We did, but this is pretty much a an open meeting. A couple of ground rules, only one person at a time talking. We're not taking minutes and as much as we're going to update this PowerPoint when it's done for the for the points that we make. So, this way it'll be a document
that everyone can access and have as time goes on and to just move forward. This is the start of our budgeting. This is what this is what why we wanted we want to actually do this. We did this last year. It seemed to be pretty work out pretty
well. Some of the things we got to some of them other things came up. But they're all suggestions. We just write it down and see where we go where where do we go and then we can prioritize. All right. Um just a quick note just to start off. I'd like to thank all the
staff for coming. I know this is not part of the regular thing. I do appreciate it's a holiday season. Um, if you know the answer, speak up. If not, that's okay, too. We'll we're here to help you guys understand what we're up
against and where you guys and where we're trying to get to. You know, one of the one of the challenges that we have, right, when we start the budget is no one likes to pay taxes, especially
me. But we do, and we have to do it. But some of the issues that we're having right now is where do we where do we get the money from and what do we spend it on? You know, so there it's it's a two-way street and and some of the things that
that we're facing right now are very difficult. And one of and they're they're out of our control. And one of the main things that we have right now is of all things health insurance. Despite the fact that we changed the
health insurance to make it less expensive for the employees and everything else, the state 36%. It's up 70% in I think the last four years. Is that right, Caroline? 70 or 80, something like that. Yeah,
thereabouts. That's a lot of m That's a lot of money to to pick up. Family coverage 53 I think 53,000 this year. That's that's what they're looking for.
That and that's ridiculous. But this is what we have to contend with because this is what what the environment is that we that we actually have to live in now. So when we start talking about strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats, you know, some of the threats are health insurance and some of these state dictates are very expensive. And this isn't a picking on the state and all the rest of that. It's just a fact of life. This is where we're at and this is what we have to deal with, you know. But what do you have? How do you
combat that? What do you do? Especially if we're looking at where we are right now. What do you do? Get rid of stuff. We're not going to have a fire department. Oh, that's great. That ain't going to happen. What do you do? I mean, right now, just to keep up with
everybody else that's that's out there. I mean, we're looking at paper call and all the rest of this stuff. And these guys have done a phenomenal job for the town in general. And they've also done a phenomenal job in trying to find funds for us to get grants to help us fund some of these initiatives.
You didn't think I would mention that, right? You knew I would because that you guys did do a great job getting that to help get this thing kicked off and off the ground. You know, one of these things when we do with the budget, we started out a couple of years ago, or at least I did. The budget's what drives
this town for the whole year. You can always add subtract a little bit, but what we set in the budget and what we're going to set our stall out to do. That's that's what we're obligated by law actually to do. When you pass the budget, you're basically saying this is
what we're doing this year. This is what we're paying for. This is how much we're going to pay for it. And then we have to contend with people changing things. which we can't change what we said we're going to do. But then the state will come down and say you got to do this.
The state will come down and say you got to do that. Oh, by the way, we're changing the rules. And sometime the rules are a little bit soft that we don't see it, but they'll change a regulation and now something that the police department had to do that took
two hours now takes six hours. So now you need three times the resource to do that. Sometimes, you know, some of the some of the things that happen in the state is just the way they handle even insurance claims. This, that, and the other thing. You get in a car accident with a with a police car. Now, you're
jumping through more hoops just to figure out what happened. You're at a car, that's all you know. Look at yourself. Well, I know I got hit last year. The car was gone. Now I'm sitting there. They give me a nice little check, which isn't enough even to cover the fact of of the car that I had. These are
things that we contend with during the year. We also look at structure and part of our plan, you know, but we obviously we made a recent change. We have two interim, you know, business administrators or a deputy. I'll always
get the titles mixed up, but these guys came in are doing a are doing a job for us that was done basically by one person before. And these guys are are finding out as as time goes on, there's all these other little things that are that are
out there. And we've been pretty diligent about trying to go after all these little pesky things that nobody's taken care of for years. You know, one of the things that that that came out and Oh, by the way, everyone that's
here, Claire's here. Sorry, Claire. Claire is our citizen of the year. Claire, the environmental commission and the green team have done a fabulous job. They just got a nice big fat award for being rookies of the year, recognized by
the by the state. Don't ask me what the acronym is. I'll never get it right. But she went down to Atlantic City. She was recognized and and the whole team for their efforts. I thought it was it was phenomenal. That's something that we decided to do a couple years ago. We had one. It fizzled away. It came back.
Someone grabbed the ball by the horns and made a go of it. We can't thank you enough. We see all your handiwork all around town. Got trees everywhere. Okay. But this is this meeting is not about me rattling on for two hours. Nine o'clock
hard stop. All right. But one of the things that we try and do is we try and operate and I'm not putting it up there is to operate smart. And what that what that means is that for our goals for this year, we want to be specific. We want them to be measurable. We want them to be achievable. We want them to be
relevant to what we do and time bound, which means we don't like these open-ended things that somehow, oh yeah, we're going to get this done where I'm looking to do and it never gets done. Um, the staff that's here when we get to the point where we're doing some department reviews or if you guys have some input that you want or questions,
ask. If they know it, they'll be more than happy to answer. They're we're very lucky that we have the staff that we have. They're very good. Okay. If you don't mind giving us a little uh page forward there. All right. So, what are we doing? We're going to look at the
SWAT analysis review more along the lines of what are we going to do for 2025? What do we need to update? We're going to talk about some of our needs, the desired burough services and programs, and just a quick breeze through the department. So, what
are we doing? What's going on? Next, for those of you that are new, what's a SWAT analysis? Everyone up to date on these? I know some of you guys are giving me the the stare down. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as it relates
to what we are and what we do. All right? And it's one of the management tools that they use out there to have people look at what's going on, think about what we do right, what we do wrong. I mean, there's some I mean, we have to be doing some things right. I'm
sure there's some things that we do wrong. There's opportunities that there are things that we could be doing better and there are things that are outside of our control which are pesky things that we have to contend with and we have to deal with. Okay. Next,
I'm not expecting you to read this, but this is all the points that we had from last year. All the things that we wrote on these pads is what's up here. Okay? So, we we listed them all. So, let's go to the first one.
strengths. This is what we said last year. All right. So, now that I'm sitting here rattling away, we talked we have a lot of volunteers and volunteer opportunities, a sense of individual uh of individual importance for residents from the departments. Like when you go there, they make you feel that you're
important. Staff is providing good services and we have a good school system. That's what you said last year. What do you think? Are we still on Are we still on track for that? Are there things we should add, things we should take away? Um, who's going to be my scribes
tonight? Lenny, you taking the taking the reigns first? >> All right. >> Um, right. Strengths. >> We're not going to rewrite all that. We don't need to do it. What do you guys think?
>> Yes, it is. >> I believe we're on, right? Yep. >> Yep. It's all good. It's out there in TV land. All right. What do you think about strengths? Are we good? Are there are there things we're doing better
than we than we were even last year? Are we doing worse? I mean, from our end, everyone likes to complain about taxes. We We had a 2 and a half% tax increase. It's going to be tough to do that two years in a row.
I'll be the first one to warn you about that. But that took a lot of work. It took a lot of soulsearching and things going down. Jeremiah, you're sitting there. I'm going to put you on the spot. What do you think? What can we add? Are we doing right? We doing wrong?
>> I think we all know we need help with our volunteers and it's kind of where we are with our employees. Everyone is having that sense of individual importance. I've asked them, but I hear good things from
a department. So, from the community side, this >> Well, are we handling things that the that the community thinks that we should be handling? Are we are we do we have are we picking up trees? Are we having issues with garbage, recycling, this
that whatever or the police? >> I think every issue we have personally have tackled it with I think Bruce is going to be They've been taking care of everything else. >> Congratulations, Bruce. By the way, right, you got volunteer.
>> But no, I mean, I think we're doing good. I know you're old here. This meeting wasn't here. Six years I've been here. This is the second year we've done this. So, to bring everybody together to discuss this is a very strong sign of saying, "What can we do for you?"
>> All right. There'll be a little something extra in your envelope when you get home tonight. Now, but anyway, what about everybody else? Come on. Where where are we at? Christine with the school and the people in town and try to
volunteers. >> Well, I I I think I think it's selective volunteerism. I think we have it in certain areas and certain areas we're we're we're kind of lagging a little bit. I know Claire, you've done all right. Um
Barbara, I know you you I mean you must have half the kids in school in a headlock to get them to volunteer, but you got them. Um how are we making out? Are we we've picked up how many this year? >> Picked up four. >> Picked up four.
>> Time will tell. >> Of course. >> It's a start. It's a It's a good start. It's more than other years. with the safer grant and some more, you know, things that we can try and throw at it. Put things out there again,
flyers, getting back into the school. Think time's going to tell. >> It's a it's a hard it's a hard question. >> Okay. >> There's a there's a lot wrapped in it that doesn't necessarily have to do with us isn't a strong thing anymore and it's
very hard to try and go after that and attack that. But that's why we went for that grant particularly. >> All right. Well, we've done a volunteer fair the last couple of years. Do we do you guys think that reaps us benefits? Yes. No.
>> Barb, since I ran it, >> I really felt that it was successful for the things that I wanted to happen. It wasn't certainly as far as OEM is concerned. And I'm looking around at the library. The library tends to do well
anyway, but they Have every all the departmenties kind of gathered through the years as as people began to realize that they need help as they are joining in. I really feel there wasn't any plus
and whether you have four or you have two especially in the fire department that's more than you had before and it's because more is being up and people are selling themselves and they're getting
out there and pushing what has to be done. The need is now out there. >> Well, for the people that are here, do we do it again? We go for three. What do you think? >> Volunteer fair. We have another one.
>> I think it should be different. Quite frankly, I'm not exactly sure what it should be, but I think it should look a little different. I know for me, I have not
been discussed, but I'm not sure. I'm just >> Okay. Anyone else have want to weigh in on that? Yes. No, >> I just walked in. I know Barbara works >> around my clock on that thing and a lot
of people showed up, but the fire department didn't get a single member permit. I know fire didn't get anything. It just I don't think it attracted the crowd. >> Who the fire department? >> All right. So, we need to review the volunteer fair. >> I think it's a great idea. >> Well, I mean, maybe we have to we have
to revamp it. Let's see what we can do to come up with. Maybe that's a weakness. >> Well, it's actually a modification of a of a strength. However you want to put it, put it as a weakness. Let it rip. >> Who's the weakness person? I can't read
from the back here. >> All right. Okay. What else? We talked about volunteers. What else? What else are we doing that's that's a strength? Are we doing anything else right? >> The celebration
that you have been concentrating on with regard to all the volunteers. Uh I'm just so that was one of my gripes at the beginning when I first um met. It's something that I first met um Con
in a um but that was one of the first things I prayed about that there wasn't enough recognition. So like volunteer recognition >> and as far as I'm concerned it has grown exponentially and continues to grow.
People are recognized on every level. >> Who's doing strength? You. >> Yeah. Put it down there. Uh volunteer recognition. To be quite honest, one of the things that I think that we need to get a little bit better at is
of all things, it's nice that we have volunteer recognition. I think is it was long overdue, but I think now we have to expand that because I think we do need to do a little bit of a better job on our end employee and staff recognition because we have a lot of people that work a lot
of years and they just kind of come and go and it's just something that I think we need we need to uh to look at. Okay, Lenny, why don't you throw that one on your side? >> Employee. Yep. That's something that we got to work. >> Okay. Services. Oh, sorry, Bruce. Go
ahead. >> I was going to say you've done the council has done a lot of work in building up our police department and Chief Gut has done a lot of work along those lines and that as a community making us more secure in this crazy
world that we live in. I think that's the strength of Middle Sex >> strength. Yep. Safety. Public safety. All right. Good. Thank you. Um good services. Is anybody else? >> Rich
>> Jack, I think the movement in the in the redevelopment of the parks has been a real positive thing from new playground. >> Yeah, I think I think later on we showed that as an opportunity. So, we could put it as a strength. I mean that that that
we're moving in the right direction. these guys have looked at. And uh right there is our our parks chair right there. Hi Shannon. >> Hi. >> You guys have done a lot of work for all the parks. What else you got coming up? >> So we're still on finalizing the picture
park master plan and um we also want to look into like the pocket parks in town because we spend a lot of time park. So, um, that's what we're looking into for next year. >> All right. Keep that one online because
when that comes up later, that's going to be one of emphasis on the pocket parks. That's something that we're going to want want to work on. All right. Not to anyone's chagrin. I'm not touching the schools. All right. That's that's a separate
thing. I wouldn't want to talk about them without them being being here. So, the good school system, we'll leave it as is. We have a couple of guys that uh well, one of them here is uh moving over into into the school board. We're
expecting uh good things from them. And uh All right. Anything else? Anyone want to add anything else on these strengths? Yes. No. Don't jump in all at once. It's okay. All right. Next next slide, please.
Weaknesses. Guess what? We had a bunch more and now we're now we're trying to to go there. And these are things actually that we kind of we didn't hit them all, but we tried to do things. And I think actually we did pretty good with these to to get moving
on all of these. More volunteers. We had the volunteer fair. We're going to talk about that because if we do it and you the the main ring leader over there thinks that there are things we could do better. We want to make it as effective as possible. So, let's have a little
meeting beforehand to see what shape or form it should take. Communication, as much as uh I think I think we've done better at communicating, are are we perfect? I don't think so. Um social
media and stuff like that, we're we're getting a little bit better. I'm the last one to talk about social media because I'm not on it by design, which is okay. But as far as communication, I like to think that these meetings are have always been fairly open. People can come here, let a rip on whatever they
they might not get the answer they want to hear, but we're here to listen. Um shared services more. That's something we are looking at. All right? because there's there's a couple of opportunities that are out there that
are look they're not where they need to be yet but there definitely things that we're looking at and that's in terms of of working with either Janellen Greenbrook also working with Bound Brook in terms of the the rescue squad I know
uh Jeep you've been working on a couple of things with shared services I mean are we are we far down the road no but we've we've opened up lines of communication to try and keep these things moving along. Lack of county and
state support. Well, with Nancy Munz and Michelle Masakudas not in the picture anymore, I think that's going to be a tough go to get have that improved for us, but we've had a lot of promises. So hopefully and we're going to try and you
know, we're an underserved community by their definition. So let's hope that we can get some resources out of it. I'm not I I can't sit here and go with the big hammer and say they don't do anything for us, this that and the other thing. They have approved us for, you know, we did get the streetscape g grant
that was a million bucks. We're working on another one. The fire department did good getting the the the the grant there. It was better part of what 400,000. And and you've gotten a couple other ones in there, you know, smaller. And we've worked with um Bruno and
Associates, which is our grand writer. They've been pretty active in in getting things out there for us. Um, code enforcement and property maintenance. Well, g whiz, look who's here. By the way, those that don't know him,
this is Matthew. He's our he's he's our code enforcer. Um, he's he's been full-time with us since September. He's been making a lot of hit roads there. Um, after I finish my little spiel, if you got some questions, feel free. Um,
there you are. Better facilities and passive use uses for parks. There's a lot of stuff going on. If we could ever get the Well, I think we have public service finally at the point where we can actually move the bathrooms and put them in. >> Oh, yeah. >> That would be a that would be a step in
the right direction. >> The lake, we actually made some progress on the lake this year. We've have we've had the the ability to you know um tested testing came back well. We have some some plans in place for using our
hydro rate which is actually been a as much as people might have thought it was a boondoggle when we bought it. It's actually worked out pretty well for us and I think as time goes on it's really going to reap some benefits for us. the train tracks. At this point with the
train tracks, we are just about as far as we can go. They put in the ballards, they put in the lighting, they've come and changed the lighting. They they've been in constant contact with um with Lenny and especially the chief over light timings and different things like
that. They're they're on it. The only thing that's left for them to do for the things that they were supposed to do with us, I mean, we changed the lighting. If you guys go there, it's pretty well lit at night. The only thing that's left, according to them, is to raise the train tracks, which is a 25
year, $500 million project, which means not in our lifetime. But, you know, you know, knock on wood, outside of a couple of knuckleheads that don't know where to turn. And and as a matter of fact, even regarding that,
what we found out, or not we, but the the police department found out is that part of it was the tracking for the GPS for one of the one of the services. I forget which one um the chief would know. It was telling them to make a turn
at the light, but the problem was the light was was not the traffic light. They were thinking it was the light that was over the train tracks. So, we had a couple of people decide to make a left-hand turn. Don't don't ask me what possessed them, but they decided to take a ride down the tracks. They obviously
none of them got too far, but fortunately, outside of embarrassing themselves and and doing some considerable damage to their cars, no one got hurt, you know, which is which is a a plus on that side. Economic development and attracting businesses.
Well, we're actually getting some interest now. I mentioned that at one of the the meetings for there's there's a group that basically asked us to supply them with a list of properties that we thought would be right for for redevelopment. So, we said it because
they're they're people are starting to get interested in Middle Sex again, which is which is a good thing because we don't have the don't come here sign out anymore. We have, you know, we're we want we're open for business. We want you to come. And like we said before,
there's all kinds of ways to handle the tax thing. Part of it is redevelopment. A lot of people wish that that things could be the same way they were years and not change anything. It's you can't do it. It's just impossible because it
would price everybody out so far that we couldn't live here. So, it'll be a nice empty room, but you know, the two people that were here be paying about $24 million in taxes to to to be able to live in town and have the same services
that we have today. That's kind of where we are on the weaknesses. What do you guys think? Are there more weaknesses? Am I missing something? Anybody? >> Communication is a two-way street. You can only do so much for people in town.
Maybe you can encourage them to go to the website and come to the meetings. Um we've had park meetings where no one attended. So it's a it's a two two-way street.
Well, it is a two-way street and I and I I appreciate your point and that's one of the reasons that we're having here and I'm glad you're bringing that up because hopefully the people out that are sitting at home in TV land realize that this is their town, too, you know, and it's easy to come and complain, but
we need people to take part and and and help us. We I mean, we spent a lot of time going around town and these guys, the whole staff, I mean, they're here all the time. They know the neighborhoods. They know the people. They know everything that goes on.
Especially the DPW and the police department. Not not to downplay what you guys have in the fire department, too, but these guys are out there. They see what's going on and and they try and guide us to, hey, we got a problem here. We got a problem here. Here's what we got to look at. You know, and then on
the administrative end, we find out that, oh, by the way, this is where Caroline comes in. By the way, they changed this rule and this is what you guys have to deal with. And that's okay. We try and put it all together. But in order for this to be a a collaborative a true collaborative effort, we need your
feedback. What What are we doing? I mean, this is I mean, this is all great. This is what we all said last time. Is there anything else that you think that are we missing? I mean, are we are we too aggressive? Are we not aggressive enough? you know, in terms of, you know,
one of the things that we have with with Matthew here is that we want to go after the the broken windows. We want to go after the people that are not being good neighbors and and good residents, you know, that's what we're trying to do. People that have junk in their front yard that's been sitting there for 10
years and no one ever said anything. We're trying to take care of that, you know, and we're trying to communicate because even things as far as like the the reassessment, there's a lot of people going that were going crazy over that. Let me tell you something. I would want to be first in line for that because at this point after we had the
big reassessment, that's what you want. You want your house not to get too far out of whack so you're not getting the big hits anymore, you know. But what she's doing is definitely reflective of if your your taxes are going up or going down or
whatever they're doing, that's totally reflective of what's going on in your neighborhood. If your taxes went up a bunch, that means, boy, you guys are making you guys got a ton of home equity because it's going up like crazy. If it went down, there's there are things that are that are not going the way that you
would hope. And it's based on what what's out there in the market. And if the markets with with the way these things are being done, automatically you're going to you're going to keep pace with what's going on as because the reassessment is going to hit. And I just wanted to touch on that because I know
that was a a hot topic. And if people have any questions on that, please ask because I know you you got somewhere else that you have to run out to and I want to make sure everyone gets a chance to to say what they need to say. >> Well, here we are. Weaknesses. Come on,
guys. Where we at? Oh, sorry, Rich. I I know you got to wait a second. You got to go far beat to the punch. >> Um going forward, I know in the past when I was still working with Johnson, we were going through a lot of things
with senior housing. There was a lot of talk and then there's a little ongoing over the years about senior housing. Has that kind of and completely dropped to increase senior housing? >> Funny you should say that actually.
No, that the answer is no. We we have someone that has expressed an interest. It's as I mentioned in the last meeting, it's very early stages um to we don't know where it's going to where it's going to go, but yes, we
definitely we would love senior housing. That's what that's it's well long overdue. Um my understanding is is that for the senior housing that we have, it's a four-year wait. >> It's too long. But as a town, we can't go into Middle Sex Burrow and buy these
things. But however, what we can do is that let put the word out there like this is what we're looking for. I mean, this is where we'd love to go. I mean, if and this is this is just me. I was hoping that somewhere along the line,
somewhere right around here near us, we could have put up a another building. Didn't get to that. See that? You're making my voice go. All right. What other weaknesses do we have? >> Jack, I think if you take the train
track off of the weaknesses, which I think that has been corrected and probably as best as as can be done the the work on the lake uh with the the positive testing as well as the plan
moving ahead. I think that weakness has has been corrected. um the the county thing. Um given all the money that they're putting into that facility down by Middle Sex County
College, uh I would I would like to see some more money from the county coming here. I mean, >> we're going to have >> something that we should really >> Well, we we have to see the lay of the land after the first of the year. We're, you know, we had a good relationship with with Nancy Munz and and Michelle
Masacudis. We're going to have to, you know, reach across the aisle, which I we have no problem doing to to see what we can do. I as far as the train tracks, yeah, I don't think there's much we can do with that. I mean, this you guys agree? I mean, we've kind of t we've kind of rode that out as far as we could
go at this point. >> Code enforcement is not a weakness anymore. >> Yes, I agree. It's a strength. >> Code enforcement. >> Yes. >> All right. code enfor just make little notes for yourself. Code enforcement will come off. Um I would like to I think we should leave the lake on there
because until we have like more depth and we have like a a a track record of of the water coming in the way it should be, just leave it. I appreciate the code enforcement, but I would like to keep it up here for my motivation
>> as well as it's some stuff that I'm still working on to make better. >> Well, do you want to make a do you want to make say a couple words? How do you think code enforcement's going? What do you see? >> Um, talking about equity and homes, um, cos need to be
looked at a little bit harder. We have a checklist and I'm a private home inspector on my time off and the checklist doesn't meet my my expertise. Um but uh I think it's about six to 15
things. When I look at a home, I look from the curb to the rear, from the basement to the roof, and that's not on the list. And if we keep selling and allowing people to come into the community and allowing them to live
uh in a home that's not up to par, then we'll never get equity homes. Um if we hold them to a standard, and I'm talking about we can we can allow people in but give them a temporary CO instead of a clear co. Um and that's what I'm
working on now. That's what I'm looking into now. I just changed our checklist um last week to a couple more things and I'm still looking into that. All right. Thanks. Any any questions? Any
anyone want to add anything more in the weaknesses? Nothing. Oh, yes, sir. That's no particular order, just so you know. Well, back in the day they had the economic development committee commission. I wasn't a part of that.
Um, was anyone here on it? >> Bob, you? No. Dave, no. Anyone remember they had the >> I remember. >> Yeah. Was anyone that's in this room on
it? >> No. >> I'll have to do some research. Maybe it's something that we need to bring back. >> We'll put it just just mark that out as a as a note. >> A note, not a >> Well, it's basically a subp part of uh
economic development. Really? These are going to be some notes when they're done, huh? Wait to see the map road map that's going to do. Okay. Any anybody else on weaknesses? Yes. >> I was gonna say um in regards to communication, are we doing any kind of outreach towards the younger people in
terms of high school people for volunteerism? Have we have we gone to those uh that level? >> I I would tend to say as as a burrow, no. As far as the OEM, I know Barbara,
you've you've reached out for him. She's probably been our main conduit of of trying to solicit volunteers. And >> we have like formal volunteer program for teens in the summertime. We usually get about 65 every summer
>> at the library. >> Kenny, you have too. >> And for recreation, um, we have a pool of seniors just high school students that we utilize as well for various events for you.
I should have figured you ladies were on that already. Mayor, I got something firewise. I've been trying to get into the border of bed and this this year is actually the first time I've actually gotten a response from the board ever before I
was fire chief. I was trying to do the after fire presentation. I don't know if anyone's heard of it or is familiar with it. Um you go into the high school for juniors and seniors right before prom, moving out to college, you know, and two people from Sat Hall that were badly
burned in that fire on their campus come and do a presentation of what happened, why you shouldn't drink in school, fire safety in school, fire safety at home, and then they basically turn it over to the fire department for any type of
attention. We do it at work on my full-time job. who obviously don't do recruitment pension through service, but her home, I mean, so we could have our own buyer safety that goes to juniors and seniors essentially after that. So hopefully in the next few years um when
she takes over January 1st, we can kind of get the ball rolling with that. But I'm trying to get >> Well, may maybe a a kickoff is if you're going to do another touch a truck or something like that or or have an open house specifically for kids, you know,
>> we get the kids a lot on fire, >> but you need young, you need like >> 15, 16, >> Jack. Yeah, the OEM um we recently started a cadet program for ice cream and that's been very
successful. The purpose of that was to future volunteers of their services EMS get them aware of what's happening around them and it seems to be fairly successful so far. Barb I guess this week.
>> How many cadets you have? about 13. That's pretty good. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Well, maybe it's something that between the the the fire department and the OEM, maybe it's like you guys come and give a presentation during one of their meetings to or or have a meeting
on one of at one of the houses just to >> just throwing out there. Anybody else? >> Christine just share for all that's
utilize that listific a lot from the National Honor Society, but in your case over there might be >> you know maybe maybe the thing is you know for all the for you guys to
spoken to the principal Yeah. Well, like I was going to say, maybe one of the things is to have a like a coordinated worksheet at the beginning of the year. Here are the here are the opportunities that are available for you and not just have it be for recreation or that, but include the fire or the OEM just like have a list. Hey,
listen here. This can go as part of the package at the beginning of the school year. Here's all the things that you guys can get involved with. >> Anybody else? May if I may just for the police department our school resource officer in the schools is an opportunity for us to have
police officer of our school age children it's an opportunity for recruitment opportunity to help volunteer think about operation what we do to support middle sex we just ran a pretty successful food drive that we had many volunteers for
the high school that came out collected food our police officers they brought headquarters all packed up, you know, we deliver tons of food. So those things I think, you know, sometimes it doesn't look clear, but
like all these little programs I think make a big impact from the library to recreation to seniors to fire department and police department. think there's maybe it's not concerted um individual but
>> well just a sorry I know you guys is it the type of thing that maybe on the and I don't know if it's there or not maybe is it the type of thing on the website we just have a a tab that says volunteer opportunities and just have the different departments list what they're looking for like one ad for for you know
age and and what you have I mean maybe your library has it >> for volunteer Is it is it specific enough or is it just kind of general? Because we may maybe what you need is to be a little bit more specific is I'm looking for one of these, I'm looking for one of those, I'm looking for, you
know, that type of thing. Laura, >> I was going to say that, you know, they have a job fair. So the kids see different jobs to have maybe a kind of fair for volunteers or you know so kids to learn about fire or police or
whatever >> like maybe a teen volunteer fair maybe. Could be. I mean that's part of the volunteer thing that we're talking about because >> you know offense but people don't want me to be a volunteer anymore. I'm getting too old you know so we need we
need the young guys. Um, there was someone else. >> I get very little without like putting the effort in to find out what's going on. It's there, but without searching for
it, it's very hard to like. So where where would you expect to find it though if you're not getting it out of schools? I'm not putting you on the spot. I'm just trying to ask >> you privacy though like like I know for a fact that the board of
page that gives us out of out of town out of district they have our address we get a slight. So there's there's ways that they communicate opportunities
opportunities for us. At first it was very hard to find when they sign up for say or baseball or things like that. But once you find it, you're in you're in the system, >> right? Well, maybe it's
>> then I get those emails which is great, but it's getting into the system, >> right? Well, maybe it's the type of thing where, you know, and and Jeremiah, maybe when you when you get over here, maybe it's the type of thing where, you know, the school system, if as much as we're going to hand a flyer to hand out
to try and hand out to all the kids that are in our own schools, maybe they have something that they can say, "Hey, listen, we're sending 50 kids to Immaculata or wherever or Immaculate Conception, maybe they send the flyers over there and have them go, you know, try and communicate that way." I I mean,
you know, >> not necessarily you can send an email saying, "Hey, this is what's going on in the town or you know what I mean?" >> Yeah. Yeah.
I'm sorry. don't get that communication. We go to holy s we don't get either side like we're like that trial you know what I mean we're just we're just there so like it's our choice
to go there but I want to get my kids involved in middle sense >> okay they're involved with it because we object of finding out where where to get started you know what I mean >> so since our new administrators have taken over it's been addressing that form of communication So I agree with
you. It has been an issue. Um we I think we have done good hearing and tackling it. It's very good for I think for you all to hear it directed from the the crowd and not just another colleague here. But that's that's a lot. I hear that a lot about recreation issues and
stuff and it's like um I think we need to support but they do the best they can. We got the email blast, right? >> All right. Well, we got to kind of shovel this along a little bit, but but anyway, as as far as a weakness on the on the communication, basically what we
should just write there is just put a little note um like child and teen um opportunities. >> The last administrator, mayor, where like we need to communicate that on
behalf as well. Right. >> Oh, no. It's Listen, it's a point well taken. >> Wonderful job, >> you know. Well, but part of it is too is that we have to let people know that these resources are out there because you know as well as I do, you can sit there communicate till the cows come
home and then someone's still going to complain. If you told them 10 minutes before it was going to happen and and instantaneously. Okay. Anything else on weaknesses? So, we got because we got to move on. Okay. Next one. opportunities.
Some of these are like carryovers from what we talked before, the parts and their utilization. One of the things that that Shannon mentioned before, we're looking at all the pocket parts now. So, it's not just the two main ones. We want to get everything going for all these other ones. It's not that
easy, you know, because some of the things that people need to find out, Dave, I can send that to you. All right. But, you know, some of the things that you find out is that when you have the park equipment, you just can't take it out and stick it in somewhere else. It's a whole rigomearo. It's actually more
expensive than than than buying the other stuff. It's a state thing, but it is what it is. Um, ratables and redevelopment. Yeah, we're let we're we're working on trying to get people in involved and interested in Middle Sex. Look for ways to attract the the the
younger generation. Obviously, it's still an opportunity and it's still a weakness. That's what we just we're talking about. More green infrastructure. That is stuff that we have to work on. I mean, we we've changed certain things. Certain things, you know, much to
Clarice Green, we push back a little bit on, but we are interested in keeping these things going and and and trying to do better. I mean, we had the thing at the last meeting where they talked about, you know, the state came in and just knocked out a bunch of trees. Not
the best. we weren't happy about it, but unfortunately their communication with us isn't as good isn't that good either. So, we're we're going to try and work on that because, you know, we're a little blindsided by that. And frankly, it's not our job to cut trees down. They they
did it on us. But, you know, as far as the the green infrastructure, Ron Avenue, I'm hoping I you see some work over there. They're going to do do things. Uh they have a bunch of trees over there. I know for sure. I know the landscape over there is going to change once they finally get around to burning
up or knocking down the house that house that's there. Um I think that's basically waiting on Are you guys done with it now? >> Oh yeah, we're done with it. We've ordered it up. It's just on stage. >> Okay. So now it's just a matter of them to the state taking it down and then basically that whole patch from one end
to the other is is empty and and we could do we have to follow the state guidelines. But I think there's certain things that we could do in terms of adding trees, maybe a a nature walk, maybe a a a butterfly farm or something
like that in there. I don't know. I'm not a arborist, so I'd be the last one to talk to about that because if you you could tell I have a black gum and you know, I have to go through 20 plants at my house to get one to grow. So, we got we have we'll have to stick with the uh
experts on that. Skate park or pump track? It's an interesting thought. That was uh one of our residents that came up with that last year. I think it was basically more along the lines of, you know, we want to have we want to get different things for the kids to do. I
think if as as you if you go to the park and see some of the new stuff that they put up, especially down at Mountain View is awesome. Um it's not a skate park. It's not a pump track. I'm not gonna say that we're not going to do it, but I just have to tell you at this point with
everything else that's going on, it's probably pretty far down the list to be honest. But, you know, we're here to listen. Film industry moving to New Jersey. It is moving to New Jersey. Um, we we're actually getting to the point where we have a film committee. They
actually went down to Atlantic City. Uh, they are film ready trained, I believe. Is that correct? Yep. So that they're going to be working on building up our portfolio to try and interest people into want to to to do a
movie here. Hopefully that turns into a it's an opportunity. How big of an opportunity directly for the burrow? Probably not so much. But in terms of activity around the town and bringing people in that would would deal with
either the residents or our businesses or whatever, >> there's there's opportunity. >> Be clear, man. This is a billion dollars that's coming at this day. So when when movies come here, when they come in, they bring everything. So it boosts the entirety of everything. Your personal only they can use, they won't give you
your address. You won't know where they are. You can like your businesses, wherever you have, people have the opportunity to partake in this. You can make money if they're interested in it and they can look at it from the click of anywhere in the world. So if there's
somebody on some from any other film industry in any other state, they jump into this catalog, they get to look around Middle Sex. Um, you know, most data that you can put into the the metadata that you can put into a picture like a picture or whatever mall take
pictures of this place and you do the same thing probably turn something into this like the red wedding from Game of Thrones. You won't even know what they want to use this for you. Only you would say that at a public meeting, Jeremy. Only you. >> And that's why we're pursuing.
>> Okay. Okay. >> All right. Newsletter for the community. We do put out the newsletter four times a year. Um, that goes along with with communication. I mean, we try and get what we can get in there. It's it it's out there. I
mean, that's that's basically what we have done. Opportunities. What do you think we're missing? Am I ready? >> Summer concert series. >> You're damn right. >> I mean, a couple places, you know, but we went there to see a
specific new. >> It it is it is something that we're we're looking at. It's something that, you know, is near and dear to my heart. So, we'll see. We just got to figure out a way to make it all work. >> All right. Anybody else? >> Sure.
>> Sometimes there's an overlap of events on the weekends from various organizations like the Elks, the American Legion, some churches, some recreation. There's overlaps. I'm just wondering if there's a possibility to reach out to those
organizations. Most of them know what their schedule is. and put it together and then look at the conflicts and see if some of them will change to offer different opportunities,
more opportunities for the community. >> I I I think it's probably more the Elks and the American Legion because I know pretty much um the the the two ladies here, they do they do go back and forth with the with the schools to try and make sure that that they don't have too
much overlap. But is it something that we could look at? Yes, we could probably contact them and say, "What are you planning?" You know, so we maybe we maybe we just call in a joint meeting, get them all here and just bang it around the table and see I want to do this, I want to do that. What day works
for you? What day works for me? And and be done with that. Just um he's got it. Okay. >> Along those lines, and I was thinking about what you said back there about knowing what's going on. How about an
events calendar each month where people where they could be input from these organizations? So you could look at any day during the month and say, "Oh, there's a concert." >> So like a community calendar type thing. >> We have a on the burl website >> and we got a calendar on the website, but I know it's only
>> it would go to the calendar, >> right? Give them an opportunity to post an event on the on the >> Right. All right, we we'll look at that because it's actually a good idea and and we'd probably have to have a a point person
to be able to screen it and be able to put it up before it all goes up. Yes, you look like you want to say something. >> No, you were looking at me. >> Yes, that's a good idea. >> Well, listen, the senior calendar, you got all the events listed there, so you know it works.
>> Okay. Um, anything else? Come on, guys. Barb. I just want to check on any status coming down on regulating these and what's going on on the outside
because I had to report them twice. >> Okay. Um I'll be more than happy because I know someone's been working very diligently on it. Je >> ordinance that we have working on. We had a council had a workshop on it recently to talk about it
look at some concerns that the community has as far as safety in parks safety is driving some adults. We put together a piece of draft went to the fur attorney to format properly
processing. >> That's fantastic environment. and he said, "We can't. We're afraid." He said, "Our staff, our the boss will not allow us to chase them or do
anything." And they said, "Would you and I said that I will fall?" And I did. >> Well, I mean, the the point that I would have for that, you know, the expectation always in town is not to expect people to try and take the law to or or that
type of enforcement into their own hands. Call the police. >> Anybody who sees anybody or anything that hurt someone else and police officers respond investigated.
>> Yeah. That's why I >> Yeah. Well, you know, and we're on it already. And I'll tell you why. because we've been very fortunate and it's all fun in games until something happens and then it's not going to be fun in games. And there's a lot of little rules and regulations out there like if it goes
over 28 miles an hour, guess what? It's a motorcycle. You can lose your license. You're supposed to have it registered, insured, all these other little things come into there. And you know, as you people well know, you go down the street, you see some of these bikes, they're going a hell of a lot faster than 28 miles an hour. They're running a
they're they're playing a they're running a risky game. Um, anything else >> opportunities with the state and the county? So, either for things that are coming down, so maybe more communication on those level. I know we have a good
situation with the county, but we need to make sure we develop that because there's the county that we put in the county to get >> well. Well, this we're always on the hunt for for opportunities. We we we just are.
And I mean, you know, that that's the whole thing with the the the Victor Crow Park. You know, you got to spend money to make money because if you don't have a plan, you're going nowhere. So, you had to you had to invest money to get a plan so we can go after grants to get to
get more things back. I mean, you know, and just we're lucky in terms of of time and like these grants come up. We I can't tell you how many we get and how many we applied for, but I know we apply for a lot more than we get. And a lot of times
they get cut back or they just you're you're you're taken right out of it. And and I have to say that this the staff and the volunteers when these opportunities come up, they put the time and the effort in to try and get us the money that we can get because you know
we we all live we're all in the same fishbowl and we're all just trying to pull out what we can get out of it. And I mean a lot of times these things impact not just the guy who's writing it out. Caroline gets sucked into it. How much money have you spent on this that and every other thing and what have you
done and you know it it and a lot of these are are basically people orientated which means that it affects the rec department, it affects the library and what you know what are you doing the fire department, the police department and you all these people have
to get involved in order for you to get these things into them to be able to hopefully get a positive result. Did I Did I do that correctly, Carolyn? Did I explain it good? >> Good. Yeah, often times the 500 towns apply for a grant that only has 25
awards. So >> it can be hit or miss. There are certain ones that we are better candidates for and we try to focus on the ones that we have a better chance of getting done pretty good in the last two years
and our grant writer very diligent about it a lot of time and effort. So we try to prioritize >> guys. It's very simple with that. If you don't ask, you don't get. So that's it. All right. Anything else on opportunities?
>> May. Shoot. >> I think um our cultural awareness day. Um Middle Sex Burrow is very is very diverse town and I think uh it would it would help the town that we would learn more about the different cultures that
we have in the town. So, you know, I would post awareness there. >> All right. That That's definitely a weakness for sure. That's a good That's a very good point because we do have a lot of stuff going on. That's for sure. And and it'd be nice to tie it all together
because we're all part of the same family. >> Yes. >> All right. Anybody else? >> We have the culture on the culture arts. >> Awesome. Nice. >> Is it? >> It is. So, see that gentleman over there? You
might have a recruit. >> Oh, there you go. Okay. >> All right. Anything else on opportunities? >> All right. Let's move on. Threats. Here we go. All right. Flooding and environmental
issues. We all know that this this area floods. We all know that part of the threats that go on and and I and we al we talked about volunteerism, but the flooding is is is a very big issue in town. We have a lot of stuff that goes on with that and there's a lot of pieces
and a lot of parts. It's the Army Corps of Engineers. It's uh um it's the Army Corp of Engineers. Who else? It was the Middle Sex County Flood Commission. That was another one. These two guys go back and forth. Sometimes
they find one thing, then the other guy's got to hold it up and then it goes back and forth. I mean it it it they'll drive you nuts. They'll drive they drive him nuts. I know that. But >> there's a lot of organizations involved when it comes to what issues we have commission
and army. So just a lot of communication that comes down to trying to face the problem. >> But but the main thing that we have found out is that you got to stay on them. So we don't let that slide. You're always what are you doing about this? Here's the here's and and that's not necessarily just related to flooding.
This also is with some of our broken windows things and some of the the the players that we have in town that are, you know, that may have environmental issues in their plants or whatever. And we're trying to stay on top of it, but you have to utilize you have to go through these groups because that's how you get things done. Otherwise, you're
going nowhere fast. And it's interesting just as a as a side note on so many of the other things that go on in this town. We've had meetings with D, we've had meetings with the the Greenville Flood Commission. Um we've also, you know, we've talked to the hazmat people.
We've talked to the county for some of these issues that are out there that you're not really aware of. You're saying this thing just popped up. Some of these things have been going on for years and there's a lot more back work that's been going on that I'm finding out about. It's like, man, we're way
further down the road for some of these things than I thought we were. So, it's good to know that we have the relationships, but now that we've had a few changes, they do know that we're we're being very active at at staying on top of some of these things because we
want action. At the end of the day, they're telling us the flood wall 12 years >> if we're lucky. Now, mind you, they've been wrong every time and it's always been later. So, we want to get that, but if you don't say anything, they're just
gonna it just stops and everyone wonders what happened. So, we're we're staying on top of that. Traffic, speeding, unsafe driving. Well, there's not a day in Middle Sex that you can't go. And to their credit, I always see cars pulled
over and that does my heart good. But I also know that if you on social media, someone's always sending me a little blurb saying, "This guy's speeding over here, this guy's speeding over there." When it comes to items like that, if you see something that is not that is
becoming repetitive, or even if it's not repetitive, it's the same guy that you see every day doing this this wrong thing, call up. We have a traffic department. They'll take care of it. They're going to do uh we just had a recent one on Shephard
Shepherd. It it it it kicks in a whole protocol of the things that we do to try and mitigate some of these traffic issues. And I'm not going to talk about it because he knows it a lot better than I will. Do you want to expound a little bit? >> Sure. If you have a traffic complaint,
police department accept it. We can do a traffic study just to see the speed, volume, direction of cars on your street. Volume is an important part of it. We go back probably five years to see traffic crashes that happened to see
if there's something that we're missing as far as infrastructure signs safety and we put all the data together. And so it gives us a couple different things we can do about it. We target enforcement. So when we do our study, it also tells us the times of
violations when they're most prevalent. It tells us when the most volume is so we can put a police officer. we could be smarter, work harder, not have someone out there all day, but if we notice between 2:30 and 3:30 on on Washington Avenue, that's when we put our police
officer there. So, we can monitor and enforce and so you know, we always try to do an education for so sometimes just a lot of times from my experience police officer here. Um, we'll stop
that's not so far down the street. Um, so we'll do education, put the our our driver feedback signs up so you can see your speed, put the warning sign up, message board about stopping at a stop sign, and from there follow up with education.
It's a it's a bigger process, but you know, we work very hard with the DPW to see if there's something wrong with road, we can put more signage um safety mechanisms in place, traffic caling items, and then implement
It's a little bit more than just calling, but we do want you to call. So if there's problems, we want to hear it so we can number one know about it. We'll put it on our patrol for the police officer so everyone gets a copy of it. So who's patrolling that sector knows
there's a specific problem in that area and that's how we get ourselves respond what we learned and what we hope. Okay. Tax is getting too high.
>> That's why left. That's Yeah. Well, she knew it was coming down. But anyway, the tax is getting too high. >> Yeah. I mean, that's New Jersey, unfortunately. And what we we just have to tell you guys is it's a combination
of what we're spending money on, what we can do to generate revenue that's not specifically on the homeowner, you know, going after some of these other things that that that are out there. Um, some of it's even it's a matter of just
getting the the the flow through the the the courts fast enough. you know, there's there there's certain amount of that. Um, we need development. We need development in this town. We we need shared services. And these are things that we're having to look at. I mean,
the bottom line is that what we're doing right now, Middle Sex is probably not going to look anything like it does right now, 10 years from now. And that's and that's it's a needed change if we're going to survive because otherwise we're going to price all of ourselves out and and there's not there's not much you
could do, you know, without mass getting rid of services or things that that people still want. High turnover, mass exodus. Um, I I I can't speak to that one because it seems that every time I see a
house get empty, I see a house filling up. I see that, you know, I don't I don't see too many residential properties that are that are vacant for too long unless they're run down or or they're in the process of being flipped
or or built up. Uh, and it seems to me that a lot of the traffic that we have, you know, there is traffic that leaves, but the traffic that's coming seems that it's mostly North Jersey and New York is is is is what's been coming here. Um, that's that's just my opinion. I mean,
if someone wants to weigh in, I'm more than willing to, you know, to listen to it. Abandoned buildings, um, that's part of the redevelopment thing. We're throwing those out there because we want someone to either look at them, buy them, turn them over, turn them into
something if if they're getting into too bad of a state of disrepair. Um, he's been on it, you know, issuing fines and doing whatever it has to do to get these guys to at least get them up to, you know, vacant property code, which I know
exists out there, because we don't want infestation. We don't want dilapitated buildings. We don't want squatters. We don't want any of that. Um, uh, school spending, like I said, we're taking that one off the the table. We're not doing that. Uh, don't defund the
police. I think we've done a good job at not doing that because we support our police department, you know, and we, you know, we've kept it pretty much as fully staffed as we can. Um, you know, there is always turnover. And it's and it's interesting because it's like any department. I know Lenny,
you go through the same thing. these larger departments, you almost never get the to the full compliment because every time you think you're getting there, someone goes out and they're either sick or FMLA or something like that. But thank God we have the police that we
have and and the workers that we have and otherwise if we didn't have any redundancy at all, we we'd be right for the picking and and we're not. Um loss of emergency services. loss of emergency services really comes
down to the fact that it's it's almost tied into volunteerism. You know, what can we do to attract people to come in to do these things? It's nice that we got four firefighters this year. How many What does that leave us short? About 10.
>> Short. We have a max roster of 100. We have 56. >> There you go. >> For short. >> For short. You know, >> we're at half. We should be. >> Yeah. So, a little over half, but that's that's a threat because it comes down to a point sooner or later if you don't
have anybody doing it, you have to hire and and you know, it may come down to that or maybe that's where you start looking at shared services or or fire districts which they don't they're not interested. We don't know. The answer is not there. But what I think we have done
is that we've taken some of the steps that are necessary to try and turn the tide and it'll remain to be seen. And I'd like to sit there and say, "Oh, this is me." And all that. It's not. It's these guys over here. And they work hard at it every day. And I we appreciate the
effort that you put in. And we're, you know, that's why we talk about these volunteer fairs and stuff like that. What can we do to help you get get further along in the full compliment? >> Sure. >> That's right. We got a gabble up here.
We'll fix it. The the reason we asked for the response type a couple years ago before I was chief is to try to get people joined because no one wants to do a job in it now in this little town and more and more
actually so between that the short staffing more fires everything I don't fire district would work the state >> yeah we don't have to talk about that right because we're not even talking But I'm just saying in in general we have to
look at so that's why we're doing the we're looking at the the paper call and the low sat because even shared services everyone around us we volunteer everyone's in the same state. So taxing another town isn't going to do anything other than tax that
system. So we need to take care of that start of it. Okay, it's fair and we and the part C came in late because we already went through that. We talked about that early and you know it was a good thing that you guys put all that work into getting that grant and I think
that was awesome. Okay, noise causing quality of life issues. Well, we've had a couple of bad actors that are over there on uh on Beglin. I think we've taken some steps to to get them where we need them to be. There's still more
things that are going on with that. I'd like to say it was it's done and dusted. It is not. But I know that we've worked we spent a lot of we spent a lot of time and a lot of resource on that, you know, this past year. But I have to tell people and I'm going to say the same
thing I said to when I had a couple of residents that were were were quick to complain about it. If you hear it, make a complaint. Now, what that means is that you call the police. The police go down there. But if the police are
there and they don't hear anything, they can't write a ticket. They can't write a summon. They're not going to do anything. Somebody has to the the physical person has to sit there and say, "Make a complaint." Unless they're making a big racket while the police officer just so happens to be there, which nine times 90 times out of a
hundred has not been happening. Um, that a fair assessment? >> Sure. We also put the number 187 and other enforcement authorities for these kind of things for Middle Sex County, the state of New Jersey. It's uh it's
important if you hear something or something that's that's smell problem or a noise problem that you report to 1877 is on website. It's it helps us if individual people
make the report. I will tell you that I've instructed our police officers if they can respond to something like that and they witness it and see it to make an individual report because I think the law enforcement officer they hold that report in a little higher regard. Um so
together we can do a lot more. So I urge you if you see it or hear it or smell it and it's a concern to report it as such to them report it. our department, our police department, police officers will come to investigate and then make that
report at least document. >> What was the effort around >> right now? They they D is on it. They have uh they've been doing inspections and they're going back through some of the records as um I'm I'm not gonna I'm not going to go
into too much detail, but I can tell you I know that that that there was a someone over there that did get a u a fine and actually I forget the it's it's like an ov like a notice of violation that they have to remediate something and they depending on where it was they
got a they got a fine for it. Um it's it's it's an ongoing process with that you know but a lot of these a lot of these plants that are there are already under a watchful eye of the D and they have reporting requirements
that they are required to do with with respect to emissions with respect to reporting requirements as far as if they have scrubbers or this or that that they work that they're supposed to monitor them they're supposed to inspect them and and things like that. um
that's that's where they're at. So yeah, they they are being looked at. As a matter of fact, what winds up happening because we did have a couple of issues over there that we went over there and we called these different, you know, we called the the number that the the chief
gave out and the county came, the D came, hazmat came, they all went in there and it just starts a whole process because now they all start looking, why are these people complaining? And then they come back and then they start looking. It's not like the the the actors over there are have nothing
because they do. They have they have permits. They're supposed to comply with the permits and then they start inspecting to make sure that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. If they find something that's out of line, they're going to they're going to find it, you know. And I can tell you
that the find that I saw was pretty dimminimous. the the one that I saw because I I know from my own I I work for a a site that's in a that's part of a record site over in in
um Roselle and the fine that they received is is it was like pretty much they they missed a reporting so they got to fix it and get it right. It's not like they were doing you're running without having a scrubber at all. They didn't do they they or they were doing
something immensely hazardous. They did not do that. Um, so let's keep this moving along. Threats, what are we missing? Anybody? Did I do we did we skip over anything that we need to put on there? How do you like the bad air quality?
Because not just what you said, but the loss of trees to clean the air. We lost so many trees that might be an issue forward. >> If you don't mind me asking, how do you measure that? How do you measure that now versus what what's coming going
forward? Is there is there a way to do that? >> Okay. Yeah, just look. I mean, there's I I wouldn't know, you know, because we don't have a baseline, so we don't even know what what where we're at, but it's it's really a good point. Thank you. Anybody else threats?
>> I can answer this, but I think that high taxes are directly related to school. >> It's a big part of it. It's it's over 60 and and all I can tell you is when I complain about being underfunded, our
our state aid portion has gone up in the last is it five years, Caroline? 20,000 over not 20,000 a year, 20,000 period. So they've given us $4,000 more a year, which does doesn't even keep up pace with inflation. And that's that's a
threat, you know. Yeah. Put that on there. That's actually a good one. >> Either or doesn't matter. >> Who's a weakness? >> Weakness. >> Weakness. So, you're a threat. Sorry. But anyway,
>> um tax. >> Oh, no. It wasn't high taxes. It was uh >> No, it was a lack of it was a lack of governmental funding. >> State funding. >> Yeah. Flat state aid. That's a threat.
It's got to start going up. All right. Anybody else on the threats? Because we got a long way. Yeah. Oh, wait. No, I was waiting for you. Go ahead. Properties. I mean, we have this sort of go back to school.
Older elementary schools. I think a lot of aging properties, a lot of >> aging municipal properties. >> Yes. I mean, there's I guess the school ones are going to but I know if one of them were to go down
I think this I mean how balls starting to get a little older I just the future I got we we're aware of that I mean we we do look at that but you know it's like a lot of things we have to do baby steps I
mean we're trying to maintain our our facilities as best as we can we I mean some of the things that you do you never see. You know, when you're replacing HVAC units, no one sees it. You replace a roof, no one sees it. You know, when
you do it on your I did one on my house. I spent a fortune. It didn't get me anywhere other than where I was before. It's just It's just one of the ways. Okay. Anything else on press before we move on? Okay. Uh, next slide, please. All right.
Let's talk about we've been we've had these these poor poor souls sitting here for a while here. Let's do some departmental review. All right. Basically, what we talked about last time for the police, more police presence during the school drop off and pickup hours and police officer trading
cards were two things that were kind of brought up. I can tell you one thing from my standpoint, nobody collects trading cards anymore. So, that would be way way way way down on my list. But uh you know as far as as
the the police presence, what do you think? What do you got to say? >> Really? >> I did as a kid. >> Police officer. >> Well, we've done we've done chachkis for sure. My kids learn they're three to 10.
They love trading cards and things like that. They do Pokemon cards. They do. So don't think that the trading card isn't >> well off. >> Well, we do they do quite a a number of
like handouts and stuff like that. I got to tell you, Jolene is very good at like trading cards are important. >> Okay. >> That's all I'm saying. >> Are you saying trading cards period or just the whole giveaway in general?
>> We have We're all about giveaways. We I see that. >> Okay. But not specifically. >> All right. Nope. We got it. That that needed a little clarification, let me tell you. That's okay. >> All right.
Yeah. Well, there there it is. Right. Number one, right? >> All right. All right, guys. Let's get back on track. We don't want to run out of time here. Laura, go ahead. It has to I haven't been around at that hour when schools open and close especially
and there be some kind of a system that they go in one way and come out another because cars are in and out all over. >> Aren't they supposed to do that already? >> So um you know I'm just thinking off the top of my head that they have to go it might be hard for them to go out all the
way to Harris Avenue to get out. come in those roads and go out. Terrible traffic here. >> There is a plan every morning. There is a drop off and take not every presence in the morning. We have an
operation every morning to keep our kids safe from school. Overwatch schools and traffic enforcement near all schools. It's a 10 minute time frame. That's that's when everybody wants to drop everyone off at the same exact time because you're dropping people off. So,
it's it's controlled. It's chaotic. I think it's the best the safest we can do with the setup we have. Um, but we reevaluate every year and and we try to look to make those adjustments.
I think a pretty good plan. It's just a lot of people. But but to your point, evaluate that we can bring them further down. Anybody else? Okay, let's move on. Fire OEM rescue
emergency response information in real time. That's that's that's kind of an odd one because I mean we have the IM responding. the nixels go out when there's a when there's a when there's an issue. Um, as far as the um the the
traffic accidents and stuff like that, they're they're usually posted if there's a if there's a major problem. Um, updates to be sent about flooding. I mean, that's usually once again with the with the NIXLE. I don't know what else we could we could
put on there, how else to get the information out quicker. I mean, sometimes people have text change or something like that, but you know, the Nixl is basically a text. So, I don't know how to get these things out a little bit faster. Anyone can sign up for you. Just look on the police department website instructions on how
to sign up emails or text messages and we put weather alerts through there closures flooding information. That's if you have concerns about flooding I think service at the burial case. We have a very robust platform that a lot of
people signed up for it. So we have to be careful over my years of doing this. I've had people say you send too many out desensitizment of what was discussed on the last meeting. >> Yes.
No, this is this is what we said last time. And then usually when I get that I say, what do we want to do? What are we seeing here? Is this accurate? Do we want to add to it? Do we want to knock some things off? What do we want to do? That's what we're talking about. >> And so these are recommendations that
came up. >> This this is what people talked about last year. That's what it is. We had a place to to start. And you know some of the things like I said some of the items we were able to to act upon and some of them were duplicates. I mean you see members needed that's right back to
volunteerism. You know communication and education for the for the public. We try and you know we try and get people to go to NIXL. We try and get people to look on their emails. We try and you know some people want like real live like updates to the website. Can't do it.
That that'll never happen. you know, uh, uh, you know, as far as it being on TV, if they call us up, we put it on. But, I mean, we're at the we're we're at the the mercy of what the technology that we have, you know, and, you know, and this
is going to sound bad, but for some people, unless we're knocking on their door personally and telling them, hey, by the way, you got to go, you know, there there's a flood, they're not going to be happy. And and that's okay. But but if you know part of what we mean
about communication, it's a two-way street, which means we can tell you so much, but if you don't want to listen to it or you don't want to take put any effort into finding out what's going on, you know, I I can't help you when it comes to certain things like that. You know, if there's people that truly have
issues, let us know. We'll try and do what we can. But for the most part, you know, you can call in. There's any number of ways to find out what you need to know, especially in an e situation, you know. I mean, if it was that critical, you could turn on the TV. You
know, it'll have the emergency broadcast system. >> Chrissy, >> I do love it. So, I think that's a strength. come out when our pumping stations or sewer lines are getting filled with flood waters. I would love to see a mix
come out and encourage people to not use their facilities as much because for those of us that are in that flooded area, it's just not to use it as much. Like don't do laundry right now if it's not necessary, you know, it just hurts
the people that are sometimes. >> Is that workable, Lenny? >> It's not a bad idea. It's It's only that >> that's effective. That's the problem. So, Nick Solo was done as a Walmart. Correct. >> Yeah. But you could always just I mean,
you put a traffic accident which it would only affect one area, too. So, I mean, if you just sit there and say everyone in district four and five, you know, >> I could give that district, >> right? Take a note.
>> Okay. All right, guys. Uh, the floodgate closure notification that would go along with the Nixel stuff. >> Just ask Shirley. >> What? Shirley knows when the flood gates. Okay, >> you got to let us know if you know something. We don't know. But
>> outside of that, um, so anything on the fire OEM and rescue, anything. Next page, please. DPW, adopt the spot program.
Unfortunately, Lenny, you got stuck with adopting the whole town last year, so that made life a little bit more difficult for you. Um, they mentioned a furniture exchange program to reduce waste and address bulk items left at the curb. I haven't seen the bulk items being too much of a problem this year
>> since. >> Is that because you've been going after it? >> Matthew, we have not had an issue. >> Thank you, Matthew. >> Thanks, Matt. And that's what we need to hear. >> He's alleviated a lot of that concern. Uh, my only issue with the furniture exchange, Jack, just like last year, is
where are we going to house some of this stuff, right? I mean, >> you don't have a place to put it. >> Where do you want me to put it? Right. Correct. We're not going to leave it outside and have something to come take a look at. >> As soon as it rains. >> Correct. So, that's that's the problem. >> I mean, it's just things that we still
want to even see up here. What else should we be talking about? I mean, adopt the spot. >> That would be >> adopt the spot. we were talking about, you know, where it like say I'm just going to pick a name like say Beyond
Beyond adopted it like a little triangle by u >> the church and they flowered it up every year. I mean that's that's sort of it's good but I don't know if that's necessarily a DPW type of
type of project or or program. might be tried by the district. We limit it to our neighborhoods and people will understand what districts are in better for their district. >> Well, I think I think there's there there's a lot to be said to it. We just got to work out some of the logistics.
We we put no time into this. So, that's really what it comes down to >> with with everything else that we're going on. I mean, it took us it took us a lot longer to get through the lake and and some of these other things than we were hoping for, but it's it's a viable thing. It needs I don't think it's in the right spot, but we got to figure out
the right mechanism to get it done. And we might need a civilian volunteer by the name of Jeremiah who would be more than willing to help us out there. There you go. Okay. Um All right, guys. DPW, what do you got to say?
Anything on the DPW? Are we doing things right? We're doing things wrong or things we should be adding adding to it. >> Phenomenal. >> Yeah, that's right. except for the Christmas tree. >> Listen, I mean, we do a lot for the community. Your services, I mean, I live
in I don't get any services. So, I saw a lot of residents in this town. You guys do get a lot of services in this town. My guys take a lot of parks, between the lake, between the playgrounds, you name it to firework for your res. It's the little things that we
try to get back to our time. >> Okay. >> Well, that's good. Before we go to recreation, I want to flip back one slide, please. Threats. >> No, two slides. >> Perfect. There's one I had in my mind. I wasn't
sure whether we should mention it tonight or not, but I think we should. A threat for this town coming up is a 100year-old sewer system. >> That's a threat. And I just I I think we're we're in the early stages of
looking at it and trying to figure out what do we do with it because the problem that we have is that if it goes bad, it's going to be a big problem. Now, what do we do about it? And I you like not to to to think about it. It's easy
to kick stuff like this down the road, but what really gets you going is that when you start driving down 28, you see all these big patches where the supply lines are cracking and these sewer lines are just as old. Now, the problem is the
sewer line the the water line the water company takes care of. When that sewer goes, we pay for it. That's that's a that's a problem. Now, the problem that we have, we've been doing relligning and we put a bunch of money into it, but the the one of the issues that we have is
how long is it going to go, and that's what we're trying to find out before a major problem hits. And it's like anything else. How do you predict when your furnace is going to go? You get to a certain age, maybe it will, maybe it won't, maybe I can go another year. The sewers are at that point. I just want to
let you know that's a very viable threat. All right? And that's something that we got to consider going down the road. >> Yes, sir. >> What's the budget? The budget's part of is it's part of the swords, right? >> All of our sewer is through our taxes,
which is not the normal way that most towns handle it. So that is part of our discussions. Some towns don't open anymore. So there are many options we need to work through. We need to go through information from some of our engineers
and things like that. So, it is like the mayor said, it's definitely something that needs some of our attention, some of our focus, but there's no separate budget for it is all paid for taxes. >> Oh, it is.
It is. you know, and it's not, no matter which way it goes, it's it's it it's never a popular thing because basically it's getting down to the point where you driven a car for 500,000 miles and you got to buy a new car. No one likes to do it, but you we're and I'm not saying
we're at that point, but it's definitely something that you just can't keep kicking on down the road. We got to address it. Okay, back to where we were. Sorry, guys. I just I wanted to make sure that that was mentioned at this meeting. I thought it was important. Recreation. Okay. Teen involvement
internship programs. Uh recreation programs and activities for adults. I mean there's a lot of activities I see that that are happening. Um are we are we good enough? Do we need more? Are we missing a a
segment? What what should we be doing? What are we looking at? I think we can always do more. I truthfully do and I would love to do more. However, part of our struggles that we have are space um issues where we can't be a location, you know, when I
have line dancing going on, girls dancing in the rec center. It's hard. So, for me, one of our focus I would love is a community center so that I can have going on at the same time as a presentation or something. So, in my eyes, I'm sorry. No, that's absolutely
that's what we're here for. I mean, believe me, you guys weren't getting away with sitting there all night without saying something with you guys right after. So, no one gets away on a recreation guys. Anything? >> I would say like some of the offerings
from school, American sign language, cupcake decorating that all went away. Um, I know your space is limited, but I mean like all the stuff they used to That's no longer. >> So, so basically try and pick up some of
the and that's that that's a that's just a note that you could take is pick up some of the programs that the school community school used to have that just disappeared now that they don't have it.
>> Okay. Yeah, I remember. >> Okay. Any anybody else? >> Nothing. Yes, sir. especially our town. >> Mean like River Road. >> Yeah. Are are you referring to River Road,
South Avenue? >> Yeah. >> Okay. No, it's it's it's a good point. Um >> talk about it and also just write it down as a weakness. Actually, >> real quick, just so you're aware, um, for the pro for Ducation every year for
grant fun, we used to be able to put in for five streets, we used to get a ton of money, too, as well, and the price of everything was through the roof. Um, we were able to do a lot. The B was also kicking in some money, too, as well. Now, the point we're at now is quite
starting to get this move. So, um, we're getting roughly, my CFO is here, so she's not going to quote me on this, $400 to $500,000 a year roughly. Um, give or take. Problem is, it seems, it sounds like a lot of money. The problem is that um, three streets that we're
picking, just like any streets, it's costing $1.8 million to do. So, now you're limited to like only two bare roots. So this is the problem, right? The price of everything is through the roof and um we as a thorough are trying to do everything in
our best power to to be able to to provide you guys with you know we have to concentrate on the primary and secondary roads. God there's an emergency to get to your location. So that's really what we would concentrate
in place. >> Of course I don't have a plan. Yes. Yes. So, we're working we're again little by little I'm sure we will get to whatever. >> Yeah. One of the one of the things that we're looking at is to to try and revitalize doing them ourselves or at least part of them ourselves.
>> Correct. With me and uh so Councilman Cino I started 27 years ago was in public works for 30 something years. Um the burrow had its own road program. We didn't do main roads but we did a lot of the other roads. So it's
costly. So that's the downfall. no longer do it. Um, I'm now one of those old-timers that I used to refer to them guys as the old-timers and they have a lot of new kids, new guys. So, this year was kind of one of my goals to bring that back and we did end up working with
a company to allow us to use a paper to do an area by my shop to help the kids learn because there's only one way to learn it and Mr. Thomas, he knows it best because he did is by just doing right. So that's the only way you can send somebody to school to you can give
them 10 books to read on how to resurface. There's only one way down there. So um they did a good job. I'm not really comfortable with them doing the new road yet, but eventually they will they will get. So we're working. >> All right. Anything else on recreation?
We did DVD. Okay. Let's go to the next. All right. Construction. This basically is what we said last time. Um, and these things are actually in in play right now. I mean, they're early days because obviously
just started in September, but we do have more active code enforcement for sure. And we're looking at permit cost and and and basically everything that's related to the department. It's just we need a little more time because you can't fix
everything overnight. Uh, anything anyone want to add on the construction? May I have a question? >> Yes, sir. >> Is there a redevelopment committee in the town? >> We talked about that. >> That Well, there used to be, but we were
talking about it earlier about the economic development committee. So, it' be like basically the same type of thing. >> Okay. I'll check. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Let's talk about Burrow Hall. Let's move on. Burrow Hall. Basically, uh the temperature of Burough Hall. Hopefully, that's res a situation
that's resolved itself. Uh, we're doing all right. The emails for each department, um, no generic voicemail. I know that there was a line put out there. I mean, I don't I haven't personally called everybody to just make sure they work. The ones that I have called, they do work. Um, so I I tend to
think that that is not necessarily an issue anymore. Um, the building is outdated and has never been renovated. We put a new roof on this year. Uh we'd love to to do more things to to fix the building, but it all comes down to money
and where are we going to spend it at this point. Um if we can get some grants, we'll work on it, but for right now, we're we're doing everything that we can to maintain the asset as best as possible without losing any uh utility out of it, for lack of a
better words. Um someone was talking about red red receipts on emails. basically the email system that you have right now because we did a change. You can you can easily see that, you know, if if you want a red receipt, it's not
necessarily the the the staff's issue. That that one confused me last year because if you had a red receipt, that's someone you guys sending us an email would want a red receipt when we read it, not the other way around.
Okay? And missing appointments. Um, people are usually pretty quick to to call me if someone's not there and someone promised me this, that, and the other thing and they didn't come through. I'm not hearing a lot of that. As a matter of fact, I think I had one
this year. Um, I can say from this position for the last couple months, the staff's been extremely responsive and I haven't heard one complaint about being responsive.
message that I don't think it's an issue but if it is for someone please let us know anomalies it happens to resolve a lot coming but staff at all >> okay
ladies and gentlemen the staff is here ask your questions >> I think it's important too that just introduce like you know you saw Christy from the library know. Maybe we just want to go through our staff just say your name, the department you're from.
So if there's a specific question nor everybody you just want to go through the line you want to start >> favorite book maybe you're up first superintend of public works >> George libraryen
services director of course >> and fire chief >> Matthew chief police administrator Um, my name is Manancy Renos and I work in the clerks department.
>> All right. And hopefully you guys know who the councilmen are. Bobby, Mike Conahan, Joe Desenza, got Jeremiah back there who's on a double duty tonight. >> Who am I missing? >> One last one. She does finance.
I'm sure everybody. >> All right, >> guys. We're, believe it or not, we might actually get out of here before the two hours is up. But I just want to ask a quick question. Do you guys have any questions that you want to ask these people? They're here for you. They came
here at our request to answer your questions tonight. If you had any like being in Catholic school, no one says nothing. >> Nobody in the front row. >> No one in the front row. Well, there's always that. >> Okay. Um question.
>> Yes sir. >> The library in the library. >> Yes. >> Is is that um res charge use that for can we use it for personal use like a baby shower? Can we do that? >> No. So right now the community room policy
on our website. >> Thanks. >> Sorry. >> Thank you. All right, guys. I don't know what else to tell you. Next slide. Thank you for your participation. What? We have someone else back there.
>> I just want to know what the next steps are after. >> The next steps are is that we're going to add our notes to the PowerPoint. We're going to we're going to stick it online somewhere. Um, and it's going to be a basis for the for the council and the department heads to go forward as
they as they make their budget preparations for 2026. And basically the the net end result of all of this comes out with the budget. When the budget comes out and you know what we're doing, then you know what we've listed we we have the ability to
take care of and not. >> Yes. Sorry, I know there right now there county road. refer to
market. >> That's a county road, right? >> All right. Um, listen, I I did a lot of rattling up here tonight. I I just before we go, I'd just like to just see if uh the council members want to want
to add anything. Jeremiah. >> Wow, that was that was perfect. All right, Bobby. >> No, I'm good. I think we handled pretty much all the topics. >> Mike, >> I'm good, mayor. I lost my voice, so I can't. >> And you thought you were going to get away with it, but here's Joe to say.
>> I got things to say. Number one, I want to congratulate our police, fire, OEM, DPW, library, senior services, and the burough administration. I think I'm a new guy here. I'm only here 10
months, 11 months. I'm impressed with their efforts. They're doing in my estimation anyway a very credible job what they have to work with. As far as development, we found out that the old Ferris
Brothers building on 28 is now going to be a home home for Hoffman uh what's Huffman >> construction >> equipment. The Hoffman the the people who own the company were raised on Harris Avenue.
They're currently located in Newark. This would be their corporate headquarters. So, very impressed, very nice people coming into town. Great development. I think it's it's terrific. I have another idea. I don't think
I'm hoping that we can do something with it. We're all talking about Route 28 in Middle Sex. It's what 30 miles from Newark to Somerville.
It's one lane in each direction except Middle Sex. Middle Sex has two lanes, which makes speeding a problem. traffic. I don't know how we go about it, but I'd like to see us
petition the state to go back to one lane in each direction, slow down the traffic, make it a more viable alternative. And in doing that, I'd like to take the extra space that would be provided
by closing those lanes and put in bicycle lanes. I think with the advent of the um >> ebikes >> ebikes, you see an awful lot of them on on on the roads today. I'd love to see
us have a safe passage for the kids and the people that use not only kids. There's a lot of people now that can't afford cars, can't afford the insurance, so they're using bikes to get to work as an alternative have maybe put in bike
lanes to facilitate their use. That's all I have to say. That's it. Anybody else? >> Six minutes ahead of time. How about that, guys? Thank you very much for coming. Wait, we got to do this the official way. Motion to adjurnn.
>> Motion. >> Second. All in favor? >> I. All right. Thank you everybody. >> Matthew, thanks for coming. >> Hey, how's your good? Thank you so much.