In compliance with the open public medium hall, I wish to state that on August 22nd, 2025, the notice of this meeting of the upper township committee was posted on the official township bulletin board. The upper township website emailed to the Atlantic City Press, the Ocean City Sentinel ledger,
the Herald Times, and followed the township clerk. Tonight's meeting is being video recorded up until the close session portion of the meeting and will be available on the upper township website. I hereby direct this announcement be made part of the minutes of this meeting.
Would everyone please stand for the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy and justice for all. population. Please call the role. Yes.
Mr. Cassaceio here. Mr. Nappen here. Mr. Sam Palumbo here. Mr. Zach Palumbo? Yes. Mayor Corson present. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes from a previous meeting? Yes. Motion to approve. Second. Please call the role.
Mr. Cassaceio. Yes. Mr. Nappen. Yes. Mr. San Palumbo. Abstain. Mr. Zack Palumbo. Yes. Mayor Corson. Yes. Motion carried. Okay, moving on to elected official reports here. Um, we're gonna start with
Mr. Zach Columbo. Thank you, Mayor. Um, just for everyone, just full transparency, I don't think I've talked to Jimmy or Curtis more in the last uh I want to say 72 hours over what just transpired out in the Atlantic
Ocean. All right. So, just to give everyone an idea, a timeline of what was happening as this was uh as Aaron was going up the coast on Wednesday, public works started cleaning up, moving doom pylons, fences, everything, knowing that there's going to be debris that would
end up into the uh into the ocean. Uh Thursday, uh they ran into a little bit of hiccup. We had a a resident that decided to illegally put all trash out in the middle of this street that had to get removed because we were hoping we're making sure that no flooding water would
move debris and damage somebody else or also or the wind or the wind or become a health hazard for those who are residents of Strathner. Um we had to put barricades up and I know Curtis is going to talk a little bit more about that afterwards. uh to make sure that we
didn't have anyone falling off of the pathways uh knowing the fact that the water was going to cut into the dunes. Uh Governor Murphy uh declared a state of emergency. Uh I got a text message at 7:02 p.m. that the tide is going to
rapidly come up. Within 20 minutes, the water was all the way up the Commonwealth uh ramp and over into the shed. Uh there was standing water into the trailer parks back in Strathmir. Um, and by 900 PM, uh, I had received photos of this Trafmir church with the water
right at the doorstep. Yes. So, it moved very quickly. Um, you know, we it went through the the high tide in the morning. Um, I'm fortunate enough that my oldest daughter likes to run cross country. So, at 6:15, I'm driving through Ocean City and you can clearly
see the debris that was on Bay Avenue. Um, there were huge waves at fifth and seventh and it was just the I had not seen the water go under the boardwalk in a very long time since I was like a kid. Um, I I also noticed that Ocean City had their streets barricaded because they
didn't want anyone entering the water. Granted that there were surfers going out there illegally. I get it. Um, but some of us need to understand that why those barricades are up so that way you know for public safety purposes. Uh after my daughter was done cross country
practice, I hightailed it over the public works yard, I met with Craig Reeves and Mike Jones and we formulated a plan about how to go on there. One of the biggest concerns that we had was if the water from high tide wouldn't go back down to low tide, which it didn't.
It stayed at a very stagnant area. Um in the afternoon, I met with Mayor Corson and we tooured the damage of the beach. Uh, I also brought my son and you know my son is 5 foot three and I had him go up against the dune cuts and there are
dune cuts that are clearly over eight foot tall on the uh in strata there. So we had significant damage. The uh the one by Williams the the pathway it's totally gone right. We have just standing standing piece of wood that's
there. Um, so and with that being said, as I'm walking back to get to my car here, it is low tide and low tide is up against the dune. So for us to move the bulldozer would have been a futile
effort by by any means. Any anything that would have done been done on Friday afternoon would have been lost because we also had a Friday Friday night high tide which cut even further into that. Um, so we made the best of a bad situation. I know that not a lot of
people are aware about this, but we have Beasley's Point, which is actually a beach as well. So, public works spent the time cleaning up the debris that was there on the beach, making it safe for those who wanted to boat or also bring, you know, their kids down to the Bayront knowing that there's not, you know,
catastrophic waves or rip tides or anything like that. Um, and Saturday, as luck would have it, we had a new moon phase. So, we had even more tide uh damage that went in through there. So, again, us moving through to replenish or
restore any dunes would have been just again another futile mistake. But Saturday, public works did remove a lot of debris. They did remove debris. They just couldn't sculpt the uh dunes because they have to follow D regulations as well. So, Sunday, Monday, we started the
process of cleaning up. Uh, and now on Monday we have six beach access open. Correct. Well, let me go down the list because I was sent a text with the list. Um, starting south, moving north,
Sherman, Summer, Tecumpsa, Vincent, Webster, Whitaker, and Willard are open. Yeah. So, so from going from eight accesses closed to six. I mean, that's that's right. That's phenomenal job by public works. Oh, and keep in mind as this was going on and as these extra
tasks were going on, they were making sure all the resources and all the services within the township were still getting done. Trash was still picked up. You know, uh the uh Amanda's field was cut. You know, we had a lot of other all the daily tasks that they have to do
were still being accomplished. Um you know, and finally, just kind of going back to putting barricades up. We put barricades up. You know, I know public works takes the blunt because they're the ones that put the barricades up, but it's out of public safety and I Curtis, I I know you want to talk about what
happened on Sunday. Yeah. And I I like said I our public works stepped up and I really commend them on the job they did and just we did have our full staff of lifeguards over there and our lifeguards did a phenomenal job.
I believe Friday and Saturday they spent most of their time when they we did have be guards on the beach but they also picked up a lot of debris and put them where public works can get them so they stayed busy but I'm yes Sunday
Sunday the crash no way was it Saturday give me a minute it's turned into a bar yeah it's kind of like all blending together in one No, it was uh Saturday.
Saturday. That's when I took the picture of the rescue. Saturday at approximately 2:30 in the afternoon. There was a a high school party on the state park. They had children, young adults were in
the water. Our guards were being proactive. They sent a kabota around, asked these kids, did we move out of the water? But there were some of them who were out pretty far in the inlet. There's some shallows and you can go way out there. Um, they dispatched
the wave runner from 1400 to go out there. We're standing there. We lost communications with the wave runner has been restored. We actually can communicate with just a fluke that night. All of a sudden, the wave veered off and went somewhere else. And we're
like, what's going on? Well, there they happened upon a uh wavel that was capsized. There was separation. The person was separated from the vehicle. He was not in a good way. They actually facilitated a rescue.
We couldn't see what happened or know what happened for almost five minutes. Then we saw the other wave runner. That's how big the surf was. That guy would have drowned like that even with his life vest. It was not a proper life
vest. But that's our lifeguards did a phenomenal job and they brought him ashore. They beach evaluated him. They transported him. Seatel was called the wave hunter was hauled out.
That's what they trained for. And honestly, just I happened to be up there never have never seen a water rescue before and it was phenomenal. Our guys were very professional. They did their job and they will be at our next meeting. We're going to recognize them. It was good proactive lifeguarding and
it was just a wonderful thing. So all in all, Stra, you're still there and we're going to work hard to make sure that you know it stays safe. Yeah. Jim and I have a meeting tomorrow with our congressman. He's they asked for
multiple mayors from uh southern New Jersey in his district to meet. Hopefully, we have some good news. So, do you have anything else? No, that's it. All right, we're going to move right along. Uh, we'll put you now.
Awesome. Thank you so much, guys. And, uh, also my appreciation to public works. Uh, quick update for East Alley. Um when we switched engineers, there was uh some overlap. And I want to thank Delasio and Associates for stepping up, taking care of some plans for stamp
concrete work that needs to be done for that project. And they did that free of charge. As you guys all know, I keep talking about it. It was uh something that we're doing at the park at Amanda's Field to remember uh one of our our players that passed away uh last year.
Uh EMS front, EMS has been busy. three ambulances working the streets responding to emergencies on multiple occasions. Um they're growing developing. This past week our ambulances were equipped with glucometers post departmentwide training
in them in line with NJEM. Some recent updates on their protocols. EMS is strengthening collaboration with local fire departments. They just recently did an entrapment drill with Maramura and Tuahoo. And EMS is continuing to offer CPR classes to our
local community groups. If you've never done a CPR class, it's really fun. I've I'm CPR certified myself through my school. It's a good thing to do. So, you can contact them if you're interested in that. That's made possible with a partnership between Heavenwood Christian Fellowship and the Shore Club. And
that's all I have. Thank you, Mayor. Sam, do you have anything for us tonight? Yes, I do. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, I also just wanted to thank public works for their efforts in Strathmeir. I also would like to thank them uh for the additional work that they're doing at Amanda's Field. Uh as the fall season
comes up, obviously everyone's very excited to start playing. Those fields look incredible. Um and I'm very jealous of the kids that get to play on them. Uh and I also wanted to just say that October 5th is our fall fest. So please come out and support that community event. That's it. Mayor
Col, you have any words tonight? Uh yes, Mayor. I'm happy. Uh number 13, our consent tonight. uh our shared service agreement that we're going to agree with the city of Woodbine on. About a couple months ago, I reached out to Mayor Piccoliki and Woodbine, see
what kind of interest he had in using our court service. Um he was extremely interested. We had a little back and forth in our negotiations here the last couple months. Uh but seems like we finally come to an agreement here to absorb them into our court system here
and uh have a nice shared service agreement with them going forward. That works well for us and the state police because they cover both districts and they can come to one court. Absolutely. Uh I'd like to thank Jimmy Lauren, our court administrator, John,
and of course, Mayor Pic. And uh they're going to be starting in January 1st here in 2026 pending the assignment judges approval. Very excited to have them uh moving along here as well. I wanted to let Tyler go first on that and piggyback off of him. EMS is also
going to be entering into a shared services agreement with Woodbine for EMS services. And I want to thank Chief Britain for working really hard behind the scenes and making those numbers work very well for the township. Uh if you don't know, uh our EMS billing is a
revenue source for us and bringing in woodline is great for the township. So both in both departments we're going to be generating extra. Very good. Yes. But just so you guys know, uh there is Jim and I did go to the mayor's round
table Friday in the middle of all that. We had mayor's round table and they are looking at maybe putting together a investigation committee. They've done it in Atlantic County, Superior Court uh consolidation or court consolidation
countywide and maybe doing municipal courts all through the county the county. They will not start that initiative unless five go on board. So there is maybe something to look at.
They've done it in Atlanta County and they assured us when they did it in Atlanta County there was no layoffs. They absorbed a lot of people and just moved across from the municipalities. So it's something that
if we want to get on that subcommittee to investigate it, we can. If we don't, that's okay, too. Yeah, we definitely discuss that going forward. Like I said, I'm very happy to have Wine come on over here. And that's all I have. Mayor, thank you, Todd. And I really don't have
anything else. Uh Jim, do you have anything for us? I know it's been a busy week, so you got the floor. Yeah, thank you, mayor. Thank you, committee. Um, as previously discussed, um, full-scale operations on restoration of beach access point. One point I would
like to mention is um that in applying my you know action at the point of friction I would tell you we have to balance public safety versus community um access and recreation right and that's a difficult balance and there's often often compromises between the two
um and so you know uh myself public works moving forward for the remainder of the week certainly but into next week and into the off season is going to be the restoration of beach access in stra math in trying to consolidate gains um in in in you know hedging missile losses
from hurricane Aaron. Um the and the last thing I'll mention is so number one on the consent agenda is uh commemorating the 24th anniversary of September 11th. September 11th is not a holiday. It's not something we celebrate. It's something we remember.
We need to remember the nearly 3,000 lives lost on September 11th, 2001. The families forever changed. We need to honor the courage of the first responders, service members, civilians who ran toward the danger. Never forget is a
verb. Support our first responders, their families, volunteers. We need to check on our neighbors and choose public service. Ordinary people became heroes that day. We can live that spirit in small ways every days. And then uh last
thing I'll say is September 11th uh makes you contrast September 10th for September 12th. September 10th felt ordinary, divided by routines. September 12th felt extraordinary, united by purpose. Let's choose the empathy, service, and neighboring spirit
of of September 12th and our everyday actions as we remember September 11th. That's all I got for you. Thank you, Jim. And just like some of the older crowd will never forget where they were, we can give you a shot. A lot of this
generation will never forget where they were September 11th. Joey, do you have anything for us? I do not. Thank you. John, do you have anything? Nothing right now. Mayor, we have some some new business on the agenda, but I'll wait till then. Bob, do you have anything?
I just have one item. Um, we have the League of Municipalities coming up November 18th to 20th. I have uh requests from 12 employees to attend. Um, just need committee approval if you would so choose. I would like to be registered myself too
and I don't know if any other elected officials would put on the date on it. I probably overlooked two folks. So, if anyone um What's the dates again? November 8 or Yeah. 18th to 20th. to Tuesday to a Thursday.
I would like to make a motion we authorize whoever is eligible or is it actually is a good program. There's a lot of our employees can go over there and get cue or cus cus.
Um it's a good learning tool. It's a good opportunity. You see where the equipment's new and plus you get a bunch of free pens and candy, but it's all good stuff. Exactly. Mr. Kazachio, yes. Mr. Nathan, yes.
Mr. Sam Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zack Palumbo, yes. Mayor Corso, yes. Motion carried. Thank you. That's all I had. Uh, okay. At this time, we will open it to
the public. Is there anybody in the public that would like to comment on agenda items? Agenda items only. Good evening, committee. Um, I just have a question about um Barbara, we need Oh, I'm sorry. I can't believe I forgot
that. Barbara Larry Seville. Um, question about number 26. Can you explain it, what it is exactly, and why is it after close session? So, the only thing that I'm going to recommend, I know it's on there, but it is a close session item that's still
subject to contract negotiation. Technically, I recommend you don't say anything on that until such time as we've conducted that and come back into open. So, that's the answer. You're still talking about it. We we are we have it's only in close session this evening. So, it says so it's not necessarily
going to be adopted. That's correct. It's a resolution for consideration for adoption, but not necessarily to be adopted. Correct. a subcommittee that's the whole committee is not aware of what's going on. Okay. So, we're going to have that discussion and if the governing body so chooses thereafter, we will come back into open
for their consideration on but you will have voted on it already without any kind of there's no public input on that one at all that needed or yeah this is a a contract so correct there won't be any discussion. Okay. The question I guess is um can you explain it? Um you can't even say what a
memorandum of understanding entails generally speaking. Well, I can tell you what we can do when we come back in the close s from close session. We could probably open the public portion again. Okay, that'd be terrific. There is a school board meeting tonight at 6:30. It's important. So, not to push you
along, but just saying that's the challenge accepted. Is there anyone else who would like to comment on the agenda items? Agenda items only, please. [Applause]
Hi. Hey. How's everyone doing? I want to thank you all of you for your service. You say your name. Uh, sorry. My name is Robert Grimley. Uh, I've been in the township for a very long time. My wife has worked at the primary school now. I have a second
generation. My son who graduated went through the upper all the upper township schools, graduated from Ocean City High School. uh I helped him out. We are a joint owner of 705 uh Route 50, which
I'm call I'm calling about agenda 22. Uh my being a volunteer uh firefighter previously and family being involved with EMS, I'm concerned about public safety
and uh actually right here we have a simil mother as well. She has two young children. Her daughter is also in middle school with my daughter Grace in the seventh grade. And uh we we we both have an address that the address that my son
purchased was 705 Route 50. Lindsay lives at 725 Route 50. Now neither one of us has not even one inch on Route 50. We have a sign that's in the front that says no name. So it's like well it's
it's not that either. Yeah. And you know, you call GPS. I I I challenge any of you. If you put in either of our addresses in the GPS, you you're not going to locate either of our properties. That's a concern. if there was ever a
fire, safety, an emergency issue. I mean, to to to live on a road that doesn't even have a name, not a proper address, not even a proper location. I mean, that's that's that above all else, it's just a a number one safety concern
for us. I would think that it opens up a liability issue for the township because, god forbid something happens, I mean, the township itself should be liable as well. So, yes. Yeah. So, I'm I'm in strong favor and that's why, like I said, I mean, it may seem like a simple thing, but I mean,
imagine that you have a house. We our mailboxes aren't even in front of our house. They're in front of someone else's house that doesn't even want it there on Route 50. So, you know, it's it, you know, for a multitude of reasons, it makes no sense for to have a
sign that says no name to have us be identified as as 705 and 725, Route 50. when we we're not even on the road. So again, for for a multitude of issues, I would hope that you would uh approve that uh that change.
I think you are going to have our support. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to comment on that agenda item? Natalie N. Um, block 456, block 13, 476,
block 29. Um, I was wondering if you could speak to number two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight for the public's benefit.
They are uh cancelling tax on exempt property. He's probably a disabled veteran. Correct. Yes. That's that's for two through seven in there. Yes. And number eight is um a refund. There
was tax collected on a property that belonged to a nonprofit organization. So it's being returned to them because it should have been collected in the first place. So I believe that number seven,
block 647 and lot 802 um is number three Henry Road which is in that new um Dr. Horton development. Yeah, it might it may be. You're right. Might be right.
How much tax are you cancelling there? I do not know off the top of my head. I'm sure it's public record, but if he meets the criteria as a 100% disabled American uh military veteran. Mhm. Okay. That's what happens if the state
statute. She got the address right? Three Henry. Yeah. 100% disabled. don't know. Yes. 100% disabled American. So, it's my understanding that if it's a
disabled veteran, they get a $250. No. No, ma'am. AI military veteran such as myself, I'm entitled to a $250 adjustment. Right. But if they're totally disabled,
they don't pay any tax at all. They get all their taxes back for the by the VA. The VA designates them as 100% disabled and they are they are entitled to have their taxes canled property taxes. Yes. So if they're living in a million dollar
house, they can get the entire tax bill exempted. Yes, ma'am. That's state law. Yeah. And um with regard to number 22, the request to rename Noame Road. Yes.
What what would you like to know about it? How it got on the agenda? Excuse me. How it got on the agenda? because the residents that live on that road have written an email or a letter or some form of communication. It might
even have been a phone call, I do not know, to town hall, expressed their concerns, and that's how I got here. And you heard the gentleman's concerns today. I'm not sure, but I think my property is maybe 70 foot from that road.
from the stormwater ditch that's on that road, a 25 foot wide road that was a dirt road called Young's Lane when the township adopted it and renamed it to Noon Name Road
and paved it and engineered a stormwater ditch in there and changed the slope and the elevation. That's not the point and that's not on the agenda. So, well, I'm But
I don't see any good reason to change the name of the RIP. And if you are going to name it, I think that it should remember the Young family. There were a lot of youngs there. And historically, it should be named after the Youngs. And I believe it was the name was
changed to no name road or taken away because if you look at the map, I believe there's a Young's Lane that fronts on to uh Route 610. And I think it would add more confusion if we had two Youngs Lanes. Well, I
remember talking to the um post office um people that come by there and um all those addresses are on Highway 50. I don't believe there's any listed on Young's Lane there. And if so, um
there is a Youngs Lane on off of 610. We cannot have two roads in the municipality where you have 911 service named Young's Lane. Just like Persard Boulevard got named years ago. Dan Young was our solicitor and it was named such because it was
Roosevelt Boulevard. Well, we all know where Roosevelt Boulevard is, but if they were to dial 911 and show up Roosevelt Boulevard, our fire trucks would have probably been on headed to Ocean City. Well, I'm standing here and I'm not real
sure on what the rules are. Um, let me ask you a question, Mrs. N. Do you live on that no name road? No, I don't. But a young Is it going to affect your lifestyle? Whatever happens with the paving of that road and the ditch, the storm water ditch. Yeah, I believe it is.
Well, you're not paving the road. The road is paved. We are naming the road. Is that going to change your lifestyle? Is that going to affect how things are in Petersburg for you? I um
It depends. It depends if you Well, I'm sorry if it'll have an adverse effect on your lifestyle or the way you live in Peter. What are you going to do? But it's going to have a positive effect on uh Robert's lifestyle, I believe, because nobody can find his house now. They always find the house.
I'm sure UPS and FedEx know they've never made a mistake going to his house. I'm sure over the years when the Coons lived there, believe you me, all the times that DMS and the police were there, they found the house. Okay. Thank you, Natalie. What's the name of the road?
Excuse me. What's the name of the road? I don't know. You have to have a discussion on We're going to have a discussion on it. You're going to have a discussion on it when it's under new business. Under new business. Probably when we get to item 22. So that is that going to be voted on as
a um agenda item or is that pulled out? We don't know what action taken at this point. I don't know the proper procedure to name a road. I'm sure we have to do an ordinance to rename it. So, we'll have an ordinance and we will have public comment and you will have 30 days to think about it and come back and
make comments and I can speak again about it in public comment. Yes, you can. Sure. Thank you. Is there anyone else in the public that would like to address town committee about an agenda item? Yeah. Hi, my name is Lou Barbo
Petersburg. uh with with No Names Road. As long as I've been living around here, I thought that was the funniest thing to see a road named No Names Road.
And that's my reason for wanting to keep it that way. It's It's a unique name. It's a name you never see anywhere else in the world, maybe. I don't know. But I just think it's funny. I I've sent it to
people and they've got a good laugh out of it and I I understand the gentleman's concerns, but that's how I feel. Thank you. Thank you, Lou. Thanks, Lou. Is there anyone else like to address the agenda item
hearing? No more, we'll move to our consent agenda. All consent agenda items listed below are routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion. If the mayor or any committee member wishes a particular agenda item to be considered separately, it will be removed from the consent agenda and acted on separately.
Motion to approve the consent agenda. Second, please call the role. Mr. Casaceio, yes. Mr. Nappen, yes. Mr. Sam Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zack Palumbo, yes. Mayor Corson, yes. Motion carried. Number 21. Under ordinances, we have the introduction and first reading of
ordinance number 5, 2025, an ordinance vacating a portion of Filillmore Avenue within the township of upper county of Kate May and state of New Jersey. If you choose to introduce, we could have the public hearing for September 22nd. Okay. Would somebody like to make a motion to introduce this ordinance and have our public hearing on September
22nd? I'll make that motion. Second. Please call the RO. Mr. Cassaceio, yes. Mr. Nappen, yes. Mr. Sam Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zach Palumbo, yes. Mayor Corson. Yes. Motion carried. Under new business, we have the request to rename Noame Road.
Well, Jim, would you like to take this? Yeah, I got it. So, uh, I I was reached out by Mr. um, in regards to the the concerns um, he had previously stated about getting a proper address change and doing so with the tax assessor. you
know, he brought up a uh there's, you know, the the street sign says no name road, but on the tax map it says unnamed road. So, there's already, you know, kind of in congruence and naming convention, and this gave us an opportunity to to maybe get a proper name for the road, right? And so, um, as
typically done, we contacted the property owners who front that road. There's two of them. They're both present. Um, and query naming conventions or, um, naming options. And I got I got, you know, Lindsay Andre um wants to propose a name for the for the
road, right? Her recommendation is Empress Court. Empress is is reminiscent is reflective of the three Empress trees that line the front of the property. Um in doing so, that'll give them a unique name for the road. um in while also allowing us to
correct uh the mailing addresses through the tax assessor in the post office to give them a proper um you know designation for mail and public safety and services. I'm happy to take the neighbor's recommendation for Everest Court and
make that in form of a motion. Second, Mr. Kazachio. Yes. Mr. Nappen, yes. Mr. San Palumbo, yes. Jose Palumbo, yes. May Coren, yes. Now, just for the record, John, you outline the process that's going to transpire.
So, we're now going to have to introduce that for first reading of an or as an ordinance. So, we'll do that. That'll be followed by a second reading and public hearing before any adoption takes place. So, that's going to be subsequently over the at least the next two meetings. We'll introduce as early as the next and then a public hearing sometime
thereafter pursuant to law. So, at our next meeting, we will have an ordinance to introduce it. At the 30-day advertisement period's over and all that, we will have a public hearing. So, if anybody would like to object to it, we can be happy to hear your objections.
So, okay. Number 23, we had the proposal to combine the planning board and zoning board of adjustment into a joint land use board. John, I'm going to Yeah. So, mayor, I I know that your request I I looked into this um had
discussions with with Mr. Young as prior solicitor too. I know this is not something that has never come up before this body in the past, but amongst the membership, this is a first, right, for most of you to consider this. So, actually, it's all of us because it came up when I was Oh, okay. You weren't here. Got it. So
the the the question that came to me was can we possibly combine our land uh land use boards our planning board and our zoning board or I should say consolidate but I'll get into the exactly how it works out. Can we do it and if so what's it look like and what has to be done so statutoily under the municipal land use
law if you chose to go in that direction you'd have to do so by ordinance but you could take that action. What would happen is that you would essentially be dissolving your zoning board, right? Your planning board would remain, its membership would remain, those that are on it now, and it would take over the functions of both the planning board
that they currently exercise and that of a zoning board of adjustment, right? They'd be taking those in. Um, as I indicated, the current planning board membership, that body will remain. That will be your new joint board. Um, there will be the opportunity to name a few
additional alternates by combining them. uh and as terms expire you can replace individuals in the normal course but uh at the outset it will be your planning board that will be hearing all applications at that point in time. So again that can be something that is done
by ordinance uh of this body you can dissolve the zoning board and combine them into one. However, I'll caution you in the event that you ever want to undo this, right? If this is something that sounds good now and it's not so good a year from now, two years from now, whenever, you're not going to be able to
do that just by routine action of the body. You have to go to vote a referendum at that point in time in order to then reconstitute your zoning board of adjustments. So, a lot of consideration should be paid to that. Um, you know, that there's certain cost-saving measures I imagine
that you may see, right? going down from two meetings a month to one. Um, but I'll also say this, I if if that is the the main driver, what we should also be talking about is our current escrow fees, right? Because escro fees should be paying the brunt of your professional
services for those bodies. It should be paying your attorney. It should be paying your your engineer, right? The applicant should be fronting those costs through an escrow. Um, so if if that's a concern, we might want to look at what those numbers are and whether they need to be adjusted. But if it goes beyond that and there's other reasons that you
want to do it, that is the mechanism for which you can act as soon as possible. The workload from both and the workload is not there like it used to be, nor do I anticipate it in the future being. We do have a couple large size projects.
And I think if we have to, we could have special meetings, which we've had special meetings on both boards multiple times before. And I'll go back to I think it was 2010. We had 52 hours of special meetings for the dean
annexation. We had uh and more recent I think the Strat Motel if I remember correctly had multiple special meetings. So
and then there is a soft cost town hall being open heat air conditioning utilities I mean it's goes on so I think I would like to pursue it and move forward with it
and as I mentioned it's it's done through an ordinance right so we'd have to introduce an ordinance go through the process of adoption of an ordinance uh but once that's done the action's been taken and you then have a I don't want to call it a consolidated language score because it's the wrong word. You you'd have a joint board at that point in time.
I think now's the time to start it because we want to do it. We could just do like a January one date. There is appointments up on obviously both boards. Yeah. Uh I think we could probably bring members
of the zoning board over to the planning board and it could be a cohesive smooth transition. Yeah. I mean, and that's certainly possible. The other thing that makes sense, I think, especially if you can, you know, if if terms expire to the point where you're able to do that, uh,
because it's going to most certainly be a learning curve for your planning board members. You're going to go from a group of people that work to formulate a master plan and typically see site plans and subdivisions without much variance relief to being asked for potential use variance relief for for residential dwellings and things of that nature.
It's a different animal, but it's entirely possible for them to be able to do it through the proper training and everything they're going to have to do. But it's it's there's going to be a learning curve for sure. There always is when you do that. Um I this would be for start next year
for January 2020. So I my main concern here is I would want to make sure the openings we have on planning board that would come with this new board is we would fill it with zoning members. That way the transition
is smooth. As you said, if you the concentration of planning, you have all planning people now give them zoning. They need to be able to have some zoning people on there to help shepherd them with learning. I agree with you 100% and that's part of when we start getting into reorganization and we'll have
conversation on who we put on boards and that will be I think that'll help the main transition. That was definitely I've met with members of the zoning board already and I can actually see that is a very smooth transition.
Okay. So I guess at this point we need to make a decision. Do we want to pursue this? And if you do then we would work on formulating an ordinance for introduction and a first reading and then go again through the the normal ordinance. What you guys want to talk about? I will make that form of a motion that we
pursue this. I'll second that motion. Please call the role. Mr. Cassaceio, yes. Mr. Nappen, yes. Mr. Sam Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zach Palumbo, yes. Mayor Corson. Yes. Motion carried. And there will be public hearings on it.
Yes, sir. And there will be plenty of opportunity for the public to address this. Has everybody reviewed the bill list? Yes. Go ahead. I hereby move that all claims submitted for payment at this meeting be approved
and then incorporated in full in the minutes of this meeting. Please call the somebody like second. Second. Please call the role. Mr. Cassaceio, yes. Mr. Nappen, yes. Mr. San Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zack Palumbo, yes. Mayor Forson, yes. Motion carried.
At this time, we'll open it to the public. Is there anybody in the public that would like to address the township committee on any subject near or dear to them? How you doing? Yes, sir. My name is Don Batton. Um, B A T I N. I
live in Tahoe on 251 Mill Road. The question I have or what I'm hear about is that I'm sure we're all familiar with the current trend of people having chickens in their backyard. You know, the township has
ordinances on how many hens you can have. You can't have roosters in an RD zone property penny and stuff like that. But what's becoming another trend that is not even mentioned is goats. There are no rules. Goats bleed which
bark like dogs. Do we consider them like dogs? The ordinances involving dogs apply to goats? You know, how many are you allowed to have per your lot size? Where are they supposed to be? How far setbacks? What do you do with the
manure? You know, safe handling of the animals and stuff. There's nothing. I have a situation where my neighbor has goats and I'm wakened every morning at 5:30 with bleeding goats along with
roosters, which they're not supposed to have. That's supposedly being addressed by animal control, but animal control has no guidelines whatsoever for goats. I think our ordinance is it doesn't specifically name names or species but
we do have it is pretty vague and it probably says livestock. I think goat would fall under the livestock category but there's no definition under livestock of how many
goats you can have. Can they have 20 or are they allowed two? Do they have to have billies and nannies? you know it we have this ru these rules for chickens and there's also for swine and cows and everything else but they're also
farmland animals you know is a goat a farmland can you have a goat in an RD zone property of six acre it's just there there is nothing in I've been dealing with the zoning board and they
just you know better lack of tone they do a Scooby-Doo and go you know, so it's pretty good. You know, it's it's it's interpretation of the the what I've been getting is, you know, it's the interpretation of the
wording or the feeling of the other zoning requirements. It's there's nothing there. I have no traction because nobody has any. I I got a question. I a while back when I lived on 50, you said that if I had x
amount of goats, my property would be considered agricultural, right? You had five acres or more. Okay. I had like about two and a half acres, so whatever. But I guess my question is is do you know how many possible goats are living on this
propert? There's there's two, but what does and it's a six acre plot, but it's not a full six acres because there's only about an acre of it. It's clear that you could technically the rest of the land appears to be some sort of D
zone and and I'm assuming it's considered residential zone, not it's RD, which I believe you guys call rural development. All right. And it's not considered farmland. Okay. John, do have you had an opportunity to
look at the catch me off guard here. I have not, but I certainly can. Can you give us an opportunity to have our solicitor look at the ordinance and talk to Mr. Vance like our our zoning official, and see if there's anything we
can do. And they're not fading goats, right? They're just Are they fainting goats? You know, you know the species of goat. Um, they look like they're small. They look more like pets. I mean, I don't know what purpose you have for goats on a farm anyway. What I'm thinking is that
these may be pets. They're small goats. They both have horns, but nannies get horns, too. Yeah. I can tell you just from personal experience, excuse me, personal experience, goats are used on a farm to clear vegetation and unwanted
growth, but they also are uh a very marketable and edible meat. Okay. I don't think these people this isn't this is RD so this is not a commercial farm so these are not being raised for resale these probably are
pets but there's no you know there's I mean the biggest thing I got is is the fact that it's 5:00 a.m. And these things are making noise. And you're you're absolutely right. And the goats are probably going to be a problem. And if you've been following YouTube at all, there are uh there's
people out there that actually and there it's happening in the Kate May County. There's people that are actually have herds of goats and they use them to help people manage and clear their property and they take them around and drop them in the neighborhood for the day and put
up a temporary fence and maybe an overnight and they get paid for this. It's impressive. It's I don't think this is that. But I'm glad you're here because I have actually watched a lot of these YouTube videos and it's probably something if we don't have an ordinance, we probably
need to really look at tightening up our ordinance. I mean, there are there if you, you know, because of AI, you Google, you know, goat penning ordinances, it brings in stuff from other and there's nothing actually nothing from here. I've spent time, you know, in the zoning office and
they're like, "Well, what's the spirit of the interpretation?" Well, it isn't, but I can get stuff from up north, Patterson, down south, you know, all over the place that that have ordinances specifically for goats and pet goats and goats in residential areas.
Yeah. I remember years ago, and I'm not updating myself, probably sometime in the early 90s, but belly pigs became a thing and everybody had a pop pig and that was a problematic thing. So this is the same kind of thing. Yeah. Okay,
John. In the in the meantime, whether it's a goat, a lawn mower, or a dog, the noise ordinance would protect Yeah, that immediate issue of the 5 a.m. wake up call. But so who's going to go with 5 a.m. measure measure? I got video. I got I'm sure that's Yeah,
that's a code code enforcement issue. If if there is a violation, they can look into it. We will we will take a look at it. Thank you very much for coming out today. Thank you. Thanks. Is there anyone else that would like to address the township committee? Yes, Natalie.
Natalie Nice. Um, in response to that, I'd like to say that that's something that I've been dealing with for a long time since uh Misty Meadows went in my backyard. And um it's my understanding that this township has a residential
agriculture um zoning, which you only need two acres. So, I think that y'all should look into that and it might give you half a clue. But
anyway, I um I'm here to talk about um when my sister died, her property deeds passed to Joseph Bonn. They changed the Kate May County subdivision plaque to 4942 in 1995.
And they are Curtis Corson Jr. who was chairman of the upper township planning board at the time and Kate May County officials who recorded it, stamped it at the um county level and then it was recorded at the courthouse
and I just want to make note of that. Um this day I woke up today and this day I'm feeling cheated. my work, play, my family, my friendships. I'm in here participating in a system that is destroying everything. Nothing's really
changing. Or is it? Strange thing to me. We take for granted simple things like, I can't believe you're still sitting there, John Amhouser. Whatever possessed solicitor John to
state on 811 2025, is it your intent to corner us or if it is your intent to corner us? He went on. So in my opinion, you could be considered the sixth board
member, John Amnhouser. And with regard to um the trees on known name road um I I really don't know where these trees
are that are being um mentioned but um if there's an empress tree there um it's my understanding that uh empress trees are an invasive species to South Jersey
and um They're uh detrimental to septic systems as well. So um they might be in the category of bamboo and I think that our township has a
regulation regarding the removal of bamboo. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to address the public? Um, Robert Grimley, I just when I sit back and I look at all the work and the
nonsense that sometimes you guys have to deal with, I just had to take this opportunity to say thank you very much for all your service and for all that you do. I mean, I know you have to cut through a lot of stuff to get things done, but I I really do appreciate the council that we have here and thank you
very much for addressing our concerns earlier, but thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Is there anyone else you would like to address? At this time, we'll uh entertain a motion to go into close session.
I'll make that motion. You got to read the novel. Oh, wait. That's I hereby move a resolution be incorporated into the minutes authorizing the township committee to enter into executive session for the following matters pursuant to up open
public meetings act matters one personnel two contract negotiation animal control services three contract negotiation special legal counsel four contract negotiation block 599 lot 51 I also included my motion to estimated
time and circumstances under the discussion conclude conduct conducted in closed session will be can be disclosed to the public as follows. A it is anticipated the matters discussed in closed session may be disclosed to the public upon the termination of the
township committee and the public interest will no longer be served by such confidentiality. B with respect to the employment and personnel matters. Such discussions will be made public if and when formal action is taken or when individuals involved consent that it can
be made public. With respect to the contract negotiations, such matters will be made public when negotiations have ceased and there is no longer a reason for confidentiality. Second. Thank. Please call the role. Mr. Cassaceio, yes. Mr. Nappen,
yes. Mr. San Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zach Palumbo, yes. Mayor Corson, yes. profession. We're going to take a quick stretch of our legs about