All right, we're recording and we're live on YouTube. Welcome everybody. If I could ask everybody to please stand for a moment of silence and salute to the flag. I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice with Adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the Union County Hawk and advertised on December 26, 2024. Notification was sent to the local
source Union County and is posted on the municipal website, the municipal public bulletin board and filed in the office of the municipal clerk informing the public of the time and place according to the provisions of the open public meeting law chapter 241 PL1975.
Uh, Miss Vasquez is uh out tonight. So, we do have Mr. Arthur filling in. Uh, Mr. Arthur, roll call, please. Sock here. Council Roto here. Councilman Foley. Councilman Conne here. Councilman Lazero here. Councilman Padis here.
Council President here. Oh, roll call of staff and professionals, please. I am here. Um, Avenue here. Uh, chief of police, Chief Bridey. Okay. Thank you. Um, so we have a couple
of special things going on tonight before we get to our regular business. Uh first off, and this is very special um to me for a couple of different reasons,
but I have the honor of presenting a community spirit award. Uh those of you may know I try to give a a spirit award twice a year um to a deserving resident who has shown uh the small town big
heart spirit. Um, and this spring we it actually kind of came to me this this person uh the idea of presenting the community spirit award because she participated in uh the poetry festival
that GPAC had back in the spring and read a poem. Um, and when I tell you that everybody was floored sitting in the audience, I mean it. There were people crying. Um, it just really hit
everybody's heartstrings and I sat there and went, "Oh my gosh, this this poem was just incredible." Um, and it really spoke to me about Garwood. And so I thought, you know what? Not only do I
want to present a community spirit award uh to Miss Sheila Morera, but I want to have a really fun time as mayor and create an official poem for Garwood. I can do that. I can make that a thing.
And I said, you know what? I'm going to do it because this poem really just struck me. Um, and uh, it deserves to be honored and the the spirit behind it deserves to be honored. So, um, right now I would like to ask Miss Morera to
join me up here. This is also kind of special to me because I actually grew up across the street from Sheila um with her sisters and my sister and brother. We kind of grew up uh uh and her brother as well.
Um who's here. Good to see you. Um we grew up across the street from each other. Uh right near Henley School in Clark. So it's very special. Um, but before we move a little further, I just want to read the community spirit award and it gives you a little idea of who
Sheila is. So, Sheila Morera has been a proud Garwood resident since 2012. Sheila and her husband Keith love calling Garwood their home and raising their 17-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter here. Sheila serves as a
nonprofit lawyer managing immigration services at International Rescue Committee's New Jersey office. Sheila studied English at the College of New Jersey, political science, and American studies at Rucker Graduate School and received a law degree at American
University. Sheila loves reading, running, and can often be found attending live music concerts. Sheila participated in the Garwood Partnership for Art and Culture second annual poetry festival on April 26, 2025.
Sheila's poem, I wish for all my neighbors, struck accord with all participants as it describes the closeness of community, the joy of living in our small town and good wishes for our neighbors. Sheila embodies our burrow motto, a small town with a big
heart for embracing her neighbors through her poetry. And we acknowledge I wish for all my neighbors as Garwood's official poem. It is with great pleasure that I, Mayor Jen Blumentock, acknowledge and thank Sheila Morera for her true community spirit.
Sheila, along with the uh award here, our community spirit uh recipients also receive a little special something. Uh you can keep this in your house. This is the Aolon factory castle that you see on North Avenue and it's a drawing made by
uh a resident uh the late Bill Connelly. And uh we give this to every uh one of our recipients as a little something special to remember Garwood. Yeah. I'll let you Okay. So, and then after Sheila speaks, we are
going to be treated with a poetry reading. Thank you so much. Um, thank you so much for for liking the poem. It's um just uh really emotional. Um, if I could just
say a quick thing, um, I've been really enjoying the graduation season lately. I love it every year, but I I I love it this year. And it's just been it's always really fun to watch, um, neighbors, friends, families, kids uh, reach their milestones and start new
chapters. And it's just really beautiful to see how much the kids have grown, whether they're graduating from kindergarten or Lincoln school like uh Craig and Feliciana here, uh from the high schools, from uh college. Um it's always just like a a joy to see um how
like fun, how excited the kids are, how happy the parents are, and it's been making me um reminisce and remember my own high school. I graduated from ALJ uh in Clark 93 and they had asked me to write a poem for that graduation um and
I got to read it to my class for commencement which was also a huge honor just just like this. I kind of see the the parallels um of the two moments. But I remember during that um graduation feeling really happy for everybody, really um excited um and being uh like
super excited to to leave Clark and explore and see the world. And I got was very fortunate that we were able to do that. We've lived in different places, California, Washington DC, uh we've lived in Hoboken, but when it was time to start a family, my husband and I felt the pull to come back here to our
hometown area um because we wanted to come back to our roots. And choosing Garwood and starting a family here and building a life here was like the best decision that we ever made for that reason because we got to give our kids the kind of childhood that we wanted for them and they've been living their best
lives on a daily basis. Um, ever since uh the kind of life that we have here, we just feel super like supported by everyone in small ways and big ways. One day I forgot to lock my front door and my the wind blew it open and our uh
mailman found me online and made sure I was okay cuz he thought it was weird and closed the door for me. So that's Xavier. Uh, one day my daughter was like walking down the street past the um past the crossing guards and found herself on like the wrong side of Center Street and she called me. I couldn't come get her.
She was little then. Uh, and I texted a neighbor and Mrs. Pinichi within like 30 seconds was out her front door stopping traffic so my daughter could cross the street. And that's the kind of town this is. I just feel like how lucky are we uh that we that we get to live here. So, my
parents always said, "You don't have to be best friends with your neighbors, but you do have to look out for them, and we all have to have each other's backs." And um I think that's what we have in Garwood. And I just truly feel like I want the best for everybody. And that was the inspiration for the poem. So,
I'll read it. Thank you. All right. I wish for all my neighbors. Homes that flicker through dark block grids with the kinds of soft lights that fill winter rooms with cozy, carefree yawns, or summer yards with friendly
fire pit chatter. Unrushed and overnourished mornings, slow sips of coffee that stir awake the joys of gentle nows. Kitchens brimming with aromomas tendered as rewards for the hard work of regular days.
Sounds of kids giggling, saying nonsense phrases rendered meaningful by innocence and angst. The familiar feel of just outside the door. That fresh and quiet blue sky air on days that are so aggressively pleasant. You feel grateful
to be alive in a town with lawns and fences and flowers. The solace of having the people you love be okay. The sweetness of it all, this precious life. I wish for all my neighbors comfort, safety, and peace. I wish for all my
neighbors to be okay. Thank you so much. And I I just want to let you know, Sheila, we will be we have framed your your poem. We will be putting putting it up here in Burough Hall. Um we're just waiting on the little plaque for it. Um
but it will forever be here as the official poem of Garwood. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So, now we have another special uh event and some some special people to honor. Um, some of you may have noticed
that the little mailbox on Center Street by the post office that collects old flags was dis it disappeared for a little while. Um, that was because uh the builder's club at Lincoln School offered to repaint it. It it hadn't been
uh touched up in a very long time. and the Builder's Club kids, which is a Kowanas Club uh affiliate with middle school, right? There's the Kowanas Club for adults, Key Club for high school, and then Builder's Club in middle school. Uh they offered
to paint it and then we we restored it back to its original location so you can drop off your old flags there again. Uh and Mrs. Rosen Bloom. Michelle Rosen Bloom of Lincoln School is here to help me honor some of the children who helped uh paint the box. So, if you'll come up
here, Mrs. Rosen Bloom, and thank you for all of your hard work. I want to admit Mrs. Rosen Bloom does a great job with the builder club. She's come to our senior club meetings um and had the kids uh play games with the seniors. We're
always looking for ways to interact. I know you've done a lot with the um pantry, food pantry at St. An's as well. They do a lot of great stuff in the town and that's that is due to you. So, thank you. We have a few kids here. A lot of the kids couldn't make it, but they do have
certificates I we'll be sending home with Mrs. Rosen Bloom to take to them. But I want to call up Do you want to call them up? Uh you know what? I'll just read this. that says, "With sincere gratitude, we thank you for your patriotism,
dedication, and tireless efforts in restoring the flag donation box in partnership with the Lincoln School Builders Club. Your contribution reflects a true spirit of service and helps make our world a better place." So, thank you guys.
All right, Feliciana. Okay, Craig. Hers. Okay. Kennedy Mcnelis and Emma Willix. Hi, hold up your system. We're here for one photo. Thank you so much. I know that bugs me, right? I know. We
got to We got to find a different system. Thank you everybody. Kids, I know you don't want to stick around. You are welcome to go. But thank you again for your ad flag box. It looks terrific. Thank you. And thank you to the
family for coming. And uh congratulations again, Sheila. Okay, we will keep going with the report from our burough attorney. Nothing new. Okay, report from our bur
administrator. Uh yes. So, uh you can see tonight we're introducing the ordinance that we spoke about last time regarding um alcohol consumption in restaurants on Sundays. Last time we had mentioned just a 7 a.m. start, but this has now been changed to a 9:00 a.m. start. Um, Gwood's new code enforcement
rental property administrator is scheduled to begin on Monday, June 30th. And now that we're through the estoppel period for our multi-purpose bond that we recently did, you're going to see a lot of those projects from that bond starting some resolutions um approving those items from that bond in the in the
next couple meetings. We've already some of the smaller purchases we've already placed the orders and we've got gotten them going. So that's it for my report. Okay. Um at this point I actually want to ask um before I give my report chief
pride to come up. Um you can see there is a resolution. Let's see number what number is it? 140 25-140
um with the uh body cameras and um Chief Pridey uh I just wanted him to come up and explain some of the um council members who aren't on the police committee um just a little bit about what this is uh because um he has done a
really I think a really good job of saving the burrow money which we all love to hear. Um, so if Chief Pridey, if you could just give a sort of a a quick summary of what that resolution is doing, um, and and let everybody know.
Sure. So, this is Axon. Axon is the company that we use our body cameras. Um, there's pretty much only two other companies, Motorola and I think it's Watchdog. I talked to all the other chiefs in the county. Everybody's completely unhappy with customer service, quality, the cameras don't work
when they're supposed to. Axon has great reliability. um we didn't go seeking this contract. We had to add another license which is about $3,500 at the year for for an additional license. So they looked at we currently have three different contracts with them. They
figured that we could probably bundle this and in the long run save a lot of money. So what this is does is it adds to what we already have. Um we have Axon draft which helps with the report part. Axon translate which recognizes over a
100 languages. Um because not every not every officer speaks at 100 languages. It'll be flexible. There's even been times throughout the county calling Cranford, Westfield, Clark, the county police. We can't even get somebody to help translate. So this has live
translation and it also transcribes it for later use. Um so that that's huge. The also redaction assistant right now are detected when an open request comes in which more and more come in every day. He has to go frame by frame to he has to go frame by
frame and blur out sensitive information whether it's a driver's license, a child, if it's a medical, you know, something medical scene and stuff like that. This is going to be able to speed that up. You know, it's it's not even like believable how fast it speeds it up
because right now, say the officer on scene takes somebody's driver's license, he blurs it out. If the officer moves a little bit, it comes up in the camera. He has to do it again frame by frame by frame. this you'll be able to highlight it and does it immediately and he goes through all that. Um so all these and
also a policy chat which we upload all of our policies anytime an officer supervisor has a question instead of logging in to you know three different passwords and this and that they'll get the answer immediately on what our policies are for every everything that
we do. Um, all of this goes it so th this program unbundled comes out to1,60,643. The initial after the initial negotiation negotiations we got them down to and previous chief doer started
this um I just finished it. He got them down to $721,999. Wow. I was able to do some more negotiating with them and tons of meetings we've had. We got it down to $588,000 and 30 $588,326
spread out for 10 for 10 years. Axon every January if you don't have a contract with them, they raise their prices 6 to8%. Um, plus the additional three uh $3,500 plus we have to buy another camera. this contract along with everything that we get their technology for the next 10
years we're eligible for. We get brand new body cameras every 30 months. We get all the docking stations. We get the clips to put it on your um on your body vest, the chargers. You name it, we have it. The We will have it every 30 months. Whether a new camera comes out or not,
we just they just ship you out new cameras along with extra ones in case something does happen to that. We're not waiting days or weeks or months. Um, so that's a huge thing. We also have an unlimited warranty with them. If it breaks, they send us a new one. The guy
went so far as saying if so you sp you get ketchup on your camera, call them. You said it still smells like ketchup, they'll send you a brand new one. Like no questions asked. Um, so that that's big. The one of the biggest things is our is our storage. Our storage right now is capped and the previous chief has
had to go back and change all the redaction time frames. Right now we do the bare minimum what the state recommends and that runs into issues. Sometimes no request comes in we don't have it. Now the initial negotiation they were going to give us 10 I don't I don't know about
this technology stuff but 10 terabytes. I don't know if that's a lot or little but um now we're going to have unlimited for for 10 years. We'll be locked into that for 10 years. We have unlimited data which is also huge because we also have a program where it's called um community
request. If somebody's a victim of a crime or they're a witness, instead of them coming in and downloading this and sending them a link, we literally just say, "Hey, what's your phone number? What's easier for you? Phone number, email." We go on our phone super the department issue phone. This supervisor has one. And you just send them a link.
They literally click two things. Whatever video pictures, it goes right into our cloud database. It links it right to the case. This way, the detective or anybody else needs to view it. We have we also send stuff to the prosecutor's office. um it goes directly to them and it's already labeled and
properly so we're not going to lose it. Um that that that's a huge thing. Um we were getting a credit of of $1,400 also by signing this contract and just the other day I was I was able to get them down to they took off another $9,77825
for our 2025 payment. Um just if just because we've been working on this for so long. I expressed to them that, you know, this is a big ask. I've only been the chief for 25 days and I was like, "Dude, you want me to go in there and ask for a million dollars?" Like, that's
pretty crazy. Like, I was like, "You have to work with me." And then even the numbers he came back with, like, "This is absolutely their bottom price. It's going to lock us in for 10 years. We're going to get amazing technology that's going to help the officers do their jobs." Um, the translate alone is huge. We've had the last three three big
things that we've had, the victim only spoke Spanish. We had to use a security guard in the hospital. Like that's not that that's bad for a victim. Like, you know, imagine telling your story. You're the victim of a crime and you have to translate it back and forth. Um, another job that we had, the three people only
spoke Georgian. Like there's nobody that could call that speaks Georgian. Like we have a language line which we pay for if every time you use it. And then you have to do it only in dispatch the phone works to call language line. So we would have to be unsafe bring prisoners into
dispatch and talk to them on a on a speaker phone. Um all this everything is governed. We don't just when whenever we get new technology we don't just roll it out. We especially now that we're accredited we come up with an SOP for it. We give out a training. We have to
send it to the accreditation company. They approve it, make changes and then they give it to us. We don't release it until the officers complete the training that we assign them from Axon or any anything that we get and they sign off
on it saying that they understand they know how to operate it that there's no questions asked. So it's not, you know, we don't just get something and we're like, "Hey, figure this out. Go use it." Everything everything is goes through multiple steps of authentication and training before anything. like this axon
drift. We've had it I think we had it we got it in January. We literally just launched it probably three weeks ago due to accreditation and the SOPs and to make sure that itself date and everybody's using it the proper way. Thank
you. I appreciate it. Um when the chief came to me with it, I I mean to me it's a sort of a a win-win. um we get a lot of new functionality and he was able to really negotiate an immense savings on this technology. So
um I just wanted to put it out there so both other council members who weren't in on the committee and also the public would know what that was when they saw it on the agenda on paper. Um like our payment in November is $20,000 but we that's
because I got the $9,000 $9,800 off and our normal yearly payment it's around $43,000 because we already made other payments. So we're not going from 20 63 we're going from 43 which we had ahead of the license of another $3,500. So
about almost 47 47,000. What is going up? But we also did that. They weren't able to spread it out 10 years ago. We already budgeted to pay, right? That's a a good note um to for everybody. It's already in the that
amount is already budgeted. So, it's not anything we're adding on for this year. Okay. Anybody have any questions for the chief? I know committee has been at this for a while, so Okay. Thank you, Chief. I appreciate it.
All right, I have a report for everybody. Um, bless you. Uh, I hope everybody's doing okay after the blistering heatwave that we had. Um, I know so many residents were without power for a long time on
Tuesday going into Wednesday morning. Um the police keep up to date during these outages with PSENG uh and get estimates for the power return, but again when it's widespread like this was their estimates they're subject to change as
we saw that day when the timing for power restoration kept getting pushed back. Um but I want to thank the PD for continually checking on our seniors in need during the outage. Uh Burrow Hall is a designated cooling station. So, while I hope there's no need for a
future occurrence, uh please know that anyone can come here to cool off when they need, this was the first time, I believe in my tenure that the power was off for so long during such an incredible heatwave. So, it did bring something to my attention that hadn't
come up before. Uh while service dogs are of course allowed in the municipal building, pets are obviously not allowed, which can be a problem in the intense heat wave we had. Uh there is a lot on the reasoning side as to why pets wouldn't be allowed here. Uh including
the fact that we're not qualified to be considered a shelter. Uh and of course there could be various liability. But I would like to ask the police committee to just take a look at this. There may be something we can do perhaps some policy we can put in place um or
even it may come down to somebody somewhere we can partner with that can allow pets should something like this happen again. So, I know it's not going to be a quick easy answer. I don't have one, but I'd like to start looking into this. So, I'd like to refer this over uh Councilman Carney to police for their
next meeting to begin discussions on it. Uh absolutely. We'll take it up in our next meeting. Thank you. Okay. So, we had some great events uh the past couple weeks here in Garwood. This past Saturday, Safer Streets Day saw a lot of residents, both adults and kids, come
out to help paint the curb bumpouts along with Easy Ride volunteers who helped guide the project. All of the materials were provided by NJTPA through their demo library grant. Uh, thank you to everybody who participated, including fellow council members as well as our B
bar b bar bur administrator, John Arthur. It's not often you get a bar administrator who comes out in the 90°ree heat to volunteer his time to paint the street. So, that was pretty incredible. Thank you. Um, everybody braved those hot temps and it was very
much appreciated. I think the end result is not only a helpful measure for slowing cars, but it definitely looks pretty beautiful in our downtown. Um, our police also need a big thanks as they were out there keeping our streets safe for us and also promoting bike helmets, giving out coupons to the kids
who biked uh who biked by or came to help out. Garwood's businesses were also an important part of the day with Lidle providing juices and breakfast pastries and Lorenzo's providing the group pizza following the event. So, all in all, thank you. A fantastic community effort.
The week before Garwood celebrated Pride in conjunction with the public library, New York Times best-selling author Rob Pearlman read from one of his children's books. Arts and crafts were made and a lot of Pride snacks were shared. Um, though the rain didn't allow for Chalk
the Walk, we still had a fun celebration and I want to thank librarian Maryanne Duffy for putting helping put the event together with us. As we close out June, I want to congratulate both the eighth grade class of Lincoln School and the seniors at Arthur El Johnson High School and the
Union County Magnet High School on their graduation. Uh it was a special time for me with CC graduating Lincoln School and uh my niece and nephew graduating ALJ. Uh but they all deserve a great celebration for all their hard work as do all their teachers who we thank for
another great year. Last week, the Raran Valley Line Mayor's Alliance met with New Jersey Transit and Amtrak to discuss progress on the Gateway project. Uh phase one, which includes the Portal North Bridge and the
Hudson Tunnel project, is underway and funding for that phase is complete. However, phase two, which includes several bridge repairs, the Hunter flyover and expansion of Penn Station, which all need to be done for any real
resulting progress to our line to happen, still doesn't have the funding. Uh, our state and federal counterparts were represented at this meeting and we asked them to head back to DC and Trenton to lobby on our behalf. And as you can see in our consent agenda, the
federal government is now looking to decrease funding below where it currently sits for the Northeast Corridor on Amtrak. I hope the council will support me in voting for this resolution to urge Congress to bring the Northeast Court of Funding back and then to also continue
to urge our federal representatives to help fund phase two of Gateway. Any real chance in obtaining one seat rides on the RVL and improving our residents commute needs all of these necessary pieces to be in place and decreasing current funding is as we can see with
this heat just a disaster waiting to happen. Um I mentioned earlier that the police have been promoting bike helmets by giving out coupons. So I just wanted to remind everyone that anyone under 17 must wear one by law. And I also wanted
to discuss ebikes and e- scooters. Uh most of the ebikes and e- scooters you're seeing are class one and two and they are held to the same laws as bicycles. They are covered under title 39 of state law. Um they're not allowed on the sidewalks. Helmets for those
under 17 must be worn and they have a speed limit of 20 miles per hour. They also have to yield to pedestrians in the same ways as regular bikes. So, I ask that parents go over these rules with their kids, whether they're using regular bikes or ebikes, uh, and make
sure that they understand that our police officers are watching to see if they're in violation. Our police officers can issue a summon to parents if the person on the vehicle doesn't have a license. Now, obviously, we don't want it to get that far, so please make
sure to talk to the kids about their speed on the ebikes. Uh that is it for me. We will move on to comments from the council. Councilwoman Bodto.
Thank you, mayor. Um just a congratulations to Miss Jac's poetry. Um it really embodied our community. It's also full circle for me because when my daughter was babysitting in Garwood, um apparently she used to
babysit her kids. I had Dia until um she read the poem and she you know she heard my last name and I think it's one of the reasons why my daughter went to law school. She would come home and she would say you know these parents are so good. They're so good with their kids. Um and yeah, so
you know she's always been nice. So it it was really really good um to have her share that feeling of our community. So I'm I'm I'm really glad that that you you thought of that. Um, also congratulations to the Lincoln School Lucas Club and thank you for all the
work that they did. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Foley. I just want to wish God a happy fourth and uh have a safe holiday. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Carney. Uh, thank you, Mayor. Uh, I'm going to frontload my police committee report here tonight.
Uh, since there's a few things I want to highlight before we proceed with the rest of the agenda. Uh, and I'm also going to be looking for a bit of council feedback on uh one item that we discussed in committee because as you highlighted before that's only half of us. So, um, first up is uh we have
ordinance 25-20 on for intro tonight which uh Mr. Arthur mentioned. Um, we discussed this uh earlier this week in the police committee. Uh the committee would agree to adjust the model language uh provided with uh the mayor's referral to us to a uh 9:00 a.m. start time,
which is in line with most of our surrounding towns, uh regarding the Sunday sale of alcoholic beverages. Uh the ordinance is recommended unanimously by the police committee, and I'm requesting full council support tonight. Uh we also discussed and reviewed the
Axon contract the uh chief just presented us on. Uh resolution 25-140 is recommended out of the police committee. Uh the chief is also working with us to assess the paid parking program as we're about a year into it. Uh we'll be looking at the program over our summer
committee meetings. Uh and we'll see if any changes are recommended by what the data is showing us or what the police are are are finding as uh they're using it. Uh the committee had an extensive discussion on traffic safety. Uh much of it was specific to the intersection of
Spruce and West. Uh I had multiple uh residents from uh the 400 and 500 blocks reach out to me and I know uh I believe you did as well. Had somebody reach out to you may there. Um uh so working with the chief uh we'll be
uh adding a uh dangerous intersection signage on uh some of the approaches. Uh and officers have been assigned to uh directed and enhanced enforcement in that area. Uh we're also continuing discussion on additional traffic calming measures uh included but not limited to
rumble strips, a four-way stop, and the uh sight lines of the intersections. Um I do want to touch on the uh on the four-way stop uh as this is something that requires a lot of data and uh evidence of crashes for the state DOT to
approve it. Uh so while it's not off the table, uh we would be a while away from what we would need to make that happen if uh the council decided to go that way. Um for uh what I want to discuss with the uh rest of the council that
wasn't in our committee meeting is uh the sighteline suggestion. So um those of us that were up here a couple of years ago remember when we made some sight line adjustments to an intersection on the north side. Um some of the residents I spoke to and we also
uh had this anecdotally in committee uh talk so a sighteline is for if people understand what I'm talking about is just the uh yellow boxes for the no parking as you approach intersections. Um there's a statutory minimum which we
meet everywhere but uh you can extend that further by by ordinance. Um so the uh the conversation we had in committee centered around the balancing between uh potentially doing that and it has the possibility to affect uh residential
parking where you may lose a space or two in certain areas which I'm not personally opposed to but um it is something that we should consider um as we're looking at like more of a holistic solution for this. So, um I think
generally we supported the idea in uh in committee and um I spoke to my two colleagues about uh potentially going out uh onto the, you know, uh houses immediately adjacent to that intersection, knocking the doors and and having a conversation about it with
folks to see how they felt since they're the ones who'd be most affected by it. But I'm curious what the rest of the council thinks about uh the concept. Um with that being with the uh sight lines, if you get a bigger vehicle parked there, uh you could have someone even if they've come to a complete stop and they
didn't do the traditional jersey roll through the stop sign uh on on West facing Spruce. Um where they might have to creep out and kind of nose into the intersection. And um there's a really good chance of getting hit at that point because the person approaching is coming
at uh 25 mph minimally if they're following the speed limit and they're not going to have time to react to you. So pushing back those sight lines could have a benefit and I'm just curious what uh the rest of the council thinks about it. We're going to continue to discuss
it in committee and I'm going to do some followup in that neighborhood. But uh if that's all right with you, Mayor. Uh yeah, let's um open it up. I I would suggest a more comprehensive look at all of our sight lines. Um because I do find
that uh crossing Center Street um it's the sighteline isn't sufficient to really see the traffic uh that you're pulling into. Um and West Street of is another example of that. But I think that there are probably if we were to make an ordinance, I I think we should
really try to look at all of the sight line adjustments that should be made and just, you know, just do them all in one in one go. So, um I just I I would like to remind council um that we are going
to be undertaking a circulation element study. Uh I think the RFP went out this week. Yes, it was posted on some on Monday. Yeah. So, that should help with this uh taking a look at, you know, sort of the holistic look at the entire town.
Um and it's obviously something we can specifically ask the planner that ends up doing this to really look at and hone in on um different intersection sight lines uh for their recommendations. So, and I'm I'm definitely willing to take a look at it in committee. I know a lot of
our uh intersections are set to the statutory minimum. Um and that may be sufficient or may not depending on the intersection. I think the circulation study is going to give us some some actual data we can crunch on that. Um and also I didn't I have one more thing
for my report about the urban SDK program we've been discussing that will give the police the opportunity to again have another data set that we can really look at from like that thousandm overview. Um, and then if you have a list of anecdotal ones you want us to look at, I
I'll just drop me an email and we'll we'll discuss in our next committee meeting. Councilman. Yeah. So, I questions and I do have like defined thoughts on this topic. One is, you know, improving the
sight lines to me seems obviously beneficial for reducing traffic accidents. The question I would have is is all any of these places do we actually have data to show that we actually do have more traffic accidents I guess than the
average you know space or is there some metric of some sort or statistic of some sort that is used to determine when it's appropriate to let's say extend the sight lines. My second question would be, you know, obviously if that's
one of the issues obviously is is is to improve traffic safety, but also I think another issue that I think a lot of residents complain about is speeding. Does improving sight lines affect, you know, speeding at at all? I guess is a
question. And because I I didn't mention four-way stop signs, I'm not sure about obviously they could be done in collaboration or not. And and then I guess my other question would be um you know, how do four-way stop signs affect um traffic safety? Because I you know,
one thing that I was thinking about is uh because I I I'm very fortunate in my commute. I have like a 3minut commute, but uh my commute suddenly into Westfield um has this four-way stop sign. And I have to be honest with you, people don't understand how to use a
four-way stop sign. That's my personal experience. I'm not saying there's anything necessarily wrong with the four-way stop sign, but my anecdotal experience is like people struggle with the four-way stop sign a lot. So, I'm not sure if that really is the answer
for safety or speeding or not. Um, I just have a lot of questions like what, you know, what is the best way? always felt like at least the rumble strips seem to be the least invasive way to try to slow down people. Um, but yeah, I
mean I don't really have a really strong opinion, just a lot of questions. To talk about some of the chief, do you mind? Because I know we we just actually were sitting with a resident and spoke about rumble strips going that way might
not be the answer be because they're not leading to a stop sign because we already have them at the spot. Yeah. just for when it comes to the rumble strips when if you're slowing down it's a lot less noisy. So we don't have any complaints that it's making so much noise. But if you're traveling at a
constant speed, even if it is the speed limit 25, you're going to hear that a lot more. So all night long, especially in the night when it's quieter, you know, the residents are going to hear like it it's on the highways like they just put them in on 287 and when you
drive there it's like you feel it. So, um I people might slow down, but I think you're going to get a lot of complaints from and similarly like I know everybody jumps sometimes to speed bumps, but they're great unless they're in front of
your house. So, um you you you get a lot of complaints right in front about the the noise and everything. So, um it's it's not necessarily the go-to. And similarly with the four-way stop, I that was something we were discussing. If
it's if it's not if they're not stopping at the stop signs right now and we have the blinking stop signs on those two sides, what makes us think they're going to stop at, you know, by adding more? Like is it really the what is the real
issue here? So, it's a lot of discussion that we need to have on this because one of the people that raised the concern, they said it's not a speeding issue, it's a stopping issue. So, like the mayor said, if they're already not stopping, is adding more stop signs going to make them stop? Like, and you
know, and the stopping is is west. It's not spruce. Yes. There's been a few accidents I know that I've been on there where the person did stop and then they started to go and they t-boned the car that had the right away that wasn't speeding and the person did stop. So,
which is what led us to the sighteline discussion of did did the person obviously people aren't going to be happy that they're losing parking but the it'll give you more it might work give you more time to see last street you're talking uh no on spruce so that
the car is coming so the car stopping if you look to the left you can see further down the road instead of like I think it's 50 feet now over there on those those intersections so so you talking about backing up that that yellow box on Spruce a little further, which may cost
uh a parking space or two, depending on which approach we're talking about. Um, and again, I'm I'm I'm willing to take the eye of the of of those folks if it improves the safety if it's necessary and and you know, the the data is supporting it. And again, we are going
to have this circulation element, too. But uh a lot of what I was trying to do in in committee here was just we had a number of residents reach out to us and we wanted to give it a real solid look and and uh provide a little feedback and then also the the chief was willing to
work with us on uh utilizing some of his signage budget as just like the the first step in in uh addressing it. Um and then you had asked about uh if there's more crashes at that intersection than others. I I didn't get that impression from from our
discussion, Chief. But I don't really believe that that's the case. I don't think we have the data to, you know, make make major alterations to that intersection because there are accidents, but and of course, if you live there, it seems a lot worse. But there's for as long as I've been here, I
there's maybe been 10 to 15 accidents in that intersection. There's more at South and East. There's more, you know, maybe Pine and East be where there's stop signs. I I don't uh but I think we could take the first steps of getting the the dangerous intersection sign, get the
high visibility yellow ones, put them on the approach. Uh we're going to move the speed sign, put up the trailers, and you know, but again, the from the concerns that we've got there, they haven't said it was a speeding machine. And I did have officers out there. I think the highest person was going like 32 or
something like that. Like, oh, is it speeding? Yes. But, you know, there is a little bit of leeway. So, well, and that leads, I guess, to your next part of your report, which is this new software that we're going to be using that can help us figure out if
there's speeding going on. Uh, yes. So, um, we had spoken in a or I've reported in a couple of previous meetings about the, uh, urban SDK program, uh, which the chief can probably describe a little better than me, but I'll give a my bullet point summary is, uh, it provides
the police with the ability for nearly real time traffic and speed data as well as the ability to look historically at, uh, past dates and times. So, I think this will be a huge help for the police to be able to direct their enforcement and also better inform the council when
we're looking at doing uh safety upgrades and some of the stuff that we do through like the DOT grants and every year. Uh it could it could actually help us better locate that stuff. So, with that program, we're able to see all kinds of data. We can see people are
speeding, uh how fast they're going, the fastest car is, slowest car, the volume. Like I was just playing around. We still didn't launch it fully yet. We have one more training session to go, but just immediately like I know that there's 200 cars traveling east and west on Spruce A
on a daily bas, [Music] 1800 cars. Going east, going northbound, there's 1,700 cars. South A has about 15,000 cars a day. So, it also gives you the data of likelihood of crashes just
based on volume and the speed. So, in a quick look at that, it was I think it was an average risk on one of the intersections and not the other. You know, um other areas in town were higher risk, but we have no complaints about those areas. So, this this program could give us literally every kind of data
that we need um instead of having an officer out there for two weeks doing radar or put or our trailers record data, but you have to leave them out there and then we have to compile a report. Then the officer has to go through it. So that could take a month to do at minimum like if you're rushing
it. So this with this we'll have answers to questions a lot faster. So yeah, this sounds really helpful for us and I think it's going to be helpful for this discussion about this intersection. Um does anybody else have anything they wanted to say about before I and uh that
was we're on my comments and I was done. So thank you. So, it looks like we have a couple of immediate things that the police department's going to take some action on in that intersection. And then, um, you know, I I hope the other, you know, surrounding residents can take heart that we are going to continue
looking at this as we get the new data coming in and we get the circulation element coming in so that we can see what other measures we can take in the future. So, okay. Thank you, Councilman Lazero. Any reports? Uh,
nothing for me. Okay. Councilman Padusniaak and foremost to thank someone we came over the curb as it was hot. Uh, they put me to work. So, I'm just going to tell them there things
to kind of make their town safer and more beautiful. So, thanks to everybody and uh with usual quickness congrats to the awardies. I come at the end, you know, it was few. Uh, but congratulations. Uh, it was nice to have an official poem as a man's future.
That's available with me. Um, just a couple brief things. You'll see that I've added a resolution to the consent agenda. That's 25135 uh in support of the Climate Super Fund Act. Uh, this is before the New New
Jersey Senate. It just came out of committee uh with a with a recommendation. Essentially, it tasks if passed uh the treasurer and the department of environmental protection with um determining liability for various climate related issues in New
Jersey based on specific corporate polluters. Um those funds that would be collected would then be put into a pot that would be distributed by the D in the form of grants to municipalities for uh remediation efforts
and resilience efforts for further potential climate based damage. So things like floods um go say if you had a major chemical or other company didn't do its fair share in cleaning up these would help the supplier with monies to
clean those things up. So um that seems to me to be a good thing for us. Um [Music] on which I failed to underline but uh 25
which is a planning John Arthur street and to be a friendly design. This is just he's got many hats here. Few hats. This is just a part of the filming
process. They've been looking for at this point. We need someone to interface with the commission. Uh I've been doing a lot of it so far and probably continue to do some of it, but someone needs to look over the permits, grant them as a professional who's not an elected
official. So that would be uh and straight cler or someone like this or township manager, this kind of thing. And uh next week or so and fellow council people should expect to receive a draft
version of the ordinance for funding process. This just distinguishes the rules for um how form projects would need to be in town. Uh currently that's just done basis. they're essentially all
so doing to protect the town. Set things like times for filming, um you know, how long you have to apply and notify residents if you're filming in their in um what it costs to get a permit, those sorts of things. Um the last thing is
another issue of circulation. Each of you should have in front of you a packet pertains to an issue that's been in community development for a long time now because we've been talking about and talking about it. Um the owner of for 22nd Avenue which is between
heart and first aid squad came to us uh discussing the potential for 72 burrow. We spent a lot of time talking about it and um the committee shows those are available in the document in front of you and um I just
wanted everyone to make sure they take a look and see what they think and for discussion beyond the committee. So that was it. Um yes, thank you. Um so for those at home, this is the property in between the board of ed parking lot
and Hartman Park. Um, this came up many many years ago apparently. Um, and nothing really of it and the the the person didn't sell and but they came to us again saying that
they are considering selling but they're not in a rush. Um, and they wanted to give us first crack because of the location of the property is, you know, makes sense. But of course it is it
comes at a cost. So um there are some pot there is some potential there. Um I would like to ask the council members to really take a look at what uh Councilman Padusniaak has gathered, what our tax assessor has gathered. She's gone
through and and given her assessment of the property. Um it's obviously something that uh we would have to bond for if we decided to move forward with it. Um and even if we decided we move forward
with it, the timing of it with the resident, it's still, you know, it's still kind of up in the air, but we wanted to start the initial discussions with it um among council um get feedback from the town residents. um being in right next to Hartman Park, there's a
lot that we could do with it. Um in terms of adding more park space um there was brought up the possibility of adding more parking um for the board of ed or municipal parking. Could we use it for municipal property at some point? So
there's a couple of different ideas floating around. Um and so please take a look. Did you want to say something else, Council? Well, I just add that talking about this for quite some time and um I think it's important for council people residents to consider
that the location of the property is also such that um it's it's not necessarily a predominantly residential area. So it's um I it's hard to say what would become of it in the living if it was sold to not the town um which could mean any number of things but right just that it's
incorporation into um the common space of the burrow seems it perhaps advisable for for that reason in part that's it. Yeah. Um and just you know some things to consider are you know uh the demolition any sort of um
leveling of the property that would need to be done as we know it kind of I think curves down back there as you know in Hartman Park I think it's very similar to what happens in Hartman Park as it curves down. So depending on the use that you want there there might be some necessary construction that needs to go
on. There's a lot to consider in this. It's not an easy like yes, let's do it, let's not. Just some of the things cost. So, um let's take some time. Let's look at this. Let's bring it back for discussion
at another point. Let's reach out to some residents that you know. Um I can bring this to our citizens advisory panel as well and talk with them a little bit about it and see what the feedback is. Um and we can move from there. Yes, Councilman. So, just with my
planning board hat on for for 30 seconds. Um and I've had extensive discussion with uh Councilman Padusniaak on this. I'm not on that committee, but uh he had brought it to my attention a while ago and uh this was this was sent already. So, I had reviewed some of the
figures. Um I just have two quick comments and and the first is it this is kind of like a once in a generation opportunity here. Uh, so and that doesn't mean anything one way or the other. I'm just highlighting that that's what it is. And just with my planning
board hat on, I I am echoing Councilman Padusniak's concern about exposure with the fourth round upon us. Um, and if we don't have a clearly defined use in mind, even converting it to public property may not protect us from a builder's remedy. So, it's just
something for us to to consider as we as we look at this. Thank you. Okay. All right. Thank you everybody. Um, Council President Noli, yeah, we're still on this. Just would
like to wish everybody a happy 4th of July and um and a happy summer to all the teachers. I know we um we wait a long time for this moment. Enjoy. And a happy and safe summer to all the students. Thank you. Okay, Mr.
Arthur, can you read the minutes, please? of the regular the council held on June 12th, 2025. Can I have a motion to accept regular meeting minutes as presented? So moved. Second. Second. All
in favor? I opposed. Okay. Communications, Mr. Arthur. Cranford notice of public hearing fourth round housing element and fair share plan received and filed. Revision to RBSA annual meeting this July meeting
now July 10th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. Received and filed. RBSA approved from the June 2025 regular meeting. Received and filed. We have one ordinance up for adoption tonight. Mr. Arthur, can you read ordinance 25-9 by title only?
Ordinance number 25-9 bond ordinance to authorize the 2025 road improvement project E and for the B of Gwood in the county of Union state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of 385,000 to pay the cost thereof to appropriate a state
grant to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds. Do we have any correspondence concerning this ordinance?
No. Okay. Um, does anyone present wish to be heard concerning ordinance 25-9? Please step to the mic, state your name and address, and limit your comments to 5 minutes. Good evening, mayor, ladies and gentlemen, the council. Bruce Patterson,
325 Willow Avenue. Um, just last month we had a also a bond of $390,000 and now we're doing another 385. I can assume that these are two completely different bondings. Um,
I guess there's a grant coming from the state, I guess, for the uh road improvement like just for the public. How much would that be? And I guess what's the total um what's the total bond amount that we have now that
we're carrying another almost $800,000. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and council concerning this ordinance? Okay. Can I have a motion to close public uh hearing on this ordinance?
Second. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Yes. This is a separate ordinance that was for capital pro various capital projects um with various departments. This is for our road work that we do each year and
DOT does provide a grant for most of it. Mr. Arthur, do you have that exact number? I don't have it on hand. It's in my emails. Yeah, I'm not sure. It was a pretty large percentage though. It was most of it that over to you in
through email. Mr. Disco's report last time did specify exactly how much haven't Yep. So you can look back to the uh the last meeting for that as well. Um and then um I believe the debt ratio is
still about8 the last I got from Miss Bruns. Absolutely. Can check that as well. Okay. Terrific. Feels close to that. Yes. Okay. Um do I have a motion to adopt ordinance 25-19? Roll call, please. Council I. Council
Fel. Councilman Con. Hi. Hi. Councilman. Council President Melody. Hi. Okay. It was Mark and Chase. Okay. Thank you. Do Mr. Arthur, can you please read our ordinance that we have up for
introduction tonight? Ordinance 25-20 by title only. number 25-20 and it's amending the code of garland chapter 52 entitled alcoholic beverages article one sale and transportation subsection 52-6
hours of operation do I have a motion to introduce this ordinance second roll call please counciloman Bodto I Councilman Foley Councilman Carney I councilman Nasser I council
council president Mily Hi. Okay. Council standing reports. Finance. Councilman Foley. Okay. Fire and OEM. Councilman Lazro. Thank you. At the end of June, several members will complete firefighter bailout training which focuses on
emergency self-rescue techniques should a firefighter become trapped or unable to exit a structure safely. This type safety training is critical and potentially life-saving. Uh looking ahead for the Gwood fire department in September the Gwood fire department will
send eight members to water rescue operation stream. Also in September the first of two annual live burn training exercises have been scheduled which provide realistic control fire scenarios essential for maintaining high level operation readiness. In November members
will be reertified in CPR AED and first aid. And in December, the department will complete its annual OSHA mandated refresher training, which will be taught in-house by Gard Fire Department certified instructors. Hosting this training internal rather than outsourcing will result in savings to
the budget funds that will be reinvested in other training needs. The Gard Fire Department is committed to providing high quality training that ensures the safety, preparedness, and effectiveness of the department now and in the future. That's all for my work. Thank you. Community Development, Councilman
Padusniaak, Public Works, Councilwoman Bodto, set up and take down tables and chairs of the sports complex for numerous recreational activities and events. Cleoned up the common areas of the complex. Made, trimmed, and maintained
principal on properties, parks, and vehicle bases. watered the flowers and the street sip pods throughout the as needed. Continued to perform street sweeping operations. Installed new American flags in various
areas of the barrel. Perform shade tree pruning elevating in the following areas. The sports complex uh 600 block of Myrtle Avenue and 500 block of Will Avenue. Set up and take down the wooden mister for the summer recreation programs. Thank you. Thank
you. Police Councilman Carney. Uh, no report tonight, Mayor. We covered everything in the comment period earlier. Okay. Community engagement. Council President Ny. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, we have, uh, just a recreation report. Um, tonight mostly, um, the
first week of camp kicked off on Monday. So, activities this week included a magic show, an obstacle course, wacky water Wednesday with the Garwood Fire Department, and a big thank you to the fire department for that. kickball, arts and crafts, games, and more. Next week, activities will include a slime lab,
hoop wizard, Kona ice, and another walking Wednesday. Registration is still open. US sports group soccer classes run on Saturday mornings from July 12th through August 16th for ages 1 to 7. It's a six-week program, and you can register
at garre.com. Adult open play soccer is Friday evenings from 8:00 p.m. to 9:50 and that is free. No report from historical Garwood Partnership for Arts and Culture. There's still time to catch GPAC's group abstract art project
entitled Garwood Celebrates Pride. More than 20 Garwood artists created square abstract art tiles using black, white, and the colors of the rainbow in honor of Pride Month. The tiles were collected and assembled by members of GPAC into one large work on display at the Garwood
Library through the month of June. And that's all for my report. Thank you. Library Councilman Lazero. Thank you, Mayor. This is on Governor Sun today. Registration will be accepted through July 23rd. On June 27th, July 11th,
18th, 25th, and August 1st from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., there's going to be a scavenger hunt. Check out a photo of the artist on the library's Facebook and Instagram pages at 10:00 a.m. Then search for the artist hidden somewhere in Garwood. Return to the library by 3
to location and claim your prize. The week of June 30th, July 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th. There will be a missed masterpiece. Each week, check out the famous paintings on the whiteboard as you enter the library. If you can spot
all the differences between two options, you can enter to be a selected every Friday and contacted the following day. That's all from the report. Thank you. School board liaison Councilman Carney. At the last board of education meeting, we bid farewell to
Superintendent Chris Kenny who has accepted a position in a neighboring district. Uh the board appointed Dr. Jason Marx as the new superintendent uh officially beginning on July 1st. I'm looking forward to working with him and continuing the relationship and
cooperation that we've been building between the district and the burrow over the last two years. Uh please take a look at the welcome letter and biography posted to the Garwood Schools website. Uh the letter was written by the board's president, April Farrell, and uh join the board and me in welcoming Dr. Marks
to Garwood. Uh also a quick congratulations and uh good luck wishes to all our eighth grade Lincoln school graduates as well as our departing seniors from ALJ. Uh and the next board of education meeting uh will be held on August 17th as there's no meeting held
uh in July during the summer break. Okay. Um seniors, um just a note, our first meeting in July has been cancelled due to the Fourth of July holiday. The next senior club meeting will be July 17th at 12 p.m. at the Knights of
Columbus. Uh, small business Councilman Carney. No report. Board of Health Leaison, Councilman Foley. Planning board leaison on Councilman Carney. Uh, the June scheduled for yesterday was cancelled due to a lack of business before the board. Uh, our next meeting
is scheduled for Wednesday, July 23rd. Okay. Um, thank you. Our officer's reports, uh, we have none tonight. So, we will move to public comment. If there's anyone who wishes to address the mayor and council, please step to the microphone. State your full name and address. And please limit your comments
to 5 minutes. Johnny Pritchard [Music] set of back officers and firefighters squad person. serves us well because they're out there
for us. Abolishing police departments, abolishing fire departments and abolishing rescue squadrons was not the answer. And Mark Pick up our sour sons fighting for us. [Music] Sure.
Show us. Sure. state legislature in Trenton to reopen some responsib the Iranian That's why Thank you, Mr. Percher. Is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and
council? Hi, Jill Paul, 543rd Avenue. Um, I agree wholeheartedly about the sightelines. As many of you know, I have a small low car and I kind of take a breath and hope for the best at a lot of the intersections here because there are big SUVs and
trucks that I can't see over by the corners. I'm more than happy to let anyone like seriously police department or otherwise actually use my car to survey the intersections. I think it's really important because not everybody here has these big Mac trucks and these
huge SUVs. Um, also four-way stop signs in this area, I agree with you, um, seem like a disaster. Um, I agree people don't know how to use them or honestly half the time they don't know how to use a two-way in my experience driving back
and forth here, right? We know this. Um, and again, it's not people cutting through for the most part. I watch them go in their driveways right here in Garwood or have our little um sticker on their cars. So, side note, I feel like um I'm really good at math, right? So, I
feel like we might be getting closer to the Gallows Hill Road pro uh project. Um so, I'd like an answer on when we think that might start time frame-wise, right? Because it was 24 months, then it was 18, and I I think we should be taking some um months off of that now. So, my
car thanks you. Um congratulations to our new chief. if I haven't been here for a while. So, yay. Um, there were some friendly faces associated with the Aliver Foundation here tonight. Emma is one of our teen ambassadors, so it was nice to see her here and the other Builder Club members getting those
certificates. Um, we love Sheila. Her son Dylan is one of our teen ambassadors as well. She's an amazing mother. They are an amazing family. um her husband actually gave us really good heavyduty masks um during the pandemic. And I
credit that with the fact that my grandfather, who would have been 99 years old today, did not get COVID despite being exposed to it in Florida twice a week when he would go to the doctor. And that's because of that family. Um, CPR and AAD awareness week
ended with a community event activity at Garwood First Aid Squad with the police department, fire department, and the burrow. So, thank you to all of you who made that a priority to be there. We also had events celebrating outdoor ED enclosures, donations in San Andreas,
California, Hickman, Nebraska, Bartell Fields in Clark, Deario Fields in Kennallorth, and Memorial Fields in Cranford. Our next unveiling event will be July 17th in Roselle at Sylvester Land Memorial Park. Um, this month alone, our educational content was seen
by over 50,000 people. This is how we changed the 8% survival of cardiac arrest together. Yesterday, I celebrated the 4th anniversary of my cardiac arrest at the Women in Business Leadership Summit. Owning your future, fueling success through health, wealth, and
self, speaking to about uh 200 women. While I don't particularly love telling my story and would rather focus on the people who helped and why immediate action and ads are needed in public recreation spaces, people from kindergarten to seniors and everyone in between seem to want to hear it. So, I'm
happy to continue to speak at schools, troop meetings, women's groups, men's groups, businesses, and other organizations. And I would like to offer this to one group each month going forward. So, if we haven't already coordinated something, please reach out. Um, and yeah, that's it. I somehow have
the sightelines here written again, but I'm not going to do that. So, thank you. Thank you. Is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and council? Good evening, Mayor and Council members. Joe at 252nd Avenue. Uh, I have one
thing I wanted to bring up, but I will mention uh about this Peterson town. It's ridiculous. It really is. I'm on Second Avenue right near Anchor and Winslow. That's where they should put a wall. Cars come flying up from Holly Street in Cranford. Excuse me. It's
ridiculous. We have a neighbor that can't even back out of his driveway sometimes and he couldn't make it here tonight. Had another commitment, but I told him I would speak up for him. Uh my main concern here is Tuesday morning. I
mean it was hot. Slept later. My wife was downstairs already. Doorbell rang. Shows through the door and a guy I mean it was 90 something degrees. This guy has his jacket on with some kind of power washing thing on emblem on a back and he said I'm here to see your
husband. He called about getting the house powerwashed. And my wife said, "No, I know he didn't qualify by getting the house power washed." Uh, she goes, "Let me get him." So, she came upstairs to get me. Just got out of the shower and I got down pretty quickly. He was
gone. So, I did call the police up and notified them what happened. And they said they would send somebody out to investigate. I haven't heard anything since, but my main concern is if it happened to us, who else is it going to happen to? And then I think that everybody should be made aware of this.
Uh, it's almost forcing my wife and I to get a Ring camera, which I always said, we don't need a Ring camera for what? I have neighbors with Ring cameras. But now, you know, it's kind of scared the life out of me a little bit. So, I don't know if we can do anything about this except like I did report it to the
police and I do have an incident number and everything cuz the police did text back to me. They have checked out, but I haven't heard anything. So either this guy just took off uh by foot, car, I don't know, but uh it was a little
creepy to have somebody come and say, you know, your husband was here, called me to get your house powered. Our house does not need powerwashing, you know. So just a heads up everybody. Thank you much. Thank you.
Is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and council? Laura Thompson, 320 Pine AB, Garwood. Um, again, line of sight, I can tell you two intersections off the top of my head that really are a problem. The
intersection of Oak and South, you can't see to the right to make a turn. You can't see the oncoming traffic at all. and Lexington and Pine and East. I live on Pine. There has been at least four or five accidents at that
intersection alone in the time that I've been living here. Um it it's people fly off of Lexington and they come right down Pine and go all the way through to Westfield. That street is horrible. They fly down that road.
Um, my other question was on the resolutions that you're going to be discussing. If you could explain resolution 25-136 and and resolution 25-134, I don't quite understand them, but if
you could explain those, that would be great. Thank you. Is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and council? Good evening, Mayor, ladies and gentlemen, the council Bruce Patterson, 325 Willow Avenue. Yeah, my question
about how much grant uh money were we getting for the road improvement? It's in the backup and it was uh $346,690. Um, also I did ask about what the total debt is. I heard an answer that the debt ratio was 0.2 too. In my opinion, and I
mentioned this about the uh at the uh budget hearing that it's really just a a fiat number placebo for the town, you know, to decide to bond more only because just because the equalized value of the town goes up,
that'll keep the ratio small even though debt is going up. Well, I'm concerned about higher debt anyway. So, I'm still wondering about the total debt. Uh Axon, I appreciate it. I I u invested in Axon. They have qual they have a line of quality
products. I don't know what else we're buying from Axon, but they have tasers and uh bulletproof vests, etc. It's it's a good They're all good products. Uh, as to the mini bumps that were painted the other week, I guess is there a set of
criteria or data to be studied just to see how the successes of of painting these mini bumps? U, I I think Councilman Lazero mentioned about uh retrieving data. So, I'm just wondering how we're going to go
about figuring whether these bumps were worthwhile or not. uh the cooling station. I mentioned this on Facebook, but the cooling station, maybe you have a couple of decks of cards and some uh board games, you know, stay in the cabinet over there and
people that show up, they don't know each other, they can maybe play cards and board games for the kids. Also, uh the Garwood Fire Department, here's a simple question. I guess somebody can answer it. The bay of the fire department, is is that uh air
conditioned also? Maybe the dogs could be over there if that's a choice. The uh Yeah, the county, you know, you're talking about lobbying uh to the to the state. Oh, no. To the federal government. I think it was on
one of these resolutions. But anyway, the county actually has $150,000 stipen given to winning strategies every year. I think it's 150. It might be 120. But anyway, I mean, possibly the county can get involved also in in lobbying,
uh, helping us out. West and Spruce, I made a suggestion on Facebook and now I'm making it here, you know, blinking light may work because we had one on center and uh, Spruce, you know, and that seems to be helpful. Uh, another question. I guess the the police
I would assume they still do a accident study on all the uh intersections, you know, that that should be available to the public. So, yes or no on that one. And yeah, actually now the last one, this is
this is the historical committee's uh material that we handed over to the bureau and they're in the lawyers cases. It looks like you can't lock them. So, is there some way to secure that so somebody doesn't pill for any of our historical items? They're precious to
the town. That's it. Uh, thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. Is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and council? Okay. Do I have a motion to close public comment?
Second. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Um, thank you for everybody's comments on sightelines. We will certainly take everything into consideration as we
continue those discussions. Um, Mr. Gola, in terms of your incident, I definitely ask you to to speak with the chief. Um, but I also just encourage the public, um, really at this point, you know, if you don't know who's at your door, not to open it. Um, if there is
somebody coming along who is a vendor, they have to register with the town and so they should have their tag on them and that should be easy to see. Um, and again, but you did the right thing by calling the police right away. If you see something, please say something and call the police. Um, yeah, it's it it's
just a this is a a tough time we live in, um, to say the least. Um, and so I definitely ask everybody to take precautions and I really I don't open my door if I don't know who it is. Um, I I suggest everybody really really take
that to heart. Um, but also definitely call the police if you see somebody going door todoor and they don't have their registration tag on them and our police can take a look at that. Um the debt ratio was 08 not2 Mr.
Patterson, we didn't we said 08. Um, is there data on the bumpouts? This wasn't something that we're collecting um physical data on. This was more of a anecdotal feedback scenario as I've explained uh multiple times. It's more
of an educational project so that the town starts to, you know, learn what bumpouts are, how they can be helpful, and um it it would just to bring the community together. And I think it's pretty worthwhile when you have
volunteers doing something all together to make the town a look nicer, but also provide a mechanism for safety, and it doesn't cost the town anything. Um, I'd say that's pretty worthwhile and I thank all the volunteers for coming out to do
something like that and the heat. So, um, I the bare the bay at the fire department is not air conditioned as it's, you know, open. It's an open garage. Um,
Chief, I don't know if this accident study, if you have anything to say on that. I don't know if the police always doing accident studies on each intersection. That's news to me. Thank you. We can look at different We can look at
different Okay. Um I'm going to keep the comments from the audience. This is um Thank you, Chief. I don't believe they do that. If you have questions about a particular intersection, again, we are also starting that new software which is
going to make it a lot easier to get answers if you if you do have a particular question. Um I know our chief's door is always open. My door is always open. We can look into um those items. And I missed a question um from
Miss Thompson. Let me go back. Resolution 136. It's general housekeeping from the county. We get CDBG funds to help fund our senior program and they just ask that we do this resolution every year. It started a couple years ago, now they make us do it every year. Um, but it's just just
paperwork so that they can give us those funds. And 134 is about the lead program now that the state is mandating that we inspect all residents before I believe it's 1984.
I I forget the but our code enforcement is taking care of that. But now that we have to do that by state mandate, the funds for that where the resident
pays for the lead program have to come into the burrow. However, it's not coming in as a revenue. um it it's it doesn't we don't get that money for it, but the money has to go somewhere before it's paid out. So, our CFO needs to
create a trust fund essentially for it to go into um and so this is just getting permission for that trust fund. But again, it's not revenue. It's a mechanism to get the money when the money when the money comes in for that
before we turn it over to the state. I hope that explains that. Yeah, it's the state's fees, but it comes into us first and we have to put it somewhere before we transfer it. So, this is just asking to make the account. We have to make an account for that, a
line essentially for it. So, um that's what that is. Okay, I think that was everything. Let's move to our consent agenda. Do uh is there any any resolution that needs to be removed from our consent
agenda? I was for 140 for discussion. 140. Anybody else? Okay. Can I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda as amended?
So moved. Second. Um, roll call, please. Council I. Councilman F. Councilman. Hi. Council. Councilman. Council President Marley. I.
Okay. Resolution 25-140. Uh, do I have a motion to adopt that resolution? So moved. Second. Second. Okay. discussion just very briefly the chief did job negotiating the group comments don't
have to deal with that um just a lot of this suite of technology pertains to various sort of artificial intelligence things writing up report it's translating personally I have concerns about how responsibility is assigned in cases while artificial intelligence is
used um and I consider responsibility to at least voice those before the vote Okay, thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Uh, roll call, please. Hi.
F. Carney. Hi. Council. I. Council memberak. Council president. Hi. Okay. Any new business? All right. Payment of claims. Mr.
Arthur. Resolve that the following claims is approved and the scene are hereby ordered, pay, properly signed and verified and the payment of payables as listed is hereby confirmed and ratified. Do I have a motion to adopt payment of claims? So moved. Second.
Uh roll call, please. Council I. Council F. Counciloman Carney, I council Azero I. Councilman Puzzi. Council President I. Okay. The regular meeting of the mayor and council will be held on July 10, 2025 at 7 p.m. in council chambers.
Information for meetings is posted on the burough website. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? Second. All in favor? Opposed? Okay. Thank you everybody for coming. I haven't write so much. Sorry.
Jen, are these are these from the Jen? Are these from the things you went? Yeah, your shirts and I said I'd bring it back. But sorry, the size was what I got. Okay, give it to Gabby. It's That might be necessary. I don't think a small is going to work for me. I'll make
it into a crop top for you. Transit