##VIDEO ID:76cWQK5PM-8## e e sometimes have like never you know that's going to get developed now after all years it's kind of follow [Music] so just but the uh you know I I was disappointed in that they didn't try pick it up it seems like for open space they and they did a nice did [Music] you did also and they forgot to tell you this I'm reading the Griffin d b you email last [Music] [Music] well I [Music] just the Friday Club Friday night club something like that came out a couple months ago a little late get into it ready for thank you I know I got your email this one's out can go back on on another agenda but because it's on a consent agenda you need a motion this before what a noble idea and let's do it without tax dollars so everything's going to be done at a later time so one that's onent we have to make a motion to well we may not be the issue is we're going to bring back a resolution you know what then just withdraw it prison C mat do you need do you need a copy of this you want me to go print copy real yeah I kind of forgot to make packet can you make my packet yeah well that's we're doing this today we're just looking at actually going to Jenson Beach you know [Music] any are that's what winr have you heard anything about the wrestling team in colia yeah they lost to Cornell number thank you two weeks yeah okay the [Music] follow [Music] go here of that's it she those fny I got you all the meeting to order please stand pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all I wish to announce that the 48 hour notice is required under the open public meetings Act is emailed to the Asbury par press the coastar and the new coaster on December the 19th of 2024 that a copy has been placed on the bulletin board in the Bor office and that a copy has been filed with the municipal clerk as a courtesy to the public this meeting may be attended via Zoom if for any reason the zoom portion of this meeting fails or is disconnected the inperson meeting will continue when action can and will and will be taken provided that there is an inperson quum MR Noble here M green BL here Mr nowick here Mr Weber here mayor guzi here okay good evening ladies and gentlemen uh before we get to our item number five workshops um I want to make a motion to to um table three different resolutions that we had hoped to be able to present this evening but uh each of these for different reasons need a little more work um those would be resolution which is the least agreement for our copiers and printers and uh resolution 2025-the so I make a motion that we table these until subsequent meeting second M Noble yes M greenl yes Mr nki yes Mr Weber yes mayor gubitosi yes okay I'd like to proceed with item number five on our agenda which is workshops uh and the first item is the CME projects and our engineer Mr malac has joined us this evening thank you Ben thank you mayor and um so as uh as you know you have authorized me for uh five separate projects uh in the last uh recent recent few meetings uh so one of the initial tasks associated with all of these projects is to um kind of present to uh the council uh our goals for the project and what we generally very generally what our scope of work is going to be and uh just make sure that we are on the same page that you uh can provide the feedback that uh that you think is appropriate uh so we can get into the design so I'll jump right into it uh the first project uh are working on is the recreation center improvements uh this project has two grants one from uh M County which is $265,000 that's a ning Grant and one is a local Recreation Improvement grant that is $774,000 um and that's through the DCA uh the proposed improvements for this project are uh resurfacing of the tennis and basketball court s uh as well as some pickle ball striping on the Tas SCS uh some drainage improvements at the playground and new playground equipment and paer walkway upgrades no trees are to be removed I I know that was uh something that's been discussed in the past so the next steps uh are to conduct a field survey repair preliminary design plans and review those plans with the burrow uh before going out to bid uh any questions or or comments on on that one uh anyone have questions could you go over the schedule on that and when construction will be anticipated because we com into the spring and what does that mean to the use of the facility and would we be restrained yeah so the uh schedule is probably going to be the uh design will be done uh between now and the spring and during our design process we'll have to reach out to the uh Rec Department um and figure out what the best time for construction is going to be and uh we'll we'll have to uh schedule it around that I know there are some summer programs uh and then there is also some fall program so so we'll have to see you know when would be the the least impact um for this work and we can squeeze it in the spring we'd love to do that um which is you know I I think that that's going to be our our objective to to try and get it done as quickly as possible um but right now it's just a preliminary schedule and we'll we'll fine-tune that as we do this design thank you other questions I just so how long an do you anticipate the actual um you know construction part of it time wise to be it's probably a two to three month project in terms of the actual Hands-On work yes motions Mr Wyber y uh Ben one last question um and it's really more of a request um our rec director is Courtney papus I I don't know if you've been introduced formally to her but I'd like her to be a very active participant in in the planning as you move forward yes uh We've we've exchanged emails back and forth uh a few times regarding some work here so uh we'll definitely be in touch for her okay great thanks next project uh next one is uh Main Street uh the you know we have funding for that uh congressionally directed spending 1 million 46,2 79 uh that comes from the federal government the proposed improvements are Street skate improvements including uh handicap ramp Ada ramp upgradings uh we've gone through some uh kind of some uh Main Street committee meetings uh that uh myself and Mr Weber were involved in uh so we have some some feedback already from from those meetings uh we'll prepare uh we're going to do field survey prepare preliminary design plans detail grading of the sidewalks and and C ramps and we'll have a public information uh Center that uh will will get some feedback from the public from local businesses to uh have have any their feedback incorporated into the design um so right now we're we're just beginning the the process and uh this is this is a pretty big project so this is going to take some time to put those plans together questions um yeah a couple um first the the dollars that we have in a grant are probably not enough to do all the improvements is this going to be staged anticipated it it probably will be f um that it depends on if we can get secure some additional funding I know that another round of of the same Federal funding was applied for uh I don't think that has been announced yet but uh you know we're hopeful that that that comes through and if not then we'll look for other avenues or um you know put put together a a phasing plan to incorporate the improvements in stages and have we resolved or maybe not but there I think there was a couple different options of either replacement of pavers or repair and and or a combination thereof and so that will be part of the preliminary analysis yes that will be I know um previously it was mentioned you're going to start from the top down and so we talked about lighting like if we do start the project when would it start it's probably a year away um before we start actually start construction uh the because of the funding source it requires a lengthy Federal review process um which can take several months um so I anticipate that that that's going to be it's this is going to be a 2026 construction thank you I just want to add um kind to answer uh councilman nk's question at the committee level we talked about the papers we kind I feel like we ended up with a just replace all the papers I know other people we went back and forth on the pros and cons and the cost analysis of that but um I mean according to bajio head of our DPW and he's a Mason by trade um they don't they don't make papers like they well I shouldn't say it that way the papers now were better than they were 25 years ago and you're we're actually going to get 40 years out of them whereas the ones that are there are like basic not 25 a little between 25 and 30 I guess it's probably about right um so there's that and um yeah with the lighting we're going with the double lights the ones that go down right okay we like that um and I think you answered my other question that were're a year a year away oh with the funding weren we talking about maybe that other funding maybe we would find out in February like maybe later this month or that's very possible uh it it depends on you know when Congress actually uh issues that that memo you know this is the allocation of fund and with the regime change I don't know if it's going to be the same time or as last year or if it's going to be extended out they're not really in memo issuing word right now so all right we'll see ahead I just wanted to ask are trees a part of this first phase uh yes the street trees are incorporated into uh the discussions that we had and we want incorporate that into our design and you know again depending on on funding we'll see exactly what we can get done with the money that we have um but that's that's definitely part of what the the work is going to be and Ben I'd like to just distinguish the the planning from the the actual hard cost kind of lamp post that we put in and papers we put in and so forth the planning your deliverable uh coming out of this project will be to provide a a vision for the entire Main Street as opposed to phase one yeah so we will our our project is going to be designing the entire Main Street and if funding is uh limited then we can incorporate the improvements in phases whether that is uh a little bit of work spread out along the entire uh limits or if we do uh you know one section at a time um we we'll go through that in the design process with the burrow with burrow input and um we we'll handle that but yes we are designing the entire L of the mry and one other quick question just regarding the scope of your planning will will you also bring back to the the burrow um recommendations related to um safety issues crosswalks um bike paths things like that yeah we will look at all that um the bypass are were we not originally discussed in the limits in the work however that can be included um but the improvements that we're anticipating are generally from the curve line to the buildings nothing actually in the road um other than you know like you said safety improvements like crosswalks and things like that but we'll look at areas that that if we need to install crosswalks uh for example across Route 71 um then or across Main Street then we will incorporate that into and actually a similar question this just came up yesterday on the environmental commission meeting complete streets um is that the concept that can be incorporated or I feel maybe you just answered it because you're not not doing that much in the actual roadway but are there things that can be done with what we are doing that can help with pedestrian safety and all that yes besides what you just talked about yes complete streets um is a kind of a conceptual term for uh and an allinclusive roadway that that accommodates all types of um modes of transportation whether it's pedestrians cars bicycles buses um so that that is essentially kind of what we're doing by addressing street skap because we are uh looking at all the the curb ramps and um you know improving the the walkway walkway for the pedestrians uh we're not changing number of lanes or anything like that right now um but we are looking at you know so you can design with that in mind exactly perfect thanks yeah and B just for clarity um we're doing a sewer program as well throughout the B Main Street is in a future phase so that's partly the reason why we don't want to be messing with the pavement curb across the roadway because we will address that at some point in time when we replace the store that's great yes thank you you sir next project sure the uh prominade extension um we have uh funding through a boardwalk preservation Grant through the DCA uh $4,275 th000 uh this has a 5% burrow match which comes out to $23,750 um and the proposed improvements for that are extension of the prominade from Third Avenue to uh the municipal boundary that one um the funding for that doesn't get us all the way there but uh again we're we're continually looking for additional funding uh for this project uh and again this can be incorporated in phases if necessary as well uh the next steps for this are uh doing the field survey doing a permit review of meeting with the DP and the Army Corps of Engineers to discuss what permits are going to be required and uh preparing a concept plan and a presentation to the the Bor for your feedback and at that point we'll have a a more refined cost estimate and a a list of permits need and a rough timeline of of how long it's going to take to get those products questions so again you're going to be um um establishing the entire scope in your in your um in your research so we're uh we doc we are authorized for uh conceptual design right now the detailed technical design with structural design and and all that is is not included we wanted to do a conceptual phase first to see uh what the permitting needs were going to be how long it was going to take and also um how far we could get with the funding that we have uh so we may design the entire thing at once uh in after the concept is done depending on on the Burrow's preference or we could just design the first phase to utilize the funding that we have um but we'll we'll figure that out during the concept answer but your conceptual will be the alignment of those whole limits so we will have a vision of what we're going to do the con it to addon from third so that we will know basically where it's going to be and then and then your detailed design may be F yes that's when do we anticipate this to begin uh so we are of the construction un uh so the grant has a deadline of completion of December 31st of 2026 um and that seems like a far a long way away but the permitting could take several months uh similar to the mainstream permitting um although this is with the state not with the federal government um so it's probably again a 20126 construction and it'll probably go in you know toward near the end of 2026 so are you saying that we have to have the construction completed by December of 2026 or that we would have to a contract by December 2026 money has is supposed from what I understand money has to be spent by 2026 based on that Grant yes okay it's actually not a long time if you think about it right so so we also know that D is going to be doing the outfall project to Ocean Avenue from s Lake and so that construction could be earn the same time frame so we should look at having having those coordinated as well as other projects that are um progressing long s Lake there sure and then I know you're still going to talk to us about the U about s Lake in particular um bulkhead there but just building on what councilman nowiki just said um please do keep in mind that we we almost have this ecosystem of projects surrounding San Lake you know we not only have the potential ultimate um restoration of the lake itself we've got these out fall pipes we've got uh the extens of the prominade we've got the the bulkhead and so forth we just want to make sure that they're all coordinated so Paul you're absolutely right but beyond beyond that we've got four or five different projects so um um I'll skip ahead a little bit but uh Marty McHugh has been recently identified by the S Lake commission as a overall project coordinator for silven Lake related projects and he's somebody we should definitely make sure you're connected to I I know you've been introduced but he'll be coordinating at high level those projects and be working with you as well yes okay great thanks I just had one question in terms of timing so we really don't want to infringe on the summer time for this project and can this actually be done in the in the fall it depends on the whether we do the the entire project at once or if we have to phase it uh I I don't have a construction schedule yet we'd have to speak to contractors to see exactly how long they think it it would take to do this work um but that would be the goal to try and do it uh between fall and and spring um but we'll just have to see again with permitting aspect uh is is going to take some time and that will probably dictate the schedule okay very good thank you next project next is uh 54 Ocean Avenue this is an asset activation Grant through the DCA uh it's a $50,000 Grant which is eligible for uh planning and design work um the proposed use of that money is for the design of of the ReUse of that the old pump house building um believe there have been several discussions about this over the course of the last year year and a half um so the intended purpose is no building expansion no uh raising the roof of the building um we are going to prepare two to three conceptual layouts of a public restroom uh and a small concession area some combination of that uh for review with the public and with the council uh part of the grant is a mandatory public hearing uh to solicit input from everybody to make sure that the public has a say on what the um use of the this this building is uh so our next steps are uh preparing the survey and a conceptual plan again reviewing what permits are needed uh because this is right uh near the the ocean and uh we'll we'll then have that public hearing after after the public hearing we'll advance to the final design and uh of the selected concept questions sir Ben I would just say we have a lot of projects that happening relatively simultaneously and I think really instrumental how we communicate to the public and that we strategically place making sure that we meet with the public not just on the 54 Ocean Avenue but as well as the prominade extension and the other projects that we're speaking of and that we get those on the calendar as soon as we can so people are aware and that we can actually inform them what those projects are and keeping them posted on the progress yes uh I can definitely set that up with with your administrator to figure out you know how we can either do these all at once or if we're going to stagger them um for different counil Meers excellent uh last one is the silven lake bulkhead uh this is a funded through a njdot local Transportation project fund Grant $2,442 600 the proposed improvements for this are replacing the bulkhead that is failing um we are are going to be surveying uh preparing a concept plan and I've already uh attended a meeting with the sil Lake commission um last week we'll be setting up a meeting with them to review the concept before we present it to the council and to the public um they have their own as as the mayor said they have their own team kind of headed by Marty MCH um and I'll be working with him to make sure that the the proposed improvements that we want to do for the placing the bulkhead is uh meshes well with the lake improvements that they're doing uh we don't want them to conflict uh so we'll be setting up that meeting uh in the next few weeks and uh we'll be preparing an estimate during the the concept phase based on that discussion and what the actual design is going to look like and uh again this is this is just conceptual phase so we'll have a a plan layout and once that that uh design is kind of selected then we'll be able to give you a uh you know then then we'll have to do the detailed technical design um for the the wall whatever we end up doing whether it's a wall or if it's a a BM um and we'll we'll uh go questions for Ben does this also include the discussion of the living creating the living Shoreline there yes uh the preliminarily the intended design to to match what was done at silv Lake Park on the East End of the lake which has a living Shoreline with with a wall behind it um that was the original intent because you know it meets right up to that uh those improvements already and because of the limited amount of of grass between the curved line and the lake on the East End um the a wall is probably needed uh so that you don't have a steep slope um going to the the rook and is is it yet to be determined I've heard discussion about these capsules that some of the dredge material can can be utilized yeah that's get to be determined and that'll be part of the discussions I imagine that I have with Mar m and that design just just for clarity for people that the liberal society's doing a project to look at the health of the lake you know they've been working with you know Avon with the living Shoreline and now it's looking at the overall health of the lake and whether or not we can actually um do things to improve the health of the lake um a lot of silt and perhaps there's some opportunity to remove some of the silt from the lake and reuse it along the walls and um and other you know things that we can do for access to the lake and and beautification but the goal is to make this Lake healthy and so that it can be resilient for you know storm events but also that it's a healthy Aquatic Life for all marine life and you know Aquatic Life that's that's going on there so it's really a great opportunity for um restoring the lake so any other questions for Ben Ben can we just get hang out just a few more minutes because in a few minutes we'll give the public a chance to ask questions and be great if you could just be here to answer um okay so we'll continue so we we're good we see me right now and we'll continue with a brief update on 319 lorine yeah you probably should and as councilman W exit stage left um probably two important things we want to discuss artifacts and council president and I think you'll give us an update and then um radiation plan and C hopefully you can give us a quick update sure I I guess I'll start so with the artifacts we do have to follow the state statute njsa 4A col 11-36 the sale or other disposition of personal property and the governing body May authorize by public auction the sale of its personal property not needed for public use so there's a process that we have to follow and it would be an auction and I have contacted several auction houses and um we're narrowing it down to a few at this point ideally we would do a preview and then an online auction and um of course the historical society is invited to remove some items I think they have three or four that they requested but of course that would be for uh public use so that would fall under the state statute so um we have to do this before and kind of in the same time as the removal of the buildings because when the windows are gone obviously they'll have to be boarded up temporarily or something until the building gets taken down so we try to shorten that process as quickly as we can so then after that we have to go into the demolition of 319 the demolition yeah so um as you may or may not be aware um a a bid was um held back in December number for the demolition of um 319 um it also the process um took the an application in front of the land use board that um to subdivide those into four lots to be auctioned um in the future um the land use board did in fact agree to advance that and approve that subdivision um subsequent to all this um bids were then received um from a half a dozen eight approx eight um biders and looking at through those documents and looking at um feedback from the public of concerns over the grading what how how the property would be graded other the land did not require a grading plan to be submitted to set the elevation of each lot um as well as some other um items in the bid documents we're looking to reject those bids and read advertise it by addressing the issues of what is the grade of a lot going to be establishing the grade um putting that Clarity into the bid documents and then read advertising it um and so we're anticipating that that could happen here very rapidly it's not a big effort um but um we're going to have to retain our CME to be able to um do that as a town engineer and to administer that contract going forward um there's other things such as um air quality during the Demolition and um you know various submittal that would have to be coordinated with the cont contractor and that we need somebody on board to be able to look at that information making sure that it's done correctly and that would be the engineer of record and so we need to get that in place during for the Demolition and all of that has to be then coordinated with the disposition of the you know artifacts the relics um and so we are coordinating that um currently to make sure that we can do that as expeditiously as possible and hopefully have the demolition done here um you know in the next several months so hopefully before some um and again being at 300 block um you know I don't think that it's going to be that much of a problem it's a relatively large uh demolition compared to one house it's it's it's the church um but I think the proper precautions could be done to protect the sidewalks around the area of the roadway and be able to execute that um pretty seamlessly once we get the contractor on board okay thank you Paul um council president Den Noble just mentioned one other thing that's worth sharing with um with the public tangent related to this and that is um with the new development once we've demolished the church subdivided the Lots sold the lots have new construction hopefully four uh residential homes um that will substantially increase the the the value of the lots and with that uh we have um effective February 1st just a couple days ago uh activated an ordinance that's been on our vks for a couple of years related to um development fees that that contractors uh pay into fair share Housing Trust so while we've had this ordinance in place we have not yet been collecting funds effective February 1st those funds development fees will be collected put in a trust utilized for fair share housing investments in the future and this is somewhat simultaneous with uh us the burrow being able to develop you know four new properties uh to add to our tax roles so hopefully that's a win for our tax taxpayers and for fair share housing okay um any other comments or questions no I I just would like to say that um to to anyone who questions the the timeline of all of this and where we are um in this Administration with 319 line um there there was not a proper process um prior to this uh in the last months of 2024 and I guess in some ways you can say it's set us back um so for anyone who feels that um that we're stall that that this project is being stalled I think we are very responsibly trying to go forward to dispose of all of the uh the artifacts in the building and do it um properly and uh that we also want to protect the residents um who who are in the area um in the neighborhood in terms of the demolition so we need to do this right and I think that we're setting out to do this properly and going as quickly as we can okay okay thank you um our next item on the agenda under presentations and bids uh no I'm gonna do that with okay agenda questions I'm sorry um I was going to say our next item is annual debt statement discussion led by our interm CFO John Barrett Mr Barrett had to step out of the room but he he assures us he'll be back in a few minutes so come back oh oh yes Julie just went okay foret about him how do we always forget about coun um so as soon as he is back we will continue with the agenda but I we will wait for his return so uh with public comment ladies and gentlemen you'll have a chance to ask questions about the workshops when we get to public comment in a few minutes thank you for returning Mr Weber must be the okay so I'll make a motion that we temporarily pass on presentations and bids until our interm can rejoin us and move on to approval of minutes second the noal yes the screen yes Mr nowicki yes Mr Weber yes mayor GUI yes I'd like to make a motion that we approve the minutes of our January 21st 2025 Council business meeting second Mr Noble yes M greenl yes Mr Nicki yes Mr Weber yes mayori yes like to make a motion that we approve the minutes of our January 21st 2025 executive session second Mr Noble yes M greenl yes Mr nowicki yes Mr Weber yes mayor G yes okay item eight on our agenda as we wait for our interm CFO to return is public comments and questions pertaining to today's agenda and and those items only is can I open it up to the public okay include the workshop yeah including the workshop yes yes C for Central Avenue um I'll be serving the burrow with courts six seven and eight ladies and gentlemen my members of the council my comments this evening are in regard to agenda resolutions 20258 regarding approval for the rebit of the church demolition RFP in 2020 584 approving the contract for Mr Canon as B attorney unfortunately I must shed light on a disturbing and serious matter that concerns us all I have been saying since July of 2023 that there was a criminal Network at play Within the Box Administration and now I have irrefutable proof the Box Administration engaged in practices that were not only unethical but also illegial first I must clarify the three T claims that I have served to borrow with tonight are in no way a reflection on mayor goosi or any member of this current Council body these claims pertain exclusively to the actions committed by Larry fox in his corrupt Administration we were led to believe tnm drafted the RFP for the demo of the church in 2024 however after the last council meeting on January 21st fough attorney Greg panon and bur clerk Erica cus revealed that and I quote Larry Fox meridi DeMarco and Greg farbach wrote through RFP for the demo of the church it's important to note that they are not qualified licensed Engineers despite this they put tmm's name on the RFP after repackaging tm's scope of work without their knowledge consent or consent according to Mr Conan and miss costus this fraudulent and plagiarized RFP was then put out for public bid and bids were received on this RFP which is both illegal and a significant liability issue for our borrow to use Mr Cannon's words when Greg Cannon and Erica cus discovered this misconduct they failed to alert the authorities as required by the violation of their oath and office and professional licenses instead they chose to keep this information hidden from the residents and discussed the matter handedly behind the scenes such actions are offensive unethical and criminal this is not transparency we as residents deserve these two senior members of the fox administration's failure to act in the best interest of the residents has betrayed the trust of our community they led us to believe they knew as little as we did however based on the video evidence that is a lie our bur attorney and burough clerk have irrevocably broken the trust with the residents of Bradley Beach their presence and continued participation in our municipal government after this egregious breach is hard to Envision I have provided a 26 minute video and type transcript to the borrow revealing these admissions directly from Mr Cannon and Miss C's own mouths Miss cus edited the video and deleted the borrows recording of their 26-minute conversation for some reason and I'll let the authorities decide what that reason was shockingly Mr Canon sat in the last meeting and many others and lied right to our faces on January 21st he sat silently and passively by his council with councilman nowiki unbeknownst to him gave patently false information to the residents when direct questions were asked about the status of the demolition of the church then literally minutes after that meeting concluded they both in great detail and passion admitted the real truth about their knowledge to cim in nowicki to his horror and dismay they also did not immediately report what they knew to the authorities despite being admitting that they knew FX DeMarco and Bo had committed crimes putting our burrow at legal Jeopardy I have been in contact with the m County prosecutor's office the comproller office the FBI the New Jersey attorney general's office of accountability and integrity the doj and our own Police Department I've provided them the video and the transcript in light of this I asked the council to table pending resolution on tonight's agenda to renew Mr Canon's contract until after the aforementioned law enforcement agencies have had an opportunity to review the transcript in video our DPW waited 2 years for a contract therefore I think a few weeks for Mr Canon to wait is not unreasonable under the circumstances to reiterate Greg and arrogant admitted they knew and allowed the borrow to put out an illegal fraudulent RFP to public bid with tmm's name forged on a document they never drafted how much did we the residents paid for the 2024 RFP that we now know is a fraud not to mention now we obviously have to start over from scratch paying a real engineering firm to draft an RFP for demolition of the church because the first one cannot be relied upon and used and merely supplemented with the grading spec since it wasn't drafted by tnm licensed engineering firm So based on the foregoing how can 20258 legally and responsibly be voted on and approved tonight without first having actual an engineering firm draft the RFA RF bid specs lastly as a point of order I would ask that for the courtesy of councilman n Wiki to recuse himself from both of these vot due to his unintentional involvement in the 12125 video conversation currently under review by the authorities I just about um Mr Cen and Miss costus thank you okay are there other questions please um regarding the workshop on the um re Center so I heard regarding the other projects and I get it only four weeks you guys are outstanding you're really trying to grasp I can't even imagine what so thank you but for all the other projects mentioned whether it be because it was a condition or not it was go there is is supposedly going to be an opportunity for the public to address the other projects I did not hear that mention regarding direct Center and um I would like to request that there would be an opportunity for the public to give their input on Direct centor going forward and their ideas and our days and a thank you I think that is the Assumption the assumption is that when Mr Malik joins us for a public session we we'll actually cover all the projects I'm stating it as a fact now and Mr mik nodded his said an agreement let the record shout but it wasn't said very good yes sir on the champion FL 11 and a half line um in regard to the workshop and the disposition of the 319 artifacts um I assume that um the process of it starting from the beginning again will need somebody to reinvent what's actually in there because the last inventory um was really sort of just a a pick and choose it really was not a very accurate one and also um the descriptions in that inventory were not really um precise enough for anybody to identify anything um um in my last visit week and a half ago to photograph the interior um I noticed a few items that are really quite quite interesting and valuable that we're not on that inventory at all so who is going to be in charge of that I think it's going to be you I think you just got yourself a job I'm just I'm just hoping that you know the process actually is done properly and that it doesn't rest on one person either the should be there should be some sort of a a committee effort here task force effort I think it's a brilliant idea and I think I agree a lot of things were not on that list so yeah and and council president Den Noble is actually leading the charge for the council in terms of organizing the entire bid process one of the things we did talk about was needing to do the inventory and of course we'd welcome your support and helping us prepare that and I I know Mia took a lot of pictures that day as well yeah we did so I could work with her as well I'm I'm what little clarification on on the legal requirements of the auction um public use um you said that the Historical Society Bradley Beach historical society would be considered public use what about the Long Ranch Historical Society Historical Museum I know Matt reached out to them I don't know did you get an answer from them yet I reached out to the Church of the presidents right which back down okay because obviously some of the items that have been promised to them they probably would be a good recipient of I agree um and they can partake in the auction as well so they could get it they could acquire it that way if there is an opportunity to to segregate some of the items uh for public use you we will consider doing that okay thank you so the process start again yeah thanks Paul other questions yes sir uh Thomas sh 612 Third Avenue mayor you mentioned the affordable housing ordinance uh was that from 2017 yes it was so in other words from 2017 till 2025 we haven't collected any affordable housing fees for all the new homes and major devel velopments that have taken place in the world that's correct over two administrations that is very scary um but thank you for putting the sign on the building uh at the Bazi Center at the Construction office letting everyone know um it's fantastic but uh also I I did have some a few quick comments about some of the projects that Ben Tak notes um I'm I'm a 30-year property owner on Main Street I was never allowed to be in the uh committee that was set up uh by the previous administration for Main Street and I'd be happy to help I have a historical knowledge of the work that was done in 1997 and I I have spoken with the chief recently about uh delineating the parking spaces improving the site triangles creating ladder crosswalks at all non signalized intersections and then creating strategic loading zones uh not on Main street but around the corners so um I would hope that you know if there is a committee I'd like to be involved in that um also you know you do have uh projects that were done uh like the perfect per in 301 Main they did a beautiful papered drive walkway and it's you know to to say we're going to rip it up it's just really not I don't think correct uh one other thing I'd like to add is that any driveways fronting on Main Street uh really should be done in concrete and non a pavers so pedestrians understand that a car could pull out here and that's one thing that we haven't done before also for the uh Recreation Center uh I I I didn't hear any mention of the greenhouse and you know it's pretty much an isore to do all this work and leave the greenhouse and not figure out if it's going to be a dog park or a pickle bow area or uh I think that needs to be addressed you know by the town and and I I would almost hope that uh we should just do pick football and not do tennis there's other places to play tennis that would be uh my thought process on that and I really hope that there's no concession at the beach if it could be a very large Men's Room very large women's room and a family bathroom all of comfortable size and service I I think that would be the best for of town but uh thanks very much I look forward to the interactions and the public comments um that have been requested by councilman M on these thank you thank you any other questions in the audience we have yes you have one person D Greenberg on the board hey guys uh don Greenberg 302 Parkplace Avenue um just question about Main Street uh did we ever get a resolution on whether the we're going to get the utilities underground we have determined that it would be uh not only prohibitively expensive but it would probably grind our businesses to a whole for numerous months so I believe we have I personally have moved on from uh making that request further okay and uh this isn't an agenda item but while I have the mic um none of the uh Charter study commission meetings for February are on the website so if Erica could get those on there that'd be awesome yes they are oh I just got an an email that they weren't on there I put every single meeting on that website the the night that you guys decided when you were doing them okay well then I will double check that because I just got a not an email I got a text that they weren't on there okay they're on there thanks Erica you're welcome Don that's all I got okay if there are no more are there any more public questions or comments okay we'll move on to our uh what was uh item number six presentations and bids our interm CFO Mr John Barrett is joining us this evening to present the annual debt statement May Council how are you some copies thanks mayor counil I apologize had I know there so many people here I would have made a l lot of extra copies but I do have maybe six copies if anybody wants it anybody you can raise your hands first from the first you got it's okay please John you be okay for you to email it to me and if anyone wants to email me I'll send it on in fact um I I'll reserve my comments good evening mayor and Council once again in the residence of Bradley Beach um every year um at the end of the fiscal year in this case at the end of December 20 December 31st 24 uh we have to accumulate and Report our outstanding debt at the end of the year uh by the um 31st of January and that's what they call an annual death statement now what I'm going to review here with you and it's going to be on the website because I'm going to email over to the clerk for the website um but this is a standard form uh there's nothing new about this I just felt that in speaking with administrator and mayor that maybe the residents would like to Le get under the hood a little bit and understand you know what we have to do as far as reporting requirements uh and also where we stand on our outstanding debt now that being said um you and I everybody here can have a little different opinion uh say when we vote our first house and if you had cash you bought a house you didn't pay a mortgage or you didn't have enough cash and you needed to get a mortgage and you've been enjoying the use of that house over the last 30 years or whatever the mortgage is uh similarly in municipal government um we cannot go out uh to operate uh or basically to fund our Municipal operations so salaries and wages other expense Debt Service that type of stuff we can't go out and borrow that um ironically the state government can but local municipality can so mostly uh what we have here in Bradley Beach is we have uh debt uh in three categories one of which is General debt or or general Capital debt which would include your roadways uh maybe buying a building um any type of uh vehicle purchases uh and my safe vehicle it can't be a car it has to have a useful life of over five years and a similar you know kind of a a difference is I can't buy a a car but I can buy an SUV uh you know for the police department or Public Works um I can buy a car that's for sure but I can't go out and borrow to raise the money so what happens in the municipality level um we have not only do we have the general Capital which I'll go over we also have the two utility capitals for your beach and also your sewer um with the beach and Sewer they are what's called self- liquidated meaning that based on revenues and expenditures that they basically uh we don't have to uh raise that 5% down payment that we do in a general capital budget so generally what you would see is in in a municipal budget you would see the oper you see in the beginning part of sheet 4 through sheet 11 you see revenues from sheet 12 through sheet 30 you would see uh operating expenses and there's a category in there called the capital Improvement fund and if the town and this I'm just making up a scenario wanted to go out and and ordain a million dollar roadway Improvement ordinance you the municipality would either have to have set aside in the capital fund um or you have to budget for it in your operating budget say $50,000 5% of that million doll ordinance and once you do that ordinance we would uh at that point uh be authorized in the finance office obviously with your uh consultation to go out and borrow $950,000 of that ordinance and combined with our 50 we have a million we go start to pay roads now you have certain things in in uh your finances that in essence we called authorized but not issued so um as a CFO in trying to manage the cash management of the capital fund I need to know generally uh you know what projects you going to be moving on because I need to make sure that the burrow has the money on hand to pay those vendors I don't want to single out our engineer but he likes getting paid right than these typ EVS right um so ultimately when we uh work as a team the mayor the administrator and finance office we're kind of taking a look at what kind of projects are for the 12 month 18mon twoyear time frame so I can manage the cash uh and borrow the cash now there's certain areas that we can borrow the cash number one we go out the open market just like you would say for instance 30-year mortgage um depending on the useful life of the asset like a road or a building as compared to you know a police you a Fire EMS vehicle or you know SUV there's different useful lights and ultimately we have to pay back that money based on that useful life so if I had an ordinance buying say $100,000 worth of for the police I'd have five years to pay that back if I had a million doll ordinance for roads I'd have 25 to 30 years depending on exactly what you were doing so it what what I want to stress is on that first page and I think actually it's okay I'm going to skip the first page because ultimately that's the accumulation of the cages behind it so when we take a look at of course the audience can do that as well um sheet two and Sheet three or blank and then we go into sheet four which actually uh are the bonds and notes outstanding for your Ser utility pund and what I'd like just to go through I'm SP rund down this real quick once again there's no stupid question so that only it doesn't just mean you know residents or governing body at any point in time I'm always going to be available for any kind of questions that might come up but under the sewer utility you can see that item number two that we have at the end of 12 3124 we have $674,000 worth of serial bonds outstanding we also look at the bond anticipation notes now the difference between a bond and a ban is that a bond is per it's called permanent financing just like your mortgage but when you look at a bond anticipation it's kind of like a well I don't use the word home equity line because it's not really you know very similar but a ban is that we're anticipating going out to issue a bond per financing so a band uh is one year in paper basically I I can't uh go 370 days I have to go 365 days and every year those bans get renewed and we're paying only interest in those unless we've started to go beyond that third year we have to start paying a portion of principal and once again the principal is based on your useful life of the underlying Improvement that that ordinance has had now one of the things you see here on the sheet here is 18249 of authorized but not issued so there are uh there is debt that we can issue to 184 to 82,000 and change um to fund those ordinances under the sewer ordinance um so right now majority of our money is in the bond anticipation notes um I would offer to you that utilizing the county mcia pool loan the the MTH County full loan uh program is the most economical way to basically raise money and permanently Finance um because we don't have to on a local level deal with a lot of the accounting and the legal matters associated with basically issuing debt we just go up to the county of Mammoth and we say listen would you mind we'd like to float basically permanently Finance some of our outstanding ordinances um and then obviously if we look at the bottom of this sheet we have uh basically what's called a self-liquidating calculations and not to bore you because we're going to look at the next one for beach but it basically takes a snapshot in time as to what the revenues have been for the last year in addition to uh the expenditures and uh if it is positive in this case line 8 says excess revenue of 4,798 49 then we don't have to raise 5% in a succeeding Year's budget in order to do uh Capital Improvements now we switch the page over to page 12 uh and it has the Beach utility once again boring I'll just go over it real quick um we have serial bonds outstanding of 73,000 uh we have Bond anticipation those those are looking on page five to page um we have Bond anticipation of once again shortterm financing was 3.4 almost 3.5 million and then authorized but not issue of $2.4 million and of course the Beach utility revenues and expenditures are also here as well um so once again there're still but ultimately when we have a self-liquidating debt that debt is basically taken off our net debt and I'll explain that when we get to the first page on Page 6 to 12 um it just basically gives us um that we have uh issued serial Bonds in this case we have three different categories uh for the General in 2021 for the 2024 uh Library refunding bonds and the 24 General Improvement refunding bonds and anytime you see the word refunding that means that when we initially went out and issued a debt we paid whatever interest rate it was and then the interest rate Market went down and it gives us an opportunity through the local Finance board and certainly they just uh organized it so the municipality didn't have to go down to Trenton every time they want to refund an ordinance now it's on Zoom but it's pretty much as long as it has a 3% net present value of interest to us then we can do it automatically basically it's kind of like issue you know you have a car loan at 10% your credit score changed now you can borrow 4% not to say Bradley had any problem with their credit score but in this scenario we would refund that car loan into a lower payment very simple mortgages now of course mortgage interest rates are up no one's refunding they would certainly uh do that back in the day um so in addition uh so we have $36 million of actual serial bonds house standing and if you turn to page 7 of 12 it really breaks out in great detail especially with the general Capital the uh names of the ordinances basically the purposes so in this case we have $1.1 million of issued Bond anticipation notes and and we also have authorized but not issued and once again you see the big at the end of ordinance 2410 VAR is Capital Improvements for8 million so right now Total Bond anticipation notes authorized uh not issued uh authorized and not issued about $3.8 million our next page page 8 of 12 we have a capital lease for equipment through the MC F lease agreements and that's a nominal figure of about 37 000 for equipment that uh we have probably purchased over the years now the last few pages are empty but I'd like to bring you back to front page 4 page if you look at no other page understand no other page this is the one that's member of the public or you governing body I'm sure you know it but I just want to review it with you um one of the things if you look in that section that Center section underneath the listing to the names and all that good stuff is that we have what's called gross debt a deduction and debt now gross debt C captures uh in totality we have $22 million uh worth of either issue debt meaning serial bonds uh temporary financing and bond anticipation notes and also authorized but not issues we talk about about 1.8 million in the general capital and the deduction looks at um how much of the in this case utility debt we have 14.6 million uh because those funds are self-liquidating we can basically deduct that debt because those utilities are actually paying for themselves at their current rate structure now other expenses and other things could happen during the year which would require some sort of adjustment and race but as we snapshot this right now that's fully deductible which leaves us with what we spoke about with the general Capital fund which has $7.5 Million worth of either issued debt of bonds Bond anticipation notes and authorized but not issued so that's how we come to $7.5 million now the way that this uh document works is that it takes the average of the 3 years worth of assessed equalized valuations and at the bottom you'll start seeing in year 22 uh if we took all the properties that are not exemp school not be schools in this case like mpal buildings ex from anything that's on the tax roles um it was it turned from $1.9 billion and in three short years in 2024 it turned into two .3 billion which would indicate that you know the assessed value of your properties have risen by over 400 million dollar in that three-year period of time now as as as somebody who's very emotional going to a lot of different town meetings about you know hey my acception about does that mean my taxes are going to go up by that much well the answer is no we'll get to that when we talk about the budget and once we do the public budget sessions um so that those issues can be rectified But ultimately in order to yet um the the percentage mark of 358 per they are taking the net debt of 7.5 million dividing it by the three-year equalized valuation of $2.1 million and coming up with 3 uh. 358 per. now the state law allows us to go up to three and a half% of this assess valuation now I would never advocate for that um I had a client West dep who had a uh sinoco uh refiner plant that went offline and they had a successful tax appeal so they actually had to refund millions and millions of dollars that were otherwise taxed and in that case um they were over 3.5% so that meant every time that West efford in this case public information I'm not sharing you know anybody look at up your but every time that they wanted to do a capital ordinance they had to go to local Finance board and and and sit through that and get the blessing and then they could proceed forward in this case you have local home room now you could as a governing body and maybe with the you know pitch forks and other you know elements of the public you could actually increase what I'm calculating uh up to about $74 million of of debt that's huge right and and certainly I would not Advocate that so but I point that out because when you look at you know almost a third of 1% when you could go up to three and a half% that's a very low figure and and I just want to point that out is not to you know L ego or you know attitude whatever but when you look at that usually we're looking at over 1% from most unies um with regard to the outstanding debt now as I said in the beginning you could have a difference of opinion whether you know you feel that you know buying or you know having a million dollars build that road is great unfortunately we don't have that kind of money sitting around say dude I would just do it right would use your own money um but ultimately um I just wanted to kind of give you a brief as to what your outstanding debt is uh you know from a holistic perspective it's very well balanced um it's not anything that's too heavy I wouldn't say that your debt service payments are what they're called what's called conforming meaning we shouldn't have big spikes in our debt service over the lifespan of these of these debt instruments so when you look at the amount that we're paying for Debt Service year over-ear it should be remained somewhat consistent if it wasn't conforming you know one year you'd have a say $3 million and just exaggerated but you know huge Spike and then maybe go down to 200,000 and the state law allows um we we SP I apologize for going on and on but uh had a l cup coffee so I but the the state law um when Governor Christie came in and did the 2% uh you know the tax everything's be you know limited by 2% well that year they cut state aid by 20% um and one of the exceptions is that you could have I don't know if you did or not so I'm not pting any fingers but you could have passed it on to the taxpayers because you have a loss of Revenue in the category of state aid uh if you have a spike in your debt service increases year-over-year once or again or exemption to that cap so when you look at that 2% cap understand something both from elected officials and and obviously from members of the public that based on the cap calculations it could be a double digit increase But ultimately um things like pension increases uh state health benefits has gone up about 16% year-over year here and when you try to live in a 3 and a half% uh appropriation cap in this case a 2% Levy cap it becomes very difficult and that's why those tough decisions will have to be made according to how you see fit and running the town um but at that point I just give it up to you if you have any questions of me I'll be happy to answer them and see them available by phone or email thank sir any any questions John Mr spirit I have a at least one quick question and I I don't mean to put you on the spot I don't know if you got enough familiarity with the details of this but but I'm struck by the early large authorized but not issued amount of bond anticipation notes for the Beach Utilities is that all tied to the rade God bless you thank you yeah you know that's that's a great question and I would love to be able to answer to you but uh but ultimately um if I were to have an audit I'd be able to look at those ordinances by which so the utilities they don't they don't make you put the ordinances listed like the General Capital Witnesses um so I don't have an information uh I guess you would have it better if you've in the past few years ordained uh improvements and yet you haven't pulled the trigger chances are that's what a major part of that is in essence unless we want to borrow that money uh before uh we start to dig the shovels on any project because we have a limited time to in essence pay that or fund that to make it still maintained tax free that's what mpal you know mpal bonds are taxfree income so if you were to say spend a $100,000 on a million dollar Bond and in two years decide you know what I got to go raise that money I borrow it from another funded ordinance um that 100,000 that example would be uh a tax of both so you would obviously pay a higher interest rate um on that taxable debt than you would uh as a taxfree instrument for the investor um so that's the only difference there but that's hasn't happened here from everything I've seen you know the payment and issuance of debt is solid and and quite honestly if I saw that you had uh you know borrow 1.8 million or whatever you know two 2.4 million of authorized but not issued in beach and it was sitting in your cash account well you pay an interest on it so you're not going to make that interest and in fact if you make interest and have to pay interest is an Arbitrage calculation it's going to cost you more money um sometimes you hear like the uh um the U ibank is sometimes with the utility it's like hey ibank they're giving you half interest free and lower interest there the problem with the I Bank whenever it's proposed that's very labor intensive for the reporting of it to be able to draw down that money in essence you would have to pay a vendor have your engineer certify and send in it becomes very labor intensive and and you as a governing body might be intrigued say hey ibank that's that's cheap money but the fact is the back the back end of that is that you're having a lot of engineering uh in this case of County whatever fees legal fees dealing with uh um basically the maintenance of getting that money in So based on today's interest environment um it's good to obviously look at short-term interest rates if we see some Flex you know flexibility or you know flux in where interest rates are going um but ultimately I would also steer you I get paid no extra to do this to look at the county MC full loan programs because they also borrow debt uh or issue Bond anticipation notes I've used M County for a few different towns great organization to work with and once again you uh a transaction cost really would be born on us if we were to do that ourselves the entire financial advisor Bond coun and you know go through that issue the auditor would also have to be certifying your financials and the prior your audit and there's a fee for that uh so in this case it's always good to look at somebody else paying those bills in this case uh Mr Joe Kelly who is the county CFO he's also the CFO of the Improvement Authority and uh he's very busy at times just basically helping all of our local town towns in M County uh basically issue debt and pay so one other quick question on page seven of 12 they appear to be under the authorized but not issued and and the total is 2.7 million but I can see you know 23ds of that or or half of that maybe is um is um 24-10 something recent but some of the other dates appear to be older in the smaller amounts but what do those reflect are those items we can clean up at some point or yeah I'm sorry yes they answer to that is absolutely yes what I would suggest and and I know we have Fred evue Who's involved as well I would basically strike a line you know and take a look at uh anything above you know 2123 um and and to see exactly do we need uh to fund those so for instance let me give you an example and we're going to just pull out out of the blue that top one of 138,000 of all life but not issue I'm making numbers up here just for an um you have done an ordinance for a million dollar that's what that audience is in the scenario and you spent all the money you spent a million dollars on the Improvement that this would indicate in the scenario that $138,000 of it has not been borrowed yet meaning you didn't go out to borrow now it could be a variety of reasons for that and sometimes the bond Council doesn't feel that that's a really good ordinance because they record keeping or they don't have sof well that there always something possible once again this is all scenario to run in the numbers um so what you could do with $138,000 if this was something that uh in essence uh was not funded but you spent it all is that you could raise a portion thereof in your operating budget that's called a deferred charge um and basically fund all of these Capital ordinances that in this case um are still left unissued but in the scenario that you have authorized 138,000 to go borrow and I look in the books and records and you have you know 138,000 of Appropriations just sitting there that haven't been spent we do a cancellation resolution to cancel the appropriation cancel the authorized but not issued that comes off your debt Service uh your debt annual debt statement and then you can decide what you want to do but ultimately I think uh just from a person review that anything from 2124 and and above up to the 16005 which was then repurposed into 1808 that's how that reads um should be considered uh and be looked at by Mr Ean uh as to disposition of that and a simple Council resolution would basically cancel that that being said if if you know you didn't issue $ 138 and I have zero dollars left then we have to talk about either issuing that debt to fully fund that ordinance or maybe carving it up over three or five years on funding that Appropriations which would be consider outside cap be considered Debt Service and once again an exception uh to the tax 2% count okay thank you for all these explanations I guess to to recap you would say as as our expert and CFO you would say that um we are in sound shape in terms of our borrowing uh close to we're borrowing approximately 10% what we would be Max allowed to borrow without throwing up any Flags absolutely I came up with 74 million I'm use 75 million so yeah we're at about 10% of that 3.5% that we can go I would not anticipate the you know unless you really want to put electric on that main street you were speaking about before you know at this point I think Sloan State the race and obviously a new mayor would obviously dictate as to where the focus of improvements in budgetary focus are uh for running town but ultimately that's on you you're the policy maker with the administrator SC csil being and make sure well number one thank you for your presentation and normally we would not open this up to public comment however this is a unique opportunity to talk to our CFOs so I'm gonna make a motion that we do open it up the public question or comment is there a second sure second um Mr Noble yes Mr Green BL yes Mr nowiki yes Mr Weber yes mayor gesi yes so any questions or comments for our CFO Mr you already asked one question it's nice to Mr for we haven't had this type of access to a CFO in a while so this is refreshing um I know um Mr Kelly at the M County MCA um how does he feel about lending US money without of 2022 corrective action plan and the without of 2023 okay so um ultimately uh you would have to ask Mr Kelly that question um I deal him personally on other matters for other towns um I would anticipate that uh first of all we are very close not to devolve great news but we're very close to satisfying all the questions that the auditor had in order to get the 23 audit produced and from what I gather in discussions with him that prior CFOs financials held up to his scrutiny and we could rely upon that annual financial statement that was at the end of 2023 and that's to be good balanced numbers for our books and record we still adust those once we get the Govern Audi in with regard to uh corrective action plan uh I I couldn't speak to that but U having been on a number of calls both with rating agen standard for Moody um and also with the county uh when we do this thing I have never I've never been asked any and when we look at the um the available financial documents short of an audit being uh published by our auditor Bob Oliva um we have to rely on the next president will be the annual financial statement having looked at last year's annual financial statement I would say that uh your predecessor CFO inherited some very um difficult books and Records to make heads or tails of um and um and that's just what I'll say about that so I'm very happy that you had somebody who's qualified crti Mone was able to make as I often say he's given up I say anybody g a l bad financial Dr top financials it's like giv plate of a spaghetti to somebody you pack is it straight box it's not easy to do um so I'm very happy and once we get the annual financial statement produced for uh 12:31 24 we have it until the beginning watch to do that working on that Financial schedule so that Bob ol I believe has beened actually be able to conduct an audit and not have questions that basically preious pre uh were here before uh I believe Mr gar who was your former CFO for about a year um this was from I'll just leave it that I'm not here to bash anybody sure but he definitely U did a great job in trying to get things together and I just had one more question since the topic has been about the church so uh when the church property is sold would the proceeds from that then pay the bonding that was taken to do the purchase do all the engineering and Demolition and everything or would it just go into the general fund okay you're asking a tough question because I'm not familiar with this how it was acquired why it's a Township asset but some give it to you in a scenario that I don't know specific facts but I think to if you borrowed a million dollars to purchase a building and later on you decide to liquidate that building first of all you'd have to basically take a portion of that debt if they buil it for you sold it for a million one scenario that million dollars would have to first satisfy that debt because hey we then be paying debt on an asset we don't own and the Delta of $100,000 in the scenario would be brought in as General Revenue for the Miss ow it's called MP U miscellaneous Revenue n anticipated or R for the ACC uh you and once again I hate to think the other way where you sold it for 900 but paid a million and now you're going to have to pay a million dollars worth of debt But ultimately the focus if there's outstanding debt um then you would pay that debt first and then you would basically take it in asly yeah I I've had the fire companies not to disparage any fire company because they're the heroes running into a building while I'm running out um but in one town of the Y there were three fire companies uh and they said Hey listen we sell that lad truck that should come back to us we're the fire department like no the Township in this case Township unit bought the asset it's theirs you're housing it um but sometimes you hear like I'm will liquidate some computers that go back into my OE budget and that's why I'm proud I'm 6'4 me sometimes and and tell people no you're not getting that money but that's how that would work if you sold the utility for instance you for you sold you can't sell the beach but say you sold a sewer utility if you had a water utility and outstanding debt would have to be extinguished and whatever profit it would be at that point for the municipality would then be takeen into the current fund now you could uh that could go straight to your fund balance and you could have a fund balance policy that says you know what we just got a $2 million for whatever and we're going to hold on to that we want to buffer our our fund balance But ultimately it's a decision for the future governments that manage the finances whether they appropriate uh that fund balance into as a revenue to the town so once again I just book it in where it has to go it's a policy decision what you want to do with at that point thanks so much for cl thank for your yes I just want to thank you for your hard work on our behalf and making it easy to understand and talking at a level because I know this is a very complicated thing and I actually understood like and I'm not a numbers person and I understood like maybe a good 50% of what you just said so I'm really grateful and I want to thank something we never experienced if I could I mean the mayor when I um we first met in his office uh with your administrator he made that very abundantly clear um that he wanted this to be a transparent finance office because once again if someone would pull back then you got more questions right like how much you to page six it's on page six right um but ultimately um one of the things I'm planning on doing the administrator is that once we do a a draft budget and we have obviously the input of the goverment body as to where they want to steer the ship um I love doing public information sessions once again you come we all hang out at this table at 3:00 on a Tuesday whatever and there's no stupid question my my dad uh uh my mother was a teacher my dad became a lawyer I was born was 40 L 46 as I joke and I hate to do it on the public record but he's dead and I can ad this but we asked why he was going to law school he he said I in the crib I figur I have to get John out of jail one day went once again he's dead I can tell that story but um there's no stupid question you were I've been doing this since I've been 27 it's not boring either usually like this is the kind of thing where your eye plays over and you you're very engaging and once we do that it's okay with you Matt when we have that session couple days because you know you might come here and maybe you have a question back there you know what's 2 plus to you're embarrassed or just maybe a public speaker that's the venue where you can understand Page by page that there's really no smok and mirrors in these budgets um it is basically what I got to do to to format it properly and ultimately the governing body has to decide um but once again I'm here to deliver a message to them they can decide whatever they want if I I say listen you're leave sh youtility maybe you got to look at the rates because you're starting to Trend to not look very profitable you might trip it to being non- liquidating calculation then they have to say Hey listen we have a lot of super infrastructure to do right so you know we want to have to raise 5% which on the rate payers immediately or do we want to invest in the capital infrastructure and then pay over 20 years those people are enjoying it just like you and I are probably enjoying our houses some but as I said no stupid question and I actually got it yeah it's all good thank you thank you so all right I see no other questions so Mr Barrett we can let you you leave us but thank you very much for joining tonight thank you very much okay uh we went a little out of order there but we are back on track with item number nine on the agenda uh ordinances and we have a couple of introductions so um I would like to make a motion that we introduce um the amendment for ordinance 20 25-8 which is an ordinance establishing certain salaries of certain officers and employees of the burough of Bradley Beach in the county of Mammoth and the state of New Jersey and repealing any and all other ordinances inconsistent here with so I'll make a motion that we U that we approve this introduction and we can also have comment as you as you uh op sir second second Mr Noble yes Miss greenl yes Mr nowicki yes Mr Weber yes mayor gubitosi the only thing I'll say for the public is that very specifically adjusting one component of our salary ordinances which is establishing new uh ranges for the Community Development roles things like Fire Marshall uh the uh construction official and so forth so I will vote yes thank you okay the second ordinance for introduction is ordinance 20 25-9 and ordinance amending chapter 24 commissions and committees and chapter 270 Land Development and chapter 425 trees of the Burrow's revised General ordinances to enhance the operations and regulations of the burough shry commission and council president Dan would you want to make a quick comment on this sure this is just updates um refining their ordinances a little better Clarity uh has to do with their attendance of members maintenance of trees responsibilities uh so the long-term plan and uh Greg Canon you got the change I made yes you indicated that shrub should not be permitted items right in planting strips we can have grass trees and or mulch around the trees but no shrubs are permitted okay thank you so that's suming it up right there okay any other coms y okay okay I'll make a motion that we adopt that we approve ordinance 2025 D5 and ordinance amending chapter 115 uh oh I'm sorry I've got to do sh yeah the ordinance 202-9447 trees of the burough revice General eares to enhance the operations and regulations of the burough shade tree commission second Mr Noble yes Mr greenl yes Mr noi yes Mr Weber yes mayor gzi yes okay we have three ordinances for adoption the first is 202-558-6915 commenter questions about this no than okay I'll make a motion that we approve uh 2025 have to open to the public oh I'm sorry is uh make a motion that we open this to the public discussion second Mr Noble yes M greenl yes Mr nowicki yes Mr Weber yes mayor gubitosi yes okay public comments or questions want stand um I just wanted to say thank you for doing this because like I said I'm not a numbers person and um I was talking to somebody about this who is a numers person and they pointed out to me something that like went over my head about what you said last week at the meeting when you were on zoom and you said how much was it per you said per year we could say just by change making these changes like over a period of years if you go back from like 1980 till now had this been done that translates to millions of dollars like over like I forget what the number was it was a lot of money and I'm just so grateful to you and I want to say thanks for doing this because that's going to translate to hopefully offsetting increases you know just in general you know every taxes have many we toed and so this was a really great idea that you know many people may not have flood of so who knows thank you Al Weber and just just to be clear the the dog licenses don't raise that kind of money it's nothing like that but's point was if we look at all these fees across the board we're talking tens of thousands of dollars every year at a minimum and multiplied by how many years it's a lot of money so um yeah so I know we all love dogs here but they're going to pay three more dollars to register those are there any there is a public comment on Zoom uh yeah Eva can you hear me yes yes hi I apologize that this is my first time dialing in so I had an unusual circumstance regarding dog licenses can you just give me your name and address please sure Eva silbert 216 Parkplace Avenue yeah so I received notification to renew my dog's license I immediately filled out the paperwork and sent the check I then got a notification that my dog license could not be renewed because her rabies vaccine uh expires in uh November and I'm sorry it expires in uh August and it needs to uh remain unexpired until November so they sent me the check back so I'm not able to tag my dog because I don't want to give her her shot eight months early so now I will have to pay the increased fee and I will also probably get hit with a late fee because I didn't tag my dog when I was supposed to tag my dog even though I tried to tag my dog I don't understand why the U renewal period is only January to March shouldn't it be every year based on when you've had your dog vaccinated statute yeah the answer your question it's a state statute that every town does it that way because it's required by the state so what do I do well and I just want to add I don't think there's any detriment to your dog to get the rabies vaccination early and we do Run free rabies clinics that's part of the money that you're paying it's a it's a fee to the state and that helps fund these free rabies clinics that if we've done like years in the past they'll be wanted to house sometime like later this year it it really has nothing to do with the cost of the vaccination it just has to do with giving my dog a shot eight months before she's due for a shot that's I mean that's the point of the state statute so the functional purpose for dog licensing is really to prevent the spread of rabies that that's why they require like that's purpose of the statute so they're intentionally trying to make you do is often as like that's the way it's written that's the point of it we don't actually care how many dogs are in town but we do care if they have rebies that's the whole that's the whole hook licensing for the whole state and why they make everyone do it annually and if some sometimes results like this that that's the point of this right but a vaccine lasts for three years so doing it annually doesn't make sense it's a it's a three-year vaccination you don't have to do it annually like I said there's no doing it early for your dog you'll be set for three years now yeah I understand what you're saying the but the whole point of it is to check in with every single dog every year and make sure they have a rabies vaccination if you got a new dog this dog passed away that and that you know that's the point of the making the town touch base with you every year January 31st I understand I understand your point it seems silly in like it's a practical matter but but it's a it's a public health thing that's the purpose right of it and we don't have it really don't have any control over here other than administering it right good no no you know I I'm a rule follower but this you know particular issue was bothersome to me I thank you Eva even I agree with you I have three dogs and I went through this with one of mine a couple of years ago so I'm kind of in the same boat that you just mentioned but next time you'll be on track yeah yeah but I I I agree with you thank you all right thank you for your time is there any other public comment okay I will make motion that we approve the amendment and adopt I'll make a motion to close public comment for ordinance 20255 Amendment so second second and adop and adopt Mr Noble and adop right and adopt and adopt second and yes Mr yes NY yes Mr Weber yes may yes okay I would like to open public comment for ordinance 202 5-6 and ordinance amending uh chapter 365 rental property of the Burrow's revised General ordinances to impose an occupancy tax on certain rentals within the burough of Bradley Beach second Mr Noble yes um M greenl yes Mr noi yes Mr Weber yes mayor gu yes public comment any questions okay with that I will make a motion to close public comment and adopt ordinance 20 25-6 amending chapter 365 rental property of the buroughs Reis General ordinances to impose an occupancy tax on certain rentals within the bur BR Beach second Mr Noble yes M green BL yes Mr nowiki yes Mr Weber yes mayor GUI yes I will uh make a motion to open public comment for discussion on ordinance 2025-the uh an ordinance well basically our 5G ordinance is there a second second Mr Noble yes M green BL yes Mr nowicki yes Mr Weber yes mayor gubitosi yes public comments or questions on our 5G ordinance okay seeing no comments or questions I will make a motion to close public comment and adopt ordinance 20 25 -7 our 5G ordinance second sorry Mr Noble yes M green yes Mr nowiki yes Mr Weber yes mayor G yes I know thatting be schedule and you're skipping ahead too I know I am item number 10 on the agenda Communications there are none mayor um here is one no uh never mind go to consent and I'll tell you then so we will move to uh our resolutions and starting with our consent agenda resolutions okay now if you could just make a motion that you are tabling uh 77 uh right yeah 77 um I know you did it at the beginning of the meeting but because we're in the consent part just if you can make another motion just to table it so yep okay okay uh I would like to make before we continue with the consent agenda I'd like to make a motion that we table 2025776924 authorizing the execution of a lease agreement renewal for copier and printers in the burrow second Mr Noble yes M greenl yes Mr nowiki yes Mr Weber yes mayor gub yes thank you are there any questions or discussion points on consent agenda resolutions uh I have one question on the bill list and I think Matt knows what it is Matt do we get confirmation on Koo oh koog is one of the Bands Jazz playing at JazzFest because the other ones are labeled JazzFest and I I was my suspicion but just double check and as usual your suspicion was correct okay um and I just want to point something out about I don't know the way things are running differently around here uh these days PR JazzFest it's this weekend right there's a c it's free to you all it's free there's a cost you know but before the event happens you're seeing the cost right here right now which to my memory is different so um Kudos and now we know who komoi is it's a b um that was my question thanks very much any other discussion among the council okay I'll make a motion that we adopt consent agenda items resolutions 2025 d69 through 202- 79 excluding 77 excluding the the previously uh tabled item 77 there second second Mr Noble yes M GRE yes Mr n yes Mr we yes yes thanks okay we'll move to individual resolutions and the first of those is item 20 25-80 rejecting all bids for the demolition of burrow property located at 319 Lorraine Avenue and authorizing the read vertisements bid specifications requiring the post demolition grading of the afor said property is there I make a motion to um to approve this resolution is there a second second Mr Noble yes Mr nowicki yes um Mr Weber and mayor gzi yes and Screen sorry okay individual resolution 20258 authorizing the award of professional Engineering Services with Leon S aaki and Inc for improvement to Ocean Avenue and the prominade and and and I'll make a um a quick comment about this uh and then I'll open it up to other discussion but the the council has asked um avakian the engineering firm to uh perform an evaluation uh of Ocean Avenue specifically and primarily focused on establishing two pickup and drop off areas for handicapped individuals that are wheelchair bound um and as well evaluate our site triangles because uh we've had many concerns raised about uh challenges in in seeing oncoming Vehicles as people pull out of the East West streets onto Ocean Avenue so um anyone who looks at the resolution there's a $7,500 uh fee that has been uh proposed by iachan to perform this analysis for us any comments or questions second okay I make a motion that we approve 2025-the the award of professional Engineering Services for Leon s avakian Inc second uh Mr Noble yes M greenl yes Mr nowicki yes Mr Weber yes mayor gubitosi yes do I need to motion again to table the next two um Greg what's your opinion on that he Ted them in the beginning 82 and 83 the only the other one was different because it was on the consent agenda so we wanted to be clear about it that's what I thought to okay so we will move forward with item second Mr Noble yes M greenl yes licky yes Mr Weber yes mayor gubitosi yes 2025 85 authorizing the award of professional alternate labor Attorney Services with Jonathan Coen Cohen of plosia Cohen Law Firm I make a motion that we approve second Mr Noble yes Mr greenl yes Mr noi yes Mr Weber yes mayor gubitosi yes resolution 20258 approving a fair and open Professional Services contract with Leon s aaki Inc as burough planner that would be Jen beam I make a motion that we uh approve second Mr Noble yes M greenl yes Mr NWI yes Mr Weber yes mayor gubitosi yes resolution make a motion that we approve sorry um Mr Noble yes M greenl yes Mr nowicki yes Mr Weber yes mayor bubzi yes item 12 on the agenda announcements um there are no official announcements today item 13A the administrative report only sorry I know we're running a little late I would love to have you present late is early when you're this is nothing this is not late so and one thing U one of the things that we want to do Under the ne directive is increase transparency and I can tell you that when you talk about having a large uh Gap that you're able to borrow and you think well you'll never use that I can tell you from personal experience that the ma disaster May impacts your community it's nice to have that amount that you can borrow quickly knowing that funa will come in and and pay it off so before you know there something bad happen you borrow $20 million 6 n months later you can pay it off but having that ability there is something that uh you know don't don't take for Advantage unfortunately many to us it um I want to bring everyone up to date on the the Union contract of local 152 uh we continue to have meetings on it uhi um as many of you know using uh you're covering CPA uh he loves spreadsheets uh he has done a remarkable job figuring out folks salaries we have some folks that are on salary and also getting uh hourly wages we have people getting stiens we have people with longevity pay we have people who we're not paying the right amount to uh it is literally all over the place uh and um I sit there and just kind of let my jaw drop and watch him just go through the process with his spreadsheets to figure it out so um the last meeting we had um we presented basically to the uh to the union everything internally that we have fully transparent uh we're wait to hear back from them hopefully in the next week or two to finally uh bring something to the council for their approval if not the last meeting in February hopefully the first meeting in March but it is certainly moving forward uh the other chall the union is and this is unusual there are both white collar and blue collar employees in the same Union typically those are bated into separate unions um Beach lockers who loves Beach lockers Beach lockers are an important topic in this town uh there are 597 Beach lockers uh available uh so far 351 have been claimed for a total of 58% and uh if you don't mind uh indulging me a little audience participation can anyone guess which Avenue has the most Beach lockers already taken Fourth Avenue Fourth Avenue you know why because it's the surfing Beach and everybody loves surfing close runner up is Ocean Park and who knows which one unfortunately there's always got to be the one that's coming in last which one is the lowest North endake close cliff Avenue with only 12 but uh it's still a good competition um the other thing uh you know councilman Weber mentioned tourism so uh after events like we're GNA have this week I'm gonna have our tourism director uh Amy Hall put together a report uh how much was spent what happened how many people came so we can report that to the council report that to the public so uh when you look at spending money on tourism we can't really look at it as a business hey we spent 7,000 we raised 10,000 we made 3,000 it doesn't really work like that but at least it gives you an idea not so much a quantitative but more of a qualitative analysis of was this a good event should we do it in the future uh or should we entertain other events uh and that's a policy decision for the mayor and Council uh to take a look at um but we we should have that report you at the next meeting regarding the and can I just add I know I just talked about the cost of the events it's on the bill list but it's being paid for from tourism so that's fees that other people pay it's not your tax money is what is the point oh yeah this is all none this has to do with any of your property tax dollars this is with through Tours trust thank you all very much thank you thank you okay thank you Matt uh um next on the agenda mayor and Council reports uh let's start with Mr councilman Weber okay I gota get my final notes for uh for Matt okay I'm gonna give you the I know last time I I declined to give you the first a bi-weekly report because my phone died but uh be the first so this will be one for February here for the period that ended today the squad responded to 15 day calls and Five Night Calls calls for a total of 20 calls 15 were for medical five were for fire the squad participated in the Bradley Beach bbca uh January Jam as well as providing medical OverWatch uh the squad thanks the bbca for their support of the first aid and Fire Department Squad also welcomes our newest Cadet Leah Kar there were no out of town Mutual Aid requests and the squad requested no Mutual aid for this operation ational period they fulfilled 100% of their assignments uh as always they're looking for volunteers they offer free training for qualified individuals uh there's an application on the bur's website and they have a Cadet program for folks between 18 excuse me 16 and 18 years of age uh who are interested in serving their community and this was submitted by the president of the first aid Eric Hunter and the report was prepared by the secretary John Zack just so you know what's going on with that um I am also the liais on to the environmental commission and they met here last night uh I'll let everybody know what they're focused on sustainable Jersey which if you don't know it's this program in state of New Jersey where towns can I like to say jump through a bunch of environmental hoops and show that they're actually doing some things sustainably environmentally and they get points for demonstrating this and uh they can get certified if they get enough points and and and cross the finish line so to speak so I'd like to speak to everybody that works for the town this is kind of like a townwide thing so if you're at DPW or you're at Recreation or you're part of some other you know Board of commission in town I might be coming to you somebody from the um environmental commissioner might be coming to you and saying hey we know you're doing this thing can you help us document it I'll just give you a great example went to the police yesterday and said the police they they do the drug takeback program uh twice a year you can go bring your unwanted prescriptions bring them to the police it's safe and secure and that's actually something we get points for in sustainable Jersey so that's a just a an example and I took care of that one yesterday it was basically an email and I'm going to get the information back from the police department but um so for our administrator or anybody from other departments that's listening we're going to be coming to you and we're going to be asking you because believe it or not you're doing things that help us get points for sustainable Jersey and we want to we want to get them all so that's coming um it's actually our in our first cracket our first it's like the next few weeks too so will be coming soon um I am L on for the DPW and I sat down and had a meeting with yio after he got over pretty good illness over the last week and uh talked about a bunch of things I just something I think the public should be aware of um there are a bunch of those ash trees on the 600 block of Brinley they get that diseas it's emerald ash bore so they're all going to come down so I'm telling you now nobody has to call and freak out that six trees are going to come down um oh it's five trees it's in 600 block and they um but they all have this disease they're not going get any better they might stay up for another 10 years but they're not getting any better and there'll be a hazard and we'll get some new trees in there um and had a great discussion with uh with baju about lockers and all sorts of other things um and I did the same thing for Community Development on the liais on there I sat down with the new community development director pen Valentine and uh I think it was already mentioned tonight but people should know there's a sign on the door at the Bazi Center when you're going to Community Development and at the counter and they're they're all over the place it's a sign it was up actually probably over a week ago proactively telling people as of February first the town's going to be collecting uh this fee it's to go to that affordable housing trust fund so it's one and a half% on the increased value if you're improving your home or residence uh and it's 2 and a half% % if you're improving a property and it's nonresidential so that's the fee that was mentioned earlier that we should have been collecting for the last few years but we're going to start collecting it now so um in my estimation I think more has happened in affordable housing in the last month in this bur than has happened in the previous 25 years which was the entire round uh round three affordable housing um and we did deal with the salary ordinance that I all those folks work at um in the Community Development Department but I just want people to know it's not necessarily four different people some of those can all be done in fact they could all be done by one person but um it seemed like it's four different jobs but it's probably going to just go to one or two people so um that's basically my report thank you councilman we're gonna turn to council president Den Noble thank you mayor the Bradley Beach shade tree has a meeting tomorrow night so I'll cover that in the next meeting tourism as we all know is the jazz festival is this week end Friday and Saturday there'll be six bands and over 25 musicians in total they have promoted the restaurant row via guest emails and offer to help with reservations it's G look like it's it's going to be a lot of fun and it supports the businesses and it gives people a reason to visit Bradley Beach in the dead of winter then after that um I did attend the Bradley Beach Board of Ed meeting on January 28th they were celebrating School Board recognition month a time when residents can acknowledge the contributions made by our local school school board members and the Bradley Beach Board of Ed is a dedicated group of volunteers fostering a supportive learning environment where students can achieve academic emotional and social growth and over the past three years the students performance at the Bradley Beach Elementary School on the learning student um the New Jersey student learning assessment njsla has improved significantly they have seen a 15% Point increase in mathematics and 14% Point increase in English these gains reflect the collective efforts of the Educators the students the families and the board's commitment to their academic Excellence but beyond these test scores the district has achieved several notable recognitions including sustainable Jersey silver cert certification recognition by the New Jersey safe roots to school program kindness certification for 2024 recognition by the New Jersey Center for inclusive education they launched a dual language pre program they had the Imp Implement imple implementation thank you of a for Middle School obviously I didn't go to Bradley Beach Elementary um increase community outreach Outreach and family workshops inauguration of their first ever autism autism program enhanced High School Readiness programs to support students transition Beyond Bradley Beach Elementary School and in addition to the custom cards and posters decorated by the students the board celebrated with a perfect audit report I would just just like to give a big round of applause to our superintendent Dr heidleberg our school business administrator David tanzz and these volunteers that are members of the Board of Ed past and present the present members include president Dr Elizabeth Franks vice president Bridget Dain members Courtney walliston Noel Weinberg Caitlyn saluti Liza Flynn Felicia Sai Roseanne carusa Walker and April Davis thank you all for your work name um mayor I have uh Dr Frank is in the office if if you don't mind she could come up and just give us a couple sentences we'd really appreciate itank thank thank you m I just want to thank you for your liaison and the support that you've given the Board of Education um we really have been working very hard to improve outcomes for our students and uh we've been I think quite successful we have a great Administration and thank you for mentioning our audit we're very proud of it um with the audit you know they say unmodified opinions I'm like that doesn't sound very wonderful because we say A+ as an educator so our auditor agreed we could say A+ but um thank you for mentioning that and I just also want to take the opportunity uh what I always say is it takes a village and Bradley Beach is such a wonderful Village we're we I would said we're a small and mighty school and there's so many people here we we partner with the historical Association Mr shapin comes in works with some of our students the shade tree commission the food pantry bbca we have mentors um that come and work with our students and so I just really want to thank the community our BBE foundation and I don't know whether everyone is aware of this but um we just started a brad Beach Education Foundation and one of the first things and there was a strategic plan that some of you were on a few years back and the big topic were our boilers we were all worried that our boilers were going to break down and it was going to be a big expense and through our BBF we were able to uh get in touch with I think it was uh es or NJ JCP jcpnl um and we were actually able to get a grant for $347,000 to get new boilers so we saved the taxpayers lots of money that we were able to get get this Grant and we were able to um you know Finance the rest of it that that was needed so um please know that we are very phisically responsible at the same time as building our our academics and I really appreciate Jane all that you've done and you're apprciate you thank you so much thank you and thank all of you as well that our report thank you and one other comment about Dr Frank she also requested a special signage around the school and our DPW and our chief of police have jumped on that and whatever signage you've requested we are in the process of working to uh to implement oh thank you and that really came as a result of one of our parents feeling like we needed more signage and you started to look like oh that's a great Point yeah we were missing that so thank you okay um uh let's go with Council woman green BL uh Fletcher Lake Comm uh has a meeting upcoming a week from Thursday and on their agenda is the installation of the sign on the Ocean Grove side of the lake prohibiting El electric and motorized vehicles from the bridge the initiation of the contract for wildlife control with Mike Campbell of Galaxy geese um this is now going to be the second year that they're using uh his Services uh and the possibility of considering the installation of Benes on the Ocean Grove side and that will likely be a fundraiser uh and finally the staining of the bridge with a darker color and this is to preserve the wood on the bridge uh so the next Fletcher Lake Mission meeting is Thursday February 13th at 6 PM 6 pm here in this room uh the let's see um Recreation has a number of up of fun upcoming activities uh silver silver ball AR paid is a middle school takeover for students in grades 5 through 8 Thursday February 20th it's a drop off event uh it's $25 per child which includes food drinks and unlimited play uh and anyone interested should register in advance through the recreation department radio Bingo is a collaborative event by the Bradley Beach Ladies auxil Auxiliary the fire department and the wreck department Saturday March 8th at 7:00 p.m. at the rec center tickets are $12 and they're on sale now must be purchased in advance you can pick your tip tickets up in person and contact uh contact Rec director uh Courtney papis if you'd like to set up a time to pick up your tickets uh majan is now meeting every Friday at the Bazi center from 1: to 3 the next senior club meeting is on February 26th at the Bazi center from noon to 3: open open wreck is on Thursdays and Fridays for kids to come do their homework play games get crafty and watch movies after school uh this takes place Thursdays till 6m and Fridays till 7 keep an eye out for Family karaoke night coming up March 28th with details to come summer camp 2025 enrollment will begin in mid-march Bradley Beach residents get a week of priority and specific dates will be announced soon the next Recreation board meeting is Monday February 10th 6:30 p.m. at the rec center all are welcome and then finally the Arts Council uh met Friday January 24th the council currently has two members and is looking to round out with five additional members I just want to point out um John that one of the two members uh uh June Julian has a an environmental background professionally so there may be an opportunity to contribute to sustainable Jersey at the municipal level as well as potentially within the schools that would be cool some said they're interested in the environmental commission he's a musician so I might cool please do please do um so um as I said the council the council is looking to get um obtain five additional members it'll be meeting this Friday at 7M to identify Community artists who can serve in a leadership role for the Council once the membership is established and the terms are set the Arts Council will begin to identify programming in the areas of both Visual and performance art while there's greater interest than spots available the participation of Arts Council volunteers will be instrumental in helping its goals and provide active programming and performance for the community and as Dr Frank said and I have here it takes a village so we need all the volunteers um the Arts Council will coordinate with both tourism and the bbca to ensure programming that aligns with each of their missions both Paula Gavin and Amy Hall are participating in these discussions and finally I just want to share that uh councilman nowicki and I both attended uh the New Jersey municipalities um orientation for newly elected officials and that was this past Saturday it was a full day of um uh active listening that's my thank you shaa and councilman noi mayor can I just be out of water for one minute please because the Bradley Beach PTA would not forgive me um we have our auction March 30th and the whole Community is invited it's a great Community event it's uh at the school March 30th tickets are on sale you go to Brad bpta um and just to remind it's been mentioned the jazz festival but no one has said that it's at graad Beach Elementary School and in our beautiful inor so those are two things I forgot to mention so thank you and March 30th Mar 30 yes get take early great thank on my calendar got it councilman thank you um Sil L commission meeting is um here February 20th uh two weeks from this Thursday um the fire department uh for the month ending January 31st fire department responded to eight day calls and two Night Calls for a total of 10 calls four were fire fire alarm activation one was a carbon monoxide alarm activation one was an elevator rescue one was a natural gas leak two were Powerline sparking which we heard a lot about that on social media and I was and one was a lift assist for a first aid call the department conducted one training for engine operations there were no Mutual Aid requests and I'm happy to report we have one new firefighter application pending uh the department fulfilled 100% of our assignments for this operational period we are still looking for volunteers to the fire department and offer free training for qualified individuals anyone wishing to volunteer for the fire department May inquire through the Burrow's website uh the police department officers made one warrant arrest during the last twoe period in addition there were several motor vehicle stops and summonses issued for various traffic offenses officers responded to and investigated five motor vehicle crashes might be a little bit to do with the that we were having um over the past weekend an unknown person entered a parked unlocked motor vehicle in a 200 block of Newark Avenue and removed contents from the vehicle this is being investigated by our detective Bureau all residents are reminded to please lock your vehicles and do not leave any valuable items inside your vehicle and then lastly um just a build on what John mentioned at the bbca event uh the January Jam was a great fundraiser for our first responders and this is really important because a lot of our um you know there's a lot of volunteers and um one is Municipal aid but the other part of it is um donations and so that was a great fundraiser so um and there'll be others so come on out bring your checkbooks um and also there was a recognition day for First Responders at uh UVA this past Sunday and um if you don't um or you haven't just reach out if you see any of our First Responders and just tell them thank you and that's my report thank you councilman um okay so my report I'm going to try to keep this pretty quick but there are a lot of really exciting things happening in the burrow right now um uh I'm working very closely with councilman uh nowiki on a lot of different Sil Lake projects I mentioned them earlier when Mr Malak was talking but there's a lot going on between the the upcoming prominade extension the restoration work on San Lake and some of the other projects surrounding that that I've I've worked with that group as a leason for the past five years um councilman nowiki has worked with them as a resident volunteer for eight months or so probably right Paul a year and a half yeah oh is it that long okay wow a year and a half um and I think both of us would say that we're seeing progress like like Bradley Beach has never seen before in this area we've got funding and I'll thank the prior Administration for a lot of that current funding for the bulkhead um but just the entire the teamwork between Avon and Bradley Beach is is uh just awesome to to see especially after many years of struggling to make any real progress and I see Mr P in the audience I know uh Peter your wife has been instrumental in helping us achieve a lot of that progress um an's not here tonight is she no okay um but along with that excitement uh as a few folks have mentioned fair share housing were're making some really good strides getting a lot of our financing in order this council is uh amazingly committed to making sure that we not only fulfill our obligations but hopefully we will exceed our obligations in terms of uh affordable housing that this buau provides to u to moderate and low-income individuals um local 152 making great strides on the contract uh Mr dhy I appreciate your comments about my spreadsheeting abilities but uh that really is taking a village not only is Mr dhy uh doing a great job helping us get organized um our labor attorney Alan Roth has done a great job working with the the the unions attorney and working through a lot of the logistics of the contract and most importantly the the union members have just been awesome um a tremendous amount of mutual respect at these discussions and great progress being made I don't want to jinx the process but my hope is uh there are some you know technical things that the union has to go through to get approval but as of our last meeting a couple days ago uh Hope was that we would have a contract ratified and ready to go uh in March so we're making good progress there uh another just really exciting thing uh folks who have read our uh newsletters saw our Outreach for volunteers for strategic task force members we have U eight strategic task forces identified we've had over 80 volunteers very excited about this not only for the task forces but for some other commissions and committees in the buau uh Amy Hall is organiz in that for us I don't have the list of those 80 plus people in front of me but within the next few days we'll be organizing that we'll be getting out getting messages back out to people to get those uh task forces up and running uh I'll just mention again the bbbc event at Uber restaurant for recognizing superheroes our First Responders our police fire first aid OEM and our DPW workers uh a lot of residents attended and uh and made Don ations to the greater good but it was just a wonderful Community event it was exciting to be a part of that um the the I referenced earlier that we're we tonight hired iaki and the engineering firm to help us look at uh Beach handicap access especially what we're looking at are two specific loading and unloading areas it's on a county road so we have to get County permission we have to get our chief of police's uh uh approval that it's safe uh and also get engineering approval but the goal is to really focus on having two very meaningful access points for um wheelchair bound individuals to our beaches uh that's not excluding others but two meaningful access points which will include not only these pickup and drop off areas but um but things like greater Moby mat access on the beach uh right now we've had four foot wide MIM mats and that's not a heck of a lot of width for a 3-foot vehicle you got about 6 inches on each side if you're in a wheelchair and you could fairly easily run off the mob mat so we will be creating greater access to the beach area for wheelchair bound individuals um at at two locations to be determined um and uh I just want to give everyone a heads up we are the burrow council is uh engaged in conversations with an old friend I don't know how many of you might remember but a number of years ago four or five years ago we hired an organization called host compliance and host compliance what they do is they evaluate uh in any given municipality in this case in in uh Bradley Beach U how many organiz how many homes are advertising short-term rentals and the reason this is a very important function is because we do have a a registration ordinance in place that anyone who's renting uh short-term long-term whatever has to just fill out registration information for the burrow um it's it's very likely that not everyone has registered yet what shortterm what host compliance does is they look at short-term rental advertisements across 70 some OD websites and they will identify to the burrow who's advertising short-term rentals and we'll be able to match that up against our registration forms to make sure that we've got everybody accounted for um but it's going to be a very proactive process to make sure that we have 100% participation in uh complying with our ordinances so very excited we you'll probably hear more about that at our next meeting we'll probably have a proposal to actually hire that organization as we did a number of years ago um and then uh the administration at that time uh canceled that contract but we're looking at reestablishing that and finally and probably most exciting um our Bradley Beach Elementary School third graders have officially scheduled to uh come out to the the burrow to uh municipal offices and learn about uh municipal government on February 27th and uh While most of my colleagues know about this you know they will all be officially invited to um to flaunt the uh the rules about uh get Gathering as a as a quorum uh because we're going to meet these third graders and we're going to introduce them not only to the governing body but also to a lot of our department heads hopefully get to experience what it's like to be on a fir truck and maybe a first aid ambulance and uh and probably learn a lot from our business administrator Mr dhy uh because you've got a youngster I there yesterday who's pretty good in basketball and let him know that there's a lot of different career paths they can follow um so anyway that's going to be a lot of fun that's scheduled for February 27th and that otherwise concludes my report and we can open it up to public comment yes right 116 newk uh I guess I have two questions for the VA um one on the bond and notes for the Utility Fund it says other issue almost $2 million I'm just wondering with that other is uh so you can get back to me on what let you know off the top of your head what that is it's on page four item number six on the PO item number five the million 994 plus says other okay I'll get back I'll okay uh second thing is I know it's been briefly mentioned in the past that you were going to be issuing statements and I'm not sure if there's going to be uh whether it's going to on a monthly or quarterly basis quarterly so we can expect to see it in April yeah okay that's all I have thank you sir other questions or comments yes that's C Central Brad I want to start by saying in all my years of living here I've never seen the level of enthusiasm and excitement from everybody there's I mean not even just you know during the meeting but just in general when you talk to people around town There's a real levity that I've never experienced here and it's refreshing and it's really nice and it's clear where it's coming from and I want to start with that and I'm hoping that the further we get into um 2025 and further away from the past then we can not look back but unfortunately um I again have to read something um as the lead plaintiff in a personal civil class action lawsuit I intend on filing I'm serving the barland Bradley Beach and Larry Fox tonight with the other tour plane the sixth one um as previously stated this lawsuit is open for any Resident to join this tor claim pertains specifically to the improper and illegal impaneling of thear of Bradley Beach Municipal land use board by Larry Fox on January 1st 2022 during the reorg ation meeting regarding the seventh tour claim I'm I served tonight that I mentioned earlier I encourage you all um to listen to yourselves you can find the video that I was speaking about on my YouTube channel undering Beth Kepler and you can watch the video dat 12125 for yourself I can provide anybody interested um upon request for type transcript um of that conversation and uh we've been lied to for a long time and not just by Larry Fox to provide some context on the six t this issue arose subsequent to the merging of planning and the zoning boards and it's important to remember Larry Fox was vociferously opposed to the merging of these boards into one single land use board on reviewing comparison of the videos regarding the processes in which the 2022 board and the 2025 board were seeded I soon realized impropriety had occurred in 2022 and continued unchecked through December 31st 2024 I've also posted relative exper excerpts from 22 and 25 Council reorganization meetings on my YouTube channel under my name Beth Kepler for your convenience by State Statute Larry Fox was required by njsa 4055 d-23 to nominate the land use board members and staggered the dates of their terms by service class and he did not this procedure was correctly followed by our current mayor ALU bosi in January of 2025 and unfortunately this was not the case in 22 Larry Fox's failure to adere to this legal requirement has significant implications every decision and variance voted on by the improperly impanel 22 land use board whether passed or not is now subject to being overturned and legally challenged for example I remind all of you of the Injustice of the matter concerning our neighbor Mr Allen Rapaport and the other neighbors on norc Avenue last year once again Larry Fox's illegal and improper processes have left the burrow vulnerable to potentially extremely costly litigation lawsuits and once again burrow the burrow and its residents taxpayers are at risk of damage due to the intentional ignoring and subverting of State statutes and Municipal ordinances as a direct result of the Larry show to quote Mr cannon in the January 21st video Box's wanton and willful disregard for municipal state and federal laws has harmed and continues to harm this farl's residents in addition to filing this cour I reported this particularly aggreg just violation to state government oversight body the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection we must hold those in power accountable for their behaviors actions and inactions to ensure such violations do not occur in the future that's how we ended up with Larry Fox and Lenny weedo and they were allowed to Reign unchecked for decades I urge you my fellow residents to join me in this class action civil lawsuit to protect our borrow our neighbors and uphold the principles of transparency accountability and adherence to the law together we can make a difference and ensure our community remains a place where Justice Integrity Prevail I'll leave you with these wise words from one of our founding fathers Thomas Payne who said a body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody what not be trusted by anybody thank you for listening thank you are there other comments or questions I'm gonna s in a real quick announcement and that is the freeze on Locker uh waiting list has been lifted so anyone who's not on a lock are waiting us and would like to join Mr dhy has made that happen for us so thank you m forgot to say that earlier and with that I'll make motion to adjourn all in favor I any you adjourn