[Music] are we ready down there good evening everyone i'm going to call the meeting to order would everyone please stand for a short prayer salute to our flag
almighty God grant us the wisdom to make those decisions that are in the best interest of all our residents may the heavenly father of us all bless those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation and may he watch
over and protect our service men and women now guarding the gates of freedom salute to our flag i pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all take notice that this regular agenda meeting of the mayor and bureau council being held on this 14th day of April 2025 have been posted and advertised in accordance with the public meetings act chapter 231 public law 75 roll call
council persons Bala here kesi here novak here roberts here sarski here zowski here okay approval of the prior minutes council President
I move the following minutes of the mayor and council be approved on roll call vote subject to correction if necessary the March 24th regular agenda and executive sessions second all in favor i got to do a roll call council versus Roberts yes falcon yes kesi yes
novak yes sarski yes zowski yes okay at this time I'm going to ask Councilman Kesi to come forward we have some presentations to make tonight [Music] detective Good evening everyone so
tonight presented by the mayor and our burough council on his 14th day of April 2025 Bruce Miller and Jacob Rivera Engine 3 the Burrow of Saraveville would like to acknowledge firefighters Jacob
Rivera and Bruce Miller for their bravery displayed on Tuesday March 11th at 8:56 a.m as they responded to a fire reported at the Gallery Motel on Route 35 North in the Morgan section of
Sarville without hesitation firefighters Rivera and Miller entered into the smoke fil room and conducted a rapid search their swift and courageous actions led to the discovery of a woman in a side
bathroom tub with the assistance of officers Teter and Perigi the woman was successfully removed and brought to safety due to their selfless actions the woman was transported to St barnabas
Burn Center for treatment the bravery and professionalism demonstrated by both firefighters reflect the highest standard of service and dedication their willingness to risk their own safety to save another life is
truly commendable we extend our deepest gratitude to firefighters Jacob Rivera and Bruce Miller for their extraordinary efforts their heroism serves as a testament to
the strength and commitment of our first responders [Applause]
thank you thank you thank [Applause] you st george Jerry Gabriel called me today to
specifically tell me what a professional job your department did on his property and how proud he was uh to be from Sarah uh and what a remarkable job you did so I told him I would pass
it along to you tonight you and your you and your fire departments job well done [Music] [Applause] uh Councilwoman Novak the Arbday
proclamation yes uh I've had the honor the mayor has asked me to read this whereas the borrower seable was named Tree City USA by the Arbadday Foundation in honor of its commitment to effective urban effectuate urban forestry
management and whereas Sar will obtain this recognition by meeting the program's four requirements a tree border department a tree care ordinance and an annual community forestry budget and an Arbor Day observance and proclamation and whereas
OCUSA program was started in 1976 and is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation in partnership with the US Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters and whereas in 1872 J sterling Morton proposed to the
Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees and whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska and whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the
nation and world and whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water cutting our heating and cooling cost and moderating the temperature cleaning our air producing oxygen and providing a habitat for wild wildlife and whereas trees are
a renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood products and whereas trees trees in our city increase property value and enhance the economic viability of business areas and beautify
our community now therefore I Kennedy O'Brien mayor of the burough said will do hereby acknowledge that Arbor Day will be observed April 25th 2025 and urge all citizens to support efforts to protect our trees and
woodlands and to support our town's urban forestry program is there a motion i like the motion is there a second second council persons Roberts yes bala yes his yes novak yes
sinarski yes zabowski yes no there's nothing from no public hearing on the following ordinances ordinance number 12-24 and ordinance supplementing and amending ordinance number 2-24 fixing the salaries of certain burough officials
officers and employees for the years 2025 to 2027 okay okay at this time I'm going to open the public portion for questions or comments on this ordinance other questions or comments there being no questions or comments I'll entertain
a motion councilman Bala I move the public hearing be closed the ordinance adopted and second final reading at Point Law is there a second second roll call council person Balco yes his yes novak yes roberts yes sarski yes zowski
yes public hearing on ordinance number 13-25 Burrow of Saraveil County of Middle Sex ordinance authorizing the Burrow of Saravel's sale of the real property identified as block 371 lot 2.03 to the adjacent property owner uh
at this time I'll open um the public portion for questions or comments to Jim thank you Mayor Jim Robinson parlin you you're selling this property as I take it to the Republican municipal chair Karen Millie Bever is that what
this is this is so that she can sell her property to somebody else is that what's the purpose it's very small now it was a small lot that u a lot of the adjacent property owners purchased
40 years ago her family didn't and at this time but I think I think she sold her liquor license to Riverton so whoever is that correct so whoever buys that property uh wouldn't be able to open that as a bar is that right if they had a liquor
license they could if but didn't was the Buddies or the Bailey's if the purchaser license sold to Riverton okay all right that that's not important it it's
it's just this property went up for sale by auction it was not uh it was offered to sale by all adjacent property owners not just the one that made the bid um and the property is located adjacent to a school so no electric license would be
able to be operated there by state law but a bar had been there i can't I can't say I just in fact two bars had been in that okay all right so that that's not important i And I don't have a particular problem with this i
just want to ask some questions about it i when I read the resolution I it appears that there was not an appraiser and that we set this figure $6,000 or 6100 whatever it was we went by the tax assessor's appraisal but those aren't
true values tax assessments aren't based on true values for instance the Macco 40 acres which the appraiser said is worth $590,000 is assessed by the burrow at
$395,000 because they're assessments for different purposes an assessment for taxes isn't the same as an assessment for selling the tax assessor's numbers are not true numbers last meeting the mayor talked about a Cape Cod selling for
$500,000 in Sarville when we were talking about the the other property behind Kennedy Park so I looked up the Cape Cods that sold for $500,000 and on average the town assessed them for about $129,000 130,000 so what the town
assesses at is not what the value is that's not the true value it's assessed at about 25% of the true value although we are counting that true value in coming up with a price to sell
to the Republican municipal chair at $6,000 i'm not even going to go into what the mayor said about property being worth a million dollar an acre or $500,000 an acre but just if we if we look at this the town assessed this property at
$2,100 and that's how the assessor came up with a value of $6,000 based on the assessment which is not based on true value that we were buying this property so it should sell should sell for maybe 8 10 not not to
six and I'm not going to quibble over the $2,000 i know it's a courtesy of the Republican chair i understand that i like Karen i like buddies that left their coleslaw and her potato salad and her fish and I'm sorry they're gone i'm happy that she was able to sell to
Riverton if that's what happened um but I just wanted to ask those questions and get that clear because there seems to be a misunderstanding about how appraisals um are arrived at so I just wanted to
edify you on that and do we this is being done I understand so that she can sell the property do we know does the burrow know what the ultimate use is going to be jim just so you know we don't have the clock here you're at four
minutes okay do we know i mean if you're facilitating this sale it ought to be something that it's in the bureau's best interest that the burrow wants do you know what the use is anybody
anybody okay thank you very much is it a religious use let me ask that does anybody know if it's a religious use won't be a bar we know that okay thank you very much appreciate your mayor thank you if I could just
clarify the record because what was stated just now is is very inaccurate um on what has occurred here uh the property uh had been sold under the requirements of the local lands and buildings law by offering to sale by all adjacent property owners anyone could
have placed a bid they were all specifically noticed and offered a chance to place an offer to purchase this property the reason why it's being offered is because it's undersized it it cannot be utilized by itself so what will happen is after it's purchased by one of the adjacent property owners it
automatically gets merged with their property because it's an undersized property that is owned by the same entity or the same person or entity who however it may work so it automatically gets merged by an operating law so it becomes part of the other the original lot the adjacent law uh with regard to
the tax assessment the the the assessment is not $6,000 the $6,000 is the market rate the assessments how it works is the assessed value gets multiplied by the equalized ratio for the that's assigned by the town based on
the county um the county values to make it all equalized to determine what is the actual market rate so the market rate actually is reflective through the assessment you just have to multiply it by and through the equalizing ratio which is set by the state uh that is the
the the $6,000 that was determined by the tax assessor is the market rate based upon after multiplying out the the equalized ratio that's why based on what was mentioned in the comment about a house being assessed at $100,000 well that's not the market rate that's not
what the town's not saying that's the market rate that's the assessed value the assessed value then is multiplied by the equalized ratio and that will become what the market rate value because tax assessments are in fact supposed to be uh based upon the market rate they have
to have a allocation of market rate otherwise you get a tax appeal and then the tax court will render that decision and determine what the actual market rate is then will in turn by deducting or or um dividing by the equalized ratio you will then get what the assessed
value is thank you counselor sure thank you i understand the party's involved so that are there any other questions uh Jay what what were the dimensions on this small sliver of
property resolution 12 ft by if you weren't speaking to the mic 12 ft by 150 ft it was 1,800 square ft okay are there any other questions on this being no other questions I'll entertain a motion council me I move
public hearing be closed the ordinance is adopted on second final reading now forming the law second roll call council persons bala yes kesi yes novak yes roberts yes sarski yes zabowski yes
at this time I'm going to open the public portion for questions and comments on the uh resolutions other questions or comments from Jeff thank you very much mayor and thank you all thank you Mary for bringing this up thank you Mike i know you've been
involved in street lightss thank you Stash i know you gotten involved with me the other day with one um this resolution wasn't online i saw it here for the first time u but I appreciate that it's here this is the resolution concerning the BPU and JCPNL
2025-95 the other day and I have to tell you this why I'm so happy the other day I was in Shoutwite and somebody came up to me and I didn't know the gentleman and he said to me "Why do you and Oesi go to these meetings?" And he didn't say Oesi by name he said the older gentleman
so I just assumed it was Ken Oeski why do you go to these meetings and talk about JCPNL lights and trees and pilots and secret campaign accounts and the mayor's aid and all these things they don't pay any attention to you whatsoever well you know
what tonight tonight the governing body is responding to the people tonight who are listening so on behalf of myself all the people who have contacted me and who I've advocated for thank you very much you know I noted on the bill list that
the burrow is paying JCPNL $62,000 this year 60 this month I'm sorry this month $62,000 i also noted that I don't see the JCPNL rep here um I understand she was sick last meeting don't know why she or
nobody else is here you saw I sent you all a note about the situation in Laurel Park where a h somebody tried to enter a house they actually opened the door and the two street lights in front of that house had been out for quite a while stash I thank you for coming down
whatever day that was in the rain and meeting with me out there to to talk about this issue barry you responded to my email immediately when I when I talked about that i talked to um Andrew in the mayor's office who I appreciated he reported these I had reported these
lights in October of last year he reported them he got a note back saying that one of them was fixed and one was still out from JC Penel that's not the truth that's not that's not the case so thanks for the resolution by the way I've also spoken to our legislators
about this and I think that that it's good that they be involved and and you uh talk to the BPU but you know and this isn't the only situation where we have lights out there are three in a row in front of shop lights around that curve
it's very dark curve i don't go on Journey Mill Road but I get emails from folks who do go and who count the number of lights that are out on that dark windy road it's it's dangerous so and mayor you talked about in Woodbridge folks go out folks my age and
Ken Oesky's age go out and we write they write down poll numbers and send them we do that too we write down poll numbers we report them the difference is in Woodbridge their electric carrier their electric provider is
PSEG so the problem isn't reported these lights have been reported over and over and over the problem is that we have JCPNL who is not responsive in Woodbridge thankfully for them thankfully for them they have PSEG which is better at the last meeting I advised
you that BPA BPU was having that public hearing on JCPNL and nobody had read the correspondence i assume this resolution is in response to those concerns that I raised so I thank you for that did anyone communicate with the BPU as as a
part of that hearing i I sent an email sen Okay i sent an email but the only response I really got was from the not the secretary of the BPU but her secretary the secretary of the secretary well that's somebody's
radar screen and this will help did anybody else Okay oh thank you for that um and you know I found out the other day that the Arsenal warehouses they aren't fully fully powered they are getting power
from temporary power from Cheesequake Road the um solar panels that are supposed to be installed on the roof there aren't installed and they are saying that that's a JCPNL problem the Arsenal has come in they filed
applications to install them they can't until JCPNL from what I understand does what they're supposed to do i talked to the developers of the refrigerated warehouse across the street they don't yet know when they're going to get power
for that project so JCPNL is not doing what they ought to be doing all of these issues that we have talked about is brilliantly encapsulated in this resolution so whoever wrote this resolution certainly was paying
attention and I thank the author and I thank everybody for five minutes jim I thank everybody can I thank you one more time if you give me two seconds to thank you one more time great job appreciate it ken thank you Mayor Ken Sheski sarah I'm
going to talk about the same thing jim 2025-95 stole a little bit of my thunder but um I do want to thank this governing body for that resolution it's something I stood here at least three or four times
and asked for i also asked to bring in uh members of our legislature or their staff to hear and advertise it so they could hear the issues of the public on this uh the the lights that have been out have been a constant problem uh I'm
addressing now a little bit more the power outages i can tell you I have probably had more power outages in the last 3 years than I had had in 15 years prior combined does anybody have a record if
they ask Jersey Central Power and Light by the way uh Jersey Central Power and Light uh owned by First Energy and that's who the resolution correctly is about uh first energy I think I can uh
say it's been a scandalridden utility and I'm not only talking about the past if you look at that as of January 25 I think there were people uh first energy indicted I know a little
bit about utilities because quite frankly I own PSEG I own Duke I own Southern Company and I own American electric power so I think I speak a little experience uh when I talk about utilities but uh First Energy has not been a good one and
it's not only me saying that it's when you read the headlines of what's happened and they're ugly they're very ugly so it becomes a little bit of as I've always said the squeaking wheel gets to grease apparently they don't have the money to do what needs to be
done and you know if the towns that have an issue they holler guess what cuz where do you think they're going they're going to go there and leave the people of Sville short do we know how many power outages
we've had in the last 3 years jcpn anybody have a record of that anybody ask JCPNL if they were here uh we could ask them uh we should ask them in spite of this we should ask them for their records how many power out actions we have a month ago we had one on Friday
and we have one on Monday i heard it it's been unbelievable and apparently it's the same area of town uh I believe I heard something like 2400 homes in the
same area town over and over and over because I call my friends and other people no no no no so obviously there are zero issues uh with the equipment and they're not doing what has to be
done and they'll only do it uh hopefully if the DPU gets after them uh but we don't know how many power outages there have been um do we know how I do we know how many people have been affected i'm saying
2400 i think I saw that under a post but I you know you're the people that that should know i'm I'm just a dope little guy that attends council meetings as I think I've been described um so we don't know how many people are affected and we
don't know the time period well I think they're all questions that should be asked uh I think we need to follow very closely on this resolution not just a resolution be blown off by whoever does this but uh is this resolution sent to
our legislative representatives to our senator and and to the speaker and and our assembly woman anybody know yes it's standard i'm sorry it's routine okay it's standard it's been sent to uh I think we ought to
follow up with them i think we should still get representatives at least if not them from their office to come in here so they can hear from the residents of what's going on because that is nonsense we're paying for something we're not getting jim has talked about this i talked about that we're paying
for something we're not getting and we have some very sharp inconveniences of what's going on it's almost like what are we living in a third world country here in Serbo so I I just want to relate uh one thing that happened in a
past same principle um Mr lukai used to come to council me right away and complain about rightfully so MCUA he lived in lower Melrose and and uh suffering from uh greatly from the illers and problems down there
unfortunately I think Mr lucas ped but he came one night and and he he talked about uh four minutes okay i'll be I'll be done in a sec he came one night and he talked about uh the issues of the mayor and and I'll be done in a second and the mayor blowed off and he said
"We'll write a letter." And I followed them i got up and they said "Mr lai they're not really serious about correcting your problem if they were they bring the people from the MCU in." And guess what happened you brought the people from the MCU in they brought all their top people and I think there've
been some progress made at the NCUA so please listen to some of the things that are said here i thank you for what you did so far you're a day late and a dollar short on it but uh it is helpful it's only going to be helpful if it's followed up thank you very much
are there any more questions or comments on the resolutions there being no questions or comments I'll entertain a motion i move the public hearing be closed in the consent agenda resolutions be approved on roll call vote second roll
call council persons Roberts yes balfa yes kesi yes novak yes sarski yes zowski yes i need a motion to accept the correspondence that's listed motion accept the correspondence second council
person Roberts yes falco yes khesi yes novak yes sarski yes zowski yes council reports administration and finance councilman Bala thank you Mayor
uh the budget will be introduced at our next meeting April 28th and progress thank you planning and zoning councilman Zowski thank you Mayor just a couple things first a personal uh congratulations actually to
um Lorie Sarski who was who was elected the elk of the year for this past year um both I know Sash wouldn't didn't want to say any but both Lori and Sash are tremendously great representatives of
what volunteerism is all about and uh that should be celebrated um I do have a question i think it may be to Jay uh the construction that has been well there's no construction but there's a lot of construction equipment
and there's all I'm sorry and there's also barriers under Route 9 there was work performed I guess it was by the state um there doesn't appear to be any effort or any work going on over the last probably four to five months and
yet the barriers are still there the pylons are there and much of some of the debris is still there do you And and if you're not the person that's fine but can you tell us when that's going to be removed i've sent a number of emails if that request came up at a council meeting in
the past i've been sending emails i was told that it couldn't be done in the winter they were fabricating the barricade that's needed along the shoulder area that was going to be done in the spring probably April May time frame so they're going to come back complete the guide rail along the
shoulder stabilize the slope area and then they can pull their barricades out of there so hopefully within the next month yeah thank you J appreciate it because the the roadway narrows so it's a little bit unsafe and uh there's still a ton of debris there as well um from as far as
playing board is concerned many of you know that the uh mosque application will be this Wednesday it will be here that's a continuation of the application that started last year uh on Wednesday 8 there will be additional testimony from
uh professionals of the applicant and an opportunity for the public to make comment of the of the applicant's professionals testimony don't know if this is going to be the last meeting or not but the last meeting that will take place will in
fact be a public portion so the public had can express whatever comments they would like to make at that time so just a continuation moving on May and June the planning board will also have um we'll have presentations by the uh the
planner for Sarah in reference to uh several redevelopment uh applica not redevelopment applications but applications to um identify certain areas uh in need of redevelopment mayor that's my report for this evening thank
you Councilman uh Councilman Klesi thank you Mayor safety first I'd like to announce that this week is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week so during the second week of April we honor public
safety communicators for their commitment their service and their sacrifice thank you so the first report is from uh office of emergency management last week the week of April 7th members of the Saraveville
Office of Emergency Management attended the New Jersey Emergency Preparedness Conference in Atlantic City the team participated in training sessions focused on disaster planning and response and engaged in networking with
emergency management professionals from uh across the state operationally on Sunday April 6th OEM responded to a residential structure fire on Liberty Street in the Morgan section assisting with the relocation of
displaced residents on Wednesday April 9th the OEM team also responded to a significant commercial fire at the Mavis Tires uh center in coordination with the Red Cross OEM helped secure housing for
three individuals left homeless by that incident next report is from uh Chief Plumacher of the Police Department on Wednesday April 9th approximately 3:06 p.m the police responded to a reported
structure fire at 2071 Route 35 South which is that Avis fire upon arrival officers found the vehicle fully engulfed in flames and heard explosions in the rear of the property believed to be caused by combustible liquids the
fire extended to that adjacent business which is Mavis Discount prompting the temporary closure of both directions of Route 35 the Saraveville Fire Department quickly responded and exting and extinguished that fire thankfully no
injuries were reported and the fire department has taken over that investigation additionally Chief Plumacher announced that the Saraveville PBA Local 98 will host its annual retirement dinner on Thursday May 1st
the event will honor and uh the service of several retired officers sergeant Frank Ochesky Detective Douglas Gumpre Patrolman Anthony Donna Frio George Luck Senior
and Keith Grousson details of tickets are available via the department's official social media channels and don't forget I suggest that the public does connect with our public safety social media so you're informed of things as
they happen last report is the fire department at the state of this evening's uh meeting at the start of this evening's meeting the fire department proudly recognized firefighters Miller and Rivera with commendations for their outstanding
service as of this date the department has responded to over 260 calls so far a clear reflection of their commitment and tireless work chief Gowen did note that while the team remains dedicated they
are currently under significant strain due to high quality we commend their continued excellence and thank them for their unwavering service to the burrow this concludes my public safety report i extend my heartfelt gratitude to all
members of our personnel for their unwavering commitment to public safety that's all I have thank you thank you Councilman Public Works councilwoman Novak yes thank you Mayor um this is the
time of the year when we shouldn't worry about too much more snow although it didn't snow Saturday morning when I was going to church but right now we're going to be concentrating on potholes so if you see a pothole it would be helpful if you would report it to public works
you can do it online you can make a phone call and they're they're going to have a list and they're going to do as many as they can as soon as they can uh that's it for public works i just have a couple of things um Jersey Central I I
was talking to the VA prior to the meeting um about did we had discussed the fact that we could start charging uh back for the street lights that aren't on but we never really we found out that we can i commend the uh attorney for all
of the research he did to find out that but uh I'm I talked to Glenn and we decided that well he decided that it probably does require some sort of a resolution and a vote from the mayor and council before we can actually start doing that so even though it's not on
Glenn's agenda tonight I would like to ask that we have something in writing glenn could work with the uh the attorney and have some a resolution in writing for the next meeting so we can get started on that is that okay with everybody any objections counselor if
you would absolutely okay thank you um I have kind of I don't know whether to ask this now or when Donna is doing her report but I've been reading on Facebook that we've decided to use pilot money to uh pay for uh fees for joining
recreation uh well the five that we recognize or I think it's down to four um I don't remember it ever being discussed with the council so um I have a lot of questions on that before we do that I would you know I think we should
actually have a meeting to discuss that because I would really like and I'd like the council to consider using some of that pilot money since we finally started to get some from the uh the new pilot that was just awarded last year uh maybe to finally do a recreation center
here that would benefit all of the youth in the town maybe we can have tea nights 12 months out of the year as opposed to just when the weather's nice and all of these things could be you know discussed that so you know maybe we can actually
sit down and have a meeting just to discuss what we're going to do with that and as I've been doing once a month now I'd like to make a motion that we declare the uh old firehouse and the old burrow hall as a burrow historic site
is there a second i'll second roco Novak yes bala yes khesi no roberts no sinarski no zowski no anything else
mayor that's it thank you Mayor okay thank you uh water sewer environmental Councilman Sarski thank you Mayor uh the f the first thing is the community gardens opening up
42625 i believe there's still some plots open for that so that seems like that's moving along fine and then as far as the water and sewer I'm continuing my education with the superintendent i actually spent like three hours with him the other day we had a tour of all the
pump stations i did water towers and I learned a lot about the water towers even you know everybody's complaining that it cost so much to paint a water tower but there's so much involved uh between the cleaning and the scraping and the containment when it painted it has to be at certain temperatures and
they also are doing the inside of the tanks also and then they're also updating the inside of the tanks with like a spinner system to keep the water circulating inside to keep it portable better um it's just very educational and I thank Roden Women i want to thank him
and also his department is very knowledgeable on anything I ever ask him thank you Mayor thank you Councilman recreation Council President Roberts thank you Mayor before I go into recreation I have two topics I wanted to talk about first is I want to thank the
council for passing 2025-92 which is an opposition to the state preempting local zoning so that is a step a small step we can take at a local level to try to protect our own zoning laws so that we determine what we
build and to what extent so I want to say thank you and if anyone is interested in reaching out to the assembly which I still believe has not voted on that yet no Senate passed it though um yes it went through the Senate not the assembly at this time um please
write to your assemblymen to let them know that you oppose that um the second thing is we have a very very large event being planned it's on the agenda a little later um for 1,00 to,500 people and I had some concerns about that
because it is also on a 3-day holiday and I was just concerned about the residents in the area of the event and I wanted to ask the attorney if we could we could work into our ordinances for these large events maybe over 500
people this is well over that um to have something about local parking to protect the residents um because it is a weekend where a lot of people are going to be inviting their own family over that we also notice them in a certain area so
that they're aware of it coming up and if there's any way to address having these during those 3-day holidays where our residents will be having people themselves over where we already have very um tight parking um just at least
to have some priority so if we can take a look at that do we need to have a second on that or any objections all right there be no objections donald the attorney will put together a for you thank you for all of
us thank you anything else council please yes I actually want to talk about what's going on in recreation and what's going on so we did have our Easter egg hunt here indoors it was very cold outside and it was fast and fun all the little ones had a great time and the
people the U volunteers did a wonderful job um Shay Tree also had events for uh Christian Rivera um I think everyone shed a tear at that one i can't talk about it because I will again frank Bella's um tree planting I believe was
postponed the mayor and I did attend Troop 96 Eagle Scout awards and three Eagle Scouts were awarded anthony [Music] Msaw Karen Gome I tried to practice that i promise I did sean Michael Spritzer
and Jake Joshua Kelly were honored as Eagle Scouts there was the high school climate forum they are having a um a final present not a presentation but a school event and I think this was something that I had reached out to
Councilman Sinarski about for the environmental commission to become more involved in i know Sha Tree did attend and I think that would be a great way to bring our students into environmental little league opening day occurred again very cold but it's time
to play ball um we have new forms of outreach for our board so we have a lot of new communication coming up and you saw you'll see that we have six new pickle ball courts coming up because there's a lot of interest in that and
progress mayor thank you council president you know speaking of of the function that we had um Saturday for the young man who who was murdered last year um Eli Eli Fernandez is here eli if you
would stand up if you come up and tell us about this please cuz it was it was it was spectacular it was really something our community is all about thank you Mr mayor council President Roberts Councilman Eloy it's not a great
mic so as I as I tell the kids playground voice all right you got it i want to thank you Mr mayor council President you got to do it like Council President Roberts Mr mayor
Councilman C Councilwoman and our business administrator Scareski i know I pronounced that wrong i apologize Clint my name is Aloy Fernandez i'm here tonight on be on the behalf of the Sable South Rotary Club and the Riverrera family to express our
deepest gratitude this past weekend our community came together in a beautiful show of unity and love to honor the memory of Christian Rivera a remarkable young boy whose light continues to shine in all of our hearts the memorial tree planting
ceremony was moving emotional and powerful reflection of what Sarah's what makes Sarah such a special place and as someone who who grew up in this town I'm I'm very honored by by the way that this town came together we are especially grateful to Mayor
O'Brien Council President Roberts Council Members Zrowski Serneski Councilwoman Novak Councilwoman Councilman Bala and a special thank you to Councilman Khesi for all for your presence and support your leadership and
compassion made a tremendous impact not only to the Rera family but to everyone who came out to remember Christian a sincere a sincere thank you to our great business administrator whose behind-the-scenes effort helped bring every detail together smoothly and
respectfully thank you Glenn we really appreciate that we also want to acknowledge our written house and the shade tree commission along with Justine Fox from Columbia Bank for their generous donation of the memorial tree and a special thank you to John Dfano from Remax Realy for all his help and
donation during the event the event was a true example of how partnership between burough departments communities organizations can create something meaningful and lasting thank you Chief Tulum of the Seville Police Department all of our men
and women in law enforcement our OEM for your support and coordination throughout the event your steady pre presence provided comfort and assurance to all in attendance also want to thank Frank Wuba and Nick from buildings and grounds for all their help as well as Karen Bailey
for her help as well a special thank you to fire chief Garvin and all the firehouses your turnout in full force and the full display during the tree planting was one of the most touching moments of the day your presence showed the very best of Sarah honoring a young
life with dignity compassion and heart i'd like to thank Paty Palma for his lovely rendition of Amazing Grace and a special thank you to a couple of my fellow Rotarians roco Cuko from Java Funeral Home for the lovely video montage and Mike P for his handcrafted
black a true true work of art this memorial stands as a living tribute to Christian's memory and a lasting symbol of Sarah's strength love and unity on behalf of the Rotary Club and the Rare family I want to thank you all for making for making it possible um
just just want to want to say how how much the family really appreciated everything everyone here did it was a obviously it was a very difficult day um it's been a difficult year for the family um and this was some small measure something that we can give back
to the family and as someone who grew up in this town let me tell you I was very wasn't surprised cuz we this town always does this but very proud how this town has come together not just this past weekend but throughout the last year to support the family and and the loving
memory of Christian thank you job well done thanks people [Applause] that being said uh the two officers that are here if you bring back to the chief
that along with the compliments that the property owner on Route 35 uh Jerry Gabriel was extending he extended it to the Sville Police Department who he found were were just extraordinarily
trained competent and when they found out he was the property owner were helpful and solicitus so you you indeed wear the badge to protect and to serve the people of Sville with honor and we're very grateful that you chose to
wear it in Sville so thank [Applause] you okay that being said let me put on the other glasses um agenda item yep application for a persontoerson transfer uh from Rino Inc
to Sharon Enterprises located at 3067 Bordertown Avenue a resolution will be listed for the next meeting any objections next item authorization to award a contract of tactical public safety through state contract T0109 for 2025 radio system maintenance
in amount not to exceed $139,318.25 any objections next item authorization to award a non-fair and open contract to BIS digital to upgrade the sound system equipment and Liberty DCR recorder for the courtroom in an amount not exceed
$22,2327 any objections next item author Authorization to scrap the following vehicles which are no longer needed for public use and are no longer of value to the burrow as listed is there any objection next item requests received from residents of Corey Street between
Donna and Such Street to hold a block party on July 5th from 2:00 p.m to 11:00 p.m is there any objection next item application for the special event received from the New Jersey Sports Club to conduct the sports event on May 24th at Memorial Park from 10:00 a.m to 700
p.m reszo i'll work with the attorney to Any objection next excuse me what day of the week is that that's a Saturday that's Memorial Day weekend mary that's the one I was talking about i know i'm sorry is there an objection okay
business administrators report two items tonight mayor authorization to promote Gwendelyn Knight to supervisor of customer service from clerk 3 in the water and sewer department effective April 16th any objection anything else uh just an update on the elevator
situation at 167 Main Street uh after some difficulty the parts that the contractor believes are required to fix the 40-year-old elevator uh have been obtained uh we should have a clear direction by the end of this week as to whether the elevator can be repaired or
whether it's going to need a massive and very expensive retrofitting but we should know that by the end of this week okay thank you cfo's report sorry thank you Mayor we're just finishing up um the budget and it'll be ready for
introduction at the next meeting okay burl engineers report thank you mayor one item the Elizabeth Avenue project we're looking for a change order it's not going to increase the overall contract amount but it allows us to pay the contractor for extra work that he did that's all I have thank you borrow
attorney's report uh nothing this evening thank you mayor okay at this time I'm going to open the public portion uh for questions or comments on any and all items there are some new people here at the meeting tonight if you wanted to speak or or ask a question
or make a statement this is the time that you do it you raise your hand i'll call you up when you when you come to the podium you state your name and the street you live on in in town so that being said I'll open the public portion
uh Jim Thank you Mayor Jim Robinson and Parlin i might ask some questions about things that were talked about i apologize acoustics in this room aren't great and I didn't hear everything um but the first thing I don't think was talked about mayor I sent you an email on this
topic and mentioned it to you when I saw you Saturday um as Councilman Zowski said there's a very important planning board application in this room on Wednesday uh there are two alternate positions on the planning board that are vacant two former members are bright
they're dedicated they ask excellent probing questions they have a great grasp of the situation i think they've heard all the testimony which not every member has done i know for personal reasons they might not want full four-year terms but appointing them as alternates who can continue sitting on
this application continue to ask good questions vote if necessary and frame appropriate conditions if necessary I think would be in everybody's interest um so I would respectfully ask you to to consider that and my comments aren't meant to take anything away from the
other board members who are all dedicated and and excellent um but I did want to say that I sent an email um over the weekend there i don't know if it was blocked or you got it you didn't respond i maybe somebody said
something about the budget if you did I didn't hear it i apologize at the last meeting I asked when the budget was going to be introduced i know the state regulation or the state guidance is the first meeting after March 31st is when
the budget's supposed to be introduced i was told it would be introduced today i know you know people are we talking to people are watching what happened in South Amway taxes went down in South Amway everybody excited everybody wants to know how much taxes are going to go down in Sarable so they're waiting to
see that budget that will next next meeting okay all right and might have said that i apologize i just I just didn't hear uh mayor at the last meeting you talked about the travesty currently going on in Melrose by Costaver but what is happening there and
it was approved by the planning board in the last few years uh when you were not the mayor but what is happening there is a direct result of the affordable housing agreement that you signed several years ago when you were the mayor and you know the builder it's the
builder that you had the meeting with at the hotel in Woodbridge that the planning you know the planning board takes you were raced and Ron Green and General Ken Jesy went to the prosecutor over that and um but anyway uh the area where the trees are coming down you were actually personally involved in that i
mean I think we heard on one of the phone one of the council meetings that you were on one of the phone calls where they talked about having three bedrooms in those units the rest of the affordable housing have two so um technically you're right it was approved
by the planning board but they really had no choice because it was a result of a court order and agreement that you had agreed to when you were the mayor just like all the other affordable housing and I don't have a problem with affordable housing but the market rate
that you agreed to I think everybody has a problem with i emailed all of you the uh $590,000 appraisal on the 40 acres next to Kennedy Park everybody get that everybody saw the appraisal that you paid for at the council was
$590,000 anybody not get that i'll send it again mayor did you get that $590,000 okay because you know you said at the last meeting property is this section is going for half million dollars and other section is going for a
million dollar so you couldn't believe the property behind Kennedy Park was appraised at about $600,000 you really you really said that without having benefit of reading the appraisal which made it pretty clear in fact
uh he went on to say that saying that it was $590,000 what was not only disinformation was a boldfaced lie well it wasn't a boldfaced lie i quoted from
the report i quoted from the appraisal so if anybody is telling lies about that it is not me mayor it is not me because I and as you know I looked at that property and I said before I even saw the
appraisal I said "I'll bet this is worth about $600,000." And lo and behold cuz I did some comparisons i did some extra you know some searching things like that i think he's right on target $590,000 so you all saw it you can read
it you all know who quoted the appraisal and who lied and why why somebody lied about it i'm not sure and Councilman Dowski I apologize i couldn't hear everything you said but you were talking about debris and what were you talking
about by Park no no no the uh area under the Route 9 bridge on board in town oh oh oh yes okay yeah okay i'm glad you brought that up but since I raised uh Bailey Park there's people have been asking about it that never should it
shouldn't have gone on for that long and I understand it violates Green Acres regulations which could put our grants in jeopardy so I would put you on notice that you ought to take a look at that come into compliance so you don't
jeopardize future Green Acres grants okay because that that's a mess there and people can't use that park there's there's concrete there thank you and it violates state regulations thank you very much i appreciate it
are there any other questions or comments yes ma'am please come up if you'd state your name and street for our record please sherry um Jersey yeah almost like a singer in Las Vegas too i don't smoke but here we
go um Sher Parley New Jersey um the reason why I'm here is because I've lived in Sarahville for about 20 years now coming from New York and the things that I see which I was hoping that it would have started a while back is a facility
for our kids it's not just for the kids but it's also for the adults so what it'll do is it will accommodate benefit and also bring profit to Sville as a coach which I train a lot of the kids in Sville um
track one of the things that is not benefiting for us is we don't have a place to run we always have to beg the high school to use your field i know um what do you call it veterans Park we can use it but we can't really run on it
because everyone is on there so one of the things that I was asking is with the budget that we have is it possible where we can bring build a facility which would accommodate not just for track but all sports football basketball if it's inside a facility or we can do an
outside facility so I was hoping that if that's something that we can do for sale it will be amazing one of the things as a traveler and I I travel a lot in Jersey with the job that I do a lot of the locations different um places that I
go to have a facility so I was wondering why Seville doesn't have it well money is always the cause but that being said I have been looking for someone like you because we're in the infancy stage of looking to expand recreation i'm I would
like you to be involved with this so if you would with would would if if you would leave your contact information okay okay if if if put Yeah put the mayor and serville
email address if you would send me your contact information we we're we're definitely putting you on board okay thank you all right thank you one of one of the issues is we we need something under under roof we need We need four
season facilities we got a lot of kids we do and right now just because of what we have I don't take a lot of kids cuz I can't really train pretty much all of them but I have over 50 kids that I trained so and a lot of them go to the
high school and that's one of the things I say with the high school should accommodate us as well because we are training these kids once they get to that level in the high school middle school i have elementary schools that I train from six-year-old all the way up to high school 18 years well this is my
personal feeling years ago I I I was at the Night of a Thousand Stars it's it's the marching band competitions behind the high school and I would give out the mayor's trophy and when the um ceremony was and it
would go late and when it was over one of the police officers came up to me and they said um they had a complaint from one of the adjoining neighborhoods about the noise and they wanted to contact the mayor and the police department said
"Well as soon as he's done giving out his trophy we'll give him your message." My personal feeling is I would rather have them playing music down at the high school till midnight and playing sports we as you know I don't know if you're
familiar the last meeting we finalized a new ordinance that any child in Sable that wants to play a sport money is not the object the burrow is making sure that every child can play i really appreciate that let's
do more so we're going to be calling on you and and you strike me as the type of person that'll jump in with both feet so thank you for coming tonight thank you it's Sherry yes Sherry thank you Sherry are there any uh Yes please
uh Robert Corby six in terrace uh kind of pig piggybacking on to what that woman just said and Mary's uh mention of a meeting the meeting that you were talking about is that kind of going to be a council meeting cuz I'm almost thinking given all the different leagues
given all the different I mean I kind of I feel bad I didn't know track really existed or that they were having trouble finding somewhere to run but could there be a preliminary meeting of a lot of the groups a lot of the athletic organizations in town that would include
somebody like track sure i don't know lacrosse find find out like what each league may be needing long term we have we have some concepts but along with the concepts comes some price tags okay so
we're we're we're doing some investigative work but more than that um I went through this in the early part of the century and I put it on the ballot uh about a center and at that time the
vote it was voted down because it just was voted down nobody it was a spending issue i think it's changed 25 years later 20 U and um again we have over 6,000 children in the school system so
there are a lot of kids that we need to get involved in athletics but what we're along with I call it the wish list for recreation for youth recreation and um I saw I saw a guy go to church with comment on the
ordinance well it's good for the kids but what's in it for me so now I got it it's terrible man you got to go there's always there's always But all that being said it's not for lack of desire it's for lack of money so we're we're trying
to plan it out so that there's some there there's some reality where we'll be able to do these things where we'll be able to do an enclosed area for youth sports but we got to be able to pay for it and listen in today's day and age you
know I I we try our job is to provide services at the lowest reasonable cost so I don't think anyone wants wants a huge tax increase to pay for these things so what we're trying to do is through the redevelopment fees it
just before we start talking you know what could and should be we have to really make sure we have the ability to pay for it so that there's not a tax increase and that's that's the bigger part of the work the wish list is is the
the fun part of it how to pay for it you know it's like planning a trip to Disney when the kids were young you know everybody wants to go to Disney and then all of a sudden you start seeing the the daily fees and the hotel fees and the food fees and and you go "Oh my god." So
yeah and my my thought was just no offense to the council but you guys may not know all the I mean I don't know about track i don't know about football i just know little league baseball but if we could kind of get a voice it's endless i'm I'm sure I'm with you i'm
sure you would i'm sure you're gone but And if we do let's say six things there's going to be requests for six more so Oh six there'll be 26 more uh the other thing I was thinking about was what ever
happened to the grant money that was prior to you taking over for the Jerry S complex supposedly we had No that that was acquired okay i I can update that go
ahead uh sorry about actually it's this week uh our engineer dropped off the bid specifications at the clerk's office and the bid should be going out shortly to get that work done at the US uh the addition of the two additional fields out at US baseball fields uh one
baseball field and one multi-purpose field because we have to make accommodations for the other lacrosse and whatnot but yeah the big the bid specs are actually in the clerk's office and Jay how May 13th May 13th will be
bidding that out j do you know if it was a big field or a little field baseball field wise was it like a 300 ft fence or was it like 180 foot 280 it's a combination soccer ball field baseball field there's also a multi-purpose field
that has it's going to have an area that you can go through baseball as well okay so probably big enough for the middle school middle school teams maybe to play on okay by the way this is the closest we've ever come to getting something
like this done and I've been sitting up here since 2000 and um I'm happy about that i'm very happy i mean including the four years uh I I stepped down
um this is the closest I've seen this come to fruition so I have a very positive feeling we'll be able to accomplish a lot a lot you know when you start from zero big accomplishment no we I am too
it's just you know years ago it came football got a field soccer got a field and baseball was kind of left out you know but it feels like we're going to be involved this time so okay I just Thank you it was I'm volunteering Charlie for
any meeting that you have i didn't volunteering Charlie for any Yeah I watched him grow up um is there anyone else who has a question or a comment sir
your question or comment okay all right with that I'll take a motion to close the public portion i'll make a motion to close the public second roll call all in favor i I make a motion for adjournment make
motion for adjournment second all in favor i Thank you everyone have a nice evening stop