Council - Regular Meeting

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. Clerk, can we please have a roll call? Councilwoman Miriam Cohen here. Councilman Charles Dapiro here. Councilman Terren Vanzora. Let the record show that Councilman Vanzor is absent this evening. Council Vice President Michael Markel here. And Council President Rupa P Seagull here.

Clerk, can you please read item four? In accordance with the Open Public Meetings Act, it is hereby announced and shall be entered into the minutes of this meeting that adequate notice has been provided by the following. Posted on the bulletin boards within the municipal building on December 26, 2025 and remains posted at that location for public inspection. Two, printed in the Home News Tribune and the Cranberry Press on December 26, 2025. Three, posted on the Monro Township website. and four sent to those individuals who have requested personal notice. In accordance with chapter 3, section 17 of the Monroe Township Code, public comment shall be limited to 5 minutes unless further time is granted by the council president.

Thank you. Moving on to item five, proclamations and presentations. We have a presentation this evening. I'm going to turn the meeting over to Mayor Delina. Good evening everyone. Thank you madame council president. Um it's with great distinction that we come together again as a a community um to congratulate this young man here on his retirement. Um and Tony, you've done so many beautiful things here for the township. It's only appreo that we do come together. your colleagues here at the police station, our our chief uh to come and recognize who you are, what you've done, and all our wishes for you to continue that beautiful life. Um, with that being said, I I'm going to uh first of all just read this and then I'm going to ask the chief to come up uh to wax poetic about you. Uh congratulations on your retirement um with great appreciation of 25 years of dedication and commitment. Thank you for going above and beyond serving the citizens of the township of Monroe. Wishing you the best in your adventure with much respect and gratitude on behalf of the council u the proud mayor of Monroe Township today July January the date of your retirement January 31st 2026. this will be here for you. But at this point, I'd love to call up our chief to uh to say some very good words about you. Thank you. Uh Tony started here 25 years ago uh before I started. Um and the building's always been kept immaculate. Uh I'm going to miss you, man. You've become a friend to me. Uh someone I go and talk to, come to my office. Um,

you're always making sure that everyone in the building has what they need and it's been greatly it's been recognized and greatly appreciated. Uh, you're a great human, man. I really, you're really a good guy. Um, for you, for those of you who don't know, Tonyy's a mechanical genius. So, I was pretty new uh at the PD and I saw him taking apart like a fan in the in like the bathroom and next thing I know, he's got parts of the motor all laid out on the floor. Uh, and you know, 10 minutes later, the thing's working again, probably better than it did when it was new. And then over the years, I noticed that that happened like once a month. He kept fixing stuff. And, um, you know, it we're going to miss that. You know, uh, we'll never have that back. I don't think, but um, I hope uh, as a friend that you have a great retirement with your family. You get to do the things you want to do. And um I'm going to have to find someone else to joke with about changing brakes and uh oil changes cuz I'm sure since you've retired it's only been about 5 days. So you've probably done about five oil changes, change the brakes on about 17 cars. So um I hope you get to do that stuff in retirement and uh maybe get a new set of tools as a retirement gift. Uh we're going to miss you. All right, let's hear FOR Let's go. Thank you. Oh my god.

Congratulations, Tony, for your 25 years. We wish you all the best on your retirement and on this next chapter. So, we're going to take a 5-minut break in a couple minutes. We're going to go through the proclamations and then we'll take a break so we can take some pictures. We have two proclamations on the agenda tonight. American Heart Month, February 2026. And we're proclaiming February 25th, 2026, the official celebration of Bernice Miller's 103rd birthday. So at this time, oh, she's not here this evening. But at this time, we will take a five minute recess so we can take some pictures. Back to order. At this time, we're going to move to item six, public hearing application for Greenacres funding at the February 9th, 2026 regular meeting, phase one, North Disb Hill Road playground and parking lot.

We'll move on to item seven. Clerk, can you please read item seven? Ordinance is for second reading at the February 9th, 2026 regular meeting. Ordinance 0120260001 Supervisory Personnel 2026 salary and wage ordinance for Monroe Township Middle Sex County. Thank you. And clerk, can you please read item 8 as well?

Ordinances for first reading at the February 9th, 2026 regular meeting. Ordinance 02 20260002. Ordinance approving the traffic signal improvements for Applegarth Road and Joan Warren Way. Ordinance 02206003. Ordinance amending chapter 108 of the Monroe Township Code reszoning of parcels including included in Monunro Township's round four affordable housing plan. Ordinance 02 20226004 ordinance amending chapter 108 article 6.18J13 of the HD highway development district and article 6.7K of the R3A residential agricultural district ordinance 02206005 ordinance to repeal and replace section 131 affordable housing and section 131 1A affordable housing development fees with revised regulations in conformance with the amended fair housing act.

Thank you. And clerk, can you please read item nine? Resolutions for consideration under the consent agenda at the February 9th, 2026 regular meeting is R2 202631 through R220655. Thank you. Council members, please review the resolutions. Does anyone have any resolutions that need to be removed from the agenda? Council President, I do. Thank you. You're welcome. R2 2026-042. R2 2026-044. And that's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to item 10, public comments limited to agenda items only, five minutes per speaker. May I have a motion to open? Thank you. Second. Second. Thank you. So, uh, agenda items only, five minutes per speaker. Please state your name and address for the record.

Good evening, Council President. George Gunglman, 5K Court, Monroe. Um in the um consent agenda item 036, parking lot exp um professional services. Um where uh where is this parking lot going to be expanded? I'm familiar with the site, but I didn't know we had surplus land hanging around there to get utilized. Council president. Yes. This was 036, you said. Uh, yes. Sure. So, that's a parking lot at the community center.

That's a parking lot expansion at the community center. So, behind the the rink that's there. Yeah. There there'll be an expansion of the parking lot. There'll also be a loop road that'll loop around the rink and come out onto Mammoth Road. So, there'll be another access point on Mammoth Road on the uh on the uh south side of the rink. Do we know yet how many additional spaces it will render? I did have that number and I believe it's in the 70 about 70 spaces range.

Yeah, thank you. Um the second question I had is 041 appointment of humane enforcement officers. Um what what is the role of humane enforcement officers? Mr. McGawan. Sure. Council President. So, these are four officers from our police department who will be designated to handle um situations of animal abuse um and to be able to investigate and make those charges.

Okay. Um I have one more question. Well, I'll do it now. Um there's item um 050 and um 051. It's it's I have nothing about the specific items but it it triggers in my mind all the costs of these things particularly for the MT UD are going up enormously. Maybe it's the right time to review our fee structure for uh new construction to make sure that they're carrying their fair share of this increased load that we're starting to experience. Uh so it's, you know, everything seems to be going up. Uh and um utility costs for them as well. And I'm not sure that our fee structure reflects some of these increased costs. So, it's just um no one needs to respond to that. It's just a suggestion that we look at it and see if we're on the schedule we want to be on. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, Lucio Pano 1208C Linder Plaza. Oh, George, some of my questions. Okay, so I do 2026003. Could you explain where and why that is necessary? 202636. You indicated possible 70 parking spots. How many of those will be handicapped? in in the municipal wherever that is. Um and then 043, what does that entail? Uh $200,000 for gardens.

Yeah, council president. With regard to this parking space, I don't have the conceptual layout. We do have conceptual layout. will will be providing the required ADA um number of parking stalls uh based on the total parking for the uh for the community center. Uh, Council President, on ordinance 003, um, this is a resoning ordinance that affffectuates the township's round four affordable housing plan that was, uh, passed and approved by this council at the end of last year. This puts the particular zoning regulations in place for four sites uh, in so that we meet um, our obligations under that affordable housing plan.

And where are those sites? Council President, we have one site at U Buckaloo Avenue across from the main entrance of Regency. That'll be a senior community. Uh we have another site for 100% affordable housing at 319 spots of Gravel Hill Road, which is the old Meadow View facility. Uh that's being reszoned here. There's another piece of property on the southeast side of town on the border with Manalapen that will be um a uh an inclusionary affordable housing project. And as we came to an agreement with the site um on the southwestern side of town next to East W uh yeah next to East Windsor which is sometimes referred to as the bald eagle site. uh we are uh permitting them under our round four plan to uh build an inclusionary development much less intense than the one they had proposed years ago but still we need to change some of the zoning uh regulations on that

from what to what will this council president from what to what they're changing it from what to affordable housing I don't what was it Mr. McGowan. Sure. These were all single family um residential districts with the exception of the what we call the bald eagle site. That was an affordable housing uh zone called the VC2, Village Center 2. So that'll remain uh an affordable housing zone. Uh the other three sites are uh being zoned from single family residential to a higher density residential to meet our affordable housing obligation. And that was was that all approved by zoning planning or whatever? Was it already approved by them?

Uh, yes. It's part of a housing element in fair share plan and it it went before the zoning, excuse me, zoning board. So, it was approved by council. It was because we approved the settlement. Uh, the housing element in the fair share plan gets adopted by the planning board and then the council endorses it. But these are the zoning ordinances that put that into effect. will go from single family to multiple affordable housing. Correct. That's that's what this ordinance does. Thank you. And the last, the garden 043.

Sure. Council President, this uh the community garden project. We got a Green Acres grant for it in the 2024 round of Green Acres. It is um almost finished with design uh going out to bid uh hopefully this spring. And this will put um additional soft cost in place for uh going out to bid and for construction management of the project. What was the grant for? How how much was the grant, Council President? $1.2 million. Thank you. So out of the $1.2 million, they're only going to spend $200,000.

Council President, the total cost of the project, I want to say Mr. Razimotes can help me, is probably $2.3 million with soft and hard costs. So the grant uh from Greenacres doesn't cover the entire project. Doesn't for anybody any uh applicant throughout the state. Um it's a it's a shared uh shared financing. And um this is toward the soft cost of that project. Okay. I'm not sure what soft is. Is that engineering cost, design cost, those kind of things? Not construction.

I thought since it was a garden it might be potting soil, but thank you. No soft though. That's good point. Good evening. Michelle Armenio, 9th at Daniel Street. Um, in in the resolution 037, it says uh we there's a there are a couple numbers. There's a million. So, the estimated total cost of the North Disb Road playground and parking lot is 1,876,000. And we're going for funding for 938,000 from the grant. Is that correct? From the Green Acres.

50%. 50% 50% and we uh have to put in the rest. Correct. Okay. So it says the cost of which Okay, I put that in. So Monunroe Township is putting in the rest of the money. Are we getting some money from the developers because there was a deal made right for this project? Council President, we're applying for some additional grant funding to try to make up the rest. There's another resolution on tonight's agenda to apply to what's called the local recreation improvement grant, the DCA. It's a much smaller amount of money, but we're trying to chip away at every potential piece of grant funding that we can. Thank you.

But the question was, are we getting any input from the developers? I know you can't demand it on an application, but we can always ask. Has it been asked uh that they contribute a little bit more for this? They're getting some they're getting some consideration on the other side of town. I think Mr. McGowan mentioned in terms of affordable housing and development and also um I think a couple deals were made about somebody's paying somebody for the land. Uh

so so this was just to put it in context. So this was part of the the um settlement that stopped the warehouse on one portion right this is this the other side of North Dispar Road. This is the part that we're actually buying. We also got 44 acres of open space that we were given to us for free. So, we're buying this land and building a park on it. We're getting a grant from Green Acres for $900,000. The warehouse got stopped and the the affordable housing development that's going to go there is going to have um a 30% set aside. Okay. And you said that part of it we're buying it. How much was that? Um the the ultimate purchase price was $2,450,000.

Correct. which was approved by council last year. which was approved by council last year. Yes, ma'am. Things happen so rapidly in this town. Sometimes it's tough. Okay. 031, the resolution 031 appointing members of the first alternate representative to the South Central Middle Sex County Flood Control Commission. Are these um volunteer positions or is there payment? Are they paid positions? Mr. McGowan. Council President, there's no additional compensation for Mr. Raimoitz and myself to be Ra Monroe's representatives to that to that organization. Well, then I thank you for your time. You're very welcome,

Mr. Raimo. It's you, too. Thank you. Um, let's see. I think I have one more for now. And since I can't find it, I will I think I will finish. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other members of the public? Hello. Uh Dennis Slooh, 31 Beachwood Drive, Monroe Township. Um yeah, I'm really just here as a homeowner. I just want to kind of express some gratitude because we are I'm one of the homes that's directly behind where that the warehouse was going to be built where the park is going to be built. So I was just really here to kind of express thanks to kind of listen in on what the process is. My question I guess is what is the process of the kind of explaining what it is? Are you guys just talking about the grant itself or is there going to be more discussions about the park? So, Council President, there will be uh later during um during this meeting um I'm sorry, during the regular meeting, uh there'll be a public hearing where Mr. Razimoitz will get to explain our uh ideas and concept and cost estimate for the park that we're envisioning. Uh it's a requirement of Green Acres to to do that at a public meeting. Um, and so there'll be an opportunity to hear and see, uh, and there's some handouts in the back to see what the concept is for this phase one of this project. Um, and and to ask some questions. So, you'll have another opportunity once you hear from Mr. Razimoitz uh, about the project.

All right. Great. Thank you. Any other members of the public wishing to speak? Seeing none, may I have a motion to close public comments? May I have a second? Second. Thank you. Moving on to meeting adjournment. May I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? May I have a second? Second. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, Councilman Dapiro, yes. Council Vice President Markell, Council President Seagull, yes. Time 657.

Thank you. Moving on to our regular meeting. Calling our regular meeting to order. May I have a motion to open our meeting? Second, please. Second. May. Thank you. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Diapro, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Moving on to item two. Motion to approve the payment of claims per run date February 4th, 2026. May I have a motion, please? Council President, I had a I had a couple questions about the bill, if I may.

Sure. Um, I was reviewing um some of the uh purchase orders and I want to thank the u the treasures department for providing me with um purchase orders and and there was um there was one in particular that caught my eye. There was a purchase made of 5,000 pencils um from four imprint for $7,771. And um I just don't know who who authorizes these purchases of 5,000 pencils. I have the purchase order if you if you need it. Okay. Sure,

council president. Sure. I just wanted to explain the purchasing process. Um, so initially the department's put in a requisition. The requisition is then first approved by a department head after review. Then it's second approved by our purchasing agent who verifies all the purchasing whether it needs a quote or through state contract or co-op. Then after that it's reviewed by the business administrator and approved and then it's printed and I sign it before it goes out. That's the process. Great. Thank you. And council president, I think these are uh this is from the cultural arts commission uh who put in this requisition and I believe they give it out at various events throughout the year.

Great. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um there's another one uh which is a deposit which um I didn't think we can give deposits. It says 20% deposit um from o it's open sky productions uh for 20%. Uh it's a $3,000 deposit which I don't think we can give deposits for and miss.

Sorry. So with certain programs um council president certain programs through concerts or any of different event venues there are deposits required and in that instance we are allowed to give deposits and then they're taken off the final cost but in order to hold it sometimes that's the only way especially for the events for the seniors or transportation that are I'm not sure if that's the one you're looking at but that's the one that they that's we're allowed to do that for that circumstance. Great.

So, Council President, this is for the uh 250th anniversary um uh festivities. We're doing a little more than normal uh this year for obvious reasons. Um much like fireworks, sometimes these companies require a deposit whether you're a municipality or not. This is for a drone show that the recreation department is planning for that week in addition to the fireworks. Great. Thank you. Sure. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So, we were at uh take we're going to make a motion to approve the claims per run date February 4th, 2026. May I have a motion? Second, please. Thank you. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, Councilman Diapro, no. Council Vice President Markell,

Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Clerk, can you please read item three, approval of the minutes? Motion to approve the minutes of the following meetings as written and presented. December 22nd, 2025, agenda and regular combined meeting. January 5th, 2026, reorganization agenda and regular combined meeting. May I have a motion, please? Second, please. Second. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, Councilman Dapiro, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Clerk, can you please read item four?

Public hearing application for Greenacres funding for phase 1 North Disb Hill Road playground and parking lot. May I have a motion to open the public hearing? Second, please. Second. Thank you. Again, five minutes per speaker. Please state your name and address for the record for those who would like to speak. Sorry, Council President. C, could we just ask Mr. as a moment to to uh summarize the application. Thanks. I'm sorry.

Thank you, Council President. This is uh the piece of property is block two, lot one known as 80 North Disbro Hill Road in Monroe Township. It's a approximately 21 acre parcel uh near the intersection of Butcher Road and North Desboro Hill. Um, real quickly, the we're proposing to construct a a new park uh at this location. The park would include a completely inclusive playground. It meets all the DCA and uh completely inclusive playground requirements as well as parking spaces uh for the vehicles, walking paths as well. Um, additionally, there'll be a uh storm water basin and some sidewalks in that area. Um, there, you know, we're also looking at uh though this is pertaining to just what we would call a phase one. In the future, any future phasing uh for development, uh we would we would uh look to do uh possibly sports fields. Um but there would be some permitting that would be required. So, we're looking at that as a phase two. With with this phase, there's uh there's no NJP permits required for this phasing. Um, sorry. With that said, um in 2022, the township underwent the master plan revisions and under the open space and recreation element, um the feedback we got from the residents, uh the residents were looking for recreation and this uh southwest corner of the township and this was a property that was targeted uh for the recreation and And as I said, this would be the first

phase. We're submitting for a Green Acres um grant application. The grant provides up to a 50% match. And our estimated cost uh was $1,876,000. So the grant request is $938,000. And that pretty much sums it up. Uh the council has a a sketch of uh what we put together as a concept and I'm open to any questions council or public may have. Yeah, you can open it up.

Okay, I'm open to the public if anyone would like to come up and speak. Five minutes per speaker and please state your name and address for the record. Still Dennis Lou 31 Beachwood Drive, Monroe Township. Um, no, this is a really nice looking park. My question is what is the exact timeline for phase one and then is there any consideration for a sidewalk along Dispro Road as that's just both very narrow kind of one lane roads? Mr. Rosmoitz.

Thank you, Council President. Um, the the actual timeline there's um parts that are out of the township's control. we uh have to submit the green acres once we get a design put together and then there's a whole approval process that goes through with with green acres before we can go out to bid. Um and uh just given our past experience with green acres uh that that had taken several months um I think in the neighborhood or of nine months for the last uh green acres application. So, um this is this is a project that is more like uh 2027 getting constructed. Um as far as sidewalk, we do have uh you know conceptually proposed sidewalk on North Disbro Hill. Um there are some uh environmentally sensitive areas near the corner of Butcher Road and North Disbro Hill. Um, so currently this plan doesn't propose that, but as we get in, this again, this is only conceptual. Once we get into a design, we're going to look at getting as much uh pedestrian access as we can along the uh the front edges of those roadways.

Okay. Thank you. Michelle Armenio09 Nathaniel Street. Uh, do we presently as a as a town community have the deed to this land? Does do we own this land, madame council president? No, we we'll close on it this year.

We'll close on it this year. Are there any stipulations or conditions in order for us to close on it? Other than your normal environmental conditions, which we've gotten all the environmental reports and title conditions, but no, other than that, no conditions. Title conditions. So, who who are we? Um, Federal Business Center. Federal Business Center owns it right now. Yes, ma'am. Are they promised anything before they hand over this land to us? as stipulations for getting the deed financial or otherwise conditions. We have to pay for it. We have to give them the money if that's okay. And that was the 2 million that was just

2,450,000. So, we're going to we don't own the property yet, but you believe that we will. But we haven't but we have an ordinance authorizing the purchase and we have a a contract of sale that'll be signed in the next few days. I was going to say the we do have a contract of sale coming up. Okay. Could you There seems to be a lot of wetlands on this property. I hope we're not paying a Well, we are paying a whole lot for it, but it's 21 acres. Yeah. A lot of it is wetlands. Could Could we get a a ratio of wetlands to usable land at this point? Uh it's approximately 8 acres of uplands out of the 21

and 8 acres uplands. Okay. Now, do we usually have a problem with green acres about, you know, is there intention of covering wetlands? I know you talked about D permits and all that. No building in the wetlands. So, so we only have the opportunity to use 8 acres of this property. Well, we can only build on it. There's passive. there's trails through it and stuff. That's what I'm saying. We're not going to really be putting any construction on the on the premises or going for uh diversion of the wetlands.

No. Well, we're we're going to construct the park on it and the playground and the and the um and the parking lot, but that's going to go on the as part of the 8 acre upland. We're not going to construct in the wetlands. Council President, as part of this this this first phase of what we're applying for for the grant, u we're not we're not disturbing any wetlands or buffers, wetland buffers. We're not touching them. Are there any streams on this property as as it is, Council President? There is along the um the southern um portion of that you see a a shaded line that runs from the top of the page to the bottom of the page. Mhm.

And does that feed into the Manalop and Brook? Is that part of the Manalopin Brooks? Uh I think it's part of the tributary to the Milstone. Oh, to the Millstone. Yeah. Okay. So that gets protected with the kind of you know. Yes, ma'am. That's going to get protected. And where is the basin going to be or you where you think it might be? Adjacent, Council President. It's adjacent to the parking lot in the inclusive playground right along the um I guess that's the northeastern the eastern border there. It's a square area. It says proposed drainage. Okay. Basin. And do we anticipate bathrooms there? President at this time no

for the first phase. But has it been discussed at all? I I see the project budget estimate. Is this for the first phase only or for the entire project? Council President, this is just for the first phase. That's that's um under the green acres. Um you know, we're we're essentially maxing out the the grant that we can get. And uh it's only a first phase. There's no future phase planned or or um uh you know, we haven't, you know, sat down and figure out what may be in the future. Right now, we're concentrating on getting this drive driveway in into the property, which if you can see it, the driveway can be expanded into the uplands uh area that's uh further to the south.

Is that the driveway on the struct the top part? Top right part. That's correct. The driveway coming in from the top and the park is on the top right there. Okay. So, that's not an existing structure. That's what you're projecting. That That's a proposed driveway and parking lot. Yes. I didn't know if that was an existing there. There is like a trail there, a bit of a trail and you can see some of the lines in the middle of the parcel that those are some existing trails or overgrown um and you know envisioning that you can get to those trails and and walk those trails um parking lot.

When is it anticipated? I know you said it might take a year if even if we don't own it. Are people do people have access to it now? Can they go on the property? Not yet. We don't own it. Okay. So, it would be trespassing at this point. We can't really go in. Correct. Well, people shouldn't be in on the property in in any event in until we develop it. So, Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Any other members of the public wishing to speak? Seeing none, may I have a motion to close? Motion.

Second, please. Thank you. Moving on to item five. CL clerk, can you please read item five? Ordinance for second reading. Ordinance 0120260001 supervisory personnel 2026 salary and wage ordinance for Monroe Township, Middle Sex County. May I have a motion to open the public hearing? May I have a second? Second. Thank you. Any members of the public wishing to speak? It's five minutes per speaker and please state your name and address for the record.

Excuse me. Lucille Panel's 1208 Calendar Plaza. I'm just curious uh the percentage the salary if there's going to be raises. Is it across the board 5% or 2% or does one department head get more than the other department a percentage- wise Mr. Maccawan? Uh so council president um for the last few years since our last contract cycle the yearly raises have been 2.9%. Council President, is that across the board or does do some department heads get more than a more percentage or less? Excuse me, council president. The 2.9% is across the board.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other members in the public wishing to speak? Seeing none, may I have a motion to close? Motion. May a second. Thank you. May I have a motion to adopt? May I have a second? Second. Thank you. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Depiro, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries. Moving on to item six. Clerk, can you please read item six?

Ordinances for first reading. Ordinance 022060002. Ordinance approving the traffic signal improvements for Applegarth Road and Joan Warren Way. May I have a motion, please? May I have a second? Second. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, Councilman Depiro, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries. Ordinance 02206003. Ordinance amending chapter 108 of the Monroe Township Code, reszoning of parcels included in Monroe Township's round four affordable housing plan. May I have a motion, please? Second, please.

Second. Roll call. Councilwoman Cohen, Councilman Depiro, yes. Council Vice President Vance uh Markell, Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries. Ordinance 02206004. Ordinance amending chapter 108, article 6.18J13 of the HD Highway Development District and Article 6.7K of the R3A Residential Agricultural District. May I have a motion, please? May I have a second? Second. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, Councilman Diapro, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes.

Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries. Ordinance 0220260005, ordinance to repeal and replace section 131 affordable housing and section 131A affordable housing development fees with revised regulations in conformance with the amended fair housing act. May I have a motion, please? Second, please. Second. Roll call. Councilwoman Cohen. Councilman Depiro, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries. Clerk, can you please read item seven?

Resolution for consideration under the consent agenda R2 202631 through R2 20226055 with the exception of resolution R2 202642 and 044 which will be considered separately. May I have a motion, please? May I have a second? Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen. Councilman Depiro. Yes. Council Vice President Markell. Yes. Council President Seagull. Yes. Motion carries. Clerk, can you please read item 8

resolutions removed from the consent agenda for consideration is R2 202642 and R2 202644. May I have a motion, please? May I have a second? Second. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, Councilman Deiro, Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries. Great. Thank you. Moving on to our administrator's report. Mr. McGowan.

Thank you, Council President. Um, there's a couple things I'd like to to bring to the council's attention tonight. First, I'd like to talk about the the storm that we just experienced over the last several weeks. And then I want to invite up some representatives from JCPNL who are here to provide some updates. But before I do that, uh I I know we always uh rightly so thank uh over and over again our DPW MTUD parks and recck for for all the great work that they do during these storms, but it seems like with this one that a thank you just isn't enough. So, if you'll indulge me, I just want to give some facts and specifics that I think are important for uh for the township to know. Um so, the I'm talking about obviously the the winter storm event that occurred um around January 25th. Our DPW, MTUD, and parks and recck crews actively worked around the clock from 12:00 a.m. Sunday the 25th through Tuesday the 27th, clearing and treating over 150 miles of township roadways. Weather conditions were not favorable for normal plowing operations. There was poor visibility. Those extreme cold temperatures created challenges for snow removal operations and prolong the clearing process substantially. Road crews worked 12-hour shifts for the first 24-hour period with an increase to 15 hours following to ensure roadway safety during the transition from snow to sleet and freezing rain. Each shift consisted of 25 to 30 snow removal assets on township roadways, including uh and I know this is lengthy, but I I still think it's important for for all of us to know, 17 plow and salter trucks, 12 plow only trucks, two front end loaders with plows, two back hose with 10-ft snow pushers, a skid steer with a 9- ft snow pusher, one mini track loader with snowb blower attachment, one John Deere tractor with a snow plow, 12 DPW snowblowers, five parks department snowblowers and MTUD

provided an additional 12 plow trucks between two shifts. Um, which is which is an amazing amount of of equipment and fleet and staff that goes into this kind of an operation for a 43 square mile town. It really is an amazing operation that uh that that I got to see a little bit firsthand. Not not that I drove anything or put anybody in danger, but but I got to see it firsthand. And it it is an amazing operation what all of those departments do. We also utilize the subcontractor for snow removal um under one of our landscape contracts just to show the township that we are uh using every tool in our toolbox during these difficult storms to get to these streets as soon as humanly possible. And those operations take place in a priority to our roadways. There's the primary and main roadways get cleared first followed by secondary roadways uh side streets and developments and finally um deadend streets and culde-sacs um are prioritized at that point with a total salt usage during this storm of 525 tons which which is which is an amazing operation as I said building maintenance and parks and recck staff cleared all the township facilities and parking lots and walkways throughout the day on Sunday so that we could get try and get back to normal oper operations um uh not just uh not just during the work week, but for all of our um recreation, senior programs, library programs that happen on the weekends and on off hours. Um they cleared all commuter park and ride locations and all township own roads and maintained New Jersey transit bus shelters. and all of the office staff from DPW on Monday, January 26th when when we were closed for the emergency, they still came in to field calls and concerns related to winter event for for quick responsive action which which we can't thank them enough. It's really it's it's everyone in the operation from whether you're driving a truck or answering complaints or or helping to

coordinate and mobilize folks. Um it's really it's really something posttorm operations. This is the first storm in my lifetime that I've ever seen the snow stick around for 3 weeks. Um, and not just stick around, but turn into rock solid ice for a period of 3 weeks with frigidly cold weathers. And so crews continued to clear roadways and intersections and problem areas throughout the remainder of that week. Cleared all bus stops along Mammoth Road, crossing guard uh locations, and all major intersections to ensure a safe school commute. cleared various locations throughout the township for related um bus stop safety, cleared and treated thousands of feet of township owned sidewalk and and as of even just as of this past Friday, uh we're actively still clearing areas of concern and even today still clearing areas of concern as we all hope and pray that this 40° that we're supposed to get on Wednesday finally uh gives us a little bit of melting and a little bit of relief. Um, I'll be just just another moment longer just to explain um the approach of the township in terms of of snow removal. We understand that the storms created significant challenges for many residents. This unique storm was more than we've seen in a long time. As I said, followed by 3 weeks of extreme cold temperatures. Township ordinance requires property owners to clear snow from sidewalks and hydrants located on their property. The intent of the ordinance is to ensure public roadways remain safe and passable for all pedestrians, including school children and first responders. But we recognize, however, that severe weather conditions and accumulated ice can make compliance difficult and in some cases pose a risk of injury to residents attempting to remove ice themselves. The township is mindful of these hardships and does not take a punitive approach to enforcement. Zoning officers are generally dispatched in response to specific complaints, particularly when a

sidewalk serves as a necessary passageway, such as a route to a school bus. And the zoning officers are providing reminders, not fines or court summones. We understand that our residents are not uh, you know, ignoring their responsibility, but for many of them, this is a very difficult storm to work through. And in these situations, the primary goal is to address safety concerns and and help our residents get into compliance, not penalize property owners. And so, consistent with many of our neighboring municipalities, and I've talked to numerous other business administrators throughout the last two weeks who are taking the exact same kind of approach. And we encourage our residents to take reasonable measures when conditions are allowed and prioritize their personal safety. If you're unable to address a condition due to a physical limitation, we ask that you communicate this to the township and maybe we can be of some help in some way. Um, thank you for your understanding and cooperation as we work together as a community uh during this challenging weather event. And I appreciate the very long report um uh council president. And with that, I would like to ask our representatives from JCPNL, uh, completely shifting topics here, uh, from JCPNL to give us, uh, some updates on, uh, on some of the concerns that we've been expressing to them over the course of the last several months.

Jose Ortiz, Jersey Central Power and Light.

Kieran Tentle, Jersey Central Power and Light. So, we want to first thank you all for the opportunity to come in today and speak to you about the recent outages that have occurred in Monroe Township. Uh we thank the residents as well as the council and mayor for this opportunity. Uh in recent uh storm activity, we have seen three significant impacts that have um impacted some of the residents and there are some concerns, but then on the hindsight of everything, there are some opportunities for us to improve our system. And that's something I'll speak about a little bit afterwards. But in wake of the recent outages that first occurred in November 16th, we did have a large outage that impacted around 5,000 customers. Uh the cause of this outage was a wind event where our crews came out, performed all their inspections on the circuit where we had an open breaker that responded to protect the circuit. Uh that we did not find anything on site. So, we were able to re-energize all customers within about 10 minutes. On the 23rd of November as well, we received another large outage that impacted around uh want to say about 2,000 customers. Uh this was about an 80minute outage that was the result of as well wind that you know and when we say that when it's a wind event there's many different causes and and why we don't see anything is there are circuit protection devices out in the field that if in the event that a mar balloon or a branch falls as a result of the wind the device opens up to protect the line our crews have to go out investigate, patrol the lines, and ensure that it's safe to energize. Again, uh it's not something that we can just energize directly from our dispatch centers. So, it does create a little bit of uh constraints with putting everyone back into power. And I just want to

emphasize that we just have to ensure that we don't create any situations that are unsafe. So, our crews go out there and they physically walk the lines. to to just add some further clarification on that. Um what Jose is referring to in that device that operated that opened and then hung open, that's an automatic reclosure device operating as it's supposed to. Uh so when Jose says went out there, didn't find anything if not for that automated reclosure device, it is more than likely that a fault would have occurred on that line. Meaning it's possible that line could have burnt up and fallen down. um you know many many different things can happen when something faults. So that switch that recloser operated in the form manner that it should and it hung open. When that happens for safety and for you know the benefit of the system to keep the system intact, we will manually patrol that entire circuit to ensure that there's not a tree limb that's still hanging on if the wind had blown it. uh as as Jose had had mentioned, myar balloons, believe it or not, are problematic because they contain metal which is conductive when it hits multiple phases. Um so it it's not that we did not find a cause, we found the cause. We didn't find a piece of wire burnt up. Then we had to patrol that line manually, get visual eyes on all of it, and then reclose that back in. So just wanted to provide some further clarity on that.

Thank you, Karen. And then we did have one more event on the 3rd of December that impacted around 2,000 customers. It was a 20-minute outage, the result of a tree that had fallen off right away. And what we say uh when we say off right away, it basically means there are aerial rates that we have to uh manage the vegetation on where we trim back the lines, make sure that they are free and clear of any obstructions such as branches. In this event, we did have a tree, a very large tree that fell off right away that is outside of our zone. It fell, took down some lines, one being a subtransmission line, and that impacted various circuits. This outage was restored within about 20 minutes through different stage restoration efforts of our crews. So, what I would like to take the opportunity now is to talk about some of the things that we've learned from these situations and what's to come for Monroe and for your residents. Um, we do have different various programs that are already impact well already have begun. Uh, one to kind of bolster is the Energize New Jersey which is a very large project. Um, this project is going to bring a lot of benefits not only to the reliability but also for the future and growth of Monroe and its residents. Uh we do have four circuit ties that are going to be put into place. And what circuit ties do is they basically communicate back and forth from if there is an outage on one circuit. We will use an additional circuit from it could be the same substation or a second substation that will back feed restore customers and reduce the total amount of customers affected as well as the restoration times. Um, we also have a lot of smart protection devices that are going to be coming in. There's about seven different devices, and I won't go into details on

what these devices are, but these devices are basically put into place to help reduce the amount of customers that will be affected. They are automated devices as well that will also uh reduce the amount of time that customers are impacted, reducing it down to the lowest, clearest, and smallest amount of customers. We do have three substation upgrades that are coming into town. And these three substation upgrades will basically benefit not only capacity, they are going to also benefit the substation with different pieces of equipment that will be as well automated to help ensure that we can restore folks as quickly and safely as possible. The total investment we're looking to spend here is about $4.7 million. We hope to execute and complete everything by the end of 2028. In addition to this program, we also have what we like to call our uh HPC where we have identified three different circuits. Two of these circuits are the circuits that I've spoke about earlier having impacted by these outages. With these uh I'm sorry, with these projects, we're looking to do distribution upgrades. And that's to say in the field, we're looking to either change poles, uh look at uh equipment upgrades. We're also looking to uh change some of the wire out as well. So, those are big things to come. I will provide the council and mayor and administration talking points on these projects so that you can post them on your website so that folks can always reference and look to if there's any questions. You can always feel free to reach out to me. We will also be doing some trimming. We have about a 60-day notice that I'm going to be sending out uh for the vegetation management. It's a 4-year cycle for the Monroe substation. And I'll give you a street list as well, so you'll be aware of where we'll have crews working. So, I want to thank you folks for that

opportunity. Um, unless you want anything to add,

if I could just add um something here. I'm new to my position. I work with Jose. I I lead our government affairs team and our our customer team. Our customer team has historically worked with our commercial industrial accounts. In fact, Jose used to be on that team before he transitioned over to government affairs. And you know, within the the last I guess I've been in this role about 8 months, um we've really started to look at things differently and Monroe is a very unique town. You know, we you have a lot of homeowners associations that are very very well organized and well-run and we see that as an opportunity. So we again went back and looked at you know maybe these HOAs don't uh you know consume a megawatt or greater of load which historically that was the metric that we used on if we would assign a customer support rep to one of our CNI customers commercial industrial customers that wasn't working for me we were getting many complaints u you know in many instances you all were becoming our call center which isn't right um and so we assigned uh Ashley Whitehead on our team uh just towards the I'll say the third quarter last year to the HOAs. Um I think that there's been a lot of benefit on both sides. Um I I hope that you're seeing that benefit. Um but we want to be doing more for our customers. We want to be telling our story more part of the reason why we're here. Um and we know that with that comes accountability. We need to be held accountability accountable and you all are here to hold us accountable as you should. That's very fair. Um, so we aren't going to hide from issues. This is going to be the norm. If you want to speak to us or if any of you want to speak to us, we're here. Um, we're we're not afraid because we are constantly working to get better. Uh, if you'll judge me for one more moment, I just want to explain a little bit about our company. You all have known Jersey Central Power and Light, I'm sure, for

years and years and years. uh within the last year we have completely restructured as a company. Um you know as I'm sure you're all aware on your bill it says First Energy that's our parent company located out in Akran Ohio. For a long time this company was run as part of First Energy meaning that our leadership in Akran Ohio at times were kind of telling us where we should and should not be spending money etc. That's done. We're under complete state control now. Um, that's part of the reason why I'm in this position. We own our profits and loss as a company now, but it also means that we own where we're going to invest. So, we are making very local decisions and some of what you've heard tonight from Jose uh is just that we are making decisions to make critical investments to better serve our customers. We understand the importance of electricity for all of our customers and in some cases even more so for for our seniors and I I know Monroe does have a large senior population. So again, thank you for for having us out. Um if you need us, we are going to be here. We can assure you of that. Our phones will will be answered.

Um so we're happy to take any any questions if Sir there'll be a full conversation. Oh, okay. Stick around. Yeah, we'll be happy to stick around. Does Does anyone on the council have any questions, Council President?

Um, one of the biggest concerns we have uh in the past is street lights. Um, I know our mayors tried so many times to try to get street lights in our adult communities. um as you said, um and you go on your website and you punch in, you know, uh street light poll numbers, uh address and I mean I personally must have done it three or four times for the same street lights that were out. So, I think that's something that we would all like JCPNL to improve. And also, when you do replace the street lights, are you putting any um LED lighting or are you going to be putting in light bulbs that we can't purchase anymore and they go out a month later? Ju

just I I need to address through the council president. Is that correct? I just want to make sure I'm all right.

Um Madame Council President, um appreciate this being brought up. We are extremely focused on street lights uh across our territory but especially in Monroe. Uh we have been engaged with the administration over the last I'd say four five months and um are are working on some process improvements and it is absolutely a collaboration. Want to thank the chief and the police department for their collaboration. As of right now, the last time we met was just a few weeks ago. Uh we had a report of some lights around the Forest Gate area. Those lights had not in fact been reported in our system. That's full, fine, and well because due to this partnership and collaboration with this administration, which we appreciate so much, we are being alerted in a different way. And so Forsgate, that's a dangerous road, right? That's four lanes. I don't want anybody going out there trying to get a poll number. Um, so how this is is working and I know that a list is forthcoming from the police department since even last time we met, but that evening, uh, we repaired 90 street lights, way more than what was just reported to us on that Forest Gate area. Um, so when we know about them, we are responding to them. We will fix them. There are times that um you know perhaps somebody is reporting a street light and you know it does ask for a house number and address and customers put in their own house number and address and maybe not the other qualifiers that we need. Maybe the poll is actually three or four streets away. Um and so our customers may think that it's been reported. In fact, it's it's showing up as their address. We go out there and we close the ticket because the street light in front of their home is functioning. Uh but with what we're working through with the police department, with your administrator um is getting more regular

lists and areas and we will respond. Now a lot of this is undergrounds and direct undergrounds that is timeconuming work. Um it takes markouts which then you have to wait for the markout to ensure that every utility is in fact marked out. U we contract that work out. it it would be a mountain for a utility to be doing direct boring and that sort of thing. Um, so there there are steps to it. You know, now as you had mentioned, we just had 3 weeks of straight cold after getting, you know, 9 10 inches of snow. It's all turned to ice. In some cases, we have um, you know, air secondary enclosures for these underground facilities that we need to get to in order to make these repairs. And it's obviously, you know, a large task when you're you're digging through ice to be able to locate those and so on and so forth. Not trying to make an excuse, just trying to give an example of what could in some cases hold us us up a little bit. But we are hyperfocused on street lights. I can guarantee you that the line shop manager in operations for JCPN who handles Monroe is probably watching this on on YouTube right now. um it it is being taken that seriously. Um to to answer your second question uh regarding LEDs, it's not as simple as us being able to go out and replace what's currently there uh typically a sodium vapor fixture with an LED fixture. Uh we're a regulated utility. Uh the Board of Public Utilities has a tariff on file that outlines how we charge, what we can charge, what we can't charge for. In a scenario where we would be, you know, looking to up up upgrade to LEDs, uh it would one take a formal request from the streetlight customer. In this case, that

would be Monroe Township. Um and then there would be a cost to that. Those assets that are out there, you still have um a a cost associated with functional cost associated with them per the tariff. Um, so depending on voltage, you could be looking at, you know, a few hundred per light fixture that you would want to upgrade to LEDs. That's a an issue for us just the same as is for you, right? We want our customers to switch to LEDs. Uses less electricity. The lights reportedly burn much longer than sodium vapor. It would reduce truck rolls. It would certainly make our customers happy if the lights weren't going off or burning out. Um, so we want to and we are committed to working with our municipalities to find a path forward on that. But again, the way the tariff is written, we're going to have to get creative. We might need to speak with our legislators and speak with the state and, you know, look for other alternative avenues because at the end of the day, you know, affordability is paramount across the board. So, we want to make sure that, you know, we're doing this in such a way that our municipalities can foot the bill. Um, and if they cannot foot the bill, we want to be working collaboratively to try to find a way to help you with your budgets to be able to do this.

Yes, sir. I got my question is this. If we don't report a light out, how does it get fixed? If you don't report a light out, then we don't know about it unless we just So, if a light if a street light isn't reported out, it'll never get fixed. It's up to us as a municipality to tell you that the street lights out and then supposedly you'll go send a crew out there and fix it. So, that's the way it works. Okay.

Yes. The the responsibility lies in the customer. If you know, again, if we get a call from municipality, street lights are out, Jose, myself, anyone, we'll we'll generally go and make those notifications um when we can and have those orders created to fix those street lights. But you are correct that we don't have someone in a truck driving around making sure that every light is on. The reporting responsibility lies on the the customer. So as of now over the since this new system has taken over if we report street lights out in a timely matter manner they should be repaired. Correct. They they

because because I've been on a committee for seven years reporting street lights out that are still out. So, I'm very and and the people that I speak to every day in Monroe are very frustrated, especially in the senior communities, especially in in Clearbrook, in Concordia. Um, we we totally understand that. I'm just saying it's it's hopefully what you're saying is really going to

look we there's no doubt that we had a backlog in in street lights. We've worked through that backlog considerably and we don't view it as a backlog anymore. We view it as what's coming in is going out on those trucks and being worked. There are, as I alluded to before and talking about the direct boring, there are occasions where there is more of an issue than the bulb or the PE cell or the fixture itself. Underground faults are typically the culprit in those cases. Those follow-up orders can take a little bit more time due to the need for markout, then waiting period following a markout, and then, you know, depending on how slammed the the contractors are. you know, getting it on the schedule.

Control,

the contractors that you use for underground problems. There are private contractors and not people that work for JCPNL. Correct. Right. Okay. Council,

yes. Um, I have a question. You indicated earlier in your presentation. Oh, the microphone. I hate microphones. You indicated earlier in your presentation that you have a dedicated person for our homeowners associations. So, is it not possible as part of the scope of that person's duties that when lights are being repaired in communities such as Rosmore that they get a report back or they can be so that they can inform their the boards of the homeowners association could then inform their residents that x number of lights are in progress or have been repaired. And that would certainly go a long way, I would think, to diffusing the anger, and it is anger, by the way, in these communities that their lights have been out for so very long.

Um, we are we are already on that. So, as I I mentioned about Ashley, she she just came into this special assignment um in the fall. So, she has been working on getting out, seeing folks, building relationships, which is paramount to good communication. Um, you know, I talked to Ashley. She she was to come tonight. Uh, her her daughter is sick and uh she didn't want to get any of us sick. So, I appreciate her not coming. But Ashley, I believe, is making great strides with these communities and that communication is flowing better than it ever has.

And as long as it's one of the aims of her position, then that will occur. it can't be a byproduct that oh she's contacting them. So I thank you for that. Absolutely. It is the aim to her position and she's also reporting directly to me from this position so that I can also help manage um and and solve these issues as quickly. Without lights people fall I'm sorry. Without lights people fall. So in addition to weather issues you have people who are at fall risk because of their age and then there's no light. So for sure you can fall. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, we have public forum.

Can we open public? We'll stick around for public public forum. Yeah. Stay for the public forum. Yeah. At the public comments at the end of the meeting. We'll move on to the engineers report. Mr. Razimoitz.

Thank you, Council President. Uh, well, the cold winter has slowed down some of our projects. The James Monroe concession stand. Um, you know, they're still working out there what they could inside the building, but that certainly has hampered that project a bit. Uh, additionally, the pickle ball courts and parking lot at the senior center. Uh, that weather has slowed that project down. uh they are working on the pavilion out there to uh as as weather permits. Um and also you know I want to bring up with regard to uh the municipal uh storm water system and our storm water permit um under D requires um three phases of our storm water permit. First phase was an inventory of our storm water um which was uh completed at the end of 2025. The next phase is a uh is an assessment report which essentially is our planning of uh our planning for uh uh watershed improvement which is due at the end of 2026. And then the third phase would be uh finalization of a watershed improvement plant which is uh the end of 2027. Um, and I bring this up because a couple meetings ago, um, you know, we, uh, representative of the, uh, watershed institute, Joe Lynn, who's happens to be here tonight, um, brought to our attention that the watershed institute is, uh, taking a regional approach to the, uh, upper Milstone River watershed management plan. It involves a number of towns, approximately 10 towns, including uh Monroe would be one of them. Cranberry, West Windsor, South Brunswick, Plainsboro, um Heights Town. So there's a few other towns approximately 10, uh which all share the upper Millstone watershed. Um so their approach is is a regional approach where

if all the towns participate um they'll have one consultant look at the entire watershed and uh make an assessment and then put together a plan. Um so uh so last week I attended my first working group meeting with uh with the watershed institute and and some of the other towns. Uh, Councilman Dapiro was also on that Zoom. Um, and uh, so it was very informative. It it's uh, certainly I I think a pretty good approach to looking at the entire watershed. Um, you know, some of the other towns, you know, some weren't sure yet if they were participating or not. And, uh, it was a lot of information. So uh so essentially at at some point if Monroe is to participate we would need to do a council resolution uh supporting it and uh to to be uh part of that uh group and the uh and the regional assessment and um you know there there's obviously costs involved as well. So at this point uh you know I'm still digesting all the information that was provided. Uh I don't have a recommendation to the council one way or another. I reviewed it with the business administrator. Um, I gave him a summary of the the meeting and uh possibly at the next meeting uh I may have a recommendation for the council, but I but I did wanted to bring that up and uh and mention it to the council.

Great. Thank you. And that's my report. We'll move on to council reports. Councilman Dapiro.

Uh thank you. Um yeah, I'll pick up where Mark left off on that the watershed zoom uh meeting. It was um very informative. It's um it's a good part to be part of a regional uh plan instead of just doing a township plan. But um I really defer that to Mark at being our engineer to see um you know Monroe participation. the there was two different figures um at that at that meeting that that was like 20% of the cost which we were the bigger bigger of the towns uh for the cost. So uh I'll just defer that to Mark for next meeting but it was an interesting meeting and and I thank uh them them for inviting us. I had a question in reference to um our detention basins um ponds. Um no skating signs. I I drove around. I didn't see too many signs uh on these uh wet basins. Something that um now that hopefully as our business administrator said it's going to be uh 42° that we're hoping for. Maybe we should uh make sure that we have signage on these detention basins, ponds. I don't want to see anybody uh you know getting uh getting getting hurt or uh getting getting situation where we uh we have to get our first responders on these ponds. So maybe we should check the ponds out and get some signage up. I also um some of us attended a solar um on Seville MTMUA. It was a 10acre lake. I want to thank uh administrator for putting that together. Um the meeting was was very interesting. Um

except for there was so much snow we couldn't really see too much uh of the panels along with the uh question that we asked. Is it working today? And with the snow, it it really wasn't functioning at its full capacity. Just like if you had solar on your roof, it's understandable. Uh maybe they should elevate it. our contractor was there. Uh we had we had our DPW um director, he was there. Our council president was there along with our business administrator. And uh it was it was interesting to listen to Dave Samuels from CME who designed it. And he explained that uh they didn't want to cut down 10 acres of trees and that's the reason why they had it on on the lake. But I requested it months ago and I want to thank uh Kevin for putting it together and it was uh and we all are welcome to come back on a on a better a better day. So uh which I I will pop by I'm sure just to check it out. I also wanted to mention fire elections um February 21st from 2 to 9:00. uh unless you do a vote by mail, you can also do that as well at your fire firehouses. It's a very important election. A lot of people say u they complain but they don't vote. So, you really need to get out in uh on February 21st if you could between 2 and 9 for your uh your fire elections. There's a um ice hockey, middle school and high school leagues. It's um they they're going to have a sign in for spring ice. It's uh a league that runs from April to June. It's registration is uh $325. You can acquire at the rec

center along with spring baseball and along with spring softball. There's uh information on the websites or you can also go to the uh community center and uh sign up for for these sports. The good news is look, spring's coming. That's that's all we we we hope for. But um I had a question for our attorney in in reference to future future um dates in courts. I I like to be, you know, I like to attend some of these court court um cases. So I I requested it a couple times and he responded um that there is one coming up. So going forward if I can know the whole council should really know when where these uh cases are being heard when and uh because I like to attend if possible. I like to go to these court cases in here. Uh an example like BFI, no one talks about, you know, where are we with that as far as settlement agreement. I know we talked we talked about it, but I mean is how far off are we? I know it's been going through planning boards and stuff like that. So, I just like to stay up on it. If the uh the attorney could could let the council know on the dates, I would appreciate it.

Well, the BFI case is settled. You voted on the settlement. Um, so all we're doing is implementing the settlement now. Yeah. Well, it's not final.

No, it's it's settled. So there's no that's why there's no court dates because it's settled. So all we're doing is we all have obligations under the settlement agreement. Our obligation is to go through the redevelopment process, which we're in the process of going through. So there won't be any court dates for that. If you're concerned about that, no, that was, you know, not we do get a three-month report as uh when council uh councilwoman Cohen was was the chair, you know, she requested that and we all got that and I thank you for that. But what I'm saying is future going future for the lawsuit. There's I don't want to name any of them because BFI was the one that we just went through. But um I just like to I think the council should know that's just that's my request. Um state of emergency when when the governor says it's state of emergency do we get reimbursed on on the cost for snow plowing and and salt and and and everything when there's a state of emergency. Do we put in for a state of emergency funds?

We don't get reimbursed. So, we do not get reimbured. You're thinking of when the governor declares a state of emergency and then the federal government um FEMA comes in and then there might be some reimbursement, but there's when the governor declares a state of emergency and says everybody should stay off the turnpike, there's no funding. So, we don't we do not get any funds for that.

Okay. Um, then I also wanted I wanted to uh to thank everybody as well as our business administrator talked about the 150 mi of roads in Monroe. Uh it's important that our residents, we thank our residents as well as our DPW, our parks and our our water company um you know MTUD everybody. But it's also our residents because it's very difficult. A lot of our residents are elderly and it's hard to to get the sidewalks and get to get everything cleared off and and I just wanted to say thank you to our residents that did that. Uh for especially the schools I'm very concerned around the schools to watch the children walk out in the roadway. Uh it's not it's not a good scene uh along with visibility of people driving. And I just wanted to thank everybody as our business administrator did before. And I also wanted to thank our residents on on making it happen because the staff that did come in at DPW to take the calls for our residents as the complaints were coming in, our DPW was right there with with the crews and our third party that helped us uh through the you know community get get the roads done. I mean, they did an amazing job. And to do that, um, you know, we take our hats off to all of you guys and and everybody that did that, uh, just wanted to say thank you, uh, to everybody. And I also wanted to say this is month, it's Black History Month. So, uh, just something that I just wanted to, uh, to mention. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Cohen. Hello. the mayor turn on my I don't do these

off again. Um right before the storm began, many of us were in a local lunchonet and we were getting that last cup of coffee and socializing with people as just as we knew the snow was beginning to fall. And a group of residents said to me, "I hope our DPW gets our streets clean." I said, "Oh, they will." I said, "And I bet you they're out now beginning to prepare us with sanding and salting so that we will all be as safe as possible." So, it is my pleasure to also, as you've been thank to thank you again. But that's exactly what you did. Your staff and you did your job and you did it really well. And I did want to say thank you for that. And then all these people knew. Wow, we knew ahead of time. Um, you know, we have an advisory health council in town and it is finally, I think, getting its sea legs and many of you are familiar with the file of life, a a paper where you can list whatever medications you take, post it on your refrigerator, and that way if there is an incident and help comes to your house, they know what you take. So, we've begun a project. We've gotten a load of the files of life That was and we they will be deposited in all of our adult communities. They will go a bunch a group of them to the library. We will and to the senior center and the community center and I would urge everyone to take one for each member of their family who takes any medication and that way it is there. I have been reliably informed by our EMS folks that they don't care about the dosages as much as they care about knowing what medication people are taking and that's what they need. So please look for it. It's red and it says

file of life and I would hope that you enjoy it and the advisory health council folks will make sure that it continues to be st you know filled when the files of life are finished. Take them and use them. That's about all.

Thank you, Council Vice President Markell. Oh. Um, I just I also want to shout out to the DPW for a great job. Um, I was on kind of an interesting story. I was on jury duty for a month on a criminal case last uh and two three of us on the final um jury were from Monroe and they knew I was on the council and they asked me if we were ready for snow removal. And uh I said, "Give me your addresses." and which I don't know why I asked them for their dresses, but um I got a report back the following uh Tuesday that uh thanks to me their streets were plowed, but I told them I wasn't out there that evening. But uh I want to thank the DPW making me look good, you know. Uh just go with it as they say. Uh I'd also just like to mention uh Black History Month, which is I think super important. I don't think a lot of people give it a second thought, but um the black uh the history of black people in this country are more than more than people see on TV where it's uh civil rights and this and that. The contributions that the black community has given to us in music and food. Um, if you read about Elvis Presley, his music comes from gospel music and from the blues and um, all this is developed from African music and so forth. So, I just want to say that um, I think we should give a second thought all look at Black History Month very very very seriously. Um, I was a history major. Uh, I took an African-American history course in 1970. There's a lot less African history then than there is now. So I did well. Um I

remember where I was um April 8th, 1968, the day Martin Luther King got assassinated and remember how I felt. Um I had the pleasure of walking in marches with Reverend Jackson and Danny Glover. So, I it it made me reflect my my life, how it was related to the black community. That's what I'm thinking about this month. Uh, and I hope everybody else does. Uh, it's very important. It's part it's American history. It's not really just black history. It's American history and I think everybody should be aware of it. And thank you.

Thank you. Uh, I have a couple real short updates. As my council colleague said, I too want to thank DPW for all the hard work. It's also our police, our OEM, and every all the other departments that are involved. And of course, the residents, as Councilman Dapiro said, who do their part, too, by moving your cars off the streets, whatever you're doing to help um handle the snow. So, thank you to everyone involved. And just a reminder, I know I get a lot of questions from people about how to stay connected, knowing what's happening in the township. Our township website is wonderful. There's a lot of great information on there and it's kept very up todate. It's great to join the e newswsletter. Make sure you're part of NIXL to know when roads are closed or what's happening. Our OEM has great pages. A lot of our department have great pages on social media. So, if you are someone who uses social media, please do check out those pages. Lots of good information. And something really nice, I don't know if people know, but we have an Olympian that lives in Monroe, Brianna Schnorbush. So, she's going for the gold. So try to look out for her and we're cheering her on. So I just wanted to mention that. And I would like to turn this over to the clerk for a moment. She's going to share changes to legal notice publication requirements that were effective March 1st, 2026 before we go over to the mayor. So, um, uh, former Governor Murphy on June 30th, um, he, um, he's changing he's doing the transition from traditional print newspaper to online platforms for all legal notices for all municipalities. Um, so effective March 1st, 2026, the complete text of all legal notices for the township of of Monroe will be available on our website www.mmonrotwp.com. It will be on the homepage. It will be under legal advertisements. Um, so all all the legal advertisements

for the month. You can click on that and see them. Um and then on that page as well will be an archived um for all the legal notices past that and they will be on the website going forward. So um as of March 1st, please check that out. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Mayor Delina.

Thank you, Madame Council President. So, let's start off with something sweet. Uh, it is Girl Scout cookie season, my friends, and I got my cookies delivered yesterday, uh, just in time for me to devour them during the Super Bowl. Um, and I do want to just briefly touch upon the letter that she provided me. Dear Mayor Delina, hi. I hope this letter finds you well and warm. It has been such a cold and snowy winter so far. I can't wait for the warmer weather. I wanted to share with you this this year's theme for the Girl Scout cookie sale. It's BFF, brave, fierce fun. And it's designed to empower girl-led entrepre entrepreneurship with a focus on resilience and creativity. To me, this powerful phrase means to face new challenges while stepping out of one's comfort zone. to take bold action to achieve one's goals, to embrace joy, and to be open to new experiences and adventures. As a Girl Scout and resident of Monroe Township, I strive to be open to new ideas, maintain a positive outlook, take initiative when needed, and step outside my comfort zone when faced with new experiences. These are the same qualities I see reflected in you as our incredible mayor. Oh my gosh, can make me blush. I did not add this. It is actually written in here. Oh, I'm honestly I didn't read this beforehand, so I didn't so I'm I'm embarrassed. Thank you for being such a strong leader and inspiring role model. Your continued dedication to our town and its residents is truly appreciated. Thanks for everything that you do. I truly it truly makes a difference in so

many lives and is very appreciated. Also, thank you for always supporting me and the Girl Scouts. Your kindness, generosity, and ongoing support will always be remembered. Warmest wishes, Lauren Elizabeth Yuro. So, my friends, they've been at some of our local establishments. Uh if you see any of our local Girl Scouts, please buy a box, donate uh money toward the box. uh that they're going to be going to Walmart and obviously they are um technology savvy. So the website for Girl Scouts, just jump in there and and please cookies, cookies, cookies. Can always use some cookies. Um just a couple items. um upcoming mayor's wellness program, the fall prevention and balance program will be on Tuesday, March 24th, uh at our senior center at 10:00 a.m. Also, please mark your calendars for our rabies clinic, which will be Saturday, March 7th. That's going to be at our community center 9 to 2. And as uh council president um had mentioned about our Olympian uh Brianna, I have been in touch with her uh and her family. Um, so she is just so excited and and the the email just I just got today is she's she said she's proud to represent Monroe Township. I'm like, "Girl, you are representing the United States of America, baby." So, she is snowboarding. Uh, she will be her uh her first run will be on Friday, this coming Friday the 13th. Um, and I do believe it'll be at 4 in the morning Eastern Standard Time. So, it'll be early, but she'll have a couple runs throughout the day. So, if you have NBC on or or any of the Peacock or whatever network on the computer, please keep an eye out for Monroe Proud

Olympian Brianna and her, you know, magic snowboard. And whatever she does, she is certainly a winner in, I think, all of our hearts. So, God bless Brianna. Thank you, Madame Council President. Thank you, Mayor Delina. We'll move on to public comments. May I have a motion to open, please? Thank you. May I have a second?

Thank you. Those wishing to speak, five minutes per speaker, please state your name and address for the record. George Gungkelman 5 Kelly Monroe. Um, quickly I just want to add to what everybody else has said about the snow removal. It's really impressive and I travel around enough to to see that uh we did a lot better than a lot of the surrounding towns. A lot better. Um I want to add one thing to that however and that is that everyone knows that they have a responsibility for clearing their sidewalk. I suspect very few people know that they have responsibility for clearing for their fire hydrant. And maybe that could fit into the newsletter at some point. Um, just because driving around I see very few of them and minutes can be important and I think about it every time I hear a fire engine going down the road. Um, I hope they don't have a struggle to get to the hydrant. The other thing is it's not a requirement but mailbox access. I spoke to my delivery person and he indicated to me um less than half had access without him getting out of the vehicle. So out of kindness to them and for prompt service, it's uh kind of worth doing and maybe they can find its way into the newsletter to remind people to help out their newsmen or news persons.

Um, the other item for a newsletter is maybe we should remind people when taxes are due in the newsletter because we're a month off the normal quarter thing. So, you think about quarterly things in January and and stuff, but not in February so much, and it's easy to forget. Um there's something that's uh I've got got in the mail and is is being advertised more and more um trying to market to people services for ensuring against the loss of water line. Um, I don't I we should remind people before they contract for any of this stuff to check with their homeowners. A lot of us have homeowners insurance that covers that and and a lot of people don't know that they have it, you know, unless there's a lot of fine print in those contracts. Um, so maybe we could say something. I mean, we've we've been pretty good or the the the town has been very good at warning people about scams or or marketing things that are that are exploitive, and that certainly could be one. Um, I'd like to take a minute to address a gentleman from JCPNL. Uh no one talked about the um uh elephant in the room and the elephant in the room is the rate increases that everyone is experiencing and I don't know how what the process was to get those rate increases

uh but from what we read in general in the newspaper it has to do with uh selling energy to data centers. So, since one of you is from the CNI or commercial and industrial, I'm sure you know all about this. But in my opinion, data centers should be paying a higher rate. There's no reason. I mean, you look at the stock market and how much money all those things are making and how much generation there is. The idea that our rate should go up because you are going to try and supply them doesn't seem right to those of us who are residential consumers. And before you respond to that, I want I want to add one thing is I worked in commercial and built warehouses and and stuff. Our tenants replace their street lights with LEDs. just because it was cheaper, not because it was a because the real cost is not the the what you said maybe $250. It's the man in on on that and the LEDs not supposedly they do last an awful lot longer than the sodium vapor uh lights that are in current existence. So just from a financial standpoint, it's it is so much cheaper. When the different utilities companies had some kind of a deal going on where you see these little panels smaller than a desktop of of solar where there's a street light, those are all all LED lights. So when they when when the

utility companies were doing this around the state, they knew which was the the right one to put in. Excuse me, Mr. Gunglman. Our time is up. You want to finish your thought? Sure. Um do you want to wait until the end and then answer the question? Yeah. If I if I could just respond at least to the supply and demands. Um how about you wait until the public portion is over and let them and let them then you can answer their questions. Thank you.

Lucio Panos 128 Candera Plaza. Um, a couple of items, a number of them. I'm just 5,000 pencils cost how much? I I didn't get that when they were going over the bill list. Councilman Dapiro said 5,000. You have the price thing right there. That's one question. The second thing is you Councilman Dapiro brought up BFI. I remember years ago when um Allan was business administrator, there was a meeting down there at the brownfield and I had suggested why don't you put solar panels on here. So lo and behold, five years later it's happening and I am very confident in the company C renewals who's taking that project on. I I have a personal relationship with the CEO there. So good job. A little late, but better late than never. Um, number three, Black.

Well, the the thought of Yeah, I just asked a question about it. Okay. No, no, but the thought of the the solar panels was was was a good thing as far as Black History Month. Yes, there's food, music, and everything else. And I do I might not be as old as the Councilman T. I do remember when Martin Luther King got shot. But what I do reme remember vividly, very young, is when um the man orbited the earth. What was his name? No. Um

John Glenn. Well, you have to watch the movie Hidden Figures. That is about the black woman who were instrumental. He would have never did that if it wasn't for the So, we could say black history instrument, but I'm going to push the black woman who made that possible. That was like um we walked in my house, everybody was thrilled with that. Um that was one, two, three, four. As far as the lights being out here in Clarebrook, we had over we had about 110 lights out. So what do you do with that? At first, I was told that, you know, somebody calls in the thing, they put it in the out pile, a third party comes and picks it up, and so then somebody else calls in the same light and it goes into the pile. So you might have two or three third party people working on a light that was already fixed or going out to a light that was already fixed. So that I hope there's a a system a tracking system for that. What did happen though and I assemblyman D'Angelo nice guy you know and I saw him and I'm saying hey Wayne there's a whole bunch of stuff going on. Do you know he said get me a list of the lights. So I contacted like 30 people, neighbors, friends, said, "Listen, everybody go out and walk their neighborhood and write down the numbers." And I so I they did and sent him over to Assemblyman D'Angelo's office and out of like 110, I'd say about 70 were fixed. So there's still like 30 out, but I have to give him accolades for really following up on that. Um, as far as the street lights, is there any consideration for solar lights on the street? You sometimes you go through certain towns and you see that there's a little solar panel on their street light. I wonder if that's doable or possibly thought of here in Monroe. Uh, and last, the snow clearing

procedures. Yes, it was a heck of a storm, but I am curious what's the procedure like main roads I got, but what if it's a county road? Do we do the county roads or does the county do the county roads? Who does the state roads? The state, I hope, does turn bike, but who does the schools? Is the is the board of ed responsible for the schools and the roads? How does that get disseminated? And also, is there a third do you have third party plowers in in the town that I came from? private city, private snow plows would go, we'd give them tracking device to make sure they weren't tracking the township and snowplow and shop, right? But um so I would hope that maybe you could utilize that when I heard that the D and everything was working 24 hours and stuff like that. That's a lot on a person. So if there's not third party, maybe that could be considered. Thank you. Oh, well the questions about the solar lights, I would like at the end I guess Hi, my name is Ganesha Masla. Address is 283 Morning Glory Drive. I have a few questions. First is for JCPNL. Um I live in a community which has HOA and usually the uh the ask is like if there's a issue with the street light, we report it. Um but uh for GCP the question is like is there a way smart way to report them because nobody's going to go to the common states and find the street number and sometime that poll number doesn't have the barcode or something. It's very difficult to find those and then report it. So is there a smart way to report it like can the HOA directly tell the uh JCPL or how how do you report that? I think that's the main question because I

have lights on my morning glory drive which have been like out about a year and nobody's reports it. So I'm not going to go to every state light and say report it right. So is there a best way to do it? That's question for JCPL. Um there is one hazard which I see opposite to um butcher like uh when I'm uh when I'm driving on the butcher road when I'm coming out of Jessica what happens is when I'm taking a left turn there there is kind of a there is a small manhole I guess and the road is not in the center right it's uneven so what happens the vehicles are going off the curb and you cannot see them when I'm taking a left turn. So maybe the township can just go and check this out because it's kind of a hazard at this moment. Uh it's on like when you're coming from Route 33 towards Jessica Drive when I'm taking a left from Jessica to Butcher, right? I think that's where it is. So if you can check that out, it will be helpful, right? And uh one last was like sometime I go to drop my daughter at the high school. I mean it's just something I just requesting. Uh we there's no right left turn on when we're on panville. So we kind of go to Thompson Park and take take a U from there uh on like fur drive f a fire drive on Thompson Park but the road is not clean. I understand that like now is not a good time but then sometime the road is like very much with snow and then the vehicles are taking a U-turn. It's kind of hazard. So if I don't know how to report this, like should I report it to the school board or what's the best way to report them so that that area gets cleaned so at least the vehicles can get take a U-turn when they're coming back.

El President, if I can just ask, you're saying when you come out of the high school parking lot onto Pineville Road and then I go because there's no left turn, right? Yeah. I go to the I usually go to the thousand park on far drive and take a view but then some I mean not now but like I've seen last year like there sometime like lot of ice there nobody cleans it vehicle it's like for the vehicles right it's all like very difficult for like Fern drive is is county that's maintained by the county and the county park so we already complained to them yes so so we can take a look at it and reach out to the county if there's some icing issues on fern drive that that's not a problem. Yeah. All right. Thank you.

Hi, I'm Jolola Maloney. I'm from the Watershed Institute. I just wanted to take the time to thank Monroe Township for their participation in the working group meeting last Thursday. and the water shenu is also more than happy to sit down with anyone from Monroe to further discuss the upper Mstone regional uh approach if any additional information or clarification is needed. We also just wanted to remind Monroe that the deadline for moving forward with the upper milestone is rapidly approaching. This is not to rush Monroe but we do need to know uh whether Monroe and other municipalities will be participating as we would like to give the consultant as much time as possible to prepare the plan. Um and I'm also here to extend the invitation to our regional or conference that is happening uh later this February February 26th and 27th. 26th will be held virtually and 27th is in a hybrid format. So it will be virtually and in person at the college of New Jersey. There will be sessions on the watershed improvement plan as well as guidance on the wershed assessment report which is phase two of the watershed improvement plan. There will also be sessions on green infrastructure and storm water utilities.

Council President, I can just ask one thing. Jolyn, um there were there were some documents sent after our meeting last week and my email was was left out of it. So, if you can just make sure my email is is attached for these upcoming meetings so that we don't Yes. As soon as I realized you weren't a part of the email list, I added your email as soon as possible. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Shell Armin Nathaniel Street. As a concerned citizen and member of the public who's always been interested in in the water issues in Monroe and in the county and in the state, I would highly um recommend that we do something with the Millstone wershed and get involved in that and save our potable water with all the building and everything that's happening. um we're going to need to have very clean potable water. So, please get involved with these environmental issues. Um it's very important to the future of Monroe. I have a question going back to uh uh council president uh the discussion about the four sites where the af the four new sites about the affordable housing. My question is of those sites that that were just voted on, what is the total buildout for those four projects terms of units?

Council President, sorry, I'm trying to do the math in my head because I don't have it in front of me. Um, you've got Oh, maybe Mark can help me. You've got a 100 plus 67, which is 167. I'm not that terrible at this. Um, keep going. Keep going. Uh, we have 30 at the Meadow View. So, what does that get me to? 2007. Thank you. And then, um, and then 186 at the Old Bald Eagle site. I I'm just not going to do it because I can't do it. I'm sorry. Okay. Council President, is that is that the count of the total buildout or is that just the affordable housing units?

Sorry, that's the total build. And so how many of those are affordable? So um at the 100 unit site, 22 of those are affordable. At the 67 unit site, 20 are affordable. At the 100% municipally sponsored site, all 30 are affordable, obviously. And at the 186 unit site, 37 are affordable. And when are those supposed to be? Now, I know the last round was supposed to be done by 2025. Um, when is this round supposed to be complete? I know they h you haven't completed it.

Well, it's not a question of complete. We just had an obligation in the third round to reszone. So, we reszoned. The fourth round lasts for 10 years. It goes into June of 20 uh June of 2035.

Okay. I would also like to say that um the affordable housing and what we keep hearing is how much affordable housing we need in the state and in the area. Um I would still like us to make sure we get these people in their affordable housing. The rate the market rates are selling like crazy and the developers are getting very wealthy. We need to protect the people. The whole point and intent of this affordable housing and fair share housing is to put people in the these com in this housing that really need it, not the ones only at the market rate. So again, I would encourage this body to make sure that we are supplying the proper amount of affordable housing to to people who really need it and the rest will come. So the, you know, the market rate is doing very well, I'm sure. And now I'm going to say something even more controversial than I usually say. We've heard how wonderful everybody was uh in this last snow event. So I would like as as a taxpayer I would like for consideration to propose like a pilot program to give a day off a paid day off for all the workers who took care of Monroe Township. Um somehow we can do parameters talk to unions or whatever and find parameters of regarding emergency weather events. I'm not saying every time, but we if we can put together parameters or that kind of thing. We value the people who take care of us. Everybody's talking about how wonderful they are. Let's give them a day off. You might have to um not everybody can take the same day off, but do something where we can really show when we have weather events like this, they're infrequent and maybe we can take care of the people who take care of us and say thank you and give them a day off and work

something out in in this administration. I appreciate everything they do. I think we should show that. And I know they get overtime and they get paid and all that, but it's when they do exceptional work like this, I think we should give them an exceptional thank you and a a paid day off and and just work it out. But I thank everybody in my community who takes good care of me. So, thank you. Let's do something like that. Thank you. Not you, Mr. Rasimo. It's Thanks. Thank you. JCPNO. Yeah. You want to close the public portion? Yes. May I have a motion to close public forum, please? Second.

Second. Thank you. And we'll have our JCPNL reps if you want to answer a few of the questions for us, please. Thank you so much for for these important questions. Uh so I want to start with the generation increase. Um there are three sections of your electric bill.

There is the distribution component which is us. There's the transmission component which is the cost of utilizing the wires to transmit from generator facility to the distribution system through our substations. And then there's the generation cost. The gen generation cost makes up approximately 60% of your bill. And that is a pass through. A good analogy especially for this crowd uh would be schoolboard taxes. Um you pay those taxes through your municipal tax uh as well as county tax through your municipal tax. However, no one sitting up here is responsible for those county taxes or for those schoolboard taxes. You're simply paying them as a pass through with no markup that then goes on to the school board and to the county. That's exactly what's happening with the BGS increase. Yes, you pay that through our bill because our bills are coupled, but JCPNL does not own any generation. We are a fully regulated utility. Uh in 1996, the state of New Jersey passed a DECA, the Electric Discount and Energy Competition Acts, uh which deregulated generation. We are a regulated utility. So we don't we are not benefiting in no form or fashion. In fact, it's quite the opposite because everyone believes that it is us that is suddenly jacking these rates up. Uh there is a supply and demand imbalance uh across the United States of America. Um especially in the PGM footprint which New Jersey is a part of PJM. It in uh that is the grid operator, the regional transmission operator uh for 14 states in Washington DC in this area. They forecast and hold auctions. Again, this is an unregulated market. Those markets or or excuse me,

those auctions rather are held and then the Board of Public Utilities here in New Jersey need to authorize those auctions. Meaning, they're not really approving anything other than the results of the auction are consistent with current market conditions and trends. So um to your your point earlier or excuse me the gentleman's point earlier uh regarding data centers we agree that's our company's position data centers in our territory. We want to see them bring their own generation because we don't want to see our customers bills going up for a piece that is market driven. Um if your bills are going to go up I want it to be because we're investing in reliability. we're investing in making your lives better and brighter through keeping your power on, keeping your street lights on, so on and so forth. Um, so agree with you, but you again that is not our portion of the bill. Uh, we did not have a rate increase. Each and every time that we go in for a rate increase, it is a completely transparent process. Uh, we go to the board of public utilities. There are many a public hearing, a lot of discovery. There is uh intervenor participation, meaning that anyone who wants to can have a seat at that table. Um there's also uh a position in New Jersey government called New Jersey Rate Council. It it sort of operates within the confines of the Attorney General's office, but also not really. They're a uh it's a position that's there to look out for all of us, all of our rateayers, to make sure that utilities aren't making money in unfair ways. Um, and they always have a seat. Uh, I I can't remember, I've only worked at this company for 12 years, but I can't remember a single time where we've had a rate case approval. It's always a

settlement between Ray Council, the Board of Public Utilities, and the company. It's a very fair and transparent process. Um, so again, not trying to, you know, redirect blame or anything like that, but we don't generate, we are not making any money whatsoever off of the base generation increase. Uh, so that was item one. Uh, the next was the street light solar, which um I believe it's PSEG that you're you might see that on their polls. Uh, it is not in fact feeding the street light. uh that is part of a very very old regulatory program, a program in which PSEG, I want to say it was in 2009 PSEG got approval for uh solar for all program. Um sort of a a pilot of community solar. It didn't stop at just the polls. If I recall correctly, there were some rooftop solar and things of that nature. You know, all of the utilities have tariffs on file with the board of public utilities. Each of our tariffs are a little bit different. I, excuse me, our company cannot offer our customers anything that's not in the approved tariff. So, for that example, we don't have anything in our tariff that allows us to install solar for all. So, we can't do that. But again, that solar panel was not in fact feeding the street lights anyway. That's just where they they chose to uh put it. Um and then lastly, sir, you had a question on reporting of street lights. There are many different ways. You can always call it in. You can go on our website and uh on that that landing page, our homepage, you'll see uh a toggle for report and outage. There's also a toggle for report of street light. That'll take you to the next page where you'll be asked for some basic information. your name um then the

address of where or the closest address to the street light. If you're unable to provide the closest address to the street light, once you get past that page, it takes you to the second section of the form where there are multiple different ways to report. There is an optional area for you to add cross streets. You could give us the two closest cross streets. Um, and there is also a note section that I believe allows 500 characters. I'll have to double check that. 500 characters is a lot. So, you know, you can put in there and we we encourage our customers to put in there as great of a description as you can because when our line trucks are rolling out there, that those notes are very, very helpful. Um, additionally, Facebook is another avenue. If you go on to JCPNL's Facebook page, you'll encounter another button to either report an outage or report street lights. So, there are are many different ways and it's it's not only we always prefer the poll number, but we know that you can't always get the poll number. The poll number will match up with our GIS mapping system and we know that's exactly where we go, but we know that's not always feasible and that's why we give so many other options for you to provide identifying information. I

I'll catch up with you after the meeting. I'll meeting and speak. Okay. Thank you so much. Cool. Thank you. Appreciate the time. Thank you. May I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? A second, please. Thank you. Time, please. We're adjourned. The time is 8:40. Thank you.