Good evening. Welcome to the July 8, 2025 meeting of the Pakonic Township Council. Miss Marsh. In accordance with the requirements of New Jersey's open public meetings act, notice of this meeting was included in the annual meeting notice which was filed in the office of the township clerk, posted on the bulletin board in
the municipal building, published as a legal notice in the suburban trends and daily record newspapers, and distributed to all persons requesting notice in accordance with township policy. All right, please join me in the pledge of allegiance followed by a prayer and a moment of thanks for individual serving our nation. And also I'm going to add a moment of uh just silence for all the
people in Texas. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Most gracious providence, we ask that you bless this governing body with an abundance of wisdom and understanding so that every deliberation will result in actions which will promote the common good and the general welfare for all of the people of Aquanic Township. We'd
also offer up our prayers for all the people affected by the floods in Texas. Amen. Amen. Thank you. The clerk will please call the role. Mrs. Farmers Lynch here. Mr. Cole here.
Mrs. Russell here. Mr. Syracusa here. Mayor Tracy here. Right. Moving on with the agenda. There are no presentations scheduled for this evening. Item number six, reports from volunteers. At this time, are there any reports or comments from any of the volunteers serving our community?
Yes, sir. Come on up, Mr. Peter. My name is Peter Schmidt. Um I report as a volunteer. The whole work started with the economic advisory committee where we discussed to review the zoning permit
application process and see whether we could improve that. So I had a few discussions and uh and started actually to volunteer more than just discussions
um to see whether we can improve the zoning process itself. Yeah. And make it make it nicer. Um um it's a a crowded day today and it looks like a full agenda. I will stay very very short
under under 5 minutes. Uh let's start with motivation. Motivation. If I ask randomly people, yeah, how much waste, fraud, and inefficiency is in our federal
government in Washington, I get answers between 5 and 25%. And you can pick your own number. And then since I like to discuss politics with people, I ask them, what do you think New Jersey is doing? Are they better or are they worse or how are they? And actually I get a
laugh every time. New Jersey is much much worse than the federal federal government. And then of course I couldn't resist to ask ask how about the township of
you know uh is it sweet? Um and of course I don't know know the number. So, so, um, I should say these numbers are homesai numbers. Everybody guesses and we don't know them enough, but it's good enough for this argument. So, I actually went to my assistant GPT
and asked him about that and it gave me actually a little bit more solid number 2 to 5% federal government uh, which is 128 to320 billion. much of it is already uh actually sub substances
a little bit more clear state of New Jersey. Yeah. 4.4 billion. Um it says on average because it doesn't know anything about the corner. On average in normal municipalities
1%. Yeah. For our budget it is I just made roughly the number $500,000. Um I think one can see two clear things out of it. Uh I think there's clear
opportunity to improve improve efficiency. Whatever efficiency means you know waste fraud I'm not so sure sure about this community. I have not seen fraud at all. Waste is do we spend the right money on this or do we spend
the right money on that? That's that's waste or not. Uh inefficiency. Yes, there is there is a lot of inefficiency like in any other uh municipality. It is not itself. Um so I think there is there's enough
opportunity. Let's let's pick it. So let's go to the next next stage. So what we started actually with the zoning office is taking this atrocious atrocious zoning permit application and trying to convert that on the web and
making a web form that is much simpler to fill out which is on the right side. um and make it much easier and give actually the people help to find their block and lot number and their zone for
for residential applications. Give them much better guidance and that is currently a project that um we do together with the zoning office and myself and it's coming along and it actually works already to a certain
certain extent. Um there are many other things um like why should people fill out their block and lot number when the zoning office knows that so much better. You know we are putting burden on little
many little things makes it harder for the for the citizens to do to interact with our community. I think there's a lot of areas where things can be done easier. So so this is current activity.
Um, and now go to the last one, my my favorite. Uh, I asked Chad GBT to fill out the form for me to build a fence in my backyard and it gave me the word document on the
left side. It has all the information that is required on the form. Yeah. how high the fence is and um so actually in two to three years we have to agree on that you know um maybe
my AI can fill out the forms for me instead of me filling out forms by myself at least make me a proposal and I make a few changes to it make my life easier but then I said dear chat GBT now you are the zoning officer
read this proposal proposal and make me a recommendation whether you approve it or not and if you approve it just write everything so I can just sign it and it's approved and it does it it took my application processed it and said
approve on it so it will make our life in the town administration easier as well this is 2 to 3 years in in the future um but we uh I would I would volunteer to go towards that and not
only for zoning. I think there are many other areas. Okay, that's my my presentation. Okay, cool. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that. It looks like you put a lot of work into it. GPT I know nothing about, so I can't comment on that. Anybody else have any comments?
No, thank you very much, too. Okay. Um um yes, we all should learn a little bit more to work with computers and the internet. And I would volunteer to teach people a little bit as well.
No excuse. No excuse. Thank you, Peter. Thank you, Peter. Thank you. Mayor, if I might just I appreciate Peter's efforts and I do approach some of the AI stuff with cautious optimism. um because there's a human element that I think does have a benefit. But uh I I
will offer Peter 100% raise for every milestone that you accomplish. But thank you. Thank you. All right. Any other volunteers from our community? [Music] Okay. Seeing none, we're going to go to
public comment section. The next item on the agenda is public comments. This comment period will be limited to a total of 30 minutes. Additional time is reserved later in the meeting. We welcome comments, suggestions, questions during the comment period. However, the purpose of this is to allow public comment, not to engage in dialogue. If
you have a specific question, please feel free to pose it and then follow up with staff via telephone or email. Comments are limited to 3 minutes. Please, if anyone wishes to address the council, please wait to be recognized and come to the microphone and provide your name for the record.
Yes. Colleen McMahon 17 Sherman a Compton Plains. First of all, I'd like to thank you for bringing the Sherman A sidewalks to the agenda 2 weeks ago. I unfortunately didn't know about it and thanks to Councilwoman Melissa for
letting me know 2 days later we received a letter at our door about the Sherman A sidewalk replacement project. Thank you. cuz most of our neighbors on our street now if you go down Sherman A we are a half street of sidewalks one-sided not
both half we go from the turnpike to Union A not even Union A and across the street right at number let's use number three turnpike which is really Sherman A and turnpike the Helier house so with that your
engineer report I'm sad to say was incorrect in the data that he gave It did not give the clear picture of the conditions of our sidewalks. I'm here for my own sidewalks, but the engineer asked us all to email what our thoughts
were from the options that you gave us. You all were copied on my email. And thank you to the mayor. He's the only one that responded back and I'm still waiting for Frank Russo to respond back and cuz he's the one that asked for the email. My biggest thing with our
sidewalks, we have about 20 pads in front of our own house of which his report had something different. His report also said they're sprawling down the street. Sprawing. I had to look up. I didn't know what it meant. The concrete is crumbling in bad shape. And he noted three properties with it. Well,
that's not true. You cannot walk down Sherman A and not trip cuz in my next door neighbor there is none there. So with that again back to my own. So I want the sidewalks replaced from the turnpike and across
the street there's a little strip by the helier house number three Sherman and whatever number he is on the top of the street replaced all of them not just piecing them all of them so they look the same all the way down to Union Avenue or right to actually
or right right to his house right to that all them replaced my other big problem in front of our house we've always loved loved our trees. The trees are the problem. The engineers report said the trees are not the report. Not the
problem. I'm telling you, they are. I gave you pictures of the two trees on my property. The roots are above the ground. It's ready to come down. So, next I'm going to have to go back. I don't know who to talk to, but whether deep somebody's got to come. They have to come down. They're going to take out my pool. They're going
to take out my fence or they're going to take out the telephone pole. They should not be the roots are way above the ground. Those are the maybe five years old. They're not old trees. They those the original ones are long gone. I've lived in this house for a very long
time. We had four in the front. They were beautiful. Slowly we lost them. And these were the two newer ones. We actually put one other on the other side. It couldn't take. But right now it's very dangerous. We do get them cut. They come because they grow so fast.
they impede the sidewalk. He can't even walk down it. So, I'm here as my own, but I'm pretty sure my neighbors because I spoke to many of them. Contacted the engineer asking him to do option two, which was you guys had gotten um gave
the report gave a couple different options. The letter streamlined it and it said existing affected sidewalks. No, we want them all to look the same. There's a new pad in front of ours cuz we had to. when I saw the little kid fell off his bicycle and the kid was
crying hysterically, that's when we had to put a new pad in because it was in front of our house. So, it should make sense to me. Um, so I think that's the most important. I see Manorav is on uh the agenda tonight to get theirs done. And again, I don't know, the report's
kind of hard there. I don't know if the whole street's getting it, if half the streets are getting it. It's hard to say cuz I I wasn't in on the first bid pro project. But um I just really want you all to take the consideration of redoing
that portion. But I also want to say this two top of the street what I'm talking about Fred Azarak and the Helier house they were not notified. We all received a handwritten and they're on your report. They did not get the they did not get this letter that
was handd delivered to our home. I personally sent it off to Fred cuz I wanted to know what his opinion was. What did he want? He said, "I have no idea what you're talking about." And I talked to John Helier, the owner. He did not get this letter also, just so you know. So, I feel everybody's got to be
on the same page. So, please get me Sidewalks. This is well over 20 years. Dave Hullberg knew about this. I We tried. That's how long it's been that we've been waiting for it. Thank you very much. Correct. Thank you. Um once
we're done on that just to address it, but yes, that's that's kind of the point we wanted to get your take on. Residents take on this email, but we don't get copy. All right. Anybody else? Public comment, please. Yes. Follow your
hon. Um, I would like to take the opportunity to thank council and staff for their work and insight that they've had into making new courts at Green View a reality.
They are outstanding. Those of us that have already played on them, they are truly outstanding. Um, thank you for appropriating the funds. Are you going to teach me how to play? If you want to come down anytime, I can't, but you know, it is awesome. But
thank you and thank you for the staff to the staff for seeing the project through to completion. I know it's been a lot of work. I've said it before and I'm pleased to say it again. This is likely the best town council we've had in years. You guys are getting projects
done that have long since been neglected all for the benefit of the community and we're grateful. specific to the um the minutes of council meeting dated May 22nd 27th. I'd like to address the need for private
booking at the new courts versus open play. More specifically that I don't think we need private booking at uh Green View on those new courts. If however a council decides to include private booking, I will support that.
Open play allows everybody to use the courts fairly. It doesn't discriminate discriminate against anybody at any time. If you want to play with your grandkids, it's fine. If you want to meet the same group of ladies on a Tuesday morning at 8:00, it works for
that. If you want to play with a group of friends and nobody else, it totally works for that as well. The term open play or walk-on only addresses how the courts are handled when people are
waiting to go onto the court. Has no impact on the scoring the game at all. It only refers to what happens when people are waiting for a term to go onto the courts. That's it. That's what the term open play or walk-on means.
To be fair, in the past, I don't think I've done a particularly good job at explaining to um council liaison at the parks and rec advisory meetings what open play is. If anybody has any questions, I'll be happy to explain it in more detail. And like Mr. Schmidt, I
have some AI examples that I can share. If council does decide that a private booking option is still warranted, I'd like to respectfully ask that we look at an alternative to Community Pass. Community Pass is the name of the
software that we use currently to book the courts. It's made for booking fields and I don't know if it works well or not. I can't speak to that, but it doesn't work well for booking um courts, pickle ball courts. We had issues with community pass in
2024 and I'll highlight a few. There was a lack of knowledge or awareness that community pass is a booking off option for the courts and only five families used it consistently in the month of August in 2024. Some of the people that did use community pass regularly gained
the system and they gained it because the system has inherent weaknesses for and they didn't they took advantage of it. There is no limit in community pass to how many times you can book the court. You can book it one time, you can book it nine times in a month or 29
times in a month. You can book two courts, you can book three courts, you can book them for 2 hours, you can book them for 9 hours. There's no limits. It it doesn't have a a mechanism for that. There's no limit to how far in advance you can book over two a two-month
period. You can go to the courts during an open play session and we saw this. This was pretty tough. Everybody's cycling in, cycling out, and somebody took out their phone that didn't want to wait 6 minutes for a turn, booked the courts on the spot and sent people home.
I said, I just booked the courts. Now you guys have got to get off. Right. So if we do go down the path of needing, which I don't think we do, a private booking system, so you can book the courts, we would I would respectfully
ask that we look at an alternative to community pass. Um there's one other thing is also if you if there's if you're a no-show, it doesn't matter. It it there's there's no penalty. Thank you again for your time and attention. Thanks again for what you
guys have given us. The Green View Park courts are spectacular. Thank Thank you for your time. Thank you for all you've done. Yeah, we'll talk about that. Yes. Actually, Paul's let Paul go first and then you can go.
Good evening. Paul Mailer, Quanic Township resident. and to the republic for which it stands. We all put our hands over our hearts just a few minutes ago and made a pledge to the American republic. And in that sense, every American is a republican
defined as a person who supports the idea of the United States having a president whose rule is limited by a constitution. Today, the separation of powers and checks and balances ratified in that constitution are being systematically
destroyed by a would-be Republican king. Immediately after the pledge, we all prayed that these proceedings would benefit everyone in our township. And I'm here tonight to ask that you stand for that pledge and up to that prayer and against a Republican king, an
oxymoron, that notion, a Republican king, because by definition there can be no such thing. But that is what is happening today in America as the rule of law is ignored by masked thugs acting as federal police and senators are taken to the ground for having the tmerity to
ask a federal official a question. and law-abiding citizens are sent to a concentration camp in the Florida Everglades. When you heard that ICE was recently in Bloomingdale or at the Costco in Clifton, were you confident that behind
those masks and unmarked cars, they were actually ICE agents? Can you imagine our police department roaming the township wearing masks and breaking into homes without warrants? Of course you can. Then why by our silence are we condoning
it in neighboring communities? At the Republican King's birthday party, our nation's in our nation's capital, the United States Army marched decidedly out of step in defiance of a seriously flawed commander-in-chief.
And on that same day, as many as 600 Puquanic and nearby residents stood just outside this building in peaceful protest. Our police department was there in uniforms with no masks, of course. They performed their serve and protect duties admirably and without prejudice
as we all knew they would. Why are we not demanding the same from ICE? The Republican Party, of course, is a very different thing and has an impressive history. It is the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower, both of whom protected our nation during our civil war and the
World War II threat of Nazi fascism. So those Americans who call themselves Republican have had every right to be proud until now. As our duly elected representatives in Bquinic Township, you all have an incredible opportunity and an equally
daunting responsibility to history. Your choices are to remain silent or to speak out for the United States Constitution and to the republic for which it stands, to which you pledge allegiance at every meeting. To remain silent makes a
mockery of that pledge and desecrates the prayer that follows. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your comments. Anybody else for public comment? Yes. Oh, Jen, you were you first? [Music]
I don't want to go out of order. Hi, Erica Bower, 42 Mountain Avenue. Uh, I just wanted to circle back to the pickle ball open play. Um, just um, echoing some of the things that Simon already discussed, but a couple things
that I thought were uh, relevant is um, with open play there is a standard rules. Everybody uses them. Everyone in every other town uses them. They're used all over the nation. Why is that important? It dis decreases disputes. If
you go on to if it's a drop in and somebody shows up with four people, you can sit there and play for your hour. If I show up by myself and I want to play, they don't have to let me. So, I have a little story. In Florida, I moved there. I knew no one. I walked into a place
that had open play. They allowed me to play with them. I felt, you know, honored by that. um I felt included. I've gone to other places where you know a higher skill level. I'm intimidated. I'm a new player. It's um I think it's
good for our community. There's a lot of new players. There's a lot of people that are new to the town. What better thing than saying we accept you. We allow you any skill level to come play with us. That's the town that I want to live in. And I would be proud if we had
open play versus drop in. Um to go back to, you know, if someone wants to book um the court, um the rules of open play are there's there's six courts there. So if um they
are not filled, you do not have to leave the court. So if there is five uh courts that are filled, you can stay on. It's only when 24 people are playing is that you actually have to leave and have to mix in. So, you know, do you need to reserve that? I don't know that we're
going to have that many people playing all at one time, except for maybe a Tuesday night or a a Thursday night or a Saturday morning. So, if you wanted to play with your grandchildren, all you have to do is wait, you know, wait for a
few minutes and then you're, you know, you can go in with your group. You can hold your paddles back and wait and then you're allowed in to play and stay with your group. So, that solves the problem. Um, I think proof of success is Tuesday night. Tuesday night we have open play
right now. It is wildly popular and people are meeting each other and there's different skill levels and it's it's the community that, you know, we're talking about. So, you know, it makes it flexible. You can just show up. You don't have to call three of your friends. I am constantly calling people.
Hey, do you want to play tomorrow? No, I have to work. Blah blah blah. So, it makes it easy. Um, it makes it fair. I'm playing with 20-year-olds, 30 year olds, you know. So, same thing, mixing, meeting friends, you know. So, I think that's what we represent in Pquanic. So,
I think that's a a good reason for that. Um, you know, just echoing back, it's desirable, it's easy, it's um fair, it's efficient, there's no disputes, you know, all positive things. So, thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, I'm Jen Hardy, 98 Mountain Avenue, and I want to echo the gratitude for you guys. Um, it's amazing that we have these courts. They're beautiful. We love them, and every age really appreciate
appreciates them, and uses them. I think I've played some of your kids. Um, but anyway, I'm just going to point out something that um might be a concern, you know, and it's somebody who said a friend of mine who said, "I'm not ready to play open play. I'm not good enough.
I can't do that." And and it's exactly wrong. I'm like, "Absolutely. Look, you know, we're not going to reserve a court. You're going to come down and I'm going to grab probably Erica cuz she's really good at lessons and another friend and we will play together throughout the night in open play." And
we and it is just taking turns. So we sign up, we play for 11 to 14 minutes. When our time is done, we sit we sign ourselves up again as a forsome. So the foresome does not have to get disrupted. So new players are welcome. Honestly, Eric has probably taught two dozen
people how to play. And that's the beautiful thing about pickle ball. It's so welcoming. It's a culture. It's a, you know, it it's a movement really. But it really is multigenerational and it is so accepting of new people. We've met new people from town. We've
met new people to sport. Um so it it it's open play in my opinion is the only way that the pickle ball courts will be used to maximum um amount. if we insert, you know, a um an appointment schedule
in people's minds, they'll just go to another town or they'll go join uh the Wayne Club, which has happened to a lot of people. You know, they can't play at Puquanic because there's people who booked the courts, so they have joined other towns um parks and reccks courts
in order to play. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else for public comment? Yes. Come on up. Driving behind the pole. Hi, my name is Joe Fern. I am not a
resident of the town. However, after driving through it, I'd consider it. Um, I'm from affordable cartage and I'd like to address uh the resolution R2025 147 148 which is the rejection of bids
collection removal of disposal of garbage and both waste along with the collection of recycling services. If you allow me, I I'd like to discuss the $4 million difference in in the bids over 5 years. Okay. Okay. So, I'm from Affordable Cartage and we were the low bid. It's $4 million
less over 5 years. Um from uh Mr. Dikeke uh sent an email to me informing us that we had a minor technicality was dismissed because of it or recommended dismissing our bid because of it. I I'd like to uh to ask for a review of it. I
think for the difference in bid and a minor technicality and $4 million. Um I just like a review uh basically uh rather than just passing it through tonight. Um for GA, who is your collector now, to drop $3 million, I
would find it very odd if you would do that. I find it more likely that I would raise my bid being a businessman saying, "Well, I was so low. Maybe I should go higher." But I I would stand by the bid. I just feel like a review and I don't want to take any more of your time. I thank you for the opportunity to speak.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Greg, could you could you spell your last name? R. She's over there. I'm sorry. Did you get
a N? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else for public comments? Yes, come on up to the back. [Music] Hi, I'm Jerry Murro 15 Terrace. Um here
just uh to just um also expand on the pickle ball and the open play. I played on a lot of different courts. Most of them are free. Um and all of them uh use open play. that's been in Florida, that's been in New York, that's been
down the shore, a lot of places. So, this whole concept of not having to pay and not having to book a court uh is not a new concept. And uh what Jen said is absolutely correct. I've made friends um
because of Open Play that I would not have made. Um and pickle ball people are the best people in the world. So, uh just keep that in mind. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Hi. Uh I'm here again to support that
open play for the pickle ball. Can you just state your name just for the record, please? Yeah. Uh I live on 16 O Avenue and I do play pickle ball every single day in different different towns. I go
Fairfield, I go ma and everywhere open place where I can make new friends, smart friends and it's a socialization event. Specifically in the digital world, people are stick to the phones and the digital is better to have open place and that way we can have more
people coming into town and we have good friendship. That's all. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else for a public comment? Yes. Come on up. Good evening. Uh Michael Kapola, 27 Run the Road, Pumpkin Plains. Um again, just
want to echo the uh comments that everybody else has made about open play and pickle ball. Uh it's a great facility. Thank you guys for putting the funds forward and following the project through. It's it's beautiful. It's more than what we asked for. Um but we do need a system in place. And like the
others have said, open play is the way to go. Everywhere else you go play, it's open play. Court reservations just cause us problems. Uh you get a bunch of people that decide they're going to block out whatever period they want for 2 months and then the rest of us stand
on the top of the share court. It's just not a good thing. As Simon Jen have said, Erica, the games only take 11 to 14 minutes. You rotate in and out. It's a a system that you can use paddles with a paddle rag or a board, sign your name.
Any skill level can play together. I mean, I only started playing two years ago. Most of the people that are sitting here I met at those pickle ball courts. I didn't know them before. It's a great thing. I just think we really need to think about the the way we allow people to use the courts, utilize them. And
just one other thing, there's a uh an app called Team Reach. Just to give you a scope of how many people are interested in Open Play, I just looked as I was sitting here. 159 people in Aquonic are on the Team Reach app for Open Play. That's a pretty good number that
everybody's communicating through to say, "I'm going to go down and play tonight. Who's coming?" This and that. But it's all about open play. It's not reservation. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any
else for open comment or public comment? Open. Same thing. Open play. Open play. There we go. That's why I put open a comment together. Okay. All right. Seeing none, we're going to just um close the public comment sections. U Mr. Brew, would you
like to address some of this technical stuff? I know we were going to talk about a little later, but sure. Well, I'll I'll go in order um of the comments. Mrs. Pan spoke about the the the sidewalks. Yes, there was discussion
where there was simply direction soft from the governing body in terms of options. So, no one's doing anything for design purposes yet. Appreciate your feedback. Got it. We've received I think eight responses. Um I'll be reporting back to the governing body in August with a summary of what those responses are and recommendations are. Uh the
direction was only descended on the people on the south side. So that's the reason the people on the south side only got it. So I guess you should have been he's on the corner. Okay. Yeah. Then then I don't know what happened there. Um he has
Yeah. And with respect to trees, I'll follow up with you to see if there are trees or your trees and and how that all works. Okay. Um pickle ball. So we we're going to there's there's an element in my report on this later. Um,
I I had the benefit of a conversation with Mr. Hardy earlier today. So, I think it'll help clarify some of the comments in the report. Um, as well as echoing the council's comments and thanking him for what I described, I think it may as ymen's work bringing all of this together uh with the advisory committee. If the council wants, I'll
jump right to that as a point of my report. Sure. What's next? Anyway, I'll just jump to item. Just just before you say that, I I'd like to thank whoever thanked us for trying to get the, you know, putting the course together. Um, it's a limited amount of funds that we like to do, but we've tried over the last couple years
just to put money into parks, at least some part every year, and that was kind of a big one for us. It was it was it was a big coming. I'm glad we put the basketball courts in, too. I know there's a lot of pickle ball, but there's no basketball in that in the town. So, I'm glad we were able to do that, too. So, and I think that was one of the best
things we did because we we we thought there was a need. So, we did like the just did the lines on the tennis courts and then when it came out that there was a need, we knew that we could go ahead and spend quite a quite a sizable amount of money and it's being well used. So, that's good. And I do think Simon did do
a lot of work. I was on the parks and rack and that was years and he's been working and visiting and and teaching and learning and Simon did a lot of work. But before I jump to Mayor attorney, maybe Mr. wants to uh respond to the
comment. That's a good idea. Yeah. Can you just Sure. Actually, tonight, you know, we have two resolutions on where we're not awarding to a low bidder because there were problems with the bids themselves and things missing. In both of those instances, the specifications, you know,
when people bid, when we when we do bid projects, it's based upon written specifications that have requirements and help people what they have to provide as part of the bid. In both of the instances we have tonight, one is was is is hauling and the other one is the new PAS facility, we had a situation
where outside entities dictated in part to us what those specifications had to look like. And in both cases, there were mandatory items put in there. And when we put mandatory items and we use language like I'll I'll direct it to the uh bid the specifications for solid
waste. We say the failure to complete or provide any of the information required herein shall result in rejection of the bid proposal and those were the those are the states uh mandatory uh bids for solid waste have that direction in it. So when we received an objection to the
low on the grounds that a form identifying the trucks and the information related to the equipment was not fully completed. We had to look seriously at that and honestly I think we would have been subject to a challenge if we were to award notwithstanding the fact that the
information uh was not provided. it was provided after the fact and and you know if an item is not mandatory we can accept after the fact information but when it's required that specifically and that kind of mandatory language is used uh we don't have the option of awarding
a bid when and if somebody if an objector comes forward and pursues it we will be our our award will be turned up turn turned down by the court and that's what I I fear would happen here and we would be uh embroiled in litigation over over awarding a bid to a low bidder that
did not fully complete the bid and that was unfortunate and you know they other objections were raised about the bidder. We took no that really don't take that part of it seriously but we do have to take seriously errors in the bid bidding documents or failure to provide all the
information we need. So the recommendation is to go out to bid again uh and and not to award the reason we're re the reason that's that is the recommendation is there is a big discrepancy between the two bids. So the hope is we get you know we a new
opportunity we get all the information there's no opportunity for anybody to object to it and we get a you know we get a bid that we can award. So we're not awarding to the next lowest bidder. Most of all because of the amount of that bid was beyond what had been
budgeted and anticipated for it. That's another basis to reject a bid when the bid all the bids we received are high higher than the um than the amount of the budget. And in this case, the low bid would have been I say, you know, would have been a good bid for us. And probably I I don't doubt would have been
recommended had we not um had an issue with the bid. And that's, you know, that's where we ended up. And the other bid is really the same story. The low bid the low bidder did not complete the bid package in a way that we believe could have been sustained if it was challenged.
So they can reid and this one we're doing a rebid. The other one we are awarding the next. there wasn't that much of a difference between the first and the second. So, um, the recommendation on that one, on this class, we're going to go with on this one. The recommendation is to redo it,
reject all, go out to bid again, and hope that this time we get complete bids and we can actually award the more bitter and I understand the disappointment biders have with that. And I I don't I don't dispute what you say when you say it's a minor thing. In
the scheme of things, I agree with you. We this the way the state specs reef, we made it a major thing. that put us in a position of having to reject it and that's unfortunate. All right, Mr. Thank you. You bet. So, now we're going to move on to the
manager report and tie the fiddle this conversation. Yes. Thank you, Mr. I'm I'm going to I'll run back in order then because we did take that little sideways discussion. And as the council may attest, if I have an opportunity to save money, it crushes my soul to be able to
save money. So, uh, if there's an opportunity to save, especially the kind of money that was potentially presented to us in the bidding dynamic that was described before, it would have been a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of, uh, with respect to my report, uh, starting with item A, signs over Newark
Prompton turnpike. Oh boy, we we have catch 22 or government in action or whatever you want to describe it. So, previously the governing body directed that we pursue having signed across the turnpike and I reached out to JCPNL because they own the polls. JCPNL said this is what you have to do. You have to
get the county uh county commissioner's approval because it's county road. You have to provide indemnification. You have to provide a certificate of insurance. We did all of that which of course takes some time because you have governing body involved. We put the entire package together. You had to describe how it would be a fix to the poles. You had to provide a schematic. You had to provide time frames, what was
going to be on the signs. Sent it off to JCPNL for approval. And First Energy, who owns JCPNL, came back and said, "You can't put any signs on PS. So had they said that from the beginning, it would have saved a little bit of effort. But the bottom line is uh we are no longer permitted to have
horizontal signs that connect poles. I did reach out to our area representative who initially said this is the process you have to undertake. And I may have said rather colorfully happened. Uh and his response was to change the policy from last year. We we got to update our
handbook cuz our handbook doesn't even cover. So, uh, unfortunately, we learned that, uh, the hard way, but at least we got the answer. But we got an answer. And unfortunately, we got an answer we're not thrilled with, but it is in black. You see that in every town now? Just do it.
House Lincoln Park has said, I I hear you, but I I hear you, but I I fortunately we received an answer in black and white from the owner of the poll that says this is not allowed. So, if we actually had done it, it probably would have been fined, but because we tried to do the right thing.
Well, let's not forget though we had one up. We had one up. Private polls, different stores. We don't have any private polls in the turn. Are you sure we can't find it? Um, next item, Dollar Bus purchase. We have
a lot of procurement action scheduled for this evening for the council's consideration. uh $17,000 bus purchased for Dialeride and Dialeride service that's being acquired with 100% grant service uh grant funds. Love doing things with other people's money money that benefit us uh vegetated waste
collection as discussed uh previously. This was reviewed and is recommended for award solid waste and recycling. I'm not going to go any further into that other than there's a benefit of a written report if anybody wants to refer back to it. Mr. Right did a phenomenal job there. Uh Manner Avenue sidewalk
replacement. Um, similarly, there was an an issue. Oh, no, that was the one that was compliant. So, that's the low bid was compliant. So, no, no problem there. Um, it is the affected sidewalks as we've done in all of our projects to this point. It was not all of the sidewalks. So, we have a history of not replacing sidewalks that are in good
shape. Get to do more sidewalks that way. But whatever the council wants to do moving forward otherwise can be considered for Sherman. Uh, Sunset Road phase one. This is the one where the low bidder also had a minor issue, $4,000 difference between the low bid and the
number two low bid. Uh the the grant uh covers the cost of the project. So again, this is going to be done with New Jersey Department of Transportation Municipal Aid money. Uh so provided that is awarded, we look forward to that. Wells one and two POS mitigation. Uh
this is this is a significant project. uh $4.75 million budget, including the professional services. Essentially, it's a giant Brida that will be installed in a building next to the blending facility over on West Parkway. Um, as the council may be
aware, but for the benefit of the record, the public works director and licensed water operator took the well offline when we learned there was a trace of POS in it, so we did not ever send water that was in violation to customers. This is mandated and has to be done. Uh and we're using IBANK. New
Jersey used to be called infrastructure trust. It's now just called I bank benefit there is half of the uh debt is interest free. The other half is at their beneficial rate. And there's an opportunity of they say up to $3 million of principal forgiveness. Typically they
may give out $1 million principal forgiveness. Their fiscal year starts on July 1st which is why we are awarding this on July 8th. It's on a first come first- serve basis. Uh unfortunately as the council was also aware there were some significant increases in the professional services
uh proposals because of the I bank requirements. So if you want to get the principal forgiveness and the beneficial stuff that you have to have additional inspection and other components uh because of that we did eat into the construction budget. So the council will see in August uh an ordinance to
consider to increase the budget. Uh we can make the award tonight by certifying against operational funds within the water utility, but we'll need to fix that uh in August. And then pickle ball. Were you allowed to make a comment before we go into pickle ball on this?
Sure. I mean, we we never tested for POS until many years ago. I don't want to give we we we began testing 18 months before it was required. And I can't I don't recall exactly the date it was. So, just so the public knows, the increase in water
rates was mainly because of this $4.5 million project that the DP misses. Well, the initial increase in water rates was as a result of the water tank, right, that we put on Mountain Avenue, correct? Because the one in But then this Green View Park required
you to pump it and gravity is much cheaper than electricity. But this also increased this also increased rates. Correct. And it's mandatory that we have to have it done. Yes, we have the lowest I believe either the lowest or one of the lowest
thresholds in the union for PAS. So, we're we're we're going to put the big brother in and off we go. It's about a 2-year construction phase, so time move forward. The the award tonight is subject to the approval of IBank. So, the resolution is read carefully. It
says this is being done subject to their review. And it's it's it's a have to this is not an optional thing. it to have to pickle ball. May discussion direction from council was to create a proposed schedule for uh
open play as well as other reservation times and obviously court use by parks and recreation for the league and other elements that parks and recck would be scheduling. So within my memo, you have kind of a proposed schedule there. Again, having the benefit of a conversation with Mr. Hardy, I want to
kind of clarify something. uh parks rec program kind of item A that stands alone open play as described that would be the open play that is common among pickle ball courts and then all other times not identified could be for reservation.
The idea there would be if there's a reservation someone could use it. If there's no reservation and the court is open it could be used. If all courts are being utilized and there's no reservations, it would turn into open play. Okay. So, that's kind of how that
would be governed. Exactly what ratios and whatever the council would like to see, we'd be happy to implement. As I said in May, I think this is going to be an evolution. I don't think this is a oneanddone situation. Uh so, whatever the council wants to to to direct, we'd
be happy to work with everyone to make sure is uh clear and obvious and unambiguous. Uh, with respect to memberships, area towns do have memberships. Uh, there had been discussion about establishing an annual fee. Uh, if we're going to be doing the reservation, we would need
memberships to govern who has access because that was one of the flaring omissions with the issues that occurred in 2024. Um, I agree community pass is not the best of anything. Uh, it's what we have right now. I think the pickle ball stuff is all evolving. We would need to figure that out, but that would
be something that would have to, you know, move forward. Much like we have with the fields, there's a human element with respect to the people who have the ability to make the reservation. So if there's abuse, it can be addressed. Is it perfect? No. But it would be better than it was in 2024. Is there an ability to shut off the
available availability for reservations 1 hour before? I'd have to check, you know. So somebody what Simon said well I don't know if 24 hours cuz somebody gets home from work and you know they they want to go sit and learn how to play with their kid for an
hour and they want to reserve a court but you don't want with assignments that have been somebody sitting there doesn't feel like waiting so goes on the phone right that's kind of rude this was my suggestion I mean we have parks and recck programs from on Monday for 5 to 7:30 for three of the six
courts on Thursday for 5 to 10 for lead play all six courts. I say we stick with that and everything else is open play. Yes. Vince, I think there should be some time to reserve.
Vince has everything. Nobody is open. I mean, um I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't be opposed to maybe have some type of reservation or piece for an hour or two a day. I think open play seems to
be the most popular, right? Most popular, but if somebody wants to go, you know, I just like to have like a little bit more discussion about um what happens, you know, is it possible to reserve the courts for an hour or two a day? Like I
don't know if there's certain times, you know, just to have a discussion cuz I don't know a lot about pickle ball, you know what I mean? Like so what happens like so let's say I don't know anything about pickle ball right but my daughter say hey dad let's go not that it's going to happen cuz they never say that right like let's go play play pickle ball
let's go figure this out you know and now you know here we are a couple of you know just looking at the ball you know and trying to get off I mean I don't know but I think it's worth the discussion it's July let's let's do the rest of the year with those two time
slots and open play and see how it goes and see how it goes. Melissa, I don't care. Yeah. No, I was going to say and I haven't played pickle ball either except once, but um Well, we have somebody that can teach No, but we you know, I'm looking at I'm
looking at the players. They seem to really know the way it should be. I I kind of I tend to agree with Dave that this can be an evolving thing. We can make changes. Let's see how it goes. See if people complain that they can't reserve. Yeah. And then Simon and I can we can
discuss it in person. I think we should give something. Fair enough. Where would you give it? Anything even one day because myself and I know all you guys and I would go play, but I would not show up to play with you. I went down the shore and I played with my son for about an hour and a half
on the court. I don't want to play for 11 minutes and then get off and wait again. I would like to go and just go one time with him and just learn how to play cuz I'm really bad at it. And I I wouldn't I just wouldn't go to open play
and I know everybody. It's not like I wouldn't know. I I wouldn't do it. I understand. But I would reserve a court for an hour to go sit with my son and play or both my sons and they would have a good time slamming it at me, I'm sure. Um, but
I I think doing that allows people to go and go with their kids and play for an hour and then get off the court. I mean, we have six courts. If somebody can't reserve one, there's plenty of other room for open play. So, question, can I ask a question? How many times you go there, all six courts
are being used? Well, it's just open. Yeah. So I'm just thinking like if you go to another town or we fully expect to your point John we fully expect that with open place especially on the on the popular nights which will be Monday, Tuesday, Saturday, Sunday mornings, we'll have people
waiting all the way to 24 people will be playing and we'll probably have with the old courts our record was everybody 12 people playing and 44 people wait. All right. Yeah. I just I can get
everybody's point. My thought is the programs, yes. Open play, yes. The other one just seems very confusing to me about what times you can reservation, which times you don't reservation. So, I mean, I would I would lean with Dave. It's either one or the other. Pick a
horse and let's see how this year goes and then we'll address it for next year since by the time we get going, the year's half over anyway. So, yeah. I mean, that's my thought. Yeah. No, and that's my thought, too. Unless you can find a particular time or a day that they can do a reservation.
I would feel like one at least one day that somebody say I want to go play for an hour because everybody can play but you can't play for an hour straight. Correct. No. So this
I wrote down this great AI example exactly that. But let's just say you went down to the court with your son and everybody was ready. You would only wait for 14 minutes.
Not if there's 44 people waiting. No, you wait long. So, so now I'm playing for 11 minutes and then I'm waiting for 15 minutes and then I'm playing for 11 minutes. So, if I could just reserve it. Time out. Time out. Time out. Time out. All right, I
think we're going to start over. So, it's like a I have my opinion with David says Miss Lissa and then we have other opinions over here. So, um let's put this to Can I throw something out there? Sure. All right. So, we have
his opinion. We No, I just made recommendations. I don't give opinion. Um based upon the comment made from Mr. Hardy in the audience, Wednesday seems the day that's less popular than the rest of the Yes. So, do we want to identify some time on Wednesday when it could be reserved from X to Y and then everything
else is open blank? Okay. I mean, does that seem reasonable? Like five 5 to 7. Well, let's just talk about it up here. I don't want to keep going back and forth, but 5 to 7.
So, we do five 5 to 9. There's lights. That's that's a lot for just for reserving it. But if you if it's not reserved, you can play is is is was the point of the recommendation from the staff. I don't think you're going to get a lot of reservations.
If there's no reservation play anyway, there's problems with reserving. How are we going to correct? We got to work that out. I don't have an answer for that. But you want to put what what do you suggest though? I say I say we my first choice
is to go with I agree. Mondays and Thursdays, but we're trying to compromise. Wednesdays from 5 to 8. Okay. Wednesdays 5 5 to 8 is reservations. All right. I'm just going to throw this out there. Just get a night. Okay. Everything else the part we'll do
this place is the rest. Five to eight. Three courts. Yeah. You can't do that. Three of the six courts. You can reserve. [Music] All right. Good. Check. Good. Yeah. Can I say one more question? I need to confirm that before we go too
far. I got to write this down. I don't want to mess up. Got to figure out if you can make a reason never come here. Ladies and gentlemen, um so just to clarify to make sure I'm not messing
this up. Um parks and recreation programs. That's okay. We're good with that. people will have an opportunity to reserve three of the six courts on Wednesday from 5 to 8 and everything else is open plan.
Yes, that is that consistent with the council's director. Yeah, I think so. Okay. And obviously again if there's no reservations, there's no demand for reservation, the the issue can certainly be revisited without a lot of stress. And then we can take a look at it in parcel wreck. I will say one more thing.
We need signage ASAP. Yeah, I was there last night. Three kids on electric bikes right into the basketball court on their bikes. Drops them on the quest. Oh, fellas, bikes are on the other side of the fence. So, you know, we don't have
any signs there. So, we should make smaller beats and I I love I love your optimism that will work. Well, I mean, I think not not signs. I think we need signs. I understand.
Isn't there a song like that? Sign sign everywhere. Signs something up scenery. I don't know what's going on. At least if we got signs, we got something. Okay. Mr. I have direction. Thank you. We'll just see how it goes. But I think that's a good compromise
and council's okay with the fee. whatever they want out of out of town fees. I I I would support an out of town fee, but I don't support uh residents in my town paying a fee. I I support an out of town fee and I
would support a very small fee for residents if we're going to charge residents so they have a badge or whatever. Is it like a processing fee? Something like that. 10 bucks to cover the cost of materials. Yeah. $10. $10 a year.
You need a card. Like a card. Yeah. Like a package. Yeah. We can use like a PG card. It's like a membership that I did for a year. So this has just play. Just we can't just if you want you can come later. I don't want to start this
back and forth otherwise we'll never get out of here tonight. So but that's a sign saying if you want to play you got to go to town, you know, even online or whatever it is. And and that's how previously the tennis courts were managed when they were heavily used
and we had to have staff there. So that was that was a start date for that like September 1st. It's it's going to be in the fall because the ordinance would need to be effective. Our next regular meeting is in August. September will be adoption. So right now it's going to just be open. So it's going to be open right
now. It's just open. Everything's open. So if you want to try it, try it now before September. We'll see how that question how that works. fee going to be for the new six pickle ball courts. So if someone isn't a member, they could play on the other
three courts for free. It can be confusion. You're making it really complicated. I mean, it can be. We're getting a little I think we too far in the weeds. Eventually those courts will be reser as well. Yeah. Let's just keep saying universal. This is a whole court. This is you know
what I mean? Yeah. Really? We're supposed to play monitor. We're public employees after all. We got to be careful. Okay, I would say there's no one there. Feel free to just go play. All right, I'm cool with that. It's getting complicated. Okay. I will have a draft
ordinance for consideration or amendment at the August meeting. All right. Um, any other questions on from council on any of the other manager reports? Thank you for giving free money. All right.
Did an excellent job. Always good with that. And if you don't want to stay going, thanks guys for your input and your work. So on the vegetative waste, how much more this year is it than last year? Approximately $40,000
right now. So just everybody know we're we're keeping this vegetative waste collection, but it is costing us more money quite a bit more money, but we're going to hang on to it for now. So just as part of the uh magazines going up,
we're still talking about pickle ball. Right. Any other comments on the township manager report? No. Good. Now we are moving on to the next item. We don't even know what it is. Resolution. Resolution. Public hearing. None.
Public hearings. There is none. Ordinance for introduction. There are none for tonight. So resolutions for approval this Marsh for the council's consideration this evening beginning with resolution R2025
144 authorizing the execution of agreement concerning sewer use payment delinquency 2025145 appointing members of advisory committees 146 authorizing the use of Bergen County cooperative pricing system for the purchase of a
2024 Ford E350 Elorado advanced driver plus 12 passenger bus. 147 rejecting all bids for the collection, removal, and disposal of garbage in both bulk weight. 148 rejecting all bids for recycling collection services. 149 awarding a
contract for vegetative waste collection services to the Blue Diamond Disposal of Mount Arlington, New Jersey for the contract amount of $1,842,000 for a 5-year term in accordance with the bid specifications. 150 awarding the contract for the Wells
1 and two PAOS treatment project to Sovereign Consulting Incorporated. 151 authorizing awarding the contract for Manor Avenue Sidewalk Replacement to Cedar Contracting Company Incorporated. 152 authorizing an extension of the
township sanitary sewer line with waivers and the execution of a with waivers and the execution of a sanitary sewer extension agreement with Ebenezer Netherlands Reformed School. 153 authorizing the acceptance of a hold
harmless agreement for 7D West Parkway. 154 authorizing the acceptance of a hold harmless agreement at 3 Orendal Road. 155 awarding the contract for the Sunset Road South Sun Sun Sunset Lane to West Parkway reconstruction project to
Sellian Sun General Contractors General Contracting Incorporated. 156 authorizing tax office refunds over payments or cancellations. 157 authorizing the release of deposits for construction in the township freight ofway and 158 authorizing payment of the
itemized claims as set forth on the July 3rd 2025 bill list and FEMA elevation escro list. Thank you, Miss Marsh. There are a couple comments from council. Yeah, I have a few. Um the first one's
easy on resolution 2025-144. I brought this up already to uh to Carol. Um I just noticed that on the resolution if we do go with the fiveyear that resolution says 3 years so we would
just change it correct state correct that okay and say five under the 2025-1 assuming that we were going to go with the five years. Oh we are. Yeah I know it has been confusing. And then what's in here is we
we have the old one that we originally gave direction on and then there's a new proposed one for 5 years with no interest. Is that what's on here? Correct. Okay. Um I just want to make sure there's interest from
2024 until February of 2025. Okay. But the balance of the payments are not amortized with additional interest. So there's that limited period of interest but no additional. Okay. Um, so that was my only question. Jennifer,
the interest was that specific period, but it's not as if there's a rate being applied to the 5-year repayment schedule of greater interest. Got it. Okay. And then with direction. Okay. And then I was just trying to understand on the
Netherlands reformed church resolution. So this this has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that they need to be on sewers now. They they're requesting to go on sewers. Is there a reason?
This is all around that. Is it all around that? It's all around their desire to connect to sewer now because it's an unusual connection. It's going to go through someone else from one property through another property to the sewer line. Because of that, we that's normally not permitted under the ordinance. So, we're
allowing that under these circumstances. I just didn't know if it had anything to do with the fact that we were just talking about across the street not being charged. You know, I didn't know if No, this has been in the works for So, it's just a church longer than I've been here. Yeah.
And then we were talking about the fact that there's a couple of structures or properties. Yeah. And I Mr. Skeroell is here who represents the uh the applicant here and I asked I don't know Frank if he had got any uh update on that. I was able to speak to Mr. Vanb before
the meeting and he said uh his property which is adjacent to the church property. Um they just installed 3 years ago a $50,000 uh septic system for that property. And he said adjacent to that property are
the green houses. He said that's always operated. It's never had an issue with the load. They have no expectation of connecting. Um, so but the genesis of this, I think Melissa was asking that question. The the school, right, is on a
septic system and they're routinely having to pump that. Um, so they were trying to get this done by September, but obviously it's not going to happen. But if they can get it, they can get through Google because this has been a longstanding problem for them. Thank you.
So Frank, can I call you Frank? So, the $50,000 septic went into the smaller house when a Mr. Van owns that. He sells the eggs and the flowers at No, the there's a rental property right
in front of the uh church. I'm sorry. School. Yeah. That's the house that will be connected. Oh, that's the house. It will be connected. So the house that John lives in is not the little house that's because he just put in a new set
which is adjacent to the greenhouse. Got it. The school smaller house is going to be connected. All right, Melissa. Anything else? Um I think that's it. If I have something Yeah, I think that's it.
Right, David? Uh, I just want to make sure that everyone that needed to be notified for the South Sunset West Parkway uh, construction project has been notified because I believe there may be some changes in curbing in front
of some of the houses. Notification hasn't gone out yet because we haven't awarded the contract. Okay. So, once the contract is awarded, there's a pre-construction meeting scheduled. There's typically an initial notice that goes out. Heads up, this is happening within a specific period of time and in 2 or 3 days before the paving actually occurs, there are door
hangers displayed so people know the cars. Perfect. So, we will follow the usual notification process. I think there's only one Kyle. Any comments? No. No. No. Good. All right. So, is there a motion to
adopt these resolutions? I'll make a motion to adopt resolutions R2025-144 through R2025-158. Okay. And if just on 144 the 5year 144 we're doing the five. Yes.
Yeah. And if the mayor and council can permit one of the requests of the business was to make a good faith payment which I can confirm they did make consistent with the agreement had been. Good. Good. Thank you for that. So roll call please. Mrs. Florence Lynch. Yes. Mr. Cole. Yes. Mrs. Russell,
yes. Mr. Syracus, yes. Mayor Drey, yes. Moving on to item number 12, discussion items. The dog park at Lyman Park. Who wants to start? We left off. We were going to look at it. So, I don't want to
look at them. I think council woman Russell and I went, we looked at it. We think that the fence should be moved in uh 15 ft from the swing set and possibly some of the trees that are to the left of the if you're
facing the dog park to the left of the dog park maybe be removed so that their playing area can be become a little bigger for whiffle ball or kickball or whatever they want to play in there. Right. Not all of them. Not all of them. Thin it out. Yeah. Thin it out. I would also like to
mention that the playground there could use some help to some mulching. There's some roots coming up. Well, just to be compliant, we probably have to do a lot with the playground anyway, right? It's just usual effort, work in progress.
And and Mars County Mosquito Control was there supposedly a couple days before. I don't know if they did anything, but I also agree. I I went there and visited and you know I initially was talking about going back to Foothills Park but
uh um I understand where it's staying there. Um but I do think it's too close to the swing set and it needs to go back 15 ft. Um but you know I I don't necessarily think we need to raise the height of the fence
that we were talking about. Um, but I do I do think it needs to be moved back and I do think we need to make some improvements over there. I I would love to see the one at Foothills. I went to Foothills and I was like trying to figure out if there was a way to get
that back. I keep thinking why can't you bring in there and it's not a flood area. Dave Dave and I took a walk over there and man, it's been years since I went. That place it's a disaster. It It needs a new fence. It needs a new fence. It needs everything and
everything. All that all that stuff while the water's low should be taken out. Well, we're working on it cleaned out. Yeah, it's It would have been great at each end, though. Well, there's like I said, I'm in favor of having two dog parks, but it needs
the money, right, to to fix it. So, Liz, any comments? No, I think we should push it back 15 ft. Okay. We talked about last time about some planting buffer in front of the fence. Yeah. I think that's going to be tough because
I think the deer will destroy whatever we plant there. Yeah. I don't know what you can put there. But what we just talked about last time, so that just to clarify, so the fence that's currently 4 ft is remaining at 4T. We want higher fence. I I would leave it at 4t.
I leave it at 4T, too. Okay. Just leave it and see. I don't know if we could put somebody had mentioned Holly there or something. My big concern is there. Would that impede the air flow back there? I don't know if the air flow is issue.
There'd be more of a a screening issue in terms of being able to see from the road, but it's it's something that we could work to design. I mean, if you can find something that the deer are not going to eat. Okay. That would be the big thing. You don't want a buffet. But yeah, you also don't want it where, you know, kids
have a place to go and hang out at night when they know nobody can see them. Be that dense. All right. So, the direction that I'm confirming is uh move the fence by the swing set back 15 ft. Um, leave that as a 4ft fence.
Investigate screening to see if there's something that would be would survive the area and thin out the trees. Uh, some little ones to kill area. So if they want to go play ball. Okay. And then just that area in general we're talking about cleaning up like there was
some things I pointed out like that. Yeah. It's it's a work in progress. I mean it's it's well there like some other areas but yeah it's it's not been over the course of addressed in a long time. So we're we're working a lot of parks haven't been addressed
and we're working on that little bit of the time to balance it out. Okay. Thank you. All right. Reports and notices. There are none. We're moving on to council reports and announcements. Councilwoman Florence,
I really don't have much. Aren't you shocked? The only thing I was going to pay for Well, I will say a couple things. No, but it's small. It's Peter, thank you for for reporting on uh the zoning
application process for economic development. The only other thing um they're kicking around um but I don't know that there's been formal discussions with the town manager yet is economic development is talking about getting uh Christmas wreaths for the
light poles um at Christmas time where I guess they would pay for them but then they would need like DPW to help install them probably. So that might be some discussion. I'll send it's underway. It's underway. public works is engaged. The question is
all right. Does it create a height issue with the sidewalks and how far stick out and how logistics are being right. Okay. So, you're working on that. You will get back to and um and the survey there is a business owner survey that is this close
to going out. Uh the idea behind the business owners survey is is basically looking for feedback on how businesses feel about the approval process. Um opening up a business in town and and I
don't know how many questions are on there. 15 20 too many. Anyway, um so hopefully we'll, you know, the idea is to get some knowledge and get some feedback from the business owners so we can make some recommendations. So that's it. That's all I had.
I just want to jump in and I agree. If there's too many questions, they're not going to answer. So I don't unless the agreement is answering with the manager. Okay. Council Councilman Cole. All right. I I just got a few things. Congratulations
to all the graduates from PV school and the high school. A bunch of us attended the graduate well a bunch of us attended PV. We did not go to the high school cuz they moved it inside and we don't want to take a seat for grandma or grandpa. So, uh we all decided not to go for that. So, uh both fire departments met
in June. Everything's good there. They both will meet this week. Company one moved uh to this week because of the 4th of July. They usually meet the first Friday of the month and that was the 4th. So, they moved it to this Friday. So, there's a meeting on Thursday for company 2 and Friday for company 1. Uh,
and I would just like to thank uh everyone that was involved in the PV park rescue this past week. Uh, I think we should invite all of them to the council meeting in August to thank them personally in person. Uh, you know, I
heard there was residents that jumped in, lifeguards, young lifeguards in PB Park, our first aid squad, our police department, our paramedics. I mean, it was uh it's never it's never a good thing when I hear CPR in progress on the
scanner. Um so, um you know, just wanted to thank everyone for for doing that. You know, her her daughter posted the next day that her mom was in ICU and doing well. So, hopefully positive thoughts for her continued uh health and
uh I think maybe we should ask them to come. Yeah. I I heard from people on the beach too that our lifeguards were phenomenal. Just, you know, they ran, they heard guard, they went in, they didn't, you know, they were they were awesome. And kudos to them. You know, they're just
kids. Kudos to the town and the person that runs PB Park. Yeah. Rumor has it there was counselors there the next day, uh, you know, helping the kids get through it. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. All the way around. Thank you, Dave. Councilwoman Russell,
I have a quick question for Dave. Dave, there was a a post by one of the fire department on Facebook that's that there's a scam going around with their turkey. What was that? Yeah. So, uh I I guess a lot of people, you know, they jump on these posts and they say, "Hey, you know, you can buy a
shirt or you can uh you know, make a donation through this organization." Yeah. That's what And so somebody was just scamming. Yeah. Ridiculous. She the person that posted it just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that it's only going to
company warning or making a donation. You're not making it to a third party, right? Okay. Or a t-shirt company, you know. I know. So, okay. Um, first aid, uh, they had 114 calls in June. 41 went to Cedar Crest. So,
getting up there again. We They were good for a while, but you know, a lot of calls. um environmental. We did not we did have a meeting but only Tom and I showed up at the last meeting. Nobody else came. We were like where is everybody? Um there there were some
women there talking about um you know garbage and and recycling and all that. So it was kind of interesting but it was a very short meeting. Um September 20th is hazardous waste collection at PV park. So everybody keep that in mind. Hoown is 10:18 and that's all I got.
Thank you. What type of hazardous waste are they will they allow? It's for the MUA. So, you can go on their website. There's a very descriptive what is and is not acceptable. Yeah. No, no radioactive material. No radioact though. Back to Councilman Sakusa. Uh so, no
parks and wreck meetings uh July and August. All right. And um at the uh open space is supposed to meet next week, but I'm not sure if that's supposed to go for this month or not. I have to just send an email and find out. Just say you didn't miss your meeting. We got a nice we
discuss. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Vince. Um, couple things for me. Um, shade tree committee did not meet. There was no nothing on the agenda. Um, hope everybody had a nice Fourth of July weekend. Um, sorry. We actually had sun on Saturday and
Sunday. First time in a while, so I like that. Um, let's uh just I think our little league teams have been doing good. Girls, 12 you were playing on Washington tonight. I was trying to go but didn't make it. Started at 6. So, um, uh, good luck to them as they move
on in the sectionals. Um, Peter, thank you for your help and the committee's help with that. Um, AI, I'll pass on that for now. Um, and then, uh, Dave, did they have enough junior firefighters to went to a class or something? Five. I think there's five junior
firefighters. It's not just a class. It's 100. It's I think 80 hours of training. The only good thing that I asked, I said, "So, they go through this training as a junior. So, when they turn 18, do they have to go back?"
So, they said, "No, they're grass. They're they're just changed from a junior to a regular firefighter." So, um yeah, it's it's a commitment. That's a big commitment for young younger people to volunteer. Yeah. And to volunteer and I'm and I'm glad we changed uh you know
our rules to allow the neighboring towns in cuz you know young people that want to do it we we should let them. So and some of them go on I I just noticed uh I think it was Joseph Carropo who was one who started out as a young kid and I think he's working for Patterson. Yeah. He just got uh just made it
through the he just went through the training for Patterson and he started out as a junior like 16 maybe even younger. He's still a fireman at company one. Yeah, he is a great kid. Great family. Good good and yeah and like they said
just you know thank thank you to all our lifeguards at PV Park for just jumping in and going jumping in and going you know there's no thinking they just they just reacted the way they were trained. So thank thank you to the staff. Thank thank you for everybody that ran that. And then um again, I just like to like
to be thankful for what we have in this state. There's other states that are going through some major stuff. So I just want to be thankful for what we have in my humble opinion. So that's what I have. Um next on the agenda is public comment round number two. As a
reminder, we welcome comments, suggestions, and questions rather than dialogue. Comments are limited to 3 minutes. If anyone wishes to address the council, please wait to be recognized and come to the microphone and provide your name for the record. Yes, good evening, Megan Dempsey. Um, I have
some remarks prepared, but um couple of comments about other things that happened at the meeting. First regarding the um dog park and there was discussion about planting. We have an amazing environmental commission and open space committee. So hopefully they'll be consulted because they are probably the experts on what the deer won't eat, what
will work, what won't impede air flow, that sort of thing. So um and then I I I can't believe I'm about to talk about the goal. Um but I was intrigued by all of the conversation and so I looked at what was in the agenda. Um and what
actually stood out to me was the annual membership fee, which um we all know this money was taken from all of our taxes to build these courts. And it seems mind-boggling and absurd to me that we're now also going to charge a membership fee to use these courts. Um,
apparently we did this for tennis at some point. I would have fought against that as well, but I think that's absurd. It is not a private pickle ball court. It is public courts that should be for the use of the public. Yes, we should have signs to keep the white bikes off of it. It's not going to work. I can tell you that from experience with the
high school track, but these are public use facilities that our taxes have already paid for. So, I really hope that that's going to be further discussed and eliminated because it seemed like again, it just it that seems absurd to me. And the casual player who the only time I've
touched a pickle ball racket was to wrap it for my 9-year-old for Christmas and I'm going to have to pay an annual membership fee to go down to Green View Park and play pickle ball with her. That's that's insane. Um, so I just wanted to say that. And um, on Saturday, June 14th, the Puquanic Democratic
Committee held a peaceful and successful No Kings rally along with 2,000 other locations nation and worldwide. We had close to 500 attendees join with the 5 million other people attending protests that day around the country and around the world. Because in America, we said
no to a king in 1776. and we refused to stand by silently while today's wannabe king wasted $40 million sending tanks into the streets of Washington DC for his own birthday parade. I'm grateful to the Bquanic police officers who were
there that day and I thank them for their presence despite the handful of counterprotesters shoving their cell phone cameras in attendees faces and yelling, trying to stir up anger and violence, throwing ice cubes in the street in some sort of twisted and sad mockery and even hitting one of our
protesters in the head with his flag. It was the peaceful demonstration against authoritarianism and presidential overreach that we planned for it to be. But it did not escape my notice that one of those counterprotesters, proudly waving his Trump flag, was a library board of trustee member appointed by
this council, giving credence to residents concerns often voiced that you have loaded up that board with individuals who don't actually value public libraries. Seeing as that is one of the fundamental American institutions Trump would love to see abolished like
public television and radio, museums, the free press, and any other cultural institutions that have freedom of thought, truth in history, a commitment to facts, and social justice as their core mission. Puanic will not be immune to the impacts of this regime and its
unlawful actions, no matter how small a town we are or how insulated you hope we remain. While our demonstration did attract residents from neighboring towns like Wanuku, Lincoln Park, Ringwood, and West Milford, there were hundreds of Puquanic residents there, too. And those who joined us did so because they
believe that our town and theirs need to stand strong in the face of the systematic dismantling of democracy and attempts to turn this country into a police state that only benefits billionaires. Without FEMA, without National Weather Service staff, without
the IMLS, without a functioning Department of Education, without SNAP, without Medicare, even Puquanic will be a very different place with a lot more need and a lot less resources to support its residents. We should all be in the streets saying no to this, thanking our
state and federal representatives who are saying no and maligning those who are letting it happen. Can I ask a question? Sure. Uh, Megan, which which library trustee hit hit somebody in the head?
[Music] Okay. Gotcha. So, so what? He's allowed to go someplace. Okay. Anybody else want public comment? Oh, no. Okay. No, I thought you were
putting your hand up. Yes. Come on up. No, you were. Okay. I just want to make sure. [Music] And and Mr. Sarusa, didn't the committee suggest the fee for the big
fee? Yes. Yeah. They actually recommended that and I think we said like $10 a year for residents. That was my election. Sorry. That's okay. Go ahead. The floor is yours. Good evening, council. Sharon Taylor,
Pompton Plains. Um, I don't have a speech written. I just had a few questions for the uh the council or more for Mr. Brewer. Um, one, my first question is Jacksonville Road. Um, I know that we talk about a lot of trees and plantings. Um, I was wondering if
there's any plans to kind of put any shrubbery or something in between the sidewalk and the street where the grass is. There used to be a lot of trees on Jacksonville Road and then when they put the sidewalks in, obviously a lot of that got removed. So, just um to kind of
beautify the road and put a little shade on the sidewalk just seeing if there's something that could be done in the fall time. Um, pickle ball, most people left. Um, I think it's a great sport. I tried it. Um, I spiked the ball one too many
times cuz I used to play tennis. So, kind of settled down and do some other activities. But I was wondering um, as everybody was talking about it, I was wondering even with this township uh, with parks and wrecks, um, do we offer
any time for people that are handicapped or have disabilities? Um, especially with the new courts that are in place. I know that they want to have open play time, but somebody that's disabled, maybe they have kids, somebody that's an
adult, maybe there's a way the township can get some some inclusiveness for people with disabilities. Um, so that was just kind of a thought that I had when I was listening to everybody when they were talking. It was more or less about everybody, you know, going there.
They're healthy. They they can walk. They can, you know, but we we have to remember in our township, we also have people with disabilities. So, I don't know if the parks and wrecks could be collective on that, but even with any of the sports fields, if there's time that
could be given to those kids and adults that need it. And then so the dog park, I know last time we were talking it cost a certain amount of money to put up the fence. So now we're
talking about moving the fence. Um is there additional cost for that? What the cost will be? Um and then also kind of the pickle ball. Another question that I have um in the past that kind of flipping back, I'm
sorry, but in In the past, those tennis courts, there used to be people that would reserve that, but they would also be members because there's a lot of costs that take care of those type of courts. And pickle ball courts are the
same. So, if we're not going to get any type of money from people that do use it, where is that money going to come from? So, as taxpayers, we do pay. we have a budget, but at the same time, if it's a group of people that use it a
lot, whether they're in town or not, is there going to be a fee for them to to use the courts? Cuz there's going to be maintenance in the in the long run. And that's what happened with the tennis courts in Green View Park. They were beautiful for many, many years, but then when they lose membership or people not
paying, those courts got worn down. So, that's just like a two-part question about the dog part, the expense. Now, if we're going to move the fence back and now you're going to put in other expense to maybe do shrubs or clean up, that
chipper of 115 grand would have been nice for DPW, right? And then also with the pickle ball court and I I love sports and I think it should be for everybody, but where is the who's going to pay for all the maintenance of of that? Because if you have a lot of
people now doing it and it's a very popular sport, you go down the shore, some other places, sometimes there's like over a hundred people using those courts and if it comes out of taxpayer money, it's going to be a lot more coming out of the budget for that. And that's all I have.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else for public comment? [Music] Yes. Come on up. Yes, sir. Okay. Uh there's going to be a budget for the collection. Uh I I heard that
you know it was over budget. Will that be published? The budget for the collection of the recycling and trash. Um we'll ask Bob once once the comments period is over. Okay. The second thing is I just looked up on AI and there's about 60 plants and
trees that be deer keep away from. Yeah. All right. Anybody else for public comment? Yes. Come on up. Uh, Mary K. Sherman, I just wanted to support Paul's remarks. I want to support Megan Deft's remarks.
I was at the protest on June 14th. It was phenomenal. It was just really wonderful to be part of a protest of what's going on in the United States today. And um
on July 17th, there's a nationwide protest um in honor of John Lewis. Um it's called Good Trouble Protests. I don't know exactly where in New Jersey they're
going to be some. It's a Thursday, but I'm sure there's plenty of publicity on different websites. So, um, I honor the Democratic Committee that organized this protest. Was wonderful to meet more people. There were 22 people at the
Democratic Committee meeting. There's a Democratic Committee meeting tomorrow night. And um, it really is important not to stay silent right now in what's happening in the United States. Thank you.
Good. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else for public comment? All right, seeing none, we're going to close this section. Um, I guess Adam, Mr. Mr. Brewer, Adam, whatever. Okay. Can you I just talked about a couple things Sharon mentioned and I guess just
some more on the pickle bowl if you want to address the fees. I know we talked about that before. So, sure. Um, with respect to Jacksonville Road, there's no current plan to add plantings. It's just not currently in the in the plans. um with respect to pickle ball at the moment they're
[Music] um I'm trying to read my notes on exactly what I'm supposed to read. So the the reservation and and I appreciate the comments about people were handicapped or less comfortable or whatever else. I think that's what the council was working to address. Um as I noted in the discussion, it's going to be an evolving process. So if there's a
demand or something that needs to be taken care of, you know, we'd be happy to work to accommodate that. Uh but I appreciate that. Um, with respect to cost of maintenance, it's a municipal government, so we got unfortunately things that be maintained all over the place. Uh, so at the moment
there there could be some revenue. I think it's more in terms of control of access for the residents, not a revenue builder. I think for the people who are non-residents that did not pay through their taxes to support the improvement that that's where there'd be a much higher cost. Uh, so recognizing the fact that there was already money supported
uh by the taxpayers. And then with respect to the question about the budget, there is no budget that will be published for the collection or disposal of solid. Good. Thank you. Any other comments from council? No. All right. So, uh, item number 16,
approval of minutes, I guess the April 22nd and May 13th regular meeting minutes for approval. Are there any comments? Is there a motion to approve these? I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from April 22nd, 2025.
and May 13th of 2025. I'll second. All in favor? I opposed. They are approved. Moving on to the next item. I got to turn my page. Close section. The next item on the agenda is a close session
discussion. Is there a motion to approve a resolution authorizing the township council to meet an executive session to discuss contract negotiations with the Bureau of Lincoln Park for animal control services and matters of attorney client prep? to second. All in favor?
I at this time the public portion of the meeting is recessed for close session. Thank you. Thank you for coming.