i pledge algiance 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 Good evening and welcome to the April
8th 2025 regular meeting of the Township Council of Jackson This meeting will now come to order Pursuant to the revision of the New Jersey Open Public Meeting Act adequate notice this meeting was properly provided by transmitting a notice of the meeting on January 28th 2025 for publication Notice of this
meeting in the township council has been posted in the quarter of the municipal building and the office of the municipal clerk We will begin with a roll call Councilman Belli here Councilman Paul Mary present Councilman Sergeant absent Council Vice President Bernstein
here Council President Cune here Also present this evening is Township Attorney Mr McGucken Myself Township Clerk Martin and Assistant Business Administrator Miss
Novak The next item for tonight's meeting is an update from the Department of Public Works Mr Sha Bolinsky Council President Cune Thank you Madam Clerk This is an update from Sean Bolinsky our supervisor of DPW A few updates for residents regarding the Department of
Public Works We've officially begun uh bulk collection across the town Zones 8 and 7 are now complete Brush collection for zone 8 is scheduled to begin on April 14th As a reminder please place all piles uh neatly at the curb and
avoid blocking sidewalks The Jackson Jungle upgrades are currently in process There was a slight delay due to the recent weather conditions but as soon as the grounds dry out our crews will resume work In addition DPW has started demolition at the Field of Dreams and the contract Robigan construction once
the jungle upgrades are complete I was recently contacted by a representative from the uh American Corp New Jersey uh ambassadors regarding the Barnagut Bay Blitz cleanup Their assistance um their assigned areas include Jackson Township They will be conducting their cleanup on
April 17th at 2 p.m at the Purple Heart Trail System at the Bungle Hill Box They're expecting about 10 to 20 volunteers DPW will be providing material through the clean communities program And we'll also have a few staff members on site to assist the handle disposing of uh collection of trash
disposal of collecting of trash This is a great way to kick off spring and refresh one of our recreational areas If any member of the Pathfinders are interested in joining we look forward to seeing you there Looking ahead we are also hosting our annual townwide spring
cleanup on May 4th So far 30 local nonprofit organizations have signed up to participate If any residents have any concerns about roadway litter or areas that need attention please do not hesitate to call the DPW office We'll
make sure they are addressed Lastly the mill and paving of Anderson Road was delayed um this past week due to uh nighttime temperatures Earl is scheduled to begin work next week Thank you and as always we appreciate your continued support and
cooperation That's it Madam Clerk The next item of business is the proclamation and certifica uh and certificate portion of the agenda Council President Q Yes I am here to give certificates to our um varsity and our cheerleaders So if you guys want to
come up and can is the coach here she's not here She's here She's here Okay Come on Did you want to help if you guys if the coaches just help um if you come up we could do first and last names If I do it I'm just going to call their first names because I don't want to mess up All [Music]
right I'm gonna hand it and then you guys little girls will come up You guys can just stand in a row and then council's going to come down and take a picture Sound good okay Brook Ward Oh sorry [Applause]
Alexa [Applause] Spears Zoe Ziggler Isabella Casada Samantha Pinho Gia [Applause]
Masto Payton Lori Brooke Llysa Connealy Erin Holton Giana Palmier [Applause] Julia Goldberg Kristen Driscoll
[Applause] Rosa Duso Morgan [Applause] Curado Madison Curado Ashley [Applause] Cook Bella
Aardino and Amanda Serino Oh thank you so much Show your go Show the papers Yeah Going outside the morning going to next There's a big gap
Okay [Applause] Congratulations They coming out of here You That's a great They're at the age that they don't You don't even have to tell Thank you guys Thank you for coming
Congratulations Congratulations again Hopefully we'll see you next year Not as not as well as one You can still see them Come on The next item of business is a proclamation read by Councilman Paul Mary for Education Day
Proclamation Township of Jackson Whereas the basis for the continuity of the any society is education and in the great township of Jackson the education of our youth is priority And whereas in order to achieve its highest goals education
must not only impart knowledge but also teach the students how to live forming and strengthening their moral character to make a better life for themselves as individuals and for society as a whole Imparting moral and ethical values that have been the
bedrock of society since the dawn of civilization includes the values known as the seven nohide laws And whereas a global spiritual leader and leading advocate for the advancement of education the Rebi Rabbi Manchm
Merson of righteous memory stressed that a moral and ethical education empowers every individual to develop their full potential in making the world a better place And whereas such an education can nurture the unity of diverse peoples
through encouraging increased acts of goodness and kindness imbued with the awareness that even a single positive act of an individual can change the world and usher in an era of global peace And whereas April 9th 2025 will
mark 123 years since the Reby's birth And this year marks the 75th anniversary of his leadership of the Chabbad Lubovich movement Chabbad is an acronym of three Hebrew words for wisdom
understanding and knowledge The name Lubovich comes from the city which served as the movement's headquarters for over a century and means city of love Of all the ethical values which inform our civil our civilization none
is more important than love Love of wisdom love of our fellow man and love of our creator These values have guided the Chabbad Lubovich movement throughout its history and are the essence of education at its best and we should be
certain to pass this precious heritage to all the young Americans And whereas education and sharing day is observed each year on the Reby's birthday in recognition of his outstanding and lasting contributions towards the
improvement of education morality and the acts of charity around the world A day to pause and reflect on our responsibilities to ensure our youth have the foundation necessary to lead lives rich in purpose and fulfillment through service and good works And now
therefore I Michael Reena mayor of Jackson Township County of Ocean State of New Jersey along with the Jackson Township Council do hereby proclaim Wednesday April 9th 2025 to be education and sharing day in the township of
Jackson and call upon everyone to work together to create a better brighter and more promising future for all Thank you [Applause]
How's it feel say something Yeah thank you very much to uh to the mayor and to the council This I think this is probably the seventh or eighth year that the council has been mayor and the council has been uh issuing this proclamation I think the proclamation uh
speaks for itself I really thank you uh Councilman Palary for reading it so uh eloquently and the message is every act of goodness matters every individual matters and when we impart that message to our families and to our students then
it becomes a society that is educated and educated in sharing So thank you very much Thank you sir [Applause] The next item of business is department head council Q&A recreation department
head Mr Anthony Horta thank you for coming tonight Mr Horta Um can you talk okay you're good Yep I'm good Uh so what's going to happen tonight is that we are going to be a Q&A So council has prepared some questions
and we would like to ask them This is not You have not had a Rice notice This is not Greg Would you just reaffirm that this is has nothing to do with anything it is just a Q&A The council has the right with twothirds of it to call a
department head um to come to a meeting and ask some questions pertaining to efficiency and inefficiency that we find that might be in the department We're not you know answer don't answer We're just we just have some questions Is that okay yep Absolutely All right Thank you
sir Um no problem Is any I I mean I have my questions ready if any Yeah I want Absolutely Yes Uh I apologize but I want to thank the council uh president and the council for inviting me to uh be able to speak uh on behalf of the recreation department I really
appreciate it and assistant uh assistant uh business administrator uh Samantha Novak I I appreciate that too No worries Thank you for coming We appreciate it Council President can I start absolutely So I guess if you don't mind um and really I think where this came from is we're obviously looking at the budget We're just trying to better understand
some of our departments So if you could just elaborate on what what your job is at what what recreation means I think there's a lot of people out there who just don't know You guys are obviously over here Most people don't walk in on a typical day So the clerk's office residents bump into the tax assessor's office obviously the PDW If you can give
a little bit of a summary of what what recreation does Sure Um well um pretty much recreation is like the backbone of We have another mic That's very uncomfortable You don't have to bend down two feet Hello Hello
Thank you You're good to go Okay Yeah So uh pretty much recreation is uh anything that has to do with uh generating a lot of activities uh for uh adults and the kids throughout Jackson Township Um you know uh right now we're uh promoting a lot of activities that we have uh this
year Um we have a basketball camp coming up um Jackson Day 2020 2025 coming up on September uh 14th Uh we have an Easter egg hunt coming up this weekend Um and if anybody's interested in going to the Easter egg hunt um you know we have a uh
pickle ball clinic tennis clinic coming up Um and then we also have uh a uh for the sixth to eighth graders We mostly have a ATV riding uh experience for the kids that uh they could be able to enjoy Uh it's uh one of uh um you know an
outside facility that we have in Jackson Township uh that uh they can be able to rent ATVs and uh to be able to enjoy the dirt dirt track um as well Uh so any activities um um you know and also I'm creating new activities Um I'm trying to
see if I can get a fishing tournament uh in Jackson Township also and um trying to see if I can get a bike tour for bicycle riding also So any activities um you know that have to pertain to Jackson Township um you know I'm all ears and um
any new activities that um you know any anyone from the administration side or council uh can come up with um you know I'm all ears to be able to uh generate new activities throughout the township as well So thank you I just want to follow up on that So um if you could
just elaborate a little bit like obviously you work under the administration and and how do you determine which events you do Easter egg hunt I know you do a Hanukkah minor you do a Christmas lighting how do you decide and what what the process is if any resident calls you up with an activity I know last year you did a
concert series in the summer um was that grant-based like a little bit of a of a description what the process is Yeah So uh the last um summer concert series I did last year for uh it was grant based um 100% uh through uh the Olsson County
Heritage Commission They were able to uh give us a grant Um you know I think for exactly I do have the exact amount It's 2500 Correct Correct Yep Yep Yeah They uh you know they gave 2500 Um we'll also um you know talking about grants we'll also uh have the opportunity to secure a
DCA grant uh for a pickle ball court um you know that we'll get at Woodlane Park Um and uh yeah so we uh don't shy away from grants at all So we are open to you know any opportunity that I have a grant for for recreation I um you know I
pretty much go for it So I'm just going to ask one more question on this and then I'll turn it over to the floor Um so I came to two of the concerts last year and I was very disappointed as a resident at the crowd We're large town and I know I've had residents reach out to me tell me they've gone to Tom Zerver Tom Zerver did something beautiful downtown And obviously they have a beach
they have a little bit of a different you know uh they have a boardwalk Um how would you rate that event those events from last year and what could we do differently as a town because I came to an event there were maybe 35 people there and half of them didn't I don't think even lived in Jackson So like what what's the goal and what are we trying
to accomplish so um yeah I I do apologize for the event that happened last year Um you know on my on my behalf Yeah it was a little bit of a um you know not so nice turnout Um but uh we are looking into possibly moving into a different location Um I find about uh
moving into the justice complex this year It might uh generate a lot more kids that are doing um I know really we can't take away from the activities that they do there with with baseball or soccer but I'm trying to have uh either adults or kids also gravitate towards
the summer concert series at the Justice Complex So if they do play any or if they do for example play at the uh Wooden Jackson playground the uh the spray park or the play uh playground um in by the um
uh you know in the center of the justice complex they can come over and you know listen to the summer concert series but it is going to be for adults So I'm hoping that there might be a lot of families involved you know uh you know the day-to-day activities that come through the Justice Complex for you know
mostly sports So I'm hoping that we will get a better turnout this year Uh moving into a different location I just have to say I think that's an absolutely fabulous idea Um because you do have a lot of families there and you're watching sports and if it's not too loud and you have some music in the
background I I think that that's really really good Um just to add to the councilman's I I just want to make sure that when you're doing this just make sure that you give a heads up to our police department so that they're aware beforehand Um you know just so that we make sure that we have security out there But I think moving it is probably
going to be a great idea So I do see I know every year listen in businesses they say if you can get through five years then you're good The first year is always rough Um but at least you acknowledge that and that's what I think the questions that we're seeing is you acknowledge that that wasn't the best turnout Um thankfully it was on grant
money I did look it up You got $2,500 so it was paid for which is good and that's what we want to see So that was you know kind of a wash Um Councilman are you done can I go into my or for now yeah Okay For you want to do go Okay Thank you Um so I have a couple questions So
what is the five-year plan for the recreation programs and what I'm talking about is the sports the kids Um you know you know we've had discussions since I've been on council Um I just want to know how you plan to keep these programs open because with schools closing and
with everything going on I want to make sure that these kids have a recreation program to go to and their parents are not you know having to get second jobs to keep these kids going to camps in the summer going to programs having the best programs I spoke to parents we all know I don't have children but my friends do
and I do speak to them They say the programs you know are getting expensive as the kids get older but the programs that they're going to are a lot better Yeah So what is in your department the five-year plan that you have um yeah So the five-year plan um is uh obviously
doing every activities that we do and trying to change it up every year So if we for example if we do pickle ball this year we we'll I'll try to uh look outside the box and create a new activity for next year So any activity um I know um uh our smaller clinics for
example we have the tennis clinic right now and the pickle ball clinic uh they are very small and uh you know they have like a small basis but I'm trying to see if I can advertise a little bit more outside of um you know the township also going to media and I've seen it I've
seen it Yeah I I you know I spoke with Miss Novak today about it and it's getting out there It's it's getting traction so it's good Um so I I I want to go we'll go further on that I just want to go to my next question Sure Um what are the process and procedures for
the sports teams to gain access to township owned baseball basketball volleyball football and soccer fields across the parks in the sports complex how is it fair to ensure that all of our sports programs all of these kids have opportunities to use the fields that
their parents are paying taxes for and we're paying taxes for and that almost like no you know they're not turned away We want to make sure if there's a system and process in place and listen if it's first come first serve it's first comes first serve But I just want to see do you have a process for that so that if
somebody reaches out to council or somebody reaches out to administration they could say hey listen it this is our recreation's process and procedures this is if it's full it's full but we can't have a whole team of you know we you know where I'm going with this and them
not being able to have a field when we have other fields We need to open it up and we just need to make it fair for boys girls and all sports So what is your plan for that um my my plan is if I can be able to have because um we really
don't charge to use the field So any outside organization and in-house organization that wants to use the field whether it be the world hockey rink the uh the turf football field or the turf soccer field Um I know everyone wants to use the justice complex Um I usually have a field permit application basis So
they do either can apply online at the Jackson Township uh website Um and there is field availability and um I can either approve it or deny on the basis of any other organizations that are already set and scheduled Um you know
you know we really can't conflict with the schedule Uh now talking about little leagues Jackson Soccer Club and Jackson Little League Jackson Little League has a uh their own field from the applications that they deal with and uh they actually have their own fielduler
uh gentlemen that they that they deal with to schedule the fields out at the justice complex Same as the Jackson Soccer Club and the Vista Fields they have their own field permit applications that they uh have Um I I I I do 100% feel bad for other organizations that
want to use a field No of I just want I just want to get to where my point is and we're going to get into like grant money in all the parks and all the properties that we own Is there could be in your five-year plan to maybe put additional softball fields or wherever you're feeling you know that we don't
have adequate space for because everybody wants to be at the Justice Complex They're $3 million fields They're gorgeous I get it But if it says you know and I understand that they're on a lease I know they pay the township a dollar a year correct but they make thousands and thousands of dollars and subbing out to traveling teams Correct
Correct So I I just wanted to make sure so that so if I was coming in and I wanted to play softball in a town that I live in and I'm told I can't have a field but there's all these other kids from other towns coming in I'm going to say well where am I going to go as a resident in my town why can't I go and use these beautiful fields that my
parents pay taxes for right Of course So my my thing is and I I just want to kind of go in because I don't want to I don't want to leave you here all night but I want to just go into my next thing You keep talking about the pickle ball project Sure Right So that pickle ball project was done on a $70,000 grant
Correct Correct Was there any issues with that grant in that pickle ball um yes Uh there there was a little hiccup Uh what happened was we originally wanted to have the pickle ball court at the justice complex but the wetlands and the pine mans commission and they denied
that So um they kind of had a situation where they sent me the wrong invoice um primarily for the fencing you know stuff like that So we kind of uh forgot about the fencing uh part part of it but I was able to actually send me the right
invoice with the fencing you know and and how did we pay for that if we already put in for the grant money and pickle ball was on the $70,000 grant and that's how much it cost I believe the offense was additional $40,000 Where did that money come from if it didn't come from grant money um it came from uh the
the accounts that we have in you know in the township What account um yeah let me see here Uh I can get back to you on that Okay Thank you That that's a little bit of a concern for me If we're getting grant money and we're missing a $40,000 fence where is that money coming from if if we want it to come from grant the
grant should have been in for 110 Council press if I could just ask a question make sure I understand Is the process for the grant that we design it we submit the grant and and and make the request based on the design Correct So is your question I'm make sure I'm I'm on So your question is if defense is $40,000 and pickle ball was 70 we should
have submitted for 110 not have to take potential coffers Correct 40 That that's my question Yes That and listen mistakes happen My thing is is maybe I think that we're need a little bit of an overview in this department I know that it used to be under DPW Um and I'm kind of just
seeing in and us doing our efficiency and diving deep into and I just want to say you're doing amazing job I see the programs I see the kids I know you're doing trunk trunk or treat You're doing the trunk or treat and the Easter and you're doing things and I see the RVs and I see all these things I just don't
know if maybe we're going so broad to bring so much stuff in Um we have a $38,000 deficit last year Are we making up that deficit has that been made up um yeah I do have the financial statistics for every activity that I do you as well
Um I can go over that Um I I don't I just want to make sure that my kind of my case and my point is are we going through and if we have this RV at the end of the day is it at least breaking even i I want the kids to have fun but we just want to instead of having 40
sports if we have 10 and we're getting packed every every time then get them all good get them focused on and then move on You know we want to do pickle ball Pickle ball I mean there's a there's a huge demand for pickle ball the fact that we don't have the fence around the pickle ball is probably not going to put us into this season So I'm
just saying like that's going to be a lot of loss revenue further down Council President if I could just um I guess follow up on that question for one second quickly Um I know you had sent us council I think it was through Miss Novak like eight nine weeks ago like a summary of a little bit of the description of what you've done in 2024
and some of the things for 2025 And a lot of that was the grant applications which um my understanding some of those grants were stuff that council found and some of them were obviously were administrative but a lot of them were council found And many of those grants to imple the the following through and making sure we had all those processes
put in place was done by DPW So I I see a little bit of an overlap and again not a problem You're doing great work My question is if if from my understanding could be I'm wrong maybe Miss Novak could address this if if if I don't know how long you've been in this department for Um my understanding is this department used to be a little bit more
connected to DPW There was a little bit of of a separation And my question is if you would ideally suggest that maybe we should find a way of combining and making a little bit more cohesive together Uh uh absolutely Yeah that's a a great idea Um you know I I do communicate uh with them you know
whether I want uh to put uh any sign up on the tennis court for uh reserving the box court at the Johnson Memorial Park or the Justice Complex I do work well with them you know Yeah So I guess my question is do you think it makes sense it's a good idea to go back to the way
it was where this was a more of a hand of of DPW a division within DPW versus your own office here and in this sense you would still have your own budget you would still have but it would just maybe have a little bit of an overview and look that could somebody you know uh Mr
has been with the township I don't know 20 years He's been here forever So we're just saying is maybe having somebody with that kind of experience um and and can maybe just overview what's going on and maybe because I understand I believe DPW caught the fence Correct Oh yes
Correct So absolutely And but that's that's not a problem People make mistakes You're human You're human You're running a department You're running a solely department trying to build it out from a deficit And that's why I was trying to get to the deficit You're coming in with a $38,000 deficit I believe to your credit you're down to
a $16,000 deficit So I know your numbers I have to be honest You should know your numbers Okay i'm just being Listen I'm very straight You should know your numbers but that's okay And you should know you know now I do have a I have a trick question for you and you might not know and if you don't know don't answer
me But in regards to grants okay we just got approval all right for recreation for a $92,000 grant right are you aware of this uh yes Yes Okay So we got it when yes No When did we get it um you're
aware of it $19,000 uh grant Um yeah I I I have to get back We got We got it today I have to get back to you today but I am aware of it Okay So we got it this morning at 9:00 in the morning Yes So what is your plans it's recreation grant What is your plans to do with this $92,000
um I I would love to be able to uh build more you know of a um you know turf basis Like I know I understand we have a lot of turf fields at the Justice Complex but I love to you know broaden my horizons Like uh for example I know
we discussed about uh Butterfly Road uh you know for for that land Uh we could be able to discuss it another day as well Uh but I would love to build more turf fields more turf Great answer And and turf soccer fields Great answer So we have more or organizations or public
employees Council president if I could just I thank you because he he he give him our thoughts and I just want to also just add the reason there are a lot of residents here Um and I'm sure we're going to try to get go on with town business but this is definitely I think council president Starf this is this is
appropriate forum for council to ask questions to a department through through the mayor's office and that's why we're we're here Um can we just move to Jackson Day for a second so last last year um Jackson Day I I've been going to Jackson Days for not for so long because they were they were they were moved to Sundays Jackson Day last year was
phenomenal Um it was an unbelievable experience It was a huge crowd Um I was on the Jackson Day committee last year This year I'm not I think Mr Bell and council president are on it this year Um so I I can't talk about much for for this year Um could you just go through the process what your involvement with
Jackson Day is because I know there's a lot of different the PD has has um DPW everyone has a rep there but what your I guess involvement over there is um uh you know the recreation as me being the recreational coordinator I'm like the host of the event but uh we do also have a committee also uh that can have some
input towards enter uh entertainment and promotions and advertisements So I I'm pretty much in charge of hosting the Jackson Day event along with the committee members too So how do we get I guess the the vendors that were there how do we usually get
them there uh there previous vendors that we have from previous years and they're always interested in coming back Um you know we we do reach out to other businesses that are in and outside of Jackson Township Um and we um we just have a lot of advertisements too So you
know that we uh promote Jackson Day So has Jackson Day ever been profitable um it's okay It hasn't How How and We just want to go into something that Jackson Day we're never going to lose in Jackson Day That is our day But we do want to look into possibly getting it to be a
little bit more expansive and and profitable and having It was great last year I mean the committee I went to all the meetings but I didn't put in the 210% that that committee put in They put in their heart of dedication The PBA provided you know um the wine and
alcohol Um we had uh so many vendors We had sports people I mean we had everything going on I I mean I couldn't believe it It was it was it was impeccable I would just like to see um the fees up Now you know that I had told you a year and a half ago that the recreation fees I did not want to raise
and I refused to put that ordinance on I still have not put it on in the last year and a half Even though you have been diligently asking me I will not do it But I did ask for the fees for Jackson Day to be raised Now I understand I was not aware that I believe um Mr Koner the committee member
went ahead and raised the fee from $50 to $250 for vendors Mhm Correct Okay That you should have taken the bull by the horn on that That's great that it did And I think as I had said a year and a half ago it should come from the vendors $50 is peanuts to come and see 8,000 people As a business owner I think
I should I want to see more of that and more of it coming Listen businesses have the extra money Parents of three kids four kids whatever single moms they don't have that 50 bucks is a lot You know it's whether their kid can go to a sporting event or can't Um so I just want to say thank you for doing that And
if we need to revisit the Jackson Day fees I have no problem And I think council agrees that we would support raising that but I I you know I recreation is is not something that we're willing to touch right now Okay I appreciate it I have a question Oh thank
you No no problem I just wanted you guys you guys want to roll so I didn't want to interrupt Thank you Mr Hoarder for coming out today and answering all these questions I appreciate it Am I too low never really too low I know Um I I want to go back to a little bit
of what um council vice president was saying Um there was I guess a music festival that last year he had mentioned it wasn't as I guess as well uh you know attended as it could have been What does the
recreation department do to communicate and promote events sports etc what what are some triggers that we can pull or we have pulled or what are some that we have not yet that you think we could and also with that how can council support you because we have quite a lot of
resources of of different um venues that we could assist you with promoting events Sure Um so the way I do advertising is I do it for the Jackson Recreational website Uh I post flyers there um you know mostly uh bi-weekly Um
you know I also use my recreational management software to be able to promote uh flyers and uh you know and the recreational management software um is a software that a lot of people do join which is uh ww.capsuppoint.com Um you know uh anybody from Jackson Township and
outside of Jackson Township can join the software and it actually just promotes our daily activities that we do and it uh collects revenue from it you know as well So every recreational activity that we post it goes through that recreational management software and we
can be able to blast messages out on multiple family members out are involved in community pass capsoint.com and we advertise it you know that way as well Um and I do have a connection through the county uh tourism board Um and u you
know she helps me out uh with uh promoting uh some of the flyers and some of the events that we have in uh Jackson Township Have you have we tapped into any local like um news media i don't know Park Press News12 Jackson Times anything like that uh yeah we have have
got in contact with Asbury Park Press Um we're just working on on the pricing for them for now because they uh they do uh charge for you know advertising You you know council has an account with Shore News Network that has a pretty huge following So if you send it to council we could forward it We've been posting
We have a website we'd be more than happy to collaborate and help you get the word out And just two more follow-ups to it and if I can assist in any way Um you know I know a lot of this is family oriented You want parents and kids have you reached out to the board of education because parents have emails
on file with the board of ed and staff and they could email blast a great event out especially if it's a free event uh to parents and I could assist with getting you connected with the right people or even the flyers you print where we are we putting them in libraries or in small businesses that would allow us like I don't know any
small business around here MJ etc that would let you maybe promote them through the small business and even with the media we don't always have to pay some would be nice enough like local medias to promote it either on their website either even social media do we have a social media account for recreations do
we we push it through there yeah we have a I was just thinking you know there's a lot of ways we could do this and it won't cost us anything uh if we're creative and I think you have some great ideas if If you want to further discuss more I'm I would love to do that I love promoting that stuff and helping you because I think if we could reach more
folks more folks will come Uh absolutely Yeah we do have a Facebook uh recreational website um that that I post flies for Um you know I guess did the um the Vonica Bay uh Blitz Um and then you know pickle ball uh clinic tennis clinic I've been promoting there as well And
the New York Yankees game too New York Yankees game We have a lot of tickets available for that If anybody's interested in going to that game on July 31st you know I'm trying to get that out there that we do have available tickets So can I just follow up on council councilman Paul Mary's question for a
second So last year I think we advertised Jackson Day and I think it's 107.1 if I remember correctly That's the the invoice and receipt that I have over here Um I'm not a big radio person So I guess explain do you feel that that was the right radio station and I also have
a copy of a deleted contract from 98.5 that we deleted that we decided to walk away from So I again I don't know which of them have a bigger universe in Jackson I would probably say 101.5 has a little bit more than either of these two I'm just trying to figure out what made us like how did we decide like how to spend the money on for for one radio
station cancel a contract with another one like and do you feel going forward that was the best use of money or what could we do better like councilman said to get the message out uh I I know we use uh Town Square Media as my committee members are saying Um I I mean I think
we can just do definitely we're advertising on a in-house base Uh you know if we can get the word out there if there's any um you know sites or any businesses that are not willing you know um to collect revenue we could be able to advertise it that way Um I think we
can we can definitely probably use the money uh to doing a lot of in-house advertising as well So I have one last question then I'm done for for the evening on this subject Sure Um just following up on an email So we were go I was going through some of the the invoices and I had a better understanding now of how petty cash
works and I'm a big proponent as you'll see with the ordinance later tonight of of moving everything onto credit card and um and there was an obviously an invoice for I think it was $9 for whistles I think we we had a back and forth about this and I was trying to understand the process and again this is
just because I'm I'm I'm ignorant on the subject of we spent nine $109 and nine whistles and my question really was via email about going on Amazon and getting 30 whistles for $9 and I think your response was they were out of stock Could you just elaborate just and again the purpose is everyone should
understand what what goes on behind the scenes here Sure Um yeah so it was for the uh the referees that we have for uh basketball uh they needed the whistles in like an emergency so I had to go out of my way to actually get the whistles Um I know we do have an Amazon business
account with Jackson Township so I do understand that part but it was an emergency uh situation that we had to and uh I had to get it to the junior referees as soon as possible as well you know of thank you I could just my closing
remarks to to Anthony Thank you very much Um I I I thought it's important also that the residents don't always see what goes on in this building Not every resident walks in on a daily basis and a little bit of a better description of when the budget does come down and they see a line item called recreation What exactly do you do so I appreciate it
Yeah I appreciate it Um uh if I can be able to get your permission I wanted to actually bring one of the Joint Court athletic directors uh up on the podium if you could be able to speak if possible We could do that during open comments just because we have to get into business and I want you to come and do open comments We definitely want to
hear who whoever you want to speak We definitely want to hear from them I do want to say we're good Um Councilman Paul Mary stole my question I was going to ask So he you addressed it regarding how to increase participation Yeah So
and we we saw it in your budget and and I'm not going to go over into the budget um right now because it's we're going to we've decided that you know you've decided and you think that it's a good idea to have it almost broughten over to DPW's um department head Um I would just want to thank you I you are the first
department head to come up I know it's not easy You did an amazing job Thank you for answering all of our questions and uh taking the time out of your night I know this is not a normal for you but we did ask you to come and we just want to say thank you very much because it does give the insight to the residents
of what we're doing over here when we're going into departments and we're looking in and you were the first of many that we will have up here So I just want to say thank you again and have a great night Yeah you too And I I uh I really appreciate for the council council president for inviting me today Appreciate it Thank you sir Thank you
Anthony Okay Thank you Are there any additional uh comments from township council before we move on to the next agenda item um I'm open comments I'm just going to read mine and then we'll go Um good evening
everyone I'd like to start uh by giving an update on council's ongoing commitment to improving transparency accountability and efficiency here in Jackson Township Over the last few months we've stepped up our efforts by meeting twice a month with our grant writers One of these meetings focusing
on securing fund for infrastructure parks and recreation The other is dedicated to funding supporting for our emergency services specializ uh specialties in EMS and police This strategy helps us to stay organized and ensure we're doing everything we can to
bring additional resources into Jackson We're also introducing our new guided principle called DOE which stands for diligence of Jackson efficiency Doge represents our newly um focus on careful oversight and getting the most value for
every tax tax dollar we spend It's a reminder that we work for you the residents and that every decision should benefit this comm uh community as um as part of this we're taking a close look at our budget and in reality cut some cuts will need to be made These aren't
decisions we take lightly but they are necessary to make sure your money is being used wisely and responsibly We also are reviewing things like department spending um comp uh compensation and areas where we're repeating inefficiencies These
discussions are happening in an open and fairness and transparency because that's what you deserve and we want to hear from you Your fe feedback is essential This is your township and your voice helps shape the decisions we make With Doge guiding over oversightes we are
finally addressing long-standing issues that have been overlooked for too long With the shift in how things are done the one thing is is that this has been needed for years We understand that changes can be res um resistant especially after decades without this level of scrutiny But this council is
committed to doing things differently We will not approve any budget until we are confident that it reflects smart and responsible spending To close I want to reaffirm that our commitment to putting the residents of Jackson first together through Doge diligence of Jackson
efficiency We are building a stronger more transparent and more effective local government Thank you and continue to support Jackson moving forward together Thank you Council Vice President Bernstein Thank you Thank you I'll try to be quick First
of all I saw um Mr Hort left but I see Mr Cononer's in the crowd Mr Coner was is a volunteer who probably put in I don't know a couple thousand hours last year and it continues to put in to make Jackson Day a great day I don't know if if you have anything to add at the end but if you do come up to the mic No not now Not now but by the end of the
meeting by public comments I definitely have some questions I would love to hear from you also if if you're interested and if council president allows Yeah absolutely That's that's point number one Point number two is I know we mentioned by the last meeting um we had a meeting with um here in the municipal building with members of our local law enforcement to discuss some of the
speeding and bus issues in town and I'm happy to see a resolution on the agenda to at least start the conversation um to address it I think it's resolution 141-2025 Um and we're continuing to work with our law enforcement in trying to create ordinances are actually
enforceable um that will hope hopefully bring the necessary safety results Lastly last meeting a resident brought up um South New Prospect some of the storm related issues Um so we reached out to the county and they sent us a letter I'm just going to read the letter quickly It's from the office of the
Ocean County Engineer Um dear Mr Bernstein this letter is response to your recent email to this office regarding storm damage in South M Prospect in Jackson Township Please be advised your staff will work with the contractor to address the situation And then he obviously um thank you for bringing this matter to our attention Should you or any of your residents have
any further concerns please do not hesitate to contact Jim um Simpson Um this is his number I mentioned the above tracking number So um the county did tell us they're coming down and seeing it We have not gotten a follow-up I did email them this morning asking where it's holding Um but um we will continue
to put the pressure on them Thank you and have a good night And just to add they are going to be in our town on May 4th So oh I was gonna I was gonna add that um we have a meeting council and their offices in the middle of May but they are coming to the Bartley Road area and they are going to be driving around town a little bit with council and I
think the mayor also um in the beginning of May So thank you Councilman Blli For the sake of time I'm going to keep it short Uh I know they left but congratulations to the uh Jackson Liberty cheer squad and their coaches on their accomplishments It's nice to celebrate with them and I wish
them all the best in the future and to keep up the great work Good seeing you all Take care and have a good evening That was short Councilman Paul Mary I would just like to also uh congratulate the Jackson Liberty cheerleaders They were here just a few moments ago Uh the
those young ladies work very hard Uh they became state and national champions Their coaches work very hard take a lot of time out of their lives to to help these young uh these young athletes And uh it's just great to see it We have some really talented young people in our
town uh and we just need to continue to uh support them So thank you Thank you Is there anything further by the T council before we move on to the next agenda item no Madam Clerk Thank you The next item of business is a
second reading and public hearing of ordinance 20250 Ordinance 202509 amending chapter 162-4 of the township code entitled subcode fees to comply with the state construction code This ordinance was
introduced on March 25th 2025 If any member of the public has a comment to make please address the council at the microphone and state your name and address clearly for the record You'll have five minutes and may only speak once May I have a motion to open public comment motion Second All in favor any
opposed motion approved Hello everyone Donnie Adelman 206 Willow Point Um I think it's good that we're trying to get more money for you know inspections and all the sub code fees and all that But before we do that just a little thought considering we don't
have actually licensed and certified inspectors maybe we want to make sure that that's taken care of first because sir this is just a state regulated They came in and audited the account and said we were charging for TCOs temporary certificate of occupancies we were charging $9 more This has nothing to do
with any officials or anything like that That's it All right Thank you sir Oh it's tails blue today Seeing no one else come forward and make a motion to close public comment Motion Second All in favor i Any opposed thank
you May I have a motion to adopt ordinance 202509 motion Second Council member Elli Yes Councilman Paul Mary Yes Council Vice President Bernstein Yes Council President Cune Yes The next item of business is the first reading and
introduction of ordinance 202510 amending chapter 3 administrative code of the township of Jackson County of Ocean State of New Jersey to add a new article 16 payment methods establishing permitted methods of payment to the township Council
President Keun are there any comments on ordinance 202510 yes madame clerk So this will payment methods This article specifies that all payments to the township must be made by personal check business check money order or credit
card Cash will no longer be accepted except for the following The tax collector's office municipal court and the senior senior center They will still be accepting cash And council president I think I was like I'm not I think this
the our municipal judge of course commented No just um brought out the fact that legally we have to accept Oh yes Legally the courts can have to accept cash We can't take that away And then I'd gotten a email Um I was actually in the tax collector's office and she had said "You're going to ruin
our lives We need to take cash." Um so I said "Absolutely." And then um the um senior center asked if we could still uh if they could still accept cash and we said absolutely Mainly we're just looking for other departments to no longer have cash including the clerk's
clerk's offices cashless I think is within 10 weeks that we got there So uh we just wanted all the other departments to follow suit I think it makes for easier transaction and transparency Thank you Thank you Are there any additional comments by the township council
it was saying I was trying to collect cash May I have a motion to approve ordinance 202510 on first reading and introduction to authorize the notice of the public hearing to be held on April 22nd 2025 motion Second Councilman Barlli yes Councilman
Paul Mary yes Council Vice President Bernstein yes Council President Hume yes The next item of business is the payment authorization of bills and claims I would like to note the following abstensions Abstensions include from Councilman Blli
AE1 D1 NJC3 and NJS13 and Council President Hun's extension RCSO2 Are there any questions or comments by the Township Council no Madame Clerk may I have a motion to
approve the bills and claims with the abstensions noted motion Second Council member Belli Um abstensions on those bill vendor numbers you mentioned uh regarding myself and yes to the rest on there Thank you Councilman Paul Mary Yes
Council Vice President Bernstein Yes Council President Cune Yes Thank you The next item on the agenda is the consent agenda listed for tonight's consideration or resolutions 139 through 1512025 listed by title Council
President Cun Are there any comments concerning the resolutions listed on tonight's agenda yes Madame Clerk Um in regards to resolution number 140-2025 I made a promise to the residents when I swore in as council that we would review every dollar of
spending and cuts costs wherever possible That's exactly what we're doing tonight I hope that the council follows suit The truth is the mayor and the council are all part-time elected positions We work hard every day for the people of Jackson on top of our full-time jobs It simply makes sense for
these roles to receive a part-time salary That's what the vote affects and reflects The Democrats in Trenton are also taxing us enough Tax uh state taxes are going up Schools taxes are going up and this summer even our utility bills
are expected to rise 20% If we have the opportunity to save our taxpayers over $30,000 with one vote then we have the responsibility to act That's what we are doing tonight keeping our promise to make people uh to the people of Jackson This resolution
140-2425 will cut the mayor's salary from 65,000 to 32 or to 30 Yeah 32 And it would also cut my salary uh to 32 Councils will stay the same In regards to resolution
141-2025 this is what we're talking about with targeting and streets As you can see this resolution has multiple streets on there We worked with traffic safety Uh we will have signage This is not an ordinance This is a resolution It is a call to help to the residents to
transportation to everything for children getting off of buses to try to keep them safe I've met with uh multiple people We're trying to do everything but we can't stop An ordinance isn't going to stop somebody passing a bus because we're we can't catch them There's nobody being called in So we're asking a call
for help for everybody to look out for the children that are crossing And we're asking the buses do not allow on um main roads and county roads and new municipal roads that are listed on here that they pick them up on the side where the door opens And please stop having these kids cross Burroughs Bridge Road and all of
these roads And drivers out there if a bus is stopped please do not pass them I came on a meeting and I was on um uh Bennett Mills Road and I watched this car go and if I could have chased them and caught them I would have but I probably would have gotten a ticket but
they passed on the lefthand side of this bus while this bus is picking up a child I've watched parents go and grab their kids on Bennett Mills Road as the 5-year-olds are going We get calls at council parents begging if we can get their kids their 5-year-olds six-year-olds and seven-year-olds This
is not applicable to high schoolers Um it's it's elementary school It's not even middle schoolers It's the elementary kids that are not looking They're so excited to come home to run home to go play whatever games they're going to play and they just want to rush home and they're not looking right or left Okay so again this is a call to
help and we ask And then resolution 150-2025 this is just to change the effective date It's a liquor license transfer um to April 14th But again we did a resolution We're trying to not do an ordinance for these kids for these buses but please please stop going
around buses and cutting them off If I c if I could just add part part of the res part of the resolution is is is calling upon all the various school bus vendors to meet yearly and have the routes reviewed by the PD which would include the public school and and the private
school All all routes should be reviewed Last year was done very late and it wasn't fully done So we're calling on it that process to start earlier and make sure that the PD has a chance to review it and make any recommendations And I just want to add we are meeting with all of LSDA buses and the bus vendors and I
believe that we're trying to get the camps in there on May 7th Uh we are council Councilman uh Bernstein and myself are meeting with them to have a face-to-face conversation about the you know process and procedures of how the buses are driving and and all buses So
we just wanted to make sure that we are on top of that and we have multiple meetings with Director Candido and the police department Um I I can't tell you how many times that we've just sat there and just said you know that's why ordinance is taken off the table and we're just doing a resolution so that we
can put it upon everybody else Thank you Are there any additional comments by the township council thank you May I have a motion to authorize the consent agenda resolutions 139 through 1512025 motion Motion A second Council member
Bellarelli Um I have to vote no on resolutions R140-2025 and also one R1 144-2025 up And uh let me just explain a little bit regarding resolution
140-2025 Our salaries on the council I understand are staying the same this year I'm not taking away from the work and hours my fellow council members and I put in to serve our town Um however our council positions continue to be on a part-time basis I still strongly feel our salaries should be tied to the cost
of living Also I've haven't received any reasons or justification to reduce the mayor salary who has also taken on at this time the duties of township business administrator actually for a couple of months now And then regarding resolution R1 144 uh-2025 I haven't received enough
information to make an informed decision on this resolution We have traffic issues already on the roads in our town and I think this will add another element to it with big buses coming in That's my concern I say yes to the rest um of the resolutions on the consent agenda Thank you Miss Martin Thank you
Councilman Paul Mary Yes Council Vice President Bernstein Yes And I just want to add one thing Um with regard to the bus this is we don't have the ability to say which buses come into Jackson which ones don't anyone which is a school bus legally This is actually
we're trying to in Yeah but I'm just I just want to explain what we're what the goal of this resolution is make it that gives the PD a little bit more of oversight with regard to these vendors and make sure that everything has a chance to be reviewed just to clarify that But yes and everything and just to answer um the councilman uh Blli in
regards to you voted no to 144 which is New Jersey Transit correct okay Yes Okay I I didn't understand what I was trying to say Um New Jersey Transit came in and of like we do and like I do everything before I present this agenda to you guys In the background I met with the traffic
safety director Candido We went over them and actually one of them was taken out and the only one that was taken out was Grotown Road because um they didn't want cars there You you actually are saying no to employment here These people need to get to work and they take need transportation to get to work It is
not you're it's not like you're sitting there or causing more traffic or anything So again we get these agendas and I'm just saying this so for transparency I give these agendas to you guys on Wednesday I wish you would have called me and asked me because I would have explained to you and said you know
we did sit there It it's not causing more traffic It's actually helping and I believe the mayor's actually been trying to get I I will say that that's what he said I don't know if it's true but um them to come in to get more spots so that people could get tra could get to work So that is the explanation to that
But you've already voted no so I'm not sure I did vote no I mean I expressed a concern Maybe I'll be wrong but I guess future will tell Okay Thanks Well thank you I'm going to vote yes to everything Thank you Motion approved
At this time if any member of the public has any comments to make please address the council at the microphone and state your name and address clearly for the record You'll have five minutes and may only speak once May I have a motion to open public comment motion Second All in
favor i Any oppose motion approved [Music] It's open Ray Katon 11 form wrote uh I want to change um there was some misinformation for Jackson day we raised
the food vendors 25% The fee was 200 we moved it to $250 What we increased was the vendor fees 60% about 66% All right We only have 20 Last year we
had 24 food vendors this year I mean and I think like 80 something regular vendors We hope to go to 125 regular vendors So we'll not only see a 66% increase the additional vendors will generate additional
revenue And getting to the radio advertising it was a little bit backwards 1015 was not selected uh for the same price It w 885 without any discussion was picked and then it went to the boss which is 10
uh7.5 which is barely a radio station for the same fee None of us were notified why that happened I still don't have any answers to be honest They had no social media presence I did some research They're on the bottom of the barrel in the way of radio advertising
have no idea why that happened or was not aware of why that happened So um this year we've been very costconscious as we were last year but we're able to provide new shows at a lesser cost than the previous shows
We're doing an ATV dirt bike We're going to actually put a racetrack in the park It's going to end up being cheaper than a motorcycle stunt show We're going to save a couple of thousand dollars on that We're doing more innovative stuff We got a parachuter coming in for free
who's going to jump at the American flag We're doing a monster truck where we're going to actually share revenue We don't pay them anything They average about $6,000 a day and we'll enjoy 30% back from that So we may make $1,800 there
And getting back to the radio advertising it was kind of brushed upon um by Anthony Town Square Media is working right now with the Army and they may become our top sponsor for the event where I can't guarantee that right now
but they are interested and that would be a nice influx of capital because obviously I'm guessing that would be in excess of $10,000 Wow So and I do most of the raising for the sponsors Um what
are we at 9,000 Once we get the money in uh I broke two records two years in a row I anticipate to break another record this year Can I confist you did it was amazing last year We I mean we I think we we we let
off doves and everything Well this year if you think last year was great this year is going to be crazily better Can't wait Um one being we probably have a Blackhawk helicopter coming in and landing That's a 12 seater and we're going to have the state police uh
helicopter Again no cost to us Great show I I love the events where we have no cost Um us too What's got me excited is we just lost one of the world's biggest uh record-breaking roller coasters
Kinda Negotiating with Six Flags We're going to be able to bring the front car of that to Jackson Day and we're going to make a display Uh I'd like to charge $5 uh for a photo opportunity My estimates are we'll raise on a low-end
scale of 5,000 to 15,000 to help actually support our event The actual cost of ringing and everything obviously they're not charging us We are working on characters U they very excited to be involved this year It's only taken 15
years to get them that way But with the new management they seem to be very interested Persistence Pardon me I said you have great persistence Yeah Well I don't give up Uh let's put it that way So uh drone show We're going to have a
repeat I incorporate the high school to help design it give them something really cool to do our social media So we're going to do a small tribute to the military We're going to a little less than last year Uh we've got a rebranding of our high school So we would like to
highlight that and I've kind of give them card launch to do the rest of the show The beauty of it with the increased cost due to my relationship with the owner of the drone show he's getting a minimum of $22,500 now to do the show We're paying
the same 15,000 we did last year which I think is spectacular since I think they did a phenomenal job Absolutely So those are the things we're working on Uh we have a riding park an ATV riding park for the kids All right Thank you Okay council
president Any questions we just have a long meeting I could ask Mr two or three questions quickly Um I've heard from two or three businesses that how you have gone to them and gotten them to be sponsors So we I we definitely appreciate that Would you give a percentage of how many businesses that were there last year you thought were
brought in by Raikoner and what you had vendors wise and that's a difference It's a business information booth You know what I'm saying it's not really anything substantial but I think we had about 83 I would like to go to 125 I think we can get there We got a lot to
offer And you have to understand the event has grown from 5,000 in 2023 the estimate to 11,000 last year and I'm looking closer to 17 18,000 this year Wow with what we got going The momentum's building the shows we got Um
the ATV race itself has a following of several thousand people right so people will come all over Ask one last question I think you're like Mr Jackson to be here Thanks tonight You're like Mr Jackson Day Ray if you don't mind me asking Do you get a stipen from the township for all the you probably put in
10,000 hours for this do you get a stipen yes I put a I work seven days a week until they You do get a stipen Pardon me You get a stipen do you get a stipen i get nothing I'm a volunteer You're a volunteer I would like I do It costs me $150 every Jackson day I would
love to get reimbursed for that for ink and paper All right I help basically you send the clerk's office anything that you need printed and we we have a color printer We will print it for you Absolutely That's goes without saying It would cost me more in gas to come back and forth I'll deliver them to the gym
All right Yeah I got a full You know I keep everything We have to go Thank you Thank you Welcome Thank you Ray Thank you Good evening uh Carrie Ricks uh 21 Britney Lane Um good evening council members I am here on behalf of the Lady Jags travel softball team on behalf of
our community including our parents our coaches and most importantly our girls First I want to thank the city council president council members and the recreational department for all of their work they have done to support youth sports in Jackson We appreciate your responsiveness in the recent
conversation and your willingness to listen and work together to reserve Johnson Park for our team practices We know that creating opportunities for our kids requires coordination commitment resources and we are grateful for your efforts As I
shared last week with the mayor city council and recreational director I am here tonight because our travel softball team the Lady Jags have consistently struggled to access public fields in our own town Our girls deserve better We face significant roadblocks trying to
reserve a softball field at Hullbrook Little League and Justice Complex We've been told field bookings are limited to one week window in advance We've even and even when we rarely successful most frustrating of all we've been told
that fields are fully booked or limited availability Yet when we arrive for practice surrounding fields sit empty This isn't just a scheduling issue It feels like we're unwanted in our own community Let me give an example I was
recently informed our 10-year travel team was asked to leave a softball field They have reserved to allow a boy a boys team to practice instead During our most recent fall season our team was forced to either cut practices short or play in
the dark at Justice Complex because the lights were not turned on while the lights were shining over an empty turf field adjacent to the darkened field we were provided My daughter's Hullbrook Little League experience has been very similar Over
the last three seasons two fall and one spring My daughter's recreational softball team at Hullbrook Little League has held only four practices in total Every time the reason given by the volunteer coaches was lack of field
availability yet we saw empty fields This is not a new problem nor is it unique to our team It reflects a larger pattern of inequity between girls and boy sports here in our town So tonight I'm just not here to complain I'm asking
for some solutions We're requesting equal access to all public softball or baseball fields for our girls and boys teams Improved protocols for booking the many softball fields that are around Jackson Improved communication with
lighting If lights are available they should be used fairly across all fields and sports Access to the turf field especially when it's vacant and our team is practicing in the dark Access to additional softball fields ready beyond
John Johnson Park and Camp Joyfields that are equipped with home plates bases and playable surfaces for safe and fair practices at games Our girls want to play They want to practice They want to grow as athletes and teammates but they
need your help to make it possible We are not asking for favors We're asking for fairness the kind that ensures every child in Jackson regardless of gender has equal access to resources their families pay taxes to support Thank you
for your time and your commitment to our youth I hope you will work with us and Jackson make a place for all athletes have equal opportunity to succeed I look forward to hearing from the council with next steps to ensure all Jackson sports teams are treated with value and respect
by the community Thank you ma'am I I just want you to say because you know who I am I I called you right away and I do think that that's good Um I do I do appreciate I did respond to you and we did hopefully secure you for this season but this just this season Yes In looking
into the history of what's going on with the girls sports I realized that this has been a long long long-standing problem Um I did speak to administration and I will speak with administration again and we are going to look into I don't know almost like maybe a Google calendar that can go online and show
who's got the field what fields open and can can uh you know reserve it or something something needs to be more transparent um that you know everybody I understand that they have you know the turf fields everybody should be able to use the turf fields and if it's v if it's not being utilized it should be
open but you first come first serve and you reserve it I think that that should be something that I can hopefully work with administration and we can do but there should be no team that is turned away for a vacant field and not have lights that's on me so you're fine um we
it's it's a problem it's not fair it's not fair everybody body should have 100% be able to use boys girls any sports And that's kind of what we opened up with this morning Um so that plant that seed was already planted in with recreation and I will promise you um I will follow
up with that and we will be in touch Thank you Thank you for coming tonight Thank you Dave Vone Whitesville Road Jackson New Jersey Speaking as a resident and not an employee my intention is not to
intimidate or harass anybody here My question is probably a legal one which might be best suited to be answered by Mr McGucken And this came up as a result of the township's new initiative to
restrict the acceptance of currency in certain departments The $5 bill that I have here is a US currency Federal Reserve note And the note says the following And
every piece of current US currency says the same thing It says "This note is legal tender for all debts public and private." So with this in bossed on every piece of currency how
can the township restrict um restrict the payment of debts uh that doesn't include US currency right if I hypothetically okay uh I'm a landlord
and I want to come into code enforcement and pay my yearly $125 landlord registration fee in January You're you're it's my understanding that as a result of these new law uh rules I can't come in with
$125 in cash and pay my fee Am I correct Mr about you are correct that that you are correct that that's what the ordinance would prohibit and townships and municipalities can prohibit cash transactions they are permitted to do so but how are they
permitted to do so if if the currency says different by statute we are allowed to do that and it's for public corruption purposes and it is specific New Jersey statute I do not have it in front of me but I will tell you that I have researched it not only in this town
and other pounds It is permissible for a township to prohibit crash cash transactions except in the municipal court Okay Thank you Thank you sir Dan Picart 17 Alaska Avenue here in Jackson Mr Bernstein thank you for
contacting the county about South New Prospect I'm here to tell you that yesterday they repaved the area by McCertie Lane However now tonight the road is closed again New Jersey Natural Gas has torn up the road again for a gas
leak So we're going to we're going backwards What can we find out what's wrong with the infrastructure in that area that there's two gas leaks in less than a month the road gets torn Changing gas lines They're at my house They're they were at my house yesterday and I
actually had the whole Brookwood one I live in Brookwood one also Um the whole Brookwood one is getting is the gas lines are being redone They were on I think um Alaska not sorry not Alaska they were on Arizona earlier this week So I know they're making they're on Redwood um right now So but like I say
South New Prospect is closed again tonight and and Bennis Mills was too and the and the street is torn up again and the police are there you know is a detour into the Oh I know I think definitely more communication between the various um utility companies and the
county and the municipality definitely beneficial and and again please get education out there about helmets on children Somebody is going it's enforcement We we passed the ordinance of no um bikes no these gas bikes and they're all over I I please I don't want
I we've got to do something Somebody's going to get seriously injured I and brain damaged I I couldn't It's got to stop I Thank you Thank you sir Hello again everyone Don 206 will
appoint Um I'm just going to say because I've gotten about 50 messages since well the comments about the pay went out I think it's a little unnerving that you guys gave yourself a hefty raise last
year and you claim that it's based upon the cost of living and it's a part-time job Yet $34,000 a year give or take That's about $16 an hour which is way more than minimum wage in the state of New Jersey for a full-time job Our mayor
is averaging about $29 an hour after the new proposed thing for a part-time job that everybody on the board and certainly Mr Mayor himself um are enjoying other intangible fringe
benefits that can't necessarily be quantified but you just might want to think about that Um next the uh Jackson concert the series and even Jackson Day I think it's just a marketing problem especially with the concert
series Having this little electronic sign out here and having a few uh things placed up in the billboard in the park is not really going to draw a lot of people It just needs to be marketed a hell of a lot better A couple other things are the community development block grant I hope I'm saying that right
Um as you know the two times that they were here asking for suggestions I brought up the thing about the dog park I don't know if anybody suggested anything else I haven't seen anything I haven't heard anything There's nothing on the website So if hopefully no one else has so maybe we can get that
resolved and make that ADA accessible Um and then the last thing is I was sitting there just going over some stuff because of some issues I have with Jackson police and I stumbled across something about an ADA advisory board What happened with that because I can't find
anything about it on the website The what the Jackson ADA advisory board It is Hold on You know what that's a great question Let me uh I'll make it back to you Just so you know it's section
3-155 through section 3-167 on the Jackson codes article I guess that's 14 You want to email that to me Tony okay It's in one second Mr Edman Who Who fills that board i've never heard of that board before Neither
The Americans shall consist of five regular members and two alternate members designated by alter number one alter number two appointed by the mayor Oh so it's a mayor appointment just send it to me and I'll send it to the mayor and we'll see if he'll appoint somebody And then it talks about an ADA coordinator for the town and so forth
like that So I'll send that over to you Thank you All right And then the last thing is uh for our what is it $60,000 a year that we're paying the mayor 65 It just got reduced to 32 All right For $32,000 a year we're paying the mayor and god knows how many hundreds of
thousands of dollars that we're paying Chief Coons You know I may have quite a few disagreements with wi with with police director Cano but but he's here every week Absolutely Thank you sir All right Can we maybe do something to get the other two guys in here we can't That's currently in the litigation and
we can't answer that Okay Thank you Have a great night You too Bye dog A Okay you're next Uh I think I'm the last one My name is
Paul Rivere I'm on West Commodore Boulevard Jackson Uh the first thing uh I want to talk about is it was very good uh park and recreation came in Uh park and recreation administration
was one of my majors when I graduated from college So but uh since then I'm a systems engineer And the first thing you do is you got to start with the requirements document and the and the definition and the identification of the
requirements So I guess it's good practice for a recreation to issue a survey and and also research how many people are in the town Now there are some standard industry standards for x
amount of people You know the best practice is x amount of distributed parks And I I would love to see uh a uh a master plan for that Uh and also you
everybody hates it when you see a brand new park and one facility is just never used It's like a you know you struck out on that So that survey you know from the survey you do a bar chart and then you can find out
what's you know what the trends are what's really popular and and go from there And then it's also I recommend by direct it's called birectional planning You start at the end and you work to
where you are now and you start to where where you are now to where you want to be And so uh I I'll be glad to uh uh volunteer my services on recreation planning Uh now on the I've been going
to uh be meetings because I'm new in town and the high density zoning that we uh I mean development that we have here Um there's got to be a better checklist for the for the town I mean I don't
blame the the developers for wanting to jam every house they can in there because that's their job okay they need to make that profitable and they do that by getting as many home sites as they can and I think we're seeing that over
on 537 now So but there's got to be questions So there's a conflict there They want to make as much money and you want to preserve and protect Jackson So the people who are preserving and
protecting Jackson need a good checklist And one of them is where are the children going to play when you see a development plan and you don't see anywhere a child can play that's a red flag Okay Next thing is the parking
Uh I've seen many of these come up and the parking it does not consider the amount of visitors that come And up by u uh quick check on Route 33 they uh uh Dr
Horton just put a uh very high dense development and they had a bike path Well they didn't plan right for the cars the parking and now they're they're parking on the the bike path So that's something you got to do before you approve
it Okay Now that's that's that touches on that The next thing is uh and I'll tell you once you approve it that's permanent and it it will be a really bad situation for those families Another thing is to have a a community building
where people can get together I'm just talking quality of life here Okay The next thing I have is wetlands I mean as a person who appreciates open space the wetlands are are a gift Uh we
we can't have people filling them in knocking them down I mean that's a gift that you that is to Jackson And uh there is a law that we have Jackson has that if you know you're in a wetlands area
you cannot go before the board without having uh all the NJD uh requirements One of them is a delineation of the wetlands And that makes perfect sense to me I mean how can you go before a
planning board zoning board and talk about a site plan without knowing where the wetlands are so uh you have enforced that and uh I think I saw uh Mr McGuckan's letter to somebody on that You can't have people
just disregard that Thank you sir All right Thank you Have a great night Deb Jones Tyson Road Um I just had a question when it was asked about not allowing cash and you said there was a statute Who would have that statute that
you're basing this on it's a state statute I'm sorry I don't have it with me tonight I know that would be the question I actually had to research it for Tom's River when they did the same thing that Jackson just did Um state statute requires uh commercial vendors uh such as retail stores are required to
accept cash by statute and the statute provides a spec specific exception by virtue of the fact that it does not include public entities It only applies to commercial businesses selling items to the public It doesn't apply to public entities
Okay because when I look it up it says there is no New Jersey statute that allows the Township of Jackson or any municipality to prohibit cash as an acceptable form of payment in township offices In fact New Jersey Wait I'm just going to finish reading what I'm sure
seeing New Jersey law prohibits requiring buyers to pay with credit or prohibiting cash as payment And then down further it says New Jerseys Consumer Fraud Act The New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act protects consumers rights to pay for goods and services
with cash So I that's that's all correct The problem is the question you ask AI is not the question that was asked here and that is the Consumer Fraud Act applies to consumers from retail and other stores It does not apply to public
entities Okay that was the second thing I read The first thing I read says no there is no New Jersey statute So all I'm asking can you put it on record what the statute is so that the statute is the consumer fraud act that requires
commercial entities to accept cash does not require public entities to do so That's the statute I'm referring to I understand that That's what you're saying I'm asking for the statute number to be put somewhere in our township record so that we can as taxpayers look
into it more because this was the first reading Correct It's the same statute that referred to That's the one I I I'm totally understanding what you're saying What I'm saying is I would like to do my own due diligence as well as other
taxpayers Madame Clerk can you get that information that she's asking for from uh our attorney and then we will put it on the Jackson Township Council page when we post it for uh when we post the ordinance Thank you Okay Thank you You're welcome Have a great night
Anyone else though hello my name is Dan Samowski I'm not a Jackson resident but I serve as the director of athletics at Georgian Court University Uh Mr Hordead asked me here initially thinking that there would be some questions that I would have to address about uh basically our collaboration with Jackson Wreck and
Jackson Little League for the Georgian Court baseball team to use the 6090 field at Justice Complex Uh that is the basically the biggest field that only the oldest kids use which has been underutilized and for those that have been to the complex it's wait you use so
George court comes into Jackson and you use our fields and our kids can't use them So this is uh after so this is where I'll basically be at So the 6090 field is to use these fields and if you do the agreement that we basically had is that we are uh we paid for the
rehabilitation of that field Uh we're basically going on about $60,000 of of Georgian court funds that are uh paying for that field So that 6090 field is that back field by the police station that is pretty much was used very not
very much It's really so big that it's only the oldest kids So we have the little league field the turf which is that first part Uh thank you That is the uh the picture of it right there Um we've basically paid to rehab it Thus far we've basically been on the field
three times uh so far this year Uh so if my CFO saw what we were paying per usage uh he'd have a uh with me Um but uh at the end of the day we've kind of seen this as a long-term partnership To give you a little bit of the insight about this we approach this as number one We
would use this when the field is not being used Uh so we are roughly there at we are off the field by normally 4:30 Um we play games at 10:00 am on some days while students are still in school Fortunately for our college students they're able to accommodate schedules to
have those games Um so basically we use the field when no one's on it We basically paid to rehab it and there is still a lot of work Thank you This is a great $60,000 into our field So Anthony was expecting I guess to have questions about this and kind of why he asked me
to come Um and there's still a lot of work that has to get done with it And as you would expect uh you know working with the little league as well of well you know we made the field nice we need this tarp we need this tarp and most of those are shared expenses between Georgian Court and Jackson uh Little
League which as we understand you know this has not been an easy process to get to this spot We're actually playing on the field Um but we did uh decide to again come to Jackson one that you are you know our neighbors and and someone that we would work with Um but uh you know if we're going to make that
investment we felt that using it with Jackson was better than again because we do not have a baseball field on campus is probably the best way to put it I um I have a Are your kids okay there was an accident over by the Waw Wa a couple days ago No the the boys are they okay
so the the one gentleman is was in the game today cuz I asked them "Oh he's cleared to play." So he is uh he's back on So as far as I'm aware everyone is all right Good As long as everyone's safe I saw that and I was like that's how when I saw George and Court I've never seen you guys here before and there was like 12 of them in Waw Wa I know all their cars are lying I'm like
"Oh my god are they right?" Um okay So you're saying that you guys gave $60,000 so $20,000 a game and to do improvements into our field and now you have a collaboration with So so because of this situation of how Jackson handles the fields basically we did our permit
process through Anthony with Jackson Wreck but at the same time we have again semi a contract this kind of a contract either of us can get out of at any point with Jackson Wreck sorry Jackson Little League I'm sorry Jackson Little Okay Because they're the ones that say they obviously hold or they're saying that
they hold the rights to the field to our field to that field for their $1 a year at least Again I'm not here to certainly change anything So the $20,000 it goes to Jackson We're saying we should be spending less money basically We paid no contract So the $1 that they pay the town you're telling me that you pay the
when you use their So use it three times Let me just So each time was $20,000 and you paid it to Jackson Little League No So we did not pay 20,000 We paid to rehabilitate Can I stop this for a second because I'm concerned If this is a contract relating to a
township facility township needs to be involved in it There is a lease between the township and the little league for certain fields that they're allowed to utilize under the terms of the lease It's been a long time since I looked at it but I think it requires approval from the township to do something like this And I'm not aware of anything like that
I could be wrong It's been a long time since I read That's what I was going to ask Do you know when this agreement came into into So on my side I've been working on it for I guess almost two years was when I approached Anthony initially of just help me How would I go about doing this nino you're the longest longest serving
council member Do you The work while it seems to add up and I know my time is 12 seconds here It seems to add up like wow that's a lot of money But the if you were to look at the work done would be in again what the league would say is in their scope of again knocking down the baseball mound rebuilding the mound you
would think that that is a you know hey we could do that for $100 but that's basically $8,000 a mound to basically take out the clay rebuild it So that's really where the stem of that that comes from that it's not like we're building a building or anything It is very very much
and making what's nicer there And I'm sorry that I went over my time No no no Thank you I appreciate you coming And I'm actually Do you have a card so uh I've got an old one here but uh I realized I didn't grab new ones but I can leave these searching Okay Thank you Thank you very much
Seeing no one else come forward make a motion to close public comment Yeah Oh I hit this Second Second Motion to close All in favor i got a new gyros Motion to close Is there anything from
the top oh no Oh close public comment We did it already Oh now you can make a motion to close Motion to close the meeting Motion Motion Second All in favor i just want to use Thank you Thank you everyone
I get to say