e e e again i' like to call the Rockaway Township council meeting March 11 2025 to ordered Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic
for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all moment of silence to remember the service and sacrifices of the armed service members who protect our nation and the First Responders who protect our neighborhoods clerk please take the role
councilman Freelander here councilman sacket here councilman Quinn here councilman Brooks here councilwoman woman noon here councilman salber here councilman vich councilman just uh let
me know that he is rning a few minutes late he will be here momentarily Council vice president Brooks here council president Morrison here adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the Daily Record and the official newspapers for the tup of Rockway notice was posted
on the official bulle Boards of Rockway Township the township website and notice was filed in the office of the Township Clerk approval of the February 25th Township Council regular meeting minutes can I have a motion so moved second clerk please take the word councilman
Freelander yes councilman sag obain councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman voitovich Council vice president Brooks
yes council president Morrison yes that's seven yeses one abstention motion passes ordinance for introduction 025 3 ordinance amending chapter 7 Article 2 of the revised ordinances of the township of Rocko in order to amend ordinance section 66 establishing title
39 traffic enforcement plan for the regulation of parking standing Ingress egress and the flow of traffic on private property owned by Pond View Inc identified on the official tax map of Rockway Township as block 11501 Lots 41
45 and 47 and block 11502 lot two can I have a motion so move council president uh before we take the vote on the motion uh there's what I'm going to call a non-substantive typo in the last line of
the title of the ordinance uh It should read instead of lot 47 It should read 47.1 and 47.2 so if the council will approve that by uh acclamation uh you can go ahead
with the vote understood yeah yeah okay please take the RO councilman Freelander yes councilman zck yes councilman Quinn yes councilman
Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman bovich Council vice president Brooks yes council president Marson yes that's eight yeses motion carries um all right
so I have an item on the agenda um that I that I'm putting in between and before the consent agenda uh there is a a member of the council is contemplating putting forward a an amendment to one of our
ordinances which would due to a concern of watercraft on Mount H Pond um the concern being is that the the lifeguards are tasked with watching both the swimmers and the people on
watercraft uh there was there's three options that are being put forward um one is no watercraft on the lake between Memorial and Labor Day at all um one no watercraft on the lake um while lifeguards are on duty and then the
other option is to do nothing um at this point I I thought that this would be a good opportunity to to open it up to the council for discussion when we're done the council discussion I will open up this specifically to the public for any comment councilwoman new I have two
questions are the the question number one is are the motor crafts putting the swimmers in danger is my first question and my second question is is there an option to just hire more staff council president yes maybe I can
help everybody out um this request came into Administration uh and to our office the essential concept behind the requests that an amendment to the ordinance be
considered uh was pre predicated on the fact that when lifeguards are present they are there for the benefit of the swimmers in the ROP off area and the presence of permitted watercraft on the
pond is a distraction to the lifeguards doing their primary job which is to take care of the swimmers it was about I think two years ago when at the request of the full Council we did an ordinance uh specifying the type of
watercraft that would be allowed on the pond and therefore excluding anything that wasn't affirmatively named uh so if the con if the consensus of the council is you want to go forward with an amendment which is totally up to the
council uh it would require an amendment to that ordinance not as to the kinds of classes of watercraft or that are permitted but with respect to when they can be
used and council president do you want me to go over the Alternatives that were proposed already or you want to leave that alone I I think we leave it alone we're not voting on it tonight no right this is just something that I wanted to bring to light I think it's a you know pretty substantive change uh going
forward Mr Quinn yeah what kind of motor are they talking about there's no Motorcraft it's all kayaks it's all kayak and robots with
Elric there's electric motors for Rob boats they uh they trolling yeah and their battery Opera yeah no gasoline Motors right right no boats with 800
horsepower no jet skis nothing like that no um and keep in mind too at this point you know it's great to ask these questions but you need to understand these questions are going to be answered now without an answer that's just things that we're bringing up I'm done Mr Sal uh thank you uh two
questions one um do we currently have uh signage like I believe there is up at Eggbert's Lake that boating is at the uh the boer's risk and also do we know of any other Lakes both within the township or any neighboring towns that have both um unpowered watercraft and swimmers
with lifeguards that are following the same suit of closing it down during this period Mr second nothing back to you Miss Brooks so I'd like Dave also to chime in on this I think white Mount hul Pond is very different than other Lakes
bodies of water that allow the voting and the swimmers so if you have someone out on a watercraft and they fall in and they're over by the cabin are we expecting a lifeguard or someone of a safety team on the beach to
stand there and watch or are they going to be sent out now if anyone's seen Mount hopan the beach to say the cabin because the boers are fairly far out but then our also our watercrafts include paddle boards all of those things you
have people going out I see it all the time people going out on paddle boards they're putting their little kids on the sitting on the paddle board and their padel boarding again I think you're just putting your lifeguards and your safety staff on the beach at risk because they are going to potentially going to save
that individual which I think that's what would be expected of them regardless of what's on a sign I think it's extremely dangerous and it also then puts the young lifeguards at risk who potentially may go out there and try to help that individual so far away but Dave I'd like
you to chime in too right do your point it's a unique body of water right because it's just that it's a it's a where there's lifeguards it's all booed off where you go swimming but then a quarter of a mile out is the is the Log
Cabin where folks are on a kayak so where where's the cut off where this individual goes under what do we do um I know that um there's been talk from other life go
guards about the situation hey what do I do here what am I liable what am I not liable for I have 50 people in the water right now but my one eye is up up the the the other side of the pond uh there is signage I'm not sure what white metal
Lake does uh it's a much larger Lake um but it it's a unique situation the other with the ordinance the other Lakes there are no life guards there's no one there um so um I think it needs to be looked at I think it's a concern um and
it does put our lifeguards at at risk to to who who to look after my questions would center around how many incidents did we have over the last two years where lifeguard intervention was required right since we put in the ordinance for the boats and then to your point you know we do have
plenty of bodies of water that don't have lifeguards so is this an issue about trying to protect you know life and property or over taxing the lifeguards right it's a unique situation right it's the only one that we have that has no no I hear you Township staff I guess if you
want to say yeah I understand we have staff members looking I got you I just I'd like to know how many incidents we had that requ none that I no this new is there a beach over at the voice
count Camp no no there so where how many how many launch points are there around M pond two right there there's there's one main launch yeah but it depends what you're
launching right okay and is hiring more staff an option that's that would be my only other question where are you putting again are just generic questions councilman Brooks thank you council president
um I have a couple things uh about this one number one as a former lifeguard it's your resp responsibility if to man the whole area not just the swimming area but the whole Waterway so if somebody goes down across the water you would need to get there uh and do
whatever means possible to uh to assist um the second thing was I did bring this up before we did pass um this legislation uh and I I my concern was also who we allowed to put boats or
whatever into our water waves and originally I was told uh by Administration that anyone that was going to be putting a boat in any of these three waterways would be going to get permits from the town and having them logged in and getting special
permits in order for that to happen so that they knew what the rules and the guidelines were so that was originally what was discussed and I know currently that is not taking place um I have no problem adjusting it to the time frames as you were talking about but that was
definitely something that we talked about because if you take and Mr valard will probably a test to this too if you move the boat from one Waterway to another Waterway to another Waterway you contaminate whatever from Waterway to Waterway right that's why boats that go
into the bay need to be washed before they go into a different B of water so here for there so the the fact that mount Hond has been having water issues right recently is because they're bringing these boats I guarantee people aren't scrubbing or cleaning and now
bringing them into a freshwater parcel you know of water and I think that's in contaminating it right and then it works its way down ultimately to white metal Lake right and then Works its way to Parks Lake and car and then goes into the reservoir but I I had concerns when
it was originally adopted and I still do have concerns thank you my Freelander everything turn on I agree I mean you know we have to look at to it further because the concern is
the lifeguards they can't look on the other side of pond if something happens and how do they get there well they got to swim do they have a boat available like white Meadow we have there's a roow booat that that they can use they have a
row boo on the side it's a rowo a robo well so they got a rad wherever it is right there's a lot there's a lot of concerns right again these are all things we're not deciding this tonight I just wanted to bring it to the attention is there anybody from the public that wants to
talk on this matter yes Michael L 19 North bookside Drive one thing you can consider is making mandatory life jackets nobody really wants to wear them it's 90 degrees in July but if that's the option to use the
water body on a kayak or something you can make them actually have to wear it I don't know how you're going to enforce that unless you have somebody from the township once in a while or a cop car drive by and look around um also registering with a sticker that they you know they live in the township to use
the facility would would help but mandatory life jacket which you have to wear from November through May first I think it is anyway at any water body in the state you have to actually have it on at any age but you can you can hold that through the the summer season which
would help the life cards if someone do go in at least that float and what parent shouldn't have a anybody else from the public score the options again uhana 11 St Bernard Road I well I Ed the Mount
Hope and it's actually very nice uh I was excited you know to have the kayak this year um I hope you guys make the right choice for the like all our residents there and like uh you suggest that we should put like sticker or
something for just the residents to use the Leake that's it council president can I clarify something for the council which may be helpful as you think about this under the present format where lifeguards be
on duty uh people with various watercraft are using other parts of the lake from a liability perspective if someone who was on a kayak or a board or whatever got in trouble it would likely
be expected that the land the lifeguards would be required to give Aid if you legislate something to restrict the operation or the use of watercraft when the lifeguards are there
it's still going to be incumbent upon the lifeguards to enforce the no use rules for whatever period is decided as appropriate by the council okay and it probably would be incumbent upon the lifeguards to give
Aid if somebody you know launch something even though they didn't were entitled to use it and you know in any event now I don't know I don't recall I'm not saying councilman Brooks is incorrect I just don't personally recall anything about stickers and
registrations and things of that nature but the bottom line is that do anything well if you do do something you're still going to have to adequately post the area so that you know watercraft are not permitted X Y and Z okay and take steps
to enforce it so for example you have a day when the beach is in operation the lifeguards are there somebody shows up two guys are carrying a kayak down to launch it the lifeguards are still going to be under the obligation to tell those people not today Charlie okay appreciate
that um councilwoman the the two options other than not doing anything well the one option is not doing anything one is uh no watercraft at all between Memorial Day and Labor Day and then the other one is no watercraft if the Lifeguard is on duty again we we're going to take this
back and we'll discuss it and obviously before this comes forward there will be more public discussion on it okay moving on uh consent agenda R 2544 through r25 is there no R
2551 r244 through r250 and then R 2552 and R 2553 okay 20 51 is later okay can I have a motion so move second clerk please take the r
councilman Freelander yes councilman sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman voitovich Council vice president Brooks
yes council president Morrison yes that's eight yes as motion carries okay uh before we get to open to the public uh before opening the public portion of this meeting I want to remind everyone of the rules that apply to anyone who wants to address the council any member of the public wishing to
address the council will have 3 minutes to do so while an extension of time may be requested it should not be assumed and an extension of time will be granted while addressing the council members of the public may not address or question any individual council member if anyone addressing the council violates these
rules or conducts themselves inappropriately their speaking opportunity will be terminated and they will be instructed to return to their seat a refusal to comply will result in removal from the room members of the public in attendance may not make comments from the audience without recognition by the chair persons
doing so will be subject to removal from the room as council president I have tremendous respect for my fellow council members and the public who take the time and effort to attend Council meetings these will rules are necessary to permit the council to do its business in an orderly and professional
manner Michael ardi Michael ardi 19 North Brookside Drive uh thank you for the text message to reminder about the meeting um I've seen more mini bikes zipping around the streets no bcon plates sometimes the
kids don't have helmets on it I'm off of people having a good time God bless you um but I mean the speed limit in white min Lake's 25 miles an hour when some of these things go fast there's also kids on quads that go zipping around so um
and even ebikes now that's getting nicer I mean they're not registered vehicles but they go as fast as a car some of these things uh so it's something to to look into um also the the youth Place gas work I know it was mentioned a while back it was going to be through February
but I'm taking bets whether the mine shaft on Route 80 or the gas line on Ute place is going to get done first um street sweeper I know The Season's starting if we can get the white metal Lake streets done with all the Winter Road grit and stuff
um that would be appreciated I know our previous site manager who retired always called the town to get that I just don't want it to slip through the cracks and the cot Basin at beach to I'm sure has gotten a lot of winter gravel and stuff if that can get cleaned before it ends up in the lake it would be appreciated
thank you thank you want Sho ju I 11 Bernard Road um I have few concerns um now the spring is coming um I live uh in San Bernard it's Richard mine it's like a the restaurant in Reon
it's right in the corner it's like a a lot of trees like bushes sometimes when I come when after I drop my son from school it's like a very curv area and sometimes they're not being clean properly so it's very hard to see which
car or sometimes now we have a lot of tracks um big cars and it's kind of dangerous I know we have stop signs and everything else there but you know it's if the town can just keep that clean and
safe for for we the drivers and I have also a questions about the affordable housing I don't know if you guys able to answer me now but um uh the we know where the building uh Dam and how many
units uh does the state want us to build um and what benefits this is the state or developers offering the town if any and also how do we delay it until we get a new governor uh with some common
sense that's all I mean you guys can email me or answer me later but my my biggest issue is the the grad thanks got it as far as affordable housing I was in a meeting uh with the administration earlier and uh it's still very in motion
right now there's no definitive answers Megan OK Conor good evening I'm Megan o Conor and I'm at 64 Erie Avenue and in the middle of January the local Outreach coordin
coordinator on social media tagged Rockaway Township to quote discover the benefits of Home Sharing a few days later this post was taken down from social media and for those of you that are not familiar what with what Home
Sharing is so Home Sharing is a not for-profit organization that connects people to create quote mutually beneficial living arrangements and helping to reduce their Acom accommodations and their housing costs
and anyone who wants to actually get housing in this not for-profit program they can come from anywhere in the country but they have to be willing to move to the service area and I actually called This Home Sharing organization last week and I was told that they are
in fact operating in the township so those who want to be part of this home sharing program the ones that actually want to maybe uh live with somebody who already owns a home they have to go through a background check which quote from their website is
completed using public webs sites such as Megan's Law and Department of Corrections uh also during this home sharing agreement there is a case manager that helps the person who moves in with things such as and I'm quoting
again from their website Financial stability job seeking and Food and Health Care Resources so there's some stability issues there essentially this program is creating rooming houses in our Township
and some questions I have for the council is how many of these houses are going to be allowed in the township and do we have the infrastructure the schools the sewers the roads to accommodate uh these new
people I do ask Council to put an immediate halt on allowing this program to operate in Rockaway because these background checks uh by going to a public web website we all all know that those kinds of background checks are not complete if you're going to be doing a
background check you need to take fingerprints and you need to have them sent to the state police or the FBI I don't want to be accused of being unwelcoming I think we definitely As Americans need to be welcoming but we need to be smart about it especially if this program allows people from let's
say Arizona to start a new life in New Jersey I want to make sure that our community is safe also I do have a concern that the council is seeing individual events and
and not this big Cyclone of events that are going to be happening in the near future for example we can I have one more minute yeah we have this big referendum for the school which is coming up which is if it's passed it's going to raise taxes significantly we
have the affordable housing which if we're allowing all these new people to come in here you usually not from Rockaway our taxes could potentially also go up and then you're going to put rooming houses around my house that really doesn't incentivize a lot of
people to stay in Rockaway so I'm asking Council to look at this program uh with a skeptical eye don't just hear their success stories which I'm sure there are success stories but to really look at it like does it actually benefit our
Township thank you thank you is there any anybody from the public who didn't fill out the sheet that wishes to speak please state your name and address sure Stacy Greg uh Sunrise Road Wharton never changed my dress to Rockaway Township
guess you don't want me but anyway so Rockaway Township good my three minute start yeah okay so um I'm really dis discouraged about what's been
happening in my town regarding welcoming and being a welcoming place I think we can do better you need to do better I'm looking at a very very big group of white boys and white girls here who are not
welcoming to allow yeah excuse you um to allow a the lady behind me who's heckling me to allow your mayor to make a statement coming in a political statement that he refuses to talk to the
newspapers and give an interview about but he's supporting a principle who in his day was okay principal but he we sending kids into our Copeland Middle School where we had a 9.1
million lost case for bullying it's the middle school that takes on all the elementary schools for years we weren't allowed to talk about bullying here we were censored when we tried to bring it up to you as the council but now we have a
mayor who I kind of you know I'm more interested on a national stage than I am in a little local town like this where I'm told oh on a local level it's okay to be Republican because we really don't have any Democrats that ever get anywhere but um you know on a national
level we're all Democrats and we we support choice and we support um black lives matter we support all sorts of things we welcoming but not in my backyard don't do it in my backyard go somewhere else because I'm going to move out we'll move but to have a principal support be
supported by the mayor when he does an egregious Act of wearing a political hat to school and then I mean if you read the comments that were in the newspapers it's egregious over 800 of them the first day said he needs to be fired on
the spot but then to have a prince a principal make a ridiculous digging his feet into his standard rather than saying I'm sorry I was wrong I should not have done it it was a moment of lapse he blamed it on the children we
have serious problems in our school when the children know that the principal owns a Maga hat when the children are encouraging him to dress up his Trump I'm assuming it was the white children and not any of the children who are not
white it's a racist hat it's there's a joke out there you know you can't spell hatred without Red Hats sorry shame on him your time is up shame on him and I'd like it don't you tell me to sit down your time is up I thank you I will I appreciate that thank you council
president but you need to get the audience is up I'll ask you to sit down ma'am ma'am one more M Greg one more comment one more comment I'm going to ask you to be removed one more
okay we're going to open up to reports let's start this end oh I'm sorry yeah April Peto 14 dudak Road I wasn't planning on talking but I looked at um just wondering about about R 2553 the
five class 5 cannabis retailer by smuggers Club where is that located M ronte that's the one on Chase Bank okay that's one that widows approved a year or two ago it's on green Pound Road the application is just a
name change of the registered owner okay it's it's the old Chase Bank also I want to say that um if you support a principal who's dressing as a sitting president for celebrity day doesn't make you racist and just because we are white
doesn't make us racist thank you thank you anybody else from the public you had your three minutes sorry sir just real quick I'm not just state your name and address first I'm sorry uh Louis Cabrera 38 Queens Road um she doesn't represent all of us that's all I'm saying thank
you Don Marie Suz zinski one lak Shore Drive you know not everybody who looks maybe white you know I'm I'm olive skin I am part Hispanic and I didn't find it offensive I actually made the quote about somebody possibly wearing a suit
with an ice cream cone in the hands last year and maybe I wouldn't necess said a word just like I didn't say anything about the Trump thing you know free country fre number speech thank you anyone else okay we're going to move on to
reports we will start then this end at this point Mr freedlander I know you were you go first this time I am sure SC uh Historical Society uh just want to let everybody know that
the the Ford F house has a bathroom now it was completed and now they're going into the other rooms and uh it's it's a big step forward you know not but anyway uh and then they're
talking about you know the planning of the Rockway Township day and uh the U what else the pathways tour we're because of the situation in the uh in the fort f house we're going to probably move it to the hurn the the library
which is a historical building also uh the uh Library meeting everything is it's pretty quiet then moving ah substance abuse Alliance uh the phases have have done well now we're uh the group is looking into the V the people
that come the dignitaries for the big day which I'll I'll keep you posted that's it short councilman Brooks you short I might be shorter I don't know I'll
look all right uh one uh thing for administration um I did get reached out to by a couple of the residents from uh Fox Hills and they mentioned that the sign that's on the uh red light you know the stop sign and and also the
intersection there they used to say constitutional Avenue and it's been down for a while and they were wondering if it's going to be put back up or or whatnot so they sent me some pictures I know exactly what they were talking about but um I don't know if a truck hit it I don't know if it was taken down
when they were Paving cuz you know they H those pictur they had a bunch of trees sign yeah so they're hoping that those can get put back up um the next thing was just a uh congratulations
uh to uh our two Recreation hockey programs the squirt level uh lost in overtime on uh Sunday and uh Heartbreaker there but our rec peeee team uh took first place on uh Friday
night so big big to do for the wreck kids so that was really great and uh they'll probably come in front of the mayor at some point but uh it was really really nice for the kids were super super excited so that's it councilwoman n no report this evening
thank you any report on uh what's his name ol what's zy what is it Ziggy sorry is he sleep Ziggy is our new Council dog councilman Quinn okay so tomorrow night will be our
first Rec committee meeting so I'll have something to report on that at the next meeting uh Monday night is a planning board meeting of course St Patty's Day so I'm looking forward to seeing what's on the agenda
and then we have a budget hearing meeting on Saturday so we'll be here for that to go through and now that the weather has broke everybody be safe the days are getting longer the kids are going to be
outside so watch your speeding all right and that's the end of my report thank you councilman Silber all right thank you uh no report from uh the County Commissioners this week uh this Monday the 17th will'll be
the first meeting of the Mars County open space trust fund committee we'll be electing um officers and getting a first look at uh who uh who put in applications um April 5th is uh opening day for trout and I hope uh everybody can come by company one hiberia every
year the Ladies Auxiliary does a great breakfast there um it's been going on decades so hope to see you there and finally I just like to thank uh councilwoman Brooks and councilman freedlander for stopping by the hcma for uh heart month and HCM awareness day hope you enjoyed this day and saw some
of the good work they're doing amazing amazing people thank you that's all I have thank you councilman second thank you council president and definitely want to what Mike said before about the the kids with the helmets it's it's going on all over the place in White Lake and I know we brought it up
and me and Rachel brought it up a little while back and now with the the kids with the electric bikes and seems like they're getting younger younger on the bikes or I'm just getting older and older I don't know but um yeah it's it's a problem I see and I see the kids the same kids are in the middle of Rockway
burrow there you know in the intersection there and it's becoming quite a problem someone you know I'm very concerned about that so thanks for burning that up um just like Doug couns Brooks had said with the recreation leagues and everything um just finished
help coaching the uh wreck girls basketball seventh and eighth grade girls and uh our team lost in the championship but uh it was a fun ride um seeing everyone play and Ray Ferman who runs the uh Rec division she does an excellent job there they had the All-Star game over the weekend and uh
packed house over there in uh Copeland and also all the seniors at Morris Hills and nlls and Morris Tech finishing up their uh their basketball careers I saw you had a Morris Hills a basketball sweatshirt out my daughter just finished up her career at Morris Hills senior so
it was good uh finished up they worked hard the hills girls lost in the uh state tournament and I think noes I think they won their state tournament so yeah yeah so they uh they did very well um that's good and I'm surprised Jack didn't mentioned with the spring spring
is sprung and the weather's great like the track and Lacrosse and all that good stuff starting out um mayor was isn't here I didn't realize it but I want to thank him he's help we've had a few issues going on in in my ward in white met Lake and that brought a few to his attention and very quick and responsive
and helping me out those and also to uh Lisa who uh took some time to had a bunch of questions for on the budget and uh thanks for taking the time to answer all my questions I appreciate it thank you Council Mo toich I have I have no report I just uh like to say that you
know this past Friday detective uh Joseph Joseph as coming from nework Police Department killed the line of duty they going to have a funeral for him it's uh Friday coming up so I just like to ask for people to keep his uh family and uh the nework police department in your uh thoughts and
prayers that's all I have Council vice president thank you um just a reminder tomorrow the uh Board of Ed is going to have a their review and they're adopting an attendant budget uh the executive session is starting at 5: public I
believe is still starting at 7:30 but just so everyone knows their executive usually starts at 6 it's starting at 5: um also I think it's probably been said at nauseum at this rate um The Daily Record unfortunately put out an non-fact
checked article and uh there was no vote today for a referendum the referendum is on hold uh a little disappointing that a newspaper would put out something to create such I've never gotten so many text messages by 7 a.m. on a Monday morning
yeah what referend like it was just really so um back in December they had put out a press release that the the referendum is on hold indefinitely at this moment they have to recircle their wagons and do some a lot of changes so I
think that is not coming anytime soon um that also being said I just want to thank the administration and everybody who's working I see the machines at Tark Park I've never been so excited to say a park close sign before uh the neighbors
and the kids I had two little boys knock on my door today Mrs Brooks Mrs Brooks is it true are we getting new basketball hoops so um I want to thank everybody for that it's been a long time coming right
Dave um and that is all I have yeah as far as that Phantom vote that was today I know on Monday the clerk called me and I think early in the morning and the initial statement was what the hell so I know you were answering calls all
day for that so uh two things I have one um echoing what was said down here I want to thank everybody for their hard work on preparing for the budget meeting uh this Saturday 9 9 o'clock nine nine o'clock n nine
o'clock um it is open to the public so it'll be in this room so I want to thank everybody for the for the hard work that they're putting in on that um two two pieces for for you Chief one uh I I've never seen more orderly traffic
than when the the police are sitting on that Median on uh on Mount Hope Road where people are coming off in front of the mall so I know they sit that decide sometime but when they're right in the middle everybody's you know just very proper so just you know thumbs up to
that and then you know just to you know just to kind of point out how on top of things uh they are so on my way here tonight there was a school bus stalled uh right in front of the Exxon by the mall um I literally saw the bus stall
out I was sitting at the light and then after I went I used my hands for phone and and I called and I said there's you know I just called A dispatch and they're like yeah we already know we're on we're sending we're sending somebody there so they are all over it so I just wanted to point that out so
thanks Mr Yana no report cast president I'd also like to point out and refer the video of this meeting to the mayor in the future to show him what a recap can be condensed to miss P I know you have the mayor's
notes I do have the mayor's notes please proceed first of all he apologizes for not being here tonight and yes I will uh provide his report on his behalf um so uh last month uh myself Chief shear and the mayor and several Department heads
visited Pon View Estates and uh we went over the services that we provide and answered many of their questions they were very happy to have us in attendance I think it was very productive the residents were very pleased and found it very informative last Saturday the mayor
attended a craft fair at St Cecilia's church and since our last council meeting the mayor has performed two marriage ceremonies uh we continue to track the status of the sing coal repairs on Route 80 and will continue to post updates as
they become available and lastly uh we received feedback from a resident I believe it was actually two residents regarding two members of our construction department and I'm going to read the email they sent over so this is from two residents on Lake gen Road and
West Shore working with Lou Turk and Steve Steven Shay the building inspector it has been an absolute breath of fresh air these two guys are inred incedible total Pros who make the process as smooth as it can possibly be they're helpful straightforward and actually
seem to care about getting things done without dragging it out my experience with them has been fantastic so kudos to those guys thank you okay that's one minute and 16 seconds excellent uh any report of your
own as uh no report just um I wanted to speak with Mr gden regarding um the um phones and filming for U Saturday okay I had spoke to him he said he was already planning on being here okay then that's all I have
okay M fronte Mr Tabit uh thank you council president just one item to report um that the Rockaway Township was designated as a healthy town by the New Jersey mayor's Wellness campaign uh last week officially so that's for work that
we did in 2024 so uh thanks to the mayor for supporting the program and for elaborating on it and also um I feel like I say it often to Britney Bernstein who's really embraced the mayor's Wellness campaign and is doing a lot of good things around town to uh to get the uh the populace moving so thank you
thanks Chief good evening council president members of the council uh February monthly report calls for service incidents activity 3,43 motor vehicle crashes 69 396 motor vehic vehical encounters
two domestic violence incidents 187 fire medical or 911 calls nine adult arrests 85 85 alarm responses eight community policing events 1575 residential commercial or school property checks 18
assist other agencies and 199 motor vehicle uh tickets were issued one of the things I'd like to bring everybody uh in the community make them aware of what we call the blue envelope program uh caregivers know better than
anyone the struggles that are faced by those who have autism spectrum disorder it is sometimes difficult to communicate properly with those who have ASD the blue envelope was created to help those with ASD as well as police officers in
the event of a motor vehicle stop the primary goal is to Aid those drivers with document organization and educate them about what to do during a motor vehicle stop so one of the things that we have on the township
website under the police Banner if you go to the police and if you go to the services you will see a whole section there on the website in reference to the uh blue envelope uh it has instructions you can also click on a full page of instructions uh all of the documents can
be organized in there with also with some of the other items that will be referenced in that instruction right so that way when a driver is pulled over again when it starts talking about uh noise or lights or all the different things that can be an issue or
communication uh and they have this available to them uh for the officer the officer will automatically know uh what to do and how to deal with that individual and it just helps uh that encounter be a much more successful encounter for both the officer and the
occupant of the vehicle um also I would like i' like to announce for the first time uh this year the Rockway Township Police Department is going to be having a junior Police Academy uh so uh we haven't done uh that we're going to do that for the first
time this year it's going to be uh in the summer we're trying to work out in between all the other types of uh sporting events and different things that happen during that time frame uh but again we'll further uh information will follow uh we're looking uh probably
about the Third week second third week of July we'll see how that works out with some of the other things that are going on in town uh but anyway more to follow on that uh program but it's an exciting week it's a full week of events and they get to do a lot of exciting things obviously like a mock Police
Academy so they get to go to different field trips right so we take them to different places like the sheriff's department uh and and uh the jail and and other types of activities we might even have a helicopter St police helicopter all right so so again so
we're looking forward to to that this year and more information will follow thank you Council Brooks just told me that she is Junior sized is she allowed to go council president I was to say the same thing I grew up in Rockway I never had a chance to attend this you know my
son had to go to Denville because we didn't have it Middle School only ah man okay I'll send my daughter thank you Mr hman uh so for February our Volunteer Fire Department answered 50 calls of the 167 that police fielded um the fire
prevention Bureau conducted one origin and cause investigation on a brush fire uh fire prevention Bureau conducted 38 uh inspections of businesses in town we did 21 home resale inspections in February and I attended a full day
training on uh arson investigation so everything is going good in Mr Dyer the DM is coming here next week lots ised
up try get back again and have your patience it's it's open to everyone in the state right now everybody's trying to get their real IDs everybody's online soon as ours goes live people are clicking and taking the
um Facebook is updated almost every day with different events going on in town um when you're on lunch or whatnot if you go on our Facebook page it has everything going on in town so you should be that's that's all I have
[Music] Mr up for spring see Park we'll be doing pipeline after Department final approval one more
signature fromp before turn that on and Parks is gearing up get ready spring Mr coward nothing to report okay um at this point I'm going to be um we're going to be going into a closed
session uh if anybody chooses to remain uh right now I'm anticipating about 30 minutes should we be more than 30 minutes we will send somebody out to let everybody know R 2551 resolution authorizing an executive close session in accordance with the New Jersey open public meeting
act meetings act to discuss Personnel matters can I have a motion so move second cler please take the rooll councilman Freelander yes councilman sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman
noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman voy toich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president Morrison yes it's nine yeses I will see you in the room e e
e e e e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e e e
e e [Music] I'd like to make a motion to return from Clos session can I have a second second second clerk please take the RO councilman Freelander councilman Zack
here yes here councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman vo toich yes Council vice president Brooks
yes council president Morrison yes it's say yes this motion passes and make a motion to adjourn by consensus all in favor I have a nice