Good evening. Welcome to the May 28th, 2025 regular meeting of the township committee. The notice requirements provided for in the open public meetings act have been satisfied. Notice that this meeting was properly given by transmission to the Asbury Park Press, the Two River Times, and by posting at
the Middletown Township Municipal Building and filing with the Township Clerk all on January 11th, 2025. Committeeman Clark here. Committeewoman Crass here. Committeeman Senino. Deputy Mayor Hibel. Mayor Perry
here. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice
for 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 Thank you. First item we have on our agenda tonight is a presentation recognizing Thor Middle School select
big choir B naturals and vocal vibe show choir. At this time, I would like to invite chorus teacher Nick Jabinka and the Thorn Middle School select Choir B Naturals and Vocal Vibe Show Choir to join May Perry at the front of the room.
Okay. Uh Thorn Middle School or B Naturals. I've had the great privilege of being at a few events including uh some for Anita Thorne Kaiser uh the sister of the namesake of the Thorn Middle School hearing the
performances of the B naturals. This is the first time we've ever had a chorus here to get on. So, I'm not going to belver it. Take it away. Right. Right. Hey, this song is called Does the World Say by Kyle Peterson.
[Music] You don't look the right
[Music] way. It wants you there.
[Music] not stand a chance in this world all alone.
Oh, the chatter is happening too overwhelming hard to find my way home. So take my hand, don't let [Music]
go. that you're not worth the time. When you fall when you turn the other [Music]
way there, [Music] Oh sh to find my way hard to find my way.
Take my hand. Don't let go. Don't let go. Don't let go. Take my hand.
[Music] growing and turning and loving me
and don't stand a chance if it's me in this world all alone. All the overwhelming hard to find my way home. [Music]
alone over to find my way home. Take my hand. Take my hand. Don't let go.
[Applause] I hope to hear you the first. Um, amazing job. Amazing job. Give yourselves a big round of applause. So, let let me let me just say this for the record. At the 2025 Hershey Park
Music in the Parks Festival, you hit you got excellent score in treble choir, first place in show choir, and best overall junior high choir. Is that right? Well, I'll tell you one thing. Bring
everybody on back that you competed against this year because there's no chance they're beating you in 2026. Let me say that th this this governing body, this township, I mean, look at look at all these these proud faces, moms, dads, grandparents, aunts,
uncles, everybody that's here uh is so proud of you. So, enjoy this moment. Enjoy it. be ready for next year. Bring back another another list of awards because you didn't leave with just one.
You left with three. So, I got a little bit of a little bit of a head. Is four too many next year? I was really going to say five a second ago, but let let's come back.
Let's be champions. I hope you all enjoyed this opportunity. I know uh I I'm I'm speechless at the fact that you are all here uh in this in this governing body's meeting to uh to provide everyone here with an excellent
show. Uh that was amazing. So on behalf of the township committee, we have certificates for all of you. It says, "The Township of Middletown hereby congratulates Thorne Middle School Select Choir B Naturals and Vocal Vibe Show Choir for winning awards at the
2025 Hershey Park Music in the Parks Festival. We applaud you for showing off your talents. Unbelievable, amazing, incredible talents. At the Hershey Park Music in the Parks Festival this May, you were able to hit all the right
notes." first person. There she is. Hit me with another pun. Uh all the right notes and earned awards for excellent score and treble choir, first place in the show choir, and best overall junior high uh junior high choir. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for shining an unbelievable spot. I love putting um this this group, this is actually the first year that I include sixth graders in the group. It's been a great decision. Um this group is amazing. I've been doing this a long time. Um I've been a lot at a lot of the
different schools here in Middletown, but this is by far my best group that I've ever worked with. their dedication, their talent, the sound that they get, their hard work, and just the people they are. They're just amazing people to work with. So, thank you for allowing them, allowing me to work with them
every single day. It's it's it's such a great thing for all of us to be able to do this, to share music with the community, you know, to get out of the gym and just go all over the place and sing and just share their amazing talents. But they're also amazing people, uh, as you all know, right? They're really, really cool kids. And uh
it's been such an awesome experience this year. I'm going to miss my eighth graders tremendously. Um and the rest of you, we're in for more next year, right? Five awards next year. So you heard it here. He said five. I said,
let's give another round of applause. together. You ready? Are we good with that? over to another. Together we are better. [Music]
Together we are better when we sing. [Music] Together. Together. Together we are better. Together.
Together. Together we are better when we [Music] sing. [Music] Sing
[Music] for together. Together we are better. Together, together we are when we
sing and all your voice singing and all your voice. We are so much better when we sing
together. Together we are best together. Together we [Music] are together. We are together. We are we
are [Music] sing [Music]
together and we sing together and we sing Together we are sing. [Applause]
Well, it sounded pretty good to be putting you on the spot right there. Um, one one more uh congratulations. Who's this? Uh, so this is I I say all the time for all of our athletes that come in, this
is a team effort, right? No, no, no one person. But Isabella was uh recognized as the overall soloist soloist award at the Hershey Park Music Festival uh at
winning winning uh the coveted overall soloist award at this festival. So while this is a a team effort, a group effort, on the individual basis, you came in in first I hear. So, we're going to take a quick picture of Middletown. Let's give it up for
these guys. Everybody that was hiding in the back. Are you ready? All right. All right. One, two, three. Awesome. And if you wanted to stay there, while your parents and guardians take
photos of what happened. All right. Great job. We have one more presentation before everybody uh leaves. One more presentation. So just as If everybody could just take a quick seat that's
All right, we have uh one more presentation before we get to the before we'll we'll we'll we'll let everybody leave. Um, could I just ask that uh Sergeant First Class Justin Lav facial expressions, you'll realize he does not know he's going to be pulled
up here. So, uh, I'm not your commanding officer. It's okay. Um, for those who of you who don't know, um, Sergeant First Class Justin Laberty uh came home, uh, this past
weekend. Is that right? After 21 years of service in the United States Army. Correct. born and raised right here in Middleton. Um, uh, Sergeant Firstclass Laby, uh, joined the military after he witnessed the tragic events of September 11th,
2001, and has faithfully been serving our country, defending it here and certainly abroad, too in Afghan. Um and today um we are very honored that not only have you returned
safely uh home but that you've returned right here in Middletown. I believe you had a loved one that was in the in the in the B naturals. Correct. Or um and so he was unaware that uh that he was going to be
recognized today. Um but we are on be I think I can speak on behalf of everybody here. Uh grateful for your service, grateful for everything that you have done to protect our country to protect them here in in Afghanistan. Um because
he probably had what's was got to be one of the most dangerous jobs certainly in the military, but it's got to be one of the coolest too. You had some fun. Yeah. you get to blow stuff up. He He was an EOD tech or explosive
ordinance disposal tech. Um, it takes a special person to volunteer to go in the United States military. It takes an extra special person to be an EOD. But Sergeant Firstclass Justin Laby did that for 21
years protecting me, you, and our families. Sergeant First Class, God bless you. Thank you for your service to this country. Thank you for representing Middletown and thank you for defending freedom both here and broad. Welcome home.
first class and honor to present you with this flag that flew over this town in your hon in this town hall in your honor um for all your years of service. Thank you very much. This is for you as as a thank you for our appreciation and in your honor. God bless you.
Obviously, my family, my mom who has backed me every time I come to her like this wonderful idea, my wife who's uh had to watch me walk out the door somewhere, wondered
what I was going to get called in on. Um and to everybody here that has shown your support. Thank you all. right here. Let's go. That's what you need. Thank you very
[Music] Well, we we could end the meeting on it. I know. All right, we're going to take a fivem minute recess. Thank you all. I know some of you literally said, "I have homework to do." So, this is your opportunity. But, uh, but thank you all very much.
Not that bad. Okay, we had one last proclamation for the record which was recognizing May 2025 as Buddy Poppy month in the township of Middletown. Next item up on our agenda, we have our budget public hearing. Resolution
25-154, resolution authorizing the 2025 municipal operating budget. Any said the operating, right? Any member of the public wish to make a public comment on the proposed operating
budget? May I do so? Joe is going to bring up the microphone. Any member of the public wish to make public comment. See going once, going twice. Okay. See no member of the public stepping forward. Move to close the
public portion and approve. Second. Committeeman Clark. Yes. Committeewoman Crest. Yes. May I Perry? Yes. Motion carries to approve resolution
25154 adopting the 2025 minutes vote operating budget. Next item on our agenda, we have the approval of minutes for the April 28th, 2025 regular meeting and the May 12th, 2025 workshop meeting. Motion to approve.
Second. Committeeman Clark. Yes. Committeewoman Kratz. Yes. Mayor Perry, yes. Motion carries to approve the minutes. Next on our agenda, we have a public hearing of proposed ordinances. First, Ordinance 2025
3463, an ordinance amendment chapter 240 of the code of the township of Middletown governing certain fee schedules for planning and development. Any member of the public wishing to speak on public ordinance number 2025-3463? Don, come on down. Good evening. My name is Don Watson
living at one drive in New I I was not aware of his name or address said it. Go ahead, Don. Did you get it? Yeah, I got it. I wrote it down. Oh, good. Thank you. Um, can you give us a little um insight on what these ordinances are
about? They weren't included with the packet that was posted online. These uh the Tony kid can if Tony grab I saw Tony grab his uh his microphone. These were the ones that were discussed both of these ordinances two meetings ago, I
believe. Right, Tom? The last meeting? No. No, they were discussion. Oh, they were discussion. Um no, the they were already introduced, right? This is the Yeah, they're voluntary. Yeah, probably. These are um uh these are ordinances
that have to do with planning and zoning board application fees. Okay. They haven't been updated in more than 10 years. Okay. Well, around 10 years. Um so, it's for they're paid by the de developers and applicants who want to come in and build things. So, it's just fees um that cover the cost of
consultants and whoever we hire to review those applications. Okay. I wasn't sure because like I said, we we we obviously don't want the taxpayer paying for certain um work that's being done by uh planner, zoning officer,
whomever. They should be paid for by the applicant. So, this increases those fees to cover the overall cost for all applications. Yeah, but I said it better. I that's that's mostly um what they are. There's a couple there's one one of the new ones is if you remember a few months ago we
adopted a an ordinance that regulates tree removals now which is not our favorite subject we have to do it anyway. So there's $25 fee for certain cases where trees have to be removed things like that. Yeah. So are
these fees in both chapters of the code? Yes. But they're different sorts of fees because they're different codes. Correct. Different codes. Some of them deal with like flood plane issues. flood plane encroachment permits and things like that. On one of the fields, I think as I mentioned last week, we actually lowered down because it's there's so
many more applications coming in and we don't have to use consultant. Now we have an in-house person who can do it so it's less less costly. So we were able to lower fee for for a change. Great. All right. Thank you very much. Thanks. Any other member of the public to make a public
comment? Seeing no other member of the public movement forward move to close public portion and approve. Committee. Committeeman Clark. Yes. Committeewoman Crass. Yes. Mayor Perry. Yes. Motion carries to pass this ordinance on second and final reading.
Next, we have ordinance 2025-3464 and ordinance amendment chapter 540 of the code of the township of Middletown governing certain fees for planning and development. Any member of the public wishing to speak on public ordinance number 2025-3464? Seeing no member of the public stepping forward, move the to
close the public portion and approve. Second. Committeeman Clark. Yes. Committ Kratz. Yes. Mayor Perry, yes. Motion carries to pass this ordinance on second and final reading. Next, we have ordinance
2025-3465. An ordinance establishing a fair market value of a permanent roadway easement upon a portion of block 1072 lot 41 642 Newman Springs Road within the township of Middletown and authorizing acquisition of deed of
permanent roadway easement by purchase of eminent domain purchase or eminent domain for the purpose of enhancing roadway circulation and improving traffic conditions. Any member of the public wishing to speak on public ordinance number 2025-3465 Don Good evening my name is Don Watson
living at one drive that's in New Wild Watson. Yes. Okay. Perfect. capital. Does this ordinance refer to the Acme Road? Uh, yes it does. It's it's actually the easement along the um the
uh convenience store. Uh that's that would be the ingress and egress now out onto the oneway. I think Melanie had a conversation. Yeah, the last piece was necessary. Yeah, right. I just wanted to verify it. Yep. Because it wasn't
included in the packet. Yes, that that's for the two-way acne roadway. Approving. Thank you. Yes, sir. Any other member of the public wishing to speak on public ordinance number 2025-3465? Seeing no other member of the public stepping forward, move to close
public portion and approve. Second. Committeeman Clara. Yes. Committeewoman Katz. Yes. Mayor Perry, yes. Motion carries to pass this ordinance on second and final reading. Next item up on our agenda, we have the introduction of proposed
ordinances. 2025-3466 is an ordinance authorizing lease renewal with the Navascink Maritime Heritage Association, a not for-profit organization for the Grover House located upon block 1016 lot 6, as shown on the tax map of the Township of
Middletown, not currently required for public purpose pursuant to NJSA 48:12-14 C. Motion to introduce. Second. Committ Clark. Yes. Committee woman
Kratz. Yes. Mayor Perry. Yes. Motion carries to pass this ordinance on first reading with the public hearing to be held June 16th, 2025. The next introduction we have is 2025-3467, an ordinance amending township salary ordinance setting
salaries for non-contractual employees for 2025 and 2026. Motion introduced. Second. Committeeman Clark, yes. Committ Katz, yes. Mayor Perry, yes. Motion carries to
pass this ordinance on first reading with a public hearing to be held June 16th, 2025. At this time, I'd like to ask the township committee to adopt a consent agenda which would include resolutions 25182 through
25200, removing 251 194 since the budget was introduced and passed tonight. I mean, it was passed tonight. Yeah. Thank you. You no longer need an emergency appropriation coming. Okay. Motion to
approve the agenda. Second. Committeeman Clark, yes. Committeewoman CR, yes. Mayor Perry, yes. Motion carries to pass consent agenda. Yeah, you're first. Um, what a wonderful meeting. My gosh, if we could if we
could begin every meeting that way, as the mayor said, how wonderful was it to really hear the choir and and to welcome home first class sergeant. really um a wonderful beginning to a very a great meeting and and to have one of Middletown's own be welcomed home so
warmly was really wonderful and I think he was absolutely surprised and touched which is even better. So um just wanted to again welcome him home and and congratulate our our chorus members for sure. Um also big shout out for everyone uh for the parade and I I'll just
mention it. allow you allow you to do your due diligence, mayor, but uh wonderful day, wonderful event. So, thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Comm. Thank you, Mayor. Uh I want to echo Committee Katz's comments. Uh anytime that we can have kids from the schools
in here to brighten up the uh tenor of a meeting is a okay in my book. And not only do we have uh course members here, it looks like we have some uh high school students here doing uh doing an assignment. So, uh, great to see some young smiling faces here learning all about, uh, how government works. Some of
you may know it a little better than others. Uh, you might have grown up with it. Um, but it's, uh, it's pretty cool. So, um, thank you for guys for being here. Uh, it was really, really neat to have the course here. Um, to have first sergeant recognized as well is pretty
amazing. Uh, I will reserve comment about the parade for Mayor Perry. Um, and uh, two weeks ago or last week, we had the opportunity to be part of the uh, be the difference swap over at the Middletown Arts Center uh, put put on by
two amazing young women in our in our community and embraced by the high school community uh, which uh, is something really special and I I spoke at length last month about why it's special to me and uh, I'll say it one more time with a lot less words, but everybody's affected by uh, mental
health issues and suicide. And if you have a friend who you think may be having problems, talk to them. Find somebody for them to talk to. Um if there's things that you couldn't take care of or or help with, don't blame yourself. It's uh it's really easy to.
Um but uh yeah, so at any rate, I hope everybody has a good uh good beginning of your summer. Thank you, Mary. All right. Um uh I just want to thank uh everyone that was involved, especially the American Legion 338 for their efforts for the Memorial Day parade. We
had a beautiful day. Um great turnout. Um so grateful to to see um so many people out there thanking um the service and sacrifice of so many people that have uh that have worn the uniform but unfortunately not returned home. But it
was it was a wonderful um display of patriotism and love for our country and couldn't be more proud year after year that um that this parade uh continues to demonstrate that pride in America, pride in our service members. Um so so uh so
thankful to the American Legion Post and everybody here um that helps make that possible. Um uh and and I will um I'll stop there because I'll echo all the comments uh that that we made previously about everyone uh up front here um whose
wonderful day. Thank you to all of our communication high school students that are here. Got to talk with many of you about the different things that you're working on. So um congratulations to all of you. Stay uh stay interested. Um keep going, keep asking the right questions.
Um, so good luck to all of you and in as you kind of wrap up the end of your school year here. So, so best of luck to all of you. With that, I'll open it up for public comment. Any member of the public wish to make a public comment may do so. We ask that you speak your name for the record. That you keep your comments to five minutes. At four
minutes, I'll let you know that you have one minute remaining. I say that you know that I'm always flexible on that. And then I'll go to you, Ben. All right. Right here. and then I'll go to bed. Since I'm Since I'm I'm like Don's address, I have no idea why you're
coming up here. I know. I'm back. Yeah. Anyway, my name is Susan McKitus and I live at 63 Pate Drive in Navasen. This is my fifth appearance at a Middletown council meeting without getting an answer to my request.
On my four previous visits, I requested that the council consider a resolution supporting the super fund act. Once again, I see that it's not on the agenda, and I need to ask why. I know you had comments, Mayor Perry, about uh
your conversations, but I still don't know what the issue is uh that's holding up support for that bill. I I I think that bills for the sake of bills are um bad. Number one, that's just a policy that I I think flashy bills are um
irrelevant to the process. Um but the the conversations that we have with members of the legislature um it it should take time. That's the beauty of it is that I am able to make comments and having worked in the legislature for four and a half years and having worked
in the executive branch for four years. I I have a little bit of experience dealing with um with with how that the process unfolds. Tony and I and and other members of the members of the governing body have conversations with legislators on both sides of the aisle
um all the time. Um and that's a good healthy part of the process. I have some issues and concerns with this bill. Um, and for that reason, you're not seeing it move. That's the very reason that that it's not moving is because I think that there are a lot of businesses and
legislators and mayors and elected officials from all over that are making comments. Um, as I told you before, um, you know, I've made those comments. Um, and I know that there's many comments that are coming in and we'll see what the final version of that bill looks like and whether or not this governing
body wishes to take a stand on that legislation. Some, you know, we often will take stands on legislation. We often have comments about what we think um is right and what is wrong. Um, and we if we choose to take that stand, you know, we will at the appropriate time.
But right now um you know we're not prepared to to make any comments until I hear the feedback to the comments that were given. Can you share what the concern is? Uh the concern is I think that it provides uh way too much latitude to certain government
departments that don't have oversight. Um, and I think that giving uh unspecified direction and latitude to individuals in Trenton is not always the best way to go because things get bogged up into the works and that we should be
incentivizing and working to get super fun sites cleaned up and and and completed. And you're you're right there there needs to be a conversation across all uh folks. But I I worry that when you have a Department of Environmental Protection that is still not working
five days a week um in the office, I I have a serious problem with that because my tax dollars along with yours and everybody else's in this room is paying for those individuals to work. And I still and I think Tony would agree with this do not see the productivity level
that we would demand out of a department on simple matters. What gives me any confidence that there is going to be production out of D or any other state department that's going to oversee this cleanup and we are going to see exactly
what we've seen in the past. Decades and decades and decades of government and bureaucratic nightmares that do not actually clean up these sites. That's my concern. Okay, that's fair. All right. Well, I appreciate your time and your efforts and I look forward to you um
getting your comments. uh submitted into the bill. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Oh, sir. I'm gonna I'm just going to go to Vinnie and then I'll come back to you. 39 present. Leonardo, is that a little ordinary to come down here? Oh boy. Out
of arms reach. Notice how he does this after the chief leaves. Trust me, I'm harmless. I'm too old. Hopefully.
Oh, yeah. You're mine. You're the reason we put this back in. I There's a gate over there and there's a over there, but I may be 70, but I was still hoping. Okay. As you know, we had that fishing derby on May 4th, okay? We had a great
turnout, okay? I had 45 kids, had 50 applicants, 50 kids, you were there, you're singing, okay, we felt a little bad about it when you walked away and you didn't catch a
fish. Okay. So, what I did Okay, feel like right now. This is the one that got away. Okay, that's the one that got away. That's the one you didn't catch. So, I want you to put that in your office. Okay. Thank you, pal. I
appreciate it. All right. Very much. Now, down to business. Go back over there. Well, you know what? I'm actually going to retain your time for a second. Um, you were not here at our last meeting. Um, and I want to say this, uh, because you you you didn't get to hear
me say it, and while you might not believe it, um, Vinnie, I I I I do want to seriously I said it last meeting and I'll say it again. Um, thank you for for what you did at that at that day. Um, you know, you have uh have become a
staple of of that back corner back there and um to see you uh at Fireman's Pond at Garvey's Pond I guess for now. Well, believe it or not, to interrupt you, that used to be Navasync Fire. I know that's why I'm going. Yeah.
Um, but to see uh how engaged you were, the love that you have for fishing was obvious and the love and the joy that you've gotten out of it to try and give that back to to the young people that were there. I was there with my son Brandt, who's three, who gave up after
about the third uh piece of bait we lost and wanted to, you know, go do something else, I guess. Um, but I was adamant and then it started raining. Um, but Vinnie, you were there the whole time. You were there to help every kid and uh and and I I I said it last time, uh, but I'll say
it again. Thank you for volunteering your time of of of a hobby that you love. Well, it pulled me out of the hole the hard time that I had. It pulled me out. You want me to go back up there now? Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you, pal. I
appreciate that. You don't have to bait the hook to catch that either. You can put a hot You can put a hot dog in there, not a worm. Okay. Oh, sorry, Vinnie. Your five minutes is up. Uh,
I'm kidding. All right. I'm going to come to you people and I'm going to ask I have a little problem. Okay. As you seen what we had in Garvey's pond, you know what Garvey Pond looks like? Some of you do, some of you don't. That's okay. All right. Um because years ago I
used to hold the fishing derby and we used to do it in the back of Shadow Lake. Okay. Shadow Lake is is so what I would like to do and I'd like to find out okay is I would like to try to get Garvey's Pond cleaned up on
the left and on the right hand side of that the spillway taken care of and uh if possible the floating docks that are in the back of Shadow Lake move them to
Garage on the left side and the right side. Now I have much more room for more kids. But like we had 45, a lot of them turned away and walked away. Okay. Cuz we had grown-ups there. Now, can this be done
with um open space funds or would this go under neighbors funds? Um, I'm I'm sure if if we wanted to do something, it could fall under uh open space. Um, and you know, pro we probably wouldn't apply
to green acres for something like this unless we're talking about dredging. But but you're absolutely right. In fact, Ted and I discussed some of the branches that were along uh closest to the driveway um over there that have spilled down just into the into the shadow
shallow parts um and and addressing that. Just cleaning that out just just a little bit. utilizing our clean communities perhaps to just try and pimple some of that stuff out. Um, as far as the the docks, you know, I don't know, is Green Acres
uh suggestion. Um, so just just so you're aware, we just submitted an application for Shadow Lake for Shadow Lake through Congressman's office, Congressman Smith's office. We're kind of a little bit optimistic that we might get some funding to actually get Shadow Lake
dredged. Um because as you know, Shadow Lake doesn't get stocked anymore. The rest of no public access. Garbage Pond still does get stocked. Yes. So um but I wouldn't suggest we would take those those out because I think they would get destroyed just taking them out. I would suggest we look to get new ones put at
Argus Bond and hopefully we get lucky with the grant uh from from the state from the federal government to do Shadow Lake. But in the meantime, I think we could look at adding uh the floating docks to Garvey's to get better access to the water. Um this if we get lucky
with Shadow Lake, maybe down the road, Garvey's Pond and Orying Pond would be the next two we'd want to look at dredge. Well, I mean, yeah, in the back of Shadow Lake, I mean, we hardly have any water back there. That's all I did because I mean, I was a kid. There
was never an island there. All of a sudden, this island comes up out of nowhere, you know. Well, and and and a big part of it is taking a look at it from from a from a 30,000 foot view, you have a a bridge that's that is is going to have to be replaced. You have a dam
that has to be addressed. Um, and all of these things, uh, you know, the the the hope is always that you can do them all at the same time. You're talking about gardens. I'm talking about Shadow Lake. Oh, okay. The dam has to The dam is well over a hundred years old. Well, didn't
they just repair that not too long ago? Yeah. Yeah. But just probably a temporary repair. Okay. Rather than than than a replacement of it. Um, but we've been working with D on that. Um, but the bridge needs to be replaced. That's the county. um we want to make the
improvements to the walkway right uh over over on Hover. So all these you want to try and get them all done at the same time because you want to not impact people forever. Um and then open and redo and and and all that stuff. So um so we we have been actively working on
on addressing trying to address Shadow Lake. Um but we can always certainly look at at Gies as well. Well, I would I would appreciate it. I mean, you know, because I mean, it was local. Everybody showed up. You saw it. Yeah. You know, and I was really I was really surprised
myself that we had that many kids. Yeah. You know, and I was like, "Wow." It was great. And then we also gave out uh thank you letters to the five tackle shops that gave away uh real rod and reel combinations and we raffle them off
in the kids. And Ben, just so you know, this is a bait and tip from me, okay? and take it for what it's worth. So, I had take took all the kids to Brennan's and we drove over to Corby's pond a couple days after that cuz I was so, you
know, it was so painful to walk away and and not get a single fish. So, I finished my dinner. I took a piece of the chicken that I hadn't finished. I put it on my hook. I cast it in two seconds. I had I had So, Brennan's chicken Caesar wrap chicken is great.
All right. in case you're interested. No, I wouldn't take fishing advice from me either. I mean, you had to picture him trying to bake a hot dog on a hook. You had to
picture this. I mean, you know, it was worth a thousand words. It was I'm just glad you were there and not taking a picture. Oh, we got one. Yeah. Yeah, sure. All right. Um uh we might hold we might hold a fishing porium for the kids. Okay. We might have them told that
at at Porsche's Park, you know, we're thought thinking about it during the winter months. Well, the new dock over there and the steps and everything looks great. They did a great job over there. So, all right. Now, my next thing is I know it belongs to the state. Yeah.
Cherry Tree Farm Road and 35. Yep. That light there, something has to be done. Okay. Where it says they turn left on the green. All right. on both sides. Everybody's going across stops and then
it says yield to oncoming traffic to the left. I've seen so many accidents over that way cuz I take my daughter to work that way. I'm in that intersection every day. Yeah. Well, I think it should be left turn on green
only, not put the red one up there because they're trying to beat you out from coming across. And one day I came across and this woman just came out of nowhere and lucky thing I was well I was three cars back the guy in front of me got hit broadside right there and I
don't know how many accidents it happened but that's a dangerous intersection the way they did that I don't know how you go without doing it to do yeah that's the only way you can do it. We we'll ask them if if they are seeing an increase in accidents. All right. All right. I know my time's up.
Yes. Okay. Thank you my friend. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. No, be in touch. Thank you. Thanks. Yes, sir. How are you today? Let's go back to follow. Very tough. It's only 17 club way. I just moved out here about a year and a half ago, and um we've had
some issues with the the the road and and potholes that have been pretty significant. Um so, I'm just curious how you decide um which roads you're going to repave and and how that how that works. I'm asking you this because
initially um there was big potholes when you sort of entered club way you would hit your bottom of your car with it was sort of patched over. There was another one that was pretty deep. You patched it over and um just the other day I was riding my bicycle. I hit a a pothole
that was six inches almost a foot deep um over a yard wide. took a very bad fall on my bike and um um and you know I called you know raised this issue somebody then now hurried up and you know covered it up and patch it
up again but um um it's sort of a chronic problem and I think it's really actually quite dangerous um so so the the the way yeah so let me let me take a step back yes we've made a series of capital investments into a p a paving
crew in-house paving because for far too along. We outsourced most of that away. Um, a lot of our paving is done through shared services with the county. We will utilize that because they're cheaper than everybody else. We can pay them for the materials and the labor and and
you're really not paying for for anything above that because it's a it's a county resource. This year, several uh of our roads, I think Ted had at least 12 of them on there, right, Tony? Um, on there to be uh slated to be paid by the county. The one uh thing that I tell
everybody that asked me this question is as you may see you get notifications from New Jersey American water out there and um you know in fact uh I see Mark back there hillside uh I don't know how familiar you are with that was was
terrible. It was it was awful and the county came and paved it. Um the the reason I I bring that up is because then like two weeks later there was an emergency in in the roadway and they needed to do an emergency repair and
they come in and they jackhammer it up and then they patch it. The the other issue that I and the township are trying to get through at this point is the federal government and the state have put a timeline on that all lead and um
all lead pipes must be replaced by New Jersey American water, which is great. We want that to we want that to happen quickly, but we need participation by the public to test self- test their lines um in Middletown. And that's how we that's how they determine them. Well,
they are responsible for paving the roads after that is done. New Jersey American Water has not yet completed Middletown yet. And so we are trying to be strategic in the roads that we pave are not in in a month, 6 months, a year
going to be jacked up by New Jersey American Water for lead line replacements. That's why you're seeing the billboards on 35 and 36 for for this. So, it's really a participation. They only have, I think, six more years
left to be able to do this. Um, so so this needs to be completed because you can't invest millions of dollars in the roads being repaved only for the water company to then come back and repave it uh on their dime when they should have when they should be doing it. Now, so
that that was I appreciate the answer, but I I what can I expect when about when the road will be repaired? I mean, is it Can I just your your your section of town has not yet been inspected by New Jersey American water. I believe
they just moved from East Kingsboro and they moved downward towards Port Mad Belfford area. They're going like northwest to northeast. So, they'll get waiting for New Jersey or a few more weeks. they should be down to your neighborhood. they'll send you a
notification um that they're going to be contacting you or and telling you how to selfch check but if not they'll send somebody to your house and then once that happens and I self if we know that for example that there are very few or no lead or galvanized pipes that have to
be replaced then that street is more now we have assurance that we can go into your neighbor because we know it's not going to get torn up and then we correct we can't we can't spend a half a million dollars on a road and and have the county dedicate us time when there's roads that we know can be
paved now because they fall outside the timeline of when they were utilizing lead and galvanized uh pipe. So all these factors go into we have 375 mi worth of roadway and and we budget responsibly and when it comes to our
capital and so we try and fit into what we believe we can afford and phase in repavement but utilizing the work and efforts of our utility companies as well. Okay. I just want you should be aware though that that some of the roads are
really quite dangerous. I mean I' I've ridden a bicycle in New York City my whole life. I've never I've never had a ple like this ever and um um well we don't have people getting hit by taxis either so we have you know well anyway thank you very much check it out any
other member of the public yes sir love it my name is Ralph Quinn at 5 and I this might not even come across your desk but we recent street like the recycling truck was like a couple days
late. I don't know if there's beauty about this, but it was a kind of cause a bit of an issue for us, but uh on besides that uh Mr. Ryan M. Clark, your haircut electric. It's awesome. Thank you.
You say that the haircut is meant for your demographic and age group, but it's too freaking I like the whole name. Yeah. Yeah. What's your middle name, Ryan? Okay. Does it say that on your plaque or how
do you know your middle initials? That's right. No. No. But does it say it on Okay. I thought he looked you up or something. That's information. All right. Thank you very much. Electric haircut. Karen, if I don't see that in the minutes, I will
not approve them. All right. Any other member? My own record. He's got to go home and tell his kids that. Hi. Um I'm Grace Jameson. I live in Loftra. Um I don't really have like a specific question. I was just wondering
if you could elaborate more on that um bill Miss Susan was talking about because I didn't really know what it's a super fun bill. So when when there is large cleanups that need to occur in because a a company has left there's there's been uh you know I don't want to
use the word iconic but there's been f very famous uh hex was was a very famous super fun site and it means that there's uh an immense amount of cleanup that needs to occur to uh clean these facilities and you know you run into
these problems in pretty much not to the super fun level But you run into contamination problems pretty much wherever you go in the state of New Jersey because D um for instance we were talking about Shadow Lake earlier. Okay,
Lyncraftoft was an apple orchard. All right. Forever and but there is naturally occurring arsenic in Lcraftoft's ground. It just it just trickles, right? Well, that is
technically a contaminant classified by the Department of Environmental Protection. So, you need to do you need to do a cleanup of that. So, until you are able to bring it to a certain parts per million within the within the site, it is a contaminated site. And it all
depends for for instance, if you have you go on Route 35 or Route 36 or you look at when you get across the bridge in Red Bank and you see those two old gas stations that were right there, right? those are going to be contaminated and there is efforts um
that needs to place an onus a responsibility on the entities that owned those properties that cause that contaminant to clean them up. Um there's there's a lot of uh difficult questions that goes along with that. How do you enforce that if a if a um entity goes
out of business, right? the um like the gas stations in um uh in where our veterans housing project is now, right? That was uh an auto repair. Um there was contaminants on that site and you we had to clean them up, right? To make it
acceptable within within the ranges that are defined by the DP. Um but that the person that caused that is is long gone and five titles different in terms of who's owned them. And by the if the town
was had had to wait to litigate every single person during every single change of ownership through a million LLC's, we would be nowhere on that. So that that's kind of a a smaller downscale version uh of of what we're
talking about. So it's about cleaning it out faster. Correct. Okay. Correct. Thank you. You got it. Any other member of the public wish to make a public comment? Yes, sir. Um, hi. I'm David Vilova. I'm actually not from Middletown. I'm from West Law Branch, but I just had a couple
questions. That's okay. We still like to talk some items on the agenda. So, um, I just, uh, can you just elaborate on some of these? Uh, because there's some that I think. Go ahead. Uh,
what number? Okay. So verse uh 251 uh 84 25 Oh, you're talking about in the consent agenda. Yes. So the uh hang on a second. uh a resolution authorizing the state of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres program forcing park wershed
improvements that that provides us the ability the clearance to make certain improvements to this area with the authorization of Green Acres because it is a uh it's on our Rosi. So, we need to be able to get their permission to make these improvements because whenever you
work with Green Acres, you the municipality puts out 100% of the money, but then the Green Acres fund will will pay you back 50% of those funds. Um, it it's a much longer process, right, Colony, than that. Um, but but this
enables uh those improvements to be made. One thing is important to understand the distinction. A lot of times people think the term green acres just means undeveloped land and that is one definition of it. But when we use the term the mayor's using the term green acres we're talking about an
agency of the state. State has a whole division called state a green acres program. So they're regulators of the state. So when we when we make improvements on parks um sometimes we get loans or grants from state to to do those and that's the case here. And so
they have to approve any work we're going to do on a bark. So that that's kind of what this one is is. So Greenacres is actually a state program, not just open land. Okay. Thank you. Um and then also uh agenda item 18 um for awarding the
contract for site suitability analysis. I was just wondering why 19 25-190. Yes. 25. That's one. Okay. I'm just wondering why that needs to happen. Uh because we're we're currently in the process of of uh dealing with litigation
on that. Um and we need to authorize uh what the site suitability is for for that process. Right. I don't know if you So, yeah. So this is for specifically for an expert report to demonstrate why a
particular site is not includable for development due to environmental constraints on the site. And then lastly the 25-192 for the the bus stop shelter. Um I was just wondering if there was a
specific reason why you've guys wanted to get a shelter for that specific uh there's a new that's a new stop. Um I believe was it Route 35 in Compton? It's relocated. There's a stop. There's shelter there now, but they're doing improvements to that intersection. They're re redoing the angles. It's kind
of a skewed intersection. So they're redoing that. So and they're going to move the bus shelter to a slightly better location. Well, they're giving us a new bus shelter. New a brand new bus shelter. Yeah. We had to select we had to make a request of uh of DOT to which
shelter we wanted with this new location. So we I believe we chose the Trenton model bus shelter um which is very nice looking. Believe it or not, anytime you get a new bus shelter, the state requires the town to formally
approve the location and the type just so that's on record. That's what we want. and that we're saying it's okay. Okay. Thank you. You got it. All right. Any other member of the public wish to make a public comment? Um, hi. Uh, my name is Juliet Hernandez.
I'm not from Middletown either. I just could I just get a little more information on the choir from before on the choir? Yeah. So, the the B Naturals are out of Thorn Middle School and they won um that they received three awards as as you might have heard, including
best junior high uh choir at the Hershey Park uh awards uh concert. Yes, thank you. And uh and so we would recognize them there uh from because they're one of our middle school fire groups. Thank
you. You got it. Any other members of the public wish to make a public? Yes, sir. No, Don. Hang on. I'm not from here. My name is Evan Skulls, and I just wanted to bring to the attention a the condition of like a waterway in between GTO Drive and King
Fisher Drive, which I have family who lives there. Okay. There was a pipe there that was like small and it didn't look bad. It was there since my parents were kids. And now there's like a big ugly border on it. It's bright gray and there's like there's just another layer
to it. It's not very good looking and I have gotten complaints about that. I don't know if they brought it up here and the detail on Fisher. Yeah. So, I'll go look at it. All right. Gray set. Sorry. What? How did you
There's like a bright gray like covering to it and then there's like a border that just keeps you from crossing it. Okay. I'll take a look. I just want to show what the purpose of that is. Uh I'm I'm sure it's storm water management, but I take a look. Okay. Thank you.
You're welcome. Thank you. Make sure nobody open. Anyway, my name's Don Watson living at one Collinsson Drive in New Mammoth. Two Collins or one? Just one. Oh yeah. Two's across the street. Want to start off by saying my
neighborhood used to be an apple orchard, too. All I have to say about that. Um I was looking at agenda items and resolution. Um, we're awarding a contract for a tree
service to replace a sewer pipe. Is that typical? Yeah, we they're we verify that they're qualified to do that work. A lot of companies, you know, primarily do certain type of work, but they also do
work that involve digging and piping and drainage and things like that. So we we just we just have we're having right now a project done um at the Tendle Park the octagon shaped building you know by a company whose name you wouldn't think do do that work but then when you you look
into them they have you know good good credentials for it so you can't always be you can sometimes be fooled by the name of right I was just curious about that maybe discussion I had even as I was standing here
Um, I wanted to make some comments about the gentleman that left that fell on his bicycle, but um, so many other things came up. I lost my train of thought and didn't write it down. All right. Anyway, thank you for your time. Thank you, Don.
Have a good night. All right. You, too. And if you're going to make a comment about this haircut, I'll let you come back up. request to talk. Any other member of the public wish to make a public comment? Seeing no other member of the
public stepping forward, move to close the public portion and adjourn. Can I get a second? Thank you. Committee mclar, yes. Committee woman, yes. Mayor Harry, yes. Motion carries to
adjourn. Have a great night everybody. Uh our next meeting, we do not have uh a two June meetings this any any longer. We are June 16th is our next meeting. June 16th. All right. Have a great night everybody.