Good, good evening everybody. Um, it's October 23rd, 2025, 7 PM. This is the Burough of Aldo Mayor and Council combined to work in regular session meeting. Welcome to everybody at home as well. Linda, will you please call the meeting to order and read the Open Public Meetings Act announcement?
>> In compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act, the notice requirements have been satisfied. The meeting dates for the year are confirmed at the annual meeting, are posted on the public bulletin board in the municipal building and on the burough website, published in the record within the first 10 days of the new year, and copies are sent to the
Ridgewood News and Star Ledger. Notice of this meeting by the October 14, 2025 sunshine notice was sent to the record, the Ridgewood News and Star ledger, and has been posted on the public bulletin board in the municipal building and burough website. Councilman Yakarino
>> here. Councilman Oul here. >> Councilwoman Homeman >> here. >> Councilwoman Lovaso >> here. >> Councilman Dawisio here. >> Councilman Okonnell here. >> Mel Wisinski >> here. Everybody please stand to the standy
and justice for all. >> Praise. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very light agenda today. We have um the second reading of our ordinance to amend um our our fees for our cat and dog license. It's just a slight increase. We
have our consent agenda, which are matters that um are routine. A few things just to note. We hired another part-time building monitor for our community center. So, we're being very active there in the evening. Yay. We have our um seventh phase of the West
Allenale Street Skate Project. Our downtown's looking really sharp. This is our last phase of Sunia. And we have um our list of bills and then also solicitation for bids for janitorial services. And that is our agenda for tonight
everybody. So with that, I would like to open the meeting up to the public. Any public comments on agenda items only, please? Not seeing anybody. Uh, ordinance 25-7. Linda, please read. >> The following ordinance published here
with was first read by title only on October 9th, 2025 and posted on the public bulletin board of the lobby of the municipal building and burrow website. Ordinance 25-17, an ordinance to amend, supplement, and revise the code of the burrow of
Allenale animals chapter 93-2, 93-11, and 93-17. 17. Not seeing anybody. Bring it on back. And I'd like a motion uh to approve 25-7. >> So move. >> Second, please.
>> Second. >> Councilman Yakarino. >> Yes. >> Councilman Otul. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Homeman. >> Yes. Councilwoman Lisolo, >> yes. >> Councilman Delisio, >> yes. >> Councilman Okonnell, >> yes. >> I have a motion to approve the consent
agenda. So moved. >> Second. >> Councilman Yakarino. >> Councilman Otul. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Hman. >> Yes. >> Counciloman Lisa Solo. >> Yes. >> Councilman Delawio. >> Yes.
>> Councilman Okonnell. >> Yes. reports. I think we'll start on the other end. Councilman Aano. >> Thank you, Mayor. I'm uh touching base with Joe Romano. That's one of the scouts for the scout project. So, if
anybody has ideas, please text me. I have a meeting with her tomorrow. We've been playing phone tag the past couple of days, so I'll have a better idea of what's going on for tomorrow. >> Thank you, Mayor. Great. Thank you very much, Councilman Deosio.
>> Thank you, Mayor. The DPW committee, we met last Friday morning. Um, everything is moving moving along. Uh, DPW is prepping for the incoming winter. Uh, they're getting equipment prepped and ready, getting our vehicles checked over, getting our equipment checked and
serviced. Uh, they're prepping up for leaf pickup. I just want to remind residents that uh there are free bags down at the DPW for people who need them. It's two packets per person. So please uh if you want those just go down to the DPW facility injury. Uh other
than that the uh DPW worked on some of the fields four, five and six are complete and they're preparing to complete the rest of the one two three and also the grand stand that's coming. Um continuing to clean out the old water
building that's now owned by Via. Uh that's getting pretty much near the end. There's a couple old container boxes that were emptied. uh some old stuff was uh thrown away, got rid of. One box they're giving to the Allenale Fire Department to use next to their facility
and some of their equipment and then the other two boxes will go behind the DPW for storage ourselves. Um miscellaneous tree branch repair and things of that nature. Uh we changed some signs and also still monitoring the roads, potholes, and prepping for the coming
winter and then next spring work on the budget. So pretty much everyone. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Yeah, that was a really good meeting. So, thank you for leading that up. >> Councilwoman Lisa, >> well, more really good meetings we had this morning. >> Did that was a marathon meeting today. >> We started off with our land use
committee meeting and then segueed into our finance meeting. Uh so, land use committee met this morning as usual. It was a packed agenda and as we are in the last quarter of the year, we wanted to tie up some outstanding issues still lingering.
um some of our residential property issues that our burough staff is dealing with and taking care of was addressed. Um also our building department and Kota and engineer are also clearing up old outstanding cos permits and things that predate many of our ten years here
working and serving the burrow. Um they work in conjunction with our burough administrator and CFO Alison Alano and are doing a great job clearing up all the issues for our business district. We continue to remind our business owners about our signage rules. As a reminder, as it is
part of our burough code, we do not allow neon signs like open signs in the windows of our businesses. Also, our code used to say, actually, it still says that we do not allow back signs, but we've come to realize that perhaps
the better term for that is illuminated silage, not right, not back. So, we are going to be cleaning up and clarifying the rules around our signage. Signs have come a long way and perhaps back to >> and so have light bulbs.
>> And so have light bulbs. Yes. And you know what is it? The Kelvin. You know the whole >> Kelvin. Yeah. >> 2700. >> Right. So we are back signs in town will be happy with while trying to
maintain our charming downtown feel. >> Yes. While we're tightening up the language in our code, we're also I'm also working with our shade tree committee um to address steeper penalties for the clear cutting of properties without bur approval and ways of starting a tree fund for homeowners
to contribute to if they are unable to plant replacement trees on their property. So, that's being worked on as well. Looking forward, we're taking some big picture approaches to things in our town. We're going to be laying out a long-term and short-term plan for improvements to our sidewalks and
streets in town and working up a realistic budget for setting up a schedule for the next few years and literally mapping it all out like big map laying it all out. Um it's time again to revisit our sump pump program for Allenale, making sure that pumps are
draining where they should be and trying to creatively think of ways people can drain their pumps to the street without actually emptying into the street. um that will be working from our engineer today. So great meeting this morning. Uh like I said, we went into finance and for finance we're just
taking a look at upcoming projections for next year including our wonderful 250th celebration of this nation and the uh coordination we be doing with organizations in town for events and some fun things to do in town. So that
was it. >> Perfect. Thank you very much. That's a woman's moment. Yes. Uh so as far as sewers go, I'm gonna let Rey update us on many of the legal challenges as we
continue to face. And I think it's important just for us to again reiterate that Sadd River, as many residents know, is in the process of building a lot of or and potentially building a lot of new
units. And all of those units appear to desire to utilize our resources. And so we really do need to continue to work hard to protect Allenville resources to reserve them for Allen.
And it appears to be coming becoming more difficult, legally challenging. And all we can say is we're going to try to continue to do all the things that we can do to ensure that uh we protect our resources and appropriately charge
Saddle through Saddle River. users of our sewer system. Um, as far as in Allenville, sump pumps are a really important area for residents to ensure that they are checking that their sump
pumps do not dump into the sewer system as well as not dumping into the streets because on the one end for the sewer system, it increases the bills that we would be paying. And obviously going into the street, especially as we hit the cold water, we can have freezing
issues. Um, as far as water updates, uh, things are going along as smoothly as they ever can with water, but certainly we want to make sure that residents are are aware that we are going to be keeping track of Saddle Rivers, the most
recent claim that they brought against to see if there was any move forward. Excellent. Thank you very much. >> Councilman Artulo. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh the public safety committee met earlier this week with a
couple of new hired candidates. Uh once again, we're fortunate to have two fantastic options, but we came to consensus with the hold. Uh Chief Dylan is working on next [snorts] steps with this future officer. So, we shall have a swearing in.
>> Yay. Um, also a big thanks to all of our agencies for their assistance during the 5K on Sunday. It was great to see everyone out there working to keep everyone safe uh directing traffic, blocking the roads, cheering [clears throat] on the runners, or even a couple of them running. So, it was a
great day. Fantastic weather. >> Thank you for running. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mayor. We've been uh fielding and facilitating many things on the parks and facilities. Um as Councilman
Dallasio stated in this report, we're very happy to have culminated our field three, four, five, and six project. Um as such, myself and DPW superintendent attended the Allen Recreation Committee last week, I believe it was, and it was
received uh very well our efforts in town with regards to the field. We received many compliments um and um many words of encouragement at this meeting. So, we're very excited to continue working with Chuck, Mike Muchi, and the team. Again, very productive meeting. Uh
we're also going to be bringing back turf blankets uh which we'll have ordered in the very near future. Turf blankets for those who don't know um are used during the winter months in high wear areas on the fields. Um and we use that in tandem with sod or seed fertilizer. Uh so you know if it snows
it pushes down the uh turf blanket and it helps um I guess airate the soil in some regards. So when the next season comes we have some really u nice field conditions. So we're really excited with that. So I'll leave a bit. Thank you. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. Um okay
staff reports real quick elections coming up. >> Yes. So, I was just going to say um November 4th is the general election and um I've included in the newsletter a bunch of information on um the election uh including voter registration, which
actually um the deadline passed. It was October 14th to register to vote for the in the general election. Um, three ways to vote. Voting by mail, finding your polling location, uh, becoming a poll worker, secure ballot dropbox locations,
track your ballot, in-person early voting, and, um, October 25th through November 2nd uh, is the early voting period. And the deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot by mail is October 28th.
And the deadline uh for in-person mail and ballot applications is November 3rd at 300 PM. And that's it. Report. Um a lot of people uh actually covered most of the stuff. I did want to
rearrange that. The 5K run was super successful. It was in memory of Ambel Res Sharon Duran um who made $44,000 which broke all records. um thanks to everybody um being so generous as well as the foundation and I've actually
double what you made. So um really really happy spectacular day in Allenale. We had 300 people running as well as so many family plans there. So it was just a great day for um the fair share housing continues. We had our town hall um October 7th. I've
received so much positive feedback from that. people were really appreciative that we went out and we were transparent and talked about the challenges that we are having with fair share housing. It continues. We are being challenged as well as 400 other municipalities. And tomorrow I have a series of meetings
with our um you know attorneys and planners and then we're also going to be meeting with Fair Share Housing and then later on in the afternoon meeting with the adjudicator. So, uh, Ray and I just had a little strategy session on what they feel that we can say. And to reiterate what council president Hullman
said, we are, um, basically supplying all the infrastructure not only for our housing, but for Saturn also. And I have to put out a good story for Allenale and be for Allenale, if you will, to say something's got to give here. This is
just not fair. What What do you expect us to do? And and Amy, I I just have to say thank you so much for being on top of all this because I think it's very easy for mayor and council to get run over by stuff. Sorry.
>> No, no, no. It was just funny because Ray just said the same thing. He said, "Because you're well versed in it, that's probably why they want you to speak." But was I as I was saying that I stood up for RA support. [laughter] I was going to get out cheap. But I mean it it it really is because so
many communities and and you know we're not going to win every battle, but you're certainly not going to win battles that you're not willing to become educated for. >> Yeah. And I feel like we have a we have a very good story. We have not activated our responsibility. We are the forefront
and all around. We are the you know started the special needs housing for hub for that. So we have a really good story. So I'm going to tell that story on behalf of Aldell residents to the judge tomorrow. Um uh we had many church
meetings um this week. I actually also had a meeting with Bishop Chef Sapparido and uh we spoke for over an hour and discussed um the what people were calling the mergers. But what was really clear to me was that it is a merger of
governments and not a merger of buildings. And I think that's the most important uh thing for residents to remember going forward if there is some chance that a building may get uh sold because there is there is places in New Jersey where there might be say five
churches in a town and there's no Catholics anymore there is there some things may happen but if the church is viable and the property is viable and the community doesn't want it most likely it's not going to happen and if it was even a process the process is not even starting for a couple years with some for selling. So we uh so I do still
plan on um talking to the cardinal. I am going to write a letter to the pope. I want to put Allenell on the map that we are we love our church and we want our church to stay a church. But even if it didn't stay a church, it would be something else for the community. It wouldn't necessarily be sold. So that
was very important. Um it's run like a business. Quite frankly, it is a business. Um each church is their own little entity. U more to come on that. So we have an open house in our community center tomorrow. Our community center which for just about around a
year since we've had it open. It's been used by almost every volunteer organization that we have. And um but I just came to my you know thinking that there may be some people out there that have not seen it. So we're having an open house from 3 to 7. Um thanks to
Amanda and Die for working really hard on this. There's going to be um face painting, pumpkins, cider games. Uh it's going to be a lot of fun. So bring the kids and it's from 3 to 7. Walter walk over say hi
and check out our community. >> Get your face seated. >> So as we mentioned, we had a really long land use board meeting today, but a lot of great uh things that we talked about. One in particular that um Councilwoman Livel talked about was our five-year strategic plan for sidewalks and roads.
We're going to have a big visual um plan um kind of make have it make sense. He's going to have to go out five years or more because uh it's very expensive to pay roads and to and to uh build sidewalks. So, we don't know yet what's feasible, what's not, but we're going to um we're going to tackle that and go off
the grants. So, we look forward to diving deeper into that. Um we also actually started our budget conversations today. So, we're already working on our budgets for next year. And I think that we can get for me and my apologies to our burough attorney for
your report. >> Thank you ma'am. Uh other than ordinary course things working with with you our administrator clerk and chief unfortunately uh has spoke to you in the council president most of our time this last meeting has been spent on litigation matters. Um the the two that
are occupying most of the time one of them is the Avalon matter. Uh and that goes to really what council president was talking about that uh is an issue of whether we are obligated to provide sewer service to a property located in an adjacent community that has 275
units. Uh a portion of which fall under the heading of low and moderate but the majority of which are market units. Um it is a for-profit project. The transcript of the trial proceedings just came in. We are working on a repellent commission brief. Um and uh it is a it
is a threshold issue that uh ties not only to the Avalon project but uh as I mentioned this is a third round Saddle River project. There are other third round Saddle River projects and Saddle River as far as I know is not proposing any new sewers for their fourth round. So apart from what the mayor is
addressing in terms of our own fourth round obligation, um we have a challenge that our neighbors don't face in that uh uh our neighboring communities don't face in that one. Saddle River does not have any uh sewer infrastructure. So we're looking potentially at accommodating not only their own needs
but the needs of Saddle River. That's the Avalon litigation. Uh the other one is a litigation uh as we mentioned before involving homeowners and it's a question in terms of uh whether a historic easement that has been used to provide I think about 20% of the
wellwater to our community uh uh over a uh a multi-deade more than 30 years at a minimum period of time um is consistent or not consistent with an ethan uh we are fairly confident uh and this one we we do have a partner in the
their position, our position on this aspect is the same. Uh that the historic use of easement uh reflects that it was always intended to be part of the well system, the water system uh in our community. Uh the judge has recently decided to forstall further factual
discovery which is a positive because frankly that would been a very expensive attorney proposition uh and to address the core issue of the historic ement versus the historic use of the property. Um so I think that that actually was to the benefit of all litigants. Um so that
issue will probably be decided sometime the month of December. Uh then um separate from that is the ancillary issue of the proposed and certainly not expansion but the proposed use of that same easement for peox treatment. Uh
there the argument is really more a biolia argument than a burrow argument. Uh the notion there being that historically the well um had to be chlorinated in order to meet clean water standards. Uh under new standards uh PAPOS has to be addressed. So Molia's
position is that this is the natural expansion of that which is required as a matter of law. Um and probably we we agree with that position but the legal aspect of it is really more. So those two issues are are on the court's
agenda. Briefs will be submitted later this month, early actually early next month and then the court will probably grapple with this issue in December. That's it. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Any new business or old business?
Not seeing anybody. I'd like to open up the meeting to the public on any matters. Anybody from the public wish to speak on any matters? >> Yes. It's anything going on with the >> Well, you have to come up and state your name and address. >> Yes,
>> the 38. >> Uh, I don't know. Something should be said about the [clears throat] our green team. this effort work that they're putting into
cycling is above and beyond. >> I agree, >> Mark. Uh, as a member of the dream team, I applaud what he does, but he's crazy. [laughter] >> It's on record.
[laughter] >> Wasn't one. >> He's a great guy. I I like what he does, but he's got he does much. >> Thank you. >> Really does. You keep up with him. Takes a bunch [snorts] of people to do that.
[laughter] I I can't I cannot keep up with the man. >> That's okay. No, thank you, Walter. We do support um uh you your efforts and Mark's efforts in the beach. No, thank you. >> And he's read some uh some high school students that have done some great
cleanups, things like that. So yeah, it's it's motivating. So that's wonderful. >> The high school kids have not been helping much. I know last fire and none of them showed up. I >> I think they're doing they've done some
cleanups. So I know they've done cleanups through town. So they may not be doing Sky areas. I think Marcus acknowledged that >> to say that >> I don't have the record reflected. That is
a positive praise. >> We'd like positive. We like positive comments. Excellent. >> I do. Thank you. That's so wonderful to notice. >> Anybody else from the public wish to speak? Please come up and state your
name and your address, please. L 23 Colonial just curious um I I checked the Saddle River lawsuit. I don't know if there's anything else going on with the Ailia um about the water filtration. There any updates there? the water
filtration. At this point, we have the um the NJD is in the process of approving their final or their permanent treatment that would be down in New Street and that will that will treat the
well the well uh that's on West Preston but will treat four out of the five wells. So the well that will has at this point has no plan for treatment would be well number 17 which is up off of road but the other ones uh they are in the
process of ensuring the NJTVP. Is there any way that we can have further? I know we talked offline. Is there any we can talk further about um whether or not there are ways to get better treatment for a lower cost because from my research like what is
doing is not the best way of treating the water. And so I wanted to see if we could get input into that. So I think you are willing I am willing to have you send me information that I will absolutely forward to Violia on
your behalf. I don't they are bound to meet the standards that the NJ puts in place. So I'm sure they're engineers and they may or may not be willing to have conversations. We don't have to the best of my knowledge the right way to demand
because they don't they answer just to have a >> I'm proposing is actually cheaper for them and get a better quality of water to the community. So it's in everybody's >> I'm sure that I mean the engineers in my experience have dealing
to what you said they will >> that's all I found for I did send the information to you >> weeks ago. >> No no that that I can forward directly to them. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Oh perfect. Thanks. >> Yep.
>> Anybody else from the public? >> Not seeing anybody. Motion to adjurnn. Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Hey everybody. Light agenda today.