##VIDEO ID:xL6i5j-wQ-c## hello everyone uh good evening uh Welcome to our council meeting uh we're going to get started um first of all let me read the sunshine statement thank you everyone for coming in I see all our uh men and women in blue and our fire chief is here our police chief and thank you uh for the families of the uh the about to be sworn in uh officers uh joining us here tonight all right the statement of compliance with the Sunshine Law this meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meetings act an adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as required by law specifically the annual notice was emailed to the West S6 Tribune and the Star Ledger on January 2nd 2024 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 personnel Andor other matters as outlined in the Sunshine Law decisions made and or discussed in closed session will be made will be made known to the public at a later time notice to members of the governing body and Township staff any use of electronic devices during this meeting shall be used solely for the purposes of Township business and any Communications are subject to the open public records 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 also be accepted by emailing live comments at Livingston nj.org by 4M on the day of the meeting each speaker should follow the rules of order as set forth in Livingston code section 2-15 um Carolyn uh roll call please thank you may May council member bubani I'm here Vieira present kleene here Deputy Mayor meinhardt here mayor Anthony here um if we could all stand uh for a moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance um specifically for the the moment of silence um we did have a 24-year-old DPW employee pass away Gavin Prince he was a LHS graduate his mom was an LHS graduate um we did put the bunting if uh you saw out on Town Hall Hall and um actually our deputy mayor officiated uh at the funeral so if you could keep him and his family in your uh thoughts and prayers as well I pledge allegiance to the FL of the United States of America and to the Republic which stands one nation God indivisible and justice for all okay um all right we have a couple things on the agenda tonight as I said um the swearing in of the police officers I just want to um just before that um make a a little uh statement um for the Tribune and the tap and I'm going to give you this as well we had a h major Wildfire over the weekend and we actually have a lot of the people that helped us out um the our Livingston fire department our Livingston Police so um I I'll paraphrase this but as I said for uh Danielle and Michael I'll give you this later on behalf of our entire town we express our deepest gratitude to all those involved in fighting the Wildfire from our Town's incredibly Brave fire police first aid auxiliary police and DPW as well as our town manager to the county and every single Essex County Town all 22 of them and several mors County towns who all helped to the extraordinary NJ forest fire service and the DP and the US fish and wildlife so you had every level federal state county local um helping us out it was all all inspiring seeing you all put yourselves In Harm's Way to protect all of us from backfires and perimeters to helicopters with Waters the techniques and Equipment you use worked and kept us all safe so thank you from the bottom of our hearts personally it was amazing to collaborate with the professionals who seamlessly work together as a seasoned team using their own unique knowledge and Leadership skills to ensure our safety the fact that there was not one reported injury or any structures damage is an incredible outcome of this daunting task this was a major Wildfire well over 100 acres that's that's what classifies as a a major one nearly 200 acres in a very dry season with a wind kicking up especially on Saturday my role throughout all this was just to communicate information to our town manager and that information could be provided to our residents via emergency alert calls our website and news a big part of a leadership role is knowing when to help and knowing when to step aside so the professionals could do their jobs uh kudos to all of you who worked and worked despite it being an uncommon crisis in our area uh as usual also to our residents who I always say are not only super intelligent but are so generous with their time and talents especially through volunteerism our residents and businesses flooded us asking for any way they could help out we have such a caring and generous town from water and food to prayers and well wishes thank you all and thank you for the bell and siren CL which I never knew existed who came out Saturday with food and hot drinks um so thank you everyone and also finally thank you to our elected officials checking in from federal state county and local levels offering help it is much appreciated to know that so many people had our backs so for everyone here and our fire our police our auxiliary police our first aid our town I want to give you a round of applause [Applause] and uh in that vein uh Chief Mullen uh you want to give an update on the fire if you have a moment you have a you got a moment right now you haven't had many in the last 48 hours alrighty um as they get older you got to have glasses can't see anything all right welcome I'm fire chief Chris Mullen for those of you who don't know me a lot of familiar faces um first of all I've been able to spend a lot of time in the last two or three days with mayor Anthony he's becoming a real professional with the you know all the terms with fire blocks and I got back yeah he's been doing I think he needs any press agents here he needs a press agent this guy but um thank you Chief in all seriousness um first of all today is I don't know if anybody knows National first responder day so we shout out to all the First Responders um for what you do I want to congratulate also uh before I get into it the the police officers uh that are being sworn in and I believe promote it I believe that's what's happening um going to give you an update we've been working uh with the New Jersey forest fire service uh since about 215 on on uh Saturday afternoon uh we did have 192 Acres behind Industrial Parkway by the oakner Ballfield basically from the bake River to Eisenhower Parkway from the back of Route 10 Staples Dunkin Donuts Basset Furniture area up past all these up past the Nights of Columbus the storage unit up up to uh naon Avenue uh that's the area that was affected so that's 192 Acres as determined by the national or by the New Jersey Fire um Whatchamacallit the fire service so it is as of now it is 90% contained I just want to explain the containment portion of it they consider it contained when the perimeter when the perimeter of the fire is 90% um they never really consider it 100% until the fire's out that's what I was told today um but we have 90% containment um around the fire and what that means is usually I think it's a between a 20 and a 30 foot area basically like a big black circle that goes around the fire that's the containment so we're still going to have Embers and stuff burning inside that area but there's really nothing to worry about because it's contained it's not going anywhere so that that is the goal and uh they achieved it um this afternoon so again we're going to have for the for the foreseeable future until we get quote significant rain we're going to have smoke uh on the west especially on the western part of town uh and it's important to remember that um in the morning when it's cool we're GNA we have a smoke layer it's going to be down around like I went down to about nine o'clock this morning the entire circle it looked like it reignited but it didn't that's the smoke lays low in the overnight and in the morning hours and as it heats up uh inversion actually lifts the smoke up and I think by like 10 o'clock it was it was pretty clear so we urge the residents not to panic um this is part of what happens with wildfires so we're used to in Livingston we're used to structure fires we're used to car fires dumpsters small brush fires we're not used to wildfires it's not our Forte and I'll I'll admit that as the chief uh so we do call in the professionals the fire service uh fire the Wildfire service um on my little notes here they do have containment um containment is when reporting of a wildfire uh a percentage of containment will be given which it is at 90% um which is which will state how much of the fire line has been completed so we talked about the perimeter 90% of that perimeter is done the fire uh the forest fire service is confident that it will stay contained it's there's uh it's not going to jump or kick up and jump and continue to burn so uh they did light backfires uh you might have heard the term backfire that's an intentionally set fire that they do in order to control which direction the they want the fire to burn away from something they have their trucks they spray down an area where they scrape the area down um of vegetation right down to the Earth and they you see them with the cans and they they go along and they actually light fire they literally Fight Fire with Fire so um they've done that in the last couple days the last one they did was this afternoon to um to finish off their they basically wanted to meet the two um the two fire lines so they were at the end of dors Avenue by the well houses uh where the Pake River where it meets the bake River and they were behind the oakner ball field so they are confident um as of this as of tonight they are not on scene they were on scene Around the Clock obviously as we were on Saturday night Sunday night the you know conditions got better so they lightened up they kept one of their engines on scene which patrolled the entire area you know for any any flareups any perimeter flareups which uh nothing really to report there and they also um had EMS uh we had EMS around the clock on Saturday night um Sunday night EMS went to uh 7:00 and then tonight there I was just came from there at 6 o'clock there is no one from the farest fire service there tonight but they will be back tomorrow and the remainder of the week uh they expect up until Friday then we'll do a reassessment and uh see where we are and they know that in an emergency when they're operating EMS has to be on scene but they're not operating they're more or less monitoring so God forbid anything was to happen they would call the local uh 91 one we'd get EMS out there so are there any questions um on the yeah I would I have one quick one sure uh first of all awesome job Chief Mullen and to you and the whole department um I was at the command center met with yourself and so many of other our firefighters amazing work there are folks who were there whole night and came in very fresh at 9:00 a.m. and ready to work so that shows a dedication so again congratulations great work 200 Acres of fire burn it's it's not it's not a small thing question I have is just to maybe clarify a little more I do hear from um from folks that early in the morning they do sends more smoke uh you know around the area so I think you mentioned the smoke is more prevalent because of the the heavy Dee in the morning uh can you shed a little more light on terms of you know what do what do they expect they duration of it how long this is expected to last and so on uh unfortunately uh I can't predict but I was I was told again taking direction from the forest fire service that we're going to have this condition until we have full extinguishment and that is not until we have significant rain I believe they're calling for rain on Friday Thursday night and Friday but again it makes it sound like that much a passing shower um if you picture a campfire burning if if you're out sitting out back and all of a sudden it starts to rain if it rains a little all of a sudden you see some steam coming off but the fire is still burning the fire actually has to be soaked so you need a lot a lot of water with the especially with the already down logs that are on the on the ground burning the log might be burning but the water can't get underneath where it actually contacts the ground what we would need is the ground to be saturated in order for it to soak up the water or the log to be laying in water so to answer your question um to the best of my ability I would say till we have significant rain uh and hopefully that will be sometime soon as far as the smoke is it goes I mean it's it's common sense is to just uh if you have breathing ailments asthma anything breathing difficulties is to keep your windows closed at night uh and in you know overnight and in the morning uh maybe depending on the conditions uh during the day you can open them up get a little fresh air but remember at night time it's the it tends to get worse and in the morning seems to be um when the smoke is most prevalent um so I don't know if that answers your question but uh I wish I had a better answer but I as they said it would take a a couple million dollars and a whole Fleet of people to put water on 194 Acres yeah so if you're willing to fund it I'm sure Barry can come up with a proposal that'll be nice thank you go ahead just quick how many firefighters were uh you know from our department and from outside of our department totaled uh how how many people were there to be honest with you I don't have an exact number I know our entire department was there um I haven't had a chance I I literally left my house this morning went up there and stopped back at fire headquarters for about 15 minutes to answer some phone calls and get some numbers for some interviews and would back up Kevin can vouch for that I was wasn't in the firehouse today so I I don't know exactly but it was it was a general alarm a general alarm that means everybody goes uh we had four engines the ladder truck the rescue truck um I believe a piece of Reserve apparatus um so we had our full compliment of members again we do have an an area 55 but you know depending on where time of day what day it is they could be away they could be on vacation they could be down a Shore down a Shore um I was at my son's football game in Montclair and uh the assistant chief had called me so I came back to town and uh you know obviously had to handle business but uh uh we had a a a fair amount from Livingston and I know the deputy chief had called for Mutual Aid upon arrival so we immediately got East Handover and rosand to the scene and then from there as the the winds were were kicked up uh it the incident escalated pretty quickly uh and we called for Mutual Aid uh through our County uh Mutual Aid System so um we did have as the mayor said we did have my understanding is we had and I I have to confirm this but but I'm pretty confident I was told we had uh every Township or in in the in the county including the city of nework too yeah norc doesn't usually come up here um so we had everybody but I want I want to thank all Livingston fire PD uh when I say PD I include the auxiliaries our EMS as well as all the other EMS uh I know hot solola was there um and we had we had squads I I again I haven't had a chance to sit down and and to see exactly how many people were there but I asked the uh the county uh EMS coordinator to send me a list of everyone so I want to start off with that the state forest fire service were was uh they were pivotal pivotal in this operation because they are the experts in Wildland fires um we had the initial knockdown and then they pretty much took over um the the the mop up so uh it was George effinger um was the George effinger and Eric Weber I just want to um mention their names because they were pivotal and they were there up until today and I know at least er's coming back tomorrow so as6 County Mutual AIDS I mentioned all towns uh coordinator Matt gford and Deputy coordinator Billy Collins um we had Mars County we had botin Pary whippy were're providing house coverage for us um covering our house covering the rest of the community in the event there was a fire and we had East tan over fire as I said to the scene uh also with the coordinators we had Bob manganelli uh excuse me Bob manganelli a deputy coordinator was on scene and they were coordinating the outside resources coming in the town and covering our stations and covering what we needed covered at the fire scene uh the East Handover office of emergency management um Johnson Tenny and his drone team um we called pretty quickly for the Drone East Hanover's drone um they got it out they got it up in the air and they got us some pretty good aerial shots which allowed us to make tactical decisions uh equipment placement um fire movement uh it's both thermal and um like night vision so you could split the screens so it was pretty good for making uh tactical determinations on uh how to how to attack the fire our primary concern in the beginning the Livingston fire department is structure structure protection so in the uh in the beginning stages as this fire roared from behind seven industrial started to Roar East uh and I say Roar it as fire is going and it's it's burning the weeds and then the high grass and everything it starts to bring its own intensity it brings you know convection currents and stuff like that so it really started when they call a firestorm it literally is a storm coming blowing um so our primary concern was where the Halloween store ala beauty is up there at 5:30 West Mount Pleasant um the state staple store we had cruising there along with rosand and then the um Aldi store at 277 Eisenhower Parkway that was pretty intense in the rear there so we had our apparatus with deck guns going uh shooting shooting a lot of water that way moving on we had Essex County Sheriff's Department OEM office of uh Emergency Management uh including sheriff fontura came to the command post as did uh County Executive demon J they checked in and offered any resources additional resources that we needed um we had the state division of fire safety fish and wildlife and last but not least the countless uh residents that arranged for food deliveries um water well-wishes and the businesses uh the many businesses that donated to us um it is very touching and uh very appreciated by uh by the First Responders so you could see some of the aerial um this all this aerial footage was taken by the East tenover drone and you could just see that's the sord plant they're operating at um above so if there's no other questions I don't want to take too much more time thank you I just uh I just want to thank you very much for everything uh you and everybody who helped uh uh protect this town uh I'm not going to go with a list of the the May gave a great list but thank you very much and I know that when I stopped at the command center you guys looked exhausted so again uh thank you get some rest but the one message I just want to get out right now is um as fall comes and the leaves start falling down you do have some people who illegally burn their leaves please don't do that definitely if you want to give that message too yes that technically that's a town ordinance violation uh years ago back in the day I guess when the horses roam Livingston the Charlie Shilling days um you were allowed to burn your leaves you used to put them out to the curb and burn them but obviously due to um conditions like we have and and the density that we've have now in Livingston that is no longer the town ordinance says you cannot burn vegetation and leaves are part of vegetation um so we we strongly um FR upon frown upon uh you know burning leaves the one thing I did want to mention um and with the Wall-E coming up this weekend um is the personal use of fireworks and Flame producing devices such as sparklers it should be prohibited um I know unfortunately we had due to the New Jersey State red flag um condition that we're under we cannot issue a permit for the fireworks display it would be the same if we had the Fourth of July display um we wouldn't be having it if it was if this happened in July unfortunately it happened now around dwali so uh unfortunately we can cannot issue that by uh State you know regulations but there's nothing I can do if you're going to light stuff off of your house but I ask that you do not use sparklers any kind of home I know people go up to uh Costco and buy the packages um they shoot Sparkles stuff like that all that kind of stuff is can contribute to obviously a fire and we could have something catastrophic uh like we had here in Livingston so that's my public service announcement thank you so much Chief again and uh thank you uh assistant fire chief Kevin assistant chief is in the back thank you Kevin uh we thank him and pattio from our first a thank you Pat was there all the time and and hota what you mention yes and I see uh they're always they're never mentioned I I me I know we mentioned the police department but I see one of our dispatchers just walked in they're the unsung heroes because they're the ones we go back and forth with and they're the ones making the phone calls 911s ringing off the hook um a lot going on in the command center here um and they they coordinate but they never get the accolades so thank you to you uh and the dispatchers for for all you do great and go Yankees thank you great job great job by all thank you okay we are up to the Essex County update I don't think Eileen Fishman is here so we could go right into the swearing in of the police officers our uh other Chief our police chief got our bravest and our finest i g we spent a lot of time together too yes yes he was trying to get my wife to cook for uh two 200 people [Laughter] good all right that'll come in handy when I start singing later you all right good so um I just want to welcome everybody to Livingston I know we have some people that traveled some long distances to be here tonight so I know uh Trevor hannon's family came all the way from Florida just for this night so I hope they enjoy the night right and uh all right thank you what part of Florida I hope you kept the weather there we don't need any hurricanes we had everything else to deal with this year we don't need the Hurricanes you keep the weather there um so uh we have a lot of other I want to welcome the other uh Town employees that are here to help us swearing our new officers uh when you get hired in Livingston you're part of a bigger family you're not just part of the the the law enforcement family but you're also part of the larger family and that includes our other employees department heads uh first aid Squad we have P poo the fire department we have our fire chiefs here um also we have our chaplain here our clergy members that uh look after us as well they're here so thank them for being here so again when you get hired here in Livingston and you you become a police officer um you're definitely part of a much larger family so we appreciate them uh being here tonight and showing their support as well um so it's our tradition here in Livingston uh to bring our new officers in front of the governing body uh for multiple reasons we've been doing it for probably 20 20 30 years at this point uh they're already sworn in they've already been working as police officers but this is a ceremonial swearing in and it gives us an opportunity to introduce our new officers um to to the public uh to the residents of Livingston the people who we serve our customers um so they're doing that through live stream everybody in uh all of our residents can can uh get to meet our new officers the governing body they already know them but they get to know them a little bit better here tonight um so that's why we have a ceremonial saring in also gives us an opportunity for their loved ones and their family members uh to see their uh loved one being sworn in and it gives me a chance to thank them for their sacrifice because it's not just the officers that are making a sacrifice it's the families as well and we all know that so it's an opportunity for for me to to thank the families uh for for their sacrifice as well so that being said I think we're ready to go we're going to start off hold on a second I also need to put my glasses on hold on give me a second so I'm going to call the Officers up and I'm going to ask them to bring up their family as well and then we're going to have a swearing in ceremony and then at the end we're going to call all of our uh new officers back up and we're going to take one photo at the end with all of the officers but for now as I call them up we're going to call them up in seniority and they're going to bring up their family and we're going to to wear them in so the first officer and all the officers tonight all six officers tonight are transfer officers so we had a big uh turnover in the police department through attrition a lot of our officers moved on to bigger and better things some officers are working out in the private sector some of them just are retired and relaxing at this point so we uh hired a lot of officers so um it worked out well we went after transfer officers uh first so the six officers that are being sworn in tonight all served as police officers somewhere else in New Jersey and have chose to come here and uh and basically uh some of them have a lot of experience but this I promise this will be their last uh job that they take in law enforcement because nobody leaves Livingston uh it really is a home here it's a great place to work so I promise that this is going to be the last time they're going to get sworn in as police officers they might get sworn in if they get promoted but this is going to be their last time getting sworn in as police officers oh okay thank thank you okay that's back up all right our first officer tonight is Officer rustam ad [Applause] gazelle come on up thank you welcome just stand over here I'm gonna read your I'm goingon to read your bios real quick and then we're going to swear you in okay uh officer Ruster M gazelle was born and raised in living and is a graduate of Livingston high school Rusty as we referred to him as he like prefers that uh attended William Patterson University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in sociology with a concentration in criminal justice he graduated from the Essex County Police Academy December of 2016 and was a squad leader prior to joining the police department officer ad gazelle was an officer for the East Orange Police Department where he worked in the patrol and detective divisions there he was assigned to the violent crime task force uh Livingston was fortunate enough to hire Rusty in February of 2024 and he is assigned to our Patrol Division uh he would like to thank his family his wife Jessica and his children Lucas and Adeline for their years of love and support they have given him good all [Applause] right I'm G to ask mayor Al Anthony to come down and do the honors yeah I'm going to pin you after they're going to swear you and then afterwards I'll pin you and it takes take a chance to take some photo you have somebody taking a photo for you okay okay you want to you want us use two yeah yeah that's working all right hi R first how you doing good to see you nice to see I'm going to this where I put the mic uh I can let me just I just hold it to him right yeah yeah yeah Andy picking this up okay that's me I never had two mics so we'll both look at this like you're much younger okay I state your name I Russ M gazelle do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the constit itu of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and I will bear true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do further solemnly swear I do further solemly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties of position perform all the duties of position according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations congratulations [Applause] who gave me this we're g call him back at the end I'll call you back up at the end take one photo uh before I call up our next officer um I did want to mention real quick just about the process I want to thank all of our officers internally in our Police Department that help us uh with the selection process it's very competitive uh to get hired here in Livingston and I just want you to know that the officers they start start off by filling out an application then they have to do writing samples background investigations references um they they get called back in multiple times uh they have to do multiple rounds of interviews so it is certainly not an easy process and for a transferred process we get upwards of 60 candidates and for um to hire people who have never been police officers before we can get up to 250 candidates so it's very selective to get hired here in Livingston and we're always looking for uh somebody who we feel is a a good fit for the community and for obviously for the police department but one that's going to serve the community because we know once they get here they're going to be with us for 25 30 years so I want to thank the officers involved from uh internally that work very hard with this selection process to make sure that we get the the best candidate here in Livingston um all right next up I'm going to call officer Trevor Hannon [Applause] Hi how are you Hi how are you up real quick all right let me read your bio real quick how you guys doing good okay all right let me know this all true Trevor okay Officer Trevor Hannon is a graduate from the Bergen County Community College with associates degree in criminal justice and uh then attended and graduated the ESS County Police Academy in August of 2021 prior to working in the Livingston Police Department Trevor worked for the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission and the norc police department in the East District Trevor Trevor joined the Livingston Police Department in June of 2024 and is assigned to the Patrol Division officer Hannon would like to express his heartfelt thanks to his family his wife Angelina and his children uh Brielle and Logan for their constant love and encouragement [Applause] the other is there no uh no it doesn't the other microphone I'm looking for we had two microphones SS now we lost hold on you need uh usually yeah usually have a family hold up Bible yeah so there you go okay ready we'll share this okay all right I Trevor Hannon I Trevor Hannon do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States in this state in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do further solemnly swear I do further solemnly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the D duties of Livingston Police Officer perir all the duties of Livingston Police Officer according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations welcome [Applause] congratulations of course here we go okay uh while we're waiting here I just want to also recognize we have some other VIPs here we have uh retired director Sam deo's here with us tonight so thank you for being here Sam so Sammy is somebody who mentored me uh over the years so I appreciate everything he's done for me also we have chief chief Carl shof how do I say shrof I always get your name wrong Carl but Carl's here from North cwell Police Department as well thank you Carl for being [Applause] here okay next up M officer Michael duer where are you there you are [Applause] let me read your bio okay Officer Michael duer was born oh I need my glasses too hold on a second I'm sorry I'm sorry uh officer Michael dooker was born and raised in Livingston and is a graduate of Livingston high school he graduated from Mars County College with Associates uh associates of science degree and criminal justice uh later he graduated from the Atlantic County Police Academy in 2021 and while there he received the Don suor uh first aid award Michael previously worked as a police officer for for the city of newna beach in newna Florida as well as for the township of West Coal Police Department he joined a Livingston Police Department in June of 2024 and is currently assigned a Patrol Division officer duok would like to uh thank his family for the years of love and support especially his wife Rachel all right who's coming down here Sean council member Klein is on his way Michael also worked for us as a dispatcher for a while and he interviewed with us once when he was a young man and we liked him when we first met Michael but we just thought he was a little young at the time and then he came back through the process again and he obviously hit the wait room he came back he was a gr he was a he was a grown man and he he was bulked up and all right ready yeah you want all right good um I state your name I Michael duer do solemnly swear or firm do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the state uh and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the consti constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and to the governments established in the United States and in the state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do further solemnly swear or affirm I do further solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of Livingston police officer that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of a Livingston Police Officer according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me [Applause] God P congratulations Michael thank you proud of you appreciate it certainly thank you uh Michael's father was also a police officer here in Livingston and retired prior to my me getting hired 19 88 all right next up we have officer Carolina copz where are you up on up welcome welcome everybody's welcome everybody's welcome here in livon follow me with your bio and we'll get into the so this is the first for us tonight let talk get to the mic because I don't want to get yelled that um so this is the first uh for us tonight our tradition is that if you have a family member that's in law enforcement or in the military they could pin versus the chief that you can have your family member if they were uh a police officer or if they were in the military so this is the first for us tonight we have a fiance that's going to pin uh the badge on uh her his her fiance his fiance so sorry I told you it was the first so we're excited about that so uh officer Carolina copz graduated from Ruckers University with a double major in criminal justice and sociology she then graduated from the Mars County Police Academy in June of 2022 Carolina has previously worked for the Rutherford Police Department as a class one officer and the chadam police department before being hired by the township of Livingston in June of 2024 she is currently assigned to the Patrol Division officer copz would like to thank her family and her fiance Charles who Chaz we're going to call him tonight because that's what he prefers uh for the years of encouragement love and support they have shown her um her fiance Charles uh uh Bohanan is that how you say name uh who is officer with the rockberry police department will present officer Co copz with her [Applause] badge so usually a family member whoever holds the Bible yeah the pending is afterwards so you got to get sworn in first oh Michael congratulations got it reading glasses so stay after me I Carolina kopaz hi Carolina kopaz do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do further solemnly swear I do further solemnly swear that I will Faithfully that I will Faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties as Livingston Police Officer perform all the duties of police of Livingston Police Officer according to the best of my abilities so help me God so help me God congratulations [Applause] y you got got thatou take a group shot and then if you want to say shake the hand of council member show up so car car is our seventh uh female officer that we have working currently in Livingston and it's very nice to see the impact that they're making in uh law enforcement okay next up is Officer Kevin Chan [Applause] gonna do your bio first Kevin so officer Kevin Chan is another graduate of Livingston high school he attended uh Kane University and graduated from Rucker University with a bachelor's degree in Psychology Uh Kevin uh then attended the Mercer County Police Academy and graduated in feu February of 2019 officer ch has previously worked in the Princeton University campus police and the Fairfield Police Department before being hired by the township of Livingston in June of 2024 officer Chan is a p pass recipient of uh The Valor award one second from the 200 Club of Essex County uh he is currently assigned a patrol Patrol Division Uh Kevin would like to thank his family for their unwavering love and support over the years [Applause] Council me we're waiting for council member bhutani to come down here and do the honors for us Andy can you hear okay and right so Kevin repeat after me I Kevin Chen I Kevin Chen do solemnly swear to solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the United States states of the United States and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of New Jersey of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do further solemnly swear I do further solemnly swear that I'll Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties of Livingston Police Officer perform all the duties of position according to position of Livingston Police Officer according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations thank very proud of you welcome a family photo [Applause] our first a president Pat bedo just reminded me that Kevin was also also served as a first aid Squad member here in Livingston and thank you for being here Pat as well I missed you over there in the corner okay our last officer for this evening is Officer Giovani Martino we like to call him Gio come on [Applause] he did very well tonight what a big boy all right let me do your bio real quick and we'll go into it okay Officer Giovani or Gio Martino graduate from the uh uh County College of Mars with an associates degree in criminal justice he attended the essis County Police Academy graduating in June of 2016 officer Martino previously worked for the essis county sheriff's office and was assigned to the uh Bureau of Narcotics and a tactical response team he was hired by the township of Livingston in June of 2024 and is currently assigned to the Patrol Division officer Martino would like to thank his family and especially his wife Samantha and son venzo for their constant love and encouragement and we ran out of council member so I'm going to call Mayor Al Anthony back down yeah is this on Andy is on okay great oh the Bible there you go you got one okay okay um I state your name I Giovani Martino do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitu constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and in the state and in the state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people I do further solemnly swear I do further solemnly swear that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly and justly perform all the duties of Livingston Police Officer perform all the duties of Livingston Police off officer according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations nice job you congratulations all right congratulations to you Chief welcome to the family we are proud of you thank you speech all right real quick I'm going to call all everybody back up can I have all of the our new officers back up here for a second and uh Captain Mueller where's Captain Mueller's oh yeah make it [Applause] well done well done well done God bless you well done well done good job before we go I just want to thank the officers they did a great job uh protecting our houses of worship during the uh holy season um uh you know it's very um difficult time I guess in our world right now and uh the officers uh do do take a lot of care protecting our soft uh targets and I want to thank them for that and also I want to congratulate the fire department they're still here the fire department they really did an amazing job this week again so um congratulations to Chief Mullen and all the firefighters who showed up which it was probably in in the neighborhood of a 100 or more so uh good job for them our officers I was proud of them too they were able to assist um in a lot of ways they're evacuating buildings they were shutting down ma major arteries major roadways so I was certainly proud of our officers as well this weekend one last per Public Safety announcement we have one issue uh we have a few homes that were broken into so we're going to ask the residents of Livingston to just be mindful of the fact that uh this time of the year when it gets dark early try to make your house look like somebody is home because we had we have had a few burglaries recently between 6 and 9 5 and 9 um that's when it gets dark so do what you can to make your house look like it's occupied because we have had a few burglaries and unfortunately this is the season for that so just be uh a little Vigilant and uh don't get complacent and make it look like somebody's home uh we're still tracking good on uh uh stolen cars you only had 10 for the year so we're happy to report that we only had 10 stolen cars this year so thank you for coming I think that's it uh anything else no we're good okay thank you for coming tonight and that's it for the swearing in so if you're if you're here for the swearing in we're finished thank you all for coming out tonight and congratulations guys guys and girls that there's the other people there's like a just more psychological that to one than yeah sorry but it usually has to have a connection password changes like are what's your nice to meet you I wish I was there that sounds did I know don't get Poli swearing impact this is yes e e hello okay um okay next on our um our presentations is Young Minds Big Ideas event light the way and I'm going to uh Michael uh we have Dash we have Jacob and ruhan okay so you want to say a few words thank you mayor um ear this earlier this year I had received a call from a high school student who asked if I could help guide him in a presentation and an idea that he had similar to the uh Shark Tank show so I I met with ruhan and right off the bat I knew that he knew exactly what he wanted to do that day so so you know what uh I knew right away also that ruan's idea would be a perfect uh event for the uh youth appreciation week so I put him in touch with Alan carpus right away who uh coordinates the events for um the youth appreciation uh week so ruhan I'm not going to give you um I'm not going to take your thunder away could you could explain U the organization that you found but congratulations on that organizations it's called the Young Minds Big Ideas and also the event that you put on uh was wonderful and I had the opportunity to be one of the judges so um you know I'm not going to introduce uh Jacob and and dash I'll leave that to you but congratulations uh on a a well uh run event that you guys had thank you sorry about that yes thank you for having us thank you for having the young minds Big Ideas team just to give you guys a little background we found a young mind's Big Ideas to improve youth participation in Livingston and improve our community and with the gracious help of Mr Michael Vera and as he said Mr Alan carpus and the hcy we recently ran a successful Shark Tank style event over the course of 6 months we collected 20 plus ideas from high schoolers on how to improve our community we chose the five most promising ideas to be presented at this Think Tank event now Mr Michael VI along with other judges chose the most successful idea today we are here to support our winners Jacob Glazer and dashel Diaz we hope to gain the support of our community and we hope to gain the support of Our Town Council whether be fiscally or policy-wise to do whatever it takes to make their idea our reality with that I hand this over to Jacob Glazer and dashel Diaz with light the [Applause] way hello my name is Jacob Glazer I'm Dash Das and this is light the way our proposal is to illuminate certain crosswalks to increase the safety and quality of life in Livingston now what inspired me and dash to care about Livingston's visibility Dash and I both play high school sports and we run often however because of our busy schedules a lot of our running happens during the evening we both know that in Livingston it gets very very dark especially like the fire the police chief just said as the winter months are coming up it gets dark around 5 6 p.m. now we know that it's unsafe for us and it'd be unsafe for anybody running or walking around at night because of the heavy traffic growing up in Livingston we spend a lot of time at Town Center during the day we remember it feeling very alive however as soon as it got dark we all had to go home and everything stopped our parents didn't feel comfortable with us being out in the dark of Livingston now this brings us to a larger issue as much as we love Livingston the visibility in Livingston makes it very difficult for people to go outside and enjoy their Town last year there were over 600 car pedestrian crashes in New Jersey with Essex County leading All Counties with 20 4 although at night there is less than 60% as much traffic as there is during the day more than half of all car fatalities happen at night we think that the best way to combat this would be with Illuminating our crosswalks to make sure drivers see pedestrians our solution is to add inground LED lights to crosswalks to make sure that drivers can see pedestrians before they walk these lights activate when somebody crosses the street only at night to make sure that the driver has time to see the pedestrians this would turn major intersections that people are not comfortable Crossing or sending their kids to cross into safe zones that people can use to enjoy their town in the evening so this project would require funding and we figured because this idea revolves around you know walking and being outside what better way to do this than with a 5k runathon now this would promote Health fundraising and help to raise safety and awareness on the health aspect of things this would get people being physically active and outside it would also allow people to be with their communities families and enjoying a nice day of running or walking outside now with the fundraising aspect we would allow local shops and restaurants to come in they would be able to set up shop and this would give them representation and also allow allow us to have some funding now Jacob and I have both run in multiple 5Ks ourselves for charity and we find they work great now with this there would also be an entry Fe it would be very reasonable and it would not deny anyone from participating in this event now with the safety or awareness uh people will be running and hopefully this will want them to do it on their own time after this event and with that people really can't run past five six 7 o'cl because it gets dark and it's overall not safe parents aren't going to want to have their kids running outside because it could be dangerous there could be cars coming they're not going to be able to see them with this hopefully parents will feel safer letting their kids running out at night or even any pestan will feel safer running at night because the street will be able to light up cars are going to be able to see The Pedestrian slow down and the runner jogger Walker will feel safer crossing the street so the expected outcome and benefits of this the inground LED lights will cut down on nighttime pedestrian accidents because cars will be able to see them they'll be able to slow down the pedestrian's going to be able to make it across the street safely and both the driver and The Pedestrian are going to be thankful that they made it AC Cross or didn't hit The Pedestrian this will also encourage spending time Outdoors even at the night uh you know rest won't have to stop enjoying outdoor activities at you know 3:00 4:00 5:00 but they'll be be able to continue enjoying nighttime and outdoor activities pastes even when it gets dark it also just overall creates safer environments for Walkers Runners bikers ultimately light the way is about making Livingston a better place to live while we plan to start with certain cross rocks that we increase the safety of Livingston with the growing population of Livingston we want this to be a stepping stone to make Livingston a community where people can spend time outside even after dark thank you for [Applause] listening mayor yes mayor I I had the honor of uh as ran mentioned uh being a judge um on um on that panel and there was probably at that uh that day five ruhan there was five presentations made that day yeah and uh and dash and Jacob's uh uh project clearly out shown um no pun intended it was coming from especially a transportation person it was really great and uh they knew exactly what they were doing I I believe they even started looking up where you can get the lights from at one point uh so uh I just want to congratulate you guys again and uh this is you know I I really believe that that our youth are are the ones that are going to be our future and you know with with these ideas coming uh out of your event ruhan you know what we have no problem with with uh the future of Livingston so congratulations to you too and uh may I know we have a a proclamation for both we do we do and uh Jacob and then also uh ruhan but I know you may have some questions yes um did anyone have questions any questions no it's pretty thorough yeah I only had one uh question comment and and uh I think it was a great presentation it really dub Tales nicely and to the town has recently made a real commitment to pedestrian safety Traffic Safety applied for a vision zero Grant uh we have a complete streets policy we've uh did a safe roots to school Grant and um councilman ver alluded to it those lights that you showed in the picture are those available those solar powered how does that work or do you know we'd be interested yeah so there are different options we can have a solar powered we cannot we would talk to you guys to see what the town would want optimally so they can be solar powered they can be battery powered battery powered would go up to 20 plus years so that wouldn't really be an issue but the lights they have them across the world they have them in America mostly in More Southern places like in California they have at Southern California in Florida and so that's where they use solar power and we reached out to a couple companies and they all said that New Jersey doesn't really have enough solar power to light these so that's why we would have to see if battery power would be a better option all right great thank you um any other questions I saw that up there and um in my private life I'm a personal injury attorney and I remember reading and I just pulled up in the patch that Essex County has one of the highest rates of pedestrians killed in crashes in the nation so and you said it led the county or the state it's actually in in the nation too so it it let all in New Jersey Essex County it let all right so we're always looking for possible solutions for uh you know we're in the business of trying to be uh Public Safety and Welfare that's the biggest part of our budget up here so um we really appreciate this and um and like we were talking before you know as a lawyer I started a business myself and it was fascinating listening to you guys and and your innovative ideas so uh thank you so much for coming in and we do have um a citation let's see do we want to split this up or yeah no I mean as far as one second one of you just mentioned they're kind of short okay so the first one is for uh uh ruhan and um here I could then we could we could grab a picture that you have the uh the West Essex Tribune and the the uh tap here so we have a citation from all of us uh the member the mayor and the members of the Livingston Township Council are pleased to honor ruhan for your for your founding of the young mind's Big Ideas an organization that aims to empower young people through implementing their creative ideas and for holding the successful competition event think tank that took place during the 2024 youth Appreciation Week congrat congratulations is also extended to the entire young minds Big Ideas committee Morgan Haber Scott constan Noah uh pant Leon uh Dash Diaz uh Diaz uh Matthew Burke Jacob Glazer Ben lickfeld and Noah Shin so this covers a lot of people and maybe we could have uh all of them up and take a photo or they're all up here but they will all have uh uh copies of the um the citation great so of the names uh who's here is um is uh let's say there's only two no we have some yeah want want to come on up this is a a group right y all right so let's see you want to come down with me we can stand up here okay so um yeah let me down yeah oh wait and'll put on and [Applause] pi yeah it's yeah both of them are the same but they're a little bit different e e Court I'll read this into the record here um so this is a citation uh the member uh the the mayor and the members of the Livingston Township Council are pleased to honor both you dash and Jacob uh for your successful presentation of light my way during the 2024 youth appreciation week's competition Think Tank hosted by the young minds Big Ideas organization young minds Big Ideas enable local youth to present their ideas and empowers them by implementing their creative ideas to better the community so congratulations and you want do these on too welome take another photo here e thank you mayor okay we're now up to the um let's see approval of the minutes a motion for the approval of the minutes for the October 15 2024 regular conference and one second de D Dash you were kidding about everyone cleared out wa if you I saw it's okay I saw a couple guys here it's it's fine to leave uh we're going on with the rest of the agenda so yes and thank you and congratulations again and yep and the parents yes and the family bye bye take care yes yes can I make a wait should I make a moot should I make a motion on that Justin hold [Laughter] on I'm sorry to cut you off that's okay I think I was at the point of the October 14 2024 close session meeting minutes as well I'll second it great um any opposed all in favor I great um motion open the meeting public comments on agenda items only door should be open yeah we have to open uh open that door one just one door thank you just one door yeah I need a second uh I'll second it okay um no one okay the meeting is now to the public on agenda items only well I'm sorry Jared what oh yeah for the okay so here we go we now open it for public hearing um hi Mr mayor Justin Albert 56 Amherst Place on the consent agenda resolution 24244 to peachree Hill Road um this is really a sophisticated operation here this is a major uh Investment Company out of New York they set up four Delaware entities Atlas 6 Peach Tree Holdings LLC Atlas 6 Peach Tree LLC Atlas 6 Peach Tree mezzanine LLC and as Atlas 6 Peach Tree urban renewal LLC all registered with the state of Delaware um you know the the these kinds of things where we set it up for a uh non-c condemnation hearing this has not worked well for us in any situation over the past six years that we've seen I'm not sure why we're moving in this direction again uh it doesn't make sense to have an outside developer come in and develop the community in a way that will extract value out Untold value out of the community for 30 years uh you know that may work in uh minority communities that suffer under single party governance by the Democrats where you can hide behind really you know institutionally racist standardized credit scores and stuff and people are happy to have that kind of develop outside development come in the community but here where we're the 39 wealthiest community in the state we ought to be making the decisions about how we're going to use uh and develop our land for ourselves so there's not much of a reason to uh do any investigation whatsoever into designating this as a non non-c condemnation property uh and I'm not sure why we're moving forward on this so if you are going to move forward on this would you please remove this from the consent agenda and would love to hear a discussion about it thank you very much Mr Mayor good evening everyone my name is Matthew pad on behalf of Law Firm SS cumson gross uh just to be in response to that resolution item I represent those investors developers propy owners themselves The Entity name is atlas Capital they are the owners of the property not subject own owners but they actually are the owners of the property the request of us to go through the area need Redevelopment study is simply to see if whether or not the property actually qualifies for redevelopment the purpose being is to Zone the property for potential use that would be in parallel to what this Township would like to see be done it could go the Redevelopment route and go the overlay route but all these conversations are too premature we're only simply trying to make a determination if even even if it's eligible for redevelopment that's all it's being done right now okay okay uh yeah and I would just um Echo the the reason the recommendation is to do a study for an area in needed Redevelopment um is because this property is located in the um in a Zone where we don't want to necessarily rezone the entire Zone and given that the the contemplated uses that the town would like to see there are not affordable housing uh any zoning that would be unique to this particular parcel uh would be considered spot zoning so Redevelopment uh if the property is eligible and we believe there is grounds to think it will be because it is essentially a vacant office building um provides tools uh to allow us to to basically customize the Zoning for only this parcel and not for the rest of the zone and and we think it it's appropriate um does not provide any guarantee or entitlement to anything beyond a Redevelopment plan which would be Zoning for only that project thank you Barry um any other public comment on agenda items I'll make a motion to close the public comment period second on all any opposed no all in favor I okay great we'll now go to the uh passage of ordinances final hearing for um Carolyn 2824 2824 May ordinance 28-22 24 chapter 135 filing okay is there a motion open I'll make a motion open to public hearing thank you Michael second all any opposed no all in favor I okay uh any comment on the I'll make a motion to close the public Second Great uh roll call motion to move you got to move you have motion motion to move discussion second was there a motion to adopt in a second you got it car I made the second was it session okay oh any any discussion I'll just say thank you coun I'm excited for this one I think uh we've had a lot of um television Crews and film Crews that have come into Livingston the last few years and made good use of the beautiful parts of our town and and what makes us uh a great example of Americana and uh I had actually uh when we heard about the film designation had said to Adam this is something we should look at and Adam was like we're looking at it right now and so everyone was on the same page and um I think once we get this done uh it's going to encourage uh filming companies to come in here and um make good use of the of the township everyone's betterment thank you um anyone else thank you Sean I think you covered it a lot of people uh there's advantages to it uh and it is fun right when there's a a production crew in town and everyone's interested and this kind of uh VAR right it kind of gets guidelines for that and makes it a more streamline process so um put us on the Silver Screen we'll see who on we're going to see you on the silver screen put puts us puts us on the silver scen not not here but the town but the town yep great okay so um is there yeah Council bani happily yes Vieira yes Klein yes Deputy Mayor Minard yes mayor Anthony yes okay we are now up to the introduction of ordinances Caroline ordinance 30-22 24 amending chapter 20 9 regulating u-turns on certain streets Ridge Drive moving on first reading second um any oppos no okay roll call on that council member bubani yes Vieira yes Klein Yes W mayor mhart yes mayor Anthony yes and mayor the uh final hearing the public hearing on this will be on Tuesday November 12th November 12th great no council meeting Monday that that's Veterans Day but we are here we'll be here though all right we are now up to the uh consent agenda for Resolutions uh resolution 24- 239 uh all matters listed with an aster are considered to be routine and non-controversial by the council and will be approved by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the governing body so request in which case the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda agenda as part of the general orders um is there any request to remove any of 1 through 7 here seeing none Caroline you want to read them all together yes mayor thank you uh resolution 24-240 resolution to apply for the 2025 Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey Fitness campaign resolution 24-24 authorizing submission of a grant proposal to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs fiscal year 25 local Rec recreational Improvement grant program resolution 24242 shared services agreement for public health officer resolution 24243 combining bonds not to exceed 25 mil 524,000 authorized by 18 Bond ordinances resolution 24244 authorizing a preliminary investigation to Peach Tree Hill Road Block 6100 lot 11 resolution 24245 authorizing the cancellation of delinquent taxes on property identified as block 308 3 3803 lot 7 and resolution 24246 accept and accepting an emergency management subgrant award fiscal year 2024 move like to move all the resolutions is there a second I'll second it council member bubani yes Viera yes kleene yes Deputy Mayor mhart yes mayor Anthony yes all right great thank you Caroline we're now up to um the public comment on I'd like to open the meeting to a public portion second any oppos no all in favor I good hi Justin hi Mr Mayor Justin Alper 56 Amur place two things one the fourth round numbers came out today I saw Livingston came out last week Livingston had a number of 461 if I'm not correct we have we had a credit of a few hundred homes so how what's our actual number going to be for the fourth round want to wait till the end uh well just quickly if you have the number yeah you want fin all all right okay fine let's move on let's move on from there for a second to the upcoming dog ordinance um was out on the fields today it was lovely uh this weekend and it was lovely um you know no one presently follows your law people bring their dogs to the fields the way that people actually use the fields with their dogs is they bring their dogs right up to the sideline and the dogs hang out and typically the dogs are well behaved if we're going to pass a dog ordinance let's pass one that actually reflects how people use the field and during game time people should be able to come up to a sideline with their dogs in the center circle uh during noname time I can understand if you wouldn't want dogs out in the middle of the oval but during game time people bring their dogs right up to uh line you know there's uh geese and deer all over the field anyway uh people generally pick up after their dogs if there is an accidents but there's really no reason why we should just pass an ordinance keeping dogs on the outside of the oval um because that's not how people use it people bring their dogs people like to bring their dogs to games people like to bring their dogs right up to the sideline and if that's what people are doing our ordinance should reflect that um back to the fourth round please uh 461 do we know what our credit is excess credits coming out of the third round of 131 units so we should be about 330 give or take correct now there is an opportunity of that remaining that you're entitled to get up to 25% by what what are called bonus credits which are for variety of reasons rental properties age restricted units let me stop you there for one second uh when we do go into the fourth round a we should be fighting everything that we didn't like about the third round and also we should be accounting for the appreciated value of the real property we should be uh seeing to whom that flows as well we should be accounting for the work that needs to be done we should be uh making sure that that work goes to Livingston residents uh if there's an increase in the number of households there's going to be an increase in government services too we want to be accounting for those jobs as well in the form of real living wages uh real living household incomes so in a healthy growing Community we could keep most of those cash flows in the community thank you for your time Mr Mayor thank you thank you Justin okay uh any other uh public comment motion to close public comment second all right all in favor I any oppos no all right we are now there is uh Jared Barett no executive closed session tonight all right so let's just do the uh reports of Township officials and council members and then we adjourn so uh let's go around nothing to report for me thank you mayor thank you man nothing for this evening Adam great thank you um just briefly I join everybody in uh recognizing and thanking the fire department um the New Jersey forest fire service they were invaluable the level of expertise uh the police DPW were very helpful in the logistics first aid squad for helping to be on standby in the event of any injuries I know uh mayor Anthony was out on the scene for many hours Saturday night I was in constant communication so we could keep our updated on our social media and Outlets to the public so again I think a good job all the way around um certainly reiterate the uh request and and heat all the residents to abide by it as far as don't use fireworks don't have outdoor fires do whatever you can to be safe and and help keep the community safe um and then lastly just a a real honor and unfortunately to Lake because they already left but um have have the privilege of technically appointing all those six officers and we are in very good hands um and certainly recognize Chief marshes the two captains Mr larner was part of the process as well um I think uh their their insights and in their Collective hundred years roughly of experience in in identifying quality candidates or what make the department special so just wanted to give a shout out to them thank you thank you thank you so much Baran thank you for everything you did the last 48 hours in addition to all the other stuff you do during the day um let's see bruss yeah we'll be heading into the ESS County Community Development program application process shortly and will be scheduled a couple of local public hearings oh great going forward I think the applications will be due December 29th I believe that's great thank you Russ anything else okay uh Jared thank you man I just want to add to what Mr Lewis said regarding our fourth round obligation um Mr has correctly stated our credits I just want to say that the DCA number is we're not we're not totally Bound by that number our planner is looking into it uh the township will have the opportunity to review that number uh and adopt uh what it thinks to be a fair number based on the calculations um it's math so it should be the same but uh we do have our planner working on that so the DCA number we're not bound by we have to pass a resolution with our own number so our planner is currently working on that and and we'll roll that out to the public once we meet with our planner and discuss that with with with them and uh if I could because I it brought up another Point too and I think it's important for the public because we just came out of the third round in all the housing units is whatever the number end ends up at after we deduct our excess credit after we have an opportunity to earn bonus credits that's a number that covers the next 10 years so it's not like this has to be done next year um so there there's the planner is also looking at is what our immediate obligation is to provide that opportunity and and we think that most of that should be met uh by by what we already have in excess credits thank you Jared thank you Baron uh carolen nothing for me tonight thank you okay great um let's see uh K okay going in this order thank you mayor thank you mayor um welcome yeah I will I will I will Echo I won't repeat everything uh but on this National First Responders day um Ken missed this opportunity to really thank uh our First Responders um fire department to of course start with we are right in the middle of um an emergency a huge event uh what an amazing work uh I I want to quote one example of how various departments work together um as mayor said Barry the township also did amazing job coordinating along with the First Responders but one of the fire um in the command center I heard that you know they saw this forest and they wanted to create a road all they had to all they did was just pick up the phone real quick DPW showed up with a big clearance and gin and really plowed through and in matter of minutes the the road was created that created passage for the fire trucks the engines to go in and really fight the fire right in there and this is the real example of how different departments work together and kudos to to the you know all the Departments yourself included all the First Responders on a great great job uh I think lots of residents have reached out and they are very very appreciative of it and of course residents a Township residents amazing job what a outpouring of support and love um and I think I I've seen the barcode for the fundraiser for f for Livingston fire department so voluntary fire department I would urge everybody to look through that and and if if they can support it it's essentially been out there everywhere so it is an amazing job by the residents as well um uh and I think mayor mentioned that earlier and thank you deputy mayor for uh for those services really is sad uh when a young passing happens for G Prince uh somebody to lose that that age is really sad so uh deepest condolences to to Gavin's family um on the uh fire uh actually one other thing uh coming back to it uh as very you mentioned uh it'll be probably very good to have a townwide communication uh we spoke about that I think not everybody is watching this and going to going to hear this so maybe we should use that and let's let's use that as our formal form of communication Diwali is coming so no fireworks at home as well um let's just have a safe uh you know safe Festival season um couple of events I was able to and I think mayor you and I were the Big L Awards uh what an awesome event that was uh that was wonderful to honor some alumni you know I amazing athletes who scored tons and tons of points and what an amazing uh group of people to have them come back when they settled in their family outside of um you know the town Building New Life come with their kids and the families and and receive those awards that was amazing um and of course I like the shirt you wore yeah kayen wore a Livingston T-shirt with a sport coat over absolutely yeah that was that was Lancer shirt proud big supporter I mean it was amazing uh the other amazing part was and I think at the Kudos goes there to to our rec department uh me and my wife went to the haunted walk and not only the of course they did amazing job it was very it was car but the kids oh my God they will they will come back you know come behind you and and scare everybody out and this was all volunteers what an amazing way to to to celebrate uh and I think we have a couple of trunk and uh trunk and Tre as well um so great work there uh wonderful recycling there I don't know Russ you probably missed mentioning that kudos to you there and and the the rest of the environmental team there um we actually had 763 cars go through there you go was was there and the lines of of cars was was was quite long at the beginning and throughout the day uh so yeah I would like to end with a couple of things of course five15 as I think we mentioned will be will be coming back before the last next meeting meeting but uh wishing everybody a very Happy Diwali let's have a safe one uh once again fireworks uh not this year uh let's try and do LED Diaz or maybe indoors and that the best way to to celebrate that's all thank you mayor great thank you so much Kan um I promise I will not repeat much of uh Council Banis but uh you know what something like that we're probably all going to repeat is just a uh a very big thank you to uh all of our First Responders for what they did this weekend uh for us especially uh all the other towns that came out and the mutual Aid that was uh was given to Livingston so uh thank you to everybody who was uh who came up to Livingston to help us thank you very much um I'm just going to touch on um on a couple things that um have kind of the same subject um right now the um we're being uh we're telling people to Residents to put their leaves in the uh the street it's uh fall it's time to pick up your leaves well you know what that's actually when you hear put your leaves at the curb it doesn't mean put your leaves in the curb there's actually an ordinance in town that says um that leaves should be put by the curb not in the curb so not in the street not in the street I'm sorry they're definitely don't they don't they definitely don't belong in the street when uh DPW comes by and uh starts picking up and cleaning your leaves they will rake them into the street into the machine so uh please uh because you know know what we uh everybody needs to watch Walking at this point uh walking and jogging with the leaves in the road uh gets very dangerous kids please you know what those those large pile of leaves look fun to play in please do not play in them please don't jump in them in the road if you want to do that have a pile of leaves in your yard uh just don't jump on the ones that are in the road right now um as we heard from our fire chief um and it's illegal to please don't burn leaves you know we we've had a major fire this weekend please do not burn leaves because the ambers can go into the um to the sky and and uh God knows what can happen so please don't burn your leaves um lastly uh everybody have uh who celebrates have a happy dwali and a uh a very happy and safe Halloween thank you Mayor Michael um Sean just a few things um I just also want to say um thank you to the lfd and the LPD and and first aid and hatala and and all the people who came and helped out uh during this uh averted catastrophe I I think when you look at a map of the area and if if you go you see what was burnt it got very close I mean just one thing that I got really close to was the sewage plant and I just cannot imagine what would have happened to our town if our sewage plant was destroyed it would have I mean the the it would have been a catastrophe like it sounds almost silly but it it would have been a catastrophy like you couldn't believe so thank goodness they came here and and and and everyone did all that hard work and I just feel truly grateful about uh that they saved us um that's the first thing the second thing is um uh 700 cars for electronics recycling so that was wonderful um and thank you so much to all the volunteers who staffed that event uh when we do it three times a year uh and the last thing I want to say is early voting is open inperson voting Livingston use your voice get out there and vote okay the nearest Center to Livingston is uh at the education center at the turtleback zoo it's right off of Northfield you don't have to go into the zoo um and uh please go vote make sure that everyone knows uh that Livingston's here than mayor thank you Sean uh Ed I'll just you know also want to talk to all the First Responders and thank them for everything that they did just I know it's been mentioned before but all these First Responders that were're mentioning they're all volunteers they're all volunteers of this town and that's what makes this town so wonderful so I just wanted to thank them all for everything that they've done um also want to just um it is election time coming up and I want to thanks in advance thank you in advance to Carolyn and her entire team it's going to be very busy next few days at the clerk's office here in town and all the PO polling sites so thank you and thank you to all the kids who will be um stepping up and helping for the um volunteering at the polls as well so Caroline you've done a great job um uh to everyone celebrating uh also want to wish everybody a happy infest of Dali as well uh and finally it was mentioned by the mayor and by councilman Pani but um my comment is that no matter who you want to vote for in this election season doesn't matter what party you represent um when you go home tonight uh either hug your kids give them a call uh tell them how much you love them because after what I performed the funeral um this past week of a 24 year old boy um it's a real changing a shocking and a changing of of how I look at things I've always looked at things but even more so so I don't really care so much about you know who you're going to vote for but just give your kids a hug and just tell them how much you love them and how special that they are to you I think it'll be very important thank you great thank thank you uh a lot of uh what I had has been said already um happy devali everyone um thank you Kon for talking about the big L brunch that was uh quite an event the Big L does such great work um and that was uh I love going when they're inducting uh their Hall of Famers there um let's see uh the haunted walk I did make it the night before the fire for a little bit and it was scary like there's people when they're just um standing there like they're not going like Boo or anything but they're just like creepy St standing there and uh the the the kids uh everyone involved did a great job there um what else kolen thank you so much uh I know you're running points on the entire election there and uh the polls and I know you have the kids and um you had a training session for the kids the other day which all went a okay and they're ready to go it's already been a success so we look forward um to the high school students helping out uh they've getting got great reviews in the past um Hillside School at its 70th Anniversary so happy anniversary to everyone there um Barry thanks for the shout out before um great job by everyone in the town in addition to everyone I uh read off the list and of course Happy First Responders day um and congratulations to all the uh the officers here tonight there always a fun night when we have the uh you know the swearing in of the officers um as well also happy Veterans Day uh November 11th we will have a five on five here but let's not forget our veterans and honoring all the people have served in the United States uh Armed Forces uh November 11th and um one more time again thank you so much to uh fire police auxiliary police uh first aid hsala um DPW everyone involved all the towns the state to watch the the forest fire service in action is just it's amazing what they do and how they set fires to stop fires and one of the things when I was speaking to and and and uh the chief did a nice job he mentioned um George and Eric they were kind of running the point there they they come into all these situations and it's all always a different team and the way they operate with local and County County was there Sheriff's uh was amazing how it was seamless and everyone kind of knew what to do and how to help people and there was no fighting or I guess I watch too many movies where oh it's my Authority or it's this author my jurisdiction this there was none of that there was like it was they had like a little mustard station where they kind of gave out what we're doing everyone asked great questions and then went to go do their their jobs and uh Livingston's eternally uh grateful for that so I think that's anyone else have anything just uh we're going have a five on five but there's also going to be a service on Veterans Day it's 11:00 on November 11th at the oval across the street and so hopefully everybody will come and participate great thank you so much and uh that's a wrap for tonight thanks everyone for coming out motion to adjourn oh second any opposed all right thank you everyone for