every time of the township of Mars this Wednesday March 19th 2025 the time is now 700 p.m this meeting is being held in accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act and adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by as required
by law specifically notice of this meeting was emailed to the Daily Record and Mars Newsb on January 3rd 2025 and posted on the Township of Mars website the agenda and resolutions for the meeting are available on
marristownship.com under agenda center certain portions of this meeting may be closed to the public for the purpose of personnel and or other matters as outlined in the sunshine law notice to members of the governing body and township staff any use of electronic
devices during this meeting shall be used solely for the purposes of township business and any communications are open are subject to the open public records act madame clerk roll call please mr griselle here mr dorphy here mr rabbitz
here mr janata here mayor Griglia here if you're able please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under
God indivisible with liberty and justice for all good evening everyone and welcome it's nice to see many of you here tonight before we begin this evening's meeting I'd like to take a moment to outline how
we will conduct the public comment portion we understand that there are a few items on the agenda that have generated significant public interest we value your input and it's important to us that everybody who wishes to speak
gets the opportunity to do so to ensure this we will be limiting individual comments to three minutes per person this change from our usual five-minute limit is intended to allow more voices to be heard while keeping the meeting
moving efficiently we ask that you please be respectful of this time limit additionally once you have spoken on a particular topic you will not be permitted to speak again on the same matter this helps ensure that everyone
gets a fair ch chance to share their thoughts please direct all comments to me as the mayor the township committee and I will not respond to comments until the public comment portion is concluded there is a signup sheet on the table near the
entrance of the courtroom right over there if you plan to address the committee please make sure to sign in so we can accur accurately record your information for the meeting minutes when you come to the podium please clearly state your name and whether or not you
are a resident of Mars Township we also ask that all attendees maintain decorum throughout the meeting this means no interruptions side conversations or outbursts our goal is to have a respective and productive
meeting where everybody feels heard we appreciate your cooperation and we look forward to hearing from each and every one of you thank you the next item on tonight's agenda is the approval of the minutes may I have a motion to approve the minutes of
December 18th 2024 closed and regular meetings and January 2nd 2025 reorganization meeting some mayor second all in favor i we have one proclamation on our agenda tonight and although we
have a busy agenda it is women's history month so I'm not going to read the entire proclamation but I would like to obviously celebrate Women's History Month moving forward together women educating and inspiring generations i'm
actually going to skip down to close to the bottom and I want to also thank Committeeman Janata who provided us with some added information on Allison Low Turnbull Hopkins so I'm going to read "Whereas New Jersey has a rich history
of women advocating for change including Lucy Stone a New Jersey suffragist who fought for women's voting rights alice Paul a key leader in the fight for the 19th Amendment and drafter of the Equal Rights Amendment dr emily Stowe a
pioneering advocate for women's education and the first female physician in Canada allison Low Turnbull Hopkins actually a Mars Township resident and leader of the women's suffrage movement as New Jersey chair of the National
Women's Party she joined the silent sentinels in the White House protests lobbying President Wilson for the 19th Amendment arrested and pardoned after three days she returned to protest with a banner reading "Mr president how long
must women wait for liberty her dedication helped lead to the passage of the women's right to vote in 1919 whereas the Mars Township Committee recognizes the importance of celebrating the achievements of women and supporting
ongoing efforts to ensure that education and mentorship remain powerful for forces for change and equality now there therefore be it resolved that the Mars Township Committee proudly supports the March 2020 2025 celebration of Women's
History Month and encourages all residents to honor and participate in this month's observance by engaging in educational activities mentorship opportunities and discussions that promote equity empowerment and the
advancement of women in all areas in life i also just want to add please also be aware to celebrate and honor all the women in your lives on a daily basis not just in the month of March because they contribute so
much we will now open the first public session for general comments and inquiries if you wish to speak about a specific ordinance such as the tree or cannabis ordinance please wait until we reach the dedicated public commentary
period for those items please note that there will also be a second public comment session at the end of the agenda additionally each individual may speak only once during each public comment period for those attending in person
please be sure to write your name on the sign in sheet located near the table by the entrance there are currently Did anybody count how many members are here in person i think the fire no in person you have a count chief
no count a count do you have a count of the number of people approximately there are currently 52 members of the public joining Oh I'm sorry joining us in person and there are
hold on one second 11 attendees on Zoom we will take the comments from the in-person attendees first following by those people on Zoom please raise your hand your hand on Zoom if you would like to speak before speaking please state your name and indicate whether you are a
resident or non-resident for the record comments are limited to three minutes per speaker is there a motion to open the public comment session so move second all in favor i welcome thank you uh my name is Paul Stouts i'm a resident
at 29 Oaklane uh this is not so much a comment as a as a question for some clarification uh with regard to comments versus questions on ordinances you mentioned we have an opportunity to to comment uh at a couple points during this meeting but will we have an
opportunity to ask questions of you and the other council members so um when the ordinance is called whether you're here for the cannabis or the tree ordinance res can come up for three minutes we're asking you to state any questions you may have any comments you may have and they will all be answered at the end of
the public commentary section by the governing body so is it a combination of questions and comments and comments whatever you like to do after the ordinance is spoken up so the ordinances will be opened up for public hearing it's the next thing on our agenda after this when that
ordinance is called everybody can come up and ask whatever questions you have we'll be taking notes up here and then the governing body and and myself or Mr quinn will address those questions um after after each ordinance or after all after each of the ordinances
thank you before we vote but after the public hearing's over okay thank you so everybody will speak thank you if I understand correctly we're doing 125 now
name no sir we're um we haven't called that ordinance yet it'll be the first ordinance that we call i'm the first one 125 we're not on that yet sir just have to wait and to see if if there's nobody else in person if and let me check online
this section of the meeting is just for It's all right yeah he'll be up he'll be up in one second just close the public there's nobody online close the public is there a motion to close the public comment so moved second mr mcalp and we'll have the We'll have the hearing
soon this is just general public comment it'll it'll be the next thing it'll be the next thing on the agenda so you can wait there if you'd like you can stay there just stay there there was a second all those in favor i This evening we have eight ordinances scheduled for public hearing and
adoption ordinances 01-25 and 02-25 were carried from our February 19th meeting because they involved amendments to chapter 57 land development which required planning board review for master plan consistency
the planning board has since reviewed these ordinances and confirmed they are not inconsistent with the master plan you may notice the ordinance 03-25 is not listed on tonight's agenda as it was previously adopted at our February 19th
meeting madame clerk please read the title ordinance of 01-25 into the record after which we will open the public hearing ordinance 01-25 an ordinance of the township committee of the township of Morris
amending and readdopting chapter 57 part 10 article 34 of the township code note amending tree ordinance we will take comments from in-person attendees first and then switch over to Zoom please virtually raise your hand on Zoom if you
would like to speak may I have a motion to open the hearing public hearing on ordinance 01-25 so move mayor second all in favor i you may step up to the podium thank you
your name sir allan McAlpin five Armstrong i'd like to make like to make a case for professionalism in the matter involving environmental issues including trees on February
24 2025 just about a month ago the board of adjustment hearing involving Euing application is a sample of the need and use usefulness of professional advice on
environmental matters objectors provided the professional advice of John Linson mr linson is a licensed professional arborist he consults for Summit New
Jersey notable Mr linson's testimony can be best characterized as conditional in in substance there was little or no categorical substance evident
the reasons for all this may include details which are known to professionals that affect decisions or in this particular case choice so often by altering conditions
for trees of the same species for instance multiple outcomes are possible mr linson aloud it seems mother nature may exercise her right to be binary at
times not everything environmental can be codified it seems to me and others mr m I will let those interested read the transcripts for themselves
to my mind our township EC is comprised of very well-intentioned individuals all of whom are a long way from silly that notwithstanding there are no environmental professionals at our EC i
understand i will let EC members speak for themselves but I'd be surprised if those I know would not welcome access to teaching advice in minutes environmental matters you got three more seconds oh
from established professionals in their respective fields professional arrangements involve sharing with other townships are common and economical i understand funding professionals as possible variously others would join me
in suggesting that the township incorporate a 10% fee flat tax or tariff on applications for Mr mcap time is up sir your time is up three minutes is up sir i'm on my last
sentence it's up to you okay finish your lessons for new buildings on undeveloped lands that reduce the tantious precious open space that avenue should promote
enough funding one way or another thank you thank you is there anyone else from the public who would like to speak on the tree ordinance please step to the podium what happened on my screen please state your name and if you're a
Mars Township resident or not robert McCormick i'm a resident i live at 36 Center Avenue um so I just wanted to say that I have been writing the township um since I moved here 5 years ago about
implementing um a tree protection ordinance so I'm happy to see it uh coming to fruition even if it only is just due to a um state mandate um but I want to voice some of my concerns over this tree ordinance um as a resident of
Mars Township for 5 years I have witnessed a concerning number of tree removals in my neighborhood since I moved here these removals have created visual environmental and energy impacts to the neighborhood and to my home trees serve well doumented important functions
such as purifying the air controlling water runoff and soil erosion providing habitat and food sources for wildlife shading homes thereby reducing home cooling costs and increasing property values to name just a few a primary
concern of mine is the language within this ordinance that exempts the removal of eight trees within a 5-year period i understand Mars Township has a diverse range of lots and many span several acres the exemption for the removal of eight trees in a 5-year period might
make sense for multi-accore properties however my concern is in regard to smaller size lots in the township such as my own neighborhood many of these properties do not even have eight trees on them and exempting the removal of eight trees can have potentially devastating visual and environmental
impacts in such neighborhoods that consist of smaller size lots for example I have a neighbor who has four trees on their property according to the proposed ordinance all four would be exempt from tree protection permits and the entire property would be effectively clear-cut
enforcement of tree removals within this 5-year period is a concern of mine as well as realistically how would this be enforced my concern is that this will lead to many tree removals going unchecked also how does the township plan to disseminate this information of their updated tree ordinance to
residents i strongly believe that in order to effectively preserve the township's tree canopy a much a more restrictive tree or protection ordinance is necessary for example the ordinances in place in Madison or Bernardsville which do not exempt a certain number of tree removals within a specified time
period even Bernard's Township's ordinance passed last year includes an exemption of half the amount of trees removals permitted within a 5-year period capped at four trees i'm frankly a bit disappointed with the language in this ordinance and would prefer to see
more of an effort by the township to preserve our vital tree canopy thank you thank you for your comments is there anyone else in the room who would like to speak on the tree ordinance if not Dr seabbert are you
there yes can you hear me yes we can all right yes dr lynn Steve 178 Hillrest i am a me a resident of the Tafted for many years um I have uh already shared with the
township committee a written uh set of comments since I wasn't sure I would be able to make tonight's meeting uh I will be very brief and just comment uh pertaining to the tree ordinance um there were two recommendations I wanted
to highlight one was uh to en urge you to includeing the of a certified arborist um or especially when it comes to the potential removal of large or specimen
trees uh to have that expertise and uh knowledge uh put into play so that form decision making can take place and it can be determined whether or not such a tree should be in fact removed if it's
diseased or poses an imminent danger to anyone or um or otherwise should be preserved um I think that would be a very important element uh to include in the tree ordinance the other point I
wanted to uh to make was that um for replacement trees I I really think it would be imperative for the township to include language that would require that any replacement trees be native and non-invasive species uh the language
that's currently there uh says that they be consistent with the type and species removed uh at from the site but uh if someone removes a tree that was an invasive species tree or a non-native
tree to then replace it with the same type of tree makes little sense given the commitment that I know the township has had towards trying to remove invasive species and promote native species i did provide documentation for
the township committee um including information from Rutgers University's gene epi as to what kinds of uh optimal tree attributes um and priority tree species could be utilized and I also
recommend that maybe again uh cooperating with uh neighboring communities perhaps sharing the services of a certified arborist would be a way to mitigate the costs of such um an employment and
yet provide you with the expertise that would help guide and inform decision making uh I appreciate your time and thought on this and uh hope that that will be incorporated into the final wording of the ordinance thank you very
much thank you Dr sabbert i don't see any other hands raised um I do just want to say that yes we did receive um your email with your concerns and the documentations a couple other residents and those here tonight um we can after
this evening and the tree ordinance that is adopted is adopted we can and will as well as working with the environmental commission be able to make some of the suggestions changes adjustments necessary as we go forward
seeing no other members of the public wishing to speak will someone make a motion to close the public comment some move second all in favor may I have a motion to adopt ordinance number 01-25 um mayor I'll make that motion but can I
provide a comment yes after the second after the second i'll second it yes uh thank you mayor um I appreciate the comments from the members of the public on the tree ordinance and I think I um I respect those comments and I agree with I think most of the sentiments uh
discussed we do need to pass this ordinance by uh state requirement which um our neighbor from Center Avenue mentioned um I agree I was in I was supportive of a percentagebased um formula for this however as discussed
by Dr receiver we would need to hire an arborist to do that and um as I said in the last meeting when we introduced this ordinance um hiring a full-time arborist would be overly burdensome at this at this moment for the township um we continue to see a tremendous amount of
increases uh for health insurance costs prescription drug costs pension costs for our employees uh to the tune of 20% which is actually with the number that came from the state health benefits this week for next year that's on top of a 16% increase and I think a 19% increase in years past um so I just don't think
we would be able to afford an arborous at the time as although I would love to have one down the road um so I I agree with that sentiment and if we have the opportunity to tweak this ordinance down the road I would definitely be supportive of it and I also just want to mention our street tree replacement program that we've been doing for the
past few few years replacing trees uh that have been taken down because of the emerald ashbor uh and replacing them um throughout the township in neighborhoods that were impacted but also now neighborhoods that haven't been directly impacted with ashtree removals to just further enhance the canopies along our
streets so um and I believe we have well over 500 trees I think was were have been planted along our roadways in the past few years and we have that in uh we have that funding again in this year's budget to continue that program so I agree it's not perfect um and I would definitely be open to adjusting this
ordinance down the road uh when we have some more viable options thank you mayor any other discussion deputy Mayor Graale thank you mayor uh this legislation I think most of us appear agree is is not perfect um I appreciate the comments
from the public and a lot of you were was spot on with the changes that we might need to come back and do uh such as the uh invasive trees specimen trees and native trees incorporating mention of those and how they impact our
environment here in Mars Township to include those in the ordinance and I also agree that we should come back and look at the limiting the tree cutting based on the lot size um maybe up to a certain lot size we do a percentage basis and beyond a certain lot size we do a number uh but we have to come back
and take a look at that because as Mr mccormack said and we've discussed uh small lot sizes uh have fewer trees and they can just clear cut their their lots and we don't want that either um but this ordinance does accomplish one big thing for me which I've been advocating for for a couple years now which is
eliminating the clear cutting of trees here in Morris Township i've seen several lots in my neighborhood clearcut um over the past five six years I would say and this ordinance accomplishes a restriction on that um I should also mention as always the planning board and
zoning board will have the their own approval to grant variances from the ordinance um but I do hope that they keep true hold true to its spirit and intent and I urge all residents who have additional comments for us to email us either individually or as a group uh we
really like to hear from you and as I Mr jory and I have said and I believe Mr jenna is going to say maybe others that we we want to come back and improve this so please send us your comments on ways that we can do that but I think for tonight given the state requirement I think we need to pass this thank you
any other comments committeeman Janata and then Mr rabbits i would echo what um Deputy Mayor Griselle and Kyle and Commander Chief I mean the tree ordinance was
something that I've been trying to push for a while and I'm glad that we're actually passing one now even though it's not every not complete in my view and I think everybody else's view but it's the first step in in the process so
I'm glad that at least we have something now okay thank you Committeeman Rabbitz yes thank you Mayor i just want to uh echo what uh Committeeman Jory and and Deputy Mayor
Grezell had said they're spot on and I want to thank the members of the public who have spoken out on this and the folks that have emailed us yes this can this this ordinance can be approved but as Mayor as Deputy Mayor Gazelle had said we needed to get this done um and
we will and we definitely are open to tweaking this down the road there are some enhance enhancements that can be made and as always if you have something um recommendations questions concerns please do reach out to the township committee because we do listen thank you
and also feel free to ever if anybody wants to stop by the environmental commission meeting it's on the website and you can it's open to the public if you ever want to visit if there's no other discussion Madame Clerk may I have a roll call vote
mr jory yes mr gazelle yes mr janata yes mr ravitz yes mayor Griglia yes i Donna J griglia mayor declare ordinance number 01-25 approved and adopted and direct the township clerk to publish proper
notice thereof in the official newspaper madame clerk please read the title of ordinance 02-25 into the record and then we will then open the public hearing ordinance 02-25 amend amending chapter 57 land development of the code of the township
of Morris note amending site plan exemptions we will take comments from in-person attendees first then switch over to you Zoom please virtually raise your hand in Zoom to indicate if you would like to speak may I have a motion to open public
comment on ordinance number 02-25 so moved second all those in favor i is there anyone from the public who would like to speak on this ordinance mayor Mayor can I suggest that uh Mr quinn just give us a very very brief uh
review of what this covers sure because the the title is very big so I think that'll be helpful certainly as technologies changed over the years there's certain things that residents are doing such as putting on solar panels putting in electric vehicle charging stations making minor um
improvements to their properties that under the current ordinance would require them to go for um before the planning board or the board of adjustment so on some of these minor new technological um enhancements they can then be administratively approved by our
uh basically our engineering technical coordinating committee um they would have to go through the zoning process get the approval and they would not have to appear before one of the boards for something that's very minor and then expediting what they want to do but also saving them a significant amount of money of having to put together a
planning board or board of adjustment application great i just want to make clear that the purpose of the ordinance is to to make certain home improvements easier uh for the public to to accomplish and not uh have them go through the protocol that we have in place currently
thank you seeing nobody here in public and no hands raised is there a motion to close public comment so move second all in favor i may I have a motion to adopt ordinance number 02-25
so move second is there any discussion madame clerk may I have a roll call vote mr janata yes mr griselle yes mr jory yes mr ravitz yes mayor Griglia yes i Donna J gerriglia mayor declare
ordinance number 02-25 approved and adopted and direct the township clerk to publish proper notice thereof in the official newspaper i would now like to ask our attorney Jared to explain why
97-25 the resolution must be voted on before ordinance ordinance 04-25 um so ordinance 0-25 um was amending the zoning code it went to the planning board for a consistency
review and it was found uh not to be consistent so for the reasons set forth in our reasons resolution we believe it's in the public good that despite the fact that it's not consistent with the master plan um that still should be adopted and this this this body has the
ability to do that by a supermajority any questions madame clerk please read the title of resolution 97-25 into the record resolution 97-25 resolution of reasons for adoption
of ordinance number 04-25 may I have a motion to approve resolution number 97-25 so moved second madame clerk may I have a roll call vote mr janata yes oh that was wrong mr ravitz yes mr
gazelle yes mr jory Mayor Griglia yes madame Clerk please read the title of ordinance 04-25 into the record and we will open up the public hearing 04-25 amending chapter 95 of the zoning code of the township of Morris to modify
the RA11 and RA25 zoning boundaries for block 3105 lot 6 note adjust adjusts zoning boundaries to better align with planning and land use goals
we will take comments from in-person attendees first then we'll switch over to Zoom please virtually raise your hand on Zoom to indicate if you would like to speak may I have a motion to open the public hearing on ordinance number 04-25 so moved second all in favor i
Is there anyone from the public or online mayor I'll make a motion to close the public comment no I just dumped no paul Stouts resident 29 Oaklane uh does this ordinance have to do with uh with the cannabis business as well no this is
actually the lot it's a residential property that has two it's in two different zones because it faces two different streets so why are we overriding the master plan which was put in place i I'm a little confused here it's going to allow for what it's a
property that has sits in two zones and it bases two different streets okay so you're talking about a single property here not this is a residential property res yeah so that they they essentially they're in two different uh zoning issues so we want to give them that
relief okay thanks for the clarification it's a residential property very good thanks Mr quinn is there intent to subdivide the property eventually yes yeah so the the Mr t the property property goes between two zones it's one piece right now and they're intending to
subdivide the property since it faces two different streets so we just want to adjust the line in the back so it just aligns with the zone it's really a minor lot line adjustment to allow the the resident to subdivide the property thank you thank you
is there a motion to close public comment so moved second all in favor i may I have a motion to adopt ordinance number 04-25 so moved second any discussion madame Clerk may I have a roll call vote
mr janata yes mr ravitz yes mr gazelle yes mr jory yes mayor Grigglia yes i Donna J wrigley mayor declare ordinance number 04-25 approved and adopted and direct the township clerk to publish proper notice thereof in the official newspaper
madame clerk please read the title of ordinance '05-25 into the record and we will then open the public hearing ordinance 05-25 an ordinance of the township of Morris county of Morris state of New Jersey concerning salaries for non-union personnel note establishes
salary range for non-union Township employees again we'll take comments from in-person attendees first and then switch over to Zoom please virtually raise your hand on Zoom may I have a motion to open the public hearing on ordinance number '05-25
so moved second all in favor seeing nobody from the public and no hands raised on Zoom is there a motion to close public comment so moved second all in favor i I May I have a motion to adopt ordinance number '05-25 so moved
second any discussion madame clerk may I have a roll call vote mr dorphy yes mr ravitz yes mr griselle yes mr janata yes mayor Griio yes i Donna J griggley mayor declare ordinance number '05-25 approved and adopted and
direct the township clerk to publish publish proper notice thereof in the official newspaper i'd like to please note that committee member Jorphy will recuse himself from ordinance 076-25 due to his role in the fire
department madame clerk please read the title of ordinance 06-25 into the record and we will then open the public hearing ordinance 0625 an ordinance of the township of Morris county of Morris state of New Jersey concerning salaries
for non-union personnel fire department note establishes salary ranges for non-union township employees specifically for fire department we'll take comments from in-person attendees first and then from those on Zoom please raise your hand on Zoom if you would
like to speak seeing no one in person and no hands raised on Zoom is there a motion to close public comment so moved second all in favor i may I have a motion to adopt ordinance number
06-25 so moved second any discussion madame clerk may I have a roll call vote mr ravitz yes mr janata yes mr griselle yes mayor Griglia yes i Donna J
gerriglia mayor declare ordinance number 06-25 approved and adopted and direct the township clerk to publish proper notice thereof in the official newspaper at this time I would like to again have our attorney Mr caner please
speak to ordinances 07-25 and ' 08-25 as they are companion ordinances and he'll explain thank you mayor so the next ordinances we're going to call are 0725 and 0825 and they both deal with cannabis 0725 provides uh the
regulations uh which the miss t file follow and 0825 is uh the zoning for it um so what the governing body has decided to do is we're going to open up the public hearing on 0725 first uh we'll take comments and questions from the public
on 0725 it's not going to be a back and forth dialogue though because of because we have so many people here but we will be taking note of questions and we'll answer them we will then open up the public comment on o the public hearing on 0825 before we vote on 0725 so all
questions and comments can be heard as the two ordinances are so interrelated following closing the public hearing on 0825 the governing body will be responding to those comments and questions uh from the public and then we'll vote on 07 and 08 in order um so
that'll be the procedure so first it'll be 0725 public hearing 3 minutes there'll be no response from the governing body um then we'll open up for 0825 again comments and questions and following that there'll be a response from the governing body from myself from
Mr quinn and then uh there'll be a vote on 07 and 08 following both public hearings thank you madame clerk please read the title of ordinance 07-25 into the record and then we will open up the public hearing ordinance
07-25 an ordinance of Morris Township County of Morris and State of New Jersey amending chapter 205 cannabis businesses section 205-1 prohibited acts note updates local regulations on cannabis businesses
again we'll take comments from in-person attendees first and then from Zoom please raise your hand on Zoom if you would like to speak may I have a motion to open public comment so moved second all in favor i And one other thing Mayor if your comment is about cannabis you
you can come up on 0725 the other reason we did it is we didn't want to confuse the public on some aspects that may fall under 07 and some that fall under 08 so any comments you have on cannabis you can come up now for 0725 is there anyone from the public who
would like to come to the podium [Applause] good evening i'm Jennifer Vixter 21 Canfield Road i'm sorry your first name again jennifer jennifer Fixster so uh council members uh I sent a letter uh on February 19 uh 25th
actually uh regarding my concerns uh for this ordinance ordinance 0725 and 0825 uh so this evening I'd like to raise some specific points for your consideration in addition to what was documented in that letter um many of the township council meetings
that I have been to have focused on generating revenue right that this cannabis ordinance will generate revenue um it does not mean that it will result in a prolonged net income once the expenses are considered our townships is already in a strong financial pos
position we have 20 million in cash and 12 million surplus that is available available for operating expenses in 2025 the ordinance states funds from marijuana sales will be used specifically for capital expenditures yet we already have more than 400,000
capital surplus at year end we have a healthy financial statement this raises the question of whether tax revenue from marijuana sales is truly necessary for funding community projects ordinance 7 0725 disregards the
recommendations made by the cannabis advisory board and does not take into consideration what other municipalities have done so regarding licensing the board opposed classified retailer license licensing yet ordinance 0725
includes it it also ignored their concerns about competition and lack of suitable property mars County currently has eight retailers with another planned in Marstown ordinance 725 allows up to 12
licenses across six classes which seems unnecessary given the committee members verbally assured the community at the February 19th meeting that additional cultivation or distribution zones are unavailable concerning the location ordinance 725 ignores the board's
recommendation for a 500 ft buffer from a sensitive area this includes schools instead it sets a 250 ft buffer which may not adequately protect our youth our neighboring municipalities have taken much more cautious approaches
marstown has allowed only two licenses within a thousand with a thousand foot school buffer as recently as yesterday it was reported that the Safe Leafs Society was founded to improve safety and transparency in New Jersey regulated
cannabis products their independent testing identified that they have found mold yeast and bacteria in these products and we want to allow cultivation and distribution of these products in our community and I don't think it's
appropriate i think we need to take into consideration what's been identified and how that's going to be managed and governed going forward before we take any action so my questions on this issue thank you can I I you I had five minutes walking in the door and you took two
question thank you thank you [Applause] hello hi Paul Stout 29 i am a resident uh actually for 19 years uh active in the community actually was on the uh uh
the zoning board for this township i was also the chair of EDAC for the township um I volunteer for a number of organizations within the community so I care about what happens here and you know what i actually prepared some remarks for tonight but I'm going to
actually uh put those aside and talk about a quick conversation I had with my 12-year-old daughter about this very subject tonight over dinner and I asked her what she thought about what we're talking about tonight legalizing cannabis in our town her big question
was why what benefit does it bring to our township Dad and frankly I didn't have an answer for her and I don't think this this council this committee has an answer either if you do I haven't heard
it maybe that's because this has been kept so off the radar since this began i mean with all due respect mayor you talk about transparency uh you talk about uh valuing our input yet you limit the amount of time you can talk about this i
had to search for this information to come here tonight and last two weeks ago for the planning board meeting it was basically hidden you talk about recycling and on the municipal me messenger uh you talk about uh taxes but you don't talk about pot and bring it to
our town no no that's kept quiet he posted the agenda about 24 hours before this meeting this was not publicized you see this group here tonight word of mouth grassroots social media i know I'm
not happy i'll let them speak for themselves but I hope you come to your senses and don't put pot and money ahead of our great township thank you thank you good evening mayor uh committee members uh David Manello uh 35 Syore Drive uh
resident um lived here quite some time raised my children here um I want to start I I'm I'm not sure if I'm in the minority this evening but I want to say that you that I' I'm sorry i also want to say that I'm a practitioner of municipal law i represent uh
municipalities uh throughout New Jersey i want to say that you guys got it right um your committee didn't uh run towards permitting cannabis you walked you walked thoughtfully you heard from industry insiders you heard from people
in public safety and you made a decision that I think makes sense i think what you have in front of you this evening is thoughtful i think it's zoned appropriately it's not in residential areas and I'm very proud to stand in
support of what is before you this evening um you know it's it's as uh I'm sure you know Mr quinn will say we're this is budget season it's budget season and budgets are hard budgets are difficult every year everything goes up
public safety public works uh you know employee salaries it's hard to find the revenue to run your municipality but I so I want to say that I commend this governing body for looking for novel ways of bringing in
revenue to support the township because if it doesn't come from from new avenues of revenue it comes from the taxpayers so I applaud you in your efforts to find new ways uh to to fund the essential uh
services that are required so uh as a resident I just want to thank you for considering this evening and I hope that you vote yes in favor of cannabis in the thoughtful areas that you have set forth in your ordinance thank you very
much thank you hello Schwarzber 65 Woodland Avenue i'm a resident thank you to the governing body for continuing to govern with transparency care and consideration for all Mars Township residents contrary to
what you may have heard the governing body has been very deliberate in their process of writing and presenting this cannabis ordinance to the public there have been no secrets kept from residents as you may have heard from other sources a cannabis advisory board was created last year and all residents were
welcomed to attend all six meetings to hear from various experts in the field including our own law enforcement cannabis is legal for recreational use in New Jersey full stop the safest and most controlled way for
cannabis users to procure cannabis is through highly regulated secure and safe cannabis dispensaries full stop like liquor stores cannabis dispensaries have strict regulations as to where they may be located and to whom
they may sell their product any cannabis business that is considered by this governing body must adhere to these strict regulations full stop there's also been a misinformation campaign claiming that cannabis is a so-called gateway drug there are no
conclusive studies that support this claim in fact some research suggests that cannabis use may actually reduce the likelihood of using certain other drugs such as opioids i appreciate the current concern for the safety of our children i know safety is
at the top of all of our lists of concerns as it should be so if safety for our children is important to you please focus on the steps that you can take to make them safer dangers that are a much greater threat to them than a secure controlled legal cannabis
business make sure your kids are following their full vaccination schedules to prevent life-threatening diseases make your home a safe space for your child support them no matter who they might be and prevent them from being bullied or becoming bullies
themselves keep firearms in your home unloaded locked and secured supervise screen time and limit exposure to social media know where your kids are riding their bikes to play so they're not playing in busy hightraic areas talk to your children about alcohol tobacco and
drug use and don't talk please i trust that moving forward the township committee will continue to be exceedingly thoughtful and measured in their deliberations and will make the right decisions for the safety and well-being of all its residents thank you
hello Hugh Girardano excuse me i am not a resident uh Blackwood New Jersey uh Mrs mayor uh my name is Hugh Jano i am a union representative for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union UFCW we are a national labor union of
1.4 million hardworking families and we are the official labor union under the guise of the AFL CIO that represents both medical and adult use cannabis we currently represent thousands of workers here in New Jersey in both the medical
and adult use market these workers because they are union have a fair wage healthc care benefits sick time vacation time maternity leave um and the path to retirement one day um these jobs are no
different than any other trade many folks that work in the back of the house um and the front of the house have four-year degrees from our universities here in Stockton Ruckers um and Rowan uh it it is our belief that if this is
passed it'll attract youth it'll attract educated youth who will raise their families here uh most of these folks have degrees in in botany and other forms of science the other thing that's important to understand is that the CRC put strict rules on these facilities
both the cultivation sites and everything in between to retail sites there are cameras everywhere that go directly to the state police there is no other business that has that form of direct contact with police besides push pushing a panic alarm also New Jersey
has very strict rules in regards to security when you walk into these facilities you have to show your ID prior to even entering the sales floor or um going into a facility uh that is non retail which patients and adult use
consumers will not have access to um your ID is shown twice in the retail facilities which means that no underage youth can can uh receive cannabis the other thing to understand is stats have shown that when cannabis is brought into a a neighborhood it brings down opioid
use and increases home values if you uh if you have youth coming in that are educated they can afford to buy a house in this township it is our belief that this this will create good jobs and also create opportunity specifically for
workingclass people who want to get into the middle class this will give an opportunity for fair wages and benefits it'll make sure they have more money in their pocket to spend and workers will shop eat and do everything in between to show economic benefit to this township
it is my belief that under uh this program that it will create good jobs the UFCW the AFL CIO and labor in New Jersey supports this ordinance and I hope that you will pass it to create
good jobs thank you thank you is there anyone else in person who would like to come forward sir uh I just I think Mrs wilson did she either way i just want I didn't want her to so Either way go ahead go
ahead all right my name is Andrew Gingrich i'm at 47 Columbia Road um thank you all for having a meeting tonight to talk about this my concern is is more about I grew up in Philadelphia i grew up in West Philadelphia in Germantown i saw a lot of drug use around me growing up i watched a lot of
my friends go from marijuana to opioids i watched a lot of friends go to cocaine i watched a lot of people go to acid it started with marijuana i don't care what they say about studies studies can be written any way you want to make it work um I'm more worried about my children
growing up in this township i understand that it's available everywhere it always has been um but my concern is what example do we set as adults by making it legal what do we tell our children we tell them it's okay i honestly don't drink much maybe have a couple of
glasses of wine a year i don't use drugs and I I try to set a good example for my children and I think that we if we legalize stuff and we keep telling them it's okay to smoke marijuana it's okay you're telling them it's okay to use drugs and I you know you can take it any
way you want to look at it i'm not I'm not here to get on one side or the other but I'm more concerned about my children and a child that I have that will not go to the bathroom in the high school because of the smell of marijuana in that bathroom that's all I have to say i just
wanted to get my piece thank you thank you hi good evening good evening nice to see everyone so I have a few comments I'd like to add to the mix have your name and address please oh Kathy Wilson 20 Beachwood Drive thank you um beginning
with the argument that twothirds of our residents voted to legalize therefore this ordinance is doing what our residents want that argument does not resonate with me and I'm not alone on that repeating this argument leaves many
people feeling like their views are not being heard in my case I voted yes to legalize because I don't want people going to jail for h for possessing small quantities of pot not because I'm eager
to bring the cannabis industry to our town if the ballot question was should our town permit all classes of business activity including not just retail but also cultivation manufacturing wholesale
and distribution i'm pretty sure that far less than twothirds of our residents would vote yes and I would be one of them unlike many who are here tonight I am not passionately opposed to this
ordinance but I do have reservations and I do question if the benefits are worth it for example no one knows what the tax revenues will be assuming a 2% tax rate I've heard back the napkin estimates
ranging from 20,000 to 100,000 in new revenues per year for perspective these estimates would yield a revenue offset of somewhere between $2 and $12 per household per year hardly a major
financial benefit my biggest concern is whether it's wise to allow all classes of business activity retail is one thing particularly retail that allows the sale of medical marijuana but
cultivation manufacturing distribution these are largecale production activities that involve warehouses and trucking and all kinds of safety security and operational concerns as a resident I'm not keen on
having my community serve as a home to businesses whose profits depend on sustaining and even expanding largecale consumption and demand that business model does not align with my personal
values i also don't like the provision of a 250t distance from schools i'd like to see that distance extended in my opinion this ordinance is an overreach in its current form I do
not believe it serves the best interest of our community if I was still seated on your side of the DES my vote on this ordinance would be no thank you are there any other persons here that
would like to approach the podium mark Corkran 59 Canfield Road i was up here a few weeks ago mark Corkran 59 Canfield Road um I uh gave my opinion at length a few weeks ago so I'm not
going to go into to that again um but I would uh like to raise a few topics number one Jennifer Fixster just went through uh several line items about the budget
that you have before you and the surplus that we have here uh which is quite clear um and I forget who it was but she had to yield her time to somebody who's not even a resident of of this town which the absurdity of that I don't even
know how to address that um so I'd ask this if we have a budget surplus what is the value proposition of allowing this in our town what exactly what are what are we being rewarded with if we don't need the money
additionally this has been turned down by Chadam Madison and others what What is this committee in possession of and why do they feel it benefits this town when it was turned
flatly down by other towns surrounding us what do they know that we don't or more pointedly what do you know that they don't uh I I'll leave that uh as my final comment and I'd certainly like to
hear an answer on that thank you thank you Mayor and Council my name is John Murphy i live at 18 Brother's Place in Mars Township um I'd like to think a I'm a guy that um is aware of what's going on in the community and I had
heard that there was a cannabis advisory committee and that there was some discussion um and I'm a little embarrassed to say for someone that's been here for so long and someone who 30 years ago sat in your
seat mayor um that I am reading the ordinance for the first time tonight um I've always prided myself on being a common sense guy and as I read through it on my iPhone with the real small print and 65year-old eyes um I had to
read it a couple of times to understand fully the scope of all the cannabis operations that could potentially be housed in our town and you know I I agree about the the kids
and the money and so forth but um I feel as if the township people are not fully aware of what the people here and and both sides were wellprepared um
I have so much respect for Kathy Wilson and I've known her forever and if I was sitting on the same side of the deis as you are I would be voting no largely because of the potential size of a cultivation operation i had a client up
in I don't know someplace up in North Jersey lived near a cultivation operation and it wasn't the smell or the size of it it was the noise from I think the ventilators um so so I think what
I'm asking is to not vote on it tonight to let us act like the Mars County Daily Record and the Newsbe and the Star Ledger acted 30 years ago where there would have been five reporters
back there along the back wall with their steno pads and the next day you would see maybe below the fold fold maybe not above the fold but you'd see information that would I believe get more people here i was very interested i
I have 30 seconds left was very interested to hear somebody say something to the effect liars figure and figures lie or you can massage your statistics any way you want but twothirds of the people voted one way but that should not be used because this
vote is not apples to apples to the legalization of marijuana this is about our community this is about our children and I'll pay the extra 12 or $24 a year if uh in my taxes if you can
respectfully look at this one more time two more times or whatever it takes where this room is made up of one or two people instead of 30 or 40 or 50 um I think it needs to be tweaked and I respectfully ask that you postpone any
vote tonight until more people are aware of what the potential uh could be for our community thank you thank you for your comments [Applause]
good evening good evening jim Cavana 11 Featherly Road resident for 55 years i had no intention of uh speaking tonight i came here with a open heart and an open mind just hearing about the
cannabis i'll have to apologize like John Murphy here i didn't know anything about it that's my fault and that's on me but I'm here now and I've listened dispassionately to both sides of the arguments i've heard people come from the outside and talk about the business
aspects and so forth i've heard comments in terms of the potential revenue uh I've known Kathy Wilson and John Murphy for many years they do their homework and I would like to just basically make the the point of consider
our children in this i too would be willing to pay a lot more in terms of taxes for the amounts that were put out by Kathy Wilson even if you magnify it by 10 times I think it's our children that are most important i would ask each
one of you I know six of you over the years that you do fine work and uh many times you get bered for things i'm not going to berade you for anything i'm simply going to invite you to reach deep into your souls and think about all the residents which is what you would be
voting on and weigh the importance of what does this really do for you i think there was a gentleman who stood up and said why and that's the statement that questions uh in my mind why uh you'll have to weigh the argument
about the potential revenue i would like each person to go on record if you go ahead and vote of the affirmative just before that to make your statements as to how much revenue impact this would be because in the other side is our children and uh I'm not an expert in
terms of this but I'd like to see the subject ventilated a lot more so I would also uh suggest along with uh uh Mr murphy's comment that she would delay this tonight so that it be uh going out
to the public thank you and God bless thank [Applause] you uh hi my name is Rich Frying i am not a resident i am in the cannabis business
and I also have two kids uh I can tell you that the benefits of cannabis tell us your address uh they don't have to name their town no okay would you like to know my town
please Mr it's in Basking Ridge which is a non optin city uh With two kids I understand the business of cannabis and I know that it's not just about tax revenue it's about careers
it's about jobs it's about changing the lives of a lot of people because they're involved in a business which is a real trajectory to a future in addition raising two kids I have two high schoolers they're probably the most susceptible when it comes to cannabis and I can have an open honest
conversation with them because it's an open honest substance and that's really important because they can make their own decisions as upcoming adults so I applaud what this committee is doing tonight and opting in to
cannabis for this this great city thank you thank you [Applause] you're so polite hi my name is Lori Georgian to Spring Valley Road in Marstown uh I stand
before you today because I believe a dispensary has no place in Mars Township while some may argue that legal cannabis is here to stay we must ask ourselves at what cost to our children and our neighborhood first and foremost our
children's safety and well-being must come first a dispensary in our community increases the risk of exposure to marijuana at a young age studies show that when dispensaries open in neighborhoods teen usage rates tend to
rise no matter how many regulations are in place the reality is the increased access leads to increased temptation do we really want our children growing up in a town where marijuana is more visible and more accessible second the
presence of a dispensary changes the character of our neighborhood morris Township is a familyfriendly residential community parents move here for good schools safe streets and a wholesome environment to raise their kids a dispensary doesn't fit into the vision
it attracts more foot traffic from outsiders as we have seen tonight increases the risk of loitering and sends the wrong message about what we prioritize as a community third there are better ways to grow our town than through the cannabis industry
a dispensary is not the type of business that enhances a neighborhood it diminishes it nearby property values can decline reputable businesses may think twice about investing here and residents may start looking elsewhere to raise
their families we have worked hard to build Mars Township into the wonderful place it is today why would we risk this now lastly we cannot ignore the example we are setting for our children we constantly remind them to make smart
choices avoid peer pressure and focus on their futures yet allowing a dispensary sends mixed signals it normalizes marijuana and diminishes the risks associated with it our job as a community is to protect and guide our kids not introduce more challenges into
their lives mars Township is more than just a location it's a home that we've all lived in a dispensary does not align with the values that make our town great i urge the council to consider our children our families and our future when making this decision let's keep
Mars Township the safe welcoming and thriving community we all love lastly you had mentioned twothirds of the uh folks voted to legalize cannabis put it on the ballot put it on the local ballot
you guys should not be deciding put it up for vote thank you uh Keith Robinson non-resident um but I have many friends and colleagues that live here um West Orange if that matters um so I've heard a lot about costs and
benefits and so I just wanted to speak a little bit from both a personal perspective and a professional perspective um I am a educator in New York for going on a decade and a half so I've seen the side of the vilification
of of marijuana and I've seen the side of not having regulation um and I've seen students who become ill students who are affected by taking part in something and not realizing what they were actually taking part in um so I
think I agree with those that said that the safest option is the regulated option um and then from a personal perspective I live in West Orange which neighbors uh Maplewood which I consider to be a safe and family-friendly environment with dispensaries um and so
from a personal and familial perspective I am able to access things that help with um my and my family's anxieties um and we're able to be better friends better parents better partners as a result of all of that so um I think that
there are innumerable benefits um and I've seen them both professionally and personally thank you so much thank you hello hi uh Barbara Franklin i'm a resident 71 Redner Road i I know you've taken a lot of time
to to do research on this but what's the rush we don't have to be the first we don't have to be among the first believe me you could be the 10th or the 20th town doing it and it will still be successful by by revenue not necessarily
quality of life of of people in our town totally agree in terms of the children you know making it more accessible they'll find an 18year-old or a 21year-old who can buy it for them this is not a good idea
i agree with Kathy Wilson and this thought of when the question was asked we agree it should be legal it should not be uh something that people are incarcerated for but it shouldn't be sold in our town the people who might
need it for medical reasons make it available in the pharmacies where it's regulated it's protected but not in a store in our town thank you thank you [Applause]
good evening hello my name is Tamara Wisherrod i am a proud resident of Mars Township at 32 Cadina Road and I rise before you this evening to ask you to think of the children the next thing you know they'll
be selling mindaltering substances in supermarkets oh wait they already do cannabis is legal cannabis is allowed to be produced and
sold in New Jersey and I understand that people feel passionately about it i understand that people have fears about their children's exposure to it i have fears about my children's exposure to fast food we sell that too
i appreciate your actions in considering carefully how to do this the right way in a regulated way in a way that keeps people controlled or or keeps the youth
controlled from access to cannabis it's going to be in particular areas it's going to be buffered and it's going to be sold in a way that is highly regulated as it should be as alcohol is in fact much more regulated than alcohol
i appreciate that and I appreciate that you've not given in to the fears that actually most of us particularly in our age group were raised with we were heavily indoctrinated to be afraid of cannabis
in a way that we were not indoctrinated to be afraid of alcohol and there is no sense in that so instead of staying in the past and giving into those fears we're
moving forward in Morris Township and I hope that you will vote actually tonight to just move forward with this thank you thank [Applause] you uh Mitch Stano 17 Bell Drive looking
for uh some clarification i'm not sure if our police and fire personnel are permitted to use cannabis when off duty and if this ordinance passes and they are prohibited from using cannabis when off duty will that change that and therefore allow police and our fire
personnel to indulge in cannabis when off duty i'd just like to have an answer to that thank you hello my name is uh Rose Beth Mikkel i live at 20 Max Drive in Mars Township um
I am a resident and um just as you've seen from a show of hands that obviously there's more with us than there are with them and that was excluding the people that were not
residents for one you cannot get a parking spot in the parking lot right now i had to park across the street because there's so many cars here to voice how we feel about the decision that you're making um to this to this
woman's point about drunk driving there was almost 700 deaths in 2024 just from drunk uh drunk driving or marijuana being tested positive so okay if you want to smoke the the the
joint and think it's like not a big deal fine it's to each his own it's your business but when you bring something that is so huge to a township that is is family oriented I'm not married and I don't have children and I still feel
passionate about this because I can see just one i don't do it anymore but I used to smoke pot 30 f years ago when I did and even at that I was impaired i could not drive so could you imagine the
people that do do it or are influenced by this I just want to put on record that I am one resident that is absolutely against this and I hope that you hear the majority of people and that's not even the majority of our township speaking because half of them
I'm sure most of them don't know about it and I and I commend the man that said um letting the township like see it on you know through publicity and and through the news let them vote on it that way and let them
come and and talk about it and show up here to another meeting why is it so I I just feel I mean I'm here when you're talking about it but there's a majority of people that are not and so I'm just I'm just asking that you would hear the
majority of people thank you thank you good evening patrick Dugan non-resident former resident though I grew up here um I was born in Morristown Memorial Hospital and I've lived through this you know recent adoption of cannabis in the state of New Jersey the people of the
state of New Jersey have spoken your constituents have voted and we are free Americans who believe that regulated cannabis is responsible state where he lives i live in Jersey City New Jersey presently but I am from
I was born in this town i lived in this town for a long long time i lived in Morristown we moved around a little bit as well and New Bernie um sir you're out of order please let him let him speak i find that it's irrelevant where I currently reside i I'm in this town
frequently i have family that still live here um and I want to speak in in support of what you have which is a very robust piece of legislation that takes into account a lot of the concerns that were mentioned here this evening um including but not limited to the location driving foot traffic you have a
very limited zoning ordinance here which only allows cannabis businesses to operate in very very select areas i operate a commercial real estate brokerage and business in the state of New Jersey and New York i can assure you that property values do not reduce as a result of the adoption of legalized
cannabis i could also like to highlight that nobody ever came home high and beat their kids but there's bars in this town there's liquor licenses and liquor stores and to this day plenty of people come home and beat their kids drunk um I
believe that yes we should take into consideration the children of this community i think it's very important that we're educated on this topic but they're not allowed in the front door and the only very limited zonings that allow cannabis in this in this township or the proposed legislation before you
today limit the locations in such a way that it prevents the visibility of these businesses i mean if you look at the very very very small amount of of approved zonings you you have a very robust protection and safety net for the
children in the community whether it be adjacency to schools or the the you know additional foot traffic in a downtown area not to mention you have a dispensary coming to Morristown through this is a donut town is a circle we all
know that you have to drive through it to go to that dispensary if you want an arborist from your prior bill tax cannabis and create local jobs as our union uh uh representative indicated to
to improve the community and and again I I you know you can work with the public but there's such thing as tyranny of the minority um there are a lot of loud voices and I appreciate their concerns as residents here but the people have spoken it's time we're not living in
1975 reefer Madness was was a propaganda film um I don't intend to use rain or my minute i appreciate uh being heard and uh I hope that you pass this ordinance or some form of it in the very near future and and allow residents the
opportunity to profit from this business in a safe and regulated way thank you thank you [Applause] my name is Steve Leris i live at 20 Oak Park Drive been here for 27 years and I
love this township and I love what happened here today because this is really democracy even though you limited democracy to 3 minutes when everybody came in this store thought they had five and that's wrong i to be quite honest with you the two people that made the most sense are the
two people who sat at the deis years and years ago former committeemen just said let's reconsider let's give this thing more time besides the people from the industry there are only two people that live in this township that came out for
this regulation just two are there 20 people that have spoken against it time that the township is a little bit more informed about this to make a little bit of a better decision the reality is there's going to be two cannabis
dispensaries in Morristown if the people from Jersey City want to get up and get high they can go to Morristown they don't have to come to Morris Township and the last thing is we're talking about putting a controlled substance here is the chief of police here you
have one two three officers here is the chief here to answer questions he provided testimony already okay advisory board i think that the township should start have the chief of police at these meetings maybe once a quarter just to answer questions from the residents
but the bottom line is this is a great town i appreciate all you guys have done here george Washington fought for this country not maybe three miles from where we are right now and what happened tonight is democracy and we need a little bit more time to really think
about this and really talk about this i hope the committee takes a little bit more time and hasn't made up their mind and as the two people who were committeemen were very eloquent and said "Let's give this thing a little bit more time and do a little bit more research
let more people understand what's going on here." I'd be against a liquor store opening up in that facility i'd be against a gun store opening up in that facility and I really don't appreciate these people that from the industry that come out here to talk about the town mr
quinn I'm really done so maybe give my minute to someone else thank you all very much thank you thank everybody here this is what this country is about you're correct thank you thank you hello
good evening my name is Alex Farnney i am not a resident um I'm not here to Alex Vichney uh I'm I'm not here to offer a a pro or against perspective um but I I do just want to acknowledge a
couple of um things that was said by the the community right and I think the the biggest thing to note and what myself I I failed to mention uh I'm a dispensary owner that's opening up in Morris County uh up in Victory Gardens um and my whole
goal and perspective is to educate and provide uh a positive benefit to the community that that surrounds myself um and I feel that a lot of uh owners of retail spaces that are trying to open in various counties are um attempting to do
the same um our our industry is under very rigorous standards and laws and guidelines part of those guidelines um that we need to submit as a final review process to the state is um how we plan to educate the community how we plan to service the community how we plan to
give back to the community uh and that's part of our final um approval process so the the standards and the the processes that we're under and the review processes are are quite extensive and quite vast um we try to bring in uh educated individuals so that we can
educate the community and I think that that's a big part of what I don't I'm not speaking for this community by any sense but I think that a lot of the concerns and worries stem from um lack of knowledge of the space the industry and and maybe the product as well um so
I I just encourage the the community and the council as I went through with with my council uh and planning board to really have a close relationship and educate each other in the process but also educate each other in what the the true positive benefits of bringing these
businesses um and these individuals into towns like this and having uh true open and honest conversations with the with the community thank you thank you [Applause] hi hello jocelyn Grisetti i am a Morris
Township resident so I just um really have a question because I was one that did attend the cannabis advisory board meetings and after the last one I actually thought it was like kind of a done deal like not that we were going to
go forward with it but that it wasn't possible because we were talking about zonings of like 1,000 ft or 750 ft so my question is it's it's now down to for the most part on the east side of
Ridgedale 250 ft and then 500 ft on the other side so my question is really how did this how did you arrive at this um because it seems to me like we're just moving the goalposts and changing the rules to fit a decision that's had has
already been made and we're just going through the motions to make it look like we're doing our due diligence to appease the populace but I just I I'm very frustrated as you may be able to tell like I just want an like a a rationale
or a reason as to why it dropped down to 250 ft um like I said I feel after having sat through that last meeting I was I was very confident that this would not pass because there was
really no place that this could go and again the goalposts the rules have been changed to um fit an ulterior motive and it's just really disappointing in our elected officials so when you get to maybe you'll get to
my question and you can answer me thank you you're welcome hi uh Jennifer Murphy i am a resident um I would just like to reiterate some of the things that have been said that I just hope um the township committee
waits and um they don't vote on this tonight give the residents a greater opportunity to be aware of this i don't think a lot of people I don't think the majority of the township residents even know this is going on i think most of the people who
who are here tonight it is due to word of mouth um I think it should either go to a ballot question um I also think that a lot of it a lot of what's been said is discussing that the state has
legalized marijuana yes it has that's I don't think that it should be the focus of tonight what we're talking about um I think we as a municipality should decide how we interpret that and how what we want to do with it i liken it to federal
um law and how states interpret that and what they do in home turf so that being said I would strongly urge you to either vote no or at least give more time um and let more residents um have their
input because I I I do believe that the majority of the township residents would not support this and and to the such a large scale that we're talking about it's not just the dispensaries um it's the cultivation it's it is a large scale so thank you all thank
[Applause] you seeing nobody else in person I would like to first call on Kristen Kamyatti on Zoom hi Kristen
i think you're still on mute okay can you hear me now yes yes hi good evening tristan Kamyatti seven Bradley Road um first of all I want to thank Mr gazelle for his informative emails that I got the word out about everything happening in our town i appreciate it um
as a resident here uh for 17 years I also have two kids in the district i fully support this ordinance and I fully support safe and legal cannabis in our town not regulated cannabis is already here um go to your local station and
synthetic THC being sold right now at the counters my 11-year-old buys M&M's every other day um so if you're opposing this you're essentially supporting black market cannabis which is completely illogical um and if we're going to
discuss a gateway drug I would take a good hard look at alcohol if we're making that argument which everyone seems to ignore and is far more dangerous and more readily available to our children i strongly encourage anyone against legal cannabis to go to a dispensary if you haven't see how well
it's run how safe it is talk to those in the business and you will certainly learn a lot um and please stop the fear-mongering before you do any of that um anyway I do want to advisory board for the thought they put into this or ordinance or ordinance and again I'm in
full support so thank you council for your time thank you and next Susanna Pontel Short good evening um so Mayor my name actually is Susanna Pontel i have not
updated my Zoom um I previously my previous name was Susanna Short and that's what I used when I was invited to be one of the presenters for the cannabis advisory board so it happened so long ago those meetings that I had a different last name um I also resided elsewhere at that time i now am a
resident of Morris Township and it's a wonderful township to live in i'm at 35 Symore Drive um so I'm traveling with my family this week i also buried my father on Saturday so I I apologize if my thoughts are not uh terribly coherent but I've
been involved in the panace industry and in Canada policy advancement since late 2017 susanna you're kind of going in and out a little so can maybe one speak a little slower um I think we just lost her
well Yeah she's back on susanna there we go susanna can you hear me susanna we can't hear you so um I'll give you 30 more seconds if we can't
connect um we do have another opportunity for public comments okay can you hear me now i'm so sorry no no that's okay and just um it maybe speak it's a little in and out but we can hear you but speak a little slower all right yeah I will i'm so sorry so I I don't
know if you caught that my name has changed um so now I've used up three minutes just telling you my name and address but um I am a resident of Morris Township i was not at the time that I was a cannabis advisory board presenter on the issue um and my name now is
Susanna Pontel so thank you for your patience um I am out of the country um and I have been involved in the cannabis industry since late 2017 um and I've co-founded and led two cannabis trade associations in the state um so I'm very
familiar with the rules and regulations as well as the approaches taken by dozens of New Jersey municipalities um I'll also say that I currently Okay Susanna what we'll do is we have one we have another hand raised on Zoom so if
if she comes back on we'll try it one more time if not I would like to go to Tony Anne hello can you hear me yes hi my name is Tony Anne Anderson i'm at Two Squirrel Run and I just want to go on record that um I oppose this cannabis in our
beautiful town um like everyone gave unbelievable wellthoughtout reasons behind why they oppose it and it pretty much uh summarized what my family and I feel so I really can't even elaborate because everyone did such a great job
explaining why they oppose and I would beg you to reconsider and to really think about this and get this more out to the residents of this town because just doing a walk through my neighborhood no one knew about this so I would really request that you take some
time and get this more advertised that this is going on thank you for your time thank you [Applause] the next uh Erica Schneider DS hello hear me yes hi my name is Erica DS
i'm a resident at 9 Oak Lane um I didn't plan to talk tonight but I've been watching and I think it's necessary to make a few points first I would like to agree with a couple of people who said that um if this board does vote yes I think that
it's imperative that we get a detailed explanation of why you would vote yes and included would be why 12 are allowed when Marstown only allows two and why a 250 foot buffer instead of the thousand
foot buffer and also I think it's important to remember that legalizing cannabis is not the issue here the issue is whether or not we're going to have a largecale operation in our town surrounding the cannabis so hello
yes we can hear you keep going okay great so um I think we don't want to lose sight of the fact that that is not the issue the issue is whether or not we want to have a largecale operation that as John Murphy said I haven't even gotten to look at the exact what you
wouldn't believe what they're trying to pass passing an ordinance that allows up to 12 erica if you have some someone else is coming through are you alone i mean you can continue to speak but if there's someone else with you they it is not
their turn hello she's not a resident that's okay she is a resident hello erica is muted erica you're muted you were muted but again you speak there was
someone else coming through as well but yeah I don't go ahead okay i just wanted to say that um the issue here is not legalization of cannabis i think that's an important um point that was made for Murphy as well like we all agree that cannabis is
legalized in New Jersey through the ballot and this issue today is whether or not we want this large-scale operation surrounding cannabis in our town and I want to say it's okay to say no there are Madison said no chadam said no like we deserve as residents of our
town to have the opportunity to say yes or no and I don't think all due respect that the board of five to 10 people should decide that for us and we all also agree that it should go on a ballot and we also I also want to say that no one is saying alcohol is good for us
that's another thing we're we're muddling the waters here alcohol that's not the issue either there's um you know that's not the issue the issue is whether we want to have this large scale operation surrounding cannabis in our town and I think we all deserve the opportunity to learn way more about it
and exactly what it entails because it is a new industry and we don't know if we want to have it so I think we all need to educate ourselves a lot more because I don't even know the first thing about the extent of what's going to go on Richdale AB but that's a less than a
mile from my house so um I want us all to do the best for our town which would be to get educated and to narrow down the issues we don't need other people coming to our town talking about issues that are not relevant the issue is whether we the residents of this town
want to have this cannabis operation in our town it's great maybe cannabis is a wonderful industry and can employ a lot of people but we need to decide so I think that we should definitely push it down the road
the vote is my time up yet got 15 seconds yes you have Well you have 15 seconds thank you for having and um I look forward to the next time because I'm almost certain you guys are going to do the right thing and give us more time to think about this thank you
thank you the only other hand still ra Oh no there's no is Susanna short um Susanna we'll try this one more time so if we can hear you but after that we will have to close the public comment so
are you there i am here okay can you hear me yes okay i want we'll quickly say that I am in support of this in case I get cut off again um and I will say that I in my my professional work I've seen dozens of
municipalities go through this process or sorry actually closer to hundreds of them here in New Jersey and those who are commenting that this has just been pushed through um it really does not hold up with what I've seen happen in Morris Township so the towns that want
to just get an ordinance like this through they don't hold a series of meetings they don't invite professionals on all sides of the issue they don't take months to deliberate thoughtfully and our township has done all of those things um and those who are seeking to be educated on the issue I would encourage you to listen to the
recordings of those okay if you can hear me appreciate the comments um but again you've been it either dropped or you have cut out so there are no other hands raised on Zoom and there is nobody else here in the
public is there a motion to close public comment so move is there a second madame clerk please read the title of ordinance '08-25 into the record and we will then open the public hearing
ordinance 0825 amending chapter 95 of the zoning code of the township of Morris note modifies the township zoning code to include a cannabis business overlay zone again we will take comments from in person first and then we'll switch it
over to Zoom please raise your hand on Zoom to indicate if you would like to speak may I have a motion to open open public comment on ordinance 08-25 so moved second all in favor i mayor just for clarification the public can speak on cannabis again for three minutes over
if you already spoke on the last ordinance you can come back off and speak for another 3 minutes correct a total of six minutes mayor can I ask that the zoning map be put shared on the screen so folks here in the room can see them the zoning map as well as folks at home yes greg can you put the maps up
please you can you you can go ahead thank you Mayor um Mr caner I want to apologize in advance perhaps um I know you at the beginning of the uh you kind of laid out the ground rules how these are tied
together um as you know some of us are requesting that a delay be made to make the final vote for as long as it would take where you felt that you've heard enough from the public who as I said in
my previous comments I believe just don't don't know what's going on um my understanding is there's potentially a vote taken on each of these tonight is that correct okay and
and are they if one gets postponed and one doesn't can you explain to me and to the public what that means and which one would have to be delayed for it to really not have any teeth at least for tonight
do you want answer that question that's a qu that's a question thank you so much you're welcome hello again paul Stout resident 29 Oaklane i'm not sure where to begin right now um I'm just a couple things uh I'll
think out loud here i'm I'm just curious how very few residents were aware of this meeting including myself until the last minute yet we have people from from Jersey City here uh how could that be how how do they even know and the residents of our township don't know
about this what what what's broken in our system here so I'll ask that the uh the township council or committee takes a look into our communication platform and figure out how that could be and also how can it be that people from out of town even some people who are in the
industry of growing pot and selling pot have an opportunity to speak three minutes just like a resident a taxpaying resident to speak three minutes and how did that how could that happen liberty
again people talk about the the fact that the voters have spoken and maybe that's true statewide however I'd be curious to know if a vote was taken in Morris Township only on on this subject how would that look [Applause]
let me look at my notes here also I'm curious about this cannabis advisory committee i've been to a couple of meetings i was under the impression this issue was dead until suddenly it bubbled up again but that
aside we know through certain studies that in fact a recent online poll reported that Americans identifying as Democrats were more likely to be in favor of marijuana legalization 69% than Republicans
43% with that said can you tell us how many declared Democrats serve on the Cannabis Advisory Committee i'd be curious you know it's public information but I wonder that you know how could that be my guess is it's stacked with
Democrats i could be wrong there's also some people who sit on the cannabis advisory board and sit on other boards that also vote on this very issue doesn't seem right to me perhaps the law allows it don't know that's all I have to say i I
appreciate your service but I do hope that you will vote no on both of these ordinances tonight thank you thank you [Applause] hi sorry again lori Georgan to Spring Valley Road so I have five questions and
I think you guys said you're going to answer them at the end is that correct okay uh first question is what is the rationale for modifying the zoning code to allow a cannabis business and how does this align with the township's
long-term planning goals second what measures have been considered to address potential negative impacts such as increased traffic security concerns or effects on property
values third how does the council plan to ensure that allowing a dispensary does not conflict with the character and values of the community fourth what feedback has the council
received from residents i believe there was a petition and how much weight has been given to community concerns versus potential economic benefits and the last one is have alternative
economic development opportunities been explored that would generate revenue without the perceived risks of a cannabis dispensary that's it thank you hi Patty Espazito 11 Brandy Wine Terrace
i'm a little confused on how this is going because we have two ordinances out here one is for the cannabis and the other one is for the ordinance for the cannabis it's for the um zoning of the
cannabis so we public comment on one you don't vote now we public comment on the other and you vote for both we explained that at the beginning that we were going to Well I thought you were voting in between you're not no okay so I'm in
favor of tableabling any vote because we don't even really understand what's happening here i mean I went to the planning board meeting two weeks ago and learned a little bit more about what's going on and now I'm here because you told us to come to this meeting and I'm
learning a little bit more but everyone that I've spoken to in the town doesn't really understand what's happening so I hope that you can table your um your vote today on both but I would like to comment I waited my comments for the zoning because if I understand it
correctly the zoning is that you are going to move it to 250 ft from you you can't talk to us but you I'm asking the question if it's 250 ft from um the cannabis dispensary that would be near a sensitive zone you're calling it i call
anything sensitive you know where out there's young children parks schools if I heard correctly earlier Marstown has a dispensary that has a zoning of a,000 ft so if theirs is 1,000 ft I'm definitely opposed to anything
that's 250 ft in our township um I'm I'm opposed to all of it but I don't understand this zoning and I think that the public should know what the actual criteria is that you were voting on tonight thank you thank you
[Applause] barbara Franklin again uh 71 Redner Road as I was sitting here and I was trying to do a little bit of research in the regional science and urban economics magazine in 200 now I can't find the
year 2021 we find statistically significant negative effects of recreational marijuana marijuana dispensaries on housing values that are relatively localized home prices within a third.36
mile area around a new dispensary fall 3 to 4% on average this was a study in Washington state on established dispensaries so it wasn't a one-year blip um and they go on further seeing
other negative effects further out but again you may find income but we are going to lose money in the resale of our homes this is not a good idea i hope you vote against it thank [Applause]
you lee Goldberg 10 Arrowhead Road um I'm not sure who's scribing tonight or taking track of all the questions that have been asked when I like got up from my sleep my last count was I think about 26 questions have been asked so I'm not sure what the format is and who's going to read those back and
actually answer the question specifically um I just wanted to get some clarification i was at last month's meeting and I believe there was I don't can't remember the gentleman's name but he was very involved with law enforcement and seemed to know a lot of folks on the committee and worked with a lot of folks um and he mentioned I think
the drug-free school zone and I'm not sure Mr caner maybe you can elaborate later if that's state legislation what that is if it's 1,000 ft for schools houses of worship playgrounds daycare centers if you could so looking for some clarity as to how we got from that maybe
down to 250 um I would also like to echo um and add my voice to the numerous residents who have asked for a pause here to really do some more factf finding engage with the community educate the community communicate with the community to let them know that you are here to have them participate in
this it seems to be an important issue across uh the township if this many folks are here tonight so I would urge you to maybe take advantage of that opportunity uh to engage with folks um you know Mr kavanagh I think Mr murphy Miss Wilson um as well as many other
residents suggesting this I think it's a wise decision and would ask you to to do the same thank you thank you [Applause] seeing no other members of the public and okay Steve Lis 20 Park Drive 27
years I'm paying taxes in this township and I love this township 250 ft 250 ft everybody else is 1,000 ft i think the township and the committeemen need to respect that that's not where a
cannabis grow facility or a manufacturing facility or a distribution facility should go and I was here maybe a month ago when we talked about this it's 2% of revenue is what the township gets but nobody knows what the revenue is i looked up online as well and the
average revenue for a cannabis facility in the country is between 500,000 to a million dollars maybe in the Northeast it's a little bit more let's just say it's 2 million so we're all here we're all ruining our evenings we're paying for police officers to be in to be here
to talk about a few thousand in the budget i think we the township really needs the committeemen you really need to respect the voices that were here tonight for the township residents but most importantly for the people that sat
on the committee years ago and they're saying "Let's wait and do some more research not enough people in the township have found out about this." Thank you all for your service for the township i really appreciate it thank you jim Mcavanagh again 11 Featherly Road
resident for 55 years u couple comments uh one is there is reference I don't know what are facts and what are not uh I have no objection to people coming from out of town to be heard it basically gives me both sides of the argument quite frankly
so I respect that and I respect that you're listening to all sides so that we get educated but the balance of it is what I hear from the township comments weigh heavily on me i'm concerned about the residents
uh and the impact that it has on us i'm not looking for the employment aspects and so forth and uh there was reference to I think it was said twothirds of township voters i don't know how much that population is
i'd like to know when a study was done how many voted on it because again I guess I'm a little ignorant on the subject but usually I'm kept well informed but I don't know of anyone in our neighborhood and I have uh 100 people in our neighborhood
neighborhood watching so forth no one seems to know about this and so uh I think it's important that either we vote no or table it to get better information or put it out to referendum and get uh uh more people involved in it terms of
the dollars I would like I I don't expect any quick answer for an estimate but the range is if there are tax benefits and so forth how much are we really talking about you know is it 20,000 30,000 100,000 a million just a
ballpark because we may be able to come up with alternatives for raising funds i heard one of the young women had uh basically given some financial statistics on our state of health financially and it sounded like we're in reasonable shape but we can always look
at alternatives my concern is with the kids uh we've gone through all kinds of administrations over the years you've had two former mayors speak i respect them i respect everyone on the deis and I hope that each one of you go on record
as to what your reasons are up or down if you vote on it so that it kind of makes sense to us who are trying to get an education on this and I think it was uh uh Mark uh who referenced the uh map here could someone explain the map
apparently it's the red section is that the hot section we will explain the map when I'll let that be done thank you very much god bless [Applause] i'm Paul Johnson i I'm a resident president and I live on 215 Pittney
Place uh thanks for having this meeting um I guess I want to say um reiterate someone someone said earlier one of our earlier speakers that um the committee here did not run toward this um resolution this this issue you walk toward and I I I appreciate that this is
a very important issue and you didn't rush um but um as probably most of you probably on the committee know I think you should vote this issue down think it's a good idea um I want to mention just two things uh one I want
to reiterate that this um we should consider what message this sends to our children um I don't think it's a good message um so that's one thing we want to consider the other is that this is a
a cultural issue um that could and likely change the character of the town um so and this caused a lot of controversy as you can see here uh maybe the 50 people in this room are very only ones in the township that care but um I
suspect that there are a lot of people in town who don't know anything about this i I heard this through word of mouth so um if you don't um if you're still inclined to vote for this one I would just say um maybe it would be a
good idea to table a vote for a month or two but put an ad in the paper um either at Morris B and or the Morristown Green just to get the word out there that you're planning to do this let people know what's going on and it may be that
no one else cares um in which case you know that's that you get your answer or you get lots of email or people show up to these meetings so but I think it would be better idea to get more people um involved let them know what's going on so that um uh something potentially
this this major we we shouldn't just do this because I think it could um you know affect the character of the town on an issue that people care very much about thank you thank you uh Mark Corkin 59 Canfield Road uh I'll be brief in my final comments um if if I
could uh summarize the um the uh arguments of our kind people who've come in from Jersey City and out of town to make their pro dispensary arguments it's the it's it's it's been three it's been
three-fold it's it's legal it generates revenue and it generates jobs that's their argument you know what else is legal generates revenue and generates jobs
pawn shops and strip clubs and casinos is that what's next here where do we draw the line because those all are legal and they all generate revenue
a lot more than dispensaries and they all generate a lot more jobs so I'd ask this committee what else is for sale in this town [Applause] thank you hello Mayor gentleman of the
township committee and Mr quinn uh I'm not a resident in the township although I What's your name your name tony Daria tony but I've owned properties in the township own properties in the township for over 50 years i know I don't look
that old but I have um one of my properties is being considered for cannabis and um I was on the fence a little bit in the beginning but then I thought about what surrounds
me this property that is being considered for cannabis and I don't know how many people in this audience knows where the county prison is show of hands okay that's what I want this property is
next to the county prison this property is next to a concrete batching plant this property is next to a sewage treatment plant and this property is surrounded by a lumber yard certainly not in a residential community and it's
certainly in an industrial community and it's certainly the kind of property if you're going to approve it are kinds of property you probably look for and I studied the maps of the approved zones and I see there's some that I would look and
say if I were a resident I'd be a little shaky about and there's others that I'd say who cares at a jail i owned a restaurant nightclub in the day when the county decided they were looking for a jail
site and they decided ultimately that they wanted to put it at the end of my street dead end street and I had no opposition to it figured got to put prisoners somewhere i thought the Greystone be better but they put it there at the end of John Street why
nobody's bothered route 287 uh wetlands the river and all those other locations that I mentioned surround my property then I realized that when the when the jail opened there
were police cars all the time up and down my street taking people to prison taking people out of prison to the courthouse in Marstown on it was uh when you were arraigned in the courthouse our business fell off the cliff who's going
to go to a bar nightclub when they know they're going to pass police cars all day all night long and we suffered with that up to this very day so I'm on it actually happy if the cannabis came to
that site because I'm dying on the vine and I don't see that it could affect anybody in this township being at that location would I want to see on the edge of Butterworth Farms no and I understand it so and I've
been a developer all my life so I'm a little bit familiar with some of these things and I just want to make that mention that not everything is as bleak as you may think it is take that for consideration thanks thank you Pat Dugan i'm going to go again just cuz
I uh keep being referenced i'm the only person here who's from Jersey City um not there aren't there aren't many of us um and I'm not actually from Jersey City as I said when I was at the podium earlier I'm I'm from this community um I was a New Vernon volunteer firefighter
and I came to this community on mutual aid calls um I didn't ask where anybody lived uh if they got in a car accident on 287 um or if they paid taxes to that to that municipality um as far as I'm concerned it's our right um as free American citizens to have our voices
heard here i appreciate you allowing me to do so i think that's enough of a reason for me to come to this town i would also like to indicate that although there is a loud majority in this in this room and I totally appreciate their concerns i'd be happy to speak to anybody um who's a concerned citizen here about the cannabis business
or about the effect on real estate values that's an area in which I I you know command some expertise um there's a variety of studies you can quote there are however more than simple tax revenue employment and legalization uh to
consider uh when you talk about legalized cannabis and you can go to PubMed you can find any of the of the uh articles that I'm about to quote um but there was never a city or township meeting
when Purdue Pharma came out with Oxycontton about whether or not we would allow it in this community because it's been approved by the FDA and it's safe and I have family members and friends who have died from consuming legal regulated substances so I can understand
that there's some concern about legal and regulated substances but when you compare them they're they're apples to oranges um a recent Compass study found that the use of cannabis for chronic pain has a
reasonable safety profile and that patients you often use it as a substitute for other far more harmful drugs such as opiates NSAIDs and alcohol talking about gateway drugs everybody I know I mean you could talk about anecdotal evidence all day everybody
started with a beer um it's in the community i guarantee you there are cars in this parking lot that contain cannabis right now um it's been legalized by the state essentially the revenue argument is that your surrounding municipalities have opted in yes Madison and Chadam are two the only
two examples that have been quoted today that have opted out but you are either going to leave money on the table that could fund for example additional education it could fund a permanent arborist it could fund lots of things i understand that you could talk about the specifics of this budget but nobody
complains about more money you can also note that there's a 25% reduction in opioid deaths associated with the availability of legal medical and recreational cannabis um from recent large studies and meta analyses it only becomes a metaanalysis
when it's lots and lots of studies over a long period of time especially from the legacy cannabis legalized states like California and Colorado i would also encourage you to look into what's happening today in Missouri where the state that everyone thought would be the last state to legalize has a really excellent example of the benefits that
legalization at a statewide level and a municipal level with thoughtful legislation can have on communities like this great community um and I I hope that you look into it again I'm happy to speak to anybody who has questions about this um I know there are industry experts here today who would say the
same thing and it doesn't have to be contentious thank you sir thank you thank you hi Andrew Gingrich 47 Columbia Road um I believe this is right past uh Patriots Path as well isn't that right uh behind the cement uh concrete place there um I
know you're talking about the strip club there the club that's uh right by the uh cement uh place it's also a bookstore and I've talked to several of my son's friends who like to go to that bookstore because it's a really cool used bookstore right there across from
Mollies um and what kind of money are we talking about for for all these jobs that are coming in i mean how much can it really pay to cultivate marijuana for uh for employees that's all I want to bring up thank you thank you
[Applause] seeing no other people here in person Erica would you like to speak yes yes just state your name against once more for the record uh Erica Nerd
Downs resident 90 um a couple of things that I was contemplating during this hearing i grew up in West Orange New Jersey and I had an awesome childhood there and when I hit high school I used to take the train from Orange Station to Common Station to
St elizabeth and when I got my electrical I started driving and they would call it the gateway to Mars Township the open fields that are now um part of the Jets facility and a couple of buildings but when I go back now to West Orange to
Cody Arena where I take my kids to ice hockey sometimes I notice how there's a plot of land that's the size of it's a literally like a it was a diamond and they put an office building on there and it makes me sad to think about how built up West Orange has become and I don't
want Mars Township to have the same fate as that and if it does I think it's really important for the residents to vote on it like I said this issue has to be narrowed i understand Mr dugan and I understand I have a lot of friends but my neighbor is in the cannabis industry and he didn't even know about this
meeting um no one's like saying it's a terrible thing people need it it's a great medicine for people it serves a purpose but I think the resins are entitled to decide for themselves and that's why we
can't muddle the waters with whether whether alcohol is bad for you or marijuana is bad for you if it's not regulated like we've solved some of those issues on on the state level it's legal so now we get to decide if we have to have it in our town and um I just think it's important to eventually say
no to development it's okay have you guys seen the middle of the donut it's built up like never before and it's great we're probably getting a lot of revenue from all those um companies that have Mars Town and of course Mars Township's going to benefit from that because it's the middle of the donut
that's getting built up that doesn't mean that we have to do it too and just because it's next to an industrial place there happens to be a book st bookstore there too but that doesn't mean we have to do it too i think that it's okay to say no it's okay to say let's have open space next to the instead of a um
cannabis that has these ventilators that I just heard are going to be so loud i I just think that it takes a lot of courage for the board to say no and to stop development at some point for $1,000 or whatever it is and I'm with John Murphy i'll pay another $24 to $200
if it means that we can have a little bit more suburbia and um so anyway that's what I want to say i want to say that I moved here for the open space and less noise
but hopefully that will continue so thank you for letting us You're welcome [Applause] seeing no other hands raised is there a motion to close public comment
so moved is there a second second all in favor i i so first what I I would really like to thank you all for your questions and concerns and we really do appreciate and value your input at this time what we're going to do is invite the township
committee members to respond to any questions or concerns that were raised during the public comment and also for each of them oh I thought you said stop each of them to share their additional thoughts that they might have on each of these
ordinances and through that part of those discussions the um the map will be explained and again we all I think all of us were taking many notes and by the end if we feel if we haven't gotten to certain questions I'm sure we'll make
sure we cover those but at this point at this time I do we want to explain the map first or just go right to the committee explain the map I think okay so the map that you see up there
maybe this is blocking mine can you Yeah can you explain the Yeah do cuz this is on my This takes the cannabis zoning map and outlines it so the green areas are areas
of residential and in the ordinance is a 500 foot buffer from them so that brown um on the map itself is the cross-checked line is the 500t buffer from the residence the area in red is a
school and the area surrounding that in the off yellow is the 250 foot boundary around the school those are all partial properties that come in so you'll see where that blue line comes across and that's the boundary lines of those properties that
are also included in the uh the buffer area so that be very difficult to um do any cannabis there then you have the Ridgedale Avenue Carter and you'll see the the lower left hand side of the Carter on the west side um as as we're
coming in from Marstown there's a property there that would be eligible but primarily the properties that would be eligible are the properties on the east side of Ridgedale Avenue and along John Street um are the eligible properties then you'll see where Route
287 is everything to the north of that is eligible everything to the south where that green area is is not eligible so it'd be just along the Ridgale Avenue corridor um on the east side John Street and a small portion of Ridgale Avenue on
the west side on the down towards the Marstown border where the railroad tracks are thank you Mr there are also a couple properties along Hanover Avenue before you get to 287 that's correct on the top there as
you come down from Ridgedale Avenue down to Route 287 there's commercial properties that back up into there that are included in that area thank you Committeeman Rabbits sorry Miss uh Mayor could I ask a question for
question first before we go to commentary um I think it also be helpful um since we just explained the map um if we could ask Mr caner to explain the process of what would happen if we got an application for a cannabis facility it's it's not like they're going to open
up tomorrow we're just opening up the classes and people still have to apply and there's a process so can you explain what the process is so I think there was three questions that were addressed to me and I'll try to get through those i think they're
they're important threshold issues um so to answer the deputy I guess to answer first on the resis questions about the two different ordinances um currently cannabis is not zoned anywhere and we opted out so it's prohibited in the town for Morris so the
zoning ordinance um which is this map here shows you where cannabis can be allowed because currently there's no zoning and it wouldn't be allowed anywhere the other ordinance is the regulations surrounding the cannabis and the application process and um how those
things are approved so the way the process works is there's going to be a cannabis advisory board set up it's going to consist of the mayor the administrator the engineer the chief of police the planning board chair um an
additional committee member in addition to the mayor and and the township attorney and the township will put out an RFP where it's going to request applications for cannabis and there'll be certain criterias uh in that RFP along with an
application anyone interested in any of the licenses for cannabis or whatever is out on the RFP can then fill out the application and submit it it'll be reviewed and evaluated by the can this advisory board and the ordinance has the
criteria in which the cannabis advisory board uh will review uh the applications despite the fact that we do have up to two licenses in each category the cannabis advisory board is not required at any time even if we get 10 applications they could approve zero um
but if they do approve one the can advisory board doesn't approve them they recommend to the governing body that we think that this is this is a this particular applicant qualifies for this particular license and we like to see the governing body uh approve them by resolution so at that time it would be a
resolution of the governing body to issue a conditional license it would be at a publicly held meeting there would be public comment on that resolution um once a if this governing body were to pass that resolution that would give the um cannabis business what's called a conditional license they would still be
required to go to the state and get their final license and meet all the state's requirements um including one of those requirements would be uh from the municipality um that they do have a conditional license what makes Morris Township what I think what makes our
ordinance better than other ordinances is in other municipalities you don't have to have site control you don't have to have a particular um place to put it and here um we're going to ask the applicants to actually have they're going to have to designate where they're going to put it where they're going to
where they're where they're suggesting that their license goes so that'll be part of the application process um once approved by the state um their license will be good for two years after two years they'll have to come back just like an ABC license and be renewed so if there's any issues they can be dealt
with um by the board there's also certain penalty provisions um if you go through the ordinance um it goes through all the safety um all the protocols many of them are statemandated um there has to be cameras there has to be IDs um it
goes into detail as to it really can't identify as a cannabis store they can't put plants outside it's very nondescript um and that's all legislated um by the state so as you walk past it um you will note it will not be like blatant that it's a cannabis store and I think one
thing that's important there there'll be no consumption allowed um in the cannabis facility can uh consumption uh was considered and we're not going to have any consumption um is there any further questions on that process does it also have to go to
the planning board for the site site plan right once once once they have a license and they like and they want to go up they'll then go to the planning board for site plan approval uh so the planning board will also review the plans and make sure that um you know the aesthetics and those other things the planning board looks at will meet with
the planning board's approval and as everyone knows the planning board is also a place where the public will have input and the public will be able to come out uh and address that at the planning board um as far as um and I'm only speaking on this because I don't know how much more but I'm happy to answer questions throughout um the
drug-free school zone question um the drug-free school zone is for control dangerous substances within 1,000 ft of schools um the Consumption Drug Reform Act which is what legalized cannabis eliminated cannabis as a controlled dangerous substance so it's no longer
controlled dangerous substance so it no longer falls within um excuse me which no longer falls within the drug-free school zone statute so I'm happy to answer any other questions and also if there's any questions throughout I'm also obviously
Thank you um Committeeman Rabbitz would you like to I I have a question when um how are we going to handle answering the questions from the residents are we going to go through order or are we just going to talk and then answer them or
answer them through our comments it was my understanding that we were going to make our comments and answer people every people were going to answer the questions and if any questions that were not answered then we would so so uh to to committeeman Jory's point my what I'm
going to say does address many of the questions a lot of them did overlap so they I will address that I will I did hear some things that I'm not going to address but I'm only one person up here on the deis So uh I think between the
five of us and our our professionals we will get to all your questions and I and we do commit to uh to doing that because we owe it to you okay rabbits all right so and when I first took you know a seat
here on the deas as as a representative of uh the people of the township I said I would be open and transparent and how my decisions evolved and and that they would be based on empirical evidence and I'm well aware of the
passionate nature of the matter and I thank all the residents whether you live here or whether you came from out of town however you heard that we were going to be here tonight i want your your your voice matters whether like I said whether you're a resident or
whether you're not and this is how democracy is supposed to work because I did hear that tonight this is still a government of by and for the people and this is why we're all gathered here tonight mars Township like like much of New
Jersey is evolving okay as the state uh embraces legal cannabis entrepreneurs have an incredible opportunity to establish businesses in less developed or remote areas places that have long been overlooked but are now uh
positioned for smart growth my vision for this area is to be a new economic activity zone the cannabis industry in New Jersey is booming uh a well-placed cannabis business can meet the needs of
the residents while attracting customers from surrounding towns this isn't just about profit it's about providing safe regulated access and keeping money out of the illegal market small remote areas often struggle
to attract investment but cannabis businesses do bring jobs they do bring tax revenue and they do bring some foot traffic whether it's through hiring local employees working with area vendors or driving complimentary
businesses like you know cafes or wellness centers the impact on the town is very real towns that embrace this industry will see some financial benefits in ways traditional benefits uh
businesses may not provide people are willing to travel for highquality well-run businesses should one be approved just look at the how craft breweries and farm-to-table restaurants thrive in off thebeaten path locations
so for those looking to invest in a forward-thinking job creating and commuting uh community enhancing industry a cannabis business in a small uh or remote part of Maris Township isn't just a good idea it's a smart one
so I'm going to vote yes on the ordinance it's wellcraftrafted but it doesn't obligate the township to approve any business let alone more than one because I've heard that a few times today tonight it's in a very
well-defined area as as uh Mr quinn has has gone over and right now that area town is underutilized these are to put it mildly anxious times in our country we as residents of the state and the county of
Mars and the township of Mars can no longer expect federal money to flow into the state and into the municipality thus we are the governing body must find innovative ways to raise revenues so that we can hold the line on
having to raise it from taxpayers we've put a lot of time and thought and energy into this consideration um and we've put a lot of time and thought into the into the benefits and the ramifications of our
decision both in the near term and in the long term regarding minors and cannabis because I heard that a lot today suggesting or implying that we don't care or haven't considered minors
is completely disingenuous of course we have each of us here is a parent some of us here are grandparents cannabis is a highly reg regulated industry in New Jersey the legal age for possessing and consuming
cannabis is 21 if anyone under the age of 21 uses or possesses cannabis they did not get it from a legal source furthermore no other industry is as closely monitored as cannabis cameras
will be everywhere and the state has visibility into each and every one of those cameras personally speaking I will never ever vote to legislate morality in the history of democracy
legislating morality never works cannabis like alcohol gambling or any other vice is not for everyone it is a personal decision this governing body neither condemns nor condones its usage it's legal in New Jersey and as was
stated a number of times tonight a higher percentage of Mars Township residents voted to legalize uh cannabis than more than the state average and they knew very well the implications of
legalization cannabis has never been proven to be a gateway drug or to be addictive but like any vice some may overindulge due to a lack of self-control or move on to riskier behavior but they are the exception and
not the rule there are numerous counseling and treatment organizations for those who need or seek help to break a habit of self-destructive behavior marstown is opening a a cannabis retail store directly on our
border i imagine that this presence would in would impact surrounding property values we did hear that numerous times tonight however there is also no evidence that a cannabis operation in one small corner of the town will impact property values the
Mars town is actually closer to residents than ours is and once again I must state that the township committee is under no obligation to approve a cannabis business the ordinance spells out the specifics for creating a
cannabis commission that our attorney just spoke to to evaluate potential applications potential businesses that pass a very stringent analysis will then be proposed to the township committee for further analysis and
scrutiny nothing is done is a done deal and um by providing multiple licenses within each license type we are actually in essence shielding ourselves from potential costly litigation so why are we looking to
approve six license types two of each in such a small area as that that's a good question we heard that tonight the answer is quite honestly it's completely unrealistic that we will see that number
of businesses and that would be 0 to 12 it's unrealistic but it's not impossible so bear with me for a second if a billionaire developer wants to make an offer that no business owner in that overlay zone can refuse and makes a
pitch to some governing body sometime down the road to build a vertically integrated not necessarily height vertically but a vertically integrated cannabis super group than I personally as they should would want to hear such
an idea it's also important to note that Mars Township Police Department has absolutely no reservations about a licensed cannabis cannabis business operating within township borders and lastly any revenue the
township might derive from the existing cannabis tax structure is specifically earmarked for township capital improvements and circling back to my earlier statement that this is an underutilized part of the township a cannabis operation may bring in other
and other commercial and taxable operations that can help us in our future budgeting and planning we do not know how much we can expect in tax revenues or if any trend is sustainable in the long run but we do know that some
towns have reaped substantial monetary benefits and Mars Township would like to would like to realize some of that and not let the town of Marstown get all the benefits while still being on our border and have and the same concerns that you
all raised tonight about cannabis in the township apply to the cannabis business that's going to be opening in Marstown on Richdale Avenue so it's part of being good fiscal stewards of the township for both the
near and the long term now I know that this addressed broadly a lot of the questions tonight and I think what you're going to hear from my colleagues as we begin to discuss this on the day as you're going to hear more answers to these questions that are going to be more specific so I'll yield back my time
and let the mayor start the discussion thank you deputy Mayor Gazelle would you like to address some of the questions and give your comments sure uh before I do that I wanted to ask uh Mr quinn for just a couple points of clarification about the map uh
first just so everybody's clear Morris Township is approximately 16 square miles is that correct yes sir and the area of zoning that we're talking about is a short stretch of Richell Avenue that goes from the Morristown border
only up until Hanover Avenue and a little bit around the corner correct yes sir that is correct yeah so what we're talking about is a tiny tiny sliver of our overall municipality and the yellow line you see at the very bottom is the
Morristown borders is that correct the the bottom most yellow line is that the border with Morristown i think you mean the magenta line the magenta line sorry oh yes sorry sorry
it's a little bit late sorry the magenta line at the bottom is is the Morristown border yes and so what Mr ravis was just saying about Morristown opening up a facility on Richell Avenue we see Richell Avenue there we see the border just across the border is where
Morristown is going to be opening up the facility so just everybody has that reference of what we're talking about in the in the on the map and in relation to how big our town is if everybody could please I know it's been a long night and but if you could please now let the
committee members give their answers and comments great so I would first like to start with a public service announcement from the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission and they said on their website since 2012 New Jerseys medicinal cannabis has been helping patients
access cannabis treatment now 13 years later the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission is beginning the review process to update medicinal cannabis regulations they want to hear from patients caregivers health care providers and others with interest in the program as they seek to enhance
patient benefits new Jerseyians are invited to attend any of the three upcoming virtual town halls on the continued development of the medicinal cannabis program you can find more information about these sessions these town hall sessions on the cannabis regulatory commission website i
mentioned it because some of you in the audience uh might be concerned about medicinal cannabis uh versus what we're talking about here um this evening i would also like to quote from the Cannabis Regulatory Commission website when I was perusing it and I'm quoting
"While cannabis is legal in the state of New Jersey cannabis consumption is not safe for all New Jerseyians for all users understanding how formulations vary in potency and how potency affects the brain and the body is essential for
safe and responsible consumption buying cannabis legally ensures you are getting flour or products that have been produced to the highest standards of safety cannabis companies in New Jersey are held to some of the most rigorous
standards for manufacturing labeling packaging and testing in the country packaging is required to be childresistant and clearly labeled for individuals above 21 with comprehensive product descriptions and recommended usage guidelines all cannabis products
sold in New Jersey dispensaries are tracked from seed to sale ensuring their continued safety through processing and packaging until they reach the consumer and they are all tested to ensure they contain no harmful contaminants by
keeping track of each product adverse events can be identified and addressed promptly that quote came right from the the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission website and I urge everybody to go take a look at that website and the information it holds because what I
just read I'm going to get to a little bit later holds one of my concerns about what we're going to vote on tonight uh so for my own comments uh since the first day that I was elected I promised residents they would know exactly why I
voted for each piece of local legislation that required a detailed reasoning of how I reached my decision you may not agree with my decision tonight but I want to make sure that you know exactly why I make the decisions that I do i had several productive
conversations with individual residents over the past week that have helped inform my opinion and also helped me frame this to the public somebody from the public says that they have been uninformed about what's going on um I personally and I looking across the
audience know that there are many of you in the audience that receive my monthly newsletter um I make an effort every month to inform the public this governing body goes went beyond with this ordinance as we do with all ordinances when you when you pass
legislation you're required to have two meetings you have an introductory meeting and you have a public hearing and a final vote like we did tonight in many towns they do that over a two-eek process right two weeks is the minimum minimum time correct yes 10 days yes 10
days in Morris Township we do approximately 30 days uh the date varies from month to month because it's the fourth Wednesday but we give approximately a month's notice instead of two week two weeks notice on all the public hearings that we do here um so I
do my part in trying to inform the public we do publish things on the website but I I also have to say and I'm not trying to admonish anybody but it's incumbent upon the public to keep track of what's going on in your own town so we do a very we try very hard to
communicate we we've made so many efforts over the last five or six years to increase the amount of communications to the public um but that does not take the burden off of everyone in our community to make their own effort to understand what's going on here so this these ordinances were published a month
ago on the website available to everybody i put it in my newsletter a month ago and I put it again in my newsletter this week i know some of you get it and we we try very hard to push that information out so getting back to the conversations that I had I first
want to acknowledge the fact that although almost you talked about twothirds 67% of Morris Township residents voted in favor of legalizing cannabis in the state of New Jersey many of them had varying reasons for doing so for some it was creating greater
availability to more people that needed it for medicinal medicinal reasons for others it has uh it was that they did not want people sent to jail for possession of small quantities of cannabis as we heard tonight for others it was because they wanted safe access
to cannabis that is regulated in a store instead of having to buy it from an illegal dealer on the street i just want to acknowledge that there are many reasons why some people voted to pass this question when it was on the ballot but at the end of the day it did pass and it is now here in our state i also
had a conversation with two people about the fact that legalizing it in our town would in a way give a signal to young people that it is now okay to smoke marijuana i acknowledge these concerns i have two children myself and I want to assure everyone that I am not condoning
the use of cannabis to young people should this ordinance pass neither do I condone the drinking of alcohol for young people in fact I am a big believer that there needs to be escalating consequences when people break the rules and to this end back in 2019 we tried to
do something similar here in Morris Township with regards to vaping morris Township currently has procedures in place when police find that underage drinking has been taking place alcohol is illegal to to to kids under the age of 21 as is vaping nicotine and as is
ingesting cannabis products in 2019 we had push back from the public prior uh on our vaping ordinance and it ultimately did not pass at that time but perhaps now is a good time to bring it back so to assure our residents that there will be deterrence in place for
our young people for underage use of cannabis I am going to be proposing to the governing body that we resurrect our vaping ordinance and also create a sister ordinance for cannabis this would apply to the illegal use of these products by anyone under the legal age
of 21 and you'll hear more about this at future meetings i also had a discussion with a resident about his concerns for THC levels in various forms of cannabis and the fact that you don't really know how much you are ingesting into your body at times i have this concern too when you buy wine
in the store you can write on the label whether it's 13 or 14 or 15% alcohol by volume if you buy hard liquor each bottle is labeled with a proof number and it's usually 40 proof most most of the alcohol that we buy when you buy cannabis there's similar labeling but I
think it's easier to understand the labeling on many of the edible products and on certain concentrates because you know how strong they are uh uh how strong the very item is that you are ingesting however on flour products that might be a little bit more difficult
there are varying restrictions by state and I've researched this a little bit uh that uh that already have legalized cannabis at retail for example in Connecticut flour products have a 30% THC cap concentrates have a 60% THC cap
and edibles have a 5 milligram THC cap per serving with a 100 milligram THC cap per package other states also put limitations on the cap of the milligrams allowed in a package of concentrate so I thought about how we can apply such limits here in Morris Township and to
this end I will be discussing with our legal counsel Mr caner and our legislative uh standing committee about possible local legislation that would cap the potency level of cannabis products sold here in Morris Township so we can keep the strongest products off the market and lastly I had a discussion
about allowing this in Morris Township but letting not sorry not allowing this to happen in Morris Township but letting Morris Town do as they wish and to me we are a big community whether something happens to us in Morris Township or any
of the 10 towns that border us we are a big donut and we touch 10 different towns that is our greater community we share a school district and a library our kids play sports together and socialize together so quite frankly I do
not buy into the argument that anyone in the in uh who buys something in a store in Morris Township is different than somebody who buys something in a store in Morristown we're just one community and we share the problems that each of us has and that does not even get into the
fact that anyone in the state of New Jersey can now get home delivery uh you can order it on the phone and it gets delivered to your house in this case for me I have tremendous confidence in our well-trained police department and I thus feel more comfortable having control of the products flowing through
a retailer in Morris Township than relying on proper enforcement in other towns and I want to give some specific reasons for my thinking my primary factor which was only mentioned by one resident tonight on how I would vote on
this ordinance has been the issue of product safety one resident said that if you vote against this all you were doing is reinforcing the illegal use of marijuana another resident said that they their kid had told them they were smoking of marijuana in the bathroom at
the high school i can't say if that happens or not i can't say what went on in the bathroom but kids in the high school kids in every high school smoke marijuana where do they get it from they are not getting it legally and the illegal products on the street are laced
with many bad substances that can harm human beings the street drugs have all kinds of additives including fentinyl and I have also heard of animal drugs being mixed in as well all sorts of things use of cannabis laced with other substances is having real health effects
on many of those that buy it from illegal street dealers so I feel we need an alternative to offer clean products to those who are already using them by regulating the sale you can also regulate exactly what is sold as stated
earlier in the quote from the state website all cannabis products sold in New Jersey dispensaries are tracked from seed to sale ensuring their continued safety through processing packaging until they reach the consumer then we need to educate people more about the
safe use of products just as we educated generations of people about the safe use of alcohol with regard to allowing all the different classes uh we are looking for the best project proposals for our municipality i've spent a lot of time on
our economic development advisory committee i have sat on this day numerous times speaking to the public about the importance of us having a a strong commercial base of tax tax producing properties here in Morris Township because when you have a strong
commercial base it takes the weight and the burden off of the residential portion of our taxes collected and we have worked at EDAC the economic development advisory committee very hard on bringing in good strong businesses to Morris Township you probably heard the Red Bulls are coming restoration
Hardware is building on Madison Avenue there's a lot of good things happening in Morris Township and this is just another way in my view of bringing good economic development to Morris Township to support our commercial tax base along a strip along Bridgel Avenue that has
very limited usage for what we can build there so let's see what gets proposed uh we can always deny anything that gets proposed to this governing body but let's see what people propose for those sites as for people driving under the
influence or DUI I want to assure the public that our police department is very experienced with DUI and trains for it regularly each and every year we lead all police departments across Morris County in the number of DUI arrests we
make as I said previously we have a highly trained police department we take DUI very very seriously in this town and I can assure everyone that we will be on the lookout for DUI as we always are
in addition in a minor element of my decision there is anecdotal evidence that I heard from Colorado and a lot of people used anecdotal evidence about property values so take it for what it's worth that when a legal retail shop opens in a community crime actually
drops in the area that would be a bonus but it's really not the primary reason I am using uh using to to decide my vote tonight and lastly the fact that we might collect some taxes on the sale of cannabis again is not part of my
decision-m i don't care about the tax revenue i care about a firm commercial tax base but I am not voting for this for any reason because we're getting any additional tax revenues from the cannabis the bottom line for me is that given a
choice of allowing a safe product to be used by people who are going to use it either way and I am talking about the kids at our high school I would prefer them using a safe product from a verified retailer than using tainted
products from a drug dealer on the street thank you Mayor that concludes my remarks thank you Mr janata thank you mayor thanks also for everybody to
participate i have I've been taking copious notes i have actually five pages of notes four pages just on your your comments and suggestions and I thank you i'm very grateful for that i'm also like seeing a
former classmate of mine Mr john Murphy i don't know if he remembers me but I we were we went to high school together and uh I'm well Eric is with his comments too um in terms of the whole idea of
cannabis distribution and retail I would be in favor of it um because it first of all the product is legal and we would want to have just as u Mr brazil says want to have it be safe and
unadulterated because current illegal products are tainted and with unknown and dangerous substances as they have been for decades i mean when Mr murphy and I have been s in high school i mean sort of people had unknown substances
like PCP and who knows what they have now but saying all that I'm going to vote no mainly because the ordinance [Applause]
includes not because of that because the ordinance includes cultivation and manufacturing and I've talked to all the committee members and voiced my concern they I mean they also talk back to me and you we have I mean we
were we um we are very respectful with each other's opinions but I'm still skeptical about having the that part included in the audience ordinance because I've also heard from complaints in sub other
suburban towns that do have growth centers and these residents went across this the political and ideological spect uh spectrum and those concerns really their their voices really need to be listened to even
though their their own towns didn't listen so that's why uh the that's the main reason why I'm I'm against the idea of cultivating or manufacturing and uh I I'll vote against
this the sec the second ordinance about the zoning even though I'm in favor of the Richville corridor but uh I just want to be consistent because it includes the you know the uh manufacturing and
cultivation aspect so just out of consistency I'll vote no even though in spirit I I do agree with the zoning being limited to that part of town and uh it does as since the spirit of the
township might go in favor of it i would will support the the retail and distribution of it and I hope that any future business becomes successful thank you mayor thank you committeeman Jorphy
thank you mayor and uh first off thank you to everyone who's been here with us since 7 o'clock spending three hours uh with us on a Wednesday night um I know you have a lot more you know a lot of things you'd rather be doing instead of sitting here tonight and I appreciate all of your participation not only in
tonight's meeting uh but in last month's meeting many of you in the cannabis advisory board meetings back in 2023 and I know some of you were also at the planning board meeting a few weeks ago so I really appreciate your participation in this process and coming out to voice your opinion and help
inform our decision-m um I think back in 2021 the township made the right decision for opting out of all forms of cannabis licensing to enable ourselves the time to see how other municipalities uh implemented the licensing and zoning
of cannabis during that time we established a cannabis advisory board to further research the opening of cannabis licensing and zoning across the state we were incredibly transparent about this process with public notices video recordings frequently asked questions a
full summary report and additional public comment periods as I stated throughout the cannabis advisory board process back in 2023 I view the township's role in these cannabis discussions as a zoning issue not as an issue of whether or not we
agree cannabis should be legal or not since legalization has already occurred cannabis is heavily regulated and if you listen to the testimony from the Cannabis Advisory Board back in 2023 it is regulated to the point where the Cannabis Regulatory Commission can tune
to any security camera at any facility across the state at any time 247 as part of our cannabis advisory board testimony we learned that THC products were being marketed and marketed to kids and teens and were already being sold
unregulated within communities across the state outside the can cannabis regulatory commission's authority both Chief Shear and myself traveled to Trenton last year separately to provide testimony supporting that the state legislature amend the cannabis laws in
the state to end the unregulated sales of these products the legislature went on to pass that law and the governor signed it last year let's be clear our our residents are purchasing and consuming cannabis and they have been for a long time has been since a long time before cannabis was
legalized and they can have cannabis delivered to their homes regardless of not or not we zone it in our township i disagree that allowing businesses in this industrial zone that has in my opinion ample buffering from neighborhoods and from the Unity Charter School poses a health risk should a a
dispensary be allowed or any um uh license be allowed in this zone they'd have to follow strict guidelines on how they operate how they sell if they're a dispensary how they um review people's IDs before they enter the facility which
by the way if your license is not if your license is expired you can't even enter one of these facilities uh they have bouncers at the door um there are also several licensing types that are in this ordinance that have absolutely no public interaction and I and I believe
and from the testimony we've heard from other municipalities they'll have little limited impact to traffic um and again I believe they'll have there's no obligation for the township to approve any of them if we don't think any of the applications uh could be successful i
did want to comment on um some of the um licensing such as cultivation um in this zone these um properties are not very large so I know a lot of the issues we've heard across the state with cultivation is um
stories like in Readington where they converted a Kmart to cultivate or up in Bin Township where it was open farmland to cultivate um if there were to be a cultivation facility in our town um speaking about noise it's going to back
up to 287 most likely so the noise is really not going to be impacting any residences because there's ample buffering around that um the closest place it could impact would be Evergreen Cemetery um which is where the zoning backs up towards the Morristown side
um I don't think a facility would be the the property sizes are large enough for a facility to have that big of an impact to reach neighbors on the other side of town or across 287 um I just don't see that happening based on all the other
factors that um play in between um this zone and where the residences are i'll also note and then um one of the commenters mentioned this this zoning area has a concrete facility a large
landscaping supply facility auto detailing centers as we said a used book store a former strip club bail bond stores and other landscaping supply stores as well as well as auto parts shops um so in terms of what would
happen if we bring in further investment to this town to rebuild some of these properties and re and um enhance their property values I do think we would have a net benefit uh in terms of tax ratables but I also think we'd actually be gaining from this in terms of if
we're talking about desiraability within this zone I think it would be enhanced uh rather than um rather than um having a negative impact so I'm pleased that this ordinate this zoning ordinance largely sticks to the zoning area proposed by the Canis advisory board
back in 2023 um lastly I I also believe in free and open markets if these businesses are viable proposals will be submitted and investment will come to the township further diversifying the tax base as I said however if they're not viable and
we see that the market is not going in the way to support these businesses we have absolutely no obligation to approve them um so while they're all very different business types of businesses within this licensing um ordinance and
while um some folks feel that um the zoning ordinance has these facilities too close to residential um areas um I disagree i think we've put a lot of protections in both of these ordinances i think we adequately zoned the township
to make sure it had as limited of impact as possible on our residences and I think it will actually drive uh further investment within the township on the Richel Avenue corridor so I support both support both ordinances and I will vote further passage thank you committeeman
Jory uh before I give some of my comments and I think we've all been trying to keep track I've been keeping track here too of certain questions that I feel have been covered but the one thing I do want to address too is some of the people who um ask questions or make comments about that we you know
nobody knew about this in the town and to be honest I just want to clarify that is not the case we have been open and transparent plus both ordinances were printed in the newspaper back in February um and again just I love the fact that there's so many people here
and they've come out and this always happens on whatever issue that people um matters to them they come out but I encourage you to talk to the other people in your neighborhoods because we I feel we were transparent in this back
when the cannabis advisory board was put together that was very well publicized they did really good work those six sessions were all put up on the township website they've been there and the idea that over that we took months or almost
you know nine months or a year went by before this was proposed was in no way that we were trying to hide it for that amount of time there were so many things that were happening that it just it got pushed off and pushed off and pushed off so it wasn't that we here at the
township were trying in any way to get this done without having all the public input in fact if you look even in the other room we had this set up because we thought there could be 150 people here
tonight so it's definitely you know I'm just telling you it I know how hard even the people before I got here on this committee worked to make the public understand how transparent the government had become since years prior
so um I think that's important for everybody to understand um I and my husband have lived in the town for 43 years raised four children here between they're now between the ages of 32 and 42 and again so pretty have a lot of experience in in going
through all kinds of things especially with kids and to me that too is one of the most important things is the safety and my I'm going to go through my comments and I respect and have considered all of yours and especially
those of the opinions that disagree with having any type of cannabis in Mars Township i think and tried to respond to anyone who did send me an email to be honest I think only five emails were directed to me and I got back to those people i hear you and I know there are
people who have suffered from cannabis use let me be clear any addiction including the leading one alcohol is a serious disease and one that we all continue to work towards combating i understand that many of you have strong
feelings about the potential impact of any type of retail cannabis store yet others have more outspoken objections to cultivating cannabis i too am not personally convinced that all classes would be appropriate in Mars Township we
do see retail cannabis stores and cannabis cultivation as well as the other classes as separate issues that would have separate approvals meaning that as you've heard number one there's never going to be 12 that would be
unlikely but we there'll be different decisions as people come in and we we listen to what they propose they can all be reviewed but that's a decision to be made once we receive the applications and they go before the cannabis advisory board for approval
after listening to everyone's point of view and the reasoning behind it tonight and having conversations with many township residents of all ages which I did over the last like six or eight weeks even I deliberately everywhere I
went that I ran into anyone from the township I asked them about it you're right there are people who had no idea they don't even know there was a cannabis advisory board but there are others that did hear about it and February's meeting was on the front page
of the local paper so I there's a little bit to what deputy mayor says too that people have to make the effort to understand what's going on in their town as well so I had conversations with many township residents of all ages as well
as my fellow committee members and what I take away is that the most important issue is safety and we can ensure the safe use and sale of cannabis with strict regulations products are tested for safety and quality as this reduces
the risks associated with unregul regulated sources including contamination and potency issues legal cannabis can actually reduce some criminal activity legal sales can reduce the illegal drug trade and related criminal activity it decreases the
influence of the black market and can help reduce illegal sales i also believe that the conversation around the safe use of cannabis sometimes gets lost in understanding and accepting that responsible people use it for various reasons it can be a vital medicine for
chronic pain anxiety and other health conditions i believe that a legitimate cannabis business would help put an end to the illegal selling of the very substances that we're the most concerned about one point that is clear that is allowing cannabis businesses will bring
in some revenue we don't know yet how much and I know that question was asked and I've heard anything from $20,000 to $200,000 originally there were cannabis businesses they said could make up to a million dollars but I'm gonna from my
point of view on this is I can't answer that question because we don't know and we're that's something we're going to have to wait and see um but we do know that increased yet revenue that we would take in would allow for capital improvements i agree
that the dollar numbers are probably not as high as some have expressed but when we work on the budget every additional dollar helps keep our taxes one of the lowest in the county and helps provide relief to our residents after careful consideration
and research I believe that looking into possible canis cannabis options is okay we are approaching this endeavor thoughtfully maintaining a regulatory framework that ensures safe and responsible use minimizing illegal
activities and promoting community safety i encourage your continued dialogue as dialogue as we navigate through a possible cannabis endeavor here in the township the lines of communication will be open as the process moves forward i do want to thank
the cannabis advisory board for all the time and effort they put into studying this subject and especially Mayor Jory at the time and committeeman Rabbitz the amount of work that they put in along with the other cannabis committee
members was excellent they did an excellent job compiling and presenting their findings and one of the um one of the women on the cannabis board said the other night how proud she was of all the work that they did so I want you to understand that in this community we do
take these issues seriously and we do try to find what the best possible answers are so with that um again I know the other big thing I know a couple people all got up and they said why like why would you just say no like some of
the other towns and again I think you've heard here pretty much our reasons why and again to me the bottom line really is the safety issue so with that said can I have a motion to adopt Mayor oh I'm sorry i just want to
make sure that we got through all the questions i don't know if anybody in their notes has any questions that weren't answered uh one question that I had a gentleman got up specifically and asked about uh cannabis use by offduty police and firemen which I want uh Mr
clint to address or if we have chief we have our chief here if he would like to step to the podium sorry to put you on the spot Chief so this is our chief of police Robert Sheer chief how long have you served in this
municipality uh over 20 years now thank you uh real quick so to address the cannabis use by police officers off duty I won't speak to fire but um our guidelines are in accordance with what the attorney general says so it's not that there's a local Morris Township
policy um but we do not test officers for cannabis unless they're a part of a federal task force or uh link some type of aviation unit so there isn't a restriction of offduty use for legal cannabis and that's not a Mars Township
thing that's a statewide um with the exception of like I said people that are on load to federal task force or people that have some type of uh drone unit or aviation type of uh license so they're not tested for cannabis that clears it up there's no
prohibition you don't prohibit no we're not allowed to sir cannabis thank you Chief Shear i I I mean again I in the notes I was taking you know pretty much what I can I
can I there was a question about the makeup of the cannabis advisory board uh we put out a public post back in 2023 soliciting residents to apply uh we had a number of residents apply who were already members of other boards within
the township um and we had some residents who were not involved at all in the township who uh came and served on that board for the first time um so we reached out to the public and we posted the opportunity um and we had uh
we had we were able to fill that board um there was another question about the board makeup um I think there was there was a question I mean piece to it we didn't take that into consideration i will say it was bipartisan um there was
um a member of the school board who um was served on it again there are members of the planning board who are on it economic development advisory board who are on it um we can only accept volunteers who apply uh and so that's how we made up that board
mayor there there was one other thing that some a woman addressed I don't remember who that talked about was was at the planning board meeting a couple of weeks ago of which the mayor and I serve on um and as the attorney for um
the planning board had stipulated that according to the mun municipal land use uh law the mayor or the may designate and and a what they call a class three uh member of the of the planning board
the mayor and I'm the class three person are are on that planning board but the the what we do here in the township committee is a much different hat and I believe we've every one of us have served on the planning board at some
point is a much different hat than is worn on planning board planning board deals with with land use issues and strictly with land use issues and what we do here as representatives of the town are being stewards of the town in
in a vastly different way so um it is completely illegal and acceptable for members of this governing body to serve on other boards yeah and that's statute by statute we have to do that because her concern was it felt like we got two
votes because we were on two separate um so that's not that's that's the law that's who gets placed on the planning board yeah mayor I have two other questions that were asked um one was about having this
put to a referendum uh versus us voting on it here um this governing body discusses a lot of legislation through the year our budget that we're going to be introducing later tonight and having a public hearing on next month if you add all of the different
utilities together it's what 55 million mr quinn what are we up to this year we're about Yeah 55 million $55 million in total 4.3 million 10 million for our budget we we make a lot of tough decisions up here and
an example of we just had the marketplace open up you know across from the shop right the the beautiful mall that we have now we had we had liquor store moved from Morristown up to the Morris Township Mall the marketplace mall there it's now the their most
successful store out of the four that they have but you know we don't put that to a referendum that we're you know building a big liquor store in Morris Township so I I I respect the fact that people think that this is a a very heavy decision but there are lots of heavy
decisions that this governing body makes um each and every month and I encourage us I encourage everybody to try to pay attention a little bit more come to more meetings um you can watch it online but really follow us and follow everything that's going on in our town because we do a lot of things and we do a lot of a
lot of good things in this municipality more than what you've seen tonight um the other question that I think went unanswered is did we explore any other businesses that can be placed along the Richel Avenue corridor it's really not up to us to place businesses there or
consider what businesses go there the market determines determines that um what we're trying to do here is as I said create a situation along that corridor that is underutilized to create more economic opportunity mr george referenced that too we have an active
economic development advisory committee that looks at the entire township and to see how we can better strengthen our commercial tax bases so that it takes the the tax burden off the residential portion of your tax bill and this is just an extension of of that in what
we're doing here tonight so the market will determine what goes there uh it could be the cannabis businesses don't go there because the market won't the market forces won't allow for it they won't make enough money we we'll see what happens and we'll see if anybody else comes forward who wants to build on
the properties that are available on the corridor but if nobody wants to build there and the only person who wants to build there is a cannabis facility I think it's incumbent upon us for the economic vitality of the township to consider it not pass it but at least consider it so are you allowing then
other businesses to Jeff i want out of order out of order wait wait one sec so are you are you done i'm done but I think the public portion is closed so not yet we have Wait wait not Not yet there's the time but um are you finished with your Yes I'm finished i think
that's gets through the list of outstanding questions there's one other question I want uh Mr quinn to address about the finances and the that were brought up about the amount of money that the township has certainly every year um as part of our fis fiscal
responsibility our CFO does what's called an annual financial statement and that's basically it's the end of the year what what your balances are where we spend our money what our debt service is those kinds of things um we have always been very fiscally conservative of Morris Township in protecting the
taxpayer dollars um making sure what is spent but also making sure that we do have money on hand in case we have um any major issues that come up during the year such as we've had in the past with some major storms like Hurricane Sandy and other things like that that you know take out roadways and everything else
that we did not budget for and to make sure we had that funding so every year we take as it was said that we have $12 million at the end of the year yes that is that is an accurate statement but we take 6.5 million of that and we roll that back into the municipal budget so we're going to ask the tension committee
to uh introduce that budget and that budget will have public hearing and adoption next month with much more detail but good fiscal planning is that in that what you keep back it's similar as you guys do with you know putting in savings you don't live paycheck to paycheck that you're looking for your
future what you're doing and it's always a good fiscal policy for municipalities to have at least two months of revenue on hand in order to pay all of our bills and address any issues that come up and with that remaining below 5.5 to $6
million is roughly two months of our our bills it comes out to about 17% of our budget and that's what's recommended is that in that fund balance you have between 15 and 20% on hand to deal with any emergencies to keep your tax rate
stable um so we continue to do that so our revenues since co have had been fairly flat um we used to get a you know a pretty hefty hotel tax we've seen that you know flatten off it's not back to where it was um for those the other revenues coming in are also fairly flat
so really it's coming back now on tax dollars and what we can raise to to make the budget as committee there we have some a lot of expenses that are way beyond our control especially when it comes to healthcare and pension costs because those come from the state and they just give us a number and
oftentimes it's doubledigit numbers um but as this committee is moving forward to dedicate any revenue coming in for capital projects that is a big number um as we start the budget season every year um all of my department heads and working with the governing body we put
together you know the projects the equipment the trucks the things that we need to do to run this township and we get about $8 million worth of capital requests every year um committee has always had the policy that we're only going to bring on debt for what we
retire and that's about $3 million a year so we have to take that $8 million and we have to pick out the projects that we're going to do every year and whittle that down to three years I mean to three million um and then there's certainly if we have a little bit extra then we'll start paying for projects
that we can move on forward but this would certainly help in the ability to pay for capital projects because that is probably one of the toughest parts of the budget every year is determine what roads are going to get paved what equipment is going to get done what infrastructure is going to be taken care of what can we do with our parks and
recreation f facilities those are all important amenities for our residents and making sure that they are in good shape and that we're giving them quality services for that so um that kind of explains it that sounds like we have a lot of money but it's basically most of that's going back into the following
budget um each year which will be introduced later on this evening thank you Mr quinn so remember to there is still another public commentary session tonight that you'll still have another chance to come up to the podium um at
this time is there any further discussion here on the day by anybody questions or hearing none may I have a motion to adopt ordinance number 07-25 so moved is there a second
i'll second thank you madame clerk may I have a roll call vote mr ravitz yes mr gazelle yes mr dorphy yes mr janata no mayor Griglia yes i Donna J griglia mayor declare ordinance number 07-25
approved and adopted and direct the township clerk to publish proper notice thereof in the official newspaper may I have a motion to adopt ordinance number 08-25 so moved second madame clerk may I have a roll call vote
mr dory yes mr ravitz yes mr gazelle yes mr janata no mayor Griglia yes i Donna J gerrigia mayor declare ordinance number 08-25 approved and adopted and direct the township clerk to publish proper
notice thereof in the official newspaper madame clerk please read the title of ordinance 09-25 into the record and we will then open the public hearing so mayor before we move on can I I just inform the public if there are still are some outstanding questions there is another
public commentary section at the end of the resolutions that we're going to get to yeah I told them that yeah so you can stick around for that thank you very much those who do have to leave thank you for coming we appreciate it
uh ordinance 09-25 an ordinance of the township committee of the township of Morris amending chapters 258 367 and 447 of the township code note language changes for online applications
we will take comments from in-person attendees first then switch over to Zoom please virtually raise your hand in Zoom to indicate you would like to speak may I have a motion to open the public hearing on ordinance 09-2 so move second all in favor
seeing no one here mayor I make a motion to close the public portion is there a second all in favor may I have a motion to adopt ordinance number 09-25 so move second any discussion madame Cler can I have a roll call vote mr
griselle yes mr ravitz yes mr jory yes mr janata yes mayor Griglia yes i Donna J gerriglia mayor declare ordinance number 09-25 approved and adopted and direct the town of Clerk to publish proper notice thereof in the official newspaper
ordinance ordinances for introduction we have one ordinance for introduction on tonight's agenda madame Clerk please read the title of ordinance 10-25 into the record ordinance 10-25 an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget
appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank for the calendar year 2025 note requirement for municipal budget may I have a motion to introduce ordinance number 10-25 so move mayor second any questions can I have a roll
call vote u Mr dorphy yes mr gazelle yes mr janata yes mr ravitz yes mayor Griglia yes the public hearing and final consideration and adoption of ordinance 10-25 will be held on Wednesday April
16th 2025 at 7 p.m in the municipal building 50 Woodland Avenue introduction of the 2025 municipal budget administrator Quinn will provide an overview of the budget and read the resolution language into the record
uh Mayor do we want to take five or do we just want to plow through i No I I I would but can we do it after the intro to the budget okay okay um thank you mayor just the 2025 budget um I am pleased to intro
introduce a very conservative budget of $42.9 million it's slightly above last year's budget um as with every year there are are many challenges um our revenue is stable uh from 2024 um appropriations have been our biggest
challenge um medical for our employees is up 60 16% that's over $450,000 um salaries for our employees is up $700,000 our operating expenses overall are up $150,000 and then our debt this year is
down because we paid off some notes I mean from some bonds of $1.4 $4 million but that is just a one-year um relief that we have this year and then when we have to go back out to debt again it'll be significantly higher in future years we do have three utilities of the sewer
the swimming pool and the parking which are all in line for revenue and appropriations um we are anticipating with this budget a tax rate of less increase of less than 1% for 1000 equally equaling probably about
2550 cents for the average assessed property at $600,000 so a detailed presentation will take place at the public hearing with an adoption vote for the budget on April 16th um mayor for your con yours in the
detach committee's consideration uh the municipal budget of attachment of Mars County of Mars for fiscal year 2025 be resolved that the following statements of the revenues and appropriations shall constitute the municipal budget for the year 2025 be it further resolved that sub
budget be published in the daily record in the issue of March 23rd 2025 the governing body of the tension marsh does hereby approve the following as the budget for the year 2025 those budget documents are here on the day
with that mayor I would ask that you move to have a motion to approve the municipal budget may I have a motion to approve the municipal budget for calendar year 2025 mayor I'll make that motion second madame Clerk may I have a roll call vote mr dorphy yes mr janata
yes mr gazelle yes mr ravitz yes mayor Grigle yes i want to thank um I have one more statement to it oh you do got to finish the Oh did I jump the gun on no you know you're fine no just go ahead we have to just uh do the formality okay uh
notice is hereby given that the budget and tax resolution was approved by the committee persons of the township of Mars County and Mars on March 19th 2025 a hearing on the budget and tax resolution will be held at the Mars Township of Milford building 50 Woodland
Avenue on April 16 2025 at 7:00 at which time and in place objections to said budget and tax resolution for the year 2025 may be presented by taxpayers or other interested persons thank you Mayor thank you Mr clinton thank thank you for
all your hard work on the budget uh we are going to take a fiveminut break it is now 10:27 so we will at 10:32 we will resume the meeting almost to the end just a robot
yes is everybody here is everybody back madame clerk may I have a roll call vote i mean not roll to resume the meeting may I have a roll call
what do we roll call oh there oh we're back okay mr gazelle here mr dorphy here mr janata here mr ravitz here mayor Gregio here we have 20 resolutions on tonight's agenda due to
Committeeman Jory's role in the fire department we will vote on resolutions 92-25 and 92- 9293 and 79 92,93 and 79 separately may
I have a motion to approve resolutions numbers 77-25-78-25 and 80-25 through 91-25 and 94-25 through 96-25 so moved second madame clerk may I have
a roll call vote mr griselle yes mr ravitz yes mr jorphy yes mr janata yes mayor Gria yes may I have a motion to approve resolution numbers 92-25 93-25 and
79-25 by one motion so moved second madame Clerk may I have a roll call vote mr ravitz yes mr janata yes mr gazelle yes and Mayor Griglio yes on the consent calendar we have four items this evening can I have a motion
to approve the items on the consent calendar by one motion some move seconded all in favor i the following reports are on file in the office of the township clerk and township administrator the January 2025
fire police and joint municipal court and the February 2025 tax collector Marstown Mars Township Library and police can I have a motion to approve the monthly reports so move second all in favor i I claims for payment and list of bills and vouchers the total amount
of bills and vouchers for this meeting is $8,733,42911 we are also the tax collector for the school district the library and the county may I have a motion to approve the list of bills and vouchers so moved second madame Clerk may I have
a roll call vote mr dorphy yes mr janata yes mr gazelle yes mr rabbitz yes mayor Grigia yes we have two items received for the record the tax collector's annual 2024 reports and four tax appeals at this time due to the late
hour we are going to forego the standing committee reports by the township committee and we will open up our second public commentary there are currently seven members of the public joining us via Zoom and four in person at this time we will open the meeting to public
comment mayor we don't get to make any more comments okay well that's what I was asked if if we could forego if you want to make the com you know what Deputy Mayor Grace Lel I lost my notes hold on got this big pile of paper we're getting
punchy here i just I just had one thing that I just did want to say sure um I just want to like I acknowledge that you know a lot of members different members of our community i just want to acknowledge that Ramadan 2025 began on the evening of Saturday March 1st 2025
and will end on the evening of Monday March 31st 2025 uh the dates may vary based on moon sighting you should note um the sacred month of Islam is dedicated to fasting prayer reflection and community muslims worldwide observe
fasting from dawn to sunset engaging in spiritual growth and charitable acts and I wish everyone who celebrates Ramadan and our community a Ramadan Mubarak thank you thank you very much is there any other committee member that does
want to make any last comment thank you i'll I'll save my comments for the budget presentation next month thank you Mr dury there are 15 members of the public joining us via Zoom no there are seven
members joining us via Zoom um seven virtual four in person and four in person is there a motion to open up the public comment so moved second all in favor i seeing no one here and no hands raised
on Zoom is there a motion to close the public comment so moved is there a second second all in favor i just before I we do adjourn though I do want to I just want to make the statement that again on behalf of the township
committee to everybody who did come to this meeting tonight and who was on Zoom we really do appreciate all of your input and we value your opinions and we know that you care about our community so thank you very much the time is now 10:40 can I have a motion to adjourn the
regular session so moved second all in favor hi the next regular township committee meeting is Wednesday April 16th 2025 at 7 p.m for the regular meeting 5:00 p.m for closed in the municipal building 50 Woodland Avenue
thank you and have a great night