Council Meeting 6-4-26

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.
>> Good evening everybody. Welcome to the
June 4th council meeting. Roll call
please.
>> Clark
>> here.
>> Evans
>> here.
>> Here. Mike
>> here.
>> Parker here. Sykes.
>> He is absent. He may be arriving late,
but uh count him as absent for that.
>> Mr. D.
>> Yes. This is to advise a certain
advanced notice has been given to the
date, time, location, and to the extent
known the agenda of this meeting in
accordance with the provisions of the
open public meeting act. And notice of
this meeting has been posted prominently
at the bulletin board in the municipal
complex lobby on the city's website and
communicated through the newspaper
designated by the governing body. This
is to further advise that this meeting
is being recorded electronically and can
be viewed on the city's website at
obsecanj.gov.
All right.
2026 ordinances for adoption. Um, we are
going to remove item number 10 from the
agenda. Um, John, do you want to make a
statement?
>> Uh, well, sure. I just know that in
looking at it prior to adopting, you
guys notice some things that need to be
revised. So, what I'm recommending that
you do is pull it from the ordinances
for adoption tonight, go back and amend
it, and then reintroduce at the next
available meeting.
>> Sounds good. For those that uh um are
are unaware, this this was found just
today. Um essentially impossible to find
the difference unless you had two side
by side. But, um a couple of the numbers
are off. So um because of that, John
feels it's substantial enough to remove
from the agenda, reddraft it, and
reintroduce it. So that's what we will
do at the next meeting.
All right.
Ordinance 2026 for adoption 11,
establishing salary ranges for the city
of Epsein. Do I hear a motion for the
second reading of ordinance 11 2026?
>> Motion. Second
>> roll call, please.
>> Clark,
>> yes.
>> Evans,
>> yes. Bartenda,
>> yes.
>> Light,
>> yes.
>> Parker, yes.
>> Yes. Ordinance 11-2026, establishing
salary ranges for the city of Obsecin.
May I hear a motion to open the meeting
to the public for comment or discussion
on this ordinance only?
>> Make a motion.
>> Second.
>> All in favor?
>> I opposed. Would anybody from the public
like to speak on this item only?
May I hear a motion to close the meeting
to the public?
>> Close the public portion.
>> Motion.
>> Second.
>> All in favor?
>> I opposed. May I hear a motion for the
final reading and adoption of ordinance
11-2026?
>> Motion.
>> Second.
>> Roll call, please.
>> Clark,
>> yes.
>> Evans,
>> yes. Martinda,
>> yes.
>> Light,
>> yes.
>> Parker, yes.
>> D Rose,
>> yes. Ordinance 11, 2026, establishing
the salary arranges for the city of EPS.
This ordinance has been heard and is
finally approved.
Consent agenda. All matters listed under
item consent agenda are considered to be
routine by the city council and will be
enacted in one motion in the form
listed. There will be no separate
discussion of these items. If discussion
is desired, that item will be removed
from the consent agenda and discussed
separately.
102. approving the insertion of a
special item of revenue into the 2026
municipal budget to allow for the
receipt of $8,644
from the federal body armor fund
authorizing the submission of a grant
application and the execution of a grant
contract with the New Jersey Department
of Transportation under the local aid
infrastructure fund 2026 Crest View
Avenue resurfacing and traffic calming
improvements. 104 authorizing the
placement of a clothing bin by Turnkey
Enterprises LLC on the property located
at 600 Pittney Road in Obsec
for consent items only. Do I hear a
motion to open the meeting to the
public?
>> Motion.
>> Second.
>> All in favor?
>> I opposed. Would anybody from the public
like to speak on consent agenda items
only?
>> May I hear a motion to move the consent
agenda?
>> Motion to close the public. Oh, do I
hear a motion to close the meeting to
the public?
>> Motion.
>> Second.
>> All in favor?
>> Opposed. May I hear a motion to move the
consent agenda?
>> Motion.
>> Second.
>> Roll call, please.
>> Clark,
>> yes.
>> Evans,
>> yes.
>> Artenda,
>> yes.
>> White,
>> yes.
>> Parker,
>> yes. Sir Rose,
>> yes. Approval of bill list 1,441,488.95.
May I hear a motion to accept the bill
list? Motion.
>> Second.
>> Roll call, please.
>> Clark,
>> yes.
>> Evans,
>> yes. Sarenda,
>> yes.
>> White,
>> yes.
>> Parker,
>> yes.
>> Yes. Approval of the minutes to close
session as to form and content only from
35206
and budget meeting minutes 32626.
>> I love it. Roll call, please.
>> Clark.
>> Yes.
>> Evans.
>> What's the question? No, you said that
the date was wrong. It was 45, but it's
35.
>> Yeah.
>> Evan,
>> yes.
>> Latunda,
>> yes.
>> Light,
>> yes.
>> Parker,
>> yes.
>> D Rose,
>> uh, yes to close session. No to abstain
to the budget meeting minutes as I
wasn't there.
All right, council reports. Nick, we'll
start with you. Uh, we have not met
since our last uh, meeting. Our next uh,
code enforcement meeting will be on June
16th at 4 p.m. here at city hall. All
are welcome.
Perfect. Councilman
>> public safety met on Monday. Um we
addressed um some things going on at the
firehouse. Um some concerns at our
hotels on the White Horse Pike. Chief
Tally from the fire department wanted us
to thank Joe's farm market for their
donations of flowers at the um
firehouse.
um
chief talked about our drone program and
the things they're doing with that and
um we just addressed some residents
concerns as well.
In the meantime, um I'm sure we've all
seen uh the post on Facebook about the
solicitation and people coming to their
houses. The day after our public safety
meeting, um, someone brought to our
business administrator's attention about
a no knock registry ordinance, which we
do not have. Um, and in fact, our
ordinance about getting permits to
solicit is very minimal. Um, it doesn't
even have um a requirement of wearing
your permit when soliciting. You must
get one, but you don't there's nothing
in there about wearing it or uniform
restrictions with that. with this no
knock registry and I found ordinances
from several towns. Jessica referred me
some from her own town um and another um
basically it requires it allows
residents to get on a no knock registry
um and when someone comes to get their
permit to solicit they are given the no
knock registry. Additionally, we give um
official
uh no solution uh solicitation stickers
to these residents. Um cuz I know some
people have unofficial stickers at their
house. Um and this allows um
our residents to um not be bothered if
they don't want to. um it could allow us
to find those who still solicit when
there is no solicitation
um stickers and um or um if they are not
getting their permit. So um it's just
something I looked into. It's something
that I recommend that we uh look into
passing.
>> Can you give it to code enforcement?
>> Um so it's just something that Jessica
looked into. We talked to Tommy about
it. Um, so as public safety, I thought
it was something that we should really
look into. Several towns in New Jersey
have done it. Um, some local towns,
including Hamilton Township, I believe,
have it. So, um, that was just on my
radar and something I wanted to report
today. Chief, do you have anything else
for public safety?
>> We have it done already. So, um, we just
have to take a review of it. Uh, I think
it's a great idea. We did a little
research on it. The Supreme Court upheld
that you cannot stop it altogether. So
just to be clear to the residents that
we cannot ban solicitation
um because it would be uh a violation of
people's rights, commercial rights in
specific. So uh I think it's a great
idea and uh we just have to maybe give
it to John to make sure that it all
looks good and get it done and get it
done.
>> Even better.
>> That was quick.
code enforcement says okay
Alex you guys want the paperwork next
>> that's a good idea I'm good with it Mr.
President, if Councilwoman is not, I'd
just like to make a quick comment.
>> Absolutely.
>> Um I'd like to thank our our public
safety um our police, our fire, our EMT,
um during these times of of the summer
coming and um I don't know, just people
uh the climate that's going on. So, I
really I really appreciate everybody's
hard work that they do and I wish them
um I wish them a safe summer and um you
know that that's all I just want there's
some incidents that happened. I don't
need to necessarily bring them up and I
I appreciate their hard work and and I I
want them to stay safe. Thank you.
>> Absolutely. Do you have anything else
council? Well, I think all of our hearts
are heavy for our neighboring town of
Lang City after the incident the other
day and I would just um want everybody
to keep all police in their thoughts and
prayers and hope that they stay safe.
They they do a big job and we appreciate
all of them.
>> Absolutely.
>> Just to clarify, Lieutenant Hank and the
team was presented to them this morning
and and already fixed that uh put that
started putting that ordinance together.
Um and then the only other thing I have
as far as public safety, if you don't
mind me speaking,
>> of course.
um the boat ramp, right? So, we've been
pretty lucky so far with with weather.
It hasn't been too hot and the bugs
haven't really arrived here too heavily
yet. Um please keep in mind for the
Boers, like try to have your stuff
together and organized before you get to
the ramp as opposed to getting down
there and you have to get your life
vests out of your vehicle and put them
on the boat and your lunch and all your
other items to go out onto the boat. um
utili you do that stuff at home. Put
everything on your boat before you get
there so that we can keep the tempers
and opinions uh at a low rate down
there. Uh it'll stop us from having to
come down there and uh mitigate or or
you know kind of put our conflict
resolution hats on and and um ease the
uh pain of backing up the boat ramp. Uh,
one of the things you can also do is is
is what we were looking at is is if you
pull out of the ramp, pull pull up the
road a little bit or pull off to the
side somewhere else. You don't have to
be in the middle of the roadway because
believe it or not down there that's not
just a whole parking area. The road
bends in front of uh and and turns into
fourth ats. So when you pull your
trailers and your vehicles out and you
want to take everything out of the boat
and put it in your car, you're actually
blocking traffic. So, just a little
reminder everybody can keep in mind and
um it'll make everybody's uh voting
experience a little better.
>> You've been there far too many times.
Thanks, Chief. Anything else,
Councilman?
>> No.
>> Uh Council Light, we'll just continue
with you then.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um public works. We met
on the uh the 1st at 5:00. We went over
a couple uh we went over some of the
road projects. I'll let the engineer
kind of expand on that. I'll let the
engineer. We're actually uh council
members um police department. We met on
Tuesday at 10:30 at McDonald's. We went
over some concerns. Um I'll let the
engineer kind of kind of tighten
everything up with that. Uh the police
um chief and his staff actually weighed
in on some of those. The mayor and some
of our council members that were able to
come um was was there as well as an
administrator. Um,
we uh talked about Southshore Road
project again with the the engineer can
update us on that and then we meet on
the 7th of July at 5:00. The public is
welcome. Thank you.
>> Excellent. Councilman Clark,
>> finance has not met since the last
meeting. We just got done the budget and
our next goal is to focus on economic
development and we're looking to
schedule with the businesses on New
Jersey Avenue to see what we as a
council can do to help assist them and
help grow their business while we meet
with a new venture with the ACA.
>> Excellent. Councilwoman Evans.
>> Um yes, community affairs um met this
evening at 5:00. We discussed um the
Memorial Day parade and uh what a
success it was. Our grand marshal was
Walt Young. A special thank you to the
police department for leading the way
and holding off traffic which I know is
uh a feat in itself because the parade
is pretty long and it's kind of uh gets
congested there at Southshore Road but
uh once again you guys did a great job.
Um
the uh speeches of course by yourself uh
council president at the uh park. Thank
you to all the people that um uh gave
the speeches and um donated the uh
reefs. As always,
um we have um just announced that we're
going to have Abseek's Fourth of July
home and business decorating contest. Um
we just posted it on Facebook this
evening thanks to Christine. Um it'll be
a competition uh
you know throughout Epsein decorate your
home. The competition uh will end on
July 1st and we will announce our winner
on July 3rd. Um check for the updates on
that. Art Alliance part pot is
Wednesday, June 10th.
The first concert in the park, I'll um
touch on it for Mike cuz he's not here,
is uh June 21st. Joey D Oldies. We um
also
we were told there's going to be a first
responder breakfast that is in the
works. Um so look for that. Also our 911
memorial. Um
it'll be the 25th year anniversary. So
look for uh more details on that. And
they will be selling t-shirts and
stickers. So hopefully everybody will
help at um their foundation.
>> Excellent. Thank you.
>> Can I just add that the PTO's citywide
yard sale is this Saturday and Sunday as
well.
>> Excellent. Um the only thing I have in
terms of committee report will just be
general. Uh we will be uh Carrie, it's
more for you uh for tomorrow, but we
will be moving the June 18th meeting to
June 25th and the July 2nd meeting to
July 9th. That will help us space out
better for the summer and ensure that
liquor licenses are complete and uh so
on and so forth. So, excellent.
>> Can I change? Yes. Can you move by
finance meetings at 25th as well then?
>> Well, so I you took the words of my
mouth. Are there any committee meetings
on those dates uh that would like moved
as well? Just let Carrie know right now.
>> So, finance
>> and community affairs, please.
>> Community affairs would be July finance.
>> Okay. So,
>> that helps you. June 25th.
>> June 25th for finance. Correct.
>> And you cancelled July and August,
>> correct? No reason for July and August
for finance, but we're going to go the
25th
>> and community affairs will be July 9th.
9th at 5.
>> Yes.
>> Instead of the Thank you.
Perfect. And all times will stay the
same. Got it.
>> Right, Linda?
>> Yes.
>> Okay, that looks good. Perfect.
>> All right. Uh, perfect.
Um, all right then, Mr. Mayor.
>> I am going to seed my time because I
would also like to hear the engineers
update as well. Council.
>> Okay. Well, since that sounds like a a
doozy, I'll switch to the administrator
report first. I don't know where
>> the city of Alaskan may homeless task
force has a summer food drive going on.
We are collecting through June 18th.
There's a box located in city hall
lobby. It's in support of church by the
base together we can program. We're
accepting donations of non-p perishable
food in jars cans. Um we have
recommendations for canned sauces,
soups, beans, fruits, meat, peanut
butter, and probably water.
>> Excellent. Um, speaking of that, I'm
sorry. You go ahead.
>> Uh, this is going to sound like a quote
from Councilman Light from last year.
Uh, there is an Eagle Scout who's
reached out to myself and Councilwoman
Parker about trying to do a project and
I believe the project is going to try
and do something in terms of places
where you can place food, things like
that. Uh, he's still flushing it out. I
believe he was to come see Councilman
Sykes at a park and playgrounds meeting.
>> Correct. in the middle of
>> June.
>> June.
>> So I think it's 16.
>> And this this is this is local kids.
>> Oh, excellent.
>> Uh the last thing I apologize before we
go to the engineer report uh I wanted to
include was congratulate uh Calabria on
18 years of service in the city of Epcin
today. Um all right, engineer.
>> Oh, Mike. Uh welcome. Would you go to
our committee report? Thank you for
having I apologize for running late by
by their job. Um committee report is
just a couple overlaps from last
meeting. Um the Turner's Cove sign is in
the works. It's being drafted. You know,
there was an accident. Unfortunately, I
took the sign out. Um we have that
trying to get back up and and placed
back in its original spot as soon as
possible. Once the draft is finished,
we'll have it um officially signed off
on and then once they make it, we'll
have public works hang it back up. Um
huge crews of public works. The fields
have been amazing. The baseball field
has been immaculate for especially the
last couple weekends and we've had some
pretty big tournaments. This weekend we
have a very large tournament. We have 8U
um our AU tournaments going to run uh
Saturday, Sunday, and possibly into
Monday with the championship game. Um
ASAC and public works have been amazing
to get things going and organize that.
Uh it's always run top-notch. So my son
plays at you, so I'm looking forward to
it this weekend. Should be pretty cool.
Um,
couple things that we're trying to do
with the
uh the possible shed that's up there,
the the one that soccer uses, uh, the
brick building and the one down by um,
the green works. We're going to try and
maybe get those painted either by public
works or volunteers depending on the
timeline and availability. But, you
know, just try and freshen some things
up for like, you know, mid midsummer to
early fall. Get those painted cuz they
could use a fresh coat. Um,
there's one more thing.
Uh, somebody asked about the baseball
fields, about new dirt and things like
that. And I checked with Lloyd, they
drag it every single season. They drag
it every spring. Um, they turn the soil
over. So, just so the public knows,
like, you know, public works again doing
a great job trying to keep everything
topnotch. As well as with ASAC, they
work hand in hand. So, appreciate it.
That's all.
>> Excellent. Can I add something real
quick? Is uh I'd like to acknowledge
Bill Anita offer is Bill's power
washing. So he comes and I and I'm sorry
I I didn't say the sooner, but he comes
at least two if not three times a year
to Veterans Park with his either himself
or his family and they powerwash the
park for it to look the way it does.
Doesn't charge anything. I mean, I had
to force money on him a couple years ago
to buy him dinner. But I mean, he and
and he's so humble. I never even knew
I've known him a long time that he
served in the Navy. So, he's just a
quiet, humble person. He comes out and
he donates his time to give back to the
community and uh kudos to Bill. I mean,
and his family, his daughter's out there
and uh that the park little by little in
between the school and public work. It's
it's it's impeccable.
>> Excellent.
>> So, thank you.
>> Thanks, Steve.
>> All right. All right. Drum roll.
Engineers report, please.
>> Thank you, Council President. Uh yes,
I'll start with the the McDonald's
update. Um, we did meet with the, uh,
New Jersey Department of Transportation
at the McDonald site off of Mill and and
the Pike. uh various members of the
council, the administrator, the police,
and uh myself met with them this week to
discuss options to make the uh entrance
exit off of Mil Road safer and uh try to
um eliminate the the the left turning
movement out of McDonald's and onto Mil
Road, which we know causes uh various
different issues with traffic. Um the
the members of the DOT were uh you know
on board with that. Um you know they
were not against that option. Uh what we
talked about was potentially installing
a raised median along the center of the
road there. And um originally we were
told that wasn't an option, but it does
sound like now I guess things have
changed and they're uh they're open to
that option. So it was a good meeting.
Um and uh at the end of the meeting we
we basically ended it by saying we were
going to uh regroup and loop in the
county the county engineers office. Um
that section of Mo Road is a county
road. So we do have to involve this the
county as well as the state. So, I
followed up with the county to try to
set up a meeting with them and then
we'll then uh follow that up with a
meeting with all parties uh the county,
the city, and the state to discuss how
to actually move this forward to a real
solution.
So, uh you know, we'll we'll continue to
update everybody as that progresses.
Um, Shore Road, our Shore Road project,
the pre-construction meeting is now
scheduled for June 17th at 10:00 a.m.
So, it's great news. Uh, that's moving
forward. Um, that meeting will be held
at the at the county offices and, um, I
will be in attendance and, um, you know,
hopefully the outcome of that meeting is
is is a set start date for construction.
So, in terms of that project, I just
want to take a second to thank uh the
county administrator, Jerry Del Ross,
who was very instrumental in trying to
push this along for us. And the reason I
bring it up now is I saw today that uh
he retired after 50 years of service.
So, congratulations to him and thank you
for the few years we've been here. He's
been pretty receptive to whatever we've
needed.
>> Thank you.
>> Great. Thank you for that information.
So, yeah, hopefully that gets kicked off
in July. Um and then on to our active
road projects. Now um as of today all
paving is completed uh for Woodcrest
Court, Burning Tree, uh Pennsylvania at
the intersection of Pittney and Del
Avenue. So all paving is complete for
those projects. Uh we'll be completing
our punch list review next week and
closing them out shortly. I did drive
down Burning Tree this morning. I
haven't checked out the other ones yet,
but Burning Tree I do think came out
very nice.
And then uh the pedestrian crosswalk
safety improvements project, the raised
crosswalk project is advertised in the
Press Atlantic City today and um our bid
opening is set for June 25th at 11:00
a.m. and we hope to award at the July
meeting. Um they're looking into
shifting that back now that we've
changed meetings. Uh maybe we can issue
an addendum to move the bid opening back
potentially and a word at the June
meeting. Uh it is possible. I'll look
into that and see.
>> Oh, the extra week you're saying?
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Um, and then we're scheduled for survey
for Franklin Boulevard next week. And I
know at public works this meeting this
week, we did discuss a couple different
options for the Highland Boulevard
pedestrian safety improvements project.
Um, couple options uh such as like where
to install the sidewalk exactly. Um, and
then we're still kicking that around. I
I don't know if the the council would
like to go into any more detail about
that, but uh I'll let you
have a different meeting for that one.
And um that
>> I just uh I'd like to add that uh in our
meeting with DOT is uh the police chief
and his staff had asked New Jersey DOT
why we had their attention and their
ears. Uh there was quite a few of them.
if they could look at some of the
additional concerns that we had which
are council president mentioned uh
Sashro Road the uh whatever I'm going to
be funny but like the 18 second time
limit that had heading uh north
um that was one of them and the the
chief's and his staff's concerns were
some of the depressions on route 30 that
are actually uh very tragic so um it was
a very good meeting but that's something
that I wanted to you know was
instrumental having the police and uh
the chief and the staff weighing in on
some of the concerns why we had their
attention. Thank you,
>> Councilman. You took the words out of my
mouth. My comment was going to be almost
the exact same thing that you know it's
not every day that the state is willing
to send six employees down to to meet
with the municipality. Um, so I want to
congratulate or or commend uh
engineering Jessica uh and council for,
you know, being steadfast and demanding
that they see it with their own eyes
because it's one of those issues that's
hard to explain, but then when you see
it, it's a no-brainer. Literally, the
one gentleman saw it happen and what the
first five five minutes, Captain Maser
was there as well, and he clearly got
it. Um,
but you stole the words of our mouth. I
was going to say it was a very
productive meeting because we all were
able to pile on and get all our DOT
questions asked and uh face to face. So,
I think it was well worth the time and
uh I commend everybody in this room for
uh being steadfast and ensuring we got
that meeting.
>> They did so genuinely
>> good emails, Nick. Good emails.
>> Genuinely interested.
>> Thank you for being annoying, Nick. We
got an email for 3 months about this.
like they were listening concerns and
they want to find a way to help us. It's
just that the the start needs to come
because it's county road from county
engineers.
>> And as far as the other things, they
already emailed me that they were
already looking into those.
>> I got I got an email about the timing of
the light too. So they they sent the
right folks. It was very productive
meeting.
>> Um does anybody else have anything
before I move to public?
>> Okay. May I hear a motion to open the
meeting to the public?
>> Motion.
>> Second. All in favor?
>> I opposed. Would anybody from the public
like to come up and speak tonight?
>> You can just state your name and
address, sir.
>> I'm Eric Harrington, 17 Stony Brook
Drive, apartment 24. Okay. Um I was here
last uh two weeks ago for the budget
presentation and budget vote. Um I saw
the the presentation. I noticed it's
been uploaded now. The council meeting
packet from two weeks ago said that the
budget was on the website. Where on the
website was it?
>> The budget is on the website. It should
be under the finance department.
>> Okay. So, I looked at budgets and I saw
userfriendly budgets and I only saw 2017
to 2025.
>> If you'd like at the end of the meeting,
I can take your email address and email
you a link to it.
>> Oh, that would be fine. And I'm just
wondering why wasn't it with the other
ones if it's if it's not I I I didn't
see it. I didn't see it two weeks ago. I
didn't see it today.
>> It was uploaded.
>> I believe it's on the front the the
presentation we put I think it's on the
front page of the website actually.
>> I saw the presentation it and it was
actually uploaded the day after I think
the last meeting.
>> But um that so that was good but I did I
didn't see the budget. I looked at like
last year I looked at that that was a
very lengthy document and the user
friendly was as well but I kept I kept I
kept looking and looking.
>> All right. Well, I mean let us take a
look at this to confirm whether it's
there or not. I mean obviously that
would be the first thing we're going to
do to make sure that it's
>> present for you to find.
>> Okay. I was scrolling on my phone. I was
kind of in disbelief which is why I
didn't see anything last week. Well, one
of the issues that we have with our
website and it's why we're actively
working to change our website is that
the userfriendly version of the website
on a mobile device is not the same as it
is on a computer.
>> So, that may be the issue. I'm trying to
look for it now, but I will take your
information at the end of the meeting
and then I can reach out to you
directly.
>> Can we just Can we email him a budget?
>> Well, I mean I mean I I would just say
the thing is I think he's looking for
transparency.
He's looking for it to be on the
website.
You go on a computer, though. I think
you go on the computer or you go on a
phone.
>> Admittedly, I went on my phone and my
tablet. I didn't pull it up on a full
desktop.
>> I think that's the issue, right, Jess?
>> I think that is I mean, that's a huge
problem with our website and that's why
we're looking.
>> Yeah, I can't find it on my mobile.
So, yeah, but we should we should have
it there.
>> Okay. Well, yeah, just in the future and
it looks like, you know, even years in
the future, somebody wants to see. So, I
appreciate that.
>> Yeah. Hopefully by this time next year,
we will have a new website and it will
be much easier to find anything.
>> Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Thank you for bringing. I
would have never known if you didn't
bring it up, sir. Thank you.
>> Okay. Absolutely.
>> Shot it.
>> Hi, Sandy Hickerson 210 up on Avenue.
>> How are you?
>> Um, it's on my phone. It came right up
when I I was like, "Oh, let me check."
And it it came right up like you said.
It's on right on the very first.
>> So that's the presentation. That's the
presentation. He's looking for the
actual
>> actual budget. Yeah. The full
>> where it should.
>> Thank you, Sandy.
>> No, you're you're good, Sandy.
>> Sorry.
>> Sir, name and address, please.
Ron Finland, 242 Koolage Avenue, Epseek.
We got to work on getting these things
to be a little more sherp and uh
friendly around here. Uh, short person
friendly.
>> Short person friendly at the council.
Nice uh nice touch. You can see over the
wall here. Um, couple things. First off,
wanted to just commend the chief and I
don't know if it came up earlier before
I got here, but there was a pretty cool
story that they caught whoever it was
that was actually vandalizing lights
along the Pike heading in and out of
Atlantic City. And I know many people
get the question and we all deal with
the challenges of Atlantic City and all
the competition they face. People are
always asking about lighting going in
and out of the city and it's kind of a
crazy thing. We're already ready to
blame Atlantic City Electric and it
turns out you got some folks that are up
to no good. So, I want to commend the
chief and his guys on that one. It kind
of one of the examples why I've
vindicated the investments you guys have
made in public safety. When you look at
the budget presentation, everything else
you guys have done over the last couple
years, why you need more guys out on the
street doing that stuff, especially when
you're dealing with pretty much an
arrest of day looking at the police
plotters and everything else. And
mayor's doing a good job with all the
homeless task force stuff. It seems like
at least anecdotally all the pan
handling that you had to deal with last
year is down a bit. You know, just
driving in felt like every day outside
of McDonald's you had folks doing that
and you know maybe it'll pick back up in
summer but it seems like it's going in
the right direction there. I know the
state of New Jersey certainly doesn't
make it easy on uh on anybody with any
of the things that the state does these
days. The only other thing I wanted to
bring up was just economic development
seems to be going really well. Uh, I was
thinking earlier over the last year, how
many different businesses have opened
up, you go by right around the corner
here and instead of a failing bank
that's just crumbling and falling apart,
you got Jersey Cow there. There's a line
out there at 10:00 at night. I think you
probably do away with property taxes all
together if you were charging a dollar
and ice cream cone. It's a joke. You
don't need to actually do it. But, uh,
it's really going well there. It seems
like there's at least one business, if
not two, opening up every single quarter
over the last 18 months. So, want to
commend the mayor and council for the
job they're doing there and uh and keep
going. It's why I think you see over the
last several months, you haven't had as
many people here uh breaking your balls
about things as you may have had in the
past cuz they acknowledge the great job
you guys are are doing. SO,
>> thank you.
That was awesome.
>> Is there anybody else from the public
that like to speak? That is a first for
me, by the way. Nick, I don't know if
you ever had to remind somebody of
language.
>> Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
>> Thank you for my first uh
>> probably.
Would anybody else in the public like to
speak?
>> Do I hear a motion to close the meeting
to the public?
>> Motion.
>> Second.
>> All in favor?
>> Opposed. May I hear a motion to adjourn
the meeting?
>> Motion. Motion. Second.
>> All in favor?
>> Opposed.
Thank you everybody for coming inside.