Ladies and gentlemen, this is the combined agenda and regular meeting of the Monroe Township Council on June 30th, 2025. The agenda meeting is now called to order. Would we all please rise as we salute our flag?
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. May be seated.
Will the clerk please call the role? Councilman Councilman Charles Dapiro here. Councilman Michael Markell here. Councilwoman Rupa P Seagull here.
Council Vice President Terren Vanzora here. Council President Miriam Cohen here. Would you please read the Sunshine Law into the record? In accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act, it is hereby announced and shall be entered into the minutes of this meeting that adequate notice has
been provided by the following. One, posted on the bulletin boards within the municipal building on December 27th, 2024 and remains posted at that location for public inspection. Two, printed in the Home News Tribune and the Cranberry Press on December 27th, 2024. Three,
posted on the Monroe Township website. And four, sent to those individuals who have requested personal notice. In accordance with chapter 3, section 17 of the Monroe Township Code, public comment shall be limited to five minutes unless further time is granted by the council president.
Thank you. Item five are ordinances for second reading at the June 30th, 2025 regular meeting 06 2025-014. It's an ordinance of the township of Monroe authorizing the conveyance of an
access easement over property known as block 52 lot 2.05 05 062025-015 is an ordinance amending and supplementing the code of the township of Monroe under chapter 122 article
13 to authorize the police to enforce title 39 of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Code in the Forest Gate Community Association Incorporated communities comprised of Green and Fairways Edge and
Pine Run 062025-016 is an ordinance authorizing the acceptance of an easement from matrix 259 LCEG LLC to property located at block 56 lot 9.04 4 06 20225
0-017 is an ordinance amending various chapters of the code of the township of Monroe. 062025-018 is an ordinance amending chapter 39 of the code of the township of Monroe
entitled fees. Item seven is resolutions for consideration under the consent agenda at the June 30th, 2025 regular meeting. That's R6 2025-1
through 939 through R6 2025-149A. Assuming all of us have been familiarized ourselves with these resolutions. Anyone wishing to have a resolution removed from the consent agenda? No. Moving forward, we then like
to move to public comments. Please remember it's limited to agenda items only. May I have a motion to open the public comment section? Motion. Thank you. May I have a second? Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Anyone wishing to
address the council, please come forward. Remember, there is a time limit of five minutes per speaker. Good evening everyone. Bob Valentine, 68 Union Valley Road. Excuse me. Could you repeat your address please? Sure. 68 Union Valley Road. Thank you. Yes sir.
Um just wanted to get a little more information. One of the items on resolutions tonight involves adopting a revised deferred compensation plan. Um it's one R-6-2025-146. I just hoping somebody could talk a little bit. I'm not that familiar with it. somebody kind of summarize perhaps
who's who's covered under this plan, what the benefit is and then what is the proposed uh revision about? Sure, Mr. McGowan, please. Council President, thank you. Um, so we have had Empower as our employees deferred compensation provider for a number of years. Um
several employees actually reached out to us to see if we could uh go out and look for a better plan that had lower fees for the employees and a better return on investment, better options for investment. So we did so. We gave empower an opportunity to give us a more competitive plan. We also gave a few
other companies an opportunity to do so. And um together with our deferred compensation consultants, we um the administration is recommending to the council to um move forward with this plan from Lincoln Financial, which provides a much lower fee for our
employees and gives them a wider range of investment opportunities. This is optional for employees. Um and fees come out of employee investments. So there's no taxpayer dollars that's being spent here and no requirement to be a part of the program, but a number of our employees do so to supplement their
pension for later retirement funds. Yeah. Great. Good work. Yeah. Um the other item I can just quickly um there's also I think a resolution for the um this local it's 62025149 uh demonstrating compliance local finance board regarding the 2024 annual
order. Is that like I think it's a corrective action plan that you're submitting. Is that mean that right? Sure, council president. So, there's two resolutions. Resolution 149 is the council's acknowledgment of receipt of the 2024 audit. Um, 2024 audit came back
uh relatively clean with uh no material weaknesses, no deficiencies. Um, a couple of items left over from last year that we're still working to uh to clean up, but not much. And that's what 149A is the corrective action plan to um uh
to just uh clean up the balances in our inner fund transfers. Is that something you'll be able to share with the public on the site? We'll be able to put that out on the site for the public to look at that response. Is there written response going in? Is that Sure. Yeah, the corrective action plan is is available to the public. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you.
You're welcome. Anyone else wishing to address us? George Gungkelman, 5 Kelly Court, Monroe. Um, in the consent uh agenda, the item 144
uh change order of 413 414,000. What for? So, Council President, I'll ask Mr. Raz to help us out with the specifics of that. Thank you. Thank you, Council
President. You're welcome. This is uh $413,000 change order. This is for the police headquarters edition and alterations. There are a number of items that um that this change order covers. Um the largest item in it um is a um security and
camera installations around the police station. that was not part of the project that was put out and and um the intent was to do that um you know at a later date and and this is it. So most of these items are items that the
township requested. Uh I have a list of about you know 15 various items which I believe are in the resolution and uh again most of them are additional items that we requested. Um, for instance, the generator has an auto fuel system that
automatically the fuel is pumped from our existing fuel tanks at EMS and pumped over to the generator that's behind the police station. So, that was also a large ticket item on this as well. But again, uh, most of that was additional work that the township required. Thank you.
It just seems strange that we didn't anticipate things like camps in a in a police office. And you know, I guess my other question would be uh did we do competitive bidding on this
or did we just grant it to President? Yes. The original contract for the police station was put out the bid as competitively bid. Uh these are change orders with the existing contractor. It it comes to about 7.2% increase in the contract in the overall
contract. Thank you. You're most welcome. Good evening. Michelle Armin Nathaniel Street. Okay. First, um let's see what do we have here. Uh the resolution
147 talks about the affordable housing plan. Is there going to be a presentation on that tonight or you're just going to We're not planning a present. Yes, please. Council President, we had um a public hearing last Thursday at the
planning board. There's copies of the plan that have been on the website and there's I think a few copies in the back as well. We're certainly happy to answer any any questions that anyone might have. Um, I watched the public I watched the planning board on the agenda. It
said that it was just going to be dis an a discussion. It did not say it was a public hearing. I'm not sure that that satisfied the o open public meetings act if there's no public hearing noticed on the
uh agenda. So is that correct sir? No. Okay. Well, before before you go on, I'll I'd like to keep my time. Um, all right. I'll have to review that. Now, that that video is still available or is just one once it's live streamed, it's
gone. Council President, it's available. It's available. Okay. I'll review, but I did not I mean, yeah, I did not see that it was actually mentioned as a public hearing for that uh presentation. So um so did the
council get a presentation for the um affordable housing yes please. So the governing body's role in this, the housing element and fair share plan is a planning board document. And what is before the governing body this evening
is a resolution endorsing that plan which lays out how the township intends to meet its constitutional obligation, okay, to provide a forable house. I mean, and I I think that's great, but I think our representatives should be
fully um you know, that the hearing I mean that the uh plan should be presented to them in public. So, okay, let me move on um on the ordinance um uh 017.
Now, when this ordinance goes into effect, is is this going to still be here with the with the um the wording because a lot of things have been taken out like crossed out and
struck out. So, is this going to still be its own ordinance with all these strikeouts? And it looks like the only thing added in red it says the fees for sale. Um, and it says in accordance with chapter 39 entitled fees of the code of
the township of Monroe. So everything that's my question is is this going to still be its own ordinance and just telling people to go to chapter 39 to get the information. I can I can answer that if you
um Michelle. So it was just a code book cleanup because years ago they did made the chapter 39 which contained like all the fees and sometimes it was mentioned in the separate chapters themselves. So it's just a notation in the chapters to
go to that chap chapter 39 for the fees. So there's really no major well the changes are so okay specifically chapter 3 um the fees for uh public records. So, are you saying that those fees are still
the same? Yeah, even everything stays the same. Okay. So, it's not that there's changes to chapter 39. There changes to this ordinance to refer to chapter correct. Okay. What would be the reason for that? Because when you go to
this is called uh this is this ordinance specifically to make changes or is this going to be an ordinance for all these because there's administration of government there's
fees there's regulations and fees I mean there's titles you're on uh ordinance 17 correct yes will if I could you need to look at ordinance 2011 8 I'm sorry 018 where all of the
fees that are referred to in the 017 are reorganized in one place all in chapter 39. So are there some changes? I'm sure there are some changes in some
please you have to let me finish. I'll I'll give you your It's confusing the way you're saying it. So, I I I just wanted to be clear since I I have limited amount of time and you have all the time in the world. There we go. There you go. Well, you uh Matt Council President,
yeah, he still has I'm happy to finish. Please. So, it is organizational puts all the fees in one place. if there are any changes or additions
to what fees may be charged. I know some of them went down, some of them went up, but they're all easily located now in chapter 39. Okay, thank you. Anyone else wishing to address us,
please come forward now. Seeing and hearing none, I would like to ask for a motion to close the public comment section, please. Motion. Thank you. Second on that, please. Thank you. All in favor? Any opposed?
Nay. Public comment section is closed. I'd like to entertain a motion to close the agenda meeting, please. So moved. Thank you. Second on that. Second. Thank you. A roll call, please. Councilman Depiro, yes. Councilman Markell, yes.
Councilwoman Seagull? Yes. Council Vice President Vanzora. Council President Cohen. Yes. Council agenda session is closed. The regular meeting is being called to order by motion. Please. Motion. Thank you. A second on that.
Second. Second. Roll call. Councilman Diro. Yes. Councilman Markell. Yes. Councilwoman Seagull? Yes. Council Vice President Vanzora? Yes. Council President Cohen? Yes. May I have a motion to approve the payment of claims for the run date of
June 24th, 2025, please? So moved. Thank you. Second. Second. Roll call. Councilman Diapro. Yes. Councilman Markell. Yes. Councilwoman Seagull. Yes. Council Vice President Vanzora. Yes. Council President Cohen. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Ordinance for second
reading. 062025-014. Ordinance of the Township of Monroe. Authorizing the conveyance of an access easement over property known as block 52, lot 2.05. Motion to open the public hearing, please. Motion. Thank you.
Second on that. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Wishing to address us, please come forward stating your name and address for our records. Shel Armin Nathaniel Street. Uh this block and lot, is this the property on
Buckaloo Avenue near the firehouse? Yes. District 3 firehouse. Okay. And are is the board of education granting back the parcel of land or just the easement? Are they maintaining some of the land? Mr. McGowan, please. Council President, at a prior uh council meeting or two
council meetings this year, the board of education conveyed the property back to the township. Now we are conveying an access easement to the fire district. So it'll still be township property. Fire district will maintain that easement. So this will be uh so the board of
education won't be mentioned anymore because that's a complete transaction now. Correct. Correct. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Anyone else wishing to address us on this ordinance only, please? Seeing and hearing none, I'll have a
motion to close the public hearing. So move. Thank you. A second on that. Second. You all in favor? Any opposed? No. Public hearing is closed. I'd like a motion to adopt 06 2025-014,
please. So moved. Thank you so much. May I have a second on that? Second. Thank you again. May I have a roll call vote? Councilman Diapro, abstain. Councilman Markell, yes. Councilwoman
Seagull, yes. Council Vice President Vanzora, yes. Council President Cohen, yes. Motion carries. 062025-016 is the ordinance authorizing the acceptance of an easement from matrix 259 LCEG
LLC to property located at block 56, lot 9.0. 04. May I have a motion to open the public hearing, please? Like you skipped Oh, I'm so sorry. I apologize. Okay. It
is I did that once before. 06 2025-015 an ordinance amending and supplementing the code of the township of Monroe under chapter 122 article 13 to authorize the
police to enforce title 39 of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Code in the Forest Gate Community Association Incorporated communities comprised of Green Fairways Edge and Pine Run public hearing open please motion motion
Second. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Anyone wishing to address us on this ordinance, please come forward now. Seeing and hearing none, a motion to close the public hearing, please. Motion. Thank you. A second on that.
Second. Roll. All in favor? Any opposed? Nay. Public hearing is closed. May I have a motion to adopt? Zero. Who said that? Someone say that I'm
Councilman Depro. Motion. Thank you. May I second on that, please? A second. May we have a roll call? Councilman Depiro, yes. Councilman Markell, yes. Councilwoman Seagull, yes. Council Vice President Vanzora, yes. Council President Cohen, yes. Motion carries.
Now we move to 016. 062025-016 is the ordinance authorizing the acceptance of an easement from matrix 259 LCEG LLC to property located at block 56
lot 9.04 4 motion to open the public hearing on this please. Motion. Thank you. A second on that. All in favor? Any opposed? Anyone wishing to address us, please come forward now. Michelle Armin09 Nathaniel Street. Could
you uh present the address of this property, please? Do you have it, Miss the address? Mr. McDow. Thank you. Sorry. Bear with me. Uh that's okay. any of our elected officials know the
address that they're going to vote on? Just a question. Council President, I only have the block and lot. Um, I can certainly uh look up the address. Um, but I don't want to take take more. a public hearing. So, I'm asking for the address and the purpose of the easement.
Is it only an easement? Yes. I believe the address is 259 Prospect Plains. Thank you. 259 Prospect Plains. Mhm. And the amount of land 34.367 acres. 34.367
acres. Wow. I would think. Okay. And the purpose, please, of getting this property, council president, it's an it's an access easement to access one of our water manes if necessary.
So, is it a narrow easement and a long easement or 34 AC? You said 34.367 acres. That's according to the legal description. That's correct. Okay. Thank you, sir. Is it a long narrow or is it a
like a square? I mean, my goodness. This is an ordinance for public comment. It's a larger It's an irregularly shaped Okay. parcel. There was a description in the ordinance. Um
there there's 27 um different changes of direction. So, I'm sorry, sir. in the in the actual ordinance because I have it here. Can you tell me? Maybe I can't see it. Yeah, in the attachment to the ordinance. It was online. Oh, it's an
attach Oh, I pulled this offline, but I I didn't see an attachment. It says attachment A, but it doesn't come through. Just for the record, it it's a description of the 34 plus acres. Um, like I said, it it's it's uh
unusual shape, unique shape. It's a large parcel. Okay. Yeah, that's why I thought it was interesting to And our utilities run through that parcel. Um and and there's I believe a um you know some valves and everything that need access as well as the water man. So So it's irregularly shaped. Okay. So it's
primarily for utilities. It's not going to be built on or municipal or anything like that. Council President. Yes, please. It's already developed by the private property owner, but we needed access to the water man. Correct. So there's no So it's just it's it's just for utility access and
maintenance as needed. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Anyone else wishing to address us on this ordinance, please come forward now. May I seeing and hearing none, a motion to close, please? Motion. Second on
that, please. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I may. Thank you. May I have a motion to adopt the ordinance, please? Thank you. A second on that. Roll call. Councilman Depiro, yes.
Councilman Markell, yes. Councilwoman Seagull, yes. Council Vice President Vanzora, yes. Council President Cohen, yes. Motion carries. 062025-017 is an ordinance amending various chapters of the code of the township of Monroe. May I have a motion to open the
public hearing on that ordinance, please? Motion. May I have a second on that? Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Anyone wishing to address us on this ordinance, please come forward now. Hi, Michelle Armin Nathaniel Street. Um,
since it's it's the hearing for the ordinance, I I would appreciate once again a explanation and how this is going to work and I will hold my question if there's a time. codebook cleanup ordinance.
I can do it if you want. You can do it right again or right ahead, Ron. If if I miss anything, you'll you'll clean up for me. But there you go. There you go. So, this uh council president um 07 is an ordinance to clean up several
chapters in the code that all describe various fees in different places. Chapter 39. Since it is our fee chapter, the idea is to put all of our fees into chapter 39 and remove them from various aspects of the code so that it is easier
to locate and easier to understand and not duplicated in different places throughout the code. It is organizational. It does not create any substantive changes to any of our fees. There is an ordinance coming up that will create substantive changes but not
017. Okay. Thank you. So that's that was going to be my other question. And when when changes to the code comes it'll be changes to chapter 39. Is that correct? That is correct. Correct. And then that will come up as separate ordinances in
the future. It is going to come up in five minutes from now under ordinance 018. 018. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to address us on this issue, please? Seeing and hearing none, we close the
public hearing by motion, please. Motion second on that second. Thank you. May we all in favor? Any I'd like a motion to adopt the ordinance, please. Motion to adopt. May I have a second on that? Second. Thank
you. Roll call on that. 06 20225-017. Councilman Diapro, yes. Councilman Markell, yes. Councilwoman Seagull, yes. Council Vice President Vanora, yes. Council President Cohen, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. 062025-018.
This ordinance amending chapter 39 of the code of the township of Monroe entitled fees. like a motion to open a public hearing on this, please. Motion. Thank you. S. Second. All in. Thank you. All in favor?
Any opposed? Anyone wishing to address us on this ordinance, please come forward now. Seeing and hearing none, I will take a motion to close the public hearing. Motion. May I have a second on that?
Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Public hearing is closed. I'd like a motion to adopt, please. Motion to adopt, please. Thank you. That's 062025-018. May I have a second on that? Thank you. Roll call. Councilman Dapiro, yes.
Councilman Markell, yes. Councilwoman Seagull, yes. Council Vice President Vanzora, yes. Council President Cohen, yes. Motion carries. Item five is the resolutions for consideration under the consent agenda R62025-1
through 39 through R6 2025-149A. May I have a motion, please? Motion. May I have a second? Second. Roll call. Councilman Dapiro. No. Councilman Markell, yes. Councilwoman
Seagull, yes. Council Vice President Vanzora, yes. Council President Cohen, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. We will move to the administrator's report. Mr. McGowan, Council President, I uh respectfully do
not have a report tonight except to say happy 4th of July to everyone. Thank you very much for that. The our engineer, Mr. Razim Mo, is pleased. Council President, uh I also will have a a full report at the uh August 4th council meeting, but I have
nothing new to report since two weeks ago. Appreciate it. I'll begin with council reports. Councilwoman from W 2. Thank you, council president. Good evening, everyone. I just have a couple quick reminders. I shared some of these updates last month, but since I leazison
to some of our commissions, they are very active this summer. Um, Culture Arts Commission. We have our summer concerts starting, free summer concerts on Thursdays beginning July 10th at the Gazebo in Thompson Park at 6 p.m. There's a great lineup. Our first
concert is Kindred Spirit. So, please join us. The Cultural Arts Commission is also sponsoring a free family event, Peter and the Wolf, on July 20th, 2 p.m. at the Monroe Township Senior Center. Free tickets will be available starting June 17th at the Monroe Township Public
Library. So, please mark your count calendars, bring your families, and this upcoming Sunday is our historic preservation has an open house July 6 at Dy Farm from 1 to 4. And the guest this month is Linda Russell, a historical
musician who brings early American history to life through music and storytelling. So, thank you. Happy 4th of July to everyone. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Japiro, please. Ward three. Ward one. Thank you. Um I just wanted to
uh comment on a few things. Last last meeting I asked for an update on Prospect Planes and uh you know Applegarth Road for the county and our engineer was going to look into it. Is there any updates on that project? Council President, I don't have an
update. I have not gotten word back from the county as to a bid date for Applegarth prospect plants. Okay. Thank you. How about Heritage Chase? the capital improvements for Heritage Trace. Do we have any uh updates on that,
Council President? No, no updates. I don't recall that from the last meeting, but um I heard it Chase is a NJ DOT grant that we received and u the plans are not are not in the design phase as of yet. Okay. Will it be this year? The
project um will be next year for for the actual construction. I believe that would be a u that would be into next year, not this year. Okay. Thank you. Had to think about which grant it was. Next year. Okay. Um the
rec center uh we requested to have some lights in the curbing. It looks like we got that project uh off off and running and it's going to start hopefully um in between when the camp is over and when before school starts. I think there's
about a four-week window that if they could do the construction uh that will be the easiest way with the less uh uh you know action of uh kids running in and out with the construction and also cars. So I don't know if we have a start
date yet, but it was just something that I would like to suggest that we do that project in between uh when camp is over and when uh before school starts. So that I just wanted to point that out. Um and also striping uh while schools are
out. It's it's really important that we do a lot of crosswalks. Uh if you look at the high school schoolhouse road is in desperate need for striping. Uh our walkways and Primeville Road right in front of the municipal complex. Uh the
the crosswalks and all the striping is very important to do it while school's out. Um, we have a couple month window and I just thought that we need to bring that to the attention u to whoever's doing our striping and along with our DPW staff. Um, painting the hydrants. We
haven't painted hydrants in a while. Are we planning on painting any hydrants this year? Mr. String, [Music] please. Yes. Uh, Councilman, we are uh we're actually in the midst of uh working out
a uh uh an arrangement with the Boy Scouts like we normally do and they're going to be painting some hydrants and we're also working on finalizing some seasonal employees that will assist us in that regard as well. That's good because it's desperately needed out there to hydrants also with the
flushing. You have the flushing schedule up for on the website for when we're when you're flushing the uh system. That's all been completed. It was completed two weeks ago. We did our unidirectional flushing. So, we won't be doing it again until next year unless there's uh you know an issue that we
need. We're at water main break. All right. Thank you. Um we talked about uh transportation. We get a lot of emails, people asking about bus routes and if we can help uh get get to different places
um from here to New York and we used to have a transportation committee. Um I think council president, you and I were on it uh before CO started. Um and then CO came and then it's something that um we didn't do it. We didn't we haven't
done it in a while. I don't know if that's something that's in in the works or if that's something that we're going to continue, but uh if so, I'd like to be part of it if if we're going to do it again. And uh I just wanted to wish everybody a happy 4th of July. We'll be
at Thompson Park on Friday uh from 5 uh 5:00 on. And I just wanted to wish everybody a happy and a safe 4th of July and and a safe summer. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mark. I have a quick comment. Um, just wanted
to say we had a um in the this is history, a little history. Um, we had a Junth celebration at the senior center last month. Um, well, wait, is this month still June? It's still June, right? I don't know what day what month
it is. That's pretty bad. Um, we had a Junth celebration. We had about 200 people come. We had a couple of speakers. Uh, it was our second Junth celebration. The first one we had at the library had around 50 people, 40 to 50. This year we expanded it to about 200.
So it was a really great celebration. So mark your calendar for Junth, which is June 19th for next year. Uh it's very important. Um everybody's saying happy 4th of July. Get to the uh Thompson Park. It's a great show. And uh have a
great summer everybody. Mr. Banzoro, please. without a president. You're most welcome. Not a whole lot happening in the last two weeks. Again, we got the Fourth of July coming up, the fireworks at Thompson Park. It's nice to see the
Again, we have uh um the 4th being celebrated properly. My microphone, your microphone, please. Did not touch it. Okay, that's better. Um just saying invite everyone out to the 4th of July. It's fireworks, but
there's a lot goes on before that and the different food trucks and they put on a nice little event. Um, and with that, just a reminder, 4th of July celebrates Independence Day, signing of our Declaration of Independence from
England and King George III. So, let's continue to celebrate our democracy and um, let's celebrate the 4th of July. That's all I have. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Here's my report. Happy 4th of July. I like
that. We'll now open for public comments, please. May I have a motion to open the public comment section? Motion. Thank you. A second on that. Second. Thank you so much. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Anyone wishing to address this in the
public comment section, please come forward now. Well, let's give Mr. V. Would you please Here you go. You're most welcome. Your name and address for our records, please, sir. Sure. Don McDaniel, 446
Schoolhouse Road. That's my wife, Janice, but Janice Demigo, 446 Schoolhouse Road. Yeah. We're just looking for some guidance or a little help. Uh we have a drainage ditch in front of our house, the only
one on schoolhouse road. Our neighbors have informed us that it was supposed to be filled in a year or so ago. Nothing's happened. Um I did contact a Miss Eileene. She was going to relay
that information to your mayor and your engineer. I've not heard anything back at all. Did we hear anything back? No. Mark, do you have Mark? You have that information. Any information? I'm
aware that um public works has been out there. My office has seen this ditch. It's It's been there. Um I'm not aware of any project that was to fill this ditch years ago. There was uh I believe it was looked at by public works. Um,
but there's uh there's grading in the area that drains into the ditch uh including your property. Um, that that's as far as I'm aware and and the decision back uh back then was that it it remained. Uh, I believe there's other
ditches out there that aren't as um aren't as deep as yours. Um, so again, I'm not aware of any project though that was to fill in these ditches. Right. Public Works has been very good. They were out there last year. Uh they dug it out because it gets constantly gets
filled in. We have a drainage uh pipe underneath our driveway, but that is so deep. Our mother-in-law, well, my mother-in-law lives with us. Uh and we've had contractors put their trucks
in that ditch. I'm afraid that if it snows, I mean, there's no guardrail even on that road. There's a white line. And it's about four feet to see. Yeah. So three to four feet deep. Mr. President, I did ask um public works to look at it as they've done in other
areas of the township uh and add some reflectorized uh poles along the edge of the ditch between the edge of the road and and the ditch itself. Um as you know, the township has many of these drainage ditches throughout the entire township. Um and in the other areas, the
reflectorized um um um uh poles, if you will, um are installed at those other locations. The problem with guardrail is the guardrail, you know, there's nowhere to put the guardrail. It would literally be sitting down in in the middle of the ditch. Um but generally, we do not uh
fill in these drainage as uh you know, could potentially cause some drainage issues. You anticipate. So, madam council president, I know we've sent DPW out. We are aware of that. So, is there is there something in particular besides bringing it to the attention to to the council myself here? Um, is there
something that you're you're looking for? Well, yeah, we would actually like, well, why can't they put a pipe in there? What's the difference of having a pipe in there with a drainage so all the water still drains and that will cover the the the you know the 40ft ditch on
both sides of our driveway which I actually I don't know if you can see one of those pictures I actually knocked over uh one of our post up. Um the mailman almost went in the ditch the other day. Okay. Why can't you put a a pipe in
there? There's a pipe at this end. There's a pipe at this end. Why can't you connect the two pipes and put a drainage into the pipe and have it go out to where it's supposed to go? It's president again DPW is going to look at it to see how we can make it a little bit safer with with reflectors. Um the
location of the ditch. I have not done a survey out there to of your property. Um, again, a lot of these ditches in Monroe are on private properties as well as the township property and any type of correction is going to uh require acquis
acquisition of property in order to do any improvements. But again, generally in in town, we do not go in and uh pipe these ditches. So, here's a question for you then. Who's responsible for this? If uh a car happens to go down in there, if
a car goes down in there, it's going to flip. That's a given. So, whose responsibility is that? Does that mean this township's going to get sued? Depends on whose propert I'm looking at our attorney. I'm
opinion. I have no opinion. Um I can tell you that it we all do so well with mics. Would you like my I have it. Thank you. Uh I can tell you that without knowing where the ditch was located, on whose property it
was located, and who's responsible for maintenance of that, those are all factors in who might be liable. Uh I'm not going to give you an off-the cuff opinion um because um it's not what we do. But thank you. It's a good question.
So, but at this point, public works is looking at it. Yeah. Our engineer is aware of it. the rest of us are now aware and I have the pictures that I can share and let's see what happens as we move home. Okay, I would appreciate any any help you can grandkids and if you
could see the pictures I put rocks I did see them. Yes, I did. Um I did. Okay, time is up. Happy 4th of July. Thank you very Yes, I'm sharing them with you. Anyone else wishing to address us, please come forward now.
Seeing Oh, Mr. Gunman, sorry. You're moving much more slowly. Five Kelly court Monroe. Um, I have two questions and if you don't mind, I'll ask them both and then whatever time it takes. Uh the first question is
basically what is the audit corrective plan and that's the first question. Mhm. Second question is if I ICE shows up in Monroe and requests the support
of our police and the use of our facilities, what happens? What do we do? What do we have we thought about this or do we know what our options are? Are we going to have people in plain clothes in
unmarked cars wearing masks riding around Monroe potentially? I don't know. I mean, it's happening in other communities in our country. Uh, I'd like to ask the question before it starts to happen here. So, those are my two questions. Very
good. First question is the um if it's okay I'll take the second question first and then and then maybe ask our our CFO to help us out on the audit question. So I I know there was some rumors uh going around that that there was some kind of ICE raid in in
Monroe uh this past week. Turned that that's actually not true. our police department was working with the Middle Sex County Prosecutor's Office on a on a non-immigration related uh arrest and um and some of those officers were in plain clothes. So, I just want to just make
that clear. Um, additionally, all I can tell you really is that our police department follows the New Jersey Attorney General guidelines for working with and cooperating with all other law enforcement agencies, whether that's
county, federal, state police. Um, and and they follow those guidelines. I'm not a law enforcement officer, so I don't want to speak for them, but um, if you have additional questions, I can try and connect you. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I don't know what the guideline is. to say that they're following the guideline.
What is the guideline? Are they going to cooperate with them or not? Well, you're not, Ron. I don't specifically have the answer to that question. Again, just to reinforce, they will work with the higher authorities, the state, the federal, and obviously the county we
rely on. So, they will they will work with the other entities. So in in the in in their guidelines township you resources personnel and facilities George we're not going to take George we're not going to take a stand on ICE
and have a discussion we will follow what the higher authorities ask us to do. So the answer is you will cooperate with it. Oh that's a yes or no. I'm I'm I'm not trying to be difficult. I'm trying to
figure out what's going to happen and And I'm explaining I understand from what you said that you that Monroe Township personnel and resources following these guidelines will put be
put at the use of these agencies ICE if they should come here. Just am I correct in interpreting what you've just said? No. We'll follow what the county, the
the the state and and the federal government needs us to do. I mean, we're not going to take a stand. And whether it's uh bluecollar crime or whatever, this is that's the standard operating procedure. And the police department evaluates
every request that comes in from other agencies on a case-by case basis. There's no way to sort of provide a catch-all answer of the use of our facilities or resources. Please turn. Lor's turn. Much more easy. Hello. Um, so the corrective action for
the audit last year there were there was was a couple listed. We were able to clean up the majority of them with this audit. One of the last ones was just clearing the inter funds. So that's just money that um it's just, you know, due from due to and that that making sure
that that's done by December 31st. So we'd already implemented our corrective action plan and this is putting it in writing. So it's already been corrected, but we have to formalize it in writing. We were very pleased with this audit report. We were all very pleased with
the audit report and we have all read what was written that we were required to read. We thank you. Anyone else wishing to address us this evening, please come forward. Seeing and hearing none, a motion to
close the public comment section, please. Thank you. A second, please. Second. All in favor? Any objection? No. We are closed with public comments. I'd like a motion to adjurnn. Please. Thank
you. Second. Second. Where? All in favor? All in favor? Any oppose? I we are adjourned at 720.