WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=HthTKbneVN8

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: HthTKbneVN8):
- 00:00:02: Meeting Commences: Roll Call, Pledge, and Invocation
- 00:01:07: Agenda Amended: Liquor Licenses & Handicap Parking Ordinance
- 00:02:46: Approval of Prior Minutes & Communication Items
- 00:03:58: Consent Agenda Presentation: Grants, Projects, and Renewals
- 00:09:26: Public Comment Begins - Consent Agenda Questions
- 00:11:30: Approval of Consent Agenda & Ordinance Introductions
- 00:14:59: Public Comment - Juliana Carella - Animal Shelter Concerns
- 00:19:18: Council Response: Merlin, Shelter Progress, & Volunteer Role
- 00:30:33: Public Comment - Steve Clay - Continued Merlin Concerns
- 00:37:27: Shelter Staff Clarification: Merlin's Red Dog Status
- 00:42:52: Public Comment - Lisa Williams - Shelter Dog Management
- 00:48:48: Public Comment - Janice - Cornell Heights Update & Road Conditions
- 00:51:57: Public Comment - Roslyn D'vorin - Speeding Enforcement Needed
- 00:57:01: Public Comment - Justine Chartis - Shelter Volunteer Shortage
- 01:02:00: Public Comment - Lisa Williams - Website Accuracy
- 01:08:45: Public Comment - Steve Clay - Committee, Processes Needed
- 01:16:02: Council Rebuttal: Evaluation Improvements, Social Media Issues
- 01:21:16: Public Comment - Juliana Carella - Anonymous Complaints
- 01:22:59: Council Comments: Memorial Day Parades and Waterworks Updates


Part: 1

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We're going to get started. >> This meeting is being held with the benefit of public notice as required by the open public's meetings act. Madam clerk, please call the role. >> I blusher here. >> Phillips >> here. >> Mr. Pero >> here.

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>> Mr. Whan is active. Mr. Carelli will be late. We have >> Thank you. Please rise for the salute to the flag and the invocation. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation

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under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Please remain standing. >> Dear God, we ask for your for your guidance as we gather today. Grant us wisdom in our decisions, clarity in our discussions, and a spirit of cooperation

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and respect. Help us serve with integrity and act in the best interest of those we represent. May our work here reflect fairness, compassion, and purpose. We offer these intentions in your name. Amen. >> Amen.

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>> Okay. Before we get to the minutes, uh there has been an amendment to the agenda since it was posted on the website. We have two resolutions added. CA26 26235 is a resolution approving renewal of alcoholic beverage control liquor

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licenses for the term of July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027 and CA27, which is 26236 resolution approving removal of alcoholic beverage control liquor licenses with special conditions for the

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term July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027. There's also uh an amended ordinance title um to be in it is going to be the spaces uh that it's going to establish. So I'll read that for you. Ordinance 2 26019

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ordinance amending and supplementing the code of the township of Hamilton, New Jersey. Chapter 485, Vehicles and Traffic. Article 11, parking 45-19, Handicap Parking, establishing spaces

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for 325 Connecticut Avenue, 1524 Genese Street, 1612 Genese Street, 1790 Greenwood Avenue, 137 Jeremiah Avenue, 35 Marshall Avenue West, 118 Mary

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Street, 1025 Nottingham Way, 646 Shiller Avenue, 39 Victor Avenue and 9 Waverly Place. Can I please have a motion to the amendment to the agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> On the motion, Mr. >> Yes. Mr. Phillips. >> Yes. >> Mer.

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>> Yes. >> For consideration, we have the minutes of April 7th, 202. >> I'll move the minutes. >> A second. >> Madam clerk. >> Yes. Phillips. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Next. We have communication C1 and C2.

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61 is the acknowledgement of receipt of documentation for ethical beverage license 333028. The salary return three corporations trading as Elono. This is amending the distribution of shares to the corporate officers and C2 is the board combination

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first Friday in June which is June 5th as sun awareness day. >> That motion >> I'll make a motion to um move on C1 communication C1 and C2. >> Second that. Motion to sign. >> Yes. Phillips.

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>> Yes. Mr. Pharaoh. >> Yes. I know we have um Yeah, we would like to come up and uh take a picture. >> Great. Sure. Can I thank you so much for bringing >> Rick? Oh, that's why I'm coming around. >> Thank you.

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That would be great. >> Can I get Can I Can you stay in the middle with me? >> Yes. >> I think that would be great. >> That' be awesome. Take the sign up. >> Here. Who needs the sign, guys? >> Just watch the cord. Don't trip.

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>> Yeah. Thank you so much. Would any of you like to give me your phone? >> Yeah. Appreciate it, man. You're welcome. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Can't feel my elbow

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right there. Thank you. Thanks for coming. >> See you at the parade. Amanda, isn't it? >> Fingers crossed. >> Thank you. >> Fingers crossed. >> I don't want I don't want it to rain

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over mess my hair up. >> Janice, we can't see you back there. Move up. for enjoying the midway >> operation. >> Madame clerk, uh guess we're up to consent agenda. >> Yes, sir. Uh with the amendments to the

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agenda, we are now uh consent agenda items CA1 through CA27 for your consideration. >> Okay. So, just a brief rundown. Um there are six different grants uh on the consent agenda items. Um, we have a grant application for

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state aid for uh DOT. We have two new vendors added to our vendor list. We have two uh two items for the ecological center uh Mercer County DOT agreement and the Britain Industries for um waste.

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We have two items for the fireworks for July 4th. We have the vets park tennis project um for uh on the consent agenda. We also have the annual maintenance uh for uh WPC

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and we have uh the solar solar farm. We have a decrease in the amount of panels uh for that project. And we have the two ABC renewals or um yeah renewals that we just added. Uh questions or comments from council on

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consent agenda? >> Well, I would like to um compliment our deputy business administrator for the work on all the grants that uh we have been getting. Um I think that falls under your preview. So, thanks for all

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the work on that. Uh it's a substantial addition to the services that we're able to uh provide our residents um including the Pitman and Clover Park which uh council president has been a project

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you've put a lot of work in work on as well. Um the one one comment I want to make is on the uh CA19 the tub grinding. Um, this is going to cost us this year $285,000.

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Uh, I think that we should consider getting our own tub grinder at that rate. Um, a tub grinder, the highend for a tub grinder is $600 to $650,000. Uh, it's an item that would pay for itself uh potentially within a few

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years. And I think it's worth discussing uh because these prices aren't going to go down, they're only going to go up. Uh, so I think it's something worth considering. uh at some point uh maybe getting our own equipment to do that if it's going to be this expensive

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>> notice. Thank you. >> Um just I also was just going to mention you know it's great to see all the grants coming in again and uh seems to be an amount between grants and just revenue and you know bring in so much revenue um towards the towards the

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township. I think it's wonderful. Anything else? No. >> Okay. With only three of us here, um I have my comments already, so I'm going to open it to the public. Anybody wishing to comment on the consent agenda items? Just consent agenda at this time?

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Come on up, Janice. >> I didn't think we were here. There was no cars at all. Jan is climbing. We're nice. Um the resolution with uh small cranes and hoist and the department of border pollution on CA18. Is that with

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Trenton Waterworks or is that our own pollution thing? >> That's like the >> sewer. >> The sewer. >> That's our That's our facility. >> Oh, that's our >> This is for annual maintenance on those things. >> All righty. >> It's It's for annual maintenance and emergency repair. >> And what was the the sewer thing on

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Sloan Avenue on CA20? >> CA20. This is uh authorizing a refund of a fee uh that was paid by a company that were they um is there reason they were uh did they were they refunded it because the

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project's not happening or do you recall >> there I believe there was an initial error in the calculation of the math. >> Yeah. >> Okay. There was an an initial error in the calculation. So we refunded the part that we overcharged. >> Oh I thought that was what had to do with the cannabis part there. Okay. All

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righty. And um and then on CA24 had something to do with solar and Hamilton. That doesn't have anything to do with Sweet Brier Avenue. >> Uh this this project because the uh size of the project was uh reduced uh we had to reduce the number of solar panels

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that are going to be there. >> Okay. >> Uh it was a very slight adjustment but we had to for accuracy purposes we had to detail that in this resolution. >> Okay. Gotcha. I just for the record, I tried to slow the meeting down because I didn't see you. So, we started off real slow.

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>> Oh, you're sweet. You're sweet. >> We did We did recognize you weren't here yet. >> Oh, I I took the wrong road. I'm so used to getting on 295. I just jumped on 295. I'm going go, why am I going this way? >> It's all right. We We waited as long as we could. >> Anybody else wishing to comment on the

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consent agenda items? Seeing none. >> Uh, council president, I'll move to close the public comment and move on consent agenda item CA1 through CA25. >> I'll second that. >> Motion, Mr. Tai. >> Yes.

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>> Phillips. >> Yes. Mero. >> Yes. >> 30. >> Ordinances. Ordinance 12618. Ordinance amending supplementing the code of the council of Hamilton New Jersey chapter 485 vehicles and traffic cars pursue parking sections 485-9

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handicap parking is repealing space and established that 303 by ordinance 03-1 147 Jeremiah by ordinance 18-051 39 established by ordinance 08-045

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and 113 Samuel Street by ordinance 16-037 first reading introduction >> couch President I move ordinance 126-018 on first reading. >> I'll second on the motion. Mr. P. >> Yes. >> Mr. Phillips. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pero.

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>> Yes. 30. Ordinance 26-019 is an ordinance amending supplementing the code of proposed repair of Hamilton, New Jersey. Chapter 485, vehicles and traffic. Article 11 parking section 485 cap parking spaces. These are the spaces

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that uh Mr. Pero read earlier. So the various approved specified locations. >> Uh council president. I'll make a motion to move on ordinance 226-019 on first reading and introduction. >> I'll second that. >> On a motion, Mr. Ty.

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>> Yes. >> Mr. Phillips. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pharaoh. >> I'd like to recognize Councilman Carelli is here. Can we get him on his phone? He's talking. This was on first reading >> establishing.

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>> Yes. >> Ordinance 3260 is an ordinance authorizing a solar agreement between Catherine Hamilton and Europe development block 214 12.01 first reading and introduction. >> Council president I move ordinance

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326-020 on first reading. I'll second >> on the motion. Mr. Parabelli, >> yes. Mr. >> Kai, yes. >> Phillips, yes. Mr. Carol, yes. 40 ordinance 021 is an ordinance driving

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agreement and freedom legacy at LC and rule of classes for block 2154, lot 3. This is for project freedom. Council President. Um I'll move on uh to um move on first reading and introduction ordinance

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number 426-021. >> I'll second the motion. Mr. K. I'm sorry. Mr. Caribelli. >> Yes. >> Mr. S. >> Yes. M. >> Yes. Mr. Harrow. >> Yes. Okay, first up is Juliana Carella. Please come up.

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Hi, good evening. My name is Juliana Carella, although many people know me online as Jules and Gemma, my dog. Before I begin, I want to acknowledge that I did post a practice version of this speech online, which some of you may have seen. And after receiving feedback from many residents, I made

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some changes and I think that feedback process actually reflects the larger point I'm trying to make here tonight, which is that residents are engaged. they are paying attention and they do want the shelter and township to improve even if they're not coming to these meetings. The reason I'm finally giving a speech like this tonight to ask is why

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did it take viral public attention for movement to happen? For months, I've sat here and watched residents like Steve and others repeatedly raise concerns. Many of those same concerns appeared to go largely unanswered. But after I began making videos about it, changes suddenly started happening, including changes

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involving control of the shelter social media accounts. So why were residents speaking up not enough? And if these recent changes were only prompted by the public controversy surrounding one social media post, residents are left wondering why broader concerns raised over many months did not generate the

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same urgency sooner. People should not have to become content creators or generate generate online outrage in order to have legitimate concerns acknowledged. I also want to address Merlin briefly because I personally went to meet him after hearing so much discussion surrounding his situation.

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Based on the shelter's own behavioral descriptions, many residents are confused about how that results in him being treated as such a high-risisk red dog with handling limited to staff despite ongoing concerns about understaffing. Whether people agree or disagree with the decisions, there needs to be consistency and transparency in

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how behavioral standards are being applied. I also think the township should consider recording behavioral evaluations so decisions can be reviewed by more than one qualified person without requiring additional in-person handling or physical labor from already overwhelmed staff. I also want to speak

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about my own experience trying to volunteer. I've mentioned it before in meetings that over the last several years I've submitted applications and emails that went unanswered. During my most recent visit, I filled out another application and later received communication stating that no new volunteers could be onboarded until a

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new volunteer coordinator is hired, which raises a much larger operational concern. Why does so much of the shelter's ability to function appear dependent on one part-time role? If volunteer onboarding has completely paused due to one vacant part-time position, residents are left wondering

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what backup systems or management support currently exists. The township should seriously evaluate whether this role needs to become full-time or what support is needed. And the same applies to social media. In today's world, social media directly impacts whether animals are seen, fostered, rescued, and

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adopted. And it cannot be treated like an afterthought or an extra task squeezed in when staff already appear overwhelmed. And to be clear, I'm not saying that because I want the position. I do not. But I do professionally understand social media systems and strategy and have offered to volunteer my knowledge and guidance. The last

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thing I'm deeply concerned about is the language in the volunteer application regarding social media and speaking negatively about the shelter. To many residents, it creates the impression that people have to choose between volunteering and speaking honestly about concerns they witness involving a taxpayer funded facility. Volunteers

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should absolutely act professionally, but residents should not fear retaliation, exclusion, or removal simply for speaking publicly and honestly about issues involving public operations. It creates a chilling effect and it discourages transparency instead of encouraging accountability. At the

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end of the day, I'm not here because I enjoy conflict. I am here because residents cons continue raising concerns and too often feel ignored until those concerns become impossible to ignore publicly and that should should concern all of us. So to summarize my four

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actual things is one, I think we need to consider establishing an animal shelter advisory committee made up of residents and community members. So concerns, oversight, and support do not continue falling entirely on overwhelmed staff or frustrated residents. Second, transparency regarding the volunteer

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coordinator hiring process and timeline. Third, who is responsible for handling volunteers when the volunteer coordinator position is vacant? And fourth, an update on Berlin. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Do you want to comment on >> any of the

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>> I'm happy to but as as they come up >> why don't we why don't we start >> update on Merlin. Do you know about Merlin? >> Um I do have some information on Merlin. Yeah. Um, so yeah, after hearing about Merlin um quite a bit over the last few

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months, I also agreed that, you know, just um fighting a leash, you know, I kind of I don't want to make it sound silly, but like, you know, I have a little cockpit poo at home and yeah, if you misbehave once in a while, it's like, yeah, you know, if you take his zoinky away from him when he's chewing on his oinky, he's going to be really

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mad. Um, so I, you know, there's a lot more to Merlin. Um, I don't know how, you know, that he, it's not just one thing. and he's been evaluated. Um I was able to talk to the director, our health officer and the director for almost an

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hour and um they are working. They're getting him out. He's being treated for his anxiety, but he has other violent tend tendencies that have been demonstrated. Um not a great candidate for homing, but if there's a rescue that can take him, that's a really good

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option. So if anyone knows rescues that could take him that's really probably more um but it just see it the more that I was able to get information it seemed like maybe it had been oversimplified to just one particular behavior that it's it's there's more there's more to the

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situation and to his situation in response to his environment like depending on what the environment is is you know so maybe if if you see him and he's in you know if he's seeming but that might not be how he is all the If if that makes sense. Like that's kind of the

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impression I got. >> Anything else on Merlin? Because I don't want to go from point to point to point. I don't want to keep going back and forth. So I'd rather if we're going to comment. >> I don't have anything on Maryland. >> No, I do not. >> Did you have anything you want to touch on with that?

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>> Uh in my review of the records also, I would it it's not just jumping at the lease. It's jumping with the attempted to fight. And that's one of the main concerns that at least I have as a lawyer protecting the contract. >> So one of the suggestions um was about

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recording the evaluations. Is there any recordings of that or is that just what the person uh identified? >> It's as far as I don't know anything about video recording. It it is what is it? It's the assessments and and

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reporting at the time. So if the assessment is done in the shelter, if it's on camera, then we have a then we should have a recording of it. That gives that would give us more clear evidence, right? Like a cop body camera. >> If if if there was if there's video recording, absolutely.

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>> So >> we'll get to it. Yeah. >> Um but did you want to touch? >> Uh well, I just want to point out um the shelter issue is not new to this council. Uh we didn't just start

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thinking about this at the last meeting. Um we've been working on reforming and improving this shelter uh since we've been in office. Uh and we have made a lot of improvements to the shelter. Um when we got here um the shelter was

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killing as many as 40 animals a day. Um, since we have come into office, um, the live release rate has increased from about 68% to over 96%.

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This is now a no-kill shelter. We don't kill animals for space. We don't um we we kill them for uh um if they're injured or if they're a danger to the public. Those are the reasons. And by the way, it's not an arbitrary decision

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to do that. Among the reforms that have been put in place is the shelter was previously run by the ACOs. We have put a nonacco manager who's an expert in running a shelter over the ACOs.

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Uh we have uh put processes um with accountability and oversight in place when evaluating the dogs. Uh there's been a committee formed. It's not just one person making those decisions. There's a committee of professionals who are making the

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decisions regarding uh the behavior of the dogs and what dogs are or are not safe uh to be released into the public. We have had incidents where dogs have been released who were not safe and people have sustained serious injuries

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as a result of that. This is a public safety issue. It's not a it's not just a matter of um you know people making arbitrary decisions. This is with the best interest of the public in mind that these decisions are made. Now, when it

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comes to these evaluations, one of the suggestions that council has had and that the administration is currently working on implementing is having a uh dual control uh uh procedure with the um evaluations

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where if a dog is uh termed a dangerous dog or a red dog that there will be a second opinion given by a different professional. This is something that uh the administration is working to implement at this time. Um so, you know,

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I'm proud of our animal shelter. I'm proud of the work that the professionals are doing there. Uh it's a difficult place to work and it's difficult circumstances. It's a bad day for a dog when they wind up in our shelter, but we have people who are doing their best to care for those animals and to have

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successful outcomes for those animals. Is there room for improvement? Of course there is and we are working um to continue to make improvements to that uh facility as we have been for the last several years.

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>> Thank you. only because I just want um one thing I just wanted to add too is especially as a teacher this made sense to me >> is um the dogs that are evaluated especially the red dogs when they're evaluated there's a plan established to

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actually to change behavior so it's medical behavioral um it made sense to me Janice like you know when you have a student and they have a goal and you make a plan um so these things don't happen overnight they they are in the middle of implementing the plan. I'm sure not just with Merlin, but with

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other dogs as well. Um, and that that out may it makes sense for me that there is there is a long like a plan in place. They're moving through the steps and then he would get re-evaluated. They're they are hoping to move him to yellow. Um, but again, certain steps have to be

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taken to get there. So, >> I agree. >> Yeah, >> I'll just echo what has been said. Um I I you know clearly recall the the history here and how far we've come and it's from folks in this um this room

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that have brought attention to some of the issues that were ongoing at the shelter, but we've we've come a long way uh since 2018. Um I'm proud of where we're at. Is it perfect? No, it it's not. Um, and that's why Juliana, it's

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good that you, you know, you bring bring comments, other individuals bring comments to us, um, to help us make, uh, make it better. Um and and you know I even think that some of the discussion that we had uh the volunteer coordinated position that we talked about and I

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could be wrong but I think that was kind of you know some of the interaction that we've had with the community um on some of the um some of those um important you know connections to to the shelter and how we get folks more involved in in in

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um taking dogs out and walking with with the dogs and just interacting. It's it's good. socialization for them. Um, and I I did I stayed on top of this. I know that we're going through an interview process for the volunteer coordinator position. I know we receive several applications. Uh, so that's ongoing. So

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hopefully and we still have volunteers. Correct. I mean, we still have volunteers that are, you know, come in every day. Um, so, you know, I think that we've come a long way. Um we continue have you know uh very 96% I think we're I think you said that

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Councilman Tai 96% we're at right now for uh as a kill shelter. So we're doing you know we're doing really well there. Um you know I I I always appreciate the feedback that we get from the community though on these issues that are uh strong advocates for um for animals in

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our town. So that's all. >> Yeah. I I think uh just to close it off, I don't even think we did evaluations at the shelter. Well, not we. I don't even think there were shelter um there were evaluations done at the shelter prior to us coming to office. There was a lot of things that were done that were done

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incorrectly and we have to make sure we never go backwards. Right? That's the most important part. So for me, I appreciate your comments, >> right? Just like everybody else that comes, we always thank them because we need to hear that. Is everything you say going to happen? You know, are all your

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are you going to use all your ideas? No. But we're going to take some of your ideas that that you know, maybe you think outside of our box, right? Always look for people that think outside my box because what I'm thinking, I need somebody else's perspective because my perspective isn't the only one just like all of us. So, we appreciate your

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comments. We appreciate your ideas. If you have something, bring it to us that you made some great points and I think that that some of that stuff, you know, needs to be taken into account, right? So, we do appreciate that. Um, the staff that we have have done a good job. You

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know, just in the six years that I've been here, we've turned this around. We've gotten better. Is there room for improvement? I'm a perfectionist, so it's never going to be good enough for me, right? The only thing that's good enough for me is my team. Everybody up here has put a lot of time into this and

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every other issue we have. That's why I thank all of them every meeting. And I thank Jonas for being our sixth council person. I thank everybody because you can tell that everybody cares. You can tell that everybody is engaged. Unfortunately, um

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I know Councilman Well had a family obligation tonight, but I know he feels strongly about this as well because we talk about it a lot. So, um putting down a dog is never an easy decision or a cat. It's never an easy decision. Do I think we could do better for them?

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Absolutely. Because I don't ever want to put a dog down. It's the hardest thing you have to do. But I think we get there together. Um, we get there together, not by spreading things apart, right? Not by dividing. I think we get there together by sitting and listening to ideas and

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moving forward together. >> So, anybody else have anything on that topic before we take the next speaker? Okay. Anybody else from the public? Uh, we have nobody else signed up. Does anybody else want to speak? Come on up, Steve. Steve Clay, Wolfpack Road. We are just

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slightly over one week from it being a full year since I started asking what about Merlin's behavior meets their definition of a red dog. You guys have seen at least seven months of an email thread of me asking and getting

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nonsense answers or no answers or telling me that he's jumpy and bouncy and bites leash. Nowhere in any of the documentation, in any of their notes, in any of the responses that I'd been able to get were

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the words violent tendencies or jumping at the leash with the intent to bite somebody ever mentioned. I even asked the question, they were sitting right here. Still no answer. So, whatever they told you, if those were

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the words they used, I called BS for a year. Why could I not get an answer? And as far as the behavior plans, I've stood up here before and talked about that. It's in their policy. It's been their policy for 6 years.

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After they do an evaluation, every dog other than green is supposed to get behavior modification plans. You know what's not in any of those? Behavior modification plans. They came to you last year at one of the board health meetings and said they started it. I open them every week.

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Very rarely do they come. A couple came with this last one. Merlin never had one, which explains after they define him as red, he sat for 5 months. There was no plan. There was no plan at all.

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You want videos of Merlin's behavior, after the three times I took him out with a staff member, I videotape it. I send them to Danielle. I send them to Chris. I say, "Here's his behavior." I get yes, but he was jumpy and bouncy. That's what I get for an answer. So,

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what they told you I'm saying is load of crap. I appreciate council that not only that that you support the issue, but that you come up with yourself that we get a second opinion. I appreciate that, but that doesn't solve this issue. >> Excuse me one second. Did we ever get a

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second uh a second evaluation, a second company? >> Yeah. >> Yes, we do have an evaluation. >> Can you pause this time to because I don't want to take Thank you. >> Yes, we do have we do. We have hired an outside company. We're just doing they're just scheduling now. It's just a matter of We gave them a date, didn't work for them. They gave us a date, didn't work for us. And so now they're

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just it's just a date issue. So >> they are getting so >> want to make sure we were square on that. >> No, thank you. So I I appreciate that that that happens. But as I said before, this process is easily corruptible.

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And I will tell you again, the only reason Merlin's still a red dog is because I said he shouldn't be. From June 3rd, when I brought it up last year, he was already scheduled for an evaluation and he pushed it off and pushed it off.

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Every other dog got evaluated. Some got evaluated twice. A dog in a vent house got evaluated. Merlin didn't get evaluated till 5 months later. She took him out. She wrote exactly exactly almost verbatim what I told the shelters. He bites at the leash unless

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you give him a comfort toy to carry with him and he's easy to put back. She wrote the same thing. They sent it to me. I said, "Yes, that's exactly what I've been saying. Why is he red? He's jumpy and bouncy. Bites the leash. Not violent tendencies, not jumps

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with the intention to bite somebody cuz he never has." They took him out two days after the last council meeting when we talked about it. Nowhere in their notes was he violent. Was he attempting to bite anybody? Nothing. I called BS.

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Thank you. >> Thanks. Can you um I have two questions. Uh I know you want to comment, but I have two questions. Can you um please forward to Chris, Danielle, Kathy, whoever wants to answer the question.

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Um, why did Merlin's evaluation get back get pushed back five months is the first question. Uh, what are we doing with the red dogs? And the followup to that is what gets a dog on the red on the red

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list. I'd also like to ask um is it is it true that the um behavior modification plans aren't in the file and aren't being implemented? Yeah. Steve, just if you want to make when you say she, because you're saying

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she wrote, she wrote, who are you referring to? >> So, the way come back up. Yeah. Sorry. >> Um, so the email exchange was between myself and Chris and Danielle. >> Uh, it was the trainers notes um that

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basically mirrored mine on his on his behavior that he bites a leash unless you give him something to to chew on or carry. And he goes back into his kennel with no problem. And I just want to state on the record too I if I said violent tendency is not is not like that might have been my words. I don't want to say I don't want to be quote that

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Kathy or Chris said >> that but um I I do understand he's very very intense though you know so that was one of >> he he is not intense. I mean, even for a dog that had been locked up for 5 months and before that

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taken out for 20 minutes or half an hour and before that locked up for 3 months without comm, he's not intense. He's a big dog, but he's not intense. And and part of what I had asked them for was in addition to what about Merlin's behavior makes him a

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red dog was I had asked repeatedly as part of the evaluation, can we simply have a plain language statement? This dog is red because and clear it up. This dog is yellow because this dog is blue because to that matches their own

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definition. That's all I've asked for. If they can't do that, then they shouldn't be doing the evaluation. And I got the same runaround and you guys saw that in email thread. Yes, we can do that. Yes, we can do that. I understand what you want. We can do that.

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We don't need that. So I I the questions I ask I feel cover what you asked what you asked for. So if it doesn't then we'll ask it a different way. But I believe asking what gets a what gets a dog on the red list or the naughty list. I'm pretty sure

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>> well you guys have asked that here before when they were sitting here and you get a generic listing. >> What about Merlin? >> I I asked him for I want it in writing. I want a detailed answer. >> Right. And like I said, the the fact that literally 11 months and three weeks

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he can't get an answer. >> It's it's not because he had all these now it's more to the story. >> That doesn't change his question or the difficulty in answering it. >> Understood. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.

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>> Come on up, Lisa. >> What? >> It's okay. >> Okay. >> Uh do you want to did you want to comment? I could clear the record up, but it's up to you. >> Okay. Can you give us a minute? >> Yeah, sure. >> Good. >> All right. So, before I clear up the record here, I do I do want to remind

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the council that we once relied upon volunteer opinions about dogs and that caused us to then have to pay out a massive settlement because a potential adopter was adopted and was bitten by a dog that we had relied upon opinions and

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volunteers and that person was severely injured. So that being said, the definition for a red dog is red dogs are handled by shelter staff only and they have a known history or high risk of biting andor aggression towards people

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andor dogs, quarantine requirements and or legal restrictions. I am looking at the actual record of of the assessment completed uh February 18th, 2025 by Sue Depersio.

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lunging attempting to bite and then later grabs leash with them. So the attempting to bite comment is of a person not necessarily the least that is also biting a bit of a lease or attempting to buy a lease is a separate uh issue. Then you have other other

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issues of hard stairs, thrashes, thrashing heads. He was he was he was uh reflecting potentially dangerous and aggressive behaviors. That was February 18th, 2025. 112025

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reassessment by Wolf Gang Laura Gerber jumps up again, barking much of the time, will immediately go for the leash and pulls medium, but they're saying he is perhaps getting safer. So, they're evaluating. They're not writing him off, but arousal jumps, high leash biting

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again goes the original other issue. And then jump, biting, leash, and almost handler. That's again what I'm concerned about. So now that's February 18th, 2025, November 20th. >> The one that the one that you said almost bet the handler. Uh who was the

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handler? >> Looks like it's Laura Garber. >> And is that the person that wrote the evaluation? >> That's what I have. Yeah. So and then again 4 2326 Laura Garber with Ken and Joselyn. There's more there's more notes. 5126 Ken. I don't

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know who Ken is, I think. And then he would jump upward and attempt to bite and secure another leash again. So is it biting the leash or going to which is quite possible and I'm willing to I'm willing to give that as a possibility but it's also quite possibly jumping up

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at the person at the handler. So I want to correct the record. It's not just biting at the least. It is attempting to bite the handler over several instances. Nevertheless, we are working on this dog. We are we've been treating this dog and we are willing to and we have

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arranged to have him reassessed again >> by a different by a different assessment >> entirely third party neutral uh assessor. >> Yeah. And and we I don't want to speak for everybody but I'll say I like I would like to think that we all uh are

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happy about a second assessor because it gives a different opinion. Uh budding a leash I am not a professional. Buting a leash is not a form of aggression, >> but >> biting at a person is different. >> Fighting a person and there's other I mean I could go through everything and and write everything, but I wanted to

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make the >> I wanted to clear the record that it wasn't just biting at the leash. I was telling you when it was notated, but also that it was attempting to bite the person. And >> that's the difference. >> That's the difference. That that is the difference because that's our employees,

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that's our volunteers, and that's the public. It is a public safety issue potentially. So, not to uh cut or disregard Merlin, but um is this secondary evaluation going to be done for all the other red dogs?

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>> I I think that is that is the plan. Yeah. >> Because I I I don't again, not disregarding Merlin, I don't want to forget about the other ones either and say, "Hey, well, we saved one. >> Let's give everybody a shot here to be re-evaluated." >> It is it is a contract for third party

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evaluations. And so the first obviously because Merlin's been brought up multiple times, we are trying to get that one done first because we wanted to finally once and for all get this done. >> Understood. Thank you. >> Anybody else from council have anything

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to comment before we bring Lisa? >> No. >> So just the one one thing regarding the third party evaluations. Um, I hope there's some protocol in place with the third party evaluator where they come in cold and haven't been

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uh prepped with all of this information because I I really do want them to form their own opinion and not be reacting to previous opinions when they give us their report. >> Okay, fair.

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All right, Lisa, for sure. It's yours. >> Okay. Um, Lisa Williams, can I just ask you since we're on the third party evaluator thing, can you ask that those evaluations be recorded? And the reason I say that is behavior happens in a second. You know, I

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fostered a dog way back from the shelter for 17 months trying to save Shiloh. And I the rescue coordinator and I um founder and I determined she was not safe to place. And people would look at her and say that she would lunge without

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warning. But she had a look. She would get a look in her eye. That stuff is missed if you don't record it and go back. Like one of the biggest benefits I find to having cameras on my house, which aren't there to watch my dogs, is I can replay what happens at a fence

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line when someone's dog comes at my fence to come at my dog and I replay it and I replay it to see who was the aggressor and I watch this. And for fun, I'll go to aggression and dogs conferences because that's kind of me. Please ask if it's not in the contract if these could be recorded so that

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people can look and see like if does his lips quiver like what exactly happens when a dog lunges at you you react and you're scared and even the best people could miss things. So that's just my request. All right. >> Can you pause her pause her time?

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>> So that was uh also my idea. That was my thinking because when you're training a dog, you can be training the dog, but somebody else should be training or watching because you need that other set of eyes. Sometimes split second, you can't see everything that happened. Did the dog trip? Is that why the dog bit is

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So having that other observer who's taking notes, it's just another perspective. >> Good. >> Okay. So, I for a long time bring up the number of dogs in the shelter, how many are posted on the website, blah blah

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blah. Um Jason, I think was his name last week, asked if there could be a plan. So, um Juliana went to the shelter, I believe it was on Saturday the 9th. I went last Saturday. So, when she was there, we were missing cage cards. The

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last Saturday, we had cage cards. This morning I went through the website and made a little chart where the website said the animal was. I went on my lunch hour, checked every single cage card for cage number. Just so everyone knows, as of about lunchtime today, our shelter is

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responsible for 50 dogs. So some got added to the website that were oversight and got missed being added. So in that 50, we have two safekeeps and three court cases. So 45 dogs are quote property sort of of the township of summer strays. Two are at

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BART. So there are 43 dogs on strayold are available for adoption at the shelter. Like and when Juliana went she couldn't go in to see Simone because they were short staffed. And Simone is one of the dogs in crates. There were 13 dogs in

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crates as of today. I didn't have the time because I was on my lunch hour to go in and physically look at crates, but I had my list. I talked to Danielle and we added some more that were in crates. One of the safekeep is in a crate. Lady came back. She was in a crate, but she

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had another meet and greet. So if we have say 12 dogs in stray holder available for adoption in crates and there's short staff on a Saturday and people can't go in that section, those dogs aren't getting seen. And in theory,

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the dogs in crates, those are the easier to handle pets because they're literally lined up in the shelter in the hallway. A crate with a sheet over it and the next crate with a sheet over it. But we don't have proper staffing for people to help customers. Anybody who comes in, I

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know you guys have offered staffing. They always say it's okay, but it's not when somebody is told, "We're underst staffed and you have to be supervised that section of the building, so you can't go." So, we need a plan. You have one empty kennel as of lunchtime today.

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It's kennel 29. So, what are we going to do? And the plan isn't wave adoption fees. Our issue is not fee. It's $75. Spay neutered. Buttercup was coming back today from a dental and a spay and she has a

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potential adopter. So, we do everything. You get a major bargain at $75. Um, have any council members been to the shelter since October? >> I have not. >> I'll come back. But my question is, why

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has no one been to the shelter to look and see for yourself what it's like there? >> So, um, I have a follow-up question. What are the instructions for um a member of the community who wants

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to see a dog and we're short staffed? And um maybe Juliana can answer that. Did they tell you to come back at a certain time or what? >> No, there were no specifics. It was it was just that I couldn't. And so I I honestly I didn't know if it was your name for the record.

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>> Juliana when they knew the recording. >> Yeah, Juliana Carell. Thank you. >> Um yeah. No, I wasn't sure truthfully if it was because it was me and I wasn't sure that everyone was super happy I was there to begin with, but I think it I I do truly think they were under staff so I couldn't go back there. But no, there was no like this is when you could come

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back or anything. Right. Christine was with me. >> Yeah. I mean, if we're trying to place dogs, then the communication with members of the public who were trying to meet the dogs needs to be better. >> Yeah. Yeah, when I was there, we were only able to see the dogs that were out on the right kennels cuz the left side

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was being cleaned and then we couldn't go inside because they were understaffed >> on a Saturday. >> Yeah. And it was when did we got there? Like shortly after they opened. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Anyone else wishing to speak for the first time?

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>> Come on up, Janice. I love all these tall people at Cornell Heights. Um, yesterday was Good All Rubber's third anniversary from when it burned down. And it does look like they're starting to clean it up.

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You can see progress from the back coming forward. So, finally, after three years, we're getting there. And my other question is, Clock Road belongs to us or does that belong to the county? Uh, let's get the machine standby >> because there are sections of that road that need a little bit of repair, so to

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speak. >> There's certain lanes you could lose your transmission and then the other side's okay, you know. So, just looking up the map. >> Yeah, I can't remember the clock. >> I think I brought this up on Clockner uh to the public works team as well. So,

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>> it's a it's a municipal it is a municipal road. >> So, the county has to take care of it. >> It's our road. It's our >> take care of it. >> So, our road department can go out there and check it out and cuz there are certain sections that are not too spectacular. Is there a certain Yeah, I

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was going to say is there a section that we could stretch certain stretch that we could refer them to >> certain coordinates on clock any business and this business? >> No, I'll I'll double check it and I'll bring it back. Yeah. So, cuz there are certain sections that are really like oh

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my god, especially like when um you pass Home Depot entrance that road going to the light to road on the right side is kind of iffy, you know. And then there was one section, I don't know what they dragged down the road from Hamilton Hospital Road to White Horse Mercerville

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Road, but there's this big black like the line or gutter like all down the road. It's unbelievable. I can't imagine what they had dragged down there. But u >> we've been pretty good with uh getting um the director anywhere where there's

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potholes. So if you know of any, you can send them to us. They've been good about responding uh pretty quickly as long, you know, within a day or so of getting them uh reported because this winter, let's face it, this winter was tough on everything. And uh I I know I had sent

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the director five in one day and two days later they were all filled. >> Oh wow. >> So if you have specific places, please let us know. >> Okay, we'll do. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh just so with regard to 533, u uh Mr. Dumont and I actually went on site about

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two weeks ago so I could evaluate where they were because I'm reporting to the court uh next month. >> That's for the fire >> 533 Whitehead for the cleanup. Yes. >> Okay. Anyone else wishing to speak for uh first time?

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>> Come on up. Miss, please just state your name for the record. >> Roslin. Roslin D'vorin. I'm on Hughes Drive. >> Thank you. Um, this is my first time coming to a town council meeting. Um, I was just wondering, I don't know if this is the right place, but I'm wondering

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about speeding enforcement and issues on township roads. Um, I live specifically on Hughes Drive and in the past I've been there for about 2 and a half years and this beating is always out of control. Um, I've put in a couple of

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requests through Hamstat. Nothing's really happened. Um, we had one temporary speed sensor placed and that was really it. Um, this >> How long ago did you make those calls? >> Um, this has been like throughout my

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>> two and a half years. >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And, um, in the last month there have been two very serious accidents. One, a parked car on the side of the road was completely demolished by someone's speeding. I'm I'm assuming. I

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don't know for sure. And this past Sunday, my um mother was actually rearended turning into my driveway, you know, waiting to make a left into my driveway. Um >> Rosyn, are are you talking about um what

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section of Hughes? Like near S Park or um >> This is Hughes between Young and Quaker Bridge. Okay. >> Cuz I live right around that's why I'm familiar with that area. Yes. >> Yeah. Um, I'm wondering, I guess, if there's been traffic studies done by

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engineering and if they've thought about I know there are studies that have been done to decrease speeding, such as visually narrowing the road with shoulder paint, you know, actually painting shoulder lines into the road,

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which narrows it, visually tricks you into driving a little slower cuz you think it's narrower. just wondering if anything can be done. Um, you know, I get haunted at constantly just turning into my driveway. It's just gotten out of control. People, it's a 35 mph road.

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People drive 60 m hour every single day. >> Joy, do can you uh follow up with the PD and ask them um for some enforcement if they can pay extra attention there and see if there was any traffic study done uh maybe with engineering?

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Look, this is uh not just a New Jersey problem. This is a statewide problem. There was a uh earlier today, I'm not sure who's aware, I know it's been all over the news, uh there was a high school freshman um lost his life this morning. >> Same thing. Uh kids being school and

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unfortunately >> it's a nightmare for the parents and friends and everybody else. >> Yeah. >> Um we have taken a lot of these situations. We've asked the PD to go out and do special enforcement 40 thou 40 square miles and you know

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93,000 people plus the visitors. >> It's a lot and I think you know yours requires some some attention as well. >> Yeah, thank you. That's why I'm just wondering about the the study and maybe like a more permanent thing would be the lines or or something like that.

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>> Joyy's in constant communication with our first responders. I know she deals with them on a daily basis. So, uh, I'm sure she'll make that call. >> And Roslin brings up a good point that that street is a little bit wider. >> Mhm. >> So, I don't want to have a confession here,

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but maybe I went over a little bit, but once in a while, but like you feel like it's a little bit wide open, so you have a tendency to want to go faster. So, I get what you're saying. >> Yeah. And there I noticed like there are the shoulder lines on parts of Hughes. >> Yeah. >> But just not that. That's what I was

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going to say because I mean yeah both of us kind of closer to that area and I agree. Yeah. I think because what they did with um I'm close to Edinburg. >> Okay. >> And there had been same similar issues and they put in the bike lane. >> Yes. >> And that seems to have helped at least

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somewhat. So but that's that was also the I think that was the county who did >> county did Hughes is county too, right? >> Yes. >> Parts parts of Hughes. >> Yeah. I actually have a list on there's a list on the county website

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>> that they did from from what I've seen it is municipal. >> Hughes is the entire length of Hughes is municipal. If you uh look on the county website there is a list of uh county roads in Hamilton ranging all the way it's in alphabetical order from arena uh

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all the way down to Yarville Grover Road. Um you can see the county has them all listed what they're responsible for and what crossed streets um where they where they cross. So um that is a township road. >> Okay.

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>> You bring up a report. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> You did great for your first time. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else from the public wishing to come up a first time? Seeing none, any

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>> I know you were trying you were trying to decide. >> Justine Chardis. Yes, it's my first time. I've been coming for a few months now. Um, and this is not to bring any hate to anybody, but obviously the topic of the animal shelter. So, I've been

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hearing about it for months now. And so, I decided, Juliana and I, that we were going to go to the shelter. We were going to check it out. and I just wanted to share my experience of what it was like when we went there. Um, we did bring donations. They were asking for a donation. So, we had four bags with us.

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We each filled out a volunteer application. And there actually was another person also returning a volunteer application as well. So there is a need for these volunteers to be able to, you know, actually be able to

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help and work with the dogs, work with the cats, whatever it might be. Um, we received an email a few days later or a week later that, you know, they're not able to have us in for orientation. So I

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guess what does that timeline look like? Is there nobody else getting volunteers in to help all of the animals? Um because if the shelter is underst staffed, you know, the next best line of defense are the volunteers to walk the

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dogs and spend time with a cat socialization. So we weren't allowed in the shelter as mentioned, but we were able to walk around and meet some of the dogs. And so, you know, we did meet Merlin and Juliana stuck in her whole hand and her

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whole arm >> in the No, that's not I think there's actually >> like how is that a red dog? Like, so that to me I'm like, you know, everyone says the dog is so vicious, but you know, we were able to interact with the

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dog in a safe environment. and the these dogs spend so much time in the shelter and you have somebody who's willing to to walk the dog and just make their lives just even the slightest bit better of being able to leave their cage. And I

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think that's what this is really about. Like we just want to be able to help the dogs and be able to take them out of their kennel and all of this red tape is just prohibiting us from being able to do that. >> Joey, I have two more questions. Did you

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have anything else? >> No, that was it. >> I have two more questions to add to that list. >> Um, one, do we have enough volunteers? >> Because we obviously have people that want to volunteer. And two, uh, how often are visitors turned away because of lack of employee to show them.

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>> If I can just if I can just answer one piece of that. Um, the volunteer coordinator vacancy happened May 2nd. We're in the process of interviews. Um we have paused accepting new volunteers because the priority is hiring for this.

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They everybody was contacted. That is a pause. It's not a no. Current volunteers are still volunteering. Okay. >> So we are still allowing them. We just are not the focus is on hiring this position before we bring a new class in to hire the volunteers. >> So volunteers haven't been turned away.

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It's just just being paused. >> New ones are being paused. Current volunteers that have been through training are still volunteering. That's what I was told as well. Yeah. Okay. They have I mean again like Joy said, yeah, May I didn't realize how recent it had been. It was May 2nd. So they have been interviewing already.

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>> And also can I just add one more thing? Since that 5second date, there were 19 dog intakes, 18 strays, one safekeep, and there's been 16 dog outcomes. So the the work of the of the of the shelter is still ongoing. It's just there's focus

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needs to be done in the appropriate way. Thank you. >> So 16 dog outcomes. >> Yes. Four four adoption, 10 return to owner, and two transfers to rescue. >> Okay. So that's pretty good percentage

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as far as the the do number of dogs that we have on staff. Um one qu one more question uh regarding the uh volunteers. I'm wondering if um we're we're keeping track of how many hours a week we're getting from

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volunteers. >> Justine Chartis, I don't know about hours, but every time you walk a dog, you have to sign them out. So, however long that takes, but there is a record there. You just sign on a little piece of paper. >> Thank you. I feel like that was part of their um

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the report was like the value of the hours. I feel like that was >> I have it at home. I just don't remember. >> Yeah, like when they did their >> Yeah, when they did their board when we had our board house meeting. >> Okay. Anybody else before we move to

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second terms? >> Okay. Anybody wishing to speak? Come on up, please. Lisa Williams, volunteer hours is one of the lines on the stats on the monthly report that's on the website. >> Thank you. >> Um, before every council or before every

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board of health meeting, the pets on the website seem to increase because somebody looks at who's there. I would really like to know the importance of them being on the website is that also means they're on pet finder where people looking for animals look.

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So when I went on Saturday, I was there about 2:00. Everything was clean. I could walk around the outside. I felt a little uncomfortable because, you know, I know that the staff are told to watch the council meetings because I speak at them. People have told me they're told they have to watch the council meetings

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because you say things. So it's very uncomfortable for me to go there. I don't even like to go there. It used to be my happy place, but I'm really tired of the whole situation as well. So, I saw some dogs there. King Shady like, "What are you doing here? You haven't been on the website in a long time." Shannon, never saw you posted on the

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website. And so, I made my list and I went through and it seems like nobody really looks at what is on the website and walks around to account for them. Can somebody do that? That's like one of the most basic things. The guinea pig

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that I asked about several weeks ago, it showed up on the website this morning. It's been there since March. I don't know what else is in the small animal room. I really would like council members to just show up there and walk around and see. You know, for years I

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brought up social media, not on the website. We thank God it went to the mayor's office. Now we have social media, but like what the heck? It took Juliana posting stuff on social media because she has a bigger following for anything to get done. But some of us

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have been asking for years. Steve's been at this since I don't know. It's just too many years to count. He'd have to say like I don't understand why we bring it up and no one goes to the west to the the shelter. Go see

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walk around. Like why is nobody gone? I mean, that person who brought it up in October is what caused me to go to the shelter on a Saturday when I was in the neighborhood because I'm like, wonder what he's trying to get at. Got to go. Is there a timeline uh in the current uh

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SOP or rules of regulation uh on how soon the dog gets on how long the animal before they get on? Well, first you have to determine whether or not it's adoptable animal number one. Some some are under, for example,

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>> friendly dog comes in, right? >> Friendly fluffy dog. >> Is it a is it a stray? So, there's a there's there's by statute there's a 7-day hold. >> So, that's one issue. Yeah. >> And so and then and then you know for

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example to be adopted we to make sure that they are medically able to be adopted because we we always spay neuter whatever. So there's there's more there's several steps and yes there is a policy and procedure but how everything works how the dog is evaluated how the

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dog is you know if if there's a stay on it and so forth. >> I just want to go back to Sorry Anthony. Go ahead. >> No I was going to say though we got to get the guinea pig up quicker. I mean, that's the easy one. I'm not taking the kitty thing.

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>> You're kidding. >> We need to do better with social media. That's true. But, uh, I want to go back to you said 16 outcomes, dogs that have been placed in what period of time? >> That was from May 2nd to May, I'm sorry,

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May 1st to May 16th, I believe. >> So, in two weeks, we had 16 animals placed. Is that typical? >> That I don't know off the top of my head >> because that seems like a pretty good placement rate

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>> for a shelter with about 50 dogs, right? >> Um >> numbers. >> So, I don't know. I'm I'm just struck by that number that, you know, if that's normal that we're getting uh that many animals placed, that's a good thing.

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Okay. Do you want to have a chance? I see a lot of post-it notes. So >> I I was ready. >> I know. >> Anybody else wishing to speak? >> Can I just >> Come on. It's okay. Come on. >> I know my >> flashlight. Yes, there is your flashlight's on. >> I'm sorry. What? >> Your flashlight.

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>> Oh, I'm sorry. I hit something by accident. Sorry. Lisa Williams, I know there's a statutory 7-day stray hold, but when something comes in as found stray as posted on social media and put in the shelter software pet point, there's a category found stray. Click

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it. It shows up on the website with a banner found stray. It should happen the same day. Post it on the website as found stray. And then after that, you do your process after the seven day. Please look at the website. Please walk the

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shelter. Please see how this works. Like some of this is just not that big of a deal. It shouldn't be happening year after year after year. Our shelter manager has been there almost five years. She started in May of 2020 when I was looking to adopt a dog beginning of

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the pandemic because my two had passed away and we had pretty much a clean slate. Of the 16 that have left, most of them were returned to owners. So those were people looking for their dogs. I don't know in your four adoptions if you had Lady, she's been returned. So, she

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was supposed to be meeting someone else. So, it's really if they would have placed adoption type dogs, not oh, my dog had a microchip. Oh, my dog was lost and I called. Like, I wouldn't count them as being I mean, it's what they're supposed to do, but that doesn't mean that we're doing well.

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We have 50 dogs in the shelter, but we placed 16. Most of them were returned to owner. Thank you. It also speaks to the incoming volume because if we have 50 dogs, we place 16, we're still at 50. We're getting a lot

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of incoming dogs, too. >> Dogs have been there. The intake dates are also posted on the website. >> Thank you. Anybody else wishing to speak for a second time? >> Come on up, Steve. >> Stephen Clay, Wolf Back Road. Um,

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there's so much to talk about in two minutes. Um, so I'll abbreviate it. I've asked for some sort of committee to help the shelter since 2018. I think it's still valid. There's still

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a lot of stuff that's not right. Um, there's a lot more I'd like to say about Merlin and the apparent change in the red definition since he was made red, which is not timing. Um, but I'll leave that at at that.

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And I'm going to shift gears to what council has said is that there have been a lot of improvements. The easy stuff has been done. Council's approved a lot of money. We've got a backup generator.

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We've got vet care. We got We've spent a lot of money on vet care and and sometimes we go well above the minimum that's required for these things. Everything that requires council just to to sign a check or whatever township to sign a check, those are all done and those are all great.

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the core issues that I've been talking about since 2018, since the very first time I met with Anthony and Jeff, those tougher issues, the these issues with behavior evaluation, the the issues with retaliation, the issues with with just

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getting the the processes like Lisa is mentioning, those we all seem to struggle on. And and to Juliana's point, things don't get addressed until they're brought here. And that's still a problem. The reason I come here is

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because you've seen the responses I get just runaround non-answers nonsense and it's a waste of time and it's demoralizing for me to keep offering and to be shot down or ignored and then

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things still just become this way. For what Lisa is mentioning the the software that we paid a lot of money for pet point it does automate a lot of things. So, nobody needs to walk around the shelter. And you know the dog Shady, can I have just a few more seconds?

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>> Yeah. >> Shady, this is his second time here. He came in uh sometime last year. He sat for a month. He not only was he not on a website, there was no kennel card to identify him. I had to keep asking the clerk multiple times, who is >> what dog is up.

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>> King Shady, you know, I had to keep asking who is this dog so I could open his records to find out what he's just sitting there. It wasn't until I opened his records that suddenly he got an intake exam. He got, you know, he got up on a website. Um, the clerk in and

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searching through found out that they knew who the owner was. And so suddenly they finally reached out to the owner and I believe that person was charged with abandonment. But that dog sat there for a month. And when at the council meeting because we get those questions or at the board of health meeting we get

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those questions of what to ask and I say you know why are these dogs sitting for so long and the response I get is from the shelter manager is well the staff doesn't always tell me the same day about the dog that dog sit there for a month. It's in the software. The software generates reports to say hey

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all these dogs came in. The status that's within the software dictates whether it goes to the website. It takes a glance. You can have that thing mailed to you every morning to say, "Hey, here are the dogs that came in while you were gone for the weekend." Like, this is this is not a anything other than

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laziness. It wasn't long before that that I was sitting at the shelter and one person came in and said, "I want to adopt a cat." And they were told, "We don't have any adoptable cats." And another person came in an hour later says, "I need to surrender a cat." They're like, "We don't have room to take cats."

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So for all records and it turns out these cats have been sitting in the in the intake room for months and not moving >> under understood Stephen we also all said that while we've come a far away we still have a ways to go right we all we all said that and we all agree with you we also have took steps uh with

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questions to have them have answered we've also uh come through with this uh second evaluation the second company to do evaluations so we are making progress I know it's not as fast and it's not as far as you would like But it's not as fast or as far as we would like either,

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right? But we're getting there. I I the little things that that should be taken care of that Lisa brought up. Valid points and those things need to be done. Some of the things that you bring up, again, my own personal opinion, it's easy to sit in a different seat and say

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make that dog adoptable. When you have the people that are responsible for paying a lawsuit if that dog attacks somebody or having it on their conscience if that dog attacks somebody is different. Granted, having a second opinion would a second evaluation would be a tremendous health.

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I'm not sure why all those dogs are red, but we're going to have an answer very soon. But h sitting in one position and saying, "Yeah, that dog is fine to take out." A dog that you took out tried to bite me. Okay, you remember it. The dog

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the dog is now in a somewhere else, but that dog tried to bite me, grabbed my foot. So just because it was good with you or good with one person doesn't mean it's going to be good with the next. Some one person could stick their arm in that cage because maybe they give off a

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diff different vibe. Maybe the person that didn't treat that dog uh so well look like me. If I go in right, maybe that dog doesn't treat me that same way. Maybe I come back with less fingers. >> Every situation is different. >> And what you're saying actually

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reinforces my point. We don't know what every situation that dog is going to be put in. So for us to turn around and just say, "Yeah, make the dog yellow." I'd rather have more interactions, more training with the dog, than just say, "Yeah, that dog doesn't deserve to be red." Because that's not fair. >> But what you're saying actually

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reinforces the point I've been making. I never said make the dog adoptable. I said I've taken him out with five different people and we've had no issues. >> No, you didn't. You said that tonight, but in other conversations, you said that about other dogs, right? Cuz we've talked a lot. We we met at the diner,

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went over stuff. We've gone we've hung out, right, when we talked about this stuff. So, in other situations, you have said that to me. >> I I've said, "Let me take the dog out because I couldn't take the dog out. I'" And and even for Maverick, I was taking the dog out and now I can't. But Steve,

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if the if the if the issue is we shouldn't judge the dog based on how he reacts with me, then why would we then say, "Hey, we're only going to judge the dog how he reacts with the evaluator." >> I didn't say I didn't say just you. It's

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every situation. So for us taking a 50, 60, 80 lb dog and giving them to somebody, there's there's a liability for us. >> That's not that to give it to somebody. That's why we have the the volunteer rating that matches the color coding for the dog. There's only one yellow volunteer.

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It's me. I've proven I can handle the dog. >> I just want to respond. Steve, if >> I can get a chance to just respond, Steve, um, one, >> uh, we need to do a better job on the

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social media um, aspect of this. There's no reason that this continues to >> Yeah. fall short. >> Um, two, we need to do better in how the public is handled when they walk in the

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front door and they're interested in um meeting a dog or, you know, possibly adopting a dog. Uh, to get a response that you can't see a dog, and not be told, let's make an appointment for you to see a dog, or some better response

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than that. Uh, that needs to be fixed. Um, Steve, I want to respond to you talked about um, we've been talking about evaluations since 2018, but really we haven't because in 2018 there were there

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were no Hold on, Steve. This is my time to talk now. Uh, we were doing no evaluations in 2018. We came in and we implemented a system of evaluations. There were no evaluations happening and you know you ne neither

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you nor I can say what the live release rate was in 2018 because there was no transparency and we can't even get those numbers for 2018. The level of transparency that there is around those numbers is because this council and this

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mayor work together to implement that level of transparency and implement the processes to evaluate dogs and get more successful outcomes for the dogs. Now, I'm happy to talk about the shelter as much as the public wants to talk about

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it, but it is not the only facility that we run in this township. there's a lot of other work that we do and we have made a lot of progress. There are people working hard uh and we do continue to take your input seriously. Um and we do

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look at uh where we need to continue to make changes. >> Yeah. The only thing I want to correct is um uh our social media since we uh had our last meeting, our social media presence has changed. there's been uh

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additional staff that has helped out with that. If you look at the comparison before our meeting to what's happening right now, could it be better? Again, everything could always be better, but we have made progress for whatever reason. Thankfully, we're all thankful that we are there, but there has been a

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better um presence on social media. We have done a better job, but again, we still could do a lot of things different. And I commend you for the work you've done. There always could be done more. you want to, you know, I understand you want to get there now, right? Like you

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want to be at the end line now. We're getting there. We have things in place. You you hear the conversations we have. We have our BA or assistant BA rather um working on those resolutions. Give us a chance. We have it. We have a secondary eval evaluator. I understand your

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points. Give us a chance. >> Certainly. I I appreciate I agree with what you guys have said, but part of the point is is is even to agree with Rick. It shouldn't have to come here, right? We shouldn't have to be here bringing it

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to you. That's part of it. >> I agree. >> I shouldn't, you know, if there's a reason for that dog to be read, why is it so hard for somebody to say why a year? A year. And I never said anything about evaluations in 2018. I said the hard issues that were identified in

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2018. Yes, we've come this way and it's always because we had to come to you guys. That's >> so just one more one more. I I just disagree with you there, Steve. And I appreciate how many hours you put in. Uh nobody spends more time uh working with

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these dogs as a volunteer than you do. Um and and we all appreciate that. Um the the one the one point that I was what point I was going to make. Um oh the po the point is we actually need you

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the members of the public to come and tell us when you see something that we're not seeing. So you do play an important role. All the members of the public do. Um, you know, I I was talking to uh a member of the public who has a

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parking issue on her street today. I don't go down that street. I wouldn't know that unless a member of the public brought that to my attention. So, I disagree with you uh in the fact that it does benefit when you come and and you let us know about issues that you see.

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Uh you spend almost as much time at our shelter as some of our employees do. So, you see things that we don't see. And we're not at every um facility. We're not at on every street to see when there are parking issues or potholes. So, we

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need the public to come here and help us serve you. So, I hope you'll keep doing it. Thank you. >> Oh, I'll I'll be here. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else wishing to speak? Come on up. >> Hi, Juliana Carella. Um, that just kind

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of sparked something in my head that I'm trying to figure out how to phrase correctly because I had a lot, and I mean a lot of messages over the last two weeks on social media of people asking to remain anonymous. So, I don't want to give too much information and risk any of that, but there are a lot of people

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who are afraid to come. I don't know if that's specifically you guys, just afraid to talk about these things and instead they're coming to me hoping that I'll do it. And even then, I'm like, I can't. I still feel like people will be able to figure out who I'm talking about. And I think that that is just really worrisome because again you are

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bringing up that point. I do want people to and you guys see I try to encourage people to come to these meetings. I've recruited a few but you know we're getting there. Um but yeah know that is really of a concern to me. And then I also I know we're talking about a lot of the legality things and um I again am

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worried about saying this because I don't want Merlin to be moved from where he's at because I fear that that is the only enrichment he gets is the view that he has of people. But if there is such a concern about his behavior, why is he in a place where I can touch him and things like that if he is so dangerous, which I

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do not agree with and you know that's clearly stated, but why are there like waiverss not going? I mean I gladly would have signed a waiver to touch him, but like why is there not a waiver when I first arrive if it is that much of a concern? So >> anybody else wishing to speak?

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Wow, we have newcomers. Nothing. >> You look like you want to say something. You got a great shirt on. Might as well come up and show it off. >> Okay, seeing none, uh, we can move the council comments. Uh, who wants to start? >> I can kick it off. I just want to, um,

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thank those members from the public coming out. I know a lot of our discussion was on the animal shelter tonight and, uh, the progress there. Um I I said earlier on and I don't want to be redundant or repetitive as um my comments. I thought council president uh

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Pepro did a nice job of of summarizing things a few moments ago. Um just want to make you aware that um that we have the Memorial Day parades um on Monday. Um I may not be in attendance. I have a

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birthday that and it's a milestone of sorts. So I'm going to probably be out of town that day. But um um I turned 30. No. Um um so and then I just want to commend the public works team. Uh I went to the Aelia Festival with my wife and

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kids. I had a wonderful time. Um was really well done. Um and I uh was it was packed. It was packed and the weather was hot and just like today, but it was a beautiful day. So, uh, just appreciative of our boat works team and they're and as Pat said, they're usually

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they jump on, um, if you have a pothole issue or something like that, just bring it to our attention. We can get um, get that out there to them and they usually address it quickly. So, >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Sir,

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>> yeah. So, um, last week I went to the Trenton State of the City addressed by the mayor at the Trenton City Hall. Um, I went there to

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demonstrate my ongoing concern uh regarding the condition of Trenton Waterworks. Um, the mayor did discuss Trenton Waterworks briefly during his remarks and to be fair to the mayor of Trenton,

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he did not create the problem with Trenton Waterworks. It was many years in the making. Uh, but this this mayor of Trenton has to solve this problem. Um, and the best path forward is to join in partnership with Hamilton and with all

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the communities uh affected by the problems at Trenton Waterworks uh which will bring an infusion of new resources um an infusion of new oversight um and you know finally see some

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tangible progress uh toward restoring confidence in the safety of our drinking water. So, I'm I'm looking forward to uh the efforts. I know that uh our township attorney is at the forefront

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>> lots of hours >> of of ensuring that we're doing everything we can um to affect positive change uh regarding the drinking water supply. And I'm looking forward to continuing to support those efforts and

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do anything that we can. And uh I look forward to seeing every everybody at our two fantastic Memorial Day parades. Groville, one of the oldest in the country. >> Mhm. >> Goes back to the Civil War. Uh it's a great parade. I encourage everybody to come out and enjoy the holiday and I

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hope everybody has a nice weekend. >> Thank you. Um I too just want to thank everyone for coming in their comments and um you know again we do you know first I of course Anthony stole my thunder. I definitely want to just um in addition to you know of course we're concerned about the shelter we will

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continue to follow up. Um, but I think like you brought up Hughes Drive and we know that some of these roads, like I said, Edinburg by me is an issue, but the potholes I I I can't say enough about our public works department in addition to Aelia Festival. We had the uh Ningham Senior Prom on Friday. Um, I

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think Grace had their eighth grade and so we were all there for the pictures and I was just blown away with every corner of that park was just beautiful and greatly decorated. even just driving around town when you see islands that you know are full of irises and you know

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those are those are the things that really add that that special element to Hamilton and that's our public works department they work really hard so and and they really are same thing I I contacted them best and potholes and within 24 hours they were taken care of

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so we really I really do commend them um mentioned the raids um yeah I did want to I know Pat talked about a little bit I have seen a significant improvement in social media for this shelter since the last meeting. Um I think it's like every fifth post on my feed now, which is

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great, which is fantastic. So hopefully that's going to help get some of our pets um out and adopted and kind of claimed as well. So um glad to see that. And we'll continue we'll continue to work on on these issues for sure. >> So um hopefully we'll see you on Monday.

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Otherwise, have good night. >> Thank everybody for coming. Uh, I think I think Steve and Lisa have been here long enough to know that if I could take every one of those dogs home, I would. Uh, so you know that we want a solution as much as you do. Um, employee

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appreciation day, I think, was what, Friday, March 6th. For me, it's every day. I appreciate all the hard work that everybody does. our um parks and road department, public works, uh have been working hard to try and recover from not only the winter, but trying to keep up

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with the the rain that we've had. Um trying to get parks ready for um services and we had our armed forces day on Saturday. Uh we were out at the park uh Saturday morning uh for that celebration. First time we've had great

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weather uh in a long time, but I appreciate all of you and all of them. I I know you put a lot of work in uh to this agenda and to preparing for it, getting the backup material uh ready. So, I appreciate uh all of you, especially the clerk's office. Uh I

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appreciate and thank our assistant BA for being here uh or deputy BA, I believe is your actual title. So, uh we thank you for that. And um other than uh the parades, uh I think I think we covered everything for tonight. Thank

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you uh to the newcomers that came. If you have ideas, if you have comments, you can talk to us outside of here as well. Uh we appreciate that. We can't see everything. We say it. Uh we need people's input. Uh we need um

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we need we need people to contact us. And I don't want to drag the meeting on anymore, but if you need something, say it. Uh I'm pretty sure everybody here knows how to get in touch with all of us. And uh for tonight, the meeting is going to be adjourned. Uh next meeting is um June 16th along with the board of

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health. Uh we have some questions to be answered and uh we look forward to that discussion. Thank you.