good evening everyone okay so we're back from executive session so we're going to go right to uh city manager report thank you mayor uh up first uh we're going to call up uh Chief Antista from Hackinac PD to give a short
presentation on uh the citizen phone app and that the police department has launched mike can you hear me now yes good evening mayor and council uh city manager i'm here tonight to uh briefly present on a
new initiative that the HPD uh is is undergoing with Citizen app citizen app is an application on your smartphone and what this does it it provides um public safety communication with the
public it's a more of our digital footprint uh for for um what we have uh for the PD what it is is it's an app monitors public safety resources including our CAD radio transmissions and videos and information submitted by
the public and it plots it on a map and if you'd like you can get push notifications so to preface this the public has had the ability to submit incidents and video on this application since 2017 regardless of our agency
participation so this is an app that's uh been been in existence and the public has been using it and that's one another reason why we uh decided to participate with this so the app was reviewed and tailored specifically for our agency and
there's limited call data that's shared which ensures control and relevance unlike full access to a CAD used by other agencies we only share a limited set of call types uh believe it or not nine to be exact with two that
the police department actually posts on its own and there's a 15minute delay for the posts uh that are controlled by the CAD i'll just go over very quickly what the posts are that will be u on the app road
closures assisting motorists disabled motor vehicles fires hazardous conditions traffic hazards traffic sign and signal malfunctions wire down pothole hazards and also events that we can control we can post events community
events and also very importantly major emergencies that require evacuation which is a very quick notification to the public and that's the one of the major reasons why we did it so if there's a major emergency we can push it out on this app as well as our social
media so why we're participating it's real time public safety and traffic info very similar to Nixel however this is plotted on a map and you can receive push notifications it enhances communication and transparency and there's specific and manageable public
posts similar to social media and also very important since the public has the ability to post post videos uh live videos being a participant of this app allows us to curb any misinformation
that's posted to provide updates uh to reduce uh any unnecessary panic uh amongst the public if there's a post that goes out and once again privacy-wise uh Citizen app does not and has never track they don't track our
police vehicles or off officer locations uh with GPS or AVL so uh looking forward it's improved community trust and engagement enhanced ability to manage and clarify public info and like I said we're looking to
evolve and grow our our digital presence responsibly other agencies that participate NYPD Philadelphia PD Newark PD the New Jersey Department of Transportation so you'll see updates for accidents that occur on Route 80 Route
17 they they pop up on the map and also uh Hope Oaken and Nassau County is going to be participating soon so it's a new endeavor and it's uh to spread good information uh traffic information and also major emergencies i provided
uh a uh advertisement that was uh given to us that we're collaborating uh with citizen does uh anyone have any questions regarding it i'm just curious is there any type of you know because you're always going to have a prankster or something if somebody calls in something that uh you know isn't
truthful or you know wrong information on purpose is there any type of recourse on that against somebody well recourse is that we we could investigate if there's a known false uh narrative that's spread meaning like there's a
false uh 911 emergency which we would obviously know because we monitored the app is there a way to identify the person that's posting it that's a good question uh I know that they have like a post name but uh Citizen app fully uh cooperates with police it's uh law
enforcement uh started it okay and uh you know I believe that they do uh share that information if need be okay and once again this is to also curb any misinformation for people posting on their own since they've always had the ability to it's just like how someone
would uh do a live uh post on YouTube where you'd be able to see it right chief you said there's a 15minute delay like is that for you to kind of weed out if there's any miscommunication like do you approve it does the police department approve it before it's posted
or it's instantly it was a 15minute delay based on uh communication with the rank and file okay just uh for I would say near real time uh information and is this purpose of this to eventually replace Nixl or Nixl will still be i believe uh it won't replace but it's
just an addition to uh public safety sharing information okay thank you mike when folks log in or use this are they restricted to just see things that happen in Hackinack because initially when this was rolled out a couple months ago we had issues like I got calls from people saying "What's going on in
Hackinack?" And these were events that weren't going on in Hackinack it really didn't say that so it looked like things were happening here that were happening in other towns i would say no uh you could view the whole country on the map and be able to do that becomes that
becomes an issue and folks think that this is just Hackinack and then they start you know understanding that it's not is there any way if they're outside of Hackinack to denote that so that they know this isn't Hackinack you know so they don't say look what's going on you know I believe since it's plotted on a
map they'll be able to see exactly what it is they have to they have to look that way yeah correct yeah I mean they just see something happening and then they think because we're telling them use it that it's happening in hackath I understand chief I think I think what she's also asking too is there's there's
a way to if you are using the app there's a way to um I guess to participate in certain uh geoence location geoence locations right so you're not going to get an alert from
you know Los Angeles or from another town unless you signed up for that particularly You know if if you maybe that should be our if you live in Hackinack uh you you might have uh the application set so that you might have a onem radius from where you're currently
using your application like you could have your location uh based availability at all times or just when you open up the app that's a an option that any application has on a smartphone well when people are signing up maybe for our citizens we should give them some
information as to how to do this so that they're not seeing and these weren't towns far you know this wasn't other states this was towns in the local area it just wasn't hacked well absolutely we can tailor uh that information uh when we do more uh advertisements on our
social media for for the app yeah at least just so folks when you add it they know what they're looking at so you know and they know how to tailor it just to hacken sack if that's all they want to see understood we could add those instructions good all right Faith thank you for your
time thanks Mike thanks Chief uh next is uh discussion regarding the 2025 road paving uh I just want to get my list out
here um as it stands right now uh we have grant funding to do South Newman uh from the Loi from Loi Street to the Dead End dewalt DeWolf Place from
Berry to East Pake these are uh Burton County Community Development block grants uh Grand Avenue pedestrian improvements uh from Popular on Popular and Fairmont that's an NJ DOT grant kennedy from Hudson to East Wesley
that's also an NJ DOT grant and then city funded streets as it stands right now uh West Outlook burn to dead to the dead end West Anderson from Burn to Summit and Davis from Main Street to the
terminus at Kohl's Brook those are the streets that are scheduled right now for 2025 um if there's any funding that's available afterwards um we have some conting contingency streets that we will
do um based on uh their conditions in ranking order for that very good thank you uh next is uh update on our uh veterans
banners and our hometown hometown heroes program where uh Allison my assistant has been working on uh almost daily um we were able to finally get permission from PSCG
uh to use our poles or their poles we find out on uh Main Street uh the new ones that are up there they denied us being able to use them at other locations within the city um evidently that is something that they are doing
now denying towns from putting stuff on their utility poles so we were able to secure uh approval to do Main Street um to put these new veteran banners up that are going to look really nice uh we did we've contracted with somebody to do
them we've started the application process uh where people can sign up to have uh their family member um I believe it's both active and if they have passed away um the only thing is they have to be from Hackinac um and uh we will post
their picture their uh service and um if they're involved in any wars and that'll that's going to be really nice it's going to look good on Main Street looking forward to that yep uh last but not least is uh the presentation i'll
call up our city engineer Chris Wheaten u for the combined sewer and construction projects update before we veteran banners can people sign up now or are we ready morning so starting tomorrow morning and how and how do they do that rec go to rec desk okay so let's
make sure folks on maybe John announce it announce it later too at the regular meeting john so that people know how to sign up yeah we'll do it again thank you city manager good evening mayor council members of the public um
here to discuss our cso and construction projects our major city projects overview uh includes the projects listed uh and the deadlines there's been no major uh update to uh to this schedule um of late except that for the west of
rail project as uh as our CFO discussed at the last meeting uh we are breaking up the west of rail uh near the bottom of the list here uh into two projects to take advantage of uh of of of the the funding arrangements
uh through the state revolving fund getting into our sewer separation projects uh this is an overview of the projects that we have done and are uh and are uh striving to complete uh we're currently in Anderson Street or the
Anderson drainage area shown in pink and this project is in the final stages we should be finishing up uh paving here and uh the concrete work uh within the next uh uh week and a half
and I just wanted to bring your attention to uh the west of rail project as I said it's going to be done in in two contracts uh this is be our first project that includes um all of our storm water projects have included uh water quality provisions uh that that
treat the storm water um but uh those uh this will be the first project that includes green infrastructure uh to treat for water quality and so there will be a total of 28 um tree uh filters or tree pits um in this project and
those will be uh placed as per you know as as suitable uh at uh at different locations throughout the project and as I stated uh we are just finishing up the Anderson drainage area project uh we're currently still on
Stanley Place uh completing the sidewalks and curbs uh we'll be moving to uh Clay Street next to finish the curbs and sidewalks there uh and then we'll be proceeding to to mill and pave uh the
streets uh uh through next week and again we are uh getting ready to move into design for the East Kennedy pump station uh improvements there will be two new large pumps and two small booster pumps uh installed at this
facility to uh replace um uh warrant equipment another project in the city is our FEMA Green Street flood mitigation project and uh so there's a lot of colors on this not
uh but at the top uh in green is the projects that the city uh is currently pursuing based on the state revolving fund uh and the basically the water bank uh projects shown in red is the potential area uh that was uh has been
contemplated for the the the fi the FEMA green street project the there are different stages uh in this area the initial project area which is a $40 million grant is shown at the bottom uh
right in red and uh so that's the original Green Street project area and um that's that's where the initial um uh funding uh will will be spent primarily on a large uh pump station um uh along
the river chris can you give us the the cross streets there so people can put a of the red area that you're talking about if if we go back uh so we're coming along so at the at the right extent there in red uh that's where the
pump station would be located along the river and then coming back from there uh we're crossing uh we're crossing River Street all the way to the right Frank um yeah so coming coming left from there we're coming down uh East Kansas Street
um and then um uh proceeding uh to uh to Green Street uh all well yeah sorry I can't quite make out all the streets but I can uh get that information for you there okay i think we need to know that so Sure yeah
like so if you're looking at East Kansas you know so you I mean are we looking in the Lord Street area i mean yes so you're you're looking LOI street yeah the the limits um go approximately from Essex at the top um to the city limits
at the bottom so um and then Green Street is just about all the way to the left uh and we're coming um so are we going from Essex to what how far are we going towards going towards Teter or South i guess it's Tedboro
there right yeah is South Hackin that place or no i'm We're not going to South Hack and I mean we all flood that much down there no that's why I'm trying to It does it does flood in the Cheetah section they're right under right under uh 46 and 80
there right we're not going that far south okay um right there there certainly are uh So are we stopping like at Loi Street like what's the end point do you We are not stopping at Loi Street uh we go further south than Loi Street
okay so you get us the information for next time huh sure i'm just curious as you know we the issue we had over on Stanley Place to uh all those streets there we were able to go underneath the tracks because the railroad track was acting as a dam which it also does down
by on Loi Street mhm uh by the railroad tracks before in Green Streets right on basically the other side of the track it parallels the track are we going under the track at all as part of this project to alleviate that water on the other side of the tracks we are not go so
that's shown in the left uh in the left area that's um a little bit uh you know shown shown more lightly in this uh in this graphic at the bottom left uh so the the railroad track uh is basically that red line uh between the two areas
so that the right is Green Street and Green Street runs right along the railroad track right so that's what demarcates uh the limits of that drainage area uh the South Newman area is to the west of that railroad track um and we did find uh in our uh television
investigations a tie-in from that drainage area underneath the railroad tracks um okay and uh so it does actually contribute to to um the Green Street drainage area as well okay um as I say that's not part of this project at
the moment but it's a it's an area that we have discussed um expanding to with FEMA um and if FEMA doesn't accept it uh as a uh as a grant u program element then we can fall back to uh the IBank
and the state of Yeah because it makes sense if we did it successfully down the other end of town by Stanley Place and and uh so this is east of the rail only this is east of the rail east of the rail that if it doesn't you know say if it works
on the green street side but we still have flooding on the other side of the tracks we're going to have to figure a way to Yeah get that to the other pipe down and get into the you know the outfall by the river somehow yes uh and so the reason that the other side the west of the tracks in red there uh the
south Newman area the reason it's truncated where it is is because that's the the area that actually flows north and and into this the city system right uh the other storm water below that or south of that uh continues south into South Hackinac uh and and the Teterboro
area underneath uh underneath uh Route 80 there um there are constraints uh we've discussed that we've had meetings with the county uh on a couple of occasions we've walked the site with them and uh and have talked about um uh
you know their ability to assist in a regional project there because um the city of Hackinack is restricted by the the downstream uh water elevations that uh are present in in Teterboro and South
Hackinac and so we we need a cooperative inter um local um solution other towns south of us have received funds and they're working in this similar area with the similar brook problems correct that's that's correct so we should be working in concert with them we have we
have tried uh from from uh from my start uh with Hackinack one of the first things uh that was on the agenda was a meeting with South Hackinac to talk about um so those communities south of us have benefited from the Meadowlands
Rebuild by design project uh post Sandy so um they um they were awarded um you know design uh funding and then proceeded uh to get funding for the projects that were identified in that re rebuild by design um I'm not sure why
but Hackinack was not included in that uh rebuild by design um project i think we just have to be careful that we don't spend all this money to help alleviate the our water and now we're going to be getting all their water you know because now if they don't do their side then their water is going to flow into the
side that we So there has to be some kind of coord i think we just need maybe for next time some more information on this sure sure like what the limits are and exactly where we're focusing and let's see what else the connectivity is so we make sure we've covered our basis sure yes we we have had an and again for
the modeling that we've done here we have you know we've done a lot of hydraulic modeling to support um the uh the FEMA funding uh was necessary to to to prove um and so as part of that modeling we did have a a significant uh
communication with the rebuild by design uh group um at D uh as well as their consultants and so did were able to share some information back and forth to get their results results um so so we do have some understanding of of of what
they've done and and what the uh um what the what the implications are vinnie maybe we want to make that a separate cow item soon that maybe we I think for everybody on the council to hear in the public a little bit more you know we're going forward spending a lot of money in
this area and let's make sure that everybody has asked the right questions and we know where we are with this okay okay next slide please and uh so just sticking with the the Green Street project for the moment I wanted to uh share with you the results
of um the uh pipe inspection program that was performed as part of the pre-planning uh and um necessary steps to um determine the exact uh you know lay of the land in terms of uh where the
pipes flow um and what is their condition and what needs to be done to uh you know to move forward with this project so um the the pipes are rated uh from one through five with one being best and five being most uh most severe
um the good news uh is that we have about uh 62% of our pipes are in good and excellent condition um but we do have uh a number of pipes that are um uh in a very poor or poor condition um and
some of those will be the focus of the FEMA project um the others will have to be addressed as part of a uh a capital improvement program they are they they may be you know kind of outliers to the um the essential you know large elements uh the kind of the backbone
infrastructure that the FEMA project will accomplish and just a little bit about the process although I know this is uh a lot but um we uh we have gotten uh really all
through um all of the green boxes um the dark green boxes I should say and uh with the uh uh planning and design that we've done so far uh and submitted to FEMA we have uh as we've discussed been
um uh eligible now um to start uh the phase one reimbursement so uh so those bills have been submitted uh and uh for payment and the next step here is uh this upcoming proposal for the remainder
of the detailed design uh and the D permitting and um we have been making progress also uh as indicated on the upper right with property uh assistance and that's that's really just for the pump station um by the river okay moving on to parks uh so
Polyfly Park drainage project is uh u all but all but wrapped up we just have um you know all the drainage work has uh has been completed uh we've we've crossed the street um everything's paved and and concreted so we just have site
restoration here that uh uh that needs to be done and um uh and and then we'll be uh out of here in Johnson Park uh we have uh as you know just uh awarded the two bids for this project on the left is the site
and utility contract and then on the right is the the fieldhouse contract for the for the structure that uh that will be built and again for Fini Park uh we we have bid this project and um we're just holding off on the award uh until um uh
we hear about the city's uh supplemental funding request from Green Acres and then um uh this project is scheduled to start in early July uh after the city's uh normal uh fireworks celebration in roads and traffic um
again we are uh uh getting ready to initiate the lot a parking improvements this project was awarded last meeting as well and um uh so we are uh just you know uh getting started with that contractor i don't have a firm schedule
for this project just yet and uh and then on Kaplan Nav uh uh with the traffic study we did have uh for uh uh for for speeding we did have a site meeting with the contractor uh as far as positioning of the the speed
bumps or speed humps goes uh and uh did uh work out the final locations for the speed humps uh there is one now um between uh Polyfly and Parkway uh and then another one between Parkway and
South Prospect or has there's actually two between Parkway and South Prospect and then another uh just to the west of of South Prospect on So we were able to do them on the hill then there we'll see we'll see how it work
how it works out real time but yes that's that's what was Well that's where they fly the most so that's where the you know the speeders are coming up the hill i mean they make the left it is it is certainly grade dependent as as we've discussed the dependent on the slope so uh yes with the site visit um
we were able to find a part that uh u yeah that was um adequate to to place there be any signage for the speed bus oh yeah yeah no there has to be yep uh and then also this this project
includes a no left turn uh which I understand has been approved by the county uh from Polyfly onto Kaplan and as city manager just discussed um we have our anticipated streets for the 2025 paving program
um and uh we'll get started if as long as that list is now final and uh with that I'll open up to any questions chris do we have um an estimated date of when we'll get a response about the supplemental funding
for fishing in years past we have gotten it in May okay so yeah okay so we're going to wait to approve the bids yes we we have we have a mutual agreement with the with the low bidder to extend the
period um notice to proceed thank you so what approval did we have to go through to get the no left turn was that count you got to go through the county so I would recommend also doing um Parker because what's going to happen is once people learn you can't make a left on
Kaplan you're going to make that left on Parker and there's a school on the corner there when you get up to Long View so we don't want to be be diverting we actually by making a no left turn at Kaplan we're kind of diverting based on
what they're going to do most likely more traffic towards the school and you know and these cars are speeding in the morning these are probably most likely you know people going to work in the local area and uh trying to take that shortcut and beat the light at
Essex Street so I think if we made it two two back I think that might be enough to deter them um but uh yeah we got to keep them from using our local neighborhoods as is through traffic it's you know it's not right it's dangerous we've had multiple multiple incidents
where you know cars are hit and just a matter of time before pedestrian gets hit so um absolutely I would look into changing Parker and if the speeds work maybe we'll put them elsewhere in the city we know we have some speeding issues
elsewhere throughout the city fair amount Jackson have now some serious speeding Jackson very narrow too so Ross Clinton even Summit Yeperson in northern part there's another
accident on prospect in Clinton there's been a lot of accidents there prospect come over that hill can't see yeah the speeding lately has been really the speeding is all over the place it's not just here it's everywhere and we say 25 and nobody's enforcing
So all right thanks Chris appreciate it thank you thank you that's all I have all right thank you need a motion to open to the public offer second all in favor i I none opposed anybody from the public please come forward give your name to the clerk and you will have
three minutes how you doing good evening my name is Dave Sherman i live at 238 Uclid A which is right on the corner of Uclid and Prospect and I can't believe the beautiful segue you just gave me
regarding what's going on on Prospect i was in an accident in November at the four-way stop sign at Anderson and Prospect somebody blew the stop sign i
had shoulder surgery total my car i live at the corner of Prospect and Uklid in the past month two accidents on that corner
no injuries thank God the last one had a child in the back seat there was an accident in Prospect in Clinton maybe a month and a half ago and I'm proposing those red blinking lights
around the stop signs at the fourways and at the two-ways so people can't miss them and it's really dangerous and I hope that you review the records and see what goes on on Prospect
how many accidents there have been because of those stop signs so I thank you for your time any questions for me so as you know we also want we just made four a four-way stop also on Clarendon and Anderson um
because same thing accidents and you know near a four-way stop that she ran where she hit me y Well we had the king of all four-way stops on Prospect and Beach which averaged like 20 accidents a year but uh we actually had to put a
traffic signal in there it was so bad but uh I agree 100% with the blinking stop signs i think they they help tremendously especially with all the traffic going up to the University Medical Center it just makes nothing but sense and I'm still in physical therapy
for my shoulder so yep you know I'm I'm begging you to to try to help things out here so we'll see if we can uh Is there any grant money available for these signs because it definitely I'll figure it out so going eastbound on the Anderson at the new Clarin intersection
we created there with the four four-way stop sign um the one where you're going uh eastbound is as soon as the trees bloom you're not even going to see that stop sign so we definitely need to light that up somehow
and that's at Anderson and Clar anderson and Clarendon and these intersection we'll look at these intersections that Mr sherman's talking about prospect and Uklid prospect between uh Lookout and Clinton is that hill and what happens are people starts at Uklid is
the bottom of the hill right and then they come zooming down and you don't and people look out anderson is the four-way yeah and then you get to the traffic light yeah so it's it's really dangerous i think it's even coming the other way from the traffic light they come down
yeah oh I I don't know you know when when I hear it I walk outside and there's smashed up cars or a car through a fence but overall a lot of it's attributed Mr sherman I think people just there's a lot more speeding going on um I don't know whether it's the cars
whether it's the age of the people driving them you know when you're younger you tend to drive a little faster i think I don't know well if we bring attention to the stop sign with the blinking lights definitely help that could hopefully blinking lights solve the problem absolutely we just put new
lights on Prospect down by the hospital because the pedestrian sign pedestrian crosswalks to try and help some of that down there but uh we're working on it takes a little time but we're getting there we're working on the Kaplan issue for the last six months so Okay you'll see some improvement i guarantee it
feel better soon sir yes next person from the public please you're up all right yeah everybody's speaking good evening uh my name is Mike Mason Maso
Ni and I live at the Sherbrook 125 Prospect Hackin Sack and the gentle uh the gentleman before me uh that's that's a very good point and it kind of segus into what I'd like to and by the way Mr mayor and
Hackinac council members good evening good evening uh so this is my first city council meeting I've ever gone to however for over the last year plus I have been uh attending zoning board
meetings uh basically with the city but also with the county and uh our main concern for the many residents in the area I live in which is as you know Prospect and Beach is the uh
proposed project at 329 Prospect ect um of the 19story assisted living facility on that uh rather small piece of property that runs between pardon me that runs between uh
uh Prospect and Summit so without getting into a whole lot of stuff I guess my my main question here is how does the council feel about this proposed project in other words would
you be in favor or not of it so I'm sorry what was your name again mike and the last name and I'm going to defer to our our attorney because we are forbidden to even speak to it you're forbidden okay it's a quasi judicial issue that's
zoning we can speak to planning board issues as a matter of fact two of us serve on the planning board we're not allowed to serve on zoning nor are we allowed to comment on anything that comes through i see yep okay yeah and and and you know ju just to comment on that you know there have been
circumstances where a governing body may very well wish to speak out on a project and if they do uh people are watching this is being recorded and it can be used by uh whichever party feels that uh
the council has weighed in improperly um to support any sort of legal challenge so I see obviously if you have concerns you wouldn't want them to speak out in a way that might have a project be approved when it might not otherwise be because they spoke out
when they shouldn't have so got it please understand that i do understand and I know people are always watching yes thank you Mr mason next person from the public please good evening Marty Smith Prospect
Avenue um I'm wondering if Mr caruso could provide us at the next meeting as we asked for at the last council meeting of the parameters that were used by the Hackinac traffic department in their decision making not to lower the speed
limit on Summit Avenue the second item pertains to Anderson Street at the last council meeting we mentioned that Anderson Street similar to Main Street is a commercial street and that Main Street
for its entire length has multiple no Uturn signs at every block north and southbound whereas Anderson Street does not have any U-turn signs well we were in error because there is a no U-turn
sign on Anderson Street at Panborn or Pan Horn for westbound traffic but no U-turn signs corresponding for eastbound traffic so we're recommending that since this is a
commercial street that the city install several no U-turn signs for eastbound traffic starting at the railroad crossing and going through to Union Street okay those locations again one more time
okay uh the last Sorry go ahead the last thought it might have is that recently the governor came out with a comprehensive plan to reduce accidents in the state of New Jersey specifically
airmarking pedestrian accidents and bicycle accidents now I think about a year or a year and a half ago we asked the city to uh enact a traffic ordinance that would make it a traffic violation
for a pedestrian to talk or text on a cell phone while crossing a street i don't think the city took any action on that but I can tell you from the readings I have done that there have been dozens and dozens and dozens of
cities and towns throughout the country that have already implemented this type of um plan and have seen tremendous reductions in the number of accidents involving pedestrians and bicycle riders
so we hope you'll consider doing this to make our streets safer i can tell you that pedestrians frequently are distracted in their crossing by using their cell phones on a daily basis thank
you agree 100% with that last comment mr smith could you just give me those streets again uh or the locations for the U-turn signs that you were talking about yes Anderson Street has one no Uturn
sign on Anderson and Pangghorn for westbound traffic that's the only no U-turn sign on Anderson Street from Main Street to the railroad tracks okay so from Lynen all the way to
Pangorn or to Union on Anderson on Anderson it's the it's the commercial area thank you thank you Morty thank you next person please good evening ma'am vicky Ballas and I live on Anderson
Street and I just want to thank you for the four-way stop sign at Claridan that was long overdue but it's great because people use Anderson Street as a cut off for Payic since there's no lights and it just slows them down even if they roll
through the stop sign they still slow down and then I also want to make a comment you mentioned speed humps um I work in an attorney's office and he represents the township of Saddlebrook and there was one gentleman who sued the
township because he said that the speed hump that was put in front of his house affected his foundation and his walls they eventually removed the speed hump but you know I don't know if that was true that it was really affecting it he had pictures and um but he said when the
you know buses and whatever the trucks slow down to go over the speed hump it caused a vibration in his house so I don't know if that would be something you would want to check out before that's why that's why this is like a pilot program we're doing with this one on or two on Kaplan and we want to see
how it works right right because he did I mean he a balancing act you know either you know speeding cars or you know some other kind of pain but uh yeah I understand what you're saying right he did lose he he lost but you know he did
have pictures and he showed cracks and he said the vibration of the vehicles slowing down which probably was true right but he couldn't prove it so he lost thank you for the stop sign I had asked for that years and years and years ago
and then they put one up and then they took it down and years ago there used to there was a reason for that because it was they told me it was not a legal stop sign it's it's got to be what they call you have to put in a warrant to get it done in other words it has to qualify with the state in order to get a
four-way stop you have to have a certain amount of accidents or something like that well there was just recently an accident at that corner and then they put the stop sign and uh that that since then has changed that warrant law no longer stands so we were able to put it back in yeah but it's it's it's a
blessing because I live on that street and when you're trying to pull in and out or park on the street and the cars go they they're going way more than 25 but it's a Thank you thank you thank you thanks for coming Rich Serbo i think we forgot about
Spring Valley Avenue so I'm I just took that as a cue to come up here and and bring it up again it's absolutely outrageous and yes there's I'm sorry there will be damage to homes foundations and I'm going to prove it
too so somebody's going to pay for it too it's uh there's so many heavy trucks i'm talking about really seriously i mean there's trucks that you've never seen that size buses are speeding it's It's Spring Valley Avenue you just
forget it you've talked about five other streets here tonight you never want to uh follow up on on what we've talked about for years now we've been talking about this for years and you got to stop something there the speeding there is
the buses are speeding and they're empty okay i just It's like a It's like the Twilight Zone okay a speeding bus will go flying by i mean really fast and you look it's empty any time of the day it's
not like oh they're just gonna pick up uh passengers somewhere else no way okay it's crazy what's going on they're playing they're paying for that whole fleet uh of buses all over the state many of them are empty no one cares and
we're going to get to the bottom of this somehow it's uh money being spent for no reason it's going on everywhere that's why yet last week I mentioned the uh the audit which uh I don't know there's a audit by a company um that you you uh
referred to right it's not by anyone that's in nonpartial is it I mean we got to find the bottom of what the hell is going on okay spending for government services that we're not getting somehow and and it's just well that's one thing
I just and that sparked me the the lady that was just here about the foundations of these homes my house shakes the glasses on the on the uh shelf uh shake all freaking day from buses and trucks
okay they jingle all day what is What is this okay if you if you're taking a nap you're awakened by those glasses thank you thank you so we do there is a 4-tonon limit on that street it's about some enforcement there
the sign is still up and while you're Mr sar would you please come back up because I wanted to make a quick mention while you're here for this session yeah go ahead we understand it was you know your father served as mayor of this great city correct it was yesterday was his birthday yesterday was his 100th
birthday so just wanted to wish your dad a happy birthday in heaven god bless him god bless you he was a letter carrier just like my wife he was everybody yep he was everything yes he was he was a good guy you know there's a a loaf of bread I buy now it's I forget the name
of the company and it's called an everything bread my father was an everything guy all right he was He was a great man next person from the public i just really not allowed to come back a second time i heard that but I'll push
my luck um I just was listening to all of this talk and it made me think of something else again too are all those vehicles that you see flying around the electric scooters the electric
bikes with I call them kids i don't know how old they are but I'm pretty sure they're kids without helmets or anything and they're going a good I'm just going to guess and say 15 miles an hour in regular traffic and
they and I see them sailing through lights and everything and I'm just curious as to how they're or are they regulated they they do have there are traffic laws for bicycles and scooters and skateboards and anything with wheels
that you ride electric ones whether it's electric or not i believe If you were pedaling a bike or driving electric bike I think it would be the same rules um they're not allowed on sidewalks they're not allowed in certain areas it's a matter of enforcement and there's so many of them around it's very
hard to enforce sometimes so and they're not wearing helmets these kids and they're supposed to wear a helmet absolutely yeah okay just wanted to bring it to your attention thank you yep hello my name's Dennis Colbert i've been a
resident from Hackinack for almost 17 years i lost my father not too long ago because of a car accident
okay and the reason why I'm basically bringing this up is the town of Hackinack is doing a lot of construction and they're not caring what happens to these people that
are on bikes especially kids i am these kids are getting hit or they're getting pushed out of the street they're being uh harassed not by
Hackinack police but Maywood police to get on the sidewalk and there is no sidewalks in certain spots and the people including me and my wife were hit by a car with no
headlights on at night and we sued not the city of Hackinac but we sued the car that did it for $90 million and he was a blood lab technician we don't need this out here
no more we want kids and people that have scooters with the same thing they have in New York where they could ride the bikes safely if they're going to build these
condos we would like to see that where these bikes whatever uh things they use can be safely ridden if they can do it in New York why
can't they do it here because I got hit my wife got hit now she's in a nursing home because she can't walk and she's been in a wheelchair for
almost 15 years she's the one that forced the city of Hackinack the city of Maywood to put those little red things in the sidewalk cuz we rode in the middle of the street
with the wheelchair until the cops pulled us over and said "Hey get on the sidewalk." We did not do that and now you see those little red things everywhere now let's do it so these
bikes and these motorized bikes have a safe place to ride them because I am not watching no more kids get hit especially us with cars that don't turn their headlights on and I'm out
there every day like the cops are watching every little thing we need to stop thank you Mr cover so we are in the middle of uh working to get a a grant to do a study on bicycle
lanes in Hackinack uh one of the biggest issues we have is of course Main Street where we have a lot of bicycles on the sidewalk where there's tons of pedestrians so they're they're not allowed to be on the sidewalks but it's not wide enough of a street [Music] to accommodate a bike lane so we're
looking at State Street and other streets um the bicycle thing I understand what you're saying Mr colbert but it's a two-way street um I've seen good behavior and bad behavior by bicycle riders just like with pedestrians and cars um there's good and
bad in all of them so it's uh I've seen bicycles actually cause some serious accidents too so we it's really about being safe in anything you do whether you're driving a car whether you're walking or whether you're driving a bicycle or a
scooter electric bike whatever it's about operating uh yourself and your whatever vehicle you're using safely and with that next person seeing no one from the public motion to close offer second all in favor i I none
opposed so we will be back in about five minutes good timing mayor yes motion to close the executive session executive session steve let Steve speak steve yes um in our closed
executive session as usual we talked about ongoing litigation specifically including the J visual case and a recent civil service commission uh decision of the office of administrative law involving a police captain uh DWIT upholding uh disciplinary charges
against him and a 10-day suspension now you can do now you can do a motion what are the two places motion to close the executive session offer hold up there might be you're saying there's other cases no the cases that were me by the judge he just said that he just said it
i offered you offered all in favor i I none opposed close the count motion to close council the whole offer second all in favor i none opposed be back at 8:00 um Ally yes
thank you we're going to start this meeting is being held in accordance with the Open Public Meeting Act NJSA104-6 at SEC notice of which was sent to the record in the Star Ledger and was posted on the municipal bulletin board
roll call please council member von Rudenberg here deputy Mayor Canestrino here council member Vetaglia here council member Carol here mayor Lebr here would everybody please rise for the flag salute i pledge allegiance 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 for all thank you for that and oh we have a good night tonight i don't think I need a microphone can
you folks hear me yes all right all right so special night for me tonight who are you doing first by the way whoever you want whatever you want to do i don't I guess maybe the kids first yeah going to do the kids first so as a lot of you know I coached wrestling in town for years and years and years in
the trustee wrestling and uh as you know our council woman Stephie Venberg is very involved with our program and it's been a great program for years i personally think it's one of the best run programs in the in the county if not the whole state of New Jersey we have
some great kids we had great history um and some great guys have run the program for the years and that continues on so we had three uh young wrestlers we're celebrating tonight2 were girls right and just for
the record girls wrestling is the fastest growing sport right now in the United States and uh it's it's incredible how just how good they are and takes a lot of hard work anybody who wrestles knows that so first I'm going
to call up Last paragraph third line from the bottom all the way to the bottom third line from the bottom ko please come [Applause]
forward how are you young lady don't be shy pretend you're on the mine congratulations great job so it reads "Whereas the 2025 scholastic season came to an end on Sunday March 17th 2025 as
the best New Jersey youth wrestlers gave their best in pursuit of the medal in Trenton and the USAW- New Jersey Scholastic State Championships whereas USAW- New Jersey conducted the final regional qualifier on Sunday March 9th 2025 in Fairmont New
Jersey boys qualifying tournaments were held in nine sites spread throughout the state starting with Tom's River East High School and ending with Bayon High School and whereas this year there was also a record six girl qualifying tournaments one more than last year in an effort to attract more competition
opportunities and attract more participation now therefore I John Petros Jr mayor of the city of Hackinac along with members of the city council do hereby congratulate Luna Viscano twotime state placeholder representing the city of Hackinack by placing at the
USA wrestling state of New Jersey championships congratulations everybody [Applause] [Music] yes yes yes mr brings up a a great point the new uh indoor sports facility that we're
building down in Johnson Park is going to have a whole section just for wrestling so you'll have Yes I see coach back there going it's been a long time coming coach um though the high school isn't too bad right now i remember when it flooded and we set the mats were
soaking wet back then but uh yeah it's going to be a nice nice wrestling gym in there so next up could I have Roman DAP come up [Applause]
please say you weigh about 80 pounds more less how much more how much 98 98 okay i was way off so it reads "Whereas the 2025 schools
season came to an end on Sunday March 17th 2025 as the best New Jersey youth wrestlers gave their best in pursuit of the medal in Trenton in the USAW USA state championships and whereas USAW- New Jersey conducted the final
regional qualifier on Sunday March 9th 2025 in Fairmont New Jersey boys qualifying tournaments were held behind sight spread throughout the state starting with Tom's River excuse me East High School and ending with Fairmont High School whereas this year we're also
record six qualifying tournaments one more than last year in an effort to attract more competition opportunities and attract more participation now therefore I John Petros Junior mayor of the city of Hackac along with members of the city council to hereby congratulate Roman Dav time state
placeholder representing the city of Hackinack by placing at the USA wrestling state of New Jersey championships congratulations [Applause] [Music] Roman congratulations to you congratulations So I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my
good buddy Peter program for a long long time i coached the man for over 15 years uh both his sons were high school state champions one time was a three-time final one son was a three-time finalist which doesn't happen too often uh great
wrestlers we also have Councilman Carol's son Jerry Carroll who had the pleasure of coaching as a young boy was an excellent wrestler region medal winner made it to New Jersey states um it's not easy to get there anybody who wrestles knows how hard it is and it
gets harder every year with all the club wrestlers out there so could I please have let's see who's this next young young lady Giana Roenborg how do you pronounce that [Applause] and how are you young lady
congratulations we go way back whereas the 2025 scholastic season came to an end so I'm going to brief you read this already so I get to the good part is that okay okay so now therefore I John Jr mayor of the city of Hackinac
along with the members of this city council do hereby congratulate Ga Venberg threetime state placeholder representing the city of Hackinac by placing at the USA wrestling state of New Jersey championships would you like to tell the people what place you took this year fourth place in the state of
New Jersey [Applause] do we can we bring the other two up to get a picture luna and and Roman come on up can we get a picture you want your mom and dad
too stand up come here guys come here right here you guys can take pictures all right the parental paparazzi just a moment good job thanks guys congratulations
[Applause] we have one more thing to celebrate tonight before we get on with new business you all know March was uh women's history month and we had somebody here that we were going to celebrate but she wasn't available so
she is here now so would Stephanie please come down [Applause] so as you know Stephanie's been on the council with us for quite a while and uh it's amazing what she does because to be a council person with the amount of time
it takes and have three young children takes a lot of dedication plus all the other stuff I'm going to read that she does while she does the stuff she does with us so she's quite a busy young lady and uh so whereas Stephanie von Rudberg graduated from Ruckers University Bill
and continued to seat and hold to receive her law degree Stephanie also attended New Jersey City University and received a master's degree in special education as well as an administrator certification whereas in 2011 Stephanie received the Burton County Teacher of
the Year Award in 2023 Stephanie left the classroom to work in the private sector and whereas councilwoman Wenhort previously served on the planning board before she was elected to the city council in 2017 and whereas Stephanie has worked tirelessly on the city's revitalation
efforts and community improvements s such as the establishment of the community garden upgrades to park ongoing improvements at Machini Park also working as leazison to the board of education library board recreation board and access for all board and whereas
Stephanie continually advocates and assists families that have children with different abilities she has helped her oldest son Evan establish the Best Buddies Club in the middle school which is a group focused on supporting students with differing differing abilities and whereas Stephanie coaches
Hackinack recreation softball for the past three years and along with her husband and another family runs the Hackinack Junior Wrestling Program for the past three years they have grown the program from just 40 wrestlers to over 85 wrestlers with over 10 female
wrestlers with that now therefore I John P leos Jr mayor of the city of Hackinack along with the members of the city council do hereby recognize Councilwoman Stephanie Vber during Women's History Month and for her dedicated service to the city of Hackinack congratul
[Applause] Everyone knows I love speaking i just want to thank everyone it's been such an honor to serve for the past eight years um you know serving alongside my council members uh Deb
Allison Vinnie Steve and all my fellow council members and my board members i've been on it's just been such an experience i've learned so much the biggest highlight is is serving uh the citizens of Hackinac um getting to go out there and meet everyone and you know learn why they love this city as
much as I do and as much as my family does it's just such an honor um you know I trade the last eight years for the world but I am excited to be able to spend more time with my family um and thanks to my family you know my kids I've missed out on a lot of things with them because of serving um and thanks to
my husband for picking up the slack and for my mom and mother-in-law for getting the kids everywhere they have to be because it's not it's not easy um and I'm just so proud to see some of our wrestlers here i have another soft player here and I that's what I really enjoy doing is coaching and being with
the kids and it's just it's a really nice feeling but I I thank everyone at the city for supporting me um and I love serving here and next app [Applause] [Music]
mayor if I may I have to tell the story about where and how the city was blessed to find Stephanie von Runenberg where else would you think that I this deputy deputy the city manager uh deputy mayor listen to me would be fortunate enough
to find Stephanie at a wrestling match all right there was a wrestling match in Hackinack my grandson was wrestling and Stephanie's one of Stephanie's sons was wrestling gigi you were a baby you were a baby at that time and even though my
daughter always yelled at me "Mom you're here to watch Joey but I'm talking to everyone in the stands about being getting involved in the city and handing out cards." And lo and behold I get a phone call from Stephanie were you serious that you were looking for people to be involved in the city and I said
"Absolutely." She came on the planning board with us because she was interested in real estate and she was she was such a gem that we talked her into running for council with us and have been blessed to have her for the past eight years i call her my work daughter sorry real mom out there um because in many
ways she became that and we're going to miss you terribly and you did a wonderful job for eight years thank you thank you thank you so a real cute story back in 2017 Stephanie was running for the first
time and uh grabbed camp and it's raining and here she comes with a stroller with Gigi in that stroller with a cover over going door to door in the pouring rain right that's how much he wanted to get on the city council that's
dedication if you think about it and uh we're going to miss that but you'll hear from this young lady again in the future got that in her blood she's a she's a public servant and whatever she does you know you spend time with your family that's the right thing to do i
understand that but the day is going to come when you say "Gee I got some free time i wonder what I can do." And she's going to be doing something out there so pay attention and you know 10 15 years from now this lady's name will pop up again i guarantee it so kudos to you
okay oh yes if you guys want to go we're going to take a fivem minute recess so you can clear out no reason to stay for the whole council meeting i know you got kids that got to go to bed i think okay right back to business i need a motion to approve the minutes of the
March 25th 2025 executive tower and regular meeting offer second all in favor i I none opposed and with that we go to the city manager's report thank you mayor the city's annual Easter egg hunt will be held on Tuesday April
15th at Johnson Park this is a free event one-year-olds through preK begin at 400 p.m and kindergarten through 4th grade start at 4:30 p.m summer camp registration opened April 1st camps
include theater camp playground camp adventure camp and extended day camp space is very limited so be sure to register early baseball and softball opening day is scheduled for April 19th slam Dunk the Junk will be held
April 26th from 9:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m organizations must be registered in advance information can be found on the city's website the veteran banner registration will be available starting this week through the recck desk program it is limited to the first 100 people
initially banners will be hung on Main Street from Memorial Day to through Veterans Day new Jersey is requiring lead safe inspections for rental units landlords with pre978 rental properties located in the
city of Hackinac are required to have inspections completed by July 22nd landlords can use any company of their choosing as long as the compliance is obtained please reach out to the building department if you have any questions that's all I have
okay i just want to touch on uh the veterans banners real quick i want to uh first thank Allison here deputy clerk the executive secretary to the city manager for all the work she's done on this but I don't know if you can see
this from out here but up and down Main Street these banners are going to be on all those nice black light poles we put in up and down Main Street families will be celebrating their veterans by buying a uh they can buy the banner um the money goes towards paying for the banner
it'll have that person's name on it what branch they served in um whether they were in war or not um their rank uh and all the pertinent information um we already have how many Allison like 25 people so far so 25 so we're
going to be able to accommodate close to 200 and 20 no it's 114 228 two 228 veterans in Hackinack will have available uh banners that they can get a lot of other towns have done it it's great to see it's a great way to honor
those who fought for this country and looking forward to that on Main Street it's going to be just another added benefit to our new Main Street so thank you Ally and with that we go into new business ready Deb
yep resolution 173-25 this is a resolution for final adoption of ordinance number 14-2025 an ordinance to amend chapter 107 of the code of the city of Hackinack licenses and permits to update summer theater camp fee the ordinance has been
published according to law and now calls for a public hearing okay I need a motion to open to the public offer second all in favor i I hearing none opposed anyone from the public who'd like to speak to this ordinance and only this ordinance please come forward seeing no members of the public
motion to close offer second all in favor i I none opposed i need a motion to adopt the ordinance offer second all in favor i I none opposed be resolved by the city council of the city of Hackinack County of Bergen state of New
Jersey that ordinance number 14-2025 has passed his second and final reading and is hereby adopted thank you resolution 174-25 this is a resolution for final adoption of ordinance number 16-2025 an ordinance of the city of
Hackinac authorizing the transfer of city-owned property identified as a portion of block 312 lot 21 on the city tax assessment map to the Hackinack Public Library pursuant to NJSA4A 12-13B section 1 this ordinance
has been published according to law and now calls for a public hearing need a motion to open to the public offer second all in favor i I opposed um anybody who'd like to speak to this ordinance and this ordinance only please come forward seeing no members of the
public motion to close offer second all in favor i i none opposed motion to adopt the ordinance offer second all in favor i i none opposed be resolved by the city council of the city of Hackinac County of Bergen and the state of New
Jersey that ordinance number 16-2025 has passed his second and final reading and is hereby adopted thank you resolution 175-25 this is a resolution for the introduction of ordinance 17-2025 and ordinance to amend chapter
170 of the code of the city of Hackinac parking to update section 49.2 parking for handicapped need a motion to introduce the ordinance offer second all in favor i I none opposed be resolved that the above ordinance being ordinance
17-2025 as introduced is now passed on first reading and the set ordinance shall be considered for final passage at a meeting to be held on April 22nd 2025 at 8:00 p.m or as soon thereafter the matter can be reached at the regular meeting place of the city council and as such time and place all persons
interested be given an opportunity to be heard concerning said ordinance and that the city clerk be hereby authorized and directed to publish set ordinance according to law with a notice of its introduction and passage on first reading and of the time and place when and where said ordinance will be further considered for final passage thank you
resolution 176-25 it's a resolution authorizing tax refunds for state board judgments need a motion please offer second all in favor i I opposed resolution 177-25 it's a resolution authorizing
approval of amendment to the 2025 temporary budget need a motion please offer second all in favor i i none opposed resolution 178-25 this is a resolution awarding bid contract for the firehouse engine number
two improvements need a motion please offer second all in favor i i none opposed resolution 179-25 say a resolution authorizing change order number two to HQW Architects LLC for architectural services related to
Johnson Park Sports Facility Administration building need a motion please offer second all in favor I I none opposed resolution 180-25 a resolution authorizing change order number one
which is final to manner 2 electric for East Kennedy pump station emergency generator a replacement need a motion offer second all in favor i I none opposed resolution 181-25 it's a resolution authorizing the
awarding of contract to Neglia Engineering for County Road ADA ramp compliance project Main Street and Johnson Avenue construction management need a motion offer second all in favor i i opposed 182-25 this is a resolution authorizing the
awarding of contract to Neglia Engineering for County Road ADA ramp compliance project contract 8 design need a motion please offer second all in favor i I none opposed 183-25
this is a resolution authorizing the awarding of state contracts for the purchase of the Motorola Command Central Aware Plus System for the police department need a motion offer second roll call council member von Rutenberg hi deputy Mayor Conrino hi council
member Vaglia hi council member Carol abstain mayor Labros i resolution 184-25 this is a resolution repealing resolution number 319-22 that authorized the first amendment to redevelopment agreement
with 307 Maine MF-Q urban renewal LLC and res rescending first amendment to redevelopment agreement with 307 Maine MF-Q urban renewal LLC within the 321 Main Street redevelopment plan area need
a motion offer second all in favor i I none opposed resolution 185-25 it's a resolution authorizing a crude time payout of $186,827.99 to retire to retired fire deputy chief John Taylor need a motion
please offer second all in favor i i none opposed and resolution 186-25 this is a resolution authorizing payment of bills need a motion to pay the bills offer need a second
second second roll call please council member von Rudenberg hi deputy Mayor Castrino hi council member Paglia hi council member Carol hi mayor Leos i abstain [Applause] anybody have any conflicts in the consent agenda no no we're
good the um with that go ahead the following items are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted in one motion any items requiring expenditure are supported by a certification of availability of funds any item requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda and
consent agenda items will be reflected in full in the minutes including any exceptions and/or additions the consent agenda consists of resolution 187-25 a resolution authorizing rapper licenses resolution 188-25 resolution authorizing a leave of
absence extension for Karina Buono public safety telecommunicator from March 30th 2025 to June 21st 2025 resolution 189-25 is a resolution establishing a hometown heroes military veteran banner program to honor the
military service of city residents resolution 190-25 is a resolution authorizing placetoplace liquor license transfer for Chevetet Enterprises LLC for license number 0223
4425006 to be located at 380 West Pleasant View Avenue building a unit 2 resolution 191-25 is a resolution designating the registar deputy registar and alternates for the health department resolution 192-25 is a resolution
authorizing release of escrow funds for multiple properties resolution 193-25 is a resolution authorizing release of performance bond and safety/stabilization bond for 116 Essex Street resolution 1944-25 is a resolution in support of
Bergen County's Housing Health and Human Services Center CDBGCV project application submitted to the Bergen County Division of Community Development for a new HVAC system resolution 195-25 is a resolution in support of Bergen
County Housing Health and Human Services Center CDBG project application submitted to the Bergen County Division of Community Development for a roof with that we need a motion second all in favor i I none opposed
okay that went pretty quickly okay need a motion to open to the public please all in favor i I opposed anybody from the public who'd like to speak in this session please come forward give your name to the clerk and you will have
three minutes good evening ma'am how are you good evening i'm Helen Russian and I have a complaint about parking on Third and High Street we have a big problem with parking because the
apartment building is there and the one that live in there they I guess they don't want to pay the second parking so they come and take up the space on high street we don't have driveways so this is where we park so when we leave out and come back we may
not get a parking because it's all filled up and I I came to see what can you do about that we have the school parking there and also the hospital park there and we hope that you can do something for us so what I would recommend is a uh our sticker program
that we use uh for residents parking yes um it's a sticker that you put on your window of your car and that entitles you to park there um without it you can't park there in other words what street do you So it's third and high right yes
what street are we talking about baltimore on third on on High Street we talking about high street so when they can't find when they can't find a parking on Third Street cuz there's nothing no meters or nothing there right so they take up this spot their parking on High Street we've
actually uh used this program in in close to you up by um what's that street the Wolf and Stanley and some other areas over there same thing where they have like bus commuters park their cars there and hop
on the bus and they park there for you know the whole day similar with the hospital parking and school parking and the apartment parking uh good news is that Hackinac Medical Center is building a 700 car parking garage to help alleviate the problem that they're
causing with parking so that's going to help alleviate some of it but not all of it but I think the sticker program over there so we'll have traffic look at that and see if they can uh recommend doing that thank you very much oh you're quite welcome thank you thanks for coming
next person from the public please miss Somerville hi good evening um city council member city manager um legal so uh one quick question so I chaired the Hacksac environmental committee and I'm not sure if I can talk to the city manager directly if I need to go through
the city council in order to have the conversation the mic get the mic closer can you guys hear okay better so at um city manager phenomenal budget right I've printed it out taking my time going through the budget looking at it and one of the things that I noticed is that
there is no line item for the different um committees and boards that serve as part of the city council so as part of the Hackinack environmental commission there is sometimes we're looking at like one for example was the information about the bike study right and bike
safety part of that is a grant that had to be you know we had to go out and actually get a grant in order for them to be able to consider as to whether or not we can look at the difference between county streets and city streets and what the remediation would look like in order for us to be able to proceed with putting in bike lanes so is it
possible then to have a conversation or understand whether or not there could be a line item budget now I'm not talking about thousands of dollars right but at least something substantial that in case we need to look at some sort of a study right some sort of an issue we have our
own line item we can go to instead of always having to depend on grants or like they did with getting the you know the fee monies from doing the um dispensaries and then the city council donated that money to shade tree in order for them to go out and do something could we look at that as a
possibility yeah yeah we can have that conversation i'll bring in uh our CFO Mr mangan and he'll be able to uh tell us how we would go about doing that and assigning money within the budget for that okay that shouldn't be a problem all right thank you you're welcome the other thing I might
recommend um Marlene is you know we decided we use the green to green theory with the cannabis money that was coming in to put it toward some of it to the Sha Tree Commission um obviously the environmental commission also is a green feature and uh maybe some of the
cannabis money can go towards that to make a line item for you to work with maybe we could talk to Jim because we only we used the first quarter money for the shade tree and we put in a trust for them so maybe we could do something similar with the second quarter money and put some of that money to good use and Okay thank you thank you
mr serbo you're up yes you're speaking twice tonight this is a rarity wow it's I'm you know I'm urged uh by others to to speak it's from when we started in the work session you know the whole
thing about these roads and streets and no one says a word again about Spring Valley Avenue i don't want to go on about that but it's it's actually ridiculous it's like a little highway there okay it's u there should be some
kind of redirection they should be going on route four or something or you know and so I'll just leave it at uh saying do something that's all okay that's it we're trying all right very good and and um look
other things uh too uh uh that I was at the uh women's panel discussion the other what was it last week or something I forget and I I just thought it was kind of gratuitous that you you would make a an event out of it for your benefit it
It seemed like uh it was a campaign event mr uh Leos got up okay it was like almost a a a city uh council meeting almost and so if anybody was there you know what I mean yeah kathy was There were six There were six women there it
was women's history month event it wasn't all about me there was no hardly any Hackinack people there they were from all over the county there was Okay how do you know how do you know because I know the people okay but I'm just saying that it just seemed like it was staged as a little campaign certainly
certainly wasn't campaigning was there anything any talk of the election or the campaign at that absolutely not it was talking about the personal lives of six women that had achieved a lot in their lives and it was in there was nothing in that anything to do with the campaign or
the city okay well how did you get on the panel then i don't I was chosen as were the other women who have have accomplished things in their lives and Mr lebron seemed to you know Mr leos gave the certificates the women got proclamations in honor of Women's History Month right and he just fit
right in he always honor he always gives the proclamations i'm not going to argue with you it was a lovely event and I think that you know there were many folks there that enjoyed it i'm sorry if you didn't all right last time I saw him too I I spoke about uh uh what we're
doing with uh uh tax abatements and and what that discussion is about is there is there any uh negotiation and he says "Oh wow." He pointed to you he he he said "Oh Kathy takes care of all that." He said "Well she does." So I said "Okay." You know wonderful what what's
what is she doing can she When he's done we'll put them up can she work on a benefit for these developers to take a five-year uh uh tax abatement the first
year is 20% 40% 60% 80% the fifth year it's 100% what's wrong with that why are you giving away so much why can't you keep it uh you know reasonable uh so others in town aren't you know paying
the tax uh bill okay it it's uh and I'm talking about homeowners homeowners pay for everything and I don't know why we don't get a tax rebate why can't we get a tax rebate if we let's say we decide to uh refurbish our home and spend 50
$75,000 refurbishing our home do we get a tax rebate could we get a tax rebate why not we got 15 seconds left but I want to explain something i actually have actual numbers in front of me right now which I want to I have the slides so we're going to put them up so let's let him finish
no I mean if let's say you decide and people are not refurbishing their homes because of that because you're going to increase the taxes with a reassessment and there's no t there's no tax rebate why can't there be one uh for a homeowner to fix up his home which would
be sort of a a development on its own you know personal development so before we go to the slides that we're going to show I just want to make the statement 12 years ago 15 years ago downtown Hackinac was a I can't say it what I
really want to call it it was in bad shape yeah okay there was 30 40 homeless people on the street every night other towns actually dropped their homeless people off on Main Street Hackinack businesses closed at 6:00 there was no economy there was nothing this was a
downtown that was the the shining star of Bergen County before the malls came and decimated our main streets okay you you seem to be missing we've gone through this a lot Rich the bigger picture the revenue created by these
buildings is I know you like to put up the other slide Frank please i know you like to harp on that okay no but let's let's look at the data because we brought it for you tonight so just we we your time is up we have a few minutes let John We understand it all we do no
you don't you don't why can't you You would rather have Let's take Go over there yeah let's take There's a couple of small ones a couple of medium ones and a couple of large
ones so we picked a few of each so let's take 151 170 Main Street the big building the 15 story all right all right when that was sitting there as an empty bank for 15 20 years all right it was paying $237,000 a year in taxes okay
it now pays $833,000 okay you'd rather have this than this because if you didn't have this you'd be paying more taxes okay so how are you responsible for that though i mean wait how are you responsible for
all this it the only reason you're responsible for it is because you gave away tax breaks doesn't get done without without tax breaks no without meeting yeah there's a there's a pilot it's not a tax break it's a state-run pilot program incentive okay point being Richard why I said you'd rather have the
lower number because without the pilot program this doesn't happen all right but let's none of these blue lines you see happen okay I I understand all that i do but don't don't try to take credit for all this development okay because
how do we not take credit for it Rich nothing happened in this town for 30 or 40 years there was nothing happening in this town you gave away some tax breaks there's no giving away tax don't call it tax breaks it's an alternate snowalled it's an alternate mechanism for tax it
snowballed and it's a race to the bottom okay it's what it is every town every town around here is doing it it it's because it's re you're rebuilding a city that's a was an aging city whose infrastructure was falling apart who let
me finish whose storm water management the buildings that were there before had no storm water management mechanism every one of those buildings goes through a radical procedure no you asked why we're why we're doing this is why we did this rich we put these things in place all right no so we're helping
we're helping the flooding we're helping the management of storm water we're bringing revenue into this city that's why we're taking credit we're on board with that but it's you know come on it's the the bottom line Rich if you had it your way without the abatements we'd be
paying $20 million more in taxes every year you didn't say that see you you you say things I don't say you saying we're give these giveaways aren't give no I said that the abatements are too large and you know they are they are not rich
they're based on the economy and what this is the only way they get the financing to do these projects without the abatement it's based on the size of the project right right that's what dictates whether it's a 30 down to a 10year project all right should not be
happening fiveyear uh abatements are workable they are they're 20 40 60 80% been talking about this for years jerry Jerry would like us not to have this discussion because he feels you're running for office and we're running for office and you're turning this into a
campaign citizen that came up and spoke he didn't identify himself as a campaign he he didn't but we have to respect all of our council members if that is defer to you is this campaigning this is factual no if you're explaining a city policy regardless of whether Mr serbo's
running for office or not there's no prohibition um about you explaining what the city's business is or how you're doing this at all i I certainly wouldn't say you know I I don't think Rich should be saying you should vote for me because of X or you should vote for me because
of Y but if you're explaining why there's the need for pilots so that the public understands it even if there's misinformation being spread as part of a political campaign you have every right to come back and combat that misinformation so that the public knows the truth and so I have zero legal
problem with you doing that all right then I would I would like to present the other slide if you would uh Frank please put the other slide up just very quickly and then I'll let you ask me a question if you like this is real data all right so you're going to see in 2020 we only had one building that was open and
leased and we were taking in $539,000 a year at that point okay as more buildings came to be you see 2021 1.5 million 2022 three and a half million etc etc last year in 2024 we
brought in almost $10 million in money that we would not have had should this development not happen now the question is if we did not bring that $10 million in who would be paying that $10 million you I and everyone else because this money is subtracted directly from the bottom line which you can see if you're
curious go online and look at the budget and you'll see it's subtracted right off the bottom line now without adding anything new to the pilot to the pot everyone that is in process now we do 135year planning here in the city that's how we operate and if you look at the
135year plans in five years that 10 million with the with the buildings that are in process of being built will be close to $20 million look at the sidelines right now in 2024 without pilots alone an average home that's assessed at
$321,000 would be paying an additional 400 no you don't let me finish $467 a year more in taxes we get an additional $4 million a year the medical center like to hear yourself based on based on growth that would be $664 a
year that each person that had an average home of $321,000 would be paying those are the facts and that is the data that can be backed up by the city and cannot be disputed rich so you can say all you like about these things this is
helping our taxpayers and beautifying our city as the mayor said now if you have a question for me I'll be happy to answer yeah okay what about uh tax abatements for homeowners why not why can't we refurbish our homes if you're going to pay more they're all paying more they're all paying more if you want
to pay more they were paying what did you say John 200,000 it went to 800,000 if you'd like to quadruple what you're paying sure we'll take that abatement i I I just want to also point out that you know because it is important to point out that the the the abatement
programs the pilot programs they're all established by statute by state law if you believe that there should be a program to that effect the person you should be sp speaking to is Gordon Johnson and your assembly people and the Senate President and the governor of New
Jersey so um you know they they can't create programs that the state law does not provide for so you understand all right no it's okay thank you i just I just think you're riding this wave okay trying to just educate you Rich i'm sorry but we have to educate you that's
all we're trying to do here and the public if anyone's interested you want you want to give one to Rick would you like a copy yeah okay i want one yeah sure yes yes i want one and this is all available on the city website all right thank you so much
you're welcome okay that's it uh nobody else nobody else from the public motion to close to the public offer second all in favor i I none opposed
councilwoman Vroom sure thank you everyone for coming out um as the city manager mentioned earlier opening day for baseball and softball of Hacknac is April 19th at Fashini Park um if you're around come out and support our uh young athletes um thank you to Allison i know
um the deputy mayor and the city manager mentioned it earlier but thank you to Allison for all her hard work on the veteran banner um this started probably what two two years ago at least two years ago um trying to get this off the ground and there was a lot of bumps in the way and Allison did a lot of research with the other towns and what
they're doing um and then to hear that it wasn't being allowed anymore by PSTNG was was really disappointing so um thinking you know thinking quickly um using our our pools and our light pools to get everything done was was the way to go and I think it's a great way to
honor all of our veterans um they are they should definitely always be in the forefront um it's nice when you go to other towns and you see all the veterans up there and and their service so um we want to do the same in Hackinack and we appreciate your help Allison um and again Reces Desk is where you would go
um for for registering for one um if you're not familiar at Reces um I guess they could reach out to the recreation department and find out how to get to that we have awesome okay so some people might prefer hard copies just so everyone has access to it um today we
had our monthly meeting with the Hackin Sack Board of Ed um and of course you know the discussion with uh the new school came up and you know as a parent of three of three children um in the schools this you know it's imperative that we we get this done um you know we we discussed all the logistics we've you
know worked with uh the prior board members and you know the new board members are here then then they did the uh study and looking at different things and I really hope this moves forward because I think this is a great great um probably the best opportunity they're going to have to to have a new school
and um it's very much needed so you know again I I just hope this all works out um you know I won't be here in a couple months but you know for the kids of Hackinack this needs needs to get done Um in regards to uh what else
um where was I oh um the proclamations tonight uh thanks to Dela um and and Deb and Allison it was a really nice honor to be honored for Women's History Month and I know the wrestlers really appreciated being honored uh you know wrestling is a a tough sport um and those kids really work hard all three of
them um and again just I'm lucky to work alongside such wonderful women um deputy mayor has been a great mentor to me um for all women who are in government or are aspiring to be in government um she's really taught me to you know it's not easy to make everybody happy you just have to kind of get over that and
try your best so um I appreciate that she's been a wonderful mentor along the way and to Deb and Allison and Dela and everyone else that I've had the honor of working alongside um great role models um as women working in government so appreciate it um to everyone have a happy Easter happy Passover and uh
that's it see you see you next meeting thanks Steph we're all really going to miss her we're glad we have her for a few more months but um you know she's been a real valuable contribution to the city and great part of our team so we'll really miss you Steph and you know the wrestlers we love to uh acknowledge you
those that achieve our young folks that achieve both academically in the arts world and and in sports because it's important for folk for the young folks to get that recognition and they you know it's something that they feel good about and they're going to work even harder because they see hey hard work pays off look you know I put in a lot of
effort and look what I achieved um I know that we also invited the track team but I guess uh Debbon and uh Allison they couldn't make it tonight but they um well when you first suggested it they were like on number one of their awards
and now they're I think they're up to like number five so there was a lot of stuff that the coach had to get together plus they had um tournament or something in between a competition in between so they're busy bees yeah so we're hoping for the next meeting if not probably the
first one in May i just want folks Yeah yeah the high school yes that because they had one and then they went on further and one again and then there was other ones that reached that set records and then that set over set record it was it
was we just want don't want folks to think we overlook them and you know they will be coming they were invited to be here tonight as well um I like to usually talk about if there's anything on here that pertains to work that I'm doing anything to do with redevelopment and there was just one item on here
tonight uh the 321 Main Street development that's the one that's on the corner of Maine and Berry uh they really are just opening actually this was they had an additional piece of property that was at 307 Maine and at one point they were going to include it in that development and they since changed their
mind and decided they're not going to include it in their development so this particular resolution tonight just said we're omitting that piece of property and they will come up with other plans for it so it was basically just a simple uh a simple resolution um uh I agree with Steph we had a I think another good
meeting with the board of ed you know the new members are trying to come up to speed we've been working to get a new school done with the board of ed for the past eight or 10 years um and we've still offering to pay for land and help them in any way we can and you know they're still trying to figure out what
they really want and we're trying to help them in that initiative and I hope it gets accomplished soon just so folks know we also talked about a few other things you know there are there are issues with residency you know the number of students and are they all really Hackinack people you know are
they really living in Hackinack all of the students that we have and there's ways that you can do uh kind of a broad stroke of residency checking by using some other companies that will actually only get paid should they find folks that really shouldn't be in our schools
so we talked and we we we had talked to other board members about this in the past and it's kind of didn't take off so we just brought that up and asked if they would look into that again and we are having you know always have had traffic issues with pickup and drop offs in our town folks that live near the
schools you know in the mornings and then in the afternoons you know folks at parking they're actually leaving cars in the middle of the street to pick up their children and you know other towns have successful drop off and pickups where you don't have to get out of your car they told us they're trying a drop
just a drop off at Fairmount School so we're hoping I think if we could work together with them and get that accomplished that would alleviate a lot of those traffic issues and parking issues people have come and told us that they're actually parking their cars in their driveway to walk their children to school and then they have to go out and
get to work and they can't get their cars out of their driveways so we really have to work together as a city and and a school to try and clean up some of that so it was a good meeting and I think talked about topics that were very apppropo i also wish everyone to enjoy
their holiday whatever they whatever it is that they celebrate Passover Easter um let's hope the weather warms up right for the Easter egg hunt for the kids when is that Vinnie do we announce that easter egg hunt is April 15th april 15th so let's hope tax day tax day so let's
hope we have some nice weather for the children and you know the city does that at Johnson Park right still at Johnson Park and uh enjoy your night the rest of your night and enjoy your week coming thank you congratulations again to the boys and girls they participate in the sport of wrestling my father used to wrestle in
high school and you hear about uh we're going to start the the baby program for 225 and for the kids they practice the wrestling sport um like the mayor said we're going to have in the new sport we're going to have an area yet for
resol and enjoy your holidays thank you for coming J congratulations to the wrestlers and to Stephanie on this evening i would like to thank everyone who has attended
this meeting physically and remotely take care and God bless thank you chair [Music] okay so we mentioned the Easter egg hunt uh the Veterans Banner program was mentioned opening day of baseball coming
up it's uh 19th 19th 19th April 19th okay it's a great day to come out and watch the kids we announce the teams it's always fun um I don't know if I'll be able to throw this year i know you ain't going to be able to catch
i could I did it last year i did it right yeah caught though right i got I got to catch her i could still reach over especially on the small field it's her last year let Stephie do it all right we throw Let her do it she can't throw a catch she could throw it all
funny uh congrats to our wrestlers special night for me i I spoke with the one coach and uh because I really want to do something for Patetto and John Deia who I coached with for all those years and uh to recognize them for and what I
really want to do is get the junior wrestlers here from decades ago um who are now young men and uh it's always exciting to see see those those guys again so congratulations to Steph thank you
for all you've done for the city um it's been a pleasure i know you're still you're not out the door yet but uh you know not yet we're not rushing you out but uh best of luck in whatever you do thank you happy Easter happy Passover to everybody and uh get home safely and as
you heard tonight we had a lot of issues a lot of traffic issues in town with speeders and drive you know crazy drivers and uh pedestrian issues and we've been working pretty hard on it but it's it we're a city so there's a lot going on in here and it's a combination
of a lot of things you know one of the things I I realize when people talk about traffic in Hackinack some of it self-created but you know one of the things we talk about Hackinack being so great it's right between all the major highways whereby you got four you got 17 you got 46 you
got 80 well guess what they all drop off in Hackinack right so you get all these people getting off the highways going through our towns and uh in Bergen County and it's it's painful sometimes especially Polifly Road in 80 um one of
the worst roads I've seen isn't even in Hackinack you go by Maywood Avenue where 17 drops off from 17 going towards it it goes all the way from Essex Street to Fake Street backed up terrible so it's it's traffic in in this area Bergen
County is pretty pretty bad but you know what i'll drive you drive up to Paramis on a Friday night at four o'clock you know it it take you 45 minutes to get up to Ma so it's it's there's a lot of traffic in Bergen County a lot of that is because our mass transit in Bergen
County is horrible right we should have more trains we should have sorry to say this Rich more buses um you know just let them be more people more people using mass transit means less cars on the on the on the highways and streets so you know it's a
no-brainer we just God bless you we just can't seem to accomplish it but maybe someday we'll get there so everybody have a great night have a happy Easter happy Hannah uh Passover take care motion to close the meeting offer second
all in favor i going to pose