e e e e I'd like to call to March 25th 2025 council meeting to order start with flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
repblic for which it stands one nation under God indis liy 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 soit here councilman Quinn here councilman Brooks here councilwoman noon here councilman salberg here councilman voitovich here Council vice president
Brooks here council president Morrison here adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the Daily Record in the official newspapers for the township of Rockway notice was posted on the official bulle Boards of Rockaway Township the township website and notice was filed in the office of the Township
Clerk approval of the March 11th Township Council regular meeting minutes can I have a motion so move second first please take the rooll councilman Freelander yes councilman sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks
yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman voitovich abstain Council vice president Brooks yes council president Morrison yes it's eight yes is one abstention motion carries at this point I'm going to turn the meeting over to Mayor
Jackson excuse my back as always thank you council president um it's always a thrill uh to be able to honor one of our Educators um at a council meeting or or anywhere so car Carly can you come up so Carly Farrell's a teacher at um DWI
Elementary School um again a incredible School a blue ribbon award-winning school one of only eight in the State uh grade schools Carly grew up in White Middle lake went to dbo I'm sorry DWI went to dwire and still wanted to come
back and be a teacher there um she graduated from Rowan University um Carly's done some incredible things she's participa in the tre's market for the schools um during covid she participated in a summer read created a summer reading program to keep students engaged um and it's just she's just all
around the type of teacher we want in our district at uh one of our best schools in our district in my opinion so I want to give a proclamation I'm not going to read through the whole thing because I already talked about a lot of it but I'd like to say whereas Carly far Farrell is is one of four recipients of the shine educator of the Year Award
presented by Child and Family Resources whose purpose is to acknowledge Educators who exemplified a spirit of their mission and values whose professional practice and advocacy for professionalism are deemed exemplary now therefore I mayor Joe Jackson wish to
extend my heartfelt congratulations to Carly farell on receiving this prestigious award and thank her for commitment to enriching the lives of the students of Katherine a DWI Elementary School [Applause] so um it's great to have a lot of dwire
teachers here um Carly's parents are here if you sit next to her father for 10 minutes he's probably going to know somebody that knows you um I I sat next to him at the dinner and was sure right long so thank you Carly for all you do
thank you does Mom and Dad want a picture with the mayor before we does Mom and Dad want a picture with the mayor with we get yeah come on up do it now they're still proud of you it's okay I think I took the same picture in fifth
grade from di we got to reoun thank you everyone for bearing with [Applause] us okay um we're going to move on to the introduction of the 2025 Municipal budget before we do this um there is one
um one motion that we need to correct it was a procedural um it was a procedural issue we had at the last uh at the budget meeting so I need to I'd like to make a motion to modify the 2025 budget as presented and transfer $10,000 from the ice hockey sub
account 28 37145 to Babe Ruth baseball sub account 28 37135 for $548 and to senior Babe Ruth baseball sub account for uh account number 2837 136 for
$451 um the numbers balanced out there is there's no material change so the motion is on the table can I have a second second clerk please take the word councilman Freelander yes councilman sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks abstain councilwoman
noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman vich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president Morrison yes that is nine yes is motion carries eight motions sorry
one abstention um all right uh introduction of the 2025 Municipal budget uh 02504 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and establish a cap Bank can I have a
motion so moved second clerk please take councilman free Lander yes councilman sacket yes councilman Quinn yes Council Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg
yes councilman voich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president marrison yes it's nine yeses motion carries resolution R 2558 a resolution introduce the 2025 Municipal budget of the township of Rockaway in the county of moris can I have a motion don't move
second councilman Freelander yes councilman sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman n yes councilman salberg yes councilman voich yes Council vice president Brooks
yes council president Morrison yes it's nine yes's motion carries uh resolution R 2559 resolution to cancel The Reserve balance can I have a motion so move second councilman Freelander yes Council M sacket yes councilman Quinn yes
councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman voich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president marrison yes it's nine yeses motion carries um before we introduce the resolution to go into
close session I am going to move uh item R 2555 up uh resolution confirming the appointment of the municipal judge of the township of Rockaway can I have a second second I'm sorry I need a motion and a
second I'll make the motion uh second councilman Freelander yes councilman sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salber yes councilman
voitovich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president marrison yes that's nine yes's motion carries congratulations uh okay um in a second I'm going to introduce a resolution for the council to go into a closed session
uh what will happen for those who are not familiar with the council we will'll leave the chambers here uh I anticipate it to be no longer than 30 minutes should it be longer than 30 minutes I will send the clerk back out to inform everybody uh at that point we will come back out and continue the
meeting uh resolution R 2560 a resolution authorizing an executive Clos session in accordance with the New Jersey open public meetings act to discuss pending and anticipated litigation can I have a motion so move second please take the RO councilman
Freelander yes councilman sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman boyovich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president marrison yes that's
sign yes as motion carries I'll see everybody in the conference room s 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 for [Music] okay I'd like to make a motion to return from close session can I have a second
second clerk please take the roll councilman Freelander yes councilman sck yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman alberg yes Council vich yes
Council vice president Brooks yes council president marrison yes that's nine yes's motion carries ordinances for introduction 0255 an ordinance fixing the salaries of various officials and contractual employees of the township of rock in the county of Mars and I have a
motion so move second councilman fre Lander yes councilman socket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes Council noon yes councilman salberg yes
councilman voich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president Morrison yes that's nine yes as motion carries ordinance 0256 an ordinance fixing the salaries of various officials and non-contractual employees of the township of Rockway and County of moris
can I have a motion so move second councilman Freelander yes councilman sacket yes Council Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman
vich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president Morrison yes the nine yes is motion carries uh okay before this next ordinance that we introduce this uh deals with the citizens direct committee I know there's been a lot of questions I've had a lot of people from the public reach out to
me um this is really going to be covered in two parts there's an ordinance we're introducing now which I'll read in a second and then later in this meeting there is a resolution so just to explain to everybody uh what is happening so the ordinance that we're going to be
introducing in a second here um repeals the citizens rep committee all right so right now the citizens Rec committee is a committee of um private citizens uh that make recommendations um based on the code of
conduct for the sports leags that we have right so the it's problematic for the town in that through enforcing or trying to enforce a code of conduct when the CRC doesn't actually have standing to do so
could put the town into a a liability situation okay so what we're doing here in this ordinance is we're going to be repealing that and removing the CRC there is a resolution later in this meeting which I will read which returns
back to leagues the ability to self-govern um we are not removing insurance right so we're actually the the coaches and staff of these sports leagues will actually be in a better position they will be insured whereas they are personally not now um the
resolution later will stipulate that these leagues will need to create and initiate and submit to the town a code of conduct which will then be submitted to GIF or the insurance uh company uh the insurance company will approve it
or send it back but you know we'll make sure it's Square so the insurance company will approve it at that point the leagues will self-govern um what what it does is it it it cuts the link between the town and the teams whereas no link should
actually exist okay uh it doesn't touch we we pass the budget they they have their funding it doesn't touch that all right so I just want to be clear on that okay ordinance 0257 and ordinance repealing chapter 2 article 8 section
2-38 entitled Youth Sports code of conduct and section 2-40 entitled citizens Recreation committee can I have a motion so moved second clerk please take the role
councilman Freelander yes councilman saet no councilman Quinn no councilman Brooks I have to councilwoman noon yes councilman S
no councilman voich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president Morrison yes that's five yes's three NOS one exstension motion carries o 2508 Bond ordinance appropriating
4,286 375 and authorizing the issuance of $1,821 1,821 585 bonds or notes of the township for various improvements or purposes authorized to be undertaken by the township of Rockway in the county of
Morris New Jersey can I have a motion so move second clerk please take the RO councilman Freelander yes councilman sacket yes 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 nine yes's motion carries o 2509 B ordinance appropriating $1,629 th000 and authorizing the
issuance of 1, 54755 dollars bonds or notes of the township for various improvements or purposes authorized to be undertaken in and by the township of rockco in the county of Mars New Jersey for the water supply and distribution system of the township can I have a motion so move
second clerk please take the rooll councilman Freelander yes councilman zet yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman voich yes Council vice president Brooks yes
council president Morrison yes that's nine yes this motion carries o 2510 Bond ordinance providing for the acquisition of a new sewer vacuum truck by the township of Rocko in the county of Morris New Jersey appropriating 5 $64,000 therefore in authorizing the
issuance of $535,500 bonds or notes of Township for financing such appropriation can I have a motion so move second clerk please take the role councilman Freelander yes councilman Zak yes councilman Quinn yes
councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman voitovich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president Mars yes it's nine yes this motion carries uh the other thing I forgot to mention was uh we just introduced the the ordinance
with the CRC at the next meeting we will be adopting it at which point it will be open for uh public comment and discussion ordinance is for adoption an ordinance o 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 I'm sorry before we have the motion we are
going to open it up to uh Council discussion on this matter councilman Brooks okay so thank you council president um just wanted to start out uh and give everybody a little
bit of clarity it of why this ordinance was originally brought forth about a year ago um in our in our ordinance committee uh we had several uh residents over the last uh several years uh reach out to us in regards to uh the keeping
of uh chickens on their property and um in doing research uh there was a lot of um I don't want to say mixed emotions but there's uh mixed confusion within the existing law So based upon that uh
confusion we were looking into setting something straight so this way it was established and on the books just pertaining to one particular uh Chicken in that sense not so much one
chicken but just in chickens in general the existing um zoning ordinance talks about poultry which is different than what a chicken is okay in in the definition from what our ordinance is and that is where we were originally looking to
establish this uh this way we had guidelines in terms of what kind of property the size of the property the amount of chickens that you had and everything else along those lines okay uh our town does have a right to farm ordinance okay it's
54-31 okay and that's the right to farm and that is only allowed to be done [Music] on properties within the R5 the r88 and the R40 Zone and having more than five
acres so at that point we were looking to possibly change that so this way it would open the opportunity up for more people because that was what the request was um I was put on that committee having knowledge of chickens the reason why I
have knowledge of chickens is because I have pet chickens on my property I've had pet chickens on my property for about 14 years in this town okay I went to the town when I originally purchased the property and asked if I was able to
have pet chickens and I was told I could have pet chickens on my property because I did not violate any of the laws pertaining to the chickens the chickens here just to say
is associated with poultry and just to give you a little definition and a little bit background BBE about myself I am an architect okay one of my biggest things as an architect that I do is I examine zoning ordinances okay and doing
so I'm able to look at each different piece of property or each different project that somebody has and be able to determine what you can or can't do on your piece of property and like a rule book in baseball or hockey or any other sport a zoning or it's kind of runs the
same way it's not cut and dry there's interpretations thus the reason we have lawyers and you go to court and and you look at your interpretation and see what you have so just to kind of give you a little rundown in our chapter nine Animal
Control section of the code okay we have certain things called definitions okay one of those definitions is poultry poultry is something that is discussed in the zoning and the agricultural activities within the right to farm in
rockco Township okay this includes chickens Ducks geese turkeys guinea fowl pigeons and any other foul commonly kept raised and sold for human consumption that is the key word there human consumption that is what poultry is okay
a chicken doesn't necessarily need to be considered poultry okay a chicken is a domesticated animal all right which are code allows as pets a domesticated animal is kept for amusement or
companionship doesn't say a dog it doesn't say a cat it says a pet is a domesticated animal as you can see here these are all different domesticated animals that we are currently have in
our country okay chicken is one of them a horse is one of them a deer is not a domesticated animal okay a pig is a domesticated animal you can have a pet
pig okay now with that being said I had a pet pig P councilman yes he had a pet pig all right so those are the things that are sitting there for for someone to look at the Town allows people to
have pets okay what so you won't let me go through my whole Spiel I have a time frame a little bit of a time all right fine I'm I'm just going to sum it up real quick all right based on our town ordinance we
currently have there is discrepancy between things that have happened in years past and things that happened now and I think the ordinance was trying to correct that so that there wasn't misconceptions and lawsuits okay the last thing I want to
say is there are over 11 million households in the United States that have chickens as pets it is the third most popular pet in the country and I'll end it it there even though I had a lot more to talk about but we'll leave it at that anyone else on the
council yeah yeah I would like to add to that I mean uh just like councilman Brooks said uh you know a lot of residents have emailed us in support of this ordinance a lot of residents have personally spoken to me to me saying that uh other
municipalities in the surrounding area allow uh people to have backyard chickens why can't we and that's why this BR this was brought to the council to uh allow residents to have chickens now the planning board issued a letter stating that you know this is in
violation of a master plan but looking over the master plan which was updated last in 2019 you know the plan talks about references Community uh Community needs social economic trends that the community uh uh welcomes and this is something that is
going on in this state throughout the country uh I don't see why we wouldn't allow our res residents to own chickens backyard chickens uh the planning board uh has referenced New Jersey land use uh law and defined a master plan as a
written proposal they're trying to uh state that we can't support this based on a recommendation but again it's a recommendation from them and it's St in the letter from the planning board that uh the governing body when considering the adoption of a development regulation
revision or Amendment thereto shall review the report of the planning board and may disapprove or change any recommendations by a vote of majority so I think a lot of residents uh expressed support for this ordinance uh
I would think that the the council would support her as well uh you have a most congested City to state in the Jersey like jerse City that allows people to own chickens and I haven't seen any reports of anybody dying from influenza or anything like that so uh I would
definitely be in support of this ordinance anyone else anyone else from the counc councilwoman Brooks so I asked a few questions to the administration in regards to this ordinance so my biggest thing is enforcement right so um and I
want to thank everyone in all the Departments for chiming in and answering my questions in such detail so just so everyone knows Danville you have to have five acres to have chickens so the surrounding towns really don't have
backyard chickens and allowing to have chickens on a half of acre we would have an eligible 1,854 lots that would be eligible to have backyard chickens if 10% of those residents chose to have chicken
and depending on their lot size but we're going to keep it simple the minimum lot size can have four you're looking at roughly 750 chickens so my concern simply is enforcement we then talk about private communities than
having to state that if they don't want the chickens they have to create rules within their own Community to Trump the ordinance and I may ask legal if that's correct in my interpretation of that if they choose to do that are we as the
township then also required to help them enforce their rule to say no to the chicken so for example white meal lake so I've only received three emails from three residents in terms of wanting backyard chickens I've received multiple
concerns about them in general and people are not in favor of them so I'm just trying to understand where the community truly is in terms of is there truly need or desire for this when I see a lot of concern about how we would
enforce it this ordinance goes into a lot of depth which I feel will put a lot of um uh stress on the Departments to enforce it so uh Mr talbet knows I'm going to probably ask we have currently
dog and cat licenses correct correct counil we are not requiring people to license their chickens yes is that a question yes sorry I'm sorry this ordinance isn't requiring that so if abandonment is
illegal or prohibited within the ordinance and there's just chickens running around how do I say that's Tim's chicken and how like how do we how do we do that right I just feel like it's a lot of burden on the community the
administration for people's chickens potentially just to be loose and I know it sounds so silly and I feel silly saying it um I think the concept is cool don't get me wrong but I think realistically and the enforcement from the
township is it's really it's unrealistic and I think it's potentially putting us in a bad spot so how many dog and cat licenses are still expired roughly even though I know you probably know like a number because you're so
good um councilwoman we have several hundred at this point out of 3,700 licensed dogs and cats I don't know the precise number probably more than 600 at this point are still unlicensed or expired that were to be Li relicensed by
January 31st okay so again we can't get residents to renew their dog licenses or their cat licenses we're not requiring them to license chickens if the chicken gets sick it also states that it needs to be reported to the health department
I just I just feel like there's a lot of work put on the administration and the enforcement of it that's just unrealistic so that's all I have anyone else from the council I just want to say um did to
what councilwoman Brooks says I and I'm just going to say what I've said from the beginning I'm not against chickens I just feel like we need to just cut it down gradually go from 5 to three not five to a half an acre I think that's really irresponsible and and I think puts a lot of pressure on Administration
that they don't need there are stipulations in the ordinance that would determine um the placement of the chicken coops and such that would effectively eliminate a lot of the lot sizes so the lot sizes may be
small however to follow the ordinances of how big the coupe needs to be as far as setbacks far away from property lines it would effectively exclude a large portion of those smaller acreage um houses so it's not a free-for all um I also again my personal feeling is
that once this ordinance is if it passes there's not a whole bunch of people like waiting to race off you know to Tractor Supply to buy some chickens if they wanted chickens they already have chickens this just gives us some framework to enforce it um councilwoman
Brooks and I tend to agree on most things but in a case like this you know I don't want to not put something out there for fear that we won't be able to enforce it by that thinking we wouldn't need the ordinance because we couldn't enforce not having chickens right so that's just my two
sons councilman yeah um just to go back not go back but rebuttal some of the things that uh Council Brooks said uh you know I'm not concerned with enforcement uh I'm not a
u believer in um big government so to worry about licensing all of that I I think that allowing people to own chicken it's not that big of a deal and uh just from my own experience if a chicken stays out at night nature will
take care of it you won't find it the next morning so I don't see any any chickens roam around for days or months because there's plenty of U Critters out there they will take care of that for you and same thing applies to this disposal of those chickens if it's out there something we'll pick it
up okay is there anybody from the administration that wishes speak say one more thing hang on because I don't want to do a anybody from go tce anybody from the administration okay councilwoman um also when we introduce
this and Mr alard is not here Mr allardi brought a help me out from Princeton about the water the the the water so did anybody look into that from Administration or have any comments I would stipulate that the runoff from the fertilizer around the lake is a order of
magnitude greater than a handful of chickens that Mary may not live near the lake if you ever lived on Lake a PAC they don't let you have fertilizer but they let you have chicken manure so um okay now we are going to open this up to public comment um I am going to read this this I normally read this
before the regular open to the public session but it Bears reading now uh 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 ordinance 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 rule rules are necessary to permit the council to do its business in an orderly and professional manner is there anybody from the public that wishes to speak on this ordinance please state your name and
address for the record hello everybody uh my name is Tucker Kelly 16 Megan Road Rockway New Jersey uh first before you hit the the timer uh Mr salberg I I'm glad to see that you're back and I hope you're feeling better from your incident you had at the budget meeting um what we
what we've had here today I haven't heard anything from anybody in regards to the report or even the complete report from the planning board from Mrs Platz it just wasn't something very small Mr wobic that she mentioned it was multiple Pages addressing a lot of the issues and concerns Wildlife dead
animals flu enforcement and so forth and so on so just giving a small narrative I don't think that's something that's rational we also have an engineer we also have our our health specialists here that both don't want the chicken ordinance that's there or that's here before us but one thing I don't hear is that you know in Rockway Township in our
inventory that we have we have 8,900 homes residential homes and 24 out of that 8,900 are farms so you're telling me that we have maybe a few people that had an interest in it but I haven't heard that there's thousands of people that are interested in having a chicken or chicken ordinances that are there but
interesting though one thing is that this all started which everybody seems that this is like the elephant in the room that M wants to talk about councilman Brooks contacted through the ordinance committee I'm not talking directly I'm asking you to stop you're out of line we are not addressing any
personal situations Council this is your first warning I am telling you I'm talking to the council i' asking questions you stated that in your statement before coming up to the open public you are not to bring up any individual council members or any of their personal situations outside of their Council perview this is your
warning Mr Morrison we have an issue because you originally said that the individual was conflicted out because of the issues that have been going on with that individual personally councilman Brooks we have summonses on a council member for violating the chicken
ordinance and farming all right I'm going to ask you to sit down your time is Rec so with that being time is revoked this is your second warning I I warned you not to bring up individual council members any issues that they have with with violations that have nothing to do with an the perview with
the council I am asking you to return to your seat and this is your second warning I'm telling you I'm asking you to reconsider and then I can go forward on the rest of what I have to say during this period of time my answer is no please sit down is there anybody else from the public that wishes to speak on this
matter okay now 02501 an ordinance amending chapter 54 entitled land use and development of the code of the township of Rockaway to amend its regulations pertaining to the raising and keeping of chickens on residential property can I have a motion so
moved I'll second it clerk please take the role councilman Freelander yes councilman saaki yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks abstain councilwoman no no councilman salberg
yes councilman voitovich yes Council vice president Brooks no council president Morrison yes six yeses two NOS one of exstension motion carries 0252 an ordinance amending chapter chapter 54 entitled land use and development of the code of the township
of Rockway creating a new section 54-30 71 en titled RMF 12b hospitality and affordable multif family residential overlay District uh I need to make a motion to carry this over to the April 22nd meeting due to with necessity to
provide uh notice to the office of planning advocacy so that is my motion do I have a second I'll second it CL please take the role councilman Freelander yes councilman sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman
new yes councilman salber yes councilman boyovich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president Morrison yes that's nine yes as motion carries ordinance 02503 ordinance amending chapter 7 Article 2 of the revised ordinances of the township of
Rockway in order to amend ordinances section 666 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
on the official tax map of Rockaway township is blocked 11501 Lots 41 45 4701 and 4702 and block 11502 lot two can I have a motion so moved second is there any Council
discussion on this ordinance anybody from the public wishes to speak on this ordinance clerk please take the role councilman Freelander yes councilman saket yes councilman Quinn yes
councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salberg yes councilman Vo toich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president marrison yes that's nine yes this motion carries um all right we have the consent theetta coming up however I am going to read the
one resolution uh regarding the uh the uh the sports leagues that we were just talking about um what you sayot we no no we'll we we vote on we are going to vote on everything together but I just want read this one out loud
for the benefit of the public um uh it's resolution r261 a resolution establishing certain qualifying sports leagues teams groups as class four quasi Municipal entities and authorizing the provision of commercial general liability and non-owned automobile
insurance coverage to such leagues teams groups and their volunteers you were going to make a motion councilwoman yes I'd like to make a motion to pull R 25-61 for discussion second clerk please take the
role Council Mander yes Council M sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salber yes councilman bovich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president marrison yes it's 9
yes it's motion carries all right we are going to vote on the three remaining uh resolutions r254 R 2556 and r257 can I have a motion so move second clerk please take the RO councilman
Freelander yes councilman sacket yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman salber yes councilman voy toich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president Morrison yes 9 yes's
motion carries councilwoman noon floor is yours okay so with the introduction of r2507 which was introduced if it does not pass when we at the next meeting what happens to R
2561 are we putting the court before the horse is she good question R20 as I explained to the council R 2561 is in effect the mechanical component of the changes
envisioned by the ordinance that has been moved for introduction and passed for introduction tonight it it is an essential part of the package uh in the event that the ordinance itself does not pass uh my recommendation to the council
at that time May be to table this for further consideration but uh I'm really not very good at being a fortune teller so my suggestion the council would be uh let's wait to see what happens with the ordinance this particular resolution as
its title suggests um has F first identifies all of the eligible leagues teams groups that would be CL classified as quaz Municipal
entities uh and therefore subject to being insured through the GIF for the programs they maintain the uh insurance would include uh all the teams and the
volunteers that run and or administer the teams uh it is intended as is the ordinance to move the township away from the liability
Target position that it is presently in considering the way these effectively independent athletic teams groups uh leagues operate which needlessly exposes
the township to liability uh so that what what this really is as I said earlier is the hammer saw Nails Etc that build the house that
the ordinance constitutes the plans for that's the best way I could describe it to you any other Council discussion on this resolution Okay resolution 2561 can I have a
motion so moved I'll second clerk please take the RO councilman Freelander yes councilman second no council mcquinn see and I haven't even read it
no councilman Brooks I have to abstain councilwoman noon I'm gonna abstain councilman salberg no councilman voy toich yes Council vice president Brooks yes
council president marrison yes four yeses three NOS two extensions is a majority of the count do we need five or four for that if it's four to three five you need five yeah okay motion does not pass
okay we are going to move to the open to the public portion I'll ask everybody to remember what I read into the record earlier as far as the Quorum that's expected I'm going to read down this list I will ask you to step up to the
front you'll State your uh your name and address for the record and then you'll have three minutes Evelyn Stark we don't start your three minutes till you get up here it's okay just evening name and address please my name is Evelyn Stark and I
live in 15 Rono Avenue in white meal Lake I come here to please thank you to the mayor for the dial right program especially for us seniors that don't
drive is absolutely a great service but they are coming there are some changes in this program that are affecting us the seniors one of those programs right now is that we need to use our
computer to put our appoint appointments not all of us and I have to say I am one I am no s see with the computers thank God that my husband is so I do prefer to
call and took somebody on the office to put my appointment on time it is sometimes very hard because now the appointments are two weeks I have the experience to have cataract
surgery when to my doctor and he wanted to see me the following week so I called the office and they told me that it was in two weeks I said but I need to see him next
week so thank God that the program has wonderful drivers that some of them put it good for me that I needed to go it was an emergency that I needed to go to the
doctor I think we had before we have a great absolutely very good program and I think we should go back into that program that Not only was going to appointments for the doctors was also
going of course we're going to shop right I understand that the main it is going the appointments to the doctors but also we used to go as a social we used to get together to go to out for
lunch or breakfast and I think we we should go back to that thank you very much could I address just while you're here thank you for coming up and your concerns um so the the option to call and book your appointments is still
there so if you can't use a computer you can do that you can have somebody call um the two- week notice has always been the rule we try to accommodate quicker but it's always been the rule you've always been required to give two weeks notice um yeah but it used to be before
that we used to call and it was possible that we can have it before he if and if and if it is possible we do it we will accommodate it but it's always been the rule I can't say why things weren't en forced before but it was it's always been the rule as long as I've known the
dialite program but but we we will accommodate it whenever we can to do it within within two weeks it's possible to change it in a sense that it's an emercy will be done so it's a free service that we provide our residents we do our best to accommodate everybody's needs but the
schedule is built out two weeks so to build to put somebody in the schedule's packed for two weeks it's hard to put somebody in if we can do it we will but it's but it's but it's hard and I thought we did I I thought we were still doing periodically social things so if
we're not I'll find out about that but I thought we were doing that I thought we we're still going to shop right right now is only into going into one that is the red we used to go and I said it again when we used to call the office and maybe you absolutely correct maor
that maybe was two weeks but we used to have somebody in that office that used to say let me see what I can do let me even though when we finished our appointment before time that we called the office and we used to call the
office and he says well I canot let me see if they somebody can pick you up right away as soon as possible it is some changes May really that are becoming a little bit harder for us yeah Mr Mayor there's there I'm sorry
there's probably an opportunity to do a separate session you know question and answer with the mayor but absolutely you know you can call in and we'll we'll try to accommodate whatever we can thank you Jackie Bader I
like um I'm going to be here with um two other Representatives um my name is Jackie Bader 129 Richard Mine Road Dober mailing but Rockway Township um the other two people with me here I'm going to be also they we're going to be
speaking together I'm going to be speaking so do you want them to introduce themselves no you can speak okay um so my name my name is Jackie Bader I am the chair of the rtcc the recreation committee that was just I guess up for
abolishment and this is Tom Warner and Pat Egan uh there are some other members that could not be here tonight because we did not know this was going to be on the docket for tonight so therefore we couldn't all be here um we I would like to clarify that we would just like to be
involved in helping to make informed decision decisions on taking away this committee and any bylaws and code of conduct um changes that are being made or discussed um with this ordinance
0257 um that was just not pushed forward but just to explain a little more um not all of the organizations have proper bylaws um no less updated ones um we've spent the last 12 months working on
creating a template of bylaws so that all organizations can have updated and relevant to today's environment a lot of um the bylaws have been at least 10 to 15 years old so we see because we see all of the issues that come before our
board which is another question in here is who's going to solve the issues when it gets moved to the next level when these people are not happy with what's going on at their current organization um they come to us for recommendations
we cannot rule on anything we only make recommendations and we confirm if they have followed bylaws and our code of conduct through rck Township our sole reason for doing all this as an organization we're volunteers just like
a lot of other organizations is we do this for the kids to keep them safe have equal opportunities in a recreation Sport and a fun environment in this town we want to keep them out of the mall and causing havoc and all of these other things we
want them to be in an environment that our community promotes um I'm not going to read the whole thing I did email the Town Council mayor and administration a very long and lengthy email explaining
how um removing the code of conduct and removing the committee can make other issues um um as well as um supporting our volunteers by pushing this to the level of um making the code of conduct
be within the bylaws you're making it harder for volunteer I get so me if if the gentleman wish to concede theirt time to you okay 59 all right by removing the code of
conduct it puts a greater strain on volunteers to enforce the wall enforce the rules without backing and potentially leading to inconsistent discipline and increased conflict within programs we have a hard enough time to get board members on any of these
committees and and organizations no less for them to be updating bylaws and code of conduct and then enforcing it and then what do they do when it doesn't work and they have to move to the next level there is no more Next Level now it's what do they meet with your council do they meet with the mayor who do they
meet with and how does that work um we're trying to prevent um the organizations to feel being feeling that they're not backed because they don't have somewhere else to go to ask questions to we field questions all the
time on trying to explain things we go for here and understand what one organization is having issues with and we explain it to the other organizations you know even little things like now social media you know social media we in our new promote our new thing that we've been putting together for our
recommendations of code of conduct we have a whole social media clause on how you cannot talk bad about a coach or another parent on social media like that is something that is unfortunate and people are very nasty and put it out there so we as a committee have put
together all these things again we're volunteers this is not a paying job like we're doing this out of the kindness of our heart because we're trying to make a better environment for our children and as everybody can see on the news and everything else these days is parents are being more aggressive children
sometimes are being more aggressive you need to have something backing it and people to explain maybe we're not lawyers but we can at least explain what's happening in one area and hey maybe you want to update your bylaws maybe you guys want to get to this
before it happens in your your organization and that's what we do we literally you know we hear a lot a lot of complaints and we try and help um all right so um I would like to put my email yes we want to help everyone
out we do not want to make more issues if you would like to be want us to be involved in making those you know some new resolution to you know even if it is removing us if it works better for the kids that's what we're here for um but I
would like to make a motion to put my email into the meeting minutes and is it the same one you sent earlier I'll I'll make sure it's okay because it's a long three-page email and nobody really wants to all hear it again but I'd like to make a mo motion to put it in there um
that's it right okay all thank you thanks on a side note I know the three of you not just here but do a lot of extensive volunteer Accords to town so thank you thank you okay Dan haer you have to follow that now yeah right
Lu I am not good at public speaking which is why I have this uh this is my wife Nikki I'm Dan we live at 290 Richard Mine Road in Hell basically right now yeah and uh I just want to express some concerns that we have at the moment we appreciate the opportunity
to voice our deep concerns regarding a matter of urgent importance to our community we live on Lower richardm Road right smack in the thick of it we are here to address the growing safety and infrastructure issues caused by excessive traffic and hazardous conditions stemming from I80 and the
surrounding roads these issues are not just inconveniences they pose serious risks to our residents our children and even our emergency response teames at this point we do not feel safe and supported in any way whatsoever and we believe immediate action is necessary
here are our concerns traffic violations and safety concerns excessive speeding the posted 25 mph speed limit is routinely ignored with drivers frequently exceeding 50 m hour no joke there especially during off
peak hours when roads are clear massive semi- trucks and weight issues residential roads are not designed to handle the constant influx of massive semi- trucks the excessive weight is causing road damage creating safety hazards and further contributing to traffic congestion dangerous living
conditions Interstate level traffic at our doorstep has made it unsafe to enjoy our own property we no longer feel comfortable due to the persistent danger of speeding Vehicles threat to children's safety retrieving objects from the road has become life-threatening Additionally the presence of unknown individuals
including potential sex offenders for prolonged periods raises serious concerns of ours infrastructure strain and deterioration our roads were not built to handle this level of traffic and we are seeing worsening conditions that make travel even more
hazardous try to hurry up impact on school School transportation severe delays School transportation is consistently delayed by 45 to 90 minutes for routes that should take no more than 15 minutes harmful effects on children these delays contribute to sensory overload communication struggles and
increase social anxiety among the students environmental and public health hazards severe air pollution constant traffic congestion and idling Vehicles generate harmful emissions increasing the risk of respiratory illness asthma and long-term Health complication for
residents particularly children and Sen yeah it's smelling diesel all day long is not not fun excessive noise excessive noise pollution the non-stop Roar of highspeed traffic honking Extremely Loud Music 247 um and heavy truck activity have
made it nearly impossible for residents to enjoy their homes in peace imagine this taking place 247 well this is our reality and everybody else on Richard M right now um illegal dumping and public sanitation issues the amount of trash
alongside our road is embarrassing and disgusting these commuters have turned our community into un an unsanitary and unsafe environment can I use her three minutes and it's I'm almost done I'm almost done uh structural and economic concerns
compromised areas near Richard mine the structural Integrity of certain areas poses a risk to homes and businesses potentially leading to devastating consequences road damage and infrastructure strain heavy semi- trucks are significantly deteriorating residential roads leading to increased
maintenance cost and hazardous driving conditions infrastructure strain and deterioration our roads were not built to handle this level of traffic and we are seeing worsening condition that make TR did we do this already oh that make travel even more hazardous declining property values the persistent hazards
and deteriorating conditions are negatively impacting property values and quality of life last page some proposed Solutions and immediate actions that we ask for weight restrictions for the large vehicles and for strict weight limits on
residential roads to reduce infrastructure damage and improve safety improved emergency vehicle access current traffic conditions severely hinder emergency response putting lives at risk it's a it's a pretty dangerous situation increased law enforcement presence
regular police patrols and speed enforcement cameras should be implemented to ensure compliance with traffic laws how about a sign on Route 80 before the Mount Hope exit notifying truckers that no trucks are allowed because apparently they don't know how to read yeah and it's it's a problem
it's bad um and I know this is way farfetched but possibly opening up the back entrance to Pik atini and letting them deal with the traffic now it sounds crazy but we're just trying to think outside anything speaking for all of us it is a living nightmare for all of us
school is five minutes away he came home he gets out of school at 5:15 he came home 315 4 I'm sorry yeah 3:15 he came home on Friday at 4:45 that's a long day for these kids I already take him to school every every
day because of the blessing situation but now I also have to him up I'd rather him be in the bus with me or I'm sorry in the car with me than sit in the bus for an hour and a perhaps getting state aid would help I I believe we need state aid at this point because it's and
listen I don't want to I don't want to speak for administration I'm sure one of them is going to cover this in their reports okay I I think I don't want to dissuade anybody else from speaking but I'm sure there going to be other people yeah so I if it's possible right so um first all you did a great job you say you don't good at public speaking I'm
not good at public you guys make a good team by yeah you make good team right I just want to state that I felt like me and my wife she was like you didn't read this you didn't read that yeah no that was good but but I I couldn't agree more what you said I can't even imagine what you're all going through so I just want to go through a few things okay um
number one um we currently do have do message boards at um for Exit 37 and 35 it says no through trucks local delivery only and message boards at the intersection of Mount Hope Road and Mount Hope AB North directing traffic with a left Arrow to Route 80 and 15 a
message board is at the intersection of Mount Hope AV and Richard Mine Road with an arrow to Route 15 no trucks another message board on Mount uh Road by the pond uh Mount Road by the pond no pick any through traffic the Traffic Division
has been rotating the message trailers as recharging is necessary officers have been checking the areas dealing with increased accidents on Route 15 as well as there have been several Road raid incidents as you can imagine um ptin has granted access for police fire and EMS
to enter the Army gate at Mount hopen Lake Denmark to quickly access Pond View States on Route 15 um you know we're continuing working at today I had a conversation with Senator Buco for just what you said state aid we need help like so they're they're looking at
businesses in Roxberry and Wharton and I said our biggest issue is is Richard Mine Road and we need support from the state to resolve the issues on Richard Mine Road so I did convey that and I deferred to the chief now there was a call today if you want to give any updates
Chief yeah good evening uh just additionally to to the comments that the mayor had made one of the other things in today's meeting with the NJ do first of all I would Direct everybody directly to their website uh for all the updates they also have a rude 80 specific web
page I sent that out uh in the last on 321 I sent out an update a PDF that had a a web page link to that specifically for the I80 uh and as you said this is a state of emergency for for for New Jersey right it's unprecedented where uh
Interstate 80 has stopped and it impacts negatively all the surrounding communities uh and everybody is trying to make their way as such one of the things that came to light in today's uh meeting was they have been working hand
inand with all of the uh digital messaging apps uh W ways Google all right and what they have done is they have uh they're trying to work with the algorithms uh to in fact make the detour
routes the priority routes given out on all of those applications uh so uh some of them you can already pull up where they where they've shown for example restricted access as a a thorough Fair through pitini uh so those things Richard might
Ro so one of the the three things that they are definitely removing from those apps Snak Hill Road Richard Mine Road and the Mount Hope gate access to pck atiny so all that traffic doesn't go up uh to pick atini all right as well as all local messaging that we currently
have to regulate the traffic in those areas nobody nobody's nobody I understand you guys are probably working super hard but just to maybe at the top of the road andic can sorry periodically there is an officer at the corner of Mount Hope yes
and Richard periodic all the time and that's what I'm trying to reach out to the state like we need a trooper we need a trooper station there yeah and that's what I've asked for yeah it's I I can't even imagine well also just so you would know
for a commercial Trucking the NJ do aside from just those apps that everybody's aware they also have digital messaging directly with commercial Trucking right so they have another means in which to get that message out as long as well as the mayor mentioned
those two digital uh signs that are both at Exit 37 and 35 to tell that it's local delivery only and not truck through traffic so I I I don't want to I I really feel like we're getting sideline a little bit um I don't want to take
away from anybody else's time that will be available uh listen it's unfortunate what happened you know uh rude 80 closed with sinkle not on my bingo card you know but I I certainly you know I I wish you guys can see what we see all the work that's going into it um everything
that you're saying they they hear you we hear you right and believe me the chief and the mayor and the administration are working hard on everything that you stated so when did we come back for a followup hopefully you won't need a follow up by I feel a lot better I would
feel a lot better someh control up at the top okay so I'll I'll ask I'll ask the chief everybody here will will have their own report and I'm sure the chief and the mayor has additional information and I I do want to let you know on Saturday I punished myself and
intentionally drove and it just to see it's I know well and I I didn't go on Richard Mine Road because I thought I'm just gonna increase the problem but the the issue I saw that I told the state is that when you're coming off 80 and getting on 15 all those people getting off Richard Mine Road are
cutting across three lanes of traffic to get and and that's to me the biggest thing that's causing the 80 traffic and they need to Fig like the state needs to help us figure I can't even imagine so I any anything again guys focused on it
we're working on I I don't want to get sidelined we still have a lot to go over thank you thank you FS next meeting's two weeks if I could if I could make it happen now we would uh apologies for butchering some
of these names Joe alen that's you you good okay I don't want to make you walk back um Beth tomon Tom
sorry okay you're you're going to do fine they did fine they wa we're nervous too uh just state your name and address please that thumpster 13 Henry Street go ahead uh it's in reference um the dollar ey which is amazing
program I'm here 58 years and I've used it only maybe the last seven years and it's amazing a lot of things have changed from when it started you do have to call for a week ahead I've called for three weeks ahead now for that therapy
and they've already set it up three weeks I had an appointment tomorrow for a hint my schedule will said I got a call today from Veronica that checking for Thursday I said what about tomorrow you're not on the
schedule I said I have an appointment in Denville at 10:30 oh we can't take you I said I can't cancel it it's for my hand I have to have I just had a quartis Zone shot I'm in a lot of pain can't go so my appointment is
cancelled tomorrow what am I supposed to do what do I do I can't answer that for you okay now I have another one several people have been on a list they don't get picked up they're on the list to be picked up they forgot
them okay also I want to know about the bank I don't drive I don't have a husband I can't get to the bank I have to change accounts I have a lot to do they said they don't take you to the bank and they don't take you to the post
office I have certified mail has to go I'm alone what do I do who do I talk to does anyone have any answers for me and they cut back our hours for shop ride used to be 12 I'm sorry Walmart was
12 now it's 11 and shoppr right they cut back our hours different things it's just too many changes we were very happy before everything went a lot better than it is now this not program is not working sorry mild
Joy hi my name is Joy I live at Rock Point in Rockaway and I'm from Dollar Ride and I have almost the same complaints but I've been taking the bus for over 10 years and thank you mayor
for all the service you give in seniors and uh now we were on a list we were the regulars we went to Walmart on Monday shop right on Tuesday now with the new people in want
us to call on a Friday so we can go to Walmart on Monday he wants us to call up a day ahead and it's so hard for the seniors to remember on a Friday to call in and we had it so nice before because
we were on that list as a regular and then everything has changed now and we have a lot of seniors that couldn't come tonight and they were like all confused I mean we're seniors you know we do get
confused we forget what day it is sometimes and they forget to call up and they can't go to Walmart on Monday go pick them up and then there's people are saying oh we got to do that nobody gave
us any information about the change either we were told from one person to the other person you know this is the new rules now and it's really affecting us and then we're feeling like we're being bullied
seniors and uh a lot of them show up and they're not on the list they're like all confused so if we could go back to the other way with the regulars we don't have to call up on a Friday I forget sometimes too to call up on a Friday I'm
busy doing things and it's too late to go to the store and we have no other way of getting there and the other thing is the uh bus drivers aren't allowed to
text us anymore or we're not allowed to call them or text them where we were before you know and that was cut out too and that's harder too for the seniors because we were so used to doing
that so that's about it I think so thank you thanks Frank uh apologies I can't read the last name my name Isis I live in 182 lak BR Jersey as you
can see and do ride is awesome they me shopping but two time it was like three times the driver took me shopping took me shopping early cuz by the time I'm
done he drives everyone else off and he has to pick up more room me just drives me off it's awesome but now Chang now I got to wait till like 8:00 to go and I'm done like 8 8:30 and I got to till
11 and it's doesn't make sense cu the driver liked it it worked great with him and the thing is I I'm disabled and it's hard for me to get job but one more suck on leure said I can work there but I
can't because I don't have like I people tell me I can only work a rock wave it's it's yes because I can only work till 2:00 stops till 2:00 and I'm
thank you Amber [Music] Luc hi my name is Amber latella I live at 41 Maran Road Rockway New Jersey I am a dial ride client I love the program and is a blessing to the senior citizens and the and those with disabilities like
myself who have a learning dis dis ability the recent changes affect me I called over a month ago to set up a ride for my therapist I also have I also have a dentist appointment the same day they told me that I can only have one appointment a day I don't think I should
have to make the choice between my dental or mental health um see I also came to my attention that uh if you have appointment the same day and you're grocery shopping you should you can only have grocery shopping or a doctor's
appointment I don't think someone should have to choose their health have to choose their health or have to choose their groceries I also do not like how I have to I'm when I call to confirm my appointment that they tell me to email it would only take like two minutes just
to check on the computer screen to see if I'm if I make if I'm on for that day that day the taxes keep going up and up each year so I think it should go back the way it used to be to make to make it easier on everybody thank you for your
time thank you good job Amber pat dnan p d 88 Valley View Drive I'm here tonight to compliment our Police Department I had a situation today where I came home and my garage door was half
opened and I knew it was closed when I left and there was nobody else in the house and I called the police department and they sent two officers in there and they were absolutely phenomenal so I just wanted to make sure that everybody
knew what a great Police Department that we had I thank them so much because I'm Al I'm basically alone most of the time during the day since I lost my husband and it's I've never felt afraid to go
into my own house but I was this afternoon and they they went in they checked the entire house they I'm I'm just overwhelmed by by the the generosity of those police officers and I wanted to make sure that everybody
knew how good we have with our Police Department thank you thanks Chief is there anybody that did not sign in that wishes to speak Mr K I just want to remind you of the the rules you're still on your second warrant and I still want to make
you understand that uh your rules would be in violation of My First Amendment right under the Constitution as well as be violation of the open public meeting act but thank thank you um just a touch base real quick on on resolution 2555 and it was a resolution that was uh confirming the appointment of the
municipal judge honorable Judge Jerry Smith it was disappointing that I didn't hear anybody talk about the history of the judge and what he's provided to the community before he became a judge before he was even a public defender uh honorable Judge Jerry Smith was a phenomenal uh pillar to the
community when it came to Recreation Sports programs looking at Young individuals and Youth bring them up to hopefully someday they're going to excel in their lives maybe even some of you might remember him when you played in the leagues when he would be announcing and doing everything else that's there
he was a public defender for roughly five years he's been a judge in Rockway Township for 18 years not only he's a judge in Rockway Township he's a judge for Rockway burough he was a judge for do joint Court he was a judge for Denville Mountain Lakes Mount Arlington uh and Wharton uh that's there and it
was just I was a little taken back that somebody that high calber that is fair to both individuals on each side of the aisle when it comes to the bench and not one of you mentioned one thing about him not one of you that was very disappointing but even more
disappointing uh Mr Morrison I'm sorry to to disappoint you um you know Mrs Thompson came up here over on Henry Street when she was talking about her concerns and issues when it came to senior services that were there we do know at one time I think several months ago they were going to have a meeting at
the senior building and they canceled it because they couldn't get rides for those who needed rides to go to that meeting so it was canceled to address some of the concerns that they're having tonight I sat there and and in the audience listening to that but prior to that you had uh some people from the rec
committee you had another group of people with their concerns on Richard Mine Road and you had dialogue you had answers you had some other assistant you had other guidance that you were trying to help those individuals but our seniors which are 100% % ratable in our our town you know you're driving them
out is hurting us financially not once did you offer any assistance any advice who to call all you said is I don't have an answer for you that's not what we're supposed to do to our seniors that's not what we're supposed to do to the members of the public taxpayers transient people
businesses and it just seems that that's the common threat of lack of communication amongst many of you not all of you but you specifically yes you won't answer questions you try to silence the public violating their constitutional rights you don't give them any guidance or anything of that
nature why do you do that why didn't you answer any any questions that they had why didn't you direct them to somebody else or maybe even say maybe contact maps in the county for further assistance to cover those scheduling issues why didn't you do that Mr
Morrison are you done with your three minutes thank you as somebody who had previously served one term on the council I'm surprised that you aren't aware Ware of the rules and the quum it's not the council's place to answ questions um and again I don't facilitate the dial ride
system our Administration does if our Administration chooses to enter into dialogue they are more than happy to do that um I'm also you know I'm sure that the uh municipal judge would be thrilled to hear your your biography on him um
obviously you have no awareness nor would you of any other conversations that are had you know or desired by the municipal judge so I appreciate your admonition uh I am extremely sorry Mr Kelly if I personally uh disappointed
you uh that will be something that I will be thinking about for a long time anybody no you may not anybody else from the public wishes to speak I'm sorry you had your three minutes sorry anybody else from the public who has not spoken wish to
speak okay moving on to appointments uh Joe fosa Fire Company 4 John sorry John fosa Fire Company 4 junior membership can I have a motion so move second clerk please take
the role councilman Freelander yes councilman sck yes councilman Quinn yes councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon yes councilman Sal yes councilman voich
yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president Morrison yes nine yeses motion passes congratulations John uh okay moving on to reports uh I will ask the council members and administration to hold to the five
minute time limit councilman Clint thank you uh first I want to say that we had a great senior prom for the seniors that attended
and it was fun we had a good time a lot of people enjoyed it and our new coordinator did a great job dealing with it the fire department I have to send them a great thank you
because they came around to my area knocked on the doors and said can we come in and inspect your fire detection system fire alarms everything they check the dates to make
sure they're not outdated they check to make sure they worked they check the batteries they were amazing I highly recommend that our residents when they come over and this is free they're doing
it out of the goodness of their heart to make sure that we're safe so please let them in let them go through what they have to do it's a great service I really appreciated
it all right the planning board well you know we spent a lot of time on chicken ordinance so I'm not going to go over that again uh citizens W committee again the Liaisons were assigned to the different
programs but now yes that's the fun so we'll move on from there and the budget we as a council worked hard on the budget Administration gave us a very
good budget um we look to tweak it a little bit more and uh give the Departments what they asked for if we could which we did we supported the programs for the kids
and you know this council did a great job Administration we sent our recommendations and questions in they answered them promptly and it saved a lot of time so I appreciate the time
management that we got and uh it worked out perfectly thank you councilman second thank you council president um yeah for the um I know if few residents had that brought the senior prom to the town and worked well
with the mayor and the whole team so uh my mom went to the prom was our first prom and uh she really had a great time and uh it was it was a good thing so uh like to see uh a lot of different things going on in the township was there an answer party I was I wasn't
invited and then a lot of the residents are coming up tonight with concerns and talking about their children and stuff like that you know a lot of us on the council do have kids that are taking the buses and that so we definitely uh hear your concerns you know it's not like we hear them we understand what you're
going through with the kids being on the buses in the long day so we totally understand understand that and we feel for you and uh just want to wish my daughter happy birthday it's her birthday today so hopefully get out of here soon so I can uh do her cake thank
you councilman sber thank you council president uh first before I start I do want to uh thank everyone that assisted me uh during the uh the budget meeting uh during a you know scary little moment so thank you everyone the response was great and I'm fine so thank you um going
to discuss uh we did have our open space uh trust fund meeting uh they are accepting applications right now through June 19th um great opportunity I've got some information to share about it um couple of the changes they are requiring a video uh presenting the uh your
application and that's due by September 4th so I really do encourage the the administration um to really look into the opportunity um i' love to be of as much assistance as I can without without getting too involved so I am on the committee uh just some numbers on the open space trust fund this is going to
be their 31st year uh to date they have awarded 204 uh m774 th000 in uh in funds um securing over 14,7 acres for permanent open space um
you use so really is a wonderful program to be a part of it and I would love to see Rockway to to take uh you know as much advantage of this as possible uh regarding um our Board of Commissioners uh not too much going on again we do have the resurfacing that'll
be going on upper Green Pond soon uh they've allocated 1.02 million towards that um they did reduce it by 62,000 with no reason but that was the uh the contractor that that did knock a few dollars off of it um those were some of
the main areas um again uh councilman I'm sorry folks I'm going to ask everybody if we could just please quiet thank you that's all right thank you uh final Point uh again opening day for uh trout is going to be Saturday April 5th the streams are closed now so
don't fish them yet but again I encourage everyone to go to um herberia company 1 on that Saturday uh Ladies Auxiliary does a great breakfast and it's for a great cause that's all I have thank you councilman woish I have no report I just uh want to
comment on um the statement that was made by uh the recreation committee uh you know with the resolution that was just uh 2561 some of the things you said that you know you you guys have no power to
uh get involved in Code of Conduct or bylaws this is actually going to allow you to do that this is what these changes uh are meant to do for you for each sport to program program come up with their own bylaw submitted to the to the township and and it uh limits the
liability for the township and and gives more power to each program so I think this is something that's that's uh going to accomplish exactly what we're speaking about um and uh people that were here for dial ride I correct me if I'm wrong but I think we added more
funding for the dial ride program correct in this current budget we are adding more money I mean some of the issues that were addressed uh I'm sure we could work them out um that's all I have councilman Freelander thank you uh council
president uh quick uh I'll be uh short tonight uh well I'm always short but uh on on the on the LI Library uh if you go into the library the main and go down the steps you'll see they starting to clean up and do some things inside
there's a beautiful mural you got to you got to take a look at it the it's amazing uh we had an artist come in and and and set that up uh right now we're in the process of doing uh filing for grants for the Iberia Branch as you know
it's a historical building so we have to go that way and uh hopefully we'll get some money uh this coming year to uh do some upgrades which are well well needed uh substance abuse Alliance is working
through its phases right now uh meeting with uh some uh famous people from uh All Sports World uh to come to Celebrity Day at the end of May which I'll report later but we're planning some uh
fundraisers at Orange Fitness in town very successful last year uh we're talking about bingo so uh we're moving pretty good uh as far as that end to promote our programs in the Middle School which are doing a phenomenal job
with the the kids uh as far as anything else uh no meetings uh to really report then going be ended now councilman Brook thank you uh thank you council president um you can answer me now or later doesn't really matter
how many buses of dial ride are we actually running a day like do we have two buses three buses how many do we have I don't remember probably uh buses I think only a couple of buses Dave's not here and then we have some Vans and a car I think okay right okay and I know
that you guys did send a nixel alert about the changes of schedule due to the route 80 we printed out too and gave them to the drivers to hand out thank you very much um also I just to for the public in terms of the Richard mine stuff I know we're going to bring it up
the road but um well aware of that I live right next to Richard mine I'm dealing with the same uh issues did you I don't have to worry about the road caving in because Miss fanti made sure that we had the higher ashalt when we had the road's done so it's taking that but I will say that having a tour bus
turn around in my driveway again today was also fun um so I do feel your pain there how much you charge a tour bus you know one of those big tour buses I don't know you never know some people like to take pictures of my
property so um it's the chickens yeah or my daughters so uh the other thing that uh I I want to just thank uh the police department for for when they do get onto that intersection they were there when I came to the council meeting I did have about three phone calls today from
residents uh about the amount of tractor trailers that were coming down the road today so I do want to thank you for them being out there and uh hopefully it won't be much longer thank you councilwoman noon yes did out to that but hopefully it won't
be that much longer um councilman selberg mentioned opening trout day on the 5th right yes you did say the fifth right okay because the um the Easter thing is also on that the
Easter Bunny is also on the fifth right at Birchwood sounds right okay yeah all right do we have a time on that or no Easter thing yeah yeah no hold
on 10 to 12 there you go when is it the fifth the 5th April is it 10 yes eight okay so do some fishing wash your hands and and come see the Easter Bunny of Birchwood so the
Easter Bunny will be a Birchwood April 5th after fishing go there and that's all I have thank you Council vice president I just have one note a resident had reached out that if you're coming down Green Pond Road right after
Metro supply if you notice on the south bside there's the big rock some residents paint the rock people hit the rock it's kind of a problem The Rock but it's a mountain what are you you can't do too much about it um the concern was that the double lines on the road are
fading so if maybe the township could reach out to the county and see if they can do something about repainting those lines you know just to help people understand where the road is people are driving right into the
Rock yes um it's it's you know a problem but anyway if you could just do that I would appreciate it thank you I just have a couple things I want to Echo what the the gentleman from Ward I uh said about the budget we're going on I think three years now of the the
modified budget process having it all in one day and the administration and the council does a tremendous amount of work to make it run that smoothly um lots and lots of questions uh beforehand to clear it up um and it is it really is a good partnership uh there was a comment from
somebody about the taxes that keep going up and up I do want to mention I think we're on May or what three years right now of zero four years of zero increase on the municipal budget um as a reminder we do not set the budget for the uh
board ofed so on the municipal portion of your budget you have not seen an increase in four years uh I also want to Echo what councilman Quinn said uh I was in uh W two uh the Saturday after the budget meeting and Not only was the fire
department out there the Red Cross was out there in Partnership there were citizens out on The Lawns and in the street talking to the fire department um I know Miss Quinn was happy to you know have the uh inspectors you know she did
not object to a bunch of young firemen traing through her house um but again it's just it's just another example of a public service that that the town in the fire departments you know undertake um to serve the community
um I I don't want to keep talking about sink holes but again you know the the administration in the council hears you right we we drive the same roads it took me over 35 minutes today to drive from the CVS in Denville to here um and the ways took me in back
roads you know I went through uh um you know by Indian Lake and it was you know little narrow roads and I was sitting in traffic so we hear you it's not ideal but rest assured you know these guys are doing uh all they can um I also want to point out that you
know tonight's council meeting it's really nice to see spirited discussion amongst the council and I'd like to point out that you know I appreciate everybody's point of view I appreciate everybody's professionalism and understanding of a point of view you know we may not agree with each other
but we still respect each other and I think that that is something worth noting so thank you to the council um as far as reports uh we have a meeting tomorrow on affordable housing um so I'm looking forward to that I know that again the administration is working hard there's some things in motion with
affordable housing so I'll be attending that meeting tomorrow Mr y Mr Mayor yeah so a bunch of stuff so first um uh citizens Rec committee um first of all thank you the three of you do
tremendous amount for our Township and I know you've Patrick I don't know even know how long you coach football or softball for um and I know the program is not the same without you I think you know Jackie you said a lot of good things and you summed it up about you know some of the
um uh lack of control per se that the citizens wck committe be had but I do think you would be better served than help you know with these programs to write bylaws and help them make recommendations like that that we could send off the GIF um and we would certainly welcome your participation in
that um for sure but I think this is more of a you know I I think we talked to the council about you know a liability type issue that we're looking to just um eliminate but I think the the intent is to make the programs better and stronger and so I think people like you working with the programs will will
accomplish that um I do have a concern that r25 uh 61 didn't pass because it is of our opinion that right now um youth sport coaches aren't properly covered by the insurance so if one of them gets
sued that was the point of this and we talked about that that was part of the point of that resolution was to make sure that youth sports coaches and volunteers were properly insured and I think by that not passing I don't believe they are so it's something we
might have to uh address with our programs and make sure that they have their own insurance for for their coaches um in terms of dollar right I'm I'm sad that everybody left I think um what I would say is there were there's several rules that dollar has always had
I don't think they were always enforced um the town puts um we have a tremendous budget for dial and as was mentioned um by councilman boyovich we increased it this year um it is a service we provide the free for people in need it's it's
not an Uber service so like we just can't take people um back and forth the places um we try to accommodate everybody's needs I I know for a fact you don't have to use a computer we like the computer because it makes scheduling easier right everything's in a
spreadsheet we get it that way it's easier to schedule it's it's a it's a big process there's a you know a lot of you know there's close to 100 people I guess using it right now so to schedule all those trips out and um you know it's always been oh it's always been two
weeks notice if we can do it quicker and there's an opening we'll Fitch in but it's that's always been a case um there are other services for people need there's the county program Maps I'm I'm not very familiar with or how it works um but that there's that program for
people who can't um get thide but I know we've made um reporting changes within the um thide program and some of the structural changes we made we're out in necessity and out of issues we were finding in the program and in terms of
cell phones we do not believe that um uh drivers um should be employees should be giving out their personal cell phones um to Residents so and it and it allows them to circumvent the whole point of the scheduling process so um I I
wouldn't agree with with that being a good practice um our healthy New Jersey healthy Town recognition that we got last year we got a plaque for that um the library Festival is coming up when is Manny you have that in front of you we put it on the board out front so
people driving by can see it um so that's good stuff um did St they had a St Patrick's Day dinner last Friday Germania Park incredible corn beef and cabbage did a great job it's really good um as Jack
mentioned councilman Quinn mentioned the senior prom um you know it was an IDE that Emily Coleman told me I think two years ago at the senior picnic and we ran with it and once uh once um Shannon got in the rle she ran with it and it was just great we had party favors for
everybody there were I think over a hundred seniors there so it was a a really big success um and uh very happy with how it turned out that's all I have for tonight M comments on the bud I think
as well I apprciate alls ahe of a lot of time um I have taken a lot of notes with in regards to di mayor pretty much touched on everything but um it's true we have been these these policies have
been in place all along it's just that now we are you know Focus focusing Miss ronte two gasil Mr Tabit thank you council president uh just one item to bring to the Public's attention the township will be
participating in the Gypsy moth suppression program uh which typically happens in miday depends on a few factors like uh the the foliation of the trees and the spring and the life cycle the Gypsy moth um it's a pretty big undertaking with many moving parts s it's a Cooperative program between the
division of health and the township as well as the state um and it was funded by the council as it was in 2016 and 2017 to prevent severe defoliation in parts of the town uh this year's program is going to be a little smaller than it was in years past about 293 Acres if I
remember correctly mostly in the very northern part of the town uh pretty much contiguous to Jefferson uh in the green pond area and uh a little bit further south than that um so there will be notification to Residents based on the Gypsy moth egg Mass survey done by the state we will be sending out letters to
every residential property that's affected uh there will be a press release the council will have a resolution before them to declare the Gypsy moth a nuisance passed at its next meeting um so uh everything being done in accordance with state requirements and regulations and we'll have a team from the division of Health out on the
road uh the day of the program just to make sure that uh it's being done safely and that everyone's aware what's going on so thank you chief thank you council president just two additional things uh thank you very much for the kind words for the officers
that's that's much appreciated uh and additionally a a good report we had officer caralina roas and DJ readen that uh Sunday were able to assist in the delivery of a baby so that was exciting
and all went well so good report council president yes I'd like to make a motion to to go back into an executive Clos session to discuss pending and anticipated litigation I will second that cler please take the
role councilman Freelander yes Council M zet yes councilman Quinn yes councilwoman Brooks yes councilwoman n yes
councilman s yes councilman voitovich yes Council vice president Brooks yes but I think we skipped up female my apologies Mr Brooks councilman
I can't speak right now I'm losing my voice my flowing hair sometimes gets me confused with the lady sir coun Brooks please include council president marrison yes it's nine yeses uh okay once again we're going to go into a Clos session uh I don't
anticipate any action being taken after the Clos session you all are welcome to stay However I anticipate returning and then immediately adour you guys don't need y y thanks e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e for [Music]
like to make a motion to return from close session please take the rooll yes councilman fre yes you need councilwoman sacket my wife's not here but I'm here come on Council woman she sometimes sits
in for me councilman sack's here councilman sacket says yes person St his I'm done today councilman sack yes councilman Quinn yes oh my God
councilman Brooks yes councilwoman noon councilman salber yes councilman boy toich yes Council vice president Brooks yes council president Morrison yes I don't think I'll even get another word out after this I'd like to make a motion to
adjourn by consensus all in favor oh my goodness