meeting aded not toen excused will Bean 9N fr [Music] flag United States
America councilman Bennett here Council vice president Brown here councilman Harris here councilman yurkus present president Zello here mayor jpia here Mr Russo Mr
Rooney present moving on presentations tonight we have a community caretaking Award presented to Thomas zipler by chief gersi chief you want to could the separate come off
good evening everyone it's my honor to present the 2025 Community caretaking award to a truly outstanding Washington Township resident um Tommy zipler Tommy's generosity and commitment to our community embodies the very Spirit of
this award year after year he fills shopping carts full of food for our annual Police Department Thanksgiving food drive ensuring that families in need have a warm meal during the holiday season his kindness doesn't stop there through his incredible contributions to
our stuffy Cruiser toy event he has donated CS full of bicycles and toys bringing joy to children who might otherwise not who might otherwise go without at Christmas time beyond that Tommy's $5,000 donation last year to our community caretaking and Outreach
programs will directly impact countless lives strengthening the bond between our department and the people we serve tonight Tommy also presented me with another $5,000 donation for our Washington Township Police K9 unit Tommy on behalf of the Washington town Police
Department our community the mayor and counsel thank you for your unwavering generosity and for making a real difference in our community thank you [Applause] [Music] conratulations [Applause]
congratulations you look very pretty tonight thank sry 2025 motion second any discussion all those in favor roll call counc Yus yes counc Harris yes Council Bennett yes
Council vice president Brown yes council president deell minutes can I get a motion to approve the regular minutes for February 26 2025 roll call Council yes councilman Harris yes
councilman Bennett yes Council vice president Brown yes council president de resolutions the following resolutions are by consent agenda and only require a vote for all listed each one must be read by title if any member of council
wishes to to have one removed and heard separately they need to indicate prior to the reading of the titles does anybody have or wish any of the resolutions to be removed read separately can I get a motion to approve resolution oh I'm sorry Clark would you
read them please resolution 83225 resolution authorizing the township of Washington to solicit bids for property maintenance services for the year 2025 84 resolution authorizing the sale of surplus Township property no longer
needed for public use through. deals.com public online auction 85 resolution authorizing an emergency temporary appropriation of funds resolution 86 resolution authorizing refund of
tax can I get a motion to approve resolutions 8325 to 8625 motion roll call counc Yus yes councilman Harris yes councilman Bennett yes Council vice president Brown yes
council president deell okay moving on to Old business new business and reports start with Council benett all right a couple things um like to thank the Boy Scouts STP 123 for helping out at the re Beast Clinic uh
it's a great event that helps helps uh us get cats and dogs vaccinated but uh it's one of uh the Boy Scouts uh favorite little activities that I can get them the help on uh from that um
coming up next month is the annual car show for the old ston house historical preservation that'll be the last Saturday in April uh which is April 26 from 10 the two like the town people to come out we are going to have about 200
Cars uh vendors uh music fun activities uh so do come out um couple things are happening at the school um coming up this weekend is Shrek uh this FR Thursday Friday and
Saturday at the high school um like us to you know get out and uh see the talent of uh Washington Township High School also the following weekend we have at uh Bunker Hill we have Legally
Blonde Musical and that'll be from the 20th to the 22nd and then at Orchard Valley on the 20th to 22nd they have Beetle Juice so these are you know shows that you and your family and kids can get out to so make sure you take U
advantage of that um also just to let you know that it's getting nice are out we have to be aware of kids on bikes kids uh walking at playgrounds make sure that uh as I always say slow down okay
do the speed limit and uh you know the police are out there and we don't want people speeding in our town and that's it for me councilman Harris uh well I've been uh fortunate enough for the better part of the last two weeks to be uh on vacation down in
Florida so I missed a lot of the the events uh going on in town so rich thanks for filling Us in on that things that have been happening and things that are upcoming um I just uh want to send a um a thank you out to Tom zippler who was just uh uh acknowledged uh tonight I
think it's great that people in town um dedicate their time their money their efforts their energy uh to to uh other people within the town I think it's inspiring and um I'd like to see a lot more of that and do some more of that myself self um so that's all I have for
this week councilman yores thank you um wanted to give a shout out to uh Gloria Morel she helped host our annual uh veterans event here
in the council room um on was it um March 6 6 o'clock um veterans from Washington Township have served uh their blacks once the information have submitted to um or to her uh we honor
them by placing them on the wall and for those of you out there who haven't seen it yet please do yourself a favor either come to a council meeting or come to in the building is open Monday through Friday 8:30 to 4:30 take a look at all the veterans who uh proudly served this
community and I wanted to give another shout out to uh the Honore that night we were two veteran Salvador master uh he was a sergeant US Army from 1943 to 1946 still up in running and he is over 100 years old
Lori 100 years old so it was an honor to meet with him and uh very very nice event very well attended and I want to thank all our veterans out there who continue to serve and all those who have served we greatly
appreciate your service um thank you very much that's all solicitor Rooney thank you sir um very little to report which is I lamely joke every time we're here for a council meeting is usually a good thing coming from the
township attorney um remain very busy but mostly on good stuff um plenty of potential development and Redevelopment that we've been working on with the administration and with our planner and we'll continue to do so very happy for the nicer weather hope everyone enjoys
the balance of their week EA Russo okay and mayor Delia thank you Council vice president Brown um I wanted to comment uh couple SATs ago rabies clinic was a great success uh thank you
to Barb Chrissy and Adele for putting that together and running it was a great event uh the same day I went to the PTO craft show at the high school which was a great event um I believe they do one in the spring one in the fall so if you get a chance to attend our next one it's always a good thing to uh get there
um seven Brew Coffee had their uh building delivered on Saturday morning me and council president uh Della were there was pretty cool came in the back of a truck they craned it right in place put it together in about an hour or so um so I believe they're going to be opening at the end of April um I visited
Blended Joe today uh looks like they're going to be opening the end of April also so there'll be two new businesses opening this month um I had the pleasure of marrying somebody last Friday it was the first one so congratulations to Nick and Nina uh it was a true honor to be a part of their day so um
congratulations to both of you and lastly I want to remind everybody it's St Patty's Day this week this actually all weekend um we do have the Washington Township saves lives program it's free Uber rides for any res uh Township resident who lives in town and is at one
of our local establishments in town uh this program is funded by a lot of local businesses um we're going to continue to ask them to help fund this program but it's a way to not get behind the car if you're out drinking so you get on your Uber app um this program will help uh
pay up to $20 for your ride home which being local it shouldn't be over $20 so basically you get a free ride home from The Establishment to your house pick your car up the next day and everybody stays safe so make sure you use it and make sure um to mention to your local businesses to help continue to to
support this program thank you that's all I have I I have one more thing is that uh we also last week did the uh uh the reading at the middle school at the uh elementary school so I had a chance to read at urville for two kindergarten
classes and I'll tell you one thing they they really bring a smile to your face when you read but the questions it's Priceless how about I tell you I had a kindergartner asked me where my hair went and and i' had explained to her I
said well did your mom brush her hair all morning she's like yeah I'm like I didn't have to do that now did I and and she was like astonished but yes the questions they asked was it was pretty funny yeah so that that was a great event by the Board of Ed uh for the whole town on Elementary
end so um from the library um they didn't forward anything to me this week but I do get the Pagan happenings letter a lot of things in March if you have the opportunity to go to their website take a look at what they have for the
upcoming month um if you can make it out there and attend that be much appreciated by the librarian staff I do believe a copy is up on the front table there also thank you to Lori and her staff uh for putting together that event I had the pleasure of reading the names
off and had some familiar faces people that I knew and grew up with it was an honor to participate on that night with them thank you again Lori um did attend cof or pizza with a cop with Chief bersi and his uh officers on Friday night well
well attended event um enjoy coming out and supporting our police other than that um just remember to uh what's that um to sign up for the everbridge app and uh make sure that you're alerted
to the community events the flyer is up there to uh uh use the QR code to sign up and if you have any questions please reach out to me and finally um council president president um Del
burillo you're up I do think to to Tom Riv try TOA maying our way more know coming down line come all I oh one more thing is the so I want to set the sa the the baseball softball
girls want to play us on their opening day again uh I think it's like the third Saturday in moving on all dogs in the township are required be registered and vaccinated please stop in the clerk's office to register your dogs for
2025 happy St Pat yeah happy St Patrick's Day please remember if you're out at the local establishments to as mayor Delp has said use the uh Township saves lives um it's a good program and we want to make sure everybody gets home
safe moving on to public participation these follow the public decorum posted which has been attached to the public agenda and limit your comments to 5 minutes please once you've completed your comments or questions council president will then ask if any
member of the governing body or their designate wishes to address your questions and comments and I have a motion to open up to the public have second second all those in favor meeting is now open to the
public if you would state your name and address for the record please sure Rich n 125 pintel Drive I apologize I'm about two months late with this but uh cold weather is not good for us all January 3rd I believe the uh
clerk uh sorry uh proclaimed uh the new mayor and the new council president as well too January 4th less than 12 hours later we had an event in town our little boy named Gavin Todd and he is a 5-year-old
boy who uh had cancer um we had had an unbelievable showing for this little boy he goes to herel um and I just wanted to say thank you so much to the mayor and to uh president delello and then there was
somebody else there too and I apologize okay you're there too I'm okay my apologies I also wanted to say thank you very much to chief gersi officer doy or Sergeant doy had about six or seven officers there logging up traffic for us
in Heritage Valley um also Chief dolgas um had just about every apparatus that we have in the township because of that um social media and traditional media was there and because of that an organization reached
out to me and now Gavin was into hockey still is into hockey and they've reached out and I can't tell you what's going to happen in the next four weeks but he is going to be delivered with something that has a value of about $99,900 um so I'm going to keep that to
myself little surprise to him he is going to have a lot of friends um one last thing too we had um we're going to have kindness day at herle school his principal showed up his girl scout showed up tons of people showed up about 150 people it was 12 degrees okay that
day so I appreciate all the efforts of all the folks that did show up there and I just wanted to come back and publicly announce that too I do have for those we do have hockey pucks here there's some meaning to these as well too these pucks will be given out to his uh School
classmates at herle school on kindness day and do something like that so again thank you very much thank you please pass that on to Chief please pass that on to your officers and you guys thank you very much we haven't scheduled it just yet um yeah I'm working with principal uh Erica
and to get that together so thank you very much I appreciate it please these thank you anybody else hi Cheryl Hannah 6 Colonial way and Turnersville I think most of you know who I am so I'm back can you check your
mic um yeah is it on do I have to get Clos sir yes please okay do I you want me to repeat cherl Hannah 6 Colonial way in Turnersville thank you okay so most of you um already familiar with me but I do live in the house that's right next to the sixth hole in the golf course and
I know I've been kind of back and forth with the town and I know there's been new Administration so I just kind of wanted to bring it up again to the folks that are on this Council February 1st I had my kitchen window broken and it's double pain they only broke the outside
and trying to chase and catch down and call the police to capture the person who did it was a nightmare in itself but last night they busted my basement window and the golf ball is in my basement so I've had three broken
windows hard dented girl dented table broken twice I have siding coming off my house and just wanted to see if Council has any resolution or the thought of resolution for me genuinely if I if
I what I need to do if there's something that I need to do personally if you have any suggestions because it's dangerous for me to live in the situation so if there's a resolve that you can suggest for me or something that the council can do along with um the golf course since
it's owned by the township I know we talked previously about maybe flipping the hole moving it closer I know the net situation we were back and forth with that because we don't know how much and how high and and I understand all that and I understand I
bought the house with a limited amount of liability but I didn't think to this this extent it would be this bad because somebody's going to get hurt I've been hit my dog's almost been hit my daughter doesn't play in the yard I have to park my car in the garage so
I'm just pleading with the council if there's anything that we can do together to help resolve it or is this something that I'm completely on my own with I think that you originally offered you ability to put trees up on the border of
the correct your house and you declined that yes so I think if we at least got those trees up when they were cypresses they would have grown pretty fast and they would have been able to block any uh stuff coming in so that was a consideration that you you declined
correct because of the height of the golf balls those trees would need to grow 50 ft where the where the tea is from where the hole is is rather a large distance so my one side tree to my back tree is about 50 ft so you're looking maybe
about 150 ft back that's a distance people take out these wedges and they hit it it goes over the course it actually goes across the street it's broken my neighbor's car window so it's hit with some force and it's not just
people being Reckless it's just some people aren't good at the game you go to public golf course because you don't belong to a private club and I understand all that but I don't know what else we can do I understand the trees it maybe would have offered a limited amount of protection for balls
that are coming straight this way but when you're hitting with a wedge they're going up this way and there I have a huge Pine Tree on the side of my house they still fly through the tree they fly through the trees that protect the road because they end up across the street so
the trees do offer a limited amount of protection but not full protection so well I'm kind of out of do you understand no we do understand we we sympathize um understand unfortunately you moved on to a or near a golf course
my question to you would be if we would or if we could or would consider doing the trees again would you know would you be agreeable to that I mean is it just a stop measure or try to help in the beginning then we can also talk with see
what else might be available but the trees may offer a little bit of protection in the inum so I don't know what the trees will do though again because of the force and how they're being hit those trees are going to have to grow pretty high pretty fast and it'll be a limited amount of protection
and other thoughts that could possibly mitigate it if you moved the tea and the whole closer to each other limiting the amount of space in between there was talk about possibly flip-flopping them my other suggestion and I know it's
probably not a popular one is just to shut the hole down because quite honestly I don't think that's going to have an impact financially if you play and I know golf courses are usually nine holes 18 holes I've been doing a little bit of research but people come there there's a
limited amount of golf courses you can go to within this area that are that little bit amount of money unless if you want to belong to like Scotland Run um I believe we're cheaper than Wedgewood I don't think it would have an impact on the people that came out just to play golf um you would still make the amount
of money that you would I don't think you would see a decline in any type of um Financial you know money going over to the township just a thought and I would like for the council if you know anything you
can do I I come as a friend I'm trying to figure this out too because I want to be able to enjoy my house my yard without having to worry about is my daughter going to get hit what's going to break I work from home so I hear dings and I hear things and you don't
always know who I didn't see the golf ball in my basement until about 8:00 last night so if I'm not home I'm not going to know I have video cameras outside but when I went to the um the office you know they only log the
first name they don't look at ID how am I supposed to chase people I called the police and then had to wait for the police to come and then now I have to get a police report I have to get the window fixed so I haven't even gotten that window fixed and now I got to get another one fixed It's just
tough so I I know there's bigger issues within the township but this is one that I have to live with all the time I can't move I would love to move if I could but whoever buys my house is going to inherit the same problem
so let us um we can talk um to the golf course and talk with the mayor's office yeah I would appreciate that look at some other see what other options may be available okay thank you all right thank you thank you everyone any other audience participation come
forward if you would state your name and address for the record please yeah Zachary Abrams 27 regal lane um last June I came in front of the council as she said I know there's some new council members um basically I'm here because of an ordinance
285 d219 and last June it's been almost a year now I told you guys my story um and my issues basically and I was hoping that someone would amend the ordinance I've been in talks with Peter um
throughout the year multiple times he told me October November oh we're changing a bunch of ordinances this and that this morning I got sued by you guys Washington Township and was in court like I don't have a lot of time to be hanging out in court but that's where
I was and now I'm ongoing litigation and I don't even know how because the litigation that is brought against me from the township basically I'm already in litigation prior to other things um so it's kind of a conflict of interest um I did ask you
guys would amend the ordinance I still think you should amend the ordinance um and I don't think it's fair to me that me being where no one can see anything or hear anything in my property but there's two other properties one's in my
neighborhood 212 pinman Downer and 340 Gant toown Road and you can see straight clear Day from the road when you're walking driving they main roads that those people do have chickens and it is on less than one acre so if I'm going to have any kind of court cost or any kind
of fines jail time a lean on my house that which is what the letter from the township said um these people should have it to and there's more addresses I don't I'm not trying to go to the zoning office and you know be like Oh I'm going
to tattle tail on these people that's not what I'm here to do um um I brought to you guys every Township's ordinance that surrounds Washington Township and they all have this no issues of Washington Township is the only one that has an issue I presented you guys
multiple facts um and health benefits um I've supported and provided to my community you know out of on my dollar to elderly people in my neighborhood um I don't know what the big deal is but I don't want to end up up with $60,000 in
court cost like the lady in Elk Township's dealing with right now but she has a HOA we don't have an HOA but the zoning office really is starting to seem like an HOA and when you're turning neighbors against each other I don't see that being good Washington Township was
started on farms everybody's house in here was a farm I don't see what the problem is I don't have any roosters but now I'm being penalized and I don't know what's going to happen I I got to go back to court again so you
know again I know there's new a lot of changes I've been back and forth with Peter he was actually supposed to call me today he never called me um I just want this issue resolved personally like I I I've lived here 10 years and I've never had any
issues um so that's really all I got for you guys uh the only other thing is I you know I sent Peter some pictures I literally have been going to Sprouts Farmers Market that's primarily where I shop I know everyone's like when's it going to come to Township because
everyone's trying to get healthy and not be sick anymore um so I go there there's no eggs you can't get eggs I got my one neighbor who's 70 years old she's telling me she's using chia seeds and water in her baked goods cuz she doesn't have eggs so I you know I give them eggs
it's it's like 22 vitamins and nutrient uh vitamins and minerals the most nutrient dense thing on the planet it's not tax in the state of New Jersey because it is a necessity so I don't know if you guys you know have anything to say now or any
plans or whatever but I mean I I just think it's a little outrageous that you're going to charge me ,000 a day fine 90 days in jail or put a lean on my house because I'm trying to provide food for my family that's pasture raised organic soy free eggs which you can't
even get those really in the store so sir just a question for you so you came up and you said that you were being sued by the township which which I'm not aware of and I'd be the one that would likely be aware correct I got a court summons from AJ Morgan the zoning office so so what you're saying is you've been
issued a violation that's in Municipal Court sure for viola I just want to make sure we're talking about the correct thing so obviously um the governing body can't delve into appending court violation that's something that prosecutor is going to decide whether
they're going to prosecute and then it's going to go before a municipal court judge now if you've spoken to council president Del barell about concerns you have about the ordinance I can figure out what those concerns are and just like any member of the public sometimes
the solicitor makes a recommendation to the governing body here it sounds like and I don't want to put words in your mouth you have concerns about the policy that's behind this ordinance right whether or not it allows you to have chickens and I should say I've only been solicitors since January so not aware of
what it says I'm just trying to understand exactly what your concern is yeah I mean I I'll I'll gladly read you the ordinance um my property backs up to Lake candle so it's all Woods I have turkeys that literally F and there's
blood in my backyard I got foxes deer you know have you been violated for having more birds than the ordinance allows more foul than so okay so 28529 restrictions latest version which I don't know when there's no date here
this is right off the township um it says no foul or livestock may be kept on Parcels of land less than one acre okay okay so I have less than one acre yes and the other addresses that I stated to you guys they also have less than one
acre um so that's why I askh your concern is with the policy you don't like policy you don't like yeah I mean there I got a letter that said 90 days in jail $1,000 a day fine or a lean on your house because I got a couple I just wanted to zero in on what on what the
concern was um I'll speak to the administration about it um I can speak to council president Del barell about it and ultimately it's up to the governing body whether they want to make a change ordinance but I can I can I can take a look at it but your particular
circumstances if they're in court obviously it's already in court right so the fate of that particular violation that's before the judge in the prosecutor yeah I I understand that but I've been literally LED on by this Council since last June and I'm on
record multiple times so if you if you want to look it up it's there but um you know if I don't understand how I would get a court summons when I'm literally being told oh yeah we're going to we're going to take a look oh we're going to do you know tell me tell me no tell me
no and as I as I said sir something that a governing body can't do or a Township can't do is decide when or when not it wants to enforce the rules that are on the book so there's a rule in the books until such time as the law making body which is the governing body or changes
the rules then the Township's officers and the Township's agents have to enforce those rules so I'll take a look at the ordinance and I'll talk to the administration okay okay I have a sure so that's why it just says latest
version there's no there's no date um I can bring it up if you want to look at it it's a screenshot right from the I was I heard am I'm not an Ask yeah I mean I've I've had this I've
lived here for 10 years and I don't know how long exactly I've had chickens on my property for eggs and ticks and mosquitoes um because they again June I was here they eat 80 ticks per chicken per hour uh my daughter plays softball
she's six years old and her and six other her of her teammates got ticks from the softball game literally one softball game and then it continued and that's right here at the school by the park and that's cut grass you know obviously the ticks have been a huge
problem um so you know I I basically it's for me it's all around a win-win you know I have pest control I have basically free food I'm giving food to my neighbors who are young or elderly
you know uh again one of the most nutrient-dense things on the planet literally um and it's not like I'm selling chickens or selling eggs or anything like that I mean you can sell eggs in all 50 states without a license it's totally illegal but I just have
them for my own my own you know I'm sure there's plenty of people in this Township that have Gardens in their backyard and the federal government said two years ago that if you have a garden you need to tell them and you need to register your garden I'm sure that no one has done that so uh less than 10 yeah I had 11 but
foxes and Hawks do exist especially cuz I live right near the lake so you know it's a price I'm willing to pay it's the food chain it is what it is there's nothing I can do about it well Zach the the most important thing is we the facts are the there is an ordinance and we're
everything else is nice and fine about ticks and health and giving away free eggs the main thing about the ordinance and again I never promised anything about amending any type of ordinance for chickens of my own
no knowledge and so so again the main thing that we're concerned about is there is an active ordinance that is legal that H is going to be enforced for now okay anybody else want to
comment thank you oh hold on one second can you repeat that okay did you hear that y okay thank you anybody else wishing to speak from the public and I have a motion to close to
the public please motion all those in favor next regular uh council meeting will be March 26 2025 at 6: pm. a motion for adjournment oh hold on go
ahead I'd like to repeat something that former President Franklin Del reselt said those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that many have died to win them so when
you see a vetn say thank you thanks can I get a motion for adjournment motion second all those in favor this meeting's adjourned