Council Meeting 3-19-26

Please stand for the flag salute.
Steve, will you please lead us? Attach
the salute. I pledge allegiance to the
flag of the United States of America and
to the republic for which stands stands.
One nation under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all.
>> Thank you, Councilman.
>> Roll call, please.
>> Clark
>> here. Evans is absent and Laura Tunda is
also absent. Light
>> here.
>> Parker here. Sykes
>> here. D Rose
>> here. This is to advise that certain
advanced notice has been given to the
date, time and location and to the
extent known the agenda of this meeting
in accordance with the provision of the
open public meeting act and notice of
this meeting has been posted permanently
at the bulletin board in the municipal
complex lobby on the city's website and
communi 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, quick meeting today. Really
just consent. Um, all matters listed
under item consent agenda are considered
to be routine by the city council and
will be enacted by 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 will be
discussed separately.
Consent agenda 66. Authorizing
maintenance and support for public
safety communication system by Pro
Phoenix. 67. Authorizing landscaping and
recreation recreational field
maintenance throughout the city of ESEC
by RW Brown.
68. Authorizing for HVAC services for
various departments by
>> Alaska.
Thank you. Councilwoman
Mechanical Inc. 69. Authorizing the
solicitation for proposals for municipal
court judgment collection services. 70.
Authorizing an emergency temporary
appropriation in the 2026 temporary
budget. 71. Permitting a charitable
organization to solicit funds, namely
the Obscen 911 Memorial Founders
Committee, Inc. for the month of May.
72. Permitting a charitable organization
to solicit funds, namely the Obsecin 911
Memorial Founders Committee, Inc. for
the month of August. Do I hear a motion
to open the meeting to the public for
these agenda items only?
>> Motion.
>> Second.
>> All in favor?
>> I opposed. Would anybody from the public
like to come up and speak on these
agenda items?
For the record, I'm willing to engage. I
see Mr. Ser in the back. All right. May
I hear a motion to close the meeting to
the public?
>> Motion.
>> Second. All in favor?
>> I opposed. May I hear a motion to move
this consent agenda?
>> Motion.
>> Second.
>> Roll call, please.
>> Clark,
>> yes.
>> White,
>> yes.
>> Parker,
>> yes.
>> Sykes,
>> yes.
>> Duros,
>> yes. Approval of the bill list.
540,69322.
May I hear a motion to accept the bill
list? Motion.
>> Second.
>> Roll call, please.
>> Clark,
>> yes.
>> Light,
>> yes.
>> Parker,
>> yes.
>> Sykes,
>> yes. Rose.
>> Yes. Approval of the minutes, budget
meeting minutes 21226 and regular
meeting minutes 21926.
May I hear a motion to accept these
minutes?
>> Motion. Second.
>> Roll call, please.
>> Clark,
>> yes.
>> Light,
>> yes.
>> Parker. Um, I yes to the regular meeting
minutes and I was not at the budget
meeting.
>> Got it.
>> Sykes.
>> Yes.
>> Through.
>> Yes.
All right. Council reports. We'll start
with uh Councilman Sykes. Um so we did
not meet this month yet. Uh our day fell
on St. Patty's Day on the 17th and um we
gave the opportunity for everybody to
enjoy that day. So we did not have our
meeting. We do have a plan for next week
I believe on the 25th. Uh we're going to
try and meet at 7:00 p.m. to a few
things to discuss. Um myself and Mr.
Light, Councilman Light, we did look at
a he uh took the reign, spoke to Louis.
We have a few lights out right now. Um,
specifically quite a few in one of our
housing units at the AC baseball field.
Um, can I can I pick you up? Rick, uh, I
was going to send you a message. Uh,
bottom line is Lori Red contact the
Muskar to meet with Steve Light and
they're going to be here within two
weeks to fix the lights.
>> Okay, awesome. So, we got a timeline.
That's what we kind of got going.
>> Appreciate that, Alex. Thanks, man. Um,
so we're gonna get the lights fixed that
way. Obviously, baseball season's is
among us right now. And you know, even
though we're practicing in the daylight
right now, games will start running in
the night time. We're going to need
those lights. So, appreciate the quick
fix and and both you guys getting on top
of that. Thank you. Um and that's all I
have for right now. We do have um I'm
sorry, we do have the um the concert set
and I believe we're going to put that
out on the community affairs page. So,
uh Christine, thank you for writing that
up. She does a nice job with it every
year. So, we'll have that out for the
public so you guys can start making your
um your plans to attend those again
during the 10 weeks throughout the
summer. Excellent. Thanks, Councilwoman.
Councilwoman Parker, thank you. Um, we
have not met since our last meeting. We
meet again the first Monday of April at
6 p.m. I think the only thing that has
happened um with public safety this
month is um well, since our last meeting
was officer Matthew Keller was welcomed
to the Epstein Police Department. Other
than that, I've received um a few
positive feedbacks about our police and
fire departments and our ambulance squad
lately. um one significantly from
Council President D. Rose last week. Um
the chief is not here to update us. So
that is all we have for public safety.
>> All right. Thank you, Councilwoman. Mr.
Clerk,
>> can I just tag one more thing on public
safety, too? Public safety. Public
safety. Real quick, uh for the last few
weeks, public safety has been at Marsh
Madness every night. Try to keep the uh
everyone from being too rowdy and
everyone safe there. And they've been
doing a great job. also like to thank
public uh the police department on
behalf of ASAC and uh the Abs kid
basketball tournament. So we really
appreciate their time coming.
>> Also spending a time coning off the the
no park zone over there. They do that I
think every night. So it's been helpful
in keeping parking safe.
>> Perfect. Uh finance we met this evening.
We are in full mode budget season. We
met with the financial team that we put
together two weeks ago and we met with
the finance team as well tonight working
on our budget, come up with different
ideas for revenues and ways to maybe
help try to keep some costs down. We
also looked at ways that we can maybe
bring new ideas and some fresh light to
some of these options that we have to
increase our revenues in the city of
EPA.
>> Excellent. Thank you, sir. Councilman
Light,
>> can I take this to 7 o'clock?
>> You got it. We can run.
Harry, strike me for the budget meeting
because I was not in attendance.
>> Okay.
>> Thank Thank you. I didn't act didn't
answer quick enough. Um the parks and
playgrounds uh the committee that I'm on
is to be specific, but uh is there was
11 lights out so the public knows the
urgency. So there was one of the banks,
one of the polls has six out. So for
safety of our children. So that's why we
also one we want to get it right. The
other one we want to make sure it's
urgent. So, it's um that's just a
reporting on that. Um
we have we will not meet, public works
won't meet until I'm going to get it
right this time, April 6th at 5:00. Um
public is welcome. The couple of things
that I would like to mention is I'd like
to thank the county. I see the county is
out there and California Avenue is
getting uh repaved. So, I want to thank
the county as you know taking care of
our community. I know that they worked
on um Ohio Avenue in the spring when the
cold weather had kind of thrown them
off. So, I want to thank the county for
actually picking back up and taking care
of that. The road looks good. I was on
that today, so it's partially paved.
That's going well. I want to also thank
the county for taking care of the roads
um and the any of the roads and tree
damage during this last storm. So I we
we as a community appreciate their help.
And then as well as thanking public
works for the job that they do each and
every day. Um and then lastly, um I went
by the firehouse last night personally
to thank them for the job that they do
say with what they do every day, but
also with what they had done to uh
assist an elder at the Legion last week.
And then I was just coming home from
work the other day and I saw a car fire
right there by um by Aldi. So I mean
they work very hard. I don't always get
a chance to go over there personally. Um
but I did yesterday and thank them and
try to go through there and individually
thank each one of them for their
dedication. Um so we meet on the 6th of
April at 5:00. The public is welcome.
Thank you.
>> Thank you Councilman.
Um, I have nothing else to add from
there except that uh to echo uh
Councilman Clark, it's been budget
season, budget season, and and going
through everything. And I commend uh
Alex um his Alex and his uh advisory
committee um of residents that have been
working with Alex. Uh they had an
initial meeting to discuss items and to
the finance committee um for their work
through this because it's definitely
quote busy season.
Clerk report.
Did you have one this month?
>> Yeah.
>> OKAY.
>> Uh these reports are for February for
the tax office was $4,565,295.551.
The clerk's office is $2,471.
The construction office was $6,493
and municipal court was $9,32043.
>> Thank you very much. Uh Mayor Marone is
unable to be with us tonight. Uh
engineer report.
>> Thank you. I'll go to a quick uh couple
updates here. Um so Shore Road um our
Shore Road project is uh currently at
bid. The bid opening is set for March
31st at the at the county offices.
>> I'm sorry, Nick. Is that closing or
opening?
>> Paid opening.
Okay.
>> Yes. The received bids on on that day.
>> That's why I was asking. Yeah. Cool.
>> Yep.
Um and then the uh we should expect to
hear about our local recreation
improvement grant early April. That's
about when they announced uh last year.
So that'll be uh that's the grant that
we submitted for the the pole barn, the
uh indoor sports facility. Uh, and then
I did speak to APS today, our contractor
for the 25 road program and Delaware
Avenue and they anticipate mobilizing
into town in about 2 to 3 weeks to start
concrete work on Woodrest Court and then
they'll move on to Burning Tree and then
lastly Del Avenue.
They'll be uh they'll be in town into
into the summer into June about
uh we did complete the the additional
survey work that we needed for the
raised crosswalk project and we're
finishing up design now.
Um and then um that timeline on that
>> um timeline on that should be end of
this month or April to submit to DOT.
Okay. And so be out to bid by give us an
idea Nick cuz people ask me every day.
Um, so DOT usually takes about a month
to review. Uh, soon no comments. Say we
get it, we submit it in early April. I
would say May, Juneish. We should be
hopefully May/June. That's a bit May.
Yeah. We'll try we will try our best um
try to try to address all of DOT's
comments on the first round.
Uh, and then other than that, we're just
um, yeah, just still working through
some some projects to, you know,
potentially be included in the upcoming
budget. I see chief just walked in. I
just want to mention that we did speak
earlier about uh there was a complaint
about the intersection of Pennsylvania
Avenue and Pitney Road I believe maybe
one or two months ago. Um I did and I
did send a email out to APS to see if we
can get a price to reconstruct that.
It's about a 50 40 to 50 foot section of
Pennsylvania Avenue. Um while they're in
town, we can, you know, get a price and
then discuss with with council to see if
it's something that you may want to
entertain. I know it's a very bad
section of that.
>> Is that the paper street? The street
behind the
>> No. Okay. At the corner of Pitney in
Pennsylvania.
>> Okay. All right.
>> On the holes.
>> Yeah, it's it's quite deteriorated.
Yeah, it's I guess it is.
>> Quite frankly, it might be one of worse
things in town.
>> Okay. We'll we'll get it fixed.
>> Thanks, Chief.
>> And then just a last thing real quick.
Um for uh Councilman Leight, I did reach
out to my contact at the BPU. um about
some of the lighting uh improvements
that you had, you know, asked about. Um
and they had suggested that maybe we get
a local government energy audit done of
the township of of the city's like
buildings. Um it's free. It's something
that the BPU provides and then it's they
can um they can kind of they assess all
of your current energy uses and then
provide any um recommendations for like
lighting upgrades or anything like that
that could maybe be done through an
energy savings improvement program um
which is typically done at no cost like
that that that program would be done at
no cost to the city and it would include
like loading upgrades and stuff like
that. It's all focused around energy
efficiency. So, it uses the energy that
you save to fund the improvements. Um,
and she also gave me a couple contacts
at Langy Electric and South Jersey Gas
to reach out to I guess specifically
deal with like incentive programs. So,
I'll keep kind of pursuing that and see
what we get.
>> Okay. Yeah, that was I was asking Ed
about that earlier. Just looking for
some kind of grant so that we could
possibly upgrade those lights. A lot of
the newer facilities have LED lights.
Um,
>> 1997.
>> What's that?
Oh, lights at the ball
fields are from 1997.
>> Wow.
>> Yeah. So, that's what I'm saying. So, I
mean, if we can use the same structure,
the pole itself, and then kind of
rewire, redo the actual bulbs, replacing
them with LED housing. Um, it would be
costefficient obviously, not only to
switch over to LED, but, you know, we'd
only be be replacing housing and not the
entire project. So that's what I I was
asking about some of those things. I
know Veter just did it and we were going
to try and speak to them and kind of uh
you know get some more information. So
that's awesome. Thank you.
>> I'd be happy to speak to them too cuz I
deal with our city engineer a lot.
>> Yeah.
We'll chat with you later. It'd be
great. Please.
>> Yeah. Like there's the energy savings
improvement plan. It's it's usually the
best bang for your buck per to say is
like with the lighting improvements. So
if lighting is something that we want to
do then you know.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Save save city some money
too over time. Hey, Nick, I want to jump
in and I I spoke to um with your
office's help. I spoke with uh our our
representative from Atlantic Electric
personally this week. I shot them an
email and uh was
complimenting them on finally getting on
task and getting our lighting taken care
of in our community, but yet there are
large areas um even on private
properties aka Holy Spirit um that has
20 fixtures that are out and for
security. But anyhow, I had a nice
conversation. Um and uh they're going to
uh the person gave me their contact
information to call directly so that
we're not going and through this long
process but also I recommended um and it
was a lady was very uh open to it is
that we set up periodically a meeting so
that whatever we have going on good or
bad. O aka like the when we had that
little bit of an issue last year with
Jersey Cal that we would bring in the
the representative we would sit down and
talk to them and say project ahead of
time what projects do we have going on
what's a sensitive timeline so ahead of
us waiting they would already have it on
quue so if if any individual during
construction the the builder or the
owner maybe didn't follow through on
something we could help facilitate it
with our relationship between council
the representative for Atlantic Electric
so things run a little bit smoother for
our new businesses coming on board as
well as taking care of any minor issues
that we need to have addressed so that
they could have a priority list. So that
was a great conversation I had this
week. Um so good dialogue and I
appreciate your office's help as well.
>> Thank you.
>> Absolutely. Two quick things I want to
follow up on, Nick. I don't know if you
know the answer to this, but uh Ed and I
spoke by email a few times regarding uh
the exit to McDonald's right there at
the Mill Road about going across three,
five lanes of traffic. He sent the I got
a whole police report from the captain
and all the accidents that happened
there. He sent it off to them and I
didn't know if we heard back from them
about meeting us down there and talking
about what we can do there because these
people making a left in there and people
making a left out of there. It's you
can't make a left out TD Bank. You can't
make a left out of Jersey Cow. You can't
make a left out of all these
restaurants. But yet we're not the
hardest one to do is McDonald's and
we're not addressing it. So I know that
that came up.
>> Yeah, I know he sent the email to them.
I didn't see a response yet, but I'll
I'll monitor that and you know, maybe we
can follow up next week.
>> And then the other one was Pittney. Uh
we talked about doing those uh dollars
right there so people didn't go across
the yellow like too early. And I know
you sent something to the county about
that too. I don't know where we stood on
that one. Just figured I'd get that back
on your radar.
>> Yeah. And that was where was that?
>> At the light of Pittney. They were
trying to because people come up and
they cut into oncoming traffic to make a
left there. So is that Pennsylvania?
>> Yeah, it is. It's corner of Pennsylvania
and the Deliators.
>> Pennsylvania.
>> Oh, there. Okay.
>> Yeah. So, everyone kind of makes that
left there. They cut right in front
because they know oncoming traffic and
we talked about with the county about
putting uh dollars there and they said
that they would do it. However, if they
got broken, the city's on the hook to
fix them, which I think is a risk we
want to take, okay? because people
complained about it a lot of times and
with school kids coming out and a lot of
residents that live there
>> people drive erratic there I think chief
you would probably agree right
>> somewhat a lot of places in town
>> anything else Nick
>> that's all for me and I I'll follow that
cool thank you
>> anything else for Nick I'm done
>> absolutely in sorry
>> good all good uh Jessica want to give
the administers report Sure. Um, due to
an upcoming retirement, we are hiring
for a full-time public works laborer,
um, the applications are available
online through our website at
absecanj.gov.
And just a reminder that our quarterly
sewer charges are due on April 1st.
>> Thank you so much, Chief. Uh, anything
Christine gave a count, I'm sorry,
Councilwoman Parker gave a a good
update, but want to see if you had
anything to add.
>> I just want to uh mention Nick and I
also had a conversation. We had a
resident come in and complain about um
in front of their residence they had and
one of the utilities had opened up to do
some work.
>> Um
>> we actually are working on figuring out
which utility that was, but that's
something that they're going to have to
come back and fix. So, we're on that as
well.
>> Um like to congratulate Matthew Keller,
our newest police officer, um had his
graduation of the academy last Thursday.
So, um, you know, you're going to see
another new face in town. He's a local
guy who grew up here at Maze Landing,
went to school with a lot of the kids
that we already have, uh, employed here.
Uh, and we believe he'll be a great
addition to us. Um, other than that, uh,
daylight savings time
and the warm weather coming. I'm going
to probably say this a couple times in
the next couple months. Just bear with
me. But um you know, people are out and
they're walking and there's kids out
riding their bikes and people are
enjoying uh the break in the weather.
And you know, I know it's still March.
We're still going to have some cold
weather. We could still have snow
unfortunately, but the better weather is
coming. Uh please,
you know, plan ahead of time when you're
traveling. That way you have a little
extra time. Um be uh aware of the
pedestrians and and everybody, the kids
on bikes and and all that. uh we
certainly don't need a tragedy. Also,
make sure that you uh adjust your
lighting. Lighting is probably one of
the best deterrents for thefts around
your properties. Uh and with that said,
make sure that your your valuables are
locked up, including your cars and your
sheds and your outside uh um buildings.
And um you know, see something, say
something. Um you know, look out for
your neighbors. And um we look forward
to uh you know a nice spring and and
summer.
>> Thank you, Chief.
Anybody else questions, comments,
concerns? Good. Good.
>> May I hear a motion to open this meeting
to the public?
>> Motion.
>> Second.
>> All in favor?
>> I opposed.
>> Would anybody from the public like to
come up and speak tonight?
>> You won't be up here.
Greg Ser 625 Yarmmouth Avenue. I just
want to thank Councilman Clark for
bringing up the McDonald's uh issue
because I usually do and you preempted
me from having to do it this year. So
I'll have to I'll have to mention it
all.
>> Well, it's funny as Alex was saying that
I was like perfect timing that Greg's in
the crowd because I believe that's come
up every year since I've been on.
>> We don't have access from the the from
the captain. He ran it for me with all
the accents. That's what Ed asked for.
That's what the state asked for. So I
think we're we asked for a meeting in
person. That's what we're hoping for.
So,
>> I mean, I'll chip in for the ballards
out there if that's it's a money's an
issue. So, you know, um and uh just so
you know, I there was a a meeting
canceled on Tuesday. It sounds like the
zoning board met on Tuesday and decided
not to have fun on St. Patrick's Day.
So, you know, we we were sucking enough,
but thank you.
>> I would like to thank Park and Play.
I was like see
um anybody else with the like to come up
and speak.
>> What the camera doesn't show right now
is this place.
>> Do I hear a motion to close the meeting
to the public?
>> Motion.
>> Second.
>> All in favor?
>> I
>> opposed. May I hear a motion to adjourn
this meeting?
>> Motion.
>> Second.
>> All in favor?
>> I
>> opposed. Thank you everybody for coming
tonight.