e e e e call this order please for flag salute States indice callant here here just for the record councilman AZ
out of state on business due to his work schedule this meting being on February 24th 20125 and is being held in compliance with the open public meetings act notice of this meeting have been provided via
the Press of Atlantic City Daily Journal November 9th 2024 as well as been posted on Municipal bulon board and website at the.org the first order of visits tonight I'm going to do uh two appointments uh first
one I appoint Cary as a member of the Recreation Commission to fill the unexpired term Cynthia Holland and next I appoint Mary Dono as an alternate one member of Recreation Commission to fill the unexpired term of Carrie Belfy uh
Carrie you're here tonight I'd like you to come up forth and take to you the office right in front she is she's there you
go good put your left hand on the Bible raise your right hand repeat after me hi Cary hi Cary do you solemnly swear do you solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the United
States of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true and that I will bear true faith and Allegiance faith and allegiance to the same to the same and to the governments and to the governments established in
the United States established in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people people so help me guide so help me gu I do further solemnly swear I do furtherly solemnly swear that I won't partially that I won't partially and justly and
justly perform perform all the duties all the duties a Recreation Commission member a Recreation Commission member according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations thank you good luck thank you
reint okay uh under my report this evening just have a couple matters to come before Council uh the first one this was sent to me in January and I wasn't sure or not if I had mentioned
that we received something from the county tax administrator was a uh good number awarded and then there's a whole process uh when I was met last time we did go through that um it's a pretty
lengthly process that involves a lot of communication with the citizens and uh there's an appeal process it's it's a whole ordeal that something that we we'll have to go through um at this point in time though
I got information from our tax assessor and we're as far as our real true value against our current assessment I have to say and I'm pretty happy that buun burrow is at
79.8% which is the highest in Atlanta County at a 23 municipalities this was just brought to my test today just yeah the good news is we're at the top which the better and closer that we are to 100% value the better we're going to get
get for the bang of our buck the lower you are the more you're going to get taxed for what I understand and have to make up there's a couple of these towns in Atlanta County like our 53.67 55.67 which um they have a lot more
ground to make up so this is why I believe in fact I would know I know pretty certain that this is being driven this new reevaluation for alll County the goal is going to be to get everybody at 100% which uh Mr cic I you you've gone
through that with the towns that you serve uh it's a lengthly process very process obviously you said mayor a lot of interaction with public visiting homes
tting and everybody's advantage to allow the inspectors to come in if they don't then they can just assume certain things that may true so and that will be
doing the assessments and it's not something that the burrow it's it's a state law that requires this to be done and we're very lucky that we're up to 80% of of we are it's it's that's amazing
yes tax assessor Lisa Pella who's really kept on things uh and I got to give her a lot of credit for this too that were're near that she's out reassessing uh on her own taking new businesses or older businesses that have improvements
so she's really keeping up with the times so I have to say that that helped in this process also so I wanted to give that to the governing body um councilman Alvarez is I told you is out of town but on his report I'm just going to give
give that all at once uh you should have get a current status of where where we're at in count and what was spent what's in the temp this is only a temporary budget but it has the expenditures up to this point and whatever balances are left so the
council should have that for the review if your departments I would say take a look at that and and review that um lastly well a couple more things I see that um they're doing a lot of drainage work off of uh Route 40 and
Central on K Lane now so that uh is a positive sign it's sort of I called today the state it's sort of indirectly what's to come but they are working on that area because you know that's a very flooded area it's an area that gets saturated and uh we're having the
state's attention right now which is very good uh lastly uh the director and I have met several times with the um Public Safety our fire chiefs and upon review you're going to get something
tonight um to act on for first reading and purchasing a new brush truck uh for the fire department the last one that was there is over 30 years old it's uh not in real good shape and the rationale
that was given to the director and I uh by the chief we felt it was important enough to keep up with the times to be ready and able to get to the fire no matter where we're at whether it's a open area wooded area this truck does
all that the good news is that what's ever on that truck as far as equipment the chief is going to be able to put onto this new vehicle so the money we're going out to borrow and this is another good news before I came back apparently
there were money left in a note that was there to purchase a used um ambulance which was not needed so we're taking that money that's already been appropriated so we're not doing a new Bond we're actually uh
reintroducing it with the money that's already appropriated with an additional 30 some th000 uh on an ordinance uh that we're going to introduce 765 tonight uh that will take us to cover
the amount being borrowed correct now the other 75 ,000 will come from dedicated funds that have already been provided through the old landersville and minola commissioner fund as you know when they dissolved the commissions that
money went back well lville went to minola Once Mina uh decided not to serve anymore that money came back to the bar into an account and that account does not go against
taxation because it was money already appropriated so again the director and I felt the need to use that money we only can use it for fire suppression correct Mr solicitor we can't use it for anything else and help defer taxation which you'll hear on our budget Workshop
session how much we took out of that to help defer taxation for the taxpayers to keep us at the lowest possible rate that we can so we're taking 75,000 out of that what Doug and I called startup money it still leaves us a little bit below
700,000 left at about approximately 1.2 million so I wanted not only to give my Council that upfront information which I was going to do tonight but I want the public to hear that because that's money that was charged to your taxes in Prior
years the 75,000 that's going to be going towards this brush truck okay I think that's about it as far as my report so at this point in time I have the public comment an opportunity for anyone to
comment with a limit of five minutes per speaker please refer to the following statement below so at this time I'm going to make a motion or entertain a motion to open the public portion of the meeting second motion Stephano second
Baria roll call Vote Yes yes yes yes yes okay at this time anyone wishing to address the mayor and counsil please come up and state your name for the record Summer Ro um just want to let you
know the firefighters are attending school with three of them and I did the math they each of them have to go to 203 mon hours of training for fire one not including the time that they spend to get down which would be about 2 hours not
including all the times they do drills and things like that at their Firehouse but anyway the 203 hours at $20 an hour comes to $4,060 per person that since you like to handle finances that this the volunteers
are doing and not only are they their services are done but they're also putting actual money that out of their pocket if you would so uh I know you this councils um you know all for our
Volunteer Fire companies and of course I you guys will also look out for these guys too you know so I just wanted to make that comment tonight and U keep up the good work thank
you thank you John sayate John thank you all of us I believe but I actually see them going past my house almost every day down to that schooling with their own Vehicles yeah yeah yeah with their with their sons in it the one has two
sons going and he drives them down back and forth all the way to uh the Canali center right Ed car yes and they're using their own gas for that that's right I mean it's just not you know and um you know the tree went down they were
5 hours out I mean this is the there there's a lot to it that these people are doing you know so I I appreciate them thank you John yeah and just a quick followup that you know again the director is on
top of that and with the fire chief uh they're doing an excellent job along with all the participants and firefighters that are in there and you know we come a long way in a year just about a year that we are now fire company and uh I got to say
director it's it's been going well um the the the dedication as John just mentioned and Pat it's it's visible and uh very transparent so we're really lucky to have a buoro Volunteer Fire Company the
way we have it so again Kudos anyone else okay see none like to make Mo have a motion for closing the public second andalore second Baria to close the public hearing roll call
Vote Yes yes yes yes yes okay now we go to ordinance number 764 it's the first one I gave a briefing under my report this is an ordinance amending amending not creating amending
Bond ordinance number 722 d223 adopted on February 27th 2023 by the bur bua in the county of Atlantic New Jersey to amend certain Capital purchases previous ly specified
therein and to briide for the purchase of a brush fire truck for the burrow bu Atlanta County New Jersey motion motion Adams second second barya any questions on what's in the ordinance or what I
presented hearing none roll call Vote Yes yes yes yes yes next we go to introduce and pass on first reading ordinance number
765 this is an ordinance of the bur buun County of Atlant New Jersey appropriating certain unexpended proceeds of the sale of the previous issued notes to finance the cost of the additional Capital Improvement and by taking related actions motion Adams
second barua any questions about that it' be 30 1,848 for the Public's knowledge 318 31,000 it's right in the uh section two
Council woman page four 31,000 848 of appropriation unexpended proceeds so that's going to be added on that will help Finance this vehicle roll call
Vote Yes yes yes yes next we go to the consent agenda this is items that include businesses which are not controversial and do not require individual discussion a motion approving the consent agenda is moved seconded and
voted upon one item at a time by the burrow Council if any discussions requested at the consent agenda item it will be removed from the consent agenda item to the regular agenda so I have the following resolutions resolution 52-25
this is a resolution in opposition of the approval of the Atlantic County Electric to increase rates more than 177% in June and call on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to reject the proposed additional rate of
8% second resolution 53-2 this is a resolution accepting the resignation of jasman Strickland emergency medical technician from the bua EMS next I have resolution 54-25 this is a resolution approving a
2025 emergency temporary budget and lastly I have resolution 5525 this is a resolution authorizing the hiring of emergency medical technician Samantha menzo next I have bills paid is
listed next is the clerk's report minutes of the regular meeting of February 10th 2025 motion motion baruya second second and delure all call
Vote Yes yes yes yes okay this portion of the meeting this is our monthly meeting where the council committees report to the mayor and to the public regarding their area the first is planning zoning and inspections
councilman jaboni uh a few things I got um I have a problem uh a code enforcement problem with 104 South Franklin and 106 South Franklin it's been an ongoing problem
for a while it's still pending in court new date February 27th so maybe we'll get get some kind of Justice sers coming in 27 um the zoning officer took
um 521 North Harding North Harding Highway which is the car sales shop on Route 40 took the court uh he was found guilty and they imposed a fine of $10,600
it's $100 a day for 106 days of illegal use and continued after being so noticed of violation the judge informed him of his rights to appeal the verdict within 20 days and offer a
nonbinding suggestion that he considered comply with the burrow code by by removing all wrecked or salvaged vehicles and requested from the court a reduction in the penalty so it's a a big fine I mean
you know I I doubt if this guy's going to pay anywhere close to this but I don't know if the problems running in he's not doing anything and he keeps bringing more stuff in and the they finally had to take them to court and
this is what the judge ruled on good I think that's good very positive got shake these people up the chicken thing over on Marlon Avenue 103 105 the notice to remove the chickens Court schedule for March the 6th
evidently they even done anything over there either about move removing the chickens and um let me see we got a land use board construction I I think there's um they approved the land use approved
consistent of nine lots and then subdivided them into three lots as far as building houses on them I guess new homes are going to be built on these properties uh it doesn't say the property where it's at but this is what Valerie told me that I guess we're
getting I saw the paperwork on there as far as the um inspectors and for the three houses that are being built on these properties I believe I didn't get where it was there's three sled for there y okay thank you
councilman then I went through the oh the U Finance off uh office I did forget this just a reminder and updates we will have a budget Workshop session on the March 10th meeting at 6: p.m so that's
going to be our Workshop session where the auditor um will be here along with the CFO and and go through with the finance committee consisting myself the council president and the finance chairman have been working on for the last couple months with those professionals and the
administrator so we will have that meeting on March 10th at 6 and again we didn't last year when I got back in I just I just didn't get to that to do that with the council uh it's not required but it's something I did when I
was mayor before to give not only the finance committee any time and input before before we actually go to introduce but that night the council all six of you will have documents that she will be reviewing and we will be
discussing uh before you have your intro vote which will take place on March 24th will be the introduction of the 2025 Municipal budget so again the 10th will be a special meeting at 6
strictly for that purpose only uh for Council to review all the pages with the auditor if you have any questions and concerns at that time I suggest you ask them that night and uh from there it's always subject to change again um I got
to be truthful with you uh between Georgia's work Dougs I've been involved with the process I think that what we're going to present that night is a very very good budget uh despite the hard times and the financial times that we're
up against right now um and we're going to be presenting a a variety of things to hopefully keep the rate down to a very bare minimum tax increase for our our taxpayers so that's just a little preview as to again George
I want him to be here he again he's been an active part he had to go out to work uh for his job tonight so that's the finance part next we go to public safety and Street Lights director Adams if I
pick up where uh John left off there are three students going uh back and forth to the fire academy uh down in a haror Township the canal Training Center um they are using their own vehicles and sometimes they're using that white uh
truck okay that we have parked behind the firehouse so they do commute sometimes with that with that white truck um EMS handled 108 calls 72 for buur 25 for
buunis of Township 10 in the city of Island and one in Hamilton eight respirator five cardiacs three psychiatric 21 Fall victims seven motor vehicle accidents three alarms three lift assists excuse me two doas 11
unconscious and 29 medical emergencies they also report that Cooper Hospital hosted a trauma class at R EMS building the class was open to all EMS agencies and during this trauma class there was a great turnout 22 EMTs and two doctors
the unit EMS will continue holding EMS classes throughout the year and a special thank you they report the unifier department for letting them borrow tables and chairs okay
and for the police department 950 calls for service 319 motor vehicle stops 204 motor vehicle tickets issued eight arrests zero DW again which is good five
disputes 15 motor vehicle crashes six well-being checks 318 business checks eight animal complaints 108 medical assists domestic calls six missing person investigations one and 28 burglar and fire
Lawns and they have a officer of the month is Officer Tyler kluski was hired by Franklin Township Police Department in September of 23 is currently assigned to the Patrol
Division on Squad c um he conducted 68 motor vehicle stops issued 60 tickets made five criminal arrests one drunk driving arrest and completed 13 motor motor vehicles stops
uh between the uh all the municipalities that they oversee and one of his motor vehicle stops led to recovery with stolen vehicle and distribution and amounts of Narcotics large amounts of Narcotics and US
currency and just another update on street lights please report them or let me know send me an email um there is a way that you could log right on to Atlantic City Electric and report it yourself and I'm not very happy with Atlantic
Electric they are very poor in responding to our outage reports and some of them are as old as 2 years old that we've been waiting for street lights to be repaired um so I just have to let them
know that I am not pleased and we're charged for them even though they're not working charge for every street light we have whether they working or not not a bad deal that's all mayor okay thank you uh council president next we'll go to Recreation councilwoman
Baro uh thank you mayor uh Recreation met on the 6th uh they elected a new president vice president and secretary uh they are hosting a breakfast at Martin's Catering um the 6th of April tickets are available that
is running from 8: to 11:00 the breakfast is $12 for adults children 12 and under are $10 and three and under are free their Easter egg hunt is scheduled for April 13th and that is going to be here at the
park and it's going to be held at 300M further events to be announced by Recreation blackw Pond uh work continues back there however today when we were back there we found damage uh someone
got through with an ATV and did donuts and made multiple spots of ruts back there they were not there yesterday so someone's back there cutting it up pretty good y um in the mode field uh
rate right where the toilet is right by the gate and right where the uh Porta poot is and that is where they dug they they must have sunk a little bit and peeled out we'll put cameras in there we're going to have to and they're getting through there's a spot where you
can get in where you have to go over a log that first area where the picnic area is there's a spot now that they've work through that they can get their ATV through so I did notify Mr neim we are going toy we have we took pictures also
so we have to block that director even the police department now maybe you could get a hold of the chief and maybe our Patrol can be a little bit more yeah more frequent Patrol and the de St we found two more
deer stands we found uh another blind that we took down uh the one deer stand that we requested is still not attended to it's um there is a deer stand in the back corner of Blackwater Pond that is
what did we figure about 10 ft on our property so it's still there uh we did ask for it to be removed and it's still there I will notify um that person again and make sure that this will be the last
request or else we'll move it last time um the uh Waterway has been started to be redone um it still has quite a bit of work that needs to be done back there however uh there is deer tracks going up
so now they're able to drink the water they couldn't get to it before so we saw that yesterday so we have that going on um opening day is going to be SCH is scheduled for the 12th at 9:00 a.m. their Parade's going
to start at clear and end at milini Park uh I did get a call from Jason Myers today he is supposed to call me later with further updates so I'll have more to that um they also held tryouts on February 6th at the high school so all levels were able except for t-ball but
all levels were there trying out for placements and last but not well I have two more things susp stainable New Jersey certification for the burrow has been submitted submitted on Friday we are one of three towns in Atlanta County
that have now submitted so we are on the top of the list for funding hopefully that'll give us anything for Green Acres or anything sustainable that we would need to purchase and also Friday's application is being worked on for the
street uh streets paths and roadways the want to come in and do a walk through that's Sustainable New Jersey if we are accepted into that program which that'll help us we can the key point if we want to do wayth road if
that study wasn't complete or something to that magnitude we can put that in okay and that completes my report thank you uh next we'll go to buildings grounds and improvements councilwoman and delore Mary I have a few things um
as you know I met with you and Bill uh to review the the maintenance plan for the buildings and grounds for this year we're still working on it and we'll meet with some employees um this the buildings are the Barrow Hall EMS bur
bua Firehouse Brazil Center and the bua Historical Society are on our list to go over the U maintenance um everybody knows spring we hope is coming soon we'll be working on um the proposal for the on and the uh
Fields with the working with bua baseball we're trying to help them out as much as as we can and uh they'll be giving us their schedule and everything will be coming forth um I understand bua baseball did have a
work detail out in the park it was like I understand at the last minutes and not too many people came to work uh they're help helping they're going to help uh bill and the road department pre prepare for the opening day okay um and all they
had taken all the signs down I believe they took them I was involved with that um I couldn't believe they took them all down and I believe they were going to power wash them at at their location and then hang them up again good uh okay and
the new president I don't know how many people know it is Carl melli as Joe fabrio resigned after 17 years believe because all his family have grown M so uh he did an excellent
job and and we're learning a lot that he did that that we're we're trying to work out now with the fields you know for updates like um irrigation system right Belle we're going to yeah trying to
figure out okay the opening day you said okay and uh mayor we we I was notified and Bill that the Joe from the engineers will be meeting at on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. to review the plans again for the
bathroom to go through with that the final so if you like you to come what is that again Pat wnes this Wednesday at 10:00 Wednesday at 10 yeah Marina yeah I'll be there okay and um
we're also waiting for two more proposals to replace the roof at the EMS building hopefully we should have by the next meeting that's that's all mayor okay uh councilman thank you and and a little what you you said tonight with uh
Mr fio service and dedication for 17 years I think it be appropriate for this body to um ask him to come and we get Nicole a certificate of appreciation uh you could take a a sample or ask Maryann and I maybe we'
like to present that to him at the next council meeting if everybody's good with that for 17 years as president would be nice unbelievable okay Council so uh Nicole you'll follow up with the administrator tomorrow uh I'm sure again
if you need some information in detail see uh councilwoman and deur he's getting operator on show okay well whatever we'll work around it but I think that you know again just to show be very nice be like a plat of
appreciation that he could take with him for his dedication of all those years serving buo little league and softball very nice mayor okay lastly we have uh roads and recycling councilman dno thanks mayor um the last snowstorm
we got um I reported last time that um the loader one of the plows got um damaged on West Avenue with the sinking and the the manhold being raised that's all repaired now okay and um all the other snow equipment is ready for the
next storm if we have one hopefully not we did get a a salt and sand delivery it's got mixed together and now put in the the salt shed um they completed moving the branches from the bin to the burrow garage and the amount will be calculated
and added to uh the tonnage Grant and the leaves are now being removed from the leave bin and delivered to the farm farmers and this total will also be calculated and added to the tonage Grant and that's all I got okay thank you
councilman okay next any unfinished business to come before mayor and councel um mayor I just do yes I just wanted to inform Council and yourself that special events did meet and um they are meeting on events that they could
possibly hold that'll fund raise be day for next year so we're working on that so further dates will be once it's confirmed it's not confirmed right now so we're working on that all right thank you mayor if I could uh I forgot to say that uh they're getting quotes for the
uh new 30 yard trash containers for the recycling center at the burrow garage oh okay okay very good so Nicole that's just an add- on to the councilman's report all right uh any other Council people with I'm finished any new
business to number four May Council uh I'd like to call on uh Debbie she is Debbie kazaz she's the president of our uh buun burough buav Vista Historical Society she brought us all some calendars and Debbie please tell
everybody about the uh the annual event coming up in our calendar I pass out notices all through of it's May 3rd our annual fundraiser to maintain our revenue for the year pretty much and um the event will be from 10 to
5 it'll be a dollar admission there'll be Crafters probably over a 100 crafters and um about 10 food trucks we're going to have a car show hopefully it'll be sponsored Again by LST and Ford with trophies and um we'll have a
registration fee coming up we'll let everybody know about that well should have horse and carriage rides for the public and and um the building our Historical Society building will be open for tours and um it's just a really nice
event last year we had about 1,500 people that came out and that was with a rainy day so we were really happy about that and um we appreciate everybody coming out and letting us you know supporting us all the time and thank you to everybody on uh Council here and for
your support too always and if you need any calendars we have them beautiful that's good Debbie and again we we appreciate all the work you do and and your committee u i i was team yeah it really is you have a nice team there
and uh 28 years wow long that's great that's a long time and uh again with that building I know we're happy to see that be put in use um it's a good you know part of our town that it's now
keeping some historic value bringing it back and keeping that tradition going so buur buav Vista Township we're all related and it's a good thing I'm glad that we're working in that spirit so uh it's good to have you on and and again I know you lead a lot of work you you do a
lot of work there and you lead the pack yes you need you need a good leader and I heard you do a great job 28 years long time so that's good continue doing what you're doing we thank you very good thanks again from from mayor
council okay and we have our new uh board chair of recreation yes in the audience and secretary Christina sakano and Denise yakavi VI so just putting it a face with a name
everybody that's our commissioner and secretary for recreation yeah and we thank them for their volunteer and work and I know Carrie tonight will will do a nice job also moving in that position so that's what it's all about Community working together for a common purpose uh
and we're doing it we're doing it here in buf so okay uh any other new business okay next meeting of Mayor and Council again will be a special budget meeting 6 p.m. and then the regular meeting will be at 6:30 on March 10th
2025 do I have a motion to adjourn motion Adams second barua all in favor say I I meeting adjourn thank you everyone for coming out this has been a QBC television production in association with our partners and sponsors QBC broadcasts on
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