stand for pledge of flag andice so just want to start this meeting has been properly advertised and posted accordance with public law 75 chapter 231 uh can we take roll call yes mayor
and Petty will not be here tonight Clark will not be here tonight Dash here doy here Galloway here he here hessie she's muted ker
here here here right here okay uh next uh can we approve the minutes for February 13 2025 council meeting I'll second it so we have a
motion we second I second yeah can we uh um vote by I I yeah I next we have public comment um are any uh public comment on the agenda items
um excluding items listed for public hearing seeing as there's no can we um is there a motion to close public comment make a motion okay all right uh next we have our Council committee uh chair reports
um uh anyone here for uh Finance Redevelopment is a Jo are you prepared to do that um not at this point not this minute yeah all right is there aort for she turned up yeah he said it
not this minute though sorry you do here can you hear me now uh also if you have if you have more than uh one Committee in which you chair uh you can speak on that as well um I see um Kim is is she is she on um
remotely I am all right how about safety I have nothing for safety and as far as code goes there's nothing for code at this moment either and rotary nothing okay uh Public Works
Highway first I'd like to defer to Jared sure thanks this is kind of like I have to get used to this now good evening everyone good evening um so earlier today I sent an email that um um
councilman R councilman DOI and I interviewed seven candidates for the DPW superintendent um everyone interviewed very very well um prior to that we also spoke to one of our current DPW um
employees who um show was quite a bit of promise and um we wanted to provide a little bit of guidance from from um councilman doy's experience and my experience so we had a good good meeting with him prior to that
and so out of the seven the the small committee that met has agreed to reinw three three of the seven for a second time I'm not sure when um probably La is here but I'm not sure when we're going to do that but we're going to have to
figure that out um as far as the DPW report um I really like the Chiefs format so I'm going to give you a bunch of numbers just like the chief does uh We've dealt with more than a few snowstorms um we've applied uh approximately 4,000 gallons of brine
during this last 7 weeks 7 75 ton of salt um we've washed hand washed and cleaned over 100 NPP and Lake trash cans we built five pressure treated picnic tables removed six trees many of them
well a few of them during emergency call outs we really don't take out trees unless they come down um we responded to 10 Code Enforcement issues with the police with the police help we were able to continue or start
installing cameras in and around some of these areas that CL enforcement has been bringing to our attention and this week Raymond started grading the uh the dirt the dirt and unpaved Roads and on March 10th not this Monday
next Monday uh we will be um sweeping Main Street on Monday mornings so I just want to remind everyone there's no parking on Main Street from 4 to 6: a.m. and that's when we'll be sweeping Main Street in March uh I expect to uh work
quite a bit with the Crusaders with youth sports uh work on getting the lake ready we also have some mandatory de items at the lake that we need to address and I do want to continue to thank the individuals who I work with uh who um listen to me at 7 o'cl when I
show up every morning Raymond Tyler John and Junior I'll probably be gone in a few weeks um because it's just getting a little too much for me um and I'm sure that within the next few three four weeks we'll have a new superintendent on
board a question the park the no parking on Philadelphia Avenue is that every Monday it looks like it that's the way the songs are right 3 sorry yeah so we'll be there at 4 you should probably put that in your newsletter yeah that's what I yeah we'll be we'll be there at 4 o' I have a
question you said you sent an email email was that to all of council it was the committee the committee oh okay the committee yeah okay I think there were four members no that's fine because you said you sent an email I wasn't sure and I didn't receive it I was clarifi yeah to to the uh Public Works Council committee okay do you think you could
let me know the ones you're not reinv because I've been getting some phone calls and emails I got that's the one question I got to know like when did we decide the three that we were going to reinw that night oh we just thought cuz I thought we were having another committee I thought I missed the meeting or something no no no you were there no I was there that one no I thought we
were going to have another actually committee meeting I thought I missed it no that's what I'm saying but it was it it was those three yeah I know y I know you're I could reach out to them so Jerry are you gonna be here tomorrow
no go to Harris for a tree conference so I'll come in and go over okay or you just told me we sounds good the the candidates were not moving toward yeah and the other will um give them some idea when we're going to
have another meeting right hopefully the full committee can be involved in that works whatever works I'll do my best um even if I have to do by Zoom because I'm up North several nights a week but I'll do my best to be able to attend thank you okay thank you thank
you right thank you all right uh property Cemetery property um I we didn't have a property committee meeting but I inadvertently attended a safety committee meeting and it was very interesting and I got to
tour City Hall and they pointed out some areas that need attention to for I guess it's for the GIF it was yes okay so that was around we identified the Mir need to be you know tighten off and little
repairs around the base of the building and so forth so it was good and and what was the other um sustainable AER City we had a meeting Tuesday it was very well attended and we got support from the Atlanta County
County Conservation District and they are interested in doing something that I I I like the idea of it it's a mayor's monarch butterfly program so we're going to talk about that and maybe we could tackle something like that over the
summer months uh or in the spring um we're also planning to do a spring environmental series we heard from the Pineland preservation Alliance and they have funding to purchase rain barrels and all the fixtures needed so we could have a rain barrel making workshop and
they offered to do um another program on the Flora and fla of the New Jersey Pinel lands which I don't think people appreciate the pin lands for what it's really there for so we'll have a little educational program about that uh we're
also working on a recycling program um and this is CommunityWide uh we we will collect use notebooks that still have blank pages in them and we will send them off to a high school student up in North Jersey who takes out the the clean
pages and makes new notebooks spiral Brown notebooks and they will even put your logo on it and everything and then we could redistribute them to the community sool should in schools yeah
I usually do like the ones that have like a decent amount I always say because I can't throw so put them aside in a box and we're going to collect towards the end of school year I could make a suggestion anybody who has kids in Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts um for eil
scout or their gold project they can build boxes at school to put in well they provide them this company provides them notbook but you know maybe they be decorated or something be cooling so we're excited about that and
then we want to do some other programs as well so I think we are planning a uh um Mountain Laurel walk when the mountain laurel blooming which would be mid May last year we did it
to buds were all free so um and some other stuff so we have no schedule yet but try to do like Saturday morning programs and things like that so people can attend uh and the other day we had a
training program with the v e Resource Group on the treekeeper inventory software program and boy is that really a powerful program and there's lots of different layers of trees that you can pull up and we have how many Jerry
3,263 how about the Heritage trees uh we have 18 Heritage trees which are larger than 40 in diameter at rest and the largest tree in a corber city is on the 200 block of Buffalo Avenue it's a 56
inch 56 in stre so we have some big trees in ank Harbor for sure um and we did lose some trees from the windstorms um what else Ryan um we're working on with that uh treekeeper software we're
going to do a sustainable Jersey action item which is called the heat island assessment and that will identify the areas in the city where we need trees for shade um and we will get depending on how comprehensive that report is
we'll get up to 25 points for that which is a lot and we're also Ryan is going to be taking um and some of the staff here are going to be involved with the climate change vulnerability assessment which will look at some of the areas weaknesses climate change that we have
such as localized flooding and um I'm really concerned about Wildfire so we'll do that that will also provide 25 points and Remington and verdick signed up for a complete streets technical program from sustainable Jersey which will also provide 25 points so if we could get all
this stuff done by July August uh we might get silver certification this year which is an amazing feat very few communities in the state p achiev that so I'm really proud of that that's it I got it all thank
you councilman right do you have anything for parks and playground all right uh guess I'll go last um uh license and ordinance we did we uh we didn't have a meeting because it was only like a singular topic which we will still uh discuss moving forward
I spoke to Orlando will be saying possible uh ordinance say review um but there's nothing to report at this point uh the land use board uh they did have a meeting on February the 18th and they addressed a uh request for a waiver for
site plan review and approval uh from the Euro Sports Center that's at uh 1500 to 1524 Grand Street uh it involved a 2005 requirement for uh Street Paving which at this point um it was debatable
as oh I'm sorry sidewalk for sidewalks at this point you know it's been almost 20 years uh so they uh approve the waiver with with conditions um lastly iron hen they did not have a meeting they will have a meeting next month on 17th um so
U moving on uh I think Joe might want to get a report I do have a report for finance um do you remember a couple meetings ago
we had tabled an ordinance for uh Rockies building on Philadelphia Avenue and Deer Street and there was some concerns about the appearance of the property we uh what he's looking for is
to change it from uh medical to uh recreational uh growth Agricultural and um so we asked him we had a meeting with him with the finance committee and we asked him to clean up
the property before we move forward with the ordinance uh Jody I just sent you some pictures of what he's done so far we had our code enforcement guys go out there and take some
pictures so my question would be are we satisfied moving forward are we comfortable going forward uh and introducing the ordinance that we tabled a couple months or a couple weeks ago and a couple meetings ago and no I don't
even have to look at the pictures because I drive by it every day he didn't clean it up say it looks the same I haven't notic behind you see the you didn't see the fabric he put up on the fence yeah he put it behind all he did was put fabric on the fence covering up the mess behind it that's not cleaning
it up that's hiding it he said some of those some of those molds he said he moved to the back I don't know if that's I can't see it real well on the it still looks horrible yeah it's still a mess okay that's fair enough
then he did move he did move some of the if go back to that one picture Jody right here you go up a little bit well that's that's where we stand it's up to uh Council right now if you want to
reintroduce the order or not and he said he's in a hurry to get this done uh he's said he's trying to cooperate with us I'm not making a pitch plus or minus for it I'm just saying this is what I've been dealing with the
last few weeks there no money in this well I haven't seen it personally I only threw these pictures because I'm in Florida right now personally I don't think we have enough information to make a decision tonight based on J these pictures up on
the screen personally driving by I say no I think he just basically it it's to me he he put a Band-Aid on what he had he didn't he didn't fix it he covered it up he put
something in front of it oh let me just you know put something in front of it and I will hide it behind if he's making the best attempt to make it look presentable then take make the best attempt you want us to give you what you want then put your best foot forward and do what
you need to do to make that presentable to our town you're going to make a lot of money doing what you're doing so show us that in good faith that you're going to do what you need to do to make your property which has looked like this for the 30 how many years have I lived here
33 years show us that and it's looked like that show us that you're going to put your best foot forward and clean this up I agree with that I don't think he's putting his best foot forward and furthermore once that black
um fabric comes down I I can just see it yeah you're gonna see the same thing we saw down he's already got his okay you really think he's gonna put it back up no he's gonna go out there with silver duct tape and and cover the holes I agree okay fair enough to be fair to Dr
try I just wanted to say that when we met with him he said that he is still building boats and some of those molds he needs so some not all not right so you know we said well could you hide them and we suggested that he put a
fence up between that building and the property line on Philadelphia Avenue and put everything in the back or on the side the left- hand side of the building and the fabric cover I I was alarmed when I saw it because that doesn't last
long it's a temporary fix to that couple in a couple years it's going to get shabby looking and I agree that you know a good Windstorm yeah so agree okay fair enough I'll I'll relay the message to
thank you Joe thank you thanks Joe and that's all I have okay all right um while moving on uh do we have a report from our chief of police thank you I like the this meeting is so I keep it brief some numbers for
you in the last two weeks uh we've had one burgy three cases of fraud two F Motor Vehicles five FS seven motor vehicle accidents two pedestrian stops 16 um 25 we had six total arrests or I'm sorry
five pH arrests um seven business alarms 53 Cent prevention activities one criminal MRI call one domestic 13 EMS incidences um incidents six Firearms ID application two followups 144 property
checks seven public service calls um one thing that I do want to bring to everybody's attention is there has been an uptick in fraudulent texts and fraudulent emails for scams not just personal but also um for municipal stuff apparently there is an issue with 365 we
do have the multi uh Factor authentication but please be aware any that you click on any doesn't look like it's good just don't do it um and nebor and jurisdiction is going through some stuff with some ransomware so just
please be aware um I will be working with the FBI to put on another um presentation we have done senior fraud uh Financial scam stuff but we are going to be revamping it because it's not just seniors that are being impacted and as
soon as we have something Stu them I will let everybody know um I talked to Jessica recently and she said that that was considered Dei and they're no longer is no longer doing that however Jessica and I are working together so
that we on the municipal level can do the presentations and we will not directly involve you okay okay great so any other questions concern just one quick question the and correct me if I get the color wrong the blue envelope
program um are we still involved in that can you talk about a little bit so the blue envelope program um I'm not sure where the input just came from for it to read uh start up again not again but um the Atlant County Association of chiefs of police we started doing that I believe it was two years ago and
basically it's blue envelope that um anyone who is on the autism spectrum can have in their vehicle um so if they have any interactions with law enforcement they can hand that information over um and it can indicate you know that they may have sensitivity like they may not
be able to look you directly in the eye and it also gives guidance to officers on how to deal with people who are on the Spectrum um you can come to our Police Department we do have them available for anybody who wants them or needs them um and we do we have done in our Police Department training with
special services specifically about different things with autism and how um we can better interact with anybody that we come into contact with who is on Spectrum Chief is that just for autism or can that can that be used for somebody who has like a TBI I don't see why they couldn't use it
for TBI a lot a lot of times some of the um some of the things that present with TV and autism are similar so AB like the memory loss you know can't remember where they live their last name something like that you know I forgot that was a red
light well you know so so yeah so yes it's it may not put you out of her ticket no I I mean I know somebody who has traumatic brain injury and struggles to remember her last name she can tell you her first name but she struggles to remember her last name she has she has a
child who has all autism so it's very difficult God forbid she gets in an accident to be able to tell the officer that her child has autism and what her child's needs are because she has a traumatic brain injury so I was just wondering if it would be like a carryover for something like that
absolutely and we you know we recommend that you know parents who if they have children in the vehicle you know it's like it's okay to have the envelope and be like here you know this isn't for this isn't about me this is about my child because you know if somebody in the car who is on the spectrum they may have a very reaction and which can you
know just escalate the situation and make it a little bit more difficult for everybody so thank you absolutely thank thank you chief chief I do have one question Chief excuse me I have one question I've been meaning to ask you
the Ballard light over by the post office have you does anybody know what happened to it it was struck by a vehicle we're in the process of an insurance claim for it it's been in the process to get replaced is it okay all right thank
you okay um do we have a report from our CFO um I just have like my yearend um Bank balances so December receipts and dispersements December receipts were 7,961 n767cj $
68281 $281 49 and then I just wanted to give a quick update on um we had talked about the EV Chargers last time so um I finished applying for the pay the plugin and the um New Jersey clean Fleet charge
up you can't have both so we'll see whatever happens um the contract the vendor that we're going the Hope play award to suggest just a f for both and seeing kind of which one gives you more how they both happen so they both need to be applied for before you include the
purchase and then the Atlantic City Electric incentive is done after the fact so hopefully fingers crossed will be able to award that at the next meeting if not the second meeting in March but just need to find out about those two grants before that'll give us extra points too
thank you that's it thanks uh next do we have a report from our city CL I do not all right thank you uh do we have a report from our City attorney I do not all right right so uh moving along on the agenda um number 12 is a motion to approve a
use of Peace Pilgrim Park 8:00 am. to 2 PM at uh for a peace Pilgrim celebration July 19th 2025 10:00 a.m. Walkin pic I make a motion second all right all in favor all in
favor next we have a use of Rotary Park uh Sam weer Easter egg hunt uh that's April 12th 2025 I'll make a motion second all right all in favor uh next we have a resolution amending a salary resolution of
2025 I think that'll be a roll call could could you uh make a motion first oh sorry yes uh make a motion so moved now a second question why is this being changed now um plowing
oh because we thought we had it and that what we had done but I couldn't find anything so I just wanted to it up all right roll call Dash yes doy yes Galloway yes Heist yes hessie yes
hener Timbers yes right yes yes I had it muted sorry right oh I thought your s get pass okay good our next we have a resolution appoint right to know officer Jerry Barbaro uh do we have a motion motion
second question you have a question yes um no disrespect to Jarry Barbaro I'm just wondering why we're giving a right to know officer position to an interim part-time employee that's going to be
temporary do we have any other U full-time city employees that could do this job we just recently had a safety meeting where some right to know issues were brought up that we weren't that weren't up to date I think Keith Adams was the right snow previously but um
there were some concerns and Jerry does it in his other town and was willing to get us up to Snuff for now till we hire somebody full so in this resolution does a state that this is on a um temporary position till
um the job is filed by a full-time employee for the public works position or I mean I didn't put that in there but coun how you amend it to have that well if Jerry leaves there'll be a
vacancy and it'll be assigned to the next person we'll do this again well if he leaves his Public Works director yes yeah that does agree with be leaving as right to no officer or he's leaving as the arborist well he's he's no longer
arborous because we don't have the funding to pay him anymore well still point I mean if he comes if comes back we'll be able to use him as an orborous but I would say that job doesn't need to be fulltime I'm sorry I didn't hear what
you said Joe I apologize I would say I don't think that position needs to be full-time what it's done and maybe Jerry it's aing yeah J would you comment on the position
and what it entails so um Council after the safety meeting um not having a right to know officer is a little bit of a problem um but um um council person has is right if
I'm not here then there's no sense for me to be the right officer so it should be until my temporary position of BTW uh finishes or you know we separate from that position I just the city needs
someone and I know how danger to say in own right to officer amend the motion to include a motion second on on on his motion and can we have a vote on
question or yes so is the is the salary amended to go with the amended motion it's not PA up at once so it doesn't really matter if it's like how long it would just be Pro you know
1500 yeah it's an annual stien of 1500 but would that be paid out monthly or it so just PID as that position he'll get that piece right same as any other you know right
thank you appreciate thank you so uh on that motion I second you seconded okay um roll call roll call Dash yes doy yes Galloway yes he yes hessie yes
Keener yes Timbers yes right yes okay now now we're moving back to the appointment uh appoint right to know officer Jerry Barbaro do you have a motion on that motion now second all
right and roll Dash yes Doby yes Galloway yes Heist yes hessie yes pener yes Timbers yes right
yes attached to it um next we have a resolution approving accumulated absent for Jacob fickin do we have a motion so moved second all right uh roll call
um yes uh Dash yes Doby yes Galloway yes Heist yes Cassy yes Keener yes Timbers yes right yes okay next we have a resolution for utility cancellations we have a uh do we
have a motion second second okay roll call which one was this number 16 um Dash yes doy yes Galloway yes Heist yesie yes
H yes ERS yes right yes and Meg I'll call out the number so there no confusion number 17 uh resolution authorized credit card payments and electronic funds transfer payments uh do we have a motion motion have second T
all right roll call Dash yes doy yes Galloway yes Heist yes hessie yes hener yes Timbers yes right yes okay number 18 is a resolution for the refund of overpayment of property taxes for 100%
disabled veteran case uh R Dash yes doy yes Galloway yes Heist yes hessie yes pener yes Timbers yes right yes all right uh next we have number 19 it's a resolution for refund of
overpayment of property taxes for 100% disabled veteran case 20236 motion second all right roll call Dash yes Doby yes Calloway yes Heist yes
hessie yes peer yes Timbers yes right yes all right uh number 20 is a resolution authorizing application to the South Jersey planning organization complete streets technical assistance program do we have a motion Mo Che all
right roll call Dash yes doy yes Galloway yes Heist yes pessy yes peners yes Timbers yes right yes all right um number 21 is a
resolution authorized renewing shared services agreement with the Atlantic County Improvement Authority lead paint lead base paint testing and First Amendment to the agreement um this will add an additional two years to the original agreement uh do we have a motion so move I'll
second question yes um do we pay anything fors this no okay uh roll call um Dash yes doy yes Galloway yes Heist yes pessie yes keer yes Timbers
yes right yes all right 22 we have a resolution to support publishing of legal notices on official government websites all in favor hi all right uh next um we need to pay the
bills bill list second all right roll call Dash yes doy yes Galloway yes Heist yes hessy yes Keener yes Timbers yes right yes
okay so now are are there any uh comments from uh from Council I just wanted to mention one thing on here at with this um this resolution supporting legal not notices okay um we added one clause in
here that asking the state to establish an official website where counties municipalities and other agencies can advertise at no cost um I was concerned when I read this because if they do not advertise in the newspaper which is widely you know distributed in the in
the community if we're putting out rfps for jobs I don't think that uh contractors are be going going to be going to individual Municipal websites to find Opportunities so if there was a central location where all of these all
of our uh advertising go in a central location at a state level one website they would check so that that was added to this uh this resolution is being passed by all the municipalities but ours has that one clause in there and I did speak to um the president of the
league of municipalities last week about it he said they're working on it but you know to get the state to create a website challenging so I'm sure it'll be so user friendly once it's good Lu well I know
the county has their website where they put all their bid offerings so if we can't get into a state one maybe we could do a county one but just to be reiterate on that um mostly rfps and things like like especially the professional ones we know them in
advance we can use a paper that doesn't publish daily so the information is getting out there the website or being allowed to put on your website it's just another tool to get it out there even more than the newspaper would get it out there so it's not we're not doing it um
being being able to use something else we're not going to do less in papers and and like I said most most of what we advertise is planned you know there's not too many dead L it's hard sometimes when it's like you kind of need information and then you have to wait like a whole week because the paper only
comes out once a week and we couldn't get it in their deadline you know what I mean I'm talking about more like rfps things that that's yearly like we plan for that um you know in a demolition of a building we'll have to wait till you know for a bid to go out we're not going to rush into something like that
emergency I think the website is more emergency kind of that we follow the rules of the laws of advertising in public well it's not so much for transparency as it is for saving money because if you could get multiple bids right chances are you're going to get a
better price but you know a lot of times we get one bid still accepting it you know I mean I've been involved where I send them out to people like because nobody reads the paper nobody look at the website so we kind of compile people
who do the job and send the stuff out I can't tell you the last time I read a paper AI dises yeah about because it's only a weekly publication you know like there's and website most it's G through the legislation right now they're actually
working to try to eliminate some some officials are trying to eliminate legals and were outside of the government obviously government track government I'm opposed to thank you I thought maybe this excuse me I thought maybe the state could uh
reimburse the league of municipalities I know on their website you can post rfps just a thought hessie do you have any other comments no that's the only comment I have thank you sorry okay thank
you uh councilwoman heis nothing all right councilman Dash uh yes the uh there's been a lot of social media talk this week about a situation that happened with the uh one of the farl pat colonies in our community um I'd like to
just say that um as the Director of the Humane societ of Atlanta County and uh city council um I am working with the city officials to come up with a plan to uh to address that issue to support that
and also to make sure that best practices are being followed um so it's best for the community best for the caretakers best for the animals um and so we are currently working on there I see we have some members of the public that are here that are involved um I'd like to commend you for all your hard work I know there's a lot of work a lot
of money a lot of time goes into it um I'd like to um just encourage all my council member um people to uh continue to work with us to to get this result and I appreciate everybody support counc D you will get to come up
as soon as Council talks and it's public comment then you'll have your time councilman Dash thank you for your energy on this thank you my pleasure U councilman Doby I don't have anything to add okay council president do you have
do you have anything any comment I am enjoying my time down here in Florida and the Phillies tied the Yankees today seven to7 which is uh spring training games cannot go past nine innings so they were tied after nine unusual but
that's what happened and it was very hot down here I'm sorry to say I'm I'm anxious to hear what people have to say about the cats in the audience thank you uh councilman Wright nope all right um with that I guess we move to
public comment excuse me could I I add something um I would just like to say that I spoke with risk management and they're looking into this to make sure that it's you know in the city's best interest and so risk management will be
looking at this as well just so just so um they know Tim this as in the um the C cat colonies yes the cat colonies yes would you like to see something done differently than what's being done over
the last five years what exactly has been done with the cat I didn't realize we had cat colonies out there I didn't know that that was um I thought it was against our ordinances okay so I can if the council likes I can
address it um well I think this should be discussed in committee first well councilwoman has to ask a question so I'll I'll yield to uh to um counc time if you want to discuss it now or if you want to hold it into into ordinance okay
so for this issue I think it may be better to hold it at committee that way I i' very much like you to come and and present present to us um and uh the way I Envision is that we'll have a new committee and we'll have something to give to to our to our Council and he can
uh help us and and direct us very good thank you um so if there are no more comments from us is we can move on to public comment yes yes can I ask you a quick question while he's walking out
there you have to you have to come up and say your name and your address it has to be on public record sorry I don't make the rules um my name is Sue Nelson um I'm with the cat colony out in um the Philadelphia Village departments I don't
live in a haror city I live in a har Township but for five years I've been out there every day feeding the cats and trapping them and finding homes for them so this was really hard to you know like we were in the midst of capping more
that were injured pregnant and then everything was gone I left my number on the um the tote like to say if there was any issues you know call me or um so you know I'm just asking for
your help like how we can work this out you know that I can continue to try to trap these cats I live in at carer township but my job took me to the Village Apartments you know when I was um let's say what's it
called when Co hit you know I ran a pediatric medical daycare I had to go out to the apartments I saw these sick cats pregnant cats cats eating out of the dumpster so that drove me to start helping those cats and I had never done
it in my life before it was just I kind of got hucked approximately how many cats be removed from that area at least 50 um with the spay and neuter and and then some of the tenants asked us to um neuter and spay their cats which we
did um and there's a few we had to return their feral you know and I still see them out there but one had four was on its fourth litter by the time I got there so and you know like I had put um
I didn't know it was illegal I'm sorry but I had put shelters out there with straw you know for the cats to be in in the midst of the winter and then I I built like a um a feeder that you know so other animals couldn't get inside it
you know like it would just have like the cat holes for them to go inside and you know i' feed them every day and I asked you what happened to the 50 cats that you we we found homes for them you put 50 in homes well um M you
or Cape Atlanta cats they helped me yes and there how many are left do you know well the two ferals that we returned I still see out there what's the difference between a feral and a not like you can't find a home for a feral like you know they're not social at all
you know like and then I still see three that we had um spayed and neutered that belong to tenants there like I we know we got them fixed but we gave them back to them you know they just asked so were they allowed to keep animals in the
apartments I don't I believe so I've seen people with a lot of doll yeah so and we've removed sick ones we you know we just had one that um at the Humane Society had a pallet removed he was so sick he couldn't even breathe
another one they called about being frozen two weeks ago you know he's still like not too stable and where would you assume that these cats come from originally um I saw many apartments and
I don't know if people dump them I don't know where they're coming from sometimes when they get a kitten and they're not so cute anymore they're back outside and I've been told by a few tenant that when they have FAS they toss them out because I know we've taken three in
that respect you know that um had fleas yeah we found homes for them so do you think it would be safe to say that you probably prevented hundreds of hundreds of cat corn in that area excuse me can I ask a question
Susan I'm on I'd like to know uh who was it that uh got in touch with you and that you knew that there were cats out there in EHC when I was delivering I had to deliver food and assess the fual
children out there at the apartments and I saw SI hats I saw C eating from the dumpster and that took me there to help help them okay I'm sure business was our medical daycare was closed because of Co
so I was just you know like delivering food and you know for the kids lunches and stuff like that are do you know if there's other places that they're doing this in I mean I know Atlantic City Under the Boardwalk they they are are they doing this
elsewhere um I know there a lot of in EG har City there's different areas that have stray feral packs you know because a friend of mine gets called out there to help them but no other town no other town that you know of just Egg Harbor
City I house I can answer that question I at my house I can answer that question I know our agency knows of 67 managed colonies that are all different all different municipalities and all different counties and that's just in
our area um nationally there's thousands of managed colonies and the difference between a managed colony and just straight cat are outside is managed colonies are the animals are trapped they're spayed or neutered if they're friendly they're removed from the colony
and placed in into homes if they're wild they're trapped sper neutered vaccinated and put back into into the environment so the the whole idea of TNR is not to have collections of cats it's to
maintain the numbers so the numbers can keep getting lower and lower without the TNR the population explodes um for decades I've been in this field for 44 years um for decades so so wait a minute so for decades um what
was common was cats would be trapped and euthanized um the popul populations never decreased so um 25 years ago I started getting involved with TNR and and we were able to take large numbers of stray free roing cats manage those
colonies so those numbers keep getting lower and lower when we started the L City Boardwalk program 25 years ago there were 300 cats Under the Boardwalk the first Summer of the program we went from 300 cats to 150 cats um to dat there there's a very very small colony
of cats Under the Boardwalk because the program works um there's many municipalities that have this Atlantic City has huge C population problems because Stanley homes all of the residents were removed from their Apartments the dogs if the dogs got put
out they got picked up by animal control because it was obvious that they were loose dogs the cats hundreds of cats got dumped out and those cats are being trapped they're being placed up for adoption if their team and they're being put back out their F in a perfect world no cat would be outside they would all
live indoors being maintained by their owners the TNR program is where people step in where other people have failed and they managed to reduce these numbers by um best practices of spay neuter
vaccinate removing T ones ear tipping so we know which one which ones are which uh in many cases they're microchips so they're permanently identified um feeding stations can be set up all different ways ways to set up uh feeding programs where you put the food out for
15 minutes and then you remove it that eliminates the the chance of r coming um or other Wildlife coming which is which is absolutely what you want you don't want Wildlife involved in this at all so I was going to say aren't the birds aren't aren't there a lot less Birds
where these cat colonies well I can tell I can tell you if not for the work of people like Sue here the population that's maybe 25 or 30 out there would be hundreds of cats so there would be a lot more birds killed and barats are very
well fed so they don't need to hunt yeah but don't they just that cats that are out starving they're going to be in the dumpsters they're going to be in people's trash making a mess and they're going to have to hunt these cats don't have to hunt because they have free room and board every day can I ask what would happen if Susan
wasn't here anymore right other people step in she's she's just not the only person that does this I have and I have another girl that helps me like she goes at night and feeds them and I didn't know her like she saw that I was helping the cat and
she joined in I left her a note saying you know like how about if we split you know the times and stuff like that she doesn't get them Spade or neuter but she helps me find who needs it more and you know like with trapping them and who who
who covers the cause to spay and and neutering these animals me you spend the money out of your pocket so them Sue puts out Sue puts out money out of her pocket the Humane Society of Atlanta County puts out 20%
of the cost with the spray neuter allocat allies has given us $350,000 in Grants and we award $50 grants for every spay neuter for a c that comes into our our organization so there's many people that are contributing Cape atanta cats works with her they're contributing
there's a lot of people that are putting the funding out to make this stuff happen but a lot of this comes out of the pockets of the of the individuals what about vacation for for the Humane Society to take these cats and find them homes no these cats are
feral cats they don't belong in shelters they don't belong in cages wild they are Wilds it would be like it would be like you trapping squirrels and trying to find homes for squirrels these are wild these are wild cats and I could never afford it like
I'm retired I mean I am a nurse I work one day a week I could never afford it without the um program so you get reimbursed I don't get re verse instead of it being $100 it's $50 per cat but
the food cost is like insane for me I work just for the cats food just to help them I get Social Security in my pension but my any my work goes right to the cats money um
food and keep in mind Sue didn't start this problem out there she stepped in where she stepped in when no one else did and I commend her for her hard work so I would love the city if the city can't be an assistant
to it maybe the city could not be a hindrance to it so I I would ask that the shelters be put back where they were I'll be happy to work with Sue my organization will be happy to work with Sue to make sure best practices are being followed the the are is kept
clean um I I think I think we owe it to to uh to sue for all her hard work and I think think quite frankly those poor animals are are out there with no shelter now so I think we should I think we should allow the shelters to be put back the the food is there Grant stuff
for like to get food for there is I spoke to I spoke to sue right at the beginning of the meeting um our organization um has grants from elat allies and we actually have um distributed $150,000 worth of food um
just over the last year and um I'll put Sue in touch with that helps she can get add definitely food M Mr chairman yes I'd just like to add something here um and I appreciate what
Miss Nelson's doing out there it's a great thing and uh councilman Dash you you seem very knowledgeable about this since you've been doing it for so long I just want to say one thing uh on behalf of our DPW and our code enforcement
people they were responding to a complaint and that's how this all started and I guess between code enforcement in DPW there were some uh I guess shelters could be cardboard boxes so is
that okay and plastic toast plastic to all right my understanding was that there was a lot of trash in the woods and there were vultures uh preing on the whatever was in those boxes and trash
and that's where the code DPW came out and cleaned it up um and our DPW uh tenant is here uh he can answer that uh he answered it in an email to us so I don't think our code enforcement or DPW
did anything wrong they did they went out there and addressed what they thought was a problem with trash that was attracting vultures and the whole C thing um was still there and there was shelters that they saw that they did not
touch and and again Mr uh councilman Dash you say food should be put out for 15 minutes and then taken away right that is best practice recommendation by Ala allies and left so it sounded it sounded to me like there was some still
food out there for these cats that other animals were preying on like the vultures so uh excuse me I think this is why we need to take this to committee there's certain issues that we're going to just keep you know spinning our Wills yeah but they have
their opinions and talk it out I mean this is the Talk of the Town right now and I think it needs to get out just so you know yeah and I I just want to make it clear that I think DPW and code enforcement did their job right and and what comes next what comes next is
something that the committee can work on together and come up with a solution that works for everybody going forward but in the inter room why the weather is still bad and we're going to start getting cold weather again can those shelters be put back on a temporary
basis until something is put into ordinance or whatever for these cats that are out there now with no shelter especially ones that are kittens and ones that who said there's a an ill one out there that cat could actually have
passed away because it has no shelter I just want to add that's why I think risk was contacted because the call that came in as a complaint was is one of these cats bite one of the kids that live out there would the city be responsible because it's on city property so that's why I think Miss hessie called risk
management to get an assessment of where the city would be liable if something happened they're afraid it would have the same liability of Sue Elson never came to eggh Harbor City no no I'm just saying we're aware it would be the same thing if suit never came to a Harbor City and those cats population got
larger and larger and larger and larger I but I think because a complaint was called in you know you know what I mean like that I'm not debating that that it could be kept it could be kept cleaner out there I was out there myself there is trash out there it's not all cat trash there's all kinds of trash in those in
those woods I just say I I apologize I just want to say because we have we have our attorney here um I have a concern when from the Das we discuss liability so that's one of the reasons um where I
think it's better that something like this starts in committee or um you know councilman councilman Dash has a lot of information on this especially about best practices um I actually think he can guide the city um in a way that um
that that like in the most immediate sense where we can address some things and then and a committee we can address it uh long term discussing like possibly even ordinance things like that I just want to say with the trash when the cats are eating I'm walking along Cincinnati
Avenue with my rabbit Grabber whatever they're called and picking up the trash that is on the wood side just spend you know like as the time you know with the cats eating and it's a lot of you know take out containers like food I mean
obviously I can't pick up the rice and stuff but I'm picking the trash up like waiting for the the cats to eat you know so I there is a lot there is a lot of trash out there but not from me I mean
and it's not from the cats yeah I mean the dumpster across the street now they're clean yeah there's no trash in front of the dumpsters but that wasn't like that so my question is I know you want to take it to the committee now that's 3 four months away like when are
we going to address this issue like so I just said what we would do is because we have councilman Dash uh councilman he he can actually guide us and what is what is truly a best practice but then at some point we will most likely have to pass an
ordinance there's but like what are we doing now like it's about the next week it's getting down into the 20s I don't think we can solve the issue in the next 15 minutes we can't come up with a committee right now and make a vote that to have those things there temporarily and until we get to an ordinance or
something I may I make a motion that we allow the shelters put back I second it until until the matter is resolved I mean I don't understand why we can't do that discussion I we have several ordinances already on the books regarding animals if we allow that we'
be in violation of our own ordinances no person shall feed in any public park or any other property owned and operated by the city of a haror city any Wildlife excluding confined they're not wild well the said they
were are domesticated ones finish I'm talking except for Combined zoos and so forth like that um it says the purpose of this AR article is to prohibit abandonment of a
domesticated animals or wildlife in any park or any property other owned by the city then we have another ordinance powers and duties of the animal control officer that it's the duty of the animal control officer which we pay $600 a
month for to take custody and impound any animal whether or not domesticated found graming or running at large and therea dispose or destroy up said animal as provided in this section and it gives you the parameters there are also um
maintenance fees and so forth attached to it so we have ordinances on the book that were already violated and are being violated every day so if for us to like I thought I heads up to violate our own ordinances
I don't think we can do that so what you're saying is just let the catch freeze out there you know anybody out there in the apartments that would put those shelters on their property for the time by the um manager trouble but she
said get them all and I took them all there's a motion on the floor I do we have a second I second it all right um still a roll call do we know what the motion this is to return temporary put their shelter
back could I make another motion that we one at a time one at time well if she wants to amend that she can she has the right to amend it we just did that earlier hold there's a motion on the
floor it's been seconded and it's been called for a roll call there's already been discussion on it I think you got to move on that yeah councilwoman has you can have her motion after y can talk about okay so this is to allow the crates to go back or whatever
temporarily until we can get to dash yes doy no G I want to qualify my comment um I'm a cat B I've had a cat in my house the whole time I've lived in a harber city so I care a lot about the animals but I
really don't think the city should take responsibility of any kind for stray animals so I have to vote no hece yes and I let me clarify my comment the city is not taking responsibility SE we're just putting temporary shelters
out until we can figure out how to solve this problem so these cats do not freeze out there and then we have carcasses and then we have turkey buzzards swarming to eat the carcasses of the cats and fresh kittens yes
M so you're yes right I'm yes hessie no pener no Timbers yes right definitely so my three yeses and four yeses proba
four two three four four yeses and four NOS call there it fails so it fails um councilwoman hessie you have a motion my motion was to wait to see what risk management has to say about this we
don't need it anymore no we don't need it okay I'd like to add something too I would think that uh and Mason you already asked the question are there people there that could put them on the
property of the apartment building there and I think that would be a solution temporarily to have some yeah but the management she said the management won't let what let the tenants do that uh Jerry are you still in the audience Jerry
yeah so can I ask I just want to ask you a question you said you saw shelters on the porches and on there there's there's some there's a couple of barbecues that cats are under and then there was one
shelter not really a shelter like like Sue had it was a different type and then some some cat food in the rear of some of the when I walk through the development and when I spoke to sue on Monday we talked for about 15 20 minutes
I asked the same question can the management company or can the the apartments put the shelters up because we still have the shelters we didn't throw them away um and she said no that the management company wouldn't let her do that so um so if if uh DPW is
directed by Council to put the shelters back we have them and we can back all right can come up please thank you name and address was9 okay um I originally just wanted to
ask if when this goes to committee if that's open to the public no no it is not and I also want to add my input um I don't manage a colony I moved here three and a half years ago and within months
of moving here I had to spend hundreds of dollars dealing with a a mother cat and a litter of kittens that showed up on my yard and I can give you a list of all the options I tried I have it at home but at one after another like rescue K help
the humany had like a two year waiting list for the vet um I did get the mother discounted I did get them all discounted um spaying and neutering but like I had to pay normal that rate for the kittens
um it was a lot of money and it was a bad imp first impression of this town which at and now that I've lived here longer one of the complaints that people have biggest complaints people have about this is the property taxes and paying for all those CS F out a search
charge on my property tax so um people like Sue are the only ones they're like saving basically saving residents here like me money that they would otherwise be spending themselves out of their pockets to to deal with all the St
CS that show up if they're not so that's my um so and it and it's a few months before it goes to committee before the committee talk no no no we're gonna we're gonna have a committee meeting um
next month but it's it's a um there's one we have some issues to discuss so it's probably somewhere between the like around the 12 so um and then when does the public get to like C oh coun meeeting yeah is it 13 yeah
you can speak at every meeting yeah yeah okay so hopefully it'll be put on the agenda the last meeting it'll be introduced uh probably by title um at that meeting and there's always public comment thanks a lot sure thank you just
one other thing to add um I would say and Nanette read it when she read our current ordinance we do have an animal control company that works for the city so in the meantime we get down in the 20s and residents over there see a
problem they should be calling our Animal Control person and get them over there didn't work she's saying it didn't work Joe so you understand that our Animal control officer is telling residents that they don't trap in the winter that they won't trap until March or April do do you AR
do you know that I did not know that but I'm GNA call them and talk to them about it yeah that that's why there needs to be more discussion before people shut this stuff down so quickly I am absolutely appalled that we would have members of this Council y that
would allow those animals to suffer when when they weren't having any issues with those little plastic boxes out there those cats are still out there they're not going anywhere they're still there and there'll be a lot more I'm absolutely disgusted with the people that voted no yep that's a shame sad it
really is sad all right is um if there's no more comments I guess we could have a motion to close public comment there's no one on line motion I make second all right uh well then with that I motion
to make a motion okay yes yes