Pursuant to section 5, 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 in Star Ledger in December of 2024 and by filing said notice in the office of the township clerk. Mr. Davis, he'll be here in a second. Mr. Duca here. Bangal
sermon here. Mayor Adams here. Whereas chapter 231 public laws 1975 commonly known as the open public meetings act requires that all meetings of public bodies be open to the public. And whereas section 7A provides that the governing body has a discretion to
permit, prohibit or regulate the act of participation of the public in any meeting and whereas desire the governing body to comply with the provision of this act same time to conduct this business in an orderly and expeditious manner. Now therefore be it resolved by the township committee township Mapwood
does hereby prohibit except as set forth in the formal agenda active participation and deliberations of the governing body by the public except as otherwise prescribed by law does limit the public the observation of the actions and discussions of the governing
body at all its regular and special meetings. So moved. Second. Mr. Davis. Yes. Luca. Yes. Miss Angel. Miss Herman, yes. Mayor Adams, yes. Please rise for a
salute to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Thank you. Good evening everyone and welcome to the 17th 2025 meeting of the Maplewood Township Committee. Uh tonight we have uh two proclamations on. One proclamation is honoring Cecilia Fabreio
on her the uh occasion of her 100th birthday. Pink her. Ah okay. I only know you by email. So I'm glad you're here. Thank you for pointing yourself out. Um, and then we have a proclamation that Deputy Mayor Herman will read on Junth,
which is coming up on Thursday and celebrated on Friday in South Orange. This year, we have no board and committee appointments. Then we have public comment for agenda items only. We have an ordinance on final passage with regard to our filming ordinance
um having us be film ready for film ready New Jersey. We have an introduction of an ordinance for salaries for r salary ranges for employees. Then we will move into reports from departments. We have administration attorney and clerk. After
that we have reports from elected officials. Committee member Duca will lead off. Committee member Daffis. Then deputy mayor Herman. Then I go last. There are no discussion items on for tonight. Then we have the consent agenda. uh mostly purchasing things that
were approved in our capital budget, all the dump trucks and things like that. So, and then we'll have a second public comment on any item at all and then we will adjourn. So, with that, I would like to invite uh the family of Cecil
Cecilia Fabriio to come join me at the podium if you will. No. Okay. Oh, no. This is great. It's We like to celebrate our res. Come around with me here. You want to introduce yourself?
Uh, yes. My name is Angela Kesnney. I was born um and raised in Maplewood, graduate of Columbia High School in 1973. Well, we're here to commemorate my aunt who is going to be 100 years old on June 24th, lifelong resident of Maplewood,
living in the house that she was born in right on Essex Avenue. She never left. She worked at the Maplewood Library for 45 years. Don't ruin all this suspense in contacted the mayor to see if you know could we just send them for a birthday
card and um this is the result and I'm just I am thrilled to be able to watch us tonight. Uh no no but I will well you can show her the tape on YouTube. Yeah. So I will read the proclamation. Thank
Join me over here. Okay. proclamation honoring Cecilia Fabriio, lifelong resident, dedicated public servant, and cherished member of the community. Whereas Cecilia Fabriio, a lifelong resident of Maplewood, New Jersey, was
born in her family home on Essex Avenue, where she still proudly resides today, embodying the spirit and continuity of our community. And whereas Cecilia graduated from Columbia High School in the class of 1943 and went on to contribute to the
workforce, first at Irvington Varnish, later Minnesota Mining until the company relocated and later through 45 years of dedicated service at the Maplewood Memorial Library from 1955 until her retirement in 2000,
ultimately serving as the head of the periodical department. And whereas Cecilia married the love of her life, Ralph Abrigio, in October of 1946, and they shared 75 joyful and devoted years of marriage until Ralph's passing in
2021 together building a life of warmth, partnership, and shared passions. And whereas as an avid golfer, Cecilia and Ralph co could be found on the golf course at least three times a week walking the full 18 holes, well into
their 90s. That's fabulous. Setting an inspiring example of healthy, active living, and lifelong companionship. And whereas Cecilia has long enriched the lives of others through her many talents and interests, including knitting,
landscape painting, and handmade artistic crafts, and through her devoted participation in family life as a beloved great aunt and great great aunt to Melissa, Amy, Matthew, and Jackson. And whereas a woman of deep faith,
Cecilia is a devout Catholic and has been a faithful supporter of both Immaculate Conception Church and St. Joseph's Parish, attending daily mass and living a life of devotion and service. Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Nancy Adams, mayor of the
Township of Maplewood, on behalf of the Maplewood Township Committee, do hereby recognize and honor Cecilia Fabriio for her remarkable life, steadfast community service, and enduring contributions to the heart and soul of Maplewood. Her legacy of commitment, kindness, and
vitality stands as a wonderful example for us all. Well, I hope you got that reminder. I got Oh, okay. Thanks. Oh, you're very welcome. How about a round of applause for
that was a pleasure. Thank you for reaching out to me. We have a proclamation for Junth, Deputy Mayor. Yes. Um I am really happy to read this proclamation on in honor of Junth which
is coming up this week. Whereas on June 19, 1865 nearly nine decades after our nation's founding and more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation for enslaved Americans in Galveastston, Texas um
finally received word that they were free from bondage. As those who were formerly enslaved were recognized for the first time as citizens, black Americans came to commemorate Junth with celebrations across the country, building new lives and a new tradition
that we honor today. In its celebration of freedom, Junth is a day that should be recognized by all Americans. And whereas Junth is a day of profound weight and power, a day in which we remember the moral strain and terrible
toll of slavery in our country, what has long called Americans original sin, a long legacy of systemic racism, inequality, and inhumity. But it is a day that also reminds us reminds us of
our indelible capacity to heal, hope, and emerge from our darkest moments with purpose and resolve. And whereas on Junth, we recommmit ourselves to the work of equity, equality, and justice. And we celebrate the centuries of
struggle, courage, and hope that have brought us to this time of progress and possibility. That work has been led throughout our history by abolitionists and educators, civil rights advocates and lawyers, courageous as activists and trade unionists, public officials and
everyday Americans who have helped make the ideals of our founding documents for all. And whereas to fulfill the propono the promise of an America where all are created equal that they are endowed with unaliable rights in which include life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is upon all of us to fulfill this promise as a job of creating a better America and a better Maplewood. It's a shared responsibility. Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Malia Herman, deputy mayor of the
township of Maplewood, on behalf of Nancy Adams, mayor of Maplewood, and the township committee, proclaim June 19th, 2025, Junth day in the township of Maplewood and urge all of all to not only join in festivities and
celebrations, but seek beyond the revalries and make sure Junth doesn't become just another holiday, but a day of reverence and recommmitment to working together to eradicate systemic racism and inequality in our society wherever it is found and dedicated to
the cause of freedom for all. Thank you. Okay, that brings us having no board and committee appointments brings us to our first public comment um session on agenda items only. If there's anyone in the room who would like to speak to
anything on the agenda this evening, uh you can come up to the podium, give your name and address, and you have three minutes to speak. Hi. Hi. My name is Ethan Weinberg. I just want to note there are a number of individuals who I believe want to speak with regard to the building. I don't know that we appreciate if there's an
ordinance specifically tonight. I'll be happy to speak during this session or wait till the public comment later. Up to you. Well, we don't have that long an agenda, so I think it it really should be just agenda items only for this part. And that doesn't really that's it's not
pursuant to this exact ordinance necessarily, but I just do want to know that the ordinance does grant the township administrator a lot of flexibility. And I think yes, that there are probably people who want to speak to how that flexibility would be. Okay. If there are people who want to speak to
the ordinance, that's fine. Okay, go ahead. Um, so I'll try to be quick. My name is Ethan Weinberg. I live on Claremont Avenue, uh, with my husband and young daughter. Have been a resident about seven years. Um, there's been a lot of filming on our street over the last few years. I think about four, um,
different projects being filmed in about as many years. Um, this past week, we had, uh, the first of what, uh, we understand to be several filming dates over the course of the summer. U, there are It was definitely initially intriguing when this filming first happened. It tends to be the same house
that their home projects. Um, but it's become a bit of a nuisance and I think that as we seem to expand the amount of filming that's going to be happening in the town, we should be thinking about how um these projects are administered and the permits are granted and and on the day of filming, how the rules are
enforced. There are five aspects to the experience that I want to quickly speak to. Um, the first is notice and who's supposed to get it. Um, I live further up the street and my house has never gotten notice for any of these projects. I think the notice that went out specifically to those who were closer
said that they were only going to be um uh dealing with traffic on both sides of Claremont between uh Ridgewood and Claremont Drive. I'm just above that and I've never gotten notice, but we had two trucks parked in front of my house um for the most of the day and and for all these projects we've had vehicles in
front of my house and we've never gotten to notice. Um uh so that's the first thing I think it would go a long way to people being able to plan their dates if they do get notice um to the extent that they're going to be affected. It does not seem like the production companies are giving notice to everyone who might be affected and they're parking where
they're uh beyond where they say they're going to be parking. Um the second issue is access. Um uh part of the street was closed off and I wasn't directly impacted, but I know some of my neighbors are going to speak to that as well in terms of not being able to get in their street. um contractors not being able to get to their houses if they have uh work, which you obviously
can't change and reschedule if you don't know that there's going to be a project on a given day. Um safety is another particular issue. Um uh I'll speak personally, my daughter uh and husband were trying to get out of the house in a stroller. Um given the way that our driveway is, they have to go down the lawn and they have to navigate between
two very large trucks to get to the sidewalk across the other side of the street and they're almost clipped by a sprinter van coming up the street that they wouldn't have been able to see because there are these two big trucks. in front of our house. I know others have safety issues as well. Um uh the fourth thing is nuisance. There are a
number of trucks who are just sitting there sitting there idling with their engines on sometimes with no drivers in there. I don't know if that's a for production purpose to keep refrigerators running or or equipment running, but um uh definitely loud and emitting uh obviously
uh whatever exhaust they have over the course of the day. Um and then the fifth thing I want to touch on is um stakeholders and who gets a say these projects are managed. It definitely seems from conversation amongst neighbors that those who are closest to the projects have you know consultations with the production crews about how late
they're going to be filming and what like and whatnot. Uh but um no one else uh on the street was consulted at all. Um so I think maybe to the extent that folks have to be consulted and give approval that uh range of of who is included in that conversation is expanded beyond what's currently
contemplated. Uh I don't know how much time I have left five seconds. Okay. Thank you. Four three. Yeah that's all you had. Is that are you good? You finish everything you want to say? Others we'll cover. Okay. But those were the Fair enough. Thank you very much.
Anyone else? Come on up. Um, so I'm Alex Patron. I live on 10 Claremont Avenue. I've lived here for nearly 10 years. I heavily contribute to the schools in many ways. We just led um on the daily bold and PTA led a pretty significant initiative to overhaul the
teachers start to finish. We fundraised significantly for the school right around the corner. Heavily involved in coaching children throughout town. Heavily involved in some of the local food banks. I also work, so does my husband, Michael Oliver. We commute to the city three times a day. We consider
ourselves pretty good contributors to the town. Um, what I really want to call to attention is there needs to be more process and control around this. We've lived in our home for nine years, we've had eight uh, excuse me, in in the eight years that our neighbors have lived
there, four productions. Four. The first one was pretty invasive and intrusive. Cool. I guess because Morgan Freeman, right, that's fine. but light shining into our children's nursery late at night. This most recent one, uh, we really didn't get notification. So, I think notification is important. I think
bringing key stakeholders in directly impacted neighbors to understand the process. What I learned is filming was going to happen until midnight. What I further learned is they needed signatures to film till 3:30 in the morning. What I then felt for over two weeks, and I have countless texts and
engagements with location agents, production managers, neighbors pressuring us to sign a piece of paper to allow the production company to do what they needed. Not for anything other than I work in finance, profit margin. They don't need to film till 3:30 in the morning. In fact, I would argue they
don't need to film until midnight in communities where many of us, I would say 93 residents that were on an email exchange lobbying for what we seek in Maplewood, some peace and quiet in community, some sense that we have some
say in how our residential areas are impacted. And so what I asked for as part of this process because this disruption was uncomfortable, the chaos, there were opairs, nannies turned away with their children to park down the
street and walk my next door neighbor who felt harassed literally her words and I felt that as well to sign a piece of paper signing over their right to peace in the middle of the night because they were tired of the doorbell ringing and the calling and the text messages.
And so while I think we should certainly think about how we raise revenues as a town, I work in municipal finance. I understand that. I think there needs to be a lot of data, maybe a bit of a committee focus on the impact to the community both emotionally and
financially when we're renting out commercial spaces that impact downtown. Are stores closing and not making up those revenues? There's real impact to that. What I'd also like to understand, I asked for some of these stats from Pat uh Weary earlier today, is what
percentage of our $60 billion million dollar budget is coming from filming and production? How much does the town really make on this? And then I think beyond that, how many movies, how many TV shows, how many commercials, how many other things have been filmed in town in the last 10 years? What are the revenues
of that? What is the heat map of impacted neighborhoods? Do we find that certain neighborhood streets, individuals that are better at marketing their home tend to be selected more? And then is there thought and care and concern around whether we say yes, you
can proceed or no, this has happened too many times in these areas. What I'd like to see is a discussion around the broader impacts, not just for the individuals that might benefit from being able to or the town from a revenue perspective, but a lot of the broader implications that clearly are putting a
lot of us in a bit of chaos. And candidly, when my kids are walking to school, when all of us are trying to move about our our residential neighborhood, we shouldn't have to worry about all this. Thank you. That's my ask. Thank you. Thank you.
Please make sure you use the mic. Make sure you use the mic. Thank you. Hi, I'm Aaron. I live on Hemlock Court, 14 Hemlock Court, which is a culde-sac off of Claremont A. Um, and I also just want to ground you that the neighborhood that's impacted, it's all the homes that
are accessed from Claremont A between Ridgewood and Wyoming. So that's Hemlock Court and that's Claremont Drive. That's a horseshoe just to ground you in that landscape. I think it's really important.
This filming is so disruptive. It significantly impacts our activities of daily living. Maybe you're familiar with an ADL in context of disabilities
or senior living. But the major ADLs that are really impacted are our safety and our ability to move freely. It's so impacted. I implore you to understand the impact of filming activities to the community
and neighborhoods that are impacted. Rethink the process and the protocols that are associated with permitting productions of this scope in residential neighborhoods. I want to share three unique experiences of my own.
On production days, I walk my elementary school student down the hill because it's total chaos. Box trucks line the street up and down when they're allowed for setup to idle. Craft food services trucks, portaotties. Okay, all these
things always on Claremont A, sometimes on Hemlock Court. So I walk with my elementary school student. There is no crosswalk on Claremont A. There is no crosswalk on Claremont A and you have three roads that intersect. So if you
imagine a street and I I will send you a picture as a followup the box chuckss that are lined individuals that can't cross. You're peeking you're peeking your face just to see is the can I cross when can I cross? So I walk with my elementary school student.
Personally, it was a near miss for me. And this wasn't even car traffic. I made it across the street um passing the house where the filming is taking place. A crew member was setting up hearing a ladder, a six foot ladder on his shoulder, turned from the sidewalk to
the driveway and near miss to my face. For them, it's a workspace. They're at work. For me, it's my community where I'm walking my kid to school. I really was almost knocked out by the ladder. just I mean it's a mistake, things happen, but
okay, fine. You can let it go. The next situation, the bus transporting my oldest child from an out of district school was denied access to Claremont A for the ride home. I'm just going to decode for you. I know that Malia knows
this. When a child rides a bus to an out of district school, they're there because they're a specialed student that needs a modified environment and they're transported in one of those crappy minivans to their out of district school. The Maplewood police officer that was
blocking Claremont A that day for the production would not allow the bus driver to ride Claremont A to Hemlock Court. the people driving these buses. I I don't I don't know what his or her
ability is to communicate with the police officer on duty. I know that officer is doing the best that they can based on their duty, but it's a total failure. And you know what happened that day? He dropped my kid off a block away. He said, "I don't know what to do." And my kid said, "Oh, I can walk through
some backyards." So he, that bus driver, dropped my kid off on Colinwood Road to walk through backyards. a failure on so many levels. But you know where it started? It started with a total failure of the coordination that takes that's involved in the production setup. A
total failure. On Thursday, I got home at 2:15 to see that Claremont A was blocked from Claremont Drive to Ridgewood. I went home. I looked at the notice
because Hemlock folks got the notice. The notification was that the road would be blocked from Hemlock to Ridgewood from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. When I called and spoke to our business administrator, he advised they weren't
even supposed to block it above Hemlock. It was only supposed to be from Hemllock to down to Rididgewood. So my point is understand the impact of the filming work on the process and the protocols.
He admitted there is no oversight. The fact that they it was 2:15 I asked to speak to production. They had no end time. They couldn't tell me when they would be done. Okay. I'm going to have to there's a specific pocket of homes that have been impacted.
Why are we subject to this experience? Can you please make it stop? Thank you. Hello. Um, I'm not going to go over everything that's already been said. My My name is Paul S. Uh, I've been a Maplewood
residence for 10 years. I'm at 10 Claremont Drive. Um, we get all of Alex's mail at 10 Claremont AB. Oh. Um, so I just I don't want to recap any of that. I just want to my main thing is
I want to um make you aware of the safety concerns mainly. Okay. Um, and in one production we have 90 families who are affected. Okay. One production if it's happened four times, it's happened in all summer. So I don't it's not even
four. It's more like 30, I don't know, at this point. Um, and the the I don't want to point fingers here, but the residents are professionals. They are doing this for a living. They live at 12 12 Claremont A. So, their home is a
residence, but it's also being used as a business. Um, and this has gotten out of hand. Um, the main thing I wanted to do, I sent a letter, um, to the town clerk, to Miss Fritzen, uh, and handd delivered
it. I just want to make sure that these safety things that I've seen are communicated to you, okay? And I don't think it has anything to do with notice or anything else or how someone's doing their job. I just think the location is
also problematic and the frequency. But I have two 16-year-olds right now. So I'm essentially a chauffeur now. I just drive them everywhere. So I know that corner of Ridgewood and Claremont AB probably better than anyone here or you guys probably know it as well as well. I
personally personally witnessed and was involved in almost got uh backended because of these production trucks coming from Ridgewood onto Claremont A blind and I slammed on my brakes when a car was coming down and I almost got hit
from behind. I did not. I sort of almost wish I had because then a police report would have been uh but I'm I'm being told by the neighbors at CL 12 Claremont Drive that these um safety cons concerns
are are not valid. I also personally witnessed two children running through parked vehicles, one on Claremont AB and one on Claremont Drive. One was a really a near miss. The other one wasn't as much. But I just feel like if I didn't
get up and say this publicly, I just really fear that something bad is going to happen. Um, our neighborhood, this area is alive with children because there's two culde-sacs. It's wall-to-wall kids. It's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen. My
kids grew up on Claremont Drive on scooters and stuff. When the cars are coming, everybody yells car and everybody co goes to the side. throw vehicles up and down these streets and it's craziness. Thank you for Thank you.
I appreciate that, Steve. Is there anyone else in the room who would like to speak to this uh to any agenda item? Mr. Wary, is there anyone online who's interested in speaking? If anyone joining on Zoom would like to speak on
any agenda item, please raise your hand. I see no hands, mayor. Okay, thank you. With that, we'll close this port this public comment. We will have more and since the agenda that is up next is an ordinance on final passage on uh the
filming ordinance that we are considering adopting. Uh we will have a hearing on this as well if anyone wants to speak to it. So uh Miss Fritzen, ordinance 3160-25. Yes, mayor. Item 8A, ordinance number
3160-25 is an ordinance to amend and restate chapter 125 of the township code of the township of Mapwood entitled filming. This ordinance will revise provisions of the township code with respect to
permits for filming within the township. This ordinance has been published cop is posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building and copies made available to the general public in accordance with the law. Um opening a hearing on this ordinance to amend and
restate chapter 125 um entitled filming. Is there anyone who would like to speak to this ordinance? before the township committee discusses. Seeing no one in the room, is anyone online, Mr. Mary? Anyone on Zoom would like to speak to this ordinance, please
raise your hand? I see no hands. Mayor, okay, thank you. Um, can I get a motion before we discuss or I'd like to say a few things before we move it. Okay. Um,
I really appreciate the comments that we received tonight about the uh massive disruption and burden on our fellow neighbors on Claremont. I live uh not too far from there, just a couple blocks away. Um,
and the the ordinance that we are uh contemplating passing tonight um does not take away authority from the township to revoke permits if filming does become too
disruptive and the impact on the neighborhood is significant. and it doesn't take away local control or authority in coordinating in better oversight and so on and so forth. And based on the
comments that we received tonight, I think that um the township needs to do a better job in oversight and coordinating with our public safety officials
better and coordinating with the residents themselves on the ground. Certainly the film company has notice requirements that they have to make, but we are the ones who are allowing this to happen. So, we need to coordinate on the
ground and have presence and oversight to ensure that everything that we're being promised is happening is actually happening on the ground. And it sounds like that's not the case right now. So, I'm going to um ask our our township
administrator to um look into that. Right. And these are the kinds of things uh that the ordinance does allow for us to consider in allowing permitting. Notice
requirements, access, safety, is it too much of a nuisance and frequency. Right? So let's say for instance that after this thing is over
um we get another request for filming on Claremont we have the authority to say you know what [Music] probably not because of the frequency. Um, I don't know what we can do in terms of restricting private property use as
it relates to uh the particular um the home that frequents in in filming as it were as it was reported. Anyway, uh that's something that we can look into. But um I just want to acknowledge that the comments that we received are very
reasonable and very important. Everyone needs to enjoy um our town safely and equitably and there are a lot of children all over town but especially in this area and uh we certainly don't want
something terrible to happen because um of a film whoever is in the film and uh no matter who the production company is. So I just wanted to say those things. I think we have work to do. In other words, and it doesn't change our passing the ordinance. The ordinance only allows
us uh to be film ready. We already receive a lot of requests for filming in our town. Uh, and in light of some of the comments we received tonight and comments we received by email before tonight, um, I think we need to do a better job in stakeholder engagement and
in, uh, thinking through a process, a uniform process and certainly on the ground oversight, which is really what you all are talking about tonight. There really is no on the ground oversight and that needs to change immediately. So,
we're going to try and do better. Um, and with that, I open it up to any other comments from my colleagues. Okay. So, um, I do have a question for our attorney. There's, um, proof of
in section E, um, on page three of the ordinance, it states, I'm trying to find the beginning of a sentence. where in the opinion of the township clerk and or administrator, Atkins Pro production activity by reason
of location or otherwise will directly involved and/or affect any businesses, merchants or residents. These parties immediately adjacent residents, businesses, and merchants potentially impacted by additional light, noise, foot traffic, vehicle, or traffic may be
impaired shall be given written notice by the applicant of the filming at least 3 days prior to the requested setup date and be informed that questions or concerns may be filed directly to the township clerk. Um, and then it asked for proof of service of notice. So my
question is based on that statement um I'm wondering if if the ordinance it either needs to be clarified or is being interpreted to mean for example when trucks are parked in front say they're
in a house at 10 CL uh Claremont whatever 12 whatever it is and then uh immediately adjacent is where notice needs to But is it immediately adjacent to where the filming will take place or is immediately adjacent to where trucks
might be parked, things like that? Does that what I just read allow for that to be interpreted the way I just explained? So that there should be more notice than just next to where it's filmed. So the ordinance as proposed allows us uh it's
not just proximity which would deter. So, for example, if they were filming at the end of a dead-end street, right? Um, you know, closing the street two blocks up, right? I I think we would be very reasonable in our exercise of the
ordinances written to say that, you know, all of those property owners would would need to be noticed. So, uh, I think we have the authorization um in the ordinance as proposed. Okay.
to to give to expand what our practice has been in the determining um the affected area. Right? So that um in this case for example, more notice may have been needed to be given to uh residents
farther away from where the filming necessarily was taking place based on the interruption with vehicles, trucks, things like that. So, was notice required just to the adjacent residences in this case? I'm not and I'm not
looking to blame anybody. We're, you know, we learn as we go with a lot of ordinances. So, um, I I can describe what was required in this case. Okay. Specific to Claremont. So, there were notice requirements for any place where
production expected that trucks or crew or, you know, any of their equipment would be on the street. So generally that was on Claremont Avenue from Ridgewood Road up to uh Claremont Drive and those for the people outside of the
immediate area of the filming. That was just a notice requirement. It did extend onto Hemlock because that you know there may be some impact there. Not that there would be on street parking but it was understood that they're driving through that area to get to home. And so that was just notice requirement. Um, we had
also required that they attempt to receive consent. So different than notice in terms of providing a letter and saying yes, we on the resident explaining what we're going to do, but consent saying that, you know, these are the hours of filming and
here's the impact and um a signature line saying I understand generally the impact that u that this filming will have and I consent to the township issuing a permit for filming. Mhm. We required that for three houses on either
side of the residence where the filming is taking place. That's six houses on one side of the road and six houses on the other. And in this case, they received consent sign off from 11 of the 12 of those uh where we had asked them
to okay receive consent. And so in specific to this instance, the permit was issued even, you know, with 11 of those 12 consent signoffs, but we had further limited filming hours that the uh that the company had wanted,
understanding that there was still one person who had not provided consent and that person was in very close proximity. And so, you know, it's there was some reasonleness um applied to this to try to find something that we felt was
acceptable in the circumstance. Okay. So, and you have limited some of the hours and requests that the filming company has made that you felt were unreasonable. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. And there are some where the block signs
off on it. So we have they're filming in another location in Maplewood which you know is very different than Claremont. The other place Maplewood to my knowledge is the first time they're filming there and so we haven't received the same level of feedback and we have in in on that block received a lot of
those consent signoffs. So we have permitted them to film interior scenes into the early morning and in another house and another street another house on another street because those residents were aware and they consented to that taking place. Um so you know
that level of restriction differs based on the the feedback from residents in the area. Understood. So does this ordinance um permit our administrator to um say no for example to a house that
has regular filming or seems to rent out their house as um one commenter said that you know almost as a business as well. Um, so I mean it's all going to be fact specific, but yes, the ordinance does give the administrator the ability
where it, you know, we can reasonably determine that it's going to be, you know, unduly disruptive to the surrounding area to either modify the conditions of filming, maybe, for example, you know, provide off street parking, you know, don't park on the
street, don't parking on the street. um hire police officers to you know help traffic. Unfortunately, you know, it sounded like there was an issue with that, but right um or you know modify hours or in if we cannot find um
reasonable accommodations that that will allow the action there without disrupting the neighborhood. Yes, the administrator. Okay. So you feel that we have enough uh in this ordinance as it stands to um give us the controls we
need and sometimes those controls may not be required until we realize that something's happening just I do and you know as you said mayor you know sometimes process and
we are becoming a much more um popular town to and you is you know fine right um is there any of my colleagues want to speak to this ordinance Mr. Yeah I I support the
ordinance um and the reason being is just what we're talking about and I just want to read the section of the ordinance and I'm going to ask you Mr. weary if you feel that um this gives you the sufficient power of determination here. So, the township administrator may
refuse to issue a permit wherever the administrator determines based on objective facts and a review of the application. Um, and that filming at this location or andor the time set forth in the application would violate
any law ordinance or would unreasonably interfere with the use and enjoyment of neighboring properties, unreasonably imped free flow of uh vehicles or pedestrian traffic, or otherwise adversely affect the public's health,
safety, and welfare or welfare. Um, so in the future, if you were to get an application, and I, this is just hypothetical, on um, on a street where there had been filming before and maybe the neighbors
felt was, you know, the impact was disproportionate, you know, it was too many and all that. Do you feel that this language would allow you objectively to make a determination that maybe we've had enough here for a while and we need to give it a break? Yes.
and you know all facts. So last year we had an applicant come before the township committee through my request that they were filming outside ofted hours. It was interior shoot inside a residence basically them and their and
some friendies and there were going to be three cars permit. So there are instances where maybe it's deemed to be appropriate and there are instances know specs of this shoot where there are trucks and crew extending
a long distance having a greater impact there for a greater duration. We're absolutely and that's a conversation I've had with residents of Claremont and hemlock who have reached out to me last week and this week and I feel comfortable making that determination. I also, you know, have an intention of
proacting out to property owners, give them a heads up of that discretion. Now, we don't um so that they don't find themselves they've agreed to something without understanding that this discretion. So, that's something
well the the the ordinance does give um stakeholders, neighbors a right to appeal the decision, too. So that's also allows that to to occur. Y uh just go ahead add some comments to
this since it's a somewhat of a discussion. Sure. Right. Okay. So we've um you know we became aware of I guess the extent of the problem on Thursday when we started to hear from residents of of Claremont. I have uh gone to the
filming scenes Thursday uh Friday um and and uh yesterday afternoon and again today because we're we're trying to tighten this up. We I appreciate the input from all the residents. I've talked to most of the people who reached out to me. If I haven't talked to uh all
of them, I will be reaching out this week. Um after speaking with them, we worked with the film crew to tighten up the impact a little bit. We worked with our police department. We've had some meetings with them and with the clerk to tighten up their operation a bit. I met with the executive producers of the film
shoot last Friday to explain to them the gravity of the situation and the impact this was having to our residents. Um and um we we have some intention of uh meeting with the New Jersey Film Commission. Mayor, um you brought this to me. um we you know there are some
areas that we don't have experience in but maybe the film commission does and can provide us guidance on how we can get ahead of these problems be proactive instead of reactive where we find ourselves a bit in now um so you know we look to that guidance from them and and hopefully that can help us going forward
right and um I would just suggest maybe uh police officer on site just make sure that none of the trucks is parked in such a way each day that they're blocking sight distance or you know that they're so close together that you have the issue where you can't see if
something's coming and on on any given day that they're filming since they move them. And with regard to idling, they shouldn't be idling unless there is a refrigeration component. Mr. Dus. Yeah. So, I support the ordinance because it does give us broad authority, right? Um,
you know, and the ordinance allows the administrator to revoke a permit that was given. So, uh, I do think that, and I'm glad that you are communicating with the production company and relaying back all of these significant concerns. Um,
you know, the other thing that concerns me is whether or not we already found out that the notice didn't go to everyone that it should have. Um, and we have broad authority to require even more broader notice than, uh, to the
affected, however that's defined, folks. Um, but you know what does the notice say? Because that leads me to my next point, which is consent. We heard from some uh residents tonight that they felt that um
their consent may have not been informed, meaning knowing all the particulars and or their consent may have been under duress. So, that's something that we should be talking to them about. You know, uh it's
not good enough that they're getting signed letters from everyone. If they're pestering people to sign, that's not consent. Respect to the the substance of notice, the new ordinance does expand that
somewhat, right? um address where it's going to take place, a contact person and phone number from the filming company, uh the dates of filming, the start time, uh the contact information, uh the township um
uh entity that is in charge of the permit, uh information reflecting the nature and number of the vehicles, uh where they'll be, whether they'll be an officer. So, we'll expand what is required for
notices for the the ordinance. Right now, there's there's you could receive one of two things, a notice or a consent form. So, on the both of them contain generally the same information. So it's days of shooting, times of shooting, day
or night, it's interior, exterior, the film location, the description of the location, so you know, traffic control, noise, lights, etc. The days of filming are are all required on both of those notices will again, we'll add some new
language on the notice. So, if you're outside of that more like immediate impact zone on the notice, you just sign off that you received the notice and the film company returns that to clerk on the uh the waiver. We I I drafted some
language after we received some of this feedback last week from Claremont. Um to be more specific so that residents understand where they can become involved in the process. states dates and/or hours of filming as noted and this is if it's if there's a waiver um
requested as well which in most of these instances there have been the dates and or hours of filming as noted above exceed what is permitted in the township's filming ordinance chapter 125-3 and requires a waiver of the township of Maplewood. The township considers impact on public health,
safety, and welfare when determining whether to issue such a waiver. The township requires written consent of property owners, business owners, merchants, and or residents who may be adversely affected by the township's waving the express terms of the filming permit being issued. By signing the
below, I understand the general impact of the filming and I consent to the waiver being issued by the township. Okay, deputy mayor. Thank you. Um, so I wanted to ask I have two questions on this
ordinance. Um, under uh let me see um B, issuing of permits. Number four, I wanted to ask specifically about the hiring of offduty Maplewood police officers. Um, and if is that something
that is that you have discretion over telling them how many they need to hire and what they need to be do hired for? Because when I'm hearing about um safety concerns and especially with children walking to school, I'm wondering if, you
know, we need more than just a police um officer sitting in a car blocking, you know, cars coming in and out. We may need that officer to actively be making sure that the children are getting where they need to go safely. So, is that
something that you're able to do with this ordinance? Yes. initially. So when if we see if we have any indication that the police department may need to be involved, then that becomes a conversation between myself, the clerk, and the chief of police. So we may say,
you know, we see a need. They ultimately determine uh with our input, but ultimately determine here's what is required to make this a safe area. So they meaning they meaning they meaning the the chief of police and the police department. I mean say there's sometimes
this is delegated to people in his department who have experience in this. So right now we have required police officers anytime they are blocking a roadway even if it's intermittent and if
they are operating outside of the typical hours that we can ensure they're adhering to noise requirements and the like. Um if we see or if we believe that there is a need for that to be extended to normal operating hours, we can do so.
Um the police department in their routine patrols uh will make a um pay special attention to these areas and I think that in those patrols they can determine if if more police officers are present.
Um thank you. I was I wanted also um if you could uh make sure and communicate to the police department um about individuals that require transportation uh so that or individuals who live in
the res in the area who may have all pairs so that other individuals can access they need to be aware. So that needs to be part of um the conversations when this happens. Um, there are instances where access is not permitted because of the nature of the shoot. So
far, they've just had intermittent road closure. So, you may have a time when someone wants to gain access to the roadway, but they're told for the next five minutes the so they could park elsewhere, they could come back. I understand that's an impact, but you know, that's the reality and then kind
of what's going on here next. So I wonder if when you're giving notice if you can find out from residents if there are going to be situations where that's not going to be possible. Do you know what I mean? On the notice we indicates if there are
road closures and we can work to make that more clear. Yeah. But where there are road closures and information for now for the maybe the clerk's office, maybe myself and definitely the film company where any president who sees that notice sees that there are road closures and expects a
conflict would be able to reach out to us. So we just would need to make sure that as Mr. Daff has pointed out the notices woe to a larger um uh geographic area and that the notices include information like the dates and times of
the road closures and that they adhere to that. So we need to make sure about that. Um and following right along on that point, I wanted to ask about the violations and penalties. It says, "Any person violating this chapter or these rules
and regulations upon conviction thereof shall be punishable by a fine not exceeding $1,000 per day or by imprisonment um of 90 days or both." So, how I wonder if you could um explain how that works and if this um is enough
teeth in the ordinance more than what we have currently that would help us to really ensure compliance. Yeah, consistent. It's consistent with the previous ordinance. So, it was the same max. Okay. A day with a fine like this where it's not a set fine, but a
maximum fine. It's a mandatory court appearance. Nobody likes those. So, that certainly helps. More than anything though, they require any filming requires permitting from the township. And any permit issued, the operator would have to comply with the permit and
with the ordinance. $1,000 is nice, but it's not near the motivation of obtaining permits and keeping your permit. And so, so far, that's been our conversation, okay? My conversation with the film crew is if you want to keep your permits now, and
if you want to receive future permits, you need to comply with the the ordinance and the permits that have been issued. Okay. Um, I would I I I would support this ordinance because it I believe it gives us more authority to have oversight
uh with regard to these um filming locations um as we are obviously a very popular filming town um we want to make sure that everyone is accommodated and and safe and um so thank you. I would
just add that um I don't think it's necessarily the the fees for the company to film here so much that helps a town when filming. It helps our local businesses, helps the local economy, um, you know, and
has the little cache to it, too. So, we'll just, um, I'm in favor of this ordinance, and I think, as my colleagues have stated, it gives us broad powers. Um, and of course as the residents who've reached out to us separately um
by email and who've who've been uh I think uh keeping our administrator busy for the last week um we know we hear you and we and we're glad that you're reaching out and uh yeah, we'll do
better. Anybody uh else have any more comments before I get a motion? I'll move it. Mayor, I move this ordinance to be adopted as a whole and the clerk to be directed to publish the same as a past ordinance in the Maplewood South Orange News record according to law. I'll second. Miss Pritson.
Mr. Davis. Yes. Duca. Yes. Herman. Yes. Yes. Mayor Adams. Yes. Thank you. Uh, we have an ordinance on for introduction 3161-25. Miss Fritzen. Yes, Mayor. uh introduction of a new ordinance uh
number 9A 3161-25 is an ordinance to amend classification of employment positions within the township of Maplewood and to establish salary ranges for employees.
Okay. Uh Mr. Wary. Thank you, Mayor. We circulated an updated draft of this ordinance this afternoon. There were two titles in the ordinance that were mistakenly omitted. That is for art manager and the soma two
towns coordinator. Um both of those were added back into the ordinance and they were done so at a um grade that is consistent with what it's been in years past. So there's no real change there other than adding it. So that's what you'll be considering tonight. Because this was added today, the hearing will
be now held on Tuesday, July 15th as opposed to uh Tuesday, July 1st. That's because of the uh publication requirements. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Does any qu anyone have any questions on this? Okay. Because there was that change. All right. Then um I'll uh move
the passage of this ordinance on first reading, its publication according to law in the Maplewood South Orange News record, and a hearing to be held on July 15th. Can I get a second, Mr. Daffis? I'll second. Mr. Davis, yes. Duga, yes.
Yes. Mayor Adams, yes. Thank you. Um we'll move to reports from departments. We have uh Mr. Wary, you're talking an awful lot tonight. Do you have a report for us? I do. So, first on the sewer and storm water
billing, typically we send out our sewer billing in late May and it is due in late June. This year we are adding our storm water billing to our sewer billing. So, you will residents will receive it on one bill. and we're still
finalizing some of the or um uploading all that data into our billing program. And so it's taken us a little more time um to get that together. So instead of late May, due late June, it will likely be mailed late June and due late July.
So, we'll put out some communication to the public uh this week who may be expecting to uh to see that utility bill that they can uh they can expect to receive it late this month. That's the first thing. Um second thing is uh smoke
testing. We put out a public notice yesterday uh excuse me on Friday that we would be doing smoke testing generally in the northeast section of the township. Um that is done in the sanitary uh sewer line and excuse me it
is done in the um yes yes the sanitary sewer line and what we're looking for is rainfall that is um going into the sanitary line when it should be going into the storm water line. So um we put out a notice every resident who whose
area will be tested received a door knocker. They pump smoke into the system and you may see smoke coming out of vents in your home on the outside. It may come out of your roof leaders. It may come out of a um a basin in your yard if you collect rain water there and
it's inappropriately connected. Um and that's what we're looking for. It may also if there are let's say cracks in the uh in your plumbing inside your home that may result in some of the smoke going into your house. It is it's a good
thing to identify that because it means if the smoke can enter your house, sewer gases can also enter your house. And so we have crews on the street who are observing this um any resident with concerns can can reach out to the the department of public works. They can talk to any of the crews that are
operating in the street. We are hopefully going to conclude the program next week, weather permitting. Um so uh yeah, that's a good thing. All right. Okay. Um um I just want some clarification. So are these specific
addresses or all the homes in one area? All the homes in an area where we have experienced uh too much flow in the uh uh what do you call it? Storm sewers. Yeah. Because of that too
sanitary. And so how we identified what areas to backing up in people's homes. That's right. Yeah. How we identified the areas to test is we put meters into the sanitary sewer line and during rainfall events we look to see where
there were dramatic spikes in sewage flow because generally the sewage flow should be pretty consistent. You know when it starts raining everybody doesn't jump in the shower or flush their toilet. So if you see that there's a dramatic spike in the sanitary line it's likely because rainfall is entering into
the line. So, we we looked we placed those meters throughout town, identified the areas where uh we think there's the most this inflow infiltration into the sanitary and those are the areas that we're smoke testing first. It could be that we roll this out into other areas
of town later on, but this area we're focusing on now. Okay. Did you um as chair of engineering public works, we've been talking about this for a while. Did you want to add anything? Yeah, I just wanted to say two things about the why we should be doing this. One is that we want to protect the integrity of our
sanitary sewer. Um when we get sir charges of a lot of storm water in the sanitary sewer, it could destroy the sanitary sore or disrupt the sanitary sore. So we want to uh deal with that and try to eliminate that. And the second thing is our joint meeting bill
uh anticipates a certain percentage of infiltration of rainwater in there. So, if we can show that we're taking steps to remove some of that, it will positively impact our charges from the joint meeting. And it's a public health issue as we said. Yeah.
Okay. You have anything else? I have more. Springfield Avenue because I expect questions on Springfield Avenue. Obviously, there's a lot of work going on Springfield Avenue. It is creating a lot of disruption to our residents. Um the work generally requiring the road
closures is New Jersey American Water who is replacing lead service lines. They have a subcontractor Montana who's performing the work. Those uh service lines extend into the roadway and connect with the the water man that runs in the roadway. Because of that work
they require road closures. We expect that work to conclude next week. hopefully early next week, but next week on Springfield Avenue and then after that the road closures um will be uh
will be lifted. There still will be some work on Springfield Avenue. So, New Jersey American Water will still be doing some work behind the curb, but it won't res result in road closures. and the town's contractor who's doing uh curb upgrades, ramp upgrades, concrete
work, they're still going to be working along Springfield Avenue. Uh but again, they won't require road closures. The next time we will have road closures on Springfield Avenue is in August when we repave um the entire length of Springfield Avenue
in Maplewood. Paving east to west or west to east? I don't know. Uh east to west. West. believe we're starting down at the Yeah, that's Springfield Avenue. Um the
township is had just circulated today advertisement of the historic preservation element of the master plan. There's a few components of that. Uh so I I encourage everybody to look at the email. It includes a draft of the plan. It includes a notice of a public meeting
to be held not this coming Saturday, but the following Saturday, June 28th. that will be from 10:00 a.m. to 12 uh pm at the woodland in the parlor. Um and then there is a questionnaire a 12 questionnaire
asking residents about you know different aspects of the historic nature of Maplewood and what they appreciate and how it impacts them and know what their um their experience with the historic preservation commission are. So, I'd encourage uh residents to get involved and engaged in that. Again,
attending the public meeting, completing the questionnaire, and reviewing the draft of the um of the historic element for that South Orange. I'm sorry. Have a lot. I have questions about that. Yeah. If I
may. Sure. Um I just saw that email today. Um and I was like, "Wow." So the we already have a draft new element historic element. Yes. Who drafted it? We have a
consultant. So we received a grant through I remember that. But that was that happened so quickly. Barton and Ross. I mean yeah we've been working Yeah. Yeah. You know the the Historic Preservation Commission has been very involved and has done a lot of work on this. Um we have kind of a standing
group that uh meets monthly with the consultant to go over the progress that that includes uh members of the historic preservation commission, the state historic preservation office, uh myself, uh Mr. Duca, a member of the zoning
board and uh we planning board planning board and yeah, we've all been meeting monthly and it's make Wow, that's pretty quick. Um, and the survey though, um, I filled out the survey. Okay. Um, so you see me in there because disregard them.
It asks for your name. Um, so but the the survey doesn't go to everyone, does it? Or is it just certain stakeholders? Yeah, it's a public survey, so anybody can complete it. We do have a question on your title if you hold municipal office. So you, for example, a member of the planning board, zoning board,
historic preservation commission, uh we would want to know if if they are filling out the survey and what their responses are, but the the survey is open to any member of the public. We encourage them to complete it. Yeah, we should get that out there. Yeah. Thanks. Yep. You're welcome. And you have more
to report? I do. And just a quick uh it's going to go to the planning board that the the historic element is going to go to the planning board on September 19th and then we're going to bring it for a short presentation here to the township committee even though we don't pass it. It just we want to make sure
everyone understands what it's about. So that's going to be on September 16th and it has to be to the state and done by September 30th. Two more mayor. I'm sorry. So, uh, the pool, we have opened our pool to residents of South Orange while they
are, uh, completing the work on their pool. They haven't announced an opening date yet. Uh, but since I'm before you, I just want to discuss the possibility that we may need to extend when they are able to use our pool. We've been pretty
the township committee has been um, flexible and given discretion to myself and the director of community services to figure out exactly what works, right? And so far it has um so you know hasn't been exactly pool weather though. Yes. So certainly that can continue but we do
expect that starting on Sunday and at least through next Thursday we will be um have extreme heat which will likely result in us opening the pool to all residents. And so um it's a very broad request because I don't know right now
where South Orange stands on opening or not. Uh but we would just ask that you know if if the township committee um is willing to continue to give discretion to the director of community services to work with South Orange on appropriately
making our pool available if we can. Likely on heat index days we won't because we expect an influx but before that and should it extend um after next Thursday and should South Orange need a pool after next Thursday that we can continue to work with them to provide the pool as a Okay. And what is when
does school end up out there? This week. Yeah, that's where I have a question. So school ends on Thursday of this week. So starting on Monday of this week, our pool has been open in the afternoons from 4 4 to 4 to 8. And then on Friday,
it's open from 2 to 8 because school is out that day. And then this is then after that, starting next week, it's open all day weekday. So, I think that this is um uh originally South Orange had asked for three weekends. Um but now
we're getting into the point where um it's not just weekends, it's it's daytime. And I believe that our community services director was asked also about accommodating the swim team every day. And so there's there's requests that are coming in and I think
that she has been um you know told them what the pool can and can't do. Well, we have our own swim teams who have practice and they get preference obviously and I'll leave it to the director of community services to to figure out what her staff and the guards
and everything and the and the members so that the pool is available to them. Um I'll leave it to her to make those decisions of what works. My concern is when we usually have the forecast for what is it? Three days three days. Yep. We can set uh extreme heat days then we
open it to all residents. Um so how do you expect to handle that? You don't know it. Like if South Orange coming to We spoke with the director today and we don't expect that on those heat days we would be able to accommodate South Orange. Okay. So you will let them know. one just because of the sheer number of
you know crowds we have but two you know the heat also affects our employees and we want to make sure we're giving them adequate breaks right so I don't expect that we'd be able to accommodate South Orange and also it's only open to South Orange pool members that's right right not the entire town yes and South Orange
has been very very understanding and and appreciative of everything we've given them so far Sure we're happy to help but again those extreme days we may need to but we'll leave it to you guys unless anyone has any thoughts That's besides what we talked about. Nope. Okay. What's your last thing? Promise. So, any motion
to go past 9:30 because just to listen to Mr. Weary. Yeah. I apologize. And so, uh, we received another request from the film company for a waiver of the restrictions in our ordinance and so we've been bringing them to you as they
come. They, you know, they work out their schedule about two to three weeks in advance. I'm sorry, the phone company. Film film. Film it. Definitely not phone. No, the same film company. Same film company. Um, so we've been giving them uh permits at about a two
week clip, which is actually helpful to us and I think it gives us a little more control. They've come back and asked us for um uh for permission to operate outside of what is allowed in our ordinance for this Friday through next Friday. So, this Friday, June 20th, they
would start earlier than is permitted, 5:00 a.m. They are doing uh interior exterior filming with traffic control on Maplewood Avenue between Inwood Place uh also on Duran Road um at the Maplewood
train station. Uh and so they're requesting that it will require traffic control. It will have an impact on some of the parking we, you know, if approved by the train by the train station. Yeah. on Maplewood Avenue. Okay. And we're So it's a it's just a Friday. That's ju
Maplewood Avenue is just a Friday. And the train station which day? Also Friday. Friday. So So Friday is a light day. Yep. So at at work New Jersey Transit to receive all the approvals necessary from transit and it's a
holiday for some people. It will impact parking both on Maplewood Avenue and on Denell while they're working at the train station. Are they going to sweep and wash the floor in the train station for a change? I I think it's too bad. Well, there's there's enough
work to do there. They can fix up the building. We'll leave that to transit. And then uh next week is at the Burgdorf. So, those are there's some exterior shooting requiring traffic control, but the majority is interior. Um, and they're looking for early start
times, 5:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m., and some late uh end times, 10:30, 11:30, 12:30 a.m. Again, those are interior when they're going, especially past midnight. So, we'll continue to work with them. You know, there may be road closures, there may be impact to parking. We'll,
if it's approved, we'll continue to work with them to minimize. I'd suggest making the um village alliance director aware. Yes. And they have been involved in the conversations are will make sure that they understand about these approvals and and then of course the residents
around there. Yes. Yes. Who similar um have also received notice and we will check back to make sure that it complies now with the current version of the ordinance. Okay. So, uh, both of those time periods, the early time and the late time are beyond our noise
ordinance. So, even though it's interior, typically, you know, they have to bring things from outside, they might be talking outside, they may be going to get a coffee at the food truck. So, they need to know that we have um a no noise
ordinance in the front end and the back end. And further, when they're operating outside of what's permitted in our ordinance, there will be police officers there who we will work with to ensure that those noise ordinances. So, about compliance, like the police
officers are going to be looking at compliance, like if they say that they want to film until 12:30, um what happens if they film until 3:00 a.m.? I think from 12:30 to 3:00 a.m. would not be permitted. uh police officers in
their general line of work are given discretion and I would I would expect that they'd exercise that like time. So yeah, 12:30 if they're wrapping up and they're quiet and at 12:45 I don't I think that's too much of responsibility to put on an officer. I think you have
to if if there's a request to go beyond what's agreed to. There has to be a sign off by the death's lieutenant or sergeant. I think that's the that's the appropriate person and that person can make a judgment whether they need to check with you or check with the chief, but I don't think you can put it on the
officer on the street. Okay. And then with regard to um safety to make sure we don't have any close calls, can we um what can we do um for the officer that is assigned? They need to act like a public safety
official. Like if we have an officer assigned to one of these streets during a road closure, they shouldn't be in their car, right? They should be letting school buses through if you know as as possible and they should be making sure
that pedestrians are safe. I mean, that's their job as public safety officers. It doesn't need to be in an ordinance. I'm sorry to be snarky, but really like this isn't really rocket science, some of this stuff, right? I'm I'm kindly asking that Mr. wary. Remind them of
these. Yes. To be fair, the one that was exemplified on Claremont was not a school bus. It was a van, a school van kind of thing. So, it may not have been obvious school thing. That's correct. Right. So, are these police jobs paid
jobs or what? Outside duty paid. Outside duty paid. Not paid by the town. Right. So um and we set the standard of how many people how many officers the cops. Okay. So you know we can always
push it a little higher so that we have more coverage. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's where I'm going with this. If if needed, you know, for safety, then I think we need to ask them to have have additional and there can be a maybe a a discussion
with the officers on the expectations because often times on this on the side jobs, they are kind of slow and and so you don't see the officer as much, but these are pretty busy jobs and it would be good if they could just maintain
their visibility. The jobs are are generally slow. No, the I'm Yeah, on some of the road jobs. That's what I meant. Yes, you this is this is not a typical, you know, uh dig a hole in the road job. This is a
lot of moving parts, right? Okay, I think we've got the message. Yeah, that's Mayor, would you um have anything else? That's the longest report you've had in your employment here. I've had him. Next time spread him out
over. Yeah. No. Really? Any other questions for Mr. Wary? No. Right. Right. Um, Mr. Credio, it's been fun. Yeah, it's been great. I feel almost obligated to have a report. No, that's okay if you don't have anything. It will definitely be shorter than Mr. Wear's.
Yeah, that's two two things. Uh, we have resolution 222 tonight is endorsing our housing element and fair share plan. Um, we have met all of the timelines and milestones required under the fourth
round affordable housing legislation that was passed year. Um, and this is the the final step process. Tremendous amount of work that went into a very thorough and extinctive housing element
and fair share plan. It was considered at the planning board uh last week. they had robust discussion and uh it's before you today. Uh one other thing as you may be aware we've discussed it I think a couple of times before the uh continuing
state of being able to advertise in newspapers uh still remains a little up in the air. Star ledger is our secondary uh paper that we rely upon if we need to get a notice published more quickly. Um
we are currently still permitted under state law to use the star ledger until June 30th. Uh the league of municipalities is hopeful that there will be some sort of either again um extension or preferably some kind of
permanent fix 30th especially as there are governing bodies that reorganize on July 1. It would be nice for them to know what newspapers were available to them. Uh but stay tuned. Okay. Any questions for Miss Critia?
Township clerk, you still there? Okay, your turn. Couple things, mayor, so I don't lose my reputation. Um, okay. So, I want to report uh quickly first on the
uh primary election and um so um of the registered voters in the township, 27% voted during the primary election. Um, so there were uh 5,935
votes cast with 3,767 or 63% voting for the winner, uh, Miss Jane Collins. Um, of the total votes, 357 were done
through early voting. 3,836 were done on primary election day and 1,742 were done through mailin ballots. Give you an idea. Um the average of voter
turnout throughout Maplewood was 31%. Which is higher than the average for Essex County which was 19%. So those are some facts. Um, in a nutshell, it was a uh
very uh smooth election. You know that there were some issues on uh the voting location at the Clinton school. We worked really hard to get that right and um we're going to have to work really harder to get it correct for
November. I don't think it's any fault of the township of Maplewoods um or uh the clerk's office that administers the election, but again, we're going to have to work harder to make sure that things don't mysteriously
uh go from one room to another in a period of 400 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. So, right. Um and signs. And the signs. Yes. So, uh, we know we have some work to do there and we will,
um, I just want to comment on, uh, tonight's, um, consent agenda. We have the renewal of three ABC um, well, three categories of our ABC licences, uh, plenary, retail, distribution,
consumption, and club. And I did convey to the township committee late this afternoon that we have two lenses um who are consumption licences that are um not in compliance and therefore they are not on the
resolutions tonight. Um we have reached out to them numerous times. One needs tax clearance and the other needs payment to both the state and uh the township. So, what does that
all mean? Um, here's what it means. License is good until June 30th. Um, we meet again on July 1st, which means that hopefully by June 30th, both
licences will be in compliance. And what it means is it really not a big penalty because if they are they can do what's called an ad interim permit for one day and pay a very small um fee to the state to operate for the one day until you
would consider their license renewal on July 1st your next meeting. So, it's really not that painful if they uh you know do get what they need to do um completed by the 30th of June. And if
they don't, they can't they won't be operating to close. You know, you need two of the very important things are paying the state fee, the township of Maplewood fee, and having tax clearance.
So I mean I'm happy to say that every other lency that we have have all complied. Who enforces that? I'm saying let's say they don't comply by the 30th. Who shuts them down as it were? That would be me. It's Britson.
Yeah, that would be me. I'm scared of you. I know you shut it down. We've done it before. But I hate for, you know, for it to come to that, right? Uh my third quick item is uh to indicate that we have a lot of
uh event planning meetings coming up specifically uh Fourth of July tomorrow afternoon and uh we have uh two other large events in uh August that we'll be having uh planning meetings for. That is my report. Thank you. Any questions for
our clerk? Seeing none, we'll move on to township committee reports. Mr. Duca, thank you, Mayor. I have a number of reports. Yes, I do have a whole page. I just want to do some upgrade uh some updates from the
engineering, public works, and planning committee. Tonight on our agenda, on our consent agenda, as you mentioned, mayor, we uh items 14 C to 14F, we have capital purchase as capital purchase of
equipment, trucks, and spreaders and tractors for the DPW. Uh this is important for us to be able to do our work. Also, we have 14K resolution. That's the roadway improvements. We're going to be approving $1.13 million uh
for paving and that's going to go to Riverview Paving, which we've used in the past. So, we're happy uh to be able to work with them and that should do the roads that we talked about, all the roads that we talked about um in our budget hearing. Uh another item, Deart
Park reconstruction. The engineering public works and planning committee accepted the recommendation of our engineering consultants to construct the field using a sand base. Uh we discussed whether we wanted to use a sandbased or a soilbased and um we'd been using a
soilbased for the last couple times and we were convinced that the sandbase was the way to go um to move forward. So that's what we're going to be uh doing. Uh the design now is underway. Uh before the end of the year, the TC probably in
September, October, the TC will need to adopt a bond ordinance um for the Dehark Park construction. We'll have a better idea of what the number is uh from our consultants and we'll be able to move forward. Uh Bdon Avenue, we had some
requests to do some crosswalk striping. that will be done as part of our um uh trafficcoming uh bidding that we're going to do. We're going to do all the crosswalks on Bdon Avenue. Uh spruce them up. We're also going to enhance the pedestrian crossing
at Jacobe Street. We have some new businesses there. We're going to be replacing the um sign we have there, the blinking sign with the highintensity uh blinking flashing. Uh so that'll work there. And we now have uh all of our
signs installed in the public lots. We've expanded the overnight parking. The clerk's office is aware of that and we should do some public information on that to let our residents know that we have expanded the overnight parking in
um some of our parking lots and what the process is. And you can get that information from the clerk's office. Uh I'm going to move to the public safety committee. got some very good news. Our crime statistics for our major crimes uh for the first third of the
year uh January through April and this includes robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, thefts, autothefts, of course, homicides, arson, and rape. Um in general, all the incidents are down 20% going from uh 109 in the same period
of 2024 to 87 in 2025. So that's a decrease in 22 incidents and that's a 20% reduction and that's uh want to thank the police and our detective bureau is doing a really good job in following up and uh solving some of these cases uh on traffic enforcement
which has been a huge huge priority for us here at the township committee. um we're doing much better. Our moving violations, uh again through the same period, January through April from 24 to 25, we've had a 32% increase in moving
violations. Um just in April, we had a 36% increase. So, um you know, we not that we again, we don't want to give out tickets, but we also want people to obey the the laws. uh we hear over and over
again people are concerned about traffic uh and the way in which people are driving. So the other thing I wanted to mention is vehicle stops. This is um police stopping vehicles for traffic enforcement uh you know suspicion uh driving uh things like that you know
that that makes uh a warrant uh a stop warranted. uh we had a an increase of 33% from 2024 to 2025 again for that of the first third of the year and just in April um we had a 44% from 24 2024 to
2025 191 more vehicle stops. So, um, want to thank the police for doing, um, you know, what we've been asking them to do and and compliment the chief and the captains and lieutenants for, um, taking our message and implementing it on the
street. I think people feel very, uh, you know, very concerned about traffic and parking and this is something that we're trying to to get a handle on. Um, Miss Gdid mentioned the affordable housing. I do want to talk about that a bit. That's a resolution 14
uh P. Um and that's a resolution to uh endorse the fourth round housing element and fair share plan. Um I I did hear the planning board uh conversation. Um unfortunately we didn't really have uh representation from the affordable
housing board, so I'm going to give it now. Um you know there was some question about why did we accept the 216 uh number that was required in the you know DCA report. So you know the affordable housing board discussed that
and with our consultant Mr. Mredi and um based on his recommendation and his knowledge that even if even if we decided to challenge the number um based on what we have here, we might get the
number down from 216 to 214 and and plus we would have to challenge it. We would be you know we would publicly challenge our housing number and that's not what we do. So there was really no gain to do that. So, the h the affordable housing board recommended to the township
committee and the township committee accepted uh the 216 number and that's for new units over the next 10 years. So, we're going to do that. Remember, they also recommended and the plan calls for a change in our set aides from 15%
to 20%. So, we I think we want to do that after we submitted this, right, Mr. Credido? We want to try to do this in the summer or at least by September, get that on the books. after the closure. Okay. So, let's just tee that up so that we get that going.
Um I there was also a comment about our plan to do the 48 units of 100% affordable housing and um really wasn't explained very well uh by Mr. Mstretti because he's he wasn't working on it. So, it would be expected that he
wouldn't know it. But, we've been working with u the Ingramman group. They came to us through uh requests for proposals. We we interviewed a number of we we reviewed proposals from uh over 10 um companies. We interviewed four and we
picked Ingramman. Uh and we've come up with, you know, a plan to do 48 units of affordable housing. And I'll just give you the breakdown because I think it's important that what we talk about because I think people have uh misconceptions or whatever conceptions when you talk about affordable housing.
So, um, the 48 breakout, that seven would be very low income, and that's, let's say, a family of four that would make around $40,000 or below. And then, uh, 17 would be low income units, and that's for a family of four that makes
about 65,000 or below. And then 24 would be moderate income units. And that for a family of four would make about 105,000. So, it's going to be a mix. I think the affordable housing board wanted to have a mix there. Uh, additionally, in that
48 unit complex, there will be um roughly about 10 to 15% uh special needs. We intend to work with Jessie House uh and try to make that happen. We've had some conversations with them. So, it is going to be a mixed income,
mixed population. Uh, and that's what we're working on. Now, where's the land? We're looking for land. Um it's very difficult to find uh vacant land in Maplewood. So that's what we're looking to do. Um and then finally, you know, there was a lot of talk about the movie
theater. Uh we have not yet done that plan. We will do that plan. That plan will have a 20% set aside for affordable units on site. Um whatever gets whatever is the final unit number, you know, final units to be built there. And
that's going to be a factor of height and parking and and density requirements. Uh whatever that number is, it's going to be 20%. We use the placeholder of 100 just to give us, you know, a possible working number. So if it's 100 units, 20% or 20 of those would
be affordable units. And again, it would be an income mix. So um moving next, uh July 4th, we have our celebration coming up. And I just want to go through the quick agenda. Um, we have our uh 9:00 is
the 5K race. 10 o'clock is the bike parade. 10:30 we're going to do kids uh fun runs. 12 o'clock is the adult softball. It's a pickup game across the street here in in uh Memorial Park. 1:30 we're doing bingo.
For those of you who want to uh do a Fourth of July bingo, come on out. And at 3:00 we have the ice cream eating contest. Uh, I don't want to brag about who won last year, but you should not be allowed to compete this year. We have
the pet parade and then 9:00 we have fireworks and at 7:30 that uh Memorial Park South opens up. Um, the next day on July 5th, we have the grand opening of our library and that's at 11 a.m. and
we're going to be closing Baker Street. Everyone should have gotten a postcard in the mail. I got one. And uh, please come on out. It's going to be a a great celebration. Two more quick item. Well, one more quick item and then just one more thing. Bike lane meeting is going to be next
Tuesday, the 24th. That's at 7:30 p.m. That's going to be entirely a Zoom meeting. And you can get the Zoom link on the township website. We've done uh letters out to folks. We've done a publicity campaign and uh we're moving
uh to that. We anticipate on July 15th at the township committee meeting we'll have a vote to proceed or not to proceed. And lastly, I just want to state, you know, as a public official, we're all public officials and we're all out there that um there's just something
wrong in this country when public officials are being arrested. Today, Yep. the uh New York City controller Brad Lander who's a who's a candidate for mayor was arrested by ICE agents um
you know uh Barack Mayor Baraka was arrested Senator Padilla of California was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. um this stuff has to stop and you know there's got to be somebody uh
down in Washington in the House or the Senate that's going to speak up for this. And I think we at the local level, at the county level, at the state level have to do that. But there's got to be some some oversight that comes from Congress here because we can't have
this. We can't have elected officials and they're all Democrats. Mhm. Yeah, they're all Democrats and the and the you know the president is saying that he's going after Democratic cities. Yeah. So this has got to stop and we've got to speak out and we need um some
partners speaking out at the state level and at the certainly at the federal level. So um do you want a resolution? I don't think it's necessary. I think people just need to do it a resolution. We just need to make sure they do it. So, and that's my
He went for uh I think you might have just beat Mr. Wary by the minute or so. I may have. Do we questions? Do we do a motion to move beyond 9:30? I think we might need it. See where we are first. Mr. Daffis, you're next. Uh also,
we should condemn the political violence, not just the harassment, right? Oh, yeah. There's been violence against uh elected officials, hunting them down, targeting them, and uh
you know, it it's just as as you said, committee member Duca, uh I don't know what our elected representatives are doing in Congress in terms of speaking out about this. Um, aside from issuing uh, you know, a
statement of condemnation on social media that one of their staffers put together, um, as committee member Duca mentioned, the planning board did review our housing element um, and approved it after some discussion. Um, and thank you
for providing additional context about uh, some of the things that were discussed. Um and I just want to say because we are talking to the public here um you know earlier today I I did a
presentation uh on affordable housing um along with a panel of developers and I think the way we talk about uh affordable housing um is wrong. It's wrong. And
it's it's just rife with stigma and uh it's it's life cycle housing. That's what it is. And that's why we need to do it. It's meeting the needs different housing needs for all kinds of
people throughout the various stages of life. That includes our seniors aging in place affordable and accessible housing. It includes those with disabilities and special needs, supportive housing. It includes workforce housing, our
teachers, our firemen and fire women, the people who keep our communities safe and together can't afford to live here. Um, it includes housing for youth. We have our college graduates returning and living with their parents because home
ownership is impossible right now in ways uh it was not just a generation ago. Um, so we need to start talking about housing production in New Jersey as life cycle
life cycle housing. Life cycle housing is housing justice. It's housing equity. So, I just wanted to put that on the record. Uh last night we met uh the board of school estimate met. Uh we were presented with uh four proposals for
improvements at Ritzerfield. Um and provided uh budgets for each of those proposals. Um we had uh a long conversation and lots of public comment. Uh I do think that um
our the discussion of this is kind of going all over the place and we're relitigating certain things. Um the bottom line is that the BOE will make a decision in July about which of the four proposals they want to push they want to
uh put forward. It's their decision. Uh and then the board of school estimate will reconvene to review that plan and its budget. we'll have more information uh at that time and we will um make a decision as to the financing bond
ordinance and so on. Uh one good thing that a couple great things that came out of the discussion last night, we learned that the district is uh leaning into community engagement, significant community engagement with um uh all the
residents, especially the Hixon residents. Uh obviously they live right there on the border of the field and they have some concerns about storm water mitigation and runoff and we understand that um they will be engaged in the planning process
and also that uh since the field is in Maplewood that a cursory uh review by the planning board will also happen too when we get to that stage later this year or early next year. So that's great. That's great. That's these are
the things that should be happening in terms of transparency and engagement. That's good government. Um and then lastly, um if you've attended one of our pride uh events, uh hopefully you had a really good time and you felt more proud, especially in this environment
right now where there's a lot of hate and discrimination against the LGBTQ community in particular. And I'm really proud of all of our organizers um who uh went forward with a festival that was great despite the rain and the
challenges with weather. Um and the the events that we organized as a township including uh in partnership with uh other community partners, Lavender Graduation uh got a lot of notice around the state this year. And I know some of
you have seen uh that we were reported at nj.com as the only school district that participates in lavender graduation. Really really proud of that and big shout out to uh my co-organizer of that um Shannon Cuddle. Um so that's
my report. Mayor take any questions. Thanks. Any questions from anyone? Mayor Herman. All right. Um, I want to thank this is our our first township committee meeting since the election. I want to thank
everyone for coming out to vote in the primary, which is on a different day than normal. And I want to say congratulations to Jane Cullings Colding for your successful bid for Township Committee. I have gotten to know Jane um
uh last fall campaigning for Kamla Harris and uh having Jane on the senior advisory committee. So, I am looking forward to getting to know you better and I want to um again thank everyone for coming out to vote. Um
Junth, I read a really um great resolution earlier in this meeting and we have two events happening this weekend. So, I want to share with everyone these two events. We have one in Maplewood and one in South Orange. So, a lot of times what we do with South
Orange, just so everyone knows, we alternate events back and forth. So we take turns and for we do this with Junth. So the event in South Orange is something that last year we had it here in Maplewood and this year it is in South Orange and next year it'll be back here in Maplewood. So um so that is our
joint event. We have two so the two events are first we're kicking it off at 5:00 at the 1978 Art Center over on Springfield Avenue. We have an opening reception from 5 to 8 called Celebrating
Junth. The things they carried, the stories they told, passions of the unseen. So this is a really um exciting exhibition and the artists will be there and um there will be light refreshments. So please come by. 1978 on Springfield
Avenue. It is 1978 Springfield Avenue. So you can't forget that. and then go on over to South Orange um because they have they're having on Friday, the same night, starting at 6:30 and their event goes from 6:30 to 9:30
at Floods Hill in South Orange Junth a freedom celebration. Join us at Floods Hill for a vibrant evening of live music, inspiring readings, amazing food trucks, and a dazzling fireworks show. Love the fireworks. Let's come together
to honor history, celebrate freedom, and uplift our community. So, um, two great events on Friday to look forward to. I also want to, uh, make sure everyone knows that our swim lessons went up, uh,
for registration on, uh, let me see, yesterday. Wait, no, today's Tuesday. Today, they went up for registration today. So, sign up. I'm very proud of the fact that we're going to be offering more weekend classes. We heard the community loud and clear that they um
they sold out and it's it's a lot easier for working parents and parents with kids in camps to be able to sign up on the weekend. So um adult swim lessons are coming so keep an eye out for that. We're going to be doing that again as well. Um inclusive playground, the
inclusive playground at Mapler Park, we're going to be having a public meeting next week. So look out for more information on that. It will be here uh next Wednesday um at 7:30 and it will be both in person and online and so you can
watch it that night or the recording. But we're going to be presenting where we're at with the plan so we can move this forward. Um another project we can be all very excited about. Um did we all get an invite on that? No. No. No. It's
it's it's coming. Yes. Okay. How convenient. Wednesday to Wednesday. Good. Yeah, exactly. Um, and finally, I wanted to thank uh Mr. Daffis for the summation of the Bose meeting last night. I think it was a really good discussion. I was also
very pleased to hear um that they would be taking a more community oriented approach and involving the Maplewood Planning Board. I know that's something that has been brought up. And that they also would be taking um having a working group with Hixon residents. Um, there
were another exciting thing that came out of that meeting is the school district announced they were going to start doing middle school sports. So, I'm very excited to hear more on that. I think that's wonderful and will be something to really bring the community together. Um, and I look forward to, you
know, working with the board of education on the plan that they put put forward. Um, and again, thank them for involving us in that and for the really um, I think productive conversation last night. And that's my report 9:27. Thank
you. Any questions for Deputy Mayor Herman? Three minute. Okay. I'll make a motion to uh extend past 9:30. I'll move it. I'll second. Mr. Davis, yes. Luga, yes. Sherman, yes. Mayor
Adams, yes. Thank you. Um, my colleagues always cover everything before it gets to me, which is fine. I'm not going to be redundant just so I can talk, but I will mention that July 12th and 13th is Maple Woodstock. So mark your calendars.
That's the weekend after 4th of July. Um so Maple Woodstock 2 days noon to noon to 10 and noon to 9th, something like that. But anyway, that's coming, right? We had the event meeting and all is
going well. So that's all I have cuz you guys all had it. The board of school estimate meeting was longer than anticipated as always with board of school estimate and a long discussion. Um so yeah, I didn't agree with the
outcome, but what else is new? Um, I did get some emails thanking me for um, speaking up uh, for what I believe is the right thing to do in spite of being uh, in the minority on that. So, that was nice to hear. Um, so if there's no
questions for me, we have no discussion items and I'll ask for a motion on the consent agenda. Mayor, I move the consent agenda. Second. Mr. Dus, yes. Puca, yes. Herman, yes. Mayor Adams. Yes. And that brings us to our last
public comment. Any subject matter at all. So, yes. Come on up. Give your name and address. And you have three minutes to speak. Hi. Uh Ethan Weinberg again, 39 Claremont Avenue. Um, I just wanted to, you know, provide a couple
follow-up comments because, uh, it was great to hear you guys look at the ordinance that you're passing and and think about how you're going to use it, um, broadly, uh, to address some of the concerns that people raised. Um, I want to appreciate that Mr. Barry is obviously working very hard to make sure that things are going to go smoothly for
the rest of the shoot as it impacts the, um, uh, folks in my neighborhood. Uh, there are two things that I just wanted to raise. Um, in terms of expanded notice, u, the mayor was asking about that. I think you should use that extremely broadly. It's obviously a very low burden for a PA on a production suit uh shoot to deliver some pieces of paper
to a few more homes than they were to do. Um uh so I just would really hope that you do that. Um and it's been clear from the notices that I've seen that they're not following the terms of the notices that have been gone out that have gone out um in terms of like where they say folks are going to be parking. I don't know if they're required to
notice just you know the crew vehicles the personal crew vehicles that people may be you know driving. I understand that, you know, for example, people are parking those on Claremont Drive, even though those are not like the big trucks, you know, that's obviously still taking up space. So, I don't know exactly what they need to be um including in that notice, but obviously
would encourage you to take that as broadly as possible. And then the other piece of it is um enforcement. I think the deputy mayor was talking about that as well. Um, I honestly don't know what you do in the middle of the day if you find, you know, for example, we were told, you know, the main actor came late, so everything was shifted by a
couple hours and that's why things were closed, you know, at different times than than what they expected. Um, and you're obviously putting a lot of a burden on the officer who's there to what decide if he's going to revoke a permit on the spot, you know, shut down a thing. Obviously, this is a a long-term relationship, at least over
this summer, that that is going to have with this production crew. just would encourage you to think about what it's going to mean if um this production crew is is not following through with what they say they're going to be doing. Um how many strikes are they going to get? Are you going to be doing anything on a given day? Obviously, sometimes it's too
late if you know, for example, someone's got a plumber who's supposed to be, you know, coming by their house to resolve a week and then they can't get in, you can't really do anything. Slap on the wrist, you know, a date later. Um so, just wanted to encourage you to think broadly about what you can do to, you know, effectuate the the concerns that
people have raised. Great. Thank you, Mr. Wary. That uh would be a nice thing to mention the production crew if there is a delay or anything like Kevin Klein showing up late. You know, we can't yell at Kevin Klein, but we can if they can
communicate with you, then you can communicate with the officer on the street and let them know. Go ahead. Okay. Hi, my name is uh Patrick Hulk and I live at 205 Wyoming. I think I've met some of you before. Uh I've lived in
town since 2019. Uh both me and my wife are veterans. Um are you aware of the parking situation around scooters at the train station? Yes. Yes. Okay. Was there a was there a change in ordinance or anything in that uh fashion? I'm part of
a group of people who usually park in around there and we've all been ticketed. Right. So we talked about it both at engineering and public works on w last Wednesday and at the public safety meeting that evening and I believe our direction to was for our um
public safety for police to look into it for no for engineering to look into that's right thank you um using some spaces that would normally be for cars or and then re having a permit situation. They're going to look at all different options, including maybe some
space that's not used for anything, not big enough for a car or something. And then so we're looking into having them look into alternatives around the train station on both sides to see where we can accommodate scooters. That would be great. Thank you. Yeah, it um right now
I'm driving parking in Vilbert. Oh. Um yeah, and the next engineering meeting is July Yeah. So, it's going to take some time. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. You know, I I So,
we have a It's the second Wednesday. I think it's the 11th or the 9th matter. Um and it's on Zoom at 8 a.m. So, want to come and you know, we're going to I think the chief, the police chief made it clear that you can't park on the sidewalk. That's essentially what you
what you know has been happening. So, we're we've asked the engineer to figure out some, as the mayor said, to figure out something else. Um once we agree to that, then we have to implement it. So it's going to take a bit time. I I think any just overhead cover and around the
train station, you know, if that takes Yeah, that's that's a problem with the cover, right? Because what we're looking at is take a parking space that doesn't have cover. So um you know that that's some of it.
But um the other thing is that you know this is if we take if we have some parking there it's you know right now you guys are not paying any kind of parking fee where other cars are paying a parking fee. So we'd have to figure that out too, right? I mean you that could be a deterrent for people using
cars and is is one perspective at that. So you're driving people to use some other form of transportation if you don't want people parking and you want to reduce the overall traffic that's going on downtown. So there's a a way, you know, there's a a counter to that, too. Um, yeah, but no, any any kind of dedicated, it might also be a more
reduced fee. Yeah. And any ideas you have, like if you're around the train station, please feel free to email us or come to Engineering Public Works and and during public comment at the top of the meeting, you can um offer up some suggestions. If I may ask, what is the
accommodation in Milbour? Um, well, I I a little bit I cheat a little bit. Um, I I'm a disabled veteran, so I have technically free parking. Um, and so I park it in uh their parking garage downtown. I just I
see parking garage and I put it in the parking garage. So there's cover there. Obviously, it's a huge facility. So I mean, I'm not parking legitimately, you know, so somebody could give me a ticket down there, but nobody has yet at this time. Shh. So, are you a are you able to
park in in a designated handicap zone? Um, no. I could park uh in the commuter lot, though, hang my tag on my scooter, which some high school student would steal, which I would understand. Um, and that would allow me to have that parking
space for the day without paying, right? So, I I could take a car spot away, which I obviously don't want to do. That's the whole point of having a scooter is you don't take a car spot away. Um, so that's but that's just for me or I guess somebody else that had some sort of u
uh you know certification to be able to park complimentary from the town, right? Great. Anyways, interesting. Well, we're working on it. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. Hi again from Hemlock Court. Um, and I do want to share some more follow-ups.
Okay. So, in my conversation with you on Thursday, there were two things that you shared. One was you don't have capacity to do site visits after permits are issued. And we talked about that makes sense. You're not there to do site visits. I
don't want to add staff to the community, but enforcement is important. So, it needs to be solved for. So, I just want to acknowledge that comment from you and um I had called you after I
walked over to the site with the letter and letter of inform. Sorry. First, I called the police department and I said, "This is where I live. This is what's going on. How much longer is this going to be blocked?" She said, "I don't know. You need to go call
the officer on duty or you need to speak to the officer on duty." So, I walked to the site. They sent somebody from crew who said Kevin Klein was hours late. We're almost done. It'll be soon. So I said, "What's that, 15 minutes?" Because, by the way, it was 2:15 and my
son's bus comes somewhere around 2:45. Um, then I walked to the police officer and the police officer said, "I don't know. I'm just here. I'm just here for as long as they want me." So, I just want to loop that back to the comment and like
they're doing their job. Like there's a lot of people just doing their job. The failure is in the integration. I also heard you mention that parking is a real struggle in the the community. We talk about it all the time. He just told you that there's permits for a Friday to
a Friday, or else it's two individual Fridays. Filming on Maplewood Avenue from 5:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. Did you notice today how many spots were taken up with crew cars with New York fleets? Did you notice the double parked box
truck in front of the Burgdorf? Like it's this is not working. When you are approving permits two weeks out, you're not looking at the big picture. This is a film. This is a series that's being filmed in our community. So, the
scope of impact is significant. And there's there are a lot of things that you need to think about. Yes, you can talk to the police officer. Yes, you can um revoke permits, but I think what you said to me was we have a bunch of permits for the next several days this
summer. It's not like I'm going to not grant the permits at this time. That's what you actually said to me. So, at this point, can you revoke? Will you revoke? Will you deny permits? What is the scope? How are you going to enforce?
It all feels like lip service to me. It's not real. Make it real. This is a TV series. It's not going to end. The other thing is in terms of implementation one, um, if you're going to move it
forward, how about you limit production, they can't work during school commute hours, they can't block the sidewalks, they can't have 18 wheelers parked up and down a residential street. Those are
some practical, real things that could happen for this to like improve for the community. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the room who would like to speak to the township committee? Third statement. Um this is Eve
Morowski. I use PO Box 32 in Mapford, New Jersey 07040. Unfortunately, Milbour Library is under construction, so I couldn't use their print didn't have a working printer. So, I'm winging it. Okay. Five paragraphs
from a letter that I have been sharing with the New Jersey legislature, but I'm going to email the statement to Liz. Um, and it's going to refer to my dog. So, I brought her pictures so that you know. Um, in December 2022, I was evicted from
my childhood home at 60 Mapwood Avenue, 60 years due to a proven June 7th marked two and a half years. Born in Row and raised in Makewood, I've always been independent and prior to incessant litigation against me,
financially stable with no debt. paid my way through school, working concurrent jobs, satisi satisfying all my loans. After graduate school, I became a Navy wife and subsequently moved 10 times in 10 years. My life began to unravel when, far from home, my military officer
husband exposed his sociopathic. I went through a very difficult divorce from an abusive narcissist who prolonged litigation because he could. I was a reluctant legal trailblazer. As it is my understanding, the family court in Honolulu changed law regarding discovery
after he was granted 88 nonsensical subpoenas. It is on record and reviewed that I did everything I could to settle. While the case dragged on, I moved back from Hawaii to care for my parents, my sister and her family who lived close by, but chose to ignore them. I was
their sole full-time caregiver for two and a half years as they both deteriorated with terminal cancer. My mother died five months after my father. My World War II veteran parents left our home to me as their legacy. They provided substantial funding for my
sister and her family over decades, including buying a house, which I rescued for her out of tax lean sale. They owed double what I eventually did on mine. My parents and I were never repaid for loans we made to them in addition to the bailouts they frequently
received. My sister never helped me. She receives at least four incomes in retirement. Getting to the eviction, the movers trashed the interior of my home, stole personal property they were supposed to pack, and helped themselves to the pantry and bar. When I entered my house
the night of eviction to walk the rooms and say goodbye, I was enraged seeing their vandalism and theft. My reaction to this egregious violation of my personal property led to my arrest. I was carried out unconscious and woke up in the trauma unit of the hospital. I
was shackled to the bed with handcuffs to officers on watch in the hospital room. Transferred at 3:00 a.m. in paper hospital pajamas and socks. First to the Makewood Police Station, then the Essex County Correctional Facility. I was
jailed 35 nights over Christmas and New Year's. Released late one freezing January night. Wait at the bus stop for transport to a friend's apartment. I spent five months under house arrest, one-year probation, community service at
an animal shelter, weekly therapist visits wrapping up in a singular mental crisis diagnosis. The judge said she had never received so many letters on behalf of a defendant before. At 60, I had an undeserved, unwarranted criminal conviction. The
perpetrators were never held accountable. And when I tried to arrange pickup of the lid for my truck, anticipating correctly I would be living in my vehicle, I was told they were victims and I was not to harass them. Unfortunately, I saw pictures of my
cherish possessions in dumpsters. They flipped my home for $719,000. The real estate developers they sold it to about$1.3 million. Again, the original debt was under $13,000.
One more paragraph. I have to reference the New York Times article. They wrote two stories about me and the equity theft that occurred. Other media rift off of them, which is to say demonstrabably misrepresented me and the circumstances leading to the
loss of my highly desirable property to a real estate speculator, Shell Corporation. The reporter never met me, only spoke on the phone once, but interpreted some of what I said into a pre-written negative narrative for clicks and knowingly
ignored emails sent with requested information. She used my sister Anne Terolski as a never- named source, which precluded searching her and the inont inconvenient truths that would undermine the crafted sin. like Terolski's mill
million-dollar suit against me. Some of the 800 plus comments I skimmed were supportive, but others were vitriolic and questioned my mental health. The Times did not publish my letter to the editor or any of my supporters. Who holds the media accountable?
Disparagement cavalerely conveyed on an influential wide-ranging platform has been irrevocably devastating to my health and job prospect. You did not have my back. You ignore me
at events that we have attended together. I have seen you. You've seen me. Never. How you do and Eve? How's it going? Before, during, or after the calamity. Hundreds of people knew what was going on before this happened.
This is about half of the people that I contacted and no one did a bloody thing. So, I want this on record that I have not vanished. I'm trying the hell hard to get a job and to
find a home. I've worked through agencies and hundreds of applications. So know this about me because I have stood in this room as a junior and Brownie Girl Scout getting awards. I have planted the tree that is the
tallest in the what was the Jefferson courtyard as a second grader. My memories will always love this hometown. But what happened to me should not have happened. So, I just want to say that
mono a womano to those who know about this because you never answered my emails or were concerned about me while people were calling the hospital, checking in with me, sending me Christmas cards at the prison.
It's an experience I never could have imagined for myself. I do believe in God. I lean into my faith and my integrity. I've learned a lot about myself and about others and I'm trying to take those lessons
and ultimately it'll be sorted out. But I am true to the inspiration and motivation that the sacrifices my parents made. I have to be true to that and honor
that. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the room who would like to speak? Mr. Worry anyone online. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi, I'm Angela Matusk. Um, I
didn't know I'd be on camera. It's uh I live at 13 Salter Place. Thank you very much for this long and informative evening. Um, I've really learned a lot listening in. I have one question regarding the housing element. Um, last week the author had mentioned that it
needed to be approved by 33126 and today I heard Mr. Duca mentioned um I believe a date of like September 30th and I was just wondering um if there were other deadlines and what might be the township's schedule for reviewing,
modifying and approving the redevelopment plan. Yeah, go ahead, Miss Cr. So the 33126 deadline is to enact the zoning that is reflected in the um housing element and fair share plan. So both the set aides
uh that Mr. Duca mentioned and also the uh redevelopment plan for the movie theater area as that is anticipated as an area where redevelopment will occur. What is the September 3rd? I I'm not familiar with the September
30th deadline off offhand, but I will I will coordinate with Mr. Nolan. I Yes, I believe Victor Duca mentioned a September deadline of something, but maybe I I didn't hear it correctly. If you could just clarify. Oh, I thought that was the objection period, right? I'm sorry. So, the objection period is
actually through the end of August, but what Mr. Duca had mentioned is even though we have until the March deadline in order to put the zoning and the set aside in place, we were planning on putting the set aside teeing up the set aside ordinance that's referred in
referenced in the housing element for September. Right. Does that clarify it for you? Um it does. Um, but I do hope that we receive some more clarification regarding the theater redevelopment plan and when the future meetings that you
had mentioned previously might be scheduled for that. Yes. When we have a schedule, we'll of course let everyone know. It's it'll be one more public meeting that the township committee decided to do and then we'll go through the process of
approving it as an ordinance and then taking it to the planning board and then back to the township committee. So, sure. So, I think I think you know that um the historic preservation commission had some questions about their role. So,
we're sorting that out and that's being sorted out right now. And once we get that sorted out, we're going to um be able to take a look at our at the draft plan to see what changes need to be made. And then I think we've agreed to
have the meeting here so that it could be a hybrid meeting similar to what we're doing right now. Correct. There's a public meeting that the mayor spoke about and that will be uh probably in early fall.
Did you say Thank you. Is there anyone else online? Did you say 9:55 earlier today? Was last week we spoke. If any member of the public would like to speak in public portion, please raise your hand now.
I see no hands, mayor. Great. Okay. Thank you. Um, may I get a motion to adjurnn? I move that we adjourn. Second. Dafis, yes. Luca, yes. Herman, yes. Mayor Adams, yes. Thank you. Good night,
everyone, and we'll see you July 1st. Right.