for, you know, pushing the debt farther down this down the street, you know, kicking the can down the road, per se. Okay. So, that's my one thing about that. Uh, excuse me. Then I'd also like to talk about storm
preparedness. Uh a couple months ago, Kurville happened. Uh apparently that town the town of Kurville wasn't wasn't prepared for the flood. And then you look at even they had a bunch of
specials on about Katrina and how the town had a preparedness. I think they called it Hurricane Pam, but they never they never invoked or got the buses to help people get out. It
it was just a real, you know, tragedy what happened with these micro bursts that we're having and the storms and possible hurricanes that might be coming in down this, you know, we're still in hurricane season as well as like any
natural disasters. Can we dust off our emergency management plan and look to see if it is still valid, if it can be improved on or what it what's going to what it's going to take in a in a case so that when a when a
a natural disaster does happen, this township is prepared for it. Lastly, inverted or I should say any inverted speed bumps on uh by Calvert on Grove Avenue. I was here two months ago. Chief Byron said to me he was going to send a
a cruiser out there to look at him. Uh I came down that I came down Grove Avenue today just just to see be and no nothing's been done and you know what does it take to get something done in this township. You know as when I was
sitting when I was when I sat down it was always like that it's the pavement sunk. No, it's a pro it's a it's a subgraing that's been paved and the final paving hasn't been hasn't been performed. Need an answer on that. Lastly,
something that always sticks in my craw, the sports uh building. What's the latest dollar sign on that? Is there going to be a postmortem done after that is is completed? And who's going to pay for the all the extras?
Please, I your answers. Yes, let's start. Uh, councelor, can I go to you on the ordinances? Sure. So, sir, you're correct. I I just went and I just went over and confirmed it with the CFO. So, uh, purchases that are made for the garbage district or
paid for out of the garbage district and purchases made for the water utility or paid out of the water utility, those are both what's known as, um, self-liquidating utilities, which means the costs are paid for by the users. So the people who paid a garbage district
tax will pay for those trucks and the people who paid a water utility tax or paid water utility rates actually will pay for the other. Am I correct? Yes, that's correct. So you are exactly correct. It's they're not paid for by the taxpayers in general.
Okay. All right. Um he had the question about storm preparedness and uh re any revisions that need to be made. So we are actually currently updated in terms of our emergency preparedness um just in the last year or so especially most
recently the six months and these micro bursts if you will. So, our team is equipped with not just administration, but actually some uh school administrators and their folks because uh and county folks because we have
partners in this and so anything that's related to storm preparedness, we do get on a call. We um issue out uh press releases as you've seen them. So, we we do speak to each other regularly. I'll use an example, Woodbridge Avenue when
not necessarily related to emergency preparedness, but it was an emergency. So, in that event, what we did, we uh made sure all of our departments, DPW, our utility, um everyone was boots on the ground. And so, we had our vehicle,
our emergency vehicle. So, that gets uh enacted. And so, I we are as prepared as we can. We are pretty up to date with the weather. our uh OEM coordinator provides all of those updates I would say two three days in advance up to
hours before the storm. And so what our DPW does, they do go out and they clean our catch basins. So that in itself is taken care of and uh we have crews that actually stay here even if it's uh just
to be proactive and it it's not necessary but we usually typically leave four uh four bodies here that would uh just in case that we needed some overlap with the storms if it's after if it's after hours.
Thank you, Council President. Yes. Could I could I add to that? Of course. I just want to uh our chair of public works in our committee meets with uh department of public works regularly and with chief
toth. So when it comes to disaster or flooding, we definitely are prepared when it comes to generators, on-site, off-site generators. We have on-site charging stations. I mean, as you mentioned, she mentioned before, we've cleaned all our catch basins before a
flood. Not just one, the entire town. Um, Chief Toe has an entire book that he can go over with you if that's open to the administration, but I can tell you we're prepared. There's no book to dust off that you mentioned. It's an active working opportunity through the chief in
the administration. And I can tell you firsthand in our our committee uh for DPW. We're active. It's a question Council Patil asks, uh, Counciloman Presser asks. We ask these questions to make sure they're prepared. tree crews, tree lines, PSNG, communication with all utility companies. If there's a
disaster, trees go down, we can't just go out there without utility companies and professional linemen removing those lines first. So, there's a standard of operation of cleaning main roads and and communicating with all, you know, different organizations and um public safety people and the state and the
county. So, I'm impressed with what Chief Toe can do. I mean, if you saw in the past, he brought four giant tanker water trucks to a disaster within 30 minutes. I mean, it's quite amazing uh what what's done here. So, I appreciate the questions, but I definitely want to
back it up that, you know, I think with this administrative administration, we've not only been prepared, but we've invested more money in infrastructure and opportunities and trucks. So, I hope that answers your question. I'm certainly open to talk offline as well. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Cole. Uh the next
question was about the speed bumps on Grove that uh have not apparently been addressed. And so I don't know if we want to give this to Captain or actually I'd like to bring um our township engineer, Mr. Picker. Okay, sure.
Elizabeth Elizabeth Town Gas was actually scheduled to pave last week for the first week of school. talking with uh the traffic department. We asked them to postpone it two weeks. Right now, they're tenatively scheduled to go do their final restoration in that
neighborhood next week. Uh once I get actual confirmation from them, I will let you know. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Brian. Uh and finally, uh the current cost of the sports complex We'll get that to you the exact amount
with all of the change orders. All right. Thank you. Okay. Council President. Yes. Before you move forward, Brian, again, thank you for that update on the Grav Avenue Gra that section. Hopefully Elizabeth gas can inform the
neighborhood at least inform them putting some tags etc that work will be there because we are in active school session and there is a school close by we don't want restaurants to be impacted heavily on that. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you Councilman Patiel. Um anyone else? Yes, sir. Uh, good evening, council president. Good evening, council. Um, anonymous. Um, I want to start off by saying, um,
I'm sorry, sir. Can you speak more into the microphone? Yes. Yes. Um, I'm just trying to gather my thoughts. Um, I want to start off by saying, um, well, I'll start with, um, you know, I haven't brought up the, uh, the security
checkpoint issue. Um, I brought it up last time to you guys, but I haven't been, you know, mentioning it to the officers manning the security checkpoint in quite a while. And then when I um, you know, questioned them about it and said, you know, you're not going to let me in unless I go through this. And I
did my whole spiel about how I think it's a violation of my fourth amendment right. All of a sudden my keys that I bring into every meeting all of a sudden was a problem because there's a little scissors on it that look like a pocketk knife and we made a big deal of it and then we had to get Maddie to go look at
it and I just you know I asked questions and now I get it giving me a hard time. I mean like I just don't understand that. I really don't. Last time I actually did out of all the people that showed up, I actually somehow scathed that security detect checkpoint for the
first time. I walked in with Joe Coyle and the uh the township engineer was trying to not let me in. He came in, he wasn't he didn't go through the security checkpoint and he was trying to stand in my way, you know, but I come to the same meeting with the same keys and I think that's ridiculous. Um, I want to say uh
I do want to mention um through the chair to John Poer. Um, I know I mentioned it last time and I just want to reinforce that you did a substantial job last time as acting as council president. That was a very high tension meet meeting and it was a lot of passion
was going left and right. When I watched back the meeting, I was like, "Yeah, you just did a really good job and you you know what you're doing and I do appreciate that." And I really like how you told the public that they um you know don't have to give their name and address. It's not absolutely required.
Um that's progress and I do really appreciate that and I like how um you did that as well. Uh council president, uh I think it's important. one of the members who spoke, one of the uh residents or a citizen came up and spoke and and she remained anonymous and had she not known that she had that ability,
she may not have even spoken. So, we wouldn't have had her public input. Um, funny enough, she had made some, you know, bigoted comments and uh through the chair Patel, I thank you for speaking up and saying what you said because that needed to be said. Um, you
backed up Councilman Brasher. Um, I was proud to see you do that. I saw something in the both of you that I hadn't seen previously. Um, I'm here to I really we really need to get back to the six minutes. I don't know. You know, I'm going to keep coming to the meeting and I'm going to keep keep bringing it
up. Um, there's not even a lot of people here and you know, I just want to see at the resident's expense because I came here and I was trying to prove a point and the point was proven and a national mistake was made because people trusted this law firm that wrote the worst
ordinance in New Jersey and it was a bad mistake and there still wasn't apologies made by Councilman Coyle. Um, and and I had thanked you Nish when you had made apology for it. you made a couple apologies and I had mentioned that and I do want to give praise and recognition where it's due. Um but there still has
never been an apology from Councilman Coyle. Um there hasn't been an apology from the guy on the right. I don't think that you apologize either, John. And you know that that that still bothers me. It really does. Um but you know, I don't like that the at the residents expense. And I'm not saying you should bring the
public speaking time back for me. No, it should be for the residents. They shouldn't have to pay the price for the mistakes that you guys made along the way because of all the hysteria that was created on this side of the deis. There was violations galore everybody. And the
same guy who was giving me the trouble with the with the scissors was the same guy who was on national TV for throwing out Joel for waving a flag. You know, don't give me a hard time because I'm bringing issues up. Thank you. Okay. Uh any anything else?
Okay. Um, we move to Oh, motion to close. Motion to close. Yeah. Motion to close public portion. Second. Okay. Thank you. You didn't put that on. That's okay. That's okay.
All right. Uh, points of light. I'm sorry. Whoops. Wh I forgot one. Uh, council committees and board commission leazison reports. Starting from my left. Uh, Mr. Schmoo, not at this time. Okay. Uh, Councilman Patiel, none at this time.
Councilman Patel. Uh, so for open space, uh, we met on September 4th at this chambers. Uh, wanted to get some updates from the engineering for open space, if you don't mind, Brian, for both the JCPNL and the
Steven Island path. If you have any updates, Sorry. Uh the JCPNL uh we have all the RFPs back from surveyors. We get to choose one and send them out to start doing the design work.
Realistically, it'll be bid next year. Uh as for the Stevenville, I'm still waiting on Nbridge. They gave initial feedback with uh concern with some of the trees that may be impacted. just providing guidance that any trees we take down, we can't just grab the roots
and pull, we have to do stump grinding, but I'm still waiting on actual engineering comments. Okay. Thank you, Ryan. Well, and uh also Open Space wanted to update on the Pots Road if we have updates on that.
I'm sorry, my mic's a little a little funny. Uh, Pots Road. So, there was a notice that was issued last week um in with respect to the car dealership that there. So, there will be some followup with regard to that. Okay. Thank you. And I think that'll be it for open space.
Thank you. Um, council vice president. I do have an update for the environmental commission, but I think it ties in with points of light, so I'm just going to do it at points of light. Thank you, council president. Okay. Uh, moving over to Councilman Coyle. I'm going to pass uh, Council President.
Okay. Uh, Councilman Brer, none at this time. All right. Um, Councilman Qu, just make sure you put your microphone uh in when you're ready to speak. Okay. I'm going to pass. Okay. All right. So, you're passing alto together. Yeah. Okay. All right. Very good. Uh, as for
me, the animal shelter, um, we had 41 41 felines adopted, five canines, and one bird. And of the five canines, I'm really happy to announce that one of the longest in the shelter for, he was there for 297 days, and that was Trapper, a
lovely, lovely pitbull, was finally adopted. and I'm really so happy for him. Uh, currently shelter 12 kines and 45 felines. Uh, the um the cultural arts commission did not meet last month.
We're meeting tomorrow. And the library board also will be meeting tomorrow. That's the end of my uh committee reports. Now we move to points of light. Who's got points of light? Council vice president. Thank you, Council President. Again, if
you were mentioning this, I apologize. Uh, the Edison Township Environmental Commission is having a green fair this Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Uh, that's September 13th at Swells Park. There's going to be uh community groups, educational exhibits,
sustainability initiatives, and local demonstrations highlighting Edison's commitment to a cleaner, greener future. I hope you are able to attend. Thank you, Council President. Thank you. Any other points of light? Um, for myself, we have several events
coming up. The 911 remembrance ceremonies this coming Thursday, September 11th at 6:00 p.m. at the 911 memorial. On September 13th, which is Saturday, from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. is the Great Big Italian Festival at Papani
Park. September 17th is the suicide awareness and prevention program that will be held at the JCC at 700 p.m. And finally on September 27th, which is the Saturday, is the fall family spectacular which will be at Amboy Avenue and that
starts at 1:00. Um, I'd also during my points of light, I also want to echo what this gentleman here said about uh council vice president's um uh presiding over the meeting on August 25th. I was away on vacation, but I did
watch the entire meeting. And um I was also impressed by what a great job he did. It was some pretty tough stuff that was going on. you handled yourself beautifully and I'm so glad to have you as my wing my wingman. Um, all right, we
move on to discussion items. Uh, let's start with you, Councilman Brresser. Oh, before I'm sorry, give me one second. Um, to get back to you, Tom, the the answer to your question about the sports complex is 11.6 million. Okay. All
right. Proceed. All right. the the flooding I'm not going to talk about today. Um that's part of this bonding and stuff, but I I'd like to know and when I say affordable housing, I I know that we had
the uh the litigation and and there's some resolve to that or there's a a plan, let's say, to move forward, right? Yes, plan to move forward. That's correct. Um is there any way and and this is my my I guess the the biggest problem that I
have. Okay. And and it's a problem I have with government. It's not just here in Edison. It's probably with most of the communities in in New Jersey. Whether we're going to build 400 units or we're going to build 700 units um to me is irrelevant, right? I mean, a
court's going to tell us and we're going to have to build what's dictated to us basically. But my my bigger concern is that 30 years from now, we're still going to have to build 400 or 700 units
because technically we're never going to meet our affordable housing obligation because the affordable housing falls off the affordable housing roles as a whole over time.
What can be done to make sure that when we say we're building 400 units, they're going to be 400 units for the next 50 years or 100 years as opposed to 20, which means we're always having to chase
the tail um for our affordable housing. Yes. So um the primary way to do that is that under the under the new law and under actually under CO's regulations is that there is a concept of extending controls. So since I'm going to say for
probably 20 years COA's form um they called it affordable housing mortgages but they really would deed restrictions all said 30 years and until such time as released by the by the um the municipality. So one of the tools that
we have for instance in this round that we had in the last round also um is that we can find units that their controls would expire during the fourth round and we can either pay or negotiate to extend those controls further. So that's that's
one of the ways you do it and it's ve it's very effective because as you said it's without building new houses but it's keeping the affordable units. So I think that's the that's the way you do it. So during this round we we will be looking for units that have uh expiring controls and we will look to extend
those controls and once again you try to extend them for 30 years at a time and in Mount Laurel world that's three rounds. So that's that's a that's a good period of time but I couldn't tell you right now where we are cuz we as as you said the court's given us five months to put that plan together and we're working
diligently to do that. Um but certainly that's one of the that's one of the mechanisms you'll see in the plan. Okay. No, very happy about that because that's my, you know, I recognize we need affordable housing, but I also recognize that the township is at our capacity as
far as being built unless we allow more call multifamily or or larger scale developments. Um, so thank you for that. You're welcome. Um, Councilman Deal, Mr. Deal or Excelman Deal. Actually,
you'll always be Councilman Deal to me. Always be my Councilman Deal. Deal. You can call him. Well, he wouldn't be my vice principal, but but Councilman Deal. Um, for the veterans, can we get that? Um, I I know that you were working with DPW, right? And there were certain
aspects about the memorial and the project there that um that you determined that or or DPW determined that they could handle in-house. Um, can we just get like a a breakdown of what's going to be done in house and then what
we have to look to do outside and maybe a timeline of what we can do in house? Councilman, I can I provide you with an actual update of what we are doing in house? Yes. Okay. So, um, what we have is two seating benches and those are ordered along with two new signs. They're about
six weeks out. Um, so we should be ready for Veterans Day. Okay. Um, we're also getting the concrete replaced if you recall when we did that walkth through. So, um, we're going to get the quotes from outside, see what that looks like.
Um, if it's good, then we'll proceed. If not, we may that may be something we may be be able to do. I'm not sure yet, but we just need to get some quotes on that. Um, and some of the other outside projects, we're just going to do some additional conversations with administration to see globally what that
looks like. And we talked about lighting, right? if you recall. So, we may have to put some bid out, some bids out and whatnot because I know with lighting you're talking about it could range from 40,000 to 50,000 to 80,000. So, we want to make sure exactly what it the overall
look we're going for with the poles and with the water with the water fountain. And could you just confirm too that the concrete's going to include the footings for the for the stone monuments themselves? Sure. Um, thank you. Anything else, Councilman Brer?
Uh, no, that would be it. Thank you, Councilman Coyle. Thank you, Council President. Um, I'm just going to talk about affordable housing. Um, I'm not one to argue and to defend us when it comes to owing the opportunity for young and middle-aged
and older individuals to have an opportunity to live in Edison. So, when it comes to us, you know, defending Edison for affordable housing to fulfill an obligation set by the state, a standard, I don't care how we do in court. I really don't because the fight of uh
preventing people to live in Edison, it it's a shame. It's a shame and I know that we do it by guidelines to have this steadily grow into our community and I understand that and I think that's what the point is. But when I hear from residents who want to stop up the
opportunity for affordable housing, I'm I'm sickened because this gives people the opportunity to live in Edison, joining to one of the best school systems around, live in a great place and raise a family. So, I hope we fulfill every number in our obligation
for people who deserved to live in Edison. People may say it's going to be uh we don't want them here. people are qualify to be in Edison with a combined income of $85,000
for affordable housing. That's a young school teacher and a first year police officer in some neighborhoods. So, it it's all kinds of people who can reach this opportunity. And I just think it's something we should support. I know this
council gets it and supports it and believes in affordable housing. And I can't wait to see more come to Edison. I think we're behind the eight-ball. Uh this is something good that happened through the court system and that we were mandated to fulfill this obligation. So anytime you come through
this microphone, there's only a few I believe a lot of you in this audience support affordable housing. I'm the wrong person to talk to and and ask whether we could cut back or or hold back on this opportunity. I think it's a great opportunity to see families come
to Edison and join the school system, be a part of uh it being an Edison resident. So, that's all I have to say, Council President. And um thank you. Thank you, Councilman Patel. So, I just wanted to clarify our standings on the affordable housing. I
know there were some rumors on the open social media about we lost the case, but I did talk to the legal council and he did update me, but I would like the residents to know. So, if legal counsel can clarify. So, um I I'm actually updating um um
advice that I I we provided a memo that we provided to council in August and I I do it's far be it for me to apologize for the home news, but I did talk to them after their story and there and the reporter acknowledged to me that the headline was incorrect and that the
story was inaccurate, but of course they're not going to correct it. So what really happened was there was a ar the the town's motion for temporary immunity which was granted. There are a number of interveners which we knew would happen. The court has now set a um a briefing
schedule on the issue of first the issue of what the um what the township's obligation would be. Um we are currently working with the planning staff to prepare a report. Uh we uh are required to file that motion by September 17th which we will in a timely fashion. We
anticipate that um the hearing will be I I believe that the date right now is set for October 20th and that depends on whether or not the court wants to have just oral argument or a hearing. So that will happen parallel with us the fivemon
period that we've been given by the court to begin preparing our our housing element and fair share plan. So by this is the first step in what is a relatively um I don't want to say a really long process because I think um there's there's um there's not that many
impediments to us moving swiftly through this process but as we go through each step of the way we'll go come back to council because obviously u when we uh put a fair share plan has to be endorsed by council it has to be ultimately the uh the plan gets adopted by the planning
board and approved by council and then submitted to the court. So, we'll be back to council in each step of the way. Um, and the question as to what actually the obligation is is, of course, subject to not only a court hearing, but appellet review if that needs to be reviewed. So, that's where that's where
we are. And I and I and I'm sorry that the the story, the newspaper got it so wrong, it was pretty shocking to me uh given the fact that I heard the decision in real time. And sometimes I don't know, maybe I'm not in the same place as somebody else who I don't I I just don't
understand. But um but we'll we'll continue to provide memos to council and keep you up to date on where we are. Thank you, council. Uh I wanted to talk about the animal shelter. The open space had an issue that they were worried that it might be
encroaching on open space, but uh I think Sonia provided that they have reviewed it and we are going to be okay on that aspect. Correct. So um the plan is to not encroach on any more uh open space. So if if you're envisioning what the animal
shelter looks now, so there's a sort of open concrete area. So that will be the I guess supposed expansion if you will. So it'll be a welcoming center and then everything inside will get an update. Um so that what we currently are doing is
we've created dedicated spaces for quarantine and then for um sort of intake and outtake. So but at the very least creating that welcoming center will create a better environment altogether for the office staff too and for families coming in.
I think that sounds good to me as well. Uh, we already discussed Open Road, I mean Pots Road, and I think we spoke to I spoke to Open Space about the bike rack and I think they're okay with it. We should be okay. They're they're okay with that one right in between. Yes. Okay. But if there's any issues, I'll bring it back.
And and by the way, we do see it getting used by some of our employees who do ride to to work that are local. And I want to follow up with Ken. Did you get the uh ratio with the updated bond?
Yes, the ratio will increase to 985%. But we're still under one. Okay, perfect. Thank you. All right, Councilman Patio. Thank you, Council Person. The first one is resident advisory committee. We only
have three applications so far. Uh my council colleagues are back. uh hopefully we can schedule some interviews either this week, next week at least with the current applicants but through this forum I'm asking uh the residents to please apply we need more
people so we we can select uh the right members to the advisory committee and we are looking for residents from north end south end especially we do have applications from the clarabatan section but we really
need applications from the south and uh north end. The next one is grow speed reduction. Again, this was discussed among the council members. I will skip uh for this, but I will socialize this within the council members to see if we can extend the speed limit uh all the
way to the inman avenue water and sewer bonds. Again, there are several questions. There is a lot confusion uh cuz we have the bonds you know roughly good close to $50 million out of that you know chunkies for the other infra work. The questions are really you know
simple but it's really difficult to understand as our attorney said uh we have the uh utilities which are selfquidating and those are very specific to those utilities. If there is a any bond that's
linked to the water utility, it will be only be applicable to the consumers of that water utility. That means Edison water utility. It will not impact anybody from the north end of the town. Uh sewer is common across the board. It's throughout the town. So it is
applicable to everyone. Just want to make this confusion clear that if there is any bond that's linked with Edison water utility will go against any taxes and or uh towards the north end or anyone who is not using that's want to make it very clear. Brower street paving
status. Thank you Sonia. Uh hopefully they will keep the uh September date this time uh and it will no more be postponed uh because residents are desperately waiting for that road to be paved. Schedule of road paving programs. Uh I did visit various sections of uh
north south and I see a tremendous work on the concrete ramps. Uh it it's a huge uh undertaking providing those handicap uh ramps there. I'm happy to see the work in progress and hopefully once that
is done you know you can provide us weekly update on this road paving program. That's it. Thank you council president. Thank you councilman. Uh, Councilman, did you want to expand anything on the flooding on Washington and Mar and Marshall? No, I think we discussed that. I would
just ask that if I keep uh you keep me in the loop on on any updates and what uh the next steps are. Um, but could I ask a question on what Councilman Patel asked with regards to the bonds that the utility bonds? Um
if we if we take these bonds then that add a cost would go to the consumer. Correct? Yes. So the so the bond so the garbage the these two utilities are a little bit
different right? So the garbage district people in the garbage district pay a garbage district tax. So that that is the funding mechanism for the repayment of those bonds. In the and in the water utility, it's the water rates that pay for it. So it doesn't get paid for by
the the advalorum property tax. In other words, is there a different vehicle in our budget that we could use to update our our water system rather than um
raising costs? Mean raising the water rates. Yeah. Well, it once again it's selfquidating. So by that it means the the state tells us that the costs to operate that utility have to be supported by the
rates that are paid. Um that's so that's essentially what it is because otherwise as a gentleman pointed out and I think correctly people who don't have water service and who are paying water service to Middle Sex Water or somebody else would be subsidizing the cost for the
the water utility rate payers. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, council vice president. Uh, thank you, Council President. Um, nothing pertaining to the actual items. Can I just offer clarification because people have asked about the
um Peter J. Barnes Preserve? Um, just so that people are aware, uh, there are only three members on the Peter J. Barnes, the Third Preservation Commission that are from Edison. U Mr. Speedle who was the Edison Wetlands
Association representative uh resigned from the commission is no longer a part of that. So anyone that has been asking about uh number of people from Edison on that commission uh it is within the state guidelines. So I just wanted to make that statement. Thank you council president.
Thank you very much. For myself I'm going to go work backwards. There is there has been for the entire year a vacancy on the library board and I'm wondering what the status of filling that is. Uh uh council vice president, council president, I apologize. I did bring this
up to the mayor and he's working on that and hopefully to provide um an appointment soon. Okay. All right. Um I know the farmers market was discontinued. Is there talk of putting it somewhere else and maybe on a better day for next year?
Uh that is in conversation. the date and the location uh potentially may have been an issue for uh you know one the main farmer if you will. So um I think once we get that one farmer and can accommodate that then we
can bring some other vendors into into play. Okay. Um so I'll get back to you. Usually planning starts in January. Okay. Hope I hope that happens. Um, I I have a a resident who has uh started
doing some cooking classes at the JCC and with the senior center, a lot of talk about the fact that there aren't enough activities. I'm wondering if she would be willing to certainly uh do cooking classes at the senior center. Is there a
possibility of of that happening? Putting her in touch with uh or or at the community center for that matter. Would there be a possibility for cooking classes to be offered? We can certainly look into it. There is there a program specific you're talking
about with the JCC? Um it I think she's just doing this is the first time she's actually offering this and they ac she offered it and they and they accepted it and I don't know if the res the uh members of the JCC paid something. I can find out from her. I'll be see talking to her on Wednesday. Um
but uh it's it's something that um I I think would be would be very stimulating for either people at a community center or at at the JCC. So, let me get back to you on um to get some more specifics from her about that.
Sure. Happy to look into it. Thank you. Okay. Um wondering about we have parks and the parks are being improved, but I was recently in Kyhoga County, Ohio, visiting a friend which is part of which
is outside of Cleveland and I was also in Henipin County in Minnesota outside of Minneapolis. And both these areas have such a wonderful park system. Um, and the one that really I they're
they're both terrific, but the one that really impressed me was the one in Kyhoga County, which has a number of nature and science centers. And they're not just parks, but they are nature science centers that have they have there was one that had my friend took me to three of them. One that had a
butterfly house, which was just amazing, which was such a terrific experience, an interactive experience. Another one that had some wild just basic wild animals that had owl that had birds like um uh we we would have raptors like owls and
hawks and uh and and eagles and some ground types of animals as well. And these are all obviously taxpayerfunded, but they are free. They are wonderful. And I'm wondering if we can maybe look
into establishing a nature science center at one of our our our existing parks. I don't know which one that would be, but I really would like to see us up our game when it comes to our our parks. So, is that anything we can we can look at?
Council pre council president. Uh okay. Um you know or you may know that uh this was one of the ideas that we've had for over 10 years to create that type of thing. Uh but really the best uh
location is the Peter Barnes Preserve. The parks are really small uh to create a nature center. Um, just to let everybody know, probably one of the best projects moving forward, at least uh, in my opinion and maybe with council vice
president agreeing with me, uh, we have hundreds of acres of Peter Barnes preserve. It took us years to get the meats and bounds uh, put together so we could identify what the actual preserve was. But the next step and the step and
the vision has always been to create a state-of-the-art nature preserve uh nature center at the preserve. The opportunities are really endless. Uh back in the day, I'm going to go back probably 15 years. We spent a lot of
time and had a lot of meetings on some of the things that you were talking about and and you just touched on them. Uh but we can really take this to a whole another level. Keep in mind that years ago uh our township, our
education, our board of education spent over $100,000 every year. Back then it was $150,000 to take our children to Camp Bernie. Uh and the only time we could get was in February be uh because
Camp Bernie was uh so desirable to other townships that that was the only time slot we could get. Uh think about having a nature center at the Peter Barnes Preserve that we could open up. And when you talk about costpayer uh uh taxpayer
cost, uh we would actually that would actually be a revenue generator for the township. and we estimated at least a million dollars a year. So, uh it is a wonderful project. It's a wonderful idea. I know I'm going on a a little bit about it, but it was a a passion of
mine. I'm hoping that our council vice president who is now on the Peter Barnes preserve uh if you look into that again, creating that the possibilities of a 600 acre uh nature center. Uh well, it's the preserve is over 600 acres, but the
nature center, the opportunities are really endless. And I I council vice president, I I implore you to uh take the baton and run with it. It is a great great idea for Edison. Yes, council vice president. Um just to pin you off that and I
apologize for taking time. Um, I know an item that we've previously discussed, I understand there are environmental concerns because of the super fun site nearby, but Edison owns a property in the preserve at 205 Tyler Road that the environmental commission, this is going
back like a decade, had always had interest in updating that property to act as like an environmental center. Uh, it is at the entrance way of one of the uh, trail heads there. So that might be an opportunity, but again noting that
it's right next to an environmental site. So there are some logistic concerns with that. Okay. Thank you, Council President. Please, let's let's talk further about this and please let me know if there's anything I can do to uh help work on this. I really would like to see this
developed. Um I just was so impressed with what I saw in uh especially in Kyhoga County, Ohio. Um all right, last and not least, public speaking time. I intend to bring this up during my council discussion points at every
meeting until the end of the year, the end of my term. And um the the public has certainly spoken and spoken and spoken. And I I want to look at this from every angle that I can. And so one
of the angles is that we as council members have unlimited time to speak. And so whether it's on any of the resolutions, whether it's on our council discussion points, I know I
have not put a timer to it. I would certainly uh I would certainly um I can certainly recommend that some of the residents put a a timer on the speaking time, but during council discussion remarks, I know that there have been
times that the councilmen have spoken for 20 plus minutes or so, and that's fine. And then there's no limit on that. But but the fact that there is this disparity between the unlimited council speaking
time and the disparity between what the residents are able to do is um it it I just you could you can put all the statistics you want about uh how efficient and all of that is. This is not about numbers. It's it's not about
the numbers of statistics. This is about a visceral issue. This is visceral to the public. The public does not care about the statistics that you give with regard to uh how efficient the meeting was this way or that way. The public is
concerned about the visceral aspect of this one-third of their time having been taken away from them. And it continues to be an issue. We repealed the the what had been the foolish um the the props
ban. We did that. We did that and and the council members saw the error of their ways and I'm proud of everybody who did that. But uh on this one there's just been I'm going to call it stubbornness and and digging heels in. I don't understand it. I don't. And and
it's driven public it's driven members of the public away. It's driven people who used to come regularly, it's driven them away. And if that was the if that was the aim of the council members who have voted against the six ming it back
to six minutes, well, you got what you wanted from that because you have a lot of people who used to come regularly and they don't come anymore. So once again, and as I said, I will bring this up every single meeting until the end of my term. I am asking this council to
reconsider restoring the six minutes and yes the rebuttals. It's it it's a visceral issue. It's not about it's not about statistics. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Any other council comments uh
before we wrap up? All right. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. Thank you. This motion, this uh meeting is adjourned at 7:13 p.m. Thank you very much.