Good evening. Today is the 12th meeting of the year. Today is August 18th, 2025. Julie, can you please read the presiding publication >> in compliance with the chap with chapter 231 of public law 1975. Notice of this meeting to be held at the criminal
justice building 61 Main Street, South River, has been published in the Home News Tribune on January 5th, 2025. posted on the municipal b building bulletin board, the burrow website, the front door of the criminal justice building at 61 Main Street, South River. >> Roll call. >> May Gindy
>> here. >> Councilwoman Ballas >> here. >> Councilman Deantes. Councilman Dinian >> here. >> Councilman Dina Gina. Councilman Ginski >> here. >> And Council President Sula >> here. We stand to the flag
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. >> Please stay standing for moment of silence. You may be seated.
On the agenda today, we don't have anything listed on your presentations, but I have uh invited Assemblyman Robert Caravan and Sterling Stanley to our meeting today. Uh as you all know, we have been working diligently with the
county as well as the state to u raise funds, grants especially for the water lines and water uh infrastructure which is in dire need of replacement. This is just a step uh for us ahead uh with us working with the county as well as the
state assemblyman. Mayor, thank you council members. It's a pleasure to be here tonight to let you all know announce that, you know, we were able to secure a million dollars to help fund the renovation of your water
pipes and system sewer system here. And it was a pleasure and honor for us to be able to work together to help attain this. And this just shows how, you know, we work with local communities and within, you know, local government to be
able to get this done. And to be able to bring this to South L is a major accomplishment, especially this large amount. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> Thank you, mayor, for allowing us to come here to speak about this. This was a collaborative effort speaking with you and understanding the value for the
community. This is, like you said, this is the first step that's going to improve the quality of the water. for everyone here which is so so important and this is a it's a good step and we're honored to be here today to
million dollars. >> Thank you. We appreciate it. >> Back to work. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Take care. >> We have nothing for agenda session tonight. We are going to go into reports. Uh, CME Justin.
>> Thank you, mayor. Just a brief update on the capital projects for the 2023 and 2024 local aid programs. Contractor has mil, paved, striped, and signed all the roads. So, we've deemed the work complete, and we sent a letter to the DOT requesting the final inspection for this project. The 2023 local
transportation project, our office submitted plans to the DOT. They had some minor comments. We resubmitted back and we're waiting word on their approval. The 2025 local aid programs, our office is in the design. We should have expect that done shortly. 2025 electrical substation maintenance, we
are working on the bid documents. The D storm water assistance grant, our survey department is currently working on this year's portion. And for the uh DOT municipal aid applications we submitted for the 2026 grant. That's all I have. Council, any discussion?
>> General mayor, two things. Uh one, the borrow has agreed to a contract with the water sewer union. This has been going on for a few years. This is the contract goes back to 2024. It goes through 1231 of 26. So every union contract in the borrow is now settled and we're done.
One last thing too, there was a billless change and once you got a revised build we're paying SBCA. So we added that to the bill list and we don't want to wait five weeks to next meeting. So that's the only change. >> Anything for >> uh age?
>> Uh the only thing I have is Monday September 1st will be closed for Labor Day. There'll be no yards pick up that day. >> Thank you, council. Anything for Andrew? Uh Andrew, >> I have nothing tonight. Mayor
>> Julie, >> Mark, just a couple thing there. Uh resolution 260 tonight, contracting graticus. That's a contract we're going to be able to take as many of our
permits and uh applications that are on the website and make them fillable on the website and submittable on the website. It's going to take a little while, but um people be able to go on their computer, fill out the thing, and submit user
>> right through there. Then they would get notified what the fee is and pick up the commit. So that'll speed up things. Uh the other thing I wanted to bring up is there have been um a lot of phone calls about the letter
received from LEW Environmental uh lead paint. Um we put up a piece on the website today explaining it a little more. Uh LWK made a presentation here.
Um, you can use any environmental company you want. You don't have to use lews. You don't you can do better with than their fee. Um, this is state laws by municipal law and
there's some confusion. It's for renters because even if you have a house that you are renting, that house would fall under. But if you live in a single family house yourself and you were built um after 78, you don't have to do it.
And a single family resident owner occupied doesn't have to do it. So we put up a little blurb on the website to better explain it. But they're not exclusive to the burrow. You can use whoever you want. You get a better deal
somewhere else. But they they are doing database. So if they use somebody else, they have to get the certificate from a certified lead contractor to the burrow. So the burough can let them know to put them on the uh we're going to have a a listing
of all things that we have to submit to the state. That's it. Any questions? Uh Councilman Shinsky. >> Thank you, Mayor. uh the office on aging their schedule is not out yet for the uh
September month. Uh please uh go on the website and everything like that too to follow up what type of uh activities that they're going to have. Also, if you're not a member of the office on edging, please fill out the form because they cannot uh give
transportation to any of the seniors or anybody who just calls from unless they're actually a member listed with the office agent. With that, that's all I have. Mayor, thank you. Thank you, Council Regal. Okay. Uh, South River Day will be taking place on Saturday,
October 11th from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Montgomery Street between Johnson Place and Morningside Avenue. It will include food vendors, a petting zoo, entertainment along with inflatables, and fun activities for the kids. Any interested vendors,
entertainers, community groups, churches that want to participate that haven't gotten in touch with them yet, please go to the website of cultural arts at south rivernj.org. That's all lowercase and no spaces. So,
we look forward to doing this. We decided to do it in the fall as the last two summers it was just hot. So, we we look forward to doing this and and uh it won't interfere with any football games because they played the night before somewhere else. And we're
looking forward to having everybody come on out. And I hope to see you all this Friday at the fireworks at Denny Stadium. Those festivities start at 6:30. There'll be food vendors and and different things and handouts for everybody to see. And then I guess the fireworks go off about 9:15.
So, there's bleachers there now and should be should be a good night. And that's all I have. >> Thank you, Councilman. >> Um, TV35 working with S. They're going to be recording the Imperial Music Center band um at their November
concert. That's a request by them. That's a great thing. Um, it's a free concert every Sunday. The next one is September 7th, 2 p.m. at the Imperial Music Center. Thank S for um planning to uh do the fill in their request of
having it recorded so people can see it down the road. Um thank you mayor. That's all I have. >> Thank you president. >> Thank you mayor. Um as you all know August 1 started our new recycling with the county. Um county had
handed out bins for everybody. Um biggest thing is is no plastic bags are allowed in these bins. Um, the county will only take a county can. They will not take any extra cans that are put out there. So, only the
blue county cans that were set that were distributed can be used. They got to properly be placed on the streets. Make sure you follow all the directions on the can with the wheels facing the house. So, it's an open lid. Lid's got
to be closed. So if you have too much in there, you have the lid open, it may not take it. It's up to the driver. And you know, if any problems do arise, our DPW has nothing to do with the county recycling. You can call the
county recycling center at 8004886242. Again, it's 8004886242. [Music] give the county a call. If you have any problems or questions, uh any concerns, just give them a call. Not our DPW. Um
EDC is having a meeting on Wednesday, so I'll have more information about that. That's all. Thank you. I'll hold mine. I'd like to open this to the public. I give you five minutes. State your name and your address. My name is Christian. Um, I just want to
address I was viewing uh one of the council meetings. >> Oh, my address is 6 Anderson Street. uh one of the meetings uh one of someone in the public uh came up and asked the show his name and uh he asked
uh where where did all the $600,000 allocated from the electricity go? So I actually reached out to a couple of you guys and see I just want folk to know that this got allocated to the parks to the road improvements and also um some
of the debt. Um, so that's something important. I think that you guys uh should mention that over here. So that's how people are more aware of where this money is going. Um, you guys are doing great work, especially with the million dollars that you got guys got from the assembly. So that's uh that's great work
and I'm looking forward to working with you guys. Thank you. name is Bargain again about college being closed. So I got a right from one state of the
state that it's the safety of the kids. There's 3,000 plus kids in the uh in the town I guess or more I don't know but 3,000 is good. Yes. Their safety counts just as much as anybody else's. It was a good sign. I mean you had the roadway
south river has many children to spare drive safely that's a good thing then you said that people are going the wrong way out is there a problem with the police department that they can't handle it I
have a question for you listen 32 police officers in this town now 33 they work different shifts at any given one time you have Three squad cars on the road covering 2.7 mile radius approximately 18 19,000 people in a given one time.
You have four schools going. That's assuming it's not the summer. Yes. I think it's not easy for every single police officer to patrol every single road constantly 247.
They go through the roads like normal police officers throughout the whole entire town where even if there was a hundred police officers on one shift still impossible for them to patrol every single road. >> I understand. I mean
with limited resources it is. Then you came up with saying that the roads and service. Did you ever Google what service road is? I actually googled what the road plans were and it didn't exist. >> Well, what I heard was the road was
>> That's what you heard. >> I had >> from this is from >> someone originally. Was a house supposed to be put there? >> No. >> Yes. doesn't I heard there's a house supposed to be put there and
this the council and the mayor said that have a full connection birectional way and the people complained about that which was justified so they made it one
way and it wasn't open to traffic until all the construction and all the service people were out and uh you came out and said that the road should not be built but you came out with no reason to why the road should
not be built. You had three or four mayors, 20 plus council people all voted for having this road open. I mean >> I appreciate then you know like you said you're
limited resources. So as a first responder, right, your requirement, thank you for your service for that. You know, you how do you plan? I mean, you're uh due diligence for this thing is, you know, it's like, oh, whatever
answers we have, we'll multiply by zero and add the desired results. But last month you could you commended two police officers for saving the baby. Now you take that same situation. You
put the police officer on Collins Drive. He has to drive 600 ft versus 6,000 ft. If the road was open, it's only 600 ft. But it's not only Montela that's affected by this. whose roads like uh got Montasello, Rotanga,
Independence, Capitol Court, Charter, Samuel, uh Lu Red, Red, Veterans Place, and even the Department of Public Works, you it would save 30 seconds
on if that road is open. And vice versa, if the police officer was on the south side, the east side of that road, you know, gets calmed carrying first Adam, second Adam, he went up into sunset. I mean, you save time. So, as a first
responder, when I talked to the chief, the fire chief, he basically says time is essence. And talking about fire in uh last I think last month
uh I know you said like 96% of the fire company is station one. Well that's okay if everything was perfect but you know you had was closed the sewer connection closed
and the power lines were closed. So that means Summit the prime uh the prime station to cover that area they'd be there faster. But now if they have to drive around for a fire there that's two
extra minutes. And as you know as a firefighter every minute that you don't get water on that fire it's the fire spreads exponentially. Now, if you get a fire gets twice as big, it's not just twice as hard to put out. This is over
four times as hard to put out. >> All right. So, your your time is up, but I understand what you're bringing to my attention and I look forward to the next council meeting, which is September 22nd if you like to bring up more. Now I'm going to bring some signatures here and I think uh
>> so I mean now if you had that your situ one other thing well since my time is up on that this doesn't concern that the bush in front of the uh uh municipal building there wording in Washington
bush there's a tree um right there in the corner and if you're you're fine if you're in a SUV or a pickup truck. You can see over it. If you're in a low low riding car, it's
hard to see. The car is coming. I mean, >> anyone else from the public? Good evening everyone. My name is Andrew Dilva. I live at 20 Robert Street. I actually came here today to address the water issue. But after hearing the assembly men worth of a million dollars, I want to congratulate you all,
especially you, mayor, and the council for working so hard to build. The water is an issue and it needs to be replaced. And I'm just glad that it's moving forward. And I just want to say I look forward to working with you all in the future. And congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
Anyone else in the public? >> John 163 Main Street. I'm with this um lead testing. So, this is a true thing that we have to get done. >> If you're a renter, if you're a renter,
>> well, I I have a two family house, but my son's on one side. How many houses to build? Is that considered a rental? You pay rent. >> If you're not a renter and it's owner occupied, you just have to notify them that
>> you're not a renter and that's it. You don't have to do >> so information for like who >> they'll take off the list. >> Yeah. >> You just call the company at the bottom cuz they're keeping the registry. So, this attorney, >> if you read the letter, it says some of
these may have been sent out assuming >> that's got this >> because the address on your tactical might be different than the address on your electric. >> So, if you call this number, you'll set up they'll take you off the list >> or they'll say you'll have a company come look at it.
>> Yes. >> Okay. So, and then also you have to have it done by the 22nd and get a $1,000 refine. No, >> they have to have it scheduled by the 22nd, >> but I'll be scheduled. >> They won't they'll do it by the end of the year. >> Oh, okay.
For that information. >> Thank you, sir. Anyone else from the public? First call. Second. >> Motion to close public. >> Motion by Council President Sola, second by Councilman Kashinski. >> All in favor? I
>> uh going to go into marial appointments. Uh we have two redevelopment adversary committee. I have put on Nick Johnopoulos as our leaison, Ruie Baptist, Joseph Highland, John Frost which is on the land use board and myself. And then for human
relations commission we have Raj Cynthia. >> Then we're going to go on to consent resolutions. Julie, can you please read from 2025 249 to 270 please? Whereas resolution 2025-01
authorizes the burough council to utilize a consult agenda, I'm sorry, consent agenda to adopt various resolutions of a routine and non-controversial nature at one time. Now therefore be it and is hereby resolved that the beloved listed resolutions are hereby adopted by
the burough council in whole as if the same were individually act upon. Consult resolutions 2025-249 to 2025-270 249 authorizing the rest res okay thenition
>> requisition >> requisition of funds for payment to the uh custodian of the school monies 250 approving an agreement with South River Sewer and Water Association 251 authorizing an abandoned vehicle auction 252 approval Approval a special events
permit to St. Mary's to be held on September 14, 2025. 253 authorizing the burl clerk to wave the special events permit fee for St. Mary's. 254 permit uh permit a voluntary canning fundraiser to support the head overheels parent
association. 255 authorizing a block party for her heritage landing on September 6, 2025. 256 Appointment of Tyler Styles as labor A for the sanitation department. 257
Appointment of John Barano as labor A for the sanitation department. 258 shared services agreement with the board of education for school security. 259 shared services agreement with the board of education for special events. 260
Authorizing the execution of contract with Granus, Inc. 261. Property tax refund for the total disabled veteran for Elizabeth Street. 262. Property tax refund for the total disabled veteran 22 Belmont Avenue. 263.
Property tax refund for 22 Belmont Avenue. 264. Property tax refund S. Brothers Incorporated. 265. Authorize certain utility refunds. 266. Accept uh July 21st, 2025 regular and executive session
minutes. 267 Accept August 7, 2025 special meeting minutes. 268. Authorize the bills and claims list. 269 redevelopment investigation of the Auburn Woods area. 270 redevelopment investigation of Wo
Joa. So that is consent. Second >> motion by councilwoman Val, second by council council president. >> All in favor? >> Councilman Ballas.
>> Councilman Dinian. >> Yes. >> Councilman Ginski. >> Yes. >> Council President Sulan. >> Yes. With the abstension from 258, 259, and 268. I'm sorry. You said 258, 269, 268.
>> 258, 259 to 268. Yes. Yes. >> Like to open it up to the governing uh comments. Uh start off with Councilman Demon. >> Um this Friday is our end of summer fireworks.
It's a great uh event to go up and there'll be vendors there. Come up and enjoy the evening. That's all I have here. Thank you, Councilwoman Bell. >> Um, school is opening Wednesday, September 3rd.
Please be aware of the added children that will be walking, bicycling, skate park, but they will be. Um, I know in my neighborhood we will be watching to see how the
parking goes again this year or the illegal parking goes again this year. Sorry, but it happens. Um, but just be aware they're going to be kids walking. Be careful of the traffic flows, all the new stop signs,
>> and be aware of the crossing guards. They're in the middle of the street to watch your kids. They're not there to get harassed or to get abused or to sometimes just get you by a car. >> I mean, I'm on a corner by school. You
all know it is dangerous for them sometimes. So, just be careful and just pay attention. Just be aware. >> And that's all I have. Council member, >> thank you, Mayor. Uh, first off, I'd like to thank all of our public service
workers, uh, police, our fire, Robert Johnson, our ZPW for all the work that they do throughout the township and, uh, keeping us safe and clean and protected. Um, with that, uh, the only thing I really have is, uh, this weekend for the
end of summer festival and, uh, on 911, we will be having our usual ceremony at Py's pond at the 911 memorial. will be at 6:30 at the By's Park and then of course at the firehouse at station one on Jackson Street with the
fire companies for their service. >> With that, thank you. Thank you, Council President. >> Nothing. >> Thank you. Uh as Councilman Kashinsky said about 911, please come out and show your support. Dy's pawn 6:30. Um one of
our own perished in that horrible day. Um, I'd also like to thank uh Assemblyman uh Sterling Stanley and Stanley Sterling. I always get mixed up. Um, Sterling Stanley and Robert Cageek
uh for the $1 million uh water main replacement. This is just the beginning to uh helping this water project move forward. Uh this town is in dire need. Uh we are working on so many more project, so many more grants to make uh it easier for the resident when we're
about to break ground. Um in a couple more weeks, school starts. Please remember to drive carefully. I know it's not easy, but especially now these kids are out with motorized scooters and bicycles. You know, you never know when they're zipping by you. So, please look both ways when you're pulling out your
driveway, especially when you're pulling out your driveway. Uh at our last council meeting, we welcomed uh four new police officers uh to our police department. Derek Whitaker, Jeppe Constenza, David Martinez, and Brianna Diaz. Wishing them all the best as they
kick off their journey at Cape May County Police Academy today. They started their training that runs through Friday, January 9th, is when they graduate. Good luck to each of them. We excited to have you on board. And uh Labor Day is upon us. Please be safe
with barbecues, uh, gatherings, uh, loud music, you name it. Uh, we are going to go into executive session. We are not going to be acting on anything uh, therefore. So, if you like to leave, you're more than welcome. You want to stay, it's up to you. We are going to go
into another room. Uh Julie, can you please read 2025-271 session 2025-271 where section 8 of chapter 231 public 1975 permits the ex exclusion of the general public from a meeting of the governing body under certain
circumstances and where the mayor and council of the burrow of South River are of the opinion such circumstances presently exist. Now therefore, be it and it is hereby resolved by the mayor and council regard of South River in the county of Middle Sex of the state of New
Jersey that the public be excluded upon the hearing specific subject matter and that such subject matter should be so discussed as follows. Contract negotiations attorney client privilege be it further resolved that such record of the above discussion will be made
public when confidential confidentiality is no longer required. The burough council or the burrow of south may or may not take formal action at the conclusion of the executive session. I >> have a motion motion to go to close by
councilinski. Second by council member >> counciloman. >> Yes. >> Councilman. >> Yes. >> Councilman Bjinski. >> Yes. >> And council president. >> Yes.