Township Committee - Regular Meeting

I heard the tickets were insane. Jack Hughes said he can't afford it. You should find your way over there. I'd like to open up the meeting at 8 p.m.

If everybody could stand up, we're going to do something a little bit different. We have the Walker family that resides in Millstone, and we're going to do a collective moment of prayer. They're going through a very bad time, and we'd like to all collectively just give a moment of prayer to the family that hopefully everything comes to fruition and a speedy recovery to Ian Walker. Thank you, everybody. Please remain standing. We're going to do a flag salute. Stone, would you like to start us off with the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge.

We pledge 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. Please remain standing for a moment of silence for our departed. Thank you.

You may be seated. While attendees and participants agree to conduct themselves in a manner appropriate for public gathering, individual speakers should be advised that no right of privacy protects persons' public comments made in a public forum. Accordingly, all participants bear responsibility for their own statements and commentary. Correspondence, thank you letter from the Watershed Institute dated May 26, 2026 for the financial support in holding the 20th annual stream cleanup in Millstone with 32 volunteers removing 1,020 pounds. ORDINANCES SECOND READING ORDINANCE 26-12 BOND ORDINANCE PROVIDING AN APPROPRIATION OF ONE MILLION DOLLARS PROVIDING FOR THE ACQUISITION OF LAND AND IMPROVEMENTS THERETO AND IN FOR THE TOWNSHIP OF MILLSTONE IN THE COUNTY OF MONMOUTH NEW JERSEY AND AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF NINE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND BONDS OR NOTES OF THE TOWNSHIP FOR FINANCING PART OF THE APPROPRIATION

Explanatory statement. This ordinance provides funding for acquisition of land and improvements for the Township of Millstone and appropriating $1 million for such purpose. Affidavit of publication presented. I'd like to open it up to the public at- 802. Thank you. Seeing that there's nobody coming up, I'd like to close it to the public at- 802. Thank you. Motion to adopt the table, please. I'll make the motion to adopt. Thank you, second.

I'll second. Thank you, roll call. Deputy Mayor Morris? Yes. Committee person Zabrowski? Yes. Committee person Davis?

Yes.

Mayor Ferro? Yes. Second reading, ordinance 26-13, ordinance accepting conservation easement for a portion of block 39.01, lot 19.02, located at 76 Backbone Hill Road.

Explanatory statement. This ordinance accepts a conservation easement for a portion of block 39.01, block 19.02. Affidavit of publication is presented. I'd like to open it up to the public at? 803. Seeing that there's nobody coming up from the public, I'd like to close it out at? 803. Thank you. Motion to adopt the table, please. I'll make the motion to adopt. Thank you. Second? I'll second it.

Thank you. Roll call. Deputy Mayor Morris? Yes. Committee person Zabrowski? Yes. Committee person Davis?

Yes.

Mayor Farrell?

Yes.

Consent resolutions. All matters listed under item consent agenda are considered routine by the Township Committee. It will be enacted by one motion in the form listed below. There will be no separate discussion on these items. If discussion is desired of any item, that item will be considered separately. 26-137, payment of vouchers, June 3, 2026. 26-138, resolution authorizing the mayor and municipal clerk to execute the fiscal year 2027-2029. Oh, my God. cooperation agreement with Monmouth County for cooperative participation in the community development program pursuant to the interlocal service act 26-139 resolution authorizing the renewal of alcohol beverage 2026-2027 license for the Millstone Township Elks number 2613 license number 1332-31005002 26-140, Amending Resolution Number 26-01, Appointing Professionals for 2026. 26-141, Resolution Authorizing the Renewal of Alcohol Beverage 2026-2027 License for KPVP LLC Pocket License Number 1332-33006002. 26-142, resolution appointing seasonal clean communities in Coyote.

Thank you. Motion to adopt the table, please. I'll make the motion to adopt. Thank you, second?

I'll second. Thank you, roll call. Committee person Davis? Yes. Committee person Zabrowski? Yes. Deputy Mayor Morris?

Yes.

Mayor Ferrell? Yes. Country committee minutes, regular meeting minutes, May 6th, 2026.

Motion to adopt the table. I'd like to make a motion to table, please. Do I have a second? I'll second. Thank you. Roll call.

Committee person Davis. This is to table.

This is to table. Okay.

Yes. Deputy Mayor Morris. Yes. Committee person Zabrowski. Yes. Mayor Farrell. Yes. Executive meeting minutes May 6, 2026. I'd like to make a motion to table.

Yes. I'll second it. Thank you, roll call.

Deputy Mayor Morris? Yes. Committee person Zabrowski? Yeah. Committee person Davis and Mayor Farrell? Yes. Yes. Okay, here's our reports.

I got nothing. I got nothing.

I reported last night.

Nothing from that. I will just talk about this weekend at the Baird homestead for the 250th and what an outstanding day it was. A little windy, but beautiful weather, excellent turnout. I was shuttling people back and forth for most of the day, got a chance to talk to some of the participants that were there. A lot of Millstone residents, a lot of neighboring towns too, so it wasn't just our residents that got to enjoy it. A lot of people that were our residents didn't even know, they knew about the Baird homestead, but didn't really know what events went on, so we were kind of explaining that. All in all, positive. A lot of work went into it. So thank you to the friends, to the township, DPW, everyone who had a hand in making that happen. And it was just an overall exceptional day. It was a great day for our community.

Yeah, it was very nice.

I just want to say thank you to everybody who came out for the Memorial Day ceremony and parade. That also, we have to give thanks to all of the volunteers, the Millstone Township Veterans Council, the Elks, Kevin, DPW, everybody who brought it together, state police, Black Bear Day Camp, and everybody else who made it possible. So I just want to say thank you. We had a nice parade. We had a nice ceremony. AND THERE WAS SOMEBODY UPSTAIRS WHO WAS LOOKING OVER US BECAUSE IT WAS RAINING BEFORE. IT STOPPED RAINING FOR THE PARADE AND THE CEREMONY, AND THEN ONCE IT WAS ALL DONE, IT STARTED RAINING AGAIN. SO WHOEVER HEARD US, THANK YOU. THAT'S MY IDEA. ANY NEW BUSINESS?

RYAN?

THAT'S NOT AN IDEA. 8 O'CLOCK. NEW BUSINESS? OLD BUSINESS? OLD BUSINESS IS BUCK MONEY. BUCK MONEY. We have buck mining renewal application for a two-year mining permit. Would you like to come up? Ms. Stone?

Okay.

Let me turn on the . Please state your name and your address . Can you hear me? Good enough?

Yeah. Can you hear me? Okay. I guess it was Thursday. It seemed like we had a crowd come out. It was Rutgers, Monmouth County, a couple people from Monmouth County, engineers. Mr. Abernathy was there, obviously, and my staff was there. And it looks like Monmouth County is going to proceed with our parcel. We forget about the Campos because they haven't responded. And I guess they wanted to know where we were with everything. WE GAVE THEM KIND OF A TOUR. DR. MILLER WENT OVER THE WHOLE SITE TO SEE HOW WE WERE PROGRESSING WITH SUPPOSEDLY THE GEOPARK. AND I WAS GIVEN AN OFFER ON THE COUNTY, WHICH IS IN MY ATTORNEY'S HANDS, SO... ALL GOOD NEWS SO FAR. ALL GOOD NEWS SO FAR. ALL GOOD NEWS SO FAR. WE TALKED TO MECO FROM... ALFREDO. ALFREDO FROM MECO, AND THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE GIVING US MAINTENANCE BOND FOR THE ROAD. HE JUST, AS OF TWO HOURS AGO, MARIA HAD CALLED AND SAID IT STILL ISN'T HERE. HE'LL GIVE IT TO US AS SOON AS THEY HAVE IT. SO WE DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT COST IS GOING TO BE, BUT SO THAT'S IN HAND. SO IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU NEED BEFORE YOU RENEW MY TWO-YEAR PERMIT?

SO THE BOND THAT YOU'RE REQUESTING IS FOR $100,000, CORRECT?

I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE BOND IS. I WOULD ASSUME IT'S FOR THE WORK THAT HE DID. THAT WAS THE VALUE OF IT.

A maintenance bond usually guarantees the work for a period of two years that you usually get from contractors. I don't know what the scope of that bond is either, and it's up to the cost of what is expended. But I will say that your engineer The municipal engineer recommended the posting of a $100,000 bond because there was a drawdown last year of the bond to allow you to pave in 2025. So right now, the township has one bond or letter of credit for $51,730, and that's to ensure restoration of the site. And then the engineer recommended posting a $100,000 bond for repairing the truck traffic on Millstone and Pine Hill on the route. that you would post because the drawdown was with the understanding that you were going to cease operations this year and now there's going to be another potentially year. So it was the recommendation of the municipal engineer to post an additional $100,000 bond from Buck Mining.

Well, $100,000 is a little excessive, because that was the price of the road. The road's not going to disintegrate. If any kind of damage to the road, it might be a pothole here and there. And so when I talk to on the site, and this other engineer that was there, their kind of agreement, no, the road's not going to disintegrate. So it shouldn't be a $100,000 bond. But MECO, I believe that's what it's going to be, because that's their work. But if you asked me to come up with a cash bond, I would have said no. because the road's not going to disintegrate.

But we have to stay consistent. I can't hear you. We have to stay consistent with the way things have been working between, you know, bookbinding and the township. And you drew down on your bond to pave the road, you know, expressing to us that July of 2025 you were going to close. And then you came to us and asked for, you know, an extension. So we allowed you to draw down off that bond to pave the road and then all operations were going to cease. And then you came to us and you said, well, we don't want to continue. So we let you continue. So if we let you continue, we have to have what we had in place beforehand so we know that if something happens, you can draw down that bond and repave that road again. So we're not asking you to do anything that you haven't done in the past, and you've used that opportunity because you wanted to continue, but you had promised us that you were going to cease operations, and I believe you had mentioned that you were going to move to Florida permanently, and that was going to be...

I live in Florida, so I come up here to work to get this done, and it's been dragged out over years and years and years. Correct, correct. Most of it's been waiting on Campo to come up with a decision and the parks to come up with a decision because, you know, it's just a lot on us. Yes, we did think we were going to be finished. I came in in February and I said to you, hey, listen, with this winter that it's been and the lack of work and now with the fuel prices, everything's kind of at a halt. So there's really no activity that's going on. So if we are going to make this park, then we need the funds to make the park. If we're not going to get the funds, we're not going to get the permit to make the funds, then we're not going to make the park.

No, we don't want to stop you from operating. We don't want to stop you from being profitable. We don't want to stop you from making money. We just want you to put back what was because you dipped into that in order to, you know, pave the road. So we're only asking you to put back what you used to operate another year.

I don't think we drew down 100,000, though. I think it was a lesser number than that.

No, the total, I believe, was between the two. 80-something. 80-something, yeah.

But like I said, I'm going by the recommendation of the municipal engineer, and his recommendation was the posting of a $100,000 bond.

Okay, that's fine.

I'm going by the recommendation from the municipal engineer, and he said $100,000. That was his recommendation.

That's what he said last week, correct, when he was here? Right. Okay, and that was like an off-the-cuff answer because he didn't, you know, he said, I know it's less than that, but, you know.

It's not off-the-cuff, though. We confirmed it with him. Okay. IT'S NOT OFF THE COFFEE. THAT'S WHAT HIS RECOMMENDATION IS.

JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO, BECAUSE I'M AT THE POINT WHERE I'M FED UP, REALLY. AND I DON'T WANT TO GET RUDE, AND I DON'T WANT TO BE... WHY DID HE ASK US TO GET A MAINTENANCE BOND, THEN?

WHY ARE WE GOING TO... I HAVE TO PAY FOR THAT. IT'S NOT FREE.

I DON'T KNOW. I WASN'T AT... I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE REFERRING TO AS THE MAINTENANCE BOND IS GOING TO BE. YEAH, BUT I HAVEN'T SEEN IT, SO I DON'T KNOW. If it's in your favor, I don't know if the township is on that maintenance bond. I don't know what the amount is. I don't know what the guarantee is. I don't know. And you don't have that maintenance bond, right?

In the past, okay, we might have drawn down on this. You asked us to put more and more money into this bond, and we did. And now you said, okay, you want us to pave the road. We paved the road. But we never had to come up with any more money or anything else after that. In all the 60 years we've been there, this is the first time you're now turning around saying another ploy to get us to stop mining. If you want us to stop mining and I'm losing my cool, I'm sorry. I will now bring the slopes down and we will not have a geopark. I will end it. I will end it. I can't do it no more. I want to open the park. I want the money to make this park. And it's almost there. And I'm frustrated. So either just say yes or no, you're going to give me the bond or you're not. That's it. Come July. If I don't have a bond and I can't work, I'm shutting it down. And I'm bringing down the slopes.

Is it possible that you get a copy of what the MECO found, what they're looking to document?

Yeah, certainly, but we don't have it.

But you shouldn't even need it, is what I'm saying. You shouldn't even need it, because the road is not going to fall apart. If anything, it will need a couple of potholes. I have built roads all my life. What's in front of my pit is the existing road from almost 60 years ago, maybe 50 years ago. And it hasn't got a crack in it. And Matchify, well, Kevin can acknowledge this. Matchify said, no, maybe it has a hairline crack. which I said, okay, I'll put my hair in a crack. The thing is, it has held up for both in and out, whether that's been paved or potholed or whatever, it's held up. My paving held up. That road came apart when somebody from this town decided to put drainage in, and they did not compact it, and I've said it every time I'm here, they did not compact that underbase. Now we put the patching on it, and we now have done an overlay. It should not fall apart. I built Route 33. Is there anything wrong with Route 33? No. This road is not going to disintegrate. You might have a pothole, but it's not a $100,000 pothole. So please, just make a decision. Tell me what you want. If I can do it, I'll do it. If not, the slopes are coming down. Thank you, gentlemen, for your time.

Well, let me make a suggestion to you. I'm not a municipal engineer. That's coming from the municipal engineer.

I see they're not here.

That's correct.

So if you're going to delay this meeting one more time, I'm going to Florida. That's it.

Well, I can't get advice without seeing this maintenance bond. So when are you going to have the maintenance bond?

I don't know. Alfredo was told by, matchify called him directly and said, get them a bond. Well, you're not going to get any more work, whatever it said. But the thing is, he called us on Friday and said, he's got it in the works. It should be to us on Monday. We called Monday. We didn't get an answer. It's not ready. Tuesday's not ready. I called all day today, and two hours ago is when Maria called and said, it's still not here, but we'll get it to you. So tell me what you want to do. And it shouldn't be a $100,000 bond.

You're asking us to make a decision on a document we haven't seen.

No, but you shouldn't even require it because there's nothing wrong with the road.

But nobody has a crystal ball, right? So nobody knows things can go wrong. And I've been doing this long enough with public contractors that things happen. And that's why towns get two-year maintenance bonds from contractors. And I'm assuming it's going to be...

But you didn't ask for it last year. You didn't ask for it last year.

But you drew down on the bond and you went down...

I know, but it's still paved and it's hardly used.

I know, but the bond was drawn down so that on the representation that you were paving the road and you were going to conclude this year, the engineer didn't take into account that you were going to continue operating beyond this year. It's beyond the June 30th of this year.

So he is saying... Somebody should have said something again in February that you wanted a maintenance bond.

All right. I think that my suggestion, as Kevin said, is get the maintenance bond over to the township so we can review it and make a proper determination. And unfortunately, I don't think that they, it's up to them, but they can't make a decision without us reviewing the maintenance bond and or approving it.

I believe it's only going to be for one year anyway.

Well, it's generally for two years from the date of.

The completion, but if it's... No, I'm talking about the license to continue operating.

Right, but again, nothing is set. But that's the information that I was given by the engineer, and I'm not an engineer, and I know he's not here, and my suggestion is that you get the maintenance bond to Kevin, and that you have the engineer here for the next meeting.

No, I'm not coming back to another meeting. That's it. That's it. I'm done. Okay? I'm done. Thank you very much. You don't want to give me the permit? The walls are going to come down. I'm going to put this thing back the way it's supposed to be, and it's done.

Well, right now, your permit expires June 30th.

I understand that. That doesn't mean to say I can't work on my property. I might not be able to sell any loads. And if you cut off my income, then that's it. It doesn't need a $100,000 bond for that road. That is overkill.

He's only asking for the document that you have not gotten. You haven't even seen the document.

But I shouldn't be required to produce a document. There's nothing wrong with the road.

But we don't know, like he said, we don't know what's going to happen in six months or a year, Leslie. What we're looking for is the document.

So what do you think can possibly happen in a year? What's the worst case scenario? Come up with it.

Do portions of the road have to be redone? I don't know. Okay, a portion of the road has to be redone. But I'm not at liberty to, I'm not an expert in that field. So all we're asking you is, you requested something based on our township engineer. You didn't get the document. You don't know what it contains. We haven't been presented to it. He hasn't reviewed it. So you're asking us to make a decision on something that we have not even looked at.

But you shouldn't even be requiring it. That's what my point is. I already put the money into the road. I don't have to do the road again. In the paperwork from Matchify, when I did the first $10,000, he said that was it. I didn't have to do it anymore. Then he comes back and says, okay, we're going to make you pay the road and that's it. You'll never have to touch that road again. That's it. That's what I was told.

But wasn't that based on the fact that...

I'm allowed to have some wear and tear on that road.

but wasn't that based on the fact that you were concluding operations June 30th of this year? Matt took that into account. Now he's saying that because it's going to be another year of trucks using the whole route, there has to be some protection to the township for that road. And you're asking...

But give me a dollar amount. Give me a dollar amount of what you think it is. It's not $100,000.

I'm not the engineer. I'm telling you what the engineer has said. And if your maintenance bond suffices, that's fine, but we need to see the maintenance bond. I can't make a recommendation to them, and they can't make a decision without seeing it. So... GET THAT MAINTENANCE BOND OVER TO KEVIN. THAT'S ALL THEY'RE ASKING.

OKAY, I'M NOT COMING BACK FOR ANOTHER MEETING. HE EITHER SAYS YES OR HE SAYS NO. THAT'S IT.

THEY'RE NOT GOING TO, IT'S THEIR DECISION, BUT I CAN'T, I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY CAN MAKE IT. YOU WANT TO COME BACK FOR ANOTHER MEETING?

I THINK THE ONLY THING THAT WE REALLY NEED TO SEE IS THE VALUE OF THE BOND. I NEED TO SEE THE LANGUAGE IN IT. WE WANT ALL THAT FOR YOU. TRUST ME, THAT'S NOT THE ISSUE.

BUT THE MAINTENANCE BOND MAY ENDURE TO THEIR BENEFIT, AND WE MAY HAVE TO MAKE SURE YOU'RE COMING, BUT WE DON'T KNOW.

BUT WE STILL JUST HAVE TO SEE IT, AND I DON'T THINK SHE NEEDS TO COME BACK TO ANOTHER

We don't want to stop you from operating. We don't want you to shut down. We're willing to allow you to do all of that. We just want to see the document, and then we'll make a decision.

Well, what if MECO doesn't? Worst case scenario, MECO is pulling my leg, okay? And that document doesn't appear. Now what have I done? Now what do I need? Now tell me a dollar amount you need to be comfortable.

I have to go back to the township engineer and say, okay, you know,

Well, he said $100,000. She's saying that's way too much. So let's just talk to Matt and figure out where to come to.

It's great, but I'll have that answer tomorrow.

Come to something that makes sense for all of us, a little bit of protection, and I think we can get passes.

Kevin's got your number. He'll speak to Greg. Greg, I'll contact you tomorrow. Are you here tomorrow?

Yeah, I'm staying here until the end of this month. And if I don't have a permit, I'm not going to sell to the county, and I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to doze that thing in.

That's your prerogative to do what you want?

It is my prerogative, but you've got to understand my frustration. Every single year, first of all, it's six months I'm getting, then a year. It's a two-year permit I paid for. It's a two-year permit I should get. Whether or not I want to say, hey, look, I'm done with it, but don't make me keep coming back and jumping in through these hoops. This is crazy. I am the best miner out there. I have done everything. Maxify has said, never ever have a complaint from us. Never. Something wrong, we do it. Right then and there. You tell me there's a hole in the road, I fix it. I just, I'm frustrated.

I hear your frustration.

So I'm telling you, I'm not coming back for any more meetings. If you can't do it with a letter and some kind of internal thing, tell me either yes you've gotten your permit or no you don't.

Well, no, there's no internal things. There would be a resolution with similar conditions to last year's, right? No, no, no.

With all the conditions. There's nothing more I have to do.

No, there are conditions. Like what? Because you have to comply with the township code for mining permit, right?

Of course I do.

Okay. That's what he's saying. There's certain information. You have to give monthly reports to the engineer if he still requires them.

No, they'll come down to quarterly, and he doesn't even want to see that.

No, you didn't hear what he said. He said, if so required.

If the engineer requires it, you just continue with the same conditions as last year, that If he still requires like how many cubic yards of soil are being removed and where it's being removed to, then you're going to give that information. Absolutely not. You keep cutting me off.

Let me stop you right there. Let me stop you.

And I said if the engineer requires it. And updated reports from DEP if you have them. The renewal permits from field soil conservation, your permit expires at the end of this year. So obviously you would provide the updated one. Damage caused by trucks to Pine Hill Road and the whole route would be restored, but that's always been the case, right? The area identified by Rutgers University will continue to be preserved, right?

No, I won't preserve anything if I don't get that permit.

I'm telling you what the conditions are if they were going to approve a permit. The monthly reports we talked about, update proof of your insurance and make sure it's up to date. Hall route stays the same without change by the committee. And then they would ask you to appear probably March 2027. then if there's any violation you know you it's always subject to revocation but but you're asking them to make a determination without we don't know what this maintenance bond says we have an engineer who says you have to post this amount you're arguing that he's not correct but no one up here is an engineer so I'm going by what the municipal engineer is saying and Your permit right now expires June 30th. There's still another meeting to address all this, and there's still time to get this information over to Kevin. You can keep nodding your head at me and keep cutting me off, but I'm telling you what the provisions are, and I'm not making the decision. That's up to them, and I've said more than enough, I think.

Kevin will reach out to the township engineer.

I'd like to point out some things. Number one, I'm the only mine that was required to do these monthly reports. That was kind of a punishment from Nancy Graubelio, whatever her name was.

Aren't you the only mine still operating in this town?

What?

Aren't you the only mine still operating in this town?

Yeah, I know, but the thing is, all these years, all these mines, I'm the only one that had to turn in a monthly report. A little unfair there, okay? I don't know how many times I've been shut down about this. Now, I don't have to preserve Campo's property, okay? You've asked me to do that, but I don't have to do that because Campo's not even interested in doing anything anymore.

Are you talking about the area that Rutgers University wants preserved?

I don't have to do that.

Isn't that on your property? Pardon me? Isn't that on your property?

That's actually my property, yeah.

So I don't ever believe that we asked you to do anything with Camp Bob other than negotiate with them to sell the property to the county.

Right, and they were here July 7th, July.

They think that that wall, picture this on your calendar, they think that wall's theirs. That wall's mine. I mean, you can see it in any map, through any of the boundary lines, that wall's mine. But I said I wouldn't touch it because I wanted it to blend in with everything else. But if I go to restore this pit, that's gone.

Kevin will reach out to the township engineer.

I can't hear you too well because I wasn't hearing my ear.

Kevin's going to reach out to the township engineer tomorrow. We're going to put this number to rest. He'll contact you and hopefully everything will be amiable and we'll continue on.

I'm not doing any more monthly reports. I'm not. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of money for the engineer.

I'm not the one who requires them. I think it's monthly report if required. If required.

If required. What was the last time Matt asked you for a monthly report?

I sent him in quarterly. And he's accepted them quarterly, right? But the thing is, what did I do for March? Okay, January, February, March, snowed in. Now he's got a review, it's another $1,000 bill spent on him. You know what I'm saying? What are you wasting my money for? You don't need my report. She never did.

I'm sure the county might want to know what's going on, too, if they're going to have a contract with you.

The county's got to come up with a plan of what they want. Exactly.

So I'm saying there's got to be a contract somewhere. Question them about the reports.

Question the engineer whether the reports are even necessary.

Maybe go through last year's resolution, all the conditions, what's still required. That's all.

I mean, really. There was somebody that didn't like us back then and was forcing us out. You guys didn't seem like you're it. You seemed like you really were behind the part and you're working with us. So don't hold on to their old crap. Don't make us do something they were forcing us to do. It's not fair.

Kevin, we'll go through the list of conditions tomorrow with the engineer. What is necessary, we'll let you know. What's not necessary, we'll take out. He'll decide with the township engineer and you what that number is for the bond, and we'll move on.

Okay, and that's a two-year permit. I'm not going for a one-year, I want a two-year. If I close up early in six months, hallelujah. But don't tell me that I got to give you my two-year permit, I paid for it. It's a matter of principle with me, you know what I'm saying? I paid for it.

You might want to talk to the county on that as well.

I know what the county wants.

They want you to have a two-year permit.

Yeah. I'm surprised. He said to me, he said to me, we can close as quickly as six months if we get rolling. He said, if you can get all this stuff done and I get your design plan, he says, or maybe it's a year and a half down the road. So they know that I'm going for a two-year permit. They know it. I'm not going to take two years, okay? I am not. You know, we already got, I'm 75 years old. I want to go home. I want to get out of here. I want to stop climbing these hills. Seriously. Now that they gave us a paper, there's a number on it, there's some conditions on it, the attorney's reviewing it, they're talking. This is going to happen, but not if you don't give me my permit, because if I don't make the money to finish what they want, I can't do it. But I've got three bulldozers that will push it all off and make three in one slope. And I don't want to do that.

Kevin, we'll contact you. How many days do you need? Two days? It's a Friday?

And follow up with MECO? Follow up with MECO for the maintenance.

I have, every single day. I can't force them to do it.

Right, but understand from their perspective, they're being...

Okay, so give me a dollar amount, what do you think would be a pothole? Seriously, take a look at the road, come up with a dollar amount that says, hey, you know, they don't need $100,000. It's not going to fall apart from curb to curb, from stem to stern. I'm going to get a hold here maybe where something's going to go. And I don't think that's going to happen. Not after I got Amico to make sure that thing was done right this time. Okay. We put extra asphalt in there. So it's not going to come apart.

We heard you.

You know?

Kevin will work on it. He'll get back to you.

All right. Sorry for losing my tablet.

That's okay. Thank you. Any comments from the dais?

I just have one. From a personal perspective, there was a car accident on Proudland Way this Sunday. Downed wires caused a transformer to catch fire in the woods. That woods happens to be part of my property. It also resulted in a back feed to the house where the house caught on fire. And the response from our emergency services was incredible. The Millstone Fire Department was treating the main accident on Proudlin Way and the road was blocked, so they couldn't quite get there. They dispatched from Monroe, Manalapan, and the New Jersey Forest Fire Service themselves. They responded and worked tirelessly for pretty much two full days to contain a two acre trapped in which the fires were still burning a couple days after that. They've come back every day, three times a day, to walk the woods just to make sure nothing is burning. They relocated three baby fawns that were stuck in there and trapped, and they picked them up and literally watched them walk them out. Chief Maloney and his team also stopped by almost daily just to make sure nothing was happening. So just my family is incredibly grateful. grateful for the brave professionals, their quick action, and their continued follow-up, which literally saved our home. If my son was not there in the driveway when the house caught on fire, I would not have a home. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. So Millstone is truly fortunate to have such outstanding first responders.

So you would be okay with loaning our fire department and officials to California the next time they have a fire?

They probably would teach them something. It was a very taxing couple of days, but, you know, it really puts in perspective what's important in life and what isn't. Absolutely. And I've thanked them a million times, but I'll continue to thank them. That's it for me. Okay.

Anything else? Yeah, some of our lawns and fields and parks I've been up to.

Kevin, can you square the mic?

that we were hoping for, but some of it's for a pretty good reason. As you had mentioned, the Memorial Day, you know, so DPW has the setup, the breakdown, they go plant the flowers over there, they wash, power wash the memorial, so that obviously it's a time-consuming thing. This was a new one where Pat was, you know, instrumental on America's 250th the Washington encampment, but obviously that takes a lot of time breaking down. The staff was involved with a lot of traffic and cleaning up and all that other stuff. Ongoing potholes, after the winter we're still chasing them. Tomorrow you'll probably see them out on the road fixing up some of the neighborhoods and please give them a wide berth. Give them a chance to do their job. We had two lawn mowers actually go down just this week alone, so you have that type of stuff. Then we had the election yesterday, so they set up a breakdown for that. We got general building maintenance, we're working with generators, all kinds of good stuff. Vehicle repairs, we have tree maintenance, we've got some new trees in Millstone Park. One of the Boy Scouts had come and did a presentation on a little park and the trees they planted over there and I guess we'll call it Little Africa. So we're taking a water buffalo over there, making sure that those things are well maintained. Missing street signs. I will have you arrested if I catch you stealing signs, but Unfortunately, people have been running them over also. And then we have the memorial benches in the parks that are being installed. We're getting there. We're not all in yet, but there'll be more to come on that. So I just want to thank everybody that was involved in these events and the DPW for keeping it going. And we expect to catch up fairly soon.

And you did that with how many personnel at DPW?

About 11, 12. We have a new gentleman who's only been here three weeks, so he's still trying to figure out his streets and whatnot, but he seems to be hitting the road, hitting the ground running. Okay, all right, thank you.

Anything else? Okay, at this point I'd like to open it up to the public. At 836. Thank you.

I just want to thank all of the volunteers that came down on Sunday. We had probably 30 volunteers and they did a wonderful job. We had probably 20 portrayers as well. We had over 600 visitors. Hunter Research was sitting there counting as people were coming in. It was amazing. But I also want to remind everybody we have the clam bake this Sunday. And that will be over at Wagner Farm Park. And another great day for the community. So thank you everybody.

Thanks Pat. All right. And that there's nobody else?

I'll wait one more.

Congratulations to you, Gina Farrowman, . Congrats to you.

And I just want to say I passed the park event today. Which park? Well, I was at Millstone Park today. It's a green all over. I was picking up. stuff in the park, so you may want to tell people who leave their garbage around, maybe fix some cameras or even check it out.

Was it just random strewn apart, not by a garbage can?

Was it in the field?

No, it was all over like napkins and, you know, garbage. But that place where we go to get coffee on Red Valley on the right, again, five garbage bags today.

Dumping. Dumping, yeah. Kevin, she's talking about... I'm in Valley Road between the main entrance of the park going to...

It seems to be that same spot. Every other week I see bags there. I don't know who cleans it, but it's black garbage bags.

DPW.

Yeah, they do. Because it's gone, and then it reappears in that same place.

Can we get some enforcement there? It's a tough one, but yeah, we'll take a look. Cameras? If there's bags there today, maybe. Okay.

First offense.

We have up to $2,000 fine.

So being that people are not listening to that, maybe we should up that fine. That may be something that we want to consider.

Brian, doesn't the state have a cap on catching them? Yes, there's a cap on general penalties, unless there's specific exceptions and statutes. We're happy to look at it, but there's a cap.

I remember coming from Massachusetts, and it was a $10,000 fine for littering along the highway, and the road was pretty clean.

But the state implements certain caps. No, that's... Okay, we'll look into it.

So who was there at the field... playing soccer, baseball, well, it wasn't the baseball fields. They had the coaches, the moms, they had to tell them. I'm tired of cleaning up.

We can have Dave send just a message out to all the programs to say, please be mindful if you're bringing your own stuff. Or if there was sometimes where the garbage was full, because I know I've seen it, the garbage was full, people on the floor, which is our responsibility to try to manage, but But we can send a message out to say.

Go back tomorrow morning for me because it should be, I would expect it's taken care of.

Yeah, it was taken care of today.

Thank you, Gina.

But there's a lot of caps, so I think that it was a lot of overflow from the body.

But we can just send that message out to say, or have the coaches report it that, hey, the garbage is full, and we can send DPW to go clean it up. So it's just improving communication.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. All right. All right. At this time, since there's nobody else coming up, I'd like to close it up. 840. 840. And a motion to adjourn, please. I'll make it. Thank you. Second? I'll second. Thank you. All in favor?

Aye. Time out. 841. Okay, let me turn your speakers off because I've got one in the back.