All right. >> Good evening. Tonight is October 8th, 2025. This is the combined council meeting and the time is 6:06 p.m. Could you please rise for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge 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. All right, Madame Clerk, could you read the roll call, please?
>> Council member Brusher. Council member Coyle, >> yes. >> Council member Harris, >> here. >> Council member Patel, >> yeah, here. >> Council member Patiel. >> Council member Pointer, >> present. >> Council member, >> you very much. Madam clerk, could you read adequate notice?
>> Adequate notice of this meeting is required by the open public meeting act of 1975. Has been provided by the annual notice sent to the home news tribune Starleed Desi Talk on November 18th, 2024 and posted main lobby mal complex on that same date. >> Thank you very much. Uh, council
president remarks. Um, it's very simply number six, the proposed ordinances 2261 and 26 2262 are going to be moved off of tonight's agenda and onto the agenda of October 20th because as you see we have just a
basic quorum here and I do want the full council here. So those will be moved to the meeting of the meetings of Monday October uh 20th and 22nd. Um, and those are my remarks. Uh, can we move on to
unfinished business? Number five, ordinances for further consideration, public hearing and final adoption. Um, madame clerk, uh, ordinance 22. Oh, no. >> Comments. >> Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. This is work session. Okay. Um, do we have any comments on this ordinance?
Okay. Seeing none, we go to number seven, review of the minutes. Any comments or questions about the meetings of September 10th or September 25th? Okay. Uh number eight, uh from the business
administrator, 8A through B. Council President. >> Yes. >> Uh item A, I'm just like to say I'm happy to see us renewing the contract with them. Um Millennium Strategies has done great work for the township in regards to grant funding. I believe
since 2015, uh it's been about 26 million that they've uh been able to help us get in terms of grant grants being awarded and I believe it was about $2 million in the past year. So, I'm happy to see that
this is on the docket for our approval and I look forward to continuing to work with them. Yes. Thank you, Council President. >> Yeah, it's been a good return on the investment for sure. Uh anything else? 8A or B? >> Council President. >> Yes. I just also want to comment the same as council and John Pinter. I'm
happy to see Millennial uh strategies on this docket and they've done a great job. They've been in constant contact with most of our council members, I'm sure, and they've done a great job. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Anyone else? Okay. Number nine, Department of Finance A
through C. Questions, comments? All right. 10 from the department of planning and engineering A through H. Okay. Number 11 uh from the chief of fire
comments, questions. I actually do have a question and that is concern with the drought conditions that we have had lately and even though we had some rain today, we're going to get some parts of the noraster on Sunday. I'm I'm concerned about the
impact of fireworks in these dry conditions and I'm wondering um if you can shed some light on that for me. >> Sure. I I have the captain here but um it's usually on firewatch but I'll just let him uh provide additional detail
about what that looks like. Anytime that we have fireworks, we'll have a fire engine on standby at the site. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh number 12 from the township clerk 12 and B.
All right. And we move on to the regular meeting. And now we go to the approval of the minutes. May I get a motion to approve? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Second. >> Thank you very much. All in favor? >> I. >> All right.
Um. All right. Now we go to the unfinished business ordinances for further consideration. Public hearing and final adoption. Madame clerk. >> An ordinance amending chapter 2 administration article 3 department section 2-31 police extra duty employment to update the fee schedule
regarding police extra duty. >> Thank you very much. Um, open for public comment. Any public comment, questions? Okay. Motion to close. >> Motion to close the public portion. >> Second. >> Okay. Um, good. And can I get a motion
to adopt? >> Motion to adopt. >> Second. >> All right. Um, council comments. >> No. Roll call. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see didn't see the roll call on here. Oh, it says council comments, right? Roll call. All right. >> Thank you. Sorry. >> I got it right. >> You did. I did not. My god, I >> apologize.
>> Okay. Um All right. Any council comments on this ordinance? Okay. Very good. All right. Now, a roll call. >> Council member Coyle. >> Yes. >> Council member Patel. >> Yes. >> Council member Pointer. >> Yes. >> Council President Harris.
>> Yes. Okay. Uh very good. And again, we're not doing the uh ordinances. Those will be put on the October 20th and 22nd meeting. Um, so now we go to public comment on
the resolutions. The resolutions only. Any public comment on the resolutions? All right. >> Motion to close the public portion. >> Second. >> All right. Um, and now we go to anything to pull for a separate vote. We have 545
through 560. Anything to pull? Okay. Um, can I get a motion to approve? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Okay. A roll call, please. >> Council member Coyle. >> Yes.
>> Council member Patel. >> Yes. >> Council member Pointer. >> Yes. >> Council President Harris. >> Yes. All right. Uh, oral petitions and remarks. >> Anyone? >> Yes. Liz?
Elizabeth Conway, 20 Netherwood Circle. Uh, first of all, thank you for the sidewalk outside. It looks wonderful. Might be expensive, but it looks wonderful. It really changes the uh look of the building. Number two, somebody asked me to ask it, and I'm going to ask
it. Why do we still have the guard rail um up front here? Uh people uh thought it was to keep us away from you and I said >> been up for years since co be before co
and everything else. I but I would ask. So that was my one question. Um, my third thing is I'm really looking forward to the 20th and 22nd regarding moving back the time from four minutes to six minutes. Uh, it's gotten to the
point where I just feel this is something that uh needs to be done because it was always done and I don't really care if somebody says, "Well, that doesn't mean it has to be." But it's just the idea of that it happened
and the idea of people being so negative about going back. Uh people are questioning why are some of the council members so emphatic about not letting it go back
especially on a night like tonight. Uh we would really keep you here till 3:00 in the morning if you let us go back to six minutes. And then I had a question. I went to my last item. I went to the Chamber of Commerce uh dinner last night, which was
fabulous, but I did notice that the Edison TV was there uh filming. So hopefully people will get to see what a a wonderful function it is. But my question is, who actually gets permission
to utilize Edison TV? because I know I'm on the um human relations commission and one night we had a a presentation and I know the president had asked if we could get um Edison TV to film it so we could
share it with uh the residents and she was told no. So, I was wondering, is there um rules and regulations as to uh who's allowed and who's not allowed to uh take advantage
of having Edison TV film something? >> Okay. Thank you very much. Um so, Liz's first question was about the uh the ribbon uh there and um what uh it she's wondering can it be removed?
I have no idea. So, >> council president, it's your it's your forum and council. It's totally up to you unless there's a safety concern. >> Okay. All right. Do as far as we're concerned here, have we seen any any recent safety concerns? you feel I
>> I don't know what the police work usually works on. You see that they're present present here. I don't necessarily question why, but it's really up to the council and our safety folks. >> All right. Very good. Uh so Liz, let me let me work on that. Let me take a look
at that. Thank you. And then her question about who gets the the permission to use Edison TV. >> So I don't uh necessarily I'm trying to understand the question. I don't know the circumstances in which it was asked and if there was something prior, you
know, previously scheduled for that date that was it was requested. So I would just suggest sending the request to administration um and to see if there's any conflict with the date or the program itself. >> So as far as you know and what she was
referring to was in this case human relations commission wanting an event to have been uh to have had the utilization of Edison TV. Um, as far as you know, there's no restriction against a commission of one sort or another requesting use of Edison TV and if
they're available to be able to have their services. >> Uh, I don't know if there is any. >> Okay. Um, yes. So, if they request it, is it automatically mean that they'll get the Edison TV or is it still has to
be approved by somebody? >> It still would need to be approved. >> Okay. And who would be doing the approval? that would come to administration. We'd look at the entire schedule and what's what's done. I mean, if I gave you the schedule now of what we have on for TV, it is jam-packed. So,
clear clearly we have a staff of three or four people. We can't necessarily bog down and and they're here on weekends, nights, so forth and so on. So, it's it's not a I can't give you a yes or no because it just depends on what the schedule looks like. >> Okay? So if someone wants it, they
should plan ahead and ask for it to be on it. Okay, >> that would be my suggestion to plan ahead and to give ample notice. >> Okay, thank you. >> Thank you very much. Okay, thank you. Anyone else? Yes, Tom. >> Evening Thomas Lucky, Netherwood Circle.
Uh, I'd like to ask if the uh the administration could take and train the people in the tax office to go and be a little bit more friendly.
Maybe take them and take them to charm school or something like that. It isn't an isolated incident where I've gone there and I get stared at like I've got three heads. I don't even there's there's no greeting. There's no nothing.
The people are just just could care less. They're just doing their job. They're taxpayer. We we as taxpayers are paying their salary and they we're treated like treated like dirt in my estimation. Might be wrong. I can we can
argue it offline or whatever, but you we can agree to disagree, but that's my feeling. Whether there's one person or 30 people in line, nobody treats anybody with any respect. Terrible. Terrible.
I hope that in the Octo next meeting that the this town council does something does something good and goes and re and changes the ordinance from four back to
six minutes plus the rebuttal period. Let's put politics behind us. Let's do what's right for the community. As Elizabeth said, going six minutes today, how many people are going to get up and talk? It's right. Let's let's let's
talk. Let's put, you know, our hats be, you know, our political hats behind us. Let's do what's right for the people. And that that's very important. Maybe I wouldn't be here so often, but that's another story. Lastly, what I want to do is I want to do a shout out
to uh the town for paving the inverted speed bumps on Grove Avenue. Finally is done. Uh came here the last meeting uh couple, you know, it's been like three months plus that I've talked about it. Uh finally got the roads paved uh nice
and smooth curb to curb as it was supposed to be done and I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Okay. Anybody else? Yes, ma'am. >> Hi. I have a question regarding the planning and engineering refunds. So,
how does a township verify that all the tree maintenance requirements are met before bonds are refunded? >> Okay. Could you first of all, would you mind giving your name and and address or just the just town? >> Um, I'm from Madawan, New Jersey, and my name is Maya, New Jersey. >> Okay. All right. And repeat your
question, please. >> Yeah. So, how does the township verify that all the tree maintenance requirements are met before bonds are refunded? >> Okay. Okay. Um, turn that over to you, Sonia. >> Sure. Is that the only question?
>> That looks like is that that's it? Okay. Um so what typically what we do and you'll see part of the backup is that the engineering uh department typically an inspector would go out there and they would visibly see that there was a replacement plan in accordance with you
know the developers agreement and anything like that. So it's all it's all going in uh making sure that the plantings are done appropriately nothing you know is dead. If it need it is dead, then it's clearly not going to be refunded until everything is replaced
and put in. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Anyone else? Yes, ma'am. If you can give your name, address, or town. >> Sure. Hi, my name is Nadia. I'm here from Edison, New Jersey, 62 First Street. Uh, my question was regarding
the police extra duty employment. Um the question was I believe how much more are the um how much more the is the fee increasing for the police extra duty? >> Okay. Did you any other questions before we get to that? Okay. I believe was it
$30 an hour extra? Was it we went it had been 50 I believe 55 to 80. >> It went to from 50 to 80. >> 50 to 80. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So it went from but and that 50 was uh that's a
number of years ago, right? >> Correct. It was back in 2018 was the last time we >> Right. >> done anything. >> Okay. Yes. >> So what we typically did was just looked at several townships and what they offer for extra duty and we just aligned ourselves with those uh with those
current rates. Um >> Okay. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes, ma'am. Hi, my name is Kayla Gonzalez. I live on 40 Sturgis here in Edison. Okay. Um my question is also regarding the refunding
tree maintenance bond. Um my question is how does the township ensure replanting and maintenance continues after these refunds are given. >> Okay. Um to that question about ensuring the maintenance of these trees once they've been they've been planted. So
there's a two-year if I'm not mistaken in which that they have to maintain that >> right there there's an inspection process but there's a two-year uh period if you will.
>> Okay. Thank you very much. Yes ma'am. >> Shia uh I I live in Edison West Grant Avenue. >> Can you speak a little bit louder into the microphone? Okay. Can you hear me now? Yes. Yeah. I'm Samia. I live near to the West Grant Avenue. >> Um I have a couple of questions
regarding the celebration we do on the lake pipani. Uh the one we did it on the sher and then next coming up I heard is a big one on Diwali. So my question is like who funded this u
um this celebrations? Is it the town? Are we renting the lake pepani or how does this uh celebration goes on like uh what from where we are getting all the fund for this celebrations? >> Okay. Did you have any other questions?
>> No, no other questions. Okay. Um I believe is this correct that we have the funds that's through recreation? Is that through recreation department and uh through DPW? >> They're donations and they're made to the recreation trust fund. Mhm. >> The duchar was a private event. It is
not a township event. Um we although we provide assistance with DPW and police um but it is their event and they manage that event. Uh with regard to Dewali that is a township event. So every all of the services including the fireworks,
the drone show, the uh DPW that is through us. We we manage that entire event. Our recreation department does. So according to you the dasher was not funded by the township. It is a private event. >> It is it is >> it was the private event.
>> It was a private event and the only thing that we provide in terms of I you want to call assistance uh is through DPW and police. >> Okay. Even the fireworks and everything has been uh privately done. >> That is their that is theirs.
>> And who who hosted this one? Um, I can certainly provide the council president with a cop with a copy of the application that was made for the Dashara event. >> Yes. And you can have the name that would have the name of the organizers. It's typically been the same organizers
the last three years that I've uh been apprised of. Um, so >> that right? >> Yes. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Very good. Thank you. >> How will I get the copy? Like >> uh you can certainly just send me an email. I'll I'll provide it to you. give
you my card and I'll send that a copy out to you. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Can I get a motion to close the oral petition? >> Motion to close the public portion. >> A second. >> Very much. Um All right. From the
council member to the planning board. >> Council President, I was not present. I just want to let those who are listening, you can also watch the full uh planning board meeting on our website and click on the TV. There's a list of
different meetings there. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Uh reports from council committees starting with uh Councilman Patel. >> None, ma'am. >> Okay. Councilman Pointer. >> Not at this time. >> All right. Councilman Coyle.
>> None. Council President. >> All right. For myself, we did not have a meeting. We didn't have enough people for the human not human relations from the cultural arts commission yesterday. So, that uh meeting will be moved to next month. Um from the animal shelter,
uh adoptions, we had six K9 adoptions, 37 feline adoptions. Currently, there are 18 kines in the shelter and 55 felines in the shelter. That's the end of my report. Uh points of light. Any points of light?
Anything? >> Just want to recognize our Rucker students here that are observing our meeting. I met one in the hallway. I assume they could be all from Ruckers, but I don't want to pre Okay, they are. Thank you for coming. >> Okay. All right. Any other points of
light? Um a couple of announcements. Um the fall leaf bag uh distribution has begun. You can pick up up to 25 bags while supplies last. Bags will be distributed at the recycling center at
7:45 New Durham Road. The hours are Monday through Friday 6:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. And that's from that was that goes on until October 31st. Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. And going forward,
that's the uh October 11th, October 18th, October 25th, and November 1st. Um, and we have uh the Dvali Festival will be on Saturday, October 25th at Papani Park. Goes from 2 till 900 p.m.
Also wanted to announce that early voting starts on October 25th at Mini Beville. Um, and those are my points of light. And so we go on to discussion items. Uh, let me start with you, Councilman Coyle.
>> I have none. Thank you, Council President. >> Okay. Councilman Patel. >> None, ma'am. >> All right. Councilman uh, Council Vice President. >> Thank you, Council President. Um, just in regards to uh, residents concerns. Um, just asking the administration
follow up on seven Brower or not seven Brow Brower Avenue. They're they're very grateful for the repaving. There were a couple extra items on there that they had asked to check up on. So, I'm just relaying. Thank you. Thank you, Council President. >> That's it. Okay. Uh for myself, um I had
two questions that came from the uh board of ed president Jerry Shei. One of them is what is the status of condemnation at 401 Division Street? What is the specific question? >> Uh the status of the status of the
condemn the followup about condemnation of 401 division street. That's what he texted me. So >> okay. Uh so we are working on an appraisal and then the part of the process is that it goes to council. There's a bond ordinance. Uh we have to
go to bound council to get that done. Um so uh that would be forthcoming. That would be part of the process. So, first appraisal uh then the bonding um and council of course. >> Okay, very good. He also asked about is would it be possible to add an ordinance
of any new homes around a school having a sidewalk? Would that be a would that be something that if we wanted to that the town could could propose? >> What's it? >> You already have one. the or the the most recent ordinance to count council
vice president's point it requires a sidewalk. >> So the the current current ordinance reads that anything within a 2-m radius of a new con of a school if there is construction. Now if they're before okay like the planning board or something
they can make a a waiver request but that is on the board's prerogative of whether >> okay >> that's granted with like >> so that's already in place >> saying okay very good thank you um and I just wanted to report since my question two weeks ago that lots has happened on
110 Clive that the the um dredging of the pond has been taking place. They've gotten rid of all of those weeds that are probably displacing a lot of wildlife that's that's been there, but uh they're well on their way to that property getting um getting toxins out
of there and any types of uh bad elements that would be there. So, um the work is being done, I'm happy to say. So, uh just wanted to report on that. Um, other than that, uh, I just would want to announce that the next meetings, as I said, are going to be Monday,
October 20th at 6 p.m. and Wednesday, October 22nd at 8:00 p.m. And with that, I would ask for a motion. >> You mean 7? >> Well, 7 p.m. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. Um, uh, All right. So, let me do that again. Monday, October 20th at 6 p.m.
Wednesday, October 22nd at 700 p.m. All right. Uh, motion to adjurnn. Most to adjourn. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you very much. This meeting is adjourned at 6:32 p.m. >> Right. >> See? Right.
>> All right. Okay. You may take that back.