[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:02] All rise for the flag
[0:08] salute.
[0:11] To the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation on the
[0:18] God and the visible and deliberate injustice strong.
[0:33] Thank you, and good evening,
[0:37] everyone.
[0:39] Personal into the provisions of the open public meetings act.
[0:43] Notice of this regularly scheduled meeting of the Township Council of Marba was published in the
[0:53] Ansbury Park Press on December 23, 2025.
[0:57] It was emailed to the Ansbury Park Press, the Star Ledger, and the Board of Education on
[1:03] September 15, 2026.
[1:05] It was also filed in the Municipal Clerk's office.
[1:09] It was posted on the Municipal Bulletin Board and Barbara Township's website.
[1:16] Please note that this meeting is being brought to us live.
[1:23] Welcome, please. Council members, Melman.
[1:27] Scalia, absent.
[1:31] Fertie.
[1:32] Here.
[1:33] Thank you.
[1:35] Citizens, voice, Madam Clerk, do we have anyone?
[1:38] Yes, Council President Mr. Wapel.
[1:40] Mr. Wapel, please come to the microphone, state your name and address for the record, speak clearly and to the mic. You have three minutes, sir.
[1:49] We are in Wapel, 16-chounder Court.
[1:53] On the agenda, consent agenda, I see something here that's curious about authorizing the award of a state contract for tree removal services as a topahemis cemetery.
[2:07] I don't understand what that is about, in other words, the woods from the road, on the road,
[2:16] to inside the cemetery proper.
[2:20] That property belongs to the Episcopal Church in freehole.
[2:25] Marble doesn't own that property.
[2:28] There's only a path narrow paths that they left open for public to get back to that cemetery.
[2:37] So I don't know why there's something here with the trees.
[2:42] And if it has anybody here ever been back to that cemetery, the trees are down across the tombstones,
[2:49] what's left of them, a lot of them been damaged, and it's a mess back there.
[2:56] can anybody explain to me what this tree removal was? I think we can.
[3:03] Pardon? We can. I'm going to just tell you briefly that's part of our
[3:09] mom's County Marberl 250. We're doing some work over there. I'm going to let
[3:15] Mr. Capit's found upon it further in further detail. Can you use a mongapole?
[3:21] Sure. Can you hear me? Yeah. That's part of our 250 celebration. We're doing some work over there to improve upon the area.
[3:34] Is it the cemetery or is it the woods before the cemetery? Is it the cemetery proper?
[3:39] Council President, the work is being done on township property.
[3:44] On township property. We wouldn't do it on property that we don't.
[3:48] I'm sorry, I'm having a more time here.
[3:51] We're doing you on township property.
[3:54] Township property.
[3:55] Township, more bro township property.
[3:58] Yes, sir.
[3:59] What part of that property does a township own?
[4:04] The township at one point put up to sell it and do not enter.
[4:09] And the church holds them to take them down.
[4:12] Can't say the property from the roadway
[4:13] back to the cemetery is their property.
[4:16] Yeah, Council President, maybe it makes sense, there's a map, there's a project, there's a
[4:23] web site. Specifications, and we could share those all with Mr. Waples.
[4:30] Anything else, sir?
[4:33] Because if you're going to go back to the cemetery, it's going to be,
[4:37] I don't know what you can do, but that's historic property.
[4:40] And we want to preserve it as such.
[4:43] Thank you. Anything else, Mr. Waples?
[4:46] Thank you.
[4:47] Anyone else?
[4:48] No council president.
[4:51] Moving right along.
[4:52] Council speaks out.
[4:53] Councilwoman Bertie.
[4:55] Good evening everyone.
[4:56] I just wanted to say.
[4:59] Happy September to my bro and all the kids who are coming back to school.
[5:04] I hope they have a good year ahead.
[5:07] That's about it from my side.
[5:14] Mr. Billman, do you have anything to say?
[5:20] Thank you Mr. Stella.
[5:26] I also have nothing to report Council President, but I had the privilege I want to acknowledge
[5:32] of going to Marboros, September 11, ceremony.
[5:42] Can you hear me now?
[5:45] Is that better?
[5:47] Yes?
[5:49] I'll speak more to the microphones.
[5:52] No, that's okay.
[5:54] I was, I informed the Council President, I had nothing to report to her, but I wanted to acknowledge that I had went to, and I had the privilege of going to Marboros, September 11, ceremony, which was a great show of community solidarity.
[6:12] It's very easy to come together as a community to celebrate all the good times, the fireworks,
[6:19] fourth July, the farmers, market, and marbrodae, but it really shows the character of
[6:26] our community when we can come together to grieve and to fuel each other's pain and sympathize
[6:32] with one another.
[6:34] And that makes us an exceptional community council president.
[6:39] That's it for me.
[6:40] Thank you Mr. VP, can you hear me?
[6:44] Yes, okay.
[6:46] First of all, I just like to say since I last
[6:48] meeting in August,
[6:52] for me anyway, it's been a very sad time.
[6:56] First of all, we had to deal with the anniversary
[6:58] of Charlie Kirk's assassination
[7:01] and the very next day was Patriot Day.
[7:04] So that was a very, very intense week.
[7:07] Patriot Day was a very moving ceremony.
[7:10] Anybody that was here will tell you that we were all brought to tears on a number of occasions.
[7:18] Unfortunately we have to do this.
[7:20] We do it every year.
[7:21] This was the 25th anniversary.
[7:24] And every year I don't know for me it just seems to get harder and harder.
[7:30] Okay, so farmers market last week was canceled because of the weather yet again. This is summer winding down. The ortonal equinox is on Tuesday, so we can all look forward to the weather getting a little cooler. We have the children or all back to school as councilwoman burning mentions. We're having issues with the variety of things from busting to everything else.
[8:00] So, remember, please, while you're driving, keep in mind that the kids are out there and the buses are out there, remember to stop when you see a school bus with the flashing red lights, it's the law.
[8:15] And I want to thank our police chief.
[8:19] I want to thank you. The Jewish holidays, I pass by a number of Jewish institutions,
[8:28] synagogues and such, only to find our fine men and women posted outside of the facilities
[8:36] to keep everyone safe and it really brought me to tears again to realize that we need this
[8:45] the protection and the same age. It's very upsetting and I'm very sad about that. And we
[8:52] have yet another Jewish holiday coming up on Monday. The day of a torment, y'all am
[8:56] to pour us. So I wish all of our Jewish friends and family members a good fast. It's a tough day.
[9:08] Come on to stay, I'll be coming up and more. Okay, it's coming up on October 18th. Hopefully we'll
[9:13] some fun that day and we can smile. It's at the end of restaurant week so get ready to celebrate
[9:21] some good food and restaurant week in Marboro. Our next meaning is going to be on October 15th.
[9:30] So hopefully we will all be back to share some good times at that time. And I thank you,
[9:44] Thank you, Council President.
[9:46] Good evening, everyone.
[9:47] I'm going to get to the 250 art contest winners.
[9:50] In a moment, let me just run through my report first.
[9:54] I want to thank everyone in the community who came out to the September 11 event.
[9:59] It was 25 years, which is unbelievable.
[10:03] What people seem to forget is there were 14 families in Marbor who lost loved ones.
[10:09] And they have to come out every year and be reminded of that.
[10:14] Now, I reflect on that a lot, probably beginning in the beginning of August,
[10:18] but it accelerates up into the date on September 11th.
[10:22] And just think about how heavy that is for them and how hard it is.
[10:25] We've all lost loved ones, and you think about them at different times during the year,
[10:32] but you have a designated national holiday to remind you of the day your loved one was murdered.
[10:38] This is very difficult for them, and I want to just say how much, how proud I am of the community that we all come out and support them.
[10:50] There's an amazing crowd. I've seen other September 11 ceremonies, and there's none like we do it here.
[10:57] It is the appropriate mix of acknowledgement and memorial and I want to just thank everybody who is involved in it.
[11:06] It is not an easy task to pull off.
[11:08] So I'm going to mention some people, DPW, obviously, for keeping the actual memorial and tip-top shape.
[11:16] Our police, our fire, our EMS, the Marble High School Band, who comes out and takes time to play because it's that significant of an event.
[11:27] and just as I say every year I'm sorry I'm sorry the families have to go through it
[11:33] I'm sorry we have to gather and do this but we will continue to do it it's
[11:37] really important to do as a community excuse me farmers market open this weekend the
[11:44] barn is open it's been repaired I want to thank everybody who worked hard on
[11:48] that super excited our DPW will be there giving out leaf bags to more of a
[11:54] So you could start collecting so go to the former's market should be a great day, and I'm so glad the roof on the boron was fixed
[12:02] Council president mentioned restaurant week is October 11th to the 18th
[12:07] Check out the website for all the offers. We have a record number of restaurants attending which is amazing
[12:14] So everybody's gonna have a good time go out and try it. I actually last year
[12:18] We went to we went to set and I got to tell you
[12:22] I did an amazing meal there.
[12:24] And it's not a restaurant I frequently did a lot before,
[12:27] but it got me there to try some really good foods.
[12:29] So go out and try it.
[12:31] Marble has great restaurants now.
[12:33] So it's set or set a, it's one of the two.
[12:35] I'm not sure I even know, but it's good.
[12:37] It's both the same way.
[12:39] When you go out for a restaurant, we can take a picture
[12:42] of yourself, a selfie, and post it online,
[12:47] and use hashtag Marble Restaurant Week,
[12:49] in 2006 and Hashtag, I love Marrow.
[12:53] We're going to be about a small prize
[12:54] for whoever gets the most likes on Restaurant Week.
[12:59] So go ahead and participate.
[13:01] Our Super Bowl is Marrow Day, which is October 18th this year.
[13:05] It's about a month later from September,
[13:07] which I think is a good thing.
[13:09] It really captures the fall a little bit more.
[13:11] Sometimes we go out and it's brutally hot
[13:13] and it doesn't feel like it's a fall event.
[13:15] September 18th Recreation headed by Suzy Life for always does an amazing job just putting together this event comes
[13:23] swing by. The mayor's tent will have football on for all your football fans,
[13:28] Jets are playing the Patriots on a huge jet fan. So come on by you could deposit your loved one who's
[13:34] don't want to walk around. We watch adults and you could put them in a chair and front of the football
[13:39] games and pick them up when you're ready to leave. So it's good. On the agenda tonight a couple of things
[13:46] In 2006, 2012, authorizing, this was the Tree Removal Services on Tappany, Miss Cemetery.
[13:55] We could go into more detail with that.
[13:58] Our Historic Commission is led by Doug Tiltin, who's been hard at work.
[14:02] The Cemetery, interesting enough, was established in 1692, is one of the oldest burial grounds
[14:08] in Momat County and an important landmark in Moreboro's history.
[14:11] As part of the America 250, we are creating a path to the cemetery, making an important site to our history, so we could go see it.
[14:21] You know, we have these special places in town, but nobody could get there and nobody knows where they are.
[14:27] So let's get them there so people could enjoy it.
[14:29] You will also notice a lot of sidewalk work going around the town.
[14:34] This goes back to our first term when we were in office around 2009.
[14:38] We put forth a something called our connectivity plan where we mapped more of our where it should all be connected by sidewalks
[14:46] Well, low and behold 20 years later. We're actually doing the sidewalks. So said the government may be a little slower than it should
[14:52] But it gets thought if you hang in there. So we're we're connecting all these sidewalks you could go to place go to the schools go to the shopping
[15:00] Senate, but go to the historic sites too. We have a lot to offer as a town and we shouldn't forget our history. That's how you make mistakes.
[15:07] We are updating the historic marker at the site with goes into detail in the history and everything on that site is under the purview of the historic commission section. So, very excited about that.
[15:22] Um, I'm a county clerk put out a warning out there, so I'm going to reiterate it.
[15:30] Uh, I've been in touch with, uh, clerk, canland regarding the state's report on the increase
[15:34] in property fraud cases.
[15:37] I implore every home order to enroll in the clerk's program.
[15:41] It's W-W-W property for a lawyer to come for no cost.
[15:46] The fraud is, people are recording deeds, conveying your properties out from under you and recording it, and then they're going to get loans on it.
[15:57] And if, like many older residents, you no longer have financing on it, there's no way for you to know, because if you did record this deed, your lender would find out about it, and their lean would be on it anyway.
[16:11] So you have to be careful, so I give the clerk a lot of credit for this, record your property on this, so that you'll get, I believe the way it works is if somebody tries to do this, you're going to get notified.
[16:23] It is a theft happening across the country, bad people do bad things to good people, so we all have to be aware of it.
[16:32] So you guys are all warned, people watching tonight are warned, and we will continue to raise public service message about that.
[16:40] Elections season
[16:43] Some people call silly season is a is about to start this weekend just so you know if you're registered a vote by mail
[16:51] You should receive your ballot on Saturday
[16:55] I'd last time I don't remember if I wished everybody
[16:57] Shana Tava happy new year
[17:00] Yom Kippur is coming up. I wish everybody a easy fast a reflective fast and
[17:07] enjoy the good weather. Now on to the real reason most of you are here we have
[17:13] two winners of the Marbru 250 art contest for the kids portion we have Antonio
[17:22] Melendro where come up. We want second to come down in nature and for the adult we
[17:29] have Lauren Rosenblum is Laura come on up Lauren once that we're going to give you
[17:34] Awards.
[17:35] Lauren, my office has received a few calls from Green Breyer asking what time the meeting was,
[17:40] so your community was very supportive of your win.
[17:44] So I want to ask the council members, come down, let's join, let's take some pictures with the winners.
[19:15] That's our seat, we say it, so we get one to take, we have one on your quote page,
[19:21] but
[19:23] I have a deal with it, and we're going to do this.
[19:26] We work.
[19:27] And all right.
[19:28] There's a statement.
[19:30] On the correct way.
[19:31] On
[19:35] the correct way.
[19:36] And there's all right.
[19:38] And now we're going to go over there.
[19:49] To do it.
[19:50] And we're going to do this.
[19:53] We're going to go over the information.
[21:26] We're going to go over the information.
[21:30] Mr. Cap reminded me that the sidewalk work we're doing we're doing with 1.2 million dollars in grants that we got over the same period
[21:38] So it's one thing to plan. It's another thing to fund and he's reminding me that if we keep going after the grants the more side
[21:45] We'll get done
[21:46] Amen
[22:04] Okay, so next item on the agenda is the adoption of our minutes from the meeting on August 20th
[22:11] Can we have a motion to adopt the minutes motion?
[22:14] Second. Second.
[22:16] Roll call.
[22:18] Council members Melman.
[22:20] Yes.
[22:21] Isabella.
[22:22] Yes.
[22:23] 30.
[22:24] Yes.
[22:24] Denise L.
[22:25] Yes.
[22:26] Thank you.
[22:27] Okay.
[22:28] Ordnance.
[22:28] Number 10.
[22:30] This second meeting, and we're going to have a public hearing on this ordinance, which would amend the scattered site redevelopment plan dated February 19, 2026. Can we have a motion to open the public hearing motion?
[22:45] We have a second.
[22:49] Second.
[22:50] Roll call.
[22:53] Voice vote.
[22:54] Sorry?
[22:55] Voice vote for...
[22:56] Okay.
[22:56] Well those in favor?
[22:58] Aye.
[22:59] Yes.
[22:59] Okay.
[23:01] Is there anybody that wishes to address the council on this ordinance?
[23:10] Yes.
[23:12] Okay.
[23:13] Is Mr. Wapel?
[23:17] Okay. I'm just curious.
[23:20] Please.
[23:21] I'm having a hard time hearing tonight.
[23:22] I don't know why.
[23:23] Okay. I got super duper hearing aids and the sound system ain't working. In other words,
[23:33] when it says here, this is amending your de-ordnance. Now, what they call scattered sight
[23:46] redevelopment, there's some of these going on right now in the planning board.
[23:51] I take this as scattered. Yes, development. This is all part of our affordable housing for rounds four of the affordable housing that we have submitted.
[24:06] There's just guys that go with your affordable housing. Yes.
[24:09] Okay, did anybody spend any time looking into the, uh, we've spent plenty of time. Don't worry about that.
[24:17] We've spent plenty of time looking into it.
[24:20] In other words, whether Pike wasn't able to go to the planning board, but the word
[24:26] of y'all junkyard was on 79, they plan on building in there.
[24:32] And I was wondering how much remediation and stuff is going on in there for the pollutants
[24:39] and everything that will be on that property where the houses are going to be built.
[24:43] And there's only got to be one entrance going into that development coming out on
[24:49] Roof 520.
[24:50] That's going to cause a lot of danger there.
[24:53] We're going to wind up with a blinker light like we have on 79 down there by GoDex.
[25:00] Mr. Wapel, I'm going to ask you to please trust and believe that we have the community's
[25:07] interest at heart, and we have looked at all the possibilities, and we are getting all of
[25:15] our eyes dotted on our T's crossed, and we are doing everything that we need to do to meet
[25:23] the state requirements for the affordable housing, and do it in such a way that it will
[25:29] have the least impact on the community, and the least adverse impact.
[25:35] This is a win for everyone involved, trust and believe, but I'm going to throw it to anyone else up here on the panel that would like to expand further.
[25:47] Mr. Rape, none of us want to be in the situation having to modify our land to conform with the state ordinance, but we've done it in the least intrusive way possible.
[26:00] the focus has been on taking junk yards and overlaying them the possibility of
[26:09] houses being built on it. So we have 15 or so junk yards in town. Our concept
[26:16] has always been turn what we consider as a negative asset into a positive asset.
[26:21] And that's what we've done here. And so it was a creative way I appreciate the
[26:26] to support on it, there is no doing nothing here because if we don't decide a judge puts
[26:33] it on our farms and that we can't have.
[26:37] So that's where we're at right now.
[26:39] I hope that in other words, the entrance and exit to that place is going to be pretty hard
[26:44] coming out.
[26:44] So that will be done at the planning board level and looked at by engineers and experts
[26:51] that have to comply with law as it's not the purview of this governing body.
[26:55] Okay, since I got the mic the side walk down here
[26:59] No, this is not it's not it's not it's not open mic right. What I'm saying is thank you
[27:06] Oh, you say thank you. Oh, my guest to where we are right now now we just got to wait for the county
[27:14] Okay, Mr. Waypal
[27:16] Is there anyone else that wishes to address the board on this ordinance
[27:22] Seeing none, can I have a motion to close the public hearing motion?
[27:27] Second, second.
[27:29] All those in favor?
[27:31] This public hearing is now closed.
[27:34] Can we have a motion to adopt this ordinance motion?
[27:39] Second.
[27:41] Roll call.
[27:42] Council members, Melon.
[27:45] Hello.
[27:46] Hello.
[27:47] Yes.
[27:48] Bertie?
[27:48] Yes.
[27:49] Denizo. Yes, thank you. The consent agenda resolution number 212
[27:57] through
[27:58] 224
[28:00] We have a motion to adopt the consent agenda motion second
[28:06] All those in favor. Hi. Hi. Hi. I roll call please cancel numbers known in
[28:14] Yeah, Stella. Yes. 30. Yes. Denizo. Yes.
[28:19] Yes, can we have a motion to adjourn?
[28:25] Second.
[28:26] All those in favour?
[28:28] No.
[28:29] This meeting is adjourned.
[28:31] Thank you.
[28:32] Thank you, everyone.