e so is my fo okay we good okay good evening it's Monday sept September Monday February 24th uh the time is 6:02
p.m and would you please rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance 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 all right clerk we're going roll call council member brusher here council member Cole council member Harris here council member Patel here council member PTI here council member pointer present council member schmuel here okay Madame
clerk could you read adequate notice adequate notice of this meeting as required by the public meeting Act of 1975 has been provided by the annual notice sent to the home News Tribune Star Ledger Desi talk and news India times on November 18th 2024 and post domain Lobby mpal complex on that same
date okay we open up oral petitions and remarks yes Esther good evening Council I'm here tonight excuse me Esther can you just give your name Esther barin Dunham Avenue Edison thank you I'm here tonight
to ask Council to vote in favor of a resolution in support of a bill in the New Jersey legislature called the climate Superfund act in the New Jersey senate it's Bill s 3545 sponsored by John mcken and Bob
Smith and in the assembly it is a 4696 sponsored by John Allen Garrett Hall and alixan colazo Skil there are also many co-sponsors including our own Senator Dagan and assemblyman carabin this bill would hold
certain fossil fuel companies liable for damages to our homes and infrastructure that have been caused by the effects of climate change that their industry policies and practices brought about over
decades specifically since 1995 it would also help fund climate change adaptation and resiliency projects whereever needed especially our roads Bridges transportation and energy
infrastructure the funds would be collected and distributed by a new program established at the njde there are numerous reasons why this bill is necessary and your support of this resolution will send the message to
our state legislators that we want them to approve it and approve it this year as you know our climate has been heating up for decades and 2024 saw the highest average global temperature in recorded history the consequence of rising
atmospheric and oceanic temperatures have resulted in disruptive and dangerous climate activities such as stronger and more frequent hurricanes heavier rainfalls alternating with periods of drought affecting Farm crops
the livelihood of farmers and our food supply we have seen flooding of our ocean fronts rivers and streams including the raran and boundbrook causing loss of homes and other personal property hotter temperatures throughout the seasons put us at risk for sea level
rise forest fires habitat disruption species loss and increase in Vector born diseases life-threatening health risks to outdoor laborers and the list goes on the mitigation of the damages and losses caused by the activities of the fossil
fuel industry has been and will continue to be expensive with the taxpayers on the hook if we don't act going forward there are two new developments that make this legislation crucial many insurance companies are no longer willing to offer
homeowners insurance that could help homeowners recoup losses caused by climate damage or they are making premiums unaffordable to many and anyone with a mortgage must have homeowners insurance and two the Trump Administration is less likely to approve
funding to help individuals and states with climate recovery and resiliency efforts and has already blocked the funding previously appropriated we should be holding fossil fuel companies accountable for the consequences of
their activities that they knew decades ago would be harmful I've already submitted a copy of the resolution as well as the copy of the climate Superfund Act councils that have already passed resolutions are Hoboken parcion Jersey
City Red Bank Maplewood South Orange and t- Neck New York and Vermont have already passed the the law I am asking Council to give this request your serious attention approval of a resolution in support of the New Jersey
climate super fund act will send a clear message to our legislators and our governor that we want this bill approved ASAP so thank you and I hope to have some positive results thank you Esther
thank you okay anyone else Joel Joel bass off Beach Lane Edison I have a question about um how Edison is going to deal with its affordable housing obligation I know that at the Jan anuary meeting there was a
resolution on the agenda where Edison would adopt its obligation for affordable housing uh that resolution never came up for a vote because the council lacked a quarum uh and thus Edison missed its statutory deadline to
adopt such a resolution by January 31st if it wanted to be able to uh afford itself immunity from Builders remedy lawsuits uh the Amendment to the fair housing act did give a grace period if a
municipality failed to meet a statutory deadline because of circumstances beyond the municipality's control so I expected that at the last February meeting the resolution would have been on the agenda
but it wasn't um so has the council been apprised of how Edison is going to fend off Builders remedy lawsuits since the township has not calculated its own affordable housing
obligation and other towns have uh adopted resolutions where they've come up with numbers that are much lower than the state's numbers for instance um East Brunswick adopted an affordable housing resolution where they
showed that they had an obligation that was a fraction of what the state had assigned to them uh why didn't Edison follow a strategy like that and what would we say to members of the public who are thinking that by the administrations and councils in action
we're just opening up ourselves to builders remedy lawsuits which means that developers will determine where affordable housing development will go rather than the residents of Edison through our elected Council so that's
one question I have um another question is um um the local Finance board has set a a deadline for the administration's transmission to the Council of a budget for the first council meeting following
the end of February and the council insists that that deadline be met so that the council will have adequate time to review the administration's budget proposal and along those lines the um
statute also requires that uh the department heads uh have public hearings to present their budget proposals for the upcoming fiscal year uh Edison hasn't been doing that uh will
the council start to insist that the administration comply with state law and do that other towns do it so I don't know how Edison gets away with not doing that and finally uh I have to say um I really resent as a taxpayer paying for
campaign materials I'm holding up a refrigerator magnet uh that clearly says Mayor Sam Sam Joi um getting things done um but to get any useful Municipal information uh you really need a magnifying glass to see the uh
Township's website uh and phone number so is the council going to do anything to prevent the administration from continuing to use taxpayer money for what is clearly campaign material thank you thank you um let me go to counselor
first about the affordable housing question yeah um are you done I'm not gonna I'm not gonna have do a back and forth of no I'm G I'll wait till his time expires and then I'll answer his question because I'm not going to go back and forth Wester what council president am I gonna are we going to do
it back and forth or is this going to be an answer to his question no and any questions you have afterwards can be taken offline okay it's it's particularly um comical to me that uh Mr bassoff stands up here and asks about the affordable housing situation he had
raised his question last month through the council president I took time to meet with you and provide you an answer to this question at the mayor's state of the township address and I explained the the strategy that was being employed and you applauded that strategy that was
being done and you stand up here tonight as if we never had that conversation I that I did not answer your question and are now saying that that strategy somehow exposes the township to some additional liability so I just please
don't waste my time in the future if you want answers to real questions I'm happy to give them to you but what I'm not going to do is to just uh allow you to play politics but I'll answer the question again for the benefit of the public okay for the Public's sake the immunity that is ex that exists under
the affordable housing law exists through June okay um this new law provides DCA provided uh numbers given by DCA these numbers are not in Edison's interest and you and I explained that we we talked about that we talked about how
the numbers that DCA put forward for this Council to adopt are way too high and they don't take into account real developable land in Edison so it was this administration's position to not adopt those DCA numbers and not of that
not even to provide a report in response to those DCA numbers and to proceed under the Old Law because under the Old Law we believe we can get a number that's accurate and in the best interest of Edison I explain that to you I'll explain it again for the benefit of the
public this Administration and this Le this law department will not allow DCA to dictate to Edison what is an appropriate affordable housing number it has to be a number that makes sense and that's what we intend to do thank you council president thank you um and Sonia
has has a question about the budget yes um as I explained to council president so the local Finance notice which is 202 24-20 outlines that Municipal uh Municipal budgets would need to be
adopted by March 31st or the immediate uh meeting thereafter so it could be the first meeting in April however uh we have met with all of the Departments uh that is an internal um an internal process that we do we have a finance subcommittee meeting actually coming up
tomorrow um and upon that we do uh we are going to propose together a draft budget next couple weeks I will give Council this body two weeks prior to the introduction um all of the documents all of the backup and as you recall the last
two three uh budget Cycles I've met with each council person uh whether it's Zoom or Facebook you know in person I will do that as well and take whatever time is necessary to do so so that is our budget process in the last um few years my
experience as a uh Municipal uh employee we've done it that way um I think the earliest this Township's actually adopted a budget in the last few years well last five five eight years has been June and uh we're hoping to get that done sooner than later at least to
introduce this to this body by the end of March um Joel I think your other question was about your resenting the what seems to you like campaign materials that was in the safety uh thing um then you asked
what we are going to do about that yes um does anyone have an answer as to what we want to do about that um Sonia or or can um this has been an issue that has been coming up amongst
a lot a lot of the residents and so um I don't know how the administration wants to go forward with this uh you know again I'm going to look at legal and um quite frankly council
president um these are heay um and I can't substantiate those I don't think there's any response for that what's that I don't think we have a response to that council president I I mean at the end of the day I think I'm seeking legal counsel um to take a look at the literature that's
been put out um because I myself as a resident if if I truly believe that this is um funds ill spent um like the police to Chicago right I as a resident have a right to sue the mayor to recoup the
funds for the township um so I've been talking to a couple terms have them look at it C councilman absolutely we'll certainly take a look at it and give you an opinion on it I have not seen it but if someone can provide it to me I'm happy to give you that opinion I would have an attorney because they're looking at um there's an elect
law that certain things that the mayor or or or elected officials were to put out on a um site like this that during election time would be considered campaign contributions or something um that's what the one attorney has found so far
for me so I know they're they're looking into that personally for myself as a resident anyway thank you thank you okay oor [Music] OCT Nasser um could the council clerk pass out the papers that I requested
also on this side we did not take kindly to the lawyer's remarks that wasting your time you're going to be here anyways you're supposed to be here to answer the questions the tone that you have not if you lie if you lie and you present it as if I haven't provided you information when I have that's that's particularly disturbing time right now
no you're you're asking me a question question I was making a statement actually okay so I was saying that you're here to go ahead and answer questions or you know say whatever you have to say but you don't have to say in the tone that you said it that's all I'm saying there was no question there okay all right so if you don't want to agree
with that that's fine so I tried to be efficient by contacting offline as we were said that we can do business more efficiently um but it didn't work out also I wanted to commend a library board for actually going from three minutes to four minutes on my request so they have a smaller agenda than you guys
do but they're foring us the same amount of time so it's a little ridiculous that you guys cut back our time now I want to talk about vacancies on board six months ago I raised the issue about vacant boards and commissions today I checked to see that there are also vacant boards it's hard to navigate through the
website and try to find out what actually is active and which ones aren't so I think we need to do a change there but one of the things that I requested in my email was that the Edison website the one that we spent a lot of money on does have have the ability to go ahead and have popups on the main page so I was thinking that if we can go ahead and
announce broken water pipes and if we can have last minute cancellations announced there why can't we go ahead and quarterly write down what boards are available in fact if you guys are actually trying to get the best residence in there because most people don't know those boards exist but the response was from ba that here is a link
to get to the boards but that is not what I asked and I've asked multiple times but it seems I'm being ignored now I still believe in that idea but the other idea that I had was since this goes out to every person supposedly the Illuminator and it is a prop I'm allowed
to hold it up then I think that that is another place that we can go ahead and advertise it because it is a physical form that goes to every person whereas a website not maybe everyone navigates to it so just ideas that we can go ahead and try to involve all of the public other concerns that I have about
procedures rushing through things um we should have some standards that we follow for instance it sounded like that in last year at least you have to have a printed copy of something and that if it was in a digital form it wasn't allowed so I would like to know what is the
ruling on that is it digital or is it paper is it both can you vote on it if it's digital because it's confusing if an application has a technical error would that mean that it should be returned and corrected or can you vote on it despite that what types of things
are Urgent to fill what kind of boards are Urgent to fill I believe that the planning board didn't have a member in there and the ter the term expired um so what is it that makes us have to urg urgently go through something I would like you to look at the papers that I gave you right now it seemed that the
council rushed to get the positions filled for that position nothing again would have happened if you had delayed the vote what I want you to look at is on one the applications pay attention to the part where it says for which board commission or committee would you like to be considered the answer is full-term
voting member I do not know what position that is and I don't know how that can be an answer to that question now how did this Candace application leave the hands of the mayor and then go to the council without anybody picking up on it I know how some
of you guys are you know stickler for details how could you miss that shouldn't the mayor have caught that during the interview I know that this candidate is very good friends with the mayor so maybe it was you know a very casual conversation or I know that the application was in 12:14 the vote was
1223 so I think that everybody though um doesn't matter if you're a friend or not their application should be thoroughly read I run out of time okay thank you um so octar I I think uh actually this
is one of councilman Pointer's uh questions or discussion points isn't it about the vacancies on the on the boards and uh right right so um this is this is definitely an issue and we want people to be be applying for the boards and we have applications back there on the
table but a lot of people aren't aware of what boards are and what vacancies there are I like your idea about posting them in the Illuminator I don't know how um I'm not sure how obsolete that might be by the time it gets out to the
Illuminator but I think I think that's a good idea um so Sonia um Can is there something more that we can do to publicize and to get the word out about not just the boards that exist or the or the
committees or commissions that exist but also the vacancies that are on there that would be EAS easy to navigate for the average resident um as I indicated to uh Mr Nasser it is on the website um I can certainly try to collaborate with the
clerk's office about how to get it out there um or anyone else so I will get back to to you on that okay um and then OCT uh I I you you you were asking something about the applications digital written and I
wasn't quite understanding what the question was on that so if you you can answer that so when you guys are voting I know that there was something with Joel basso way back when I think it was for I don't remember what it was for off top my head right now but um they were GNA say that no we can't vote on it because he didn't have the papers to
give to everybody the physical copy luckily he had just enough copies at that moment I'm sorry just because it's a back and forth and I think I can address the question that you're looking to get to um at the time this is was in regards to the public Advocate ordinance as the
council president I was not provided the copy of what the ordinance was so in order for me to actually see what it was I asked for the physical copy of it that was presided presented and went forward
so it wasn't that digital verus paper if there's no trace of it then a physical copy needs to occur we've had other instances where a digital copy has been sent out but that was done prior to the meeting actually facilitating so I hope
that addresses the the question that I have yes thank you Council vice president thank you octar thank you council president yes uh I would like Sonia if we can have on the website uh the ability to post upfront uh I do like the idea and I think that was the point
of the website update that we can communicate with residents that instead of having it on the a specific link but we can have it up front and Central it it is if you scroll it's it's on the front if I'm not mistaken okay we can take this off we'll
take it take it off okay all right thank you uh Joyce Joy ship Edison New Jersey uh starting off um I don't think people should talk to people in a mean tone when they're not allowed to speak
when you say back and forth I don't care who it is you should be mean to people hold on one second Joyce hold on you stopping I'm gonna have to go back to the old school because I'm having a problem with the computer okay all right okay okay all right continue sorry
Joyce okay um with the tone so I would like I would like to ask for a copy of an annual debt statement from 2021 versus annual debt statement this year which should be available by the
end of February I can get that and on a good note I would like to applaud uh cu I've read a lot about domestic violence i' like to applaud councilman ptil was his involvement in helping out with domestic violence the whole time I
was up there so thank you very much for that at all and I the library I'd like to thank teore Davis when I was on a library board who initiated the funding for the actual library and I like
to I would say something about the bike path because every day I go home every I'll be scared to ride a bike in Edison I see like two accents every day while I'm riding the street I'll be terrified it's a good thought but I i' be very terrified
um now if you do a deposition is that under oath somebody would like to know is that under oath and if it's under oath can you like lie and say you graduated from college or have a degree or something you don't
have okay then my other question um is about Edison police department is not civil servant so how is their guidance and their governance related to the
state okay just for question and I also Comcast and Optimum and a bunch of people that screaming and yelling because Comcast is just coming by digging up their stuff and leaving stuff there at all I I still
stay with Optima because I got a good price and let's see the domestic violence the bike P Library board okay those are those are my questions that I would have at this particular time Joyce can you just repeat the one about the Edison police department what was your
question about that I'm saying since Edison police department is not civil servant um what is their jurisdiction and related to the uh state of New Jersey police okay okay okay all right
thank you um uh so Sonia can you get uh get for uh Joyce the annual debt statement for 2021 and 2025 when that becomes available um all of the financial documents are on the website and they go back to 2010 okay okay uh
and counselor uh counselor uh the question about depositions being under oath and Edison police department sure uh councilwoman the the uh all depositions are under oath you take an oath at the beginning and if you uh are uh if you
willingly lie under de under oath then you're subject to whatever penalties that could be potentially perjury I guess um as your question about the police department I'm going to do my best the police department is subject to um all uh applicable state law uh
there's oversight from the Attorney General's office as well as the County prosecutor's office as well so um I I hope that answer your questions even Civil Service only pertains to the practice of hiring and um and the rules
governing your job once you're in that job but I I'm not sure some municipalities are in Civil Service some aren't um but both are subject to law uh regardless of whether or not the Civil Service hopefully that answer something okay thank you all right thank you very
much um yes yes finny is the computer working again all right cool good evening everyone I appreciate the opportunity here to speak uh but before I begin I must address a critical issue that impacts us all like our speaking time for years residents were
given six minutes to voice our concerns ask questions and hold this Council accountable now that time is being respect restricted let's get this straight it isn't about efficiency it's about control it's about silencing the very people who elected you the council
president Margot Harris you have the power to restore the full speaking time you can negotiate and push back and use your position to advocate for the people but you choose not to this is by Design it's not about leadership it's about doing the bidding of Sam Joi he gets
what he wants less transparency less accountability and uh and less of the people's voices heard in this Council Margo you have more power than you let on if you truly respect the people of Edison prove it don't be a figurehead
for the mayor be a leader for the residents who put you in that seat you said you like seeing your name on the Edison signs well we don't like when members of the council speak for hours on end but the people only get four minutes our voices uh I'm sorry the
people only get four minutes to voice our concerns how is that right uh are we being treated as second class citizens when you resp restrict our speaking time but allow your allow yourselves the luxury of endless discussion you were showing us that our voices don't matter
and that only the council memb voices matter that's not democracy that's not leadership I was speaking to Joe Coyle when he said he would like each of the council members to speak for five minutes each council member should have the same amount of time allotted to express their opinions like any other
member of the public if you get five minutes we get five minutes otherwise it should be 4 minutes just like us and let's talk let's talk about the treatment of those who dare to stand up against the system look at kristo time and time again he has fought for the people spoken out against corruption and
demanded accountability for uh for that he's being targeted silenced and disrespected or take scalo where the chief poked his belly you know the guy um all he wanted to do was simply talk to the chief instead of being heard the
chief tried to frame him for assault and lied multiple times about it he mistreated he was mistreated and pushed aside this pattern in Edison this is the pattern in Edison uh challenge the power structure and you will be punished for it sco is actually putting together a
more intricate report for internal affairs and Professional Standards Chief Tom Bryan is actually not scared of scalo it was all an act to create a narrative of chaos which disrupted the meeting but the meeting was already already over and it was actually
interrupted by Nish Patel and then let's not forget about Sonia and her actions when she lied in an official report about chriso when I attempted to play evidence of Sonia fabricating false narrative that she actually uh started
Maro you shut me down that won't happen again so when it's my time to speak you must let me speak when you said I would I would be removed you said I would be removed if I didn't st stop let's see how that plays out it didn't go well last time when Joe bus off was removed
for holding the flag so I'm going to play the video I'm sorry EXC stop his time I'm sorry as I told you Vinnie I can't I can't allow this because this is under litigation so I'm going to ask you to stop threaten I'm ask you to stop if you
don't stop and then I'm going to ask you to sit down and for your time I'm going to have to seeing that you're not going to do that I'm going have to ask you to leave yes I'm going to have to ask we discussed
this thank you I still have 25 seconds yes you do I yeah I'd like to finish not with the video I have one paragraph left okay and we have the police here to try and escort me out that's crazy same thing
that happened to Joel for exercising his right no one's escorting Free Speech the people deserve the people of Edison deserve better we deserve transparen transparency accountability and the council and a council that
listens to us I will continue to stand here speaking for the people whether I'm allowed or not thank you Vinnie and Vinnie for the record for the record I agree with you about the restoring the time plan to bring it up again I also
agree with you that uh that failing that then we do have to take a look at maybe restricting the council the the council memb time of speaking I agree with you 100% so this will be back it will be back thank okay that's fine council president
yes I'd like to comment sure um as far as cutting council members time I could tell you there is nothing more that this mayor would want but to limit my speech to one minute AG
okay because I'm I'm the one that brings up all of the items that are inappropriate here um so yes please um don't dare him he does have four votes on this Council and they could possibly
do it um you know and I would hate not to be able to speak until June 10th when the election is over thank you thank you coun president yes just uh two remarks um first that was an item that was brought up to the subcommittee
subcommittee turned it down uh and since Robert's Rules is generally mentioned in this chamber uh Robert's Rules says for any debatable item that the time limit for anyone up here is actually 10 minutes so I invite anyone that is interested to check that out thank you
council president thank you anyone else okay yes Lefty Edward Lefty Grimes sativa cross .org where 501c3 here in New Jersey fighting for disability rights and cannabis patients rights uh I love political theater don't
you I really do I'm I'm very good at political theater I've been to hundreds and hundreds of Council meetings all over New Jersey but today I'm not here for political theater I want to tell you a little story my uh my father was in Vietnam he was a CB in Vietnam the CB is
the guy that builds stuff they build Bridges they build things and um he was in Vietnam and he was in prison Vietnam and when he came home from Vietnam he had PTSD and you know everyone spit on when he came home and all that and we know all know the story and with his PTSD he
uh wound up shooting himself in the head and spent um the rest of his life in a wheelchair because he lived after shooting himself in the head so when you say that some vets uh give all all give some some give all my dad gave it all he
gave it all all for you guys and what I saw here a few months ago when you guys disrespected Disabled Vets by making them go up that side of a mountain that was really really hit home for me because you know that was really disgusting and um I'm not going to uh
unsee that councilman Bru did you ever get an answer from the ba about the um the ADA compliance paperwork um I'll answer okay I'd like to get that answer because I know the answer the answer is no
because no engineer is going to put their name on a on a Ada qualified ramp because it's it's got to be one inch per foot and that's way more than one inch per foot and that was in the rain you did that to disabled people two times in the
rain and so I bring this wheelchair every every time I come here I'm going to bring this wheelchair and I'm going to ask the the people that conspired I'm going to call it a conspiracy to close the handicap access let's review what happened the handicap access was closed for two meetings because of the flag ban
and the uh the turmoil from that so you decided to hurt disabled vets and block off their access the chief blocked off the access with barricades and police cars so disabled people a a woman with one leg had to walk up that hill no railing no lighting was terrible so yeah
I'll be here with this wheelchair until one of you goes up that ramp uh the chief's not here I'm going to bring it back for the chief cuz I want the chief to go up the City attorney uh Burns was here uh for in your place well will you take Burns's place will you go up that that hill in that that wheelchair will
you do it you know this is and tell the chief that that video of the belly bump is almost up to two million views and I'm will to Archive it because I'm not here for hits I don't even make money off that stuff I'm not
I'm not monetized I'll archive that video because I'm here for awareness I want the chief to go up in that wheelchair and see a slice of what disabled people have to go through not even a slice but a small teeny tiny bit of what disabled people have to go through in this world
and I want maybe some of you to all to go through it to take that wheelchair up that hill do it in the cold we had to do it in the rain do it in the cold so that's why I do what I do and I'm in a lot of pain today I wish this was a zoom meeting because I'm in a lot of pain they went with songs to the battle they
were young straight of limb true of eye steady and a glow they were staunch to the end against odds uncounted they fell with their faces to the foe they shall grow not old as we that are left grow old age shall not weary them nor the
years condemn at the going down of the Sun and in the morning we will remember them I yield my 5 Seconds thank you Lefty um councilman brusher we we had this discussion yesterday about the
Ada yes I I didn't see a letter from the engineer on the Ada ramp um the reason why we're requesting it um and maybe the attorney um can jump in here and help um been asking for weeks for ADA compliance
on the ramp outside the assertions been made and I tend to agree wholeheartedly with the public that what happen that evening was the chief of police and
administration conspired to shut off the only Ada access which would be the elevator down on the first floor to force Edison residents and and citizens of the United States that came that day to stand outside in the rain until
minutes before the meeting so we were told that the ramp was ADA Compliant um I did Ada work for 30 something years in Manhattan I watched the ethnical culture Society right B sued um I watched the
disability Group in New York City basically shut down the whole um uh foret the name of the organization there um histo um history preservation um for
Ada so I was told that we were going to get a letter from the engineer saying it was compliant um have yet to see it I'd like to have somebody go out there and actually see what it should be um to help you know so that we whoever in the
public is looking to you know push this forward they can get it forward so can you maybe get that information for me certainly I'll look into it thank you you're welcome next anyone else yes sir
hi everyone I'm Larry deutchman uh 25 ha uh sorry 892 Amboy Avenue Edison I don't have any paperwork I respect everything that you
guys do but as an Edison taxpayer I'm very concerned about this Recreation uh debacle I think councilman uh Richard bner actually uh announced that we should have had some kind of
third party or hand in this it going from $5 million to 11 or million and it has to be done by October of this year
why why did you allow that to happen that's my concern what how could you El let something double and you approve it and why does it have to be done by October duh November is the election
right so I'm just voicing off my opinion as an Edison taxpayer an Edison resident no paperwork nothing just to say it doesn't make any sense why do we have to pay double and
why does it have to be done by October um Sonia [Music] uh council president I didn't understand the question um I don't have a response question why does it I think the question was why does it have to be done by
October is what have I think that we're talking about the uh the is it the to Center or the sports he didn't say yeah yeah but that's pretty much implied I you will I can explain it yeah um actually for the children the
children need it in August um come November the children can't use the facility any longer um well they can't use it till the following season um predominantly it was designed for the uh football and cheerleading
squad the reason why they got that October date was because of the delays so the contractor um put a request in for x amount of days and the the days brought him out to um like
October um you know to get us there and that was were because of the delays that basically happened um because of poor design or mismanagement at the beginning of the project where it it lingered and it the public just found out now um we
had a similar instance where we had a uh school I believe um I think it was James Monroe where while they were building the school they had delays anday delay and delays and they notified the public of like a six Monon delay and it was a
couple months before the project was supposed to be done um you know I've always advocated that Council should be updated on on a monthly basis to see that we're making the schedules and deadlines because we approved funding so but you know right we don't get that the
township uh Administration they manage everything that's their job right if they do a great job you vote them back in if they do a poor job you vote them out um that's how I kind of always looked at it but yes it's a debacco we are um going to even spend more money and we're
going to have questions later on here that I have I believe are going to be affiliated with that same Sports Complex but we'll we'll get to that a little later the only thing I have to say is I I'm an Edison resident from the 80s I
grew up in Woodbridge Township I attend the Woodbridge Community Center every day why do they have it down pat and that project was done and it's incredible and they make tons of Rue sir your time is up thank you thank you very
much and we can't thank you soup hello sumon Barber Pleasant Avenue um I I also have questions about the um affordable hous
um Council said that the immunity exists through June what what is that immunity from that's one question and then I I think it's it's after that developers can swoop in and do what they want and
if we haven't proposed anything so um you also said we will be proceeding under the Old Law um doesn't the Old Law um isn't the Old Law superseded by the
new one okay you can explain that and then so many so many townships and municipalities have pushed back on this that the state has you know they're putting affordable housing on everywhere
and um many have proposed written a proposal that said this is what we think is reasonable how come we haven't done that and do we plan to to do that before June um considering if June is the date that
we're going to be in trouble okay that's those are my questions okay thank you Council thank you okay um so the your first question I believe was what is it immunity from it's from a builder remedy lawsuit so no Builder remedy lawsuits
can be filed prior to June we still have that immunity um before June or around that time we we will find our own we will file our own declaratory judgment action which will extend that immunity while the courts decide what is the
appropriate plan so instead of under and what the new law allows you to do is you can proceed under both you can proceed with the DCA number and then fight about that or you can bring your own action um and what you do at that time instead of doing the two-part process is what this
law does it allow it says come up with a number then come up with a plan what we're doing is going we're going to file an action and then come forward with the number and plan together at one time so at no point will we be subject to Builder remedy lawsuits because we will file that action in advance of our
immunity ending in June or sometime in June I know the exact day for you but it's in the month of June hopefully that answers your questions okay and then the other one was about the new law superseding the Old Law you can proceed under operate under one or the other I think it's kind of
the way the ambo Avenue zoning was okay I understand that okay thank you thank you council president yes just to Clarity with our attorney um is it an option where we have um
certain lowincome housing that could be falling off the market and turning to market rate and as opposed to us having to build whatever 600 units we could negotiate to um keep those for an
additional 20 years question just stop the clock one more question it's really quick I'm sorry Rich go ahead sue you want who you want sorry let's I didn't want it to run out um so just one more question about
Amboy Avenue and the repaving I think AJ you know about this can you talk to that a little bit do we have the funds there where are the funds in the budget um to to repay because the sewers are kind of sunk in
council president uh this yeah sure are you okay yes this is the discussion line atem so I'll be asking series questions on that topic this is the discussion item for me than councilman Brasher did you want to continue I can answer your
question if you okay um yes it was a question for the attorney uh Administration you know yes Council uh councilman the um if there are deed restricted properties that are set to expire there that is one way to meet your affordable housing requirement is
by extending those uh uh deed restrictions on those affordable units but I'd have to look at them individually to see if that's a possibility right I would is that something that we would be looking into certainly yeah all right thank you thank you rob did you want to did you have
your hand up yeah go ahead Rob kentos 61 Meadow just just some clarification from the attorney why wasn't he allowed to play that recording I mean I have pending litigation against the township I'm free to speak about it up here I know other people back here have pending litigation against the
township too we can come up here and talk about it all we want is there a reason why he can't play that video we just let's ask all your questions and then we'll respond yeah no I my basic question is under what theory can I mean I was at a council meeting
Purity what the last council meeting and somebody played in audio recording does it matter what the context is the subject matter of it that's all I got Council sure I think there's a couple of reasons why uh it would be impermissible to play a video I
think the first and and obviously this is all subject to the council president's discretion so um one is first if if you allowed to just play recordings on your phone you're not really providing any public comment this is time for the public to speak on matters of importance and engage with
the governing body so um there's certainly an argument to be made that just sitting there playing recordings on your phone is not meeting the requirement of public comment um secondly um this matter is a matter of uh that is uh currently in the courts and the council president has made the
decision that we are not going to interfere in that we're going to let that process play its course play play uh you know um and the council president has decided that um we're going to let that matter play out in the courts and not here at the council meeting and that
is her discretion to do so she's the council president she presides over this meeting and she's able to make that decision if she thinks it's in the best order of this meeting thank you thank you right any other public comment yes Anthony uh Anthony Damron uh Wy a
um first question um I guess it would be to uh to the deputy chief uh if if um that's okay I was just curious to know do do we break down the crime statistics um I guess per you know uh where the hot
bed the hot times are you know and maybe what part of town they're in um and really you know dive into where where where where the crime is I mean crime is up pretty big over the last few years so compared to uh you know four years ago
so I was just curious to know do we do we look into those even deeper because I just look you know Public Safety is a major concern it's major concern for everybody it should be number one concern here for residents I believe so I'm just looking for ways to
like help you know combat this crime so if we if we have an idea of when and where these crimes are happening um then you know maybe we can Target those times more directly so you could put maybe a
task force or something like that and hit you know you want basically I I I would say I would love to have you know fully staffed police officers plus 20 that's where I go with it but we can't do that that's not realistic so the idea then would to be to get as many cars on
the on the road as possible I would think right so you would want as many Mark cars for traffic for crime scene for for you know all the all the different units just to get cars driving I I I like to I love seeing police cars
out when I'm when I'm home or around town it just it makes me feel comfortable it does makes me feel safer so um those are the things I'm just thinking outside the box um I'm just curious to know if that's those are things are those types of statistics and
um ideas are are being discussed um that's auxiliary are we're using auxiliary as as much as possible as well um so that's that's my first I guess part of my questions and the second one is I was just curious do we know
if any of those individuals illegal immigrants that were bust in over the last several years uh countless number of illegal immigrants have been deported do we know where they are have there any updates uh the mayor was very adamant
when when you know he came out finally came out after two years and and admitted that there was that was going on and he said that he would send him back to me you know Texas or Mexico well you have an person in the white house now that's actually being proactive ice
is you know going around deporting people are do we know where these people are have they been deported do we have any updates on on any of those illegal illegal immigrants that uh came to uh that were dropped off at the boat dos um
over the past three years I was just looking for an update on that and that's it I think thank you council president okay thank you um deputy chief uh the first question is about the crime stats and is there a
breakdown good evening everyone uh so in terms of crime stats we do keep UCR crime stats which is uh those are more significant crimes we do keep tabs on those uh monthly stats are acred and we do look look at more specifically where
these crimes are occurring dates times time of day areas of town so yes we can allocate resources accordingly to deal with those so that is being done uh auxiliary also you mentioned that we do have auxiliary that do extra patrols to
augment our regular patrols as well in addition to special events parades and all the other things that they do so yes they are being utilized as well okay his other question was about the status of the immigrants and do we know where they are the ones who had been bused here
well we we did have buses coming to the train station back a couple years ago um those those buses were in fact heading towards New York City um I don't know of any IM you know illegal immigrants that were dumped if you will or dropped off in Edison at that time uh if he has more
information on that you know maybe that would be helpful uh but those were destined for New York City at the time thank you very much anyone else okay we'll close the public comment and move to number five reports from all
Council motion to close the public comment oh I'm sorry G to make a motion motion sorry okay motion to close second okay good thank you um we uh we start with the reports from Council committees councilman Brer um yes unfortunately I
did not make my library board meeting um I'm going to update that with a a double one for the next one cuz I have to watch the meeting um because there were things that did transpire uh my thought was since we didn't have our meeting I didn't have anything to report
to the library but the library still has something that we have to report back to this body um so I'll be correcting that making sure I'm there anything else as as far as the uh veterans committee we have a uh meeting I believe set up with the business administrator Sonia
tomorrow um where we're going to go through the mechanisms and the process of um getting that presentation to fruition um so myself and and Sue are going to be there tomorrow thank you very much um Council
vice president thank you council president uh the environmental commission had a meeting last Thursday uh which I attended particularly on a couple of policy items um they are in support
of the bamboo ordinance that is on the agenda for today and for hopeful introduction on Wednesday uh I discussed with them the uh environmental impact study ordinance that I'm looking to have the administration review which I know
I've submitted that and on my discussion item and we are looking to uh further update the tree ordinance to uh update regulations pertaining to how trees are calculated and how they would be uh
planted uh outside of that they are working on a couple of events um environmental Earth Day with a health uh in conjunction with the uh with a health event is figured for July
and uh that's about it for the moment thank you council president thank you very much councilman Patel not at this time okay councilman PTI none at this time all right councilman SCH is not there um um okay uh I will give my
report from the cultural arts commission which was February 11th and um we um first of all we had the we we had the votes for the renewing the chair Vice chair and secretary so we renew the the
term of Tony mesero as chair Vice chair Lois tar and secretary Christine McAn uh we discussed the upcoming terms the expiration of ter terms with um several that are expiring actually next month on
the 13th and uh they need we need an official email to Mayor Joi and a cc to uh the clerk to renew the terms and and to we were talking about adding dantar is alternate an alternate number one um
and we have uh we have three people whose terms expire a year from March in in 26 and uh we have four people whose terms expire on March 13th of
27 um we are uh we are at a real Crossroads in this commission and we feel that our hands have been tied to a to a great extent because we're not we are not participating in the middle sex
County jazz festival and um it's not real clear where this jazz jazz festival is going the there indicates that he feels that they that we as a Township can do it better we're going to see about that but uh but uh we're feeling
kind of hamstrung by that we're feeling hamstrung with regard to the fonte house although I got the good news from the ba yesterday that actually it is the fron House Is Not Dead in the Water there is there work will start there again uh
sometime in the in the late spring early summer um so there is that but um we feel like we're feeling frustrated because we feel like we are playing small ball and we would like to do some big things and we're H we're happy to do
some of the smaller things but uh we are going to have a there's going to be a meeting with the mayor next month to discuss what the future of this commission is and what we can get done um the uh Gallery display next
month will be for women's history month and uh let's see if there's anything else um next meeting will be March 11th and uh we we'll be having uh the interim um DPW
director Tony Costa join us with that and inviting mayor josi and Bob deal because it's it's going to be uh our anniversary of having become a commission so that is my report um let's go on to Points of Light anyone have
points of light yes Council Patel I had the honor to attend the ground U the construction beginning of the North End Library the main North library and it was very exciting I'm super looking forward to
4,000 extra square feet that we will have for the residents uh for me libraries have always been important that that are the place that I learned to speak English that's the place where I learned uh a lot of things that I still use today uh and I hope that you
know we can build a library that will carry on for the next generation and give them something uh insightful from there okay thank you very much any other Points of Light okay I just want to get back to you uh councilman sh you weren't here when we were talking about the council
committees were there any committee reports not at this time okay thank you all right now we move on to from the business administrator um any comments or questions all right seeing none we move to the Department of Finance uh I suspect there
will be questions and comments about this uh so um questions and comments about the finance Department of Finance uh council president if I could go last so I'm not accused of speaking for 10 minutes maybe my colleagues will
cover some of my items I think that's a good plan I like that all right coun uh any questions about uh number a Department of Finance question councilman P question on d uh I think you know we are
referring this to the packet that we have handy here the first thing there is a type of meeting on to 2066 2025 if you can correct that hopefully it is to 26 or 26th of February
2025 this subject date is incorrect uh but the this temporary appropriation is this for the quarter next quarter combined together or It generally Co covers a third of um the 2024 budget
correct but it's onethird of what first quarter or it the second quarter the year it's the year oneir of the year so this is one/ third of the year so the question there if we look at the salaries on mayor it says 9,000
something somewhere if I look at is that the correct number there if you scroll through it's on the right on the third page mayor salary 9,986 if it is 1/3 is it of that's what I was asking question is one/ thir of the quarter
one3 of what that would be in addition to what was already done and so if you look at the um both lines uh 20 the temporary budget so look at those okay so in fact I would have
preferred this document we prepared a little differently because it's a summary it says 9,986 do you have the backup that was submitted yeah this one yes yes I do but again the numbers are different if it says the in heading this is in addition
to what you see but the heading is 2025 -02 budget emergency appropriate so I got the number of business admitter salary everything is fine uh but that's kind of caught my eyes here so that number looks a little different same
thing is for the council salary is that in addition to what we have and I have a question on what is those other expenses for Council $9,000 so councilman the in January Council adopted a temporary budget which was generally provided around
26% uh of the 24 budget to get us through the first couple of months so the 9, $986 you're referring to uh under mayor salaries and Wages that's then in addition to what was appropriated in
January bringing the total to approximately $47,000 which will take us to onethird of the Year 33% yes exactly exactly so generally all the temporary emergency Appropriations uh will take us
operationally through the end of April however there are some items that are greater than 33% because of the timing of our uh obligations such as pension payments we're required to pay those to the state
100% on April 1st we have lease payments due on police cars uh insurance payments due for our liability insurance Etc so there's certain things where you'll see the funding is greater than 33%
understood because those are the heavy payments we do it early on the year because of the those are obligations to us exactly understand so net net there is this is to these numbers are to bring the budget appropriation to 33% or
33.33% technically is that okay correct that's the objective thank thank you council president okay thank you and anyone else have questions about eight all right councilman Brasher okay um right
so just for the record um we had a resident that asked about getting the budget done early um Sonia can I get the budgets from the dates that they were introduced to the council from the rigliano mayor
rigliano um I I think the town clerk would be able to get those for you since they were adopted by resolution Cheryl can I get them because I'm GNA that'll be a discussion item for next meeting
um so you want to know when under mayor ever know yes when she introduced the budget she she had four years um and you know four years they did it I mean I understand when you say that you've done it for three years just because you've
done it doesn't make it right just because the past administration did it didn't make it right so that's why I'm going back to what rigliano did um because I heard that actually she ran a a tight ship at that time um but
questions here so so this budget here this will pay us for January February March and April but yes essentially okay but we're we're going to approve the budget um March 1st no no it would be the second meeting
in March so introduced that does not mean that sorry right let me know when you're done I don't want to interrupt you f yes I said March 15th I guess roughly is when we would approve it so this this gets us January February March and all
of April so so you have a little bit of um extra money in there in case you have a problem to get you through to April is the presumption here right right uh where we would be introducing a budget and then following that we would
be adopting a budget so you you may have at some point um I I can't it has happened in the future here we may have another temporary emergency appropriation it's not uncommon um but first we're going to introduce the
budget okay all right so so that's why we end up just going to April for the 33% yes sir okay the the public employees retirement system um we have to make that full payment by April 1 yes sir and that
would be for their retirement benefits for for the employees of the township for the entire year yes sir so let me ask you a question and let let's say that we have um any employee and we make the full
payment on April 1 to the state and then the employee retires April 15th um do you have to go back and and Claw that Manny back from the state what's the process on that that's a good
question the uh bill that we're receiving and paying on April 1st of 2025 is based upon the Actuarial experience of the township actual Actuarial experience from 2023 so uh if somebody retires in
2025 that would be reflected in the bill that we get from the Division of Pensions in 2027 okay so then this is really like old money correct old bills okay
um the health insurance um that was something that we talked about last year about that going up um do we have an idea what that is anticipated to um go up this
year we're self-insured so I do understand that you know it's it is what it is but the rates for each procedure and stuff um I heard was increasing so we've we estimating uh our risk manager would
like to see us go up in the uh 8 to 10% range uh our experience has been decent uh the new level of benefits and changes that Administration effectuated through contract
negotiations has helped and kicked in and better surveillance by our risk manager is help to keep claims more reasonable if if you will uh so we've are
actually I I want to say this without we're actually in acceptable condition I don't want to say anything else other than that but acceptable condition in the self- Insurance Fund and and we've uh we feel that what we're going to
budget or proposed to be budgeted this year that it will be financially sound okay um and let me just jump down then to the insurance and shity um because I guess we have liability
coverage um You're Expecting increases in in these numbers also yes uh largely uh liability insurance has increased significantly over the past two years and again we have to make disproportionate payments
it's not monthly so we pay a big payment in January and also in May so we have to make sure our funds are available because we can't afford any slippage because otherwise we'll lose our insurance coverage and you can't um have
you gotten pricing to see what that would be if you paid it all at once or you paid it monthly or quarterly they don't give us that option this is through the GIF well okay I'm M listen I'm not telling you where to shop what
what I'm saying is so you're telling me that nowhere in the state of New Jersey I could get a policy for a municipality that could be paid on a quarterly basis um or or upfront I'm sure we can get a policy but we found from experience that the
liability and workers comp insurance coverage that we get from the GIF is significantly more reasonable than anything we could obtain from third party insurers okay have so you you've done the analysis and you have that a risk
manager shops it what every two years yeah every two two three years technically because it's a competitive contract to um they shop around um they do all of the bidding for us all right I'll I'll look at that because I yeah I think you might be able get savings
there um and now question I looked um over here we have Bond principal expenses and bond interest expenses where we're showing here at about 106% and
92% and bond anticipated notes and interest of 166% um just question overall we have bonds we have interests right I understand we have to pay that but but here we're we're frontloading it we're
paying the interest at the beginning of the year so that would be like me paying my mortgage interest on January 1 for the entire year not quite uh we're required by state law to appropriate the full amount
of our debt service for the year you we did that technically back in December Council adopted a resolution establishing the 2025 Debt Service budget and there's no provision for that because the budget like like Mr Bass off spoke about right there is something in
the budget where it says it should be done in January it it's probably tied into the same provision here it's similar but we don't make all the payments in January payments are made throughout the year we're just required to have the budget appropriation and
funding in place uh in December preceding the year following reeding okay so 2020 December 2024 we appropriated Debt Service for the full year of 2025 uh in compliance with state law
okay what's see how come we're like 166% that's as a percentage of what was appropriated in 2024 oh so it's just it's just an increase in Appropriations over the time correct okay um that that would be it
thank you anything else for number eight from Department of Finance okay moving on to nine the department of planning and Engineering comments or questions
okay uh um yes question okay uh the Milling for Woodland Avenue and old ROM Road um Can somebody explain to me what what this really is I I mean I read it I kind of seen the contract I just don't
understand what's ours and what's theirs technically um so it it would reach the um our portion we responsible for so according to the County's cost estimate um it's about 60,000 that's what we would responsible for what parts ours
and what part is there that's a part that I I couldn't discern you would like to know where the street where the line would be or the street or half a street what whatever that designation is um I know Oak Tree Road right is like a
County Road I thought this I thought Woodland was one of our roads um so my understanding and I will I'll check that for you up to Oak Tree Road um Woodland back U sort of like where the Fon house is that's our portion and
then past Oak Tre Road would be um South planfield okay yeah if you can just give me that design for um that would be it thank you okay thank you uh anyone else for number nine okay um Department of Public Works
number 10 I just yes question doesn't make a lot of sense um like I have I got $50,000 at at a dollar amount right and then I have well first of all excuse me
um councilman bresser which one are you on B oh B and C I'm going to tie them together because we're all talking about rock salt okay um how much salt do we normally use every year in in our budget I I thought it was
somewhere around 200,000 or 250,000 actually I thought from prior um prior times I'm sorry could you repeat that question what the 50 what the 50 ref references well the first question I guess is how much salt do we typically use in a
year 250,000 I I thought that was something more I think we did 200,000 okay so so we we ordered rock salt right but now we need an emergency rock salt for 50,000
at I don't have the numbers right here but that's based off the prior years contract right and now so for the 50,000 right there's a dollar amount per ton and then what's the dollar amount difference for the 200,000 because there
were two numbers in there right and one number matched the $50,000 number and the other was a couple dollars more a ton um so the rates do change from year to year if that's probably what you're
referencing week to week yeah let see if I have the other one here uh come back over that's here 62 [Music]
and okay so right so we have the the one for the $50,000 in that one there you have $59.75 a ton correct for $50,000 which we need as an emergency
type thing right I get that but then for the same company on the $200,000 one I have $59.7 cents which is the exact same number as the $50,000
one I don't know what your referencing but the two are different okay so so here let me just read it uh for the B for $50,000 one it says whereas
Morton salt at 444 West Lake Street site 3000 Chicago Illinois is awarded State contract uh to deliver Rock stor uh bid number B2 24560 in the amount of $
59.74 a ton that's for the $50,000 Rocka right now I go to the $200 rock salt right and it says whereas Morton um West Lake Street 3000 Chicago is awarded this contract as a primary
vendor in the amount of $ 59.74 per ton which is the exact same number of the one before but then you also add in another another vendor right for $625 per ton
why do we have the $50,000 one in there when the $50,000 guy is inside the next one for $200,000 for the exact same price right so let me just clarify that again um they're two separate contracts the $50,000 one references a resolution
that was previously adopted back in 24 so we were still under that contract that contract was still good up until I'll get you the exact date okay following this coming year let's say later in the year
um maybe we'll have a a oneoff October November we're talking about that that's what this second resolution references and under the middle sex County Co-op um there are two vendors this is a fall safe so having two vendors versus one is good for us um
we had an uh a lot of storms as you you've seen um in the recent just in the recent month so we've used a lot more salt than we anticip ipated so therefore um 160 was the original resolution we're adding 5 uh 50,000 so that's 210 what
we're budgeting for this year's contract okay in the later year let's say uh would be 200,000 barring you know if we had a similar season then we'd be spending more or less about the same okay so what you're telling me is
that this first one for 50,000 you're just going to try and use your funds left over from last year the new one for the 200,000 is what you're going to use for next year correct so you just made two that's why you made two separate ones but the dollar amount is the same per
ton yeah from a purchasing standpoint we have to do them separately that way okay um all right that one's good and e um the 400,000 for the plummet
what could we possibly be needing to do $400,000 worth of Plumbing for um so this covers all we do this on a yearly basis it covers all of our municipal buildings all of our public
buildings so um we do have inhouse work um that we can do and we we've continued to do um if you look on the memo we're adding Stelton Community Center so we're hoping to get some work done there um but generally speaking it covers all of
our buildings on a yearly basis so you're so we have $400,000 in plumbing we used last year that that's what we use more or less yes can I get a list of all the projects and the work that they build for for All Plumbing sure for for
the $400,000 that they spent last year or or they are close to it can I get that for tomorrow before our meeting on Wednesday we'll get your report all right thank you that would be a council president all right on to U Department of Water and Sewer questions
comments okay seeing none from the Township Clerk um any questions or comments about the ordinances liquor license or on resolution of February's Black History
Month council president yes thank you for writing the uh recognizing in the February as a Black History Month uh this was 11th hour but thank you for accommodating the request oh absolutely it's uh it's long overdue it's long overdue um I would just like to say that
the I'm I'm really happy about uh this was councilman Pointer's ordinance about adopt an area program I think this is a wonderful program and I would love to see a lot of people get involved in making this uh making our surroundings
more um more attractive and getting rid of litter and doing some pruning and things like that so I think this is a great idea um I'd also with regard to the bamboo ordinance uh I want to thank Brenda Eagle who was uh persistent and
really wonderfully persistent in getting this uh in getting this on here bamboo is very invasive and uh so this is going to be a positive a positive step um anyone else about uh Township Clerk um okay yes I was just going to say you
know I the bamboo ordinance right well well it seems frustrating um with the emails and the follow-ups um she did a phenomenal job of making sure that everybody was kind of on top of it um
and there were a lot of things to consider I know um myself and my Council colleague um we we talked about different ways to kind of take this um but but I think this is important I think it's good I've seen bamboo that's been really overgrown um in areas and it
becomes evasive to Nature uh to their neighbors you know what I mean and and so I think this is a good thing for us to kind of put up here and and straighten out and I appreciate the councilman John Pointer's um help with this thank you thank you council president yes I do want to also mention
the adoped era program I think it's a great initiative the councilman pointer has started and I think it' be great for any businesses that want to take care of their neighborhood espec to make create an attractive area and it will also help them market and down the road from what I believe so I think it's a great
initiative thank you Council point Thank You council president yes um I'll save the majority of the comments for the introduction but I do appreciate you adding that to the agenda uh for your persistence as well adding the bamboo ordinance onto the agenda and councilman
ptil for your um desire for the uh Black History Month resolution I appreciate that thank you counc president council president only I have one question on the bamboo ordinance it's it's great that you know finally it is coming to the reality uh hopefully with this
Council support with 70 what happens to someone who has already planted bamboos I have seen many houses in the North End of the town they have bamboos like a fence and they're probably 10 15 ft tall
and they're growing so what happens like is it grandfather bed or will enforce to change it or how that would work maybe question to it me Council po Council vice president did you have an answer for that I believe it's grandfather I
would defer to legal on that I know the issue because it's a it it spreads through the route right so it's not it's a little tougher to contain in that aspect so I don't know if there's a way to actually restrict any of the previous uh but to your direct question I think the the councilman's correct um I'll
take a closer look at that have an answer for you on Wednesday but I have to differ I have to agree with the council thank you okay all right um council member to the planning board is not here tonight so uh we move on to
unfinished business any any Council comments on the ordinance about adding residential parking Zone to a section of Chapel Street okay seeing none we go on to discussion items and councilman Brasher
I will start with you all right um and and this I guess I'm going to go to the attorney uh number one fire alarm I was looking for an update on our fire alarm systems um in our buildings and when I say that I mean
like any and all reports um if something's under repair right um when the contract was given where we are in the process of that you know so like if you said that we're going to change whatever 20 smok heads um how many are
done right this very second kind of thing I want to make sure I understand because I'm smoke alarms that you want me to get do smoke alarms fire alarms right or fire in public buildings um yeah in our
Township Public buildings yeah um Sonia does know about it but I'm just trying to get that um like reports so I understand where I am status wise and everything okay council president um our fire chief is here and has been working with DBW on so that he may have an update for
councilman if that's if that's acceptable yes Chief with the fire alarm system in town hall um I'm given an expected date end of March or beginning of April uh even speaking with the acting DPW director if you walk around you'll see all the smoke
detectors with the orange C on them they're not in this room and they're also putting strobes in there too as they're doing it I added 52 regular smoke detectors and at each elevator on both sides and down in the basement there's 10year sealed CO detectors
because it says in the code if you decrease the efficiency of your system you could add more but I the projected time frame for this building is in the beginning of April end of March I know they're working daily on it I don't know about weekends but I know they're working daily there's a big crew in here whoever the contractor is all right
Chief I'd like to see their um do they sign in when they come here I'd like to see their Manpower reports I would have to go through Administration to DPW for that cuz that's who they report to what whatever you need to do to get me it I'm I'm happy where I'm going what I'm not
happy about was you telling me April okay I actually find that unacceptable so that's why I'm looking for the their Manpower reports when they started how many men they had each day you know I mean if they got three guys you might think that's a lot I I don't think it's enough for them to take care of this
town I think they can actually have this done mid-march and we're at the end of February um at this point so if you can just get me those I'd appreciate it understood with the administration I'll go through DPW thank you and to the attorney that's what I'm looking
for um holidays and I brought this up before and I'm going to bring it up every year um this Township has some kind of bizarre holiday schedule and I do understand it's contractual um they have like Lincoln's
birthday and Washington's birthday when no one else on the planet has those days and I've spoken to many employees about it and we have juneth I don't think that's a holiday here um I would like to
see if there's a way to swap one of those for juneth and and the reason why I I I I say something like that is they have these two holidays and they're like right after each other and in the middle of the winter um I don't think people need those two holidays I don't think
anybody wants those two holidays then but they might appreciate them when the weather is a little nicer so conman rer I believe and correct me if I'm wrong I believe that juneth is a holiday is it a holiday now is it it's not no no oh okay
all right so for the people that celebrated it would be nice for the people that that don't celebrated right they're going to give up a day in the winter for a day in the summer and and it seems like everybody's a fan of that it's just a matter of um like speaking
to the I guess the unions um right the um end of the contracts is 2027 we've already um negotiated all of that well well no I understand that but um well when I was on the school board uh I don't know what do they call that a
sidebar something like that um to uh open up a a discussion about changing a holiday date or something there's a mechanism for it I don't know the exact terminology but both parties would need to they would both want to in order to
reopen a contract both parties would have to agree to do so right so right that that was my other thing I mean I would recommend asking um not none of the unions have told me that they've been asked uh okay that's enough
holiday uh accusation right Ada we're going to get that information um crime uh yes crime is very important like I said um under this Administration crime has went up
72% um I know our chief has showed me data in the past so so they do know which where crime takes place um but I've always advocated for our Police Department I've talked to the chief numerous times about this um is giving the public a heads up and a
notice uh because if we know about it then we're looking for things right if we don't know we walk through life blindly like victims uh and and this is hitting home because I guess the chief probably knows uh there was an event at
at my next door neighbor's house um so this just happened after we had something on Roxy you know so so these events aren't stopping uh they're not slowing down you know it would be nice if if my neighbors knew about Roxy
maybe they would have taken some different precautions or or things of that nature um so again I'm advocating for the public to know when and the where these crimes are going you send me nixel alerts about
a child that was taken possibly by their father or by their mother in pasc way but when somebody's breaking into a home I don't get anything on that except what I can find on Facebook um you know I said a couple years ago I should open
up my own little Facebook thing that says you know crimes of Edison please report it here so we're aware of what's going on so we could say something so I'm going to plead again to please notify the public and that would be it for my
discussion items thank you coun councilman uh Council president thank you thank you council president um just a general follow-ups I'm not expecting an answer now um ordinances
for consideration uh I met with the administration in the beginning of January in regards to possible resoning of Li areas in several areas of the township I was told then that the turnaround time would
be some between 60 to 75 days so just as a general followup um if I can get a status update at the next meeting I also submitted a draft uh ordinance for environmental impact study what this is
is that essentially if a application before one of our land use boards uh meets a certain criteria they would have to provide a professional report that would address uh certain certain information this could
be anywhere anything from uh traffic impact population impact uh information on topography geology impact on our water infrastructure uh Wetlands Etc uh which from a board perspective would
offer additional information to in their analysis of an application which I think from a resident standpoint it offers additional information so that the board can analyze it in a sense to make sure that if an application is approved that
conditions are set that protect the resident interests um I'm going skip over commissions and committees for vacancies uh I do have a list of current vacancies I want to give out uh agenda on the website right now
our agendas are printed out in PDF format and placed on the website if you go to the main website though there's uh the capability of the website to actually be translated into different languages so I just my request to the
administration is to see if there is a way that we can actually upload the agendas in HTML format on the website because then they would anyone that visits the website would be able to use the dropdown and uh change the the
language of the agenda to their preferred um language that that they're used to is that something that we could maybe look at um I can certainly take a look at that with the clerk's office I guess I would um ask um there may be an option
when you're uploading whether you want HTML often times on the back end there are options so if you could just contact her office and okay we'll try to figure out if we can there may be it there may be options there is what I'm saying I I've done that in the past myself and on
the back end it it does that for you and the the reason why I'm asking this is because we have a very diverse Community as we know and English is not always a person's first language so I'm just looking to offer opportunity for people that may not be engaged previously uh to become
engaged in what we do up here at Council uh planning zoning board meeting guide I put together a about a six page call it like a preliminary uh document that
details what a planning board and a zoning board is my request uh to the administration would be to put this on the Planning and Zoning um website uh under engineering I'll send a PDF copy
for your a Word document so that it can be translated for my previous uh note but uh again another item just to try to get people information and better understanding as to how these boards
function and finally commissions and committees uh it's been requested for us to try to Advocate and promote vacancies within boards that the township has so a couple of vacancies that are or expired
terms that are available um abilities advisory committee cultural Al committee commission environmental commission uh ethics board historic preservation commission uh there is one more for the library Board
of Trustees open space advisory committee planning board Redevelopment agency Smart City advisory committee Veterans Memorial committee and the Zoning Board of adjustment there's still one alternative position that's
available uh some other boards that are in our code but are not active include senior citizen housing agency that's 2-98 uh commission for the disabled 2-100 uh senior citizen advisory committee
2-11 and transportation advisory committee 2-12 I think that these uh committees if if brought back to life so to say could offer valuable information not only to us as a body up here but to the
administration on items of importance uh additionally I know it's not formally uh formed yet but council president does want to uh set up the resident advisory committee so just another one that that is out there thank you council president
thank you and thank you for uh letting us know what vacancies there are that's very much appreciated and if we can get that uh on the website if we can get that maybe in the Illuminator as octar had said and um distributed to the public in a better way that would be
that would be great okay accounts man Patel okay uh the first one is the construction manager uh this was something we talked about the last meeting and we keep running into issues where we have a big project and I think councilman brusher and pretty much
everyone on I believe everyone agrees that we do need an oversight if there is a project that's over certain number I believe 5 million will be good uh I did ask Sonia uh to provide us with an ordinance U and it was forward it to
Legal uh I did not hear anything from legal so I asked chat GPT to develop an ordinance for me and I forward it to you guys so I was wondering if that is something that we can work with I I did receive it on on Friday of last week um I I would respectfully ask that I would
like to have it follow the normal course of ordinance introduction at the next work session as opposed to just bring walking it on at the next agenda um I think there are some policy considerations that I just begun a conversation with the business administrator I'd like to bring you into those conversations as well we can
certainly have it and as soon as we clear all those hurdles we can have it on for the next meeting but I would recommend not not Wednesday but the following meeting I'm okay with that can we set something up and when can I be part of the conversation absolutely we'll set it up we can set it up today and for yeah I mean I don't believe we're having another $5 million project
anytime soon but I do want to not forget about this absolutely no and it has not forgotten uh the business administrator and I spoke about it today um and we'd love to include you in that conversation thank you thank you uh is for the bike racks open space was I think the email I sent you in terms of open space was
interested in having bike racks in town building uh because we're going to have the bike tour in May and I believe you got back to me I just wanted to out in public if you can sure um you had asked about making them non-permanent however our plan is to make them permanent we don't want them to essentially be moved
um from certain locations but they will be alongside papani Park so okay can we also have one near the the skate Park Skate Park yeah because people who skate usually bike as well I understood I will uh double check that if it's not already
in the plan okay um and then couple of issues uh with the in tingly raway uh open space was wondering if there was uh plans to have sidewalks and pedestrian improvements when we do the updates there usually that is addressed the
anything that needs to be um ada8 compliance okay so okay I would assume yes yes okay uh also U committee members from Lindon Lane reached out and they were worried that the traffic lights uh would cause
an issue for them to turn right onto um Inman uh I did talk to the uh engineer and he has told us that at this point they are still in the planning stage and uh they will be communicating with the county to to ensure that they'll take
the right steps in the signal design to adjust timing using Force off Loops to have signal go green to clear the queue and also include striping treatments and many other uh things to address Lynden Lane's concerns and there hopeful that
there will be minimal impact or no impact at all for Lynden Lane's residents uh and also wanted to follow up with the website idea that councilman poter brought up I wish we had the ability for a specific sub subject like an ordinance or specific things that if
someone wanted to go back in history and click on it and understand how we ended up in that particular position because I believe not everyone follows the council meetings dated every single week so if there is an issue that they're interested in I I wish with the website updates that we're going to hopefully
put in maybe we can put in the fact that hey you know I'm interested in this can I follow this and maybe we can send them updates uh as we move along like if you are on Linden app Linden Na and you're interested in the Inman tingly and raway traffic light I wish there was a way to
for us for those residents to follow that and as we move forward they get updated through the website and that is something that that will I believe will increase engagement and that would helpfully alleviate a lot of the issues that the residents have where they feel
like they're in the dark and they're not getting enough information so I think maybe we can look into doing that think I know we have a brand new website maybe we can update that I will certainly take that under advisement I will tell you the search feature on the new website is pretty
great um so if you do hit a a search up for um Tingley or anything like that every subject matter every document does show up I I've used it for just resolution purposes and conversations we talk about certain topics and I was able
to get all of those documents ready for myself just so I will tell you the search feature itself um has that capability to um any topic if you will and just notification aspect is that something we can do like if
let's say I'm interested in notification for that particular topic I can uh check with our office to see if that that is something okay thank you that's it for me thank you Council thank you councilman Pao okay uh thank you Council pres the
first question to business administration I understand the glendel is in the litigation but I'm what I'm looking is the amount not the uh the purchase cost
but the amount that we spent in terms of the interest plus the litigation fee what the total as of this meeting if you can provide that by Wednesday I don't have to speak out but at least for my reference that would be helpful I'll certainly take that under advisement
thank you uh Sage architect you know we had back and forth you know my understanding was we are in the litigation but looks like we are not and this is very surprising and strange that we have a vendor who has caused a multiple change orders because of his
mistake we are supposed to go and recover that money from his insurance and here we are after a year we have not yet in the litigation so if you can send me and maybe this question is to attorney uh we don't need to go in a
back back room but if you can send me one pager where we stand what our action plan to recover or recoup that money that would be helpful um all I can offer as far as Sage Architects is concerned is that once the council uh failed to renew their contract we did advise them
and that the uh sole project they're working on has been turned over to CME uh engineering so they are no longer performing any services for the I understand that but we are supposed to go into litigation to recover the money that resulted into the change order and
this is on the tape we have said that you know we very first change order I was told hey just approve this we will recover this money from the insurance of the vendor and that's what I'm using the word litigation we're supposed to get into litigation and that didn't happen and that's where my question comes in
what is what is our way now to recover that money because it's a taxpayers money that would be an a a topic for a Clos session um so at any point if you'd like a Clos session on that matter we can certainly arrange for that okay maybe council president Wednesday would be a closed session this is a serious
concern because I have the linkage and the proofs there is a conflict of interest for lot many things here I would recommend if that's something for close session that' be not at Wednesday's meeting but the following meeting after that the March the first March yes that would be fine okay
Jackson Avenue uh a lot of discussion happened on these Das lot many residents came in what happened to The Grand and did we return the money the Jackson Avenue widening or what happened to the grant grant money so the grant money if we don't spend it um that does get the
state does um recoup those funds my understanding that project hasn't moved forward that's where it stands so that money will be refunded back should have been refunded by end of last year we are in February I'm not sure I'm not
understanding um your term of refund but I can certainly provide a financial um when was this approved when did we secure or when did we receive the money from the state when the aid was received it was last year 2024 correct let me just turn to councilman pointers uh um I
I apologize I didn't mean to distract you but we my recollection is that we didn't approve that resolution to accept the funds so I don't think we've actually received them and if I'm mistaken please corre I think you know we did you know approve we said we will
not spend and we'll return but again I maybe again I would and you know we I can certainly get that from the clerk's office but uh councilman porner May is correct and that we did not um and the reason for us the back and forth was the
community meeting and so forth and so on so I don't recall that that was actually approved okay so this will be question to Sherl now if you can please pull the resolution for the acceptance of the grant whether it was approved by the council or it was it didn't approve or it was
or we tabled it forever so I'm looking for that information I will send you an email to get the details I think about Jackson the Jack you talking about Jackson Avenue yes yeah my next question is on the flooding remediation updates again this is a long
topic we spoke probably last three years Steven will C Summer Street JP Stevens grow winding group anything any CH any change anything change on that um I did get an update and uh that is with the legal department uh which they're they
are working on easements okay I understand it's 3 and a half years you know what updates I can get from the legal department so if if um if we're doing close session March I would probably
just add that to the list we can okay there is nothing to be discussed in close session is a black and white it's a flooding issue the money was spent on engineering we are supposed to Kickstart the project if you go back and look at the records it even we said hey the engineering stud is done we are ready to
roll the sleeves and get the work the money was even funded as a part of bond I don't know why we need to go to the close session unless it is a litigation or confidential matter that public should not be aware so I'm surprised with that but we'll we'll discuss during the the next meeting next one Rider DPW area
beautification again this is a topic probably more than a year now I understand the fence was put there I was told the trees will be planted the resurant are still complaining okay they see the bricks and the gravels from
their window and I was told that we will be planting tall trees so that they don't get that view again this is when our DPW director Reay and he came to the podium and he explained can you please find what's happening there and how soon we can get that done
sure Clara Barton again probably this is few times I mentioned if you go on clarton M Avenue and most of the inner roads closer to J Dynasty and that neighborhood the utility company ripped our roads they
were in very good condition uh we have an ordinance that says anyone who digs our road they should be restoring to the original condition as far as I remember the M Avenue was paved probably 4 years
ago not that long and it is in I would say pathetic situation so I don't know why we are not enforcing our own laws unless Sonia you confirmed that we received enough money from utility company that we can take on that project
and we pay the road we did receive the payment I did confirm that from eTown um and right now what we're working on is the design aspect of vanoy Avenue um right now we're trying to address the drain issues first so but with regard to the
utility separately which is your first question um we did get a check okay can you tell how much was that money cuz if you remember you know if you look at the count the road the miles I want to really understand whether we received enough and what that amount is and where
how that was received typically the resolution comes on this Das to accept the funds provided by utility if you remember we had to take over one of the street from the Builder because he failed to PVE and we said hey we will
take over and we'll seize his bond and that's what the agreement was but this Council approved that resolution to accept that money if you say that you received the money but I have not seen that resolution on this Council Das to make sure that we really received the
money from the utility company and that is good enough to PVE the road so if you can provide the number what's the dollar amount that we received I'll get you the dollar amount of the check sounds good I don't need a check I just need a dollar amount and what account
it uh it was deposited like the the bucket there I'll skip the public safety but in terms of the resident uh complaint uh service request portal there are many citizens who are logging the complaints where street light is off
or there are Pooles or something uh during earlier Administration I used to get a quarterly report and this is even though the service is good the system is good to log the complaint but 95% times the
request gets closed without any action and Resident has no way to know what happened to that request so can you please provide me the I don't want to go two three years but at least a last one quarter from November December through
February the service request in you know how many service requests we received by department and how many were closed how many were really serviced that would help uh traffic report uh on the uh Inman and tingly you know I requested that during
the last council meeting uh I was told yes we'll provide you the report here you go after a month I don't have any report uh son if you can help me to get the traffic report for in man tingan raway the second traffic report was requested on Calbert and grow Avenue
there are email exchanges with engineering I was told the traffic report will be available on Monday that is today it will be dispersed to the council and potentially to the residents
do we know cuz it's pretty much end of day could you repeat the report that you're looking for Calbert and grow Avenue traffic study report okay um so the update that I have from our Township engineer
um so there's a draft report um and what is being recommended um is to obviously address the um the drainage issues there is a high water table so what we're working through is to try to raise the storm structures and roadways
installation um as well as the underd drained system to intercept the groundwater um and potentially pump it from the stream um so all of the the Township's options have been pretty extensive and would require D permitting so that would that is the recommendation
I'm I'm sorry I think you're reading something else I'm talking about the Calver and grow Avenue traffic that that's um it's in the same it's in the same realm as Calvert uh it's Summer Street it's Stevenville I'm talking about that topic was over long back I'm talking about the Calbert and grow
Avenue traffic study report remember that intersection DPW did put the bigger stock sence there is the crosswalk there but I was told that the there is a traffic study report that was conducted you know we had one bid
the traffic study was done the last email I received from engineering department was they are reviewing some of the comment that engineer has provided and that report will be published today that's Monday end of the day okay um again I'm tying into some of
the things that we are doing there in that location I'll have the deputy chief to speak to the track okay all right councilman Schmo oh I'm so sorry just a quick comment uh to councilman ptil uh so I did have a chance to talk to Brian Pella
uh earlier in the day from Engineering in regards to the traffic study the traffic study has come back from the outside company uh it is currently in review and in engineering and should be forthcoming so it is in-house at this point for our review that's what I was told last week it's
there in house and I was told by Mond it hasn't moved beyond that at this point just so you're aware okay so is there a way that I can get ETA because in email I was told by Monday it will be available for public so that's today so even if I get ETA saying it will be by
end of the week I'm okay with that just I need ETA that's that's what I'm asking I understand I understand on the deadlines I don't know what their conclusion is for the review well I can tell you is it is in review inh housee at this point okay I'll I'll send an email and son
I'll will copy you to get the date there and how about the traffic study report for in man tingle and Raha can you repeat those streets again please that's the traffic signal that we approved with the county uh but that time I said you know I'm okay to move
forward but I would like to see the traffic study report because that neighborhood has changed significantly there is a school there kids are walking there have we done our due diligence because very same resolution was approved and was moved to county in 2019
and it was it came back again in 20125 so we did this council did you know approve that resolution for County to move forward but my question that time and even today is do we have the latest and greatest traffic report all of that
was uh attached as backup to that resolution I can certainly re that the day I asked and I was said I was you will will provide that that was a answer from Brian himself if this wasn't attached I wouldn't be asking the question it was a question when I asked question to
engineer and he said we will provide you but if you can go back and if there is a attachment somewhere I'll be happy to you know if you can forward that if I miss that but I don't think there was a traffic report there I do have a traffic study that's from that I can forward that to you that
Brian provided to me but was not in the package though right I am not sure about the status of the package but I do have one okay forward okay if it received to you personally if you can forward it and that is where I'm looking the transparency the all the council member receive that that would be so I don't
have to repeat those question thank you council president okay thank you now councilman schmuel thank you council president um it's interesting when I put things down it's discussion items I get a lot of calls and people updated me on on some of the items so I'm I'm a little
more educated I'm not going to talk as much about them but um real quick on uh the smart meter program Sonia uh last time we we brought this up we're waiting for ibank funding um is that happen do
we have a timeline on on that um I can get that to you by the end of the week thank you I'm going to skip over Comcast I need to have a conversation maybe I'll bring up next next meeting and the last item which clearly is is uh seems to be a lot more
complicated than I thought uh deer population and I know South that said I get a lot of calls lately about the deer I love the Deer uh I I love seeing the deer my wife doesn't feel the same uh because it eats all their plants but um
but our the res our constituents are um complaining about the amount of deer and uh when I did some research this has been a topic of conversation I think for the past few years and this Council I just wanted to
bring it up uh to the council members and maybe we could have a discussion offline of of how we could um harvest the deer in in Edison I don't know if it's the same in North Edison as it is in South Edison if anybody has any
input but um I'm all yours councilman Pao I think you know we we had prob this going on past five six years now not one to uh we had the dear survey done the expert came in he spoke all the different methods to control we
also form a subcommittee we went through that but there is no conclusion I think this is a topic of maybe discussion for another day but I will leave with the council member to make the comment I'm I'm going to be honest with you right um the county can do things right
and I think the county is doing things um on their properties um that they have the problem I guess that this body would struggle with right is for us just to come and vote um to no
no one's going to pay to like new to the deer right that that number was was astronomical there was no way possible we were going to spend like $11,000 $1,500 a deer a neuter deer so the only choice really is to have a a hun or C
The Herd the problem with it is um you've sat here and you've watched people come here for the flag and you've watched people come here for cannabis what's going to happen when all
your children's friends show up at the Das here and ask you about killing Bambi at the end of the day um so for me it's more about the children and and I think that's where you know as a body here we
we struggle um in trying to do something humanely but recognizing that there is a problem and therefore it's um it's um how I used to put I used to tell um councilman Bob deal all the time you know we we form committees and that's
where all good ideas go to die um so that's where I think the the deer study is right now is in one of those committees unfortunately okay honesty thank you council president okay
um as for myself uh a couple of questions for the deputy chief so if you help me with this there have been a lot of accidents on Route One I know route one is a state road but there has been so many accidents on the Edison Corridor of
Route One is there anything that we can do to get some better coordination of the lights or have something that's going to be safer um if through can Edison appeal
to the county county appeal to the state or can Edison appeal to the state to do a better job on at least in the Edison corridor with regard to the coordination of lights and uh and the safety because it's just gotten so out of hand with the
accidents on Route One okay council president to answer your question so we actually are in the process of doing a coordinated effort between all the towns in Middle sex County along the Route One Corridor the county has created a task force uh it is
in the staging or the um um implementation I shouldn't say that rephrase that their planning stage right now Implement implementation stage hopefully late March that is the plan so the plan will include all the towns
along the Route One Corridor uh officers from each will be put together as a task force and will rotate from town to town working as a as a group for increased enforcement along Route One they're also working with do they're looking at uh at
statistical data of accidents they are looking at lights they're looking at cameras they're taking a lot of things into account so this this process is ongoing right now and I expect implementation in in March mid to late March wow that's great so it'll be a
very good program and the goal is to cut down on fatalities that is the overall goal of this program to cut down on on on fatalities unfortunately middle sex County and in 2024 had the most fatalities of any County in New Jersey
and uh OB obviously the goal is to reduce that number hopefully to zero but at least reduce it okay great um the intersection of durum and New Durham is so that's that really bobby pin type of intersection there and when I am on
Durham and I'm trying to I have to really crane my neck because the side view mirror is not going to do the job to show me what traffic is coming on New Durham would it be possible to put any kind of like one of those big mirrors that can that could show uh show better
the the traffic coming on New Durham so you don't have to just crane your neck uh so so severely in order to see what's coming off of New Durham I'm I'm not sure if a mirror is a is a is an adequate response to that but what I can
do is I can bounce that off of our Traffic Unit as well as engineering to see if there's something feasible or if there's something else perhaps that might be a better option all right that would be great but I can certainly that look thank you I'd really appreciate that thank you all right thanks a lot um
update on the water M situation we haven't really heard anything and so Sonia just anything to report on what uh what's happening with the water Maids are you talking specifically generally about water main yes
um they almost happen on a weekly basis I mean we've been uh getting to them as fast as quick as possible um it's it's not uncommon especially during the cold months that this happens
um so there's anything specific want me to answer on water main break just just coming because it was such a really such a big problem at Christmas time and then and then beyond it it really seemed like it was like you plug one and another one was was coming up and it seems like
there hasn't been we haven't heard of any issue ises that have come up lately but uh it it certainly was a big concern that so many were happening so close to to one another um and so in terms of so you're saying that um in terms of the
remediation of water M situations that is ongoing it is ongoing and um if it affects um you know 10 to 20 homes we reach out to them directly to make sure that you know they're under advisement and if there's a boiling water advisement we let them know as soon as
possible um same thing if we get that from other utilities um that are serviced throughout the township we let the immediate resident know about how you know what the effectiveness and repair time looks like um that's no okay that's only
half uh North Edison Baseball parking lot I was there yesterday I took a drive-thru and it really is pretty appalling especially the lot that's closest to Oak Tree Road and the at North Edison Baseball people as the
season is coming up very soon are really wondering at long last when is this problem going to be taken care of when can there be a repaving um council president as you know the 2025 budget hasn't yet been adopted I can certainly take it under
advisement um to the administration and Engineering if that's something that would add they would add into the 2025 budget okay what happened in with 2024 would did we not have this this uh allocated for 2024 um I can certainly check to see if
if that made a list obviously we we look to um uh we have priority for residential street to see if that is something um we can look into but um I'm not sure about 2024 this this is really is I just need
to to speak up for the people who are so concerned about this it the pock marks and potholes are are terrible and it does present a danger to people just getting out of their cars and uh it's it's a hazard one thing that we can certainly
do if it's not in the 24 list is um uh go in there and do those repairs that would be wonderful that address that um once the weather warms up and the and the um the plants are open that would be a great start thank you
um a question came up actually um uh from the library people and also with regard to Cultural Arts commission Edison Valley Playhouse on Oak Tree and Woodland which has not been operational since 2023 the library was wondering if they
might be able to make use of it while the north library is closed and that they might be able to have some of their programs there um in addition it would be nice for the while we wait for the fente house it would be nice if Cultural Arts commission could also make use of
this do we know anything about the condition of the Edison Valley Playhouse if this would be if this would be feasible for us to make use of this um I'm familiar with the space I don't know that it's habitable um but I can certainly check to see if what the
condition is please do please do um animal shelter rehab addition uh where where are we at with that I know that we don't really have space to build out but the question is building up um so with
regard to um the the any sort of renovation or expansion let's call it um it is under review with uh Public Works and Engineering so we need to get a professional to give us a a proposal to see what that would look like any time
frame as to when we might get that I know they're currently working on it and oftentimes that may take 45 to 60 days okay all right um one more here that was not on my original list I got a question from a res about the Boat Basin who and
he said I have not been there recently but he said that the conditions are getting worse and worse and worse um what's being done or is is there anything that's planned to be done about the conditions of the Boat Basin do you know what condition specifically he had
sent me uh let's see um he had you texted me if I can see if I can find this here it is um it's so it's I'm not sure exactly where but
it's there's like a huge log that so the the pier itself is is pretty much falling into the water and then there's a log there are several long logs that are underneath it and um
he's uh and and so he's finding the condition even worse than last year um they said that they that um uh someone he's he's concerned someone's going to slip and get hurt or worse he said $500 would have fixed all of this
um and so it's uh so and so can someone take a look at the condition of the boat base and and uh and let and let me know if uh if there's some remediation that can be done there so uh Port so with regard to all of the logs you're
describing that so high tide low tide all of that gets Tred in it's um we were we're nearly going there on a weekly basis so um I will check with DPW to see if that's still on track um so regardless they'll come back over and over again um with regard to The Boat
Basin I believe FEMA uh very recently approved um the funding for that for the repairs so we actually can't make any major repairs I know we did some temporary measures to make sure that um there was concern about getting some boats in there because of the beginning
of the Season we were able to do that to a certain extent but we can't make major repairs to The Boat Basin without this FEMA approval and DP of course so we can't um just go in there and start um making certain repairs to that uh we did
address um issues of emergency if you could just send me those pictures as well much appreciated so I certainly would like to walk out there take a look to see what we may need to do if there's um a handle missing or something like that thank you thank you I'll send that
to you thank you okay all right that's it for me so um motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second motion to adjourn approved and we are adjourned at
818 p.m. thank you very much think about your shirt e