good evening everybody all right Heidi you ready to go yes all right good evening uh this is a meeting of the township committee March 17 2025 the notice requirements uh the notice requirements provided for in the open public meetings act have been satisfied notice of this meeting was
properly given by transmission to the Asbury Park Press and the Two River Times and by posting at the Middletown Township Municipal Building and filing with the Township Clerk on January 11th 2025 committeeman Clark Committee Katz here committeeman Senino here deputy Mayor
Hibbo here mayor Perry here please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all at this time I'd like to ask for a moment of silence to honor the troops serving worldwide defending our constitutions freedoms and way of life thank you Heidi um before we get started with today with with so many of our
police officers and our firefighters um in the room I just wanted to to take a moment this weekend was an incredibly trying time for our first responders um and while they don't talk about it
they don't look for thanks or kudos um it was a difficult weekend where our first responders police fire EMS were all called into action and I want all of them to know and with all these people sitting here today how much Middletown
is grateful for your service each and every day for your sacrifice all five of our chief's volunteers were at uh a structure fire that we had over the weekend all five of them um with many companies responding sat early Saturday
morning our police officers were standing by offering their assistance and I just want to say on behalf of this governing body and on behalf of the residents of Middletown I want to thank you very much for everything you do for this community thank you all very much
uh all right Heidi I've messed up your agenda enough already for the night I think right i know okay um we're actually going to go out of order on the agenda um we're going to Okay I take back what I said then yes
exactly um we are going to start with our presentations and proclamations the presentation recognizing the Elks Lodge 2179 for winning the 2025 state ritual competition at this time I'd like to invite members
of the Elks Lodge to please come to the front of the room go around jumping the fence here thank you there that's so uh well good evening everybody um it is uh wonderful to have our
Middletown Outs 2179 here tonight celebrating the two big victories uh one from last year um but even uh more recent uh another championship this year and the Middletown Elks Lodge 2179 will
be representing the state of New Jersey uh on the national level for their ritual competition and uh when we recognized the 20 24 2014 team uh it was at the Elvis Lodge with plenty of beer
and food so I found it appropriate to have them come to town hall on St patty's Day with no beer and no food but uh but before I turn it over uh to the team hey speaking on behalf of the team who's speaking on behalf of the team here i know I'm not I I did not
tell them by the way that they were speaking so surprise uh Don is this you eddie's in all right so before I turn it over to them we we're really fortunate in town and and I
was at their uh ambassador charity ball dinner um last weekend right and um I said it then and I I'll say it again today middletown is so grateful to have the
Middletown Elks Lodge number 2179 here in town they don't ask for uh they ask for nothing all they ask to do is how they can give back to their community and when a a a little child needed a
walker and I brought this up at the meeting at the charity ball the other day when when a little child was in need of a walker because they the the parents couldn't afford it the Middletown Elks lodge was the one that went out and
bought it and now that child is running around uh their parent his parents' house um but there was no request for a newspaper or a press release or anything like that it was done out of the
kindness of their hearts and done out of dedication and love for Middletown and I just want to say on behalf of the township committee on behalf of the residents of Middletown everything you do from honoring our veterans to your yearly Flag Day ceremony to to our youth
athletics all of these things represent what it means to be an elf i'm proud to be a member of the lodge and I'm grateful to all of you that really make it happen behind the scenes so a big round of applause for Mayor Perry uh Township Committee uh
thank you very much for this honor tonight and um all the support that you do give us throughout the year uh whether it's proclamations for us our youth week um attending our breakfasts with the uh hoop shoot winners and
everything um we can't make this happen without the support of the township committee and the uh residents of um we're here to help you um anything you can possibly need if we can do it we'll
be there for you we've been here for 65 years and hopefully we're here for 65 so uh but once again thank you Mayor the Town Committee thank you we appreciate this all right let's get So um on behalf of the township
committee the township of Middletown congratulates Middletown Elks Lodge 2179 on winning first place in the 2024 and 2025 state ritual competition congratulations to you and your fellow officers on becoming back-to-back state champions the Middletown Elks Lodge 2179
is a fundamental organization within the Beayshore area that truly emphasizes the importance of brotherhood and helping others we are so grateful and commend you for always preserving your lodg's history especially through this competition while while simultaneously
building upon its future we're proud of you lots of luck at the National Ritual Championship good luck guys thank you don't leave yet don't leave yet eddie eddie come on please guys don't listen come on back come on back i may not be
the exalted ruler but but all right ready squeeze in everyone ready all right one two three congratulations repeat okay next on our agenda we're going to
um have the presentation recognizing Middletown High School North boys and girls basketball teams for winning 2025 Shore B Coastal Division Championships i'd like to invite both teams to the front of the room to join Mayor's
Let's roll out those banners let's give it up for our champ we felt like it was okay to do boys and girls together because it was both from North and we didn't want to have North and South sitting up here that was a no no
um but I I want to offer this first of all congratulations on behalf of the township committee want to congratulate you on on a on a great season on a championship season and we've been saying it quite frequently here because we've been blessed in Middletown to have
a lot of champions uh in our athletics over the last few years in particular um but you've now added your names not only to that list but to that banner that will forever hang and uh it's okay i love it i got three kids at home happens
to me all day um the uh what you have all done is is learned a couple of valuable lessons because while you see your individual names on these banners you did not succeed because of your single name on
that banner you are champions today because of each of you playing a crucial role in in your team's success so while you represent Middletown and you represented the name on on your jersey realize that you're
representing the community you're representing Middletown you're representing High School North and you're representing now what it means to be a champion so congratulations to both of you uh I'm gonna have our coaches speak if they're okay with that in a in
a minute um but uh see I didn't I surprised um but I just want to say on behalf of the township committee um th this is only this is the start of well it's a championship it's the start of day two day two is about next year and
next season so realize that this is a starting point not an end um capitalize on this for the seniors whatever you choose to do I hope you'll continue to learn from the lessons that you you did during this time um and to everybody
else that is hopefully pick it back up next season keep it going and bring back that championship again next year all right coach i think coach is gonna speak for speak for everybody wow now now you know what a mayor is
like right Ricky yes sir mr p I think it's truly fitting for me to talk about bowl teams because the five seniors that are on the girls team I was one of their coaches their freshman year um the head coach Lauren
Bowler is out of the country right now um so I think terrible excuse but committee members uh Mr perry thank you for having us here um tonight on behalf of the Middletown North administration our board of ed I know
one of our board members Miss Minuise is here tonight thank you for coming um when we see her at events you know these kids do realize when you're there so thank you um it was a confusing year for these guys but they p persevered through
a lot of stuff um both teams had 17 wins both teams won a division i think the girls were undefeated no we had one loss and the more important thing about both of these teams is how they get along and how they stay together with each other through tough times and both teams did
have some tough times this year um but they kind of got through it and by the end of the year we're playing meaningful basketball games again and that hasn't gone on here for a while so thank you guys girls who I coached girls who I worked with in the summer i'm honored to say that I got to know you um hopefully
like Mr perry said this is just the beginning you know both teams want to come back and see here next year so thank you sir let's stick up all right well the town of Middletown congratulates Middletown High School
North basketball for winning both for boys for boys and girls for winning the 2025 Shoreb Coastal Division Championship congratulations on your W on your division championship and going undefeated and guys I guess one loss
right you got to hold that over their head despite the challenges that came your way you continued like coach said to persevere through your hard work and determination and this is an incredible accomplishment we're so proud of you for
representing Middletown for representing Middletown North working with your teammates and getting the job done in achieving this championship we're sure that you'll continue to do great things in the future and wish you all the success congratulations to both of you
let's take All right Raven how we looking Raven i think I got everyone all right one two three if you want to stay like that as your parents All
right you don't want guys scooch over a little bit get out of the picture and let the let the ladies take their picture real quick as a team go ahead all right here we go
one two three let's give it up for our girls coach congratulations some of the few times I'm congratulations All right let's give it up our voice that's a lot
okay thank you no oh you want me to say um our next item on tonight's agenda we have the administration of both of We're going to begin with a promotion to sergeant for Ricardo
Cruz you'd like to please come forward with your family detective Cruzes before he gets the big two shirt with a Rick and I were like going back and forth for a little while thank you all right come hang on a sec shoot
down yeah yeah you stay here no no you're perfect all right you ready all right hold it up a little bit there you go perfect behind me
i Ricardo Cruz I Ricardo Cruz do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and I'll bear true faith and allegiance and allegiance to the same to
the same and to the governments established in the United States to the governments established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and I do swear And I do swear to faithfully to faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and justly perform all of
the duties of all of the duties of Middletown Police Sergeant middletown police sergeant according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help you guys congratulations i have fried to keep lowering the B one two three congratulations
no no it's okay congratulations what kind of I'll do some At this time we have the administration of oath of office for officer Robert Poss please come forward with your
family there you go all right i Robert Poss I Robert Poss do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith I
will bear true faith and allegiance and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established to the governments established in the United States in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and I do swear I do swear to faithfully
faithfully impartially partially and justly perform and justly per justly perform all the duties all the duties of Middletown police officer of Middletown police officer according to the best of my ability to according to the best of my ability so help you God so help me God congratulations
We'll do a group we'll do traditions what fashion she two awesome one two three congratulations [Music] thank you very much next I'd like to invite Officer Nicholas
Msara to please come forward with your family relax good job all right ready here we go i Nicholas Misaro I Nicholas Misara do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the
Constitution of the United States I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey to state and that I will bear true faith I will bear true faith and allegiance allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments established the government established in the United
States and in this state this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and I do swear swear to faithfully to faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform justly perform all the duties all the duties of Middletown police officer middletown police officer
according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability Still help you God congratulations yeah i don't know who actually or his son i gave you the second it's all your gay come with a SAG card and we'll talk
about something else sorry congratulations what's that safety breath sorry all right i promise it's the last time I'm going to ask a smile okay all right one two
I'm just glad they know that I'm not the only one all right let's give it up for our new police officer hey guy becomes a sergeant all of a sudden jeez
uh guy all of a sudden um uh I just want to I just want to take a minute and uh once again thank our police officers that are that are here tonight i want to thank our deputy chiefs uh and in particular I want to thank our chief uh for his steadfast
leadership uh continuing to invest in our police department i know Colleen's not here tonight we're working on the budget u but I want to thank uh all of our police officers our new police officers i want to congratulate Rick Cruz uh who I think is our token
Phillies fan on the police department um but uh he might be arrested on his way out uh but I I I just want to once again um thank the chief thank the deputy
chiefs and thank our officers for everything that they do chief thanks uh always for your support your leadership in our community um from you and all the way down through the ranks it's uh much appreciated and we're grateful for for all that you do for our community so thank you Chief
hi i'd like to thank the mayor deputy mayor the committee t administration for always supporting the police department uh two tremendous hires tonight uh two modern day graduates um that transferred from other police departments in Mon County has significant cut and pay to come work at Middletown uh a lot of
experience uh very seasoned veteran K9 officer and a crime scene detective so we're very fortunate to have him on our rankings and Sergeant Cruz uh probably one of the most honorable people I've been pretty fortunate I've worked with my career all three of them come from police families and the fire department
New York Port Authority Middletown um so perfect night for the department very very great thank you all right let's give it up i'm going to walk slow back in the day so do you like Thank you thank you mayor um at this time we have the
approval of minutes for February 18th 2025 regular meeting and the March 3rd 2025 workshop meeting motion to approve second um committeeman uh Committee Kratz yes minman Sedmbbrino yes deputy Mayor
Hibbell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to adopt minutes at this time we have the public hearing on proposed ordinance 2025-3457 an ordinance of the Township of Middletown and the County of Mammoth in the state of New Jersey amending and
supplementing chapter 465 section 465-96 of the general code of the township of Middletown for parking restrictions on Sunnyside Road any member of the public wishing to speak on public ordinance number 2025-3457 Sunnyside Road okay seeing no members of the public
stepping forward move to close the public portion and approve second committ Kratz yes committed Brino yes deputy Mayor Hibell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to adopt this ordinance on second and final reading
at this time we have a consent agenda which will include resolutions 12 25-125 through um 25-140 including firefighter applications but removing 25-136 for a separate vote motion to
approve the consent agenda second committeewoman Kratz yes committeeman Senbrino yes deputy Mayor Hibbo yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to adopt consent agenda at this time we have resolution 25-136 a resolution
authorizing first amended shared services agreement with the Bureau of Keyport for municipal court services to include prosecutor and public defender services motion to approve second committ Katz yes committeeman Senino
recuse deputy Mayor Hibbo yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to pass this ordinance I mean excuse me to adopt resolution 25-136 at this time we have township committee acting as the ABC issuing authority we have 25-141 a resolution
authorizing a placetoplace transfer for expansion of premises for license 1331-33-002 Deino Group LLC trading as port side bar and liquors motion to approve second committ Kratz yes
committeeman Senino yes deputy Mayor Hibbell yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to um adopt resolution 25-141 we have Township Committee comments right committee man Senino thank you Mayor just a few comments when the when the
Elks were up here before I was afraid to ask the question i was wondering if you asked the question okay they were recognized for winning the 2025 state ritual competition yes we know what that was uh it is is he concerned about that
uh you should be concerned I think Kev uh no um the uh state ritual is you know when I went and visited with them this ritual is the proceedings on how uh a new member comes into the lodge and uh
it is a very rehearsed um and coordinated effort and for them to now in back-to-back years have beat every other municipal um and Elks lodge in the state of New Jersey uh is very
impressive um so it's uh it's not the kind of ritual that you see in like Indiana Jones but it's once or twice before and I and I appreciate you explaining that but thank you yeah so you don't have you have nothing to worry about no that's no Township Committee
member sacrifices here tonight well but thank you mayor um so that's that I don't know i think I think our deputy mayor was concerned yeah he well I didn't say that there wasn't a deputy mayor sacrifice you know once once again it puts Middletown on the map uh through
the um through the time spent from u from all of the Elks Lodge uh to make Middletown look certainly great um and with regard to the um the North boys and girls basketball teams I was uh telling Ted as the teams came up if you weren't
paying attent attention and you didn't know what whether they were basketball or wrestling you just need to take a look at the they were they tall or were they a little on the short side so when you can only see the backs and saying "Okay that's that must be the basketball team." And you got pretty tall boys and
girls here which is fantastic but uh great representation of Middletown as well um that's all I have for this evening mayor thank you all right thank you Committee Woman Kratz thank you Mayor so again just um in the beginning of the evening mayor had acknowledged all of our first responders especially
our fire department and to all of our chiefs thank you my personal thanks for your efforts over this weekend it was a tough one and and we thank you all of you um also my congratulations to our officers i have had the privilege to work for many years with uh Detective
Cruz who is now Sergeant Cruz so I am pleased he is one of our finest and he is a dedicated officer i work with him extensively with our young people and he has proven himself to be just such a valuable valuable officer and we're I'm
thrilled for him truly thrilled so congratulations to him and to our new two new officers also it's it's it's a wonderful wonderful evening for Middletown when you hear all this good stuff and these officers who both attended Modern Day which I thought was great too so good stuff and and
congratulations to our athletes it has been a year for our athletes it's we have had several meetings um as of late especially this year where we get to celebrate our student athletes and it's always always quite fun and always great to have them here so certainly a testament to how how athletic Middletown
has become so congratulations to all of our athletes and happy St patrick's Day to everyone thank you thank you Deputy Mayor you were going to say that did I say All he wanted was Happy St patrick you and I are the only ones without green and I'm a P i'm in my
name place over here no green i'm the only person wearing green and Kev Well Kev's got it ted's got some green too this is my green here tonight so uh congratulations to the new officers uh it's truly uh it
means a lot when they when I just found out that they left other towns to come work for Middletown we know we are the best so uh that means a lot to see them actually uh coming aboard here so much appreciated officer Cruz I I'm missing the chief is if he's still here i'm was My kids are definitely going to be
extremely worried if he's not in our classroom is that what's going to happen here he's going to be out of the classroom now oh boy all right my uh my two girls at St mary's love him coming in there all the time back into modem yeah I I think we got to talk about that i don't know what's going to happen
there you tell his wife right i will tell his wife uh I don't know we have these young kids here but they're doing some serious filming tonight you guys picked a good meeting so thanks for coming uh to our fire department our chiefs uh you guys always first class
job uh um some tough days or tough day that you had tough days ahead so just we're thinking about you up here um if you need something please don't hesitate to call and that's all I have mayor all right happy St patrick's Day everyone great job Rick bringing up the St
patrick's Day yeah we really felt the spirit um can can one of you just tell me what you're here for great and tell me your name okay Rick get off the deis she's coming up here
all right well welcome and thank you for for being here today it's uh great to see young people especially high school students so great job with that explanation too um you know go talk to her right go talk to her i want you to
ask the mayor's mayor she stepped right up i I I didn't have to i mean I was kind of looking in her direction but it was it was boom right away i love it it wasn't rehearsed right no i love it i love it i
love it yeah seriously um all right uh once again um I I I seriously just want to thank all the first responders cuz every single one of them um that's here tonight um was over there uh Jimmy the chiefs um you
know as hard as it was to be there right um walking around the back and and seeing the the the sheer force of that fire um but seeing our our five chiefs and all of our
firefighters I I mean it it was it was really unbelievable and I'm and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to be on the scene um because it is it's great for somebody like me that you know I can I can sit in meetings with all of you
and talk to you about what investments we want to make and and what things we want to buy and and and what changes we want to do um but to see it in action is is and it's not my first structure fire but it is certainly one that you know
I'll remember um and and I I just I I really want to give kudos to to all the chiefs for the absolute um insync nature of that entire operation i thought was uh amongst all of you um amongst the
firefighters that were there the different companies that were there um and and aside from Kevin's left-handed um chicken scratch on the board as to where coordinating everybody I I don't I didn't see um I didn't see one thing
that didn't make sense to me um so Chiefs you deserve a lot of credit you know Jimmy I see you former chief you know uh was working that air unit um seriously guys thank you uh it means a lot means a lot to know that at 6:00 on
a Saturday morning uh in a blink of an eye you had I I don't know i'm sure you can tell me how many volunteers were there 62 people got up on Saturday morning at 6:00 and ran into a burning
building if that doesn't deserve a round of applause I don't know what does so and and to see the ladies auxiliary there that was there with coffee and donuts and water and snacks to keep everybody going because it was a long scene uh I was only there
for I don't know an hour and a half maybe um but uh guys you know on behalf of everybody up here um take it back to to the respective companies that responded and
to those 62 individuals and thank them each for us all right so all right I'll open it up for public comment any member of the public wishing to make a public comment may do so i ask that you state your name for the record and that you keep your comments to five minutes at four minutes I'll let you know that you have one minute remaining any member of
the public wishing to make a public comment yes ma'am she Joe's gonna bring up the uh microphone for you see Rick she she has her St patrick's Day scarf on good evening everyone my name is Susan McKitis i live at 63 PA
Drive in the Navy Sing section of Middletown um I came before you two weeks ago regarding the super fund act and I'm hoping that you will consider it uh going forward perhaps at your next meeting by resolution i know you had a packed agenda tonight and
congratulations to all of the uh the folks who were recognized tonight so I just wanted to just bring that up again and if there's anything any information further information that you need uh please don't hesitate i think you have my number i know Heidi does great okay
thank you so much thank you very much any other member of the public wish to make a public comment don come on down don good to have you back good to be back there you go it was like three meetings in a row rick was going to get Rick was getting
worried your house he's going to do a wellness check he's going to knock my house down he said that'll get him back anyway my name's Don Watson living at one Collinsson Drive and
um it's been so long I forget what I needed to ask i'm Tony this is Rick tony i thought Tony was sitting over there yeah we're opening up a pizza joint after this oh I got a question for Ted though um we've been talking for a couple years now about the section of
Main Street in Port Mammoth that's not paved yet i mean the whole street's been paved except for that one section where somebody dug it up it's still on our list we're you know we look at all the roads every year and we prioritize them on the list to ignore it no we're it's
on the list to be uh to be considered for that it's you know there are other roads unfortunately that are in worse shape so it's still on there and you know we're going to check with utility companies to see if they're going to be doing any work over there okay so they could pave it instead of us but for now
we're about Yes some utility dug it up they should be paving it no they did recently well they did this is this is I believe Ted correct me if I'm wrong i believe this is exactly why we changed that ordinance uh five years ago probably at this point this is the only section of that road that hasn't been
paid correct palmer Avenue to the highway but but the the old ordinance the reason that we changed the ordinance was if I believe if they came within 500 500 feet of an intersection they had to go completely through the intersection it used to be you only had to go curb to curb for the distance of
of what you dug up so um so that this is exactly why we changed that ordinance this this uh exact roadway and when was that changed i I don't know how many four four or five years
d you're saying it's recently ripped up no okay it's been like this as long as I can remember i don't drive that way went up to the intersection and then stopped it's like It's like how the state did Kings Highway it goes from like um what's it the um is it Murphy Street by Thorn
Murphy Murphy road from Murphy to like Crystal Pond right that whole section and there's like one swatch going down the whole length of the road that's been dug up and repaved and people keep asking me when are they
going to pave that road i said told me I didn't ask him you know how come I got if you don't want to ask him all the time anyway um there was something else too can I come back sure next meeting next meeting april 7th
come on back i might be here all right all right all right thank you for your time you got it any other member of the public wish to make a public comment or does everybody want to get to the closest Irish pub you can seeing no other member of the public stepping forward none of you want to get up here
okay come on down come on come on challenge accepted i love it okay now your one classmate gave it a very very good introduction so fire away tell me your name first hi um my name is
David Filicoba um and I was just uh this just a question i was looking at the agenda and I saw a lot of stuff to do with um the purchase of trucks um and I was just wondering why like for what
purpose are they going to be used so So these will these trucks will actually be for uh Ted's crew down at the end here for our public works team so rotating out some of the trucks that are in really bad condition and certainly need upgrades um and purchasing those truck
trucks putting the the trucks that we currently have into different services that aren't going to um aren't going to get beat up quite as much but um will certainly serve Ted's crews well okay thank you good question any other
member of the public wish to make a public comment all right give him a round of applause for asking a question over there see no member of the public stepping forward move to close the public portion and adjourn second
committeewoman Kratz yes committ Senino yes deputy Mayor Hibbo yes mayor Perry yes motion carries to adjourn have a good night everybody thank you all very much