yeah never was talk to us ready ready ready ready thumbs up happy faces smile wats I'd like to call this regular session meeting at 7:01 p.m. to order roll call please mayor romic here commissioner huitt here here vice mayor suie here commissioner Watson here commissioner vanello pres I would like to invite Reverend Robinson up to give the invocation followed by the slud of flag can we all please stand evening everybody I'm Pastor Brian Robinson senior pastor at First United Methodist Church and I also happen to be the moderator for the ministers Fellowship here in milville as well and it's truly always an honor to be able to do the invocation for the opening of the commission meetings would you join me in prayer almighty God we give you thanks and praise for all your Mighty works you are loving and good and gracious thank you for creating us and sustaining us day by day thank you that you made us in your image to exist in community with other people we thank you Lord for this beloved city of milville of ours we thank you for our elected officials for the businesses for the churches the families and the individuals that make our city the great place that is Lord thank you for civil government those who establish and enforce our laws do so for the protection of our citizens and guests I pray that our civil servants would acknowledge this calling and perform it Faithfully be with our judges and attorneys and law enforcement grant that they would never neglect or abuse their Authority but they would stand firm and for truth and for justice keep them safe from harm as they serve our community Lord we thank you for the dedication of our safe our First Responders like Jacob paron who have answered the call to serve this city in safe times and in dangerous times I pray for this commission meeting tonight Lord give the Commissioners wisdom and guidance as they deliberate on the items before them may every decision be righteous in your sight for our benefit and your For Your Glory in Christ's name amen I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all this meeting is being conducted in accordance with the op public meeting Act of 1975 was advertised posted and made available to the public as required by Statute the municipal clerk is directed to include a statement in the minutes of this meeting Madam clerk are there any changes to the agenda uh yes mayor we had three we had the addition of resolution number seven approving fiscal year 2024 annual action plan for cdbg and home grants uh we had the addition of resolution number eight uh urging the State Attorney General's office to issue new and more effective guidelines on Reckless operation of allterrain vehicles and dirt bikes on public roads and item three was the addition of a motion to authorize the proposed schedule for the city of millville's wastewater treatment plant third CL fir Fire Edition project thank you presentations we just have the ceremonial swearing in for new firefighter Jacob parent can I make a speech take your time no I just want to say a few words uh great night for the city of mville uh for the fire department and um for Jake and his family uh about two years ago I stood over there uh and made a presentation at a work session talking about Staffing in the fire department and I had some some goals and objectives that I wanted to meet uh as far as it went uh to Staffing and uh after that meeting there were some follow-up meetings director huitt Public Safety the vice mayor came to the Firehouse we had sit down some of the Union were there and we talked about the needs of the fire department and I was told be patient we're going to get there and uh we're there what I asked for that night uh we've gotten we've hired the additional staff so with the addition of Jake tonight takes our full-time Staffing to 18 uh which is the goal that I had so I'm very happy and I want to thank director hwit vice mayor sui and the rest of the city commission uh for making that happen thanks for letting me make that presentation hearing what I had to say and then making it happen so thanks um just a little bit more before I talk about Jake so yeah takes our staffing to 18 as you know we're a combination fire department um we've had to increase our full-time staff because of the decline in volunteers which is Nationwide but I still have a great core of volunteers many of them are here tonight also um while the numberers small they're very dedicated and the Community owes them uh a lot of appreciation and thanks for the the hard work that they give to the city for free so I want to make sure everybody remembers that also we have volunteers and um they're an integral part of the fire department all right so enough so for the main man here Jake parent um Jake is not a stranger to the fire department or to Public Safety um I know it's a touchy subject but we we'll just you can deal with that um Jake came to us five years ago as a volunteer so he's already trained he's been to the fire academy uh he's got all the requisite training and he's been running with us as a volunteer uh so that's great so he's able to slide right in um after coming to us as a volunteer Jake uh was hired as a milville police officer and he's been serving milville and his community for two years as a police officer um but the opportunity came up we were increasing our staffing we had a position he was next on the Civil Service list and uh thanks to the director uh Chief Hoffman from the police department um who was very Cooperative we were able to make this happen uh so I know the PD is going to miss you but we're certainly glad to have you come on board with the fire department so that's enough for me just this is a ceremonial swearing in he's been working for two weeks yes sir so he had his official swearing in uh with a lot of family and everything here on his first day of work but uh we wanted to do one here so we could uh make sure the whole Community knew what was going on so I'll turn it over to the work first raise your hand repeat after me I state your name I Jacob parent do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution will support the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of New Jersey of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith that I will bear true faith and Ali to to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in the state and in the state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties at fire fire of fire according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God thank [Applause] uh just thank you for this opportunity um there's a microphone you can use it it's okay okay just the demo St just thank you for the opportunity I promise I'll be staying here for next 30 Years you don't get away yet bud seems like me and chief are both the same way we don't write anything down sometimes in my detri Jake you know there was a lot of discussion back and forth we wanted to make sure you were sure what you were doing you were dedicated to Police Department you're still dedicated to Police Department you're dedicated and we're dedicated to the fire department I am confident with knowing you since I've been in office seeing you work in both departments that you are the one you will fill out one of the things that IR ran on is increasing Public Safety I don't know how many years it's been if it ever has been that you were five paid firefighters per shift no this is this is the goal we wanted to get to we're there we're there folks now it's time to work on the police department rescue squad is already there Rescue Squad is fully staffed if I'm correct right Chief it is this commission's job to now continue the work that they have done and I thank this commission for what they have done I thank commissioner suie for when he came over to the firehouse and agreed to let us have this now it's time to carry on and work on the police department we know we all have work to do in the police department Jake thank you thank you sir welcome thank you than thank you [Applause] make a motion we pay the bills second a motion we have a motion and second to pay the bills of the city of mville New Jersey roll call please commissioner H yeah B Mar sui yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner rello yes mayor romic yes okay motion carries make a motion to approve and to dispense with a reading of the following minutes and to proceed with a regular of business June 5th 2024 work session June 5th 2024 regular meeting June 18th 2024 work session June 18th 2024 regular meeting second motion we have a motion and second on the minutes any comments roll call please commissioner huitt yes vice mayor sui yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner rello yes mayor Ramic yes motion carries we have now reached the public comment on agenda items only if you would like to address this commission please come up to the podium state your name address and please limit your comments to approximately 5 minutes thank you Patricia kier's 49 pach drive I have a question or comment on resolution 211 for the fencing at the end of the airworks Street um is there any reason that we don't reach out to local companies for this and um there was fencing that was used around the demolition site of the barracks that was an emergency Demolition and I wondered if that fencing could be used in place of a $30,500 fencing especially in light of the two other basins drainage basins at the airport one is over on Bogden by the soccer field and the other one is where deltronics used to be I don't know who's there now and neither one of those have fencing around them so I just wondered why we need Fen on this one and then my next question question is under new business um what is that about exactly because I don't understand what it's about it's to authorize a proposed schedule do you want me to explain that vice mayor it's 223 the addon the addon 223 that's the Waste Water treatment clarify so it's a motion it's pretty self-explanatory the schedule for the wastewater treatment PL the beds will be coming back and we have to award the beds and all that stuff so it's just to do with the scheduling of the project okay this doesn't have anything to do with the sewer clarifier or is that that's the same thing wastewater treatment and Sewer the same thing it's the same thing okay all right thank you thank Mr here car cabon Nukem toown Road milville just have a question on resolution 21.6 the board and secure and cut and clean services for the city of milville is that for the abandoned homes I I'm I'm sorry Mrs cabon you're asking um about resolution uh 2116 yes yes yes that's for board and secure correct and cut and clean yes okay then do we turn around and build the property owners to get reimbursed yes okay that's all I needed to know thank you yeah seeing no one else I will close the public comment on agenda items only petition and letters uh we have none M reports of Commissioners commissioner hu yes first I'd like to make a motion to receive and file the EMS fire and police report Department reports for the month of June of 2024 second motion we have a motion in a second sorry uh hot weather we have a motion in a second to receive and file the EMS fire and police reports for the month of June any comments roll call please commissioner hwit yes vice mayor Sue yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner rello yes mayor ROM yes motion carries uh my comment i' like to thank the Department's police and fire busy last week the Heat everything else a lot of activities going on last week as you all know we had the county fair which was very successful eyes out there some of the nights uh no unruliness like we've seen thanks majorly to the new sheriff we had Sheriff's out there from bridon sheriffs from other counties we had officers out there Briton had officers violent out officers I don't know of anything that went wrong at the fair this year uh yes it was cooking I got to thank my EMS Squad The Night of the Derby due to the Heat and a little bit of Libations I guess is the best way to put it uh the crew that was there to assist in anything that happened in the demolition derby was needed uh for a resident that had an issue up in the grand stands uh it was handled it was cleared we cleared the way up into the stands and everything else all the residents were Cooperative great job mile fire department and EMS along with the police our Police Department was right on top of it the guys we had out there getting people moved and and getting the lady down to where she can get in some air and they got her recuperated uh pal fishing started last week for anybody that wants that has kids up to 17 years old it's free it's sponsored by milville pal uh we will be fishing this week on Thursday at the dock right across street in Puck Park 9:00 till noon or so milville PD and pal supplies all supplies fishing po bait we are there to bait hooks help unhook fish teach the kids how to fish along with our community policing unit which is very active uh that right now uh until we move along with the agenda will be it mayor thank you thank you commissioner hu commissioner Watson yeah a couple weeks ago we met with the acua um um you just started talking about concerns and obviously the bulk uh waste pickup um has been an ongoing concern uh was happy to you know meet with them uh you know they're great organ great to work with and it was uh because of the relationship that our um recycling coordinator and our streets and Roads Department you know they put in a great effort to make sure that they do everything they can you know to hear the needs of the ACA and this time the ACA heard the needs of us um so I'm kind of pleased to announce that they the ACA has decided to take back bulk waste pickup um but it's going to change a little bit instead of the two items per week it's going to be one item per week uh but it's going to be on your regular scheduled trash day so um thank you to the ACA and thank you to everybody involved that sat around that table including Brock um Joe couchi recycling coordinator Chris Finch and our department head Wayne [Music] grman for the report streets and Roads mid July 2024 uh catch base and Repair on malberry street parking lot is complete the road repair in front of uh 2421 Holly Drive was complete the entrance to Union Lake or the old boat ramp at the end of Canal Street has been stoned and graded some of the roads in lurel Lake have been stoned and the brush hog is currently out there cutting the brush hog has completed the industrial park and will return again before the summer uh the VOR is out now cleaning store basins uh currently in the 10th Street area the Dead dead tree that fell by high and Broad has been cut up and hauled away the dead tree that fell on Park Avenue has been hauled away uh streets and ns are currently working um on having a fence installed around the air airor Street retention Pond for uh for safety and to keep animals and people out uh children were seen uh you know in that area uh streets and Roads wanted to make sure they take the correct action to prevent anything uh any children getting hurt um as of August 5th the ACA will be back to picking up bulk waste every week on your trash day the streets and Roads Department will do their last pickup the last full week of August so it's 22nd to the 26th and if anybody has any questions or concerns please reach out to streets and Roads at 856 825 7000 extension 7388 uh the reason why we're still doing one more pickup um past the date that ACA is taking over is because we still have some people scheduled for that week uh we didn't want to do any interruptions um we want to make sure it's taken care of uh so thank you to my department thank you to our recycling coordinator that's all I have thank you commissioner Watson commissioner renella yes um on Thursday uh the 4th of July we had our annual 4th of July celebration at Union Lake Park uh it was a great turnout we had a lot of vendors there uh selling a lot of interesting things uh they looked like that they did uh very well uh selling items to the children the children were playing with all of these items it seemed that everybody was happy uh we had a pine eating contest uh and the winner a second year in a row uh Billy Willis uh Payton Riggins won the seven and under watermelon eating contest and Jace Piccolo won the 8 to2 watermelon eating contest it was really exciting uh everybody had watermelon all over their face the kids uh the adults had pie all over their face uh uh some of those uh pictures were seen on our new Facebook page they really kind of captured the moment there uh what else we had our first play Streets last week uh it was an amazing turnout a lot of the camps showed up with kids uh this week I'd like to point out that tomorrow play Streets has uh been cancelled this week it's been cancelled because of the heat index supposed to be uh hotter on this day uh than it has been since 2012 so we don't need anybody having heat stroke for the safety of the children and everybody Out There Our Police Department everybody under the tents we just want to make sure that everybody stays safe uh so it'll proceed again uh next Wednesday I believe that's the 24th upcoming events uh we have Christmas in July discount program it's a great way to support our businesses our downtown businesses it's going to be running uh throughout all of July we have 14 businesses that are currently signed up with a discount if you stop by any of these participating businesses you can make a purchase you can enter into a raffle uh the program is going to take place for the entire month all the way to the end of July so as I mentioned with play Streets uh it's going to take place for the next five weeks uh with the exception of tomorrow it is located on Pine Street between 2 and Third Street uh and it takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. they have tons of fun activities for the children uh bring your kids in their swimsuits they open the fire hydrants uh every Wednesday at 1: p.m. sometimes they do it a little earlier depending on how hot it is we also have a fourth Friday coming up again on Friday uh July 26th if you haven't attended one I encourage everyone to attend it's a great turnout a lot of families show up it's a good time if you have any questions on any of these events uh we encourage you to contact the milville recreation department 856 825 7000 extension 7394 thank you mayor thank you commissioner rello face mayor sui yes first like to make a motion to receive and file the tax collector's report for the month of June second motion we have a motion on a second to receive and file the tax collector's report for the month of June of this year roll call please commissioner hu yes vice mayor Sue yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner rello yes mayor romic yesion carries I just want to give a little update on the wastewater treatment plan upgrade if there clarifier so engineering as the U the anticipated bid advertisement date is 7:26 the anticipated pre-bid meeting is 8:27 the bid opening date is 924 the contract award date is 11:19 the newspapers and trade journals where the ad will appear for the Daily Journal the Atlantic City Press so you ask there the answer without progress thank you vice mayor it's only been two weeks since the last meeting but yet seems like it's been 4 uh I totally forgot about Fourth of July was since last meeting so thank you commissioner granell there has been a lot happening first off we have zoning board on August 1st at 6 pm here and then following on the 12th of August planning board will take place at 6:30 4th of July was great great crowd I was there to deliver opening remarks to welcome everybody there not many people there at six o'clock right you know it was nice and uh warm uh but it did start to flow in I went back to my family's picnic and then came back right before fireworks presentation um at that point around 8:30 it was every bit of you know hundreds of hundreds of people it was great to see um the whole Community go out there um I didn't I don't think there was any any problems with anybody um I didn't ask questions but I would have probably heard from commissioner huitt or somebody uh believed everybody well was well behaved it was nice to see uh my only complaint was uh I did have a watch on and the fireworks did start five minutes early I'm sure if anybody else was uh tentative enough but they started at 8:55 um just a side note um for parks department uh r watch forecast you know um uh the following week the fair opening so fair was open from the 9th to the 13th at the C the county fairgrounds this opening ceremony was on the 10th I was there to give opening remarks um you even though it's cin County Fairgrounds it's still in the city of milville um all the way out by where I live uh it was a great uh turnout on Wednesday Wednesday was fireworks they move fireworks apparently around all the time for that date because uh on Friday is barrel racing and they don't like to scare the horses uh I asked a simple question isn't that why serer cubes are made but I got no response so went down the wrong trail uh uh Derby night it was uh gy- packed I didn't go but I saw all the cars I would like to thank whoever was uh driving the fire truck uh that went by my house um uh the air horn works and I jumped as high as my cat did when they went by my house and gave a nice big honk um but uh that's what I get for zoning now on a Saturday afternoon and uh reading all the news that has happened since then uh moving on to the fifth floor Department uh we have a new Taco in place which is Miss Rita Henry Taco stands for the technical assistant to the construction official Miss Rita has been hired and began work on the 10th of this month a new housing inspector trainee Mr Trevor a has been hired and began to work on the 8th code enforcement will have a training with our software company on Wednesday the 17th and a reminder we have been talking about this for months but State mandated lead inspections deadline is approaching the inspections are required by the 21st of this month for any rental units built prior to 1978 I believe most of all have been um inspected and paperwork has been returned but if not here's your warning other than that I don't think any other events has happened even though it's like I said it's only been two weeks um but if not I will remember and uh that's what the end of the meeting is for ordinances in the second reading okay we have done ordinances in the first okay so we have an ordinance amending the salary ordinance to the following Administration title and compensation Deputy municipal clerk with a minimum of 40,000 and a maximum of 65,000 move the ordinance on first reading second motion we have a motion and a second on ordinance in the first reading item number one any comments roll call please commissioner huitt yes vice mayor Sue yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner rello yes mayor romc yes okay motion carries item two is an ordinance amending milville code chapter 60 storm water management and Pollution Control Article 1 storm water management regulations Section 1 through1 13 to reflect amendments to the storm water management rules at njca it should be njac excuse me 7on 8 adopted July 17 2023 move the ordinance on first reading second motion we have a motion and second on ordinance in the first reading item number two any comments yes this is just to keep our regulations up to date with the state excellent roll call please commissioner huitt yes vice mayor Sue yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner vanello yes mayor ramc yes motion carries consent agenda items okay all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine and non-controversial by the Board of Commissioners and will be approved by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a governing body member so request in which case the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda item one is a resolution authorizing the insertion of an additional item of Revenue in the calendar year 2024 budget which is now available from the state of New Jersey Department of Children and family passed through the county of Cumberland prosecutor's office in the amount of $10,000 item two is a resolution authorizing the insertion of an additional item of Revenue in the calendar year 20224 budget which is now available from the state of New Jersey in the form of the national opioid settlement grant for Jansen payment number four in the amount of $ 26,758 item three is a resolution authorizing adjustments in the tax utility records make a motion to approve all consent agendum items second a motion we have a motion in a second to approve all consent agenda items roll call commissioner Hitt yes vice mayor SEI yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner rello yes mayor romic yes okay motion carries resolutions okay item one is a resolution authorizing the ratification Award of an emergency contract to supply and install fencing at end of airwork Street stormw water basin with all vinyl fencing for a total not to exceed of $30,500 make a motion second a motion so we have certification of funds I don't have it do I sorry certific I do I'm sorry they were stuck together uh make a motion uh certification of funds from our Chief Financial Officer Susan Coronas the amount of $30,500 we have a motion in a second on resolution item number one any comments roll call please commissioner huitt yes face May sui yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner rello yes mayor romc yes okay motion carries item two is a resolution authorizing a shared services agreement between the Cumberland County prosecutor's office and the City of milville city of bridon and city of viin regarding the police youth trust initiated program for a term commencing June 25th 2024 through August 31st 2024 contingent on Grant terms and funding availability make motion second motion we have a motion in a second on resolution item number to any comments roll call please commissioner huitt yes vice mayor Sue yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner rello yes mayor renic yes motion carries item three is a resolution authorizing approval to submit a Grant application and execute a grant contract with the New Jersey Department of Transportation for the project entitled ma 2025 gisinger Avenue roadway Improvement 0458 move the resolution second motion we have a motion in a second on resolution item number three and any comments yes this is uh we apply for municipal aid grant for $748,000 to the do so that we we engineering tried to pick a road that served a lot of residences down and as you all know there's a lot of traffic that goes between Broad Street and Main Street through Ginger so that's one of the reasons this road was ped thank you roll call please Comm commissioner huitt yes vice mayor sui yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner vanello yes mayor romic yes the motion carries item four is a resolution revising the existing and non-us tax sale depository funds account to be known as the HRA account difference card solely for the employee health co-pay claims move the resolution second a motion we have a motion in second on resolution item number four any comments yes we're just renam the account here but that uh difference card what that basically allows allows us to get our insurance premiums cheaper through the state and while through the state program the co-pays go up the employees get a card to pay their co-pays so in essence their co-pays go to zero the city picks up the cost for that but it's still cheaper doing it that way than leaving their co-pays alone so that's an example of the city working with the employees and working with the unions so that was a little bit of a process and all the unions agreed to it so that was a good thing correct I'm glad to see this uh getting through I've known about this for a long time uh and it's a it is a change but it's a good change and it is a change that helps the city and as well as our employees of the city roll call please commissioner huitt yes vice mayor sui yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner reelo yes mayor romic yes motion carries item five is a resolution resending resolution number 81224 and approving newly revised solid waste and recyclable rules and regulations make a motion on resolution item number five second the motion we have a motion in a second on resolution item number five any comments yes thank you commissioner Watson as I can probably say for a lot of residents that are watching and listening or will know eventually uh thank you commissioner Watson and to all those that helped yeah yeah and that was a that was a team effort Mr Watson's Department Brock uh Mr Cy leading to negotiations this time and uh his business experience was instrumental in accomplishing this task and it brings me to another Point there's been a lot of criticism for hiring people of management positions that don't have Municipal experience so many instances in the city those in management have extensive Municipal management experience such as your department head that was was involved in this Mr grman and no business experience in other cases some folks have only Municipal experience and no management experience and get promoted into management positions but it's important to have a balance of all three of these and this type of negotiation and your success in doing it I think is an example of that of why we need a mix of not only Municipal people but also business people involved as our department heads and administrative position thank you thank you vice mayor roll call please commissioner huitt yes vice mayor SEI yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner Bello yes mayor renck yes okay motion carries item six is a resolution approving an extension to the fair and open contract with milville glass for another year from July 6th 2024 to July 5th 2025 and an estimated open-ended amount not to exceed 50 ,000 to continue to furnish the city of milville with board insecure and cut and clean Services make a motion second motion uh with that I have certification of funds that's all right for a chief financial officers St in Quon is uh the amount of $50,000 now second motion we for sure have a motion and second motion roll call please commissioner huitt yes vice mayor Sue yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner reell yes mayor romic yes motion carries item seven is a resolution approving the fiscal year 2024 annual action plan for the Community Development block grant and home program funding make a motion second motion we have a motion and a second on resolution item number seven any comments roll call please commissioner huitt yes vice mayor sui yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner rello yes mayor romic yes okay motion carries and resolution number eight is a resolution urging the state attorney General's office to issue new and more effective guidelines to address a growing Public Safety Peril by authorizing a Crackdown against the illegal and often Reckless operation of all terrain vehicles and dirt bikes on public roads make motion second motion we have a motion and a second on resolution item number eight any comments yes this is the thoughts of myself and my chief of the police department Police Department is aware of the ongoing ATV and off-road motorcycle issues within the city of milville and throughout the state we have adopted a city ordinance that does not allow for filling of ATVs and dirt bikes at gas stations if they are driven under their own power along with the ability to seize and dispose of these ATVs if deemed necessary this has curbed some Riders but not all due to the continued issues and The Limited ability of police to pursue the offenders a letter was drafted by the city's attorney to the director of the division of Criminal Justice expressing concerned with the current legislation and seeking revision we now await a response until then we will continue to explore ways to safely deter and identify those who ride illegally on the streets and cause a hazard uh this is our only choice we are concerned about this I know from the people I talk to they see what our police department does call people people pick out the phone and call if you see ATVs you do not have to give a name call dispatch we review the cameras take are issued hopefully this hopefully we'll get an answer from this uh say solic you have anything you want to add I I'd like to add that one of the things that prompted this was uh the city received a letter from the uh division of Criminal Justice in essence from the Attorney General's office uh addressing this issue because it's finally come to the attention of the state that there's a problem and I think everybody that drives in mville knows that there's a problem because we've all encountered people on ATVs I know I have uh motorcycles and frequently they come in the wrong lane of travel they go through traffic lights they go through stop signs and they're traffic Hazard so the solution offered and the it was more than just a letter there were guidelines issued by the Attorney General's office and the guidelines basically are for the police to issue uh motor vehicle summonses to these operators of these uh uh ATVs and Motorcycle CES and these summonses that uh they suggest we issue uh they only uh provide for minimum fine and it worst community service so I don't think that that's going to solve anything and uh there there are laws on the books that could be enforced uh for example there's a criminal uh law uh when you elude a police officer and you're in a motor vehicle and there's a clear signal to stop and and you leave uh you can be charged with a second or third degree crime uh I think and I we discussed this with some of the other Commissioners certainly commissioner hwit that is almost analogous to the situation in New Jersey 20 or 30 years ago with drunk driving where drunk driving was really out of hand and it really took a concerted effort by the Attorney General's office the prosecutor's office to crack down on drunk driving and to make sure that the charges were not downgraded to you know relatively minor motor vehicle charges and that you know people would uh if you drove and you were drunk and you were caught you lose your license so I think there needs to be a similar effort made now and it's really got to start at the top and so uh since we got a a letter from the attorney general proposing new guidelines we thought that was an opportunity to respond and say well thank you for being interested in this but we don't think it's enough this isn't going to uh one of the other things the Attorney General recommends is that these motorcycles be forfeited but the problem with that is we found uh when we uh recover these motorcycles frequently they're stolen so uh you know forfeiting them isn't going to really solve that problem so it's a major problem I think there needs to be concerted effort by the Attorney General's office the prosecutor's office County prosecutor municipal prosecutor and all the way down the line to the police department thank you Brock thank you everyone roll call please commissioner huitt yes vice mayor sui yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner Velo yes mayor romic yes okay motion carries new business seen a motion to authorize the city clerk to advertise for bids for the following projects uh third party billing for Emergency Medical Services lease of space for cellular antenna system located at 416 AR Street mville New Jersey make the motion second motion we have a motion second on new business item number one any comments roll call please commissioner huitt yes vice mayor SEI yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner rello yes mayor romic yes he motion carries I sen need a motion to authorize the following social Affair permit milville Elks Lodge number 580 chicken barbecue at the Elks Lodge on September 8 2024 from 12: to 5 make motion second motion we have a motion in a second on new business item number two any comments roll call commissioner huitt yes vice mayor suie yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner rello yes mayor romic yes okay motion carries and item three is a motion to authorize the proposed schedule for the city of mville wastewater treatment plan third secondary clarifier addition project make a motion second motion we have a motion and a second on new business item number three any comments roll call please commissioner HT yes Vice suie yes commissioner Watson yes commissioner rello yes mayor romanc yes okay motion carries we have now reached the public comment portion of our meeting anyone who would like to address the commission please go to the podium state your name and address your concerns and please limit your comments to approximately 5 minutes good evening Tim cardi mville I sat there and I watched the work session meeting and for starters you want to talk about poor morale and employees I work for a municipality that had a old building and I tell you right now I hated going to that job every day because of the building I was working in you don't think your employees aren't going to feel a low morale going into 150 year old building that's block and concrete and probably hasn't had anything updated in it and if you're saying the morale you want to have a low morale going into that building I'll call you a liar right to your face cuz I went through it you want to talk about another morale being low you have firefighters your police department and your police supervisors right now have been working without a contract since December of 2023 with no talks talk about low morale that's another reason for low morale what about the employees that are contracts are running out this year another reason for low morale so you're going to put them employees in 50y old building with no pay raisers no contract talks or anything you know what low morale how many other cities are going out spending $1.7 million on a building that's a 100 over 100 years old I'll tell you none none and if s and I'm hearing we're going to make a $4 million profit off 15th Street you ain't making that because our own city engineer stated two or three meetings ago it's going to need a new roof in a few years and he's estimating a million dollar right now I hear about infrastructure the money's going to go for infrastructure this commission just voted down cannabis B Sales which under the state of New Jersey you can collect a 2% tax on which you can reinvest in your infrastructure so don't put at that we're going to give it to infrastructure why hasn't an outside engineering firm looked at the gem building why you have an engineer that's contracted with the city that gets paid by the city that probably will listen so he can get his contract renewed again why don't we spend the money and get a get a professional engineer that has no connections to the city or none of its employees then it will be unbiased my question is what type of business is going in this Warehouse on 15th Street anybody know okay since nobody don't want to answer that question how's it going with fect the streets and Roads Department of what's going in there how do we know it's not going to become a hazardous waste or hold or hold chemicals that will affect the other employees across the roadway from them anybody thought about that no what about the Columbia Avenue anybody checked it for asbest I looked at the pictures online from realor.com and some of the beams look like they they were a little wet at one point in time how about electrical updates fire code updates anything like that any that done that's more money so your 4 million you're banking on is probably down to 1 million when it's all said and done if this contract isn't sign why are we even looking at buy building you keep the building you have it's already being utilized by the police department for the command vehicle it's being utilized for everything else and your firefighters are using it for training what are you going to do with their training so now you're telling me you can sit up there and pat yourself in the back about Public Safety but you're not giving our firefighters a place to train which could save anybody's life it's bad enough you don't give them guys contracts but yet you're going to take away a play for them a place for them to train it's embarrassing it's embarrassing we want to talk about roads the city of vinand did a bond last in their last budget to do roads City of Violence building a brand new fire headquarters beautiful here we are we're buying $150 50 million yeah 150 year old building for 1 Point $7 million and then I hear cont a plan yeah the plan was to buy the building from a friend of mine that I knew that he took it off the market the day after we put 15 Street up don't understand that one NE I mean I'm not no detective but things ain't lining up but I tell you morale in this city is low with the employees and the morale is low with the residents you're going to I don't understand it if the contract ain't signed you sit back you and you reevaluate your situation bottom line honestly if I was an employee I'd rather go in a brand new building and feel a little bit of Pride as a resident I see the brand new football field out there and I know I shouldn't bring this up cuz I'll probably get yelled at when I get home but I ride by that field a lot and that gives me Pride to be a movable resident thank you Mr cardi our employees deserve the best just like everybody else in this city that's the bottom line I tell you right now you vote whatever time you're ending your own political career thank you Roy Shepard Nukem toown Road mville um I have a couple questions that I asked in the work session also so uh where are we at with the sale of 15th Street uh what is our time time frame on that um where are we at with buying or relocating to another property um has this commission gave any thought into having an industrial commission as we continue to um get involved in these real estate transactions um at one time there was an industrial commission uh that the city had and they were probably some of the uh top business owners in this um city and they voluntarily gave their time to voice their opinions um and you had a group of pretty knowledgeable people that were uh on this board I think with a lot of this real estate that's going on um you know I look at this blue building down here on the river I see it's listed for $2 million now um I think that's a lot more than what we sold it for you look at the bank building um you look at airworks out at the airport um I think a lot of these decisions I think if we could generate better ideas and better thoughts I think we could give um the police department the fire department the raises that they want or you know give them the opportunity to stay here um you know I look at the uh open employment off the fifth floor and people are just dropping like flies um is it a hostile work environment probably is it the money probably um I think we can manage our way around doing different stuff to generate more money I think there's options but we have to do it um is everything going to be set in the way we want it to be probably not um just because that's life uh so I I think a industrial commission um would be a good idea you know it cost people no time you know people would come and uh voice their opinions before we go and do this stuff um I'm hoping to have many more years in this community I mean in this community we have three family businesses that operate here um if I didn't have kids that are coming up through here I probably want to be here I probably want to care i' just move on um so I think like something like an industrial commission um or likewise board uh would help the city uh just having feelers out there everybody has their own agenda and everybody has their own thoughts but I think we could generate U Better income or uh you know different ways around different things um because it seems like a lot of these Hot Topics when it gets to the end of the topic it's a just a big can of worms because everybody you know they're they're going 50 different ways so with that thank you me address the industrial commission go ahead so the industrial commission was dissolved by the last Administration I served on the industrial commission before the last Administration dissolved it uh when we when we took office again I contacted many many of those members and they didn't want to do it again many of them had hard feelings about the industrial commission being dissolved and they simply weren't interested or didn't have the time so we did look at that the other stuff some of the stuff I addressing my closing arguments Don Cy milville good evening commissioners I know there's five of you there here's our solicitor here one question is the final paper signed on 15th Street and I know I'm not getting an answer but that's okay Mr Mayor two meetings ago they came here against the asphalt plan you sat there quote we listen to the people of milville we voted no quote unquote I expect you this time to listen to the people in milville and vote no you said it it's in the record it's on TV go look at it we I listen to the people in milville listen again open your ears vote no good evening angelene Broomall milville before I begin I want to uh mind everyone my name is angelene broomhall it is not Kimberly hand it is not uh Megan Sue Horseman or anything else like that and it's getting to the point of being liist by some current commissioners of making comments and a uh resident who has gone so far is to open my private records or well it's not private because what I Oprah I always put my name to um so you laugh because you know what I'm talking about exactly um I put my name to every Oprah so let's just say I stand here and I have since long before any of you were here before any of you were here I've stood at this Podium and always put my name to everything I have to say next the gem building Mr suie you are the commissioner that came in here with a lot of trust you're the one with the experience and the other Commissioners looked at you with trust and believed that you were going to guide them in the right way I watched them vote after vote and I warned them you were leading them down the wrong road and they didn't listen but they trusted you and now and you benefited from that trust but now how did ief because you got everything you wanted you got the bank sold to your friend you got Wheaten sold which is being sold back to the public for millions of dollars you gave them a 15-year abatement or rather pilot you got the commission to agree to that in 40 minutes you got the commission agreed to borrow 2.5 in a bond which at least commissioner Hugh had questioned and made sure that we wouldn't use that to buy another building it was just in case you can them you said to this commission minus miss rello that the bond could be used to build buy or lease but meanwhile you knew the whole time you were going to buy this building you said it on the record he is conning you he is conning you other Commissioners that's you know if she's going to attack me personally I'm going to fire back and it ain't going to be you can fire back when you're done you are more than welcome to I'mma please no no no no I have every right to I have every right to say what I have to say because these are facts does not have the right to insult anybody oh is it insulting the facts that I'm saying is it insulting the facts that I'm claim insulting you're lying and it's insulting but it's okay to extend the time on somebody else that's attacking another department well why don't you make the point of order you're up here miss Commissioners please M bual please continue what I'm saying are facts it is a fact that the commission was told when they voted for that bond that this would be used for quote a purchase a lease or to build a new property but in the meantime on record we have you saying Mr suie that you this was your plan the whole time I also have screenshots of the owner of that building saying my friend Mr sui my friend Joe suie this my friend Joe suie that so we know and I didn't want to bring his name in it say heck you want to give me 1.7 I'm taking it so I got nothing against the owner you want to some buy my property my property that was built in 1890 for 1.7 Deuces mville so I have nothing against him but we do know it is well known it is documented in writing that there is a relationship there I have found no records or permits showing of any major repairs I do know that as a kid growing up I went to school in a trailer teachers worked in trailers is it the most comfortable experience no is it awful no and for the long-term future to look at something so short so short in the long-term history like in in a hundred years will a new building be there yeah will this building be there the gem building no and if it is it'll be a falling down dangerous hav if you cannot provide equal or better then don't sell 15th Street I also would like to know if you guys can look into the records in 2014 10 years ago Miss bural please we took a bond to pay for 15th Street has that Bond even been paid off 2.5 million may I address that do just a bond just a bond so the bond part was for the office space at 15th Street not for the warehouse that has not been paid off so you know that that was totally for the office space and the additional garages buil which are not being sold the other stuff I'll address at the end seeing no one else I will close the public comment portion on the agenda closing of public comment portion of this meeting closing comments of Commissioners commissioner huitt thank you mayor I want to thank everybody for coming out here tonight and staying for the meeting I want to thank everybody for coming to this wearing in of Jake parent Chen you've been to our Police Department our fire department you know you're welcome there just like any other resident in this city because without our fire department without them staying trained as in also our Police Department we don't have a city I don't care what anybody says it's not the wild west we don't get to please ourselves I'm looking at my notes so just bear with me here you know most people know that know me where I stand on Public Safety I was called a fool for saying I wanted Public Safety if I got elected to my seat I'm not a fool we're making Headway I don't sit here and brag about it but people see it thanks for your comments Tim Roy going back to the campaign I met you during the campaign when we set up our tent over on your side of town that we set up all through this town and if you remember there's only two of us here that campaigned Ben campaigned but Ben ran his own campaign we got to meet Ben later on towards the end kudos to him because he ran a great campaign look where he is you were there day I met you that day everybody thinks I know everybody might speak for me or whatever I met you folks from standing at that Podium as a resident I met you campaigning every time I set up the tent those of us who were campaigning we talked about the industrial commission bring it back to life and yes a lot of people have given up but we need that we do need that thank you for your comments Don I can't answer whether it's signed or not I'm sorry Angel point on now I'm going to finish with this that's probably going to Rattle some cages I spent years at that microphone I learned a lot and I learned a lot from some people that are here today and I'm glad you're here and I learned a lot from some people that are not here today I've lost some friends I've made some enemies evidently I love it when people give me a salute riding down Rick Avenue makes me smile I'll leave that there that microphone belongs to everybody in this city it's time to not just come back tonight it's time to continue to come back and it's time to ask qu not all time but it's time to ask questions question me question us all that's why we're here reach out I'll talk to anybody people here know that and with that uh progress thank you mayor thank you commissioner huitt commissioner Watson uh for the firefighter uh you know Jacob parent congratulations on your position you stay safe um glad to see that the firefighters are where they need to be um there's a lot of things I would like to say uh with the first thing um I just wanted to follow apologize for you releasing the frustration you it wasn't civil it wasn't professional um but you I'm I'm pretty sure everybody here knows I'm pretty new uh inexperienced a little bit and it takes a lot longer time to dig into things um I'm pretty sure it's pretty obvious you know how things are um and I sit up here and I see like Jabs thrown back and forth between commissioners and it's so unprofessional I don't like it and that's why I try not to partake manners so much I I would really love to say um but uh I'm going to refrain I guess um the gem building I I still don't think it's a good idea at all um I believe in you know trying this route you know giving our Apartments new buildings you know just because it's functional and it works um how to get there you I mean like I said I'm inexperienced so I need the help and that's why the presentations were purposely made to try to get the support and the help from the people that do have experience um so it's where I am with it have a good night everyone thank you commissioner Watson commissioner rello want to thank everybody for uh coming out tonight and getting your voices heard it's very important um just want to acknowledge uh something that uh commissioner Watson had just said um this is often a very messy process um if you think this is a messy process I encourage you to go back and look at many of the other previous commissions uh because that was uh just wow um there's a lot to consider um I wish that there were more options available and I've been encouraging the public uh by all means to contact the Commissioners uh I don't think anybody up here I can speak for myself I guess is really sold on anything um I'm I'm welcoming feedback uh I want to hear you guys uh but as I conveyed earlier um I am not okay uh with leaving people uh in any Department displaced and then hoping that things come to fruition and if they don't by the end of uh I mean I'm only guaranteed to be here till November I have no idea who's going to sit in this seat and which way they're going to vote um and it seems like a real role of the dice for me to uh potentially leave that vote to somebody else to do uh the right thing if if if we deace uh if we displace uh our departments um and and that's really all I have to say thank you thank you commissioner Ral Place mayor suie yeah first of all um we had a party today for Laura Burns or um assistant clerk that's uh retiring a very nice conversation with Laura today for about 45 minutes she 38 years great employee hate to see her go um I understand she got invited to a swim party but uh really hate to see her go she'll be here till the end of the week second there were a lot of fallacies spoken tonight first of all I understand a lot of a lot of folks don't pay attention till the end of something comes near but we agreed to sell 15th Street approximately a year and a half ago approximately I don't know eight months a year ago I asked my fellow Commissioners to start looking into Alternatives of where to move 15th Street it should have been no surprise to any of them that that place would have had to be found built leased or whatever Mr Watson did research M rello has done research I've done research and we came up with what we came up with now miss brle you you told me once before that I would be in jail for one of the votes I made well I'm still here I'm not indicted I don't know if you filed a complaint or not I wasn't investigated and if you think I'm doing something wrong I urge you to file a complaint I am confident that I am doing nothing illegal or immoral now I'll address some of the other facies to say that we're not in contract negotiations is false we've been in contract negotiations for months so that's nonsense total nonsense uh let's see what else did I right here so it's just so much nonsense this week um I did see a couple about there being a pocket resolution being proposed tonight whatever the heck that is so I don't know who gave you guys that rumor but maybe you might want to question their integrity and their credibility because that obviously didn't happen so I don't know who told you guys that was happening but it didn't you know one character up here reminded me of my favorite character in uh South Park in episode 101 which is carton so that kind of amuse me a little bit uh and also you know I have two favorite Senators because there was so much baloney here tonight two favorite Senators one of them is Senator Kennedy of Louisiana and one of them is sen Senator fedman of Pennsylvania and I like them because of the way they state things so first when it when it has to do you know they're from opposite ends of the political spectrum and I find it both refreshingly funny one's very eloquent and humorous and the other one is directed to the point so I'm sure if Senator Kennedy were listening to this meeting tonight he would say this is a prime example of Bo Bine scatology now you guys can figure that out Senator fedman I will abbreviate that to say BS so you guys can O whatever you want you can certainly contact me I'm more than happy to talk to any of you I've met several of you I've met several of you in this building that have had questions and I've taken to engineering I've showed them reports I've showed them more than they wanted to know and I'm happy to do that with any member of the public so that's all I have for tonight before I say something else I should thank you vice mayor Melville is strong of 27,000 residents I continually write that and everything that I have to give out to the community such as the greater M Chamber of Commerce to news articles and such the public that is here tonight has an opinion as well as all the other public people here just because it's a public meeting and I make a comment to I say I respect and I am with the public yes I get out and about I go to places here in the community I just got an email in between sessions it's third Friday coming up the r would like to see me out there for the art walk looks like I'll be going to do the art walk and saying hi to Diane at the RCA I'm very involved I listen to people that don't want to complain to me because they know the position I have and I might want to break from it I don't want to break from it but I don't like to hear it all the time that's why we have vacations even not in government or municipality sanctions people in regular work like to take vacations to get away from the job that they possibly truly love I support cannabis 100% it is 2% gross tax to the municipality I've never once voted against cannabis do I not want retail downtown High Street yes I don't want retail but fortunately C city of milville does not allow retail anywhere the fifth floor does not have a hostile work environment I'm pretty sure Sean fry does an excellent job he might get a little hot because he has very big windows in his office and we joked about it today hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you never excuse yourself Henry Ward breacher when All Is Lost ask the IRS they'll find something Douglas Horton I thank each and one every one of you that came here tonight and stay yeah a lot of times when we have these big swearing ends or presentations the public comes sees that you here that come to the meetings repeatedly come to stay listen ask questions engage peacefully with humility we welcome that we' like to see more there's how many ever seats in here whatever the occupancy of this room0 140 uh that'd be a lot um but it's welcome this is a public meeting we invite the public to come out there's a way we can work all together with one you might not like me don't have to agree with me it's okay I'll still listen to you I'm here for the public for the city of Milo we all are all of my Commissioners are with ears wide open that's why you we all vote and we do have a big election coming up we have one seat open I support commissioner Rella she's doing a very good job I ask you all you have a very good night stay cool in the weather drink plenty of fluids and hydrate God Bless America God bless state New Jersey and God bless city of mville I a motion to adjourn --------- the order roll call please mayor Ramic here commissioner huitt here vice mayor Sue here commissioner Watson here commissioner rello present can I please have everybody stand to salute the flag I pledge alce to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all this meeting is being conducted in accordance with the openland public meeting Act of 1975 was advertised posted and made available to the public as required by Statute the municipal clerk is directed to include a statement in the minutes of this meeting Madam clerk are there any changes to the agenda uh yes mayor we just had the addition of a discussion item for 15th Street thank you public comment on agenda items only you would risk to address the commission please come to the podium state your name address please limit those comments seeing nobody I'll close the public comment discussion of us Commissioners discussion of the 15th Street please fire when ready yes um just wanted to have an open discussion here about uh what's taking place with 15th Street and uh the options available earlier this afternoon I asked commissioner hwit to meet me at 15th Street to examine the racks and cages used by multiple departments I wanted to visualize the needs of our departments and determine if our needs I'm sorry bear with me uh my printer died so I kind of I wanted to visualize the needs of our departments and determine if our needs still were the same as they were 60 days ago when I first looked at 15th Street since this time the parks department has put multiple pieces of equipment up on gov deals our department discarded of old materials including worn and tattered decorations as well as empty totes removed questionable items that have somehow found their way into our department over time and have had no use to other departments uh nothing that is deemed necessary to the parks department or others um have been discarded or removed from the building and the items that were removed uh just haven't been used in many many years have long expired their shelf life or are broken we walk the rows and racks throughout the building of which more than half at this time are empty and it's clear there are more unidentifiable items that have yet to be claimed by a department that will likely not be transported to whatever new site is chosen upon relocation uh with that said I feel the needs addressed in the presentations we have seen may not be accurate taking this new visual into consideration collectively about 60 days ago we were measuring space used by our depart apartments that is space that was housing old items broken items and miscellaneous items many of those items are now gone but there are still a lot of items including an entire cage of files that need to be shredded as well as a few shelves of paper that require shedding shredding once these items are properly destroyed they will be gone and will no longer require long-term storage but up until then they remain a part of our calculations regarding location to date I have personally looked at three industrial properties two of them presented as movein ready the first which was not movein ready needed a complete rehab and had numerous issues it was determined not to be a viable option after our engineer looked at it that property was located at the airport I know commissioner Watson and commissioner huitt first explored this option and I joined commissioner Hue it in late April to look at it in person prior to the engineer examining it the two other properties presented as move in ready had several issues and they were both too small to meet our needs even the needs I'm discussing today I'm not an engineer but I personally observe that one had an active leak and the other had visible structural issues one property was looked at in late May the other I looked at at the end of June another building was brought up at a public meeting in June by commissioner hwit as a possible option and it has been determined that that building was also not for sale two large buildings with owners who were allegedly toying with the idea of Leasing and or selling their property have been contacted by this commission and it was determined that those buildings are not for sale at present it has become clear to me and the public through the work sessions that there are currently two options at this moment on the table for the city to purchase 826 Columbia Avenue also known as the gem building with the large property that sits beside it 1016 Columbia Avenue or the option to purchase and erect pole barns on land first and completely unbias I would like to clear the air on some misconceptions about the gem building I have me had members of the public contact me to ask me if the roof is currently leaking the roof was inspected by our engineer and no active leak was detected the second time I personally looked at the gem building was the day after a lot of rain our engineer was there on the same day the building was dry since our last presentation the owner of that building conveyed to this commission that willhelm Roofing was out at the property to coat the roof thereby prolonging its life expectancy for whatever buyer decides to build uh buy this building I believe that the engineer went out to the property again to look at the roof after the coating was done the second question I was asked is if there were old wood floors throughout this building no the flooring in the building is concrete I was also asked if the building was filled with cubicles like office spaces no it was not said up like a data Santa or a telemarketing center with cubicles throughout lastly I was told that the parks department Vehicles probably couldn't make any turn into the rear entrance to the building so we decided to put that to the test yes we have the ability to make the turn to get into that building ironically since I was down at 15th Street today on the guys from my department were pulling into the warehouse I didn't realize how difficult was it was now for our trucks to make it into the 15th Street Warehouse I have also heard that the gam building is way too small to meet the needs of any Department my department has personally conveyed to me that they can make this building work if that is the way that this commission proceeds and I concur with that especially after looking at the 15th uh Street you know how they cleared out today uh with the addition of pole barns and the land to the right if that is the way that uh the commission proceeds I think that every Department would have its needs met but let's go on to the price tag the gem building comes with a price tag of $1.7 million I realize that that's a lot of money uh if anybody knows anything about me uh they know that I'm tight for the taxpayer so this price tag drove me to look at what is selling in milville at this moment there are two newer listings that went up on the market neither of those properties fit our needs one of them is a 10,000 ft building on South 8th Street with a large parking lot to the right of the building it is listed at $1.5 million another is a $5,000 squ ft building that just went up for sale on uh North 6th Street it's listed at $600,000 with very little land I bring them up to point out their asking price and I encourage the public to look at their assessed value you might be surprised the market is very hot right now industrial property is extremely limited if anybody knows of EX any industrial property uh that anyone wants to consider selling or sees that it comes up for sale I'm sure the commission would like to hear about it before I was appointed to my seat in April this commission unanimously decided to sell the sell a building because the market is so hot right now it's not very clear to me why this commission would unanimously decide to sell a building if they were not unified in a plan or that they had multiple options available to them which is clear that we do not so let's discuss the alternate plan to the gem building which presented by commissioner Watson during the last few work sessions the alternate plan focused on pole buildings one presentation really captured my attention with phrases such as imagine this it actually brought me a lot of joy to imagine these possibilities these presentations highlight the wish list of every department and likely every person sitting out here right now but I'd like to tell my fellow commissioners we're not up here to imagine unfortunately if this is the way to proceed it is now July 16th it's no longer time for homework or imagination our departments especially mine need a place to go displacing them and putting them in sea containers until this commission figures out what it's going to do is not only unacceptable but it's embarrassing and I have to ask if you think that this is going to be efficient for the city or increase worker morale and for the members of the public who believe this is the way to proceed the land that has been presented to me so far since April to make this happen has been one a flood zone that was underwater after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 two land that's currently under contract three and land that's actively for sale I'm not here to shame anyone or point fingers but the reality of the situation is this this commission created this situation if you did not have an actionable plan that you could proceed with you shouldn't have agreed to sell this property with that said there were some details important details missing from the last presentation that I was rather impressed with especially since the clock is running out fast if members of this commission are looking at land these are my questions can the land support the structure without excessive site preparation have you assessed the drainage and flood risk of the site to prevent future water damage if we look back to 2012 with hurricane Sandy you might find some of these sites that you're exploring shouldn't even be a blip on the radar have you ensured availability of essential utilities such as water electricity and sewage and lastly have environmentals been done thank you so in addition to what commissioner rello just said I did have a plan when we started this myself and the administrator Economic Development couple of my other Commissioners at the time so we had a plan why opinions would change later on I can't explain that to you but now you also know that we have infrastructure in this city that needs a lot of work we have a lot of roads that need to be paid a lot of stuff that needs to be fixed and all that stuff cost a lot of money I mean we get complaints nearly every day of broken work roads inadequate storm water drains inadequate facilities I mean ninth and G Street pops into my head Smith Road pops into my head there are two of the streets that I've been getting a lot of complaints about lately so we have an opportunity to fix some of these problems with a positive impact to our residents and our taxpayers you guys all realize it takes a lot of money to fix problems the sale of 15th Street and the purchase of another Warehouse that is adequate I stress adequate to facil fulfill the city's needs we don't need to build a modern building with beautiful offices for two people that are going to be in there all day and usually it's only one person in there all day and the rest of the time everybody's out in the field so and not only gem Enterprises but wherever we go to me the idea of this is that we should net income with gim Enterprises I estimated the net income would be $4 million that's $4 million in infrastructure improvements to our city that you won't have to pay for out of your tax dollars now it's interesting to me when I read complaints and I look at it the same people that are complaining about this are the same people that are often complaining what our city needs and why aren't things getting fixed the main reason things aren't getting fixed as fast as I'd like them to and I know as fast as the public would like them to is money money is the key and this offers us a lot of money to fix a lot of problems so look at it from that angle in addition to the angle that you're looking at and I I compliment you on on your good work Ry and myself did the same work and unfortunately I had to wait for somebody else to do it as well to see what was out there to consider the other other items and for the record I didn't interfere with her one bit when she was looking at things I didn't not at all right no and I'm sure you wouldn't have let me up if I wanted to you got that right so you know there there we we've come to basically to the same conclusion what you guys think I don't know but I I really I mean look at the whole picture not just the building not just the purchase of the building but the whole picture and the opportunity that we have to make these improvements without impacting the taxpayer I haven't seen that opportunity since I've been office either this time or last time and I don't want us to lose that opportunity and that's about what all I have thank you both of you uh commissioner ra you did you're du diligence just as vice mayor said and uh I will agree on your side you probably wouldn't let him to interfere at all and the way the way I've I've learned to uh and grown to know you um it is a it is a a process that we have to go through with this decision we obviously want and need things for the city to operate efficiently and effectively I do stand my vice by my vice mayor in saying it does not need to be the latest and greatest with beautiful windows and pretty sighing does it have to be nice and neat and you know up to at least 2010 2020 standards yes absolutely I would like that for my employees and everybody that works or will work here in the city of milbo um it is a challenge nothing in government as you can see is easy um we just a municipality look at County government and how that operates look at the state and how it operates uh we have many challenges but we're here to accept those challenges and do our best job I believe as this commission can do and will do any further discussion yeah sure so um looking into it um I mean obviously everybody knows that I kind asde with new P barns I think it's a better idea than buying a building from 1850s I mean you yourself mayor made a comment about the last meeting with the air condition not working and old buildings you know we're going to have those same kind of problems buying that hold of a building and talking about price comparisons you know again building that was built in 1850s a little over 16,000 sare ft at $1.7 million is a lot of money compared to a potential opportunity to buy new buildings um you know that can go upwards of 32,000 ft for the same price um and obviously there's certain things that we have to look into first like how we're going to buy it and time so one of the issues that was you know asked of me when I was giving a presentation as you know I side with this idea and um it was the purchase so digging into it making a lot of phone calls reaching out to people um Omnia Partners uh Co-op which we are a part of the city's a part of um Applied Industrial Technologies um it's actually the representative that I spoke to um said that the sewer department already used the Applied Industrial Technologies they have a partnership with the Omnia partner Co-op and under the scope and services or scope of work with the contract with the Omnia Partners um I'll just read it off because it's probably just easier to do it that way related products and service included installation repair and renovation Services a complete range of relative products and services offered by the supplier included but not limited to installation repair and renovation services for Replacements upgrades and remodeling in the residential commercial and Industrial environments relating to any of the following Roofing gutters down spout HVAC pluming Electrical uh exterior decks patios porches exterior siding windows and doors interior and exterior painting weatherization Ada improvements hose fabrication hydraulic repairs gearbox repairs conveyor system repairs uh rubber fabrication and any other types of residential and commercial industrial environments now a project was just done by the county um I've been trying to get in contact with that person to kind of read you know the wording how or go about how they went and did this uh was offered an opportunity to go out and check out the building uh that was recently constructed um so I believe I have an opportunity or potential that we can go through Applied Industrial Technologies using the omn partner Cooperative without having to go out to bid obviously to purchase these buildings that was a big hurdle and it took a lot of deep digging to find now another issue we talk about placement where these buildings going to go well I'm pretty sure that that big place in Florida Disney World are kind of will started with a dream kind of started with an idea but um you know it's neither here or there um anyway there's two properties that I was looking at I've been requesting information and unfortunately haven't got the chance to get the information uh today I met with the zoning official and we're going to sit down tomorrow to discuss these two opportunities uh one's at 1601 Malone Street the other one's at 102 West Foundry Street uh one 6 Acres one 11 acres and it's already City owned so we don't even have to buy the property and obviously we're not receiving any ratables so moving forward after we do get the information um and the intent of those presentations sitting at that Podium was to try to get somebody behind me and behind the idea of giving this to our city not only to the residents a good visual appearance on the buildings that we work out of but also the round of the people that work for us and service every day not just for the fouryear term that we sit here so I would love to give an opportunity to those city employees that deserve it that work out of those buildings to imagine what they need and let's tackle it and try to give it to them for the same price that we're buying a building that's built in 1850s now it's pretty obvious that uh there's not much support cuz you know from engineering to three or four people up here you know it's always going towards a gy building but I'm not voting for it so I'll keep digging on yeah idea that I have or the imagination that I have and if it's not suitable for the other people to vote on it it's not suitable but I'm not the one that has the answer to buying a building in 1850s for 1.7 million and a possible roof renovation that's all I got to say if I may go ahead uh yes we had we we spent a good couple of hours out there in 15th Street today which needed to be done uh we also you and I spent like you said time out to the airport before the airport for two reasons structurally and also on behalf of the drba who just shattered the contract that we had in our hand why I don't know who cares it's done uh I explained as much as I could to you because yes the 15th Street Warehouse right now compared to what it was four months ago is immaculate inside I think I stressed that to you when I walked in there I showed you the uh materials the uh props the mechanisms that we have specifically for the fire department for training uh that's not going into gym building in any I showed you the space that we use uh not trying to be in PL light or anything but I I explained that to you I myself was glad to see the way that the court cages but I do know they spent a week over there in that heat and they did shred a lot of damage and molded product and it's fantastic I had heard about it but I hadn't been out there to see it so kudos to my courts our courts I'm going to keep I'm I'm stuck on the age of the building full disclosure I talked with the man the other night two hours I talk to everybody uh contrary to popular belief uh I don't know how we're going to make it work I know what's out there I don't know where it all went I think I stressed that while we were out there uh commissioner Rella uh a lot of it needed to just go away which I you know is not deniable uh I explained the situation with the impounded bicycles which has really been lowered because we have cleaned them out uh you've got OEM stuff out there that by law the size of the city and all and with the river and the lake which we pride ourselves in we must have some of this product that we we talked about that I learned about that by asking questions when I got into office because I didn't know all about it uh yeah we got some of our product out there over to the right where I refer to it you didn't but I refer to it in our graveyard of vehicles that are on gov deals and everything's getting a little bit of bidding process on so it's all going to sell uh I don't know what we're going to do and I'm stuck and I'm using the example I don't know what we're going to do for our state mandated training for the fire department we're not going to in the middle of a winter night stick our firet trucks out in the lot for the entire night to do that training set it all up tear it all back down bring our fire trucks back in the house it'll be a 24-hour event you saw the space I think you would agree with me it's not going to happen naturally you couldn't see a setup I wish you could have seen a setup but it is all taken down and packed away uh I don't know what to do we don't know that we've sold it yet and I hate to say that in public but it's a question that I I have uh we didn't go to settle yeah I know uh I at this point in time I am stuck between a rock and a hard place uh and until the building actually sells uh I'm going to keep on looking I'm going to keep on searching for areas I reached out to Residents in the last three days that I know to have land and I found out that one piece of land is right now committed to a possible safe that will become a rable for us I found out that another piece of land uh supposedly has Green Acres attached to it I'll find that out tomorrow I tried to get with his Z official today but everything went sideways there are a lot of questions people tell me you know people call me and talk to me about this talk to me about people call me too I'm always available I've sat in this chamber after hours with residents we're all working please don't anybody think we're not all working right now it looks like it's a jumbled mess and honestly in my mind it is we're under the gun I can remember you know talking about some ground might need to have some money spent to be investigated to see if it's good but I it's been put to me that we can't spend money till the buildings sold I understand that a lot of roadblocks there's a lot of hurdles that we are clearing trying to get to a clear view of what and how we're going to tackle this very large situation that this commission and city is looking at and I am open like I feel every commissioner and the mayor is is open to somebody's got an idea reach out to me those that do reach out to me I'm pretty confident that you watch and you pay attention but I'll have phone calls some night that's good you see something if you get something in your mind bring It Forward it doesn't matter what commissioner you bring it to bring It Forward give us something else to look at give us an Avenue to go down before we are stuck sitting here as a five member Commission and having to make a decision that in my mind will not fulfill the needs of every Department in this city and it's just my thoughts if I offend anybody I'm sorry I'm not sorry thank you i' just like to add one more thing a large concern of mine is displacement um there's some members sitting here uh who work for departments have family members in departments and uh I I can't see putting these these people in conx boxes uh and saying good luck until we figure it out I don't think that's going to be uh efficient uh for anything that takes place in this city uh I don't think that the firemen could do their drills in a conx box um where is everybody going until then so far I have heard sea containers uh and I don't personally no offense to anybody sitting up here think that that's a viable option and I think it's a slap in the face to the workers to expect them to work in those conditions um it's not a surprise that the morale isn't topnotch right now uh and I don't think that uh people would be happy where working in those conditions um I don't think that getting equipment in a dark container that has uh no electricity uh in uh extreme heat or extreme cold uh is um a good option uh digging through stuff to maybe get plows lawn mowers um it just it doesn't seem reasonable or wellth thought out to me um so that is a very very big concern uh especially when you uh consider the history of uh the parks department um you know they were they were left in a a trailer for what 10 12 years uh waiting for the next commission to do the right thing we could all say that we're working to do the right thing but what if it doesn't get done in time and we're relying on the next commission we have no idea who's going to be sitting up here we have no idea and I'll be very Frank if they're going to have a brain cell in their head to even complete that uh you don't you don't know you can't Bank on that and that is a really big concern of mine um I would love to see more options I've been trying to explore every option um and I hope more options uh come to us and rather quickly and that's that's really all I have to say well if we buy the gem building I'm pretty sure that this current commission is going to show that they don't have any brain cells basically that's where I am so we're talking about buying this building at 16,000 Square ft right and you said you just went out to the parks depart or the streets and R department you looked at the warehouse and it's been broken down enough so now maybe we can take it back to another presentation get smaller sized building and we be under the $1.7 million not to interrupt you commission and if we're going to do this right if being s we're kind of breaking down and we're makinging it smaller my idea was to say Hey you know let's plan for the future if these guys need more equipment or if they need more space it's already there we have to tackle it again we're are making plans so the next commissions don't have to deal with it the next commissions aren't blaming this commission for making poor decisions and buying an old building that needs a lot of Maintenance that we can't afford to take care of that's the object of it it's a solution when I came into office not to interrupt you but when I came into office there's three different fa there's three different factors that that have to do with the fire department in the city city Fire Department volunteer fire department and there's one more that can't remember they approach me about putting a pole barn on the property we have the room for a pole barn on the property at the firehouse we do boom no problems with the ground no nothing so let me suggest this you could do gem Enterprises or whatever project you want we can get one pole born yeah and you doce bid spec so we don't have to put it out for bid we can do one and put that on the fire department lot and that should take care of your problem so and in addition you still have $4 million to work with so you know I mean I think I have some brain cells well I mean obviously I mean I've already brought up and just let me point this out too no matter what we do the next commission to come in and undo everything it doesn't matter if we make the best plans in the world set them on the best best path for Success the next commission come in and undo it all I'll tell you what they're not going to do they're not going to make a profit off selling a gym building if they want to how do you know that you don't know that look at real estate how you know that look at because commercial real estate has a higher return on investment than the stock market believe it or not so why don't you do some research on that on what the return on investment is what commercial real estate cost right now believe me I wish it would have I wish we could get it for a million dollars I wish we could find another building and I just looked up the uh your address on Foundry Street which is the one surrounded by Archer Foundry over by the hospital that a lot of groups use for a lot of events so I don't know how happy you know they'll be about that does that event take six acres to do they use the whole thing when shine does their event there they they they they have like the whole city there like 27,000 people I'm just tell you it's not like you know anybody else listens to me but you keep saying the bid gave you an option right here to use a co-op and as far as time building according to De Delmar a pole buildings it's a takes six months to erect the building including dising and planning and Architectural work okay so 6 months four months is $67,000 there's $250,000 you don't have to use c boxes and you don't have to lease the space what you have to do is work at your department listen to the rest of your proposal when you get get it done I'm sure it's not it's not like this is new this has been going on for over a year right and then over this year how many economic development meetings did you sit on all but two and who who who who oversees Economic Development plans well I'm there any of you that want to go can go you so this one year and two years that you've been there and attended these meetings sitting down with the lawyers sitting down with other Commissioners sitting down with economic development which you didn't have a good succession plan you came up with buying a building from the 1850s for .7 million that was one of my options yes I also looked at other places to look and you were certainly invited to every meeting yep and you can certainly call the Redevelopment meeting whenever you want you can certainly meet with the administrator whenever you want that's in every every meeting you meet with Mr Russell that's in every meeting the city planner is in every meeting sometimes the engineer there occasionally so there's plenty of people you can talk to if you can't I understand you have a job you can't make the meetings I get that but then don't come here and tell me you don't know what's going on if you can't don't have the time put forward in your job and what the hell are you doing here only thing I can say is I I I don't want this Pickering I I don't want this bickering I I know where you're up commission thank you all discussion of Commissioners commissioner he do you have anything regarding the betterment of this meeting nothing more commissioner Watson anything further commissioner rello still open to seeing every uh possibility all uh land available um buildings that are uh already uh available uh move in ready preferably um anybody knows about them we want to hear about them vice mayor suie as you can see we'll be ready and waiting for the next meeting at 7 o'cl roughly in 24 minutes uh any new business Madam clerk no mayor public comment portion if you would like to address this portion of the meeting please state your name address please limit your comments to five minutes respectively thank you Miss K can you make sure the microphone's on just tap it just start over again yeah fall that was a practice lap you get to start over again there you go thank you Patricia kier's 409 Peach Drive I've not been in agreement with the gem building and I've made that um pretty clear um um I have suggested um looking at properties that the city owns and I'm specifically looking at block 125.0 lot 13 at the airport used to be the old airworks it was the Yuki Hall it is 27,34 square ft it has utilities already I understand the building may be in really poor shape I'm not sure I haven't had certainly haven't had the opportunity to go in and look and why would I that's not my forte um but even if the building was in such bad shape that had to be taken down that concrete pad that it's built on may be able to be reused so that that particular expense could be off the books um I don't think any taxpayer in this town is asking for a new building with beautiful offices I think we just want something that's utilitarian that fits the needs and the future needs of this town um everybody's goal is to grow this town and that will be an increase in records and Equipment trust me so I think you need to look at room for expansion um there was there should still be $4 million left from the sale of 15 for improvements because I believe the bond was 2 million for another facility so the four would still be there um but I think 27,34 Square ft is a little better than the 16,000 um the cost of the land would be nothing because the city owns it already uh drainage was just put in at the end of that of uh airworks Street hopefully that would take care of any drainage problems that are there all of the city um facilities or records or equipment would be centrally located and it really is not that much different than having it all at South 15th Street um there were a lot of um Roofing materials on the gem building I noticed the last couple of days and I guess they're going to resurface it and my question is how much longer will that how much roof life will that give because another million dollars within 10 years puts that price up that that property is assessed it a little over I think 202,000 and the asking price is 1.7 I know commercial property is high but right over here on Buck street that property was assessed at over 700,000 and we only sold it for 15,000 so it just seems to be such a disparity to me and the same thing with the bank it was higher assessment sold for like $430,000 so I think really you need to look at using the Omnia Partners Cooperative I I think that's a great idea I think that if that building has to come down that a pole building could be up uh put up designed so it would meet the needs you'd be able to get equipment in you would be able to store the equipment so it could be seen it doesn't have to be a fancy office it can be utilitarian and the utilities are there thank you thank you m thank you Miss gears Roy Shepard Nukem toown Road milville um I have a couple questions uh probably I'll just shoot them out and you can come back to me um what was the original plan when we put 15th Street up for sale uh did we have somewhere as we had intended to go um and then did we come back and realize oh crap the building's going to sell relatively fast now we're scrambling so so was there actually a plan in place um where we were going to go because it don't seem really there was a plan it was put it up on the market and um you know if we sell it we'll make that decision then but it's like you want to sell it but you don't want to sell it but you don't know what your options are so what was the original plan off the get-go when we put 15 Street up um next question is where are we at with the time frame of selling 15 Street uh are we uh getting close to switching Keys um how where are we at with that process is it um very time sensitive we have to be out there by October September is it next year is it they're waiting on their Finance what is that process um for probably the last 10 years I have taken care of the building next to the gem building um zone for Jack naret I can tell you one thing if you do buy this gem building you better have armed guards there you better have two dogs you better have barb wire fence all the way around the place because the bums whatever that are up in that area are going to break in they're going to steal stuff out of them Vehicles if there's any vehicles in the parking lot so you better put that into the budget if you're going to buy it that you better have armed guards at the gates barb wire I don't know 10 foot because they're going to cut it dogs whatever you got to do you also got to keep this in mind because um you know it's not in the best of area uh you know 15th Street is a little bit out of town um you know does the Riff raft go over there maybe not as much have they got broken into probably they have gotten broke into but I can tell you jack nar's place next to gem building um you you board the the doors up the windows two weeks later they're in there I mean you can have a new roof you can have walls you can have everything they'll bring the chainsaw and cut the walls down so I mean these are things that you need to um keep in mind I mean I I haven't sold a lot of real estate in my time um but sometimes it's better to come up with a better plan than just say hey we're going to sell it and now we're you know we're all right where are we going to go and then you come up with an idea of the gem building um is it really you know I like the idea of a pole barn you have something beautiful I mean you look at the mville school district for how many years could they have had a brand new school what do they got it looks like a piece of junk um it's the same scenario you're going to put buy the gem building and um it's going to be fine but if we ever have to sell it as a city nobody's paying 17 or six or whatever we declare it's going to be sold as um pole building I think it's a great idea use city land um erect something nice have people you know the more we develop this City people want to see that it's nice I mean places up to Union Lake are selling for $800,000 now um these people want to see that it is a well-managed city um that's all thanks R thank you Mr Shephard Paul Pera Smith Road mville I'm an engineer graduated from Villanova also a real estate broker for over 30 years nobody has approached me and asked for anything about any real estate in milville seems kind of odd but 600 Columbia Avenue is for rent there's 120,000 Square ft there goes from Dollar I how glasses1 95 a square foot to $3.95 a square foot that could be a temporary spot to go while you're waiting for pole barns to be built I own 450 acres near the airport it's available it's for sale you can lease it you can start building Tomorrow there's no environmental problems with it it has sewer has water has cable has natural gas nobody's approached me about that to say that all options have been explored seems a little bit odd to me and on another point I don't want to talk too long when you have an asset that is serving your needs or could serve your needs in the future you would never put that up for sale without having the option already ironed out or the contract that you sign with somebody that's going to purchase it would say that we can cancel this contract if we can't find a place to go I would never recommend this somebody sell their house that they live in if they didn't have a clause in it that said we have to find suitable housing it's the same with commercial real estate you do exactly the same thing so the the whole scenario that this is now a huge emergency seems very odd to me it should never have happened that way the contract should have never been written that way I think the questions that were asked uh by the man over there were very good like where where is the contract for 15th Street has anybody seen it has the public read it uh are there extensions are there extensions to it has it when was it supposed to settle there was an extension for uh extra time for due diligence extension for what extra time for due diligence why would you give over the contract read it it'll be easier to me trying to explain it why would you give why would you give them an extension when you don't have a place to go it makes no sense I mean it's like a comedy of errors one piled on top of the other so again the first error is putting it up for sale without not having a place to go the second error is not extending it when you had a chance to get out of the contract the intermittent error there was an error that you didn't put in a clause that you had to find a place to go before you would settle the next one was paying $65,000 a month for rent I mean that they're all crazy things that should have never been in a contract there's always an option taking a step back and buying something that is not going to serve your needs for a very long period of time because you feel like you're under the gun is not the correct option to take temporary stuff find another way to do something talk to people that have knowledge and and know what's going on they're all good options but selling an asset that is worth something to take a step back and get something worse just seems like a terrible plan thank you Paul seeing no one else I will close the public comment portion of this meeting closing comment of Commissioners commissioner hu yes uh everybody up here knows that everybody's had an ear in this and everybody's had a speak in this there's things I want to say right now that I can't say I know I can't say them but there's things I need to say to the fellow Commissioners that I sit here with so I'm going to pose a question to to our City attorney and this just came to me now sitting here for this last hour we have another meeting 1 of August can we schedule is this a legal conversation point for us to schedule a closed session so that the three questions in my mind that I know I cannot say because they're involved with the contract of this and public can be spoken with me with all four three Commissioners and the mayor is that legal Mr solicor well if you want to discuss contract negotiations concerning the ACT possible or potential acquisition of another property we could discuss that in closed session okay great because that's I'm going to I'm going to say right now to everybody I would like to have a closed session on the first meeting in August to discuss this specifically the contract for 15 Street and we don't have to vote on or anything we just got to do it if we want to do it you can touch base with the city solicitor as you feel necessary as you see him and but that's what I like to see that's thank you commissioner Watson no commissioner renal I think that's a good idea but I just like to point out that the contract is available to all of us I've looked at it many many times and I have been encouraging my fellow Commissioners to look at it as well Place mayor Sue nothing see everyone in approximately 10 minutes for the regular session meeting motion to adjourn so