e e e e e e e e traffic I'd like to call the February 25th 2025 council meeting to order
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all a 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 councilman Quinn here councilman Brooks here councilwoman noon here
councilman salberg here councilman voy toit here Council vice president Brooks here council president Morrison here adequate notice of this meeting was Prov proved to the Daily Record and the official newspapers for the township of Rockway notice was posted on the official bulletin boards of Rockway
Township the township website and notice was filed in the office of the Township Clerk approval of the minutes for the February 11th Township council meeting can I have a motion so move I'll second it please take the RO councilman
Freelander yes councilman sacket councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman voitovich yes Council vice president Brooks yes
council president marrison yes it's eight yeses motion passes uh ordinances for introduction 02501 an ordinance amending chapter 54 entitled land use and development of the code of the township of Rockway to amend its
regulations pertaining to the raising and keeping of chickens on Residential Properties can I have a motion so move second clerk please take the role councilman Freelander yes councilman sacket councilman Quinn yes councilman
Brooks abstain councilwoman noon no councilman salberg yes councilman boyovich yes Council vice president Brooks no council president Morrison yes that's five yeses two NOS one abstention motion
passes consent agenda r25 -38 r 25-39 r 25-40 r 25-41 r 25-42 and r 2-43 can I have a motion so move s
second councilman Freelander yes councilman sacket councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman Vo
yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president Morrison yes it's eight yeses motion passes uh I'm going to move up uh item number 10 uh appointments uh we are appointing alen harowitz to the board of adjustment can I have a motion so move
I'll second that one cler please take the all councilman Freelander yes councilman sacket councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes
councilman salberg yes councilman voitovich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president Morrison yes it's eight yes his motion passes um Eileen thank you very much for your continued time your time and efforts for our community so thank
you uh okay open to the public uh let me sorry uh before opening to the public portion of the 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 three minutes to do so while an extension of
time may be requested it should not be assumed that 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 Mel for my fellow council members and the public who take the time and effort to attend Council meetings these rules are necessary to permit the council to do its business in an orderly and professional manner M Dean
p d and 88 Val VI Drive I know that you already passed the resolution R 2538 but I really like to uh discuss um the constant reduction of
businesses in their assessed value and yet every time I get a tax Bill my assessment goes up and I think it's time that we concentrated on the residents rather than the businesses and brought more businesses in we're also going to
be um discussing I don't know when but later on in the year a bond issue for the schools which the original bond issue was going to raise our taxes over $400 a year I'm a senior citizen I'll be
80 years old this year I mean how can I afford to stay in this town I've been here 55 years I don't want to go any place else but this constant raising of the taxes and not bringing in as many
businesses we have too many rental properties that are coming in and I know like the one across the street behind Valley View Drive I know this town fought that one for 12 years and they eventually lost but I mean
it's just we're an ordinary citizen I think you'd have to do a little bit more work T Kelly Tucker Kelly 16 Mega Road hello everybody uh last time I was here on February 11th um I couldn't finish it because I was out of time but you misspoke and made a couple of comments
on some things and one thing I wanted to point out you had mentioned that I was the one that made a determination as to whether or what the necessary requirements were for a Clerk's position in this case the registered municipal clerk rway Township that wasn't true um accurately to say
it's actually a civil service requirement is what our RMC registered municipal clerk needs to have and what was advertised uh with the township itself and we spoke about you having your friend get hired in that position
uh at as the acting RMC that's there but again under Oprah we were able to get the resume of that individual and it clearly showed that that person had zero zero experience in that position not only that person have zero experience in that position that individual didn't
have the required certifications so you made an offering of $95,000 a year for that individual and then you gave him a bonus of $110,000 on top of that $95,000 if in fact they got the required certifications that they needed and actually to have the position and you
also had it to where you would offer to pay for all those courses and everything else or reimburse them to obtain those certifications which was a prerequisite in order to have the position giving them the $10,000 on top of the 95 excels them Beyond salary
ordinance which is a big problem and you did all this under resolution r24 207 but interesting though in R 24101 our Deputy CL CL who then was an acting clerk at that time who had
experience states that in the resolution and had all the background minus some of the certifications but again was doing the acting clerk without a deputy clerk was only given $66,000 to do that job with experience and without a deputy
clerk but the friend that you hired you're giving them $95,000 with a deputy clerk you're having the town attorney write responses and doing some of the work for that individual what kind of message does that send to the other employees who
have all these certifications and all the requirements some exceed what they really need in order to be in this position that's a big concern that you have going on because it doesn't send a good message that way my question now is amongst the council this all took place
back in September you didn't approve this person until late November of 2024 but you were only cced on the communication not the rest of the council one did the council actually review the resume to see that this person doesn't meet the requirement of any of the stuff
there also when you read the resume the individual is actually running a business that their hours of operation conflict with the township Clerk's operation hours in a neighboring town and only having a contact number for that employee I'm sorry your time is H
so if you can look into that please have a seat and make an example as to why you made those choices um okay just again just to I'm not going to get into it like I did last time I'm just going to speak facts at this point um as far as qualifications
we could talk about um the clerk that uh Mr Kelly hired when he was in position so when Mr Kelly was on the council they hired a clerk who was um I believe I could be wrong here I think
the daughter of a very good friend um so it was your friend's daughter daugh that you hired who and again I could be wrong that this might have been her very I'm not asking you for your comment you had this is my time so she had absolutely no experience I don't even know she ever
had a job before and also she was hired without getting the courses so just to educate the public it is very common when you hire somebody um you hire them in anticipation of them getting the courses right as far as reimbursing for courses 100% And this is because of you
know um our Clerk's desire to not wait until she was hired so she took it upon herself to start the courses right the township could not pay for them like they would when she was an assoc when she was an employee so she took it upon herself to
start the courses before she was even hired right in anticipation of getting the course uh getting the position as far as qualifications you know to be a clerk you must be professional um you know Miss Wadley certainly uh I think you were principal of school tons of
administrative experience very intelligent very well spoken um wasn't hired because she was a friend this is not going to sound right she's not my friend or friendly I mean I know her kids from playing sports but I don't know where you live I've never been over
your house so I think that's a little that's a little bit out there uh as far as the council yeah we we had a hiring committee so she certainly spoke to a couple of the council members this wasn't done um ctitious ly um so again I I don't know where you're getting that from and again from somebody who hired
their their friend's daughter for the position who had absolutely no experience and we're still actually I think cleaning up some of the messes from back then I just find it a little curious that's all I'm going to say about that and just you asked me a question at the last meeting Mr Kelly and I got the information from you uh
you asked about opras at the the last council meeting so I did the research I have your your answer um there were 1,000 90 opras um filed last year 51% of them um were due uh were queries on
motor vehicle accidents so what a lot of people do law firms they'll actually Oprah uh accidents and things like that is a way to solicit business if anybody's ever gotten a ticket or an accident and then you get letters from a lawyer that's how they get it so 51% of them were for that 32% of all the OAS
filed were for real estate transactions right so it's part of the normal real estate transactions that information has to be open that's just the process right that's the legal process to do it um 11% were just
miscellaneous you know too many different categories to State what I do find Curious is that 6% 6% of all the opras that were filed last year were filed by you Mr Kelly so it averages out to three opras every two weeks so one
person responsible for 6% of all the opras uh in the town um in in the in roughly the last 20 years um it's estimated that the costs associated from these opras your 6% and lawsuits and
things like that have cost a Township in excess of one well in excess of $1 million one person that's all I'm going to say about that M no you may not um Michael alard Michael a 19 North Brookside Drive um I
didn't get a text today usually you guys send out a text at the council meeting is with the agenda so I mean majority of the time I do but it's not consistent um couple things the ordinance on the
chickens it was I don't think that was adoped tonight that was just no it was introduced so it'll be I did send some information from princet and hydro that White Middle lake solicited I had forward it to you guys I hope you uh find that informational um I heard I think down in
Allentown they got a bunch of dead geese from bird flu which any way we get rid of them is positive to me but we that's something else to consider with the chickens um garbage and recycling containers I see more and more of them
left out for days after after they're picked up or they're just left out because they don't want on a wheel that Big Barrel waste management is now given the Big Barrel I think we're going to need an ordinance it's unfortunate but either they need to have some kind of container to put the containers in like
a wooden Corral or take them certain number of feet from the curb to keep on their property so when you're driving around you're not looking at garbage containers everywhere or they're not getting blown blown over into the streets um the increase in the water
field build building that you passed this evening I'm taking that's the one in White mle Lake but what how much is the increase it says to 3 million something but it doesn't say what the increase was I don't know what if if Miss PA Mar's ready to address it during her report I would ask her to I don't know look at
that or she could address it at her report that's fine okay um the house on used to be a business it looks like a house on Mount H hope across from the mall just uh it's been boarded up for years they got Billboards
there about glasses or something the thing is a disaster it's got to be something that could be done gas yes past the Exon station right that yes yeah there's got to be something the town could do to the owner
to condemn that place it's just a disaster it looks horrible um lastly on white Meadow Road by the clubhouse by the spillway this is the second or third time we had a car coming down down the hill that drove straight and ended up in the spillway
the road turns there there's a guard rail close to the spillway but not really where the turn starts so it either needs a guard rail extended or some of those Arrow turns because what happened it was snowing they don't realize the road turns and guy just
drove straight until he went into the drain so I get a crane and get them out of there so um if somebody could look into that either way to address that would be fine that's it thank you thanks excellent is there anybody else from the
public that wishes to speak okay uh moving on to reports we are going to start with councilman Quinn okay thank you uh there was no planning board meeting uh there was no
rec committee meeting I've been working on the budget book and the budget that uh we received I've been reviewing it and sending my comments to Administration and getting answers back
on that uh Peterson Field um I've been driving by with my grandkids and uh I noticed that there's kids using these ebikes on Peterson Field um we need to
do something about that um they're going to ruin the Turf the basketball courts are crowded when no rain or snow it it's great everybody enjoys it but I don't want to see Peterson Field get tore up
so uh if Administration would look into that we'd be appreciative and I wish everybody stay safe and enjoy the nice weather that we're starting to get thank
you cman thank you uh let's see no uh Board of Commissioners meeting since our last meeting uh March 17th will be the first open space trust fund meeting setting our 2025 agenda assigning officers uh it's been about uh two weeks uh since
the mayor announced the uh the abandoned mind task force I'm hoping to hear something about an initial meeting I'd love to get that going and start looking at that make sure that everyone is safe um and finally again we're wrapping up February which is a heart month uh tomorrow is uh HCM awareness
hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and tomorrow in the hcma we'll be having their open house as we discussed at last meeting just as a reminder uh it's going to be at 66 Ford Road Suite 213 uh open housee is going to run from 400 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and I'd love to see a strong
showing from our Council and administration and the public thank you councilman vich uh I have nothing to report I just want to make a comment to you know the clerk position uh that Mr Kelly made I don't don't think this was brought up the fact that we we had I
think two or three h candidates that we're going to hire and somebody made a phone call and dissuaded them from joining our team so that was a waste of resources a waste of administration's time and uh being able to have this hire was uh I think it was a great pick councilman
freedlander we talked about turn your mic since we talked about the sink calls I just want to mind people uh Monday March 3rd uh the uh National the uh Society Historical
Society is having a continuation of the mines in the area that extend from Rockway to one and it's been pretty the first uh part was pretty interesting you can't believe how many mines that there are in this town and so we got one sinko
but there's going to be more guaranteed down the road unfort fortunately uh the substance abuse uh Alliance we had a meeting this week and they continuation of our programs you know the phase four we're doing three and four and they mentioned that in
Copeland school again uh on Thursday the end of May which I'll bring up again that's when we have uh all the uh professional athletes coming with the uh you know the class that Copeland school children so that that's pretty big and
uh Library uh just everything is uh moving along with the library uh if you want to go to any of their night programs just look on their website and they're all posted thank you councilman
Brooks thank you Council uh president I just wanted to uh again thank uh the town for giving the alerts on the road situation um I know that's very very important especially in our neck of the woods because we're right there at the turnoff and uh I know uh Fox Sals and
everyone is appreciative of that because it gets really congested so um thank you for continuing to do that and that's it councilwoman n well I was going to ask about the Mobile DMV unit but then I went on
Facebook and I saw the Mobile DMV unit is going to come in March so I'm happy about that so I don't remember the date so if the mayor can just elaborate on that thanks Council vice president um I just want to comment on Monday the
19th myself councilman vetovich Quinn and councilwoman noon all attended the moris county League of municipalities meeting um Mike Sarah the executive director of The League gave a State of the State it was um very informational very informative about bills and things
to look out for specifically about the number for the affordable housing units some updates about how other municipalities have potentially lost lawsuits um in terms of their number and the formula so it was really just a lot of information and he did a great job
and um the league did a fantastic evening that's all I have uh just to piggy back on what you said about the the Mobile DMV I I mean I recently tried getting an appointment at the DMV and it's like three months out it's April so you know if you can take
advantage of the the Mobile DMV um it's good to hear it's coming back uh I drew up by Peterson on way here and you know it was awesome I mean there was kids all over the place and I did see a a cruiser pulling in you know making sure everything was good um the lights are
working down there do they work there now like for the basketball at night or you know like where they hit the button and they stay on for a certain amount of time or does that have does that feature have to be turned on was April 1 April 1 I don't know yeah we'll check with Dave
okay I mean I know it's 30 degrees but it feels like 60 when it's been so cold lately so uh and then again my own little personal piece I'm absolutely thrilled that you know with uh Miss Wadley is our new clerk she is doing an
excellent job so thank you uh Mr yachana no report C Mr Mayor yeah I've been I can't find the Mobile DMV dates I'll have Dave get them to you I'm having issues finding them i' I've been looking on my phone uh couple of things uh number one first
one of the show I am wearing a Mount Hope fire uh shirt tonight uh to show my support for one of their volunteers um and the principal DWI School Mike McGovern um he was I think unjustly
attacked on social media over the weekend um Mike McGovern's been a lifelong servant to this community um he's the principal of dwire school um which is one of eight Blue Ribbon award-winning schools in the state and
I'm sure I can tell you from my time on the board of ed I'm sure Mrs Brooks and Mr Brooks will tell you their times on the board of ed the the school the tone of the school starts at the administrative level at the principal level and he does a great job at DWI school um and he he risks his life being
a volunteer fireman for our community so I just want to give him a shout out and give him a word of my support um we will continue to post updates as we get them from the uh do on uh on the route 80 situation there's actually a call
tomorrow that the chief and M fante will join um I think we right before the meeting we got a new update that uh the chief will post uh probably after the meeting um so we will continue to stand on top of that I only like posting the you know the formal statements they give
um it's obviously um I I breezed over the one they just issued and they're going to be doing some more Drilling and uh more testing I think at the westbound side so but there'll be a a post coming out tonight um I do want to say uh a couple things
so Board of Ed meeting um this this month at at uh Copeland was great they gave Awards out to Birchwood students it was a really nice evening um did a wedding on the 14th uh did a wedding on the 20th and then we went to the
substance abuse meeting with Manny um Les Wexler and his family do a phenomenal job um really running that organiz ation um with Todd Silverman and and everybody who volunteers Tanya is there um so it's a it's a it's a family
and it's really good um this Saturday was a busy day I think I did a post so uh one of our residents uh is going off uh he just finished basic training in the Marines and he's heading off to uh um to his next assignment we had uh Brenda bud did the Mac bowling event at
Rockway Lanes we had a good showing uh from the township and from the burrow of supporters uh the Mac the a great job helping people um in our community um and then the family scavenger hunt um that we had on Saturday went very well I
believe we had over 150 families um when I went to the mall it was a little bit of pandemonium because there were a lot of people running around with their kids getting things so I think it was a big hit so we'll continue to do events like that so Shannon uh did a great job planning and executing on that with the
mall and it was a nice partnership with the mall and we'll continue to do that um and right before um um tonight's meeting we had an incredible wedding I we probably had 40 people here so it was a a really nice event um and then I just
did want to address M stegan um the the budget that's being delivered um will have a flat Municipal tax rate um being delivered to the council um these commercial properties we're not lowering um their taxes they're appealing them and we're fighting the appeals actively
in court so and and the way they calculate their taxes are different than than a homeowner so we're doing our best to keep taxes down from a Township standpoint I think this will be the third year or fourth year in a row that we're issuing a budget to the council with a flat tax rate Municipal tax rate
so um we are we are doing everything we can we do have a business coming into town um you know the the donut it's we're going to be the dut capital of America pretty much um once they open up and I I will tell you um if you look at
other towns um around us that are putting up these huge complexes of buildings we're not doing that um we're not overdeveloping um you know I think there's a desire in Rockaway to maintain kind of our small town feeli and not and
not overdevelop every every open space we have so um I did want to say that and that's all I have for tonight okay um just if the clerk could just preemptively put me down for a yes for the ribbon cutting for the donut Miss Miss palir uh no report I just
wanted to thank the council to continue to um Supply your questions regarding the budget to me it's been working out well in the past and um I appreciate that thank you I Echo that it's been very very smooth so far Miss ronte um Mr alard will follow
up uh zoning and help will follow up on the property maintenance concerns related to the former daycare on m h um again we can't uh you know push the owner to development but we could certainly clean it up all right um like
the mayor said um dot has been very responsive in holding regular meetings um answering questions and um incorporating local concerns so if there is a concern if there is a congestion point if there is anything bring it to either engineering or the chief and uh
we could relay it up the chain two updates uh we'll be going to construction on Richard Street shortly in the Birchwood section so um be wary of detours on Richard Street in the Birchwood section and then we'll also
when mother L Nature lets us outside um maintenance and Rehabilitation of telmar Park Mr Tabit no report council president Chief I have no report just a comment
that officers enjoyed attending both events at the MC bowling event this Saturday as well as the family scavenger hunt uh was a was a good time Mr coward thanks council president
um the Mobile DMV is Tuesday March 18th 10 to2 um the other thing uh the change order um addressed on R 2539 the total amount of that change was $16,728
um and and they were some changes to the job that reflected the operational U concerns that our water director Brian here has so I'm just going to pass that to him he can talk a little about what Chang so the changes are minimal um we
added some Lockers in there for the guys that that was roughly about 8,000 um the plumbing work we actually got a Plus on that side because instead of using cast iron we saved money they went with PVC which also um we had to turn an area
into a uh laundry area um when guys are on sewer braks we really don't want them you know coming back all dirty or going home so we gave them a laundry area that they can clean up some of their jackets and everything um trying to think uh that should be mostly it was mostly the
uh the plumbing work was a save and they had to put special ventilation in for the um laundry area area yeah so that speaks to the change order um and that is it for my report Council vice president yes I apologize I forgot my note um I just wanted to thank
mayor Jackson I had reached out there was a bunch of concerns about um a lot of federal funding cuts and specifically dial ride and Meals on Wheels and we had a fantastic conversation and it was wonderful to hear the community should be reassured that in Rockway Township
Meals on Wheels will remain exactly how it's running there are no Cuts dial ride you know so we should be super lucky and grateful that our Administration has been able to make sure that's a staple in our community as an important service um and it's treated as such so again mayor Jackson thank you so much for
entertaining my phone call and answering all my questions absolutely okay great way to wrap it up I make a motion to adjourn by consensus all in favor I you a joury