I tried this earlier today e e e e e e the open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided
by forwarding 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 here Mr Foster
here Mrs Ellis here Mr Machado here Mr Moran here Mrs POG here mayor deing I'm here would you all please rise with the FL IED Al to FL United States of America okay moving into conference session we
do have one very important matter this evening uh on the Park Avenue speed reduction um that's going to be presented to us by NE engineering so Brian would you just come forward and formally introduce yourself and thank you mayor uh and uh my name is
Brian and tandola and I work for neglia group I work with Tom Saro who's your uh your day-to-day engineer here and um so we were requested to look at uh Park Avenue and to see if the uh underlying speed limit as posted in this per your
FAL ordinance is appropriate uh for the uh function that Park Avenue provides uh from planfield on to Mountain and you know what we noted was that when we we went to the site and we we did um radar
shots with our own staff because sometimes when you have a unmarked police car it's a little intimidating and people know that it's there so if we send um we had our staff to at Magnum Court we took radar shots and what we
noted was that the uh the speed limit uh was uh being followed for the most part but that the speed limit itself was too high program that the Federal Highway Administration has called us
limits traditionally uh when you were to ask the county to lower speed limit you would go right to agti of a sampling of a 100 or more uh Vehicles traveling the road but over time it was felt
that the the the travel speed should not dictate what the vehicle speed should be what the posting should be should be what the context is and the context here is that Park Avenue U connects the two streets planfield and Mountain but it also provides access to two schools five
crosswalks as the town grew up around Park Avenue and in that context us limit take that takes that into account and what it supported when we ran the analysis was a 30 30 m per hour speed limit right now there's a portion out
here by the Civic Center or this the town area here uh it's 35 miles per hour and then a little bit uh that to the I guess that's to the North or to the South uh it turns to 40 miles per hour 40 miles per hour you also encounter a
rise and uh it's almost a blind curve and uh and you have crosswalks in the area and we felt that when we ran the analysis that we we agree with the analysis that that the township should consider lowering it to 30 miles per hour so when you go from 40 to 35 when
you go from 40 to 30 miles per hour but the benefits you get uh uh for in the context of Park Avenue is that when if there should there be an accident the from 40 to 30 the kinetic energy is lowered so much in an accident that the
likelihood of getting hurt is lessened significantly um and that goes all through the benefits of that that goes for pedestrians all users reaction times are better when you're at uh 40 miles per hour the safe stopping distance from
reaction time to making the stop is 125 ft when you're down to 30 miles per hour it's 75 so you can react crosswalk to crosswalk block to block so it gives the a driver uh a better chance to react to different road condition whatever they
may be and uh so we felt on the whole that the recommendation to go forward with the 30 m hour uh speed limit on Park Avenue uh made sense to us and uh so we that's what we provided in our report of December 3rd C the council and
we also account and we also brought in the local ordinance that um I think was done probably in the mid 70s I think that's probably the last time this was looked at which is typical it's but you know when there's when a when a town like I said grows up around the road you
have to revisit it and then in revisiting it we believe the 30 miles per hours appropriate so that's just what we had done for the the berley Heights and I know that we've been discussing this for quite some time we've got our uh committee members back behind us who did a lot of work over
three barely four months three and a half months so thank you to all of you um came out to support that as well your explanation was excellent tonight Brian we really appreciate it know the police department has worked tirelessly um to make this happen as well um are there
any questions though I know that we have really discuss this um quite a bit almost at every council meeting since since uh probably September so but are there any specific questions of Brian this evening I don't have a question I have a comment I live off of Park Avenue
and I walk my dog up Park Avenue almost every day and sometimes I'm just like why what's the speed what's the race where you going like really fast over 40 probably over 45 maybe even over 50 so I think bringing it down is it it's
necessary thank one quick question make sure we comply with hold the RS I know we had issues on the stop signs before this report that you did has Signed Sealed Delivered stamped all that fun stuff yeah I mean what uh I saw it signed but I didn't see it stamped I can I could provide a hard copy uh to the
clerk uh so she so she has it on file to support the ordinance okay yeah CU I just want to make sure we we fall into those little add our eyes and cross our te's we don't we don't want to take a m post you don't have to have a sealed engineering report I can have a
digital representation of my seal so the clerk prefers the the uh the Press seal I can do that as well okay perfect make sure Bill did you have a question yeah just real quick uh I just wanted to make sure that we're saying that we're going to drop it to 30 miles an hour not 25 in
certain areas it's definitely going to be 30 throughout the entire duration distance that is that is where we're at right now yes is the plan to add additional um speed limit signs so that people are very clear on what the speed limit is so
interesting question so you can search the literature far and wide how many speed limit signs should you put on a road in what the spacing is and I've yet to find definitive guidance so we we will drive the road with the uh police
department or DPW and we'll put them where they make sense where you get really good reads to reinforce that so that's usually how we do it like like like there's a crest of the hill over here we'll put it on both sides of of the crest of the hill so you can see it and on the curve so we just lay them out
so I think for uh like for parkab I would probably have four and four minimum like we have now and maybe increase that to six overall in the transition from uh 40 uh to 30 because
that's a significant uh decrease six on each side yes how many um blinking permanent blinking speed signs do we have two four okay so it won't be like my cousin Vinnie huh no the speed limits okay one will be
going to court if they will they they'll be guilty quickly judiciously convicted convicted yeah when you say linking ones those are the ones that tell you what your speed actually is as you're going through they were solar per uh semi-permanent at one point and after
the situation in March we installed four permanent or two more permanent we always had two permanent and after the accident we added an additional two okay yeah thank you we capturing the data the speed data from those signs so that we can see if enforcement is necessary because I've
heard some pretty scary stories from residents this winter about how fast people are driving on Park Avenue those signs don't capture data the ones that are on Park Avenue they don't have the capability hi any other questions for
Brian uh I Bri if you would just indulge us for a couple more minutes I typically allow when we have a conference session it's not protocol but I do typically allow residents to come forward and speak so if you want to make a comment um or ask a question now would be a great time and then you don't have to stay till the end of the meeting if you
don't want to if you would like to that's fine um but just name and address and try to limit your comments to um three minutes come forward anyone who would like to say a few words sure come on up just have to speak into the
microphone because uh Zoom hears you from the microphone but the the wire is roomed too so okay name and address yeah I'm Barbara wanc I'm at 16 windway here in berley Heights um my son was the one who was hit um in
March uh last year almost a year um he's mostly recovered but he still he did have a brain injury so um there's still some things around that that we're dealing with and um I really support this um decrease in the speed limit um I don't know if that would have made a
difference in his case but I definitely have really been worried and when the other accident happened a few months ago where a couple people died that really freaked me out like any accident um and uh anything with that we can do to help
pedestrians also be more visible um Although our accident was in the afternoon um and just get concerned about safety Public Safety I really appreciate the work of the committee and I hope that you will um pass the ordinance to um bring down the speed
limit on Park Avenue and I've heard that our slow down in our town signs and stickers arrive today so that's another method that we'll use when I think there are times where speeding sort of Peaks or you know and so you can use this as a visual tool they don't stay up permanently I think
typically what they recommend is they stay up for two weeks you use a sticker on your recycling um bin because that's a the same time that everybody kind of use it so you see a sticker this a similar sticker on everybody's bin you see this yellow sign with a two children playing with a ball has slowed down in
our town and it's shown to actually reduce uh speeding in certain areas and we'll move those around the town as uh as necessary so that'll be in addition to the ordinance that's on tonight another tool that we use to reduce hopefully reduce speeding I hope I'll be
able to walk I have not walked on Park since the accident so I'm hoping that I'll feel more comfortable going forward thank you all the best to your son and to your family name and address if you would please my name is Joe I adanta 923 Mountain Avenue
Berkeley Heights I have a couple of questions I like to ask questions with the new speed limit how does that get U linked up with GPS or will that be done um my experience is that some police departments have a
relationship with Google Maps they can not ify them because sometimes there'll be detours that Google Maps keep sending vehicles to the wrong directions so you can do by W your Police Department my off office can do it but over time the speed limit is picked up by the Google
Map driving and then it's updated because it's based on the signage so that occurs naturally not naturally unnaturally over time but it does occur over time okay did you do would you mind um we have the chief and the captain um
sitting there as well is that something we typically do is is I know that we we have some contact information because with the Timber Drive we reach out to Google Maps about making sure trucks understand it's a fortime weight limit so we do have contact information this is Captain Frank may just so everyone knows yeah we'll have them follow up go
ahead sir did you do any other ancillary areas in other words um I would assume that everybody knows part of the problem is because it's a it's a it's a driveway to 78 so you have a lot of people that don't town I mean you you find out like maybe we should put up
a no leftand turns in other words when you come up to Park and Mountain that's a pretty bad curve you make the left and I know that when you come down Park Avenue you got the railroad track you got the the the traffic coming down and
I'm always concerned about people um stopping on the tracks especially with trains and all that good stuff so uh with respect to Mountain it has a I think that Park and Mountain there is a stripe left turn there I believe that would be something we can
raise to the county I I don't see the issue I mean you have to make the left somewhere off a park out but something to look at if the accident data indicates that those left turns are problematic we could bring that to the attention of the County uh working with the police department as well and then
uh for the railroad tracks uh should there be a consistent or persistent problem with railroad track cross uh what we've done in the past is that you can convene a diagnostic team meeting with the NJ doot in transit we all go out there you walk around say
these are the issues and if they have specific technical issues that need to be addressed at the crossings they will be done in in the terms of an administrative law order and in that order is what we work towards sometimes it's part of Berkeley Heights part of
the problem sometimes the county contributes sometimes New Jersey trans has to redo their arms and that's all shephered by NJ do so there is a process for that okay but so so all you took into consideration was this Park Avenue
so in other words if I'm coming down Park Avenue I make the left hand turn at the stop sign go over the tracks and I make the real quick right on the Sherman that wasn't covered or was it discussed or anything like that no it wasn't no okay because that's additional problems traffic Wise from my perspective as
well 2018 2019 and I may not have the dates correct there was Manny I think you've been involved in this too do at Transit and do came out there is an administrative order um and there were some improvements that were required um
I think 20120 into 21 they finally got to the um signalization the arms a couple of those things timing I mean I'm sure everyone's heard there's been a couple of accidents over the last four or five years into Providence where folks have got unfortunately stuck on
that has not been the case um as far as I know in brookley Heights um and I think part of that may have been 2018 there was administrative order where they were required to um undergo some safety additional safety measures I understand let's give an example I make
the left- hand turn off to Hamilton to avoid making the left-and turn on mountain and unfortunately that's where we had that accident with people lost their lives and I'm glad that people put those delineators on on on the hill because you're absolutely right about that um that's a blind spot so I always
slow down is always some individual behind me who's doing 40 mil an hour and doesn't get it and he tries to go around you so I was really happy to see that being done so I think that's one big problem area okay and I would encourage the council to consider changing speed
limits throughout the entire town to a reasonable because uh planfield at times is problematic Mountain Avenue is problematic and the town has grown up around the U the road obviously and like you said there are a lot of schools
preschools in home everywhere so thank you for your time thank you for your comments we appreciate it anybody else one question real quick Police Department I know one of our residents sitting in the back did striping
recommended extra striping on on Park Avenue to slow it down is that in the works at all we would refer to the engineering at that point we don't know what the code allows with the uh right did you get it did you get that email uh we can get together all think the
striping is a great idea also that gives the visualization slowing down oh John Leo's email John le yeah the pan striping are you referring to my email yes it's Bumble strips instead of rum Bumble strips yeah lines to tell you
that there's an abnormal situation ahead or brings awareness to you're driving yeah normally they were by stop signs or turn areas but it wouldn't hurt hitting it different places so it's up to the engineer down thank you for pointing that John so
John Leah just for so Folks at home joh is the chairman of our pedestrian and green streets committee yes um I've also seen them used in other towns in advance of um crosswalks where there is limited sight line
then they'll use the rumble strips to cue the the driver that there's a a crosswalk coming y I think they're effective sir sorry go ahead name and address oh yeah hi I'm Jeff Chan I'm at 303 Park Avenue and I live right at that
Crest that sort of like that blind spot where that accident occurred um that's actually related to my question if there's anything further being done to mitigate the dangers of that Crest like I know a lot of my kids walk across that
street to go to school and there's no crosswalk and I don't think there's even a sign that says pedestrians Crossing there and um so I was wondering if that was going to if that was in the cards at all I think we're going to put a crosswalk at a blind spot where that top
of that Hill is just a bad oh I think it's just a bad spot to have a crosswalk to begin with at the top Chief explain why just just so understand delineators are yeah delineators you mean the the temporary those orange indicat yeah you're coming you're coming up you don't
you don't know what's actually at that location just right upon it and the last thing we want to do is direct children or pedestrians just to come across at that spot even though you may provide warning right our goal is you know to at least put those crosswalks at a
different location but to actually get these cars to slow down uh coming up to that Hill I think that delineators have helped the problem I don't think it's as solved anything yet okay um but little by little you know we have the speed signs we have the delineators out there we're looking for more more permanent
solution we're trying to lower the uh speed limit here and I think it's just you know working with the task force and with the engineer that come up with the best solution but you know we I just made sure that we had those repositioned after the snow the other day because
work so we're trying you know we're going to keep looking at other options available right so that brings me to my other uh sort of suggestion I I know I noticed in surrounding towns where there is that situation of a of a Crest a blind spot I I don't know what it's called but it's basically a series of
painted lines that that sort of like gradate outward you see them a lot in when you approach speed bumps yes yes I think that's is that what we're talking about I think it's I think it's the same speed yeah but there won't be yeah
but there usually where I say there's no speed bump there it's just like a line that makes me slow down when I see that because any additional visual cues in the line of sight slows a vehicle down you as you know Park is kind of a drag strip so right so is that would you say
that's a good idea or speak to yeah um yeah want you just for the benefit of all right I'm gonna go sit down that was my last okay thank you so much to this guy come on John Leo 43
Forest Avenue um basically what you're talking about is anything that's painted in the in the right away that um it creates more noise visually so drivers are forced to slow down because it feels like things can move in on you so you they've actually found that when they
did studies that when you had no shoulder and trees and bushes were right up close to the road you were forced to slow down park has a beautiful Lane shoulder in which you could park a size car and then a sidewalk in the right away is completely unobstructed so that's your problem with Park um so
really the goal was not to build curbs with Belgium Block that would come out before each crosswalk and expenses expensive infastructure that was slows down but what could you do that was cost- effective and that's mostly when you can paint on the road that's a good
halfway any of these the Chevrons the uh the um the white lines you're just talking about I know the names or just the Bumble strips are not which are not dug into the road but they're painted yeah ra and they're quieter yeah it's raised paint basically yeah so any any of those things and actually this was discussed when they put the shoulder on
Park AV the engineer came and said I can't remember what we were addressing he said the white lines actually create a means to slow the cars down and that was um a traffic coming that sense that's something that we want right yeah you paint more SL SL yeah yeah so he's
you're on the right track thank by the way I just want to say to the police department of Berkeley heads thank you guys are doing a great job from helping to control some of the the light car thefts as well as speed you're doing the best I've seen out there for a
long time so thank you very much they're always busy may not know it but they're always busy right but anybody else like to speak to this particular conference item I like your sht hi Dana Nigro 425 Park Avenue um
people pretty much covered most of what I have to say so I want to start by thanking mayor council the police department our engineering firm uh for your responsiveness and patience and thoroughness in addressing this and you made some excellent points so I don't
have to make them um and we really appreciate all the efforts you've gone through over the past year to address this issue um I want to address some concerns I've heard from other people in town um I know some people are concerned that reducing the
speed limit from 40 to 30 is dramatic and we impede their travel time uh I do just want to point out it takes 1 minute and 30 seconds to get down the street right now it will take a whopping 2 minutes at 30 m an hour so it's not
going to make anyone late even me and I you know cut it close for the train all the time I've practiced for almost 12 months now and I can do it just fine um the other thing is that I've really noticed that I'm much more aware of
what's going on on the road and that I can be much more responsive to anything unexpected that's happening and I hope that other people discover that for themselves when they are driving at the lower speed um the other thing I want to address and people have brought this up
is that reducing the speed to 30 mil hour is pointless so it's not going to change driver Behavior without enforcement or traffic calming or education and those people actually make an excellent point this is a great first step but more must be done but it can't
really be done if we haven't set the standard there's not much point in trying to calm traffic to 40 m an hour when that's still going to kill 50 to 90% of the people who get hit by a vehicle going that speed um so you've brought up the complete and green
streets task force of which I was a member and we have identified a compress comprehensive set of actions that the township can take to improve safety throughout town uh and that would start with awareness campaigns free education in the schools free education for uh
adult drivers and cyclist to keep up with changes in the laws we've identified expert resources in the state that can help us in expensively test Safety Solutions to be sure that they work and that residents feel comfortable with them and those can include the painted markings that John was
referencing uh bike Lanes other things like that um and we also began work on identifying grants to fund uh more extensive projects something the township Administration has already done a fantastic job on but obviously more
the better um so I just wanted to say that we have a group of people ready to keep moving forward volunteers also who are ready to help work on projects and we would like to help address more of the town as some people mentioned not
just Park Avenue we've learned a lot and it can be applied to many other parts of town so thank you Dana I just want to point out that I think um within a day um of the accident in March um you had a I I think you had well over 600 that was
the last time I saw it was 600 probably far more than that um you sprung to action you've been a remarkable partner it wasn't just sort of screaming at the town but partnering with us and making sure that we made it effectuated real change so I just want to thank you for
all your hard work too so thank you but it's not the end it's the beginning right day day night thank you anybody else would you like to speak on this conference matter just name and address for the record thank
you MOA 146 Riverbend Road I think it's great that the speed limit recommendation is 30 miles per hour but I was also wondering I said in here are there any things like speed bumps that were recommended or anything like that well proactively speed humps go both
ways right because you have as we recognized Park Avenue does connect a large part of the town from one end to the other so um I work before I recommend speed humps it's like for me it's a it's a last resort and it needs a
lot of Buy in and it takes a for me it's a process I want to make sure that the police department's okay with it that the ambulance drivers are okay with it school bus drivers are okay with it I really take my time on that recommendation it works but it it
sometimes it's not appropriate for uh a the the different functions that Park Avenue has believe me they work but I think we should see how Enforcement Education and lowering to speed limit works for now okay I mean you know we I
think we all agree safety is a priority y so uh you know 30 miles hour is a great start hopefully that could be looked into further right thanks thank you for speaking tonight any else that list of stakeholders I just
add the DPW are a big deal I am really don't I'm very hesitant for that and the safety and the SP responders slow down fire TR good evening mayor council Tom Tom Schmid I live at uh 428 Park Avenue I
thank you for your time and attention to the smatter chief I appreciate the enforcement the present we've seen on the street uh since our accidents that have have occurred just a couple things that I thought would be interesting to keep into mind we have three major north south arteries in town all three have
different speed limits we have 30 on Snider uh I know Snider for the most part doesn't have parking on the side which is probably dictates some of that speed limit we have 35 on on planfield and then now we have 40 on park I think from a consistency standpoint it's nice
to have those north south arteries that get you down to Mountain to be consistent um and be nice to address not just Park Avenue but but all streets uh also enforceability uh I I'm here in my capacity as a resident not in my daytime
capacity but when as as a prosecutor County at all but you know there's also enforceability do you enforce the speed limit or do you enforce something slightly over it I think giving our law enforcement something as a reasonable enforcement
speed 30 m hour in my mind is England has a 10 plus two philosophy 10% plus 2 miles hour if you have a 30 mph speed limit that's 10% 3 plus two and enforcement is around 35 miles an hour in people's mind I think a lot of people
to go well if I drive up to 5 miles an hour it can be fine 30 miles an hour in ensures that people are probably traveling under 35 certainly much under what we're doing now people are probably going 45 and and so forth on that stream so I appreciate your time and attention and I would like you to take those
things into consideration thank you thank you appreciate that thank you for your comments just a comment about the arteries being uh consistent I think that is actually a really great idea I was actually on Union from Springfield up to I guess Mountain yesterday they're
25 that whole way wow it must have been not a little not that recent but in the old days it had to be like 40 I think so too I remember flying right over the railroad trucks and you know 25 you think it's impossible to do but it's possible
figure it out you figure it out and so I think I like your point about consistency with all our roads going from Mountain down to like the Springfield or planfield yeah and Snider is 30 because we did not have a stop light there until 20 20 21 um and that
was a part of the Redevelopment um negotiations for Toll Brothers so that and so that we just we never changed it from 30 leave well enough alone right that's that's why that one's lower okay anybody else would like to come speak on this conference
issue so you don't have to stay till the end it's a riveting agenda I assure you Steve car 35 Sycamore Avenue um actually I'll I'll be here for the whole meeting we'll use other parts to talk about this appreciate that you opened it up to talk about any aspect of it
including the introduction the ordinance in addition not just related to to the presentation um I am most of you know who I am in terms of anything having to do with motorist maybe not Andrew because you're the
newest member and I was on the U completing green Street's task force um and um I'll do a bigger introduction later but I've been doing speed and speed limit issues for about 40 years you know as a licensed professional
engineer and you know as a the systems engineering background so what I want to do hello Brian um I basically for this session came uh with this questions um I've seen the actual latest study um I
have all the things and and as part of the process um I'll be preparing you kind of an analysis to bring to the final hearing um on this ordinance and some of these questions will help with that with that analysis so
um Brian ready Brian his name his name is on it so he he's got to know what's in there um there there are three key sections U and and there's um a question or two on on two of them and few more on
on on this speed data collection analysis now does the percentile speed chart in figure one that thing here um reflect the combined data of all the measurements recorded in appendix a encompassing all three time
intervals as well as both Northbound and southbound directions I figured that was that's easy a lot of these are confirmation clarification questions um now for the next question I want everyone to note that the measurement location on Magnum
Court uh was 400 feet prior to the 35 mph speed zone going northbound so when you head into town where they were where they were set up um need to clarify that is is 400 ft before it actually changed to 35 miles
an hour so you're getting people going with what they thought if they were cognant of the sign um with that why did you combine Northbound and southbound traffic to provide an overall speed
distribution um given the different speed zone transitions you know 40 to 35 in one um Direction and 35 to 40 in the other uh the thought process was we tried to pick a representative area it covered
the totality of of Park Avenue we thought that was a reasonable location to provide the reasonable engineering um a basis of presenting our report and also helping to uh provide data to us limits so we thought that was a
reasonable place to take the speed uh study yeah yeah and and why not uh in addition to that um U speed samples more toward the middle of of each of the two speed zones like I said in our opinion we thought that was a reasonable
location thank you for those answers um now your study indicated that our quote unquote our office collected speed data utilizing rad uh radar technology so that helped me understand it was you guys doing it not you know ask the police department to do it and so on and so
forth your your office staff did the actual measurements we had said yes and um did your staff use radar manually or is it set up for an automatic measurement no we uh follow the car and we you know it's a balls and Strikes
radar gun so we follow the car we get a reading write it down we get the 35 Plus sample you know so you get the standard deviation changes to be more reliable and once we get that data set and we we uh put it in a spreadsheet and we right we determine the you know the different
percentiles that we need to present but yeah I was just really addressing the um um um and let's see more more into the next question um now in in at your location H how were you situated such that you you didn't
influence um travel speeds by your presence as we said in the intro that we and I'm sorry I must have missed the the first few minutes so our experience is when we do speed studies you know um we have to be Frugal with taxpayer dollars
right so sometimes the the Departments will the police departments will offer to take the speed data and you know they squad car taking speed data and they're you know right I'll get to that everyone's going to be on their best
behavior so we we basically do it not surreptitiously but not so obtrusive that we're affecting driver behavior and we find that that works better so that's what we do so you you're making a point to cause that that
problem yes that's fine if that was the answer yes I think that's what I heard um now it's I I know you're aware of it because it's mentioned in the narrative but uh uh I'm just going to ask for a confirmation did you measure only free
flowing traffic um with a certain Headway for the uh uh you know mutc guidance and Universal best practice yes and I tell you that the distribution a little funny on the low end for for that but I I know you guys know that um
where all the speed monitoring devices that were talked about earlier on Park Avenue shut off during the data collection sessions as well as any decoy Mark police cars that we're Ling to were they removed so to not influence motorist um speed on your collection day
we did in June and we didn't go out of our way to turn anything off or you know remove vehicles you know we we we try to make a snapshot of what the actual conditions are think we have cars on Park Avenue we would have the decoy cars out there once
in a while we do have the mandatory enforcement had it right after the accident but I don't think it was at the time of the deep work we did have the traffic post the first but the typical yeah post that you would have yeah yeah because it's like oh I don't I
think if what matters for today's discussion is on June 6 um they I mean in recent months the decoy cars been there in May um okay um yeah now with the in the report after
crunching all the data um the it showed you a measured 34 m per hour 85th per off speed and as a study noted quote the McD states that a post to speed limit should be within 5 miles per hour of the 85th percentile of free flowing traffic
so so far we got traffic measured crunch the data um the and again uh 85th to 34 why did you choose um 30 uh when you know with a measured 34
at the 85th when um the best practice on rounding supports 35 well it's not the best practice also explained this at the beginning of his presentation as well so yes so so we find that the 80 85th
percentile as the arbiture of the speed limit is somewhat limited and as we did the intro I don't know if you're here before but the context of Park Avenue accidents and other physical features are factors that are put into US limits
the fhwa model and that has been recognized as another means of looking at speed limits and we believe when towns are struggling with speed limits uh unfortunate accidents and are looking to lower the kinetic energy of accidents
we believe that us limits is a better alternative instead of 85th percentile here's your number post it we believe that you have to put it in context and that's what US limits does yeah that's another discussion I'm not going to get that since I'm asking
questions I I'm not going to be talking about that now um the um um okay was now can I just ask you are you opposed to the 30 mile I'm just asking I'm just ask I'm asking questions to
make sure the numbers reflect with I'm just curious because it sounds like you're you against the 30 miles so I was just curious well I'll talk it various times and you'll get a flavor for where I am and why um I think can we can we just because we do we did put a three minute limit we tried to
keep everybody I'm down to I'm down to like like three more questions um and um like I said I'll do other stuff during the other times um turn movement um counts
uh what was the purpose of the turn movement count study at Park and planfield intersections that as it relates to a speed assessment on Park Avenue I directed my staff to put those uh traffic lines in because we were doing an Associated study and we just happen to be doing counts at Park and
blanefield so if any if you want to re like I'm not one to say well that's strictly not to support a speed study but I believe the information is available because uh I find that sometimes when you go back and say oh I had that data I could have used that
data but I didn't put in the report so we put it in report got it I got yeah I mean it's I was figuring it something like that because I didn't see the direct connection to the thing and my last my last thing especially since I have some experience with it in in this town is the uh section on Crash data
analysis um the report mentions 23 reported crashes during the four-year study period with three resulting in injuries or fatalities that's I think a quotation from the report now looking at appendix D those three um crashes at reference were shown as injury I mean
there there were no fatalities um so I have to wonder why the report narrative implied fatalities but I'll just move on to the meat of appendix D because that's how the date is characterized by the state um that's where we get our data from right
and and well not want to change the headers right it's all the there was there was there was there was no in the column pendex D there was no fatality they're just all injury so I I don't know why fatalities were me mentioned in that context where it comes from the
header from the data source from the state New Jersey says injuries or fatalities maybe I should have changed the header I don't know but okay anyway the reality is there were no ality it was just three Ines okay um the U anyway for context um my for my question can I
just note that there were two fatalities the study period the his data you know there were two there two recently this is the study period from 20 to 2023 I would just say that's something in my opinion that you'd have to consider that's happened in the last year maybe not during the study period but there
were two fatalities on PR want to be 23 data was just uploaded in uh January 27th and partial 24 data is coming in now so I'm just Rec study yeah I just want to point it out so the residents in
the room don't think that we're ignoring that important statistic fine um anyway for context for my question while on the town task force last fall that we talked about um I did a townwide crash analysis of a category of Crash types by examining each njtr1
crash report to get the approximate cause of each crash crash now appendix D wasn't very informative about each crash aside from an identifier date time and severity um and the report narrative recommends I think appropriately so a
comprehensive crash study to be completed to seek corrective actions um question this is the last one did you or your team look at the details based on the source of data you used and just talking about uh did you or your team look at the detail of each crash to
establish any connection to speed or speeding I mean aside from the fact that the vehicles were moving us limits is what we put the data for it doesn't require that but my curiosity I always look through the date the crash reports that are safety Voyager which is our
data source and uh it was that it was very hard from what we saw to establish speeding as the principal cause a lot of times it's driver in attention in the traffic report in this in the crash reports but the core aler to that is a
driver of retention is that you're going too fast you may look to change your preset on your radio but because you're going 40 in this area your reaction time is less or you know you don't have time to react so it's not so much maybe it's
not driver in attention but because you didn't have enough time to react so you know I do read those reports when I compile the the traffic the uh the report are available in um summary format from the TR forms they're boiled
into the data that state to provides and that's what we read I it's it's very um uh burdensome for the police department and for our office to read every actual police report and that's the benefit of having safety Voyager
which is the uh New Jersey State Police compiles all of it right and then we can look at hotpots like I can look very quickly and find the worst intersections in a town in like 20 minutes and I can figure out what we need to do there it saves so much time that's why we use it
and it is very interesting going D digging in so but you you answered my question right up front um I see just just questions no commentary okay very very much very robust group of questions you Steve thank you
Steve um moving into regular agenda Andrew will you start us off please park you read ordinance uh an ordinance amending the township code for the township of Berkeley Heights to revise the membership of the economic development
committee mayor I move to open the hearing on ordinance 20 25 dish o to as read by the clerk have a second any discussion roll call please Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes
Mrs illis Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs poke yes okay I'm gonna read uh quickly before we open it up uh comments on ordinances up for final adoption are welcome during the public hearings for each particular ordinance before making
a comment all speakers must identify their name and address each speaker shall be limited to three minutes and the council president will keep time with that ordinance 20252 is now open for public hearing thank you Brian thank
you Brian see no one anyone Madam mayor as to move wa are you speaking on the economic development committee so just so it's confusing so let me just explain it so we are going to have um three hearings on these
ordinances the first one will be Economic Development and we go through this whole process so it's a little bit long and then we'll do um technical review we'll do the uh senior affairs and then we're goingon to open the hearing on agenda items only so that's that's the resolutions that you see
starting with 105 on through um the into the ordinances and then there's a Citizens hearing where you can speak again are you speaking on the ordinance for Speed no I'm here for the
open mic portion okay that's at the end okay so you get to enjoy the whole thing I move to move to close the public hearing and adop adopt the ordinance as read by the clerk I'll second that any
discussion I just have one question for our attorney so um this has never happened to me before I was absent for the introduction of these three ordinances on the fourth am I still allowed to vote on the adoption absolutely yes roll call Madam
clerk uh Mr Cudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs zillis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs poke yes and if the clerk would read ordinance 2020 5-3 please an ordinance
amending the township code for the township of Berkeley Heights to revise the technical review committees membership and responsibilities I move to open the public hearing on the ordinance of read by the clerk second um any discussion roll call Mr
Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs poke yes ordinance public hearing is now open the rules as said before by the may I know I'm just trying to figure out what John's name is twice on something else yes ordinance on on
2025 thank you Min mayor was fun 20253 is the public hearing is now open with the same rules in effect that I read earlier tonight seeing no one I move to close second oh
sorry close the public hearing on ordinance 2025 d03 is read by the clerk and adopt it's a new one for me sorry uh yeah the language is a little I move to close the public hearing and adopt the ordinances read by the clerk I
second any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs pop yes Angel you be so kind please uh ordinance 2025-the Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr
Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs po yes the public heing on the eor Affairs committee ordinance is now open with the same rules in effect I read earlier this evening being know I move to close the public hearing and adopt the ordinances read by the clerk I'll second that any
discussion roll call Mr Kudo I Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs po yes okay uh I'm going to uh move to open the hearing on agenda items only second
any discussion roll call Mr Cuda yes Mr fost yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs poke yes hearing on agenda items only is now open with the same rules in effect that I read earlier so
anything that's new business would be considered a agenda item but not the citizens hearing yet it's confusing I know okay aw make come up yeah on the agenda
items Don's Gonna Keep time I get to put I get to put the microphone back that I moved um well let's see in uh uh Steve car 35 Sycamore Avenue um kind of in addition given given the nature is an issue my
organization um um deals with you know I'm also rep here as the head of the state chapter of the national Motors Association um as I was alluding to before I aside from motor issues in general I've worked on speed limits and speed related things
for almost you know 40 years at all levels of government you know actually work with the Federal Highway administration' done some work with the national Transportation safety board on this issue and um as far as the the ordinance is concerned um I've appeared
you know before those different forms of the council over the last Dozen Years and I've repeatedly reminded them about the uh the state statute that was enacted in 2008 that set the requirements for a municipality to establish or change certain traffic control devices like speed limits and
stop signs um now that change happened so you didn't have to wait for ND NJ do approval for your local changes that was the case and and that got us in trouble after 2008 um I've mentioned at one meeting I was personally involved in the legislative process and making those
changes so I know what they were all about um so I have to say I'm pleased to right up front in the speed limit ordinance the reference to the two title 39 sections that provide these requirements um I've mentioned to past Council that the uh that nma is has
created a compliance checklist to establish if an engineering study conforms to the requirements of 39 call 4-8 subsection B paragraph 3 and as I indicated before asking the questions I did was to help in and go through the
more technical aspects of of that um you know that um uh so you're speaking to ordinance 20258 just to be clear correct on it'll be introduced it's on theend limit ordinance sure abely um as
uh Manny had said he's been on this Council and I've talked about this thing before and he was is quite aware of the U of some of the requirements and he he mentioned he mentioned one of them um that any of these engineering studies that are going to be the basis for an
ordinance to change a speed limit or you know whatever the traffic control device is that that's under it um that the engineer under his seal as a licensed professional engineer has to certify to the governing body um that the speed limit has been approved by the engineer
after an investigation and having seen a copy of that study and I think Brian was indicating it does not have that and let me give you an indication of what that means um this is a one-page spot
speed study and it's got all the information needed for what was asked for the distribution the statistics location but down here you know it's certificate and basically I certify the the speeds shown here on are on bias samples of free flowing Vehicles
whatever is appropriate there's this digital version of the seal that he talked about there's a signature and you know again part of why that was required in the statute is that if if an engineer has to put his license on the line um they're not going to do any business and
and a lot of studies that have fallen under this done by negli haven't done that and you know kind of concerns me why even when they were told that that's what they need to do that they haven't and so technically um you're introducing an ordinance that doesn't meet the
requirement is the law at this point so it's like I mean you can get there but you haven't just on the black and white stuff never mind you know some of the technical parts that I'm not going to get into this evening um just so you know you're at four minutes well I and I
appreciate that I think I I bring specifics to the thing that kind of keep you doing things legally or El and I guess the U the part I was I I will come back at the uh the last session to provide um a particular piece of
research that will put some light what we're trying to do but sorry that was not on purpose but I will but I will but one of the things I will ask it up if you could because you're like few minutes over and I thought it was pretty generous the first time around I'm just
saying and I just I I'll just you know ask that the U and you know if you do indeed follow through on introducing it today and and between now and the final hearing that you have spend some time on Park Avenue um driving at um 30 miles an
hour and note what that's like and if you're able to pay attention to what you're doing because you're trying to keep to a speed that can be difficult to do given the nature of the road and make sure you have that experience I've tried it
several times recently and it it it can be different it's I really was done us the first time and just it's double the time it's not fair to people did ask about the yes you have any question did ask about the seal and and he said he's going to send it electronically we'll have that put on the report so well and
like I say it has to be exactly what I enrich from the statute it's like a certific certifying it it's just I mean that's the easy stuff it was just before you got here it was I asked him that no I heard you say it I heard you say that that's why I was saying that I brought up the specific no we want to make sure we follow the letters of the law thank
you okay any other residents electing to speak on the agenda items only so that's uh 105 through 129 see anybody else I make a motion we close the hearing on agenda items only second any discussion roll
call Mr Cuda yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr machad yes Mr Moran yes Mrs po yes okay so I move the consent agenda resolutions numbers 105 through
129 Second n any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mrs Isis yes Mr Machado yes oh sorry Mr Foster I I I right sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm gonna be a
pain in the butt um I'm sorry and I don't know why I didn't catch this before resolution 109 consenting to the appointment of DMR Architects as Township planner for Nokia La Labs campus and the amount not to exceed it should be the state of New Jersey is giving us $50,000 so we would have to the
resolution if they exceed it and I would suspect since we're asking for visioning meetings and a strategic plan they would this came from Diane because we did discuss this he the 10,000 we can do another one it's a grant for $50,000 why wouldn't it exceed $50,000 if we don't
this is what she would certify so yeah I think that's a convoluted process I think we have $50,000 from the state in a pure grant that we worked hard to get that nobody else in the state got and I think we're gonna have to I think they're going to do visioning meeting
and we're gonna have to go it's it's going to waste time because we want to set up multiple visioning meetings and we want a strategic plan written from that so if we exceed the $10,000 then we're going to have to wait and do another you know visioning meeting we
approve the 10,000 now can we override the CFO you canu whatever you want yeah she certifi certify that where the the funds are the funds are available um sorry I'm thinking this
though should CER the funds are available but you can still instructors to where where she gets the funds from does that make sense yeah yeah so as long as you're not as long as you're she's not you're not requiring her to certify that there are funds available from our own uh budget
so here's the process we the state of New Jersey the Eda wanted a separate process for the planner so we had to go for separate RFQ which we just completed now we're awarding it without that RFQ that procurement process and award process we can't get the money they want
to see all this happen they don't want to see us Tak in $50,000 not award the planner not do the visioning meetings and the Strategic the chicken or the eggs I I think you can do you essentially do as as it's being conditioned on rece receiveing the money
and that way you're allowed to proceed assume you get the money and then they can give them they can give the money assuming that you've now authorized it so now if we want to do that yeah I have to pull out resolution 109 I would you need to read it into the record and and
I would do it as as a motion to amend it first or should we do the consent agenda I would pull it out do the consent agenda and then you you can handle that one second somebody pull that out for me to amend resolution 109 you're GNA
first move to pull it need consent first we'll move the the consent minus that one and vote on all of that first first you make the motion to pull it from consent then it's not in consent then we do a second and we do a roll call and
then you motion the consent sorry okay so I move to remove resolution 109 from the consent agenda second any discussion yeah roll call sorry I'm just writing yeah I'm
sorry WR no no um Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster Mrs Alis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran Mrs poke yes okay now I agenda resolutions 105 through 108 and 110 through 129 I'll
second that any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran Mrs yes
okay I move to revise the resolution number 20 25109 to change the not to exceed number to be $50,000 can I just ask the attorney question do we put in based on receipt I say yeah I would say not to see $50,000
contingent contingent on receipt of the uh of the the grant money I to clarify one thing so the account number can change too will be different yes okay exactly and so it's going both both going to change the now now therefore be resolve section
in the middle page not to exceed $50,000 conditioned upon the receipt of the grand money from the state and then the B further resolve that is three paragraphs down say I would I CH change the same uh not to exceed $50,000 contingent on on reive the funds from
the grant money from the state in an account number to be I say in an account number to be specified by the Chief Financial Officer upon receipt of the funds move it as read by as Modified by the attorney Scott sammon read into the record I'll second
that any other discussion sorry for I'll for the record then when Once once the the grant money is received CFO can then provide the account number uh for that and then that could be added to the the resolution at that point but in the meantime you can still authorize it now
perfect uh roll call who second that I'm sorry oh jump Mr Cudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs Pok yes and when we clean up that language
in the resolution I need to send that to um Tim Sullivan from the the executive director of the e possible yep I'm making the change okay sorry about the left hand turn there okay ordinances for introduction all right so I move to
uh open public hearing on right the first ordinance 20255 ordinance appropriating $100,000 for Bill Capital Improvements in and by the township of Berkeley Heights in the county of Union New
Jersey so I move that the ordinance read by the clerk be off offered on first reading that on March Mar 4 2025 be set as the day for the public hearing and that the clerk be directed
to advertise same in The Courier News I'll second then any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs po yes Andrew mam CL read ordinance 20
25-06 an ordinance replacing the truth Community healing and inclusion committee with the community cultural Affairs committee any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr
Machado yes Mr Moran this first oh sorry okay I moved that the ordinance has read by 2025 be set as the day for public hearing and that to clerk be directed to
advertise second discussion now roll call wait I I have a little discussion so for those of you that don't know the community cultural Affairs committee is something that John and I work on and it's where we do the flag raisings and we educate the public about all the uh different cultures that we have here in
Berkeley Heights as we celebrate diversity ra the black history flag and we had a little um we had our singer and so it's it's a nice little committee yeah and you need and we need oh yes we need volunteers always always okay with
that roll call yeah I have to guess cons sorry um ordinance 20 oh Noor yeah I know sorry juming around sorry we're having a
rough night for reason Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs zillis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran this time yes Mrs po yes Madam clerk would you please read ordinance
20257 an ordinance establishing the mayor's Wellness committee I move that the ordinance read by the clerk be offered on first reading that March 4th be set as the day for the public hearing and that the clerk be directed to advertise same in the carer news second any discussion I'm very
excited about this so did you want to just mention what that is for the people in TV Land yes so for the people in TV Land um we created a mayor's Wellness committee um last year but it was not a permanent committee we wanted to sort of really figure out what the mission of
the committee would be it was a phenomenal success I wrote it with 10 members we have 22 members so this will allow the other 12 members who are not official to become official um we have we have U we have provided free taichi
we have uh involved ourselves publicly in Mental Health Awareness Month in May we have celebrated International yoga day with pre yoga we have done meditation under the stars in July uh in October we did a hike in November we did a disco ride and um we have the book
club we have the May's Wellness book club which has been phenomenal and then I'll read a little bit more about our happiness and wellness crawl that's happening on March 1st so very very excited about this roll call Madam clerk okay Mr H Mr
Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs pop yes you kindly read ordinance number 20 uh 20258 an ordinance amending the township code to lower the speed limit on Park
Avenue I move that the ordinance read by the clerk be on first reading that March 4th 2025 he say as a date for the public hearing that the clerk be directed to advertise same the cour your news second any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr
Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs po yes okay moving on to Township Council reports Manny you are first up evening uh well I'm going to be short I just want to say I was honored to give the
mayor St for that very very hon St of the township reported the Regional Chamber of Commerce meeting Margaret and Bill also attended as well attend the event and people like to speech so um I just want to also say today it's well we
have the call coming up right yes and today is National drink wine day I don't know somehow they go together I don't understand correlation is but I'll let it go um and today it's it's
um there's a recognition that every opportunity you have is determined by your intention purpose and skill today therefore today is the most important day of your life with that I give it to the next person thank you that was beautiful John all right uh our historic
preservation committee was supposed to have a meeting this past Thursday unfortunately we had a little uh snafu and uh I was suppos supposed to be running the meeting on zoom and um everybody couldn't get on so we're going to have it this Thursday coming up so
hold on tight we're going to we have some things in the works doing that um I also want to mention that the first aid Squad if you look at the agenda ton has nine u mentions for blue L permits um under the consent agenda uh
these people are are working individuals they come out they volunteer at their time if you see a flashing blue light doesn't that the cops are behind you okay you don't have to pull over for it but just maybe yield because they're probably on a first aid Squad and they're probably going somewhere and
they might be going to on their personal vehicle yeah they might be going to somebody's house that you know and they might you know need you that extra second to get there um most of the people I know that drive with the BL leg don't don't drive like they they're run the police car or fire truck or anything
else but we try to get through where they going um bill is one for you on Thursday February 20th is national love your pet day it's celebrated for all the pet lovers to show their affection for their best friends although uh you might not do that every day anyway uh this is
the day that you can just have an excuse for you to do it even more uh for pet owners they are not just pets they're best friends and integral part of their family the bond between pets and their humans I think that pets are the owners um is one of the strongest exist that
exists on the planet uh we had our uh Black History Month flag raising today so Saturday March 1st 20125 is zero discrimination day it observed every March 1st aiming to promote equality eliminate discrimination worldwide the day
highlights the rights of vulnerable groups such as women minorities refugees and those affect of HIV or who are often subjected discrimination in various forms seral discrimination day also serves as a reminder we must work together to create a world where everyone regardless of their identity
background or circumstances can live with dignity and respect the day is established to encourage Global efforts to eliminate all forms of discrimination whether they are social political or based on personal identity and Susan this one's for you Sunday March 2nd is
National read Across America day this also goes with the mayor's Wellness committee who also has the book club it's celebrated every year March 2nd which is the national birthday of American author Dr Seuss this is also known as Dr Seuss day this day is dedicated to encouraging children and
young people to read motivating parents and teachers to help them do so this day was created um and is hosted annually by National Education Association read a book thank very good thank you Margaret um I don't have much to report I spent
the last two weeks basically being sick um so the um the recreation department did their Valentine their seniors Valentine's lunch which I understand was beautiful as usual a big shout out to
Carolyn George and her team for you know doing yet another stunning event for our seniors um and I'm looking forward to the senior affairs and economic development meetings later this month excellent thank you Margaret Bill well
in the interest of time I really don't have much to say but uh just to dovetail off of what John said regarding pets if um if anyone here has indoor outdoor cats uh I would recommend since it has been very bitterly cold these last few
days just to keep them mostly indoors thank you Bill can I just pick you back on yours for a second I saw a post about someone worried about a fox who was sunning himself in the yard and you know we live in their world so we have to remember like we have to leave the fox are really good for keeping your rodent
population away so that's true did uh I did comment on that post I you know because everyone was reaching out to me regarding this poor Fox and the fox was just sunning himself uh in someone's backyard but they were concerned perhaps maybe the fox was sick but it looked completely healthy but thank you for
that very good thank you Bill Andrew my time it's gonna be a dooy at the year wow all right your choice Susan um yes so we have Berkeley Heights has been awarded for the second year in row the
healthy Town up in coming while we were hoping to get healthy Town my perception of that is it's been a very short time we've done a lot and I think they're looking for like the longer commitment so I'm pretty confident we'll get it shortly but it's still a great um an
award to get the community cultural Affairs committee before we were actually official did have our flag raising and I wanted to thank some of our um residents for raising the flag and for coming out and I want to give a shout out to Mason Balden who had some words of wisdom at the end of the ceremony our seven-year-old flag raiser
for the last four years and another shout out to kashika um kashika Sinha who is our singer and she did a lovely job with lift up every voice and grants Li and I starting to talk about whether we have some money in the bank that we
can match for latel Lord and we'll be starting that the first week in March and I just want to ask John did we nail a date down for the St Patrick's Day yes I've also been sick the last two weeks and I need to make we pigy we're working
with delicious height thought is to do our event here with the soda contract contest raise the flag and then encourage delicious right it also let you good a Friday Sunday St same time so whatever time we
post it's going to be that time now that time then new Time new time time and that's a Sunday and what time that don't I think I'm WR hold on oh
help okay uh okay so I'm way wrong March 14th the 14th right so their event de Heights Event is 7:30 to 10:30 in the same band or that's a Friday yes yeah okay Dan and Shan are also going to perform here we're going to do the soda
bread contest again um and we may have a singer yeah Kik is going to come back and sing again as well okay have two singers awesome yeah good stuff she rehearses just for us so that's nice she does sweetheart and mayor that's all I have thank you
Susan Administration reports um similar to Margaret all of my committees meet at the back half of the of the um of the month um but I just want to uh have everyone keep an eye out for the uh Wellness crawl I'm just going to read
this um joined mayor Angie Dean for an insightful session of the five elements of spire and MBI inspired by the groundbreaking study by Dr Ben tal Shahar who's a former Professor he now my professor and renowned happiness expert discover practical strategies to
boost your mental and physical wellness encouraging happiness strategies um both your personal life within the community together we can promote Healthy Lifestyles and strengthen Community connections so this is going to be Saturday March 1st from 1 before it will be here um the first 16 people to
register will get either a chair massage or a facial there is a QR code there are actually three QR codes to register liability to online all right there's two John John actually developed and what I love about um love about this
logo Spire means spiritual physical uh intellectual relational and emotional based on scientific studies of of happiness and positive psychology but this cast was designed by John's 20-year-old daughter Casey and it's actually in the qrl code code and we have a high school
student um who's making Spyro bracelets and we have PTO PTO Moms making t-shirts all 20 people on this commit Debbie verer and is baking or something everybody on this committee has fully invested in this and it just has been remarkable um you know the teamwork
that's G on so um hopefully we'll we'll Inspire One Life maybe more than one life hopefully the whole Council can be um yes everybody and the audience and TV Land those links are live yes registration waiver are one and the uh
the second one is just an after event kind of u u like survey so don't fill that out just do bit registration on that and we have several uh experts that are actually going to participate in each of the letters so we have um meditation expert we have a Brea one of
our residents Angela Belo breathing expert um Chris sylvestri from peace of mind yogurt uh yogurt yoga maybe I want yogurt right now I don't know Rebecca ainson who's an art therapist uh a trainer from the Y who's going to talk about body weight exercises and
nutritionist for field house so we have a plethora of experts um for the day that can really uh provide us with a great education and wellness and hopefully everybody's leaving town hall feeling happier and then Amy and I are doing the the intellectual piece yes so
we're not we're not experts but we're doing the intellectual piece with music and reading just trying to do the letters in my head okay all right so that concludes my report Liza uh thank you mayor just reminded everyone not to put fats oils and greases down your drain um this is not just a berley
Heights issue this is an issue everywhere in the world every little bit uh helps um councilwoman po did a great video to song about this a few years ago we'll have to that up no not right now
um yes has seen it um cap your pipes we're going to roll out a cap your pipes program um I'm talking about the metal pipes in your front yard that don't have a cover maybe you ran over it with a lawn mower or your kid ran over it with a lawn mower or got lost in the snow well that pipe is actually a sewer cleanout pipe and
without a cover you're risking excess water and debris getting into your home sewer system and possibly causing a backup so we're going to be giving them away for free as part of a new program more details to come um we'll have a press release and tap in our Township website for that uh Sherman AV and peppertown park revitalization projects
the New Jersey Department of Transportation has approved our plans we're now working on bid docks and hoping to go out to bid in March to have this project start by the summer uh we're also preparing to go out to bid for a second round of tree plantings as part of the large Grant we got from the New Jersey Department of Environmental
Protection we're still waiting for the Department of Transportation to approve our plans for our Snider R sidewalk project as part of our safe walks uh safe roots to school Grant from a few years ago and we're waiting on the New Jersey infrastructure bank to get back to us with their review and feedback on our plans for phase one of the Westside
drainage project which is called the storm will excuse me Sawmill storm water project uh we're also uh formalizing our next $2 million in state appropriation for the sewer plan and working to ensure that our next $2 million Federal
requests from Congress gets through the federal appropriation process um and as far as grants we're also looking for more money to help pay for pedestrian safety signs and related measure measures as well as our infrastructure needs and reminder from the clerk's office to license your pets we require that all cats and dogs over the age of 7
months be licensed annually there's an application along with um a proof of rabies vaccination paperwork um on the clerk's website any renewals after February 28th that's 10 days from now will incur late fee so everything you need all the information is on the clerk's website at brookley heights.
goov thank you and just a reminder when those flushable wipes they're not really flushable and they turn into fat burgs when they combine with fat soils and grease so don't flush those flushable wipes thank you very much you want to close it up oh motion to close the council
reports is ready second any discussion R Mr Cudo yes Mr fost yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs po yes they move to open the citizens hearing using
the rules that um mayor any read before I'll second any discussion roll call Mr Cudo yes Mr f yes Mrs zis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs poke yes okay open m
now sorry good evening Karen BRD 60 spring Hall and drive uh spring home drive is billis on the Park condo association or Condominiums I was here two years ago with this same issue so it's a small
community 66 units 52 Market units 14 affordable housing units held by an investor owner all units market and affordable hold the same undivided interest in common elements and equal voting power the affordables owner pays only 21% per unit for monthly HOA fees
and a special assessments again those units are owned by an investor owner who has already tried to unload them at least once that we know of by an auction so our Master deed was written in about 1996 so this predates the municipal code part 18
Section 8 which states that there shall be no distinguishable difference between affordable Market units affordable units and Market units when determining association fees and special assessments our Master deed requires written approval from the town to move forward
so that we can assess all units equally so upon Town approval then we hold a vote within our community and we need a two-thirds majority to pass so we're at an impass with the investor owner we've tried to negotiate a ramp up for the increase in fees like over a 3 to five
year period we don't have to but we're willing to do it we want to move forward and we'll do it in good faith the investor owner does not want to pay an equal share because the affordable units they do have a smaller footprint however the Fe the hoe fees have nothing to do with the size of the units it's for the
upkeep of the property the buildings Landscaping snow removal everything Insurance management fees I pay the same amount for My two-bedroom unit as the unit of three-bedroom units we've all got equal ownership equal voting power so tonight I'm asking for Town approval
to hold a vote so that we can equalize the HOA fees the 54 Market unit owners are frankly they're tired of subsidizing the investor owner's profit and for some it's becoming unaffordable to live in our community and our Master D even says that any such approval shall not be
unreasonably withheld so our attorney has been reaching out to the town we've been trying to speak with the attorney of the affordable housing units but we're at this impass they refuse to pay 100% increase and we're trying to offer them a three-year ramp up that we you
know out of is is so I don't mean to cut you off are you saying that the affordable housing is because it was built in in 1996 are no longer affordable usually there's a they are still affordable under because it was a can they do it longer than this period
of time they can do for they do it for at least 30 years and there was a five year add-on to the 25 years to 30 so they they won't be affordable next year Well there there' be no requirement that they'd be affordable
after keep it El to keep it affordable if you usually don't afford it yeah but that's a separate issue okay um I don't know enough about this to have an intelligent conversation about it would you mind leaving your information with our Township attorney so he can speak to
your attorney um I don't know who you've reached out previously maybe I don't know um but that's the best uh route is to go through Mr salmon thank you thank you thank you for waiting
too good evening hi I'm Zachary penone I live at three spring home drive uh I am also a board member for V on the park uh condo condo association um my wife and I have lived there for 20 years and this is my second
stint as a board member uh so I would say we are investors also we're invested in one unit we're also invested in all the buildings in the community there um we pay uh when we first moved there we paid it was about $250 a month for our
association fee it is now almost $550 a month so we're paying almost $7,000 a year for our uh maintenance uh in our in our community and we have uh one person who's also an investor he has 14 units
uh his 14 units contribute less to the maintenance fee than just three other market rate homeowners do so I'm asking please give this a fair hearing please help us out and make this fair so thank
you for your time thank you for speaking this evening we appreciate it again we'll have our attorney work with you and figure out the right course of action thank you for coming tonight thank you for waiting and it was a long night hi good evening Nelson stalber 125
Park Avenue I was reading on one of your previous Council meetings that we are now owing 275 more affordable units is that correct we don't have our complete
number yet correct still going through a process and that then is 15% of would be my mass 1766
unit it could be 20% if if there's a development we could require 20 that's all a part of the negotiations but all all of this has to still be worked out it's there's a long process that we're going through I think we met one of the deadlines recently in terms of our
vacant land inventory we had to turn in with the state so we haven't received our final numbers yet but it's sounds like I'm gonna let Mr samon chime in here yeah I'll just say I I understand you're trying to you're trying to ask about the total number of units that we would need to do to accommodate at least
you know the certain percentage that are affordable housing it's not something you can easily translate in that because there are developments or projects that could be done where they could be 100% affordable housing there they can be anywhere uh with a minimum of depending on the kind the kind of
development 15 to 20% but the the actual number or the percentage that are affordable can be anywhere from 15 to 20 to 100% And so it's you can't really do a straight calculation like that without knowing the the specific projects that are going to be done yeah but doesn't it
the units that have been put in so far there it has been a a 15% of what has already been built is that correct I think that is generally correct yeah but but this is about all future projects and because we don't know necessarily know what projects are
going to appear you know tomorrow a developer can come up can come to us and say I want to do you know do this new this new project it's going to be 100% affordable housing you know there's no it doesn't have to be exactly you know 50% has to be at least 15% so it it's it's you can't make a
straight calculation uh as to the total number of units that we could be that we can seeing I think you could probably look at it as in the number that you said is is the absolute maximum but realistically it's going to be less than that and just it's hard to base what has
happened the previous decade on what's going to happen going forward the township was sued by seven developers and there was years of negotiation to settle and sign a judgment of repose I think in 2018 so it's a different situation than
what and the rules were different and how the state was operating was was different the process is different every month so we have protection right now because we've essentially met our number which we were required to do by July of this year 2025 we may have a few stray
but nothing significant we've done a good job um so we have Milestones that we have to hit that the state wants to see in order to get our final number and we're still working towards that goal but to Mr Salmon's Point um it's hard to
make calculations because ultimately we don't know what the council and what our professional planners and our affordable H affordable housing planners will recommend or what will come forward what we know is that we have no Kia hanging out there and as you probably heard
tonight we have a special planner that's going to come in and hold meetings with with the residents to sort of hear their Vision or things that they want to hear likely you know that would you know contain some housing but I don't know at the end of the day what decision is going to be you know what decision is
going to be made by this governing body and what our what our profession are going to recommend so it's really hard to drill down and say that that it's you know we're going to do X number of market rate um units at this point based on the fact that we don't have the numbers for are affordable for our 203
2025 2035 rounds so it's 10 year it's a 10year cycle why why does it change we're such a small community how do they expect us to shoehorn the these things in I would love for you to ask that question of the state of New Jersey and our legislators and and we as Mayors
many particularly small town Suburban Mayors have been asking that question for a long time because dur during the Woodruff Administration here the the court the judge was was using us as an example to other communities and that is
true and I thought that that okay we had met our commitment but how many years and then it keeps Chang every decade W every decade unless the legislature you know comes to the table and Chang the rules but the new rules
for this round 2025 2035 um some of it's a little more interesting you can get a little bit more senior housing than we have previously um so that was a nice uh poll but just because we complied and we we sort of had the same feeling we've been good girls and boys we did the right
thing we settled we worked hard we built all the projects that we were required to build many other municipalities have not built what they are required they're going to be in trouble we had some control as a result of that former Administration current Administration all of us um had a lot of control over
where these buildings were built many of them in the downtown which is more appropriate than maybe in a in a regular residential neighborhood these other communities that did not fulfill their 2025 obligation don't have the protection and there could be
significant vertical vertical intensity you can have midrise and high rises in communities like ours if that's what the developer so chooses because they haven't done the right thing so if I could say one thing about the fact that we've done what we were supposed to do if there's a positive in there it's that
that at least we had control and that we're not going to lose control over what happens in the future it's just now we're subjected to a a state process that's a lot more convoluted than the last time around believe it or not and we don't you know we don't we can't we
don't have any sort of authority over the rules no one's listening to us when we say Hey you know enough is enough we've got infrastructure that we're grappling with now at the sewer plant you know we invested $8 million I think two years ago in the sewer plant we need to build sidewalks we need to build
Parks we have more resid I mean etc etc etc it's frustrating yes it's very frustrating there's not one person up here that doesn't agree with you and we do the best that we can with what what we're given and February 28th is when we're supp to get our answer on with we
sent back the square footage and the vacant land analysis that was given to us by the state and we disputed it and gave us our numbers in other words they gave us a list of where they think we can build and then our plan our affordable housing planner pushes back
he does an a pretty extensive analysis and he pushed back and said I disagree with these numbers you know there was some silly things like power lines I mean there were some really things that were not developable Town Hall not
developable footage for a parking lot they their analysis and our analysis are different so we had until January 28th I believe it was to send them the letter which we did we responded and now we're wait until February 28th to respond back to us and give us the final numbers so that's what we're all waiting for same
as you and the mayor's done a really good job and S as our plan and everybody else up here to to get these numbers down I think the most important thing is we have to have the control of what it looks like because we don't want highrises in Berkeley Heights or in the wrong neighborhood and if I may that's
that is exactly the the nightmare scenario there towns like Melbourne for example uh Anglewood Cliffs where they have um I'll be polite and say they have refus to cooperate with the state and the courts have completely stripped their ability to have any control or any
say developers are allowed to build wherever they want whatever they want they can look however they want uh and they have absolutely no control over it and obviously that's something we want to avoid here I mean that's for example had we not built everything that you see coming out of the ground already out of the ground and noia leaves town to go to
New Brunswick like they did surprised us all right we would be very vulnerable right now to put significant amount of housing without any control it's two developers that noia sold to I mean the township had no knowledge of what was going on right what we hope for now is
that we have this resolution on tonight we have a special planner we're going to do div visioning yeah visioning meetings that there's some maybe other uses or things that people want to see that can be included as opposed to not having any control over what going on so again if
there's a silver lining and all that that's been the Silver Lining is that we have more control as things happen like noia I worked about Lounge for 35 years we working hard to try to preserve some of that history there we're really pushing back on that's it's on the
historic register they're taking the artifacts with them Brunswick but the buildings are part of the historic structure we we not they're not technically on the registry the historic trust registry but there there are
artifacts inside that are historic and they've told us that they're taking the artifacts they being Nokia are taking the artifacts with them now we have had an introduction with the two developers not any discussions about what's going there and we expressed to
them and to the governor who was with me John with to the governor that it is very important to our community to preserve some of the history of Bell apps and we think we've gotten through to them that that's that's one thing that we want some small Standalone
Museum and we would like to have them loan us some of the artifacts they won't give them to us but they may loan them expain the town hall because of the fact that the reason why Berkeley HS and New Providence and Murray Hill were all here
is because of bell labs when they came in that was their whole thing and I'm on store preservation committee and we've already designated a um a sign for the Nike missile base which was at the high school also at the Wong Sables
you know those were part and parcel to that whole area up here yeah and so um we've made it known to that we like to at least keep the history here because we even have banners if you go down spri Avenue you've probably seen them when it
was made the transistor and everything well you worked there I mean I'm preaching in the choir but you know so these are the things that we want to show that look this is where it came from so they can leave but they can't take your stuff with it we're going to try that's interesting because in the
90s we we did a huge upgrade and we couldn't do anything to the front so buildings 10 one and two because of the historic registry you can only change the outside of the building 10% so I so and so we they did a really
good job of putting all the upgrades inside do you have any information on that yeah if you have if you have anything on that a lot of history in my there used to be a sign right on the entrance the first Circle when you first
come in that because the transistor was was developed there was it was those historic signs like latel word has has those little historic signs right and I remember them going through this process and that's we learned about history there's also a tree planted there that's
that's a cutting from Sir Isaac Newton I don't know if anybody knows that maybe Rich lighter lter does can you WR some of these notes down pass them on to us I'm directly related to Sir Isaac we call him uncle uncle Isaac but that's another story that's amazing anyway
thanks thanks a lot thank you for you gave us some information there's 200 Acres there it's about about a little under and they have their own power station they have their we have a station there and they have their own Waste Management because had to treat the water everything that when we poured
down the drains before it hit Berkeley Heights sewage system these things that are unique yeah I could go on listen we've asked the question about the environmentals we've asked the question are Redevelopment attorney asked the question of noia is
there anything in the contract that would preserve the historic nature and they said no so we said essentially you could bulldo you could bulldo the whole building tomorrow they said well technically but we we know we won't do that no that's what we've been told chamber is a
historic uh yeah is yeah yeah theet you have or anybody you can contact has anything well I know but I mean if there is anything like in writing from someone if you could send that to me I would more than happy to
run with that and you know get get it to them and I would I'll drive the point home mercifully give it some thought maybe you'll think of something thanks yeah sorry than de a Historic Landmark in
1972 not sure if we're getting the whole story it just says it's a Historic Landmark we're gonna do some research we're going to do some research all right that's a good exercise seeing no one I move to close
back making sure everybody else had the chance to talk and get out I'm only holding I'm only holding you up from getting on to your conference session 35 Sycamore U again um I said to make good use of a lot of time I I said
I'd come back here to talk about the relevant research related to the kind of change we're making in this environment and but I haven't had taken this off the shelf in a long time but so was Within Reach from my desk um effect of raising and lowering speed
limits on selected roadway sections um done in January 1997 sponsored sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration oh hello everybody nice to meet you all maybe you guys can come to my basketball
practice I'll wait you he showed up on the environmental commission it's going to be fun it's so nice to meet you yeah I took his iPad away
from thank you we had to do the same thing um and and anyway so This research and um like I said I haven't pulled it off in a while and inside were handy things like cover letter sending to us what's nice a
nice summary report on two sides considering how thick it is it's nice to have that and Percy a summary that lets me do this very quickly um basically this real world study of Martin Parker a colleague of mine in Michigan he he um
found 100 sites in 22 States scheduled for speed limit change WR I I like wring thank you and they're mostly rural suburban and urban two lanes with speed limits like under 55 so we're talking about you know anywhere you know 30
40 and uh traffic volume range from light to heavy from 300 to 177,000 Vehicles a day and that's a range that we fall in between for this study and the Parker was scrupulous about the details and the controls uh I won't get
into that but altogether 1.6 million speed measurements were analyzed and and the study concluded lowering speed this is quote lowering speed limits by 5 10 15 or 20 milph at the study sites had a minor effect on vehicle speed likewise quote raising spe
limits by 5 10 or 15 miles hour also had a minor effect on vehicle speeds in other words an increase in the posted speed limit did not create a corresponding increase in vehicle speeds the average change in any of the percentile speeds at the experimental sites was less than 1.5 miles hour
regardless of whether the speed limmit was raised or lowered and what about safety well Parker checked accident records for each site comparing the three-year period before the change twoyear period after and the data actually indicate um that accident rates
were reduced at the sites where speed limits were raised and increased the sites where speed limits were lowered he reported um that's a quick summary of that research that specifically looked at those kinds of issues it gets to the myths of speed limits and I'll just
leave you with relating it to what we learned today now I asked the questions I did of Brian because I wanted to validate that speed distribution chart and for all to talk about speeding on Park Avenue that chart at least on that
day says you know 85% 85% child speed reflects the vast majority what people are doing and it showed they were going 35 miles hour you know even at at that Junction between a 40 mph and a 35 mph speed zone and
you'll note the 30 mph point was the 50th perc up so given that this research is going to say and pretty much been proven for decades speeds aren't going to change significantly what you're going to have
is 50% of your motorists on that street are going to be non-compliant with the speed limit rather than what you have today with with only 15% which is what it was designed for for compliance so you're hoping you know you all are sincere about trying to do something
about safety and related to the crashes it says you have to have your own kind of specific investigation looking at what may be going on or is it just you know people blanking out or having medical emergencies but my concern is you're not going to get what you're looking for just thinking that you can lower the
speed Li and expect people are going to change um it's just not the nature of that road and again I'm concerned about all these reports about speeding when that data shows people are following the speed limit last thing if anything I
expected of a study uh was that given a 40 and then a 35 best case there was no change I expect they just make it a uniform 35 miles per hour was the best expectation
of of what we're expecting out of it I had some of my guys take a look and pretty much that would be the only change they would have recommended and U in S I have to say good luck with it you know against will tell what you want to do don't think that's going to work from
you based on you know kind of my four years experience at this so buyer beware thank you Steve close it up see no one I close this I make a motion to close the citizens hearing
discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes Mr Foster yes Mrs zillis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran Mrs poke I think yeah sorry no I haven't but um I moved to
um I'm not sure exactly how to start this but basically uh I'm move to um resolution uh number 2025 Dash I'm going to Executive session
that s isn't on here ah it's I'm gon turn it around right John Do's experience all right John take it away resolution pursu to njsa 10 4-12 the public meeting the executive session
whereas the provisions of the open public meetings Act njsa 10 call 4-1 at SEC expressly provided the public body move into executive session and exclude the public from the portion of the meeting at which the public party discusses any of the nine areas set
forth njsa 10 4-12 BN whereas the Town Council of birth is determined necessary move into executive session to discuss the F subjects all which are including after said exceptions contract negotiations now therefore being resolved by the township Council the
township berates that does here by mov into executive session pursuing to njsa P call 412b to discuss the matters and is further resolved that the a discussion shall be made public either at a public meeting following set
executive session or at such time as any litigated or personal matters are concluded or upon conclusion of any negotiations or related discussions as otherwise specify and is f resolved that the resolution shall take effect pursuance of law approved 18th day of February
2025 second second any discussion roll call Mr Kudo I Mr Foster yes Mrs zillis yes Mr Machado yes Mr Moran yes Mrs poke yes okay we will now go into executive session only to return to adjourn no
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