OLD BRIDGE TOWNSHIP COUNCIL
AGENDA MEETING
October 16, 2000
An Agenda meeting of the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge was held on October 16, 2000 in the Municipal Complex. The meeting was called to order at 7.55 PM by President Maher who asked all present to participate in a salute to the flag which was followed by a short prayer.
Councilman Cucchiara: I would like to observe a moment of silence for the sailors who were killed on the USS Cole.
Roll call by Clerk, Rose-Marie Saracino, showed the following answering present:
Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Hoff, Redmond, Sohor, Testino, President Maher.
Councilwoman Marinaccio was absent.
EXPANDED RECREATION FACILITIES
Resolution #546
BE IT RESOLVED, by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex:
That the agreement to utilize the two schools, Jonas Salk Middle School and Carl Sandburg Middle School, for youth basketball be and hereby is approved. The Council does hereby direct that sufficient funds for custodial service costs and/or other fees be included in the 2001 proposed budget. This Resolution shall serve as authority to pay over any such funds to the Board of Education or other appropriate party to the extent that a sufficient appropriation exists.
Motion made by Councilman Testino, seconded by Council President Maher and so ordered on the following roll call vote:
AYES: Councilmen Butler, Greene, Hoff, Redmond, Sohor, Testino, President Maher.
NAYS: None.
Absent: Councilwoman Marinaccio
Absent/Podium: Councilman Cucchiara
Prior to the roll call vote the following discussion took place.
President Maher: I am pleased to inform you that we have reached an agreement with Old Bridge Board of Education on the use of the Township's two middle schools for weekend recreational activities. Dr. Rodriguez will be making this same announcement tomorrow, Tuesday, October 17th.
The agreement announced today is the outcome of a committee composed of Township and Board of Education officials formed to address the need of expanded recreational facilities. The interlocal agreement calls for the opening of the Township's two middle schools gyms (Salk and Sandburg) on Saturday and Sunday from 9:00AM to 5:00 PM where children registered in Township recreational programs can come for recreation and other activities.
The agreement calls for the Township to contract directly with the outside firm currently performing custodial services in the two middle schools. This arrangement allows for greater control and flexibility of scheduling resources.
The Township Recreation Department in close cooperation with league officials from various volunteer youth sports leagues will administer the program. Information gathered from the agreement will be used to determine the future expansion of the arrangement to include additional locations, times and days.
Councilman Greene: I want to congratulate you on your efforts to get this agreement. When I originally got involved I was aware that the basketball teams would not have sufficient gym space and not only did you secure the additional space, but you went further by opening up the space to all athletic programs.
Councilman Redmond: Again, I would like to congratulate you and praise you for your efforts in obtaining this agreement with the Board of Education. I would like to ask Mr. Badcock if he will see to it that basketball is given main gym time, rather than in any other all purpose room.
Tom Badcock: Basketball will take priority and then everything else will be taken in turn. I am going to try and schedule everything giving time for all sport activities, including a cricket team.
Councilman Butler: I would like to congratulate you on "taking the bull by the horns" and obtaining this agreement. Your efforts and endurance are to be commended.
Mayor Cannon: I would like to say "thank you" to Dennis Maher and Tom Badcock and the Board of Education. It goes to a fine example of what can be done by working together.
Councilman Testino: I would like to know if this maintenance agreement will be a line item in the upcoming budget?
President Maher: I am going to ask that Tom Badcock finalize the use of the schedule among all the recreational facilities.
Tom Badcock: I am going to request that all the leagues submit their schedules and times along with their permits. After review, I will contact the custodial service used by the Board of Education to determine the cost and as soon as we assign the times, I will have the dollar value for what we will be spending and make recommendations for coming up with the monies.
Councilman Redmond: Before we go further, I just want to say that I received a phone call this evening from Chris Peterson of Cedarview Estates who was upset because land being cleared for the Lowe's Shopping Center was supposed to have a tree buffer and it appears that they have cleared all the trees and left no buffer zone.
Mayor Cannon: It was my understanding that they were supposed to leave a buffer area. I will check into it.
JOINT MEETING WITH HOUSING AUTHORITY
President Maher: The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the Ferry Road property. We were advised by Attorney Ruggierio that we could not discuss this matter in Executive Session with regard to the use of this property and therefore we decided to televise this portion of the meeting so that the public would be aware of what was transpiring.
Mary Ann Gurliaccio: I will introduce the members of the Housing Authority to you.
Lane Miller is the attorney for the Authority, Patrick Gillespie is a Commissioner and Thomas O'Leary is the Executive Director. We would like to see this project come to fruition and we are here to answer any questions that the Council may have.
Patrick Gillespie: Betty English is the third chair on this committee and she is not with us this evening. I want to thank you for allowing us to come before you tonight. The need for affordable housing in this area is well documented. Why we are pushing for this site is because of its proximity to the hospital and to transportation along the Rt. 18 and Rt. 9 corridors. The residents would be offered affordable housing and access to health care. We believe that not only the "rich" seniors should be afforded these amenities but rather it should be available to both moderate and low income seniors and the Ferry Road location would make it a premier facility. We are a public entity created by this Council and if you do not like what we are doing then you have the right to abolish us. We have secured 1.5 million dollars of COAH funds for due diligence on this project. Speaking for the Housing Authority we are willing to put this money to good use and purchase this property. I am asking for your support for this project.
Councilman Redmond: You mentioned that in other meetings you were offered other parcels of land by the Township, may I ask why they are not suitable for this project?
Patrick Gillespie: There is no other parcel of land that would be as desirable as this with regard to access to health care. There was talk of other parcels, but no formal offer was made.
Councilman Redmond: Have you made any deals with the hospital for health care?
Patrick Gillespie: We have not made any deal with the hospital and it is not our intent to provide assisted living. This facility would provide seniors access to health care without really being an assisted living facility.
Mary Ann Gurliaccio: I want to advise you that HUD has passed a voucher program to include assisted living facilities in their program and it will be part of our Section 8 program.
Thomas O'Leary: Right now we have 108 applicants and 60% of them are seniors.
Lane Miller: At the meeting with the negotiating committee and administration, one of the things we discussed was the development of this affordable housing project. COAH monies could not be used for an assisted living project.
Councilman Redmond: One of my concerns is that a portion of the land will be sold to other entities for profit. I need to be assured that this is not an option.
Lane Miller: This question was raised at a meeting and in the contract that I have drawn up there is a deed restriction and it would encumber the property and prevent any portion of it from being sold for profit unless the Council changed the deed restriction
Tom O'Leary: Right now the waiting list has 130 applicants and we have not opened it in four years. We are going to reopen it now and in a few weeks we will have a good idea as to how many units are needed. I know that the Old Bridge Senior Rotary has a waiting list with 200 names.
Councilman Sohor: At this point I would like to establish for the record that there is no idea as to size of this project.
Tom O'Leary: We are considering a 100 unit complex.
Councilman Sohor: Will a 100 unit complex fit on this property and how much acreage are you looking at?
Tom O'Leary: We are not sure. That is what we will know after we complete our study.
Councilman Sohor: Will most of these be one bedroom units?
Tom O'Leary: When you are dealing with seniors, we usually are talking one bedroom units.
Councilman Sohor: With regard to transportation, are you aware that most of the buses on Ferry Road go into the city? Also, do you know how far away the shopping center is and that there are no sidewalks?
Mary Ann Gurliaccio: Your statements are generalized, some people would have assistance, but most would be on their own.
Councilman Sohor: So you are saying that this is the ultimate best site for this project?
Lane Miller: The committee met just for that reason and they have decided that this is the best site for this project. As counsel for the committee I concur with them. One of my strongest arguments is the availability of water and sewer for this property. We know that this property does have wetland problems, so again that is part of our due diligence.
Councilman Butler: First of all, I am very happy to have the members of the Housing Authority before us tonight. I would like to ask several questions. What was the vote by the committee on this project and is your attorney in support of this decision?
Mary Ann Gurliaccio: The vote was unanimous by those present at the meeting.
Lane Miller: With regard to my support on this matter, I am not sure that as the legal counsel for the committee I can offer my support. I can however, offer my legal opinion.
Councilman Butler: Have you approached the hospital about doing some joint things?
Lane Miller: Not formally, but it would be an option.
Councilman Butler: How much money is in your fund?
Lane Miller: We have approximately 1.7 million.
Councilman Butler: I know you are a non-profit organization, however, I have heard that there can be some stipend coming to the township.
Lane Miller: It is our full intention to give something to the town.
Councilman Hoff: There are two members of the Housing Authority here, can you tell me how many members there are?
Patrick Gillespie: Mary Sohor, Mary Ann Gurliaccio, Betty English, Jim Phillips and myself.
Councilman Hoff: Who was absent?
Mary Ann Gurliaccio: Laurie Kohler was absent.
Councilman Hoff: Is there an opening on the board?
Mary Ann Gurliaccio: Yes, two seats are available.
Councilman Testino: There has been a lot of rumors about this property. Have you concurred with any other boards or partners?
Mary Ann Gurliaccio: We are in negotiations with the township now and we still have to do the due diligence.
Councilman Testino: Are you willing to agree to what the township attorney has asked for?
Attorney Ruggierio: I will try to give you a briefing of what I have done based on my understanding of the wishes of the Housing Authority. I have worked with Mr. Miller before and I am sure that we can work together on this project. I know the Mayor opposes this sale as do others because it may not be an appropriate place for this project. If the Council says "go forward", I think that they should feel comfortable with their decision. I think that there should be a time limit set for going forward with this project. Secondly, the deed restriction should state that this property be used for senior housing and nothing else.
Councilman Testino: I think there are lots of points to be discussed in the negotiations and there is no reason not to continue these negotiations. My question is really can we get something done?
Councilman Sohor: I think that we ought to allow the board to proceed as planned and if we do not receive any bids, we could then sell it to the Housing Authority for one dollar, or offer them another piece of property.
Mayor Cannon: I know there is a need for more affordable senior housing space. The Housing Authority has a limited amount of dollars to spend to produce affordable housing. We have an auction scheduled for this land on Wednesday and before anything is done, we should see what happens and evaluate all offers. The land does have certain merits. However, there are other parcels that have features that would accommodate this project. Also, there are other parcels owned by the Township that we could look at and make available. The Housing Authority has never looked at these other properties and I think that before a decision is final all aspects should be explored. What kind of rents are you talking about here?
Lane Miller: The rents are to be set by COAH.
Mayor Cannon: I really do feel that EDC should schedule some meetings with the hospital and maybe bring in some good commercial ratables for the township.
Attorney Ruggierio: I believe that Mr. Miller and I can work this out and bring it back before the Council.
Motion
Moved by Councilman Sohor to allow Attorney Ruggierio to proceed on auction and if we get bids from commercial developers with a bid exceeding $850,000 or better, I would like to sell the property to them but take the proceeds from the sale and provide it to the housing authority toward purchase or construction of another senior housing site. If no bids are received, then we should go forward with negotiations with the housing authority to install affordable senior housing on the property and sell for a sum of $1.00 and remained by contribution;
No Second
Motion
Moved by Councilman Hoff to commit the Council to sell the property to the housing authority to provide affordable senior housing and that the two attorneys put together an agreement with a time table of 90 days due diligence plus an additional 90 days and that the housing authority build as expediously as possible; seconded by Councilman Butler and so ordered on the following roll call vote:
AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Hoff, Redmond, Testino, President Maher.
NAYS: Councilman Sohor
ABSENT: Councilwoman Marinaccio
ABSENT FROM PODIUM: Councilman Greene
Prior to the above roll call vote, Councilman Sohor moved to amend the above motion,
"we have bids on commercial sale of property and proceeds of that sale be given to the housing authority for construction of affordable senior housing in some other area. If no bids, the Township enter into agreement and sell the property for the sum of $1.00: no second. Amendment not accepted by Councilman Hoff.
Ten minute recess called by Council President Maher.
Clerk Rose-Marie Saracino called roll at 9:30 p.m. with the following answering present:
Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Redmond, Sohor, Testino, President Maher. Councilmen Hoff was absent from the podium. Councilwoman Marinaccio was absent.
ACTION ITEMS:
Approval of Bingo/Raffle License:
Resolution #547
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex:
WHEREAS, the following organizations have made application to hold, operate and conduct a Bingo/Raffle; said applications being in accordance with the statutes relating thereto.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge that the Clerk is hereby authorized and directed to issue to the applicant the following licenses:
RA 74-00 Old Bridge Education Foundation
Moved by Councilman Testino, seconded by Councilman Redmond and so ordered on the following roll call vote:
AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Redmond, Sohor, Testino,
President Maher.
NAYS: None.
ABSENT: Councilwoman Marinaccio.
ABSENT FROM THE PODIUM: Councilman Hoff.
Prior to the roll call vote the following discussion took place.
Bethany Rocque-Romaine: We are having a Casino Night and I just want all of you to know about it and support the Old Bridge Education Service Foundation. It is on November 3rd and we hope to see you all there.
GUEST - LEPC/FIRE/FIRST AID PRESENTATION.
RE: EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEM
Dominic Cicio: Our alert warning for our emergency operation plan right now consists of sirens on the fire houses and the public is not aware of what the meaning is and what we call route alerting. These systems are in our annex right now and are not effective for what we need. Obviously we have two TCPA facilities and we have the compression station that will be built in the next couple of years, which makes us leery about our alert warning system that we now have. With that in mind, we have been looking at upgrading our alert warning system and one of the methods we have come across was this communicator through Dialogic Communications. It is a notification system, but it is much more than just for emergencies and we have the salesman here
Randy Bozeman from Tennessee and he addressed the LEPC meeting on September 21st and the LEPC unanimously suggested that his system was needed as part of our annex and Mr. Sohor was good enough to put it on the agenda for discussion.
President Maher: Before we get into this what other surrounding communities are using this system?
Dominic Cicio: South Brunswick PD has the system for years and I believe their SWAT team also uses it. I believe that Franklin Township just recently purchased it.
Randy Bozeman: I would like to take a few minutes and just give you an overview of the type of technology we offer and have been implementing for the past 15 years. Actually, our company and the idea came from the State of New Jersey, Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant.
They called us in 1985 and asked us to develop technology which instead of receiving inbound calls could make outbound notifications via the telephone and deliver a specific incident message to a group of people and let them know what was happening and then get feedback from those individuals. Fifteen years and eleven hundred customers later we have been able to implement along with PC enhancements and software enhancements to go out and notify residents.
An example of this was about 8 months ago in Nashville, Tennessee, a chemical plant was running their normal night operations and a fire broke out. A cloud of chemicals proceeded to take over the compound and then the wind drifted off to the local neighborhood. The people in Nashville were faced with a situation whereby they had to evacuate that neighborhood and they only had a couple of ways to do it; they could send police officers in and go door-to-door, which takes time, or you could do what they did because they have the system, they circled a geographical area, the residents in the area were called via telephone and given the information and in about ten minutes the process of evacuating 1500 residents was started.
In Rhode Island a child was missing in a community. They had a description of the child and local area where he was last seen and they immediately identified the geographical area with the software and they calls went out. They found this child because a resident that was notified was alert to the situation.
Another need from the community policing aspect, is we have seen townships that have implemented this technology have their crime rate go down. Now you have the ability to be proactive and go out to the residents and advise what is going on. Finally, as I was listening to the previous discussions, one of the biggest uses of this type of technology is within the special needs and elderly communities. How would you notify special needs communities if there is a power outages? This system can go out and literally check on these people and ask if they are okay and you can give a report to the police and the dispatchers. This system is fully automatic and it operated by the touch of a button. A lot of communities who have purchased the system for one specific need have found that they can continue to expand on it and now we are seeing Boards of Education becoming involved because of some of the recent things that have happened throughout the country with our school systems. You can get into calling parents if you have to send the children home. It is unlimited in these types of applications. One last thing, the Microsoft Corporation has a program every year where they go out throughout the Country and look at things that their software is being used for and then it is nominated and if passed, inducted into the Smithsonian Institute. Our company was inducted this year into the Smithsonian Institute of Technology. Microsoft was so impressed that they came back and invested a lot of money into our company to take this on a much larger scale. This is the tip of the iceberg and what we are seeing is a tidal wave of communities coming on board.
Dominic Cicio: We have a special needs program in town and we track seniors who need help and we actually make the phone calls. This would save us a lot of time in just making those phone calls.
Councilman Cucchiara: I assume the Police Department must be overwhelmed with phone calls when it is snowing or there is bad weather?
Capt. Bonfante: From an emergency services point of view, this system would be invaluable to us. It goes without saying, on October 7th we had the township parade and if we had this system, we could have advised all the residents along the route to not park on the streets, et cetera. That is the lighter side of it. We had the gas line break up on Morganville Road we could have highlighted that area and informed the residents, it points out the need for this system. Even with regard to burglaries, we could highlight the areas that are being targeted and alert the residents as to what to look for. It is a system that will get a lot of use every month and not sit there until we need something because it is an early warning and notification system.
President Maher: We did something a few years ago when we tried to implement a time management system. This Council spent a lot of time on it, do you have a list of surrounding municipalities and surrounding that are using it?
Dominic Cicio: The Port Authority of New York/New Jersey has the system, PSE&G, GPU all the utilities use the system.
President Maher: If the utility companies have this system, why are we not advised when there is a power outage or shortage, I don't recall ever being notified.
Randy Bozeman: I believe they use it to call in their people and notify their people and they will also use it in the summer time when the heat is high to call large industries and even large towns who may have a large power drain on the source and request them to curtail their usage. The nuclear power plants in the area obviously would use it for notifying their people also since there has not been a situation in New Jersey that would warrant notifying the public.
President Maher: My question is to Bob and Dominic, have we done a needs analysis? It's $35,000 for the system is that a one time purchase and are there yearly recurring charges?
Dominic Cicio: There is a maintenance fee and that is about $2500-$3000 per year.
Himanshu Shah: I want to add one thing, there is a cost in addition to the system cost. It will be telephone cost in order to operate the switch and plus the cost for more lines.
President Maher: Suppose we did have a disaster, is there a backup recovery system for no power or no electricity?
Dominic Cicio: One of the reasons that we like this company is because they have back-up over in Tennessee.
Randy Bozeman: We have three locations with a large phone bank. In fact in one location we have over 600 telephone lines. So that if you got into a situation where you did not have access to your phone lines you could do the notifications out of Nashville.
President Maher: Is there a cost involved?
Dominic Cicio: Yes, when you use it there is a "user cost".
Randy Bozeman: As far as the phone lines some of the communities that find that to be an issue may go with a smaller system and then use the back-up for the large scale notifications.
Dominic Cicio: One of my thoughts for emergencies and why I like this system is if we had to evacuate or notify large numbers of residents, because of some type of hazmat incident, and we would be going for third party reimbursement and recovery. We would probably out of necessity notify them and have them do the GO notify and we would bill that to the responsible party.
Councilman Cucchiara: We have some major arteries going down Rt. 9, Rt. 18, Rt. 34, Rt. 35 where a lot of tankers are going up and down the highways.
Capt. Bonfante: We have our emergency operations plan and our alert warning system is insufficient. If we had a major incident in this town there is no way we could notify everybody.
President Maher: What are other towns doing?
Dominic Cicio: This is lacking throughout the County and the State. There is nothing other than sirens and route alerting which everybody is using.
President Maher: Is there any possibility of doing an interlocal agreement with the school system? To your knowledge or Capt. Bonfante's knowledge is the County looking at this?
Capt. Bonfante: I have addressed it and I agree this would be ideal for Middlesex County. However, Middlesex County does not have a 911 system like we have and pretty much they do not foresee getting it in the near future.
President Maher: What about discussions with the Board of Education and the fire companies?
Dominic Cicio: At the LEPC we had representatives from the Board of Education, the fire company, the first aid, police departments, it is all tax payer dollars. I know you are looking at it from a budgetary basis, but it all comes out of the same pocket.
President Maher: You mention that the utility companies have it, is there an opportunity for us to "piggy back" on their existing systems since they already have it?
Dominic Cicio: We have private industry in the LEPC and I have been negotiating for some type of sponsorship to at least cover the maintenance fees for the system on a yearly basis. I don't have a contract, but I am relatively sure that between some of our LEPC members and some of the larger companies we can get the money for the maintenance.
President Maher: I see the director of the EDC in the audience, is there something you can do to approach the local businesses and see if there is the availability for local funding?
Dominic Cicio: Again, this system is also to help our special needs programs and senior housing, this system is definitely a notification system that the seniors will definitely benefit from.
Councilman Redmond: I would like to say that we need some sort of system. We have a rail line running through the Township, gas lines, two chemical plants. These are all potential dangers. My question is about the proposal of $35,000, and then you have options, what is a DCC Pentium Processor for $3100.00?
Randy Bozeman: That is a computer. With regard to the options, these are things that you could purchase from us. If you come up with your own PC then you don't have to purchase ours. If the customer wants a turn-key solution, then we handle everything.
Councilman Redmond: So your software will run on any PC it does not have to be yours? How many stations are you talking about?
Dominic Cicio: We are talking about two stations at $500.00 each. One in Emergency Management and the other in the Police Department.
Councilman Greene: I think it is very interesting has anyone given any thought as to how long it would take to notify all the households in the town if there were an emergency?
Randy Bozeman: There are several things to look at one of them being the length of the message. If you give a lot of specifics then it would take a minute or two if it is a 10 second message then obviously you would reach more households in less time. I think that in the Nashville incident, they notified 1500 - 2000 households in roughly 10-12 minutes and they had a system of comparable size to the one we are talking about here.
Councilman Greene: The main purpose is for emergency response and you have talked about other things it could be used for. With regard to the options, as we progress do we have to add on these things?
Randy Bozeman: This is a turn key solution. The software would have all the options built into it. It is user friendly and you could add to the system and not have to come back to us. It is very flexible. Basically, it is taking a mouse, drawing on the system and isolating the area to be notified. We train the users and we offer on-line help as well.
Himanshu Shah: The reason I raise my hand is because you just cannot vote on this it does not work that way. It sounds great, and I don't want you to come back and say we've spent $35,000 and it's not working.
Randy Bozeman: Can you expand on that, we have 1100 customers who are satisfied?
Himanshu Shah: I just don't want Council to misunderstand and when the data processing cannot be done in-house, ask "why is it not working"?
Dominic Cicio: It is not going to be under your jurisdiction.
Councilman Testino: Mr. Shah is obviously dissatisfied so I am going to have to get to the root of that.
Himanshu Shah: I am not dissatisfied, I just don't want the Council to get a misunderstanding of what can be done.
Councilman Testino: Is this a single source provider?
Dominic Cicio: There are other providers. As far as I know, they don't have the back-up that this company has. I have seen tapes from other companies and at the County Coordinators meeting it was the consensus that this one of the better systems.
Councilman Testino: Can I assume this is a professional services acquisition?
Himanshu Shah: No.
Councilman Testino: So, therefore it has to be bid. Can I assume that we could bond for such an acquisition? I take it you are also concerned about the yearly cost in addition to the actual cost?
Himanshu Shah: Yes.
Councilman Testino: President Maher is talking about cost sharing, is there a potential for an interlocal agreement with other users?
Himanshu Shah: It could be done. There might be interest in sharing this system.
Dominic Cicio: Originally, I wanted this system on the County level so we would not have to get it. The County has a problem because they do not have a 911 dispatch system like we have.
Capt. Bonfante: We cannot be on a shared system because what if another town has an incident going at the same time, who would get to use the system. You need your own system.
Himanshu Shah: I think that we need more discussion.
Mayor Cannon: I think this should be discussed but not at a Council meeting and also, it would have to be a capital expense and we are not ready to do the capital bonding yet, we still don't have an approved budget.
President Maher: It sounds like Administration is not supporting this.
Mayor Cannon: I am not saying that we don't support this, but Mr. Shah's questions need to be resolved and we need to get more factual data because you have to develop bid specs.
President Maher: There is also the issue of interlocal agreements, I think that has to be looked into. I would like Dominic and Bob to look to you to see if there are possibilities for these agreements. This is a system that could be valuable to various and multiple users.
Dominic Cicio: My suggestion was that every town put up $2000.00 and have the County institute the system. We are still working on that.
President Maher: I think you have now gotten input from the Council. It is a great service, a great idea, we just don't know how to implement it. We have given you several ideas and we would like for you to explore and then report back to us.
Councilman Redmond: Was the purpose of the presentation tonight for you to obtain permission to do this?
Dominic Cicio: It was mainly to let you be aware of it. We recognize the need for this system in Old Bridge. It is something brand new.
Mayor Cannon: It probably would not be implemented till next year, I think they are just trying to acquaint you with the system and the need for such.
Councilman Sohor: The reason I invited the LEPC to come tonight was to acquaint us with the system. I have seen the presentation before and I have attended LEPC meetings where this system has been discussed and I was impressed. This company has come a long way in the development of their system. A system like this would bring us to the state of the art in terms of community notification for all kinds of purposes. The quickest and best way to notify people of emergencies is via the telephone. I especially like that there are two way communications available. We have instituted a web site to advise people what is going on in town, but the whole world is not using the web and that can at time be cumbersome to update. This allows us another way to reach the people. The cost is relatively nominal for what we are getting in return.
Himanshu's concerns about making sure the system actually works as advertised is definitely well taken. I would like to suggest that we ask the LEPC to continue investigating the system, and that Mr. Shah meet with the vendor to examine the technical aspects and then I would ask that the LEPC meet with the other bodies, especially the Board of Education and the MUA to show their boards what the system is all about. We may not end up with this vendor's system, but I think it is a cost effective way of protecting our citizens.
MOTION
Motion by Councilman Sohor to have the LEPC continue working on the implementation of this system and other systems and report back to the Council. Seconded by Councilman Testino and so moved on the following roll call vote:
AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Hoff, Redmond, Sohor, Testino, President Maher.
NAYS: None.
Absent: Councilwoman Marinaccio.
Councilman Redmond: I would like the Council to set-up a meeting with the Emergency Management people with regard to the memo on the Marlboro/Morganville Roads problem. I would really like to get together and find out what we can do to prevent this from happening in the future.
Councilman Cucchiara: I brought this up to the Board of Fire Commissioners and I am alarmed at what took place.
Councilman Redmond: I thank you for your memo and I would like to set up a meeting to discuss this further.
President Maher: Anyone who wants to sit on this Committee, contact Mr. Redmond who will chair it with members of the LEPC. Mr. Cicio would you like to comment on the pipeline committee?
Dominic Cicio: As you know we instituted a pipeline committee and we had our first meeting earlier this week and our next meeting is October 28th and we are going to be visiting the pipeline facility in Lawrenceville. We have arranged for a bus from Helen Rende's office and we will be leaving from the complex. If you want to see the facility, I suggest that you attend.
ORDINANCE FOR SECOND READING
Ord. #48-00 Authorizing Sidewalk Repair and Ten Year Payout.
No Discussion
Ord. #49-00 Amending Police Outside Employment Rate of Compensation
No Discussion
ORDINANCE FOR FIRST READING
FR-1 Designating various roadways in Foxborough Village as residential permit parking areas.
No Discussion
FR-2 Accepting dedication of Lot 52 (Foxborough)
No Discussion
AC-2
Authorizing issuance of check to United Title & Abstract re: Rt. 9 Park & Ride (Inverness Drive) Block 13264.19, Lot 11 - $355,000 (Cert.#927)
Prior to the roll call vote the following discussion took place.
Councilman Testino: Why are we dealing with a title company in Cherry Hill?
Attorney Ruggierio: I have used five different title companies. They are they only people from whom I get a quick response. I will try East Coast Title again and see if I can get a response from them, but frankly this is the only company responding. I will give you a call and you can give me names.
Resolution #548
BE IT RESOLVED, by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, that:
the Finance Director is hereby authorized to issue the checks reflected below for the purchase of and closing costs for the property known as Block 13264.19, Lot 11, the Route 9 Park and Ride (Inverness Road); payable to:
United Title & Abstract Agency Avenues of Commerce 2428 Route 38, Suite 206 Cherry Hill, New Jersey 08802
Closing Costs: $5,000.00 (Excess to be returned at closing)
Purchase Price: $350,000.00
Total: $355,000.00
Moved by Councilman Sohor, seconded by Councilman Redmond and so ordered on the following roll call vote:
AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Hoff, Redmond, Sohor, Testino, President Maher.
NAYS: None.
ABSENT: Councilwoman Marinaccio.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
September 18, 2000 Agenda
September 25, 2000 Regular
October 2, 2000 Executive
No Discussion
CONSENT AGENDA
C-1 Bingo/Raffle Approvals No Discussion
DISCUSSION RESOLUTIONS
DR-1 Resolution endorsing Communities for Safer Guns Coalition
President Maher: Since Ms. Shepler is not here I am suggesting that we put this item on hold.
DR-2 Award Contract #00-39 to Rochez Bros. In the amount of $32,250.00 for Road Salt (CERT. #928) (Affirm. Act.)
Move up
DR-3 Resolution to Cancel Appropriation Balance in the Amount of $110.17 for the Safe Housing Grant Move up
DR-4 Rescind resolution #491 and authorizing substitution resolution authorizing payment of accumulated time to Al Williams in the amount of $12,727.56
Move up
DR-5 Award Contract #00-41 to Winner Ford in the Amount of $34,231.61 Ford Supercab Pick-up Truck (CERT. 929) (Affirm. Act)
Move up
DR-6 Authorizing Mayor to sign release re CADD disk for Township of Old Bridge vs. Sommers case
Move up
Councilman Redmond: Are you making a copy of the disc of the drawings?
Attorney Ruggierio: T&M did a wetlands delineation and submitted a letter of interpretation to the DEP and the Sommers at litigation want to take issue with it. I told them they had 30-45 days to make an application and they asked if we would give them the CADD October 31, 2000. I honestly felt that T&M would like us to refuse, but if we went in front of Judge Longe, we would look bad because we are trying to withhold something.
Councilman Testino: Why can't they pay for it?
Attorney Ruggierio: They are going to pay for their own engineering, but this is just a digital format that we have already submitted to the court.
Councilman Redmond: That is what I am asking, are you giving them the actual disc or are you making a copy?
Attorney Ruggierio: We are giving them a copy of the disc.
Move up
DR-7 Accepting and approving final construction plans and specifications for Route 516/ Bushnell Road Traffic Light
Move up
President Maher: These plans have not changed since the original was submitted? Can I ask Mayor Cannon to have a copy placed in the Council Room for the members to review?
DR-8 Authorizing Temporary Budget Appropriations for fiscal year 2001 - Current Budget $1,875,000 and Arena Utility $105,000 for total of $1,980,000
Move up
DR-9 Authorizing extension of NJ Transit Park & Ride facility lease
Move up
DR-10 Granting permission to Salon 527 to hang banner across Englishtown Road re Cut-a-Thon on 11/12/00 to benefit Camp Robin
Move up
DR-11 Authorizing payment of $850,000 as per settlement agreement in Global vs. 280 Development et al (CERT #930)
Move up
DR-12 Authorizing tax collector to cancel taxes for Block 1, Lots 47, 48 and 48.29 and issue appropriate refund
Move up
DR-13 Resolution to State Assembly opposing elimination of Rent Control
Move up
Councilman Butler: They have legislation in Trenton, to get rid of rent control. People living in apartment now are paying the 3% increase are having a problem. If they get rid of rent control, that basically means their rents would double. I am asking the Council to send a resolution to the legislature opposing this proposal.
DR-14 Authorizing the Mayor and Clerk to sign deed of easement and right-of-way re Steamboat Landing Road
Move up
Attorney Ruggierio: The Planning Boards approval was contingent upon the relocation of Dock Road. The problem was that there were utility easements in the road so this is an easement to make it clear that even if the road is relocated the easement would continue to exist for access to the utilities.
DISCUSSION
D-1 Cheesequake Dam Move up
D-2 Requesting investigation of former O&Y Property as property in need of redevelopment
Councilman Testino: The EDC asked that this resolution come forth to determine whether or not the 500 acres on Rt. 9 and Rt. 18 should be sent the Planning Board for investigation as to whether or not it is an appropriate property for reconsideration of a redevelopment zone. There is a number of criteria and the process starts by the Council sending it to the Planning Board who will evaluate it and act within a certain deadline. The EDC unanimously supported it by coming to the Council and having the Council act and get it over to the Planning Board.
Vincent Aurilio: Basically, we are looking at the acreage and going out for requests for proposals from developers so we can get the highest and best use of this particular property. Again, this is just the beginning of the process. It may or may not work, but this is how we get the Planning Board to basically see if this is a viable piece of property.
Councilman Sohor: I would support that resolution and I think that this property has been in our inventory for awhile and we should explore our options.
Councilman Testino: I would suggest that we direct our legal department to craft the appropriate resolution to send this on to the Planning Board for their action.
SET DATE
SD-1 Release/Reduction Performance Guarantee - Primavera Estates Suggested Date: Monday, November 27, 2000 - 8PM
SD-2 Release/Reduction Performance Guarantee - Carrington Woods Suggested Date: Monday, November 20, 2000 - 8PM
SD-3 Release/Reduction Performance Guarantee - Yardley Manor Suggested Date: Monday, December 4, 2000 -8PM
Move up
REPORTS
R-1 Microphone System in Court Room (Written report from Administration)
Clerk Saracino: The report is in your folder. The cost is $1500.00 to have the microphones changed to the type used by the Mayor and Alayne.
Move up
R-2 Fisher Bros/Lowe's Project - Credit for road improvements (Report by Engineer)
Hold
GUEST PRESENTATION
Mr. Peter Ghaw (Academy Honda) Donation to Robin Therapeutic Recreation Program Donation of $5000.00 from Honda USA through Academy Honda
Move up
HEARING
H-1 Release/Reduction Performance Guarantee - Park's Edge
Move up
CERTIFICATES OF APPRECIATION - 10/23/00
Old Bridge Fair
Move up
LIQUOR LICENSE - 10/23/00
LL-1 Person to Person transfer of consumption license #1209 33 019 004 from H.J. Louri Corporation to Billy Budd Associates, LLC t/a Madison Inn.
Motion to adjourn made by President Maher, seconded by Councilman Butler and so ordered on the following roll call vote:
AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Hoff, Redmond, Sohor, Testino,
President Maher.
NAYS: None.
Absent: Councilwoman Marinaccio
_____________________________
Council President Dennis M. Maher
______________________________
Rose-Marie Saracino, Township Clerk
Distrib.
vo