Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everybody. Happy new year. I call this reorganization meeting to order of the Hamilton Township Council. This meeting is being held [clears throat] of public notice as required by the open public meetings act. Please rise for the flag standing in the occasion. I allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Dear God, as we stand at the beginning of this new year, we humbly acknowledge our need for your presence and your guidance. As we face the challenges and opportunities ahead, help us place our faith fully in you and seek your will in [clears throat] all that we do. Guide us as we make resolutions that draw us closer to you and grant us the strength and perseverance to remain faithful to them throughout the year. May this council always serve the residents of our township with compassion, humility, and integrity, striving to do what is just and good. We offer all these intentions in your holy name. Amen. I would like to please call Mercer County Commissioner Nina Mel. [clears throat] [clears throat] No, that was in the main election. I didn't have it for this one.

I mean, I'm sorry. when you when you were elected. [laughter] [clears throat] [laughter] Okay. I say your name. I, Anthony Caribelli, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States

and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the government established in the United States to the same and to the government established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people [clears throat] that I will faithfully that I will faithfully impartially and justly impartially and justly perform all the duties of the office of councilmen of the township of perform all the duties of the office of councilmen of the

of the township of [laughter] according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability. So help me God. So help me God. CONGRATULATIONS. Thank you. There you go. Next, I'd like to call the overall office. [clears throat]

I state your name. I Richard. Do solemnly swear. I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey. that I will bear true faith That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the government established and the government established in the United States in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people that I will faithfully that I faithfully and partially impartially and [clears throat] justly perform all the duties and justly perform all the duties

of the office of councilmen of the township of Hamilton. Hamilton of the office of councilman of the township of Hamilton. According to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability. So help me God. So help me God. [laughter] Congratulate [clears throat and cough] you. Next, I would like to call up Assemblywoman Wayne D'Angelo to administer the oath of office to Charles Chan.

I got one. Okay.

One of the great things and great privileges I've had, you know, delivering this oath of office, especially to someone that, you know, is one of my great friends and one of the most passionate and strong labor leaders I ever had the privilege to work with. Only problem I have is who the heck is the guy on the wall over there? 24 years ago. [laughter] Please raise your right hand. Your constituent. I state your name. I Charles Whan do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America of the United States of America. The Constitution and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey of the state of New Jersey. I will bear two faith and I will bear two faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same. and for the governments established. and to the governments established in the United States of America in the United States of America and in the state of New Jersey

and in the state of New Jersey under the authority of the people under the authority of the [clears throat] people and I will faithfully and I will faithfully and partially and partially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of all the duties of the office of councilmen the office of councilmen to the council for Hamilton and the council of Hamilton according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability to help me Yeah. So help me. Congratulations. Thank you. [clears throat]

Whatever you like. Now I'd like to call the role. Mr. Caribell here. Mr. McCo here. Phillips here. Mr. Tai here. Mr. R here.

Now I'd like to call for the nomination of council president for a one-year term. Council President, I would uh it's my honor um to um put forth the the name of a good friend of mine uh fellow councilman does extreme work for the town of Hamilton as I feel we all do and will do a fantastic job as I've had the pleasure of serving under him in the past and I' I'd like to nominate my good friend and fellow Councilman Papar and and I enthusiastically like to second that nomination for a man of integrity and um and will do a phenomenal job as our uh council president this upcoming year.

Thank you. On the motion, I will now call the role. Mr. Caribelli, yes. Mr. Pero, go ahead. Did I vote? [laughter] I'll vote for myself. Yes. [laughter] Phillips. Yes. Mr. Mr. YES.

Applause for the nomination for council vice president for a one-year. I'd like to nominate my friend, my colleague, uh, dedicated public servant Nancy Phillips for the position of vice president. Thank you. And I once again like to second that nomination. Um, your calm and steady demeanor throughout our council meetings is going to serve us well as the vice this year. Thank you. Thank you. On the motion, Mr. Parabelli, yes. Mr. Yes. Phillips, yes. Mr. Ty, yes. Mr. Whan, yes. 5,

WELL, first first and foremost, I want to recognize some people um here with us tonight. Uh large crowd and a lot of important people. So, I would like to get that out of the way first. Uh, we can hold our applause till the end because there's an extensive list. Um, Senator Linda Greenstein, Assemblyman Wayne D'Angelo, Assemblywoman Tamil McCoy, Mercer County Commissioner Nina Melker, Mercer County Commissioner Lucy Walter, Mercer County Surrogate Diane Geroski, Robbinsville Councilman and Princeton Mercer Chamber CEO Hal English, Hopeall Committee Woman Courtney Peters Manning, Lawrence Council President Chris Bobbit, former UN Councilman Bob Durio, and last and definitely not least, uh, our favorite mayor, Hamilton Jeff, Hamilton, Mayor Jeff Money. [laughter] So before I turn the microphone over uh to our three um reelected uh councilman, I would just like to recognize some other people that are here. Uh deputy BA Joy Carlin, Deputy Director of Law Jennifer Eugene, Director of Finance Eugene Polus, Director Fred Luma, and Chief of Staff Bianca Jarz. And uh anybody that knows me knows I I don't write speeches. I just carry uh one piece of paper in my pocket that says, "Hey, stupid. Don't forget your to thank your wife." [laughter] So, I'm going to uh take this minute to thank my wife uh not only for all the support, but also for being here tonight. Uh thank you for everything you do. I love you and I I appreciate everything. THANK YOU

to the rest of the team. I know I didn't call you out by name, but thank you for everything that you've uh done for me over the past six years. I know um budget season will be here before you know. We we'll be right back here in the same place. I think this is an important uh swearing in important election. This the last one in this building. Uh please feel free to take some of the wallpaper [laughter] with you. We are going to send some to the Smithsonian as it's been here for only about 60 years. So don't take it all. Uh but in all honesty, uh thank you to everybody, including the family members that are here. Uh none of us can do what we do without all of your support and and we appreciate everything. Um at this time, I'd like to turn the microphone uh over to Anthony Caribelli uh for your remarks.

Thank you, Council President. Um I would like to take this opportunity to uh first thank the residents of Hamilton Township for their confidence uh that they placed in me this past November. I'm truly humbled by the outpouring of support and do not take this responsibility lightly. I look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with this administration and my fellow council members here on the DEAS as we move our township forward. I especially want to thank my wife Sharon and my two boys Dominic and Dante. Uh their constant support and encouragement mean everything to me. I love them very much. Thank you guys. I also would like to extend my sincere thanks to Commissioner Nina Melker for swearing me in this evening. I am proud to call her a good friend and deeply respect her dedication and active engagement as an elected official, but also but also more importantly her involvement with so many organizations, nonprofits, and charitable throughout our our county. Um I don't know how she does it all. Thank you, Nina. And I want to finally say that I'm proud of the last eight years. Um, I can't believe I'm embarking on my ninth year as uh councilman uh here in Hamilton. I truly enjoy the different perspectives from my council colleagues and their thoughtful insight and all overall love of the town. I also truly appreciate the transparent and responsive government that we offer here in this township led by Mayor Jeff Martin. Thank you again and his talented administrative team. We have accomplished much over this time. I look forward to working with Council President Paperero this year as we continue our momentum in moving Hamilton forward. Thank you all again for coming out this evening and happy new year.

Well, you can rest assure I didn't write a speech. Um, first off, I I I I want to thank my wife, um, Sue, for um, I guess, uh, allowing me to, um, fulfill this endeavor of mine. You know, serving the residents of Hamilton. You know, you can't do this without the support of your family. And, uh, I appreciate it. I love you. Um, my son Chuty's here tonight. I appreciate him stopping in. you couldn't bring the whole crew, but uh I I'm glad he showed up. And I see my brother Jim stopped in, too. So, Jim, thanks for being here. Um it's uh it's been quite a journey. Um [clears throat] pardon me for a minute if you don't mind. Um anyway, I'm going to go to my friend Wayne D'Angelo, uh my union brother. Um this is twice now, I think. Matter of fact, three times you've gotten an opportunity to swear me in and and I appreciate it wholeheartedly. I not only appreciate your friendship, but I appreciate your guidance. You always been a person there. If I if I needed advice, um you're my go-to guy. Um, as far as um our our our mayor Jeff Martin, the administration, uh, Jeff, I thank you very much for your leadership, not only your leadership, but the leadership of of the team that you put together throughout the whole administration. I think we have tremendous departments. Um it's it's nice to be able to pick up the phone and somebody's always there on the other end to guide you through whatever questions or problems that you might be bringing to them. And I think that just uh um is a attributes to the work the fine work that you're doing as the mayor of Hamilton Township. To my colleagues um to my left um I appreciate everything

you guys do. Um you guys are are terrific. Um it's it's great. um to be able to serve four more years with you. Um it's it's been truly a pleasure. Um you think about your lifetime and I'm getting up there. So, but you think about being able to give back to your community and I think that's what it all all inspires most people to run whether it's uh on a state level, a county level, or municipal government level. It's um because you care about your town. Um I've been born and raised here. I love Hamilton Township and if it gives me an opportunity to give back to my community. Um that that's what it's all about. So, um I appreciate everybody for coming out tonight. Um I hope I didn't miss anybody. Uh, I know I got the two a couple important people out of the way and uh again look forward to um working with Pat under his leadership and I'd be remissed if I didn't thank uh council outgoing council president Rick Tai for your leadership in the past year. So I wish everybody the best and uh thanks for coming tonight. Councilman.

Uh, it has been a pleasure to serve as council president this past year. I am happy to pass the gavlon to Councilman [laughter] Papero. Uh, happy that he accepted the responsibility. I know he's going to do a great job. Um, I want to thank Assemblywoman uh Tanil McCoy for joining us, for swearing me in, my friend uh my fellow doorning. Uh we we've talked to a lot of residents together now and um that's what it's all about getting out and talking to the people. Um I am honored by the trust placed in me by our residents. Uh I'm grateful for the support from the community. Um and I'm glad you're all here. Uh this is the largest crowd we've had at a council meeting in quite a while. And that was not always true. And this is a joyous occasion. folks are here to celebrate uh a reorganization. And it was not always true that the large crowds uh that came out were happy to see us. When when Jeff was on council with us, uh it was true that uh we had a lot of fires to put out initially when we we came here. Uh I think we have done a lot of good work. Um my motto as council president was make council meetings boring again. I think I succeeded in [laughter] that uh based on attendance and uh I'm grateful uh for the opportunity to continue to serve uh to work with our mayor uh and his team. They really do make our job easier and I'm I'm grateful for that and uh looking forward to continuing to work together with this team. Thank you.

If you could just indulge me for one second. Uh please uh Mayor Martin by reading the results. Anthony Caribelli with 21,316 votes. Rick Tai 20,025 votes and Charles Whan 20,256 votes.

I'll wait till later. [laughter] Okay. at at this time. I know uh and there's a lot of people here that have other places to go. So, uh we are going to allow uh the families uh with our newly or reelected uh officials to take some pictures. We're going to take a brief recess to uh Can I have a motion and take a recess for the regular meeting? So, moved. Second. On the motion? Yes. Yes. Yes. M. Yes. Yes. We'll take we'll take five. [laughter] Thank you. Hey, can we get a picture of the five of us with the mayor real fast?

Hey, Sean, I want to get a picture with you guys with uh the mayor. [laughter] I can't wait till it comes back. [laughter] Thanks. What do I have to say? Somebody proud. Okay. Madame clerk, can you please proceed with the agenda? For your consideration, we have communication C1 and C2 voice proclamation commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and recognizing January as radon action month. Council President, I'll make a motion to move on C1 and C2.

I'll second that. Madam Clerk, Mr. Parabelli. Yes. Mr. Yes. Phillips. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. 5. Next consideration consent agenda items CA1 through CA34.

Okay. Doing a brief rundown uh of our count um consent agenda. Um various things such as setting our meeting dates and our holidays for the year. uh reappointments to uh various positions. Uh have some contracts um added on there as well as um professional service agreements and some refunds of payments. Uh very generic uh end of the or beginning of the year uh items that we have here. Do we have any comments from or questions from council? The only thing I'll mention, council president, for CA uh 19, I'm just going to abstain due to a family relationship with the owner of Martin appraisal.

Okay. Anybody else? At this time, I thought I'm I'm sure I'm I'm jumpy. I'm still used to uh [laughter] for ceremonial purposes, do you want to open the public comment portion? Anyone in the public wishing? [laughter]

So, seeing none, do I have a motion? Council president, I'll make a motion to close the public comment and move on consent agenda items CA1 through CA34. I'll second it. Madam clerk, on the motion, Mr. Harel, yes. With the one abstension on CA19. Yes. Mr. Yes. Yes. Mr. Kai, yes. Mr. Yes.

Next, we have ordinance one ordinance to extinguish any and all existing or proposed public rights which have been con conveyed to the township for portions of Benson Avenue in the township of Hamilton County, Mer, New Jersey. The first reading and introduction. Can I have a motion? Motion [snorts] uh to move uh ordinance 126-001 on first reading. I'll second. Sorry. I'll second. Madam clerk. On the motion. Mr. Carelli. Yes. Harrow. Yes. Mr. Phillips. Yes. Mr. Ty. Yes. Mr. Wley.

Yes. 5. Ordinance 2260002 is the ordinance to 18 to extinguish any and all existing or proposed public rights which have been conveyed to the township for portions of Hobie Avenue in this county for Pamilton County and state of New Jersey through first reading and introduction. Council President, I'll move on ordinance number two on first reading and introduction 26-002. I'll second that. Madam clerk on the motion, Mr. Perelli. Yes. Yes. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. Yes.

5 ordinance 326003 is an ordinance to vacate, release, and extinguish any and all existing or proposed public rights which have been conveyed to the township for portions of skinny avenue in the county of Prison County Mercer and the state of New Jersey. First reading and introduction [clears throat] council president, I'll make a motion to move on ordinance 326-003. I'll second that. Madam clerk on the motion, Mr. Carell. Yes. Mr. Yes. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. Yes.

No. Okay. At this time, if anyone from the public uh would like to speak, uh please come forward to the microphone. Being that it's uh our two exopicio members of council, uh either either one of you would like to speak, please come forward. Janice Mon 432 Trinity Avenue, Cornell Heights. I didn't realize until people were saying, "How long have you been coming to these meetings?" It's been since 2004 when they were building the transit village and we were fighting it.

And so I've been coming ever since to give you problems. But [laughter] uh no um uh I I was under the impression that everybody was supposed to get a letter about when the mail changed that they did away with Wednesdays and Saturdays and then like Saturday was our day for pickup since it was a holiday for garbage.

For garbage, right? And uh I was like the only one on my street had because I had seen it in the Tranonian that had you know had it out. I saw on the calendar when we got the calendar today that you know it said I think it's too late now the garbage is already picked up. So uh what happened did the were the garbage men working six days a week before? Yes. Okay. So now what happened to the Wednesday Saturday? The Wednesday they could keep. What happened to their Saturday? Not bad. I was going to ask you.

All right. They only use it for if they don't pick up on another day. So like the only reason they picked up this past Saturday was because the holiday for the first wasn't picked up, right? So So what did they do? That will happen for every holiday that they don't do pickup on a Thursday or Friday, right? They're going to do it on on the Saturday, but they Saturday is not going to be part of their regular pickup schedule anymore. So what happened to the Wednesday Saturday? When did where did Saturday's the mail delivery go to? This is not for mail deliver you know but I mean but it was always wasn't it Monday Thursday Tuesday Friday Wednesday Saturday

so what happened to the second pickup for the did they dump it on a Friday for them or so it could have been a Friday I think there was another like they didn't work all day on Saturday if they didn't have to and then there was one other day a week that they didn't work the full day because so they were able to combine oh they combine zones and it's only or you know not the entire town right that had the Wednesday Saturday before that right cuz I thought oh what happened to another Saturday pickup you know delivery you know if it's only on you know

so Janice my my sister ended up reaching out to me about the garbage pickup and she had a a Tuesday Saturday schedule her schedule happens or Wednesday Saturday schedule her schedule happened to change to Tuesday Friday oh that's how it went so it's still spaced out Kathy right It's still spaced out, but it's just but it's just it's it's it's not we're not utilizing we're not going to have Saturday, which is saving us money in the end. Yeah. I didn't realize that they they reduced the contract by an amount equivalent to that partial day that they wouldn't that they would have worked for. Okay.

So, all righty. So, it's just curious. Wow. You didn't think about it until it says, you know, now you're going to have Saturday pickup on a holiday. And people go, "What happened to the regular people, you know, where did they go?" Okay, solve that. Appreciate all the [clears throat] answers. Thank you. [laughter] I'll be an inconvenience for a little bit, but it's not bad. You know, it's not bad at all. Listen, garbage pickups. Yeah. Clay Wolfpack Road.

I know. So, I guess two councils and meetings ago when we talked about after hours animal control, I went back to open the CAD reports and the third one down the list fits the profile. Um, lady called after hours for two dogs out in the cold on her porch. She has no dogs, is not familiar with dogs. Called for help. They follow the process. Dispatcher calls the health officer, gets permission to call the ACOs. They call all the ACOs. Nobody answers. They call back the health officer and he's got no other options for them unless she wants to take the dogs to the shelter. Please take the dog to the shelter. So, dispatch calls the lady back, says there's nothing to do um unless she wants to take the dogs, which she can't. She's never apparently had never had dogs, not familiar with dogs. And who would tell somebody go outside and grab two strange dogs off their porch? It's 11:00 at night. It's 30°. The temperature dropped to 28 by morning and that was one of the days it just went down into the teens the next day.

Mhm. So here we have a resident called for help. There should be a response. Contract, no contract, whatever. The township is responsible to respond. Two dogs huddled on her porch. and she's told one either risk yourself and do something with these dogs which fortunately she's not going to do

leave them out there which means that risk is probably still there the risk to the animals these apparently being smaller dogs freezing to death on her forge she it suggested she could contain them in her yard until somebody comes the next day if she contained them they have absolutely no opportunity to even go somewhere else to get shelter and she's now in violation of an animal cruelty statute. If she could have done that, if she just leaves them and they wander off, there's still the risk of them going somewhere else and creating a problem and getting hit by a car, whatever. But in the end, you know, somebody called for help and they're told nobody nobody's answering. You're on your own. [clears throat] This is exactly the scenario I said happens. Um, so I'm not sure.

Can you tell me what date that was? do it. You want to give me that one? Oh, we'll follow up on it. Um because again, it shouldn't happen particularly with this kind of weather, right? And in that situation because I I understand that that may be their protocol, but I think I agree with you. we needed to find a solution then and and um it even you know brings forth the need that we have to find an option for when we don't have an acco that responds um because right now they're they're not required to they're only required to answer whether they can respond or not and that's what the protocol is

and and one through one of the discussions and I don't remember which one uh somebody stated the the protocol is if they don't answer the phone that the health officer has a group text or something like that that goes out. Well, before that, right? So, that they're supposed to at least respond to um the health officer or the director, one of those as to whether they can or cannot respond. [clears throat] So, and that's dealt with if they don't right respond to them. Um but but again that protocol may be okay in certain circumstances in many circumstances but in this one where you have that extreme weather right

and I would say the same thing if it was in [clears throat] the summertime with you know 100 degree heat or or hotter that right you have to take that into consideration for that and so the protocol may [clears throat] work 90% of the time I'm making that number [clears throat] up so I don't but or you know I think we need to find for specific situations like this that may only happen a couple times a year but I I kind of agree with you. I don't think it's reasonable to expect that you know there may be some harm that would come to the animals when we had an opportunity to to not have that happen.

Not you know there's a couple points I want to respond to. one is, you know, at that point dispatch has called the health officer or the health director to determine if an acco should be called and they've said yes. So those two people have already determined an acco needs to go. Right? So when they call them back and say nobody's answering, they should provide a different answer other than too bad, so sad. Again, I'm not going to go that far to say that the protocol doesn't work. No, I I just wanted to but this is [clears throat]

the the other half of that is not just the danger to the animals is the danger to the people. We're we're telling these people there's a strange animal. We don't know anything about it. See if you can grab them and toss them in your car and drive across town. Just an option to them, right? And so, and again, if if you were in that situation, you may feel more comfortable doing that. It's never uh told to them that they must do that. And I get it. They're in a bad spot, but

not not a must. But I mean, this lady has no familiarity with dogs. Maybe she wouldn't even know enough to to not think of that. But these same dogs, if these dogs showed up at the shelter, right, people like me who go there and volunteer our time with our experience, with our abilities to do this in our willingness and signing waivers would not be allowed to touch that dog. Steve, can I interrupt for a minute? Sure. Thanks. So, uh, we routinely do shared service agreements, uh, in this township with a bunch of other departments and services. Can we please, uh, I would assume that the next board of health meeting, if we follow last year's schedule, would be in February.

Can we please have them uh get us some information on shared service agreements? Uh, maybe the Department of Law needs to get involved to see what the legalities are of that. Can we please have some answers either by the next meeting or uh in February? Um we do shared service agreements for literally everything else. There's no reason that we can't find someone. Uh I know it was discussed with other surrounding jurisdictions. Uh and I'm sure there's legal we're going to have to reach out and try that option again. We did attempt that in the last several years, but it's other towns are in the same spot and so you don't get people and so it's really

but they may have had somebody that was available this particular night and we didn't even try. And the other the other argument that I've been making now for 6 years is there's a way to negotiate this into the contract and I'm not telling anyone how to do it, but we need to at least offer them some type of either on call pay or on call. There's got to be a way in order to get these um employees the opportunity for them to be compensated and for a service to be provided. If one dog dies or one person gets bit, it's too many. I wouldn't they don't they're not obligated to answer their phone because they're not being compensated for it. I understand and and but again this is the balance that we struggle with that we're not required by law to have 247 coverage right and so so again that's a fine line that we walk and and that's why I'll tell you for a majority of the time the protocol that we have works and so we we have to look at the balance for the two times a year or three times a year where we let's call it that's a risk of of harm to the animal then you know is that worth paying the thousands and thousands of dollars we would need for a standby for an on call siphon for our existing ICOs and the answer might not might be yes I don't know so we'll have to look at it again we'll do the assessment again and I hate to say that that sometimes it comes down to a look at the finances uh but at least you need to be presented with those options, right, to say do we want to approve extra funds and you may be willing to in the budget. So again, I think we have to look at it again. We have to look at shared services again and see if there's more availability now

for for something like that. Councilman, uh I' I'd like to see some solid data on how many calls have gone unanswered, say over the past 12 months. Y um and we um when's this contract uh up for renegotiation? Um they're under um the white collar contract which we just settled for beginning in 25. So what so four years, right? So that's not to say that we couldn't negotiate something in for that, right? And so so again, we'd have to make it worth their while. Can

can you also provide us with uh with an estimated cost in there and they'd have to agree to it as a union, whatever. So but that's that's different negotiation process. Can you provide us with an estimated cost that it would that would uh what it would cost us to do? We'll do that with all of that. This is all the things that we did, you know, I want to say less than a handful of years ago when I first came in the first year or so. And again, we struggled with it because you have to find the right balance. And I believe the last time we looked at the number of calls that went unanswered,

it was in a situation like that, I think it was five for the entire year. So again, that might [clears throat] be worth it, but we'll we'll have to relook at it again and then bring you that data and bring you this back. Understood. Thank you. And thank you for calling attention to it because I don't look at the logs all the time.

It's very timeconuming. [laughter] It's extremely timeconuming for everybody that I have to file the opers to. Um, but I did want to finish my thought on the, you know, if the if the health department's um, assessment of the danger of these dogs when they get to the shelter is they are at risk until somebody proves otherwise, then what is the risk when we're telling somebody in the public knowingly or not that they that it is their option? They may not know, but if that's the only one you've left them with, if that person gets hurt, what is our liability as a township for having told them that, knowing our position is these dogs are dangerous until proven otherwise, and that is the position they take at the shelter. Um, I know I'm the only one here, but I don't want to waste everybody. I know you guys got to go home. One of the options I was going to suggest is the police department's one of their objections is they can't put the dog in their car. Is there a maybe one of the the the cars they use just for doing traffic control or something that's not necessarily used daily? Another vehicle they could acquire. That would not be a problem. Putting the dogs in if nobody could get an answer might be a solution for something like this. Um I'll go out and get the dogs. [laughter] Somebody calls me. Um not ideal. It is the township's responsibility. Um, and I know my time is up, but we'll discuss the money issue next meeting.

Thanks. Okay. Thank you. [cough] Come on up. It's yours. Floor is yours. I thought it was John Cron 32 height. I must say Steve deserves a lot of credit for all he does for this animal shelter and for being so concerned. I mean he is really a great his picture should be on the on [clears throat] the wall of of the place where they keep all the animals cuz he is outstanding taking care of things. And the other thing is I just want to say

how nice you gentlemen all look [laughter] today. Allied up look really Good. [laughter] And and our council vice president, too. Yes. She looks good every every day. Oh, she always looks good. Yeah. We don't normally look so good, right? But today [laughter] you really Okay. Just I I throw that in. Okay. And then a compliment to Steve cuz he's doing outstanding. [laughter] Thank you, director. Did you have something to contribute? Would you like to take the microphone? We appreciate you being here and um thank you for everything you do. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to uh council comments if you have any further comments. Uh we'll start right down with uh Councilman Well.

No, I I I think I I said enough tonight. I just want to wish everybody a happy new year. I look forward to uh 2026 and um and um hopefully um uh sooner than later. I think uh who who mentioned about the wallpaper? Yeah, [laughter] you know, we'll be looking at a brand new building. Um and and um I'm excited as I I hope that the residents are throughout the township. So, um the building's really coming along. It's really starting to take shape. So, it's a pretty exciting time, I think, for for everybody in Hamilton. So, with that, I'll all the two of you good nightclud. I'm also going to just take a moment and uh just want to wish uh wish our members that have remained a happy new year and um and looking forward to also moving into that new space um hopefully by the fall of this year. Uh it is making some tremendous progress. So um thank you all. So uh I'll just echo what what my uh fellow colleagues said. Happy new year to everyone. uh grateful to uh be starting a new term, looking forward to working everyone with everyone um and excited about the agenda that the mayor has laid out uh for [clears throat] the coming year. We've accomplished a lot and we have more work to do and I'm looking forward to it. Thank you.

Well, look like I probably should have made my comment [laughter] earlier, although I love you Janice and Steve. Thank you for staying and sticking around for us. Um, first I want to say congratulations to my colleagues, to Cheddy, to Anthony, to Rick. Um, the the showing of support from around the county tonight is just a testament to your service that's recognized not just in Hamilton but throughout the county and um the residents of Hamilton are lucky to have you. So, I'm really want to congratulate you and very happy you were reelected and remain on the team. I look forward to serving as vice president in the next year, supporting Pat. Congratulations to Pat for as our president. I know you do a great job. Um, so anything I can do to assist you in that role, I'll be here for you. And, um, I also am looking forward to moving into that that new space in the fall hopefully. And I also was really excited to get my calendar today. I just wanted to the earliest I think we've ever gotten it. So, but thank you guys for coming and congratulations to everyone.

I thank everybody. I I I say every meeting we're nothing without all of you. Um we stand out there. We um get credit, we get some uh complaints, but we get nothing if it's not for our team. Uh that goes from right from our directors to clerk's office to our legal staff to the business administrator to our two associate members of council. Uh we do this all together. We appreciate the stuff that you bring to us. I'm very appreciative of all of you. I couldn't ask for a better team and and I've I've enjoyed uh the past six years looking forward to the next two. Uh I know we got a lot of work to do, right? I know we we're going to be spending a lot of time together during the budget hearings and uh a lot of events in between. So, I just want to say thank you and good luck and uh happy new year to everybody and we'll see you in a couple weeks. Thank you.

[laughter]