Location: at Dempster Fire Training Center, Lawrenceville, NJ

Call to Order – President Alain Fortier opened the meeting at 10:00 a.m. by Welcoming All to the Mercer County Demptser Fire Academy in Lawrenceville.

Self-introductions of all in attendance followed.

Motion to accept the December 9, 2009 meeting Minutes was made by Chris Sikorski and seconded by Chuck Giacobbi.

Melinda Williams commented that the Mandatory DOT training held on Feb. 23, 2010 at the Middlesex County Fire Academy was a “good learning experience” and liked that it was specifically geared toward household hazardous waste coordinators. A group discussion ensued about possibly holding training in a year or two due to the changing International Laws.

Bergen, Hunterdon & Gloucester counties all mentioned that they had lower event participation rates this past weekend (March 13 /14) due to high winds and flooding rains.

Updates: Sussex County & Hudson Counties have recently contracted with new HHW vendors. Morris County had an e-waste bidder that could not provide the required $3 million insurance. The company was disqualified and the contract was awarded to Creative Recycling from Florida.

President Fortier informed the group that WE Recycle (e-waste vendor from Mt. Vernon, NY) has offered to host the next ANJHHWC meeting and has suggested the month of June. Dave Smith from We Recycle has offered the Association a meeting site, lunch and a tour of their facility. Group has expressed an interest. ANJHHWC will look into van pooling or possibly getting a bus to run from several points in NJ.

Operation Medicine Cabinet – Special DEA Agent Douglas S. Collier stated that the youth of today are raiding medicine cabinets. Nearly 3 1/2 million pills, with a street value of approximately $35 million dollars, were collected during “Operation Medicine Cabinet” held on Nov. 14, 2009.
Angelo Valente, Partnership for a Drug Free NJ, spoke about the benefits of this project:

Brings attention to the problem of Prescription Medicine Abuse
Provides a method to safely dispose of unused, unwanted and expired medicines.
Received unprecedented media attention on the issue of prescription & over-the–counter medicine abuse.
New Website is: www.americanmedicinechest.com
This year’s collection date will be on Saturday, November 13, 2010.

Fiscal Expense: ANJHHWC voted to approve a gift card for the Robert Martinez, Union County graphic artist that produced the Vector file in the amount of $50.00 as a Thank You.

Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Sikorski stated that The current Account Balance at the time of the meeting was $27,988.96. Motion to accept the report was made by Fred Stranger and seconded by Melinda Williams.

Nominating Committee & Elections: Larry Gindoff and Reenee Casapulla gave the committee’s report. The nomination of candidates was asked to be dispensed with by Fred Stanger and to accept the slate of candidates as presented by the nominating committee.

President Fortier rejected the request and proceeded on a position by position open nominations basis; as there were no other nominations for the positions of Secretary, Treasurer and Vice-President. President Fortier closed the nominations for those positions and the secretary cast a single vote for each as per Roberts Rules of Order making them the new recipients of those offices.

As for the office of President there were 2 other nominations, which were declined. President Fortier closed the nominations as there were no other individuals willing to accept the nomination and asked the Secretary to cast a single vote for the nominee and thereby closing the elections. All nominations were accepted and approved.

  • President- Ron Berenato, Atlantic County
  • Vice President- Rich Bared, Bergen County
  • Treasure- Chris Sikorski, Middlesex County
  • Secretary- Larry Gindoff, Morris County

Adjournment: Regular meeting was adjourned at 12:10pm.