On Monday, April 13th, the Mayor and Borough Council held their meeting. During public portion, a larger than usual number of residents stood up to ask questions and share concerns.

The first resident, who is also a business owner, spoke about how there are "many buildings are very dirty and even moldy from the past 5 years from the flood" and called out abandoned buildings as well.

They said Manville could use some "beautification" and inquired into ordinances that make building owners responsible for taking care of their locations. This resident mentioned the former beautification team and indicated it would be nice to start that up again, especially with this being the 250th anniversary. They even offered to help lead the effort.

The second resident asked a question regarding a lawsuit in which they, along with the Borough, are named in. Borough Attorney Scott Salmon confirmed the lawsuit, but could not discuss anything further. He advised the resident they should seek advice from an attorney as to how they should proceed.

The next residents who spoke came to the Council to see what they can do for them regarding a neighbor who bought a single-family home and is renting it out to multiple people for the last year and a half.

After providing the Mayor and Council with handouts, they went on to explain they also own rental properties, which are registered and inspected regularly. It appears this neighbor is renting out the basement which is contributing to noise, partying, and multiple cars coming and going.

Councilwoman Camacho responded to explain the rental registration process and asked if they are registered. Mayor Onderko interjected to say that "this situation is quite different, it's owner occupied. It's a basement that was finished with 3 separate rooms, a full kitchen and bath with a separate entrance."

The mayor continued, "We have an ordinance that says you cannot rent your basement. Now whether they are sleeping down there, I don't know but you cannot rent your basement. There's activity going on that these people have observed that it's obviously being rented. Now, I guess the question I have is always how do we enforce it?"

As the property in question appears to be owner occupied, there are privacy rights in play that prevent the Borough from entering the home. There was a lot of cross talk between the residents, Mayor and Council up at the dais that could not be heard by those in the audience or on the official recording of the meeting. It appears these residents presented an ad showing this "basement" apartment for rent.

Borough Administrator Siboni started to respond to the resident who asked why the Borough Police couldn't just "run the plates" of those living in this residence. The Mayor was quick to stop her for the Borough Attorney to comment. Attorney Salmon indicated "it's not as simple as just running the plates" and that there are "procedures that we have to go through with the motor vehicles to get the authorization to be able do that".

It appears there may have been a pending case against this homeowner, however Mayor Onderko stated that "the court dismissed the case mainly because I was involved in the case. It had to get moved out of jurisdiction because the property owner lied to me as an elected official. And I felt the judge needed to hear from me so the court moved the case to another county, and at that point the prosecutor there didn't even want to give me the courtesy to meet with me to review the evidence and dismissed the case. So we are in limbo in terms of how we go about preventing this from happening all throughout our town."

These residents continued to speak well over the allotted time of 5 minutes, with much of the conversation not being heard from those in the room or on the audio. These residents wanted the council to "come together and tell us what we have to do to deal with this problem".

The Mayor responded "well, I, I, speaking for myself whose been involved in this case, I think it sits squarely with the Borough Attorney at this point as to what the next steps are. Um, we have an ordinance, it needs to be enforced, you cannot rent your basement. We have evidence that a basement rental is going on how do we enforce it, how do we stop it?"

According to the Mayor's own comments, it appears the Mayor interjected himself into the case which resulted in a change of venue, and then a dismissal. It is curious as to why the Mayor would be engaged in this way, and why he would not trust those tasked with handling these matters.

After some additional back and forth, Borough Attorney Salmon said that since the ad for the basement apartment was "new", they could "share this with the zoning officer and see if they could write up a citation and go from there".

The Mayor then had a question for the Borough Attorney, asking "Do we have entry rights no matter what since now that we have proof of a potential violation. If we go out there with a violation does the homeowner have to let him in?" Attorney Salmon responded: "No, not for this type of violation, no".

The Mayor continued, "so then you'll never see beds in the basement because they'll know they're coming and they'll move them". He continued, "the key to this case is a legal issue outside my realm, I am not a lawyer or a state police officer but we had the license plates, you had the license plates of the people living there for over a year. Who are these people? Why can't we identify who the vehicle owners are and get them subpoenaed into court to find out where the hell they're living? It is that simple"

These residents were permitted to speak for almost 15 minutes when the Mayor stopped the previous resident because their "5 minutes were up".

The next resident got up to share a concern with spring sports, specifically the soccer program. They had not heard anything after registration closed on March 9th and sent an email on April 1st to inquire as they had not heard anything.

On April 6th, the coach sent an email saying they just got the roster, April 10th was the first practice with April 11th being the first game. The resident stated "From the time registration closed on March 9th to our first game April 11th that was exactly 33 days. In 33 days at our first practice on April 10th guess what? The coach had no soccer balls, no goalie equipment, and no uniforms for our first game. So, we increased fees, I pay a service, and nothing was provided."

Administrator Siboni responded "I was notified of this on Saturday by a parent and I did respond to them and I did follow up with it today. There was an oversight with the equipment which we have addressed and the equipment's already been given to the coach."

The resident asked when the equipment was given to the coach as they had spoken with the coach Saturday after the game. Administrator Siboni confirmed as of today the coach does have it and that uniforms should be received on Friday. They couldn't order the uniforms until the roster was finalized.

It was also stated by the resident that a kid had a soccer ball taken from the game on Saturday. Since there was no game ball, they used his which they alluded the other team took. Administrator Siboni said the family could reach out to her and she will replace the soccer ball.

The final resident who spoke, reiterated a lot of what had been previously discussed, including concerns with school funding and the fact the Superintendent will not provide a "legitimate mailing address for every student that goes to Manville High" and how this town "lost over a 150 homes how is our school population greater now than it was when I graduated in '67?"

They recognized the work of the #3 Ladies Auxiliary on a successful pierogi casserole fundraiser and that the Office of Aging and Disability has a resource expo on April 25th from 10am to 1pm which will include health screenings at the Bridgewater location.

All residents are encouraged to attend council meetings and speak up on issues concerning them. The next meeting of the Mayor and Council is Monday, April 27th at 7pm.