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Everyone, welcome to our August 4th, 2026 meeting of the Maplewood Township Committee. Sorry for the delay. We were um discussing some um legal matters and personnel matters and um we will be

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going back in after this public meeting to conclude those conversations. Uh so I am going to start with the statement pursuant to section 5 chapter 231 public laws 1975. This is to stay for the

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record that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the public by posting and maintaining the annual notice of regular meetings on the bulletin board of the municipal building by mailing the annual notice of regular meetings for 2026 to the news record in Star Ledger in December 2025 and by

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filing said notice in the office of the township clerk. >> Mr. Adams >> here. Collins >> here. Safus >> present. Thurman >> here. Mayor Duca >> here. >> Whereas chapter 231 public laws 1975

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commonly known as the open public meetings act requires all meetings of public bodies be open to the public. And whereas section 7A provides that the governing body has a discretion to permit, prohibit or regulate the act of participation in the public in a meeting. And whereas desire the

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governing body to comply with the provision of this act same time to conduct its business in an orderly and expeditious manner. Now therefore be resolved by the township committee. Township of Mapwood does hereby prohibit except is set forth in the formal agenda. Active participation in

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deliberations of the governing body by the public and except as otherwise described by law does limit the public to the observations of the actions and discussions of the governing body at all its regular and special meetings. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Mr. Adams.

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>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Soling. >> Yes. >> Mr. Daffus. >> Yes. Man, >> yes. Mayor Duca, >> yes. Would you please stand and join us in a salute to the flag? And at the conclusion, we'll have a moment of

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silence. So remain standing. >> Aliance 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. We'll have a moment of silence in memory

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and tribute to Cynthia Brown, the city clerk in the city of East Orange. She was the city clerk from 1998 to uh this past Saturday when she passed away. And she's been in a city employee in since

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1974. And we have worked with her over the years. Certainly our um township clerk uh Elizabeth Fritzen has worked with Cynthia Brown. So, we just want to um remember her in just a moment of silence. Thank you very much.

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I'm going to go through the agenda. Uh we are going to uh make an appointment to the Maplewood Arts Council and then we're going to And by the way, if you'd like an agenda, we have them up here. After that board and

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committee appointment, we are going to have our first public comment. Now, the agenda says uh it's the agenda items only. We're going to open that up to any item because we know some of you are here to talk about uh different things or maybe online to talk about different

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things. And since we started an hour late, we don't want you to hang out here any longer than you have to. So, we'll open the public comment to any item that you'd like to come up and speak to us about. After the first public comment, we'll have a board of health meeting,

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our monthly meeting, and then we have two ordinances on final passage. Uh, and we have no ordinance uh that we're introducing. We'll have administrative reports, reports from elected officials, and then we'll have our consent agenda. After that, we'll have our second public

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comment. Then we will adjourn the public meeting. We'll go back in to continue our um closed discussion. We will then um adjourn the meeting from that room at the conclusion of that uh executive session. Uh if anyone is here or tuned

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in to hear the uh liquor license transfer that has been postponed uh that is for pickets on Milbour Avenue. Um that's a person-toperson transfer uh that was pulled from the agenda today.

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So, with that, we're going to um move on to the agenda item, board uh committee appointee appointments. And uh Mr. Daffis, want to take us on this one? >> Thank you, Mayor. I have a um nomination to the Maplewood Arts Council. Jennifer

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McClori. Is Miss McClure with us? Can we um she online? Hello. >> Good evening, Miss Mclury. How are you? >> Good. How are you? >> You can hear us? Yes, we can hear you.

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>> I can. Yeah. >> Oh, we can see you now. There you are. Uh, welcome. Would you kindly introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about why you want to serve the community in this manner? >> Sure. Uh, my name is Jen McClori. Um, I

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think a big reason I moved to Maplewood is it feels like a community that really values art and creativity. Um, I've been happy to participate in a number of local exhibitions and community art initiatives here. And I'd just be

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excited to continue to spread the word, spread the energy, make connections, and uh, make more diversity of voices in art happen here. I work in my day job, I focus a lot on accessibility. So, that's an important angle for me. Um, and I'm

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just excited to be a part of this. >> That's wonderful. um your your professional work uh in accessibility I think uh is a really fitting uh attribute for what we're trying to do across all of our boards and committees

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and all of our work in the township to make the township uh all access and more inclusive. So, um, unless there are any questions from my colleagues, I enthusiastically, uh, move your nomination for appointment to the Maplewood Arts Council for a term

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that would end on 1231 2027. Second. Think I just froze. >> Another time zone. I >> think we just lost. Okay, just froze. There she is. >> Congratulations and thanks again.

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>> Thank you. Thanks so much. Okay, we're going to move to our first public comment. And if anyone would like to come and speak about any agenda item, come on up here. Um, and give us your name and you can give us your street.

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You don't have to give us your street number, just your street. >> Good evening. >> Until we sat until we fix that, right? >> No. >> Hi, I'm Erica Hernandez. We are the new ownership of Pickickets. We were already in route here today. So I have a

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question. I said being that the license can't be transferred today, can we move forward with the closing of the business before the liquor license or do we need the liquor license for that? >> No, we're the >> they're the perspective they're the p

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she's the manager of the um entity that's going to purchase it. So whether or not the parties wish to amend their asset purchase agreement to allow um the actual you know closing of

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title on the business to go through is a matter for the buyer, the seller and their respective attorneys. However, we would not be able to allow the liquor license itself to be transferred until a proper application is made and hearings held before this body. Okay. Yep. Thank

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you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Is there anyone else who would like to speak? >> Just need your name. Just need your name. >> My name is Roy Rohit is a legal name. Manish. We are the two investors behind Erica. We trust her cooking 30 years.

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She has been a great chef in New Jersey. Had worked at various big corporate levels. The thing is we do have I got three kids. He's got two. We are getting a he's taking his girl for college in California and the next date is does he

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need to be present or one owner of the entity can >> for the September 1st >> meeting California for school? >> Yeah, I think we're okay. You can also join by Zoom if you wanted to. That's another option. >> Okay, perfect. Okay, >> thank you. >> As you're driving, we can watch you as

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you drive. [laughter] >> Congratulations to your daughter and to you. We're looking forward to Thanks a lot. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone who would like to >> Good evening. My name is Susan Hey. I am a resident of South Orange and I have an

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announcement to make. I am really pleased and honored to be teaming up with Candace Davenport on four summer civics events. We've had one last week. We had a great time. These take place at the Maplewood Library in the community

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room from 5 to 6:15. We keep things moving. We learn how to say the names of our elected representatives. Last U week it was the federal level. Tomorrow night it will be the state level. We'll go from that to county and we'll go from that to local and we'll learn about the constitution. So, it's just a fun mix

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and again it's a pleasure and an honor to be working with Candace. So, you're all very welcome, teens and adults. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak on any item? There'll be a second. Oh, we have

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another person coming up. >> Michelle Bobo, 51 Coolage Road. I have a question on consent agenda item 284-26. What does the uh NJACC ho stand for?

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>> Mr. Weary, do you know that this is this is a stump stump? the administrator. >> I'm sorry, which one was that, Michelle? >> 284. >> 28426 >> NJC >> Nachu. >> That's >> of course Nacho Healthacha

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>> knows best, but I see her eyeing me up. It's the New Jersey Association of Certified Something Health Officers. >> Thank you. >> City and County Health Officers. >> Yeah, city and county health officers. >> Thank you for the accuracy. That is a a

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grant that uh Miss Davenport makes uh pretty frequently recently and the township has been fortunate enough through her expert grant writing to receive. >> It wasn't uh the grant, it was what it stood for. So, thank you very much.

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>> John Sullivan, 11field Road, Maplewood. Two quick points. Um, I had the opportunity to attend the first summer civics um, program and it's fantastic. It's

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good for both younger people and adults and older adults. So, I encourage anyone and everyone who's available to attend it. Second point, and I know you've heard this, the

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potholes from the water digouts. There's a huge one on Field Road. We've reported it, my wife, three different times and have yet to get a response from it. Now, I know we have a

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connection to the contractor. I've reached out to them in a response and this is not just Field Road but throughout the township and just how do

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we address this? >> Thank you. >> So, uh, when you said you reached out, did you reach out to Mr. Olive? Is that you got no response? >> No response. >> Okay. >> And we also used the townships. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Uh, my wife did that three separate

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times. Okay, we apologize for that. >> I can So, first on this specific one, I can make our township engineer, Mr. Kitner, aware he coordinates with New Jersey American Water and their subcontractor, Montana, to have these addressed. And then for anybody who has

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issues um be it in the roadway or even on their private property where New Jersey American Water and their contractors aren't responsive, our township engineer, Mr. Kitner, is the best person to contact. His email is pkiter. ki tt ne at maplewoodnj.gov.

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>> I'll call him tomorrow. >> Yeah, >> I I have his I have his information >> on a broader level. New Jersey American Water has gone through one round of paving uh this year and they expect another three this year. Um and they'll

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be in pretty uh short time here for the for the next phase roads to be repaid. But the big concern is >> there's potholes all over the place. >> Yeah. >> There's the one that's right outside my neighbor's house >> that >> it's

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>> it's it is settled, right? It's it's settled and it just Yeah, it's >> I send pictures of it. So, >> okay. >> I just wanted to make that point. Thank you. >> So, can I just Thank you, Mr. Sullivan. You You can go. You don't have to stay up here.

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So, this goes back to um something that I brought up here and I brought up in a subcommittee in our engineering planning and public works committee. This idea of whether or not we have established a proper inflow and outflow constituent

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inquiry that relates to this and American waters work. And I remember that on both occasions I was respectfully dismissed that we do we got it covered. Mr. office. Our Mr. Kitner got it covered and we have someone that

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he knows who to contact and the residents know who to contact. So here we have an incoming township committee member who knows people who's not able to get a response after not just one, not two, not three, maybe more than three outreach attempts and he's not

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getting anything back. And you know this is this is a townwide pervasive thing. So why are we just not creating a process an inflow outflow managerial constituent inquiry process so that we

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have control and we can track these things and we can say American Water. We contacted you on Thursday at 4:00 about this pothole on Field Road and no one came out to us. >> Aren't didn't we uh hire a contractor to

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do this? No, this is about our relationship and management. Our relationship with and management with the contractor. >> Yeah, I thought we we hired somebody to handle this.

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Oh, to to your question, Miss Herman, we have hired an outside engineer to perform evaluation of the roads that New Jersey American Water has been on to determine what ones require repavement, whether they require full width pavement

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or just um a like a patch repair of the specific area that was excavated. So yes, we do have uh that contractor examining all the roadways and they give us data that we work with New Jersey American Water on what roadways to repave. Uh Mr. Davis, to your question

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and in two areas, we have a system for receiving and tracking response to this. On our website, we have a report of concern as any resident can go to that submit a concern. You choose a topic and it it rout based on the topic, it routes it to the appropriate staff. So, I will

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be able to see when those submissions were made and if they were responded to. Unfortunately, it sounds like in this case they were not. And we can find out what staff people those went to and I can follow up and find out why they were not responded to. Specific with New Jersey American Water and when we

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contact them, Mr. Kitner um emails them very regularly and follows up with them very regularly and we have in those email communications documentation of the requests that we put into New Jersey American Water and I can find out if Field Road and and you know any other

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specific areas of concern were shared with New Jersey American Water and what their response was. It's a large project. they, you know, we understand our residents concern and we are working with New Jersey American Water as best we can to address the potholes, sink

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holes as timely as we can. >> Yeah. So I think this is an internal process is what I'm trying to say and maybe I'm not communicating correctly because this is such a big project and because we are hearing from residents all across town during this very big

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project it cannot be the director of the entire department who is following up on these concerns. The director should have created an internal process whereby he established through his team who is

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managing constituent inquiries, who's doing the dispatching, the receiving, who's doing the outreach, the followup, and who's doing the documentation, so that Paul Kner, the director of the

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entire process, can come back to you and to us and say, "Yes, we have a record of the following. We let the resident know or we never got back to the resident. It cannot be contact Paul Kitner. Paul Kitner is doing like 200 jobs a day. It

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that is just not a professional um worthy of Maplewood and our complexity and the complexity of this project. It's just not an adequate process is what I'm trying to say. Not for me anyway.

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>> Okay. So I think I think I think you've made a good point and I think what we need to do is you need to go back and analyze how we're interfacing with New Jersey American water and who should be doing that and then you can come back and tell

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us if you think in your best professional judgment it should remain to be Mr. Kitner and why or is there someone else on his team that maybe can do it um differently because that person may not

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have all the responsibilities that Mr. Kitner has. The the answer to the first one, the consultant has no relationship to >> Yeah. I misunderstood and I thought the consultant was was doing this process because it's desperately needed and I

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thought that they were handling >> the whole thing. So >> I think I think it's a fair comment that our department director has a lot to do already and and in fact has our own road project coming up. So yeah

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>> um and and let's just be totally honest, New Jersey American Water sold us a bill of goods. They stood here in this very room and they met with you, mayor, beforehand and said, "Oh, we got it all worked out. We're going to be able to do this and here's the guy who's going to I

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mean, [clears throat] they pointed to people here said, "Here's the guy who's doing the paving, and here's the guy doing this, and here's the cement guy, and and I'm the project manager." And people are not happy. And I will say though that some of the streets that they paved are excellent.

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>> Yes. >> Excellent. I I don't know who did their paving, but we should get them. Our [laughter] paving. They're They are excellent. I'm, you know, I'm I'm never I'm never happy with paving, but these are excellent. So, >> be the highest bidder.

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>> Well, maybe it is the high maybe that's a different because they're a private company, but um >> yeah. >> So, they have done some things good and but there's a lot more to do. And I think the thing that really upsets people is that they destroyed their private property

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>> and their and you know when am I getting back we've now lost two growth cycles of grass all that kind of stuff. So I think if you could go back and maybe sit down with Mr. Kitner and try to decide is the the way we have it now the best way or

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is there some other way and then let us know. Okay. All right. Um, we're still on public comment. Uh, for folks on Ust Street, we opened up the first public comment to any agenda item.

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I mean, sorry, any item. So, if you'd like to come up now, this would be a time to do that. >> Hi, John. >> Good to see you, John. [laughter] My name is John Singleton, 34 U Street. A resident for 38 years.

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And I'm coming. This is my neighbor Wendy. >> Wendy Daniels, 37 Street. >> Good evening. >> And we're here today because of excessive parking on our street. It starts from like Thursday through Sunday.

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Workers and customers are parked on each side of the street causing a safety issue. and it takes me sometimes five minutes to back out of my driveway. I've supplied photos. I'm sure you folks took a look at it. And this is constant

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making my blood pressure go up. It's crazy. Um, Mr. Knight, who lives at 30 U Street, he was supposed to be here tonight, but he got called away in business in Nevada.

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So, I supplied his concern to to your folks so you could take a look at it. Um, my first picture March 10th, I was stuck held hostage at my property for an hour and a half. I called the

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police. No one came. Same thing happened on July 26 last week. Two hours people parked not on close to the traffic in my apron.

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two hours and then they would come back from uh Arties or wherever they're at with their little carry bag boxes. Oh, did I block your driveway? Yes, you did. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry, too.

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But anyway, um, and when I'm trying to back out of my driveway, and I'm sure Wendy has the same problem, it takes you so long that the people coming down the street, they get mad at you, throw you the finger, curse at you

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because we can't get out quick enough. So the the workers, they come back at 10:00 or whatever, revving their engine, listening to music, and speeding down the street,

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waking up all the babies that are in the immediate area. So that's my concern today. And I'm sure Wendy has the same kind concerns. So, we're just asking for some sort of relief because we can't take it anymore.

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It's it's it's unbelievable. >> So, that's all I have. Do you have >> Danz, would you like to say anything? >> Um, well, I would also like to add that it's it's difficult when you want to have company. I'm a grandparent. My son and

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daughter-in-law bring my grandchildren. They can't even pull in my driveway. It's bad enough they can't park on the street, but this is really a nuisance. And then to add injury to insult, there's a tree in front of my house and

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they don't want to if they pulled in the spot, their passenger door is blocked by the tree. >> So, they purposely back up and it makes it difficult to get in and out. My thing is this. If I have an emergency,

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I can't move. It's not safe. And it's not fair and something has to be done to help us with this situation because it's been going on for a while. >> Yeah. I mean, the other thing that you can see from the pictures and having

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been on street a lot, I know exactly what you're talking about. When cars park on the other side of the street and in front of your house, it's difficult to back out. >> Yeah. >> And turn because you just don't have So, you're backing going back and forth. So, um, did you have anything else? Because

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I >> No, that's So, um, let me just fill you in on some things. >> I'm sorry. >> Let me fill you in on a few things. Okay. >> Okay. >> So, I did, um, I was invited to a block party meeting back in May on Ust Street. And, um, this

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was at Bill Gford's house. >> He's in the 80s uh, on Ust Street. You're down closer to uh Bdon. So he's more in the middle and maybe a little towards Schaefer. >> I know Bill. >> Okay. So uh Bill's the district leader

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there and he held a meeting of the block group. There must have been I don't know 40 people there and we talked about a bunch of options. So one option we they talked about the problem of the parking on the corner of Hughes and Bdon when

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you you know they couldn't come out there. So I brought Mr. Kitner over and uh we painted those those yellow curb now. So at least when you come out to Bdon, >> you won't have cars all the way to the end. You have a little better sight

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distance and turning. >> Starts from the yellow >> all the way down. So then we looked at what you asked or what someone asked in one of the emails we got about can we add Ust Street to uh the code section

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257-282 which is the parking too close to driveways 5 foot. So Mr. Kitner and I went out with one of those measure wheels >> and we measured the houses and there's just not enough room to do the five foot

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and to allow parking. So you would not be able to park in front of your house >> based on >> five feet from each driver. >> Yeah. Five feet. It just >> it would just it would basically prohibit parking. So the five- foot rule the five- foot parking thing is just not

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an option because >> um it you know would take it off. So what are the what are the options? So one option is to do alternate side of the street parking. Mhm. Yeah. >> Um but remember that affects everybody,

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residents and non-residents, but it it could it could be an option where you know certain days you park on one side, certain days you park on another side. So it gives you at least that ability to >> get out >> to get out and back out without having a

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car at the end of your driveway. Um as far as people parking in your driveway, we already have a state law. It's title 39 col4-138 which is quite clear that you no operator of a vehicle shall stand or

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park the vehicle in any of the following places and D is in front of a public or private driveway. So, um I think what we will do is go back at our public safety committee meeting, talk to our new chief

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and explain that um you know, SE title 394-38 138 already gives us the power to go down there >> on a voluntary basis, not when they're called, but on a voluntary basis to

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drive down and to see if people are breaking the law and issue tickets. Um, so we can do that. So there's a bunch of things we're looking at. We're also looking at some other ideas of how we

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might be able to increase parking, off- streetet parking. So those are some ideas. We understand we understand both, you know, both of what you're saying. We've I I completely understand it and we've talked about it here as a township committee and um and

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Mr. Gford actually now sits on the executive board of the Hilton Neighborhood Association and the Hilton Neighborhood Association is having a their meeting in October is going to be dedicated to the whole issue of development in [clears throat] that area to try to figure out um what we're going

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to do there. Uh because clearly not only is it the day, you know, the the day-to-day situation, but when there's an event, it really becomes a problem. So, we're looking we're looking at all those and trying to work with some of the businesses to to resolve that. Um,

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but we are aware of it. Um, that what you're asking for is the 5 foot just doesn't work. So, we have to look at some other options. Uh, as far as the speeding, we did ask Mr. Gford to collect the signatures um the 75% on the

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block so we could do a study. uh whether whether it warrants speed humps. I'm not sure it does, but it might warrant some other things. So, um those are the things that we're talking about. >> Okay.

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>> I would just like to say um sounds like there have been quite a few meetings and nothing has happened yet. Now, you're telling me you're going to go back and look at some things. How much longer do we have to endure this before something's actually done? And when you

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Talk about the speed bumps. We already signed a petition for that. My understanding was you need res. >> So that was signed almost a year ago. Where are we with that? So meetings, right?

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>> So there's there was there was one meeting. One meeting. One meeting. >> You mentioned the meeting at at Bill's house. You mentioned you're going to have a meeting. You mentioned you already sat down to discuss the fact that you cannot uh allow us to have the

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the five feet. >> No, no, no. We we did it. No, let me just be very clear. I want to be very clear. I want to be very clear here. We did after that meeting, the one meeting, Mr. Kitner, who's the engineer, and I went to the block and did a field

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evaluation that we promised that's what we would do. And we did that and it resulted in the striping of the of the corner there, the yellow striping, and also an evaluation of whether we could move forward with the five- foot rule.

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And it was his judgment, and I agree with it, that it would impact too many people that you essentially would not allow parking for anyone on Ust Street. I don't think the people on Ust Street um would would go in favor of that. on

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as far as the petition as far as the petition I we have never received a petition you need to get 75% of the signatures I think bill went out and started it maybe a year ago or some

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people did but never concluded once the 75 are signed it then has to go to the engineering's off engineers office and there'll be a whole review uh from their perspective So,

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you know, we're we're constantly thinking about how to do this so that we can address the parking there. Are there going to be people who are going to be inconsiderate? I mean, what you said, somebody parks there for two hours and then comes back and says, "Oh, did I

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park in your driveway?" I mean, how clueless can you be, you know? And we we would urge you we would urge you and this is what I said we are going to have a public safety meeting and impress upon our new chief that they ought to use the state law

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that exists right now to to proactively go down you street and look at see if anyone's parked in the driveways and if they are give tickets should have to be on you to give to call them up

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>> well if I call they don't come >> well that's another matter that we'll talk about. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Can I say one thing? Um, so I chair the public safety committee and we will definitely be talking about that at our meeting. It's next week, but I don't see

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why we can't tomorrow. Uh, Pat, could you reach out to the police chief? And um, I don't see why we can't start looking to write tickets tomorrow because I understand exactly what you're saying and that's thoughtful. That's thoughtless. people shouldn't be doing

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that. And I am really appalled to hear that nobody came when you called the police department. I I think that, you know, we need to find out why that happened. Um but we need to have the officers come and be um attentive to

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your street and we need officers to be going up and down and seeing if people are parking in front of driveways. you know, um I had somebody park in front of my driveway from Maple Woodstock and you know, I was able to get out, but I get it. That's that is not polite. That is

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not You know, I >> I really didn't like the response I got from the dispatcher, too. He said, "We have emergency calls." I said, "Well, this is emergency right here. I can't get on my driveway. I have something to do. If it wasn't for my neighbor to take me where I had to go, >> I would had big problems."

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>> Right. So, we have we have the two dates you gave us. Yes. So, um, Mr. Weary will discuss with the chief and we'll take a look at those two dates, the July date and the March date and we'll take a look at the recording. >> Okay. >> So, we can get them started on that now and then we will talk about that at our

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meeting and make sure that um we put a focus on that. >> I didn't open but I I didn't want to listen to it because I would just get too upset again. >> Okay. But thank you very much. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Well, we listen we are moving on this. There's, you know, I would urge you, and

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I know Bill's out of the country, but when Bill comes back, I would urge you to go talk to him. And the sooner we can get that petition in, then we can start moving on that. It takes it's a study. They have to do a study of crashes and speed and all that. Um, the you

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mentioned the young there's a there's a ton of young kids there now. >> There's been a generation change there now. >> So, all that has to be factored into as to what steps we're going to take. Yeah. And >> um so it's more than just the parking because as you mentioned, >> it's the well there's the noise and all

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that, but it's also there's some there's significant a lot more traffic and a lot more speeding that we're hearing about. >> A lot of people couldn't come tonight because they have young kids and they had to, you know, stay >> right away on business. But sometimes, like I said, they come at night, 10, 10,

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15 when they get off work, revving the motor, loud music, >> speeding down the street. >> Right. >> We had a car last week, down to >> go to Schaefer

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speeding up and down. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. You know, we not we had that uh happening in in um on our block also, people speeding the car. We'll bring that up at public safety. >> It's been happening for a while. And

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Miss Wanda, was that your name? Um what was your name again? >> Wendy. I just want to say that uh we want to be thorough in this process. It's just not an immediate um quick fix. We want to make sure we do it right so we don't have to go back and redo it.

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Let's cross all our tees and dot our eyes or you know let's do everything that we need to do in order to get all the problems fixed all at once. So a little more patience with us. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> So this will be this will be we are having meetings coming up. Our

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engineering meeting we'll be talking with the the engineer. We'll be alerting him that this is coming and we'll ask him if he has any ideas right now. And then we'll also talk about the at the public safety. Both of those are on the 14th, I believe. >> Wednesday.

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>> They're both on Wednesday the 14th. One at 8:00 in the morning, one at 7:30 p.m. You can go on Zoom and watch it and participate. We will follow up. >> We have been working with the US Street folks for a very long time. You know, we had some major issues there uh at midb

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block there, that one house. >> And yeah, well, I didn't want to say that, but you did. So, [laughter] so you know that the the situation is much better now. The block is united, people are there. So, >> okay. >> We understand the quality of life and

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we're going to continue to work on it. >> That's right. >> So much. >> Thank you for coming. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone here else who would like to anyone else here who would like to talk about talk to us? Okay. Let's see if there's anyone online. >> Any members of the public joining us via

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Zoom would like to speak on any subject matter, please raise your hand. I see no hands. smear. >> Okay, we're going to move forward. Thank you. We'll close this first public hearing uh public uh comment rather. There is a second public comment later on. We're going to move to the board of

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health meeting. >> Thank you, mayor. I'll read the opening statement. Pursuant to section 5, chapter 231 of public laws of New Jersey, this state for the record that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the public by posting and maintaining the

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annual notice of regular meetings on the bulletin board of municipal building by mailing the annual notice of regular meetings for 2026 to the news record and star ledger in December 2025 and by filing said notice in the office of the township clerk. Mr. Adams

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>> here, Collins Golding >> here, >> Mayor Duca >> here, >> Surman >> here, >> Mr. Davis >> present. >> Whereas chapter 231 public clause 1975 commonly known as the open public meetings act requires that all meetings

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of public bodies be open to the public. And whereas section 7A provides that the board of health has the discretion to permit, prohibit or regulate the act of participation of the public at any meeting. and whereas desire the Maplewood Board of Health to comply with

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the provision of this act same time to conduct its business in an orderly and expeditious manner. Now therefore be resolved by the Maplewood Board of Health at the Township of Maplewood that it does hereby prohibit except to set forth an informal agenda act of participation in deliberations of the

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board of health by the public and except as otherwise described by law does limit the public to the observations of the actions and discussions of the board of health at all of its regular and special meetings. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Mad Adams. >> Yes. >> M Collins Colding.

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>> Yes. >> Mayor Duca. >> Yes. Mr. Herman, >> yes. >> Mr. Daffis, >> yes. Thank you, clerk. I move the board of health meeting minutes from July 7th. >> Second. >> Mr. Adams, >> yes. >> M. Collins Cing. >> Yes. >> Mayor Duca.

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>> Yes. >> Herman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Datis. >> Yes. Thank you. And at this point, I welcome our health officer, Candace Davenport. Good evening. >> Good evening, everyone. We'll move on to our first slide. Just want to let everyone know that our

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free summer meals program will be ending on August 14th. So, please take advantage of a free breakfast and lunch for children 18 and under. We start at 9:00 and go until 1:30 at 129 Bdon Avenue. So, hope everyone will take advantage of it um before the school

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year starts and the summer ends. We also have our community food access program which is going strong. Um we have about 40 households that we serve each day, Mondays and Thursdays. So, it's it's growing strong and we encourage more people to attend. Next slide goes to our

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affordable dental service which is the um mobile dental van through Zufall Health um on August 10th. That's next Monday. We are already full. So, apparently dental services are in need. Oh, on the next slide, please. Dental services are um definitely in

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need and we'll probably be bringing them back. >> Yeah, we're not getting the slides up. It's stuck. It's stuck on the teeth. Oh, here it is. >> There you go. So, we'll be probably bringing more uh dental services back in the future because this one filled up really quickly. Next slide goes to our

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free rabies vaccination clinic. We have um two rabies vaccination clinics um each year. This one will be on Saturday, September 12th from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 just before the doggy day at the pool. What's going on? So I can

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Oh, thanks I can continue on if that's okay. >> Fine. >> And then we'll we'll catch up. >> Yes. So, the free rabies clinic September 12th. It'll be right before the doggy day at the pool. So, invite everyone to come. Um, as we all know

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with licensing, you need a a rabies vaccine. So, we hope people take advantage of that. Thank you. Moving on to our nursing update. Just want to let you know that we had on the next slide, we had a community health screening at the Maplewood Library in combination

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with um the Hoboken U mobile van with family planning. They provided nine cancer screenings to five residents um that were uh welcomed and needed. So, we're thankful for that. On our next slide, we have four adult health

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screenings happening um for the month of August. So, look forward to August 7th at the senior citizens residence on Irvington Avenue. August 11th at our um senior social um and August 13th and August 20th, we're adding two new uh

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screenings at our um location at 129 Bdon Avenue. So, hope everyone will take advantage of that free health screenings. Moving on to our nursing report. Our nurse uh Susette Gail has been very busy uh with reportable diseases that have been investigated 24 for the month of

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July. So it's a lot a lot of those are um as you can imagine tick born diseases and uh food born illnesses. Moving on to food born illnesses. You may be aware of the current cycllospora outbreak that's going on um nationwide.

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Just want to let you know that New Jersey has about 46 cyclopora cases this year. This is typical within a year. In New Jersey, we usually get like 35 to 50 cases a year. None of these are affiliated with the outbreak. Uh the outbreak was associated in nine states

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uh to iceberg lettuce and roughly about 1900 1947 cases were reported associated with this outbreak. But we can have almost up to 11,000 cases of cycllospora a year. Next slide. I won't bel labor

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the uh pathway on the next slide of the cycllospora. But just know that cycospora is a parasite. And unfortunately when we are working with large commercial farms, if there is a uh sewage leak or inadequate field sanitation or heavy rainfall runoff that

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forces human waste into open water sources which are then used for irrigation of our our vegetables, it unfortunately clings to common food sources like cilantro, basil, leafy greens, blackberries, raspberries, and snow peas. um and then unfortunately

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gets added to our food and it's eaten raw and then the cycle continues. So just want to let everyone know um about that. Moving on to the next slide, we go to how to prevent >> graphic is just I'm sorry. >> It's not my intention. [laughter]

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>> That's it. >> How to prevent psychosphorasis. >> I like the you know the electrical. So, next slide goes on to um how to prevent it, which is what we're all about in public health. Um obviously, uh

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washing your hands. Um looking at uh choosing your food carefully. Uh we have a farmers market in Maplewood if people aren't aware and shopping local helps to reduce the uh chain of custody of the food and helps you know that where you're getting your food from.

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Next slide goes onto our environmental health update. Our RHS Mickens Matthew has also been busy in the month of July with 24 restaurant inspections as well as addressing 23 complaints and um notice of violations were issued. We

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also had four animal bites um for the month of July. Next slide goes on to our animal control services. >> Keep talking. It'll catch up. >> Okay. our animal control services. Uh for the month of June, we had 33 total

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calls. Most of those were for uh wildlife and we had strays um eight strays that we addressed. Moving on to our social services. For social services report for the month of July, we had 22 cases. So

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um that was good for them. And now I'm going to move on to our age friendly coordinator. That is Gabriel Suarez. you know him as our local health outreach coordinator at the local health department. Um but he is also assuming um the role of age friendly coordinator. So I'll give him I'll give him some time

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and space to introduce himself and let you know about um upcoming activities and initiatives. Thank you. >> Hello. Good evening. Thank you committee for giving me the opportunity to present tonight. Um, you may already know me as the local health outreach coordinator with the health department, but I would

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also be taking on as the part-time age friendly coordinator. And tonight, we would just like to give you and the public a quick overview of um, now that it's in the health department, what this position plans to do for the future moving forward, and

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how it'll benefit older adults in the community. So, first of all, we'd like to start with the I know you can't see it up here right now, but um we'll post it up on our website later and you the public will be able to see it as well. But the strategic direction for the age friendly coordinator is based on the

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priorities and goals set forth by the New Jersey Department of Human Services Age Friendly Blueprint as well as the AP Livable Communities Index, which focuses on topics such as housing, transportation, and civic engagement opportunities. um which we scored pretty well in

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already. And using those we are going to identify opportunities that strengthen coordination between township departments. So internally but also externally networking with neighboring municipalities that have similar age friendly either positions or programming

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and seeing how their successful models can be brought to Maplewood. We will also be reviewing township committee agendas like the one tonight um and seeing how those policies may affect older adults as well as making recommendations for future ones that can

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be set forth to benefit older adults. One of those examples for policy recommendations that we're currently working on, and this will be for that second slide um of my presentation, uh relates to major township events and

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where we can um where we currently have a respit area tent for seniors and persons with limited mobility. Currently, it that's offered at Mayfest, Maple, Woodstock, and Memorial Day. We're currently working on criteria that will help us

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figure out if there are any other events. We have so many events in Maplewood, right? Any other events where it's appropriate and feasible to also offer that same respit area tent um and these big large scale events. So, um more to come on that and we're looking

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to get input from both the all access committee and the senior advisory committee for that as well as any public um any person of member of the public, sorry, that can um that has any any feedback for us on

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that. We will expand communication through senior newsletter contributions currently given out by the uh Michelle Wesley over at the community services department. And we're going to increase outreach on topics such as the age

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advantage senior discount card, the federal, state, and local policy changes affecting seniors, most recently the ones affecting Medicare and those changes, as well as promoting the already existing programs of services, which there are so many of, and making sure that our seniors are aware of them

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and take advantage of them. Um, that said, we are also increasing services for older adults and their loved ones by working with Jewish family services to hopefully bring a caregiver support

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group to Maplewood because they've had a lot of success with the one they currently run at the Barrett in South Orange. So, we'd love to figure out a way to bring that here as well and serve our community. Um, lastly, we're also going to kind of the all-encompassing point of this position is building

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relationships. That's all to increase participation in township programming. Like I said, um, we have a lot of great programs and so we want to be able to reach audiences that we maybe have not been able to reach as easily before. And by that I mean uh the Irvington senior departments and the Winchester gardens

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in those communities uh as the age friendly coordinator and um as part of the health department I will be attending the township senior advisory committees which we have already uh been working on together with deputy mayor and I will also be partnering with my counterpart in South

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Orange um for Soma Two Towns for all ages to be able to update their website and share local resources. And like I said before, also increase outreach on programming happening in Maplewood so that seniors all over in this in the area can take

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advantage of them. Thank you. >> Are there any questions for my colleagues for the health department? >> Good job winging it without the president. >> Yeah, I I actually two things. I would make a motion that we go beyond 9:30. >> Oh, are we already at 9:30? >> Yes.

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>> So I move I move we go beyond 9:30. Second >> Mr. >> Adams, >> yes. >> Collins, >> yes. >> Daffus, >> yes. >> Furman, >> yes. >> Mayor Duca, >> yes. Thank you. Um, welcome. >> Thank you.

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>> Uh, with the age friendly, you're you mentioned the coordination with South Orange. Um the newsletter that comes out for Soma Two Towns is heavily South Orange and also um the activities are mostly South

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Orange. So is that going to change? >> Yes. So that's part of u my work with Kristen Tyler Cook in South Orange. So um the website has currently a calendar that like you're saying is mostly South Orange events. Um, so my job now will be

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to bring a lot of those events over into the newsletter and that shared calendar. And hopefully the goal is to make that website be a one-stop shop for older adults in the area where they can just see that calendar and see events that are happening the same day or sometimes

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concurrently. And we try to coordinate that so that doesn't happen very often because we've had feedback before of people who want to go to an event here, but then they're already signed up for an event in South Orange. So, um there will definitely be more representation from Maplewood and those newsletters and just overall in the Soma Two Towns for

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all ages community. >> And then on the um sort of the changing the mindset of um creating space for our older adults. U and you mentioned some of the activities and that you know we

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create the tents at Mayfest and and Maple Woodstock and what have you. Um, I think those are great and actually you had the coldest water at at uh Mayfest. It was terrific. Um, but >> I I would suggest two things. Um, maybe

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a presentation at a department head meeting where where we try to ask each department as they think about things that they're doing, they integrate >> um an agefriendly sort of mindset into that. And the

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second thing is that as part of the event planning meetings that exist, I know you're on some of those. Um, but maybe that becomes just sort of a checkpoint where we say how how are you

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providing or if you're providing um, you know, some some accommodation for older adults. For example, we're about to have one for Porchfest. So, it might be a good idea to say um we would encourage you to ask each house that is having a

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band to provide some dedicated seating >> in the shade for people who are um you know who need it. >> Yeah. >> Because oftentimes people are just standing there. But I mean what I'm not doing one at my house this year, but normally I do that. I put chairs out for

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folks because I know people need to sit. Um so I think if we can build that into it that would help go a long way. I know when we were talking about whether we should have s with two towns or not or should we service and policy I think this is the kind of thing one of the

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kinds of things we were looking at to build this as part of our DNA part of our culture. Mhm. >> So that so I think that's an important role that you're going to have is to keep um reminding all of us that we have to

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uh think along these lines. >> Thank you for saying that, mayor. I totally agree with with especially the point on special events. Um and I also full disclosure as well I my grandpa and grandma live here in Maplewood. So I this is a very personal topic for me as

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well because making Maplewood accessible to them and events accessible to them and people like them is is very important to me as well. So um as a Maple resident, but like I said also with family here, it's it's it's a great point that you bring up about making

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that a staple of Maplewood. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> I have a question, >> please. >> Please. Thank you. Um we should also include water for the pets. Remember we went to the dollar store and got some water for the pets when it's really hot

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for May fest and we put it put it all around. That was really nice. But uh Candace, I had a question for you. How do we wash these vegetables that we're getting? I mean, is water just good enough to just wash and eat or we should spray down with >> Oh, no. No, no, you're fine. You're our

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drinking water is great. Um it's more of at these in uh large commercial farms where the uh latrines are not as well-maintained and then they run off into the ponds and rivers that they then use for irrigating.

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>> Um that's where it becomes a problem. So um federal, you know, enforcement and and monitoring and inspections are super important. Um, and we're seeing the results of what happens when we don't fund our our federal system of

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inspections like the FDA and CDC. So, >> well said. >> Yeah. >> Um, I had a question for Gabe. Um, thank you. That was a great presentation. Um, I'm curious about the slides because it didn't feel like you even needed them. [laughter] Um, so one

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of the things I know you uh mayor you brought up about some things are more South Orange um uh heavy and one of the things is the discount card and so we talked about that at our senior advisory meeting and um that's one of the things

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that he's looking at to make sure that we have more Maplewood um businesses on there as well. And I also wanted to bring up um you know the senior bus if that's something you could add to your list because um as you talk about making

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sure that um all seniors know about all of the um supports and programming that's you know uh services that are available to them. The bus is one that um I think had you know not everybody

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knows about and um community services has done a really good job of putting together flyers of what it is, what they do, how to book it and so um you know making sure that we get that out to to everyone I think is important. But um

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great presentation, welcome on board. Uh looking forward to working with you. >> Any other questions for my colleagues? I want to say, Gabe, we're really proud of you. Way to go. And I think you'll find in this additional hat you're going to be wearing now, a rich opportunity to

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um for growth for you and for the community's health and wellness. You're going to bring your academic experience, right? you have graduate level experience and the wealth of the network that the health department has uh established not just in Soma or MAPSO

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but throughout the region and all over the county. So um that's right age friendly means the DNA of everything that we do including all the events health and all policy as we talked about

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before. So uh way to go and let us know how we can support you. Um I have a question for our health officer. So this relates to the food born illnesses you reported about 2425 last month. >> Not all of them are foodborne illnesses but majority of them are.

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>> Do you find in your experience um based on last summer, previous summer, is that sort of on track or is it more? >> No, it's it's on par. Every summer we always get an increase of food born illnesses. People go to picnics and parties and food is left out and yeah so

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you do see you tend to see outbreaks occurring not that we have any but outbreaks do occur when people gather for large events during the summer. >> So so those cases that you report to us are all inclusive. They include the private events that people go to, the

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outdoor events and our restaurants. >> Yes. Because they're all reported to the state. >> Right. Right. Right. Uh the the cases that track back to our restaurants, any uptick there or anything? Okay.

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>> So, you don't see any reason for us to >> uh change our regulations for food safety and inspection or anything like that? >> Yeah. Our system is that if we find a restaurant, whether it's in Ma Maplewood or in other towns, they notify us when

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we do um when we have a case. We do the investigation. If it's related to a restaurant, we go to that restaurant. Mickens would go do the inspection or we notify the local health department in the neighboring town where it's occurring and say, "Do an inspection now." >> Okay. And then lastly, uh this is the

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time of season while we just went through all of our major events that we have annually. And those events attract a tremendous amount and diverse amount of food vendors. >> Yay. Right. We all enjoy that. Do you

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find that uh again on par in terms of reports of illnesses related to those vendors with previous >> No, no illnesses because what we do when we um approve vendors is we make sure that they have a satisfactory inspection >> from the town where they're based and

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that they're licensed similar to what we expect from our restaurants um and vendors. So they already are established that they've passed inspection and are good to go and then we inspect them with the fire inspector on the day of the event. >> Terrific. Thank you for that. So I'll invite members of the public who are

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joining us uh remotely if anyone out there is interested in addressing um the health department. Is there anyone? >> I see no hands. >> Okay. So with that, I move that we adjourn. >> How about the people here?

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>> Oh. Oh, yes. I did not invite people. Thank you, mayor. Rushing us along. Are there members of the public who are here in person who wish to address the health department? Seeing none, I hope I didn't discourage you. Um, so then I will move that we

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adjourn and meet again on September 1st. >> Second. >> Miss Adams. >> Yes. >> Miss Collinsing. >> Yes. >> Mayor Duca. >> Yes. Sherman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Daffus. >> Yes. Thank you again. >> Thank you. Good night. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we're going to move to item number

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eight. >> Uh, yes, Mayor. Item number eight is ordinances on final passage. The first one being ordinance number 4014-26, an ordinance supplementing chapter 248

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of the township code taxation with a new article entitled disabled veteran tax exemption. This ordinance establishes a new article 5 entitled disabled veteran tax

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exemption of chapter 248 of the township code entitled taxation to clarify township policy with respect to the retropy of such exemptions. >> This ordinance has been published.

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Copies posted on the I'm sorry, I'm in the old card here. This ordinance has been published on the township website. Copies posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building and copies made available to the general public in accordance with the law. Is there anyone

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here [snorts] who would like to speak on this ordinance? Seeing no one, is there anyone online? >> Any members of the public joining us via Zoom would like to speak on this ordinance, please raise your hand. I see no hands. Mayor,

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>> okay, we'll close the public comment and can we get a motion? >> Mayor, I move this audience to be adopted as a whole and the clerk be directed to post the same as past ordinance on the township's website and town hall bulletin board according to the law.

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>> Second. >> Please call the Are there any discussion? Please call the role. >> Mr. Adams, >> yes. >> Mr. Collins Golding, >> yes. >> Mr. Daffis, >> yes. Thurman. >> Yes. >> Mayor Duca. >> Yes. [snorts] >> Also on final, the next ordinance, uh,

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Mayor, it's ordinance number 4015-26 is an ordinance amending article 8 of chapter 271 of the code of the township of Mapwood entitled historic preservation to modernize notice procedures.

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This ordinance will amend the form of notices required by the township code in connection with the designation of historic districts to provide for the nomination report to be publicly available rather than mailed to each

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property. There will be no charge to the forms of notices required by state law. >> There be no change >> change >> to the forms of notices require >> I'm sorry. >> That's okay. Um, this ordinance has been published on

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the township website, copies posted on the bulletin board in [clears throat] the municipal building, and copies made available to the general public in accordance with the law. Is there anyone who would like to speak on this ordinance? Seeing no one here, please check online.

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>> Any members of the public joining us via Zoom would like to speak on this ordinance, please raise your hand. I see no hands, mayor. >> Okay. Can we get a motion? >> I move this ordinance be adopted as a whole and the clerk be directed to post the same as a past ordinance on the

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township's website and town hall bulletin board according to law. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Please call the role. >> Miss Adams? >> Yes. >> Miss Collins Golding? >> Yes. >> Mr. Daffis? >> Yes. >> Miss Herman?

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>> Yes. >> Mayor Duca? >> No. Okay, administrative reports, Mr. Weary. >> Thank you, Mayor. Just one update on Maple Crest inclusive playground. We were able to expedite the replacement of

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the swing sets that caused a few week delay in the project. The contractor has will finish this week the bathrooms. Next week they will now finish the fencing and the following week they expect to finish the surface area. And once the service area is complete,

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project is substantially complete. Will likely be we're going to do just punch list items after that, but we'd be at a point then the maybe the end of the week after next where we could start to open it to the public. So we'll have more information for the township committee and the public as we get closer to that date.

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>> Great. Any questions for Mr. Weary? >> No. >> Thank you, Miss Cridio. I have no report. Mayor, >> any questions for Miss Credidio? >> No. >> No. Miss Fritzen.

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>> Uh, one thing uh, Mayor, I was going to report on, uh, the event planning meetings. Anyway, but um I just going to also mention following the report of um the board of health that we make a um

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point of bringing up tents and chairs uh for age friendly awareness and all access. in addition to um dedicated parking and dedicated drop off points for all of our

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uh larger scale events and we have even purchased additional tents for the many activities that we had uh this summer. So we are well aware and it's brought up um you could feel confident at every meeting that we have. >> Thank you.

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>> Any questions or comments for our township clerk? No, >> just a thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Clearly, there were comments. >> I speaking just for myself.

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>> All right. We're going to have reports from elected officials. Well, we were all speak for ourselves. Deputy Mayor Herman. >> Well, I was going to have no report, but then I thought about the pool. I think you have to be back for a

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certain amount of time before you give a >> correct. >> Right. >> Correct. >> So, I just wanted to make sure everybody knows and this has been out um advertised and in our socials that we have an Auguston pool membership that just went on sale for just the month of

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August. And this is really the best deal that we have for um for a pool uh membership. So, if you are um you know looking at this upcoming month and wondering what are you going to do and how are you going to stay cool, the pool is the answer. Join and come have the

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fun. Um and there is a float night coming up um on August 14. So, that's something to look forward to. That's all I got. Uh thank you, Mayor.

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I'm going to be really quick. Uh so we have our summer uh the Gazeba summer concert series. We have two left. One on August 7, DJ FY and August 14, the men of soul. All right. And I also want to add that

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August 23rd we have our acoustic jam session at 1978. August 29th to October 3rd, the Maplewood Village Summon Streets by Maplewood Village Alliance will be held. And we have September 3rd is our Mac mic sessions at 1979 where we

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have our open sessions of mic where people can come and do poetry or show the talents and it's going to be nice and clean. We have rules. So, so that's pretty much it. That's all I have for now. Thank you. >> Great.

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Committ Adams. >> I have no report. >> Command Daffis. >> Thanks, [snorts] Mayor. Just three items very quickly. I want to highlight resolution number 285-26 memorializing our partnership uh a

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partnership between MEND meeting essential needs with dignity and Soma Two Towns for all ages. MEND is a nonprofit organization located in Orange, New Jersey with a mission that includes providing increased access to fresh and healthy foods in underdeserved communities throughout Essex County.

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Soma Two Towns for all ages is a program uh for senior care with a mission to support empower residents of Maplewood and South Orange to age in place. Soma towns identified a population of clients in Maplewood who are food insecure and

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mobility challenged and uh part is partnering with mend so that once a month mend will host a free farmers market uh for residents of the Maplewood senior apartment building at 564 Irvington Avenue in Maplewood from

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September 2026 through August 2027. We're really excited about that. Uh I also want to alert the public, inform the township committee and report on the following. Starting tomorrow, the Maplewood Village

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Alliance will be and that is not what I was look supposed to be looking at. Just a minute here, mayor and everyone else. I appreciate your indulgence. Okay, here we go. So, uh, starting

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tomorrow, the Maplewood Village Alliance is launching a communitywide public educa engagement campaign. The campaign is about parking access, efficiency, and management in Maplewood Village. This is

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a public information campaign. Uh the idea of it is to collect information from the community about parking in Maplewood Village from everyone and from visitors to Maplewood Village, not just our residents. What is your experience

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with parking in Maplewood Village? Uh they're going to do this uh by two ways. One is a online survey that's going to go live tomorrow and with in-person community engagement

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sessions uh starting next month through September and possibly into and through October. The September dates are September 12th, 19th and 26th from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. uh in Maplewood

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Village. So come and engage and uh tell us about your experience. The idea here is to gather community feedback before the township committee or if the township committee um entertains any

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parking management improvements in Maplewood Village, increased inform enforcement through new technology, uh enhanced wayfinding and or possibly paid parking. uh we'll be talking about that in the fall, but between now and

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then uh the idea is to engage with the community and get as much information from them as possible. Those are my two items. >> Thank you. Uh I have one item and that is um I am

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going to bring to the finance committee uh the whole um issue of events um the cost of police and fire uh just to try to come up I'm sorry police and DPW just to come up with um sort of an annual

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outlook for 2027 better coordination and making sure that our decisions in the process is fair and equitable for all events. So, I think that we have to have this conversation. We're going to be gathering some >> uh data on the various events we're having because we're having a lot more

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events and um you know, I think we want to make sure that we're charging the appropriate amount to everyone and everyone is treated the same every event. So, um with that, we'll move to the consent agenda.

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>> Thank you, mayor. Um I would like to move the consent agenda 11B through 11Q. Um, so everything but 11A minutes which

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I will be abstaining from. >> Okay. >> So consent agenda 11B to 11 Q. >> Do we have a second on 11B through 11Q? >> Second. >> So please It's >> Oh, I'm so sorry.

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>> Okay, call the role. >> My apologies. >> Call the role. >> M. Adams? >> Yes. Mr. >> Collins calling? >> Yes. >> Mr. Davis? >> Yes. >> Herman? >> Yes. >> Mayor Duca? >> Yes. JC, can you move 11A? >> Jesus Christ.

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>> Oh, I move 11 A. >> I second. >> Thank you. >> You can't. >> You can't. >> Oh, I can't. >> It's been moved and seconded. Please. You have to abstain. >> Call the role on >> I thought I can still second but >> Mr. Adams. >> Yes. >> Collins. >> Yes. >> Mr. Daffus.

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>> Yes. >> Thurman. >> I abstain. >> Mayor Duca. >> Yes. We're now at our second public comment period on any subject matter once again. Is there anyone who would like to address the township committee that is here?

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Seeing no one, can we check online? Any members of the public joining us via Zoom would like to speak on any any items, please raise your hand. >> You see nothing. Okay, >> I see no hands. >> We'll close that second public comment

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period. And now um we will need uh to do the reading of uh going into close session. And uh just before we do that, I just want to let you know that we are not meeting the second uh meeting in August. That would normally be what?

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August 18th. What is today? >> I don't know. >> August. Yeah, August 18th. So, we're not meeting that. We can. So, that's not going to be here. So, please don't show up. We are meeting next on Tuesday, September 1st at 7:30 p.m. here in the

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municipal building. Now, can we get the uh reading on going into close session? >> Yes, mayor. Whereas section 8 of the open public meetings act chapter 231 public law clause of 1975 permits the exclusion of the public from meeting in certain

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circumstances. Whereas this public body is of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist now therefore be resolved by the township committee township Mapwood and the county of Escus New Jersey state of New Jersey. The public shall be excluded

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upon the discussion of any action upon the specified subject matter. The general nature of the subject matter we discussed as follows. Personnel >> personnel and um affordable housing uh

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legal and uh contractual. >> The general nature of the subject matter discusses as as follows. personnel. Um, >> affordable housing. >> Affordable housing. >> Legal and uh contractual.

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>> Legal and contractual. Anticipate at this time that the above stated subject m battery made public. >> Moved. >> Second. >> Miss Adams. >> Yes. >> Miss Collins Golding. >> Yes. >> Mr. Davis. >> Yes. >> Herman. >> Yes.

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>> Mayor Duca. >> Yes. Again, thank you. We will be going into close session. We will be adjourning from close session directly uh into open and then closed and then adjourning for the evening.