Township Council - Regular Meeting

Pretty good. I'd like to call the October 14th, 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.

Clerk, please take the role. Councilman Freander, I'm here. Councilman Sack, I'm here too. Councilman Quinn, that makes three of us here. We complete that. Councilman Brooks, Councilwoman New here, Councilman Salberg here, Councilman Boyich here, Council Vice President Brooks here, Council President Marson

here. Adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the daily record, the official newspapers for the township of Rockaway. Notice was posted on the official bullet board of Broadway Township, the township website and notice was filed in the office of the township clerk. [Music] Approval of the minutes September 25th township council regular meeting. Can I have a motion? So move. I'll second. Clerk, please take the role. Council Freander, yes. Council, yes. Council Quinn, yes. Councilwoman Date, yes. Councilman Boyovich, yes. Council Vice President Brooks, yes. Council President Marson,

yes. Seven yeses, one abstension. Motion passes. Uh, at this point, I'm going to turn the meeting over to Mayor Jackson, who has some presentations. Thank you, Council President. So, um, couple of great things going on, things going on our town that are really positive for the township. So, first I'd like to call up members of Unico and Bum from the uh Care Center New Jersey. So, for those you don't know, um right in Rockway Township, we have the Care Center New Jersey, which is a place for people to come. Did everybody come up? Come on.

People uh come and get food, people in need. They also deliver food across the state. Um the food what they call food deserts around the around the state. And so, this uh last weekend Broadway Township UNICO uh did a food drive at ShopRight uh collected over 130 bags of food for Care Center and Food for Hope and also raised a little over $1,200. Um and they'd like to make a donation for the Care Center.

All right. [Applause] So, um, the other thing, right, as the town, uh, continues to prosper and, we're bringing new businesses in town. Um, I'd like to call up Nam and his wife Schula, who just opened Mnasium. Um, for those who don't know, it's by the not by DW by um, Nordstrom Rack. Um, in that mall, that just opened this past weekend. Um, great business. Um, they provide tutoring services for children in need of help K through uh 12. They also help with ACP and SAP prep. Um, and I think the coolest thing is they have kids like high school and college age kids actually be the tutor for these kids. And so I think you're still hiring always

like two hours. Yeah. So I don't know if there's anything else you want to say about No, I think you you say perfectly what we do like K through 12 prep and then we are working with a lot of local schools uh lot of community kids come there and we work directly with the teachers so that uh what challenges they have with math. We are just the math learning center and yes as Joe mentioned like we uh give employment to the local kids who are high schools, junior, senior and even the county college students. So welcome to Rockway Township. Thank you.

Thank you President. Okay, moving on. Ordinances for introduction 02515, an ordinance supplementing chapter 4, police regulations to add article 13 to define, to identify and to provide requirements for and limitations on the use of electric personal transportation devices. Can I have a motion? So moved. Second. Clerk, please take the role. Councilman Frelander, yes. Councilman Sak, yes. Councilman Quinn, of course. Yes. Council, yes. Councilman, yes. Council, yes. Council Vice President Brooks, yes. Council President Marson,

yes. It's eight yeses. Motion passes. Ordinances for adoption 02513, an ordinance amending chapter 5, general licensing, article 5-5, peddlers, canvasers, solicitors, and mobile food vendors. Specifically, section 5-5.1, definitions of the revised general ordinances of the township of Rockway. Is there any council discussion on this ordinance? Does anybody from the public wish to speak on this ordinance only? Clerk, please take the role. Council, yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Council, yes. Yes. Council. Yes. Council Vice President Brooks. Yes. Council President Larson. Yes. Can you I did not make a motion. Okay. You're welcome. Thank you, Council Vice President. Okay. Can I have a motion for ordinance 02513? Some move. Second. Please retake the role. Councilman Frelander. Yes. Councilman. Yes. Councilman, of course. Yes. Counciloman. Yes. Councilman Salbert. Yes. Council, yes. Council Vice President Brooks, yes.

Council President Marson, yes. It's a yes. His motion passes. Clerk, in the future, feel free to throw something down. Feel free. Uh consent agenda R25182 through and including R251 1888. Can I have a motion? So move. Second. Clerk, please take the role. Councilman Freer, yes. For the third time. Councilman Sack, yes. Councilman Quinn, yes. Councilwoman Doom, yes. Councilman Sal, yes. Councilman, yes. Council Vice President Brooks, yes. Council President Marson,

yes. It's a yes. His motion passes. Mr. Tabet. In the future, no more sugar for Mr. Quinn or Mr. Freedellander before the meeting. I stayed away. Thank you. I was wondering what's going on. All right. Um, we're going to move on to the open to the public portion of uh the meeting. Nobody filled out the sheet. Is there anybody from the public that wishes to speak today? Okay. Uh, at this point, I am going to hand the meeting over to Miss Paul Mary uh to review uh our best practices.

Thank you. So, I'm required to report to you annually on our best practice questionnaire inventory that the state division of local government services puts out every year. It's been going on since 2010. Um this year there were um 44 um possible points that we could score. We received a score of 39 and a half which is about 90%. Which means we are entitled to our full state aid a lotment. There were um 16 topics that this questioner covered. Ethics, personnel, budget, financial administration, capital projects, transparency, procurement, insurance, emergency services, land mediation, shared services, opportunity development, technology redevelopment, utilities, and the environment. Um, again, we received um a score of 90% which entitles us to our full state a lotment. This uh questionnaire will be filed with the division of local government services tomorrow. I will also have it up on our website if anyone wants to.

Thank you. All right, we are going to move on to reports starting with Councilman Clint.

Thank you. All right. All right. So, the fire inspection is this Saturday. I'll be attending. Um, also the planning board will be on Monday the 20th. So, I won't be there for the meeting, but I'll have my packet to go through it. And I'm missing my grandson's JV football game. It's at Peterson right now. So, we're here, but hopefully they win. But other than that, everything in the second ward is moving along. Thank you. Councilman second.

Thank you, Council President. A few things since the last meeting. Um, we had the, uh, I was able to attend the Rockway Township PBA fundraiser at the barn on the 26. Very well attended. Um, we had the tour of the new water building on October 3rd and uh, you were there. Yep. And looking forward to looking forward to finish that in about six weeks. So, it's it's a it's actually a lot bigger than the inside. It looks from the outside. There's so many different rooms in there and so many different things. So looking forward to for that to open.

Um like the mayor had said, we had the ribbon cutting for mathnasium and wishing the the left of the MA family the best of luck with their new endeavor. Um on the 5th we had the white metal lake fall festival and a lot of kids rides and just a nice day seeing the kids run around and nice free event that I attended. Um, tonight after services, if you have I mean, excuse me, after our meeting, we're having some tour service at the Kabad in Rockaway. So, after this, if you want to come dance and carry some tours around, head down to Kabad right after this. And like Councilman Quinn mentioned, the fire department inspections coming up this weekend. The following weekend, we have the fall clean as well, 9:00 a.m. And also that night is the tour spectacular 5:38. Thank you so much. Councilman Sberg.

Thank you. Uh, a few items tonight. Uh, first, the county commissioners report, uh, resolution 2025-830, uh, $13,760 grant from the open space, recreation, farmland, and historic preservation trust has been awarded to Library. So, that's fantastic. Um, the open space trust fund uh report tomorrow evening, we'll have our final presentations um from our applicants. Uh, will allow us to start deliberating and who we'll be awarding funds to and that's when we'll be able to make public who the applicants were. Um, another item, Rockway Township's own hypertrophic cardiammyopathy association, the HCMA. Uh, this Sunday, October 19th, we'll be having a 5K at Field in Marstown, which is 45 Woodland. Anybody like to participate or um volunteer, you can go to forhm.org and you can find information on that about that. as well as our uh patient summit that we'll be having this week. Uh one final item uh this for Chief Sher uh just a question. Um I see that the Rockway River Barn has been uh sponsoring uh some car shows lately, car and truck events, which I think is great. It's bringing out a lot of folks, but the next morning um on Green Pond Road, we're seeing a lot of um burnt rubber um squealing, you know, basically you could see it was all over the place going over the double yellow lines, over the over the dotted lines, which seems like it was safe situation going on again several evenings and I just want some assurance that we can have a police presence there to make sure that everyone's being safe not endangering people or property.

Sure, I'll address that. So, we're we're very aware of that. Okay. Um and we've already addressed it. Excellent. We've met with the owner um and gone through that and uh we're going through different um avenues with him around some of the special events he's doing. So, that's very Yep. That's all I have. Council member.

Yeah, I would like to mention to the uh the tour I participated in the uh tour of the water building white metal lake just like um Councilman Sacket stated, but I I want to commend the the guys that are involved with the project, the Al the DPW director, and Brian the uh water superintendent. These guys, you know, it seems like they're excited. Everybody's excited about the project. It's going to help them out logistically with responding to calls for service to the residents. Uh but also how uh conscientious they are about spending. I mean every every move they made you could see they were you know making those moves to ensure that the tax taxpayer dollars are spread the right way. And you know, a lot of times, uh, working with other people in other cities, you know, they think that since it's taxpayers money, it's unlimited funding and they'll just go way over budget all the times. And I think these guys do a great job. You know, every room they pointed at, they they utilized it in a way where it could have multi-purposes, which is I love to see that. I mean, I'm glad people called me cheap. I don't I don't know. I'm glad they're doing that as well. So, that's all I have. Councilman Fre. Okay. Couple reports. The historical society met and we were part of the pathways tour which I told everybody and it was a real success. You couldn't believe how many people from out of town visited Fort B House and helped put a little money into the uh fund uh substance abuse uh Alliance. Uh we're talking about uh a bingo fundraiser again in the fall, another month or so. Uh it was a big success last year and not people

were complaining that they wanted to play longer and more games. So we're going to add a couple more to the agenda. Uh library board uh we're going uh they're meeting this subcommittee is meeting the architect about the bathrooms that we set up for renovation. Uh that's as far as meetings. Uh like uh Councilman Sacka said, uh we're pretty busy this last couple weeks. We visited the DPW building and had the tour of it and before it was built. I told them a lot of lot of people were worried and concerned because of a building there around the houses and I told them don't worry about it. Everything's going to be fine. We've needed this for the longest time to break it down that we have facility in this part of town. And uh all I got was compliments afterwards once the building's up. It doesn't even look like a DPW building,

right?

I mean, that's that's how beautiful it is, you know, outside. Plus, once you put the landscaping around it, I mean, you may have visitors there every day, but uh that was great. Uh welcome. Like I said, we went to the ribbon cutting ceremony and it's nice to see a business come to town that is a fast food or anything else that it's educational, well needed for our our children of our town. Uh was at the PBA always supporting the police to to to keep our town safe. Uh again, we're going to have a fall festival and say, did I miss anything else? I don't think so. Oh yes, one more important thing for the town council. Mark it down. Everybody knows Monday, October 20th at the clubhouse as it came tonight's night at 8:00. I was asked since Pat couldn't make it that I should mention it to everybody. And that's what I'll finish with.

Councilwoman New. Aside from what everybody else mentioned um about the fireman's inspection on Saturday in Dark's Lake down um I just needed an update on the male prospect signs and uh strike please. Thank you.

Council vice president. Um I had um I attended a Rotary fundraiser on Friday and it was they were discussing what they do and they were sharing that they have they're donating a few AEDs to different parts of town in the township in the burrow and I learned that one is apparently going into on into the Telmark Park property. So a that parlays into my next question. I see it's open. Kids are using the courts. It's awesome. Um they are on the old playground. So I was wondering what the status of the remaining project is. Um as well as any updates on a resident had said about some landscaping I guess that was donated and unfortunately had to be removed due to the project. And that's it.

Mr. Close session. I have no report. Mr. Mayor. Um, thank you, Council President. First, uh, I'd like to, uh, recognize it's breast cancer awareness month. Um, my mother-in-law is a breast cancer survivor, so it's important to me and my family. I know there's a lot of fundraisers and things you can go to um, within the town to uh, help raise money for breast cancer awareness. So, I want to make sure I start with that. Um, we got a welcome card from the uh brownies that were here at the last meeting. They were very thankful for the tour. Um, their favorite part of the tour was the holding cell down in the police department. That that was the favorite part of the tour. It was nothing I showed them. Um, so uh and I'll talk about my report, but last week we delivered meals to all the firehouses. Kind of becoming an annual tradition. Um the we got the meals this year um from Brick 46 and I believe they like them. So we got a thank you note from Hibernia Fire Company. Um so I'd like to share um regarding something we're doing um with the Morris Nolles uh high school what they call their transition program. um welcoming students from this program to municipal building to gain valuable work experience and I think Adele you're heading this up is that correct? Yep. So the collaboration is a win-win for our community. Students get hands-on exposure to various job tasks um including shredding data entry filing court setup and scanning. The practical experience is crucial for their personal and professional development helping them build skills and confidence for their future careers. for the township. This partnership provides an opportunity to support educational and vocational

young adults in our area. Um, it also allows our staff members to mentor these students and gain a new perspective and our in our operations. We are proud to be part of the program and helps you transition transition into the workforce and become more active members of the community. Um, so we look forward to a successful rewarding partnership. So, thank you Adele for spiriting that. You left one thing off. free labor too. So, not a fan of that. Um, and then just some other things I like to go over. So, uh, as uh, council members um, Sacket and Freelander said, the PBA did a fundraiser and I think Sean and DJ and Greg did a great job. Um, they had some really cool prizes. Um, the meal is great. They had at the barn. Um, they did a great job with the food and everything else. We got a marriage since the last meeting. Um I was able to meet um uh with a student from Morris Hills um for one of his classes to talk about opportunities um for parks and recreation improvement in in the township and the burrow. So had a very good conversation with him. Uh went to Morris Hills band competition in Hanover Park where they took first place. Um it was very exciting. They did a great job. Um and I believe in their last competition they they took first place in several categories. So, um I believe there's a Morris Hills and Morris Nolles uh competition where they're both going to be playing. So, I'll try and get to that. Um there was a blood drive um at White Metal Lake that we attended. Eileen Horowitz and Michael ran it. They're also running a shredding event. I commend both of them for all the work um they do for the White Metal Lake community and the time they give up to support that community. Uh we had a uh 30-year Captain Riley 30 years. Is that right, Chief?

Yes. Captain Riley, 30-year veteran. Um, uh, we did a clap out for him a couple of weeks ago. I think that's going to be more and more of a rarity to have officers for that long. So, it was a a really good accomplishment and it's, uh, you know, there's only one Riley in the police department now for the first time in about 20 years, I feel like. So, um, they they've all served proudly to our community, and we're thankful for for all they've done. Um, talked about mathnasium, talked about the food drive for, uh, Food for Hope in the Car New Jersey. I'd like to thank Shopite for allowing Unico to to be out front and collect the food and for all the volunteers in Unico that uh took time on their Saturday to do that. Um Manny mentions a historic society and pathways. We actually uh went to last meeting um where they did a presentation on the history of Rockaway. Um it was very cool um and learned a lot about the history of Rockway. There's so many people in those meetings that know so much about Rockway. a little scary how much they know. And um also renewed our membership, our family membership. I don't know. I know Manny, we used to have all the council members had a membership,

right? Can only get

I know. I know. So, I just wanted to mention that. So, um but you know, I I would ask you all to consider that and consider coming to one of the meetings. It's some incredible information. Um, and this past weekend, uh, uh, the Columbus State parade committee, we went to, uh, a dinner, uh, that they host in, I think the manor in handover, uh, where they did honored man of the year, Tom Trapazo, who's the fire director in Rockway Burough. So, it was a very, very nice event, very well attended. Um, and happy Thanks Plus day, happy Columbus Day to everybody was yesterday. I hope every they uh got they enjoyed. I know some parades were cancelled, so that was a bummer. Um and lastly, I'll I'll finish with this. Um a little over two years ago, there was a tragedy in the world. And uh in the past couple of days, all those hostages went back to their families. And uh it's a real accomplishment for our government and brokering that deal and reuniting families on both sides um and people that they loved. And uh it seemed like for a long was never going to happen and the fact that it has happened uh you know gives gives me hope for what can happen you know in the Middle East in our country um and so I'm just thankful for that and wanted to mention that that's all I have

yes um today I had our 2026 budget packets um prepared and sent to our vision department heads they're due back to me um by closing business on We're right on track with where we fit in the past with our budget. Um, we'll have hearings with the department in November. Once all that is reviewed and completed, I'll upload the budget and have to present it to council review and hopefully have um I believe we have a meeting scheduled that first or second Saturday, but we are right on track with the past. Can't believe we're talking about budget already.

Miss Front.

Yes. Um, good news on Stro Lane. The traffic report and concurred with their findings data incences standard existing conditions will support those traffic controls out there to mitate the volume controls. Um we received approval from administration to go forward with an ordinance those traffic controls. So in the near future an ordinance for the two for

Is that going to be one way off of Mount Hope or not? Correct. Okay.

Um I guess they're bringing that up. We do need the county Council member's comments on the building was designed efficiently and shout out to our assistant engineer who is overseeing the construction that change orders are minimized. Everything that I spend on that building is put into that building as designed. Field changes do happen.

Mr. Thank you, Council President. Just a couple of items. Uh the council and members of Northern will remember in May we had a gypsy mall suppression program that the division collaborated with. Uh State Department of Agriculture uh required several months of planning and about $33,000 budget if I remember correctly or thereabouts. Um and uh we're happy to report that we requested an egg mass survey to be done in October and there's no significant egg masses. So there's no anticipated treatment required this year nor budgeting for same. Um just wanted to also mention a few of our upcoming events again. We have our last clinic in town. We can probably arrange individual flu shots at request of residents as long as there's vaccine supply, but we have our last clinic October 23rd in this room from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Residents can call the Division of Health and register with us. Uh we also, as Councilman Sak mentioned, we have our fall cleanup day scheduled for the following Saturday, October 25th, from 9 to 11 a.m. Uh residents can clean up at Pond at Lake location of their choice. They just have to call our chief registered environmental health specialist Carol Salana Wber at Division of Health to register their group or to express interest. And we do have our first of two radius clinics coming up on Saturday, November 1st at the road garage from 9:00 a.m. to 12 p.m. That's usually the best attended one. Shout out to Al and his people for making the garage available to us as they do twice a year every year. That's all.

Chief Thank you, Council President. The department monthly report for September, 3,320 calls for service incidents or activity, 61 motor vehicle crashes, 305 motor vehicle encounters, six domestic violence incidents, 289 fire, medical or 911 responses, 11 adult arrests, 111 alarm responses, nine community policing events, 1931 residential, commercial, or school property checks, assisting other agencies and 94 motor vehicle tickets were issued. Also, we have a good report. We will be on the 21st of this month county. We have four of our officers attending and they will be graduating on the 21st. So, we look forward to that. Also for the department, the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police has an accreditation program which is really bringing the standard of the activity within a police department to excellence. So they have many many things that get audited during that process. I would like to mention again being that Captain Riley had retired. That was one of his projects to make sure that we did the best that we could in reference to accreditation. So before he had retired, which he had retired on 101 of this month, and we had our final hearing for for that status with the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police. And during that hearing, we received our

full accreditation in excellence in law enforcement, which helps us through not only our leadership team in the department, but hardworking officers like Officer Miller and all the other officers in the police department. And so I'd like to uh thank them for all their hard work and receiving that accreditation status. Thank you. Before you understood the chief, did you say 300 calls of service. Correct. So, think about that, right? 100 a day,

right? That's incredible. Like, that's why we have the police officers we have and the great work they do. The community is so thankful for that. So, I just want to point that out to put in perspective. When you put in that idea, 100 calls a day they're going on, that's pretty incredible. So, thanks, Chief. Mr. Mr. Dyer.

Um, a couple things. park. Um I spoke to our parks department today and I know replacing the landscaping um that was there what was taken out replaced with uh new fresh landscaping. Hopefully the playground set will be here in a few weeks. Our guys are going to take it down and the vendor we purchased from will be installing it. So I'm hoping to get a call shortly for that. And again, I think I can confirm that he's going to put in his capital for next year to pave the area there by the monument. Um, also we're expanding some of our senior services. We're be doing a quarterly uh breakfast um at local breakfast nooks around town. Um expanding it to all seniors. Um Shen's working with that regards to uh getting that out to all of our seniors. Um just a a social event um will help with for those who can't or homebound. Um and then lastly um Circle Drive thank the chief and his staff that we do not have approved flyer on the direction of all those roads change to one way. Um I reached out to the board that they're going to push it out to all the schools. Um we're going to put mailboxes in the drive area and we'll put it on our social media by everybody will know what's going on. So that's it.

Yeah, I'd just like to announce that the road recycling division work recycling center last week. It is one of many upgrades we're be doing to the area uh within the next year or two. Uh water department we had an issue at a water main break. I just want to make the announcement when you when the public fills out uh a service request email or leaves a message. very important to leave your address so we know where the issue is and it helps us when we're diagnosing on pinpointing the area of concern. Uh and lastly, parks division is uh doing what they do cutting line in the field. They're knocking out the park every day.

Okay. Uh before we close, we're not closing. Thank you. Um Thank you for answering my question on stupling, but is there an update on the signs for Mount Prospect that were on back order and never came in last year? I don't believe there's any discrepancy between what's out in the field. Okay.

All right. Um shortly I'll be making a motion to go into close session. Um just for the public, uh we should be in close session. Uh we're going to go in and should we be in there 30 minutes, we will send somebody out to inform whoever may be left. uh when we are done with the close session uh there may be official action taken here and then after that we will adjourn the meeting. So R25189 resolution authorizing an executive close session in accordance with the New Jersey open public meetings act discuss pending litigation. Can I have a motion? So moved. Cler please take Councilman. Yes. Councilman Zack.

Yes. Council. Yes. Councilwoman Newton, yes. Councilman South, yes. Councilman Boy, yes. Council Vice President Brooks, yes. Council President, yes. Say yeses. Motion passes. I'll see you guys tomorrow.

Are you impressed? I'm going to take my candy. All right, take it. I'll eat it right in front of them. No, we don't need any more candy. Okay. Make a motion to return from close session. Second. Just get it done.

Cler, take a roll now. So I made the motion freeland second. Okay. Council freelander. Yes. Yes. This is to come out of close session. I'll call on you when necessary. Mr. Councilwin. Yes. Councilwoman New? Yes. Councilman Salber, yes. Councilmanovich, yes. Council Vice President Brooks, yes.

Council President Marson, yes. It's eight. Yes. This motion carries. Now, I look to Mr. Yafano to frame the wording for an upcoming motion. Do I have You have the floor, sir.

Thank you. I'm asking the council at this time to make a motion to authorize the mayor to sign a settlement agreement uh once approved by the township of attorneys with respect to the settlement of a malpractice claim against Stuart Gy the attorney who was representing the township uh in the WPG bank. All right. So, I'd like to make a motion uh to reflect the wording and statement of Mr. I'll second that. Please take the role.

Council, yes. Council, yes. Councilman Quinn, yes. Counciloman, yes. Councilman Zabber, yes. Councilman, yes. Council Vice President Brooks. Yes. Council President Marson. Yes. It's eight. Yes. His motion carries. I'd like to make a motion to adjourn by consensus. All in favor? I sought you up. Yeah, I remember that. Yes. How about