OLD BRIDGE TOWNSHIP COUNCIL
AGENDA MEETING
March 19, 2001
An Agenda meeting of the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge was held on March 19, 2001 in the Municipal Complex. The meeting was called to order at 8:05 p.m. by President Maher who invited all to participate in a salute to the flag followed by a short prayer.
Deputy Clerk Stella Ward announced that pursuant to Section 5 of the Open Public Meetings Act, this meeting has been advertised in the Home News and Tribune and that the next meeting of the Township Council will be held on March 26, 2001 at 8:00 p.m.
Roll call by Deputy Clerk Ward showed the following answering present: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Hoff, Redmond, Testino, Councilwoman Marinaccio, President Maher. Councilman Sohor arrived at 8:20 p.m., Councilman Greene arrived at 8:50 p.m.
CERTIFICATES OF RECOGNITION:
President Maher: The Certificates of Recognition for Special Olympics/Speed Skating will be presented on March 26, 2001.
HEARING 3/26/01:
H-1 Release/Reduction Performance Guarantee - Deer Run
H-2 Release/Reduction Performance Guarantee - Mirada Realty/Bell Chase
President Maher: Nelson, are we ready to move on these two items.
Nelson Iglesias: We are ready in the sense that we know what will happen.
GAS STATION/RT. 9 & PHILLIPS DRIVE
President Maher: I just want to deviate for a moment. We have Mr. Joe O'Connor, President of the Arbors Homeowner Association, and we have all received correspondence from him. He has communicated to us with regard to that the gas station on the corner of Phillips Drive that he is ready to deliver a petition with 175 residents signatures due to the problems with the station and the tanker trucks have been exiting the station onto Phillips Drive. This was an application before the Zoning Board last Thursday and I understand that it is a pending application and Jonathan Heilbrunn has arranged to set up a meeting with respect to some additional concerns that the Homeowner's Association has with respect to the application. On a temporary basis Chief Palumbo in conjunction with Rocky Donatelli have put up temporary barricades so the trucks cannot exit from the station onto Phillips Drive. Mr. O'Connor is going to spend about five minutes with us and he has some pictures to show us of these trucks have been in near collisions with school buses coming into the McDivitt School and they have destroyed the curbing around the station, but we think we now have some temporary workarounds with respect to the barricades the police have put up.
Mr. O'Connor: That is a pretty accurate picture.
President Maher: You have to meet with Chief Palumbo, Capt. Cerra as well as Mr. Donatelli and we will do whatever needs to be done on a temporary basis.
HEARING 3/19/01:
H-1 Release/Reduction Performance Guarantee - Ticetown Hills
Nelson Iglesias: I am recommending denial of this application. You have read my report and in essence what I am saying to you is that we wish to pursue the bond issues legally at this point.
Motion
to deny release/reduction of performance guarantees for Ticetown Hills made by Councilman Testino, seconded by President Maher and so moved on the following roll call vote:
AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Hoff, Redmond, Testino, Councilwoman Marinaccio, President Maher
NAYS: None.
ABSENT: Councilmen Greene, Sohor.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES.
February 12, 2001 - Executive/Combined
February 20, 2001 - Agenda
No Discussion
ORDINANCE FOR SECOND READING
ORD.#10-01 Amending the Municipal Land Use Law requiring posting of application notices. (Deadline 4/1/01 - Recommendation by Planning Board)
President Maher: Are we going to carry this for a date certain?
Alayne Shepler: We are still waiting for the Planning Board's recommendation and I have not seen it.
President Maher: Our next meeting is March 26th if the recommendation comes in should we leave it on for the meeting?
Clerk Saracino: There is a 35 day deadline from the time we send it to the Planning Board and that is what the April 1 date represents.
President Maher: The Council has not seen it yet, what is the Council's pleasure on this? We will carry this forward and hopefully we will have it or we will table it at that time.
ORD. #11-01 Amending Municipal Land Use Law - amending requirements for multiple access roads in new developments. (Deadline 4/1/01 - Recommendation by Planning Board.
President Maher: We will carry this forward and if we don't have the recommendation we will table it at the March 26th meeting.
ORD. #13-01 Town Centre Ordinance - Amendment (Deadline 4/17/01)
President Maher: I did touch base with Sam Rizzo and he has had at least one meeting with Tom Sheehan and that the meeting was productive.
Councilman Testino: We are not going to propose any amendments until they come back to us, am I correct?
ORDINANCE FOR FIRST READING.
FR-1 Skate Park Fees
President Maher: This is a recommendation from the Recreation Committee.
Tom Badcock: Yes and you all have copies of it.
Councilman Redmond: Do you have a "guesstimate" as to how many kids are using it? Also, how many are Old Bridge residents?
Tom Badcock: No, we really won't know until we print ID pictures.
Councilman Testino: I think I know the sentiments of the Council and I will probably be overruled, but is there any way we can have special registration days down at the park?
Tom Badcock: I don't think it is a good idea.
Councilman Testino: I know it will be difficult for some parents to make time and if we are going to service Old Bridge residents I figure maybe once or twice we could accommodate them.
Tom Badcock: Once the ordinance is in place it will take months to register the kids so there will be plenty of opportunities.
Councilman Redmond: I am still up in the air about the fees. I realize we have to do something about the fees. These people pay taxes, the taxes build these things and now we want to charge money to go into it. I am not big on charging kids for amusement parks.
Alayne Shepler: I believe that the reason the fee was originally suggested was because of the number of outsiders we have encountered in the park and the difficulty our own residents have had in using the park and that is why the fee was suggested.
Councilman Redmond: I have not heard that from anyone but adults. I talk to the kids and I have not heard any complaints in that respect. I have heard some of the younger kids complain about the older ones, but that is to be expected and it is going to happen regardless of whether there is or is not a fee.
President Maher: I have spoken to members of the Rec. Board and this was discussed at the Recreation Advisory Board meeting and the fee we are charging is similar to one we are charging for children who participate in Little League Baseball, Pop Warner Foot Ball, cheerleading, soccer, et cetera. It is well below what we are charging for a family. Correct me if I am wrong, but the fee is $25.00 per family?
Tom Badcock: No, the fee is $25.00 for the first child, $10.00 for the second and $5.00 for the remaining children, therefore it can be no more that $40.00 for a family. I know members of the board did go down there and this is their recommendation, so I am going to support this.
Councilman Redmond: This is nothing like Little League, there is nothing organized they just go down there and skate. The taxpayers paid for the equipment and we pay the specials to make sure the kids don't get hurt, but this is just my opinion, but at this stage we need to know a little more.
Councilman Hoff: Now East Brunswick was fighting very hard not to put in a Skate Park, they are very happy to have their kids come down to Old Bridge and let us do their babysitting for them. I think a reasonable fee for this is well needed.
Councilman Testino: If the fee was $40.00 when I was a kid living in Laurence Harbor, my mother would not have registered me. Some families just don't have the money.
Councilman Sohor: When we put the skate park together we did not talk about fees. It was not part of the original plan and my support for the park I was not looking at something that would be another revenue source for the town. I hate to have to agree with Mr. Testino but putting a fee is not acceptable and we need to find another way to possibly control access other than by fees. Perhaps we can ID cards without fees. I am not going to vote of charging fees.
Alayne Shepler: I would like to address Mr. Testino and Mr. Redmond in terms of the fee structure. We do provide scholarships for a number of our recreational programs and this would be no different. If it were truly onerous on the family to pay the fee, then certainly provisions would be made to absorb it by the recreation department. The second point to Mr. Sohor is that we cannot differentiate between residents and non residents because Vet's Park is a Green Acre facility and you cannot do that.
Councilwoman Marinaccio: How are we supposed to know that there is a financial problem with the family?
Alayne Shepler: They make it known.
Councilwoman Marinaccio: The ones that make it known are usually the ones who don't have the problem, the one's that keep their mouths shut usually have the problem. Those are the kids that will lose out.
Move-up
CONSENT AGENDA
C-1 Bingo/Raffle
Move-up
DISCUSSION ORDINANCE
DO-1 Amending Ordinance to Increase Alcoholic Beverage Fees
Clerk Saracino: Twenty percent is the maximum fee that we are allowed to raise the fee. We are presently under the maximum fee allowed to be charged and I have been trying every two years to raise the fee so that it will eventually come up to the maximum fee allowed.
Move-up
DO-2 Amendment to Use of Library Property Ordinance - Increase fine for destruction of loss of library books.
Move-up
DO-3 Amending Bond Ordinance 99-13 for Higgins Road Soccer Field in the amount of $70,000.
President Maher: I thought this was $2000.00.
Himanshu Shah: This is something different. This is for the connection fee from the MUA.
President Maher: So what is the total now for this restroom facility?
Tom Badcock: This is just the MUA fee. The contract itself is about $240,000, but this has nothing to do with the contractor, this is the connection fee for the one building.
Councilman Redmond: Just out of curiosity, you knew you were building a bathroom, didn't you know that you would have to connect to the MUA?
Tom Badcock: We did Geick and Vet's Parks the same way. We knew there was going to be fees, but we did not know what they would be.
Councilman Redmond: Is this for the girl's soccer because they are talking about coming down here next week to find out what is going on.
Tom Badcock: They know what is going on. I spoke with John Piovesan and some other people every week so they do know.
President Maher: Do we get any of these fees back from the MUA?
Tom Badcock: No.
President Maher: What would it cost for a septic tank; would it be less?
Rocky Donatelli: It would be over $100,000.00.
Move-up
DO-4 Department Head Salaries (Merit increases for certain department heads)
Councilman Sohor: With the salary increase ordinances that we have passed so far we basically just gave increases in line with the general negotiated agreements that we had. The Mayor proposed and I concurred that there were some department heads who because of exemplary performance and contributions to the operation of township were deserving of some additional remuneration based on their performance. We also still have the issue of the one percent increase that was foregone by some department heads some years ago when we were in a fair degree of financial difficulty. Many times in the past this Council has expressed interest and sentiment in the concept of pay-for-performance and merit pay and I believe that awarding these additional increases is the first step in starting to follow through on those intentions.
President Maher: Is there any support to move this up?
Councilman Redmond: Do we have a list of these department heads?
Councilman Testino: You have a list. It is the same one as before. The question is do you want to vote for additional raises?
Councilman Cucchiara: I have a question. Are you raising the salaries to keep in line with other salaries throughout the area for each individual compared to their jobs or are you just calling this a merit increase?
Councilman Sohor: Well based on what I have seen our salaries are not up there on the high end of what other municipalities are paying. I think you have some people here who are doing an outstanding job in saving the taxpayers of the township considerable monies and also bringing success to us in a lot of projects and areas and we as a Council have said more than once we would like to implementing some merit increases and paying for performance. In fact it started back about three years ago when Dennis sent us materials.
Councilman Cucchiara: Roman, what I am asking is that there is a memo in the file which states that it is also bringing it up to the comparable pay everyone is getting. So are you talking about bring it up to comparable or is it a merit increase?
Councilman Sohor: To be honest, I did not see or write that memo. My intention of bringing it up was to bring meritorious work to everyone's attention and that people can be rewarded for outstanding work in a way that makes a difference.
Councilman Cucchiara: The only reason I am asking that question is because I know there are other people and I do know very well that our department heads work very hard for us, but there are others who work very hard for us too. So that is why I say if you are going to give merit increases to certain department heads I have no problem also giving a merit increase to people in the Clerk's office, people in the Police Department, all our union based people at the same time because I think we give our increases based on what our union people get. But, if you are telling me that you want to bring it up comparable to what say the township attorney in say another town that employs a full time attorney or other department heads like a CFO are currently earning; for instance what does the guy in East Brunswick, Sayreville, Piscataway make?
Himanshu Shah: All of them earn substantially more.
Councilman Cucchiara: All I am saying is comparable is one thing and merit is another.
Councilwoman Cucchiara: Dennis, we spoke about having some type of system with regard to raises. Today we pick three department heads and decide to give them a merit increase and then we have others who are not going to be looked at . If this is going to be done, then why not make it some type of a system where everybody can get a fair shot. Let's say every two or three years, whether it be department heads, the Clerk's office, whatever, that they will be looked upon for a merit increase in addition to their annual increase which is in line with the union employees. So I say let's put in some type of a system so it is not just done at random or not just for certain individuals.
President Maher: I agree with you and as Roman said three years ago I was a strong advocate of and I used the term pay-for-performance. We do it in the company where I work where you get a base salary and a bonus based on how well the company is performing in the market place. I know that this year no one in my company is getting a bonus.
Councilman Redmond: Dennis, do they get longevity?
President Maher: No, and we all got straight across the board 3 ½% increases. If you want to look at an ideal pay-for-performance, you look at us in the marketplace; how well did municipal government do in the marketplace here in Old Bridge New Jersey. We delivered a five cent tax increase to people. Now if you bring that to how the private sector measures that, the department heads would not have gotten a merit increase. You know pay-for-performance is based on management by objectives, you set objectives and how well you measure out to those objectives. I am a proponent of pay-for-performance, but I have not seen anything come from our Human Resources Department or our HR director in terms of any model for pay-for-performance. As a matter of fact, I do not even know the appraisal system that we use, I am told it is helter-skelter; some employees get appraisals and others do not. In light of all this I am a proponent of pay-for-performance, but in terms of delivering in terms of what we promised the taxpayers, I think that we let taxpayers down this year. In terms of increases we gave our employees a 3 ½ % increase including these people and this is nothing against these people who are fine employees, but giving them an 8-9% salary increase over their previous year's salary is not in line with our economy which is sinking, everyone is learning how to spell the word "recession" again. I feel that the 3 ½% increase that we have delivered to our department heads this year is sufficient and I am comfortable with that so I am not going to support this additional increase.
Councilwoman Marinaccio: Dennis, I would still like to see for the future regardless of where this goes now, a policy as far as merit increases.
President Maher: Are we going to move this up?
Councilman Hoff: I am not in support of moving it up.
Councilwoman Marinaccio: I would rather support working on it and having something developed and using that as a guideline that we go by and this way it is set and can be utilized in the future for everyone.
Councilman Sohor: Dennis, one set of final comments. I think that tying the tax increase to the department heads at least with regard to the last few years, there really is no connection between the two items. This Council is actually the one that sets the final budget and the tax rates. Two years ago we reduced taxes beyond what the Administration and the Finance Director recommended knowing full well that the following year was going to require a tax increase, but this Council disregarded that advice. In this past budget cycle the increase was set because we made certain determinations in spending, we used a lot of surplus funds that we probably should not have; we reduced reserves. Back in November when I talked about the down turn in the economy I was laughed at and ridiculed and now you are talking about the "R" word like we never knew it was coming. The department heads in my view do not have any connection with that and pay-for-performance in government does not work like a business there is no profit, the performance is based on service to the community. We expect top performance from our department heads but I believe we are getting things above and beyond the norm from these dedicated people and we should put an incentive out there based on a subjective evaluation.
Motion Denied
President Maher: In regard to what Mrs. Marinaccio said, I am in favor of getting in touch with HR and setting some sort of guidelines or process.
Councilwoman Marinaccio: All right whatever guidelines or process we need, we will get the Human Resources Department to start taking a look at it.
President Maher: Would like to lead that?
Councilwoman Marinaccio: Yes.
DISCUSSION RESOLUTION:
DR-1 Fisher Brothers/Lowe's Shopping Center - Fair Share Contribution of Traffic Improvements.
Nelson Iglesias: I asked the attorney for Lowe's to come before you. They are coming back before the Council to discuss fee waivers and I suggest that in order to advise the Council properly they should come with their engineer and exhibits. Tonight they have not come with that additional help, which I think is necessary.
John Mamora: You may recall that we were here in the first week of February and we did have the engineer and the exhibits and at that time the resolution was moved up and your attorney Mr. Condon was authorized to draft an approval resolution. I will go through the background again for you. We were approved about a year ago and at the time the Zoning Board indicated that they had reservations about our merely contributing on a fair-share basis to certain road improvement to that intersection Perrine Road and the State Highway. The concern was that some of the stuff would not get built and since we were out there with our contractors and our equipment it would be a lot more efficient if you would do it. The resolution of the Zoning Board included a condition that we would meet after with the engineer and the Board attorney and work out any fair-share contribution if the factor was in excess. The assessment from Mr. Iglesias was $206,000; the cost of the improvements was $576,000 so the net benefit to the township was a gain of $370,000. Mr. Iglesias indicated that he did not want to merely sign off on the fair-share transportation fee without us coming before this Council. So I went back to the Zoning Board in August 2000 and told them I would be happy to go before the Council but I would like you to at least document your decision and what we had done and that was submitted.
This resolution was memorialized on September 21, 2000 and in it they acknowledged that the cost of the extra improvements we made were in excess of the fee and recommended to the Council that the credit be applied. That is the presentation and the submission to the Council members includes the resolution itself.
Mr. Robert Beyer is here also this evening who is a representative of the developer. I do understand that separate and apart from this, Mr. Iglesias has some problem with the construction on Perrine Road and that is a problem that we will address with our contractor. We have worked with your professionals every step of the way and we will continue to do so until all the issues have been resolved. I really would like to bring this to some type of closure tonight.
Councilman Hoff: We are faced with a problem that never existed before and that is the total demolishing of Perrine Road, which I assume was caused by construction. If I am wrong please correct me, but we never had the drainage problems to the degree that we now have them. We have to look to who is accountable for this mess before everyone walks away.
Mr. Beyer: I go to the weekly job meetings at the site and I know there are a number of problems that seem to be happening now, whether they are all relative to our project I am not sure. First of all this has been a very wet winter. Secondly, at this point in time the trees and foliage have been removed from the site and ponds were being built and the detention system was being installed. The detention system is capable of holding a 100 year storm on site. Until the detention system is complete you will see the accumulation of water. As part of our application we were asked to and agreed to put in storm water pipes down Perrine Road which never existed before. This really was not for the benefit of our site but rather for the benefit of the town so they can tap into it in the future.
Councilman Hoff: If you knock down the trees water will accumulate.
Mr. Beyer: You're right but this is a temporary situation. All these problems will be addressed before the completion of the project.
Mr. Iglesias: We are getting off the track for what we are here for. As I said earlier it is the intent of these people to have their engineer with exhibits discuss the entire issue of the drainage. As far as the roadway we know what is happening out there and it is my intent to have the trench and the road fixed sometime next week.
Mr. Mamora: I will guarantee that this work will be completed before we come back before the Council again. I am just concerned that this project has gotten linked to this other issue which was for the extra improvements.
President Maher: You are saying that you are prepared to come back to the Council meeting at a later date and address the drainage problems as Mr. Hoff has described.
Mr. Mamora: Absolutely. It is our commitment which we are stating here on the record and I will not come back until it is finished and then we can discuss your satisfaction.
Councilman Redmond: When we had our original discussion about the drainage, you mentioned that someone else would need to "kick-in" and that is part of what was holding it up.
I sat on the Zoning Board up until this was voted on and I remember that there were a lot of restrictions placed on the approval.
Nelson Iglesias: We did talk about the fact that other people were involved with drainage besides Lowe's or Home Depot and we had a meeting with attorneys for Brunetti and Manzo.
Attorney Ruggierio: We are getting a little off course here in terms of what is being requested by this developer, but with respect to Perrine Road there was a meeting last week with Brunetti and Manzo representatives and I can report to the Council that we got cooperation and there is a constructive idea that grew out of the meeting and I will share it with you in a memo or executive session. The bottom line here is Mr. Iglesias put a lot of work in and was able to describe in detail the causes of the problems on Perrine Road and if they do relate to this developer are minimal as compared to the other causes as he described them. We are not going to drop that and are pursing it within the next few weeks with yet another party to try to get the funding for the "fixes" that are necessary with respect to the property. As per my memo regarding Manzo and Brunetti we hold open the possibility of some type of litigation with respect to this issue. We are pursuing these questions and problems with whom we truly believe to be the truly responsible parties and it is not this developer.
Councilman Redmond: What is the purpose of this exercise tonight? What are we looking for?
Attorney Ruggierio: Our ordinances provide for a contribution in accordance with the uniform system for fair-share drainage and transportation off site and this is something that the Board has endorsed the waiving of because this developer has installed something like more than twice the value and what is being asked tonight is that you basically approve what seems like an appropriate arrangement.
Councilman Testino: I still have a general sense of uneasiness about this whole project and probably one of the main opponents to approving this swap so to speak. Nothing you have said here tonight nor nothing that has been demonstrated in the field has changed that uneasiness for me and it tends to be a matter of trust in my opinion and so far all I see is more problems on my shoulders. I am not about to vote for this and I don't know what the rest of the Council members are going to do, but I think that you will have to demonstrate something to me in the field. I did not authorize you to go out and do that stuff in terms of putting more improvements in, if Nelson did, then talk to Nelson about it. If the Zoning Board did, then talk to them, they are not empowered to make these waivers. I am not satisfied.
Mr. Mamora: Can I just address the transportation fee because I think we are moving off this again. The traffic engineers as reviewed by the township engineer who reviewed the reports on the efficiency of that intersection, which you know is not a good thing. As a result of our project, the intersection will function much more efficiently, we are adding through lanes and dedicated turning lanes on Perrine Road that never existed before. Unfortunately, you will not see that unless you read the reports and have the technical know how to understand how it works. From the standpoint of what has been designed and what will be installed there is no doubt that there will be a benefit from the transportation standpoint.
Councilman Butler: I represent that area. I have to face those homeowners on a monthly basis and they are concerned. Where is the money coming from for the project?
Mr. Mamora: We are paying for the entire project. We have budgeted $576,000.00 for this improvement. If you isolate the road improvements the fair share we would have been assessed would have been $206,000, the actual cost of the additional improvements that the Zoning Board asked us to do and we agreed to $576,000.00 so $370,000.00 more has been done by us and we accepted that as a condition.
Councilman Butler: My concern is the drainage problem and I would like to address that.
Nelson Iglesias: If I may suggest I would like the members of the Council to meet with me in my office so that we can go over these plans and reports and I will go over it point by point so that it will be quite clear as to what it is we are talking about. I am not trying to defend them but I happen to know that the flooding on Perrine Road is being caused not by this development and it will be obvious once you see what I am trying to tell you. You have to look at the topographic map and you have to listen to what I am saying and you will see it is just that obvious. The problem is being caused by the tremendous amount of sediment that is being dumped there for the last 20+ years. This applicant is not the responsible party and to say that Perrine Road is being flooded because of this development is not fair.
Attorney Ruggierio: More importantly, the problem here is because we have discussed these drainage problems so much is getting a field from what is being asked for by this applicant.
This applicant has done more that twice as much as required by us and it is only reasonable that I suggest that this would be sustained in a contested setting. All they are asking is for endorsement for what has already been approved and it has nothing to do with the other problems and I think Mr. Iglesias is right in requesting you meet and review his maps and reports.
Councilman Hoff: I believe that we must find out who is to blame if it is not this developer.
Attorney Ruggierio: We know the answer to that question and I learned it from your engineer and he tried to tell you last meeting and I think he is trying to tell you again.
Councilman Redmond: Why do we bother having Zoning and Planning Boards if we are going to come in and rehash the entire thing all over again? I think that we should take the recommendation of our engineer and get this work done rather than sit here and argue over whose fault it was. These people don't care whose fault it was, they are willing to fix it.
President Maher: I believe that this is now clear to me. What you are talking about is the necessary improvements to the Perrine/Rt. 9 intersection, we are only talking about that. Nelson is going to be our watchdog to make sure that everything is done.
Councilman Testino: All I can say is that the Zoning Board needs to make a process improvement. They should not have granted your approvals before they came here and got the waiver from the Council. You realize that and so do I.
Mr. Mamora: I can see that now and obviously it is professionally embarrassing to me because I told my client this was fine.
Councilwoman Marinaccio: I just want to understand that we have two separate problems, a traffic flow problem and a drainage problem. Tonight we are strictly speaking regarding the traffic and at another time and place we will be tackling the drainage problem.
Mr. Beyers: We will come back before the Council and we will try to do everything that we possibly can do, but I would ask at this point that we at least bring this matter to a conclusion.
President Maher: Let me ask you since Perrine Road has been completely destroyed are you going to be repaving that road from Rt. 9 up to Cheesequake Road?
Mr. Beyers: I am not sure, but if we have affected it of course we will repair it.
Nelson Iglesias: Since you are installing the storm pipe system along the entire length of Perrine Road, therefore you are destroying Perrine Road and you are responsible for making the repairs. What I am saying, whatever they have damaged, they will repair to my satisfaction.
Mr. Beyers: I would just like to add one thing. In addition to Nelson's requirement that we install these storm sewers from our site down to the out fault structure which is over 1500 feet, we also contributed to the drainage fee, we paid our check upon issuance of permits for construction.
Councilman Sohor: In essence you are telling us that you are spending more than you necessarily need to for road improvements. This excess expense is coming about because of improvements you are going to make to the intersection of Perrine Road and Route 9, is this correct? Also how are patrons and delivery trucks coming into your site?
Mr. Beyers: There are ingress and egress on Rt. 9 and there is an egress out to Perrine Road so we are assessed in the calculations, but if we were assessed our fair share of the cost of those intersection improvements it would be $206,000.00, the point is the cost of actually doing those improvements is $576,000, that is what we agreed to undertake in lieu of contributing the fee.
Councilman Sohor: If you were relieved of the direct obligation to constructing improvements to the Perrine Road intersection and strictly made your fair share contribution to the township, could we use those funds somewhere else and not make the improvements to Perrine Road and Rt. 9?
Mr. Beyers: Our development constitutes 3% of the improvement; 97% of the improvement is existing traffic, so the 3% could easily use the existing road system with very little impact on what is going on now.
Councilman Sohor: I would like to see a copy of the traffic study.
Nelson Iglesias: Mr. Sohor you have been a member of the Planning Board and you know during the approval process, maybe they are only contributing 3%, but I doubt very much if the Board would have approved that site without additional improvements as requested.
President Maher: Based on the discussions here I think we should carry this till the April 9, 2001 meeting.
DR-2 Resolution Authorizing Vacation of Easement for Fisher Bros/Lowe's Project
Mr. Mamora: Let me explain real quickly. There is a drainage easement that runs across the front of the property, it goes from Perrine to Old Farm Road. The fact of the matter is that it was a DOT easement, but we accidentally gave it to the township and was accepted by the township, so this is a revocation of that acceptance.
Move-up
DR-3 Waiver of Fees - Islamic Center of Old Bridge
Table
DR-4 Recreation Advisory Committee request for a Council Person to become a Committee member
Move-up
DR-5 Award of Contract #01-02 in the amount of $56,672.00 to Gerhart Electric for traffic control at Laurence Parkway
Move-up
DR-6 Professional Services Contract award to M.J. Barone Architect for architectural services for the preparation of plans, specifications & bid documents required for the demolition of the abandoned Rt. 9 Senior Center.
Move-up
DR-7 Authorizing Tax Assessor, unfettered authority to approve settlements Re: tax appeal authority to approve tax settlements Re: Tax Appeals with limits between $5000 and $50,000 and providing automatic Council Approval if procedure followed.
Brian Enright: Basically this is the exact same resolution that we have been operating under. I did not realize that the resolution had to be done every year.
Move-up
Change Order #1, Contract #00-12 Increase the curbing contract with Pioneer by 20% (Original Contract $634,131; Revised Amount $760,957.00.
RESOLUTION #139
BE IT RESOLVED, by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, State of New Jersey that:
WHEREAS, the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge previously authorized a contract with the firm of Pioneer Contracting Co. for curb replacement; and
WHEREAS, Pioneer Contracting Co., has requested Change Order #1 which increases the contract amount for Contract #00-12 by $126,826.00 for curb replacement from $634,131.00 to $760,957.00.
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, State of New Jersey that the total amount of Contract #00-12 is hereby increased from $643,131.00 to $760,957.00 as set forth in the Change Order attached.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the modified cost of services after this change order is as follows:
ORIGINAL CONTRACT................................................ $634,131.00
CHANGE ORDER......................................................... 126,826.00
NEW TOTAL AUTHORIZED........................................ $760,957.00
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor and the Clerk of the Township of Old Bridge are hereby authorized to execute such written contract documents as may be approved in form by the Township Attorney.
Moved by Councilman Redmond, seconded by Councilman Butler and so ordered on the following roll call vote:
AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Green, Redmond, Sohor, Testino, Councilwoman Marinaccio, President Maher
NAYS: None
Absent from Podium: Councilman Hoff
Prior to the roll call vote the following discussion took place.
Councilman Testino: Wasn't this already done?
President Maher: It is last year's contract but this is for additional work.
Himanshu Shah: You need to vote on this tonight so I can start the work.
Change Order #1 Contract #00-13 Increase the road surfacing contract with Intercounty Paving by 20% (Original Contract $643,033.60 Revised Amount $771,640.32 An extra $128,606.72).
No Discussion
Resolution #140
BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, State of New Jersey that:
WHEREAS, the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge previously authorized a contract with the firm of Intercounty Paving Associates, Inc. for road resurfacing; and
WHEREAS, Intercounty Paving Associates, Inc. has requested Change Order #1 which increases the contract amount for Contract #00-13 by $128,606.72 for road resurfacing from
$643,033.60 to $771,60.32 as set forth in the Change Order attached.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the modified cost of services after this change order is as follows:
ORIGINAL CONTRACT............................................. $643,033.60
CHANGE ORDER........................................................ 128,606.72
NEW TOTAL AUTHORIZED..................................... $771,640.32
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor and Clerk of the Township of Old Bridge are hereby authorized to execute such written contract documents as may be approved in form by the Township Attorney.
Moved by Councilman Butler, seconded by Councilman Redmond and so ordered on the following roll call vote:
AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Redmond, Sohor, Testino, Councilwoman Marinaccio, President Maher
NAYS: None.
Absent from Podium: Councilman Hoff
DR-10 Memorialize Authorizing payment of $2,000.00 to Tarheel Enterprise in connection with Higgins Road
Move-up
DR-11 Resolution - Emergency Appropriation in connection with Snow Removal - other expenses in the amount of $13,000.00.
Move-up
DR-12 Resolution - Emergency Appropriation in connection with Natural Gas in the amount of $50,000.00 and Heating Oil in the amount of $500.00 totaling $50,500.00.
Move-up
Alayne Shepler: Before we go on, I know Himanshu supplied the Council with the information on the Capital Projects and I thought that it was going to be on the agenda this evening but I was told by the Deputy Clerk that it was not received in time for her to formulate her agenda. I watched the meeting last week and I know that Council stated they would address it this evening and I was wondering if we could discuss it.
President Maher: I am not ready to address the new list of capital projects this evening.
We got a new list from the Police Department. We only got the detailed descriptions this weekend and I told the Clerk to put it on the next Agenda meeting.
DISCUSSION
D-1 Intersection of Rt. 9 & Phillips Drive (Sunshine Service Station)
President Maher: We have already discussed this matter.
D-2 Traffic Problem - Sunshine Service Station. (Previously discussed)
D-3 Recreation Advisory Committee - Birch Hill
President Maher: We did get a letter from the Recreation Advisory Board with respect to this complex. A package was put together by Mr. Badcock in terms of an initial walk through and if we decide to move this forward we would have to get some experts in to assess the situation. I did have an informal discussion with Art Stock last week and I was told the Mayor and Tom also visited with him. I am suggesting tonight that it would be very prudent for the Council to request a phase one evaluation of the Birch Hill Complex and carefully consider the sale of the complex as a future municipal recreational complex. What I mean by a Phase one evaluation, is that I am going to request that the township professionals to go out there such as Code Enforcement, Water and Sewer, Tom Badcock to do an evaluation of the property and deliver a report to us within the next thirty days as to the potential of the township acquiring that property.
Also to advise that if there is additional work the township professionals cannot do in terms of a wetlands delineation, then we need to be aware of this. In my conversation with Mr. Stock he advised there is 39+ acres.
Alayne Shepler: Just so you know some of that property is not all in Old Bridge. A very good portion of that land is in Marlboro Township so Council should consider that very carefully when review their options on the property.
Councilman Testino: Have we formulated an intent to acquire this property? Is Administration recommending this?
Alayne Shepler: No, and neither is the Recreational Advisory Committee.
Brian Enright: Approximately 22 acres is in Old Bridge.
President Maher: What is your assessed valuation Brian?
Brian Enright: It probably is close to 2 million dollars.
Councilman Sohor: Isn't that property on the tax foreclosure list?
Attorney Ruggierio: Mr. Sohor is right. There was interest regarding some development
of the property, but it was contingent upon payment of taxes. I think that in order for Mr. Stock to get the final plan signed he has to pay the back taxes or the applicant has to pay the taxes.
President Maher: To answer Mr. Testino's question, our action tonight should not be construed as we are going to purchase the property it is just using a reasonable and cautious approach to see its potential for a future recreational complex. I spoke with Mr. Stock last week and he is willing to have our people look over the property, so maybe a letter could be sent confirming our intentions.
DR-4 Drainage on West Central and Riverdale Avenues ( Request an update on the existing drainage)
President Maher: Alayne, do you have a report on that?
Alayne Shepler: There was a report in the Capital Projects file from Administration that we have asked you to fund $300,000 to complete Phase 2 of that project.
Councilman Cucchiara: I just want you to know Alayne, that I have asked three years in a row about putting that in capital projects.
Alayne Shepler: Well if you look at your package for capital projects it is there. Administration is recommending it and up to Council to approve it.
D-5 Sign for the Old Bridge Rams Cheerleaders for National Champs
Councilman Cucchiara: These individuals went to Florida and became the National Champions, and I would like a sign to be put up a sign stating this.
Councilman Redmond: Didn't I see a memo about chipping in $35.00 each for this?
Alayne Shepler: On January 9th the Mayor sent a memo to the Council that we had priced out a sign which would cost $350.00. The Mayor asked that the Council each chip in $35.00 and she would happy to give $35.00 as well and we received no response to that memo.
Councilman Cucchiara: I don't see why this town cannot come up with $400.00 to acknowledge a group of girls who are National Champions.
President Maher: Himanshu, don't we have $400.00 to put up a sign?
Himanshu Shah: There is money in the Traffic & Safety budget we can do it.
Move-up
SET DATE
SD-1 Release/Reduction Performance Guarantee - Amboy National Bank Lot 2.11 and 2.12 Block 4185 (Suggested Date: Tuesday, May 29, 2001)
Move-up
APPOINTMENT
A-1 Appointment to the Rent Stabilization Board (Landlord)
President Maher: We will make an appointment to the Rent Stabilization Board.
Councilman Hoff: You only have one resume for the landlord. Are you required to be an Old Bridge resident to be on the Board because her address is Aberdeen?
President Maher: No, you are not. It is the only resume that came in and we have advertised and the advertising is closed.
Councilman Butler: The person who resigned was from Glenwood and I thought at that time there was some discussion that we would replace that person with someone from Glenwood.
There is another resume that was sent in and I think we should look at it.
REPORTS
R-1 Morganville Road
Councilman Sohor: I put that on because this road is still not open.
Alayne Shepler: It is open illegally. However, it will open on Thursday. The striping was completed today and the guard rail will go in tomorrow.
Dominic Cicio: I am the Coordinator of the OEM. I was there this morning and the road was striped. They are going to work on the guard rail tomorrow, they are giving themselves two days for rail it should only take one, but Thursday it should be complete and open. This is a County project and they have an engineer and consultant in charge.
While I am here, I spoke with Freeholder Rafano this morning and we are trying to set-up a critique meeting to go over this job and all the things that went on since September when it opened thru today.
Councilman Sohor: The contractor left a lot of debris in the stream bed. I hope they are going to clean it up.
Dominic Cicio: I spoke to the consultant and according to him he does not think the contractor will take it away because he will want to charge them extra. I will keep after them.
Alayne Shepler: Pinder has been taking care of it and they have been working on this project along with Dominic and the brook has been severely impacted by the debris out there.
The contractor is not finished the job and certainly if the debris is not cleaned up when the project is complete I will personally send off a letter to John Reiser at the County.
Councilman Sohor: Please keep us advised regarding the critique meeting so that we can be aware of what is going on.
R-2 Written report from Administration - Action Plan for implementation of Performance Recommendation and State Municipal Performance Audit.
Alayne Shepler: As you know I have been ill for several weeks and that project I have been working on, but it is not complete as I still have some department head reports outstanding.
When everything is complete I will forward a letter to the Council outlining our plans. We are still waiting for a response from the State on several of the issues one in particular the financial issue and as of this date we have not receive any response as to how they came to some of the conclusions that they did.
President Maher: Shall we carry this for thirty days?
Alayne Shepler: I would request that you do that.
LIQUOR LICENSE
LL-1 Madison Park Volunteer Fire Company, Inc. - Renewal of Club License 1999/2000 & 2000/2001 Licensing Terms (Approval by Division of ABC)
Move-up
GENOA SECTION
Councilman Hoff: I have two little things I want to discuss before the Executive Session. What is the status of the construction that was started just north of the Genoa section.
Alayne Shepler: I'm sorry Joe, I have no idea of what is going on there. I will have to ask Nelson, but I will check on it tomorrow.
BAYVIEW/SHORELAND PARKING
Councilman Hoff: I would like Ms. Shepler to give me a status where we stand on this Resident Only Parking for Bayview and Shoreline.
Alayne Shepler: As of the last time I asked which was three weeks ago the State has verbally approved it but they have not put it in writing and until such time as we receive it in writing it not enforceable.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
Resolution #141
BE IT RESOLVED, by the Township Council of the Township of Old Bridge, County of Middlesex, State of New Jersey that:
the public be excluded from this meeting pursuant to NJSA 10:4-13 for the discussion of the following matter or matters:
Lambertson Tract
Islamic Center - Tax Exemption
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this meeting shall reconvene in public session in ten (10) minutes and that the minutes or other record of these discussions shall be available to be disclosed to the public in sixty (60) months unless a sooner date is determined by vote of the governing body at a public session.
Moved by Councilman Butler, seconded by Councilman Redmond and so ordered on the following roll call vote:
AYES: Councilmen Butler, Cucchiara, Greene, Redmond, Sohor, Testino, Councilwoman Marinaccio, President Maher.
NAYES: Councilman Hoff
Motion to adjourn at 10:30 p.m. 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, Councilwoman Marinaccio, President Maher.
NAYS: None.
_____________________________
Dennis M. Maher, Council President
______________________________
Rose-Marie Saracino, Township Clerk
vo
dist.