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TOWNSHIP COUNCIL PUBLIC MEETING
- JULY 22, 2008
The
Regular Public Meeting of the Mount Olive Township Council was called
to
Order at
8:47 pm by Council
President Perkins with the Pledge of Allegiance.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE & MOMENT OF REFLECTION for all those
who have and continue to protect our freedoms and our way of
life.
OPEN PUBLIC MEETINGS ACT ANNOUNCEMENT
According to the Open Public Meetings Act, adequate notice of this
meeting has been given to the Mount Olive Chronicle. Notice has
been posted at the Municipal Building, 204 Flanders-Drakestown
Road, Mount Olive Township, New Jersey and notices were sent
to those requesting the same.
ROLL CALL
Present: Mr. Perkins, Mr. Roman, Mr. Tobey, Mrs. Labow, Mr. Tepper,
Mr. Greenbaum, Mr. Rattner
Absent: none
Also Present: David Scapicchio, Mayor; Bill Sohl, Business Administrator;
Sherry Jenkins, CFO; John Dorsey, Township Attorney; Dominic DiYanni,
Township Attorney; Lisa Lashway, Township Clerk
Questions on Bill List?
President Perkins: Any questions on the Bill List? Anybody from
the Council? Seeing none we’ll move on. That takes us to
the Approval of Minutes of Previous Meetings. Mr. Greenbaum, can
you move those?
APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS
Mr. Greenbaum: I move the Minutes of:
April 8, 2008 WS
July 8, 2008 WS & PM – Mr. Rattner absent
Mrs. Labow: Second.
President Perkins: Council comments, questions, corrections? Seeing
none, Roll Call, please?
ROLL CALL – Passed with the exception Mr. Rattner abstained
from the July 8, 2008 WS & PM
CORRESPONDENCE
RESOLUTIONS / ORDINANCES / CORRESPONDENCE OTHER TOWNS
1. Proposed ordinances received July 11, 2008, from the Township
of Byram regarding Land Use. PDF Correspondence
MUA / MSA
2. Minutes received July 8, 2008, from the Musconetcong Sewerage
Authority regarding their June 4, 2008 meeting. PDF Correspondence
DOT / DEP / LOI / HIGHLANDS
3. Letter received July 8, 2008, from the State of New Jersey
Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Watershed Management,
Bureau of Watershed Regulation regarding Ciel West Lake Properties,
LLC. PDF Correspondence
4. Letter received July 9, 2008, from the State of New Jersey
Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Watershed Management,
Bureau of Watershed Regulation regarding New Jersey American Water – Academy
Well 3 and Pine Grove Well 5 Permitting. PDF Correspondence
5. Letter received July 14, 2008, from the State of New Jersey
Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Watershed Management,
Bureau of Watershed Regulation regarding a Notice of Technical
Incompleteness for the Litterio property. PDF Correspondence
6. Resolution received July 16, 2008, from the Morris County Board
of Chosen Freeholders regarding the Highlands Water Protection
and Planning Act (Highlands Act). PDF Correspondence
LEAGUE OF MUNICIPALITIES
7. E-mail received July 8, 2008, from the New Jersey State League
of Municipalities regarding A Quarterly Report on the Activities
of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, and Newly Published
2008 Liquor License Fees. PDF Correspondence
8. E-Mail received July 8, 2008, from the New Jersey State League
of Municipalities regarding a Federal Update for Period Ending
July 3, 2008, and New League Publication. PDF Correspondence
9. E-Mail received July 10, 2008, from the New Jersey State League
of Municipalities regarding Defined Contribution Retirement Plan
(DCRP) REVISED Model Ordinance. PDF Correspondence
10. E-mail received July 10, 2008, from the New Jersey State League
of Municipalities regarding Re-Adoption of Vegetation Management
Regulations by the Board of Public Utilities-Comment and Interim
Requirement, and Protecting the Rights of Military Service Member
Public Employees. PDF Correspondence
11. E-mail received July 14, 2008, from the New Jersey State League
of Municipalities regarding Calendar Year 2008 Extraordinary Aid
Numbers Released, and Governor’s Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel
on Immigrant Policy. PDF Correspondence
12. E-mail received July 14, 2008, from the New Jersey State League
of Municipalities regarding 2008 Recreator’s Day Fall Workshop,
Criminal Background Checks. PDF Correspondence
13. E-mail received July 15, 2008, from the New Jersey State League
of Municipalities regarding a Notice of Telephonic Hearing July
31st at 10:30am and the 2008 Budget Impact Survey. PDF Correspondence
14. E-mail received July 15, 2008, from the New Jersey State League
of Municipalities regarding the Appellate Division Affirms Invalidation
of Sex Offender Residency Ordinances. PDF Correspondence
15. E-mail received July 16, 2008, from the New Jersey State League
of Municipalities regarding Summer Reading. PDF Correspondence
16. E-mail received July 17, 2008, from the New Jersey State League
of Municipalities regarding League Files Challenge of COAH Regulations.
PDF Correspondence
MORRIS COUNTY
17. Letter received July 8, 2008, from the County of Morris Department
of Planning, Development & Technology, Division of Transportation
regarding Bulletin # 8 “All Aboard Public Transportation.” PDF
Correspondence
18. Letter received July 8, 2008, from the Morris County Board
of Taxation regarding a memorandum of judgment for Steven Duarte,
17 Chamberlain Lane. PDF Correspondence
19. Letter received July 8, 2008, from the Morris County Board
of Chosen Freeholders regarding the 2008 Morris County Historic
Preservation Trust Fund, Former Baptist Church. PDF Correspondence
20. Letter received July 16, 2008, from the Morris County Mosquito
Extermination Commission regarding an application for a countywide
Freshwater Wetlands Statewide General Permit 1 and a countywide
Flood Hazard Act General permit 4. PDF Correspondence
LETTERS FROM LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVES
21. E-mail received July 3, 2008, from Representative Rodney P.
Frelinghuysen regarding President Signs Supplemental Appropriations
Bill into Law, Speaks at Morristown National Historic Park, Tours
Impact Instrumentation, Visits Operation New Hope, and Happy Independence
Day. PDF Correspondence
22. E-mail received July 14, 2008, from Representative Rodney
P. Frelinghuysen regarding President Signs Protect America Act
into Law, Frelinghuysen Supports Homes for Heroes, Frelinghuysen
Works for Energy Solutions, Hosts 11th District High School Valedictorians,
Majority Aims at Censoring Internet, Military Celebrates 35 Years
of an All-Volunteer Force, Spread the e-News. PDF Correspondence
UTILITIES
23. Letter received July 9, 2008, from the State of New Jersey
Department of Public Advocate, Division of Rate Counsel, regarding
a filing of Comments on behalf of the New Jersey Division of Rate
Counsel in Opposition to Comcast Cable Communications’ Petition
for a Declaration of Effective Competition. PDF Correspondence
24. Letter received July 10, 2008, from Comcast regarding Addition
of EWTN and Leased Access – full time. PDF Correspondence
25. Letter received July 18, 2008, from New Jersey Natural Gas
regarding the Uniform Fire Code. PDF Correspondence
TORT
26. Letter received July 10, 2008, from Stephen S. Weinstein regarding
a claim by Michael Pisano. PDF Correspondence
ORDINANCES FOR PUBLIC HEARING
President Perkins: That takes us to Correspondence. We have 25
pieces of Correspondence, 26 pieces, excuse me. Anybody wish to
address any piece of Correspondence on the list? Seeing none, we’ll
move on from the Correspondence. That takes us to Ordinances for
Public Hearing. I open the hearing to the public on Ord. #32-2008,
entitled:
Ord. #32-2008 An Ordinance of the Township of Mount Olive to Amend
and Supplement Chapter 102 Entitled “Documents, Fees For
Copies of”, Section 102-5 Entitled “Photocopies (Per
Page)” of the Code of the Township of Mount Olive. (continue
to 8/5/08??)
President Perkins: I’ll look for a motion to continue that
to 8/5. Mr. Tepper, I believe that we still, Mrs. Lashway, correct
me. Did we not get a response from the Government Records Office?
Mrs. Lashway: No, still haven’t gotten a response. I did
send another follow up today and I haven’t heard anything.
Mr. Tepper: I will move to continue Ord. #32-2008.
Mrs. Labow: Second.
President Perkins: Roll Call, please.
ROLL CALL – Passed Unanimously
President Perkins: I open the hearing to the public on Ord. #39-2008,
entitled:
Ord. #39-2008 An Ordinance to Amend Chapter 400 (Land Use Ordinance)
of the Ordinances of the Township of Mt. Olive to Amend the Official
Zoning Map.
President Perkins: Anyone from the public wish to be heard on
Ord. #39-2008? Seeing none, I close it to the public and I would
ask Mr. Roman to move that, please.
Mr. Roman: Thank you, Mr. President, I move for adoption and final
passage of Ord. #39-2008.
Mrs. Labow: Second.
President Perkins: Council comments, questions? Mr. Greenbaum.
Mr. Greenbaum: What property are we moving from the commercial
light industrial to the R6 Zoning district?
President Perkins: This is that small lot, Rob, next to the Simoff
property that abuts it.
Mr. Tepper: Right off of Chamberlain. It has to do with when they
restructured the alignment of the lots. There was one lot that
had to be included that was going to be used as part of the property.
Simoff added it.
President Perkins: Rob, the tax map is coming on its way. It’s
lot 38. It’s a small piece. You’ll be able to see it
on there.
Mr. Greenbaum: Thank you.
President Perkins: Any other comments, questions? Roll Call, please.
ROLL CALL – Passed Unanimously
President Perkins: Ord. #39-2008 has passed on second reading,
and I hereby direct the Clerk to forward a copy of same to the
Mayor and publish a notice of adoption as required by law. I open
the hearing to the public on Ord. # 41-2008, entitled:
Ord. #41-2008 An Ordinance of the Township of Mount Olive Repealing
Section 178-4 Entitled “Loitering; Loud, Offensive or Indecent
Language of the Township Code.
President Perkins: Does anyone from the public wish to be heard
on that? Yes, sir.
Ned McDonnell, Budd Lake: Repealing this ordinance, there are
other ordinances that cover these same things. It looks like they’re
sort of a catch-all and very vague. “Loitering; Loud, Offensive
or Indecent.” I mean, how do you define that? Do we still
have ordinances that have that type of wording in them?
Mr. Dorsey: This particular ordinance deals with the old time
infraction of public intoxication. Up until 1975, public intoxication
was treated as a minor crime. In 1975 the legislature changed the
approach to intoxication being a disease such as alcoholism so
that these ordinances that we’re repealing tonight are anachronisms
in terms of the legal system. They should no longer be there because
it’s no longer treated as a misdemeanor or a crime. It actually
was repealed by the legislature when it adopted a series of new
laws dealing with alcoholism, drunkenness, etc. in 1975.
Mr. Greenbaum: Wasn’t there just a recent court case that
also came down, John?
Mr. Dorsey: That matter was a rather small municipal court case
that’s put everybody on edge. Some attorneys, not Mr. Greenbaum
of course, are seeking to find a way to make some easy money because
codifiers didn’t take these ordinances off of the books a
long time ago.
Mr. McDonnell: So pretty much these terms are being put to rest.
Mr. Dorsey: Yes.
Mr. McDonnell: Okay, thanks.
Mrs. Labow: Ray?
President Perkins: Mrs. Labow.
Mrs. Labow: Mr. McDonnell…
Mr. Dorsey: As a matter of fact I think you will find that the
Police Department has not relied upon this ordinance for years
and years because they have other statutory provisions to rely
upon.
Mrs. Labow: That’s exactly what I was going to say. Mr.
McDonnell, before we looked into repealing this section we sent
it to the Police Chief and the Prosecutor for their recommendation
as well as Mr. Dorsey. So we did our homework on this one before
we made the choice to repeal it.
Mr. McDonnell: Okay, thank you.
President Perkins: Thank you, Mr. McDonnell. Any other comments
from the public? Seeing none, I’ll close it to the public
and I’ll ask Mrs. Labow to please move that ordinance. Mrs.
Labow? Can you move the ordinance?
Mrs. Labow: I’m sorry, yes. I did. Oh, I didn’t yet.
I thought I did already. I’m sorry.
Mr. Tepper: You didn’t.
Mr. Rattner: You didn’t do your homework.
Mrs. Labow: I didn’t do my homework on that.
Mr. Tepper: Senior moment.
Mrs. Labow: I was busy drinking my coffee. I had to wake up. I’d
like to move Ord. #41-2008 for final approval.
Mr. Rattner: Second.
President Perkins: Council comments? Roll Call.
ROLL CALL – Passed Unanimously
ORDINANCES FOR FIRST READING – (2nd reading August 19, 2008)
President Perkins: Ord. #41-2008 has passed on second reading,
and I hereby direct the Clerk to forward a copy of same to the
Mayor and publish a notice of adoption as required by law. That
takes us to Ordinances for First Reading with a Second Reading
scheduled for August 19, 2008. The next item on the Agenda for
First Reading is Ord. #42-2008, entitled:
Ord.#42-2008 An Ordinance Granting Permission and Consent to Applied
Wastewater Management, Inc., to Construct, Install, and Operate
Equipment, Wells, Pipes and Mains for a Water Supply System Within
Certain Designated Areas of the Township of Mount Olive Commonly
Known as “Morris Chase” and “Morris Hunt.”
President Perkins: Mr. Rattner, would you…
Mr. Dorsey: Council President, could I just take a minute to kind
of tie up Ord. #42, Ord. #43 and Resolution # 12 so that everybody
understands that they are pieces of a puzzle? They are pieces of
a puzzle that has been the subject of ongoing negotiations with
Toll Brothers for the last five years. Toll Brothers, of course,
plans on developing what it refers to as a rather high end development
known as Morris Chase. It has already developed what is known as
Morris Hunt. Morris Hunt was developed without a water system on
individual wells, but the various developer’s agreements
that provide for Morris Hunt require Toll Brothers to connect the
Morris Hunt homes to the Morris Chase water system when it is developed.
So this ordinance grants a franchise. Toll Brothers cannot operate
a water system until a franchise is granted. Franchise is first
initially approved by the Township Council which indeed is Ord.
#42, and then must be approved by the BPU. Ord. #42 is somewhat
unique in that it follows the outline of certain obligations that
were developed by the Planning Board in connection with the original
developers’ agreement with Toll Brothers in 2004. It requires
the Township Council to grant a franchise but it also gave to the
Township the right to call this system in at such time as the Township
sees fit to do so. By calling it in, which is a term we use to
call options in, the ordinance requires Toll Brothers to turn the
system over to the Township at such point in time as the Township
wants to take over the system. We initially played with the idea
of taking the system over immediately until Mr. Rattner pointed
out that that was a money losing situation and indeed Toll Brothers,
in a conference on July 8th, believes it will probably take them
five or six years before the system becomes self sufficient. The
entire process we have gone through in terms of Ord. #48 was to
ensure to the Township that when it wishes to have this system
transferred to the Township, even though the BPU has issued a franchise,
that the system will be turned over. The ordinance requires that
and the ordinance also contains within it an indemnification agreement
between the Township and Toll Brothers. If that is not done, if
the transfer is not done in accordance with the franchise they
will essentially be liable to the Township for failure to do so.
Ord. #42 is also very much tied to resolution #12. Resolution #12
approves an amended or supplemental developer’s agreement
between Toll Brothers and the Township. At the time the original
developer’s agreement was entered into, there were certain
issues that were not fully known, let alone fully discussed and
divested in the original developer’s agreement. Since that
time, the Township has now for a long period of time pursued the
issue of providing an appropriate and reliable water system to
the Madame Clerk’s water system, Goldmine Estates. That is
now going to be accomplished in part in two ways. Number one, the
Township of Mount Olive holds a water allocation permit from the
State of New Jersey. The DEP has now pressed the Township, as I
understand it from the Township Engineer and the Director of Public
Works, that that permit now be utilized to complete the system
so that there will be a reliable source of water for Goldmine Estates.
In order to do that, the Township had to arrive at an arrangement
with Toll Brothers so that the Township will be in a position to
utilize the water storage facility, which has been built on about
a half of an acre of land that the Township owns but for which
Toll Brothers holds an easement to build that water storage facility.
Resolution #12 approves the amended developer’s agreement
which, number one, requires Toll Brothers not later than 12/31/08
to make the connection. The connection, I guess, is a water line
between the two systems and when that connection is made then both
systems can pump water into that water storage facility. Both Goldmine
Estates and Morris Chase/Hunt have authorized and approved water
allocations. So neither system needs to draw on the others source
of water or allocation. They will operate essentially independently
of each other. We will not interfere with Toll Brothers’ allocation
and they will not interfere with us. The good news is that the
connection which is to be made now by 12/31/08 will satisfy the
demands of DEP that the system, the Goldmine system, be put online
in the reasonably foreseeable future. I think the system also requires
the further development, and I’m not into hydrology, but
that of the well at Turkey Brook from which a source of water which
is the physical source of water, to provide adequately under the
water allocation permit. So Ord. #42 and Resolution 12 are very
closely tied together. We can’t do one without the other.
They are connected and they are particularly connected because
of this water line. Mr. Perkins will have to help me, but the water
line, that I assume that runs someplace near the tank from the
Morris Chase system to the Goldmine system so that the systems
are connected, and both systems can store and draw water from that
tank. Now, of course when I sent this up at about 2:45 on Friday
the Clerk reminded me that I was out of time and I had to remind
the Clerk that this was her water system and quick as a heartbeat
she put it all together. I have to apologize to her again because
I left one exhibit out. Ord. #43-2008 is kind of separate. It doesn’t
deal with the water ordinance or the connection of the two systems.
It has to do with the sewer system. Toll Brothers had the right
to develop the sewer system for Morris Chase. There will not be
sewer in Morris Hunt as I think everybody knows. About four years
ago we had a negotiation. No, it’s got to be longer than
that. Licitra was Mayor. We had a negotiation with Toll Brothers
and we tried to take that system away but it didn’t’ work.
That system will forever remain owned by Toll Brothers or its subsidiaries.
We are simply granting them the right. I don’t think the
Town has had a great deal of luck with sewer systems and so be
it. We have had luck with water systems and that’s one of
the reasons the two are treated quite differently. So Ordinance
42, 43 and Resolution #12 are all interconnected as the systems
will be and I just wanted to give that explanation.
Mrs. Labow: Thank you.
President Perkins: So now it’s, Mr. Rattner, you need to
introduce that.
Mr. Rattner: Thank you, Mr. President. I move that Ord. #42-2008
be introduced by title and passed on first reading and that a meeting
be held on August 19th, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. at the Municipal Building,
204 Flanders-Drakestown Road, Mount Olive, NJ for a public hearing
consideration of said reading and passage of said ordinance and
that the Clerk be directed to publish, post and make available
said ordinance in accordance with the requirements of law.
Mrs. Labow: Second.
President Perkins: Council discussion? Seeing none, Roll Call.
ROLL CALL – Passed Unanimously
President Perkins: The next item on the Agenda for First Reading
is Ord. #43-2008, entitled:
Ord. #43-2008 An Ordinance of the Township of Mount Olive Granting
Permission to Applied Wastewater Management, inc. to Construct,
Install and Operate Equipment, Pipes and Mains for the Operation
of a Wastewater Collection and Treatment System Within Certain
Designated Areas of the Township of Mount Olive Commonly Referred
to as “Morris Chase.” (added) PDF Ordinance
President Perkins: Mr. Tobey, would you introduce that, please?
Mr. Tobey: Yes, Mr. President. I move that Ord. #43-2008 be introduced
by title and passed on first reading and that a meeting be held
on August 19th, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. at the Municipal Building, 204
Flanders-Drakestown Road, Mount Olive, NJ for a public hearing
consideration of said reading and passage of said ordinance and
that the Clerk be directed to publish, post and make available
said ordinance in accordance with the requirements of law.
Mr. Rattner: Second.
President Perkins: Council discussion? Seeing none, Roll Call,
please.
ROLL CALL – Passed Unanimously
CONSENT RESOLUTIONS AGENDA:
Resolutions on the Consent Agenda List are considered to be routine
and non-controversial by the Township Council and will be approved
by one motion (one vote). There will be no separate discussion
or debate on each of these resolutions except for the possibility
of brief clarifying statements that may be offered. If one or more
Council member requests, any individual resolution on the Consent
Agenda may be removed from the Consent Agenda List and acted on
separately.
CONSENT RESOLUTIONS
1. Resolution Determining the Form and Other Details of $2,129,000
General Obligation Bonds, Consisting of $1,372,000 General Improvement
Bonds and $757,000 Water Utility Bonds of the Township of Mount
Olive, in the County of Morris, New Jersey and Providing for Their
Sale. PDF Resolution
2. Resolution Providing for the Combination of Certain Issues
of General Improvement Bonds of the Township of Mount Olive, in
the County of Morris, New Jersey into a Single Issue of Bonds Aggregating
$1,372,000 in Principal Amount. PDF Resolution
3. Resolution Providing for the Combination of Certain Issues
of Water Utility Bonds of the Township of Mount Olive, in the County
of Morris, New Jersey into a Single Issue of Bonds Aggregating
$757,000 in Principal Amount. PDF Resolution
4. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount
Olive Requesting Approval from the Director of the Division of
Local Government Services for Insertion of a Specific Item of Revenue
into the 2008 Municipal Budget ($6,000.00 from ANJEC for a Trail
Plan). PDF Resolution
5. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount
Olive Authorizing a Planning Assistance Grant Contract with the
Highlands Regional Council for Initial Plan Assessment. PDF Resolution
6. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount
Olive Authorizing Additional Engineering Services with CMX in Connection
with the Turkey Brook Park Well No. 2 NJDEP Bureau of Water Allocation
Permitting. PDF Resolution
7. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount
Olive Authorizing Continue Extraordinary Unspecifiable Work for
the Stabilization of the Seward House. PDF Resolution
8. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount
Olive Authorizing Materials and Equipment for Continued Emergency
Stabilization of the Seward House. PDF Resolution amended
9. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount
Olive Authorizing the Issuance of Estimated Tax Bills for the Third
Quarter 2008 Payment. PDF Resolution remove
10. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount
Olive Authorizing the Submittal and Acceptance of a Grant for the “Over
the Limit Under Arrest 2008 Crackdown.” PDF Resolution
11. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount
Olive Relative to Early Morning Outdoor Recreation Exercise Classes
Scheduled in Township Parks. PDF Resolution
12. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount
Olive Authorizing an Amended Developer’s Agreement to the
Developer’s Agreement Between Toll Brothers, Inc. and Toll
Brothers NJ II, L.P. in the Township of Mount Olive Relative to
Morris Chase and Morris Hunt. PDF Resolution
13. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount
Olive Authorizing the Renewal of an Alcoholic Beverage License
for the 2008-2009 Licensing Period. (added) PDF Resolution
14. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount
Olive Requesting Approval from the Director of the Division of
Local Government Services for Insertion of a Specific Item of Revenue
into the 2008 Municipal Budget ($5,000 for the Over the Limit Under
Arrest Grant). (added) PDF Resolution.
President Perkins: Is there any Council member wishing to have
any of those items removed from Consent to Non Consent?
Mrs. Lashway: Number 9 is coming off completely.
Mrs. Labow: Which one?
Mr. Rattner: Nine, it says removed on the amended Agenda.
President Perkins: Alright, seeing none then, Mr. Rattner, would
you move Consent Resolutions number 1 through 8 and 10 through
14?
Mr. Rattner: Thank you, Mr. President. I move for approval of
Consent Resolutions 1 through 8 and 10 through 14.
Mr. Tobey: Second.
President Perkins: Anybody from the public wish to be heard on
any of those Consent Resolutions? Seeing none, I’ll close
it. Roll Call, please.
ROLL CALL – Passed Unanimously
PUBLIC PORTION ON CONSENT RESOLUTIONS - none
COUNCIL COMMENTS ON CONSENT RESOLUTIONS - none
RESOLUTIONS NON CONSENT - none
PUBLIC PORTION ON INDIVIDUAL RESOLUTIONS - none
COUNCIL COMMENTS ON INDIVIDUAL RESOLUTIONS - none
MOTIONS
President Perkins: That takes us to Motions and the approval of
Raffle Application #2257 & #2258 for OES #107 Starlight Chapter.
Mr. Tobey, would you move that, please?
Mr. Tobey: Yes, I move for approval of Motion #1 as presented.
1. Approval of Raffle Application #2257 & #2258 for OES #107
Starlight Chapter.
Mr. Tepper: Second.
President Perkins: Discussion? Roll Call.
ROLL CALL – Passed Unanimously
President Perkins: That takes us to the Bill List. Mr. Greenbaum,
could you move it?
2. Bill List.
Mr. Greenbaum: I’ll move it.
Mr. Roman: Second.
President Perkins: Discussion? Roll Call.
ROLL CALL – Passed with the exception Mrs. Labow voted no
ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS
President Perkins: That takes us to Administrative Matters. Anything
else from the Administration?
Mr. Sohl: Yes, a couple of quick things. You should have perhaps
seen already we finally got the $3,000 check from CBS Outdoor.
Hopefully their use of those two billboards will be beneficial
to them and we’ll see an even bigger check next year. Also,
just a quick comment, back in June we had a Right to Know inspection
by the State. If anybody has ever dealt with inspections of various
things like that we never pass on the first time. We were in fact
gigged for certain shortcomings. A list was left with us and we
were given until July 11th to finish what had to be brought into
compliance that which was not in compliance. We called the State
on the 11th. They were shocked that we were done and we had them
come up and revisit the site. They were here last week and we got
100% pass.
Mrs. Labow: Good job.
President Perkins: Excellent. Good job, Bill.
Mrs. Labow: Anything else from Administration, Bill?
Mr. Sohl: Community day is this week. Pretty busy with that.
President Perkins: And the Carnival. That moves us into Old Business.
Anybody have any Old Business? Mrs. Labow.
OLD BUSINESS
Mrs. Labow: I have two items on Old Business. One of the items
I wanted to discuss actually when the Open Space Committee was
still here. In the Open Space Ordinance, and I don’t know
if that’s going to change, if we’re going out to referendum
or not but in the one section where it says that “appropriations
shall only be approved by Council for the uses under the ordinance,” we
wanted to change that. A letter came through from the Open Space
Committee to make a change to make that “by resolution or
by ordinance.” So it’s clear that money can only be
appropriated in that format and not just be approved on the Bill
List. So my question would be to Dominic. Do we need to wait now
until we go out to referendum, or can we make that change now?
Mrs. Lashway: To go to referendum it’s a resolution and
the resolution is requesting the County Clerk to put an item on
the ballot. So any changes you want to make to the ordinance are
completely separate.
Mrs. Labow: Okay, so the Open Space Committee would like to recommend
that we change that to be specific that any funds that are to be
used from Open Space be appropriated by resolution or ordinance.
This way it makes it clear. It makes the job easier for the Finance
Department and anybody else involved that we know…
Mrs. Lashway: I think you want to be specific by resolution because
ordinances then are going to take two readings and delay any…
Mrs. Labow: So it doesn’t, okay, because I had put down,
I thought we could just do it by resolution. Okay, because it’s
less expensive. So we want to change that by resolution. Anybody
have a…
Mr. Tobey: You know, Dominic, you sounded just like Lisa.
President Perkins: Anybody have any comments, concerns, questions?
Mr. Roman: So this is to use Open Space funds?
Mrs. Labow: We’ve always in the past, Open Space funds have
always been memorialized by resolution. You need to, Council needs
to appropriate the funds and that the funds are only being used
for an authorized purpose. Just to make sure that it’s clear
the mechanism that we use is not just discussion at a Council meeting,
that it is in accordance with the ordinance.
Mr. Roman: I’m assuming you’re bringing this up because
there has been a past violation?
Mr. Sohl: There are no…
Mrs. Labow: Whatever has happened in the past is in the past.
I’d like to move forward so we have future clearer definition
on what the proper procedure is that we should follow.
President Perkins: Bill?
Mr. Sohl: Yes, I just, whatever went on in the past was within
compliance. There was no violation. Mrs. Labow is suggesting specific
language change to require or mandate a resolution. Administration
has no problem with that.
Mrs. Labow: It’s just so we make it clear. I think the other
main reason for it is in the future there’s no misunderstanding
why money was spent out of a specific fund. It’s clear and
everybody is on the same page. So, Ray, it sounds like everybody’s…
President Perkins: It’s pretty much just to insert after
where the Council shall have prior approval by resolution.
Mrs. Labow: Council shall appropriate by resolution. The other
question, the other thing I wanted to bring up was the bulk water
sale issue. I’ve been in contact with Sparta. I asked Mrs.
Lashway to give everyone a copy of the procedures from Sparta.
They had told me, I spoke with Denise from their Water Utility
Department. In the past they used to charge for bulk water sale
10% over what their user rate was. They since went to a flat fee
of $50. They’re doing quite well with it selling bulk water
for $50 up to 8,000 gallons. I guess some trucks can go as high
as 8,000 most of them are 7,000. One of the reasons why I think
we should seriously consider, we’ve already been selling
bulk water for several years. I guess five or six years and I think
we should continue to do so under a specified plan because it looks
as though we could realize a revenue stream of anywhere from $5,000
- $10,000 in our water utility which can help to offset or defray
costs to our water customers. I don’t know if it has to be
specifically Clover Hill or, I don’t know how that works.
I wanted to kind of open it up for discussion from the rest of
the Council and see how everybody feels about it. Is this something
they want to do?
President Perkins: Russ, you had a comment?
Mr. Tepper: Ray, I think I saw an e-mail or a comment from you
that they charge about $300 for about 6,000 gallons. Given that,
I’d move that if we go to make this change that we raise
the price to $100 for up to that amount. If they didn’t want
to spend the $100 they can drive up to Sparta and buy the water
there.
President Perkins: Any other comments?
Mrs. Labow: One of the things, I know that Ray and I had e-mail
exchanges. Ray’s concern was protecting our potable water
supply and I do understand that. We could require that all of the
trucks have a backflow device on their trucks. I think they do
already and also some of the things we could put in place would
be that they would come only during a specified period of time,
whether it be 7 to 3, or 8 to 4. They would have to prepay. In
Sparta what they do they kind of go on the honor system. They go
and fill up from the water. They have a little box there and I
guess they pay for their water and then they drop off their invoice
indicating that they’ve picked up the water supply. I think
we’d be a little bit more on top of, as far as tracking that
they’d have to come into the Clover Hill treatment area and
prepay their invoices, whatever it is. $100, Russ is suggesting
$100. I was going to suggest $75. They prepay. They go up to Clover
Hill. They show their invoice. They fill up their truck. They leave
and we process that this invoice, the load was picked up already
prepaid. It has to be prepaid. I don’t want to get into billing.
It would be my suggestion. It depends on what everybody wants to
do. So I don’t know how everybody feels about it. Do we want
to look into it for next year?
President Perkins: Well, I’ll give you a couple of concerns.
I’ve already let you know I’m not in favor of it for
a couple of reasons. First off, I’m going to look at the
fact that if we brought in $10,000 of “revenue,” remember
this is a self sustaining, self liquidating utility so there is
no such revenue. There’s no profit.
Mrs. Labow: Right, it would be an offset.
President Perkins: Well, the cost that we charge is typically
the cost to convey the water. That includes the electric, the treatment,
the manpower, etc. That’s where you derive your cost from.
Any of that money would come back into the utility. If we could
realize a gain of $10,000 divided into the 2,650 present residential
users on the system that would be $3.77 a year. So it’s really
of no benefit. I look at another problem, as you’ve addressed,
with the backflow. Without going too much back into my history
I was a certified backflow tester for New England Waterworks Association
as well as a certified Backflow surveyor. When people tell you,
as I saw on your response, that they can put a backflow preventer
on, but they don’t. They also have a different setup up in
the Germany flats than we have. They actually have it set up and
it’s backed by the quarry where they’re able to go
through. We don’t have that same luxury. So we’re a
little tied back when it comes from there. When we talk about feeding
into a tanker, Colleen, you feed from the top typically and you
open up the door and you feed it in. People say well that’s
great because it’s not sitting in there. Well if something
happens, the guy falls, the pipe falls into the tanker, we have
the water main break, it sucks all that garbage back in and then
we have a water contamination problem and then the Mayor is on
the horn with the DEP. From my standpoint, I don’t see it
from a revenue generation. I don’t see it from water safety,
I don’t see it from, I just don’t think that the volume
is there. My next concern is politics. Since Sparta has historically
been doing this, they did it for my pool 15 years ago. They do
it for most people. How is that municipality now going to look
at Mount Olive now opening up to be able to sell pool water, something
that they have historically done, both of the companies Waterboy,
Waterman and one of the other, Simmons are all located within the
Newton/Lafayette area. So of course it’s easier for them
to get it. Now, logistically is it easier for them if they have
to get another pool down in the Madison area or someplace else
where I’ve seen them to come back to Mount Olive instead
of driving to Sparta? Yes, but we should be in the business of
providing safe and adequate potable water including fire protection
to our residents and probably not the best idea to move forward.
That’s just my opinion. There may be other Council members
that would support asking the Administration to look into it further.
I personally am not in favor of it, Colleen. Mr. Roman?
Mr. Roman: Frankly, up until you spoke I was leaning in favor
of going ahead with bulk water but that’s the one beauty
about having a Council as diverse as we have where we have expertise
in various areas.
President Perkins: Knowledge.
Mr. Roman: I would, at this point, say that I would probably be
for not going ahead with bulk water.
President Perkins: Mr. Rattner?
Mr. Rattner: Talk $5,000 to $10,000. Of course, if we go up to
$100 as Mr. Tepper said that would go up about two and a half times
so I guess we get an equivalent of about 40. So then you’re
talking about anywhere from 12 - 25. When we start talking about
money when we go over the budget we’re cutting out $1,000
at a shot. We think, we’ll spend a lot of time to cut $4,000
here and $5,000 there. So $25,000 in the utility actually does
mean something. We’ve said that based on what we’ve
been doing for the last 20 years that I know of that we look at
each expense. Also, the fact that we’d be in competition
with Sparta, obviously we’ve just found out we’ve been
in competition with them for the last five years…
Mrs. Labow: We’ve been in competition with them. We didn’t
know.
Mr. Rattner: …and if they were really mad they would have
let us know a long time ago to try to do something. Also, I don’t
understand the thing about the backflow because I know if you put
a sprinkler system in your house you have to put a backflow limiter
on your ¾ inch line. I would imagine, and I think the only
practical way of doing it is having a backflow valve on our part
because why would we want to rely on somebody’s truck? I’ve
seen some of the trucks. Some of them are brand new and some of
them look like they’re probably World War II Army surplus.
Mrs. Labow: 50 years old.
Mr. Rattner: I think we really have to look at what the extra
expense, I mean, it sounds like a good idea. I’m not 100%
sold. I’m leaning toward it but how much will it cost us?
How much in labor? What do we really have to do to make sure that
somebody is there every time a truck comes in and hooks up? I don’t
like the honor system. I don’t know of that many people,
especially these vendors, that are honorable and not pointing anybody
out…
Mayor Scapicchio: That would be a recommendation in the Auditor’s
year end report. Okay?
Mr. Rattner: I wouldn’t go that route. I’d also have
to look because one of the issues that did come up and of course
I don’t know why we had the trucks anyway saying that they
had to go in. They had to back out. There was a problem on where
the fill up was and it sounds like it’s probably wasn’t
a real good idea to begin with. It sounds like, if we clear $25,000
I’d consider that to be substantial but just because what
we gross doesn’t mean that’s what we net because there’s
certain expenses. If we had the backflow valve there’s going
to have to be service. There’s additional audit expenses
for testing to make sure the accounting is done properly. So I
don’t have any problem looking ahead. If we really could
make, let’s say clear $25,000 I think that’s worth
going forward with. We were talking about cutting, I was talking
about cutting $10,000 out of the beach, $3,000 here so I consider
$25,000 whether it be taxpayer money or taxpayer service fees.
It’s still coming out of the same pocket and it’s still
a savings.
President Perkins: Well, I’ll just give you a few answers
there, Mr. Rattner, and not sarcastically. So don’t take
it out of context. We were never in competition with Sparta because
we never had a bulk rate in any of our ordinances and all we were
doing was having a mutual understanding with a purveyor of potable
water in a tank who was helping us. We then permitted him and him
only to be able to draw water. So Sparta, of course, had no knowledge.
Mrs. Labow: He purchased it though.
Mr. Rattner: He purchased water to put in pools. That’s
competition. There’s no other way you can call it.
President Perkins: They did.
Mr. Rattner: I mean, now you’re getting into semantics but
it doesn’t matter. Now it’s just money. I didn’t
say I’m 100%.
President Perkins: I understand, Steve. I said I’m not trying
to be sarcastic and again, if I’m looking at $3.77 a year
on $10,000 revenue I’ll double it so that we’re at
$8.44. So we’re, what benefit are we deriving? Mr. Greenbaum?
Mr. Greenbaum: Thank you. First of all I don’t think Sparta
really cares whether we’re in the business or we’re
not in the business. That’s the first thing. Secondly, I
told Colleen I would reconsider, I would consider the issue when
I spoke to her about it because, as Mr. Rattner says, money, revenue
raised is revenue raised. We’ve often talked about a dollar
here and a dollar there. So whether it’s $3, or $5 or $20
it’s worth taking a look at. Having said that, you know,
I was sitting on my front yard yesterday and it’s straw.
My neighbor came over and said my front yard’s straw too.
I would love to water it but there are water restrictions that
are in place and you can’t water the yard. I don’t
know why we would even consider selling Township water at this
point for the kind of dollars we’re talking about ultimately.
It’s not a smart move. There’s too many hassles involved
with doing it in terms of monitoring what’s going on for
what we would ultimately get back in light of the fact that water
is a precious commodity that we have problems with in this Town.
I think it’s a bad move. I’m not in favor.
President Perkins: And I agree with just about everything you
said, Rob. I mean, I would hate to have to be trucking water out
of the Township to fill pools when the people in Goldmine can’t
even flush a toilet.
Mr. Tobey: I agree.
President Perkins: So the end of the season is already here. It’s
in the middle of July. If somewhere down the road it’s to
be reconsidered, maybe revenue generation, and again a self liquidating
utility goes back into the utility. You’ve got 2,600 homes
that are hooked up to the system. There’s 6,500 homes in
the Town and the rest of the people derive no benefit from it.
The majority of the taxpayers of Mount Olive see no benefit. So
anything other New Business?
Mrs. Labow: I just wanted to ask one more question. The money
we got for selling the bulk water for the past five or six years,
Sherry, did that go into the water utility?
Mr. Sohl: Yes.
Ms. Jenkins: Yes, absolutely.
Mrs. Labow: Okay.
Mr. Sohl: The most we ever got was $5,000.
Mrs. Labow: But that was just selling to the one company.
Mr. Sohl: True.
Mrs. Labow: And we never sold the water while there was a water
shortage. It was always early on in the season.
Mr. Sohl: I don’t know whether we did or didn’t.
Mrs. Labow: Oh, okay. So basically everybody’s saying they’re
not interested in the general…
President Perkins: We’ll take a straw poll. Rob, are you
interested in pursuing it?
Mr. Greenbaum: Not at this time.
President Perkins: Russ?
Mr. Tepper: No.
President Perkins: Alex?
Mr. Roman: No.
President Perkins: Colleen?
Mrs. Labow: Not at this time.
President Perkins: That’s four down. Do you want me to go
any further?
Mrs. Labow: I figured we’d bring it on the table and discuss
it.
Mr. Rattner: Thank you.
Mr. Tepper: I want to hear Steve’s opinion.
Mrs. Labow: I just want to thank the Council for discussing it
and going through the discussion to decide how we wanted to deal
with this. It was very interesting…
Mr. Rattner: I think Rob came up with the…
Mrs. Labow: No, he had a very valid point.
President Perkins: Alright, I think everybody appreciates the
effort, Colleen, that you put into it. Let’s put it this
way. If it wasn’t a self liquidating utility, it was kind
of like trying to sell the water system in a development before
you took it into utility plant and then called it a part of the
utility. Any monies you would derive from the sale you could legally
utilize as tax offset. You can’t just do that for the utility.
Mrs. Labow: Right, I understand. I want to thank everyone because
I think it’s a good idea that somebody does their research,
discusses it and everybody put their opinions on the table and
we come to an educated decision. Thank you.
President Perkins: You’re welcome. Any other New Business?
Mr. Tepper.
NEW BUSINESS
Mr. Tepper: Thank you, Mr. President. As a result of our vote
last meeting regarding the Boathouse I entered into some e-mails
with Mrs. Labow and copied Mr. Greenbaum and/or Mr. Rattner. Mr.
Sohl has pointed out that at least one of these e-mails, whether
from Colleen or myself, went to four Council people which potentially
is a technical violation of the New Jersey Sunshine Law. I would
like to find out from Dominic whether either A, I can forward my
e-mails and Colleen can forward hers to our Clerk and then have
them distributed to all Council members, or would this have to
be included in the Minutes of this particular meeting for public
notice so that everyone could see it? The intent was not to violate
and I looked at this, Bill, and I’ve only sent it to three.
There is one instance where it went to four…
Mrs. Labow: Yes, but see we’re included. We’re included
on that.
Mr. Sohl: The last one went to five.
Mr. Tepper: No, you’re counting Lisa as the fifth and she
is not a Clerk. She is not a Council member.
Mr. Sohl: I thought Ray was on the last one also.
Mr. Tepper: That’s the one with four. It’s myself…
Mr. Sohl: Colleen, Rob, Steve and Ray.
Mr. Tepper: …Rob, Steve and Ray.
Mrs. Labow: Yes, so we’re on four. See we have to include
the two of us.
Mr. Tepper: So I don’t have a problem, you know, Colleen,
I would forward it to Lisa and have her disseminate to everyone
since that would therefore then be consistent with the Rule, but
my whole intent by sending these out was I wanted this to be out
in the open and not in an executive session. So I certainly want
it to be published and known what my position is on that. So I
will rely on Dominic to say what’s the best way to resolve
it whether to put in tonight’s Minutes or to have them sent
to everybody electronically.
President Perkins: Russ, I’m actually giving Dominic the
response from Mr. Dorsey through…
Mrs. Labow: Which is exactly why I copied Lisa on all of them
because it is all public.
Mrs. Lashway: I was asked to get a legal opinion and Fred Semrau
did send a response.
Mr. DiYanni: I’ll just read what he sent in today. “I
would not categorize this as a violation of the Open Public Meetings
Act. Although four members are on many of these e-mails, the dialogue
seems to include two members of the Council. It is not a good practice
to reply to more than two elected officials unless the communication
is administrative in nature, such as the next meeting or the Agenda,
etc. In the future, I would caution from e-mail discussions and “reply
all” communications such as what has taken place. Further
discussion by additional elected officials can in effect result
in a violation of the Open Public Meetings Act. The communication
in question is, however, a public document and may be obtained
by any members of the public.”
Mr. Tepper: Okay, thank you.
Mrs. Labow: So it’s not a violation.
President Perkins: Mr. Greenbaum?
Mr. Greenbaum: It’s my understanding, and I could be wrong
because I certainly am not an expert, to be in violation of the
Open Public Meetings Act there has to actually be action taken
that was not done in the public. Irrespective of whether or not
there are one, two, three or four members, Council members who
receive an e-mail. It is a public document whether it’s two
or three or four. That is very clear and is discoverable under
the Right to Know law. So that really is the issue as far as I’m
concerned. I assume that what Fred and Dominic and John are saying
is that in order to avoid an appearance of impropriety in terms
of the Open Public Meetings Act, you’re better off just not
having four or just direct everything through Lisa so that everyone
can see it, but assume that anything that you put in an e-mail
is going to be reviewed by the public.
Mrs. Labow: Absolutely, same thing like a memo. We could have
done the same thing passing memos and everybody be copied.
Mr. Greenbaum: From my understanding it’s not a violation
of the Open Public Meetings Act unless you take action, and the
response to a violation of the Open Public Meetings Act generally
is that you redo the action in the public.
President Perkins: Public portion.
Mr. Greenbaum: Right. That’s my understanding.
President Perkins: Anything else Mr.?
Mr. Tepper: No, that’s it thank you.
President Perkins: Alright, you’re welcome, sir. Legal Matters,
Dominic, do you have anything?
Mr. DiYanni: No.
LEGAL MATTERS - none
COUNCIL REPORTS
Recreation Liaison Report
President Perkins: Council reports. Council Liaison Report, Mr.
Recreation? Mr. Roman? Recreation Liaison, Mr. Roman?
Mr. Roman: She’s bothering me again.
Mrs. Labow: I was bothering him. It was my fault.
Mr. Roman: Nothing to report. There was no meeting as of last
report.
Board of Health Report
Mrs. Labow: We meet next month.
Planning Board Report
Mr. Tepper: We had last Thursday off.
Board of Adjustment Liaison Report
Mr. Roman: Last night there were two additions, a couple of decks
and everything was approved.
Open Space Committee Report
Mrs. Labow: Yes, we had our meeting last Monday night a week ago
yesterday. It was really a fantastic meeting. We passed, we approved
the resolution tonight for a $6,000 grant for the trail. We had
three ladies come. One was from ANJEC and the other one is from
the County and they brought with them manuals where they had done
trail plans in the past with four other towns. The work that they
do is absolutely phenomenal. They’re going to be meeting
with Kathy Murphy and some of the Open Space Committee members
to discuss where we want our trail systems to go throughout the
Town. We’re going to get a lot of assistance from people
who do this all the time. We’re very excited about it. I
think it’s going to be a great thing for our Township and
we’re going to actually have a plan on where all of our trails
are going to go. Besides that we discussed the Boathouse and what
a loss it was for the Township, and not to have this access to
the beach on that side of Town, and also potential Open Space acquisitions
in the future.
Legislative Committee Report
Mr. Rattner: Nothing to report.
Pride Committee Liaison Report
Mrs. Labow: Pride Committee is moving along very nicely. We had
Thursday, the Pride Committee, myself included, Tracy Wadhams,
Liz Ouimet, our Chair, Muriel Hill and myself. We went out on our
little planting mission. We were going to try and plant out here
in the front where it says “Mount Olive” a flowerbed.
We didn’t quite get to there but we did get to the Plaza
Road area in Flanders on Route 206. We planted several flowers
in the big barrels there. I want to just say that it was very nice.
We had one resident on Plaza Road who came out to me and he said, “I
just want to thank you ladies for doing this. This is phenomenal.” I,
you know, of course said well I’m just on Pride Committee
for the first time this year, but he was so sweet. He brought us
water. He let us use his hose so we didn’t have to keep going
back to Muriel Hill’s house to get water to water the flowers.
It was late in the afternoon and as we were on 46 (206) planting
the flowers. There was a lot of bumper to bumper traffic of people
coming home. We actually had residents that were beeping the horn,
rolling down their windows and thanking us for all the work we
were doing and how much they appreciated it. Some other residents
said how they love having the juniper bushes there. It’s
amazing how much of the noise was cut down from, you know, bouncing
off of their houses with having those bushes and the way they’re
growing, and also the fact that they don’t see all the cars
anymore. It’s given them a lot of privacy both in terms of
sight and sound. That was a very, very rewarding experience. I
have several flats of flowers on the side of my house which my
boys keep watering which we’re going to go out planting again
this week. So it’s been a wonderful experience. I want to
thank Mr. Sohl for all of your work with the CBS billboard and
the $3,000 and just to know we are very dedicated to beautifying
the Township. That’s it.
Mr. Sohl: Thank you.
Mrs. Labow: Thank you, Bill.
Board of Education Liaison Report
Mr. Tobey: Yes, there was a Workshop meeting last evening. The
Superintendent search continues with interviews scheduled to start
over the next two to three weeks. The Board has formed a Finance
Committee, which is new, to review the budget and make recommendations,
suggestions and do a little brainstorming. They asked me to be
on it of which I agreed to. If anyone else is interested please
let me know. I think it’s a step in the right direction so
to speak. That’s all.
Lake/Environment Issues Committee
Mr. Rattner: Nothing to report.
Safety Committee Liaison
Mr. Greenbaum: The meeting was supposed to be on the 16th of July
and that was the meeting where representatives of the different
hospital based ambulance services were to come and give presentations.
Unfortunately, we received notice from the Budd Lake Ambulance
Squad that Frank was unavailable on that date. So the meeting was
cancelled and we’re attempting to reschedule based upon Frank’s
availability. Right now it looks like we’re going to reschedule
for July 30th.
Finance Committee Report
Mr. Rattner: Nothing to report.
Economic Development Committee Report
Mr. Rattner: We met last week, the weekend before last. One of
the issues we have is trying to find members. So if anybody has
any recommendations of people in different types of industry that
would like to spend one Saturday morning…
Mrs. Labow: With you?
Mr. Rattner: …a month. Well, Don Hill, he’s the Chairman.
Mrs. Labow: Oh, okay, Don. I’ll volunteer.
Mr. Rattner: This is the Mayor’s Committee. Forward any
inquiries or any resumes to Lisa and she’ll forward them
to Mr. Hill.
President Perkins: Anything else? Solid Waste Advisory Committee,
Mrs. Labow?
Solid Waste Advisory Committee Report
Mrs. Labow: I have a question I meant to bring it up before for
Mr. Sohl. The Solid Waste Advisory has not been meeting. I don’t
think we’re going to meet until September. Mr. Sohl, in the
meantime it was brought to my attention that at Turkey Brook Park
in the Parks I guess because the recycling containers are so small
now because they’re not using the big drums, that our recycling
trucks have to come through and pick up more times. I don’t
know if that’s true. If it’s not true I was just wondering
if you could…
Mr. Sohl: I’ll look. I’ll ask.
Mrs. Labow: Yes, if you could check into that for me because…
Mr. Sohl: I don’t remember the recycling containers being
smaller.
Mrs. Labow: They’re smaller now. They wanted to take out,
Mr. Tobey, one of his initiatives that I thought was a good idea
to take out the big drums, but unfortunately…
Mr. Sohl: But even if they had to run through twice in a week,
what’s the issue?
Mrs. Labow: I’m just wondering, somebody had said if they’re
running through all of those extra times to pick up the recycling
are you really saving any money if they have to go through twice?
So I just want to know is it…
Mr. Sohl: It’s a, what is it 1/8th of a mile loop?
Mrs. Labow: I don’t know. I just figured ask Tim if he feels
that it is…
Mr. Sohl: I’ll talk to Tim.
Mrs. Labow: Would it be better to go back to the drums or keep
the smaller containers.
Mr. Sohl: I think Mr. Tobey would be the first one to say I think
we were looking for aesthetically…
Mrs. Labow: We’re looking for aesthetically pleasing and
I’m looking for…
Mr. Tobey: But I believe we do have the drums out there. The containers
that someone’s probably referring to are the smaller ones
that were originally purchased and they are few and far between.
If you go around to the parks and all, if you have the two drums,
one is black and the other has been painted blue. I’ve got
to tell you if the drums are being filled up and collected twice
I think that’s a great thing.
Mrs. Labow: No, I was told it was the smaller ones that they have
to keep going back because they fill up so quickly with the drums.
I think it’s a good idea too. If we’re filling them
up that’s great but if we could just ask Tim is it better
to do drums or the smaller receptacles.
Mr. Sohl: I’ll just ask him if we’ve got a problem.
Mrs. Labow: Okay, it was just brought to my attention so I just
wanted to follow up with it.
Mr. Greenbaum: I would imagine you’d rather pick up more
often to avoid bugs as well.
Mr. Tepper: Bees.
President Perkins: Bees in the soda cans. Library Board liaison,
Mr. Tepper?
Library Board Liaison
Mr. Tepper: They met last Wednesday and Mrs. Hilbert has officially
submitted her resignation effective the end of this year. So we
will be looking for a new Director of the Library.
President Perkins: Okay, that takes us to, anything else on the
Library? That takes us to the Public Portion. Anybody from the
public wish to be heard? Mr. Russell.
PUBLIC PORTION
Nelson Russell, Budd Lake: A couple items. One, 55 gallon drums
are awfully difficult for one person in recycling to handle. Those
are awfully heavy. They’re not set up, they’re not
crewed to handle weights that large.
Mrs. Labow: I think they have plastic bags in them. I think they
just pull the bags out. They don’t lift the drums. They just
pull the bags out.
Mr. Russell: You can put an awful lot of weight in a 55 gallon
drum.
Mr. Roman: Yes, a 55, that’s a pretty big bag.
Mrs. Labow: I would think so.
Mr. Russell: What was the other point I wanted to make. I noticed
in examining the Bill List that we’re paying long distance
charges.
Mrs. Labow: The what?
Mr. Russell: I noticed in examining the Bill List that we’re
paying long distance telephone charges. Have we taken a look at
going into using cable for our phone service which doesn’t
charge for long distance?
Mr. Sohl: Not specifically of late. I mean, we shop around periodically.
Mr. Russell: I’ve gotten a significant reduction in my phone
bill by moving to cable.
Mrs. Labow: Actually, could I, Ray, could I break in at this point?
I think that’s a really good point that you brought up, Nelson,
because I did the same thing. I went to the cable and saved a good
$140 a month on my bill and that’s on a little household
budget. I don’t know if we could review going to, now that
Cablevision is offering the Optimum Voice in our location it might
be something to look at.
Mr. Sohl: We would obviously be a commercial entity.
Mrs. Labow: But they should still…
Mr. Russell: It’s still advertised as a 60% reduction on
the commercial.
Mrs. Labow: Could we check out and see if we could do that because
that’s…
Mr. Sohl: I’ll have Scott look into it.
Mrs. Labow: Great, thank you.
Mr. Russell: Third point, in terms of intra Council e-mail communications,
if we could just include those in the Correspondence that we get
in that thing in the back. That would get rid of all of the Public
Meeting violation laws, or problems, because frankly I’d
like to read what Russ’ stand on the Boathouse was.
Mrs. Labow: You can have it. We could forward it to you. That’s
why I always copy Lisa so it’s part of the public record.
President Perkins: Thank you.
Mrs. Labow: Absolutely, it’s a public document.
President Perkins: Anyone else from the public wish to be heard
on any item? Yes, sir, name and address at the podium, please.
Bruce Backman, Knollwood Road: I’d like to address the Rosewood
Ditch. I was in front of you people about a month ago and brought
my concerns to you. I haven’t heard a reply. Somebody was
supposed to come the next day.
Mr. Sohl: Tim and I have talked. It would probably take a crew
of seven a couple of weeks to clear out that whole area. There’s
a mixed bag, maybe bad choice of words. There’s a mixed set
of reactions in terms of people living there. Some people want
it cleared, other people don’t. The channel is functioning
as it’s supposed to.
Mr. Backman: I’ll show you pictures contrary to that. Would
you like to see them?
Mr. Sohl: There’s growth there. There’s no denying
there’s growth there. Nobody’s saying otherwise.
Mr. Backman: It’s impeding the flow of the water and according
to your website on the Board of Health, it tested positive for
West Nile in the Ditch, correct?
Mrs. Labow: Mhm.
Mr. Backman: So wouldn’t you want to try and dry it up?
How does the sun get to the bottom to dry it up if it’s like
this? If you have 15 or 20 foot vegetation on both sides of it,
how does the sun get to dry it up? If you have standing puddles,
doesn’t that contribute to West Nile expanding? As per your
website, yes it does.
Mrs. Labow: It contributes to…
Mr. Backman: You told me that you were going to come to my house
and you never did.
Mr. Sohl: We went down there and no one was home.
Mr. Backman: My number is listed.
Mr. Sohl: Tim and I went down…
Mr. Backman: Nobody left a message. The last time I went and I
talked to Tim he told me there was no money in the budget. Did
you notice the tree in the back yard that’s dead, that’s
rotted on the bottom? I have a picture of that just in case you
didn’t see it if you’d like to see it.
Mr. Sohl: That’s fine.
Mr. Backman: These pictures were taken in the last three weeks
in my back yard. That’s standing right at the fence which
borders the ditch.
Mr. Sohl: Okay.
President Perkins: Bill, just a question. When we get the Sheriff’s
Labor Assistance, is that something we may be able to coordinate
with them to get that small busload crew to come out? Do they do
weeds?
Mrs. Labow: No. They can’t do anything where they’re…
President Perkins: Colleen, thank you.
Mrs. Labow: I’m sorry. I know the answer to that one.
Mr. Sohl: I’m not sure. We’d have to, if Colleen knows
something I don’t I’d be happy to…
President Perkins: It appears that she does.
Mrs. Labow: I’m jumping up and down. Actually, I had a conversation
with them and any time when they have to go out on any private
property at all they cannot do that. That’s why there’s
certain sections of the highway, they can only do where it’s
municipal property. So they would actually…
Mr. Sohl: This is an easement situation.
Mrs. Labow: Yes, but they would…
Mr. Sohl: No, I’m not disagreeing with you. It is private
property.
President Perkins: That’s why I said, Bill, maybe you could
talk because there is the easement that runs through. Maybe you
could just talk to SLAP and see if it’s something that maybe
we could assist with. I mean, if our people are that stretched
and they’re unable to get down there, obviously seven guys
is a lot of time and people. If we could get the Sheriff’s
Labor Assistance Program to send us people it’s within an
easement. Maybe they can get in there and trim weeds. That maybe
at least would be able to help the neighbors.
Mr. Backman: I agree with you. It’s labor intensive, very
labor intensive once you cut it down to get it up over the fence.
Mr. Sohl: It’s bordered by two fences. You’ve got
to keep going…
Mr. Backman: Most of it.
President Perkins: They’ve got rifles and those guys are
dressed in orange suits.
Mr. Backman: I was told last time I was here it’s supposed
to be addressed at least once a year. I’m living there 22
years and I could count on one hand how many times it’s been
addressed. How come? Nobody can answer? It’s in the budget.
Tim Quinn tells me no there is no money.
Mr. Sohl: There’s nothing specific in the budget for this.
Mr. Backman: Colleen said last time when I was here a month ago
that it’s supposed to be addressed once a year.
Mr. Greenbaum: It is supposed to be addressed once a year.
President Perkins: That’s right.
Mr. Backman: Five times in twenty-something years isn’t
even close.
Mr. Tobey: You know what, excuse me, Mr. President. Is it a matter
of it’s not in the budget or just a matter of allocating
the man hours, reallocating from one responsibility…
Mr. Sohl: We can adjust man hours to do all kinds of things.
Mr. Tobey: If it’s seven people is it one day? Is it two
days? How many days of work would it be?
Mr. Sohl: According to Tim it’s probably a couple of weeks.
Mr. Tobey: It’s a couple of weeks?
Mr. Sohl: A week, week and a half.
Mr. Tobey: Okay.
Mr. Greenbaum: When you say it’s not in the budget, the
budget doesn’t work that way that there would be a specific
line item…
President Perkins: Line item.
Mr. Tobey: That’s what I mean.
Mr. Greenbaum: …for maintaining the Rosewood Ditch. So the
money is in the budget because there was a policy decision made
by the Town Council that the Rosewood Ditch would be maintained,
at least that’s my recollection. It would be once a year
someone would go in and just clean out the weeds and make sure
that the water was flowing properly. To the extent that the Administration
is not getting to the Rosewood Ditch, it’s a problem. It’s
a problem.
Mr. Backman: I understand times are tough and money’s tight,
but five times in 20 something years.
Mr. Greenbaum: I feel for you.
Mr. Backman: You have trees that are ready to fall that are going
to impede the flow of water. Last year one of the other trees next
to it split in a storm. I called the Town and I had to call twice
and they sent a crew down. They cut the logs up and they left them
in the Ditch. So why me, as a resident, why should I clean it if
your own people come down and they cut the tree up because it was
impeding the flow of water, and they cut the five inch logs into
three foot lengths and left it there. They would be easy to handle.
I have a gate in my backyard which I told them they were welcome
to use instead of hopping over the fence.
Mrs. Labow: Ray?
Mr. Greenbaum: Let me answer the issue this way as best I can,
telling you I feel for you and I believe that the Rosewood Ditch
should be maintained. It was a policy decision that was discussed
at the Council level that it should be maintained at least once
a year. You know from the last time you were here that we talked
about, you know, the final solution hopefully being Marveland Farms,
but who can wait until that’s done? I understand all that.
Now, let me tell you what the realities are. I had this discussion
with Mr. Tepper as we were sitting here listening to the discussion
with the seniors who have their own set of gripes, and the people
in Goldmine Estates who have their own set of gripes, and the people
living down in Hackettstown section of Town , Indian Park who have
their own set of gripes. What has happened here over the years
is that we have continually cut back on the municipal budget 5%,
10%, 5%, 10% although your taxes and my taxes and everyone sitting
up here taxes have gone up. The municipal budget portion in terms
of what there is to spend has decreased. When we did that every
time we said to Tim, will you be able to work with 10% less than
you’ve requested and he said yes, I’m going to work
with whatever you give me. Eventually there is going to start to
be things which are going to start to fall through the cracks and
that’s what we’re starting to see here.
Mr. Backman: Right, lack of maintenance…
Mr. Greenbaum: It’s at the Senior Center. It’s in
this building.
Mr. Tepper: It’s highly visible.
Mr. Greenbaum: And I brought it up at the time that when you start
to cut back on the municipal budget, you’re going to start
to have people complaining that their section of the road wasn’t
mowed. A particular part of the highway wasn’t repaved that’s
in really bad condition. The Rosewood Ditch is not getting cleaned
out. Now, having said that I think that’s really where we
are, that we just don’t have the manpower and you standing
here, I’m sure it doesn’t make you happy for me to
say that because you’re looking for a resolution. I believe
that there should be a resolution because now you’re talking
about a health and safety issue. I’m not so much concerned
about the tree as I am the mosquitoes and I believe that Ditch
needs to be cleaned out. I think that the Administration has to
find the manpower to do some type of job in there to be able to
get the Rosewood Ditch in some order so that it’s not causing
a health and safety issue.
Mr. Backman: That’s what the end result is.
Mr. Greenbaum: I agree with you 100%.
Mr. Backman: The end result is the health issue. If you have West
Nile in pooling water it’s only going to expand. It’s
not going to go away.
Mr. Greenbaum: I agree with you 100% but what I’m saying
is…
Mr. Backman: I understand.
Mr. Greenbaum: Okay.
Mr. Backman: I understand times are tough but…
Mr. Greenbaum: And it’s hard to explain that to somebody
because your taxes keep going up.
Mr. Backman: But you can’t just stop doing maintenance.
Mr. Greenbaum: I am a firm believer in that.
Mr. Backman: You have to do some. You can cut back on it but you
can’t stop it.
Mr. Greenbaum: I’m a firm believer in that. You have to
pick and choose your priorities now and it’s not everything
getting done as it would. We probably need five additional people
in the Roads Department, Buildings and Grounds to be able to really
maintain the Town, but if we did that the perception would be that
your taxes, your tax increase would be related to the fact that
we’ve added all of these people. In reality, adding five
people doesn’t really change anybody’s tax situation.
Taking five people off the doles doesn’t really change anyone’s
tax situation. Really very little that we do up here changes your
tax situation in a given year maybe $30 or $40 depending upon the
decisions we make, but it’s the cumulative affect of everything
that’s happening. It’s the School Board, it’s
the County, it’s the municipality and that’s what really
changes your tax situation. I would like to see, well, the first
thing I’d like to see is a meeting arranged with the homeowner
at his house and a report back at next month’s, what’s
the next meeting that we have?
Mr. Sohl: I won’t be here the next meeting.
Mrs. Lashway: August 5th.
Mr. Sohl: I won’t be here.
Mrs. Labow: Bill’s not going to be here.
Mrs. Lashway: August 5th and August 19th.
Mr. Backman: I’ll be home Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
of this week.
Mr. Greenbaum: Well, we’re going to expect a report from
the Administration on August 5th. Mr. Sohl will not be here but
the Mayor will have Tim Quinn here and we will have a report in
terms of exactly what needs to be done, what a plan of action is
and if he comes back and says, look, I don’t have the manpower
then we’re going to discuss how we can go about taking care
of this. That’s the best that I think we can do as a Council
is to demand some action from the Administration. August 5th. I
would ask the Council President to put it on the Agenda. I’m
sure he agrees.
Mr. Backman: August 5th I’m going to be in South Dakota.
Mr. Greenbaum: Alright, you want to move it to the 19th?
Mr. Backman: I might not be back by then. I’m going to Sturgis
for three weeks.
Mayor Scapicchio: Why don’t you call us when you get back?
Why don’t you call Bill Sohl when you get back from your
vacation? In the meantime…
President Perkins: In the meantime…
Mr. Greenbaum: What I would prefer is that, when are you going?
Mr. Backman: I’m leaving next Wednesday.
Mr. Greenbaum: What I would prefer is that a meeting take place
at your house before you go away.
Mr. Sohl: We can do that.
Mr. Backman: I’ll be home for the rest of this week, everyday
so they can come any time.
Mr. Greenbaum: And that we get a report August 5th whether you’re
here it will still be made part of the public record and we can
discuss it at that point in time if you’re not satisfied.
Mr. Backman: Alright, that’s good. I agree with that.
Mrs. Labow: Ray, I just…
Mr. Backman: Would you like my cell number?
Mr. Sohl: Yes, hold on.
Mr. Roman: Don’t put it on the record.
Mrs. Labow: Do you want it on the public record?
Mrs. Lashway: Ray, can I say two things about that?
Mr. Roman: It’s going to be in the Daily Record now.
Mr. Rattner: So it will have an editorial around it.
Mr. Russell: You know that number will be published in the paper.
Mr. Greenbaum: Sorry, Ray.
Mrs. Labow: Mr. Backman, hold on one second I want to…
President Perkins: Bill, please contact SLAP because I know we
don’t have the manpower.
Mr. Backman: Thank you for your time.
President Perkins: You’re welcome.
Mrs. Labow: I want to…
President Perkins: Mrs. Labow.
Mrs. Labow: On the same subject I wanted to point out that the
Rosewood Ditch is a hotspot for the County Mosquito Commission
and they do go out and check. I will call Frank Wilpert tomorrow
to make sure that the County has been out. They do test regularly
and we’ll include that in on the report for you. The other
thing, in speaking with the owners of Marveland Farms several months
ago they had told me that at any time if we want to access Rosewood
Ditch from their property they were more than happy to allow that.
Mr. Sohl: I don’t think that’s an issue. I think it’s
the fence that’s on the Rosewood side.
Mrs. Labow: It’s actually, Tim has told me in the past that
it is an issue and that it would be easier to get to from the Marveland
Farms end and they would allow us to roll the fence back to get
there.
Mr. Sohl: No, I mean the bigger issue is the fence that’s
there. You can’t just make the fence go away.
Mrs. Labow: You can unroll it. They said we could do that. We
could move it and put it back. That’s what they told us.
Mr. Sohl: I’m not sure it’s that easy.
Mr. Roman: …lot of work.
Mrs. Labow: I don’t know. That’s what I was told.
COUNCIL COMMENTS
President Perkins: Anybody else from the public have any comments?
Seeing none, I’ll close it to the public and that will move
us into Council Comments. Mr. Greenbaum, any comments?
Mr. Tepper: I think he just finished all of his comments.
President Perkins: He’s still making a few down there.
Mr. Tepper: Mr. Greenbaum, do you have any public comments?
President Perkins: Mr. Greenbaum?
Mr. Greenbaum: Do I have any public comments? Yes I do. I do have
a comment. It relates to the Boathouse and I did read the e-mails
that went around from both the Open Space Committee and from different
Council people that came across my computer this weekend. I had
several comments. First of all, I was in favor of purchasing the
Boathouse originally when I thought that there was some use for
the building. Once it became apparent that the building could not
be maintained or saved because of the costs involved of bringing
it up to code and to put it into a useable condition, my position
completely did a 180 with respect to the purchase of that property.
I did, however, keep an open mind in terms of the potential uses
that the Township might have for that property. I don’t believe
that those uses are outweighed necessarily by the fact that the
property owner has an obligation to maintain that property in some
condition. In fact, I had a conversation with the property owner
who has indicated to me that he has a desire to turn that property
back into a restaurant. Now, having said that we all recognize
that there are problems with turning that back into a restaurant
in light of various site specific issues that he will have to deal
with, but wouldn’t it be really nice to have a functioning
restaurant with a deck overlooking the Lake if it could happen?
Wouldn’t that be of great benefit to the Township rather
than to knock down a building and get no tax benefit? Now, I don’t
know whether or not it can happen. There are obviously issues related
to all of the aspects of getting that building back open but those
are issues that the property owner said he was willing to undertake
if there was support from the Township. I would like to see a resolution
which would put that building back into service for the residents
of Mount Olive in some private ownership commercial restaurant
capacity. I would personally love to be able to take my family
out there and one day sit on a deck overlooking Budd Lake and enjoy
a nice meal, as opposed to all of the issues which were raised
in terms of how it could raise revenue for the Township which I
believe were appropriately addressed by Mr. Tepper in his memo
as not as easy as it sounds. I’m still satisfied with the
decision that was made not to purchase that property in light of
information which came to our attention after we made the decision
to initially take a look at purchasing it. Thank you.
President Perkins: Mr. Tepper?
Mr. Tepper: I have nothing additional to add.
President Perkins: Mr. Roman?
Mr. Roman: Surprisingly nothing.
President Perkins: Not a surprise. Mrs. Labow?
Mrs. Labow: I met my quota tonight, thank you.
President Perkins: Mr. Rattner, who has been unbelievably quiet
this evening. Mr. Tobey?
Mr. Tobey: Nothing.
President Perkins: I’m going to be brief. I want to just
echo Councilman Greenbaum on the Boathouse issue. I, like Mr. Greenbaum,
was in favor at the beginning of purchasing that property. My investigation,
I went into the Zoning Department and you obviously need to take
a little history. I would love to have a restaurant there. I used
to go there when it was Nick’s and that’s when I could
partake of a small drink. So that wasn’t too bad, but ironically
enough the applicant had appeared in July and August of 2004. When
he came and made an application to build a nice size home right
on what used to be the prime parking area for Nick’s, for
all of us that remember that, that gravel lot, and then he came
back and he got a permit to put a deck on the back. At the same
time he made an application to the Zoning Board of Adjustment to
change the usage of the building from its present restaurant to
a residential, obviously saying well look, there’s another
residential one across the street so it just makes perfect sense.
I really can’t make a run of a restaurant or whatever reason
it was. Subsequently, the Zoning Board of Adjustment denied that
and left it as a restaurant. Now we have a small piece of property
approximately 50 feet by 60 feet directly across the street from
the Boathouse which is the only actual place to park a vehicle.
Coming here this evening I try to drive by as often as possible,
there was a pickup truck in there with a small boat trailer. I’m
sure, Nelson, you saw it on the way down that took up a pretty
good portion of that parking lot. I think we’ll get about
three trucks in there, with luck, with trailers. If we were to
turn that into something that the Township might want to use with
boat slips and ramps and other things that might be able to be
done, I fear that the residents along Sandshore and Netcong Road
and some of the adjacents would be the beneficiaries of a lot of
unwanted truck parking along with boat trailers because there’s
just no place else to be. So I find that piece of property, like
Mr. Greenbaum, I think he should go back and do exactly what the
Zoning Board of Adjustment told him he should do – make a
restaurant, reduce the number of seats based upon the number of
parking spaces that you can have applicable and god bless you.
With that, I’ll take a motion to adjourn.
ADJOURNMENT - Motion was made and seconded, all in favor and none
opposed, the meeting was adjourned at 9:59 pm.
_________________________________
Phil Tobey, Council Vice President
I, MICHELLE MASSER, Deputy Township Clerk of the Township of Mount
Olive do hereby certify that the foregoing Minutes is a true and
correct copy of the Minutes approved at a legally convened meeting
of the Mount Olive Township Council duly held on August 5, 2008.
_________________________________
Michelle Masser, Deputy Township Clerk
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