##VIDEO ID:x3Bc06g2bSI## okay I'd like to call the order the um Regular meeting in the township of L pacan for August 7 2024 um like to have you lower your head please prayer and please keep Gary Van valed in your prayers uh who passed away this past month Gary was the chairman of the planning board and a longtime resident of uh L pacan [Music] congratulationses God indivisible andice adequate notice of this meeting has been a pro provided indicating the time and place of the meeting in accordance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 by advertising a notice in the Star Ledger the E Express Warren County Zone and by posting a copy on the bull tin board in the municipal building roll call B Council car Council Marinelli here Council mqu here council president here mayor R here uh Wade would you summarize the executive session the uh Township Council met an executive session uh where it discussed privilege matters regarding Personnel zoning official attorney client privilege EMS update contractual General code rectification project update and attorney client privilege tax appeal cicf to settlement uh minutes from the executive session will be made available at such time as the township Council deems no public har will come from it and no action was taken okay great all right Chief we're going to swear in Daryl sh class three police officer [Music] you stand here you the audience okay you can stand on his side everywh and the Bible put your left hand the B your and repeat after me I darl strer I darl do solemnly swear s 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 that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the saints that I will be a true faith and allegiance to the Saints 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 and that I will faithfully and I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly perform all the duties of class three police officer and justly perform all the duties of class three police officer according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability now there is official I would just like to introduce officer Str um so officer Str comes to Low pacan Police Department after a remarkable law enforcement career with over 25 years of experience three years of which he served as a a school resource officer as a low Pac on Township police officer he'll be assigned to the first full-time school resource officer within the L pacon School District officer sh will truly be an asset to low pacon School District in this community that he's been a part of for more than 20 years now on behalf of the L pacon Police Department I'd like to welcome officer schu and wish him the very best in his new role all right uh public comment this is for agenda items only it's public comment Mr Bru good evening Council I I have questions tonight concerning uh tonight agenda for the first readings of ordinances 24 17 and 18 know we're we're just doing public comment uh there's not g to be questions there agenda items I know on agenda you can make your comments on comments only okay uh well my comment is that I have questions concerning tonight's agenda for the first readings we had previous to May right sending uh it was uh questions and comments so it tough that as you will but I have questions concerning tonight's agenda for the first readings of ordinances 2417 and 18 as shown on tonight's agenda concerning the authorization to acquire the building 1301 beler and the appropriation of $200,000 for such acquisition this council is previously in response to Residents questions concerning this property uh was unable or uh to Pro provide a reason why it wants to acquire this property so I stand before you tonight uh uh with you ready to authorize uh 200,000 for the property to please address uh why you think we should acquire this property and and what you think the property will be used for I was planning since I said was questions and and and comments to to wait for an answer but I'll just continue and hope that you respond uh in New order that I did it uh uh concerning the first reading of ordinance 2419 increasing the penalties for traffic violations I was just wondering if we could get some examples of how much the penalties will be increased and tonight's reading of ordinance 2020 uh creation if I understand correctly of a new senior account clerk job uh I be welcome an explanation of uh why we need this position what the responsibilities envisioned for this position will fulfill uh specifically are they new responsibilities we need someone to take up for us or are we shifting or offloading some responsibilities that are currently being performed by someone and um uh I think uh uh Chief gcia already addressed I was going to question the officer Str officer Str welcome aboard um uh as a school resource officer so that was the extent of my questions thank you anyone else public comment only so I shall not expect an answer sir it's comment only we okay thank you there'll be second reading you could ask questions right anyone else genda items only seeing none um old buses number one minutes approve executive and regular session minutes for July July 3rrd 2024 I need a motion and second please motion motion second roll call please councilman Marinelli yes councilman mqu yes council president F yes mayor right yes ordinance 24-14 second reading and public hearing to amend revise supplement chapter 227 section 20a Vehicles over exit gross vehicle weight rating excluded from certain count count streets to include add additional County Roads I have a motion in a second to hold a public hearing please motion second all in favor I comments from the public on 24-17 Mr Bruce I just rise to support this ordinance and I would like to hear what roads specifically or impacted by this ordinance I understand it's just county is that correct we know yeah it's in the ordinance Liberty Road between County Route 519 and New Jersey 57 oh excellent Bader Road between Harmony Township boundary line and Lincoln Road and County rout 519 between mile marker 4205 and marker 2195 at Route 57 excellent thank you anyone else seeing none motion a second to close the public hearing motion second all in favor I I I need a motion a second to adopt this ordinance motion second roll call vote please yes Council mayell yes Council mcqu yes counc president PLO yes mayor right yes ordinance number 24-15 second reading and public hearing to amend the supplement section 173-190 1 information to be given to all tenants require landlords who provide hard copies of all notices pertaining to lease the tenants and create section 173-199 point2 entitled property management companies imposing the requirements of the chapter onto prop property management companies retained by landlords I need a motion in a second to hold public hearing please motion second all in favor I public from comments from the public Mr Bruce I Rise to command and support this audience ordinance it has made me proud to witness the concerns shown and the actions taken that councilman president pedo has undertaken on behalf of tenants that have had to deal with landlords to try to use their property management companies as legal protection against legitimate complaints raised by their tenants and I want to shout out to John best because I seen him for over two years come here and support those tenants so thank you B okay anyone else any other comments seeing none motion second to close the public hearing motion second all favor I motion and a second to adopt this ordinance please motion second roll call please yes councilman yesc yesc yes may yes number 24-16 second reading and public hearing to establish chapter 41 entitled personal policy and practices to create section 41-01 entitled anti- nepotism policy need a motion in a second to hold a public hearing motion second all in favor I comments from the public yes John Kon 38 J Len could just give us the essence of what this ordinances and why the U Council yeah so the real reason this is being uh enacted is because for the police department uh the town's part of Civil Service uh there's an alternate route to uh appoint officers uh rather than uh to a testing period which you have to wait for the results and testing um if you if the township enacts this anti-nepotism policy it allows them to take a uh what's called secondary route of Appo appointment um for officers just streamline uh it's for the ease of them okay thank you anyone else any comments seeing none I need a motion a second to close the public hearing motion second all in favor I and a motion a second to adopt the ordinates motion second roll call please Council marinell yes Council mqu yes council president yes mayor right yes new business ordinance number 24-17 first reading authorization and acquisition of property commonly known as 1301 Belair Road and shown as lot one in Block 30 on the official tax map uh of the township of loac this is the old Squad building uh I need a motion a second motion second roll call vote please yes councilman Marinelli yes councilman McQuade yes council president P yes they right yes this is ordinance number 24-18 first reading of capital ordinance for acquisition of the Emergency Services building located at 1301 Bel Road for the township of op pacan and appropriating $200,000 for such purpose any motion and second please moot second roll call vote Council marinali yes councilman M yes council president F yes may yes ordinance number 2419 first reading to amend revise supplement chapter 227 titled vehicles and traffic section four violation and penalties to increase penalties for violations need a motion in second please motion second roll call please councilman Marinelli yes councilman mlade yes council president poo yes yes uh ordinance number 24-20 first reading to establish do job titled senior accountant Clerk and salary range motion a second please motion second roll call please yes councilman Marinelli yes councilman mcra yes counc president yes yes consent agenda everybody took a look at it on motion second 1 through 18 motion second roll call please yes councilman Marinelli yes Council McQuade yes council president PLO yes may yes okay a couple uh announcements Community day is August 24th with a rain date of August 31st a shed a shred uh event is September 14th yard sale event is September 21st fall cleanup October 5th um and you can check check our website for more details um Council reports I have nothing to report Mayor Scott yeah I just like to thank the police department for all the work they do for the national light out unfortunately it was canceled this year but there's a lot of work to go into the planning part of it most of my report was already announced Community Day of car show is back on uh proceeds going to the fire department as well as the proceeds from the yard sale event Flyers will be going out this week that's all um couple things um I don't know if everybody's seen but we have a part-time U traffic enforcement officer been hitting the streets the last two weeks and I've been seeing him stopping cars everywhere I've been hearing on the radio he must stop uh 20 cars a day or tractor trailers on our roads so I'm sure the chief will talk a little bit about it but um it's uh it's working out real well um otherwise if I have anything else not really much to say um I did have the squad respond to my house today in the police department and they did it in a very very timely matter it was really amazing to see guys from peber get here and also lat they were right on the scene and I really appreciate that guys um all right engineer Port report yes thank you Mr Mayor so to uh sort of the most visible project that we've had over the last month is the beler road sidewalk project uh right around the philg high school on the leacon side uh that work has now been substantially completed um currently we've requested of an inspection of the project by the NJ doot there are some minor items which need to be finalized and completed but generally the project has gone very smoothly um and we expect you know the project to be finalized um in the weeks um shouldn't be any major disruptions anymore to traffic uh we don't expect any major disruptions unless some corrected work needs to be done um the next project which I've already spoken on uh Jade Lane project that work is complete uh in terms of the drainage repairs sidewalk repairs and manhole repairs there we're still coordinating on the contractor for milling and Paving as soon as we have an update we'll provide that when they give us a date that they'll be on you know in town to do the work um and finally the Bell Road project that projects has also been completed um the next phase or step on the park progress uh is uh we've completed the design of the pickle ball Courts at this time we're finalizing the bid documents and getting everything ready to get the project in the paper and uh we hope to have that advertised in the next two weeks so then we can shortly after that uh open bids and then coordinate on on building that project in the fall here um and then the next phase of the design of that uh Park uh project generally will be for the pool and we're starting that design process in then I believe in the next two weeks we'll be St that's all I have all right thank you Chief you have anything thank you mayor council so as uh as you said mayor we effective July 24th we're able to dedicate um traffic enforcement to um to our roadways and I I hope to continue this through the uh through the month of August at least um if I can um bring it a little bit further into September I will but um as of right now we plan to do it at least until uh the end of August but we've seen uh seen a lot of a lot of vehicles being being stopped um so it's working our numbers increased um as as you'll see slightly just in the the week that he was out there so it's uh it's making a difference um e ticketing our e ticketing program is all in in every every patrol car that we have now um so it's going to be cutting down the time that officers have to uh be on a traffic stop and holding up um The Violator so um it's it's been working uh great for us so far and it's been it's been running uh for the last uh probably about a week now um last several days and uh as uh councilman marinell indicated National Night Out was canceled last night due to the uh inclement weather um it's a shame but uh there's so many people that do work very hard to put that together and I I'd be remiss if I did not thank them um our businesses have been uh phenomenal our our Township businesses to uh make that happen for us every year so I'd like to thank them in general but uh also to our low pacam Fire Department chief Le Ford um our low pack Hong DPW and superintendent Brian weeks um and our Police Department um National Night Out is run by Sergeant Steven gabos countless hours going into that and um it's unfortunate that had to be canceled but we'll see everybody again next year our uh traffic report for the month of July we had the police department saw a total of 198 stops throughout the the month of July and then 46% of those stopped were given issued a summons and then 36% of those issued summonses were Tred trailers and that's my report for the month of July thank you thank you DPW [Music] Bri gentlemen yeah I just want to touch base a little bit on things we've um done I've give you our report all right every month you receive that I hope um I want to give you a little bit of what's coming down the pike for us all right um I don't know if you've noticed it but we're watching leaves drop we're going to watch over where uh Gary bble R in Terrace they will be being picked up not too far down the road all right so for us we're planning on different things we've uh uh we took the dirt from the uh project up here and made a better uh area for the leaves so uh meet storm water regulations a lot better all right not going over the hills and all that stuff and uh right now lot of it is maintaining and getting everything ready for Community Day um getting everything in line and uh working on all the equipment when it's raining out and keeping it all moving so we went out and made sure all the storm drains were open eliminate the flood we went out and made sure all the uh detention Bas everything's open before that floods all H rainwise great so all right thanks right appreciate it fire chief Lou mayor council good evening uh for the month of July we had uh 14 incidents which uh average response time of 7 Minutes our uh average duration on scene was about 40 with eight personnel and three apparatus responding for the year we're at 130 calls uh that's down about 3% last year uh we were at 135 for the same uh time frame uh our response time for the year is 6 minutes with an average uh incident duration of 32 minutes with uh nine people and four apparatus that's all I have for you thank you appreciate it thanks for today uh EMS Cat every buy all right for the month of July filbur emergency Squad ran 444 calls of which 105 were low pong which was 23.6% of our call volume year to date We've ran 3,178 calls of which 840 were in L Patong which was 26.4% of our great thank appreciate it all right um need a motion and a second to approve uh Department reports motion second roll call Council Marinelli yes Council mqu yes council president yes yes uh approval of payment of bills motion a second please motion second wel yes yes yes yes yes uh public comment three minutes Callin o Mr Bruce Bob Bruce PA which road I wanted to thank the council for listening to the public public calls for restoring mayam man Gucci's ability of residents to raise comments and questions on abill on agenda items it is in the interest of every resident to clearly and plainly understand what its government is doing and why I again want to thank the council for initially adopting the presentation of the monthly traffic reports by Chief Garcia given all of the truck traffic the influx of warehouses has brought to our little Township it was something we ask as residents that you present each month and it has helped to know that the level of enforcement of traffic violations continues if not actually having increased along with the amount of trucks uh I'd also like to down Council for adding monthly reports concerning fire and EMS calls something I believe that Council in independently implemented upon them by themselves with without being asked by the residents tonight I'd like to ask the council to further expand the sharing of monthly reports by beginning short monthly reports on the status of any warehouses known to be planned or thought to be planned I am aware of an additional Warehouse planned on Strikers and an additional Warehouse plan behind the more Warehouse already going in can the council provide monthly reports of the status of these or other warehouses even if it's just to say no change to this Warehouse no change to that warehouse just kind of shake with the residents where we are regarding warehouses being planned or considered uh can I also ask that this Council or perhaps Mr La who's not here tonight uh so you can whoever does it I I I'd like the council to each month simply note the status of any new or ongoing litigation that we uh were either defending or Prosecuting I I realize that what you can say about ongoing litigation is quite Lim lied and that's okay it's not what I ask that you report on I ask simply that you identify what is presently in court at each month you update us even if to Simply restate that the legal actions for or against lat and nothing has changed last but not least in real quick I wanted to remind Council that videos have yet to be posted for the June 26 planning board meeting or the June 27 special council meeting and if if I reach State my questions that I asked under agenda item since questions were technically not allowed would this be the appropriate time that I can ask and expect an answer comment only thank you all right thank you Lyn stra 110 sou6 Street due to my persistence with no help from Council at all the dumpster issue with key City Diner has been resolved key City Diner management has been very attentive to this matter second I would like to thank the Department of Public Works for painting my handicap space and installing the proper signage okay all right Mr [Music] bets John best break the gardens uh Red School l I school and I'd like to thank Council everybody that worked at um getting this ordinance number 24-15 second reading red and passing section 1731 191 information to be given to all tenants require landlords to provide hard copies of all noses pertaining to the lease to tenants and create section 172 19.2 um intital property management companies imposing the requirements of the chapter property management company is retained by the landlords I would also just like to make a statement it's going to be a rhetorical statement um what does what what are what is what is going what will it's combination what are the intentions of the rent uh rent loading ward in U enforcing the ordinances and the rent Control Ordinance and the second is informational there is a tenant that I spoke to today that has an attorney and their attorney has not been responded to either so that puts a personal attorney not responded to and I know for the longest time that L pong attorneys hadn't been being responded to by by Harbor groups so that's just rhetorical thank you very much thank you John anyone else Richard merker 1400 beler Road um first um I think the police department having a um designated traffic person uh is needed I live right there on a corner of red School in uh Vader there's continuous trucks coming through there overweight I don't know what we should do about the speed limit if we can't do anything or you know they're coming through there 50 plus right you put any sidewalks that's great because most people stay on the road but they're Bing through there so September October November December we should keep a continuous uh traffic cop to uh handle that uh Second comment is um I don't know what our policy is in L pacon uh with illegal immigration right it's not a Texas issue it's not an Arizona issue it's everywhere and I've never heard any conversation about it in our town are they coming to our schools I don't know but it's if if we're not already talking about it we should be that's comment number two number three is the sidewalk going all the way down to Red School Lane I is that happening next year um are the plans finalized I don't know what's going on there because you know been talking about it for years find out after meeting we'll be back to okay that's all I thank you anyone else yes hi Pam Thomas six words worth Lane and I do need to say um that any comments or um ideas that I have tonight are strictly my own and not um as a representative of the school board of which I am a member so first of all I just want to say I love to see the sidewalks on Bader Road and I have a question about Charles and Bader so that's the extent of where they are right now will there be a crossing guard or is there discussion of like a future traffic light there it's it's a tough situation so now that the sidewalks are there for the kids if they can get to the high school right but how do they get across belad Road and concerned about that safety all right we'll check outed thank you man anyone else seeing none uh motion for Jour motion second second all in favor all thank you for coming out