person okay you're ready good evening welcome to the uh Burrow Beach Haven agenda meeting today is Thursday February 27th 6 PM please join us in the flag salute led by Mrs Snider Al to the flag of the United
States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice first went to the New Jersey open public meetings act adequate and electronic notice of this meeting has been provided by posting on the bulletin board in the
Beach Haven municipal building on the burough website and mailing the same to the beach Haven times the Asbury Park Press and the Press of Atlantic City Miss Anderson here Mrs ball Miller here Mr mcaffrey here miss Snider here mayor
Lambert here hey we're very excited tonight to um have a presentation um by the resilient LBI group um so uh at this time I'm going to welcome Anna Haw halter to the meeting
hi Anna you there hi I am can you hear me okay yeah good evening and I am going to give you a co-host permission so you can share screen wonderful is there anyone else you wanted me to unmute for the
presentation yeah uh we have two others joining from the project um Barbara willly Dylan who is with um New Jersey D and also Jim hunzelman from um kleinfelder on our team okay they are all unmuted um and
you guys have the floor great well thank you so much for um the opportunity uh to have us present to you um my name is Anna hok alter I'm a a senior landscape architect with ramble um we just uh do quick
introductions with with Barbara and Jim as well and then and then we'll get started hi I'm Barbara woly Dylan I am with njde and I'll turn it over to Jim uh good evening C can everyone hear
me yes okay great uh thank you uh I'm Jim hutman I'm with the kleinfelder portion of the kleinfelder ramble team I'm a Water Resource engineer and civil engineer uh helping with the resilient NJ project
so I'll I'll share my screen now um if that's okay yep you should see PDF can you see that yes great and
how about now I just made it full screen perf you're good great okay so uh we wanted to give a a brief overview of the resilient Long Beach Island project um it's a project that's been underway for
over four years um and and Beach Haven has been um involved throughout the process and in a number of different ways and we've been working across the island um so we we thought we'd give a bit of background on the project overall
um particularly highlight some of the projects that are going on across the island focus more on uh projects that involve Beach Haven directly and that we''ve been when working with your um your staff on and and then focus on a
design study that we've we've um put quite a bit of thought into on Taylor Avenue which is looking at a a resent resilient Shoreline and living Shoreline there um and and then we can kind of talk about um an upcoming meeting but um
just starting with the project overall Barbara did you want to give a brief a few words on the the project overall or I can take this as well sure I can give a real brief overview basically this project dates back to I believe it was
originally envisioned in 2018 with four different regions and they are of course the we call it r r nnj or the r NJ which is the resilient Northeastern New Jersey Atlantic County
coastal region Raritan River and Bay and then Long Beach Island I was on the other side of the table uh representing a municipality as part of the Atlantic County coastal region when I became familiar with the project and we've done a lot of great planning efforts we are
very proud of the efforts that and and just so thrilled to see that the communities have actively participated in the process and just to let you guys know the Taylor Avenue project was highlighted as part of the presentation for rebuilding New Jersey by um Nick
angeron the coastal resilience officer in the state of New Jersey on Tuesday evening for a really great presentation for rebuild for New Jersey and rebuild by Design so it's been a great project we are in the second phase of this and
again we are just pleased to see that everybody has sustained attention and is willing to participate and we have a lot of great sponsors and are really blessed to have been um in in the position to receive a lot of funding to continue efforts so with that an I'll let you
take it away and they the uh just to tell you guys if you don't already know ramble kleinfelder is an excellent team they do a wonderful job and they have done just a sensational job with this project so I want to thank them for
their efforts as well thanks Barbara um and and so as Barbara noted we've working across the island with um all the um bureaus and and Township other
municipalities um here's our consultant team and um just um to be clear you the goal of our work has been to um work with communities to um increase
awareness and information about um sea level rise uh resilience um capacity building um risks from um storms and flooding um and to really build on to um existing Community
goals so that we can further support your work in the long-term um work that is that is resilient so as I mentioned I'm with ramble and our as part of our consultant team we've uh we're under contract with New Jersey t d and we've
been working um across across the island to work with other municipalities and and I would just add that um so as you said we've been working with Community Partners as well so obviously we're working with DP and Ocean County as well in addition to the
municipalities on the island that's right yep and so uh overview on this effort in in the first phase um starting back in 2021 um there was a lot of uh visioning and um islandwide resilience planning work a
lot of community engagement and that all resulted in um a Long Beach Island resilience action plan um and and hopefully you're familiar with that action plan um it was it was developed at the end of October 2022 and then
we've begun what we call now um Phase 2 which began in 2023 in October and we're we're wrapping that up now uh we have just about one more month and the focus of this last year and a half has really
been to work um with as we've mentioned each of the bureaus um to identify projects specific projects that are in line with the larger goals of the resilience action plan and and the resilience action plan is really
organized into these five categories so um looking at nature-based Solutions opportunities for Shoreline stabilization building flood proofing and storm water management climate change related Hazard and vulnerability assessments and emergency communications
and preparedness and so um back in the fall of 2023 uh we we met with each of the municipalities on the island to identify some specific priority projects either these were projects that were maybe already in the works that each buau was
um working on or maybe it was seen as an opportunity um that hadn't really been studied yet it hadn't really been um identified as a as a as a project on a capital Improvement plan let's say and so it was an opportunity for our team
which involves um planners engineers and um Landscape Architects to think about um opportunities across the island and so we we want to focus on um first the projects that we uh that are underway across the island that do involve Beach
Haven so so um we've done we've been working on developing some plans for a flood early warning system um project and and I should say before I dive into more detail just to reiterate that part
of our work has been trying to equip each of them bureaus and equip the coordination islandwide to continue this work in the long term so as we're wrapping up this phase in in this next month um these are the result of this
work is going to be um planning studies or guiding documents um um a lot of uh work has gone into the the kind of relationship building across the island and and with um various City Clerks and
and Community stakeholders um to really try to further provide resources that can be used in the long term Bey beyond our scope of work so as I talk through these um that that's kind of what we mean when we say we've worked on flood
early warning system means that we've been working on the on the planning side trying to Define goals and opportunities and and other resources to support um further implementation of of all of these projects so um another project
related to emergency communication that's that's in the works across the island is is called a community resource Hub and that will be um organized through St Francis this will be an an an active web website that can provide a lot of links and other resources to
resilience and and flood RIS risk related um materials um and resources um we've worked on climate change related hazards and vulnerability assessments for each of the bureaus and Jim will speak to that in more detail shortly
we've been working with with Ocean County to um develop an islandwide interior drainage Improvement strategy um we've worked with them as well on uh Road raising opportunities we've been working with
the Beach Haven School to um develop a concept that that looks at what a resilient schoolyard might be um we've worked on a groin retrofit study we' focused on Taylor Avenue living Shoreline opportunities which we'll get
into in more detail and we've also looked at the Parker Island long-term habitat restoration so wanted to give you a a brief overview of the full range of work that we've been doing it's quite a lot of projects and um happy to give
more detail uh following the presentation and um there's a lot of information online as well I think now we'll go to um turn it to Jim to kick off with be Haven's climate change related Hazard and vulnerability
assessment thanks Anna so um excuse me one of the things um that every municipality is going to do across New Jersey um is adopt what we call a climate change related Hazard vulnerability assessment I know that's a lot of words but um I call them CCR rvas
for short so the municipal land use law was amended in 2021 to require this as part of every municipality's Master planning um the benefit here is for as part of the resilient New Jersey uh project we are drafting uh this document
for every municipality to review and then ultimately adopt um whereas other municipalities will have to do that for themselves or find other Grant Avenues but we we are doing that as part of each of the six municipalities on the island so we've already provided this document to your um to your Clerk and to your
planning board and Landy boards to to review so what this involves is it the ccrv really intend to examine the vulnerabilities of each municipality related to varying threats now those threats could be anything from increased
temperatures fire seismic earthquakes um but obviously in Long Beach Island the um the concerns are primarily related to Coastal storms sea level rise and the compounding flooding flooding that comes from those
threats and in the document we then provide strategies and recommendations in in addition to identifying where those vulnerable areas are and provide recommendations ultimately to improve resiliency across the town um so we did provide that draft uh
CC rvha I believe last month um we we can still accept comments if um if your boards have time to review um I hope they have but it absent that what we have done is provide you with a template and a draft moving forward now the idea
is that under the municipal land use amendment that every municipality will adopt this the next time they do a master plan reexamination and the CC rvha will ultimately become part of your land use element um which is the guiding essentially the the book for guiding
zoning planning across the municipality so if you go to next slide and what we do in addition to having What's called the buildout analysis now we looked at current Zoning for each of the municipalities and we looked at vacant areas or areas where there's potential for additional
development on the residential and the non-residential side me meaning commercial and we identify those areas and we then compare those to areas that we see that might might be gathering threats in the future namely as you can see in this slide we're talking about
sea level rise with enhanced um mean high high water during tides and potentially future uh flooding events so as you can see with that that blue area those are areas that are potentially
vulnerable and there is a few colored polygons in there yellow and um orange so those are some of the buildout that's the result of the buildout analysis and if just so you know the buildout analysis identifies where there's additional development potential now
there's not a lot on the island but what it does suggest to us is that there's potential risk for those um additional development that in the future your master plan should be guided towards uh reducing those threats whether that's
change in zoning changing in building codes changing um you know other factors that could relate to resiliency for those uh areas and I think that's what I had for that thank
you yes um yes so that that was a a big effort across the the island um that we conducted and is is getting finalized I wanted to highlight two other projects we um did a bit more work into in order
to get them into this Phase 2 report um the the Parker Island um which we we know currently um is a confined disposal facility for dredge materials and um we understood that there would be a desire
to um look at restoration opportunities um in the event that that type of use is no longer occurring on the island and so we have um a a project profile written about that that that will be in the phase two report um the other project we we worked
on with Beach Haven was um further progressing um an understanding of of the of growing retrofit opportunities um this was identified with Beach Haven along with Long Beach Township as a a priority um as part of this process and
so we did work to um get a better understanding both from um the state as well as the Army Corps um on what types of next steps uh should occur there and um a general reevaluation report which
is a requirement of the the Army Corps is is the next step there um we also understand that this is a long-term process and involves a lot of coordination with other um agencies as well as the Holgate Wildlife Refuge um to understand uh longer longer impacts
and so these two projects um from our our stance um are incl included in the final report and and part of a benefit to you for having these projects included in in um the the resilience
action plan and the resilience action plan phase two is that if you decide to continue pursuing them you can point to that um published study which will be through D to say um you know th this is
this is a project that is uh been assessed from a lot of different perspectives and um so wanted to make you aware that those those were there um and I think now we can turn to focusing on the Taylor Avenue study where we did
a lot of we did um some significant study and and wanted to um give you an introduction um we understood that uh this location um Taylor at the end of
Taylor Avenue and and um adjacent to and part of um the William L Butler Park could be an opportunity for the development of a living Shoreline and a potential title Marsh we know that historically this area was a title Marsh
and so it's it was a good opportunity to look at what might be feasible and to think through um potential ways of modifying this um and so we um we uh to talk about all these projects we had
monthly meetings um with the burough Clerk and and prior mayor um we had a a workshop in October to understand existing site conditions um we reviewed some other example living Shoreline projects to get a a sense of what might
be possible did an initial um desktop analysis and and we've we've developed some conceptual design for discussion and um all of these uh planning studies that we've done they're they're really for you to um to look at and to decide
uh what best next steps make sense for for Beach Haven um so uh again um you know the site very well but just to talk through what what we understood and what we um were um deduced from site visits and
desktop study again it is a historic location of tidle Marsh so it does seem um like a good opportunity to look at that uh as a potential Shoreline um modification um we know that this is a
site that's very well used from a number of different groups it's heavily used um by tourists there's a a lot of um teen population use uh we we understood that the the use at the dog park in front of B Club
um as well as kayak launching from in front of the bay club is a use that may change as that Shoreline changes it may not be accessible from that location so we wanted to look at um uh really focusing on the the opportunities that
would be um at the end of Taylor Avenue and along the existing revetment um so we weren't really looking at opportunities uh we weren't looking at modifying the existing bulkhead um we know that there's a boat ramp here so we were really just focusing here to to
Think Through what might be um possible we also know that this location doesn't currently flood um regularly um part of our work with with d has been to develop uh a flood model for a lot of
different types of scenarios and this is all an interactive website there's a link here so it is on online these are screen shot screenshots from that um flood mapping this is showing projected
future mean high tide levels um so while it's not currently um flooding in this location from high tide it is projected to and so we wanted to look at what what other communities um have done
to sort of think through how to balance these multiple uses um and M multiple goals with within a a a public public Waterfront site thinking about um high tide reduction of high tide flooding increased resilience and um ecological
goals as well as as heavily used um Community spaces so we have six examples I'll I'll talk through these quite quickly um but wanted to just show these because they were quite informative and thinking about what opportunities um you
could consider As you move forward so we have a six examples here they range in size starting from 10 acres in Atlantic City which is a living Shoreline project um to scaling up to a 1 acre site in um twins Harbor living Shoreline um and
then some um public Waterfront parks that are quite a bit larger and you'll see that the the context here is a bit different but there's um things we can learn from each of them in um um North in um and then two in in New
York city so these these give you a sense of kind of a range of opportunities if you're looking to develop a living Shoreline this example it's it's pretty straightforward where you're um um designing some planting and a and a kind of stone sealed for wave
attenuation and to to reduce the wave action there to allow the tidal plants to develop um some other examples of similar strategy in in New Jersey um Little Egg Harbor is is a good example there where they they redefined the edge
of the shoreline to address some uh significant erosion and and um increased sea level there another example in Maryland where they um did a similar thing with some um break Waters but still allowing some um
beach access and and um access through the water um this is this is an example in North Carolina which is um a much bigger size but um really has a similar function I would say to the William Butler Park in
that it is a major Community Asset um uh and right in the in the heart of of your your Bureau um we have a living Shoreline on the edge and and an Amphitheater with um ways to um engage with the water and also have um
community park space another example here kind of similar um again with tidle Marsh was some some um wave attenuation with a kind of a rock sill here and um trails that move through so you can really
engage with these these types of living shorelines and still have recreational space and then this project in Manhattan is not yet constructed but we what thought it would be good to look at because it's um incorporating more of a hardened Shoreline the existing rip wrap
is being replaced with these kind of living living um living Shoreline blocks so these are intertial blocks um and different types of um interlocking concrete panels that still provide um
ecological value and some habitat you can see it's kind of a tiered approach here so some some different approaches to thinking about a shoreline um again when we we focused on um Taylor Avenue and William L Butler
Park we're really just looking at at the Shor line so we know that the basketball courts and the gazebos um the playground here are are relatively new and are very well used um we we understood that there were some Maritime Gardens and
vegetation that were planted here but that have um experienced some some damage from um trampling um um we uh we told that there's a lot of a lot of use here but perhaps there's a
need for more seating um maybe more visibility into the the basketball court maybe some more um safe and visible places for um teenagers to to gather and socialize with each other um and and of
course this existing revetment I believe was initially installed about 20 years ago and we understand that it's in um fairly good condition um but you know as we think about the kind of longer term vision for what this site could offer
Beach Haven with all the different uses and with um increasing um Heights of high tide levels we wanted to think about how it could um provide more of a resilience and kind of a flood reduction use here so we have
a draft vision for your consideration that this location and the park is a Vibrant Community Hub um designed to withstand future Rising Bay levels provide Recreation for all ages and to support thriving intertial Marsh and Maritime
ecosystems some goals for your consideration um would be that this could provide safe Waterfront access and Bayside Recreation to um tourists of all ages since it is a former salt marsh you could restore that habitat and improve
maritime Upland habitat and then prepare for future Rising Bay levels and provide flood reduction for um the nearby area so you can see some some examples of types of program that that um might make sense here based on some based on our
discussions with um your your staff um and so we looked at four Alternatives with this location we looked at what it what it might be possible if you keep the existing revetment um and and if you do that it
it really doesn't allow for inwater tidal habitat um but you would be able to provide some Upland improvements maybe you have kind of tiered seating that can provide some flood risk reduction and and um views into the
basketball court but um um if if if you're focused here then um it's kind of limited for the inwater work perhaps There's an opportunity with this A2 structure that is looking at habitat structures like we saw in the the South
Batter Park City example where you have some living um kind of hardened um amendments that can be affixed to the existing revetment and have some uplend um and then we looked at two options where if you if you are open to
redesigning this area with an engineered approach um you would be able to design uh an intertial Marsh and and living Shoreline um this uh again this all would need to be designed engineered and
and studied so we know that there's concern of erosion and that's that's very important um that would be included is part of a feasibility study which which would be the next step um really for any of these um but particularly in
in redesigning that Shoreline and if you do that uh though there is an opportunity to to Really um enhance the the types of um public amenities here and and development of an intertial Marsh so it's it's approximately 1 acre
um public Waterfront Shoreline project to restore historic Bayside Marshland and reduce future high tide flooding um in one of um one of the important and few Recreation areas in Beach Haven the project could involve removing existing concrete rment construction of a living
Shoreline Marsh with oyster Reef Sills um along along the street end and um uh constructing a uh tying into the recently constructed bulkhead looking at an opportunity for a kayak launch along
the slopes um and and balancing that the need to reduce the future high tide flooding um and so um here's some examples of other project benefits that are balancing the ecological social and and resilience goals um by providing uh
Waterfront walkway seating bike racks Amphitheater seating steps and a kayak ramp combined with the intertial marsh with oyster bag Sills intertial tide poool revetments along the street end and Maritime Upland planting along the
the Park area still providing ways for the public to engage and and really gather and congregate in in the park and then providing more resilience by um kind of integrating some flood risk reduction into these seeding M element elements and into the design of of the
the grading to prevent some high tide future high tide flooding um so we have some approximate cost estimates here it is ranging quite a bit um for design and construction and these are based on um
our our experience with nearby projects as well as a review of those example six projects that we we um flipped through quickly um there are grant opportunities for this type of work particularly when you're combining resilience with living
Shoreline and and addressing community recreation um and so we have some some listed grant opportunities here um of of course the grant environment is is constantly changing but um we wanted to just um share share this study with you
make sure you were aware of it and and offer a chance to talk through any questions um and I'll just end with um that we do have a public meeting on March 5th coming up next week from 6:00 to 7:30 so um you're all invited to join
that if you're interested it's a public virtual meeting and then there's a lot of information online as well on the website so thank you so much for the the chance to prevent present and um and if you just want to stay on so that Council
if they have any questions can ask that was a lot of information um actually I was part of one meeting about two years ago and um we didn't get into to anything this deeply so yeah I would like a chance to look everything over you did a wonderful presentation
thank you very much a lot to talk about and think about great job I have a just a few questions great um my my first question is that all of these projects that you're looking into in designing there's
currently no funding for these projects this is something that would have to be further either paid for by each municipality correct that's correct okay so you're you're just
providing um ideas and planning studies for municipalities but not providing the state's not providing any type of funding that is correct through this through this pro project and Barra I don't know
if you want to speak to that you're on mute sorry about that um I I'm at my house we have dogs and I never know when they go nuts so I just figured it was better than um actually what's happening
as part of this program is if funds are available we tend to prioritize communities that have gone through the resilient Jersey process as the region as part of that participating region you would be prioritized for funding through
brick applications anything that might be available through State funding and I don't make any statements about federal funds that are available as we know things are um currently unknown unforeseen so whatever funds we do
receive through the federal government we would prioritize with communities that have engaged this process especially the regions where there is a larger impact to be served to the communities and it would um be an impact that would be experienced by a a larger
portion of the population so if anything is available we would prioritize a location such as this for priority funding okay and when you were talking about the groin study the groin retrofit study
were you just referring to the groin at the end of Holgate or were you consider or were you considering bringing back the groins as far as trapping sand trapping sand versus currently nourishing the
beaches um I believe that the focus was on the Holgate terminal grind as part of part of the part of the request and and again this is sorry this wondering
came as a request um as part of a prioritization effort with um with each of the municipalities so in in this in this case we were not proposing a a new um we weren't proposing anything new I
should say okay I just I just wanted to to clarify because you know currently the to extend the beaches it's it's Beach replenishment and Beach nourishment I didn't know if you were potentially looking at bring back the groins I didn't know if that was
something that you were considering or that you were studying I just wanted to clarify that that it's only the groin at the end of Holgate not bringing back the groins um in Beach Haven because you know a lot of the public would like to bring those groins back rather than continuing with the beach nourishment
program so I just wanted to clarify that thank you I just want to add that we did that was on our list of items that we wanted to start to look at but we we had extreme difficult you bringing DP and the Army Corps to the table to discuss it right I I I just wanted to clarify
because anytime someone mentions groins it's it's kind of you know which groin are you talking about and I just have a a few other questions when you mentioned the interior drainage Improvement study where were you thinking about or have you looked at
anywhere to put an interior drainage system like what can you elaborate on that because I mean that's sounds that that sounds wonderful but I didn't know if you had any type of area that you would be able to to do something like that on the
island yeah I wonder Jim if you could speak to this um but it is a it is a significant um Challenge and a significant project um I think he is having trouble with his microphone perhaps thank you yeah I I muted myself
too I couldn't unmute so yeah what we've been doing um we call an island islandwide drainage study we've been working with the county of ocean um to look at what what it's going to involve is potentially a combination of
different drainage strategies for example uh maybe allowing streets to be flooded to a a smaller degree as the county starts to raise uh their their County routes which serve as evacuation in addition to that you know the county
has pump stations that they're installing and then providing to municipalities to maintain and the idea would be to coordinate those efforts along with some of the potential floodable streets floodable Parks finding areas where there could be
potential temporary storage uh in addition to improving some of the outlet structures and drainage for example with tidle Gates so that we're we have a place for the excess water to store and then eventually um pump out or drain through you know lower
ties so what it really involves is assessing all the current infrastructures drainage storm water infrastructure across the island and then getting the county along with municipalities to to look prioritize areas that we could um improve the that
drainage uh we have a meeting potentially scheduled uh before the end of our project at the end of May March that we're still looking to host um but we've been in contact with the county and look at doing this and they are engaged and um we'll see what can result
out of that okay I just have one final question with your you know for your projections for 20150 and into the next 2100 do you know if there is going to be
any coordination with the DP with the projections and the federal government because you know we're still using FEMA 2009 flood maps and you know you're projecting into the future but we're still using outdated flood maps for this area so it would be beneficial if there
was some coordination with the the state and the federal government to move forward with these resilient plans yeah Jim if you want me to answer a little bit of that um yeah um
I don't place blame but I was a a a flood plane official for a municipality after actually quite a few municipalities after superstorm Sandy as well as a zoning officer so and part part of the challenge that we had
in trying to get approvals is there were challenges to femous mapping That was supposed to be going from preliminary to Final in 2018 we still don't have those Final maps so I I think the best way that we can say this is New Jersey has
been a little bit more proactive about it we've adopted standards that we believe not only will meet thema projections but U be to the benefit of communities that might apply them and uh result in the safety for our residents
and we this is hence the packed rules the real rules all of those kind of things we we are trying to be as responsive as we can as quickly as we can and we understand that FEMA does things at their own pace but we didn't simply want to wait another five or so
years for those maps to come out and in the interim we rebuilt and now we have to do things I I watched by way of example in mantall loking first year that I was there right after the storm somebody came in got out their permits raise their home they had to raise it
again the next year another 18 in because the the rules and regulations had changed it conformed to what was in place a year before that but now it didn't meet those requirements so the state didn't want to find itself playing
catchup as we rebuilt so we've tried to base everything on the most uh I guess best available science that is out there and we are trying to make sure that we don't allow any harm to further be our residents and we want to do the right
thing it's it's tricky balance and we just didn't want to wait so Jim did you have a different perspective on that no I mean so obviously I'm sure the council's aware there's some rule proposed um now the the second phase of the real rules which address more of the
coastal flooding as opposed to the Inland flooding which rules which were adopted I believe last year but um so there are some new proposals in that rule like for example with an inundation Zone to try and address some of that um without the certainty of FEMA Maps being
updated to try and project where some of that um where that might be occurring that that additional vulnerability right now but I you know I will say that you know that I I used to be a municipal engineer in a flood plane administrator in an inland town in New Jersey and the
lack of updated Maps is it is a it really put puts a burden on either municipalities or homeowners because you have to demonstrate that your current property is complying with old maps with new uh buffers and safety factors put on
and that and that is difficult but um I know a lot of the maps were updated in the 2012 to 2015 Range yeah right after Sandy and then looks like I think in the sheared short term I think we're looking
at probably using the real rules as you know when they if they become adopted you know your flood plane administrators will have to implement them in the absence of having newer maps and it's going to be essentially take the old maps and add some factors of safety but
you know I think we're a little bit behind in in the overall effort to to truly assess some of those U where where that's going to occur in the short term thank you thank you anybody else no
thank you very much that was a very comprehensive and of course Jamie is our local expert on all things ecology and Marin and biology so thank you Jamie for those questions as well I guess now we
need to decide after we review how we go forward thank you Anna and Jim and Barbara I appreciate it thank you we really we've really appreciated working um with with your city staff as part of this process so yes they've been very
helpful and uh we hope we can continue working thank you thank you thank you good evening all right moving on we have minutes for approval this evening without formal reading the January 13th regular meeting and the January 30th
agenda meeting everybody have a chance to review yes is there a motion to approve I'll make a motion I'll second it all in favor I I thank you all matters listed under item consent agenda are considered to be routined by the
municipal Council and will be enacted by one Motion in the form listed any items requiring expenditure supported by a certification of availability of funds and any item requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda and discussed separately all consent agenda
items will be reflected in full in the minutes resolution 68 updating the Emergency Management council local emergency planning Council 6 n refunding tax duplicate tax payment 70 amending
resolution 64 2025 authorizing burrow wide residential yard sales 71 acknowledging the hiring of a mechanics helper for the Department of Public Works 73 approving an indemnification agreement between the burough of Beach
Haven and the friends of Beach Haven Inc 74 cancelling Water and Sewer charges 75s ex accepting employee resignation 76 consenting to the issuance of amusement licenses for Wayne Wright amusements 80 awarding a contract to
des's mat Systems Inc for and approving an expenditure and amount not to exceed $ 34,1 19060s for the purchase of 16 MIM mats 6x5 by 50 81 authorizing an executive
session to discuss contract negotiations and Personnel matters 82 awarding a contract to Frank's Truck Center under the EC escnj Co-op and approving an expenditure in an amount not to exceed 44,0
842 for the purchase of a 2025 GMC Sierra 1500 two wheeel drive for the par Department of Public Works 83 authorizing refund of redemption monies and premiums to outside lean holders 85s authorizing to advertise for bids for
ice cream vendors 87 cancelling sewer char es an 88 is amending shared service agreement between the burough Beach Haven and Harvey Cedars for Court Administration Services Schedule C thank you uh is there anything on there that anybody would like to remove
for discussion I'd like to remove uh 73 for further discussion thank you okay Anything Can I have can I ask I have a question about 80 sure um which is great we're getting the mats but we did talk about the color of the mats is
that has that been decided yet because I think most people don't want to see the bright blue mats they want to see the sand colored mats so um maybe we could just take a little uh hand Vote or Voice vote of council right now because I did think that Miss Steve lets was anticipating purchasing the blue because
of the handicap the the visibility through the sand when they're digging and blowing it out it's easier for them to see when they're going to hit it um and to see the Mechanicals the stakes um the clamps that keep them each together it's easier for him to see but it's up
to you guys to decide what you want well I think that it's you know the beaches our most valuable resource it's what our taxpayers our residents enjoy more than anywhere else in our town and I think the the beauty of the beach is important
and I I think the blue is a mistake and a lot other towns use the um the sand colored they you know they could be a little darker than the sand but I I think that it's not you know I with all due respect to Steve I think that would be a really big mistake and I
think we'll hear a lot of complaints that's my opinion okay Mike I I would probably go with the blue my question to you was going to be have you talked to Public Works and I would prefer the blue I know yeah so
based on what Public Works is telling us I mean I understand what you're saying but I I think yes and you of the maintenance the blue would be better I just think of like I would I think that we should go with with the natural color why would we do
blue it's going to look is it more is it bright blue yeah I mean color of our recycling cans do they have to pull them up are they pulling them up every day and putting them out every day okay no no so they're going around them when they're they're going to be blown off and swept off and maintained in
place so what's the difference with then if they're just so they can not cut into them or damage them same with the ATVs riding on them um we had a a lifeguard chair drugged down the middle of one of the mats and damaged so we're trying
very hard not to damage them and visibility is key to that as well but they still damage it and it was blue yeah they're still you see it more whatever you want just one one more comment I spoke with Steve and one of the things that he's doing doing is he's
getting these U he got two of them um the blowers to blow the sand off it makes it easier for him to see everything he says it it would work better for him and I I'm going with the blue because uh it would help him out did you I haven't had a conversation
with them so I don't really know as much as colors but is there just two different colors or is there is there several at the Le of municipalities I don't know if either is there a wide range of color like brown I mean you can see a darker shade I mean a neutral color rather than bright blue that's
like a darker the same color as yeah sorry I don't know I'm very like athetics when to me to try to keep the beach As Natural as possible and ever since the nourishment the beach is not natural doesn't look natural to me anymore with the beach walkovers it doesn't look natural to me anymore now
with blue line terrible M mats it just doesn't look natural to me and we're trying to hold on to something here and it just Aesthetics to me is huge and I just the blue forget it dark brown some
type of there has to be a natural shade there has to be I don't know because I can't speak of it Shades nobody knows what's your feeling Lori what's my feeling um I have no objection to the
blue I haven't seen the tan I think for visibility purposes for the public and Public Works um I don't know how long what's the lifespan of a m b that anyway we're changing them out
and catch T when it's on sale one year or something honestly I had no idea you know and I'm not married to the blue except that Public Works is recommending it I agree I understand that and I you know I I don't want to make their job in
public works more difficult however I mean it's our job to consider our residents our taxpayers everyone and I think that you know to put these bright blue mats on our beautiful beaches when
they'll serve the same purpose if they're a neutral color maybe make maybe make it a little more difficult for public works but not impossible not not even close where other towns are using them when I spoke to the vendor that I stopped at there were many boo a couple Boos and I stopped at one and I asked
these questions and they she said no they're you know a lot of towns are using especially in Avalon and these towns that are more more upscale towns are using these neutral colors because they're more aesthetically pleasing and they do the
same job is there any way that we can ask and see if there's another color sure oh yeah abs before we get too yeah I think um deep in with this I shouldn't hold up the the resolution but before we actually place the order we can um send you some other options thank you okay
sounds good okay and then Kitty okay so uh is there a motion to approve uh resolutions 68 through 88 except for 73 I'll make the motion thank you I'll second Miss Anderson yes Mrs B Miller
yes Mr mcaffrey yes Miss Snider yes mayor Lambert yes uh number 73 approving an indemnification agreement between the burough Beach Haven and Friends of Beach Haven Inc um yeah thank you um so happy to say
that friends of Beach Haven uh wrote a check to INF influential drones of New Jersey uh just yesterday for $ 36,24120 specifically for this purpose um for the
dedicated um purp purchase of the Drone to for the chief of police and our um you know our for Public Safety purposes and hopefully we will never need to use them um but we for lifes saving but um
the chief has some great plans for how we will be able to utilize these and he will speak to that in a little bit but I really just want to express um um a big thank you to friends of beaven um especially Don who really Don cxis who sent letter did a letter
writing campaign and raised a lot of money and to of course um our dear friends and Neighbors at the seashell who um I called Tommy and asked him if he would consider it and he right away said absolutely let me put this out to our um our committee and they came back
and they donated $225,000 specifically for this purpose um so we are really lucky to um to live in such a great town with such generous residents and our chief of police is is
just he's done a great job along with officer metal and our volunteer Jim Chula who's the fire department and he these guys have so much knowledge about this and are really qualified who knew and drone flying so at this time I'd love to have uh the chief come up and
give us a little more information about how we're going to be using these we have two is coming just make sure it's on Jim just make sure it's there you go there you go all right first I'd like to uh thank the friends of Beach Haven and
specifically Don cxis over the last year we've had so many meetings and phone calls and emails back and forth uh he put a lot of effort into this so specifically I'd like to thank him for everything he's done um the Drone program is going to be an asset for
search and rescue event monitoring and emergency response efforts for the town the program is going to consist of two drones to start with each is going to be outfitted with thermal cameras spotlights and speakers one of them is
going to be outfitted with an a um a drop system which will be able to fly out over the water and drop flotation device to uh somebody that needs to be rescued in the water um it would be utilized by the police department the lifeguards and the
fire company for different operations so far for training which is going to take a while um our detective and me have started the training process to get licensed the fire company has one member Jim Chula who's already
licensed um we have with the funding through this program we have four other people that are going to be licensed um that's most likely at this time going to consist of two more police officers uh probably another firefighter and we're going to see if a a lifeguard
would like to um show some interest in this um but I think it's going to be a great asset it'll be we'll be able to use it for longer distances we've had incidents where we've had uh boats that have
either crashed or swimmers or you know people on paddle boards who were on the other side of those small islands and uh whether it's at nighttime or low visibility and it's hard to see them uh rather than just blindly having the fire company go out on a jet ski and search for people we'll be able to send
this thing up with thermal vision and uh you know help help find and locate people and then with the speaker system that's on it uh we'll be able to relay a message to them letting them know that we know where they're at and then that's when we'll send uh you know the fire company will come out with the rescue
equipment to get them but um again I just I can't thank the friends of Beach Haven enough and especially Don cxis it was a lot of work on his part thank you yeah thank you thank you Don questions about no how big are
there's two different size drones one is a larger larger drone um I don't I don't know the exact dimensions of them and then one is a smaller um that's more going to be used is for practice and for Fire
Company the fire company will have the ability to put this up when they're dealing with a a house fire or something like that or where they were trying they're trying to find like hot spots in an attic um so they could go up above the house and do that but uh as soon as
we get them I we'll have a lot of training going on so you you'll get to take a look at that how long do you think the delivery will take I believe they said six weeks right time yeah four to six weeks the uh
training that we just started takes about four weeks studying then you have to take a test with the fa um and we still have to we have other people that need to start the program but we can't start that program until uh everything gets settled with the company
which it should be happening any day now I know they already received the payment so oh good now we're we're working on uh finalizing the details great thank you Chief thank you 75 I know I can't wait so if you
couldn't hear him about $7,500 is spent from that donation on training uh they're going to come down and do actual on-site training with us uh which is going to include um actually specifically how to fly the Drone um in
a bunch of different ways to uh to become certified with it so that you know Pilots know everything about how they how they handle how they handle when you have the floation device strapped to it uh how you're going to
fly it when it's a little bit too windy it it handles differently in all sorts of different situations so that's so interesting I wonder if the um the beach Patrol if we could do like rather than to do studies instead of dropping flotation devices when you're practicing
you can drop like a a type of Dot and you can look at where the rip currents are and whatnot to to kind of look at the different areas and see which like in the mornings and stuff a lot of places do that like in Australia and one not where the rips are really bad they can go up in the morning you know drop
some things and they can actually see where the current is moving severals talked about that and just having that bird's eye view they said they'd be able to see where the where the rips are and they'd be able to move their Flags accordingly yeah interesting to like map it out through the summer though like
see like where the Sand's moving just I don't know just me we're also gonna we're also planning on using this which uh right now we do it um through another person's drone uh for Emergency Management we take video of the beach
and see see you can see that like the replenishment that's happened how much of it's already gone the winter beaches versus the summer beaches and that'd be cool a lot of things that we'll be able to use it for events uh you CH Fest Chow Fest stuff like that
you'll be able to you know kind of get an overview of the whole whole thing maybe make our own flood Mass yeah there you go Jamie there's another job for you thank you Chief um know last year when we were looking into I was just briefly is part of it and uh
one of the municipalities on the island had the drones but they only had two people certified so I love the fact that we're getting four or five people because that person was away and the Drone of course was uh inoperable so I think it's great and I know a couple of the lifeguards did indicate they were
definitely interested so great job Don thank you very very much um I think it's a big plus for the town and we're happy that's it's going to move forward thank you to friends of beaven generous donation yes do we have
a motion to approve the resolution I'll make a motion thank you I'll second it Miss Anderson yes Mrs B Miller yes Mr mcaffrey yes Miss Snider yes mayor Lambert yes I have a bill list this evening in the amount of
$179 840 $179,800 yes Mrs B Miller yes Mr mcaffrey yes Miss Snider yes mayor Lambert yes okay we come to public comment uh we do ask that you come up try to hold your comments three minutes and don't forget
to give your name and address anybody in the room the room always gets to go first no seeing none in the room anybody online anyone on Zoom wish to be heard you can raise an electronic hand we do ask if you do speak that you turn on
your camera anyone on Zoom wish to be heard no seeing none seeing none we'll close the floor to public comment and move on to final remarks by Council and with our new system Mrs Snyder you get
to go first oh yeah uh well nothing much tonight I just um glad to be turning the calendar to March this week and uh just thank everyone for coming um thank you again um to the Chief and to m Mr Chula
for their hard work and to Tom meal and Don and run Haven it's GNA it's exciting and I can't wait for the training day be fun have a great week thank you Mrs Anderson I don't have anything just Summer's cominging up real fast so get
ready thank you Mrs B Miller um no I just uh I just the reason why I I did mention when we were talking to the LBI resilient team if there was any coordination with the the federal government and the state government is
because these real rules and the inundation risk inundation risk Zone that is could possibly be new rules in New Jersey in the future they're still in the public comment period and they will be probably throughout the summer so I don't see anything happening but
these rules and this zone is based off of of off of F's maps and you know what they're considering is whatever base flood elevation you have now increasing it by 5 feet and that's really significant here so these even though New Jersey is very
Progressive and has done current Coastal studies they're still basing their laws on Old FEMA Maps so until there's a coordination between the federal and the state government New Jersey really shouldn't be making these laws that affect our development when they're not coming together and making these maps
current and not making a coordinated effort just putting all these laws that we're going to have to follow and go up another five feet across the board which doesn't really make sense to me and we're going to have to kind of you know face all of that so that's why I
mentioned to the to the team so maybe they're you know they can think about that when we're going to have to face these real rules and this inundation Zone with old FEMA Maps but New New Jersey Maps yeah thank you for that
thank you Mr macaffer yeah again a thank you to the Friends of be havav for the drones and uh I would like to send a congratulations out to Southern Regional boys wrestling team for their uh third thirdd straight group five State team
championship ni awesome all right it okay um that just leaves me and I want to thank Anna Barbara and Jim for that wonderful presentation I want to thank Don friends of LBI and the chief for all the hard work making this come together
and um hopefully Springs around the corner thank you all for coming tonight and we will now adjourn for executive sessions close session yes we are going to be going into ex executive session briefly to discuss contract negotiations and Personnel matters I anticipate being
in the closed session about 30 minutes uh and we will be taking formal action when we come back into the public um session with one resolution thank you you can pause it okay we are reconvening the public portion of the meeting it is
754 at this time we'll present resolution 86 2025 authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract for Professional Services in excess of 17,500 for special counsel padulla Law
Group is there a motion to approve resolution 86 2025 I'll make the mo I'll second it Miss Anderson yes Mrs B Miller yes Mr mcaffrey yes Miss Snider yes mayor Lambert yes I also want to congratulate
Mr padulla for starting his opening a new firm and now is there a motion to adjourn all right thank you so much meeting adjourned good job everybody there tomorrow