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HomeMy Public PortalAbout1996/01/11 The Agenda Meeting of the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Carteret preceding the Regular Meeting January 18, 1996, was held on January 11, 1996,7:00 P.M., Council Office, Municipal Building, 61 Cooke Avenue, Carteret, New Jersey. The following were noted present: Mayor Peter J. Sica Councilmember Deborah Bialowarczuk " " James Failace " " Jack Fazekas " " William Feingold " " James O'Brien " " Sam Semenza Also noted present was Borough Attorney Robert A. Hedesh. Mailed to The Home News & Tribune, The Star Ledger and posted on the bulletin board on January 4, 1996. MINUTES FOR APPROVAL: December 27, 1995 & January 1, 1996. BIDS: Comminutor - Dorothy Street Pump Station. CERTIFICATE: Patrolman Michael Huchko, Re: Police car lettering. TO ADDRESS GOVERNING BODY - John Wanskus. Mr Wanskus was not present. ORDINANCES: Public Hearing- \. #95-61 Vacating Borough-owned property, B-208, Lots 6.01 & 6.02. RESOLUTIONS: 1. Renewal of Junk Yard License - Barch's Auto Wreckers. 2. Authorizing Bids - Volunteer Fire Chief's vehicle. 3. Payment of Liability Claim - Fiore. 4. Approving Amusement Game Distributor's Licenses for 1996. 5. Approving Amusement Game Device Licenses for 1996. 6. EUS - Global Indemnity Insurance for Business Auto & Umbrella Policies. 7. EUS - Firm, Inc. for Law Enforcement & Public Officials Policies. 8. EUS - Gartland & Company, Inc. for Workman's Compensation. 9. EUS - Boynton & Boynton for General Liability Insurance. Mayor Sica noted that if you lump the insurances together it is about a $20,000.00 insurance premium increase over last year The reason we are going this way is because we are getting hit with $25,000.00 deductibles. Everybody sues the City of Carteret and we get hit with $5,000.00, $10,000.00, $15,000.00 and the insurance company is not going to fight for us. Why should they fight when they can settle it for $10,000.00 or $15,000.007 Now we have a zero deductible We won't see a savings this year only because we have so many JANUARY 11, 1996 AGENDA MEETING January 11, 1996 ROLL CALL STATEMENT OF MEETING NOTICE JANUARY 11, 1996 AGENDA MEETING -Continued outstanding ones /Tom last year In the next year we'll have a savings because they have to eat everything that comes up now or they have to really fight for us We also got better coverage. Harold Ferguson did a good job on it. Blue Cross & Blue Shield is going up 15% and we are arguing with them now; We don't know how successful we'll be with them but we were really successful with these other ones. The Mayor explained that Boynton & Boynton is the company that got us the zero deductible. REPORTS: 1. Clerk's Office - December 1995. 2. Fire - November 1995. 3. Inspection of Buildings - December 1995. 4. Office for the Disabled - 1995 Annual Report. COMMUNICATIONS: 1. Twp. of South Brunswick & Monroe Twp. - resolutions in support of Underground Facility Protection Act Amendments. 2. NJ Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Plan - 1/22/96, 1/23/96 & 1/25/96 in Trenton, Jersey City and Glassboro, respectively. 3. Woodbridge Twp. - resolution requesting State to amend Municipal Land Use Law, Re: Remove Cellular Communication Towers. 4. PSE&G - Application for Freshwater Wetlands Permit for natural gas distribution system - new construction. Comments accepted. MATTERS FOR DISCUSSION: 1. Borough Engineer's Report. In the absence ofMr Parmar, the Mayor gave the following report. The final inspection on Hayward Avenue is in progress and there are no major issues there. On Bergen Street, the permanent power is now there and the electrical work is completed. They are getting ready for final inspections. The Dorothy Street Pump Station comminutor is going out for bid on 1/18/96. The industrial sampling & testing bids are also advertised. The contract documents for the Sports Recreation Facility were finalized and it is advertised for re-bid. He said that he, Mr. Parmar and John Wanskus went over them the other day. There were a few minor things that had to be changed and they did that. The Clerk asked if they want a resolution to re-bid. The Borough Attorney said that the resolution rejecting the other bids may have had the re-bid in it. It will be checked. 2 Councilman O'Brien said that he saw in the newspaper that we are going to separate some jobs out. Mayor Sica noted that we want to get the lights up ASAP. We want to have that field lighted by May so that when Little League plays, they will have 2 fields. He said that he got Dauman to donate at least 50 loads of mulch for the landscaping of the Pop Warner field. He has 50 loads of sand They will mix the sand and the mulch together and make our own topsoil. We'll save $20,000 to $30,000 doing that. At that point in time it may behoove us to buy the sod and have our own men put it down. Why should we pay somebody .50 cents a square foot to put sod down if we can do it for .25 cents a square foot. We could do these things ourselves and pay for it out of bond money and we should do that even if we have to hire 5 or 6 men for a couple of days to put the sod down. Mayor Sica said that the library preliminary drawings are submitted and being reviewed by the library board and the senior citizens. If they like the final design then we can get the completed drawings within 2 or 3 weeks and go out for bid on that. Mayor Sica noted that he thinks that they are going to take the marina job away /Tom John Wanskas. It's a little bit beyond his scope. It's more engineering work than anything else. He said that he's been in contact with Angelo Valetutto. He was the engineer fro Woodbridge for about 10 years and he's on his own now. He helped to design the Sewaren Marina. He's coming in with a bid of about 5 or 5 1/2%. Our best bet is to put it on a professional service resolution giving it to him. He has a good rapport with the DEP and the Army Corp. of Engineers. Maybe we can get it done faster by splitting them up. It's too much for 1 guy. Wanskus is trying but it's too much. Councilman Failace asked what happens to what we've already paid on it. The Mayor said that it doesn't matter He was getting 61/2% of the total of everything. If we take x-amount of dollars away from him, he's still hasn't gotten paid anywhere near the money that he's going to get eventually. It's just deducted. He didn't do any work on it to speak of. He went to Trenton a couple of times. Councilman Failace asked if the bulk of the money went to the other projects. The Mayor said yes and we'll adjust it accordingly. Councilman Fazekas questioned what other project Mr Valetutto worked on. The Clerk said Sewaren. The Mayor explained that he was the engineer for Woodbridge for at least 10 years. He was there under 2 or 3 mayors. Councilman Fazekas asked ifhe was doing more work down there. 3 The Mayor said yes. He has that kind of a background. He said that he thought that it would be a lot of architectural work but it's really not. It's more engineering work. He said that he has some more people that he wants to tap, other Borough residents. He said that he will make other proposals, even with the shopping center There are some local people that have some knowledge of this kind of area that we can use. We're not going to pay them but we can use them. Mayor Sica stated that the review of the as-built payments for all of the road work, namely Middlesex Avenue, Varga Drive and Larch Street is in progress. We pay them as they go along and the final payment is not made until it's all reviewed by the engineer JANUARY 11, 1996 AGENDA MEETING -Continued JANUARY 11, 1996 AGENDA MEETING -Continued The Mayor added that the temporary flood relief arrangements on Beverly Street is done. Power is awaited as of 1/4/96. What we did there was put temporary pumps in. We didn't get any electric to them yet. Councilman Fazekas referred to the inspection report of the pump station and noted that he just wants to make sure that the engineer looks at it. He said that he is more concerned with the 2nd page, the second paragraph regarding corrosives. The Mayor said that he is sure that this report must have gone to Mr Parmar Councilman Fazekas said that the only reason he mentioned it was because he mentioned that there were no major problems. He said that he doesn't know if they are major problems or not because he is not familiar with it. Mayor Sica said that /Tom what he sees, they are not major problems. The corrosives are a matter of changing a piece of pipe. He said that he didn't see anything real major in the report and that is what Mr. Parmar is saying, that there's nothing major Councilman Fazekas said that is all he wanted to know. The Mayor added that he is sure that Mr Parmar will take corrective measures on them. 2. Arthur Stupar - asking for refund of money paid for trees that he never received. The Mayor told the Clerk to turn this over to the Parks Department. The Clerk said that is where this came /Tom. Mayor Sica noted that you can't get the trees until the trees come. The Clerk asked if she should hold this. Mayor Sica said yes. 3. Olga Galvin _ Resigned /Tom Local Assistance Board. Need to fill vacancy of term which expires 12/31/96. The Clerk asked if anyone had any names to submit or should she hold this Mayor Sica said to hold it 4 4. Ralph DeFrancesco - Requesting ordinance, Re: zoning revisions. Mayor Sica told Attorney Hedesh to review this. 5. Office On Aging - 3 vacancies on board. Mayor Sica told the Council to feel free to submit any names they have. 6. John Vesey - Resigned from the Zoning Board. Need to fill vacancy of term which expires 12/31/97. The Clerk told the Council to submit names. 7. C-3 Operator- a) Tony Stuppiello - Requesting to be re-hired as C-3 Operator b) Alexander Biel, Jr. - Requesting appointment as C-3 Operator. The Clerk stated that Tony Stuppiello was our C-3 Operator in 1995. Now there is Al Biel, Jr. that has his licenses also. The Mayor said that it is a part -time job and we have to have a licensed operator. If the Council wants to interview them they can. It pays about $10,000.00 a year Councilman Semenza said that he'd like to talk to the one because they know Stuppiello. Attorney Hedesh suggested that they discuss this in closed session. Mayor Sica agreed. 8. Patrick DeBlasio - budget hearings. The Clerk said that Pat DeBlasio sent a letter that he wants to hold budget hearings January 23, 1996. Mayor Sica asked the Council if this was okay. . Councilman Failace said that he already sat down with Patrick and the date is fine. The Clerk said that she wanted to make sure because the meeting starts at 6:00 and she wanted to make sure that everybody is available. Mayor Sica added that most of the things in the budget are pretty well dictated as salaries. There's not that much money to play with. BUSINESS TO BE ADDED: 5 Councilman O'Brien said that he has something for closed session concerning personnel. Borough Attorney Hedesh said that Councilman O'Brien asked him for an opinion on the public defender and he forgot but it is being written and in his box tomorrow. Councilman Failace said that he read the letter rrom Harriet Derman concerning discretionary aid and discussed it with Patrick. One of the JANUARY 11, 1996 AGENDA MEETING -Continued Public Defender Discretionary Aid JANUARY 11, 1996 AGENDA MEETING -Continued points they make is that they are getting a lot tougher now. You're not going to get much discretionary aid if you don't have much inter- local agreements with other towns. He asked if this can be looked into. Mayor Sica explained that there are very few interlocal agreements we can use. Councilman Failace asked what happens then. The Mayor said that unfortunately, if we were a town in North Jersey, we'd have a lot ofinterlocal agreements because one town has a fire truck and it takes care of two. What are we going to do in Carteret? Where we can assist one another, we do. We have the crusher, which is private, but it's used as an interlocal agreement because he has an agreement with Woodbridge that they can bring all of their concrete over and he doesn't charge them anything for it. They can't lend us their machinery. Even in a snow emergency like this, what could Woodbridge have loaned us? They were looking to borrow rrom us. Interlocal agreements are good if you're going to go self-insured and you have 2 or 3 towns doing it. We tried that and that's when we went bankrupt in 1980, over insurance costs. It killed the budget and made us go broke. There's not many things that we can do. Councilman Failace asked what happens if we can't. If we demonstrate that we did as much possible to help the other towns, it's not a problem. One of the things we're working on right now because we are an enterprise zone, is building that 2nd phase of the Industrial Road. That's an interlocal agreement. There are not many things we could use...First Aid. Sometimes we are short First Aid and Woodbridge is short First Aid, so that's an interlocal agreement. We use their First Aid and they use our First Aid. Mutual Aid in the Fire Department is an interlocal agreement. If Carteret has a problem, Woodbridge sends trucks here to man the firehouses while we fight the fires or if Woodbridge has a problem, we send the trucks there. That's interlocal. Councilman Failace asked ifit is our expense if we go to Woodbridge and Woodbridge's expense if they come here. Mayor Sica said yes. Councilman Failace said that he wanted to know if we fit into that category. The Mayor said that we've gotten discretionary aid all of the time so we must qualify somewhere. Councilman Failace said that he made some calls and it seemed as though they're going to make it tougher 6 The Mayor added that it is a form that comes every year. Attorney Hedesh said that we use Linden for our dog service. The Mayor said that they are looking at buying paper, etc. with other towns. That's fine but when you take the cost of going to get the paper, then it's cheaper to buy it through the state contract. Attorney Hedesh stated that they are looking to eliminate school districts. Councilman Feingold said that he has something to discuss in closed sessIon. Councilmember Bialowarczuk asked if there was something that we could get into the paper about people abusing the workers when they're plowing. When you have to ask for a police escort to Chrome, something is wrong. Mayor Sica said that it is the same every year People don't understand that you can't push 30 inches of snow at one time. We have to keep going around, especially on our streets that are so tiny. The best one was Beverly Street. We never had a Beverly Street until this year. They were screaming about when the street would be opened. The snow drifts were 5 or 6 feet deep. Those big machines that he owns that cost $250,000.00 couldn't get through. He said that he spent 1/2 hour going through Beverly Street that normally would take 4 minutes. People were screaming that Beverly Street wasn't open and nobody lives on Beverly Street. No town was as good as the City of Carteret. Even the bad streets are down to bare pavement. Councilman Failace agreed. Councilman Fazekas said that he wants to talk to Attorney Hedesh about putting Carteret on the Internet. There might be some legal matters. Mayor Sica said that we want to get on the Internet, saying what we have to offer Attorney Hedesh said that he doesn't see anything illegal. He doesn't even think that we need as resolution. You wouldn't have a resolution to send a letter Mayor Sica said that we will have to have some kind of resolution because it's got to be worded somehow. Attorney Hedesh noted that he needs to know what it will be for The Mayor told Councilman Fazekas to sit down with Attorney Hedesh and he offered to sit down with them also, to write up a good basic description of what we have to offer, like tax incentives, urban enterprise zone, availability of the turnpike, water, rail and we'll put it on the Internet. Councilman Fazekas asked the Mayor for a memorandum to be sent to the departments that he will be doing an audit, an inventory of their computers. Mayor Sica said that he will do it tomorrow. 7 Councilman O'Brien asked if public hearings on ordinances or resolutions could be put up there. Councilman Fazekas said that we had better go slow. Attorney Hedesh said that his impression is that if you are putting an announcement in of the town, as long as it is authorized, he doesn't think that we need a resolution but he would like to sit down with JANUARY 11, 1996 AGENDA MEETING _Continued Snow Plowing Internet JANUARY 11, 1996 AGENDA MEETING -Continued him so they can discuss what he wants to do. Mayor Sica said that he would love to put ordinances on it and not have to give the newspaper any money. Attorney Hedesh said that the statute hasn't progressed that much. Mayor Sica said that maybe we'll be the first ones. Snowstorm Councilman Semenza said that the Streets & Roads Department has done a great job under Ted Surick. When the snow first started, he called a quick meeting with Mrs. Bialowarczuk and Mr Failace and they made sure that Mr Surick had cooperation from the other superintendents. We always get the normal complaints. Being an ex- chief and still a fireman for over 30 years, years ago the people would take pride in making sure that a hydrant in their area, anywhere on their street, would be dug out and made available That is so important and now we have to send our firemen to dig out hydrants, which can be detrimental to the people in town because if we do get a structural fire, we have people spread out all over the place We need more cooperation from the town. Councilman Semenza said that they should consider alternate side of the street parking for snow emergencies in the Hill Section. Mayor Sica said that it should be looked into for the whole town. Parkview is just as bad. Attorney Hedesh asked if they want to do alternate side of the street parking during snow emergencies or during snow cover. Mayor Sica said yes. It's a good idea. Mayor Sica thanked evelybody that helped out in the snowstorm The worst part of Carteret is that bridge and never once was it shut down in this whole snowstorm. No part of Carteret was inaccessible to anything. He said that he responded to a First Aid call from Orchard Street Park and plowed the snow in rront of the ambulance. He said that everybody did a great job. We've invested some good money in brand new plows, angle plows. If we didn't have that and some of the big equipment available to us, we would have never gotten through this thing. Recreation Commission Attorney Hedesh said that he was asked to look at the appointments on the Recreation Commission. Their was a confusion. The statute says that it starts so then everything ends on December 31 st. We started in the middle of the year. The only other thing we have like that is the Housing Authority which was set by the infamous lawsuit. We have an appointment there. 8 Mayor Sica told the Council to let him know if they know anyone that wants to serve on the Recreation Commission. Attorney Hedesh said that the Borough has an easement going to the property by the bank that wasn't bid on yesterday. The Borough has an easement for the purposes of reaching the garages and he wants to go to court to vacate his easement. Attorney Hedesh said that we are selling the property and we should do an ordinance to vacate our easement. It was our access to get into the garage If he has a problem with any of the neighbors, that's his problem. The easement was drafted by Mr. Abazia back in 1986 and it talks about for the purpose of reaching garages. If we are going to vacate all of the property, for us to get into any litigation ... Mayor Sica asked who gets the property if we vacate the easement. Attorney Hedesh said that the woman has the property. It is an access easement to her property for us to get to the garages. Evidently, Ruskowski sold it to her and ...(inaudible)...must have had it before that It's a restriction on her deed. Mayor Sica asked how we get to that property if we give up the easement. Attorney Hedesh said that we are not going to. We're going to vacate it. She's going to get most of the property. This is just an easement. The Borough Attorney said that John Spoganetz, Esq. had the land sale yesterday and nobody bid on the property. The Borough Attorney said that he has 3 things for closed session. Mayor Sica asked if anyone in the audience wanted to speak. Jim Petrocy from Jim's Signs said that Gloria Goodrich told him to come here. On Middlesex Avenue he put up a sign about 2 years ago for ASA Apple The trucks come down and have no idea with all of those buildings, where to turn in. He put up a sign for ASA Apple and got a permit. He went for a permit for the next property for Fritz Company. They want a sign. They've got something up there temporarily. They got permission. It's just to tell the trucks to make a left hand turn. The Mayor asked what the problem was. Mr. Petrocy said that the problem is that where the sign goes is on Borough property Mayor Sica told him to put the sign up. Borough Attorney Hedesh said that we may need a resolution but that he will talk to him after the meeting ~- 9 George Malek suggested that the welfare recipients shovel snow. Mayor Sica said that they will look into it. JANUARY 11, 1996 AGENDA MEETING _Continued Easement Jim's Signs George Malek -Snow Shoveling JANUARY 11, 1996 RESOLUTION #96-14 RESOLUTION #96-14 was introduced by the Mayor and referred to the Council for action. Closed Session Upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Semenza and Bialowarczuk RESOLUTION #96-14 "RESOLUTION TO GO INTO CLOSED SESSION" Adopted was adopted. Upon individual roll call vote, Councilmembers Bialowarczuk, Failace, Fazekas, Feingold, O'Brien and Semenza voted in the affirmative. .- ADJOURNED TO CLOSED SESSION At approximately 7:40 P.M., a closed session was held to discuss personnel matters and pending litigation. OPEN SESSION At approximately 8:09 P.M., upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Bialowarczuk and O'Brien and unanimous affirmative vote of the full membership present, the meeting was opened to the public. ADJOURNED There being no further discussion, upon MMS&C, by Councihnembers Failace and O'Brien and unanimous affirmative vote of the full membership present, the meeting adjourned at approximately 8:10 P.M. Respectfully submitted, I ,~~~~~~~.~ Municipal Clerk -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- -m --------------------------------------------------------