All right, here we go. In compliance with the open public meeting law, I wish to state that on May 23rd, 2025, the notices of 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 involved with the township clerk. Tonight's meeting is being video recorded up until the close session portion of this meeting and will be available on the upper township website. I hereby direct that this announcement
remain part of the minutes of the meeting. Would everyone please stand for the flag salute to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God
indivisibley and justice for all to please call the role Mr. Casachio here Mr. Nappen here Mr. Sam Palumbo here Mr. Zach Blumbo here. Mayor Porson present. All members are present. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes from the last
meeting? Yes. Motion to approve. Second. Please call the role. Mr. Casaceio? Yes. Mr. Nathan? Yes. Mr. San Palumbo? Yes. Mr. Zack Palumbo? Yes. Mayor Corson? Yes. Motion carried. Okay. Reporter governing body.
Uh, I'll let Zach go first today because I think he's got a laundry list of items here. If he doesn't hit them, I'm going to. Thank you, mayor. Actually, I wanted to get started with something that happened that last committee made meeting. Uh, the township committee approved the application to go along with the other municipalities within the
county to retain the distinction of Kate May County being identified as United States Coast Guard community. I think it's important for us to recognize this action following of course Memorial Day weekend and the celebrations that occurred and what it means to have tracing within our country uh within our
county and every that every Coast Guard recruit starts out there and we have many upper township residents that are directly connected to the base. As a member of the United States Coast Guard Community Foundation here in Kate May County, I would encourage residents to participate in our local events. And if
you have the ability to check out our sunset parade during this year's public, that's all a very spectacular event. Now, I'm going to move on to public works. So, good the good news was on May 20th, we received our emergency permit for the uh uh beach uh cultivation.
Great job from public works getting things moving in time for Memorial Day weekend. The bulldozer was in full force twice last week. As the case with the beaches, public works was able to sculpt uh a walkway and the as chance would have it. We had a noraster and undid the
work and it had to be redone on f on Friday before the parade. Um I want to thank Mr. Ree and Mr. Jones and their team for getting us up and moving and open for the unofficial start. I also have don't want to share with my
colleagues. Uh could I have a proposal that I'm requesting that supervisor mechanic John Hope uh from public works uh to uh get his state certification on the state exam. Uh the first section will start in the fall and I believe Mr. Reeves has money budgeted for
professional development and that we would continue on this and I think it's important for us to grow our employees from within professionally and career. Are you making a motion? I am making a motion. I will second. Please call the role. Mr. Cassaceio. Mr. Nappen. Yes.
Mr. Sam Palumbo. Yes. Mr. Zack Palumbo. Yes. Mayor Corson. Yes. Motion carried. And then I know that we have a lot of other things that we're going to talk about with public works, but I'm going to turn it over to my uh fellow committee members at this time. Thank you very much, Carl.
Not a whole lot to report this week, mayor. I obviously attended yesterday the Memorial Day service at Osprey Point with all five of you guys here. We had a nice time there and uh especially nice for myself. My uh grandfather helps organize the event every year. takes a lot of pride in uh giving back to
veterans and taking care of veterans and honoring the fallen like we did yesterday for Memorial Day. So, it was very nice event for all of us to attend. And uh I saw the photo of your grandfather, your father, yourself, and your son. It was very nice seeing the four generations pop up in one picture.
Very cool. And uh like I said, it was a lot of fun. Enjoyed it a lot. That's all I got. Okay, Sam, do you have any Oh, man. Boy, do I. Um, uh, today we are congratulating the Upper Township Basketball Association's
eighth grade girls team on a little bit, which I'm very excited about. Uh, and as well as we have our firework, uh, we're calling it a summer celebration because it's not going to be on July 4th this year, but, uh, it'll be on June 28th. So, look forward to celebrating that
with everyone in the community. That's all I got for you, Mayor. Thanks, Sam. Uh, Victor, do you have anything for tonight? I do. Good evening everybody. Thank you so much for coming out and joining us as always. Um we'll be honoring our EMTs tonight that did some amazing things. So there'll be a
presentation on that in a little bit. Attending the Memorial Day ceremony yesterday with everybody was wonderful. It's a great event. I'm a high school teacher. I said to my classes today, "Do you guys know why we celebrate Memorial Day?" And I got a couple funky answers. And I made sure to let them know that we
honor all the people that have sacrificed for us to be here in peace. And that's a great thing. Uh I want to say a sincere thank you to Joe. Joe's your last meeting, right? Uh Joe stepped in to a to a hornets nest in a lot of
ways. He's been steadfast. He's been responsive and it's been great having him. But going forward, we're excited to have Jimmy in the crowd and uh I think it's going to be very very good for the township. As far as my other department,
it now that uh the EMT hiring process for the summer is complete, which was intense. We had a lot of uh positions that we needed to fill. We're going to be working on a website and uh trying to clean up and and do some some cool things with how we do our social media.
So, look forward to some good updates in the coming months with that. And that's all I have. Thank you. Yes. Uh to echo what everybody said, Joe, thank you, sir. It was an honor and pleasure working with you. This is going to be Joe's last meeting and Jimmy's going to
be taking over as administrator. We hired him in the last meeting and he will start Monday morning bright and early. So, we look forward to the smooth transition and it should be a good transition. And I want to echo what Zach said, public works. Thank you. Gentleman
stepped up, beaches access, stellar job. Everyone was uh heard a lot of good compliments. But also on the beach, we have an ongoing problem and there was numerous complaints I received this weekend about that. And I'm going to ask our code enforcement to take a look at
it and handle it. And this is the warning. No dogs on the beach. Pretty simple. Signs explain it. You walk by a sign when you take your dog to the beach. There was a lot of reports of dogs wandering loose on the beach.
So, it's going to be enforced. We have an ordinance in place. We're going to enforce it. So, that's all I have at this time. Joe, do you have anything for us tonight? A couple things, Mayor. Uh, first, I'd like to welcome Jim. Uh, Jim and I uh spent uh
some time together going over a lot of issues over the past couple of weeks. I know he's in transition uh uh to his uh to a new home. So, I know that's a difficult time, but uh Jim's going to hit the ground running. I'm I'm certain of that. Uh and uh and I hope he uh
spends many years here in Upper Township and uh so do we. A good good relationship. I know we do. I want to thank the mayor of township committee for for all your support. Transitions aren't easy. um done a lot of them and uh all of you
chipping in and helping made it this such a seamless uh process and I greatly appreciate your cooperation on there. Uh the employees uh are tremendous here in Upper Township. I'd like to thank all of them for helping out uh during this time
uh participating in in in the startup for for summer schedule. I want to thank public works. our recck department does a great job and I really want to uh want to thank you guys all for that. Um the professional staff, Ryan, couldn't say
better things about you. Uh wish you all the best and of course uh uh John uh you've been a great counsel to me here and uh thanks for all your support and help. Um, I would be remiss if I didn't point out a a couple employees that are
top-notch professionals, and that would be Barbara and Joanne. Not that the others aren't. We have a lot of top-notch professionals, but uh, Upper Township is lucky to have these two, and uh, your help is greatly appreciated over this transition. And, uh, thank you
very much. Um, and I got to know a lot of the residents here, some very colorful residents that we have. And uh I enjoyed working with the residents who feel strongly about up the township. Um they they love it here. They want the town to stay great, keep
and be great from now on. And I'm certain it will with Jim and the township committee working together. So thank you all. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Joanne, do you have anything? I do also want to thank Joe. You did come under very difficult circumstances and you were just a soothing bomb and I
appreciate all your leadership and help and work. You will be missed. You made your mark. Your tribute to Jersey Professional Management. You should get a raise. But you will be missed. So, thank you. Is this recorded?
Yes, actually. Yes, it is recorded. Tony, do you have any question? No, nothing right now, Mr. Mayor. a couple of items in close session, but we'll discuss that. Okay. Um, just to echo what everyone said about Joe, um, thank you for your comments, but it was, uh, it's been a
pleasure working with you, um, seeing us through a transition that that wasn't always easy. Um, appreciate your leadership and just, um, getting us through it all and looking forward to Jimmy coming one in in another week or so.
Thank you, Ryan. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, I'll first start off again uh wishing Joe all the best and thank you again for our time working together. Um it was great experience. Uh the one moving on to engineering the as we
discussed athletic court resurfacing project is moving along. We have bids out currently for fencing improvements. We uh we'll be opening those bids on June 5th and then anticipating for uh
all our contractors to be uh signed and authorized for full construction starting in July uh will be the goal. Uh with construction ideally completed September uh potentially October of this year. Moving on to Living Shoreline, we
had great news. We received the D permit for the project on the 14th. Um we are now waiting on the Army Corps of Engineers permit which we're anticipating by the end of June. Um and then for that project uh the goal is to send out to bid in July with a ward uh
in August at the latest. Um that project has restrictions for construction. Uh it's April 1st to August 15th. We cannot complete construction. And so the goal is September having construction start and then completed by December of this
year if all goes well. Uh and the last one as the mayor requested last meeting we have an update on Mill Road from the county. Uh county essentially is dealing with uh some back and forth with the contractor for some grading issues on
the design. Uh but anticipating for construction to start mid to late June uh if not earlier. That's that's all I have for tonight. Mr. Mayor, excuse me. As would come and practice with me. I forgot about the uh uh request from uh the
chief of emergency medical services, John, uh uh for um some training for 10 10 of his students uh for the emergency pediatric care class. Um it is a total of $2,660.
uh and each student has 16 continuing education credits for the EMTs under that program and uh hopefully you would find a way to approve that. It's buzzed. Thank you. Um so I'd like to make that in the form of a motion. Second. Second.
Please call the role. Mr. Cassaceio, yes. Mr. Nappen, yes. Mr. Sam Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zach Palumbo, yes. Mayor Corson, yes. Motion carried. And before we move on to the agenda, I have something I forgot about myself. Um, I have a the Seahawks swim team
hosted a race at the Beasley's Point Seed Duke place and we have for the past five years we have assisted it with lifeguards and I believe the John has
been asked by the uh people to have a great standby for that. But with our uh I would like to see us if we can wave our user fees for this. It's a nonprofit. The lifeguards would bill out at $43 an hour and John I think EMT
bills out at 95. This is a good uh civic organization and it's just like one of our sports events. So I would like to make that in the form of a motion that we wave the fees and allow our people to participate. Second
and if the Seahawks would like to make a donation, they would very happily accept it. But please call the role. Mr. Casachio, yes. Mr. Nappen, yes. Mr. Sam Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zach Palumbo, yes. Mayor Corson, yes.
Okay. Sorry about that. Let me get back on track here. Um, at this time, we'll open it up to the public. Is there anyone that would like to comment from the public on anything that pertains to our agenda? If so, please step forward to the mic and we will entertain
you. Hearing no public portion, we'll close this portion of the meeting and we will open it again to the public after the meeting. Moving right along. Okay. Under presentations, we have congratulating the Upper Township Basketball Association's eighth grade girls team on winning the Southshore
Basketball League Championship. Well, at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Champ who's in charge of recreation. And I'm going to ask him if you would like to read a resolution. And I see young ladies are called their names. Please step forward and we're going to line you all up here and give you a resolution
and take a picture. Whereas the Upper Township Basketball Association's eighth grade girls team had an outstanding 2025 season culminating with becoming the eighth grade girls 2025 Southshore basketball league champions. And whereas the team finished the regular season with an
impressive 19 and5 record. And whereas on March 8th, 2025, the Upper Township Basketball Association participated in the 2025 Southshore Basketball League Championship games held at the Wildwood Crest Pier Recreation Center. And whereas in the final championship game
against North Wildwood, the Upper Township eighth grade girls team dominated for the win with a score of 39 to21. Sorry, had to throw a little extra on there. And whereas it is appropriate that on behalf of the citizens of Upper Township, we recognize congratulate the players listed as follows.
Cameron Shamemer, Maya Deor, Breckan Foley, Karolina Polo, Mave Daly, Sara Cortez, Polly Dong. Whereas, we also extend our recognition and appreciation to those that have generously given their personal time and service to coach
this team, Don Polo and Brian Foley. Now therefore, be it resolved by the township committee on behalf of the citizens of the township of upper that we extend to the Upper Township Basketball Association's eighth grade girls team congratulations on winning the Southshore Basketball League Championship and to the coaches our
heartfelt gratitude for the generous donation of their time and service to the young people of this community. [Applause] for you to stay up here. Are you guys It's congratulations. Yeah, coaches.
Where are the coaches? Oh yeah, bring the drone. Yeah. Good job. [Applause] No, you're not. You're saying the word dominating. You got to add a little. I liked it. I liked it. can be the monotone reading. Moving on, number two,
we have the honoring the upper township EMT Anthony Lammana, EMT Ryan Schaefer, and Rescue Squad volunteer Abriana Hoover on receiving the Shore Medical Center Clinical Excellence Award. If we could just quickly have a motion and vote for this. I would like to make that in form of a motion. Second. Second.
Please call the RO. Mr. Cassaceio, yes. Mr. Nappen, yes. Mr. Sano, yes. Mr. Zack Palumbo, yes. M Corson, yes. Motion. Okay. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Vic. Would you like to be congratulations at the same time? Get your gentleman forward and we're going
to take a picture too. You got it. Um that up here. Um the basketball presentation was nice. This this the notes here are a bit more on a serious note. So kind of switching gears here. Um whereas on December 29th, 2024, our Upper Township EMS crew
consisting of EMT Anthony Lammana, EMT Ryan Schaefer, and Upper Township Rescue Squad volunteer Abriana Hoover responded to a critical respiratory emergency at a residence in Seville. And whereas upon arrival, the crew was informed that the patient had lost consciousness and a
bystander was attempting CPR. And whereas the EMS team quickly confirmed that the patient was pulseless and immediately began life-saving measures, including CPR, use of an AED, and assisted ventilations with a bag valve mask. And whereas additional units
arrived to assist with patient transport, and the original EMS crew transported the patient to Shore Medical Center. And whereas as a part of National EMS Week, Shore Medical Center recognized this outstanding response during its EMS award ceremony whereby
EMT Anthony Lammana, EMT Ryan Schaeer, and Rescue Squad volunteer Ariana Hoover were presented with the clinical excellence award, an honor based on feedback from the hospital's nursing staff regarding the high level of life-saving care the patient received.
And now therefore be resolved by the township committee of the township of upper on behalf of our community that we extend heartfelt congratulations and gratitude to Anthony Ryan and Ariana for their dedication, professionalism and exemplary service and is further
resolved that their swift actions reflect the very best of Upper Township EMS and the vital role our emergency responders perform every day. given under our hands seal of upper township this day 27th of May
[Applause] 2025 here. You guys want to slide to the center? Thank you. All right. Okay, moving on to the 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. Cassaceio, yes. Mr. Nappen, yes. Mr. San
Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zach Palumbo, yes. May Coren, yes. Motion carried. Under ordinances, we have the introduction and first reading of ordinance number two, 2025, an ordinance establishing salary ranges for the town of Upper for the calendar year 2025. If we could have the
public hearing on June 23rd. Would somebody like to make a motion to I'll make a motion. That's fine. Second. with the public hearing on June 23rd. Mr. Casaceio, yes. Mr. Nappen, yes. Mr. Sam Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zack Palumbo, yes.
Mayor Corson, yes. Motion carry. Under new business, we have bid results for replacement of roof for historic structure. Who is covering? Um, okay. We took bids on May 15th. We had um 11 contractors
and an advertising service um review the bids. We received two bids. Um quite quite substantial difference between the two. Our low bid was 96,238. High bid was 354,695.
Um obviously one contractor job. Well, you know, it's kind of funny because we had bid the Gandandy house uh I think in 23. the same contractor that was a high bid bid that job as well and they were really high then. So, um I'm not sure
how they figure their pricing, but um they're high. We have the funding for this. We we have some grant funds and we also have some bond funds, capital bond funds for this. We're within our our uh budget. So, um it's your pleasure. I
think at this time I think I'd like to entertain we put a motion on our next agenda for or resolution. Y and and it's Cupex Interiors LLC that was the Okay. So we'll just have it we we don't have to do a motion to do a resolution or
Okay. We'll just next meeting. Okay. Number 18, we have Upper Township Rescue Squad request to hold raffles RA 596 and RA 597 at Mosquito Landing Beach in Tahoe on August 2nd, 2025. Well, the rest getting a lot of They're doing
good. I'll make a motion that we approve their raffle. I'll second the motion. Please call the role. Mr. Casachio, yes. Mr. Nappen, yes. Mr. Sam Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zack Palumbo, yes. Mayor Corson, yes. Motion carried. 19 Southshore Stitchers request to hold a raffle RA598
at the Upper Township Community Center on November 22nd, 2025. I'll make the motion to second. Please call the role. Mr. Casachio, yes. Mr. Nappen, yes. Mr. Sam Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zack Palumbo, yes. Mayor Corson, yes.
Motion car. At this time, what's pleasure on the bill? I hereby move that all claims submitted for payments meeting be approved and been incorporated in the full minutes of this meeting. Second. Please call the role. Mr. Cassaceio, yes. Mr. Nappen, yes. Mr. San Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zach Palumbo, yes.
Mayor Porson, yes. Motion carried. At this time, we're back to the public portion. Is there anyone from the public that would like to address us? Please state your name for the record. Natalie Natalie N, 759 Route 50,
Petersburg. Um, I look forward to uh Jimmy coming into Upper Township and um his resume background is very impressive and um Mr. Brun, I'd like to thank you um for all the attention you gave me and
I wish you well. Thanks, Natalie. Is there anyone else from the public like dress hearing? No public comment. We'll entertain a motion to go into close session for the
I hereby move the resolution be incorporated into the minutes authorizing the township committee to enter into executive session for the following matters pursuant to open public meetings act. Matters are one contract negotiation fair haven proposed development project. Two contract
negotiation block 32 lots 111.01 and 111.02 O2 contract negotiations special legal counsel litigation demarzo versus upper township at all five personnel. I also included my motion that estimated time and
circumstances under which this discussion conducted in closed session can be disclosed at to the public as follows. A it is anticipated that 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. be with respect to the employment and personnel matters to such discussions will be made public if and when formal action is taken or when the individuals involve consent that it is made public. C with respect to contract negotiations
such matters will be made public when negotiations have ceased and there's no longer a reason for confidentiality. D with respect to litigation matters such as discussions will be made public when litigation is complete and applicable appeal period has expired. Second,
before we call the role, I just wanted to tell everybody and make everybody aware that Jim, who starts next week, is our administrator, he's going to stay for close session. So, just want everybody keenly aware of that. Please call the role. Mr. Cassaceio, yes. Mr.
Nap, Mr. San Palumbo, yes. Mr. Zack Palumbo, yes. Mr. Corson, yes. Motion carried. At this time, we're going to take an intermission for a break and uh stretch our legs.