Mhm. I did. Yeah. Good evening and welcome. The July 23rd, 2025 council meeting of the Long Branch City Council will now come to order. Roll call, please. Mr. Resus here.
Mr. Vieira here. Mrs. Wittis here. Mr. Dangler here. Dr. Vote here. Please all stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I will now read the mission statement um for the city council. The Long Branch mayor, city council, and administration are committed to cultivating an
environment of mutual trust and respect that values the diversity of our community. We will strive to enhance the quality of life for all who live here by making Long Branch a desirable place in which to live and prosper. We will treat all members of the public with respect
and expect the same in return. Certification, please. I hereby certify that this meeting has been published in the newspaper in accordance with the Open Public Meeting Act and posted as required by law. Thank you. I need a motion to approve the minutes of of the July 9th, 2025
meeting. So move second. Roll call. Mr. Ras, yes. Mr. Vieiraa, yes. Mrs. Whittis, yes. Mr. Dangler, yes. Dr. Vote, yes. Motion passed. Thank you. Consideration of ordinances. There are none for tonight. And there
are no ordinances for introduction. And so that means we're going to move directly to the public participation part for um all comments and resolutions. Um and I will read the statement for making uh public comment.
I need a motion to open the portion the public portion of the meeting for all comments. So move second. All in favor? I opposed. Uh I uh the public portion of the meeting is to allow you the public to
state your comments directly to the administration and have a voice in the proceedings of your governing body. There will be no cross dialogue during the public portion of the meeting. After you have spoken, any member of the deis
authorized to speak for the admin on the administration's behalf may address your comments, answer questions, and correct any misleading or erroneous information. If there's anyone in the audience who has a comment to make, please step
forward to the podium and state your name and address clearly for the record. You will have five minutes and may only speak once. Anyone from the public who wants to further discuss any other comments or concerns, please call the
city clerk's office at 732-571-5686 to schedule a time at the public council hours that are held the first Wednesday of every month. Anyone who has a comment, please step forward. Mayor and Council. Um, my name is
Rosemary Mango. I live at 10 Pavilion Avenue in Long. Um, I have copies of what I'd like to address with you, but not enough. You might want to spread them around. Um, the issue I have to discuss is
bicycles on the sidewalks in the city. Um, it's 119-5. Um, there have been numerous occasions. I don't need to go through them. And in fact, today I almost got run over
walking my dog. Um there's a problem that's multifaceted and that is um sidewalks are designed for pedestrians. Um but the roadways endanger cyclists. So the cyclists come on the sidewalks
and endanger people. Um I don't know a solution for that but it seems that there should be a separation somehow. Um but what I would like to address is education that might curb the problem a
little bit. Um I have stopped and spoken to um officers and um specials and they've told me that they either didn't know about the ordinance or that they were directed to address bicycles on the
side on the boardwalk, not the sidewalk. So, if we educate the officers, um it would be helpful the the specials and um the summer help. Um but also there are no signs that directly say no
bicycles on the sidewalk. So, um it's kind of um assumed that it's children, but the worst people that I've encountered were adults. Um, maybe we could educate through the school system, but signage would really
help on Ocean Avenue, but I almost got hit on um Brighton Avenue uh a week ago. Um, so I I would appreciate if something were done and education, I think, would be a big help.
So, Rosemary is not. Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry. You're done, Rosemary. I'm done. Yeah. Okay. Thank Thank you. Yeah. Anyone? No. Yeah. I just want to say it's nice to meet you. I didn't realize because I know we've talked on the phone several times, but I did talk to uh Mr. Shirley
here. Maybe Charlie, if you could talk about a little after we spoke two weeks ago. So, I I was away last week, but I did speak with the gentleman in charge of the specials, and he is going to be pushing it out. Actually, you put the same verbiage in the email. So, I sent it to them and ask them to make sure
that everyone is trained up on it. But, we'll take a look at doing some signs, especially at the entry points at least. Yeah. So, people know before getting there. Signage would help. And there there's already sign posts that you just put it up there. Knowing about it is is
half the battle, I think. Look at it tomorrow. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm gonna go next because my uh topic is the same. My name's Harry Delane. I uh live at 448 Ocean Avenue behind Maxis.
Before I jump into the part around public safety, I want to say thank you to the council for the investment you made in uh having a pride ceremon. I spoke to um Mayor Palone at the event and I think it was important to uh emphasize the impact that you have by
doing stuff like that that you might not see based on the uh attendance at the event. I moved here 33 years ago from Toms River to escape all the conservatism and to come out. So uh seeing an event like that in Long Branch uh underscores the the city's commitment
to having a diverse community. Uh, and I think it's important to uh recognize that there's some kid somewhere or some person somewhere that didn't go to it but saw that the city did it and that's going to make all the difference in your life. So, thank you very much for that.
Um, first I want to say thank you for in terms of public safety for your response to the shooting on the beach. Um, I recognize that my everyone in my family is a cop. My father, my all my brothers. Uh so I recognize the impact uh that
that must have had on uh public safety in the town and I am really appreciative of how you responded to it. So thank you for that. In terms of public safety, I want to address both Ocean Boulevard and Ocean Avenue. And I I wanted to uh
be informed about the ideas and the approaches to thinking about public safety in roadways and sidewalks uh before I came in. And there's three things that I thought are are really important. So, education about what the laws are. Uh prevention through signage
and other uh um barriers and stuff like that. And then enforcement. So, I want to touch on each one of those. Before I do that, I want to share my experience as well. I walk every day along the boardwalk on the closed part of Ocean Avenue because that's where I live. And
uh the number of uh speeding 12y olds is unreal. And I've stopped folks. I've stopped them and called the police and the police have responded uh very thoughtfully. Uh but it's just this short of lawless in terms of that. And I
recognize the challenges of trying to chase down a 12-year-old and get their parents and all that kind of stuff, but I don't see a whole lot of um action on that. uh my better experience. So I I've had the same thing where walking my dog uh that someone comes speeding along and
it's unclear where I'm supposed to be or where they're supposed to be because they can't neither one of us can be on the boardwalk. Uh and there's someone coming this way, someone going that way. I've got a dog on a leash and it's it's a recipe for disaster. And I'm you know, we're fortunate that we haven't had
accidents yet. Um, I've also had at least two experiences this summer so far where I've stopped to allow pedestrians to cross in front of me and the car next to me in the fast lane has sped past. And the most recent one was with a a family that was
crossing, mother, father, two kids, and a kid in a stroller. And the only reason they got killed is because I put my arm out and honked like crazy. And the same thing has happened a number of times in different configurations. So, I think we're we've dodged a bullet for now.
Excuse the um the phrase uh in context. Uh but we're there's a disaster waiting to happen in my opinion. So, when I think about education about this uh education about the laws, so you know, I recognize that uh there's the flyers that the city has out here uh and it's
gone out in the email blast and I'm a high information consumer and this is inefficient in my op. It's ineffective in my opinion because the people who need to see it are probably not reading the email blast which is a
very analog way of communicating stuff with this with uh residents and they're certainly not coming here and and pulling up uh the flyers. So I think education is uh an opportunity. Maybe it's having the special ones stand out there and they're stopping the the folks
that are riding their ebikes and they're adults doing it too. Um and in you know doing some on the on the spot education I think that's an opportunity just off the top of my head. Um in terms of prevention the city does have those
signs that say uh pedestrian cross with those you know the arrow going down and there are zebra stripes in some places but not everywhere where everyone where people cross. And what I haven't seen from Long Branch is the seasonal response to the increase in traffic and
pedestrian and and vehicle that I see in all the other neighboring towns. That includes uh having cones out uh on the side of the road to kind of it towards the road to take the driver's attention um that they see something that's not
there normally. So they can think about okay, I'm seeing two five minutes. Okay. Uh, all right. I'll stop. Arian, I'm sorry that your time ran out. Your comments are um obvious obviously very very thoughtful. Let me see if
there's anybody on the day that wants to respond. Yeah. Ju just if you can stay. I'll give you my card and we can have a conversation offline. Okay. I'd like to hear the council's uh thoughts on it though in terms of what we're going to do as opposed to just you and I having a conversation offline. But I will do that. Thank you.
because then when I heard your response to uh the woman who spoke before me um it sounded a little transactional to be honest uh that you're going to talk to the specialists about doing that but I think there's a much bigger picture and doing a little tactical intervention is
not addressing the systemic issue. So I'd like to hear from the council on that. Okay. Well um the business administrator will get back to you on that. One thing I want to just in terms of my comment and I also do want to uh be mindful of
the way we want this this part of the meeting to run. Yeah. Okay. you know, but um so the idea of education that was brought up before and you brought it up, we have brought it up several times and um I think it's
something for us to keep on the agenda in terms of how people get information and how we can make that effective. So just that's my comment for it and then I'll leave the rest for the business administrator. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
It'd be great if we could share some stats on um enforcement efforts at the next meeting, like how many tickets have been given out, all that kind of stuff. That'd be great if we can hear that, but I'll speak with you afterwards. Good. Thank you. Thanks. Anyone else? Uh good evening, Mayor Palone and City
Council. My name is uh Kletraott and I reside at 69 Oak Avenue. Uh I have two topics I want to briefly bring uh to light. Number one, um I hear there might be paving Oakwood Avenue and uh unfortunately uh speeding is still alive
and well on Oakwood Avenue. And I appreciate the efforts of our police force in the past uh I guess five, six years, several years with putting uh speed monitors up there and trying, you know, also doing radar. But I I know just because I read the newspaper, I'm
up to speed. Um, the police department has better things to do than sit on Open Avenue and do monitor uh and pull people over occasionally if they can. They have a lot of other things on their plate. Uh, all I'm going to say is we need a permanent deterrence for speeding and it's not just on Oakwood Avenue. I drive
around Long Branch and I notice a lot of people don't like to obey speed limits and that's all I'm going to say on that. So, we need to take a look at that. Number two, I received a notice roughly two weeks ago about plans on the West Long Branch side of Oakwood Avenue to
build a synagogue on the top of what is presently 90 Oakwood Avenue. On the West Long Branch side, they want to raise the building and they want to put a synagogue. Now, I don't care if they put a Catholic church, a Presbyterian, Baptist, whatever. It doesn't matter. I
don't think a church or a synagogue belongs in that area. I don't think there's enough space. And once again, you know, they're going to pave Oakwood Avenue eventually, uh, hopefully. But right now, there's a few bumps in a road that slow people down. Once that road gets nice and smooth, and putting in perspective, if there is going to be a
synagogue at the top of the hill, um, that could be a problem. As well as the fact that a lot of my neighbors on the Long Branch side are concerned. And one of the questions I have, although this is the planning board and the city council of West Long Branch, since it's
a dual municipality uh road, does Long Branch, the city of Long Branch have any bonafide position about what's going to happen on the other side of the street? Cuz I mean, obviously it's not all West Long Branch's road. It's two cities.
So, you know, putting that in perspective, I'm concerned on behalf of my neighbors who, you know, basically designated me to show up. You know, basically, we just want to see if Long Branch has any input uh with the West Long Branch people as far as the city council planning board, blah blah blah.
And number three, after putting that aside, is I agree with the last participant. Uh I'm a avid bicycle rider and when I come up along the ocean where we have uh Roies and everything, uh I notice a lot of people on these ebikes, young kids are are flying through there
and these ebikes can go up to 25 miles an hour. And the average ebikes is yo big or yo high. And you got little kids sometimes roaming around if god forbid a little kid roams out in the bicycle path and some kid on the ebike comes flying and hits the kid in the head. You know
what I'm saying? So, you know, I don't know what the solution is, but we need to slow people down with the ebikes, at least where we have a lot of pedestrians, so we don't have any accidents. And that's basically it. Thank you very much for listening to me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Again, anyone to respond Requesting one minute notification. Vincent Leapour, 33 Ocean Terrace, Long Branch. This council has some nerve being here tonight. You really do. You're a
disgrace to this city. Notwithstanding, you're an accomplice to a government of thuggery, extortion, and criminality, leaving innocent victims in the wake. On Friday, July 18th,
the residents of West Long Branch were on the receiving end of an attack by the government of Long Branch. The Long Branch government noticed the West Long Branch Fire Department that the Long Branch Fire Department will no
longer respond to any quote high hazard situations end quote in West Long Branch. This unilateral attack by the government of Long Branch rendered the residents of
West Long Branch with life-threatening endangerment. Long Branch's attempt at racketeering the West Long Branch Fire Department was defeated on the prior day of
Thursday, July 17th when the government of West Long Branch via the fire chiefs notified Long Branch that it will not consider any bartering of the West Long Branch fire truck,
nor consider any alternative staffing by the Long Branch Fire Department. West Long Branch will remain a volunteer fire department. The sinister attempt by the Long Branch City Council
to circumvent a referendum as was the will of West Long Branch residents. circumventing by doing a faciously proposed memorandum of understanding involving the West Long Branch Fire
Department failed. I will repeat, Long Branch failed. The jurisdiction of West Long Branch with its residents, mayor, council, and fire chiefs prevailed in defeating the
hostile takeover attempt by Long Branch and succeeded in maintaining the sovereignty of the West Long Branch Fire Department. To the residents of West Long Branch, be assured measures are already being
implemented to further secure the fire safety of West Long Branch. The fact is by county mandated mut mutual aid, both the Ocean Township and Eatontown fire departments respond to 100% of your fire
calls at no cost to the residents of West Long Branch. Both Long Branch residents and many Long Branch as well as West Long Branch residents support the recent decision of West Long Branch's government and
together we will work to assure West Long Branch's fire safety. And lastly and most importantly on this matter and other issues, both Long Branch and West Long Branch residents are deeply indebted to the
social engines of the West End Long Branch NJ watchdog Facebook known as the Watchdog and also the West Long Branch Residents Facebook. Both have delivered a coverage of this
West Long Branch Fire Department matter along with other important issues where conventional media has miserably failed. To the administrators and members of the watchdogs and the West Long Branch residents,
thank you for your speed, diligence, one minute notification, thoroughess in informing. to the West Long Branch residents. You fought at your council meetings. Your council and mayor listened. The
fire chiefs listened. This is your victory. Keep fighting. Keep your guard up and keep fighting. As far as how the West Long Branch government is going to handle this city council, that's their priority. But I am
fully aware of how many residents of West Long Branch are going to be dealing with this city council and this city council's junk government. Thank you, Mr. Lupor. Would anyone care to respond? Yeah, if if I could. So, so obviously um
chair, as you know, this has been going on for a while. Um the the the real story behind this is I was invited to a West Long Branch Council meeting on uh May 21st. And the the reason for that was West Long Branch um invited me
because the week prior to that they had two significant incidents that they felt they were having inadequate fire response from their fire department. One of which their elementary school children were left outside for over a half hour and no fire response happened. and the superintendent of the school and
the other school administrators were extremely upset with the fact that there was no response to that. Within the same week, there were uh two other incidents where no one went to a dormatory fire alarm at Mammoth University. So, we're dealing with things that, you know, Mr.
Leapor referred to high hazards. Um the high hazards he's referring to are, you know, school buildings, public buildings, dormitories, um these types of of buildings. So, as we were having the conversation, talks were being had over how much would it cost for us to respond there, what
other options were there, and keep in mind in in today's day and age with taxes and budgets, it would cost West Long Branch residents somewhere between four and $500,000 a year to pay us to respond there. So, with that being said, I'm not sure that any tax base of that size could could absorb that. Um, talks
happened about they knew we were up to buying a new firetruck. they have one um that is not being used to its full potential. And so to work with them, we had a conversation about, okay, well, since you purchased it already, let's do a formula between your finance committee
and our finance officer and come up with something of what we thought would work out. Um that number, their truck is probably, you know, at the time worth 1.2 1.3 million. Um and we came up with the formula trying to you know extend a olive branch to a smaller town and help
them that we would give them 10 years worth of service uh for trade of this truck. Our guys would respond in all jurisdictions ours and theirs with the truck and we would handle all these. Um one of the concerns because of how recent it happened with the school lack
of response by West Long Branch. They asked me, "Would you, while we're working these details out, would you consider responding just so we know the kids are safe?" And I said, "You know what? As long as we're moving forward, as long as theUs are being drafted, um,
and as long as I know that this process is moving forward, we will start doing it." The next day, I had our career fire captain reach out to, uh, the Mammoth County radio room. And, and this is something that hasn't been done forever. It makes he's making it sound like we've responded to these hazards forever. We
have not. So, for the first time ever, we agreed to on the first alarm, first bell, um our fire department would just go to the schools, to the dorms, and we would start heading there. Um a after that happened, there was a whole process that happened. There were a few speed bumps where, you know, I saw the council
meetings, a bunch of, you know, social media trolls trashing the deal and and I said, "No, we're not going to we're not going to back away from this. You guys have time until I hear officially from you, we won't do any of this." So, it wasn't until I was officially notified
um by a council person, not by the fire department as he said, a council person contacted me and said, "Listen, we've decided because of all the social media and different members that we are not going to move forward with this." And I said to him, "Okay, but understand that, you know, I I extended this olive branch
for this response to your high hazards. I cannot take city taxpayer money and keep responding when there's no deal in place and you're telling me it's not going to happen." So, the next day, same exact process. And and keep in mind this is less than 60 days that we've been covering them. It's probably under 15
calls total. Um and and what happened was I contacted our career captain and said, "Rverse what we did. The deal's off and I can't be using taxpayer funds and taxpayer resources to respond into another jurisdiction." And all of the council, I spoke with three of them, all
understood that no, that was the deal. You said that it was a temporary thing. As long as we move forward, we're not moving forward anymore. And that's, you know, kind of how it's going to end. Um, you know, one of the things I just want to mention is is that, you know, we're constantly being questioned by residents and people of, you know, what are we
doing to lower taxes? What are we doing to do things differently? Well, here's a situation where we saw something where we need a fire truck. They have one. They're they're unable to use it adequately. And this is something that would save us from bonding two $2.5 million. And we just thought that was
good. But in instead of putting that in a positive light and and getting the responses the way that they should be, um you know, this this is what happens. Mr. Leaport jumps all over it and you know, in his mind crushes a deal that was bad, but the truth is it was a great deal for West Long Branch. They're going
to need response sometime in the future. Um and and for us, you know, obviously it worked out because we wouldn't have to bond. Um so it wasn't a one-way deal. It was it was good for both people, you know. I and I just want to say like because I I'm watching what's happening on social media and I I want to explain that, you know, if you saw there was a
very one-sided attack on this thing and it's because the people that are involved in the Long Branch Fire Department, especially the career professionals, we we had a sit down about this and I said, "Listen, we cannot sink to the level of these trolls on the on the internet. You need to be professional. You need to do the right
thing and not engage in these kind of conversations." And and I I just want to say that I'm proud of all of them. They didn't. and it's hard for them because they see they know the truth. Um and and anyone that's really interested in this process or interested in what's going on, you know, I implore you to take a
look, follow our fire department and see when when they get out of a fire alarm call, you are going to have a career staff of guys that are fully dressed, fully equipped with preassigned um assignments that know exactly what they're doing, get to the task, you know, opposed to one guy rolling out in
an SUV and getting out in Crocs and a and a t-shirt, you know, to respond to a fire call. We're trying to do the right thing. We're trying to make the entire area safer. Um, it didn't work out and that's fine, but to to, you know, say that we're upset about it or we did something wrong is absolutely a mclassification of what happened. We
tried our best. It didn't work and that's fine. We're fine with it. I just just wanted to clarify what happened. Yeah. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Scott Beaver, 434 Long Branch Avenue. Um, just quick going to go over what
everyone else has said about the ebikes. They're going crazy. Um kids now they want to pull wheelies going wheelies going down Broadway Long Branch Avenue and it it's getting crazy. There was one going down the sidewalk at a high rate
of speed. If they hit somebody, guarantee that person would have been in ICU. I mean, it was that that fast. It was just a fast uh bike. But bicycles in general, they got to be on the right side of the road. They're on the wrong side of the road. They're riding on the
sidewalk. They shouldn't be on the sidewalk. And I know it goes back, but somehow we got to get it out there. And just the other thing what was just being spoken about, and I really stayed out of the thing with the fire truck because I
honest to God didn't know a whole lot about it. But uh I will tell Mrs. Surely if it was explained maybe openly maybe people would understand because
honestly things I'm hearing then I came up here and I've honestly got to switch gears on that. I mean just now but um I get it. I work that side too. So you know I work both sides of the fence so I get it. I
really do. Um, but uh if we need a ladder, we have a surplus, don't we? Can we use that? I don't know. Trying to be responsible. I don't know. We'll see. Yep. That's it. Thanks.
Thanks, Scott. Anyone else? Okay, I need a motion to close the public participation portion of the meeting. So, move. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Uh, now I'll ask madame clerk if there
are any changes to the list of resolutions. No changes have been made. Okay. Thank you. We can take the listed resolutions as the consent agenda. I need a motion. Some move. Second. Roll call. Mr. Rases? Yes. Mr. Vieiraa?
Yes. Mrs. Whittis? Yes. Mr. Dangler? Yes. Dr. Vote? Yes. Motion passed. Thank you. There are no applications tonight and so we're going to move to miscellaneous business for the good of the order and we are going
to start with Councilman Ras. Thank you, Council President Vote. Um, want to thank everyone for coming out this evening. It's always nice to hear your concerns. I'm a bike rider. I'm always up around the oceanfront and I understand your concerns fully. Hopefully, we can find a resolution for
this. Um, it's nice again to see everyone and uh wish everyone a nice week and looking forward to seeing everyone in two weeks. Thank you, Councilman Roses. And now, Councilman Vieira. Thank you. Thanks for coming out
tonight. I really understand where your points and your concerns are. I know you man when you put your hand out and slowing down. That happened to me too on Ocean Boulevard in Matilda. and uh we stop for one lane and then the other car comes speeding. Um I know your concerns
this council up here and this mayor and administration that's our priority is for safety that's been being discussed with us with the ebikes. There's nothing that we've been discussing. It's Charlie the public safety is on top of that. It's not as easy as trying to chase a
12y old with an ebike. It's not easy. You know what I mean? You can't proceed. There's safety that goes with that. So, we know we try to stay out. We'll leave it to the safety department for that. But it is being discussed and you're right, there are bicycles on the sidewalks. You know, there's an ordinance there's no bikes on the
sidewalks and there's a lot of dogs riding them. We just can't have officers everywhere that there's a catching one place and I'm pretty sure that will educate them like you asked us to educate them. Thanks for coming out tonight. Thank you, Councilman Vier. Um, and now,
Councilwoman Witt, uh, thank you for your comments this evening and, um, like Mr. Vieira said, we have been discussing all these issues and, um, I I myself witnessed someone flying by on Ocean Boulevard when
someone was trying to cross and it's very scary situation and, um, we need to, you know, address it sooner rather than later because it could be very fatal at some point. And um we'd like to
thank you all for your comments and have a good evening. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Whittison. It's President Tangler. Good evening. Um in regards to the bike safety, whether ebikes or just regular
bikes, um like everyone else, we have seen certainly the ebikes, um they're out of control as in regards to the speed, um that they're going. um almost no matter what street it is or if it's down on Ocean A. Um, we are
certainly, as everyone said, looking into it and we're trying to figure out what's the best way other than other than just to say, you know, put a sign up, you know, what the speed limit is, so on and so forth. But safety wise, that's um and um I do agree that
everyone cuz myself, I don't I'm not big on social media at all. So to put it out on social media is good, but there are those of us who really could care less about social media. Um, so we have to figure out another way to to get the to
get the word out. Um, in regards to I I don't want to say transparency, but I'll just use that word. um when when I don't know what the best way would have been in regards to the um West Long Branch and Long Branch
negotiations, but uh in re during my time uh in the union and being on the other side of negotiations when I was on the board of ed when you're in negotiations, you don't really put everything out um until you get some
type of an agreement. Um, but it certainly I don't believe that it was any way trying to um hide what was going on until we knew exactly what we what we were going to do. Um, and um,
former officer uh, Beaver, I believe Beaver is your last name. Yes. Yes. Um, eventually we're going to have to get a truck somehow. We we will um because we're going long long branch not for any thing
else other than that this city is getting bigger and our truck is um the truck one is is getting obsolete. So we eventually are going to have to get one. And now on another note, a little little concerning for me uh personally,
it's been discussed with with a few people in town that I have something personal against one of the businesses that are that's taking place here in Long Branch. Um yes, I have asked questions about the particular business. Um I don't know the
people who run the business. Uh but if you're running a business in a zone in an area that is not zoned for the type of business that they're running, that is the only personal thing that I have. If if you are if it's in
with uh what it's zoned for, if it's in a residential district and you're not zoned for that type of business, I'm going to ask questions. Now I asked it in executive session but it didn't stay there because uh a couple people came up to me and wanted to know what do I have
against that particular company. I was told told that the uh company uh or the people who run the company are very good nice people decent people so on and so forth but I've never even met them. So I have nothing against any business in Long Branch as long as it's legal and as long as it's done the way it's supposed
to be done. File fill out the paperwork if you're approved. I have nothing no questions. But if it's not approved and you keep doing what you're doing, well then I'm gonna keep asking the question whether it be an executive session or publicly. So, um, I just wanted to put that out there that I personally do not
have anything against any business that is legally run in Long Branch. It's not personal for me. It's just follow the ordinance, follow the zoning laws, and everything will be okay. Thank you very much and um please enjoy uh the rest of
the summer. Be safe and God bless you. Thank you, Councilman Dangler and Mayor Palone. Thank you, Council President. Um first off, I'd like to thank everybody uh for coming this evening. I appreciate all of your comments and I want to uh say that um you know, whether you're here in
person or send us an email or a phone call, uh we take all of your comments very serious. I mean obviously there's a lot of challenges uh but we um uh we take them seriously. We try to address as many as we can and we'll always continue to do so. So again thank you
for being here. There is something I would like to say though. Um, a lot of people haven't taken advantage of it, but since we came into office, I know that sometimes it's hard like to just, you know, we obviously have to have some sort of time limit here in a public
forum and and uh obviously there's a mission statement that that the council president reads, but I just want to let everybody know that we do and always have had what we call uh council office hours, which are on the uh first
Wednesday of the month. And what you need to do is um you can talk at any length. I think the count the city clerk they're scheduled every half hour, right? So anyone if you just call the clerk by the Friday before the next
first Wednesday, first Wednesday of the month. Um what what we do is we try to get at least two council members together because that's the limit we can do. Um, I'll I'm certainly uh always available to come
and whatever the issue is, uh, we would make sure if it's a if it's a law enforcement issue or recreation or DPW, but I just want to let you know and then you could have a more, you know, extensive personal conversation. So again, that's the first Wednesday of
every month and if you just call by the Friday before, correct? Um, so take advantage of that because we've had that for the last seven years, but not too many people call on it every now and then. Okay. And then the the um, so I just had a couple announcements that I
wanted to talk about for uh, for the Bruce Springsteen fans here. We're uh we're very excited to announce that the Long Branch Arts and Cultural Center in collaboration with the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music
and Mammoth University, uh we're going to be having a one-of-a-kind Bruce Springsteen in Long Branch exhibit. For those of you who don't know, this exhibit focuses on um Bruce Springsteen's breakout album, Born to Run, which actually he wrote in its
entirety here when he was living in the city of Long Branch. It'll feature um unique and special history that Bruce Springsteen has to the city of Long Branch. Uh the exhibit is set to open in mid August. Born to Run, by the way, is
uh celebrating the 50th anniversary u next month. And the exhibit is set to open, like I said, in mid August. For more information, please reach out to uh Maggie Fischer at the Arts and Cultural Center, 7322227000. Um, second, there's two other things I
wanted to talk about. The cruise to the Jersey Shore car show, which was originally on Father's Day uh in June, will be uh but was rained out, will be Sunday, August 10th from 9 to 3. This event will include vintage cars, music,
food, and more. Uh we've been doing this for, I believe, more than 30 years. And finally, the next family fun day, which is a big one, is July 30th at Branchport Park from 3 to 6:00 p.m. The event is free and includes games, food, music,
and free boat rides on the Shrewsbury River. And that's for children and adults. Um so, uh please uh attend any of these events. And thank you all for coming. And I'm going to stay with um um public safety director and business
administrator Shirley. So if anybody who's here would like to talk, I'll be here. Uh thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Um so my comments are going to go along the same line. Your your comments were all of your comments were very consistent in terms of the
concern that we all have for safety and you heard all of us kind of responding uh consist consistently. also two parts of it. One is um how do we solve the problem and then another part how do we educate
the the community about it? I would love it and invite all of you and anyone else to follow up on what the mayor said and please um schedule a time the first Wednesday of the month. We I can give
you the number again because we we announced it with the public comment and and let's have a discussion about how do you get information uh you know like Councilman Dangler and I think I fall in the same category as
you Councilman Dangler I'm not big on social media and um obviously that's a prime way that we communicate with the with the public but if some of you could come and let's talk about what ways do
you get information I think it would be very helpful you know all the way around and uh you know also we could have a conversation we have been struggling like every municipality is struggling with these ebikes everybody's struggling
with it um let's hear your ideas and and talk about it two ways you know what what are your ideas what are some of the ideas that we have thrown out there that we think may work and may not work, but um please take us up on that offer
because it might be a way that we can actually move forward together and get some new ideas out there. Um and my last um comment is uh on one of our resolutions and that is our resolution where we are reappointing Amanda Cald
Caldwell as our city clerk, our interim city clerk. Um welcome again. You're doing a great job. We love to have you as part of the team. So great. And with that, I need a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second.
All in favor? Good. Thank you. Good night, everyone.