i think seven [Music] [Music] I will call the meeting to order roll call please anthonyos here mr here Mr rivero here mr r here mr trainer here mr
mayor here mr notice of this meeting was provided to the guard youth and courier file with the municipal clerk and posted on the municipal golden board on December 5th 2024 please stand for the pledge of allegiance of the United
States for all welcome to the March 24th 2025 meeting of the Burners and Burough Council this meeting is being conducted in person in the county chambers in hall and it is being broadcast live on YouTube and on Zoom to make it as convenient as
possible for residents to attend the meeting members of the public who are here in person and those attending remotely on Zoom will be given the opportunity to comment at appropriate times during the meeting in accordance with the following guidelines members of the public may be allowed to speak
during the open sessions and during formal public hearings on the agenda including public hearings on ordinances comments will be limited to three minutes per speaker which will be monitored and enforced by the public comments containing offensive profane or
indecent language or language constituting hate speech will not be permitted remote participants will be muted unless they are unmuted by the clerk and remote participants will not be able to unmute themselves the clerk will mute remote speakers at the
expiration of their 3 minutes of allotted time or if they make any inappropriate or offensive comments all speakers whether in person or on Zoom shall state their name and address before making their comments speakers on Zoom shall activate their cameras so
that they can be seen by members of the governing body and audience failure of the governing body to provide a live broadcast of this meeting of the technological problems encountered during the course of the meeting that affect viewing and or participation will
not invalidate this meeting or any action taken including but not limited to the adoption of any ordinance resolution or motion thank you for bearing with me while all right because now we get to the good stuff um Chief I will turn it
over to you thank you mayor um first off I just want to say uh thank you to the mayor and council and to Nancy for letting us uh make this process uh come to fruition i'd like uh to introduce our newest officer Sam Prder who be sworn in tonight sam is 26 years old graduate of
Sparta High School Sparta New Jersey native um 2023 uh Sam graduated from the Ocean County Police Academy and he served for the next year and a half as a Point Pleasant Beach special officer but then was hired by Lambertville PD um got
gained some more police experience there before he's come over to us so without further ado I'd like to introduce Sam here and I know Sam is accompanied by some family and friends up here today and who's ever going to hold the B for Sam i'd like to welcome
[Music] you right i sing feds that I do solemnly swear I St ple and swear that I will support the constitution of the United States and the state of New Jersey that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and
allegiance to the same that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the government established in the United States and in this state to the government established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people that I will faithfully impartly and justly that I
will faithfully impartully and justly perform all the duties of the trollman according to the best of my ability perform all the duties of the trollman according to the best of my ability that I will not use my office to grant preferential treatment that I will not leave my office perpetual treatment receive personal gain favor or advantage
not available to the general public without help receive personal gain favor or advantage not available to the general public so God Congratulations folks congratulations thank you [Music]
[Music] how are you yeah [Music] well here if you want to Thank you yeah all
right moving along i have a proclamation [Music] for this to the Yeah so um no it it's pretty impressive to do in 50 years
so that's great um and I also am getting presented moving on to minutes we have February 18th and February 24 any comments questions to
accept the minutes from [Music] [Music] 18 ordinances I will open the public hearing ordinance 2025 2015 concerning sewer connection fees and sewer lease rates and
allocation of and amending chapter 6 16 yeah god I can't do Roman new world of the borrow code entitled sewer regulations anybody get heard on this council i think we've gone through this
quite a bit um I would public hearing start moved number 2025-205 final reading and adopt as public second roll call please
yes yes [Music] yes I will open the public hearing on ordinance 2025 2016 calendar year 2025 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget
appropriation limits and to establish a CAT bank anyone wish to be heard on this ordinance seeing none I will close the public hearing for us i move patch ordinance
2025 2016 final reading and adopt 17 okay [Music] mr yes mr m mr trainer yes mr ruth yes
mr romero yes mr mcc yes i will open the public hearing on ordinance 202520 2017 a bond ordinance providing for the acquisition of new radios for use by the fire company of the borrow of Burnsville in the county of Somerset New Jersey appropriating
$300,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of $285,000 bonds or don'ts of the burrow for financing such appropriation calendar year 2025 anyone wish to be heard on this i'm surprised they haven't taken the fire
because I know they Yeah I guess they know we're doing it yeah um I will close the public hearing sure i'm just going to comment for really I guess the paper's benefit this is a requirement from the county to uh
grade radios across all uh first responders and so we um previously budgeted for the police department and now this is a fire company first aid squad um so I move to pass ordinance 2025- 2017 on final reading and adopt as
second roll call please yes mr rivera yes mr ruth yes mr trainer yes morazino yes as you just mentioned it was um good collaboration with the fire department work closely with Nancy to
identify the position of the radio how many radios in a number of radio but how many the exact number radio if you don't know I can't remember I think yeah
definitely I was going to say 401 gas yeah and we did find a um a better a less expensive so I think we will be spending certainly a yeah I I think it was um 702 yeah through one of the the
co-ops we managed to save a little money on that all right moving on to introduction of ordinances um you want to introduce that Kristen
i move that ordinance 2025-208 amending section 11-4 of the Maryland code entitled registration and maintenance of property pending foreclosure to bring it into compliance with court decision be introduced by
time of past meeting published according to law and that a public hearing be scheduled for a meeting beginning at 700 Yeah monday April 28th questions comments i think Jack explained this all to us last week just
getting the right language so that we don't get in trouble next week yeah all in favor opposed passes we'll hear approval next month okay of that ordinance
2025-209 bond ordinance providing for the acquisition of a new ambulance by zone in the county of Somerset New Jersey appropriating $350,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of 312,300 bonds or notes of the borrow for
financing such appropriation be introduced by title pass on first reading published according to law and that a public hearing be scheduled for a meeting beginning 7 p.m monday April 28th 2025 any discussion no I just wanted to see if anybody had any comments um again we
had originally budgeted for this and then the radios came in in uh on to our agenda instead so what we're doing is starting the process because evidently it takes almost a year to accept delivery so if we get it ordered now um
we will have it in next year's budget we'll be able to do it um next year as part of our debt service so and the finance committee met with the leadership of the fire department and they were really happy with this they this gives them the ability to go out and basically have the
conversation secure the vehicle now be able to be delivered next year so it was a great another great collaboration I think between their leadership and council mayor um Nancy and Purl to come up with a solution so um this really and then they talked to a number of members
of council about the need for um you know securing the ambulance uh which I we all were agreeing that we should and so this gives her the right timeline to be able to do so yeah and they did already purchase the the cot the one that is hydraulic or whatever there so
they do have that and so they're not then that is one of the big issues is lifting people into the ambulance um this way it does it the little machine already so that already have available to you so that will help in the
meantime um all right all in favor all right bonds no bonds okay um James Bond no bonds we have resolutions
2550 through 2571 um anything that's um anybody wants to discuss separately i just want to comment on 71 um feeding cans that they're doing the Tuesday
program uh normally when the weather's nice we move them over to Arman um because of the we're not sure but sometime probably in the spring they will be starting construction in the summer and they
really we don't want to lose them um having this benefit for our residents so I checked with recreation the fieldhouse is open they're going to switch to Wednesday and it's 3:00 to 5:00 and so
um we will continue to serve the people that are needed but now when King of Kings is no longer sponsoring it so they're just going to come at on their level and bring their own volunteers or anyone any resident volunteers as well
and many people that can help the better so that's the only anything I've added since last week um I think the last we've all talked about no questions we're back at Yeah i move the
resolution 2550 to 2571 be adopted please trainer yes yes yes all right um now Shane's person comments yes okay
introduction of the 2025 municipal budget i move that resolution 25-72 be adopted in a public hearing in 2025 municipal budget be scheduled for meeting at 7 p.m monday April 28 2025 second all right moving for discussion
so um some comments so first of all um we're going to give a full presentation like we've done in previous year that kind of has a user friendly version of the budget at that budget hearing we held it um thinking that attendance might be better on that evening seems like that the right call and um but I I
do want to just kind of provide right yeah so uh first of all um few thank yous want to thank my uh a lot of work went in the budget over a lot of kind of accelerated time period over the course of the first few months of the year here
the mayor and Councilman Zazarino were on the finance committee and also a ton of work by Nancy and Leslie our CFO uh really proud of this year's budget i also think you know I know Nancy does a great job of meeting with all the various departments and really gathering
your input but council also spent some additional time with certain members of the department when Nancy wanted us to talk to them like public works library um fire department the first aid squad haven't spent a lot of extra time with me then and I know um you know thank my fellow council members to each one of
them spend time with me so I could just kind of give an overview of this but the high level uh right now as the budget sits which you'll be able to read through we'll go more detail in a in a month um no tax rate increase for the four straight year um it's really it's
either been remaining flat or gone down the actual rate is 0.5 altogether that's including the library um rate and that's flat Last year the burough valuation has increased for the fistra year which we think really demonstrates positive momentum from the investments in the burough's value that we've been making
as a governing body um revenue has increased though overall not just taxes collected but overall revenue actually increased by 2.7 million now that is really mostly due to the sale of the out dealership um and that revenue coming in
and then the rest of that is from sort of the kind of higher valuation plus the fees etc that the bure actually should be able to see and we'll go into more detail um we have increases in non-discretionary items across the board health insurance salaries utilities liability insurance so we still able to
keep the budget flat we implement that we increased the use of cash for capital purchases to reduce future debt services we made key um investments such as investments in the public safety we're going to you know um talk about the new ambulance and the radios for fire and
EMS and uh we also had um small increases in the allocation that the fire department first aid squad we fully funded the library request um and everything that their board asked us to do and then I think we're all proud that we completed the sale of 65 more town enabling the reduction of debt because
we're going to pay that directly into um our debt service uh and then obviously the new taxpayer on the goal as well um obviously there's still significant headwinds um inflation etc and state a flat and just a reminder that this budget represents less than a quarter of
what the actual municipal resident pays um most of that is actually school and accounting etc um so that's the quick overview happy to ask any you know answer any questions you need um state health benefits went up hugely not as much as last year
but yeah 17% or something i'm not that high i thought it was 11 but I'll find out by the Yeah well I think it was but it was you know I mean every year they really increase so any comments anything
else you want to add to that or anything know just um the fact that this budget enable enabled us to buy all of our capital equipment with cash and so no debt no new debt um and we make the same contribution to
main street building absolutely if anyone has any questions from residents you know between now and next month good job too thanks guys thank you good job y Leslie
mostly Leslie yeah she put in a lot of lot of hours all right mayor's update oh I forgot yeah we're doing the introduction of the resolution roll
yes mr rivera yes mr ruth yes mr trainer yes ma yes mr dino yes it's introduced okay now mayor's update um I had a meeting with Joe Torino who
is the new managing editor of New Jersey Hills reached out uh who will be replacing Parker who's been there you might know Darla but a long time so it sounded exciting a lot of new you
know they're looking at new ways to cover the news and uh asking for input so I think it was a productive meeting i attended the International Women's Day breakfast that Summerson County Business Partnership sponsors um
great attendance as they have every year so really uh they had a CEO that okay um I attended the city county stigma free committee meeting they will
be holding uh sponsoring a mental health conference on May 19th at Raren Valley Community College it's open to the public it's not just for mental health workers um it really they cover a lot of good information so if anybody from the
public wants to go I should have more information in flyers if you want to register um I have also helped them by you know reaching out to other mayors in the county who haven't taken the pledge like we didn't do the resolution so we're trying to encourage more
communities to sign up uh as Al mentioned we've met with the fire company um they have been reaching out with the new chief and I think we've made some really good progress in working together and communicating and I
look forward to continuing that momentum um I think I don't know how many of you are going to go to the dinner i'll do okay um and they haven't invited the council so I think that's that's very
positive too i think maybe they could afford it but they also brought their fire check it out yeah yeah so they they have just been really great to work with um we had a Main Street board meeting um
they're reworking the design as you know we were trying to do a park to commemorate to memorialize Ed English over at the train station new Jersey Transit turned down piece that we wanted to use because it was too close to the tracks so they're uh working on a
redesigned somewhere over there but probably closer to the side by the wall uh and they al are offering storefront improvement grants up to $2,000 for local businesses to put in an application
um to do any kind of small improvement and new signs some landscaping window displays that kind of thing so hopefully we'll get some new um yeah it was part of the grant that they get from school and other that
was one of the things that they put into their application um I attended the the wait for Mark Tami our firefighter who died suddenly in a scene accident uh it was an
incredible crowd um must have been 500 people there and so loved so respected so honored um yeah such a shame um had a library board they were asking about the budget
but they got their answers so I think they're happy with the numbers they're having some delays in the furniture and for micica getting made and delivered so they may be close closer to miday instead of early May they've had supply
issues to some of their books but it's getting back on track they're redoing their personnel manual um they asked me to remind everyone that April 1st is giving day and the foundation would like to be your uh where you put your
donators um I attended the committee for the New Jersey Conference of Mayors so we're working on planning that conference and actually it is they opened it this year for elected officials so if anybody wanted to go to the conference of mayors
you can do that and then this past Friday I had a League of Municipalities Legislative Committee meeting and basically I'm on tax and finance what we do is review all the upcoming legislation and decide whether
we want to oppose it or support it so very thorough and productive uh process that the league does legislative that's been tested on Anthony um we have our administrator's report
yes so I just want to um let you know that you're correct almost correct is 16.3% this year last supposed to be 24 but an hour 16.3 yeah so 24
[Music] um headquarters has announced uh that we do host the monsting event so that was a the week of June 2nd to 9th and as you have residents
um pay for and pick up and drop off their kids here and so [Music] the whole year and it's pretty popular I think isn't did it
um unfortunately uh DMV is both phon um they're going to let us know when they and um St vern a nice location yeah they have the back and there is
very nice um there are various landscaping projects uh going on at the will be going on ground spring here um the I know that the pole that leads to the parking lot the contractors going this
week to fix restore the grass um the DPW is restoring the area now former and uh they will be repairing a baseball field we agree to pay for
that last year unfortunately the clay they needed there was a delay so we can get that permanently the timing is not great um and earlier tonight you awarded a bid
to Love Flur Pools for Pool Management and anyone interested in applying via Life Fund um the pool company has said that they would you know uh interview the people who work here before um because obviously they have the most
familiarity with the pool so anyone interested in applying to be a lifeguard this summer should contact the recreation department who will put him in touch with the the people at the company um and mayor I don't know if you wanted me to mention this about
the street oh yeah you want to um Yeah well I actually when you talked about um having the proclamation for Tony Pajar um and one of the things we wanted to do
was plant a tree at 251 Claremont because he really invested a lot of time in making that bark and getting the house taken down and you know making it into a nice area for people to hike so um what I did I reached out to the shade
tree committee and asked them to give us input on what kind of tree when's the best time to plant it you know so that we don't you know it's hearty and it's going to complement the area so um when we're ready to plant I
think we'll do the proclamation then and maybe a little ceremony type of planting rather than just have a proclamation now and then plant something later and kind of a little ceremony and invite his family so as soon as I hear back
from what's best thanks for reminding me that's all anybody have questions for Nancy ls is
um where else are they where else well on the references they put um I know they come they do C national they put that as a reference and um okay I didn't the date so let's get it
done there yeah I don't remember the other two sounds they put down i know they work um at a country club in Scott Plants as well and is it I can't remember the other towns but they apparently have um
a lot of municipal but [Music] um oh regular um do I have a motion to accept the department reports Motion accepted on the courts second all in favor i oppose
um correspondence we did hear back from them about if you recall we wanted to add the crest they were okay with that they're okay from next year i thought this year it would be too late at this point but they would definitely get that
26 is if someone and picks up their materials they can go to that area if they want to so I'll propose that I usually do that
at my site and the other side the same but basically any area of town that's near the street so we always suggest that every year anyway
and to have Merine Crest as a meetup spot would be tough because there'd be nothing there there's no parking there's no places to go yeah being a park on the side like the streets basketball on like the back streets
there yeah so just as if if there's somebody in your you know reaching out that really wants to go in there's not it's not enough limits because obviously it's very neighbor you just can't get your material and stuff out there okay that's
like my neighbors on the people that throw their garbage down in hell from the other side yeah all right um business any unfinished business you know we do have some new business
because the request from the summer ball club came in after our meeting on Monday um they do this every year usually the first Saturday of April anyway um they start we start at the parking lot on
Vernav go down was that West Street um over to Kowanas for the first games of the season it's always a fun thing if you have there he's only four but he's really into it it's a it's a fun day it gets the kids
all excited and they march with their little banners and it's really a nice rule event so if you're around stop by I'm assisting standard definitely
so are we good with it yes so I think they're fine uh it's our second session so if anyone in the public would like to comment
just seeing none I will close the public session so mayor I just want to take a quick second to um plug the blood pressure screening that's happening next Tuesday April 2nd from 12:30 to 1:30 and they have two more also another one on
the 8th at the Birds Township Library 12 and on the 28th again from 12:30 to 1:30 but that one will be at the back wall yeah getting just also just do a random boo this is the second time I think which
obviously they must have gotten a lot of you know they were asking us to kind of help out anything else all right do I have a motion to close session and not
becoming anything total amount of the budget oh it's round what's it going to be on our website 18.2 the total 101.2 So raise taxes is
um this you can send me out yeah I already started so I'll make sure that's I'll give you the exact number oh I think
I think so it'll be up there it's not very It was like a big joke but looks just like to executive session to consider personnel matters all in favor