Public notice. This meeting pursuant to the open public's meeting act has been given by the city clerk on December 11, 2024 and is amended in the following manner. Posting written notice on the official bulletin board in the lobby of city hall. Providing written notice to the offices of the daily journal, press of Atlantic City and the violent voice and filing written notice in the office
of the city clerk of the city of Violin. Mr. Mr. President, I present resolution number 2025-630. A resolution recognizing Carlos Marcato upon retiring from public service effective January 1, 2026. Chair entertains a motion that
resolution number 2025-630 be adopted according to law. So move. Second discussion by councel. Seeing none. Dr. Arthur, yes. Council member English, yes. Council member Gomez, yes.
Council member, excuse me, Vice President Gomez. President Spanelli. Yes. This time, Carlos, could you come up? Stand center, please. Over here inside. Come on inside. Yeah. Hold up. He didn't mention. He didn't call me.
I have got Okay. My name. Your name was Yeah, you missed Al's name. Al, take a look at that. Okay. You said your name though. I said it. No. All right. For the record, uh, your vote
for retirement. Yes. Yes. Thank you. All right. Carlos is a committee resolution for the city council and the mayor. Whereas Carlos Piccado began his career with the city of Vinland on March 23rd, 1998. And whereas Carlos has furthered the
city's mission by providing valuable public service to the violent community. And whereas Carlos has earned life respect earned the respect and confidence of his co-workers and employer through his many years of faithful service. And whereas Carlos Bicado has earned a well-deserved retirement from the city of Vinland
effective January 1, 2026, ending his public service career in the fire department as fire captain. Now therefore, be it resolved that the mayor and council of the city of Vinland extend their sincere thanks and appreciation to Carlos Mcado for a career of loyal and meritorious service
with best wishes for many years of health and happiness. Congratulations change your mind. Yeah. Carlos, if you want to say a few words. The podium is yours. Sure. He's shy. He's a real shy guy. Never shy.
Three minutes. Carlos. I really appreciate you guys all coming out. For the record, this is the largest. Uh, I just wanted to uh thank council uh for this resolution and uh for the opportunity to serve not only the
citizens of Violin but all first responders across the state of New Jersey as I served as the legislative chairman for the state firefighters union for over 20 years. Uh, the decision to retire wasn't an easy one, but I am deeply grateful for the
opportunities that this 19-year-old Puerto Rican kid from Center City Violin was given. Beginning my career as an inspector and retiring as a fire captain fulfilled a dream that started with a first grade visit to a firehouse.
A firefighter took a few moments to give a simple station tour and unlanely changed my life. I don't remember his name, but I thank God that he was put in my path. Along the way, many others guided me, including Chief Traantana,
Chifalio, Hendershot, Finley, and Chief Capelli. I am truly grateful for their leadership and support. Serving the citizens of Violin as a fire captain has been an honor of a lifetime. I also want to thank the firefighters
and first responders I've had the privilege to serve alongside for the last 30 years. We've been through a great deal together from serious cause and COVID to the loss of Lieutenant Wayne Fowler. Through it all, they stood
by me, shared my challenges, and celebrated my successes. Watching the growth and successes of the Firehouse kids has been and meant the most to me. First responder families sacrificed more
than most. I especially want to thank my wife Christy and my sons Sebastian and Dominic. They stood strong when I couldn't be there, always doing the right thing. For that, I am forever grateful. It's been an amazing ride from my
retirement rose to my first class walk out. Tonight's resolution brings this chapter to a close. My family and I are deeply thankful. Though retired from the fire service, I plan to remain active in our community
as I step into my new role as CEO for the Boys and Girls Club of Cumberland County. I look forward to continuing work with the mayor and council to help improve the quality of life of the citizens of Island. Again, thank you, Violin. I am truly humbled
Carlos. On behalf of the city of Ireland and the fire department, we have our tradition that we present to you with the thin red flag, red line flag in recognition of your 30 years of dedicated service to the city of violence and to the fire department. Congratulations again.
Thank you. Rich, I present resolution number 2025-631. The resolution recognizing Paul Appeal upon retiring from public service effective January 1, 2026. Chair entertains a motion that resolution number 2025-630 be adopted according to law.
So move. Any discussion? Seeing none, Dr. Arthur? Yes. Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas, yes. Vice President Gomez, yes. President Spanelli, yes.
Hi Paula. Congratulations again at Lisa. Whereas Paula Peele began her career with the city of Vinland on December 3rd, 2007. Whereas Paula has furthered the city's mission by providing valuable public service to the Vinland community. And whereas Paula has earned the respect
and confidence of her co-workers and employer throughout her many years of faithful service. And whereas Paul Appeal has earned the well-deserved retirement from the city of Island effective January 1, 2026, ending her public service career in the department of finance as senior account clerk. Now
therefore, be it resolved that the mayor and council of the city of Vinland, extend their sincere thanks and appreciation to Paul for a career of loyal and meritorious service with best wishes for many years of health and happiness. And there is also a proclamation from the mayor as well that
states the same. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Check. You're in trouble now. We'll open up the we'll open up the general public comment portion of the meeting. Public comment provides an
opportunity for the members of the public to inform the governing body about their views. The governing body prescribes the city council's bylaws in the New Jersey statutes on open public meetings when engaging during public comment. As such, each individual shall have a five-minute limit to comment, cannot yield time to another individual,
may only approach the podium once during public comment for any one topic. Vulgar offensive language is prohibited, and the city council will not engage in dialogue with the public during this time. The governing body maintains model courtesy and respect and requires a member of the of the public to do the same.
Rich, you have a list? Yeah, I have uh first up is Terry Reese. Terry Reese, followed by Kate Delaney. Please state your name and the municipality where you live. Hi, I am Terry Reece. I'm a candidate for
Congress in 2026. I live in Northfield, but as a candidate, I will be representing um South Jerseys second congressional district. So, thank you again. It's nice to see all of you today. I'm here tonight to speak about the resolution before you, the proposed loan of more than $6 million in public
funds for the purchase of two construction cranes tied to the Data One project. I understand that this vote is technically only about the crane loan and not the full data center project itself. But when public money is involved, even in the form of a loan, it sends a clear message of public support.
And once that support is given, it becomes much harder to step back and ask important questions. This is a commercial project backed by billions of dollars in private capital. Data 1 is connected to Nebus, a publicly traded company, and tied to a massive AI
infrastructure contract with Microsoft. Yet the risk, financial, environmental, and infrastructural, is being shifted, at least in part, onto the people of Vinland. The loan appears to be connected to urban enterprise zone funds, which are meant to strengthen distressed communities and create long-term local benefit. What is not
clear is how purchasing cranes for a massive AI data center does that, or how residents can be assured that the benefits will be meaningful, lasting, and enforced. When we step back and look at this proposal, the balance is uneven. The potential benefits are limited. Short-term construction jobs, temporary
activity for some local vendors, and interest earned on the loan. The potential costs and risks are much larger. A facility that could demand more electricity than Vinland currently uses at peak times. Upward pressure on already high electric bills, heavy water
usage drawn from the Kirkwood Cohansy aquifer, which supplies drinking water across South Jersey and is already overburdened. noise and emissions from air quality concerns from generators and cooling systems and very few permanent jobs, many of which may not go to local residents and may even be remote in
nature. A long-term tax agreement that delays meaningful property tax contributions. This is not a new story for South Jersey. Public resources are committed, private profit flows upward, and communities are left managing the long-term impacts. Just look around at the abandoned factories and struggling
malls throughout our area. I also want to ask simple practical question. If Vinland has $6 million in public lending capacity, what else could that money be used for? Affordable or workforce housing, small business loans? Small business loans, infrastructure
upgrades that will lower utility costs, environmental cleanup, or water system improvements. Are these conversations happening as well? And if not, then they should. Let me be clear. I am not against innovation. I am not against technology. I am not against progress. I
am wholeheartedly for it. But progress must be responsible. It must respect the value of our community, our people, our environment, our water, and our future. Real progress looks for long-term stability and shared growth, not short-term gains that benefit those
already at the top. We know AI and data centers are part of our future. The real question is how they are built and who they will truly serve. Will they be used responsibly to solve real problems or will the data collected and wealth generated simply concentrate more power
and profit while our communities absorb the costs? Other towns are asking these same questions. Recently in Maine, a city council recently rejected a proposal a proposed data center after residents raised concerns about environmental impacts and public risk.
And across the country, organizations are calling for stronger oversight until the true energy and water costs of these facilities are understood. And this is not about fear. It is about good governance. So tonight, my request is very straightforward. I
ask the council to once again table this loan until the full environmental, water, and infrastructure impacts are independently studied. A clear public cost benefit analysis is shared and any public funding comes with enforcable protections. Those
protections should include local hiring and living wage requirements, workforce training tied to permanent jobs, strict limits on water usage, ongoing environmental monitoring, developer funded infrastructure improvements, and
clawbacks if promises are not kept. Responsible planning means putting risk where it belongs on corporations that have the resources to manage it. And as I said before, our community, our water, our land, and our people have real value. Companies that want to build here
should respect that value, not extract it while leaving no meaningful positive changes in its wake. Tonight, I respectfully ask you to pause, ask the hard questions, and protect the long-term interests of Vineland. Innovation should strengthen our community, not leave us paying the price
for decades to come. Thank you for your time. Kate Kate Delaney followed by Brian Halen. State your name and municipality where you live, please. Sure. Kate Delaney of Collingswood, Camden County. Um, and I'm here today as a South Jersey organizer for New Jersey
Food and Water Watch. We are a national environmental nonprofit focused on protecting safe, affordable public water and climate action. Um, and I'm here tonight to stand in solidarity with the Vinand residents, of which there are so many in the room. So, thank you everyone
who came out. Great show of force here today. Like like Terry, I want to ask you to rescend the resolution that would award corporate welfare of $6 million to the company behind this data warehouse.
And I would ask you to also scrap this dangerous project. This is this is dangerous for your community in many ways. We're living in a moment where food costs are up, housing costs are up, energy costs are up. This would increase the cost of living for folks in
Vinelands if this project moves ahead. It would use billions of gallons of water. It seems that there's also lack of clarity or information that's been provided to the public about how much water would be used. But based on what we're seeing in other places from data centers, the water use would be
enormous. As Terry pointed out, this would impact the Kirkwood Cohen aquifer potentially in the Pinelands, which is a great resource for our area. Um, and I also want to point out the climate impact. I'm sure lots of folks are going to talk about all of these issues. However, it seems that the project would
require three frack gas plants. You're not just creating a data center. You're creating a gas plant complex. Your residents would be living near these power plants, which means air pollution, knocks, fine particulate matter, increased asthma, not to mention
greenhouse gases. We're a coastal state. If we want to have a future in New Jersey, a livable state, we need to be prioritizing climate action now. This is dangerous for the public. It's dangerous for the planet. So again, I would ask you to resend this resolution and to
stop the plan to move ahead with the data center. Thank you. Thank you, Brian Halen. Brian Halen, followed by Reverend Carl Styles. Please state your name and the My name is Brian Hal and I'm the assistant business manager for Labour's Local 77. Good evening, council. Good
evening. Where do you live, sir? I live in M Hill, New Jersey. Thank you. Good evening, citizens of Minland. I represent roughly about 300 members that live in this community. Um, the one common theme that I hear um through this, excuse me, so they can hear you.
Yeah. The one common theme that I see happening in this room right now is we have some people that retired from your from your community that work in the city of Vinland, which congratulations. Everybody deserves to have fair wages and benefits and and a standard of living. We're all we're always for a
good construction project. I understand all the concerns of of the residents of Island. The one thing I can tell you is I have residents that are concerned that belong in my union. One thing that I've heard here is fair wages and benefits. My members deserve on a 2 billion dollar project if this moves forward to work
and contribute to this community. Okay? We can't even get a meeting. We can't even get a meeting with the developer or the the construction manager of this project. I'm asking for city council to help us out. Ultimately, the residents are going to determine and you guys are going to determine if this
project moves forward. But I can say this once again, we have local residents, 300 here in this community, 500 in Cumberland County, that deserve fair wages and benefits. Please help us bridge the gap to put our union members to work. Fair wages and benefits are here right in front of you, and we
deserve to have that conversation. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Reverend Carl Styles. Reverend Carl Styles, followed by Nicole Petrangelo. Please state your name and the municipality where you live, sir. My name is uh Carl Styles. I live in
Salem County. I also pastor in the city of Camden, New Jersey. I work for the building labors uh for the state of New Jersey covering from Kate May all the way to New York line. And our concern again echo what what uh Brian said. How
do we bridge the gap? How do we get individuals for from Vinand to work our residents? We have over 4,300 building labors in the whole state and Violin is a is a
definely a hub to be able to work here and congratulations to Carlos and Paula those who lived here to fair wages again the trend is fair wages fair opportunities and to put members to work
and that's our concern to make sure that that members work to have fair opportunity to retire like Carlos to retire like Paula. And you know, again, as Brian said that no one has been able to answer calls or
letters for this project here in Vinand and our concern is putting the Vinand members to work as they come and address their concerns to me. I make sure that I address to support our members wherever
they are and the towns and the concerns and that's our major concern to be able to get a seat at the table to lease talk to negotiate a a project such as it meets our range far as financially and they've had ads out that that that meets our quota as far as our rates are
concerned and they will not talk for whatever reason but when my members are concerned that concerns me as well again to be a service to Vinland itself and to the point when Terry brought out fair wages, people do have to eat and that
opportunity is here for Vinand to be able to support members that live in your community to be able to eat and that is our concern. So, I'm hoping that the board someone can get us a seat at the table to be able to talk to the contractors to say why can't we put
residents to work? We have uh apprentice programs. We have things that are in place because we work across the whole state of New Jersey to help towns, not to tell the board what to do, but to work together in harmony to move a job
such as this for those residents who apprentices programs that are available throughout all the trades to make sure that those opportunities that they can feed their families with dignity and retire like Carlos and Paula. Again, thank you for your time tonight. Thank
you. Thank you. Nicole Katrangalo followed by Zach Lannosini. Okay, I'm not going to touch that. Please state your name and the municipality where you live, please. Good evening and happy holidays. My name is Nicole Petranglo and I am a proud
lifelong uh resident of Vinand. I am here to voice my primary concerns regarding the data center project which are related to the financial impact on taxpayers such as myself as well as its impact on the relationship between elected officials and citizens. This
project is huge which has been discussed at length. This project involves a campus measured in millions of square feet and hundreds of megawatts of load. That scale has major consequences for local infrastructure, water use and the electric grid. The company has already announced large commercial commitments,
including a multi-year capacity agreement with Microsoft. So given all of the publicly available information related simply to the scale of this project, it is illogical at this point to as act as if it will not have major impacts on the taxpaying residents of
our city. Many of those impacts are more long range like the environmental concerns, while some are more current. Most pressing for me is that at this time, Vinland taxpayers are expected to back construction financing for a private company in the form of a $6 million loan.
There are additional taxpayer exposures that deserve consideration. Large data centers frequently seek payments in lie of taxes or tax abatements that reduce long-term property tax revenue. They also trigger expensive grid upgrades or
rate changes that fall on utility customers and the promised jobs frequently skewed to temporary construction positions with relatively few local permanent hires. Vinand has extensive experience with pilot agreements, so council is, I'm sure, mindful of long-term impacts on school
and municipal budgets. According to a recent database of pilot deals compiled by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, Vinland has a significant number of active tax abatement pilot agreements in place which places it among the top 10 municipalities in
the state with the most significant usage of these development related tax breaks. A 2010 report by the New Jersey office of the state comproller found that tax abatements result in significant foregone revenue and in introduce t tax inequities that deserve
closer scrutiny. We must not let a private developer offload any cost onto Vineland residents. I recognize the potential for this loan. I recognize the potential for this loan to generate revenue for the city, but I wonder how much, for how long? Is it
enough to offset what the city and school budgets stand to lose as a result of any tax abatements? My taxes consistently increase while I live here and I work here and I engage in community here. It is reasonable that I expect the same of big businesses which typically fail to make truly meaningful
contributions to the regular people of our community. I respectfully I respectfully ask the council to reject or hold any loan in order to consider the potential benefits of some binding agreements that could be tied to the
loan while addressing clear and evident concerns that are widespread from cons from from citizens. the citizens you represent. Specifically, require require a full independent fiscal and environmental impact study, including
including grid upgrade costs and who will pay for them and insist on enforceable local hiring and environmental protections as conditions on any loans and additional expansion. Additionally, provide understandable and accessible public disclosure of any tax incentives, pilot terms, and long-term
revenue projections related to this project. You can simply say that you hear our concerns, or you can show us that you care about our concerns. As we've all heard, actions speak louder than words. To be clear and concise,
violence taxpayers should not be put at risk to subsidize private construction or corporate profits, especially related to projects like this, which severely fail to provide any clear increase or improvement to our community's quality
of life. Thank you. Thank you, Zachini. Exactly in the scene followed by Michael Atinson. Good evening, council. My name is Zach Landisini. I live in Vinland, New Jersey.
Tonight, city council is scheduled to vote on a Vineland revolving loan fund loan to Data 1 of over $6 million to fund the purchase of two cranes needed to further data center construction. I plan to shed some light on the details
of this loan as well as illustrate why it is in the best interest of the city to vote no on this loan. Tonight, interest paid on the Vinand Revolving Loan Fund is returned to the fund for future investment.
For this loan, that boils down to a one-time payment of roughly $350,000. This money does not fund schools, road development, or public resources. This is not exactly the city making money. It is the city generating revenue
to be passed on to private developers, likely those friendly with the mayor. The community has no say on how these loans are awarded. So, how can we be sure loan awards benefit the community? If the community was able to trust the
current city government, especially its mayor, that would be one thing. But unfortunately, that trust has been broken. The interest paid to the revolving loan fund can be contrasted against tax
revenue lost by the tax abatement status granted to the developer via the pilot program. The estimated tax revenue lost per year is north of $1 million. Unlike vinand revolving loan fund
interest, this money could have been used for as is usable tax revenue paid to the city. If the issue here is making money for the city, perhaps the city should consider adjusting the terms of the pilot loan agreement.
The current loan pending approval is for cranes needed to continue construction. Driving past the construction, these cranes are visible from Lincoln Avenue presently. If the cranes have already been purchased and are presently on site,
what's the rush in forwarding the loan? Why would city council not push for an environmental impact study, collaboration on an accurate, water use study, and demonstration by data 1 on their
supposed state-of-the-art operational technology before approving this loan? Furthermore, why would city council issue their approval of how this development has progressed by voting yes on this loan? Now, loans should be
granted to applicants who have demonstrated the ability to act in good faith. From the perspective of the community, I can assure you this is not the case. On top of the overall lack of transparency and cooperation with the city, the developer has shown a
disregard for the environment in which they are building. To date, they have been found to be out of compliance on 16 counts by NJD for which they have been fined nearly $100,000.
Acred fines are a result of violating state rules regarding regulated activities in wetlands and transition areas. These fines are further proof that this developer has little to no regard for
the environment, ecology, and community in which they are building. In conclusion, I believe it is in the best interest of the city to not provide this developer any additional funds until an environmental assessment and
adequate water use study are completed at a minimum. Thank you. Thank you, Michael Atinson. Michael Atinson, followed by Danielle Carol. State your name and the municipality where you live, sir. Michael Atkinson, Vinland resident. And
uh, real fast, I'm hearing from some people outside that uh, they can't get in. So, I guess we're at fire capacity. Nice work, everybody. A few years ago, my wife and I had to apply for a variance at a 600 foot addition to the rear of a home that we are renovating. Applying for the
variance meant that I needed to notify my neighbors and due to the nature of our property, that meant sending notice to 16 neighbors. And that makes sense. I'm doing something that could affect them. We asked for relief from having to indicate every structure on neighboring
properties and that relief was granted by the zoning board. The development of this data center has had to issue no such notice. It did however ask for wide ranging relief and was granted it. It needed no variance even though only one
year ago it was a finished, perfectly playable golf course that was to be open to the public. Perhaps by the letter of the law, they did not in fact need to give notice. But when a project of this size and scope is in development, it is certainly best practice to inform the
public and build consensus in the best way forward. Will consume water? Maybe. No one's really been able to say. Will be noisy? Maybe. But they split hairs saying that a data center produces almost no noise. But what are the power
plants and what are the generators that were initially indicated to serve as backup power but are now being put forward as a way to get this project online faster? Will it create jobs? Sure, some. But what are the real numbers? Will it produce tangible benefits for the local
economy? I guess it could, but some of the tax structures being utilized here seem to preclude that. Will we see improvements in infrastructure that will benefit us all? Who knows? Did the city ask for anything? In some places where data centers have been deployed, the
local governments have been audacious enough to ask for things, asking for improvements in return for allowing these massive companies to access our land, water, existing infrastructure, and peace. Data centers are not new. We've been living in the digital age for
nearly three decades. But the current pace of development is new. Violin should have had a framework in place years ago. Arguably, Vinland doesn't even have an appropriate zoning designation for a project like this. I live across the street from the golf
course being brought to us by these same developers, their crown jewel, Trout National, the Reserve. And I am constantly being told how lucky I am. I hope this sort of luck never finds anyone in this room. They are bad
neighbors. Initially, we saw flooding on several sides of the golf course when they began clearing the forest, and that should have never happened. There's constant noise. If it's not construction, then it's leaf blowers and mowers. Some days you walk out to your mailbox and it's laying on the ground having been moved for a driveway
installation. No notice given, and you're having to chase them down to get it repaired. You've got finished greens on the inside and a 60 foot high unfinished dirt mound on the outside for everyone else. These are not the actions of good neighbors. People look at the golf course and they
say, "Fine, maybe not what I would have spent my time and resources on, but it's their land and it doesn't affect me much." But people see how they operate and people form opinions. And now you want us to take it on face value that these bad neighbors will do the right thing with their data center. In reading
through their applications, I don't see how any reasonable person could come to the conclusion that they would be good neighbors this time around. I understand the job of this council is to guide the city to balance the possible good of development against the possible harms of development. And that's not easy. I
don't envy you. But all plans must be based on facts, aiming for solid, genuine growth without exaggeration and promoting highquality sustainable development. Those who act recklessly without regard for reality and those who
impose excessive demands and those who deploy resources without careful consideration must be held accountable. And that's what we're trying to do here. I'd love for you to join us in voting no tonight and by re revisiting the approvals for this project. Thank you.
Thank you. Danielle Carol. Danielle Carol followed by Denise Hazelwood. Good evening. State your name and where you live, please. Some of you don't. I'm Danielle Carroll. I'm a Vinland resident. come to you tonight with concerns and questions
regarding the AI data farm. Interestingly enough, there was no advertisement of the latest greatest economic development coming here after the NPA Trout National Golf Course development. The ladder was advertised to the hilt.
To add to this venture, there was a public golf course to be built for the residents of South Jersey at their and their visitors. Quietly, the Vinand Planning Board had a meeting in the spring of 2024 for the AI Dent Data Center, advertising the meeting in the
local newspaper that most do not receive any longer, or if they do, it's by mail four times a week or purchased at the store. Then life changed on Lincoln Avenue. The back end of Trout National became an AI data center. Many did not realize this was occurring except those
who lived around it and/or travel past it daily and the Vinand city government as well as other companies in the East Vand private indust industrial park. I did not even know that was an industrial park and I have lived in Vinand most of my life. I'm not sure if Milville
government was advised of this AI data center. Most likely not. I say most likely not because there was no environmental impact study completed. If there was one, we would most likely still be in it. It can take weeks for
basic assessment, then many months to years to dive deeper. It makes one ask if there was ever a study for golf course impact on environment. However, I'm not here to discuss the golf course. I'm here to discuss the AI data farm and its application for the summer of 2024
when most viers were under the assumption that the property will be the data farm was for was to be a public golf course. This is when we took the bait. And then in 20 or June 2025,
addendums were created to create the switch to what most thought an AI data center, one building, not an AI data farm with several giants eating our electric, drinking our water, and polluting our air with noise.
So, though my residence is about four miles away, I'm concerned about the environmental impact on my backyard. You see, I have a lake. The residents who live around this call it Shadow Lake. I like to call it Brunetta Sandwash. My
first question, have you done an environmental impact study or water usage report? I asked because lake a my lake aka sandwash has three bald eagles that eat from this water and their nest will not be far from their source of food. I wonder if the noise from the
giants will change their habitat. Strangely enough, Chairman Manders lives on the water as well and is a proponent for the eagle's habitat. Chairman Mander signed off on the city's plan for the AI data farm. Hm. No study. My next
question, the water usage. We know these giants guzzle water, millions and gallons of it. Where shall the water come from? The Kirkland Cohani walk aquafer. I doubt it. Right now, the aquifer is significantly stressed because of overping and potential
overuse through the state as well as drought conditions for the last two years. Did you know that this aquafer is protected by the state and federal government? The glorious protected pine baron sits upon it, leaving me to wonder, will the city try to steal my
sand wash water, claiming it as city sources, or because it has has street runoff? Recently, Lincoln Spring Magnolia Roads had road work done. Was this a way of laying plumbing down to take out the water? You all should know that our sand washes and blue holes are
fed by springs as well as runoff water. I'm guessing these springs are part of the aquifer because it is fresh water. Hm. No study. So if you choose to not do the studies or the environ for the environment or water, there will be
hardy fi fines to pay. Perhaps the loan for the AI data farm will borrow from the city to use it to pay for these fines. As you destroy East Vinland's environment, if you have the if you have the studies, please make public. Otherwise, prepare for deeper probes of
this bait switch scam. As I close my in as I close, I implore you not to vote for the loan and ask for a pause on all construction until an environmental impact study has been completed as well as a water study done properly. since
these did not occur prior to the first building going up in the new type of farm that you think will improve South Jersey. Thank you for your attention to mine and many others concerns this evening. Hope we have a town hall meeting with you to discuss all the questions regarding this.
Thank you. Denise Hazlewood. Denise Hazlewood followed by Carly Saul. State your name please and where you live. My name is Denise Hazlewood and I have been a Vinland resident for 18 and a half years more or less. Um, I've raised my
children in Vinand. They've attended Vinand public schools throughout their entire educational experiences. Uh, and I oppose this project. The way this project has come about has
been very sneaky in my opinion. From the first the property was supposed to be a golf course. Okay. Uh but then it quietly turned into a data center and a very noisy one according to the people
who live near it. Um that keep them up at night when they are trying to sleep. Now the plan is to expand it into a monster AI data center, one that will drain electrical and water resources.
Uh, when did Vinand residents vote for this? I want Vineland to support small businesses like Lour Hardware and I have one of their pens I've been using tonight. Um, Certified Auto Repair that
I go to quite frequently. uh Al's shoes who you know provides the shoes for my kids' feet and my husband and me too. Um but I don't think that this project is
really supporting Vinand or its residents. During my admittedly limited research of AI data centers, I learned that these centers are generally operated by shell corporations and hide
behind non-disclosure agreements and other corporate shell games to avoid accountability. Those who have painstakingly researched such companies found that they are ultimately controlled by giant
corporations like Microsoft, as I learned tonight, is one of the clients for um the Nebus Group and Data 1 and um Amazon run by Jeff Bezos and uh
Meta, Elon Musk. and um and so on. These people and companies are exploiters, not contributors. I see no reason to allow this project to continue, much less to have been started
in the first place, because I am I see no real benefit for Vinand citizens, only potential problems, drains on the water resources and electricity that could potentially prioritize this data center over Vineland residents, not to
mention associated increases in health problems. s utility costs, environmental costs, and taxes to pay for the incentives. Please do not enable the richest few in our country to further enrich themselves
at Vineland residenc's expense. Please do not incentivize them by offering multi-million dollar loans and allow their establishment and expansion bypassing protections like environmental impact studies and accountability
protections. It strikes me as highly irregular the way that the current data center got here in the first place. And I am currently regretting my votes for Mayor Fenucci. uh
and the city council members who have allowed the project to get this far in what appears to be such a sneaky underhanded manner. In short, in short, I don't support this project of a privatelyowned taxpayers supported
AI center in Vineland. It seems to me to be just another scam to make the rich richer by gouging Vinand residents in multiple ways. Thank you. Hi, Carly Saul followed by Avery Ibson.
Please state your name where you live, please. Hello, my name's Carly Soul and I'm a Vinland resident. Thank you. Uh, for those of you that don't know me, my name is Carly Saul, but it may do me more good by saying that I'm John Zaggar's granddaughter. This may seem like a strange way to begin a statement, but I promise that there's a point. My grandfather was a pillar of this city,
serving on the Cumberland County Recreation Commission for 35 years and the Vinland zoning board for 25 years. I know that most of you on the council knew him and his character because you mentioned it to me and my mother at the November 10th meeting. Like him and my mother, I'm a lifelong resident of Vinand. I chose to come back to the city
that I grew up in to raise my own family, start my own business, and hopefully live out the rest of my days. But the current situation with the AI center has me genuinely concerned. At this juncture, I'm not naive enough to think that you're going to actively stop the progress of the center being built on Lincoln Avenue. There are too many
connections with the powers that be, whether you want to admit it or not. And unfortunately, money is the only motivator in this particular situation. I'm not sure if you are aware that these AI companies are targeting impoverished areas with little education because they truly
because they truly see the residents as stupid and disposable. Unfortunately for you and the uh unfortunately for you and for them that isn't the case in Vinand, but what an absolutely embarrassing moniker to have attached to our city. I personally don't consider myself stupid or disposable,
but it makes me wonder if you think that we are. Transparency hasn't been at the forefront of this project, and at this point, I feel like you'd be asking too much of you to be upfront and honest, but there is still time for a bit of humility. There are many more concerns that I know other Vinland residents have spoken about. Tonight, however, I hope
to appeal to your hearts rather than your pockets. I truly hope that you are considering the legacy that you're potentially ruining by allowing this AI center to be built. I know that my grandfather and all of the men who helped shape Vinland would have done their due diligence for the betterment of our town. Sadly, I don't know if I
can say the same for this current administration. I spent many afternoons with my grandfather walking properties and taking notes on zoning board issues so I know what work can go into the job. At that initial meeting that I attended, I was shocked to see you all sitting up there acting as if you didn't know many
details about a multi-million dollar campus being built on your city's soil. As more information comes out, it's obvious that you're hiding behind men more powerful than you, which is a shame. I hope that when your terms are over, the legacy that you're leaving Vinland is one that will inspire people to say hello to your children and
grandchildren even after you're gone. I hope that there's a line wrapped around Ran Funeral Home like there was for my grandfather of people waiting to give you one final thanks for the impact that you've had on our town. This is about keeping Vinand ahead of Bridton and Milville, which have already fallen victim to the greed of their leaders. If you truly cared about the
place that you represent, I implore you to hear my words and really think on them. Don't give data one the satisfaction of being right. We're not uneducated, but that impression lies in your hands. Thank you. Thank you. Avery Ives. Avery Ives. Followed by
Samuel Connor. State your name, please. And where you live? Uh Avery Iverson. I live in Vineland. Um I want to urge the city to stop further construction on the AI Dennis data center and to consider not just the environmental but the personal
ramifications it will wreak on our community. Data centers such as these have been proven to hurt the environment and therefore our communities via pollution, loud noise, and by damaging the freshwater supply that citizens such as yourselves use in your homes. I am
concerned over the secrecy behind not just the initial construction, but also the continuing efforts to further construction, which you have not been transparent about, as given the fact that citizens were told the lot was going to be used for a golf course.
I am also concerned about the energy and the water consumption. Data centers guzzle our freshwater supply and have used more water than all of the bottled water companies combined this year alone and are known to pollute the water when it is put back into the area's water
supply. By allowing the data center to guzzle our freshwater supply, you will not only be hurting your citizens, but also the farmers that are that live and work in this city. All in all, I urge you to put your citizens over money for technology that
nobody wants and use it to better help our community and to consider the environmental ramifications this data center will cause. I would like a livable planet to enjoy when I am older. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Samuel Connor. Samuel Connor.
That your name where you live, sir? Yes. Uh Samuel Connor, a longtime resident of Vin Island. Um thank you. Thank you for having me. Um, so I guess to begin with, I I'm one of the many people who did not know that this was happening, that this data center was being built. Sorry. Uh,
speak loud to the mic, sir. I'm one of the many people who didn't know about this data center until I learned about it through friends and family after it was too late for to make any public protest. And I'd like to suggest that you consider revising the the current rule that allows things like
this to be noticed in a newspaper. And really everybody who's going to be affected by this should get a letter the way we used to do. So that's that's number one. And now number two is something I would have said if I had received such notice, you know, uh earlier in the year or late
last year when this was happening. Um I want to urge city council to have great caution about expanding this facility. I don't know whether it's possible to stop it now. If it is possible, I hope you would. But even if it's not, I would urge great caution about expanding it.
And and my reason is going to sound maybe a little bit a little bit wild to you, but u does anyone here remember the uh telecommunications infrastructure investment bubble of the 1990s? It was massive. um enormous amounts of uh fiber
optic cable was strung by companies that thought they were going to be able to sell telecommunication services to Americans and American companies and they ended up overbuilding. There was too much u a lot of companies lost a lot of money. A lot of banks weren't able to their loans weren't repaid because the
companies didn't have the revenue that they were expecting because there was too much capacity. Now that bubble had a very bad impact on the companies that were involved and on their funders, the banks, but the infrastructure actually ended up being useful in the long run
because it became the backbone of what was then the internet. You know, those old um uh dialup modems and things. There was because there was so much more, you know, long distance became cheap, internet access became cheap. So, that bubble had a a silver lining to the
dark cloud, but this bubble may not. Um, and the reason, well, I'm I don't know if this is permitted, but I would, you know, at the end of my presentation, I got two minutes. I'd like to present some documents to your sec to your uh record keeper who for your consideration. So, and I found this stuff. I mean, I've
been aware from my reading. Okay, here they are. One, two, three, four. Took me just a few minutes to find this in a couple hours before I came out here tonight. So, there's four documents. I'm just going to describe them for the benefit of the viewers. You guys can you folks here can find these as well. So
there's a Wall Street Journal item from September called spending on AI is at epic levels. Will it ever pay off? The basic conclusion is that it probably is not. There's going to be real economic problems. Now that that's only the beginning of there it's behind a payw
wall, but you get the gist. The second is an item by Edward Zitron on the economics of generative AI. The title is why everybody is losing money on AI. The companies that are providing these services are not making
money now and the economics is such that that scaling up to bigger is not going to solve the problem. And the and and the the economics is actually such that the cost to to answer queries exceeds what customers are willing to pay. So even if the infrastructure is marked
down in a fire sale, the operating cost exceeds the revenue possibilities. The third item is by Gary Marcus on the fundamentals fundamental limitations of large language models and the title is something like um I don't didn't write it down but it's like you know a million a trillion dollars is a terrible thing
to waste and finally there's a recent article in the Atlantic titled um just how bad would an AI bubble be? Um, and it's it's more of a larger a larger uh consideration of the economic fallouts
for the wider economy if we have a a collapse in AI. So, I just don't think we should be putting more money into this. If if you if you want to pursue this in the future, push it back 6 months and see see if in fact it is a bubble and we're going to regret putting
lots and lots of money into this. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak that hasn't signed a form? Is there anyone else? Please step up, say your name,
the municipality, where you're from. You have it. Did you fill one out there? Yes. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Anne Basano, longtime Vinland resident. I come here with one simple question. Who will benefit from this data center and who
will be harmed by it? on its website. Data 1 makes lots of claims and promises about sustainability and a greener digital future. But since it is a new entity in the United States, we have no evidence that they are willing or able to back up those claims. What we do have
is a massive amount of evidence that the over 4,000 data centers which already exist or are currently under construction in the United States are deeply detrimental to the residents of the towns where the centers are located. The main factor of these harms these
centers cause is the incredible amount of energy and water needed for these centers to operate and the burden of the use of those resources is carried by the residents. Two weeks ago, you US senators launched a probe into the increased energy prices caused by data
centers. They cited a study which estimated that electricity prices have increased by as much as 267% in the last 5 years in areas located near significant data center activity. Even if prices in Vinand don't go up
that much immediately, Data 1 is already planning to expand the current development to 37 acres, which would undoubtedly impact the cost for residents in the near future. Add to that the massive amount of water these data centers use and the impact it will
have on a town whose major industry is farming. Then we come to the issue of water, air, and noise pollution caused by data centers. The University of Tennessee recently reported that the AI data center in Memphis, which opened in 2024,
has caused the nitrogen dioxide concentration levels in the surrounding area to jump 79% in one year. In addition, the residents of the area report that there is a foul odor in the air so strong that they cannot open their windows and the noise pollution
generated by the centers can reach levels that are harmful to human health and the surrounding environment. The timing of the construction of the AI data center in Vinand could not be worse for the residents. At a time when we are facing increasing prices in all areas of
life, the last thing we need is an increase in our utility bills. This issue is so important that it was a major talking point in the recent gubernatorial election. And at a time when people are at risk of losing their health insurance, why are
we welcoming a facility that will negatively impact the health of our residents? In addition, Governor Murphy recently issued a statewide water supply drought warning and urged residents and businesses to reduce water use. But
Violent is going forward with a data center that will use gargantuan amounts of water, which will undoubtedly impact our residents as well as our farms. I don't need to tell anyone here that Cumberland County is the poorest county in New Jersey. We are not a wealthy town. And yet, this
developer has been granted a 20-year tax abatement, and city council is actually considering a $6 million loan for this center. As for job creation, any jobs that are created will be temporary, but the damage to the city will be
long-term. We don't need to speculate about what will happen to Vinland. We only have to look at what has already happened to other towns. We don't need to take the word of corporations who have a financial interest in convincing the public to simply trust them. The only
thing we need to do is consider the source and remember the motive. So I ask again when the residents will be paying for this data center in higher utility prices and an increase in water, air and noise pollution and getting nothing in return. Who exactly is benefiting from
this? Thank you. Thank you. Is that your name, please? Where you live? My name is Riannan Clark. I live in Millville, uh, on the other side of Union Lake, so just a few miles from where this data center is going to be put up. And I also did not know that this was happening until two, three
weeks ago, which is interesting because I'm all over this issue. Uh, first thing I just wanted to know is if anybody in my community here tonight is in support of a data center in Cumberland County. Also, also interesting to me, uh, I want
to read some quotes from from some people who live in communities that have already put up data centers. Quote, I've been here 81 years. I can't stay here. Quote, my mom has been here her whole life. 82 years. She's not happy about
it, but she does want to leave. Quote, "My neighbor was washing my clothes and messed up a whole load of whites because it came out stained from that brown water." A conversation between a journalist and a resident. Do you feel like it's safe to drink? No, I buy
water. Have they addressed that? No, they haven't. Have you gotten any information at all? No. None at all. Quote, "This is my water pressure in my kitchen." A trickle. Quote, "This is where I fill my buckets to flush my
toilet." Quote, "I can't breathe at home. It smells like gas outside." Quote, "You know, when you light your stove and the gas seeps with that little ticking noise, that's what it smells like." Quote, "My electric and gas bill
is more than my car payment." quote, "The light pollution is we don't have to have a nightlight in the house. You can walk around the house at night and see everything. It's that bright." And my favorite quote, a lawyer for Microsoft, quote, "Nobody really wants a data
center in their backyard. I don't want a data a data center in my backyard. Data centers once they're operational don't bring a lot of jobs." So, how do data centers impact communities? Jobs. A few dozen specialized jobs, usually hiring
remotely. Electric, bill increases, extreme added burden on the grid. Air quality, increased ER visits due to asthma, COPD, and other breathing issues. Water, loss of water pressure in homes, water tainted with sediment, unsafe to drink, aquafer strain, which
by the way, South Jersey already has issues with our aquafer due to overusage and multiple years of droughts in the summer. Cumberland County is the poorest county in New Jersey. This isn't happening to help our county. It's happening to take advantage of our
county. These data centers are only popping up in the poorest communities in our countries because the wealthy people do not want them. They make people sick. They steal our resources. water pollution, air pollution, noise and
light pollution. And what do we get in return? Because it ain't jobs. Three counties, three counties in Indiana have put a moratorium on building data centers. Several in Georgia, Missouri, Illinois, Arizona, across the country, communities
are protecting themselves from this poison. Are we going to allow it in Cumberland County? I want to ask the council, where will you go when the water stops flowing out of your faucets? Where will you go? Where will you go
when the air smells like gas and makes you sick? Will you look around for a community whose leaders had the spine to say no to these billionaires? or or will you stay in Cumberland County and offer your children what is left of
it to inherit? Thank you. State your name, please, and where you live. Good evening. My name is uh Tim Alexander. I live in Galloway Township, Atlantic County, New Jersey. But I am a native son of Violin. I grew up here. I graduated from Vinand High School. My
first job was at Shotright on Deli Drive. 40 years ago, I met my wife here. We have our first ch two children through Nukem Hospital. This is my hometown. This is my interest. I am a candidate for Congress in New Jersey second. But I'm not here to make a
political speech. I'm here to tell you about your responsibility as leaders. You must, you've heard so many speeches and so much information and you're going to hear more. I'm imploring on you as town leaders, as
leaders of your community, you must listen to the people. You must react and you must act in their best interests, if not your own. There are several major concerns that I like to raise. I am a also a civil rights attorney and civil rights
activist. And when we talk about the poor counties in this this uh state of New Jersey, we have the three poorest in our district, Atlantic, Cumberland, and Salem. Cumberland being number one. We need opportunities,
not not drains. We need to understand fully the impact of the environmental. That pamphlet that was handed out today, it said it was a benefit to the environment, but I was on page one in the paragraph. I I looked through it. I looked up and down it. I couldn't find
how would this be a benefit to the environment. And I don't think we have time here. And I understand that that this project is under foot and we're we're in the 11th hour, so to speak, going into the next phase. But nothing prevents you from exercising your leadership, your authority to put the
brakes ON THIS PROJECT. I'M GOING TO I'm going to talk because I don't want to uh uh you know abuse my time but here this is an opportunity not only to put the brakes on it but to use some of the money that you've you've earmarked for this project to hire an
environmental group consulting group and get a real impact studies. I understand that most likely you had environmental impact study, but was it the same that you used for putting in a Waw Wa or for putting in a mom and pop store or was it unique for the impact
that data centers bring? That's why you need an environmental firm to come in and study the grounds, study the noise, study the the energy impact and the pollution that the generators are going to create. There's a lot to be done here, but this is your job. when you
decided to to run for this office and you raised your hands and you took the oath of office. It was for this moment, not for the ribbon cutings, not for the photo ops, but for this moment to show up and represent your people.
I'm imploring you to do so as a fellow politician, as a fellow leader. This is the this is the time. These are the hard decisions that you must make. Again, this is not a political speech. is about sharing with you leadership, sharing
with you, reminding you that you have heard so much from so many and you're going to hear a lot more before this night's over. Take that opportunity to listen to the people, put the brakes on a project and get a a real environmental
study, impact study done before allowing this to proceed. the issues of the loan. Again, might want to revisit that the terms of that loan, particularly the interest rates, because nowhere in America can you get a loan with that kind of deal. So,
I I I I'll end with this. I love this city. We come back every year to see the Christmas lights. I was a little disappointed. I got here too early and they weren't on yet. But the bottom line is this is my hometown and I want
nothing but success for it and I will depend and rely and beg and pray for you all to do the right thing. Thank you. Your name, where you live, sir? My name is Roger Merl. Mer L E. I live
in Malaga. I am from Vineland, a proud person expelled from Vinand High School before I graduated. I'm still proud of it. I'm going to speak as a lifelong socialist, which I know is a dirty word
in most places. What we're watching here is capitalism in progress. There are economic benefits which have not been properly explained
that nobody can explain because there aren't going to be any. There's an AI bubble that's going to burst and it's going to take the entire not just US economy down with it but the global economy.
And when that happens, this is going to make the Great Depression look like a picnic. The economic benefits are all flowing to a top of elite investors, multi-millionaires,
billionaires who could afford to pay for every damn penny of this out of their own pockets. And why any elected any elected official would say, "Oh, no. Keep your money. We'll throw taxpayer
money at you." And we'll make sure you don't have to pay full property taxes for what, 25 years. Ridiculous. Can you ensure that this thing's going to be in operation in 25 years? No, you can't.
On the other hand, wherever you have economic benefits, you have social costs. And what are social costs? Health care. When you pollute the environment, health care costs skyrocket. And you've heard
that from enough people who can verify it. There are there's environmental costs. What happens when you suck all the water out of the aquifer? Where are you going to get more? And if you can get it, how much is it going to cost? What does it
do to agriculture? To the uh union member who is complaining about, "Oh, we have to eat." Guess what? We all have to eat. It's not unique to him or the special interest he represents.
On the other hand, we all need water. We all need clean air. And when your air is polluted, your water is polluted if you have any. Again, the social costs go up. And who pays for the social costs? Well, they're all out of pocket for the
victims, especially in this environment where the social safety net, thanks to Trump and the Republicans, has been shredded to nothing. And my closing remark is that as public officials,
if you did not take the social costs into account when this was first pitched to you, you're in the long wrong line of business. Thank you. Say your name, please. Where you live? I am Diane Gity. I live in Vinland City.
And last time we were here, Mr. English said there were positives. If this is supposed to be positives, I don't know who did the research. There is nothing in here that is positive in any way, shape, or form. To begin with, I work at Violent High
School with the special ed children, which I told you last time. They go out and they help in environmental places. They aren't going to be able to do that if we're polluted. What water are you drinking? Because I know I'm not.
When my child or my grandchild gets cancer, you coming to foot the bill because the ACA subsidies were not extended and I can't put my grandchildren on my health insurance and my daughter is
disabled. So when she loses her Medicare and her social security the way the federal government's talking, I am responsible for those children who already have asthma, one of the issues my daughter has is asthma. When she's hospitalized, you going to come pay for
the babysitter? Yeah. Because I don't have it. I work two jobs at 57 years old. Every time I think I'm getting ahead, the government does some shady stuff and I end up behind. Currently, Wawa is working me 4 hours a
week thanks to Trump's tariffs. I don't need you raising the electric bill that I'm already struggling to pay. My daughter has never been able to work. She collects off her father's social security. That means my 27year-old
daughter, who is allowed to be a mother, I don't care who says what. She has three children, gets $800 a month total. She gets no extra for having her children. She gets food stamps,
but she does not get any raises like that's going to help her. She had a right to have children. It's not her fault she was born disabled. It's not my fault she was born disabled. But what you guys are going to pull with this data center, tell me when she's
hospitalized with her asthma, are you coming to my house to babysit the grandchildren so I can get the third job? Are you coming to my house to pay for the bottled water when I can't drink my water anymore? Are you coming to my house and paying the electric bill that
I already struggle to pay working two jobs because nobody is getting paid a living wage today? Nobody. People say, "Oh, you should have gone to college." I'm sorry. I was a little busy. I was raising three children and I had a disabled husband
who was not disabled when we had them. You need to really hear people. Poisoned water. Come on. Did you never see the Lorax? I'm 57. I've seen both versions. And Mr. English, you remember me of that creepy
little guy in the second one. When there are no trees, we will be un unable to breathe. When the last fish is dead, we will be unable to eat. When the water is gone, you won't even be able to
shower. You know what you need to do? You know what you need to do with your money? Take some of it and make a decent homeless shelter for the mentally ill people hanging out behind Park Wawa. Their families have given up on them.
Their families don't help them. Those people are living on the streets in the cold and thanks to our lovely president, they're now getting harassed by the police to move. Where would you like them to move? Maybe they can put their tent in your backyard.
My name is Brianna Baker. Um, I've lived in Violin all my life. I was actually a newcome baby. We are all here tonight to express our concerns, which I really do hope you take into consideration. I don't want just nodding looks. I want you guys to actually think about what we're saying.
Um, especially as a young woman, like many others are young. It's it's really important. The world as we know it is turning completely electronic. Everything is digital. Answers are at the tip of our fingers. But at what
cost? With that being said, the AI data center should have never been approved. This decision has no regard for your neighbors, friends, and your family. The audacity from data 1 to ask for a
loan from a town already struggling is outrageous. Have you been to our schools? Are you driving on the same roads as we are? Do we do we live in the same town? We are supposed to be able to trust our
leaders to make ethical decisions for us. Where is that? Instead, we are shown greed and lack of care, which is really sad. To support and aid with any of this
project is pure ignorance. Think about the strain and the burden you have now brought this time, this town. Is it worth it? Thank you. Thank you. State your name, sir. Where you live? Hi, my name is uh Victor Foust and I
live in Millville. And I also just found out about this data center maybe about two months ago. I was already wary of the golf course because don't know if you know this, but golf courses also consume a lot of drinking water. And I was already worried about that because Mike Trout seems to care for South
Jersey, but time and time again he's kind of showed that he's a bit of a fraud. But that's neither here nor there. My problem with the data center comes just like everybody else's. I've heard all the talk tonight about drinking water. And let's be real for a moment. These things can only consume clean drinking water. They cannot
consume salt water, gray water, or even rain water. It is only clean drinking water. And you've heard from everybody else here tonight about how that's going to, you know, affect everybody. Another thing I'd like to touch upon, and we've heard about the wasteful impacts such as e-waste. There are only three main
companies that make internal RAM for computers. And recently, they have made a prioritization to only truly sell to these data centers. Now, as consumers, you can still buy them, but the cost has gone up at least threefold. A 32 gig RAM that used to be able to get in April for
$90, $95 is now 350. What's going to happen when these things start going, going, going, and they start dumping e-waste? Do we not remember what happened to Tom's River with all the all the e-waste and the sludge? And then they had the highest cancer rates in the country for years. Listen, it might have
been when I was a kid, but I already had cancer for three years. I'm not trying to go for round two, and I certainly don't want anybody else in this room to have to go through it either. All right? And look, you've heard from everybody about all all the typical stuff. Yeah, I live in the center of
Millville. I'm not in Vinland, but I'm 2 and a half miles from this place. I drive by it every single day. The fact it's happening at all, it's definitely an outrage. I can't believe that this town didn't even bother sending a letter out or at least having a town vote. I can TELL YOU RIGHT NOW, MILVILLE PROBABLY HAS LITTLE TO ZERO idea of
what's really going on. And I'm going to leave you with this. If you can read, my shirt says abuse of power comes as no surprise. We've seen a lot of that nationally. I moved up here to Cumberland County 3 years ago from Kate May County due to a house fire. I I've loved living up here more so than I did
for the 13 years I spent in that county. I love living in Millville. It's starting to come up. We've got a lot of stuff on High Street. There's a huge revitalization plan. They want new businesses to come in. They want people to move there. Do you think that this is honestly going to bring that? Yeah, cool. You get a tax credit. You're going
to get money to start a business. People see the effects that this is going to happen. They're not going to want to come and they're probably not going to want to come here. They're probably not going to want to move back as I've heard other people here talk about it tonight. So, I'm just imploring you, please vote no on this. Not even tableabling the loan. Just you need to get rid of this
one way or another because I swear if you guys end up betraying your constituents this way, the people that are outraged in here, just like the people that are outraged out there, they're probably going to fight back every way they can tooth or nail to make sure that this thing does not see the light of day.
Where you live, please. Hi, my name is Francine Alfano. I'm a Vinland resident. I am not a lifelong resident. I moved here 16 years ago. My husband and I chose to live here. We chose to live here because we came from condo living in Atlantic County and we wanted green space and open space. We
have sustainable hobbies. You might want to say we're beekeepers. We do organic gardening. We love our backyard and we love where we live. I live 1.8 miles as the crow flies to this data center. I am
concerned regarding the tonal noises and the vibrations that are going to come from there. According to all the research I have done on AI data centers, they travel for more than three miles. I'm wondering what's going to happen to my bees. Bees are important. The reason my husband and I picked this hobby was
not to make money because as a beekeeper, you do not make money. You spend more money than you make because you're keeping them alive and you're keeping them healthy. But they are here. We did this hobby because of all the farms in the area.
Without bees, there's no food. And the other concern that we have is like everybody else said, here's the water. It's going to take a lot of water. And if you go forward with this, we're worried about what's going to happen to the waste water. Um the heated water
that comes out of the data center. It's known to easily and it's easily researchable. That heated water from factories, known as thermal pollution, creates major hazards by lowering dissolved oxygen, stressing and killing aquatic life, increasing disease and
chemicals, causing allergy blooms, and disrupting entire food webs. That's not a good thing. I mean, if you look at anybody that lives in this area, they'll tell you all about the oyster business. That was huge until factories moved in and it caused a disease and
then it destroyed the oyster business. I we don't need anything else like that here. This is the poorest county. This is the highest illiteracy rate. I feel like you all took advantage of that and you snuck this in under the guise of a golf course which was supposed to be a
great green space and you just snuck us all. I I don't have any other way to say it. I own a small business in this community. I am sustainable. I use postconsumer recyclables. The state is already talking about taking away plastic forks. They already took away
straws and plastic bags. Why is it okay that you got to put this in and we didn't see anything? There was no um you know the state law requires that AI data centers and developers to report water and energy usage to the board of public utilities. Can we see
that report? Can you publish this stuff in a space where everybody can see it? Everybody here probably learned about tonight by Facebook. You can Why can't you put it up on Facebook? Vinland City has a page on Facebook and so does the police
department. We all see what goes on. The mayor makes announcements about when he's going to move Halloween. We all know when Halloween is going to be because the mayor puts it on Facebook. So, if we can see that, why couldn't we see that this was happening? We all thought this was part of the golf
course. Can you please not give them this loan and please stop this project for the benefit of all of us? Say your name, please, where you live. Okay. Hello, I'm Heidi Yay, resident of Cherry Hill, and I'm the policy director of the Pinelands Alliance, which works
to protect the natural and cultural resources of the Pinelands. and our work covers all of South Jersey. Um, so I'm here to speak against this resolution to provide the loan for the cranes and against the data one project overall. Pinelands Alliance were very concerned about the way in which the development
has been conducted. First of all, using redevelopment provisions of the mun municipal land use law. Um, we see this loophole being used all over South Jersey to change zoning without meaningful engagement with the community. And since it's been called redevelopment, this means that there was
no need to identify residents within 200 f feet of the project. So these tend to fly under the radar while the developer gets to write their own rules. Secondly, the lack of any environmental impact statement. We are outside of the Pinelands, but the water and air quality
impacts don't care about lines drawn by politicians. We are particularly concerned with the water use that will have widespread impacts on the region. The developer has told you a halftruth. The facility will be air cooled in the winter but in the summer the adiabatic coolers will need
millions of gallons of water and that's before considering the water that will be required for the power generation. This will increase strain on the Kirkwood Cohen aquifer, which is an unconfined aquifer that is estimated to hold 17 trillion gallons of water.
Although that's a lot, only 4 in of draw down is all it takes to have devastating impact on the surrounding environment, according to studies conducted by the Pinelands Commission. So, this project is not just a data center, it's a power plant and absolutely requires an environmental impact statement. Plus,
the plan seems to change substantially every six months. So, how are you sure that any of these versions of the plan will not be harmful to your residents? In closing, Pineland's Alliance will be writing to D and the Pinelands Commission to highlight this threat and ensure that they are enforcing
protections for the Kirkwood Cohen aquifer and protecting Vineland residents. If you won't, thank you. Hi, I'm Larry from Vineland and I'm going to repeat something my teacher used to tell me is if you're passing notes, you should share it with the class.
We're going to derail things for a second as I'm going to talk about a separate loan that I haven't seen brought up yet that's up for vote today. But I'm going to first start off saying thank you to the city of Vineland for not editing a single word out of my previous time speaking even though I use profane language.
I appreciate that True North are practicing the First Amendment right, but their right does not get to trample on mine or anyone else's. If they choose to spout hateful rhetoric under the guise of Christian love, I am fully within my right to say so.
It's so odd that you, an elected official, would choose to openly belittle my rights in support of theirs. I will reiterate Jesse Eisenhart, the pastor of True North, has referred to the separation of church and state, quote, the enemy's tactic. End quote.
And he spews anti-LGBTQIA plus a rhetoric that harms the people of our city. He's not in our city. I would all I would ask the council how they feel about an Islamic leader wanting to add a mosque to Vinand but preached
extremisms like Shira's law and encouraged his followers to join the government. But doing my research I found that just a mosque trying to be built in Vinand resulted in a 500,000 lawsuit against the city. I was also assured Mr. Spinelli that True North would not influence our
government here in Vinand. Well, tell that to the newly elected board of ele uh board of education member who attends the church regularly. I was told we didn't let them in into the city. That's the quote. Ordinance 20 20 2025-40
and resolution number 6697 say the exact opposite. From those documents, it is stated the property is located in a PC Plaza commercial redevelopment district where churches aren't permitted. End quote. The city had a to literally change this to let them in. So, not only
does the church's pastor preach bigotry and Christian nationalism, not only are they in our city's government, not only did the city literally let them in, now we're expected to hand them $100,000 loan when they made approximately $5 million last year. After I was told this place is private
property and basically none of our business, this private property does not create jobs or pay property taxes while being a blight in our city. It was so disappointing to recently learn that the property was in talks to become a funplex or a skate park pre-COVID, especially given the impacts
of bike Ed's bike shop that used to have on the city for the data center. I don't even know where to start. This was basically agreed to in the shadows between people in the city council and people who donate to their campaign. Did the city council even contact every
municipality in the Kirkwood Cohen aquifier region? This data center will affect eight different counties in New Jersey. Did you run it by any of them? Our region is already in a drought, not to mention the stress that's already on the stressed out power grid this will
add. How about at least looking out for the people and environment with an environmental impact study? Nope. I have not even touched on the direct impact on the people of Vinus will have. Health problems like heart issues, asthma, COPD, and other lung problems are directly linked to the AI data centers.
Like my mother previously stated, my sister already has a heart condition and asthma, so thank you for that. The 20-year tax abatement, few permanent jobs are going to be created. There's not much revenue coming from this place. If you follow the money when it comes to
AI market, no one believes this is going to last much longer. People are making as much money as they can before the bubble burst. So what happens when that bubble does burst? Is there a plan for this place in the future if they abandon it? Is there a plan in place for this building
and at all? Will the damage done to the people in the environment be worth it? All the people that left or will leave the area and the property value lost, will it be worth it? Are you not tired of selling out this city to wealthy companies and people who do not care for
the betterment of this city? Does Mr. English positives truly outweigh all the negatives that are going to affect the people of this city? Is Mr. Ruga's money really worth it? Vote no on the $6 million loan. Do us
some damn justice. They have already taken enough from us. Thank you. Say your name please where you live. Good good evening everybody. I am Alexander Carfagno. I am a resident of EHT high school or I go to EHT high
school and I am here today in opposition to the AI data center. I find it highly irresponsible that any government official at any level to be allowing data centers that aid with our with the advancement of AI whose express purpose is to replace human labor to come into our cities and towns so that any plan
whatsoever about the workers that it will displace. As a student, I fear that when I enter the my professional career that I will have to compete with AI models that do not need a wage, do not sleep, and that do not and do not and do not complain. And even bigger and an even bigger fear that I have that I
think should be the that should be on the minds of every parent in this room are the kids that who are forced to take on five figures to even six figures of debt, leaving leaving college and finding out that their industry has been taken over by AI and realizing that their 60 grand in debt was worth nothing.
So no, I do not think that subsidizing said AI AI models or giving loans for their advancement is right in any regard when it has the possibility of destroying countless of new careers of college graduates or even workers in the middle of their career. It is one thing to replace jobs and to retrain the
workers, but three years into this new phase of technology, there are no programs doing this or plans of assistance for these workers. And until then, council members, I highly advise voting no on any bill or legislation or motion that advances these AI data centers for the good of the current and new generations. Thank you for your
time. Thank you. Say your name, please, where you live. Hi, my name is Matt Pollson. I'm a uh now a resident of Bridton, New Jersey. Let's start from the beginning. My grandmother moved here about 70 years
ago to Vinland. My mother was born and raised in Vinand. And now I in 2003 was born in New Hospital here in Vinland and raised since. In 2019, I earned the rank of Eagle Scout here in Vinland out of Troop 102.
And the first time I ever sat in these chambers was as a young boy just trying to earn his citizenship in the community merit badge. Makes me sad to have to come here today to tell you folks that this is a terrible, terrible idea to bring in this AI data center.
I got to ask myself, who what are we doing? Where did I grow up? I'm pretty sure this sign, if I read it, vin where it's always growing season. Last time I checked, I lived in New Jersey, the garden state.
So, it seems a little counterintuitive to be bringing in an AI data center into our nice little town. So, now I just got to ask you guys quite frankly, why? What's the point of this? What is there that's really going to benefit us as
residents of Vinand? You know, I'm I got to say like we're not putting Vinand first. We're putting AI data centers first. We're putting big corporations first. Putting Microsoft first. That doesn't make any sense. That's makes no sense at all. So, I'm here to ask you to explain it to us.
Whether it takes a town hall meeting or posting this to another date or really just saying no in general. Explain it to us. You got to earn our support before we can move forward with such things. To do it behind our back doesn't make any sense. I'm right here with everybody else. I only found out about this two weeks ago and I said, "Well, I guess
I'll show up to that meeting and see what it's all about." Well, I did a little research before and I learned a whole lot even more tonight and I can't say that I support this at all. So, I'm just asking you guys, please, please say no to this AI data center and if you want it to happen, get the people support because otherwise it's never
going to go well. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Melissa Massie and I'm a resident of Vineland. I'm going to make this short and sweet. So currently there are eight states that are largely affected by the data
centers. Okay? They are Virginia, Texas, Indiana, Oregon, Maryland, Illinois, Michigan, and Georgia. If you guys continue with this AI data plan, I guarantee you New Jersey will be on that list by the end of next year of
2026. So please listen to what everyone is saying and take care of us and take care of our city. Okay, that's all. Thank you. Thank you very much. State your name, please. My name is Oriana. O R I A N A. I'm a
resident of Burlington County. I serve as the statewide director of organizing for the New New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance. For the last 20 plus years, our organization has served communities of color, low-income communities, and indigenous communities across the state in fighting back against environmental injustices that
impact quality of life primarily through air pollution and energy consumption. We were instrumental in getting the New Jersey environmental justice law passed, the first of its kind in the nation, aimed at protecting communities like Violin and counties like Cumberland. NJA stands with the residents of Violin in their concerns about the development of
the data 1 data center. To be clear, data centers are the hidden infrastructure to our lives already, such as Google Drive, Google Photos, all of those things. However, hypers scale data centers such as data 1, are not essential and only cause generational degradation to our environment and public health. Hypers scale data centers
consume 3 to 7 million gallons of clean drinking water per day. Reminder that New Jersey is already in a drought um for the second year in a row. These data centers also use diesel backup generators that can emit 200 to 600 times more nitrogen oxide per kilowatt
hour than gas power plants. They also use at least 300 megawws or more of power, which is enough to power at least 100,000 homes and can raise electricity bills by $20 per month or more. That's just for Jersey. That doesn't consider all of the other data data centers that
are being developed on the PJM grid, which is already under a lot of stress. This is all take and no benefit for the community, exploitation at its finest. And we call this environmental injustice. And we stand with the residents against this data center. We urge the city council to listen to these concerns, take actions to protect this
community, and also connect with us and our organization for resources to ensure that you can do a proper environmental impact statement should you decide to move forward with this because we are no garden state if we have no environmental justice. Lastly, I want to give a huge applause to the residents who have been doing amazing organizing, growing
awareness about this project, ensuring that this room was packed tonight. This is two days before Christmas in the middle of the holiday season. Twin people should be at home with their families. So, all power to the people. Thank you, and I hope you make the right decision. Thank you very much.
City council's asked for a fivem minute recess. Um, do we have a motion? Yep. Need a motion? Need a motion. Second. Dr. Arthur. Yes. Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas. Vice President Gomez. Yes.
President Spanelli? Yes. Council be in recess for 5 minutes and we'll rejourn. I heard they're going to open. So, just be careful. Oh, those were That's fine. That's fine. Just give them back to me at the end
when you're done. I'm going to try to get back in order here. Please have a seat and quiet down. You'll need to need a motion to come back into session. So move. Second.
Dr. Arthur. Yes. Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez, yes. President Spanelli, yes. 7:21. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Yes. We'll continue with the public comment.
Please state your name, where you live. Is it okay? My name is Jameson Matlock. I am a resident of Violent and I am here to mainly speak about the AI data center. Well, just mainly about the city council's decision to go forward with
the construction of the I data center and the personally I I don't like the lack of response that the city council and the city itself has given and I and I I just don't like how you guys aren't being transparent with
us and I I just I find it absolutely insane. I'm I'm speaking from the heart here. I'm I am I go to I'm a student. I go to violent high school and most teenagers I
know right now would be laying laying in bed on their phone scrolling through Tik Tok, doom scrolling, whatever. But then there are a few of us who are paying attention to our community and what's going on locally. And I'm just saying most teenagers shouldn't be outraged by
what their city is doing. And I just I I don't I I don't even know what to say. I just think it's absolutely insane what the city council is doing. How they how let's like the few meetings ago you called one of the speakers an
You you called a speaker an and you didn't even have you didn't even have the balls to say it to his face. You hid behind saying we don't banner with the public. Now you're out of order. There's your warning. There was an apology made. We
moved on. I gave him a personal apology. Whether he accepted it or not is up to him. I run the meeting. You don't. Thank you. Yeah. You got to listen to your constituents. Just saying. No disrespect, sir, but I believe
Oh, that was disrespectful. So, move on. Listen, my generation is the next generation that'll be, you know, in charge of things. So, personally, I think respect should be earned. Mutual. I don't want
to be talked to like I don't know what I'm talking about. I spoke with him before this and I know you apologized and I was going to say that until you said that you gave an a you gave a public apology. My thing is that when he was asking you for a response, you said,
"We don't banner with the public." Even though beforehand and like you did just now, you bann you you bannered. It's not banter. I corrected you and told you to move on. That's bannering. Oh, come on. Can you That's bannering. Frankly, AI D.
AI. He gets another warning. That's it. He goes, he's a kid actually trying to speak up for his now. Please speak on what you want to speak about. Okay. Thank you.
I am 16 years old. I am 16 years old and me a bunch of the other students at Violin High School disapprove of the actions of the city council and the lack of response y'all are giving. And by majority, we are the majority by the
way. We the people are the majority. We the people, we we elected you. I personally didn't. I can't vote, but people in this room probably did. Now, and
the people in my in my class, my in my high school, and I like to speak I'm not speaking on behalf of them, but I I can speak on behalf of the socialists and the leftists and the communists that go to my high school. We do not want to become adults and live
in this city if it's polluted beyond recognition. We don't want to have to breathe in air that's polluted by the what like the smog or whatever that's produced by the AI data center. And what are the benefits of the AI data center? Genuinely, I don't see any benefits to
the community. Might be benefits to you to you guys, but we don't get those benefits. It's out. It's our community. Your job as city council is to represent and work for the people of this city. I don't see
you representing the community at all. I don't see you representing anything in these people want. And yes, you guys are older than me. You guys are wiser. You have more knowledge on Well,
let's be respectful. You guys obviously know what you're doing. You're professionals. But I don't think that should diminish any of our opinions more than yours. And honestly, that's that's really all I have to say today. I'm just do better.
Thank you. Say your name, please. Where you live? My name is Hannah Dietrich. H A N A D I E T R I C H. My pronouns are they them and I live in Vinland. I grew up in Dennisville. Um I'm lived in the
Cohansancy aquifer my entire life and I've both my parents were civil servants and so I've sat in on many city council meetings, planning and zoning meetings, schoolboard meetings and I'm really excited to see so many community members engaged tonight.
Speaker Inter Michael. Thank you. I've really listened and I've really learned from other people in our community and the surrounding areas this evening. I hope you've listened and learned as well. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
requires diversions of 100,000 gallons per day of a period of 30 days for over a one-year period. those uh water diversions, wells, right, have to complete a water allocation permit. Part
of this process is they have to provide a map and a list of all of the other water diversions in a fivem radius. I live in that 5m radius. I imagine many people this evening live in that five mile radius. The D does not require that water
allocation use permits have to notify within that five mile radius. But imagine if they did. Imagine of how many more people would show up this evening and in future evenings if they were fully informed of
this issue. Like Matt, I also have heard that it's always growing season in Vineland. I ask you, what is growing? Is it the bank accounts of people who live far away and already have a lot of money and power?
Is it the poor outcomes to our health, our society? The nearest middle school is within two miles. The nearest preschool within a half a mile. Personally, I plan to grow my descent in
this issue. I hope I hope that you really think about this and extend whatever needs to get extended because too many people have shared their concerns with you to vote
yes on this. Thank you. Thank you. Say your name, please. Where you live? My name is Monica Higgins. I live in the city of Vin Island. I'm here tonight to speak as one of the residents of Vinand who lives beyond the
reach of the municipal water supply. Uh I bought my first house in Vinland. My neighborhood was built back in the 1950s with sha with shallow wells. And while many have drilled new wells with submersible pumps, many of us have
shallow welljet pumps. On wells varying from 30 to 100 ft deep. Because the pump is pulling the water to the surface as opposed to pushing it from below the surface, these pumps are limited to a suction head of about 25
ft. Once the water level in the well drops below this, the pump can no longer draw water. Since a submersible pump cannot fit down into the narrow well, the only solution is to drill a new well. Once you drill a new well, the health the health
department requires that you install a treatment system to bring that water up to current New Jersey drinking water standards, which adds additional costs. With more intense droughts in recent years, we are at a greater risk of our wells failing.
Excessive water use will only further decrease the water level. Therefore, not only do I want an answer to the question of how many gallons of water this data center will use in a day, I want to know how this usage will affect the water supply of the residents of the city of Vineland, including those
on shallow wells. How how many residents will need to spend thousands of dollars drilling new wells? Will Vinand provide data 1 with tax abatement while the citizens of Vinand must pay for the effects of data 1's water usage.
Thank you. Thank you. State your name, please. Where you live. Good evening, council people. My name is Annaisa Franceskini. I'm from the New Italy burrow, Vinland. Uh first, I'd like to just talk to my people real quick.
I am very proud of all of you. I am proud to be a part of this community and I hope you continue to show up. I'm so Anyway, y'all have heard a lot tonight. Many people have spoken about their personal
experiences about what they're scared in the future. Uh many have brought up that in past meetings you guys have had no answers and I know that this was passed through the planning board and that many of you are saying look this was out of
our hands. This was not something that we knew about but the planning board needs to be held accountable for not doing their research. And who appoints who appoints the planning board? That is
Mayor Fenucci and he's not required to be here tonight. Does anyone see him in this room? Where is the mayor? He is the one responsible for this and I ask him to come forward, answer our questions, and if we're going to continue, then he
needs to be completely transparent. This whole administration, I believe you can do it. I believe that you have good hearts and that maybe you just didn't understand what was going on in the first place. Many of us were confused. I just need you to step up now. I need you
to hold him accountable and I need you to be here for these people like they're being here for themselves. All right. Thank you. Have a good evening. Say your name, please. Where you live? Uh my name is Haley Purich. I'm a longtime Vinland resident. Um here also
to talk about the data center. So, I'm gonna start with something that is a bit of a minor qualm in the grand scheme of things, but uh a point of irony and annoyance and I think indicative of how we tend to do things in this town. Um, so to start, uh, a question. Why do we
have a Vinland Police patrol car consistently parked outside of the property where the data center is being built? Are taxpayers are taxpayers footing the bill for our officers to act as private security for a major corporation that can surely
afford its own? It seems to me it seems to me an awfully blatant admission that this city would rather use its law enforcement not to protect and serve the interests of its public, but rather the interests of capital, the interests of the wealthy individuals and
entities that see an opportunity in a place like Vinand. Not because they want to help our community flourish and thrive, but because we are just another economically depressed town with resources and land to rapidly consume for a quick profit.
Like a previous speaker said, they think that we're too stupid and too busy to know what's happening until it's too late. What they they likely do know is that our elected officials are in way over their heads. I'm here to say that it is okay to admit when you are in over your head. It is
okay to admit that you fell victim to the simplistic logic that any business is good business. I'm also here to advise that unless you can say with absolute confidence that this project will not adversely affect the health and well-being of your constituency, you should take the time to do your due
diligence. Get a comprehensive environmental report. Let's understand the gravity of the inevitable health consequences like asthma, respiratory illnesses, birth defects, and the like. Let's create policies for greater transparency with the public and with the press. Having to sign an NDA to get
any information from this company should be a non-starter. Let's set clear restrictions from the jump on emissions and diminishing water quality. ensure that there will be repercussions for environmental damage and that when that happens, we will not be footing the bill for environmental
recovery efforts. More than simply playing defense and responding to our concerns, if you're going to allow this project to continue, let's hear some positives. The last council meeting ended with Councilman English making a comment at the end of the meeting two weeks ago
that while constituents had presented an abundance of concerns regarding the health and safety of our community, no one had mentioned any of the positives that might be associated with this kind of an industrial facility in the middle of our neighborhoods and farm country. Two weeks ago, the room erupted in response asking what those benefits
might be. Two weeks of pondering later and I'm still at a loss for a single example of why anyone in this town would be in favor of this data center unless they stood to personally and financially benefit from it at the expense of their community. Given that the council has had two weeks
to think about this question, I would be interested to know at some point perhaps later in the meeting what benefits you were able to come up with. I read through um the little packet provided downstairs. Um in my opinion, it was a whole lot of nothing. Um and if you
think that this is going to pacify the questions and concerns of your con constituency, frankly, I think that that is ridiculous. Um, so to conclude, I really sincerely advise and ask that you are going to
take sufficient time to do your due diligence and have all of these questions answered um before you come to a hopefully educated decision. Uh, and I also think it would be a brilliant idea given the clear concern of the public to
do a town hall and answer our questions. maybe in a room where we can get everyone who's interested in speaking and asking questions and we don't have people locked out outside as well. Thank you. State your name and where you live. H Hello, my name is Imman Janinger and I
live in Mil in Milville by Union Lake and I just have one question for you. Who are you doing this for? Um because I know it's not the people of Vinand who are sitting behind me. Um I want to grow up with fresh water and air. I want to
be able to step outside, not gag on the gas polluting our air, which by the way, if you didn't know, will be caused by the multi-million data center that our favorite billionaires aka Elon Musk, Jeffrey Bezos, Donald Trump, and so on strong strangely don't disagree with.
Who is this going to be affecting? the billionaires who will only gain more or the people of violence who will actually suffer. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Say your name please where you live. My name is Agape Fiser and I've lived in Violin for all 16 years of my life and
just like my fellow people I share the various concerns of what the data center will bring. But these issues and concerns have been covered thoroughly by others who have spoken this evening. So I'm here to share a message that I truly hope will get through to you since evidently not much has. The land of this city has been
the background of my life. Its forests have grown alongside me and its trees have been the ribs of my childhood. When you make any choice or any action in support of this poisonous project, the blood of our earth is undeniably on your hands. your hands that you use to hold
the hands of your children or your grandchildren as you walk forward with them, leading them to a future that you've worked in dooming. These promises of benefits are shrouded in lies and misinformation. And you need to do better for your people and for
your children and for the earth that has stood loyal beneath your feet for your entire life. That is all. Thank you. Thank you. your name, please, where you live. Hi there. My name's Martin. Um, I didn't plan on speaking today. I'm actually resident in Milville, where I've lived
for most of my life. Thank you. But I feel compelled to speak based off of turnout today about an observation I made about the AI product that this centers for ostensively. Over the
years, we've been told about all it has to offer in our personal lives and all the jobs it can replace. But I've noticed a pattern that it off they say they can replace architects, doctors,
teachers, mayors, and council members such as yourselves. But I've never heard anyone say that it can replace the job of a financial administrator. These are companies that are decades old and are worth tens if not hundreds of billions
of dollars and they spend billions of dollars every year working their financials, hiring other people to do it. So why don't they trust their AI to do it? Well, I'll get to the point. A few years ago, Amazon had their own AI to
streamline the hiring process of managers. And immediately they found it would flatly refuse to hire any women whatsoever, which is reflective of Amazon's history of refusal to hire women to manage hero positions. There
are multiple class action lawsuits about that. That was it learned from the company. So why can't these companies, this company um who's building the data center and their patrons, Facebook,
Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, why don't these companies have the the their own AI work their own financials? Because they're committing fraud. They're committing financial fraud. and they know that if they have their own AI
learn from them and try to replicate it, they'll get caught, they can't have their I'm I'm sorry, I'm not very good public speaker, but no matter how bad this deal looks now, people have been talking
about this tax abatement and people have been talking about how bad it seems like it's going to be for the local workers and everybody else who's all these uh promises of hiring jobs and however bad it looks, it's going to be worse. These
are companies that know that they're selling a sham and these are companies that know that they're going to cheat everybody that they work with. And the proof is the fact that they don't promise this AI can do anything involving money.
Um I don't have anything else to say. I just like to thank everybody for coming out and wish everybody get home safely. Thank you. Thank you. Say your name, please, and where you live. Steven Borick, Vinland Residence. Uh I can hardly add to all the statements
that have been made uh about the resources, the environment, and the transparency. uh many articulate uh concerns about that and I agree with it. But one thing I'd like to add is that I think it's a
very very poor business decision to make a $6 million loan on two what I assume are temporary cranes. You have a very high inflationary economy right now.
you're making a 6% loan on two two assets that are probably going to be worth half their value as soon as they're on the job site. The other thing, the other financial
concern is that the abatements, if it's truly a new strong industry and this is a viable company, they shouldn't need tax abatements. And in general, I think
the planners that think they have to offer these companies tax abatements, I think it just leads a race to the bottom. And that being said, I appreciate your work and I appreciate all the comments
from all my other citiz residents. Thank you, sir. Good evening, please. Where you live? Good evening. My name is Nicole Alvarez. I live in Vinland. Um, I wasn't planning on speaking tonight, but I just have a very quick statement to make. Um, I was here four weeks ago and there were
approximately 12 statements made by residents. I was here two weeks ago, there were approximately 17 statements. And tonight I'm the 36th speaker and there's a few more people that will be speaking as well. Where are your
statements to us? We've done countless hours of research, making phone calls, doing Oprah requests. If your statement to us is this article, how long did it take you to to get this article? A Google search and then a click to print. It's kind of
a slap in the face when we're doing all of this work to get answers and you print out a simple article off of the internet. Two weeks ago, I also made a statement discussing the environmental impact statement that should have been provided per the city code. What's your response
to that? I know that you don't banter with the public, but we need some kind of two-way commu some sort of response, some way to get two-way communication so we can get answers to the hundreds of questions that we've asked. So, please do your homework like we're doing our
homework and please provide the answers to us. Thank you. Thank you. State your name, please. Where you live. Good evening. Excuse me. My name is Russell Barufi, senior. I've been violent all my life. I think I know some
of you personally. Um, excuse me. Let me get this adjusted. Uh, just curious. I've got some I I've just got a question. I think probably at the end of the night tonight, you guys are probably all going to vote yes for this loan to go through. sad, but that's
probably what's going to happen, you know. Expected. Um, and it's sad. It's sad because, uh, not that the the interest money or whatever might be your excuses or whatever, but the point that I would
make is that you see what's going on around us. And in order to stop this, if we can stop that, and my conversations, my phone calls just now and my conversations with other people that were here that are substantial um say
that there there needs to be an injunction and there needs to be a turn of the tide because the tide right now is flowing very strong in that direction. And I I know all you people probably feel in your hearts that it's
the wrong thing to do. And you must There's been enough there's been there's been enough wait by the people tonight and enough information to make that
true. So my uh I would ask you to vote no. I would tell you that in my opinion I just learned just like so many other people the magnitude especially the 37 acre expansion. If you approve this alone tonight, it's a signal to the
powers that be, and they don't get wrong. Don't get me wrong, they are the powers that be. It's a signal to them that it's okay. Continue going. And everybody here will know that you say it's okay if you vote yes, no matter what your reasons are. The reasons are
that this is wrong. It's just the wrong thing to do for everything. Now, if you if if you do that and we can get the D involved for an environmental impact study, we might be able to hold this up. And I say we because I'm totally against this, okay? And I don't care who sees
this on YouTube or whatever, okay? This doesn't make any sense for Vinland or for South Jersey in general. So, it starts right here, right now with you guys saying no to a loan. So my question to you guys, do you
people, I'm sorry, okay? What do you want to do? You want to say yes and keep the momentum going even though you you see all that's going on here, or do you want to say no and that's going to start something going in the other direction, but it's
on it's on you right now. It's on you. So I appreciate you guys. I think you're doing a fantastic job. I think you guys are the right people to be up there. But if you are the right people, then you will do the right thing. Thank you.
Thank you. Say your name, please, where you live. My name is uh Patrick McGroy. I've been a Vinland resident for the past 20 years. Uh the passion and words tonight have been impressive to listen to, but I'm here to represent the other less
vocal majority who are in support of the project. Violin is more than a place on a map. It is an idea. And when Charles K. Landis founded Vinand in 1861, he didn't just lay out streets and
parcels of land. He laid out a vision. He believed that a city, if planned with care and foresight, could give people opportunity, dignity, and a better future. He believed that progress, when guided responsibly, strengthens a
community rather than threatens it. That belief built violent. For over 160 years, generations of residents worked the soil, built factories, ran small businesses, and
raised families here. Each generation faced change. And each chose to move forward rather than fall behind. That willingness to adapt is not a break from our history. It is our
history. Today, we're being asked to make another decision that will shape violence future. Data centers are not abstract or distant. They power the systems we rely on every single day. Emergency services,
hospitals, schools, local businesses, and government operations. The modern world does not function without them. The question before us is not whether data centers will exist, but
whether Vinland will choose to continue to be part of that future. This project, Excuse me, Pat. Yep. Let the man speak. He's entitled to an opinion just like you were. This project, the loan request we are
discussing, represents more than equipment. It represents a long-term investment in our city. millions of dollars that strengthen our tax base without overwhelming our roads, our schools, and our neighborhoods.
It represents stable revenue that can help fund essential services and reduce pressure on residents. It represents skilled jobs and opportunities for local workers and contractors. Are there questions that should be
answered? Yes, we have heard very valid concerns tonight that and should that in time should be answered. But this is in contrast to people who present false facts and unattributed
quotes. Vinand was founded as a planned community. Data centers when properly regulated and thoughtfully cited reflect the same principle. quiet, clean facilities designed for long-term use,
not short-term gain. This is not reckless development. This is deliberate, structured progress. Charles Landis believed that a successful city does not cling to the past. It honors it by preparing for the future. He welcomed innovation because
he understood that standing still is the fastest way to fall behind. Council members, you are stewards of his legacy. Supporting this data center is not abandoning Vinland's legacy. It is
affirming it. It is saying that our city still believes in planning, opportunity, and thoughtful investment. It is saying that Vinland is ready, not just for today, but for the next generation. I'll end with a quote. It's the man in
the arena by Theodore Roosevelt. It is not the critic who counts. It's not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena who is whose face
is marred by dust and sweat and blood. Who strives valiantly, who errors, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcomings. But who does actually strive to do the deeds? Who knows great
enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause. Who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never
be with those cold and timid souls who never knew victory nor defeat. I respectfully ask for your support of this project and loan to continue the tradition of leadership that has defined Vinland since its founding. Thank you
for your time. Have order. Have order. Please hold on a second. Please just don't ask. Can we have order? Please remove Please remove him. Because he doesn't believe what you
believe. No, he's out of order. Remove her, too. Please. What did she do? Just wait a second. Go ahead, sir. Before I start, my name is Justin Roy. I live in Philadelphia. I am from Violent, New Jersey. Mr. Violent 2022. I love
this city, etc., etc. Uh, first thing I'm going to condemn is that you just removed uh Mr. Larry Garity and his mother. His mother didn't do nothing. So, that's the first thing I'm going to condemn. The second thing I'm going to condemn is uh or rather criticize is that uh violent doesn't cling to the past. This was the first city in New
Jersey to have a historic society, which I'm a proud member of. But that's not here what I'm that's not what I'm here to talk about today. What I'm here to talk about today is uh sacrificing the future of this city like I have discussed before. Now all it takes is three votes to prevent this loan from going through. Dr. Elizabeth Arthur, did
I say three? Sorry. Mr. Cruz Gomez, Mr. Albert Vargas, I'm speaking to you three in particular because despite my criticisms of you guys, I have something in common with the three of you. We're children of displacement. particularly Cruz uh and Albert, we have a shared
similar experience of coming from Puerto Rico and being displaced from our homeland because of poverty, because of force displacement, because of what have you. Dr. Arthur, I understand that you moved to the Ithaca area from Wilmington, North Carolina, uh when you were younger and have an experience of
leaving somewhere as well. Vinand historically is a city of displaced people, of displaced communities. Mr. Spanelli, I understand you're an Italian. uh the Italians were displaced here because of poverty in their home country. So recognizing the context that this is a city of displaced people, why
are we going to vote to aid something that could risk displacing more of our residents? Now I a few weeks ago I said, "Is your loyalty to team Fenucci, to the good old boys of Ireland, or is it to the people who elected you? Is it to the people who elected you? The people of this city? Is it to the young people of
the city?" Mr. Mr. Vargas, I I I remember you saying you ran in the marathon in Guamo. I'm from Guamo, too. Cruz, your cousin Orlando has been a friend of my dad for many years. I understand that despite my criticisms of you guys and my lack in faith in you as politicians, I hope I can put a little
bit faith into your humanity as people. Please recognize that the people of this city have never come out for an issue like this before in my lifetime. And I am so proud of them. And if you want to be part of the future of where this city goes, break ranks and vote no
on this loan, please. Because we want to have people like me that had to leave this city that we love to go to college, to go to wherever, and we want a home to come back to. Like I said, this is not how you encourage the the us to come back. Okay? We want to have the same
opportunities our parents and grandparents had coming here, making a life for themselves, and having a future here. And at the end of the day, whether we decide to leave or we decide to go, we want it to be our choice. Not because of a project like this that is going to potentially kick people out of their homes, this this project is down the road from my elementary old elementary
school, Dr. William Menny's. This is personal to me. I don't want kids going there. I played in those schooly yards and had fresh air to breathe, minus the the the manure from the fields. But uh you know we got to see agriculture right next to it though because they have
water to the the the f the to the crops in the fields. We had clean air when we ran through them schooly yards. I want the same kids that Dr. William Meny's now to have the same opportunity that I did. I want the kids of this city to have the same opportunities that I did cuz I'm going to be honest they weren't
a lot. Cumberland's been the poorest county since I was a kid since my mom was in school. Since my dad was in school. We got to change that. And this is not how you change that. by opening the door for whatever fat cat millionaire wants to build something here. Like I said, where where is the
environmental impact study and where where is is the economic impact analysis? Like I have pointed out many times, keep looking off to the size finale. Like I pointed out many times, the these uh these data centers, a lot of them are remotely operated. Have you been told that how many of the city's
residents are going to be employed if they do employ a few people? Are they going to live in Vinland or are they going to live in Morristown and Cherry Hill where they take that tax base somewhere else? There's a lot of serious questions that need to be answered and they have not been answered. If I have one thing that I can urge you all to do, break ranks. You don't have to listen to
what he tells you to what he tells you or what the mayor tells you. You are your own people. I said you guys operate in contempt of this city and I still think that's true. But you can prove me wrong. The three of you vote your conscience. Vote your conscience if you have it. Prove to us that you are still
loyal to the people and maybe you'll still have a future in that chair cuz we will we will replace you otherwise. Be your own people. You want you want to tell your kids when you go home, be a leader, not a follower. Be your own leader. Be your own leader.
Prove me and the people of this city wrong and show that maybe you actually do care. Maybe even a little bit about us. I see you advocating for VHA tenants. I see some of the work that some of y'all do. Take that same spirit and put it here cuz we support those issues, too. So, if you want to show the
people that you care, vote no. Thank you very much. I recognize my time is state your name where you live. Hi, my name is Russell Barufi Jr. Um, I uh live in Seattle, Washington. I grew up in Vinland, New Jersey, and my parents live within a mile of the site.
Um, I wasn't planning on speaking tonight. Um, but I'm a land developer. Um, I work primarily on solar and battery projects out west. Um, so I'm deeply familiar with the process of tax abatements, conditional use permits, and uh, I'm a land developer. I develop
solar and battery projects out west. So, I'm deeply familiar with the process of tax abatements, conditional use permits. environmental impact studies and everything else. Um, I also happen to have worked for Amazon's infrastructure
group for a good five years. And so I'm also deeply familiar with the process by which Amazon chooses sites and finds communities to invest in. and invest in, I think, is a funny term um because I
understand the way that they go about choosing communities and what they look for. And I think I'm primarily responding to the sort of inside view that Patrick McGory brought earlier, and that is to
say, I know that these tech companies look for vulnerable communities. Yeah, I know that these tech companies look for places with minimal air and water regulation. I know that they pump up the
view of how many construction jobs you're going to get, how many long-term jobs you're going to get, and that those things don't necessarily materialize, and that they, as you know, have no commitment to have them materialize. I also know that they look for, and I
say this with all respect to you, stupid, malleable, and gullible public officials. And I don't mean that that's who you are. I mean that that's who you could be or could choose not to be. But Patrick McGroy and his whole team is laughing at
you if you believe that a 6% interest loan on this many millions of dollars is good for Vinand. If you believe that trading off these this okay, this permission, this absence of analysis or
community input for whatever he's telling you that he's going to give you is a good deal. I'm telling you that it's a lie because I've seen it from the inside. And and I'm not and I've seen both sides of this. I've
seen the pro the process of projects going through approvals and I've seen the negotiations behind the scenes with communities for both energy projects and data centers. And I'm telling you to please represent us as smart and capable
public officials interested in asking very hard questions about long-term future for this community rather than the immediate shine of whatever nonsense poetry that he gave you. whatever whatever nonsense about innovation and
whatever fiction about inevitability that he's telling you that Vinland needs to be a part of this it is a scam. So I think you I think you have a choice today to be you can be the you can be
the gullible and stupid public official that Patrick believes that you are or you can take all and I'm not I'm not saying you are. I'm just saying believe me when I tell you that this is the story they're telling you is a lot more clear if you look at an environmental
impact statement, if you look at air and water equality impacts, and you look at long-term health impacts of these things. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Please, where you live? I'm Kim Connor. I live in Vineland. I've been a Vinland resident for most of my
life. I left for a while and I came back. I love it here. I don't want to leave. But I'll tell you something. For the last couple of weeks, I have been up at night wondering, "What is that noise?" And I won't bore you all the details of what appliance I ran to to see if it was broken. But my boyfriend
thought I was going nuts because I was hearing something. I knew I was hearing it. Well, I'm on Facebook and I find out what I'm hearing is this thing I didn't even know existed. I don't think it's right. I'm tired. I'm sick right now. But don't worry, you can't catch it from
me because it's asthma. I don't want to be breathing crap. Remember a couple of years ago we had the wild fl wildfires in Quebec and all that smoke came down. I had to stay in my house because I could not breathe without like unless I was in the house. Oddly, I went to
Quebec shortly after that. There was no smoke up there. But I'm telling you, I have a home in Violent. I have a home in Wall Township, New Jersey. Okay. My boyfriend's been saying, "Why do we have two homes?" I don't know. Cuz I love it here and he doesn't want to move here,
does he? Well, since 1999, I've had this fantasy of putting on a very expensive sun room onto my house. That'll increase my property taxes if I do that. It's part of why I don't want to do it. But when it comes down to it, why am I going to invest in my home when I have to
listen to that noise? And I believe that property values in the area will fall because of this noise. Because of every concern that's been every concern that's been stated here tonight, you want to have a little small 6%. I don't remember the numbers because like I said, I don't feel very good. I dragged myself to come
here tonight in spite of how bad I feel. And but property taxes, that's something that goes every single year, year after year after year. What about when this data center is no longer bringing in money? So, I have so many other things I would like to say, but other people have things to say, and I don't think I'm
making a whole lot of sense past this one because everybody here has had very good arguments. Please don't make me move up with my boyfriend and want to ship. Please state your name, where you live, ma'am. Karen Iverson. I live in Vinland. Um,
I've been basically a lifelong resident. My family moved us here from Milville when we were I was five and a half years old. And I remember the smog in Vineland when I was a kid. And I'd walk home from school down Landis Avenue, saw the
beautiful big trees, and they were so beautiful in the fall. And I would kick those leaves as I walked down the street. Well, the vine's kind of turned into a heat island with all the trees
that have been chopped down and um I urge my residents to plant some trees. But this data center, I just found out about this on Thursday and I've been a lifelong resident basically and I don't want my city to turn into
smog again. And Patrick Mcgroy, with all due respect, Charles Landis, I think, is probably flipping over in his grave cuz he WANTED he wanted the streets of Violin to be lined with trees. And that is why we
have so many trees lining the streets of Island until we start cutting them all down. Um, so I'm asking you to please vote no on this. due the environmental impacts. I told my husband, I cannot believe I can't even think in my mind
what 6,700,000 square feet is. How much is that? So, he did some investigating for me. That's almost 60 acres of land. And 60 acres of land with a building on
it. Where's all the water going to go? Maybe they can. I mean, that's a that's uh four Lincoln Financial Fields worth of land that we're giving to billionaires.
Um I don't think that's right. And I'm sorry that the the golf course got cancelled. So, please vote no and please think about the environmental impacts that this is going to do to our our
environment. Thank you. Thank you for your service. State your name, please. Where you live. Everybody, my name is Eric Rodriguez. Lifelong Violin resident. I've been a civil servant my whole
career. Went away went down to Stockton for school. Unlike most of my classmates from the class of 07, a lot of violence children always decide, "Oh, I'm getting out of here." I was one of the few and constantly
criticized for coming back staying in violent. There's been a lot of people asking a lot of questions, not too many clear answers. Now, this city is the largest city in land. We have
one of the most diverse populations in the area. Charles Landis himself founded this city on diversity. Our greatest resource and strength is everybody here. Cuz how diverse from where everybody comes, every background,
every religion, everybody in this city is what makes it great. and you have a large population that's full of strength and resources telling you what they feel and what they're seeing happening.
Do not neglect to serve the public cuz everybody's here. This is just one big snowball cuz I only found out about this recently. So more and more people are going to be asking questions.
You know, Vinland, we get a lot of criticism from other cities, other states, but we are the largest city. We are one of the diverse. I can't stress it enough. Our citizens are our greatest
resources, and everybody's speaking up about this. Do not neglect us. Do not push forward with this. There is no long-term clear end goal. As many people have brought up, what's going to happen if it doesn't work?
You know, this was brought on under the belief that, oh, there's going to be a golf course. Now, we found out it's not going to be a golf course. It's going to be this data center. Then, it's going to turn into a large data mine. The resources
of this city cannot keep up with the expected growth of what they're calling for. I mean, what's going to happen? Are all my classmates that decided they're not going to give violent a chance? That they were just going to leave, move to another city, is this going to justify
them leaving, is this going to encourage people not to come back? You have to think of the future cuz everything you do will go down in history. People will look back at this moment and see what your choices caused in the
long run cuz this is going to be generational. Thank you. Say your name, please. Where you live? Nicole Gardner. I live here in Vineland. Um, first I want to say that uh
back in 2019, the city tried to privatize the Vinland Public Library and the community showed up for that in support of the library to fight against that. I came to multiple city council meetings to speak out against that. It was a great show of community support.
Um, but I do remember one specific meeting where the community started to dwindle off. There were two gentlemen that sat in the back of the room and they said to me that this has been great over the past few months that the community has actually come out to support. Um, but we need to continue to
do that. Evidently, these two gentlemen were tended to be the only people in the room holding you accountable, and they couldn't do that for the whole city. So, I would like to encourage everyone that's here tonight to continue to come out, join a group of friends, make a
night of it, hold them accountable. We are partially to blame for not paying attention to what they're doing right underneath our noses. Additionally, there's been a common thread through all the comments tonight.
What financial incentive does this project offer? The answer is none to the community. So, that makes some of us feel that maybe it's personal incentive for the leaders of our city. For anyone that doesn't follow stocks or
the stock market, the company behind this project, Nebius, has been having a recent stock rally. Rally for anyone again who doesn't follow the stock market means money for investors. I personally had already wondered if any
of our community leaders own stock in Nebas. But when the only person in the room full of over 200 people that is in support of this project project just so happens to also be an investment adviser
who could potentially profit personally too from this project. I don't know what Patrick invests in or what he advises on or I don't know what any of our city leaders in this room I don't know that you could benefit
personally from this project but it really makes you wonder after two hours of hearing all the wrong what is the incentive here. Thank you. Thank you. Good live, ma'am. Good evening, Angeline Broom Hall, Milville. I want to start off by
thanking you for really I I I've attended almost every single Millville city commission meeting for 10 years. So, I've very rarely ever see something like this unless somebody gets killed. So, I appreciate and I understand the effort that you make. Um, I am currently
a zoning board member. I'm not speaking on behalf of my zoning board, but I am saying that as a uh reference to my experience and knowledge and again to give you credit for sitting here taking the time to listen to
everyone. Um you had mentioned at the last meeting about following the agenda. I as a Milville resident follow our agenda um very closely. However, I admit I don't follow yours. Well, the decisions you're
making impact me. One, because of where I live, but not only because of that. Milville tends to constantly say, "But look at Violin. But look at Vin. Look what Vinand has." And I promise you, they're going to follow in your
footsteps. I know what's going to happen in Milville once you you've it. It's already starting. We are so desperate in in in Millville for uh development. We do the craziest things and you know this
because you guys talk to them all the time. You guys see the idiot things we do. This is the craziest. But I didn't always believe that. I used to believe data centers would be the answer for Melville. I didn't realize
and I didn't know that they took up all this water and energy. I thought, "Wow, this would be great. put a building there, have data, have money, it would bring in employment, and then there would be landscapers to pay
for the cut the grass for the wealthy people that are going to be working there. I I really had this image in my mind of what it would be like, and I'm going to assume that you guys do, too. Um, and I understand that in part it's too late.
the loan. I'm not sure that that's approved by UE for the state. That doesn't really um follow with the guidelines that the state requires for UE uh money. So, I I do question your
motives on that. And again, we follow a lot of what you do. So, and because we're partners with uee my violin part, our partners, I'm concerned and I'm watching that closely as well. Um, I wonder how many people know that
Millville and um, I'm sure some of the county representatives know had to uh provide backup water for the hospital two summers ago. I'm sure you know because two summers ago there was not enough water and they were facing drought. They
had to cancel surgeries um, unless it was, you know, any non-essential services. And I'm sure you guys know this because of lack of water and we had to have fire trucks on water trucks on hand for our hospital that our entire county
depends on. Um that's a serious concern and maybe you didn't know that these data centers use up that water. So even if you vote no tonight on the UE loan, I I'm going to keep coming back.
not to fight, but um because what your decisions you're making on this issue, it does affect me. And I ask everybody who's listening to me now to also please um I I'll post if something if I see something in Noville, please back me up
too if I have to fight there. Um, so I I won't give up and I'm I'm not going away. Um, so even if you do vote tonight, which I would assume that you would. I would think you would be crazy not to, but um, that's just a small part
of this big picture. You need to use your power to stop this and then stop the bigger ones ahead of you, the county, the state. They're coming and they're going to fight you and tell you you have to. You have to start getting your armor and get ready to fight for
us, please. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you. Say your name, please, where you live. Hi, my name is Mara Jimenez and I live in Milville currently, but I grew up and lived most of my life in Vineland. I also work here. Um, and I have a lot of
ties to the community. And I I'm a little sad because I really wish I had had time to prepare because when I speak, I like to make sure that the things I'm speaking are facts and not opinions or or emotions. But I didn't have time because I just found out that this is happening just like a lot of the
other citizens that are standing behind me and that have left today, right? I didn't have time and now I'm disappointed because I can't present you with a lot of facts. Now I have to go based on anecdotal evidence and I'm kind of sad about that. I like everybody else with one exception
that one person and I'm imploring you all of you to vote no please. I work with children. My hands are shaking right now. My voice is shaking
but I will not be quiet because right now the kids that I work with are facing I can't even say the word or I might get okay they are facing terror right now in their communities. I work with Bridton
students particularly. I h I have had to look these kids in the eye and tell them that their local police off like their their local police departments can't help them a lot in the situations that are going I'm sure you're no strangers to what's going on
in Bristol right now in terms of immigration and now I have to tell these kids that their future is also in danger. Not only are their parents in danger now, not only are people getting picked up off of the streets, now you got to tell me, even if I manage to find
a way to keep these kids hope alive, I got to tell them, by the way, now we got to fight for an AI data center that's going to pollute our water, pollute our air, pollute our sound quality, and god knows what else because I don't have the facts with me. Okay? I can I I need you
to to to look at these kids. I look at these kids every day. These kids trust me. I cannot in good conscience look these kids in the eyes and tell them that their water's going to be polluted, that their parents might get sick. Some
of these kids are living the worst conditions I have ever heard of. And they don't tell people because they don't want to be separated. This this this county is poor. It's brown. It's black. It's white.
But we're poor, right? And I think that's why they choose us, right? Because they say, "Hey, they're they're poor. They're uneducated. They're stupid. We can play with this. They got the land. They got the water. Who the hell's going to fight us?"
I am. I'm going to fight you because they cannot I I am so sick of watching these behemoth companies come in and take whatever they want whenever they want with zero accountability for what they've done. They get to walk
away and move across to god knows where else in the world because they have the means. But we are stuck here cuz we don't have the money to leave. I have so much more to say, but I don't have the time. So, I'm going to tell you this. I don't know the whole thing, but I think you're going to catch my drift.
When the last tree is cut down and the last fish has been fished, you will realize you cannot eat money. Okay? Please state your name and where you live, ma'am. Caitlyn Rooney, a resident of Vinland.
Thank you for your time. I just want to say that. First of all, uh the facts on the data center have been presented already. I'll just like to speak humbly from the perspective of a mother raising two daughters in beautiful scenic East Violin. The center is not right at my
back door, so I could choose not to care so much, but I do, as I hope all you do, even if you do not live at the borders of the data center. There are effects to every cause. And we have seen these effects over the past hundred years due to progress in ways and in some ways we
have learned from our mistakes. But at times, the damage is done at a detriment to ourselves and our community. And no amount of money can fix the effects of this progress. whether these effects be on our population's health, our resources, the ecosystem, and future
generations. So, just just to speak as a mother that cares about my children, and I care about all your children, everyone's in this room. Um, and I care about the health of everyone. I will speak from what my eyes have seen. This took no research. This took no intensive dive
into environmental reports. I have a house with a wellwater that relies on a water table. My house is surrounded by wetlands. Since living in this house from 2010, I have seen my property class that is classified as wetlands that has a flood zone adjacent to my property
become drier and drier over the years. My property is changing. A pond in the adjacent lot that was is now a mere puddle of what it once was when I bought the house. I took my daughters back there that used to sit and watch the
geese. It's It has dried up to be just like a swampish puddle. I have a natural spring that feeds a large pond in front of my house. Three summers ago, this pond receded from the drought. We had a very drought bad drought. I think it was
about three years ago. This pond receded roughly six feet around the per from the perimeter perimeter of where the water typically lies. I have never seen that happen since living on this property. I used to drive by this property before we
purchased it. The water, the pond was always brim high. My land used to flood actually. It's wetlands. It used to um carry water in the sides, in the back because it's wetlands. It It doesn't do that anymore, and it hasn't done that in
years. The water line has never fully recovered to what it once was in my pond. We know our climate has changing, and there are effects to everything. I cannot afford to drill a new well at the drop of a dime. My house is my investment. It's
the only thing I have. We are all affected by the cost of life right now. And most people are just trying to survive. So being aware of what is going on behind stone walls is hard when residents of the community are just trying to deal with life and the
hardships of the current economy. I'm a nurse that uh primarily is in Atlantic County, so another poor county. I deal with people at very low incomes and I I see the effects and the struggles and just as Cumberland County, your eyes
aren't always open because you're just trying to feed your kids or get through the day or work two jobs, whatever it may be. Water is life. It should be revered as precious, as should the air we breathe. The truth is, we do not know the effects
of air pollution and strain on our valuable water. I implore you to fight for the environmental study. As I stated earlier, time has shown the effects of progress without proper evaluation, research, and regulations put in place. At the end of it all, what matters are
what matters in life is our choices we make that affect others. And to have that power to make choices for the better of others is a virtuous privilege and it's meaningful and powerful. This choice resides in your v virtue and I
hope that the ripple effect will benefit your community you represent. Thank you. where you live, sir. Steve Lewis, violent, New Jersey. As you know, I come to these things and I listen to everybody. I get an education.
I know things that I never knew until I came here tonight. And you're to be amended for doing your homework. Really, speak to the mic, please. I said you should be amended. Yeah. Yeah. You should be happy that you came here today. and you did your homework to talk to this council. So, that I give
these people credit for. Now, I have a suggestion that's probably too late, but I'm going to make it anyway. There was mention of a couple states that had problem with AI in their states and how bad it was for them.
So, wouldn't it be nice if this council could take the time just go to the states without anybody paying for it other than the city, right? Nobody backing you up. Just go and talk to the people in these states. What problems do
they have, right? Are these companies backing them? Is their way of life worse? Is it better? You know, and so maybe seeing is believing. You know, you can have people tell you
things all the time, but until it affects you, it's in your neighborhood, right? or you actually see what's going on. You don't believe it until it happens to you. Now, I live about a mile away from this, right? And I'm think ain't no big deal. Now, tonight I'm
realizing it is a big deal, right? And these people are highly upset and they should be, right? So, maybe you can go to one state or two states where they have the same problem, right? and get a better understanding that what these
people are telling you is real and how it affects them and how it affects other people's lives in other states before you make a final decision. And uh so I know it's too late for you to do that probably, but you know sometimes it's never too late to do
something. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we will close the public session at this time. Mr. Tanetta, do you want to speak or not? Uh, yes, I I I would. After the last council meeting, there were a lot of questions.
There was a lot of misinformation and quite frankly, a lack of information, and and that's an unfortunate circumstance, and it's nobody's fault that in this audience. Um, but I I did want to address some of the things that I found out from speaking with planning
um as well as our zoning officer and the attorneys involved in the process. First off, everybody needs to understand that the role of this governing body is a legislative body. They are not a quai judicial body. We have two uh boards.
One is the zoning board and one is the planning board. Uh they're semiauton mic Rick. They can't hear you. Hold it if you want. The the two boards are semiautonomous, which means that uh they're considered apolitical. I can't even go before that
board. I can't represent either of those boards. Um I do represent the city council. Uh the matter that came up actually went before the planning board uh and not this council because the issues dealing with municipal land use
laws is not a council issue. They can't deal with that. they can pass the legislation upon which the planning board has to follow which is called our municipal land use laws. They made a determination based upon the application. Uh there were no variances
that were required um and it was not a redevelopment project. It was they followed the underlying zoning in that uh district um which was an uh industrial zone. But when they made
their determination, uh any appeal would have to be from that board and the appeal goes to the superior court of New Jersey. It does not come to council. Uh and um so unfortunately uh no appeals were taken. I know there
was some discussion people had about notification. I can assure you that they followed the municipal land use laws in terms of notification. there were uh proper um um postings in the newspaper um and anybody can check on that ple
please I didn't interrupt you when you were speaking so please don't interrupt me uh anybody can check on the municipal land use laws and determine whether the proper zoning notifications were followed if they were not they certainly you certainly have a right to again the
appeal from a zoning or planning board decision goes to the superior court of New Jersey Um, and obviously it would be in Cumberland County because we're in Cumberland County. But again, that I I can only tell you what I've learned and what I found. Um, and that's handled by
again the zoning board and planning board attorney of which I am not. Um, in any event, because council has no role in the planning decision, all of your your your statements are well taken and all of your questions are well taken.
they typically would come and go before the the appropriate um board, but that didn't happen. Um now, just a little bit of a um a history on this property, which many people, I guess the older people like me probably are aware, that
property was initially an I4 zone, which is heavy industry. It was a sand mining facility with its own rail line that goes that went into it. Uh ultimately the sand mining closed and the property was purchased by South Jersey
Industries. Um so it has a a history of being a a heavy industrial use. That was in fact changed by the governing body uh changing the zoning uh to make it an industrial zone. Now the only thing really that this council has the
authority to handle at this juncture is the loan and that's a uee loan. and urban enterprise zone loans are governed under the state of New Jersey. They can only be used for economic development purposes. Um and can't be used for housing. They can't be used to help the
poor. Uh they are specific in terms of what they can be used for. Um and that's what is before council. And just to give everybody an understanding of how that process works, any business can make an application for an urban enterprise loan. they have to meet the criteria
under the state statute that it has to be for a particular purpose economic development, job creation and tax ratables. Um the application then goes before an underwriting uh group that reviews the loan for two things. The
first thing they look at is whether the the the zone meet the loan meets the criteria under the state statute. The second thing they look at is whether the company or individual who's applying for loan has the capability of repaying that loan. Um whether that loan the cranes
are worth $50 at the end of this loan is irrelevant because they're guaranteed by um a the guaranurs on that loan to company etc. So they're well protected. Underwriting makes sure of that whenever any loan goes out. So underwriting then
goes before a committee and a committee determines whether they would recommend the loan to council to be approved. That's where we are at this point is whether the loan uh can be approved. And that's really the only issue that's before the county, I mean before this
this council. Um the issue dealing with whether the um use is a permitted use that's already been decided and not by this council but by the land use board who as I said is a a semi it's a semiautonomous board and it's a judicial
board. Um there were statements made that the company is getting a long-term tax exemption of 20 years. That's simply not the case. Uh they didn't apply for one nor did they uh were they given one. uh they may be entitled to, and I'm not
saying they've even applied for that at this point, to a 5-year tax abatement, which many many companies come to Vinland apply for that. Now, what these these abatements and exemptions are for are municipalities like Vinand and
Milville. um we have to compete with the the Swedesboro and all these big big cities that have the ability to attract these big companies for uh for economic development, job creation and tax ratables. So we use these tools as an
economic incentive to attract people and again they're not they have not applied for it. They cannot get one now because the building is built so they can't get a long-term tax exemption if they wanted one. Uh, and there's not, to my knowledge, been any application for a
five-year tax abatement. And just to explain the five-year tax abatement, when when if and when they were to get one, the taxes would be paid 100% on the value of the land. And then the the um improvements are phased in over a period
of 5 years, 20 40 60 80 to 100%. Uh and all those payments are in lie of payment of taxes. So they come to the city of Ireland. The again the $6.5 million loan as I said is a UEE loan and as so long as it meets the criteria of the state
statute and um the capability for the borrowers to repay it, there's no real reason because you don't like the company or you don't like the business, whether it's a cannabis business or whatever. uh there's no reason for um
the loan to be denied at this point because of that. Um and and the the UEZ loan the 6% I know someone had mentioned that that's a low rate. Um we actually that our UEE loan rate are the same no matter who it is that comes in. And
again our UEE loans is an economic incentive to attract companies to come to this area to provide us jobs and tax ratables. Um, and so this is actually a one-year loan. Um, and there was reasons why they they took out this loan for
because there was there was something with the company who manufactured the cranes that had some available, but they had to act act quickly. Uh, hence the one-year loan. And so we anticipate approximately $400,000 in income as a result of that loan plus
obviously the repayment. And that $400,000 as well as the the $6 million when it comes back to the city in a year will be used for other economic projects, economic development projects. I know there's been a lot of statements of about uh environmental impact
statements. Well, uh this council had cannot order an environmental impact statement. Environmental impact statements are directed by the uh municipal land use laws and it's either by the zoning or the planning board. in this instance would have been a planning board, but only under certain
circumstances. And again, I'm I'm no land use attorney, but when I spoke with the attorney who represents the board, he said that the criteria where they would require an environmental impact statement did not exist because it requires where there's a hazardous
material that otherwise impact the water quality. There is none of that at this point. I don't know if that's going to change, but if they do it, they then would have to prepare and provide an environmental impact statement. Water usage was another issue that people
talked about. Now, I know a lot of and I was the same way. I looked and found data on on a data center using data from a data center. Um, but uh the water usage from these older
data centers is quite substantial. Correct. Everybody was saying, you know, in the millions and gallons of water. However, the newer in data centers such as data 1, they use an a different sustainable type of a system similar to
your car. I know you're shaking your head, no, but it's a fact and you can you can check that out. Uh it's similar to your car where the the water would otherwise be used like in the radiator of your car. It's cooled and recirculated. You never have to re put water back into your car.
I'm not saying that from what I understand and what I've been told that eventually they're they're they're going to be using when they first start up and then for a period of time about 20 million gallons of water per year. Now that sounds like a lot, but I'll give
you an example. Uh in Vin, we have um the glass company here. Corning. Corning uses 97 million gallons a year and this is 20. There's another company that does produce that uses 76 million gallons per year. So on the the end of
the day, their usage is probably quite less than most. Now, how that works is the NJD um provides each municipality a u an allocation of water. Vinland, for example, has 17 billion gallons
allocated them a year. Last year, the city of Island had a surplus of over 500 million. I'm not saying we should use that, and no one is saying, "Oh, we have surplus. We should use it." But that's just an indication of our water usage. We cannot exceed what DP allocates to
the city of Vinland. So again, the this concept is for this facility to become zero you water usage in years to come. Now again, when they I understand what I've been told is the
first year or two when when it's hot, they may use some gallons of water, but they won't use what everybody believes and what I initially thought as well was was going to be used. I understand that they're going to have um a 4 milliongal
tank where they're going to recapture the steam from the water cooling system and it will go back into the tank. Um, so that's what I've learned about their water usage uh over the years. Uh, with
regards to pollution, pollution is controlled by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and quite frankly different than what somebody says. Our DP is probably the strictest in this country. Um, they their regulations are substantial. uh this
company coming in cannot just willy-nilly do whatever they want without complying with D standards. Um so I I understand that there will be obviously some pollution as any industrial use is, but under the D
standards is considered a minimal pollution category. Um I'm not saying that they're not going to attempt to do better. That's what I understand this company wants to do. But um right now that's what the D cate categorizes them
as. And so anybody can contact the D. Their records are open. They can you can search them and find out exactly what it is that they have or will be doing. Um there's some issues. Some people were talking about noise. Now, there's
there's no industry that I know of or I can think of that doesn't produce some sort of noise. Noise in a residential neighborhood um is different than what you would consider noise in of an in industrial use. Um so, and again, there
are D standards that deal with noise and and decibel levels. So, uh that will be certainly something that will be kept um an eye on. Um there was a question about the patrol car and uh who's paying for that. Well,
we the the offduty officers in the city of Violin are able to do offduty work. Um and they get paid from a company. Um there's no money that comes from the city of Vinland. It comes from the company
the I'm sorry for a private security operation. That's not our business. I'm sorry. I didn't hear what you said. So, so cops are authorized to use their equipment that is that is given to them by the city for a private security
company. Yes. One at a time, please. If I can if I can answer your question. So, a lot of times you'll see police cars um parked where South Jersey Industries might be working on a road or
there's a paver company that's doing work on a road. You'll see a violent police car or a state police car sometimes. And they're not paid by the taxpayers. They're paid by the company um that has that uses them for that particular purpose. and Violin has a
contract with I'm not going to address you, sir, because you don't want to listen. If you want to listen to what I have to say, I'll tell you. and private security operations as directed by an external coordinator. No, no, no. No different than if you go
on our web on on the city of violent code, you'll see it in there where they would have to pay our officers um I'm not sure what the rate is, but they get paid by South Jersey Gas. They get paid by, you know, one actual city.
Okay, let me let me finish one at a time. One at a time, sir. I'm not here to discuss the public meeting is closed. I'm trying to give you information that I have. And then the last question people started talking about was information that's should be
addressed and rightfully so. Um, it's my understanding when I spoke with the company's attorney that the um the company is coming in from I'm not sure if it's Ireland or wherever they're from and they are in fact going to have a
PowerPoint um for or town hall if you want to call it that to address all the concessions and point to everything that we're talking about now. And if there's any additional questions, they'll certainly be there for you as well. Uh that's sometime in in January. I don't
know the date yet, but I'll find that out and everybody will be notified. It'll be posted on our website as well. That's all I have. That's it, Rick. Okay. This time we'll move on with the agenda.
Chair Entain a motion to move um to approve the premeating regular meeting of November 25th, 2025, premeating, regular meeting and close session of December 9th and the work session of December 16th to be approved as submitted.
So move second discussion. See none. Dr. Arthur, yes. Council member English, yes. Council member Vargas, yes. Vice President Gomez, yes. Yes, President Spanelli. Yes. Page four.
I present ordinance number 2025-91, an ordinance to amend and supplement ordinance number 8, which provides the classification compensation plans for the city of various unit 2 and two titles, which is ready for a public hearing. Chair, I'll entertain a motion the ordinance number 2025-91
be taken up for a public hearing of the public for discussion. So move. Second. Dr. Arthur. Yes. Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes. President Spanelli. Yes. Anyone in the audience wish to be
heard on this ordinance? Seeing no one. Chair will entertain a motion to public hearing on witness number 2025-91 be closed. So move. Second. Dr. Arthur. Yes. Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes.
President Spanelli. Yes. Chair entertains a motion ordinance number 2025-91 be taken up for final reading and adopted according to law. So moved. Second discussion. Seeing none. Dr. Arthur. Yes. Council member English.
Yes. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes. President Spanelli. Yes. Ordinance 2025-91. An ordinance to amend and supplement ordinance number eight which revise the classification and compensation plans for the city of Vland various unit 2 and2 titles with a vote of 5 days. This
ordinance is here by adopted. Francha please submit ordinance number 2025-91 to the mayor for his approval or disapproval. Present ordinance number 2025-92, an ordinance to amend and supplement ordinance number 8, which revise the classification and compensation plans
for the city of Binland various unit 3 and three titles which is ready for a public hearing. Chair entertains a motion ordinance number 2025-92 be taken up for public hearing open to public for discussion. So move second. Dr. Arthur, yes. Council member English, yes.
Council member Vargas, yes. Vice President Gomez, yes. President Spinelli. Yes. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to be heard on ordinance number 2025-92? Seeing no one, chair, I'll entertain a motion to public hearing ordinance
number 2025-92 be closed. So move. Second. Dr. Arthur, yes. Council member English, yes. Council member Vargas, yes. Vice President Gomez, yes. President Spanelli, yes. Chair entertains a motion ordinance number 2025-92 be taken up a final
reading and adopted according to law. So move. Second discussion. Seeing none. Dr. Arthur. Yes. Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas. Abstain. Abstains. Vice President Gomez. Abstain. Abstains. President Spanelli.
Yes. Ordinance 2025-92, an ordinance to amend and supplement ordinance number 8, which revise the classification and compensation plans for the city of Vinland various unit 3 and three titles with a vote of 3A. This ordinance is hereby adopted.
Mr. Branchetta, please submit ordinance number 2025-92 for the mayor for his approval or disapproval. Yes. I present ordinance number 2025-93 which is ready for first reading. That entertains a motion and ordinance number 2025-93 be taken up for first reading.
So move. Second. Dr. Arthur. Yes. Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes. President Spanelli. Yes. Ordinance number 2025-93. An ordinance authorizing a pilot agreement for project tax exemption for
various applicants. Jar entertains a motion ordinance number 2025-93 be passed for first reading in a public hearing be held on Tuesday January 13th at 5:30 p.m. So move second discussion. Seeing none. Thank you. Dr. Arthur. Yes.
Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes. And President Spanelli. Yes. Present ordinance number 2025-94 which is ready for first reading. Chair entertains a motion that ordinance
number 2025-94 be taken up for first reading. So move second. Dr. Arthur, yes. Council member English, yes. Council member Vargas, yes. Vice President Gomez, yes. President Spanelli, yes. Ordinance 2025-94,
Ordinance authorizing the execution of a contract of sale and other documents necessary for the joint acquisition with the CCIA of vacant land for the development of a youth sports facility. Chair entertains a motion and ordinance number 2025-94 be passed for first reading that a
public hearing be held on Tuesday, January 13th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. So move. Second discussion. Seeing none, Dr. Arthur. Yes. Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes.
President Spanelli. Yes. Present ordinance number 2025-95 which is ready for first reading. Jains a motion ordinance number 2025-95 be taken up for first reading. So move. Second. Dr. Arthur. Yes.
Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes. President Spanelli. Yes. Ordinance 2025-95. Ordinance authorizing the transfer of certain industrial property to the Violent Industrial Commission pursuant to NJSA4A12-13
subsection B for $1 and execution of a recoverable grant. Chair entertains a motion and ordinance number 2025-95 be passed for first reading and that a public hearing be held on Tuesday, January 13, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. So move. Second
discussion. Seeing none. Dr. Arthur, yes. Council member English. Yes. Yes. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes. President Spanelli. Yes. Present ordinance number 2025-96 which is ready for first reading. Entertains a motion ordinance number
2025-96 be taken up for first reading. So move. Second. Dr. Arthur. Yes. Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes. President Spanelli. Yes. Ordinance 2025-96. Ordinance denying an application to
amend ordinance 2004-25 is amended entitled an ordinance adopting the center city redevelopment plan consistent with resolution 5203 of the planning board of the city of Miland so as to deny an amendment to block 4003 lot 21 consistent with resolution 6738
of the planning boards a motion ordinance number 2025-96 be passed for first reading and public hearing be held on Tuesday January 13th 2026 at 5:30 p.m. So move second discussion. Seeing none. Dr. Arthur, yes.
Council member English, yes. Council member Vargas, yes. Vice President Gomez, yes. President Spanelli, yes. Present ordinance number 2025-97, which is ready for first reading. Chair contains a motion ordinance number 2025-97
be taken for first reading. So move. Second. Dr. Arthur, yes. Council member English, yes. Council member Vargas, yes. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes. President Spanelli. Yes. Ordinance 2025-97. Ordinance amending ordinance 2004-25 as
amended entitled an ordinance adopting the center city redevelopment plan consistent with resolution 5203 of the planning board of the city of so as to allow a single family home to be converted to a specialized automobile repair garage at 1316 West Landis Avenue
block 2707 lot 16 consistent with resolution 6739 of the planning board. Chair entertains a motion ordinance number 2025-97 be passed for first reading that a public hearing be held on Tuesday, January 13, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. So move
second discussion. Seeing none. Dr. Arthur, yes. Council member English, yes. Council member Vargas, yes. Vice President Gomez, yes. President Spanelli, yes. Present ordinance 2025-98, which is ready for first reading. Chair
entertains a motion that ordinance number 2025-98 be taken up for first reading. So move. Second. Dr. Arthur. Yes. Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes. President Spanelli. Yes. Ordinance 2025-98.
Ordinance amending Ordinance 96-4 as amended. Chapter 425, article 6, section 425-66 of the code of the city of island entitled procedure for preliminary site plan approval in accordance with resolution 6675 of the code of the city of Vinland planning board. Chair
entertains a motion ordinance number 2025-98 be passed for first reading that a public hearing be held on Tuesday, January 13, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. So move. Second discussion. Seeing none. Dr. Arthur. Yes. Council member English,
yes. Council member Vargas, yes. Vice President Gomez, yes. President Spanelli, yes. Present ordinance number 2025-99, which is ready for first reading. Chair entertains a motion that ordinance number 2025-9 be taken up for first reading.
So move. Second. Dr. Arthur, yes. Council member English, yes. Council member Vargas, yes. Vice President Gomez, yes. President Spanelli, yes. Ordinance 2025-9. Ordinance authorizing the qualified purchasing agent of the city of Ireland
to award certain contracts without the necess excuse me the necessity of action of the governing body and establishing a bid threshold as may be amended from time to time in accordance with NJSA48 11-3C. Chair entertains a motion in ordinance number 2025-99
be passed for first reading that a public hearing be held on Tuesday, January 13th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. So move. Second discussion. Seeing none. Dr. Yes. Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas.
Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes. President Spanelli. Yes. Mr. President, I present a communication from Mayor Anthony R. Fernucci reappointing members of the planning board to the city of Island request the same to be received and filed in city clerk's office. Subsequently, I present
resolution number 2025-622, a resolution appointing Elizabeth Arthur, a member of city council, to the planning board, class 3. Chair entertains a motion to adopt resolution number 2025-622 according to law. So move.
Second. Discussion. Seeing none. Dr. Arthur abstain. Extension. Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes. President Spanelli. Yes.
City Council approved that all the me all the matters listed below in the consent agenda considered to be routine and non-controversial and be adopted by one motion. There'll be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member so requests in which the items will be removed and considered with an individual vote. All matters on the
consent agenda have been presented to city council dur session for premeating conference and appear on the consent agenda without objection. Their titles will not be individually read into the record but will be properly memorialized in the meeting minutes. Chair entertains a motion to move all uh to approve all items on the consent
agenda. So move. Second. Dr. Arthur. Yes. Council member English. Yes. Yes. Council member Gomez. Yes. Vice President, excuse me. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes. President Spanelli. Yes.
Privilege. Got privilege of the floor. Water. Liz, anything? No. Um, just want to wish everybody a happy merry holiday. Um,
whatever holiday you're celebrating, I hope that you will celebrate it with joy. No, I don't think nothing at this time. Nothing at this time. Need a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second.
Second. Dr. Arthur. Yes. Council member English. Yes. Council member Vargas. Yes. Vice President Gomez. Yes. President Spanelli. Yes. Meeting adjourned 9:00. Good evening.