good evening and welcome to the April 1st no joke 2025 meeting of the Emerson governing body this meeting is being videotaped and may be viewed on your local public access channel either 36 or 77 the meetings are also available live on YouTube for those of you present in
case of a fire follow the fire exit signs above the doors and exit calmly mr salamandanda would you please lead us in the flag salute united States of America indivisible with liberty and justice for all i would ask you to
remain standing for a moment of silence in memory of Eileene Vasquez Illy and Daniel Michael Fulham both longtime residents of Emerson thank you this meeting is called pursuant to the provisions of the open public meetings
law adequately noticed pursuant to NJSA 104-10 this meeting of April 1st 2025 was noticed to the record and the Ridgewood News on January 7th 2025 and published in said newspapers posted on the bulletin board in the municipal
building and on the website and has remained continuously posted as required under the statute miss D Simone would you please call the role of the governing body mayor present councilwoman Rice here councilwoman Sers here councilwoman Magguire present
council President Arzia here councilman Timberman is absent and counciloman here may I have a motion to excuse Councilman Timberman from tonight's meeting second all in favor i okay he is
excused i have a feeling he's one of those three hi Mike um proclamations and citations um April is Autism Acceptance Month Earth Month 2025 and we have our Emerson
Junior Senior High School cast and crew of Peter Pan the Musical we are so excited to have them here um the crew the cast and crew performed Peter Pan this year which I saw twice Friday night and Saturday night so I saw both guests um led by Mr almond it was truly an
outstanding performance um it was filled with so much creativity and talent and actually flying so if you didn't see it they actually flew it was amazing um I want to congratulate all of you um are you gonna do a song for us
okay how would you like to Would you mind coming up to the microphone Mr alman i know you're no stranger to microphones so yes we are going to uh do uh the song I Won't Grow Up love it which is the
song that Peter and the Lost Boys do in the forest to just sort of state their anthem of life okay okay now I just want to make sure do they know where they're on camera did you mark it yeah it's fine we'll watch it we'll
watch it on YouTube later but it's fine i just want to make Do you It's between Rob we can just Oh yeah we can come down there i just want to Do you want to see where the camera is so that you know where they have to stay in between just for
blocking purposes well I want everyone to be on so we've got basically chair to chair and if they need to come on the other side they can no they'll stay they want to stay and then they can't go they kind of have to stay in front of behind that
chair otherwise see the chair so they have to be they'll be standing up in that whole area so I think that I'm gonna watch from Yeah i've seen it and I'll watch it on television
you might be in the way are you ready for today's lesson then listen to your teacher repeat after me i won't grow up i won't grow up i don't want to go to school i don't want to go to school just learn to be a
parent just to learn to be a parent and recite a silly rule and recite a silly rule [Music] not me not me i won't throw up i don't want to wear a
tie i don't want to wear a tie or a serious expression or serious expression in the middle of July in the middle of July [Music] not me so
badatch up i won't grow up not a penny will I pinch not a penny will I will grow a mustache i will never grow a mustache or a fraction of an inch or a fraction of an inch growing up is awful
[Music] no sir not I not me so there will never [Music] We won't grow up we won't grow up we will never grow we will never grow a day
and if someone tries to make us And someone tries to make us we will simply run away we will simply run away i won't grow up i won't grow up no I promise that I won't no I promise that I won't i will stay aboard forever i will stay
forever if I [Music] don't joy and libert grow up
not me not me not me not me no sir [Music] [Applause]
bow oh [Applause] just one song this year Mr alman [Laughter] sure bring them back up one more quick
song just stay between these the ends of the tables um uh Captain Hook does not like Peter so he tries to kill Peter a lot like a lot a lot
so anytime he's he's like plotting how to kill the boys and Peter he breaks out in a song because he's just a musical little guy a glimmer of a plan by which perhaps I may redeem the honor as a man kidnap
Wendy sees the boys and you'll have food when the time is right you'll see the children walk the [Music] blank by another [Music] [Music]
[Music] hallelujah y thank you so much i could watch you guys all night um so if the council wants to come back up and if you guys want to get ready I'm going to come down and we are going to
present the certificates when I call your name please come up and stay up here with me um and uh we will take one group photo so some of these children exciting for me to watch you
guys continue to grow as artists and to improve on your craft um most of all Bill Omen come on up [Applause] lisa here okay I'm gonna give you
and Madison Ostro [Applause] and especially Olivia Cara Thomas [Applause] diana Tamayo
[Applause] Audrey Rela [Applause] Hasset Gio Salamando someone who I think we have for a couple
of more years uh Dr hook himself James Nissat [Applause] his name i think Dr mr hook I don't know i said I go to them i don't pay
attention all the time um Mrs martini not here mr shama I know is not here mia I didn't see Mia oh she's here mia's here come on up you're welcome hi Cara Tam Cara
[Applause] Thomas Aruan Connor i think all our seniors are up here at this point right bittersweet savannah Deni claudia Dro you're very welcome oliver Stutzel
not here rebecca Wear Gianna Kim Sophia Rizzo that's an excited dad miranda Eng judy Kagel nope
nicole Schwanenegger no dave Manino brianna Lazar has to be here i see her mom and dad cooper Safara no isabella Leano i don't see she's not
here i don't see uh Jara Maza cameron Spur [Applause] leonard Tulin smile Mariline Kim
Lauren Cananano Lucas Molina Raquel Lions Rashelle sorry very nice brandon Matthews TJ Rice I do not see Jordan
Astro daniel Acasta Rich Goni Ronnie Yun Tim Amma Lafetano Vinnie Roblace Ryan
Hout Joseph Gibbs Andrew Gersmeer Matthew Gersmeer Ella Kimo i don't think anyone's here i'm just gonna say their name so they're part of it is okay i got everybody that's here right y Megan
Coral Donna Deberner Sharon Walsh Quinn Pasual Bela Donahghue Catalina Man Lopez Alyssa Huertes Gabby Makuchi Renee
Canino Lindseay Delarosa Alexa Sarnoski Kelly Vonner Caitlyn Carrie and Deanna Ortega all of these people make up the cast and crew because the crew as
we know works just as hard as everybody else that gets to shine on the stage right so once again I want to say bravo brava um I don't I think I've said this in the past i performed on that same stage myself in Oklahoma and Carnival so I know how hard it is to get up there in
front of your friends and family and your peers and you guys outdo yourselves and Mr alman and Lisa as the directors outdo yourselves every single year um thank you so much for coming and perform and the seniors keep on going do it in
college does the council want to come down my head likeward okay is the council behind yes thank you again everyone [Applause] thank you so much for coming i would
suggest Thank you again no thank you i also just quickly want to thank the council and the mayor for consistently recognizing you all and than the uh the productions and the arts that we do at the school we very much appreciate that
you spend the time to think about us and so thank you for that [Applause] and I know a lot of these kids double timed it also because they're in the band and they marched in the St patrick's Day parade so they've been very very busy this month practicing for
everything so kudos to all of you and to the rest of you not the seniors we will see you next year thanks guys bye CJ my CJ not my CJ the other
Okay mina are you going to wait for public comment or did you want to come up now and say something sure if you can we just have a motion to open to the public um only because there are members of our Muslim community here and I know that Ramadan has ended and they'd like to say
a few words so move all in favor okay mean if you would like to come up with the members of the community yes so as you can see half the team is here or even less ramadan was a month of reflection late night prayers fasting so
no food no sleep and so now we I think we're in food comas now after trying to make up nothing like going to you know parish baguette and having a coffee in the daytime so we wanted to thank the mayor and the council and all the staff
because you were so helpful and so kind and generous in helping us organize that event which was the first crescent lighting in Emerson uh I'm a grandmother as I told you and my grandchildren saw the crescent they came over for Eid this
Sunday and uh we took pictures so it was a very moving moment for us so really want to thank you and as so we brought some baklava for you to have together with plates and napkins i'm assuming that's sweet to eat and we would like to thank you from the
Muslim community a small aid basket um to say thank you for everything you did to allow us to celebrate like our month thank you very much um Rob would you like to accept that so I don't have to come down and possibly trip off the deis
and um we will share that with our staff and also um with the governing body oh do you want to come up here and I'll stand now you have to get down oh no just stand up i thought I would stand here
and stand up and you guys can stand down here and we'll do a photo yes yes face that way okay no take your mask down if you could just move a little Thank you thank you so much thank you it
was a beautiful ceremony thank you thank you so much she was hiding and we'll see you next year thank you so much you're so very welcome yes I will good to see you thank you i'm here i'm hiding
thank you thank you for our treats appreciate it yes thank you okay motion to close the public portion so second all in favor i okay now I'm going to ask for another change in the agenda because we have Joe Palma here
from uh KC signs and as you know the sign is outside and he's going to give us a very short spiel on um what he recommends for the burrow joe would you like to is that okay everybody okay with that make a motion to let Joe okay all in favor all right joe come
on up okay so um you know after reviewing you know with Rob with yourself um seeing the both the resolutions on the side of the board um
the recommendation would be to do the option one the 4T by 8 foot singlesided the higher resolution 9 millimeter um you know those pri that price right there you're basically at
$29,000 uh the only other question would be as we spoke downstairs is if we're going to do the installation and the footer of of the pole as far as for the sign to go on so uh when I first sp
started speaking with Rob he said "Let's price that out differently in case the DPW here will do it to save money." So realistically that is going to be your preference the only thing is you lose
your warranty by you guys installing the pole you don't lose the warrant the fiveyear warranty on the LED but god forbid if that if that thing falls over we'll come and put it back up for you but it's you're going to have to pay for
us to do it because we didn't install it the first time but if we But is this the screen if it falls over and we do it and the screen breaks what is That's a very good question i don't know i've never had somebody ask me that um in seven
years I've had one customer install their own pole and that's because it was a it was for the DPW um down in Burlington down in South Jersey but other than that no we've we have never had anybody in seven years
install their own bowl so okay so that sounds that's a question I could find out for I mean I could obviously find that out for you yeah I would like to know that but um yeah I'm not sure i'm sorry but what you're saying is if we install it ourselves and it falls over then you had to come in we said "Oh we
made a mistake." Yeah we would have you'd have to come in and charge us later to install of course yes but I mean the same price as you would from the get-go or is it I don't know because um just depends on how much I I don't know i wouldn't know i mean that's
that's a question for the estimating office um you know because the pricing is going to be different if it's just us coming to do a oneoff refab and repair so I'm not sure about Does anyone have any questions
about the sign does everyone like the sign yeah it's going to be a great improvement to what we have and we budgeted for it last year and also this year but um I don't think we're going to have to Yeah we're good right yeah so what I can
do is I can go ahead i'll clean up the quote so that you just have this option so basically everything we t I'll take off option two option three all the other stuff off so it's a little more streamlined and then training and whatnot comes with it in order to Yes so
two weeks before we come out to install you will do an online training whoever the designated users are going to be it's basically like doing a Zoom call with the Sirrus IT department guy okay so he will sit there share his screen
with you show you how to log in how to pull the slides in and out how to search for slides because you have free content creation with that as well so Easter's coming up you can go into the search bar put in Easter and there's going to be
hundreds if not thousands of pre-made templates for you already and then you just add your text and you can just add your text in there um and then with the free content creation let's say that you're trying to make a custom slide and you're just hitting a roadblock with it
you send it to Cirrus's it within 48 hours they'll have that slide made for you and put it in your bank for you in your So if they if like the fire department has um their own flyer that they want to keep for consistency that
could be downloaded and put on there also as 100% okay so let's say I mean you could streamline this down to where you could say every Wednesday from 12:00 p.m to 1:00 p.m we're going to put
Emerson Fire Department slide up and then literally at at 12:00 on Wednesday it'll pop up at 101 it'll it'll pop off so I'm just saying like you can every slide it like did you guys notice how
the each slide transitions differently how it might fade to the right and then the next one fades out it explodes in this every slide can be can be programmed to do what however you want it to appear disappear how long you want
it to show for how bright you want it to be that's PowerPoint she said yeah that's what everybody said yes it's a it's basically a PowerPoint so um now the one thing that we did talk about because I know that um the Bible Church I believe used the same company i'm not
sure if the high school did but there were residents that thought that the when those were first installed about a year or two ago that they were too bright yeah so he said that you could dial down the brightness so literally you could go out or early evening you could set it so that you could say
from 7 a.m to 7:00 p.m it's going to be 100% what you see right now from 7 to midnight you dial it down to 50% and then from say midnight to 7 you shut it off and it's not like someone's got to go out there and shut it off turn it
back on in the morning you set the schedule and that will do whatever you set it to and what is the life expectancy on that sign i mean I've been trying to get Norwood School District to put we they've got one that's 16 years old the guy won't let let go of it the the superintendent
there I've been trying to get him to for like the last three years the update update 16y old it's a 16-year-old sign single color but he's just like I'm not going to spend any money until it stops working well that's kind of where we're at at this point we're having a lot of technical problems with our current sign
it's hidden behind um a train arm uh signal whatever you call what do you call that a train crossing arm sign um that was put in after the sign was put there um so we really would like to
update it and um have people coming through Emerson and getting the information um I think we're still going to make the decision on where it's going to be placed um but I think close to where the original one is maybe on the opposite side of the street but that's still up for uh discussion um nothing's
You talking about the one that's down when I came in I saw one that I saw it by the little train station yeah yeah it's like hidden behind front of it yeah okay i I don't Yeah i I mean look whether you put this sign out front of here or you put it
over there the prices are the same okay i mean Well that's what I mean we're still Yeah figuring out where we're going to put it gotcha okay i have my ideas some people don't like them nicole but we'll talk about it we'll figure that out all right i thank you so much
for coming up no problem anyone have any other questions no thank you oh the one thing he did say is the base is different like when we saw the pictures they had the stone and he said if we have it put in um we could have our own landscape or the DPW mulch it and kind
of build it out at a later date kind of just live with it and then see what we want to do to the bottom of it we don't have to because if you put the faux If you put the faux base in you're married to Yeah you're married to it so and it's also that base is 24 in high 100 inches
wide 24 inches deep so you're really limited to what you can do around it after that's in there so you know just doing the traditional skirt then you can like you said you can mulch it put some flowers in there put a rock base around
there you can you're pretty much free to do what you guys decide to do okay all right perfect if there's no other questions then I want to thank you for coming and bringing us the sign oh yeah all right so what I'll do is I will clean the clo I will clean the quote up
with just the option that we talked about and I'll shoot it over to Rob very good okay thank you so much get home safely this evening thank you okay we're going to go back to our regular agenda uh let me see you want to go down the regular steps because there's no light out there now i don't want you to fall
down the steps yeah when it's light out I'll take the chance coming up but I don't like going down in the dark thank you safe home good night we got to get you to the car safely so you get home safely um the next item on the
agenda is appointments there are no appointments this evening minutes for approval march 18th 2025 regular meeting may I have a motion to approve those minutes roll call please councilwoman Rice yes
councilwoman yes councilwoman yes council President yes councilwoman yes okay may I have a motion to approve the close session meeting minutes of March 18 2025 which are not for release to the public at this time i'll second roll
call please councilwoman Rice yes councilwoman yes councilwoman yes council President yes yes okay correspondence all correspondence is on file in the clerk's office
adoption of ordinances this is the second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1698-25 miss D simone would you please read the title of this ordinance an ordinance of the borrow of Emerson Bergen County New Jersey to establish ranges for salaries wages compensation
and other terms of employment of certain employees of the B of Emerson for the calendar year 2025 may I have a motion to open the meeting for public comment on this and this ordinance only second all in favor any opposed motion
carried we're open on this ordinance seeing no hands may I have a motion to close on this ordinance second all in favor okay we are closed may I have a motion to adopt ordinance number 1698-25 on second reading so moved
second roll call please councilwoman Ray yes councilwoman yes councilwoman Magguire yes council President yes yes thank you um this is the second reading of public hearing of ordinance number
1699-25 miss D simone would you please read the title of the ordinance an ordinance of the borrow of Emerson County New Jersey to establish chapter 77 article 4 may I have a motion to open the meeting for public comment on this and this
ordinance only second all in favor any opposed we are open to the public seeing no hands may I have a motion to close this portion of the meeting for public comment on this ordinance i move second all in favor any opposed we are closed may I have a motion to adopt ordinance
number 1699-25 on second reading second roll call please councilwoman Rice yes councilwoman yes councilwoman yes council President yes
yes uh this is the second reading and public hearing of ordinance number 1700-25 miss D simone would you please read the title of this ordinance an ordinance to amend chapter 266 article 2 section
266-15 removal standards tree planting fund may I have a motion to open the meeting to public comment on this and this ordinance only second all in favor any opposed we're open to the public seeing no hands may I have a motion to close
this portion of the meeting for public comment on this ordinance second all in favor any opposed we are closed may I have a motion to adopt ordinance number 1700-25 on second reading so moved second roll call please
rice yes councilwoman yes councilwoman yes council President yes councilwoman yes okay the next order of business is the introduction of ordinances miss D simone will announce by number and title of the f the following ordinance upon approval
this ordinance will be further considered at a public hearing to be held on April 22nd 2025 at 7:30m or as soon thereafter as the matter can be addressed in the council chambers of the burough hall good catch one municipal
place Emerson New Jersey and published in the record all ordinances are posted on the burough website and on file in the office of the municipal clerk if anyone would like a copy uh Miss D simone please read the title of the ordinance 70-25
of Emerson County New Jersey ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cafe NJSA 48-4 may I have a motion to introduce ordinance
170-25 on first reading second may I have a roll call please councilwoman Rice yes councilwoman Yes councilwoman Magguire yes council President Arenia yes councilwoman Chelino yes
okay which brings us to financial business uh before I ask for a motion to introduce the 2025 municipal budget I want to thank everyone for their hard work to craft this budget especially our CFO and our finance committee uh this year's budget continues to focus on
improving our burrow infrastructure which includes the annual road paving program and utilizes over2 million45,252 in grants to offset taxes on the burrow's two largest projects both of which deal with drainage
throughout the town the 2025 municipal tax increase is currently at $143 which amounts to approximately $12 per month on the average home assessed at $4,4760 that is a
3.3% tax increase uh the public hearing and discussion on the budget are scheduled for May 6th at 7:30 p.m the burough auditor and CFO will both be in attendance to answer questions the budget documents will be posted on the burough website tomorrow um and as
always this is a living breathing document it could change the numbers could go up they could go down normally we try to trim them as after the introduction um and uh until it is approved it is a living living breathing document as I said may
I have a mo does anyone have any comments or questions only comments I would make is that I hope that our efforts will be to bring it down yes uh may I have a motion to approve resolution 115-25 introduction of the 2025
municipal budget so move second and a roll call please councilwoman Rice yes yes councilwoman yes yes okay so um we jumped to our unfinished
business and did that already as uh Mr palmer told me he had a two and a half hour ride home and I did feel bad for him so we did that um the next item on our agenda is the discussion of the repurpose of the 2024 Bergen County Open Space Grant
so this is the grant that we have for um Sunset Park and the uh playground committee met at the Acriman Park and thought that perhaps
um we might want to repurpose this and move it to Sunset for this year um we had a meeting at 11 o'clock today with the uh vendor game time who is going to um give us three different options and
then of course we could change anything that we'd like um but I asked him to do um a price on a total redo of the park um I asked him to do replacement parts for the park and we also asked him um to
do kind of a little bit of everything and then add something exciting like maybe a mister of some sort for which was Ashley Rice's and uh uh Megan's idea for the very warm weather um where the kids could go and cool off um which
actually he thought would be a good idea because obviously a splash pad um or any of the other water things would include drainage which would be more cost um prohibitive and he said that the mister doesn't really get involved in drainage
at all so that's what he recommended so um do we want to have discussion on this right now do we have to repurpose it tonight if we're going to repurpose it or are we just talking about doing it and then we'll talk about it in committee and then decide if we're going to change it or not after seeing some of
the options you like that idea the materials will be supplied to us for review yes we would we would just do the repurposing in May so the repurpose has to be done in May doesn't have to be done but that's when we would do it that's where the plan would be if we're going to to go about
this project so we would know budgetary purposes so we would know what we're budgeting okay and this is the 75 is it 8075 80 84222 I believe it and we've already this has already been allocated to us for the Sunset Park yes but after
we talked about Sunset we heard from the community that really it was the Acriman Park um people seem to be satisfied with um sunset and think that Acriman needs a little bit of love so if you have an opinion on this please let us know please reach out to us um nothing is
written in stone right now and uh we'd love to hear from you on your ideas for the park um the next item is discussion of the 2025 Bergen County Open Space Grant application rob basically what we just summarized on the last one we we
filed a application uh to Bergen County to look in uh to a grant for Acriman Park also so we filed for $75,000 uh to have to use to the park which would mean that we would have to match dollar for dollar on anything that
we receive uh so those funds would be used and we would not we won't know about those until December uh but we would use those funds again towards Acriman Park towards the uh renovation okay um does anyone have any questions on anything having to do with the parks
okay our open uh we have to the next at the 22nd the next meeting we would have to do our public hearing on that um new business there is no new business this evening reports mayor and council uh Councilwoman Rice do you have a
report for us this evening uh yes we are in April as you said earlier it's Earth Month so our environmental commission has a lot of amazing I'm just pulling it up a lot of amazing events planned um
all of the all the events can be um viewed on their uh website on the on their Facebook page their Instagram page but I'll just shout out a few of them um April 3rd we have the Earth Month Craft at the library i think that's the one with the special reader as well it might
be who's the special reader i think it might be you i'm not sure so if if you are if you want to attend that event just send an email they're they're asking for an RSVP just to get numbers ahead of time um and then there's April 5th we have the DPW trucks
and more tour um April 27th is the community garden opening there are several plots left so if you are interested the application is on the burough website um April 27th is yoga and hike through the woods and the week
of April 21st they're going to be collecting um all the used plastic eggs um to recycle and refurbish for I guess future egg hunts i have plenty of old eggs I can do and that's all i know okay
um Councilwoman Sers do you have a report for us um just a short update for Wreck um the fourth and fifth grade social is this Friday um April 4th and there is a signup genius on Facebook if you are interested
in donating some items there's still some slots available and the ne next wck meeting is scheduled for um tomorrow Wednesday at sorry the um wreck meeting is canled
for tomorrow thank you nothing like up to minute councilwoman Magcguire do you have a report for us this evening just um a reminder that Arbor Day will be held on April 26th it was originally scheduled for 10 i'm not sure if that's been
changed i know there was conflict with baseball arbor Day I believe is going to be switched to the afternoon um I was invited to opening day baseball at 9:00 and then softball at 10 wait softball I think is at 11 or 11:30 okay i forgot
they said whichever time is decided it will be at Ball yes it will and that's my report and we will send out a reminder so that people know in that time because we have to coordinate it with Sha Tree as well right okay um council president do you have a report for us this evening just a brief one um
the Emerson Fire Department for February 2025 their calls for a grand total of 17 anywhere from carbon monoxide alarms to smell gas they're great i was like a child it was
great they they actually flew john come on up please let the uh record reflect that our attorney had attended at 8:22 i did have prior notice that he was stuck in traffic i'm actually upset that I was awake and I couldn't go to the flight um they literally flew They It was
awesome if you didn't see it I didn't really know what they were going to do but these kids were flying from the ceiling they were pulled up it was amazing um it's a lot of fun but um Councilwoman Chelino do you have a uh report for us this evening i have a few
reports okay let's go so nothing to report for Emerson Involuntary Ambulance Corps uh the historic committee um led by Mr phil Mazo um reported they had their first meeting on March 17th that went really well they have a great group of residents working together their next
meeting will be April 21st at 7 PM uh the land use board their next meeting is this Thursday April 3rd at 7:30 p.m they'll be hearing application for 161 Palisade Avenue and the DPW
um Danielle I'm not sure if this is in your report um but they just wanted to report that the Bergen County household hazardous waste day will be this Sunday April 6th from 9:00 a.m to 3 p.m at Bergen Community College okay if it is I will skip it when I get to it they the clerks do like to put
that in there and I would like to piggyback on Nicole's comment about um the Peter Pan cast wonderful uh I was a student of Mr olman's in 2003 and did the play well I didn't do the play i
wasn't that great but I did chorus but he's wonderful and and it shows his students love him and they do great productions year after year so well done they really do um I guess that comes to me um I'm excited to announce that the burrow has been designated a 2024
healthy town up and cominging and uh by the New Jersey Healthcare Quality Institute for our efforts with the mayor's wellness campaign um this past week we just had a um great turnout of residents and friends for our eating for health uh with chef Michael Marita he
showed us all how to make delicious creations including a coffee date smoothie made with almond milk and frozen bananas that tasted like a decadent chocolate ice cream um we also enjoyed a corn ara with chicken and guacamole that's
all that he makes um all handmade and uh a healthy version of a chocolatecovered almond horn cookie um if you are uh interested in any of those recipes I'm sure that we could dig them up for you if you contact the clerk's office and please join us at our next mayor's
wellness event um we will have the summer concert series that'll start I believe in um July and uh probably walks with the mayor will be starting in the next couple of weeks i'm just waiting for it to get just a little bit warmer because it's been kind of windy and cold
um applications for the community garden are still being accepted as uh Councilwoman Rice said uh the motor vehicle commission will be coming to the senior center on Friday July 11th to provide Real ID and other be motor vehicle services be on the lookout in
June for the online registration link for the Real ID in addition beginning March 20th the Motor Vehicle Commission will hold Real ID Thursdays every Thursday to offer additional appointments at licensing centers to get
a Real ID online registration on Real ID Thursdays opens tomorrow Friday March 14th and information on this is posted on our social media accounts or you may call the clerk's office um the senior bus is always available to our residents
55 and up or those with special needs please call Stacy to book a ride mixed garden debris pickup started starts Monday April 7th and will continue each Monday through the end of the year um mark your calendars and get your
unwanted papers and documents ready to be shred uh Saturday May 17th from 9:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m here at Burrow Hall there will be more flyers that will be distributed on social media and around town um the Burrow of Emerson through our Sha Tree Commission will once again
plant the tree in memory of those Emerson residents who have passed away between January of 2024 and the present in conjunction with their 2025 Arbor Day ceremony on April 26th at Burough Hall starting at 100 p.m they must have had
um confirmation after we spoke this morning so that shade tree is at 1 pm um a flyer will be forthcoming um we do try to keep a list here and we do remember the people that we are aware of that passed away um if there was a loved one
of yours or a friend or a neighbor living in Emerson at the time of their passing if you would like to call the clerk's office and add them to the list to be remembered please do so so that we could um make sure that the list is current um and up to date uh the state of New Jersey has announced this year's
property tax relief programs for eligible New Jerseyians uh new in 2025 there is a single combined application which simplifies the process to apply for the senior freeze anchor and stay New Jersey programs the deadline to file
is October 31st 2025 i would like to make everyone aware of the New Jersey Safe program through the state of New Jersey among other benefits this program provides pharmaceutical hearing aid and lifeline assistance to eligible
seniors 65 and older as well as those receiving Social Security disability benefits um you can call 800792-9745 for more information um I encourage our residents to sign up to receive emergency notifications and
other burrow information through our rave alert system and as always all of our events and current news is posted on the burrow website www emersonj.orgnews or our Facebook or Twitter pages as well as our new
Instagram account uh Bergen County is seeking poll workers for the 2025 primary and general elections more information can be found on our website or by calling the clerk's office if anyone is interested in getting rid of a freestanding adjustable
basketball hoop that is still in good playing condition please consider donating it to the burrow so that our DPW could place them in our parks for the smaller children to use um you can contact the DPW if you uh have one our military banner program is up and
running for 2025 banners are $200 they are displayed between Memorial Day and Veterans Day uh we concluded our second year of the program with 51 banners and look forward to displaying even more this year um the sponsorship like I said
is 200 per banner and it is taxdeductible please pace your order by April 30th in order to have them displayed by Memorial Day um Assemblyman Bob Off is re relocating his office to Closter his phone number will remain the
same for constituents that need to reach out to his office um I believe uh Senator Shapezy moved her office um also recently and uh do you know what town she went to
i don't she went from Westwood to uh I'll take it i'll find out and I'll report that at the next meeting did she go to Mawa um no well disregard I will find out where the senator's office moved to and her the senator's office is joint with Azeriti and uh we did have Congressman
Gottheimr here um the last meet two meetings ago doing constituent services so our elected officials um for our federal and our legislative and our state are always available to you um if you need help getting in touch with them please call the clerk's office and we'll
um dig up the phone numbers for you um I did want to mention just a couple of other things um I received a phone call uh over the weekend um it's deer season they're out and um I got a frantic call from a uh
resident um saying that this is the the fourth deer that is um died on his fence it's getting hooked and uh it's kind of terrifying when it happens um this is not an Emerson problem we can work together um with the other communities
but it's really more of a countywide regional problem um the deers don't know borders um so uh as a member of the Pasco Valley Mayors Association I promised to bring this up again at the meeting and uh discuss it and bring it
to um our county executive toesco about what are some solutions um I think we all see the deer that are dead on the side of the road but to wake up on a Sunday morning and hear the screams of a deer on your back fence is not pleasant and I am very sorry that that happened
to that resident um it's also the time of year where um the uh everyone starts walking their dogs um I've also gotten a lot of complaints that people are um walking their dogs rather long on their leashes they are not curbing their dogs
if you are walking your dog you must pick up the poop that your dog discards um pooping on someone else's lawn is against Burrow ordinance and against the law so please make sure to do that um and also if you are walking your dog
there are those ex um ex expandable leashes please make sure that um you're able to curb your dog we did have a dog bite um in the municipality recently and uh we just want to make sure that everybody stays safe um helmets and
bicycles children need to wear helmets it is not required that adults wear helmets but if you have a young teenager under the age of 18 um please encourage them to wear their helmet um as because then when the older younger kids see
them they will look up to them and they will wear their helmet um what else is going on our next regular meeting is the 22nd of April at 7:30 p.m at which time we will be holding a public hearing on
our 2025 Bergen County Open Space Grant application and since we will not be having another meeting until later in April I want to wish all of our residents who are celebrating happy Eid happy Passover and a happy Easter um Rob
do you have a report for us this evening yes um we were supposed to have a little drone activity today uh in about deer but uh the weather uh did not allow that to happen so they're talking about next either Tuesday or Thursday Tuesday or Wednesday weather permitting again that
you'll potentially see drone activity uh by Violia so if you do see drones over uh Emerson at that time we do know what's going on and it is Violia that is checking on their uh the deer population uh for their
property we had a bid opening for Park Avenue phase two the bid uh was given to Smith Sandi Asphalt was the lowest bidder we look forward to working with them uh on Park Avenue project the Rando pump station our CDBG project is on
target right now hopefully by our next meeting uh when you know Dave will be able to give a better update that we should be almost near completion our completion date is that we're expecting is April 30th we believe that we will will meet that that date uh or before
that as of this point uh CDBG senior doors we are going through the process of getting the bids get ready for a bid uh proposal on that uh to go out uh there's some fine tuning that we have to do but uh we're we are moving forward on that and we look forward to having that
done uh by late spring early summer hopefully in completion on that um we have our on our agenda tonight that we have our we're advertising for our cell towers uh to to go out for bid uh and we're looking forward to getting
that done and moving forward for a new for a new bid on that and that concludes my report okay John do you have anything to report this evening okay if you have anything Okay um that brings us to
public comment uh the next order of business is public comment members of the public are welcome to speak on any topic by coming to the podium and stating your name for the record in the interest of time speakers are limited to three minutes in consideration of all who may wish to speak please keep your
comments brief and concise may I have a motion to open the meeting to public comments all in favor any opposed we are open to the public um with no requests may I have a motion to close the meeting to general comments from the public second
all in favor okay we are closed um resolutions on consent as we've discussed at prior meetings with the burough engineer without getting into too much detail we had a contract dispute with the contractor for the Acriman basketball courts project i'm happy to report that myself and the
governing body stood firm and as a result the contractor corrected their construction errors as well as providing other service gratus to the burrow and we appreciate that very much tonight we'll be closing out the project um over several thousand dollars under the
contracted amount um resolutions that are listed on this consent agenda are considered routine and will be enacted by one motion of the council and one roll call vote there will be no separate discussion of these items until unless a council member requests an item be
removed for consideration may I have a motion to approve consent agenda resolutions 116-25 through 122-25 so move roll call please councilwoman Rice yes councilwoman yes
councilwoman yes council President Councilwoman yes and it is the Green Valley group that I did want to thank that did the basketball courts um may I have a mo we are now going to go into closed executive session may I have a motion to
go into closed executive to discuss matters exempt from the public pursuant to NJSA 104 colon 10 colon 4-1 at second adequately noticed by resolution 123-25
so call please rice yes yes we are now going into close session members of the public may remain on YouTube until we return to open session at which time formal action may be taken
motion to reconvene so move second all in favor all right we're back in uh open is there any other business that we need to go over yes there is i would like to make a motion to approve the settlement agreement in the matter of the
complaintobjection of defendant/interested party New Jersey Builders Association challenging the Burrow of Emerson's petition to seek reduction in fair share obligation can we get a second on that second and a roll call
councilwoman Rice yes councilwoman yes councilwoman yes council President yes yes okay is there any other business hearing no more business may I have a
motion to adjourn at 10:16 p.m so move second all in favor i we are adjourned thank you for coming