##VIDEO ID:UUR1PwwWJ-Y## call this meeting order please flag United States of America to the for stands indivisible Li andice for all meeting theion Public Law this meeting of January 2 2025 included list of meetings no the H County Democrat career on January 625 posted on the board of date has remain continuously required in addition a copy of notice is and has been available to the public and is on file in the off clerk oll councilman arus here Council engart here councila here Council L here council president Parker here and uh Council vice president here um we have a presentation tonight that is on our calendar I can't see who's on is uh is Beth here yeah no okay um she was Reed she's coming in later I got uh Terry and James Kyle is that um yeah he might for bth he won't know anything about the parts and stuff he doesn't well that might be be let's see that's fine and um's not part of this part of Michael Mike's on Campion okay you can put him in his a panel no I okay all right so um first order of business is uh J Troutman our our uh traffic engineer um who's been in the traffic engineer of the bur since 2020 or 2019 J 2019 I believe 2019 you believe um is here along Pella um to present to the council um some findings of the parking committee which is the meeting since February of last year um the original the original charge table needs okay the original charge of parking committee was to look at potential issues coming from um new residents that will be moving into apartments at the union Hotel Site as well as the hotel guests uh and dealing with um traffic issues to keep uh traffic you know as much our main street as possible and not into the local residents residential neighborhoods as well as you know parking in general with um 205 apartments and 100 hotel rooms to make sure that it doesn't um clog up the streets at all so uh that was the original charge of course since then it's become all kinds of things um some of which have been pretty marvelous including lots of uh three and four-way stops um that are popping up around town um traffic calming uh issues on Park Avenue and mine Street as well as broad that will be popping up in the future um so it's a really busy committee with some really great results thanks to the council taking those all on uh as recommended so um so Jay and Jay and J if you want to come up and so there's two parts to their presentation one is the traffic one is the parking issue itself um and the driving uh around the new Hotel Site um and the other is the residential parking aspect um not just there but but potentially partially already all over town but potentially even more so so go ahead shall I cover the traffic circulation changes first you want to do no I think you should do theic whatever you want to do it doesn't you gave everybody the map they found their way up there okay so um was it to the public because I know there's a number of people from West Road here um that are interested in this topic uh because they've been having parking issues on their street now for many months um so on the parking committee is councilwoman fararo councilwoman anglehart myself the chief of police our traffic engineer our DPW superintendent Who's online our planner who online I'm not sure um and our municiple attorney so it's you know pretty much all cover um which is I think we have the right people at the table which is why I think you're were able to act kind of quickly but all right so go ahead so in terms of the the traffic circulation issues the goal of the map that I prepared that I'll review with everyone is to encourage the use of Main Street by the new traffic that's going to be generated by the Union hotel and we're necessary to use vehicle weight restrictions to force Union hotel delivery trucks to enter the site using Main Street Bloomfield and Spring Street and then to exit the site back to Main Street on Maple so on the map uh what I labeled on this Google Map and I liked it because it shows destructive as well it can show you how many houses might be impacted by in a certain block um I labeled your existing one-way streets surrounding the Union hotel area and then I highlighted in yellow uh two proposed changes to the traffic flow those being the section of Spring Street between Bloomfield and maple would go One Way southbound and the section of maple between Broad and spring would go oneway westbound to complement the already existing oneway just one block west of that between spring and Maine the idea being that uh it would not be as easy for this outside traffic to jump back and use Broad Street as a back door out of the burrow perhaps um if they ended up down on William Street uh they and they get the Broad Street at that point maybe their GPS would tell them just go down to church and go out to 31 if you're going up to for example a baseball tournament or something like that in Maron Township so that that's kind of the thinking behind the proposal and again the idea being to to have this system in place to to keep the commercial activity toward Main Street and um with hopefully little impact to our residents in their so a couple of things um when Jay laid this out most of the residents um that live on that section of spring that are owners um have you know like this idea and um I got to one of the people in nle in this little little tiny bit who was also good with this idea but when Jay laid this out one of the things that happened was that we were able to gain a lot of parking spaces on spring because um there would no longer be parallel parking we would be able to have angled parking and Beth has spoken to the redeveloper about that we're waiting for him to respond and writing to us that he's good with it um and the other thing is is that this piece of uh Spring Street at April Avenue would be weight restricted so tractor trailers would not be allowed to go on to Spring they would have to take that right turn up to Maple Avenue to Main Street and use Main Street um uh if they had been making deliveries to the hotel or the restaurants or to an apartment so the goal is really to keep everybody on Main Street which is you know it's it's a more attractive Street too if you're heading like down to ball field because you it's a straight shot where Broad Street now has a lot of traffic signs on it to slow traffic down yes and and the other thing we we noted is the the new always stop at William and Broad makes that intersection a little more na navigable oh yeah for people who are on William so I said I haven't used that I haven't used that interception in probably over a decade and I use it all the time now because it's so much safer yeah so this would require three ordinances one ordinance to do uh Spring Street one way from Bloomfield to um Maple one ordinance to make Maple Avenue oneway from broad to Spring and one ordinance to weight restrict Spring Street at Maple um anybody have any questions for Jay or the chief so I just have a question in terms of the deliveries you said deliver all be made like to the hotel and restaurants etc etc to on Main Street so what does that do with the traffic on Main Street is that heard from Main Street so if they're delivering where are they delivering to so with depend on the vehicle I I think there is a because a box truck is different than a right yes okay exactly I think there is a smaller delivery space on Main that certain deliveries could be made from somewhere in that area I didn't exactly look but I do remember somebody there's a drop there's a drop off area onfield not on not on I don't think it's on I thought there was one delivery Reserve delivery space like in the vicinity on I thought so too we we could check that out so that would be possibly one spot and then there is a drop off uh on the site plan for the Union hotel on Bluefield near the corner of spring okay if I recall that main wasn't actually delivery but it was a passenger drop off pickup yes that's correct because the loading area is down in front of it's yeah in front of daveon in front of store there on the corner that's the loading area for that whole area right okay so then that would put the vehicles on Bloomfield um and we would have to force them to turn right on spring so that they don't go the next block back abroad so I guess we would want to so that's that goes back to my okay so so it's it's it's so I could have sworn it was on my main but that's okay so it's on Bloomville their delivery there they they're finished delivery they're going where they need to turn the goal is to have them turn right on Spring on Spring and then go down and turn right on Maple right so that would require a weight restriction there to yeah on that little segment of protect that yes the way so I'm not I'm just asking questions right I'm not sming this down by any means but what does that do then for BL Fields one way so I'm coming coming home coming down Bloomfield there's a truck but I'm just trying to understand what that does in terms of getting down and going down to even if I'm going down to Broad I'm resident I'm going down the r what does that do in terms of traffic and and I'm sure it's depending on time but during I mean they're not delivering at night they're delivering during the day isn't there a little there's like a little drop off area that they're supposed to go into they should not be right on the road what supposed to be I understand I'm not I'm not debating that at all but what they're supposed to do and what's done are two different things right I mean if if the sky is blue and the grass is green it's not always that way right so my you hear what I'm coming from right so the point of it is that I'm just cons you know it's just a red this antenna that goes up in my head that says okay so we know how delivery people work do not necessarily if there's two trucks it's happening at the same time one can go in there and one cannot so to speak right so again my question is what is the impact of that I mean have we done anything to see like when is that Road traveled the most I mean I can see it from my house so I kind of know what the answer is but but the point of it is I can see I can see a little bit of an issue that's just from my SC but that's that issue is truly a potential issue right but it's not part of what the paring committee is trying to address with K I understand can look at that but potential is always good yes you look at that at our next meeting I'm all about potential problem solving analysis there's a problem you solve that but there's a backup issue that you you address secondary location for that yeah so we can absolutely look at at the par committee um because yeah it's a potential problem we have not addressed yet okay yeah let put that out there that's I guess we now need be a second a fourth ordinance which would be the weight restriction for for Bloomfield um and we could discuss the park whether it be signed local deliveries only or something like that as well I think there's usually an exception if there's a local yeah anybody else have any other questions for J or Jer are you all okay with this to have the our attorney start working on the ordinances for introduction um we'd like to get the public committ feels like it would be better if the public that's here got used to this now um before we have a lot more traffic on that street and then new people moving in they wouldn't know any different so we'd like to get it you know introduced sometime February possible okay okay all right I have a question at the last meeting we had there was um actually maybe it's maybe this question is actually for Tony than than during day but there was a question whether the developer had signed off on this proposed he I said that sorry I didn't hear that Beth was waiting Beth indicated that he seemed okay we waiting for it in right it's not it's not going to affect the proposal it's going to affect the parallel parking situation but it's our street as death pointed out in the part committing though to be clear it we don't even know if it's gotten to ja to to to the developer themselves themselves the representative technically agreed okay but I don't know that it's gotten to the bird person that's going to be signning off on this so the answer is it's still a word the right it's really about him installing it um versus him approving it because it's our public street right right and you know in any issues that that affect the the design of that street as it was approved by the planning board and I did want to mention I know that on the parking committee um our newest member um je dasna of parking committee mentioned this along with myself at the last meeting and that was um both Jeff and I and actually the former mayor here in the audience um was s sat on that uh planning board for a long time um while this whole Development Area was going on and this exact proposal of movement was exactly what the planning board had discussed as a goal in mind knowing that it would not necessarily happen during the um approval phase but probably afterward so this makes perfect sense with what the planning board had discussed 10 years ago even when this original you know um development had been proposed so I'm happy to see it um moving in a positive direction this is a good committee Mara it is this was good work that we it is it is representative the plan board who I just appointed beginning of the month so okay so so we'll make sure we get those ordinances up for introduction and now part two parking parking so I I I'll call this uh management of public parking adjacent to Union hotel and throughout bur and Beyond and Beyond right so starting I guess again with the Union hotel since we just talked about that in terms of traffic circulation um we did find out that all of their parking is going to be managed uh through a parking management company and that there will be charges to Hotel guests and residents if you want a parking spot what happens in that case a lot of times is that was not disclosed during public hearings or planning board hearings right so that was new information that the pl that the parking committee got through you when you talked to the redeveloper in March right so um what happens in that case is is the parking charge will incentivize some to seek off-site parking to avoid the charge and in a walkable town uh it's even more so so uh the goal of looking at some kind of parking system for the burrow is to encourage Union hotels parking demand to stay within the confines of the Union hotel parking facilities and some of the some of the things I would just point out on that subject would be um Main Street currently has no overnight parking from 1:00 am to 6:00 am so that's already restricted so a resident can't I'll call it squat on Main Street over um the the other thoughts would be to um impose a 2hour parking limit along Main Street to encourage parking space turnover SL usage by customers of the Main Street businesses and that's mainly a daytime thing um if you wanted a little more parking time there was discussion of a 4our parking limit on the municipal lot which is a little less convenient can get more time going back there um in terms of parking a permit system we we talked about uh the overnight parking permits for the municipal lot would be set at a price10 higher than the Union hotel parking fees than they're charged and that um residents would have parking tags to exempt them from parking restrictions in this area so if you're a resident and there's some kind of restriction on Spring Street with that Resident tag you're allowed in those spaces um and then go going further out into the burrow uh the goal was to encourage residents to use their private driveways or their onsite available parking and uh for the street parking the thought was to have two resident parking tags per single family home and one resident parking tag per apartment for on street parking and then and uh two visitor tags per single family home and one visitor tag for apartment unit no no two visitor tags perart building oh okay all right so I'm getting a little we're gonna leave the landlord to figure landlord c number of visitor tags be given out in the building and then additional visitor tags available for purchase daily and resent tags also if you can registration to a unit yeah I would I would like to my recommendation is that we go to a 247 parking permit system um mainly just to make sure that it's um you know parking demands are met it it fluctuates Daytime Nighttime and with a system like that we can control uh the parking and who parking on the streets with permits and visitors and um just uh keep it track on that and make sure that it's a system that will um work with the community to allow enough parking and ample parking year where you want to be available the system uh that we uh have come in and speak to us it's a T2 um it's a system that's done uh parking software for other towns and other locations such as this um it's real user friendly on on the front end and the back end from uh payments to uh permitting administrative enforcement it's all on there and uh you know like uh like Jay said we'd want to like the permit system that we have with uh visitor tags for hanging and uh like kind of what we're doing now on on on the Broad Street side of town um you know permitted parking with permits on the cars you know and and this system you can go online and register it yourself somebody from uh from the from the town or the police department would validate that registration with that address and and make the dissue the parking PR just to get into some of the more nuanced parts of this um my Campion has gotten prices to re um to clean up the parking lot Municipal parking lot in anticipation of this um to get it um bu and um to upgrade the current lights to LED lights um which is really just the light fix the light fixtures are fine just be a b change as well as new striping so it be brighter out there the apartments so so that's you know he has prices for that for the budget um I think it's Mike you're online you wanted the prices to redo the parking lot and make it a little bit more spy and safer than it is right now yes mayor uh I only got one quote for Budget purposes so if we actually do this I would have to get three quotes but the uh lighting switch over to LED was $112,000 and resurfacing slur seal of the lot and restriping was $114,000 okay thank you so um so there's those so uh and then you know there's apartments along Street and apartments along blf Avenue those apartment uh dwellers have enjoyed parking in that Municipal in that Municipal parking lot forever they would all get um a you know a residential U parking permit and be allowed to park there for free in those little apartments um and each building would get to visitor tags for the landlord to figure out what to do with it but you could buy additional so I just want to like make sure everybody understands that so a single family home we get with proof of registration two registrations you get to um two registrations for your home or two cars and you could buy additional if you want to but you'd also get two visitor hang tags that you could also use for people in your house they would all be included for free if you're in one of the homes on one on Bloom on um broad or main or whatever that have been cut into Apartments again would be one for apartment and but there would still be two visitor hang tags for the landlord to decide what to do with again people could buy more but it's really to control the amount of parking so if you have a Victorian that's been put into four apartments that apartment building will be getting four residents and two visitors um versus eight you know because we just didn't think it was fair that a single family home should that that an apartment that's been cut from a home should get a lot more parking um when it's their Apartments versus a single family home um again they could buy more and um all the apartments above any of the businesses would get one per apartment two per building on the visitor side the visitor tags would hang um they would be easier to track as far as um making sure these are really people from our community using them and not kids going to entral High School buying visitor tags from our residents um and um you would also be able to print out the visitor tag on the Fly once you pay for it um so you could have it like if it was a last minute thing last minute party last minute guest whatever you could print them out and put them on your dashboard so U the police would know that you had paid um we are um positing um three different visitor um passes to be purchased go if you go beyond your two hang tags um you're having a party you could buy extra one day passes you're having a family reunion you could buy extra three-day passes for the weekend or your mother-in-law's coming and you could buy a onewe pass and um have her park out on the street for a week so there would be combinations that would go down in price um I think you said um I think it was $7 for one day and uh 12 12 to three and 15 for a week something like that but um again it would be registered to a house um and you know the weekly fee combined would be less than a month more than a month of parking in a parking garage in town so it the chief would like to see this 247 yeah if I'd like to add also mayor that um I think this would address the issues for westroad um in the fact that those larger apartment complexes would not be eligible for any permits to dep stre when you say that Jerry yeah when so you would be looking for these visitor passes over night there too and if they weren't there correct yeah okay yeah yeah because the um it seems the main issue for like a road like West Road is uh Night and Day Parking but it seems night is probably I'm sure the residents would lights in their windows but I'm sure we'll here yeah I'm allow some of them to speak comment on this but so I'm on board with the 20 with the um with the over with the overnight for sure I don't know that I'm on board for 24 and there's several reasons why one is I have a repairment coming in and then have to get a parking permit for that repairment two is is that I have company coming from to whatever the case may be so I have to get a parking class for each one of those people if it's beyond two people you know I just think that that's I I'm just not sure that I'm on board with that um I'm absolutely 101% on board with with overnight I I think that's a wise idea I think it's smart I think it's the right thing to do um I think it certainly cuts down and things but during the the day um if I have you know sometimes I have seniors come over um and I'm certainly I'm not going to ask them to pay $7 to to come over and have lunch or whatever the case may be I just I don't know that that's reasonable I just that's just me I mean you know that's I'm just giving my personal opinion um I'm okay with from 5 o' or 4 o'l or whatever the case may be until 9:00 the next morning or whatever that's just under the proposal nothing is just so everybody knows nothing is going to change east of Main Street for high school parking so all of us that live with the Restriction of no parking a visitor tag or residential tag Monday through Friday when school's in session from whatever the hours are right those are still in effect on our side notating that at all not debating that at all that's not what my thing was um I'm just saying that at that point it just I just think it's an extra burden on people who entertain um that's just I I don't know that I I agree with the 247 I definitely agree with the over 101% is there a concern Jerry that I don't know well the the overnight especially um for the Broad Street I think our concern as the committee was uh the push from uh the hotel and uh and the apartments for people people you know I think our goal was you know I I'm at the hotel or I'm at the uh apartment of the hotel I got to pay $30 a night to park uh let me just go park on Broad Street um and just leave my car there started but I'm asking about the daytime the daytime is the kind of the same Theory I think are you concerned I mean we haven't really talked about like are you concerned that there's going to be people visitors parking on Broad Street or Park Avenue or patner who you know don't want to do a 2hour restriction and move their cars to believe yeah I think uh like Jay said it's such a walkable town I mean even one of our concerns was stangle people uh going to the hotel or or that area of town at parking outside the restricted area and uh you know just inundating that area with with vehic but but it's from my experience that something like a two-hour parking that they can also feed the meter to do an additional two hours right so I mean in essence they can stay there all day as long as they keep eating meat correct right correct so because when you say a twoh hour restriction which I get but if I am and as you can see I'm a shopper sure so two hours for me is nothing right so um it and it doesn't bother me to keep feeding The Meters it just doesn't um if I'm having dinner I mean if I'm having lunch someplace or whatever the case may be I'm going back to that to and and then you want me to walk to town two hours doesn't give me a lot of lot of like Le like lead time right so I just want to make sure that they can keep feeding the meters that's my first well we are looking at meters we haven't or whatever you right we are we are demoing meters right now for potential they like we're beta testing them so that if we need them we know which one to go with we can we'll be able to just make the recommendation to the council to buy them um but we are not right now we are not requesting that we put meters in U Back on Main Street or maybe how you tracking the two hours the the police will track the two hours even though it's it is a difficult task to track two hours definitely like especially now with the unless you have one person that's just going to attract Meers uh we can't even uh under a case law we can't even more CH if we if we did the meters and you know and it's you know you got you got to feed the meter yeah the meter people are going to look to park on Broad Street Park Avenue and everything during the day to avoid meters yeah well I mean not necessarily not necessarily I mean if you go down to like Somerville you go to to to lamberville or whatever it's all parking where you have to pay to park doesn't matter where you park you've got to still pay to park unless you have the sign in your window that says that you're a resident so I I don't know that I agree with that lamberville has um their side streets are uh residential permitted parking yes they have that's I'm saying I don't know that that's true right I no what what I'm that's not what I say what what I'm saying I was using the example on Main Street where you said there's going to be like a two-hour parking whatever the case that's one scenario that I don't see that that could work with a police officer trying to patrol that constantly because I think we would have to do some sort of time part exactly exactly so that's one thing but the other I'm just I'm just trying to reason it out that's all um and so the other side of it is is that when you're talking about at least if you have meter parking that you can keep feeding that meter and then it's not a heavy burden on because people are used to doing that right and it's not a heavy burden the police officers to try to get and Right tickets or whatever the case may be um so you be more acceptable to pay parking in on your street or something like that is that um I have to just think it through because I I just don't know that the 24hour works for me I do again I'm all over like a fat right in the cheese factory on the over overnight I really am the other part of it I'm just I'm just struggling with do currently have like high limitations on Main Street Main Street is yeah Main Street is restricted there's no overnight parking there never has been but you're talking about during the day she's talking about during the day during the day it's got you're supposed to supp 15 minutes depending on where Tony can can I can I say that as a Committee Member I have similar concerns than you do um that being said and and and I agree uh wholeheartedly with the you know the overnight um I think one of the things that kind of eased my concerns was when um because we were um researching paid you know a meters and you know these people were coming in and giving us you know U demonstrations on their products but one of the things that was comforting me was that we're not jumping in with two feet and that when um I think it was at one meeting I said well we've got limited parking you know at several hours here and maybe we do several hours here and we we we don't know there's a problem until there's a problem but we want to be proactive so it made me feel better when the mayor assured us at one of the meetings later late last year that um signage strategy was going to be our first step um not our you know and and jumping right in when you feet with meters meters meters pay us pay us pay us is the second strategy so that made me feel better because I was hesitant at first so I do want you to take some comfort knowing that this isn't set in stone this is you know I'm not I'm not suggesting you did I'm just this is more for the general Public's knowledge to is we're we want to tell the general public where we're thinking where where we think we're going with this but um you know certainly nothing is said in stone and that's the whole point of having this presentation is to get that kind of feel and I think I think there's you know we start with the no overnight parking without the you know the residential parking only overnight visit with or visitor tags we want to start with that from the hours I can't remember which a recommended or the chief recommended overnight and then if there is a problem after the motel apartments are rented if there's a problem of people leaving their cars out on the street all day or there's a boom on Main Street and we start to find people clogging up the side streets during the day you can always so I think that's a better strategy system that that the t2 system is a great system and it's the 800 lb gorilla yeah we can definitely change system is they they use it in Monclair they use it in um Easton in Bethlehem I mean it's like every major place bethleem has their AC on that and they're really it's a great system it's a really good system so I'm I'm All About strategy right and I and I don't believe in jumping into everything at all at once until you have more data right and then you have more experience I I do right I think I think the 24 I think the the the the first is to get the overnight in and then as as the hotel starts to open and businesses come then let's come back and re-evaluate and then see that I'm definitely open yeah I think that's fine so to move forward on um the residential uh only overnight um would require us to acquire the software it's 60 about $6,500 the first year which is the most expensive year um I was shocked it was I thought he was going to V us like $20,000 for everything this thing does and after that it's like around 2500 a year for all the licensing um so that that money um her bill Hans who is online who can say no you're wrong um Bill did confirm to me that if there is the money in the temporary budget to do this and purchase the software um then the chief needs to get yeah you can make them a panelist you can confirm or deny um yeah Bill you're you're on on as a panelist if you you know want to chime in about money yeah I'm here hi yeah you did confirm with me that if we wanted to buy that software yes there's money in the temporary budget for it correct thank you um the chief has to through through T2 they have um hang tags and they have the stickers and would work with us to put logos on and whatever um The Proposal is that we would the all that permanently like people would go in to a computer we would train people at the library on how to help people who don't have computers as well as um our own staff here so residents who don't do computers or not computer comfortable um would be able to come in with their registrations and they could register the Vehicles so what happens is the software goes to the police department and the police would verify U that these are valid registrations um to homes and then they would issue uh people could come down to the police department or have them mailed to them if that's more convenient yep the stickers and the Hang tags um as well the chief in order to enforce all of this the chief would like to hire as part of the regular budget to uh class one special police who would be part-time uh which means there would be no benefits um the total cost for the two specials would be think you told me for uniform purposes or or you gave me a a cost I think it was 40,000 each for each part time uh yeah roughly for 20 to 25 yeah for 20 but there specials in training in in uh traffic enforcement so he could use them also yeah we could use them they're be very diverse for our department as far as um they're trained in traffic direction every everything except the they they don't carry a firearm and they're uh resting abilities in 2C criminal law is limited but they would definitely meet our needs to to get that extra officer out there to focus on parking when we need to get Focus yeah so we could hire them at some point in the future and um they would check hang tags and as well as all this crazy construction stuff that's going on all the time yeah so um so just to be clear I just want to make sure I'm hearing the numbers what I heard was 6 6500 for this software software training hold on hold on the hold on um and then to get the parking lot straight it's another um what is it uh for the lights and another 14 slurry so it's 26 so it's 26k and then another 6K right right plus whatever the cost is for the hand tax the fisal hand taxs so that's the cost and the and the parking lot really needs to be redone because it's got a lot of parkle in the L not debating that I'm just trying to understand the cost because you said the bill said that we have the cost to do this on the temporary budget for the software okay for the software I don't know if the money is in the temporary budget we did not ask for the money because Mike was still working on prices when the temporary budget was struck so um so this would go into the regular budget probably into the regular budget to do that work um and just FYI when there is a snowfall it's all hands on deck first come first serve for those parking spaces just like it always is um and um you know and if if a resident over you know someplace you know with the you know anybody could buy um a resident a visitor spot there if they wanted to buy visitor spot there but only residents could buy a spot if they wanted to have an extra car but um you know that parking lot is in is in bad condition and it is used by a lot of residents and um you know we should address it anyway but I'm leaving that to the council and we have to look at the budget so um am I for am I forgetting anything on this I'm not forgetting anything on this proposal right but we'd like to get this in as soon as possible because you know again it's training our residents getting them all up to speed so that when new people move into town they don't know any different and because there is such an issue on West Road um West Road has been having serious problems for at least six months now um and uh when a change in the law occurred in New Jersey and uh a lot of people started parking their cars there first very illegally which the police department ticketed enough to get everybody to understand what was legal and what wasn't legal but they're still on top of each other and it's a culde saac narrow and with cars parked on both side of the road people can't back out of their own driveway safely now um they can't have family over for holidays right now well a lot some of them have long driveways but not everybody has a long driveway that is true true so um I you know the concern is if we just address West Road and said this is residential only it's going to push those people parking there over to Allen street or Corran or it's just going to keep pushing and pushing them somewhere else and we just need to stop and they need to address it by either finding new Creative Solutions of renting you know talking to some parking lot owners or some Churches and making arrangements and you know not clogging up streets that you know when they are renting homes ofici so um I just wanted like if a couple of people from wro want to say anything now would be probably good time and keep it limited like three minutes I need your name and address are you an official spokesman May grind it looks that way all very lovely on W number certainly um my name is Phil grer g r e i n r I live at s West Road and as mayor mentioned most of the members of the public here are also from West Road and they did ask me to speak so I'm speaking we're we're of a pretty common mind about this I know many you many of you know the general situation but depending whether this E2 moves forward or doesn't uh we would just appreciate the opportunity to just get it on the record um this problem started roughly spring of last year we started getting overflow parking from Flemington wors Apartments don't really know why uh frankly don't really care why it's just there and it needs to U be addressed it it got worse it started to reach the M what I would guess would be a maximum level in the August September time frame so we now have 12 or more of their cars over there uh on an average on an average night our street is narrow there is no way to turn around at the end of it there's no Colac roundabout there are no side streets so once you turn into West Road the only way you get out is turn around and someone's driveway and that is the way that it's been going for a long time the street is too narrow for two cars to pass driving if cars are parked on both sides so I found myself once in what you could call chicken I turned in somebody starts backing out of a driveway what you going to do you know um I can't back out onto North Main Etc and it goes like that there there are uh besides just the traffic and cars passing there are other safety issues there are no sidewalks on West Road there is no crosswalk uh going across North Main and many of these Walkers are crossing over at night to be clear we're not asking for a crosswalk there that's going to facilitate more of this but still uh there are there are those safety issues some of the houses have curbs some do not have curbs along without out curbs usually have Tire ruts in their front yard uh on this last snowfall some of the about a third of the street was not able to be plowed and with the cold weather you got frozen Tire rusts in there it's it's you if you walk at night you would turn an ankle um it's been going on we turned this petition in in August and if I may everyone I believe was on Council except councilman AR so if you don't mind I'll just I just have a copy there so I believe our feel I could say our feeling is that if you move quickly on this T2 system it seems like my personal opinion because we haven't all heard it and discussed it as a group but it seems like it would work to me um if you don't move if you don't feel you can move quickly either for consensus or budget or what have you you we would once again like to ask for the permit parking on our street I I heard the mayor's viewpoint but um I see there's an analogy here with the high school parking you know you in on the east side those streets are not supposed to be overflow parking for H in central we feel our street is not supposed to be overflow parking for Flemington arms um and I think that about covers it in three minutes so I'm happy to answer questions I do appreciate those of you we appreciate those of you who have come over and are familiar with it and U look forward to getting how many cars park during the day like there there are few during the day they they usually clear out today I I walk a lot on the street today there's about three cars parked there but one of the things that happens that three of the apartments cars every action brings a reaction so when they started the apartment people started parking over here residents eventually start to react so if they don't want strangers parking in front of their house now they park in front of their house instead of in a driveway they never did right they put they never did there was never cars on your street right exactly may they put garbage cans at the end of the driveway to sort of impede the turn around even garbage cans on the street sometimes last year some people even put traffic cones out I know you're not supposed to but I'm just saying you're currently looking the other way on all of that until we get ahead we appreciate it we are very aware do it out there well I thought in the event there might be one council person maybe who isn't appreciate you letting us know and we look forward we really we really need to get it fixed so thank you for some of the damage other than just the rots like I know people have had um top done that was ruined um uh I don't know if anybody is in the room that had that issue because I don't think that one very that's a good memory there Council woman that yeah they just had their driveway sealed and as you know that needs to set a little bit they've moved since there's a new couple in there uh yeah somebody came in uh turned around a driver turned in turned the wheel while the car is still backed out and then the neighbor across the street he they they did some receding on an embankment and the one of the trucks turning around in the air was start taking off the corner of the you know where you come out onto the street taking off the corner of that new work um it's just it's just a nuisance you watch TV you got headlights shine in your window at night you hear the you click lock the car the horn goes off it's just constant coming when you came last year I out of C curiosity and I apologize I vaguely remember it right did you ask for permit parking at that point in time because that would have been something that we could have done like right away well we we've not been here but our petition asked for it the chief and I have been discouraging the permit parking because it is going to just push this issue to another burough street so you know if they can't park on West they're going to go down to Allen they're going to go down to the north I understand I'm just no that wasn't my question I was asking like last year and you that up was that actually even addressed that was question yes sir it was thank you I think you know we need we need the global solution you know then they can park I guess I'm not going there I was thinking that we we didn't actually address the issue when they brought it up well I have I everybody tell my feelings about and the chief feel about it was not addressed in my in our in our opinion it was put off my point to this but my point is is that we neglected to that's the point that we neglected to address it so that even if it were a bandaid at that point that they had some Rel that's the my question to the issue of if you if you put in permits they'd only go somewhere else that applies anytime you have permits it applied when Hunter and Central kids were parking do you ask the same question here where they going to go well I don't know but it it works out one analogy I've used is if you have pets you have to rent where they allow pets if you have a lot of cars you have to rent where they Park cars or can park cars so you know they might have to park somewhere else until the lease is up and then find a place that has that can accommodate their cars but I can tell you I've lived there for 38 years a couple of neighbors been there longer than me this has never happened I don't know what happened in the apartments and all of a sudden we're seeing this but it's there it's fluming it's not the the people it's not the fault of the people parking there we feel badly for them they they pay rent and now they're being totally can't park where they live it's Flemington arms's fault for whatever happened here they're renting to more people than nak can park but that's another matter um it mayor grer I I'm glad you brought that up because and and I'm glad Tony brought the the his comment up as well the one thing I I do want to say I think we did um uh take action on last year that maybe West Street wasn't residents were were not told I'm not sure but we did ask to connect with the landlord and I know that exact had many conversations exactly so we did take it's not I don't want I don't want anybody to get the impression that we just did nothing and ignor it there was follow okay what the first step follow there and then our planner looked at their site plan to see if there was additional areas where they in additional parking did she couldn't find that so we've spended some some professional money trying to figure out on behalf of Flemington arms if there was anything that we could advise them to to do I think Chief you I'm not sure but did you talk to them about taking their lease so that they know it's talk about that we had neighborhood meetings with the uh tenants of those locations to address those issues and like uh mayor Brer said you know the the property doesn't meet the needs for the amount of cars that are there now we talked to them about GRE stri bring so I do want you to know and and rest assur that we didn't just get that and we all got it and we all said okay what's our first step committee look has talked about this issue for a number of meetings and asked both the chief and our planner to review the situation regarding the site plan regarding what was happening over there I talked to the landlord so you know we have been addressing it through that channel but um I think that the software doing the residential only will solve the whole problem without putting it somewhere else right and that was the other thing I wanted to mention as a member of the planning committee I think we all talked about um this may not actually just happen it may be a more an extreme case here or as you remember you know being the situation with the with the high school but I suspect that there's little pockets everywhere where maybe it it it it happens on a smaller scale which is why I was more open to the idea on the on the parking committee to embrace the idea of full you know perhaps a full burrow parking permitting for residents versus just this area and that area and you know the Union hotel is an issue the high school area is an issue West streets an issue to be honest with you I think that it's it's it's not any of those it's that we have a walkable Community which is a good thing and that it affects everybody it's kind of a ripple effect so I think that your case only kind of prove to me as a Committee Member that we need to look at this holistically as well so thank you for I've been a bit of a thorn in the side the mirror on this well I bring it up quite a bit what about sidewalks no that's too so so if you think about it you really yeah I do we are the place where the Sidewalk Ends but um I would I what I would really request is to my pars take your car up there tonight and go and look and see because it's it's pretty bad and the first time I have been several times at night you a thorn in my side well I I am a thorn in everybody's side I know and I monitored at night go up there one night about 9:00 just park on the edge of the Road Park in Flemington hours if you can and walk across the street and get a picture so that you can see what's been going on for these folks and and I I think I said to Mr BR there's another gentleman here I grew up like on a dead end streen like that's why you move there right so you don't you have that quiet in that piece so thank so I would really encourage my parents to go up there hav't one night 30 at night you'll see what they're dealing with good idea all right thank you so much you CP things hi to Bill Mike and Beth couple minutes is that okay well Phil got six minutes spokes be a second lived in Flemington here since I was born and lived in the same house own the same house2 years my father built it in 1950s he was a trooper work 19 build the house basically himself and I moved in in 52 that's and I just want to say I love the community I had 100 100 paper paper BL on and Gardens theyed guide walks down there got to know all the people down there when I was just in grammar school and and into High School most of the people who live there at that time were either newly married people with no children or retirees from the flon area nice Community they parked their cars in their garages there there's 72 Garage in that department complex I don't think anyone at this point is using a rush some people are running business out of them some people are stocking them with whatever luggage they have but they're not using I walk through everybody they're not using the garages but that's 72 spots that the people used back when I was part of that community and they had no problem with parking it was it worked out very well and just a couple things Mar I came home the other day after we had this light snow people turn around my driveway all the time all hours of the night somebody missed the driveway pull in the front lawn and turned around I mean this is the kind of thing that we've been going through now for it's been about six months and you know this Global thing that we keep talking about may not happen and it might be a year or two before it happens but I really think that that street I don't know if there's another dead end without kisac in Flemington we may be the only truly dead end M and and that's what makes it even worse and we have two new people that moved in with young children with people coming up and down the street all hours of the night it's a long cry from what I remember that neighborhood being wish that we could do something you did it for the high school would you do it for us I he said I I've been in fled all my life and I know so many people and I love this place place but it just it's not right those 72 garages I think is an interesting point I went C today I mean they're rented separately right so no no they're they're part of the buildings that those people live in other words the might be three buildings no I know that but I mean when you rent an apartment if you want a garage you have to pay separately rent I don't I don't know that for sure we asked Beth to look into that I don't remember what it would be very very difficult though you lived way on the downside and had to your garage theep no I think it was like answer on that yeah I know I know we were we asked the landlord about it one of the things we did to follow up because we were very well aware that yeah they have garages there and how many people are actually using them it's something I think that we we need to encourage the landlord to manage their property a little differently for their resident comfort as well as yours I don't how much control they would have over that but these things are so so to move this forward um first of all from the council regarding the t2 system and moving forward with the residential only parking software and the plan that you know that the parking committee has laid out you know can we move forward with it are you all okay moving forward with residential overnight not 247 but overnight across the whole time I like two questions um they also offer through like license plate reading technology was that also reading issue it's that's an additional the equipment itself was the additional and uh we like the actual U visible pass I think it's a good indicator for even for residents to see oh that that car has a has reader right there was some sort play reader yeah yeah it grabs the tag and stuff but yeah um that was an option that he offered but like I said but we wouldn't be paying for it now yeah um what do you call you know rather than and obviously we're not moving forward with the hiring two people step right no I believe that's longterm this year next year once it's anything else no there mostly just like I guess balancing better not that be too burdensome on officer duties already you know adding in that play system so that way we wouldn't necessarily have to have two additional people um I'm sure you thought of it yeah yeah yeah want to talk um before I anybody have an objection to moving forward in the purchase of this getting all of the systems in place but that's also going to be outlining the way it's going to work um when you turn an entire town into residential over so I'm good at it's overnight everybody okay with this moving it Forward um so I guess I need a motion for them to spend the money on the t2 system so that we can start moving forward it's about 6,500 I think yeah my $1 L than that sorry there's are there like certain agreements that we'll see before we move forward with this there licensing agreement are there you know certain Revenue split or share or some kind of you know Chicago like thing where if we ever triy to get rid of a parking space they uh you know sue us into Oblivion no just the software toage toage the no yeah I'm just curious like you know if they're giving it to for this I'm looking to buy oblig sign something only we get we didn't look at any other software because it's proprietary yeah I think I think Trent is a good point I think you know having some sort of write up before we goad I mean I feel like most of this came off piece of paper that could have been given before this okay we can do that we can do that on the February uh 10th agenda then I think that's also a good idea because it's closer to the like we may have some better idea about budget and stuff you know as well for people to kind of consider the big picture there um so that's fine we'll do it February 10 we'll put it on the agenda to um approve the purchase of the software need then introduce an ordinance you and I can talk about it Chris but we need procedur early on that but in the meantime I mean this is a problem in order to do Perma parking only that's an ordinance so that's a full month um it has to be introduced at the next meeting but that's great as long as we're moving forward on it that's great I mean we could do both temporarily to perm parking only um and just see it done right the offense to you guys but another couple weeks isn't going to make any difference unless unless unless I just encourage you guys just to give us a call you have any problems myom you know we try to get in there as much as possible and and you know do the parking enforcement that we can do there's only so much you can do they did 20 20 tiet last snow three of them were on West yeah with the snowstorms you know we'll keep an eye on if you see it give we usually know once they start plowing is when it becomes everyone one other thing just to give you a little bit better picture it's not uncommon to see people changing their oil in their car out of the street in this town please call the police no but I'm just saying you you come back and there's a big spot on the please call the police but a lot of times you don't even know it you know you come back home and they they left and there's a spot as big as this table on the floor you know that's the kind of thing that we're dealing with and and many of I just want to try to give you a picture got it I have that's camera can you unmute yourself there is a question about I know you um hello you the parking issue over at lemington Arms itself and you look at their um their parking to see if you could get more angle of parking in there or whatever did you did you have a conversation or did you review the original planning board resolution regarding those garages and how they rented out so I did choose things one yeah I take a look I took a look at the site itself to see if there was any uh space that could be utilized for parking and I'm sorry to say I don't think there was I also pulled all of the old resolutions and meeting minutes from the 1970s which is when this uh development was approved and unfortunately resolutions from that era just don't have the same level of detail that the ones that are written today do and so there was nothing specific about the parking or use of the garage that I thought was going to be helpful for this uh this issue facing the burrow yeah all right so we're gonna move forward hopefully introdu an ordinance and I think has another no no sorry I'm looking at the ordinance for parking by permit and technically it says Yeah by a resident of the street on which such vehicle is parked because my my main question was like all right they're residents of Clemington they get a parking apartment you know they can't really be sto from parking there if they obtain apartment but the res the residential only will yes they will not qualify yeah because they live they they live in a complex with with drive with parking you know so none of the apartment complexes in town will qualify to get in tax or residents own no I think is the way it's $125 a month what is the garage so is you pay differently you pay you're entitled for one parking space and if you want a parking garage it's one additional space for the larger garage it's 125 a month the smaller garage it's 85 month for storage be cheaper to get storage I think I think Trent point was that the way our ordinance is written now it doesn't clarify no I didn't think it would but technically if you I mean that's my that's your so you got aordance you got a permit you can par no yeah no what no your so this is why we have press because then you can take a look but the per parking only is real it's just for the east side of Main Street now regarding hun Central High Schools only for when schools in in session we don't have permit being anywhere else in town any other purp we yeah we discussed this in the par committee right yeah be novel but certainly well we're gonna hopefully get this moving in February for you great I really appreciate your help we need it thanks just GNA take a different perspective my name is Daniel P 8 West thank you mayor thank you for your responses to my emails Chief thank you so much for everything your eight so I think my neighbors here laid out perfectly our issues um as far as our safety um our peace and quiet etc etc I want to raise an issue to our neighbors and express some concern about our neighbors that do live in those apartments right they are our neighbors they are important to this community okay um you know many times there are children that Park on our street they um you know I see a lot of you know car services taxi services rid share Services um dropping people off picking people up I see women and small children I raised my family on West Road they're teenagers now but they were once little um North Main at that Crossing is not designed for people to cross in the dark and um I do I just want to express some safety concerns I have for our neighbors there they're getting squeezed by their own Lord I don't I'm not exactly sure I've spoken with some of the neighbors across the way um you know we had problem it really exploded in August and through having some conversations with our neighbors it seemed like some permanent went on there in August which pushed everybody off so since then ironically what I found is when I I'll leave for work at five 5:30 in the morning most days there's ample parking across the street but the folks that that are using our street for one reason or another whether they choose not they can't afford to pay for that garage or or they're not you know residents per se they can't obtain it um so they use our street right um but I just wanted to mention a concern because it hasn't been brought to the attention here of the health and safety of our neighbors in the apartments it matters I think to all of us we have a responsibility to them as well um takes a minute for cars to slow down coming down that Hill I mean you know Chief will tell you that that that's a steep one we're all used to it but a lot of folks sometimes they need that second 25 to see what's going on um and I would just hate hate for someone to get hurt or God for been uh killed Crossing that street um to no fault of their own so you know in my mind you know I have a concern about that I think the clock is ticking on that the longer this goes on the more the higher the chances are of someone getting hurt um it's an active bus stop too my kids use that bus stop on the corner of West Road uh in North Main um to get picked up to go to Robert Hunter school and to get picked up to go to JP case um I think Chief's done a great job enforcing that yellow curb fire hydron situation which kind of opened up that corner but it's still it's way more dangerous than it was when my girls were getting picked up for Robert H school years ago there was nobody there it's just we would send them you know fourth grade you just sit in the corner have to worry about St standing on the grass you know now there's no way I would do that now I don't have to my kids are a little older right but there are young families that saw what I saw in that street within the last two years and bought homes there and chose to raise their family there and I just like for them to experience what experienced with my family and you know you hop scotch in the street during Co all that kind of stuff you just take a peek out the window cuz bills watching all the neighbors are there they raise their families there it's really special Street just for clarification that the school bus school bus isn't picking up Fleming arms kids on your side no they're on the other side of thead school bus goes there they're they're going what's the school is that barley no what's the school by the Medical Center Elementary School they go to day okay whole bus right no but no exaggeration the Bus shows up empty I know you guys see them up on their side of the street they don't make them cross nor they don't have to saying Ubers are coming in and dropping them off no no no the Ubers are well you know what in actuality I've seen them with schools um but the Ubers tend to be people going to work um I don't know why it's this way but it's mostly young women um get picked up by these car services two three at a time you they're probably going to go work their asses off somewhere you know cleaning something for somebody know these are hard just for clarification people are crossing the street yes to West and kicking a ride sherff West versus D in the parking lot across the street and getting picked up there yeah y czy okay y that was new I know one of my million emails hope I'm not annoying you guys I have those Camas thank you so much and I'm I'm was probably a little rotten that first time I met you out appreciate problems but I do I I want to stress again how nice it is to grow up in a neighborhood like that especially now that we've got to families there be discussed complicated issue the Ripple go remember there is no stre like West Ro equation there is none we are the only ones somebody goes down Allen Street to park no parking they just keep going till they find somewhere to go someone on North or or whatever that is that that small little Street next to us no parking they just keep going D left takes them out to Al our street they're turning around on Don's front our street is different thank you I appreciate you guys back first meeting in February's February 10th all right thank youate all right so we'll have something in writing for the counc react to hopefully introduced plus hopefully the other ordinances for spring and and weight restrictions uh as well to introduce for the 10th if not the 10th then the 24th of February um before I get into the regular agenda I would like to invite um Brian MCN and Chief and I see Dave juliani who's the deputy o coordinator to just um give an update on uh things that have been done this week water break and communication to the public doing okay why come up here um all right so I wanted to take a couple minutes to address Council the mayor the public um as to the circumstances that surrounded our uh week of January 14th watermain break I want to give you some details um I'm not here to give you excuses I'm here to give you facts um I'm here to give you identified issues and I'm here to give you um solutions that are already underway and uh and then other ones that we need to get in the process of doing um you know so uh we the burrow followed all regulatory protocols that were set forth for this water main break um certainly it could have been better faster um and communication could have been cleaner and more direct um and I'll I'll tell you why some of that happened and and now we're going to fix that okay um but basically Tuesday January 14th 2 pm uh MSP Contracting is working in um and you know what for my friends from the uh media I have it all written out for you so um you don't have the um at 2m MSP Contracting is doing the Main Street reconstruction project in the intersection and they damaged our 8 in water M um significant damage um the water main was full exposed at that point um it was it was an open break uh outside of the ground uh the DPW director his crew got on scene uh assisted uh MSP Contracting with getting that line uh repaired secured uh it did cause a pressure uh dip on the M Street section uh during that time so people did experience low pressure and and or loss of water for a period of time and that repair was completed by 6 p.m. um within that the burrow had to notify the D within 6 hours of that strike um my Campion was out on the scene with his Crews working they had until 800m to report that's correct May till 800m um at 4:30 my campign returned to his office um he had a voicemail from New Jersey safe waterer on his office phone not on his direct line um inquiring as to what was happening because they received anonymous complaint um to the D tip line uh Mike explained what was occurring at that time um and what was underway and DP began to monitor the situation uh the repairs completed at 6 pm. DP had been notified uh via New Jersey safe Waters uh notification t m and um then at 10 p.m that evening um Josh Parks gets a phone call from the njd region ref and says you need to issue a boil water advice okay so at that point um to the burrow to my Campion since he's been employed here uh we've never had a boil water advisory in 28 years in this bur um it wasn't unfortunately something we had an sop for and it was 10:30 at night I'm sorry what do sop standard operating procedure um and uh there there was no um access to mic to our messaging system at that point um and I'll unpack a little bit more of that with you folks later in the executive session um and uh so he was given at 10 p.m. at night he was given uh notification by D they had 24 hours from the time of the break so 2 o'clock in the afternoon the next day so 2 pm on on the 15th to complete the uh notifications for a precautionary advisory and the DP requires anything we put out in writing to be approved by so everything every message we wanted to send had to be sent back to DP Mike made contact with me at 700 a.m. as soon as I got into the burrow as soon as he got into the bur said this is what we need to do how do we need to make this happen um I immediately got on the phone with the mayor we started crafting our messaging everything went to D for approval so I had to go to Mike to our region rep who then had to sit there and say yes this messaging is approved by the D and you can send it out okay so I crafted all that as quickly as I possibly could we got that over to the EP um at that point I was working on I had to do mandatory notifications to Fan School District Hunter Central Regional High School we had to notify riton Township um of the break because we had some streets that were affected within rting Township we'll get to that in a moment um so we get all that messaging done all that's done before 9:00 a.m. okay both superintendant on the phone explain to them what's happening what procedures they need to follow and get done it's 9:00 a.m. everything you know we we sent out the messaging that we had approval from D now we're starting to figure out what do we need to do next right well now we've been told that we can have water sampling done at 2 pm that next day right um and we have our water testing folks scheduled to come out so it's 24 hours from the break before you can do water testing and then it takes an additional 24 hours for for the test to be complete we have that scheduled they're coming well then MSP Contracting hits a 6in water main that's that day at 10:40 in the morning uh causes another significant break to our system now what happens is the reason we've never had a boiled water advisory in this town prior is because a industry accepted standard is if you fix the break on the Fly meaning water is still flowing through the system there is no danger of contaminant entering the water okay our DPW always fixes their Mains that way anytime we have a break the issue was the damage on the 8 in main the day before was so significant it required the pressure or the the main to be shut down so it could be repaired okay so the 6in main was now open flowing there was no need to advise the EP we were already under the same advisory the break needed to be repaired but because that break was actively flowing we could not do the water testing until that brake was repaired unfortunately that brake was not repaired until after the window in which the lab could be on site to do the water testing so we missed the window that day and we were delayed to the following day which now we're into Thursday where they could come out at 9:40 in the morning they got there on scene to begin water testing back to that we so back to um Wednesday you know then at that point we had to start working with our business Community do the water testing the health department the county um so OEM with the mayor the police chief um Public Works and the water department um began having those meetings to figure out what do we need to do next and and what processes are we following right um so now we get into Thursday um water testing gets on scene we're now working with the school districts because now we have a extended delay all right um so we get pushed out water testing is now underway but we you know we have to sample 10 locations all right that took till 2 o'clock in the afternoon that water had to be then taken to a lab in Pennsylvania all right so it has to be driven almost an hour and a half into PA it needs to be set up by a biologist and then it requires 24 hours it was Pennsylvania they were the ones that were able to come out correct so we have three Labs um and this was we had the initial lab that was supposed to come out could not fit us into their schedule so we had to use an additional lab that could that could do that for us so at this point now we're well beyond the 24 hours that we thought it was going to take to get this lab testing back we've identified that the precautionary measures are out news news reports are getting picked up social media is flourishing with misinformation that we have contaminated water we have dirty water there's bacteria in the water and we violated the law and we violated the law none of that was was um was true um but we did not have a legitimate timeline to publish to the public because the lab was essentially non-responsive to us as to when did it arrive at the lab when was it set up uh the biologist who does the testing only works from 11: in the morning till 5: at night so once that's that's set up we can't get an answer till the next day as to when that test result is coming back so we set up our water distribution program it worked out very well uh you know we we set that up here on Thursday night we were able to sit here talk to Residents give people time frames at that point but we did start talking to people finding out that we we didn't get any notification we didn't get the alerts we're signed up for the alerts why are we not getting them I get every constru I got construction notifications all summer but now I'm not getting them so um that became concerning so we started to look into our alert system as to well why are all these people saying that they're signed up for the alerts and they're not getting the alerts um and we found a significant failure within the alert system that over 50% of our um residents were were reaching failure status within the alert system um we'll unpack that more later tonight um but that was an identified issue the county then stepped in assisted us with our everbridge system we were able to continue our messaging uh with the county VI their reverse 911 which is why people started to get conflicting notifications from County OEM plus the burrow alert system um but we had no other option at that point because we knew our system was failing for some reason and the company couldn't tell us why um they still can't tell us why um and uh so the county was able to step in with a with a true trust true trusted and and tested system um to provide that to us um so Thursday uh we do our water dis program Friday we're hoping lab opens 9:00 a.m. we're going to get some uh timeline from the biologist as to when we're going to get these results and nothing we're we're not getting answers from the lab so finally 1M my campaign gets in touch with uh the biologist and they said we should have them to you by the evening should you know I don't um you know gamble in shoulds so not I didn't want we did not want to put out to the public that we were going to have results at 5:00 p.m. and then have that um so at that point the uh working group started to put together um plans as to if we don't have those test results what do we need to do next um so we focused all our energy Thursday after I'm sorry Friday afternoon on what do we need to do to set up a larger water pod meaning point of distribution through the weekend to support our residents and our businesses um and and and team up with the health department to get some of our restaurants reopened that um we're struggling going to close now thankfully 4:45 Friday we get the good results and we're able to put everything out and the boil water advisory is over so facts are the burrow did not have an sop in place to do these notifications facts are the alert system failed us um and uh you know the the facts are we missed some of our communication Windows um and we're working on that or we have worked on that to make sure that that doesn't happen again uh facts are we haven't had a boil water visory uh in my time of employment uh probably since any of you have lived in town uh probably to the people sitting up on the Das uh outside mayor Caro who went through that when she worked in Middle sex and kelman long who resided in hybridge where he was familiar with water advisories our businesses our residents were unfamiliar with what it was why it's happening uh we don't have we did not have any information out on as to uh what they need to do other than the emails we were putting out so and facts are that 25,000 people don't know where they live well correct so and then um we had misinformation unfortunately that correct that came out from R in Township um which we publicized immediately which three roads in R Township were impacted but a message went out through their ni alert system that said portions of R in Township so um people as far as uh Eagle Drive uh the health EST Apartments The Willows all thought that they were contaminated which fueled additional um social media spirals right um which we had what almost 30 people come in here um for water distribution that hadn't taken showers in three days that don't even aren't even on our water system water bills to show proof of residency right not um so those were things that you know we have to unpack why did that why did that happen so what what have we done so far um I've uh I'm going to present to you later in the executive session um some fixes to our alert system uh we've already uh established on our website a water alert section uh it outlines what a boiler water advisor is why it's happening what you need to do uh We've published our uh water testing results from the um from the water main break um we've worked on an internal sop as to how water main brakes will be handled down meaning we have free can um messages pre-prepared messages that would be available to uh DPW during overnight hours should they need to be issued um hopefully with the enhancements to our alert system that would Grant multiple people access to that so that it can be sent out um without needing to find the sole person who operates the messaging system um in the middle of the night so uh that's going to fix some problems for us um and public Outreach right we need need to do public Outreach we need to educate our residents and businesses as to um what a boiled water advisory is what you need to do what the difference between precautionary and mandatory is um and what the um advisories and recommendations are um and that's going to be accomplished two two or three different ways a our website B direct uh inserts in water bills moving forward and um see through our newsletter um so that's uh that's kind of what's what's underway to fix some of these issues um so it certainly wasn't perfect nothing was done in proper it certainly could have been done better um but for uh a situation that we've never experienced here before in the burough uh it it definitely had uh had some challenges and you know we're hopefully not going to have those challenges again so if you have direct questions I'd be happy to answer them for you now um and we can certainly unpack something plan on how to buy masses Mass amounts of water correct water distribution is uh is already in the works so any questions for yeah I had one um for the uh pre-and messages that you had are they also in Spanish so um with the system we have no Okay can they be with enhancements yes um the nice thing is not to say that everyone is on Facebook but um the Facebook messaging system when we post those it does depending on the settings on the user's phone it will translate it to whatever language of um you're utilizing so not to say that that's a that's an immediate fixel but you know if you are following those social media accounts that would capture that but no the current free can messages that this system has no but you are going to make sure that they are is that what I heard I have a plan okay because I think that's really important I think about the percentage of that is is Spanish we really need to address that that's extremely important we don't you know we're about that just a couple things that went down right that we had to understand so um we Enlisted the help of H and help line to reach out to our senior community so we reached out to them they have access through register ready to everyone over between the ages o over the age of 60 so they were reaching out to any Resident in Flemington burough that had a landline that was between 60 and 100 years old giving them a call on the phone letting them know hey this is what's going on do you need anything and they were getting them in touch with us directly so if they needed water we could drop it off to their doorstep okay so that was being done through the um through United Way um they have connections with hun and hispanos so they were able to help kind of push some of that messaging out while we didn't have direct contact we knew it was going on on um so those were the two other outlets that we were utilizing I like that about our seniors thank you no problem I I learned what register ready program was last week so um I understand it also pushes out um or there's some sort of list for special needs people in addition to the seniors that in that program incom correct so yeah so anybody that's through register ready and it can be done a couple different ways um but we quarterly get a list from register ready of our at need uh so if you are on home oxygen if you need a ventilator um so if you have a specific need Emergency Management is aware of that so part of our standard operating procedures for OEM that any uh power outage that goes past um two hours um usually my first phone calls to Dave and he starts calling uh every cell phone and then uh if we have people that have cell phones we physically go knock on their doors and see if they need anything but that's all done through the office of emergency management I I knew I knew there was a procedure I just didn't know how it worked so you don't you don't necessarily rely on 100 help line to do all that work for you every time but if you need to solicit their help to help get the word out a little quicker they're willing to do so yes that she was uh Susan LAX was uh more than happy to put her people on that Force okay I really appreciate like the first thing you said was you know recognizing that we could you know we can do things better and and that's what this is all about is what can we do better because there will be a next time not necessarily a break hopefully not well what I'll tell you is I'm happy to find I can't just wants it to be in another 28 years to see what you know what though and I want to say this what was the root cause that caused the the break to me no but really what what what are we doing on Main Street what are we doing areu we're doing construction and so it's a problem that I feel for every resident we were all going through it because we all live here um but that's part of of making the town better that's part of Roads that's part of in this case it was it was oppra unfortunate an unfortunate accident not only that still part of construction that's part of progress it is is still part with the timing of the second break and that that the the the the timing of the second break and in in full disclosure Adrian and I were both in a meeting for the parking committee with the mayor when you ran in and said um ke mayor we need to talk so you know two of us looked at each other when what's going on you said take your phone right right and Chris was on the phone so and and I don't think there's anything that I could disclose there that we just happened to all be there but what we didn't know and I still don't know and if this is where my question is leading is the second break um how is that different than the first break as far as the cause so the it was damaged by the contractor During the Reconstruction but that line did not require to be shut down they were able to fix that on the Fly and Mike if you want to jump in and uh comment you know I'm not um you I don't want to take anybody your thunder the D was notified for the second break the one that happened on Wednesday that was uh we did not need to do another bwa because it the first break covered the second break and then a follow-up question to that is and I learned this also last week was um we're responsible for we meaning the bur is responsible for MTH before marking out the locations of water Ms the water man was marked it wasn't it wasn't NE neither of them were accident I'm just I'm not questioning I'm just asking procedures yeah so both the six inch and the E inch were marked out properly they they could see them with their eyes if they were underground and they had broken or whatever and there was a chance of effluent from the sewer system getting in there like eoli it would have become a mandatory water boil okay these were wide open with a ditch as big as me to Brian and from that wall to that wall they were right there visible to the naked eye and you know we think that the operator of the equipment he was using a tamper with very high vibration and misjudged and hit the first one on one day and hit the second one with the same piece of equipment the second day like they were totally exposed which is why they this was a a precautionary advisory because the pressure di which means in slow water it could have picked up some cryptospore possibly very unlikely but never sewage like an underground break when you don't know what happened and you've got to go on mandatory until you can fix it so um you know that's like this was this was this was not this was not marked out because the whole Road was wide open with a 15 foot trench I I don't think anybody is debating that there's you know there was the human era right I think really what the issue is from what I've heard is this the communication and we identify is having a problem with and and here's what I would say to that so had the second break been notified it would have been easier to understand okay hold on hold on hold on that's not my debate right that's not what I'm trying to tell you what I saying to you is that when you said that that you sent these tests and they said it it should come back by 5:00 and you're and the decision was made not to do anything and say anything until you had you had your backup plan I don't know that that was the right strategy because what you really could have done was just said we will have an update by five o' and that would have taken you off the AG right so I I think that's where people are getting getting like losing their patience and getting push back on and all this stuff is just building and building and building because it was just that one piece that would have made this kind of like this I think there were two pieces that were and again this is all you know what you're admitting like what what can we do better next time when you said you guys were hearing crickets from the lab right that was exactly what Tony's describing that silver residents on that Friday afternoon I must have gotten six calls from my neighbor across the street what's going on what's going on what's going on and all I knew was the test we're waiting for the testing so that was an opportunity I think mix missed um and and like you said the the inconsistent uh Communication in that um there was it wasn't clear that there was a second break that day I knew it in real time right but I was because I happen to be here but not many other people did and I think that consistent communication also I noticed I went back to to look at the the notifications that were on the website versus Facebook versus you know the the the calls and my husband I didn't actually hear this my husband said to me yeah they mentioned there was a second break in one of the phone calls now of course you also recognize there was a problem with that but there wasn't that mention of the second break on the website or the any of the Facebook pages so that I think you're you're recognizing the fact the second break was never in any of the phone calls either so it wasn't and my husband just heard things and any the point is it was confusing and I appreciate the fact that you recognize it um but people were confused and scared I also think that I'm sure that you guys interact with your Raritan peers all the time it sounds like that that that with Ron helpful and that they like it was clear that there was mixed messages going out from their Community they have done to help us more so riton sent out their initial message um and then all their secondary messaging was immediately updated with the three streets that were involved okay um but then the issue was the social media monster got involved and we had um we found Thursday night the entire HOA at the Willows the management company who gets their water from New Jersey American Water was telling every single resident through their Mass message that their water was contaminated um so when we became aware of that we did notif fire peers at ran but at that point the damage had been done um and they were really feeding yeah and every message the B put out on social media we posted the three roads from Ron Township that were affected um you know so I saw that I my Champion um who's on you know told us in one of these debriefings that he had 173 phone calls over the course of this and 80% were from our presidents mayor that was just Wednesday I stopped counting after that that was Wednesday and they were so you know they were really feeding you know feeding fear into fling to burough residents and you know feeding social media and spinning of in Township you know so L my point is but we can't we can't blame social media for all our what could RAR have done to help us so well what we did to fix the problem was we Enlisted the help of the county and we blasted out to all the RAR and Township residents on Thursday or Friday morning that it only affects these three streets with the use of the County's ever Bridge system but that message didn't go out till Friday well yes and then you know so that fixed some of it but we still got calls on Friday from R in president because you know unfortunately as you know with social media you get a post from 3 days earlier so they're reading it from three days early they still don't know that that post was was incorrect um so yeah that's uh you know part of our after action um review brought and established that um and better messaging with ritin uh integration with with uh The Learning System solution I'm going to bring you will um will be able to integrate us with raron and the county to prevent incidents like this in the future um but I I can unpack all that with you guys uh later on did you um I understand there's actually three types of water main break and I you were talking really fast and then Mike I think Mike might have even mentioned it but it's a little harder to hear online what exact type of breaks were there because there's different notification requirements I think for each type of break Mike do you want to he might yeah that might be more of a technical question for Mike I don't want to put you on the spot no problem there's a types of water man breakthroughs uncontrolled outage and then is controlled outage when Safe Drinking uh called me I told him it was a controlled outage according to their definition so there's only two types oh okay and what are the procedures for notification for each one of those types I know I know this was mentioned but it went it went fast so well according to their guidelines um there's there's a whole section of how to handle an advisory and I went off the email that I got Tuesday night from the D's emergency hotlines and we followed those procedures very good thank you anything else for oh I had one more thing that and Mara was was answered this question for me on Friday and I know we talked about it uh Mike uh but I do want to mention one of the questions I had last week during the emergency was don't we have you know because we have Labs on you know we have to test water regularly like once a month or whatever right so we have to send these Labs out regular I said well don't we have a contract with at least one uh Lab company for emergence Services I know when I have to I write a specification for an elevator there's a there's a procedure for that so from what I understand and I think Mike is going to do some research on this so again I'm not putting him on the spot for an answer right now but from what I understand the burrow does not have a contract for emergent testing services we don't have a contract for testing services oh we don't even have a a regular contract and and Josh call for the first available who can come out when they know they need to do the testing well that's fine for the monthly but I think um I think Mike I think what you said to me was that Mike was going to look into if there is any um uh any testing services that have emergent services so that when there is a procedure that happens we can call upon that contract and say you're contractually obligated to come out within a certain amount of time because I think there was some concern about that during the emergency and I just want to make sure that we at least find out whether that is a possibility in the future like I said when I write specs for an elevator there's a there's a proposal that's given that says in an emergency you will be here within this amount of time and your company is located within this amount of miles so you know you're going to get that kind of turnaround quickly I think it might be a good idea for us to look into that something like that exist it'd be great I know the burrow of hridge uh was going through a um very similar situation if not worse than ours uh over the weekend in which um they could not get water testing done over the weekend and they suffer this um on more regular basis so if such a program exists I think it'd be great but um I don't know either I'm just asking and Mike is Mike said he's going to look into it so I appreciate that all right can we move on because it's a quarter to nine and we haven't even gotten onto the agenda yet okay all right thank you more to follow s all right um under mayor's report I do want to bring up a couple things and I want to wipe them off before we get into the regular agenda uh one is the dqw priorities list which um was sent to all of you and then I sent you an update over the weekend that included the galvanized lead pipe replacement uh under the water um the first priority for water Mike Campion is on the line to answer any questions any of you have about the DPW priories list this is an update from last year's list so the one section of Main Street is off another section mement is now on um the EPA uh mandates are you know have been moved up as a priority by the by the water department um p and galvanized pipes and all of that um I didn't have a price an estimated cost on the galvanized Le pipe we don't know if Terry vot is still online because he was working on trying to get us something yep um you want to promote him no thought I saw something hi chry you got take your off mute so everybody how are you have an estimated um cost on the um giz pipe replacements for the town yeah we we had sent it to Mike last week do do you have that at hand Mike I I have a copy electronically yes I do um yeah we R RVE uh did a uh estimate for the lead service line replacement and the total cost was $2.7 Million okay and then we had the other estimate was for the posos treatment which we had given the burrow uh in summer of 2024 and that was $3.6 Million the priorities list that number's there yeah yeah do anybody have any questions for Mike or Terry regarding or especially Mike regarding the priorities list um on what they want to focus us focus our taxpayers treasure boards there are some of those categories do have um you know uh places where we can find money others do not so I I had one comment that won't go into for too long I'll send an email to follow but I do notice that we use the phrase complete streets in a way that nowhere else in the United States uses it and it's it's just a little confusing to me that's that's all I will address it later though for the sake of time okay and I'd like to just add this um this procedure that uh the BPW did last year was extremely helpful and helpful again this year um so I thank them for that I think one of the things that might be helpful in the future is also to get feedback from um like do another column meaning what are some of the council members p uh you know priorities or well that's what this town has done for 50 years and that's why nothing was addressed underground because it was political priorities versus versus the department telling us where there are problems so I am not going to engage in that I am not going to ask them to do that I am not going to ask any of you for your priorities I think we have very limited money we are just getting out of real debt crisis here and to deviate from where they think that we should be putting our money I think is um not a good policy I didn't suggest that we deviate from the recommendations I didn't suggest that this was political all I said was perhaps we should also engage in the council for their thoughts and feedback from their own constituents um it's ridiculous but whatever you just turned it into something that it completely was well when you start engaging in in in in speculation and asking nonprofessionals Mike do you want to comment on this on where you were and where we got to in the last two years sure mayor um to back up about 10 years ago we did a nice 25e plan when councilwoman Carla deusi was on Council so we started this U about 10 years ago and it kind of died out after uh Carla resigned and then we picked it up with the uh Public Works committee last year and started this uh well we recommend it's money well spent on our utilities and then the road portion so as long as we follow this plan and the money is still available through ibank we should just knock out these numbers in order and keep adding to it and I completely agree with you I started with a compliment that I thought this was very helpful but my recommendations for other projects that maybe we should put on our long-term agenda I'll just put in writing and send to my DPW liaison because that's the way I should be interacting with that would be F anyway I appreciate that thank you you're welcome um while I've got you Mike on here there's also the introduction of the ordinance regarding amending um the reference forms of reservations that's regarding the will call or service now um or will serve service changing that name to temporary reserv um do you want to do a two line explanation to the council so that we can move through the main body this agenda quickly Mike you're on mute sorry mayor it was uh confusing to the applicants uh with the will serve they thought that we would hold the water forever with that title for it so we just made a minor change that was it okay unless you verify to everybody that it's a temporary reservation and it and those those words appear in the ordinance which is why this is an ordinance change we can't just start calling it something different mik mik I'm sorry mayor what was that said the the actual words appeared in the ordinance of will serve which is why we had to do an ordinance change correct okay um that's one um I also we have um on the agenda there is also um the de Management policy Bill Hans is available right now um does anybody have any questions regarding the debt management policy the bill I I had a couple um so in reading through it um I just had I was curious about the notion of I guess my question is the flexibility of this de plan um I I'm one ing is is it too limiting if we have some sort of large scale um unexpected you know big Capital me that's this is a policy by resolution it's not this is an ordinance holding your tying your hands okay right right right if this is an if there's an emergency that's we're not uh you know restricted by anything within this um this is basically I mean the majority of what what's in here we already do um you know it's it's just basically saying you know we're going to analyze to make sure that the um you know it's the best time to go out for bonding stuff like that when whenever possible use the New Jersey ibank for a better interest rate and um you know stuff like that it doesn't limit us if there's an emergency um you know that we wouldn't be able to do anything okay that that was just a concern otherwise this would like a best practices yeah for yeah something The Binding companies all want to see that we have something in place that we basically follow as a policy but again it's a policy by resolution it's not in ordinance binding us to anything okay I have another and cilman long I did not speak about this prior but I have the same that words written down too limiting and tying our hands so I think the answers that that uh Bill gave you know definitely make me feel a little better about that I I and I understand you know when it comes to emergent things that's you know um not applicable um I think my only concern is is if we're tying our hands a little too much for future councilmen in that perhaps the only thing I'd say that we might want to tweak the wording on this a bit um is so because because it's a resolution a future council could change us at any time by resolution but they have to go through the process of changing it which is another council meeting right and so I I was thinking perhaps we put in some sort of verbage in there um that um allows any future Council um including ourselves I guess um to be able to that to either clarify that this is not binding that that is recommended or that we um uh utilize this policy um and can be overwritten by you know whatever a two-thirds majority or whatever you know whatever the the council actually the best practice would be to have this on the annual reorder every year and reaffirm it and at that time could be changes made if somebody wanted to make changes towns do that well and but and but that would I guess that would have to change once a year but you're still if if you want to get something done quickly or fast it might be better just to have it as a flex all I'm saying it's a policy I agree but I'm just saying maybe we put in words that are just a little less defining and confining um to any future um this you know very similar let me ask you a question you just said something you said that every year this red I've heard of it is that your experience I've heard of it Bill might I don't hand it very reasonable and and responsible thing to so just I'm just trying to key into that because Jeremy has a concern has concern I actually kind of have a concern as well but my point of it is because it's a resolution every year on the reor whether we're here or not this would be on the agenda we could absolutely put it on the regular but if you're not here with that with with the next mayor put that on the agenda that's what I'm asking yeah I mean is it something that that would be a standard practice that anybody that comes in would put this on the reorg agenda well you know the court is going to look at last year's agend and put it back on the next clerk after Carlo retires will do the same the agenda it's not required right that's all I'm asking I'm I'm asking Chris a question and everybody's jumping in and I'm not sure that I got my answer so so my my question is whether if we're all gone right and this is a policy is this something that carries on year after year after year amen that's my question it would appear on your reorg agenda I think the mayor was starting to say this um a future Council mayor could change that reor agenda and remove it that's my question there's the concern but but it's a requirement to have this to go to the ibank correct no no no no it is it is a strong strong list of items okay this is one of the strongest of items that the bond rating agency standard of four ums they want a municipality to have it was the one thing we got in their bond rating of us in November was we still did not have a past debt policy on file so they just want to see it it's like it's it's just like when you're when you're regory compliance sometimes you guys you have just a poliy your know what our philosophy is on handling debt it's a philosophy it's a policy nobody sticking a gun to anybody's head saying Thou shalt do this don't deviate don't go buy something if your roof blows off it's a policy that is important for our bond reading you know on on that we all agree that this is how we're going to look at debt it's important to pay it down this is how it's structured this is what we want to see but if there is an emergency or something happens it's just a policy bill you want to chime in yeah I just I just want to say that like the if you're looking at the debt management policy the whole first part the expenses to be funded with debt that all that is actually right from the local Bond Law the tax impact analysis that's just us going through and making sure that you know it it's in our best interest to uh do permanent financing at the time that we're thinking of doing it the next part the structure of bonds and bond anticipation notes that is all right from New Jersey uh local Bond Law refunding bonds that whole section is from the new New Jersey Bond New Jersey ibank that's you know just in our best interest to go and look for a lower interest rate loan the only part that's really I would say restricting is the debt management plan for current fund where it says that we um limit the annual principal and interest debts to not exceed 2.5 million in the calendar year currently we're at 600,000 in a calendar year so we're nowhere even near that and I don't think we ever want to be near that that's just so I don't really see it as being too restricting and like I said the majority of this is comes right from the loc local Bond Law And if I just want to make sure I interpret it and the public understands so it prioritize the ibank because if you're going to be in debt that would be the place to be in debt with am I understanding so you get you get a better interest rate to them than we could going out for financing ourselves plus they usually have uh principal forgiveness where we could get potentially up to 100% of the P principal forgiven so we would basically have zero uh debt to pay so that's why we always try to go them to get the grants first thanks is there a way that we could add a line at the and that said that just reiterates that this is um not binding policy and can be adjusted at any time I I think that would weaken it for the for the bond raing companies I don't I don't know why that would be necessary honestly to put something like or maybe ask our bond attorney their opinion on that I mean I guess we could ask him yeah I don't know uh I don't know what she would say but we could ask her that's what you want to do I I'm just throwing it out there you know we have a bond attorney I this is totally overfill on I de policy that ouring agency wants to you look like I mean no I don't think we need to change it like it's not an ordinance there's no ordinance saying that we need to pass this every year we could do this once and honestly forget about it forever probably ities do you know if for some reason we want to go back and change it in the future there was nothing stopping us from doing exactly the same thing again rewriting it passing it again and that'll be the end of it I think Rewritten at all agree that's what I mean like yeah I agree with that I don't think if this will give us a more favorable credit rating from you know wherever and maybe reduce a point on interest or something I don't I agree I don't know if do that but it's it's something they absolutely I mean they want it I I I well I agree that it should it's we don't need to touch it I do I do agree that we need to revisit it every year just so that it reminds everybody should be on the agenda on organization because this is one of those things of business as usual right and so you don't sweep this under the table and in 10 years from now everybody goes oh I didn't realizeed I personally think having this on the agenda every year at reorg reaffirms and puts it front and center the Council and to the taxpayers that we take debt seriously this time look I I I like I said it is I feel it's responsible and not an unreasonable policy I just wanted to make sure that none of us had a piss the ball and I just wanted to make sure that we are we have as flexible as you know possible um language in there this is fine with okay we're good on this um because I I have a couple more uh we uh my Champion where I just want to discuss resolution 2025 -34 which is awarding the emergency water repairs um you know I think the council knows um but for the public um while this um Road has been open where the other two braks were done by accident um there was a an old cast iron water me that has been exposed and it does not have uh emergency valves on it and while it's there uh and open while the road is open before there are leaks and um that we didn't have to reopen a brand new road on the DPW is requesting that um we do this emergency replacement of this cast iron pipe and put in um the valves that would allow us to shut off this m anything you want to add Mike um yeah I wish we would have caught this sooner but the maps from the 1950s 40s do not exist um it was kind of a blessing that we found this during an emergency leak so it can be done correctly with these added valves that we're going to put in with the emergency contract um we will not have to be in that intersection at least for another 80 years you were popping in a little bit but much Mike um the the this ciner pipe from what uh we could gather you were breaking up a little bit um essentially what you were saying is that it was it was you didn't realize it was there because it wasn't on the maps we no we knew the line was there we did not know it was cast oh I see okay that that was clearer you breaking up cast pipe that you had marked out that was but it this this pipe that you didn't know was cast IR until it was exposed was it was any of it like in near or around or included in the scope of work to begin with it's just the Mater outside the geography of the scope of work a little bit it was not in the scope of work say that again it was not in the scope of work okay all right that's what I that thank you you're welcome okay so there's that one um then uh resolution 20235 which is regarding the Fair Housing Act Beth has been patiently waiting so that she can describe what this is so she can get off the line um and answer any questions regarding this but you want to just you know just kind of where we are with this um what where we are with the law regarding having to adopt this by the 31st and then the next one so they know it's coming okay so folks we are starting the fourth round of affordable housing and what that means is we're beginning the process of setting the obligation which is what this resolution is for this evening and then the next phase if you think about this in two phases the next phase is really about what are we going to do to meet the obligation so there might be a lot of questions swirling around about where the affordable units are going to be located is this going to require changes to zoning etc those are great questions but I would ask you to just hold them until we get to phase two because the task for this evening is to fulfill the fair housing acts requirement that municipalities adopt a resolution by January 31st if you want to participate in the program and I would strongly recommend that you do uh participating in the program means that ultimately you'll go through this process you'll have a have a housing element approved but the the real purpose in doing so is that you're going to gain immunity from Builder remedy litigation or immunity from exclusionary zoning and that's fantastic we want that immunity that means that we're going to be able to maintain control over zoning rather than having a developer come in and leverage the affordable housing laws in the state in order to gain zoning that we might not otherwise be inclined to give them so um that's why I recommend Flemington to be clear continue to participate because you guys have been participating in the affordable housing process getting your plans approved for um at least decades at this point um pre-2000 I believe so for this evening as I said a moment ago the task is really focused on what is the Township's oblig excuse me the Burrow's obligation and do you want to participate by passing the resolution and and then taking the necessary steps which is uh not for governing body but I'll work with Carla and Chris to to have the documents uploaded to the court program that's going to oversee this Etc but by adopting the resolution submitting the resolution Etc that's really your uh your mark of participation in the process so that's very easy the second component is what is the I'm sorry if this is pass tonight are you the one who sends this into the state I can be I figured Carl and I will we'll work that out it's very simple you're just uploading it to the program if you guys want to send me the adopted resolution I'm more than happy to do that know how it gets transmitted that's fine yeah it just gets uploaded to a website I've done that I'm happy to handle that for the burrow if it makes it easier for everybody about was that Alex it was Alex okay so many people know I'm sorry go ahead second part okay so second part is what is the Burrows affordable housing obligation there are two components to your affordable housing obligation very broadly the first one is what's referred to as your Rehabilitation obligation sometimes referred to as your present need but it's basically the it's an estimate to one based on Census Data of what is the number of substandards units in the burrow that are also occupied by low and moderate income households um the second component is referred to as a new construction obligation because it's typically satisfied through new affordable housing units rather than through rehabilitating like the rehabilitation program now this resolution only needs to address your Rehabilitation obligation and your fourth round affordable housing obligation because we have a first round a second round and a third round those have all been satisfied um and I'll address them in the housing plan but there's nothing to do with those right now it's just participating in the fourth round so you're going to identify that fourth round new construction obligation only now in the new Fair Housing Act that was adopted earlier this year they set forth a general more than General but less less detailed than perhaps it could have been but a methodology for calculating these two different types of affordable housing obligations and then the legislation directed the new Jersey Department of Community Affairs to actually run those calculations on behalf of each municipality however uh the dca's work is not binding upon the municipality so every town I I think every town is going through the process of reviewing what DCA did and determining whether it's accurate or not and I've done that for you guys and the short story is I'm going to recommend that you don't deviate from what DCA said so with that little bit of background let me go through these two numbers for you you guys first uh starting with the rehabilitation that number is 74 units and so that means that looking at the Census Data uh the calculation results in there being or suggests that there are 74 housing units in Flemington that are substandard which might be um incomplete Plumbing or uh overcrowded so substandard and occupied by low and moderate income households I do not recommend that you deviate from the DCA number because of the way in which they set forth how that's supposed to be calculated that obligation is really quite prescriptive now that said if there are folks that think that 74 is too high for the Burrows housing stock we can do an adjustment to that later and that is specifically in phase two when we do your housing plan this is just did DCA calculate the number correctly my recommendation my findings are that yes they did and I recommend that the burrow uh site the 74 unit Rehabilitation obligation the second number or the second component is that fourth round new construction obligation that calculated number is 25 for the burrow and that number has been subject to a lot more scrutiny there's a lot more opportunity for interpretation and as I go through flemington's data each step that the DCA did there's really one part that is uh I think subject to interpretation and maybe poorly done by DCA and so in Flemington what that means is they have a number of properties or pieces of properties that are in the flood Hazard area that they've identified as as contributing towards the developable land in the burrow I personally think and professionally think that land in the flood Hazard area does not belong in a developable lands calculation however as I go through the data and start to eliminate all of your flood Hazard areas from this DCA calculation the resulting change to your obligation is absolutely nothing if I take out every single bit of flood Hazard area in the burrow your obligation remains at 25 and that is because quite frankly DCA did not identify a lot of uh vacant land in the community so you know uh 30% of a small number is still a very small number essentially and so as I rerun the calculation looking at lands to potentially eliminate your obligation remains at 25 as a result I don't recommend that you challenge or object to the DCA number just simply accept it because there's no there's simply no benefit to going through what would be a longer process to argue about the obligation so in closing I recommend that you adopt the resolution please adopt the resolution tonight so that you can participate in the process and maintain immunity from Builder remedy and that the resolutions cite a 74 unit Rehabilitation obligation and a 25 unit fourth round obligation anybody have any questions for Beth yeah not that it probably matters but the numbers are mixed up and conflicting in two spots in one space it says 25 units of present need and 25 units of perspective need in the resolution we can get that I'm sure we can get that fixed and perspective need is new construction correct yeah so they talk about yeah they refer to as new construction and it's the perspective obligation intended for what is going to be the fourth round from 2025 through 2035 Beth I just want to thank you on behalf of the B your leadership on this as you know I you know you've been giving reports to the fing board for probably 15 years I think on this and um it you always make it clear and it makes sense and I really thank you for your leadership my pleasure you guys are in very good shape for affordable housing so you really do make it easy this housing plan we'll talk about it as we get you know once we get into get past this January 31st deadline but I think this plan is going to be pretty straightforward and easier compared to what other municipalities have to contend with anybody else any other questions for Beth all good with passing this resolution well just uh to note that the minor discrepancy means to be right that would be part of the motion um all right bek you I don't know if you want to stick around for that or if you want to go but think good with it my pleasure if you guys don't need me I probably will sign off okay thanks everybody a couple more things in my report uh back assessor Ed Kerwin will be at the March 10th meeting do a presentation on the assessment of the buau and um and answer any questions that the council might have so Carla can you make sure that's on the agenda under presentations and uh I do want to appoint uh councilman La as police commissioner and also um place um council president Parker as AAS onto the finance department um that's it on my uh report uh so council members reports council member yeah um so just on HBC I really got too much we just had the nework meeting on the 15th uh application for construction of picket fence at 38 East Main Street was approved uh to be sent out and uh yeah committee's also focused on recruiting houses is not enough to have to and next meeting is on o 19th and that's my long uh yeah and thank you very much for the U your jobs looking forward to it again uh I'm gonna uh condense my report a little bit uh the fire department has a brand new Chief Rob skank and um if you don't mind Rob Rob fantastic yeah just uh I can express my gratitude to the council and to the community Through continued support of our organization uh we really appreciate it um if I can say one thing just the hardworking guys next door uh really proud to be their representative here tonight um they do an incredible job for our community um and so their efforts certainly deserve to be recognized um other than than that if anybody needs anything from me my email address is ch49 flamington fire.org um our human resources are our greatest asset they're also our greatest need so if you're interested in becoming part of the fingon fire department uh we do have applications on our website clington fire.org um if you have any questions again you can email me be happy to talk with anyone they have an interest so uh as councilman long spoke about we do have a new aerial coming this year I think that's the biggest thing we're going to Wisconsin next month to do the final inspection on that and yeah too B they don't build them in Hawaii nothing wrong with Wisconsin all right thanks um Rescue Squad I'm gonna have more to to report next time uh but since our previous meeting was strictly re reorganizational I did hold off some of the December numbers along with the 2024 uh stats just real quick uh the resue squad responded to 294 emergency calls during December 2024 of those 29550 were for the burrow uh 50 50 two uh 2024 totals um the rescue squad made 4,023 vehicle responses and that was up 6.10% compared to the previous year they made contct conted 358 patients that was up 4.4% compared to 2023 uh 2365 of those patients were transported to medical facilities by Squad ambulance is up 5% compared to the previous year last year volunteer members provided 13,000 uh 76 hours of Duty Crew time uh with their paid staff contributing an additional 20278 um I'll talk more about the community engagement where I'm kind of opening up just in the planning initial phases uh spring is my target uh looking to spring into action so to speak so I'll have more to say so stay tuned that's my report youart thank you um so uh I wanted to number one thank all of the employees that joined us on Saturday um you know off hours um on our Council Retreat really really appreciated all your time um specifically I wanted to thank uh Chief um for his really great explanation um to me and the rest of the Council on um just the procedures uh about how um the the concerns of the community um are being addressed when it comes to um um the federal government new immigration policies I guess for black of Veteran word um particularly um just the um it was just it was really clear and and I really appreciated your your feedback on that and I know that um you guys are going to be putting out some sort of statement um but I did want to um kind of reiterate that um what what made me feel better on Saturday was when you explained that there are protective laws in place in the state of New Jersey um that basically don't allow the federal government to um deputize local um hardworking uh you know um Law Enforcement Officers to do um to do anything that that uh we wouldn't want you you do um so we I really appreciate your leadership on that and looking forward to seeing that statement um and I want to also thank uh councilman um Aras for helping you know help you with that statement as well um and being involved in that process um number two uh our code enforcement officer Dave Giuliani is in the audience so we've had a lot of good conversations um one of the things Dave is going to be doing and he started as yesterday morning was send me a a summary of all the um the um statistics from his office so this is going to be new this year so um for the month of January um there were four four maintenance cases two Enforcement cases two opras and two sums more importantly um one of the concerns that Dave had and and I had certainly over the last couple weeks is how cold it's been um and that um it's really important that if your landlord is not providing you heat that you speak up um please you know we're days here to help and that's exactly the type of service that um we should be calling Upon Our landlords um in you know in particular there was um a building um last last week that was out of a heat for four or five days and it was freezing um and it just breaks my heart to know that people are suffering um please speak up and and say something and Dave can can help in that regard um by getting on your landlord you have the right to heat among other things um so the other thing that uh Dave and I spoke about uh the last couple weeks was um his goals to um uh kind of beef up our maintenance code um so he was nice enough to share that with me I'm still um reviewing it he's been very gracious answering lots of questions um and we'll go through that but I do want to just kind of uh let the council know that um that proposal will be coming down the pipe soon essentially um our maintenance code is is weak uh to say the least and um it could be certainly be better the state of New Jersey has its own maintenance code um and some M municipalities utilize that um other municipalities use What's called the ipmc international property maintenance code which is kind of written along the same lines as the IBC the the the construction code um that we use on a day-to-day basis so um I'm going to um work with Dave to make sure that happens because the more um uh kind of backup and teeth it has the better our you know the better our um our residents are are served obviously um and then finally I've got the an animal control report um I guess this was though for the month of December um uh and there was um one stray that was returned to owner one stray um that was impounded um and two um interactions with Wildlife one was a bite um between a bat and two cats that seems to be okay the cat seemed to be okay they were monitored and um one was another um a wildlife interactive with a person in a bat so apparently bats around town the did the bat attack the person you know I don't it wasn't clear it wasn't clear there was no no um you know there was nothing that was detected thank yes my first har I don't know I was too exciting ccil president Parker um I don't actually have a lot here I I will just say that tomorrow we're we're is our first um board board meeting for fct and there's a lot of emphasis of what's going to like restructuring up thatp um and a lot of focus on the businesses this year you know one of the things I had said is that my focus is going to really be on businesses and get them involved in the community and let them know that we're here and personally go around and introduce myself to um the businesses I actually have a agenda and I asked for the um did you send that by the way um okay I'll expect it tomorrow um the um all a list of all the businesses that I'm going to personally call um I'm probably going to ask excuse I'm going to ask um a team of us to go out and see them as well I just think it's very good I don't I think we just kind of like rely too much on other people to do it um so I'm going to work with that um I am I did meet with Jack cus um our redeveloper for the um Courthouse um laid down some rules um and how we're going to proceed as a team um and how we're going to get this done with no drama and no um everybody's up front everybody's got their cars on the table etc etc um just to put some structure into it and make sure that there's one rope One Direction you'll always hear me hit use that word because that that's sentence because that's what it is um and also I just want to thank the counil again my my fellow council members for unanimously voting me as president I'm very honored to do this I take this job very seriously I take it as a leadership as I do with any other thing that I do in leadership I don't see um personalities I don't see um the opinions and things like that what I do see is again one rope One Direction and make sure that we are a cohesive team um and that we are not uned but we are challenging so that's to me is my job here besides serving the public is to serve that I will also say that Jerry it was an absolute pleasure pleasure pleasure pleasure to get what we got um and I'm going to encourage you encourage you encourage you to keep running I'm going to encourage you guys have done such a great job I still want to do Jeremy will'll talk offline a lot more you know the community policing is extremely important especially now what's going on with the um immigration in a whole bit I think it's even more important if we can do that um and keep that up but again my my sincere congratulations on you have from here to here and exceeded my expectations so thank you for that and thank you for working with me I know we went through a bun Ru but we got there right um so thank you and the other thing is that one of the things I would like us to do is concentrate on on DPW because DPW does so freaking much I mean they're just an amazing group of U of men that I I've ever had the pleasure to actually work with um we do have something um we didn't get make the agenda and I forgot by the way um we do want to consider bringing I I think I reached out to everyone there is something on the table with on another person onto DPW they need it and I'm I reach out to all the council was kind of planet in your ear that that's something that we need to do and I it's it's our it's my bad because I thought that we didn't talk about it I we talked about it but we didn't talk about it the three of us okay so but but we'll get on the next one Mike um but the other thing I will tell you is so when you have uh DPW sent out a letter about the um the pipes in your home and whether they were copper or galvanized or whatever and they offer to they offer to come into your house to show you to tell you if they are and also they do this inspection with the sewer and the whole bed uh I got one of those letters so I I took them up on the offer and it was probably one of the best experiences if you really want to know what's going on in your house with your piping and your sewer and what's interfering and the trees and da d da you need to really take them off on their offer but that's only if you got the letter by the way I don't want to bombar um if you have that letter I'm going to ask you to take it very seriously because it can save you lots of money or it can cost you lots of money so I would ask you to be more to be proactive because where they run the camera from um Mike correct me if so they were in my basement and they opened up this St line yeah and they they put it in there they put it in there but they also give you they also give you the footage of it so they gave me a report and they gave me on on a um uh thank you yep um and sck they gave gave it to me so that I would have but it's also on their GIS map as well because it was not on their GS GS so they're trying to get the town map so they understand where things are flowing and what's what's what so we need to help them out with that as a community I didn't realize we had GIS capability about the DBW well we do um so so anyway that I would just say pay attention to that because that's really important in that but I have thank you thank you C yes um the library board met Friday January 17th in the middle of chaos here um we've established a new meeting schedule for the next year and we welcomed Erol Logan who we will all be voting on tonight in resolution 20 2530 for his formal appointment as the new director of our library um he's a absolutely delightful man and already at it and trying to uh get some things fixed that have been broken in the building for for a few years um planning board reorg was January 14th our next meeting is tomorrow the 28th um two really it's a late meeting scheduled tomorrow we have our resolution for preliminary and final site plan and subdivision approval with checklist waivers there are Ming and exceptions for Liberty Village finally so we're there um and that application was actually de to complete on November 26 we had two public hearings in December and so now here we go the second one is hearing for County Democratic committee uh 111 Main Street which I will be recusing myself from um and the zoning subcommittee will be picking back up in 2025 I know Council par where you are on on the the inputs for that already uh in order for us to do our work correctly um paring committee I think we were able to see tonight like how in depth we go and how much time has being put on this with everybody on there so I'm looking forward to continuing on that this year um and then finally just a big thank you to Public Works and to Emergency Management for all that you guys did during that time um my neighbors not everybody in the burrow knows me but my neighbors know know me very well they know in BL C was looking out no no it's it's the whole idea of so so I they know I care and I nothing but a lot of patience with our community so thank you very much thank you Mike and Mike I I know I spoke with you um that Friday just to thank you and um this said it earlier this is part of progress this is part of this rebuilding of this town we going to leave it better than it was before so thank you thank you C love thank you uh environmental commission will have its first meeting of the Year here in Bur Hall on Monday February 3D at 7M uh the mayor and I met for planning the newsletter and I am looking forward to working on that together with her well you can have it believe me I was happy to give you that thank you wish us wish us luck Shay Tre I unfortunately missed the first meeting uh but their second meeting of the year is on Wednesday February 12 at 7: p.m. um and I don't know if anybody recalls but last year we did briefly pass a resolution for shade tree to uh submit a community Forest management plan unfortunately that was not approved uh one of the requirements uh for the management plan is that they need I believe a full inventory of shade trees in the public right away which they will hopefully be submitting a grant for and I will hopefully have more details on that for our next meeting um as for schools the flyington riton Regional School District which is our pres School through 8th grade district will be having a special election on March 11th asking the voters to allow a 6% increase in their tax levy if you would like to learn more they have posted Town Halls including one that they held this evening um brochures and other documents with information about what the increase will pay for why they need it and more on their website I did want to say we yes we had our counselor's treat on Saturday and I just want to Echo the thank you to everybody half of them who are in this room who um came in at 8 am on a Saturday and uh helped explain their jobs and what they do and help us better understand as a council how this town works and of course I always love getting to visit all the burough infrastructure that's a lot of fun um and lastly I did just want to speak very briefly uh regarding ice increasing their activity or at least making it more public across the country and here in New Jersey and also the attempts to challenge basic constitutional rights like Birthright citizenship I know uh some residents are feeling uncertain or scared and I just want to say personally to the onethird of fton residents who are immigrants that regardless of their status regardless to how they got here you are residents of clington you contribute to our buau its economy its taxes definitely its food and culture and you are good for this borrow uh we were and always have been a nation of immigrants and flyington is a wonderful example of that today uh we cannot control federal policy but my focus is on this spor its residents who I am uh firmly committed to protecting and defending in whatever way I can and that's everything for our report thank you all right we're up to public comment session number one it is 9:25 I really don't want to take a break because we're gonna hopefully get through this fast anybody from the public it's 946 oh okay all right see nobody from the public uh approval of minutes um have a motion to approve the regular session of November 25 2024 move is there second second uh right am I doing all in favor Carla yes all in favor I and I have a motion to adop or approve the executive session of November 25 2024 long move second Park second all in favor I have a motion to approve the regular session of the December 9th 2024 minutes move is there a second Park a second all in favor I and a motion to approve executive session December 9 2024 all move second Mar second all favor I thank you you have one item under the consent agenda resolution 2025 29 authorizing the renewal of Taxi licenses for 2025 can I have a motion long move is there a second per second any discussion it's not money what I never do that on those I need a VOC councilman Arius yes councilwoman engart yes councilwoman faar yes Council 11 yes Council vice president long yes and council president Parker yes introduction of ordinances we have ordinance 20 25-01 first one of the year in ordinance amending chapters 1 and 11 municipal code to update references to forms and res again this is the will serve form can I have a motion to this got thank you um roll call please s councilman AR yes councilwoman nart yes counc yes councilman yes and Council vice president law yes council president work yes the public hearing I believe will be February 10th is that right yeah February 10th uh 2024 um 2025 I'm sorry the first time I've done that uh regular agenda resolution 20 25-30 resolution appointed Erol Logan second roll call please coun marus yes Council yes Council faar yes councilman L yes Council vice president long yes and council president yes resolution 202-31 resolution hiring Mike Simco as the backup operator for the flon burough order department and will move is there a second par a second any discussion roll call please councilman Arius yes councilwoman Englehart yes councilwoman faora yes Council yes Council vice president yes and council president Parker yes thank you resolution 2025 32 resolution approving a debt management policy there a motion to move is there a second s second any discussion further discussion roll call please councilman Arius yes councilwoman angart yes councilwoman faar yes councilman Le yes Council vice president long yes and council president Parker yes thank you resolution 25 best 33 resolution approving Sean Arington accumulated he Sor move there a second second any discussion roll call please councilman Arius yes Council angle yes counc yesc yes Council vice president yes and council president Parker yes resolution 2025 34 resolution awarding emergency waterme and repairs for Church Street and Main Street interception to MSP construction 19-b mining Road Flemington New Jersey 0882 in the amount of 17978 can I have a motion please Engle heart will move is there a second long second any discussion roll call please councilman orius yes councilwoman Englehart yes councilwoman faar yes councilman L yes Council Vice President W yes and council president Parker yes resolution 2025 35 resolution pursuant to the amended Fair Housing Act committing the B around for present and perspective need affordable housing obligation a motion can we go over this one yes I the motion as amended will move is there a second L will second okay so let's walk through those amended changes yeah some right Chris I'm I'm with you um whatever motion as amend motion as amend but she wants to get this sign out um so I think um see the whereas cuses F CCA DCA so first one would be under the two three four five six seven whereas Clause uh the DCA report calculat grow around four obligations as follow present need a rehabilitation object of 74 units that's correct and a prospective need or new construction obligation of 25 units that's correct um next one next page where is enlighted the above so the second where the bottom of page two whereas in light of the above the mayor B Council find that it is in the best interest the B decline sorry to declare its obligation in accordance with resolution it commits to its fair share of 74 units of present need and 25 units of prospective need so they just have to flip those numbers or or flip the names your choice I'll F the second again two of the therefor resolve I already have the motion Amed it all clarified so paragraph number two under n therefore be revolved the bur hereby commits to round for do need obligation of of uh 25 units no no this is right she just changed the name presid need obligation is fine of 74 that paragraph's right and perspec need 2 yes okay so you could sign this page presid need and and Rehabilitation are the same thing under but I'm just saying you could sign this page now I could tomorrow do that and then I'll just fix page two and I okay yeah only P correct okay I councilman Aras yes councilwoman anle har yes councilwoman yes councilman love yes Council vice president long yes and council president par yes thank you we have no work public comments session number two anybody from the public or online I'm gonna come really quickly and just give good news I still have good news which is that um we robus FCP um we have five new businesses that have asked us about sign grants so that's really good news we have uh bidos which is opening uh on Main Street which used to be the Democrat headquarters there's going to be a retail shop there that is um owned by Norma Ryan who's on our board and also owns ashaan so we're stord MOS what's they came in today yeah um so we're seeing the needle move but when is it going to be she oh I'm sorry I didn't hear you um it is going to be retail and clothing and jewelry and accessories and Gifts okay so clothing jewelry yes okay and U she sells a lot of that stuff in her salon so she wanted to have her own retail shop and they bought that building and it's it's great it's another uh business that started renting in Flemington and has been able to buy properties um and develop new businesses so we're excited about that The Groovy Collective is a new shop moving into the La Petite roell shop um which we're sad to see go but this is a great uh transition that I think will bring a lot of energy the woman who owns the shop is Young she's got a lot of energy and I think what kind of shop it's um vintage secondhand clothing and accessories from the 60s 7s and the 80s in addition there's a new chocolate shop chocolate and coffee yes it's coming to Dave Hay's uh wonderful space between uh River Valley realy and uh Dave's ctis and hay Title Lending company directly location chocolate coffee store very excited open not yet they're just they just got in there today and we haven't met yet but we're meeting soon but this is this is the good news section um we also red vanilla has been sold and a market is moving into red vanilla um there may be several markets that move in but but uh we're of the understanding that the Latino miniart is moving into that location and there's space for additional markets but he's already in there giving a lot of information days um he's already they're they're in there uh cleaning it out um there's also a uh and clearly Millie is working really hard um and their story their story of their construction process has been really great um in addition there have been a number of office buildings that have sold in the last two months to uh one person including 151 Main Street um and our barn where we store everything has also been sold so there's new owners and a lot of there's a lot of movement um which really excited to to see and uh some you know we we've had a better time getting some of our businesses approved through zoning we've had a much easier time getting signs um through to completion so it's a positive it's a positive change and a positive message and then I just have to say thank you to the police because uh I walked I stopped to ask if one of the signs that was saying that there wasn't any through traffic could say only local traffic and we made it work and uh we're happy to where we can purchase some new signs to give to make it seemless uh to say that businesses are open during construction because this is such a long Hall of construction I know that some signage is legally bound and had to to be um authorized at the beginning of the project but I think there's other things we can do but thank you for being so helpful I did spend morning with the DPW trying to remove Christmas um and they were they are fabulous to remove it's time for us to remove Christmas um but you know they they they're so helpful to me and to us into the FCP I don't think anyone really realizes how much stuff we move around town and um it's all back going back in the barn and we had a great holiday season but I really appreciate the teamwork and that's it thank you thank you right um anybody else from the public none authorizing payment bills in the amount of 6,468 4338 can I have a motion please is there a second second roll call please who was first me okay councilman AR yes councilwoman aart yes councilwoman Saar Safar president yes president yes we have an exec session tonight under Public Safety can I have a motion to move into the session there will be no business taken afterward no action taken after the session yes I need a motion first motion second and second all in favor I we'll take a break for based on that clock we'll take a break till 10 o' B Hall long time okay we're back in Open session there's no additional business um have a motion to adjourn