This is the regular meeting agenda of the govern body of the burrow of Bloomdale. Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 at 7 p.m. to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands. One nation
under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please. Mayor here. Councilman Broner present. [Music] Counciloman here. Councilman
here. Uh just for note that uh councilwoman Hudson has been excused for someone who graduated college graduation. And we also have our administrative assistant Amy Green submit our business administrator
Michael Sander and our burough attorney. Public notice statement. The meeting is called pursuance for the reasons of the open public meeting law. Adequate notice of this meeting was advertised by health news on January 9th, 2025. Copy provided to local news media
and posted continuously building. Copy of this notion is available to the public and on clate fire code. I am required to acknowledge that there are two emergency exits in this council chambers. The main
entrance would be entrance through and a secondary exit to the left where I am seated. If there is an emergency, walk or to the exit, exit through the door, down the stairs, and out the building. There's any questions, please raise your hand. Um, seeing none, um, I do need a
motion authorizing administrative assistant to temporarily serve as a third council meeting. I have a motion. All in favor? We do not have any presentations. We have
No. We have a motion open up early public comment. Second. All in favor? [Music] I have a couple. First
um Go ahead. right now. It's under the corporation. It's just going underneath both their names and they're just now the
business holding it hold on to it for financial on the road. So if something [Music] we don't know yet for 2017 this year it's not
10% 8%. And the reason we have to do this is because our sewer cost from the sewer authority raised us 9%. We have no control over that. It's not the water. this
facility [Music] CFO will be direct 67 $71,000. [Music] We have a surplus of $671,000. Excess operations in the meantime. I'll let you
from finance and auditors. Yeah, I mean you always use some of the surplus but this is what the name after using it for 2023 2024 years we have a surplus correct but may say the rates going up
9% you will not have that circle at the end of this year I also like to find out how what the increase is for that physical budget items to the
store Anyone else wish to close? All available. Okay. Star weekend. Did you hold it? I did. It blinked, so I let go. [Music]
I don't know how many people we expected 70 people. We were pretty close there. It was a great turnout. A lot of things accomplished that day. So, it was good. Did you remember
that gas station? I have not talked to her to that also should be done clean up. You know what date? I believe this
is the first Saturday. Saturday. So, we'll go that we'll go. And just for the record, since we're on here, I thought it was a shame that you guys weren't there because it's so nice when both theological
[Music] environmental and cleanup would have been perfect. I thought that [Music] would event [Music]
Um the worldly celebration was starting in um in Butler and that's early morning. It's a 8:30 a.m. lineup.
is butler and it goes to and mayor Brian Martinez will start off um in Butler and then we'll have service
in then um moving on to um the seniors center May as um Bri put into the system um Pat has this is the second year of May being um older
Americans month and um she did make it a proclamation and this year's um theme which is the the month is almost coming to an end but um it's basically flip the script on aging and every older American
in because I see them working at the stop and shop at like and I had I just have a had a coworker that we celebrated her 85th birthday at my job. She only goes three days of work week but her mind is still there and she's a value
very valuable to our our company. So basically what we're saying is that even though you're a senior, you are still valuable and you're still necessary. And they've had a couple of little um
something nice, just a couple of things about driving. People always say, "Oh, she's 80 and still driving." Maybe rephrase it. instead of um still driving, just say she drives. Um
basically that's what flipping the uh script on aging means. Um just small language uh changes help. Um um learning doesn't stop with age, it evolves. In fact, adults over 60 are among the vast
growing group of online learners. Um which is something that um I know the library and the senior center is u is very valuable a resource for that
kind of help. I um anyway if anyone's interested older Americans must flip the shirts on aging and again um our senior center is invaluable for many people. Um the golden age club they have many clubs
and of course you can see find all this all this information online. There's an easy Um, if you're 65 or older, there's a um easy pass um discounts for you. Um
the parat uh transit um if you have if you have a senior in town and you can't get them to their appointment um the paratransit which is through p county it's very helpful um and bloomingale is part of uh their
system and uh again the p county um site is very informative when it comes to um the nutrition center things for veterans, any kind anything for seniors. Um and there the nutrition center
calendar usually um Brianna always posts um all their the calendar events on our Blooming website plus um Pat also like Catherine Crypsy is also there's a Facebook page that she's also putting in
information as well. Um anyway, and they also have a bunch of uh trips coming up. They they just left today to the Fingerlakes, their Fingerlakes Lakes trip. They're going in
June 19th uh Casablanca um the Little Little Mermaid on June 25th. And um this as many of you know this year um they did put the senior center information in with the uh tax bill.
Mike was nice enough to to do that. Um as far as next for the April numbers for um trib um their numbers were 131 calls
um and year-to- date calls are 635. Uh the county took 33 calls. Trib had covered 69 of them. they missed
33 and compared to last year's numbers um they had 541. So last year this year we had 635 calls here to date and last year it was
541. And um the trib website also has some information if you needed to borrow any kind of equipment. They do uh loan loan them out and they're all gently used and clean equipment
um which is available on their website which is like wheelchairs um crutches things that walkers wheelchairs. Yes. Um at no charge also shower seats things like that. um they didn't um
um have any uh teaching. She didn't let me know of any um certifications or anything coming up. So, but of course if any of your children or anyone out there still wanted to um to volunteer and learn
about it, um you could definitely go online and speak to uh Paul Gil and their numbers um on their website as well. Um for the library they always have um they have
something going on which is um a special um event. They want everyone to give them a a story because next year they're going to be celebrating their 100 years
and they have a uh little uh library card that you could also go on their the website and see and they want you to scan the QR code and tell a story from
uh you living here in Bloomingdale. I know a lot of people have all kinds of um interesting stories to tell and this will be it'll write them down and it'll be part of the the history which is something nice that everyone should uh
take a part take part of. Um as far as their upcoming events uh handbag bingo was postponed. They may be a date in the future. Uh Julian Pianos is on October 17th. Um they will not be participating in
Soul Park day this year. Um and they also have um again many uh book clubs. Uh today they started Murder on the Orient Express and they also have
their Stephen King book book club. They um their last meeting um they they also they are on Facebook and on Instagram. Uh and according to um their numbers,
attendance every month, it just it year year to year year to year attendance has gone up um incredibly. And as always, they they have um their baby story time is on Mondays 10:30 a.m.
and they have open play time on Tuesdays 10:30 a.m. And their their calendar is also available online. Okay. And then also, I don't know if anyone out there needs it, uh, but we do
have many food pantries in town. Uh, there's the, um, House of Hope Whole Food Pantry, um, that's, uh, located at the United Meth Methodist Church, 65 Main Street. They're always um, looking for colle they always are looking for
collections. fans. If you needed to be put on the list, definitely reach out. And if you have a family in town that that you think is needs help, um definitely um look into giving them a
hand or letting leading them into directions. And also the public church of Nazarene also has a food pantry that uh feeds over,00 people. Yeah. And also [Music] I believe the Methodist church.
Yes, Methodist Church. And one thing, the Sloan Park Festival Committee has been busily working trying to get the last details down before the event. It's on June 14th from 3 to 9. Um, so the the team there led by Linda
Bennett as well as Sally Basil doing a really good job. We're trying to get the food vendor paperwork in order, but it should be another fantastic event. Probably even better than last year because I feel like every single one we've had is just gotten better and better. A reminder that the road will be closed as part of that from Main Street
and Reeve and Main Street Ling. So that that stretch will be closed down as there'll be vendors on the road. Um so it kind of helps bridge together, right? The businesses on one side, vendors in the middle, and then out to the park on the other side. That's awesome.
Uh, board of ed meets this Thursday. So, nothing. I'll just uh mention because I assume that we're going to hear from the two members of the environmental commission that are here today at some point if uh if not uh we met and discussed that they'll be holding uh their own river
cleanup day and uh are also looking into understanding the daming problem that we have at Oakwood right now. regarding a beaver pertaining to water and making sure that there's ample water in that pond. We're
going to hear from you guys later. I hope you don't think we're real close on vogue ready to open up that part. So, I'll get the public event committee and we'll pick the day grand open. I'd just like to invite the um county people since they were a big part of
being able to do that and also Tilcon um be talked to them about 200 tons of stone for the base. Okay. Yep. Uh just for me um what's going on? It's really nice. Our super our supermarket
is now or our our grocery store in town is open. um which is great for us. And the other thing it is EMS week to recognize Turbo First Aid Squad. I will be visiting the um building on Thursday
at 6:15. Um maybe if you'd like to if you're able um to go up there and just be part of their EMS week. I've done this a few times. you just go up there and, you know, see the squad, the people that are on shift, talk to them, they show you the equipment, and um it's a
it's it's a small event, which is really nice. We do that kind of yearly with them. So, we got the invite to go up there. Um this Thursday, the 22nd, I think it is, right? Yeah. That's that's pretty much all I had.
um re uh hammer turnpike renovation by the county has been put off till after school is out. Um they thought it would be be beneficial to Hammer Turnpike is busy enough right now. So they're going to put that off.
The tenative start date is June I think 26th for Hamburg turnpike or main street I'll call it from Riverdale to the um Butler split um which will be
um um mil paved um stop lightss for people crossing there'll be several of them so people can I believe push the button and walk across Main Street safely and then they'll be narrowing down at the Reeves intersection making a true intersection. If you see it, I
don't know if the red line you can even see it anymore. The plan to um narrow the street down to follow Hamburg traffic as it comes up all the way from Riverdale. It will widen so people can cut through the river to Reeves and you will no longer be able to
park delivery trucks going in and out of their businesses there. They stick out way into Emmer turnpike and it's dangerous. So that will be starting hopefully on June 26. It's about a four week project to do it
all. That's pretty much all I have. We did get a official unofficial news on the open space grant from the county. Yeah. For 180,000 100. Yeah. The uh this year's open space that we applied for is approximately
$180,000 and we put it to do some work at the Laser Field. So, we were awarded that grant. So that's another grant coming from the from the county which is good. Um so we'll see what we're going to do with that but it's earmarked for delay field. Correct. Back stop. Back
stops. Y so that's where we are with that. I would I would just make sure come June when they work on Hamburg turnpike we know that that means it's going to be increased traffic on Vanam Oak and Reed. They're doing a bunch of work. Those
those roads get a lot of speed now as it is. Talk to Danny. Everybody, they're all aware of it. They all got notification when it's happening. It goes right to Sammy. He's on every email with the so they are well aware of what's going on. [Music]
All right. Um item 10, resolution 2025 5.13 consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So move. Second. Okay. Any questions? Roll call, please.
Parker, yes. Catalano, yes. Graiano, yes. Short, yes. Gassy, yes. Okay. Item number 11, second final reading of public hearing, ordinance number 14-2025, amended chapter 7, blockage of
intersection. Public notice statement, please. Yes, Mr. Mayor. This ordinance was posted in the municipal building, published in the Herald News, and copies were made available to the public so that a motion may be made that it that it be read by title. Do have a motion to read by title. So move second. All in
favor? I [Music] Idance of the burden. the county of the
safe and state of New Jersey amending chapter 7 traffic part one on street traffic regulations to add section 7-27 blockage of intersections of the code of the burough [Music] okay um before we open to public this is
very simple intersections um I believe it's van dam okay um you probably seen it throughout Hamburg turnpike any intersection is crossed out with lines so you cannot stop in those lines when there's traffic backed up, you have to leave it open. So people coming in and
crossing over have a free look to come out without sort of keeps traffic moving. So that's just we're just adopting what has been done all over the place. Okay. Do I have a motion to open a public hearing? So second all in favor
I Anyone wishing to come [Music] up with the street quite a bit. We're not coming down. I'm going to hamper a terite. If I don't pull up, I can't see. Mhm. So, if you're going to put that crosswalk there, it's on a crosswalk.
It's a total the width of Van Dam completely across Hamburg turn will be xed out. They don't block the box with traffic. So, when a car comes from Riverdale, they have to stop before Vanam and then and the other side has to be past it.
So, that leaves it open so you can see without having Okay. Okay. I didn't understand that. Thank you. To help you. Because it is difficult. Okay. Anyone else? Motion to call public hearing. So
move. Second. All in favor? I motion for adoption. So second. Roll call. Catalana, yes. Braziana, yes. Shiver, yes. Gassy, yes. Rockers, yes.
[Music] Okay. New business. Adopt resolution number 20255.21 NJSA 40A 40-20 temporary appro appropriations. Do I have a motion?
So move second roll call please. Graviano. Yes. Schubert. Yes. Yes. Broners. Yes. Catalana. Yes. [Music] Item B, adoption resolution number 2025
5.22. Uh payment of the bills. Do I have a motion to pay the bills? So roll call. [Music] Schubert. Yes. Yassi, yes. Rockers, yes.
Catalana, yes. Graciano, yes. Item C, adoption of resolution number 2025 5.23, appointment of the FAZA agency. This is our insurance agent. Do we have a motion on that? [Music]
Second mayor just we did make a couple modifications at the 11th hour put it in there file it should have the most current in there just talk about on item four talks about the money per employee still not to receive but they wanted
that per employee in there okay that's actually good to know roll call Please yes. Broners, yes. Catalano, yes. Braziano, yes. Gert, yes.
[Music] Item date, introduction of ordinance number 17-2025, amended chapter 17, water and chapter 18, sewer rates and charges for services. Do I have a motion to read by title? So
move second. All in favor? I an ordinance of the chapter ordinance of the burrow of Bloomingdale to amend and supplement chapter 17 entitled water and chapter 18 entitled sewer of the
revised general ordinances of the rural Bloomingdale including a schedule of rates and charges for services rendered to the users of the water supply system and sanitary storage system. You have a motion late public comment final. Yeah,
she's June 3rd final. June 3rd will be the [Music] final. Do we have a motion of public com? So move second. All in favor?
Anyone wish to come up? talking about the water thing like I have to give you something. [Music] This is just Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. Patrick T. Sakal II 6 William Street,
Bloomingdale, New Jersey. I am a Libra and I like long walks on the beach. This is just for general [Music]
purposes. This is not an in-depth, but it is just a quick read for you guys, even if you want to read it afterwards. Um, so, uh, as a commission member, I try to make my way around town, let people know who I am. I recently received a couple phone calls, uh, that we have a beaver in the, you know, it's been happening since last year. There's
a beaver in Oakwood Lake. Uh, he builds his dam. People from the neighborhood go in and decide to rip all of his stuff out of the dam. Can I just tell you the beaver's gone? So, the beaver has a son. One, the beaver has a son. So, yeah, we're getting the Yeah, cuz remember we had this conversation at Father the
other day. We were talking. So he has a son and a wife who survived the winter uh and they have begun their building again. So this uh little bit of uh you know tension between citizens in our town uh has continued with like so and so is pulling it out. Why are they there? They're not supposed to be
touching what the beaver is doing. Uh beavers are considered keystone species. Uh they actually do good work. So they are supposed to be there. Uh so a little further in uh research we we believe that there was you know there was always a 12-in board that was in that date. Um
so to appease all the commission has spoke about possibly putting in a beaver culbert which is a design that prevents the beaver from building his dam where he built it. Uh the two designs you'll see on the last two pages of the package
are an arc design and a trapezoid design. Um, I will talk about those in a moment. Uh, I have reached out to the D. I'm waiting for a response from Dennis KTO, who is our representative for the north. Uh, that would give us an approval to put in a temporary covert.
Uh, we don't ever really have plans to put in a permanent culvert. So, it So, him saying yes to a temporary would be great because each year we could either, and I'll get into that more detail, we can either remove and take it out as the beaver comes out of hibernation, put it back in. So it's not the culvert is not
always there or we can build what we would consider a semi-permanent but by their terms it's still a temporary culvert. Um why do we do this? So uh the low water levels creates a issue with our fish with our our plants with
overgrowth uh encroaching onto we have a reed problem right now where the reads are starting to come down from the marsh and if the water levels stay low where they are right now we're going to continue to have a problem. So again, I'm not giving you a presentation. I'm just giving you some casual reading for today. I'm going to wait for my response
from Dennis and I will come back on June 3rd with a little more of a budget what it would cost. Uh I know we don't want to put this on the DPW. Their union is not going to want to go out there and build a culvert. Uh I do have citizens in the neighborhood that are both environmentalists and engineers that are willing to come out with me and put a
culvert in. It is something that would cost approximately under $500 and can be done in a day. We want to take a look some of the benefits. Just just my knowledge of that pond when you put people in that pond, you're likely to go to your waist and mud. Yes. Yes. We know
that it is going to be a challenge. Yes. Yes. So, we're going to do so uh with this there is some research that we're going to talk about. You know what I'm saying? So, as we go through, so a cul there's two options. There's a culvert fence which is in the top right of your corner there of your first page. Uh then there is a fence and pipe device which
is where if the beaver starts building up and water is building up, we have pipes that go through that will give you outlets to set your water levels. Uh if you just read this package casually uh when you get a chance, then there's like starter dams. We don't want to get into a starter dam. We want to be friendly with the beaver, but we don't need them
building his own dam and us trying to deal with that dam every year. That is an issue that we do not want to get into. So we're looking at the first two options at the bottom of the page here. the covert protective fence or the fence and pipe device. How big is the pipe?
R. So, here's the thing. But we are not that's the thing. This picture is just a reference for you to get an idea of how easy these are to build. That we don't have a pipe. We actually have if you go to the last page. Let's just go there and we'll talk for 30 seconds and then I'll let you guys go for the Okay. Because the casual reading will get you
where you need to go if you really want to know about this when we're voting. That's where the you know mindset um the arc design right the arc design encourages continuous building by the beaver then uh then prevents debris from flowing over the dam edge. We actually
have a 12 foot wide day that goes over a concrete dam. So we're not going into a pipe. The pipe is I mean a good size. It's at least a 6' 6t I believe it's an oval or oblong shape that goes through. It does not go straight through. It actually kicks and then kicks back as it
comes under the road and kicks out the other side. So, it's a large area and that's why he likes it. It has a straight line. He likes to build his dam on the straight line. The idea of the culvert, he doesn't have a straight line. He gets confused. He kind of just doesn't build. He'll cut wood and leave
it there, but he won't be building an actual physical dam. I think the question you were is if you put the pipe and fence combination that you talked about. I'm just I'm just looking at the one picture on the page before that. How big is the pipe? Diameter diameter because I can just pitch and be start
put. So I'm trying not to do a whole presentation here. So I'm just because I'm just trying to give you the ideas. But so to go back the answer to your question is if you go to page two. Wait, is it page two? One, two, three. Page three. We we will get what we call a flow rate from that uh what is the
normal flow rate that comes over that bridge or that dam. And then from there, we can determine what size piping we would want, whether it's a two, a six, or two sixes, or two eights to keep up with that flow rate that goes through. That's if we were to have need for that.
I'll get there. The art design allows us to do that. So, if you look at the top of page three, now you're seeing where like if a dam was formed, right? A pipe going through allows the beaver to have his dam. Stops
him from continuing the building, right? Because he already built a dam that's working. We have a pipe that goes through his dam so he doesn't hear any running water anymore. But then on the other side of that pipe, we can set the whole level for our lake on the other side of his dam. By simply turning a
pipe downward, we can lower the thing if we want to do work on the water's edge. And then by simply turning that pipe back upwards, we can get the water to go back up, you know, six to seven inches or something like that. Interesting. Um, and then again, right underneath that, you can see where it's like a big perforated pipe goes through the dam and
then we would have an open end on the other side. So, this is a deterrent for him to build anything there or will he build still around it? He will still continue to build around it cuz my feeling is if he doesn't want to build there, he's going to go somewhere else in the lake and build somewhere else.
So, that's where we get into like why Mr. You know, Mr. Sakalo's opinion. My opinion is I would like to go for the arc design. That's in an email right now to John KTO. That is my top. I'm sorry I keep saying his wrong name. Dennis Conto. Uh that we're looking for the arc
design, which actually encourages him to kind of build with what we want him doing. Like he's feeling comfortable building there. He's dropping things. Then we can go and pull them out. By putting the 12-in board in, the work he's doing feels like he's doing what he wants to do. He's getting higher water
levels. He's able to drag branches across. He'll put some there. If we want to go in then and pull a couple out, we eliminate the gentlemen who live across the street from going over and pulling things out on their own. We as a town have addressed the situation. We are putting a fence up that is stopping debris from blowing over or you know
being washed over that is then going to go down river that he is concerned with and flooding other culverts or other bridges because that feeds to Hamburg turnpike which has another situation going under there. Debris builds up sometimes and backlogs from there. So this would prevent some of that debris
from going over not just his debris but debris in general that we get in the lake that would then go over the edge. Okay. Um so again the arc design is you know long-term lake flow leverage can be installed to relieve pressure on the beaver built section. The arc design
also relieves pressure on the 12-in board that's there. So the 12-in board is not in danger of being pushed out or broken out or whatever it is. Long-term plan. The beaver will build around the design. Water will flow freely through the pipe outlet or over the top of the 12-in board uh which will raise the
water restoring the lake to former ecological status. Water flow will stabilize. Uh heavy rains will no longer threaten the stability of the system as a whole. Design also allows for water height to be adjusted right now. Quick and dirty. We can throw what you're
seeing at the top of your page here, right? Which is a fence design. Bam. I'm out there for maybe four hours with a bunch of guys. We're hammering some stakes in the ground. We're putting some cattle fence around. He gets this weird trapezoid shape. That's it. The end of the season, we can pull it out. Or even
every year, we just go and clean his debris from around it. We leave it there and that's it. You know, that is the one where I fear may create a situation where he's like, I don't see where I'm supposed to be doing this. Maybe I should go up river or something like that or down river, whatever it is.
Okay. Um and again trapezoid design is a prevention of design that will discourage building at the present site. Bever will no longer have a clear water line to build on. Though this design may encourage building elsewhere, it will address the immediate problem of citizens to you know arguing with one another and showing that we are
addressing the situation. We can put it in Beaver starts to build somewhere else. We bust up that dam. We take the covert out. We figure out another solution. You know we stay fluid with the situation. Um short term I believe the design will stop the building of the waterfall site. The board edition will raise the water level enough for a
healthy beaver environment. Raised water will also assist the lake management and allow for the water's edge to be replanted with local species of lake plants. Long-term maintenance of this design is easy with minimal efforts each year with the local lake cleanup maintenance day. Right? You have no idea
who I am, who's Mr. Sagala. How do we know he's just, you know, not saying like stuff and making it up as we go along. Read the supporting information that I've given you. do a little research on your own and it will show that these are the two best designs that are being used with everyone that is north of us pretty much throughout New
Hampshire Maine. This is what they do when they want to keep ecology and citizens and everybody happy. Thank you for your time. Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, General Field 17 Cedar
Street have a question. Did we ever get a an answer as far as what bugged off the beaver? No. Shouldn't we be getting a report? They sent it out, too. I follow up with
Lisa. I know she's been out on medical. I don't have an answer for you. All right. I'll look into it. It's something that we should look into only because we really don't want to bump off beavers, you know? We want them to have
be happy. the mommy and the kids had the rest of the river. Thank you. Just a touch note. I don't know if I'm allowed. Am I allowed to end? So, um, water level reduces the issue of the
Beaver's home having an issue with ice sheets going down far enough. Our lake at this point is so low that that whole lake pretty much freezes almost to the bottom which again your ecology is being affected by the fact that there is no free flow underneath that which creates rot and a aerobic
uh decay which creates problems with oxygen in the lake and other healthy systems and things like that. Deeper water allows for water flow underneath the ice sheet which allows for things to go during the winter season. Thank you. Sorry. Anyone
else? See you. No one motion to close. Second. All in favor. I we do not have an executive session tonight. So, our next meeting is June 3rd. Um that that will be at 6:00. We have an early
executive that day on June 3rd. So, you know. Okay. Do we have a motion to move? Second. All in favor? All right.