--------- good evening i'd like to call this meeting to order roll call mr dangler here mr ras here mrs woodis is absent dr vote here mr vieira I'm here 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 first we're going to have the fire museum presentation by Art Green it's all yours right out of the gate right out of the gate all right um this is uh this is just going
to be fairly quick i just um had spoke to Mayor Palone about just giving you guys an update about where you were all at after one year so March you remember last year March was our open house so really it was uh more towards the end of
March maybe in the first week of April is when we started to opening the building up to the public so from March until March I'm going to let you know how it went so
um we have a we have a register book uh there was 193 recorded signatures some listed as family when it's family I made it three counted it towards three instead of just two and not everybody signed it so uh there's a um there's a
variable there i would say at least maybe people maybe might have been missed so all total that's 193 visitors uh conservatively that puts it about 218 to 230 people have come to the museum from
March to March now that's only 36 days out of the whole year um so when you when you do the math it comes out to it comes out to quite a number of people the the the least amount of people it average is six comes out to six visitors
every time it's opened there's been days where there's been 10 12 there's been days where there's been five there's been days where only two people come in uh but um it's usually open from 3 to 3 and a half hours uh currently it's open
from 1 to 4 to 4:30 p.m i'm thinking about moving it a little bit earlier starting at 12:00 noon uh the biggest asset is that little eery that's right across the street so everybody goes there on Sunday and they eat and then well let's just walk across the street
so as long as that place has got people in it there's usually people coming across um I do al also offer private showings so if there's a group people want to come in um actually uh Mr brown Dave Brown had approached me about I guess he's involved with what's the
what's the group the rotor so I'm waiting to work with Mr brown i think he's going to bring the Rotary over as a group and so even though these are set days on Sundays um I'm open to and it's been posted out if anybody can't make a Sunday and you have a group want to come
in I'm five minutes away i don't have a problem coming down and opening a place up and doing the 45minute dog and pony show so we haven't had any takers on that yet but but it's there um so usually between October and May it's
open every Sunday because that's kind of like the winter so once the summer breaks there's something to do so from October to May every Sunday starting in June through September I'll go back to the twice uh twice a month so I alternate weekends so if you miss one
you make the next one or like I said if there's a group of people that want to come in and see the building give me a call they have my number i'll go down there and open it up um so far uh logged in has been 117 hours of time in in in taking care of
the the visitors that come uh also attended five special events outside of the opening so anytime we've had a u a city event where there's been um the possibility of some you know PR um we've had a table an information table so
we've done that and also during fire prevention week uh I had the building open in the middle of the week uh two evenings for three hours for anybody want to bring their kids by uh so that worked out very well um currently the
inventory or the artifacts stands at 84 items so that's a pretty good um that's a pretty good amount of items that are in there of course four of them are very large items um but there's only 69 of them on display right now because uh the
other ones require to be um uh secured so uh two showcases uh came in December for the smaller items these other items that aren't displayed are larger items and they really need to be in something that's has a little more height and
volume like they're tall they won't go in shallow showcases so they're there in the in the museum but they're just currently not on display um there's an office now set up on a second floor uh which is being used for cataloging identifying storage and securing the
artifacts that are not on display there's also compliments of Chuck he's got me some file cabinets and I have access to a lot of myar sleeves we're starting to um basically collate and preserve newspaper clippings photos
company anniversary books and any kind of archives and anything commemorative that was done by any of these fire companies just to keep track of their history over the course of the last 156 years um let's see other than that uh in Q
right now are the descriptive and information boards i met with Michael on Tuesday Tuesday and Wednesday was with Michael and we're starting now to work on the larger 24 by 36 boards that are going to go up that'll have uh we're we're we're actually picking some of the
better um unique photographs and making them like a poster size and then each of the nine existing fire companies now will have like a information board with their name and like you know just some pertinent information about like you know when they organized and things like that uh and then that will round out you
know that'll that'll that'll that'll give the room a little bit more of a a homey feeling because right now the walls are kind of barren but everything's like in quue to be done so you know a couple more months it'll it'll probably or you know definitely by this time next year which should be where we want to be or where the mayor
wants to be with this um the way it's set up now what is there is is actually accomplishing i think your goal was is you wanted to tell the story of the volunteer fire department uh based on what we have there now uh it will pretty much do that now uh I believe Councilman
you you you popped in there one time and gave me a surprise visit so you you got to see some of it i know Mary you you've been in there john you've been in there a number of times um you were there most recently so I think you've seen most of the items uh just recently the only large item that you probably missed I
just moved in a uh a very an early turn of the century uh Matthews pattern hydrant to go with the the hose the hose display and all that so we have an old period hydrant in there now so it's like it's coming along pretty nicely um interesting enough the people that have
come there we've had firemen from out of this country come i've had an Australian fireman i had a fireman from um New Zealand or Finland um yeah I've had some people come in that are just kind of odd um and and the truth that matters other than that there has been a lot of
visitation by actually firemen uh it's a lot of it's just John Q public coming in you would think that the fire buffs would be wanting to come and see this but I guess we see it every day i guess it's no interest to them uh it's it's mostly u the public coming in just out
of curiosity to see this stuff and um I will say what we have there is quite unique uh I did get a visit from the state fire museum and um they were they were kind of looking around um while they have a lot of stuff they don't have the stuff that's the age of what we have
so while we're while we're odd and while it's unique that we have a fire museum because that's not something that most towns have you know big cities like New York Jersey City New York City Philadelphia big city they have a fire museum long branch we're kind of small
to have a fire museum but what we have in there is quite unique and I happen to know if you go to the New York Fire Museum they don't have stuff from the 1800s in there so this is kind of unique that a small town like this has a fire museum with you know artifacts and
equipment that date pre 1900 this is not something that you come across so that's that's basically it i mean it's coming along very nicely if you guys have any specific questions before my 15 minutes went out now's the time well Arty the first thing I want to do
is like I don't know how this thing would exist without you honestly just even in terms of your contribution before it even opened but the fact that I mean you're just there all the time oh I look forward to it thank you and anybody that I've talked to as I'm sure
we all agree who's been in there boy that guy really knows yeah well it's it's just my that's like I call it my happy place so I look forward I like I look forward to going there that's why I said if somebody called me up and said "Oh could you open a museum up tomorrow night?" "Oh sure what time you want to be here?" I'll
I'll just go up there so but it's it's it's working out nice so I don't know um I don't hear I mean obviously sounds like you guys have gotten some um some emails or some reviews out you know from from visitors i guess it's all good which is is what you want is what you
want so um yeah we're just going to keep trying i really want to suggest just you talking about it is because again I think we've we've kind of left it to you to kind of curate it and run well you told me what you wanted you said you wanted to tell the story of the volunteer fire department in the city
well you pretty much got it but you know one thing Lindsay we never did which I think we should try to do with Arty is like to get like school groups and so forth good idea yeah i mean even when I was in elementary school I mean we would
that would be like a priority well the fire prevention week you know the fire prevention week is the time to do that but here's the problem which is one thing that I have noticed about the museum it does not appeal to small young
children because when they think of a fire truck or fire engine or firefighter that is not exactly when they walk in there what they're expecting to see see they're used to
what we see storming by the streets now or going by the local firehouse to pick a red fire truck and you know the the lights and all that they walk in there and they're these things like there's no motors they're they're trying to figure out what these things are um
unfortunately you know that's you know we don't have a building large enough to to start with horserawn and move right on up to the modern current uh nobody does really well the state museum does but it's it's it's it's they're overwhelmed um there's a lot I'm going
to tell tell you right now everybody that has come in there has come in there with on a mission to learn something they're interested it really is more of unfortunately I wouldn't say unfortunately it's more geared towards adults i've had people bring their small
children in there in about less than anybody has small children will know this their time span of interest in seeing this stuff is extremely short yeah and then he want to go and I have found that the parents don't want to go yet because they don't never seen a fire
alarm box and what does that indicator do on the wall and how did these things operate once they ever got to the fire the parents have a lot of questions and sometimes the kids end up kind of killing it for them um I've had people come back a second time without the kids
without the kids yeah without the kids so uh it's like I says it's it's getting out there um but like I says fire prevention week I had it open now fire prevention week falls on the week of the great Chicago fire that's why we have fire prevention week and I had it open at night in fact I had a collection I
have a collection of 1870s stereo views if anybody knows what they are the old stere you put in a holder that that are of the Chicago fire post fire they're very rare i had them on display there with the viewer and I had a number of people come you can put
these things in a viewer and you could actually see the city of Chicago in 1870 after the fire um so a lot of the stuff that's there is really geared towards more of adults that have questions that are um you know they're interested they
don't understand it's you know I've never sit at the fire department where I don't understand or a couple people one fell just came this week his father grandfather was a driver in on horses in Kingsburg I think and uh he came to the fire museum because he wanted to see
this stuff that you know he heard about his grandfather was an older gentleman and he was very interested so I mean uh the kids yeah you can bring the kids there uh you know you have to have you have to entertain them like we did with the um the Halloween thing but if you have chotss keys and little things for the
kids to do that's fine but they lose interest with the displays and the artifacts quite quickly is there anything that's interactive with the museum we do have to kind of keep their interest we have it we have an item there but like I says it's it's the I I
don't know if the kids really even want to go there i mean I don't think the kids are um telling their dad "I want to go to the fire museum." I think the parents are saying "Let's go to the fire museum." Yeah and they get there i mean I would say high school kids you know maybe there was actually a couple of
mammoth college students that came to this to the to the museum it was a young girl very interested she she was very interested in this stuff i think she was doing a paper in fact she came to the museum picked an item and did a paper on it um like I saying small children anybody has small children wouldn't you get them in there they're just they
don't know i would say it'd have to almost be a grammar school you know late middle make middle school and up young kids or No no they're they're necessary no I'm I I'm thinking about So if we wanted to try to attract you know or or make it more entertaining for for little
kids um get get a group of little kids together maybe get a dalmation the problem here you know here their their ideas on what would make it kind of interactive and fun right so doctor here's the issue with that also is
remember we're confined to one building open building there's not there's no sub rooms there's no side rooms there's really there's you know you walk in there it's the old engine room for the firehouse it's like this so you walk in and everything's on one floor and it's
all there there's there's no I mean in the summertime maybe if you had outside because there is a parking lot in in an area maybe some once the winter comes there's really not a whole lot you can do with the building is a bathroom a foyer and a broom closet and a giant
room and that's it so there's not a whole lot you can really Listen it is what it is i I I mean I may listen I'm very biased it's as far as I'm concerned it's a home run um and anybody that's been there is has enjoyed being there so it it is what it is you know maybe in
time I don't know things could change but I mean we're we're very we're hampered and limited by the building usage and what we have deal with it yeah you know um if I'm remembering correctly I think uh Ocean County Community College has a fire science program they
might be interested in coming yes now that like I said for outreach well definitely fire science because you're learning about the fire service so that's something and we're we're the closest game in town there's nothing else around here for as in a fire museum you got to go out to Allentown New
Jersey to see this the state museum mhm um and like I said so you know we're kind of like a you know like I said I'm surprised like I said I didn't know about the fire science program yeah I know that I know they had one and I haven't heard anything about them not
having it so you know anything about that so now I know my my daughter my youngest daughter is actually in college right now to get her masters in museum curation archival st curation and stabilization of artifacts she's she's
going for the whole thing and her professors over there have taken information on the museum so I'm thinking that Moth College may be not so much because it's a fire museum because but because it's a museum right right with old things so I think the one of
the professors there two of the presses there are working on having bringing the students to the museum to to to see the artifact so listen it's it's a great thing it's very unique it's very unique that we have it all right before you wrap up can you
mention like in other words you said there's a couple of unique pieces i mean we kind of know about Well she you know I should have passed this around i I mean the large apparatus that you said even in the large cities you don't see so well I should know I should have just
passed this around so this is actually the there's one of these that Michael has there's one in the museum in his mind these are this is the basically the catalog this is everything that is in everything that's in the museum it's all basically photographed it's
identified it's given a number uh its status who owns it because it's most of the stuff's all on loan it's there uh and uh the the the the unique pieces there the two the two most unique pieces there is a 1880 self-acting Babcock
chemical fire engine they only made two this is the only one that's left wow so that's a one of a kind um you say one of a kind it's a one of a kind mean it's the only one left anywhere the the brief story is is the manufacturer made chemical engines for almost 60 years
they made this particular model they made two of them they brought them to Philadelphia for the expo uh the Oceanic Fire Engine Company went to the expo they had a smaller model they saw this new one they went "We love it we want it." So the salesman sold them the the
uh floor model so they bought the floor model had it shipped back here to Long Branch the other one went back to the factory got sold and then the company decided not to make that model so they only made two now we don't know what happened to this her sister more than
likely the demise of all of this equipment was World War II because the patriotic scrap drives these things were made of brass and copper and nickel and cast iron patriotic fire companies and departments donated their antique
equipment and drove so more than likely the other the other uh the other chemical engine probably by 1942 43 was was no more in use it probably got donated um there was a book written years ago they tried to research they
don't even know who bought it but it doesn't exist so Oceanics kept that one so that's the only one that's there the other large item is there is an 1890 uh hose wagon uh there's only about 300 of them left in the world so we have one of
them here uh and then there's two handdrawn pieces of equipment that are called hose jumpers that's how they used to transport hose firemen before they fell in love with horses wanted to pull everything by hand then they got the horses then they didn't want to let the horses go and the motorized come in we're just stubborn people um so that
and then actually the other unique thing that's in there and I had a guy contact me from Ohio has a fire museum i have one of the mechanisms that automatically raised and lowered the harnesses down to the horses to hitch
them up and it is they're extremely rare the guy has this museum and he tried to get this from me and I says "Nah it's not for sale so I have the I have the the detachable collar that snaps open that would lock around the horse's neck and once you
pull the chain and you you put the harnesses on the horse it would automatically bring these things up to the ceiling kind of like um if you've ever had those you have extension cord electric cord and you pull it out of something all right so you pull it down and you lock it so once you had the
horse hitched you pulled on it and it disconnected and it went up to the ceiling to get out of the way so you could pull out most fire companies did it with a pulley my fire company here had this automatic machine luckily they didn't throw it out i don't know why they throw it up in the attic at a firehouse and I found it years ago they
didn't throw nothing out over there so we have that there which is a unique item and there's a lot of there's some early 1800s fire extinguisher glass orbs cobalt blue there's a lot of stuff if you haven't been there you know you stop in sometime uh leather fire buckets are
there there's a lot of neat stuff that's in there uh definitely somebody fire service fire science would like to come would like to come and see but uh yeah and we have a lot of it i try to keep it pertaining to see Lawrence we have old company badges uh I've been collecting
up old bylaws books for these companies back in the 1800s uh and of course the records upstairs which unfortunately could be more for research i've been collecting old newspaper clippings from fires and photographs i have I have
hundreds of photographs that go all the way back and they're all you know we're we're downloading them and we have them on drives we have hard copies um you know so it's it's going to be it will be the repository for the fire department is what So
that'll be included somehow in the anniversary right two 250th anniversary somehow to showcase county well there's you know there's that other thing and I understand Long Branch gets shooked a little bit on it you know every year they have this thing the old something at Old Mammoth where
they they they put landmarks on i understand Long Branch is kind of like sidestepped on that oh I don't know is that something Weekend in Old Mammoth they do this where they travel around all the different uh they go to like the Covenant House and the Craig H there's this whole thing that they do in Mammoth
County it's called Weekend in Old Mammoth or something like that you can look it up and and this the museum is something that could be put on that to get people into the city for that maybe we haven't even mentioned it to them so maybe we need Well the old historical society when Beth Woolly and all them
they I remember they were they were adamant about somehow somebody had a contentious bone to pick with somebody i don't know and they kind of like just sidestep Branch on this but there's a Mammoth County Historical Societ on on Court Street right yeah but I don't know if that's They're part of
that this is this thing called Weekend in Old Mammoth and they go they open up historical locations all through Mammoth County oh I Okay it's like that thing that you send the kids on you have like a a passport book and you go to all the
different places and you get it stamped and um the m fire museum would be perfect for for something like that we have to get we have to get into the program i don't know when they set this all up but I would say now would be the time to start the finding out who but they they do this whole thing and they
go around and you get a you get a stamp and I don't know what they what they get if you fill the book up you know but there we have it so if anybody else doesn't have any questions I mean listen I'm very happy with John i know you've been there a couple times it's it's it's nice you do a nice job
i've been there two or three times yeah it's neat you tell a good story i got to tell you it's It's neat it's clean i like I don't like clutter and I've been to some of these fire museums where it's just wallto-wall stuff and your eyes just don't know where to look i'm always
I'm a big proponent of quality not quantity you don't need to see 68 fire extinguishers it's a fire extinguisher yeah i rather have it like like the art center set up on Broadway
go in quant quality not quantity there's no reason to make it look like a a rumage sale you know so that's it thank you nice you're very welcome i think I went past 15 minutes but thanks already so I mean I don't know if it's necessary to do this every year but if you'd like
me to come back again I would but I mean this I figured this was the first year this thing was out like to give you give you where it's at all right thanks brother thank you that's it well like I said I think my family my like says my my father my grandfathers they all been involved with this i I I think they'd be
happy about this and that's the only reason why I know what I know i had no choice about joining the fire department and neither did my two daughters they're in too now so hopefully the old the younger one yeah maybe that'd be the next one keeping an eye on the museum when it's all over there you go nice
thank you this is my boss so I always got to make sure I say hi to you have a good night yes you guys have a good night and uh if you ever need to get in touch with me you need to get in touch with me John the office here you know where to find
me yeah you know where to find me all right all right everyone good night have a good evening you too all right does anybody have anything on the old business no new business you know I just I just want to me I just want to mention something
quickly i don't know if people um share my opinion of the um new I think owner or I think it's owner of tap into but um I think he really does a really nice job in terms of talking about Long Branch so
his latest thing was talking about shared services and about discounts on flood insurance um so which what are put out there you put that up on Facebook tell me oh I Yeah I don't know um put
that up there yeah but you know just thinking about I mean if people don't have a tap into subscription how they find out about something like this which seems pretty significant i mean it it is very laudatory in terms of Long Branch
long branch is taking the lead blah blah blah with um shared shared services and then you know he specifically specifically talked about that one and went on to me mentioned a few other ones john you know you're quoted in here but
um it just made me think you know how people would find out about it if they don't have a tap into subscription i don't I don't know it's something that we could put on Facebook on a city website yes we we share their articles on social
media so that people do see it there we can keep sharing when they have positive things for long grant share so when when you share it on social social media like what does that mean kind of specifically so they write the article yeah it's
online and then we copy the link and if it's about you know the shared service program or whatever it is we will copy and paste it onto um any one of our social media platforms and it just shows you know look at this article about Long
Branch and so that's one way that we share them okay i I I guess what Anita is saying is like okay so like other words we share link articles articles press articles i I
think what you're saying tap in is sort of a new entity how does this how do people go beyond looking at it on the website and subscribe to it is that what you're Well tap into has been around for a little while you know it's a daily online newspaper
um and and it actually and and it's specific to municipalities so this is specific to Long Branch right um I I don't I don't know Lindsay your opinion but I think this new person Jim Flanigan I think is his last name i I think he
has really upped the game a lot and is really I think doing a nice job for um for Long Branch so it's just I mean I don't know like you know mayor when you do your your mayor's report at the end
of a council meeting or ways to bring it like not everybody goes to social media you know and and that kind of thing so just thinking of all the ways that we can get the word out because that's pretty significant at least it seems
pretty significant from this write up okay was that part of the old room that's just Anita you know going on and on i do remember like when we first came into office you had mentioned this thing tap
into and it was up in Patterson if I'm on the It's all over no no I mean at the time at time yeah and and we're like what's tap into right i I every day I get Patterson i get Long Branch i think I get I think Colts has one too of
course I get Long Branch um I get about four or five of them and all you have to do is read the headline and if it's of interest um yeah I mean then you have the whole waterfall there but I just um was thinking how else besides you know
people don't have a subscription information uh review of the regular meeting yeah we're good i'm good good all right i need a motion to close the public portion of the meeting second all in
favor oppose executive session i need a motion to adopt the following resolution resolution R62-25 be resolved that the city council will go into executive session to discuss the following return to client privilege administrators update
administrator Charlie so moved second all in favor i close okay i didn't want to mention anything when he said for him to Part: 2
good evening the April 9th 2025 council meeting of the Long Branch City Council will now come to order roll call mr dangler here mr ras here mrs whittis is absent dr vote here mr vieira I'm here please stand for the pledge of
allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all
i will now read the mission statement of the city council the Long Branch mayor and the city council and administration are committed to cultivating an environmental of mutual trust and respect our values of diversity of our community we will strive to enhance the
quality of life for all who live here by making Long Branch a desirable 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 reading and approval of previous minutes i need a motion to approve the minutes of March
26 2025 so move second roll call mr dangler yes mr rases yes mrs whittis is absent dr vote abstain mr vieiraa yes motion passed ordinance of consideration of ordinance
public hearing and final considerations ordinance 0525 an ordinance authorizing amendment and restatement of the deed of the dedication and the protal storm damage
reduction easement for block 298 lots 4.03 and 1.02 this ordinance was introduced on March 26 2025 and the beach at Long Branch is subject to contact constant of erosion and
irrigation the city of Long Branch with the state of New Jersey and the United States Army Corps of Engineers are working together to construct and maintain the beach erosion control project as part of the project the city
of Long Branch needs to grant an easement to the state of New Jersey i need a motion to open the public portion hearing on this ordinance only so move second all in favor i if any member of the public has any comments to make on
this ordinance only please come to the podium state your name and address clearly for the record you'll have five minutes and may only speak once on ordinance 05-25 seeing there's none I need a motion to close so moved second all in
favor i this is the second reading of ordinance 05-25 i need a motion to adopt on the second and the final reading and advertise according to law so moved second roll call mr dangler yes Mr rases
yes Mrs whittis is absent dr vote yes Mr vera yes motion passed ordinance for introduction there's none public participation for the resolutions and general comments i need a motion to open the public portion for the meeting
for all comments so moved second all in favor i opposed if there is anyone in the audience that has a comment to make please step to the podium and state your name and address clearly for the record you'll have five minutes and may only speak once
good evening um I'm Phil Falconee 27 Coral please um I appreciate the chance to join you in honoring uh the ArabAmericans in our community tonight um uh now tonight as a green team member I want to express my gratitude to mayor
and the council for your efforts with article 101 to reduce single-use plastic in the city um thank you also for facilitating so many kinds of rec recycling in Long Ranch um and I can report that the environmental commission and green team are looking forward to
working with the city to identify priority locations to install state-of-the-art refillable water bottle stations at the beach prominade and uh parks on a different and personal topic I want to ask the council about the
situation of uh six Israeli flags being flown at the center of Long Ranch Beach at Pier Village the flags are apparently on private land but are prominently visible throughout the public space of Pure Village i've heard people express concerns that the flag display is
unnecessarily provocative um why should we risk a flashoint when so many people come to Long Branch Beach um to enjoy a good time i would note that the latest report from the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness indicates that
their top security threat is homegrown violence and white racially motivated extremism on a technical side of this issue um I want to call attention to New Jersey statutes um section 523-4 which says that there must be a
coll-located American flag that is at least equal to the dimensions of a flag a foreign flag that is flown um clearly the six Israeli flags together have a much larger area um now I would say personally as a Jew
I'm content to see the Israeli flag um in my temple sanctuary where we pray uh if I can shift to another topic um coming this Saturday many towns will be hosting beach sweeps on April 12th and I
was wondering if the particular organizer of this event is required to get insurance for the event so some of us quite frankly are are a little underwhelmed by the semi semiannual beach sweeps because we're picking up debris while walking on the beach 12
months a year um so the beach sweeps was created 40 years ago to fight rampant ocean dumping which then was successfully ended leaving our beaches now cleaner than ever so the beach sweeps promotional fundraising images of garbage strewn beaches are outdated and
simply wrong long Branch and all shore towns should object and insist on celebrating the pristine and inviting beaches that all towns work so hard to maintain last topic um finally we just experienced many millions of people
demonstrating across America on April 5th i want to ask um the city to consider revising the city code particularly 247-4 to better conform with civil rights protections enshrined in the US Constitution and New Jersey
statutes you know briefly um the term user impact on public safety or city services public and quasi public areas these terms are rather vague and not defined in the city code um I also believe that the permit process time
frames fees and insurance requirement are ownorous thank you for your time and happy holidays to all thanks thank you thank you Phil good evening everyone my name is Susan Mckitis uh I live at 63 Pape Drive in
Atlantic Highlands though I'm here on behalf of Food and Water Watch as you may recall at the last meeting um I was requesting support from the city of Long Branch for the Super Fund Act uh which is legislation to support our
environment and make polluters pay for the damage they cause to our environment um I understand it's not on the agenda for this evening but I wanted to just ask if there's anything further that I need to be doing to support Long Branch City's uh
request say something uh yeah I'm happy to do that um good evening i'm the city attorney um after your comments I did brief the council on it so uh I think the anticipation is that we're going to put a resolution on for the next meeting fantastic i'm very familiar with it i've
um while I haven't heard your presentation I certainly have heard food and water watches presentation in a number of towns that I represent okay so and and and I'm familiar with the legislation generally so um I'll draft I think there's a form resolution did you provide a copy i I put a sample
resolution that you can modify as you see fit it's sitting right on my desk and um I'm going to prepare it for the next council meeting fantastic thank you very much for your support have a happy holiday thank you thank you thank you vincent Leapour 33 Ocean Terrace Long Branch requesting one minute
notification your little workshop session with the fire museum presentation was a bit sanitized i didn't hear anything about the building that the museum is housed in that a former fire chief of the city
opposed buying that building for the fire museum for very good reasons also didn't hear that the sale of that building to the city is under active investigation by the authorities notwithstanding an officer
of that fire company that had the building that sold it to this city was charged by the Mammoth County Prosecutor's Office with falsifying and destroying public records also with the museum building council cut a check for a year
worth of rent to the fire company while the city owned the building and the fire company wasn't occupying it bad old Long Branch corruption council President Vieier as I brought to the attention of council at
the last council meeting as far as the Long Branch Fireman's Relief Association governed under the New Jersey State Fireman's Relief Association concerning the individual who was still involved in an official position distributing relief money to firemen after being arrested
for forging fire department documents essentially that individual after being barred from government positions by a criminal court order dated December 4th 2024 was still allowed by this council
to continue in an official capacity council President Vieira why did you and council allow this to happen are we So I'm I'm more than happy to answer council President Vieira will answer the question they voted are we
going to do this every meeting you know I'm not answering any of your questions well why don't you go to grammar school and learn how to answer questions vier answer questions there's the respect is needed here and you don't have it no you have no respect because you have no knowledge or ignorant of the public you want our city
attention has that individual been separated from the city in his official capacity yes or no the answer is that that council president Vieier do you have an answer yes or no i'm not answering any of your questions all right fine council President Vieira is it true that this same individual
criminally charged with falsifying records pushed for the ordinance change when he was fire chief that required fire officer one class yes or no if you want you don't know vieira Council President
Vieira has that just said maneuver by the criminally charged individual the former fire chief been a barrier for people moving into the chief rank in the fire department yes or no happy to answer your question councilman Vier if you if you Yes or no Vieira you want the
answer vieira doesn't know council President Vieiraa as per this criminally charged individual weren't the certificates got it that were forged aka falsified used to get around the
ordinance that he pushed yes or no council President Vieira you learned to say my name real well council President Vieira why don't you go back to grammar school and learn the American language council President Vieiraa on
tonight's bill payout R63 there appearing an approximately $3,700 payout for the purchase of a religious symbol council President Vieira why are you in council spending
3,700 for a religious symbol and where is it being put you're cutting a check for 3,700 for a religious symbol you have no idea what you're doing do you Vieira you even look at the bill payout list is that what you
think and you have no idea your answer's none no answer whatsoever states you don't know what you're doing where's it going Mr vieira where's the religious symbol going Mr vieira you don't know so then you shouldn't
vote mr martin why are we paying $3,700 for a religious symbol and where is it going since council is completely ignorant and dumb to the question to be more specific as to what the religious symbol is a manora purchased by the
lubrica we celebrate honor where's it going houston is right you sure you don't know where it's going $3,700 5 minutes we have a crypt outside of city hall a humble crypt thank you now what maybe a couple of
hundred on public property and you're purchasing a $3700 manora and nobody knows where it's being located he doesn't want junk government council President Vieiraa you are a junk councilman i wouldn't expect anything
else from you Mr leaport mr leapor you should have come to the Kota at the beginning but I see you walk out but maybe for those here yeah I'm happy i just want the record to indicate that Mr leapor apparently doesn't want the answer to any of these questions because he's already left the building um couple
of things he he he keeps speaking about an employee a former actually a former employee of the city and its involvement in the um in the volunteer fire department that that employee has been separated from the fire department for more than a year i understand he's been
separated from the relief association which by the way is not a city function it is a function of the notfor-profit corporation that um runs the the volunteer fire company so it's got nothing to do with the city the city doesn't make appointments to it it's
it's run in accordance with the state law so we keep hearing the same story round and around again but as I just want the public to understand that Mr leaport just basically kind of makes up facts and then tries to shoehole a conspiracy theory into it um usually not
not very successful i don't know council president if there's any of those others that you would like me the city purchase a manora because we typically have a a Christmas tree and a manora symbol on city property at the holiday season you know pretty much has been going on for a
very long time i'm not really quite sure uh I'm not sure if Mr laapore is objecting to the price or to the fact that it's a religious symbol but it's in keeping with our holiday tradition so that's the second one council President is there any others that you want me to
comment on no we're good mr mayor no i mean the the the bottom line is I have no idea why he says what he says he doesn't clearly doesn't want to hear the answers and the reality is he you know he cherrypicks what he wants to talk about if you notice we have a new senior
center we have a new community pool there were Christmas decorations that were put throughout the city that cost several thousand dollars and and as was indicated we respect all religions and all holidays and all traditions at Christmas time but Mr poor clearly
clearly wants to uh I I I'm not quite sure what he wants because he doesn't want to hear any of the answers on anything that he asks okay anyone else i know I need a motion to close the public participation portion of this meeting do
move second all in favor i oppose i'll now ask Madame Clark if there are any changes to the list of resolutions no changes have been made thank you we can take the list of resolutions a consent agenda so moved
second roll call mr dangler yes mr rases yes mrs whittis is absent dr vote yes mr rivera yes motion passed application is none miscellaneous for the business of the good of the order councilman Dangler
the only thing I have is um say hopefully everyone will have a h happy uh and joyful Easter holiday Sunday and weekend and Good Friday and however you celebrate this particular uh time of the year thank you and God bless you thank
you Councilman Rases thank you Council President Vieiraa i'd like to thank everyone for coming out this evening also like to wish everyone a nice holiday and uh please stay stay safe thank you thank you Councilwoman Vogue thank you Council
President um just uh in keeping with the previous comments however you choose to celebrate these holidays may you all have a very um happy and blessed holiday and thank you for coming out tonight thank you Councilwoman Vogue mayor
Palone thank you Council President just a couple of uh things that are coming up uh so the city is uh for the last three or four years we've had a youth internship program for Long Branch residents uh this is a paid internship um and we're now accept accepting
applications like I said we've been doing this for three or four years where we give um uh students uh between the age of 15 and 18 or even college students or Long Branch residents the opportunity to work uh for the police
department the fire department uh arts and cultural center senior center right here in our administration so that they can get some real life training um for uh you know for their future for those who are interested uh so that's uh please go to our website at
longbranch.org to apply uh to find out more information um our disability resource fair is set for May 3rd from 12 to 2:00 p.m i think that's our third resource fair um also longbranch.org to
apply or to find out more um get more information but it's going to um it's uh it's going to be a nice nice evening a nice day it grows every year uh at the Arts and Cultural Center we have the Burlot Project um and this exhibit takes
burlap bags donated from a local business Rook Coffee that are then transformed into art by many different local artists in the community again go to our website um and this is uh in celebration of uh Earth Month and Earth
Day in in April that's going on until I think May 6th if I'm not mistaken a very interesting uh and and uh exciting uh exhibit and finally uh a classical evening of opera songs and piano will be happening at the Long Brand Senior
Center on the evening of April uh 22nd at 6 p.m this also a free event and all are welcome to attend thank you all for being here this evening thank you Mayor Balone and I also want to thank everybody for came out tonight phil we're looking into some of those
issues some of those concerns that you have um we um we go here as u Mr leaport comes up and uh wants all these answers to these questions and he's got no respect for anybody up here and I keep telling him
that this is a public portion that anybody can come and state their comment and he just wants to make a name for himself i don't know what he wants to do up there i just let him give me his five minutes i don't have to answer these questions he's got
no respect for anybody so in case anybody hasn't really been here I don't answer his questions at all because and if he has really important questions that he wants to ask us the first Wednesday of every month we have the council meeting with the public anybody
is welcome to call us reach out to us and we'll address all any concerns have any questions that you have we'll have the professionals there to answer your questions so that's the first Wednesday of every month we have that and he knows that he doesn't have to come out here
and do his little thing to act like he's a he owns the business he owns the the room over here he doesn't so with that I'd like to close and happy holidays and thanks for coming out tonight i need a motion i need a motion to close so move
second all in favor oppos thank you for an end