all right we're all here good thank you so sorry for the delay uh the conference uh meeting took a little bit longer we uh had something to discuss so I apologize uh the statement of compliance is as follows this meeting is being held in accordance with the open Public's meeting act an adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required by specifically the annual notice was emailed to the West stic Tribune in Star Ledger on January 3rd 2025 the agenda and resolutions for the meeting are available on www. Livingston nj.org certain portions of this meeting may be
closed to the public for the purpose of personel Andor matters as outlined in the Sunshine Law decisions made and are discussed in the Clos sessions will be made known to the public at later time notice to the members of the governing body and Township staff any use of electronic devices during this meeting shall be used solely for the purpose of the township businesses and any Communications and subject to the open public record act to the extent possible this evening's Township of Livingston council meeting will be live streamed via Facebook at www.face.com
Livingston Township NJ questions or comments will be accepted by emailing live comments Livingston nj.org by 4M on the day of the meeting and shared with the township council members each speaker should follow the rules of order in the Livingston code 2 2-15 .3 roll call please council member Anthony here bani here Viera present Deputy Mayor Klein here mayor mhart here we're going to rise for a moment of silence followed by The Pledge As We
rise this evening uh we should certainly remember all the um um tragic victims there was three plane Crashers that has taken place since we met last time and certainly for their families and for many others uh through natural disasters and for Wars throughout the
World Al to the flag of the United States of America to the stands Nation God indivisible and justice for all all right just one small bit of housekeeping for this evening for those of you who are here for introduction ordinance number
04-25-18 Library I think there's a microphone where's the microphone right there there's a microphone right over here there you go turn it on make sure
that it's on so I guess that's on yeah um uh mayor mhart Deputy Mayor Klein members of the council thank you so much for permitting me to uh speak to you about uh friends of the Livingston Library which will be celebrating at 65 anniversary next month my name is Barbara B I am a resident of Livingston I serve as a member of the friends of the Livingston Library board and I also serve as Library Treasurer so over the years our library has been extremely extremely fortunate
that it has had the overwhelming support of our Township and the council Township budgetary support has helped make our library what I consider to be a jewel in the crown of Livingston and for that the Library community is very very very grateful it's not withstanding Township funding does leave gaps and that's where friends of the library comes in for the last six and a half decades friends has
been promoting advocating and supporting for our library and over the years Friends funding has ensured that all Library program is now funded by friends of a library um so that ranges from Seniors attending senior happenings to adults attending lifelong learning to teen crafts and programs for toddlers and babies indeed during
2024 418 adult programs had attendance of nearly 19,000 people 334 youth programs had attendance of more than 37,000 in addition to that friends also supports some of the ancillary services that make our library special that includes things like the library of things and the museum pass problem uh program Friends also contributes uh to some of the library technology initiatives as well as to some Library
development of collections so in recognition of these achievements and to help ensure that friends will be around for the next 65 years we are conducting a 65 for 65 campaign we are asking members of the public that includes members of the council uh to contribute $65 to our future and anyone interested can contact friends through the library so thank you for your time thank you Barbara So as most of us
know when uh you have the honor of being mayor that also comes with uh the honor of sitting on the library board for that year uh this was brought up at the library board meeting last month I'd asked Barbara to come to speak to the council uh on the library board's behalf so we can get a little bit more press out there and hopefully everybody on Facebook will have SW it and we'll also feel like donating just like the board members did as well um we are uh obviously very very grateful and
fortunate to have such a wonderful Library um run by uh the Board of Trustees which are purely volunteers to this town like all the other um volunteers and we appreciate and we thank them for everything that they do so I will make sure to I'll make sure to Echo those same remarks tomorrow night at the Library board meeting as well but Barbara thank you uh for coming in and and telling the rest of the town about what's what's going on at the library the other want to stop
right okay all right I'll I'll make a very very quick one uh I I totally agree uh that uh 65 and 65 is a great idea by the way uh it's uh it's a very remarkable way to say uh and remember 65th anniversary uh brilliant place to be and and it's I'm always uh always looking forward to see how we can help Library all right thank you very much um we are now going to go on to the next uh Proclamation I'm going to ask uh
councilman bhani to uh lead us in that one and I will okay thank you thank you mayor um so who we have in front of us I guess it's uh somebody who has uh really taken up uh voluntarily uh you know something that is needed in the community um that is to fight hunger but also come up with a brilliant idea of how do you prevent waste um so V agrawal uh who is right
here has established rasque food I won't take any of it any any of the thunder away but I think that would be an amazing thing to uh hear from V who what what he has to bring to the table what he did over the last several months and have us a peep at
it uh honorable mayor Minard Deputy Mayor Klein council member Anthony council member bani and council member Vieira thank you for taking the time to recognize rescue food today it is honored to be here and share our story with you my journey with rescue food started this summer when I was off from school and I had a lot of free time to brainstorm meaningful ways to serve my community at the time I was involved in several volunteering initiatives I was
teaching English online uh to kids at an orphanage in India and conducting a book and toy drive uh for the Pediatrics division of the JFK Hospital in Edison but I wanted to have a tangible impact in my IMI Community to see firsthand what amazing work can be done when we we leverage Livingston's resources and so I was thinking about this and food waste and food insecurity immediately came to mind as a prevalent issue facing our community and Beyond in New Jersey 3
billion pounds of food gets thrown out every year and 1 million people are food insecure yeah in a relatively affluent neighborhood like Livingston we might not realize this usually we to our heart's desire head over to the trash can while conversing with others or scrolling through our phones and throw away a perfectly good meal while uh racing to get back to our table and so this was a problem and I wanted to address it uh uniquely so using skills I had gained from taking AP Computer Science in school and self-teaching I
developed a website uh which would allow users to locate their nearest food pantries and for those with leftover food post donation requests that would notify a volunteer to uh pick up and deliver the donation to nearby food pantries and group homes so we launched this website around September rescue foods.com and later I saw another opportunity and that was with restaurants I thought about the sheer amount of food that owners were throwing out uh every day and if there was something I could do with that so I
started by reaching out to Panera Bread's manager and through his generosity he was willing to give leftover baked goods every Sunday which he would donate to Market Street Mission in moristown and later I was able to also secure Partnerships with a few more restaurants like Bagel n Paris Baguette and Blaze Pizza uh and others and during this time I was also Gathering a team of high school volunteers as well and So currently we've had a lot of success we've partnered with 12 restaurants uh across Livingston and we're expanding to
other towns like Milburn as well uh and along the way there were challenges as much as our uh as our intentions were great we initially did not have a framework behind us so it became challenging when owners started requesting for an EIN to claim tax deduction for tax dedu C purposes and we didn't have one to provide and this is where table to table came in they're the longest serving food rescue nonprofit in New Jersey and I was able to set up a partnership with their executive director Heather Thompson where a tblo
table would provide us with an EIN and other resources to expand and we would provide uh table totable with young volunteers and the ability to incorporate them in this uh cause and so I'd like to thank Livingston's gracious restaurant owners and community members without them our success would not be possible I also would like to thank rescue Foods board members who work closely with me in running operations part Jane on Logistics and Outreach uh Arman Mishra on social media and Jack Lou on the website I also would like to thank Mr
bani for his unwavering support to give us the platform to be here today and uh share a story and get recognized uh and to conclude our goal is just to mobilize high schoolers Statewide to both create their own rescue food chapters and volunteer many are getting their driver's license now so it's a a good time for them to use their Newfound Independence to serve their communities uh Community member in Livingston uh once told us that uh the uh that older
folks are hopeful knowing the future of food rescue is in in in good hands with the younger generation which shows that what's started off as an idea can build into a legacy and I encourage all high schoolers to take part in this Mission and be part of something larger than ourselves thank you so I I we have a citation or presentation I know we don't like the word citation but I'm going to read it and we'll come down we'll present it for you the Mayors and members of Livingston Town Council are pleased to honor V Aral
for creating the nonprofit rescue food and addressing food waste and insecurity by creating a website that allows users to locate food pantries and restaurants or individuals to post donation requests currently there are 12 participating restaurants and VI's team of high school food Rescue Heroes have completed approximately 74 pickups and saved over $20,000 worth of food resc food has been so successful they've now partnered with large Statewide nonprofit organization
table to table to deliver the food in a timely manner and won the presidential volunteer service Gold Award congratulations and thank you and um so it's I just I just want to let you know what you said about some of the older folks who are who are really happy that I don't have to worry about it uh I'll consider myself maybe one of those as well but like like I say often uh at these types of uh presentations um I feel a lot better about the world listening to the youth talk about the stuff that they do try to
help those of less fortunate and trying to help those to give back uh the two words that I talk about uh always and every day is giving back and you certainly emulate those words so I really thank you and I thank your parents for actually instilling those um those two words in you as well so thank you very much please uh just a couple things uh first of all this is wonderful and I I think all of us here just feel proud of you when we're listening to you give this not only how well spoken you are but how good your heart is and and what a huge Endeavor has come from you know from all these good things um I
would say a couple things I mean I imagine that as you move on and go to college you'll pass this baton down to other people and this is going to be a you know an ongoing thing which is wonderful to the community this is something um there's a great tradition of these kinds of activities in this Township I I I don't know if you've you know met some of the the sort of like Nick stinelli and all these other people and the people in that work in the food pantry here it's incredible what these Generations have done but they're getting a little bit older so it's wonderful that there's this other initiative from younger people in high
school that are going to be doing this and then so that that I'm thinking about this while I'm listening to your talk and the other thing I'm thinking about is you know it's funny what kind of education you get from doing this kind of thing you have to sit here and worry about an EIN when you're trying to do good things for people right you you start to learn like what it means to have an organization like of some size what what's actually involved from a state point of view and what it's it's almost like running a business in a sense right I mean the logistics and all the rest of it and so you know not only do you um does kindness pour out but you get an education that a real world education that you can't find a lot of
other places so it's it's really fantastic thank you I I I think uh councilman and Klein and I may have shared a brain for a couple seconds because everything that he said I was thinking about too first of all congratulations and that is scary Sean isn't it um but you know what I'm so happy to see the younger generation starting to to come up with these ideas um councilman Klein mentioned a person by name of Nick santinelli Nick makes seven eight nine trips and you're shaking your head because you know it
down to norc every single day from Livingston down to nor and back and forth and you know what I think the younger generation you know what are going to be the ones that that eventually take over that and I am so proud um even today on one of the resolutions um a a flag raising came from a high school student it was her idea so I'm so happy to see that our younger generation is starting to to to come up with these great ideas and congratulations and I know you're working with a uh uh table to table is
another great organization so congratulations any other comments it's all been covered but thank you thank you thank you for for what you're doing with food waste and food insecurity that's a very big issue and I appreciate uh all your kindness and the effort you've undertaken so I appreciate it thank you and may I just want to acknowledge uh along with we the parents are here RNA and bajrang agrawal they are here the team is here that he's working with so kudos to all of you and uh what amazing
work this is rescuing food and delivering on time to to needy I think these are the these are the best qualities and best best things you can hope for from the younger generation I think everything is said here I totally agree great work great I think I think we all go now and take a picture with you and your team and your parents whoever would like to join us and present you with the
so uh my name is parth I I work with
fear and Heron on Rescue food on on our founding team and I just want to say that it's it's an absolute pleasure to work on something like this I mean like the amount of Joy it brings me to engage in something that has an impact on the community and that also allows us to kind of like work on a system and improve it just it just means so much and it's a really good experience to work on this and as VI said it's it was difficult at the start you know we didn't have an infrastructure in place we had to figure stuff out a lot of
times we had to scramble to get stuff going but I'm really glad to see that our work is paying off and that we're coming along well and I just can't wait to keep working on it and keep spreading our impact you know it means it means a lot to us yeah I just want to thank you guys for being here and listening to us and acknowledging uh VI's hard work parth's hard work my hard work and also Jack who's not here because he couldn't make
it but um yeah I think it's a great thing that we're doing and I really enjoy it I think it's very fulfilling as a young person to be involved in something like this and um yeah I guess that's all I have to say [Applause] the midle here
thank you
that e
no we're going to continue on with the meeting um can I have a motion to accept the minutes of the last meeting I'll make a motion second all in favor I great uh can I have a motion to open up
the meeting to public comments on agenda items I'll make that motion I'll second it all in favor all right the meeting is now open to public comments on agenda items only with a four-minute time limit hi Mr Mayor Justin Albert a citizen of this community um resolution 2590 renewing permission for Flags to be
raised as an expression of government speech this Council has no purpose other than to represent the people whom it has been elected to serve what you are doing is you are usurping community property for your own purpose there's nothing else to it uh you know we raise a flag every day that uh Flag represents uh broad sense of
both liberty and justice for all it covers everyone there is no need for you to take our community property for your own fake speech I I don't know what it is I don't know what your purpose is your only purpose is to represent us you're much better off doing a flag raising inviting people to show up they could bring whatever Flags they want you raise that flag they stand there with their flags and it shows that we are a
diverse and open Community open to people from all walks of lives in every country and everything but what you're doing is you're undermining the value of that flag and you're undermining the value of of our community property Our Town Hall here by taking it from us and just serving yourselves up there with your own your own speech that's not even a thing you're there to represent us that
flag is there to represent all of us a a and uh you know you cherry-pick which foreign countries you want to put up a flag for and you don't others and we'd be much better off having a public conversation or inviting flags up there but we have one flag that covers everyone this resolution is a mistake it ought to be withdrawn thank you very much Mr Mayor any other comments on agenda items
only motion to close public comment second all those in favor I I thank you all right we now have one final hearing uh uh car will you please read uh 02- 2025 yes mayor ordinance 2-202 amending section 17-1 14.4 R5 residence District can I get a motion to open for public the meeting
for public comment on this ordinance only I'll make a motion to open public comment all those in favor I motion the meetings is now open for comments on ordinance 02202 clst public comment second all those in favor I okay uh motion to motion to uh motion to move I'll move it I'll second it all those in favor oh we got a roll call sorry council member Anthony yes fani
yes Viera yes Deputy Mayor kleene yes mayor rehard yes thank you we now have one ordinance uh to be introduced Z car please read 03225 thank you mayor ordinance 3-22 amending and supplementing chapter 29 traffic and parking I'll make a motion to uh move the resolution I mean move the ordinance introdu introd introduction okay is there I'll second okay roll call
please council member Anthony uh yes bani yes Viara yes Deputy Mayor Klein yes mayor mhart yes and mayor the hearing is scheduled for Monday February 24th 2025 great thank you very much uh all matters listed for the consent agenda all matters listed with an asri are considered to be routine and non-controversial by the council and we approved by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the governing body so
requests in which case the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considering its normal sequence on the agenda as part of the general orders does any of the council would like any of the resolutions to be mo removed and read separately seeing hearing none will you please read the resolutions resolution 25- 087 authorizing the exterior of the oval to be a dog friendly space pursuant to chapter 68-1 of the municipal code resolution
25- 088 authorizing the issuance of a duplicate tax certificate 22- 000000008 resolution 25- 089 authorizing the issuance of a duplicate tax certificate 22-37 resolution 25- 090 renewing permission for Flags to be raised as an expression of government speech resolution 25- 091 authorizing the
issuance of a duplicate tax certificate 22- 00009 resolution 25- 092 authorizing the sale of surplus property Vehicles there motion to move them I'm moving I'll second it okay B call please council member Anthony uh yes Pani yes Vieira yes Deputy Mayor Klein yes mayor manhard yes thank you uh can I had a motion to open the public the meeting the public portion motion to open the
meeting to PO portion I'll second it all in favor I okay the meeting is now open uh for a three minute time limit on any subject hi Mr Mayor Justin Albert a resident of this community ordinance number 04 2025 adopting Livingston Mall R Redevelopment plan you know we got really close after a year of deliberations behind closed doors we almost brought this out into the public
today but it was uh pulled where are we on the condemnation process please councelor uh so we have a area in need with condemnation there's been no that would require separate legislation so there's been no what does that mean separate legislation the council has not yet app hasn't approved uh condemning the Livingston Mo all right what are we waiting for I don't I don't believe that there I mean I think part of it is attorney client privileged as to whether or not C
going through the motions and calling it out but are we going to reclaim the real property Mr oper I didn't say that I said that it's under turning Cent privilege at this time has anyone on the council spoken to Eddie Lampert yet because what he did is the see of American uh of Sears he really drove an American brand into the ground and he kept all the real property for himself and his financial backers it's really a genius move uh Scott kapnik financed the whole thing he used to work with the governor over at Goldman Sachs is a
really brilliant job there um future generations of this community can be financing Eddie lampert's lifestyle down in South Florida on a private island that has its own private uh police force and private golf club um we need to reclaim the value of that real property we need to move forward with the condemnation we need to take that down we need to take it for oursel we can't just block off the Sears property and not deal with the rest of the property
there has to be a master plan uh you have to come to the community and start with us start with us what is it that we would like to see you can't just commit to adding 376 unit there you know we need to think about schools we need to think about infrastructure we need to think about hospitals we need to think about jobs a a and it doesn't make sense you've spent pretty much as far as I know close
to a year maybe longer maybe shorter discussing this behind closed doors you're here to serve us take their argument into the public thank you Mr Mayor thank you so uh in response the township has engaged towards Township planner topology and um a vendor who will be conducting a charet process which uh is seeking Public public engagement on the mall and developing the mall that'll take place uh sometime in March why is the council not
directing the public directly why does he need an intermediary why are we paying an intermediary we having professionals who have dealt with planning the mall is a is obviously a complex uh development uh we're hiring professionals to come in um with the ideas to get the thoughts of the of the public and the residents and what they find to be important and the practicalities of the site and what can actually be done there do the council members speak to members of the public I don't understand the question do they need an intermediary to take we
need Prof we need professionals to run the process correctly none of us up here are professionals and how to run a charet so when we're not professionals we then go out and we hire professionals just like be developing that skill here in the community we have so many developments let's develop then maybe then maybe you should go to the next Board of Education meeting and talk to them maybe they have some real EST when is the next five on five uh probably sometime I'm trying to talk now with uh
the president of the Board of Ed probably sometime in the next six weeks when is the next two on two um right now the next two on two the next U next two on two is going to be we have one scheduled um for February um next week I believe it is we'll bring it there but I think those are kind of great questions about when you talk about the youth why don't you go to the Board of Education meetings and ask them why don't they why don't they teach kids how to do the shed process and then maybe they could run the chared process but until then the best thing that we can do for this town is hire professionals best thing that
you could do is create a Livingston Redevelopment or uh agency to develop this community something that is accountable to us something where we are developing the institutional knowledge to develop this community properly in perpetu I think your time is done thank you mayor if I can just say one thing also um just in response to Justin you you come and you say with do shut like we' been meeting for a year we're getting legal advice on a very complicated uh
real estate issues with with a lot of different and you as a lawyer you're a lawyer so you understand that like things that are involved with like legal and attorney client privilege hold talking hold on one second I'm talking there are lot of moving parts and we are getting constant legal guidance if we are meeting every two weeks legal there are legal uh tides that are flowing in and out with different things happening with the state and there are different lawyers involved and we have to get updated on what's going on however this Council has a history of saying it's I
understand why you're talking over your time to talk is not right now there are legal processes in this meeting you're not absorbing does everything behind closed do when we discussing things when we are discussing things as elected officials with our lawyers we do them behind closed doors because that is what we are supposed to do you lose every time what are you talking about lose every time our hands are tied we had a gun to our head we have to do this thank you thank you thank you Mr alord any other comments on um anything
on the uh any public comments sorry public portion yeah um we're just here to find out what's going on with the Park View apparently there's like um like a unit being built to house a superintendent is that being discussed today or they just voted on they voted to support yeah we voted to that we're building a uh at the at Parkview yeah they're building they came to us looking for uh to build an apartment for a superintendent on the property yeah but that's like right next to our house okay well that I I don't
know about that that's part of that's part of what the uh the owners of Parkview came to us looking to do that yeah could we object to that we just voted on it we just voted on it a chance for public comment yeah we we voted on it if it was part of the uh it was part of the second you you first of all can I we have your name please yeah my name is Zayn bayani and you actually you live in park viiew no I live right next to Park View okay so we're building all they're building is an apartment in Park View they're building one apartment part of
the Park viiew complex yeah so they're not adding they're only adding one apartment um to the complex but it's right next to my house I mean that where they store the equipment yeah not even a new that's like right it's it's a above where they start the equipment but you don't live in the complex correct no I don't but the complex is right next to my house okay but we're adding one apartment though so I so we' were add not increasing foot yeah we're not increasing the footprint at all so we cannot object to that at all we we voted on it we voted on we had a first we had a first reading um two
weeks ago and now we had just voted on it so and and public comment was offered before each vote just when was that part of our open process we we we asked for public comments there was when we were doing address I mean you have 3 minutes which I don't see your timer but you certainly can address all your concerns currently but it was just it was just approved by the by the governing body like today well that was just so fast we didn't even understand that what you
guys were were discussing I mean that's a fault of leadership we call the ordinance we call the ordinance sorry we called the ordinance number by by its number and we had a open we had a comment we had the public comment section we followed we followed our proper procedures of the governing body when when Mr Albert spoke the first time that was on agenda items and if you had gotten up them we would have told you that you could have spoke then or during the ordinance time this is our third time opening it up to the public tonight I mean if you have if you have a
statement to make I think we can pleas at the clock to 3 minutes and you can say what you need to say yeah that's what the council has just just mentioned here yeah I mean the the only thing that we wanted to do is see if we can object to that because it's literally right next to our house you can't object and you're objecting but I mean but yeah you can object and we'll note the objection and we we note the objection but it's I'm a little confused of the of the objection because it's in the complex itself and we're vote and we're building this on top of a of an
existing platform so we're not adding to the footprint we're not really adding to the of the whole Parkview complex So when you say you live next door to it I don't it's a complex that goes up a hill and I'm not sure where you live on that part of it no I mean I live literally so so the way the houses were built they were like pretty maybe like 200 ft away from my house but now what they're building is less than 50 ft away from my house which is clearly an issue okay I I'm sorry that we yeah we followed our procedures properly and we're happy to take your your objections but unfortunately we just voted we voted
on it okay any other comments on um public portion any other comments my name is Muhammad Faruk um I live close by to and U the point is that
the letter was not very clear it all all all it says that the hearing is on that and that day if we knew that we can object before that and it is open for comments we would have done it previously but we just came came in here and this is just the number there and the number just was called out very quickly so we couldn't really follow and then there was Voting and now we are just learning that it has already been voted out so if it is being U clearly mentioned in the letter or during this
meeting then we would have timely Pro provided our comments I mean sir so I just want to say there was the mayor asked our Madame clerk to read the ordinance by title it was read by title to the public there was then a mo motion to open the public hearing on that ordinance there was a pause we looked around the room nobody got up excuse me sir it's not your turn um you have to take turns we need we need a record so it's he has to be up the microphone um the public portion was then closed um we
also opened it up to the public on agenda items which was earlier on in the meeting you you got a notice to come here for an ordinance um I mean we have you have a copy of the agenda right it was in the back yeah you as you're following along there's a process and we went down the agenda we hit each topic so when your ordinance came up o02 225 for final hearing which is what you're here for that was part of our agenda we didn't skip around the agenda we went through the agenda we're now at our basically
our last item of the agenda after the business now my point is this that you guys are here every week whatever time and we come here once in our lifetime so we don't know the procedure like you guys do so if it is clearly been mentioned in the letter and about like we are just we just learning that there were two weeks open Period where we could have commented it was not mention in the paper we were not aware of that and again there were so many activities going on in this meeting and this number just came up and went went along and we
just learned when you were already to the next point so that's my point I mean if thebody is so moved by any of your comments they do have a legal option to to resend any vote that they made by by a motion and a second I just I mean you still at the for making your comments to this governing body and and Ju Just to be clear I mean we're looking at this this letter that we received and this letter doesn't tie to to this so there's no way for us to connect the two to know that this is the park we meeting because there's from
here you can't you can't really tell that the matter being discussed is the park VI matter which is the letter that we received so it's I I guess you guys were going by this agenda meeting but there's no way to T that to this the reference is the letter references the ordinance no they even have the ordinance it and the ordinance is attached to it I I don't see it
yeah I I don't see it so we sent out the 200 foot letter
I'm exactly but isn't also were these documents aren't these on the on the website yeah so so on the website of tonight's meetings um the ordinance was actually listed on the website of tonight's meeting um I'm sorry the the agenda and all the ordinances were listed on our website for tonight's meeting on the ordinance number it actually talks about on the one to3d paragraph of the ordinance it talks about the park viw site
so yeah that's what I'm saying so it was actually listed so we did it properly by putting it on the website and the ordinance was listed on the website of the town and in there on the ordinance that it was listed on the town's website it did show it did say the word park viiew on there so we I'm sorry that we I'm sorry that it didn't you didn't maybe you didn't follow it but we did follow the proper procedures governed by this body got it Ju Just so I'm clear so is there a way for us to object to this or just
because you guys voted and you approved it your objection is your objection is noted and we're happy to note it but we still we passed the ordinance you guys approved it unilaterally without without our concern the people that are that are being affected by it all votes are just taken unil these are the only five people who can vote so the saying it's a unilateral vote the public never gets to vote right so and if you want to object or raise your concerns you've rais your concerns yeah and fairly sir the council
has addressed your concerns they said the footprint has not been increased they said it went over so they've heard your concerns and I think that they've responded you may not agree with what they're telling you but they're responding to your concerns so it's not a un Al votee it's a vote of the entire governing body the public doesn't get to vote you've raised your concerns and we've taken time and we've address they've addressed your concerns that's all that would happen that if you would have spoken in the ordinance is there another way to object we don't give legal advice from the council right but but my objection is not to the
footprint my objection is just to where the property is being rebuilt yeah we we've heard the objection sir thank you any other comments on um public comments Tim Tim Foley you guys all know me uh I sent everybody pictures again still having issues with the dumpsters uh like and the time of the
dumpsters are being picked up is still between 3: and 4:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at my you know next to my mother-in-law's house Tim I'm sorry to interrupt we'll stop the clock for a second when did you send the pictures just oh okay fine I since the meeting started right y okay I just want to make sure because I didn't get anything no I just I sent them right before the open com continue I'm sorry didn't mean to no no problem uh I just again she's getting woken up at 3L in the morning because of
the garbage pickup uh and again the dumpsters are being in that parking lot and as you see those pictures were taken today and I'm not sure if it if there's a town ordinance about the parking lots have to be uh paved I mean not paved um the snow removal being removed for the parking lots and as you can see the theow snow hasn't been removed yet and it's been over 24 hours I know where the sidewalks have to be done within 24 hours of the
last flake that drops on the ground but uh but again uh the neighbors aren't being good you know the dumpsters are being picked up early one again as you can see in the pictures that the dumpsters are blocking that that other driveway it it's getting out of hand now and I know it's new building owners uh they don't live in the in the town they live in New York I believe uh but you have to be friendly
neighbors you know I know she she lives next to a commercial uh piece of property or multiple commercial pieces of property but it's not fair for my 90-year-old mother-in-law to be woken up in the middle of the night and and you know May so Russ can we I'm sorry Russ or Adam can we can both of you please I assume this is waste man these are Waste Management dumps well it depends do you know the name on the size of the dumpster otherwise we'll have somebody go by they can there's there's three three different companies out there and
I I don't have I didn't write them down this time that's all we can it's been in it's been noted in other is in ordance they can only pick up between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. so anything it's in the middle of the night but T Tuesday and Thursday Thursday is this happen is this happening every single Tuesday and Thursday yep somewhere between 3: and 4:30 a.m. think we have police coming by at one point like when when you came here I don't know I'm going to say six months ago wasn't I thought at one point the police I thought at one point the police
sorry uh were uh were going to be called or involved when uh they were coming I'm not sure if Barry notified the chief or not to have somebody uh uh Marty was notified with our code enforcement and the police was notified to just watch out for during those times with things we also reached out because you had provided us with contact information for a couple of the uh disposal companies we did reach out we let them know our town ordinance we said we were going to start uh enforcing which is then was followed
up with police obviously it sounds like we need to remind them again yes um and and just kind of go through this process as we did before okay I appreciate it yeah we'll notify code enforcement mayor through you to to add can we actually make sure that Gary knows that you know it's a specific time frame of what with on Tuesdays within one hour just get a couple cars over there just you know if he's doing it every single Tuesday Tu Thursday or Thursday Tuesday and th Tuesday and Thursday we're gonna be able to catch him and uh I don't Tim I love seeing you
here but it's the same topic every time but and I hope you feel better I'm I'm doing better I'm doing well so and and also again in those pictures you see those pallets been there for for a month and a half so there's even garbage being left there not being picked up so and my mother-in-law is worried about rodents you know so the the two dumpsters actually are supposed to be on the the property of the music store and they
slowly creep closer to to the other property near the uh the garage that's there so it those two should be actually on somebody else's property I mean again the if the other property owner doesn't matter that that's on their property that's that's on them but again those two dumpsters that are in the way of the the driveway should be on on another person's property so you're actually saying that tonight at 4:30 in the morning there should be a car a truck picking these up between 3 and 4:30 yeah
okay so all right thank you thanks any other uh comments on um public portion motion to close public portion all in favor I okay meeting is now closed for the public portion reports of Township Council and council members uh Carol I'm sorry an thank you mayor I just wanted to give
you um an update as to the Investments that we've been making um not only do we spend money but we also make money in the finance department um last year we moved all of our funds we have 48 bank accounts here in town and we moved them from One bank to another going from 1.35% to 4.38% on our money just on our checking account so to make sure that we continue
to make that money I've taken some of the idle funds and invested it into CDs so we're earning right now 4.38 um on about $20 million I've St I've scattered the um maturity dates of these CDs so that we have enough cash flow just uh the interest we earned bearing in mind we didn't have all the money in that in the higher interest earning accounts we earned $1.3 million
in interest income for the town in 2024 and if you recall that we stopped the um when we did that tax sale early tax sale um because of that we earned about 800 over $800,000 in interest from people who are delinquent we used to do that Accelerated Tax sale we don't do that anymore so yeah we've been pretty
successful and um I just wanted to give you an update of what we've been doing thank you and thank you that's great stuff an thank you very much uh we love what you do we love we love hearing reports like that so you could just do us a favor and give the same report next two weeks that'd be that'd be that'd be perfect so thank you very much Adam uh no updates at this time okay Russ uh no reports tonight mayor the only thing I would ask that we remember a longtime employed retiree Dennis Routan who
worked for many years in the uh Health Department as a originally as a sanitarian now they're called Environmental Specialist and if he passed away toward the end of January thank you very much for yes we certainly do um Senator condolences to his family um counselor thank you mayor no report tonight okay Carolyn nothing for me mayor thank you all right I think this week the report is going to be given by councilman Vieira for the for our uh great and thank you for the
council for sending me all their stuff um we want to thank the Department of Public Works uh for working overnight uh this past Saturday evening cleaning off all of the snow and uh off the roads uh you know all of us up here believe that and uh you know our DPW has always done a fantastic job and we just want to thank them for it um also this past week Our Town celebrated go red which raises awareness about heart disease for the month of February um this month we also celebrated back Black History Month uh
the town um through our um committee for diversity and inclusion raised a banner at the corner of Northfield Road and uh South Livingston Avenue also celebrating Black History Month um our Arts Council held a reception called choices um and paintings uh and art are being um are hanging in our community Arts uh Community Center right now um uh which is uh fantastic I went to the um the reception it was just uh wonderful um we all attended a YMCA um event uh
fundraiser uh last week uh we all and I'm sure the entire Community looks forward to the why breaking ground uh in early spring for their new building uh um the mayor I Russ Jen Walker who is the recreation director and her staff um went to a county event um Community Development block rant where we accepted a check U for a non-cdl uh accessible van for our Recreation Department another wonderful event um I will tell
you that Livingston neighbors helping neighbors who does our food pantry upstairs uh is running low on on some food um and paper products so if anybody wants to donate uh there is a 24-hour Dropbox right in our police Police Department so please um before we have to um um figure out what we're going to do and uh get more donations uh for uh Livingston neighbors helping neighbors finally I want to congrat we all want to congratulate Patty Palo who uh was honored this Friday by the Big L Club um Pat is just such a wonderful person in
our community and uh you know he well-deserving and and everything and we just want to congratulate him so uh congratulations Pat from the entire community of Livingston I know Mary you have one other uh item so I'll just two two quick things I don't think you mentioned this one as a quick plug um to uh Dave Toronto from did you mention that or no no I didn't so Dave Toronto from Toronto's pizza was in a contest uh last week or the week before I know Michael you told me about it but I I called him as well he came his grandma P
came in second first place in northern New Jersey and second in the entire state of New Jersey so that's really kind of awesome um and there out of thousands of pizzerias yeah and and and in addition to that addition to his food Dave is really uh has been a wonderful soul to this community he uh certainly gives a lot of food to both police and to Fire and to all the First Responders he hosted for us um the ice cream reception that we had here as well and um he's just you know he's great for this community so he definitely deserves
a uh a little shout out and congratulations to him as well um and second of all I did attend on yesterday was it only uh the sanskriti Heritage Day Festival that took place in the morning uh it's a great event where where you get to see the kids presenting um The Heritage and culture of India and as I said as I said at yesterday's program um it's really what I talk about many times going from strength to strength you see the younger generation teaching the older Generations it really was a wonderful event so I just want to give a shout out and thanks s greedy for
always inviting us so thank you uh we finished the meeting we finished um the meeting uh the conference meeting so if I could have a meeting to ajour uh a a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all in favor all all right thank you