##VIDEO ID:uw8KTv-n-do## good to go are we recording okay good evening ladies and gentlemen and Welcome to our January 21st council meeting our first order of business is a call to order and arise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible Liberty justice for all our next business on the agenda is the reading of the sunshine statement and roll call by our municipal clerk Mrs Lauren status this meeting of the denell andboro council is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings law this meeting of January 21st 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 denalan website on January 16th 202 2 and on the public bulletin board on North Avenue on January 16 2025 and has remained continuously posted as the required notice mayor sento present council president Sigman here Mrs Albertson present Mrs Lance here Mrs Rios here Mr Scott here Mr vandar here um before we go on to item number three I'm gonna just ask um that we have a moment of silence in remembrance of George W hodik who passed away on Sunday January 12th uh George was a lifelong denell resident a lifetime member of the denell and fire department where he served honorably for 63 years he was a World War II and a Korean War veteran and a friend to so many here in our Miracle Mile personally for me growing up on walut Street was privileged to know him and his family for my entire life he was truly like another grandfather to all of us not just on the 700 block of Walnut but a lot of us throughout the town and he will always hold a special place in mine and many members of our community's hearts his legacy will live on here in dellan through the George W hodik Firehouse which has been named in his honor and through his large and loving family George is going to be dearly missed so if we can have a moment of silence please thank you item number three on the agenda is presentations uh we have a presentation tonight regarding the fourth affordable housing round Declaration of obligation presented by Francis Riner from DMR Architects following the presentation there is a resolution number 53 on the agenda um establishing the Burrow's fourth round present and prospective affordable housing obligations so uh before we do that we'll go into a presentation by uh DMR Architects mayor thank you uh and members of the council thank you for having me Fran Riner with DMR just want to make sure everybody can hear me and they can see my screen we can hear you inside great so this evening I'm going to give a a overview brief presentation of uh of why you have a resolution in front of you this evening regarding the fourth round um uh affordable housing requirements can you see the second screen that starts with history of affordable housing yes great so uh as everybody knows uh New Jersey Supreme Court in 1975 passed a um a seminal case in which it required through constitutional obligation for municipalities to create opportunities for affordable housing uh in 1985 they created uh the council for affordable housing and the council for affordable housing then made rules as to why and how uh each municipality in state of New Jersey had to provide affordable housing there have been a number of Prior rounds uh where as we indicated in the fourth round uh the third round which uh which really after almost 14 years of of inability and and failed rule adoptions from 2000 2014 the third round was adopted in 2015 which identified the number of residential affordable housing units that would have to be uh developed in each municipality within the state from 2015 to 2025 as I indicated we're now in round four which is to say um the number of affordable housing units will be from 2025 to 2035 that would be uh kind of where we are in terms of the the next step on uh March 20th of 2024 the state uh through U its legislation passed um a law requiring the fourth round affordable housing uh and it identified the rules that would have to be followed uh Council for affordable housing was kind of put to the side and the Department of Community Affairs is now the entity that that is uh managing the fourth round affordable housing uh it requires that each municipality uh adopt a resolution before January 1st of 2025 indicating that they either agree or provide new numbers for their municipality uh from what the DCA put out in March uh the the so tonight the only thing that is really on the docket for the mayor and Council to consider is the resol solution identifying the number of uh present need number of units and the perspective need which I'll get into in in a second there is the rules do talk about uh beyond the 31st of of January uh there is a requirement to adopt a plan which is um a housing and spending plan by June 30th of 2025 uh and then to adopt ordinances by March 15 of 2026 but again this evening is really about uh just the acceptance of the DCA numbers uh that were put out in in U in October of this year so the DCA calculations for the burough of dellan indicate that the perspective need and the perspective need represents new housing uh would are the denell is required to to generate 23 affordable housing units by the year 2035 uh in addition DCA put out a number for what they call their present need present need represents the number of units that have to be uh adopted funded for rehab and or repair of existing uh residential uh buildings that are already within the burrow of denell so again the prospective need new housing would be 23 units and the present need which is rehab would be would be 79 units um and again the the objective of this evening which you have a resolution in front of you is to adopt those numbers um before January 31st now the other option would be uh that if you want to propose alternative numbers that you could you would have to follow the statutory methodology that uh that was passed in March of 2024 you'd have to identify flaws in the data uh that generated the number of of 23 and 79 and then of course there's risks to challenges uh if you put out a different number it's our recommendation as it is with all of our clients that we're working on from affordable housing standpoint to accept those numbers but understand that there are um there are certain uh whereas Clauses that allow us to to reduce those numbers from January 31st through the adoption of the plan which is scheduled for June 30th of 2025 what this does is by passing a resolution you provide yourself with temporary immunity from uh Builder remedy suits and from litigation uh I'm I'm hoping that we're now on the perspective need slide so uh again the perspective need uh represents new zoning it it it it means that it it requires the opportunity to provide uh those units 23 through either through through zoning Andor rezoning um to show construction of those of those units by by 2035 the the way that it's generally C calulated is it's done by regions so they take uh they they broke the state into different regions each region was provided a certain number of units and then each municipality within that region was then subdivided into its own number of units Al uh and that was based on the uh NR value income and available land and for Den uh for Den Allen it was 23 units for those new affordable housing units as I mentioned there are a number of Provisions in the uh in the resolution this evening have in front of you that allows uh us to reduce that number between the January 31st and June 30th time frame and among them is a land a vacant land adjustment vacant land adjustment allows for municipalities to see what are the actual available capacity of vacant land within the municipality and to determine based on what is available whether or not that uh 23 units is realistic or whether or not that number should be lowered and so um what we're looking at is a um is a perspective need of what we believe could be as low as six units but no greater than 23 units and so um the six units represents 25% of the perspective uh need uh and that is the minimum number of units that you would have to uh put into place in terms of your plan by June 30th the present need which is the uh which is the um rehab number uh is required to be able to provide a funding mechanism and a program within the burrow that would allow for um anybody that comes through an application to be able to help fund some of the that rehab costs uh as a part of that 79 uh unit number uh in addition we can again reduce that and there are where as Clauses in the resolution this evening that allow that to be reduced between the January 31st and the June 30th uh time frame to adjust uh the present need based on uh a reflection of the actual conditions of of the burrow and so as a part of the fourth round spending plan which which DMR will be working on uh for the June 30th will determine whether or not uh the 79 units is realistic or whether or not that number should be uh reduced as a part of the uh housing and spending plan that will ultimately be adopted in June there are a number of ways to create affordable housing units among them are to have set asides uh within development projects uh and within the zoning and so the burrow has set asides of 15% requirement uh for for uh for rent uh projects and 20% set aside for sale projects so uh project comes in uh and it's for rent 15% of the total number of units has to be affordable for for sale 20% has to be affordable in addition there are group home opportunities or Supportive Housing so there's a lot of different ways to to uh to generate affordable housing over the course of the next 10 years and in addition uh you can actually get bonus credits of up to 25% of your prospective need uh can be done through credits and you're and there's different mechanisms of what those credits are in terms of whether or not they're uh near um if they're near um um public transportation if they are within Redevelopment plans so as a part of again the the the fourth round housing plan that we'll be working on uh uh through June 30th we'll be able to determine if there are bonus credits that can be uh given by um through through the course of of that of those uh of that report the next steps again uh this evening is to declare um the the affordable housing obligation through the resolution it's our recommendation to accept the DCA number of 23 and 79 uh but acknowledge that their adjustment opportunities within the uh within the resolution that you have in front of you after this evening from February to May there are time frame Set uh where developers and or Property Owners can challenge the number it's one of the reasons why we uh recommend that you take the DCA number because if it's challenged DCA has to H will have to um fight that challenge whereas if you make your own number then it may be incumbent on to the burrow to to actually um fight that um that challenge those challenges have to be resolved by um March 31st 2025 and at that point you can be negotiating with developers and drafting zoning and again you prepare a fourth round housing and spending plan which would ultimately be adopted uh by June 30th and then uh ordinances would be drafted after that so with that I'd be happy to answer any questions well without hear any questions for Council uh we have a a motion and second on the resolution mov segment second Rios second Rios Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes Mr vanderark yes and uh thank you to pran and his team as well as the uh the housing Review Committee that was put together to review the recommendations before came to council council president Sigman and council member alberon were part of that so thank you for your work on that as well as to business administrator Alex Miller so thank you okay and well community development director Derek white um next up is item number four on the agenda mayor's appointment to boards commissions and authorities we have two this evening one is an appointment to the mayor's cabis task force um with the expiration ending uh this year because it's an annual term and then number two is appointment of uh well new board members to the dellan public library Board of Trustees uh but also resetting some of the term expiration dates for the current membership because there were some imbalances that we discovered and so we worked with the library Board of Trustees to correct those and putting it on our agenda as a matter of record between both agencies um so this is about correcting the imbalances of expiration dates that were there uh so but we thank everybody for stepping up to the plate and volunteering and we hope more people join us at the table okay item number five is recognizing Arbor Day 2025 through a proclamation um who is the Lea on to the shat Tre commission is it you oh sorry I changed it this year uh council president would you like to read in your very Regal voice uh the proclamation how can I say no to that all right get so uh whereas in 1872 J Sterling Borton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees and whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska and whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world and whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water cut Heating and Cooling costs moderate the temperature clean the air produce lifegiving oxygen and provide a habitat for wildlife and whereas trees are a renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood products and whereas trees on our burrow increase property values enhance the economic Vitality of business areas and beautify our community and whereas trees wherever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal now therefore Jason fento mayor of the burough dellen does hereby Proclaim Friday April 25th 2025 as Arbor Day in the burough of dellan New Jersey I urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and further I urge all citizens to plant trees to Gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this and future Generations well thank you for the reading of that Proclamation three and a half months early so we appreciate thank you it was requested that we get it done early so it's all well and prepared for Arbor Day um next on the agenda is our the approval meeting of our meeting minutes uh first up is the reorganization meeting of January 1st 2025 can I have a motion and second please move it segman second Albertson any edits or comments to the meeting minutes as they currently stand without hearing any can we have a roll call please yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr vomar yes okay uh second meeting of of approval minutes is from our special meeting January 9 2025 count of a motion and second move it Rios second any comments or edits to the meeting minutes as they currently stand without hearing any we'll take a roll call Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes Mr vanderark yes item number seven on the agenda is the introduction of ordinances we have three this evening uh first up is 2025 D1 can I have a motion on it it's an ordinance to amend ordinance 2024 32 repealing and replacing chapter 202 parking meters of the burrow uh code in its entirety move it Sigman second Rios um with this one it's the same exact ordinance we're just replacing it with chapter 202 instead of 270 so everything else is the same there's a clerical there's yeah Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr vanderark yes yeah sorry um can I have a motion and second on 2025-the for the handicap parking spot that was using the same chapter code as the previous one 270 so we're just amending both at the same time Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes Mr vanderark yes okay uh can I have a motion in second on 2025 d03 Bond ordinance amending sections 3G description of the project of bond ordinance number two 202 24-21 move it segment second Albertson and this is the uh editing amending of that section where it speaks about the rspb's for um the Madison Na and Washington na to include the South Washington Avenue and orange and Grove and New Market um so this way we can begin the engineering and bidding of those projects so they can coincide with one another so Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr vanderark yes okay item number eight on the uh agenda is resolutions if uh Mrs stats could read them out and then uh give us a moment to discuss if there's needed discussion resolution number 54 is to pay the bills move it Albertson second Sigman Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr vanderark yes resolution number 55 is to hire Dana Downing as yoga instructor for the winter season for the denell and Recreation Department move it Sigman second riio Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr Vander Mar yes resolution number 56 is to hire spring tennis coaches staff for the recreation department move it Sigman second Albertson Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr vanderark yes resolution number 57 is authorizing the m memorandum of understanding for use of specialized equipment for the 2025 calendar year lit Rios second S Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr vanderark yes resolution number 58 is to hire winter flag football coaching staff for the recreation department move at Rio second Sigman Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr vanderark yes Okay resolution number 59 is to accept the resignation of Ronald pone as senior bus driver move it Albertson second Sigman I would just like to uh make a comment about Mr mcon he's a great guy he's worked with us for many years he provides great care and service to our senior and disabled community and um as a bus driver always making sure he's on time and delivering uh wherever they got to go and uh so we thank him for his service we'll miss his energy behind the wheel and in uh in the office so we wish him uh well in his retirement and God bless him so thank you for your service Ron want to say [Music] Miller yeah yes yeah uh whoever gets the job next has some pretty big shoes to fill just not Le feet fill so okay all right I'll take a roll call Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr vanderark yes resolution number 60 is to approve a memorandum of understanding with the dellan board of education for live streaming video access move it R Mrs Albertson yes somebody want to speak sorry I thought you were gonna say something the way you went for the microphone I apologize did not mean to delay the vote okay any comments no okay U Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes yes and Mr vanderark yes resolution number 61 is to issue a prior year Revenue refund for a fee over payment move it Rios second Sigman Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr vanark yes resolution number 62 is to issue a a prior year Revenue refund for a postage fee second Sigman Mrs Albertson yes Mrs glance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes Mr vanderark resolution number 63 is to authorize a refund for a tax over payment move it Sigman second Albertson Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr vanderark yes resolution number 64 is accepting and adopting the Central Jersey municipal joint Insurance funds 2025 safety incentive program Rio second Rio Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr vanderark yes okay number nine the agenda is consent agenda so we have resolutions uh number 65 through number 80 so Council if there's any specific resolution you'd like to pull from the consent agenda please let us know and then we will save that at the end can you pull 65 please p number 65 sure okay so we have a motion and a second on the consent agenda and then we'll go back to this one y yeah so motion second on 66 through 80 second Rios Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr vanderark yes can we have have a motion second on 65 right y motion second on 65 moving s second Rios okay just we talk about a while nail and Hawn we look keep on ad all that's what we're end up with in our beautiful damn town so this one that's on here is not a new one that's coming into town it's they didn't pay their fee on time so they were not on the agenda for the 16th so they finally paid their fee but they were they've been on the list they just paid late and that's why they're not a new one it's the one right next to yeah new one has open right yeah this one no this one is the is on the previous list we we this year what it specifically are you suggesting on and that type of business I mean we're you know we building all of this downtown retail space and what we're going to do we're accept na salons and salons how much you know how much can we bring in with that I mean I like to see BR well yes I'd like to see too so legal this is really a legal question so thing I look into is very difficult to do that because um that treat all the business have to treat all the business uniformly and equally so it's very hard to pick and choose but if there's anything that can be done I I'll look into that issue and then maybe we can discuss it but I made a note I'll see if 15 20 hairon you come up with that number in square mile you for square mile how many use without overfill well it's uh I guess the market dictates that generally speaking I mean one could argue the same thing about restaurants how many restaurants can you have in a town too so um as Mr Robertson said he'll look into it I think it's the the the infrastructure we put into place to track certain types of businesses such as a special improvement district um or D well ddmo would is the downtown management organization um so you know I get your point uh we did put into place the uh what did we do with the licensing the basically that once one of these parlers come in it's uh they're more higher quality versus just setting up shoping not meeting Health obligations and quality of services it's strict ordinance it's a strict ordinance which this stats oversees that ordinance right along with the code enfor and health and health and how it's been playing out good everything except for this one person who didn't pay but they paid they've been inspected once a year and everyone has passed no reinspection perfect yep can I ask a question um is there anything um in zoning laws that requires a certain distance between ha salons no now there are occasionally you'll see between gas stations there are the separation Arrangements but but they very difficult to regulate so I don't think there's anything specifically require a distance or separation not not in zoning you have to there's there's equal protection requirements once you permit a certain use in a Zone and that's already Redevelopment plan permits the use once it's permitted in that zone They really can't regulate who is approved who isn't approved how many are approved you can regulate by Zone what type of businesses are there but once it's an approved uh use um you know you really very very difficult to find a justification to whenit the number or separation but I I'll look into it but I I think it's hope be get this has been a question that's come up through various council members throughout the years since my time and it's been a consistent legal opinion between different attorneys between Municipal attorney as well as land use attorneys and Redevelopment attorneys that they all have that same consensus so um you know we can we'll look into it again and see what Mr Robertson comes up with um but I think it comes down to making sure that we're creating an opportunity for more businesses to come into town such as what we're doing through Redevelopment and maybe strengthening the downtown management organization to be able to really seek out now at the hiring of the director of Community Development that's also a tool in the toolbx so um so and look M council member andmark we're not the only town that is experiencing this I talk to all Mayors across the state and they all say the same thing a lot of other downtowns are being filled with hair salons and nail salons and barber shops it's a it's a Common Thread in all main streets so thank you yeah is there any more questions okay I'll take a rooll Mrs Albertson yes Mrs Lance yes Mrs Rios yes Mr Scott yes Mr Sigman yes and Mr vanderark yes item number 10 on the agenda is uh Council reports council member Albertson hey Fire Department on Sunday January 12th sad news was received on the passing of life member George W hodgi we would like to thank everyone for the outpouring of support as we gave George the funeral service he deserved we would like to recognize the support of denell and administration mayor and councel dellan police and OEM C during the services denel was covered by middle sex burrow and the Green Brook Fire Departments while our unit were out of service during the funeral procession New Market fire and River Road fire departments both from Piscataway went above to ensure the American flag was properly presented to both the firehouse and the cemetery 2024 statistics for the year seven uh false alarms 124 hasmat 52 service calls 21 good intent 5 six uh natural disaster to I to get my page to come up I've got my reading glasses today folks I'm doing this blind EMS 18 fire 34 rupture explosion one for an annual total of 310 as predicted by uh Chief Scott over 300 um the fire department and Fire Company held their annual installation of officers dinner on 111 the dinner was a joint dinner with Greenbrook fire department thank you to everyone who attended and to mayor salento for performing the oath of office I'd also like to say it's not in my report but I would just like to say how much I think it's so wonderful the relationship that Greenbrook fire department and the dellan fire department have to support each other and work together that's really important thank you um the uh mayor's cannabis task force had our first meeting on January 15th as we see the the dispensaries in our neighboring communities hearing that delivery is available and M municipalities are not receiving the predicted tax monies We Stand by our recommendation for dellan to opt out of allowing dispensaries in the borrow of denan we will continue to stay educated on cannabis issues laws and Trends and how they affect an nelan we will also stay aware of other products that are available and may be legalized although not cannabis we feel we should continue to watch these Trends and that's my report toight yes buildings and grounds burrow office relocation the the recreation office is being transformed into a multi-office space that will accommodate the recreation program coordinator Communications coordinator and the Construction office director of Community Development Additionally the burough administrator will move into the OEM office which is being re relocated to the Construction office this cons uh consolidation will bring day-to-day office operations Under One Roof enhancing collaboration and efficiency the installation of the new door for the multi office space and the burrow administrator's office originally scheduled for this week has been delayed by the manufacturer the updated installation date is now anticipated for early February parts of report parsa is continuing its annual program of cleaning and video inspections of the burough sewers Mains dland Public Library the library offers a r wide range of free programs for all ages from newborns to adults if you have any suggestions for new programs feel free to reach out through our Facebook page or website our latest edition is the teen ESL conversation session designed for students in grade six and up this gr program will take place on Saturdays at 12:30 p.m. and registration is recommended the next Board of Ed meeting is scheduled for January 28th at 7 pm at the most recent meeting Miss be menz the district Community parent involvement specialist delivered an insightful presentation she provided an overview of strategies to enhance parent engagement including how parents can navigate the school system and access available resources upcoming dates to remember February 2nd is early dismissal February 16th is no school president day and Greenbrook flood commission the next Green Brook flood commission meeting is scheduled for February 5th these meetings are V held via Zoom unless otherwise specified you're interested in learning about more about the Green Brook subbasin consider joining the meeting that's all okay thank you council member vandar last week the Police Department police committee and burough officials H RS of interviews for the position of probationary officer the department is still accepting applications and anyone interested should visit the town visit the town website or the Department's Facebook page for more information with the recent snowstorm Sunday there were quite a few number of cars left in the streets a reminder cars must be removed and you will be ticketed if not removed it will be sent in the mail so don't think you got away with it and that is the end of my report that's a way to top it off council member council member Lance okay uh Recreation reports are as follows the recreation department and mayor salento presented the house decoration contest winner with their plaque on Christmas Eve prior to the Santa round Town Event the winning house at 340 dellan AB was adorned beautifully with classic Evergreen garlands we thank all those who participated in making dellan seasonably bright dellan is especially busy with lots of fun family events during the holidays on Christmas Eve denell and fames came out to greet Santa as he made his way around town a long-standing tradition the recreation department is always grateful to the fire department rescue squad and and police department for making this a successful event a big thank you to Mike luthman for his dedication to making this event especially special this year and each year um thank you to all who made this tradition um special as always and all and you all make this day very special one in denalan um for recreation basketball recreation basketball tipped off on January 4th with close to 100 Kids registered in grades K through six we have over 15 parent volunteer coaches who help make the season run smoothly and we're especially thankful to Kate ruskis ruskoski um and her excellent leadership this season finally due to the winter weather this past Sunday the annual senior holiday luncheon at the George W hot Firehouse was postponed this Saturday until this Saturday January 25th at 1 pm any senior interested in joining can contact the recreation department and as always the recreation department and seniors look forward to the mayor and council's attendance that's all thank you council president Sigman yes so adding on to the Santa around I want to add a special thanks to the offic joley for helping make the DJ trailer Drive encouraging me when I was struggling Traer so thank you and also as we begin having our initial committee meetings and reelect our officers uh or elect our officers I just want to know on how encouraged I am by the energy of our many volunteers and by the recent administrative sta very nice thank you council member Scott so for tpw they continue to routinely clean the downtown and the burough parks and properties weekly lawn and Landscape Maintenance at the parks and properties uh they started Christmas tree pickup around town removed the Christmas decorations around town uh put new signs downtown for 15minute parking and pick up and drop off uh put up two new flashing stop signs at Walnut New Market those seem to be working they're not working no they are working oh it's okay fire department hasn't been there that's what I'm getting at oh God that's a good thing y uh January 16th Crews were ins salting the roads and as we all know on the 19th the crews plowed and salted the roads throughout the night and the mechanic Division and Public Works they service the police Fleet as they come up for maintenance or as breakdowns arise they've serviced the DPW equipment and fleet vehicles as maintenance and breakdowns arise I replaced the transmission in truck two and checked over all the plow equipment and replaced the plow pump on the red pickup during the snowstorm on the 19th that's my report okay thank you um I'll just say a quick shout out to DPW uh for the great work that they did curb to curb um I saw somebody who works for another DPW today and they complimented how dellan handled it as they always do so uh good work to the team Alex um so real estate New Jersey feature so I'm excited to share that the burough denel has been featuring the January 2025 edition of real estate New Jersey's print and digital magazine uh this article covers the history of Redevelopment in Den recent ly completed projects approved plans and more the features on the homepage of their website re- nj.com and I think we're going to put something out tomorrow about it so keep an eye out for it um I just want to say in terms of denell and rescue squads installation dinner uh thank you for the invitation to Mayor and Council for your January 18th uh uh installation Awards dinners and extend congratulations to the officers and to the uh all the organ of the organization and to the the uh Chief and deput Chief ET set aside as well as to all the awardees for their hard work and thank you for your service and volunteering to the community so round of applause to you guys good work uh some stuff from our Engineers regarding client Place corrective work will be completed when weather permits because they have to work on a part of the road that they did corrective uh work but we weren't happy about it so they're going to make it better but clearly you don't want to deal with asphalt and freezing weather uh Lincoln Avenue Vue uh final reimbursement figures are under review by the do and our engineer anticipates the burough will ultimately receive the entire Grant uh the final reimbursement should be around 300,000 um just additional documentation of payments have been made by the burrow and CME is working with CFO Scott Olson on this so um nice to get that money so we can pay Down The Debt Service around that project and that was a road that was done with 100% grants so that's a great work uh Washington Avenue street lighting project the Project's been awarded uh and uh we are coordinating the approval of the award with the NJ doot uh local Aid and the required uh construction contracts uh Second Street phase one projects been awarded and our Engineers cordinating the approval of the award with njdop local Aid and the required construction contracts uh railroad Culvert along South Avenue uh so we're coordinating a meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers to discuss the status of greenbook project is is being scheduled uh because they the the railroad covert uh wants to understand the bat project the folks around that DP want to understand what's going on with the uh Army Core Engineers project so we'll see where that goes uh 635 Bound Brook Road future home with the denal rescue squad uh demolition bid documents will be submitted to the burough within within this month and uh we're expecting demolition to hopefully take place in the spring once some bidding goes out all Engineers will continue to monitor the yeah uh CME our Engineers will continue to monitor the work being performed by Comcast who's rapidly moving through dellan um uh CME has reviewed flash times for the rfps at the intersection to South Madison uh Avenue and I don't think that's right got it okay I apologize I'm mixing up the Madison Avenue ones um and I guess that's been reported to you Alex and uh budget letters were submitted for the South Washington Avenue New Market Road pedestrian improvements and the Bound Brook Road streetscape improvements and the bur R rfpb improvements a meeting um was held to discuss the budgetary priorities and that's why we amended the introduced to amend the ordinance tonight because then we can start the funding process for both projects and not lose out on the opportunity to Grant that's funding one of them so that's it for me this evening um department heads legal anything no report okay clerk no report it no report okay Administration okay PD okay how's it going over parking authority enforce it beautiful Rescue Squad no s first off say is wonderful thank you very much um in 2024 our our operational were 11,000 with two of our members 1 and 2000 men and two of our members that in perspective that is two people giving parttime jobs one two people full jobs we also had two CPR F where residents of town wow our department currently has CPR instructor who is semi resour thank you good work I apologize I jumped over item number six Council discussion there are none this evening but Mrs stats sent out the process to for mayor and Council to have that on the agenda so thank you okay uh item number eight on the agenda is public comments so anybody who is joining we'll start this way whoever's in Chambers then we'll go online and then we'll do a general uh anybody in Chambers uh we ask that you please state your name and address and then ask your question here yeah C and I have a couple things and I wasn't prepared I came here for the library okay first first thing about the firehouse okay and if you didn't know that they were there under the flag there used to be These Bricks Memorial bricks I don't know how many years ago was a fundraiser by a brick have it personalized I don't know 10 15 so since they read the firehouse like I was watch it like I saw the BS there were there were there there they're behind the firehouse now they're going to be reinstalled is that part of the doing property I believe it is okay so but they're going to be reinstalled okay and that's on the company side just so you're aware which is so there's the department which is controlled by the burrow and then there's the fire company which is a nonprofit agency that operates within the the building that is their fundraising wing and a social side like if you need to help among a historical society to promote it that's very generous thank you okay another is just a comment my comment you don't have to comment but all these high rises it's just it's like changing the the Dynamics of the town if you've ever driven through car durat they they have this road and they they refer to it as the cavern because it's like it used to be like townish and now it's just like apartment like it's like driving east on 28 when you go through plane field and You' got the the factor there and that's like it's like luster F so it's I don't know how many more of these are going to be out but it's just [Music] changing last thing is about the water last P got from that I got from the order company was the end of December and they sent out like these feel good emails about what they're doing with the order and then the last one I think I got was the end of December that there was some kind of weak into the r River so I don't know if there's anything since then about the status of Le or any of the other unless you can speak to my understanding is that they done their work they flushed it out they've tested it over a couple hundred times and nothing's come back that is uh poisonous or contaminating to the to us to drink or make with food um so that's that's the last notice we received that everything is basically back to their standard well I think it might be still worth you calling them up I think you know okay question talking about the Greenbrook flood commission who was the 1937 graduate of theel and high school who started the I have a feeling you know the answer a little F named after and a bridge I think by Street in well this is why you're on the Historical Society so thank you for your [Laughter] service so thank you theth Wednesday of the month at 6:30 the Historical Society yes okay thank you I was goingon to say I thought you guys were Thursday for the library I just have your address for the record after thank you so do you don't want us to address the comment about the Redevelopment in the downtown you just wanted to make a statement put it I understand I get your your perspective um the downtown is in a Redevelopment Zone uh if we don't buy by a Redevelopment plan and Zoning uh there's a you heard it earlier in the evening there's a thing called Builder remedy so if a builder comes along and says I want to build a project that fits within your zoning and your affordable housing requirements they and we say no we don't want you to do that they can then turn around sue us we have an activist Court in my opinion in this state and they'll say screw their zoning all together build whatever you want so um we have we we surveyed the community uh five years ago and we try to do an annual survey of some sort um we heard that people don't want anything above the most response were above three and four stories and so as you see some towns are going 5 six seven I think that completely urbanizes a community um so our Redevelopment plan does call for three stories which historically is what our downtown has been um so we're going to try and do this in a balanced approach I think we I am biased I'm not going to lie to you when I say this I think we've found a way to do it in a balanced and smart approach where the setback is 16 feet they're three stories they have some character and charm to the to designs and um so that's the goal and there's some green INF structure now required to them so you improve the streetcape um but uh you know it's we have to figure out a way to bring back our downtown outside of allowing some vacant buildings to sit around which is not good for anybody Revenue depreciated values um disabl your mouth to God's ears and that's exactly our conversations with uh developers moving forward are to include them they've always been a part of the conversation um but you can't force a developer's hand or any Builder's hands to go in One Direction so you have to you have to work with a builder who kind of comes with the same mindset to do that so but we we make that request all the time and it's something that I think we all agree that we would like to see in town because Aging in place is what they call that's a technical term I guess I agree is important so you're welcome Mrs Haren anybody else from the public we please ask that you state your name and address I just wanted to we do see a lot of the air nail Sal that are coming into town and one of the things I've noticed about them is is a large number of them have window this in any way violate seems like they seem to be sure businesses that open window yeah no that is a violation of our sign ordinance and I I know Mr B and who specifically handles that for code enforcement he has cited various businesses in the downtown that have covered their windows I one I can specifically keep think about is towards uh Jefferson Avenue there is a barber shop that had a full uh display in their window and I know it's completely gone now um so I will tell them to keep an extra eye out for it okay just one all right yeah thank you yep any other members of the public in chambers before we go online okay uh members of the public joining us online we ask that you please state your name and address we're here to answer your questions here are your concerns I'll make one last General comment to both online and person please state your name and address okay without hearing any we have no further business of the mayor and Council uh other than item number gez nine sorry adjournment uh resolution 81 can we have a motion in a second please move it Sigman all in favor any nay okay everyone our next meeting is February 3rd 20