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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=aKAloLkN-qY

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Okay. This meeting is being held with the benefit of public notice as required by the open public meetings act. Madame clerk, please call the role. >> Mr. Caribelli here. >> Mr. Ty here. >> Mr. Whan >> here. >> Phillips here. >> Mr. Pero >> here. >> Everyone, please rise uh for the flag

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and invocation. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

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>> Dear God, as we gather this evening to conduct the business of our community, we ask for your guidance and wisdom. Grant us the insight to act with fairness, compassion, and genuine concern for the well-being of all residents. We give thanks for the residents of Hamilton, the seniors, the families, the veterans, the business

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owners, first responders, educators, and volunteers who make our community so great. We are grateful for their hard work, kindness, and commitment to one another. In your holy name, we pray. Amen. >> Okay, we do have uh an amendment to the agenda for tonight. I am going to read

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this. Uh there's an amendment since it was posted on the website. Um the amended resolutions are CA 33 26270. That's a resolution authorizing and approving the execution of an agreement with Sunlife Insurance Company to

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provide stop-loss services. Estimated annual fixed cost is 1 million uh 50 was estimated at uh 1 million 39271.40. Consent agenda item uh 3426-271, resolution authorizing an extension to

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agreement 19-223 for insurance services with Delta Dental of New Jersey not to exceed 750,000. It previously was 780,000. and CA37 is the final uh amendment 26274

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resolution authorizing a contract with Etna Maritain. Estimated maximum liability is 23,500,000. It was 26,100,000. Can I please have a motion uh to the amendment of the agenda? >> So moved. Seconded.

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>> Madam clerk. >> On the motion, Mr. Carbelli. Yes. Mr. Mr. Whan. >> Yes. Mr. >> Phillips. Yes. Mr. Cero. >> Okay. We we are going to go a little out of order tonight uh for the meeting. Um we'll cover everything on the agenda, but we are going to uh change the order up. Uh we're first going to start uh

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with discussion item number one. Madam clerk. >> Uh yes. We're going to hold a public hearing of the request to appeal the denial of the limousine license application submitted by Traverse P. Gventor trading as true luxury service.

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Mr. President uh for for process uh this is uh Mr. Gavant's appeal so he has the burden of proof. Okay. >> So he should be able to go first to produce his his statements and and any witnesses that he may have. However, it's up to you whether or not you wish to have opening statements from either

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or both uh Miss Eugene and and Mr. Gibson. >> Mr. Eugene, would you like to begin? >> It's up to you. >> If if not, he can begin the session. >> He should have he should have the first the first cut at it. Okay, we're going to Are we going to swear him in? >> We're going to swear him in.

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>> Thank you. >> Raise your right hand. We uh do you promise to swear uh you tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. >> Yes. >> So, I'm starting. >> Okay. Uh yeah. Before we get started, before we begin, if you do have to uh

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leave in between while he's talking, if you just use the back door, uh just please the door use the door on the left. Uh there's a stand up on the right and I don't want to knock that over and we don't want to come up here because we don't want to constantly be interrupting uh our our guest. Thank you. >> And sir, this is just your opening

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statement and then Mr. Eugene will have her opening statement and then you can put on any witnesses or any testimony that you put out. >> Okay. I mean, hello, my name is Travis Gabentor. Basically, um 32 years old. Um trying to open a limousine business in

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Hamilton, New Jersey. I don't know what my opening statement exactly should be. This is my first time representing myself, but basically the shooting was the I think it was 454. >> Sorry about that. >> I think it was

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>> is that a do number or something? >> Uh the the reason why they denied the the limousine >> uh basically application was 45426E. Basically a false statement. Um, basically I my argument was that all the

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charges that I have are 14 years ago, 14 and 12 years ago. Um, not saying that I was that gives me a reason to make a false statement. I didn't intentionally make a false statement. I really can't exactly remember what's on my record for four from 14 to 12 years ago. You know what I'm saying? And the whole thing

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about the situation was I was under impression that some of these things were expuned. I finished PTI for the burglary charge. The other two charges were charges that had something to do with marijuana. All marijuana charges were expuned a while ago. You know what I'm saying? So, it wasn't like I was

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just trying to make a false statement on my application. I was under the impression that most of these charges were expuned under that sign. That's just the main point I want to make. >> Thank you. >> Are you going to stay at your seat or you going to go down? Also, whatever. >> I'm comfortable with the

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council. evening. >> So, uh we are here today for a denial of a limousine application by Mr. Bento uh due to making false statements uh on his application by failing to disclose

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multiple arrests and their disposition. Uh there are two sets uh two ordinances which are pertinent to this investigate to this uh hearing is 285-4 which is invest in investigation of applicant denial uh and denial. So where the

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municipal clerk deems it necessary, applications for licenses shall be referred to the chief of police or a police officer designated by him who shall immediately institute such investigation of the applicant's business responsibility, moral character, and the ability to

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properly conduct the license activity as he considers necessary for the protection of the public. He shall communicate his fighting findings in writing to the municipal clerk within a reasonable time after the application has been filed. If the investigator decides that the applicant's character,

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ability or business responsibility is unsatisfactory or that the product, services or activity are not free from fraud, he shall disprove the application and the municipal clerk shall refuse to issue the license and sh and shall so notify the applicant. Otherwise, the

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municipal clerk shall issue the license immediately. Provide the required fees uh license fees have been paid except in cases where approval of the township council or mayor is required. In the case of an application of a peddler's license, the license shall be issued immediately subject to an investigation.

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Now B says, in the event of denial of the license, the applicant may appeal to township council and the township council's decision shall be final. Additionally, I will point your attention to 454-26 with applications for limousine owner's license part E. I'm going to skip um the

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other um sections which is stated as false statement. Any person who shall make a false statement in any license application or in any record or certificate that he she is required to file or maintain shall be subject to rejection of the application submitted

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and or to appropriate disciplinary sanctions including license suspension or revocation in addition to any penalty provided under New Jersey criminal code. The township does have a witness uh that they will present in this matter uh to show that um there was

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admissions to the application and therefore his application was denied and that application uh and and that decision should uh be maintained by this council. Thank you. Sir, >> if you have any uh witnesses or any testimony you wish to give, it's your

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turn. Um >> no witnesses testimony. Do >> you have any any other testimony you wish to give on your behalf? >> On my behalf? Um, >> such as information such as that would oppose something that she said?

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>> No. >> Just trying to clarify. >> Yeah. Nothing that would oppose what she said. >> Okay. >> All right. So, do you have anything further? >> I mean, for the most part that it wasn't it wasn't the false statement was not

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made intentionally. You know what I'm saying? Um, I mean, some of the ladies that work in the clerk office are right here. They see me almost every week. You know what I'm saying? I wouldn't be so, you know, so struck on about this business or just, you know, going so hard for this business if it was

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something that I was trying to make a false statement about. As well as I do have my New Jersey limo license. They did also do a fingerprint. That doesn't give you guys a reason to say you guys are binded to giving my limo license, but they did do a fingerprint and said there was nothing on your record that would stop me from giving you your limo

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license. me giving me the the the idea that sort of these charges were expuned due to PTI and I didn't know how PTI worked back then when I was 18 which I should have looked up myself but you know what I'm saying I was under the impression like I said that these charges were most of most of the way expuned

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>> procedurally if um >> if this is approved or denied right if this is denied is there a period he can then reapply what's the what's the process here um >> so moving forward We're getting ahead of ourselves, but but as a legal matter,

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there's nothing in the ordinances that say whe you know whether there's a time period within which he could reapply. >> Okay. >> So there so there's no there's nothing forbidding him from reapplying, but there's nothing saying that he has to wait 6 months or 12 months or or whatever it is.

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>> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? >> No, just >> you have a witness. >> There he is. Go ahead. >> Please state your name for the record. >> Sergeant Richard Guarini. >> Do you uh raise your right hand? Do you

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promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? >> Yes. Yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Eugene. >> Good evening, Sergeant. >> Good evening. Uh, can you please uh give your job? Tell tell everyone where you uh work. >> I'm currently employed by the Hamilton

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Police Division. >> And what is your title? >> Sergeant. >> And what are your duties? >> Uh, right now I'm the supervisor in the firearms licensing unit. >> And what do you do in that position? >> We investigate firearms applicants and

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people who apply for licenses through the township that need background checks. >> And how do you do these investigations? There are times where the applicant will get fingerprinted and there are times where the applicant will submit a 212A form to to the New Jersey State Police

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and we will get the results from them. >> Okay. And this is just for a criminal background is mostly what you're looking at. >> Yes. New Jersey criminal background. >> And how long have you been in this position? >> Three years. I would like to point your attention to this document.

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>> Do you recognize this? >> Don't say yes to it. >> Guess you need to see the document first. >> Yes. >> Can you please tell us what this document is? This is the applicant's application

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>> and this is for Mr. G uh Mr. Vento. >> Yes. >> And you've seen this this application before? >> Yes. >> Now turn your attention to about twothirds of the way down the page. There is a question there. Um that's mainly what you're looking at. Can you

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uh tell us what that question is? >> The question, have you ever been charged, arrested, or convicted of any crime of violation? And then it says, "If yes, state the charges and disposition of each offense." >> And how did the applicant respond?

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>> He responded by saying, "No." >> Is there any um exception if something has been expuned or the length of time for which there could be a charge, an arrest, or a conviction? >> Uh there there's none written here that says there's no exception written here. >> So you're looking for any and

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everything? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, did you do a background check on the applicant? >> Yes. >> And um what did you find? >> I found that the applicant had a past

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criminal history. >> I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? the applicant had a past criminal history >> and based on what and based on what he wrote uh on his application um

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>> was that truthful? >> No. >> I'm passing you a document that's listed as exhibit B. Do you recognize this document? >> Yes. >> Can you please uh describe what this document is?

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>> It's a burglary theft hindering apprehension report. >> And who is the defendant listed in this report? >> Yeah. Yes. >> Excuse me. >> Yes. >> I said who was the >> Oh, I'm sorry. Uh Travers, uh the applicant. And if you would turn to the

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last two pages of this uh document, what is this uh what is actually shown on this page? >> Are you referring to the arrest report? >> That's no sir. If you go to the back of the arrest report, it's marked for you with a pink tab.

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>> Gotcha. >> I believe it's pink. >> Okay. This is the This is the criminal complaint that was written. >> And can you please for the record read what the complaint number is? The complaint number is uh W2020020261103. >> And when there's a complaint where we

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have a warrant, does this mean that the person has been arrested, charged or convicted? What does this document mean? >> It means that the person in question was arrested and charged. >> So based on this document alone, how should have the applicant responded to the question in the application

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>> in the affirmative? Yes. Uh, and so he was charged as for this crime? >> Yes. >> Okay. And this crime was for what? Can you please tell us? >> Burglary, theft. >> And, uh, do you know what degrees those were?

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>> I believe it was a third. Uh, burglary was a third, and I think the theft was a fourth. >> And what year did this occur? >> 2012. >> I'm going to mark for you. I'm going to show you another document which is

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listed as exhibit C. Here are my steps. >> Do you recognize this document? >> Yes. >> Can you please tell us what this document is? >> It's a invest report uh possession of marijuana and tampering with evidence tampering with evidence. And can you

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turn again to the uh last two pages of this packet? And what is this document? >> This is a criminal uh complaint summon. >> And can you please read the complaint number into the record, please? >> Yes, it's uh S as in Sierra

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213001561103. >> And was this for the applicant? >> Yes. And what uh was the charge that this was for? >> I believe it was uh tampering uh excuse me, tampering with evidence. >> And I forgot to ask this for the

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previous one, but I'll ask this together with both the previous charge and this one. Were you able to compare the information provided by the applicant to the complaint to make sure that you were looking at the same list? >> Yes. And based on the information that

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was in this summon ending in 001567, how should the applicant have responded on his documentations in his application? >> In the phone. Yes. >> Going to show you. It's now been marked

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as exhibit B. Excuse me. I'm sorry for the week. >> Do you recognize this document? >> Yes. >> And uh what is this document? >> It's a uh police report um hindering apprehension, possession marijuana, contempt of court

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report. >> And who is this uh who was who was charged in this? There were two individuals. One of them was the applicant. >> And what was the applicant charged with? >> The applicant was charged with hindering apprehension of another.

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>> And should he have reported this also on his application? >> Yes. And so you're looking for either the list of the charge or the disposition, but he needed to at least identify uh that he had at least been arrested and or charged for these items.

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Is that correct? >> Correct. >> And that was not done. Is that also correct? >> Correct. >> And are none of these are in relation to any marijuana charges. Correct. >> Uh negative. So based on your findings of these three

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different um applications and by the way this last application what year was that? >> That was uh 2014. >> But based on your findings um what did you recommend to the clerk's office uh as far as the applicant's application?

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>> Uh that it be denied. >> And why is that? >> Because of the applicant's answers to those questions. And were those and just to confirm were those statements true or false uh that he made uh in reporting that he had no uh he had not been

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charged, arrested or convicted of any crime or violation? >> They were false. >> Any questions? >> I have no further questions. Did the council have any questions? >> No, ma'am. >> Do you have any questions for the witness? Can you come to the microphone please?

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I forgot the name. Sergeant with respect. I did come to speak to Sergeant as well and we did have a brief conversation but I also spoke to him and I was told if the charges were expuned that there no there would be no arrest record there

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if they were expuned. Correct. So if I was under the impression that these charges were expuned then I was thinking that there was no arrest record there as well. I wouldn't disclose something if I went through the proper channels or went through the proper sorry about that the proper work to get these things expuned.

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You know what I'm saying? The BTI. Also, I'm saying there's no >> possession. There's no marijuana attached to both of these charges. The only charge that there's no marijuana attached to is the burglary and theft. The charge that I finished PTI for. The other two, the tampering with evidence

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over it says possession of marijuana. The hindering says possession of marijuana also there giving me the under the impression that these charges were so long ago I don't remember exactly what they were about but I knew they had something to do with marijuana giving me the impression again that I didn't answer these questions intentionally

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trying to give a false statement that I was under the impression that these charges were as well expuned because New Jersey law just wanted to get that clear >> I have a question for you sir >> yes >> do you can you provide any orders for your expungements of any of these records >> order for my expungement >> yes any expungement comes with an order.

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Do you have an order showing that? >> No, I I did not say I said I was under the impression that these charges were expuned. >> Do you have it? Did you ever get an order or get any documentation that would show you that? That was just your thought process that they were expuned. >> Not just my thought process. Back when

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we were first starting PTI, uh when when I first did PTI, >> a lot of people were under the impression that if you complete the program, your charges will be completely expuned. That wasn't clarified to me. When you're when you do an expun when you do PTI, your charges are dismissed. Expungement is completely different.

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Expungement is a is a eraser on your record. A dismissal means that those charges will no longer be held over your head. That's the difference. At any point in time, did you ask those questions prior to filling out the form? As if something is expuned, do I still

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need to list it on the form? >> Did I ask those questions to the municipal court? Did you ask those questions to anyone prior to filling out this >> application? What if the if the if my charges are expuned, do I still need to list them on my application? >> Yes.

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>> No, I did not ask anybody. >> So, but you were aware that you had been arrested for crimes but did not get clarification before you signed off on your application. Correct. >> I was aware that I was arrested for crimes. Of course. >> So, you were aware that you were arrested but still wrote no on your application. Correct.

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I was aware that I was arrested, but still wrote no due to the fact that I thought these charges were expuned, like I said before. >> Can you show me where on the application it says that you don't have to list them if they've been expuned? >> That's not what I That's not what I just said though, ma'am. I said I spoke to the officer as well. He told me even if

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the charges were expuned, that means the arrest record is diminished as well. It's removed. So, if I'm under the impression that if these charges are expuned that the arrest record will be removed, why would I list it? What documentation or anything could you provide other than what you believed

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that these items were expuned? >> Ma'am, if the charge had something to do with marijuana, like all marijuana charges, they're already expuned. When I went to go handle my last marijuana charge, when marijuana was being legalized, they were telling me most of these charges or all of these charges that have to do with marijuana would be

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expuned. Like I said here, most of these charges, they are not marijuana charges, but they have possession of marijuana on them. giving me the idea that these charges are 12 years old. Again, let's keep in mind, man, I've been having a clean rehabilitation since then. I haven't really been thinking about stuff

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like that. With all due respect, so I'm under the impression that all of these charges were expuned. I'm not saying that they were expuned. I'm just saying I didn't falsely intentionally lie on my application. That's what I'm saying. >> So, the one that's dealing with burglary, there's no marijuana charges

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on that. >> Yes, I had PTI for that. >> Okay. pre-trial intervention, second time offenders foot grant. >> And but you did not list that on your application. Correct. >> That I had PTI >> that that you were charged with burglary. You didn't list that on your application. >> Yes. Because I thought when we finished

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PTI, I thought that the charges were automatically expuned, but they are dismissed. Dismissed and expuned. Sort of give it a little gray area there. With all due respect, if they're not from the court, I don't know court terminology with all due respect to know exactly what's going on when I finish my

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PTI, that the charges will be expuned or that they're eligible for expungement. That's something I understood a little bit more as I grew older. >> Okay. On the one that you said has to do with marijuana, but the hindering apprehension is a separate charge from the marijuana charge. Correct.

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>> Yes. >> Okay. So, the hindering apprehension has nothing to do with actual charge for marijuana. Correct. >> Yes. >> Okay. And you didn't list that one either, correct? >> No, I did not. >> And the tampering with evidence charge,

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well, that also has a marijuana charge attached. That's a separate charge, correct? >> Yes. >> And you didn't list that one either, correct? >> No, I did not. >> No further questions. If you if if you have no anything more to say, I think I think the appeal is Thank you to the witness and thank you.

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So, at this point, >> all these papers back. >> Yeah. >> At this point, Mr. President, the uh council needs to make a decision uh take a vote on on whether on on on whether or

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not the appeal should be upheld or denied. If they deny if you deny if you vote to to uphold the appeal, that means the decision for the clerk needs to be overruled and goes down and and and the and the license is is given. If you

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decide on a vote that the um appeal is denied, that means the clerk's decision is upheld. Do we do we understand what we're what we need to vote on? And okay, ma'am. >> Yes. >> So, at that point, it's up to you

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whether you need to discuss it in private or or or discuss it or or or not or just take the vote. >> Do we have a motion? >> Listen, I'll make a motion to deny the appeal. Council President, I'll second it. >> On the motion to deny, Mr. Parabelli,

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>> yes. >> Mr. Ty, >> yes. >> Mr. Whan, >> yes. >> Phillips, >> yes. Mr. Pero, >> yes. 55. >> It is now ordered that the denial of the limousine license is hereby upheld and the appeal is denied in its entirety for the reason stated previously.

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>> Yeah, Mr. President, I have a proposed form of order if you wish to review it and then you can sign it. It would just it reflects what was provided today in and open in open. >> Do you want do you need to sign today right now or can we wait till the end of the meeting? >> Absolutely.

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>> All right. Thank you. >> You do have the right uh contact the clerk's office if you wish to reapply. Uh you have the ability to do all those things. Um this obviously ends our hearing here tonight and uh if you have any further questions, please contact the administration building.

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>> All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for being here. >> Thank you very much. Okay, we'd like to move on uh with our agenda. Madame clerk, uh if you would like to proceed with the minutes, please. >> Uh yeah. Um for your consideration, we

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have the minutes of April 21st regular council meeting minutes. >> Motion, please. Council President, I'll make that motion. >> I'll second that. >> Mr. Caribelli. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ty. Yes. Mr. >> Whan almost here. >> Vote.

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>> Yes. Yeah. Miss Bill. Yes. Mero. >> Yes. >> Also, I would just like to uh recognize we do have a couple uh other Hamilton Township officials here tonight. Um Superintendent uh Dr. Scott Roco and School Board President Dina Thornton. We appreciate uh you do joining us here at

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the meeting. Usually we announce that at the beginning. However, with uh things being a little out of order um due to due to the hearing, I just wanted to make sure I recognize that you are here. Thank you for uh your support and thank you for being here.

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>> Moving on to communications. For your consideration, we have four joint proclamations uh for the month of June. Uh recognizing June 22nd through the 28th as National Pollinator Week, Lifelong Elite, celebrating caterpillars and host plants. Recognizing June uh for

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the entire month of June as Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month, rethink your brain. Recognizing June as LGBTQ pride month and recognizing June 22nd to the 28th June 19th as Junth brings

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balance to America's celebration of freedom. Uh next we have four acknowledgements of receipt of documentation for changes to liquor license applications. Uh one being the ELF update of officers and catering vendors.

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The next is Gardano's Enterprises LLC trading as Colani's amendment to the distribution of shares to corporate officers. C4 the receipt of documentation change of corporate structure or rainy hospitality trading is raining restaurant update of officers

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and shareholdings and C5 is acknowledge receive documentation uh for Chili's Grill and Bar to update of manager for your consideration. >> Okay, Madam Clerk, uh is it okay with one motion for all four? Absolutely. Both all. Yes. >> Both. All of them.

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>> Yeah. All five. I'll move uh communication C1 through C5. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Caribelli. Yes. Mr. >> Pie. Yes. >> Mr. Whan. >> Yes. >> M. Phillips. >> Yes. >> Mr. Paper. >> Yes. Next we have resolution 126237 is a

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resolution approving the renewal of the price 2 manufacturers license issued to Mule Extract LLC license number 113 M 001001 for the remainder of calendar year 2026 February 18th 2026 through December 30th

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2026. >> Um just before questions or comments from council I do see that it is planning and zoning board approved. They have met all their financial requirements. Uh they have been chartered since 2021. Uh manu for a manufacturing license. Uh

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occupied date was uh December of 2023. They do have exa uh exhaust and ventilation plans and uh 2% of their gross sales does go to township community priorities. Um there's nobody here from that organization tonight, right? Okay. Seeing none, uh any

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questions or comments from council? >> No. >> No. Any questions or comments from the public on resolution 126237? >> Seeing none, do we have a motion? >> Council president, I'll make a motion on resolution one to move on resolution

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126-237. >> I'll second that motion. >> Mr. Caribelli? >> Yes. >> Mr. Tai, >> yes. >> Mr. Whan, >> yes. >> Miss Phillips, >> yes. Mr. Peter, >> yes. Kansas 5. Consent agenda items for

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your consideration, we have CA1 through CA37. >> So, like we always do, I will give a brief uh rundown uh of the consent agenda items since there are uh 30 a lot of them, 37. Uh we have an

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agreement with West Windsor uh for um an agreement for ecological uh uses at the center. Uh we do have an updated PBA contract. Um we have a grant application and we also have another grant that was received,

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renewal of some ABC licenses, purchase of uh door access control system and furniture for the new building. So get I guess we're getting ready now we're getting closer and closer to October. uh decrease uh there is a decrease in um one of the items uh

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for the cost of a sidewalk and curb uh repairs. Can't read my own handwriting. There are some refunds of fees. Um award of a contract for the jetting back and the vacuum trucks for WPC.

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uh as mentioned in uh the beginning uh there's three pertaining to I'm sorry four pertaining to uh insurance we have the stop-loss insurance item uh we also have the contract with Etna meritane

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this is for benefits uh for active and retirees it's medical and prescription plans um that's all I have on the consent agenda uh that I wanted to mention any questions or comments from council >> yes One question regarding the health

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insurance. Um naturally on the stop-loss services, was that the only how many con um how many um how many bids were submitted before we picked uh Sun Life? >> I think we had uh three, if I recall, and it should be in your backup there,

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but we had three responsive biders. Um and Sun Life is the incumbent in the position. And so they actually even revised their bid because you can do that with this type of service. But in comparison, even their original bid,

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although it was higher than their revised bid, I was happy that they brought it down somewhat. Um, but the other two had carved out many other items and in stop-loss insurance that creates our potential liability. It was

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much larger in that. So, there was a summary sheet done by our broker who did all of that shopping and all of that. >> And usually they're rated correct a >> yes >> double uh you know two pluses, three pluses, whatever, you know. So they're I'm sure it's in the backup documents,

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but I just >> it it is and but it was done through that process, an RFP process, right? >> And this happens to be the best uh proposal here in terms of the um the liability to the township, the cost to

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the township. Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments from council on consent general items before we open to the public? >> Council President, I have a question on CA3 26-240. Um theou between NJA. Um happy to see

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that for the planning investigation at the Hamilton station. My question is how much does that typically do we have an estimate on what that would look like as a price tag for that project? >> There is a cap for $25,000. It's not expected to over to to go over that. Okay, that's >> an agreement for for them to reimburse

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us for the study. >> Okay, beautiful. All right. And then I'm also just wanted I know you mentioned this. I'm I'm thrilled about the uh PBA officials uh local number 66. Uh thank you for all their work along with our township administration coming to a a

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pleasant agreement and conclusion of our negotiations. So >> great. Anybody else? Any members of the public wishing to comment on the consent agenda items? Just a consent agenda right now?

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>> Okay. Seeing none, >> seeing no president, seeing no members of the public wishing to comment, I move that we close the public comment portion and move consent agenda item CA1 through CA 37. And madame clerk, I'll be abstaining

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on CA3. >> Okay, >> I'll second a motion motion. Mr. Paravelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Ty, with the exception of CA3, >> yes. >> Mr. Whley, >> yes. >> Phillips, >> yes. Mr. Pero,

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>> yes, ma'am. Next for second reading and public hearing ordinance 126018 ordinance amending and supplementing the code of the township of panels of New Jersey chapter 485 vehicles and traffic article 2 parking section 485-9 handicap parking

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is repealing spaces established at 303 by ordinance 0301 147 Jeremiah Avenue by ordinance 18051 39 Park Lane by ordinance 08045 and 113 Samuel Street by ordinance6037. Seven.

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>> Okay. This is uh repealing spaces throughout the town. Uh any questions or comments uh from council? >> No. >> No. >> Just uh to keep the public informed. The reason that we don't just typically repeal handicap parking spots for no reason. We don't just spin the wheel. We

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we wait. Uh maybe somebody moved out of the house, the spot is no longer needed. Uh so that's why we're doing this. Uh, anybody from the public wishing to uh, comment or have questions on um, ordinance 126018?

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>> Okay, seeing none. >> Council President, seeing no comments from the public, I move on ordinance 126-018 on second reading. >> I'll second that. >> On the motion, Mr. Terabelli, >> yes. >> Yes. Mr. Whan, >> yes. >> Mr. Phillips, >> yes.

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>> Mr. Pero, >> yes. Ordinance 26019 ordinance amending and supplementing the code of the council of Hamilton New Jersey chapter 485 vehicles and traffic article 2 parking section 485-9 handicap parking establishment spaces at 325

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Connecticut Avenue 1524 Jennese Street 1612 Jennese Street 1790 Greenwood Avenue 137 Jeremiah Avenue 35 Marshall Avenue West 118 Mary Street 1025 Niningham Way 646 Shiller Avenue, 39

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Victor Avenue, and 9 Waverly Place. >> So, the same as uh just the last one, this is now granting people if people maybe applied for it because maybe they moved into a new house, they moved somewhere, a life change happened, this is now granting uh parking spots,

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questions or comments. Anybody from the public wishing to um comment or have a question on ordinance 226019? Seeing none, council president, seeing uh no questions from the public, I'd look to close the public comment portion and move on second reading ordinance

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number 226-019. >> I'll second. >> I'll second on the motion, Mr. Perelli. >> Yes. >> I Mr. Whan. >> Yes. >> Phillips. Yes. M. >> Yes. >> Ordinance passes. Ordinance 326020. Ordinance authorizing a solar lease agreement between the township of

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Hamilton and Solops Hamilton Solar Redevelopment LLC for block 2154 lot 12.01. >> Um this is uh the Patterson Avenue development uh for the solar panels. This is the uh

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it's a 15-year uh contract or lease agreement and um I believe there's a second 15-year correct option. >> Correct. There is an option for a second 15 years. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments from council? >> Uh, this is council president. This is a

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a project that is uh going to take an old landfill in Hamilton, an old brownfield, and we're going to put it to constructive use uh by having a solar field uh constructed on what was u an

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unusable piece of property. Uh the township will be getting revenue uh from this arrangement uh in addition to clean energy. Uh a majority of the energy that the uh township will now be using once this is constructed is going to be

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derived uh from clean energy as a result of this project. >> Yeah. >> Questions or comments? Any questions or comments from the public on ordinance 32602?

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Come on to the front, please. >> Hello, Tammy. Ducky >> 109 sweeper. So, I'm all for solar. I have it on my home. However, thoughtful installations of the solar on this landfill is critical. Um,

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how what is the plan by the township to make sure that the foundations and that protective cap that's there on the landfill does not get damaged so that there's not a problem. So, are you

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thinking about the types of footings you're going to put in there or just needs to be thoughtful? That that was actually one of our concerns from the very beginning when we were negotiating this. I'm sorry. I was like that was actually one of our

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concerns from the very beginning when we negotiating this. As you may remember, this project started back in 2000 when we when we originally did the eminent domain of this property. So in in working with the solar company uh we actually went back through all the deed

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restrictions and went through the engineering and um was we were very clear and I'm not an engineer so but we were very clear and very um pointed about about this issue and they

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understood and they complied and and also we still we're still landowners so so we still have access we can we can book we can make sure so uh absolutely agree and it was it was it was always on forefront of our minds

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>> right and also exactly D is involved and and and on on and on and on so >> it is it's well enhanced >> thank you appreciate that >> any other questions from the public on

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this ordinance uh number 32602 Duo. >> Seeing none, >> council president, I'll make a motion to move on ordinance 326-020. >> I'll second that. >> On the motion, Mr. Carabelli. >> Yes. >> Yes. Mr. >> Whan, >> yes.

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>> Miss Phillips, yes. Mr. Pero, >> yes. >> Ordinance. Ordinance 426021. Ordinance authorizing an agreement between the township of Hamilton and Freedom's Legacy of Hamilton LP for payment in lie of taxes uh block 2154 lot 3 project freedom.

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>> Okay. So this extends uh project freedom's pilot. It also allows them uh to keep rent down as we include them as well uh in our affordable housing plan. So it's helping uh both parties uh with this agreement. Any questions or

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comments from council? No. Now, just just to note that uh this product was uh specially designed for uh to provide housing for those with special needs. >> Good job. Thank you.

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>> Anybody else? >> No. Any questions or comment from the public on this ordinance number 426021? >> Seeing none, do I have a motion? Council President comments from the public. I move on ordinance number 426-0

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to1. >> I'll second that. >> On the motion, Mr. Pavelli. >> Yes. >> Mr. Tai, >> yes. >> Mr. Whan, >> yes. >> Phillips, >> yes. >> Mr. Pero, >> yes. >> Ordinance passes. Ordinance 12602 is an ordinance of the township of Hamilton in the county of Mer, New Jersey providing

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for various capital improvements and related expenses in and for the township appropriating 9,900,000. Therefore, author authorizing the issuance of 9,45,000 and general improvement bonds or notes of the township to finance the state.

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This is first reading and introduction. >> Have a motion. Council president, I'll move ordinance 126-022 on first reading. >> I'll second on the motion. Mr. Caribelli, >> yes. I >> Yes. >> Mr. Whan, >> yes. Mr. >> Phillips, yes. Mr. Pero, >> yes.

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>> Ordinance passes. Ordinance 226023 is the ordinance of the township of Hamilton in the county of Mercer, New Jersey providing for improvements to the township wastewater treatment system in and for the township appropriating 8,330,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance

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of 8,330,000 in sewer utility bonds or notes of the township to finance it. First reading and introduction. >> Council President, I'll make a motion to move on first reading and introduction ordinance number 226-023. I'll second on the motion. Mr. Carelli,

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>> yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Whan, >> yes. >> Phillips, yes. Mr. Pero, >> yes. >> Ordinance passes. Ordinance 326 to 24. Ordinance authorizing the lease of a portion of Hamilton Township property located at 1750 East White Horse Mercation.

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First reading and introduction. >> Council President, I'd like to move ordinance number 326-024 on first reading and introduction. I'll second that. >> On the motion, Mr. Carabelli, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Whan, >> yes. Phillips, yes. Mr. Pero,

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>> yes. >> Ordinance passes. Ordinance 4225 is an ordinance authorizing the settlement of litigation and authorizing the township to enter into an agreement with DACO VW LLC for the acquisition of land premises improvements and fixtures

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located at 1768 East State Street in the township of Hamilton designated as block 1637 lot 6 of the Hamilton Township tax map where the per for the public purpose of affordable housing and the protection of the public health and safety with a purchase price of $200,000. First

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reading instructions. >> I have a motion. >> Council President, I'll move ordinance 426-025 on first reading. >> I'll second on the motion. Mr. Carabelli. >> Yes. >> I Yes. >> Mr. Whis. >> Yes. >> Phillips. Yes. Mr. Per. >> Yes.

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>> Ordinance passes. Ordinance 526 through 26. Ordinance adding, amending, and supplementing the code of free jerky part three land use legislation chapter 550 land development article one title section 550-8

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detention centers parcel facilities correction correction facilities and jails and prisons. >> Hold on one second. Ma'am, you you have something? >> Yeah, Mr. President, I'm sorry. the the agenda seems to be missing the resolution referring referring it

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presuming you uh approve this ordinance on first reading. We we need to do a a resolution talking resolution referring it to the planning board. >> So, do you want a motion to table this until the next meeting? So, we do together. >> It's it's up to you or we can we can do

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we can do a a walk-on we can do a verbal resolution that we can reduce to writing afterwards. I'd rather do them together and make it official than do it verbal. >> That's that is >> it's just more clear that way. Can I have a motion to table this until a future meeting?

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>> I'll make a motion. Council president table ordinance number 526-026. >> I'll second that. >> Madam clerk on the motion to table Mr. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Mr. W. >> Yes. >> Phillips. Yes. Mah. >> Yes.

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Okay. >> Before we move into um the board of health, um you'll notice that the first set of uh ordinances right on second reading um it was for public hearing and adoption. That's why there was public comment. The second part there was no

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public comment because it's just introduction. So everything that we did on first reading today uh at the next meeting will go to second reading and that's where there would be an opportunity if people wanted to comment on that just to explain uh for some of the newcomers here. Um do can I have a

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motion please to um recess as the township cel council sorry and convene as the board of health move. So move >> I'll second that >> to reconvene. >> Yep. It was Anthony and Chy.

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>> Oh, I Anthony. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Phillips. Yes. Mr. Pero. >> Yes. We're not going to use this until the end of the meeting. >> Oh my gosh.

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Oh, shoot. You expect me to do this? I can't read. >> You know, Chris, you know, I'm 67 years old. I can't read this. Some trees. >> You're trying to save some trees.

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>> What it's like trying to look at it. >> I'm glad it's on the screen. >> Are both screens working? Yes. >> Uh, whoever would like to begin, the floor is yours. >> Certainly. Good evening. As always, it

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is with great pride and pleasure that we come before you this evening to present our report to the Hamilton Township Board of Health. The Hamilton Township Division of Health is dedicated to maintaining the health and well-being of all of our residents and visitors by means of health promotion, prevention,

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and education. This evening, we will provide you with an update on public health goals and objectives, the continuation and revision of policies required for our national accreditation status, and the accomplishments of the department. As

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the school year winds down, camps and pools will be providing valuable activities for our youth. Our health inspectors have been working diligently to ensure public safety for all participants by inspecting swimming pools and facilities as well as summer camps. Our nursing section continues to

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vaccinate and follow up on any reportable communicable diseases as well as many other duties they have. The community education section is out at many events in our township promoting healthy habits and education and you may see that with our new medical van and

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the team. Our health department staff continues to provide statemandated public health services to our community. To keep up to date on the accomplishments of the Division of Health, we invite members of the board as well as our residents to take a moment to visit our township website and

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read the Division of Health's annual report. The animal shelter has and continues to be a top priority of this administration as also one of the health department's highest priorities. We are very proud that through this hard work, we have

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successfully improved operations of the shelter's performance and delivered positive results. Our management team, supported by the administration, and our legal team continue to have public safety as our number one priority. Under

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the supervision of our health officer, shelter manager, and the dedicated staff in the shelter, we have made significant strides in implementing best sheltering practices, promoting staff and volunteer safety parameters, and ensuring that each animal in our shelter receives the

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care required while striving to reach our goal, which is for each animal in our care to have a positive outcome. Just as a reminder for all, the Hamilton Township Animal Shelter is licensed as a shelter or pound in the state of New

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Jersey. It is not a sanctuary. We have limited resources set forth by budgets that are funded by our taxpayers, and we must be financially responsible when managing operations of the shelter. In addition, the township holds the liability and responsibility for public

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safety. And therefore, we must always have in mind public safety as our most important priority to our community. In our animal shelter, many tasks are accomplished with a lot of hard work, passion, and dedication by the staff. They are to be commended for their hard

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work each day. As working in a shelter can be very stressful and an emotional job, we are very proud of our shelter team and the work they are able to accomplish every day, often going above and beyond what is required of them. tasks have been accomplished in addition

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to the implementation of public safety protocols and the extraordinary care given to the animals which again is our top priority have been the development of detailed policies and procedures, exceptional recordkeeping and internal shelter controls. Oversight is provided

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daily and management continues to evaluate, re-evaluate and revise policies as needed. As with any organization, operational improvements and continuous re-evaluations of internal processes always are being

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revised in order for the organization to continue to grow and move forward. This evening, I have requested from our health officer, Chris Hwick, to provide us with a visual PowerPoint to follow along with his report on the division of health and our animal shelter. Thank

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you. >> Good evening. uh board of health members to our community uh as well. I hope uh today's presentation uh is enlightening and shares a lot of the positive meaningful work that the division of health does throughout the year um for

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our residents of our community. I want to welcome specifically our staff. A lot of our staff uh came on their own time today to um show their support for the division. Um, like Director Fitzgerald said, they work tireously and I am so so

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immensely proud of the staff both on the health side and the shelter side um of the work that they do. And without a doubt, we have the best public health workers in the state of New Jersey, if not the country, here in Hamilton. And their work day in and day out

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demonstrates that. and I am so happy and so proud to be a part of this division, be a part of this township and be a part as their co-orker as well. Uh to the uh community members who might be new, I hope that you again find this enlightening and a lot of good

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information of the work that we do day in day out for the community. Uh to our residents who are here uh and have been here previously, typically I do have a printed PowerPoint. Um but due to the expected uh number of uh attendees and

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also just the length of the PowerPoint I did not print out a slide deck for everyone today but uh after the meeting uh that can be requested electronically. Uh quick agenda. Uh I will go over my update uh for health services and uh the

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shelter and then I will hand it over to our shelter manager Danielle who will give her update and then we will open it up to questions from the board and then ultimately to the community. >> So what's going on in public health? Well, happy pride. Uh I'm, you know, happy to see that uh the board and the

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township uh uh uh recognize Pride Month uh this year. It is uh an important and all celebrations of community are important and have a meaningful benefits for health. Um but there's also been a lot of diseases in the news lately and we'll go over them. It is also World Cup. So for your our soccer fans, we'll

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go over some uh health information there. And it is also tick season. So taking pride in your health. First and foremost, celebrations are important. Whether you celebrate Pride, you're a member or an ally of the LGBT community. Maybe you celebrate other um

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events throughout the year. Uh St. Patrick's Day, October Fest. Celebrating is important and being a member of the community is very of a community is very important and it has tangible health benefits um uh for you know to being and celebrating and being part of that community. But on the flip side, a lot

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of times those celebrations can also trigger um a lot of strong emotions. And it is really important that everybody knows the hotline for 988988 which is the national suicide prevention hotline. Anybody can access this across

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the country. If you know of anybody who is experiencing suicidal thoughts if you are substance abuse concerns, emotional distress or just worried about somebody that is a phenomenal resource to keep in your back pocket and to share or take advantage of if you do use it.

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Unfortunately, uh, federal funding, uh, cuts, uh, did end LGBT specific services, uh, through the 988 hotline. So, if you do know somebody who is part of the LGBT community who do does need support services, I would recommend uh,

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contacting the Trevor Project. Um, but as part of pride, you know, it is also important to take a pride in your health. Whether you're a member of the LGBT community or an ally or just a regular member of the community, it's important to get tested. If you're sexually active, you should get tested.

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Our health department has a weekly STD clinic that is available to all residents of uh Hamilton Township and all the uh we have shared services with all of our municipalities in the county with the exception of the city of Newark who has their own program. So anybody uh

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in the county can utilize our weekly clinic to get uh treatment uh to get tested um uh for any STDs including HIV. Um it's really important to know your vaccination status especially being out in crowds. Uh while respiratory viruses

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are um fairly low uh right now and the risk for respiratory viruses uh is pretty um limited at the current moment, it is still important to make sure that you you're up to date on your vaccination status, including the Empox vaccine if that is something that you think you might be exposed to. While we

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the numbers have greatly reduced uh since their peak uh a few years ago, um it does just like any vaccinereventable disease, it does find pockets of the unprotected um and does uh you know kind of try to you know target those uh individuals. So making sure that you

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have are fully uh protected and up to date on your vaccines. Avoid stomach bugs. Nothing rains on a party like diarrhea. So um so make sure that you are washing your hands, you are um if you are sick, stay home. Same thing with

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swimming pools. Uh and if you you know staying out of it, you don't want to spread this because you don't want to ruin anybody's day. You don't want to ruin your day. So it is important to take preventative steps as well. Um pep if that is something that you're uh you know which is a antibiotic. So if you do

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have unprotected sex, you could u take there is uh talk to your primary care doctor and they might prescribe um some preventative uh antibiotics just to prevent any infections from occurring uh uh after the sexual activity. Um be heat

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smart. It has been hot. Thankfully we are in a kind of reprieve right now from the heat for the last couple of days. Um it was extremely hot and especially if you between uh if you are drinking or substances that does affect your how your body handles heat. So making sure that you

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are staying hydrated with water um limiting alcohol limiting sugary drinks limiting caffeinated drinks uh to be as uh you know to handle the heat as best as possible. um carry Narcan. We have Narcan available at the division of

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health. Uh it is also available throughout the community as well and it is free, easily accessible and is something that everybody should have. Uh and it is easy to use as well. And um and it's just the the cartridges. It's just two sprays, one in each nostril if

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and it could save somebody's life if they are unresponsive. And it has no negative effect. So it is better to use Narcan on somebody who you don't know if they need it or not than to not use it. And most importantly have fun. Uh you know celebrations like this whether you

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are taking part in Pride or any other celebrations throughout the year the most important thing is to have fun uh and enjoy the uh the celebrations. So Honirus, Ebola, screwworm all the things that have been popping up in the news the last couple of months. Um the

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good news is for the vast majority of us uh especially here in Hamilton the risk to the public is extremely low to almost zero. Um there is no such thing as zero risk but it is pretty as low as possible right now for for our residents. Um

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haunt virus this came up in the news uh lately due to the cruise ship and the passengers that were exposed to a specific version of haunt virus the Andes virus. Um, and haunt viruses themselves are a family of viruses that

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are related to rodent exposure. The United States does see a handful of cases a year of a of one of these family viruses. Uh, kind of in the four corners area out west, you know, California. Um, that's that's typically where we see popup cases uh occur. There's never been

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a reported case in in New Jersey. Uh right now the at the bottom the the timeline chart there shows for the cruise ship specifically um we are approaching the end of the uh incubation period for the virus. So I do

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not believe there's been any new uh infections relating to uh the cruise ship. Uh so we are almost out of the woods and this uh outbreak can be considered closed very shortly as long as no new uh cases occur. Um, there is a

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large-scale Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. If this is on your travel, if any of these countries are on your travel itinerary, I would strongly suggest rescheduling or making sure you're taking heightened precautions when you're traveling through these

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areas. Um, Ebola has never been reported in New Jersey. Um, if there are cases, and this goes for a lot of diseases of high consequence, if there were a somebody, you know, a Hamilton resident who was diagnosed with one of these, they would be treated in a specialized

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hospital outside of the area. Um, I believe this area's like level one disease hospital is Belleview in New York City. So, any patient who had one of these diseases would be isolated there outside of the

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community. Um but with travel we do have and it does happen from time to time whether it's Ebola uh in the past or other types of hemorrhagic diseases travelers who might have um exposure history you know do come back home and

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they do come back to our communities and our public health nurses follow up with them. We have we get alerts from CDC and the state department of health and um we get their contact information. we make contact and then we monitor them for 21 days or whatever the incubation period is and we have daily contact with those

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and they have to um provide us temperature checks, symptom checks and then we we make sure that if there is any um if they start having a fever or other symptoms they're immediately um you know uh sent to uh the appropriate medical facilities.

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Um the new one that uh just recently in the last uh week or so that may have uh heard from the news is new world screworm which is a type of parasitic fly that was used to be fully eradicated from the US uh back in uh the 1960s. So

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it is a fly and when it uh lays uh its eggs in the wounds of warm-blooded animals typically cattle is really the biggest risk here. Um and then when the eggs hatch uh the larae burrow into um

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the animal. It is gross. Um not something that we want to see take hold again. Uh but it is a very fastm moving um um disease and they have seen it uh now uh in Texas because it has been creeping up from uh se through Central

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American countries uh and it is now uh been detected um recently in in Texas. Um so why is it back? Um you know cattle smuggling throughout Central America. Also there's been a lot of funding cuts. The sterile tech um in the sterile

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insect technique labs and uh production facilities were recently shut down. So uh we actually don't have any production facilities in the US and Panama is currently uh providing the US uh or will be providing the US with sterile flies.

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Um the female flies only mate once. So when you have um the sterile flies who can't reproduce offspring or they um it helps draw down the population because the sterile fly the sterile males out compete with the the natural uh males

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and that brings down the population. Um so why does this matter? Um while the biggest concern is the food system and especially cattle um because it does will affect uh because it is fatal um or can be fatal if it's not treated I

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should say um and then that obviously has effects on uh the food system food insecurity food prices um and then you know as we've seen even lately with um in the past couple of months and years with inflation that does have real costs onto the economy and and to the general

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public. um it does spread fast uh and humans and any warm-blooded including humans and pets can have this uh can contract this uh as well. The biggest real concerns would be is those agricultural workers in uh you know the

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south in Texas. So if you are not one of those um your risk is pretty low right now uh for this disease. But it's something definitely to uh keep on the radar. And that's just a de, you know, a graphic of the um life cycle of the

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screw worm if anybody is interested. Um so World Cup um we are lucky to be just far enough away from both Philly and uh the Netherlands that we don't have significant traffic concerns here

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locally. But um you know the top public health concerns really is health system strain. you know there is uh thousands and thousands if not millions of people overall entering into our geographic area who might need to utilize services um and that can you know and problem you

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know issues that are typically not a problem can become problems at scale you know particular if you think about you know urgent care or emergency department wait times uh food safety you know substance uses uh substance use STDs STI and also mental health crises can be

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exacerbated just by having the sheer number of uh new residents uh and visitors moving into the area. Um measles is also a significant concern. Thankfully, you know, our area and New Jersey overall has a decently high rate

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of vaccination, but the vaccination rates uh have been falling. Um and also um a where a lot of the teams are located and there are in between Mexico, Canada and the US still ongoing measles outbreaks. Um and measles loves just

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like a lot of vaccinereventable diseases, it loves finding pockets of unvaccinated people and it spreads extremely fast um within those pockets. So, it is possible that somebody who might not know that they're sick or maybe they do know they're sick, they

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attend a game, a watch party, whatever other large event, and it can quickly spread. Measles is one of the most contagious, if not the most contagious disease that uh we have and that we that we have routine exposure to at this point.

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Um, neuroirus again going back to nobody likes uh nobody likes, you know, have a party pooper literally. Um, you know, this is a uh extremely extremely contagious disease. Um, this is typically when somebody says that they have the 24-hour bug flu or you get sick

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very fast after um, you know, eating somewhere, eating out, it's typically noro if you know neuroirus, especially if you're having the gastro uh, strong gastrointestinal um, uh, symptoms. So it's again it's important stay home if you're sick, stay out of pools if you're sick, uh wash

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your hands uh with soap and warm water. Um one thing to keep in mind uh hand sanitizer does not kill neurovirus. So um do not rely just on hand sanitizer. Really back to the basics.

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Soap and warm water for 30 seconds is the best way to make sure your hands uh are as clean as possible. and sticking and also heat related illness. Stay hydrated, dress in loose clothing, know the know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat

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stroke and limit alcohol and uh sugary drinks. Um our environmental section um and this is the same playbook that we use for in in advance of the Super Bowl. We sent out guidance to all of our retail food establishments on food safety and they will be conducting spot

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checks uh throughout the tournament just to make sure that um our busiest bars, restaurants, uh places that might be you know have TVs watching games um that they're you know maintaining food safety principles because sometimes we do see

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during Super Bowl especially wings places stock up on wings and then they are just not they're just not they're temperature abused or they're not refri refrigerated properly. Um, and we catch a lot of every year we catch a lot of folk places um that have to then discard

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of all that food product because it was not held at the proper temperature. Um, and we don't want to see restaurants and our uh retail food establishments wasting money. So, making sure that proper refrigeration um and food uh temperature holding is occurring is the

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most important thing. Um it is tick season uh and it's also mosquito season as well. So making sure that uh we're all trying to avoid the bite. Um we want to prevent tickborne diseases. Um a lot thankfully a lot of them are preventable with or treatable

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with antibiotics but not all of them. Uh one um uh specific tickborn disease that we are starting to see more and more of in the state is the alpha gal syndrome which uh can which causes a red meat

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allergy to those individuals who um are exposed to that antigen and then develop that syndrome. Um, so that means basically you're eating chicken or fish or uh becoming vegetarian or vegan in some cases depending on the uh severity of the allergy because it really is like

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an almost an anaphylactic uh type of uh allergy that gets developed. So it's really important and there's real uh you know and there's real consequences to some of these diseases. Uh so making sure that you are aware of the types of ticks that we have in our area. Um when

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you go outside, wear light color clothing. Uh long sleeves, long pants. Uh treat clothing and gear with peromethine or some other or uh type of uh EPA registered uh insecticide that will uh that is for your clothing. A lot

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of outdoor oriented companies also sell pre-treated clothing as well that lasts for so many washes. But just making sure that you're aware of um of how often that you need to pre uh retreat your clothes. Um, inspect your yourself, your loved one, and your pets for ticks every every

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time you come outside. I know our shelter staff uh are well aware of this because there is plenty of ticks, you know, near the shelter. So, anybody visiting the shelter, this is also extremely important. And a reminder throughout, you know, our area in the township, even though we are heavily a

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suburban township, um we are in tick in uh tick habitat and to be mindful of that. um using EPA registered insect uh insect repellents. Um there's a lot of you know uh you might want to try you

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know healthier DYI things but really sometimes DE is the best option and I were de I you know and using a DE based product or any other EPA registered insecticide will keep you as healthy as possible and avoid ticks from latching

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on. Uh if you are hiking, uh making sure to keep to the center of trails and a avoid brush and tall grasses um and also showering right after you get home um will help wash off any uh loose ticks that might be on your body that haven't

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attached yet as well. Um and then the uh uh graph that we have here is just a um where we are with ED visits. So any tick related emergency department visits that have happened happening within New Jersey this year.

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And as you can see this is was pulled as of the end of uh May was the last time this was updated and it gets updated on a semi uh regular basis. Um and that we are already exceeding the 5-year average uh

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for um the tick related emergency department visits across the state. So just something to definitely keep in mind. Um so just talking about public health services um uh as we've talked about probably acknowledging to a lot of people but

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still we are very extremely proud of this. We are an accredited health department one of only a less than handful uh in the state of New Jersey. Um so we were accredited back in August of 25 but that doesn't mean that our work is done. Um we do have to become

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reacredited every 5 years. Um and there are um and we do have homework every year that we have to do to maintain uh our accreditation and also to make sure that um when we go for reacredititation uh the burden is a lot less. So um every

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September uh at the end of every September we have to submit an annual report to our accreditation body which is the public health accreditation board um as a requirement to main that maintain that status. So that is something that we are working on currently to submit for uh September of

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26. Um we are happy to announce that once again for the fourth consecutive year that Hamilton is a healthy town. Uh so we were awarded a uh the designation which is uh the New Jersey Healthcare Quality Institutees um gold level their

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highest uh level which is healthy town again. And some of our outreach events that we've included that we've done so far this year is we have our ongoing mayor's wellness uh campaign walk. So I encourage everybody to join us on those. They happen once a month throughout our

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warmer months. Um, we recently did a healthy habits for kids program at the Hamilton YMCA. We routinely attend community fairs at schools, community centers, the library, the senior center, local churches, Broadway Park, and also

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the annual uh Hamilton job fair. Um, we work closely with the um the Mercer County Wick program by um the Children's Home Society. Uh we also had a um with our partnership with PEN medicine

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um we did a mindfulness program we had a dementia program um pet CPR and also first aid. Um, and then also another partnership that we had with the New Jersey Hospital Association and Mercer County Connection is we had a free mental health first aid training for

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military uh military members, veterans and their family um and better to support um our our men and women in the military which was well attended. Um here's our schedule for our wellness walks. I do encourage everybody to join

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us. They're uh great ways to explore different areas of the township. um they are um on the township calendar. Our next two are July 9th at S Gardens and also then uh August 6th at the senior center. Our most popular event of the

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year uh is our walk in partnership with Grounds for Sculpture. Um that does require pre-registration, but with that pre-registration, you do gain uh a free full day uh pass to the grounds for sculpture. So, you get a guided tour um

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uh as part of this and then you're able to stay on the grounds for as long as you want after the tour and walk uh has ended. Uh so, I would just keep a lookout for um their registration to open up in August.

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Um, new this year as part of our mayor's wellness campaign in partnership with the township and our personnel department is that we launched a township employee walking challenge um which was a kind of pilot project. So we did a six-w week walking challenge and

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we used the uh free stepup app to help track uh uh steps across multiple different platforms. So whether you were an Apple user, Android user, had different um wearables, it all synced through this app. And there was also um uh a ways that and it had like different

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fun types of like, oh, you've walked this far and gave prompts and stuff like that. So we had 115 participants. There was uh 44 over 44 million steps total that were walked and in miles that's over 20 million uh 20,000 miles that

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were walked. And that's four roundtrip flights between Newark and London Heathro. Um, so it's a lot of walking and I have to say for seeing some people did a heck of a lot of walking including, you know, our staff do. We had a couple winners uh in our

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department as well, but and and also I know there's there's two big winners up here too, you know, that ton of walking that I'm just tired looking at the number of steps that they did. So, um, uh, amazing work to all of our walkers. Um, and I thought I would have a chance,

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but I was like dead middle of the pack and with my like measly, you know, couple miles a day versus the 30 miles or whatever that was being done with some people. So, congratulations to all of those and, uh, we're happy that this went really well cuz healthier employees are better for the township and for the

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taxpayers. Um, and it's just better for everybody, you know, and I encourage all of our residents as well to, you know, especially if you have limited time, limited resources, walking is one of the healthiest things that you can do and just getting out and walking uh and enjoying our parks. Uh, and would be um

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would be great. Um, we kind of covered this staying up to vaccines a little bit, but um, our childhood vaccine clinic may mean even though school is out, um, now is the perfect time to uh, for parents to talk with their um, pediatricians to see if

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there is any uh, vaccines that your kids need for school. So, instead of waiting until August and scrambling for an appointment, now is the the great a great time to make sure that that is something that is on your radar uh, for those residents. uh and the residents of

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uh West Windsor Township and Robinsville where we have shared services. If they um are either underinsured or have no insurance, uh we provide that vaccine through our vaccines for children's program to make sure that they're um uh uh ready for to enroll in school and

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start the new school year. There is a new requirement. The state did update their vaccine requirements. Um, and this is something new this year that children um ages six month and older who are enrolled in daycare, child care, uh, preschool will need to have an annual

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flu shot by November 30 of 26. Otherwise, they will have to be excluded from school if they do not have um, uh, proper documentation or or an exclusion uh, note. Um, Director Fitzgerald mentioned our mobile health band. We are bringing

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health to our residents. Um so hopefully you will see this in the comm our new uh van which we love dearly and you know thank you to their partnership with Mercer County for um helping us uh get this van. Um so we we are uh attending health fairs, community events, health

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education programs, doing screenings in the community to make sure that um you know we're getting out and uh providing wellness to directly to our our residents. And if anybody has uh or any uh organizations do want to um request

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our staff to go out or to do screenings or to uh uh have health education sessions, they can just contact us and and reach out to us and we can schedule uh programming screenings uh or talk a little bit more or link them with uh better partners if they're looking for something specific that we can't

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provide. our environmental and environmental and consumer health uh folks. So, our inspectors are busy doing uh a ton of inspections right now. They never really tend to stop. Um our temporary retail food licensing program uh continues to

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increase year-over-year. Um right now we have seen just this year a 80% increase um uh from this time last year due to the number of temporary uh food events, food truck festivals that are um that are occurring. They do a great job of

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keeping kind of the pulse on the community, seeing um unlicensed food trucks or if there's advertisements um for um for vendors that we haven't seen before. um and making sure that they go out to all these events to make sure that um our residents who are taking

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part in these events have healthy food options and making sure that our food vendors that are operating here um are operating at the highest standard um possible. Uh we have moved our licensing online which has been uh very helpful uh

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as well but uh and I'm the we've issued 157 licenses so far this year. Um this is pool season, so our inspectors are busy out there um opening up our temp uh our seasonal pools. So all pools do require two inspections. So

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our seasonal pools that are opening right now um do require a pre-operational inspection. So our inspectors go um make sure the water sample the water quality is passing um that all the safety equipment is there. um that they have their other

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inspections, their electrical inspection, their bonding inspection um is all up to par to make sure that the pool is ready to open. Um and then they also conduct an operational inspection as well. Um, one thing that, um, our

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staff, and kudos to, um, our inspector, Kelly Thomas, for noticing this, um, is that we've been seeing an increase in failures over the last year, especially last year in 2025. Uh, we went from 10, uh, water quality failures in 24 to 50

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and 25. Um and we are working with the state department of health to kind of un try to understand what is causing this um this issue and our hypothesis right now is that it is due to high levels of phosphates in the

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water coming from Trenton Waterworks um because high levels of phosphates in um in the water can counteract what is the the effect of chlorine. So while the chlorine might you still might be getting chlorine residuals, it's not

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really doing what it's supposed to do and that's why we're seeing failures um uh for the water quality. So um while there is nothing um we have not like there's nothing definitive about that. We are testing when we see um

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uh water failures, our inspectors go out, they test the phosphates as well, and they're notating that and providing that information to uh to the state to kind of uh dig into this a little bit more. So, >> if I may, Chris, uh how many how many recreational facilities do we have in

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>> 30? Do we really that many? >> All the all the condos. >> Oh, that's true. All the condos. All the Okay. Yep. Okay. Yeah. >> All right. >> Hey, Chris, I have a question also. >> Um, when you talk about the failures, right, um,

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>> there's also obviously more, I would think, right? So, you're also they have the ability to fail more. But when you test the water, um, what are you actually testing for? Just the pH? Are you testing the alkalinity? What's it failing for? So there's there's a whole

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um a number of metrics and I don't remember them all off the top of my head. So um but we can provide we can get you more in detailed information on this but they uh there's certain levels of the pH that they have to do uh the platelet count um ecoli or codifform

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bacteria levels and then obviously the the chlorine or whatever the disinfectant residual would be if they use chlorine broine. So, those are really the main parameters that they're looking for and that they test for >> because for the residents also, um, if you have your own pool, I got an education on this that a lot of people

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are throwing money away because they keep dumping chlorine and and the phosphates and the alkalinity actually eats up the chlorine faster than it should. >> Yeah. No, this is >> something to look into. >> This it's if this theory holds through, it's it's a significant concern for a

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lot of things. >> Yeah. So it's um you know so again it's kudos to the environmental staff for flagging this and they're working the state has been notified and I know they're digging into this deeper um and have requested more information from neighboring health departments as well

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trying to make sure that is this a utility a specific utility issue is this more widespread um to get more information >> and like Chris said back to the phosphates is it treatable or do you have to dump the pool? No, there are uh treatment plants if you I would talk if

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somebody I would I believe the pool like some of these pool servicing companies they can tap the water for you and and there are ways to manage the the phosph >> because because the the the theory behind it is that every time especially right so so to speak it's coming from

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Trenton Waterworks if if that's where your feed's coming from every time you have to add water to the pool you're creating that environment in the water. >> Yeah. Right. And it accumulates over time, >> right? So, it's constantly has to be tested probably weekly to make sure that

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they're they're they're meeting the standards. >> Yeah. So, yeah. So, I would it's just I would test your water or if you have questions, they can always contact us at the health department and we can kind of provide like kind of more um you know, targeted guidance on on that. >> The good part about it is we have some good family-owned small businesses in

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the in town that actually will test the water for free and tell you how to get it where it needs to go. Yes. >> So, we're lucky on that on that part. >> Yeah. We can't uh do any specific, but I agree there's a lot of local companies that will do this for free. Um and then, you know, you can decide on your management plan from there.

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>> Yep. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Um and then I'll end up uh end with youth camps for uh environmental consumer health. Um so the kind of quirk with youth camps are that we do not license them as the local health department. The state of New Jersey

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licenses them um and is really the ultimate authority but we do the inspection the initial pre-operational inspection um on the state's behalf. Um so um and that is depending on like sometimes we get out there you know or if we don't know about them then we

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refer them to state. It's an awkward kind of back and forth um with youth you youth camps, but what I encourage all residents to do is um if their child is attending a youth camp, just make sure that it is licensed with the state of New Jersey and has an active license. Um

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there's a great um the New Jersey Department of Health has a great widget uh that they can just if you just Google NJOH uh youth camps, it'll pull it right up and you can just check to see um uh the list of licensed youth camps. uh and then also inspection for all that

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information on there and they can uh uh take a look if they have any questions and of course if there are specific questions um they can reach out to us but there I believe there were when I counted 20 something um on the on the list active

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for Hamilton. Um so moving on to administrative updates. Um, so dog licensing, we um have moved out of the uh the grace period for dog licensing. Um, so any uh our lay fees

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are now in effect. Um, as of today, we had uh just over 3,400 licenses that have been issued. Um, warning notices have been posted and were sent out on May 21st through email. Um, and then also posted online as well. Uh since

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then we've uh issued an additional 63 licenses. Um but there was also a total of 83 applications that were um submitted um but just 63 uh ended up getting approved through um the process. So like there's a number that the

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remaining are either were denied so maybe their rabies uh vaccine was out of date uh or they're waiting for payment and they just have not submitted their payment yet. We do a multi-step notification process uh that goes you know starts in December. We do mail

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postcards to every single resident who or every single lency uh for that uh of that previous year. So for this year in December everybody who had a 26 license will receive a reminder postcard. Um that dog licensing is coming up. Um

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there's also uh email notifications that come out through our gov pilot system uh in January or in December and January. We also run reminder ads in the community newspaper and also people papers um multiple times throughout the year especially during our licensing uh

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season which is January, February um just to remind residents that um uh to license their animals. Um, and we also do social media posts and we did also a constant contact uh uh email uh notification as well just to remind

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folks. Um, we have uh so so far this year, let me get my notes where over 800 uh residents who have not renewed their license from uh 2025 uh

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into this year. So they will be getting uh we will start be start issuing and mailing out notices of violations to all of those residents um shortly. So um if you are a resident who has not renewed your dog license, I highly highly highly

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suggest licensing your dog before next week. Otherwise, we will be issuing notices of violation and they will be going out in the mail. Um >> Chris, >> yes. >> So we're currently right around 3,400. >> Yes. Looks like the high we've had recently

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is uh just under 3,800. Call 3,700 in 2024. So if you get those 800 in, we're 400 over and above what we've been >> even close to. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So and we're only halfway through the

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year. So, you know, hopefully, you know, between, you know, increased enforcement efforts um and um and just getting the word out that we will, you know, get more people to license their dogs. That that's our ultimate goal. We don't want to find people. We don't want to issue

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summones. Um we just want to make sure that um the animals in our community are up to date with their rabies vaccine. An important reminder is we just had a cat uh test positive um two weeks ago. Uh it was brought to the shelter from a good

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Samaritan that they found um you know it was in the shelter for you know Justin overnight started uh showing signs and symptoms of rabies. We took it to the vet they agreed with us. It was euthanized um and uh sent to the state lab for testing. Uh it did test positive

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for rabies and it is a really important reminder um you know and the family that did find it um you know needed to uh start prophylaxis. our staff also needed to start rabies prophylaxis as well uh because they were handle you know handling it and and were exposed to uh

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to the saliva. So it is a really important reminder a you know when we're in the shelter why we have public spaces and non-public spaces because and this cat was in a non-public space um um but also just to members of the community that rabies does exist in the community.

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You know, typically we see it in wild animals, but from time to time that does spill over into domestic animals, cats and dogs. Um, and this is why it is so important to vaccinate our own pets um to make sure that um uh that they don't

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end up getting sick because rabies is um once you show almost always fatal and once you start showing signs and symptoms, it is fatal and we don't want to see that um happen to our pets and absolutely not to any of our residents. So um our nurses do follow up with any

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of our residents as well to just talk them through the process. We have a great working relationship with our hospital here who um you know it is a super easy process. You know if any residents do need to get access to rabies prophylaxis um and this is what

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the dog fund and this is what our dog licensing funds. So if you do not have insurance and you cannot afford rabies prophylaxis um that is what it is for and we will pay for that for you and you know it is expensive. um you know, insurance companies do cover it, but um

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you know, depending on states, you know, we had a uh a resident um uh a number of years ago, maybe two years ago, his daughter, you know, was in uh out of state. She had local

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insurance. The insurance didn't cover it. I said, "If just if she's still a resident of Hamilton, bring her back. We will cover it and we will take care of it here." and just to make sure because she had an exposure um away at college and we did not and they were having issues um getting access to that and we

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made sure that that was they were linked into the proper resources. Um so it's really important and this is why we want you know the dog licensing fees do go into a designated trust um and this also helps and then the fees associated with it also provide the free rabies vaccine

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that we give out to the community as well. Also, when the state provides us with the the vaccine for our rabies clinics that we offer four times a year, um that does go to support those costs as well. Um uh veterary costs uh at the shelter.

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Uh so to date, we've spent just over $50,000 on veterary costs. And just to show the difference, we do get discounts um um you know through our veterary partners. So it's just the purple there is the cost without um a discount and

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then the blue is the ultimate price that we ended up paying. So while it is not a huge discount um any doubt any discount is better than no discount and uh we're happy that the partners that we do work with um at least offer uh shelter discounts for for the services that we

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provide. Um the main veterary hospitals that we do that we use are Northstar which is our emergency vet and 24-hour vet. Um Princeton is our main veterary office and that's where all the vast majority of our routine uh services uh

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get seen. Uh and that's where our vet of record is is affiliated with and then we also use Mansfield as well. Mansfield veterary hospital and then Chesterfield we use sporadically. They they handle our small animals like um our rabbits. That's where that's who does our spayneuters for any rabbits that we do

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come in. And we currently have two if anybody is looking for a rabbit and they're um going uh a little bit further into our veterary cost. Um I am proud that you know we go far above and beyond

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um what a lot of shelters do. I you know I talked to partners and um you know around the state about what they do for veterary costs and stuff like that and they're blown away that we almost never say no to veterary care and the animals

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that come into our shelter receive worldclass veterary care and we you know we have that this is what why we have our donation account is when we have extreme cases and I know Danielle when she's will talk about um about some and

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even just recently the one right here Frank for just uh for just over $7,000 was a a kitten that had pan leukemia. That's a very contagious and very serious uh illness for kittens um and needs to be treated in the uh in an

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emergency in a in a veterary hospital. It cannot be treated um at our shelter. We just not have the care. or we don't have the capability to even handle um uh handle that um that type of uh disease or the care that's required. Um it's a kitten. It's highly adoptable. We did

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not blink an eye. We said treat and you know and this will come out part of this will come out of our our donation accounts as well. And and I'm really proud that we're able to do this without even thinking about it. And that is also part of our community support that we have because we need our community to

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help us with donations, monetary donations also in you know blankets, towels, uh food. It all makes a difference because when we have those items, it offsets costs that then can that we don't have to purchase out of our operating budget and make and frees

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up money elsewhere. Um, so this is just a really important, you know, we had 15 animals that had bills this year that exceeded $1,000. Um, and some of these, frankly, you know, the the general public, like I'm looking like $7,000 myself. Like I don't know if I could

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afford that myself for my dog because I mean that's a really big expense. Um, and I I sometimes I think some of this gets lost um that we're going above and beyond um for the animals in the shelter and they're getting amazing care from our

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veterary partners um and the staff that then also have to support them when they come back to the shelter. >> Hey Chris. Yes. >> If members of the public wanted to make a donation to that veterinary fund, how would they go about doing it? >> Yeah, that's a that's a great uh a great point. So, if they go on to our website,

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hamiltonenj.com/analshelter, there is um a donations link. So, it'll bring up both um our Amazon wish list and kind of like items that we're looking for, but then there's also a link for monetary donations. And that goes through um a secure website there

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that they can make um either a check, e checkek or um credit card um um donation payment right there. We also can accept cash and checks at the shelter and that gets deposited right away and that goes into a specific

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um donations account. It does not go into the general fund. goes into a donations account and um um and the only thing you know that I am comfortable using donations for is either excess medical costs which this is a um a good

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example of or board and train um uh programs as well. The other option is so if somebody um gives like a writer or says I want to donate for X Y and Z then we do honor that. So recently we had a donor um wave the adop or you know

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donate the money to uh cover the cost for the adoption fees for two dogs. So we are honoring that and we have to honor that because that was their request and we make sure that any of those requests get honored and and we have that um and that's part of the process. And one of the nice things about when you donate directly to us,

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um, a there's there's a there's an operable audit trail, uh, and there's also, you know, protections that go right there with it, and it goes directly to the care of the animals. Um, food costs. Um, I know this is I think this previously got brought up at

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um, uh, at some of the the previous council meetings, so I just wanted to highlight that um, you know, how often we order food. So this right here is just our prescription dog and cat food orders uh for the years 25 through current. Um so we had 20 uh in 2025 we

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had uh 17 orders. Uh we just over 5,000 or 7,500 worth of prescription diets. Uh and we do work directly through Hills uh pet nutrition to and you know we and our veterary uh vetinarian of record because

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you know this is prescription so she does have to prescribe them. um and prescribed these diets. And then so far this year, and we are seeing an increase um for sure um in 26, we've had eight orders at just over $4,000. Um and

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that's just been to an increase in the the number of prescription diets that have been um requested uh at by the vet for our shelter animals. um general food cost. We're another again we're happy to be able to partner

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with a local business who is our vendor for food. Um so we do work with Bag of Bones Barkery who provides our um uh the food for our dogs and cats and again uh we order on a regular cadence. um or so

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between 2025 to current. In 25 we had 24 orders at just over $23,000 and so far in 26 we've had 11 orders at just over um $8,000. Oh, and ignore that 42% increase. And that should just be 42% um

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for um year-over-year uh uh through June through June, not for regular diets, not um prescriptions. I'll fix that. Um, donations. We kind of went over this a little bit, but just uh so everybody uh is aware. So, we started our donation

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account. We had just over $10,000 as of January 1. Um, the balance currently uh as of uh January or is this June 11th was just over $14,000. Um we had $2,000 or just over $2,000 in

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online donations. And then um uh we had just over $9,000 in in person um mail donations. And our total I don't know why that got switched, but um our total uh 26 donations uh so far to date

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have been just over $11,000. So the um the three expenses so far that we've had uh in 26 that have come out and drawn out of the uh donation account has been Mansfield Vet for 2600, Bark

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Institute for 3,700 and Lead the Way Training uh which has been encumbered so far but um another $2,000 and that Frank the cat was a recent one. So, part of that will also come out of that training. And then we also have an additional $6,000 because we just sent a

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a dog to um Bark today. So, that is a $6,000 charge that the shelter is covering through the donations account. So, um uh we will be um also pulling that out of uh uh uh or be in addition

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to those costs there as well. And like I said, extreme medical cases, board and train sessions, um, and then services earmarked by the donor are the only costs that we pull out of donations. Um, and these are the two dogs u that we

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have that our uh anonymous donor sponsor the adoptions fees for. So Simone and Shrek. So, if anybody is uh interested in adopting one, uh it just sweeten the pot a little bit and save a little bit of money um and bring some new uh furry friends into your home or if anybody knows of anybody who would like to um uh

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or interested in uh adopting um they can have uh uh to uh contact us and we can provide more information. Um assessments and training. Um so we have uh in 2026 this year we've worked

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with three uh three vendors two we've been ongoing working with. So Wolf Gang conducts all of our initial assessments. So they can do assessments on every single dog that comes into the shelter and they also provide educational classes and volunteer program for our volunteers and for our staff. Uh Brooks

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Institute uh which we've been partnering with for a little while now as well um does on board and training. So when we have funds available and we have dogs that would can benefit um and you know there's a good match and and timing works out we do utilize them for that um

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uh throughout the year as well. Uh Lead the Way is a new vendor that we're working with this year who has agreed to um work with one of our red dogs who has uh a bite history. Uh and we're also partnering with another uh rescue who the goal would be to then have the dog

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go through board and train and then move into that rescue as well. So, it's been a nice partnership. We've been working with this rescue for other um other dogs and it's been working out well. So, it's just kind of getting the stars to align for timing to so that way the dog can go

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to board and train and then move into the rescue and then the rescue can immediately place in foster. So, it it it sometimes it takes it takes time for, you know, three different parties or four different parties or however it's working uh to line up those steps. Um so

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as far as um costs go um we just over $6,000 to date with Wolf Gang 3 oh just over $3,000 and that does not include the additional $6,000 um that we are covering for the uh the new dog that just went there today. Lead the way is

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$2,000 for a total of um uh just over just under $12,000. Um and then if you add in the six uh a little bit more. >> Yeah, sure. You beat me again, Chris. >> I beat you again. Chris, Wolf Gang does the initial assessments of the dog if if

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>> stole my line again. >> If it's required a second assessment, do we have another um organization other than the initial? >> Yeah. >> Which is done by Wolf Gang. So, so we're not So, we have something to compare it

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to is what I'm saying. >> Yeah. when when um a another assessment is requested like it was for one of our dogs. Um yes, we we would use one of these three other two vendors. Um Oh, so Bark and Lead the Way can do assessments

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too besides beside training. >> Yes. Oh, that's yeah didn't say so. But yeah, so yeah, they did they also did um they did also do the assessments that were requested by by the council. >> Okay. Thank you. Um and then just for um you know just

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you know for the um you know the board to also know um you know the our joint and um you know the Garden State Municipal Joint Insurance Fund um it did send over a bulletin to us. Um, and I just wanted to pull this out because,

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you know, I know sometimes we get um, feedback that is sometimes critical of our um, the fact that we do behavior assessments at all. And this is directly from, you know, our insurance provider and it says recruit the help of an animal behavior

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specialist who can determine the temperament of an animal and advise that the animal is suitable for adoption. This is something that we've been doing for years and we're proud to do it and we will continue doing it. But I also think it's just it's even important coming from our insurance provider that says that we also should be doing this

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as well because this protects um a the liability of the township. It also, you know, helps lower our insurance premiums because we don't want to see insurance premiums spike. Um our volunteer program is strong and

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continues to operate. Um, you know, here is just um uh our uh the volunteer hours uh that we've had over the last couple of years. Uh in 2026, we've had so far just over 2,000 volunteer hours um uh

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occurring. So, we're right on track for um staying on target with uh what happened in 2025. Um our volunteers provided a great uh inind contribution. Um and so far this year, you know, you can estimate uh at about $80,000 worth

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of inkind contributions through our volunteers um giving to the shelter. So um kudos to our volunteers and they do a lot of great work. And Chris, Chris, if I can just ask uh again for the members of the public who might be interested in volunteering

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because we always need more volunteers, uh how would they go about doing that? Yeah, that's a great question. So, um they can submit an application online. Uh there is an application. We actually just updated our handbook as well. Um and that went out to all of our current volunteers. Um the only caveat that I

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will say is right now we are prioritizing onboarding a volunteer coordinator. Um and also part-time staff and I forget. Oh, there we go. Next slide. Um so we are interviewing and we are accepting applications for those process. So, um I'm just asking for um a

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little bit of grace in for people who might be interested in volunteering is that we're trying to prioritize um onboarding a new coordinator and and updating and and maintaining the program before, you know, starting new orientation programs like that. But we do still accept the applications. We

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have them um and you know, we'll be in touch soon for any uh potential volunteers. >> Have we gotten any applications for these jobs yet? >> Yes, we have. And I I have to say I was completely um blown away by the number of part-time animal attendant. I my

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email almost shut down. I probably got over 250 applications for part-time animal attendant. Um so um so we're slowly working our way through. It's just we were completely inundated by uh um you know animal attendant applications and

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stuff like that. And right now that's really what our number one priority is onboarding new part-time attendants. Um but we are still interviewing and and um you know accepting applications for both positions. >> Now what I can what would prevent a volunteer application being denied

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>> from being denied >> is Yeah. I mean do many get denied or >> No, I mean I I have I'm not aware of any volunteer application that's been denied. >> Okay. >> Or at least not in in many years. Um but I will say that you know you know

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they have to read through the handbook and you know attend orientation. There's multi-step process. So it it's it also takes um >> you know you have to attend orientation go through programming stuff like that. So even if you are quote unquote accepted there are other steps that you

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have to do as well to then be able to volunteer. So yeah >> just don't hand them a leash. >> No we do not do that. No question. Um, so that is the end of what I have here. And I just want to uh before I

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hand it over to Danielle again thank our staff, all of our staff um you know that and all of our volunteers because you know we really can't do it alone and we never could do it alone and we've never tried to do it alone. It's always been a partnership and and it does take a

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community um to uh to successfully operate a shelter. Um, we are not just like as director Fitzgerald said, we are not a sanctuary. We are not a rehabilitation facility. If those services and we do try our best to put

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animals into those types of services if they can benefit can only be supported when our community supports us as well. And you know going through and you saw when we went through our donations um that does not come out of the operating budget. We do not have the operating

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budget resources. um or even the physical or um you know personnel resources to handle the needs of some of the animals that come into our shelter. Um our number one priority from the beginning

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is to make sure that we are a no-kill shelter and we have exceeded that and we are proud to exceed that and we will continue to exceed that. Um but we need support from rescues. We need support from um our advocates to link us with

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potential um uh additional resources in the community and and even funds frankly, you know, to make sure that some of these um these resources and the board and trains can continue cuz um it is expenses and and and just doing one

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can draw down our donation account um significantly and if we don't have that replenishment um you know then it just either it delays or reduces what we can do at the shelter. Um and and this goes

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even you know with our rescue partners in in the community you know we see that there's you know there are you know area shelters who um time stamp dogs. We do not do that. We've never done that. And sometimes that that energy gets sucked

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away from Hamilton and that focus gets placed elsewhere. Um we need the support. We've always needed the support from our community partners. Um now more so than ever. And you know again it takes a village and um you know with

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that I will hand it over to Danielle for um her shelter update. >> Thank you. >> Glad to use some water. Hi Chris. Uh good evening. Thank you again for having me. Um I just wanted to So to

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begin with, despite operating at 132% of our capacity, our shelter staff, volunteers, rescue partners, and animal control officers continue to provide life-saving care while maintaining a 96.4% live release rate. Our current shelter

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population Are we having one? >> Uh, okay. So, our current shelter population, we have four, as of yesterday, 41 dogs in our care, 84 cats, two guinea pigs, and there's two rabbits in foster. That's a total of 127 animals

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when we're at 96 animals as you our usual capacity. So, we are at 132% capacity right now. Our average length of stay for dogs is 348 days. That's because of the 41 dogs currently housed,

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13 of them have been in our care for more than 2 years. For cats, the average length of stay is 84 days. this uh long couple long-term cats, uh the kittens don't stay as quite as long, but even still, sometimes when you're getting in

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um bottle babies and kittens that aren't even available for adoption for several weeks, so that obviously um creates a longer length of stay for them. >> Danielle, does that length of stay hike uh does that include uh the court

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ordered holds on animals? >> It they are in the numbers. Yes, >> that that so that length of stay part of the cause >> for that longer length of stay >> they certainly contribute >> uh and can you explain um why the court

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orders us to hold certain animals just a brief explain >> for you example yes if there's a a cruelty case or you know um where a humane law enforcement officer is uh and the prosecutor looking to remove the dogs from someone's care that court.

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Sometimes people don't show up for court. It gets postponed uh to the next month, the next month. So sometimes these these delays delay the dogs um either being turned over to our care or released. Um so as I mentioned, the average K9

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length of stay is uh significantly impacted by a subset of long-term residents with behavioral medical or placement barriers that limit adoption opportunities. So they just might be a little bit more challenging of of animals. Uh our current dog population. So the

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our shelter uses an internal internal color coding system to assist staff and volunteers in safety hand in safely handling dogs and matching them with appropriate volunteer handlers, rescues, and enrichment programs. >> I have a question before you go any further. >> Yes.

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>> Um how many dogs did you say we had? >> 41. >> Okay. How many cats did you say we have? >> 84. All right. So, roughly a third of them uh roughly a third of the cats are online on the website. >> Many are uh kittens that are unavailable

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for adoption for uh awaiting spay and neuter, foster care, things like that. >> It's a bit it's a lot. So, all the ones are all the ones that are available are all online. >> Correct. >> Um because I also noticed that out of those 23 cats, two four looks like a

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third of them don't have bios. Uh look, I commend you on the fact that we're doing uh the social media thing, right? The the social media thing I'm happy about because we said we asked multiple times

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get on social media, right? Everybody follows certain things or certain people on social media. So that's great that those are on social media more. So whatever you're doing to increase the social media, we appreciate that. However, there's a large group of um cats that

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have no bios that maybe somebody would like to look at that. We have asked that a couple times. Maybe we can make sure that's taken care of like ASAP. >> Yes, I can. Yeah. >> And also, there's five five dogs that don't that are on the website. >> Okay. >> Is there a reason? >> Five dogs that are not on the website.

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>> There's only 36 dogs. I just count. >> There's one There's one dog that is There's two dogs that are safekeep. >> Okay. >> Two court dogs. And I'm trying to think of the the last one. Um but there are so safe there's we have a safekeep program. So um there's

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two situations. One the owner was arrested is incarcerated. The other one the uh owner was hospitalized and is homeless. So we're working we're holding those pets. They're intention is to take them back. Okay. >> Um >> and like I said the two court orders. I

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have to think of the >> and I understand things happen. I just um I just did see one of the do one of the cats was on there from the meeting in May. So we're looking at six weeks. I I think that we can get a bio done in that quick that you know amount of time. >> Yes. Thank you. >> We we'll work on that.

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>> Thank you. >> Uh so out of the the number of dogs that we have here um four of them would be green. We've split up the color code, the blue color codes and the yellow color codes into uh light blue and blue

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and then uh light yellow and yellow uh so that it makes uh transition. So a green dog handler would possibly transition to a light blue and so forth and up to the difficulty level of handling. So, we have four green dogs,

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uh, three light blue, seven blue, four light yellow, 10 yellow, and seven red dogs. Uh, the other intake holds, like I mentioned, the court case and the there was a new there's two new dogs. So, there's two court cases, two safekeeps,

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and two new dogs. Um, so you can see um the color codes, I think. because we have them up there too. So the color codes the the definition for the color codes green dogs are generally social, behaviorally appropriate, generally

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adoptable. They might pull or jump or maybe you have a small dog with a mild issue but gives plenty of signals and most leg most green dogs it's a training issue not a behavior issue. Uh, blue dogs may have some troublesome issues like fear of certain strangers or resource guarding which would require a

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more experienced handler or mild to moderate behavior issue requiring behavior modification. Uh, yellow, sorry, these are some of our blue dogs, Buster, uh, Camila and Marley. Um, and then the yellow dogs we

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have Nyla there, Reese's and Blae. Uh, yellow dogs require management training or special placement considerations. They may have a cluster of issues or an extreme issue that requires a handler to have personalized instruction on how to work with or handle the dog. Uh, for examples, over arousal, leash

440
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reactivity, barrier, frustration, dog reactivity, or aggression. The red dogs um have more significant behavioral concerns requiring experienced handlers or rescue placement. Examples could be a bite history, severe dog aggression, human

441
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directed aggression, extensive behavior modification needs. Uh we've actually broken out our red classifications to uh four different red dog categories. So uh dogs who have issues that are deemed safe enough to be worked with in

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the shelter and have shown some improvement using behavior modification protocols in the shelter. Then we have uh another class of red dogs. Sorry. >> So, just uh for everybody here, there's funky formatting occurring. So, when I

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send this out, it'll be fixed and then some of this information will be on there. So, just as a FYI, uh the the other second category of red dogs are dogs who have uh fairly advanced issues and who would benefit most from an intensive training program

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at an external training facility. Such dogs may be directly suffering from the kennel environment. so that resolving their behavior issue will need to be away from the shelter. However, sending dogs into an external training facility like board and train will uh only be

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successful if they have a placement outcome upon completion of the training program. Having them return to the shelter will only expunge whatever gains they have made. So, the training facility must do what it can to place the dog at the conclusion of their program or we would find rescue or an

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alternate. you would not bring the dog back to the shelter. The third category are dogs who do not have an um do not have an adoption from the shelter as an available outcome for them. So these could be dogs that have a bite history. Um as you know as one

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mission of a municipal shelter is to ensure public safety. Uh dogs with bite histories may not be adoption candidates. Uh however, these dogs may be able to achieve successful outcome with intensive training at an external training facility which a rescue may

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able to uh provide and then that rescue can then take responsibility for making an informed adopter match for this dog. And then the last category would be dogs who are read without a you know without a descriptor means that they're dogs who

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are deemed dangerous or difficult to handle. For instance, a dog who requires two handlers in order to handle them safely are dangerous dogs. We cannot doubt a dog who needs two experienced handlers to be handled safely. Nor can we in good conscious put our staff at

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risk by having them handle them. As of June, uh as of this month, now uh 31 of the 41 dogs housed require handling beyond the green classification level. So just illustrating the

451
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increased increasing complexity of the shelter's canine population. It should also be noted that dog behavior is noted by the trainer and updated on a regular basis. Dogs are often promoted and/or demoted as behavior changes. Several

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dogs have been moved from red to yellow, yellow to blue, as well as demoted from blue to red in the case of bite incidents. >> Can I ask a question? >> Yes. >> Um actually a question and a request. Is this going to be posted like your usual reports on the website?

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>> I would like the color code. I know a lot of the residents we get questions on the color coding system and the definition of it >> and I know people didn't take pictures. Is is the color coding system going to be posted? >> Yeah, we'll we'll update like I don't know why the formatting is a little

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funky, but yeah, I will resend it. And I mean it's always available for oper requesting you know right away after this but then also um we can I can talk to administration make sure it's posted on the board of health um schedule if >> if I mean is there a problem with having

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it posted online the color coding system >> and and that that that would be my request. My question is who decides if a dog is going from one color to the next? >> That would be our trainer. >> Your trainer makes that decision. >> Yes. Do they have these classifications?

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>> She created them. >> She created them. Yes. Okay. Thank you. >> Um, so this is Grayson was recently moved from red to yellow. Uh, King Shady was recently moved from yellow to light

457
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yellow. Um, Oreo, uh, he was moved from, uh, he was demoted from blue to yellow. So, or Oreo is just very, very stressed in the, um, in the shelter. So, we're actively looking for a rescue placement for him. Uh, Rizzo was Rizzo's Christmas

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outfit. Rizzo was moved from yellow to light yellow. So, Rizzo um has some stranger issues, but she was recently promoted and has been going out with more volunteers. >> No, not >> I confuse dogs. That's That's my fault.

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Um, and then we have Thea, right? Uh, do you have one Thea? No, we have Thea next. So, Thea is an example of one of the dogs that was moved from blue to red. She had multiple bite incidents. Uh, she's also one of the dogs that we're talking about. Um, oh yeah, Reed.

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Uh, Thea was um is scheduled to go to a board and train facility and then move into rescue. Um, >> thank you. >> Perfect. All right. So, uh, I did want to provide everybody with an update for Merlin. Uh, Merlin was, um, found to

461
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tied out at 2451 Liberty Street on February 10th of 2025 and has now been in shelters care for approximately 490 days. Merlin received his first formal behavior assessment on February 18th, 2025, just 10 days after his arrival.

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During that evaluation, he exhibited significant leash biting behavior, lunging, and attempts to bite handlers. Based on these observations, he was assigned a red classification within the shelter's behavior management system. Throughout 25 and 2026, shelter staff

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and volunteers, trainers, and venary professionals have continued to evaluate and work with Merlin. Really, not volunteers. Anyway, uh staff members have successfully handled him on multiple occasions. Although his behavior and ability to

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focus varied significantly from session to session, in July of 2025, the staff observed that Merlin was easier to manage when he was allowed to carry a toy or an object during handling. In September of 2025, the shelter's trainer conducted additional observations to

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further evaluate his behavior. In November of 2025, Mvin was re-evaluate evaluated by our behavior professional. And during that assessment, Merlin became highly aroused, repeatedly jumped, engaged in intense leash biting behavior, and

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nearly bit the handler. For safety reasons, the evaluation was discontinued, and Murman was returned to his kennel. In April of 26, following consultation with the shelter, venarian, and the trainer, Murman was prescribed clonine to determine whether reducing

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his anxiety would improve his ability to regulate his behavior. So, it's a behavior medication. Uh, the trainer worked with Merlin on April 23rd, 2026. And although it was not yet clear whether the medication was providing meaningful benefit,

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um, the shelter staff continued to document Merlin's behavior during walks and handling sessions throughout May and June. Based on those observations, Merlin's cloned dosage was increased and and fuoxitine, which is Prozac, was added to his treatment plan. The shelter

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also arranged for Merlin to be evaluated by Bark Institute. Following that evaluation, Bark Institute recommended that Merlin participate in a six-w week board and train program focused on impulse control, emotional regulation, appropriate toy possession, handler

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engagement, and arousal management. >> So, I just want to just pause there really quick and just kind of talk about the um the veterary uh and the behavior meds that you know that were prescribed. So again, the shelter has a uh

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vetinarian of record who comes in on a weekly basis. And part of that, you know, there's no onesizefits-all or like template fill-in-thelank treatment plan for any of our animals. And a lot of it, there's inputs that are

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coming from volunteers. There's inputs that are coming from the staff, from the RP, our vendors, our um the veterinarian who all provide input into each animals treatment plan. Um and um and part of

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that and especially with this and dogs that are on medication and why it's so important just like humans that um you know when they get documented and it takes time for these medications to work. So, you know, it takes multiple weeks and it takes time to see if the

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medications they get put on is working. Is it the right dose? Figuring out the right dose. Um, does you do you need additional medications? And this is a good example of that happening here in collaboration with all of our partners

475
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to try to um come up with a better plan to manage medically um uh Merlin's issues um to make sure that now and you know he becomes you know is on the right track and is

476
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behaving uh or uh uh responding to the uh the medication. So this is something that you know with we don't it's not just him that's on medication we have a lot of other dogs that are on be behavior medication as well or other types of medication and you know and

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just like I said just like any of us it takes times takes time for medication to um to take effect and we're seeing the results of that and and it does and it seems like they were having success um to the point that he was able to move

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into a board and train because they were you because of the reduction in some of the behaviors that we were seeing previously before he was on medication. Do do you notice I'm not a vet and I'm I don't handle dogs so I I have no expertise whatsoever in this but do you

479
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notice when a dog is on say Prozac their behavior might be different while they're in the kennel and they may seem calm right but then once they're say brought out and you know put a leash on them does the aggressiveness come out in

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them then you know what I mean does it does it stay stable is what I'm saying. So, a dog may look >> No, I think with the environment changes, the arousal level changes. They're they're they're in a different environment. They might have um other stimuli outside of the kennel. The

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kennel is very has very low stimuli people, you know, walking by. So, there's different stimuli outside of that environment. >> Um so, I just continuing with the with the the report. Um, it's important to note that Merlin's red classification

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was not a sign because of aggression. Rather, Merlin demonstrates an unusual an unusually intense fixation on toys and objects, coupled with severe leash biting behavior when he does not have access to the preferred object. These behaviors create significant handling

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and safety challenges. Simplifying Mner's behavior concerns to a single issue does not accurately reflect the complexity of his case. Moment entered his board and trained program this morning. Uh we're hopeful that with this intensive intervention, it will provide him with the skills necessary to

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transition successfully into an adoptive home. Should he continue to make progress, our goal is to place uh Merlin with a rescue organization or an experienced adopter who is willing to work closely with Bark trainers and to follow a structured transition plan designed to support his long-term

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success. Like many long-term shelter residents with complex behavioral needs, Merlin's journey has required patience, professional evaluation, medical intervention, and ongoing training. We will remain committed to providing him every reasonable opportunity to achieve

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a safe and successful outcome. >> Yeah. And I just want to again add in another another point here is that, you know, we have worked with Bark and Bark has been a great partner with us and we hope to continue working with them. Um, but the we and we've sent a number of

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dogs there. The type of training that our dogs that we routinely send there cost the shelter $2,500 and it's 4 weeks. This is a $6,000 six week program that we are now sending this dog to. So I think that also needs to take into

488
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account especially when we're being questioned on um you know the treatment plan the evaluation you know you know we've gotten additional evaluation so there is there is a there's a there be

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there and you know and you know it's just you know there is a different level of training and expertise or type of training that is being required for this dog compared to the other dogs and we did send another red dog who is still at bark who we'd love to find a rescue to

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pull um cuz it does you know uh for Asia who is there right now uh kind of still she finished the program but is still there and we do not have an outlet for her and like Danielle said we do not want to bring dogs who've gone to the shelter and we've invested this donations and really our advocates and

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our communities money into these dogs we do not want to see them come back and regress um so we do need to find other outlets so hopefully with the um you know the increased you know interest in the shelter in our

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animals, we can find community partners who can um help us with more than just one animal and finding you know a placement. We have like Daniel said, we have um you know outside of our court cases and safe holds, we have over 30

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dogs that could use a home right now um and in a different environment and we want all of our dogs to find different environments. we should only be a short-term uh place of stay for these animals. And we again, you know, we talked about it before, we need the community's uh

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support and we need rescue support to help us find our animals, all of them, um a different environment to to move on to. >> Okay. U so I wanted to touch on our rescue programs. Um the shelter staff I've we've

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contacted more than 100 rescue organizations seeking assistance for behaviorally and medically challenged animals. The role of the rescue organizations in animal welfare is immeasurable. We value relationships with our rescue partners and depend on them to help save lives. Uh these rescue organizations have answered our plea for

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help this year. Uh rescue without borders uh has assisted us with Billy, Jim, Bob, Alejandro, and Dominic who was formerly a red dog with a bite history. Mammoth County SPCA helped with Max Carmel and Poncho. Uh we have two German

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Shepherds, Arie and Lemma, that went to Char's German Shepherd Rescue. Brookline Labrador Rescue helped with our yellow lab fil. Uh Out of the Woods Rescue helped with Annie Oakley. She was a senior pitbull with a large cancerous tumor requiring her her light

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amputation. Uh Taby's Place accepted a kitty cat named Bud who was special needs. she was blind and the Crossings Animal Society uh has recently assisted with Bella, a senior bully requiring hip surgery. Um

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so rescues help us with, you know, uh overcrowding. They help us to reduce overcrowding, assist behavior cases, assist medical cases, increase life outcomes, and reduce municipal costs. Uh the Hamilton Animal Shelter faces a number of

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challenges when reaching out to rescues to assist with our shelter's residents for many reasons. uh when contacted by animal uh by Hamilton Animal Shelter, many of the more than 100 organizations contacted respond that they cannot take on the liability risks associated with some of our more challenging dogs with

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behavior problems or bite histories. Uh they do not have fosters to take on dogs that are not dog friendly or they simply have no space. Locally, and Chris touched on this, but locally our townships canine residents are not considered to be at risk for euthanasia. So they are not prioritized by rescue

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organizations because other local shelters publicly post dogs as timestamps and in jeopardy of being euthanized. So many organizations that Hamilton shelter has reached out to for assistance are stepping in to help the atrisisk animals in these kill shelters.

503
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Um so uh obviously the animal shelter, we also have our animal control officers and so in addition to caring for the homeless animals, um the shelter and animal control division has responded to animal related public safety concerns throughout the township. Um, through May

504
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31st of 2026, animal control officers have responded to 1,57 calls for service involving stray animals, injured wildlife, nuisance complaints, cruelty concerns, blight investigations, and other public safety matters. Skip to that one. Okay. Um so currently

505
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our staffing our our current active staffing uh right now we have four animal uh care attendants, two part-time animal care attendants, three animal control officers and two um support staff management or clerical. So we have some currently we have some vacant

506
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positions in on our team. Um but that creates some some current challenges are the increased workload to our current staff due to the population levels of the shelter, overtime demands and staff fatigue and burnout concerns.

507
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Um I have a metric. So basically if we have 127 animals housed and the minimum care time per animal is 15 minutes that total labor hours required daily for minimum care is 31.75 hours. So this really the staffing

508
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required just to provide minimum basic care is four full-time attendants a day. Um that only represents basic husbandry needs and does not include veterary and medical treatments, animal evaluations, behavior modification, adoption

509
02:21:11.359 --> 02:21:28.520
counseling, public interactions, rescue coordination or volunteer assistance and interactions. Um so that kind of impacts and and it reduces enrichment opportunities. It reduces adoption counseling time and it and it increases operational stress.

510
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Uh our volunteer program I think Chris touched on this a volunteer we are currently accepting applications and interviewing candidates for the open part-time volunteer coordinator position. Uh during this time active volunteers continue to support the shelter with dog walking and uh and um

511
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cat socialization. So, we have an uh 171 active volunt current volunteers um and over 2,000 volunteer hours year to date. Uh they contribute with dog walking, cat, socialization, and adoption events. Chris touched on the volunteer the value

512
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of that in kind uh is $70,000 of inind donated time per year. So, our shelter where we stand right now, our shelter accomplishments for the year. So far, we've had 129 adoptions.

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That was as of yesterday. Uh, actually, that was of as of May 31st. Um, and those stats are posted on our website. There's a 67% dog return to owner rate, 96.4% 4% live release rate.

514
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3,450 uh uh dog licenses were processed. Over 2,000 volunteer hours, 13 rescue transfers. Uh 127 animals currently in the facility being cared for every day. 677 rabies um vaccinations were

515
02:22:52.720 --> 02:23:12.160
administered in our rabies clinics. And as I mentioned, uh over 1500 field responses by animal control officers. Uh so there's I wanted to point out a couple of success stories. So Reva Reva was recently adopted after being in the shelter for two years and four months.

516
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She was an undersocialized dog who had to be trapped by our animal control officers. She had several medical issues and received daily medications and even prescription diet uh dog food. She's now living a great life with her retired mom who gets her who understands her and

517
02:23:27.840 --> 02:23:44.479
gets her. Star. Star is a young cat who came into our care very very ill. Uh what what started out as a simple treatment morphed into a severe illness for Star. She was hospitalized for a long time to treat her anemia and liver failure at a

518
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large expense totaling over $15,000. She came back to the shelter with an esophageal tube to deliver her daily nutrition as she would not eat on her own. Our staff diligently cared for her, cleaning the feeding tube, administering daily medications, and after eight

519
02:24:01.439 --> 02:24:18.000
months, she was adopted and is now living a good, healthy life and and is happy. Uh we gave her this chance where many other shelters would may not have. Most recently, Bella, a senior American bully, was sent into foster uh on her

520
02:24:18.000 --> 02:24:34.080
long path to health and happiness. Despite an incredibly unstable and heartbreaking past, Bella's sweet and gentle nature never wavered. According to our animal control officer, Bella's original owner gave her away about 2 years ago, and since then, she has been passed from person to person before

521
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ultimately ending up in the care of a homeless individual. Bella requires hip surgery and through a network of caring individuals and members of the companion animal advocates, Bella is safely in foster care and is scheduled to have her surgery which will be fully funded by

522
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the Crossings Animal Society. Sometimes it truly does take a v village as Chris mentioned and we are grateful to everyone who helped Bella get to her next chapter. So moving forward, um our immediate needs for the shelter would be um additional staffing, which we're working

523
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on, uh increased rescue partnerships. Also, we're working on uh foster recruitment to expand our foster network, and strategies to reduce overcrowding. Our long-term goals will be to reduce the average length of stay, to increase return to owner rates, improve kennel

524
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capacity management, and expand our volunteer engagement. We'd also like to improve enrichment and behavior programming. We strive to improve on a continual basis and we would like to recognize and express our appreciation for the ongoing

525
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support of our amazing shelter staff, volunteers, rescue partners and partners, township administration, our board of health, and our council members. Thank you. Uh thank you Danielle and and thank you for to the board uh to the

526
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administration and to our uh to our community members for listening to um all the great work that the division of health does uh on an ongoing basis. Um my contact information is is here. Um, I always encourage anybody if they have, you know, questions, comments or

527
02:26:16.560 --> 02:26:32.319
concerns, um, as Danielle mentioned, the shelter is very busy and sometimes, um, we know that we need to improve on SP, uh, response times. Uh, and I believe that has been occurring lately. Um, but I know it's not perfect and, you know, I

528
02:26:32.319 --> 02:26:47.200
always have I have both my phones on me all the time. I am pretty much, you know, reachable 24 hours a day. send me an email. If there are issues that you are concerned with and that you don't think you're getting an answer to,

529
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please contact me. Um, we will get you an answer. I will get you an answer. Um, you know, and we we want to be responsive to the community and and and with that, I will um turn it over to council for any questions or comments they might have. >> So, before we open up, I'm sure we're

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going to have public uh questions and comments. Um, I want to open up you guys. I've already asked my questions as we went along, so I'll allow you guys the opportunity and girls the opportunity. >> I I I just have a quick question, I guess. You know, I it's it's interesting

531
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and thank you for providing us with a wealth of information tonight. And it's amazing how many advocacy groups are out there that'll take on a surgery, you know, um try to bring back that

532
02:27:36.800 --> 02:27:53.600
kitten you were saying was it $15,000. How many people, you know, and it'd be nice and I'm sure it's on our website, but it that that the information gets out there to people to say, you know, there's there's other resources out there, although you might not have the

533
02:27:53.600 --> 02:28:09.520
resources yourself. right to provide the care because of the extreme expense. And I know this is nothing anybody in this room wants to hear, but how many people probably just take the dog to the vet or cat to the vet and find out it's going to cost5 or

534
02:28:09.520 --> 02:28:26.000
$6,000 depending on the age of the animal might just say, you know, I don't want to see the animal suffer anymore. Put the animal down. Uh I'm sure that happens on more occasions than not because of that expense. I mean you know

535
02:28:26.000 --> 02:28:41.280
you know we have insurance to take care of us you know um animals don't have that opportunity you know and >> yeah veterary care I mean even you know we get as a as a shelter we get a little bit of a discount you know the general members of the public don't um and

536
02:28:41.280 --> 02:28:59.200
veterary care is very very expensive and I think any of us who are pet owners ourselves um know that and and and experience that and and it's something that I know the sha the staff at the shelter feel those calls on a daily basis of residents who um maybe cannot afford

537
02:28:59.200 --> 02:29:14.319
care. I mean, sometimes it's it's compassionate youth in Asia. It's like their dog, you know, their dog or cat might be very ill or very old and, you know, and they don't want to see it suffer anymore, but they can't afford just a couple hundred dollars to to, you know, compassionately put down their

538
02:29:14.319 --> 02:29:30.960
animal. We get those calls all the time and there's not a lot of great resources out there for that to happen. You know, we do refer them. there's there's a few lowerc cost um you know clinics and u or urgent cares that are in the community um that we refer them to uh you know and

539
02:29:30.960 --> 02:29:46.240
you know we try to point them in the right direction and I think you know another thing that we probably see and you know there's there's absolutely zero proof to this but you know people who either can't afford to put their animals down or don't want to see their stuff or

540
02:29:46.240 --> 02:30:01.280
can't afford the care that's probably why we have a lot of stray animals in our township who require a higher level of care because there's nowhere else for them to go except maybe out the front door or

541
02:30:01.280 --> 02:30:18.560
they're found quote unquote as a stray. And and and our animal patrol officers do do their best to try to feel those calls to make sure that if it is the animal um you know the the individual's animal that they're not you know surrendering it or you know bringing it to us as a stray. You know, I would love

542
02:30:18.560 --> 02:30:36.479
for us to be at a point where we can take public surreners. Um, but we can't do that if we don't have the space. You know, we, you know, um, Danielle touched on our safekeep program, which is an amazing program that we're able to offer our residents if they encounter um, an

543
02:30:36.479 --> 02:30:51.439
emergency situation, if they have a houseire um, you know, which which happened. And we had a dog recently, a couple months ago, um the the one guinea pig, you know, we still have because the the safekeep um did not end up uh coming

544
02:30:51.439 --> 02:31:07.920
and reclaiming the uh the animal was due to a houseire. And that's why, you know, we had the the initial guinea pig there as a as a safekeep. And that and that happens if somebody ends up in the hospital. um if they are evicted from their home and they just need to find somewhere else to go because a lot of

545
02:31:07.920 --> 02:31:24.479
also homeless shelters do not take animals. So, you know, it's it's something that we're grateful that we're able to to offer that service to our residents, but there's only so much space that we have. And when we have um and and we're just constantly full and

546
02:31:24.479 --> 02:31:40.080
we've been full for years, you know, we can't offer that, you know, to our residents to end up so that they can surrender their dogs if they have nowhere else to go because we have no space for them. Um so that's why it's again, you know, I'm going to sound like a broken record, but we need the our

547
02:31:40.080 --> 02:31:58.319
community advocates to help us, you know, with this. We'll have a a moment for um an opportunity for questions from the audience. As soon as we're done up here, then we open it up and you can go first. Okay. >> Anybody else? >> Thank you. Um I know we're talking a lot

548
02:31:58.319 --> 02:32:14.000
about the shelter and I do have some questions, but I just want to go back a little bit to um dog licenses. Y >> we've been I think the last maybe two board of health meetings we brought up doing longer term licensing and maybe coordinating that with the rabies clinics where it could be a three-year rabies clinic and coordinate that with a

549
02:32:14.000 --> 02:32:29.040
three-year license. I was just curious where we are with that. >> Um three-year license it takes an ordinance change. Uh and to date um I haven't I mean that's up to that's at council's discretion if they want to change that. I I think at the last meeting if I

550
02:32:29.040 --> 02:32:44.960
wasn't you guys had said you were going to work on a plan on how to make that work. >> Okay. I mean we can I can take that back to to the administration and we can work on that. But >> okay. Um and then just going back to the the cost of caring for all these animals

551
02:32:44.960 --> 02:32:59.920
and dedication. I applaud your staff. I applaud you for all the care these animals take. Uh you know the the care they get from your staff. Um, so I just wanted to clarify too though when animals come to the shelter

552
02:32:59.920 --> 02:33:15.200
it's routine or mandatory to stay and neuter and I'm just curious like what kind of cost are we incurring? >> How much of medical is that? Um, and I was wondering are people for is people for animals still involved with that? >> Yes, that's use for spay and neuter people for animals. There's a couple of

553
02:33:15.200 --> 02:33:31.120
animals that may be seniors that you would not go there and would go somewhere else or other surgeries that they need a dental procedure. Say, we wouldn't put an animal under anesthesia twice. So that that animal would be spayed or neutered at maybe Princeton or

554
02:33:31.120 --> 02:33:47.760
Mansfield and get that dental procedure while they're under anesthesia. But that primarily spay and neuters are done at people for animals. >> So, but of the I don't remember what the number was and you made this really tiny. of all the animals we bring in like how what percent are we having to spay and neuter in addition to the other

555
02:33:47.760 --> 02:34:03.359
care? >> All of them are spayed and neutered. >> I mean so you mean how many come in already? >> You have a thousand animals come in in a year. Let's just say dogs and cats% need to be spayed or neutered. >> I if I had to guess 95% of them that

556
02:34:03.359 --> 02:34:20.399
come in that are not fixed. So, >> yeah, plus an additional >> I mean, I don't have that number, but that's that by the guess it's very rare that we get an animal in that's already altered. >> Yeah. And we can provide a a more concrete I mean um or more concrete numbers on the spay neuter and just um

557
02:34:20.399 --> 02:34:36.080
the cost that we had did not include spayneuter. That did not include. So, that would be >> typically we're closing in on an annual basis about $30,000 uh for spayneuter. So that is also an additional cost that that we incur as well.

558
02:34:36.080 --> 02:34:52.000
>> And so that would come from the operating budget. >> That comes from operating. Yes. >> Comes from operating. Okay. Um and again I thank you for clarifying the colors and and the assessments. Um I don't know if you guys can answer this, but like I know I've heard people saying like we shouldn't call a behaviorist or they're

559
02:34:52.000 --> 02:35:08.160
an assessor or a trainer. um can you kind of clarify like what qualifications someone needs or would have to make these assessments versus your average person who's making um their own perceptions of an animal? That is very

560
02:35:08.160 --> 02:35:23.840
good question. It's kind of a loaded question actually. So it you know it depends on the trainer. So the trainers go to different animal behavior college uh Karen Prior. So Laura, who we currently use, uh she's a certified

561
02:35:23.840 --> 02:35:39.760
professional dog trainer knowledge assessed. So she uh certified and that she's taken a test requiring her the certification. Um but there are different trainers. Not every trainer is a C certified professional dog trainer. Um

562
02:35:39.760 --> 02:35:55.359
yeah, it's it's there there's all different levels and and a trainer. So there's also trainers that are looking to a private person. They're looking to correct behaviors of an animal in a home. There's not a lot of in my

563
02:35:55.359 --> 02:36:10.640
experience and I know a lot of trainers that um there's not a terrible amount of trainers that are experienced in assessing shelter dogs. So when shelter dogs are being assessed for safety and rehoming um not necessarily like >> how do I fix my dog or how do I house

564
02:36:10.640 --> 02:36:27.040
train him or how you know I mean not not typical inh home behaviors but we're evaluating them for safety and rehoming that help answer any things >> I I think so and that's also in coordination with the vet who would be a doctor >> correct then all the animals are examined by the vetinarian too

565
02:36:27.040 --> 02:36:44.399
>> okay I just want to clarify that um I think that's all I I mean um Again, I'm just really amazed by the amount of medical care that our our animals are getting and the attention. And I know you guys are strapped right now staff-wise, so I hope we're getting all that soon. Um, I know there's a lot of

566
02:36:44.399 --> 02:37:00.880
volunteers who are awaiting training, but I know we got to get that volunteer coordinator in there as well. Um, so I just, you know, I know that there's been a lot of attention on the shelter and I want you to know that, you know, um, you're doing a lot of good and I want to applaud for that.

567
02:37:00.880 --> 02:37:16.479
We thank you. >> No. What's wrong? >> At this time, what we're going to do is we're going to open up to public comment. Uh in the meantime, >> we're going to move the podium, right? >> Uh we're Yeah. Stand by. We're going to uh we're going to move the podium. I'm going to ask um Chris and Danielle to

568
02:37:16.479 --> 02:37:32.080
come up here. This way there's a separation between whoever's asking questions and answering. You're not sharing a microphone. Um Kathy, if you'd like to come up too, we'll make room. you guys and girls will come up here and uh we'll move the podium and um for

569
02:37:32.080 --> 02:37:47.840
everybody in the audience uh we're going to go around the room, right? We already have our first speaker uh picked out. Uh you get four minutes uh to speak. Uh after that, we're going to go we're going to go through the room and then uh you'll get if if everybody's

570
02:37:47.840 --> 02:38:06.960
done talking, you'll have a second bite at the apple for two minutes. Any any questions on the procedure before we start? Um, yeah. >> I'll give up my chair. I'll stand. I don't care.

571
02:38:06.960 --> 02:38:32.720
>> I can get one of the other ones. >> Sure. Somebody can sit in these seat. >> Yeah. I pulled the next one right there. Yep. >> So, we'll share microphones. This way, everybody can hear us. And this is not it's not going to turn into a debate.

572
02:38:32.720 --> 02:38:58.520
You're allowed to ask questions and public comment. And uh we will provide the answers. >> Ready? >> Yeah. >> Yep. What do you need? It's been >> a long meeting. >> You're allowed to use it.

573
02:39:03.680 --> 02:39:19.520
>> Okay, let's get this show on the road. >> Where is our first speaker? >> Who's got the list? >> Um, >> oh, just please state your name and uh town you come from uh for the record, please. >> Timothy Hosteller, uh, Hamilton Township. >> Thank you, sir.

574
02:39:19.520 --> 02:39:37.920
>> I'm on Berkelo Street. Um, I would just like to ask how long have you guys been at capacity exactly? >> Um, that's a good question. I don't have the exact date, but it's been years. And you guys never thought about GoFundMes, asking volunteers for help on

575
02:39:37.920 --> 02:39:55.280
building extensions to the building, adding kennels possibly in the back. I know there's a lot of forested area behind you. You guys could ask for zoning rights from the council to maybe knock down a few trees just to build on an extension, add kennels. >> Yes. Um I think all of us would love a

576
02:39:55.280 --> 02:40:11.200
bigger um >> I myself as one person I have backgrounds in construction, fencing, concrete, landscaping. >> There's there's background conversations. That's not fair to our speaker. I really want to hear what everybody has to say. So everybody could

577
02:40:11.200 --> 02:40:27.520
just please keep it down. Let's be fair and respectful to everybody. Sir, please continue. >> But at that being said, I'm only one person. I can't do everything myself. >> So, I'm I'm willing to help. I'm currently in between jobs. If you guys need help, I'll come work part-time. I have no problem with that.

578
02:40:27.520 --> 02:40:44.399
>> Anything to help the animals. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh like, you know, like we uh any um you know, anybody interested in a part-time job, they can apply online. But as far as you know expanding it, I it's something that I would love to see an expanded shelter. Um I don't the the

579
02:40:44.399 --> 02:41:00.960
only thing it's fine. I would just kind of caution um and you can see this with other area shelters is if you build it they will come. So the bigger the shelter we have it will fill up immediately. So there's I think structural things um beyond that and and

580
02:41:00.960 --> 02:41:16.800
I'm not trying to dismiss it cuz like again like I 100% I think all of us would love we there was a big addition in 2014 that was put onto the shelter you know there our shel our original part of the shelter was oh Danielle can you it was like what from the '60s

581
02:41:16.800 --> 02:41:32.160
>> 1970s >> 1970s our original the original old shelter part um you know could use updating but again that you know it takes planning with the the township, you know, capital improvements money. Um, you know, could it but so there's a

582
02:41:32.160 --> 02:41:47.040
lot of, you know, different steps that that have to be taken, >> but I I acknowledge it. It's something that is totally on my wish list. Um, but I think for us to get there is again, you know, and again, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but it we

583
02:41:47.040 --> 02:42:03.520
have to get more animals out on a regular basis with our community partners into different environments to like bring down the the shelter population cuz if we have a 100 runs, chances are we would have 100 dogs the next day in the shelter. So, without

584
02:42:03.520 --> 02:42:18.479
those 100 runs, where else do those dogs go? It's the catch 22. >> Yeah. And then um sorry I had something and I lost it. Uh that that'd be all for Thank you. >> Thank you.

585
02:42:18.479 --> 02:42:34.240
>> Who's next? Raise your hand, please. Should be just quicker. >> Hello. My name is Stacy Lidle. >> Um >> hi Stacy. >> Hi. Nice to meet you all. Thank you so much. >> Just state the town you're from for the record.

586
02:42:34.240 --> 02:42:50.000
>> Uh Hamilton, New Jersey. >> Thank you. I would like to say that everybody's passion. I've seen the videos. I've been following it. Um, it goes both ways. I have to speak up for the shelter though because I'm 63 years

587
02:42:50.000 --> 02:43:05.840
old, but I've worked in kennels. I've showed horses, dogs, trained horses, dogs my whole life. Um, people don't understand how much it takes to run a shelter, especially a no kill shelter. No shelter

588
02:43:05.840 --> 02:43:22.880
wants to have a dog come back to them or have a dog euthanized. So, they do everything they possibly can to take care of the dog's needs. Like in your amazing presentation,

589
02:43:22.880 --> 02:43:37.520
everything that you guys touched on were in all my notes. There's if you if the shelter was open 9 to5 that's 11 minutes approximately 11 minutes per dog it's impossible

590
02:43:37.520 --> 02:43:54.479
with the staff every shelter in America is feeling the pinch of staff time money especially and I know because I work with the shelter um in fact the library is doing a donation right now a collection for

591
02:43:54.479 --> 02:44:10.319
the shelter these These guys work nonstop. They work so hard. Anthony, Marian, Donna, everybody in the shelter, their heart is their animals. And I want everybody to take that into

592
02:44:10.319 --> 02:44:25.040
consideration because this is not a us against them. This should be a we. And we need to help the shelter, not fight against it.

593
02:44:25.040 --> 02:44:42.080
And that's all I want to say. I'm a very nervous speaker. Um, and before I leave, Danell, she is a oneperson show dog. Like, she works endlessly and

594
02:44:42.080 --> 02:44:57.760
tirelessly. And I I think you guys have to give them a little bit of credit. Um, they're doing the best that they can with what they have. And let's try to work together with them. Thank you.

595
02:44:57.760 --> 02:45:18.880
>> Thank you. Who's next? Anybody come up? >> Okay. Wait. I have >> Thank you. >> Some of it for my speech, some of it's for Justine's. So, good evening. My name is Juliana Carella. I want to start by

596
02:45:18.880 --> 02:45:34.720
acknowledging that this is very uncomfortable for me. I think we've all seen my videos at this point and I know this video this situation has gotten a lot of public attention, but the public attention is not the issue. The issue is what the public saw, what residents have been asking and whether this township is willing to take those concerns seriously

597
02:45:34.720 --> 02:45:49.680
enough to open a formal independent review. I also want to state clearly on the record that I've never encouraged hateful comments, threats, death threats, or violence of any kind. I do not approve it, and I went out of my way as much as I could to like disparage that. Um, but I do approve of people

598
02:45:49.680 --> 02:46:04.960
asking questions and people are asking questions because there are serious concerns about shelter management, behavior evaluations, training decisions, rescue outreach, volunteer access, and whether animals are being clear, documented, passed forward. Tonight, I'm asking the board of health

599
02:46:04.960 --> 02:46:21.600
and the township to open a formal thirdparty investigation or independent review of the animal shelter. Not an internal review where the same people audit themselves, not vague verbal updates. No more will look into it. I want a real documented review with findings, records, timelines, and recommendations. This is not extreme and

600
02:46:21.600 --> 02:46:37.920
it is not unprecedented. Hamilton has been here before. In 2018, the shelter was investigated after serious concerns were raised. Our current mayor, Jeff Martin, who was on council at the time, launched an investigation into the shelter's operations. So, asking for an investigation now is not unreasonable. It is exactly the kind of oversight this

601
02:46:37.920 --> 02:46:53.520
town has already recognized may be necessary when serious shelter concerns are raised. I believe good things have happened since then. I want to be very clear about that. But I also believe that there are still serious issues and the responsible thing to do is review them honestly. Merlin is the example of what brought many of these concerns to

602
02:46:53.520 --> 02:47:08.640
the surface. But this is not only about Merlin. Now that Merlin has been taken to a training facility, that raises additional questions. Who made the decision to send Merlin there? And what was the process for making that decision? Was it recommended by shelter management, the department, the township, a trainer, veterinarian, or

603
02:47:08.640 --> 02:47:25.200
because of public pressure? Was there a contract, purchase order, approval, or an agreement connected to that placement? If the facility the township has worked with before, and if this facility currently has another shelter dog in its care, then why was that facility not connect contacted earlier for Merlin and other red dogs? Why did I

604
02:47:25.200 --> 02:47:42.160
have to contact them? Why were they not contacted sooner for evaluations, training, or behavior support? Who decided who would evaluate MV Merlin previously? And how were those evaluators selected? what scheduling conflict supposedly prevented evaluations from happening sooner because Merlin was always available. And

605
02:47:42.160 --> 02:47:57.120
when I personally reached out to the facility, they were able to get there within days. So the question is not just whether an evaluation happened now. The question is why it took this level of public pressure for it to happen. And if there are other red dogs and longstay dogs in the shelter, which we know they are, they deserve that same urgency

606
02:47:57.120 --> 02:48:12.240
before the public has to find out dog by dog. This review should include whether current policies are helping dogs move forward or keeping them stuck. It should also review the current training and behavior support provided. If dogs are staying red for long periods of time, if volunteers cannot safely or confidently

607
02:48:12.240 --> 02:48:29.279
handle them, if behavior plans are not clear, and if outside help is only brought in after public pressure, then we need to ask whether the current training support is qualified, effective, and appropriate for these dogs. This is not a personal attack. This is an animal welfare question. Every red dog should have a recorded evaluation. Every red dog should have a

608
02:48:29.279 --> 02:48:44.399
written behav behavior modification plan. Every long stay dog should have a written enrichment and decompression plan. Every dog should have documented reassessments and documented rescue outreach. And every evaluation should include clear qualifications, clear findings, and clear next steps. I have

609
02:48:44.399 --> 02:49:00.960
raised funds and I have resources. I am willing to help contribute to qualified evaluations, trainers, behavioral professionals, and whatever is needed to get these dogs properly assessed and supported. But the township has to allow that. So, I'm here asking directly, will the township allow qualified outside behavioral professionals to evaluate all

610
02:49:00.960 --> 02:49:16.160
of the dogs? Will the findings be considered? Will written behavior modification plans be created? And will management be held accountable for this disaster of a situation? I am not asking for perfection. I am asking for transparency, accountability, qualified review, and a real plan. Shelter reform

611
02:49:16.160 --> 02:49:45.200
cannot be only be something we talk about after a crisis. It has to be something we continue to do before another dog becomes the next public emergency. Thank you. All right. George Cutterus, 28 Fenway, Hamilton,

612
02:49:45.200 --> 02:50:00.160
New Jersey. I want to start today by one commending everyone here both up at the podium as well as behind me. We're all here for the same purpose, right? We want a better outcome for all of the

613
02:50:00.160 --> 02:50:18.720
shelter dogs, pets, excuse me. It's been echoed throughout the night that more help is needed and we don't have to reinvent the wheel here. So Chris did a great presentation

614
02:50:18.720 --> 02:50:36.000
at Nauseium, talked about how we need more help. We need more help. We need more help. Even just to get volunteers is a struggle to post to quote yourself, council president, just to post the bios for these animals takes time and effort.

615
02:50:36.000 --> 02:50:51.680
So what we truly need and it's an action that we can do immediately is form an advisory committee. A group of residents, volunteers who can assist the health department,

616
02:50:51.680 --> 02:51:08.240
assist the health department, assist them with the things that are beyond their scope, right? the social media posts, fundraising, advoca, advocating for them, advertising at all of our local events that we do. These are things that we have other advisory

617
02:51:08.240 --> 02:51:23.680
committees already that do many of these similar processes. We can do that with this and we can greatly improve today with the shelter. So, what I pass to all of you because

618
02:51:23.680 --> 02:51:38.800
let's face it, we don't need to reinvent it. This is a template of a ordinance that can happen to establish the advisory committee. And before you think, who's George Cuteratus to come up

619
02:51:38.800 --> 02:51:55.279
with it? I didn't. Bloomfield Township did. They have an advisory committee. They actively use it. And there are other towns as well that also run it this way. And it is effective and it is efficient. So my strong recommendation

620
02:51:55.279 --> 02:52:22.160
is that you take this into consideration and please establish an advisory committee. Thank you. >> Who wants to go next? >> Oh, sorry. I'm going next. >> Hello, my name is Justine. Oh, am I okay? Oh, hello. My name is Justine. Thank you, town council. Thank you to

621
02:52:22.160 --> 02:52:38.560
our presenters and thank you to our staff at the animal shelter who takes care of all the animals. There are a few things that I wanted to to touch upon that you know some of the talks that topics have already come up. One of the items that Juliana has already given you

622
02:52:38.560 --> 02:52:57.920
was the standard of the association of shelter veterans guideline for standards of care in animal and shelters. This is a benchmark that the profession uses nationwide. In 2022, the addition was built on the

623
02:52:57.920 --> 02:53:13.040
five freedoms, including freedom from thirst, discomfort, pain, fear, and distress. The guidelines rank each practice as ideal, should, must, or unacceptable. A must is not a suggestion. The ASV

624
02:53:13.040 --> 02:53:29.120
defines it as necessary for humane care. When I've been visiting the shelter, I've been noticing that a lot of the dogs are locked in the outside section of the kennel for periods of time. When this happens, they don't have access to

625
02:53:29.120 --> 02:53:46.479
fresh water. So, they're being restricted from this. And this is one of the, you know, it's a breach of one of the most basic must standards in the entire document. And it puts the animals at real risk, especially with the heat that we've been experiencing.

626
02:53:46.479 --> 02:54:03.439
Another violation is a dry place to rest. Every animal should have a soft surface lifted off the floor. Bare concrete, especially after being hosed down, is not the answer. An elevated cot is an inexpensive fix. Does every animal

627
02:54:03.439 --> 02:54:22.479
have one? Do they have access to it 247? The fourth is the freedom to decompress. Enclosure should be large enough so that animals can move and stretch freely. This is not the case for dogs in cages. Dogs should be given the opportunity to

628
02:54:22.479 --> 02:54:37.279
retreat and hide when they need to. When we close off the inside, we take that option away. The animals can't step back from the noise and the heat, and they're simply stuck. So my challenge is that the ASV published a checklist of

629
02:54:37.279 --> 02:54:53.840
key statements, a self assessment tool built to measure a shelter against the standard and prioritize what needs to change. I'm asking the town to go through it honestly line by line as a public self-evaluation. Identify every place we fall short.

630
02:54:53.840 --> 02:55:09.200
Publish publish those gaps for residents and commit to a corrective timeline for each. The tool is free and authorative. I printed you out a copy. There's no reason not to use it. I also have two more requests. First,

631
02:55:09.200 --> 02:55:26.240
residents deserve written answers. Too often we're left with a verbal reply or an unclear follow-up that had that no one can later be held to. I asked the town to commit to written responses to public questions about the shelter. I've also listed all of the questions that we

632
02:55:26.240 --> 02:55:49.600
have and gave that to you guys. The second um is the town to establish an animal shelter advisory committee. So the person before me just spoke about that. That's a great idea. I want to talk about the shelter operation. Right now there appears to be

633
02:55:49.600 --> 02:56:06.080
a lack of clear ownership over basic responsibilities. who is responsible for putting the dogs on the website and who is responsible for updating those photos. All the photos in the presentation, I've never even seen those before. They're not on the website. They're not on the social media. Why are

634
02:56:06.080 --> 02:56:23.040
they not being used more frequently? Um, two dogs were added to the website today. One was found stray on 523. One was a found stray on 531, added to the website today. found stray on 429. No

635
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updates since then and today all the cats have photos. So that hasn't been the case for the past couple of couple of weeks. Everyone run out of town. >> Yeah, you can come back after you come back up for two minutes. >> Um C, I just want to respond to one of

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the points uh that were brought up. Um so for those residents who might not have uh have been visited our shelter um yes there is a there's an inside and there there's an out and there's an external part of the shelter when staff

637
02:56:54.080 --> 02:57:09.920
has to clean. We clean one side then the other. So there is times when the shel the dogs are moved or from one side to the other for the cleaning period. So

638
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there's never a time an extended period of time outside of those cleaning uh uh periods where the dogs are restricted from access to water. And I want to make that abundantly clear because that is a

639
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legal issue and we are not withholding that. But at the same time, you know, the staff can't clean. If the dog can come in and out and the gates open, they they can't clean. So, it's part of our normal cleaning procedures to do um one

640
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side and then they clean the other and then you know if they have to go in and do temporary scooping cleaning because they kind of it's an ongoing process. There's a deep clean that happens once a day and then they uh for both sides and then they they go from there. So, I just wanted to just clarify that really quick. So in extreme heat, is it

641
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possible to put a water bowl outside so that you know we all >> I think it's I mean I think that's I mean I I'll leave that up to Danielle and staff but yes I mean I think that's something that we can move. >> Should be an easy fix. If it's super hot outside there's no reason we can't put a ball. >> I'm sorry. Are you saying that they

642
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don't >> miss we can't talk from the audience because we can't pick you up on a microphone. So you'll have your opportunity to come up um and then you can speak on the microphone. >> Thank you. No, fine. >> Were you done answering that?

643
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>> Yeah, I know the one thing I mean and like Danielle just said on on the sides, I mean, and and I'll reiterate this because I'm sorry if I was if I um >> caused any uh concernation there. the dogs always have access to water, but I think you know and it's in on the inside

644
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because they it gets blocked there. But uh like in the on the they it gets blocked to the fence so it doesn't get spilled over. Um but yes, we can on hot days if they are you know we can move the water bottle to the outside for sure. >> Thank you. Somebody over here did have a

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hand up and then I would like to come back to the side. Come on up. just please uh just state your name and what what town you're from. Uh >> I'm Diane Beashore. I live in Hamilton. >> And um as you can see from the shirt, I am launching a business called Zooies to

646
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Go. It is a mobile dog gym and I would love to help. Okay, in case you're wondering what a mobile dog gym is, I got a cargo van with two slat milk um treadmills inside. Those are treadmills that are dog

647
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powered. There's no motor to them, so the dogs get to run at their own pace. Okay. The van is temperature controlled, so we're good in the heat. We're good in the cold. All right. >> Are you on social media where we could share your information? And can you also give your contact information?

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>> I will be on social media. I am launching Monday. >> Do you have a do you have a website that you could give everything to the clerk? You can do it in private, not on my >> I will absolutely give you that. >> Thank you. But yeah, I'm going to be on social media. >> I We look forward to that.

649
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>> I love social media. >> A handful of flyers for you. >> My favorite time it does. Social media. >> Thank you. Thank you for being here. >> Thank you. So I just need >> So we have a recording system here. So if you're not talking into the microphone, it's very rare that we can

650
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pick you up. >> That's fine. My name I have a couple questions. Uh my name is Kimberly Walker uh from Hamilton. >> Thank you. >> Um so the first one that you couldn't hear me on. Um, were you saying that

651
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they didn't already? Because you you did say that you could move the water. Those were your words. You could move the water. It >> So, so can uh can you spec specify the

652
03:01:15.359 --> 03:01:31.279
question you're asking? So you said because she brought up that she had noticed they were outside and they didn't have water. So you said that that

653
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you could move the water outside with them, which we all took to mean that they didn't have water. >> So >> So they have access to water, but during the time it's on the inside. that's

654
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where it's kept. So, we can definitely change it and move it to the outside as well. But it's >> right, which tells us that they were outside in the heat and today was the start of everything being a little bit cooler, but the past few weeks have been

655
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in the '9s. It has been quite hot. My pool has been in the 80s. That's hot. That's very hot. And they did not have water. These dogs didn't have water. >> The dogs have water. Are you kidding?

656
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>> The dogs have water. They're only outside for a short time while cleaning. >> Water. They cannot have water outside. >> It is so hot outside. And you're not letting them have water outside? Are you kidding me? And you're going to try to justify it?

657
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You're running the shelter and you're sitting here trying to justify them not having water. Is that really what's happening here? >> No. >> No. >> Am I the only one that just

658
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>> So, we're not going crazy. >> You have to direct your questions, not towards the audience. And the audience have we got to keep Right. >> I apologize. That's okay. But I I do feel like I'm I'm kind of losing my mind because did she or did she not just try to justify them not having water?

659
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>> It sounds like the only time they don't have water is when the kennel is being cleaned, >> which they are outside in the heat >> when they don't have water. >> How long is that happening? >> And and there are >> covered or not? Would you leave your child in the car? >> It's not a car. The car is an enclosure.

660
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So >> would you leave your child outside? We're not going to turn this into a debate. >> I don't think we're trying to move on or justify any. Let me just say no, I'll say, okay, that I think all they were

661
03:03:43.200 --> 03:03:59.439
trying to was this is the process that's going on. So, look, pointing out that there's something that could be wrong with the process. >> You've already heard they're more than willing to say we'll adjust process if necessary. So, I don't know the time

662
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period it takes for somebody to clean the inside while the dog is outside and may not have immediate access to water. So, if that's something I think we should look at and we'll we'll commit to looking at that. Okay. I would like it

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on the record that we should not have to tell adults that are running an animal shelter that dogs need to have access to water in 90° heat when they are outside. I don't think that should have to be stated

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>> and and put into effect. I just don't. >> I I agree with you and I would like to get to your next questions before you run out of time. >> Thank you. My other question is when was the job originally posted for the part-time animal care attendant? It's ongoing. We accept part-time animal

665
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attendant applications on an ongoing basis. So, I don't know when the the last time and you can look on >> February 20th of this year. >> Okay. So, then >> how many have you hired for that position since February 20th of this year? >> Um,

666
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two. >> Only two. Well, I don't I again, we bring on as needed. Um and to to meet the you know, I have a budget. >> I But you've only hired >> You deserve the respect when people

667
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Okay. I didn't know if I did something wrong. No, you're perfect. >> I appreciate that. >> So, you've only hired two part-time care attendants, but you have continuously stated that you are severely needing help. So, why have you only hired two?

668
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But I thought you needed help. I think the hiring process again is when there's a vacancy because they have budgeted positions that they have and so there's just sometimes a lot of turnover. Not always, but sometimes a lot of turnover,

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particularly in the part-time positions or if we have a full-time animal attendant leave, we love to move the part-time that's willing to do that into a full-time position because they're already familiar. they're already trained and then so it seems like we're

670
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almost forever having to replace a vacancy in the part-time attendant particularly. >> Have either of those two left and or have they moved into full-time positions? >> We're I I think we're currently in the process of considering a movement

671
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because we just had a recent vacancy but not for the uh animal attendance right for the acco position. So, so both of those part-time care attendants are still part-time care attendants is what I'm gathering.

672
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>> I don't know the stats on the hiring. So, I think in order to be exactly accurate, we'd have to get back to you on that. >> Who's been hired and who's currently still there? >> So, I I guess like let me back like so what's the the spec because again

673
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there's a lot of movements with staff. So, like what is the specific question and timeline that you're asking for? Like are you that just so I can clarify that and answer it correctly? >> You said you hired two part-time care attendants.

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>> Correct. >> Are they still with you? >> We'll finish up after this question. >> Yeah, they are. >> Well, sorry. I have two part-time current attendants and I have hired an additional one and one that that has

675
03:07:28.720 --> 03:07:45.439
started. So, yes. So, we have So, we have So, you will have three eventually. Right now, I have two and I'm waiting to onboard the third. So, I we recently hired a part-time animal attendant and we also offered a job to another part-time animal attendant who has not started. So, we will have three

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hopefully soon. >> So, we're out of time. you can come back up for an additional two minutes as soon as everybody else gets >> one last just a statement. I don't have a question. Good. >> I think this is exactly why nobody has any faith in specifically the shelter

677
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because I asked one just a plain as day question and I just got like three different answers and it was just like a first grade level question. How many did you hire? >> But thank you. >> We'll bring it we'll bring it back up.

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I see somebody I want to call on. It looks like she has something prepared to say. >> Can can can you help her please? Lower the microphone. >> Can you tell me your name, please? >> Good evening. My name is Genesis and I am 8 years old. I love dogs very much.

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At my house, I >> open. >> At my house, I help take care of our big pimples and they are my best friends cuz they listen to me and they are safe and sweet. I want to know why you leave these dogs in their cages for a whole

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year. They need to come out and play, but you are giving them bad labels. Are you even an animal lover? You shouldn't have your job if you're not an animal lover. By keeping them locked up in concrete boxes forever, you're torturing these dogs. Please stop locking them up

681
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out of fear. Listen to the professionals and let them go to good homes. Thank you. >> Wait, you can't leave yet. Come on back up now. Now we have questions. We got to lower the microphone, please.

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How old are you? >> Eight years old. >> And what grade are you in? >> Second grade. >> Second grade. What school do you go to? >> Brooklyn Elementary School. >> Well, we appreciate you being here and thank you for having your opinion. That the most important question. What are your dogs names?

683
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>> So, I have Fiona, Carbon, and Roxy. And we have um mini ones. We have Lilo, Russia, and Peanut. >> I That's That's a lot.

684
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>> You really like those, huh? >> Yeah. >> And I have a guinea pig. I have a bunny. I have two bearded dragons, two cats. >> So So Genesis, do you offer tours of of

685
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all the dogs and animals? >> They will bite you. >> Thank you for being here. Enjoy your science. >> Just state your name please for the record. >> Yes. Amanda Sippolone. I am from

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Levittown, Pennsylvania. Good evening, council members. My name is Amanda Cipolon and I drove here from Levittown, Pennsylvania. I am here because the cascading administrative failures inside the Hamilton Township Shelter have turned this facility into a

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national disgrace, drawing scrutiny from coast to coast. While I do not hold a corporate certificate, I possess over 20 years of actual hands-on skills, successfully managing a structured multi-dog pack of six pit bulls alongside multiple small animals. as my

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daughter just testified to. And there's a picture of them. >> I know how to read K9 Drive under pressure. And I know that the real crisis in this facility is not the behavior of these dogs. It is management's complete structural incompetence.

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We see this incompetence explicitly on the public record. In an official warning letter issued to a local advocate on June 3rd, health officer Christopher Hellwig formally claimed that Merlin was quote designated by trained professionals with a red

690
03:12:01.279 --> 03:12:18.640
classification end quote. Let's speak plainly. This is a fraudulent misre misrepresentation of fact. Let's look at chapter 108 of your own municipal code. The township does not require a single verified independent certification for

691
03:12:18.640 --> 03:12:35.680
staff to evaluate these dogs. Your entire intake system is built on an unverified honor system where an employee can verbally claim a title or have it retroactively added to a file as an administrative coverup. Yet, your administration is weaponizing these

692
03:12:35.680 --> 03:12:52.640
unvouched titles on official letterhead to threaten, intimidate, and bully advocates into silence. Let me remind this board of New Jersey statute 59 3-14. Under the law, public immunity is completely stripped when an official

693
03:12:52.640 --> 03:13:07.600
engages in willful misconduct. Falsifying professional data to threaten private citizens is willful misconduct and it opens this township up to severe civil liability. The certified trainers who evaluated Merlin only recorded

694
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behavioral observations on a test sheet. Not a single professional evaluator has ever stated that this dog belongs under a red restriction. The trainers turn over their notes and it is management. Bureaucrats with zero behavioral

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credentials who unilaterally decide the color code. When the public demands transparency, you hide behind an Opra gatekeeping law as a stalling tactic. Allowing an untrayed administrator to hide records while overruling successful

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data is exactly like a qualified doctor discharging a patient only for the front desk receptionist to lock the exit doors and say, "No, I'm afraid of liability. You have to wait seven business days before I decide you can h if you can leave." And it all comes down to one

697
03:13:56.000 --> 03:14:14.239
simple explanation. If a certified independent professional had actually labeled these dogs with clear scientific reasoning, we would not be here tonight. The crisis here is a paper trail of of administrative deception. In 2018, the

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03:14:14.239 --> 03:14:30.720
shelter illegally killed hundreds of animals. Now they're warehousing them instead. I demand this board immediately freeze these arbitrary labels. Stop using taxpayers funds to warehouse animals out of fear and allow independent certified professionals to

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evaluate these dogs and determine their label co their label coding not a bureaucrat bureaucrat sitting behind a desk. Thank you. Tammy, come on up. >> We're still doing the board of health stuff, so that'll be later.

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>> Come on up. >> Just state your name and town you live in for the record, please. >> My name is uh Faith Dobury. I lived on Crawford Court in Hamilton. There's so much that I could say that I'm sticking to my script. Um

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>> Yep. if I understand that. Okay, good. >> All right. Thank you. All right. Good evening, council. I was the animal shelters volunteer coordinator from February 2025 to May of 2026. My one condition for accepting that position was that I didn't want to see

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something I couldn't unsee. Instead, what I saw was the highest level of caring for the shelter animals and and staff that stops at nothing to provide it. So this statement is for all of you. It is for the people who comment on

703
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social media with hatred in their fingertips. It is for people who are telephoning the shelter with their disgusting messages of hate. It is for the people who cast negative comments and accusations at the animal shelter. It is also for the residents of

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Hamilton Township who expect the best. When I first started to compose a statement, I plan to run through the positions at the shelter and describe to you all the physical, mental, and emotionally challenging duties that occupy just one day of an animal

705
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attendant, an animal control officer, and even the licensing clerk. As it turns out, there's simply not enough time to discuss the numerous daily tasks of shelter staff. But I will take the time to tell you, you cannot find staff more dedicated to the care and

706
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well-being of our shelter animals. They see the best and worst of people and yet they carry on. The people out there who say these dedicated people are anything less than great or call for their firing ought to be ashamed of themselves.

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Having said that, I want to introduce you to our shelter manager, Danielle. These are just some of her tasks. She supervises all staff, which includes personnel and human resource issues, timekeeping, scheduling.

708
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She creates, modifies, and assures a shelter standard operating procedures and protocols. She ensures compliance with all rules, policies involving health, animal welfare, building and safety codes, and other items. She manages issues with the aging building

709
03:17:27.040 --> 03:17:42.319
infrastructure. Things constantly need to be repaired. Until recently, she handled social media and marketing regarding animals for adoption, but still partakes in our lost and found animals, FYI postings, and the like. She

710
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also handles the website posting of our adoptable animals. She is one of the reviewers of the many adoption applications we receive with veterinarians, staff and other management. She consults on medical decisions, decisions on euthanasia and

711
03:17:58.720 --> 03:18:14.960
is the main contact with our veterinary partners with assistance processing time. She processes time-conuming OPER requests. She staffs the front desk. She produces monthly statistics. All around institutional knowledge of

712
03:18:14.960 --> 03:18:31.120
animal shelter operations makes this manager the main person to go through for all answers from everyone. And as one of her former staff members, she always had the time to answer my questions. You would be hardressed to find another

713
03:18:31.120 --> 03:18:47.760
person who knows the shelter business the way Donell knows the shelter business. But the bottom line is that it is simply too much to do and do it effectively, efficiently, and in the best interest of this township, but more importantly, the animals in our care. She'll never say that, but I have

714
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watched her go from one thing to another in a split second, answer questions, address people. It's non-stop. All staff is like that. Shelter manager is probably the most difficult position. We need more staff. Shelter needs more

715
03:19:03.680 --> 03:19:19.439
staff to take on some of these tasks. They need to be delegated to other people. It takes a village. We need more villagers. The volunteer coordinating position must be filled as soon as possible since the volunteers have taken on several of

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these tasks that are beneficial to the animals. These are things that are some mostly sometimes completed by staff. >> Faith, we are at our four minutes. We're going to circle back to you as soon as uh we let everybody else get their first time. >> Absolutely. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Thank you.

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Hey, come on up. >> Lisa Williams Hamilton, my topics aren't so exciting, so maybe the temperature in the room will come down a little bit. I have some questions about dog licensing. I know that we're following up on dogs that have been licensed in the past, but I re ask many times every year probably

718
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about all the dogs that have never been licensed. Like, do we have a plan to get dogs that people have never licensed, so they're not in our database, >> licensed? Like, we are a town of 93,000 people plus, and we have 3,400 licenses.

719
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Maybe we'll get to 4,000 this year if we're lucky. Um, we kind of need to do that because while the money goes into a fund, eventually, I forget if it's three or four years later, it can be pulled out the three years later, you can pull that money out

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to support the general fund and you can have more money to do the things we need to do. I ask council or the administration, whoever can craft that ordinance that we need for three-year dog licensing, to please craft it and please pass it because then this will be forced and you will free up employee

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time from following up every single year. It will take time to get people to convert. Some people will, some people won't. You know, I have an old dog with health issues right now. She won't get a three-year license, and our licenses don't line up because it would have been last year. But my young dog, I would do a three-year license. Some people would

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choose that. I'll just continue um because I'll run out of time. I know I've asked many times in the past, is the shelter properly staffed? Because I know they're busy. Everyone says we need more people. I don't understand why we don't have enough

723
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physicians in a budget to staff the level of animals that we have. And please don't see this as a critic. I'm trying to help you guys. We need more people at that shelter. Animals shouldn't sit in kennels or crates for long periods of time. We need simple

724
03:21:32.960 --> 03:21:49.520
stuff like a sign. Most people don't know you have about 10 dogs, maybe. I don't know what the number is today, but approximately anywhere from five to 10 dogs in crates inside. If they're walking the outer kennels, they don't know there's dogs inside. If they're not stalking the website like me and sounds like Justine saws it now, too. And thank

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you, Miss Councilman Papero, for counting. There are 14 cats with no bios, one rabbit with no bio. You saved me some time. Um, >> oh, and my other favorite, what is the coverage for animal control officers? Sounds like we lost an animal control

726
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officer. We have three. And what are the hours, days, and weeks, and holidays that a resident who has a loose dog charging at them can call and get help? Pops up now. >> Um, I I'll start with the the last one because it's uh the easiest. So,

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>> um, yes. So we uh we are down in acco. So we have uh three on. So right now uh we have coverage Monday through Saturday. We did lose Sunday coverage. So that would just default to the on call schedule. So there is so u but as

728
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far as like staffed ACOs on duty, it would be Monday through Saturday. And we have we're trying right now with we're it's overtime, you know, getting somebody to cover for Monday evenings, but Tuesday through Friday we have our

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evening shift and then Saturday is just the day shift as it typically has been. >> So what time does the evening shift end? Is it 7 or 8? >> It's 7 right now. >> And do we still have no coverage on holidays? >> Uh it would be it would be the on call call out.

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>> Okay. Um I I noticed today we didn't have a pet of the day. social media posts. I hope we have not stopped doing that. Is that just a fluke that the scheduling ran out and nobody caught it? Every day at 10:01 there's a post. Yes, I look for it at 10:01. I'm like, who is

731
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it? It never came today. I thought it would be later. >> Can we fix the fluke, please? >> Yes. We're trying to do this every single day and have at least one posting event. >> Okay. >> And we have been doing that successfully for the last several >> Yeah. I I write them in my calendar.

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dog, cat, rabbit, the name, and we don't have an entry today. Um, I think that's all I have. It's pretty overwhelming to sit here and listen to it all. I'm sure you guys our shelter, we need it needs change, guys. I mean, I talk about dog

733
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licensing. I talk about postings, social media. I stopped coming last year, not because it got boring, Councilman Tai, but because nothing was getting done. And I've got my own house and dogs. It's beautiful day today. My dogs are in the house because I'm here. So, I hope we

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can get things fixed. Thanks. >> Thank you. In the back, please. >> No, I said thank you. >> Yeah. >> How you guys doing? Good night. All right. My name is Lori Sarnney. I'm on

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Hamilton Township Aspen Court. Okay. Couple questions. Chris, approximately how long does it take to clean the kennel when they're being like with the water situation? I know you said they get moved in. How long does it take to clean it approximately? >> Tell you the answer. >> Uh the insides of the kennels. Yes. 45

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minutes. >> Okay. >> What is leading to such a high level of turnover from volunteers? >> Did you say there was a high turnover? >> Not of volunteers. I think was talking about staff. >> Uh my girlfriend got that wrong. Okay.

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So my question is Okay. I volunteer and I heard from people in the chat on TikTok saying that there's no one in that position, right? That you're hiring a volunteer coordinator. When was that job posted? >> So, and you're you said just for clarification, you applied to be a

738
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volunteer, not the volunteer. >> I applied to be a volunteer. I went on the website. I have it up right now. It says attend a volunteer orientation. Email whoever. I go on the link. I email it. No response for a week. I email again. Now, I understand that there's no

739
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position. How would someone like me know that? Unless the people in the Tik Tok chat are telling me. >> Just to be clear, is it for the volunteer or the coordinator? >> What I applied for was a volunteer. >> Okay. >> They did say, just to be fair, just pause it while I'm talking so she

740
03:25:53.760 --> 03:26:10.000
doesn't lose time. >> Um, just to be fair, >> they did say that they were pausing the volunteers until they hired a coordinator. Once they hired a coordinator, they're going to double back. >> I'm asking how long is that process going to take? Because all I'm hearing is we need help. We need help. We need people. I'm here. I want to help. I'm a

741
03:26:10.000 --> 03:26:26.640
person. How are we going to make this go faster? Because you got a lot of applicants, right? >> For attendant. Yes. For volunteer coordinator, I wouldn't say it's a lot, but we have a handful. Yes. >> I mean, I know my girlfriend in the back applied. She didn't get she got a receive from you. She's more than willing to help. I mean, at least an

742
03:26:26.640 --> 03:26:43.680
interview would be helpful. And I feel like we just need to move things along. People are tired of waiting. And I understand this a lot. And I'm not doubting that you guys do great things at the shelter. I'm a public school teacher. Well, there's great teachers. It's still a broken system. So, we need help. Um, so that's so any idea when the

743
03:26:43.680 --> 03:26:58.880
volunteer coordinator, when are we looking to hire someone? Any time frame or week, two weeks, a month, because the longer you push out, the less volunteers you have. >> Um, it's something that we're >> as quickly as possible. It's, you know,

744
03:26:58.880 --> 03:27:14.080
sometimes it's a slower process. they have to go through different interviews after they go through the applications. You know how that works. >> So uh so again the idea is so that we don't lose the volunteers and perhaps we probably should have communicated

745
03:27:14.080 --> 03:27:31.520
something to say right application but yes we'll get to you as soon as we can. We're trying to hire a volunteer coordinator. So >> exactly I think I'm like to have it done by now. >> Yeah. I'm newer to Hamilton, but I would say like not getting a response is uh

746
03:27:31.520 --> 03:27:46.479
just not a good look rather than an automated response like you know we're in the process of hiring. Um so just food for thought there. Also, do you guys have a Tik Tok? >> Um I I don't I mean I don't think we're allowed to but I would defer to administration on that. I feel like

747
03:27:46.479 --> 03:28:03.200
there are other I highly suggest you get a Tik Tok because I am sure this room is filled because they saw Jules from Tik Tok posting about all this stuff and I feel like there's power in numbers, power in social media, power in Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, all these animals. I see all different states,

748
03:28:03.200 --> 03:28:18.640
cities, you know, like uh just showing their animals and what they need. And people want to help. I mean, I'm assuming you don't have a full house every month at town council meetings. Correct. Correct. So, people are here because they want to help and they want change and it's all for the betterment of the animals and the people. It's not

749
03:28:18.640 --> 03:28:34.640
to, you know, uh I'm trying to think of a word to use here. You understand what I'm saying? So, yeah, we just want to help. It's like, you know, people waited three and a half hours and not for anything, just to help the dogs, help all the animals there. So, I hope things get moving along. I'll be at the next town council

750
03:28:34.640 --> 03:28:56.800
meeting and I'll keep following Jules on TikTok to see what's up. Thank you. >> Good evening everybody. My name is Nolan Dilla and I'm actually one of the animal attendants at the shelter. Um and I started working there in July 18th last year of 2025. So I'm coming up on my

751
03:28:56.800 --> 03:29:11.680
anniversary. Good time for it right now. I guess everything going on. Anyway, um what I want to talk about is I I'm not originally from Hamilton. Um I grew up in Hunington County. Um I went to TCJ, graduated Kumloud. Um I was an ambassador there. I did a lot of I did a lot of things while I was at college.

752
03:29:11.680 --> 03:29:28.880
Um, on top of that, uh, I moved to Hamilton after TCJ and I'm living here and I was really looking for a job and I interviewed with Danielle. I guess the best way I can say this is that all these comments that I hear online from the Peanut Gallery and all these people, all these videos, they

753
03:29:28.880 --> 03:29:45.120
think they're trying to help, but everything they're saying about management, about Chris, about Danielle, about some of my other co-workers, um it I take it very personally because it seems like it's a reflection on me because she hired me. So that means that what she saw in me um you know, I I look

754
03:29:45.120 --> 03:30:02.000
up to her as my boss and I have worked at a lot of I have volunteered at a lot of shelters growing up. Um, I was raised Catholic and my uh, when you make your confirmation, you're supposed to have a patron saint. And I did St. Francis of Aisi because he's the patron saint of animals. I love animals. I always have. My whole life. I have volunteered at

755
03:30:02.000 --> 03:30:17.040
different shelters, different uh, pet places that do uh, adoption days. And I have never been at a better place that takes better care of the animals than at the Hamilton Animal Shelter. I wouldn't be there if I didn't care about the animals. If they were abusing the animals or neglecting them, I just wouldn't be there. And I also think that

756
03:30:17.040 --> 03:30:33.279
we should be working together. And when somebody has a big platform like social media, instead of using it for vitrial and using it to come after us, you could say, "Hey, look, here's a dog, Merlin. Why don't one of you come and adopt him instead?" I feel like that would be a great alternative for us to work together. >> So So your comments, first of all, your

757
03:30:33.279 --> 03:30:49.520
comments come to us, not the audience. >> I'm sorry. You're right. I apologize. >> I know I'm right. >> And and secondly, we're not going to do the name calling. The next time you use a peanut gallery or whatever you're going to use, I'm going to ask you to leave. >> You're right. I'm sorry. I apologize. >> Don't Don't disrespect the people in the crowd because you don't want them to disrespect you. >> You're right. Absolutely. >> I I am and I apologize again.

758
03:30:49.520 --> 03:31:05.040
>> I'm sorry, sir. >> Ultimately, I'm sorry. It it came from a a place of passion because, you know, I'm working 12-hour days sometimes there and I've each and every one of my co-workers and I, we have had moments we have cried over these animals where we have seen injured animals that have come in and animals that we take care of or

759
03:31:05.040 --> 03:31:21.279
have been there for a while that we we are we cry that we want them to get adopted, especially some of the ones that are a little more unique and have quirks. And that it's it's it's painful that to hear that they think that that or that it's just painful to hear these messages. The other day I was working the front desk and I got a voicemail.

760
03:31:21.279 --> 03:31:37.600
Somebody said that we deserve to die and I feel like that's that's I recorded on my phone and I feel like that's that's really hurtful and unacceptable for people that genuinely care about these animals and care about the township. I I So that's all I wanted to say. I and I appreciate your time and I just I it

761
03:31:37.600 --> 03:32:06.239
just that's all I want to say. Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Who's next? Uh, Steve Craig. And then you can go. He beat you. Steve Kle Wolfpack wrote, "Um, obviously I'm here to talk about Merlin. Um, and

762
03:32:06.239 --> 03:32:23.040
it's great that he's gone to Bark. Um but that doesn't address the issue that got us all here today. Uh again for a similar issue. Um one of the statements made by the shelter manager earlier is was his original assessment

763
03:32:23.040 --> 03:32:38.000
in February to claim that uh he was trying to bite the handler. But that's not written in the assessment. What's written in the assessment was he lunged backwards trying to escape. Leash grabber exposes

764
03:32:38.000 --> 03:32:54.720
teeth, attempts to bite. Lunge is a forward movement. You can't possibly lunge backwards. And if you're moving backwards, any animal is not trying to bite. Certainly not a person. This was done by a previous employee who did the the assessment. The current

765
03:32:54.720 --> 03:33:10.640
trainer's own notes have a question mark around that statement. What was he trying to bite? So, we don't know, right? But that was February. Uh, he was taken out by a few staff in April, and I had gotten permission to take out a red,

766
03:33:10.640 --> 03:33:25.920
you know, the red dogs with an employee as long as they held one of the leashes. So, we took him out twice. We had no issues. I handled him because that seemed to be an issue with his assessment. We had no problems. Touch his feet, his ears, his teeth, his gums.

767
03:33:25.920 --> 03:33:42.080
Not an issue. We let him play in the yard. We introduced him to other staff. No problem. I asked to either have his color changed or simply allow me to continue handling him because they're short staffed. I'm there twice a week. I can't just wait for an attendant. I can't pull an

768
03:33:42.080 --> 03:33:56.880
attendant away to walk a dog with me that I could clearly handle. There was no issues with this dog. Um I got he's already scheduled to be reassessed. Already scheduled. He needs to be scheduled. Uh, we need to make time

769
03:33:56.880 --> 03:34:12.479
already. And for five months, I kept asking you being reassessed. Has all I'm looking for is enough of an assessment to acknowledge that I can handle this dog. So, he's not sitting in the kennel constantly.

770
03:34:12.479 --> 03:34:30.080
Instead, he's left to sit in the kennel. um all of his assessments, all of his well behavior notes through the entire thing reaffirm not what I've said, what we've heard here, the responses I've gotten back from from the shelter manager. He jumps and bites the leash.

771
03:34:30.080 --> 03:34:46.880
This is not an extreme issue. This is like every day I deal with dogs that jump and bite the leash. And I've acknowledged here, he's a big dog. He's the same size as my dog. Not even close to the biggest dog I've handled at the shelter. So, I keep asking, I get no

772
03:34:46.880 --> 03:35:02.080
answer. I get no answer for months at a time. At the same time, I'm asking, how is he meeting the shelter's own definition of a red dog? Can we put in a plain language statement so we don't have to keep having this round and round discussion? Cuz this is not the first

773
03:35:02.080 --> 03:35:18.640
dog and it's not. Yes, we understand. Yes, we'll talk to her. Yes, I understand what you need. Suddenly, we don't we don't really need it. The vol the staff will tell you the dog's behavior. How could they? They don't take them out. At that point, none of them were taken

774
03:35:18.640 --> 03:35:34.399
out. Any of the dogs that I walked on a regular basis. So, I get an answer and then the answer changes later, but we still don't know. How did he meet that definition? Um, we still don't get an answer. Why can't I handle his dog? Over and over.

775
03:35:34.399 --> 03:35:50.319
We hear it. And then after a year after we've sat here and at least two board of health meetings, I've asked specifically those same two questions while the manager and health officer here and we still don't get an answer. The next one we start hearing there's

776
03:35:50.319 --> 03:36:05.359
more to it. But we don't hear what it is. It's a simple question. How did he meet that definition? Why can't I handle this dog? He bites. And then we start to see again the new trainer taking him out, which is

777
03:36:05.359 --> 03:36:20.399
great after it's addressed here. After he sat for two months, then an additional 3 months and then another period of time for five months. It's not till it's addressed here and online that he's taken out

778
03:36:20.399 --> 03:36:43.520
again. So he's had for five months. Steve, we'll circle back around. We're you're at your four minutes. We'll circle back around if there's some other first- timers that would like to talk. >> No problem. Thank you. Thank you. >> So, Mr. President, it's a it's an animal cruelty issue. Can I can I bring it up

779
03:36:43.520 --> 03:36:59.439
with you guys presently be in the board of health or do you have to turn back into the >> state your name and town for the record? >> Jason Null, Hamilton Township. Mr. President. >> Sorry. >> Can I go on? >> Sure. >> Okay. So, I brought to the council's um

780
03:36:59.439 --> 03:37:15.040
attention some issues with all these halfway houses that are coming and now there's more and you know eventually it becomes an issue. I I talked to off the record to some police I know and they said there is more domestic issues and issues in these neighborhoods and we're

781
03:37:15.040 --> 03:37:32.479
sending more out and this and that. So, it's not always in my neighborhood but there's one or two incidents. Here's one at 1529 Jenna Street, Jennese Street, that's a halfway house with them chasing small animals with pipes and beating

782
03:37:32.479 --> 03:37:48.880
animals in the neighborhood. Um, and this nice man was reaching out. He doesn't know what to do, blah blah blah. So, I just want to let the board know that, you know, it's escalating. And that's what happens when you get more and more halfway houses and

783
03:37:48.880 --> 03:38:04.479
dangerous people in your neighborhoods. So now they're beat animals with tights. And the next thing is they'll come after people cuz these aren't nice guys. I know they're protected by uh Americans with Disabilities Act, but you know,

784
03:38:04.479 --> 03:38:21.680
they're not that doesn't make them nice and it's becoming more of a problem. And eventually somebody's going to get hurt. So, I'm just officially bringing it up so maybe the board can talk about figuring out a way we can not let that happen because that's what I see coming.

785
03:38:21.680 --> 03:38:37.120
So, the unnamed individual that told you this uh information, >> I'll tell you his name. >> No, no, no, no, no. Not here. >> Okay. >> You're not put You can't put somebody else's name out. So, did that person uh file any type of report? Call Hamstat. Call the police. There there were two

786
03:38:37.120 --> 03:38:54.319
reports um um that they're posting on like Hamilton happenings and just reaching out to neighbors, but you know, everybody's super busy and whatever. I just happen to notice these things happening and you know instead of going to McDonald's, I can't hear the things

787
03:38:54.319 --> 03:39:10.880
and filing a report. If we would like act um action taken, we need facts, right? So, we need those facts reported to the proper people to start that process. If it's not going to Hamstat when it happens, if it's not going to the police department when it happens,

788
03:39:10.880 --> 03:39:27.840
it's tough to do anything about things that the proper channels are not in contact. >> Yeah. I just wanted to tell I know there's a meeting. I saw that I'm going to go knock on the door tomorrow and talk to them >> or the the town I think of house managers that I guess keep the

789
03:39:27.840 --> 03:39:44.800
crackheads along. So, I'll speak to him and make sure he understands that this is it will happen anymore and then I'll I'll figure it out from there and I'll come back and report at the next meeting. >> Um my my recommendation would be to call the police and let them handle it. >> So, you don't think that's a good idea?

790
03:39:44.800 --> 03:39:59.600
>> Well, somebody's got to do something, right? That's why everybody's here. Oh, by the way, there's more people live streaming than I've ever streamed in 50 years. Of course, I don't think we had it that long. So we can do some fosters for the dogs. So if anybody wants to

791
03:39:59.600 --> 03:40:15.040
foster, there's a whole bunch in crates. Rick, Councilman Pig is always pushing for volunteers. That's why I'm a volunteer. He suggests it. I did it. So we need volunteers, too. And I thank everybody. Um, our leaders at the

792
03:40:15.040 --> 03:40:32.399
shelter helped me rescue some animals. The mayor helped me rescue Brownie. And um, honestly, this is the best group I've ever seen. I mean, if you see it 20 years ago or 10 years ago, it's it's so much better. This is the best crew I've ever seen. And it's super tough. I mean,

793
03:40:32.399 --> 03:40:48.239
just going in there, I where I cry every third time. It's tough. It's so heart-wrenching. But thanks everybody for what you do. Thanks you guys for listening. We have so many viewers here. Maybe it could help us with the Huff House issue. Jason,

794
03:40:48.239 --> 03:41:07.200
you took you took Councilman Tai's suggestion about volunteering, right? >> I did. Yeah, move on. Take take my suggestion. Don't knock on the door. Call the cops. All right, please. Who else wants to talk for a first time?

795
03:41:07.200 --> 03:41:27.680
You had your hand up first and then uh you can go second. Okay. I'm sorry. It's hard for me to call on people when I don't know your names. Sure. Or name tags or something. Hello. >> Hi. So, >> I'm going to read it just so I get all my points across.

796
03:41:27.680 --> 03:41:43.680
>> Say your name. Just say your name in town for the address, please. >> My name is Claire Ganley. I'm from I'm a Hamilton resident, a mom, a local business owner, and I serve local families. I might be a Hamilton transplant. I'm from New York. Um, but I did marry a lifelong Hamiltonian, and I

797
03:41:43.680 --> 03:42:00.800
chose to build my family and life here. So, like many residents, and that's why I'm speaking up as I feel like I represent a group of residents that aren't here today, but are don't have a horse in the game, but I have become compelled to learn more, ask questions, and understand how these issues occurred

798
03:42:00.800 --> 03:42:16.800
and how we can be more proactive and pre preventative. And so, I appreciate the opportunity to do that. Now, first, I do want to acknowledge our shelter staff who I think are mostly sitting here. Um, I want to I believe that they are dedicated, hardworking people who care deeply about the animals in their care.

799
03:42:16.800 --> 03:42:31.520
I also recognize that there have been improvements in communication and visibility in recent weeks. And I personally, as a resident, appreciate those efforts. In my opinion, the question isn't whether good people are working hard. The question is whether the systems, oversight, and

800
03:42:31.520 --> 03:42:48.479
accountability that exists to support them is correctly in place. And if it isn't, how can we fix that? I applaud the idea of an advisory board because community involvement creates accountability, transparency, and trust. When the one of the questions I have is

801
03:42:48.479 --> 03:43:04.399
when was the last comprehensive needs assessment conducted for the shelter? And why I asked that is how do we know that you have the right staffing, the right resources and training infrastructure to succeed? I hear that you don't, but I'm curious because what

802
03:43:04.399 --> 03:43:21.120
checks and balances are in place? What gaps exist? I've heard that the shelter needs more support and they deserve that support, the staff. But those decisions need to be driven by data. That's why I say I hoped should there be an advisory council or board established that a

803
03:43:21.120 --> 03:43:36.640
needs assessment one of the first objectives because a true needs assessment would identify those gaps, prioritize needs, address funds challenges, and give both township leadership and residents a clear road map forward. Sadly, many residents now believe that

804
03:43:36.640 --> 03:43:52.479
it did take a Tik Tok video to create urgency around these issues. That perception should concern us all. It raises a larger question. What other problems exist across the town that might be going unnoticed, unressed or unsupported until they become a public

805
03:43:52.479 --> 03:44:07.439
crisis. Town council meetings should not be a PR problem. As a resident, that is what alarms me the most, animal shelter and elsewise. I do want to emphasize though that this village is here. We sat in this room when I wrote this. I think

806
03:44:07.439 --> 03:44:23.600
I put two hours. So now we're at about uh what 3 4 hours, right? So just bear with me with the math, but there's at least 20 residents here who I know would volunteer. And I think that's probably a pretty light number. So if I do the math on that, we're looking at at least 70

807
03:44:23.600 --> 03:44:39.040
plus volunteer hours in this room alone tonight. I am one of them. Whether I'm volunteering on site, whether I'm writing bios at night, it is possible. Your village is here. The community partners are here. There's a treadmill

808
03:44:39.040 --> 03:44:54.720
available for dogs now. The advocates are here and people are ready to help. So, I've heard discussion about that involvement. I hope that if a if a Tik Tok video can motivate residents to become engaged and sit here, I would say imagine what could be accomplished through intentional outreach, strong

809
03:44:54.720 --> 03:45:12.239
partnerships, and a shared commitment to those positive outcomes that I heard referenced earlier. The question about engaging that really will be the step forward. I hope to be here more frequently to show up. I think showing up is important. I hope showing up as a volunteer as well. Um, so just

810
03:45:12.239 --> 03:45:27.680
in in closing, thank you. I think Hamilton should be a community that we're proud of. But I think here moving forward is where we show the community that we are because I mean I'm sure you guys don't want to talk about this any longer. So let's move forward positively and make some of these changes. As a

811
03:45:27.680 --> 03:45:44.800
resident I am looking for clarity because in my opinion clarity drives action. Action builds trust and trust is what our community needs right now. So thank you. I think I'm right on point. Exactly. >> Thank you.

812
03:45:44.800 --> 03:46:02.000
Come on up. >> Hi, my name is Roslin D'vorne and I live in Hamilton. Um, I just have a few questions about the staffing at the shelter since I know that's been discussed a lot and you uh mentioned that you need help. So, how many current

813
03:46:02.000 --> 03:46:18.640
full-time and part-time staff work at the shelter? We have >> we have uh four full-time animal attendants, two part-time animal attendants, three animal control officers, and two support staff, myself and a clerk. >> Thank you. And how many current

814
03:46:18.640 --> 03:46:34.160
vacancies do you have that you are actively needing to fill? >> Two. >> Two. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Two. >> Two part-time. Uh, so I mean I guess so the the part- timerrs are I mean it's a little tricky to give you an exact

815
03:46:34.160 --> 03:46:50.239
number because it ends up being like for my budget let's say for and I don't like I have let's say $45,000 of part-time work. So if I have one part-timer who works one day a week for 4 hours like it gets stretched out more. So, it's like

816
03:46:50.239 --> 03:47:05.120
that's why it gets kind of like funky talking about part-timers that there's, you know, so they work more hours like they have to be under 28 hours a week to be part-time. So, you know, if I have two or three who are working at 28, that's all I can do cuz that's all I

817
03:47:05.120 --> 03:47:23.359
have money for. Um but with people leaving and some vacancies and um there's one uh eventually there will be a full-time animal attendant position which is the vacancy right now um and then the part-time coordinator and um the

818
03:47:23.359 --> 03:47:38.640
volunteer coordinator and then onboarding additional part-time staff. So, it's like the math is like a little funky and I think it's hard to explain that, but as far as the part-timers go, but one actual part-time volunteer coordinator and then a vendor group will be looking for a full-time ones as well

819
03:47:38.640 --> 03:47:53.760
of attendant. And I don't know if that answers your question or if I just confuse everyone more. >> Definitely a little confused still. Um, so I'm hearing definitely the volunteer coordinator role, which is part-time,

820
03:47:53.760 --> 03:48:08.319
and I'm hearing fulltime, part-time, one or two animal attendants perhaps. >> The vacancy for the it just occurred, so it needs to get approved through administration, but I would imagine that it would be filled.

821
03:48:08.319 --> 03:48:24.960
>> Okay. Thank you. And in regards to I know you are act openly hiring or looking for the volunteer coordinator and animal attendance. So, I've never worked for the township, but I've worked for other counties and other, you know, governments. So, I know that the hiring

822
03:48:24.960 --> 03:48:41.040
process can be slow. What is it typically like for Hamilton Township versus say the volunteer coordinator role where from application, the person sends an application? When do that when did that person get an interview if they're qualified? What's the timeline

823
03:48:41.040 --> 03:48:57.439
there? >> It depends on the position. And and again, I don't recall what we advertised for this. Sometimes we put in a a deadline like you must put an application in by such and such a date. And very often we'll wait until that

824
03:48:57.439 --> 03:49:13.439
date. So then we have the pool of applicants that we'll look at, review the resumeumés, review the applications, and then determine, right, and contact the ones that they'd like to interview. And it's usually an interview team made

825
03:49:13.439 --> 03:49:30.560
up of from the division, the professionals there, and also somebody from um our personnel office so that you know it's all coordinated together. So, you know, because this one we wanted to hire quick as quick as possible. We

826
03:49:30.560 --> 03:49:47.439
probably didn't have a deadline on there and I would think that you know they're in the review process for the applications and we'll be if they haven't already contacting people for >> interviews. Yeah, interviews are are occurring and I have a second interview

827
03:49:47.439 --> 03:50:03.920
for one person scheduled. So >> they're in the process of interviewing now after the you know initial post and getting the handful of applicants in. Yeah. >> Okay. So you said you you have a second interview for a candidate. So that seems promising generally. Yes. Um so you

828
03:50:03.920 --> 03:50:19.920
would expect to have someone in that role would you say within two to three weeks or a month or what's what's it look like after we successfully choose a candidate? >> That's a great question. So, and again it depends upon the position but for all

829
03:50:19.920 --> 03:50:36.560
of our positions we do background checks and we depend on an outside organization to do that. So sometimes we're at their mercy for scheduling. We try to again I can give you a range maybe. So depending

830
03:50:36.560 --> 03:50:53.120
on the position and depending on how we can get all of those things scheduled. It's not just the background check then we do a physical for them. the drug testing, all of that. So, um, that can take I rarely see it happen in two weeks.

831
03:50:53.120 --> 03:51:10.319
It's more like four weeks and sometimes a little bit longer. >> When was the closing date for the for the uh open positions >> for the I I don't know that we had them on these. >> So, they were posted in February, I think somebody said. >> What was the what was the February? the

832
03:51:10.319 --> 03:51:25.760
the volunteer coordinator was posted more recently because >> something was February 201 attendant position >> right >> and again that's something that we'reing >> revolving >> we keep it out there just like we do with say laborers in public works and

833
03:51:25.760 --> 03:51:41.680
WPC so there's a few positions that we almost always have the ad in for that because we'll take resumes and even if we don't have a vacancy we'll hold those and reach out. So, um, >> yeah, >> seems like nobody knows when we put this

834
03:51:41.680 --> 03:51:58.160
advertisement out for the V, um, coordinator. >> I think we discussed that at our last meeting. I believe it was like I don't I think the coordinator was on until the beginning of May >> resigned from that position and I want to say that that happened in May.

835
03:51:58.160 --> 03:52:17.520
>> So, point of clarification, >> oh, that's the one that was in I don't know why. Yeah. >> So, I don't know the date off the top of my head. I just didn't get that answer for tonight. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, so it sounds like

836
03:52:17.520 --> 03:52:33.920
within a month hopefully we'll have the volunteer coordinator hired. Fingers crossed. Um, and then would you be able to provide maybe by the next meeting or even online on the job posting website once you kind of sit down and think

837
03:52:33.920 --> 03:52:49.680
about it clarification on how many animal attendants you are looking for. I think that would help I was a little confused hearing your explanation. I just think that would help um a little better because it's budget driven. So, I can tell you for the full-time

838
03:52:49.680 --> 03:53:07.040
positions, we have a vacancy or we have a space for each one of those. Each one of those is budgeted. For the part-time positions, not just in this division, but in several other departments and all of that. We kind of have um a pool of money. This is how much you can't go

839
03:53:07.040 --> 03:53:22.960
over. And we leave it to again depending on the position, depending on the department. we leave it to the department to say I'm going to hire, you know, three part-time people initially and see what that gets me because one part-time person might only work four

840
03:53:22.960 --> 03:53:37.920
hours a week. Another one will work 28 hours and so that's a whole different budget. So it's not one set of number of people that we we end up hiring. That's why we put the ad out and you know get

841
03:53:37.920 --> 03:53:54.479
in as many applications as we can. >> Yeah. And I I definitely understand that that it's a pool. Um I was just going off of the fact that you said you need help. So how much help do you think that you need? Is it one person? Is it two people? That's that's kind of where I would like your as the day-to-day people

842
03:53:54.479 --> 03:54:11.279
in the shelter, you know, I would I'm just wondering how much help do you think that you need? >> Part of that plea for help or talking about that part if not all is that we have currently one full-time vacancy and one part-time vacancy. And so obviously

843
03:54:11.279 --> 03:54:26.399
to fill those and then to see how that works if we can you know manage the workload with that that would mean we're fully staffed right because but with the vacancies we're not fully staffed and so you know I think that's part of where

844
03:54:26.399 --> 03:54:43.279
the comment comes from um because each year we try to assess that do we need you know to add more staff >> more than just the current ones And we have added more staff. We've

845
03:54:43.279 --> 03:54:59.040
added more staff. We've added more oversight. We've increased the budget um over the years. Uh and by the way, needs assessments. And that's a great comment to, you know, think about your needs, think about what your goals are. And

846
03:54:59.040 --> 03:55:15.439
that's exactly what Danielle and Chris are doing um in their managerial roles. And for needs assessment, we have a needs assessment every year. It's called our budget workshops. And the directors

847
03:55:15.439 --> 03:55:32.800
come in and they ask us, they they explain to us what they need and they justify the amount of money that they're asking for. And the animal shelter is one of the few facilities, maybe the only facility I would say, where council

848
03:55:32.800 --> 03:55:48.960
has consistently offered more resources and lobbied for uh more work. The answer to what do we need? It's always more at the shelter. Uh you heard it. Uh we we're constantly at over capacity at our

849
03:55:48.960 --> 03:56:06.160
shelter. Um, so and you know, somebody did some back of the napkin math and calculated that based on staffing and the number of dogs that it amounts to 11 minutes per dog that they can spend and still give attention to every single

850
03:56:06.160 --> 03:56:22.560
animal, right? And that's it takes a lot more time to care for the animals. We all know this. And that's where the volunteers uh come into play in being so important. It's so important the work that our volunteers do and and making a

851
03:56:22.560 --> 03:56:40.000
difference in uh the outcomes for the dogs, you know, getting dogs out for a walk uh and doing those kind of things. Things don't always move as quickly as we would like them to. Uh one thing that I have complete confidence in is that this mayor, this administration, they go

852
03:56:40.000 --> 03:56:55.359
about doing the right things for the right reasons in the right way. And sometimes it takes a little bit longer to get an outcome going about it the right way than you know just kind of willy-nilly trying to be reactive to

853
03:56:55.359 --> 03:57:12.560
things. So uh the actions that are being taken yes I I've heard things you know there are always concerns that we have right like why did it take so many months for uh this particular dog to get a re-evaluation? I think that's a pretty

854
03:57:12.560 --> 03:57:30.000
valid question. Um, you know, there are, you know, the three-year license thing. I'd like to see us, you know, get a move on that and free up your labor to do other things, right? That's our thought. And so, the answer is always more. We

855
03:57:30.000 --> 03:57:46.960
always need more, but we're also operating within a budget where you you were here for the health department presentation. the range of important services that they provide to our community. The food supply, keeping the food safe, vaccines,

856
03:57:46.960 --> 03:58:02.239
the number of things that this department is doing in addition to this shelter uh in order to keep our community safe. And so, you know, we have to budget for all of that. Uh the shelter is a piece. It's not the only

857
03:58:02.239 --> 03:58:19.359
piece. And so we're always looking at how can we get more resources for this and what is the most effective uh way in order to do that. One of the things that we've done among the reforms that we've put in place is we've hired highly

858
03:58:19.359 --> 03:58:35.040
qualified leaders who have been leading things in the right direction. And I know we don't always get every outcome in the time that we want it, but we have people working hard. We've hired qualified people who I'm confident in

859
03:58:35.040 --> 03:58:52.479
and you know sometimes accusations are made but I very rarely hear evidence behind a lot of those accusations you know and there are I'm not saying there are and I'm not saying you've made any accusations um but

860
03:58:52.479 --> 03:59:10.000
you know this is a work in progress and I welcome the input from the public. Anybody who's interacted with me will tell you I welcome your input and we we act on your input and we have made changes uh thanks to the input of of the

861
03:59:10.000 --> 03:59:25.439
the public and I've talked a lot. I'm going to stop talking. It's your time. >> Yeah, I I was more interested in like the logistics of the hiring process for the township. So, just wanted to check in on that. Thank you.

862
03:59:25.439 --> 03:59:47.600
>> Thank you. Any other first timers that would like to speak? Come on up, please. >> Hi, I'm Crystal Santo. I'm a resident of Hamilton Township and I keep hearing you say you're working with rescues and you

863
03:59:47.600 --> 04:00:03.359
said when Merlin gets done, you have a rescue lined up. And I know you went into detail about a lot of things, but you never mentioned the name of one rescue that you worked with or are trying to work with in the local area. >> We never said that. So, >> you said that you

864
04:00:03.359 --> 04:00:20.319
>> No. So, he went to rescues. >> We do work with rescues, but in this case, we have not had any rescue commit to uh pull Merlin. >> Okay. >> I just want to Can I Can I help out here? I want to clarify. Um, we've sent Merlin now to

865
04:00:20.319 --> 04:00:34.880
>> boarding train. Correct. >> So, he's living and by the way, thanks to a couple of very generous donors that happened uh because that's outside of our budget and um we've sent him to training. What what Chris said is

866
04:00:34.880 --> 04:00:49.920
they're working on the next step for Maryland after the training is complete. He didn't say they have that lined up yet. Um, one thing I want to point out, when we started working on the animal shelter issues, there were about 12

867
04:00:49.920 --> 04:01:05.199
rescues that were partnering with our shelter. Now, there are over a hundred. So, they have proactively developed these relationships with over a 100 rescues, but the rescues have limited capacity. They can't all just take dogs,

868
04:01:05.199 --> 04:01:21.840
right? Um, they can only take so many dogs at a time, so many dogs per year. And you know, you've seen the numbers. We have >> I've been in rescue since 2012. So I that's why I'm saying, "What rescues are you working with?" Because I know we have a lot of rescues that call us

869
04:01:21.840 --> 04:01:38.319
constantly like, "Can you help us with this dog? Can you pull dogs?" And I'm just wondering what local rescues that you're working with are trying to uh work with. So I generally are send out email on the the >> we have ones that we have relationships

870
04:01:38.319 --> 04:01:54.160
with and work with, but I also have a list of rescues that I reach out to over o over a hundred on this list. Um but we've worked with um rescue pets. I just listed some that we pulled dogs from us this year. Rescue without borders, Mammoth County, SPCA.

871
04:01:54.160 --> 04:02:11.600
>> I saw I saw the thing, but they're most of them are not like a local rescue. >> Correct. The Crossings Animal Society is local again. Rescue Pets is. >> And then what are your plans for? Now you there was 10 red dogs when you did your video. Now

872
04:02:11.600 --> 04:02:28.160
you have one because of social media like today suddenly is so now going to get help. What are what's the plan for the other nine of them? >> So we have a plan for Thea. Uh there were seven red dogs. Uh Sophia

873
04:02:28.160 --> 04:02:44.880
uh has a plan to go to a different board and train that far and and then to a rescue. Um she's a dog with a bite history. Um we we've all of the red dogs are available for rescue. So if any organization wants to pull them, by all

874
04:02:44.880 --> 04:03:00.880
means reach out to me. I'm happy to be transparently give all the information we have about the animal and and welcome the relationship for them to pull. We're asking for that. >> Okay. And so did they have a history like this like where last February they came in and then they weren't assessed

875
04:03:00.880 --> 04:03:18.960
for months after or are they actively getting assessed now because of social media? >> They've all been assessed because that's why they're labeled red. So they wouldn't have a label until they're assessed. Um so yes they all but different issues. Um one's um severe dog

876
04:03:18.960 --> 04:03:34.800
aggression. Um there's different issues, but I'm happy. One is handling. So the dog tries to bite when uh periodically randomly with handling. Uh one is severe stranger aggression. So with any unfamiliar parties, he he will bear his

877
04:03:34.800 --> 04:03:51.520
teeth and lunge. So there's different levels of behaviors and what is going on? Are these red dogs being reassessed? Because like with in the case of Merlin, it was like long stretches and periods of time. So I'm wondering is it the case with these dogs and are you going to now

878
04:03:51.520 --> 04:04:08.399
reassess them before social media's back at the shelter videoing the next dog? >> So So we directed our um you know and this we have to prioritize we only have limited we only have so many resources and I I'm closing in on what I was budgeted for right now even for our

879
04:04:08.399 --> 04:04:25.760
behavioral consultant that we have. Um so the money has to come somewhere. So, we would love to send each of these red dogs to another facility or board and train, but I don't have the budget for it. I don't have the donation dollars for it. Like, that's that's what the

880
04:04:25.760 --> 04:04:43.920
reality is. So, if we all want to see these dogs or any other dogs and you know, even not just our red dogs, you know, we have our our yellow dogs who could probably use board and train or rescues and um but we need more support

881
04:04:43.920 --> 04:05:00.399
from the community to make that happen if that's what the community wants. Um, but to backtrack about, you know, we directed our behavioral consultant to make sure in addition to our staff that each red dog is being at least once a

882
04:05:00.399 --> 04:05:16.479
month. Is that the most ideal situation? No. We all want the dog to get out daily, but it's just logistically right now we don't have those resources to make that happen. But we made that change due to what we've been hearing um

883
04:05:16.479 --> 04:05:33.840
at council the council's request. So the dogs are getting out at least on a monthly basis. But I also know our staff is also stepping up to take them out uh as well >> cuz them not being active is perpetuating at least some of their

884
04:05:33.840 --> 04:05:50.319
issues. They're not getting out. They're not being socialized. They're not leaving the kennel. They're not >> and we've never we've never denied that. And I think that it's just it comes down to we prioritized, you know, maybe getting out the easier

885
04:05:50.319 --> 04:06:06.960
dogs more and and we've heard and we adjusted. >> Yeah. And maybe prioritized like getting a coordinator to coordinate volunteers because that would take some of the pressure off your actual workers. Well, and I don't have any I'm not here to bash anybody. I don't I feel like

886
04:06:06.960 --> 04:06:24.319
everybody in animal rescue puts in 110%. I think it's more of an administrative issue than a worker issue because if you work with dogs, you love dogs, but like I said, there should be answers to questions. When things happen or why he's there for so long, there should be

887
04:06:24.319 --> 04:06:39.279
an answer. There shouldn't be an opra form that has to be filled down. There should be a manager that can say, "Oh, well, this is what happened." or be honest and say he hasn't been evaluated for five months and we failed him at this point and we're going to try to do

888
04:06:39.279 --> 04:06:55.359
better. It shouldn't take social media and a community to produce these results. And if you did have a better volunteer program, then your workers who have the qualifications could be out helping these red dogs and the other

889
04:06:55.359 --> 04:07:12.239
dogs could be walked by volunteers because I know many people that have put in to volunteer at the Hamilton shelter and not hurt anything. You could have, you want a village. There is a village, but you have to be willing to do your job and let the volunteers come in and

890
04:07:12.239 --> 04:07:28.120
get them the training and get a volunteer coordinator or maybe step up yourself at this point and do it yourself until you can fill that position because the volunteers are what makes most shelters run better.

891
04:07:29.840 --> 04:07:53.479
Any other first time speakers? >> Not a first timer. >> We're going to get We're going to get because you you spoke first, so you're going to go first on the second time. Second time around, you have two minutes. And um I'll start with you.

892
04:07:56.319 --> 04:08:14.000
>> I am Tim. I'm from Hamilton Township. Um I was wondering I'm assuming you guys are the ones that control the budget for the shelter. Um is there any way that after you guys just allocated $8.5 million for two ordinances that

893
04:08:14.000 --> 04:08:33.279
there's some way that we could get some mini homes dropped off on the property and retrofit them with some kind of kennels or runs for the time being? Maybe as a temporary solution. If you don't know what I mean by mini homes, the little pop-up ones that

894
04:08:33.279 --> 04:08:53.359
Amazon sells for like 50 grand each, >> they could be dropped and assembled right on site. >> I think we could take that into consideration. I mean, I Yeah, I know what you're you're talking about, but as far as the the budgetary process, I have to defer to the administration. >> Yeah. And then um also is could we double

895
04:08:53.359 --> 04:09:08.800
maybe the water bottles and put one on the outside as well so you don't have to keep moving them back and forth when you clean for 45 minutes? >> I think I think we're at that point. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's that's fair. >> Yeah. Okay, >> that's all I got for now. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.

896
04:09:08.800 --> 04:09:26.160
>> Yes, ma'am. >> Hi, Juliana Kella. Um, so I want to circle back on when you said that Laura, the trainer, decides the uh status of the dogs. Um, so let's pretend that Merlin did not go to his training facility today. Um, based on his bark

897
04:09:26.160 --> 04:09:41.439
evaluation, which I received prior to this meeting, would Laura have then looked at the bark evaluation and decided what his level is? Because to me, I don't understand why she would even be involved in that. And just in general, I don't understand why an a

898
04:09:41.439 --> 04:09:57.439
contractor who comes a couple times a week or whatever it is for a few hours is in charge of these dogs. And honestly, I've gotten the notes. We know I've gotten the oper request. Her notes do not say this dog is red. Not even a reason. It doesn't even say what color the dog should be. So, I don't know

899
04:09:57.439 --> 04:10:13.040
where that status is coming from that she's deciding it. I believe she's telling you and you are deciding it, but there's nothing in those notes that say that the dog is a dog is a certain color, at least from the the Oprah request that I've gotten. And again, I'd love to know what Merlin would have been

900
04:10:13.040 --> 04:10:28.560
uh changed to today based on that evaluation had he not been transferred to a facility. Um I have a lot more. Do you want me to Should I just keep going? >> You go. >> Okay. So, for the um evaluation thing, I do want to bring up again, I have raised funds. People are willing to donate. Um,

901
04:10:28.560 --> 04:10:45.120
I am happy to put together and pay for an evaluator to evaluate all of these dogs. I would like it to be bark if possible. Um, and I want to know if the township will accept that because I'm happy to do it. And you're talking about not raising funds and clearly my social media has proven that these people are willing to donate. And they said once

902
04:10:45.120 --> 04:11:00.880
there is a path forward, even more people are committed to donating. I've already raised over $1,000 for this and I'm happy to give it all to a professional evaluator to re-evaluate every single one of these dogs and compare it to Laura's evaluations. Um, with the water, I know I'm not going to

903
04:11:00.880 --> 04:11:17.040
like harp on this because you asked for evidence and I will gladly send it to you. I've been there multiple different dates and times. Those kennels are not usually open, the guillotine doors, I stay there for more than an hour most of the time. So, if it takes 45 minutes to clean a kennel while I'm there for at least an hour, it should be changed. Um,

904
04:11:17.040 --> 04:11:36.680
again, I don't want to harp on that, so I can send that to you. Again, I want to say I do love this staff. I've had plenty of good interactions with most of them. This is not at them, and this is really just about management. >> Anybody else want to speak the second time?

905
04:11:36.880 --> 04:11:52.000
>> Justine Chartis, I will finish for part two. I did want to bring up, sorry, I'm not prepared. I did want to bring up the stats of national dogs in the kennel. So the median stay for large dogs is 20

906
04:11:52.000 --> 04:12:08.239
days and that's based on current national shelter data. And then for older dogs, the average stay is about 42 days. The average shelter dog is adopted within weeks, not years. A dog living in a shelter for 2 to four years is stat

907
04:12:08.239 --> 04:12:26.080
statistically an extreme outlier. And continuing, who is responsible for color coding the dogs? What parties make the decisions for the color coding system? What is the current process? Who owns each step? When was this process last reviewed?

908
04:12:26.080 --> 04:12:42.880
What licenses, certifications, and other animal related training do shelter management and trainer evaluators currently hold? The shelter hours are also limited. Is it possible to have extended volunteer hours? What policies, staffing issues, or liability concerns

909
04:12:42.880 --> 04:12:58.000
restrict volunteer dog walking outside of public hours, including Sundays? In our last town council meeting, we were told that they were currently interviewing for the volunteer coordinator position. So, just what

910
04:12:58.000 --> 04:13:13.920
happened in that hiring process and what is the timeline to fill that role? I think you already answered that. Um, who is responsible for volunteer management? Why has no one taken over this responsibility? When was the last time a new volunteer was on boarded? How many volunteer applications are currently

911
04:13:13.920 --> 04:13:29.040
pending? And what is the current timeline for onboarding new volunteers? How many volunteers are approved for each dog handling color level? Now, I want to talk about social media. So, I want to start by acknowledging the improvements in posting frequency. That

912
04:13:29.040 --> 04:13:46.319
is genuinely appreciated, but we must ask, is the person responsible for social media visiting the shelter, or are they simply reposting the same bios and photos already on the website when we know the website is outdated? Personality videos are the one of the most effective adoption tools there is.

913
04:13:46.319 --> 04:14:01.680
Here's a simple idea. that the staff and volunteers who are already at the shelter every day taking photos and videos create a simple process for them to send the content to whoever manages the page and also repost what the volunteers are already posting on their

914
04:14:01.680 --> 04:14:17.920
personal pages. >> Thank you, >> Justine. I'm sorry. The the stats that you quoted in the beginning, what was your source for that? >> Sorry. the um ASPCA base averages.

915
04:14:17.920 --> 04:14:38.319
>> That's the website you got it off. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Somebody in the back. Lisa, I know I saw him. >> Lisa Williams Hamilton. Um I'm going to comment about the posting of volunteer coordinator. I went through the Facebook

916
04:14:38.319 --> 04:14:53.840
page. It was posted on May 13. Um, it is my understanding that the previous coordinator worked there for 14 months. So, we'll say about 16 months ago, we didn't have anybody in this position and we managed to get volunteers in house.

917
04:14:53.840 --> 04:15:10.239
I'm asking that you please find a way to get volunteers in before we get that coordinator in because here we are mid June. You've got college kids home from from college. You've had a public school teacher. I don't know if she's still here. Most public school teachers are

918
04:15:10.239 --> 04:15:27.040
10-month employees looking to do work. We are going to miss the window of opportunity of July and August to get a lot of people in. And even if they're in socializing cats and walking the easy dogs, anything that frees up staff time, I think is a win. Anything that we can

919
04:15:27.040 --> 04:15:42.960
get people in, some maybe the college kids don't they're not that far away. Maybe they're living at Ryder or Princeton and they want to come volunteer on the weekends after the summer. I fear that by the time that the hiring process t I work for a government hiring process in government takes

920
04:15:42.960 --> 04:15:59.439
forever. So even if this second interview person is fabulous, we might not be able to onboard them and you're going to miss the opportunity for a lot of help. And good, bad, or indifferent, you've got momentum going right now where people want to help. Don't let them get disappointed and go help

921
04:15:59.439 --> 04:16:14.800
somewhere else. Let them help us. Find a way someone else, an acco, you know, I know they're swamped because you only have three now, but maybe there's an acco that can take this on to get some people. Even if we get five, 10 people in, it's better than zero. And

922
04:16:14.800 --> 04:16:30.239
continue this process. >> Yeah. I heard the last coordinator was excellent. I would love that person getting here. And everybody doesn't know when the post was or how long it's been, and she said, that's how I know it's 14 months because of a social media message she sent me, um, which I'm not going to

923
04:16:30.239 --> 04:16:46.960
get into, but she was there 14 months. Before that, we didn't have anyone. And somehow this got done for some short period of bite the bullet, pay the overtime, get volunteers in and get animals out. Thank you.

924
04:16:46.960 --> 04:17:02.319
>> It would be excellent if somebody could find the last coordinator and entice her to come back. That would be spectacular. >> I don't understand. Here's I didn't really want to get into this. >> I heard she was great. >> I I heard that, too. And you guys can work this out. I don't understand how someone who is in a position and

925
04:17:02.319 --> 04:17:19.199
transfers to another job can go before we have a plan for the old job. Like if I were in my current employee employ employment saying, "Hey, I'm really tired of this job I've been doing for far too many years. I want to go work in this other division." They wouldn't let me leave until we could transition someone on. So for such a crucial role,

926
04:17:19.199 --> 04:17:43.600
I don't understand why the township allowed this vacancy to happen without a plan. Yeah, your turn. >> Can I sell her an extra couple minutes? >> Go right ahead. >> Um, I don't know where the

927
04:17:43.600 --> 04:18:01.359
I had the job for 14 months. Um, during most of those months, I worked a seasonal position at the tennis and pickle ball center. Last summer was hell on earth. I was too busy. I didn't have a life. I never wanted to leave the volunteer coordinating job. It was a

928
04:18:01.359 --> 04:18:19.760
fantastic job. I love my volunteers. I love the shelter staff. We did so much and there's so much more to do. I mean, the potential is insane what you can cover with volunteers. um in defense of my management team.

929
04:18:19.760 --> 04:18:34.479
They weren't given much of a choice when it came down to me having to make a decision about what I wanted to do. Um I had four years in at the tennis center and I felt an obligation to them. And as far as my personal life, it's just an

930
04:18:34.479 --> 04:18:49.359
easier task. Um I left them short-handed. I do feel that. Um I do miss it. My heart is still with them. That's why I'm here tonight. Um, but the position will be filled hopefully as soon as possible. It's not an easy

931
04:18:49.359 --> 04:19:05.199
position to fill because the tasks are a lot. Um, and if you take it as far as it'll go, it it's almost insurmountable. Um, but hopefully it will be filled soon and

932
04:19:05.199 --> 04:19:22.720
the shelter can use the volunteers to the best of their abilities because it takes a lot for those people to go into that shelter and work with those cats and those dogs and go home and still be okay. Um, it's a task. So, thank you.

933
04:19:22.720 --> 04:19:48.479
>> Thank you. Thank you. Any other second timers? Come on up, Steve. Steve Clay, Wolf Bre Road. I'm going to try to talk faster since I only have two minutes. Um, let me start by saying I'm not trying to brush off any safety

934
04:19:48.479 --> 04:20:05.840
issues. Um, I've been walking shelter dogs for 15 years. I've walked the biggest dogs, the meanest dogs, the scariest dogs, the dog nobody wants to walk, nobody can walk. It's not completely dumb luck that I have not been bitten, that nobody else

935
04:20:05.840 --> 04:20:21.760
has been bitten, that the dog has not been hurt. I take it seriously. But to go back to Merlin's assessment, compared to the statements made about him, and and like I said, all of his notes are the same thing you've heard me

936
04:20:21.760 --> 04:20:37.520
say. The same thing the current trainer says. He bites a leash. He jumps a leash. He's a big doggy. I've asked for a year. Can I walk this dog? And there's no answer. Can we get a statement why he's red? How he meets that definition? Still no

937
04:20:37.520 --> 04:20:54.720
answer. We've we've got a um email or we've got a statement from the shelter manager tonight that he lunged and tried to bite people. The lunging was written into the first assessment. It hasn't been seen since. The trying to bite people is not

938
04:20:54.720 --> 04:21:11.199
written in anywhere. Um, we actually have uh we actually had a point. Merlin got loose at the shelter according to some notes, which means he's running loose and somebody had to corner and grab this

939
04:21:11.199 --> 04:21:29.120
dog and put him back in his camp. A problematic dog. That would be the point to bite somebody. Apparently, it didn't happen. He had an opportunity to bite somebody. Did not happen. Every note that's written on him. He had an opportunity to bite somebody. He didn't.

940
04:21:29.120 --> 04:21:45.359
The trainer's last notes were he's got a toy in his mouth. The big focus of his attention that everybody's now worried about that has not been mentioned for a year. She knows she can put her hand right next to his mouth and he doesn't redirect anything.

941
04:21:45.359 --> 04:22:02.720
But then she feels the need to add if he couldn't have been directed, he could have gotten overaroused and he jumped high. So now we're just adding stuff hypothetically to make this dog sound worse than he is. And that's a disservice to the dog. It's

942
04:22:02.720 --> 04:22:19.760
a disservice to everybody that works with all these dogs and it makes it harder to get any rescue to take him. You now you're just creating fear where there should be none. And that's happened a lot for a lot of dogs at our shelter. And that's the reason some of them have been there for a long time.

943
04:22:19.760 --> 04:22:34.640
All those all those statements aren't made publicly, >> but we've heard them made internally. We we've heard >> times up, but I have a question for you before you go. >> I can I can I close with two questions? >> I'm going to ask you a question first. >> All right. >> And then you can ask me whatever you want.

944
04:22:34.640 --> 04:22:50.560
>> Okay. Um, you said there was no bite history documented anywhere >> from Early. No, there is. Okay. Uh, >> I'm looking on page 48. Sorry, I don't know if I'm going blind or I'm tired. Uh, it looks like page four of eight. Um, this is from it's

945
04:22:50.560 --> 04:23:06.319
dated at the top May 19th 26. It looks like the assessment could have been 218 2025. It says kennel behavior sniffs approaches forward body motion tall high ears forward eyes wide mouth pent. I

946
04:23:06.319 --> 04:23:21.760
don't know what that means, but teeth soft, mouth quiet, easy getting out, but then grabs leash with mouth. On returning dog to kennel, had to be double looped with two people. Lunging, attempting to bite, pulls hard, grabs

947
04:23:21.760 --> 04:23:38.239
leash with mouth. I wasn't there. I don't know that that's true or false, >> right? >> But it is in the documents. You said it wasn't. I just want to clarify. >> It didn't say he tried to bite a person. And even the current trainer's notes now, >> it says attempting to bite. So, >> but what was it? >> Well, it already talked it already

948
04:23:38.239 --> 04:23:53.439
talked about biting the leash. So, obviously if it was biting the leash and that was separate, right? Again, I wasn't there. I It's very tough because the person who wrote this probably isn't in this room. So, I can't ask him. I just like to clarify >> that it is in the record.

949
04:23:53.439 --> 04:24:10.080
>> I I did specify that is written, but there is nothing. >> I And again, it looks like it's from February of 2025. That was his first assessment and none of those behaviors other than the leash biting have been repeated since. So as we're it's that test that test is is the starting point

950
04:24:10.080 --> 04:24:25.120
because at that point you don't know anything about the dog. Going forward the assessment is not supposed to be a repeated test. It's supposed to be the observed behavior of the dog. >> What are your questions? Um, two, one, the last council meeting, one of the

951
04:24:25.120 --> 04:24:40.560
questions you were going to have brought back was the issue of Maverick, who I had walked for years, who is now made red, which means I can't walk him. The people who >> what's the other what's the other question? The other is finally after all

952
04:24:40.560 --> 04:24:57.040
this, can we going forward have a plain language statement included in the assessments that state how the dog's behavior meets the definition of the color of their assigned? It's been a year. >> It's been longer. >> Uh the second one is fair. The first one, can you give me an answer why that

953
04:24:57.040 --> 04:25:13.680
dog went from whatever to red somebody >> and and why he doesn't get out now? I mean, he if you want to make him red cuz he's not adoptable, fine. But to say now he's not I can't take him out then claim we don't have staff to take him

954
04:25:13.680 --> 04:25:30.000
out is not helping him. It's not protecting me. I've handled him. So what is the goal there? >> So uh March 6, 2026 was uh this was from the trainer was fine on the actual walk distracted by the environment. Once in a

955
04:25:30.000 --> 04:25:46.399
playard, he allowed some petting and seemed to calm with touch, but he would unpredictably suddenly jump up and grab at someone's sweatshirt middle region. Had to double leash with two handlers. He telegraphs where where and when he's going to mouth with his eye gaze, did

956
04:25:46.399 --> 04:26:01.760
some arousal protocol with him, and he sometimes auto sat, but then just as often jumped mouth with no change in environmental input, demoting to red. Yes, he's he has always had an impulse control problem and what you're seeing

957
04:26:01.760 --> 04:26:18.800
now is improved from what he had before. >> Um he was started on medication as well. >> Yeah. But so why can't I handle him? Why I mean if the alternative is he's sitting there because you don't have the staff to handle him and then you want to

958
04:26:18.800 --> 04:26:35.279
say there's no resources, there's a resource right here. Are the are the volunteers here to contribute or or not? This is what I'm here for. >> That's a That's a a trainer's determination, right? A behavioral determination. >> What do I need? Do I need to get tested

959
04:26:35.279 --> 04:26:51.359
by the train? I mean, I've walked the dog for two years cuz nobody else would. >> Yeah. Just to I just want to and I I'm hopeful that, you know, with a lot of our dogs, you know, if they're on behavior medication and, you know, ongoing treatment that they can move in

960
04:26:51.359 --> 04:27:07.439
the better direction of becoming red to yellow. I mean that's or and I mean obviously the best case scenario would be to go down to green. Our standing policy and a policy that all of the shelters that I'm aware of in in the or I won't say all because I don't know for that for a fact but most of the shelters in our surrounding area

961
04:27:07.439 --> 04:27:23.840
also do is that we have staff only dogs. That is our policy right now is that red dogs are handled by staff and our and I think we have committed to more resources to these red dogs to try to

962
04:27:23.840 --> 04:27:40.239
get them the assistance and treatments that they need to not be read anymore. And that is what we've committed to doing and that we have been doing. But as far as unless there is a policy

963
04:27:40.239 --> 04:27:56.720
change, the red dogs are staff only. Um, and I mean that that's that's just what our standing policy is. Um, >> what's the policy? What's it take to get it changed? What what other what other waiver do I need to sign? Like what? It's not like he's an unknown dog. >> Yeah, >> I've handled him. I've handled him right

964
04:27:56.720 --> 04:28:11.920
up until the point that that the trainer spent 20 minutes and said he's unhandable. >> This this one makes no sense. So the policy right now is that way. Uh I would like to continue the discussions. Maybe we can get this dog

965
04:28:11.920 --> 04:28:28.560
to another training specialist where maybe we can get that dog into a different color. Maybe get that dog to a rescue. But at this point with the determination by the behavioralist, that's where the dog is. >> Okay. >> It's again right now nobody's saying it's permanent. Nobody's saying it's

966
04:28:28.560 --> 04:28:45.040
staying there. And I've said from the beginning long before this year, I'm here for the dogs that that aren't getting out. So if if if I can't, then somebody else better. They can't sit for a month and once you've been in there for >> All right, Steve. Steve, we're going to

967
04:28:45.040 --> 04:29:03.840
move on to the next person. Okay. >> Okay. Fair enough. Thank you. >> You know me and you're going to continue to talk. So >> Thank you, Pat. >> Anybody next for uh the second time? Going once. Going twice.

968
04:29:03.840 --> 04:29:22.239
>> All right, we close the public comment portion and I would like a motion uh to move on to uh reconvene as council. So moved. >> Second. >> Madam cler. >> Yes.

969
04:29:22.239 --> 04:29:39.279
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. Um this is all included in the board of health meeting correct. >> Yeah. Just do a show of hands. >> Yeah. Um anyone wishing to comment on

970
04:29:39.279 --> 04:29:56.239
the agenda uh from the council meeting that would be uh from uh it's actually open right. So whether it was the ordinances, the resolutions, or if you have something else uh I know somebody else wanted to talk about, Tammy had something she wanted to talk about. You

971
04:29:56.239 --> 04:30:15.359
can go first. >> You, ma'am, you can go second. You're St. Stacy, right? >> I actually have a couple things, but I think I'm going to have to table them because we won't get to all of them. So I owe Fred

972
04:30:15.359 --> 04:30:30.239
um information about the Tammy Duffy Hamilton in fact about the warehouse that's on Sloan that was built that looks like a prison across from the uh train station. I asked for

973
04:30:30.239 --> 04:30:48.640
the final fire flow calculations and suppression system calculations for the new warehouse. I went to TWWW who should have been involved in that. Of course, the response was, "We have no record." I went to the county. We have no records.

974
04:30:48.640 --> 04:31:04.080
So, I went to the township. The township sent me records that were uh frankly the And look, they sent me what they could, right? Because I I don't think that they're going to have them. But what they sent me were all the inspections.

975
04:31:04.080 --> 04:31:19.279
What I found interesting was um I'll get into that in a minute. I'll show you that because I got to talk about this for a second. So, it gives me great pause that what I

976
04:31:19.279 --> 04:31:34.479
asked for doesn't exist. We had a warehouse fire on Whitehead Road, if you remember, that burnt for a week. The roads were closed. Okay. Mhm.

977
04:31:34.479 --> 04:31:51.600
>> So, there are laws on the books in the state of New Jersey that focus on the uniform fire code. Okay? And it requires that large warehouses like that one

978
04:31:51.600 --> 04:32:06.640
have verified, tested, and documented water supply capable capabilities of meeting high fire flow demands. None of the paperwork I got from the township shows that TWWW doesn't have

979
04:32:06.640 --> 04:32:24.560
anything. The county has nothing. So what happens in these large warehouses? They put reservoirs in their own water towers. That's what's happening, right? You go out into Bordon Town, that's what they've done. We have nothing. So God forbid somebody ever

980
04:32:24.560 --> 04:32:42.479
rents that and puts whatever in there. You have no idea. God forbid something happens and goes wrong, you will have another issue just like you did on Whitehead Road. I don't understand why um this is how we allowed that warehouse

981
04:32:42.479 --> 04:33:00.080
to get built. >> My ask is that you direct the fire prevention bureau and construction division to confirm >> whether the flow test and all the proper documentation exists for that warehouse.

982
04:33:00.239 --> 04:33:17.600
And if they don't, somebody better be able to explain why they don't exist because they need to be there and verify that the building's fire protection system is fully in compliance with state and local codes because right now the documents don't exist that prove that.

983
04:33:17.600 --> 04:33:32.799
And what I found interesting is the documents that the township sent me. Now, the the fire inspection document says, and it's big check mark, that it met, here's what it says. Hold

984
04:33:32.799 --> 04:33:48.160
on to your hat. Required inspections for all sub codes for one and two family dwellings. Check. Is that a one or two?

985
04:33:48.160 --> 04:34:04.400
That's the document they use. So, I have issue with this. You guys have to follow up on this because it's terrifying that this exists. >> So, um you know, I didn't get the information I wanted, but it is what it is. So, let's stick to fire for a

986
04:34:04.400 --> 04:34:20.240
second. >> When I This has happened several times at the five points. We have Merc fire department. And you're at the light and as you know, we're redoing that door again because somebody blew through it. Okay. Please, let me just do this one and I'll sit

987
04:34:20.240 --> 04:34:34.719
down. I swear >> you don't want to come back up for a full 2 minutes. >> No, I don't. I want to be done and go home. >> Okay. >> So, what happens at this light? It's really important. Um, when they come out with the fire to park with the fire trucks, >> y

988
04:34:34.719 --> 04:34:52.320
>> they just blast out. There is they don't turn on the sirens on the truck. >> They don't have the lights on the truck. They blast out into the road. And this has happened numerous times when I'm at the five points and the cars that are there have to dart, dash, whatever.

989
04:34:52.320 --> 04:35:10.000
There has to be some effective warning system that is put in at that fire at that firehouse at the five points. That's better. Robinsville does it. They have lights to stop all the traffic. Why do we do this at the most

990
04:35:10.000 --> 04:35:25.520
busiest intersection in our town? Like we really have to take this to heart so that there's something that's done that preempts people to know that they're coming. They shouldn't already be out blasting through the high through the cars and then turn their sirens on. It's

991
04:35:25.520 --> 04:35:43.760
kind of backwards. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And the motorbikes fix them. >> Thank you. >> The ebikes. >> Janice, you're up. What about they got killed? >> Oh, wait. I'm sorry. Stacy was first.

992
04:35:43.760 --> 04:36:00.639
Stacy was first. I'm sorry. >> Sorry, Stacy. >> Thank you. >> Poor Janice. >> Janice has been jumping out of that chair. She's waiting to go. >> Sorry, Janice. Um, I'm better now. I'm a little more calm down. But, um, >> you did great the first time. >> So, I live at Hamilton Chase, which is

993
04:36:00.639 --> 04:36:17.119
across from Dragonfly Farms on >> Coozer. >> We have a major trucking problem. There is a watermelon factory called Melon One within Dragonfly Farms. >> This is your current >> and this is all day every day. I'd like to share some photos so you could see

994
04:36:17.119 --> 04:36:33.359
what I'm talking about. I have called the police probably over a hundred times. >> Um, >> how long's that been going on? >> Once in a while, probably like three or four years. >> Okay. >> Um, the police sometimes give them citations because what happens is they

995
04:36:33.359 --> 04:36:48.719
sleep overnight and it's like a truck stop. It's we can't even walk our dogs at night because we're scared half to death. They They're only open from 8 to 4 and the truckers sleep overnight by the

996
04:36:48.719 --> 04:37:05.680
10, sometimes 15 tractor trailers are there. The police sometimes give them citations, but they don't care. Um they just stay there anyway and they just throw the citations away. I have, which the police finally told me to stop doing

997
04:37:05.680 --> 04:37:21.439
it because they could be laced with something, but the truckers throw away vapes. I've had bags of drugs there. Um, there is a mixture of everything going on. They're sometimes facing the wrong way. We can't see pulling out of our

998
04:37:21.439 --> 04:37:39.439
development. It's just it's crazy. I was wondering if council could consider putting up on cruiser road by Hamilton Chase side across from Dagnafy possible signage that says no semi-tractor trailer

999
04:37:39.439 --> 04:37:55.279
parking something cuz it's absolutely >> we should be able to post a sign with the ordinance that prevents them from parking there. >> I don't see a problem. We should put them all up and down both sides of that road. >> Did you pass it around? >> Oh, we did. But those are extra. Yeah, pass them all around. They're all

1000
04:37:55.279 --> 04:38:11.199
different. >> Well, here's your folder. >> We've seen them. So, a lot of us have seen them and >> yeah, >> we've made calls ourselves. >> Yeah. I've talked to the owners of Melon One. They're the guy is pretty nice, but he says they're supposed to be waiting at Love's truck stop um in Bordon Town,

1001
04:38:11.199 --> 04:38:27.760
but they don't listen to him. And >> we should start putting signs up. >> They still come anyway. And there it's an accident waiting to happen. >> Well, Stacey, can I just ask you? So, I saw your posting. I went out to I happened to have that Tuesday off. That's Memorial Day weekend that you took those pictures, correct?

1002
04:38:27.760 --> 04:38:43.119
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> So, I did I went out I spoke to Dragonfly. First, I want to clarify. You said that the Watermelon Company is part of Dragonfly. That's not my understanding. >> Um, well, they rent a space from Dragonfly Farms. The warehouse is right on their property.

1003
04:38:43.119 --> 04:38:59.600
>> It's in a big metal because I went I took a picture. There was like one truck parked there when I I >> Well, it just depends on the time. >> I'm not No, I'm not disagreeing with you at all. I just I was under the impression it was a separate company. >> It is. It's called Melon One. >> Um Right.

1004
04:38:59.600 --> 04:39:15.920
>> But they rent the warehouse >> from the space from Dragon, >> but I think from Again, I'm just clarifying. Okay. I'm not questioning you like >> it appears that they were on the side of the road though that the Melon Company is.

1005
04:39:15.920 --> 04:39:31.439
>> They're not allowed to be on the other side. No, they're on. >> I know. But I just don't want I I went I I spent an hour at Dragonfly talking to the owners and >> Yeah. I actually ended up >> and and really spent time talking to them. I know my a very good friend of mine lives in your neighborhood or

1006
04:39:31.439 --> 04:39:46.958
around that area. Yes. >> And she also did tell me that it's an issue for her in the morning to drop her kids off for school in the morning. >> Yes. >> Um >> I just don't want I I I also just want to protect our local businesses. They're not getting blamed for something. I realize it's a business and there's I

1007
04:39:46.958 --> 04:40:04.798
don't know that dragonfly I found it's not really dragonfly's property. So therefore, dragonfly where the melon farm is >> not across the street. It's on the dragonfly. Hold on. >> On the dragonfly property, there is a warehouse behind the nursery and that's

1008
04:40:04.798 --> 04:40:20.958
where all those trucks are going and for some reason they line up and wait there and they are causing problems for the neighbors as we're hearing and they cause traffic problems. They cause the safety they cause multiple safety issues and it needs to be addressed. So, we got

1009
04:40:20.958 --> 04:40:36.240
to figure out how to address that. >> I I would suggest that we get a hold of the chief and he directs us the people in his department that it's pretty simple. Move your truck. It can't be parked here. It's this this isn't rocket science. Okay? We should

1010
04:40:36.240 --> 04:40:51.760
have to issue citations. We should be able to go up to that driver, knock on the window, and say, "You cannot park here." We need to put the signs up on top of it. Talk to the owner of Melon, whatever they're called, and tell them that they got to have a discussion with them, too, because it's a safety issue

1011
04:40:51.760 --> 04:41:08.080
in our town, and we're not putting up with it no more. And that's in other areas, too. But, you know, the warehouse areas, I I live across from Cabbage Drive, and they parked there overnight. It's it's not a problem because of of scheduling it. And that's their road that that's like Warehouse Road, Cabbage Drive.

1012
04:41:08.080 --> 04:41:24.878
um that's that's not as big as issue is as an issue like this which is in a residential neighborhood and could cause a problem. So I think this is a simple solution that we should be able to address it with the chief and have his officers do their job as far as moving these trucks along

1013
04:41:24.878 --> 04:41:41.040
>> and they idle all night long a lot of times. So someone from that post told me to call um the Department of Environmental Protection was it? >> Yeah. And so they came out and moved a few of the trucks.

1014
04:41:41.040 --> 04:41:56.080
>> And so >> the police chief did Chief Sabosski immediately responded to that as well as the mayor. I spoke with both of them. Oh, that's >> and they had cops they had police out there immediately. >> Yeah. I want to be fair like aware. They

1015
04:41:56.080 --> 04:42:10.638
responded >> immediately like cuz that's awesome. And I was appreciate that. >> Should just tell you I want to just clarify. I wasn't making a statement that our police don't do our job. I'm just saying it's an easy solution for our police to tell them to move along.

1016
04:42:10.638 --> 04:42:26.160
>> And it it needs to be a sustained uh license. That's all because the one shot just come back. >> I realize there's going to be trucks. It's a business. I get it. But overnight and park till they open up till 8 in the morning, it's getting crazy.

1017
04:42:26.160 --> 04:42:42.560
>> They they trying to save money like it costs them money to park at the truck stop. So >> true. Thank you. and schedule the deliveries accordingly. You know, here's your time to come. You know, we shouldn't have them lined up there waiting to get in. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you so much everyone. I

1018
04:42:42.560 --> 04:43:05.760
appreciate you. >> Janice, >> hi Janice. >> Hi. >> While you were here, >> Janice. Okay. In this meeting, I talked to you about uh the potholes on Fox Road and he

1019
04:43:05.760 --> 04:43:21.280
said, "To find out where they were, I our gym teacher at school saw me and he says, "I can tell you right where they are and he drew a map. He got a map and put the pink thing down of where the biggest." He says he drives that every day. And he

1020
04:43:21.280 --> 04:43:37.600
said, "There they are. Take it to the council." I says, "Okay, we'll do." And there were two other spots further down. One is right by Steiner High School. The the center lane has all potholes up to the parking lot. And then that ridge on

1021
04:43:37.600 --> 04:43:54.160
White Horse Hamilton Square Road to White Horse Merciful Road. Somebody like dragged something down the road from White Horse Hamilton Square over Hamilton Hospital. Now there was and it's getting wider. I mean at the moment it's not a problem but it's going to be a problem. I would love to know what

1022
04:43:54.160 --> 04:44:11.040
they drag down that road to make that such a you know a mark that and it's for the whole length. I mean the guy whoever dragged it didn't know he was dragging it. I mean you know I haven't nobody knows. Okay. So that's repairs for Clock the Road. Then the other thing Mercer

1023
04:44:11.040 --> 04:44:26.480
Marine Supply closed. >> Yeah. And uh I mean I never knew why we needed a boat house on 33, but I mean uh then for three days or four days uh the firemen were holding a practice there.

1024
04:44:26.480 --> 04:44:43.200
Did they buy that building to keep it a practice building? Cuz I thought, well, they ought to buy it and keep it for practice. >> No, no, no. There was another somebody else bought the property but we entered an agreement with them an agreement where they were our fire

1025
04:44:43.200 --> 04:44:57.840
and and police were allowed to train there. So until until the building is being taken down. >> Oh okay. I mean because I thought I said this is spectacular they finally have a place to practice buy it and keep it you know I mean why not bought it. And then

1026
04:44:57.840 --> 04:45:15.680
last thing is since I come to all the meetings, Jeff Martin holds the record for the shortest meeting. You now own the record for the longest meeting. >> There's no way. >> Congratulations. >> We went long after mid in 2018 2019.

1027
04:45:15.680 --> 04:45:32.000
These meetings went long after midnight. >> No, no, no, no. Yes, they did. >> Sir, Lisa's shaking her head. She was here. >> I don't often say you're wrong, but you might not be right on this one. Maybe I didn't start coming then. Who knows? Well, I said I've been coming for a long time. But Jeff Martin holds the record

1028
04:45:32.000 --> 04:45:49.440
for the shortest one as Ross. >> She been I'll never disagree with you. Whatever you say goes. >> Thank you, dear. >> You're welcome. Anybody else wishing to speak? Come on up.

1029
04:45:49.440 --> 04:46:10.000
Somebody get tired. >> Welcome to Orin Hamilton. Um I was just going to follow up on what I spoke about at the last meeting which was my um request for a speed study if there's been anyone done on Hughes Drive as well as the speeding issues on Hugh Drive. Um

1030
04:46:10.000 --> 04:46:26.958
I did send all of you a follow-up email on May 23rd and I didn't hear back from anyone. So, I just wanted to confirm that that was received um and just see if there's been any followup to that. >> Do you have any conversations with the chief crime and chance?

1031
04:46:26.958 --> 04:46:42.878
>> Well, I wasn't here at the last meeting and so I I have to touch base with Joy, my assistant, who was here at the meeting. I'm sure she followed up in some manner. So, I just don't know the answer to that. So, if we have your contact information, I'll make sure that

1032
04:46:42.878 --> 04:46:58.718
either myself or Joy will get back to you. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Um, and did did you all get that email? I just want to make sure I like didn't do something wrong. >> Check. >> Honest. I did see the email. >> Okay. >> I did. I wanted to follow up and I

1033
04:46:58.718 --> 04:47:15.200
honestly with everything going on, I lost track of that. >> What date was it again? I'm sorry. May 23rd. >> Yeah, >> there it is. Yep. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yeah. So, I in that email, I tried to be concise and, you know, put together a couple suggestions that I

1034
04:47:15.200 --> 04:47:31.200
think are reasonable, like adding more speed limit signs on on one of the sides of the road without the houses. There's like very few. Um, I did some research. You know, visually narrowing the road seems to be one of the most reasonable

1035
04:47:31.200 --> 04:47:47.520
options by adding shoulder lanes, bike lanes, >> visually making it small, you know, more narrow so that the cars are forced to drive a little closer together, which makes people slow down. Um, and then I I would like to request a permanent electronic speed monitoring sign be

1036
04:47:47.520 --> 04:48:04.878
installed. Um, I don't know, you know, I've asked for that on Hamstat. that's it's not gone anywhere. So, >> we'll look into it because that's probably what Joy did was follow up because well, we do talk to PD on this because they'll give um passing

1037
04:48:04.878 --> 04:48:22.798
attention to that area in many cases, but they also work closely with the engineering department who does the actual speed study. And some part of the speed study is they'll put the um the electronic board out there, right, for a

1038
04:48:22.798 --> 04:48:42.360
certain period of time and then collect the data on it. So So we'll I'll see where that is in the process. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Do I need to give you my Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else wishing to be heard?

1039
04:48:43.440 --> 04:49:00.480
Going once. going twice. Sir, you have some fingers being pointed at you. Did you want to talk? Just making sure. Just making sure. Uh we'll start with um council comments. Uh who wants to go first?

1040
04:49:00.480 --> 04:49:22.400
>> I asked them already in case. >> I'll go. I want to say you've been bumped. We have three new I'd like to thank um our our health department uh officials for for staying for the entire meeting. >> Right.

1041
04:49:22.400 --> 04:49:38.798
>> Um appreciate it making yourselves available. Obviously um there's a heightened level of interest. We haven't seen this many people at council in a while. Uh we're actually glad to see folks come out and participate in the process. Uh and we do respond and things

1042
04:49:38.798 --> 04:49:55.280
do change. >> So yes. So thank you. So, um, you know, some of the things, uh, you know, I'm quick to defend and I'm quick to acknowledge where things are wrong as well. Um, and,

1043
04:49:55.280 --> 04:50:11.120
you know, I do think that, the administration has put in place reforms that have greatly improved um, how our shelter operates. uh we have devoted additional resources

1044
04:50:11.120 --> 04:50:28.160
to it. We do have a level of accountability that did not exist uh prior to this mayor uh and this council working together with uh leadership and the health department uh to put processes in place uh for dogs. There's

1045
04:50:28.160 --> 04:50:45.120
a committee. So, it's not anybody making arbitrary decisions. Um there's there's levels of oversight uh with the decisions that are being made and I do think it's important to keep in mind those decisions are being made in the

1046
04:50:45.120 --> 04:51:01.120
interest of public safety. Uh not only public safety, the safety of our employees um who are who are dedicated. Now that said, when we have a super volunteer like Steve who's been handling

1047
04:51:01.120 --> 04:51:18.400
difficult dogs for 15 years, >> I I just, you know, I'd like to see if there is some process we can put in place. >> Uh because the worse the designation of the dogs, the less um volunteers there

1048
04:51:18.400 --> 04:51:33.040
are that are going to be able to access those. >> Yeah. And not to interrupt your statement, but I just did an aside and talked with these ladies about that very thing. So, we'll discuss it, Steve, and we'll see what we can come up with. >> Yeah, it's not every volunteer, right?

1049
04:51:33.040 --> 04:51:49.040
Not every volunteer is going to be uh suitable to handle all dogs, but you know, we do have some folks who are willing and able. And I know Steve's been injured by dog, not our dogs necessarily, but >> it was your own dog. Yeah. and and look,

1050
04:51:49.040 --> 04:52:06.240
he's still coming to uh work with more dogs. He's a dedicated, experienced dog handler. Uh so somebody like that uh who can help us, we ought to let them help us. Um yeah, otherwise, you know, I just I

1051
04:52:06.240 --> 04:52:21.840
appreciate the input of the public. I appreciate uh the thoroughess of the presentation today and and the dedication of our of our staff and the folks from the township employees who did come out uh to attend today. Um

1052
04:52:21.840 --> 04:52:38.878
you know, I'm confident in in our in our people, the work that we're doing. There's always room for improvement and I know the administration is always open to uh fair criticism as well and they've been able to be responsive to that.

1053
04:52:38.878 --> 04:52:58.160
Apparently, apparently my side is good. >> You could come back with Rick. You could come back for two minutes. >> Councilman update. >> I Who's going to let All right. I'm getting >> She's vice president. >> I'd like to say this is my longest

1054
04:52:58.160 --> 04:53:15.600
council meeting. So, I know you've had longer ones in the past. I like to say I'm lacking beauty sleep, but I gave up on that years ago. So, Listen, at at the end of the day, you know, community involvement's great. You know, social media is new, right? Um well, it's not

1055
04:53:15.600 --> 04:53:29.840
new, but it's been around for a while. Um and it brings people out and it was evident tonight, right? We had a big crowd. Is the system perfect? I don't know of any system that's perfect. I don't know of any business that doesn't

1056
04:53:29.840 --> 04:53:45.920
have their own flaws, right? Um, but we try to we try to make changes. Um, I know prior to myself coming on council and talking those reading the papers and everything that was in the papers before about our shelter and how it was

1057
04:53:45.920 --> 04:54:02.718
mismanaged and you had an administration when when Jeff Martin and others were counsel council people on council how they addressed it and they had investigations and we've come a long way. >> Is it perfect? No. Do we need more

1058
04:54:02.718 --> 04:54:19.440
involvement and people volunteering? Sure we do. It was great. You know, we had our some of our shelter employees out here tonight and spoke highly about number one the professionalism that that that happens at the shelter on a daily basis and more important how they love

1059
04:54:19.440 --> 04:54:34.240
their jobs. They love their jobs. They wouldn't be there if they didn't. Right? There's many jobs out there for people, but they love animals and they like to um be part of it and they should be commended for that, too. I think I I'd love to see

1060
04:54:34.240 --> 04:54:50.560
more and I'm not saying it was negative. I'd like to see more positivity coming out. Hopefully after tonight's meeting, we see positive posts on social media um by by others and in a more positive way to say, "Hey, you know what? People

1061
04:54:50.560 --> 04:55:06.638
spoke tonight. We're going to take and listen to what some of the suggestions are and see if we can come up with a better game plan. Yeah. We want to get that that that new hire hired as soon as possible that that's going to relieve some of the stress and burden on on

1062
04:55:06.638 --> 04:55:22.400
Danielle and her team that we could operate a lot more efficiently. But, you know, to think that we're anywhere near what this shelter used to be, I I totally disagree. And we've made great strides. And and I know council has sit

1063
04:55:22.400 --> 04:55:38.160
here and we've listened. We've listened in the past. The people like Steve and Juliana has gotten involved in in the last 6 months, a year, whatever it is. I'm not keeping count, but um we're listening and and we're responding and

1064
04:55:38.160 --> 04:55:54.798
we're asking questions and we'll continue to ask questions. And again, it's been a long night. I know Janice is tired and I know I'm tired. And uh um I hope everybody has safe travels going home and look forward to the next meeting. Thank you.

1065
04:55:54.798 --> 04:56:10.400
>> Council President, can I get two more minutes? >> Well, I you know what I had I had one more thing and I couldn't remember what it was and and Chy reminded me, Councilman Willing reminded me. Um and this is uh a serious point. Anytime

1066
04:56:10.400 --> 04:56:28.080
anybody reaches out to a volunteer, they shouldn't get a nonresponse. Um, so I I hope we can fix that immediately. Um, you know, just so even if it's a an automated response that says, "Hey, you know, bear with us. Be patient. We're

1067
04:56:28.080 --> 04:56:46.798
going to respond." Whatever it may be. That's it. Thanks. >> Taught all day. Just said, "Okay, I actually took a personal date tomorrow, but I think I'm going to switch to a sex day." Um, I don't know that I could say any better than Councilman Thai or

1068
04:56:46.798 --> 04:57:02.400
Councilman Whan. Um, again, thank you for everyone for coming out. Um, and you know, a lot I I mean, so you really s you know, I think a lot a lot of positive and constructive things happened tonight. Um but again I I

1069
04:57:02.400 --> 04:57:19.200
really want to acknowledge um our volunteers, our staff, our managers, our directors um who have brought the shelter so far. I mean that's when I started coming to council meeting too and um and we were getting national attention and and it

1070
04:57:19.200 --> 04:57:35.760
wasn't good. Um, so I know that we're being live streamed. So I just want So you know, again, please keep it positive like as Shy said that that's really we all want to help the animals. We want to work hard. We want to all pitch in. Get a volunteer coordinator. It that's a

1071
04:57:35.760 --> 04:57:50.638
tough job. I mean they I think Chris you read me the I think the job description of the qualifications. I said you need a teacher is what you need but I'm just safe. So, I said, "Check the retired teachers from the board of ed meetings and maybe you'll find someone to fill that position." I'd take it if I was

1072
04:57:50.638 --> 04:58:06.480
retiring, but um you know, it just takes time for these things. And I know it's frustrating. Um but again, I I think everybody, you know, is trying for the right thing. And um I just want to remind everybody too that, you know, again, donations can be made as you guys

1073
04:58:06.480 --> 04:58:23.360
said right on the website. It's um so you can go to the shelter website, donate, and like we said, just for today, thanks to two private anonymous donors, I'll say it that way. People who did not want to be publicly recognized um who donated money so that

1074
04:58:23.360 --> 04:58:39.920
Merlin could go to to the um new facility to be trained. So um I want to thank them publicly. They know who they are. and um ask everyone to kind of continue to pitch in because we're not going to always have that and you know

1075
04:58:39.920 --> 04:58:57.280
unfortunately everything does cost money and that's that's part of life, right? So, um I won't keep you any longer. Thank you again for coming out tonight and see you next month. >> I promise I'll be briefer than everyone else that spoke tonight. Um I just want

1076
04:58:57.280 --> 04:59:13.200
to thank everybody uh especially the team that sits up here. You know, I brag about you. even though I thank all of you uh every meeting, but I mean it and I appreciate you. U I'm going to call out two individuals. Um first zooies to go. Good luck with your business. We we

1077
04:59:13.200 --> 04:59:29.760
wish you all the luck. Uh sorry, I'm going to call out three people. Um we have an intern sitting in the back that decided he was going to come since he's uh interning and he sat um sitting right behind you, Steve. Um he decided he wanted to come and see how what the meetings were about. So,

1078
04:59:29.760 --> 04:59:45.280
>> I can't believe you're still here. >> I've never come to another. >> Um, the next next person I'm going to call out uh needs needs no uh introduction. Um, I knew uh her greatness before tonight. Um, the way you handled uh the hearing tonight, your

1079
04:59:45.280 --> 05:00:01.120
professionalism, your attention to detail, uh, you know, I've been impressed with you uh since the first time we met, and I commend you on the great job you did tonight. I I don't know that there's words to express that. I just want to say thank you. I appreciate your friendship, but mo most of all, I appreciate your work ethic

1080
05:00:01.120 --> 05:00:17.040
because uh you you set the bar high and and you make everybody strive to get to that level and and I appreciate you. Thank you. I'm going to close the close the meeting on that. Um our next meeting uh July 21st. Um maybe we'll see

1081
05:00:17.040 --> 05:00:29.840
everybody, maybe we won't. Um have a good night. >> Maybe we'll still be here. >> Meetings. Thank you. store.