Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the co-star, the official newspaper of the burrow of Elmar and the Asbury Park Press. And notice of this meeting was posted on the bulletin board in this whole building. Take roll call. Councilwoman Donovan >> here. Counciloman McKenna >> here. Mayor Busco
>> here. >> Council Randero here. Council Le. >> Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible
and justice for all. >> Please remain standing for a moment of silence for our troops, their families and first responders. And let us also remember um Virginia Havens who is the mother of Darlene Havens a member of our
library board and the grandmother of Ray Clauddio uh one of our code enforcement officials and also I learned today Lamb who was worked on the beach also passed away today
>> and let's also remember James Riley Jim and Jill was on Terrace for 40 plus and he passed away last year. Please be seated. Okay. Workshop. Uh let's start with the uh
acknowledgement of the best practices inventory. I believe everybody received that. uh it's a standard thing that we need to do each year. Uh and once we score a certain number of points, we're we're good and we did that this year.
So, are there any questions, comments, the council on that? Okay. Any other issues for um workshop? I just thought it would be worth mentioning the um good job that the bureau did the research on the health insurance plan and how important that
was to do. Um I know that was the biggest driver of increases in our budget and it was going to continue to do so. Healthcare costs are high all over the country and that is absolutely the case in New Jersey. So, um I'm glad that the solution came up for the bureau
and thank you to everyone who worked on it. Anything else? All right, let's move on to petitions. >> Mayor has not received any petitions. >> Minutes.
>> Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the October 14th meeting? >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? Anyone >> oppose? the reports of council council. Uh the environmental club is continuing
to work on grants and to work out dates for our um warmer weather activities like cleanups at McClary Park and the beach. So I'll keep you apprised of that. Um we finalized our grant with the coalition with our four neighboring
towns in the county. Um a lot of hard work went into that. Thank you the burough uh employees who also worked on that. Um Harbor Commission is finalizing rate recommendations for next year. Our goal is always to come up with a system that is both transparent and
predictable. Um and finally, January 14th is the Bel Women's Club Winter Extravaganza. A ticket bundle is $50. If you've never been, uh, please consider coming out to support. It's an incredible event. There are a million 10 gift baskets that you can try to win.
Um, they work for months and months and months on it. Um, I I won with cornhole awards last year. Yes. Um, and if you want more information, you can find the women's club on Facebook. Um, you can contact me the 75 members now strong of
the women's club or Johanna Roer Robinson who is running the event. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, around recreation basketball signoffs are happening now. They need more fifth to eighth grade girls to sign up. So, if you know any fifth to eighth grade girls that would
like to play basketball for recreation, please do so. Youth club begins November 15th. Signups are happening now. They're Saturday nights. safe and fun activities for kids on Saturday nights. 5 to 6:30 is 3 to 5 fifth graders. 7 to 8:30 p.m. is 6th to 8th graders. So, sign up for
youth club. St. Rose High School is having their public school shadow day. November 6th, 8th graders and transfer students are welcome to spend the day as St. Rose High School student registration as at srhsnj.com/public schoolshadow day. And St. Rose High
School and Grammar School would also like you to know their PTA bian bian annual clothing drive. They do it in the fall and in the spring. The clothing drive is November uh Saturday, November 15th from 8 to 10:00 a.m. in the church parking lot. Drop off all your clothing.
Uh they'll take blankets, they'll take towels, they'll take anything, you know, I think they even take stuffed animals, so bring all your things. And then I would like to share that with the Bel Elementary School. So, I will pass that down to you guys. Uh, the next Shade Tree Commission meeting is November
13th. And that is all I have. >> Thank you, uh, Council President Randiro. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'd like to acknowledge our first responders for National First Responder Day. Uh, Belmont relies on the bravest team of volunteers and employees uh to keep us
safe. I see many of our first responders here in this room. So, thank you. Um, thank you for what you do and your sacrifice. um our library uh since our last meeting our library had a phenomenal Dvali event um celebration and also a local author's
event both at the Taylor Pavilion very well attended and um extremely wonderful. The library does fantastic things including the return of the live animal series. Uh so we've got penguins, we've got wolves and a touch tank coming
your way uh in the next few weeks. This Saturday is the penguin pointers and that's Jenson's pavilion. Actually brings in some penguins uh to the Taylor Pavilion. That will be at 11 a.m. Uh and then the wolves are November 8th at
11:00 a.m. And then we'll have the touch tank December 6th. So penguins this Saturday, 11:00 a.m. Please register online uh at bmarlib.org or call the library if you need assistance. Uh, the Belmer Housing
Authority has its next meeting November 3rd at 5:15. I was present for their opening of bids for the facade repair last Thursday. I'll have more information on that um after next week when they have their board meeting. And lastly, our veteran uh military hometown
hero banners uh will be up again on Main Street this year in time for Veterans Day. Um, and there is a Veterans Day service, I believe, at 900 a.m. on Veterans Day on the 11th, um, where it normally is in Memorial Road. Thanks,
>> Councilman Lewis. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, we had a great fall fest last weekend. I want to thank uh the Belar Lake Cobone Chamber of Commerce for putting that on. Uh, they had face painting, bounce house, uh, pumpkin painting, uh, lots of candy and
lemonade. It was a good time for the kids. They had a great time. The cars were cool. Uh really good time. And I also want to thank uh uh Barry for the great trunk or treat we had last weekend. It was also a wonderful time for the kids out in uh out in Dempsey Park there. Um and then to echo what
Councilwoman uh Donovan said about the Harbor Commission, we are looking at doing some new rates for the commercial slips. Um that will sort of change the way we had done it in the past where we're not looking at uh the use of the boat, but more looking at the boat itself and the number of passengers on
board. So, we're hoping to have a recommendation for the next council meeting uh that we'll present to the council to uh vote on the rates. The Harbor Commission is also looking to do their annual report uh potentially at the next council meeting where they could present sort of the state of the marine and give the public an overview of what's going on and some of the
things they're working on. And that's all I have. Mayor, >> thank you. I have two things. on um this past Sunday, uh Council President Randiro and Councilwoman Donovan and I attended a 125th anniversary service at
the First Baptist Church in Belmar. That's on 9th Avenue. And it was uh very inspiring if you've never been to that kind of a service, but it was it was a great thing, I think, for all of us to attend. Uh they, you know, they have a
tremendous congregation there. uh they have a little video also of people expressing you know how being involved in the church has has helped them and you know what they get out of being a member of that congregation. So it was
uh it was really all in all I think a very uh good experience for us all and uh I'd like to thank you know the Reverend James A. Jackson and all of his deacons who were were just more than accommodating to us. And we had a
resolution that we we read uh again honoring the church in this uh you know very historic uh anniversary. So um that was that. We also had a um Halloween contest in town and uh
um if you haven't seen it on Facebook, we have some winners. The first place winner was 1051 19th Avenue. I believe there are still pictures up. I'm not sure if that's >> Yeah, they're there. Uh the second place
was 1101B Street and third place was 2131 12th Avenue and then we had a best pumpkin display at 400 River Avenue. So, if you haven't checked those out, you might want to take a look at the pictures or just drive around and you
can see them in person. Okay, that's all that I have at this point. Okay, next we have the public session on the resolutions. If anyone has a comment or question about a resolution, please step forward, state your name and address.
>> I have a motion to close the public session. >> Motion. >> Second. All in favor? >> I >> I >> Can I have a motion to approve the resolutions as listed on the consent agenda? >> I'll make a motion. >> Second.
>> Councilwoman Donovan, >> yes. >> Counciloman Kenny, >> yes. >> Mayor Besco, >> yes. >> Council Rando, >> yes. >> Councilman Le, >> yes. >> There are no ordinances, so now we're on to public session. If anyone would like to speak, please remember to state your name and address first.
Just like to remind everybody we'd like to keep the comments to five minutes. >> Okay. Okay. We come before you tonight on Thanks. Okay. We come before you tonight
to again raise concerns about a continuing delays in repairing the outflow pipe, a system that has now failed three times. According to Billy Mus, the pipe was found to be to not be in working order sometime between May
and June. Residents were never notified when the replacement part was ordered. On October 15th, we learned that the final was fabricated, but the delivery isn't expected until March 26th. This is 10 months from discovery to
repair. We thank the DPW staff for manual manually managing the lake water flow. The October storm was mild but in severe storms manual operations would put
workers lives at risk and that is not acceptable. We are asking the town to pri prior prior pri prioritize thank you keeping the outflow system operation operational at all times and to consider ordering a
backup part to prevent this recurring issue. Uh, Caitlyn Donovan informed us that our request for ordering a backup car was denied, possibly due to the $50,000 cost. We believe the safety of our residents,
our property, and our workers is well worth the investment. That's what we have to say. >> Thank you. Good evening, council. Uh my name's Rich Sidell, 20110 Surf Avenue, uh Belmont, New Jersey. And it's also regarding the
outflow pipe in Lake Como. Uh I'm concerned about a number of things. One is the safety of the workers, the public workers going out there in conditions that are atrocious to try to manually operate that. But I thought when we got the grant of $6.2 million that there was
an agreement as to who was going to manage the pipe between Spring Lake and Belmar. Is there an agreement? And does that agreement specify who's
responsible for the costs involved in repairing and maintaining the pipe? Now, people may not think that this is this is more of a global issue, too. If Belmar is responsible and we're not maintaining that pipe properly, what
happens if there is a category 2 and all the surrounding towns get property damage? I'd like to know for the attorneys, if we're the ones managing that, do we have enough insurance to cover the repercussions of not having
that pipe fixed in a prompt manner? Thirdly, this to me is not a public works issue. This to me is an engineering issue. And when you have something as seriously as this, the Army Corps of Engineer or somebody should
basically be giving input and what has to be done and get this thing moving. I await your comments. >> Number one, I can't comment on the on the agreement because I'm not aware of it. I wasn't here at the time. So I'd have to go back and do research and
actually look at what that agreement says. Okay. So that's the first thing as far as insurance liability for the borrow in in in maintaining that or not maintaining it. That's as you said that's a a legal question that it' have
to be referred to to council to see what liability if any the bureau has. And the third thing was um you mentioned input from the Army Corps of Engineers. >> In other words, this has been going on
so long and this is the third time it broke. But I think the the question that I have is I'm concerned when people are saying that there's a risk to municipal workers and I guess I have to ask our director is there a risk for people to go and
manually operate that. >> Um if a storm is severe enough yes there would be. But if it's going to be that kind of event and I wouldn't put them out there. Is this the type of thing where once it's opened, it's it's opened and that's and that's, you know, and
then we don't have to go back to it until the storm is over. >> Uh, no, actually there's a there's a manual there's a manual gate valve at the head of the lake and um the uh the employees were manually opening and closing it on
the tide cycles. So, when the tide was coming in, they'd have the gate closed. when the tide would go out, they would open it. This way, the water would have somewhere to go. Um, but that's right at the head of the lake. So, that would be right in,
you know, right in the storm. So, I mean, in terms of just the risk of flooding, as long as the gate valve is being opened and closed with the with the uh the tides, the change in the tides, uh, the lake will be maintained at a certain certain level. >> I would like to think so.
>> Right. And then the issue becomes what happens in a in a in a bad storm. Um, and as you said, it's an engineering question. The question is why does the valve keep breaking? >> Is it a poor design? I don't know. I'm not an engineer. So, uh, you know, I I
I'd have to look at that. We'd have to look at that agreement, see what what the details are of that, and um, take it from there. >> And I I also suggest where it's fine. This storm we were lucky. Okay. has passed on. Uh but uh if people would
look at the pictures after Sandy and to see how hard that water got, you couldn't do anything manually. So there's then the cost of bringing in pumps pumps for months. So I mean this is something that should be done because the tide cycle goes out then you have an
issue where you may not be able to drain it manually but the ocean itself will let it go out. Mayor, can I just ask a question? Um, I was surprised by the the delivery date being March 2, if it's already fabricated. Um, do we know whether do
you know or or does Mr. King, do you know why, Mr. M? Do you know why it's that far out for delivery? And it was a huge part. >> Yeah, it's it's actually not manufactured yet. >> Yeah, it's being fabricated. That was
the delivery date. So, um, and it is a 60-inch pipe and there's the parts are not on the shelf. Everything needs to be handmade and, um, you know, the company that is making it obviously have customers in front of us. So, when they get to our pipe, when they get to our
valve is when they work on it. And this is going to maybe sound ignorant, but is there any option for a request for a rush order or to see if there's any anyone else who could, you know, maybe manufacture that part quick, more
quickly? >> I I I think you have to put the, you know, the whole thing in perspective. Also, I mean, yes, if there is a very severe storm, then, you know, then it's it's a big problem. If there's if it's if we're just talking about rain and
potential flooding, it sounds like to me that the in the meantime the the manual opening and closing is fine. We get into the problems when we have a situation where it may not be safe to put the to put the workers out there. So, I mean, I
think we we hope for the best, you know, and and in the meantime, hopefully that part will get here. I I don't want to be, you know, predictor of doom, but even with a new part, you know, that new part can be put
in and six months from now in a big storm, it could fail. So, we always have to have options beyond relying on that part. So, you know, if that happens, then we need to go to a plan B, which is going to be probably pumps and other
ways to to drain the lake and keep the flooding down. So, I mean, I think that's that's always something that needs to be planned for, and I'm sure it is planned for because you never know, you know, how big of a storm we're going to get, how severe it's going to be. And
I think, you know, parts break all the time. there's no guarantee that the new part won't break in six months uh and you know or next year sometime. So I think the important thing is you know we get the part we get it in and we have an alternative plan that if if we should
have a severe storm that we we have a an alternate plan that can serve the same purpose. >> I I have a quick question. Is the new part we ordered exactly the same valve as the last two that broke? >> No, it's an upgraded model. My
understanding is that the original valve like valve one in 2017 that was the one that was faulty to begin with and then the second one. Yeah. So it's not that the same the problem is with the original valve itself not with the
design if that makes sense if I'm being clear. >> No I think it is in fact the design. I think they uh in every replacement they change it a little bit in hoping that it gets better and and better but it's the
force of the water the ocean water coming up the pipe is slams the valve close against the concrete vault and that's what the banging everybody hears down the south end. So when the water rushes up the pipe has nowhere to go so it closes the valve
hard. It feels like it would make sense once we verify that the valve once it comes is functional and working correctly to budget to order another one for backup. I mean I I don't see how that's not part of the plan. >> Thank you.
>> When did we say late early March late March? When did they say? >> Um I think it was I think it was the end of March. I I think that could be part of the plan, but I just want to assure the residents that no matter what the the
plan is to have a backup part or a third part, um the burrow will do whatever it needs to do to avoid flooding in that area. That's that's the really the message that I have. Okay. >> Good evening. My name is Eugene Jacobi.
I live at 2006 Surf Avenue down that end. And I guess maybe I would just you know, maybe following up on kind of what Rich maybe it's engineering or whatever, but there's no sense continuing to water these things if the structural design is not appropriate to if we're going to
just continue to be in this loop of $50,000 every however frequently it is. That doesn't seem like a good use of our funds either. So, it would seem like it would make sense if they sort of committed that the the the version they're going to send is a little bit better, but maybe they've represented that before. you know, we need we should
as a town have a a sense of confidence that this is going to fix the problem. You know, if if we have to live with the idea that things break and and so therefore, you know, if it happens to break when we're having a really bad storm and we don't want to send the guys out there because it's not it's not in
their best interest, you know, then, you know, did we really I think we want to make sure we did we did our due diligence up front to try to eliminate that situation to the best that we can. And so the only other question I would ask is do we have any sort of warranty
on this piece or again is it >> I said before I I have I wasn't here you know back in the day I haven't even seen that. >> I'm just throwing these things out to find out if we have any sort of reps or warranties when it if it does if it fails you know so then maybe we're not
at $50,000. >> We can definitely look into that and see what it seemed like to me. My recollection from um what I've seen from what staff put together was that the original one was and was replaced, but this one by the time it broke was no longer under warranty, which is why
we're paying out of pocket for it. I don't know. >> Two years. So we the new one will be covered for two years. >> So we have, you know, about one year to order doing the flap or whatever it is. isn't representing to us that hey this may or
may not work because there's a design they're not suggesting they they're sort of indicating this should work >> yes >> okay >> we we're not the only coastal town with a lake like there's got to be other towns that have a successful system
or whatever but right to try to fix the problem and it seems like we're still sort of at risk here for >> Councilwoman McKinny brings up a really good point which is there are other coastal lakes that have connection questions and valves. Um, and is certainly something that we can look
into. We we meet with those towns about the leaks. So, I can put that on the agenda to ask. I wouldn't be surprised if they have the same thing. >> You know, this is a very niche issue. Uh, but I will look into it and report back. Um, again, if I sent out an email to some residents, if you want to
receive them, you can just let me know. Donovan.com. One last thing is just um is there any chance that we would talk to Blake Cole and Spring Lake about sharing the cost of the replacements because presumably you're a beneficiary
as well if if uh if you know >> Good point too. I mean is there like a delineation of property there like half the valve is pipe is is and half is Spring Lake or Lake Ko. I mean is there like a >> I think my understanding is pipes on our
part of the lake. answer really is we need to look at the original agreement. Exactly. >> Because I believe there was from what I remember reading in the paper. I think there was a >> part of responsibility for Spring Lake and whatever and for whatever reason Bel
Delmare took the the lead on on doing the uh the outflow pipes. So we would have to look at that original agreement to see what if any um you know responsibility the other towns have. And I agree with you. I mean, we we only have a small portion of that lake when
you think about it, but you know, because we're there and I guess we were, you know, we were in a position of, you know, saying, "Oh, yeah, we'll do it. We'll we'll coordinate it." You know, now we're stuck with the problem. >> So, uh, definitely we will.
>> Yeah. >> Anyone else? second or 18th to be and I'll keep it under five minutes for you. Um, this past Saturday there was a lot going on in town like some other Saturdays where we had the um the oldtimers game and a
whole bunch of other stuff happened. Is there any possibility of some type of calendar somewhere that everybody could access? It was great. I mean like there was it was different stuff for the most part. We had it up at the library. You had Jack five tracks with the the beach
um music and then you had kind of like two craft bears going on. It would be nice that if you know maybe they all knew about you know >> I I recently had a conversation with Jenna in tourism about trying to figure out how to get a master calendar together. I know she's sort of brand new
with the job right now and a little overwhelmed but I definitely have had a conversation with her about that. That is something even Castle Mag and I have spoken about is trying to get a master calendar together. So I I think it's definitely something worth working with Jenna with and I will try to work with her on that further.
>> I had a boss asked me to do that like 35 years ago. So it's just you know just one big area for the the whole town to look at. >> Thank you. >> Not all of those organizations are town organizations. So one was a church and one was Beach Music Studios and one was
the Lake Belmar Lake Chamber. Right. So it's just knowing those schedules. It's not like we're not always privy to knowing everybody's they don't always tell us what they're got what they've got going on. >> It would be up to, >> you know, hey, it's out here. You want to see if there's anything else going on
at the same day? Like when we're doing a Jersey Mike, sometimes I'll say, is there anybody else doing anything that day? You know, just to make sure. So, okay. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Quick. Hi, Greg. M 14th in Ocean. Just want to tip the hat to the DPW for the
nice clean up they did after this storm. Uh we're off [Applause] a lot of sand. I'm going to take an environmental meeting if we can't put some dunes in there by like 14. >> That's an issue
really. >> But thank you for the DW. They did a good job. >> It's an issue only because of the the D not because of the burrow. We we don't have we don't we don't have control over the beach >> despite what some people might think. >> Oh, really? There are people with very
strong opinions about dunes. >> Well, there's that right. >> Thanks, Mr. >> Eugene, 4th Avenue. I don't think that >> I can hear people with this anyway. Um,
let's see. I wrote this down. Uh, one oneway cross town traffic uh with the main street uh bridge outage. Now would be the ideal time to uh make to put the
one-way signage on D Street. Uh, actually I've already run into some problems up at uh up at the north end up there. uh in including gas leaks and you know uh I guess you know hitting in in
into utilities and and roads being closed. However, uh as you recall the only reason that D Street historically was a two or I should say was not converted to a one-way street was
because of the Belmar first aid squad. And quite truthfully, they always had when they pulled out of uh out of their facility there on D Street, uh they always had red flashing lights and possibly sirens. Uh but now might be the
ideal time to make uh make that oneway signage change. And and what I mean by one way, oneway D Street towards the 8th Avenue interchange. Uh this was planned
years ago uh but it was never never implemented because of the location of development first aid squad. Uh there's a number of uh advantages including uh you get more parking spaces. Uh you have
less u curb to paint yellow and uh the uh passage on the street can be assured. And I tell you what, uh what I see uh by being home nowadays, uh every five
minutes or so, there's a panel truck from Amazon, then there's FedEx, then there's UPS, then there's DHL, and let alone Delissa, when they go down the street, uh you you you can't pass.
And uh actually engineering wise the streets do not uh accommodate uh two-way traffic and parking. So uh I think this would be a very easy time to
or actually the best time to do it uh because uh uh you don't want to run into situations in the summer where we have gridlock. Um, and uh, like I said, more more
street parking spaces for the people who live on the streets. You can check that with uh, A Street, B Street, C Street, and E Street. Also, the environmental benefit is that if there are trucks that
have to go down the street, they ride the crown of the roadway and don't destroy any street canopy uh tree canopy that you're trying to establish on the roads. Actually, that seems to be
the goal of uh our adjoining municipalities here is that they're trying to uh trying to in increase the tree canopy over the black top. Uh it generates a lot of hot a lot of heat in the summer
and actually there's days that you can go out there in the summer and probably fry an egg in the middle of the street. Just a recommendation. You want to have this has been checked by engineers before, but you may want to have the new burough engineer take a look at that as
far as the recommendation is concerned. Thank you. I I actually drove down after your last comment. I went down the street from Fifth Avenue where I live and it's pretty much clear sale all the way down to to 16. So, I just want you
to know I did I did look at your suggestion and it's something that we would have to take up the council in conjunction with the with the chief and the traffic and engineering, but I think it's something we might want to look into. So, thank you. >> Yeah, I I personally love that it's a
two-way street. Personally, I'm sorry, but I think >> comment that is the only through street >> for the entire town and into Lake Plum for emergency vehicles. Um, and that is one of the reasons why there's no parking on one side so that you can have
the two-way traffic because of the first aid, but for the fire and police as well. So, just take that into consideration. >> Yeah. Also, also I I don't think we've actually experienced uh the closure of the Main Street
Bridge, not during the summer. Uh what I found is uh most locals uh go down to Ocean Avenue. Actually Ocean use the Ocean Avenue bridge uh to go north and south. Uh it it there's
there's no uh traffic lights all the way from the north end of Bradley all the way down to uh the end of Seeker, I guess, or Spring Lake. Um and uh so so that'll that'll pick up some of the
traffic. Also, the other thing is I I tend to doubt uh except for the signage that uh uh by Sylvania Avenue in Avon that anybody like I said who's familiar
locals familiar with the road are going to go take the uh interchange at Sylvania Avenue by Kelly's in order to get on the high bridge. And also once you get on the high bridge, it doesn't come back down to ground until 8th
Avenue. Uh, in other words, there's no place uh to get to the north end of town. You may want to take that into consideration also. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Seeing none. I have
>> a motion to close the public session and adjourn the meeting. >> I'll make the motion. >> Second. All in favor? I