star the official newspaper of the bur of bmar and the as Park Press and notice of this meeting was posted on the volon board of the mpal building take R call councilman [Music] Donovan here Council here mayor Buco
here Council rero here Council Le here to the flag the United States of America to for it stands naice for all please remain standing for a moment of silence for our troops their families First Responders and Joseph Yi
who was a life member of the bore first a SCH thank you uh we're going to start with a EMS presentation I understand introduce yourself what we're
do do a power as well too okay so let's to introduce myself my name is Robert Martin I'm the director of VMS here it's coming first I want to thank the mayor mayor and Council for inviting me as well as administrator K chief chief
Scott inviting me tonight to uh talk about EMS that's been a hot tick item for the past couple months just want to explain what we do here with the burough of bmar and what we provide to the residents and visitors here so first of all I just want to go over a quick history of the program um
we started in April 2021 when the bmer first AG Squad shut down uh we're located in the Old South bmar Firehouse off of Redmond in Lake com we've been there since November of 2022 and we're very fortunate grateful to have that spot for us the program the EMS program
falls under the greater umbrella of Public Safety underneath of the chief for police so some of the important statistics for us I'm a big statistics person anyone who knows me's been to meeting with me I'm big about talking about statistics and where the rubber hits the road right so the burough bmar
as well as with Lake home we average around 1,200 calls per year some that being in the summertime and we'll go over the beach front next of how we handle that we have a very interesting beachfront and a very interesting town as everyone else here is aware our average response time is 3 minutes and 33 seconds what response time means is
from the time when our ambulance gets its dispatch until they pull on location with an ambulance not a first spawner not with anything else that's when the ambulance shows up we also have a 90th per to response time of 7 minutes and 59 seconds which means that 90% of the time
we are there in 7 minutes and 59 seconds or less uh we have four ambulances with all state of theart state-ofthe-art equipment we able to get one of our ambulances VI a leap Grant in 2022 purchas another one and we've been continually upgrade continually upgrading it and creating the best environment that we can to give the best
care that we can we have a cutting edge medical director our medical director is is the doctor overseas over program anything that can be carried by the EMT of State New Jersey we can perform you're one the first um agencies to roll out new uh operating procedures which
allow us to provide more and more more and better care uh we have a comp in of part-time EMT some of them being Summer Staff some of them being part-time staff which we use to staff our beachfront and additional staffing needs as required we have a total of nine full-time EMTs all
of them are local people we have four res or four providers live in town and a bunch that also live close by we're a very very Town centered place place the people who come War here is because they want to be here they want to enjoy and want to help out the town as best as
they can so some the community integration that we do we do a lot of training we do a lot of training with the bmer water rescue team uh we do a yearly training with them in which we actually go down in the beach front I tell all my staff is when you go down for a water rescue call with the bummer water rescue team
you're right next to the lifeguards the water rescue members helping get that person out of the water taking over as soon as they get out uh as well as our beach front is located beach front off is located right next door to the lifeguards so we've been working with them for years and years and years as
well uh our beachfront program is a strong feeder program what I mean by that is that we take a lot of ent's train them up into become the best providers that they can and then bring them on to the rest of our program here it's been very successful for us we do see through our training for the bmer fire department as well as many of our
members or member of our employees are also members of the fire department as well too and we also do a continual training with the our Police Department we work hand inand with them one thing that makes us a little bit different is there are same people work with the same people every single day you know on a Monday this day you're going to be
working with these cops these cops are going to be working with these emps it works very very well and a lot of these people that work together have been doing this for years um as well in 2024 we participated in un tour we left with them when they left from their spot and we actually follow them all the way down to the CATE May fairy it something that's very
exciting for my staff to go to and I would love to I would love to do it one these days so we do a lot of public Outreach as well too um we do CPR training for the library staff which we did last year we do it for the junior guards and we also do it for the summer camp with uh with
Barry uh we've done Community CPR courses in the past we did one in uh Lake come overall a couple years ago and we want to continue to keep doing that uh we also have the file Life program for which we put into effect two years ago at the bmer senior building what that is is a piece of paper that sits on
your uh on your refrigerator or an something that's clearly marked that we can see to say here's what your emergency contact is here's the medication you take any allergies anything else like that that gives us that up-to-date information that we need as well as any emergency contacts as well too in case we need to contact
anyone for that uh we become an integral part of the St Patrick's Day Parade Seafood Fest events big and small um anyone who's seen the St Patrick's Day see us everywhere just because we need to be there and then we're are always looking for more opportunities of how we can help our our community and become
more great with that room so some of our future plans um over the past couple months I've been working very strongly very closely with L paraa our CFO our administrator uh administrator Kan chief of police and everyone else to talk about how to get a
budget that would that's going to be effective conservative and able to answer the calls and do everything that we need to do Upon Our look upon our look in our budgetary forecast we're looking about $144 a year per rable property we're looking to spend less than what we did last year that's one of
our things um and we've also started a cost sharing analysis between us and Lake Como to say that' be to be the most fair that we can excuse me and we're always looking to improve things um we're always looking trying to do the best way that
we can I just want to hit on a couple things that we've done this year um we have missed a total of one call this year that was handled by our mutual a partner our mutual a partner was 2 minutes behind us we were at the hospital at the time as well we've gone out of town as as in helping our mutual Aid Partners 50 times so far this year
we work hand inand with Wall Township bems as well as Neptune Township bems we've helped them in the past and we're grateful to have them they're grateful to have us we've actually trained with them multiple times and that's Council any
questions yes was that $144 a year currently what the filmer residents are paying uh this this is actually less than what we were paying last year so we looked at the budget compared to I don't have the number from last year off top of my head but we're actually we're able to shrink that down
dramatically um thank you first for everything you guys are doing um can you talk a little bit about the type of calls you get at the beach yeah absolutely um as we all know belmer is one of the busiest beach front we have 21 blocks if include El street right so we have a very busy beachfront our
beachfront makes up the large majority of our calls during the summertime we actually include staff down there every single day or and and especially during peak times at very least we'll have gator as a First's spon vehicle down there in which they can go out see if this patient is actually how sick
they are and either bring them up to the beachfront or bring them up to the boardwalk excuse me to the ambulance to transport them or slow assets down to say hey you know what this person isn't as sick as they need to be we keep our our staff down there a little bit later actually than when the lifeguards go off
the reason being for that is that a lot of our wood calls happen right at that ship change so if they're down there sometimes they're the first ones on location there they even beat the uh class one officers a lot and they able to start rendering treatment effectively and quickly rather than waiting longer
for that um we work out of the 10ths uh Pavilion anyone who walked by before there we get Walkins all day long people stop their toe need bandaids or whatever else we go down there and can help them out from there know average response time at uh 3 minutes 33 seconds is pretty incredible
um do you have any information on what that average response time is for like our M County counter par so I believe the the latest press release for that app was on average of 5 minutes and 30 seconds I also like to calculate the 90th percentile time right because the
9th percentile shows you how much time is going to take 90% of the time or less I think that's an important number to look at rather saying here's where average is averages will eventually if you have some higher and some lower this is what shows us a lot more and better information from there I know on average I believe last time I checked uh the New
Jersey uh office of emergency medical services makes a notation every year of the average cter response time last time I checked was 14 minutes that's a significant difference thank you all appreciate talk for
thank you rob for that presentation um Council have any further questions you go oh there you don't leave yet so at the executive session last time we've broken down a lot of numbers I was just wondering if you can
share some of those overall numbers the difference between like staying in house with like us and Avon and the fact that we're not working with any seagert and Manan anymore you know people have questions about that absolutely so we looked at that so what uh Lorraine and I did is we actually pulled apart our
entire budget from s from top to bottom right from the cost of how much it's going to cost for a Band-Aid and how many bandaids we're going to need to the cost of health benefits and everything else we took a lot of that and what we did is we actually took our total call volume use the program as well as any administrative fee from us doing
anything for us actually implementing the program and then pass that along as well to Lake com to see what how much they would cost for them so we're looking right now for Belmar I believe it's about $100,000 less from that from what we pay from last year the reason being as well too is in the years past
we actually shrink the number of Staff we had and and are actually requireed less Staffing just handling belmer and Lake comoo which was actually the vast majority of our call buum as well too last time I checked was like about 65% of it was belmer Lake comoo compared to last year and can you also speak about
the revenue the fact that we do build when we yeah absolutely so Revenue we do build for our services so in the event that someone gets transfer to the hospital any belmare Lake comoo Wall Township or nepon Township because we have a mutual Aid agreement with them saying that if you need help we'll help
you and if we need help they'll help us we what we do is a a a practice excuse me called Soft billing in which all we do is we submit the information to the insurance company and that's what we get is what we get we don't go after people we don't send anyone to collections anything else like that um and that's
also reciprocated on our mutual Aid Partners as well too so in the event that you're a Belmar resident and you get picked up in W Township because we have a mutual Aid contract with us you won't see any of the cost with that it is just of what we receive from our from our billing company our insurance companies so we are in fact bringing
some money in it's not 100% but it's some some degree of money absolutely thank you above of what the national average is um we'll see from that from our billing company and the practices that we put forth and a lot of that starts from when the call happens up until the end of when it gets sent off
for a third party Bill compy thank you m i I also just want to interject here because I I work in this area professionally that um for the sake of people who aren't really interested in ambulance billing policies um that not
only are local ambulance services dying out but a lot of now aren't bothering to Bill it all outside in some capacities or their numbers are incredibly low so they do a really good job of making sure they're billing and getting some payment coming in there our numbers are very
very good um I've worked with patients who had to sign up for ambulance memberships for their parents um or just would call the ambulance and they never show up so actually I I think we have a lot to be proud of for this program and for the way it's serving the residents
of Belmar and leomo I just have one thing Rob so just just so I'm clear and just so everyone in the in the public is clear us moving from basically a two a four Town system to a two Town system is not going to increase the annual cost of service or increase
the budget the taxpayers will be paying the same or or less absolutely taxpayers will be paying the exact same or less and our goal is for Less um that it does involves a lot of work from us and looking at our volume looking the pram runs to figure out how we can make this work the
best but it's comforting and I appreciate you uh looking at those numbers and making it work for us thanks sir I think I think it's important to note um Rob and his team have done a tremendous job we've been telling uh the
residents at many many meetings that we were exploring all options um and we have looked extensively uh we looked into merging with war uh yourself and Council M Council movan met with the county uh so we've explored
everything and and uh through Rob's work you know we've you know we've determined through many meetings that this is the best option for the for the residents of Belmore right now we know the service that they provide and now with the cost being less than last year I mean it's a
hands down um you know best best option for us right now so I just want to thank you rob for and your team for everything you've done thank for having us that's I know you've done a lot of work we've also have a lot of detailed statistics on on what uh what goes on
more than I think any of us really needed to know but um Rob's on top terms of anything that can be measured will be measured and tracked so uh thanks a lot and uh you know we appreciate the presentation for having me thanks for
having us thanks okay let's move on to the uh another Workshop discussion surf camp yeah I'll take this one really this is just a general question we're looking
at when when can we expect to see an RFP uh you know come our way for for the camp for that to be good out yeah I I believe the only reason this is on mayor is you know it was a 10-year contract that expired and there was a lot of discussion going back and
forth and really it's just just to be on here for tonight to one we we want to continue with surf camp and then uh two we'll get the RFP out are we we going to do a concession or an RFP I mean there's some discussion on that also it's going
to be a bit okay and there and there are you know different parameters that we have to discuss about the provisions of the of the you know the agreement in terms of you know the location the hours you know the starting time the closing time I there are a lot of details in
that which will all be shared with the council you obviously before we do the um the actual Bas start I do want to interject that I think time is of the essence here you know the people are already filling out summer camp applications have already
you know a month ago so I do think it makes sense especially if we're talking about the way it impacts a business itself to get this out um my other question is I believe stand up paddle is also at the end of this contract are we putting on RFP for that yeah there are a
few that we we discussed stand up paddle what was Yoga Yoga right yoga on the beach um I think that was it we have the boat concession as well in the marina yes that was the boat yes the boat
concession so we'll be uh we'll be seeing at least three others in addition to the uh Sur can we get that by next meeting have those we B them by contract so I can have those contracts ready to go by next day I think that's important because it
is getting much closer to Summer than we think and as Council Gan said it's it's approaching and we want to be able to have competitive bids for these businesses so the further we are out I think the better we're going to get in terms of competitive bids for all of them are we going to do bids on all of
those yes and will that be at the next meeting or will be the following meeting you think well we have to provide so um we have to I have to get some information regarding
the U cost location and hours we need to do that the rest of the stuff will fall into place but those are the big terms that we have to come to some so minimum bid when I say cost right right so it's more likely it'll be
the being after in terms of the the actual B process just want to get an bpark of you know like especially for like yoga on the beach and those things I mean is that going to be all done on the same the same night or are we going to do that
the next meeting or well the bid process is going to take some notice so um I don't have the next meeting on the top my head that I can take a look at it the AIL see are you talking about an RFP or are
you talking about like an option yeah I'm thinking an auction just like we do on everything we did with the concession the the T okay I had a and I apologize for not asking you
about it ahead of time but it came across my Des this morning um the environmental commission was concerned about the amount of plastic confetti that was coming out of some of the floats on the parade um and we all know plastic is a forever pollutant and we we
wanted to raise the issue of asking participants not to use plastic confetti paper Shore or maybe no confetti but plastic is still polluting the towns right now it's hard to pick up I'm sure for tpw and even when it goes to
wasted have we have we done the follow-up meeting on that yet with the with chip all right so they they'll I'm sure Kevin will discuss that with them in their all have to go back to little
paper any other issues Council I don't hear any so let's uh move on petitions April I did not receive any petitions next is approval of minutes can I have a
motion to approve the minutes of the February 25th meeting motion second councilman Donovan yes Council mckenny yes mayor PCO yes Council rero yes Council L yes next is reports of council
um from the environmental commission the US Army Corps headquarters approved the Silver Lake scope of work so now we're waiting for Congressional Appropriations um of course there is a risk rather than appropriating any funds for new projects Congress will goote to pass a continuing resolution through September 2025 this
is when they basically continue the current budget until they pass a new one um so obviously there would be no changes there uh that would if that happens that would push any start date well beyond October of 20225 um We are continuing to look for work that we can do at home though and I'm
pleased to announce that the environmental commission will be holding a beach cleanup on 1 Avenue on March 23rd from 12: to 2 there are flyers in the front there are some flyers in the front here um we welcome everyone to come pitch in and we'll be providing
gloves and collection buckets I'd especially like to encourage high school students who are looking for service hours to volunteer um and we can provide letters or certificates whatever you need um uh there were questions about geese again uh we are coordinating with our
contracted vendor along with DPW and our resident volunteers for egg adling this spring um Public Safety uh councilman Mark Levis and I met with Chief Scott and the police department as part of the Public Safety Committee um one of the issues that came up was some of the
difficulties that our officers had because of changes to our law that happened under the Canabis legislation that handcuff officer ability to uh sorry I can't to deter minor under 18 from drinking um I think this is a pressing
issue that could conally get worse so we are exploring different solutions to that problem including discussing um shortcomings of the law with our state legislators um I have good news about the softball field we are hopeful that we'll be able to break ground uh
potentially even Monday whether permitting so we're very excited and pleased about that um some rules some new news from the Belmar Women's Club I have the Flyers here they are hosting a craft fair at Taylor Pavilion on Saturday
April 5th from 9:30 to 3 it will include candles pottery art oneof A- kind gifts baked goods and other light Fair there'll be over 30 local Artisan vendors and of course free admission and parking so please come out um and there
are seven tickets and only seven tickets left for the singing florist who is a floral designer and Entertainer um tickets are $56 per person and they include a lunch buffet cash bar and a silent auction um this events on April
9th from 12:30 to 4 at bar a and finally I I want to bring this up because this is another one that's near and dear to me um I I don't I've mentioned this before I work for a healthcare charity but one of one of the most common issues every single year that we have patients calling us for is
actually Transportation needs if you can't get to your doctor you can't get to your doctor so um I wanted to bring attention that um ride in m is a program that is an in demand Ride Transportation Service that is their uh the county is unrolling um you qualify for services if
you're 60 years or older temporary or permanently disabled veterans or uh traveling 18 or over in traveling from any of the rural communities including Allentown Colts Neck wall um and other ones I won't list them all but um there's no charge for medical
related trips and um all other trips is just $2 per way you can find more information at um visit momo.com or emailing ride in mommoth ATV visit.com so I'd like to encourage you all to take advantage of that and let anyone you know who might be interested know about
this program it is a wonderful wonderful utility okay Council mckin thank you so much um I just wanted to say what what a great Parade day we had it was a really wonderful event it was very well attended it was very cold and very windy
but at least it was sunny um and I want to say thank you to everyone who helped make that happen um chip kavan and the whole parade committee I want to thank the police department I want to thank the fire department DPW EMS everybody who cleaned up after it was like you barely knew anything happened it was so
great um and it just it was another successful parade so thank you to everybody who has worked really really hard on that uh Recreation summer camp signups this week this Thursday March 13th for returning in town residents you were able to sign up first at 4:30 p.m.
if there is space available and any new in town residents is uh still wants to sign up for summer camp you can do so also this Thursday at 545 everything all the information space is limited all the info is on the record recation website
which the new and improved belmare Recreation website if or or Belmar website if anybody has seen it there is a b.com brand new website check it out it's a little better easily more easily uh to navigate uh junior guards is full
for the 2025 season so unfortunately there are no spaces for that summer basketball signups are now running club and tennis lessons signups are April 1st and volunteers are still needed to help with the Easter egg hunt which is April 12th and they need someone to wear the
bunny costume so if anybody wants to step up to be the bunny they are still looking for a bunny um okay sh tree commission next meeting is this Thursday March 13th couple couple quick things around the schools Belmar Elementary School susal
the Musical is this Friday the 14th 700 p.m. and Saturday the 15th at 2:00 p.m. tickets are $5 if you purchase them at the door uh Bel El element and wants everyone to know they are still registering prek students for the 2025 26 school year and the boys basketball
were Division champion Champions this year of Elmer Elementary so there's that um s Rose grammar school tomorrow is a half day they have testing in both the gramar school and the high school March 27th um seventh graders can shadow in the high school if they wish to see what
it's like to be a high school student you can call St Rose grammar school for more information about that so St Rose High School is lastly proud to announce again they are in the final championship for the state nonpublic B state finals
which is this Friday at Ruckers you can go online at Ruckers find out how to get your ticket the games at 3:00 in the afternoon and they play Rosel Catholic so come out because if they win again they will be state champs yet again St Rose High School boys and that's all I
have thank you council president Rano here uh congratulations to all the businesses that participated in dine and discover we're so lucky to have such delicious restaurants and eateries and uh places for treats uh the mayor and I attended the Belmar Public Library Board
of Trustees meeting last night um our next meeting will be May 12th at 6 p.m. the new windows in the library look fantastic if you haven't seen them please take a look um I think they're almost finished almost finished a reminder to everyone that the library is
open seven days a week uh the board discussed transitioning from a one-time fee to an annual fee for nonresidents um to obtain a library card as the cost of ebooks have skyrocketed and we want to make sure that we have enough available for our residents and
patrons uh registration for tomorrow's Irish soda bread contest at the Taylor Pavilion is now closed for attendees so hopefully you got your seat uh this Saturday please join us for a living history program Amelia air Park first
lady of the skies at 11:00 a.m. at the Taylor Pavilion and mark your calendars for Lewis and Clark on March 29th uh this week I wasn't able to attend the BHA bmer Housing Authority meeting but followed up with executive director Paul D santis I was informed
that there were some Heating and hot water issues that were being repaired uh one of the residents researched information from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs weatherization assistance program so I'm hoping that the BJ follows up with that to see if any assistance is possible as
the brutal cold is coming in through into the building um and that's a real concern for our seniors that that live there uh this afternoon I met with um members of the sign ordinance Committee comprising of belma residents business
members Chamber of Commerce representation and Tourism Committee um and I know council mckenny is working with me on that uh and we are committed to amending the current sign ordinance for temporary signs to make it more business friendly and less restrictive
including the allowance of flutter flag with specific guidance on size and placement and only to be out during business hours uh we'll meet again March 25th and hope to have our suggested amendments ready to be reviewed by mayor and councel by that evening for Workshop
if that's okay uh lastly I'd like to thank the residents employees volunteers our mayor and councel for your support um not only in my time on Council um but in my announcing that I'm not seeking reelection this year um but rest assured
I'm not going anywhere uh committed to the to making meaningful impact here and continuing that um through December and well well beyond so thank you thank you uh councilman Lis thank you mayor uh just a reminder that the Belmore
Elementary School play is going to be this Thursday the 14th at 700 p.m. as well as Friday the 15th at 2 p.m. I think tickets are $5 so go check it out um March 21st the Motor Vehicle
Commission is going to have their mobile unit at Belmar B Hall um you do have to make an appointment for it this will be for things like uh license renewals registration renewals so just keep that in mind if you don't want to go to the DMV they're going to be right here um fuel box should be being
dismantled by the end of this week week I hear so really good progress on that we've gotten a bunch of pilings in already at the commercial slips um some of the good news we've heard is that while widening the commercial slips they had to remove a couple pilings when they were removed they were in good shape
which is positive because it means the other pilings that are there are also in good shape the next Harbor commission meeting will be on April 18th at 700m that's next Tuesday um another reminder April 12th is the friendly Sun sele plunged for
autism down at the beach in front of 18th AV sign up I signed up you guys can sign up too it's not that cold um going on right now behind us in the gym is the basketball Awards uh for winter basketball I want to thank our
sponsor uh wmda star Marina ma for sponsoring the uh basketball program was really successful this year we get a lot of kids and they're really competitive and fun games um the championship game I watched last week went to the final seconds and the team won by one point um
so I'd like to congratulate the team names are not that original but the boys fifth or eighth grade uh blue team is the Champions girls fifth through eight was black team I think they called themselves charcoal um boys second grade through four congratulations to the
orange team girls second grade through fourth congratulations to the white team so so great job there and thank you than you to Barry and all the coaches uh that assisted um as councilwoman Donovan said we had our public safety meeting uh yesterday actually and two of the topics
we discussed that we'll probably be looking at uming the next meeting or or sometime soon would be clarifying the uh the beach tent rules um just making it easier for the specialist to understand what is considered a tent and what's not I know there's some ambiguity in our
resolution right now that we'll try to clean up a little bit um additionally we want to talk about um changing parking ordinance in front of Belmore Elementary School uh for drop offs in the morning to basically uh create a shorter time span that there's parking so it makes
the flow work a little bit better and people can get in and out and drop their kids off uh without having to do the whole circle around the block six times and find a place so those are some things we'll try to be presenting at the uh hopefully we can get them in place before the next meeting but we'll see we got to review the ordinances and George
is going to have a lot of homework to do I'll talk to team about that very good that's all I have M thank you okay uh I'd like to report on something uh as as we all know the bridge on Main Street is going to be coming down at some point in
late 2027 2028 and uh a number of us Mayors myself Ed Bano and a and uh Avon and alosi in Bradley Beach have come together to basically start planning for that even
though it's many years away and the planning is really taken the form of of uh educating the businesses along our main streets as to what resources are Avail available to them now that they that might help them you know build up a
momentum to be able to withstand the closure of the of the three years that it's anticipated that the bridge will be closed and you know we have uh uh I think week or two ago we met with a woman from the um New Jersey Economic
Development Authority her name was Kathy Gusman she has uh a lot of information on uh to share with businesses about grants and other uh things that they may be uh that may be available to them that
they don't know about uh in addition to that we had a meeting today actually she put us in touch with a a doctor uh Jackie for who's a professor at Brookdale Community College and she runs the New Jersey
Small Business Development Center and uh she gave us again a lot of information a lot of good ideas as to what can be done to assist businesses uh to just you know become
more successful and and I think I think what we're moving towards is just trying to get some of these State Partners to work with us and mostly the businesses to inform them about what kinds of things they can do uh and I believe
we're going to kind of attack it as a almost as like a regional thing so you know like if they if they're going have a meeting to give out information you know we'll bring all the three towns together so that everybody hears it at once like for example there there have
been people businesses in Bradley Beach that have already taken advantage of some of these things and it might be a good thing for our local businesses to hear what kinds of things they' received and you know what kinds of things they may be able to uh apply for so you know
we're starting we have enough time uh but you know you can never start too soon uh in fact um Ed banano wrote a letter and I signed it also about we're asking the state also to give us more information about uh
traffic you know we we haven't had a a recent traffic study for Route 71 know how many cars are going over the bridge uh and back and we're asking them to give us as much data as they can about you know what what the what the
statistics are and what kind of traffic we're having here and you know I think as we sit together you know we're coming up with a lot of good ideas uh you know we're learning also you know we know that we we can assume perhaps that the
state may have buckets of of funds available to municipalities to do different things so we want to try to explore that and see uh you know what kinds of things we can we can do at the point when you know the bridge actually
closes to keep our main streets really productive and and draw people into town there are some interesting opportunities actually that that that would provide but you know I'm jumping ahead a little bit so um we're working on that you know
it's it's a process but I think you know you'll be hearing more about uh the towns the three towns working together to try to you know get our businesses up and running and productive so that they're not really suffering when the when the bridge ultimately closes so
I'll keep your posted on that and that's all I have next is public session on resolutions if anyone has a comment or question about a resolution on the agenda please step forward state your name and address I have a motion to close the public
session second all in favor can I have a motion to approve the resolutions as listed on the consent agenda motion second councilwoman Donovan yes councilwoman Kenny yes mayor M Fusco yes
Council yes councilman Lis yes and have one separate resolution resolution 2022 57 a resolution consenting to appointment of trustee to the Belmar Public Library do we have a motion to offer this resolution I'll make the
motion second councilman Donovan yes councilman Kenny yes mayor fesco yes Council ranero yes and Council Le yes the Este that one that
one uh next we have uh second reading in public hearing of ordinance 20254 this is an ordinance amending chapter 18 amending the uh rates at the marina it's open for public comment if anyone would like to speak on the
ordinance step forward I have a motion to close the public hearing motion second all in favor I and a motion to adopt ordinance 20254 motion
second councilman Donovan yes councilman Kenny yes mayor MCO yes Council rero yes Council L yes uh next is second reading and public hearing of ordinance 20255 an ordinance to exceed the
municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank this is open for public comment if anyone has a question or comment please step forward I have a motion to close the public hearing motion second all in
favor and a motion to adopt ordinance 20255 I'll make a motion second councilman Donovan yes councilman Kenny yes mayor mesco yes councilman rero yes councilman Lis yes last one is
ordinance 20256 second reading in public hearing is an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 19 um is adding section 54 for low-speed electric bicycles and other motorized conveyances this is open for public
hearing if anyone would like to speak on the please step forward a motion to close the public hearing motion second all in favor and a motion to adopt ordinance 20256 motion
second councilman Donovan yes councilman Kenny yes mayor mesco yes councilman Rino yes councilman Lis yes uh so now we're at public session if anyone would like to speak please remember to state your name and address first
Council I'm Tara P I live at 110 7th Avenue and I also own hot mess Studio at 901 Main Street um here in balar obviously and I'm a founding member of the Chamber of Commerce um here tonight because I have some concerns that were
raised from the parade from the business community and I just wanted to bring them to your attention um and also just suggest like a really great opportunity for us to all communicate on these different issues going
forward we had underage drinking and for lack of a better term Shenanigans um there weren't enough bathrooms so there was a lot of public urination there was a lot of uh peeing in Alleyways and and on cars and a lot
of the business owners were getting bombarded with uh teenagers that were drunk that were looking for bathrooms um some of one of the business owners spotlighted that he had to raise the price of water to $20 just to deter people from coming in just to buy water
to use the [Music] bathrooms we um we felt like there wasn't enough communication from the parade committee there was a letter sent out just having um everyone bring in things from outside
that were maybe like flower pots or planners or different things um to keep everything safe which we understand and that's great but um maybe going forward we could have better communication between the pr committee and the businesses and there were a lot of there were a lot
of businesses that weren't able to do business some of the restaurants um were getting door Dash orders and they had to cancel them or they couldn't get deliberate you know um people that called into police orders weren't able to get in to pick them up and I think
that the issue is that they they didn't know what streets were going to be closed down they couldn't direct their customers how to get to their stores and how to get to their restaurants and so they W up losing business and money that day um and I did think the parade was
great and I had a great time I love Parade day it's one of my favorite days of the year I choose not to do business because I can't imagine anybody coming to get their hair done in the middle of a parade a where are they going to park and B it's kind of a hot mess so
um I believe in Solutions based leadership and I am coming here not just with problems but I want to come and be a liaison to create Solutions and help create a better plan for next year um I think that you know if we can all
sit down the Chamber of Commerce the parade committee the leadership you guys do such a great job if we can all work together to get more information to the business owners um I think that it can be even more successful I know that I have a 22-year old daughter and
she'll go running around in limited clothing because that's what 22y olds do and so I feel like when it's that cold a lot of older people don't necessarily come out so it felt like there were a lot of teenagers um scantily clad running
around and drinking underage and it did cause a lot of problems for the business owners so um I would hate for it to get to the level that like Hoboken had to cancel their parade and I don't want that to ever be a thing for us because I do feel like we're it's such a landmark
event for bmart um and that's really it as far as the parade goes I just um I love this town I love being a part of it I love living here and I just want to create even more magic for the business community so hopefully we can continue
to work together and create solutions for these problems um I do have one other thing I wanted to talk about um we Chamber of Commerce submitted um um an application for a beer garden during Seafood Festival we were looking
to do both these um we were told that it would be a conflict of interest and I understand that but when there's that many people in town and most of it's drawn to the you know Ocean Front Lake Area it definitely takes business away
from the downtown business owners um one of the things that came up recently was could we create like a continuity between the downtown and the festival like maybe having uh the trolley or free rides or something where we could do you
know both um I think creating a a central point where we can draw more people from that area I don't think it would be a competition I think it would just be another great thing if we had a beer garden some live music we could
create specials with the businesses and have like a shopping dining area there's people that don't necessarily want to go to the Festival but would come and be a part of the day um or maybe visit the festival and then come visit the downtown and I think it would really help create morale and
create um excitement for the for the business owners um um I think that's all I have for you that is and just thank you so much for all that you do and we're so excited to continue to work with you guys and and move forward in the
community thank you for your comments uh I I agree with you on your initial comments about things that didn't quite go as planned for the parade and I think that'll be something that'll be discussed when we meet with the parade committee I also think it'd be good to
tell them or ask them to interface next year with the Chamber of Commerce you should be involved in all of the discussions that that they're having with us also in terms of you know how how the parade should should run or what ideas you might have to to make things
less um less less of an issue for the for the businesses that want to stay open on that day yeah so I mean I think that's a a good idea and we'll definitely promote that to the to the committee okay all right if I could just say there too I
think I it's glad you brought it up because there are competing interests when it comes to Parade day a bar is going to do really well hair studio is probably not right so how can we how can we make sure all those interests are sort of met and you know the purpose of the parade is it's it's a parade but we
want to make sure that we're not being a burden to businesses that aren't benefiting and that the businesses that are benefiting are you know doing their fair share to make sure that it's uh it's good for everybody in the community so thank you for bringing that up um
two things well three um um one um the tourism Commission meeting is tomorrow night and if you or any of your colleagues would like to come and like talk about ideas especially for seafood festival like please do because I've got a bunch and we don't need to believe her the point in front of everyone
but also thank you for coming out um and two um I wondering if either our attorney or chief Scott could just give everyone an overview of what the underage drinking law is right now
because I did not realize what it was and it blew my mind when I found out so back in 2021 when they legalized cannabis they put in a part of that wall uh for underage cannabis use alcohol um
I actually have it on my phone I can read exactly what it says and I can break it down for you um but on one second basically what the new law states is that um if you are under the age of
21 we cannot detain excuse me we cannot arrest detain or otherwise take an individual under the age of 21 into custody the only way we can stop them is to write them a written warning that says you were
caught with alcohol here you go when the law first came out we weren't allowed to call the or contact the parents that has changed we can contact the parents um before this law came out say we were on the beach front and we had a group of juveniles drinking underage we'd bring
them to headquarters we call their parents or parents would have to come get them if you are under the age of 18 you cannot be issued a burrow ordinance so alcohol in public open container you can't get a um ordinance violation written to you at the age of 17 and
under um so our our hands are tied um handcuff as you said um and this is just with with alcohol um think about other crimes serious crimes um just last week
the nor cop that was shot by a 14-year-old he he's being tried as a 14-year-old not as an adult but that's that's a whole another story um and I'm on public record so but there's there's a lot more to this um I'm just giving you a very
very brief um synopsis of it and the the larger problem of this is the the juveniles know this they know that where're our hands are tied and there's not much that we can do believe me I was just as frustrated on Parade day each
year it gets worse and worse and worse and you know we're trying to figure out ways to make it better um and you know we're you know I was talking to a couple school officials on maybe you know the school putting something out um or you know going going that route or something
like that but this this law restricts the police from doing a lot like we can't even if you're 17 you have a beer in your hand all right get rid of the beer let me see what's in your backpack we can't do that we can't take anything that's in a backpack a bag or anything
like that so if you notice they all had backpacks they're all carrying them around you know um Walgreens called us several times to get them out of there we had um a couple juveniles um in Lake comoo they they robbed the
store and you know they were brought here because of because of the crime they committed but it's it this law just really really it it it ties our hands on what we can do with J I wonder if there's like some kind of a creative solution or a work around
that the answer is we all need to write our legislators and tell them the law needs to be changed that's it I I don't know why they they ROP alcohol into this law um they it was fine the way that it was with underage drinking and us being
able to enforce it um but when this came out I mean the law enforcement Community was like outraged because there was like nothing that we could possibly do to you know alleviate these situations it's on a state level so I mean that's certainly
something that we spending some attention on but and I think in the in the upcoming year working with the parade committee it's worth trying to come up with different Immediate Solutions whether there's physical barriers we talked about this yesterday so um that's to the seafood
festival I I've certainly heard from the business Community before that they feel like um that doesn't drive enough the purpose of these events is always should be to drive um more customers and more people and more visitors to all of Main Street and to the Ocean Avenue and
Marina businesses and um it's a little unclear whether or not the seafood Fest currently accomplishes that goal but I think there are things we can do to help provide continuity between the festival and all of the businesses downtown I would love to work with you guys on that thank you so much I was going to say the
same thing I think a CH was actually not a bad idea just to go back and forth yeah I don't know if we did last year did we last year I don't think we did but I like the idea of that and as a business owner in town I totally understand exactly the challenges and I am I am unfortunately a little further
off Main Street but I I totally understand the challenges and you know if I am also on a chamber member so if you ever have issues you can always reach out all right I appreciate that good mayor if I could just add a little bit were you done
you you don't have to stand there want to I just want to add the site to that Statute in case anybody wants to take a look at it uh njsa 2C col 33-15 and if you look at that statute
you'll see that the uh police have the ability to provide three warnings under the statute and that's about it um and the statute is kind enough to uh also state that law Enforcement Officers shall be guilty of a crime of official
deprivation of civil rights as set forth in section 2C 30- 6.1 for Vi violating the provisions of paragraph one of this subsection which means violating um the uh the rights of of the underage drinker
so the only person that's subject to a crime under this statute are our police so that's as far as that statute goes so if you want to you know understand a problem you have to really take a look at this
statute okay thank you any other comments please hello 205 8 Avenue bmar hi Maria um I think name a question for I didn't catch your name I'm
sorry I can't promise that I can answer but I can want to follow up with what Tara spoke about it seems that the township um has the opportunity to draft M Municipal
ordinances that can prohibit alcohol possession or consumption by individuals under 21 on P private premises is part of that statute and it says that although that is state law sets the
framework municipalities in New Jersey have the authority to enact ordinances addressing underage streaking on private property so I don't know where the private property would lie so the private property may be a different issue but as far as the problem that we're talking about in the street this
statute that we were just talking about is very specific so I would think that a court would find it to preempt anything that we would try to do to to to solve that problem to solve that problem and then could you have written the uh could you for the public urination could you
have them for public urination if they were over the age of 18 yet got it so under 18 not ISS a ordinance to someone okay thank you hello through frin South Lake Drive uh I didn't come here to speak about the seafood festival but since that was
opened up I think the um residents around the lake would fund the trolleys and we would be willing to uh bus everybody up to being Street I think for years actually there's been a debate about why we have that seafood festival and what the returns are for the town um
and also I think one of the main things was wanting the town to be frequented by the visitors and I think we've lost a lot of that also it concerns me to hear about this law when was it enacted I'm sorry I 2021 okay so it's been around a little
while but certainly you can imagine if you have that crew in amongst the residents that could get even more interesting so maybe that's something you can consider when you're talking to tourism group um councilman Levis you mentioned just the DM can I speak to ask
me the question first please sure of course I'm sorry about that it was about the DMD uh so can are they going to allow us to return plates there too or do you know I don't know off the top my head yet have to see is it is it true off also that's a
really a great what dat is that uh the 21st March 21st I'm sorry can I what about real ID can they make appointments for real IDs the appointments are full it's hard it's hard up within like
an hour or two but the license points you can just drop off okay that's great great service thank you for having that um you just related to EMS I think that was a great presentation this gentleman seems to be uh an important asset to the community I
just had a couple quick questions about the EMS uh review just since it's been such a crucial review for the town I I had a question about whether the council had an opportunity to review the line items and budget review that led to the
$144 for rable and had input to that mayor yes okay we had a uh we had an executive session where uh as I said before all of the all of the numbers were detailed uh in terms of the uh
different line items costs uh you know potential Revenue that was coming in so and it was it was actually um projected over a number of years so we know you know we have a good idea of where it is now and where it will be
going excellent I appreciate the review so one question I have about that is have you in the same context looked at these line items against regional and local benchmarks to try to see whether those are realistic projections for a town
like ours I don't know what you mean by local regional and local yeah so in essence just looking at each line the gentleman actually quoted a couple of benchmarks and he mentioned in terms of time of response all these things there are clearly probably publicly available
benchmarks on what would one expect to pay per head what would one expect to pay for per ambulance per call per so I'm not sure that there are those benchmarks but I don't think I have I have seen that
um there are National I I think there are National figures uh out there and but I'm not aware of them and I don't know you know one of the problems I can tell you with talking about ambulance services is that it is such a wild Patchwork
throughout the country of what type of services are provided and who is providing be public private or some combination to the point where um a few years ago the no surprises Act passed Congress um which is regulating how uh
providers build patients right um and even though that covered things like Emergency Services ambulances were very specifically left out because of that Patchwork problem um and I believe Congress left it to a working group and okay so you're you're just basically
saying you don't think there's any appropriate outut no I didn't say that um I'm not quite sure exactly I I would request more clarity on your question really well the clarity is having looked at a tremendous number of analyses in my life I think you did two there I remember you citing
so many of them years ago um the reality is uh use since we are on the record stuff in equals stuff out right there's another word that people use instead of stuff the point is is that whatever you put into that model produce is the output of that model the stuff going in
isn't really accurate the output of that model is going to be pretty off and second of all the reality is most likely in any projection once you get Beyond two to three years so many things so many variables can change they could have a massive variability in what the
realities of that cost is so some of the ways you look at that is you look back three to five years at benchmarking and you can see the trends in the benchmarking that provides a lot of credibility to the model so I was just asking if there was an opportunity to weigh that against the model production
I I believe that I mean our CFO is here and they sat down together so did you operation from 2021 when it was essentially taken over by the and the services were provided now obviously
some of the information that we have is because we were using awn model at that point not a two Town model so we have scaled back where we felt it was appropriate to do that so we have been
following and tracking what what our past activity has been and hope that our projections going forward are more in line with what the reality of the ex the total cost of the
will so it's really at this point it's a little bit variable only because we went from four towns to Two Towns we're trying to accommodate everything that we need to within that that new model yeah I I'm sure you made the best effort you could so I'm not calling that into
question but I do think that the variability in these models could be very high the variance and also if there aren't benchmarks you know looking at those Trends could be vastly different so I would just call C the council to realize that if you don't have that
visibility modeling is quite often you know a Fool's ER but I do appreciate the effort that you put in but I think um you know economies of scale over multiple towns may be vastly different than what you would achieve on your own in the end and so um so um I just have
one quick thing um to to finish up I'm trying to keep to the five minutes but I don't know where I am on that so you also mentioned that one of the key I'm sorry one of the say you're at seven okay all right well I'm not Mr Kramer tonight although we're missing um you mentioned that the billing of the
insurance or the gentleman mentioned that you also build the insurance companies and I know that that's a brutal effort and in fact sometimes the return on investment of billing costs more than the actual billing itself so I wondered if you had a few years of trend analysis on what was being recouped from
the billing maybe the mix of of payers that are being build and and what the cost was to recoup that we actually a third okay fores we do have a range reimbursements
to the burrow range from a low of5 to $60 to a high of with some of the more um established insurance companies we we get anywhere
from $500 to $600 on on a call depending on the the um severity of the call the the level of services that are provided to the patient as they're being transported so all of that plays into it
and I can give you the range that we've had we've experienced over the last couple of years it it varies dramatically I believe that's what I know he we had that conversation in executive but that was what I was looking to earlier that is often not
it's usually not fiscally worth it to pursue the balance of the bill after insurance is paid yeah and and when those numbers are quoted to test the analysis I would ask is that net of the 500 or 50 depending upon the type is
that net of bad claims so that's netted out after the claims you get nothing from because you just don't get covered or you can't reach the insurer they you know utilization management tells you they won't pay or the second piece is also um not only is it what you don't
get from them but also I think it would be the uh payers that actually are out of network or something and they won't ultimately pay then net of the cost of actually having to pursue it because the billers bill that's a flat you know that's a fixed cost but then having to
go after them is a very expensive aspect of of the whole mechanism so top of my head and I I don't have EMS I mean we've done a lot of work with with EMS but if the biller or if the
patient is uncovered uh no insurance and um there is no opportunity to recoup yeah that's easy a loss right um the variety of returns that we're getting on
the the billing that's done we generally don't follow we we don't make a huge effort to recoup additional funds once a payment has been remitted to the B if that's what you're asking I'm not or or not at all I mean it's the ratio of what the
payers are you're you're not contracted with the payers right you're an out of network provider I would assume no we're not so you're actually contracted with Verizon you're contracted with that net as a provider you become eligible to participate in all of these groups by
your registration as a a provider service yeah okay so then you're billing under a contract it depends on what the individual has what their plan is but you're a contracted provider so I I I haven't looked at the analysis but I would just say that these are the kinds
of questions that are hugely important to the ultimate number if you don't pressure test those you could come up with something that's somewhat artificial you're a provider in some ways so you you understand what that looks like and trying to get reimbursed all right that's all I had the only the last question is can I assume that this
analysis is not available to the public or can that be available to the public no it's a deliberative information yeah it's not subject to oppr it's not subject to oppr okay well listen I would always encourage uh in
the in the concept of uh transparency that even if you don't want to give every single line maybe there's a summary analysis of these things or something that people can have a confidence thank you very much appreciate it anyone else CLA hner 18th and v um I sat here
this evening listening that um some of our summer programs it may take a month before we get a new contract for them and then I listen to some of the council people saying that the deadlines for the summer things are coming and they've started and everything else um UPS they
to us taught us a lot of process Improvement so I hope moving forward that we have a list of all contracts that are going to expire and then we're on top of it and we don't end up in a situation at a month before summer we're trying to put an RFP out or whatever
with that okay we are on top of it thank you good I'm glad um last but not least the new website just a question I did eventually fund the minutes so that was for the uh agenda I should say um it was
a surprise to see I know it was talked about a couple years ago and I guess my question is was this like a just a dump of the old into the new or did we take the time to go through and look to see what was still valid what was still
legit and everything or did we just take it and move it both we we went over the old website and picked what would be brought over and what would it be I mean like the one thing that really like stuck
out one thing was the um uh the beach badges for the veterans it's a brand new press release and everything we have the old information in there still oh you have to understand we just did this so there's going to be
a phas in process you know unfortunately we don't have the wherewithal to have no that was updated today but but I mean we don't have a wherewithal to have a to have the two systems run side by side and have somebody sit down and perfect the new system so that we can just
transition over you know and and get rid of the old system I I see it as a work in progress there's going to be a lot of old stuff on there it's just going to be under a new uh you know a new format and those things are going to have to be fixed you know there was about a a week
or so of a transition period where nothing new could be added to the new site until we went live so now that we're live we can make we can get caught up with what's happened in the last two weeks and update it to some matches what's going on okay I just came from a
background where they were in sync and it was up to date and it was current if you're moving stuff you don't unfortunately have the funds as that private industry has to be able to do that any other questions hi I'm Bobby henar 512 9th Avenue I
wanted to ask for an update on a discussion of the um Union Firehouse building and how it will be used in the fut I'd like to i' just like to remind everybody that this is a comment section and we we do you know allow and answer
questions as as necessary but um you know in the future you know it really is not a discussion session okay you know you know what I'm saying it you're allowed to make comments if but um I I'd like to in the future you know start to
move away from you know extended discussions about things because you know but it's not just for you but for everyone you know we've been very very liberal with with the discussions that we've had and I've told people before if you have questions please try to get
them to us a have time and then we can we can answer them because many times we sit up here and we don't we don't have all the answers to all of the questions that you might have and I would like to be prepared to answer questions so if we have them ahead of time then we can we
can do that but you can answer you can ask your your question and I'll try to respond if I can okay not working let me rephrase the Union
Firehouse building is I think one of the most Beau or in town and I have concerns about it because in the past I kind of feel like I have been disappointed with the lack of historic preservation emphasis in the town thank you uh I'm a
retired historic preservation professional and I am I also live diagonally across the street from the building it has always been actively used as a firehouse and the uh belmare Historical Society is in the rear of it
um I would love to see it be in going forward actively used for some type of meeting space in the community I feel it's really important to um use the building and the meeting space that's that is in it as well as any type of um
effort to use the bay for some type of um emergency response if possible um but I really do feel that I'm I'm concerned I do know that um um Kevin Kane spoke about the fact that it would be this was
in the paper a few weeks ago that it would be owned by the burrow I would like to request that the burrow really has a plan for maintenance of 120 year old brick building um I do think that you know I've noticed things of on the facade that I think are a little
concerning but I also want to make sure that it's noted that um the building is important to the fabric of my community of my neighborhood in particular in belmare and I would like to get an update in the future so I will let you know that I will let you know now that I
will be back again to ask this question about how it will be used and how it will um any repairs will be funded and and the maintenance of the building so you you have my word my promise as long
as I'm sitting here I can't speak for future generations of people that building will remain a property of the B of belmare it will be utilized it will be maintained to the best of our ability um it will be it's I considered a historic building uh and you know we're
going to do whatever we can to obviously better that building use it for the community for whatever else we need it to be used used for and you know as far as I'm concerned it it's it's just part of our I that's also of my comment that
I know that I consider it historic you consider it historic but if it doesn't have any type of protection legally to you know it's not designated as anything and I don't know that it would be it's not part of a historic district we don't have any type of zoning of that type you
know even I mean that's a that's a that's a research question you know for designation or any type of absolute protection any type of Covenant that the building will be kept by burrow of belmare and maintained that concerns me
because that's just not the way things go here so you know I mean we we if we could lose an EMS building that was the very first first aid building in the country you know that was historic too that's gone so I mean I I just think
that wasn't own by the burrow so well yes yes but what I'm saying is there are there are other buildings in town either privately owned or you know otherwise that I think you know there I I feel like there's not that sensitive importance we have to talk to our
attorney to see what if anything could be be done to protect that building there might be things that can be done legally you know in a deed or what have you and we'll we'll discuss that with him and and see what it is that can be done whatever can be done will will let
you know the public know okay before anything's done okay question thanks any other comments [Music] questions
debates okay I think we're done it I have a motion to close the public session all in favor okay um last item is a resolution authorizing closed session this is where it has been
determined by the burrow Council the burrow of bmar that it's necessary to discuss the following specific matter at its regular meeting in the absence of the public which is pending litigation whereas the open public meetings act permits the buau council to exclude the public from that portion of a public
meeting during which such matters are discussed now therefore via resolve by the B Council as follows the council shall recess into a private executive session from which the public shall be excluded to discuss the above reference matters that the scope of the executive
session shall be limited to above matters as stated and that those matters discussed in executive session shall remain confidential until such time as a need for confidentiality no longer exists as determined by the burough attorney and that minutes of the closed
session shall be taken by the clerk and be kept free from public view until such time that the need for confidentiality no longer exist as determined by the bur attorney and that the regular meeting of the council shall resume after private session at which time the burrow Council may take
action and reference to the topic discussed do we have a motion to approve the resolution