Good evening everyone and welcome to our township committee meeting on this wonderful day May 10, excuse me, June 10th. May by July that we're off to a good start. We needed that pep speech. We needed that speech. We needed that speech.
Adequate notice of this meeting has been given in accordance with the open public meetings act pursuant to public laws 1975. said notice was advertised in the Asbury Park Press in the beacon and was posted on the bulletin board showing the time and place of the meeting. We'll rise and salute our flag.
I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Item number one, police department award
presentation 2025 mothers against drunk driving recognition chief. Thank you everybody. Thanks committee for having me here and having us here allowing us to do this. So, how this started was Eay Fuentes from um he's the
regional program director for mothers against drunk driving and each year they give out awards to uh each agency that performs at a certain level to each individual officer that you know makes a criteria which I'm sure you can explain
what the criteria is and each year our officers win you know they they do very well it's not a competition I shouldn't say but they do very well if I needed that. Sorry about that. So,
they perform very well. um they're they're giving the recognition awards and what happens is annually they'll go to it's usually at Ruckers and they're recognized you know in a big you know formal setting but locally nobody knows about it unless we post on our Facebook
page and maybe people will see it but uh EA to his credit wants to come out individually to each township like this setting and recognize you know the great work of uh the officers that you know perform very well and take uh you know the enforcement of impaired driving very
serious. As you can see, our town, you know, is uh a lot of traffic uh getting bigger continuously and the roads are dangerous. Uh so these officers are out there, you know, performing at the highest levels to make sure that everybody's safe and gets home. So I
also before I I bring Eay up here, uh I'm going to take this opportunity to give some more awards out. uh are all most of our pretty much all of our officers always deserve awards. Uh but they're they're submitted by you know
each uh officer supervisor. So some stand out more than others. So this is an opportunity to go before the township and the committee and to uh give out some other awards. So after the uh the MAD uh award presentation, I will be g
giving out some more awards. So without further ado, Mr. EG. [Applause] Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for allowing me to speak a few words. Um, my name is E Fuentes. I'm the regional program director as at Mothers
Against Drunk Driving. And as the chief just mentioned, every single year in partnership with the New Jersey Department of Highway Traffic Safety, we host an annual event where we honor hardworking law enforcement Every single day of every single year,
our law enforcement goes out to protect our communities and to make them a safer place. When it comes to our mission at Mothers Against Drunk Driving, um the dangers of drunken impaired Driving have only unfortunately been increasing year after year. these hardworking men and
women out there that protect our communities do so much and unfortunately don't always get a lot of recognition um that they rightfully deserve for just doing their job. So, we do this event every single year to honor their hard work from the previous calendar year.
Unfortunately, they could not attend our event as the chief mentioned. So, I took a field trip out here um to make sure that I can personally deliver the awards to each of these hardworking officers and just give them a a quick and personal thank you for all their hard
work. So, from from this department specifically, we honored three individuals. So, to start off, Sergeant Scott Keefe in recognition of excellence Dr. Award. And then for the recognition of
excellence for DWI, we honor two patrolman Sean Spina and patrolman Timothy Swain. Congratulations. Here you go. Thank you. You know, now that we're in the still in the beginning of summer, th this time
more than ever of the year is one of the most dangerous times of the year. We thank you all for for honoring our hardworking law enforcement. Any department, both big and small, deserve the recognition, and we just wanted to take a moment to say thank you and thank you allowing for me for to share these
awards with them today. So thank you again. So to add on to that, so what Sergeant Keefe got was DR's drug recognition expert. So impairments just beyond alcohol. So we have what you know an Alcatest, the old breathalyzer. We can
utilize that when we believe somebody's impaired uh by alcohol. When they're impaired by other drugs or substances, that's when we utilize a drug recognition expert and they do a a series of different tests. It's very
difficult. Not a lot of people like to do it. Uh Sergeant Keefe does an excellent job. Not only does he do it for this town, but he'll go outside of our jurisdiction. The county pays for it. doesn't come out of the taxpayer dollars. Uh but he does it and he does it well.
So, you know, I want to, you know, thank him for that. So, uh, you know, real quick, when it comes to comes to awards, um, you know, all officers deserve awards and I
being the leader of this department, uh, for a long time, been a supervisor, I I hold these guys to the high standard. I don't give them the recognition they deserve. And and I and I know that I'm always critiquing wanting the best, wanting them to do better, wanting them to strive and realize that, you know,
they do put their heart and soul into this department. They do deserve recognition. Um so this is a great opportunity for you allowing us to do this. Uh they do get on a daily basis, we do get letters from the public, from people that we assist,
and we get those letters and then we put it in our tracking system. um and it's recognized and we'll tell them and at roll call the sergeants will read it and that's as far as it goes and that's truly on a daily basis uh that these officers perform that well and it's from
anything from just treating somebody well to you know unfortunately a lot of times you know people pass away and it's it's so you know devastating to the family um you know unexpected everybody's upset and you know they're there consoling the entire time and
helping out and you know so many different letters come in about the praise and the professionalism and uh the public doesn't hear that you know the committee doesn't hear that enough and it's it's very true and you know makes us proud that you know our officers perform that well um and I got
to say you know what happens is you know we we expect that these officers always perform at this level with a camera on their body um and we ask them to be like flawless
um and and respond without emotion and fear. And that's not it's not realistic. They're human like everybody else. They're not super human. I I often hear times like, "I can never do your job as a police officer. I I don't want I wouldn't do, you know, I
don't want a job as a police officer. I couldn't do your job." And then you ask, "Why?" Well, why? Well, it's because, you know, you're working nights, weekends, holidays. Um it's dangerous. uh you're going to call, seeing people at their worst. Uh we're the last line
of defense sometimes. You know, you know, that's it. You're jumping call to call to call. It could be by yourself and you don't know what you're going to encounter. Um well, what I want to say is we're we're human, but the difference
is, you know, we push through it and we get the job done. And that's really truly it that's what makes us different than than everybody else is that hey we're going to get through it. We're going to get the job done. Uh when most people, you know, would would you know
wouldn't rise to the occasion. So um I just want to say, you know, thank you, you know, to all the men and women of Lace Township Police Department. And uh just because these officers are getting awards doesn't mean, you know, everybody else doesn't deserve awards. So without
further ado, Captain, would you come up? He's gonna assist me. All right. So, first up is Patrolman Triano, front and center, and he's getting the triumphant award.
It's awarded for rising above the best of the best in the spirit of competition. So on October 16th of 2024, Officer Trion competed in the Ocean County Chiefs of Police Association Firearms Competition against 71 officers from
Ocean County, many of which are seasoned firearms instructors and veteran SWAT operators. Officer Toronto earned his first place finish in the Iron Sight competition against all competing officers. So that means there's no sighting system. It's just the regular handgun with the with the sight that
came with it. This is a significant accomplishment considering two factors. Officer Triano is a young officer with limited experience in these types of competitions. And two, there are several agencies within Ocean County that are consistently competitive in these types of competitions. If you are uh unaware
of who they are, just keep your ears open and they will tell you. They are now very much aware that the Lace Township Police Department has re-entered the room. This is our first first place finish in a farms competitions since 2015 when a member of our command staff achieved a first place
score in the same competition. That would be Captain Sullivan. So he is getting the triumphant award. Captain might as well not allow that. Nice job. Good job. So I want to say other departments they
will like purposely send their guys out to the range to to practice practice practice. You know we don't we don't do that. Chris does it on his own with a few other officers and you know on their own get this job you know get it done and it's uh you know it's so noted.
Thanks Chris. If I can piggy back off of that for the competition every year is in October they've already started sending their officers out to the range to get ready for this thing. That's how competitive this uh this is. We'll put this on Facebook and you'll see the comments afterwards and you'll figure out which
agencies they are. Right. So, up next are Patrolman Hutman and Patrolman Marone. Front and center. They are getting the exceptional duty award awarded for a highly credible accomplishment to duty or service to the
public. This citation bar shall be issued under circumstances warranting a citation for duty or service to the public. So, Officer Hutman and Officer Marone responded to residence in Fork River to assist RWJ Barnabas mobile pest for a
male subject experience hallucin hallucinations and in need of a psychological evaluation. During the course of the evaluation, Officer Hutman and positioned themselves to observe the hands of the male subject. The male subject stated that he was going to retrieve his wallet when
officers observed him actually reaching for a pair of scissors. Oh god. Due to the officer's uh scene awareness, uh officer Hutman saw what was happening and was able to quickly gain possession of the scissors. Officers were able to quickly secure the male subject in handcuffs for the safety
of everyone involved. The male subject was then transported to the hospital to get uh the help that he needed. No one was injured as a result of the quick actions of the officers on scene. So with these, we don't put these in the pass down. Anytime it's going to be a
medical issue, mental health issue, domestic violence, you won't read them in our pass down. It's there's no need to post that. Uh but these incidents happen a lot. You know, mental health is a big thing. So these officers always
performing at this level. Um, and just their actions alone, how they conduct themselves, just their mere presence, their awareness presents, you know, prevents very bad things from happening. It's that command presence. It's that awareness that, you know, it doesn't
escalate beyond that. Somebody grabs a weapon, you see it on the, you know, on TV, television, the internet, and officers utilize force, deadly force sometimes, um, as a result. So by these officers actions ahead of time and how they handle themselves, how they
position themselves, they uh you know they prevent that and um we're always getting you know recognition from RWJ Barnabas um who are you know uh they're there with those uh employees who always
you know do send us accommodations and how great these officers perform. So I just want to say excellent work. Next up is patrolman Alan Abre and patrolman Jason Nylan nylon right they're going to get murious service
award awarded for a highly unusual accomplishment under adverse conditions with some degree of hazard to life and limb to the other officer where death or injury to a third party is prevented. So on April 3rd um of 24, so we're going
back a little ways, officer Areon and Nylon reported to a home in Fort River to assist RWJ Barnabas with a uh a mental health evaluation. Uh they were uh doing a screening on a resident in crisis who was making suicidal
statements. During the course of the evaluation, the resident began walking towards his recliner. The resident reached down and grabbed the handle of a concealed firearm stuffed in the recliner cushions. Without hesitation, the two officers worked in tandem. as officer
Nylin quickly drew his service weapon and moved to a tactical position while officer Abre was able to quickly grab the resident's uh arm and remove the handgrum from his uh hand without incident. To be clear, the intent of the male subject remains unknown, but due to
officer Abre and officer Nylon's quick actions and overall scene awareness, officers quickly eliminated the threat and deescalated the situation without any further harm. the male subject in crisis was able to receive the help he needed at the hospital. So once again,
same thing. And uh it's their quick actions that matters. It's how they, you know, seen awareness, how they handle themselves, working together that they averted another, you know, potential use of force crisis and and it worked out
excellent. So once again, thank you. I just touch on these these type of things are happening every single day. Um these guys I I promise you they don't want to be here right now. They're very I promise you this. They're very humble. They're very um proud of what they do,
but they will not ever self-promote. Not one time. So for us to, you know, the way we catch a lot of this stuff is by doing body cams. see stuff with. Did this really happen or the supervisor see stuff? And then, you know, um these two specific things came from outside uh of of us. They came from, you know, the
mobile crisis unit that they work hand in hand. This stuff is happening every day with these guys. They're consistently working hard. They're consistently putting themselves. If you ask them a story, I'm sure something happened today that was very similar to this, but we're just not going to we're just not going to know about it. So, um it's just part of the job for them. And
and that's where, you know, the chief and I when we say we hold these guys to a high standard, it's what we do. and and you know, we we need we should be recognizing more, but we all come from this we're all come from the same cloth of it's just kind of what we do, right? So, u be able to stand here and recognize it. We would like to be able
to do it more. Um it's going to be a point of ours to to try to do it more. We, you know, all that, but they don't want to be here. I can tell you that right now. It's it's just not, you know, for them. It's just part of the job. So, nice job, gentlemen. We're we're proud of you guys and uh you know, continue to represent yourself very very well.
Speed this thing up. [Applause] Last one. I promise. It's fine. Last one. You'll take all this good stuff. So, this is going to be the Grand Cordon Award and it's going to go to uh it's for the Jones Road Fire Wildfire.
So, it's awarded as a department citation to recognize individual participation by members who contributed to a significant departmentwide accomplishment or effort. So, on April 22nd, every member of our agency was recalled to work during the Jones Road fire
incident at some point during that evening. The incident began as a non-threat to Lacy Township as officials were made aware of the fire's existence earlier in the day. But as weather's conditions changed and efforts to contain the fire became hampered by such conditions, both residents and
structures of Lacy Township quickly became endangered. In a matter of minutes, the fire crossed several burn lines and jumped the parkway heading directly towards Feeasant Run. Officers were immediately recalled to duty and without hesitation or questioned, they rushed to work to begin assisting in
evacuation efforts that had begun in Feeasant Run. It needs to be recognized that several officers and dispatchers live in the area that was evacuated and affected by this fire. These dedicated folks left their own families and homes asking them to
complete this evacuation without the physical and emotional support of their loved one who recognized that duty called in this specific situation. The conditions that these officers face uh along with fire personnel, first aid
personnel, community personnel. I know uh Veronica was there and committee people, you know, committeeman Juliano, they were sitting there helping everybody. Everybody was all hands on deck. So, we don't want to leave anybody out. This is specifically for the you
know, the police department. All right. They knew um you know that these conditions were unwinable. Our officers were head-on with the smoke and wind conditions with very little personal protective gear as
they went door to door in Veezant Run, attempting to get residents to leave as the firewall quickly approached. Officers were able to complete this mission over the next several hours and achieve the primary goal of preserving every life that was affected. Our communications personnel were outstanding during this time. Our
dispatchers fielded hundreds of telephone calls uh during this time on top of their regular duties. I was impressed to see how calm and professional they remained throughout the evening as chaos was uh happening around them. Dispatcher Wujack and Dispatcher Lawler did an amazing job
restoring order. This became more impressive as time passed as the power went out, internet systems failed, and cell service was out for a period of time, which rendered all of their systems inoperable for a period of time. So, working on pen and paper.
All right. On top of that, one of our dispatchers working at the time lives in Feeasant Run and her home and family were in danger. Yet, she remained professional, calm, and missionoriented. It is equally as impressive to see the men and women in the community step up during these times, our fire departments, our first aid squads, our
partners in the DPW, and also the selfish actions of the Lacy Township School District Transportation Department as many school bus drivers reported to assist in the evacuation. Fantastic. I'm not going to be handing out every award to all the officers. So, Chief, if
I could just take one minute because I'd just like to bring Mr. Triano back up here for a second, please. Um, I know that our administrator was in touch with your chief and I wanted to read this to you what she wrote. So, I don't know if you've been aware of this.
I want to take a moment to formally recognize and command commend Officer Triano for his outstanding professionalism and calm demeanor during a medical emergency involving one of our fellow co-workers here this week. Throughout the incident, Officer Triano
exhibited exceptional compassion, remained composed under pressure. His ability to manage this situation with such steadiness and care was not only reassuring to those present but those but also a testament to his dedication and training. He handled the emergency
with utmost professionalism and displayed genuine concern for our person. Officer Triano is truly an asset to our police department and to our entire work family. We are very fortunate to have him as part of our team and his actions
during this serious event deserves to be commended. So we just wanted to say an extra thank you for that. Thank you. So while we're done with that I would just like to call everybody out so we can get some photos come up. Sergeant Keith.
Get a little photos in there. Come on, guys. Up here. Come on, Mr. Abick. Mr. Nylon. Come on, guys. Mr. Hopman, come on up here. Come on up, guys. Come on, Alan.
All right, next group. Why don't we bring all everybody else that got awards? Bring them up for the chief and the captain. Let's do them separately. We'll we'll do them first and then everybody. I think she said I don't know. Are you doing this sep You do everybody?
Oh, a whole group. Okay, guys. Come back up. Come back up. Good DJ. We don't care. [Music] All right.
Hi, ma'am. How are you? Good to see you. All right. There you go. Good. [Music] some comments from the committee. I guess I'll go first. Peter, mayor,
thank you, mayor. Well, it's evident that you're all working hard um improving your craft and having great careers in Lacy Township. Um we're happy to have you. Um, thanks for keeping Lacy safe and congratulations, Command McDonald. Thank you, Mayor. I have said for a long
time, I think we have one of the best, if not the best, police force in the state of New Jersey. And I think with what went on here tonight, we have proven that. And I thank you. That's all I have, man. Thank you. [Applause]
Julia, as always, we're just so proud and and in these times of uh questioning everything that law enforcement has to do, we're lucky that we have the support of them and we we know they support us here and we're a very fortunate town to
have what we have here. So we we should always be thankful and grateful and always saying appreciation words to them because they are the ones that put their lives on the line even in little small town Lacy. So it's something we should all continue to remember and I'm so
grateful for all of you and I have my blue on as always. So thank you Lorray. Well I got to disagree with Mr. McDonald on one thing. We don't have one of the best police departments in the state in my opinion.
I may be one-sided on this, but I think we have the best. That's right. And congratulations to all of you. We know you work hard every day. There's things that go on that we don't even hear about. We don't need to hear about. And we couldn't be prouder of the squad
we got today, in the past, and it um I know in the future because many of you are young. But what blows my mind when I sit up here, even though I've only been up here about half a year now, is when I'm sitting up here and seeing people getting awards, especially in this
career that were kids years ago, running around with my kids, and now I see the accomplishments that all, and I mean all of them are doing, and it shows
how good they grew up. So, a lot of accommodation needs to go to their parents, their family, and the community that made them the fine police officers they are today. And so, I'll just close the comments with um it's a very different job today
than it was maybe back in 1970. It's not just an enforcement role. it is uh an educator, a counselor, um somebody going out on domestics. Uh so it's it's very difficult. It's very different. Um so
what I always say is I think the most dangerous thing we do every day, and I'm one-sided because I was the intoxicated driver resource center director for about seven years for this county. The most dangerous thing we do every day that most of us are not police officers. Being a police officer is much more
dangerous. But the most dangerous thing we do is drive. So the amount of people on the road that are wasted or high or texting, it's dangerous. It's dangerous every single day. And um we see it uh here in town and we see it at the county
level. So it's not easy. So, we're grateful and we like seeing the room surrounded with the blue and we want to continue to see it and we want to continue to support our police department. And uh we're just we're grateful because every time they're out there and they're arresting somebody
like some of these folks here have done with the DUIs, with being high, with texting. Um we all got blood on the road. We all got love on the road and they're protecting us and they're protecting our kids. So for that I'm
very very grateful and I appreciate every one of you guys and ladies. I appreciate you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. All of us. Thank you. Good. It's a good idea. Anyone uh would like to exit the room now and continue on with their evening, uh please feel free
to do it. These guys run. They're already out to do. They're running. Well, thank you so much for being here tonight. I'm going to pause the tape. I'm pausing. Pausing the tape. You got the baby.
[Music] I know. That's the difference. Yeah, I know. Hi. You nervous? No, she's lying.
See if Ron shuts the door. See if we could uh get somebody to shut the door if we can. There's people coming in too, Barry. Let them come in, too. Ready? Yes, sir. Recording. Girl Scouts.
[Music] Okay. Item number two, proclamation honoring Girl Scouts of the Jersey. Shore. I'll read a proclamation and then I'll ask. Why doesn't she come up? Why want to have her come up? Yeah, she can come up first. That'd be great. Come on up.
for you to Well, she should be speaking into the microphone. Moved it. Yes. Susan, why don't you introduce yourself to our town and uh let us know what you do and what your title is. All right. Um Susan Bon Masterson.
I'm not tall. Uh I am with the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore. I'm the assistant director for regional engagement. Um I've been there almost 11 years. Give a little background. I was a Girl Scout my whole life. Uh I am a Gold
Award Girl Scout. I was a Girl Scout leader for 17 years. My daughter is also a Gold Award Girl Scout and um I am just transferred from Northern Mammoth County to now southern Ocean County. So Lacy is part of my area now. So
for about six weeks, but I know the area because I grew up down here. Wonderful. So we appreciate you being here tonight. I did ask you uh here tonight um because uh we want to recognize our Girl Scouts as we do our Boy Scouts, our Eagle Scouts, and the
Gold Award is your equivalent. Uh we know that there's a large contingent of scouts, both boy and girl scouts and now scouts in general in our town. Uh we appreciate you being part of this town. Um as a girl dad and uh my daughter was a Girl Scout. I am partial, but it does
build character. And as you'll often hear Mr. McDonald say whose son is an Eagle Scout. Uh he speaks in glowing terms about them and he will often say uh we may not hire you but if he sees it on a resume he will absolutely interview them and they're they're just cut the
girl scouts and the gold award the Boy Scouts the Eagle Scouts um they're they're cut from a different cloth and they're just fine individuals. So what you do in these times for our youth is uh to be recognized. We all collectively appreciate it. And let me read, if
you'll allow me, this short proclamation. Whereas the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore's long-standing history of building girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. Whereas since its founding in 1912, the Girl Scouts has empowered millions of girls across the the country
by providing opportunities to discover their strengths, connect with their communities, and take action to improve the world around them. And whereas the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore ser serves thousands of girls across Mammoth and Ocean County, offering innovative programs in STEM,
entrepreneurship, life skills, the outdoors, and fostering leadership, development, and community engagement. And whereas the Girl Scouts organization supports the growth and potential of girls through dedicated adult volunteers, community partners, and supportive families who work together to
mentor and inspire the next generation of leaders. And whereas Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore continues to positively impact the youth of Lacy Township and beyond, instilling in girls the values of service, integrity, and responsibility. Now, therefore, I, Peter Curutoo, mayor of Lacy Township, on
behalf of myself and really this entire township committee, uh we do hereby recognize and commend the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore for their outstanding contributions to our community and applaud their ongoing efforts to shape the future leaders and create a brighter
tomorrow. Thank you for what you do. Take a quick picture. Wonderful. There you go. [Applause] This final proclamation of the evening that we'll do next, item number three,
proclamation honoring Reese Osman. It's really something special and close to my heart. I know we're all touched by people uh in our families or our friend group uh with cancer. So, I saw something on Facebook. There's a young lady that lived in my community. I live
right behind Shopright uh that was participating in Alex's lemonade stand. Uh she has gone through a very difficult time. Her family's here this evening and I wanted to go there and purchase some lemonade. But
what I couldn't believe and this the God's honest truth. This was I want to say it. You know I love the Fourth of July celebrations. I'm a patriot. Was my proudest day was being at their house a couple weeks ago. And I will tell you why. They live on a a little circle on
Carr Street in the section of Cranberry Hill. And I got there, I was the only guy there buying some lemonade saying, "Hey, how you doing on my mother's grave, every fire truck we had pulled up, police officers pulled
up, the the the circle filled up, then Carr Street filled up, and there were people there just to support this young lady, unless she's the most popular family in the township in Ocean County. These were people that just organically
wanted to support somebody. And so this young lady is trying to fight this horrible disease. And I'm telling you, you get choked up because I'm going to read this proclamation. And I don't know how much money you raised that day. Can you tell us? A little over 4,000
4,000 bucks from a lemonade stand. So, I just want to read these couple of paragraphs and honor this family. Whereas, in the winter of 2014, at just two and a half years old, Lacy Township resident Ree Madison Osmond was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic
leukemia, ALLL, a form of childhood cancer. And whereas, despite facing relapses and countless hospitalizations over the years, Ree has met every challenge with resilience, courage, and remarkable desire to help others. Whereas by her own journey and deep
commitment in giving back, Ree and held her Alex's lemonade stand in in this summer after her diagnosis, raising $4,000 to fund critical research for Alex's lemonade stand. Whereas over the past 12 years, Ree has organized and
hosted six lemonade stands, often right at the end of her driveway, raising more than $15,000 in total, helping fund over 200 hours of childhood cancer research. Whereas Ree has demonstrated extraordinary strength,
selflessness, creativity, and even designing her own artwork and posters for each stand and continues to raise awareness for an often underfunded cause that affects far too many children. Now therefore, I, Peter Curatola, Mayor of Lacy Township, on behalf of myself and
again the entire township committee, we say in one voice, we do hereby honor Maurice Madison Osman for her unwavering spirit and compassion and commitment to making a difference in the fight against childhood cancer. She is an inspiration to us all.
Oh, my grand Come on, grandparents. Get up here. May I say something quickly? Yes. Nothing too horrible. Uh July 10th, 2004, two kids got married and never once thought that they would be here 21
years later standing with such an exceptional young child. That's right. That's right. [Applause] All right. Smile pretty Okay, there we go. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Just want to commend Veronica and Amy
for uh writing some of those uh proclamations. They were wonderful and we appreciate that goes all to Amy. That's Amy's credit this time. Can I can I say something? Yes, sir. We'd like to hear from Senator Connors if we could. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate the privilege of addressing everyone from
the Deis. It's not usually my role as a township attorney. I usually have to answer questions of the legal nature, but uh this particular matter with regard to Ree um hit strikes home very closely. Um Ree, whether you know it or
not, we have a bond of commonality of circumstances. Um about 28 years ago, I was diagnosed with acute uh leukemia, myogynous leukemia, AML, but many similarities to
to ALL. And um as a result of that, I had undergone a bone marrow transplant. Lucky for me, my only brother, uh, four years older than I was, was an identical match. But I went through a grueling process of chemotherapy. Um, and after
the chemotherapy, when it was in remission, uh, had the opportunity for the bone marrow transplant, which was the only opportunity for a complete cure. And it was a very arduous battle not just for me as a patient but family
members and every round around round of support uh group um is very very important and I spent a lot of time um postrplant post recovery raising money like Greece uh for the leukemia lymphoma
society uh volunteering to go back and forth to the University of Pennsylvania Hospital to visit with patients that had been diagnosed with leukemia, several of them here right in Lacy Township. Um, and spent a lot of time with them,
giving them inspiration and and support. Ree, not everyone fares as well as you and I. Um, there's no explanation. Some people do well and some people don't do well. And that's why the work has to continue. Um, that's why Reese's effort
is so vitally important to raise the kind of money that's necessary for every day to get a little closer to a cure and other treatments and the work is ongoing and it takes a lot of money. Uh, Ree, I applaud you. I'm proud of you. Um, I
want to let you know that, uh, if ever you need any assistance, anybody to talk to, um, it's been, um, 27 years post my bone marrow transplant. My brother always says that he wants it back. He'll never get it back.
But um I'm very fortunate and when I see this um it just brings back a lot of thought that I had and a lot of questions that I had and a lot of fear that I had and a lot of good memories of
many people that were supportive and around me. And I think it dovetales um because we just honored our police officer service above self. It really distinguishes what happens here in Lacy Township. And I look at Barry Bender who
has sacrificed uh countless hours for the relay of life volunteering uh each and every year to raise money for the very very important cause. And so the work has to continue. Ree, I know that you're probably still involved in
raising money. I missed the lemonade stand. Um, but I at or a break I would like to make a personal contribution uh to your efforts that'll repay for all the lemonade that I didn't drink and in recognition of the many lemonades that
we'll be able to have together in the future. So, thank you mayor for the opportunity to speak a fine human being. We're surrounded by fine people tonight. We're very blessed and grateful for the council and for the camaraderie and for the community. So,
we'll move on. That's all for this caucus meeting. We'll get a motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? So, we want to see if anybody else wishes to leave. Anybody else like to leave for this evening? But we have an exciting
We have second readings, first readings, resolutions. I encourage you to stay, but we invite you to leave. That's my shot at humor. That's why I'm doing this. And I'm not a comic. Thank you again. Call anytime.
Yeah. Your friend. Thank you, Reese. God bless you. Great seeing you, young lady. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to wait him wait for him. Okay, sure. Thank you.
I'm just going to use this one. Yeah. Want me to pause the tape? Let's pause it for center. Pausing the tape. Huh? How are you? It's very quiet.
Yes, very quiet. Great to have you, son. Give the word, coach. Let's do it. Where's that PEP speech recording? Township Township meeting July 10th, 2025. Adequate notice of this meeting has been given in accordance to the open public meetings act pursuant to public
laws in 1975. Said notice was advertised in the Andre Park Press in the beacon and was posted on the bulletin board showing the time and the place of the meeting. We'll salute our flag and have a moment of silence. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Item number one this evening, second reading of ordinance 2025-12, setting salaries for shared services.
Ordinance of the Township of Lacy County of Ocean, State of New Jersey, amending an ordinance entitled An ordinance of the Township of Lacy, County of Ocean, State of New Jersey, affixing and determining the salaries, wages, and compensation of the officers, employees, and members of the governing body of the township. This is specifically to add in
um a portion of our deputy tax assessor's salary as he will be performing a shared service for the burrow of Manson. This is second reading. Open the floor to public comment. Seeing none, make a motion to close the floor. Second. All in favor? I motion on the ordinance. Move it. Second. Mr. McDonald. Yes. Mr. Kenny. Yes.
Mrs. Juliano. Yes. Mr. Laay. Yes. Mayor Keruto. Yes. Item number two, second reading of ordinance 2025-13 setting salaries for seasonal employees. Ordinance of the township of Lacy County of Ocean State of New Jersey amending an ordinance entitled an ordinance of the
township of Lacy County of Ocean State of New Jersey affixing and determining the salaries, wages, and compensation of the officers, employees, and members of the governing body of the township. This is specifically for seasonal employees of the recreation department and the department of public works and this is to account for um changes to the minimum
wage. Second reading open the floor public comment. Seeing none, make a motion to close it. Second. All in favor? I motion on the ordinance. Move it. Second. Mr. McDonald. Yes. Mr. Kenn, yes. Mrs. Juliano, yes. Mr. Les, yes. Mary Ker, yes. Item number three, second reading of
ordinance 2025-10, vacating a portion of Arthur Street and a portion of Bayon Avenue. An ordinance to the township of Lacy County of Ocean State of New Jersey vacating all of the right title and interest of the township of Lacy and a portion of Arthur Street and a portion of Bayon Avenue. This is um to the
adjoining property owner and this is um over near the parkway entrance. Second reading open the floor public comment. Seeing none, make a motion to close it. Second. All in favor? I motion on the ordinance. Move it. Second. Mr. McDonald. Yes. Mr. Kennes. Yes. Mrs. Juliana. Yes. Mr. Laay. Yes. Mayor Kerah.
Yes. Item number four, resolution 2025-212 certifying that the governing body has received the 2024 audit. Resolution of the township of Lacy County of Ocean State of New Jersey certifying to the local finance board that all members of the governing body have received the annual municipal audit
for the year 2024. Move it. Second. Mr. Kennes, yes. Mr. McDonald, yes. Mrs. Juliana, yes. Mr. Lraine, yes. Mayor Kola, yes. Item number five, resolution 2025-213 authorizing an amendment to the shared services agreement with the burrow of
manteloking tax assessor. Resolution of the township of Lacy County of Ocean State of New Jersey authorizing an amendment to the shared services agreement with the bureau of manokoing for tax assessor services. We had to revise this agreement just for some language changes that were required by the um division of taxation.
Move it. Second, Mr. McDonald. Yes. Mr. Kenn, yes. Mrs. Juliana, yes. Mr. Laay, yes. Mayor Gola. Yes. Item number six, resolution 2025-214 authorizing a chapter 159 in the municipal budget shared services with
the burrow of Manalo. Resolution of the township of Lacy County of Ocean State of New Jersey providing for the insertion of a special item of revenue and appropriation in the 2025 municipal budget of the township of Lacy. Move it. Second. Mr. McDonald. Yes. Mr. Pennis. Yes. Mr. Julian. Yes.
Mr. Lay. Yes. Mayor Kerato. Yes. Item number seven, resolution 2025-215 appointing a class one special law enforcement officer. Resolution of the township of Lacy County of Ocean State of New Jersey appointing Todd E. Garris as class one
special law enforcement officer. Second. Mrs. Juliano, yes. Mr. Kennes, yes. Mr. McDonald, yes. Mr. Laay, yes. Mayor Kla, yes. We have an insertion this evening. Um, so we're going to add on resolution 2025-227.
Resolution of the Township of Lacy County of Ocean City, New Jersey, appointing Davin Ruml and Lily Wright as public safety telecommunicator trainee for the Township of Lacy. Move it. Second, Mr. McDonald. Yes. Mr. Kennon, yes. Mrs. Juliano, yes. Mr. Laray, yes. Mayor Hero, yes. Can we just recognize these?
Let's recognize these young people. Yes. Come on up, chief. Come on up. So these uh are going to be our our dispatcher public safety telecommunicator trainee. So it's a difficult job and as you
uh the awards being inventory especially with dispatchers you know it's a tough job. It is it's tough job. We have full faith that you can get it done and you have our full support. Uh, you know, command staff, everybody, we're here to support you,
get you where you need to be and help out and, you know, look over the res. Welcome aboard. Appreciate it. Thank you, Chief, and welcome to our town. We're looking forward to working with you and supporting you.
Item number eight, resolution 2025-216 authorizing various promotions. Resolution of the Township of Lacy County of Ocean City, New Jersey, authorizing various appointments, promotions, and lateral changes in the CWA clerical unit and the Teamsters Blue Collar Unit for the Township of Lacy
pending promotional procedures by the Civil Service Commission. We have Laura Farnsworth moving from clerk one to clerk 2 in the tax office. Pam Goldstein moving from clerk one to clerk two in the police department. Casey Cona moving from clerk two to clerk three in the police department. Roxan Simpson moving
from clerk two to clerk three in the department of community development. Whitney Taps moving from clerk three to clerk four in the department of public works. Michael Bernwick moving from mechanic to senior mechanic in the department of public works and Charles Feno moving from maintenance and repair to senior maintenance and repair in the department of public works. Move it.
Second motion. Mr. Lay. Yes. Mr. Kennon. Yes. Mr. McDonald. Yes. Mrs. Juliana. Yes. Mayor Kerato. Yes. Item number nine, resolution 2025-27, appointing a regular member to the board of health. Resolution of the township for Lacy
County of Ocean State New Jersey appointing Al Don Pierre as regular member to the board of health for the township of Lacy. Move it. Second. Mr. McDonald. Yes. Mr. Kennet. Yes. Mr. Juliano. Yes. Mr. Laray. Yes. And I want to thank him for uh stepping forward and wanting to be a volunteer on one of our boards.
Mayor Ker. Yes. Item number 10, resolution 2025-218, appointing an alternate member to the board of health. Resolution of the Township of Lacy County of Ocean State of New Jersey appointing Monica Carlson as alternate number one on the board of health for the township of Lacy. Move it.
Second, Mr. McDonald. Yes. Mr. Canis, yes. Mrs. Juliano, yes. Mr. Laay, yes. And thank you, Mayor Kerata. Yes. And back to Mr. Dumpier if I could really quick. Um, Al is a former emergency medical tech. He's a fine
individual and a good neighbor to all of us in the town. Item number 10, resolution 2025-218, appointing an alternate Excuse me. Item 11, resolution 2025-219, approving a person-toperson transfer of an ABC license.
Resolution of the Township of Lacy County of Ocean State of New Jersey approving a person-toperson transfer of a retail consumption license from Pinesar Bar and Grill LLC to H Family Grill Incorporated. Move it. Second, Mr. McDonald. Yes, Mr. Kennis. Yes, Mrs. Yes,
Mr. Lee. Yes, Mayor Curt. Yes. Item number 12, resolution 2025-220 awarding a contract for participation on a community needs assessment. Resolution of the township of Lacy County of Ocean State of New Jersey awarding a contract to Andrea Plaza LLC
for participation in a community needs assessment. This is for public relations um and communication support to develop a um strategic plan for a community needs assessment that will be funded through the opioid trust fund and in connection with the municipal alliance. Move it. Second.
Mr. McDonald, yes. Mr. Kennet, yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. La. Yes. Mayor Ker. Yes. Item number 13, resolution 2025-221 authorizing the execution of a subordination agreement
regarding block 1247 lots 34 through 39. Resolution of the township of Lacy County of Ocean City, New Jersey authorizing the execution of a subordination agreement with US Alliance Federal Credit Union regarding block 1247 lots 34 through 39. Second. Mrs. Juliano,
yes. Mr. Kenneth, yes. Mr. McDonald, yes. Mr. Laay, yes. Mayor Certo. Yes. Item number 14, resolution 2025-222 authorizing the placement of a lean on block 1631.08, lot 28.
Resolution of the township of Lacy County of Ocean State, New Jersey, accepting the certification of the director of public works concerning costs incurred in the removal of debris and the cleaning up of the property located at block 1631.08, lot 28, and authorizing the placement of a lean against said that property for
safe costs. A second. Mrs. Julian, yes. Mr. Kennon, yes. Mr. McDonald, yes. Mr. Yes. Mayor Kto, yes. Item number 15, resolution 2025-223 authorizing the refund of deposit monies. Resolution of the township of Lacy
County of Ocean, State of New Jersey, authorizing the refund of deposits held for the use of municipal facilities. Move it. Second, Mr. McDonald. Yes. Mr. Kennon, yes. Mrs. Yes. Mr. Lay. Yes. Mayor Cutoto. Yes. Item number 16, resolution 2025-224,
authorizing the payment of township bills. Resolution of the township of Lacy County of Ocean Sen, New Jersey, authorizing the payment of township bills. This is in the amount of 8,551,47463. Second, Mr. McDonald. Yes. Mr. Kennes, yes. Mrs. Juliano, yes. Mr. Layer, yes.
Mayor Kola, yes. McDonald, do you need to abstain from that? Yes. Thank you. Uh same from uh T 0035. Thank you. Item number 17, monthly
reports. For the month of May and June, we have a combined report here for the municipal docs. We collected receipts in the amount of uh wait in May for the amount of 11,635 and then in June in the amount of $4,420.
Municipal court for the month of May receipts were collected in the amount of $17,38424. Municipal clerk's office for the month of June was in the amount of $5,364.50. Recycling commodity for the month of June was collected in the amount of $1,412.
Road opening permits in the amount of $1,215. Uh community development for the month of June, receipts were collected in the amount of $84,479. Motion to accept the reports as read. Second. All in favor?
I. Item number 18, motion to approve caucus meeting minutes from June 12th, 2025. Move it. Second. In favor? I. Item number 19, motion to approve township meeting minutes from June 12th, 2025. Move it. Second. All in favor? I.
Item number 20, motion to approve executive session meeting minutes from June 12th, 2025. Second. All in favor? I. Item number 20. Item number 21, motion to approve membership in the Fork River Volunteer Fire Company for Jack Kohler. Move it. Second. All
in favor? I. Item number 22, motion to approve membership in the Lenoka Harbor Volunteer Fire Company for Walter Dow and Adam Climzac. Move it. Second. All in favor? I. Insertion add-on. Resolution 2025-226.
Resolution of the Township of Lacy County of Ocean City, New Jersey, authorizing the execution of an interlocal services agreement with the township of Berkeley for as needed conflict construction inspection services for the township of Lacy. Second, Mr. McDonald. Yes. Mr. Kennon, yes. Mrs. Juliana,
yes. Mr. Laay, yes. Mayor Ker, yes. Comments from the committee this evening. Deputy Mayor Kennes. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple things. Um we've uh begun um or about to begin uh uh road construction repaving in the
southwest Barnagget Pines. If you're unfamiliar where that is, if you go around Deerhead Lake to the right hand side, it's all the roads back in there. Um we've struck our tax rate for 2025. The rate is 2.735
um for the m uh for that's the entire tax rate for the township. And finally, if anybody was unaware that the the governor just signed that we no longer have to post ads uh or post public notice in newspapers anymore. Old media is going away. So, we can use our
own website from now on if we want to do it that way. Those are my comments. Thank you very much, Deputy Mayor. Committeeman McDonald. Thank you, Mayor. Um, one of the things that uh disturbed me a little bit during the last brewhaha with
the school board was that the seniors who graduated got a little pushed to the pushed to the rear with their success stories. Right. So, I uh I sent an email to interim superintendent Zalinsky and I
asked him some questions and I thought it would be appropriate tonight to to to read what he said back and and you guys will be able to figure out my questions by the answers. Okay, so there were 313 seniors who graduated on June 19th. 40% of our
seniors are attending four-year colleges. 23% are attending two-year institutions. 63% of our seniors are going on to some sort of college. 13% are joining the workforce.
16%, and I love this one, are attending trade schools and vocational schools. We're always complaining, we don't have enough plumbers, don't have enough electricians, don't have enough of this, don't have enough of that. And there they are. 5% are joining the military. and 3%.
Guess what? They haven't figured it out yet. So, but they're 17, 18 year old kids. Guess what? They're they're eventually gonna figure it out. And I asked them, "What colleges were these kids going to?" And he gave me a list. This and I asked him for the top 20%. What were the kids
who were graduating in the top 20%? What colleges were they going to this the first one he used to mention was Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken. Now I know this school because my son graduated from this school. It is by far one of the top engineering schools in
the country. It is one of four engineering schools that actually did give a degree in engineering. The other three are Vanderbilt, MUD and California Institute of Technology. You just read in the paper another one
of our Lacy graduates just got is out at the United States Air Force Academy. That's a tough school to get into. The College of New Jersey, if you've read the reviews of that, it's it's very good. Old Miss, going down a little south, it's a good school. North
Carolina State, Ruters, Marrist, University of South Carolina, Mammoth University, Pace University, Penn State University. It is extremely hard to get into Penn State University if you're out of state.
Berkeley College, University of Tampa, and Liberty University, West Virginia University, and Florida Atlanta. Now, sometimes we short change our school system here. I have never looked at standardized tests as an indication of
where our school is. Do our test scores need to come up? Of course they do. They can always be higher. I like to look at the finished product and see where they're going. And by this, I don't think our school district is as bad as some people in the community are telling us. So that's all I have. Mayor,
thank you very much, M McDonald. Committeewoman Juliano. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Mr. McDonald. It's great information, you know, because I was at scholarship night and I have to tell you the amount of money that's given out to our about four million. It was Yeah, it was ridiculous. It was just it blew me away to just listen to
them the amount of money given out. We're very fortunate. Anyway, um on the only thing I have tonight is just to advise you that we had 65 fire calls this month and um we again as I say always we would be lost without our
volunteers. So again, they need to be appreciated, when they run a they're right now at Loka Harbor, I know is selling 50 uh dollar tickets for a fundraiser. Help them out, buy one. Wouldn't help, you know, wouldn't hurt to give them a
little support. you know, our our Fork River Fire will be doing something I think later in uh September, October. Um it's these are, you know, they we we've got to support them. That's that's they they need our support. So, it's important that we turn around and give
them a some of our little extras here in town. Um other than that, congratulations to everybody that got awards tonight. And we're very lucky here in our town, and we should always be grateful for that. Remember the important stuff and not always the negative. That's it. Mayor, well said. Thank you very much,
Committee. Yes, thank you. Uh I don't have to remind everybody that this time of year, I know it was mentioned earlier, be safe on these roads, uh as we know, um threequarters of New Jersey as this time
of year likes to come to Lacy Township. So, uh be aware of what's going on with that. It's also a time of year we cannot emphasize enough water safety, pool safety. Uh
we've had a couple instances uh recently uh that's gone on in town. Luckily, they turned out okay, but be aware. I mean, it's so easy within seconds to get yourself in trouble around the waters uh with little kids especially.
I want to thank the uh new members that are coming into Fork River and Lin Harbor for uh fire departments. Uh as Peggy just said, you know, they're a big part of our town. They need our help, not only with volunteers, but also if there's something you can donate to give
them, it's always much appreciated. Uh Veronica had mentioned the on the on the uh financial report the income from the docks and a lot of people in town if you ever get an idea because I know so many people in town and you hear the docks
come up which we had a grant last year which uh redid half of them which they were probably 50 years overdue to be redone. Hopefully next year we'll be redoing them. But the docks are located on the end of East Lakeside Drive. That
beautiful. You really want to see good workmanship, the quality they did, and where it's at because people come and question the committee and other people around town about certain things. They don't know what they look like. They don't even know where they're located.
So, take a ride down there because there's a lot of things in this town that the people that live here are proud of. Everything's going to always be tweaked. And I know we've had some organizations in the last couple months for different reasons come and tour our
town for different reasons. Very, very impressed with Lacy Township, what it the cleanliness, what it has to offer, our park systems, and the whole bit. But the biggest thing I want to thank
tonight is Tim. Thank you for that school report. Yep. Appreciate it. because sitting on that school board for 15 years, um I was fortunate enough to sit there while my my own children went through the system.
And I can't believe that was 16 years ago already. But uh but it's like anything. It's like the awards tonight. Absolutely wonderful way to start the night. Even with all the hard work,
the grueling things you got to go through as a volunteer to sit on these boards, the proudest day is at the end of the year when you see the products you put out. And Tim, thank you because you did
a better job at that than our own school system does at the schoolboard meetings. And I don't mean to belittle them, but we don't get that good a report on how our kids are doing at the end of the season. Thank you. Thank you, Tim.
That's all I got. Thank you very much. Um, in that regard, and I will I will tell you that this was not a setup. I didn't know what the other uh colleagues up here were going to talk about tonight. That's funny. That's funny. But I will tell you this. Yesterday, I
took it upon myself um to meet with acting superintendent Sinsky and the schoolboard president. And I wanted to go over a couple of these things. And I and what I said was I offered my advice after 30 years in government and they
could take the paper that I typed up and they could they could throw it out or they could talk about it. And I thought it was good advice. I stayed away from the curriculum. But some of the things that I did talk about and I left this with them. When you log on to the school website,
talk about some of these things that Mr. McDonald talked about tonight. Talk about kids that are 17 and 16 years old. Several of them, I believe 28 of them finishing a B an associates degree, some of them before they get driver's licenses. I never had that opportunity
when I graduated college in 1986, but kids over here took advantage of that. And that's going to serve them well because that's going to be a load of less debt that they have if they pursue a balorate or a master's degree. So that matters. Talk about how many students you serve. Talk about how many specially
licensed people are there serving children with autisms and other folks on the special needs spectrum. That matters. Talk about that. If you're going to take folks, this is what I said. It was very candid and it was very wellreceived. I said, if you're going to take people's money, tell them what they're getting for their money. shout
it from a mountaintop. There's a lot of people that don't know. Folks without kids don't know. There's a lot that goes on. Mr. McDonald touched on a lot of it tonight and some of those schools are very, very impressive. I don't know if I could have gotten into them many years ago. And um so I applaud those students.
I did attend the graduation. I did talk to school board members there. And yesterday I wanted to have this one-on-one meeting. And some people have told me don't do that. If you give them these ideas and including the financial opportunities that I'll talk about very briefly, if they go wrong, they'll blame you. I don't think that'll happen
because I treat them like colleagues. They're not looking to throw me or my colleagues up here under the bus. We're trying to build bridges and we're trying to spend responsibly. So, there is good out there and our our schools uh are part of that good. So
part of what I did talk about and again with the caveat talk to your schoolboard attorney and your business administrator. I said monetize your website. Your site is viewed x amount of thousand times per month. There is an opportunity there to sell a footer on outgoing email. You communicate with
families 12 different ways. You communicate with them from everything from a preliminary report card to a disciplinary action report a d. You tell them what's for lunch. You tell them the football practice got bumped from 3 to 4. whatever it is, new holiday coming up on the schedule, delayed opening, you
have opportunities. And what I said was even build a consortium with I've been in touch with other mayors. Build a consortium um consortium shop if you can your medical benefits. Now you don't have
just have 30,000 people in this town or or our school district. Now you got Berkeley, you might have Tom River, you might have Lakewood, you might have Bricktown. but don't just sit here. I've never been you can't do that because guy. I've always been a light a candle and let's figure out how we can guy. And
they took a lot of this advice and they said, "Yeah, well, you know, what do we have now? We have vinyl banners around the circumference of a football field like every virtually every high school in all 531 or four municipalities that we have. But with over a 100,000 kids in K to 12 in this county, there's an
opportunity to go out for RFP and there's an opportunity to monetize certain things. Don't say how we can't why we can't do it. Say how we can do it. So there's opportunity and there's good news. And what I said to super acting superintendent Zinsky and Mrs. Claus was talk about your successes because they
are there. You control the narrative. Talk about your successes. Be truthful. Be honest. You will be fact checked just like we are up here. But be honest, you'll have our support. We'll try to help you every way we can. I'm not going to get into your day today because I
respect you as other elected officials in this town. So, uh, that was my piece. And with to not be too long-winded, we talked about the police tonight. I received this letter from the organizer, one of the organizers of the, uh, No
More Kings rally, and I thought this was really important. So it says, "Dear Mayor Curl, as you organize a rally, I'm writing to you to commend the police department for the efficiency and professionalism. Sergeant Anthony Sarno maintained excellent communication with me prior to the event, and every officer
present acted with courtesy, ensuring the safety of all members. Considering the experiences in some other locations, not Lacy Township, during this nationwide event, all of our participants were grateful for the exceptional training and performance of
the Lacy Township Police Department. I think that matters no matter how you felt about that event. It was peaceful and it underscores what it means to be part of this great country because in other places you can't do stuff like
that. So, I kiss the ground I walk on. I'm very proud of the way the police police department assisted people that day and help them exercise their right. And um when I get something like this come across my desk, I want to share it with people. They they didn't want it
posted on a on a Facebook website. I wanted to read some of it because this is what the organizer felt strong enough to put it in writing. So, I wanted it out there and I got his permission uh to read this. It was originally going to be posted, but it's not posted, but I
wanted to read it because I'm proud of what they did. Without anything further, congratulations to everyone that received proclamations tonight in particular, close to my heart, the young lady suffering from all horrible cancer, and God bless her. I'll open that floor
up now to the public. Sir, let me get that over there. Tom, you got it. Tony, thank you, Tom. Thank you. Appreciate that. He's got his papers ready for us. I got it.
Thanks. Tony Rosolei, Sunrise Beach. Uh, I'd like to start like to start with it was a very good meeting tonight and the people that were recognized were all worthy people and I'm glad you guys did it and I'm glad
they were here to hear it and I hope everybody on the TV understands this the kind of town we live in. But we all got to contribute something to make it even better. So that's why I'm here. Um we have a new board of health member. Okay. And from what you said, he was a first
aid person. Correct. Okay. Um who did he replace? There was a resignation um from a former member. So he was moved up from alternate one to regular member. Okay. So Al was moved up. Correct.
All right. and Monica was appointed to the alternate position. Okay. And all right. Now, there was another number 12 tonight where it was a resolution for participation on a community needs assessment. And it kind
of got me thinking um the community needs or the community development person that's is this a new position? It's not a position. No. And it has nothing to do with community development. Community development is planning and zoning. Okay. So, a community needs assessment is what
what do we need? What what are what's lacking out there for the residents? Mental health, recreational facilities, um you know, other such things. And I will leave this up to may the mayor to um discuss this a little further because we've done this at the county level at the board of health. So, we need to do it to qualify for certain grants and the
municipal alliance is due to have a community needs assessment. So, we're doing this and we're using the opioid money. I'll let him explain deeper in depth what a community needs assessment is. Can I say before you start that got me thinking uh community needs
and board of health and we have casks of radioactive material in our town that we can't get rid of. Okay. In future planning and the way the world is today. Okay.
Maybe part of that board of health may I don't know if it's done on a county level. I'm sure it's done on a national level, but god forbid we have somebody attack those casks and we have a radiation problem in town. The community to develop through the board of health
might have think about having somebody who is a radiation exposure person with knowledge on future planning on what we can do. I mean when the power plant was operating they used to give
out pills. Okay. You swallowed a pill if the state didn't Yeah. Now since the plant is closed we still have the cask sitting there and though we have a great police force. Okay. It's a
private company and it might be that it could be attacked. I mean, we're in a very precarious position in the world today and, you know, on a national level and on an international level. Maybe we should think about maybe on a county
level through the board of health. Um, maybe on our own level through the board of health or through our police department or a combination of community development, come up with a plan. God forbid we do have some kind of a attack
accident because we can't get rid of the cask. They closed down Yuka Mountain, right? And they don't want to transport them on trains through the country and they don't want to put them on barges because they got to move them. So, I was thinking that maybe there's something we
should think about in the future about doing something with that. Now, I sorry I took your thunder, but it was just something I was thinking about that maybe we should think about in the future. Let me let me address it if I could. There's not enough time here tonight. This is the swimming pool I've lived in
now. It's my 19th year in public health and part of that is working um with our disaster preparedness people. There's absolutely no shortage of thought that has gone into this in particular post 911. That stuff's in 4 foot thick
concrete casks. We have a disaster preparedness uh level at the county. This is the most regulated entity that I I couldn't underscore it enough. I went for an interview at Cape Canaveral in
2006. I got on there into that interview where the where the shuttle takes off um in less time. It took me 45 minutes as mayor to get through those 45 minutes. Veronica and everyone up here will attest to that to get in to just have a
a basic vanilla tour of that facility. We have regulation at the federal uh site with the nuclear regulatory commission. You will not have KI potassium iodide iodide pills given out anymore uh because that is not no longer
a producing plant. every virtually every security scenario that I know of and 20 levels above me that we will never know of by secretive individuals in high ranking places that protect us in this zip code every night are on that plan.
They're on it like a herd of turtles. They are on it and uh I feel very safe about it. I feel safe about it post 911. This is the most regulated entity in our state. Okay. The financial part's another part. I'm not talking about
that. But what I will tell you is I think you should sleep easy at night. The community health needs assessment is part of public health practice standards. It is requirement of every county. And so we do that as Veronica said so that we can garner um our fair
share of grants so that we don't have to go into direct tax into your pocket and the pocket of other people. So, we look at socioeconomics, a 90page document I oversaw for our county. Lacy, Lacy Township has a prominent part of it. It's on ocean county health.gov. I want
you to read it. We paid a lot of money for it. It's there for entities to use inside and outside of this zip code for their own strategic planning to apply for their own grants. But it dials us down to the singularity. socioeconomic makeup, demographic
makeup, zip code breakdown, access to care, who has health benefits, who doesn't, and we need to drill down in that so that our towns can apply at the federal level. Um, and justify those provisions to bring money into this town. That's why we do what we did
tonight and that's why we do what we do at the county level. Well, that's good because you're advertised and now it's getting out there. You know, people think about, oh, these casks are there, we can't move them. and then they worry about, you know, what's going on internationally and do we have to worry about uh the
attacks or something like that. But precautions are being taken. You're just saying it now. We should communicate as much as we can to people like myself who are not the smartest people in the world, but let them be at ease with some of these things. Okay.
Yes, sir. Can I interrupt you, sir? Okay. Uh when I moved the meta my first time, there was we had a big meeting down at the plant and they had somebody from uh the government, the US government. And basically what he said, and I'm going he went on for 20 minutes,
but his his his basic thing was if that ever gets attacked, whatever plans we have, forget about them because they're taking over. The military's coming in and that'll be the end of it. And that's they're going to they're going to run the show. and they have those plans and
oh by the way they're top secret. Oh that I would imagine they would be. So that's that's part of it. You know that's what and so we don't have to do anything locally or use tax dollars to prepare. It's already been taken care of. Even if there's a leak even if there's a
leak the federal government's coming in. Well that's that's well we're part of the plan. We're part of the emergency plan and we have a role in it but we're not the agency in charge of it. Just like with the wildfire, we weren't the agency in charge and it is communicated down to the to local levels
and it's we have to update our plans every 5 years. Some plans are updated even sooner than that. So, it is all done strategically planned out, god forbid, should there be some type of emergency, whether it's weather related or nuclear related. Okay. Well, that's good to know because
it all comes down to, you know, the way I am. I'm I'm that not Republican, not Democrat. I'm that loudmouth independent. You know, I like the transparency. Okay. Now, on the subject of transparency, okay? You know, I'm always up here
talking about that kind of stuff. Um, I have a question and I don't know if it's a law, if it's not a law, if it's a local ordinance, if it's a state law, if it's a federal law. This piece of paper, it's called an agenda for a public
meeting. Okay? I happened to go to the planning board meeting last night on another matter that was pushed off that I have a concern about zoning board or the zoning board meeting. I'm sorry. The zoning board meeting last night. The item was pushed off. Okay. Um but I'll
bring that up with them. But they also had it's a public meeting and they had an agenda. Is this mandatory for for who? For us. Is it a mana? Is it mandatory for a public meeting in a state to have a printed agenda? That's
the question. To the extent that it's known the items to to be discussed to the extent that they're known and I say that because it it can change. There may be items that are placed on the agenda the night of a meeting. Yeah, we had two. We had two. I understand it. I know that at the
beginning of the year on the website, okay, or post it on a bulletin board and hard copy, okay, you could see the dates of the meeting, but that doesn't tell you what's the subject matter because you meetings the agenda does that and it's a and at
public meetings if a person does not have a computer to go ahead of time to a website to see what is going to be discussed at a public meeting, then they
would have to rely on hard copy of an agenda at the time of the meeting. Am I making sense with this? I'm just trying to You can come into the offices and pick it up in advance. Right. A hard copy. Yes. Yes. And it's basically at the time that it's printed to the extent known of
what's going to Right. It's not required to be in a notice itself. The the 48 hour notice only requires notice of the meeting. All right. But the agenda itself doesn't have to be at the meeting. No. Okay. The reason I'm bringing it up is like I said about transparency in the
board of education. I happen to come in for the first meeting in a long time and I happen to peruse through the agenda which is quite extensive for the board of education by the way. Yes. And it wasn't there and I didn't know it wasn't printed. So I had to go from
memory for subject matter that I wanted to discuss and I was kind of concerned that if it's mandatory that it the agenda has to be made available to the public if someone doesn't have access to a computer.
Tony, we have we have an we have an an amazing group of people here. Two of them are sitting up here right now and our clerk and our administrator. That stuff's posted by Tuesday afternoon. Yeah. And we as we vote on different items and matters of fact numerals, uh,
our clerk reads the explanation. I have no problem with you guys. I have no problem with the zoning. I have no problem with planning, but the board of education doesn't put anything out at all. Okay. 24 hours maximum. They put out
something 24 hours before the meeting. We get our notice at the same time frame, the day before the meeting. day before the meeting. So, you know, if somebody wants to do some kind of a background or or look into a matter that was to be discussed and they
don't have it's I just don't think there's enough lead time for the public, okay, to really and it is a public meeting. Of course, of course, you know, and I think citizens deserve to have transparency
public under the same thing we do within 48 hours. It has to be, you know, before the meeting. All right. Um, and I can't, you know, this years ago it was all hard copy where I know a few years back, probably only two, three
years ago, which I was surprised because we used to get during the week before the meeting on a vanilla envelope about this thick. Yes. And then all of a sudden, I go to a meeting and everything's done off a laptop and I was like, "Oh, I'm not big on technology to start with." And I'm
going, "Oo boy, have things changed." But and like I say, back then it was just common practice to have everything out there in hard copy. In today's world, I don't know exactly what their rules their if their rules
change it. Mr. Kenneth announced it, but that's for the newspapers. Just in the newspapers, you know, it's I would really appreciate it if you show up their meeting and ask them that because Oh, I did last time. Oh, okay. They were not happy with me that I was at that podium,
you know, because it makes a lot of sense. But, you know, to me, when I was there, I'm I'm addressing the people that I hold responsible. The superintendent, the businessman, and the and the attorney. Those are the three people, the elected people. I'm glad that they're there. I'm glad they're serving. I I can't fault them for being
there, even if they do something wrong. Even if you guys don't agree, I don't fault you. That's just your opinion. Okay? But the people who are being paid and making the money, okay, if Veronica did something wrong or or Amy did something, I'd be all over you because you're getting paid to do
it. You're getting paid to do it. But everybody else is a volunteer. So I might even be after you because you you get a stipen. So um I think uh I think that's about it and thank you very much for your time and I'm glad to be back. Thank you, sir.
Next comment, please. Seeing none, make a motion to close the floor. Second, come on up, Helen. Everybody enjoys your smile. Former committee woman.
Barry, come fix the mic. Here comes Barry. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Barry. I'll put it up that way. Thank you, Barry. Now you're cooking. Thank you very much, mayor and township committee and the
rest of the governing body. That was a beautiful celebration for Independence Day for our town. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. Very welcome. And thanks also, of course, to uh recreation department. I'm sure they put
in a lot of hours and the public works, the police of course and the fire department. That was so awesome that there was a fire truck parked at the at the foot of car street so that with the bright lights so that when we were
going home we could see our way and also everyone who made it a successful event. Thank you. Like the whole town came that day to celebrate. It was wonderful.
So like families they put blankets on the ground. There was hardly any part of the ground that was not taken. And some people came with their chairs and others just preferred to stand up. So we were
all so eagerly waiting for the show to start. And soon enough, sure enough, when the daylight gave way to the evening darkness, boom, the first rocket came and we all cheered. And each rocket came one from the other,
one of the other. And it was so one was it so beautiful than the other. And then it happened when one of the rockets went up and it lit the whole sky and also everyone on the ground. I looked around
and I was so moved that I saw all the faces looking up smiling and enjoying themselves. Yeah. And how I felt at that time is why I came here before you to say this.
Everyone in Lazy, whether you're a citizen or otherwise, you're here for a visit or this is where you live, just like me. Regardless of your age, young, senior,
or in between. And it does not matter whether I know you or not. At that moment, this is how I felt, same as how what I feel now. and I always will. I love you. Y
I love you all. God bless you all. Thank you. Thank you, Helen. [Applause] If I could dovetail on one of those wonderful comments, our venerable recreation director reminded me and I want to thank Miss
Dela Cruz publicly that it was the haunted trail monies that paid for those fireworks that night. So, it's about $17,500. So, support our haunted trail. 10 came from
it was I was misinformed then. I apologize. Oh, no. 10,000 came from them and then the rest was from that. Jim didn't tell me that. He told me the most majority of the money comes from. Well, he told me. Yeah. Okay. Double check. Okay. Thank you. I'll check that.
For me, for me, it's good. And he's just going to be the cute kid by my side. Um, good evening. I just wanted to introduce ourselves. Mom, hands. This is my husband, Rick. You just approved the transfer of the Pine Tar Tavern to
our Thank you for that and we just want you to know that we are family people. We were both born and raised here in Ocean County. So we're looking forward to being members of this community. U Rick's an electrician. I went to
Ruckers and I work at Monment. So, um, both sides of that academic, you know, that we were talking about a little earlier, but we just wanted to say, um, we have two boys. They're 14 and 10. We are family people. We're looking forward to being part of this family.
We're looking forward to we're so we're so so happy to have you. What a I'm so glad you just came out tonight to be here. This is wonderful. Mayor, new owners. I grew up in New Jersey and I lived in New York for a while and I moved back to You're in Mammoth County now.
I we live in Tom's River. Tom's River. Okay. But I work I work at um Mammoth University. Oh, that's where my daughter goes. Really? Oh, that's good to know. So, I wore my yellow tonight in support of I love it. I love it. Fantastic.
Very nice. Is the name Is the name going to stay the same? I want to wish you guys nothing but the best. Is the name going to stay the same? is you for the time being. Well, congre congratulations and good luck. God bless. So, while you're here and saves us from tracking you down, here's the new
certificate that you need to put on the wall in front of the old one. Yes. Yes. Yes. We were going to track you down. And mayor, you were correct about the fireworks and I apologize. So, the fireworks support our scares, our Halloween scare. It means a lot. And
we and they lean on towards fireworks. Important question. Yes. Very self-serving. Yes. Uh, rare mushroom Swiss burgers. He's all over that. I'm in. I'm in. As a matter of fact, we'll take a few.
I'm going to pay for them. I don't look good in orange. I'm not asking if I said, "Do they offer them?" What? We're allowed to do legally. But when you're ready to do a ribbon cutting, please reach out to us. Can we do a small little event for you? Yes.
Yeah. We'd love to you know get settled in and see how things are going and what needs to be right. If you need a beer taster, I'm available. I was going to say as elected officials, we don't drink. But I'm not I don't know those water bottles
sometimes. I don't know. Worries about them. But but Pete did bring up something very important is through conversations I've had at the park and I know I know Josh in the audience is part of it. Uh this haunted um haunted trail
haunted trail they do at the park every Halloween. Um it hasn't been getting the attention it really needs to and they spend a lot of time and a lot of effort and even when I was talking to him this past year about uh not enough attendance. So
if people can make people aware of this this because really they put a lot of work into it. It's a lot of fun for the kids. Huh? Which park? Right behind us. It's Gilly Park. Gilly. But uh the funny thing is is I'm involved in a lot in town.
If I didn't see it going up and them working on it and talking to me about it, even myself, I wasn't aware of it. So if everybody could get bring a stack of flyers, get the news out there, get the flyers out there. And now that I know about it, you know, I want to help them promote
it, too, because they put a lot of effort into it, you know, and a lot of volunteers. So, and it made them beautiful fireworks that Helen Love enjoyed. Yep. Well, you guys, we're just so happy to have you. So, I'm so glad you came out because a lot of times we
don't get to meet the people that, you know, things happen with. So, it's nice to meet you and welcome. Welcome to the neighborhood, as they say. Good to have you. Good to have you. Thank you. Plenty of traffic. Any other comments this evening?
Seen on Barry's Barary. Barry closer in. Right. The closer. Mr. Grander. Yeah. Yeah. My arm hurts. Are we right-handed or left-handed? Righty. If I was a lefty, I would have made three or four more teams than I made. Um, I missed the fireworks due to personal reasons. But the following
evening there was it seemed like competition with Lacy Township. Yes, it was around the corner from my house. And I know I know Peggy last meeting made her comment. Um I know the two cats with me
didn't appreciate it at all. And I'm sure every dog and cat within a mile. I mean there was these were professional grade fireworks going off. Okay. Um when I went over I walked over there and I left my bat at home. Okay. Um there was things still smoldering in
the in the driveway. I'm just asking people, you know, it's nice to see fireworks and it's nice to go to the town fireworks and and see them. That's where they should be. But if you're not a professional, okay, and also you got other houses on each
side of you. I know at the high school, there were no houses on each side of you. And again, the animals, I mean, they don't know what's going on. They have no idea what's going on. And the veterans with PTSD. Yeah. Yeah. Literally, I mean, my my house was shaking. Yes.
Okay. It it uh it wasn't appreciated, but people like to celebrate. That's fine. Fire, you know, firecrackers and whatever. We used to play M80s when we were kids. Okay. But uh this was professional great stuff and and it really really
uh don't mean to be a downer, but it wasn't appreciated. But thank you for your time. Happy 4th of July late. See you Sunday. Yep. Anyone else for the good of the order? Seeing none. to make a motion to close the floor. Second. All in favor? I motion to adjurnn.
Second. All in favor? I resolution. Resolution in the town of Ly County, New Jersey, authorizing convening of an executive session in accordance with the open public meetings act to discuss contraction matters. Move. Move it. Motion. Move it.
Second. Yes. M. McDonald. Yes. M. Juliana. Yes. Mr. La. Yes. Mary. Yes. Most to move it. Second favor. I. No further business. Take care, guys.