Mt. Olive Township Council Minutes
May 22, 2007

The Regular Public Meeting of the Mount Olive Township Council was called to Order at 7:32 pm by Council President Greenbaum with the Pledge of Allegiance.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE & MOMENT OF REFLECTION for all those who have and continue to protect our freedoms and our way of life.

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. Tepper, Mr. Buell, Mr. Tobey, Mrs. Labow, Mr. Perkins,
Mr. Rattner, Mr. Greenbaum

Absent: None

Also Present: David Scapicchio, Mayor; William Sohl, Business Administrator;
Dominick DiYanni, Township Attorney; Sherry Jenkins, CFO; John Marchione, Tax Assessor; Lisa Lashway, Township Clerk

President Greenbaum: The first order of business this evening is the Presentation of the Finance Committee Scholarship. I would call Mr. Marchione and Mrs. Jenkins, are you also participating in this?

Mrs. Jenkins: Yes.

President Greenbaum: The floor is yours.

Mr. Marchione: I thank you for having me here today, Mayor and Council. I’m actually before you today for a very happy reason. As you may or may not know, Sherry and I have sponsored a scholarship offered by the Finance Department since 2002 which we award to a High School Senior who’s planning to major in Finance, Accounting or Business Administration. Some of the qualities that we look for are GPA, SAT scores, community service and work history. This year we are proud to offer the award to Andrew MacDonald. He has excelled in his academic studies, he’s participated in numerous community services, he worked as a dietary aid at Kessler Institute and he’s also worked as a lifeguard at our Municipal Beach. In the fall he will attend Penn State University and he’s even participating in the summer session at Penn State. So at this time I would like to call Andrew. Sherry and I would like present him with this plaque.

Mrs. Jenkins: WHEREAS, the Mayor and Township Council adopted a resolution authorizing the creation of a Finance department scholarship award on behalf of the Township; and

WHEREAS, the Finance department has received scholarship applications and formed a committee to review said applications and make a determination of award; and

WHEREAS, the scholarship committee has unanimously agreed to nominate Andrew MacDonald for the department’s 2007 scholarship award based upon his educational achievements and his extensive involvement in various activities and/or organizations that reflect a true sense of his leadership abilities and his desire to set forth an example of the best of our youth.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Finance department is pleased to present Andrew MacDonald with the 2007 scholarship award and wishes him success in his future endeavors.

Questions on Bill List?

President Greenbaum: At this point does anyone have any question on the Bill List this evening? Seeing none, we will move on with Approval of Minutes.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS

May 1, 2007 WS
Present: Mr. Buell, Mr. Perkins, Mrs. Labow, Mr. Tepper, Mr. Greenbaum, Mr. Tobey
Absent: Mr. Rattner

APPROVAL OF MINUTES (cont’d)

May 15, 2007 WS
Present: Mr. Buell, Mr. Perkins, Mrs. Labow, Mr. Tepper, Mr. Greenbaum, Mr. Tobey, Mr. Rattner
Absent: None

President Greenbaum: Mrs. Labow, do you want to move the Minutes please?

Mrs. Labow: I would like to move the Minutes of May 1, 2007 Work Session and May 15, 2007 Work Session.

Mr. Perkins: Second.

President Greenbaum: Moved and seconded. Is there any comments, deletions, or changes? Seeing none, Roll Call.

ROLL CALL: Passed Unanimously with the exception, Mr. Rattner abstained on May 1st.

CORRESPONDENCE

RESOLUTIONS / ORDINANCES / CORRESPONDENCE OTHER TOWNS

1. Resolution received May 7, 2007, from the Morris County Board of Taxation regarding the establishment of 100% as the ratio as assessed true value of real property as the ratio to be used with in Morris County for the purpose of assessing the taxable values to be used in levying taxes for the calendar year 2008.

2. Resolution received May 7, 2007, from the Borough of Rockaway requesting the New Jersey State Legislature to Adopt S-1990 concerning the overcrowding of certain dwelling units.

3. Ordinance received May 9, 2007, from Allamuchy Township regarding Land Use.

4. Resolution received May 10, 2007, from the Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills supporting Assembly Bill A-4122 which would require electric utility bills to separately list the amount of State Sales Tax, Societal Benefits Charge and Transitional Energy Facility Unit Rate Assessment Surcharge.

LEAGUE OF MUNICIPALITIES

5. Letter received May 7, 2007, from the New Jersey State League of Municipalities regarding League Seminar.

MUA / MSA

6. Minutes received May 11, 2007, from Musconetcong Sewerage Authority regarding the April 4, 2007 meeting.

7. Letter received May 16, 2007, from the Morris County MUA regarding Administrative Action Request Veolia Environmental Services, Flanders, NJ – Adding Acceptance of Regulated Medical Waste to the Existing Facility.

DOT / DEP / LOI / HIGHLANDS

8. Letter received May 7, 2007, from the State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection, regarding B&G Land Management Company – Notice of Violation Block 800, Lot 39 (164 Stephens Park Road).

9. Notice of Deficiency received May 9, 2007, from the State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection, regarding Remedial Action Report for 5 Summit Avenue, Mount Olive.

10. Letter received May 10, 2007, from the State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection, regarding Enforcement Action for Alnaz Corp, c/o Anthony Mortezai Block 7000, Lot 63 (9 Shop Lane).

CORRESPONDENCE (cont’d)

11. Letter received May 14, 2007, from EcolScience, Inc. regarding Application for a Statewide General Permit Number 11 for Block 103, Lot 2.05 (350 International Drive).

12. Letter received May 14, 2007, from the State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection, regarding Authorization for Freshwater Wetlands Statewide General Permits No. 8 and No. 10A Applicant: Alan Brown, Block 7600; Lot 68 (95 Mount Olive Road)

13. Document received May 16, 2007, from May 16, 2007, from the State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection, regarding FFY 2008 Proposed Priority System, Intended Use Plan, Project Priority List, and Proposed Changes to FFY 2007 Intended Use Plan.

14. Letter received May 16, 2007, from the State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection, regarding Potable Well Water Analyses in the vicinity of Shell Service Station 138353 site, 285 Route 206 & Flanders Road.

15. Letter received May 17, 2007, from the State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection, regarding Enforcement Action for Douglas and Susan Tack, Ronald and Marie Trinner, and the Mountain Top Assembly of God Block 8400, Lots 2, 3, and 7 (4 & 6 Naughright Road and 417 Route 46).

16. Letter received May 18, 2007, from the State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection, regarding the Community Forestry Management Deadline.

UTILITIES

17. Letter received May 7, 2007, from Comcast regarding the addition of TVG.

18. Notice received May 17, 2007, from Comcast regarding the NFL Network.

19. Fax received May 17, 2007, from Comcast regarding the NFL Network.

MISC

20. E-mail received May 3, 2007, from the National League of Cities regarding Leadership Training Seminar.

21. Notice received May 17, 2007 from the Department of Planning, Development & Technology regarding the 2007 Open Space application for funding.

COAH

22. Letter received May 17, 2007, from the State of New Jersey, Council on Affordable Housing regarding the Development Fee Ordinance Amendment.

LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVES

23. E-mail received May 4, 2007, from Congressman Frelinghuysen regarding Emergency Supplemental Funding for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Head Start Legislation, Importance of Science – Technology Agencies, and Community College Month.

24. E-mail received May 11, 2007, from Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen regarding House Takes up Latest Version of Emergency Supplemental to Fund Troops, Frelinghuysen Introduces Commuter Tax Legislation, House Passes Student Loan Sunshine Act, Peace Officers Memorial Day, and Frelinghuysen Honored by Garden Club of America.

25. Letter received May 18, 2007, from Congressman Frelinghuysen regarding NJOEM Hazard Mitigation Workshop.

CORRESPONDENCE (cont’d)

DCA

26. E-mail received May 9, 2007, from the Department of Community Affairs regarding Transfer of Development Rights Summit.

President Greenbaum: There are 26 pieces of Correspondence. Does anyone wish to comment on any particular piece? Mr. Rattner.

Mr. Rattner: Two items, number fifteen, a letter received from the State of New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection, telling us that our potable wells have been contaminated by the gas spill at the Shell gas station in Flanders. What have we done, because it looks like were exceeding the limit that they say is safe by a fairly large amount.

Mr. Sohl: It’s one well, number two. We’ve taken that off line. We’ve reactivated number one and we’re going to continue to monitor number two to see if it clears up.

Mr. Rattner: Now, can we collect anything if we have additional expense because of it? I guess Shell Oil Company has acknowledged…they had to because it was so obvious.

Mr. Sohl: Supposedly, my understanding, and I’ll double check with Tim, I’m not sure it’s traceable back to them at this point.

Mr. Rattner: Oh.

Mr. Sohl: I’ll look into it.

Mr. Rattner: The letter from the DEP says it is.

President Greenbaum: I think the point that Mr. Rattner is making is that we need to keep track of what expenses we have related to any action that the Township has to take and we need to assert that as a claim against who ever is going to responsible for the clean up.

Mr. Sohl: Right now we’ve had no additional expenses, we’re just doing testing.

President Greenbaum: Mayor?

Mayor Scapicchio: Rob, I think we need to keep track of that. I would also request that we have Mr. Dorsey’s office put Shell Oil Company on notice that we’re keeping track of that and we will hold them responsible for any additional cost and any remediation work that needs to takes place. Based on this DEP letter, that really puts the blame at their foot.

Mr. Rattner: This is the second one.

Mayor Scapicchio: Yes.

President Greenbaum: Very good, what else do you have Mr. Rattner?

Mr. Rattner: I have no idea what it is. It’s number seventeen from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, Community Forestry Management deadline?

Mr. Sohl: I do know what that’s about. Apparently they’re looking for an update of something called the Community Forestry Management Plan of which we’ve never had one.

Mr. Rattner: Okay, that’s what I kind of figured.

Mr. Sohl: Although there was an Ordinance that existed to create a Shade Tree Commission, we’ve really have never done that. I spoke with Kathy Murphy about this before she left on vacation. The process is not worth, in our estimation, the effort in terms of pay back.

Mr. Rattner: It caught my eye because it said that something was not responded to. Then if you looked at who it was addressed to it said “County or Municipality” so I kind of figured maybe it was something…

Mr. Sohl: I found it ironic that it congratulated us on out efforts so far.

President Greenbaum: We haven’t done anything.

Mr. Rattner: We didn’t do anything wrong.

Mr. Sohl: The reality was that we hadn’t done anything.

ORDINANCE FOR PUBLIC HEARING

President Greenbaum: Alright, any other comments on any Correspondence? Seeing none were going move on.

Ord. #21-2007 An Ordinance of the Township of Mount Olive to Amend and Supplement Chapter 400 Entitled “Land Use” Section 18 Entitled “Fees” of the Code of the Township of Mount Olive.

President Greenbaum: Does anyone from the public wish to be heard on this Ordinance? Seeing none, I will close it to the public. I will ask Mr. Tobey to move Ordinance #21-2007.

Mr. Tobey: I move for adoption and final passage of Ordinance #21-2007.

Mrs. Labow: Second.

President Greenbaum: Moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Roll Call please.

ROLL CALL: Passed Unanimously

President Greenbaum: Ordinance #21-2007 has passed on second reading and I hereby direct the Clerk to forward a copy of same to the Mayor and publish the notice of adoption as required by law.

ORDINANCE FOR FIRST READING – 2nd Reading 6/12/07

President Greenbaum: Ordinance #24-2007 entitled:

Ord. #24-2007 An Ordinance Amending Chapter 400 Entitled “Land Use” of the Municipal Code of the Township of Mount Olive, County of Morris and State of New Jersey to Amend and Supplement Article IX Entitled “Development Fee and Affordable Housing Contribution.”

President Greenbaum: This was the Ordinance which was sent down to COAH, which we now have the approval of COAH with respect to the situation that has arisen with someone knocking down a house and rebuilding. It doesn’t count towards our growth share obligation.

Mr. Sohl: It also alleviates the fee from the individual. There are three or four cases where we will now be able to refund.

President Greenbaum: Mr. Tepper, do you want to move that for first reading?

Mr. Tepper: I move that Ordinance #24-2007 be introduced by title and passed on first reading
and that a meeting be held on June 12, 2007, at 7:30 p.m. at the Municipal Building, 204 Flanders-Drakestown Road, Mount Olive, New Jersey, for public hearing, consideration of second reading and passage of said ordinance and that the Clerk be directed to publish, post and make available said ordinance in accordance with the requirements of the law.

Mr. Buell: Second.

President Greenbaum: Moved and Seconded. Any Council Discussion?

Mr. Rattner: I see we got a new revised copy. Can somebody just explain the change? This is only first reading so I don’t have a real big concern.

Mrs. Lashway: Page two, the word resolved was changed to ordained. Not very substantial.

Mr. Rattner: Okay.

President Greenbaum: Any other discussion? Roll Call please.

ROLL CALL: Passed Unanimously

CONSENT RESOLUTIONS AGENDA:

Resolutions on the Consent Agenda List are considered to be routine and non-controversial by the Township Council and will be approved by one motion (one vote). There will be no separate discussion or debate on each of these resolutions except for the possibility of brief clarifying statements that may be offered. If one or more Council member requests, any individual resolution on the Consent Agenda may be removed from the Consent Agenda List and acted on separately.

CONSENT RESOLUTIONS

2. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount Olive Relative to Mount Olive Carnival Week (7/26/07-7/29/07) and Mount Olive Community Day 7/28/07 and Rain Date 7/29/07. (signs & parking of RV’s)

3. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount Olive Rrequesting Approval from the Director of the Division of Local Government Services for Insertion of a Specific Item of Revenue into the 2007 Municipal Budget ($32,940.80 for Clean Communities Program).

4. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount Olive Authorizing the Use of a Purchasing Contract for Repair Service of Electric Motors.

5. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount Olive Authorizing a Refund of a Portion of 2007 Taxes and Cancel 2nd Half of 2007 taxes on Block 8440 Lot 52.

6. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount Olive Authorizing William Sohl, Business Administrator, to Execute a Treatment Works Application for Mount Olive Mews.

7. Resolution Authorizing a Public Works Interlocal Shared Services Agreement for Sharing Public Works Equipment and Personnel between the County of Morris and the Township of Mount Olive.

President Greenbaum: There are seven Resolutions on the Consent Agenda’s list. Does anyone wish to have any of them removed, Mr. Buell?

Mr. Buell: Number one.

President Greenbaum: Any others? With that Mr. Buell, do you want to move #2 through #7?

Mr. Buell: I move Consent Resolutions #2 through #7.

Mr. Tepper: Second.

PUBLIC PORTION ON CONSENT RESOLUTIONS

COUNCIL COMMENTS ON CONSENT RESOLUTIONS

President Greenbaum: Does anyone from the public wish to be heard on any of the Resolutions on the Consent Agenda? Seeing none, is there any Council discussion? Seeing none, Roll Call.

ROLL CALL: Passed Unanimously

RESOLUTIONS NON CONSENT

President Greenbaum: We’re up to the Non Consent Resolutions Agenda. The first one we’ll deal with is #1 which is entitled:

1. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount Olive Relative to Mount Olive Carnival Week (7/26/07-7/29/07) and Mount Olive Community Weekend with Fireworks Scheduled for 7/28/07 and Rain Date 7/29/07. (parking matters & waiver of noise ordinance)

Mr. Buell: I move Resolution #1.

Mrs. Labow: Second.

President Greenbaum: It’s been moved and seconded. Does anyone from the Public wish to be heard on this? Seeing none, I close it to the public.

PUBLIC PORTION ON INDIVIDUAL RESOLUTIONS

COUNCIL COMMENTS ON INDIVIDUAL RESOLUTIONS

President Greenbaum: Mr. Buell, I saw your e-mails that were circulated. I hope everyone saw them with respect to the concerns of the certain residents on Sunset Drive. At this point Mr. Buell the floor is yours.

Mr. Buell: I plan to vote for this because at this point in time contracts have all been signed. As far as I know it’s something that can’t be changed anyway in terms of the arrangement. First of all I would like to thank Kathy Murphy for responding so quickly to the first e-mail.

Mr. Sohl: You mean Jill?

Mr. Buell: Jill, excuse me. For responding to the first e-mail from this resident. It answered most of his questions but it still raises the lingering question of the fact that we’re going to have that noise. People on Sunset Drive are going to be subjected to that noise until 11:00 for the first four days. Then 2 a.m. on Sunday as they break down. Last year I think they indicated it was 5 a.m.

Mr. Sohl: It’s 11:00 Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Carnival wants to stop the rides at 9 p.m. on Sunday and then there is a break down. One of the things that we have expressed in informing the carnival people is that no music is to be playing. Granted there is some noise obviously associated with the breakdown of the types of equipment they set up and the rides but it should not be a free for all in terms of noise generation. Whatever is being generated, if they are not done and out by 2, it’s got to stop. And that’s on Sunday.

President Greenbaum: Is that it Mr. Buell?

Mr. Buell: Yes.

President Greenbaum: I just want to comment. I read something in the e-mail about Flanders Crossing, that this would not be allowed next to Flanders Crossing. I don’t know if that was meant for my benefit or just the residents of Flanders Crossing in general. I have to tell you that I would welcome the carnival across the street at Flanders Park. I think it would be a great service to the community in terms of convenience in limited duration. I took exception to that comment if it was directed at me in particular.

Mr. Buell: Plus the fact that when the baseball lights finally do go on that field, Flanders Crossing is going to have that issue most weekday nights during that period of time.

Mr. Rattner: Not pass 9:30 p.m.

Mr. Buell: No, 10:00.

Mr. Rattner: 10:00.

President Greenbaum: It’s limited and it’s unfortunate that it’s inconvenient for anybody but it’s a great service to the community that the Municipality provides. Any other comments on this particular Resolution? Roll Call.

ROLL CALL: Passed Unanimously

President Greenbaum: And by the way we do have St. Elizabeth’s Carnival every year which is basically adjacent to Flanders Crossing and it really is not a terrible inconvenience to anybody. In fact it is a convenient thing for the residents of that area of town, to be able to walk to the carnival and take full advantage of anything that is provided their.

Mrs. Labow: We have a summer concert series too.

President Greenbaum: Summer concert series in the park as well. Okay, the only other Resolution on the Non Consent Resolution is Resolution #8 entitled:

8. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount Olive Authorizing the Township Attorney and Tax Assessor to Execute Certain Stipulations of Settlement in the Morris County Tax Board.

Mr. Perkins: I move Non Consent Resolution #8 for approval.

Mrs. Labow: Second.

President Greenbaum: It’s been moved and seconded. Anyone from the public who wishes to be heard? Any Council comments? Mr. Rattner.

Mr. Rattner: Do we have a list of which tax appeals we’re settling?

President Greenbaum: Mr. Marchione?

Mr. Rattner: Usually we get that list so we know what the total value is and that type of thing.

Mr. Marchione: We do have a list that’s tentative right now.

Mr. Sohl: While Jack is passing that out we added this because we discovered, or recognized, that there was a three week window of no Council meetings. So that’s why it was not presented to you a week ago.

Mr. Rattner: I’m not questioning that.

Mr. Sohl: I just wanted that to be a part of the record.

Mr. Rattner: In the past we always received a worksheet saying what we’re voting on, instead of just doing it blindly.

President Greenbaum: This is it.

Mr. Rattner: Jack, do I read this…that if there is not a stipulated amount, there is no change?

Mr. Marchione: Those are still open items. Like Bill had just mentioned, we have until about the 10th of June to submit any stipulations and those are open items at this point and time.

Mr. Rattner: Then we’ll get a complete list just as soon as that happens?

Mr. Marchione: Yes.

President Greenbaum: Jack, do you need to give these back or it doesn’t matter?

Mr. Marchione: It would probably be a good idea that I get them back.

President Greenbaum: We’ll pass them all down to Lisa unless anyone has any particular reason to hold on to it. Are there any other questions?
Mrs. Labow: How many did we get this year Jack?

Mr. Marchione: I’m sorry?

Mrs. Labow: How many did we get all total this year?

Mr. Machione: We had about 100 residential appeals and then, of course, ARD came in with 270 appeals, Woodfield came in on their vacant land, about 92 appeals. Each one represents a vacant lot.

President Greenbaum: Are there any other questions?

Mr. Rattner: I have a comment. Since he’s already reached settlements with many, I think the next time something like this happens, the resolution should be written that we are giving authorization for the Tax Assessor to do that because of timing. This actually says that we are voting on the settlements and we really don’t have them. It’s just a wording thing. I don’t have a problem with it.

President Greenbaum: Did you hear that, Bill? I agree with Mr. Rattner. Any other comments?

Mr. Tepper: The comment is really to Jack. There is one specific neighborhood, I’m wondering why the range goes from 13% to 23% on homes that are almost contiguous it looks like here in terms of settled amounts.

Mr. Marchione: There are certain properties that performed some type of work that was not already included on the card, for example, a basement finish.

Mr. Tepper: Okay, thank you.

Mr. Sohl: We have no problem discussing items as they are but it may be wiser that if it is going to continue, to go into executive session.

President Greenbaum: Only if we are going to talk about specific settlements and we are not really talking about negotiations here. It could be litigation, I guess. If anyone has any particular questions regarding any particular settlement, then I think that we would need to go in to executive session otherwise I’d like to move this. Mayor, do you have something?

Mayor Scapicchio: I would just like to offer that if anybody has any additional questions concerning this handout out, they can actually call Jack directly and voice those concerns and Jack can discuss it with that individual.

President Greenbaum: Does anyone else have any questions? If not, I’m going to put it to a vote and I would ask that you pass it down or you tell me that you are holding on to it.

ROLL CALL: Passed Unanimously

President Greenbaum: Do we have everyones?

Mr. Tepper: No, I haven’t handed mine down yet.

President Greenbaum: Do you want to hold on to it for a little while?

Mr. Tepper: Yes, I’ll give it to you by the end of the evening.

President Greenbaum: That’s fine. We have one more resolution on the Non Consent Resolutions Agenda, entitled:

9. Resolution of the Township Council of the Township of Mount Olive Strongly Endorsing the Placement of a Flashing Sign on Southbound 206 to Warn Motorists of Possible Stopped Vehicles Ahead Making Turns into Oakwood Drive (i.e. northern entrance to Oakwood Village Complex).

President Greenbaum: This is the resolution relating to your meeting with DOT. I think it is a wonderful job that you have done and hopefully they are going to come back and approve the flashing sign. I get the sense that it’s kind of a no brainer but they wanted 30 days to think about it any way.

Mr. Sohl: The process.

Mr. Rattner moved for approval of Resolution No. 9 and Mr. Perkins seconded the motion.

PUBLIC PORTION ON INDIVIDUAL RESOLUTIONS

President Greenbaum: Is there any public comment?

COUNCIL COMMENTS ON INDIVIDUAL RESOLUTIONS

President Greenbaum: Is there any Council comments?

ROLL CALL: Passed Unanimously

MOTIONS

1. Bill List.

Mr. Tepper moved for approval of the Bill List and Mr. Buell seconded the motion.

ROLL CALL: Passed Unanimously

ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS

Mayor Scapicchio: Bill brought to my attention earlier this week or last week and that was with the handicapped parking over at the Library, the Library Board of Trustees would feel more comfortable if we had Gene Buczynski monitor the construction of those two spots.

President Greenbaum: You are going to have to get us a proposal from Gene on what it is going to cost and where the money is going to come from.

Mr. Sohl: I spoke to Gene this afternoon. He was in the building and he suggested that we use Frank Dolan as opposed to spending money to use his firm.

President Greenbaum: I would just like to know what the Administration is recommending. If it is going to be Frank Dolan, then we don’t need to take any action. If it is going to be Gene, then we are going to need to approve some kind of contract by way of a resolution and you are going to need to tell me where the money is coming from. I will put it back on the Agenda when you give me some insight as to where you want to go.

OLD BUSINESS

NEW BUSINESS

Mr. Buell: I came from the Park Committee meeting tonight and we were discussing what’s been going on up at Turkey Brook and evidently there has been a noticeable increase in vandalism up there including graffiti marking the garage for the Crips, a broken soda machine which was basically destroyed, two sets of bleachers that had to be taken completely out of service and repaired as well as many other issues. The indication was, are we giving the amount of police security we need up there to get this done?

President Greenbaum: I think the Administration needs to take that up with Chief Spitzer at this point in time. Perhaps what we need to do is to take a look and see if it is really a vandalism issue. After speaking to Chief Spitzer, we can take a look at whether or not we need to install surveillance cameras up there. I’m not sure that additional policing is going to be terribly beneficial but perhaps a surveillance system if it’s cheap enough it can do the trick in terms of stopping vandalism. Especially if they know that they’re being video taped.

Mr. Rattner: I think that came up last year. Our Public Works Department felt that there was a lot of vandalism. The Police Department came down and they think it’s normal. They talked about putting money in for some sort of surveillance. It makes sense for a lot of our different buildings. You can put one on the baseball tower, you can do one on the other one and you can show everyone going in and out. It isn’t only there, I think we need it here. Last year, talking to Tim we had like thirty cases of illegal dumping where people drove through our parking lot back behind the Senior Building and dumped garbage. That happened when we’re right here. So, no matter how many cops you have, with surveillance, now that they are doing it over the internet and with the discounts we get from the cable TV companies it may make a lot of sense to Mr. Rattner (cont’d): start looking at it because we already have the monitors.

President Greenbaum: Let’s find out from the Chief what he thinks in terms of vandalism and surveillance.

Mr. Sohl: I already got it marked.

President Greenbaum: Any other new business? I’m going to keep that on under old business Jim and I’m going to put it on for the next Workshop which is the 19th of June. That’s almost a month. I just want to get some feedback from the Buildings and Grounds and the Police Department in terms of vandalism. Okay, any other new business? Seeing none, we’ll move on.

LEGAL MATTERS

Mr. Greenbaum: No legal matters this evening?

Mr. Dorsey: No.

COUNCIL REPORTS

Recreation Liaison Report

Mr. Tobey: Nothing to report.

Board of Health Report

Mrs. Labow: We had our meeting last Wednesday; we approved our Ordinance for the fee changes. Mr. Rattner had asked us to give an accounting on why we wanted to have a fee for a second inspection.

Mr. Rattner: I just wanted to see how much money it would actually bring in.

Mrs. Labow: Well, the thing is they need some more direction. In order to get those numbers for you they have to go back and research all of the inspections they’ve done. For instance, the other day Carl was over at the apartments and they were not ready with one apartment. He said I have more to do, finish it up and I’ll come back and you won’t get charged for a second visit. He went back the next day and charged him $70.00 for a second visit. We had a lot of that happening and we just wanted to finally take action on it. It’s not something that we can actually give a number on how much more revenue you would have coming in.

Mr. Rattner: We talked about my thoughts on that. You would make an assumption that you have a problem, make an assumption on how many times you go back and based on that assumption you say this is what we’re doing and part of it isn’t just the extra revenue. It is to cut down on the number of visits not necessarily the additional fines collected. That’s what I was looking at, what the cost would really be. Any decision we make, especially when it comes to revenues, should have an analysis on it. It’s not a big number. It was enough to propose it so it’s enough to propose that we’re going to raise money.

Mrs. Labow: Right.

Planning Board Report

Mr. Tepper: There was no development activity taken. There was discussion on the extension for Rezamir, it was continued until the next meeting.

Board of Adjustment Liaison Report

Mr. Perkins: Standard business, Ternberry has been rescheduled to July 21st.

Open Space Committee Report

Mrs. Labow: I could not make the Open Space meeting. We did get a letter from Laura Szwak regarding the refurbishing of the Tennis Courts in Flanders. We did speak about it last month and the committee did send a letter to see if the community could raise some donations to refurbish the old tennis courts instead of having everything always coming out of Open Space. We would like some community support for these types of things instead of just taking it out.

Mayor Scapicchio: Rob, I’d like to see the Council give us some direction because I would like to move forward on that project. My initial response when I read that was that our contribution is the property. I’m not sure if everyone here feels the same way. I would also like to see how much money we have the in Open Space Fund, what is already dedicated to purchases we already had.

President Greenbaum: Sherry can certainly provide you with that information.

Mrs. Jenkins: I did do a monthly report of Open Space as well.

President Greenbaum: The bottom line Mayor is the Open Space Committee has taken the position that they have through their guidance successfully, and I have to agree with them, at least with regard to the position that they’ve taken; that they’ve successfully managed that fund. Obviously the Council is responsible but they managed to leverage $7 for every $1. While they’re in favor of the development of the tennis courts with the use of Open Space, they would like to see the dollars continue to be leveraged. I for one would love to see donations gotten from businesses in town and others with respect to redeveloping those courts. I’m not sure that it’s particularly practical at this point in time. I’m prepared to move forward simply with the cost as submitted by the Administration to refurbish those courts using the Open Space Funds. I would love to be able to get money from private businesses. I’m just not sure there is available money.

Mr. Tepper: I was going to say that I agree. We had the discussion and if the cost were reasonable I think we said that we would go forward. Mr. Quinn had some concerns whether it was reasonable to do earlier. If he comes back now and says that he feels it could be redeveloped with the cost of repaving it, then I think it’s a good investment.

President Greenbaum: It’s not a question of what it’s going to cost, it’s a question of how the dollars are being used. If we could say, Toys R Us, give us a $25,000 donation towards ARD or Rockefeller group give us a donation. We’ve gone back to the well so many times in terms of donations from the businesses that I’m not sure if this is the appropriate project.

Mrs. Labow: Basically what the Open Space Committee’s feeling is that we have to prioritize projects. We just can’t have these projects and say take it out of Open Space. We need to get a list of all the projects that Open Space money might be used for and then prioritize. Okay, we’re going to use “X” amount of dollars this year, this amount next year, we don’t want to keep zapping it out of there.

President Greenbaum: I can tell you Colleen that from a priority prospective that at this point in my mind it’s development of the properties that we already have.

Mrs. Labow: Absolutely, yes.

Mr. Tepper: My comment to that is I think we should prioritize projects but we ought to have a certain amount of funds set aside of that for not only acquisition of land but to Mr. Greenbaum’s point, development of the existing properties. From a recreation perspective you don’t usually get dollar contributions the way you do for acquisition of land. So I think from the development aspect that we should fund that. If we can get money that’s a wonderful thing but if we can’t we certainly should not put off development of existing properties for recreation.

Mr. Buell: Pete just ran away for a second. Pete is the Vice Chair of the Park Committee at this point in time. That’s where I was this evening; at the Park Committee. They are working on such a list towards the prioritization of all of the Parks including looking at the potential development of Blue Atlas next year and putting that into a priority hopefully within the next three or four weeks.

President Greenbaum: I can appreciate that, I agree wholeheartedly but I think that the tennis court issue is something which should be done. There is a need for additional tennis courts in Town. I’ve gotten that from a number of people.

Mr. Buell: The tennis courts are one of the top five projects.

President Greenbaum: The tennis courts are already there, they just need to be resurfaced. It’s an eye sore as it is now; it’s deteriorating and needs to be done. Unless I hear anything further, the direction from the Council is to move forward using the Open Space funds in the amount that was submitted by the Administration for Council direction.

Mayor Scapicchio: Rob, just on a side note the tennis courts and the people that participate in tennis are one of the few unorganized sporting operations in Mount Olive Township that do not really have a committee to be able to go out and raise funds. It’s just residents that go there to have a pick up game. So it’s not an organization like soccer, like baseball, football and softball. They don’t have the ability…

President Greenbaum: I don’t disagree with you. On that note let me add several other groups of people who I think are sorely under served by what we have provided to them. Number one, there are those people who like to use trails, we have lots of open land and we don’t have trails. There is nothing that could be of more benefit to the average homeowner in Mount Olive other than some place they could walk safely, run safely and we have the property. I think there should be some effort made to develop the trail system further than what was originally done by Colleen and her merry group. I think Colleen got lost in the woods for
about …

Mrs. Labow: Three years.

President Greenbaum: Three years, then had the Rip Van Winkle thing, came out with the beard. Secondly, this was discussed a long time ago. We need to be able to provide activities for those children who do not participate in the club sports in Town. Whether it is soccer, football, lacrosse, baseball, hockey, and we have talked about a skate board park for some period of time. A skate board park will bring in a group of residents of Mount Olive, youth in Mount Olive who do not participate in other sports generally. I think that’s something that should be considered as we move forward. Thirdly, I believe that the tot lot at Turkey Brook is undersized for our community. With a little bit of contribution, perhaps this is an area where we can actually go out and solicit funds to improve the tot lot. It would make a whole lot of difference to a whole lot of people in terms of the use of the park. I think that’s something that should be an Administrative priority. I know that there are people who would gladly volunteer to do the leg work to improve the tot lot up at Turkey Brook.

Mrs. Labow: I’ll address that issue first. I just want to say that I did come across a website this past week where you can apply for grants for playground equipment for children. I spoke to Kathy Murphy about it and she said a lot of times you have a better chance of getting a grant when it comes from an organization other than the Township. So I am going to bring that to the Kiwanis and see if we can apply to, it’s called Prime Time Games, and see if there is a possibility of getting some kind of grant to bring in some equipment. Also, I was looking in terms of playground equipment for handicapped children so that they can also utilize the park. The next thing as far as trails go, I had a meeting this past week with Kathy Murphy and Laura Szwak and Mayor Scapicchio stopped in also. There’s a bicycle group that has been building trails in Allamuchy State Park. We are now right to the point where we are going to connect their trails into the Fire Tower area, whatever we’re calling that now. They have had aerials done, they have sort of mapped out the place where they want to do the trails, they have some parking areas they want to put in which we’re going to bring before Council in a couple of weeks and hope to move forward with that. We also have a program, we’re going to go to some of the Boy Scout Troops to see if some of the Scouts may want to take on some Eagle Scout projects and build some rest areas along the way that they might need. So that just took place this past week and that’s really good news. Thank you for stopping by to see us.

Mr. Greenbaum: I guess were up to the Legislative Committee.

Legislative Committee Report

Mr. Perkins: No report Mr. President.

President Greenbaum: Mr. Perkins indicated to me this evening that because of a business conflict that he is going to need to give up the Legislative Committee. If anyone wants to pick that up as a committee assignment, Mr. Buell?

Mr. Buell: Yes.

President Greenbaum: You’re in. Speak to Mr. Perkins in terms of ….

Mr. Buell: Will do.

President Greenbaum: As our lone Democrat perhaps you’ll have some great success with the Governor’s office.

Mrs. Labow: There you go.

Mr. Rattner: You’ll have to go down to see him.

President Greenbaum: Yes.

Mr. Perkins: Put your seat belt on.

Mr. Buell: I’ll go down in the ambulance. That’s what I’ll do.

President Greenbaum: That was a scary thought. I actually saw Mr. Buell out with the fire truck the other day and I was only hoping that he wasn’t driving it because it’s too expensive to replace, Jim.

Mr. Buell: That’s what I thought; we would get two trucks in Flanders.

Pride Committee Liaison Report

Mr. Perkins: Thank you Mr. President. Getting ready for the Memorial Day essay contest, I did send a letter off to Administration today. We do have a lot of the sports groups that have attached a sign to the welcome to Mount Olive sign which needs to be removed. We’re going to have to come up with a better solution for them if they’re going to be posting signs all over the place. Other than that, no other business.

Board of Education Liaison Report

Mr. Buell: Yes, we actually met last night, three issues. One for information, Mr. Rattner filled in for me two weeks ago at the Board of Education meeting and they announced that they are going to contract out some routes for the transportation. Last night they discussed the details of this and there are some board members that are ready to change their vote to not contract these out. Basically what they are doing is they are contracting out ten routes. The ten routes that they are going to contract out are what they call the “quad package.” The quad package is a higher compensation rate that is bid on by the bus drivers and so all of the older drivers are going to lose the quad package eligibility because there won’t be anymore of that at this point in time. The other thing that came up last night which is causing the Board to rethink this, what they’re thinking of doing is instead of replacing the ten routes in various areas they’re thinking to replace all of the bus routes at Sandshore School which obviously the bus drivers are not happy with. I would suspect that we will hear something from the people at Sandshore. This is just for your information. The second issue that came up; again there’s been some controversy about the tricky trays.

President Greenbaum: I didn’t know anything about it.

Mr. Buell: Rosalie Lamonte did indicate to everybody last night that liquor can be sold at the tricky tray provided it is sold to someone who is 21, not sold but auctioned off or whatever. There must be a waiver that states that it cannot be…so they can sell/auction/raffle off... The third issue, they did talk about the drainage. For those of you who are not aware of it, we have a drainage problem that comes across the girls’ soccer field at the High School. It runs across some of the School House Lane residents homes and has caused some damage. Mr. Rattner indicated that they were waiting until June to try and get some resolution. Last night the construction company indicated that they determined that the girls’ softball field, which they think the prime cause of the runoff is because it has not been built to spec. They requested that the contractor rebuild it to spec and after it’s built to spec if the runoff continues then they’ll begin the process of trying to find out if it’s a design problem or whatever. So that’s not going to be resolved in the near future.

Mayor Scapicchio: A thought came to my mind that maybe they should use a portion of that $303,000.00 that’s in excess to make sure that this drainage issue is corrected appropriately.

President Greenbaum: Just so you know it’s a School Board issue. We don’t tell the School Board how to spend their money.

Mr. Rattner: The real issue is holding the responsible party to do it correctly. I think you heard Jim say that if it wasn’t built to spec the contractor has to come out and redo it. We had the same issue with the football field at Turkey Brook if you remember. At the meeting I went to a week ago, they had given the project manager until June 1st to say how it’s going to be resolved. A couple of Board members at that meeting made it very plain that they weren’t going to use their funds if they contracted out for a specific field to be built in a Mr. Rattner (cont’d): specific fashion, it’s going to be built that way and they were looking at getting an accounting of how much money they’ve been withholding from the contractor just to force them to do it right.

Mr. Buell: Then if they find out after it’s built to spec, then their thinking of going after the architect as a fall.

Lake/Environment Issues Committee

Mr. Rattner: Everybody got my recap of the cleanup. I put, as one of the final comments, we passed an Ordinance to try and control the loose docks. After we put the Ordinance in, everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Of course we ended up with a lot more docks that are washing around. The only thing is we’ll have to see about doing smarter is that none of the sections that we found had the identification that’s required in our Ordinance. At least then we would know where it came from. We have guesses but that’s all it is.

Safety Committee Liaison

Mr. Perkins: No meeting Mr. President.

Finance Committee Report

Mr. Rattner: No report.

Economic Development Committee Report

Mr. Rattner: The committee met this past weekend. There are a couple things happening. One, the new members of the committee are spending a lot of time talking to different business people and regional realtors about the good and the bad. Also at the same time in cooperation with the County Economic Development Committee they are interviewing the major businesses in the Town, trying to ascertain what they like, what we’re doing well, what needs to be changed and so on. I think when it comes out, I think some of the surprises are going to be that a couple of the businesses have decided not to participate. In fact, basically just lock the door and say they are not going to talk to anybody. They have gotten a fairly good response. We’re just talking about a few, out of maybe 35 or 40 that they’ve already gone through. Hopefully they will have a report. I guess it will go through the Mayor’s office because that’s who’s really spearheading it, probably later in the summer.

Mayor Scapicchio: Steve, why do you think some of those businesses have locked the door?

Mr. Rattner: I don’t have a clue. I wasn’t part of it. I’m just reporting what was there. Without giving names, there was one of them that we thought maybe we could get a contribution from… and it happens to be in Flanders.

President Greenbaum: Yes, big building huh…

Mr. Rattner: Somebody who has been a problem right along. Another one is one of our whiners of another business but that shouldn’t make a real big difference. They have some similarities on some of them.

Mayor Scapicchio: Good.

Solid Waste Advisory Committee Report

Mrs. Labow: I gave the report last meeting.

Library Board Liaison

Mr. Tepper: Only that they’re going to have another Public Meeting on Thursday of this week. Probable action, if I had to guess, on the allocation of the handicapped parking.

PUBLIC PORTION

President Greenbaum: At this point I will open it up to the public. Is there anyone who wishes to be heard on any particular issue? Yes sir, you in the blue t-shirt, jeans, sneakers, no the other guy, I’m sorry. Name and address please.
Scott Ireland, 6 Eric Court: Two comments I think, one with regard to the Open Space issue you were talking about earlier. In light of another group that may be represented, it sure would be nice to have a place in one of our parks, in my quest to help the short game of many golfers in Town and some unnamed golfers on the Council, a nice place to hit wedges would be nice in some of our parks. On a more serious note, a couple of weeks ago I sent an e-mail to everyone asking about the possibility reconstituting or ongoing, an internship for a couple of our high school students, one or two or however many we might be able to get in. It was a very worthwhile program; a couple years ago my son had the opportunity to do it. It looked great on his college resume, working in town government for a summer. I forget whether we got any money or not, it doesn’t matter. It would be a great thing if we could do that for the summer and I know as the School year winds down it may be an opportunity. Time is running short on getting that up and running possibly. So I would just like to possibly move that idea forward if it hasn’t already.

President Greenbaum: It has not moved forward.

Mrs. Labow: How does that work as far as…

President Greenbaum: Administration would handle this.

Mayor Scapicchio: Maybe Sherry can answer that because she had somebody intern in her department.

Mrs. Jenkins: He was actually in my department. I think that Frank also had some in the Health Department.

Mrs. Labow: I was just going to say, Frank does.

President Greenbaum: Is that something that you’re thinking about doing? Do we have money, was it a paid position? I assume it was.

Mrs. Jenkins: I don’t think that we paid, no.

Mayor Scapicchio: I actually think it’s a worthwhile endeavor.

President Greenbaum: How was it set up last time in terms of …

Mrs. Jenkins: I actually just thought up the idea and talked to whoever was here at the time and then we made it happen.

President Greenbaum: How did you end up getting applicants for the position?

Mrs. Jenkins: The School…

Mr. Ireland: I believe the School called me to be honest.

President Greenbaum: Why don’t we see if we can add that to this year’s summer program? See if anyone’s interested in doing it.

Mrs. Jenkins: Okay.

President Greenbaum: Thank you very much, sir. Anyone else from the public who wishes to be heard? Seeing none, I close it to the public.

COUNCIL COMMENTS

President Greenbaum: Sherry anything this evening?

Mrs. Jenkins: No.

Mr. Sohl: Memorial Day is this coming Monday. I would like to see all the Council people out up at the Middle School between 9:00 and 10:00.

Mayor Scapicchio: We have an informational session on the revaluation tomorrow at the Library at 7:30 p.m. We publicized it as much as we possibly can. We will have the professionals there to answer any questions that the public may have. Hopefully, we’ll have a good turnout.

Mrs. Labow: It came though the High School e-mail system.

President Greenbaum: I think you’re going to have a good turn out.

Mr. Tepper: No comments.

Mr. Buell: None.

Mr. Tobey: Nothing.

Mrs. Labow: Nothing.

Mr. Perkins: Nothing.

President Greenbaum: I hope your wife feels better. I know we all share in that.

Mr. Rattner: No.

President Greenbaum: Mr. Rattner, I hope your daughter feels better. Anything Dominic?

Mr. DiYanni: No.

President Greenbaum: Several reminders, Thursday is, as Mayor Scapicchio said, is the revaluation. I’m sorry tomorrow night. If you can make it, please do so. I will not be there I have my daughter’s eighth grade chorus concert. Saturday night is the Budd Lake Rescue dinner. So if you RSVP’d just a reminder it’s 7:00 p.m. in Belvidere. Monday is the parade and motion to adjourn.

ADJOURNMENT

Motion was made and seconded, all in favor and none opposed, the meeting was adjourned at 8:22 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 June 26, 2007.

_______________________________
Lisa M. Lashway, Township Clerk

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