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section five chapter 231 Public Law 1975 this is to State for the 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
2025 to the news record and the Star Ledger in December of 2024 and by filing said notice in the office of the Township Clerk Mr daffis Luca here fle here serman here
mayor Adams here where chapter 231 public less 1975 commonly known as the open public meetings act requires all meetings of public bodies be open to the public and where section 7A provides that the governing body has a discretion to permit prohibit or regulate the
active participation of the public at any meeting and whereas it desire the governing body to comply with the provision of this act same count of conduct its business in an orderly and expeditious manner now therefore be resolved by the township committee Township does hereby prohibit
except to set forth in a formal agenda active participation and deliberations of the governing body by the public accept as otherwise described by law does limit the public to the observations of the actions and discussions of the governing body at all of its regular and special meetings so
moved second Mr daffis yes Luca yes Zangle yes Thurman yes mayor Adams yes thank you okay please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge 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 if you don't mind remain standing for a moment of
silence uh in on January 14th of 2025 we proclaimed um it to be Marilyn schar's day in the township of Maplewood um she was to be moving to South Jersey after being a lifelong resident of South
Orange and Maplewood she was a Maplewood resident for 41 of her years she was a Columbia High School graduate a Maplewood pool member for 41 years Maplewood senior Club Garden Club trustee at Durant headen house volunteer
at Spring egg hunt map 4th of July Mayfest National Night Out and more along with that she was a beloved member of the community and um the bittersweet Part is that we were able to have um a going away party for her but that was
not this was not the reason she passed away and we'd like to have a moment of silence thank you so good evening and uh welcome to the March 18th meeting of the Maplewood Township committee um we will have a
special presentation and proclamations for transgender day of visibility 2025 um and also a proclamation for Rachel Crandle Crocker um with a related related Proclamation um we don't have any board
and committee appointments we have um three ordinances on for final passage one of them um the first one um a zoning ordinance we will be uh tabling or carrying um the second
one we will be moving and the third one we will carry also and we'll give those reasons when we get to those ordinances um we have no ordinances on for introduction we have administrative reports for Township administrator wey Township attorney cdio Township Clerk
fritsen reports from elected officials Committee Member Engle Deputy Mayor Herman Committee Member daffis Committee Member Duca and then my report we have four items on for discussion tonight uh Miss angle will lead the discussion on youth advisory committee
changes and then s Two Towns for all ages discussion um Miss Herman will uh lead the discussion for pool fees and then we will have a discussion on the 2025 budget we then have a consent agenda and then public comment on any
subject matter sorry I missed the public comment on agenda items only that's right after our proclamations so now we will proceed so Mr daffis why don't you lead us off thank you mayor and I want to welcome everyone who has joined us
tonight it's nice to to see this level of participation uh for our um honoring celebrating uplifting International transgender day of uh visibility uh as maplewood's first queer
elected representative um its first mayor I'm really honored that we are taking a little bit of extra time today to gather to give space to raise awareness to stand up to speak out to honor and to
celebrate and we have a very special guest with us tonight online the creator of the international transgender day of visibility the one and only Rachel Crandle Crocker and you will hear uh
some words from Rachel and as the mayor mentioned we have a very special Proclamation honoring her as well so the way this is going to go is I'm going to go down to the podium I invite those who want to help us read the proclamation the transgender day of visibility
proclamation to join me at the podium after that the mayor will lead us through the special honor for Rachel Crandle Crocker then we will allow Rachel an opportunity to uh say a few things as she wishes and then we um will
um go into our public comment period And since this is on the agenda we will invite those of you who are present who wish to say a few things in honor of this important occasion um and then we will allow the same for those who have joined us online and welcome to all of
you as well it is truly important in this moment in time with the injustices the assaults against our transgender youth in particular and our non-binary youth in particular to speak up to stand
up to say that we stand in solidarity to unequivocally say that we are against the hate and the violence and the Injustice that is surrounding us even here in New Jersey in Progressive New
Jersey even in Progressive spaces even when I speak to some legislators who have been our allies through the years to the lgbtq plus Community there is a resistance to stand
up and we cannot let that stand we will not forget our transgender community members behind they were the ones who led our community's Liberation and equality and we need to stand with them in this very difficult
moment and our doing this tonight is important and we will also on the actual day of international trans day of visibility have a rally right outside it's next Monday night the 31st look out in social media for more information
about that in the coming day or two so with that I'm going to go to the podium and I welcome those members from the community who have joined us tonight to join me there can you see all of us there online there um Deputy clerk Allah yeah everything is
good all right you excellent so um I'm going to let the members of the community who are with us lead us in the reading of our transgender de visibility Proclamation I ask that each member of the community identify themselves uh
you're here to be visible be proud let us know why you're here why this is important to you and lead us through our transgender day of visibility Proclamation we're going to start with our very own Shannon cuddle Shannon thank you comman uh daffis uh my
name is Shannon cuddle my pronouns are they and them um had the honor of um serving on South Mar Maplewood Board of Education as first vice president of Honor uh wearing and doing many hats in our town um and also being the first openly known
trans non bioner elected official in the state of New Jersey um and this is a transgender Daya visibility um Proclamation we start it off whereas in 2009 Rachel kandle Crocker executive director and co-founder of transgender
Michigan organized the first recognized transgender day of visibility to uplift trans and nonbinary Trailblazers history and in resilience and whereas we raise the names of recent Trailblazers such as Sarah McBride the
first openly transgender member of the United States Congress as well as those etched in history such as Stonewall Trailblazers Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera who accelerated the early gay rights and trans Liberation mov
movements and we continue to keep the name of New Jersey's own bab zipperstein who was a foundational and transformative Force to New Jersey lgbtq plus civil rights laws and For Whom the state law allowing transgender and
non-binary persons to change their gender marker without proof of gender assignment is named after and good evening folks I'm uh Joan howlet uh a transgender Elder I suppose uh here in
the community I also have a transgender granddaughter who goes to Tuscan school and I'm very happy to be here tonight I guess uh I'm going to steal a few more minutes to just talk a little
bit about uh transgender in the military because that has been attacked in the last week by secretary head Heth uh as well as Donald Trump um I'm a Vietnam veteran and know I wasn't some
big hulking guy when I was in the Army uh served a combat tour sorry thank you uh in Vietnam and um was in there for four years before I uh got out so I think that what's going
on in our country is a disservice to all of the active duty military uh enlisted and officers who are serving today uh basically they've all been told they don't have any jobs
and it's certainly a disservice to other veterans like me who served uh either openly or back when I was in you weren't open or you would have been out there was a uh you were actually court marshaled for it but I'll leave that as another story
for another day whereas transgender and non-minor persons have always existed and will continue to exist our existence cannot be erased our history will not be erased and whereas while we honor the
resilience and history made by those who etched themselves into the Zeitgeist we must also call out attempts to erase misinform or to legalize descrip discrimination against the trans Community we condemn all forms of any
trans rhetoric and at all levels from the White House across the country and throughout New Jersey among electorate officials here who seek to shame marginalize and erase trans existence from our Collective history resulting in
fear bullying and violence and hi everyone um Denise Hines I am a a South Orange resident I've lived in South Orange for uh about 20 years now and I am the board chair of the New York
LGBT community center and I'm also the director uh and co-founder of the New York LGBT Film Festival which is going into its third year um this is this evening and this proc
means a tremendous amount uh to me as a lesbian but also as an ally to my trans brothers and sisters and I'm proud to be able to stand here and read part of it so where am I here whereas in the
township of Maplewood we will not Rob transgender or non-binary persons of their light or existence we will not tolerate or ignore Injustice against them and and whereas in the township of
Maplewood our transgender and non-binary Community is welcomed accepted celebrated beloved and protected and we stand together in solidarity with the entire LGBT plus
Community now therefore be it proclaimed that I Dean daffis Maplewood Township Committee Member on behalf of our mayor mayor Nancy Adams and the rest of my colleagues of the Maplewood Township committee do hereby Proclaim March 31st
as transgender day of visibility in the township of Maplewood and reaffirm our commitment stated in resolution non-binary persons and is committed to equal respectful and dignified treatment
and acceptance of all people regardless of their gender identity gender expression or their sexual orientation thank you thank you Mr daffis and thank you uh to those of you who shared with
us your stories and for your uh advocacy and work on this issue um I'm honored to read the proclamation honoring Rachel Crandle Crocker whereas Rachel Crandle Crocker has dedicated her life to advocating for
the rights resilience and visibility of transgender and lgbtq plus individuals and whereas as the executive director and founder of transgender Michigan she has worked tirelessly to create safe spaces provide
essential resources and uplift the transgender community in Michigan and Beyond and whereas her work in the early transgender movement including foundational efforts with Motor City Pride and organizing support groups
across Michigan has helped lay the groundwork for the progress seen today in the lgbtq plus rights and protections and whereas her leadership and activism have played a crucial role
in advancing protections for lgbtq plus michiganders under Governor whitmer's Administration and have inspired activists Across the Nation including Maplewood in South Orange is Shannon cuddle who continues to carry her Legacy
forward and whereas Rachel is the found Visionary founder of international transgender day of visibility observed annually on March 31st which has grown into a globally recognized day of empowerment and awareness for
transgender individuals and whereas alongside her wife Susan Crocker they have given back to the community for decades as licensed social workers advocating for justice equity and mental health support for transgender
individuals including by starting the transgender Michigan helpl line the first transgender specific helpl line in the United States now therefore be it proclaimed that I mayor Nancy Adams on behalf of the Maplewood Township committee do hereby recognize and honor
Rachel Crandle Crocker for her unwavering commitment to transgender visibility advocacy and empowerment her contributions have transformed countless lives over 1.6 million transgender individuals in the
us alone and her Legacy will continue to inspire future Generations in the ongoing fight for equality and justice furthermore March 18th 2025 shall be recognized as Rachel Crandle Crocker day
in the township of Maplewood in in celebration of her lifelong dedication to the transgender Community her groundbreaking advocacy and activism and her tireless efforts to create a more inclusive and just world for all
yeah on is she on yes okay Patrick could you move her over is you just if you want to be seen have to turn on the camera um that's
fine yeah we we welcome any remarks all right oh can't hear you yourself as well yeah there you okay welcome Miss Crocker thank you
yeah you I'm inviting you to say a few words and um I hope you heard the whole Proclamation we just read oh I did okay great thank you everyone um I am honored
um when I created the day of visibility in 2009 I cre made it it as a way to bring
everyone together all over the world and so as a community we wouldn't have to be lonely and helpless
anymore and I believe that this year it's more important than ever I share the day of visibility with everyone everywhere and
I thank Maplewood for recognizing me thank you so much for all your hard work I'm sure it wasn't an overnight success
oh and it's ongoing as Committee Member daffis was talking about earlier um the the Fight Continues and uh is even more important in the times we are now due to this current Administration who seems to be fix
fixated on dividing rather than uniting so um thank you I welcome if you have any other words you'd like to say otherwise we're going to get on with our meeting and you don't have to stay unless you want to I'm all
done thank you so much for joining us thank you thank you thank you Rachel okay and that brings us to our first public comment on agenda items only so if there's anyone in the room who would
like to come up please identify yourself your address and you have three minutes to speak and um just make sure you're talking right into the microphone so if any others want to line up against the wall over there that way you can
come right up when it's your turn all right welcome thank you you're welcome um good evening everybody my name is Dino bolak I'm the res I'm a resident of Maplewood for now about eight nine years um and first of all I
do want to start and recognize our members of our community uh transgender community and I want to express my full support for their uh for the proclamation and quite frankly I think it doesn't do enough I think that's just
a beginning and um it is very very important for us to to recognize people who are here and those who are not here um as well as the um Miss uh Crocker who who appeared uh via Zoom however I do I
do want to point out something that's um been bothering me very much um and in again that has nothing to do and again uh what I want to point out is
while I 100% 200% support LGBT community transgender Community I find it um hypocritical of this Council a Township Council to um talk about us today about
visibility about recognition about uh voice and and another and this Council yet this Council has never ever recognize the main human rights issue that is appearing in today's world that
is genocide in Gaza what I do want to tell everybody here is that when I first moved to Maplewood map has proclaimed itself to be a free Town respecting uh a progressive Town that's that's for
everybody yet that turned out to be a lie and I say that a lie even though it's a very strong word I say it because it's true this Council um this uh Council has
recognized on at least two occasions the atrocities that occurred on October 7 and I 100% condemn any type of violence against civilians and innocent and and and children and elderly make no mistake
about it however I cannot stay silent to the Abomination to discuss that I feel with the members of this Council quite frankly that you not one time one time did not
recognize the children that we see who are being blown up by our tax money and why am I emotional about this issue I'm a Survivor of genocide when I was 15 years old I was in
1995 I I grew up and I lived in Bosnia during the genocide there I have moved to Maplewood moved United States later in my life and I was hoping that I will find a place in Maplewood where people who suffer
atrocities the worst possible atrocities that a humankind had committed against another human being will be recognized will be visible will be their voice will be heard and yet that did not happen
Instead This Council has several times supported uh members of the IDF who are members of the genocidal Army which is recognized as such by the most distinguished
Israeli genocide scholar such as om bov such as uh also like Professor Jeff Melnick such as numerous Holocaust Survivors when I was very young I even had the opportunity to be invited at the Anna Frank Museum in Amsterdam where I spoke together with um couple of
Holocaust survivors of about my experience as a 15-year-old boy and while I was while I was there um I visited multiple sites I visited most of the concentration camps in Europe I visited my uncle has been uh kidnapped
by the Nazis when he was 15 years old and and and uh only by chance escaped the execution at that young age so I'm no stranger to pain I'm no stranger to suffering but I am not going to stay silent and I cannot stay silent to what
I believe to be a deep hypocrisy of this Council and quite frankly many members of the Maplewood Community who who find no reason who find no strength no willingness to recognize the human suffering of brown
children Brown children apparently do not matter to this Council and to this down and while I members Community I want to make sure that everybody here knows the Maplewood is not a town that claims to be it is a
hypocritical appalling and quite frankly disgusting uh uh um presentation of the worst hypocrisy that is existing in our country and just to finish what happening today in this country with Trump Administration make no mistake
once we tolerate genocide everything else is going to be tolerated and do not think for a moment that anybody is going to come to save us from Trump what's coming with Trump Administration this is just the beginning what we seeing and and it's not going to unfortunately end
there I'm going to finish and I thank you and I one day I want to tell you that I will make sure none of you ever get my vote again thank you thank you yes um the timer started a little late that time let's not forget okay
sorry your turn good afternoon everyone yeah my name is Rose Griffith and I am a resident of Maplewood for 20 years unfortunate this is my first anyway I spoke to Mayor Adams last year
I don't know if you remember me um I don't think you because I spoke on the phone and you referred me to the the division the division of Housing and Community and develop
velopment it's pertaining to some um Atlantis I have four Atlantis tree po Atlanta three at the side of my garage where I said I want to remove because those are very highly
invasive trees that those spotted um spotted fly you know those flies spotted Atlanta flies the Flies them um and um one of them Pursuit come right through the garage right break the foundation
come right through and right now my garage is this because it's break the the the whole building and come through and I was looking I'm a senior I'm looking some help but my income that I
get every month my social secur is not enough to for my cover my expense because as you know I have to pay it for everything here and I just looking some help to remove those four threes and those are very very very um what they
call it um invasive um trees that need that I think they said at one point the city um removed them but everywhere I go I call this place that mayor mayor told me about they said they don't do threes
they don't do it okay yeah could you leave your uh name and number with the clerk Miss fritsen and um I'll discuss it internally and get back to this week okay you're very welcome is
with the gar with with garbage we have to pay um waste management and they only they charge us by the C and can the city do something
to have um sen we've recently gotten um complaints just recently especially since Waste Industries actually uh raised their prices by about 50% or something um just last month um but I I
think we can talk about it internally and see if there's any powers that we have of influence with those companies or not or whether there's anything we can do about it and we'll probably talk about it at engineering Public Works and planning subcommittee um that's chaired
by Mr Duca see if there's anything sir garbage P has to be a certain size and it can hold right right okay thank you thank you
hello hi hi has my time started um has the time started just my name is Abigail King I'm a new resident of Maplewood welcome my wife and I just moved here in January just paid property taxes for the first time it's always fun welcome um we
do the same thing yeah but we're we're we're very glad to be here and I wanted to speak um in regards to the proclamation of transgender day of visibility wanted to express my joy and my and my gratitude uh in this country we often use the phrase inali rights but really turns out those rights are are
quite alienable if they're not taken care of uh people of my generation I think many of us would never have expected to see roie Wade overturned H we speaking for myself not to not to age myself but I've lived in a time when
only things have gotten better there are plenty of things to fix but I saw I saw the removal of of of sodomy statutes and and and gay marriage becoming the law of the land and all these things and don't has don't tell being repealed and it
just seemed like things were going to keep going but that wasn't something happening by inertia there was happen Something Happening by the concerted efforts of activists of devoted public servants uh and and of a of an electorate that continued to believe that that was important and it was
opposed by by those who love wickedness and inequity or who are greatly mistaken and who have pushed back against greater equality and flourishing and I'm grateful to now be living in a place
where we lift each other up and allow ourselves to be ourselves and to be visible and not have to hide not have to act like we aren't who we are and so I'm so very grateful to to to be in this
town and to to to see this having moved from a place where I don't think there will be a proclamation for transgender to visibility to one where I feel safe and welcomed and like I'm a proper member of a community so thank you for
your labor and thank you for your work and and and thank you to this town thank you and welcome uh hi good evening good evening uh my name is Daniel gosink uh I've been a resident of South Aron map wood for 12 years I guess
Maplewood for about five years um I'm here to honor and speak loudly for the rights uh of transgender people everywhere um I simply want to State into the record tonight uh that four of the five council members in front of us are
publicly and vocally supporting and asking all of us to support a candidate for governor Mikey Cheryl who voted for the ndaa the National Defense authorization Act which included anti-trans policies which strip trans affirming Health Care from Children of
service members the hypocrisy I've seen tonight in doing both of the things standing for Trans people and asking us to stand for a c uh to vote for a candidate who supports anti-trans policies is
astounding uh I want to thank the man who spoke first uh for speaking so much truth and honesty from his own lived experience uh and and in honor of uh my own relatives of Irish descent
and in honor of St Patrick's Day free Palestine is there anyone else who would like to come to the mic to speak confusing as a lot of people get we're on agenda items yes that's a really good point Thank you got a little
taken about okay excuse me corrected by um by one of our attendees so this is for agenda items only and then we have another
public comment on any item yes I'm I go ahead please introduce yourself I'm a resident of Maplewood um I want to thank you for the proclamation
tonight as the parent of a transgender child um we had to make the choice to move to Maplewood in order to feel like our child could be safe when they were in first grade and dressed up for
Halloween to go trick-or-treating as a princess because we raised them in non-gendered household um our neighbors in our former Community refus to give them candy because I let my then boy dress as a
girl and I said we need to move somewhere where our child's going to be affirmed and safe and where we're going to be able to raise them to be them true selves um and so we did come to Maplewood uh 12 years ago and our child
was welcomed immediately into this community and affirmed and it's been an amazing positive experience for her but I do also recognize the hypocrisy that others are bringing up um I too have
asked this Council many times to affirm and liberate all children everywhere um including the children of Palestine like the first man said and do think that none of us are free if one of us isn't free
and we do look for this Council to start to lead in these other areas we teach our kids to apply their principles consistently to every situation and they do that and we're so proud of them and our daughter wouldn't be as strong as she is if she didn't have a strong sense
of self and strong principles and that's what I ask this Council to do for all children everywhere thank you thank you anyone else in the house want to speak during public comment Mr wary is there anyone
online I'm now moving over Lauren to public portion Lauren welcome to public portion you may unmute yourself and address the committee uh good good evening mayor Adams good evening Maplewood Township committee um I'm Lauren Alber my
pronouns are she her hers I'm calling in from Garden State equality new J's largest lgbtq rights organization um first I would like to thank you for what you've done here tonight and also for allowing us and bringing in Rachel um it's the first time I've ever heard her
speak and you know seen her in and in person um knowing having known her work for a very long time so thank you for that opportunity um I want to also thank the other commenters for raising some I I think really Salient points um about
equity for what I will say and what I think is important for me to um speak to other allies about uh myself not a member of the transgender non-binary Community but as an lgbtq person and an ally to the trans Community um
proclamations are good a great start um maple wood has always been the Forefront of lgbtq inclusivity and I'm grateful for that it is up to us to continue the work of true and lived equality and equity and mostly safety um I think
which is my my big Point here um proclamations are a good starting point and may signal to people in the outside world that this is a place of safety and inclusivity and that you know don't don't don't come here with your
hatred and your nonsense but at the end of the day the safety of our trans non-binary Community is up to us to protect um and and and that is an act that is not a proclamation that isn't that is a verb that is an active act at all times um and so I hope that if we're
here and we're doing this and we're observing this Proclamation we're also considering every single day how we can make sa life more safe for our trans and nonbinary population as well mostly for our trans and non-binary students um I think that's probably concludes my
remarks and again thank you for having me and again thank you for um putting this forward and opening the discussion and having this public forum in which people can share these thoughts um and I also want to thank specifically Shannon cuddle um a hero of mine youall are
lucky to have Shannon in Maplewood South Orange um and I uh I wish my town had a shanon cuddle so um thank you to Shannon for always always always speaking up and always always uh and never never backing
down thanks thank you we don't disagree with you on your Shannon cuddle point we are grateful Mr where is there anyone else gu promoting Reginal bledo to panelist welome on public portion you
yourself and address the committee good evening committee uh thank you mayor Adams mayor uh excuse me Deputy Mayor Herman uh committee M dafis um as always I'm here on behalf of the County uh of essic on behalf of our
County Executive uh I don't have my camera on because I'm actually mobile at the moment um but I want to thank you all for your leadership time and time again uh it is the township of Maplewood that is leading the way for the rest of of Essex
County and time and time again we can always count on your allyship and advocacy uh in this space for the lgbtq community but specifically for our trans and non-binary population um as always um we appreciate you uh we will be
putting something together special uh for Rachel crle Crocker uh just acknowledging all of her hard work and the hard work that she continues to do uh all the way from Michigan uh as always we thank Shannon for uh
their leadership uh and wisdom and making sure that uh they continue to hold our feet to the fire and making sure that we're uplifting uh our trans and nonbinary community members and that we're not forgetting those who've paved the way
for all of us uh right now we are in some interesting times and as committee man daff has mentioned uh there are folks who want to erase uh the T that is a part of the Acron AC acronym of the lgbtq community but we
will not let that happen we continue to Echo that our diversity is our strength here in Essex County and that includes uh the members of the trans community so again as always thank you for inviting us and opening your platform for us to address you all and continue to lead the
way thank you again have a good evening thank you anyone else in Zoom would like to speak on agenda items please raise your hand now see no hands mayor thank you all right we'll move on to our ordinances on
Final passage yes mayor uh on Final passage we're at number eight ordinance on Final passage ordinance number 3144 d25 an ordinance to amend chapter 271 of
the code of the township of mapw would entitled zoning and development regulations with respect to the research and office zoning District this ordinance will amend Article Five zoning provisions of
chapter 271 of the township code to eliminate the research and office rro zoning district and to include the subject property in the highway business HB zoning
District M mayor oh let me just do the this ordinance has been published copies posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building and copies made available to the general public in accordance with the law Madame mayor uh this particular ordinance also requires mailed notice
there is additional mailed notice which needs to be circulated with respect to one of our neighboring communities therefore at this time uh the township committee if it wishes should consider a motion to carry this ordinance and its second
reading and public hearing to a date certain of April 15th uh carrying it to a date certain will mean that no additional notice will be uh published or provided thank you can I get a motion to that effect Mr Deus yes mayor I will
move that we carry ordinance 3144 d25 to the April 15th meeting I'll second Miss fritson Mr daffis yes Mr DeLuca yes M angle yes Herman yes mayor Adam yes thank you next ordinance Mr uh yes mayor
also on Final ordinance number 3147 d25 is an ordinance to amend chapter 53 of the Township Code entitled environmental advisory committee this ordinance amends the current environmental advisory committee
ordinance to reflect changes in the number of committee members promote diversity within the committee and clarify the election of committee leadership I move this ordinance to be adopted as a whole and the clerk be directed to publish the same as a pass
ordinance in the Maplewood South Orange News Record according to law I second oh mayor hearing please sorry I was just going to say I didn't do the statement oh sorry it's okay um the ordinance has been published copies
posted on the bulletin board of the municipal building and copies made available to the general public in accordance with the law the the ordinance has been moved and seconded please call the RO okay you have the hearing now oh the hearing right I thought I was catching up on everything
Mr wary could you see if there's anyone online and if there's anyone in the room who would like to speak to this ordinance the hearing for that is open now if anyone joining on Zoom would like to speak on this ordinance please raise your hand now
you see no hands ma'am thank you no one in the room either so okay so now it's been moved in second and so now we'll take a vote yep for final Mr daffis yes Mr Duca yes fangle yes serman yes mayor
Adams yes thank you the last ordinance on for final Mr fritson yes mayor item 8 C ordinance number 3148 -25 it's an ordinance to amend chapter 271 of the code of the township tapwood entitled zoning and development
regulations with respect to uses in the commercial and Industrial zoning District this ordinance will amend section 27170 F of the township code to add permitted and accessory uses in the
commercial and Industrial CI zoning District this ordinance has been published copies posted on the bulletin board of the municipal building and copies made of available to the general public in accordance with the law I'd like to move that this ordinance
be uh carried as well because it needs to go before planning board whose last meeting was cancelled and we need to give them time to look at this so I postpone it to the April 15th
second Mr Davis yes Mr Luca yes single yes M Herman yes mayor Adams yes all right now we'll move to administrative reports we'll start with Administration Mr worry thank you mayor
um the first item New Jersey American Water met with us last week to discuss their lead service line replacement typically over the past few years they had been doing their lead service line replacement ahead of our Municipal Paving program and they're working
towards the requirement to replace any lead or alanized Service uh before 2031 your uh water service is the portion between the water main and your the meter inside of your house and the
they'd like to change how they focus on map wood instead of doing these upgrades only ahead of our Paving they would like to come into Maplewood beginning next month and replace any current Le or galvanized service line Maplewood has
7,000 approximately total service lines in town 2,000 of those are known to be non-led 2,000 are known to contain lead and 3,000 are unknown so it's quite a bit of work that they have to do to replace the 2,000 that are known to be
led and the 3,000 that are unknown the the unknown ones they at least have to test pit and identify if they're LED or not um so they want to begin like I said working next month they would have four crews in the township each working in different areas each crew would take up
approximately a block at a time it's a big operation so you're talking about a couple trucks back a backo an excavator box truck um that are required to do this work that would require road closure so it's a very big Endeavor the benefit is they could finish all of these before the around the end of this
year they're hoping before the end of the year uh but depending on how many unknowns that are identified to be led it could be uh extended into next year we are like I said we just found out about this last week but they want to begin as soon as possible so we are
planning a public meeting for April 2nd at 7:30 it will be hybrid so it will be like these Township committee meetings broadcast on Zoom as well as here in person we have started to work with New Jersey American Waters Communications team to get information out to the
public so our residents in addition to the invitation for the April 2nd meeting we'll begin to see information from uh from us and from New Jersey American Water about this lead service line replacement program and New Jersey American Water will also be going door
Todo um for affected homes to drop off information and so um the the township committee and residents can look forward to more information from us over the coming weeks about this program okay and uh will the residents who are affected
be notified separately and by mail or everything likely likely with uh handouts that they they'll go door too and how far in ADV the residents um in the beginning they're just going to be doing test
pitting so it would AFF affect residents to the extent that there'll be a crew in front of their home digging around the curve boox usually the area between the sidewalk and the curb so it won't affect their Water Service uh it likely won't have a large impact on the street um and
we will work to get New Jersey American Water will work to give those residents advanced notice and then if it's identified there'll be continued contact with those residents to let them know when the replacement will take place because that requires a lot more disruption of service it's the replacement of the line they would
likely be in the house they're going to give you instructions on how to flush uh water after the repair is made um and and there's protocols to be followed after the replacement is made so they'll be those residents will have a lot of contact with American Water we're also
working with them on making sure that the information they distribute is in languages that uh have become common in mapw would and uh New Jersey American water is um is partnering us with us on making those notices in
multiple okay so there's going to be an opportunity for an evening on a uh sorry April 2nd to just talk about this to get a full overview by New Jersey American and to be able to ask questions at that
meeting that's right okay Mr do okay I have two questions um these numbers do they include uh commercial or is it just residential this is everybody everybody okay so so yes it includes commercial all right so we might want to reach out
to the two special improvement district so that they can share that with their members and the other thing is we have had situations when New Jersey American changes things they um end up putting a
rather large cap to replace what's generally considered a small cap about the size of a softball this now becomes the size of a pretty big Frisbee we've had problems where they haven't been able to put that in the burm between the
sidewalk and the curb so it ends up going on the property the property side of the sidewalk so on the second we ought to make sure they speak about that so we're completely clear about what they might do and how that might impact
someone's property my go ahead started to talk to them about not that specific problem but about their separate effort to move all the water meters out of the house and onto the curb which is what what that
was larger pit at the curb and we're getting more information about that that to your point will be presented at the same time Mr Taff yeah so um I'm an optimistic person so I'd like to have some faith that New Jersey American
water is going to give advanced notice and and plan this methodically um but I have reservations about that this is a massive project uh and it it's going to go on for months into next year possibly as you noted do we have an idea of where
in town they want to start is there a plan so that when we bring folks together to the public meeting on the second we can say this section of Maplewood first this section of Maplewood second and so on and so forth they haven't
developed that yet but that was a conversation that the engineer and I had with New Jersey American Water they understand the uh the sections that we already have in town we asked them if they would work off of those sections because they're common to our residents
um and also to uh make sure they're choosing section so that you know we we roll This Out with both the benefit and the impact spread throughout town so likely they'll have two Crews working in one section and two crews in another section and that's how they'll proceed
through um and then weekly they will be providing us and the residents and likely we'll also be providing residents a onewe look ahead for where they are going to be a lot of this is currently um to be determined because 3,000 of
these potentially 5,000 service lines to be replaced are not known what the material is yet so that means test pitting and not until they test pit will they know if that line has to be replaced the test pinning is relatively straightforward a service line replacement takes a lot more time so
they're they they don't know and that's one of the reasons why they hope to be out of here by the end of the year but they're not sure because they just don't know how many lead service lines they're going to have to replace the difference between 2,000 and 5,000 as you could expect is uh has a great impact on their
operation but to your original question yes that's something that the engineer and I will Contin and and the public information officer will continue to work with them on finding out where they are where they're going to be next and rely relaying that to the public great and my second concern is
about um so they're going to do the prep work first and then eventually they'll get started in replacing the actual lines um are we going to make sure that that work aligns with our road
program the work to be done in anticipation of our Paving is a separate contract from American water with separate contract which is good because they already know where we're Paving this year and that work is going to be at least on American Water side handled separately on our side we want it to
look the same so it's easy for our residents to understand but um that means yes that work will be done in advance of our Paving program this year okay because you know we've we've had situations where the public utility came in and ripped up newly paved Road that's
part of their job they do that everywhere yeah and I expected they've already been for a few years doing these Replacements ahead of Paving right so hopefully any road that they has to have to open will already be maybe three to five years from paving at in the worst
case scenario but we have a moratorium on those roads which means that if they do choose to open them they have more work to be done to replace what was existing right so it's they can't just patch it with a like it's got to go Center a boxed out repair with a
patch on top of it they would likely do depending on what the road looks like and where they're replacing they may do Center Line to curb repavement they might do H curb to curb replacement they might do um replacement where they bring a special machine that heats up all the asphalt around the repair and blends it
together U that that's a responsibility of the township Eng engineer the township Engineers already started to explain all this to American water and it's what they expect it's no different than our typical operation any other questions yeah I have a question um is this the same work that they've done already before with
and well first let me back up the when you say like lead lines so I feel like when we do Communications we should do a health um angle of it as well because you hear lead lines and you get worried about you're drinking water and I was asking if this is the same work they've done before because I remember that the literature about what's safe to drink
what's not not safe to drink wasn't given out in advance or known and we already know 2,000 lines are LED and we don't want to like call attention and make like a brewhaha but I'm just wondering about this health angle to make our residents feel comfortable that
what they have right now is not a I mean I don't know it's not but not affecting what they're drinking and then what happens next could we have a they already know so we have a clear outline of like what happens with the water after in terms of what the what's known to Residents New Jersey American water has a web site you can go on put in your
address and it will tell you as much as they know about your LED service line or excuse me as much as they know about your service line so if the portion between your house and the curve box is known to be lead or galvanized they'll identify that if it's known to be non-l galvaniz they'll identify that same
thing with between the curve boox and the meter and the main and if it's unknown they'll identify that as well and residents um they've also been doing some mailings over at least the last year with some information about you know what what to do if you have a lead service line so um that some of that
information is already known if you as a resident don't know it you should go on America New Jersey American wat's website to find out if you Google New Jersey American Water lead service line replacement program it'll bring up their a website that they have dedicated just to this this is information that we'll start to
put out to the public um it has FAQs it has information about what happens and then in with the replacement and then to your second question about getting information two residents as they do these U programs last year was
the first Maplewood was the first town that uh New Jersey American Water had started to deliver pictures to people who had their line replaced that was a new federal requirement and I know that caused a lot of confusion uh we discussed this with New Jersey American
Water they've learned a lot from us and also with other municipalities that they've worked in in the meantime and they have a uh they say a smoother roll out for what that looks like and also why that picture is required and that's information that we'll get from them and start to share with our residents and we'll make sure that it's addressed at
that April 2nd meeting thank you welcome yeah probably should have a separate page on the website page our website we will yeah absolutely yeah I was just going to make sure that the meeting is going to be recorded so people who aren't there and then secondly um I'm sure that there are going to be a lot of
questions from residents that they may not so if they can't make it to the meeting I want to make sure that we provide um a way for residents to send in questions either before the meeting or after the meeting or just during this whole process yeah absolutely and
anything on our website will be done mostly pointing people to New Jersey American water and providing their resources getting questions and and asking those questions to New Jersey American Water they're the experts on this they're the ones responsible for the system and for this replacement we
want to do uh everything we can to advocate for our residents and to make sure that this is um done with as as little impact as we can and we had the option of having them come into town right away so this is a big undertaking it will be disruption to our residents
but the benefit is we get these replaced now they could have maybe not done some residents 2031 right and so you know we're we're really working with them to for the benefit of our residents yes and based on our past experience last year we'll be
very forward thinking as far as keeping on top of them whether by our engineer for our roads or through our health officer and getting information out and our PI and coordinating with you know our nixel alerts that there's road closures or you know yeah this kind of
thing I mean like this morning the majority of Ridgewood Avenue was closed off no nixel I mean so we got to do better about that and I know that that's because we probably got very little notice if any notice about um it was
psng that was on Ridgewood Avenue earlier today so so anyway these things happen we understand big utility but these are the things that we want to see um Administration stay on top of yeah I just want to note I went to that website
I Googled what you said Mr warry and it says there's actually also a um a self-reporting option you can watch a video follow stepbystep instructions send a picture so perhaps that's something that might help with the 3,000 unknown absolutely yeah especially the portion that is on
the right and shows you how to look in your basement exactly and New Jersey American water is looking for help in that area because the more we can identify before they start digging the quicker this work will go and with the least disruption okay perhaps we can do a tip Tuesday or
something all right do you have anything else Mr warry from just one other item on tonight's agenda we are hiring a public health nursing supervisor so welcome to Suzette G susette Gail okay that is all thank you mayor big shoes to Phil any other questions for Mr
Big Shoes okay not seeing none we'll go to Township attorney cedido I like it all right Township Clerk oh anybody have any questions for attorney okay Township Clerk fritson um
yeah a couple things mayor so uh I just want to report mostly for the public Township committee already knows this that um since our last meeting we receiv received approval from the uh commissioners of the Essex County Board
of Elections to move our uh polling site from Columbia High School back to Clinton School um and that's uh four Maplewood districts 41016 and 22 again uh it was uh the Township's recommendation that we
do that and we did receive um approval so I know it's a little bit early but you know I want to bring it up for the public and we'll certainly uh on our end and also the County's end uh we'll do a lot of notification to the public in those four
districts right yeah and then uh one more thing um we have a deadline on Monday at 4 pm for petitions for um Maplewood Township committee and uh the
township clerk's office will close at 4M on Monday March 2 4th that is the last time for um petition filing for the June 10th primary thank you thank you any
questions for our clerk nope seeing none we'll move to elected officials Committee Member Ango thank you um for the last time I'm going to remind everyone that the Soma Interfaith Holocaust remembrance service is this Sunday March 23rd at um it
starts at 300 p.m. with a March in spota and then then we marched to um Congregation Beth L and Irvington in South Orange for the service that starts at 400 p.m. followed by a small reception this year's remember and tell Interfaith service explores the powerful theme of resistance and resilience we
are honored to feature guest speaker Dr Jud newborn and Emmy awardwinning historian and co-author of Sophie schaw and the white rules um join the S Interfaith Holocaust remembrance Service as we honor the past remember the victims and Stand United against
resurgent anti-semitism and hate I also want to remind everybody that youthnet is looking for both mentors and youth to participate in their summer intership program it's a great program um the township has had interns I've hosted an intern at my business and so um there's information
on their website you can Google youthnet to find out more um if you follow our social media and if you don't you should and you should also sign up for our awesome new newsletter that comes out on Wednesdays with all the information you need to know from all the Departments um but if you follow it you may have seen that we were talking about recycling
fibers um because the more cardboard and fibers that includes the mail with the plastic on it that we collect it's actually a revenue driver for the township versus plastic which costs money so the more fiber that we collect it can offset the cost of plastic so I just wanted to make a note of that here
in our meeting and um that is my report thank you Miss angle any questions for committee I had a I had one question I was thinking about fiber when I was driving past some businesses and I was thinking we might might really want to make sure that our um MVA and Springfield know so they can talk to
businesses so that's a different situ I'll cut you off because businesses are not included in our Township recycling program they have to pay for the service themselves and I don't even know if it's a required service and so it is something that perhaps we can bring to engineering committee about why
commercial own businesses can't partake in the Township recycling program and why the burden is put on them great idea any other questions anything else you want to add to the agenda yes a very long meeting longer report
next time Deputy Mayor Herman Europe thank you um so I want to point out a couple of things um on the well one thing on the consent agenda tonight that I'm very excited about which is a resolution to reauthorize the all access committee this is something that I've
been working really hard on setting up so that we can start to get to work on making sure that our town programs events and facilities are accessible to Residents who are disabled and are neurod Divergent and their families um I still have a few spots on that committee
so um I'm specifically looking for residents who themselves are disabled um or who for example may have um physical Mobility challenges we want to not only represent the disability Community but also be their voice um so please reach out to me if this is you and you want to
join us in this um and also last last week in our consent agenda um was the we approved the contract for the design work to start work on our proposed inclusive playground Maple Crest so this is another component um that that we
have in making our community more accessible and I'm really proud um of both of those updates um last week I got to extend the CHS musical prom which is really amazing and the next day I went to the opening of just like a girl event at our 1978
Arts Center which is a product a production of our arts and culture division uh for women's history month and it this event included um more than 50 Young Artists featuring 90 original works of Arts you can go see this exhibit every Saturday and Sunday for
the rest of the month and many of the names of the artists it was really exciting to see their names listed next to their pieces because I recognized a lot of them so that was that was really exciting um but there's there's more that our youth in town are doing it's it's so amazing because speaking of our youth I want to give a big shout out to
our basketball players three of our mapso basketball teams won their um placed in their championships the Suburban League fifth grade boys and seventh grade boys um and the JBL League sixth grade boys got Bronze in addition
our um our female teams also um made it to the championship games and so we're really proud of them as well um speaking of basketball we have more coming up Spring mapso Madness co-ed spring basketball clinics for boys and girls
ages grades 3rd to 8th um and so if you go on our web uh Rec desk you can sign up for more basketball um speaking of rack our fields are scheduled to open at the end of this month on March 31st so we're
very excited about that of course it's weather dependent so cross your fingers um thank you to all of our seasonal job applicants and letting you know that we are looking for more we're accepting applications for Camp counselors pool staff and Camp
directors so if um there are any teachers looking for summer work we have leadership positions available uh please head to our website Maplewood nj.gov and go to the Community Services page um and you can find out the application where you can apply you can also come and
apply in person um and just a few dates that you can mark down we've got our spring egg hunt coming up on Saturday April 12th at Memorial Park right across from town hall very excited about that and we've got actually our seniors are
going to be helped filling up those eggs um on Wednesday March 26th and April 2nd at 11:00 a.m. at the Maplewood Senior Center so this is a really great way to tie in seniors and our youth um and then our seniors um there's an there's a
lunch and learn on March 25th f um exploring how conversations about care can lead to meaningful relationships and long-term well-being so that's all that I have to reports lots of amazing things all right any questions for Deputy Mayor how old do you have to be to apply for a
summer job if you're a youth is a 14 you know yeah oh not how old on the other end no for the youngsters yeah okay all right great then we'll move to Committee
Member de no report mayor thank you you're up Mr DeLuca I'll make up for Mr daffis yeah you had a lot this month I have six items and and number four is this SL you had a lot this month okay so
we have a lot going on um so on Monday the 24th in the morning we are going to start a new morning drop off traffic pattern at the middle school and um this all goes back to um the student students
at the middle school their uh stem tank team um they took a look at this problem they've uh they evaluated it came up with some solutions we had a meeting with them uh I was joined by Mr Barry of engineering and uh sergeant defasio of the police department and we had a
meeting with them on March 6th and they gave us three solutions and we discussed um what we thought would work and that is to create a oneway around the school um using uh Bernett Maple and Donell to
create a loop around the school and um that's going to start on Monday morning and it's only going to be a temporary it's going to be from about 7:30ish to about 8:20 and then goes back to normal uh travel so is that a test period for
like a month no no we're going to just see how it goes and Tinker with it um we have uh the police are cooperating DPW is cooperating with the police to have barricades and we got some signs and we're set to go uh Monday morning and
it's be uh the public notice has just been worked out between the school board and the town and it'll start tomorrow tomorrow and MMS will send out something to parents uh yeah they're going to use this what what they come up with great so it's going to be a unified uh message
uh number two Parker Avenue bike lane so we are proposing a concept of creating a bike lane um both uh Eastbound and Westbound on Parker Avenue we've had two meetings
previously um on March 3rd and March 10th and then our final meeting will be on Monday March 24th and that's 7:30 and that'll be via zoom and you can get the link on the township website we're going to be focusing this meeting on the section between Bo and Avenue and
Irvington Avenue which presents a few challenges with the park there with some small businesses there and with smaller Lots where people have less driveway space less maneuverability so they're jockeying cars in and out often leave
their cars on the street so we're going to hopefully uh we're going to be sending out letters door the door again and um we' be doing some press about it also and then we're going to follow that meeting up we're going to be talking about well I don't know you put so many items on the engineering Public Works
not sure we're going to have time for this but well I ail 9th April 9th we're going to have um a discussion about what we heard and and um get some feedback from our professionals at our engineering Public Works and planning meeting and that's going to be uh 8: am
that's a public meeting via zoom and then on April 15th we will talk about it again at the township committee meeting when we talk about our capital budget we do have tentatively plugged in uh $275,000 for this project it's a it's a
huge undertaking um and look you know we want to move but we want to move when we're ready and when the community is ready so if more meetings are necessary we'll just keep having more meetings and and you know touching base with people so that we can get um you know be really clear about
how we want to move forward uh the third item is deart Park another big project this is a huge project uh because we're going to reconstruct the field uh it's going to be a grass field you know there was proposal to make it a turf field that was reject Ed by the voters so
we're back to U making it the best grass field we can uh We've engaged an engineering firm VHB and they've come up with some field designs and some drainage proposals and we're going to be putting that out to the community our first meeting is going to be in the
community center at deart park on Thursday April 3D and that's an in-person meeting now might also just say that in addition to the field design um there's going to be some rearranging of of the walkway around the field and there's a lot of people that use that
walkway I that might be the most contentious so we're going to make sure that we're clear about how we're going to um arrange that we're going to keep it but there's going to have to be some uh reconfiguration of that walk around the park um so that's April 3rd we're
going to have that inperson meeting then we're going to talk about it again at April 9th engineering Public Works meeting and that'll be via zoom and then on the 15th at uh Township committee we'll be talking about it one more time and again if more meetings are necessary
we will do so I just want to state that the Consultants are now at a point where they need direction so that's why we're trying to move this um if we can you know come to some conclusion and and really what uh just to let people know what's being talked about is right now
there's a field that includes a playing field and a softball field the idea is to remove the softball field and create two two large Playing Fields um so that we could alternate and rest fields and use the fields manage the fields a lot better than what we can do right now so
that's what's proposed but it does mean some changes there that's the only lit field we have so um so those are some of the conversations that we will have uh next up is the show and tail with the library want to give you a quick heads up today we we hit a
milestone um and that is the delivery of Library Furniture yay so that was uh brought in this morning and that kicks off about a 100 days until we can get open this is um this is the first batch
of Library furniture on the 20 you can go to next slide on the 24th we'll be getting um our bookcases and you can see the library this is the second floor of the library this is all open ready to go you see the glass wall along the uh the
park there and it's set for furniture so this is a big step we're now getting the furniture in um and then there'll be uh so then the books come after all that comes in then the books come actually there's a there's a a spot in between
where where we run the ventilation system for two weeks to just clean the air yeah because all this stuff brings in chemicals you know and so we want to get everything out and clean the air so that's all built in there too and then I wanted to talk about our solar so here
you can see the rooftop solar collectors um this is a huge aspect of uh what we're doing here this is a lead gold building um it is the only lead gold library in the state of New Jersey uh you can go to the next slide this is
these are the the back office of our uh Library solar system this is on the left there you see our uh our systems these are batteries and this is how the thing works and on the right we're actually hooked up and we're generating electricity right now going back and uh
it's going back to psng and 55% of the electricity of the building will be produced by those solar collectors so that's it um so again uh we're looking right now boy it looks like early July just
because we got to get things in and out and the books we've we did a the library did a call for volunteers and got somewhere around 90 people who were willing to help with the books good then we can have to lift 20 so we can listen we could do it before we'll do it before
but we're we're just being a little safe uh next I just want to announce this Thursday night on the 20th at 7:30 p.m at the community center the Hilton neighbor Association is having its women's History Month event and that's Deputy police chief uh Nima Malloy will
be there to speak about her experience as our first female um police chief and Deputy police chief and uh her journey uh she came came to us after a short stint as an Irvington police officer and we brought her on and she's worked her
way up she was the first an Ever uh Lieutenant of our detective Bureau female uh detective um leading that Bureau so we're going to listen to her again that's Thursday night 7:30 at the community center and that's 1220 Bernett Avenue and lastly today I uh believe it
or not I need to get a life I ride up and down Park to look at um the parking that's there and when I got down to the end of Parker I said oh let me stop into sweet spot because that's our new Dispensary on the corner of Parker and um and Irvington and uh they they're
doing a soft opening and I went in there and yes they are they're selling pot and um they're going to be working with us to do a grand open so um but they're opening we have that resolution 105-25 to renew their license so I'm
glad they're finally opening that's it Excell any questions for Mr Duca how many more things should we add to the engineering [Laughter] meeting things people talk yeah I think when you got you took over that committee you thought you were going to
be able to shrink that agenda it doesn't happen on that the only thing that shrunk was me yeah the weight the weight has down jez all right um so for my report I just have um tomorrow night at
soac law of we have another women's History Month event uh honoring The Unsung shirros of our community um what this we did this for the first time last year we have six different I think it's six different categories of members of
our community or people who work here who aren't front and center aren are not elected officials or department heads in either town but do a lot of work and and deserve some recognition um our own St Ross Trevor from our division of
cultural Affairs is um going to be receiving a community service award for her work for the township and going through a lot of changes the last couple years and kind of carrying things forward and doing a a great job at the
same time so um that event is sold out it's it's at uh soac in the Loft as I said but other events are still ongoing in the community for the month of March Mar to in honor of women's History Month um Deputy Mayor mentioned just like a
girl which is um I believe we're extending that I talked with Andrea about extending that into the middle of the of next month because it um so everybody gets a chance to go see it it was really inspirational um to see not
just the art but the comments made by um the girls who submitted and just kind of giving us all a little bit of hope for the future um we also I want to thank Duran heden and Department of cultural
Affairs for Rebecca bogs Roberts um book talk at uh at the Woodland and then the reception following at Duran headen so there's still a lot going on for women's History Month Som women.org is the website to find out any events that are
going on plus there's book lists on there from our library for both younger readers and adult readers in honor of women's history um so I urge you to go to that website and find out all you need to know um our Redevelopment plan
for the movie theater Redevelopment area was um has been talked about community meeting about uh we had three Community meetings and then we got input and consultation from the Maplewood Village
Alliance the historic preservation commission and the Maplewood Film Society and all of this information was sved through our community or what's it called the committee of Economic Development and Entrepreneurship I know
I got that backwards but um that committee is a subcommittee of the township committee and we talked at length about the Redevelopment plan there um the Rel updated plan was released yesterday to the public it's on
our website and um people can go see what is incorporated really what the Redevelopment plan does it's a non-c condemnation Redevelopment plan for this area in need of Redevelopment that we deemed in need of Redevelopment last
year and um this is really a zoning document that sort of States what is permitted what is um allowed to happen in this in this very specific section of Maplewood Village um it does not give us
any powers of condemnation it does not um allow us to tell somebody what to do like there are desires by the community as we heard at the different Community meetings that um a movie theater is desired that may or may not happen these
are there's a private purchaser for many of the properties in the U Redevelopment area and they will work with us but we'll be following what's in the Redevelopment plan which is in its latest draft form um on our website as I
said um so I want to take the temperature of the township committee with regard to um any other community meetings if we think there is um a need for more Community meetings on this Redevelopment plan and I want to take
that temperature because I know there's um some uh desire to do more and some desire to not do more as far as those special meetings we still have when uh we do bring this to the township
committee um as uh to codify the Redevelopment plan then we will um have that first meeting where it's on for discussion and for codification or on first motion it would then go so that's an opportunity for the public to speak
and ask questions about it or give their opinions the second time they upcoming that they have that opportunity will be at the planning board meeting and then the third time will be at the township committee meeting again for a hearing um on that on second reading for the
Redevelopment plan so there's still plenty of time with that but I wanted to know if um this committee thinks we need extra meetings on top of that to get more input I open it
up I do I think we should have one more community meeting but I think it should happen after we are clear that the contract is done and the building has been sold because
um then it just changes the debate and I think people need we you know we we've done some changes here and I think people need to see the final or what's proposed now the March one and then give us some feedback um and then we should give them feedback too of of what we're hearing
from the developer okay anyone else I agree with Mr Duca I think this is a very Community is very engaged with this issue and they've spoken out about it they gave feedback we've Incorporated feedback and I just think that another meeting to be inclusive of people's voices and so that
we can show them what we did I agree I I would like that idea too because I don't not on that committee so I don't really know much about the buyer what their plans are so that would be cool if that is known but I I think we should um besides outside of the township committee I think we should have another meeting about
that um I also agree that we should have another meeting I think that but I I don't feel like we should have one now because we don't really there's so still a lot of unknowns um so I like Mr duca's um point
about having it once the deal is more final um so not right away not right now but once we have more information and we have more of a deal that's done then I think that's the appropriate time yeah thanks mayor I mean I believe in community meetings uh we want to be
transparent and as informative uh as we can be and we want this process to be ongoing collaborative and it has been very collaborative we've engaged the community a lot and more so than in other recent redevelopments if I may say
in Maplewood uh so the process has been collaborative and transparent um I just worry that if we did a community meeting anytime soon um like right now there isn't really anything it
wouldn't be a productive meeting in my opinion because there isn't anything to relay uh the draft Redevelopment plan that was published yesterday on the website incorporates as the mayor said all of the feedback that we received
from the three at large public Community meetings and the various stakeholder meetings that the mayor noted with the different stakeholder groups so um kind of opening that up again and going back out to the community right now and
saying uh okay what do you think could um lends itself to the opportunity of not having a productive meeting um and uh confusing people and frustrating them we really don't don't have as a deputy mayor said anything to
report uh when we do have a community meeting though after um the deal closes if the deal closes um then we have to discuss this idea of whether or not um we put out a
Redline version of the plan um and that gets tricky too because if if you have a community meeting to say hey come look at the plan people are going to ask well what's different from what we discussed last time and then we have to show them In
fairness if we're going to have a community meeting we have to show them all the changes that were made and walk them through as to why and we've done that in our uh economic development committee meeting uh which is public sort of we we we need to make decide if
that's going to be a public meeting and promote it more as a public meeting only certain people know about it and they come um so I just you know I think that we if we're going to do a community meeting after the deal closes then we need to walk people through everything
and uh we have to make a decision with how much information um a redact some people have reached out to me already this is why I mentioned the redacted thing I'm not trying to open another can here of worms but people have mentioned it and I replied to them that uh It's
tricky because the the redline version of the uh Redevelopment plan includes privileged work product by our attorney who is our Redevelopment attorney as well and therefore the the uh the expert in bringing this to a more final version
and so uh we could potentially put out a redlined version of the draft um but also redact all the comments in it which is sort of like not putting out anything at all right so there's a dance here and I know that there are people who are
emailing us passionately that they want to see the redline version I completely appreciate that but I'm merely stating these things to offer a little bit more information as to why I think uh we possibly collectively think that that is a little bit tricky right now and and
not necessarily as helpful as some folks believe that it will be so so that's where I stand on this okay um I I disagree and I'm going to follow our attorney's advice with regard to releasing a Redline version I think it
would create too much uh confusion and a lot of it is not it's more as you stated legal advice as to why certain things were changed or and without the benefit of the whole conversation that went into
that I think that's it it just is not necessary to put out a Redline version we can go through as we have before with our planner identifying what has been taken from um the advice that was given by the different groups the three
Community meetings the different groups the historic preservation mood Village Alliance and the Film Society but I don't think we should be making things more confusing anybody can get see what was done anybody following it that closely likely has all those documents
and can compare them um so I don't I don't think it's necessary to do that and I think we we already at the last seed meeting we talked about whether or not to do that and on advice of council we thought it was better to send the
clean version that incorporated all the all the uh changes that came up until this point um and just to clarify I just want to make sure I'm not suggesting we do that either I'm just saying I H no no no I I'm just saying that when we go out
to the public again yeah that that is part of that discussion and consideration okay so we'll just table whether not we have any what meeting we have what what form it takes until um such time as uh that's necessary to go
through but for now the uh current iteration of the Redevelopment plan is available to the public so so do you think we should have another meeting I I don't think we should have another community meeting I don't think it's necessary I think but you know I I live
in a democracy at the moment so I I can read the te leaves and I um disagree but I but it's fine either way um and then we will also have those three other opportunities for the public to comment as I stated before in two TC meetings in
the planning board so with that that's my report and I'll move to discussion items youth advisory committee changes Miss Sangle thank you um so I Love Our Youth advisory committee and we're really growing and we work together to make a couple of changes to our
ordinance um right now what we want to do is change the ordinance to allow for two youth per grade with a Max of 12 members right now it's one per grade with a Max of seven members so we just think it's more beneficial to have more voices and so people have a tag team the second thing is um we'd like to allow
for co-chairs our ordinance currently says a chair and vice chair but we had two kind of like founding members of this iteration and we we talked about reorganization they wanted to do it together it's a freshman and a junior and so they've been working hard together um and so we wanted to change
the ordinance to allow for that since they're busy high schoolers I'm fine with it anybody have any problems good so then we can put this on the agenda for the next as a ordinance for the next oh damn no not yet look
at we we got like 17 minutes okay my next one might be a little bit more of a a discussion yeah that why you wanted to I'll take a motion to extend past 9:30 moved second
yes Luca yes Miss angle yes M Herman yes fine mayor Adams yes hopefully not but yes so I can't remember when we started talking at health and community service meeting about s for two two towns for all ages but um I put this on because we
have $40,000 in the budget to go toward a part-time I think a part-time employee that we haven't funded recently because the way that S 2 towns for all ages started and the way things are now have kind of changed a bit and so what I wanted to propose was I agree with the
initiative of S 2 towns for all ages and being an age- friendly Community 100% and making sure we have policy and people paying attention um and and Advising us and having ideas for how we can help our seniors age in place and more um but I think that we have such a
robust um programming for our seniors right now and with Miss Herman really um bringing on new voices onto our senior advisory committee when you look at that ordinance it's supposed to advise on some policy so what I am suggesting is that we move that $440,000 out of that
line we don't hire anybody and we just still do the same initiatives in a different way we have our programming um which is great and then we can ramp up our senior advisory committee to help with some of the policy stuff our programming team at community service has already done some of the policy
workshops around like I I hope they're going to be doing one around Medicaid I know they've done stuff before for in the election season and so they're already planning those kind of programming and so that is why I think that we can still be an age-friendly initiative and and and move forward the same kind of great things we've done
like home share and adus um but that we don't necessarily need to fund a $4,000 position to do it I agree we've had um a few meetings with between both towns and we we go in
wanting to um clarify what we're doing as the Two Towns um s Two Towns for all ages and what and then we we come out in the same exact place it's almost like having the same meeting um over and over again I feel
like uh so I I agree with the main part I agree with Miss angle on in I agree with pretty much everything she said and is that um Deputy Mayor Herman is taking the initiative to um broaden the membership or fill
fill existing empty seats on the senior advisory committee um and do so with people who um have a an ear and an eye toward policy which is the main thing that I'm I'm hearing that uh the Som Two
Towns for all ages is not just it's not just programming for seniors it's policy and to to miss angle's point with adus and home share um and I at least would like to give um us the chance to see if
we can do that without the existing s Two Towns Network or or the the way it's set up and and to be clear we it was funded by a grant that it's no longer funded by so um and it also used to be one position Maplewood and South Orange
together and then it got split right because yeah so it became it became not what it was originally or not what it was guided toward it but so um yeah so I'm going to jump in here and I'm going to let uh Committee Member
Duca supplement anything that I missed because he then mayor of Maplewood along with mayor Sheena Cullum was at the Forefront of establishing s Two Towns for all ages what the heck is Som Two Towns for all ages Som Two Towns for all
ages um is established South Orange and Maplewood as agef friendly communities even though we understand those words that is a technical designation that's provided by
AARP it means that the communities um are communities that are age friendly in everything not just programming meaning having yoga and exercise and art and stuff like that for our older adults but also policy driven to ensure that
everything that we're doing all the dec ISS that we're doing even when we're not talking about our Elder residents or making decisions about them that age friendliness is at the core of everything that we're doing so we have always had senior
advisory committies and ones with fome membership and ones that were active and even though the charter of our senior advisory committee includes that our uh senior me our members who
are seniors on the committee are also focused on policy we recognized that there was a need for an initiative that would specifically focus on policies that
ensure that we are age friendly community so somu towns for all ages is what was established and um through somu towns for all ages we became an age friendly community in New Jersey we were
recognized by the state of New Jersey um and we led the way and helped other communities in New Jersey also become age-friendly communities Ridgewood Montclair Glen Ridge and many other communities and the way that it it was
set up was in this following manner it was set up with one age-friendly Community coordinator who would be responsible for seeing through the policy
initiatives reporting to each Town under the management and supervision of a management committee the management committee was comprised of members of each Town's senior advisory committee members of the
governing body in the beginning it was committeeman DeLuca then mayor and mayor Sheena colum and a neutral third party and members of um Administration from both towns and that's how we started this and
through Som 2 towns for all ages we were able to receive paid for consultation from third parties outside of Maplewood we became uh a community that um put into place accessory dwelling units
as Miss Missing middle housing it's a way to ensure that our seniors can age in place and we did that through this initiative we also expanded our home sharing in Maplewood through this
initiative so it was always about policy and not all of the great programming and fun things that we have the trips to Broadway shows the trips to the Jersey Shore that's not Soma Two Towns for all ages and it was all always meant to be
separate we quickly realized after we hired our first person that that person could not cover both towns it was too much for one person in a part-time position by the way each Town had its
own administrative and bureaucracy complexities and um quickly it was recommended to us that we have two coordinators one for Maplewood and one for South Orange so we had one for Maplewood and we had one for South
Orange South Orange still has theirs we lost ours and so the question is now do we hire a new person or do we get rid of this or do we find another way to do it so I have consulted with the
age-friendly community of New Jersey AARP and they have confirmed over and over that we can continue being an age-friendly community so long as we focus on these POS policy initiatives but we don't need to be married to this
framework certainly the management committee hasn't met in over a year and as I just stated we've lost our respective somu towns for a coordinator so is there another way to do this same thing through existing resources The
Hope and aspiration is that Deputy Mayor Malia Herman will inspire the senior advisory committee to do policy work I hope that's true and I hope I'm proven wrong and no disrespect to any member of the senior advisory committee but the
issue is not the lack of Interest or ability of the senior advisory committee the issue is having someone who was responsible who was a Township employee who was supervised independently by
Administration to see through these initiatives and that may not be an elder volunteer of the senior advisory committee so I think we need to carry this initiative forward and we me we need to make an a
decision about the framework outside of whether we want to use that $40,000 for another purpose for another position it shouldn't be about the $440,000 it should be about the initiative and how it should go forward
so um I think we need to talk to South Orange and see if their coordinator is willing to do more for Maplewood I'm not sure if that's the case and I think that certainly we don't need the management
committee um I I think we need to find a way to ensure that these Pol policy initiatives um are carried forward and the work continues in a new framework if we're not going to hire a separate coordinator for
Maplewood I don't know what that looks like though in terms of a new framework commitment delca I don't mean to put you on the spot you started this right no so talk
don't worry shy yeah so um I'll just cut to the chase if you think that the senior committee with the current Staffing we have is going to do policy you're wrong right it's not going to happen I was more diplomatic and and
because it's not it's not their job their job is to do program yeah their job is senior not in the ordinance I'm like the environmental advisory I'm talking about the staff right the staff is programming right but it's the same way that the environmental advisory a separate staff wait let Missle I'm just saying like we have an envir
environmental you go Mr yeah that would be nice all right so I just don't think that unless you change the staff you're going to get the senior advisory committee and we can't put it on Deputy Mayor Herman you're not you're not a staff person
so you know I I don't I don't want to be romantic here to say that the structure we created back in 2016 is the only structure but I think that there were some very good things that were done then you know we still do a newsletter
you know we we dealt with issues like um infrastructure talk about handicapped parking spaces benches throughout the community walkability uh we we created the whole thing of when you're doing a block party here are the things you ought to think
about to make sure your elderly residents are included our events have now a special section for our elderly residents so it really it it created a Consciousness that we didn't have before and I don't think we're going to
continue that unless we have somebody who's on staff that's focused to do that whatever body they work with whether it's a management committee or the senior committee um that could probably be worked out but if you remove this
from a staff position you don't have the staff that's focused on policy they have so much to do on program and that's their orientation that's all I have well we just don't have any policy staff for any of our other angle any other other areas
like I'll bring up environmental advisory committee because that's the one I've been serving on the longest and they are all about policy they bring up initiatives they do the research they walk work with Mr warry with Mr kitner they've toured the recycling industry they give us full out recommendations their policy Focus yeah we have an amazing chair who's been there a long
time we have like you know but I just think that Miss Herman's been interviewing people and meeting with people who are interested in this policy area and I think what year did you say you did this 2016 times change and 40 ,000 for a part-time position is more than some of our community and services
program managers are making so I just feel like we can look a different way maybe we fail maybe we don't get the senior advisory committee as engaged and wanting to do this and then we can reconsider it because I agree that having some sort of agef friendly initiative is really important when we're talking about policy I thought
that's our job and I thought that's the reason we have boards and committees they who are top subject matter experts who can advise us on things that we should be looking at and how to move policy forward so I disagree that we need a staff person yeah I I agree with Miss angle on on this particular Point
um as well because um we do our our subcommittee's environmental advisory is a perfect example of where they discuss Uh current trends current issues related to environment and then they the
liaison for that currently mango brings it to the proper other either other subcommittee or on for discussion for the township committee and I don't see any reason why and and adus and um the home share and stuff that was a lot of
the township committee talking about and and but that came to us though through S Two Towns for all ages yes I know but I'm saying that it could I think we should at least give it a shot to see if the senior advisory committee can kind of step into that role of policy
initiatives and policy research and then bringing that to us I I don't I'm not convinced we need a staff person to do policy because I I just I'm not convinced because I I've experienced successful subcommittees um the other
way and to your point about the maybe the people currently on I know there's a lot of openings on senior advisory committee and I think it is our job as a liaison to shape what those committees are doing and if you go back to the ordinance it specifically says that they're supposed to be talking about policy just like the environmental advisory committee ordinance say it
youth advisory committee or ordinance as it so I just feel like it's a worthwhile M Herman you've been quiet thank you um thank you for everyone and your confidence in me in the senior advisory committee I do want to say that the senior advisory committee is they're
they're reluctant to let anything go that is in their Corner um we currently have um I think it's somewhere like six or seven members um of um like Town officials who join their committee every month and they're
reluctant to let any of them go because they're afraid that they're not going to get answers and so they're reluctant to let some for Two Towns go because they're worried that they're not going to get that but I I completely agree with what Miss Engle said regarding all the other committees that don't have
this staff person doing policy because um you know you know I have been on the pool committee for a long time and they a very set you know specific thing that they're they're working on but Rec committee there's some policy that we're going to have to deal with there regarding field usage and you know and
we're starting up the all access committee and that's an area the disabled Community here that has not ever had um any any representation in town looking out for their interest and I think there's a lot of overlap for the senior community and the disabled
community and you know once you open it up for one you really are opening up for a lot more accessibility for all which I think is really wonderful um and so you know I see like it be it'd be really great if we each had our own policy person to help us um and I was just
opening up here I just got this um as I knock over things I just got this New Jersey Statewide survey of older adults this is August 2024 we have um you know so because I want to point out that we have state we have organization
that put out um information this is from the New Jersey advocates for aging well in New Jersey and so we have organizations that put out policy recommendations that look at what other towns are doing um you know and I think
that um you know we have done Su for Two Towns has done a lot of really amazing work in laying the groundwork and the onus is absolutely on us to keep it going I was happy to hear that the designation would not um we would not lose a designation cuz that's really
important to me um you know and so I think you know um we can absolutely continue the work um we can do more policy and Senior advisory that is certainly my goal I think that um you know um yeah I I think this is a this is
a conversation that has been going on for quite a while um I I would I think my ideal would be if the one if one person was doing Maple W in South Orange so yeah that would be my ideal um you know but again none of the other committees have this you know policy
person and we've had the benefit of this policy person um lead the way on all of these senior initiatives and they led the it led the way and we now have in place a lot of things that we can continue so um yeah I think that's where I stand Mr
DeLuca oh you waitting for the mayor did yeah she's got she's mad at me um so look uh I think I think you're I don't I don't understand this approach of a policy person I'm not suggesting a
policy person I'm suggesting a staff person who can focus on policy implementing let's talk about the environmental committee Mr kittner goes to those meetings the pool committee Miss manuso goes to those meetings um
accessibility committee Mr Wei is the staff Point person the housing committee Mr Wei is the staff is the housing official and the point person so do you really think that the current staff of
community services which is programmed focus is going to be able to handle writing point on doing senior policy or elderly or age friendly policy well the current um staff that attend the senior
advisory meeting it's um representative from community service is a representative from Health Department a representative from library a representative from our social work um and also a programmer from community services and myself so that's six and
then the seventh person would be the Soma for Two Towns that's a lot of people and um yeah those are all the people that are involved in senior um the advisory committee and I think that all of them are very capable I just say one I just
think you we're making a mistake of taking the money out we ought to leave the money we don't have to spend 440 $40,000 on a part-time person we can Define the person but once we take it out you can't spend any money until November because you can't make changes
to the budget because you know that's just the way it is I think that that is more along the lines of what I would be comfortable with because I think that with the remind me again Mr weary how large is our budget for our whole town or no not this line
our whole town yeah so $40,000 I think if we leave it in and we try some things and we see if this is something that we don't need I think I mean I don't think this we need to have a big discussion over 40,000 I I want to take it back to S Two
Towns for all ages as the topic separate apart from the budget line item although it's relevant in some of our minds Mr de yeah so I I I'll I'll try to be more persuasive or articulate this time
around um the coordinator is not a policy person they are someone who coordinates the policy implementation the policy is the governing
body's job so we're not giving away our job to any but what I believe is true is in agreement with what committee man DeLuca said which is that I think we need a
staff person who reports to Administration and he was accountable to Administration to implement policy decisions that we make together as a governing body and that come to us through the senior advisory committee
and or because of the overlap all access committee and so on and so forth and I don't think that it's an Apples to Apples comparison when we look at environmental advisory committee because the environmental advisory committee has
on it actual experts in environmental policy and the culture of that committee has been separate and apart from the Green Team which was focused on programming and events now not anymore not anymore because the Green Team sort
of fell apart and we don't have green day they started doing programming right right but the idea here is that you have a staff member a Township staff member responsible for this and then I'm so glad that you brought this oh my God I'm
so glad all right for everybody out there you can't see this this is the New Jersey AA it's the New Jersey advocates for aging well guess who runs this organization it's a Statewide organization do you know who runs it you
maplewood's own Kathy row Kathy row was our Soma Two Towns for all ages coordinator and Kathy has been able to build all of this data and demographic information from the work of towns
focused on age-friendly policy implementation so there wouldn't be this without this kind of work in the age friendly communities right so we should redo it we should do it duplicate the work here no no no I think you need just
like the health department has an Outreach person that focuses on demographic Outreach and data collection and Analysis we need a staff person to do this for age-friendly policy and implementation I disagree I think I've
madear I think we're pretty clear I mean I just think that so I mean if you're going to say that we need someone who reports to Administration who's going to implement policy decisions that we make on a variety of topics like maybe I have buyin for less money because I have lots of policy things that we've talked about
in committees that we don't have a staff person who's focusing on it and it just falls apart and I think when you're talking about Implement implementation of policy some of that is programming and when you talk about environmental advisory committee they've been doing programming for years and they don't have a staff person doing it they're
running it themselves so I disagree a little so if you're going to say we need a position that's going to move forward policy decisions that we made because our current staff maybe don't have the bandwidth to do it that's a different conversation if we're talking about funding a $40,000 part-time position for someone to just Implement policy for
agef friendly initiatives I just I'm G to say again I'm a brok I think we can try doing it another way I do I know we have a really big budget but we have other hard decisions that we have to make right at our budget meetings our our tax rate taxes were going to go way
up if we kept everything in so $40,000 isn't that it is a is an amount of money that I think that we can use you know elsewhere okay so we're basically making a budget decision or a policy decision no we're
making a we're we're talking about a policy we're talking about a policy decision that's been talked about in health and community services for a very long time that didn't move forward and it came up again in finance because it's a long so then we should take a vote we should take a vote whoever wants to keep
it let's vote I I move I'm gonna make a vote wait can we take a vote wait you're not running the meeting I'm gonna take a back a step I don't think we need I think we can ask Mr weary for a recommendation for that line hearing what you've heard tonight maybe reducing
it a little maybe that will that will answer Miss Herman's idea and and keep some money in there should we decide to move forward with somebody to do something but I'm in agreement with Miss angle I'm not quite sure with I think
Miss Herman I don't want to speak for you so well I just wanted to say that while this has been a discussion item in the health and Community Services committee that was last year and um I would like the opport that was last year before I was on the committee so I have
not been able to be a part of those conversations I mean it sounds like this is definitely needs more figuring out um I mean I I might I couldn't get it out of committee for a year like I don't like go right now and say like yeah you're n to like end it because it's
like I do it's like you talk about the same topic over and over and over again and I was on that committee for two years and this topic came up over and over and over again and I literally could not get it out of committee until it became on the bud a budget line item that we were going through last Friday and we talked about bring a discussion so let's just take a vote and figure out
if we're gonna can I want I I had it on the agenda for the committee and I was told that uh to hold because we were there were conversations happening with South Orange so I was waiting for that to come back and so um we have had a few meetings with South Orange and um Mr
Duca and and mayor colum have been involved in those and I think there's disagreement like I said at the beginning of this conversation we end up at the same place every time we meet with um with people staying where they
are and then staff people not necessarily come being as forthcoming with their desire to end this um because of their positions but there's also I think we can we don't have to say
yes or no to ending Som Two Towns I think I would propose that we let Deputy Mayor Herman reconfigure the senior advisory committee and make sure that they are talking policy and doing research and see where that gets us
leave a little bit in the budget in case we need to implement and then see where we are at the end of the year can I ask it's kind of a little bit of for both but not really I mean I stand with my position is we need to hire a person and
have a staff member but I'm clearly the minority but I want to ask the committee the following question would we be discussing this if we didn't have an opening and we had a coordinator carrying on the work how long has it been since we have had a coordinator
it's then since we but that wasn't my question my but I'm asking that like I mean we haven't been have we been looking for less than a year less than a year right which is not but separate coordinators and then before that it was one coordinat both T but I think this
conversation is happening because we don't have someone in that position and it's never been the person that it was that started who moved on to the state has that's never been carried out the way it was working so well so and now we
we right but if we didn't have an opening would we be considering ending this I don't think we would be because we were happy with the work that the coordinators were doing I go ahead Mr and one other thing and then I'll stop talking about this
this Township committee voted when the grata fund ended and we were asked the township committee has to take a position will it both towns governing bodies had to take a position would they carry forward
this initiative or not and both towns by resolution decided unanimously to carry this forward meaning each town would pay for their respective coordinator to carry this work what year was that yeah was when you say this Township committee
that's what I mean it wasn't this Township committee but it also wasn't that governing body in South Orange and things we also had different administrators in both Towns at the time and so we have a lot of new uh thoughts and process sure fair I want to affirm
that I'm for ageef friendly initiatives I'm just saying that perhaps we can look at a different way of doing it just like we I mean the green team is dormant that took a long time too and a lot of me getting on my Cliff that I'd like to tell to Mr worry about but I don't know I just I'm not sure why it's an open
position I don't think we've been recruiting for the position and I'm just not sure why we can't just try a different way for I hear what the mayor's saying about leaving a little bit of money in the budget line in case that a new way doesn't work and so that we don't have to refight to add it back in
but I just I don't know I'm I'm fir I'm kind of firm on this I'll just Mr you have one more chance give it no I just think we should come up with a conclusion so you know we have to make a decision tonight because we have to we're going to introduce the budget on April 1st and Mr weary needs
some direction from us so right now and and and you know honestly it was brought up as cut to 40,000 so no one's arguing that there may be a different way to do things there certainly will be a different way to do things but if we take the money out we can't put it back
in if we decide in two months that you know what we really do want somebody to ride point on age-friendly stuff to work with other groups to work with our internal committees whatever they might be we're just not going to have the
resources to do it so to me it makes we can do we can leave the 40,000 in there not spend it there's no harm no foul it goes into reserves it gets used in a future budget meeting a budget uh uh future budget and we can evaluate what
how best to do this but if we take the money out we have one less tool to accomplish what we want to accomplish and there's also 15,000 left correct so we're at 55 that's right there's $40,000 in
salary and wage and $15,000 in operating right their expense so since we already have the 15,000 i' I'd suggest 25 and 15 and the 15 that's existing but
that's currently in the budget and the 15,000 exist yes I'm aware so I think Mr warry needs some like guidance from us about he's doing with
that line Mr wary what are your thoughts and feel free to say your thoughts and your position on this whole thing which would be easier for administration and its department heads to manage along
with South oranges administrator and department heads so first on the budget I mean if you're talking about buying some more time to figure out exactly what this looks like going forward and potentially maybe a position that has less hours than the previous
two towns coordinator you could easily cut the salary and wage line from $40,000 to $2,000 absorb that probably regardless of what we do this year that at least has some budget impact this year problem is next year to Mr duca's point if you decide to fully fund the position you
got to increase that line right you know that might be a middle ground and certainly from the budget that's a little bit helpful I would not remove the $115,000 because even with out the two town coordinator for the past I think it's maybe 6 to8 months we've spent the
majority of that $155,000 I mean we still have expenses associated with some of those initiatives right I'd leave the full 15,000 in the budget and I would cut the 40,000 down to 20 that's the that's on the
budget on the S 2 towns staff position in you know there's two pieces to this in my time here so Two Towns for all Management Group which was the piece between Maplewood and South Orange in my experience hasn't fully functioned right
I think and the idea was that we both M and South Orange work together on this I haven't seen that work so that means that you know exactly they have some responsibilities on the website newsletter we had a little more responsibility on some of the like
programming of the initiatives right so not programming but we're GNA have a workshop do things like that so I haven't exactly seen it work well in my care year I also haven't seen in the last six eight months the lack of productivity in this
area I think that there is a way for it to work without as so much of the question is is that the best way you know I certainly think there's a way okay I I for one in favor of trying to
get better better performing um senior advisory committee and lesser funding in the budget for it which we can use if we decide to do any um
program or any policy from that for let's face it a half a year by the time we get there so um that's my proposal to the committee I'm good with that no yeah no no no okay so so I did
that wasn't an official vote do we need one no official vote will be on in the budget so okay that the majority of you are in favor of cutting that line by half everybody will have to and um M
Herman will be moving more on policy initiatives out of senior advisory no pressure so what is the 25,000 then if it's for Staffing from 40 what does that mean ,000 that means who are we going to hire
for 20 grand if we decide to hire someone this is a part because we can't put the money back this has been a part-time position so at 20 grand at $440,000 right no I understand that but who's going to take this job for 20 grand know exactly I mean not saying that I don't think anybody will I'm just
saying no I just wanted to put that on the record had one person being I'm being rhetorical with you okay we're moving on um pool fees deputy mayor good thing we did 9:30 yeah good thing yeah really sorry
folks um okay uh so the the pool fee discussion um the pool Comm the pool advisory committee has discussed rates but they are meeting next week to make their official recommendation um seeing that the summer is fast approaching and
we need to get an ordinance this needs to be done in an ordinance and we need to get that in produced on April 1st it was my intention to bring this for a frontloading discussion um just to take the temperature and see where everyone what everyone thinks as you know in the
um 2024 pool user fees they are exactly 10% less than 2023 This was um a reduction that was made and um paid for by we had some American Recovery money and we also had
a town um investment um in that and what we found was that in we didn't lose as much as we thought we were going to lose because more people signed up for the pool so that's like a really amazing thing so um in keeping with the commitment that the this
Township committee has made to reduce the pool fees and make our community pool more accessible to our community the pack would like to reduce rates by another 10% for this summer um now if we did this our family rate which is our
most um popular rate could dip below 400 for the first time in a decade and all of our rates um if we did this reduction all of our rates would be under 500 and um they would essentially fall
back to where we were in 2017 at the early bird rates so you know I you know this would be you know not only um continuing the township committee's commitment to making our pool more affordable and more accessible it would also be a bit of good news for residents you know that would offer some relief
and some cheer this summer The Proposal that the pack seems to be leaning toward would bring back the very popular early bird rates uh and I kid you not I hear about early birds all the time people on the pool committee everyone not on the pool
committee everyone is like wants to know about early bird it was very very popular because people like getting a deal I like getting a deal like I could go and buy something but if it's on sale I'm just saying so um what we've been talking about is doing the early bird
rate at the full 10% so the best deal you're going to get what I just described below under 400 500 that's going to be the Early Bird that's what we've been talking about but um then doing the regular rates at a 5% discount so everyone gets a discount you know
everyone gets a free car no kidding but everyone gets a discount and if you do early bird you get a bigger discount and this would also be Financial prudent because it gives us a little protection from the full 10% Cuts but you know we also get everybody gets a discount and
we make people happy by bringing back the early bird um and bringing back the early bird would benefit us by encouraging people to sign up early people who sign up early um and don't procrastinate you know if they procrastinate they're just not going to sign up and so I think this would bring even more people uh to the pool and you
know we would end up losing um losing less so so I circulated a sample graph of what it might look like just to give some ideas um and the budget impact my understanding um you know talking to Mr weary is if we did and this is based on like a 10% across the board decrease is
um you know we we would um fund so it would be like $887,000 to do a full 10% probably less to do like the 10 and five but let's just assume full 10% um and then we would fund half of that say around 43,000 just kind of you know head
our bets although I think that um we would end up selling a lot more schol fees and not having that much of a hit so um you know but we'll we'll see where we go we're again looking for that happy uh point where the the rates and the demand um you know really align so um
appreciate your graph and the information Mr we I have a question about um operations what um would early bird the different numbers the 5% 10% would that be doable with ease through
our rec desk or whatever it's through rect us right so that because there's a date where it flips from it flips automatically relatively straightforward okay so do you see any so you don't care either way which way we go with this no
Direct in regard to anything else oh I mean listen I just mean operationally like no no that's okay that's all I wanted to double check anybody have any thoughts a little unclear we've already said that we want to do 10% the township committee when we were
doing a budget yeah we did we did we talked about putting 10% into the budget that was last year you agreed no no no it was this year we did it at this budget hearing yeah yeah yeah when we talked about it we talked about the pool budget we didn't talk about a number
well we talked about 10% and we said it was going to be and then Mr Mr weary told us it was about 80 some 80 some thousand so are we talking about putting less money in what I don't get the still put putting the 87 million 87,000 no no what we're talking about is putting in
half of the 87 because as we decrease the rates we're going to increase the number of people yeah okay that's what I thought you said yeah and that's what I thought you wrote I I want to understand from a financial perspective does that make sense because if if that's doesn't
work out if we have a recession or something happens and we don't have the money we don't have the money so why not put the 87 in and if we do get more money than we're anticipating well that's great that just goes to the fund yeah that's um either way is
fine with me this was just a a suggestion of how to manage the unknowing um of the impact I think the budget impact would be the same if I based on my conversation with the township committee and with Miss Herman
in that we're going to reduce some or all of a portion of these fees by 10% right and last year we saw us Reduce by 10% but increase in Revenue so this year my recommendation was Reduce by 10% and only reduce anticipated Revenue by 5% I
think we all agree on that and I don't think there's what Miss Herman is recommending or suggesting would have any impact on that so we wouldn't change the budget regardless of what the township committee decides from your recommendations but the recommendation is you do the 10% as the early bird and
if you don't get the early bird you get a rate that is 5% less I'm fine with that you have to otherwise you don't need an early summarize that well so there's no budgeting impact yeah and and I'm not looking for a decision just for some input on where everyone stands so that I can take that to the pool
committee when they develop their recommendation I guess my question well I'm for early bird pricing I've always been for it I think if we can get people to sign up for the pool before May 1st before May May 15th before it gets to June we're going to increase numbers um
I he I'm curious to hear what Mr jca would say because we decided I think two years ago that we were going to lower pool rates by 10% every year and for me I'm not positive that lowering 10% just for early bird is following through with that policy it's offering it so I was
just curious to hear what you would think Mr deluca's I don't have I I don't I really don't have a position you know I just we so I just want to be clear we I thought we decided we were going to put money in
okay right how it gets worked out I'm not opposed to early bird you know just I just think I think the confusion comes around because the pool committee in the ordinance says that they're supposed to help advise on pool fees and so they still do that but we've also made a decision up here that we're going to
decrease by 10% every year so I think it gets a little bit that was based on their recommendation I know but it gets a but it gets a little confusing like are they still because they have to get this ordinance on the agenda so that we can sell membership or users and has to get moving well let's just get a general
for each member do we have a I'm I'm fine with an early bird the way you laid it out sounds like Mr jca is and the pool advisory and Mr daffis is yeah so go that's what you can take to the pool advisory and that's it to say that last year we had
introduced the ordinance for pool fees on the first meeting in April so I don't know when you expect to yeah they meeting next week yeah that's the plan that's the plan all right next uh discussion item next and last is 2025 budget Mr weary I'm kicking it to you
make sure you speak loudly in your microphone oh well I will thank you mayor so I'll give a rundown um that most of this discussed in the finance committee last week but these are um changes made to the budget as a result
of the budget workshops and any kind of new numbers that we've received um just operationally since then so you know sometimes we'll get revised maybe it's a South aex Fire Department budget maybe it's our GIF assessment maybe it's how much money we're going to get from the state some of those numbers have changed as a result uh and have been made since
those Workshop so overall this year we're looking at a 3.25% tax increase um to support this budget so the uh the non-union salary increases would be in line with our Union salary increases that's at
3.25% we have set up an allnew storm order utility the township will pay approximately $325,000 into our utility from the municipal operating budget and then that amount would be offset by the storm
order utility uh paying for a portion of the appropriate salary and wages and operating lines in our Municipal budget and that way there's not like a d like in DPW like a DPW in that way there's not a double tax to residents for setting up the utility the uh under
Community Services there was a desire from the township committee to uh Trend down some of the operating salary and wage lines that had been increased for increased programming we'll still have some increased programming this year especially around uh the basketball camp
was one of the big ones um but the uh some of those other lines said we're not going to do some increases that the director had requested we have also added a uh into the budget a staff person at Dart which is making what's currently a part-time position into a
full-time position that would be the hybrid of two roles one uh part of the role as a um program manager at the other part as a building attendant um and and that was cleared through Labor attorney so it a your fears that you
there's a way to do it absolutely vo before and then as a result of tonight's conversation we will cut uh $20,000 out of the S Two Towns for all salary and wage line there engineering and Public Works we uh increase the contribution to
the utility the stormw utility from 290,000 to 325,000 under Administration we increase the hours for the public information officer and uh we uh will increase the amount
allocated for historic preservation f 3,000 to 15,000 that wasn't in the most recent uh version of the budget that was circulated but it's such a small amount it won't have an impact and I do understand that that was discussed during the workshops and was generally agreed to by the township committee so that's what will be included in the
budget that's uh presented to you for introduction um in the pool uh we made the 10% uh reductions that we just discussed for fees we also increased a little bit of our Surplus used from 4 ,000 to
$155,000 and there was a need to increase our Municipal contribution by about $122,000 and we also into revenue on the pool added the $21,000 we received from New Jersey Transit for the parking lot
lease and there was an offset to revenue we had previously anticipated that as Revenue in the municipal line um and we had removed that $21,000 under police we've added a public or excuse me a parking enforcement officer and and a crossing guard we also made some reductions in
overtime from what was discussed in the budget workshops um that's a result of what we had projected for this year was what we had spent last year and we just don't think we're going to spend as much over time this year as we had uh
previously we in the court added uh money for um increases to uh salaries for some of their staff under clerk we have increased the salary line for the township
committee from $25,000 to $50,000 uh to account for a recommendation on an increase to those amounts um in Revenue this is now on the revenue side and not on the expense side we had increased Surplus anticipated
from $2.2 million to $2.5 million we don't have final number of surplus generated from last year's operations we'll have that in the next one to two weeks but our CFO is confident that we'll generate more than we did last
year than we used last year so that's a $2.2 million and hopefully near that $2.5 Million number that we're anticipating in this year's budget and we have enough money in Surplus to where you know minor deviations from that uh being the amount we anticipate and the
amount we regenerate uh won't affect our overall uh Surplus by too great number we also added pilot revenue from Pilots that we have uh entered into in the last year at 92 Tiffany and at 7 West
Parker we do have some changes we may see the South essics fire department has a budget Workshop this week and the proposed budget most recent has some slight changes from uh what was discussed previously so that may have an
impact to us the most recent budget is less than uh what was originally um circulated and so that would provide us some relief and what so on the you know when we look at big picture 3.25% increase in
Municipal Taxes some numbers may change uh but we are able to balance those between Surplus anticipated we also have some Reserve accounts where we put money away for potential expenses and those are numbers that um we can modify
without having a great overall impact on the budget and so we'll use those to kind of balance any changes that happen between now and when we introduce on April 1 thank you very much that was very good and concise I like it thank you um
anybody have any questions from Mr warry or any discussion items with regard to the budget are we just dealing with the operating budget I'm sorry are you just dealing with the operating budget so that's just the operating that's just the so I want us to be transparent here you
made a comment about um increasing Township committee from 25,000 to 50,000 or increase it by 25,000 could you talk about that you've done some research com we looked what is the what what why did you do the research what what were you
asked to do and things like that yeah so we want to make sure that we're paying our Township committee an amount that um it you know entices people to want to run for office I think that's the biggest thing um but also there is an expense that comes with just being in
Township Committee in terms of um what it costs you of your time what it cost you in terms of other things that come up in your life you have to pay for because you have to be here um and we also want to be fair to our town to our governing body and and some of the way we look to make sure we're fair is to look at other municipalities around us
and see you know are we in line or how they're compensating their elected officials um so we looked at South Orange Milburn Livingston um Springfield all of which were their their elected officials were earning above what is currently the uh the compensation for
the governing body members here I can run down those numbers if if that's helpful to you but they're you know anywhere between $752,000 and whereas this year with a cost of living adjustment that every non-union employee would get that's that
treat our governing body you'd be making just over $5,000 so there's it's a small anyway but in a small amount there's a big discrepancy um and so we you know I recommend to the governing body correct with this year's
budget it be retroactive to when we were elected no salary wage changes it would be retroactive to January 1 of so when I started on the township committee I was getting this was 26 years ago so this is important I think okay I was making we
were making just under $4,000 and if you look at the inflation since just the cost of living is doubled it's gone up 200% so at a minimum we should be talking about just bringing it up to the
cost of living things and I think um with the the idea of South Orange now paying their council members um you know we currently are still at 5,000 as you said and so the idea here is to bring it up to
10,000 per year just to get that out there per year per year yeah yeah so we've been it's about instead of 20 cents an hour we're getting more like 40 cents an hour increase and I and I know
we did this in the past that we would just be uh getting in the future what the employees get whatever percentage that is yeah three so I think we ought to whatever we do now if we're going to do that when we adopt the
budget if we're going to go from five to 10 we ought to also just at some point make another vote that in the future it's going to be the you know whatever the employees get so that folks don't think we're going to be jacking on another 5,000 another 5,000 another
5,000 it's a one time salary adjustment the generally the cost of living adjustment provided to any other non-union employee right okay any other discussion on the budget or anything all right so then the so that
was the operating budget capital capital we had come in with a lot of requests for Capital I think we had about $18 million on the municipal side um of requests through our discussion here uh
I had provided a recommendation to the township committee uh for a $7.2 million capital budget and and the original was well when when I presented it last
and I had showed everything that um like a series of cuts to get from 18.7 million requested down through 149 115 81 um and we ended up at 71 the biggest piece there is uh or one of the large
pieces there is the har Park we chose to take out of the capital budget that is proposed in April but we have a full understanding that that is likely to be considered later on this year so that provided a great deal of relief now but
you know that's it helps to delay this one be to hard park because we can think about it as a separate project which we have for a while now but two by the point when we decide to pass fund [Music]
the field we will have a better idea of what that actually cost right now we were our engineer is just kind of plugging in a number he thinks is responsible and now is that $2.5 Million number and so uh we have removed that from the budget from the C and so none
there weren't any changes in the finance committee to Capital no no it was all pretty much like the last budget hearing and I can talk about anything you'd like I can run down a quick you one I mean whatever does anyone have any questions or anything the one point the 1. two for
roads that's there that's there and you you have a good feeling that we'll be able to accomplish all those roads that were reposing yeah I mean just to be realistic New Jersey American water is going to end up either paying us a good
amount of money for that's right what they've done the roads or repaving a good amount of Roads then they're well well aware of that right and so I think that in itself gives us some relief but even without considering that originally the engineer came in with a $1.4 million
request for roads my first reduction was recommending 800,000 the township committee thought that that was too aggressive and that we weren't going to be able to do all of the things related to road paving that we wanted that may be you know regrading slopes it may be
drainage been doing that working with the engineer we are confident that we can get everything he recommends to be I say that knowing right of course low bitter but um oh think the budget now is $1.2
million okay and that was for seven roads right um eight eight I can give you the list if you want to wait now I can no no no that's fine we can do that afterward yep and I can C did you have a question yeah I just had a budget question and I don't
want to go back to this but the someone for Two Towns going from going from 40 to 20 does that does that make a difference in our budget it seems like because I I don't feel like we have
finished this discussion on what to do on that and so I would personally rather just keep it where it is and continue discussing oh did you get text messages in between no I didn't get any messages but when this came up but when this came up
I thought that the vote was between nothing which was what Miss engle's first recommendation was was to complete it cut it out and I thought we were making a compromise to do 20 we were plus the 15 that's already in operating right so I am fine with compromising and
not you know cutting it out but it sounds like um others are there it sounds like there are three options there's cutting it all completely there's keeping it at 40 and then there's compromising at 20 okay but respectfully I think we
already like finished that topic we Lally talking about the budget I know but we did at the end of the S Two Towns discussion that was the conclusion I also feel like I need to point out that for some people $20,000 is a lot of money so I actually don't like the fact that we're saying like $20,000 it's not
that much just like leave it in like $40,000 for a part-time job is more than I was making so like I just want to make clear that $20,000 is a lot of money and it can go toward other things so I just felt like I plus we're still talking about a half year at the moment but I
think we' haven't and haven't been able to have this in my committee so I think I think we should just be clear with Deputy Mayor Herman that you're on record as going for 20 yeah yeah I'm I'm I'm wanting to compromise work toward a
solution so as three of you wanted to go for 20 two of us didn't so I think there's been a decision unless you want to change it I I just feel like I am not done talking about it and I don't want to take anything away from the seniors but um you know so I would like think we're
good budget wise where we are yes this is this is a budget this is a line item if we needed to we couldn't with money available and we can you can continue the conversation if you want I'm sorry all right I understand you're frustrated we're we're trying to get
through this this is the last discussion item yeah we're here late too I I ask you to just this is just making it longer Mr worry so we're done with this discussion item and we're we're where we were it
can always get ra raised again another day all right on the pool capital budget it's $33,000 on the storm water utility capital budget it is $2.1 million and out of open space it is
$591,000 um the only change there on the stor Mor utility there was a request during our budget Workshop to include met Brook pipe and inlets and that has been funded in the stormw okay all right fine anything else on this discussion
item okay thank you good work Mr warry a lot of discussion that's probably the longest discussion we've had in a while all right consent agenda can I get a motion I move the consent agenda second daffis yes Luca yes fle yes Thurman yes
mayor Adams yes thank you now we move to public comment on any item at all that you'd like to talk to the township committee thank you please come to the microphone give your name and where you're from and then
uh you have three minutes to speak Mr warry we're all tired trust me good evening Township meeting committee thank you for having me my name is tamy too shaju bay I'm a resident of Maplewood specifically
Maplewood Village um I have a statement that I would just like to read um this is regarding Community safety concerns and a request for mitigation measures um so uh we the residents of Maplewood village community located at
the intersection of boen and Elmwood Avenues would like to publicly express our concern regarding recent activities in our neighborhood that have created an unsafe environment we respectfully request that the township of Maplewood Implement measures to address these
hazards as they pose significant life safety risk to the public as you may be aware already on the evening of Sunday March 2nd 2025 gunshots were fired along Elmwood Avenue several rounds of gunfire
were heard with one bullet um entering a neighbor's home fortunately this person was not um harmed however this is alarming and is raised considerable safety concerns among residents additionally we would like to emphasize that Elmwood Avenue is poorly lit
further exacerbating the sense of vulnerability in our community we kindly urge the township to take prompt and effective action to enhance safety measures in our area this may include increase police presence improve Street lighting and community outreach
initiatives to promote Public Safety um I have a colleague of mine that will speak um to his personal experiences on that day um but I'd just like to finish by saying in addition to the safety concerns related to the to
that specific incident um we would like um for the record um several items to be addressed um number one on elmod Avenue we would like to request additional Street lighting to be installed in addition speeding cars and speed racing is also an issue that needs to be
addressed we are requesting a speed indicator sign to be installed on mwood Avenue number two do not block the current t-shaped intersection at boen Avenue in metal Brook Place is constantly blocked by drivers along boen making it difficult for residents to make that leftand turn coming onto metal
Brook is also difficult for the Jitney to make that turn as well we believe it would be safer and beneficial to install it do not block striping on the road and similarly it do not block the intersection sign number number three street parking um in the Maplewood
Village Association which I am a um um resident of is constantly having issues with cars being parked overnight there is barely any ticketing or enforcement of parking rules and then lastly the parking lot we have notice that there are also many cars being parked without a permit taking up um valuable spaces
belonging to the MBA residents um again there doesn't appear to be any enforcement um so I just like to thank you for your time and um consideration for these issues thank you thank you on on the parking lot without permits are you talking about the pool
parking lot or your own parking lot oh your mic's it's the Shar it's sorry no no the pool parking lot next I know you [Laughter] got good evening my name is Paul Mia I'm
a 18year resident of South Orange and Maplewood 2-year homeowner at Maplewood Village on Elwood Avenue 255 elmite Avenue I'd like to read a little uh recounting of the events that happened on Sunday March 2nd uh 2025 at
approximately 7 PM I was seated at my couch in my living room at 255 Elmwood watching some television when I heard three to four loud noises outside my home not sure what the noises were maybe fireworks or cars backfiring or
something I opened my front door and immediately heard two more gunshots I quickly closed the door Maplewood police arrived approximately 10 minutes later and closed Elwood Avenue between boen Avenue and uh
middleb road to traffic because there is such little Lighting on this street they had to call on the fire department to come out set up a vehicle and raise a very large light and I have a photo here on my phone that
continued through most of the night my entire unit faces out onto the street so I got to enjoy that nighttime Sun as they worked walking around to get to it um and then I spoke with the officers about what I observed happened um that
evening they took my report um it was very distressing and um to that point I've lived there since uh June of 202 three and this uh has raised concerns for me personally as a result I
have extended the range of the security cameras I have on the front of my house to go all the way to pick up all traffic that goes by on the street so my phone throughout the day is now picking up hundreds of vehicles and people walking by because that's how concerned I am for
the safety in this neighborhood in the morning it is Pitch Black along that street you can't see the person who's coming at you walking the dog till that dog is suddenly upon you and the delivery people whether they are Uber or
uh Amazon or whatever are walking around with large electric lights shining them to try to identify whether it's on our side or the other side of the street so please making just some minor Improvement when I was riding the Jitney this morning I noticed that the lights
along nearby streets like Garfield and such much brighter but our streets much darker so thank you understood thank you guarantee we'll be looking into that hi hello mayor Adams and esteemed members of this body my name is Karen
Elliott I too am a member of the Maplewood village community um my neighbors have spoken to the matter of the shooting and the lighting and I'm going to speak about the matter of the streets and issues there those of us who
live on or adjacent to Elwood Avenue between the Irvington Municipal border and boen Avenue have seen an alarming increase in speeding and reckless driving on that stretch of road that's where there is very little lighting over the past couple years some of us have
come to call Summer car flipping season as cars driving at a high rate of speed looking to evade police or speeding between jurisdictions crash into park cars permanent structures trees curbs and L
literally flip over if they don't flip over they simply just drive right into property trees rocks whatever they just drive into stuff this section of Elwood Avenue is an unregulated thoroughfare for illegal
activity as further exemplified by the recent shooting on Elo in front of the home in the 300 block of the street residents of Maplewood Village Condominiums are here tonight to request that the committee take meaningful steps to ensure that this portion of our community is made meaningfully safer to
that end I am requesting that in addition to enhanced lighting the town take immediate action to slow motor traffic on the stretch of Elwood Avenue that begins at the Irvington border and ends at the boen Elmwood intersection near true Salvage uh p and I believe
that there is a a measure already set up um in section three of PL 2004 c107 which states that the municip ality in the county can without approval of a commissioner construct a speed hump on a two-lane Street uh where there are fewer
than uh that the posted speed is less than 30 mes an hour and there where there are fewer than 3,000 vehicles per day I hope that have that correct just looked it up on Google um I believe that that section meets that criteria additionally I'm hoping that based on
the same provision um that we can see that the one way street Meadow Brook Lane the section between Borden Avenue and uh a terminating at Elmwood Avenue this section of meow Brook Lane uh is exclusively residential it runs right
through Maplewood Village Condominiums but it is consistently being used as a high-speed cut through for people who do not want to wait at that Bo and light and they had Direct it's heading directly into Irvington so people who
are um also perhaps uh in evading jurisdictional capture are using that street and we do have a lot of questionable driving on that street um I realize that the time is coming to an
end but this is super important we also have a problem with the crosswalk that goes from Meadow Brook into the parking garage I'm to the parking lot and goes from New Jersey Transit into that parking lot they're very poorly marked
and people are are they don't stop so we need either a blinking light that shows that stopping much better repainted uh crosswalks something to make it safer for our residents uh who
consistently use that cross path um I want to thank you so much for your time and I also wanted to just say to the group that while we were sitting here waiting um news came around that uh a court has put an injunction on getting
rid of transgendered members in the military yes so yeah it seems you go for tonight right yes F yeah thank you very much for your thank you very much yeah let's see if the courts can the judges can continue fighting we'll
see if it well at least the Supreme Court Justice spoke today which is hope hopefully all go ahead Susan Bella resident of the map Village Condo Association 39 metalor place um little history my family moved here in
1928 I was born St Barnabas 1974 my father was born here in 1948 so to refer back to my neighbor Paul melia's um statement the police took 10 minutes to arrive for gunshots
in 1990 the police response time in Maplewood was 3 minutes minutes a 10minute response time may be okay for a a fender bender it is not okay for gunshots multiple gunshots I think both
Mr and I wrote that down so yeah it needs it's it's quite frankly unacceptable um second point I I'm sorry I have a few um in regard to pool fees um yes you
guys have lowered them but I wanted and you you mentioned the family membership being the most popular I would like you to do a breakdown of what it is per per individual because if you do that you'll realize that single households single family memberships people are paying an
exorbitant amount compared to multiple uh member households not very inclusive um another point we talked a lot about the the the s for Two Towns at nauseum
um as a person who is an AARP Member I can tell you that the issues affecting people of our age procket are not whether or not we have some designation it's taxes and so if you can save money by having people who do policy work the way they do on other committees I would
wholeheartedly recommend it and finally again I am sorry for speaking out turn before okay but this is not the first time I've attended a a committee an open committee meeting and maybe I just have really bad luck but every single time
the amount of time given over to proclamations which admirable but have but are issues that the township has little control over I've been where it's about the
women's women's equality now it's about transgender rights they are very admirable that it's it's not Township business though the township can't affect the broader world I really think it would be nice if residents could adjust their concerns before 10:30 at
night rather than wasting money on things that we cannot change on a Township level again very admirable but maybe that should be a last order of business and not making people sit through you know half an hour of a
business that doesn't affect the affects the residents but we can't effectuate the change here understood and I hear your I hear your frustration um I will say that normally our meeting is done before 9:30 which is why we have a
motion to extend past 9:30 so you happen to come on a night that went longer because we had very some difficult and and discussion items that were much longer than the proclamations yeah about again right we
are not going to change as a town can't thead yeah they're largely symbolic understood they're symbolic but they but they do mean a lot to a lot of people also some Grand standing by not you but there was some Grand standing during
multiple discussions tonight where people were addressing apparently cameras it was thank you anybody online Mr warry yes mayor we have two people online if anyone on line would like to
speak in public portion please raise your hand now I am moving over Joan Crystal to panelist welcome to public portion Miss Crystal you may unmute yourself and address the committee thank you I want to speak about summer to towns for all
ages I really think you're making a mistake in eliminating the coordinator position the coordinated position is about more than just policy it's a point person for the senior community in
Maplewood handling all sorts of issues that come up individually with seniors and also collectively on issues of major concern it's not about programming it's not about re well
research is important but that's not something that the senior's advisory committee can do we don't have qualification requirements apart from age on the senior advisory committee we
don't have people who are experts in research who are experts in policy who are experts in gerentology we rely on the staff members who are part of the
committee to advise us on what's happening in the town and then we give feedback as to what the seniors in our community need that's not the same Focus as on the environmental committee that Deb has been talking about and I really
hope you'll reconsider and consider the sum of Townville ages is providing an important role in the community if not continuing so until times ages formally I hope you
will consider having an alternative that provides a point person for seniors who's a staff member of the town thank you thank you is there anyone else Mr wor yes now moving over Shannon cuddle
to panelist hi hi good evening go ahead um hi um good evening everyone um I just wanted to um also uh come back because I wanted to make sure that folks had the opportunity throughout the meeting to
express um their viewpoints um which is why I'm joining at the end of the meeting uh and again um I know it's a late one for you guys um I just want to express my gratitude and thank uh the Maplewood Township committee uh for supporting the resolution tonight for
tdov um this is now the 10th year um that we've supported a resolution um and even more so this year with reaffirming our Sanctuary status now more than ever is really important um and I just wanted to express that and give thanks because it
does matter uh when our um elected leaders um in the community are able to speak out uh and affirm the support of all of our community it does matter it does create change many of you know I always say um representation matters
visibility matters it can change lives it can save lives so I just really want to acknowledge that and I also um want to acknowledge and say thank you to recognizing uh Rachel Crandle Crocker um
for her Proclamation and her day of recognition today um um as a personal uh point of privilege if I may say during my public speaks here um you know she's not just somebody
who has been a long time uh trans Advocate lgbtqia plus Elder and leader um we had a lot of young people and families in our audience tonight for when we did the tdov proclamation and those young people are
looking up to those that come before us and I just want to acknowledge that Rachel Crandle was the person that came before me um and it had an impact and so I think it's important that we acknowledge that and I just want to thank the maplehood township committee
and at the same time also again acknowledge the fact that importance of raising awareness um not just for transgender day of visibility but also at the same time keeping our commitment to uplifting all marginalized communities thank you so much and appreciate thank you
Mr where is there anyone else I see no other hands mayor all right then mayor I would I would like to just unfortunately the people left from the condos but I just think I want to stay here that we did hear what they had
to say right we will bring this to our Public Safety Committee on some of these issues and also Engineering in public works and the last thing I just want to say is um the last speaker I thought made a um made some statements which I
think are unfortunate that I think doing the resolution we did today is standing up for things that we have a um an ability to make a change and that's why we do it we have to stick up for people in our community and we have to be the voice so uh I don't want people to leave
here with that being the last thing said Thank you thank you and um I think that you know they have some legitimate gripes all the things we did tonight are real important locally right thank you yeah and I agree
and that's why I tried to say to her while she was speaking that it's important for people who live here so with all that I'll take a motion to adjourn this meeting I sing a motion [Music]
second you said you were gonna do that thank you forgot it was so there's a long story about it folks we're not gonna talk about it I think it's been moved please please take a roll
call a to Jour yes yes yes fman maybe yes good night yes thank you good night everyone