TOWNSHIP OF HAMILTON MEETING MINUTES

TOWNSHIP COUNCIL

President Dennis Pone Vice President Kevin Meara

Council Members: David Kenny, Kelly Yaede, and Edward Gore

Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Agenda Meeting 6:30 PM

Public Meeting Immediately Follows

The agenda as it appears was discussed by members of Council along with members of the Administration. STATEMENT OF THE PRESIDENT “This meeting is being held with the benefit of public notice as required by the Open Public Meetings Act” ROLL CALL COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: KEVIN MEARA, DENNIS PONE, KELLY YAEDE, EDWARD GORE AND

DAVID KENNY ADMINISTRATION PRESENT: LINDSAY BURBAGE, DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF LAW ADMINISTRATION ABSENT: JOHN F. RICCI, BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR Salute to the Flag Invocation Discussion (Agenda) Noise Ordinance Minutes Communications 1a. Acknowledgement – Transition Year (TY) 2010 Annual Financial Statement 1b. Hamilton A’s Baseball, Inc. requests permission to conduct tag solicitations on various dates at

the approved location Consent Agenda 2a. Resolution Consenting To The Appointment Of Larry Rosenthal As Fair Housing Officer 2b. Resolution Consenting To The Appointments Of Individuals To The Hamilton Township

Redevelopment Agency 2c. Resolution Authorizing Agreement For Professional Engineering Services With Birdsall Services

Group For The Department Of Water Pollution Control Press Building Structural Design And Building Envelope Assessment ($16,650.00 Maximum)

2d. Resolution Establishing A Contract With Winner Ford For The Purchase Of A 2011 Ford Escape

For The Department Of Water Pollution Control ($19,541.00 Maximum) 2e. Resolution Establishing A Contract With Chapman Ford For The Purchase Of A 2011 Ford F-

250 With Utility Body and Plow For The Department Of Water Pollution Control ($26,960.00 Maximum)

2f. Resolution Establishing A Contract With Winner Ford For The Purchase Of A 2011 Ford F-350

With Utility Body and Plow For The Department Of Water Pollution Control ($37,626.00 Maximum)

Consent Agenda cont’d

2g. Resolution Establishing A Contract With Chapman Ford For The Purchase Of A 2011 Ford F-350 With Utility Body And Light Bars and Plow For The Department Of Water Pollution Control ($38,816.00 Maximum)

2h. Resolution Establishing A Three Year Contract With Binder Schott, Emily’s Café And Catering,

Nick’s Café 72, And Rosa’s Ristorante For Catering Services At Sayen House And Gardens 2i. Resolution Approving Amendment To Contract 10-541 Awarded To International Salt To

Purchase Treated And Untreated Rock Salt Via Mercer County Cooperative Contract Purchasing System ($+142,880.00)

2j. Resolution Authorizing The Refund Of Fee Paid By Bruce Heller For The Use Of Sayen Gardens

(Wedding Ceremony - $495.00) 2k. Resolution Authorizing The Refund Of Fee Paid By Elite Air, Inc. For A Construction Permit

($130.00) 2l. Resolution Authorizing The Refund Of Fee Paid By Elite Air, Inc. For A Construction Permit

($255.00) 2m. Resolution Authorizing The Refund Of Real Estate Taxes ($ 9,773.69) Ordinances 3a. 11-004 Ordinance Establishing Handicapped Parking Space (3 Runyon

Drive)

SECOND READING AND PUBLIC HEARING 3b. 11-005 Ordinance Establishing Handicapped Parking Spaces (1334

Elizabeth Avenue; 824 South Olden Avenue; 2401 South Clinton Avenue [Parking space on Lida Street])

SECOND READING AND PUBLIC HEARING

3c. 11-006 Ordinance Amending And Supplementing The Code Of

Ordinances, Hamilton Township, New Jersey, Chapter 54, Fire Prevention And Protection, Article II, Enforcement Of State Uniform Fire Code*, Section 54-32, Designation Of Enforcing Agencies

SECOND READING AND PUBLIC HEARING

3d. 11-007 Ordinance Amending And Supplementing The Code Of

Ordinances, Hamilton Township, New Jersey, Chapter 2, Administration Of Government, Article VII, Budget And Expenditure Procedures, Section 2-853, Awarding Of Contracts; Bidding Procedures; Bidding Threshold (Increase to State of New Jersey Threshold)

FIRST READING AND INTRODUCTION

Comments from the Public Comments from the Council Budget Review Review of the (CY) 2011 Municipal Capital and Sewer Utility Budgets with the Budget Officer, Roberta Magdziak Adjournment:

TOWNSHIP OF HAMILTON MEETING MINUTES

TOWNSHIP COUNCIL

President Dennis Pone Vice President Kevin Meara

Council Members: David Kenny, Kelly Yaede, and Edward Gore

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Agenda Meeting 6:30 PM Public Meeting Immediately Follows

STATEMENT OF THE PRESIDENT “This meeting is being held with the benefit of public notice as required by the Open Public Meetings Act” ROLL CALL COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: KEVIN MEARA, DENNIS PONE, KELLY YAEDE, EDWARD GORE AND

DAVID KENNY ADMINISTRATION PRESENT: LINDSAY BURBAGE, DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF LAW ADMINISTRATION ABSENT: JOHN F. RICCI, BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR Salute to the Flag led by Joshua from Troop 91 in Hamilton Square Invocation led by Councilman Gore Discussion (Agenda) Noise Ordinance Minutes Communications On the motion of Mr. Meara, seconded by Mr. Kenny; the following communications were unanimously approved: 1a. Acknowledgement – Transition Year (TY) 2010 Annual Financial Statement 1b. Hamilton A’s Baseball, Inc. requests permission to conduct tag solicitations on various dates at

the approved location Consent Agenda On the motion of Mr. Kenny, seconded by Mr. Meara; consent agenda items 2a through 2m were unanimously approved after the following discussion: MR. ANTONIO C. GAMBINO, 1003 Hughes Drive: It seems like you’re spending an awful lot of money on vehicles and trucks, why is that? Every time I turn around there’s a new truck on the agenda. PRESIDENT PONE: Most of these trucks I think that we’re purchasing now, Roberta, you can correct me if I’m wrong, are from last year’s capital budget. And it’s been approved, and we’re just as we need to replace trucks. And I think the majority of these are replacements if not all of them. We are just replacing old trucks; we’ve been doing it a little bit at a time over the last couple of years because our fleet is getting very very old. MR. GAMBINO: So in other words then, this money was allotted in last years budget. PRESIDENT PONE: Capital budget. MR. GAMBINO: 2b, explain to me, what is this? What does the township need caterers for? COUNCILMAN KENNY: 2h?

MR. GAMBINO: I’m sorry, 2h, what are you doing here? I’ve never heard of this before where the township needs caterers. COUNCILMAN KENNY: It’s so if people have events at Sayen House, they can have it catered. In the past, we would only have one caterer that they had to use. Now, we’re giving them the option of four caterers, and they can contract with that caterer. And the township gets a portion of the proceeds. MR. GAMBINO: I’m lost here. PRESIDENT PONE: We’ve actually always done it Toney. I mean, we’ve always had a caterer for Sayen Gardens. It’s just now we’re bidding it, and trying to get a little better pricing out of it and a little better deal for the township. That’s really what tonight is all about. MR. GAMBINO: So in other words, what you’re saying is if somebody holds an event at Sayen Gardens, they can only use these people right here, that’s it. PRESIDENT PONE: Correct. MR. GAMBINO: That’s not the American way. COUNCILMAN KENNY: It’s a township facility, we share the proceeds. MR. GAMBINO: But still, the taxpayers own it though. COUNCILMAN KENNY: We need to have control over who’s in using the kitchen and using the facilities. We can’t just let anybody in. In the past, it used to be just one company would have access to it. Now we’re allowing four to come in and they’ll share the portion of the proceeds with the township each time. MR. GAMBINO: I don’t like it. I mean, if somebody’s holding an event, and they pay big money to use Sayen Gardens, I can’t see why they can’t bring their own caterer in, it doesn’t make sense. It’s like it’s mafia controlled. PRESIDENT PONE: I understand, Lindsay, are there liability issues too that we deal with? Are there other reasons, Mr. Gambino raises a good point. MR. BURBAGE: I think you hit it kind of on the head Councilman Kenny. We want to be able to check out the caterers in advance, so we know (inaudible). MR. GAMBINO: (inaudible) it appears to me that the township is in the middle of it already. It’s going to create a lot of litigation with this. MR. BURBAGE: No litigation that we are in the middle of because we’ve checked it out. (inaudible). MR. GAMBINO: I don’t think that you should have even put this out for bid. What you should have done is… I mean, if you wanted these companies, you should allow other companies to come in. What if somebody like Cedar Gardens wanted to come in? PRESIDENT PONE: Anyone could have bid it. MR. GAMBINO: But you don’t understand my point, what I’m trying to say. If someone wanted to hire Cedar Gardens, it’s like you’re forcing the people so the people can walk away from you. (inaudible). I know, a couple of these places, I wouldn’t eat there. I’m just letting you know that because I don’t particularly care for their food. But that’s beside the point, I mean, you’re forcing the people to take these. It’s like (inaudible). We’ll take our business somewhere else. COUNCILMAN KENNY: Tony, they use to have one choice. In terms of bidding, it’s only appropriate that we bid it because otherwise, it’s not appropriate for the township to pick a restaurant and say oh you get to get all the business out of Sayen House. That wouldn’t be right, that’s why we bid it. MR. GAMBINO: To be quite honest with you, I think people are just (inaudible). PRESIDENT PONE: Two years booked solid for weddings at Sayen House. And frankly, really Tony, and I think you make a decent point. But I think this is the best thing we’ve ever done. Because in the past, we have had much less of a choice for people. Now, they actually have a choice for people. And now they actually have a choice. I even believe, correct me if I’m wrong, but if I read the text right, for one event, they can use more than one of these, is that true, or they can pick different menus? MR. GAMBINO: It says you have three year contracts with these companies. What’s the township getting out of this? COUNCILMAN KENNY: (inaudible), 22%.

MR. GAMBINO: That’s an extra ordinate amount of money. PRESIDENT PONE: It was a bid spec. MR. GAMBINO: Twenty-two percent, that’s like taking half of somebody’s profit. It’s almost like 50%. MR. BURBAGE: The percentage amounts were not determined by the Council. (inaudible) they were supplied to us by the vendor. MR. GAMBINO: I don’t think they’re going to give us the full amount, I think somebody’s going to skim it off the top for 22%. PRESIDENT PONE: Thank you Mr. Gambino. MR. AUGUST SCOTTO, Mark Twain Drive: I got a question here that’s a little bit off. Rosa’s Restaurant, isn’t she married to Gilmore? PRESIDENT PONE: I have no idea. MR. SCOTTO: It worries me when Gilmore is involved in anything. I’d just like to be sure. MR. VINCENT CAPODANNO, 65 Englewood Boulevard: With the trucks, I think it’s a good idea that you do them. Because I think that the snow storms that you had, I think that the township needs more trucks. And that, coming from a big city with a lot of equipment, they even had trouble; but I think you’re main trouble with Hamilton is you need trucks. You don’t blame the workers when you need trucks. And whenever you can buy an F-250, F-350 or whatever with a plow, that’s smart business. And in your capital budget, I hope you approve some more trucks. I rode around whatever, and as being a former Councilman, I think you need at least another dozen vehicles. PRESIDENT PONE: There are some more vehicles in the capital budget. MR. CAPODANNO: I remember talking to Balgowan when he first started. I told him if you buy anything, equip it with a plow. Any vehicle you buy, even if you buy a four-wheel SUV drive, equip it with a plow. Because the township definitely… small roads, in your cul-de-sacs and stuff like that, a small vehicle can plow that out. You can hire people on a list to come in and drive if you need drivers. PRESIDENT PONE: That’s a good point. 11-070 Resolution Consenting To The Appointment Of Larry Rosenthal As Fair Housing Officer 11-071 Resolution Consenting To The Appointments Of Individuals To The Hamilton Township

Redevelopment Agency 11-072 Resolution Authorizing Agreement For Professional Engineering Services With Birdsall Services

Group For The Department Of Water Pollution Control Press Building Structural Design And Building Envelope Assessment ($16,650.00 Maximum)

11-073 Resolution Establishing A Contract With Winner Ford For The Purchase Of A 2011 Ford Escape

For The Department Of Water Pollution Control ($19,541.00 Maximum) 11-074 Resolution Establishing A Contract With Chapman Ford For The Purchase Of A 2011 Ford F-

250 With Utility Body and Plow For The Department Of Water Pollution Control ($26,960.00 Maximum)

11-075 Resolution Establishing A Contract With Winner Ford For The Purchase Of A 2011 Ford F-350

With Utility Body and Plow For The Department Of Water Pollution Control ($37,626.00 Maximum)

11-076 Resolution Establishing A Contract With Chapman Ford For The Purchase Of A 2011 Ford F-

350 With Utility Body And Light Bars and Plow For The Department Of Water Pollution Control ($38,816.00 Maximum)

11-077 Resolution Establishing A Three Year Contract With Binder Schott, Emily’s Café And Catering,

Nick’s Café 72, And Rosa’s Ristorante For Catering Services At Sayen House And Gardens 11-078 Resolution Approving Amendment To Contract 10-541 Awarded To International Salt To

Purchase Treated And Untreated Rock Salt Via Mercer County Cooperative Contract Purchasing System ($+142,880.00)

11-079 Resolution Authorizing The Refund Of Fee Paid By Bruce Heller For The Use Of Sayen Gardens

(Wedding Ceremony - $495.00)

11-080 Resolution Authorizing The Refund Of Fee Paid By Elite Air, Inc. For A Construction Permit

($130.00) 11-081 Resolution Authorizing The Refund Of Fee Paid By Elite Air, Inc. For A Construction Permit

($255.00) 11-082 Resolution Authorizing The Refund Of Real Estate Taxes ($ 9,773.69) Ordinances ORDINANCE - SECOND READING AND PUBLIC HEARING 11-004 Ordinance Establishing Handicapped Parking Space (3 Runyon

Drive) After the above ordinance had been read by title, the President declared the public hearing open and asked

if anyone wished to be heard concerning same. There being no response, Ms. Yaede moved to close the public hearing and adopt, seconded by Mr. Gore; unanimously approved.

ORDINANCE - SECOND READING AND PUBLIC HEARING 11-005 Ordinance Establishing Handicapped Parking Spaces (1334 Elizabeth Avenue; 824 South

Olden Avenue; 2401 South Clinton Avenue [Parking space on Lida Street]) After the above ordinance had been read by title, the President declared the public hearing open and asked if anyone wished to be heard concerning same. There being no response, Mr. Gore moved to close the public hearing and adopt, seconded by Ms. Yaede; unanimously approved. ORDINANCE - SECOND READING AND PUBLIC HEARING 11-006 Ordinance Amending And Supplementing The Code Of Ordinances, Hamilton Township,

New Jersey, Chapter 54, Fire Prevention And Protection, Article II, Enforcement Of State Uniform Fire Code*, Section 54-32, Designation Of Enforcing Agencies

After the above ordinance had been read by title, the President declared the public hearing opened and asked if anyone wished to be heard concerning same. MR. VINCENT CAPODANNO, 65 Englewood Boulevard: Can you explain to the public exactly what you’re going to amend? PRESIDENT PONE: Mr. Burbage, if you would give the explanation you gave to Council please. MR. BURBAGE: This is a new ordinance that we have (inaudible) all of the fire districts, it indicates that there is a fire inspector for each district. What the various districts are doing now are shared services. They are going to have an inspector for only one district. In order to do that, we have to change the ordinance to say (inaudible) so it’s just kind of a house keeping, so we’ll clean the ordinance so we can save some money. MR. CAPODANNO: It’s all the same, this ordinance all pertains to that? MR. BURBAGE: Yes. MR. CAPODANNO: And they agreed to it? MR. BURBAGE: They asked for it. MR. CAPODANNO: Oh they did, that’s a good idea. ANTONIO C. GAMBINO, 1003 Hughes Drive: I’m just curious, where are you going to save money on this? PRESIDENT PONE: Well, I think it’s the same as any shared service. Instead of having a requirement of nine fire inspectors, now they can between the different fire districts, they can use less inspectors. MR. GAMBINO: How many districts are there? PRESIDENT PONE: There are nine. MR. GAMBINO: So you’re going to have an inspector for each district?

PRESIDENT PONE: Now we’re not. MR. GAMBINO: You just said that you’re going to have an inspector for each district. PRESIDENT PONE: We do now, this ordinance is changing it. MR. GAMBINO: Oh, you’re going to drop them down. Oh okay, I misunderstood. You’re going to drop them down to what then, how many? COUNCILMAN KENNY: There are three districts that are joining to have one inspector, and that’s happening twice. So out of six districts, we’ll have two inspectors instead of six inspectors. MR. GAMBINO: So how many are you going to have total then, six total for the nine districts? COUNCILMAN KENNY: Five now instead of nine. MR. GAMBINO: So you went from nine to five. PRESIDENT PONE: Correct. MR. GAMBINO: So you down sized. COUNCILMAN KENNY: Yes. MR. GAMBINO: That’s the first time I’ve ever seen this government down size anything. PRESIDENT PONE: Thank you Mr. Gambino. MR. GAMBINO: You mean to tell me we’re going to go back to the real America, is that what you’re saying? PRESIDENT PONE: We’re trying our best. Thanks to the fire district on this particular one. MR. VINCENT CAPODANNO, 65 Englewood Boulevard: Being that fire districts down sized their inspectors, have they come forward to the government and expressed any interest in consolidation of their fire districts? PRESIDENT PONE: Not directly, but I know that one district did consolidate houses; District 4. Enterprise and Hamilton became one. So there’s some natural consolidation going on, and I think the fire districts are trying to share services. I think they’re trying to do things to cut their costs internally, so far, so good. MR. CAPODANNO: This is really a step in the right direction. I’m not one to tell fire districts what to do. And I’m not a fireman, I don’t fight fires. I wouldn’t want to go into a burning house. But the bottom line is I think that the people of Hamilton are interested in basically knowing if there’s any interest on their part to consolidate or to cut their costs or whatever. I know a lot of the people. (inaudible). So if there’s nine different contracts when it comes to pay, there’s got to be a lot of other things that are probably differing in the nine districts. PRESIDENT PONE: I think a lot of people share your sentiment. MR. CAPODANNO: I’m not saying to force them to do something. It would be nice for them to start to really address the issue and let the public know what’s going on. MR. ANTONIO C. GAMBINO, 1003 Hughes Drive: Does that mean that They’re going to get rid of some of the fire commissioners that are getting paid how much $10,000 a year? Because I’d like to see that happen. COUNCILMAN KENNY: This doesn’t affect fire commissioners. MR. GAMBINO: I’d really like to see that happen. I really think you only need one in Hamilton Township. You don’t need a commissioner in every district. It’s a waste of taxpayer money. COUNCILMAN KENNY: I’m voting yes, and I also want to note that fire district elections are this Saturday, from 2:00 to 9:00, people can vote at their local fire districts. The budget will be up at each fire district. If you’re a registered voter, you can vote. It’s easy to overlook a Saturday election, so just bare that in mind. And tell your friends and neighbors that they should get interested and get out and vote. COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: (Inaudible).

COUNCILMAN GORE: I’d like to echo the comments of my colleague Mr. Kenny, and also my colleague Miss Yaede. And thank the firemen that we have here for the fine job they do for the township, and I certainly vote yes. PRESIDENT PONE: There was a lot of good comment tonight, and I happen to follow along with Mr. Capodanno pretty close on how I feel. I love what you guys are doing, not only the job you do. But as Mr. Capodanno said, I feel the same way, I wouldn’t run into a burning building, so God bless you for that. I also have seen a great participation on your parts to do some natural consolidation such as this, such as this, such as what we saw in district four. And Janice, I know how much that hurt us. We all love Enterprise Fire, so I’m with you sentimentally on that one. But I also appreciate the natural consolidation, so I think you guys are doing a great job. I think you’re moving in the right direction, and I think you need to, as we heard tonight, we need to cut costs and do whatever we can. There being no further comments, Mr. Meara moved to close the public hearing and adopt, seconded by Mr. Kenny; unanimously approved. ORDINANCE - FIRST READING AND INTRODUCTION 11-007 Ordinance Amending And Supplementing The Code Of Ordinances, Hamilton Township,

New Jersey, Chapter 2, Administration Of Government, Article VII, Budget And Expenditure Procedures, Section 2-853, Awarding Of Contracts; Bidding Procedures; Bidding Threshold (Increase to State of New Jersey Threshold)

Mr. Kenny made a motion to approve the above ordinance on first reading, seconded by Mr. Meara; unanimously approved. PRESIDENT PONE: Lindsay can answer it. MR. BURBAGE: (inaudible). Comments from the Public MR. FRED ZODA, Hummingbird Drive: I really wouldn’t want to comment on the ordinance as much as to just make sure that everybody is aware that fire services cost the tax payers less than a million. If you really sit down and you look at it, you pay more for cable service than you do for fire service. The fire service meets every quarter to see how we can cut costs and keep the same service that you have. And as you all know, we’ve had a bad year. Even last year, we’ve had a lot of fires. This year, we’ve had two deaths. It’s been a very difficult year for the fire service. But remember, it costs less than your cable bill. MR. ANTONIO C. GAMBINO, 1003 Hughes Drive: I’d like to ask Miss Yaede a question through you Mr. Pone. PRESIDENT PONE: Go right ahead. MR. GAMBINO: I saw you on TV yesterday. And you’re asking for $500,000 for the animal shelter. COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Mr. Gambino, let me stop you, (inaudible) this budget is presented by the administration. Nothing is asked of this Council. MR. GAMBINO: That’s the way they said it on TV that they’re asking the Council for $500,000. COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: The administration put it in the budget; the Council has to review the budget. But this Council has not asked for any money to be allocated for the shelter. MR. GAMBINO: How much are they getting right now? How much are they getting for the year for operating expenses? Forty-five thousand dollars, they’re asking for $500,000. PRESIDENT PONE: Mr. Gambino, one thing is operating costs. The money they’re asking for in the budget, that the administration is asking for is for capital. It’s to expand. MR. GAMBINO: Well, they want to expand. I think that’s an awful lot of money for expansion, especially there. I mean, I know it’s quite confined. But I don’t think that the taxpayers should waste that type of money right now. What I think should be done is, and you made a good point, you should try to get the money publically. That’s where the money should come from. And you should move it out of there from where it’s at because it’s very small. You shouldn’t expand it; you should try to find another piece of property in the township and buy that property and make it bigger. Because it would be absolutely senseless to expand out there because it’s too confined. You’re right next to public works there, and everything is all crammed in.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Thank you Mr. Gambino for bringing the concern of the animals to the attention of Council. I know they have seen me. But I must say that the expenses that this administration had looked into on purchasing not only land, but also to see expansion of this animal shelter, has been upwards of $1.7 million with a new building to fill. It was just too much. Currently, they’ve really dwindled down the expense in trying to look at how can we kind of rebuild, expand on certain ends, make the cages a little bit bigger. But the type of expansion that they’re looking at is the really… Roberta, correct me if I’m wrong, and all the plans have been looked at to save taxpayers money. This is basically the barebones beginning steps that that animal shelter really needs to make sure that the animals are receiving their services. And we’ve seen a steady increase of animals with this economic climate. As we stated, Hamiltonians love their pets.

On two of your points, this expansion is the lowest possible barebones expansion that the administration has looked at. I think back to 2008-2009, if I’m not off Roberta, it was upwards of $1.7 million. It was just way too expensive.

So now, looking at between $700,000 and $900,000, really that is the barebones, the absolutely

minimum that the township is looking at incurring. And you’re right, that’s why we do have a campaign being kicked off to help ease the burdens to the tax payers, and then the administration will (inaudible).

MR. GAMBINO: There’s all types of grants out there that you can get.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: We’re looking at everything.

MR. GAMBINO: You don’t have to necessarily feed this on the taxpayer of Hamilton Township.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: We’re working with all the township pet rescues.

MR. GAMBINO: Don’t get me wrong, I have a dog. I was sick with what happened down in Arizona. If I told you what happened down in Arizona, you would totally flip out. People were losing their homes down there, they were just leaving their dogs in their backyards because they couldn’t take them with them. I can see allotting more money to feed the animals. I can see upping the budget a little bit more. I think $45,000 is a little slim to feed the animals.

PRESIDENT PONE: Ironically, we’re paying less to feed the animals because we’re getting more donations in food from people. Just what you’re saying, we’re getting public help.

MR. GAMBINO: I think to expand right now, a lot of people in the township look at it and people say well you want $500,000 to expand, and I can’t feed my family right now, and I can’t put gas in my car.

PRESIDENT PONE: We appreciate it Mr. Gambino. My feeling is this, we haven’t made any decisions on this proposal, but I commend Councilwoman Yaede.

MR. GAMBINO: I can see upping it for feed, maybe $25,000 $30,000. But to add right now for, you want half a million dollars to expand, I don’t think that you should do any type of expansion right now unless you get the money from private entities. Why don’t you hit like some of these corporations like Pedigree, have you tried that?

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: We’re trying to.

MR. GAMBINO: I’m sure that they would write you a check with the kind of money that they make. If they could just put their name on something. Have you tried that?

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: That’s what we’re going to do. This is the first campaign that we’ve really launched.

MR. GAMBINO: I just don’t think that you should just jump in and take a half a million dollars of the taxpayers’ money.

PRESIDENT PONE: Understood, thank you.

MR. GAMBINO: You want to get the half a million dollars, but you don’t want to save the firehouse out there, Enterprise.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: That’s not in our purview.

MR. GAMBINO: But I’m just saying, because they came in here and they wanted money.

PRESIDENT PONE: Thank you Mr. Gambino. MS. ANNE SIMMONDS, 4961 South Broad Street: I’ve had it up to here. What I have in my hand right here, I’ve been picking up the last three years or more now. Stuff like this off my property and off my

lawn from South Broad Street in Groveville just before you get to Main. I’ve already been down to the Mayor’s office and talked to them, but I didn’t bring this stuff with me.

For almost three years I’ve been trying to do something out here. I’d like to see what my road

looks like. My car has already been hit in 07. Now I got a 10 car and I don’t want that one hit. They have no markers on South Broad Street at all. It’s supposed to be a double lane all the way down to Main Street. Do you know where I’m talking about? There are no markers there at all. One swung right around like that and almost hit. Anybody coming out of Main Street from Groveville, look out. I have dealt with this county for I don’t know how long. I had signatures even to turn the speed limit down after I got hit. Oh no, they wouldn’t do anything like that. And now I got stuff coming that they paste it down. They peeled it off and pasted it. They must have given one of their friends business because it’s not sticking. And there’s no double lines that are supposed to be on Broad Street in certain areas there now. And I’ve put up with enough down there. I’ve been down at the Mayor’s office like I’ve said. Somebody’s going to have to get off of that county and get Mr. Carabelli and them off their rear to do something. I’ve had it.

Another thing too, finally this past year, they put burbs down. Why, because the water was

draining in the property between me and the man in the corner. And it got so much in there the water laid there, the lady couldn’t keep her stockade fence up. And then it started rotting the trees out. I had likens or mushrooms on the tree, that big around in the trunk. God forbid, the wind came and knocked the tree over. They finally put the burbs down. They have no drains out by me there. There’s no curbing along there, no nothing. But this would never take place in Hamilton Square or Mercerville, I guarantee you it wouldn’t. And I know it wouldn’t, I’ve lived in this township too many years. But we’ve got to take it out there, I don’t think it’s fair, and I don’t think it’s right.

PRESIDENT PONE: Just to follow up, Mr. Ricci did contact the county and they said, I guess due to their low funds, they wouldn’t restripe until next spring, or late spring of next year.

MS. SIMMONDS: Well Mr. Pone, did you see what it says there, how long ago it was then?

PRESIDENT PONE: Yes, I did, and it is a county issue. And I think because we’ve communicated with the county, I’m not sure what other role we have. But I would certainly go to a freeholder meeting and lay into them.

MS. SIMMONDS: That’s going up in the city, and I’m not about to go in the city right now, the way the things are.

PRESIDENT PONE: Understood.

MS. SIMMONDS: And I’ll tell you, something has got to be done. It’s not fair out there. And I know it would be done out there in Hamilton Square. I don’t care if it was the county or what it was. May I have it back please?

PRESIDENT PONE: Absolutely. Thank you Ms. Simmons.

MR. AUGUST SCOTTO, Mark Twain Drive: I want to ask a question. Your rating was uplifted. Who was it that specifically raised it?

PRESIDENT PONE: Moody’s and Standard & Poors, if I’m not mistaken.

MR. BURBAGE: Moody’s most recently.

MR. SCOTTO: What made them take so long?

PRESIDENT PONE: I think they actually evaluate it every year based on certain criteria. And if I remember correctly, we were upgraded last year as well.

MR. SCOTTO: Oh we were, I didn’t know that.

PRESIDENT PONE: This is the second upgrade.

MR. SCOTTO: I thought we weren’t upgraded until just this year. That’s why I was wondering. PRESIDENT PONE: No, it was done once before, so this is our second bump from when things were bad. MR. SCOTTO: Each year, it’s been good. PRESIDENT PONE: Thank you Mr. Scotto.

MR. JOE OSWALD, 53 Joni Avenue: I want to thank Mr. Gore for his reading, reference to the pursuit of happiness, it really hit home. I’ve been on that pursuit since the year 2002. But my question is, when will a draft of the nuisance ordinance be available? PRESIDENT PONE: Next meeting, we’re going to have one more draft that I’m aware of. Depending on Council’s input, the administration’s input, police department’s input, I would guess that probably within three meetings. Does that seem reasonable Lindsay that we would have it on the agenda? And then it would be a public document I guess at that point. MR. BURBAGE: I would think so, yes. PRESIDENT PONE: I mean, we’re still kicking it around because there are things that need to be looked at by us, the administration, and the police. And then ultimately, we’ll have a public hearing on it and get the public’s input. So again, I would say within three meetings we should be ready to put that out for at least introduction. COUNCILMAN KENNY: Probably two. PRESIDENT PONE: I think we got half of our questions out tonight at least. And the police haven’t gotten back to us apparently, with any comments, and nay not, I don’t know. But if they do, we got to give them a little time to do that. MR. OSWALD: There’s no chance of getting a peak out of what you have. PRESIDENT PONE: Listen, frankly, I don’t have an objection to it, but I don’t know what the protocol is to that. I mean, right now, it’s a document that’s not complete. We’re still working with it. So typically, we wouldn’t release that to the public, correct? MR. BURBAGE: That’s correct. MR. OSWALD: Understand, thank you. MR. VINCENT CAPODANNO, 65 Englewood Boulevard: Just to respond to what that lady said, I think the county should get off its butt and get their freeholders and their county executive out to Hamilton to one of the fire houses and hold a meeting. Because I think a lot of people are sick and tired of two years in a row, they raised our taxes. If you look at some of the county roads, they’re deplorable. And then he says, he has no money to help out when she wants her road fixed or whatever, but he’s got $22 million in surplus. They just got another five because of the detention center. He’s got $27 million in surplus, but he doesn’t have a dime to help that poor woman. A couple years back, we went through an election. We had our differences, but in the last couple of years, you’re doing a great job when it comes to the finances of the town. PRESIDENT PONE: Thank you. MR. CAPODANNO: And it kind of makes me wonder, being that with discussing the capital budget and sewer budgets last week, I think the general budget that there’s no democrats here. But pretty soon I guess, they’ll be here. But yet, right now when they should be here, they’re not here. They’re not here to offer a solution. They’re not here to discuss the budget, they’re not here to do nothing. I’m totally disgusted with them. I’m totally disgusted with the county because I think the County Executive should take a page out of your book and the mayor’s book in what he’s done in the last couple of years. I want to get the figures of how much money Hamilton sends the county. I think it’s got to be almost equivalent to what the taxpayers give us as a municipality. COUNCILMAN KENNY: It’s pretty close. MR. CAPODANNO: You know what I mean, and here he is after an election year. The county executive, that he’s doing Hamilton a favor that he’s not going to raise taxes after he slammed us two years in a row. My taxes at my house went up about $500. So I can imagine people with homes that are worth $500, $600, $700, $800 thousand. Some of the big businesses in Hamilton Township, I can imagine what the county has done to them. So being that he has $27 million in surplus, and he should sell the Princeton Golf Course, he should sell the airport, and a lot of other things that he has. Maybe he can give Hamilton a tax break instead of going up there and pounding on his chest, saying that he is going to do us a favor. He’s not going to raise taxes this year. Maybe he should sit down with you and the Mayor, and figure out how he can maybe do better. That’s the first thing. The shelter for the animals, I was on Gilmore’s butt for four years about doing something with that shelter, God Bless You. Is that coming out of capital money? COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Yes.

MR. CAPODANNO: Okay, so it’s coming out of capital money. The problem with the strays, the cats, is everywhere now. In my area, I’ve got the cats. I feel sorry for them, I put food out for them. And I don’t want to call anybody because I’m afraid that they’ll bring them to the shelter and I know there’s no room there, and who knows.

So for many many years, under Gilmore who said he was an animal lover, that shelter was never expanded. And the amount of money that he raised in taxes, he could have definitely done something with that shelter, and he never did. And a lot of the things that you’re doing now, and the Mayor’s doing, you’re doing in a nice gentle way. You’re not being mean like the governor. And I think he’s another one that should take a page out of your book. Because the way he gets things done is a little too roothless and mean. And the way you’re doing things, I think is a little bit more compassionate, so I got to give you a lot of credit. PRESIDENT PONE: Thank you. COUNCILMAN KENNY: Vinnie, can you run against us again? PRESIDENT PONE: I’ve got a better idea, run for county freeholder. MR. CAPODANNO: You know something, I was thinking of running against them as an Independent. I know I can get the money. But people don’t vote for Independents, but he definitely needs a challenge. PRESIDENT PONE: I love your idea about them having meetings in other places. I heard you mention that. And they really need to do that because their meetings are ridiculous. MR. CAPODANNO: Nobody wants to go to them. PRESIDENT PONE: Finding out where they are, no one can go to them. MR. CAPODANNO: I went to a freeholder meeting, I could hardly talk. PRESIDENT PONE: It’s very difficult, I’ve been to a couple, and I know people that go to them. It’s very difficult to get there, it’s difficult to get the time they run them. That’s a great, great suggestion. And if people really saw what went on there, it’s just… I don’t want to be political here, but it needs people there like the people that come here, and talk, and we work things out. MR. CAPODANNO: They’re afraid to come here. I’ll tell you what, if they had a meeting here, I stay on the public to make sure they’re there to give it to them. Because I’d like to know what’s going on with their assets, I’d like to know what’s going on in Hopewell and all them areas with their trails that they’ve been spending a lot of money on. I know what’s going on because a lot of the employees talk to me anyway. That Princeton Golf Course, I mean, that thing is a bomb. And then, who knows what’s going on with the airport? No figures coming out on the airport. I don’t even think a county should own an airport. If it’s not an asset that’s giving you a lot of money, then you shouldn’t have it. And it took them how many years to finally figure out that Middlesex can take some of the youth from Mercer County do a better job for a lower cost. How many years did it take the county executive to think of that one? You know what I mean, $4 million, $5 million a year. He’s bragging he’s going to save I think $4, $5 million a year. Well, he could have saved that $4 or $5 million a year for a long long time. I don’t see him do nothing for the youth of Hamilton. Really, I don’t know what they do. He’ll probably come out and he’ll probably say what he’s doing. But if you look at the amount of money that we’re giving to the county, it’s ridiculous. Freeholders used to be something to do with the land.

So how he evolved into this is like they evolved into a monster. And they eat our money and I think it’s an unnecessary form of government.

PRESIDENT PONE: I agree.

MR. CAPODANNO: It’s about time the newspapers start to slam them. Because the same way you got slammed for years and years. And if you do something wrong, you know I’m going to come up here and criticize you. Or if we have a difference of opinion, I’m going to criticize you; we’re going to have a debate. Who debates them? Nobody debates them. We talk about maybe reforming things in government here, we talk about reforming the fire districts, this, that, and the other thing. How about reforming them? He was bragging how many employees less there are. But that’s mainly being done because of the assets that they’re losing. But the bottom line is I know they’re still hiring because I know a lot of guys that come in there and tell me they were hired. I’m going to stay on them; I’m not going to let loose on them.

PRESIDENT PONE: I appreciate it, thank you Mr. Capodanno.

MS. JANICE GLONEK, 432 Trinity Avenue: A couple of things. When is Sculptors Way going to be redone, since I practically lose my transmission every time I go down there?

MR. BURBAGE: I believe that it’s this spring, it’s on the list.

MS. GLONEK: Okay, is Paxson Avenue from Edinburg to Nottingham anywhere near there too? Because that’s kind of…

PRESIDENT PONE: I know Sculptor’s Way is on the top list. I mean, it’s being done.

MS. GLONEK: Considering that is an asset to the township. And I was going to wait until after the meeting, but since you have this sewer thing going on, I’ll ask you now. I was coming home today. What is going on at Bucknell and Basin Road where the development is? They have two big drains coming down to the street right on the bend. They have two big holes as wide as the digger.

PRESIDENT PONE: Really? Mr. Burbage, if you could look into that for us? I hope to God they’re not draining their snow.

MS. GLONEK: Because remember that big rain, those poor people down there got mud blasted.

PRESIDENT PONE: That’s a bad spot to drain water, Bucknell and basin.

MR. BURBAGE: That’s Bucknell avenue and Basin.

MS. GLONEK: Right where it bends, right by Princeton.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: And when you say they, who’s out there? Is it township vehicles or private?

MS. GLONEK: No, I think it’s the developer because the fence is open and the single digger is about this wide.

PRESIDENT PONE: I got to start paying attention what’s going on.

MS. GLONEK: I don’t come home that way that often and there it is two big trenches coming down. They’re not to the street yet, but the machines are still there. So I was wondering…

MR. BURBAGE: We’ll check it out tomorrow morning.

PRESIDENT PONE: Yes, please do. Thank you for bringing that to our attention because I haven’t noticed it.

MS. GLONEK: I thought you turned around and made another u-turn.

PRESIDENT PONE: I go out the other way, so I never go down there, but I can throw a rock to it from my house.

MS. GLONEK: There’s these two big trenches.

PRESIDENT PONE: And that’s where we’ve always gotten the mud, that’s where we’ve had all the problems in the past that they’ve created. And they don’t care, I don’t care how many times people go out there. I don’t care how many times they get cited, I don’t care how many times Mercer County Soil goes out there. How many offenses, they don’t care. So I appreciate you bringing that up because knowing those guys, they’re probably doing it and hoping nobody notices. I don’t know how they can think we wouldn’t notice at this point in the game.

MS. GLONEK: They figure we’re tired, they don’t know us, do they?

PRESIDENT PONE: We’re not tired, I’m just getting started. So thank you I appreciate you bringing that to our attention.

MS. GLONEK: The other thing which is going to sound kind of really stupid, but there’s like no postcards of New Jersey. I mean like in Hamilton, we have all these statues and all this. Sculptor’s Way, do they have like postcards and all?

PRESIDENT PONE: I’m sure they do at Grounds for Sculpture.

MS. GLONEK: I mean, they should be more out in the public where people could buy them and stuff like that. Like in a post office or something because it is an asset to the township. Because what it is, I had a friend of mine… There’s this book called Flat Stanley. And Flat Stanley goes traveling around and you mail it to different places. And you send a postcard back of the town. Do you think there’s a postcard? I went to the Reading Center; they have postcards of New York. I said what are we doing with postcards of New York in New Jersey? So I went and took a picture of the tooth and I mailed that instead like a postcard. But I was just curious. We do have all these nice statues and everything. It would be nice if people visited by, it would be nice to send out to somebody.

PRESIDENT PONE: I think what you’re talking about is more like a tourist part of our administration.

MS. GLONEK: Because we’re supposed to be getting into that artsy thing anyway. Right, the long range plan? PRESIDENT PONE: Listen, I mean it’s a neat idea. If we could…

MS. GLONEK: Even if that would be good for the art place too if they just put it out in public. And people would (1:30:29).

PRESIDENT PONE: They should, it’s their baby. It would be ideal if they would do it rather than us. But I know what you mean, it’s one of the reasons people visit this town. Maybe the number one reason people visit Hamilton from outside of Hamilton is Grounds For Sculpture.

MS. GLONEK: I know, it’s neat.

PRESIDENT PONE: And all the restaurants out on Route 130.

MS. GLONEK: And then somebody put two balloons on the big statue.

PRESIDENT PONE: I saw that.

MS. GLONEK: And then we have a new business administrator?

PRESIDENT PONE: No, Mr. Ricci had some surgery so he is out for a little bit.

MS. GLONEK: I’m pleased to have you on board.

PRESIDENT PONE: We wish him a speedy recovery. This is Roberta, she is our budget director. Since we’re reviewing the budget, and she would normally work with John with us. But she can handle it.

MS. GLONEK: Oh okay, I missed a couple of meetings, I just thought oh my goodness, we have a changing of the guard here and I didn’t know. But check into those ditches.

PRESIDENT PONE: Thank you Janice, thanks for bringing it to our attention.

MR. AUGUST SCOTTO, Mark Twain Drive: I think I herd a little something about Christie. Well, I’d like to defend Christie, he got into the seat of governor like you guys came here with a big deficit. His was ten billion with a B dollars debt that Corzine left him with. And what he’s trying to do is to cut spending to cover it rather than what Congress is trying to do is increase spending. He’s trying to cut it. And that’s for the good of the people. When he cut spending over and over, we’ve got to. The money has got to come from somewhere. It comes from the people. I don’t care what level, poor, middle class, rich, it comes from all of us. So we’ve got to get after these characters that get into office, spending our money. Like an old fashion, well I hate to say it, but like some wives do to their husbands when they work their head off and they spend all their money while they’re busy working. Thank you.

MR. VINCENT CAPODANNO, 65 Englewood Boulevard: Councilman Pone, I got a question because you’re on the environmental commission.

PRESIDENT PONE: Yes, liaison.

MR. CAPODANNO: Can you find out what’s going on with that PSE&G plant that’s spilling all that smoke in the air, under the clean air act? I think that we have a right to know exactly what that’s emitting into the air.

PRESIDENT PONE: Mr. Burbage, do we have any jurisdiction there?

MR. BURBAGE: I believe Mr. Capodanno is correct. You can demand from them what’s in their emissions or you can do it through DEP as well.

PRESIDENT PONE: Can we do that, it’s a good suggestion.

MR. CAPODANNO: I think the environmental commission can do that. Under the Clean Air Act, when Congress passed it, any one individual can find out what’s going on over there. And you know what else I’d like to find out, being that we’re like the host community, and I don’t want to get into it with him. But that somebody took away some of our gross receipts. I’d like to know exactly what that PSE&G plant is paying Hamilton right now. And if they do have some kind of current formula, that upgrades, what they pay. Like we have property taxes, I’d like to know what goes on over there. Do they pay property tax for that big monstrosity over there that’s, who knows what they’re doing.

PRESIDENT PONE: Probably not because I think that’s how it’s figured in, was the gross receipts which the governor did take away from us.

MR. CAPODANNO: And maybe it’s time for us all host communities that were effected by these giant corporations maybe to go up to the Supreme Court or whatever. Maybe it’s time for us to reevaluate how we do business with them. And maybe it’s time for us to say yeah okay, take our gross receipts, how about property tax? I mean, it was done years and years and years ago. Everything has to be looked at and reevaluated. You know what I mean, and I think that companies like PSE&G, and all these other big corporations, big oil and all the rest of them, seem to have lobbyists that keep a small community like us from seeing exactly if we can get something that’s due us. I mean, the basic idea of gross receipts is that impacts our environment. That’s in our community. That’s not in all Jersey’s community, that’s in our community. Who knows what’s going on with the water. They’re probably burning coal. And it’s something that I think the environmental commission definitely has to look at. And definitely I think our attorney here has to look at the fact that maybe somehow we can have a different formula or different way of getting something out of them for being over there. And the governor should not be taking away gross receipts. Because that there, impacts us more than anything. Because that’s just not impacting us financially and taking away our money. That was given to us because it’s a filthy plant.

PRESIDENT PONE: I agree.

MR. CAPODANNO: Just look into it.

PRESIDENT PONE: I agree, we can do that and we should, you’re right. As far as the gross receipts go, Mr. Scotto was absolutely right about what this governor walked into. But I did feel that that was one thing that was unfair. Because that was a promise more or less, almost like a PILOT agreement with a utility company saying okay, you don’t pay property taxes. It’s like what Princeton University does in Princeton. They impact the town so therefore, they don’t have to pay property taxes, but they pay something to the town.

MR. CAPODANNO: A lot of it had to do with legislation too. Because the governor just couldn’t do certain things without passing the Assembly and the senate. We have now a state senator and we have two assemblymen from Hamilton, as far as I’m concerned, that should be looking into that. The Council is basically the lowest form of government here in Hamilton Township. You have nothing to do with legislation. But the Council also hears from the people probably first and foremost than anybody. So the Council has the ability to pressure them. And they should be pressured because that was totally unjust. And I know the governor has to do certain things.

I was up in New York when Giuliani was there, and our union had to concede. We had to do

certain things with him to give back. I remember I had to walk into the sanitation garages and had to hear from the guys all the time. I use to say to them give the guy a break. I mean, New York was in bad trouble, it was like it was now. So I know that the governor has to do things. But he does things different than you, that’s what I was saying. There’s a way of doing business. I mean, the Mayor was pretty tough when it came to the furloughs. But he did it in a different way. You know what I’m saying?

Now Christie, he can say whatever he wants to say. The bottom line to me is that yeah sure, he’s

solving his budget. But he’s solving his budget by cutting aid to us, which means that it’s forcing you to do certain things like the furloughs. It’s caused the board of education to do certain things. So you know, he’s not just doing it, you’re doing it, and the board of education is doing it, so everybody’s doing it.

PRESIDENT PONE: And frankly, I’m okay with that, except when it’s patently unfair.

MR. CAPODANNO: And the gross receipts was really unfair. I know the Mayor addressed it, I know the governor probably really didn’t like that the Mayor addressed it. I give the Mayor a lot of credit for saying that. That took a lot of courage. For a republican Mayor to be saying it to a republican governor, give us back our gross receipts money. So if you can look into all that, I’d really appreciate it, alright?

PRESIDENT PONE: We’ll do, thanks for bringing it to our attention.

MR. ANTONIO C. GAMBINO, 1003 Hughes Drive: I heard Vinnie saying some things about the freeholders. And let me tell you something, I’m not going to defend them. I’ve been to plenty of their meetings. And their meetings start at 6:30 every second Thursday. And I’ll tell you what; I rip them up just like I rip you up. I’ve had problems, and they’ve responded. And I don’t understand why they don’t respond to him. I had a problem out at the park, they were right out there. They put the signs up, “Children at play” because it was dangerous there. They did it on Chambers Street, so I don’t understand what the problem is with them there, because they’ve always responded when there was a problem.

I’ve seen Bryan Hughes out there in that park. As a matter of fact, I saw him out there for two

weeks straight, out at Mercer County Park. When there were problems out there at their dog park and with the bathrooms last year. Somebody wrote in to the Trentonian and said they had problems. That man went out there because I would ride my bicycle and I would see him. He would just sit in his car and watch what was going on out there. So I don’t know what the problem is Vinnie maybe they don’t like you. But every time I’ve got on them they went out there and they’ve done it. I can’t understand it.

MR. CAPODANNO: (Inaudible because he’s speaking from seat).

MR. GAMBINO: Well, let me ask you this, you talk about the roads, okay. We have Broad Street, don’t we have Broad Street right now? We don’t have Broad Street from the circle, I thought we had that back; the township. PRESIDENT PONE: Not that I’m aware of. MR. GAMBINO: Are you sure, by the Dunkin Donuts? VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: I think we took it over. MR. GAMBINO: We have it back. PRESIDENT PONE: We did take a small portion. MR. GAMBINO: What portion is that? VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Independence Mall I think down to the circle. MR. GAMBINO: Independence down to the circle, right? VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: I’m not sure. MR. GAMBINO: That road is a mess. Come on now, have you been on it lately? There’s potholes, it’s all dug up. I mean, you’re talking about spending $500,000 for an animal shelter, why don’t you fix the road there? I was on it today and I’m like this, going like this, avoiding the holes, the potholes, and it’s all dug up. We own that now, we took that back right Kevin? VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: It’s the portion where the island, they wanted to change the island. We took it back because… MR. GAMBINO: From the circle from Independence Mall, take a ride down there, and se, the roads on both sides are horrible. The potholes are ten feet deep over there. It’s ridiculous. There’s ruts. I mean spend some money there. PRESIDENT PONE: We will be. There’s a lot of potholes, a lot of roads that are in bad shape. MR. GAMBINO: I know, but you need to get someone out there right away. I mean, the ruts are horrible. I mean, I don’t know if you have a Claus here in the township, if someone tares up their front end or they blow out a tire that they can go after the township for it because of it. Can they? MR. BURBAGE: It depends on whether the township has notice of a dangerous condition or not. If we’re on notice… MR. GAMBINO: Well, I’m putting you on notice, its dangerous conditions out there. MR. BURBAGE: Have you called Ham Stat and put in a complaint? MR. GAMBINO: I’ll tell you what, if you don’t represent the township here, then I don’t know what does. If I can’t put you on notice now that there’s dangerous conditions out there. PRESIDENT PONE: But there is a method for you to do it directly too. We hear you tonight, we got you. MR. GAMBINO: Who else can I talk to? PRESIDENT PONE: 586-0311, what are you going to do when we’re not here? VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: The problem is they’ve been throwing some coal patch in some of the big areas. MR. GAMBINO: No, they haven’t even touched it. They haven’t even coal patched. VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: In different areas, they have. But the problem is with the snow and the thaw. MR. GAMBINO: No, I know it’s bad; I’m not going to be-grade anyone here. I mean, look, this was a bad winter we had here. Vinnie talks about this PSE&G plant spewing that stuff out. That’s been going on for years, especially at night time. But you know what; I really don’t think that’s a danger. You know what I think what a danger is, what’s causing us a lot of sickness to people, is that stuff that they’re laying down out of their trucks that beet juice or whatever it is on the roads. That stuff, every time, I can’t breathe when I’m

in my car I put the heater on. It comes up through the car and my sinuses are plugged and I can’t breathe. There’s a problem with that stuff. This stuff should be outlawed. That’s what you should look into, what’s going into that stuff. PRESIDENT PONE: The beet juice. MR. GAMBINO: Whatever that stuff is they’re lying down, it’s horrible. Brine, I mean, what is that stuff? COUNCILMAN GORE: Pickle juice. MR. GAMBINO: Pickle juice? Well, I’ll tell you what, you’re getting pickled alright. Listen, you mean to tell me it’s not affecting any of your sinuses or respiratory or anything, unbelievable. I can’t believe that. Because I’ll tell you what, when I’m in my car and the heaters’ on, and when they lay that stuff down, it comes through the heater and it’s just horrible. Right away, my nose starts to plug and it’s like you can’t breathe. And I’m sure I’m not the only one.

But like I said, that plant out there, that’s been going on for years. And what’s ever spewing out of there, is… I mean, you just noticed this now? All these years, I mean, it’s been going on for…

PRESIDENT PONE: We’re going to check it out.

MR. GAMBINO: It’s been going on for 25, 30 years.

PRESIDENT PONE: DEP is, I’m sure they’re under some…

MR. GAMBINO: I mean, I just don’t’ want to wake up here and we have no electricity in Hamilton Township. Just like now with the politicians with the plastic bags, they want to do away with the plastic bags. I think that some of them should put plastic bags over their heads.

PRESIDENT PONE: Thank you Mr. Gambino. Budget Review Review of the (CY) 2011 Municipal Capital and Sewer Utility Budgets with the Budget Officer, Roberta Magdziak MS. ROBERTA MAGDZIAK: The deadline extensions, the introduction of the budget went from February 10th to March 11th. And then the adoption is going from March 20th to April 22nd. VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: They can change it again, correct? COUNCILMAN KENNY: Yes. MS. MAGDZIAK: Okay, Water Pollution Control page 37. The first major point I have there asking for two new laborers. And the reason behind that is they already know two people will be retiring. And because of the upward promotions, there will be vacancies. COUNCILMAN KENNY: And we’ve had reductions in force in that department anyway over the years, I think. I know they are shorthanded down there. PRESIDENT PONE: But this isn’t adding any new, it’s just replacing the two essentially. MS. MAGDZIAK: No, this is adding two. COUNCILMAN KENNY: Rich Watson’s told me, he needs more help down there. MS. MAGDZIAK: He needs one in the plant operations and one in the sewer collection. Other expenses, the two major increases, one is in our insurance fund, $337,000, and the other one is in the debt service payments of $306,000. COUNCILMAN KENNY: Roberta, any idea how that debt service will that continue to rise over time or is this because of some money? MS. MAGDZIAK: I can only make an assumption without talking to John Barrett. Because of how much we’re putting in for the debt that it will be lost, but I’m not sure. COUNCILMAN KENNY: I know we have some major capital expenses coming down there. MS. MAGDZIAK: I’ll talk to him tomorrow.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Roberta, is there any impact on the sewer rate? MS. MAGDZIAK: Not at this point. COUNCILMAN KENNY: The Mayor indicated the sewer rate will stay flat again. And the point was made earlier in the meeting about people paying for cable. When you only pay $30 a month for your sewer service in this township, $1 a day, that’s a pretty good bargain. That stayed flat for quite a while now. We just had minor increases. PRESIDENT PONE: We had a small increase in the last year or so. COUNCILMAN KENNY: But most towns are probably $700 to $1,000 a year more. MS. MAGDZIAK: We’re low. COUNCILMAN KENNY: I want to stay low, but I think it’s important that we maintain that system down there because that could get very expensive if things started to really fall apart on you or you had a major catastrophe somewhere. That’s why I’d like to see the sewer surplus, and we are building it again. Which is nice to have money so that if you have a million dollar problem, that you have the money right there and you can take care of it. PRESIDENT PONE: And I think Mr. Watson’s… I like his proactive stance. He’s going out and going through trying to catch problems before they’re major problems. And we’ve seen the major problems, the $5 million emergency repairs. I don’t think there’s anything more important from a public safety point of view and just a convenience point of view within our sewer system. I mean if something goes wrong there, it becomes a sanitary issue, it becomes a nuisance issue. It’s something I’ve always said, of the five major things we need to do as a government, flushing the toilets is a big one. And it’s very expensive, and we have some very old pipes. So I agree with Councilman Kenny that we need to keep a close eye on this that we have enough money there to maintain the system we have. It’s a huge system. What else do we have Roberta, anything that stands out, anything that’s unusual besides what you’ve already mentioned? MS. MAGDZIAK: Not really, you can see there have been a lot of decreases throughout his operations. PRESIDENT PONE: Any questions Council on the water pollution control budget? VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Just as you had pointed out, this is always a concern because from when I was here twenty years ago, we have put a lot of money into this plant. And the concern is are you painting up 55 Cadillac’s, so to speak. And how much life expectancy is in it? And in these days and these dollars to replace a plant like that is too much for one municipality. Obviously, we would have to look for regionalization larger than we have right now. The original plant was based on I think it was federal funding that that was able to be built. It was supposed to be a different technology, but we do put a lot of money into this. It would be interesting to get Rich’s thoughts on just how much longer that technology in this type of plant would hold together. PRESIDENT PONE: Actually Roberta, that’s a great question. I think beside from just the things we talk about all the time, the cameras and the proactive, and the trying to solve problems. The operations of the plant itself is, does Mr. Watson have a handle on, can we keep up with the technology with the existing plant? Do we have to start thinking differently? I think those are good questions. It is an old plant, for me it’s one of the, besides police protection, it’s maybe the most important thing we address in the township. Roberta, we can move on to the capital budget. MS. MAGDZIAK: Technology is asking to get recreation onto our system. Right now, for the phone system, also for their computer system. They’re not part of our domain right now. So they’re asking to make them part of our domain. PRESIDENT PONE: The reason for that, do we know? MS. MAGZIAK: Just so that we can speak to them. Right now, we have Outlook. They don’t have Outlook. They can’t do scheduling through Outlook. They’re still using a modem at this point. COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Right now, you’re talking about the recreation building out on Kuser Road, correct? MS. MAGDZIAK: Correct. COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Now, are all the other buildings, for example on Scully, are they all being added to this as well?

MS. MAGDZIAK: To the phone system? COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Yeah, you’re just talking about that building. MS. MAGDZIAK: I’m just talking about that building yeah. COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: And calls are still going directly to recreation, not to the call center. MS. MAGDZIAK: That, I don’t know. COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Okay. MS. MAGDZIAK: I have to find that out. COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: I would assume if calls are going directly to recreation, can you transfer… Say a call comes into the Clerk’s office, we know that Kathy managed the call, can you transfer out there? MS. MAGDZIAK: No, you can’t transfer out there. COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: That’s what I thought I recollected. MS. MAGDZIAK: The next item police, they’re asking for an upgrade of their new world system which is their computer system. I have further explanations if you have any questions. PRESIDENT PONE: If anybody has questions, just shout them out. COUNCILMAN GORE: Roberta, on the police budget where they’re upgrading the Microsoft from version 2003 to 2007, the capital amount is $17,250. I know here in parenthesis it has Microsoft Office Professional 2010, 55. That’s 55 computers are going to be upgraded with it? MS. MAGDZIAK: Yes. COUNCILMAN GORE: So we’re buying software for 55 police computers and the total is $17,250. MS. MAGDZIAK: Correct. PRESIDENT PONE: Let’s have Roberta kind of go through each line. If you have a question on it, just go forward at that point. MS. MAGDZIAK: The UPS computer backup system for the police, $15,450. MDS conversion to EVDC connectivity for the police officers. PRESIDENT PONE: That’s just faster connectivity? MS. MAGDZIAK: Yes. The police are asking for a fingerprint workstation, $10,000. PRESIDENT PONE: I know this doesn’t really effect this line item, but are there grants available that we look at for fingerprinting and things like that, state grants, federal grants? MS. MAGDZIAK: I know the police are always looking for grants. PRESIDENT PONE: They do a really good job with that. MS. MAGZIAK: But for this concern, I don’t know, I’ll ask. PRESIDENT PONE: I think fingerprinting, there always seems to be grants out there. COUNCILMAN GORE: This particular one Mr. President seems to be though, the fingerprinting that’s done on evidence, rather than taking people’s fingerprints. You bring in a piece of clothing, and they dust it for laden prints. Sometimes they do it in the station, and that’s to replace that. You do need to sort of go with the technology and upgrade all the time. MS. MAGDZIAK: Update police channel two frequency for police, $17,000. COUNCILMAN GORE: And here again, I note one of the reasons we’re doing the upgrade is the system is so antiquated, they can’t even get parts to repair the old system. So it’s certainly something that has to be done. MS. MAGDZIAK: The GPS for the vehicles.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: How many vehicles will that be for, all of the… ? MS. MAGDZIAK: It’s an expansion of the existing, it’s forty trucks. COUNCILMAN KENNY: It costs that much for a GPS? Probably because we can track it from here. It’s not just them using a GPS; we can track where the truck is. COUNCILMAN GORE: That was my main question. It’s for us to track them, not for them to find a location in the township. They ought to know where they’re going in the township. But it’s for us to track our own vehicles. PRESIDENT PONE: We’ve done this before, and it has to do with both the Snow Plow Sal which didn’t work so well anyway. But that’s the system, is where things are, what’s done, what’s not done. Is somebody having coffee behind a building instead of working? It’s a lot of all that. There’s a productivity element, there’s a see how high the plow is. COUNCILMAN KENNY: A safety element. They run off the road in a snow storm and somebody gets hurt. You can find the truck. MS. MAGDZIAK: The next item is a software program for the senior center. They’re requesting this for several reasons. They said one point was it will allow them to go after more grants. Because they can keep track of all the senior events, the number of seniors visiting the center. COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Roberta, a question I have, is this just pertaining to just the senior center? And I’m cognizant of issues regarding senior safety, I have a question regarding don’t we have an in-house program? For example, the employees currently have an ID system. Isn’t there ways that we can incorporate that so the senior center can use that? As far as transportation scheduling, I know public works it schedules light goods, all different types of pickups. Is there any way we can use that same system there? I don’t know about the grants, I just wonder if there’s some way we can… as far as budget planning it, the questions I have, don’t we have any programs in-house that can fulfill these same needs? COUNCILMAN KENNY: It strikes me as an awful lot of money for what it would seem to accomplish. MS. MAGDZIAK: It’s a custom program. You can go online and see it. I have done that. And it’s basically geared just for seniors and all the events that they have over there, trying to get the statistics together. PRESIDENT PONE: But I like Miss Yaede’s question, because there are probably much less expensive ways to do that exact thing. COUNCILMAN KENNY: It doesn’t have to be a senior program it would seem to me. It could be any type of tracking program. MS. MAGDZIAK: I’m going to ask technology to look into it. COUNCILMAN KENNY: Okay. MS. MAGDZIAK: Kuser Park lighting, that’s just the replacement of the lights already there. COUNCILMAN KENNY: One light? PRESIDENT PONE: How many lights? COUNCILMAN KENNY: It says light, I hope it’s one light. COUNCILMAN GORE: It’s a big beacon. MS. MAGDZIAK: It doesn’t say how many lights, I can’t tell you that. PRESIDENT PONE: I noticed stars next to three lighting programs because of the cost seems outrageous. The Kuser Park lighting $150,000, South Broad Street lighting $185,000, Mercer Street lights $120,000. Now, the rotted poles I would probably be in favor of that one because of the potential safety issue. The Mercer street lights, the explanation is they’re rotted at the pole base. But I mean, obsolete and more efficient. I don’t know that we need to spend $185,000 right now for that. I think we could knock out one or two of those frankly, and do one of them this year and maybe look at it again next year. That’s my thinking, unless they’re in a horrible condition and I just don’t know it. COUNCILMAN KENNY: Yeah, the description may not be extensive enough. COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Can I add onto that? PRESIDENT PONE: Of course.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: As far as to touch on Mr. Pone’s. I understand Broad Street and Mercer street, they’re roadways. But I know that for now, Kuser Park, we have it closed in the evenings. Is that a priority that perhaps we can be able to push back because from dusk to dawn the park is closed? So maybe that’s something… we see the green (0:53:48). COUNCILMAN KENNY: That’s a good point. PRESIDENT PONE: That is a good point. And why don’t we do this Roberta? Why don’t we get a handle on from Mr. Ragazzo if he’s in to it that far at this point or whoever is. What the exact condition of these things are and if there’s a priority list. Like would they say that Mercer Street really has got to go, it’s done. I’d like to see the exact condition prioritized and can we do without any of those three projects this year? It’s an awful lot of money for lighting projects, to me. COUNCILMAN KENNY: It would seem to me street lighting is more important than Kuser Park lighting. PRESIDENT PONE: That’s a good point, that’s $150,000. VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Could we also get for those projects what the annual maintenance would be associated with those new installations? MS. MAGDZIAK: Yes. COUNCILMAN KENNY: It’s utility costs I guess to see how much it would save us. Can you justify it that way? VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: How much would it add? MS. MAGDZIAK: What was that last sentence? COUNCILMAN KENNY: What the projected energy savings or additional cost will be? We’re hoping it will be a savings, but let’s see if that’s the case. VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: If they’re going with a more energy efficient light, number one. Number two, just like our cars, if it’s an older fixture, we’re paying a certain amount of maintenance every year to replace bulbs, fixtures, so on and so forth. When it’s a new fixture, you may go five years without any maintenance costs. PRESIDENT PONE: I just put the first in my house, one of those energy efficient lights into my sunroom. It burned out in three days. COUNCILMAN KENNY: I plan to stock up on incandescent lights. COUNCILMAN GORE: They’re certainly not making any more incandescent bulbs Dennis, so get use to it. PRESIDENT PONE: Yeah, I know, but it cost me like four times as much as I normally pay for one of those bulbs, and it burned out in three days.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: On those Roberta, with the new lights, are they going with LED, induction, high pressure sodium, metal hay light, do we understand what they’re going to put in?

COUNCILMAN KENNY: That’s important to us Kevin.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: LED and induction are using les watts.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: It should last a long time.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Your high pressure sodium and metal hay light are using more watts.

PRESIDENT PONE: Let’s get a handle on those projects.

MS. MAGDZIAK: The skate park, they’re asking for ramps, $5,000, and upkeep of existing equipment at the skate park.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: It’s indicating it’s a safety issue as well.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Last two years they’re saying.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: We didn’t get a lot of years out of that installation, did we?

MS. MAGDZIAK: That’s been up there.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: I remember they were purchased and they were sitting in a barn or a storage shed under the previous administration. So I think they were installed under the previous administration.

PRESIDENT PONE: They were. But $5,000 for an upgrade at this point, doesn’t seem like a big…

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Especially if there’s some safety issues.

MS. MAGDZIAK: And they’re saying the ramps only last two years.

PRESIDENT PONE: They get used too.

MR. VINCENT CAPODANNO, 65 Englewood Boulevard (speaking from seat): The skate park, I suggested this to Gilmore, maybe you can look into it. Tony Hawk, he’ll install a state of the art park if he uses his name.

PRESIDENT PONE: Is that right?

MR. CAPODANNO: Oh yeah, you should really look into contacting him. and saying that you have a skate board park. I’ll tell you what, if he came out here and seen this skate board park, he’d been calling Gilmore a crook because he was pressured to doing it. I was suggesting to him at that time that probably a private enterprise can do something like that. Then a lot of the kids and a lot of people are telling me that Tony Hawk can install a skate board park and that the only I think thing with that is you got to use his name. It’s got to be Tony Hawk Skate Board Park.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: That’s fine.

MR. CAPODANNO: You should look into it and install a new one and you don’t have nothing to do with it.

PRESIDENT PONE: Roberta is taking notes.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: That’s a good idea. Let’s look into that.

PRESIDENT PONE: Stuff like that, if we can get a private enterprise to come in and do stuff like that, that’s not a real… it may be a recreation desire, it’s not a real need out there. I think it’s a great idea, let’s se if we can do it.

MR. CAPODANNO: Especially Hamilton, you’re one of the biggest municipalities. Tell him a few things about Hamilton and…

PRESIDENT PONE: Let’s get a meeting with Tony Hawk.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Who’s Tony Hawk?

COUNCILMAN KENNY: He’s a well-known skateboarder. MS. MAGDZIAK: Okay public facilities. The police are requesting a gym floor be replaced, $15,000.

COUNCILMAN GORE: How big is this carpet that we’re putting in at the gym, do we know? I mean, I hate to be nitpicking the police officers of fifteen grand.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: I think with the capital budget they air on the high side. Because we never know what the prices will come in at. And the beauty of the capital budget is we get a second shot at it. If it comes in and it’s too expensive, we would reject the bids and say we’re not doing that.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Exactly.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Can I just touch on that? Because we’re replacing the carpeting in three different areas. And you have similar to the lighting, you have $15,000, then you have $21,000, then you have $15,000. if you can get us the area and…

MS. MAGDZIAK: One of those budgets is my office.

PRESIDENT PONE: So that’s $15,000.

MS. MAGDZIAK: What I did, I had the company come in and he looked at the square footage and gave me a quote.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: For not each separate, altogether, we’re doing this altogether.

MS. MAGDZIAK: For two offices. We did finance and the administration.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: So did you have the same company go and look at the gym floor and say let’s buy it all at once?

MS. MAGDZIAK: No I did not.

PRESIDENT PONE: We can’t buy it yet.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Instead of having two separate quotes, would you consider buying it all at one time?

MS. MAGDZIAK: We can do it all at one time, yes, definitely. Because that’s what we did with finance and my office, we had the same person come in and give us a quote.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Yeah, when they put it out to bid, they can go to many places.

MS. MAGDZIAK: It was just a starting point.

PRESIDENT PONE: It was just to get something into the capital budget. And then when it comes back, it will be bid.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Exactly.

The next one, Holmdel Walkway. It’s to replace damaged and lifting walkways.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Well, that has to be done.

MS. MAGDZIAK: It’s from trees and whatever.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Who do we have in there?

MS. MAGDZIAK: Campfire.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Just Campfire?

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Yeah, I think the basement is empty.

MS. MAGDZIAK: And our CPO use to be in there, but I don’t know if they’re in there anymore, I’ll find out.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: The basement is empty, you have Campfire, and then you got the whoever was up on the third floor.

PRESIDENT PONE: I know also Kevin, you can help me with this, but I know talking to Rob Poppert, the shade tree commission has been working hard down the road of only planting trees that have roots that go straighter down. So that in the future we don’t… A lot of these problems come from the old trees that the roots come up and buckle up the sidewalk. There’s a ton of them in the township. But I know that’s something that he talks about working on in terms of the types of trees that get planted in these canopies and stuff.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: These were planted by the developers.

PRESIDENT PONE: Right initially.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: They’re trying to catch that now as far as…

COUNCILMAN KENNY: A lot were specified by the township.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: They’ve identified a whole sort of trees that are supposed to be

better in between the sidewalk and the curb. By the time they find out, none of us will be here.

MS. MAGDZIAK: I’m going to skip the two light projects we’ve spoken about. The roads, guard rail replacement project. He’s asking for $55,000.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Do we work with the county as far as with purchasing these guardrails? Because obviously, as we heard tonight we have part of Broad Street County road.

PRESIDENT PONE: I’ll bet there’s a state contract for guardrails, I would imagine. When it goes out to bid when we actually do the projects, I’m sure there’s a state contract, there’s got to be.

MS. MAGDZIAK: I’ll make sure.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Roberta, do you know if this is based on a certain amount of road footage, this fifty-five, or is it certain projects?

MS. MAGDZIAK: I don’t have the list, but I’ll find out.

PRESIDENT PONE: Yeah, that would be a good idea, the specifics on that. Even though I’m sure they figured out what they need to get done, and went out and estimated it.

MS. MAGDZIAK: I’ll get back to you.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: In line with that, Mr. President, if it is based on certain projects, we could just get a handle on how many projects are out there. Because they probably a more linear footage you buy, the cheaper it is. So if we knew what projects were going to be done, and what also are on the list.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Are these typically installed by private contractors, do you know?

MS. MAGDZIAK: Yes.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: That’s probably where your bigger expense is the installation cost.

MS. MAGDZIAK: We’re just fixing ones that have had because of accidents and whatever that we come across.

Cracked ceiling contract, $100,000.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Is that enough this year? I mean, that would actually be one worth, if we eliminate some other things, maybe throw a little extra money into that. Because face it, the roads will be in bad shape after a winter like this.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: A question I have it says here, have contractor seal the cracked roads. This is separate from what the township workers are doing, Roberta?

MS. MAGDZIAK: Yes.

Inlet repairs, $100,000 for all sidewalk violations. And he has…

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Is this where we have sidewalks that are collapsing a little bit because the inlets are…

MS. MAGDZIAK: That’s exactly what it is.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: So that’s probably pretty expensive to fix each one. You might have to repair pipes under storm drains underneath them.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Next one, Municipal Building elevator upgrades. We just need upgrades for the elevator.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: I don’t think you have to convince any of us on that in this building.

PRESIDENT PONE: I was here one day when someone was stuck on it.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Okay, the next item, Ham Stat call center. They’re calling for renovations so that we can make a training center of one of the offices outside of the dispatchers where they are.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: I think there was discussion we could use that for other training.

MS. MAGDZIAK: For computer training. They want to put a screen there.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: What are we currently doing, how are we training employees now?

MS. MAGDZIAK: Sending them to classes, outside.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: To external classes?

MS. MAGDZIAK: Correct.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: And who would be doing the trainings now? If we send them all over to the call center, who would be doing the training? Are we hiring people to come in?

MS. MAGDZIAK: I don’t know if we need to hire someone or if some of our staff can train.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: I guess I have to ask, when we renovated to put in the Ham Stat, this wasn’t on the radar screen, correct, the training facility?

MS. MAGDZIAK: No.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Because I was wondering why it wasn’t done all at once.

PRESIDENT PONE: I think there’s a big kind of unused area there too.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Correct, in the middle.

PRESIDENT PONE: And they probably figured it’s a good way to use the space. And maybe it will save money in the long run if they’re doing training in-house rather than sending them out, depending on what needs to be trained. In some cases, they don’t have a choice.

MS. MAGDZIAK: When we got the new phone system in, we had training over there. And it was nice because you could have several employees gather and get trained all at one time.

PRESIDENT PONE: It’s not a bad idea.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: You’ve got the space there.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Vets Park retaining wall, $25,000. I don’t know if this is what you were referring to about the tennis courts?

COUNCILMAN GORE: They need this here. MS. MAGDZIAK: Once again, there’s wood there that’s deteriorating.

Playground equipment $50,000. That’s a replacement schedule.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Is that vets or is there additional?

MS. MAGDZIAK: Parks throughout the town.

PRESIDENT PONE: Because we’ve replaced… I thought we did a lot recently.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Can we get the locations that are scheduled?

PRESIDENT PONE: It sounds like a lot of money to me.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: To touch on Mr. President’s point, can you give us a list over the recent years which ones have been replaced?

PRESIDENT PONE: Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s see what’s been done, what’s on this list.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: How much we’ve spent. PRESIDENT PONE: Where were’ at. It gets like that with vehicles too after a while. It’s like I know, we’ve approved vehicles, but it seems like there’s no end to it. Just a good idea to keep us up to date on that stuff from time to time. This is a good one.

MS. MAGDZIAK: The animal shelter, $500,000.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: We are all pretty familiar with that.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Okay, thought so.

Recreation office, they’re requesting some renovations.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: That makes sense.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: (0:34:54).

MS. MAGDZIAK: They do all the scheduling from there.

COUNCILMAN GORE: And sometimes people from different groups have to come by and pick up the keys for the buildings they’re using that night. There could be quite a few people.

MS. MAGDZIAK: They’re requesting new flooring, paint, glass patrician on the new counter.

COUNCILMAN GORE: That’s not a big deal, but it says here that there’s currently no barrier between the public and the staff. There’s a counter, it’s just not a very good barrier. But might as well spruce it up.

PRESIDENT PONE: For $5,000, they’re even putting carpeting down Roberta.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: We also had that issue at the Wilson Center where you have women are in the building by themselves. So the front door is open, so people can come in. And so I don’t know if it was a year and one half ago, Mike had installed not even a buzzer, but a camera so you can see.

COUNCILMAN GORE: Generally there, there’s two women. Cathy Tramontana who’s rarely there, and usually there’s only one woman there.

PRESIDENT PONE: That’s a minimal expense for that. I wish we can get carpeting in the municipal building that cheap.

COUNCILMAN GORE: Call Cathy and find out where she got her $5,000 quote from.

PRESIDENT PONE: Is she doing that herself? A window, a lock, paint, carpeting.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: The shed is going to have carpeting in it.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: We have a pretty big shed.

MS. MAGDZIAK: They want heat, electric, and air conditioning in the shed.

COUNCILMAN GORE: How big is the shed?

MS. MAGDZIAK: That’s going to be their work area.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Oh they’re working in there, actually. It gets pretty inexpensive if it’s a work area.

MS. MAGDZIAK: And they’re putting all of their supplies for a lot of the events in there.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Where do they keep them in the warehouse now?

MS. MAGDZIAK: And the warehouse is getting full.

Technology, the training center, now we need to put computers over there for the training. So

we’re taking all the old computers refurbishing them, and sending them over to the call center. We’re going to put a screen up there.

COUNCILMAN GORE: We can actually do other training other than just HamStat.

MS. MAGDZIAK: The following five projects are for the library. The first one, the brick work for $30,000, vent $70,000 to replace the vent control system. They need to make their elevator ADA compliant.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Any idea why that’s such a big number? Has anybody estimated that or is that just picked out of the air?

MS. MAGDZIAK: I don’t know if Don Ragazzo did the estimate. No, this came from the library director.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Wow, there’s a carpet bill. That carpeting is pretty old over there.

MS. MAGDZIAK: And they have a lot of square footage, two floors.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Who from the administration is on the library board?

PRESIDENT PONE: John Ricci. And you’ll explain to us at the next meeting about the reserve issues.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Yes I am.

PRESIDENT PONE: Let’s move on from there, next page, capital equipment.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: I’m looking; some of these are pretty old vehicles.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Police, they’re asking for four-by-four, to replace a 1992 Chevy Suburban that has 89,000 on it.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: That’s not very many miles for a 92.

COUNCILMAN GORE: Eighteen years they had the car, they put 89,000 miles on it.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: That’s 5,000 miles a year, do you really need that?

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: It’s probably 189,000.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Maybe it is. Otherwise, if they’re driving it 5,000 miles a year, why do we need a …?

PRESIDENT PONE: That’s a good question.

COUNCILMAN GORE: You spend forty grand, and I’m not being facetious, buy a vehicle with a plow on it or something.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Air purifiers.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Are we having a problem with the air quality in that building that everybody needs an air purifier? I mean, I can see in the lock up.

COUNCILMAN GORE: The whole building has air quality problems.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Mobile data systems, they want to get thirteen vehicles replaced.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Are these transferable from car to car?

MS. MAGDZIAK: Yes they are.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Because we don’t keep these cars that long.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Mac Truck.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: 1996, enough said, I think.

MS. MADGZAIK: Tire changer.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: They run 25 grand? Well, we’ll see the real prices when they’re bid.

PRESIDENT PONE: But they need it.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: You got to change tires. I can believe it’s old what we have there.

PRESIDENT PONE: Plus they’re changing tires on the big trucks and stuff.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: It’s not just on cars.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Cost for the leaf pick up program.

Liquid sprayer parks, they’re going to use this throughout all the islands in the township, portable

sprayer to apply pesticides and brine at various locations. Emergency generator, $100,000 this is for our building yeah.

PRESIDENT PONE: I know we’ve replaced this at the sewer plant recently.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Our building is really in need.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: I have a question for you, the power goes down, why do we need an emergency generator here? I mean, the sewer plant I can understand, the police station I can understand. If we’re having a big emergency, I don’t know if anybody would be in this building, would they? I’m just asking because I’m trying to figure out why.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Is the servers here feed HamStat and stuff like that.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Yeah, it would almost seem it’s more important at HamStat’s building. Yeah, the police certainly and sewer department, you need those.

PRESIDENT PONE: Yeah, the sewer you have to.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: You can’t have that shut down. Ask Mr. Ricci that question.

MS. MAGDZIAK: I will.

PRESIDENT PONE: Yeah, because wouldn’t you rather go home than split the switch?

MS. MAGDZIAK: Yes.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Roberta, what size is it and is it a diesel generator?

MS. MAGDZIAK: I know we went down a couple times this year.

PRESIDENT PONE: I think Kevin’s question is a good one though. If there’s any pertinent information that somehow would be (0:23:40).

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Yeah, if it shuts everything down, it shuts down the computer system at the police station from here.

PRESIDENT PONE: And that also begs the question do we need a $100,000 generator from that. Maybe you need something less expensive to keep the systems up and running in the planning department or wherever there might be vital information, the tax office.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Kevin will make sure power is restored here right away.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Not if our generating plant is not running.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Well then nobody is coming to the building.

PRESIDENT PONE: You can lease a generator?

MR. CAPODANNO, (Speaking from seat): Oh yeah. There’s a place right where I work in Ewing, they got the big generators. If something happens, you can lease one.

PRESIDENT PONE: And they come out immediately?

MR. CAPODANNO: Like for a building like this, for the police department, you would want one.

PRESIDENT PONE: Police, sewer, no question.

MR. CAPODANNO: There’s a facility over where (0:22:45) building is on New York Avenue. They’ve got generators in there, I mean it’s gigantic.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Fred, I take it you have emergency generator at Nottingham Firehouse. Well, the firehouses would have to.

MR. FRED ZODA: We only activate certain areas, we don’t activate the air conditioning.

PRESIDENT PONE: That’s what I’m saying, is we may not need $100,000, we may need something just to control what’s necessary. And I think looking into a leasing company, perhaps we’d have to know that they could be out here at a moments notice. But yeah, there’s maybe partial something we need to buy, maybe we can lease something. One hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money to have something sitting here that may be used twice a year for nothing.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Just to test it, make sure it’s working.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Electrician van for buildings and grounds.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Yeah, it’s 1995. COUNCILMAN GORE: Fifteen years old, has over one hundred thousand miles, under constant repair. We’ve been wasting money constantly repairing it. That’s my concern not buying

PRESIDENT PONE: If we go back a few years ago when the three of us were sitting here, that was the issue. We had repair bills coming in front of us that were astronomical. And they’ve come down in the budget which I was hoping to see that with all the replacements we’ve done.

MS. MAGDZIAK: They have.

PRESIDENT PONE: You’re right, that’s the biggest issue is the repair bills are… You start buying parts for all these old cars.

COUNCILMAN GORE: Wouldn’t it be safer for the operator and safer for the jeep?

COUNCILMAN KENNY: No, that one is being used.

MS. MAGDZIAK: screen extensions.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Screen extensions, navel crews to extend (0:20:40). That probably makes sense because we’re paving more roads with our in-house people now than we use to.

MS. MAGDZIAK: I have the list here of the roads that we’re going to be doing.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Yeah, I see that. It’s pretty extensive.

PRESIDENT PONE: That answers an earlier question.

COUNCILMAN GORE: I think that you might find that some of that is (0:20:23).

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Street sweeper cost.

COUNCILMAN GORE: They’re expensive.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Well, its 1998, so we got a lot of years out of it.

PRESIDENT PONE: We replaced one not too long ago. We have two in the township or three?

MS. MAGDZIAK: I think we have three.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Didn’t we just replace two.

PRESIDENT PONE: Maybe two since we’ve been here.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: They might have been those little ones that we replaced.

PRESIDENT PONE: I don’t remember it being that much.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Any idea what the plan is, do we try to auction this off, the used one.

MS. MAGDZIAK: They try to get it auctioned off.

PRESIDENT PONE: This is one, right, not sweeper.

MS. MADGZAIK: No, this is one. They requested two, but this is one.

PRESIDENT PONE: These storm water two-waves, part of them is that you have to keep the water ways and curb ways clean on a schedule that they can’t keep up with. Fortunately, there’s not storm water tube police out there. But the regs are really specific.

MS. MAGDZIAK: And they’re asking for a pick up truck.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Do we have the year and the mileage on that?

MS. MAGDZIAK: One hundred and forty thousand is the miles, but I don’t have the year.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: This is one where maybe we ought to see can they put a plow on it too.

COUNCILMAN GORE: It’s not just sitting in the yard.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: I mean, let it come do the parking lots here.

PRESIDENT PONE: Mr. Capodanno said that earlier. Anything that can handle a plow should have a plow on it.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Okay, the roads.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: The bottom line is $4 million worth of road reconstructions. And we’re just going through our list that we have unless something completely starts to fall apart that it has to move up the list.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Correct.

PRESIDENT PONE: And this is a priority list, they went out and scored it, like on a scale of five from worse to best. They missed my road in here, but that’s okay.

COUNCILMAN GORE: It looks they had more money than you (0:17:39).

MS. MAGDZIAK: There’s a second chance where your road could be. The next page is where all the roads paving crew we’ll get to. So you can look and see if your road is there.

PRESIDENT PONE: No, they missed mine in all of these. But I said I don’t mind the potholes on my road because it slows people down. As long as I know where they are, we can avoid them.

COUNCILMAN GORE: South Broad Street to Locust Avenue.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: No, that’s Gropp Avenue from South Broad to Locust.

COUNCILMAN GORE: (0:17:08) for in-house road reconstruction, the next…

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Yeah, but I think it’s on Gropp Avenue from South Broad to Locust.

COUNCILMAN GORE: Oh I got you, okay you’re right.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: That’s the way those are.

PRESIDENT PONE: I think those are worth while projects.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: And we got a lot of sewer improvements.

PRESIDENT PONE: Anyone have questions on any of these?

COUNCILMAN KENNY: I’m not going to second guess, I don’t understand any of these.

PRESIDENT PONE: The vehicles, what type are they? I see that they’re 17 or 18 years, they require service, the same kind of story, but they just don’t say what they are.

MS. MAGDZIAK: Ford F-150 utility body with lift, gate, and plow. The next one, F-150 Ranger used by the operations foreman.

PRESIDENT PONE: Where did they get that price?

COUNCILMAN KENNY: I wonder if that’s a typo. It might be worth spending a few extra bucks and put a plow on that one.

PRESIDENT PONE: I like those thoughts.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: F-150 Rangers are small trucks.

PRESIDENT PONE: Any other questions Council?

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: Mr. President, on these capital items for the sewer department can they just highlight them whether it’s an initial replacement? Or for instance, maybe the clarifier was replaced in 1992 and 1985. If we could just get a little historical. So like all the different things being done at the sewer plant, other than the sewer lines, I just want to know if it’s the initial replacement of that. Or if it may have been replaced whenever.

MR. VINCENT CAPODANNO, 65 Englewood Boulevard: The library, is the library carrying a surplus in their budget?

PRESIDENT PONE: I think we’re going to get more information on the library at the next meeting. Because Roberta and I spoke before the meeting, there’s some confusion as to these capital projects that we’re doing verses their surplus.

MR. CAPODANNO: They did that to us, myself, Schroeder, and Flood, we looked into it. They were carrying like one million bucks.

PRESIDENT PONE: We need to look into that.

MR. CAPODANNO: They want us to pave the parking lot. And then when we told them use your surplus, they got mad.

PRESIDENT PONE: You’re exactly right, and we had the talk before the meeting tonight, because it was confusing to me too. There is supposed to be a relationship there between when they carry in surplus and what we do for them in capital. So when Mr. Ricci comes back, we’re going to get that clear because that’s the same question I had.

MR. CAPODANNO: Because I know they get mad.

PRESIDENT PONE: We really don’t care if they get mad. Just like you didn’t care if they got mad.

MR. CAPODANNO: Any vehicles you buy, make the administration acknowledge, even if you got to upgrade a vehicle to a four-wheel drive with a plow. I mean, it’s important. They can plow the municipality parking lot and stuff like that, and send the other equipment out.

PRESIDENT PONE: And also, get themselves out if they’re in a snow storm.

MR. CAPODANNO: But I suggested to the Mayor that you should have a list in the winter of people that would come in and drive. You could have your own equipment. You don’t always have to go to a trucking company that’s going to charge you $300 an hour, whatever they charge for the equipment in their driveway. You can have people on a list just to drive. Sanitation department, we brought them in just to shovel.

PRESIDENT PONE: It’s a good thought.

MR. CAPODANNO: We gave them like $15 an hour.

PRESIDENT PONE: With some kind of liability.

MR. CAPODANNO: What are you carrying in the sewer surplus?

PRESIDENT PONE: Roberta, you know the sewer surplus off hand?

MS. MAGDZIAK: No, I’ll have to get back to you.

MR. CAPODANNO: How about the general budget, what are you carrying in there?

MS. MAGDZIAK: Wait a minute, I might be able to, I can tell you how much were’ budgeting in the surplus.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Surplus in the sewer utility budget looks like it’s $453,000. MR. CAPODANNO: Really that’s it?

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Yeah.

MR. CAPODANNO: So you used a lot of it.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Well, it looks like it’s the same as it was… Wait a minute, it looks like we didn’t have any at the end of 2010. And that’s actually an area I’d like to see a big surplus for capital improvements.

MR. CAPODANNO: How about in your general budget, what are you carrying there in surplus?

PRESIDENT PONE: I think initially I saw a figure.

MS. MAGDZIAK: $7.3 million we’re budgeting.

MR. CAPODANNO: You’re going to need it, you never know what the governor is going to do.

PRESIDENT PONE: That’s exactly why that’s a high number because we’re likely to get rocked with something again this year. His budget address is the end of this month, the 22nd or 23rd. By then we should find out, and then I don’t know if we’re going to be ready to introduce at the first meeting in March. I’d probably like to wait to make sure Mr. Ricci is back. So we may probably have one more meeting on review and answer some of these questions, then introduce.

MR. CAPODANNO: But you’re really doing a nice thing with the shelter. That thing is deplorable. I feel sorry for them animals.

PRESIDENT PONE: It’s in bad shape.

MR. CAPODANNO: It’s nice what you’re doing.

PRESIDENT PONE: You ever see her raise money?

MR. FRED ZODA: The last twenty years, we really haven’t had a lot of problems with snow. And obviously the last two years, it’s been quite the problem. I met with the water company two weeks ago because we have hydrant issues not being able to fight. And you know what they’re answer was? We didn’t put the snow on the hydrants, the plow drivers did. I don’t know whether we ought to look into an ordinance or something where the home owner that has a hydrant in front of their location be made to clear it the same time they clear their side walks. But I can tell you the when we lost those two residents,

it wouldn’t have made a difference but the second backup truck passed the hydrant and had to go 1,000 feet away to get water because he didn’t see it.

PRESIDENT PONE: It’s funny, this came up in an environmental commission meeting about the inlets for storm water drains because with all the snow, and as it started getting warmer, one of the concerns I had was… And I actually called Mr. Ricci about it to see if we had any guys going out and clearing out storm drains. And one of the things we talked about is, and maybe the fire department should too is have a schematic, some kind of electronic or otherwise schematic of where every storm drain is, where every hydrant is.

MR. ZODA: We know precisely where every hydrant is, but you’re looking at…

PRESIDENT PONE: You want quick reference.

MR. ZODA: This size in a snow mound. We know it’s in front of your house, but give us the feet.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Where at in the house.

MR. ZODA: And then you got to shovel it out.

PRESIDENT PONE: And that’s the same problem with the storm drains, is we know where they are. But if there’s four feet of snow all the way around, you’re digging in the dark.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Maybe that’s even just more of a public education thing, because I’ve seen an awful lot of fire hydrants and people did dig them out.

MR. ZODA: There are people who do that.

PRESIDENT PONE: And the inlets too.

MR. ZODA: The biggest problem we do have is like Nottingham Way. And it freezes solid on it. Our guys spend like two weeks out shoveling hydrants. And one of the problems, we couldn’t find the hydrant, and we were poking around. the water company told us that they would loan us metal detectors which is very nice of them. But I had asked them to put the little flags on them for us.

COUNCILMAN GORE: Yeah, that’s what I was going to say. Most towns in the north Connecticut, Albany, New York have flags that the water companies put on. So you can have three feet of snow, the firemen respond to the fire, they have to dig it out unfortunately, but they know exactly, the trucks pull right to the spot.

MR. ZODA: Every town has them, I think the people who are handling the snow removal do it there so they don’t hit the hydrants.

COUNCILMAN GORE: I don’t see why we can’t pass an ordinance mandating that water companies. It’s food for thought. Who knows, we may not have another year. I hope like this. But it’s quite a hazard for firemen.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Fred, how many hydrants do you have in your district?

MR. ZODA: In our district, we have 350 hydrants. It costs us $649 a year.

PRESIDENT PONE: Each one?

MR. ZODA: Six forty-nine a year, 350 of them. And that is only Aqua. Where you live, it’s Trenton Water. We have a whole bunch of Trenton Water and I don’t even know what kind of response. That’s a whole other ball of wax that’s coming up. Because we just got a letter from Trenton Water asking why we’re not paying the bill. We can only afford 4% not 26%. Just be aware, there’s going to be something going on with Trenton Water.

COUNCILMAN GORE: I just read the paper, there is already.

MR. ZODA: Yes, and we’re kind of asking them to clean up their act and don’t charge us 26%.

PRESIDENT PONE: When you have a 2% cap, that’s a little rough. I appreciate you bringing it to our attention.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: In addition to the fire hydrants, if you noticed a residential neighborhood, where do the plows always push the snow to?

MR. ZODA: On the corner.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: It’s been raised, that’s where the school bus stops are. And that there’s been some significant concerns with the snow being piled up. I think there was a child hit by Reynolds.

PRESIDENT PONE: And thank God she was okay.

VICE-PRESIDENT MEARA: When you’re talking about the fire hydrants being identified, are guys should probably know which corners are school bus stops.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: It’s pretty tough when you try to move all this snow out of the way.

PRESIDENT PONE: That’s what I was going to say. Two of the storms we had this year were epic. I mean, they were historical. The guys driving the plows, everybody’s on their rear ends about time, how quick can they get done. So if they don’t push… If you got 19-inches of snow, you got to push it somewhere. It’s a problem for everybody. And I don’t know how to address it other than hopefully we don’t get storms like that in all one year.

MR. ZODA: But I like educating the public, that if you got a fire hydrant…

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Either dig it out or put a flag out there.

PRESIDENT PONE: Nobody thinks about what I said the storm drains, but in a neighborhood like mine, it’s critical that they’re open. Because if we get a big rain storm with 18-inches of snow on the ground, we’re going to flood. The whole neighborhood is going to flood. Unless those snow storms are clear, clean, and the water has somewhere to go.

MR. CAPODANNO: What we did in the city was after we opened up the streets, wherever there was a school district, something like you’re talking about, we would get equipment out there and we’d move it.

PRESIDENT PONE: Get it out of there.

MR. CAPODANNO: I mean, you have to wait a day.

PRESIDENT PONE: That’s really the only answer. You have to get it out of there because where else are you going to put it?

MR. CAPODANNO: We send out a pay loader and a dump truck.

PRESIDENT PONE: Or they have those heat trucks that they melt the snow right into the storm drain. So all good thoughts, we have to be better prepared that’s for sure.

COUNCILWOMAN YAEDE: Just a quick question, Vinnie, when you remove the snow, you target the cross walks, across the road.

MR. CAPODANNO: That came later. That all came after everything was off the road. Then they go back and picking up garbage. But then they have a certain part of the force that goes out and hits areas like you’re talking about.

PRESIDENT PONE: Two last things. Thank you everybody. Alison, I don’t know if you can help me, or we’ll talk to Eileen. But two things: One, do we have a time constraint now? And you don’t have to answer me if you don’t know, just write it down. Call me tomorrow or something. For this hearing on the appeal at the Sportsmen’s club, Sharbell’s Housing Development. Because we now have the transcripts in our hands tonight. So now I think that was the starting point on the time issue. So now that they’re in our hands, we need to know how much time we have before we have to hold a meeting here on that. COUNCILMAN KENNY: Yeah, we may have to do a special meeting for something like that.

PRESIDENT PONE: We probably will. And number two, Council to think about anyway, is we have to know the state aid. So I don’t want to say we’re going to introduce it first meeting in March. But probably by the first meeting in March, I’d like to advertise again as a budget meeting in case we have some lingering questions to be answered. We have some decisions to make if we want to cut or not cut. And then we have to introduce. So within the next two meetings, I want to make sure we advertise for budget review again, at the next meeting. And depending on Mr. Ricci’s return, and depending on the state aid issue, and whether he and you have to do any additional juggling, probably second meeting in March.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: I was going to say you’d even advertise to introduce the first week in March in case we’re ready. We can always carry it if we’re not ready to introduce.

PRESIDENT PONE: Council’s wishes.

COUNCILMAN KENNY: Because isn’t the deadline now March 10th to introduce? Nobody complied, but it would be nice if we complied.

PRESIDENT PONE: And when is our first meeting in March.

MS. ALISON SALVATORE: March 1st and March 15th.

PRESIDENT PONE: I’ll take Mr. Kenny’s suggestion. Let’s put on for the first meeting in March introduction. And like you said, we’ll have all these questions answered Roberta, hopefully.

MS. MAGDZIAK: You will.

PRESIDENT PONE: Start thinking about if there’s specific numbers you guys want to cut, and let’s be ready to go at the next meeting. We could carry it if we’re not. That’s fine. Ideally for me, I’d like Mr. Ricci to be back only because he may have additional thoughts. I know he’ll be probably working at home doing certain things. But I think any lingering questions would be good to have him here. But like you said, we can carry it if we have to. But let me know as soon as possible about the time line on that hearing. Comments from the Council Adjournment: _____________________________ ________________________________ Eileen A. Gore, RMC/CMC Dennis Pone Municipal Clerk Council President