Mt. Olive Township Council Minutes
October 17 , 2006

The Regular Public Meeting of the Mount Olive Township Council was called to Order at 7:33 pm by Council President Greenbaum with the Pledge of Allegiance.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE & MOMENT OF REFLECTION

OPEN PUBLIC MEETINGS ACT ANNOUNCEMENT According to the Open Public Meetings Act, adequate notice of this meeting has been given to the Mount Olive Chronicle. Notice has been posted at the Municipal Building, 204 Flanders-Drakestown Road, Mount Olive Township, New Jersey and notices were sent to those requesting the same.

ROLL CALL Present: Mr. Buell, Mr. Biondi, Mrs. Labow, Mr. Perkins, Mr. Greenbaum

Absent: Mr. Rattner, Mr. Tepper

Also Present: John Dorsey, Township Attorney; Mayor De La Roche; Rick Prill, Business Administrator; Sherry Jenkins, CFO; Michelle Masser, Deputy Township Clerk

President Greenbaum: Mr. Prill, you could move down if you wanted to?

Mr. Prill: Okay.

President Greenbaum: Or you could stay where you are, either way. The first item of business is the first resolution and the only resolution.

RESOLUTION

1. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount Olive Awarding the Sale of Block 4100 Lot 10.

Mr. Dorsey: RESOLUTION OF THE TOWNSHIP COUNCIL
OF THE TOWNSHIP OF MOUNT OLIVE
CONFIRMING THE SALE OF LOT 10 BLOCK 4100
TO RG Gold Mine, LLC

WHEREAS, the Township duly advertised the sale of Lot 10, Block 4100, commonly referred to as Combe Fill North, subject to the terms of an Agreement of Sale and in connection with which the Township must complete the In Rem Foreclosure action on Tax Sale Certificate 90-15; and
WHEREAS, the Township received sealed bids at the time and place advertised namely, at 7:15 p.m., on October 17, 2006 at the Council Chambers; and
WHEREAS, RG Gold Mine, LLC bid the sum of $10,051,000.00 and was the highest bid.
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Township Council for the Township of Mount Olive does hereby authorize the sale of Lot 10, Block 4100 to RG Gold Mine, LLC in accordance with the terms of the Agreement of Sale authorized by a Resolution adopted on October 10, 2006.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Mayor and Township Clerk are authorized to execute on behalf of the Township, the aforesaid Agreement of Sale and Escrow Agent Agreement with RG Gold Mine, LLC.

President Greenbaum: Is there a second to that Resolution?

Mr. Buell: Second.

President Greenbaum: Mr. Perkins, do you want to move that resolution and Mr. Biondi, do you want to second it?

Mr. Perkins: Yes. I move the resolution for the sale to Rockefeller Group.

Mr. Biondi: I will second that.

President Greenbaum: Is there anyone from the public who wishes to be heard on this resolution? Seeing none, I close it to the public. I have several comments. Number one, this was an issue which was originally, a concept which was originally brought to my attention by Don Hill who is the Chairman of the Board of Adjustment. It was raised originally at the time that Target was interested in pursuing the space down at the Sutton Plaza Shopping Center. When it became apparent that that shopping center didn’t fit the bill, in terms of the amount of space which Target needed to put into that shopping center and what that shopping center could ultimately sustain, Mr. Hill brought to my attention that we had this other piece of property in town. Namely, the Combe Field North Landfill, which might be suitable with respect to Target. Subsequent to that discussion with Mr. Hill, Mr. Rattner and I met with Mr. Dorsey to determine whether or not this was an issue that the Township could pursue. After a meeting with Mr. Dorsey, a meeting was arranged with Target and ultimately the concept took shape. Several other meetings occurred between Mr. Dorsey, Target, Mr. Rattner and myself. Council was involved in all of the discussions in terms of what was going on and ultimately the decision was made to move forward with the sale of the tax sale certificate. Thanks to Mr. Dorsey, the issues changed considerably during the process while we were developing this concept. Mr. Dorsey worked extremely hard to fine tune this particular sale and ultimately it has resulted in a number of major developers within New Jersey interested in the property and ultimately led to the award of the bid this evening to the Rockefeller Group. The Township, should all the pieces fall into place, will see the benefit of over $10 million from the development of this property plus an ongoing ratable at the site for years and years and years to come. Now, having said that, obviously, there are many hurdles that have to be overtaken to make this project a reality, the least of which is the environmental concerns on the property. The Township, is at least from the Council’s prospective, is inclined to do whatever is needed to help bring this project to an ultimate conclusion. We are very excited. I know I speak on behalf of the entire Council in thanking Mr. Dorsey for his tireless work on what will ultimately be one of the shining moments of his long and tenured career with Mount Olive. We all thank you very much John.

Mr. Dorsey: Thank you.

President Greenbaum: Does anyone else have.....

Mr. Dorsey: Just one change. It is the Rockefeller Group but the contract will be in the name of RG Goldmine, LLC and therefore the Mayor is authorized to execute the contract and to execute the escrow agreement because they have submitted the $100,000.00 which goes into my trust account.

President Greenbaum: I assume that that is an acceptable amendment to both the mover and the second?

AYE

ROLL CALL: Passed Unanimously

President Greenbaum: I know Mr. Goldstein left but on behalf of the Township, we congratulate him and his clients in terms of this successful bid.

Mr. Dorsey: I think we want to thank everybody who bid because interestingly enough, when the whole process changed, it was the result of a bidder’s information session which we held. There was a lot of input and a lot of significant, substantial bidders that helped do this and essentially what we have here is a very fair arrangement for these bidders, hence the high number because they get to do the due diligence, they get their approvals and we essentially become their partners to ensure this thing moves well. Thank you.

PUBLIC PORTION ON RESOLUTION

President Greenbaum: Is there anyone from the public who wishes to be heard on any issue this evening? Seeing none, I close it to the public. Can I have a motion to adjourn?

Mr. Perkins: So moved.

Mr. Buell: Second.

President Greenbaum: We will move out of the public meeting and we will move into our conference meeting of October 17, 2006.

ADJOURNMENT

Motion was made and seconded, all in favor and none opposed, the meeting was adjourned at 7:39 pm.

_______________________________
Robert J. Greenbaum, Council President

I, LISA M. LASHWAY, Township Clerk of the Township of Mount Olive do hereby certify that the foregoing Minutes is a true and correct copy of the Minutes approved at a legally convened meeting of the Mount Olive Township Council duly held on October 24, 2006.

_____________________________
Lisa M. Lashway, Township Clerk

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