Did you see >> you can? >> Honestly, you can, but they won't even tell you the >> No. Oh, okay. That's what I was curious. Okay, no big deal. >> Got you. >> One time I got excited about one of those and I was told >> there's nothing. Okay. I wasn't sure.
Yeah, >> probably. How we doing? Everybody ready? >> Yes. >> Good evening everyone. I hereby announce that pursuant to section five of the open public meetings act that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided
in the notice which was sent to the Asbury Park Press the two river times and posted on the bulletin board in township hall and filed in the township clerk's office on January 6th 2026. Mayor and Prevadutoo >> here. >> Mr. Foster >> here. >> Mr. Bontempo >> here.
>> Mr. Romano here. >> Mr. Vanderham here. >> Mayor, you have a quorum. >> Thank you Wendy. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under
God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Moment of silence please for the men and women in uniform both at home and abroad that keep us safe. All right, we're going to start with a proclamation for the high school particle physics team.
Give me one second to read that off. Whereas the township of Homeell proudly recognizes the outstanding achievements of the Homeell High School particle physics team whose dedication to scientific excellence, innovation, and teamwork reflects the highest standards of academic achievement. And whereas the
team participated in the internationally renowned Beamline for schools competition sponsored by CERN where high school students from around the world design original experiments for particle accelerator research. And whereas the competition challenges students to apply
advanced concepts in physics. I can't even read this. It's so complicated. Advanced concepts in physics, mathematics, engineering, and experimental design while demonstrating creativity and collaboration. And whereas the Homedale High School team earned recognition as one of the top 50
teams in the world, bringing international distinction to their school and the township of Homedale. And whereas team members Hopsa Osman, Victoria Rampula, Brendan Lawler, Ronan Krabchic, and Arsh Batia under the leadership of coach June Lee and with
the support of the Homeell Foundation for Educational Excellence demonstrated exceptional talent and commitment. And whereas the township of Homedale commends the students, their coach, their teachers, their families, and all who supported this remarkable accomplishment. Now, therefore, be it
resolved by the mayor and township committee of the township of Homeell on this 21st day of July, 2026, that congratulations are hereby extended to the Homeell High School particle physics team and coach June Lee for their outstanding achievement and for representing the township with
excellence on the international stage. Be it further resolved that a suitably engrossed copy of this proclamation be presented to the team as a token of the township's appreciation, admiration with best wishes for continued success in all their future endeavors. Well done, top 50 in the world.
>> What do you say, kids? Let's get a picture. Yeah, I'll move. Let's get everybody. Good job. Great job. So before we uh get to our representative from JCPNL, I do have a a
statement myself and uh our attorney Mike Collins are going to read. Everybody get that? All right. As the public is aware, the township filed a superior court enforcement action against Oakill Barn LLC, the owner of 177 Stillwell Road in Homeell. While the
township does not ordinarily comment on active litigation in light of the property owner issuing public statements challenging the township funding the litigation, I want to take this opportunity to provide the public with the facts so there's transparency on this matter. to assist with this. I'd like to turn things over to the township
attorney to explain what's transpired. >> Sure. Good evening everyone and thank you mayor. I will share with the public what has been alleged in the court filings uh including the township's verified complaint which was filed under oath as well as the ensuing uh pleadings and court orders that have been issued
in this matter. Um Oakill Barn became the owner of the property earlier this year. The property previously received land use board approvals from the Homedale zoning board on July 15th, 2020. After acquiring the property, the defendant um did not obtain any approvals from the planning board or
zoning board and instead began construction contrary to the 2020 zoning board approval. The township then received complaints from neighboring property owners. The township issued numerous violations contending that the property owner violated the applicable zoning, the uniform construction code,
and the uniform fire code. These violations were issued by the township's zoning officer and construction official, respectively. On April 28th, 2026, defendants's attorney wrote the township essentially asking for it to stay enforcement of the violations while it
made application to the zoning board. The township in response through a letter from myself expressed a willingness to cooperate provided no further unpermitted construction took place. Thereafter, Homedale's inspectors observed continued construction. The township also became aware that the
property was beginning operations that exceeded the 2020 zoning board approval. As such, the township brought an action in superior court to enforce the violations. In response, the court found that Homedale met the heightened burden to obtain injunctions in the form of both
temporary restraints and then a preliminary injunction that enjoined the defendant. The superior court judge provided the following oral decision explaining Homeell's entitlement to an injunction. And this is the judge's opinion. The broader issues are this.
The uniform construction code and the uniform fire code are designed to protect the safety of folks using it. And even with the fire code, it is land owners and land owners around it. There's a reason that we have these statewide laws in effect. I think there's also a reason why they're exempted from the right to farm act because they go to general health,
safety, well-being. And I don't think it's appropriate to take the defendant's word for it as opposed to the officials going out there to make sure that the violations have been abated. and they should be the ones to determine whether it is a tickytac foul. Is it a real foul? What is it? A violation is a
violation. So there are structures that are in violation of uniform standards for construction and fire which would put workers, owners or visitors and probably in this situation with a farm, probably little kids at risk. That creates some concern. I also think
there's some level of concern and I think Mr. Collins is correct in this argument that I have to be cognizant of the public policy here. So in essence, the violations with the UCCC and the UFC were noted. Construction continued and they went unabated. So yes, is the farm going to be shut down? Yes, I understand
that. Is it a self-inflicted wound to an extent? Yes. So that doesn't favor the defendant. But far more important, I think there is the message that if a township official comes in and says this structure is unsafe and puts a sticker on it, this structure is a fire violation and puts a sticker on it. That
there is an expectation for the township as well as for the residents of the township and the visitors of the township and the visitors of the business that these things should be safe and non-compliance shouldn't be rewarded. And the balance of equities in the situation fully fully tips in favor of the township here where all of these
wounds are self-inflicted in essence by the farm not recognizing on the first violation, woe, we have to fix this, but instead going headlong down the process and continuing. After Homedale brought the lawsuit uh to enforce its zoning laws, the property owner um abandoned his past expressed
intent of submitting to the zoning board and is instead seeking protections under the Right to Farm Act, which if applicable would have the legal effect of exempting the property from local zoning. The township has expressed in past court filings its position that the property does not meet the statutory definition of a commercial farm, which
would prevent application of the Right to Farm Act. In a more recent decision, the trial court judge held that the zoning issues must be considered by the Mammoth County Agricultural Development Board in the first instance and therefore lifted the zoning based injunction because of this jurisdictional issue. The injunction on
the uniform construction code and uniform fire code issues remain in full force in effect. The township is now in the process of completing a filing before the Mammoth County Agricultural Development Board while the enforcement action on the UCCC and UFC counts remain active in Superior Court. Homedale has
advised the MCADB that it will be filing this week and a neighboring property owner filed a separate complaint with that body earlier today. That is where things stand currently. Mayor, thank you. In an online post, the property owner complains that Homeell quote unquote brought this action to shut down
my farm and keep it closed. To clarify, what Homeell brought was an enforcement action to enforce the violations that it issued that the property owner ignored. The township's intent at all times has been to obtain compliance, not seeking
any other end. I've reviewed the violations with our construction official to understand why he issued violations that he believes affect life safety. The construction official provided me with this photo that he took on June 5th at 10:00 a.m. It shows two
children, including a little girl, walking along a walkway and jumping over exposed wires. Homedale didn't bring any action with the goal of shutting a farm down. We brought the action to ensure public safety, including construction code violations
involving electrical violations. That resulted in the farm being shut down that is on the property owner and not the township. It's a quote unquote self-inflicted wound as the judge called it. The online post also raises the cost
that the township is incurring to litigate this matter. But this argument is a red herring because the township would not need to spend any money on this matter if the property owner chose to work with Homedale zoning and construction officials. It did the opposite, completing further construction after stop work orders have
been issued and now litigating this matter rather than applying to the zoning board as it previously indicated it would do. So if anything, I would submit that the property owner's actions are why you and I are now incurring legal costs to enforce its non-compliance.
Also think about the precedent here. If the property owner's argument were followed, it would mean that a property owner can simply buy their way out of compliance by litigating the matter until it was considered too expensive for the municipality to continue to litigate. As a governing body, we have an
obligation to defend and enforce the determinations of our zoning official and construction official who are on the front lines implementing our zoning and the state's construction and fire codes, all of which serve to protect our community as a whole. I for one will not be deterred from following through on
this obligation by external pressure from the very party that has committed the violation at issue. We will continue to follow the process to ensure the applicable land use and construction codes are properly adhered to as we would do in any case involving non-compliance like this. I want to thank the public for understanding our
ongoing effort to protect the health, safety and welfare. From now from that now we're going to go to our presentation from JCPNL. hear from me though >> at public comment. We'll hear from you at public comment. >> At public comment, >> I'll be right. >> So, we have
Well, why don't you why don't you introduce yourself? >> Sure. >> Jose Ortiz with JCPNL. I'm the local external affairs consultant. Um, so I want to first start off by thanking you guys for the opportunity to come here tonight to speak to everyone. Um, I want to take a couple of minutes to explain
what this project is, why we're doing it, and how we've worked with Holdenell throughout this process. First, uh, this is an infrastructure replacement and reliability project. Much of the existing equipment along the
line was installed in the 1970s and has reached a point where it needs to be replaced. As part of the work, we're also adding a second 345 KV uh circuit to that pole line. The reason for that second circuit is reliability.
Without it, the system has a risk and could result in the loss of over 700 megawws of load and outages affecting more than 200,000 customers throughout Mammoth County, including Home Depot.
This project is one of 10 reliability projects that became necessary after the Mammoth County reliability project, which would have installed a higher voltage transmission line through the county did not move forward. Instead, we're reinforcing the existing system
within the existing corridors. Beyond addressing the reliability risk, this project uh modernizes uh aging infrastructure and strengthens the electrical grid for the future, replacing older equipment and adding
redundancy, giving our system operators more flexibility during outages and maintenance, reducing the likelihood of customer interruptions, and improves the overall reliability of the electric grid. I also want to address things we've
heard from residents. This project is not about data centers. It's about keeping pace with the decades of residential growth and economic development throughout Mammoth County. Homedale, like many communities in this area, I'm sorry, area has changed
significantly from when these infrastructures were first built in the 1970s. our responsibility is to make sure that the electric system keeps pace with the growth in the communities. I'd also like to touch on the permitting process, which is something that I know
that there has been questions about. We began coordinating with Homedale officials in late 2023 before the construction actually started. We first met with the township zoning officer in September of 2023
to review the project and determining the permits that would be necessary for this project to move ahead. Based on the guidance that we received, zoning permit applications were submitted in July of 2024 and following review, the township
issued the zoning permits thereafter. Later that month, we requested a construction permit to the township construction official and he advised us that it was not required under the uniform construction code because it falls under the exclusive jurisdiction
of the public utility. As planning continued, we met with township officials again in May of 2025 and reviewed the project scope, the construction schedules, and the tree clearing activities.
We had also an additional meeting in July of 2025 uh with town members that we went over the full project scope. At this time, we shared the project plans. In September of 2025, JCPNL with myself
met with town officials on site and walked out the line, reviewed the scope of work, and reviewed our vegetation management process and plans. The township engineering consult consultant also completed a comprehensive engineering review of the project in
December of 2025, covering the structure, the sidewalks, the guardrails, and tree clearing. Following that review, the township issued the tree removal permit, confirming that the proposed tree removals complied with Homedale's ordinances.
In addition to coordinating with township officials, we also notified residents and businesses throughout the process. In October of 2022, we mailed out more than 340 notices advising property owners about the planned out
upgrades and upcoming scheduled work. In February of 2025, we mailed out more than 360 additional notices informing residents that the survey was complete and the construction would begin in April. Our responsibility is to provide
safe and reliable service. Projects like this aren't easy, and we totally recognize the strain and impact it puts on the communities that they serve. But replacing Asian infrastructure and strengthening the electrical system
today helps ensure that we can continue to provide reliable service for when it's needed by the business and homeowners. So, with that, I will close. I will say that we'll also be back in September. I'm going to bring in some business professionals to talk to you folks and go over some of the things
that I'm not a subject matter on. >> So, let let me just uh if you don't mind, hold in for a moment here. I want to talk about how we're going to do this quickly. So, uh Kieran Tintel, uh government of government affairs of JCPNL was supposed to be here tonight. He's tied up at a storm center up in
North Jersey is my understanding. Um that said uh the commitment from JCPNL is to bring an entire project team in in September to get into the details if you will uh on the project itself in a way that you know Jose probably can't as a
liazison right so um but that said the way we want to handle this this evening um is when we get to public comment on agenda items we'll allow the public to come up and it's the typical decorum rules which means you have three minutes to ask questions of the governing body.
If the governing body can't answer, we will uh ask JCPNL to respond. If if you can't answer, then we're going to table we'll record the question and we'll get an answer as quickly as we can. >> Sure thing. >> Um so that that's how we're going to
handle sort of the the discussion. The one thing I do want to add to what you just stated and I want to make sure I get this right. Uh I think I it said October 2022 300 some odd mailers went out to residents most nearly impacted by the
new infrastructure improvements. Is that correct? >> Correct. Correct. >> Okay. Um and let me also sorry let me take one step back. Anybody that has questions related to the recent outages of course questions can be asked of the governing body we can't answer. We're going to turn to you and then if we can't get an answer this evening we'll
get one as quickly as we can. Um this isn't just about the infrastructure improvements. So, in 2022, 300 notices went out. Um, I do also want to add that in October and and and when when the zoning official met with JCPNL, that's because you guys were already on your
way and approved for the project. There was no steps the town could have taken to prevent at that point in time. There simply weren't. This was approved by the Board of Public Utilities. Um, and this is actually also an alternative solution, I think, as was mentioned, uh, to the original effort back in 2016 2017
to put monopolles along the New Jersey Transit line, if I'm not mistaken. So, this is a result of the court's decision to prevent that. In October 2024, I believe it was October, Frank Luna, representative from JCPNL, came to the township meeting to talk to us about the infrastructure
project. August 12th, 2025, September 9th, 2025, September 25th, 2025, then Mayor Brian Foster provided updates to the town on the project itself. In addition to that, on September 29th, 2025, then Mayor Foster did a mass call,
text, and email to the town, informing them of the uh project um and his walkthrough, if you will, on South Holland uh to look at the trees and what was going to be impacted. And then since then, since we've moved forward since then, per your statement, there was
another wave of emails of mailers that had gone out to impacted uh residents and um and then of course when the project commenced, you know, we notified everyone in the town, there was many mechanisms that we as we have to let them know what was going on. So, this
was a a pro a process that followed the rules, followed the path, provided we're not going to have comments unless you stand up and talk. We're not going to violate the decorum rules here. Um, it's a process that followed the rules
from the township's perspective. I can't speak to what JCPNL did or who it went to. Um the township notified the residents many times over both at meetings and through mass channels to let them know what was happening in addition to it sounds like what it JCPNL
also did to notify the residents as to what was going on. So this process followed the appropriate steps from our vantage point um was highly transparent from our vantage point and it is where we are now. Um, but it can be no
mistake. This was the alternative to the effort that was rejected back about 10 years ago at this point in time. And there's a court order and multiple legal statements that reflect that. Um, not the least of which is the is the judge itself in the 2017 ruling.
So, um, so that's where we are. That's how it began was was the rejection of the original monopoles along the New Jersey Transit line. Um, and since then, you know, JCPL seems as has reconfigured, re-engineered, and and
carved the path in alignment with what the judge recommended, which was in alignment with what the rage initiative recommended. So, all that said, um, if I can, I'd like to invite you to have a seat there on the on the side. This way, if anybody has questions come up, I can just look over towards you and ask you to answer
them if we can't. And then uh so Wendy, let's go to approval of minutes. I'm sorry, Mike. >> Sure. The approval of minutes. >> I'm sorry. >> Okay. Ready? Okay. The approval of minutes for the June 9th, 2026 executive
and public sessions and the June 23rd, 2026 public sessions. These minutes were sent to the township committee previously for review. Do >> I have a motion? Motion. >> Second.
Mr. Bontempo, >> yes. >> Mr. Foster, >> yes. >> Mr. Romano, >> yes. >> Mr. Vanderham, >> yes. >> Mayor Prevadudo, >> yes. >> Both sets of minutes have been successfully passed. Thank you. >> Thank you. Before we get to public comment on agenda items only, I want to give the governing body the opportunity
to ask some questions of the JCPNL representative. Um, for me, it actually uh and you and I spent quite a bit of time on the phone over the past couple of weeks with the outages and everything. if you could provide an assessment or a discussion uh around the
outages, you know, what are some primary causes? What are things that uh you guys are doing to do better in relation to that? How you've responded, how you've prepared for upcoming storms since then? You know, let's provide, if you can, provide an overall sort of provide an overview of what's transpired the past
several weeks with the storms we've had and the responses and and why some of this happened in certain areas. >> Correct. Okay. So, um I think you know to highlight the largest storm that we've had was the July 4th weekend storm that occurred um
here in Homedale. I want to say we started off that storm on the on July 3rd. So, the night before when the winds kicked in. Um it was heavily a tree event for us. Uh we call it a wind event because the wind and heavy rain and
moisture dropped a lot of trees as well as limbs on lines. Um so you know what we always do after a large storm like this uh we will go back out and do circuit sweeps which we did perform um right after we broke from our restoration efforts. We perform circuit
sweeps and that's generally where we start at the substation and we patrol the lines all the way down to the end to ensure that there weren't any hazards that were left behind. Um I think a a good point to say a lesson learned um could be on the communication side um
and and that's to say when we communicate with our customers with your residents um in regards to the ETRs. That's something that we're looking and we're kind of dissecting. We're going to hopefully hold some uh good discussions and forums with our stakeholders and mayors uh to kind of discuss how we can
do things a little bit better than what we've seen because when there's ETRs that are thrown out there, sometimes the system will confuse residents when we've restored power on a certain circuit. Customers will receive at times a restoration page. The restoration page
until the smart grid circuit is fully up and operational. and just kind of say what that is is is we've installed smart meters on all homes. Um the full system is not completely operational where we can actually see the live data from our distribution center here in Homedale. Um
but once we see that, we'll know whenever somebody's out of power. We'll know when they're back in power. until that system goes fully online. We're relying on the old system, which unfortunately when a certain circuit gets energized, it will publish a page
out to the resident or to our customers saying that they have been restored. And if they haven't been, it gives them the option to report the outage back. So, this way we make sure that we if we've restored anyone, a couple times it'll be s what we call single no lights where it could be one customer impacted by the
service wire to their home. uh we wouldn't know that, you know, if they were out until they reported to us. So, we're just looking at different ways of how we can be a little bit more informative and and kind of reach uh the expectations of our customers.
>> And when looking at and I know you guys had I think several hundred thousand outages over over all over the state. Mhm. >> Um, but looking at Homeell specifically, our first outage over the Fourth of July July weekend, I believe we our ceiling was about I think the number was 1,372
outages. >> Correct. >> Um, what's the, for lack of a better term, diagnostic on that, meaning as you and I had discussed over over that period, there are some outages that caused several hundred homes to be without power, and there are some outages that caused one to four homes to
be without power. What's the primary cause of the larger, if there is one, of the larger outages and the smaller ones, the long tail, if you will. >> Sure. Yeah, definitely. The the largest outages were called by caused by trees down on wires. Um, typically, just to kind of give you a little bit of
background, is JCPNL has an aerial rightway that we trim on a 4-year trim cycle. Everything that is outside of our rightway, which is actually 10 ft around the wires, and I say aerial because it's not ground to sky. Um, it's only an aerial rightway that we're allowed to
trim. Uh, anything outside of the rightway, uh, is something that we're not allowed to trim, but we will trim or remove a tree if it's identified as a hazard by our vegetation management folks. Um, so in this, you know, in this situation, we had a lot of trees that
fell from outside of the rightway and took down pole lines, took down took down wires. We had a couple of road closures that there were that were the result of these trees and wires being live and down. >> Sorry. Can you explain the difference for me if you don't mind? There's
there's areas where you guys, to your point, have aerial coverage where you can do the work to keep the branches away uh from the lines, but there's also homeowners have trees that impact the lines as well.
Do you It's my understanding, and I want to make sure I'm correct in saying this, that the longtail effect, those one, two, four homes that go out, a lot of them, not saying all, were the result of sort of the residential tree coming down on a line or a branch, meaning it was a
homeowner's tree. >> Correct. It was a tree outside of our rightway. >> Okay. >> Or a branch out or limb outside of the rightway. >> Okay. So, you guys have no uh legal authority or ability to do anything to those trees that are outside of your right away?
>> It's a great question. Yes, there's we can remove it with the homeowner's permission. Um, since JCPL unfortunately doesn't well I say unfortunately, but we don't own any of the trees. So, we don't have the rights to trim and or remove them outside of the rightway. That's
something that we have to get a sign off by the homeowner or property owner for that matter. >> Okay. Um, and then the the ones where you do have right of way, just for clarification for the folks in the audience, you guys do trimming, deforestation, whatever you want to call it, every four years.
>> It's a four-year cycle, correct? >> And is that a four-year cycle regardless of the type of town, meaning we're a pretty still a fairly rural town with a lot of trees. And so, are we in the same four-year cycle as a town maybe like Redbank, which has less, you know, sort
of greenery, if you will? >> 100%. Yes. So, it it is actually uh the BPU who determines the trim cycles, which we're in compliance with. It is a four-year trim cycle per circuit. >> Okay. I I see some of our state legislators here. I'm hoping we can have
that discussion. >> I know. I know. I know. Um I know. >> And maybe that's something that we can work together on because, you know, for us ultimately is is we want to try to make sure that we are taking care of the trees proactively. um you know if
there's something that we can you know have some good dialogue together and and come together to present something I'm on board with that. >> Yeah and I think you know look I think one example would be a town like Homedale or a town like potentially Cold Snack or or towns with a lot of greenery should have a more frequent cycle than
every four years. I think that's probably not a it's probably not a crazy conclusion to draw. >> Um I also want to be very clear, you know, nobody's blaming homeowners for anything here. these are outages. This is what this is this is what it was. We want an objective diagnostic of what
happened and where and how and why. >> Um some of it is within what you're what I'm hearing you say is some of it's within your control and some of it is not. >> Correct. >> Okay. But with that said, if and this is a message for residents, if you do see a
hazard out there, a potentially dead limb or dead tree, I urge you to just you can report it to your governing body if you like or just report it straight to JCPNL. We'll have somebody out to investigate it within 24 hours. >> Okay. All right. With that, uh, I'll
turn it over to the committee, see if they have any questions. Deputy Mayor Foster, if you want to start and go around the horn. >> Sure. Jose, thanks. Thank you for coming in. Just a quick question. As far as we have a fair amount of residents that are on wellwater, so no power means no water as well. Is there some way that they are
prioritized? Are you guys aware of like who's on wellwater? Just walk me through that, please. >> 100%. Yes. So to to to start with your questioning, yes, there is a priority towards wellwater customers. They are identified in our system uh from when they set up their JCPN account. That is
one of the criteria that are asked. Now when it comes to wellwater, let's just take a blue sky day, right? Not a day that you know everything's out of power. Um there is priority over those customers that are wellwater customers versus somebody who is not. Um
now a lot of times you know when we are in storm mode if there is an outage on the circuit we obviously have to address the circuit or let's just say the substation we have to address the substation first. We'll work from what I always call the beating heart outwards to ensure that they get energized
because we can't energize someone if say the front of the line is still hazardous and we haven't made the repairs. >> You're welcome. And and just to follow on to that, I'm sorry to interrupt in terms of prioritization, wellwater is a good question. What about senior
facilities? Um there's 55 and over communities. There are uh senior care facilities in Homeell, Care One being one of them, Bright View, etc. How are they how are they prioritized? How are they thought about in in the con, you know, with within the JCPNL prioritization structure?
>> So, they're in the critical uh facility infrastructure um plan for us. We have a priority restoration unit that opens up whenever we activate our storms and critical facilities are identified first and foremost by the county. The county is in line with us and we identify these
facilities as being a priority to getting power back onto hospitals, some senior communities, not all senior communities. um they have to be classified as such that the county determines and they do get to the front of the line when it comes to restorations as well as and I will say
road closures as well. I will identify the difference between a real road closure and an inconvenience. That's something again the county does address. Those are escalated through the IC process from your local OEM who will then report it to the Mammoth County OEM
who then works with somebody from JCPNL who they have in staff on hand or virtual if that's you know if it's not a large storm who will work with our priority restoration unit out of our dispatch center to ensure that these are flagged for escalations and then the county will determine the
priority order for our restoration efforts. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> Right. Do you have any more? Are you done? All right. So, we'll go by seniority, Joe. >> Yeah. Going back to the notifications to residents, uh, when you were dropping off polls and and specking out holes in
people's yards, um, outside of the mailers, was there any sort of contact? Like, did you did you have somebody ring a doorbell or was there a customer service agent that let people know that they were delivering poles and leaving them on people's lawns and such? >> I unfortunately don't myself have that
information. I will have that information. and I'll jot that down as something that they'll want to know to follow up with you. >> Thank you. >> You're very welcome. >> You good, Joe? >> I'm good, >> Gary. >> Uh yeah, I'm going to actually just follow up on that uh notification comment. Uh Jose, thank you. Um so, so
you it said you notified roughly 300 or so residents for this project coming through Homedale. Is that a large number of notifications on a typical size of this project? Typically on a project of this magnitude, it would be pretty average. Yes.
>> Do you get any responses from those notifications? How often do you get a call back saying, "What is this? Why why am I getting this notification? Is there any kind of feedback that you get from the notification or who who's notified? >> I don't have a number per se, but yes, we do we do receive calls. We actually assigned we contract uh we call them a
public outreach who takes on those calls >> and they will document everything. They'll get the answers and reply back to residents." And I guess this goes back to maybe what what Joe was saying. Is there a safeguard that the notification actually gets to the right people? Like how do you know it gets to the right address of a house that's
supposed to have a pole in its yard versus someone else? Maybe it went to the wrong mailbox. Is there a is there a mechanism to make sure the notifications get to the right people? >> Since they are mailers, there's no way to find where the end result, you know, if it gets dropped off, say, by a carrier to the wrong home, let's just
say, we would never know that. Um but it is based off the corridor. So we we send all those notices out through the corridor of the actual line. >> Okay. Um and then as far as the the project through Homeell, there's different size poles. What what goes
into I guess you see the the circular poles, you see more of a rectangular pole, and then you see the metal poles. What is the what determines what as far as which pole goes where in a in a typical project like this? Is it is it uh the amount of weight of the wire, the number of wires on it, where it's
located? What what goes into that sort of >> I mean, that's a good question. I I'll try to answer it to the best of my ability. I'm not an engineer myself. Um typically, these poles are always based off of what you're exactly explaining. They're the weight of the wires. Um there's different um
angles and bends that will affect a pole as well as guywires that are attached. So those will also determine what type of structure and class of pole will need to be installed. >> Okay. And so all these poles have guide wires in addition to actually live wires. Is that >> No, not all the poles. No.
>> Okay. >> I'm just giving an example. So if there was say a T intersection where the pole goes from being straight on a street and then it comes off to another street. There is typically guywires that are attached to that pole. >> Okay. >> That will reinforce the pull that the
pole is having. Now, some of these guy wires, they don't belong to us as well because Verizon as well has a lot heavier wire that we than than we do on our poles. So, some of the guy wires belong to Verizon. >> What? So, so that was one of my questions. So, JCPNL obviously has lines
going over these poles. Verizon does as well. Is there anything else? What other user of the of the polls is there besides the >> It would be other telecommunications companies. >> Okay. So, do all of those companies then just particularly to our project um the
the lines are still on the existing poles that are older. Do they all have to come in at different times to move them up to the new poles? How does that work or does it are you guys doing it for them? What what what's the process? >> Great question. So the process is whenever there's a pole just a pole in general this project or a pole that's
being replaced the way it gets done is whoever owns the pole replaces the pole after which it goes by the priority of first JCPNL has to come in to move transmission lines if there are on the if they are on the pole after that we do
distribution so the difference of the two just in layman's term is transmission is like the highway it's what services substations it's a higher voltage And then on the distribution side, it's what services say homes or businesses. So once we move our two
facilities, then Verizon is alerted to make their transfer onto the new pole. And I will say we will actually lop off the poll from the real state of what we've already cleared down to what it's what is whatever telecommunications is, you know, is next up. The last person on
the poll has a responsibility of removing the poll. Doesn't matter who owns the pole at that point. They also have to take care of the groundkeeping and back filling. >> Okay. So JCPNL may not be the the user that's going to be removing the poles and cleaning up where the poles were.
>> Correct. >> Okay. >> Unless it's only a JCPL user. >> Unless that's JC Penel is the only one on that line or on that pole. >> Okay. Uh and then sorry just one other question and maybe on the on the storm response and it's maybe more an optical
issue for me when we have a that July 3rd storm and it seemed like JCPNL did a lot of preparation. They brought up a lot of new trucks from maybe it looks like some some other areas some other states and they were waiting in parking lots to be distributed. What what what's
the process for that to take place? because it felt like that whole weekend where a lot of people were out of power, you'd go over to Costco and you'd see a ton of trucks just sitting there or waiting. Like what what how do you who manages sort of the usage of those extra services or or workers that you have uh
to make sure they're getting to the areas that are that need the most? >> So, typically the the we'll call them contractors, right? Contractors that come in, >> they come with foreman. If not, we provide them with a foreman or a site foreman for that matter. They're orchestrating where they're going for
orders. Sometimes you will see them sitting in parking lots and the reason for that is is that they have a marching order to make a repair. They might be waiting for a clearance from our distribution center because everything comes down to getting clearance from our DCC out of Homedale where we're saying
it's safe to do to energize perhaps a repair that was made. And at times we'll have a crew who might have completed their repair. they have to stand down because there's other impacts on the lines and we can't energize until those are complete. So, we ask them to stay and stand by. Once we get the clearance
from the other ground troops, then we'll go through and energize each section and we do that in partial restorations. >> Okay. And what determines sort of how many contractors, additional contractors that you bring into for a particular storm? like do you get a a know what kind of an expectation of what the
what's going to be what's going to happen and then you bring them in ahead of time like how does that work? >> So we start monitoring first weather. That's our first step for everything. Once we've identified a moving cell that's going to go through what our engineering uh say will impact
customers. There's a storm index uh number that we use a computing system that will actually predict what we can expect in Jersey in terms of outages. We'll use those index models to start mapping out how many crews are needed. And so that's where we start working and
we start reaching out to our different partners. First, we start in-house with the different contractors that we use for just work. And then we look to other states, there's other bargaining units that we actually are cooperative of. So in in the sense of let's just say in New York, if there was a large power outage,
let's they got hit with something tremendous that we didn't, we would also lend assistance up there. So it's something that we all use. It's a tool we all use and share with each other to kind of help and map out what's going to happen and what's the plan. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. Thank you, Eric. Committ
Bmpo. >> Thank you. So, so, so a couple a couple quick things. So, walk me through just real quick because I I want to understand if I'm a homeowner, right, and I'm and my residence is on the path of this project,
I'm going to be contacted by you via certified mail. >> So, I don't I don't really have the full scope that's done by our project management. It's not something that I'm actually uh a part of at all. Okay. >> I'm not entirely sure of the complete
notification process. I do know that mailers do go out uh you know far out to just a first let you know that we're going to be surveying the area so that you know you're aware that there will be utility workers pro possibly on site just looking at things you know not to
be alarmed um typically if there's some type of work being done physically on your property you usually get um some type of notice I don't know that exact process let's just say for example if there's a tree we're going to remove on your property, you would have somebody
who would actually stop by and if they're not able to make contact with you, they would leave a door knocker asking you to call them for a follow-up. Um, you know, same when it comes to say general landscape that would be something that if we're going to disturb anything, we would do the same. Um,
replacing a pole, not so much because it's just part of our normal work operations. We would knock on every door just to say, "Hey, we're going to replace this pole." So, so I'll be notified and then I guess if you're going to do work on my property, right?
And potentially there is a poll there. Potentially there may not be a poll there today, right? Based on the current service there. So, did that was that mean that I have a utility easement on my on my yard? Is that what they'd only work in? So, a utility easement would
mean that you would have not an aerial going over your property, but if you had a pole on your property, there is an easement on that property from when that pole was first ever installed. >> Okay. Okay. And then let's say let's say I didn't have a pole. You decide to put
a pole on the property. Am I compensated anyway by GCP because I have a poll going up? Is are you guys negotiating with homeowners and and providing them financial I guess compensation for this. >> I don't know the answer to that
question. Um, ultimately, if you do have a new pole being installed, uh, we would have to acquire an easement from you to allow us to put the pole there. >> Okay. Okay. >> So, does it go into negotiations? I'm sure it does. >> Were you with GCP when the Mammoth County reliability project was going on?
Were you around with us then? >> Unfortunately, not in this capacity. Um I stepped into this role down here in Mammoth County uh to say about a year ago. >> Okay. >> Um so I was not aware of it or or knew what was happening. >> Okay. Okay. So did did you say I'm
understood it that this project when we defeated that project and we all all the towns banded together probably got person here was a mayor and some person that was fighting with us. We stopped that project. Was this project
in in lie of that project because the other project was massive lines running through a lot of towns and you know over I guess the railroad tracks right right that was over the railroad track right away back then about it was probably about 11 years ago is this an exact
replacement for that >> it's not an exact replacement no it that project was kind of divvied up into 10 different projects um this being a part of that so instead of doing additional you know, additional pole lines that we had requested back then. We're just
using what we have already in place and just replacing it with new upgraded. >> Can I can I ask a if I I'm sorry to interrupt, but I want to ask the question a little bit of a different way if that's okay. Does this project My understanding So, let me say it this way. My understanding
is that the original project that Greg mentioned was done due to uh at that point at that point in time a lack of compliance with certain federal regulation if I'm not mistaken. Does this infrastructure project as an
alternative to that get JCPNL in compliance with with FK? >> I'm going to have to leave that to the subject matter experts. I I don't have that answer myself and I don't want to say anything that I'm not, you know, knowledgeable about. >> Okay. Sorry. I wanted to That's fine.
>> So, so and thank you for coming here. I I appreciate because I'm I'm learning a lot. Um so, so we're at a point right now where there's large polls going up or have gone up, lines going across. Um
what who makes the determination? And you may not know this, right, of we're going to go to Home Depot, we're going to put up polls, we're going to go into Middletown, and we're going to bury them, right? Like, who determines that? Do we have say in saying, "Hey, JP, you know, I know you're going to do the
project, but I'd prefer you burying the poles because, you know, that that's that's a thing. We actually had conversation about that with the other project 11 years ago about if you're going to do this, can we bury them? You know, can because don't want them over people's yards." there was a lot of safety issues because was that looked at
with this for for for our for our town? >> I unfortunately I don't have that information. C >> can can that can that be >> that can be a follow >> when we come back in. I appreciate that. I ju I just like to understand because people were asking me and I and and I don't have an answer but I I do know
that that was a conversation we had um and actually I think it was we had so was so it was a prior to the redistricting uh Congressman Smith and his chief of staff actually came in and spent a lot of time walking neighbors and walking the lines and and I remember
that was resident asked a question of him and said you know if you need to do this c can we bury the lines right so Because I know in New York City, which is a, you know, not far away, they do a lot of burying of lines over there. Like, you know, they're your, I guess your counterpart Edison over there where
they bury all these massive lines. So, I'm just curiosity because I I didn't know how to answer that question. It may have been looked at. I don't know because I wasn't here. I was up here and I stepped off for two years and I just came back. So, I I may have missed that, but it it'd be interesting and help
educate our residents on kind of what the thought process was and why Homedale went above and maybe, you know, parts of Middletown or Redbank went down below. >> Sure, that's something we could definitely follow up on. I I will say this, just we always considered, you know, is it beneficial to go underground
versus overhead just in general. Um, I I will say just take note that if we were to do a complete pole line that would go underground that would also fall on the residents, the homeowners and the businesses need to comply with today's standards and change the service that
they have. They would have to, if they have a meter inside, bring it outdoors. They would have to go from being served overhead to being served underground, which means that they have to do conduit. They would have to hire their own electrician to do some work, which is costly. um this would be you know a
cost that would be the bearer of the residents or let's just say the account owners. >> Yeah. >> So that that is something we do consider and and obviously you know I don't know what was considered for this project but >> yeah I don't expect to have every answer but you know if you can come back with that because I I think that's a good one
because like I live in an older section of Homedale but we're all underground like all the lines except if you go out to 34 which is not far away that's above ground. So, so there are and I really a lot of home is buried. A I think a lot of it is. So, I'm just curious as to I
guess why these polls because you know someone actually said that when you go down Holland the the PNCR center's right there right on the kind of the side kind of the back entrance there and then you have the state police um as a troop C or
D that sits there and they have a helipad there. So I'm like, if these and those those metal poles are pretty big, right? At what point do you need to put flashing lights on those poles because you have an active helellipad, you know, that the state police could be using at any given time. Do you know like what at
what height that that that's required? Because somebody asked me and I said I don't know. >> Yeah, I don't know that answer. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you for coming here. >> No problem. My pleasure. >> Thank you. So um we're going to open this up to basically this is the part of
the meeting where we do public comment for agenda items only. Jay one second then I'll call on you. Um and so we're going to hold to the typical rules of decorum which are an individual can come up and provide comment or questions for three minutes. Please address the
governing body. Uh when you're done with your statement or your question, have a seat and then if we can't answer it, we'll direct it to Jose to answer uh on behalf of JCPNL. If it's another agenda item question, I may defer to Mike or Chris or answer it ourselves. We'll see. Um so with that said, uh Jay, come on
up. I saw your hand up first. last I don't know um Jay in 18 lad would drive Mayor impreudo um I think I was at the meeting where um JCPNL came in early 2004 or whatever to talk about the mammoth reliability um I don't remember them articulating the size of these
poles and how intrusive they would be the number of support wires or whatever they're called and the support poles which are among the most hideous parts of this project and respectfully, Mayor and Prevaduto, your your characterization that this was done all
above board, this was done right, we were all notified, we were all well aware of it, respectfully, because I get along and I like you. It doesn't reconcile at all with your press release and your outrage during the election season. And I'll spare you your quotes, but I'm having a hard time reconciling
your outrage and horror at this project after you just said this was all above board and we all knew about it. Um, I've said this before and I'm going to say it again. In early 2025, I came before this governing body and said, "What in God's name are those giant polls coming up
from Aberdine Madawan and are they coming here? Are we getting them?" And you could go to the video. You guys had no idea about it. So, that again doesn't reconcile with what you just said. Then yes, Mayor Foster at the time stepped
up, met with them and realized, "Wow, this is too far along, but we'll do what we can do." So again, none of this is reconciling with the history. I know I'm under a gun here. Um, Jose, do you know how much this project costs the Homeell portion?
>> Oh, sorry. How much does this project cost the Homeell portion? Um, what is the expected percentage reliability increase from this project? And over how many years will this be recovered in rates for customers? Uh will all of the existing poles that have been chopped be
removed? Um why are there so much why is there so much variability and I think the word is aperture of what holds the wires? There's like five or six, seven combinations. Maybe there's some logic to it, but I think this project would look a lot better if there was some consistency in what holds the wires. Why
are there so many tones and colors of the poles? Why are some of the poles now stained on one side but not on the other side? It looks ridiculous. They should all be the same stain. Um, why are there so many support wires on certain polls? I guess it's the angles. You said some
of them have 12 wires on people's properties. It's just completely outrageous. Why is it under the parkway near MSK? I believe it's under the parkway there, but not uh by the barn over there. And um getting to I think um
Mr. um Bontempo's point um in the most absurd cases where people's front yards are being destroyed by these monsters or these 12 support wires uh will there be real compensation for the material impairment of the property values because respectfully God bless you
people I wouldn't want to buy a house if they had one of these monsters and all these support there could be hundreds and hundreds if not a quarter million more dollars of impaired value from these polls and again these are polls that in Jan early January 2025 or
whenever I came before here and none of you had any idea about them >> and and and >> I know you can't have response but if if your if answers are not adequate it's not fair that we can't have rebuttal. >> I'm I'm going to respond and I'm going
to turn over to Jose to respond. So, first you'll remember and it quickly deteriorated. We had a representative from JCPNL here in 2024 to talk about the resiliency project which was this and it didn't didn't go particularly well. Um, that
was 2024. That's one. Two, in regards to my comments, just because just because this was an above board process doesn't mean I like it. I mean, to be very clear, I've talked repeatedly and in public about what I think is the I think it's a
war on the suburbs, quite frankly, between the the Treatton mandated housing, lack of school funding, um the allowance of the utilities without township approval to do what they did. Um I I think Trenton
completely disregards the suburbs. At best, disregards, if not, is is contentious with us. Um, and I look at this as another overreach or infliction of something the state has put upon us. That's my view of it, right? So, just because I I don't like it doesn't mean
we didn't do what we could to notify people. So, that that's that's that that's how to reconcile my statement versus what I said earlier. Um, so obviously I can't answer the questions around the costs. Jose, I don't know what you can, but I've collected here what I what I think I could. Um, do you
know how much the Homeell portion of this uh project cost? >> So, this is funded by First Energy, our parent company. It's not going to be something that is a rate recoverable. Um, and that was one of the many benefits of this infrastructure investment. This is an investment that
our corporate headquarters had said it needs to be done. So, this is not something that it's going to come back on the rateayer. >> That's ridiculous. Jay, Jay, Jay, you can't. Jay, Jay, Jay, we're not gonna have people scream from the audience. Jay,
>> we're not we're not going to have people scream for the audience. Listen, if there are follow-ups or things to be done, we're going to have the entire project team here in September. >> Okay. It is on the record. It's a public meeting. >> So, it is the position of JCPNL and First Energy that this project will not
increase. It will not be increasing the rates of the residents. Is that the the position? >> Correct. It's not going for for a a recovery. >> Okay. Um what percentage of reliability
increase do we expect from this project? >> I'm going to have to leave that for the experts. I'm not an engineer to have that information off the top of my head. Um but it is benefiting. Just so you know, as I stated in my statement, it's 200,000 customers that will receive this benefit in Mammoth County, including
Homedale residents. It's a redundant circuit that's coming out there. So, whenever there are largecale outages on our subtransmission side, we'll be able to provide power, rerouting it through a new circuit that wouldn't have been there originally. So where folks would
have had a large outage, now we'll be able to throw them onto the new circuit that's out there so that power can be energized. >> So are we saying are you saying it's a redundancy? >> It's a redundancy. Yes. >> Okay. Okay. I think the the question was, will the
old polls be removed? I I think I heard you say whoever's last on the poll removes it. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> All right. So Chris, we've talked about this before. Um the other lines that have to move off of these polls are not just electric, it's uh telecom, Verizon,
those types of polls. >> Yes. So I've already um made several calls to Verizon. I have no response from Verizon. So therefore, I will be reporting them to BPU as a complaint. Uh
the last time I did that in another town, I all of a sudden had some kind of reaction. Uh unfortunately, they do not return my calls. Okay. Um, I guess this is a question around
aesthetics, the tones, the colors, the number of wires. How is that determined? >> That that's an engineering question. I I couldn't say. >> Okay. Okay. And I'm sus I suspect you're not going to be able to answer a question around
impaired value. So, we'll we'll have to have to table that one, I would assume. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Nag. >> Hi, Sid. Nag one ton drive homeale. I um I'm encouraged what I from what I heard
today, but I'm still very skeptical. I have three areas that I'd like to address. Reliability, deforestation, and communication. I was here in 2012 in this room or maybe it was the senior
citizens room with your father Pat and with JCPN representatives Jim Marky and folks after that. Greg may remember that I still have the binder at home. the JCPN reliability project
and till today I still have outages on Tibberon Drive in the whole estate. Why is that? I don't I'm still skeptical. So I'd like to get to the bottom of that. Secondly, I want to talk about deforestation. You rightly pointed out
earlier what works for Redbank doesn't work for Homede. So if you're telling me JC Mr. JCPNL that you're going to deforest every four years. I'm sorry, it doesn't work. You cannot take a one and all approach.
Okay. Same with laying cables underground. Do you guys do any sort of study based on where you're seeing more of the outages? Which part of the town is getting more of the outages due to trees falling on wires? And are you
identifying those areas to be eligible for running cables underground? Are you doing any sort of study at all? I have a question around that. Right? So maybe that's something we ought to explore. Right? Same with deforestation. Do you
talk to the owners of those homes where you need right away? For example, the guy next door on Shank Road, if you talk to him, Mike Wilson, he'll tell me, he's told me, "I welcome JCPNL to cut down my trees, but they never come and knock at
my door." How's that? How does that even work? Right? And thirdly, communication. Your stack system sucks. It doesn't work. Just the other day, I reported an outage. Is this outage reporting? Is it
one tber on drive? Yes. Then I type in stat. Are you reporting an outage? I just reported an outage. Thank you. Thank you, sir. So I I think the So let me get to let me take it from here. Uh Jose, I think what
what Sid's talking about is how proactive are you guys being in general? I think overall, not the least of which is uh looking at studies to determine where there might be I'm going to call them hotspots for lack of a better term, but but hotspots where there outages are
more frequent. Does that determine a different type of delivery of electricity? you know, did do you guys do any type of proactive studies to look at those areas and and think differently about how we need to deliver service? >> Sure. So, there are annual studies that we do. We actually have to submit them
to um the BPU. For the largest impacted areas, we have to provide plans for reliability improvements for those areas that are identified. Typically, it's around 10 to 12 circus that they look at throughout the state that they want to see improvements on. um specific to
Tibberon. I can't speak on that matter, but um we definitely look at the infrastructure. We look at where the reliability needs to be improved and that's where some of these projects are always honed in on. >> So how quick So you have to you have I want
to make sure I heard you correctly. You have to submit to the BPU every year areas that are more frequently out of power than others. Mhm. >> That helps you determine where you need upgrades if I'm hearing you correctly. How quickly do you act upon that though
might be a a follow on to that, right? Which is if you submit the issues every year, are you committed to resolving the issues in year? >> Correct. So we when we when we submit the report, we submit it with a plan and that gets reviewed and approved by the BPU to move forward. So at the turn of
the year, then we actually start the roll out. Sometimes we're able to dip in a little bit early and start proactively in the same year if necessary. >> So you guys are okay. So you guys are in a constant state of
should be in a constant state of improvement is is the point. >> Correct. There's a reliability team and department that actually does all these studies. >> And how but it doesn't sound feasible to me. Not feasible. It doesn't sound likely to me that if there's a serious if there's an area, let's call it a 100
homes that that are seriously impacted, it might take significant cost and engineering to remediate the issue. I'm I'm I just it it's difficult for me to box how you'd get that done in a year knowing
how quickly how long it takes to do some of this stuff. Is are are you do you commit to a plan within the year or do you commit to actually remedying the issue within the year? here, I guess, is my question. >> Both. >> Okay. Um, and then the last question I I
sort of picked up other than I mean comments well heard on the system and everything else. Um, do you proactively reach out to homeowners to get right-of-way clearance to their trees? >> If it's in the right ofway, yes. when you don't have right of way. >> If it's outside of our rightway, if it's
identified as a potential hazard, say it's a dead tree or we'll talk about the emerald b uh the emerald ashbor, you know, beetle that was out there and destroying a lot of that. We will proactively go out and go outside of the rightway. There has to be justification for it though. We're not going to go and
step out of rightway and go across the street to a live tree that's been already identified as being structurally fine. Um, so that is something we'll look at and that's where a big emphasis of what I was saying earlier is if you know of an area that has potential for
there to be some type of impact, let us know. We'll be happy to send somebody out to investigate. >> So is is another way to let me ask a question a little bit differently then I understand your point. I could drive all over town and find branches in the wires, right, in any neighborhood,
right? Um, could a resident who has trees on their property knowing that they're butdding up against a power line call you guys and say, "We give you permission to trim our trees away from the lines." >> They call us. They set up a notification in our system for us to come out and
investigate. In the investigation, they would they would actually speak to the forester who does the investigation. They will provide the results. >> Provide the results, meaning trim the trees back. trim the trees or let them know that, hey, this is outside of the rightway. That would be something that would be customer, you know, that a
customer would need to hire somebody for it. >> Okay, that Well, that was my question. Can can they give you right of way to do that? And it sounds like the answer is no. >> They can if it's something that's deemed potentially, you know, hazardous for our to impact our infrastructure. Yes. But if it's something that we deem and we
say, look, it's outside of the rightway. It's, you know, the tree is leaning the o to and this is only an example. It's leaning in the opposite direction. It's not going to ever impact our lines. That's not something that we would take care of. >> Okay. So, there's potential for a resident to call in if the trees leaning towards the lines. Correct. For example,
that JCP will come in and fix the issue. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you, Patty. >> Okay. Hi, Patty Darero. Uh 20 Huntley. I just want to make it clear that I am speaking as a taxpayer only. Okay. My father would always tell me that if
there's a problem, don't complain about it before you try to come up with a solution to help fix that problem. Always be thinking, he would say, always help solve the problem. Good evening, mayor, council members, representatives from the JCPNL, and
fellow residents. First, I'd like to thank JCPNL for being here tonight and for taking the time to listen to the concerns of our community. We all understand the importance of having a reliable ed um electrical grid. Reliable power is something every resident,
business, and school depends on every day. At the same time, it's impossible to ignore the impact that these new poles have had on the character and the landscape of Homebell. Our town has always been known for its natural beauty, open spaces, and scenic
roadways. Many residents feel that something valuable has been lost. Rather than spending tonight simply dwelling on what has changed, I would like to propose an opportunity to create something positive that will
benefit our community for decades to come. And I'm asking for your help. I respectfully ask JCPNL to establish a long-term partnership with the Homeell public schools by creating a Homedale
STEM and energy innovation fund. This fund can provide grants to classrooms, support robotics and engineering programs, expend environmental and renewable energy education, purchase modern science and technology equipment, and so much more.
The ideas are endless, but the opportunity is immeasurable. Who better to inspire the next generation of engineers, electricians, environmental scientists, cyber security professionals, and utility leaders than the people who build and maintain the
systems that power our community every day. This would not simply be a donation. It would be an investment in the future workforce, an investment in education, an investment in the community that JCPNL serves.
infrastructure projects leave a lasting mark on a town. My hope as a taxpayer is that JCPNL can also leave a lasting legacy, one measured not only on poles and power lines, but an opportunity for our students whose lives are changed
because JCPNL and First Energy chose to invest in their future. years from now, I hope Homedale students will be able to say that while these projects definitely changed our landscapes because they're ugly.
They also open doors that otherwise would not have existed. They will remember STEM programs that sparked a passion for science, classroom equipment with resources that inspire innovation. That is a kind of legacy that benefits
everybody here and it brings a positive spin. And that is what I've always been taught to do. So I respectfully ask if the township committee can maybe help with maybe our assembly people to come up with a way to
make this a positive thing because the polls aren't going anywhere. But let's get something out of it for the kids. >> Thank you. Thank you, Patty. I love that idea. I love that. I love that idea. Let me get uh Go ahead, Nathan. Hello, my name is Nathan Brown, uh, 251
South Holland. Um, I want to address a couple things. Obviously, you know, I spoke a couple meetings ago and my situation was a little bit unique, you know, when it came to the JCPL project, you know, and how it affected my property. when it was mentioned, you know, the rightway and the destruction
of of trees and and landscaping, you know, this and that when it's outside of the rightway, you know, you can't really do it without the permission. My question tonight is what happens if JCPL is the ones that's responsible for the for the destruction of your property? Um, and then you submit a claim through JCPNL and they deny your claim saying
that they had the right to do that when it was clearly I'm talking 100 feet past the rightway. Um, also you had mentioned or the the rep here at JCPO had mentioned um that if there was a previous pool installed that they just kind of went in there and and just
installed a new one assuming that there was an easement. So were those easements checked? Uh because the previous pool may have been installed illegally under no easement. Um, so my question is, can JCPNL provide
all all easements to every single property that was affected, where the poles were placed along with the rightway of where they destroyed vegetation and trees, uh, and who's going to be responsible for replacing those things? Um, because when my claim
was denied, uh, it was pushed, it was actually denied. I I followed up to to the claims person that denied my claim and she said she had every right to do what they they had every right to do what they did. I don't think she realized the scope of the magnitude of what happened that a pole was left for
30 hours on my property on top of my vegetation way outside of a rightway with no easement on the front of my property. So I would like some clarification around that. Um, I would also like to understand the relationship with CW Solutions because that's who visited my property the day when I actually stood out there and said, "You
can't put this in yet." I have not been notified because under the new NJSA 483 17.10 utility company must notify land owners at least 5 days notice personally or by certified registered mail before entering an easement to install or alter
structures. Can JCPOn confirm what notice, if any, and by what method was sent before pool installation, not only at 251 South Holland, but to all the other ones as well? Um, I would like that clarification. And I would also like to understand the relationship
between JCPNL and CW Solutions because uh like I said, the claim was denied. Okay. I followed it up and then I I within 15 minutes got a notification from CW Solutions saying that you you were denied because this was supposed to come to us, but a JCPNL rep that put
that that Brian had put me in contact with told me to go through JCPL to put a claim through. He didn't tell me to put a claim through CW Solutions. I don't even know who CW Solutions is. I now very well know who they are. Uh but that was never mentioned before. So, I would like some clarification around that that
piece there. and looks like my time's up. So, >> thank you. >> So, let let's let me let me start from there, Jose. What is the relationship? I don't know what CW Solutions is. What's the relationship between JCPL and CW
Solutions? What are they what is the relationship and what are they tasked with doing? >> I believe this is really a project management question because they handle all the different contractors. I know CW Solutions is sometimes contracted to bring in and to be the public advocate
for one-on-one conversations that need to be had versus someone calling a 1-800 number, per se. Um, I'll find out a little bit more specific to this situation along with this claim that was, you know, rejected. I want I want to dig into that a little bit further
afterwards and see if there's something that we can look into a little bit further. Um, I don't like hearing that. You know, I'm human just like everyone else. So, I totally ought to understand if you know, my property was damaged because of equipment being placed on top of vegetation and uh you know, I want to
try to see how we can make this right. >> And you have the name and address there, correct? >> I do I didn't get the last name. I Nathan Brown was it? >> Yeah. 251 South Holland. >> I do have the address. >> Okay. So, you'll follow up uh on the denied claim. >> Yeah. I'm going to have somebody follow
up with uh Nathan and I'm going to try to open this one back up. Um, as far as the question on the easements, um, sure I mean there are easements for every single poll. Whoever owns the pole has the easement. So whether if it's JCPNL or Verizon or, you know, let's say
Comcast owns a couple of polls here and there. Uh, whoever owns that pole has the easement and then we share what we call a real estate agreement on the pole with the pole owner and vice versa within the different utilities. So, um, you know, if it's a a JCPNL poll, we can
always look at the easements. If it's a, you know, a BT poll, a Verizon poll, that's something that would have to go to Verizon. >> Okay. So, I I think the I think the first question I think the question that relates to it, I just want confirmation on this, is were the easements checked, right? Because it's I
think the the sentiment of the question was a pole could have been installed 70 years ago, but what if there was no easement? I I don't know how that happens. I'm not arguing the point. I'm just you know, is it, you know, do do you know for certain that where these polls are that you guys have easements, I
guess, is the question. Does the company know for certain? I'm not ask. >> I mean, the company should know. Yes, there should be a filed easement for every single pole that's out there that belongs to JCPNL, you know, specific to this project. Could I put my name on it? No. You I mean, who can? Um, but ultimately, there should be something
filed not only with in the company, but with the state for that easement when it was written. Okay, Nathan, if I missed anything else, come up during regular public comment. I'll record it down and and uh we'll make sure we get it. Jason Pino.
Yes, Arch Aronus to Winding Brook. Um thank you for coming. Um there's been a lot of talk about failure analysis in this and what went wrong. But uh what I want to do is talk about or ask about talk about
is how we can get some really really crazy stupid things fixed. Right. And and the first one which is iconic is the big metal pole that someone divide decided a good place for was right in
front of Homedale Park. This is an iconic park, >> right? The it's welltraveled. It's one of the most popular parks in in in the county. And here you put the biggest pole
right in the front, right where the entrance is. Now, what does that tell me about how JCPNL views its customer base? I mean, do they did they think at all
about what they were doing? Okay, so that's one. Two is I'd like to know what the remediation process is. I want that pole gone. You know, when I take my grandkids to to tool
park, I don't want the first thing that they're going to see is this poll, right? So I I think it's up to JCPNL to really find out what the most egregious errors here were and remediate them and
not all and also not have us pay for it at at the same time because there's some crazy stuff. Now I can understand polls on Route 34, right? major thing. I don't understand
the, you know, these these humongous poles in the middle of of of of a park. You got parks in front, you got parks in back, and you got this pole, right? That's all I have to say. That's what I want out of JCPNL. I want them to
take a look at what they did and fix what they got wrong. Not everything is wrong. It's one of those things. There's the good, there's the bad. There's probably some pretty good good, right? Because I know people lose lose power,
right? And there's some awful stuff and the awful stuff's got to get fixed. >> Thank you. So, I think those are good points and I I two sort of questions to summarize that or maybe follow on a little bit, Jose.
you know, do you guys have a remediation process for something that isn't I think we all find it particularly egregious to have that massive poll by Homedale Park? Is is there a process by which we can submit, evaluate, go to the BPU, go to First Energy, and say you guys got to find a different, you know, we accept
that this had that this was inflicted upon us, for lack of a better term. However, is there a way to remediate some of the some of the more egregious pieces of it? >> Okay, that's one I'm going to have to follow up on. That's >> okay. would have been out of my scope. >> Okay. The other question I I do have and
you may not know this, I don't know. Homedale Park is a county park, >> so it's technically county property, >> right? >> Would that discussion have would that discussion have to be with the county as I mean I assume there's very little we can do about it or perhaps I call the county and see if there's something we can do to to reach out like how how
would that work from your vantage point? >> It's a good question. I'm not entirely sure. I do know that the county was involved on any county property and county uh rightaway for that matter for the park itself. I know that they were involved in the planning of that pole installation. Um but that's something
we'll have to follow up a little bit more on. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh Ken, >> I promise we're not trying to tell you something. Stop me for speaking. >> Is this on? Can you hear me? Thank you, sir.
>> Ken Gha Street. In full disclosure, I also serve as the U home coordinator and co-president of Rage. Um, since I'm limited three minutes, I'm going to just say a lot of things fast and and right up front. Uh, mayor, I I find it really
really outrageous that you would try to go on record and deflect and blame a grassroot group rage uh because we defeated um the transmission back in 2018. So, just for the record, Homedale Township was part of that process.
Homedale Township when your father was still on the township committee voted to join with something called the joint municipal group and was an intervenor had a lawyer in there in the court case fighting against that. But for the
record um I think it's important to understand the electrical grid consists of two systems a transmission line and local distribution. What we were fighting back in 2016, which ended in 2018, was a transmission line. It was a
backup to a backup of the main transmission line. The main transmission line was a 230 KV line that they're trying to put together for 20 years, including through Sandy and Irene. They were out for less than 10 hours. What
they're trying to do here is part of the local distribution system. The local distribution system is probably responsible for 99% of power outages. So what we stopped was a backup to a backup of a 230 KV transmission line. What
they're putting up now is a 34.5 two of them on local distribution line. So you need to understand that. Second of all, the uh you asked earlier about the stress test. The that particular solution was because of a a national
reliability test. It was supposed to I've got a minute, so I'm going to go through that. Forget that. Um Homedale was part of that. The transmission line had nothing to do with the power outages, had nothing to do with the local distribution system that we have. Jose made a point early on to emphasize
this was the replacement of equipment from the 1970s. This is something that they needed to do and that's one of the reason why it's not part of the rate process that's going to be charged to rate payers. Even we had built even successful in 2016 and that transmission line got up they still
would have to replace the local distribution systems because they were outdated and has nothing to do with the transmission line. I think it's just outrageous that you constantly still try to blame a local grassroot group to try to do it. You keep saying, well, when RA stopped it, Homedale Township was part
of that process. I don't know if Jerry Sharpenburg is still here, but he was he knew that. So, I think he just stopped that. Okay. Homedale Township was part of that process. We collectively defeated that because it's outrageous. The um the judge put in there is that
this is using an elephant gun to slab a nap. Thank you. Sure. >> I think it's one moment. I think it's an interesting point that you raise. I think that um one, you know, my point very simply being was that this was an alternative to the to the to JCPNL's
loss back in 17, but I want to just address this for a moment. The judge's recommendation was to, you just mentioned 34.5 KV. The judge's recommendation was to replace or upgrade 3 to 11 34.5 KV older and potentially overloaded conductors within the next two years. Hire a neutral
engineering firm from a list created with input from all active parties here 2 and selected from that list by the board to undertake a new study of routes and alternatives inclusive of both HVTL and non-transmission eg statcoms as solutions to the P7 violation without
regard to any upgrade etc etc. establish an STS as a contingent temporary measure to prevent peak load blackout of greater 700 I guess uh megawatt loss to be armed for only the minimally necessary peak load hours. So my only point very simply
being you mentioned these are 34.5 KV. That's what the judge recommended based on that case. It says it right here. So yeah, I mean come back up to public comment. I I don't know what I'm missing and I'm not blaming anybody. I'm simply saying you look at the root cause of everything, right, of any situation,
right? This this didn't, you know, magically materialize three years ago. As far as I as far as I know, and I could be incorrect, the the the federal violation that JCPL or First Energy, whoever was dealing with is like 40 years old now. It's not awesome that it took them 20 years to even get to the
point where they get rejected by a court in 2016, right? Or 30 years, whatever it was, right? So, I'm not there's no like it just I I perhaps I'm missing something, but you just said what the judge said and that was the judge's recommendation.
So, I don't know. Anyway, yes, sir. >> Good evening. My name is Cass Klesco. I live in way south and I have a few comments to make. >> My name is Cass Klesco. I live on Morris Way South and I know a lot of you here
on the board have uh seen me post a lot of different things. I just like to make some comments. First of all, my family and I moved to Homedale 36 years ago. The reasons we came here were simple. Great school system,
quiet little neighborhoods, beautiful villagelike atmosphere. I look around now and look what the hell has happened to our little hamlet. >> It looks like a disaster. Why?
You sent out 300 notifications. How many citizens live in Homeell? 6,000? 7,000? All of that affects all of us, not just the 300 people that have right of ways. I'm furious with what you've done to our
town. You made it a complete disaster. I don't know if there's anything that can be done at this point, but something should have to happen. And that tribute in front of Homedale Park, I don't think I've ever seen anything worse in my life. I drive up and down
the Parkway. I don't see polls this high. What are you going to do about it? What are you going to do to help us to get back to what this town was really created for? Most of you are all newcomers here. I've been here for 36 years. This is the first time I've ever
attended a meeting. This is how strongly I feel that you've destroyed our town. >> Yep. And just as a just as a reminder to that, in addition to whatever notifications JCPNL sent out, we had a JCPL representative here two years ago. We had three township meetings where
this was addressed last year. Mayor Foster sent phone calls, emails, text messages to the entire town as well last year in addition to the other channels that we leveraged to let people know what was going on. So yes, ma'am. >> My name is Nancy Keglostro. I live at
214 Pebble Beach Court in the Boidge Homeell community. Um I want my first comment is about communication. When GCPNL wants something from us, we get an insert in our bill and you make sure those bills get to the mailbox and to
the right home. What happened with this? Just >> we all should have >> Keep coming. >> We all should have had an insert in our bill. Okay, it's as easy as that. Um, I want to know if there's any project manager on this project at all. And I'm
not going to repeat some of the things that people brought up already about the terrible polls, but also the destruction. This is this uh disruption. The trees were massacred, not deforested. Some of those trees are
better down than in the condition they are now. Also along with transmission lines that were put up, we're a town of only 17,000 people. We needed that many lines to give us the resilience you're
promising us. Comll is litted with standby generators because of the history of JCPNL being totally unreliable. Is JCPL going to guarantee to us now we don't need to buy any more standby generators? We had a storm on
July 3rd. what it was at 1,300 people without power and you're talking to us about resilience. That's insulting for anybody to classify this p this project as resilience. Those transmission lines are not retail
transmission lines. They're for something else. They're high tension wires. And along with wires, and you've got us wrapped up in those with no reliability. Along with wires comes service. There's no service. All those
trucks were parked at Costco while people had no lights. I'm in a community with 50 JCPNL street lights. Never are they ever all totally work working. Some of them just need ballasts replaced. At any one time,
30% of those lights are not working. And the only time we get service is when we call the BPU, who's not working that well anymore either. Okay. So to tell us and also we would like to have somebody from JCPNL here who can answer the
difficult questions and not I can't answer that question and thank you for coming. This is not an insult to you but tell your company we're smarter than that. Okay, that we need somebody who can answer the real difficult questions and
um please have your company clean up after themselves. In the front of the landscaping of my community are all your old signs of men at work embedded in our landscaping, old bottles from their
lunches as they work. Okay, you know what it all tells me? There is no project manager at any level of this project. This was a stick it to home. >> Thank you. So let let's take it let's take it one
at a time. What what I suspect you can't answer. >> I don't mean that as a shot. I just >> Okay. >> Um can you guys do inserts into bills? Is there a better proactive way to communicate? What's the mechanism behind that as opposed to mailers along the
threshold where you think people are impacted? >> That's something I'll bring back I'll bring that back to leadership. I think it's a good suggestion. >> Can you So NY's in Bo Ridge. If there are if there's 50 street lights there, can you guys get over there and take a look at why those are out or they're not
all on at the same time? Can you guys send a crew to see what's happening there? >> We definitely can. Is Boat Ridges is it a development? >> It's a development development off of Laura Lav. >> Okay. If you can send me the details, I'd be happy to follow up with our operational folks for the street lights.
>> And what about the cleanup? You know, if there's if if there's uh you know, we need you guys to make sure you they clean up after themselves. What what process do you have in place and what can you do like tomorrow to get folks out there to look along the the work area and and get things swept up?
>> Yeah. So, I there is a project manager involved. I'm going to get them involved probably tonight when I go home. I'll write them an email, let them know. Um, if you can just provide me again just the address of where this, you know, where this unsightly trash was left behind. I'll be happy to get someone out
there to clean up. >> Send send pictures to us, >> please. That's even better. >> Pictures and and Yeah. And and roads. >> Just send it to us on the committee. Send it to us on the committee and Chris as well. And then uh clean up. What did he say
here? Um yeah, and I think you know to NY's point, I think there's there's a lot of skepticism here as to what these lines are for, frankly. Um so I think you said something at the top about them not being for data centers. Is that an accurate statement?
>> Correct. Is there anything else they could be used for beyond that other than typical delivery, transmission of service, etc. >> Right. So, this is the subtransmission. This is what powers substations to substations, how they communicate back and forth. Um, so this was a redundant
feed as I said before to have us give us the option. So, if there was per se say a tree that goes down on that on a a different pole line, what we can do is re-energize. And what we're really trying to do is create a redundancy circle within the substations so that we
can put power back and forth as needed to restore power whenever there's large outages. >> When you say substations, are you talking Aberdeene to Redbank? Those are those the two substations specifically. >> Right. Right. >> And that's where these that's where this infrastructure project runs from Aberdine through to Redbank.
>> They're substation to substation. >> Okay. And so this creates redundancy between the two is is what you said. Meaning if a tree falls, people don't lose power as quickly or aren't as likely to lose power. >> Correct. It gives us the option to back feed a different route.
>> Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, Miss Solaro. Okay. Kristen Carero, five hotbrook lane. So, uh, JCPNL, thank you for being here tonight. Um, they provided a very detailed timeline of events, so we know
clearly that you guys were in touch and so did you, the TC, regarding all of the township's communication. Why don't you guys publish that suite of information all in the same place so we can see it all? And sometimes, you know, when when we're on the website, there's draft this, draft that. It would be helpful if
only like if say under a a button um all the final materials are in one place. That would be terrific. Thank you. Um so I'm interested to know if any of these communications had a a drawing
like this that would show how big these polls were going to be because your job is to help people understand and I don't think anybody understood what was coming. Um I don't know Rocco if you saw my it's not drawn to scale a little bit. Yeah.
Um and and and further with with JCPNL. Um I I I'm not sure that you were adequately prepared. I don't know that you should have been here without knowing precisely how people are notified. >> Um >> there was another individual that was supposed to be here as well with him and
that was >> it's unacceptable. So, so you know, um, in today's day and age, like like the prior commenter noted, you know, we get all of these notifications, but the the most important one, the bill, right?
Like those come. Um, but, you know, I know that the town for some of the most urgent communications have to has to send information via certified mail. I I think this is something that would have reached a certified mail threshold. So maybe maybe we should raise that as well. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. Yeah, and I neglected to mention at the top, I agree with you. We're going to publish the timeline and the information that came through on the website hopefully this week. So, yes, sir. time.
>> Hi, my name is uh Bill Bartos. Uh 16 Indian Creek Road. I lived here 20 years. Uh 42 years of my career. I've been a f chief in Bayon. I'm going to share some experiences here. Uh what's probably going to happen. This was a very small storm. You got lucky. Let me
tell you, if it was a a two-day event, a noraster, leaves on a tree, we'd be weeks without power. >> We'd be weeks without power if it was any kind of major storm. >> Yeah. Um, just my experience, this was a very small weak storm and it JCPNL
dropped the ball. If this was a two or three day storm nor easter or god forbid if it was January and we had a major ice storm we'd be out with power for days eight remember hurricane Sandy was eight days the other storm was five days this
was three days so JCPN get ready you you couldn't even handle a small storm uh uh item one tree trimming uh I get it we beat this one to death I identified a tree four years ago So, me and my
neighbors and you you just disregarded and guess what? It came down and took down three poles. So, there it goes. I talked to uh the power company guys. There's abandoned utility lines on a pole. They're communications and uh they're dormant. They weigh down the
poles. So, I two days on July 3rd, two poles came down. On July 4th, at 3:00 in the morning, July 5th, I hear another crash out my window. That was a communication wires pulling down the third pole. Lucky nobody was walking by. They'd be dead. Uh homeowner tree
maintenance. Uh you know, it's pretty simple here. Um a lot of my neighbors are saying, "Well, there's a lot of restrictions, permitting and stuff like that." Well, maybe we should look at that. Uh promote residential power backup systems. Some people in the block have it. We try to help each other out.
Maybe uh the township could look into uh offsetting the uh waving the permit, the fees and stuff like that when they did after supertorm Sandy, right? You want to put a generator in, maybe the electrical permit and the uh plumbing permit fee gets waved. It offsets because of the DPW and the first
responders what their cost is, but it's a beneficial that the community has power because you're not going to get it from JCPNL. Uh quarterly brush and branch curbside pickup. Chris, uh, business administrator beanie, he I called him.
Uh, we, the neighborhood was getting, uh, really antsy. Thank you so much. You really helped us out. After three days, no power. It was getting really dicey. I I called him. He got us all straightened out. And then, uh, DPW, your DPW is the
best. They send the payload that night, two hours after the storm, and cleared the tree right out of the out of one part on North View Terrace. Tremendous. DPW is great. dry ice distribution. So, a lot of the people have power, no problem. The other
people I was running down getting ice dry ice. That's what kind it gives out. >> All right. You want me to keep going? I got >> No, I we got your um you know how to reach me. >> Thank >> So, Indian Creek, Jose, you and I talked
about that quite a bit when the power was out. What's the Has anybody looked at abandoned utility lines on there? It sounds I mean, has that been cleared out completely from the storm? Do we know anything about that? And and can we get someone over to take a look? >> They put back up. >> They put the abandoned lines back up. >> Yeah. He said they were going to cut
back up. >> So he's referring to telecommunications. That's something that you would have to follow up with them. >> All right. So Chris, we're going to escalate. So, in between when I stepped out of the room, I had a little meeting with uh our assembly woman and she's already made contact with BPU just now.
So, I should get some responses tomorrow. >> I'm glad I hope they are >> utility lines >> and I think I think it's a reasonable request for us to look at the sort of the fee schedule around some of this stuff. So I I I understand your point,
Bill, and I think it's worth us looking at. >> Thank you. Anybody else for JCPNL or any Yes, ma'am. >> And Bon Tempmpo, 22 Graan View Drive, Homeell, New Jersey. I just want to This is just for JCPNL. So the rest of the
agenda questions, if I have other questions, I still got another three minutes to come up for that. >> You got three minutes. Lay it all on us. >> So no, that's a no. >> That's a no. >> Okay. So um JCPNL, you said this is a substation to a substation connection
from Aberdine to Redbank. I saw the map. The Aberdeen stations here, the Redbank stations here. The path goes down through Homeell and then up to Redbank. Why did you have to come through Homedale since it's not the shortest distance between two points?
Why did you even have to disturb any of Homedale? Because it's not the shortest distance via the map you showed. Okay. Ordinance 20 26-17, lease agreement for Vonnage Senior Center. The word the wording in there
says long-term lease agreement. How long? And where's the lease agreement? And it's also supposed to be at a nominal cost. What is that cost? And how can you approve an ordinance and not have the exact cost or the lease agreement term? Is it 5 years, 10 years,
30 years? I know you can't go in over 30. Um, and then under the ordinance 2026-16, data centers as prohibited use under section two, servability, it says provisions of this ordinance are nonservable. Why do they have to be
non-servable? And if it is invalidated, the the entire ordinance is invalidated. So why is that? Why can't it only be a section of it? Because I'd hate to see the whole thing thrown out and then a data center being able to be put in. Those are my questions.
>> Thank you. >> So Jose, first question. Um, why didn't that doesn't seem like you guys went to the shortest distance between two points? what what was the rationale for coming through the way you
guys did? >> So, I mean, this is definitely, you know, up to an engineer. Um, I don't unfortunately I don't know that information, but we'll be back to revisit that one. Um, just understand that the circuits and pole lines, they're not straight distances. They, you know, they go through many different
towns. Um, you know, they wiggle just like a branch would or almost the veins. So, they do go through their own little routes. It's not about just point A to point B. What's the shortest distance? It has to be somewhere that it can be interconnected in the system. Okay.
>> Mike, do you want to answer the question related to the long-term lease and the nominal fee? And then we're going to answer the question on the data center uh ordinance as well. >> Sure. So on the data center ordinance, the language says that it's non-severable. I think the reason why we
drafted it that way is that there's only two provisions in it. The first is defining data center and the other is saying data center is a prohibited use. So if any portion of the ordinance fails, the entire thing doesn't follow if you had one portion but not the other. If there were multiple independent portions that could stand if
a section were invalidated, um you would have a separability provision, but that doesn't really seem applicable here given that it's just a definition and the addition of data center to the prohibited use section. But hit me with layman's terms on that a little bit more, Mike. I'm sorry. You got even me
lost on that one. I'm sorry. So severability is what you put in an ordinance. If there are a whole bunch of different sections and if a judge put a big X through one of the sections, you want all the other sections to survive. In this case, there really isn't a section that could stand alone by itself
because you have the definition and then you have it just saying that's a prohibited use. It's a pretty straightforward ordinance. So if somehow there were a problem with any of it, we're simply saying that the whole thing would fail. >> If you say fail, meaning that the if someone tried to get it through, it would not go through. >> No, no, no, no. if someone challenged it
and for some reason this was held to be um illegal and the judge basic I mean if you want to change it to a a severability provision where the judge may be able to save it I I don't have a problem with that if if that's the concern >> meaning save the ordinance >> correct the judge could then in theory
try to modify it or massage it in some way that the court found acceptable >> so what was the purpose of writing it the first way I just I want him to understand >> I Uh typically on on an ordinance that doesn't have like I said multiple moving parts where you would envision one
portion of the ordinance surviving but not the others you would have a a severability provision given that this um is kind of one item essentially it has a non-severability provision but if you wanted to change that to a severability provision I don't have an issue with that. >> It seems there's minimal material
benefit but certainly not going to harm us to do so. I don't think I I I I don't think it's going to be relevant either way because if a judge finds this to be illegal, the entire thing is going to be validated anyway because we're only doing one thing. So, I'm not concerned either way. But if if that's a desired
edit, that's fine. >> If it's not going to look, I I the simple question is, is it going to make the ordinance stronger or not? If it's not going to, I don't see a need to change it. >> I'm I'm I'm okay with changing it. I mean, I think it gives the court more flexibility if somehow this got challenged. I'm not I'm not sitting
around, you know. >> Can I jump in for a quick question? Yeah, go ahead. Because I was a little confused um regarding what you just said. So, >> for for example, in 20 145, we put in the redevelopment
agreement for Bell Works data centers were allowed, right? It's part of So, would this supersede that, Mike, or does that still stand on its own? I think that's an open legal question that would need to be addressed if if we're asked
that question. >> Just changing the language, as the mayor said, can is not going to hurt us in any way because >> I think the ordinance is going to say what it's going to say if it's enacted, which is that data centers are a prohibited use. um the import of that
change which I think goes to your question is not to me a question of the validity of the ordinance as much as the effect of the ordinance. So I don't think that goes to the legal issue of severability. >> So we're really so technically we're not
superseding a redevelopment agreement that was already signed correct for the for the for the for at least the 30 years right that it that it's it's it's in effective work. >> Yeah. So what you're doing if you took this action is you're saying in chapter
30 which are the development regulations that data centers are a prohibited use. Um specifically in the Bell works context. I'm certainly aware that uh data centers are a permitted use under the redevelopment uh plan which is
effectuated through the redevelopment plan rather than you know conventional municipal land use law zoning. Um, I'm not in a position to offer a legal opinion on the direct import of the redevelopment agreement and uh the unique structure of them having a
contractual agreement with the township relative to their property. >> So, we're controlling we can control and then everything else, anything else that might come down the pike is something we'll have to challenge. >> I think that's right. I I think that you know the action tonight is establishing
it as a prohibited use. If um there are instances in which the township cannot legally enforce this change, then that would be handled. But this is the broadest stroke you could paint with a brush to make it a prohibited use. >> Thank you. And Mike, the long-term lease
agreement for the senior center in the uh 23 Main Street development, there was a question related to the term of the lease and the nominal fee. >> Sure. So I I I think the term nominal uh was used in the context of nominal consideration which is a legal term for when you sign a deed for like a dollar
or $10. And that simply means that you know it's basically um no nominal consideration is a term that's used because if you don't exchange that $1, it technically uh may not be a contract because you have an exchange consideration. So there is no actual cost other than that type of dollar uh
for the lease and consistent with the redevelopment agreement. Um it is to be a long-term lease agreement. Um the terms of that are still being negotiated between special counsel and uh the redeveloper, but it does need to be a long-term lease. And I would imagine uh
we would be looking to the maximum extent that we could legally obtain a lease. So for the minimally life of the project certainly yes >> well the project is 30 years under the re under under redevelopment >> that
>> still being worked on >> it's still being worked on but I'd say I think I think I think the way we're approaching it is the minimum threshold would be 30 years >> and that would be consistent with I believe um the library arrangement which I think this is somewhat analogous
Right. Right. Any other questions for JCPNL or agenda items? Lance, how you doing? Lance Loopy. Uh Line Road. Um some questions on some of the items on the agenda. 2026 162 for the horn
antenna. Something about trying to retrieve something from Germany or something. I'm understand I want to understand what the cost is associated with that. uh 2026 160. I'm confused. We're gonna we're gonna front a loan to somebody for 36 months for $10,000. We're going to
administer a loan over three years to collect $322 a month uh for something. I guess we cleaned something up and we're trying to get uh reimbured for that. Uh 202656 clarify with the Bethany Road phase 2. I I guess maybe that's the end the other half that's not being done
this time. 2026 154. There's uh shared service agreement $139,000. Want to understand what the savings are on that. There's an a line item $22,350 approximately reimbursement for Regency at Homeell. I'd like to understand what
that is. $8,000 for Slice Marketing. Like to understand what that is. Uh $3,700 to our attorney in the month of May. $22,600 in the month of June. Trying to understand the delta for why that big swing. I don't have the historical
context, so maybe that makes more sense. Maybe the three the 3700 is the anomaly. Um, $1,200 open space portagons. Like to understand that. Uh, $1,450 in legal fees for tax appeals. I want to understand what the outcome of that was.
Did we lose? Did we stay flat? Where are we with that? $13,000 just in the month of June for land maintenance for open space. Is that every month? What is that? Is that just lawn? is that what is that? Uh Dawn's Towing seems to get $175 for
towing for their toes and $225 for one. All others are at 150. So, I'm trying to understand why there's a delta there. Mirror replacement, $1,100. I thought I brought this up at the last meeting a month ago. We didn't have a meeting uh after that. And I don't know if that's a dupe or what. Uh $3,300 athletic field
supplies under the open space fund. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh let's take it down the line here. Bear with me one second. So there'll be no cost incurred on the resolution requesting the horn antenna
come back. This is a it's a resolution requesting it to come back and there's someone that uh we're in contact with that is offered to be the intermediary to try to negotiate that to bring it home. >> I'm sorry.
Yeah. >> Um 2026162 the horn antenna. >> Yeah. >> The um this is just a resolution requesting it basically to come back. Um there's an intermediary that we know that has offered to go to Germany and and negotiate that, but we're not
expecting to incur any cost associated. Um Chris, can you speak to 160 the debris removal? >> That was the one the uh the loan, sir. >> Mhm. Okay. So, um there was a home that uh was that burned down a few years ago.
Um unfortunately, the homeowner could not afford to clean the property to make it safe. The town cleaned the property, had it cleaned. Um he owes us that money back. And so, how we're doing it is uh because he can't afford to pay it back
all in one lump sum. He was given a three he's being given a three-year um time frame to with with interest to pay it back. Um once that's completed, um he he he's planning on paying it back faster, but we gave him time, the
maximum time we were allowed under the law to do that. Um and we didn't want to put him into a situation where he can't afford to, you know, take care of himself. >> Just pay him back with interest. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Uh Bethany Road 156. >> Exactly what Mr. Lupy asked and said
that is going to be the remaining portions of Bethany Road. That is another joint project with Hasllett so that we can get the entire road done and not worry about it for many many years. >> Uh 154 the savings associated with the shared service agreement with the county
of Mammoth to provide it tax map collaboration center system. >> So um that is right now it's for us to have it on our own. That would cost us uh a lot more money. We've been doing that for years. Um they handle all the
tax mapping and stuff so we can um you know do the proper uh you know when we do our taxing and stuff like that. We have them already set in a system. Uh we agreed to that I probably many years ago for past uh committees. This is just a renewal of what we already been doing.
Um there is no uh it would be not feasible for us to do it by ourselves. It has to because the information comes from the county. Uh so that would have to remain there. It's just we signed on to it years ago. >> Okay. So, this is a re-upping of that. >> Exactly.
>> Uh Regency reimbursement. >> Well, the Regency reimbursement, I can't tell you exactly what that is, but I'm believing it's under the Kelly law. Um I'm assuming it's for street lights. Yeah, street lights. We we reimburse the homeowners associations um get reimbured
reimburseed for street lights that we don't normally pay. They get charged them and we'll reimburse it. Uh the uh I'm reading this right. The attorney costs which seem to fluctuate. Uh >> well, attorney course are going to fluctuate every month based on the amount of work. Yeah. Bounce based on the amount of work. I'm not I will not I
cannot speak to anything that Mr. Lupy asked about in the bills list. Um he knows that I'll get to that tomorrow. I will take it and put it into my chat GBT the other way. And uh it'll tell me exactly where everything came from. So, but uh if I answer you now, I won't be correct. So,
>> all right. So, for the record, it's the attorney fees, $1,200 open space portagons, tax appeal costs, uh lawn maintenance for open space, and the mirror replacement. >> Yeah, I'll definitely check all those uh
for you. Um I could tell you that the um the the lawn maintenance for all our parks comes out of open space. So instead of taking it out of the um the normal tax base, that's how we save on that is that it comes out of open space tax. Um the other stuff I'll definitely
look into. Any other uh questions for agenda items only? Yes. >> Sam Backer, two Presc. Uh so just a little departure from the JCPNL um business again. Um I just
wanted to speak in favor of resolution 162 uh which is on returning the radiometer um from the Deutsch Museum in Germany back uh to Homeell. Um so 62 years ago on a hill in this town um two scientists
heard the universe. uh Arno Penszius and Robert Wilson pointed the horn antenna towards the sky and they heard a faint hum that they could not explain. That hum was from the big bang um and it was a remnants of the big bang and it was
the first solid proof um of the how the universe was formed 13.8 billion years ago. They won a Nobel Prize um as some of you may know for that discovery and thanks to the efforts of the people of Homeell um that antenna is still uh here
to this day and uh soon it's going to anchor Robert Wilson Park um and people from all across the country will be able to come to Homedale and stand where that discovery uh actually happened. Um but one crucial piece is still missing which
is the radiometer. Um it's in a museum warehouse not even being displayed in Munich thousands thousands of miles away u from the antenna that it was built for. Um you know Pensas did have his reasons for sending it to Germany. Uh he was a Jewish child that was born and
grew up in Munich in the 1930s and he escaped the Holocaust and he wanted to send the radiometer back as a reminder to Germany um of what it lost during the Holocaust. Um, but you know, the antenna and the radiometer, they're meant for
each other. Um, you know, apart they can only tell half the story, but together I believe that they can, you know, show the full picture um to visitors of Robert Wilson Park and Homedale residents. Um, resolution 162 asks asks
the museum to send the radiometer back home um right in time for the grand opening. And with the radiometer, Robert Wilson Park will have something that no other place on Earth has, which is the exact tools um and place where the
foundation of this universe was revealed to us. Um Home Depot has already done the hard part and saved uh saved the you know, antenna and surrounding land from uh the condo disaster that was going to happen. So, let's take the next step and
bring this radiometer home. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Any other questions on agenda items only? Going once, going twice. Let's move to a vote. Can I get a motion?
>> Move. >> Mayor, would this be on the consent agenda? >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Couple sections. >> Can we uh Yes. Let's uh motion to vote on the consent agenda. And that's resolutions 2026 152 to 162. >> That's correct.
>> Moved. Second. >> Mr. Vontempo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Foster. >> Yes. >> Mr. Romano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Vanderham. >> Yes. >> Mayor and Prevadudo. >> Yes. >> Okay. Resolutions 2026 152 through 2026 162 have all been successfully passed.
Thank you. >> All right. Um motion to vote on 2026 163 to 164. >> Moved. >> Second. >> Mr. Bontempo, >> no. >> Mr. Foster,
>> yes. >> Mr. Romano, >> no. >> Mr. Vanderham? >> Yes. >> Mayor Prevadudo? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um resolutions 2026 163 and 164 have been successfully passed. Thank you. Next is introduction of bond
ordinance 202615 which is providing for improvements to various township roads by and in the township of Homedale in the county of Mammoth state of New Jersey appropriating 650,000 therefore including a 253
584,000 grant from the New Jersey Department of Transportation and author authorizing the issuance of 396,46 2016 bonds or notes of the township to finance part of the cost thereof. This
motion is to adopt on first reading, publish on the Homeell Township website, and set the public hearing for August 11th, 2026. >> Can I get it? >> Second. >> Mr. Bontempo, >> yes. >> Mr. Foster, >> yes. >> Mr. Romano,
>> yes. >> Mr. Vanderham, >> yes. >> Mayor and Prevadudo, >> yes. or bond ordinance 202615 will be set for public hearing. Next is introduction of ordinance 202616 which is an ordinance establishing data
centers as prohibited use. This motion is to adopt on first reading publish on the Homeell Township website and set the public hearing for August 11th 2026. And mayor, I'm just going to suggest that based upon the colloquy earlier that if there's a motion to be made that it be
to introduce it with amendment to revise the severability clause to provide for severability. >> Okay, I'm comfortable with that. Do we have a motion? >> Move. >> Second. >> Mr. Bontempo, >> yes. >> Mr. Foster, >> yes. >> Mr. Romano,
>> yes. >> Mr. Vanderham, >> yes. >> Mayor Prevadudo, >> yes. >> Ordinance 202616 will be set for public hearing. Thank you. The next ordinance is ordinance 202617 which is an ordinance authorizing lease
agreement for senior center at the 23 Main Street property. This motion is to adopt on first reading publish on the Hometale Township website and set the public hearing for August 11th 2026. >> Moved. >> Second. >> Mr. Vontempo,
>> we'll have the the timeline filled out, Mike, by the by the 11th meeting. Yeah, the for final adoption, the full lease agreement will absolutely be there for you to evaluate. >> You'll make sure of that, Wendy. >> I'll make sure. >> Thank you. Yes, >> Mr. Foster.
>> Yes, >> Mr. Romano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Vanderham? >> Yes. >> Mayor and Prevaduto? >> Yes. >> Okay. Ordinance 202617 will set be set for public hearing. Thank you. >> Thank you, Wendy. Now that we've gone through that, uh, Jose, I think, uh, we
can cut you loose now. Thank you for coming in. Um we will have the team back in September. We'll pick hopefully the first meeting. Um so we'll be in contact on that. Uh appreciate you coming in and being accountable. There's a lot of questions still to be answered. >> Sure.
>> Right. But uh you know we'll uh we and we expect them to be in the coming days and weeks. So thank you for coming in. >> Thank you for having me. Thank you for >> All right, Mr. Administrator. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, so I have a few things. Uh, nothing, uh, you know, too
long. Um, as you are aware, we've been working on the crossing guards, um, and the needs for them. We've identified 14 spots over the four schools. That doesn't mean we need 14. Um, uh, crossing guards just means there's 14 of
those SE sections throughout the, uh, the period in the morning and the afternoon. Um we have identified other areas where we want to put some uh crosswalks um tomorrow or the next day. Our hope is
to get a bid out for crossing guards. We have those sections and we'll bid it out um to a company. It's a lot easier to use a company. They kind of handle everything from there including uh any kind of training equipment substitutions. Um so we're going to be bidding it out. My hope is to have
everything back for the August 11th meeting. On that same night, we are having uh the consulting engineer, Kramer Engineering, come in to explain um what he's done and how he's mapped it out. Um he's also mapped it out uh well enough and he has some experience with
it to work on what's called safe route to school grants um which could help us improve some infrastructure uh paid for by state grants. Um our goal is to to tackle whatever was going to come our way. Um, so we look forward to him coming. I know we had we wanted him to
have him come tonight, but I think we had the JCPO was enough for tonight. Um, but he's ready to come and and he's going to speak uh to to everything. Um, and then the other item I wanted to bring up to the to the committee's attention is the health benefits report
came out for our employees. Um, and of course it wasn't good. It it it never seems to be good. Um we're looking at anywhere from a 17% increase to up to a 29% increase um on plans that we
actually are using right now because it was a savings and it seems that every time we find a savings the state uh takes notice of it and then raises it um uh that much higher. So um my hope is that um we we will find another way like
we did last year. I'm working towards that. I'm calling for our uh experience ratings again and thank God this year we don't have to pay the $2,000 to the state to release that to us. It's our year for a free one. Um I also have
spoken to our um uh our legislators legislators sorry and we are putting together a narrative to send up to them because we believe that the state is wrong or the state uh actuaries are wrong and um they're using improper
numbers to decide how much they should raise our fees. Uh we're hoping to get some help at that level. uh we look forward to their help and uh I'll have more as time goes on, but thank you. >> And Chris, do do we have a sense of in
in dollars what that 17% increase could look like ballpark? >> So, at this point in time, health insurance for a family using a high deductible plan and a difference card, meaning that we cover the difference, is $34,000 a year. Um that was a savings of
all the other plans. uh they raised that this year to $58,000. Okay. So, that's a split between the employee and the town. Uh it was a way for us to avoid the big increases and we did that and they didn't like it. So,
that was the only one that went up that much. >> And that was a per family cost that you just laid out. >> That is a per family cost. Um the highest plan is closer to $80,000 now.
Okay. Thank you, councelor. >> No update, mayor, but happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you. Let's go to uh the committee. Mr. Bontempo. >> Thank you. So, uh information technology um update uh July cyber security threat
assessment. The NJ kick that I've been mentioning issued their July 2026 cyber security bulletin this week which highlighted key points for New Jersey residents. There's an IDM me scam. A fishing campaign is impersonating ID.M
me via emails sent from an Argentine which is a domain with a subject line new financial document available. The risk clicking the provided link or attachment directs users to a fraudulent website that steals sensitive
information including social security numbers and photos of government IDs, driver's licenses or passports to commit identity theft. The recommendations do not click on links or open attachments in suspicious emails. Instead, navigate directly to official websites, verify
sender information through official channels, enable multifactor authentication, MFA, and report any malicious activity to the New Jersey Kick and FBI's IC3 site. New Jersey Kick has a fall internship program. NJI's
internship program is an excellent way for students to gain hands-on experience in cyber security. Their fall internship program is a paid internship opportunity for college and or graduate students conducted in person at their Hamilton, West Trenton, or NORC offices during
standard business hours. Interns are limited to 21 hours per week with flexibility between Monday and Friday. The fall internship program is a 12-week program from September 14th through December 4th. The application window is
now open and closed on July 24th at 400 PM Eastern time. For more information or apply, visit cyber.nj.gov. As always, residents are encouraged to report malicious cyber activity directly to the NJ kick via their official website and exercise caution when
interacting with emails from unsolicited vendors. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Romano. Right. Starting with community development. There is a community focus group opportunity and residents are wanted. The Homeell Township Community Development Department is seeking residents of all
ages to participate in a focus group at the Bell Works Township Room this August. Our municipal software provider, Gov Pilot, is preparing to launch a new resident portal and is looking for valuable feedback from the people who will use it most, our residents. Participants will have the opportunity
to explore the new portal during a guided demonstration, share their thoughts on its ease of use, identify anything that may be confusing, and suggest features or improvements before it is officially launched. Lunch will be provided by GoPilot as a thank you for your participation. If you are interested in participating, please
contact Terabus Community Development at 732-946-2820 extension 1305. Homeell was selected for NJ Homes affordable building club program. Home Del Township has been selected to participate in the NJ Homes Affordable
Building Club, which is known as ABC, a competitive program sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, which is known as the DCA. Homeell is one of only 30 municipalities statewide chosen for this initiative. Participation in the program will provide the township with enhanced technical assistance, specialized
training, and opportunities for pre-development funding to strengthen affordable housing planning and implementation. is a tree permit reminder. Following the recent storms, community development has experienced a significant increase in tree removal removal permit applications. Residents
are reminded that pursuant to NJ requirements and the township's tree removal and replacement ordinance. A permit is required for removing a tree measuring more than 6 in in diameter or a street tree measuring 2.5 in or greater in diameter. Please note that no permit is required for trees that have
fallen as a result of a storm. Applications and additional information are available on the township website under the zoning section. There is a new proposed horse ordinance. Community development is currently drafting a proposed horse ordinance to establish clear standards and regulations for residents interested in owning or
boarding horses within the township. Once completed, the proposed ordinance will be presented to the township committee for review and consideration. From the Homeell Library, we have a couple new programs for children. Stage a story workshop will be held on Monday, July 27th from 3 to 3:45. And there is a
peas and carrots concert which will be held July 22nd at 11:00 a.m. The July book club, the Homedale book club will be meeting on August 11th at 10:00 a.m. to discuss the book The Island of Sea Women by Lisa C. From public works. There is a special supplemental brush
collection due to the storms. Due to the storms in early July, the township is scheduled a supplemental brush collection. The collection for sections A and B began yesterday, July 20th, and will run through the week. The collections for sections C and D will begin on July 29th. The next large item
dropoff event will be held Saturday, July uh August 8th in the red and blue lots of Bell Works from 8:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Residents should enter through the American Way entrance. That is all. >> Thank you, Mr. Baham. >> Thank you, Mayor. The only update
tonight is from the green team. The green team is currently planning for several upcoming tableabling events that has been invited to attend. Please be on the lookout for them. Uh the team has also returned to work on their local government energy audit. Uh there'll be more information to come on that. Uh the team is organizing and beginning work on
the short-term goal initiatives from the approved community energy plan. The next green team meeting is August 3rd, Monday, at 7 p.m. in town hall. Interested residents are invited to attend uh and contact green team@homedell.gov of with sustainability
questions or suggestions for Homedale Township. There are many ways to help, large and small, especially now that the community energy plan has been approved and is in motion. So, if you're interested, please reach out. That's it. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor. >> Thank you, Mayor. The Homeell America's
250th Committee presents Homeell's Revolutionary War Patriots and the Dutch's influence on American independence. Join Homedale resident and Daughters of the American Revolution member Michelle Donnelly as she speaks on Homedale's Revolutionary War Patriots and will also focus on how the Dutch
were an integral part of America's independence. This will be held on Sunday, July 26th at 3 p.m. at the Senior Community Center. The presentation is free, but please pre-registration is suggested and can be done at the recreation department's rec
page. Homedale's annual harvest fest will be Saturday, October 10th from 12 noon to 7:00 p.m. at Bayonet Farm. The day will include food vendors, beer and wine garden, live music, wagon rides, inflatable and mechanical rides. New this year, a pie eating contest. The
night will conclude with the showing of It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, and fireworks. This year's event will also have some special 250th anniversary elements added to it as well. Registration is open for the August session of the youth gone running camp.
Campers will be split into two camps. Those entering grades three and four and then those from grades 5 through 10. Younger campers will learn the proper running form, useful stretching and warm-up drills, and will play fun running games. The older campers will
learn racing strategies and starts while perfecting their running form. This will be led by NCAA college coach Jordan Brandon and USAF coach Ketta Davi. The program is held at Crossfarmm Park on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings from
August 4th through the 27th from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Registration as well can be done in person or at the recreation office or online at the rest desk page. Mayor, that's all I have. >> Thank you.
So, I want to take a moment to recognize the upcoming retirement of senior mechanic Keith Doyle. Keith has served our Department of Public Works for the past 30 years. By keeping our municipal fleet, emergency apparatus, and service trucks running smoothly, he helped to ensure that Homedale residents always
receive the vital services they rely on. Thank you, Keith, for three decades of hard work. We wish you the very best as you enjoy your retirement with your family and friends. It's all right. I'm happy to announce that Homedale will
once again host the mobile county connection event bringing valuable Mammoth County services directly to our community. The event will take place Wednesday, August 5th, 2026 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Homeell Library. Residents can access direct
assistance, ask questions, and gather important information from key county agencies without having to travel to main county offices. Representatives from the following offices will be on site. County clerk's office, passport applications, notary services, and
election information provided. Sheriff's Office, community outreach, public safety resources, and residents services information. Surrogates office, guidance on estate planning, wills, and probate process resources. Division on Aging,
Disabilities, and Veteran Services, support programs, benefits, guidance, and community assistance for local seniors, individuals with disabilities, and veterans. The new ebike law in the state came into force on July 19th. Homedale Township Police Department's committed to
protecting our younger residents. The goal is to prevent is prevention before enforcement and most importantly, prevention before tragedy. the requirements of the law. Minimum age 15 years old for low-speed ebikes and mopeds. 17 years old for motorized
ebikes, dirt bikes, and motorcycles. The helmet is required regardless of age. You need a license or a permit. MVC registration for all ebikes and insurance is required for all motorized bikes, including mopeds, but not
required for low-speed ebikes. Please reference reference HTTP social media or website to see a guide on eBike laws. If you would like a one-on-one visit at your residence to help determine whether your child has an electric bike, motorized bicycle, or electric
motorcycle, contact patrolman Matthew Manowski in the traffic safety unit at mmanoski mme osky at homedale police.gov. The next goal zero enforcement campaign
is on Wednesday, July 22nd between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. And Homedale officers will focus patrols on Highway 35 and Laurel Avenue. Homedale first aid squad's been keeping busy between our response to emergencies and being present at events in town. The squad
provided EMS coverage at both the Flag Day 5K event at Bell Works and the Bell Works fireworks display. Homedale First Aid Squad also hosted a basic first aid and CPR class at our Crawford's Corner Road building. This was attended by a handful of residents interested in learning the basics and seeing some
behind the scenes of what their neighbors on our squad do as volunteers. We hope to schedule a similar event this fall. The first aid squad's also happy to share that the squad's membership has increased significantly over the past few months and their nightly duty crews are up to six riding members serving
each night plus cadets. They're looking for and accepting new members. Uh so visit the website, check social media, or stop by when you see them out at events in the community. Cadet info sessions will be held at the end of August and in early September. Dates
will be posted on social media. >> Wendy, that's Wendy, that's all I have. Can we move to public comment? If you wouldn't mind reading your >> Isn't National Night Out coming before our next meeting? >> August 4th. >> August 4th it is. Yes, that's right. National Night Out. >> Did we say that yet?
>> We didn't. I don't think we did. >> That's right. The National Yeah. So, National Night Out. Thank you. >> Missed it on this one. >> National Night Out is August 4th. Uh we do it every year at town hall. Uh I'll check the times that it starts. Usually we start around 6.
>> Um we usually do about 6:00 to 8. Uh but we'll post it on the website, make sure everybody knows. And thank you, Greg, for the reminder. >> Ready? In accordance with the open public meetings act, this is a public comment period for public comment on any governmental issue of public concern. In
accordance with resolution 2022-17, public commenters are asked to raise their hand and wait to be recognized by the mayor before coming forward and making public comments. Commenters are asked to state their full name and address before commenting. Public commenters are limited to one comment,
not to exceed three minutes. Comment should be directed to the mayor and the township committee. If appropriate, the mayor may direct and recognize a staff, employee, or professional to respond to comments either at this meeting or in writing after this meeting.
>> Thank you, Wendy. Any public comments? >> Nathan, >> uh Nathan Brown, 251 South Holland. I wanted to just get some some clarification. And obviously there's been, you know, a lot of towns dealing with this data center issue and I know it's been brought up several times here
tonight, but I just wanted to know it's I know it's been asked in prior meetings what you guys are doing, you know, take what action steps are you taking in regards to banning data centers in home period. I know we just talked about the 23 main, you know, you know, all that stuff, but but to get it to never be
able to come here. Are we taking those steps? >> Yeah. And and that was the ordinance we introduced tonight. >> Okay. I thought that was just related to the 23. >> No, no, that was for the entire town. Okay. So, that was a ban for the entire town. >> Okay. That was that was my >> and so and just the way it works and sorry I shouldn't be interrupting you or let you go through but I want to just
get this out there. We introduced tonight at the next meeting we vote to approve. >> Okay. Perfect. Perfect. That's great. Thank you for that. Um, you know, when I was speaking to, you know, about the JCPL in the the fiveday, you know, certified letter notice that that is a law. Um and and I want to understand
from a township committee what sort of protection because I I do feel like I'm fighting this on my own. You know, m Mr. Foster here has provided me some support. He's connected me with with uh the JCFL JCPL rep which ultimately wanted to put in a claim which I had already done that which got denied. Um
and now it's it's escalating because the more and more I dig, you know, and you were referring to the county, you know, holding the uh what do you call it? The the tax maps. Um I I went through hundreds of tax maps over the last week and I've got every single every single tax map of the entire town of Homedale
and every easement in the entire town of Homedale. Um there's not an ement on the front of my property. So I want to understand what support am I going to get from you guys to help me fight this battle with JCPL. >> If you're done, have a seat and I'll respond. Yeah, >> let me make sure that was all I had for
this one. One second. And then the there was a followup from the last meeting that I had asked you know uh about the not you you had said that you were you were going to inquire with JCP now to see what specific residents were notified and how they
were notified. They spoke about 300 or 360 whatever he said the number was residents notified who were those residents and who were the residents that got the text message from Mr. Foster you know last year or so because I don't recall ever getting that text message. Um, I don't ever remember
getting mail in my mailbox, nor did I get a certified letter, none of that. No phone call, no consultation. And I have that documented from CW Solutions, which is actually responsible for going around and talking to these homeowners. He told me in documentation that he got my house mixed up with 251. Unfortunately, 251
has two poles in their yard, too. So, I don't think he got a mixup. I think he just missed me. So, and I wanted to explain further on the easement process because I I know it sounds odd that I just wouldn't have an easement. Um, my Where I live, I in I get 20. Where I live was originally one farm. Okay. It
was at 255 owned the whole all three lots. Okay. And two in 1998 it was split into into three lots. Okay. At that time that they did not put easements on the other two lots. The easement was still on 255 Holland. It's Holland, not South
Holland. For some reason, their address is Holland. That's very odd, too. But nonetheless, so I I want some further research done on this on how this happened um and and whether or not that previous poll does have an easement. >> Understood. Have a seat and I'll and
I'll respond. Yep. >> So um I'd say two things, Nate specifically. One, I asked Jose directly and I asked other members of JCPL directly about your specific residence. They won't give they won't provide me customer information even if it is related to
specific contacts of those customers. um what I can do and what I will do. Jose and I talk frequently, especially given the outages over the past couple weeks. He committed to getting back to you to get support. I will commit to you that I will stay on him to make sure that that happens. Um and to the extent
I can get someone from JCPNL to speak to you directly about whether or not they contacted you, I'll push on that level, too. So, that's that's that's where I can offer help and assistance there, and I'll and I'll make sure I do that. Okay. um in relation to the easements and those
types of things. Look, I I think I don't have an answer for you other than when the I I think we're going to get much better we're going to have much deeper knowledge of things when the uh entire project team comes in in September. And and just for context for everybody, uh
myself and Chris spoke to JCPNL, I think it was on Monday. Um, and their proposition to us was to come in in September with the full project team after they had committed to coming in for this meeting. Um, and I didn't want to wait. So, I don't know if that was a
good move or a bad move, frankly, because I know there's a >> Okay. Um, so I don't know. I don't know if um, you know, I know there's a lot of questions that couldn't be answered this evening, but I thought it was important for them to get into the seat and be held accountable. Um, that was my
opinion. Maybe it was the wrong shot, but knowing that they're going to come here uh at the beginning of September as well, I figured let's get let let's get them accountable now while we're in the throws of some of these outages and things like that, and then we'll get the deeper responses and information um when they when they fly their team in to meet
with us. So, that's how this came to be this evening. Um I'm not going to lie, it was a fairly aggressive call Chris and I had with them because we were pretty angry. Um and so, uh we placed a lot of urgency on doing that. again however that you know for better or for
worse that was the the shot we called. So um and so with that Nate you know I I expect them to be able to answer questions around easements around the project around how they delivered polls or didn't deliver polls what that means and my hope is by then with with
continued contact we'll hopefully get a resolution to your situation. Anyone else public comment? Yes sir. My name is Franco Roselo. I'm a resident at 16 Spring Valley Drive in Homedale, New Jersey. I am also the owner of Hope
Oakill Barn LLC at 177 Still Road. >> The uh property that you were discussing for the first eight minutes of this meeting. Um, so I think it's fair uh to give me more than three minutes of time since you had more than three minutes of
time. >> Everybody gets three minutes. >> Okay. Uh, so to clear up the facts, you filed an injunction to not close my farm that I was not acting as a farm because
as you stated in the previous council meeting, you said it says farm, but we're not a farm. What the superior judge decided was that we are arguably a farm and that he had no jurisdiction to rule
on whether or not we were or were not a farm. After that ruling, Mighty Mike over there didn't like the ruling. So, he ran to the appellet court the same day and filed an appeal which was also denied. So, the injunction is gone.
There's no litigation. Whatever you're going to refile now is basically just more taxpayer money that you're spending. So you're not only spending I'm actually spending my own money to sue myself. That's what you're doing because I'm also a taxpayer in this town which makes no sense because the
original problem stemmed from zoning not uh allowing me to act as a farm. So any of those violations came from and started from the wrong interpretation of what my property is. So now that I'm going in front of the right board, which
is the A board, which is superior court judge ruled was the right place to go. You plan on fighting me there as well because otherwise there's nothing to fight about. The barn, don't forget these are two animal structures. One has donkeys in it, one has goats in it that
you're wasting taxpayer money on to make sure that they're safe enough for for animals to live in. And your beautiful picture that your inspector took, if it was that dangerous and he was on my property, he should have inspected the barn instead of taking pictures. And they've come multiple times. You've flown drones. You've had plenty of
opportunity to inspect the property and make sure it's safe. Now it's time to do that. Or if you're going to waste more money, why do you not want to farm there? Why would you fight me at the a board like he said he was going to do or he's already started. I didn't even file at the a board yet. Why do you not like
a farm in this town? And I also bought the neighboring property which now I did speak to your tax assessor. Kind of gives me enough land to even rebut some of Mighty Mike's
fighting data. whatever he had. He should have taken that tenacity to fight the JCPNL people and find out why they couldn't go underneath their Thank you for your comments >> and not fight me. >> Thank you. >> Sure.
>> Okay. I'll offer a few points in response. First, you could you could call me whatever you want, make whatever patronizing comment you want, but at the end of the day, I take my direction from my client, which is the township committee and not anyone else. First, on the comment that was made about the mayor previously making a reference to the statement, "We're not a farm." The
mayor, as we corrected on the record at that meeting, was specifying the township's position that the property does not constitute a commercial farm as that is defined in the right to farm act. And so, that was a reference to whether or not it qualifies for such protections. And as I outlined earlier,
the protections that the property owner is seeking uh exempt it from Homedale zoning. And Homedale's position has been that it zoning does apply because it does not constitute a commercial farm and that the property owner should be within the confines of the past
zoning board resolution which was from 2020 unless a new application were made to the zoning board. Uh there was a statement made that there is no litigation right now. That is not true. Uh the superior court enforcement action remains in full force in effect on both counts one and count two which involve
UCCc and UFC violations. There are also pending motions to enforce litigance rights and also a motion to amend the complaint. The judge also made clear that the injunction remains in full force in effect pursuant to those counts. So that is not correct. Um to the extent an um an issue was raised
regarding past interpretations of the zoning issues, um it's been made clear consistent with the judge's guidance that the township should review any permit applications to determine if they could be complied with and those processes are ongoing and council between the parties, myself and Miss
Jennings have been working together on those. We had a a call just yesterday to continue to try to work together while the parties remain apart on some of the larger issues. Um, in terms of the filing at the a board, uh, based upon the superior court judge's referral, it's on the township to initiate that action at the agriculture board based
upon the guidance from my client, the township committee. Um, that will be filed by the end of this week and, uh, the parties will have the opportunity to respond. And as I mentioned at the outset, um, there is also a, um, a filing by a neighboring property owner that's already docketed in the A board.
And then lastly, as to the conversations with the tax assessor, uh certainly any resident is welcome to consult with any of the township's professionals to um address any of their relative needs. Uh given that uh there's active litigation, uh we will be responding offering a
meeting with council present so that the assessor could share whatever responses you need to your questions. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mike. Anybody else? >> Yes, ma'am. and Bont Tempmpo 22 Grand View Drive. Um, I just want to acknowledge Mr.
Trebini for getting back to me from the last meeting um on June 23rd regarding the tax assessment that was presented by the gentleman um who was on the committee, >> Eric. Um I was had a question on the
board of health tax rate going up by 67% from last the previous year. In 2025 our tax rate for board of health services from the county was $186,000552. 2026 it went up 67.05% to $3116
$628. Um Mr. Beanie got back to me and he said, "I wanted to let you know that after much back and forth with the county, thank you very much. The health department rate for the whole county was wrong and has been subsequently fixed
back to what it was. It appears to have been an internal clerical error. Sorry it took so long, but I needed to make many calls. I appreciate that." to get this straightened out before tax bills were released. So, um, thank you for looking into it. Uh, and hopefully that
means our taxes have gone g down because we didn't go up so much in our board of health tax rate. Um, oops, sorry. I wanted just that read in and close the loop on that and show my appreciation. Uh, what I wanted to also say was I've
gone back through all of my emails. I've never re and I'm on the mailing list for the township uh to receive notifications on many many things. agenda items, meetings, all sorts of planning, zoning board, every meeting that comes out, police reports, everything. I have not received one from Mr. Foster regarding
JCPNL. I'd like to know exactly if you could resend them to me. Um, when you sent out notifications in 2025 or 2024 regarding that, >> it was a call and a post. I don't believe it was an email. I never said there was an email. >> Then I misspoke. I apologize. When I when it when it was robocall, I assumed
it was phone, text, and >> I also get robocalls and I didn't get that either. We'll make sure we get it to you. >> All right. I'd like the dates on them also to know when that went out so that I can look them up on my phone because I don't delete anything. >> September 29th of last year
>> was the robocall. >> 9:29 25 robocall. What was there any other notification? >> Not that I'm aware of. I don't know, Bri, if there was anything else other than would you say social or call and text or social? >> I believe call social.
>> Okay. saying it didn't have >> Paul in text when Brian Mal >> that's what I was going to say I I can get everything that anybody needs on that and I'll look at all >> so it's just one date it was sent out >> besides the meetings we had about it >> yeah and the three meetings were when >> we have those dates
>> August 12th September 9th September 25th is what I have >> 12 2025 all 2025. And Chris and uh you can get Brian Ali to confirm that for me. >> Confirm all those dates and >> you send it to me, but I just want to make sure. >> Yeah, absolutely. I'll confirm all those
dates for you, mayor. And also for the deputy mayor, um our system, if you're signed up for it, I want to make sure that people are signed up. If they're not, please contact my office. We'll get you signed up to make sure you signed up for it. Um, it should tell us also who answered the calls, um, when it was
answered, if it went to an answer machine, uh, if the call failed, uh, if it we have a wrong email address, if an email address has changed at any point in time, you have to update all that, but it will we'll be able to see where everything went to. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> So, there's a way to sign up for it. If
you contact my office, I'll send you all the information. >> Yeah. Email. We'll get it all out to you and you'll all be anybody who wants to, please reach out. We we have it. So >> and I know we I lost some time with your response. I have just one other thing. Um when
>> I forgot >> the agenda was um put put out. I came here under the in impression that we were not going to be allowed to ask questions to JCPNL. That was it was only going to be done by the TC. If I'm
wrong, please correct me. But prior to arriving here and prior to your statement that you made up on the day, Mr. there. We weren't allowed, the public wasn't allowed to ask questions. You opened that up, but you didn't clarify that that would be part of all agenda items. So, some people didn't get a chance to come back and ask the rest
of their questions that they wanted to. So, just just for communication and clarity and to be respectful to the people who had may came up, ask a JCPNL question and then when I clarified, I heard people say that they had other questions that they wanted to ask on agenda items. It wasn't clear that it
was JCPNL was now part of the agenda items because the way the it reads JCPNL, you know, is a presenter here and not part of the agenda that we could ask questions on. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> I was do you understand what my point? >> I I do. I I I said at the beginning to ask >> questions. We could ask questions. Comments for agenda of JCPNL and comments for agenda items only. >> No, you said the quorum of three minutes would be followed. You didn't say this
was inclusive of all agenda items. >> Okay. We we have public comment now. So people can ask questions related to the >> right. But JCPNL is gone. And if they wanted to ask something on the agenda prior to it, we couldn't ask them if they just came up and asked JCPNL, which is they
figured they could come back and ask on agenda items like >> Yeah, but they a separate >> and they certainly they have public comment now. They can come back and ask questions on agenda items, >> but you've already voted on agenda items. >> Yep. And if I hadn't clarified it like I would have come up here and asked about
the ser civability um after you had already voted on it and it would have made any difference because you had already voted on it. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you for understanding and just better communication so I understand and other people get the
right chance to Yeah. >> to ask questions when it's appropriate to have actions taken on them. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. And thank you Chris. >> Anybody else? Yes. Alicia Unison, 8 Riverside Lane, Homeell.
So many questions this evening. Um, sitting there was overwhelming for me, but it is noticeable to see the township committee asking these important questions tonight of the JCPNL representative, who was the only one who could show up this evening. Um to your point, he's the one you've been in
contact with, even though he's only been in the position for a year. Correct. >> Correct. >> Um Mr. Mayor, the real question is simple. Why were these same questions that you and we asked this evening at the same not at the same level of
scrutiny a year ago in 2023, in 2024, in 2025? I've been in these meetings. People were asking what are these polls going up and I believe you Mr. Trebini at one point said I've left messages right and they
don't call me back. >> You said it tonight again actually. Um >> okay but you've had that sort of plea before. So I guess we have to start holding ourselves more accountable is my feeling. You guys we Mr. Collins, the
level that you go after people and want to put everybody at the Supreme Court, right? Like >> with our money, Mr. Franco's here. I mean, like, I get it. The guy's not following the rules, maybe, but like we're going to this level, but you didn't go to this level over those
polls. Really, it's questioning your authority. It's questioning how you can sit in front of us and say these things to us with a straight face. And when Mrs. Bontempo gets up there and asks you a very basic question about the agenda
items today, you had nothing to say back, right? You really didn't. You had nothing because you weren't prepared for that question. You were prepared for a lot tonight, but you weren't prepared for that question. So, residents raised these concerns year
after year. Yet, the committee did not apply this level of attention until today. We had the assembly woman here. You got the county involved. You're asking these questions tonight till tonight you waited to call BPU. Yes.
That's when we're getting people involved. What happened to that outrage that Jay Ganello brought up earlier? That outrage that you put out there on Facebook? You haven't followed up with anybody all month. I was waiting to hear from you. What did you do? Who did you reach out to? Who did you speak to?
Anyone? If these are the right questions to ask today that you asked today, why weren't they the right questions to ask over the last three years? And I think each of you owe it to us to tell us why. And if
not, hold him accountable. He's our mayor. It's time somebody takes responsibility for this. Any other public questions? Yes, Ken. >> Kenji HC Street. Um, so Earlier, this is part two. Since you were reading the
opinion from the judge from the earlier case in 2016, um, it's interesting because you were reading the opinion that you should know from the opinion that in fact Homedale was part of that. And so I just don't think it's right for you to continue to say rage, rage, rage
when in fact rate council, homedale township as part of the uh joint municipal group and rage all defeated that transmission line in 2016. But since you were reading that line and you mentioned the 34k lines so rage was very
specific, we actually hire an expert I mentioned this earlier from Florida who actually ran through what they call power flow studies. And that's when we proposed an alternative to make it work. We said there were two stack come as you know just for a lay person. Those were voltage regulators. I call them
capacitors because that's they will serve the same purpose. But after the study was done we said that the experts said that there were existing 34.5K lines that had much older wires. So when you run electricity through wires they
get hot. and they said because of the thermal rating of the old wires they get too hot. So that's when we said specifically that we identify certain 34.5K lines that needed to be updated not anyone very specific lines not
replacing Homedale or Aberdine or Maran. So that quote that you were reading from the judge opinion was very specific replacing existing conductors that were old so that they have a higher thermal rating and that was the complete
solution and we estimate at that time now this is 10 years ago to be roughly about 35 $40 million. The original project was you know estimated to be over hundred million. You asked the question from JCPNL what did it cost for the homedale portion? They didn't
answer. I bet you dollars to donors that number is going to be over two or $300 million when you look at all of the components combined. I don't know was just homedale what that component would be. So versus what we estimated back you know 10 years ago would have been
somewhere between 35 $40 million. Uh one last thing I got 44 seconds. BPU is um conducting a hearing on the re reliability of JCPNL. They are notorious. they are actual annual metrics on what we call reliability. Not
being a geek into that stuff, but um so JCPNL when you compare to PSNG and the two other um um electric utility, they have much lower reliability and the BPU now is starting to look at that very carefully. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Yeah, look, I think just just in in a quick response to that, if I'm hearing correctly, let me let me let me say it differently because I said it this way before and didn't seem to resonate. Going back to that judgment, I think the fundamental question is very simply,
would this project have happened had that judge not ruled against JCPNL 10 years ago? It is my opinion based on the fact pattern, based on the judge's ruling, based on your emphasis and support of that ruling in a 2021 amicus brief that this upgrade, this
infrastructure upgrade would not have happened had the monopoles gone along gone along the train lines. Uh that's my opinion based upon the information that I have, the court documents, the quotes, and everything else. Now, they'll be here in two months and we can ask that question and they can tell us one way or
the other. That's that that's that's simply my point and I think it's I think it's a fair question to ask and again I think the fact pattern concludes that had that other project gone through this would not have happened. Now in regards to any statements or questions about what we
could have fought should have fought etc etc. This went to the BPU and got blessed by the BPU without anybody's knowledge in years far before 2023. If they were issuing notices in 2022 to residents,
then it happened in 2022 or before based on what they're saying. I can't listen, I don't know what they're saying if what they're saying is accurate or not. My simple point my simple point is my simple point is they went to the BPU, they circumvented the towns. They didn't
need the towns because they didn't need anything from the towns. They didn't need variances. They didn't need zoning. All they needed were the permits to get the work done. And if they're asking for permits to get the work done and it complies with the ordinance, that means it's a done deal and there's no fighting it. The last time we fought a utility
was the the natural gas line over on on Homeell Road and we spent a couple hundred,000 and lost. We we reverted back to exactly what was negotiated prior to the lawsuit. It was a losing proposition. So that was it. >> So So we're not guys, we're not we're
not doing we're not we're not we're not calling out from seats. If anybody wants to come up public comment, they can come up public comment. But that is the point that I'm laying out here, which is very simply, this was a done deal by JCPNL. If you have questions for JCPNL in terms of what they did and how they executed, and they couldn't get answered tonight,
you can submit them to the township and we can try to get them answered before the September meeting when everybody comes in when when their team comes in or we can wait till that meeting for the deeper questions. That's where we're at. Yes, Nancy. >> Yeah. We'll
go according to the rules. Nancy Keglestro 214 Pebble Beach Court, Hogdale, New Jersey. Okay. So, I'm not going to say anything now more about JCPNL, but I did hear about Verizon. Are we going to roll over and let them steamroll us, too? I mean, we have to
have some rights with the utility companies that they can't come in and destroy any town they feel they want to without a valid basis for improvement or quality of life for the town they're destroying. So, now let's see what you
could do with Verizon and Comcast because I could tell you all these utilities uh I'd want to use certain words um don't provide adequate service to this town. Verizon stinks. Comcast stinks. JCPNL stinks. Come on, guys. Don't roll
over. Let's show some muscle. Okay, >> Chris, you've already spoken to Assemblywoman. >> But I I also do want to say something. I'm the president of the board of my community, and I know how thankless these kind of jobs can be. So, with my statements of saying, "Guys, let's show
some muscle." I also want to thank you for the effort you do put on on the part of our town. Okay. >> Thank you. Um, and to Chris's point earlier, he already spoke to Vicki about rattling the cage with Verizon as we've had some difficulty getting those guys on the
horn. So, >> did Nathan, let me if you've come up already, I don't think you have. Let me let me just get to anybody else that wants to speak. >> Peter, >> Pete Franco, five hop lane. Uh, quick question. Uh, as far as what they're
saying to call these hotline, >> okay. Uh, as far as calling up utility companies or whatever, if there's a a SAG in a line, say like uh like Grand View to Grand View along uh Skank Shank Road, whatever, that'll hit my head and
you know, walking a dog, whatever. Do I email you or do I have to go through the telephone company? >> Uh, you're supposed to go through the telephone company, but if I can't get in touch with them, there's a good chance you're not going to get in touch with them. So just send it to me. Um because I'm going to be dealing with them. Uh the telephone company is difficult. I
can actually one thing I can say if I call Jose and just so you know Jose is a a a he's the government rep. He took over for Frank Luna. So that's why he's only been here a year. So but just so you know he he is very responsive to us.
So um but when it comes to Verizon, yeah, if you have a problem with that, give me a call and I'll I'll look into it. >> Okay. Um, another question is I know we spoke a lot about where you guys spoke a lot about what's going on over at the uh the whole Oak Hill Farm or barn or whatever. Um, that was a lot for
something to not be on an agenda tonight. Um, I mean, when they came out last uh not they, but when you guys uh had people come here, you know, with complaints the last meeting, there were several of them that filled up the seats over here. I I think we should, you know, he he has a big following. He has
a lot of people that like him here. Um I I think it would be nice if there was if it was on the agenda where people can come out and show support for whatever's going on. Um and as far as superior court goes, if something is thrown out and it gets rushed to appeals court, does that have to go in front of uh the
committee to get approval to take it to that next step to appeal it or is it just get done right then and there? >> That's everything I'll answer. >> That's everything. >> Okay. Thanks. So yeah, we talk about it as a committee and then we determine whether or not we want to move forward with the next step
in the legal process. Anybody else? Public comment. Matt, Nate, I'm going to go I got to go one person per per comment. So maybe offline if you need to if you have a question, we can chat. >> He went already. >> Oh, I know. >> Welcome back, man. I felt
>> broke. >> Hello. >> Hey guys, Matt Weissfeld, 10 Riverside Lane, Homedale, New Jersey. Really happy to be back here. Uh, I've missed a whole bunch. It seems Oh, actually, it's a digital clock. That's easier. I thought you knew that, kid. So anyway, first um
first and foremost, man, I'm so glad you guys partnered with Beayshore Medical Hospital because I probably wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for that. Had a little little bit of a itsybitsy medical event. Um it made me miss some things and everything else and uh yeah, you know, got there nice and fast and Beayur is amazing. I know there was some
of the faces up here that made that happen. Whatever you did, freaking flawless. And you know what, the food was pretty darn good also. I don't care what anyone has to say. I I had a phenomenal time short of the, you know, near-death experience. That was uh not so great. Uh on a lighter note, um I
just want to remind everybody that uh Celu will be having Sip and Sea uh August 5th at 6:00. Super important. Everything else want to make sure that that happens. I hope you're all going to be there. We're going to have mixers. We're going to have a gigantic uh checkerboard thing because the kids love that stuff. And uh and talking about
waterheds and all this stuff and everything else. So, and uh you know, Farmer Franco, come also. you know, we talk about farms, you know, talk about all the stuff. And uh again, guys, I heard somebody mention about underground poles, so I'll throw it out there. Uh not underground poles, you know what I mean? Underground power lines, all that
fun stuff. Uh so, I mean, yeah, I'm kind of wondering also, I mean, like it just seems like, you know, it could have been done. And I mean, I did my chat GPT research like everybody else because I don't know a damn thing about this stuff. But it seems like it's one of those short-term bigger cost, long-term
bigger gain. saying as again, you know, the armchair guy over here with that stuff. So, it seems like that makes sense. Also, somebody mentioned that in like five years, everyone's going to forget the polls even exist. Probably true. Hopefully not. Hopefully, we're going to solve it all. We're going to chop down that pole in front of Home Del
Park and everything, but just in case. Um, the second polls like when I know that there's like a 10-year limit, so they can really screw around because it's JCPNL. Uh, but nonetheless, can we get rid of those sooner than later? you know, because I feel like that would help a lot that if that went away, if
that happened, then it's, you know, it's it's still I mean, again, not not the Yeah, I mean I mean Nate, listen, we're dropping all that excess on your lawn, too. So, don't you worry, man. So, we got you. Nonetheless, I think that would probably help. I I think I got it all. Anything else? I'm just kidding. I'm going to sit down before I get
lightheaded. >> Thanks, Matt. the um so the original polls have to have the utility lines move it up to the new poles and that's what Chris was talking to assemblywoman Flynn about which is getting the utility company on the move not the utility company the telecom
company on the move get them to get the work done and get the polls out of here. Um so we're trying to expedite that as quickly as we can. That's why we were fortunate enough to escalate I don't know half an hour ago an hour ago at this point. So thank you Vicki for being here by the way. Appreciate it. um appreciate all the work you did
and it just it should be known Vicki was incredibly helpful during the outages. You know, we were on a lot of calls. Vicki was escalating. She was on vacation in Florida and reaching out to all the Beayshore mayors, the legislative legislative district 13 mayors and everybody to try to help us
any way she could. So, she escalated up to BPU, uh every other department with initials I can't remember at this point, but really appreciate your your leaning in. So, thank you for that. >> Yeah. It's like it's 2026 down there or something. Yeah. Yeah.
>> Wild. Um Nate, can we take it offline? I want to do one question per person. All right. I'll get you after the meeting if that's all right. Anybody else for public comment? Lance. That was close. Lance Loopy Line Road.
Um, I'm going to defend you on one point. Uh, I understood your points about the earlier comment and JCPNL question. It's clear to me. Now I'm coming at you. Um, >> Yep. Absolutely. So, extreme flooding
July 11th, uh, Chingurora Creek flooded tremendously. uh affected my business. Lost four cars, okay, right next to my property. Uh went to Tazlet Township to talk about that because that's where the property is located. They um first of all, just some comments on their structure process. Meetings start at 7.
Great. Uh public meetings 5 minutes and they're at the beginning of the meeting and you get to sit down in a chair. Um and there's no timer, you know, nothing like that. You know, they they they're not afraid to have dialogue with their residents. Um, so really a refreshing experience in in HLlett. So just thought
I would share that with you. Um, on that note about other meetings, we started a couple meetings where we talked about all the agenda items. We went, you know, you guys went through them all and that seemed to have ceased tonight. So I'm not sure what happened where where what the difference is between tonight and and prior meetings. Um, at that
meeting in Hasslet, they mentioned a $210,000 machine that we want to buy in Homeell and we want to split that cost with uh some other towns, neighboring towns, Hasslet, Union Beach, Keyport maybe. Um, but it no sense in us buying that machine because as they stated there, if the Chinkora Creek is stopped
up at Hlet, you can do anything you want with with clearing stuff in this end. It's got no place to go. It's going to back up. So, unless that problem downstream is resolved, then we're going to continue to have these problems. Uh, these are totally out of order. Beer
Street, no turn on red. I've asked about it before. Speaking of Beer Street, the corner of that property for sale. I don't know if there's what's going on with it. Uh, I don't know if we have a line item on the agenda for, you know, let's let someone else buy it and then decide that we don't like it later, what we're going to offer to pay for it, and then what we're going to spend in legal
fees. So, just curious if we have, you know, any kind of uh uh expectation for that. Um, the meeting that was canceled prior to the election, didn't bring it up last time. really disappointing that that happened. I know there may have been one person that was not available, but optically that tells me that either
we didn't trust the other members of the council or committee to handle the the possible, you know, questions that would have been asked at that. Um, but it doesn't have a good look in my eye. Uh, again, the three-minute rule really kind of weird that, you know, we've
instituted this. Hopefully one day when there's a change up there, then that will disappear. Um, pickle ball stats. Curious about the pickleball stats. I went by the pickle ball courts three times last week. Um, once in the afternoon around 2 o'clock, about 50 cars in the parking lot and zero people
at the pickle ball court. Uh, another day on a Friday I went there, there was three people, three courts being active and another one there was one. And for the JCPNL, just another comment, they give me door hangers and maybe they knock on my door for tree trimming. So, I'm not sure why they can't come around
and see people for uh you know when they're going to put these massive poles on their front yard. That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um just I want to take pickle ball first because Gary, I think you had a different experience. >> I played last night and every court was full at least until 9:00 from 6:00 on.
So, people just one night. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, I've I've I've played there and I've been there with a lot of folks. So, I don't know I don't know what to say about that other than my experience has been different. Um, yeah. So, look, we we just missed reading off the agenda items tonight. There was nothing intentional about
that. It was in the midst of, you know, getting everything in with JCPNL and so we didn't we didn't preview the agenda as we typically do. >> Yeah. No, he was ready to go and I and I skipped him. I I unintentionally skipped him. Uh, the HLlet machine.
Chris, can you speak to that? >> So, we we're we're talking about this right now. I don't know. Um, I know how far Hasslet's gone with it, but I've spoken to the administrator. This is this is an a thought that we have. It would be used along with HLlett and
Union Beach because that's how it flows. Um, it would have to be a shared service so that when we know that if something's cleared in one spot, we're clearing it in the next town and clearing in the next town so it ends up in the right spot. We have not decided anything yet.
Um, I did bring it up um to the mayor and um going forward we'll know more about it once I can even look at a machine to see if it's even worth doing. So, it's it's it's very early in those stages. Um, if we're allowed to do something like that and we find out it it's going to help us, then we'll we'll
probably go ahead and do something, but it would be a shared service. So, therefore, three me possibly four towns would share the cost of that machine. Um, and we're looking to put a team together to actually run it. We have a a lot of areas. Um, but one thing we want to just note and note to to our our
homeowners, unfortunately, under D rules, if you buy a home with a creek on it, it's your creek. It's not the town's creek. If you have a a a head wall on your property, you bought it with that head wall, meaning you have to
maintain your creek. So, a lot of these problems are happening because people are dumping stuff in their creeks. We've now found multiple Christmas trees in their creeks that flow down because people don't want to wait for the Christmas tree pickup. So, they dump them in the creeks and they float down
the the creeks. So, we we kind of need some education more than anything right now, but we're working on everything we can do and that's where we're at. >> And then just lastly, uh Lance, to your point on the the three-minute rule, that rule has been in place actually a long time and it's been enforced varyingly over the years based on some of the
behaviors in the spring. We thought it best to do that. I think I've proven to this point that I many times over enjoy a dialogue with folks and going back and forth often times to probably my detriment or certain certainly the exasperation of the township staff who got here early in the morning. Um but
for now, you know, we're going to we're going to hold to the rule and we're going to hold to the the the quorum rules that were in place. We're going to enforce them. >> Anybody else for public comment? >> All right. Motion to close.