Needed to speak during each public portion, as the technology does not allow us to know if there are multiple callers on an individual phone line or a logged in user account. We ask that if you wish to speak, that you log in or dial in separately so that we can recognize you as a separate individual, should you have any further comments or questions. The town council is always available by email and phone, and you could always call the mayor's office during, not the normal operating hours. So I'm calling this meeting to order.
Could you please call the roll? Mr.. Council member Cahill. Here. Council member. Carmichael. Here. Council member. Espinosa. Here. Council member. Liebowitz. Here. Council member. Rashid. Here. Council member. Uhrin. Here. Council president Lombardi here. And would you all join me in the flag salute? United States of America and to the Republic. To the flag. one nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all. Do we have any comments from the administration and Council regarding adjournment of any matters on this agenda? Seeing none, we'll move to number six. Number six, will be open to the public for comments regarding item number 12, the consent agenda items. Again, we will be opening to the public for comments for just recess for the consent agenda items only for each public comment portion for remote attendees. If you wish to speak at this time, please raise your hand on zoom app
or if by pressing phone by pressing star nine when it's your turn to speak, you will receive or hear a request to unmute yourself. Please click the prompt or press star six on your phone to unmute yourself. At that time, please state your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to make your comments. The council or administration will respond if necessary. After you have completed any comments or questions were now opened for remote attendees. Council president there are no remote attendees with their hand raised regarding this agenda item. The remote attendee portion is closed.
Will now open for public comment for in-person attendees. Anyone wishing to speak at this time, please come up to the podium. State your name and address and know that you have three minutes in which to speak. Seeing none, I'll close the in-person attendees. Number seven is an ordinance second reading to exceed the municipal budget appropriations and establish a Cap bank. It will be open to the public. A resolution adopting ordinance. Miss Seader, can you please read the ordinance? Be it resolved by the township council of Piscataway
Township, new Jersey, that an ordinance entitled calendar Year 2026 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a Cap Bank and GSA for a colon for Dash 4 or 5.14, was introduced on the 12th day of March 2026, and it passed the first reading and was published on the 18th day of March 2026. Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the aforesaid ordinance, having had a second reading on April 14th, 2026, be adopted, passed, and after passage be published together
with a notice of the date of passenger approval in the official newspaper. Be it further resolved that this ordinance shall be assigned number 2020 6-08. Thank you Ms Seader. And this is something that we do every year at this time prior to adopting the budget. So I'm going to open this to the public for the remote attendees. We're now open for remote attendees. Council president there are no remote attendees with their hand raised regarding this agenda item. We'll close the remote attendee portion and we'll now open to the public
for anyone in person. Seeing none, we're now closed for the in-person. Can I have an offer? Offer. Espinosa. Can I have a second? Lebowitz. Miss Seader, can you please call the roll? Council member Cahill. Yes. Council member. Carmichael. Yes. Council member. Espinosa. Yes. Council member. Lebowitz. Yes. Council member. Rashid. Yes. Council member Uhrin. Yes.
Council. President. Lombardi. Yes. And the ordinance passes. We'll now move to number eight, which is the public hearing for the calendar year 2026. Municipal budget. So we are now open to the remote attendees for the public hearing on the budget. Council president, there are no remote attendees with their hand raised regarding this agenda item. We'll now close that for the remote attendees and we'll open it for the in-person attendees. Seeing none, we'll close that.
We'll now move to number nine, a resolution the adoption of the calendar year 2026 municipal budget. Miss Seader. Be it resolved by the council members of the Township of Piscataway, County of Middlesex, Middlesex, that the budget hearing before set forth is hereby adopted and shall constitute an appropriation for the purposes stated of the sums therein set forth as appropriations, and the authorization of the amount of $52,725,270.31 for municipal purposes,
and $4,318,060.60 minimum library tax. Summary of revenues. General revenues. Surplus. Anticipated 17,500,000. Miscellaneous. Revenues anticipated $23,022,702.70. Receipts from delinquent taxes $1,100,000. Amount to be raised by taxation for municipal purposes
$52,725,270.31 amount to be raised by taxation. Minimum library tax $4,318,060.60. Total revenues $98,666,033.61. Summary of appropriations. General appropriations within Caps operations, including contingent $51,599,398.96.
Deferred charges and statutory expenditures. Municipal $7,743,851.20 excluded from Caps operations. Total operations that are excluded from Caps $12,760,365.75. Capital improvements $11,102,891. Municipal debt service $12,976,800.70.
Reserve for uncollected taxes $2,482,726. Total appropriations $98,666,033.31. Thank you. Ms Seader. I have an offer to accept the budget. Offer. Espinosa. Second, Councilman Uhrin. Ms Seader, can you please call the roll? Council member Cahill. Yes. Council member. Carmichael. Yes.
Council member. Espinosa. Yes. Council member. Liebowitz. Yes. Council member. Rashid. Yes. Council member. Uhrin. Yes. Council. President. Lombardi. Yes. And the calendar year 2026 municipal budget passes. And I'd like to thank everyone over in the finance office for their diligent and hard work in working on this budget. Number ten is an ordinance second reading replacing chapter 21 zoning section 21 Affordable Housing and repealing the section 23 collection, maintenance and expenditure of Development fees.
This will be open to the public. It's a resolution adopting ordinance. Miss Seader, can you please read the ordinance? Be it resolved by the township Council of Piscataway Township, new Jersey, that an ordinance entitled ordinance to amend the Revised General Ordinances of the Township of Piscataway, County of Middlesex, State of New Jersey, repealing and replacing chapter 21 zoning section 21 Affordable Housing and repealing chapter 21 zoning. Section 23 collection, maintenance and expenditure of development fees was introduced on the 12th day of March 2026, and it passed
the first reading and was published on the 22nd day of March 2026. Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the aforesaid ordinance, having had a second reading on April 14th, 2026, be adopted, passed, and after passage be published together with a notice of the date of pastor approval in the official newspaper. Be it further resolved that this ordinance shall be assigned number 2026, dash zero nine. Thank you Ms Seader. We'll now open this to the public. We're going to be opening for the remote attendees at this time. Anyone wanting to speak remotely.
We are now open to the public. Council president. There are no remote attendees with their hand raised regarding this agenda item will close to the remote attendees and we'll open to in-person. Anyone wishing to comment on this item please come up at this time. Seeing none, I'll close the public portion. Have an offer? Lebowitz, can I have a second, please? Do I have a second? Cahill. Cahill. That. Councilwoman Cahill. Thank you. Miss Seader, can you please call the roll?
Council member Cahill. Yes. Council member. Carmichael. Yes. Council member. Espinosa. Yes. Council member. Liebowitz. Yes. Council member. Rashid. Abstain. Council member. Uhrin. Yes. Council member. Council. President. Lombardi. Yes. And the ordinance passes second reading. Number 11 is an ordinance. Second reading, amending and supplementing. Chapter 21 zoning. Open to the public. It's a resolution adopting ordinance. Miss Seader, can you please read the ordinance?
Be it resolved by the township council of Piscataway Township, new Jersey, that an ordinance entitled an Ordinance to Amend and Supplement the Revised General Ordinances of the Township of Piscataway, County of Middlesex, State of New Jersey, amending and supplementing chapter 21 zoning was introduced on the 12th day of March, 2026, and it passed the first reading and was published on the 22nd day of March, 2026. Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the aforesaid ordinance, having had a second reading on April 14th, 2026, be adopted, passed, and after passage be published together with a notice of the date of approval in the official newspaper,
be a further resolved that this ordinance shall be assigned number 2020 6-10. Thank you, Miss Seader. We're now open for remote attendees to comment on this ordinance. Council president there are no remote attendees with their hand raised regarding this agenda item. We're now close to the remote attendees. We're open to the public at this point. If anyone wishes to speak on this ordinance, please come up at this time. Seeing none, we'll close the public portion and have an ordinance. Can I have a offer, please? Council member Uhrin, offer.
Can I have a second? Liebowitz. Second. Miss Seader, can you please call the roll? Council member. Cahill. Yeah. Yes. Council member. Carmichael. Yes. Council member. Espinosa. Yes. Council member. Liebowitz. Yes. Council member. Rashid. Abstain. Council member. Uhrin. Yes. Council. President. Lombardi. Yes. And the ordinance passes. Number 12 are the consent agenda.
Resolutions for efficiency items have been consolidated into a consent agenda to be voted on together, and the materials for these items have been distributed to the council in advance of the meeting. Do I have a motion to accept the consent agenda items. Motion to accept motion. Council women, a second, Cahill then. Thank you. Miss Seader, can you please call the roll? Council member Cahill. Yes. Council member. Carmichael. Yes.
Council member. Espinosa. Yes. Council member. Liebowitz. Yes. Council member. Rashid. Yes. Council member. Uhrin. Yes. Council. President. Lombardi. Yes. And the consent agenda passes. Number 13 is announcements and comments from officials. Do we have any announcements from Gabrielle Cahill? I'm going to be short. Because I'm on the road. But I just want to reiterate, Council president,
your gratitude toward the, administration, to our CFO, to our pay for for everyone who really participated to help us with our budget. To really be looking at the numbers and finding ways to, keep us flat. In light of, you know, our house values, it's really important that we do what we can to find ways not to impact our, our residents, process, terribly. And, I just want to say, you know, a big thank you to all of them, and I'll,
I'll leave it to everyone else to talk about the things going on in town. Thank you. Sharon Carmichael. No announcements. Dennis Espinosa. Ah, yes. So it's coming right around the corner. So we have a lot of events coming up. So I would like to remind everyone on Saturday, May 30th, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Little League complex, we have our annual Piscataway bike rodeo, which I will be there and and so with a lot of residents and,
participants, this is a really geared for, youngsters that are just starting to ride their bikes for bicycle safety knowledge. We also have some, the raffle is going on for helmets. They show you how to how to strap on a helmet correctly. What protection you need, how to actually go and, navigate through an obstacle course using your hand signals. Abiding by the the soft signals, etc.. So it's really nice event, and it's a really learning experience for everyone.
And the parents also have fun. They're watching their kids roll around. So I hope to see everybody there. Laura Leibowitz. Good evening. I have a few questions and a comment. So first of all, I'm just curious as to what the policy or process is for being informed. Not specifically. But in general when we are in litigation. So I did not find out about the motel six lawsuit until I saw it on social media
and actually quoted in the lawsuit. So I know on other boards there are just legal updates. Again, not about the specifics, but just curious about how that operates here on the council. I'll leave that up to our attorney. Yeah, I can handle that. When we get an initial complaint, first it has to, there's a process before he gets assigned to council, and we actually file an answer. We can look into a procedure to notify the council about it, but usually we won't give the council an update
until we actually get assigned counsel and actually start looking at the complaint and preparing an answer. Okay. Thank you. Secondly, I want to reach out. Can I? Please. Most of the time, these complaints don't get leaked to the public until. And we actually make comments on pending litigation. So usually I you found out about it through the public because someone leaked the complaint to the public for whatever political reasons. Normally you'll find out about complaints way before the public does,
because as we go through our process, we will notify our council. Okay. I just do know that on other boards there are opportunities for council to just be updated. What's in litigation, what's coming down the pike? Again, not specifics of course, to protect the case. But you know. All right. Secondly, I want to thank those members of the council that came to the Autism Resource Fair. I really appreciate it. But I do want to address a concern about an inequity of resources towards council events.
This event was a great event. It was not named. While many of our council events are specifically named. There were pop up ads for other council events. There are reals. There is a lot of disparity between and across the different events and who they're run by. And it's really not fair. It's not right. And so I think it's something that we need to look into. We have a communication director. We have these events that are great for everybody in town, no matter which council member is hosting them or coordinating them.
And I just really want to make that point. I don't really think it's fair or right. The last point, the the last point that I have. Well, I do also want to for my last point, we did have an Arts Commission Cultural Arts Commission meeting last week, and we have several summer events getting ready. One of them is a juried art show with the theme of, of course, first fourth in Piscataway. 250th anniversary, 4th of July.
So our painters, our photographers, our charcoal artists, our watercolors, all of our amazing artists in town keep an eye out for that. The last piece that I have in my remarks is a resolution promoting and protecting resident rights and public safety regarding immigration enforcement action. Governor Sherrill put into play, protection for residents and guests in the state of new Jersey regarding masked Ice agents.
And unfortunately, we did have a masked Ice agent in town last Saturday. From the pictures that were posted on social media, there was a masked ice agent. Was it a full mask? No, it was a partial mask. And I understand that this is a new legislation and that as a state, we need to sort it out. But I think to protect ourselves for the police so that they are properly trained, that our residents and guests
can understand that they will have the full protection of the law. I have shared with our resident, with our Council this resolution, and I would like to make a motion that we pass this resolution. So, Council, I just actually looked at this just now. I, I'd request the council to hold off on passing the resolution. And I'd spoken to Councilwoman Liebowitz about it. I we have concerns. We when the state statute, a bill was passed, it required guidance from the DOJ on how to implement, the bill
and how to be able to enforce the statute against federal agencies. There is a certain portion in terms of what we can hold federal agencies accountable for. I had reached out to the DOJ, our public safety director reached out to our county prosecutor. We have not gotten any guidance. I have, we are waiting for it. I, I actually haven't gotten a response from the DOJ office. And I assume it's because they probably got a barrage of phone calls on how to even implement and enforce this, bill.
I think it's a little, premature in terms of, of requiring training on, on, on something that we don't have guidance yet. From the DOJ. I think we should wait to see what the DOJ puts out. Also, whether this bill doesn't it does or doesn't get challenged, in the courts. So I'd request this. There's also minor other changes that I think we should also, modify in terms of language. So, I, I'd request the council just to hold off on, on passing this item.
I appreciate the feedback. Hopefully new language will include a lot of the components that are in this resolution. Regular training for our municipal departments, agencies, officers, employees, training with federal civil immigration enforcement, written policies that are consistent with the resolution for responding to requests and inquiries. Designating a supervisory employee for handling communication with the feds and making sure that all of this information
is accessible in multiple languages. You know, sometimes you have to kind of poke and prod to get things moving. And so I appreciate that feedback. And, I look forward to the revision and of course, messaging from the DOJ. So I withdraw the motion at this time. Thank you for that. And thank you for Council for your advice. We did just receive it this evening, so I haven't even had the opportunity to read it yet. So I clearly understand, we have to look at it.
Thank you, Miss Liebowitz. Sarah Rashid. Good evening. Well, the resolution we passed last month, on similar language. I didn't get to see the language till we were actually sitting on the council bench, and it was just read to us, but we supported it and voted for it. So I hope that we would get similar support. I know you're waiting for language, but it would be good to have a timeline and a commitment to get an update and actually follow through on this,
So since our last meeting, we celebrated many diverse holidays in our community. Happy Holi, Passover, Easter, and Orthodox Easter. Today is actually the Tamil New Year, and it's a celebration that marks a fresh start focusing on hope and family bonds. I wanted to congratulate, Councilwoman Liebowitz for a successful autism resource fair. Also, Council member Lombardi, your cleanup is coming up April 18th.
Looking forward to that. I do, a sister litter pick up in the fall. So it's a good spring and a fall clean up community event. I also wanted to speak about a little few things. That might be a little more serious. I attended a water quality policy workshop. It was hosted by the lower Raritan Watershed Partnership. They focus on testing and informing the public about the water quality for recreational use.
One concerning fact that they shared with us was that the Riverside Park testing location is one of the most polluted sites on the whole river, and it has been consistently, really, high score for fecal matter for over 5 to 8 years. They've been trying to figure it out. They're open and eager to work with all stakeholders to figure it out. They've put in additional testing sites. Up river. But they are looking to us also to get involved for the community.
And they're open to any stakeholders that would be willing to work with them. I encourage, everybody to visit the township website. There is a list of ordinances for stormwater management that are already listed there. If there are any questions you can reach out to the township. We also voted on a county health services contract today that, supports environmental programs. And maybe that's something that we can look into. For this kind of initiative. The other thing that I wanted to bring up is some community members reached out,
and they were upset that they are not able to use the library meeting rooms. And that was a policy that was put in place in the Covid times, where the meeting rooms were not supposed to be sent out to anybody, you know, any outside group. But at this time, you know, social distancing rules are not applicable anymore. So I urge the administration to look into those policies. And if we can allow the taxpayers to have a free space for community meetings.
Lastly, I'm also part of the Cultural Arts Committee, and, we're finalizing the summer concert series, so look out for information about that. That should be exciting. Thank you. Thank you. Council president, can I just say, in regard to the side park, I did talk to the administration this week about that. Just wanted to let the council know a majority of contamination in the river. And partially, I have that experience because we also represent other entities up and downstream.
And a majority of contamination that occurs in the river, is usually upstream. It's not localized to the township. We have regularly and updated our stormwater regulations and continue to to do a lot of work there. I know, because I had to do some of it. And so we will. The township doesn't actually run any stormwater into that river. It's all it's all, closed system and and runs. It doesn't run into the river. So, in terms of what that contamination is, I'm not sure.
We can definitely look into it and happy to, but I'm not sure what the township can do. It's really a state and NJ dep issue with upstream contaminates. But you know, we'll we'll definitely, you know, see. And it's no way, you know, none of the organizations were ever pointing the finger at Piscataway. It's not that. It's just this is a shared resource. It's a river that's running through. It's our river. It's everybody in new Jersey. You know, we share this resource. So if we find something that is dirty, we can all work together to clean it.
It's not saying that Piscataway is the one causing that pollution in any way whatsoever. You. Yeah. Just just to clarify it because it's a river, it's hard to clean it because it's a flowing river. So, you know, in terms of of contaminants, we also would have to get permits from the DEP, which I think would probably be nearly impossible, in terms to, to do any type of cleanup in that area. But we'll definitely, you know, do some research. I'll have I'll have one of my coworkers, you know, at least look into it. Yes. Thank you. The score for the fecal matter.
This is the worst by the whole river, so I'm sorry. Close to it. I told Rashid that you were saying that they weren't pointing fingers at anyone. I just wanted to reiterate that. So they're trying to pinpoint the cause. So right now, it's at the point where it's in the research. They have a lot of data, and they want to work with all the stakeholders to figure out the real root cause. So what they do, they think it's a township issue. No, they did not say that. They don't think it's a township issue. Okay. They are saying that we need to all get together. All stakeholders work together
to figure out what is actually causing the problem. I agree with that. I agree. As long as as long as they're not putting blame onto the township and you don't think that is the township to blame? We can definitely. I would love to work with them. Correct. If I may, Council President, it would be helpful that if some members on this dais wouldn't point the finger at Sharon Carmichael as what's being done in a campaign. Well, unfortunately, what's happening is that that this county, this organization, the Raritan River, has been trying to work with the township for a while on this issue.
Yes. Because okay. Well, that's not what I heard. I don't want to go back and forth from when we will go back and forth, because there's a bunch of B.S. because the plain fact of the matter is we've been bending over backwards. I know Heather very well, and the plain fact of the matter is our Department of Public Works, our engineering departments, all assets been working with that organization long before you became a council member. But to have your yourself and your councilwoman, she get up along with your supporters and blame Councilwoman Carmichael that there's an alleged beach down there and it's causing all the problems.
I'm sorry, I got a huge problem with that. Well, number one, I was on a DEP, so I saw it. Number two, we did speak with Sharon, and she said that she spoke with you and you were not really prepared to hear it at that time. So again, I don't want to do what the he said he said she said it's not appropriate. I look forward to working to clean the river. Sorry. I have a habit of throwing hand grenades out there. Okay. And do you? Well, now I have to say thank you. All right. Yeah. With Heather. Heather, talk to me. A couple months ago, and so did, Sarah Rashid.
And what I said was they should go to the county and take their findings and let the county direct further, further investigation and further testing. I did not say the mayor was not interested. So we were we both agree that they should take it to the county. It's not, start with the county. It's not, a Piscataway issue. Okay. Are you done? Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.
Councilman Frank Uhrin. Yes. I just want to say Saturday was opening day for challengers T-ball and Little League, and it was a huge success. We have over 350 children playing this year, and I want to give a shout out to all the coaches and volunteers. They did an excellent job. It was a very, very nice day. Kudos. Mayor. Business administrator Paula Cozzarelli. Thank you. Council president, I just would like to say, to the council and the public. Thank you so much for your support for the 2026 annual budget.
A lot of time and effort goes into this. And, the department heads and, we work very well together in terms of ensuring that whatever numbers are put in that budget document are what's needed, are, we do not, add anything. This is what's needed in order to continue our services. And I would like to say that, given all of the increases of which we have no control over benefits, health benefits, pension, cost of, supplies, goods and services, we are still able to continue
to deliver the same level of services and have increased. I just would like to say in this budget, there's been earmarked for additional $2 million for the ecological park. There is money in there the most, for capital improvements. This township is able to use, because of the fiscal responsibility, it's own cash to do many, many capital projects. I just want to alert the residents that, yes, we're very busy all the time, but now we're really going to kick it up. This is when a lot of contracts will be awarded. So thank you for your patience for that.
And, I just want to give a quick update with the ecological park. This township put a lot of time and effort into acquiring that property and then also getting Green Acres involved to support that endeavor. I have since picked that up with Green Acres, and they have agreed to continue to release the remaining funding. I think it's somewhere around $1.4 million. If we continue to provide the LSP reports with our remediation, and we're going to continue moving forward with the phasing of this project is very excited, exciting,
and I'm very excited to continue moving, and we're going to start to see some real development soon. Thank you so much. That's great news. Attorney Raj Kumar yeah. Just, happy Vaisakhi to the Sikh community that's today also, and then, happy to Ugadi, which is the Telugu New Year. Thank you. And that leaves me and leaves it to me what's left? So I'd like to personally thank, all of our emergency services personnel for the, working structure fire that we had last
Friday evening over in the Arbor section. They did a fantastic job over there. And I'd like to, thank them for all of their hard work. The community cleanup is this Saturday morning. We are up to 350 volunteers, and all of our parks will be cleaned, plus some. So that's exciting. Everything is ready to go. And, again, this is Autism Awareness Month. And thank you to Sarah Laura Liebowitz for her, autism fair.
Yes. It was a very good event. And other than that, I think we're good. Will now move to number 14, which is the agenda session for May 14th, 2026, which we don't have anything on at this point. Number 15 will now open to the public for remote attendees on at this time. Anybody remotely online. We're now open to the public Council president, asking the first individual
with their hand raised to unmute themselves. Go ahead. Hello. Brian Rak, 1247 Brookside Road. Before I begin my comments, I just want to read something from the dictionary leaked of a document to be produced by a company, an organization intended to be confidential, but having been released to the public or the press. Now hearing that, Raj, I'd really like to you to explain what you mean. A public court document can be leaked to the public. As an attorney, I'm sure you're aware there all publicly available was filed on the court website. You can go look it up right now. Please ask all your questions.
Okay. I was hoping to get an answer to that, but I guess that's all I have for now. I don't even know. I mean, it was intentionally disclosed to the public outside of someone just searching it to the press to publicize prior to the definition within, within a day of, within a literally a day of us receiving the complaint. So, it didn't give us an opportunity to even notify the council or even talk to the administration about it. I think I talked to the mayor after actually, it hit the press.
So that's that's what I meant by leaked that it was intentionally, you know, released to the press. Council president, I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised to unmute themselves. Go ahead. Hello? Can you hear me? Yes we can. This is Sarah Radford. I live at 13 Dunbar AV. And I just wanted to make a quick comment. I mean, it looks like the mayor has left, but he's the one I wanted to address. And I'm really embarrassed by the mayor's behavior in these meetings.
I just find it really disrespectful the way that he treats some of the people on the council and the public. And I'm just, you know, I've lived in Piscataway for 19 years, and it's just I want to be proud of living in this town. And it's really embarrassing to personally attack people on the on the, up there and in the, in the public. So I was at that, water restoration meeting, and I felt like it was a very, supportive and, positive experience.
And for somebody to bring something like that to the council and then have it, you know, just sort of be dumped all over it, I'm just kind of embarrassed. So that's, that's it. Thank you. Council president, I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised to unmute themselves. Hi there. This is Jessica Bell from 1247 Brookside Road. Are you able to hear me? Yes, we are great. So I wanted to, thank Councilperson Liebowitz, first of all, for bringing up, about getting an ordinance passed about what the police should do about masking.
I participate with a rapid response group, that tries to document ice activity in the county. And I went out early. It was last week. I was out and following up on somebody at a quick check in Piscataway, and there was actually a scout away, PD officer observing some CMG work, for safety, the road closure so that they could do work, and said that he saw the people he assumed they were ice because they weren't
Piscataway PD or South Plainfield PD, but it could have been any old person that kidnaped that poor person out of their car, because they were wearing a mask. And the officer I spoke to did not have confirmation of who that was. So I think it's really important that we defend our friends and neighbors against masked federal agents. Probably, or any other people who want to kidnap them off the street. And I did also want to bring up, thank you so much, Councilperson Rashid, for coming to the lower Raritan Water Partnership meeting.
I also attended, and I thought that they were very, in a very collaborative spirit. There was no finger pointing of any kind, but it is very disappointing to hear our elected officials say that somebody else's pollution, I can't do anything about it, not even assist this volunteer run organization focused on clean water, to help them contact the right people at the county or the DEP or any of these other organizations that you think
should take responsibility for this. And what about notifying people in the public who want to use Riverside Park for recreation and don't know that it's contaminated and may make them ill take no responsibility for it? And to say that our stormwater doesn't go into the Raritan River is actually laughable. I'm not sure where you think it goes with all roads lead to the Raritan River in this area. So I would really appreciate the council people and the administration
really taking responsibility and acting like leaders. And I thank you for the time this evening, I am finished. Thank you, Mr. Granville. Council president, I'm asking the next individual with their hand raised to unmute themselves. Go ahead. Hi, Craig. Going back three Lake Park Drive. In regard to the Riverside Park water quality issue, I attended the talk as well and spoke to the people from the rarity in River organization. I haven't heard anybody suggest that it's the township
that has any sort of responsibility for the high fecal coliform counts. It's pretty clearly coming from upstream somewhere. Even the river people don't really seem to know where it's coming from. But Riverside Park is a township park, and people do use it for recreation. Kayaking. There's even a boat launch. They're fishing. Wading, trout fishermen are, you know, in the water. There's people that occasionally swim in the water.
The counts here are very high for for for fecal coliform. I mean, that's not something that you want to get. And a lot of these people don't even know it. You can't see it. The water looks clear, until you wind up septic on a ventilator and then. Oh, gee, maybe we got it from the river. So I think it's at minimum, the township should be putting up a sign recommending that people not swim there due to, you know, water quality issues. Does it have to be specific? It doesn't have to be updated regularly, but there should be some sort of notice
that, hey, this is a hazard and it is a real hazard 80% of the time. The, fecal coliform counts are that location of Riverside Park are high. They're above the recommended water usage. Threshold. And it's not by a little. It's by, like, a lot. So nobody's recommending or suggesting that the township has any culpability in it. But you certainly have a responsibility to let people know there's an issue. And it's kind of disappointing that, you know, we hear the, the,
the attitude from the town that this isn't our problem. It's somebody else's problem. And that's maybe true, but township's problem that you should be notifying your residents that there's a hazard. And also, the township attorney, I think, stated that the township doesn't discharge any stormwater to the river. What do we do with it, then? Because I'm pretty sure it all goes to the river. Maybe he meant sanitary sewer.
Well, that would certainly be true. That's a closed system. It goes to the water treatment plant in Centerville, but we pretty much discharge all of our stormwater into the river. Correct me if I'm wrong, unless we do something else with our stormwater, but I'm pretty sure it goes on the river. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Omak. Council president, there are no other remote attendees with their hand raised regarding this agenda item. We're now closed for the remote attendees and we're open for the in-person attendees.
Anyone wishing to speak on any matter is welcome to come up at this time. Go stars if they meals 58 Curtis Avenue. Yeah, the subject is already there. Township is in bad shape. How many people here? Property maintenance committee? None. Anybody here? Property maintenance? None. Do you people care? Hey! Finally, they.
They prune down those cherry trees in the parking lot. Thank God I'm complaining about them for two years. How about the front of the courthouse? They need some work to. You don't care. You don't even bother to look at it. Potholes. Oh, God. Clinton and seventh. Okay, it's not to township responsibility, but it's a mud hole. And it's very dangerous. And it's in the township.
And all of these dead trees between the walkway and the curb. They hurt people. Are you people going to do anything about it? Property maintenance committee. Who are these people? Seventh and Mansfield, seventh and Curtis line in the middle of Curtis between 710 Washington. Dangerous issues that drive way into Dunkin Donuts
between Curtis and Washington. An ordinance violation. All these ordinance violations you people don't see because property maintenance is not there, not non-existent like me. My complaint is non existent. 58 Curtis Avenue. Come and take a look at that property. Thank you. Anyone else about it? Mr. Grubbs?
Oh boy. My neighbor, Curtis Grubbs, 1750 West Third. I was going to talk about the street. Hazelwood. Get them. But we're going to put this on the back burner. This is back. We just got there in the back. I wanted to know. And we talked about Hazelwood Park. The park I want to know is there any money coming for upgrade? If so, how much and when we need to redo the park. Second, we need to get over there and start drinking across.
We're not going to wait for the street to get down there. We need this done. Now. We need to know is there a date on the docket or in the books when you guys or the county? Because now I found out that we don't do it. The county does it spray for the mosquitoes. Every time I call, you know, it's time to spray. Let's pray. We need to, Someone needs to come out there and fix the sidewalks.
That's been broke for a while. I've been giving them a chance to do other stuff, but now I'm going to pinpoint and pickle everything. Now because I'm not worried about the street. Street gets done when it gets done. If it gets stuck, I'm going to ask, oh, last week I, the lady on Pearl Street, someone I'm going to tell you the best thing to get this off. Someone needs to go out to her where a spray paint can and just spray paint. What's going to get done
talking and send it a piece of paper? Some people don't understand. I said, just go out, make an appointment. I talk to a twice, then just take a cash spray paint, say this is what we're going to do. I'm quite sure she will buy, but she don't feel this is going to get behind her and stop this if we can. What's the problem? There? One of the acquisitions we need for the road improvements, will definitely get one of the engineers out there to mark out the easements. And, I'll have one of my associates go out there to to me with her.
I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Grubbs. Just as an aside, no council president. The property in question is talking on the other side of the park that is privately owned property in Dunella and property in Dunella. Mayor, I can't think of the guy's name that was cleaning that side of that park. I think it was Whitey. I come all the way from the council. They Clint that piece of park, that ditch every year until he retired. We technically
there is clearing the way the obstruction from the pipe. But that is private property over there. We're hoping that when the, that's going to be part of a redevelopment site, hopefully going to have to try to clean all that. Down, because they have to for. So who are we looking for to clean it as now with the trees down it would be trees down. It would be the property owner on South second Street. I guess you will inform them to get this cleaned up also. And, we're still we can't put the project out to bid
until we acquire all the temporary construction easements and everything. Thank you. Okay. Hi. My name is Dawn weeks, and I live at 215 Wyckoff Avenue. Welcome. Thank you. I work as a certified peer recovery specialist in the state of new Jersey. I'm at a peer recovery center in Somerset County, but I recently became involved with SAG, which is the opiate settlement, advocacy group, and I researched Piscataway, and I saw that we have approximately $125,000 of unspent opioid settlement funds.
And I wanted to come in here because I did look into the initiatives that happened between 2024 and 2025. Most of it was prevention, which can be effective. But there was also one that was life coaching, but it was not recovery coaching. It was life coaching, which is completely different. I can tell you as a peer recovery specialist. And I was just wondering, what are the current plans for these opioid settlement funds? And I would like to get involved and help. If there are no current plans and you would like suggestions? Council president I'll answer that question.
So we do have, plans for the monies we're using it for. Of course, education prevention. We continue to host programs at the high school level, to have professional speakers and grade school, actually all grades at the school system, having professionals come and speak to the students with respect to drug use prevention, ways to deal with, peer pressure when it comes to drug use. We are using that money to educate the public, via ads and whatnot in our newsletters and postage.
And we're going to continue to reach out to recovery and rehab centers to partner with them, to help them with folks in the community that have a need for rehab, to use those monies to help those that are most in need. Thank you. And I love that y'all are using it for prevention. But what are specific plans for recovery support for people who are either in active use or who are attempting to abate their use of opioids and other drugs? Yes. That's what that was the last comment I made. So we are looking into partnering with Recovery Rehabs to help
those that are actively in a situation that need help and need rehabilitation. So we are we are partnering and trying to partner with some recovery centers and rehab centers to help those in need. Specifically, as you know in your profession, most of these folks don't have the insurance to cover for the expenses. So that is why we're doing that. So that would involve what, free admission into rehabs? Or would there be some other sort of peer support happening outside of that? Well, right now we're going to develop
a framework in order to make connections for the people that need it. So a lot of these folks, as you know, in your profession, don't have that network established. So that's why we're here to do that. So we're going to start at the foundation. We're going to continue to build upon it okay. Thank you. Thank you. We'll now closed the public portion. If I may I would we may missed I know publicly there's still people out there that think that some of the,
crime issues that are going on in some of the motels are fake news. But as of a half hour ago, we just had a, stabbing, several stabbings over at, motel six. And, persons been arrested. Yeah. The person to persons who were stabbed went to the hospital. Evidently folks at all that were staying there. So I know that there are some folks here that were anti against that ordinance and who were saying it was fake news and continue to say that it's not fake news.
We have a serious problem out there and we need to get all the council members in line on this one, because if we continue to let that crime go on abate in our town, we don't have a community. And it's really disgusting out there that you have members of the public who willfully know that there's a problem out there and are spreading fake news, that saying that there's no problem there, it's shameful what they're doing. Council president. And in line with that, because it's been brought up, by Councilman Lee.
But it's, we don't normally talk about pending litigation, but it's been put out in the media. Just wanted to to give the council a couple of items on that to complain, that they consider is one of the issues on that complaint is that they they're alleging that there are no crime issues, at motel six and other hotels. Another another item on the complaint includes, the fact that, the summons was dismissed. When in regard to their excessive call,
code violations, that was inaccurate. There was an administrative hearing. The, hotel owner actually did not appear, even though they were provided notice did not appear at that meeting. Only the property owner. And and so they basically, did not engage and did not respond to the township in the many, many times the township tried to work with them or contact them, prior to that. So working through the complaint, we're preparing, sir. But there are factual, inconsistencies in that. Me that's the part of the problem is that these folks that were stabbed
and the folks the perpetrator that was arrested were all frequent fliers who were continuing crime series over the time. So they're not new. They get they get arrested, they go back over there and they commit more crimes, or they're or they're victims themselves. And the fact that there's been over 130 domestic violence issue against women over there over the last two years is unacceptable. I don't care what your political stripes are, it is unacceptable.
But when we have folks in the public that got up here at the meeting and try to say that it was fake news and are continuing to say it's fake news out in the general public, that is unacceptable. Public public safety is a quality of life issue here in Piscataway. And believe me, I took a tour of motel six yesterday. Okay, you would not want to stay there. I am telling you, there's no one in this room that would stay in that hotel. Okay, see, about four people in this room right here that they're going spreading.
The rumors said it was fake news. On that note, can I just point out that all and agencies that came to speak to us were really housing advocates and specialists? I am obviously deeply troubled and saddened to hear about that terrible stabbing. Horrible. So there is a balance that has to be brought where you know, we have school children that live there. I get it, we have families, there are domestic violence victims that unfortunately, because of a variety of issues
need, this is where they can live. This is all they can afford. But somewhere between what a lot of housing advocates came forward to share with us and keeping our place safe and putting frameworks into place, there has to be some type of middle ground. If there's no middle ground, when people are committing crimes and stabbing people and raping people, prostitution, yes, those are all crimes that are illegal. Correct. So we're going to, you know, prosecute those. But the problem is enough for folks out.
They're out there telling the general public it doesn't happen when there's substantial police records verifying which both you and Councilmember Rashid and and and right there. So thank you. I'm sorry you're perpetuating this nonsense out there when those people are victims out there. The issue is this is a problem that's pertinent to Piscataway that we are trying to solve here in town. It's a problem that is affecting us locally, and it's our job to solve that problem as council people and mayor.
That is the problem. It's public safety and it's public safety here in Piscataway. That is the issue that council president, I'm so sorry to add on to this conversation, because I'm sure you're ready to, you know, close out. But, this is Councilwoman Cahill, so I'm going to wholeheartedly agree with what you just said. Council president. But I also agree that misinformation is getting spread out there
by very responsible and intelligent people. And that's wrong, I agree. I would also just say that, like Abby, I'll go ahead and not go against colleagues who are trying to do the right thing for the town here. Let's state the facts and folks who want to come in from town and randomly make up things, point fingers, accuse good, public servant
of being racist or biased in any way is not constructive. And so I am here to ask that the council, all members of the council, regardless of the political affiliation, is that when misinformation is spread out there, that it is corrected. And, you know, obviously the mayor is very passionate about this and folks want to say how he speaks this or that, but,
you know, in fact, he's trying to convey a message here is that there is a way to do business with each other, to work together for our residents. And I would just ask that, our council colleagues do that, who aren't necessarily part of the part of the same political party, but maybe not the same faction is reconsider the conversation about what's right for the township in its entirety. Everybody.
That's who we govern. Everybody, no matter their political stripe. We don't govern one group or another group. We govern for all. And not everything can be one way. It's not my way or the highway. It's got to be worked out together. And it concerns me if we can't do that. And I'm very proud of the folks who did vote yes on the pop up parties and yes on the motels, because it was the step in the right direction. And just one other comment.
Council president, and I do apologize for butting in here. I don't usually do this, but one other thing when it is out in the public sphere. Oh, look, of course they filed a suit against us. I'm going to tell you right now, I am not a lawyer, but there if there were to be anybody who would look at that complaint and say, we are wrong, that's an LLC. People speaking to our residents, that's a limited liability corporation.
That means they don't give a you know what to this town, the residents, the unhoused women there who are at high risk. They do not care. And in it is a frivolous suit, as many other frivolous suits have been brought against the town by highly intelligent people who understand that those frivolous suits cost our taxpayer dollars, are going to be thrown out of court and not found with any merit,
who probably don't have to pay the lawyer bill. But our township residents pay for those frivolous lawsuits every time one is filed. Remember that council members frivolous lawsuits cost our taxpayers. Thank you. And that is all I have to say. It is very upsetting to me that highly intelligent people would would agree that a that a report out of our police department would come to a consensus that it's false,
and that you have people who call in here who act like they know everything. We govern for every resident in this town, not just the select few. And it is very important that our residents know that we have their back. Please thank Council President I God, you're very welcome. Thank you. Very well. Council Member Cahill, I appreciate that. And I would love to have these conversations outside and away from
this forum where we have opportunities to speak as council members on any number of these issues with the mayor or without them. You. Thank you. Thank you know, we all have each other's telephone numbers, Councilman Liebowitz, thank you. Thank you very much. I'm now going to adjourn this meeting. And in honor of Earth Week, be the change you wish to see in this world. Can I have a motion to close the meeting? Motion?
I have a second. Second? All those in favor, please say I. I I I I.