##VIDEO ID:_Mok_Wro9qM## I just Deion I think we e e e e e e e e e e e all right are we set with zoom and are we set with everything give me signal when you're ready Angela off it looks like it's recording and it's on oh there are participants okay perfect I'm just going back over there yep you that is a good point that good that is a good point send me that will you I call the meeting to order at 7 p.m uh Madam clerk would you please read the open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by forwarding a copy to The Courier News Star Ledger and posting on the township website at least 48 hours prior to the meeting all in accordance with the open public meetings act this meeting will not substantially go past 10:30 p.m. roll call Madam clerk Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster here Mrs illis here Mr Machado here Mr Moran here Mrs POG here Madame Dean I am here the flag i al to flag unes all right so this evening we have um a relatively short conference session uh with Mr mrea but first up we have our members of our great and complete Street task force presentation I know that you've all been very at work the last four months four months um putting together compiling this report had a little short on time at the end of the year but happy that you all are here tonight um to share with us your results um we have a presentation so you about to get up and run it yeah you don't want me to do that can Dana do it absolutely we start by saying technical difficulties that's noral for usy Heights Town Hall camera's working again I don't know if it was worked on or it just decided to work again I just want to point out that Andrew got here at six o'clock tonight because he thought the meeting was at six o'clock he and he's made a motion to have subsequent meetings at six o'clock something to think about you okay know if you didn't set up or anything I think it's just a scroll right Yeahs are we good with that yeah we don't want to play with it right okay all right good evening thank you John Leo 43 for stav thank you all for being here I think 10 minutes is the max I'm aiming for seven because I have a pretty good appreciation for time bring it up John bring it up just kidding there a whole report it's it's about an hour long I believe so we can go into if we' like we'll s minute version yeah we'll do the seven minute version so thanks for being here in such a warm evening yes um so I was up until December 31st the chair of the uh ber the heights complete and green task force 2024 uh Dana nagro was the vice chair she's helping with the presentation tonight we have other members here and the first thing I want to do uh while breaking into what the task force was and what we did and what we U would you mind just acknowledging the other members of the committee that are so that's the first thing I'm doing okay so first thing I want to do do your thing is thank you the the work that went into this committee was uh for the work I've done in committees and task force this was one of the better ones I've ever seen probably the best and I want to thank Dan and Nigro who's here helping me up front uh bronnie muckery who's not he's um he's actually in school and he actually helped because he's at Ruckers and he had a lot of influence there and he could talk to the people and professors who actually do this kind of work Lauren Pearl who's another student that was LE on with us uh Richard Caruso's in the back as well here thanks for Rich he was our crossing guard uh Gail Bradford Board of Education liazon there was a lot of work to do there Sergeant Trent fetus who's not with us tonight but he was uh he put a lot of time after hours in and had a long commute to uh to do that and help us Steve K is over here as well he was a really good subject matter expert and engineer uh Manny kudo on the uh Town Council Margaret Ellis Town Council um the thank you is really really important because I think the work we did was amazing uh so that's not a feather on my cap that's everybody else's uh everybody did a good job the ideas that came out of this everybody put into it um as the chair and I I won't say as the vice chair Dana did a lot of work as as the chair I sat back and let it happen and I think that was kind of my my goal was not to influence it but to see what everything could come together with all these different resources and the Dynamics and the diversity in the group so next slide please scroll okay so why we are here um the more high-profile stuff was just that we had several accidents and uh we started talking about what to do the idea of a task force was thrown around and uh that's kind of how that was really the only uh part that ignited most of this but we did have other things that were starting to try to figure out what was going on and one of the other things I highlighted here and there were other things here but Behavior creep pedestrians and drivers alike so we know that distracted driving was becoming a little bit of an issue uh we actually know that distracted walking was becoming an issue I think one of the things I saw was um a woman and this this was all the big thing that I laid out in the beginning of this was not to blame anybody I think we do a lot of that when there's an accident what was the driver doing what was the Walker doing but we have to start to get ourselves into this idea that the environment is what it is and there's other contributing factors you don't have to play the blame game and I'll get into that a little bit but I saw a pedestrian walking once with a dog halfway to the intersection and she was on the cell phone and she had no idea how far the dog walked we've seen it actually with child strollers as well with the strollers out in the street and she's looking based on her area but not the stroller that's already protruding out to the street so so we're seeing Behavior creep drivers going a little bit faster um it's not a 1930s Ford where we drive it once a year and it's it's an extension of us we're in the car all the time it starts to become a thing that we can move quickly in we can do other things while we're doing it now I'm not even talking about cars with autopilots even but the environment is changing not to mention how many of the cars on the street are our Amazon trucks those things are 6 to 9,000 they're heavy they're getting taller and they're getting heavier so the environment is changing it's changing quickly so the danger which I'll get into later on in my presentation is actually increasing over time and there's tons of studies that are showing this and I'll reference those later so on the positive side as to why we're here there is new energy and resources around pedestrian safety infrastructure and I don't think maybe you got insight into it because I was actually not aware how much was going on one um one litness test I saw or one indicator was that the county actually has broken four million just in the last year that Union County connects our nonprofit organization touched or helped facilitate for pedestrian infrastructure um Trails they're mostly focused around Trails getting people off Route 22 building a bridge over 22 is one of their projects uh it's a bit of a plug but there there's a lot of money that they're getting in just to Union County based on Transportation set aside funds from the do and from federal funding local funding uh the county was also awarded the first one of the first uh safe roots for all grants and now Union County and to my misunderstanding was that they would look at County roads they actually look at Municipal roads as well I was just told the other day so if we make it clear that some of our non-count roads have a problem that Grant can look at that for us and it's two parts that's what these safe Roots uh safe roots for all grants are it's a implementation and demonstr it's demonstration and then implementation so right now they're just collecting data and looking what the problems are once you have all that energy and that Grant the county can't not go get the implementation Grant and start spending money on real infrastructure change there's a new NJ Vision zero which is actually called the target uh Target zero commission is what they call it for New Jersey so they actually just passed the law just a week ago where New Jersey now has a commission to help direct all these resources and facilitate the change to move towards the vision zero goal of zero deaths on the road that's car walking everything the dot Safe Systems approach I'll get into in a little bit so the do though does have a new philosophy where they're actually setting the stage for how municipalities will have safe road environments and that's what Safe Systems approaches so the task force this is what we did we worked on collaboration we looked at crash data uh we had workshops and we looked at resources that were uh both known and new ones that were unknown we determined what the needs were on the roads based on subject matter experts what engineering was looking at the police what their uh hurdles were we looked at problematic locations that we knew about without the resources of Grants or money because when you have grants they can actually help identify problematic locations and they can do it in an interesting manner they can look at a crash location and extrapolate it to the point where they look at environment environmental conditions that are similar and they could say well you had four accidents here you had none there but you can and it's just random that you don't have them here you have them here you can have them here so they can actually look at environmental considerations and say well these are the places where you could have problems and then we can do something about it so it's very interesting stuff the smaller text um that's a little bit more detailed of what we did but it it's has the Winter Walk we've participated in the survey I'll talk about in a little bit because I want to talk about the responses we have at the survey uh we talked about um well actually we had Richard look at speed and frequency on Park a and uh the interesting part was actually not just the speed but the frequency how many cars are driving around our roads um the survey 558 responses as of yesterday and I want to put a little further in the cap for that because we put a lot of work into it um I know Dana held that close to her heart we had um Avenues of motion help us and a 2016 Rucker survey put out um a survey on cycling attitudes and activities and they returned 1900 responses and that was across the state so we got 558 and they put out a Statewide survey was 1900 responses on the other end of it uh let's see who did this somebody put out a survey for North Brunswick and uh another town just two towns and they were looking at uh parents and what they felt about safe was going to and from school they only had 74 respondents so I think in a matter of what do we do seven weeks 558 respondents there is a conversation people want to give us feedback they have a lot to say you could see what happens on social media when there's an accident or when there's not they just want to complain about the sidewalks there's there's a conversation to be had and people are having that conversation so we looked at all these things and we did a lot of work we broke out into work groups which was Margaret's good idea and we went out and did different things um we had somebody look at crash data with PD we had somebody look at ideas bronnie um went and looked at what is possible was the other group and started looking at other complete streets programs and what other towns are doing and we put it all together and we came up to the next slide which was our recommendations so this is where too long didn't read I'll try to summarize a little bit for you so you can kind of see what your Easter eggs are the fun stuff and the uh the how many pages of the report 27 than Steve I really hope you read it it's a really good report again I've done reports with NTSB do do FAA DOD and this one was actually really for just being with the limited resources here that was this was a really good report and it's because everybody put their their heart into it the some of the fun stuff we broke it down into a summary section so you can see what three things we were looking at for to help it pal make it palatable for the council uh we called it we broke it down to Commitment engagement and policy and really what the numbers come down to is that we have we want a commitment where we want to prioritize safety for all Road users and I'm going to try my best to use the next couple minutes to show you how we we can do that and you can feel comfortable making that commitment that's what Vision zero actually did they say well we're going to commit to zero deaths on our roads from here on out well wait a minute how do you do that from a policy standpoint it's impossible but there is a way we talked about recommendations that you can read in this report creating a complete streets checklist uh continue the public engagement through events and also uh continuing a task force a committee or an Advisory board that can keep open engagement on uh on public uh meetings you go to the next slide Dana and all that can be encapsulated in a complete streets policy and they actually have models now that you can follow and now actually safe roots to school and safe roots to uh Transit will actually give you points and evaluate those points based on what tier you are and complet streets policy so complete um safe roots of school and Transit is going to change a little bit where it's it's probably going to get more difficult for us to get those funds and they actually just sent us an email yesterday and said one that's happening and two thanks for your help with the task force we think you guys could be the Crown Jewel in Union County even even New Jersey because now Avenues emotion sees our safe Roots history to uh Transit and school and now they saw we had a task force and they actually are reaching out to us directly and say hey we want to make sure that you are supported to keep moving this forward that's commitment that's engagement and then policy was the complete streets policy and these are just a few of the pieces we even got into uh rapid flashing beacons and uh enhancing crosswalks we got into the uh the meat and potatoes of it a little bit see what PD wanted and a lot of this comes down to the last bottom line is budget line how do we make a budget where do we get the fees how much how much Grant work can we get uh and the grant work is the big stuff that's what we want to go out and grab so we can fund these changes what is a hawk style uh I can't remember Steve do you remember what the hawk style lights are they're a crosswalk in the middle of an intersection rapid flashing beacons is a sign and a hawk thing is a type of sign so the flashers in the intersection in the road it's between intersection in between the intersections thank you that might be necessary for pedestrians yeah the activated one with the button yes yeah so there's a bunch of different ones we could have and it all depends on cost how many bells and whistles you want so that's why we just kind of left it with rapid flashing but you can go into the hawk if you want there all different cost Avenues there cheaper than the beacons cheaper yeah so that is what we will provide we'll keep the report public and make sure that uh the public has access to it um well you read it and next slide I'll just say thank you and again I want to thank the members for this uh and the work they put into it I want to thank you for your engagement as well I do have a couple more minutes don't get excited so the next slide Dana so I want to pose a question there was a a couple ways I could approach this next part but my question for you and uh would you fly on a commercial airliner if your risk of death or moderate are you the pilot moderate so no next slide hold on to that question so this is a risk assessment Matrix we use very often in aviation and you can you know you can enjoy flying across the country over the pond around the world knowing that you're very unlikely to be in an accident in an airplane and there's a reason for this and remember earlier in the slides I showed you Dot's safe system approach this is what I'm going to get back to and this is how you can commit to having a safe environment when you start making investments in these safety things and know that you actually can save a life so uh let's see if you go to the next slide Dana okay how many before we get to that how many cars do you think pass Rich Caruso at drop off or drop or let's see school hours 7:45 in the morning on Park orav 150 we right and you live on that in an hour anybody else so I'm not how many of you think it is I think more than more than 100 you know the answer did we tell you this no 400 that's roughly the number that you see approximately that spot so rich started looking how big is Rich's thumb from hitting that clicker yeah well rich is picking the baseball so you know the clicker he had andbe you can hear it yeah both Direction has both directions and it could be multiple cars and like I said before there are cars that are getting heavier with time the bumpers are getting higher they're getting taller that there's a certain issue with that when you get hit by them and there's there's more and more Amazon Vehicles which are over 9,000 lbs and newer cars Honda Civic 6,000 they used to be 5,000 PBS the weights are getting higher so you're starting to look at the risk that you have when you're walking down Park of a vehicle driving at 40 miles per hour I will say so this doesn't look like a scare tactic that's the higher end of these studies you go to the next one and I have sources for these too this is the dot one so this is the one where it's okay you can take a breath it's not as scary but still if you get hit by a vehicle of 42 mil hour 50% chance of death that's the low end okay so that's the piece I want you guys to absorb so that's the lottery you're kind of running when you're walking down Park a to go to a school length of it again the risk Matrix tells us it's not likely so that's why I don't want to scare you this is not something that happens all the time but you know that the risk the the um so it's likelihood and then it's the severity death I think that's pretty severe that's why you would call it a moderate risk when you're walking these streets anywhere you see 40 miles per hour you go to the next slide if you get hit that's the likelihood being low right so these this is another one 40 miles per hour it's 80% chance of death and then the next slide Dana I was just throwing out there the Canadians are even looking at it so you have kilometers per hour but I just wanted to show that these figures are starting to come out everywhere the road systems as you know is designed around the 85th percentile and what we're learning now is that that has no bearing on what happens to the human body when you're hit by a vehicle at that speed and then the next slide D it this gets back to the safety management system models I was talking about the do safe system approach we we um unsafe supervision so so the police are out there doing the best they can with the resources I understand it's hard to get um crossing guards it's also very hard to actually get qualified police now they're having a difficult time with that so the supervision that management piece is becoming difficult but what we're finding out is that preconditions unsafe access driver Behavior organizational influences the road design these are the things we can actually start influencing if we get our Engineers we have a great engineer we have great ped there but they have limits and it's unfortunate but what we're trying to do is fill that limit Gap so that was the dot safe system approach they are doing the work they can at the doot level but it's up to the municipalities to kind of take this and run with it and that's where we get the safe wheel so you have safe Vehicles that's designed out very well safe roads that's what we're looking at uh talking about safe speeds uh all the things that we have control with a little bit more here so we can't we don't design vehicles at the Town Hall but we can we do have some management aspects over our our road environment I think I'm around seven minutes maybe 10 12 you didn't keep track that's fine I'm letting you go okay so a Runway I know so again most importantly I want to say thank you because that was fun and rewarding uh that was pretty cool um to do I want to make sure I got all the notes and pieces that I wanted to talk about I have resources and references if you ever want to talk about it but I am here for questions and answers if you have anything you want to ask thank you very much I appreciate you as well thank you was completed did Council get a of that did you see I didn't see a copy I like the Liza will distribute it it was sent to Liza and you and so it needs to be sent to to Mayor and Council and we have a website we can pop it on we intend to put it on our oh yes I'll send it to you and then I'll send it to everyone I don't remember seeing it I actually probably should have brought a paper copy but um I hate cutting down trees I can do that for you as well yeah I got rid of my printer send it directly right now if you want okay yeah it looks like this it out that's the price you're so helpful but there's a there's a there's a link to it so you can go right on a web browser and it's there or I don't know if they probably sent a a file that could be distributed by email too so one way other yeah we we'll Dana can do it now she said I actually had a couple questions I I have questions I have a questions you no rock paper scissors now this may be a rhetorical question I know um and you can tell me if it is but the the surrounding towns around us now I've seen those crosswalks and there's one in particular on Broad Street Westfield or by the temple okay that when you hit the button not only does it light up the signs but it lights up the street in the crosswalk and you can land a plane there and it's really cool so more no no it's really cool I I they are cool and is that the hawk is that is that the hawk kind or I I didn't think that was Hawk I think Hawk was just was actual physical structures that's an extra device okay yeah the hawk is pedestrian activated so they would push the button to and that would initiate flashing on so this on the road on um so we have reflectors on Hamilton those would light up essentially and along the crosswalk so there's yeah there's all kinds of cool toys they even have uh traffic light signals where you can add seven seconds I forget what the acronym is for that maybe you fell as no but everybody's got a red light add seven seconds up to N9 seconds so that people can move around walking what do they call that something like a come on I know I know what it is and you have a pie you have Ed people use it too what the PD found is that people aren't using these buttons at the intersections too they don't there's there's a trust issue with them or they think they don't work they don't know what the machine's doing so one of the challenges to that is they we don't have the crosswalk like this specific pedestrian lights to go with the buttons right so you press the button and it may impact the signal but you don't understand that because there's no feedback for the user right and then we also have key crossings that aren't at lights New Providence has a number number of these as well so if you think about the school Crossings when there is no crossing board people still want to cross those locations but there's no light right so then providing these flashing beacons that are pedestrian basically it's a with a pedestrian initi so we try not to get into the weeds as to what belongs where because that should be up to other subject experts but I will give you a broaden it out to a philosophical thing if you go down Ruckers if you've been down there recently there's the path that comes from Mountain Park yeah and there used to be a crosswalk that you could tell was ground out and I think because it was creating a risk to people walking there feeling protected by the crosswalk when there was a blind Hill right sight we did that backwards now the thing is is there's there's no resources to do it the right way because if you the right way would have been leave it there because kids are still walking out they just don't feel protected there's no crosswalk here so I got to be more careful so that was a good step in the right direction they put the crosswalk there you have a blind Hill that's the worst case scenario you can add warning devices that there's a crosswalk ahead assign the uh Chevrons that get wider as you get closer closer or speed bumps or all those things there's a cost to that that's the that was probably the right thing to do but again the cost is the prohibit of piece and that's what we want to try to address the other the other question I wanted to ask you was and this may be the rhetor that personally wasn't but um with the building that's going on in town and the town surround us and particularly on Hill Crest y um I can see those people coming down Hill Crest and not wanting to go through the light and then coming out onto Springfield or Valley Road that way but coming down to Park Avenue as a quick way of getting to a center of town shortest place when you did this study did you look at that as a that's somebody else you pay a grant work now actually there's uh you can do demonstration grants where you don't pay any money you just approve the Grant and they will come out and I've walked this before but they will do a demonstration area and we could say hey we're having trouble over there and they'll actually bring their team of Engineers and the people and what they will do is they will look at the walking traffic look at the vehicular traffic and then make suggestions as to what to put in there and one of the things I saw was um bump outs or Chevron so they instead of actually putting a curb there uh the cars would park over here and the lane would move and you would actually have to drive closer to the yellow line to get around the cars but theyt they only painted it and the emails that came flying in at the annoyance from the driver made it apparent that okay they don't want to do this because you can't annoy the driving public either so they can actually they actually have resources to go and look at these things find out what the flow of traffic isn't do determinations to fix that we don't have those resources we're just saying that we can find them my last one is current construction that might be happening or will be happening like Sherman Avenue Etc that that buildup is that something that you also thank you this was another so this is great so um there's actually a mechanism in place in town right now that we can copy and the environmental commission I know does it but uh Connie will get a checklist from the environmental commission so that a developer can look and see did you put a green roof on did you use LED lights like everything that they are check know a lot but I don't think everybody's going to have a green roof maybe solar panels but the um complete streets programs do the same thing and they actually build a checklist for a developer to evaluate what pedestrian infrastructure they can put in because that's that they have the money and instead of a sidewalk being built right on the lane where there's no protections for your walking public so if you go down Lone Pine there's a little bridge and the the it's a beautiful uh brick walk but it's right on the lane nobody feels comfortable doing it so what kind of barrier or distance you going to put there so you can actually put that tool in place where the checklist is there and you can actually start the conversation with the developer to say hey did you look at this and then the planning board and everybody can use the checklist as well so there's a tool for that thank you I can add on on the hall that's the that is the beacon like the one in the example if you're gonna speak would you come forward because some of the microphones Capt more questions some I have one last question CL application because it was talked about yeah the the hawk is the big beacons that if you ever remember in Westfield near the old Border in Taylor um and it's it it actually high intensity activated crosswalk is is what it is and they're like 75,000 to $150,000 installations we were talking about was in parenthesis when we were talking about um uh in in the task for there are there are smaller uh versions that I guess we do have some in place that help highlight that you know pedestrian pressing is there and it's being used but you know is I forget what we talked but it was orders of magnitude less yeah solutions that are affordable for heing thank you so the continued development in town um is one of the main reasons why we really feel that we on the task force really feel that we should continue this work on an ongoing basis with Township so either you know create a a standing committee for completing Green Street or you know perhaps do another years's of the task force but we really need policies we need to implement the checklist we need to follow up with engineering we need to make sure that our planners are well aware that you know our focus is all users of our road should be safer almost payy back on what my question is so you and I have spoken before that there in conjunction with recommendations implementation getting other stakeholders involved there also has to be an intensive culture change and education campaign for both pedestrians and uh motorists one of the things that we did um sort of off the cuff was following the model of middle sex County and that was the slowdown in our town and we didn't fully implement it I think it happened during in the middle of covid um there was some federal and state pass through monies that we got to do it and it's actually very cheap um but effective they found mechanism and that is what's name um Frank he's the PBA he's the uh Sergeant you want me to call him and tell him to M I thought derailed when there's situations or you know we've used it I think on Burlington Road I think we used did in another place um we just had the lawn signs and and one of the things is I've seen them um where people leave the lawn signs up all year round and it it takes away the effectiveness to catch the eye and the second piece of it never got implemented and that was taking the sticker and putting it I guess recycling day because that's a universal day as opposed to garbage having the recycling sticker on the receptacles so and and using each of those things in a different way not not the signs because they're bright yellow with black lettering um did we do that while you were at Public Safety Christine Mark Anton Antonio helped me out with that okay um but to you utilize them in different ways because they're eye-catching makes you think slow down it's slow down in in our town um and there's a child with a ball like two children playing kind of crossing the street it's eye-catching it does make you think it does make you slow down so I think that there's some maybe um less expensive options that we could be looking at but more importantly a culture change you know anybody who's gone down to the New Jersey Shore during the summer you can walk and bike and I don't care if you had a crosswalk or not people will stop if you're trying to cross the street or or ride your bike across the street it's a completely different culture change and I know that that would you know take a significant amount of time but I think that's something that's equally as important with this report is to make sure that we understand that we're you know we're in a town where we have a lot more Walkers and a lot more bikers since Co people started doing it in 2020 they enjoyed it we have people that are just from different communities where that's the culture there where they walked and they biked everywhere and those are new residents to town and they have a different mindset than some of the people that you know I joke with you all the time that we drive our car from staff and Shop to the post office from the post office to CBS so when it would be simple and easier probably to walk but we we have a lot of us long-term residents have that mindset that mentality and I think that piece has to also go with the recommendations that you've Incorporated um in this report so I think I omitted it a little bit because it's Hefty the educational pieces are there because I think for me what the most interesting piece is the behavioral aspect yeah people don't intend to speed they don't just like they don't intend to hurt somebody but of the four last high-profile access we have all the cars went off into the pedestrian they left the driving lane and they went into The Pedestrian piece so that's the risk we have to manage and education is a big piece of it Gail works very hard on the school piece and those mechanisms are there so we want to have sort of a responsible organization that can help support that ongoing and then take care of the other things and and you're right do it in a smart manner so it just doesn't become another thing that the driver can ignore right because that's just that's just the environment we're in and yeah and and that aspect is is covered in the um you know one of the findings from doing the you know crash investigation with you know motor vehicles and vulnerable users um bitom line became the need for situational awareness by you know all all the modes because you know it's it's a and following the rule and and a lot of that's nicely integrated in the report and the whole crash analysis is document is available too so you'll find the education component and the the findings from looking at actual crashes in town for two years of what we learn from that yeah there's a very detailed uh section on engagement and education and forign viice St data detailing bicycling pedestrian driver hear me okay um and school education and programs that are available to the town for free completely free through Avenues and motion read the report read the report other question popped into my head now I remember back when my kids were in in Hughes we ran bik rodos over there and that's when bikes didn't have electric electricity on everything else that changes the complexion of it because I remember back in the day and you prob I'm wrong we used to stop those people because they were considered Motor Vehicles and they needed certain things to be driven on the street now it just seems to be it's like you know have at it go go for it and then you know it doesn't matter if you're wearing a helmet doesn't matter if you got reflectors on or lights or it's a terrible trick to a driver because they're looking for a bike that's going 10 miles hour but now they've got a bike going a smaller vehicle that's going the speed of a car so it's behind youly it's under your bumper I was on I was on a motorcycle ofad that's culture okay I'm coming in from from Long Hill right and I'm coming on the Mountain Avenue there's a guy on a bike right and he's in the lane of travel and I'm I'm doing the speed limit and he's ahead of me and he's going past than I am I'm on a full-size motorcycle this guy's on a bicycle we shorts no helmet he just got BR I'm like this guy's GNA somebody jump on 78 and think he's going to be able to go for I mean like you know but that's a mindset they get into because now it's like hey this is cool I can do I can go I can jump on they're going to become popular and and and there's there's the education piece so somehow and PD is trying to capture this is how do you educate them do you get them at the school a lot of adults are using them so you have the education piece but then the other pieces they're going between being a vehicle and a pedestrian so when it when it's convenient for them so they're with the lane of traffic then the light turns red well then I can just scoot over and go on the ac across to the crosswalk and I think somebody got hit at some point with that too it happens all the time sometimes I've already taken them off the books to saying you cannot use electric vehicles on RWS cuz I'm watching scooters then yeah they're some are Banning them some are saying you can't be on the sidewalks in the you're a vehicle yeah ening State Police guidelines right now and then when you're a vehicle you you you kind of have a mental switch okay now I need a helmet and so then they press on and say you're you're you're a vehicle and that's it strictly yeah need lights and flashers and all that I'm a big fan of safety equipment as well as helmets Yeah and reflective gear is actually not use I think as much as it could be so that's again another small Che campaign we we did at the Winter Walk we emptied our barrel of reflective gear for people 95 95 armbands right it's detailed in the report we had armbands for kids myself I use when I walk my dogs starting with a Slowdown in our town at Rhymes it's quick it's simple I asked PD to put it in their budget um we just have to figure out what the quantity is but the important thing is to move them around put M Lane three years ago and it's still there and I see people m one move the sign the problem is you gota it's like a two week thing and then you you take them out and then problem again yeah yeah it's interesting how we look at signs and things that we expect to see and it's become another another thing to look at yeah well it also goes to it also goes to like um I'm going Hampton Drive so got RN over there and the neighbors you know wanted some of those signs so I got some to slow down in our town and because the the nurses will come out of runns and make the right on to Hampton go out the plane for ly so they don't go down stuck at the at the stop sign so they're zipping through the neighborhood I had one guy almost come across my front lawn because he cut the corner so fast I'm like stand going like what like where you going what's the hurry we're all in a hurry it's it's a weird switch we've had in the past couple decades where we just on the road is a waste of time well I I think from marget point yeah you definitely got you definitely need a a committee on this and you got your work cut out for you I can tell you you know this is just a tip of the iceberg it's it's interesting conversation you there's a lot to talk about yeah it is yeah um but thank you for everything you've done I think it's I think it's you know what you've done to this point is is remarkable and Dana was really hot on it so uh she kept us in line I Dan specifically we all need a Dana yeah we all need a Dana thank app well yes any questions for the public before jungas come on up lorine and just give your name and can I stay up here with you sure all right hi I'm lorine Anderson 50 wins away um I am a huge supporter of this task force um my husband was was here tonight um was one of the first to respond to Shan when he was hit by a car last year and so we are very very invested in what happens on Park Avenue in addition to the rest of the town obviously um and I know these things take time and it's big changes but I'm coming here as a commuter I just got off the train an hour ago and um I parked on the other side because of course it's there's never any parking on the other side where the train is but um I was trying to cross and there's a bunch of snow and I had to pop out into the street and like I had to obviously wait until I the you know cars saw me but thank God I had this because it really makes a difference and we got these at the winter Dana and her crew gave the out and I think these are a lifesaver I think that everyone who is walking a dog who takes the train at night especially now it's so dark everyone wears black you don't see anyone wearing a fluorescent orange jacket to New York City I'm sorry but that's not happening so I feel like this is a really great way to alert drivers um if there's a pedestrian and I think right now is the time where people are getting dog licenses if I'm correct so maybe have like when they pick up their licenses or whatever like hand them out or I know that we have to renew our parking permit soon so maybe that would be another time for them to buy or just have them at like the library just anytime you know kids especially if they're like riding their bikes and their scooters and everything at night it's so hard to see them and they're zipping around the CBS parking lot I can't even tell you how many times I've had to pump The Brak so if you can make these accessible I think that it was amazing that they were able to give them out I gave them out to my daughter and all her kid all her friends and I do think that these are Lifesaver so thank you for making these available and if we can get more to distribute to the community I'm where did we get those Amazon okay so if we have to do a fundraising campaign but it's good thank you that's all I thank you line uh thank you all that's amazing any other questions on before we move on yeah please come forward just give your name and address please yes um sh 27 on Park Avenue you know exch emails with many of you thank you for listening I'll make a broader context here this is a good discussion you know I work for the CEO of Verizon managing 130,000 employees what is key when it comes to Public Safety is bias to action I know we can have a lot of conversation more committees more action force this and that it's been more than a year since a small child got hit MH we traffic study I don't think the know what's happening what has been done um we can do a simple thing as sending communication to everyone hey this is what we're doing I see a lot of traffic caling measures but nothing's better than a a simple communication so I just wanted to say bu to action and have the right mindset especially when it comes to Public Safety other things be my guest take your time this one hurry up right thank you appreciate it any other hi I'm Susan Chan 33 Park Avenue there's been um two accidents in front of our house on Park app I was five minutes same spot where the unfortunately the two fatal people unfortunately passed away but um thank you to the complete Street task force I support them 100% I hope you guys read the report and do everything that we can to make the street in Bley height safe driver pedestrians Walker Runners everyone so thank you thank you for honors all right all right thank you so much we appreciate your hard work your presentation I can guarantee that everybody will read the report and uh we'll Circle back in a few weeks yeah we'll come to visit you in a month couple meetings maybe a little less we have to work on the PD budget as well so all right excellent um next confer session uh we have a a small update on our affordable housing just really more related to the timelines and some of the things that we're required to do uh you'll notice that there's a resolution on the agenda uh for one of those items um keeping in compliance and on the timelines helps provide legal protection which so it's really important that we do these things but just for a quick we don't have to get into the whole history but just a quick um maybe explanation as to the resolution that's on tonight Mike our planner sorry from Harbor Consultants hi Mike Mr Harbor Consultants your affordable housing planner just two minutes no PowerPoint really quick I'm here to answer any questions that you have there is resolution that is attached to the resolution I'm not going to go granular into the details um our office reviewed all of the DCA reports you can see in the resolution that we modified the number slightly based on the two variables and we're asking for the council to review and adopt this tonight afterwards it gets sent down to the DCA and it'll the next major task that the town will be looking at after tonight would be starting to put together a fourth round plan and just to put it on everybody's radar that deadline is June 30th 2025 that's real that's the real deadline that I'd like you to focus on and start thinking about and we have a lot of work to do before June 30th 2025 so that's my presentation if you want me to go into more detail I'm happy to but I'm really H I'm really here to answer any questions that anybody has on that resolution just a quick istic question and I don't know that you can answer this quite yet uh is the state behind so we're rushing to get our number into them to make sure we're incom PLS and we're legally protected but what's your sense of where the state is that we'll hear back and sort of know if they are going to push back on this number or what we need to do the deadline the deadline you there's really difficult deadlines to met we have met every one of them since the new law came out all through 2024 and this is the first major one in 2025 um the state has between I shouldn't say the state that anyone is able to challenge the number that we submit after tonight's resolution through February 28th so that's that's the window of opportunity that the state the program or another interested party could challenge our report and our number so that's February 28th but and if nobody challenges by March 1st the number becomes established by the pro program by default and to be clear this is a number for the next four the next round the fourth round which extends from July 1st 2025 to July 1st 2035 so that's the number that we're talking about because our current plan expires if you will June 30th of this year so this is really setting up the number first and then the plan and and you're right mayor there's a window of entire month of February our work is done now others could challenge it if there is we start going down that path at a hearing in front of the program DCA and so forth but I don't want it's very important not to Take Your Eye Off the ball because even if that does occur it doesn't move any of the deadlines so our June 30th deadline and it really it's not June 30th because you don't want to wait till that last day right so if it's like a mid June and plan has to be done uh and published and available to the public before that so your work is really done by the end of May really so we have a lot of work to do between now and May and whether it is or is not challenge we have to stay focused because if it is challenge we don't get an extension we still have to meet the deadline so we have a lot of work to do in a very short period of time tonight's a big step by adopting the resolution the next step is to start putting our heads together put together the best plan that we can excent I want to say thank you I can I can read this thing it's a lot of work I was in three DCA meetings in Tron for the week in December and every single one they said here your numbers but we answer the butt yeah you answer the butt and they have 30 days now to respond once we we pass the resolution um through the uh through February 28th they febr we had until uh the last day of January to adopt the resolution but so we got a extra time by getting it done tonight so the the law states through February 28th yeah they seem they seem very agreable to talk to people like I heard every single mayor every single council person down there in Trenton they were complaining and not Trenton l City and they were complaining imly about the numbers and they said the same thing as long as you can talk to us and give us these numbers and this this report is awesome and it's a lot easier to Regent than the email I received 5,000 that's awesome so giv I think gives us a good leg up and now wait to see what they come back a good start and we have to Now quickly turn around and put together a plan because we really don't have a whole lot of time and that's the more difficult part so that's our next step and your leadership on this program has been with us since round one so you good background history and thanks thanks for getting to the minutia on it because like said I read the whole thing also and I'm just like I'm I'm just like impressed to the an degree with that whole because and I would would know the first thing about it and Manny does his thing with real estate stuff like that I don't know the first thing about it when I got done I more informed now than I was before I open what that's the way we wrote it we tried to write it for somebody you know for everybody so anybody picks it up they could understand it's so complicated we try to make it as simple as possible follow along that's all did that it's great and I'm thank you very much they admitted they they use Google Maps so we we kind of use Google Maps just kind we have a lot of we have some G they know there s yeah we have and I'll tell you this work is done I have a large group behind me they're spectacular and the the computer systems that GIS and so forth so I think it's all it's all of their work not mine that's want to say well thank you to you and your team thank you anybody have any other questions uh and before you go I just want to point out that um Mike and his team is also double-checking the waren project to make sure that they're meeting all their obligations and all the setbacks and all the things they're required to they were out there this morning or out there tomorrow 8:00 so he's also um working on that and making sure that we don't our resident well you're one of them our res have any issues if there are we can stop it in time so I want to thank you for that that you offered an onsite Vis I passed by every day that conservation E's been pretty much kept well it's not shrinking it's been kept they put the fence up and it looks like they cleaned some of it out that we're supposed to do but it's um it's still there we're going to check on the setb there's some concern by a resident yeah yeah it's cuz if you look at the map the map is it's a weird piece of property yeah it swings around opens up weird shape yeah yeah and before was old wood it was an old 13 sad it was an old I said was doled an old car going back to 1930s was probably predating that sitting that rusting out inside of an old barn back there not not into the parking lot I didn't check that far never um all right anybody have any questions all right Mr M thank you so much thank you have a great night you too all right so moving on to the regular agenda and hearing on the agenda items only so I'd like to open the hearing on agenda items only second discussion roll call Mr Cuda yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs pop yes yes all right comments are welcomed during the public comment period during this meeting on any agenda item however if an ordinance is listed for its own public hearing on the agenda please hold your comment for that particular public hearing to make your comment the speaker must come forward to the microphone and state his or her name and address for the record each speaker is limited to three minutes the mayor council president will keep time and we've been doing that on our phone because we can't figure out how to make the time please prompt yield on the floor when time is called and turn to your seat your cooperation and adherence to these Rules of Order will ensure an orderly and respectful meeting so with that hearing on agenda items only is now open no one I move to close the hearing on agenda items all my second any discussion roll call Mr Cudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Mach yes Mr Moran yes Mrs pop yes okay Bill I think you're starting us off okay uh I move uh for resolution number uh 67 resolution approving Bill listed dated January 21st 2025 in the amount of $92,400 have good questions roll call uh Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs Ellis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs poke yes okay move resolution number 68 resolution amending resolution 208 2023 which authorizes an agreement with aial LLC for landscaping architectural and civil engineering services for the development of a full design for the proposed renovations to Sherman Avenue to include topographic and Mets bound survey as well as ongoing project coordination that was not included in the original contract or resolution second any discussion before I call R call excellent first time reading your first resolution good job we're proud of you all right roll call right yeah Mr Cudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs poke yes okay before can um I just fixed the camera because you're cut off and I feel bad if we start the next one just and we don't know why right there you go perfect I will move resolution 69 awarding a Professional Services contract toari and iino Architects PC for additional architectural services for the Berkeley Heights Municipal complex project in an amount not to exceed $75,000 second any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs POG yes Manny resolution number 70 resolution awarding a professional service contract to HJ Canon Group Inc for structural consulting services for the Berkeley Heights Municipal complex project I'll second that any discussion roll call Mr Cudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs POG yes okay I move resolution 71 awarding professional service contract to MCM Scotland and Balman for special Redevelopment services with Berkeley ha Municipal compens project second any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs Ellis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs poke yes resolution number 72 resolution committing to fourth round present and perspective need affordable housing obligation I'll second that discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs POG yes okay consent agenda all matters listed under consent agenda are considered routine by the township Council and will be enacted upon one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items if discussion is desired that item will be removed from the consent agenda and will be considered separately resolutions 73 to 90 second any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs Ellis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs POG yes okay um and I just I know we can do this discussion Point um we have had an Ethics board local ethics board on the books for as long as I've been both Township administrator and mayor we've never uh we've never filled those uh seats it just seems to us if there's ever an Ethics uh issue that that really should go to the state I mean you're asking one neighbor um to potentially make a ruling on another neighbor I just don't think it resides at the local level um having a conversation with our wonderful new attorney um just recommended that we dissolve it uh makes sense getting we're trying to get things off the books uh that are defunct and no longer service so that's really the nothing more than that just the housekeeping um pass this evening so with that so there is a state ethic board that will hear these any concerns yes through the DCA depart not like we're not paying attention to ethics we're just we do a better job I miss m may I would say also the same code of ethics will still apply to all of you as well as all government officials regardless of whether whether this ethics SC is there you saw the same rules they have to follow regardless have to follow the law exactly very simple right exactly you take a not on that yes we did take a notes on that that's right um so so just to give Andy an assist here typically what we do with ordinances we asked the clerk cler you know Angela would you please read the ordinance she reads the ordinance and then you would make the motion um on the introduction of the ordinance if on the do you have the cheat sheet do you have the cheat sheet yeah okay so first ask Angel to read ordinance and then the date will be set that you fill in is February 4th sorry okay or you can read it yourself U Move that the ordinance read by the clerk she hasn't read it yet so just ask her to read either you can read it or you can ask did you read the ordinance sure ordinance 2025-the your part and that bottom part move that the ordinance read by the clerk be offered for first reading February 4th that February 4th February 4th February 4th the next meeting is be set as the day for the public hearing and that the clerk will be directed to advertise same to The Courier News second any discussion roll call Mr Kudo you nailed it is that what you said it's such awkward language and proceed Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs poke yes all right on to town Council reports Manny your first up okay uh not much to the report I just will um want to remind everyone actually I want to say one thing on the on the task force I want to say thank you to Gail we got the teachers and everyone else that they do the numbers and counting for us it was very very helpful was interesting to seeing how they came to school and everything else so add one more thing I forgot to add on um I also want to remind everyone right now it's a lot of snow and ice outside please make sure in front of you houses the sidewalks are clean and the hydrants are shoveled out it's a safety issue and it's for your safety so those hydrants have to be free of ice and debris to make sure that the fire department can get there in case of emergency want to remind everyone also drive a little bit slow because of black ice on the road and the roads are a little bit more narrow because of is snow and ice and last I'm going to give a setup for John today's national oneliner day something else set me up and knock excellent thank you John your report all right on the 16th of this month our the historic preservation committee met uh and we went over our last year in going into our new year and we went over the especially the latel gour festival that we had uh we raised approximately $5,700 uh for that along with some thank you along with uh some some more donations uh Pon PBA Ms and corn STS from Halls P wine glasses from business boosters and a whole bunch of Raffles that were given from Goodman's Barbe bab Cafe who fuchia Etc um want to thank everybody out there in TV TV Land yeah for uh for coming to it and uh it's going to be again next year same same bad time same bad channel the 19th I believe it's 19th of give me one second I will confirm um we are looking at October 18th Saturday the 18th with a rain date of Sunday the 19th so um anticipate we're going to be on the four century site tour again with uh County that's really exciting yeah so that just brings more people in and uh and we're um we discussed getting the 501c3 which I have to speak to our attorney about and then we're going to get that sored away uh let's see so on January 30th yes I'm going there oh you're going there on January 30th every year we observe National croissant day usually known for its uh iconic flaky structure croissante is dedicated to The Buttery layers and Crescent shape layered with a fascinating history this item has become a household favorite the staple across cafes restaurants breakfast tables and bakeries across the globe and I go to this because the French Club at Governor living High School is having a fundraiser for National C day okay and it's going to benefit the Baden Humane Society so that also goes to one of our because of the Wildfire that's one it also goes to our you know um one of the ordinances that we just passed about the U puppy mills like that so yes going in human society so uh that's going to be coming up and um my mouth is already watering for that yes all proceeds are going to be donated to Pasadena M societ provide Care for Animals during the California wildfires are they selling cant yes yeah yeah so um I don't know if we I don't know if we had to put an order in or whatever but uh yeah I'm GNA have def breakfast that day um uh there's a flyer yeah there's a flyer I can send it out to everybody um but there's no QR code or anything else um there nothing that I can see here I see any one either yeah so techy Gale is there a Q are yeah look at you yeah yeah okay um on February 2nd we're going to have the Lunar New Year event at the Berkeley H YMCA Lunar New Year is a beginning of a new year based on lunar calendars uh or informally but more widely lar Looney solar calendars useful information robust information it is it is definitely robust um I want to let you all know that black history month is in February we're going to be having our flag raising on the 18th which will be our second counc meeting in the month uh it going we're going to have a flyer put out for it but it's going to be at 6:30 at the flag ball yep okay it'll be 6 it going feach you 6:30 the flag ball okay and we have our singer will be coming I also want I also want to mention that um 80 years ago on the 27th of January um well the UN on the 27th of January is going to Comm commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day United Nations observers that honors and remembers the tragedy the Holocaust and millions of people lost their lives at the hands of Nazi government 27th was chosen as it marks the anniversary of a date when in 1945 the Soviet troops liberated alitz burken now largest concentration camp operated by the uh that'll be 80 years to the day that that has happened so I just wanted to bring that up everybody should read Victor Frankle man search for meeting in a concentration camp he found purpose and happiness and and in a horrific in horrific circumstances right um I also want to let everyone know that Susan and I vice president and I are currently running the cultural and Heritage committee and we are looking for members to join and volunteer for flag raisings any other cultural event that we have in town we're also teaming up with the Y to have more community events I got the calendar from the Y today so I'm cross referencing the one that I sent out to the mayor and um the vice president about this and we're going to uh we're going to have some we're going to have some good cultural events in town so have you guys written the ordinance are you right in the process of writing the the committee ordinance yet no don't have an official committee we've been doing it unofficially because that Dr have that other resol making a task force at least at first if you're asking for members we should probably do and then we could write the ordinance maybe that's what we did with Wellness we waited the year sort of understood what we were what our mission was and now we're writing the ordinance so maybe we could do that task force and then we'll on committee I'm sorry about that okay I refrain from doing that task force it's like committee commission task force you'll have their different roles to play yeah all right it's a great though you also the more you learn about your neighbors you know we become just handed something by U here uh February 2nd 2 to4 come celebrate the Lunar New Year at the Burk L YMCA this event is a partnership between the Burk L diversity Council Su are YMCA the han han academy uh and bil local New Jersey uh celebrated throughout Asia this year the Luna New Year Falls between January 29th and February 12th the Chinese Zodiac marks this year to be the year of the sake snake in China the holiday is known as Chinese New Year or spring festival so um that's I was actually reading nor M February 2nd because that's the why it's from 4 to 6: pm at and you usually have to register for those events they want to know coming in yeah that's a good point correcting the link there was two link there were two links and one was that was full but they corrected already and that's all I good report thank you John Margaret um I want to start out with a shout out to the DPW for doing such a fabulous job clearing the roads of the snow and keeping them free of ice so um My Little Street got um plowed three times which was fabulous um so just they do a fabulous job in town and I don't think they get nearly enough thanks from people um senior affairs we haven't met yet this year um had a pre- meeting um I talked to Angie about what some of the goals were for this coming year and it's a very exciting opportunity I'm looking forward to the meeting tomorrow the economic development committee will be meeting at the end of the month um so the next um council meeting I'll have a report on that sounds great um the task force the we spent an a lot of time in between the holidays and the first week of this year getting the task force report um published so you'll all have that in your inbox very soon um and stormwater is rounding to a close good to hear so I had a great meeting with two members of the environmental commission they have some text that they would like considered um working with neglia with the engineering firm and we have some um follow-up questions for the building and Engineering departments before we can put a bow on it yeah so we'll have a conference session when I believe we'll have a conference session the next council meeting on February 4th okay great with an introduction to follow sounds good all right thank you Margaret good report Bill yes uh last week I assisted in the um our annual uh free rabies clinic uh we did pretty well considering last year the year before was only only seven dogs this year we actually had 14 so we doubled the number um so it worked out well and I do have to uh reiterate uh What uh Margaret just said about DPW they were hard at work because we did have snow that day it was at the Lower Columbia Pavilion there and um uh we I saw Tony pavano out there uh with the uh big huge um Soul truck and uh there were a couple of guys that were shoveling away so uh kudos to them thank thank you very much I also um wanted to say uh that I'm glad to see that um the one of the resolutions that we had on uh consent agenda uh bear with me is the um yes it's the resolution in support of the Humane pet store bill um I'm glad to see that it made the cut uh this bill um aims to protect animals from commercial breeding Mills and prevent New Jersey from becoming a Haven for unscrupulous breeders so I'm glad to see that we're moving in the right direction on that and um one more thing a reminder that um uh your dog licenses will expire by the end of this month so it's time to renew those licenses if you haven't done so already and oh yes and one more thing at the end of the month for those U staying on the on the dog situation uh echol Lake Dog Park is expected to reopen on January 31st I don't know if you ever been there it's a huge they they did a lot of uh improvements um uh water station shade structures a pavilion uh me personally I I do take my dog there but you do have to be careful because um people bring their dogs that are not probably the safest dogs and so you know it it you really have to stay on top of uh on on top that but I mean it's a great dog park if you ever um want to just check it out it's it's opening up on January 31st over at e Lake thank you thank you Bill I have one that's social and one that is not so I understand your point yes yes the one that's not social drives me crazy Andrew uh we had a very productive uh veterans Fair meeting on the 16 was my first meeting uh with mayor deani that uh I attended um Trent ctis is a chairperson he runs very tight meeting on a very tight schedule so we got a lot done in a short amount of time um my my kudos to him um but we talked about a number of items uh we're in the process of uh contacting all veterans that live in town uh who are receiving a property tax credit um and this is to inform them of the property and tax credit but also build up our database of veterans that live in town so we can uh more efficiently communicate with them uh we discussed a a water issue affecting uh Veterans Memorial Park uh the largest evergreen tree there uh is in trouble and needs to be replaced but there needs to be drainage at installed at that Park so future Evergreens there will suffer the same fate um the uh also the flag pole there is in need of repair and we'll be repair shortly um right now we're not able to fly flags at uh half staff but that should be cured uh as we're searching for a contractor to do that I think we identified someone there um and just a shout out to the Berkeley Heights Public Schools uh several student Le uh events in the past few months to recognize our local veterans uh it was really a heart war in to hear some of the projects that uh is being done in our schools and shout out to uh gaale uh in the audience for helping facilitate that um and the um BFW has a new website online it's VFW 6259 org um VFW 6259 org so you could uh check that veterans in town can register on that site and receive Communications from that group in the township that's all I oh I'd also like to uh join my colleagues here for giving a shout out to DPW um I've been on the other side of this day hearing people thank Joe Graziano for all his hard work and snow removal but uh our his team at the DPW do a phenomenal job when you drive around the county um and in the State uh it really illustrates starkly illustrates what a great job they do uh which is no easy task with the the hills and the uh Topography of Berkeley Heights it's very difficult and uh unfortunately I've been on a lot of accidents in in Clement weather and the job the road department does is so critical of providing Public Safety they told me today at the staff meeting they had three Amazon trucks get stuck in the same uh same spot so I think it was Circle Drive so the first big amazon truck got stuck or B whatever you want to call it right so they call in a second Amazon van that Amazon and got stuck and so they called in a third one and then that same exact spot so I think they gave up I don't know why they called in three so I think our guys would have helped Sal get them out of there yeah yeah I think they help them all three vehicles get out of that area so to your point so all right very good Andrew thank you Susan so fun fact there's about 93 miles of Road in Berkeley height so when you think about that yeah it's just a weird fact that I know um speaking of the snow make sure if you have a drain in front of your house and it's currently covered by snow try to shovel it out so when we do get thawing which I think next week maybe um we don't um impact the uh drainage um the other thing I wanted to talk about is Grants committee's not hasn't met yet we're meeting next week and the New Jersey historic trust Grant period is now open I spoke to Liza so we need to kind of find out kind of matching funds we have before we can make a commitment to what we want to apply for um I wanted to talk about the mayor's book club was a great book club meeting are you going to talk about March 1st or did you want me to talk about that I think I have it in here okay well we I can piggy back on you if you don't yeah we had a very long lengthy great meeting um our first meeting in 2025 uh yesterday was Martin Luther King day and I want to remind everyone his big words peace together love and hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that and to piggyback on Holocaust remembrance be an upstander if you see something say something don't stand by and let bad things happen to good people and that's all I have all right excellent thank oh wait one more thing I'm sorry y go spoke to Margaret about uh a grant opportunity for the senior seniors yeah to bring some cultural event and it's a two-year Grant so we're going to see maybe what they um why are you here why are you here this what is this go home welcome Liza so dedicated um anyway so we're gonna try to find out like what they would be interested whe whether it could be like a a kind of a Broadway review kind of thing you know no sets or anything but just just singing no yeah singing like a review right and I thought older songs you know from like the 60s and the 50s might be kind of fun noil I didn't see your email today was it today so St and I will talk about it and you know see if we can come up with some Synergy between um the potential senior cultural programming and other things that we have going on in town maybe something with May's Wellness um maybe something that the schools are doing to you know bring in generational as well so think seniors are always invited to the rehearsals or the dress rehearsals for the plays yes yeah which is a great opportunity and I'm hoping the band and Orchestra concerence as well I know my mother does that in her town and she loves it yeah transportation is sometimes an issue because they don't like to drive after 3 so I think that might be something we can be helpful with as a Township is is getting them the transportation they need to get to the place to the dress rehearsal and be working with the pto's too to get volunteers to drive them not this not the high school kids though no mine has a permit it scares me I know so and now I officially done all right excellent thank you so much Susan Administration reports U mayor's report so just a few updates on ordinances that are forthcoming next week as Li and Angela know first the technical Review Committee will add a few more spots to ensure we're covering all aspects of reviews for incoming development I think it's we have PD and FD well PD and FD are not standing members and sewer and I think um something related to The Pedestrian task force um potentially so that will be um an uh amendment to that that ordinance and next we are going to revamp our membership for senior affairs Economic Development and establishing a permanent committee for the mayor's Wellness committee via ordinance so none of these are substantive changes um in the mission or the again the substance of the ordinance it's just instead of particular membership slots we're going to make them generic so we have more interplay and um ability to to bring people on more people on or just you know people come and go and different disciplines and it doesn't sometimes work out um the mayor's Wellness committee met in overtime as Susan mentioned over an hour and a half to discuss our events for the year uh Susan raised the idea of doing a St storytelling project which seemed to um go over well she's writing a strategic plan for it uh Debbie bararan organized a grocery shopping and nutritional event with her trainer Liz from Lifetime Fitness um it was incredibly interesting to learn about the dirty dozen and the Clean 15 I find myself to be somebody who knows a lot about nutrition uh at every station that she walked us around Stock and Shop I learned something new it's something that we're going to do do again because I think it was a huge opportunity Miss for those who didn't uh come we did have two uh members of the public that I didn't know previous so it's always nice when you have new people join in I did try to post some videos just for people to get a sense of of what was going on but it was really really educational and it was a lot of fun um can we put those videos on the website yes I have to get them to it's just we haven't connected on that um but yes absolutely great idea uh also excited to announce that the mayor's Wellness committee is going to be working with the community gardens committee to highlight the importance of gardening in everyone's happiness uh in fact there are 22 studies that show that gardening activity was associated with a reduction in depression anxiety stress and fatigue and the physical activity of gardening does present the potential to promote neuroplasticity and you guys all know how I feel about neuroplasticity and improve overall brain health um we bump the the happiness and wellness crawl to March 1st to ensure that all committee members could participate uh we will be touching on the aspects of spire that's spiritual physical intellectual relational and emotional uh the Kimberly am foundation will be providing the S that's the meditation and the breathing I think Peace of Mind yoga is providing the yoga and I just you know you sew the seed sometimes of different policies and it it gets to you what Susan's doing with st storytelling but Amy in the library created this um Wellness crawl handbook just going to pass it down everybody look at it um it really sort of lays out what we're trying to do the reasoning why U it'll be a little booklet that residents will get as they go around and and try the different Spire um they do their well happiness crawl and try the different Spire elements so I thought that was an amazing uh booklet that she made um our spin-off subcommittee the May's Wellness committee we did have our pajama party and mocktails we discussed the role of awe that plays in happiness and the signs that impacts your brain when you uh appreciate a we are now reading Susan you are awesome na wrestle with failure and live an intentional Life by Neil pasuk um that is February next Thursday uh second Thursday in February I it's February 13th oh thank you yeah um join us um even if you haven't read the book we end up talking about really interesting things and it has become a very close-nit group so this has been amazing there always someone new every week though yeah it's really been a neat experience um I am ahead of the curve I am reading I accidentally started reading June 12th the let them Theory I highly recommend it for anyone um it is an amazing book it really does change your life and I hate when people say that but it really is amazing um as Andrew mentioned our veterans affairs committee also met we will be presenting a proclamation to D Jason dorworth uh I don't even want to get into his background because it's so remarkable he's retiring we'll do that in March as part of our quarterly responsibility um as our designation of we value our veterans that we received from Governor Murphy so we'll continue to do this and our BC chairman Trent fettis um actually met with Michael bull today who runs an outstanding State word organization that brings programming and services um to different communities and we're asking him to do something in brkly Heights in the fall it he is remarkable what he does it's going to be an amazing feed if we can get that done and we also are working again this year with peace of mind yoga uh to get a grant for uh trauma informed yoga for veterans um she did not receive the grant this year because um she is a for-profit organization so we're going to rethink that and U figure out a way maybe to provide that for veterans so as Margaret uh mentioned EDC and seniors are later in the month so we'll split that report and um that concludes my report and I'm just gonna ignore that Li is here as as she's here we have to valid so if I can read them if I read my own handwriting was at her son's uh concert tonight and she was I prohibited her from coming tonight but she showed up anyway yes so it was Middle School the security when you needed in this it was middle school and they are so good put up a lot when a youngster is learning an instrument for a few years and then but they're at the point where it's a joy to listen to so um clarinet but the whole Middle School was all Middle School bands I mean they have such a great music program um you know they have steel pan drums Chinese drums like jazz band like so they really did a great job congratulations to all the kids yes oh congrat they were amazing it was amazing um and in my day we go to friendlies after band concerts that we don't anybody's looking for a business so we need something for the kids to go to after events like in Happy Days yes um so the budget uh CFO is finalizing sort of the draft budget to start discussing um with with um informally with Council sort of see where wrapped we put in all of the budget requests um the grant Cycles are reopening again um beginning to like historic preservation grants are coming up as well as some others and I mainly wanted to give it infrastructure update because we have a lot of infrastructure projects out there uh the nter AV sidewalk project is at the Department of Transportation for review so we have to submit plans because that's a state um excuse me that's a Federal grant safe Street to school that needs extensive review and we need sign offs before we can um go out to bid uh for that so we have that peppertown Sherm AV uh revitalization projects also at the dot for review this is just um this this is the we have state grants and federal grants going toward that so once they sign off I'd like to go out to bid um hopefully in the next month or so and then we can start work as soon as the weather starts warming up on that Springfield sidewalk project that we also got I think a$1 million uh grant for um we have the remainder of that project budgeted for 2025 that Council will evaluate uh the Mountain AV sidewalk project I think that's 1 million something 1 million two maybe um that might be that might have to be a 2026 project it all sort of depends on our other Capital infrastructure needs um when we finish the budget uh the first phase yeah I can't read my own writing the first phase of the Westside drainage project which is what we call the Sawmill portion which is essentially EX increasing the Basin and the pipe size at the bottom of the Westside drainage project so we have more place uh more capacity for the water to flow that's at the ibank uh New Jersey infrastructure bank for review um they will essentially approve the project for zero to low interest financing once they approve it then we can start the work on that um and then we're working with our federal lawmakers on another um I think $2 million appropriation for the Westside drainage or our sewer plant this will be for next year yes um yes did I miss any that I think that's it okay how much time does federal grants add to the project um depends on how quickly they get reviewed it's really up to the staff people who are doing it so when we get federal grants those projects are going to take longer because the review process is longer typically yes yes they have a design the state also has a design assistance program for some of these grants where they'll pay for um the design but that also adds time because you have to go through a certain bidding process where they don't tell you the price when they bid on the project you're supposed to just bid based on qualifications then negotiate the price after so in the end that might add to the cost that it would have been initially if you didn't go through that process but it also adds time to it also I would say the ibank is another and that's a state agency definitely adds time they have a pretty bureaucrat bureaucratic review process and then the Mountain Avenue sidewalks you said that might go into 2026 I thought it was a grant so why we never have enough money those are big projects so what we get and what we have to add we usually have to add to it in order to effectively do the project right right so it depends on how much how much um and we have we don't have to I think for that one we don't have to even award the project until 2026 so and then right but we have people that are begging for better sidewalks so yeah so this is you see that we got the grant we do press about the grant we know we've got the money pending but they don't see improvements on side safe routes to school and Transit always I would say begin from the time we it's announced that we got the money to the time we actually probably are underway is usually 18 months sometimes two years and the School portion safe Ro to school is federal but safe Ro to Transit is State money so the to school takes a little bit more time and Mountain AV is to school it is um and this will be a budget discussion when we talk about it in B in in um with Council but I mean what you could do is just use the grant funds like only do the amount of sidewalk that we have Grant funds for and then later on budget more money to extend it so we'd have to talk to the engineer to see okay how much sidewalk you have to remobilize never going to get back to it and I'm of the opinion you if you push it into 26 Capital get it all done just makes more once yeah all right so we can yeah we can talk about that sure excellent thank you Liza I'm still disappointed that you show sorry going home to my dog all right rep accepted and approved discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran Mrs poke yes okay citizens hearing man here second any roll call Mr Cudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs po yes the citizens hearing is now open with the rules that I read out loud in effect now par 35 syamore Avenue I'm glad she came back and and and Margaret got to ask the question because that whole issue what we do sidewalks was in the report one of the recommendations to do it fast as possible because you get the benefit if you do it so Li a great reporting on on the nuances the different type but may I like your plan it's like let's do it it's easier to explain why we can't finish it when you tell them that it would take two more years before we could do anything so and you never know if you get back to it right right right that's great and you know really talking about all the the the snow removal I was wondering why on a dry Road I had more salt put on but the uh the I it will say the same thing the uh the I this my shoveling at night before it got colder the next morning and so I got to watch the the plow trucks do their thing but we had five inches of snow if you wonder why all that work so the guys were telling me excuse me the guys were telling me today it was a really weird storm because there they they brine the roads and then it kind of rained and then there was sleep and then you know they they the way they were looking at it they really didn't think there was going to be a lot of snow then we got a lot of snow on top of it and then I think it rained again so it was a really hard storm to manage because it would it was layered so what they would typically do you know plowing or salting or even brining they had to keep adding to the strategy if that makes sense yeah I I think we still had residual salt down and well I can tell you all about the storm but it certainly up on Mountain Avenue yeah that on the ridge um which I know the Valley of the town can be a little bit different so if I say 5 that probably the maximum that we've gotten um but yeah it started like at 38 degrees and started snowing like at noon but you it it melts and then the temperature came down so by 3 o'clock it was around freezing so you got the freezing on stuff and then the real snow came you know came down so tough so there is a mix I don't unless it was in the AL the valley there was rain they're saying rain and some sleep at different times SLE didn't see rain just just sleep and snow when you're just and we're just with the GPS of the day which say we're like at you know 450 FT elevation so could be different it make a difference they can't be different thank you Steve they had a great job they did they did I left D at 3 o' oh GL weather's always different than it is the rest of the it was like 45 degrees of raining time I got up here the snow was coming I was like look at that that was bizarre for sure like 10 degre I know I know close us up Manny any else second motion close oh sorry second closing the citizens hearing um roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs POG yes and seeing that we have no executive session can have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn all in favor all right good meeting