Council - Regular Meeting

the Monroe Township Council. May I ask everyone to please stand so we salute our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Clerk, can you please do a roll call? Council Miriam Cohen, present. Councilman Charles Depiro, here. Councilman Terrence Vanzora, here. Council Vice President Michael Markel, here.

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. One, 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 Monroe Township website. and four, send 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. We have several proclamations under presentation tonight. So, I'll start with our proclamations. Military Appreciation Month is the month of May. Building Safety Month. National Day of Prayer is May 7th, 2026. Araxia Awareness Day May 14th, 2026. Om peri day May 17th. Municipal Clerk's Week May 3rd through 9th, 2026. National Police Week and Peace Offers Officers Memorial Day May 10th through 10 16th. Emergency Medical Services Week May 17th through the 23rd. National Public Works Week, May 17th to the 23rd. This evening, we have a presentation from our human relations commission, our annual ceremony honoring and presenting awards to those students who exemplify the six pillars of character, caring, responsibility, respect, fairness, citizenship, and trustworthiness. So, I'd like to call up our human relations chairwoman, Hargie Verdie, to do the presentation along with Mayor Delina and Dr. Layman, our superintendent of schools. [applause] Thank you, Rupa. Uh before I would I I start I like Mayor Steven Telina to address the audience because he mentioned he loved the room full of children and he would like to start.

I'll be very very brief. Uh to my Star Wars friends out there, may the fourth be with you. [laughter] For the any of the kids who come up, you can look at my tie. If you can tell me, you know, who it is on Star Wars, I'll give you an extra high five. That's about my my friends. Um, first of all, I I have to thank our human relations committee. I have to thank uh all the the entire school system for the culmination of this event here. And that's to celebrate uh the finest citizens here that we have in Monroe Township, the the youngsters. Um it's Yeah, that's you better believe it. I I I can I can certainly speak, you know, on behalf of all of the council members here, the administration, that this is truly the the our most favorite meeting that we have throughout the year. Truly to to see all of you and and we get we get two perspectives here. Obviously, we we we get the the the young uh citizens coming up receiving the award, but we get to see all of you smiling so so very much. and and it is truly truly a testament to all of you here as as raising such wonderful young people. I just want to say thank you so so very much and I'm looking forward to the to the event. Thank you.

Thank you Mayor Steven Delina. Good evening everyone. My name is Herjit Wordy. I am the chairperson for H uh Monroe Human Relations Commission. Our human relations commission is both proud and honored to celebrate with you all tonight the exceptional qualities of our students receiving the good character award for Mandro Township. Each year we invite our school principles in the Mandro Township School District to nominate one student from every grade who embodies the six pillars of good character. Tonight is the special occasion to honor these remarkable children who exemplify these values which Rupa already mentioned are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. On behalf of all the members of the human relations commission, I extend our heartfelt congratulations to all our outstanding recipients and their parents and grandparents. This evening would not be possible without the dedication of Eileen Binas. She's the secretary to May Delina and an integral member of our human relations commission. Eileen collaborates with all the schools in the district to gather the names of our awardees. So, thank you Eileen for your tireless efforts. We also extend our gratitude to all the members of the human relations commission who volunteer their time and energy to make Monroe a more inclusive township. Through their commitment, we ensure our community remains one that respects and honors the traditions of all people. At this time, I kindly request our HRC members to please stand and be recognized.

[applause] [applause] Thank you. Now I'll call the names of each names of the students. As your name is announced, please come forward to receive your certificate from the mayor. Pose for a photo, smile, and then return back to your seat. At the conclusion of the ceremony, we'll invite all the awardies to gather for a group photo with the mayor and everyone um from the human relations commissions. Thank you. I'll start announcing the names now [clears throat] from Blay Brook School Preschool. Maya Chen

[laughter]

smile. Kindergarten Chase Sidler. Put his hands in his so cute.

So cute. First first grade Kisha Santos Rajan. Second grade, Harper Warwick. from Mil from Mil Lake School Preschool. James Rancisque. [laughter] Thank you. [applause] kindergarten. Jay's German

First grade, Nora Reinhardt.

Look at that.

[laughter] [applause]

second grade. Isha Circar [clears throat] comes a little sister. Third grade, Alexia Simon. Okay. Oak Tree School kindergarten. Chloe Yun. First grade. Mitran Dh. [applause] Michael

second grade. Saiu Prasad. Third grade. Sophia Delare. self-contained RF sync. [laughter] Applegot School, fourth grade, Lit Sila Paraseti.

[laughter]

Fifth grade. Shavi Prattab pretty

Brookside School third grade Abigail Paturi

[applause] [clears throat]

fourth grade. Hini Katipali Come in. I called fifth grade. Emma Babiki. Woodland School, fourth grade. Shay Patel. fifth grade. Everly taught [clears throat] middle school. Sixth grade, Matthew Bario.

Yeah. [laughter] [laughter] Yeah.

Seventh grade. Ethan Aia 8th grade. Isabel Maglio. High School 9th grade. Sanvi Gil. girls just

10th grade. Om donga. [laughter]

[laughter] Basketball [applause]

11th grade Alia Rajabali a little louder [laughter] [applause] 12th grade. Josephina Corona. [applause] That concludes our ceremony. I'll request all the wardies to now come on stage for the group picture.

Clerk, can you please read item six? Ordinance is for second reading at the May 4th, 2026 regular meeting. Ordinance 042026007. Ordinance amending chapter 108 of the Monunroe Township Code amending VC2 overlay for parcel included in Monunroe Township's round 4 affordable housing plan. Ordinance 042026008. Ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank. Ordinance 042026009. Ordinance amending chapter 39 of the code of the township of Monroe entitled fees.

Thank you. And clerk, can you please read item seven, budget resolutions for consideration at the May 4th, 2026 regular meeting. R5 2026 104 resolution providing that the 2026 municipal budget be read by title at the time of the public hearing. Resolution R52026105 resolution adopting the 2026 municipal budget. Thank you. And can you please read item 8? Resolutions for consideration under the consent agenda at the May 4th, 2026 regular meeting is resolutions R52026 106 through R5202610.

Council members, please review the resolutions. Does anyone have any items that need to be removed? Seeing none, we'll move on to item nine, our public comments. May I have a motion to open public comments? So moved. Second.

Thank you. This public comments is limited to agenda items only, five minutes per speaker. When the public comes up, please state your name and address for the record. Thank you. Good evening. Bob Valentine, 68 Union Valley Road. Uh, just want to speak on the budget. Uh, I want to start by thanking the mayor and the business administrator for their presentation at last month's meeting and the generous assistance I got from him and his staff. They're always very responsive. Um, I have reviewed the proposed 26 budget and the 25 and 24 financial reports on the town's website. I am supportive of the budget and the general tax increase. As difficult as it is, I know on everybody. Although the finances are stable, both the general fund operating results and the general fund balance are trending lower. The township enjoys an excellent credit rating. This yield savings on borrowing course and validates the township status as a dependable financial partner. There is significant value to taking action to make sure that continues. I think the increase to tax revenue is part of ensuring that happens. I do have some comments for all of you. Um, starting with the tax levy cap, uh, in addition to the standard inflation adjustments built into the tax revenue formula, the township is raising additional funds to cover two significant expenses. Health insurance premiums and debt service. Regarding health insurance is a statewide problem. I'm hoping in future we hear more about what options are available to manage this in our township. Um, have you looked at options for servicing the insurance program? Is the experience data reviewed to gain a better understanding of how our experience looks and whether opportunities to favorably impact performance? If the data is inadequate, are there opportunities or the steps being taken to try to improve it? Are there wellness initiatives in place that could benefit the employees and help lower cost of the

program? Are there advocacy efforts to make sure this is getting the state's leadership attention to try some improvement? While there are national forces negatively impacting health insurance, the state is a huge buyer of these services. State cannot solve every issue. But they do have leverage and leverage available to them to work on our behalf. As to debt service, the debt service cost rose a half a million dollars from 24 to 25 and is rising another half a million dollars in the 26 budget. In the 25 budget tax levy cap calculation worksheet, the amount of additional tax levy request for debt service was zero. The 2006 tax levy cap calculation is requesting uh additional revenue for debt service of just under a million dollars. And I know there are other pressures probably driving those uh actions, but it's just part of the expense pressure that I think the uh town is feeling. The town should should consider though assessing the rate at which it's issuing general fund debt so that these additional costs can be better absorbed into the existing budget tax structure. Securing capital grants as as the mayor talked about and the administrator talked about last month would also help to lower some of that debt service burden. As has been mentioned at earlier town council meetings, there is a borrowing cap which monitors the amount of outstanding debt and the township is well under it. Aware of new debt issues are going to lead directly to increase in taxes. I think that is information that should be shared as part of any evaluation of issuing new general fund debt with the community at these meetings. I noted the series 2025 energy savings obligation refunding bonds and energy conservation improvement debt is on December 31st 25 uh debt listing as I understood the presentation at that time savings on utility cost with the fund repayment of those obligations and that assertion is correct and remains true the resident should not pay increased taxes for debt service on those obligations otherwise the town is reaping a double financial benefit they're reaping the savings on the utility cost and we're paying the property taxes on the debt service. So,

I'm hoping in future budget presentations that analysis could be included to show how that debt obligation is being handled because you can't see that in the and obviously you cannot see that in the way the budget report is submitted. You can't see it. So, I'd like to see that addressed. I think the residents are very aware of it and was an issue at the school board of education budget as well. Just some other quick observations. Uh cross subsidizing a general fund op operations. The general fund reli relies in part on subsidies from the water sewer utility. The 2025 subsidy was a million3 26 budget forecast a subsidy of 2 million4. This is allowable and some municipalities municipalities do cross subsidize operations but seeing it go up is a little bit concerning. Uh the tax burden on the res too great to merely end that practice. You can't just turn off the switch on something like that. But I'm hoping over time some consideration we given to try to lessen that burden. It's it's a I'll call it best practice for lack of a better term that the general fund and the waters utility fund each be fully self-supporting if possible. Uh I realize in our town there's other expenses that we have to deal with that the community want. So maybe getting it to zero is not realistic but if we could lower that cross subsidization I think that would be a good thing. Um a couple of performance improvement late items to try to offer some thoughts. The ambulance service the ambulance service in 23 generate a positive margin of just over $700,000. The margins have declined since then. The deficit of 43,000 is forecasted in the 26 budget. Obviously, the ambulance service is an essential service that we have to have, but I'm just hoping that maybe if the if it hasn't been looked at yet, it could be looked at to see if there's some opportunities to improve the revenue or manage the expenses a little tighter. Vendor contracting, there was no mention. Oh, wait. Couple of minor things left to finish. I don't know if you knew that there's also a complex.

Okay. Okay. Yes. So, you can come back. Okay. I didn't come back. Okay. You needed to come back. If you give me a minute, I can finish. If not, I'll come back. It's up to you. Your discretion. Why don't you Why don't you come back in the next for the public hearing for the I'll come back. Thank you.

Good evening. Lucille Panos 128 Plaza Monroe. Ordinance 007. Please explain that. Ordinance [clears throat] 008. How much is the amount to be exceeded in the municipal budget and what is the proposed cap establishment 105? The municipal [clears throat] budget. What is the total what is the total cost of health benefits and how many employees are there? Are there any new employees scheduled for this year and how many anticipated retirees? 109. What is the modification to pro to the professional services?

Sure, council president. I can um Thank you.

I can take 007. Um so this is a change uh a minor a couple of minor changes to our VC2 overlay zone. Uh so a project was included in our round four affordable housing plan uh that necessitated some changes to the buffers and to the widths um along Route 33. This was the what what we used to call the bald eagle site. Um this is on the southwestern side of the town uh bordering east Windsor. uh to en to enable that project to move forward in our round four affordable housing. Uh we agreed to some changes to a couple of parking requirements, a couple of buffer requirements, and a couple of uh design standards in order to make that project more viable for uh affordable housing. Uh there's 186 units and 37 of them are affordable. Um, I am going to come back to O8 and 105 where I'll ask some of our finance folks to to to help me and pull some numbers. Um, 109. So, [clears throat] a couple of months ago, we previously agreed to participate in the watershed institutes uh regional study uh of of our shared watershed. Uh there was about and and I might not have all the numbers correct but there was about eight towns or nine towns that were involved in that prog in that process to study the watershed. Um last month the watershed institute representatives appealed to the council uh here at the meeting and asked for an additional $4,36 because a couple of towns had dropped out. uh we evaluated that um our engineering staff, myself and we determined that that uh additional money is worth it um as we would have to study the watershed on our own to fulfill a state D requirement and better to do so in a regional setting. This is uh the administration's recommendation on a not

to exceed for an additional $4,036. We would not recommend um uh exceeding those limits any further. Um, and I will ask uh you know maybe maybe Ralph can help uh just explain uh 008. Council President Ralph Pone from our auditor's office can help explain that uh ordinance. I said 0105. He's going to get we're going to get to that as well. Going a little bit out of order. I apologize. Can I Okay. Can I just comment on one of your things [clears throat] regarding the buffers? What What are the buffers that are being changed? How many feet are they by any waterhed? [clears throat] wetlands or anything like that?

No, no, this is uh uh doesn't change any of those landscape buffers um along Route 33. So, there was a 100 foot width requirement along Route 33 before to make the project viable. Um and since it's part of our round round four affordable housing plan, we have to sort of do what we can to make the project viable. It would it would shrink that width and not not create that 100 foot requirement along 33. Doesn't affect any wetlands. So, it goes from 100 [clears throat] feet to what? Um I think it's 50. I think it's 50. Yes. 50. Whoa. Okay. So, the size of the landscape and and part of the reason I just hit your thing.

Part of the reason we did it was to keep the project away from any wetlands because the back of the property is where the the conservation ement is for the bald eagle. So, we're trying to move it away possible and so it encroaches less. Thank you. Happy. So, do I sit here and wait for 105 answer? Yes, we're we're going to get to the 008 answer if we could and then we'll we'll get to 105. [clears throat] I didn't ask for 00. I didn't ask for 108. 008. You did ask for that. If you don't want, we don't have to. Oh, no, no, no. Okay, I did. I just said 108. My apologies.

That's okay. Okay. Yeah. So, ordinance 08 is the cola ordinance. This is a standard ordinance that sorry this is a standard ordinance that every municipality in the state of New Jersey does each year. Um the state each year gives an amount that you're allowed to go up inside the cap. This year it was 2%. By doing this COLA ordinance you have the ability to go up 3.5%. It doesn't mean your budget's going up 3 and a half% but it gives you the ability to do that. So that number is approximately [clears throat] $817,000. your budget actually did not go up even using that cap, but it gets bananked for a future year just in case you need it. So, it's a prudent practice to do this ordinance in case you need to tap into that banking in a future year, but the township budget tonight does not have that banking even being used.

And then, council president, I'll ask Lori to just um update us on the total cost of health benefits and the number of employees. Council President, so currently we have about 350 employees on the health insurance and I think that the other question was the cost total the total cost. So the total cost for um the township and the utilities is $10,350,811 budgeted and that's on sheet 3B2 of the budget document. Thank you. So the other part of that question are are there any new employees in this budget?

Miss Pan, we're overtime. You're past the five minutes. So why don't you come back for the next? Because I have a baby to take care of. So um [clears throat] what we call it? So could you just please pardon me? Just are there any new employees in the budget? Uh there are no new full-time employees in the budget. That's correct.

Thank you. Shell Armin 9 Nathaniel Street. [sighs] Uh regarding resolution 110. Uh I see the resolution is for 1,615,6594. How much of that? Well, should I say, are there soft costs in this resolution? Council President, those are all hard costs. All hard costs. All hard costs.

So no design costs. The design cost was not part of this resolution. It was a contract that was given at a prior meeting. Wow. So finally, this is all going to go to what? Construction. It goes to the road paving program. Yes. Okay. And we have um that went out to bid and we It did.

And Okay. So, that's good for once. Um and the resolution um Oh, I'm sorry. The ordinance that we talk about the municipal budget just by uh by title. I I really think that asking uh taxpayers and residents to pay taxes the way we do and we have a pretty high rate of compliance. I think it would be respectful if we had a broader and more understandable way to review the uh the uh the budget with our uh elected officials uh and and some deliberation. again uh just to say go to the go to the website and take a look at the budget I think um sort of defies the way respect for u the population who who pays the budget. So, um, I would hope that in the future, I mean, ever since I've been coming here, it seems we get less and less information during budgetary times and you expect us to weed through the website and do all these things when I think something respectful would be have a town meeting, town meeting and or have people be able to come to this meeting and specifically really go over the budget. um we're paying for it. I think it would be nice for us to really be able to understand it more and to just say go to the website and do it yourself. I think um is I I don't think it's very transparent. Let me see if there's anything else at this time. I don't think so. Thank you.

Good evening all. Can you hear me? Yeah. My name is Pawantagari, 8 Lenmore Court, Monroe Township, New Jersey. Um, [clears throat] I think budget uh is a very complex numbers, right? people don't have time to go through these numbers and by profession I'm a finance guy and I expect uh an executive summary which is like a single page so that the the residents of this township can look at that one single page they would look at what is the revenue that we are making from taxes or whatever sources like one line item which says what is our revenue one line item which says what are our capital improvements for this year, what is the debt that the township owes and where did we take that debt from and what are the interest rate that we are paying. The fourth line item can be what is our operating expenses? What are the different uh line items that consolidates to our operating expenses? What is that depreciation that we are writing off? that makes it more sense so that anybody who goes to their mailbox gets a single page budget on a page very very simple budget on a page. I look at those numbers and I know whether the township has favorability or we are on an unfavorable situation where our taxes would go up. So that's my recommendation coming to the uh township meeting for the first time. Thank you.

Hi, [clears throat] Suzanne Smith, 618 Spotswood, Englishtown Road. I have one question. It's about uh resolution 52026 109 um the watershed management plan. When is the expected date for that plan to be completed? Council President McGowan uh per D rules has to be completed by the end of this year. And that will be available to the public once it's Absolutely. That's all I have. Thank you.

Okay. Any other members of the public wishing to speak? Seeing none, may I have a motion to close public comments? So moved. May I have a second? Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you. Moving on to adjournment. May I have a motion to adjourn our meeting? So moved. May I have a second? Second. Clerk, roll call, please. Council, uh, Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Diapro, yes. Councilman Vanzora, yes. Council Vice President Markell, Council President Seagull, yes. And then time. The time is 7:20.

Great. Thank you. Moving on to our regular meeting of the Monroe Township Council, May 4th, 2026. May I have a motion to open our meeting? Moved. May I have a second? Second. Clerk, roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Dapiro, yes. Councilman Vanzora, yes. Council Vice President Markell. Council [clears throat] President Cohen. Seagull. But yes, seagull. It's all good. Seagull, I'm so sorry. The time is 7:20. May I have a motion to approve the payment of claims per run date, April 27, 2026? Moved. May I have a second, please? Second. Clerk, roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Diro,

yes. Councilman Vanzora, yes. Council Vice President Markell. Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. May I have approval? May I have a motion for the approval of minutes to approve the minutes of the following meetings as written and presented April 6, 2026 agenda and regular combined meeting. Thank you. May I have a second? Second. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Dapiro, yes. Councilman Vanzora, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Uh, clerk, can you please read item four?

Ordinances for second reading. Ordinance 042026007. Ordinance amending chapter 108 of the Monroe Township Code amending VC2 overlay for parcel included in Monroe Township's round four affordable housing plan. Thank you. May I have a motion to open the public hearing? I'll move it. Second, please. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Public hearing is open. 5 minutes per speaker. Please state your name and address for the record.

Good evening again, Bob Valentine, 68 Union Valley Road. Uh just a little bit to finish off my comments from earlier. Sir, this this is the hearing on No, no, we'll get to the budget. This is a public hearing on [laughter] return. I'll give you a hands on the time.

Shell Armen09 Nathaniel Street. Yes, this is on 007. Uh I was at the uh planning board meeting when they developed this or had it as a discussion item and then they took action uh on it. And one of the questions I have, has anything changed from that uh meeting? Uh has anything changed in 007 or is it intact as the planning board approved it? Intact as the planning board approved.

Okay. Um I I was I was given a great deal of information that I appreciated. I asked a lot of questions at that meeting and one of the questions I asked was about the 20% of residential dwellings as provided by the affordable housing and I was told at the time and I understood it but then I thought about it um that it was the the 20% was due to the third round um that this this was developed under the third round of the affordable housing but now this is going into the fourth round. Correct.

So my question is if it's no longer part of the third round, why can't we raise this to 30% because that was what we've been talking about uh our attempting to do on the fourth round. So council president

globally in the in the fourth round we have a percentage that's even higher than 30%. Um, this was one property that challenged our affordable housing plan and we went through the affordable housing program with with the courts. Um, and we were able to settle for a much lower number of total units than this property owner wanted to develop in the third round which was in the 240 unit range down all the way to 187. Uh, in order to get it settled though, we had to settle for just for this property had to settle for a 20% set aside. would get you about 37 units. But overall, our affordable housing plan has actually more than 30% correct set aside for affordable on each on each new on average.

On average, okay, because that could mean we have 30% on the smaller ones and 20% on the larger ones and then we have to know I mean I I'm just concerned about about the promise of trying to get as much affordable housing. I mean, the whole point of all this construction, as I've said often, is to give people affordable housing, not the the market rates that we're seeing um you know, develop in our town overdevelop in my position. Um

and actually, just so you know, both the the third round and the fourth round are well over 20%. because we made if you recall in the fall we made changes to our third round plan. We reduced the number of units by almost 500 units but kept the same number of affordables. So actually on that one project the the Edgewood property project the set aside is actually almost 28%. So we we actually uh we agree with you we should build more affordable housing and less market rate housing. I mean that's the whole point of all this construction. I mean, we're hearing it from everywhere where the Don't worry, I still have a few more minutes. Um, I'm not worried at all.

No, I'm not not you. [laughter] Okay. My My real question again on this, this is specific to this parcel of property only. So, no changes to anything else. No buffer changes or anything, but just this based on the Eagle A lot. Yes. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other members of the public wishing to speak on this ordinance? Seeing none, may I have a motion to close a public hearing? So moved. May I have a second? Second. All in all in favor? I. Any opposed? May I have an adop a motion to adopt? So moved.

May I have a second? Second. Clerk, can you please call a roll? Councilwoman Cohen? Yes. Councilman Dapiro? Yes. Councilman Vanzora. Yes. Council Vice President Markell. Yes. Council President Seagull. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Clerk, can you please read the next ordinance? Ordinance 042026008. Ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank. May I have a motion to open the public hearing? Moved. May I have a second? Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Our public hearing is open. Five minutes per speaker. Please state your name and address for the record.

Seeing none, may I have a motion to close the public hearing? Moved. May I have a second? Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Oh, I'm sorry. It's a roll call. Apologies. Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Depiro, yes. Councilman Vanzora, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries. Clerk, can you please read the next ordinance? Ordinance 042026009. Ordinance amending chapter 39 of the code of the township of Monroe entitled fees. May I have a motion to open the public hearing? Move. Council President, may I have a second?

Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Public hearing is open. Five minutes per speaker. Please state your name and address for the record. Shell Armin Nathaniel Street. Um, how much is in currently in the MTUD budget? Both water and sore combined. You can give it to me, Mr. President. Approximately 23 million. 23 million. And that Okay. And that goes for both. So,

correct. Okay. Um, before Monroe took this over as a department, I think there was $44 million in the budget, um, I know we we there was a pandemic and there were other issues, but we've sort of it's gone down by half. Is there a any kind of council president? I'm I'm not aware of the utility budget ever being 44 million. It was 22 for water. No, around I thought it was 44 total. What was it then? You can correct me, please. I mean, we've [clears throat] since I've been here, we've No, not since you've been here. Okay. Well, I mean, it it would The budget hasn't never been higher than

hasn't been decreased. You know what? I apologize. Not the budget. I My mistake. The surplus. The the actual fund. You're talking about the surplus. I don't know if it's called I You know, we're talking semantic. I don't know if it was a when when Monroe Township took over. Okay. Then it was surplus. Thank you all of you. [laughter] Um it was 44 million. Correct. Was is that part correct? That I don't know. We took over in 2011 or 2012. I don't know what the surplus was at the time.

Okay. Well, I think I have the documents at home and I think there were about 44 million. I think it was 22 and 22. Um and we're going through it quite fast. So I'm wondering uh is and and there were no and there were no increases. So when when all this constru construction goes on, I know you charge builders fees, but how much of the fees that we charge actually pay for a lot of the infrastructure because isn't part of of the budget in this infrastructure and maintenance and all that kind of stuff. But I'm really concerned about

So the ordinance that you have now is the fee ordinance. So, so the water, so just so you know, but I think I can answer your question generally, the the water and sewer utility are is what's known as a self-liquidating utility. So, whatever it is that we do, correct the budget. So, there's a $23 million budget. We have to have rates that support $23 million every year. So, um the the rates pay for those things. We also have ordinances that are in place that deal with if you build a development what what contributions to what cap specific capital projects because we can only charge people for the capital projects that are that are rationally related to their development. So we have those ordinances in place also. That's that's kind of a separate thing.

I was going to say is that a separate fund? It's a separate ordinance and the money goes into a separate fund and it's used to fund those projects. And there's specific projects that are if you look at the ordinances you'll see and and don't don't quote me but well 25 needs you know these projects are affect well 25 they contribute to well 25 correct and and because I think it's sort of related could you tell me what the name of the fund is that the developers or anybody who does it uh where that money goes into I mean this clearly then is the utility budget what fund Then does all of those go in?

So the util so the so a utility under New Jersey law is separate than an authority, right? We became an authority, we became a utility, right? It's like a sub budget in our budget, but there is a utility budget, right? Correct. And and this this is not gerine to this ordinance, but just to quickly answer the question, there is an offtrack improvement uh fund that we do collect for those kinds of projects. This this ordinance has nothing to do with it. Has nothing. This is just collecting fees for water and sorb. Okay. And and ambulance and uh construction fees. There's a whole litany of fees that this ordinance touches.

Okay. And is it broken down into those things? It's it's the MTUD, water and sewer fees, then construction fees, and then EM. So, we can we can find that. You go through this, it'll show you every section where there's a fee and what the current is and what the change is. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. clean to sit in the front.

Good evening, Council President George Gunglman, 5K Kelly Court, Monroe. I'd [clears throat] like to know um how much we're going to raise the water and sewer fees. It can be as a percentage or or however you want to respond to it. And I'd also like to know um you you gave the number for the budget for the MTUD for the year. I'd like to know what the uh last year's income was from uh water and sewer fees. Council President, can I take the second part first if that's okay? Sure.

Um I don't have the exact number in front of us, but it was a little in terms of water and sewer uh uh regular water and sewer charges, it was a little over 19 million. Uh and then there are other sources of revenue like connection fees and uh you know other other pockets of revenue that that are generated in that budget. Um and then your first question. So there's not a spec in terms of water sewer. There's not a specific percentage increase across the board. our water and sewer department did a very thorough job of going through each category of fees uh and increasing certain fees where we thought were appropriate and leaving other fees where we may have done an increase uh in the last several years. So there's not sort of an acrosstheboard, you know, percentage increase in in any of those fees. So if you look at the ordinance, you will see where we've targeted certain increases and where we've uh decided to to sort of leave as is for the moment.

Okay. But for for all of us residents, the the only two things that appear on there is the water and the sewer and then they're added together and that's your your bill for the month, right? How much are those two items? Forget all the other connection fees and those things. just those two items. How much is a a resident going how much of an increase is the resident residents looking at? So for a res tied together the sewer is a is is a function of a percent of of how much water you use.

Correct. Correct. There are there are fixed charges and then there are usage charges. Right. So the fixed charges are going up on the water side about $7 per per most users not commercial users but most residential users about $7 oh sorry $7 and then on the sewer side there's also an additional fixed service charge and that's that's increasing as well. Uh so the average uh you know user that uses about less than 25,000 gallons of water per year, I'm sorry, per quarter, uh they would go up about $17.

Okay. The the thing that confuses me a little bit here is if I remember back to last year accurately and and my memory is lame. Uh uh there were transfers from the MTUD to the township, were there not? There were surplus funds that were transferred. So if you were only collecting 19 and the budget's 23, you would I would think the money would be going in the other direction. What what what's wrong with this picture that I have in my head?

Well, it can't first. It can't go in that direction, right? So, because it's a self-liquidating utility, so if the utilities um uh operations were at 23 million, you'd have to collect $23 million. You have to collect fees to cover it. The the taxpayers can't subsidize it. So, correct. That's the first thing. And last year's budget wasn't 23 million. I think it was a little less, maybe 22 uh and change. But but L's point is is still the same. It has to be a selfquidating utility. the revenue that gets brought in has to pay for that. The 19 million was one source of revenue, the major source of revenue, but there are other sources of revenue.

Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Council President, thank you.

Any other members of the public wishing to speak on this ordinance? Seeing none, may I have a motion to close the public hearing? So move. May I have a second? Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? May I have an motion to adopt? So moved. May I have a second? Second. Clerk, roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Dapiro, yes. Councilman Vanzora, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. U moving on to item five. Clerk, can you please read item five? Resolution R52026104. Resolution providing that the 2026 municipal budget be read by title at the time of the public hearing. So moved. May I have a motion? Thank you. May I have a second? Second. Clerk, roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Dapiro, yes. Councilman Vanzora, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries. Clerk, can you read the next item, please? Public hearing on the 2026 municipal budget introduced on April 6, 2026.

May I have a motion to open? May I have a second? Second. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Vanzora, I mean, I'm sorry. Councilman Diro, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Okay. Five minutes per speaker. Please state your name and address for the record. This is that time. Now, you're up.

Bob Valentine, 60 Union Valley Road. I I haven't my comments, but just to finish and this is more just because it wasn't didn't come up in the presentation. Maybe it's something that's already being worked on, but you know, one area I didn't hear about was vendor contracting. I'm sure we buy things a lot on group purchasing contracts maybe and maybe some things we buy on our own, but just given what's going on with the health insurance and that being kind of a global issue in the state, maybe that's an opportunity to try to go back to some of our key vendors and and put some pressure on them to look at some of the contracts and renegotiate, try to help them help them partner with us to find some savings. So, I don't know what the opportunity is for that, but I felt something should at least be mentioned as part of, you know, trying to stabilize our finances for this year. And then my last comment came indirectly sort of out of the budget because there is a section there about the open space fund the trust and I would like to ask you to consider um doing a presentation one of the meetings about the overall status of the trust fund you know how much money has been collected how much money has been dispersed for open space because there's been a lot of activity over a lengthy period of years and how much is available at this point and it also give you a chance to talk about some of the great you know I know a number of great projects where you're able to secure open space but I think that's something that you know sometime in the near future I think would be a a valuable presentation people understand where their tax money is going for open space and how it's been used and and what is left to be used or what are the opportunities that you are still uh pursuing. Uh with that I will end I thank you and may the funds be with you. [laughter] Any other members of the public wishing to speak? Seeing none. May I have a motion to close?

Of course, she may. Move to close. May I have a second? Second. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Diapro, yes. Councilman Vanzora, yes. Council Vice President Markell. Council President Seagull. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. And clerk, can you please read the next resolution? Resolution R5206105. Resolution adopting the 2026 municipal budget. May I have a motion to adopt? So moved. May I have a second? Second. Clerk, roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Depiro, yes. Councilman Vanzora, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries.

Thank you. We're moving on to item six. Clerk, can you please read the resolutions for consider? Resolutions for consideration under the consent agenda are R5 2026106 through R5 202610. May I have a motion, please? So moved and second. Second. Roll call, please. Councilwoman Cohen, yes. Councilman Diro, yes. Councilman Vanzora, yes. Council Vice President Markell, yes. Council President Seagull, yes. Motion carries. And we have no resolutions removed. So we moved on to the administrator's report. Please, Mr. McGawan.

Council President, I'll be uh very brief tonight. Um she's about to walk out of the room, but I want to thank the best chief financial officer on the planet for all of her uh and her team's phenomenal work uh on the 2026 budget as well as our great counselors there in the back who we're going to let them go home now. Um and uh and really appreciate all of your help. Thank you so much. Thank you. And we'll move on to our engineers report. Mr. Feist.

Thank you, Council President. Uh with regards to the uh award of the 2026 roadway improvements, I would uh just add that the uh second and third lowest biders were in the range of $1.8 million. And just to remind you, the award tonight was $1.6 million. Uh and that's about 18 segments of uh various roads throughout the uh township. Uh with regards to links drive uh again this is a uh an NJ dot grant program uh roughly a half uh a little over half a million dollars. Uh that project uh has started. Uh concrete work is progressing as uh we speak. Uh and paving will begin shortly thereafter after pickle ball courts and the parking lot at the senior center. Uh that project is moving along. Uh the parking lot and courts will be final paved uh next week. Uh and then uh the uh the balance of the fencing should uh take place right after that and completion hopefully by the end of May. James Monroe Park concession stand and park improvements. Uh we're nearly completed out there. There isn't a third electrical panel that's on back order that we're waiting for and there's some back fill around the uh newly constructed septic system. uh we're hoping for a uh late May, early June to uh to start to wrap that up and uh we've been in touch with the uh the various leagues that utilize those facilities out there. We've kept them up to date uh with the uh anticipated uh completion. And then finally, the county has been working on Prospect Lanes Road and Apple intersection. That project started. I'm sure you've driven through there. You can see there's concrete work and sidewalk uh concrete curbs and sidewalk uh being constructed as we speak. Uh and that project uh will continue uh through the year. Uh that's all I have.

Great. Thank you. Move on to council reports. Councilman Diapro.

Thank you. I just wanted to also say that um Wednesday is teachers appreciation day also teachers appreciation week I like to call it. So I wanted to say thank you to all the teachers and maybe next next month we'll next year we can add it to the proclamations for the especially the presentation that we had today with many of our students with getting awards and for their bright bright future uh that they were here as our mayor said it's a very important meeting for us and I just wanted to say a shout out to all our teachers um I attended Greece uh Broadway uh play they had at the Mando Township High School. The drama club presented a a an incredible umh play. It was on April 19th uh 17th, 18th, 19th and it was really amazing to watch the children and that are our future and they did a great job on on play. I thought you were you were in Broadway was it was really done well. We also, some of us also attended the baseball and the softball opening day. U it's always um a good a good time when the weather's better and we did have a good weather uh that day and our mayor running around with the all the kids giving them high fives. It was a great a great day to start the baseball and the softball field as our engineer pointed out. Hopefully uh James Monroe Park will be full steam ahead shortly. Um out out front I noticed the striping. If we can notify the county on some road striping for Primeville Road, Schoolhouse Road intersection, Primeville Road, Prospect Plains intersection. Now we get a lot of foot traffic with with the kids walking.

Um it the walkways in particular, the striping is u kind of wore down. Um, I wanted to wish all the mothers and grandmothers and future mothers happy Mother's Day. Um, it should be, as my wife says, should be every day, but I'll say happy Mother's Day for uh for this Sunday coming. Um, do we have any update on JCPNL? I know we talked about getting some LED lighting in our community and hopefully. Do we have any updates on JCPNL's quotes? Uh, council president, we don't have any any JCP now quotes on the LED, but they have been making progress on the street light uh repairs. So, they were trying to kind of triage that issue, get it get it uh get it to a a more manageable point, and then we're going to move into the LED uh discussion later this year.

Thank you. It's and majority of us was at um the senior center for the Rickless uh Holocaust. that was was a it's a really a great event um to go to attend and to listen to some of the survivors and there was one particular uh um daughter came up where we we lost one of our survivors that lived in Greenbryer Saul and we did plant some trees a tree for him on Applegart school and she came up and he also had a book that uh that they were selling there his life in, you know, in that book. So, it was a really well organized event. I just wanted to thank everybody that that made that made that happen. Um, the water tower, I I asked last last month, um, the water tower on 522, the painting, could we get an update on that project?

It's weak. Council present. Uh, Councilman, yes, the uh tower is essentially complete. They finished blasting and they're beginning the uh final coat of paint on the outside. All the rehabilitations inside and outside have essentially been completed. And uh the goal right now is that we're going to fill that water tower uh within the next two weeks and put it back into service. That's going to have an American flag with two 250th on it or what's what's going to be out there? There's going to be a surprise. I'm sure you got something, Joe. What do you We'll probably have something up our Okay. What about the water tower on Applegarth Road? Do we put any bids out for that yet?

No. The uh the final bid specification for that is uh in its final stages of preparation and uh our anticipation is we're going to go out to bid in June and that project will start uh towards the latter part of October after the demand period is over after the demand for sprinklers. All right. Thank you.

You're welcome. And then yesterday I attended dive farm. They had a um blacksmith there and also some music for the uh incredible in the barn. I mean it was a little windy outside but it was really nice event for the historic commission. I want to say thank you for making that making that available the first Sunday of each month from 1 to 4. If you haven't been at the die farm, you should definitely uh make a make a an effort to get there because they work hard. They they do a great job over there and hopefully uh we can get some improvements done to the buildings this year. And that's it, Council President. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Ventura.

Thank you, Madam President. Um, I know the mayor said it at the beginning of the meeting, but um, this is always one of my favorite meetings of the year when we have the uh, human uh, relations awards with the children. Um, you know, we're in a time now where there's a lot of conflict and a lot of people don't get along and there's that side and this side and whatever. And it's more important than ever to to teach children respect for others and the ability to understand and and care for others. Uh I tell people all the time, you know, there's always going to be smarter people and people who aren't as smart, but it doesn't cost anything extra to be nice to people and and to treat them with respect. So when I see these kids coming up here year after year and they you know they they come up and you know that you know that their par it starts at home first of all with the parents teaching them and then at school and for them to do that it gives you some hope that in the future uh you know people will get along and uh hopefully it'll be a good thing for all of us. So I always like to mention that and and I think that's really important. Um, I'll just join in on the uh great job that was done on the taxes. I think I mentioned it last week, but you know, nobody wants taxes to go up. Nobody takes a pleasure in them going up. Um, but all things considered with the amount of uh, you know, increases in cost, uh, I think we did pretty good. We had a real good stretch where we had about three years in a row where we had no tax increases and maybe you could have put some money toward stuff then. But better to keep that in your pocket and then uh if it has to come up when it has to come up then you do it. But uh tough year with between the weather and the health insurance and I think next year is going to be even worse with the health insurance. Uh I was reading where uh this year alone 69,000 people have lost

their insurance because of the uh cutbacks on the ACA and next year Medicare cuts are going to kick in. It's going to be hundreds of thousands people. In New Jersey alone and when you have that it puts a strain on the entire system. So when other people don't have the insurance the insurance companies have to you know pick up the pace and and then they pass on the cost to the municipality. So, it's not just a Monroe thing, it's a state thing. And uh I give our our uh our uh administration a lot of credit for the work that they did. So, just wanted to thank you for that. And um now that spring's here, it's great to see all the all the uh rec uh activities taking place and moving forward. And uh hopefully we'll have some warm weather this week uh for maybe more than just a day or two. So, uh thank you for everything. It's all

Thank you, Councilman Panora. Councilwoman Cohen,

thank you very much. Um, I would like to add my comments to the Holocaust Remembrance Day. Uh, I had the honor of lighting a candle and which was very moving for me. But we were also enhanced by the presence of the middle school chorus. It was singing our national anthem and it added a level of grace to the to the event which was packed at the senior center. Uh so that was certainly wonderful. Uh I would sad remembrances but important for all of us to remember so that we can work on being kinder and nicer and gentler with people would be very nice. uh when the budget was of course well prepared by our staff but I'm always struck every year by the fact that in this town if you need the ambulance to take you to the hospital you're not balance build so that if you go to the am to Robert Wood Johnson or St. heaters and probably to pen med by ambulance. You don't pay anything extra. We do not balance bill. So you don't have to worry that you're getting into an ambulance for cost of $2,000 to take you to the hospital. [snorts] I have been impressed with [clears throat] this since I moved here 18 some 18 years ago and I continue to be impressed. It's a manner in which we're able to help our residents and all of us here who are also residents. So I wanted to remind everyone that it's there and to know that it is an asset for each and every one of us who live here and I thank them very much for that. Other than that, I'm hoping that everyone's right and it gets warm. I'm tired of wearing a jacket indoors and everyone outdoors and everyone should have a good

summer and a good holiday coming up. Thank you, Councilwoman Cohen. Councilman Vice Chair, excuse me. Hold on. Vice President [laughter] Markell

um one group of people that don't get much um praise is our scout leaders here in Monroe. I was at the uh Snuffy Hollow Scout Jamberee Saturday night um where a couple hundred kids were participating. It was a great honor to meet all the scout leaders and see how hard they work. So, I just wanted to give out a shout out to our scout leaders. There's a It's not the Boy Scouts anymore. It's the scouts because there's just as many young ladies in the scouts now as there are young men. It's great. It's absolutely great. Um, I just want to remind everybody that May 7th we have National Prayer Day at the senior center. It's a great It's a first time that the um Monroe Township has had an event like this. It's usually been done in individual um senior senior communities. Um, military appreciation day is May 19th at the high school. That's super important to honor our military. Not just our veterans, it's people, our veterans and people that are currently um in the military. Um I'd like to thank Lori and her team. They did an excellent job on a tough year. It was um going over the budget, especially the problems with the healthc care situation is what drove up u our our slight increase. Um the only thing else I'd like to say I'm part of the Henry Rickless committee which is in coincides with the human relations committee which I'm a leazison for uh who run the Holocaust remembrance. Um unfortunately I was out of the country this year so I didn't attend but everybody get out your calendars cuz I have the date for next year so no one has an excuse not to be there. May 2nd next year is next year Holocaust remembrance. So, we did set

the date for next year. I know it's early, but uh everybody make your plans for next year. It's a great event. It's a great event and and a well-needed event. Um that's about it. Thanks to everybody.

Thank you. Uh I have a couple updates I'd like to share. Uh first, I I know beginning of the agenda, we had many proclamations recognizing various departments that serve our community. Uh the office of the municipal clerk's office is very close to me and the rest of our council members. We thank them very often throughout the year for all the work that they do day in and day out. So I do want to thank Christine Robbins, our clerk who is truly my right hand for many things and also our deputy senior deputy clerk Tanya Ponucci and the rest of our clerk's office for all that you do for our community. You really are the central hub to where everything starts, begins and moves around. So thank you. Um, I do want to also thank Lori Ola and the finance team and all involved in the budget process. I know it's many months and it one budget season starts and the other one it just keeps going. It never stops. So, thank you for all the hard work that you all have done. And you know, as we were going through reviewing the budget process, looking at some of the information, some of the numbers that you see, like in 2025, our senior center transportation services served 16,678 individuals across all the programs. Our construction department conducted nearly 15,000 inspections and issued over 3600 permits. Our EMS responded to 11,836 service calls in 2025. So after thoroughly reviewing the budget, it's a fiscally responsible budget. It's very balanced and it meets the needs of our growing community and supports the quality of life that our residents deserve and in what what's so important to them. Um our youth advisory students have been working really hard. They've been busy. Their program is almost ending for this year. They're working on their community project and in the spirit of spirit of celebrating the 250th anniversary of America, they're joining our celebrations in Monroe. They

will be hosting a history presentation exhibit at the diearm open house on June 7th from 1 to 4 p.m. This is their culminating project which showcases the students research into Monroe's unique role in the American Revolution and beyond. So, some of the topics they'll be featuring is historic events and demographic changes, New Jersey landmarks and local street names, oral history, voices of local residents, Monroe green and environmental impact. So, please mark your calendars. It's June 7th and come support our students as they bring local history to life and we can see the history of Monroe Monroe through their eyes. And that's my update and I will now turn this over to Mayor Delina for his report. Thank you, Madame Council President. Um, couple items. Um, as was mentioned before about the uh the reckless Holocaust remembrance, uh, this particular year was a little u more poignant for for me um, in in my remarks that I that I gave um, at at the event. Um, so my wife and I went to Bavaria this past summer and we decided that we were going to visit uh concentration camp Dhaka which was started in 1938 lasted till 1945. It was the first and the the mo the longest lasting um concentration camp. It was very difficult to go. It's very difficult to go. Um and and the remarks I gave at um at the Rickless remembrance I thought were the the the the poster for the event was the the scorched earth with a with a beautiful flower growing out of the dirt. And when I was in Dow,

you know, there was there was the word beautiful popped into my head and I I thought that that's profane. I I should not be thinking something is beautiful in in such a horrible place. So we walk through the exhibit museum area and then you walk out to the central area and and I had noticed right down the center of the the camp where all the barracks were were these beautiful trees. It truly was remarkable how beautiful these trees were. And I'm like I it just didn't feel right in my head. And and I hearken back to when I was walking in the museum area. They they showed the picture 1938 when they built the camp and and it showed the barracks with these saplings. And for those trees to grow in earth that saw blood, death, horror, those trees, it it shows you that there's something good, beautiful that you need to take to ensure and and this is the essence of what the Rickless Holocaust remembrance is is to teach to remember and to ensure that that never happens again. and and you know I it just was was a striking moment to see those trees in such a horrible place and it in it just in inspired me to and I showed some pictures at the event um that um it's a terrible world that we live in um but sometimes it just takes recognition sewing a seed the germination of it to

make something beautiful in in the world. So that was that was just my take on it. So, um, uh, the mayor's wellness campaign had a, uh, had an event last month, uh, at the, um, at the high school in conjunction with, um, um, um, it's called the Black Poster Project, and it's raising awareness through the lies of loss, to addiction, and to local parents in particular. Christine Gity and Denise Anarumo um who have faced the unimaginable loss um of their child joined uh the program for not only their children but the hundreds thousands that are lost in regards to um substance abuse. Um and it was quite a moving event to attend with the speakers and the entire gym was adorned with um pictures and stories of all of those who lost their lives to addiction. Um it was in time to transform that grief into awareness and prevention and obviously a hope for the future. So it was a was a stellar event for the uh campaign. Um I attended the Monroe Township uh recent police presentation for um that was given at the senior center. Uh highly recommend for any of those uh who have were not able to attend. It was it was recorded. It is on our YouTube channel. Um, as a few people had remarked, Councilman Depro talked about softball and and baseball opening day here in Monroe Township and and so I I've started a tradition of um of going around the

diamond as all the all the um spect all the uh participants, all the players are around the uh the infield diamond. I go around, I give them all a high five. So, I run around. Um, I took some Tylenol beforehand, so didn't pull anything. Um, but in particular, uh, the softball event, uh, was, uh, was was especially nice because we had our Olympian Brianna Schnorbush there in which I presented a plaque honoring her participation in the uh, recent Winter Olympics on behalf of uh, of the town. And I, you know, invited Brianna to join me in the run with the high fives. And you know what? She kept she kept up with me. So, or or did I keep up with her? Uh, just some upcoming events of interest. Um, Mayor's Wellness, Tai Chi, Mother's Day, 10:30 Avenue K. Uh we're having a passport clinic here on May 20th from 1 to 5:00 here at our municipal building. I will be at our mayor's wellness Zumba event which is May 30th 10:30 at the community center. Couple other items. The Memorial Day services will be May 25th um as they normally are at our Avenue K Memorial Park at 9:30. Um, we will be having a Flag Day 5K and Veterans Picnic at Thompson Park on June 14th at 10 starting at 10:00 a.m. Um, and um, just want to thank everyone regarding the budget. Um, again, it is an ongoing process and and soon as we close up shop tonight, we'll we'll be jumping on it. And with that being said, finally, happy Mother's Day. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Delina. We'll move on to public comments. May I have a motion to open? Moved. May I have a second? Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Five minutes per speaker and please state your name and address for the record. This is agenda items. Correct.

Hello. Um Irene Bolinsky, 287B Taber. Thank you for having me and letting me speak tonight. I came hoping that I'm missing something. I've looked at all your past uh agenda items and I've researched and I can't find an answer to the question. So, I figured let me come and ask you in person. Um, I wanted to know, well, actually the last meeting, April 6, you did speak about your 17% increase electricity costs, which is affecting the administration and all your facilities and the actions you're taking to uh alleviate that. You didn't mention, you've never mentioned anything about cost to residents. So, resident increase is probably 20 to 30%, I know mine is 30%. Uh we you you will agree Monroe is probably the capital of of active adult communities in New Jersey, right? We have close to 15 or more than that I think now close to 20 maybe. Anyways, uh within those communities and outside of those communities, we have about 19,000 seniors over the age of 65. 40% roughly are on fixed incomes. So if you have a 20 to 30% increase in your electricity cost, this is truly a hardship, very serious hardship. And also, I found out today from a friend of mine, the BPU is going to be charging an additional $1,100 annually per household in in in the state of New Jersey. I I I I don't know if it's true or not, but I heard this today. That would be $91 additional per household per month. So in the past I know uh their previous administration um the previous mayor they had a program which was the uh community energy aggregate thing in from 2014 2019 that fizzled out I believe it

was never nothing ever happened after 2019. Uh there are uh there was a community solar program I believe but I don't really hear or see anything about it and I wondered if that is being promoted or still available to people. Uh other townships are doing something. You know, they're taking some actions. New Brunswick is banning restricting all these new data centers outside their perimeter. Uh our other Monroe Township in Glouester County, they're doing the same thing. Monmouth County is protesting plans for high voltage power lines. Some townships in New Jersey have actually joined a lawsuit against PJM. So my question to you, and again I'm hoping I'm missing something here. I really do. Is the township or the council doing or planning to do anything whatsoever to help alleviate these costs? I've been here 25 years and let me tell you, I don't recall a hardship quite this severe for the residents of this beautiful town and I love living here. That's all. Thank you.

Eddie, anything? Yeah. So, so the energy aggregation program um which is it happens annually um it will go out to bid uh the bids will come in to see if that rate that is available is lower than what somebody might be paying. Um we it was um good for a couple years and then all of a sudden the rates that were coming in on those bids were higher than what you would have paid. So we just did not participate but it's something that we do annually every year in regards to that that that aggregation program.

So the rates have been too high then the past few years have been too high that we you just you you have to pass on it. If if this comes to fruition for this year, that would be applicable then in 2027. Is that what [clears throat] that's the case? Okay. Um the solar projects, everyone in Monroe Township received a letter in the mail regarding participation if you wanted to participate in the solar program.

So, uh we've also advertised it on our Facebook and our website. So there are things that are that are that are occurring. Um uh Kevin, do you have a little more and are we meeting with the getting back to the aggregation? Do we have anything on the aggregation?

Yeah, we we like like the mayor said, we we occasionally go out to bid to see if we can beat the tariff rate and lately we haven't been able to do that. Now, your point is very well taken that we're we're approaching a territory with 20 plus% um uh increases year-over-year that we may very well get to a point where we can we can satisfy the the tariff rate and be under that. So, we'll keep you posted on that, but we are always looking into that. In addition, the same folks that help us go out for energy aggregation, and this was on a prior agenda, are doing a specific community solar program uh that they're going out to bid for that's just for Monroe residents who meet uh the low and moderate income uh uh status under the state of New Jersey. And many of our many of our residents, particularly our seniors on fixed incomes, qualify for that. In addition, we're also doing a redevelopment uh program at the former BFI uh landfill site that's going to be a community solar on 80 acres with Monroe residents getting uh priority for signing up for that solar and that's something that's been on prior agendas as well. So, we we totally understand and appreciate the the situation that everybody is in. We're trying to alleviate it as best we can and and I think these programs are are something that'll be really positive and beneficial for us. Yeah, I' I'd like to see if possible uh maybe uh better promotion of these things or may some of these things I wasn't aware of. I mean, I know you have the newsletter coming out. I see that occasionally, but emails and things like that perhaps where more people, more residents would be uh would be able to find out about this information. I I I don't see I haven't seen all of that, by the way. Yeah, I would I would encourage I would encourage council president, all residents to be signing up for our eblasts. Um, you can go on our website and sign up. If you're having trouble, call us here at the office at 5214400. We'll walk you through it. It really is

uh I mean at at at at this point we, you know, we have tens of thousands of residents on that email list and and we send out those updates on a weekly or every other week basis in addition to the newsletter because the newsletter is just three times a year, but the eblasts are really that would be helpful. Yeah, please do that. Very helpful. Thank you. Thank you.

Adrien Fine 15me Canterbury Drive. I just like to thank you for recognizing teachers as well as mothers. But there's also another very big week during the month of May and that is National Nurses Week. And I hope everybody appreciates with all the healthc care issues that are being discussed here tonight, including the insuranceances, that you appreciate the nurses that do their job. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. It's good to see you guys again. I wanted to express my appreci Oh, I'm sorry. Mark Steele, one Karen Court Monroe. I wanted to uh express my appreciation um that the business administrator, Mr. McGawan, took the time to research my request regarding the waiver of municipal fees uh for the permit to carry applications and issued a memo on the subject. However, uh with that research now available, I am respectfully asking the elected town council to place this matter on the agenda and take a formal vote, either approving or denying a waiver of the municipal portion of that permit to carry fee. The council is the elected legislative body. While the business administrator provides valuable administrative support and recommendations, the decision on waving fees that are set by municipal ordinance or resolution properly rests with you, the elected representatives of the residents. Passing the final decision back to an appointed administrator avoids the accountability that comes with a public vote. So, I therefore ask you to direct this item to be placed on a future agenda for discussion and a yes or no vote be made by the council. I also have one other thing I just wanted to mention. Uh, next week is National Police Week and Police Officer Memorial Day. Um, I just want to encourage all the residents of Monroe uh to be in prayer for our police officers. I pray for them every night. Uh, I my son is a police officer in New Jersey, so I have a vested interest. But, uh, I've met a lot of the police in this town because of that relationship. Uh I'm proud of every single one of them. Uh I respect every single one of them and I'm grateful uh for your oversight in making sure we have an ex ext exceptional and outstanding police force in Monroe Township. So thank you for your time.

Um good evening mayor and council members. My name is Abishek. I live at uh 1 1903 Georgetown Drive. With me is my neighborh Hari Krishna. He lives at uh 3403 Charleston Drive. We are residents of uh villages at Country View by the south southern end of the Spotswood Englishtown Road W 3. Uh we are here to highlight a uh simple but like critical issue for us which is that we don't have a reliable uh public transportation access for our community. So not just our community but the neighboring communities including the regency the lenar and there is a affordable housing community by our community which is Georgetown estates all of us doesn't have reliable access to a bus or a public transportation so uh over the past few years we've worked with uh NJ transit and also we worked with uh middle sex uh uh there is a transportation program which is keep middle sex moving to include to to find out some options to extend in these services but none of those efforts uh yielded any results. So we are here today uh to ask uh the township's help uh because we found there is a an option or a service which was uh recently uncovered last month. I'll let Har Krishna talk about it.

Sure. Yeah. Thank you. My name is Har. So the way this works is are you you're done speaking now and he's going to speak? Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So we need you to state your name and address for the record and then you you'll have five minutes. Uh my name is Hari Krishna Kuchi Botla resident of 3403 Charleston Drive Monroe. U so in continuation to what Abishek just mentioned uh NJ Transit launched the Microlink pilot program last month. It is a free ondemand pickup and drop off service. U this complimentary service is designed to help customers connect between their homes and the nearest designated NJ transit bus stop. It currently covers Manalapen from Route 9 all the way to the Oldbridge English Town Road connecting riders to the Union Hill Park and Ride bus stop. We are 1 to two miles beyond the beyond that boundary on the Spotswood Englishtown Road. A modest extension of this existing pilot into W 3 would close the gap entirely and bring transit access to a part of Monroe Township that currently has none. Um so what are we asking? Um we've already been in communication with the New Jersey Transit uh Microlink program officials. Uh what we now need is uh township support in formally requesting this uh extension. Uh the infrastructure is already being built. We're simply asking to be included. Um I welcome the opportunity to work with uh your office in whatever way we can to uh kind of uh get a formal um support uh to make this happen. Thank you. And if I may speak um it's just uh this doesn't this comes with no cost to the township the

So sorry let other people speak. Okay. Thank you.

Good evening everybody. My name is uh Todd Gman. I live at 16 Elmer Avenue and Monroe. Just like to uh make a brief statement to the council. Uh once again, my name is Todd Gman. I'm a proud resident of Monroe for 48 years. Just want to briefly thank the administration and council for everything that you guys do from responsible budgeting and security grant funding to investing in public safety, infrastructure, and recreation. It's clear Monroe is moving in the right direction. So, these efforts truly make a difference in everyday lives of our residents. Monroe isn't just growing, it's being led in the right deser uh being led in the right direction and it deserves recognition. So once again, thank you and that's it. [clears throat] Council President George Gungkelman, Five Kelly Court, Monroe. Um, very briefly, I don't know how many people follow school board me. It's It's probably not high on everybody's entertainment list, but if anybody has the time, they should go back and look at last month's. It was their uh the the significant event was their budget which you know was uh debated um very thoroughly at during the public portion of the um response to the budget. um the their

school board um student representatives or members of the the school board and typically they just give an update on what's happening in all the different schools but the [clears throat] the lady that was there the who's a senior at at Monroe High School spoke in the public portion and gave a really excellent presentation on, you know, the realities of what we were looking at in the budget and and the and an accurate clear interpretation of how the uh state's um budget project, school budget program works, school funding, uh and did it was just excellent and it's something we It's four minutes or less than four minutes, you know, because that's all you get. And if anybody has time, um, go to the schoolboard meeting and just zoom through to that portion until you get to her presentation. Uh it was really, you know, I excellent and coming after the presentations you started off the meeting with to all the different human relations things. It was just a great example of uh the product that comes out of our school and she was excellent and better than the rest of us. [laughter] Thank you. and and changed the minds of uh of of voters uh board members that were uh thinking about sending a message by voting no and she turned that uh with her presentation. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other members of the public wishing to speak? You can only come up one time. Great. Yeah. All right. Seeing no one else um to come up to speak, may I have a motion to close? Moved, Madam President. May I have a second? Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? May I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. May I have a second? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you. And time. We are adjourned. The time is 8:25.