All right. Good evening everyone. We have a regular meeting of the city council of the city of Kate May, New Jersey. We are here in the Cape May city hall auditorium. Today is Tuesday, May 20th, 2025. The time is now 2 5:00 p.m.
Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Thank you. Under the open public meetings law, notice of this meeting was sent to the Kate May County Herald and the press of Atlantic City and a copy of the agenda was delivered to each member of city council and posted on the Kate May city website and bulletin board. Notice is
hereby provided that Kate May City Council meetings are audio recorded and or video streamed live. Live video streams are posted to the Kate May city website. The city of Kate May is not responsible if audio rep recording or live video streaming of a meeting is unavailable. Roll call. Council member
Baldwin here. Council member Bodner here. Deputy Mayor McDade here. Council member Meyer here. Mayor Mullik here. City solicitor Gillan Schwarz here. City Manager Dietrich here. Deputy Manager Riggs here. Deputy Clerk Turner here.
CFO Haney here. And city auditor Costello here is present. And additions or deletions tonight. Council, I believe we do have one addition to the agenda. if you'd like me to go ahead. Yes, please. All right. We do have resolution
193052025, a resolution providing for a meeting not open to the public in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act, NJSA 104-12. This is to discuss the IIAFF Local 3495 firefighters collective bargaining agreement and health
benefits. Do I have a motion? Motion to add. Motion to add. I'll make that motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Roll call. Council member Meyer, yes. Deputy Mayor McDade, yes. Council member Bodner, yes. Council member Baldwin, yes. Mayor Mullik, yes. And I believe
there's another uh resolution that would be deleted, but we can leave that for your update. Yes. Is that okay? Okay. Any deletions, council, are we good? I I'll just start with my update. I I was going to have one deletion was for
resolution 184. Um that was for the electronic electric trolley uh bid. Uh we had had some discussions further after we put it on the agenda and at this point we'd like to uh recommend to
withdraw the current resolution 184 but in its substitute to have a uh resolution to reject the bids and uh we'll re-evaluate that that bid and whether or not we bring that back to council at a future time. Uh, probably
not in the electronic trolley version, but if if we bring it back, we'll we'll re-evaluate the program and bring it back in the future to council. So, should we make a motion to delete that? I think it should be I don't So, the the resolution that's
on there is for an award, correct? Correct. So we we would do a motion to remove I guess you would remove that resolution and then you might just want to take a voice vote tonight to verbally
authorize rejection. Okay. So first motion would be to rem remove it from the agenda. Yes. Do I have a motion to remove? I'll make the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Questions or comments? Roll call. Council member Meyer. Yes. Deputy Mayor
McDade. Yes. Council member Bodner. Yes. Council member Baldwin. Yes. Mayor Mullik. Yes. All in favor of rejecting the bid say I. I. I. I..................... Any opposed. Motion carries. Is that Is that uh effective? That's
fine. Okay. Okay. All right. With that, city manager, any further updates? Um I have a couple. First, I was going to ask um uh we have an update on the uh USS Jacob Jones Memorial. Uh John Becker wanted to come up just to say a few
words really on a an alternative location and then a further public outreach process that he was going to work on with the public. John, welcome. Thank you very much for being here. Sure. Good evening everybody. Evening. So for the record,
my name is John Becker and uh a a permanent resident architect living in town. And at the last city council meeting, we presented an idea for the Jacob Jones Memorial Monument. And since then, our committee has started to look also at at an
additional site. And what emerged as most attractive would be at the end of Beach Avenue at the Cove for several reasons. Really quickly, the the three top ones are probably that it's a much more reverent site in terms of the types
of activities that happen there. It also has direct visual access to the ocean and to the beach. And it could also have a relationship to the flag lowering ceremony that happens. And in addition to that, we believe that it's um with
the expansion of the current, I'll call it patio wall, 17 ft further to the west, there's more than enough room there to accommodate it. And I actually made a little sketch that depicts how transparent it is and at the scale that
it is. And the the site plan that is in front of you um depicts what that might look like still accommodating the shower and the fire hydrant and and the the six bike racks with plenty of room to do that. So, in order to solicit more public comment about this, because we're
really trying to be as transparent as possible as we move through this, what I'm what I've scheduled with Paul is three sessions where I would be available to either make a presentation or field questions or uh receive
comments. And those dates are Thursday the 29th of May from 11:30 to 1. And Paul, I believe this would be in council chambers. Yes. Yes. The second date would be a little different. This would be a Zoom meeting that I've already sent
a link to um Paul. We just need to figure out how to disseminate that for Monday, June 2nd from 6:00il 7:30. And then a third session the following day on Tuesday, June 3rd, again in council chambers from 11:30 until
1. And uh so there's the site plan up on the screen there. that that that's a colored version. So the the dash line that runs right through the middle of the pool um vertically is where the current wall is. The wall would be moved 17 well as as
being currently proposed. The wall is being moved 17 ft except we're proposing reconfiguring a little bit to incorporate the the circle wall of the pool. And we also would would be considering whether or not it's a pool or uh some planter of sorts. We prefer
the pool, but there we have maybe some concerns about how sand might gather in that pool. So, we're we're open to alternatives. So, that's pretty much it. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thank you, John. Appreciate that. And I think um having you know
that public input on three different meetings is great. So, we appreciate that very much. Sure. And so what we'll do is we'll I'll work uh with Casey and Erin. We'll get this up on the this information on the website and through social media to to let the public know of those days and the um the Zoom links
to have that available. So Paul, since you're planning and John uh having in chambers, do you want people to register to know if that will accommodate it versus having it down here in We can't have it down there. Well, I mean we'll see how it goes. Okay. We have some other functions going on on those days
down here. So, we'll see if we can if we get too many people, we'll we'll find an alternative for them. Yeah. No, it would be and and I would, you know, encourage the public to attend. Um, you know, so that they can hear from you about the vision of what this memorial is to be
and to get input on the location is critically important at this at this juncture. So I would encourage people to um I'm not sure what any other backup alternative locations but anyway um good you know so for folks who can't make it that's why we wanted to have a zoom
session so that could be interactive and we could make the presentation online. That's terrific. Right. Okay. Okay. Thank you John. Thanks for thank you city manager. Any uh further updates? Just really wanted to give some project updates um as we approach Memorial Day
weekend. We're trying to clean some of these projects up. So, they're kind of cleaned up. If you've obviously if you've been down on Washington Street, the brick crosswalks, they've been putting the final touches on them today. Um, so they're in good shape. Uh, they've installed gas lamps on Franklin
Street. Uh, still got to do some cleanup with them. Uh we have the AM church dedication on Thursday next or this Thursday uh 5 to 7 uh to do the full dedication of the uh AM church and the
prominade work really progressing along we've opened up two of the new ADA ramps um and uh as they move away from the uh you know we're opening up more parking as the seasons open. So, they're the contractors condensing their work
locations and uh after Memorial Day, they'll probably be buttoning up the first or second week in June and then they'll be totally out of the city uh until they return in the fall to start up that project. So, just wanted to give the council a quick update on those
projects that we're moving forward. Thank you. Thank you, city manager. Uh city solicitor, any updates? Nothing tonight, mayor. Thank you. City Council updates your old business. Okay. M Mr. Mayor, I asked for uh us to
discuss uh ordinance 556 2005. This is the ordinance uh regarding what's prohibited conduct in the park and recreation area to regulate the use of the Lafayette Street Park nature trails. Since the last meeting, I've received a number of emails and personal
communications um that people are in fact uh not in favor of allowing dogs back there. Um some of those people do include uh the board of education members and um also when I when I one of the things
a few of the things that the board of education members want to know about is is there in fact going to be trails? We discussed that at the last meeting. Will there be be gates? Where are they going to be located? When will they be be opened and closed? Um, and then one of
my personal concerns is is if the dogs were there, we would have to put the fence in the back of the elementary school to keep them from reaching their property. um that that area the most of Lafia Street Park is leased to the city, but that location where the trails are
is um we have a uh we own it, right? They they sold it to us for a dollar. So, I I think um I I would like I mean I'm prepared to make a motion to reconsider this and not allow dogs there. Um I am aware that there is a
person there is the solicitor from the board of education present right now. Um if if he had something to say, I would make the recommendation to have him speak sooner than later to save the board of education his fees. That's
that's fine by me. Um my understanding was that uh our city manager had been in contact with the board of education in regards to the fence and the gates and all that. Yeah, the schools I mean we're putting a fence across the entire back. that is a a change from the original
contracts and they will control the gate from the school property to the um to the trail. So um the school is fully aware of that well that aspect of it seems like some of that information has not reached to actually the board members
understanding. Well, I there again, I transmitted that to both the superintendent and the business administrator. So, I I can't relay how they transmitted over to the their board, but I you know, that was given to uh the superintendent and the board as
far as the revised fencing location. Uh Mr. D, do you know when those two items would be installed? Do you have a a timeline for We have probably over the next couple weeks. Okay. Um, and is the city paying for both of those? The
fencil on the back? Yes, that's part of our project that we're that we're paying. And the fenc and the gate also. Yeah, the gate was always part of the project. We just we just had to change the original gate kind of was a little bit connected at the beginning part of
the the school. The school asked us if we could continue the fencing along the entire back just in case, you know, there are some open areas in the the wooded area and they just wanted to they were concerned about people coming from the woods from the trails and coming up on the school property
which makes perfect sense and um so yeah, we talked to the contractor and we're just still waiting for them to get a final word from their fence contractor. We anticipate it within a very short time period that it's going to be installed and and school will be letting out soon, too. So, correct.
Right. So, Councilman Meyer, I mean, that that addressed some of your um the concerns you raised or there were still others, though. Correct. That's correct. Yeah. Um, I know we've discussed how Kate May doesn't enforce many of its dog rules currently, but when I went take a
walk on the trails on Saturday, there was dog waste in the middle of the trail just like we expected. And even even if we put up a sign and said no dogs, at least we can hope that most people are going to abide by that sign. Um, I I just the safety
and here's the other thing. I don't know if I mentioned this recently. Two days after we passed this ordinance to allow dogs back there, a friend of mine had his face bitten off by by a dog at his work site. This person's in their their
30s, okay? You know, and then when he was trying to pull away from the dog, put his hand in front of the dog, the dog ripped up his hand just as bad. And um if that can happen to an adult male, you know, at their in their prime, you know, we can only imagine what kind of risk we have to children in
that area. So, I I don't know if we want to hear what the solicitor of the board of education has to say. I'm prepared to make the motion. I I uh encourage the the council to vote in favor of my motion. Um I'm happy to hear anybody else's
concerns. Sir, I'm I'm sorry. Uh I don't know the solicitor. Mr. Barrett. Mr. Barrett. Hello, Mr. Barrett. How are you, sir? Feel feel free to come to the microphone. Well, as I told uh pardon me, as I told, as I emailed council for
the city this morning, I wasn't planning on speaking, but I guess a lawyer will never give up an opportunity to speak, so I'll take it. Um, yeah, just, you know, to echo um, you know, Shane's uh, comments, the board shares a lot of his concerns, especially about the dogs. Just it's a small walkway. Um, you know,
multiple dogs, especially in the summertime. you know, we've all walked around and seen, you know, the dog population increase as the human population uh increases in the summer. So, the board does echo um a a lot of uh Shane's comments uh from from the other night from last week at the board
meeting and also tonight. It's it's a safety concern. It's not anti-dog. Um it's also, you know, a health and safety uh concern as well about dog waste. Um, so, you know, again, I really was not prepared to make comment tonight, but you know, to echo what Shane said, the
board does support uh support his his comments and his um in in his uh you know, considerate, you know, suggestion for a reconsideration of the ordinance. Thank you. Um, so I'm fine reconsidering this. I
don't think we should do it at the table right here. I appreciate if we could just have the solicitor come up with an amendment to it and have it at the next meeting. We just did something like that. When it comes to the Charlie bids, okay, you don't necessarily All I All I
ask for is a little heads up on this stuff. That That's all I'm asking for. I'll vote for it. I'm telling you, but I'd appreciate if we did it through the normal procedure, which would be the solicitor writes an amendment, we all look at it, view it, and then have it at the next agenda. Well, that's all I'm
asking for. I I I'll I'll vote. It is technically on the agenda. Maybe not for resolutions, but for discussion. The what you were referring to was the what the resolution that we we removed. Um the ordinance. I mean, yeah, this is
an ordinance. So, um Oh, well, yeah. Yeah, it's it's an ordinance. I Yeah, I think it's a little maybe a little bit different. Um maybe what we can look at doing is voting to have it put on the next agenda as far as an ordinance. Well, it's going to be it's going to be
law uh June 3rd, I believe. Yes. And then and then would not be until July. So h how would that work? Uh Mr. Schwarz, I um we we just procedurally we just adopted uh we just adopted an ordinance
providing for conduct on the trails. Mhm. That's adopted. So 20 days from passage that'll be effective. June 3rd. June 3rd. Um the the procedural next step here if we want to revisit what's in
that ordinance as adopted would be just just to do an amendment like any other ordinance. I prepare an amendment to it and it'll say if you want to take the dogs out, we take the dogs out and that'll follow the same track as the original adoption. Can Can we start the timeline tonight or do we have to wait
until the next meeting until our next meeting? I don't I mean we could we could potentially consider it's so soon after we did that that we know what we're doing. Are we eliminating section two of what we just adopted? It's we just discussed it last
meeting. So I'm okay with that. Let me put it that way. If you want to, I can put together an amendment to be uh adopted on first reading tonight and the publication would be essentially section B2 that was in the
original one would be eliminated and then we do publication and then we come back for second reading of that. Okay. It's a unique situation but we just adopted this thing. It's already been in the public sphere. Well, I think it should come back that way. I mean, first off, if it's if there
is going to be an amendment, other people should have an opportunity to comment on it as as well, just I mean, rather than changing it on the fly based off of this. And I I understand the position that, you know, that's being taken, but there are people who would be
caught off guard by the city making this change after just having passed the ordinance. And I'm in favor of it. if if some you know if those that would be in favor of it and anticipate taking their dogs out there to u understand why it's being changed in
this manner without having had the opportunity to uh to weigh in on it and candidly even if it is a short amendment I'd like to have the opportunity to see how it's written into into the ordinance as well the just be removing language
um the second reading meeting will be the opportunity for people to speak. And here's here's the other thing, folks. We did this ordinance. I I don't understand why we did this ordinance. Four out of the five of us I
thought agreed with me even though our votes weren't any other way. I was very clear that I was committed to bringing this up again. I mean, it's also in the front page in the newspaper. Well, let me just I'm okay with the the
first time I heard anything about anyone on council being upset about dogs on the nature trails was during second reading when when that was the first time I heard I I had no clue. And had I known that ahead of time, I would have changed it. I just want to be clear about that.
Uh now it's on as an old business update. That's fine and and I'm fine to talk about it, but it is an ordinance change. I just want to do it in in the in the manner of allows it's that it's on the agenda as an ordinance change. Everybody gets a chance to comment on. I'm telling you right now, I have no
problem taking dogs off of it. I I don't but let's just do it through the right process and I'm fine with that. I'm just making it very clear that I don't understand why we did this ordinance when we have 32 line items of what was prohibited in the city of Kate May already in effect. I think the reason it
was done last time was to get let's get some ground rules in place for the nature trails because there was other things in that ordinance that I think everyone was on the same page about the dogs was a second kind of B item on that. So, but the options are we can
expedite this tonight in a sloppy fashion or I can draft something that's clean that everybody can look at just like every other ordinance amendment we do and it's on the next agenda and it would essentially just confirm elimination of the dogs portion. So, um
Mr. Gillan Schwarz, I I would prefer going through the due process. I do hear you, Councilman Meyer. I was somewhat hesitant. Um, you know, I think I relayed that I was concerned about the small proximity of space and and small children walking coming up with a dog approaching them. I myself, you know,
um, sometimes I'm concerned about proximity and location of a dog when, you know, you just don't know. So, I think each of us I went ahead and voted yes for it at the time because I didn't want to appear as if I don't like dogs because it's not that I don't like dogs. I just don't know every dog out there.
Um, so I would think I do think that there's something to be said about the fact that we should try and go through the process so it doesn't appear that we're trying to maybe short change this um in the middle in the midst of it's just been approved as an ordinance. That's fine. See, the issue is next that
we have we as a city council have to give direction to the city manager to give direction to the chief of police to what we're doing now. Okay. Yeah, fair enough. And the chief is sitting here and um just done that, but now we just have to do another informal motion. So, I make a formal motion that the city
manager does not uh uh allow dogs on that path and to direct the chief of police to not allow dogs on that path and to give uh uh notice to the board of education that dogs will not be allowed on that path when the date of uh June
3rd comes around. So, um Chief Fashall, you're here listening. you were here the last time when we discussed this. I think you actually encouraged that we consider not having dogs back there for some of the other reasons. I don't want to put words in your mouth and call you out in a
meeting, but um yeah. So, um at this point, is that something that you feel you could execute on or is that not perceive? Well, we before we start having a discussion back and forth again and then this is why I want it on the agenda as a as a full discussion. Look,
first off, here we have a $2 million project that was like a 90% grant that is an absolutely beautiful project that people are going to love. If people really have a problem with dogs on it, I'm okay. Let's get rid of the dogs,
okay? But let's just do it through the process that that that we do for every other ordinance. Um, so that's fine. And look, I want to say this, too. Had I heard anything about anyone having any problems before second reading, it would have been amended prior to that. So
there's no secrets here. There's no one trying to force this through or anything. I just want to go through the normal process that we go through for every ordinance. That's all I'm asking. Um so and also all I'm asking is it is a beautiful project that I hope we hear from the school board about how thrilled
they are to have this behind their uh school because it is wonderful and and for the school children to be able to learn about ecology and the environment right behind their school I think is a wonderful thing. So I I don't want to lose focus on all of those important
things and when we talk about dogs let's put it on the next agenda. We'll get rid of the dogs and move on. Are we okay with that? And get on. Hang on. That's what Yeah, Shane has a motion on the floor right now. So, give direction to the city manager. I'm fine with that. That give
direction to the city manager. It's not open yet. No, no one should Right. And that's what I'm saying. Is this a stop gap for right now until we're able to go through the process? No one people or dogs should be on it at this point. So, I'm I'm fine with saying no dogs, but no
one's allowed on it. until until the city says it's open. I mean, we're waiting for the completion of the project. Well, I did what I could, so it's on everybody else's hand. I agree, Shane. I agree with you. So, no dogs on there until uh the ordinance is
brought to the table, which is fine because it's not going to be open anyway. Is that is that a second to the motion or is that just a I'll second the motion. Do I do I have any questions or comments? Roll call. Council member Meyer, yes. Deputy Mayor
McDade, yes. Council member Bodner, yes. Council member Baldwin, yes. Mayor Mullik, yes. Okay. And and truly, I'm not trying to shorten it, but we have the budget on the agenda, too. And I think that's important to get to that, but I appreciate your concerns, Mr. Meyer. Um, on to presentation of the
security cameras, gridless. Do you track dogs with these security cameras? I hope so. We do. Welcome. Good evening, mayor and council. Uh public residents as well. Um G Fash here for you again. Tom sitting
in a little chair. Uh I'll introduce left to right uh Rachel, Tom, and Alexis. Um Rachel and Tom are from Gridless. Uh they sell BATA cameras. Um and Alexis as well um is from Vicata. So she's a rep for Vicata. Um few years
back we looked at um tightening up security for the mall parks and any city- owned properties in the city. Um the biggest thing for us was the retail theft uh on the along the mall uh that we wanted to kind of zero in on and narrow in on. So we in conjunction with
the mall merchants to bid um we kind of came up with a collaborative plan to get more cameras out there kind of not be the big brother but at least look at the project. So, um I'll let Tom and his team um kind of push through their PowerPoint and then give you a quick
demo of uh the camera system that we're we're in phase two or three of it. We're going to be stretching along the beachfront, the mall area, our parks, um our new police department at some point here shortly. Uh and we'll go from there. So, I introduce Tom and Gridless.
Thank you, Chief. Thank you, everyone. I uh appreciate the time. We will keep this short and if you have any questions at any time, please interrupt me. Not a problem. Um, Tom McNeil from Gridless. We are a uh security camera integrator
out of Pence, New Jersey. With me today, I brought Rachel who uh heads up our logistics and install. And from the Vicata end, I have Alexis here who is the rep to Cape May. Sir, could you bring the microphones closer to you, please? More for the people in the back
to speak right into it. Sorry. I was a high school basketball coach and I figured it was gonna project. There you go. And I was wrong. Thank you. Sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. So, um, we put this little slide together for you and I had a really great picture up there of
Kate May and I clicked on a button and it just went away. I'm really sorry. So, you did? Great. That's great. That's great. So, um, what we have done and so we'll go through this real quick. Gridless. Uh we started out we are a battery company at heart. We started
about 13 years ago making um batteries for the military. Uh they were in forward operating bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. So these are tried and tested technologies. About six years ago we got into the security space. Uh no thanks to
me. and we have been working uh diligently to to to to bring this um technology that Vicata has to the public. Okay. Um as you can see some of our uh customers here. We won't sit on
that too far. If anybody sees this picture and recognizes it, this is a slide that we use in all of our slides. And that is a a beautiful install done by a not a great tech. That's me. And that is right along your uh your your boardwalk area there, right by um a
steakhouse. I'm told I need to go to primal and I just can't get in. But that is our unit. Uh so so that is what uh what Grid List does, right? We we give you the ability to put cameras in locations where traditional camera
systems are unable to go. With Verata, we can put a camera literally anywhere. We can bring you power. uh we can tap into power and what that does is that their their technology has your cameras recording on the edge. Everything's recorded at the
camera. All we need is an internet connection from that camera. You're getting retent about 30 days retention on on on your cameras. You're getting analytics of vehicles, people. Um you can do a search. You can literally do a
shirt a search for somebody that says, "Show me a guy wearing a white baseball hat." And it will scrub your all of your cameras and present to you what you're looking for. Okay. Um, again, what grid list, right? A little redundant maybe,
but we're all in one. We can put a camera anywhere you want. If you have a location where you don't have any infrastructure, we can do solar battery communications and put a camera wherever you want. Why us? I believe that we are the
leaders in this area. You can go to a security trade show and you can see a bunch of different vendors putting a a battery inside of an enclosure and tell you that they can do what we can. But the uh the the difference with us is the
secret is what our cameras or what our system can produce for you over a very long period. We expect these devices to be in the field for in excess of 10 years and provide you with enterprisegrade infrastructure being
power and communications. Uh as you can see and and and uh the chief and Paul have seen the work of our install crew to me is is is second to none. I was a customer way
before I was part of a an a security team and our install in in-house install people are are second to none and I think the city has has seen that through this project. Uh this is just a little um example of some of the views that we
have along the Washington Street Mall and we are getting um a ton of data to protect those areas. Not only are these reactive, but they can be proactive, too. You can literally take this and say to me, "Hey, if somebody was lost, you could put a picture of somebody up
there." It'll actively search all of your cameras for you to see if they detected that person inside of your camera. Quick question, just looking at that graphic up there, is it is this a 360 camera? So, it's a So, the cameras along the mall are what we call the
multi-ensor. There's four individual heads. Mhm. So when the camera goes up, it looks clean, but you can then take the four images and move them to the the shot that you want to see. Okay. So it will do the fifth and sixth. I'm I'm
assuming it'll do a 360. Is that So it only the range of motion you're probably talking 270. Okay. Okay. Okay. Uh Paul's the engineer. He probably do a much better job at that than I can, but I believe that to be true. So, we can't get the the imagers to go all the way
around the back because normally you're on a pole. So, we're kind of limited then by the mount and the housing. That's all. Just I was looking at that. Yeah. Thank you. Sure. If I can just add something too. So, for the mall, what we did is we actually went every other pole and sort of
zigzagged it so that you have coverage. Yep. across the whole entire So, this is an example of what we're going to have along the boardwalk uh once there is there's some poll work that has to be done. And what we're doing is we're coming out of some locations with internet and we're going to put a a wireless signal down the
boardwalk so that we can leverage the internet that is that you're currently paying for to get those cameras up and recorded and into your system. I believe there's still some some other work that has to be done uh before that is completed. That current picture is your lifeguard headquarters. That's uh we
that's that is an actual picture of your cameras. We'll show you in a minute, but that actually is looking um toward the west, pardon me, the east on the prominade. Obviously, the construction going on, but it goes east west. I hit Grant Street and I have cameras on the back side of um Beach Lifeguard
headquarters. Uh we've also put some stuff at some playground areas, right? So, this Kowanas Park has some uh cameras around there all doing the same thing. And these are all if you think of these these are all they're all spread out around the city. But these are this is one login that you can literally do
from anywhere. This is a browserbased system. The chief can be at home and if he needed to fire up his laptop and see the cameras like he is sitting in his office currently. Just to go back on that, pardon me, Tom. Uh on that specific park we have and
there's two areas right now that we currently do. There's license plate readers on that Kuanas park. So, any vehicle that pulls into that park on the near the restroom and in the main entrance, this is a discussion that the mayor and manager and I had when we first talked this up. Obviously, there's children there, vehicles pulling in.
We'll grab tags. It'll go into the system. I can if there's a problem, I can go in, punch a tag in, or at least say what tags were in that park from this duration to this duration. We also have it on Ocean Street currently looking both ways on Ocean Street up Washington Street there that we have uh the same LPR technology that we have in
our vehicles for our police cars is in the system and we can search for a tag. We can hunt for that specific tag. If we have three letters, two characters, it'll hunt for those two characters. And anywhere in the city that the these cameras are, even on the beachfront, it's going to find that tag and pull it into the system and say it was here on
this date at this time. That's a that's a great point, Chief. So, that being said, you can also set like if you had if the PD had an had an issue with a recurring visitor, let's say that they wanted to be notified. You can actively put in there a license
plate of interest, you can even put a a person of interest. If you had somebody go into a park or or even around city hall and they have been a problem in the past and you just say, "I just want to know when that person's here," you can set that up in the system and it'll
again watch all of your cameras for you. This one here is an example um out by the bridge and I forgive me uh of the exact address, but out of that location, there is no uh infrastructure for us to be able to use. So, that is one of the locations that we're going to put in a
solar unit for you. That'll have a an LTE modem in it and communicate over the cell network and that camera will appear again with that one login on your single pane of glass as a camera that looks like it could be connected to your network. What he refers to there is the West Kate May bridge and the Kate May
bridge on the inlet. So we're an island here. So when the manager looked at this project, he said, "I need to make sure we had a fire hydra hit." There's really really we had a fire hydrant hit near Riggins and he's like, "We couldn't find the vehicle because our ALPR couldn't pick it up. We had a very grainy video." He's like, "I need to see coming and
going of this town of this island. Both bridges in conjunction with Lower Township Police Department and the county. We'll have Westgate main bridge covered basically coming over the bridge going out. This is foot traffic. This is bikes. This is cars. Anything that goes over all day, all day, all night. Same thing on the in the landing area where
our current ALPR cameras are. You'll see you'll notice them now cuz I'm telling you where they are at the tuna club. They're on the polls as we go out the polls of City Jones. We're going to tap into the power on these two polls. Listen, we're not trying to be big brother, but we're capturing everybody coming into Kate May and everybody leaving back and forth. That's the whole
goal here. So, again, just a little shot from the mall. Um, apologize. cuz I I'm the one that put that in. You even have Charlie in there. It's a terrible It's a terrible Charlie Coleman's in there. It's a terrible job. I did a terrible job there. But luckily, our install team
came in and cleaned all that up for us. What you'll see there in that picture there, you'll see the, you know, some of the infrastructure on the mall had to change a little bit. We have to keep up with time. We couldn't make it all historically looking. Sorry, already left. But no, just before you go on, Chief, I think we need to look at our
signed ordinance after looking at that photo if we're going to talk about another ordinance at the next meeting. But sorry, Chief, go ahead. Yes. Sorry. He's going to show you the some of the actual cameras. So, I will bring up um for me it'll be I think the best one of the best views is uh the mall. Um to
me, and I actually said to Sorry. No problem. You have to reconnect. No worries. Oh, at least it was at the end of your PowerPoint. No, you're good.
These are actual live photo of your current camera system right now. So, here we are here along the mall and you can see everything's broken up into the the blocks, right? So, if we took, let's just say we take this as an example here. Um, if you were going in here and
you said, "Hey, listen. I needed to look for somebody and you're not quite sure who." I can go in here and say, "Hey, I can give the date, but we know we are not sure. You know what? They told us the upper body was a red shirt." So, it's going to scrub this. It's going to
give you, it's called a fuzzy search. It's going to give you a little bit more. You're going to get pinks. you're going to get some versions of red, but it the idea is it it it really takes the investigative time down for the PD or anybody looking for this and it shrinks that. Right? So, this these are the kind
of analytics and even with there are some cameras and forgive me I will bounce back here to one of these that have a view of the street and the good thing is too one of the if the mall merchants become they have cameras in their buildings. They have cameras in their
buildings. They can supply us. Our patrol division goes out there. Hey, someone just stole something from my store. They can give us that photo. We can input it into this photo. Just upload it. It'll hunt from that photo in this system. So, it'll do a face search or you know, if you you have a grainy picture of a young lady stealing
something, you put it in there and it's retail theft to them is huge. So, I you know, not to everyone here, but to these businesses, that's their money. And we don't like theft in our town. So, if we went in here and we just said, "All right, listen. I want to see. Um,
here's a vehicle. I'm not sure, but again, they told me that it was a green vehicle. So, again, this is going to go through here. It's going to scrub this and spit out the vehicles. It even picks up a golf cart. That, and I've tested this. It actually picks up
scooters. Good. I know. I know. But again, this is the type of system. Now, the the brilliance of this system, and that's just for me on my end, I I've supported camera systems at a pretty large level. The fact that you can have a system like this that goes out along
the city and you don't have to have a bank of servers here that your IT team has to manage. Um, the beauty of with Vicata is that their warranty is second to none. If that camera drops off tomorrow and we found
it's just a defective camera, you're under a license, they ship you a camera, it's overnighted the next day. And it's it's already happened. We've had a camera go down and it's been that quick. Literally, you know, pretty much the next day I have it. Then the team is here to put it in. So, could you show them a tag or search for a
tag? That's Kowana's Park there. Looking for the ALPRs or the license plate readers in that park there. So, I click on LPR here, and it's going to give me the different Here's the tag that came with that. And if I click on it, it'll it'll give me the actual
uh video of that camera going through. I think there are some other along uh Ocean Ocean Street. That one right there. Right here. Yep. We're just picking up some of our main drags. We're we're and we can cover
from the boardwalk. Once the boardwalk camera's up, you'll still get this type of technology to search for the tag and the vehicle type. So, if you you can show them a tag or a video of a tag. And one of the one of the things about this too is if you needed to save this video with your license, you download the
video and it doesn't go anywhere here. It goes to AWS, Amazon Web Services in the cloud and that is stored for you. It never goes away. It never gets deleted again. It takes the pressure off of the city to be managing a very large I mean you're talking terabytes of data that'll
load a map where that tag was at some point here. It'll load the map in there but it shows it it does a zoom in on the actual tag then the location and it just it's just a tool uh that we can use that we've already used looking for hitand-run vehicles like they got the first three letters of a tag we've
actually found them on the system. So any questions and your buildings and properties too. Your your public works on the system currently right now. Convention hall is on. If you could show them convention hall please. Convention hall is on the system. This currently it kind of started also too with some of the the staff in this building. We
wanted to cover the and protect them so we have access control on the system so we can unlock this building once we get the rest of the once we get the front door fixed and get the the new front door on. That's the last step. we can lock this building down and have access control to lock it down at a certain
hour. The employees will have um on their cell phones their their device to get get in so we can lessen the keys walking around. This is a picture of convention hall area. Um Michelle's office, Miss Samson, she's got the beach tag stuff going on there. We see people walking, coming and going. Again, to the
public, we're not looking to hunt you down. We're just looking to protect our citizens and our residents and and our people and our businesses, our properties. These are all taxpayer owned properties and we want to you know there's there is vandalism. We had a recent act of vandalism with our bathrooms um with spray paint and it
took us a little while to hunt them down. This system wasn't in place just yet but interior buildings is here as Tom can show you. So we've also done uh Stone Harbor. We've done Stone Harbor. We've done the K County bridges also. So the these cameras are all up and down
the coast with you. That's great. Any uh questions council? That's an excellent overview and um I think you know one of the reasons chief you did a lot of work to get this going as well. So we appreciate it. Uh Paul, thank you very much for your support and uh I think it
was important obviously the taxpayers to see what they're paying for but also see how good this technology is. I mean if you're going to steal something and if you're going to go again I'll end on the statement. If you come down on vacation, don't leave on probation. We'll get you.
Pretty simple. Thank you, Chief. Thank you all very much. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, with that, we're on to ordinances for introduction. Tonight we have
560-2025, an ordinance amending chapter 7 of the Kate May city code regarding meter parking and incorporating the AM church parking lot for Do I have a motion? I'll make that motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Any questions or comments, council? Roll call. Council member Meyer, yes.
Deputy Mayor McDade, yes. Council member Bodner, yes. Council member Baldwin, yes. Mayor Mullik, yes. And 561-2025, an ordinance amending section 42 of the city code to update the policies and procedures for the protection of trees in the city of Cape May. Do I have a motion? I'll make that
motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Any questions or comments? I would just thank the solicitor for moving on this so quickly. And thank commission. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Meyer, and the shade tree commission for getting this together. Solicitor. Thank you. Any questions or comments otherwise? Roll
call. Council member Meyer. Yes. Deputy Mayor McDade. Yes. Council member Bodner. Yes. Council member Baldwin. Yes. Mayor Mullik. Yes. We have an ordinance for second reading and consideration for adoption. We have 558-2025, an ordinance to exceed the
municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank for the calendar year 2025. And we have a public hearing tonight. Mayor, we have a public hearing on ordinance 558. Is anyone wishing to speak on ordinance 558? Seeing none, we can close public
comment. Do I have a motion? I'll make the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Any questions or comments? Council. Roll call. Council member Meyer? Yes. Deputy Mayor McDade? Yes. Council member Bodner? Yes. Council member Baldwin? Yes. Mayor Mullik? Yes.
Moving on to the municipal budget resolutions. Uh, first we have 177052025, a resolution authorizing the reading of the 2025 annual municipal budget by title only. Do I have a motion? I'll make the motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Any questions or
comments? We do this every year. Roll call. Council member Meyer? Yes. Deputy Mayor McDade? Yes. Council member Bodner? Yes. Council member Baldwin? Yes. Mayor Mullik? Yes. Although it would be fun to see the clerk read the entire budget. don't think it would be. I don't think anybody would enjoy that.
So, thank you. Call me when it's over. Next, we have 178-05-2025, a resolution declaring eligibility to conduct self-examination of the 2025 budget. Do I have a motion? I'll make a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Any questions or comments?
Roll call. Council member Meyer? Yes. Deputy Mayor McDade? Yes. Council member Bodner? Yes. Council member Baldwin? Yes. Mayor Mullik? Yes. And unless we the CFO and auditor have anything to add, we have a public hearing on the 2025 municipal budget.
Not yet. This same budget that we have for public hearings is that you introduced a month ago. So tonight's the time for the public to ask any questions about it and then you decide whether you want to amend it, adopt it, your choice after that. Okay. Is anyone in compliance with all the laws as that
self-exam resolution says. Perfect. Is anyone here wishing to speak on the 2025 municipal budget? Please feel free to come to the microphone. Seeing none, I guess that's what happens when there's a 0% increase. We'll close that portion of the public
comment. Uh do we have a motion? I'm sorry. So, next we have um resolution 179052025. No worries. Um it is a resolution to amend the 2025 local municipal budget. and potentially our CFO would like to explain that or
auditor costello. You want to go ahead I'll Okay. Yep. So, we have a res resolution to amend the budget. Um we are simply pulling down from our reserve to acquire open spaces so that we can attempt to acquire the open space that is currently available
on the beach. It is a $250,000 increase to appropriations and revenues. So, it still balances. Yeah. And of course, this happened since introduction. That's why it's coming up for a minute. Do I have a motion? I'll make that motion. Do I have a second? Second. Any questions
or comments? Roll call. Council member Meyer? Yes. Deputy Mayor McDade? Yes. Council member Bodner? Yes. Council member Baldwin? Yes. Mayor Mullik? Yes. And next we have resolution 18052025, a resolution for the adoption by council of the 2025 local municipal
budget. Do I have a motion? I'll make the motion. A second. Do I have a second? Any questions or comments, council? Roll call. Council member Meyer. Yes. Deputy Mayor McDade. Yes. Council member Bodner. Yes. Council member Baldwin. Yes. Mayor Mullik. Yes. And I just want
to thank our CFO uh and our auditor uh and and of course uh our city manager, deputy city manager. It takes a heck of a lot of work to get the budget done, but um you really did a great job and we appreciate all your hard work. Thanks. Yep. Thank you. Okay, with that on to
public portions on re res resolutions only. Is anyone here wishing to speak on any of the resolutions this evening? If you are, please come to the microphone, state your name and address for the record. Stacy Shan, 928 Columbia Avenue. Um, I
have a question about resolution 182. Uh just what equipment are we running for daily beach tag operations for 43,000? Part of it was for um instead of going out for capital
purchase for uh the the kabotas or the you know the equipment you machines they to run out on the beach to drive them back and forth, we decided to rent them this year to see how that that would work out because of the maintenance issues instead of capitalizing that. These are I'm sorry. These are the uh
the kabotas that we drive that the beach taggers. We made the beach. So, how many are we renting? Two. Two for 43,000 for the not for the we did that. It was it was part of from a procurement standpoint, we
were with our normal rental place that we purchase and and our rent equipment from, we would have exceeded our allowance under the purchasing requirements. So when we utilize this vendor because we could be approaching the bid thresholds and the other
pay-to-play thresholds, the purchasing agent felt it was appropriate to just do the certification that we do this. We don't anticipate spending those kind of funds, but we have to appropriate for it and acknowledge it if if it comes up to that. We might get through the summer
and we need to rent some other piece of equipment because another piece of equipment breaks down. This allows us because we've already done the procurement process to not have to come back to council in an emergency fashion to rent another piece of equipment. Okay. Then my next question has to do
with resolution 183. Um it's the hiring of BTS Clear Services for custodial maintenance services for $42,000. Um it doesn't list what day of the week hours or location. So I was just curious for 42,000 what we what they were going to be doing. So that's
covering essentially the entire season to have two beach cleaners in the evening time uh to clean the uh conversations. Uh public works did an exhaustive search and we advertise at different price points to higher seasonal. It was just more my where
because it doesn't say location. So they're going to be after 4:00 to 10:00 or 4:00. They'll be working from 4 to 9:00 at the beachfront uh Lyall um Ocean and Kuanas uh restrooms.
So all of all of the restroom locations that are that remain open in the evening, they they'll be taken care of. They'll be taken care of and rotate around and clean them up and close. Will they will they also be doing the services for the evenings for when there's concerts? No. No. No. Just they're just doing the comfort station
restroom cleaning. Are you hiring somebody else for the for those? Typically those are covered by overtime personnel of our regular staff. Okay. And then my other question has to do with um one uh resolution 186 authorizing
change orders 1 2 3 and four for the reconstruction of city hall parking lot and cap flagghorn place. Yes. Were they one was that one project or two projects? Well, it was one project but several locations. I I didn't know how it was bid. I'm just saying it was it
was bid one as one project but several locations. Okay. because I just noticed that all the orders were basically for the city hall parking lot. Well, it's all listed, but it's all one project. Okay. I didn't know it was it was listed as a city hall project, but it was city hall cladghorn project. Okay. Thank you.
Y and just to expand upon the the cleaners public works, the the the funds for this are really to replace seasonal workers that we were unable to hire. So in in lie of hiring three or four
seasonal staff, we will forgo that use those funds that would have been appropriated for those seasonal staffs to to hire the outsourcing because public works was unable to have qualified applicants that wanted to work those schedules as well. or and the
alternative, we did not have any volunteers from our public works bluecollar staff that would work that those evening shifts to do the cleaning. So that's why we had to look at outsourcing that. Mr. Dietrich, is this
uh seven days a week? Yes. Okay. Four to four to nine. Four to nine. Four to nine. Just in season. In No. Yeah. Just in the season. In season. Yes. Yes. from essentially Memorial Day to mid September September 13th I think.
Any other uh public comment on resolutions this evening? Seeing none, we'll close public comment. City clerk, do you want to Yes. Council, anything to remove from the consent agenda this evening? And 184 has already been removed. Can Can we pull
183 as well, please? Sure. Thank you. Anything else, council? Okay. All right. Do we have a motion to accept the consent agenda? Do I have a motion? I'll make that motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Roll call. Council member Meyer? Yes. Deputy Mayor
McDade? Yes. Council member Bodner? Yes. Council member Baldwin? Yes. Mayor Mullik? Yes. All right. So 183052025 resolution authorizing approval of a required disclosure award to BTS cleaning services for custo maintenance services. Do I have a
motion? I'll make a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Any questions or comments, council? Yes. So, I pulled this because I asked for additional information about this and I I guess I want to say that the way
that the hours work out, we have one uh full-time employee that uh and then we're trying to hire seasonal employees to pick up the uh the slack on it, but there are two people that are doing the the the job. I I would love to have management go back out because we're
looking at $47 an hour between 44 and $47 an hour for two people to do this work versus the contractual $84 an hour. So I think it's it's substantial to say that maybe we want to give it another go around and we're not quite into the
season yet. We still have a month. Let's see if we can put this out to bid and see if we can, you know, uh, look at something a little bit better instead of outsourcing things. That's we we don't have enough time to put it out to bid before the season or not not to bid. I'm sorry. Just, you know, advertise for
employees. Yeah. I'm sorry. Advertise for employees or advertise for another firm potentially to give us a better cont. No, advertise for employees. Okay. Yes. Yeah. because the firm was charging at this point when I broke everything down, it's $84 an hour
for two people to do the job. We currently have a full-time person. Um, I broke that down to approximately $27 an hour and a seasonal, which I understand we can't get. I understand that's a difficult thing, but at $17 an hour,
which equates to $47 an hour for the same time frame. So, I just I just would like to see us give it another good try. Okay. Let's see if we can, you know, maybe we need to increase the salary. Um, but not it's such a disparity that I
think So, what is the rate that we're paying a full-time employee to work a 4 to9 shift? Well, that's that's he's working over that person would be working overtime at that point. Let's let's um one question. I I understand u your
concerns. Um, I'd Eric, would you like to comment or no? I I have a question for you if if you're okay with that. And it's a simple one.
Um, and that is um just your opinion on if PE you would be able to find people to do it that and it's, you know, whatever that answer is, you know. So, we have been advertising since 2024 for seasonal help. Okay. They're not coming.
Okay. Okay. That's all I needed to hear. We also at the job fair had nobody nobody job fair. You know, we we even ran over the last month, we ran an enhanced salary for that. We increased, you know, our normal seasonal help is 17
to 18 for for bathroom cleaners. We upped it to $20 an hour. Got no responses. Um and that that's when Eric did the analysis. If we we were talking about advertising at $23 an hour and that's when it became more cost
effective to use an outside source then can I ask uh you do feel that there would be three or four seasonals not hired due to this is that correct correct so right right now right now I'm short you're saying three or four so right now I am
I'm short four people right now so I basically took that you don't intend to hire them. Correct. Okay. Okay. The but okay. May maybe cuz I was on the phone with um the manager earlier. We have two people that are
doing this position in the evening time. Correct. Correct. Okay. One seasonal, one full-timer. Not in the evening. No, in the morning. I'm just saying that that that's what you estimate. That's what you did spreadsheet on. In the spreadsheet. the spreadsheet. If I would have it done with hired employees, I would need three people because I had to
have days off for employees to have days off. They can't work seven days a week. Right. So, you would have two people on at each time. Yes. Okay. And then one person off and then so I would need three spots. So those three spots are not going to get filled for the evening
shifts. That those funds that are appropriated for those three seasonals will go to the cleaning service. Okay. Is what we kind of looked at. Yeah, because the other option would be is nobody be working and the restrooms don't get clean at 2 o'clock. Well, and
is it when you're doing evening shifts, it's becomes even more challenging and so the rates even paying $23 an hour, you know, I it doesn't surprise me you're not getting anyone to work those shifts. I mean, it's unfortunate, but you know, people just don't want to do it. No. Um,
so you know, uh, when would this go into effect? Uh, they start on Friday. Oh, okay. If we if we don't if we don't enact this this weekend is not covered is not covered and we won't have So if we don't act conversations Yeah. Right. Right.
So, okay. Um, look, we're going into Memorial Day weekend and I'm the last one that outsourced any kind of work. But I look, I I understand um Councilwoman Baldwin's concerns. Look, we we just passed the
budget. We we all look at this very detailed. I hope the taxpayers understand that. We take every dime we spend, you know. Uh and I'm sorry to dump it on last minute, but I've been working on this since April 1 trying to get and the job fair that just was
hosted was really excellent. You know, I got a good amount of people attended. Of course you want more, but it certainly wasn't due to the city's I thought I saw thought it was well advertised and and uh so what are you going to do? Well, I
think it's if you feel that that confident that you're going to keep this within the budget for what's you know and that you can't get the workers and this is the alternative to be able to service you know um and where we are in the time frame I'm not sure what alternative we have um at this point.
Quick question for CGS with the bluecollar workers and privatizing this. Does that do anything with the existing contract? No, I don't think so because those positions are still potentially available. It's just that we can't fill
them. This is more of a stop gap, I think, to recognize they looked and they had difficulty finding people to do those jobs. and and we posted for this we were going to offer all of this work as overtime to our staff. Correct. And
and nobody signed up for this as that's what I would think that the union would basically say as long as you've offered it as an option to correct. As long as I offer it to the staff members first, then it's not a an issue. That was up for several weeks. It wasn't.
Okay. Those full-time those fulltimes are working the morning shifts. Eric, thank you and thank you for your problem. I know I know it's a lot. No problem. Okay. Um, so we have a motion and a second. Any other questions or comments? Just one. I would like to and
I know that this is only a year contract. Um, and then looking at what we're going to be paying this um this service to complete this work and looking what we could do it for based on the the breakout, which thank you for
that by the way. Um, Mr. Preszenski um you know possibly looking at this a little bit differently next year um and seeing how we can we can kind of keep it internally since it's only a year. Yeah, I I think um trying to look at it maybe
more in the January February time frame given your experience um Mr. for Bazinski. That way you're not getting to sort of, you know, uh, this late in the game, right? Um, being a little bit more creative with. So, I agree with that totally, but it sounds like that's what
actually happened. And you basically waited until now hoping to hire someone and it didn't happen. I mean I just just to be clear I it was really we can start this again in January but after the job fair when we should we should definitely
after the job fair when no prospects came at the job fair that's when Eric really started looking at he had the uh oh moment that Memorial Day is right around the corner. I've got no employees hired to do this job. I have to find an
alternative as a last step. I'm talking, you know, looking at the hourly rate. You know, there's sometimes you do sign on bonuses. There's all sorts of creative ways to solicit people. We could just take a run at it and say it may result in the same, but you know,
the same fact that that you would have an issue with blue contract, Mr. Could. Yeah, understood. Yeah, good point. Thank you. Just going off that off that comment is that's where we would have an issue with a blue collar contract. That's why I waited till the last minute and did this
as an alternative. Okay. So, we didn't have that issue. Thank you. Any further questions or comments, council? Roll call. Oh, council member Myer. Sorry. Don't worry. Yes. Uh, Deputy Mayor McDade.
Yes. Council member Bodner. Yes. Council member Baldwin, reluctantly. Yes. Mayor Mullik, yes. And I understand the concerns, so I appreciate it. Thank you. Um, and thank you for getting it done. Okay. And we do have one more. We added
uh 193052025, a resolution providing for a meeting not open to the public in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act and JSA 104-12. Again, to discuss the IIAFF Local 3495 Firefighters um, bargaining agreement and health benefits. Do I have
a motion? I'll make that motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Roll call. Council member Meyer? Yes. Deputy Mayor McDade. Yes. Council member Bodner. Yes. Council member Baldwin. Yes. Mayor Malik. Yes. New business. City solicitor. Nothing tonight. Mayor, thank
you. City manager. Uh just two things I forgot to update. Um the so the public works completed the beach mats today and connected from Howard and they were able to connect all the way around to the prominade. So you can make a complete
loop, walk down the entire prominade and walk back the entire beach access mats to the start of beginning as one continuous loop. So I just want to say thanks to public works for getting all of that done right before the start of the season. Just stay up here, Eric.
So, to jump on, city managers, um, with the beach mats, two updates is the new trash cans and recycle cans for the mall have came in. We started putting them out this afternoon and the pedestrian crosswalk for Victorian Towers. The poles are set. We will be putting those
signs up next week. Oh, awesome. Thank you. So, so what he's talking about, so we did have the flashing lights before. It will now be a button activated flashing lights which will make it more effective for people crossing there and alert motorists of that there is a pedestrian crossing at that so it's not
constantly flashing flashes when someone's ready to walk. Yes. Yeah. Uh Eric, I I think I speak for everyone. We I've seen all the hard work that DPW's been doing. Obviously the beach match is one of them, but it you're really the town looks great getting ready for Memorial Day. So thank you. And then I
just did want to do a final update. Uh we did relocate the um drop boxes uh from here next to city hall to to be a vehicle drop off box in the parking lot now that project was completed. That's great. Thank you, city manager. City clerk. Yes. Just a reminder that city
offices are closed uh this coming Monday, May 26, in observance of Memorial Day. Um I do not have the flyers out, but I'm sure we are still doing our Memorial Day ceremony at Soldiers and Sailors at 11 a.m. on Monday. We encourage all to attend. Um,
and then a reminder that the next meeting, the June 3rd regular council meeting, is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. And all following meetings during the summer will then begin at 300 p.m. until Labor Day. Okay. And that's it. Great. Thank you very much, council
members. Council member Baldwin. Um, just this past weekend, this town was full between the um Coast Guard community uh jazz festival. There were a lot of people in town. It was a really a a great celebration for for everything
that happens here. So, that's all, mayor. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you. Uh, Council Member Bodner, um, the Columbia University project um that they were working on regarding water sustainability and um the report that
they were were working on um they um the group has completed their their project. um they submitted a final report um that has been received by the city and candidly I think it's a you know my
assessment it really is a terrific product that they um that they put out um addressing issues of the technical and financial feasibility of the of a desalination plant. Um a really fine product um great group of of students.
So, I just wanted to thank them for the work that they did and also mention to um and thank Kate May staff that worked with them and met with them. Um I know that they were very very appreciative. I I know in talking with with us, mayor,
they they said that they were um that Kate May was incredibly cooperative. Um no no small surprise knowing knowing our staff and um everybody being interested in the issue. So um but everybody contributed their knowledge and time to that. So that was um appreciated. And
the report itself is it's up on our city website on the if you look under the environmental commission section on our website, it's it's under there. Okay. So it's there for uh for everybody to peruse at your um at your leisure. Um,
other thing I just wanted to mention is there was a wellness walk scheduled for tomorrow, but due to the weather forecast. Um, I think it's actually been postponed to next Wednesday, Wednesday at 1 at 1:00, which actually everybody's
I think people are looking forward to a sneak peek of seeing the the nature trails and this will actually give another week of progress to go towards that. So that sneak peek will be even just that much uh that much greater. So, thank you. Perfect. That's great.
Um, Deputy Mayor, uh, just to, um, echo what you've said about, um, our public works guys have been out there. I've seen them, um, really doing a nice job getting all the plants in and the flags up for the the Memorial Day. So, um, really do appreciate all the hard work,
um, and, uh, that they've they put in to to make the city shine. Thank you, Council Member Meyer. Thank you, Mayor. I'm just going to play my old broken record, but then added another another song to it. So, uh, as you all know, we put out a lantern fly information flyer
to everybody that had receives their water bills. Um, we did get an email back from, uh, a resident. My, uh, colleague George from the Shade Tree Commission went out there and once we realized what we were looking at, we were overwhelmed with how much we were looking at it. So the city manager,
myself, some members of the board are the uh shade tree commission is going to meet with the uh arborist and come up with a plan uh to to do this. So you know, we're moving kind of quickly with this because we need to move quickly, but if there's anybody else has Tree of
Heaven, uh be on the lookout. Uh we're getting ready to spend this grant money to help people with what they need to get rid of. That's great. Thank you for getting that uh going, Mr. Meyer. appreciate that. Um, I just want to wish everyone a peaceful Memorial Day. Please
join us uh for the service on on Monday at 11:00 a.m. as the clerk said. Um, and it's always a a really beautiful and wonderful service. Um, also on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. is the AM church ribbon cutting. I know that was mentioned, but
just to mention again, that really is going to be a beautiful thing to share with the whole community. And uh again, I want to thank our our uh financial team over here um and and and administration for working so hard on the budget and we appreciate all your hard work. So with that, we'll open it
up for public comment. Anyone wishing to speak on any and all things. Please come to the microphone, state your name and address. Stacy Sheen, 928 Columbia Avenue. I just have a question about the amended to the budget. So, I guess this is for Kevin
and um you said it was a reserve to buy open space for $250,000. Does that have to be put in a resolution in order to purchase that open space? I believe that's a whole separate process compared to the budget. I think I would assume it goes out to resolution that we would have to it
actually would go to ordinance ordinance. So, that if if the city was actually going to purchase land that that as Kevin pointed out, there would be an ordinance for that. Um we're not there yet. This is just to make sure that money there's an appropriation available if the city's decides to allow
us to do the ordinance in the future. That's why I wasn't sure about if it was a or just in the works. Um my next comment I just wanted to comment about the possible location of Jacob Jones at the cove. You know, the cove is a very active spot during the summertime with
bicycles and that area where the new brick is. I know it's going to be filled with bicycles because it used to be all the bike racks would be in the street. So, they're all going to be there. And it's one of the only spots in Kate May that you can actually go down and observe the water from your
car in the wintertime or people that cannot get out of their car, they can observe the water. And by putting that large statue there, I think you're just going to be blocking the view for what people enjoy down there. It also, you have to look at safety. People, if they're looking at a a monument or a
statue like that, they're going to be distracted. And there's already a lot of pedestrians in that area, cars stopping, going, unloading, and I just think it's it's a dangerous spot to put another object there for people be
distracted with and possibly injure somebody. Um, you know, I just want to suggest, somebody had mentioned to me about possibly putting it down at Harborview Park and then renaming the park up, Jacob Jones Park. There'd be a lot of parking for people that they can go
without having to pay to park to observe the the monument. I think it'd be a spot where more people could go and appreciate what it's there for. And that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Stacy. I do encourage you to attend those meetings as well.
Obviously, uh Jules, good evening. Uh good evening, Jules Rous 1010 New York Avenue. I'd like to follow up what what Stacy had to say. I I think uh uh putting a monument at Harbor Cove would would be more accessible to
people. Just just be Harbor View Park. Harbor View. Yeah, we got um the cove to me is a is a really a sensitive area and and it appears and I don't know this Paul is that is that going to be put on the rightway for the old road. That's where that's depicted. Yes. Would
be in the rightway whether it's Beach Avenue or third whichever because Beach Avenue really continues. Does that is there a conflict with with uh with the state on doing that? I mean, is that uh it would probably need a permit to put
that structure there. I mean, we don't we didn't need a permit for the bricks and what we've done because what's there currently was just replacing what was there, the extension that we're going to be applying for we feel is going to be a a a no callup letter for a permit. But
I believe if we wanted to if a monument was built there, yes, we would probably need a permit there. Yeah. because there there was such a controversial issue many years ago and a lot of discussion about that we would almost defin permit for Yeah. Yeah. So look just so you know
this I just and the whole audience is uh we were just presented this tonight just just like you. I mean so I'm sure we all have our separate opinions as well. I just I hope I hope you know that. Yeah. I'm just concerned I don't want to see another a problem created with a with a nice program. I think it's a serious
concern. Um because that as we all know the sand and and the water at that particular location is significant uh during storm periods. Jules just to share with you I I have received nothing but positive um input legitimately. So if you don't have
it, please feel free to share it with me or any council member about the um monument itself and and the of course the memorial to to I have no no uh nothing other than congratulations on the project itself. It's just a matter
of where it goes and how does it best serve the city. So I just want to be really clear from the council's perspective, not necessarily from any other group. We want to hear from the public about the location because we don't want to do this in a location where people don't appreciate it. I
mean, we want this to be Look, we'll never get 100%. We know that. We like to get to 99. So, if we can get to 99, that would be great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else? If we can get as high as our tax
collection rate is, we'll be in very good shape. My name is Mary Conn. I live at 917 Queen Street and I have lived with dogs my entire life and I've been coming to Cape Masons before I was born.
So, uh I agree we Shane and I talked today and now I agree that probably dogs on the trail which we've already walked many times at 5:30 in the morning and it is awesome. So, I hate to see it get
locked up. But anyhow, what if are you going to lock it? Is that trail going to be locked? I thought thought what I heard I thought what I heard there's there's a from the nature trail there is a a sidewalk that would leave the trail
and go up to connect to the school in in the rear. There would be a gate across that so that you could not walk up into the school property and get to the physical school. the school would h unlock that and use that for their use, but the public would not have that.
That's understandable. And I wondered, is there any possibility of considering walking dogs the way they do on the boardwalk at certain hours? Like you're you're talking for the trail. For the trail. It's just
something to think about. On the other hand, I agree. If I see somebody with a dog walking towards me on Washington or Madison or whatever, I generally cross the street because you get dogs next to
each other in a situation like that. Any trainer will tell you avoid dogs when you have your dogs, but it would be nice to be able to They love it up there. Okay. Um, then other things came up as I listen. Keep that out of the record, the
clerk. Thank you. Um, can these cameras pick up speeding? So, it would be really nice have it would be nice to have some cameras on Lafayette, particularly on Queen Street, which I know it's a small street. We
won't get a camera, but the speeding is is really bad. And somebody said, "Well, how could they speed with all these cars here?" Well, let me tell you, they speed. Mhm. And uh Lafayette has really gotten bad. 40 50 m an hour and I walk
it quite a bit. Madison also, but that's a state highway, right? They're both county roads. They're both counties. Yeah. If there's any way to encourage any type of speed monitoring on those roads starting at 6:30 in the morning,
people are speeding down there. So, that would be one thing I'd really like to see. And what is the security of the computer systems that are going to control the security cameras? Say that one more time. I'm sorry. What what kind
of security system is in place with regard to the computers the access that are going to control the security cameras. The access is is definitely encrypted, but Paul could it's it's a so the those software is not housed here at
the city. It's a it's a software login. You have to have a secure password to get in and it's got 128 bit security encryption on everything that it does. So So it's all encrypted. It's all encrypted. Yeah. So nobody could hack. Well, people can hack. You could never
say never never could get hacked. It's it Yeah. And as far as that crossing suggestion with the light, the blinking light, that one on Lafayette by the school is awesome. You push a button, the lights go on, people stop. That's
great. Um, as far as the bathrooms, the bathrooms reflect on the city as much as flowers on the mall. Mhm. And so if you I've really been impressed with how the staff have kept
up with things, but if you don't have people to get in there and clean, that's that's a reflection on the city. So, whatever you can do to hire people to clean, um, I think is really an important reflection of this city. And I want to thank George, he's not here, but
Shane and Paul for coming over today with regard to the lantern flies because we live in a lantern fly forest on Queen Street, Lafayette, Washington. and they've really Shane has really taken the handle in trying to help us get this
under control in a knowledgeable and Paul too in a knowledgeable way. So, thank you. And I've always had great quick responses from the city with regard to trash at the school or a rebart that was sticking out of a wall
at the Jefferson Street entrance, all kinds of things. So, really appreciate the quick response. So, thank you. Thank you very much. We appreciate that. Anyone else wishing to speak this evening? Stacy Sheen, 928 Columbia. I I have one
other question about the security cameras. I guess this is for Oh, Deacon left. Um, is there be any safeguards put into place on who can do these searches so that we don't get, you know, like the
people aren't abusing for their own sure sake. Police have rigorous controls just like all the LPRs and things like that. They have controls on when and how they can search. Right. I didn't know it's like a sergeant would have to sign off on a search before it can be conducted or things like that.
They have protocols for that. Yes. Well, since I'm not going to I'm not going to That's fine. I'll let the chief speak, but I'm not going to I don't think the chief is going to come up and discuss those internal protocols on who, what, why, and where. But there are protocols
within their accreditation requirements to have those safeguards in place. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else this evening, sir? Hello. My name's Ed Dixon. I live at 3507 Asbury Avenue in Ocean City, New Jersey. And again, I wanted to thank you
for all you do to honor our military veterans. I want to thank you again for your proclamation concerning the dedication of the entire month of August to our military veterans. I do need to apologize to you
for not being here at the last meeting uh for that proclamation. I did speak to Miss Ratican and she did give me the date of that, but I made a note of it and unfortunately I didn't find a note until it was too late. So unfortunately
my memory is not as good as it used to be. Um and the however somehow by the time um at any rate all right and all of you for a
oh I did want to ask all of you if it's okay with you for a copy of that proclamation. Absolutely. Uh it is important to me and others that they see how important the military is to all of you and I want to honor them. I am
looking to nationalize that month in our yearly calendars. This is my quest and I'm hoping to be able to accomplish that. I wanted to know more information
about the USS Jacob Jones Memorial. However, I uh also am here during that uh next uh presentation of what they're planning on doing with that. So, I feel pretty good about uh being here again at
that time. Uh and I was looking to see when that would be done. So, I'll be looking uh forward to signal completion as I want to see it and offer a prayer for the crew. We appreciate it. Thank you again very much. Thank you, Mr.
Dixon, we'll proceed to the him getting a a copy. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you very much. And we appreciate you and thank you um for working with our city solicitor and obviously we're happy to to pass that. So, best of luck to you, too. Appreciate that. Thank you.
Anyone else this evening? Public comment. Trish. Hello everybody. Um, I'm sorry I look like this. I was out scrubbing my porch today. So, but anyway, I just want I Excuse me. Can you say I'm sorry. Name
and address, please. Trish Turny, 719 721 Franklin Street. Um, I just wanted to talk about the dogs also on that little area. I mean, I have a dog. I think everybody knows that. And um he when he was a puppy, I took him over
here to uh the park and a big dog bit him. And he's been very afraid of dogs ever since. Now on the streets, you have a way you can get around dogs. If I see somebody coming with a dog, I immediately cross the street. If I see a
person because he's afraid of dogs, he's afraid of people. He's he's got some issues. So, I just wanted to say with such a small like area that you have of six feet, you you can't get away. And
and where I live actually like where my house is, um they're on a trail, a dog actually attacked another dog and the dog was killed. So, I mean, these are all things that you really have to consider. Not everybody's as great as I am about picking up after their dog,
too. and I see it in the streets at K May and it really, you know, upsets me. But I just think a very like because it's six feet and you don't have that space either way um to get away from a dog. I just think that it might be a wise I mean I love a dog. Like I said,
everyone knows my dog Socrates. So it might be a very good idea just to not have you know people especially with dogs too. You know, when they when kids see dogs, that's another thing. They just want to go up and they don't realize the dog may not be friendly, you
know? I mean, somebody could have their dog, just walk their dog, but if a child, especially if you come towards a dog. So, that's what I wanted to say. Thank you very much. And we we appreciate your concerns. And I just want to be clear to everyone about the action that was taken tonight. Tonight
we directed the city c the city manager to not allow dogs upon opening of of the um of the p of the nature trails and uh but we look forward to Councilman Meyer working on an amendment with the solicitor to have at the next council
meeting for which I believe all all of us have basically committed to uh to to to supporting that. So bottom line, dogs are not allowed tomorrow. They're not allowed when the trail opens and probably will be within an ordinance at
our next council meeting. So, just just be aware. Thank you. Uh, anyone else uh this evening? Seeing none, motion to adjourn. Uh, make the motion. We can close public portion and go into close session. Go into close session. Okay. Thank you everyone. Have a wonderful
evening. Thank you. Thank you. Good seeing you. Thank you. Yeah. I'll be in touch. Let's walk out the hallway. [Music] Hurry up. Uh just no action. No action. Yeah.
Good evening everyone. We are coming out of close session and will not be taking any official action. Uh with that, I'll be asking for a motion to adjurnn. I'll make that motion. Mayor, I have a second. I'll second. Thank you. Have a wonderful evening, everyone. Time is set in 15.