the combined the combined agendas and regular meeting of the Monroe Township Council is called to order today on April 7th at 6:30 p.m would you all please rise as we honor 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
yeah please we'd like to request a moment of silence for Chris Teranova he passed away on the 8th of March of this year he was a paramedic who is beloved by all who worked with him and they would be
pleased to describe for you the wonderful things that he did during his working career with us he worked with the EMS station 2 for six months of each year he was a special man and his losses felt by all those who knew him one a
moment please thank you all will the clerk please call the role councilman Charles Dapiro Councilman Michael Markel here councilwoman Rupa P Seagull here council Vice President Terren Vanzora here council President Miriam Cohen here
would the clerk 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 board 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 27 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 5 minutes unless further time is granted by the council president thank you we have a number of proclamations this
month this is National Donate Life Month April 2025 national ArabAmerican Heritage Month uh Monroe Township Library Week the 6th through the 12th and National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week and
Arbor Day i would like to please take note that in honor of Library Week we have been honored by the presence of our director and the deputy director of the Monroe Township Library they are someplace in there they
are we all thank you as you can see for the wondrous library that we all enjoy so thank you we have a presentation Mr mayor please whoa whoa whoa whoa just because this says on the agenda
your name wow uh thank you Madame Council President um I'm here to bid a due to our business administrator here in Monroe Township
Alan Weinberg um and we've been kind of having these go away parties for him for the last full week of partying and goodbyes and um tonight is to publicly proclaim a thank you to who he is and
what he's done um so the business ministrator for the town uh you maybe it was a town that you've been before you've lived in there it's could be called the town manager the business administrator oversees all of the
administrative functions of the town uh from the parks department the rec department public works library all you know not the library but in particular but it's also one of the functions is the the budget as well and it's for lack
of a better term the mayor's right-hand person um and we have been lucky so lucky as a township to have Alan Weinberg in that role um when I came on board uh one of the reasons the Allore
to be mayor was because of our business administrator Alan Weinberg so after some time spent with us here Allan decided that it was time to go elsewhere and um and again I've kind of told the little joke i'm like why is Allen
leaving why is Allan leaving and I said is it because I just keep looking at his office was right next to mine as a good mayoral bathroom you know to to convert it to but it's decided that Allan was to
go on to better pastures better position and um he leaves Monroe a better place and I think for anyone who's had a career um when it was time to to move on I hope it was uh a
fulfilling job that you had a job that you were able to walk away and say you know I I made a difference well Alan Weinberg fits that role allan made a difference for Monroe Township the relationship that I had with the
business administrator is a relationship that is every day every day every day many times a day always talking about what are we doing what's going on are there some fires to put out uh you know what's what what have we done what are
we looking forward to so it was constant and you needed that relationship in order to function properly and Allen's thoughts his mind his brain his beautiful brain was able to be able to
see what we needed what we've done what we wanted to move forward so me personally my experience was I wouldn't have been able to do what I do as mayor to the fullest extent without having
such a beautiful man Alan Weinberg in that position so I waxed poetically enough i have to just say that [Music] um Allan I didn't know you had so many friends to come out to wish you a good a
good a goodbye but it's my honor and privilege to present you with this plaque let me read it and then I will call you up again to give you a that'll be the time for you to get up and and I'll give you a little bit of a hug and then I'll let you you chitchat a little
bit so so um Madame Council President if I may read it in recognition and appreciation of your service to the township of Monroe presented to Alan Weinberg that was the beautiful guy I was talking
about thank you for your years of dedication and service wishing you the best on the new adventure with much respect and gratitude serenity now Mayor Steven Delina and the Monroe Township Council
April 4th 2025 allan welld deserved thank you so kind of hard to follow that and I feel like I should be uh taking out my bar mitzvah speech with all those really nice comments um but I will be somewhat brief and um I would be remiss if I
didn't thank uh first the mayor and council for their confidence in me um always giving me terrific feedback um and really helping to charter the course forward over these eight plus years i have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it um in terms of helping to guide the
town forward um along with uh I must say uh my colleagues who I do want to mention um this is an easy job if you have good colleagues and fellow employees who are professional which we have um hardworking uh dedicated and
focused on making the township uh better i choose not to highlight any one particular employee or one department because I don't really want to leave anyone out but as you know from your careers in life um either currently or in the past you're only as good as the
team that you have um and if you take care and focus on them and helping provide leadership they will do the same for you and they are dedicated to the township and that made my job much easier whether it was during a snowstorm or an emergency or the day-to-day
operations of the township and allowed us to achieve some really great things both financially and in providing services so I thank them i also want to thank the residents because at the end of the day both uh myself and all the employees serve um at the pleasure of the residents so we appreciate the
opportunity to serve um I do want to also uh you know talk a little bit about some of the things we were able to accomplish um because I do think over eight years um we were able to keep us on solid financial footing which I think is one of the the great achievements as we tried to uh move forward with with
all the different things that we were able to tackle um but I do want to you know be somewhat brief because I know there's a lot of agenda items to to get to i am used to sitting in this seat over here and so I'll be leaving after my speech which is a little bit unusual
um but uh just a heartfelt thanks to the mayor the council my colleagues and the residents this has probably been the highlight of my professional life so far as I move on to other things and I just want to personally thank everyone for the opportunity uh for these past eight
plus years so thank you mayor thank you council you're not getting away without each of us on the council having something to say too i'm going first because I met you first allan and I started together i was appointed to the council
when he was appointed to the business as the business administrator and I've always remembered what I said to him i said "We will learn together as we go forward." And indeed that we have done is learn together one never knew when a
text message would arrive from Allen because every member of the council was always so carefully informed of what was happening and we always knew because whether it was a Saturday a Sunday or sometimes 10:00 at night if Allan thought it was important that we know
something Allan made sure that we knew something so that you never felt left out or behind or whatever it was a colleial relationship all the time because that is how he functions i know he will bring those same strengths to
his next employer who will thank us for for what a joy it is to have Alan Weinberg as an employee so I certainly wish you well i am going to ask Terry as the vice chair of the council to speak next thank you madam president
appreciate that you know what do you look for in a business administrator you want someone intelligent you want someone that shows professionalism has good business acumen pleasant demeanor helps um someone that knows what to do
how to get it done how to get along with people and having a little quick wit can help a little bit to some extent to uh make things a little bit easier for all of us i could go on and on about specific times but uh Allan exhibits all
those things he's done a wonderful job for our township i I think so many of the things he did you know whether it be refinancing our debt and things of that nature they're basically go unnoticed by the town but they're the little things that kept our taxes down and and kept
our town running smoothly and for that we appreciate you and wish you the best ward one hello well I I don't think your wit's that great by the
way um I just want to say uh I'm I'm I guess the newest member on the council and uh Allan I want to thank you for everything um you did for me to keep me informed over the last couple of years um we've not only worked together and um
we've been we became friends to a certain and I really appreciate that and truthfully I'm sad to see you go very sad to see you go you did a great job here everybody knows that um the old saying everything starts from the top
are the people that work here in Monroe are good people because you're a good person and it's in your heart that you're a good person and I truly appreciate that and good luck in in whatever you're going to do now we're going to miss you believe me I'm going
to miss you take care councilwoman Ward 2 good evening h Allan this is kind of rough because uh I think I must have given you about five hugs last week every time I came into the office uh I wish you congratulations and I think you know there's a little there's an Allen
spot in my heart because I have relied on you for your wisdom and your knowledge around municipal government you've taught me so much over the last couple years and um your leadership and dedication to the township is just tremendous i don't you know they're big
shoes that are going to need to be filled but um I don't want to get too emotional but I just want to thank you and I know I'm going to have to go into work tomorrow and you know whenever there's a snowstorm I don't think I've ever shared I don't know if I've shared this before people at work ask me "Did Allan call you yet?" and tell you about
the storm how how bad is this storm so you're a legend in yourself so I thank you and I thank you for all your friendship over the years [Applause] Councilman Dapiro thank you Allan uh your experience your knowledge that you
brought to Monroe is second to none you you helped us in every way that you know during CO during the hard times as you said with the snowstorms and keeping the keeping everybody informed and uh you know as the mayor said I'm I'm I'm
surprised to see this many people here but it's a good thing it's a really good thing because there's this many people here when you when you entered Monroe and you and you you became part of this family and I just want to thank you personally for all the help that you
helped us as as a team and also the residents and also the workers the employees and everything that you look out for it's not easy and uh Sundays is like you worked every day for us and uh and I wish you well on your next journey
and and good luck so we are come to the conclusion except that you know Allan always coordinated picture taking so Kyle where are you kyle's coordinating a five minute recess for us to take pictures please five
minutes only thank you the clerk is back the clerk is back everyone's walking around ready for item seven on the agenda item seven on our agenda is the ordinance for second reading 032025-00006 bond ordinance appropriating 400 I'm
sorry let her you read I'm sorry my ordinance 03 20225006 bond ordinance appropriating $46,000 from developer payments to provide for the improvement of the Southfield estates pump station and the
hidden pond pump station in and by the township of Monroe in the county of Middle Sex New Jersey would you please read eight the ordinances for introduction at the April 7th meeting 2025 regular meeting
ordinance 042025007 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap a cap bank ordinance 042025008 ordinance authorizing the acceptance of one property known as
block 52 excuse me lot 2.05 ordinance 042025009 ordinance approving the traffic signal improvements for Applegarth Road and Joan Warren Way ordinance 04202510 ordinance amending the code of the
township of Monroe under chapter 108 section 6.23 to amend the medical facility requirements in the planned retirement community district 2 at this point I would like to turn this over to to our mayor please thank you
Madame Council President i know this is a uh ordinance where there's a lot of members of the public here um and I know there's a lot of strong feelings on both sides in regard to the uh current nursing requirement for PRC number two and I just wanted to provide some commentary in regards to that as we
progress during the the evening um I just want to let everyone know here and obviously I've talked to many of you that uh it's been a struggle in deciding and thinking about and gathering the data uh over the um the many months now
in which um started when the Stonebridge HOA presented us with the resolution and um we've been hearing both certainly both sides of the story um and since the initial contact um I've heard from a
number of Stonebridge residents on both sides um and also to be included uh are many members of other gated communities as well um as well as in general the the public in regards to well what are you doing with this
this nursing ordinance so so it's the last especially the last couple months have been just the information gathering has been uh has been um at its at its peak um the ordinance promo proposed tonight would would place
Stonebridge in the same position as the 14 other gated communities in Monroe allowing them again just speaking regarding the ordinance allowing them uh the freedom to make their own choice in
respect to nursing services in their community now neither myself or any of the council members were here 20 years ago when this ordinance was created so we're dealing with it tabularasa we're dealing with it what's presented now the
information and the and the facts and the opinions now that Stonebridge the Stonebridge HOA resolution has tasked this council on the agenda tonight to move forward in whatever capacity that is thought to be fair and equitable for
the residents of the township of Monroe now let me be clear that this issue is not about whether nursing services are beneficial or effective i know they are i've seen it i've heard it i've gathered
the experiences from others if I lived in Stonebridge or any other gated community I would vote yes for the HOA to have nursing services that's how important I believe it is
but sharing my own governmental thoughts I feel that each community should have its own freedom of choice as the 14 of the 15 private se other senior communities already have to make healthc care decisions for
themselves monroe Township takes its responsibility to provide emergency medical services very very seriously and I think you all know if I make the statement that our emergency services
are second to none you will not disagree with me but the residents should have the freedom of choice to determine what their daytoday health care services they want from themselves as many of the other
communities in this township already experience i understand and deeply respect the position of all of the residents affected and I will continue to encourage Stonebridge's residents and all residents to support in their
homeowners association nurse services at is as it is an incredible beneficial health care service to have madame council president I thank you residents i thank you so much for indulging me with my remarks thank you and I do have
some remarks of my own that I wish to add um because my perspective is probably somewhat unique because as I'm a member of the township council but I'm also a former member of the HOA in the
community in which I live and I served as president of the board of trustees for six years and sat on the board for 10 years which I think is an really long time
And one of my always one of my perspectives was that we had nursing services 24 hours a day and that I believed that they were important um I've been a registered nurse for a
really really long time and nursing has been my life's work and continues to be because I continue to work part-time so while the mayor has said it first the matter on the agenda is not about the
quality or quantity of nursing services because we all know and I certainly know how valuable they are it is about who gets to decide how they are provided and in all of our other communities in town it is the board that
does and one would hope that the board will continue to provide that very high level of nursing services that you currently provide i know that the nurse is a wonderful benefit to all the residents and I will always advocate for those
services as a resident of my community but as a municipal government elected official we should not be representing or restricting a private community from making this kind of decision for themselves as we have as the mayor
commented for the other 14 communities that is the fair thing to do we all respect how all of you feel i received a phone call from one of your residents who couldn't be at the meeting and I was sure it was a toss up of whether or not I was going to get
changed and get here on time i have heard from many of you we have not made or I have not come to my feelings and support for this change very lightly
it is not an easy decision to come to but believe it is the appropriate one to come to i think that our council members would like to comment as well i will begin with the ward to councilwoman since Stonebridge is in her ward thank
you council president so I know I've spoken with many residents of Stonebridge uh over the last several months i've listened closely to the thoughts of the residents who are on both sides of the issue and I appreciate all that has been shared with me however
this issue is about fairness and freedom we need to be fair to all the residents of Stonebridge and allow them to choose how they want their individual community to be governed without needing approval or interference from the
municipal government this issue is about being fair to all residents of Stonebridge and allowing them the freedom to choose their own destiny and direction of their HOA i value the profession of nursing at all levels nurses are
extraordinary but we aren't involved in the governments of the other 14 senior communities HOAs such as Greenbryer Concordia the ponds etc while I am empathetic to the concerns of some I'm
supporting tonight's ordinance 010 but at the same time I will continue to encourage Stonebridge to support nurse services if and when the matter comes before the HOA for a vote within
the Stonebridge community thank you Mr markell as a uh councilman for Ward One um I do I do I'm I'm sorry um I also support 010 um it's obviously not up to this council
to make a determination on a private community um and let let the community decide what they wish to do um I do hope that they continue with the best possible nursing care obviously our
uh EMS um our emergency services here are much better now than they than they ever were especially 20 years ago so we have a we have great coverage of of the community as far as our health our health concerns are so I do just want to
say I do support 010 um and I want to say that they should be on the same level as all the other communities here senior communities thank you Councilman Diur thank you
um as a real estate broker uh I look at it differently uh as a resident lifetime resident uh I recall the reason why um this this ordinance came this change zone of PRC2
uh it's because we were supposed to get a hospital on and in our town and when we were supposed to get this hospital the the reason why was because the residents outside the community gates were saying "How come we're we're having
all of these fire calls first aid calls police and everything going to the gated communities?" So this ordinance was put in place back then to to have the developers who basically reaped all the
benefits uh by profits and everything that they sold to to these develop developers made the profits from the residents that purchased these homes and you do your due diligence before you purchase these homes and there are some
residents that go into these communities with the 24/7 in mind so I'm I'm not saying which way I'm going as far as voting for or not voting for this but I'm I want to listen to the residents
because we did receive as our mayor said and and council president we've received many emails over the past couple months but it's also a concern of mine that if it's because of money as a fire commissioner which is a different hat I
wear money when we sit as on that board and panel you don't put money in place of of life and safety so when you when you look at it for dollars and cents that that's that's the wrong way to in my opinion is to to look at why are we
cutting this out i understand what what the fellow what my fellow council members and also our mayor saying about letting Stonebridge have the same rights and the responsibilities and the board have the same rights that all the other
14 communities have but there are some that cut it out uh they're 247 on their own and this kind of limits Stonebridge which I totally understand the reason why you guys keep coming to us and sending us emails and as our mayor said
none of us were on the council when when this was put in place but I was in I was in the audience like where where everyone is sitting today i was sitting there years ago and I know why this was put into place and it's for the safety
of the residents so it's something that I'm going to have an open mind to continue to listen to your testimony and what what everyone says and and I'm I'll make a decision based on as a real estate broker for 45 years as a resident
for a long time and I understand you do your due diligence when you purchase a home so thank you M councilman Vanzer please thank you Madam President i could probably make a strong argument either way on on this issue there are strong
arguments on both sides the one side obviously is uh this ordinance was in place when people bought there they may have had the expectation that that would be something that would remain in place on the other hand the other side is that
this association is run by a board of trustees that's elected by the people who live in that community and the members of that community do have a say in who they elect so if the uh council
was to support this ordinance and remove it it does not mean that the council is saying that uh the nurse has to leave 24/7 it means that the decision will be up to the board of trustees who are duly
elected by the people who live in that development the people that live in that development have every right to go to the board of trustees and to make their position known and you would hope that if they make their position known and if they believe that that having that nurse
in place then the board of trustees would go along with it so there's arguments on both sides i'll also listen to the people i do understand um but I I think this is something that uh um really there there's arguments on both
sides i will also listen and make my decision thank you i would just for the benefit of those who may not regularly attend council meetings this is the all ordinances are read twice so this is introduced
tonight it it has one more reading here and because of the nature of this ordinance it will also have to be acted upon at the planning board so that's the process cumbersome yes I see the look on
your face no no doubt cumbersome but that is the process that will be followed um we have the resolution item nine is resolutions for consideration under the consent agenda at the April 7th meeting
R42025-077 through R42025-102 i'm assuming all of us have reviewed the resolutions you have some that you would like just two just two please r42025-084 r42025-100 thank you anyone else have resolutions
they would like removed from the consent agenda then we have a separate res resolution R42025 of that I didn't notice 102 is the resolution introducing our budget pardon that's great
oh yes yes yes we will do that at the next one we're going to move to our public comment section it is limited to agenda items only people are remember you have five minutes per speaker this chair is
occupied your name and address for our records please good evening my name is Barbara Lavine 38 Timber Hill Drive i'm president of the HOA at Stonebridge i would like to thank the mayor and the
town council for placing the nurse ordinance back on the agenda for consideration and I'm sorry you will hear some repetition as we know when Stonebridge was built in 2006 it was designated a
PRC2 community therefore it was required to have a registered nurse 24 hours a day at that time there were no fire medical or emergency services near Stonebridge that situation has changed
significantly in 19 years currently there are 14 other 55 plus communities in Monroe none of them are required by ordinance to provide full-time nursing services some other communities offer full-time
nursing services some have partial and some have none these decisions were made by each respective community stonebridge does not have the option to make its own decision due to its current classification we are just asking to be
treated on par with the other Monroe communities let me stress the town council vote will not change our current 24-hour nursing coverage it will only remove the
township's requirement that we have such coverage if the ordinance is passed Stonebridge will be treated like the other 14 communities and then we would simply have the opportunity to discuss and determine the type of coverage that
best fits our community any possible future change to our nursing coverage must be approved by a twothirds vote of the entire community we know this is an emotional issue for residents on either side of the issue
our goal is only to get parody with the other communities thank you thank you sir please your name and address for our records gary Busman 7 Monarch Road Stonebridge so are we only talking about
Stonebridge this moment or we talking about the whole we're talking about this ordinance that was on but all of them or one of them all the other agenda items all the other ones first let me talk about Stonebridge remember you have five minutes I have five minutes very quickly
uh Mr van Doran explained concisely what the determination will be if and so that this ordinance is corrected and passed by the council it will go back and Barbara Lavine said the same thing to
twothirds vote within the community to decide what if anything they want to add delete or modify within the current proposal so having said that I am in support of this happening as long as it goes back to the residents to determine
the outcome that they desire my next item is can someone please explain to me uh just a minute the 007 talks
about appropriations to establish a cap budget how much Does this include as an increase to the current budget to meet cap requirements mr mcgowan please council President so um Mr busman this ordinance permits the
township permits all municipalities to exceed the appropriations cap of 2.5% by an additional percentage point up to 3.5% and that's what we are doing in our budget so we have to pass this ordinance before the budget will allow us to accomplish that just to reclassify
that it would increase you proposing an increase of 3% you're going to use that additional total of 3% or not our appropriations increase is 3.5% I believe yes okay uh thank you for that
now I'd like to go to 093 uh I want to compliment the township attorney the zoning board attorney of which I am a member of for the
completion of the SLC development if I said that incorrectly I said it incorrectly but we'll call it the Eagle's Nest that it's come to a conclusion in favor of the township
which is a winwin win win win uh I never understood when this first came up and I asked at that meeting I asked the uh attorneys for the developer how they missed this and they came up
with an unre reasonable response such as the farmer never told me so I told him that they were stupid for doing this cuz they would have have repercussions so once again thank the board thank the
attorneys thank everybody the business administrator the mayor for everybody that was resolved and I'm also proud of the fact that they resolved the issue against former mayor Gerald Tomuro who spoke up against this and they
challenged him and sued him in court which they lost thank you you're welcome sir yes I think two of you are coming up so just why don't you just have a seat up
here you have to walk back there's an empty chair over there thank you very much praash Purup 33 uh Dana Drive um I'm I want some uh you know comment i'll comment on R42025094
i'm glad that we are acquiring 33.6 acres of land on 330 schoolhouse road for $2 million so 33.6 2 million divided by
33.6 comes to about $54.6,000 per acre okay so as per the definition of open space playgrounds recreation area parks conservative areas
wildlife protection all fall under open space my request is we are paying $54.5,000 per acre have some request is have some land acquired or if you have some land acquired from senior center to
south of Monroe Township please uh we require playgrounds so open space can be converted into playgrounds so acquire some land uh for the playgrounds in that area and if already if the open space is
there in those areas give a priority because people are requesting ing south of senior center to have they need playgrounds and um far away they have parks and playground because Thompson Park is far away that Thompson Park is
not but recreation is on the other side of the town which we had recreation center in the center of the town I would have converted into uh you know township center so that is the request um any comments I'm ready to hear that
and another one is I'm I think the budget will be presented next month to the public i appreciate that but I'm not expert in reading all that 41 pages uh the bottom line is uh what is going what is going to be proposed municipal budget
in millions i know the school budget we don't have control but is I think it is $153 million and I think we are paying 85 or 70% of that and so municipal budget you know entire you know budget comes under
municipal budget district budget school budget fire district budget so many classifications so can anyone summarize what is the million dollar number we are proposing again council president so And the mayor is going to provide a budget message
during his report as well but the budget I I believe there are copies that are here there are copies on our website tonight is just for introduction and we'll have a budget hearing but just to answer your question um council president so the the um the total budget for Monroe for this year as you'll see
from the handouts is uh 76 million 76.4 million uh that's that's our budget for this year we make up um 18% of everyone's property tax in terms of the municipal um the municipal part of the budget uh I'll appreciate if the mayor
is presenting I'll uh listen to it thank you very much sir your name and address for our record hi my name is Bob Lavine 85 Timber Hill Drive Monroe here uh I'm part of Stonebridge and I just wanted to clarify a couple of things with council vice
president could you talk the rest of them i just wanted to clarify because I heard words that came out when you were saying you weren't sure first of all I'm in favor of keeping the nurses forever but I'm I'm a math major and everything is black and white to me and the and it's very simple with the you have to
make it equal to everyone from an ordinance standpoint but what you said is that the board can make the choice and I just wanted to clarify the board has no choice in deciding for us whether we keep nurses or not we vote on it okay i Well I know you said that okay but I
was just clarifying that because that's not how you phrased it early and I wanted to make sure thank you okay uh just to point that out and as far as Councilman I was I moved in in 2010 and there was a lot of restrictions as well that Lenar put on us and told us about
it so I had no problem about the nurse but I did not know nor were we told at the time nor was anyone told that the other district was not under the same ordinance as us so that's why I'm saying even though I'm going to vote always to
keep nurses at some level the the fairness of a black and white situation what's good for one is good for another in our in our township thank you thank you for your comments ma'am okie dokie who's going first yes that's
good your name and address for our records please my name is Ava Baron i live at 113 Cobblestone Boulevard in Stonebridge i have been a resident of Stonebridge for nine years and I'm also a former Stonebridge HOA board
member i thank you for providing me with the opportunity to speak to you tonight regarding this ordinance that requires the Stonebridge HOA to provide nurse services on a 24-hour basis can you hear me okay it's a little difficult if you talk a little louder um okay we have
trouble hearing and that's not good uh I applaud the current Stonebridge board of directors for their willingness to listen to the views of all Stonebridge residents on this matter and for attempting to uh create a solution that
would uh satisfy um all or at least most of Stonebridge residents the existing ordinance requires that Stonebridge maintain a registered nurse on staff 24 excuse
me 247 the annual cost of providing these services is approximately $440,000 this constitutes a very large portion of the Stonebridge HOA budget and is one of our single largest
expenditures excuse me yet currently Stonebridge residents have no voice in what nursing services properly serve our needs by contrast residents in all 14
similar communities in Monroe are free to decide what nursing services will be offered and they can tailor them in ways that they consider best suits their needs in this regard the existence ordinance is unfair to Stonebridge
residents indeed the disparity of Stonebridge um the treatment of of the township's uh ordinance is so um uh unglaringly unfair that Stonebridge residents have queried me to explain to them how it could even be legal for a
township ordinance to be so discriminatory i am aware that some Stonebridge residents who support retaining the existing ordinance provide personal stories about how the nurse may have helped save them or a loved
one but as emotionally compelling as these stories are they tend to divert our attention away from other valid questions that should be addressed the issue is not whether stone whether Stonebridge should have nursing services
and whether or not they are actually beneficial those are questions that actually need to be addressed and should be addressed by the Stonebridge community if h but in having a nurse available on a 247 basis actually is
necessary to save lives shouldn't we conclude that all other 55 plus HOA communities in Monroe similarly have such service to protect its residents are HOAs that do not provide a 247 nursing service being negligent by not
protecting their own residents with such nursing services moreover if the township accepts the claim that having a 24-hour nursing services is in fact a life or death necessity as some claim it might
be then shouldn't the township conclude that such nursing services be required of all its HOAs at this juncture our uh our Sbridge board rightly raises what we should pay attention to the fundamental question
that needs to be addressed by this man by this council will the township grant Stonebridge the same right to determine its nursing services as all other 55 plus HOAs in Monroe Township or will it
continue a policy that is glaring in its disparit impact on Stonebridge i ask that the council keep in mind that the Stonebridge Board's request to amend the ordinance does not mean that the Stonebridge HOA will
eliminate its nursing services far from it what it does mean is that Stonebridge residents themselves will make this decision bear in mind that the Stonebridge board established a very high bar to make any
change to existing nursing services eliminating or even modifying existing services will require the votes of twothirds of Stonebridge residents that is a very high
bar a burden extremely difficult to overcome in other words any change to our nursing services would occur only if a substantial consensus among Stonebridge residents emerged you've reached your time limit okay thank you thank you for
your comments your name and address for our records please stanley Fischer 112 Timber Hill Drive uh regardless of the outcome of this issue I thank the mayor and the town council members for raising their
hands and serving all of us in the community uh as to this issue it appears to be an uphill battle for some of us but I'm a Jets fan i'm used to that our board is saying to you that nothing will be changed and you just heard it without approval of twothirds of all the
residents however this 2/3 requirement is included in our HOA's board resolution that they sent you requesting the amendment but it is not in the amendment itself and
several attorneys have told us that this could be changed by this or any other future board they could come back in the future in six months and say why do we need twothirds why not just a simple majority or why should anybody vote why
not let the board itself decide on everyone's behalf the board could have asked the township to codify the twothirds requirement as part of the amendment so as to preclude this or a future board from changing its mind but
they did not we stand opposed to the amendment but at a minimum it should have or if you should consider it again in the future a provision codifying the 23 requirement and this should not be
controversial in other communications with you they have said that 53% of the community voted in a survey to eliminate this mandate the survey was originally sent out to homeowners email
addresses wi which meant that a two person a two address household which is most of us uh received two votes a one address household be it a single person or couples sharing an address got only one vote and if you didn't register your
email address with the with the board you got no votes uh so this was not a fair survey furthermore this was a push poll when they introduced the survey to the community they said the board's
position to eliminate the mandate you don't do that if you want it to be impartial the bigger problem however well I spoke about this being a pu a push pull in its release of the survey to the survey results to the
community they said that 53% of the residents wanted to eliminate the mandate that was completely untrue it was 53% of the respondents and when you consider the large number of people who
didn't get to participate we estimate that it was somewhere between 26 and 30% who wanted to eliminate the mandate that's hardly a a significant amount perhaps the most egregious when I spoke
about the 53% uh also when they asked the question how about the mandate you either re you wanted to keep the mandate or reject the mandate and they failed to tell you and
they failed to tell point out to the residents that when you were actually checking off the eliminate mandate box they added seven additional words after that which will not affect our nursing services now the only way the the
primary reason people want to reduce or eliminate services is to save money the only way you're saving money is to reduce the services so this was a fallacy that they communicated to you
sadly residents who came here a year ago are unable to be here tonight because of significant health issues i as a person who spent his working career as a CPA and financial executive measured issues always in
dollars and cents and I can tell you for those not here tonight and indeed for all of us this is not such an issue this is one of life and death in lives made better years well enjoyed and lived as full as possible with much of our thanks
going to the wonderful team of nurses we have at Stonebridge uh thank you for listening and I appreciate your service anyone else wishing to address us please come forward your name and address for our records
please good evening lucio Panos 1208 C Lindera Plaza Monroe regarding ordinance 007 to ex to exceed the municipal budget appropriation what specifically caused
uh this to happen what specific bills 1% is a lot of money you didn't do a quarter you're not proposing a quarter percent or a half percent a 1% increase over the limit is doesn't seem right to me so are there specific issues that
prompted this mca you want to answer that or have Miss Bizola answer that sure lori do you want to lori you want to answer that please every year every every year we do this ordinance in order to be able to store some of our
the money that we're not spending so it's a it's a cap it's a bank that we put aside every year so if you look at sheet 3B on the the budget form you'll see it all spelled out for you and it shows that each year we were able to bank about
$500,000 and not use it we're not This isn't ex adding money to what we're spending this is giving us the ability that if something changed if there was some kind of emergency and say next year we needed to increase our budget for
whatever reason that we had this bank put away we haven't used it and you can see it all spelled out on sheet 3B it still doesn't make sense to me i think we should stay within our limits we We are not exceeding our limits i'm sorry i didn't mean to interrupt you
then why even propose this okay i disagree i I just think it's we certainly have the right to disagree yeah and just to add council president this is something that that we do every year and that many if not most municipalities provide themselves that flexibility
okay i I still disagree it doesn't seem right is your right of course yes sir your name and address for our record rothbart 91 Diamond Spring Drive happens to be in Stonebridgeidge self-determination and fairness the
issue on which many of you in front of me said you are going to decide this matter stonebridge decided for itself by invoking the provisions of PRC2 with more than 600 homes that
require a nurse every one of us who moved in over the last 17 years either knew or should or should have known of our zoning ordinance provision that a nurse was
required by the township so everyone here decided they made their own determination previously there's no reason to give anyone a doover it was
done we relied on it we moved in and I think we're entitled to it why is the mic now just because no one would you lean back a little further from the mic i'm sorry we're hearing your voice i'm unaccustomed to Don't apologize none of us seem to do really
well with mics we need a class mike the fact that no other community is required by the township at this time to have a nurse doesn't make this the ordinance
unfair to Stonebridge which or to its residents who got exactly what they wanted and it's a very nice community and they're pleased to live there now it was reckless for Stone Bridg's
board to say that there's no longer a rational basis for or no longer a rationale for a nurse or that she is obsolete supposedly because of urgent care facilities and
our EMS services the urgent care facilities are open less than half of the time as our nurse office do not come to your home and tell you not to go to them if you have an emergency can you
hear me properly yes I can thank you ems is wonderful but neither the nurse nor EMS replace each other they do different things they help each
other now the survey that was taken was actually a push poll geared to obtain the response sought by the board nonetheless the results showed an underwhelming 6% margin for residents
who responded that they wanted to eliminate the nurse at most we are a divided community and certainly there is no mandate to revoke the mandate of the
ordinance that just is not the case fourth the Stonebridge resolution says that if the township revokes its nurse protection Stonebridge will not change nursing services without the vote of
twothirds homeowners now unfortunately any board has the same power as a prior board to change a resolution generally uh Stan Fiser mentioned that if indeed
you want to you do decide to elim to uh allow the mandate to be suspended or eliminated by a twothirds vote you can simply add a paragraph to the amendment you don't have to do away with it
finally Stonebridge proved that it is possible to obtain the votes of a twothird majority electronic voting is permitted and the election that was held was not closed until sufficient votes were cast
so they had twothirds it wasn't on the nurse issue it was on a different issue but twothirds is a real is something that could be very real so this is what we're discussing now is not academic even if a vote should be held of the
residents the nurse could be restricted or eliminated as a possibility and we came here with the understanding and assurance by this township that we would live in a community with a nurse we could have gone anywhere in within
Monroe Township it's a lovely place to live sure now by conclusion the nurse and the ordinance have served us well for 17 years insufficient facts or and no expert analysis is given sorry your time
is up i thank you for your comments let's close it your name and address for our records please sorry good evening it's Can you hear me i can hear you uh my name is Chrissy Scurby i live at 21 PNEST Drive um I
wanted to just address uh this ordinance uh proposal change um I moved my mother to Monroe after my father died when Stonebridge was first um when the idea of Stonebridge was first brought forward and we waited online to be one of the
first to put down a deposit on her home where she's been living ever since and we looked at many adult communities throughout Monroe and having a 24-hour nurse was very important for her she was only in her 60s at that time now she's 80 she had COPD she's on oxygen and that
nurse has come to my mother's home um in the middle of the night and has been very beneficial for her and I know a lot of her friends as well um the nurse in the middle of the night has been very beneficial too i think we need to not look at this as about fairness we need
to look at why this ordinance was put in place by Mayor Pooie and that council back in 2002 this side of Monroe where I live in W 2 was not developed at all there was no Oak Tree School there was no Monroe Chase there was no Monroe
Manor across 33 nothing existed southfield did not exist um Colts Run did not exist federal did not even go through to Pineville from Applegarth it was all farmlands and if you look at what we see
now when we drive down Applegarth Road with all of these new communities I have no idea how many it has to be thousands upon thousands of new residents that have come in that was planned that was in a master plan the township council and the mayor knew that building was
going to take place this ordinance was put in place and Lonar had a choice they did not have to build a 950 unit development they could have built 599 homes and this ordinance would not have
pertained to them they decided to go for maximum revenue and they built over the 600 and now they have they had to conform to this ordinance that was a decision of the builder and like other residents have said every
single person that bought was told that there would be a 24-hour nurse and it was mandated by the the township to take that away from these residents now that is not fair everybody who bought knew that that was what they were having and you need
to as a council look at why the ordinance was put in place what does this mean to outside of the gates of Stonebridge i I've emailed a couple of questions how many towns does Monroe EMS currently respond to as a primary EMS or
backup if you overturn the ordinance and Stonebridge decides to not have a 24-hour a day nurse what do you have you done any research into the influx of calls to 911 in war how will the rest of
the town be affected by you repealing this ordinance do you have other questions uh yes um I just would like to know how you can sit here and and cast a vote if you have not looked into all of that
information and we have two council people here that I know Mr markle and Mrs seagull you were not here in living in Monroe Township when this ordinance was put in place and I really think you need to go back and look at the history of why this was done would you please
address your comments to me and not to individual council people please thank you sure um I think it's very important to understand the impact the reasons why this this ordinance was not put in place to hurt residents in Stonebridge or to
punish them there was a real planning reason behind this by former councils and a former mayor and and I think that before you decide to overturn that ordinance you really have to do your due diligence to understand why that was put in place this isn't just about fairness
this is about understanding your role and understanding why this township for this many years had an ordinance in place for the township for EM to and if you want to talk about EMS services like
I said none of these developments existed so currently RMS is second to none it is amazing my family has had to utilize it they have been amazing but there is a you can see every
day i mean we see our ambulances up and down Applegart they are they are definitely working very hard um and I just want to know what you think the increase will be on them and if that has been explored thank you yeah thank you
and if I could get an answer to some of my questions sir may I take a moment and introduce to those of you who do not know our director of EMS services from Monroe Township in reference to your question on uh primary we are primary for Monroe
Township only we have no signed agreements with any other town we do provide mutual aid services but it's on a as needed basis and pending on call volume so we do turn calls back to other towns we will not send our last truck out so we do keep our last truck in town
and available at all times um and we have sent trucks to other towns and have recalled them back if our volume picked up and how many towns do we do that with anybody around us so it's mutual aid we don't It's anybody that calls around so we've had towns from East Brunswick
Spotswood that call for us and if we have somebody available we'll send them if not we turn the call back to them so not having agreements allows us to do that so we don't have primary response to anybody except for Monroe okay in reference to the call volume with some
of the changes that some of the other communities have made we have not seen any increase in call volume that was dramatic that they got rid of their night so now all of a sudden we see an influx of calls it there's remained the same we've been looking back through the numbers and if we had to make changes we would move trucks around and add crews
if needed so just to answer your question and about the call volume and how things which communities were those that took their 24-hour Rosmore took their nurse down from midnights and 3 to 11s and I believe they put one 9 to5 now
and then Whittingham just recently got rid of their midnight nurse and the rest have a 24-hour nurse uh no only Clearbrook and Concordia I believe are the two that have 24 okay so Clearbrook Concordia and Stonebridge have 24-hour nurses yes ma'am okay i I really hope that you will consider um not changing
the ordinance thank you thank you for your comments your name and address for our Yes my name is Mark Schiffman at I live at 184 Diamond Spring Drive in Stonebridge and I totally agree with what that lady just said and let me say
this about our EMT services here in Monroe Township because I know something about it my son was an EMT early in his career his wife also was an EMT so I do know something about it from a personal standpoint they do provide excellent
services but we definitely need nursing services at night to supplement and even during the daytime to supplement our own EMTs because as good as they are they
don't arrive at our homes like that they don't and many times it's more than just that it's that and for whatever reason because maybe they're off serving other people and I have personally seen that
happen and I know also many I know people in our community whose spouses or partners were saved by our nurses at various times of the day not just during the day but at night by our
nurses and I saw it one h one incident happened just about a year ago when our nurse arrived where somebody was hurt and she served and served it served that person very very well and by the way she
herself called 911 when I went running to get her and she called 911 she arrived to help that woman that was injured and she did a great job the first arrival came a few minutes
after the incident was reported by 911 but it wasn't an EMT it was the fire department minutes went by and finally the EMT got there and the EMT wagon whatever the the truck
whatever you want the vehicle and and they did a great job too but thank goodness the nurse was there and I know for a fact as I said that the nurses have done similar life-saving work before an EMT came and
it wasn't years ago in the early days it was in the last 10 years so there's a big difference and what you said earlier is very important would you please address your comments to me i'm sorry thank you okay i ap I apologize i don't have to apologize the
other the the other thing is you know and not to get political but on the national scene terrible things are happening to healthcare nationally but not locally in Monroe okay no hold on hold on a second hold on a second hold on a second make me do this what I'm
saying what I'm saying is that there are other reasons why this is being done why is the board endorsing the notion of eliminating the current ordinance they they Folks
I have had Would you let him speak i have had private please i have Thank you i have had private conversations with board members a couple of months ago and the notion came about the reason is what they want to do is cut back on nursing
services the quality of the level of nursing services particularly in the in the nighttime hours they want to lower the servicemen nurse down to a different level i think that's wrong and maybe things have changed in the last couple
of months but that's the reason to save money similar to what the excuse is on the national level not discussing national i know but I'm just saying it's a it's a similarity and I think that's I think this the council ought to think of regardless of your party just think of
what's best for the people just like all the council people were saying that earlier what's best for the people what is best for the people and so many of residents deliberately moved into Stonebridge because of 24-hour nursing
services don't undermine that notion now what is going to happen to these people because god forbid something bad happens to one of them and an unforeseen accident occurs and it takes a little while for an EMT to come in and do a
great job but in the meantime there should be a nurse there tending to that person there really should be and that's that's a really basic point and our people really want so many people really want to maintain the
24-hour nurses so thank you very much yeah thank good evening council member Paul Unish 10 Aqueduct Road Stonebridge Development good evening council president and council members and mayor as a past Stonebridge board member I
appreciate the efforts that Monroe Township oversees like the police fire EMS EMT water sewage and other township departments but please stay out of our private HOE let us decide what we want
and when we want to have it thank you folks sir your name and address for our records please yes michael FR 119 Timber Hill Drive Stonebridge sir uh this is a
a a situation where a few people have gotten together and are not looking what's best for the community what's best for the community is for the community to make decisions for themselves as far as we have the best EMTs we have the best fire departments
and we have the best police as you know Councilman Diapro you're a commissioner in one i'm a commissioner in two and and the fact is that they've changed responses fire department is now
responding to certain calls unresponsive unconscious they're also responding with EMTs the EMTs uh I'm always in the firehouse and I will tell you that I talk to the EMTs and I say "Did the nurse show up was the
nurse ever there?" No we took care of it ourselves i'm not saying there's not i am for a nurse personally I am for a nurse but I want to tell you I believe very strongly that the community should make its own decision and take this out of the town's hands it's more
importantly that we have parody with everybody else that's the most important thing thank you thank you for your comments sir your name and address for our records please good evening howard Anon 129 Timber Hill Drive Stonebridge
resident um I'd like to keep my comments away from the emotion of the whole situation and that speaks to the you know most of the situation here two things and only two things a suggestion was made earlier by one of the speakers
that the um um it should the um I'm not sure I'm sorry the process here one of the first times I've been here the ordinances the ordinance might um include some provision about Stone
Bridg's use of the nurse that was pres that was a suggestion that was made why does why does New ordinance includes something specific about um Sbridge and and the nursing
services to do so would also just m just um create the same situation that exists now it would not be the same ordinance that applies to everybody you're not about to pass an audience that re that reintroduces a situation different than
how it applies to all the other communities in so it either it sort of either we are free to make these decisions or not but more practically and you can see it demonstrated by the emotion here that exists in the community as well practically speaking
aside from all of the conversations here with this high level of emotion about the use of the the nurse and that without specificity the mere fact that any board at at um Stonebridge that would seek to
eliminate the nurse would be a very short-lived board clearly the community wants to have a nurse as was mentioned how that works whether it's exactly the same as is now or otherwise the fact remains that
emotion runs so strong as I said no board would exist for very long if they were to do something that was contrary to the wishes of the community and the community cares about the nursing services so I just think some of the emotion that goes on here
and the stories that are told are all real people have experienced those kinds of things but it's a very simple thing the ordinance has to apply equally the pro the requirement has to either exist or not exist equally among all the
communities and same time the re realistically stonebridge board and the community is not likely to ever allow it was the stonebridge board that um offered up to twothirds majority as
opposed to major majority equal half plus one so the mere fact that they created such a high standard was to ensure the fact that it would be very difficult if ever to secure a change in the current process
thank you for your comments ma'am your name and address for our records please my name is Debbie Pavlichko i live at 182 Diamond Spring Drive in Stonebridge i wanted to say I've been listening to what a lot of people are saying and I agree with well let me put it this way
um into the mic please okay the board has said that they are not for changing the current nursing services they also say they do not support the removal of nursing services however they are speaking for the board as they are today there will be boards in the future who
may not agree with that changing this requirement opens the door for that change and it's been said here that people bought their homes with the idea that they would have 24 hours nursing services and feeling that that was a
comforting thing for them my husband and I bought it that way and yes there are a lot of stories in the community about people who have had issues and I will say this a number of years ago my husband had heart surgery in New York City he came home he was recuperating
and then one morning he just did not feel well and like we all do we say "Oh it's not that bad i'll give it some time maybe I'll feel better because it's a Saturday morning and the doctor's not in the office." Well he went to the nurse's office and she determined immediately
that he not only needed to go to the emergency room he needed to be transported by ambulance i couldn't drive him she said "No he's going by ambulance." He went to the emergency room and he had to be sent by medical transport back to the hospital in New
York City where he had the surgery he recovered but I believe my husband believed that she saved his life that day her quick determination and assessing his situation saved his life now yes I'm all for saving money i I
economize for myself but when you start to put a dollar amount on people's lives and yes it may not happen every day every week every month the statistics may be low but statistics are numbers we're talking about people the EMTs
serve Monroe Township and Stonebridge the nurse serves Stonebridge our residents who she gets to know she knows some of their medical history which allows her to make a quicker determination so again I say that I
understand the the idea of fairness however we boast about the amenities of Stonebridge what a big clubhouse we have and we have a big pool and we have this and we have that but we can also boast about that 24-hour nursing care the young woman who was up here and spoke
about her mother her mother is alone so we don't all have our spouses with us some of us are alone and when something happens we want to be able to get help to our house quickly because we don't have someone to assist us
so please consider this when you do that this is a safeguard and you cannot put a dollar amount i don't I didn't put a dollar amount on my husband's life i can't put it on my neighbor's life i hope my neighbor never needs to have emergency services but if he does I want
to think that when she gets there she's going to determine things quickly and she's going to help him get the care that he needs at that point and I know the EMTs are great but as I said the nurse serves the res residents
946 homes people who are getting older who have health issues who live alone and as I said the board may not feel that they want to make any changes but next year's board or the board after that they have the ability to do that
then and it's a concern for a lot of us so I ask you to please consider that when you go over this and a lot of the points that have been brought up um at this point at this meeting thank you for your comments ma'am thank you sir yes your name is Peter my name is Peter Andy
Rose 62 Drawbridge Drive um I think this goes a little bit more than just the nurses services it's home rule it's more than just the nurses let's not just con concentrate on that it's everything else it's an ordinance
yes to the nurses but can be to anything else we at Stonebridge have right to determine our own course this also has to do with my I could be wrong but I think title 39 comes into effect as well so it's not just the nurses it's the
concept of home rule thank you you're welcome ma'am your name and address for our records please yes my name is Glendabella can everybody hear me yes I can hear you okay my name is Glendabella and I live with my husband Paul at 14
Cobblestone Boulevard the last time I spoke to the board was in June 2024 speaking to the Monroe Township board for me is leaping out of my comfort zone because I prefer being home having dinner with my husband Paul and
little poodle who's usually perched on a kitchen chair eyeing my dinner with neverending hope that I'll forget he just ate his own dinner i'm talking about my dog not my husband there uh this agenda item is of great important
to us personally here's a little backstory on why I say this 17 years ago we traveled from our home in Colombia Maryland to search for a location closer to my daughter's home in West Windsor we
found three communities that offered many of the advantage we would enjoy for living a good life in our senior years and the advantages were all very similar it was going to be a difficult choice because the communities that we were
focusing on had similar advantages we tried to read the documents given to us by the communities we were considering as well as the township documents so we did do due diligence it was a daunting task until
we discovered the zoning ordinance that affected Stonebridge one of the communities we were considering hallelujah that was the deal maker for us not only would we have a nurse on site 247 but we were assured that the
benefit of an on-site nurse was here to stay and not likely to disappear with the passing of time i'm speaking to you tonight because with the passing of time this is what happened to me and Paul and
many of our neighbors we got older the nurse became one more insurance for us if and when something related to a health issue happened in our lives we could call on the nurse and her or his response would be immediate
i'm speaking to you tonight because Paul and I feel as if the rug has been pulled out from under us or to put it another way picture yourself at the fifth floor window of a burning building there is a wall of fire blocking the stairway the
firemen holding the safety net below are shouting "Jump jump." So you step into the void glance down and the safety net is no longer
there just picture that it wasn't there when you gathered your courage to jump well that may not be the best analogy but that is how I think rules regulations
contracts law all can be modified but it's my belief that this on occasion needs to be very carefully considered it could save a life one day or maybe it
already has and that's what I have to say we thank you for your comments ma'am thank you for your time sir your name and address for our records please good evening my name is Bernard Meyer and my address is 155 Cobblestone Boulevard at Stonebridge uh been a Stonebridgeidge
resident uh about eight about 8 years um a lot of comments tonight i'm going to try to keep my my remarks uh brief good uh a lot of issues a lot of opinions have been offered tonight but I I think it should not obscure shouldn't obiscate the fact that there are two basic issues
before us the first the first issue is whether Stonebridge should be subject subject to a requirement that does not apply to any other gated community in in our area i have not heard anything
tonight i have not heard one logical compelling reason as to why Stonebridge is subject to this requirement the second issue and it's certainly related is the level of medical service that st that stonebridge
is willing to provide and for which its residents are willing to pay and that is certainly very important i've heard that tonight and that's a legitimate concern i think some of the people who have expressed their objection to this
amendment feel that if the amendment is passed it is simply a prelude to a following discussion on the the level of service uh medical services that are going to be provided whether they're going to be continued or modified or eliminated that's a legitimate concern
and at some point down the road that cons that that discussion may well take place however that is legitimately a something for the commu for the board and ultimately for the community residents to decide we're not discussing
whether we provide services tonight or what lives are being saved we are discussing first whether Stonebridge should be subject subject to this requirement and following that the community will make a decision this is a country in which we have majority rule i
do not believe that the board having gone before the community and this council with a commitment to require twothirds of the members not voting people but twothirds of the members of the entire community are going to reneg
on that it's not going to happen and as a previous uh speaker noted twothirds is a very high bar it can be reached but it's a high bar it's considered a super majority and if at some future point the
community decides it that's then we have to live with that decision because that's what a super majority of of the community wanted to do but I urge you tonight to pass this amendment because there there is simply when all of the
talk is said and done we haven't heard anything tonight that would that would convince us why Stonebridge should be uniquely subjected to this requirement thank you thank you for your comments star your name and address for our
records my name is Alan Tannenbal i live at 26 Diamond Spring Drive in Stonebridge um actually I agree with this gentleman who uh who just spoke but I happen to be a cardiologist and a fire commissioner in
District 2 um short and sweet we're not here to debate whether we need a nurse or not nobody is saying that we don't need a nurse the stories are very nice uh the nurse did this the nurse did that i'm sure she's she she supplies
compassion to people and uh and and and she does what she's supposed to do but our medical system in in storm in uh district 2 especially uh if the EMTs can't respond to a call the fire department responds to the call all our firefighters our paid firefighters are
EMTs in district 2 and they do respond to all the calls if the EMTs can't respond so the the the the care is there and they can be there we live 2 minutes across the street from from the fire department they can be there in 2 minutes so the again we're not debating
whether we need a nurse nobody is saying that we do not need a nurse we probably do need a nurse but we we're debating whether we have the right to decide whether we need a nurse and for how long we need the nurse and and that's that's the main issue all these stories about
how the nurse saved my life and and and this and that that's fine and and I believe all that the nurses are very they do a terrific job but that's not the issue the issue is whether we should choose whether we need a nurse or not and and that's that's the bottom line
and there's no there's nothing else to say thank you for your comment sir my name is Ellen Panzer Schwarz i live at 19 London Drive i usually don't uh comment on things but this is my wheelhouse health care is my
wheelhouse house healthc care is the thing that's so important to me i moved to a senior community here uh six years ago i moved with my husband and then I also moved my mother in who had uh
complicated health issues the first thing I have to say is I've never lived in an HOA kind of a community before and I've never lived in a senior community before and I will say that the running in mine which is not Stonebridge it's Greenbryer Whittingham
has been an organization where I feel that the residents are standing up for their rights i don't see any community within and I have to tell you my parents lived in Concordia so Monroe and senior communities I've known about
um all of these communities these senior communities are phenomenal and at at their apex are looking at the health care and the welfare of their citizens and in listening to what's been going on
I agree with everyone the importance of having quality EMS quality health care people that are looking out for you people that you can reach at any time and in my life and I was doctor for
sports for New York City I had a call in the Bronx or in Manhattan and and get people to find me in the streets sometime i've never had more quality care than in Monroe Township when it came to healthcare in my own community
our nurses wonderful everyone should be calling 911 first and that's the most important key the times as a physician that I've seen the problem is where we call the nurse first or a friend instead
of calling 911 first i myself don't touch a person even if I have to do CPR I don't touch them until I call 911 because I can't do it for three more hours that being said I think again
healthc care is the most important and I extend all of my heart to all of you but this is a decision of community and in Greenbryer we do have a community i go in front of the HOA and argue my points
on things i also talk to my neighbors about points that I have to get them involved getting your neighbors involved is important but the bottom line is you should be directing your own and I cannot see in any of the senior
communities that any HOA or any community would not respect the health care of their neighbors and their friends and not respect that you are the most protected people and I think this is the best place and I want to give
congratulations also to the entire healthcare community and thank you to the EMS thank you i really hate microphones there is a We have 24hour power medics here
from Robert Wood Johnson that is stationed in Monroe Township and they are here all the time that is their job we are their job we have them yes yep thank you sir your
name and address for our records my name is William Waldman i'm a resident of Stonebridge at 234 Diamond Spring Drive uh this is an issue in which I feel strongly about the access of health care
to myself and my community however I also feel strongly that there should be a majority rule a democratic choice that is made it's one of the core values of our country our state and our town we vote for things and I feel very strongly
that even though I would I would not want to lose a nurse I feel it's irresponsible to make that have someone else make that decision so I would urge all of you to think about that i I don't want to overestimate this or underestimate this but there's a cost to
us if we didn't have the nurse we'd pay less in maintenance i think it's one of the best investments we make but on on the other hand I I don't want to make that for everybody else and I don't think um the the town in its ordinances
should make that decision for everyone else thank you i do not wish to stifle public comment but there is another comment section at the end of our regular meeting please bear that in mind as we still have the rest of our agenda
to go through for the regular meeting sorry your name and address for our Thank you herb Freighic 14 Aqueduct Road in Stonebridge uh I'll be quick i I don't really want to repeat any of the arguments that have been made but I think it's important that those
arguments be put into perspective perspective being that there are about 50 or so members here tonight perhaps more who have very good arguments very uh you know thoughtful arguments uh to
support their position but there are 950 homes in Stonebridge and what is important is that the entirety of the community should have the opportunity to make the decision not the strong views held by the 50 or so people who are here
tonight but rather the entirety of the community twothirds vote is going to be required so it's going to require over 600 homes to be supportive of changing any kind of uh nursing services so that was the one point I wanted to make the
other point has to do with the fact that of the 14 other communities and that have the right to uh make their own decisions regarding nursing services uh we heard tonight that 12 of them have decided not to have full-time nurses only two of them have uh nursing
services 24 hours what's fair is that we Stonebridge also be given the opportunity to make that decision like those other 12 uh uh communities that decided not to have a a
full-time nurse thank you if you have We are all done at this moment for this first public comment section going to entertain a motion to close public comment please motion may I have a second on that all in favor i anyone say nay may I have
a motion may I have a motion excuse me excuse me council President may we take a fivem minute break before we agenda can I close the meeting second second second call roll call councilman Zapiro yes
councilman Markeel yes councilwoman Seagull yes please which we actually have a meeting council Vice President Vanzora yes council President Cohen yes we are taking a 5m minute break we are
adjourned the time is 8:17 2025 is called to order at what time 8:25 motion second councilman Dapiro yes councilman Markell yes councilwoman Seagull yes council
Vice President Vanora Council President Cohen so moved second councilman Diapro yes councilman Markell yes councilwoman Seagull yes council Vice President Vansora Council President
Cohen Motion carries so moved second second councilman Dapiro yes councilman Markell yes councilwoman Seagull yes council Vice President Vanzora yes council President Cohen yes motion carries
406,000 morning new Jersey motion to open a public hearing on the ordinance please motion second second anyone wishing to address the council on this ordinance please come forward now seeing and hearing none I'll entertain a
motion to close the public hearing motion second second thank you motion to adopt please motion sec thank you second second thank you roll call councilman Diapro yes councilman Markell yes
councilwoman Seagull yes council Vice President Vanzora yes council President Cohen yes motion carries ordinance for first reading 042025-00007 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank motion
please motion thank you second second thank you roll call councilman Zapiro yes councilman Markell yes councilwoman Seagull yes council Vice President Vanzora yes council President Cohen yes motion carries thank you
042025-00008 Ordinance authorizing the acceptance of one property known as block 52 lot 2.05 Buckaloo Schoolhouse for Fire Department easement motion please motion second second thank you a roll call
councilman Zapiro yes councilman Markell yes councilwoman Seagull yes council Vice President Vanzora yes council President Cohen yes motion carries thank you 042025-00009 ordinance approving the traffic signal improvements for Applegarth Road and Joan Warren Way
motion motion thank you second on that second roll call councilman Dapiro yes councilman Markell yes councilwoman Seagull yes council Vice President Vanzora yes council President Cohen
thank you 04 motion carries motion carries sorry 042025-010 ordinance amending the code of the township of Monroe under chapter 108 section 6.23 to amend the medical facility requirement in the plan retirement
community district 2 parenthetical PRC2 may I have a motion motion to move this forward second second second may I have a roll call councilman Depiro yes councilman Markell yes councilwoman Seagull yes council
Vice President Vanzora yes council President Cohen yes motion carries would the clerk please do the resolutions for consideration under the consent agenda r4 2025077 through R4
2025102 with the exception of R4 202584 100 and 102 which is the introduction of the budget which will be considered separately may I have a motion please motion may I
have a second second roll call councilman Shapiro yes councilman Markell yes councilwoman Seagull yes council Vice President Vanzora yes council President Cohen yes motion carries we'll do R4
uh 84 first resolution R42025084 motion motion please motion second thank you roll call councilman Dapiro abstain councilman Markell yes councilwoman Seagull yes council Vice President
Vanzora yes council President Cohen we have to do the B resolution separately yes motion carries yes we have to do that now resolution R4 2025 100 motion motion
please moved second second roll call councilman Depiro abstain councilman Markell yes councilwoman Seagull yes council Vice President
Vanzora yes council President Cohen yes now resolution R4 2025102 that's a resolution introducing the 2025 municipal budget motion please motion second second roll call
councilman Diapro yes councilman Markell yes councilwoman Seagull yes council Vice President Vanzora council President Cohen yes motion carries resolutions removed for the consent agenda for consideration please may I have a motion
so moved second second roll call a Oh we're doing A's and A's we're done yeah we're done sorry sorry we move to council reports we have an administrator's report mr mcgawan your first one is the administrator thank you
Council President and uh I just want to start by thanking the mayor uh for this appointment and uh as well as the council and I am actually going to physically turn my business administrator placard um and thanks very much to the council
for this my mother's going to be so proud she's watching at home right now um I also just wanted to give a a brief update on um affordable housing for for all of us so um as you may remember the 2024 affordable housing legislation
established the procedure for municipalities to calculate their round four obligation in compliance with the statute's new program the township's affordable housing planner calculated Monroe Township's uh perspective need number at the January 29th meeting
presented that to the township to the council I should say this is just the raw number of how many affordable housing units um that the township would need to um um zone for over the next 10-year period the council um adopted
the planners calculation at 378 which as you remember was dramatically lower than the 751 units that the DCA had recommended to u to Monroe Township as we updated last month there were two challenges to
our um affordable housing calculation the process not to get too deep into the weeds but the process allows for challengers to challenge the calculation on the overall number of units the New Jersey Builders Association was one of those who challenged seeking 751 units
for Monroe and the Fair Share Housing Center which is a nonprofit uh housing advocacy group also filed a challenge um all the parties were ordered to mediation with a retired judge assigned to this new program through the legislation the Builder Association has
now withdrawn their challenge and Mayor Delina has spoken about their disingenuous efforts to overbuild as much housing as possible and the township was able um over the last month to come to a reasonable what we believe is a reasonable settlement with fair
share housing um to adjust our perspective needs slightly up to 460 this is much closer than the to the township's calculation of 371 than it was to the DCA's recommendation of
751 it's also in dramatically lower than the 1133 units that we were court-ordered to provide uh during round three when it was in a court process and not through this legislative program so the township will now begin the process
of uh uh putting together developing and implementing a plan to achieve that number that 460 number gets a little confusing because now we get to apply bonus credits through the legislation we get to account for affordable housing units that were built but not counted in
round three like 43 extra that we did over at Veterans Housing and so we're we're hoping to bring that range down to a number between 200 and 300 and we are going to be aggressively demanding a 30% set aside for affordable units in order
to bring down the overall number of um of of of units because that'll bring down the market rate calculation significantly um as well as trying to build additional what we call 100% municipally sponsored affordable housing like veterans housing right veterans
Housing over on Halfacre Road is 80 affordable housing units that we um that the township constructed with its affordable housing uh trust fund that saved um an additional 300 market rate units because we did not have to provide any market rate equivalent to any
developer so we're going to be pursuing those opportunities as well and as every town is doing between now and the end of the summer there will be um discussions at upcoming planning board meetings to allow the public to provide input on the implementation process which is the real
nuts and bolts of this where uh where is the zoning going to be changed in order to allow for the opportunity for these affordable units remember the township does not build unless it's building something like veterans housing the township does not build all these affordable units we are only
constitutionally required to put in the zoning that allows for the opportunity for those um for that housing to be built and as we know um they are not built within that 10-year time frame the law allows uh you know a much longer time frame we're still building some
units from our round two obligation in the late '9s and obviously we're still continuing to build uh not we but but developers are continuing to build from the round three obligation as well so sorry that that took a little longer than I wanted it to but I greatly
appreciate it thank you Mr mow thank you Council President uh welcome Kevin forward to working with you as we move forward uh quick update on a couple projects there's there's not a lot of construction going on yet given the weather conditions uh you know one day
feels like spring the next day feels like winter again uh but with regard to the James Monroe Park concession stand and park improvements the developer is working on his demolition permit still with the construction department and and we hope to see that building coming down
uh later this month uh Inwood Estates it's a project that was uh started last year the improvements concrete improvements were done over uh the fall uh paving is anticipated to start in May once we have hopefully the warmer
weather here uh to stay um that that's my report for tonight thank you very much we'll move to council reports we will begin with Councilman Deira please uh thank you welcome Kevin and uh appreciate the
uh the report and thank you for the text messages already and and everything but welcome and I'm sure you do a great job thank you thank you for uh joining us um our engineer just said about Inwood Estates I noticed that the uh the
construction uh project sign is missing on that on that site so if we get back to doing the construction uh hopefully they'll get signs and we'll make notices to our residents to inform them when the contractor will be doing the work
continuing the work um also how we doing with the police department can we get an update on the police department that's to your right Mr rasmos please sure so the police department's moving along
The police department's been moving along they're uh closing in the buildings the the addition is being dried out um the roof is on siding is going on um concrete work uh on the outside is basically completed uh
interior work is starting they they had their uh rough electrical inspections and and they're getting uh all their rough inspections going and uh they'll be closing in the wall soon okay thank you i just wanted to uh I'm the liaison
for the shade tree uh Barkley Brook on April 25th we're going to be planting a tree at 1:00 if anybody would like to attend on Arbor Day at the Barkley Brook School uh at 1:00 i also wanted to thank
the mayor for uh getting a a link on our website for sha tree for permits and our process because a lot of our residents that come to the sha tree uh they come there and they say we weren't aware that
we needed permits or we needed any type of paperwork or or arister to look at the trees to see if they were dead or what condition they were in so I just wanted to uh let everybody know that there's a link on our website now and uh
that the residents can go to and also call call Pam our secretary and get the necessary paperwork because the last thing you want to hear sitting there is that the the people are getting fines in the thousands of dollars when they're not aware of something so it's important
that we get the message out that you do need a permit to cut trees down and also to plant trees as well and we also today I asked them how's the uh residents how we moving in and they had
29 residents move in to date as of today and out of the 29 19 are veterans so I didn't ask them uh I didn't want to ask them questions like how many uh one bedrooms two bedrooms or three bedrooms
but they told me that 29 residents have moved in and out of the 29 19 are veterans so I wanted to report that back to to everyone the um the street lights that we just got put took years to get
on at the municipal complex here i just wanted to say thank you for getting that done because it took a long long time to get JCPNL to actually install those new lights the LED lights that they put in there and uh it's it's really helpful
and beneficial to all our residents uh Bentley Road i don't know if there's any updates uh Joe on water sewer if we have any plans for water and sewer on Bentley Road residents because I know they were here many times but
still in the same state to the building one of us gets a microphone uh Council President uh the plans are still moving forward with the developer there's been no finalization
uh of the design for both the water and sewer infrastructure but as mentioned in our uh previous meetings with the Bentley Road uh residents uh we're going to ensure from a township as well as a utility standpoint that there will be no
COS granted until the full infrastructure is in place okay thank you council uh President we uh we had meetings with JCPNL yes we did and I was just wondering did we receive any proposals yet as far as the LEDs uh that
they they mentioned at the meeting did we get any formal proposal yet for from JCPNL we would please Council President i'm not aware of a formal proposal but hope to have that update for you by the next meeting i didn't get my report yet
either okay thank you um last meeting I I mentioned the bridges on Federal Road and Rue Road the the township engineer said he was going to reach out to the county to see if they could resurface resurface the uh bridges that I don't
know if there's any updates on that yet do we have anything council President I've not received an update for the county um but I will follow up with them again okay thank you uh lately I've been getting a lot of calls from residents in my ward that
quad riding going through township properties along with private properties and I'm not sure what the procedure is but when they call the police the police tell them that well we don't have uh capability to go into onto private
property to to um get the quad drivers or the children or adults whoever is driving quads so I don't know if there's something um that can be done on our on our behalf but I do know
that a lot of the residents are they're even driving down Mammoth Road they do a lot of driving by Darren's property all back behind Mil Lake there's a lot of uh Texas Road every Sunday they're there going up and down the road on Texas Road
and crossing into Old Bridge so I don't know maybe we can increase the police force uh on Mammoth Road and also Texas Road there's a lot of uh quad especially on the weekends uh I just wanted to point that out because I've getting a
lot of calls from residents and I also wanted to let everyone know the um board of education meeting at the high school is May 5th for their budget on on uh May 5th 6:30 at the high school so I just
wanted to let everybody know about the uh budget for the board of education on um March 15th council President and uh and councilwoman Seagull and I attended
Senior's play at the um senior center it was it was a very incredible talented u almost Broadway quality to see our residents from Greenbryer Whittingham Concordia
Rossmore and the ponds really put on a performance that was as as we we like to say in this town second to none because they did an exceptional job the the staff there did an an incredible job the the place was packed and it was well
worth sitting enjoying that as uh watching the talent of our senior communities come together so I just wanted to say thank you to everybody that performed and the support from our staff and yes uh Saturday we attended
some of us attended the opening day for softball we tried to get between the raindrops and they they were trying to play their their game after the first pitch but Joe Molinro is the president and I just wanted to say thank you to
him and the staff and the crew that put the fields together and and even though even though the rain and everything was uh was upon us a lot of the the children were having fun the the adults the parents grandparents there and all and
all of the teams and it was just a a great thing to attend uh to see our to see That's spring is here even though the weather didn't cooperate i attended um and I mentioned last meeting Monroe ice hockey they they
had their their semifinal game i went up to West Orange to watch our to watch our our uh ice hockey team they they fell short in the game they lost nine to three but they had they had an amazing spirit and and the residents that that
were there and the players they they had a good good season they were very happy and I mentioned it last i would I would like to see them come to a council meeting and we give them recognition like we do to all our other sports because uh they really deserve it and
they they tried hard and like I said they do they do a lot for our community to ice hockey so hopefully we can get them at our May meeting and uh show our support on um the first Sunday of every
month between 1 and 4 at Dye Farm it's open house for Monro history for that's something that uh a lot of us should attend to get to to see our community how what it was and where we are today so I just wanted to point that out it's
it's the first Sunday of of every month from 1 to 4 at die form thank Thank you Council President councilman Markeel oh hello um since this is such a short meeting tonight I'm going to I'm going to make this quick so
far under the guidance of uh Mr mcgawan uh the town is in still in good shape um just wanted to report that as far everything's running well as far as I can tell um so that's one thing I had to say another I had a question about the
uh affordable housing of the veterans um how many I was under the impression there was like 26 people living in there do you know exactly how many people are living in there so the the update that we got um just two days ago was was 26
obviously councilman says he was there today and and they have 29 we'll we'll double check all the numbers and confirm for everybody and get back they're not all veterans in there i thought I thought there was a point when they were going to only have veterans in there why like I said the
update that I received did not include the information that that was provided so we have to double check and get back to you that that's a concern of mine that they should all be veterans right now i'd like to know why there are non veterans 37 of those units um are set
aside specifically and exclusively for veterans the other 43 have a veterans preference um so I'll I'll check into that and get back to you but I don't have that information that's very important that's very important um I I don't normally comment on what's going
on in the country but I just want to say something that um that what's going on in this country is ultimately people don't think it's important but it does it is going to affect Monroe some one of these days um if it keeps going in
direction it's going so we have to be aware of what's going on and um and hopefully we won't be affected by some of the layoffs and so forth that is going on and the last thing I want to say is Lori thanks for getting the budget done so quickly uh that's this is
it a record i don't know i haven't been here that long but it's great to have it in our hands so we can see what's going on and know the numbers and um I'll have an appointment with you to go over it together thanks very much thank you very much
Councilwoman Seagull good evening thank you Council President so I just have a couple updates i just want to add to the senior's play at the SeaTac play um sponsored by the Monroe Township Cultural Arts Commission it really truly was amazing they had over 450 people
attend and what was really neat too was that it was a standing ovation for the whole um performance which was you kind of felt like you were part of the performance with them so um congratulations to all them i know they pulled this together at a very short amount of time and thank you to the senior center staff and everyone else
who helped out to pull that together and I do want to welcome Kevin to our team well you've been part of the team but thank you i look forward to working with you in this capacity um I want to also welcome the Monroe Park Veterinary
Hospital to Monroe it's a new business we had a ribbon cutting ceremony a couple weeks ago they're lake located off of Spotswood Englishtown Road um if something for your calendars DPW has been doing drop-in sessions where you at the library where you have an
opportunity to ask them questions about recycling bulk pickups whatever it may be their next session is April 15th from 10:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m at the library um and also with the I know that it's library week i saw the proclamation that
we have coming up and something neat at the Historic Preservation Commission's first open house they're going to have the Monroe Township Library book bike be there so it's kind of neat um do come out and support uh do come out to the farm and check out the bike it's kind of
neat something different it is definitely different so thank you Councilman Vanzour thank you Madam President um you know we joke about it but uh I think we're really pretty lucky we had Allan uh as a business administrator for eight years Allan
leaves and now we have Kevin moving right in we're very lucky that was a very smooth transition because that could have been brought with a lot of uh technical things if you have to go out and hire somebody that doesn't really know what's going on in the town and a
transitional period so I'm I'm very happy that Kevin's taken over and he's already familiar with a lot of the issues in the town and uh I think he'll do a great job and uh happy to have you on board so just want to say that um and
and as soon as he's on we already we get the results of our uh our lawsuit with the Eagle's Nest that I think Gary talked about before where uh u we you know had the lawsuit with the developer and we came away victorious so that was a good thing that happened and now as it
gets to spring although it doesn't seem like spring today it was we've had a few nice days here and there i also I'm on the wreck advisory so even though I didn't get there for the opening pitches and all the all the glitter in the beginning I did stop by around 1:30 2:00
and they were still playing softball over over at the field even though it was drizzling a little bit and uh does my heart well to see the kids out there getting the uh getting involved and uh you know I I think that's all a good thing so uh um all that stuff is good
um also want to yeah follow up i I think uh Mike brought up a very important point about the veterans and I thought we might have mentioned it somewhere along the lines uh cuz isn't there a waiting list of veterans to get in or being interviewed like I asked about
this once so um Conifer who constructed the building is also in charge of managing that process there is there is a lengthy application process usually takes about eight applicants to get one individual who's qualified um under the
affordable housing regulations to be able to occupy that that space um like I said before I'm going to confirm these numbers and see you know see where it's at cuz I got slightly different information so um even 19 out of 29 or
whatever I you know I like see 80 out of 80 if it would have been so if we got 10 the other way let's get 70 out of 80 and I think that you know when you spreading the word I listen we're not the ones that are doing the marketing but I think we could follow up on them and uh push
them a little bit too because uh it is important and uh you know veterans uh you know that's what it's there for it's really for the vets if at all possible i understand if we can't get them but you know let's let's really make that push to try um thank you guys for everything
and one last thing for those that celebrate happy Easter coming up in a couple of weeks so it's that time of year thanks thank you Mr mayor you've been making notes i'm watching you taking notes uh thank
you Madame Council President um I'm going to read the u verbiage I have here for the uh mayor's budget address uh this is mostly just um words uh obviously with the budget being presented uh to the council this evening
uh it'll be available on our website all of the numbers you can go through it um but again this is just kind of the treetops general overview um it is my privilege to present to you the proposed budget for the fiscal year
2025 uh this budget comes at a time of rising financial pressure not only for our township but also our residents like many of you we are facing increased utility costs higher health care expenses and other fixed costs affected
by inflation and the recent market uncertainty we know these pressures are real and they are being felt throughout the community despite these challenges we have worked hard to craft a fiscally responsive budget that keeps our township on the path of safety and
sustainability our goal is to maintain the services that matter to you while keeping taxes as low as possible this year's budget reflects a modest 1.5cent increase in the property tax rate we understand that the tax increase is a
burden and that is why we have worked diligently to keep this increase as low as possible for the average homeowner in Monroe this increase equates to just $4 per month we recognize the importance of affordability and this budget continues
the commitment to tightening the our belts and being mindful of your hard-earned dollars we have made difficult choices to ensure that the budget remains balanced prioritizing essential services while foregoing all new major additions to the operating
budget the one exception is public safety we must continue to invest in the safety and security of our community and as such we have authorized the addition of three new police officers and two new EMS personnel it is crucial that we
continue to prioritize public safety these additions will help ensure that we maintain response times and services for our residents public safety remains the cornerstone of a thriving uh community and and we are committed to investing it
despite the pressures we face i work hard to engage with the community gather feedback and ensure that this budget reflects the values and needs of our residents i appreciate the time and effort that so many of you have taken to share your thoughts with myself um and I
am grateful your for your continued support as we navigate these difficult times thank you for your attention your input your continued commitment to the well-being of our community i look forward to working with you as we move forward to the fiscal
year um I especially need to thank all of our department directors our BA but I especially want to thank our CFO's office and highlighting L'oreola [Applause] um and this is indeed a record-breaking
ontime clean budget which we've been working you know hard over the last couple years to get it on time uh this year having Lori leading the uh the troops uh we are we are certainly appreciative of it um and Lori we always
remember our first time and this is our first time with your budget so I'm sure it's it's it's something to remember um the process continues now if you recall um earlier this year in December January we talked about the budget process where
the directors get together internally with the uh local with the municipal administration um input is is is accepted um discussion goes on and then the budget now is officially presented to the township
council so over this next month um there uh they will go through the budget as well uh perhaps identifying some some pieces of the budget that are plus or minus to them uh and there'll be continued discussion they're also open
now to discuss that with uh concerns with the the the residents that they represent uh Councilman Dapiro had mentioned that the board of ed budget was is going to be presented or for discussion on May 5th uh well as as
fates would have it uh the council meeting was supposed to be on May 5th as well and we felt that it was important that the public not be denied the right to discuss both the um board of ed and the municipal budget so therefore we have moved the council meeting uh for
the budget hearing the official budget hearing to be on May 7th so um real quick with my uh report uh welcome Kevin um you know as a Mets fan I always look at you know the line of
succession you know Mets had Tom Siver and after Tom Siver left they had Pat Zachary maybe that's not a good example um uh so so Kevin uh comes with a uh uh with just an an amazing brain um amazing
demeanor um as well as somebody that I think will be able to continue uh leading the um municipal administrative portion of our government um and I've seen him in action obviously as our uh
assistant BA um and I look so much look forward to continuing my everyday multiple times a day conversations with with the with somebody who I have the utmost faith in so thank you Kevin um Read Across America happened a couple of
weeks ago i uh hit Mil Lake Woodland and Applegarth it's late in the day i was going to tell a story about a second the second graders but maybe we'll hold on to that one um speaking of reading uh if you were here earlier you saw that we had a proclamation for the library week
well if you look on the um Monroe Township YouTube website uh there is a new Mayor Delina show regarding uh me walking around the uh the uh the library uh boasting of our services um I refuse I really don't like to watch myself on
TV so if somebody could watch it and let me know how I was I'd appreciate it uh I did attend a uh private birthday party for one of Monroe Township's number one citizens Mr sai Liipper who turned 99 um baseball softball opening days were
mentioned um a couple upcoming events all veterans and their guests are invited to come to the Good Morning Vietnam movie at the Stonebridge Ballroom uh which is coming up on uh April Well I don't have the date here
take a look at our website um the mayor's wellness campaign bike ride uh with the police and a car show will occur at Veterans uh Park on Saturday May 3rd the bike ride starts at 11:30 uh for any information in regards to what's going on in the town please check out
our website and I do want to finish with just uh to keep in your thoughts and prayers the Levvenson family longtime uh member of um our uh wreck advisory board and just a normal nice normal happy good
Monroe man mr bob Levenson passed away uh I did attend a service for him yesterday uh their families uh sitting Shiva for the next couple days but uh uh Bobby you know you'll be missed thank you
sir and we now have a public comment a second public comment section i have a motion to open co public comments please thank you a second on that all in favor opposed your name and address for Gary Busman 7
Monarch Road Monroe Township uh first question I have is addressed at uh Mr mcgawan congratulations on your new position so my question with that congratulations is will I see you at the next zoning board meeting
uh council president for you Gary i'll I'll be there all like that he's showing up you'll be there okay now Friday I too was at the Veterans Housing Development and I too asked all of the questions
that you folks just raised and it seems to me that the progress and the amount of veterans that are applying is not as much as
anticipated why i don't know am I concerned and upset of course I think you all would be but I don't know what Conifer is doing to push this issue and how do we get residents to take the 80
available residences that are there even though we're at 37 mandated I don't want to see 15 unoccupied residences that are held for
veterans so I don't know how to deal with that i don't know what any of you on the board or the mayor can do to make this better than what it is so having said that I want to make a
little retraction to what I said when Stonebridge was here since I am a Stonebridge resident uh I approved the fact that there should be an adjustment to the ordinance but the real concern was mentioned by two or
three people towards the end of the discussion the real discussion is par as opposed to changes parity is a whole issue that reeks of unfairness if it's not
uniformly around every community and everyone that's participation participating in the in the action so once you get past having to make that decision which is difficult and enough then you get through how do you make
sure that a nurse is always available at each you can you may say come on you but it's important to understand the difference between the choice of parody
and financial burden to me in and I heard this said and you've got to and this is an important thing that the planning board needs to understand is is that
$435 a year for each house regardless if it's single or double is not to me an overburden of having a full-time
247 registered nurse twothirds to approve a change in not allowing us to have or discontinuing nursing service I don't think will ever happen but
it's interesting to think about the fact that if the ordinance stays the way it is it can never change that there will never be the possibility of any board or any members of the community saying
"Well we don't want nursing." I think that that would be a mistake but I'm only one person and you heard many many people describe to you what's going on and one thing that somebody said and I'll repeat it which
is very important and I told the president the exact same thing that I'm going to tell you now they didn't have a drop dead date for the termination of the voting they held the voting open for
weeks and weeks so that they could achieve the percentage that they want to distribute to you and when you break the percentage down into the actual residence you find out that it's not even 30% so having said all of that and having
you heard me I appreciate the fact that you allow me the opportunity to speak to you openly when there's no one here to get up and challenge so that you understand my feelings as a resident of Stonebridge and my feelings also as a
resident of Monroe Township and I thank you ma'am your name and address for Yes so I'm not a resident of um Monroe um but I am a resident of Manalapin um I'm speaking actually in my capacity um as full-time public policy and justice
organizer for Water Spirit your name please rachel Don Davis thank you um so thank you uh for your time uh as I shared I am a full-time employee of Water Spirit which is an eospiritual nonprofit based here in the county in
Mammoth County um and also as a resident of Mammoth County like I said I live in Manalpa not too far away um here to propose an ordinance aimed at reducing waste and promoting sustainability within our broader community and certainly within this community uh with the support of your green team members i
respectfully urge the council to pass an ordinance to skip the stuff uh which focuses on reducing excessive use of single plastics and non-essential packaging in Monroe Township and so this is what I'm talking about we all have seen these right we have um been giving
them maybe we don't want them maybe we have a drawer of all this stuff that just kind of accumulates um and so we want to get rid of that and it actually to quote somebody else it's a win-winwin so given Monroe Township is a community that maintains a strong commitment to the future namely involving young people
you have the opportunity to lead by example um this ordinance would implement measures to minimize unnecessary plastic use in our local businesses starting with common items like straws utensils including chopsticks and to go to containers the skip the stuff ordinance would encourage businesses to offer alternatives such as
reusable bags or compostable materials and incentivize consumers to bring their own reusable items this is really at this point about behavior change there is a state bill S3195 that's working on this but there are many towns who have passed this ordinance and we're hoping that you can continue to be a leader um
through fostering a culture of sustainability Monroe Township would not only save businesses money which is very important my background is in economics um improve Monroe's ecological footprint but also contribute to reducing the negative impact on our beloved beaches oceans and and oceans aligning with New
Jerseys broader environmental goals um so this would be taking a significant step by passing this ordinance towards sustainability and also leading other leading the way for other cities in New Jersey to do the same like I said there have been several before but we need as many as possible i'm also here urging
this council to pass a resolution in support of the New Jersey Green Amendment which is STR uh 43 ACR19 the New Jersey Green Amendment seeks to recognize and enshrine the right of all residents to a healthy environment within our state constitution specifically it guarantees the right to
clean air clean water a stable climate and healthy environment uh these are all essential elements of for of life for our community and specifically future generations by passing this resolution Monro Township would join the growing movement to secure environmental justice ensuring that every person regardless of
their socioeconomic status or geographic location has the right to live in an environment that does not harm their health or well-being this resolution would not only reflect the values of your very beautiful community and even just witnessing this meeting tonight um the values that place a premium on environmental protection and
sustainability but would also send a powerful message to the state legislature it would highlight Monroe Township's leadership in advocating for policies that prioritize public health and the preservation of our natural resources which are foundational to both our local economy as well as our quality
of life the green amendment is a vital step toward ensuring again future generations inherit a healthy environment and by supporting it Monroe Township can play an essential role in this in securing this legacy uh I do have materials to share um if you would like i also did email the council
beforehand sure and I'll give it to the clerk um but thank you for your attention and for your commitment to a greener more just and stable future for all of us um and I ask your your support in in passing this ordinance and resolution thank you anyone else wishing to address us
praash Parab 33 uh Dina Drive congratulations Kevin for and all the best you're all the you're you're the best so all the best for you um one thing is um I attended the
economic development meeting and uh Dr you know our vice president Terren Wenzura has good plans and you know I was impressed with two proposals he has and I'm sure he's going to propose that to the
council then uh with coming to the affordable housing I thought in the previously we were committed to do 850 affordable housing something like that okay previously if I forget all
this I was told 8 years back 7 years back the commitment total with the court and all I don't know the number was somewhere 800 and odd with that number this 460 addition to that number that's
a question council president yes please because I was not confused now I am sure so the um the 850 units was our round three obligation to to implement zoning
that would allow for 850 um affordable units during round three that was in 2015 round four of affordable housing is starting in 2025 so these would be uh moving into the future an additional uh obligation okay yes thank thanks for
clarification so these are the additional then the past so just want everything good we are trying to number it down and all but uh it is all fine so I had a clarity on that another one
thing is our new budget is going to be dollar4 per month for average value house something like at 333 um I'll tell you our school budget is going to be around $45 per month for
the average house okay so stay tuned um I want to make it um uh you know clear that there's a difference of 10 times in school budget okay going to cost okay you you all can clarify that because
that's the information I have and uh the this resolution which I talked about receiving a grant or whatever of $2 million to pay towards um land on 330
schoolhouse road of 33.6 acres for the open space so this land after paying $2 million will belong to township please council president um so no as the council passed last year an ordinance
and had a public hearing on this this is um a piece of land where the township purchased the development rights and put the property into what's called farmland preservation meaning that um the greatest amount of the value is in its potential to be developed so this is a
beautiful 34 acre piece of land in the middle of a residential zone that could have otherwise been housing uh but it it will be now preserved in perpetuity and this grant agreement that's on the agenda um is um the county has agreed to
contribute $2 million toward that and so the the agreement just affectuates that that $2 million grant so as a lay man I I understand that we are paying $2 million for that property so that property will remain as whatever it is
farmland or whatever and their owner will continue to follow that so that that land will with the promise or agreement that own that land is belongs indirectly to the owner in saying that
it will be preserved as a open space uh so so council president under the MLUL the uh farmland preservation is a component of open space but but to be clear and I think we made this clear last you know last year but just to
remind everybody um it it is not purchased as townshipowned property where we could build a park or something on it this is preserved farmland that the farmer and owner has to um you know
is restricted to only farming activities okay forever i I understand now farming so as a public you know it is nice to know can I continue for one more minute because this is important for me okay
there is another meeting next month thank you sir your name and address for our record please yes my name is Brian Thompson i live at 5 Drew Court in Monmouth Beach i'm a Mammoth Beach Environmental Commissioner i'm a member of the Beyond Plastics National Advisory
Board and maybe one or two of you might recognize me as I used to be a reporter for Channel Oh Mr mcallen is uh from Channel 4 until I retired a couple of years ago and I covered New Jersey for the state so thank you for allowing me to address you i wanted to back up uh
what Rachel Davis just uh told you about Skip the Stuff um and I wanted to add a couple of words about Skip the Stuff that is the um I'm going to borrow borrow her props cuz I left mine in the car but there was
a survey done by Clean Water Action on businesses in Redbank where they have had this ordinance for a year now and the number of or the amount of plastic utensils that were handed out by
restaurants in Redbank dropped by 94% a huge number if you think of all of this stuff in your kitchen drawers i know I was going through my kitchen a couple times over the past few days and I just found some here and found some
there and it was ridiculous um so that's that's one thing to keep in mind if uh if you would please in considering joining some 17 other towns in New Jersey now that have passed skip the stuff ordinances in the past year um and
I want to applaud you for passing your resolution on the super fund uh climate super fund uh law uh that is great there is another one coming along that will actually save away from the mic sir you're bouncing at me i'm a little too close aren't I i'm used to it come on
give me a break i get that um the uh EPR extended producer responsibility something I'd never heard of until about a year ago but it's uh packaging reduction by people like uh
Amazon by uh Gillette Coca-Cola Fredo whatever whatever you get sent to your home via Amazon or whatever you buy in the store at Costco or Shopright or whatever the uh merchants who sell you something including an Apple iPhone
would have to reduce the amount of packaging they use by 50% over 10 years that will save your municipality money on tipping fees on the amount that you have to pick up through I believe it's your DPW that actually picks up your
trash and your recyclables uh it'll save you money on that and here's the catch that you're going to love the producers have to put into a fund enough money to pay for what you do pick up or at least a substantial part of it that's
packaging so instead of your taxpayers and I heard Mr mcgawan talk about utility costs rising and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't want to include tipping fees on that as well uh for getting rid of your stuff or the incinerator wherever you send it you
would get paid by the producers of this packaging trash to compensate you for much of the cost of your DPW trucks etc and so I would like to ask you to consider supporting that as well i'm going to
send some information to you all on that and one other item that I'd like to mention if I have a moment you had two minutes left two minutes yes oh easy for me good
a year ago my town of Mammoth Beach and I understand you're mostly Democrats here and my town actually happens to be tinged red uh my town passed the first in the nation construction sawdust
containment ordinance whereas your contractors do have to maintain a clean site when they're renovating a home building a home building an apartment complex whatever one thing that escapes usually the
construction code official or your uh um construction official is sawdust and if you think about it and this is not I will send you a good picture of this as well but this is instant
microlastics at a site in Margate and Margate had the inspiration my town passed it first an ordinance that requires it to be in the cutting this uh table cutting to be encapsulated when the contractor is outside in the
front yard at the beginning of a project a tarp underneath and a vacuum on the table saw to scoop up most of the microplastics that otherwise go into the air the ground your vegetable patch well done and into the water so I will send
that all to you and thank you very much for listening to us i appreciate it very much lucille Pan Lucil panels 1208 Cindera first I'd like to welcome Mr mcgawan you have some large shoes to fill because um
Allan was really good he he would answer you know he was good um I would hope that my councilman I I hope that we all agree but especially I was happy that my councilman and Councilman Dapiro actually went to this site mr markle I'm sorry councilman
Markle I I'm sure will fight that's in our ward you know that and we want our veterans i think we all agree that veterans first absolutely and all veterans if possible so please each one of you follow up on that um and what's the value of the average
house that that everybody's talking about please council president I believe it's 337,000 okay now I do have to say I don't know what the MMO of this council is but
Councilman Van Dor's rant last month was unacceptable from a local councilman and if it's going to start you know Mr markle started with He's Markeel and he's not Marco okay excuse me stop it okay don't You're not my teacher you're
not my teacher he can correct me don't argue with me no I'm not don't argue with me and don't waste my time okay I'm talking thank you yeah so okay will you extend it please go will you extend it no I'm just He could correct me about the pronunciation of his name i don't
even I just did he doesn't have to would you please just go on excuse me Mrs cohan okay you're enjoying doing that go ahead no no but that is just go right ahead it's not acceptable that you're right so stop it you just
did the same thing no because I because I question what a councilman did well because I question what a councilman ranted on last month you have your five minutes to speak because I c I questioned what a councilman ranted on about a local level specific at least Mr
markeel um didn't do that he said he's concerned yes that's acceptable but to do what he did you know what i could if that's the MMO of this council I could see why Allan left because hey let me get out of dodge because this is unacceptable
shell Armin 9 Nathaniel Street i I I would just like to make one comment that there is uh a precedent that um we really can't object to the content of someone's speech so I I would like
people to keep that in mind okay um there was a lawsuit I think it's Breastler versus West Windsor Board of Education that the gentleman won because the board of education kept interrupting him and objecting to his speech and that
is not um should not be acceptable uh from anyone okay I have I do have a question about the lawsuit everybody talked about the Eagles Nest lawsuit uh the win at this point um we very rarely win against
um developers so is there any um information about whether they're going to appeal that decision i think they've appealed it already but is there another you know we can only be happy if they don't appeal it so do are we aware that that might be appealed c council
president I believe there is a notice of further appeal up to the Supreme Court but there's no decision yet on whether the Supreme Court's going to take it right right okay the danger of course is is the appeal um a resolution ending in 009 the improvements on the Jane
Warren uh that's that traffic light is already uh functioning is there a reason why we're now approving the improvements or is there going to be additional improvements mr council President it's a it's a Middle Sex County uh traffic signal uh there was a tri uh triparty
agreement with the town and the developer and the county once the traffic signal is built and functioning uh the county uh one of the conditions of the county accepting it is the township has to accept it first and then Middle Sex County will accept it at their commissioner meeting and then they
will be maintaining that traffic signal okay so are we saying that it is is functional and complete at this point council President that that is correct that is the understanding thank you i was wondering why we needed improvements it looked pretty good to me okay the affordable housing yes I do want to lend
my voice to the fact that um well two things one for the veterans and one I is there a way we can insist on 30% of our affordable housing built out in the fourth round be um you know absolutely maintained
did you not address that earlier can you clarify that i thought you had said that council President the the the implementation plan for round four has to be developed and then adopted by both the planning board and the council um and that includes specific it will need
to include specific project sites and we are going to be uh you know aggressively pursuing 30% uh set aides for all of those sites okay so that doesn't necessar I mean they can take us to court is it possible that the builders
can take us to court to object to 30% and go back to the 20 i mean I guess it's all possible right it's all possible well council president if if a particular property owner builder is agreeing to become part of our implementation plan and we are agreeing
as a township to change zoning to accommodate their site uh we're going to be looking for 30% so once they enter into that agreement that's the I think it's uh long overdue and I I applaud and I hope that both the planning board and the council uh make sure that that is in the negotiation and that it's held to
that that standard um and yes I'm very disappointed i I think that we should have uh there should and I don't know how you the contract is with the uh veterans housing but I think we should wait until we get most of that project
uh with veterans in it before we put I because really now you've only it sounds like you have a third already of non-veterans in that building and I don't I I think that's dangerous precedent i think we should do whatever we can if the council can do it the the zoning board the planning board whoever
can to press them on to continue to really just provide for veterans because why would they even put non-veterans in when it's not even half way done so I think every seems like everybody is agreement to that so I think we should you know if any pressure
could be applied that's that's where it should go i mean you know and it's nice that we all agree on that isn't it okay and I think that might be done yes Mr mcgawan i look forward I've I've you've been very good with the uh planning and
uh the master plan affordable housing all that stuff and I I hope that um this this position that you have is not you know not going to exhaust you so much you won't be able to give us as much information as you had thank you very
much sir your name and address for the record please yes good evening bob Valentine 68 Union Valley Road uh congratulations Mr mac best of luck to you uh I want to start with a quick question i read that the Middle Sex County Commissioners back at the end of February approved the county budget for
2025 and it's a reduced tax rate i was interested to knowing what the impact is going to be on Monroe residents what the new tax rate is going to be please Council President sorry just just to clarify your question are you asking for the municipal tax rate or the county tax rate county tax rate part of our tax
bill every year is the county tax going up year after year correct i believe the county tax rate went up 1.4 cents if I'm not mistaken lori thank very similar to very similar to our tax rate i believe they went up
1.4 cents we're up 1.5 cents so there's a lower budget they're spending less and we're not seeing any benefit taxes i can't speak to their budget but that's that's the information that was provided from the county in terms of their tax increase now this goes back to a point the mayor wrote last year about the the
problems with the county tax structure and I'd be more sympathetic with the fact that the Democratic party controls the governor the legislature the county the town everything so and I really those are the kind of times I'd like to hear the local reports out when the
council members are what are we doing to fight change in the system putting in floors and caps looking at options things we could try to do to minimize the bite because now even the county expenses go down we're still going up and I just think I'm disappointed the things you talk about these meetings that really have nothing to do with what
goes on in the town and here's an issue that you should be pushing and advocating and making some noise about and I think just far too compliant i also want to acknowledge Mr depro for his work on the at least he's involved with the school in terms of going to meetings and engagement it's another area we're not getting any traction on government state support for our schools
and never discussed here except when he brings it up i mean I don't know why you're so not interested in these things you want to talk about Ukraine and other topics but I think these are things you should be trying to make some impact on at least make some noise ask the residents for help it's something to really impact these issues those are the things that we're looking for you to do
as our as a local government our representatives i know I'm short on time i appreciate uh the opportunity on the budget there's four or five things I respectfully ask you to look at as you go through the budget one um if you look at the forms page sheet
11 column last column realized in cash in 2024 $80.7 million expended in 2024 $73.8 million that's a surplus of about $7 million roughly that will pay for a couple of police officers and some EMS people so I think you really want to
understand how that's why there's a need for an increase i also would like to understand why the recycle shared services are going up i'd like to understand how much the town has been writing off for uncollected taxes because there's a reserve in this budget for 4.2 million and I don't think you're running off anywhere near that kind of
number so and lastly um I I know it might directly affect you but it's in your budget and that is the library the library expense increase this year the appropriation increase is a half a million dollars it was a half a million dollars last year so that's a million dollars in two years i really would like to understand what's driving the
activity in the library require such large increases well above inflation and I mean I just really would like to understand I'm not I'm not making a judgment on it I don't have the information to make a judgment on it but I think the community is entitled to know that and lastly the budget's 80 pages you spent months on it I
appreciate your efforts I talked about this last year I think it's a disservice I'm going to get less than 10 minutes to ask questions about 80page document you spent months on this whole process very disrespectful to the community and not not educating the public not taking the time to give it the attention and help us understand better what's happening i
think it's really disappointing it's a major fail i talked about it last year and really nothing's changed in fact it was worse this year it made I guess I'm glad you moved the meeting so at least I have to wait for four hours of talking about a nurse to even have a chance to even speak before all of you you really I really ask you take a hard look at your process and have a process that's
more open to the public and provides more information help us understand so one of our everybody's biggest expense is our taxes i think we have a right to understand what we're getting for our money and what's what what you're committing to and what you're spending on help people understand it all right so I really would ask you to please
seriously consider looking at your process and I don't want to get a letter in July with all my taxes i mean it's it shouldn't take that long i would hope that next month wherever this done you can summarize what the total impact is so I don't have to wait till the summertime to find out what it's going to be i would ask you please really take
a hard look at this process you might not agree with everything I've talked about in the past but I think there's certainly room for improvement thank you very much thank you for your comments sir anyone else wishing to address the council seeing and hearing none a motion to close public comments please motion to
close motion to sec second please second all in favor i any opposed motion to adjurnn motion to adjurnn second second i roll call councilman Zapiro councilman Markeel councilwoman Seagull yes council Vice
President Vanora council President Cohen we're adjourned it's 9:36