all right um so I called this meeting Town Council to order officially we go thank you to our Eagle Scout Matthew Marano um Amy can you please read the open public meetings St adequate notice of this meeting of the township Council
of the of Roxbury was given as required by the open public meeting ACC office on December 28 2023 notice was emailed in facts to the Daily Record the nor Ledger Ro register and publ in the Daily Record notice also remain posted throughout the year on theard the main hallway of the
municipal thank you br councilman Carrie here councilman crley here councilman D Lia here councilman Hall here Deputy M tiller here Council Riley here Mayor Rob
here thank you presentation Sports Etc first we have the Roxbury High School Marching GJ okay so I guess we can start calling everybody up R and if we could hold our Applause till the end for all those who don't know Mar won
the state champion second year in the row two and we're here work is it possible anybody didn't know that good evening everyone my name is Jeffrey Conrad I'm the director of V of Rox High School just want to start by saying that our associate director of bands and
March band director Mr going to be here tonight because his daughter is ill and his wife has the concert for Eisenhower Middle School she's one of the coral directors so uh was a little bit of a hectic drive back from West orang here in the traffic and the fog but I made it in time so we're here to honor our 2024
state champion marching gals these students have worked incredibly hard and um I just want to say thank you to everyone if I could sum up our program one word is support I have an amazing team of teachers around us and we support each other we support our students students support each other we
have amazing building District level administrator tonight's events like this tonight here in the community show the support we have in the community for the Arts here in Roxberry and truly makes it a special place so I know there's a lot to do so we're going to get moving um we're going to read the names of the students who are here tonight and uh and
and honor them they're going to come up and get their certificate and then line up for a picture at the end so parents get that Paparazzi ready all right Mr K are you there yes sir he's going to come up all right line Works ready bch
oh sorry Juliana abat that's the alphabet folks I got it congratulations BR badge I should have brought my glasses Logan
bad Eliza Billings KY bodman Dylan Brady Liam Brady you're not seeing dou Rio Dominic Cella kend CL
Sean cly davidy congratulations car congratul Jericho Guerrero here's Mr Charles hand Jordan heran Charli Jonathan is not
congratulations he was sorry someone we miss George D so P that one hang sorry George they told me we're under a Time penalty here
George George we got it congratulations George and we're GNA get yours we'll through we'll get it right Jordan Emily idola for cash Sarah
K congratulations Sarah Lizzy Kelly Jason lafy Jason ay ma Tyler malafronte Kate mcdo congratulations Michael Min MD oh
congratulations you keep them all [Music] in here Conor nsat we're almost there folks Sean par is sorry and Dan oson Olson I skipped
him at the top so let Dan go in front of you Sean once again the alphabet getting the best of Dan and Sean Park Ethan p s pazo
and Dan reia Z reia Gabby Salvia conratulations gby Thomas sergeant kwam Anthony cesa L Shad Sophia
Tama conat Michael tomasi R venos this is Mich andus and the Very Tri be the last one the pile Annabel Wilson then annelle
congratulations thank you everyone for your patience thank you to the council let's he for the March get [Applause]
[Music] come come on social [Applause] sure all right holy smokes that was a whirlwind well thank you all for being here tonight and thank you for allowing
me to attend I'm Mike and ganam I represent the 24th district in the New Jersey State Assembly which includes Roxberry I'm your neighbor to the South I live in Chester Township uh new to the legislature are we good more pictures more pictures they're going to be here just for another few minutes so get your
pictures in now um it's an honor for me to be here not only to recognize the marching Gales to join with a very very proud mayor in Council I've been hearing about this uh uh night for several weeks now um but on a personal note I'm very happy to be here because this state
assemblyman was in the marching band as SP of high school I I was the brass captain and I married the drum major so I saw the drum major in here somewhere my wife's name is Lauren and she can still play the piccolo so uh
with that being said um on behalf of the Senate and New Jersey General Assembly I'm very proud to share with you this joint leg legislative resolution from your legislators in District 24 Senator Parker space assemblywoman Don Fantasia and myself as well as your former legislators in District 25 Senator Tony
buo assemblywoman orun and assemblyman Christian Bono whereas the Roxbury High School Marching Band highly esteemed in Morris County and throughout the Garden State was hailed for the second consecutive time as the group AA state champion by the New Jersey marching band
Directors Association on November 3rd and whereas the Senate and general assembly of the state of New Jersey are pleased to salute the Roxbury High School marching band upon this felicitous occasion which attests to the hard work and dedication of its members who devoted countless hours of practice
to earn this prestigious Accolade that is true whereas one of 10 marching bands in its division the Roxbury High School Marching Band claimed first place with an exemplary score of 93.5 and its exceptional members demonstrated an uncommon measure of
creativity and commitment while competing against many distinguished schools within the state and effort which resulted in their Triumph in several categories including best music performance best visual performance and best General effect no wonder they won
they cleaned up the groups as far as I can tell whereas also known as the marching Gales the Roxbury High School marching band has flourished under the superb leadership of Ryan swer who directed this year's show rearrange and its outstanding members completed an
undefeated season twice earning recognition as the overall grand champion and where whereas only two more New Jersey young people who set their goals high who persevere in the pursuit of those goals and who reach their desired milestones and accomplish their objectives stand as an example and as an
inspiration to their citizens of all ages and whereas it is altogether fitting and proper for the members of this New Jersey legislature to pause in their deliberations to acknowledge the accomplishments of the Roxbury High School Marching ban and praise its dedicated staff and students who
contributed to its Victory now therefore be it resolved by the Senate and general assembly of the state of New Jersey that this legislature hereby congratulates the Roxbury High School marching band and extends sincere best wishes for continued success and vigor in all the
years to come congratulations [Applause]
[Music] guys's our mayor she is [Applause] thank you everybody once again congratulations to the marching gals
[Applause] I know that that has do for the cow okay next on the agenda we have the recognition of our
newest Eagle Scout Mr Matthew and Mark Adam Matthew can you please come up and talk us the microphone and tell us a little bit about your e project please okay so hello I'm Matthew if you guys don't know that already but uh I did my EOS Scout project in Mount
Arlington at the local fire department uh the volunteer company I painted the doors or first of all I sanded them down completely bones that's took a very long time and then I primed it painted it and then I put decals with all each um of the apparatus names on it and then I put
the emblem of the fire dep on each door so it looks a little bit more a little bit nicer and uh I think thank you [Applause] you're welcome congratulations and next
up is assembly man in well you have a bus night ahead of you but I I'll just simply say congratulations Matthew on on the honor I understand your court of honor is this Sunday I will try my very best to make it um if I cannot it is my honor to share with you this citation from the state of New Jersey it does not have the
wear asses that the last one had so um I hope uh it's a little bit shorter than than the merching bands but the sentiment is just the same we congratulate you on receiving this honor and um frankly we thank you because you are going to become an eagle scout this Sunday you will be an eagle scout for
every day for the rest of your life and uh when you are whether you're in Roxberry or Beyond it doesn't matter when you come upon a person and need of help in in Ledgewood you're an eagle scout and you're going to act like one when you come upon a car accident and suck a sauna you're an eagle scout and
you're going to act like one so for all those reasons you are going to make Roxberry a stronger healthier better place we sincerely thank you in addition to congratulating you on this Milestone well done congratul okay next up um is got
around where' he go thank oh it's not sneaking what's that yeah yeah on board oh right yeah yeah come on we know for for he
D oh he D oh my gosh we're on the okay thank you maybe I'll make that work thank you I appreciate it wa apolog L of for activities
close to okay next up um Mr would you like to up to the microphone right there yeah now we're going to have a little presentation by county
commissioner police chief yes good evening had a lot of people here I thought I mean I didn't realize how popular Dean was in the town you know I'm figur wait Friday for the walk out no no no they're
all here there's no parking like great now you really know how popular he is but I feel great that there are people here but uh you I'm really happy to be here uh to present a retirement resolution to Dean um for his years of
service to Roxbury Township um I I I got to say and I think all the members of the council and the manager know what a great Police Department is in Roxbury and it starts with the leadership of the department um Dean has just it's just a great group of guys and the that do a
great job for the residents of this town day in and day out they're respectful of the residents and they work really hard um there's there's a lot of stuff that goes on in this town that these guys keep a LD on so a lot of people just don't know what's happening and it's the
leadership there so um as much as I I'm happy for Dean that he's retiring not happy because no more lunch with the judge on Thursdays and uh it was what what some you got to look forward to having having lunch uh with Dean every
every month um and that's hopefully we have we have one more Thursday before Dean retires officially um this Thursday so Dean if you could I would like to present you with a resolution honoring you and your years of service to the township of
Roxbury and uh wishing you all the best in Fort Mill and I'll be down to visit with my brothers in Fort Mill
[Applause] to Chief with grateful appreciation for your 25 years of dedicated service to the rck Township Police Department and
the residents Roxbury Township presented by Roxbury Township Marland Council December 10th 2024 I figured I'd get this to you so you can just say one thing all at one time perfect that's how my picture I we can hug we can hug it up thank you
very much Doug thank you so much you supported us over the years in so many different ways um you've always been a pro pro law enforcement legislator you've always had our back and we've had a good relationship outside of work and uh really appreciate everything done and I will say Matt does like to eat lunch
and he also eats he eats much faster than I do which is a big plus for you and a lot more and a lot more that's true I wasn't going to go there but you uh listen I I just want to take time here to to thank every single one of you up there uh starting with John uh you gave me the opportunity to lead this
great Department uh it's an honor just to be a member of this department to become the chief here is been unbelievable you've always been supportive of me my officers you've always had an open door and I really appreciate everything you've done members of council and the mayor some of you have been here as long as me and uh
you've always had our back and you know it's so important especially in recent years for a governing body to support the police department it's not like that everywhere and we understand that and uh you guys have always had our back we really appreciate it not just me the 41 other rers over there appreciate it too
it's it's recognized and understood and we know that we're lucky to have you guys behind us Amy we've uh we've worked on a lot of things over the years Oprah liquor licenses anything else they threw our way and uh you've always been patient helpful and really great to work with
and I appreciate it I'll miss you too um you know I just want to say in closing here uh a lot of good things happened for me in this town uh you know I moved here when I was 12 years old I met my wife here in high school my kids were born here I got to work for the best police department there is and like I said then I got to
be the chief of the best police department there is and uh that's an honor I will never I'll never uh I'll never top that's that's as good as it gets and uh though we may be heading south uh Roxbury is always going to be my hometown and I just want to thank every single person up here for making
my time here special [Applause] ESP mayor as you know you know is is Chief
adone with his retirement we also have a new police chief that's just been appointed be taking over for mat I'm sorry for [Laughter] Dean but uh mat Holland I just want to
introduce that everybody knows mat but I just want to introduce him you know public you know he's going to be taking over officially as soon as as soon as team um steps down it's actually the end of this month when he's actually he's actually gone so again I just want to introduce Matt Holland um great officer for the Department great rank officer and um
can't you know can't say looking forward to it again you know we have a lot of TR change over in in the department for chief for some of the leadership but it continues on I think in a really good way so excited to work with Matt and I think we're going to have have a great run also and he's really looking forward
to working with with the town on a lot of initiatives so again I just want to introduce Matt Matt you might have a few words for the council but it's certainly up to you but sure absolutely although they move the the mic on me so I'm just going to move it one more time move back so everybody can see
me I would feel awkward if I had my back to you I just uh uh wanted to introduce myself especially to everybody in attendance my name is Matt Holland I've been here uh for 20 years and I just wanted to say how grateful I am am and
how excited I am to be in this position Dean has done a tremendous job and since the beginning of my time here I have been so proud to work for Roxbury I truly believe that we are the best police department in the entire State
maybe in the entire country in my opinion and Dean has every Chief before me has kept us in a rockberry way that is for the citizens for the people it's what we do it's what we love and
Dean has done the same thing and all I want to do is continue what Dean has kept us going and I'm going to do it and I'm very excited so thank you very much [Applause]
everybody all the way back to Mark M biges to go all the way yes okay thank you moving on we have approval of minutes
thank Council Riley yes Mayor Rob yes thank you that brings us to our first public portion if anybody would like to get up a speak please do so and state your name and address for the record anybody seeing that I close first
public portion now we come to rec to council committees and new and old business representative Committees of people want to talk about the events last last we I just want to
say thank you very much John your staff big thanks thanks toks to Recreation and everybody that made so special I did attend the open holidays
also which is just a lovely by the way thanks to the did a great so two great events within a week very proud of that and uh one item also folks um this is our last meeting of the Year and i''d be remiss
uh if I didn't say something about our mayor and uh I just want to say Jackie you've done just an absolutely great job this past year um and everything that you've done I've never seen anybody attend so many different functions in my entire life
um represented Roxbury very well and uh congratulations on the great thank you thank you coun thank you so much to talk about Mar
Gale Scouts Chief thank you for your service and a lot of meetings going on we did have an open space meeting I believe we have laak the laak building we also got $700,000 grant for the
sidewalks on Avenue work L commission we had a meeting uh they came up with a budget for 2026 which starts July 1 they're going to use $13,600 of fund balance
to the 500,000 they get from voting Authority so they have a budget of about 63,600 of that % actually goes directly to we harvesting 15% goes to studies on the lake home for the holidays fantastic
event again I want to thank the chamber and counsel fpo uh taking pictures of the children coming in Santa and and Santa I don't know if I'm allowed to say who who helped there but um it was just
fantastic thank you je yeah coun probably I'm a little unsure what he mean by um who you're allowed to thank yeah thanks Sam I wanted to thank him in person when he comes to my house all right just leave extra and cookies I
like just say I like that just say um thank you mayor uh last week I attended a u an awesome event it was the Trap sales Market um and traps is a program running on elementary schools that allow these young kids to be young
entrepreneurs and create a product and sell product um and Mr Steve Alfred and I attended the event together along with I would have to imagine hundreds of other residents and uh it was just great to to talk with the kids and listen to
their market ples and and their little sales pitches and everything that they sold it was absolutely a fabulous night um I commend those who uh um promote that program to to our young people uh home for the holidays another great
success um thank you to everyone that put that together um the big man himself who came down um from his busy schedule and made sure all of our kids were uh well attended to uh the home for holidays then LED straight into the scho
interacts uh movie night where they showed to Santa Claus uh and it was the accumulation of operation teddy bear where this year the interact Club collected over 1100 candy Bears to provide to the baded women shelter of New Jersey uh so that brings them to a
2-year total of over 2500 Bears um that were donated to them um and then last Chief Fone thanks man thank you for taking my calls thank you for explaining things to me thank you for making informed and thank you for just doing a great job and as as uh soon to be Chief
Holland said um I also believe that Roxbury is one of if not the top Department uh in New Jersey in moris County New Jersey and the nation so thank you so much and uh soon if CH follow I look forward to working with you the future as well so thank you
thank you counil is that it that is it counc Riley uh what you guys tou on most of it it's been a busy week with thee lighting lighting for the holidays all events like to point out a couple things number years Fant thank you and
I'd like to point out once again chamber they've been taking pictures for years hope the holidays for a nominal fee that they to Social Services they'll do a lot of time and expense work they put into
it chamber do Fant a fantastic job a lot of M Social Service of time days count besides marching and everything
else thank you good luck with you a little bit last few years have thank you counc yeah I have no problem mentioning their names Jim and Steve Albert couldn't have
had S without one of them filling the blanks the media will be careful not to away um we had two s one Steve stepped in um we started something last year and great
again this year do a special needs session of Santa Land so people um who have special needs family members can come it's quiet we keep the room darker it's um and it's turned out to be so
rewarding I mean the families themselves are just so grateful um we do need to do a better job getting the word out we had about 15 families um come is also the brain of the um of The
Crow and it's turned out to be just D anyway with that said raised over $1,000 um in contributions for all the photos which goes to Social Services the chamber does a great job they're just great people these are your local
businesses um who sponsored this um Santa Land and uh again what a great town to have businesses that would um take the time to do that and of course the library which you know I can't have enough words there were so many people
in the library on Saturday it's just warmed your heart to see all right so Michelle oin doesn't get anywhere near the credit she ought to get for putting together home for the holidays from beginning to end so just just a fabulous
job Michelle um and I I deeply appreciate everything that she does I'm going to sorry see go you know the way a community is proceeded is a lot by the interactions people have with their Police Department
um I guarantee you we have the best police department in Morris County New Jersey and yes the United States um people love our police department and um be more grateful to you for doing that
welcome looking forward to work yes sir thank you all right that's it for me thank you Council and Carrie thank you Mar I'm pretty much going to reiterate what all the other Council counil people have said that uh
Dean you're going to be missed hope for the holidays was phenomenal and at times like Bob said shoulder toosh shoulder you couldn't you couldn't walk through the library at times
um and uh Matt welcome as our new Chief and to working with you you too sir and that's all I had here thank you thank you um I just want to reiterate everything everybody said good luck Dean
will miss you where did Matt go did he leave there you are I'm not leaving I just move back you miss him it's right I remember when you first came on so wow good for you congratulations um I want to wish everybody happy holidays and happy New
Year because that is coming up we won't see each other until January 7 after this so all right and let's yes I just want to thank the friends of the library you we talk about home for the holidays than an unbelievable amount of time sorting two
books and doing Book Sales and stuff and all that money goes back to the nothing tonight thank you does our attorney have anything nothing tonight thank you Mr sheer I just want to also um wish Dean nothing but the best in his retirement and U he
certainly deserves it so good luck with everything Dean's been great working together and happy holidays to everybody that's here tonight um and happy New Year thank you thank you okay new and old business none matters referred requested by council members manager
attorney of clar there are none introduction the proposed ordinances there are none hearing and Adoption of ordinance is on the second reading 23- for an ordinance to vacate and extinguish any and all public rights
into in and to an unimproved portion of Manel Drive located across tax blocks 52 Block 112012 in the township of Roxbury County of pars and state ofe I'll take a motion to open I'll make that motion open
public second thank you all in favor anybody in the public have anything to say I will take a motion to close I'll make that motion a second second thank you all in favor thank
you thank you call please Council M yes councilman Crowley yes councilman D Filippo yes councilman Hall yes Deputy Mayor patiller yes councilman Riley yes mayor yes thank you 11 introduction and
Adoption of resolution thank you mayor can I just mention for the council um ordinance 2024 322 it's related to the lease extension we did update there was a typo in the resolution that referenced 2024 it's actually 2025 the end dat so I just want
to let know that just again it was a typo in the in the resolution thank you yes coun I 2024 dis 313 Council probably where the environmental commission is is working on forry plan as a result of the
2000 plus trees that g down as a result of the disease you it was very very difficult to say the least they all those TRS stand um John can you please explain to me
what this resolution is doing because we're going to be going out for Grants and uh is this going to prevent this from gettings it won't this actually um some Gort was here earlier tonight he he had leave he actually is is supporting and
proposing a bill currently in the state and interested in getting his support for that and this deals with the new one of the new D requirements that through the storm water perent process um they're
requiring the state will require the TOs to enforce on their behalf ordinance that anytime anybody wants to remove a tree we're talking about individual Property Owners now our commercial we not talking about land developments which we already certainly regulate and require replanting of trees when trees
are removed in significant numbers but the new D requirement which is really Statewide um requires that whenever an individual tree is removed number one it's permitted and then number two it's either replaced or if someone cannot replace it for whatever reason or
doesn't want to they pay into a fund where to the town where we would have this plant tree somewhere probably on Municipal property so this is really for the council's consideration the mayor and I had a brief discussion on this it was um again being championed by um
again whether or not it ever gets the light of day in the state of New Jersey the legisl I can't tell you but I think for a lot of the things we've discussed over the years we thought it made sense to provide them some support for it I have not provided any information on this because frankly I just readed over
the weekend to the environmental commission do we want to you know take this off the agenda for them to take a look at this and give Council some feedback on this or you just want Tove forward any thoughts is there any deadline we have to make there's no deadline I think
that um you know the more support the assl gets the sooner the better he'll be able to to try to move his bill at some point keep in mind we'll be adopting these disorders because we don't have to so whether or not he he gets any tractions on that yeah this is a committee that's cor
yes so I'm indiffer if you want to P that's fine but it's not committing us personally to doing it that's that would be my concern support our assembly um I'm I'm inclined to go along with it I don't it doesn't
have to be tonight but I don't want to prer it's not to be abent did you say I don't want to be abent doesn't no the faster we adopt it quicker we can
and we're just providing him support because ultimately if the state doesn't change the regulations or change the law we're going to be doing this and again it's one of those things a lot of times is whether we want to or not that's how we get these things handed to us again my concern is you know we're looking
into F just going to wa better so I'm going tostain from this if we're going to go forward with this I prefer to give this to the environmental commission let's back and
forward but I haven't had a chance to get it back to the first meeting next year yeah I think we can get it back to the first meeting next year then let's do it that's what the councilman wants let's do you have a meeting with them all right
then so the motion is24 just remove motion okay the person who second it to uh to that would be yeah just second yes
second oh oh I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry have discussion on one one oh so you some okay um 20 243 Das uh 202
24-32 uh shared services with the Boe on the uh school resource officer uh I then we have Dr Sor board member kuchi in the room um just wanted to say that you know we always welcome great Partnerships like this you know it's um it's a it's a
value to um for a shared service between the two groups um and uh we look forward to a um a great partnership so thank you any other discussion councilman Carrie yes
councilman crowy yes councilman D Filippo yes councilman Hall yes Deputy Mayor patillo yes coun Riley yes mayor Auer yes thank you that brings us to
Personnel changes non Communications December 6 anybody have anything yes one item Grant now that's a grant we don't know what the cost is going to be so we may not use that Grant but atast we have a gr at we you know you you'll be getting
that one it's started here I apologize it's just it's something that just came out from the state we just received it agreed we don't know the number we have a pretty good idea the the grant was amazing give us for that rather than for P for whatever reason but regardless of
that we will include that as part of the 202 discussion updated number what we think counc think a good hopefully we can do it any other discussions or Communications
portion our next public portion does anybody would anybody like to get up and speak if so please state your name and address to the record see none I close second public portion do we have an executive session thank you I will
much