Township Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the July 8th, 2025 meeting to order. 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. Moment of silence to remember the service and sacrifices of the armed service members who protect our nation and the first responders who protect our neighborhoods. Please take the role. Councilman Frelander here. Councilman Zack here. Quinn here. Councilman Brooks here. Councilwoman Non here. Councilman Salber. Councilman Vilovich. Council Vice President Brooks here. Council President Morrison here. Adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the daily record, the official newspapers for the township of Rockway. Notice was posted on the official bullet board of Rockway Township, the township website, and notice was filed in the office of the township clerk. Approval of minutes for the June 24th township council regular meeting. Can I have a motion? So move. Clerk, please take the role. Councilman Frelander, yes. Councilman Zack, yes. Councilman Quinn, yes. Councilman Brooks, yes. Counciloman, yes. Council Vice President Brooks, yes. Council President Marson, yes. Seven yeses. Motion carries. At this point, I'd like to turn the meeting over to Mayor Jackson.

Thank you, Council President. Please ignore my back. I'd like to, uh, invite Rick Scott, the plant manager for Tilcon here. So, uh, couple years ago, we started this endeavor with Councilman Boyovich to, um, honor hometown heroes, um, with flags and, uh, and, uh, um, Councilman reached out to Bill and, uh, they generously donated money for us to purchase 20 veteran flags that we now have hung at Park Lake. And um Rich is here tonight present us with a check that I think purchased another 20. Um I think I also mentioned the last council meeting that took also generously paid for our application to get the Vietnam Memorial moving wall in Rockway next year. So uh you know to you know grown to be a great partner for the township. Um you know the feedback I get from our police officers very responsive any needs on Mount Hope as they relate to anything. So, uh, I appreciate your partnership and you donate some money. Council president has some things to say to Yes. Uh, I have a note. Um, Council Motovich expresses his regrets for not being able to attend this meeting, but he did send me a note. Uh, I'd like to thank, uh, Tilcon for being a tremendous support of our community. Time and again, they have contributed to local projects ranging from generous monetary donations to hosting a community barbecue that includ included a tour of their facility. They are truly a valued partner in our community. The hometown heroes program began as a simple idea. While the mayor kindly gives me credit, me being called Councilman Wovich, uh, which I truly appreciate, it came to life thanks to the involvement of many individuals. Often, it's not just the idea itself, but the support and encouragement behind it that truly make it happen. From the mayor and members of this governing body to our administration and Captain Dacerson, it

was a collective effort that brought the program to fruition. Once again, a heartfelt thank you to Tilcon for supporting this program and for all the support they continue to give. We look forward to many more collaborations in the future. Thank you. [Applause] I heard that. Moving on to the consent agenda. R25136, R25137, R25138, R25139, R25140, and R25141. Can I have a motion? So move. Second. Cler, please take the role. Councilman Frelander, yes. Council Zack, yes. Councilman Quinn, yes. Councilman Brooks, yes. Counciloman, yes. Council Vice President Brooks, yes. Council President Morrison, yes. Seven yeses. Motion carries. Moving on to the open to the public portion. When I call your name, please step up. Say your name and address for the record. And as a reminder, there is a three minute time limit. Mr. Alardi. Thank you. Michael 19 drive. Um, next Thursday through Sunday is White Middle Festival Day. Um we should have gotten an invite. Um but you're all welcome to come with your families and those days and the parade to walk in the parade is um 11:30 Sunday and we line up 11 at Hiburnian Cal. Um I'm just mentioning again because I haven't seen it done and I don't know if it's in the plans but I'm going to mention it. the stop lines at the stop signs that I've mentioned in the past, especially old don and north Brookside, the bright of white cutting on some of the corners where these fragies and overgrowth. It's hard to see, especially

when people are making turns and people are walking. Um the business lawn signs that are all over the community, especially both ends of Fleetwood. Um I didn't get a text for this meeting. Some months, some meetings I do, some meetings I don't. So, just uh to let you know that didn't come through today. Um and the resolution that was passed for the water payments, I don't know if you can answer it or not, but I'll ask the question. It seems to be two months of a water bill from 1995. What was the company and a lot of this interest since it was 20 30 years ago? If she's prepared to answer, I'll ask Miss Pary during her report. I understand. Okay. Thank you all. Is there anybody who did not fill their name out on the sheet that wishes to speak? Okay. Uh we are going to move on to reports. Uh before we get to reports, I just want to make an announcement. Uh there was a letter that went out regarding the landlord registration with the tax bills that only pertains to homeowners who rent out their properties. It was just sent out to ensure that all of the public is aware. I know that there was a bunch of concerned phone calls. is just a public notice. We are going to start with Councilman Quinn. All right. Thank you. I have two short things. On July 15th, Rocco's cuts and more is doing the fundraiser for St. Jude's Hospital. You just have to go. If you want to get your haircut, get cut. If not, if you want to donate, he's got a big beautiful bucket there that you can put the money in. And St. Jude's has already sent him a letter thanking him for participating in this. And he is

donating $1,000 out of his own pocket into this also. So he that's a community based business that is giving back to. And then the next thing I have is I have one big beautiful thing to talk about is the new van that we got for dial rides. Two years ago, we speced that out. And I was lucky enough to get picked up to go to therapy in. And it has side doors that open and steps to go up with rails on both sides. The steps are low enough for the seniors that have problems trying to step up and even into our cars that we have. Some of them have a hard time trying to lift that leg in. This is perfect. It works perfect. I get nothing but compliments on it. I sent an email to the mayor and administration thanking them for this. And the other thing is it doesn't need a CBM. So that's even better. It will and also has wheelchair accessibility. So that way we don't have to take big buses out. We get a longer life on the big buses. And it's something that I'm going to seriously look at next year if uh we have to replace some more vehicles. I'd like to see another one that I was in fleet. Thank you. You said you were going to make a motion to have flames painted on the side of the bus. I was going to have low rider put on it. Your motion is denied. Councilman second. Thank you, council president. Um just little in Ward 4, we had a we have a playground down Willow Street that's been there for a while off of Barry and Willow over there and I spoke to the mayor and we're going to be uh the mayor is going to be cleaning that up by the

end of the months, August. So, I appreciate that. A couple of residents had reached out and looking forward to the Fourth of July weekend in Fourth of July festival in White Lake and marching the parade. Always a great time with Harwoods and all the volunteers at White. Thank you, Councilman Freder. Couple the library didn't have a meeting this month, so I'll report next month on that. Uh substance Alliance, we've had a meeting. Everything's going well with the new programming. Uh, I just want to let you know that July 25th, you check this Orange Theory in town. She owns three different different places and she's having a fundraiser for the substance abuse alliance. Um, Jack didn't mention we got some information on a tentative ordinance. Oh yeah, we can discuss. Yeah, just bring it up. That's all. It's about ebikes with what's going on with everybody buying ebikes and then driving around and we're just in the beginning stage of discussing it. We'll flush it out. Yeah. So, you'll get information on that. Uh for house, we had the first soft opening uh July 4th weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Uh went well. Uh you'll be amazed if you come down and see what work has been done in it. you know, we have an 88 bathroom and it's uh it's cleaning up really, really nice. Uh it's July 26 and 27 uh from 1 to three. Uh that will be the second one and then we'll take it take it from there. U I just want to read something too at the meeting last night. Let me get there was an award. I got it. Got it. Yeah, there was an award given to Marzo

who happens to be president of the historical society in town and it was given by NJIT and I just want to read what it's about. Uh it's a community service award is given to Eene Marzip in recognition for her support of the remediation of the Mount Pleasant mine sinkhole along 180 during the spring of 2025. Our expert historical narrative and research proved to be critical in the engineering investigation and design of the repair. We got we we had this uh function one night uh historical about all the line uh mines and rockway that scatter out toward and we have all we had all the information on exactly where they are and it was incredible that they turned it over when you know the sinkhole opened up and they knew exactly where to go and how to extend it and repair so it would be a little lot safer in that area. So in future, you know, you never know that the report that she has will help with the fixing of anything else that may arise in Rockway Township. So it it was nice surprise and welld deserved. And uh that would be it. Thank you, Councilman Brooks. Thank you, Council President. Um nothing really to report tonight except that uh tonight is the first night recreation hockey. So, we will be on the ice about a half hour. I don't have a report. I just had a question. Do we have any updates on Palmet and the environmental cleanup? I know it's June. said something about

Thank you. vice president. Um I just have a few things. Uh tomorrow evening at 4:30 there is a board of education retreat um that will be held at central office and if anyone is interested that's generally where they talk about their goals, their missions, all of that stuff. Also there's another board meeting on the 17th of July at 7:30 a standard board meeting. Um you can go on the website and see the agenda. There's a lot of reorg getting prepared for the incoming school year. Um, just a lot of people are talking about their taxes. The school district is a large portion of your taxes. If you attend these meetings, you'll be able to see kind of what they're doing, what their needs are, all of that stuff. They're applying for a lot of dual use space in their buildings. So, you know, they should be able to give you an explanation on why. Um, also I just have two questions. If I could have an update on Telmark Park. I know we hit a little bit of a roadblock at one point. Um, and then also, um, I sent over a question about how traffic questions in terms of Route 46, and I was just wondering who those go to. Uh, a few residents had reached out and asked me. That's all I had. Couple things. One, um, I know council, uh, Councilman Freedellander brought up the ebikes, so I do want to commend that. I know uh council vice president has been spearheading that. Um we have the workings of a uh of an ordinance coming up and I believe that has been if it has not it will be sent to the ordinance committee very soon. It was just right. Okay. Yep. I just I know it's been something near and dear to uh Miss Brooks's heart. So I just want to thank her for that. Um couple things. One chief and I'm sorry I had an email. I just found it still sitting in my outbox. I was going to ask

if we have and if we don't we consider putting up somewhere an area for online marketplace exchanges. A couple people I you know been you know have been actually asking can they come here and do it you know because they would feel safer and I think some other towns have like a designated parking spot uh near the police department. Um don't need an answer right now just something if we could if we don't have one if we can consider doing something like that. Somebody reached out to me also discussing we're discussing the Okay. I just thought it was a good very inexpensive thing to do. Um while we're talking about the police, I just want to give a quick commendation. Um I had the need recently uh I had some very good interactions uh with the dispatcher that we had and officer McCaffrey. Um, he was a little confused when he said McAffrey liked the football player and I said Ed McCaffrey and he didn't know who that was. He was talking about Christian McCaffrey. I said Ed was before he was born. Um, and then the last thing I just want to say is again, it's still hot. There's a lot of storms out there, you know, a lot of high wind, a lot of rain. Don't forget your neighbors. Just check in on your neighbors. Um, and make sure that everybody's doing okay. That's all I have. Miss you. Thank you, Council President. Uh, two things. First, just briefly on the ebike ordinance. Uh, my partner Carl Peron took the lead on that and he canvased all of the existing ebike ordinances in New Jersey. And the intent was to put together a very comprehensive ordinance that is more expensive than almost any of the other ordinances that exist. So, the reason we

submitted it to the committee early was because um there's a lot in it and one of the things that that is in it is an insurance requirement and no other ordinance that we found contains an insurance requirement. Uh I'm going to be speaking with u whatever we call DM this week uh and a couple of other people down in train. We're going to come to the ordinance committee to make further recommendations on the insurance requirement. But lest we forget it, we wanted to give it this way to the council. It's a work in progress and we urge the council's consideration of the whole package for now through the ordinance committee. Uh the only other thing I want to address is I was in court yesterday before Mowitz on a lawsuit filed by a local resident who was a candidate for the Republican County Committee uh Rockway Township version of that committee uh in Ward 4 district three uh as a writing candidate. Uh when the election results of any election are processed uh the point person and the for that matter the end result person is our clerk Adele Watley. Uh and what the county clerk does uh which isn't much is they provide our clerk with um a template on which to record uh and confirm election results. And these confirm these include machine election results which the clerk takes initially and they include mail and ballots uh and that kind of

stuff. Um the county or excuse me, our clerk, in addition to reporting all these alleged results to the county by the 23rd of June, um has to run the court's office. And if anybody wants to come close to losing their mind, I suggest that they just hang out in the clerk's office for a day and see what our clerk and our deputy clerk do. Um the amount of phone calls they take, the amount of open requests they process, license requests, um one last week. Uh they were going absolutely out of their minds with I'm happy to report these successful landlord registrations that were coming in following the uh notice campaign that we conducted and I thank the administration and the council for joining forces in that regard. That's very important and the sheets provided downloaded from the county interestingly for this particular ward in district did not contain a key that would have triggered in the second processing by our clerk uh that a writing candidate had been elected. So when the results were reported uh on the 23rd uh our clerk uh did not report anything for W for district three because that would have been the checklist that you used. In any event, the local resident who was successfully elected with either five or six writing votes, I forget the exact number, but was either five or six uh contacted Adele and she immediately became aware of the processing error. Um provided the client with excuse me, the candidate with the certification

and then turned around and filed the certification with the county clerk even though the county clerk told her they would not accept it uh less than 24 hours late. Uh so the local resident uh filed a lawsuit against our clerk uh the Rockway Township Republican Committee, the Morris County Republican Committee and the Morris County Clerk. This action was heard yesterday uh before Judge Minkowitz uh unfortunately at you know not insificant to the township. Uh and the judge's opinion has not been announced. Uh he promised that would be announced by the end of this week, but I'm as confident as I can be that any implication that our clerk wadly did anything wrong uh is not going to really be part of the court's decision. Uh sometimes I'm amazed personally at the lack of assistance that our clerk uh gets from the county uh in terms of election advice. Uh your usual election advice is call your township attorney who's probably the worst person to call because we don't want elections. Uh but you know uh Adele once again did everything she can and could do. uh basically ignoring the instructions of the county clerk uh not to file the form because it was almost 24 hours late and uh in his preliminary decision uh the court ordered the county first to accept it. So I think um in addition to

processing election results which she never had processing processed before because this primary cycle was the first election that Adele had to handle in her tenure with Broadway tit. Uh the court pretty much said she did the right thing and once again I thank her for attention to detail and doing the job she's supposed to do. Mr. Mayor. Yeah. Uh first, yeah. Um I was made aware of Eileen board um earlier today. I think it's awesome. I wish I would have known. Um I did. So when we first became aware of the sinkhole, that first meeting we had with the NJ do I connected them um with Eileen because I you know we we having gone to that seminar she did or meeting she did on the minds on life. If you want to know where the mines are in Rockway, you got to meet Eileen. So, I'm pretty sure they connected with her quickly, so that's awesome and welld deserved. Um, she did save us a bunch of time in the repair. So, it was great. I'd like to recognize um Rich Hansen and his business, Headstone and Monument Cleaning. Uh Rich is a lifelong resident of the township. Um he is a US National Park Service approved um cleaner of um headstones, cemetery regular headstones. Um he does phenomenal work. Um he also does pressure washing, things of that nature. We'll post some information on our website about Rich and how you can get in touch and use. Um so we got a junior police academy going on right now. It's really exciting. First year we've done it. Um uh you know, Chief really came up with the idea and ran with it and uh we'll elaborate a little more what's going on with that.

Um earlier or late last month went for the Shabbat centers um Shabbad Cent's uh annual gala um Rabbi Hersan, Rabbi B, they did a great job running it. The honores, one of them was actually um the property manager um over at Pond View, Robert Lewit. So very welld deserved. Had a couple of marriages in the past couple of weeks. got to throw the first pitch at au girls softball tournament Rampage Red over at DBL was very cool. Great group of girls. Um it was their last tournament of the season. uh participated in the Green Pond Parade for Fourth of July. And I think one of the things they do there that um kind of stands out to me is um at the end of the ceremonies uh first of all they they recognize the past chiefs and gave a lifetime achievement award to Ry Rosler Senior um for all he's done for the community. But then they go around give the microphone um to every veteran or active military person. They announce their name and the years they served and all those things. And it's kind of special on the 4th of July to to see something like that and then went back there on Sunday for the um Fourth of July uh fire department pancake breakfast. We did not stay for uh fest at the fire department hot dog eating contest. We passed on that but uh the pancake breakfast was outstanding and they do a great job and um you know they really this past fall helped us out a lot um shared service wise when we had the wildfires and our you know teams from Marcella and and Hyurnie and all the other areas up there were out there working. They recovering. So, um they also had a brush truck that we used. So, really appreciate all the things that fire department has done with us uh for us. And that's my report. Miss Palmer.

Yes. In regards to um resolution 25141, the refund of the water overpayment, I do see there is an actual typo in the title of that resolution. It is actually a refund for the months of February and March of 2025, not 19. Um can I just pause you for a second? Do we need to amend that? So I did speak to the attorney and it is not sub substantive change because the body of the resolution has the correct Okay. And can you just make that correction now? Okay. The interest portion of that refund is actually $1,400. Um the result it this was a result of a um software incompatibility with um the meter reader and our building software. It's since been corrected and refund um is a total of 163 and change. Um the business that the refund is going to it's payable to the blending hospitality, but it's also known as just for the record, this is not costing us anything. It's just an overpayment. Thank you for bringing that up. No problem. Yeah, they had a leaky toilet for council president. Um I recalled our conversation with that reach out to them early June and they responded on June 6 that they were having an upcoming meeting with EPA and D on site. They're still in the peritting phases. Um they're doing a well reception and they will look to have a public meeting which they'll coordinate with us later this year. So look to come back to us to status and

that's how we are the top coat the asphalt coat to off gas and oils to come out before we painted it and hopefully we'll get back on schedule hopefully two weeks I'll do the rest of my time Thank you, Council President. And I assure you this is not like um just wanted to uh remind the public and mention a few things about some upcoming programs. Uh the township is doing a food drive. Some may have noticed the box accepting donations in the lobby. Uh so for neighbors in need, we are seeking gift cards, non-p perishable foods, bottled water, toiletries, etc. This will go on through July 30th. Hopefully the donations will pick up on behalf of those who need assistance. Um we're doing a pilot program, a senior exercise program on Tai Chi. I'm pretty sure I can say is an unmiticated success. Uh we had registration of 31 participants already. So it's completely filled and we'll surely do it a second time. Um so exercise with seniors is important and we collaborate with the division of recreation as well on these things. Um, there's still time for adults to uh register for the adult mental health first aid training, which is a virtual training. I mentioned at the last meeting, 9:30 to 4 p.m. 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 17th. Uh, this is part of the mayor's wellness campaign. Again, several of the programs we're doing are consistent with the goals of the statewide mayor's wellness campaign. And it's nice to see Rockway has been recognized a couple times already for for the efforts in that campaign. There is an understanding Medicare program that obviously is geared toward our township seniors happening 6 pm on August 7th at the senior center. So seniors are invited to attend and learn more about their Medicare benefits. Uh we're doing a blood drive in September,

so a little off in the distance, but September 20th, uh we typically get a lot of people that come to donate blood and we're appreciative of that. Um and in October we are thinking we're starting to plan actually a fall fest a bit of a wellness festival and health festival on October 17th. Uh just want to remind residents also that we have ongoing clinics child health conferences we call them to provide vaccinations and physical exams uh to babies and young children uh that are in need. We do monthly blood pressure checks for any residents who want to come by and meet with our nurses Moren and Bridget. Uh and we're soon going to be certifying one of our nurses to doenior programs which attempts to do routing. We're going to bring that back. That's all I have. Chief, thank you, Council President. Good evening. Monthly report for the police department for all motor officers and their hard work for the month of June. 3,35 calls for service incidents or activity. 92 motor vehicle crashes, 333 motor vehicle encounters, eight domestic violence incidents, 224 fire 911 calls responses, 15 adult arrests, 77 alarm responses, 12 community policing events, 1847 residential, commercial, school property checks, 19 assisting other agencies, and 132 motor vehicle tickets. Uh today was day two of our first ever Junior Police Academy. Uh it's been exciting. We've had a lot of fun bringing that uh forward. The officers and and the kids. I'm not sure who's having more fun. Uh but so for day one, which was Monday, we had the Mars County Sheriff's Office. They were uh tight enough to come up with their CSU

unit, the K9 demonstration, and bomb squad. We also went over some uh CPR and choking prevention. Uh today we went over Denville Police Department. I'd like to do a shout out to them. They were gracious enough to invite us over because they had the New Jersey State Police helicopter landing. They also had a fire department and rescue squad there that went through different things with the kids. They also got a nice uh sprinkling from the hose. They enjoyed that. this afternoon and we had they all were able to operate through their OEM department. They have a drone and uh so all the kids got to operate a drone today. So again, day two, very exciting. The kids were all excited and we had a great time. I would like to also for the second time, this will be our second uh national night out on August 5th from 6:00 p.m. to 900 p.m. We look forward to meeting everybody again this year. Thank you, Mr. Yeah, the water department is currently conducting for second well at our doctor facility uh where our well is for a backup system. Uh parks department is doing landscaping, cutting, lighting, doing what they're they're usually doing. Uh recycling, we've been working through some breakdowns, so bear with us. We are getting to do everyone's uh curbside recycling and department is uh going to be doing capital second round of capital paving on or about July 28th. So that's uh clubhouse way Richard Street senica from around us to the intersection of Stonybrook and Dakota and a portion of Meridan Road from Old Beach Glenn to the

uh former truck entrance exit of Packer facility. Mr. Good evening. Just want to add more park. Um the next step is to strike it. I'm working with our hockey program take out make it look as nice as possible for hockey and and basketball. Um once once that's done, we can put the hoops up. It's a lot easier to line the hoops up once the lines are there. Um, and like I said last time, we did order the playground set. So hopefully in a few weeks that we'll have that um to install and then the landscaping. But yeah, once those stripes go on. One thing I want to add for Shannon is the pond through fish and wildlife fishing that's been postponed to next. It's on our Facebook page, but it's supposed to be this Thursday. That's it. Okay. Uh, our next meeting uh is going to be August 12th. As a reminder, the July 22nd meeting was cancelled. Motion to journ by consensus. All in favor? Nine. Be a good job.