good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to our April 7th Denell Council meeting our first item on the agenda is uh a call to order and the rise for the pledge of allegiance i aliance to the flag of the
United States of America is the reading of the sunshine statement and roll call by our municipal clerk Mrs lawrence Stats this meeting of the Denellan Burough Council is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings law this meeting of April 7th 2025 was
included in a list of meetings that was advertised in the courier on January 9th 2025 and as a teleconference was noticed on the official Denellan website on April 4th 2025 and on the public bulletin board on North Avenue on April
4th 2025 and has remained continuously posted as the required notice mayor Sento present council President Sigman here mrs albertson here mrs lance
here mrs rios here mr scott here and Mr vandermark noted absent okay before we move on to the remainder of our agenda I'm going to ask council if we can make a motion and a second to amend the agenda to bring up resolution
155 which is a resolution to put appoint Denise Donado as court administrator for the Denell Municipal Court her family is here if we can bring it up to the top of the meeting um I see she has young children maybe they get back home and uh get to bed early before school so council if you're okay with that can we
have a motion second to uh a motion to amend the agenda as so second rios a motion move it okay okay that's the amended do we have to read the resolution as a first and second uh yes
okay can I have a motion and second on item number 155 resolution to appoint Denise Donado as court administrator for the Denell Municipal Court move it second second mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios
yes mr scott yes and Mr sigman yes denise left hand over okay repeat after me i Denise Donado do solemnly swearly swear that I will
support the Constitution of the United States that I and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey that I bear true faith and allegiance that I will bear true
to the same and to the government established in the United States established to the United States and in this state under the authority of the people under the people so help God
congratulations If I may speak really quick about Mrs donado uh Denise has uh been with Denellan for how many years now two and a half she started as a violations clerk made her way to the
deputy court administrator and is now leading our court as the court administrator uh after filling in a few times but she uh I think rightfully so has a position now full-time no longer acting so congratulations god bless you
keep up the great work okay next up on our agenda is presentations um we have the presentation of our budget being presented by our uh chief financial officer Scott Olsen as well as our business administrator Alex
Miller so can you have the presentation yes beautiful you can help us okay perfect yes so okay good evening everybody so
uh so we're getting close to like six months I think we've been working on this right Alex when this when this all started uh towards the end of the end of last year when we were Alex was asking department heads to put together what they think they were going to need to
spend in in 2025 and so here we are at the end of of uh that process i'd like to recognize um some folks who worked a lot on this on this project of course it was all the uh all the department heads went through
reviews with Alex and um Don Hutchson played a played a key role in uh those meetings as well and putting together some of the data um the administrator Alex myself and uh Lauren was involved too i want to note also our our audit
auditors uh Subly Plun & Company and our bond council which is um Matt Jessup from McManam and Scotland Bowman and we had NW Financial Group that was also involved in a lot of this uh activity also so with that tonight is the
introduction and approval of the budget it's not the adoption of the budget that's going to happen a month from now this is a unique um item in municipal government because it's the only time that there's a that there's a um a
meeting and then a public hearing that's a month later and it's require we're required to have that at least a 28 day span between between the two dates to give the public adequate time to take a look at things it's the only time you'll see this you you'll see ordinances where
there's an introduction and then a public hearing at the next meeting but this is at the meeting after that so it's unique in in municipal government so it's it makes it a little bit different
so I guess I got to point it at the laptop or what okay thank you first time first just point it like that yeah I was going to the next one okay
can you go to the next one sure oh down to go down to go oh okay all right so here we are april 7th the the budget introduction uh it's a requirement to have an adver advertisement of the budget which will go in the paper this Thursday and then the public hearing
adoption as I said on May 5th so recapping what is what is a municipal budget what is a budget well it's a it's a spending plan it's an idea of what what you think you're going to need to spend and how are you going to come up
with resources to to cover that um it also includes a capital plan which you'll see later on today there is a bond ordinance which encompasses the almost the entire uh capital plan for 2025 um and it includes discretionary
and non-discretionary spending so the non-discretionary spending are things like health insurance pension costs the discretionary um are just you know every everything else um but less than 10% of
the budget is discretionary spending most of it is like I said is group health insurance salary contractual salaries retirements uh it's the the match for social security and Medicare and our
debt so these are some of the items that were driving this year's budget we had uh huge huge health care costs big big increase and my understanding is that next year is going to be bigger double
digits uh upper double digits too like you know 17 I don't know 17 19 who knows percent increases which is just very difficult to keep up with um we have taken though proactive measures
to try and get around that or get get by it so one of the things that we've done is we've introduced a a what's called a difference card program so that employees can choose a lower costing premium but they get the um benefits off
offset by using the this difference card and that has saved the burl some money we have a more efficient phone system that's projected to generate savings this year uh another thing that was driving this budget was last year the board of public utilities had a big big increase
on uh fire hydrant the servicing fire hydrants so the the water for that and so there was water gas uh natural gas increases electricity increases and we're feeling that impact this year the
full impact this year because it happened towards the end of last year pension and social security contributions were up more than 7% and the debt service is also increasing our debt service is how we pay for some of the larger improvements those that cost
more than $5,000 which doesn't seem like a lot but nowadays uh it is so um our debt service is increasing um and we're but we h we have a way of offsetting it by using other
monies to try and uh cover some of the come cover some of the debt service there and we've made strategic hires last year that that we put into place that we're now absorbing the salaries in full for this year but those hires were
strategic and that they we're we're hoping that that will enhance efficiency and long-term u be a long-term benefit for the for the bureau scott hold on yeah when Scott was talking about the health insurance our health insurance in
the last three years is 47% 47% now last year the burrow we were able to switch uh to a different uh state insurance called 2035 New Jersey threat
and with that we save about 131,000 well across the board the state insurance went up 47 47.5% the last three years so we're going to again start digging in
and see if we can get into another possity whatever state insurance that you have every soap too is that municipalities are in state plan impact They negotiated
with all the artificial normally for us but they just municipalities so very important and again because we made that switch last
year um we if we didn't make that switch we'd be paying another $130,000 top so from the switch from last year to now we're actually paying slightly less than we were a year ago but it's still cost i do want to mention too that
employees also contribute a portion of their salaries to offset this cost so when when the cost goes up for the burrow the contribution cost goes up for the employees also so the estimated uh levy which is the I'll get to that in the next slide
for 2025 is about 24 million that's all in that's your county uh open space schools plus the municipal portion and the library and you can see where most of your money goes right that that chart is pretty obvious that the schools are
getting about uh most what is that i don't know 60% of of every $100 they're getting 60 okay so but Burrow is the tax collector for everybody so we take in all the money and then we give the county their share and we give the
library their share and we give the the the schools their their big share and then we have to operate on what's left sure um we've also now as a municipality for long-term health insurance all new
employees required upon retirement to health insurance before it was received benefit so those are efforts that we're taking longterm before those full effects
all right thank you so here we go here we go what is the tax levy it's the amount of money that's needed to be raised by equitable distribution among all the burough property owners so the the assessor is very busy making an
assessment of everybody's property what is what is it work worth in the in the market she tries to gather up all that information we have a big pot that's becomes the denominator that we're going to divide our number into right so it's the latest property valuation the
assessor makes as of October 1st of the prior year all right so so that's going to be a a a source a source of revenue for us because ultimately we're going to take the amount that we need to balance the budget and divide by that big that big
number okay and that's going to become a a rate we're going to turn that into a rate and that rate times your property is going to give us the taxes that you owe so we also are con uh kind of constrained I would say by
two different types of caps there was a a cap that was introduced in 2007 seven was it earlier than 1977 I think was when the first cap was introduced it was a a spending cap in those days the legislature thought that
the best way to keep taxes down was to was to put a cap on how much a municipality could spend so it's called an appropriation cap and in 2007 under Governor Cororsine that cap was set at 4% above the prior year's le um Oh no
wait i'm I'm sorry i'm getting mixed up here this is the This is the levy cap okay all right i'm talking about the appropriations cap there's two caps the appropriations cap was on spending the levy cap is on how much taxes could go
up and this is what Cororsine changed in 2007 to 4% and then Governor Christie reset it to 2% and so that is the the cap that has more restraint on our budget because we're we're very limited to how much we
can increase taxes we're also affected by the appropriations cap so we have to look at both of them and I'll show you I'll show you a slide coming up that that shows you how far uh or how near or how far we are to those caps there are
circumstances where we can pass increases uh through and that that are not controlled by that by that cap those are for new construction for a debt service for pension and health benefit contributions in excess of what the
state says you're you're allowed to have things like that and well I'll I'll show you that as we get as we get through this so we are under the the levy cap but with some exclusions so let's
see ryan is there any way to make this any bigger so this is the state formula uh that we have to submit with the budget it's a it's a a levy cap calculation where we start with what the
prior year amount to be raised by taxes what's what's the amount that everybody's got to chip into to pay and last year it's difficult to see but it was about $6 million 2% on top of six million is how
much anybody class class come on 120 120 okay all right very good not too many math majors here what were your polyai what so okay about about 120,000 that's
not That's not a lot that's not a lot of money at all so um we have to take uh some of the inclusions you'll see in the middle part in the in the orange box there's health insurance premiums that that are exceptions there's pension
exceptions there's debt service exceptions um and that all those uh are sum to about $300,000 so all together we're going from we're allowed to go the maximum allowable that we're that we can
raise tax is 6.4 million okay we came in at 6.390 so we're we're under by about 40,000 okay that's that's the good news the I don't know if I want to say too much more about that we we do add there
is a line to add in um for new ratables new construction so as as homes get uh developed and and changes are made we're able to add in those new homes so that they can add to the uh levy cap that
we're allowed to go to all right so 40,000 under which is good here's the appropriations cap 1977 somewhere I think but uh it shows what does it
show that we're allowed 2 and a half% or the cost of living adjustment the cola whichever is less and in 2025 the 2 and a half% allowable increase is 8,64 that includes the same new
construction of 10,000 that we saw on the previous slide and it may be increased this cap may be increased by up to three and a half percent by ordinance and tonight we're going to introduce a cost of living adjustment ordinance uh to go along with this to support to
support this this also creates a cap bank which is not a bank in the traditional sense it's just um headsp space that we could tap into if we need the room in in future budget years and we're allowed to bank this for two
years so we're under the appropriations cap by about 110,000 and uh so so like I said before this is not the cap that's more restrictive it's the other one right that one we only had 40,000 difference
this one we have 100,000 difference so the other one is a bit more restrictive does that make sense okay haven't lost you yet okay Alex are you doing any slides yet okay
so in December I I I met with all the departments and we we started talking about their OE expense and all that stuff and as we're going through different uh lines and and such you know you come across where on here you'll see about
the uh government administrative the percentage went up and and that's because of the way we restructured the way our our staffing is and that that would be the um communication coordinator the director of um uh community development that's all
underneath administration now so also that that comes into to play was the debt service and and a lot of that a lot of that comes into where we had to go with paying down the debt including uh projects including the firehouse and
all that so um the statutorial uh line there's nothing we can do about that that's that's stuff that whether it's a pension and health benefits there's nothing that we we can't there's
nothing we can do with those departments so Scott this is you i'm back up so for 2025 the appropriations are about 10.7 uh $7
million um it includes as you could see salaries is is one of the larger portions almost 40% of that total is is salaries um we have statutory expenditures which are the things that we've talked about the the the pension
the health benefits and and social security and that that um there's a $100,000 capital contribution that we're going to use as a down payment on borrowing for larger capital projects so
these are the ones I I said cost over $5,000 they they have have to have a useful life of at least five years it's your bigger ticket items it's your it's your dump trucks your mason dump trucks snow plows um uh servers um we we also
have uh some things and you'll see in the in the bond ordinance that's up for introduction tonight um some of the items that that are making up the the 2025 capital plan um so this I want to point out to you the portion of the pie
in green up there the reserve for uncollected taxes what is the reserve for uncollected taxes we call it the rut so the rut is a way for us to make sure that we can
pay the schools and the county and the library and everybody else and we still have enough to cover our budget because not everybody's going to pay right there's going to be people that forever whatever reason they they aren't able to pay so we need for every dollar that we
need to collect we have to bill for a dollar one or a dollar two okay that will help us cover those who don't make their payments but gives us enough money and that's what that it's a calculation the reserve for uncollected taxes so
that that's a a statutory required piece to have and let's see debt service is a is a fairsized chunk there um and statutory expenditures i think we we talked about it other expenses are are what the department used to operate it's it's
purchasing you know um maintenance plans on their on their equipment it's it's uh paper it's toner it's all that all the stuff that any business needs to operate we have that too so ours is about 24% of
our of the total budget all right what about the other side because in New Jersey you have to have a balanced budget your expenditures have to equal the money coming in so the big blue part is how we're relying on
all of you with with property taxes and me and and mayor and not Alex getting Yeah so all right so we also have
uh a couple of of different pieces in there too there's a local revenue share that's the orange part up there i guess I could go with my my uh N going backwards am I going backwards yes I am
h I I saw a Okay okay there there i don't know i won't I won't bother with that okay first day with a new with the new
toys don't they tell you like figure it out before you get up here right note to self so anyway um budget revenues have to offset the expenditures so we have some money coming in from state aid we
have surplus we have local revenues we have the delinquent taxes other special items and the amount to be raised okay so amount to be raised by taxes we talked about uniform construction code that's all of our permits and fees for people who are doing work on their homes
or new homes um and and included in that were all the permits that were taken out for for were the building permits and and the plumbing and electric and all the work that was that was uh being done over at the nail and the crossing and and some of the other uh locations too
so surplus is is exactly that we surplus is money that we have accumulated over the over the year and we use it strategically to balance the budget we're we're trying to use it it's like we're walking a tight rope here and I got the long
bar I'm holding on to when this side is surplus and this side is taxes you know when you we're trying to strike that balance as we walk this this highway you know how much do we use in surplus how much do we want to raise taxes it's it
really is kind of highwire but the the blue portion the light blue portion the other special items that's what we're trying to grow that's the part that's the payment in lie of taxes that some of these developments are are doing through
town so they don't pay traditional taxes they pay a payment in lie of taxes so the town gets 95% of that money 5% goes to the count but as we grow that portion of the
budget we expect the the dark blue to to shrink in size somewhat and that's what that's what we're trying to do that's what there's a large focus on that's going on and been going on for the last couple of years so uh delinquent taxes of course are for those for those folks
that that can't uh make their taxes we sell them the following year and we we eventually will collect all the taxes but we use it as a revenue in the succeeding year and it's about uh
2% all right what do we have okay so New Jersey has always been based uh revenues have always or taxes anyway have always been based on property value and that goes all also for how the state
got money from different uh entities like the railroads and the the utilities and the electric companies so years ago it was called the franchise it was a franchise tax and I'm talking you know 1800s 1900s it was very preliminary way
back then they were collecting you know a penny per acre or whatever it was on the property that you own so So there was a a tax called the called the uh franchise tax and then there was another tax called the gross receipts tax and if
they combined they would have the unfortunate acronym of gross receipts and franchise tax or graft so um but those were eventually replaced uh during um Governor Whitman's term everybody remembers Governor Whitman um by the
energy receipts tax and that was a way that municipalities would get as much of the gross receipts and franchise taxes as they had gotten previously but there was a kicker in there that would that would uh escalate every year well what
happened was uh the state years I guess uh not not during Governor Whitman's term but afterwards the the state kind of changed their mind on how they were going to uh follow that and they came up with an
energy receipts tax and a consolidated municipal property relief tax and those were supposed to increase over time but what happened was they said "Okay we're going to let the energy receipts tax go up but we're going to let the uh
consolidated municipal property taxes go down so that you would stay the municipalities would stay flat." That's kind of a brief brief history of that and what this chart shows you is if the state funding had
continued to increase based on a on a factor called the implicit price deflator then we should have gotten what's shown on the red um the red graph up there the red the red line we should have gotten that but we've been flat all
these years so there's a big difference between what we were getting particularly this year which is around 600,000 and and if the state had kept up with their obligation we would have gotten over a million dollars so that's part of the
problem that that all municipalities are facing is that the money that was kind of promised back then it's been altered we're not going to get it you know we do get some we're happy to get what we get but u but it it could have been more this this calculator is off the league
of municipalities website so thank you mayor for throwing that my way so so obviously it's been state in 23 million we got 600,000 right which
makes it tougher on us building a budget working Yes and there's effort between the League of Municipalities may reinstate our fun we had a little success last year or two years ago where
we got a little bit more funding um but the efforts to get back to the retirement event and I think the important thing to note about the slide is while cost of everything goes up and the state is already promised us we're left with
trying to figure out how we run effective efficient government after they promised us that red line so I think the point to make is running budget
y all right so I started uh talking about the tax rate and that's you know definition-wise it's a multiplier uh and and we we use it to kind of figure out what what people
are going to have to pay for their on their on their property it's based on $100 of assessed value it's a it's a u kind of a a dollar amount per every $100 of of value that your home has so the municipal tax rate is the the total
amount that the bureau needs to raise through taxes and it's divided by the total amount of the value of all the property so it's a pretty straightforward calculation uh and this slide shows that let's see if I can I
can help point this out i see this I see the light here but it doesn't go up there why is that okay oh okay all right if I do this we'll Yeah
all right so this is a comparison between 2025 and and 2024 our expenditures the the top line the expenditures have increased by 770,000 over 2024 while our revenues have increased
about 378,000 over 2024 the difference is $392,000 that's how much we need to raise to fill in the gap between what we want to spend and the other sources of
revenue okay so that it's a 392,000 but the value of the property went up significantly last year by by almost $46 million okay so that has an effect of
actually lowering the making a lower tax rate than it would normally have been if we didn't have that much growth so the rate is going from a 0.65 65 for $100 of assessed value and 25 to
0.64 okay this is going down actually um which is a good thing right so the effect on a on a home that's assessed at $4 let's say well pull a figure out of my hat $435,000 is a $43
increase okay so if your property was valued at 435,000 last year and it's still valued at at that this year it's a $43 increase this year's average assessed value is
461,000 so if your home was worth 461,000 last year and this year is worth $461,000 it calculates out to about $46 slight slight difference because it's more it's a higher it's higher number so our tax
rate is one 1 and a half% the increase is 1 and a.5% the tax rate is that 0.64 so whatever your value is we're going to multiply it by 64 is this where I can go to the
um I'm sorry 65 yes is this where I can go to the uh tax calculator so we have this calculator that we set up it's just an an Excel document uh it's the one yeah that's it yeah so
you can go to the website and uh under the tax collector right Billy uh the the tax look for the the department um tax collector and you'll see something that says uh calculate my taxes so this gives
a breakdown of what you're going to pay for the municipal portion the library the school uh county and open space we don't know i don't have the final figures for for county or county open space so this is an estimate for those
two but everything else we know we know the library portion we know the municipal and we know the school uh assuming that that that's going to be passed and I I I think the county uh superintendent is going to is going to let that go through so no issues so
so what we're looking at here is a comparison between can this I'm just going to push it up a little bit so you can see so if your property was worth 435,000 in
2024 it stays the same what did we say the increase $43 right right however if your property goes from 435 last year to 461 because of a a
rebal it calculates out to $485 increase okay i don't want anybody to be shocked when they go home and they look at their they get out those little postcards that they bring to the accountant when you have to do your taxes by the way what do we have 10 less
than less than 10 days so don't forget don't forget the IRS wants to hear from you so anyway get out that little postcard because that has what you paid in taxes in 2024 and what your what your value is
in 2024 and your value is in 2025 miss Albertson you're going to want to look at yours uh your property had a change had a change okay anyway so this uh this particular worksheet lets you see what
the changes how so in this case uh the municipal portion is going up about $200 and the school is going up about $200 so um but for somebody whose value is not changing it's not going to be that that
dramatic and in fact in fact let's put in here your value stayed the same you're likely going to see a decrease right at no time did my wrist
leave my sleeves right you're going to see a decrease the municipal side went up to $43 right but everybody else is kind of going down so yay for you you know good good on you for for uh so now now now you got to go home and
look at that card right you want to see you want to see how the change works and this is just the the way that the math works is I'm not doing anything uh different but um and you can put you're only allowed to go in between the you
know the two you can see the the cursor going back and forth only between those two spots so it's it's uh pretty foolproof that that this will work for you all right so that's something that you can do uh in your
leisure let's go back to the snapshot all right everybody feel good about this you know you you understand right you ain't got the picture okay all right so tax rate 65 cents per $100 it's
an increase of 1.5% and as we saw it doesn't necessarily mean an increase or a decrease right you have to you have to see where you were last year and how it compares to this year all right so the burrows portion is
about 26% of the total tax bill and again we haven't gotten the county final figures yet i made an estimate you know who knows what it's really going to be and that will affect these these numbers in the end
but the other the other question is is how did your value change sorry I think it's point $10,000 $2,600,000 okay all right so in 2025 the average
home um and there's no average homes in now we're all above average right like like Wigggon uh the average assessment 461,000 the municipal portion of that in total is about 3,000 as we as we talked
about and here's the we do have a page on the website that has the uh the budget and also the calculator um at that at that website is that right yeah that's a good link that's a good
link right yeah all right Alex this is you right we we talk about the average home paying taxes a tax rate of $822 per day all right and what do you get out of that
$822 per day is all the different uh all the different departments and all the different uh avenues of where your tax dollars going so we'll just do a little Your day starts off you take a shower the water's going down in the
drain it's going to storm water which is managed by the barrel get out on the road you're driving down the road you come to an intersection and there at the intersection is a crossing guard which is burrow employee working a crossing guard might drive down the road a little bit further and it might be an accident
who's on the scene for the accident your police department our our finest police department fire department rescue squad burrow burrow uh borrow funds get to work you get an alert uh communication coordinator sends you a
message that the DOT project on Second Street Road is now open okay that's burrow employee giving you the message that a bur burrow project is open where your t tax dollars are going get home grab something to
eat actually before you go home and get something to eat you have to go go uh get your dog license you stop over and where do you get your your dog license from burrow employee then you go home grab a quick launch uh quick dinner and now you got to go down to T-Blog uh game
at McCoy Park park maintained by burrow employee and ran by a burrow employee running the uh wreck program leave the ball game start driving home it's getting dark the lights are on where is that from it's the tax all the
tax that you're paying that $822 cents is going to all those things that just came across your plate a lot of times things that you just take for granted that you don't think about when you're paying your taxes it is what you're you're paying for there's a project that we worked on when one of our classes so
when you look at the uh public safety uh this past in 2024 the police had two 20,144 calls to service the fire department had 310 uh incidents first aid rescue squad
responded to three over 300 calls code enforcement had 687 uh inspections infrastructure okay this past year with infrastructure is that we uh we prepared
a lot of uh sanitary storm uh sections along the way we we have increased in the burrow 17 new uh storm uh catchphas this past year we put in 1100 linear feet of curving on some of the road
projects uh and along the way we also had some in uh safety enhancements because we want to make sure everything is safe for our residents last but not least the past year we had 1.8 miles of of roads newly
paved uh public works as always they're just do they're doing the park maintenance m maintaining the grass curbside pickup uh multiple months a year whether they're picking up leaf bags picking up branches the this past year they did 310
miles of street sweeping that's a lot of times around the town uh other than that they're doing their your your daily tasks of uh winterizing plowing streets salting etc every year they go through uh
inspecting and cleaning all of our catch basins and then you want to go over to we talk about our community events you know our recreation programs our sports programs our senior bus our our senior programs music in the park all all the stuff that
all the funds that the tax dollars go towards to all the operations of different departments [Music] and you got So included in the in the operating
budget is a is a plan is a capital plan they call it and we're enacting that that plan tonight with a what's called a bond ordinance that will authorize uh almost $3.4 million in spending and this is for uh I think I mentioned the Mason
dump truck it's for it's for um street improve roadway improvements on on Second Street it's for mill and pave on some of the some of the uh smaller streets that we do along with Middle Sex County it's uh IT improvements it's it's
a plow there's a plow in there there's I forget what else is uh uh included in this but it's it's in your packets tonight council it's in your packets for for review for the introduction of this of this bond ordinance
yes streetscape streetscape right right assessment the um uh parking lot assessment yep yep yep okay
so um so all all together and then we also did a a um another bond ordinance earlier this year um uh it just escapes me what what it what what it was for but um I I want
to take this point to mention that these big ticket items we pay for them by borrowing money and then we have to pay the interest and the principal um on that in in successive years so we have a
combination of short and long-term borrowing that we do and the the short-term borrowing is for a year usually and we just recently sold about $7 million in a short-term note that we had a a pretty different process for
where we went we took bids electronically as well as uh you know sent in by by email we had we had um bid two bids that that differed by about
um I don't know in the interest Let me just So the way the way the way companies bid on this is how much interest are they going to pay on your $7 million $7.5 million so the difference in in interest wound up being
about $5,000 that was the difference between the two bids so we got the winning bid was a coupon rate of three and a half% which is excellent right the other uh the other bid was 4% but they had a a what they call a premium which they were willing to give us more money
than we were asking for um but when you look at the those two bids the difference comes to about $5,000 so that's that's pretty impressive we're borrowing $7.5 million and and uh the difference in the in the interest is
about $5,000 so um that's my uh notice to the uh burough council that the results of the bond sale so so next year we'll be renewing that note maybe maybe including some of this new material that we want to uh
purchase so we can expect that that the interest cost of course is going to go up but we're going to keep an eye on when to go out and when to borrow for these things so that we do are doing it um with an eye to to you know what the
market is doing and and try and stay and try and get as as competitive bids as we can so um let's see i should mention that that of that 3 almost $3.5 million in uh
spending over a million of that almost 1.2 million is supported by grants so that means we don't have to borrow that money right it's it's being paid for by grants and mostly it's Department of Transportation grants but it's also um
let's see it's it's DOT infrastructure grants and and there's another one the 170 it Yeah okay okay um yeah so so seeking the grants seeking out grant opportunities is is something that we
can do to try to lower what the overall cost is going to be to the to the bureau yeah so the capital plan that's included in the budget is does not appropriate or authorize the expenditure of any funds
but it's it's a recommended plan however the ordinance that we're going to introduce tonight is the first shot at spending that money um so you can you can think of it as you get a couple bites the apple here right so the the
first the very first bite is in the capital plan and our capital plan is pretty much based on the ordinance that you're going to see uh tonight uh the 3.4 4 million the the bond or being being introduced that's another bite at
the apple in two weeks we're going to have the public hearing and adoption of that ordinance so it's another another bite at the apple and then the spending can happen not before okay so that's what I mean you have a couple bites at the apple council before you before
anybody you know actually spends any money all right so um yes that last line the burough council will need to take additional actions to execute the proposals so I love that question mark because it
looks like an upside down S right right what fault is that i don't know okay does anybody have any questions spellbound huh okay all right thank you all and on to
the business at hand right okay next on our agenda excuse me is a proclamation celebrating April as National Volunteer Month and we have a few volunteers here this evening that have decided to were volunteered to uh
read the proclamation on volunteering so welcome uh Peg Lockwood chair of the DDMO and also still secretary of Denown Arts and Inclusion Culture Commission uh Shironda We Sh who is the vice chair of
the Denellan Arts Inclusion and Culture Commission as well as a board of directors member to the board of trustees and a board of education member and then Marian Myers who is the chairwoman of the Denellan arts inclusion and culture commission so welcome I get started all right
whereas n national volunteer month is celebrated throughout the United States of America each year in the month of April and whereas it is time to celebrate and recognize the contribution of volunteers and serves as an opportunity to join the impact of volunteerism and encourage more people
to get involved in their local communities and whereas volunteering in Denellan benefits our community and provides our volunteers with unique opportunities to meet new people learn new skills and make a difference in the lives of others
and whereas the Burrow of Denellan offers volunteering opportunities for individuals of all interests through the Denellan Planning Board Denellan Library Board of Trustees Shade Tree Commission Denellan Arts Inclusion and Culture Commission Denellan Downtown Management
Organization Parks and Recreation Commission Denellan Municipal Alliance Denellan Parking Authority Denellan Fire Department Denellan Rescue Squad Mau House Restoration Committee Mayor's Traffic and Pedestrian Task Force Office
of Emergency and Management Mayor's Cannabis Task Force and Denell and Green Team Advisory Committee and whereas the Burrow of Dell is home to countless volunteers who meaningfully give back to our Miracle Mile and donate
their time and effort to improve daily life for residents and visitors alike now therefore be it proclaimed that Mayor Jason F sento and the Denellan Burrow Council recognize April 2025 as
National Volunteer Month in the Burrow of Denellan and encourage residents to join us in celebrating the many ways our volunteers contribute to and improve our burrow jason F sento Mayor Burrow of
Denellan April 7th 2025 thank Rhonda and Maryanne for your volunteerism as well as all the volunteers that make up our volunteer agencies and organizations in the burrow uh both municipal ran as well as the nonprofits that are in the town uh our
town's able to do what it does because of the countless hours and efforts of our volunteers so thank you and another round of applause for all our volunteers thank you item number five on the agenda is the approval of our meeting minutes our
regular meeting of March 18th 2025 can I have a motion and second please move it sigment second rios any comments additions redactions as the meeting minutes currently stand without hearing any roll call
please mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott yes and Mr sigment yes okay um item number six on the agenda is the introduction of ordinances we have three this evening
2025-09 2025-10 and 2025-11 so can I have a motion and second on 2025-09 an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank for calendar year 2025
move it segment albertson i heard Albertson oh my god mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott abstain and Mr sigman yes
can I have a motion and second on 2025-10 an ordinance to amend the general legislation of the burough of Denell municipal code chapter 204 parks and playgrounds section 4 sporting events and water activities use of vehicles moving segment second lance
I'll just note for the record before we take roll call this is adding uh G letter G to uh section one which is no person shall ride or drive ebikes motorized scooters or other motorized vehicles within any park or playground this prohibition shall not apply to the
use of motorized scooters or vehicles by persons with disabilities this is being done because we've had an issue with these motorized or electric bikes going through our parks and disturbing the peace and passive recreation um and also on our facilities um so that's why this
is being presented um so this is an introduction uh the hearing and possible adoption will be at the next council meeting so um that's why this is being introduced can I have a roll call do we do motion and second yeah roll call please mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes
mrs rios yes mr scott yes and Mr sigman yes can I have a motion and second on 2025-11 bond ordinance providing for various capital improvements in and by the burrow of Denell and appropriating
$3,338,700 therefore and authorizing the issuance of $2,380,440 bonds or notes move it segment second Lance roll call please mrs albertson yes mrs
lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott abstain and Mr sigman yes item number seven on the agenda is resolutions we have resolutions 154 through 171 with uh exception of 155
which we voted on earlier this evening so Mrs stack if you could take the do the motion and second and then just let us discuss if need be resolution number 154 is to pay the bills move it segment second rio
mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott yes and Mr sigman yes resolution number 156 is to hire Danner Downing as yoga instructor for the spring season for the Denellan Recreation Department
move it segment second albertson mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott yes and Mr sment yes resolution number 157 is to hire Sheila
Dye as a music instruct instructor for the Denellan Recreation Department move it sigma second Lance mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios
yes mr scott yes and Mr sigman yes resolution number 158 is to support the submission of application for the New Jersey Department of Transportation for the Transportation Alternatives Program wilbert Rios second segment
mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott yes and Mr sigman yes resolution 159 is to award a contract to Verizon for police vehicle laptop computers air cards move it segment
second albertson I have a question sure air cards um there was a term here about um overusage and um an additional $100 for that um if there could just be some
um more clarification on what these air cards are for and how would you overuse them [Music] okay and then what does overusage refer to and just to be clear because I'm not familiar with air cards or any of the
technology used in police vehicles but what is the purpose of the air cart the airport access thank you there any other questions okay I'll take a roll mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes
mrs rios yes mr scott yes and Mr sigman yes and you'll get clarification from Debbie yes for tomorrow thank you resolution number 160 is awarding a contract to DND Painters for the exterior painting of the Marrow House
not to exceed $3,200 move it segment second Albertson this is specifically painting okay okay and everything that would potentially cause more damage after painting has been remediated like the
gutters and everything i'm like even the I'm talking about like the gutters that were leaking like Okay is I have a question is this going to be some kind of like a waterproof painting paint or like an industrial kind of weatherproof paint to make
exterior right exterior paint yeah any other questions thank you mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott yes and Mr sigman yes
resolution number 161 is introducing the 2025 municipal budget move it Sigman second Albertson mr if I may this uh resolution has somewhat
uh unusual and unique situation involved with it but I'd like to just explain so that the council public is aware of the situation um the Dunellan municipal budget is required by law to
be introduced and adopted within a very specific time frame and limits the public hearing on this has to be May 5th uh the uh we should note that Councilman
Scott is the chief of Ben volunteer fire department councilwoman Rios is volunteer member certainly they don't have any financial interest in in that organization but I would note
that the budget includes uh funs appropriate for use by the fire department the question is whether or not the council members can vote on the introduction and adoption of the budget
uh the unusual situation is that the budget requires uh it to be passed by a majority full governing body for the four members and due to uh significant medical reasons i
anticipated council member Vandermark is is not here or able to uh vote on the budget uh as a result we have a situation where uh there would not be sufficient council members available uh
to pass the budget which is of great significance to burrows legally has to be done and so I've looked at the issue and the question is uh whether or not uh the council members who are members of the
fire department uh can for obligated to vote budget ation uh I would note that the uh local government ethics law would preclude a government officer from uh voting on any
matter in which they have direct indirect personal financial interest uh in this particular case there's absolutely no suggestion that either of those members has any personal uh or direct financial interest
in the budget and particularly funds allocated to police department however there are some not fire department there are number of cases uh that do suggest that a member of a organization such as
a church or other organization uh they those members uh would be have an imputed disqualification uh if they're member of council supreme court however in the
case of gravowski has indicated that that's not a bright line rule and that uh sometimes that can be unnecessary and unjust in particular Lisa told recently was a case at Berkeley Heights that Bill
and distinguished between council members one who held a leadership position in a ch church organization another council member who was a member in moderately involved but had no active participation no knowledge of any legal
proceedings whatsoever and in in this particular case I think it's important to distinguish between Councilman Scott who has a leadership position in the fire department and Councilwoman Rios who is a member an active member the
fire department but has no leadership uh interest and again certainly no personal financial uh interest in the budget monies appropriate to the fire department on top of that there is also something
known as a doctrine of necessity or a rule of necessity and while it's very limited and circumscribed there are situations in which a public body simply cannot act if there are enough members uh who could
take action and to the extent even if there was a a conflict in this particular situation I've looked at the cases in particular Alen versus Tom River regional board of education which
involve very similar situation to this uh the courts uh acknowledged that the rule of necessity would apply and that a conflict would and would need to be waved in order for a budget to be
passing for a municipal body to do a statutoily required duty so under all the circumstances my advice to Councilwoman uh Rios and to Council Scott and to Burough Council is that
Councilwoman Rios in in my opinion and I've advised her as such is that uh she may and should uh vote on the budget councilman Scott uh because it's only necessary that one of the members vote
councilman Scott has uh more the leadership interest i would recommend that he not participate or vote on the budget resolution but again I I do believe that to the limited extent that there may be conflict for Councilwoman
Rios that under the unique circumstances in this case uh that in the that it's simply there's an obligation to vote on this so that the budget can be introduced uh that my recommendation is an opinion is that that the any conflict
to the extent it exists should be waved and that you may and should vote this this resation okay thank you Mr robertson further ado let's take a roll call mrs
albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott absentee and Mr sigman yes okay resolution 162 is to authorize a self-examination of the budget move it
second second Lance so if I could just jump in what this what this is um every every few years the division of local government
services reviews the button and they do that on years when the when the bureau is ineligible to self review uh it's been a while since we we have been allowed to be self reviewed mostly
because of the u American Rescue Plan Act and steps that we took when CO was was qualify for self taken this amount of time to get to
a point where we are now eligible for self what that means is that we will take a look at the items that the state would otherwise take are we did we budget enough for
debt service are our estimates of revenues reasonable uh there's a number of items like that that look at um the auditors have already reviewed the budget and they've signed off on it so they're comfortable with the
figures as well so at this point in order to to keep it that that we are doing the review council would pass this resolution and I think it's it's supposed to be every once every three
years the division wants to look at the budget they're still going to look at it but not the extent that they would if we had asked them to before so we are eligible and so that's why you haven't seen this for those that have been on council for that's why you
haven't seen this resolution thank you Mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott just clarification budget so I would abstain correct
don't know that it's necessary in this particular case yeah say we don't need and Mr sigman yes resolution number 163 is to amend the 2025 temporary capital budget move it
second so before if I may jump in before the the budget is adopted uh which includes the the capital plan um and where there's interest in in adopting a
bond ordinance which was introduced previously tonight um we also need to amend the temporary capital budget so remember that the The first ordinance that we did a few months
ago February was a feasibility study so at that time we had it we had the temporary capital budget that only included that particular now with the ordinance that was in Houston tonight and that one I've
gathered all that in commission together it's it's now the amended temporary capital budget it includes everything that is on the bond ordinance that you've seen plus the feasibility stuff so this is just this is amending the the
temporary capital budget and once the budget is adopted then we probably won't need to do any okay thank you and this only requires a majority vote not the majority full voting membership
so the councilwoman Rios could abstain on this so we can still move forward with Yes this does include appropriation for my suggestion would be that both Councilman Scott and Councilwoman We
substain on this since there's not the requirement of the four voting members this can be done by just a majority of members present okay was suggested okay okay i'll take a roll call mrs albertson
yes mrs lance yes mrs rios abstain mr scott abstain and Mr sigman yes resolution number 164 is to appoint Ken Hang as a fire department member move it Sigman second Albertson
well before we vote I'll just say thank you for him to stepping forward and volunteering especially during volunteer month mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios abstain mr scott abstain and Mr segment yes
you know Mr olsson really quick I meant to say after the presentation if being a CFO is not you know your long term thing after how many years you know you give yourself a mic you're quite the standup so you know maybe amateur hour at the
stress factor might be good take it on the road okay resolution number 165 is to request adding an increase in the amount of change kept on hand in the clerk's office move it albertson second sigman why did you
say this was a recommendation of [Music] Mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott yes mr sigman yes
resolution number 166 is to avail the burrow as a statutory due date extension move it Sigman second Rios okay the floor is all yours whenever you need it Scott uh so so there was a local that came out
not too long ago regarding the the statuto due date for the for the budget okay february 10th is the actual statuto due date when supposed to be introduced and they they've extended it to March uh 31st or
the first meeting there and it said within the the text of the local finance notice to avail yourself of the these dates adopt this resolution so we are availing ourselves of the deep this is this is a a belts and suspenders kind of
way of approaching this some of my colleagues are questioning what the the need the necessity for doing this but like I said it's suspended so it it doesn't do any I'll take a roll the first time we've
seen Okay it's the first time it's been it was noted and it's spelled census and you do metaphors this is great love you Scott
okay mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs m Rios yes mr scott yes and Mr sigman yes resolution number 167 is to approve a shared services agreement with Middle Sex County Improvement Authority for
recycling collection services move it segment second albertson mr miller do you want to address this one sure um the resolution service It's been in the works for a while and
looking at is the NCI is going to be providing 95 gall with a lot of going back and forth on how it operates to take place uh schedule will be the same um the the
um company that's that does recycling will be delivering each container each residential home for every reser the uh recycling containers that people have now two things keep it or
you can put it out on the curb and the county will take and they're expecting this to all come sometime in the summer They're going to provide container for each reserve and then provide some extra ones
for the burrow so any res how's it going to work with like the main street u buildings just like you know 17 obviously won't be
okay because it'll be bigger what happens when there's a there's a car in front of it um that's a good question they're probably where there's no parking area where do what time do they start
morning what time is our no parking ordinance until on Main Street yeah so I'm just saying it might it might be where we work with the county that they hit the downtown first because after a certain hour people can start parking again and we need to make sure
those signs go up in the downtown so Got it and the police have been advised of this yes okay so questions um I'm sorry if you've already said this but how many containers per household one one okay
they're large i mean I've had I've had one in my house for 18 years okay okay that was a question um the other one is I'm assuming that there'll be some communication about um the rolling
out of the new company yeah as as we get closer to a day in many ways we can't get out when's the next insert um June because even if we don't have an exact date week at least we know that
goes to every single and we can say a general announcement do that because that's a great point council yeah and Um because you are not expecting this to fully roll out until sometime in the summer um it seems that
the agreement here is for 3 years at a time um what's being done from now until the summer with me what happens if there is overflow like you have you know somebody has an Amazon purchase addiction and
there's so many not speaking by person experience I have that experience myself You get a lot more thank you anything else any other questions
mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott yes and Mr sigman yes resolution number 168 is authorizing the release of the cash performance guarantee for work god bless you work
performed at 150 North Avenue block one lot 14 move it Sigma second Rios mrs mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott yes and Mr sigman
yes resolution number 169 is to authorize professional services for general engineering to CME Associates for the Mau assessment move it sigma second do you know how long this process is going to take
um okay okay that's it for me council okay I'll take a roll mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott yes and Mr sigman
yes resolution number 170 is to award a contract to Garden State Paving Solutions for the milling and paving of Second Street for amount not to exceed 144,620.74 move it rig
on this part of second street that this is the other part of second street portugal the work that will be done on this section will match the same way so the same as close to as possible
i do the project starts on the start going towards Madison contractor now correct me if I'm wrong and if I'm recalling my recalling this correctly we you know we did request through the
engineers when we went to go bid for the project with DOT could this be extended and they had advised because the grant was only specific and the application was specific that we couldn't so that's why it had to be done separately mrs albertson yes Mrs lance yes Mrs rios
yes Mr scott yes and Mr sigment yes resolution number 171 is to award a contract to Garden State Paving Solutions for the repair of the ADA ramp at the Dell Public Library for an amount not to exceed $6,774.24 move it Sigman second Rios
mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes sorry i mean the ramp there come in and they'll take out the old concrete make sure everything's flush
it's like somebody's coming out and the other side the other reasoning is is because we're doing the the facility assessment for the library and this is an immediate need to make sure it's in code also because we're also having the election correct there's two voting districts there so um this is an immediate fix
that needs to be done to make it compliant not just for generally being compliant but we're on now a timeline due to the election so this is a micro uh improvement and then we're looking at through the assessment when it comes across our desk the council's um what
other improvements need to be done so Mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott yes and Mr sigma yes okay item number eight on the agenda is the consent agenda we have resolutions 172 through 178 please
take a a glance at it any resolutions you wish to be taken out please let us know 173 173 okay okay and we have a motion and second on 172
through 178 uh absent of 173 move it rios second sec mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott yes and Mr sigman yes i
have a motion and second on what resolution 173 move it rios second sigman so just a question on the amount that's to be refunded is there an amount and can it be shared
okay so I believe um the escro that they provided was 5,250 initially and then And there's been
improved interest couple question so we've we've spoken to all the professionals everybody that would be heading to the escrow they they are fully made whole before we release this money okay if that's the case I would ask that
we get a balance on here and we table this the next council meeting but the escrow in the grand scheme of things it is their money absent if the if the professionals have not charged against it and made whole um basically what's being returned is the money that is left over in the escrow that was not spent in
theory but um and because the project did not come through so we have to return the money but we need to just we need to make sure that that uh it's been analyzed this performance guarantee you know this was for 501 north a
portfolios deev022021 yeah you were thinking of 150 right okay so let's just do this let's get a a firm answer make sure the professionals that would have had the charges count from our end actually did that so they're made whole um and uh just what the
number would be after we understand what that balance is going to be okay and some would just notify uh developers that we tabled it so this way you know they're aware of the situation too do we need a motion for a table
can I have a motion and second the table resolution 173 move it second roll call mrs albertson yes mrs lance yes mrs rios yes mr scott yes mr sigman
yes thank you item number nine is council reports council members council member Albertson fire department responded to 28 calls uh for service in March and total calls for
2025 are 93 incident types were fire nine false alarm nine service call one hazmat six good intent two monthly total of 28 members attended several events and held several
drills during February on the 10th they held a monthly officer meeting and work drill on the 15th they assisted the Greenbrook Fire Department taking down the star display at house 2 on the 19th members were reertified in CPR the 22nd
they emptied the storage unit of the last items to return to the firehouse on the 26th they held their monthly fire company meeting on the 29th they stood by at the LRWP Runoff 5K they're happy to see a number of members joining the
department for the past few months new members will be attending fire school in the upcoming months fire department is still looking for new members to join our department membership is open to anyone 16 to 18 as a junior member and full member is open to anyone over 18
visit their website at www.danellanfd.com denelonf.com or email joinfd danelanfd.com for more information the friends of the Danellen Public Library
are having their murder mystery dinner on May 10th at the George W hajlick Firehouse um interested in tickets please uh get in touch with us through the library or you can check out Facebook and get information there our
open air market begins on May 4th downtown Denell and Management Organization will join us with their annual spring into wellness event visit us at Washington Memorial Park between 11:00 a.m and 3 p.m if you're interested in being a vendor contact them at friends of the Denellan
Librarygmail.com proceeds from friends fundraising events help to provide programs such as the the uh women's history program as well as museum passes summer reading program events and prizes and so much more follow the friends on Facebook and Instagram thank you okay
thank you Councilwoman Rios yes buildings and ground report dpw has completed work on the new multi-purpose office dpw and the school groundskeeper continue to maintain the burrow's ball fields in preparation for the spring
season weather permitting six trees downtown are scheduled to be replaced this week afterward DPW will plant top soil mulch and mulch around all new trees to complete the project an additional order of blocks has been
placed so that DPW can continue installing block borders around the planters at Washington Memorial Park parsons report PENG replaced a section of the sewer main on Pilaski Street between the
Culver and South Avenue this section was damaged during the installation of a new gas service line to a home on Pilaski Street parsa was on site to oversee the repair board of Ed the public hearing
and adoption on the 2025 2026 school budget will be held on Tuesday May 6 2025 at 7 p.m at Lincoln Middle School the next board of ed meeting will be scheduled for April 8th at 700 p.m
spring break will take place April 14th through April 18th but always please be extra cautious when driving around town especially during spring break as children will be riding bikes hopefully playing ball and enjoying the nicer weather a huge thanks to the parents who
have volunteered this season's for this season's soccer program your support makes these programs possible and we know the kids are excited for the upcoming spring clinic and the library check out these upcoming programs at the
Denella Public Library adult bingo April 10th adult paint along April 30th teen butterfly tea party April 30th teen and Tween Dungeons and Dragons April 29th at 3:30 for more details and additional
programs please visit the Dellan Libraries website and follow them on Facebook thank you thank you Councilwoman councilwoman Lance yes for um the recreation department denellan's annual Easter egg hunt is scheduled for this Sunday April 13th at Columbia Park
kicking off promptly at 1 p.m this event is exclusively for Denellan residents children prek through third grade don't forget to bring a basket and arrive on time stick around after the hunt for a photo opportunity with the Easter Bunny and play ball join us for our opening
day parade and ceremony on Saturday April 26th at 10:00 a.m the parade will kick off at Washington Park and proceed north along Washington A to McCoy Park where the opening day ceremony will be held teens should gather at Washington
Park by 9:40 a.m after the ceremony stick around for our volunteer picnic this year our volunteer picnic day will align with opening day festivities enjoy games music food baseball and much more take this opportunity to connect with
the volunteers in our community interested in becoming a volunteer this is the perfect chance to find out more and softball season kicks off this week in the Somerville League our rookies will play their inaugural home game on
April 9th at Faber Field starting at 600 p.m meanwhile our miners were scheduled to play their first game tonight but it was rained out we look forward to cheering on our softball teams this season whether you're a player coach or supportive family member your enthusiasm and encouragement make all the
difference best of luck to the Little Lady Destroyers wishing you a fantastic season ahead and with that said Danella Recreation extends a heartfelt thanks to all our parent volunteer coaches your dedication allows us to provide a wide range of programs for our youngest
Denellan residents and that's all okay thank you Council President Sigman uh yes i'd like to thank Scott and Alex for all their hard work on the budget and bringing some uh joy and marrynt to what can oftentimes be a tedious process um
and the way you presented it the Alex with actually walking the budget through our day i think that was a really good spin so thank you all for your hard work and also um another call for volunteers seems like everyone's doing that now really are the backbone of what happens
here uh so if you have the time I highly recommend you volunteer your services to help others and you will also get some joy and merrynt out of that as well that's it okay thank you Councilman Scott a short sweet for public works
they continue inspect and clean the catch basins throughout the burrow they completed the multi-purpose office continue brick repair around the new downtown trees they walked the brooks and streams to clear debris as needed cleared the catch bas and lids throughout the burrow cleared the debris from the trash trap and continue the
prep work for the ball fields for the upcoming sporting season and a reminder curbside branch pickup takes place in March and April so the end of the month will be it for curbside that's all I have okay thank
you sorry I'm just writing one last slot down i apologize okay there we go okie do um National Volunteer Month i think we've uh we're driving that home tonight but I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Peg Lockwood Maryanne
Meyers and Shironda Weiss Shimp three of our many dedicated volunteers for joining us this evening to read the proclamation celebrating National Volunteer Month here in Denellan uh as part of the National Volunteer Month we will be hosting a mayoral town hall focused on volunteerism on Wednesday
April 23rd at 7 p.m at the George W hajelik Firehouse attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about Denell's boards and commissions directly from some of the volunteers who help shape our burrow and hopefully inspire um to get involved too additionally as mentioned in tonight's recreation port
the second annual volunteer picnic day will be held during the same week on Saturday April 26th we are incredibly grateful for our many volunteers and look forward to celebrating their contributions to our community um Gentle Family Dentistry 10th anniversary i'd also like to extend
a congratulations to Gentle Family Dentistry Dr sema and her wonderful staff and family on celebrating their 10th anniversary this past Saturday uh what started as a part-time practice in April of 2015 has grown into a thriving full-time dental office and we wish them
continued success for many more years to come second Street phase one which is Second Street and Madison Avenue to Schwarz Place uh the contractor has confirmed that the project is set to begin on the week of April 28th the first phase will focus on curb restoration during which the contractor
will remove severely damaged curbs and driveway apens aprons uh one side of the street at a time the contractor expects to work on four driveway aprons at a time during this process residents may experience up to three days where they cannot access their driveways excuse me
weather permitting so appropriate notice will be sent out to those residents um and we ask for your patience it's a It's a short-term inconvenience for a long-term um improvement and as I noted to Pete he's here so frequently might as well just buy real
estate at this point um Washington Avenue streetlight project last week our engineers from CME met with PSCG and NJOT to discuss the project and potential adjustments uh we expect to have an update in the next two weeks uh the main concern from PSEG side um is
that they don't want to put um what are they called conduits thank you underneath the sidewalk at Washington Park to light them um so we're trying to uh work with them to make it make sense i mean they approved the plans so you know but PSCG never surprises me um so
uh we're working to get that done second Street Mill and pave project uh much like phase one of the second street project uh this initiative will involve the removal and replacement of severely damaged curves and driveway aprons after that the street will be milled and
repaved with enhanced striping on Second Street from Schwarz Place to the Denellan and Middle Sex border uh ADA uh ramp installation we just talked about that tonight during the resolution so I'll skip that uh New Jersey American Water projects on Prospect Avenue so
that's Grove Street to Center Street Whittier Avenue New Market to Center Street phase one of the project is underway on Prospect Avenue near Prospect Avenue Culvert and Whittier A New Market it will continue south towards Center Street this phase includes the installation of new water
main water services and fire hydrants for each home and of course after a period of time when everything is settled a new road uh NJOT North A and Bound Brook Road ADA and RRFB project um work resumed this week to continue the installation of new ADA compliant
sidewalk openings throughout the bur uh throughout Bound Brook Road and North A corridor uh the contractor will also begin installing concrete footings for the rectangular rapid flash and beacons at the intersections of Bound Brook Road and Sanford A and along North A and
Lincoln A Prospect Avenue and Jackson Avenue uh so uh some great news and those lights will be at key intersections that people you know want to feel safe crossing um our engineers report client place corrective work is expected to begin this week weather permitting they have to infilray one of
the uh repair uh cuts that they had to make um and we will make sure they repair it to make the road look like it was in its new form uh 635 Bound Brook Road uh bids were received on March 27th at 11:00 a.m and are currently under review by the engineers comcast work cme
has continued to monitor Comcast work and will inspect all restoration work associated with the project 500 Mountain View uh terrace bike path cme is reviewing the grant requirements and preparing budget figures for the burough's use so that's to come too ta set aside grant uh CME Derek White and
Alex Miller attended it pre-application meeting at the TA set aside grant March 20th the application is currently being prepared you saw that resolution this evening new Market Road and Walnut PL uh Walnut Street intersection um our engineers are requesting an update from
Middle Sex County because that the legs of that are county legs um on the status of the project a resolution for the signal agreement may be adopted at the commissioner's meeting well was supposed to be was supposed to be this past month so we got to we got to double check that
because my notes don't reflect that and the scope of the work is being finalized um New Market Road and South Washington intersection you'll you'll check double check that no New Market and Walnut to make sure the county Yep thank you new Market
Road in South Washington A intersection the light by the Nell uh CMA has requested a status update from the county and expects a response mid to late April and then RFP studies uh CMA has begun studies for the rapid uh beacon light installations at various
locations in the burrow absent of the north a route 28 because that's a separate project um and then finally um I would like to uh just say and recognize coach Dave Denapoli who uh who
served as a football coach in Denellan since 1996 almost 30 years of service as a coach to our Burough's football team our school district's football team the Denellan Destroyers many of those years in which he was the head coach um he has decided to step down from the position
he's still going to remain working for the burrow as the athletic director um but I think it's important to note the hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of football players and students that he has inspired throughout his tenure as a
football coach but also as a athletic director and a physical education teacher and of course the thousands upon thousands of people in our community in which whether they know it or not he has touched their life one way or another um with his community spirit and love for
our community so I'm sure there's going to be more to come in the coming weeks on what maybe as a community we can do but I just wanted to make note here and as a former student former varsity football player for coach Denaps I want
to personally say thank you and I know you played on the team you were on the Were you on the champion year oh sorry uh you also just gave your your age away too if everybody knows their Dell in history but uh and there's I know Mrs
albertson Councilwoman Albertson worked with Dave Dapoli and uh so we know we have a neighbor in here of Dave Dapoli so he's uh he's touched a lot of people's lives here and so we thank him we wish him a lot of success and God bless him and we love him so thank you
Dave Coach sorry coach so okay that's it from me on that one um item number uh 10 is council discussion there's no discussion right now on the agenda for this evening um but Lauren will send out her note if there's any
future discussions to the council members um item number 11 department head reports legal no report okay clerk yes so as we all know the voting districts have changed and a letter went out this week to all voters i'm just going to read the letter that was sent
um dear voter this notice is sent to inform you that your polling location has changed the Middle Sex County Board of Election Commissioners has approved the burrow's request on behalf of the school district to remove Lincoln location to minimize
construction school day operation this change is effective as of March 13 2025 and it gives a chart below to find a new polling location so districts one and two are at the Denellan Senior Center which is 215 Orange Street districts
three and six are at the firehouse which is 231 South Madison districts four and five are at the public library which is 100 New Market Road uh if you are unsure of your polling location district enclosed in the map and also I gave uh
the New Jersey Division of Elections uh website and you enter your address and zip code and we'll come up and show you the polling location and if anybody had any further questions they can contact okay thank you um my uh no report mayor but I just wanted to comment on
something that you just said earlier with the coach Denaps yeah um he is very influential to me i remember back when I used to work for like film making for the football team he always had me included and I'll never forget that coach will always be coach to me
thanks for sharing finance sale million dollars there were two bids in effect Sandler and Penber Sandler was their base was 3.5%
and the net interest cost is 3.456 was 4% premium and their net cost and the difference is $5,000 some very
busy kids thank you Mr olsen again thank you for the work that you did with the finance committee and administration on the budget um I think we got a great one this year and uh it's a good work Mr miller
okay thank you police okay item number 12 on the agenda is public comments we ask that you please state your name and address if we could just make sure the microphone is up there and facing to the audience um we'll start with those in the chamber
first then we'll go to online and then we'll just do a general blanket so we just ask you please state your name and address no bring him the mic bring the mic oh there you go i'll keep going
no problem dave Borggan uh Denown Fire Department uh we got our fire department memorial on April 27th last Saturday this month and uh we are having our pictures at the firehouse at 10:30 by Mr gates and we're going down to the park
at 11 for our ceremony unfortunately we had to add George Hook on it last week and uh Paul by that we're going to have our Franchesome Hotel the mayor and the council are welcome to come if they would like to come okay and that's it
thank you Mr mo oh one more thing can I Can I get a refund on my recycle bucket I had to pay for you know Mr olsson you might have competition for standup now open mic
night thank you Mr morgan okay tell Nancy that we said hi any other members of the public in chambers please state your name and address okay we'll move to online any members online we ask that you please
state your name and address one last blanket any members of the public both online and in chambers have any comments or concerns we ask that you please state your name and address without hearing any we will close that portion of the meeting we have no executive meeting this evening
so item number 13 on the agenda is adjournment uh before I ask for a motion and second I'll remind everybody that the next mayor and council meeting will be held on Monday April 21st 2025 at 7 p.m in these chamber chambers you can join in person or by online we make it
very accessible we know a lot of people like to be on Facebook so just click that link from Facebook and join us here okay can I have a motion and second on resolution number 179 move it Sigman second Lance all in favor i