in accordance with section five of the open public meetings act chapter 231 PL1975 notice of this meeting was posted on the bulletin board designed for that purpose and notice was transmitted itted to the official newspapers provided by resolution adopted January 4th, 2025. Meeting notice has also been
continuously posted on the Barrow website. I have a roll call. Yes, Mayor. Council President Morgan here. Councilwoman Phillips is absent but excused. Councilman Addison here. Councilman Bean here. Councilwoman Harren here.
Councilman Dear here. And mayor, thank you. Thank you. Next, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. 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. Please remain standing for a moment of silence. Thank you. Please be seated. I'll now open it up for public comment on agenda items only. you'd like to make a comment regarding the agenda, please step up to the microphone, state
your name and the town you're from for the record. All right, not seeing any public comment, we'll close the public comment portion, move into the caucus work session. And not seeing any items on caucus work session, we will uh move right into the approval of the minutes
of the April 15, 2025 business meeting minutes. I have a motion to approve the minutes of the April 15th business meeting, please. Motion by Councilwoman Haron. I have a second. Seconded by Councilman Addison. All those in favor? Any opposed or
abstained? An abstension by Councilman Agon Hagen. Next, I have a motion for the approval of the executive session minute to the April 15, 2025 work session. I have a motion, please. Motion by Councilman Deore. I have a second.
Seconded by Councilman Herren. All those in favor? Any opposed or abstained? Abstension by Councilman Pagan. Keep doing that to you. Sorry about that, buddy. Um, next we'll have the Barrow Engineers report. Steve or Craig? Craig. All
right. Give Steve the night off. Uh, good evening. We submit our written report. Just want to give a couple highlights. Um the fiscal year 2024 road program. Uh this is paving of Maple A, East High Street between second and third, third,
fourth. Uh paving is complete on Maple and East High between second and third. Uh the base paving is in the process of being completed on East High between third and fourth. We've run in some into some base issues. We're going to have to be uh doing some additional base uh
repairs. So, we're gonna give it some time and and see how the base solidifies and work with the contractor and try to get that done in a timely manner. So, I'm gonna add we had clay. So, we had we had wet marl and so the majority of the road was good shape, but a portion of
the road was just built right on clay marl. And if anybody knows about trying to dig through clay or try to put anything on clay, it's not stable material. Once it gets wet, it moves and becomes very that solve. Sorry. Yes. Uh second, the
fiscal year 2025 road program. This is again borrow funded. Um our survey is complete for Second Avenue between Highland and Garden as well as 7th Avenue between East High and Lipot. So those are the two sections we're going to try to get out as soon as possible. Uh and hopefully get it under construction throughout the summer
before school starts because both of those road segments are along uh a school. Um then to follow that would be second avenue between Kings and Station, Oakland, Oakav between Maple and Glen View and then Crest between High Highland and Bradshaw. Uh those sections
will be put out later uh probably in the in the summer for fall early spring construction of next year. Uh and just one thing of note, the resolution 122 uh that's on the agenda for tonight. Um that is the proposal for us to
design. It says the reconstruction of St. Martins's um or actually that was part of the application. However, we we're now refocusing on uh New Jersey Avenue and Winfield. Uh so just for note and that's all I have unless there's any questions. I'm sorry. Should the
resolution be amended to reflect um 12? The proposal mentions all three roadways. So, if the resolution says that, I think we're fine. Um, I didn't see the actual resolution. I'm sorry about that. So, just quick question for High
Street. Do you have a timet for when they might be tough? Uh, couple weeks. Anything anything a little bit clearer than that? So, we we understand it's press and we understand it's been under construction. Yeah, for a real long time. Well, there
was also an incident call. So, uh, it looks like we've already been working with, uh, u grandstar, the CFO, in order to address the clay. Most likely what's going to occur is, and you when you drive down the road, it's drivable, but you can see the areas that the paving is
sort of uneven and wavy. Most likely that's going to be dug out. And then what we're going to install in that area of clay, which is what we call ballast, which is 3 to 4 inch larger stone. You push that into the clay, you put
geoexile fabric, and then we repave. Uh we're not going to let it go for a prolonged period of time. We just had a little we just had a proof roll today after the rain to really size it up, but most likely that's what we're going to proceeding with doing. So I would expect it inside of six weeks to be wrapped up.
We're not going to be waiting three months. All right. Is that the answer we're looking for? I got to tell the people they live around there something. So no, but we also have to make sure that we have a significant investment in that whole area of the roadway. We want to make sure that it's
going to last for the time period that you know, not just one year. We want it to last for tens and tens of years. Yeah. So thank you. Sorry to interrupt. Anything else you hear? Anything else? All right.
Thank you. Thanks, Craig. Thank you, Steve. Next, we'll move into unfinished b business. We have public hearing and final adoption of ordinance 20251570, an ordinance amending ordinance 20251565 authorizing salaries, wages, and reimbursements to be paid non-contractual employees of the bureau
of Haden Heights. May I have a motion to open the public hearing portion of ordinance 20251570. So moved. Motion by Councilman Hagen. I have a second. Seconded by Councilman
Addison. All those in favor? I opposed or abstain. Thank you. The public hearing portion of ordinance 2025 1570 is now open. If you'd like to make a comment regarding this ordinance, please step up to the microphone. State your name and town you live in for the
record. Not seeing any public comment. May I have a motion to close the public comment port the public hearing portion of ordinance 20251570. Some moved. Motion by Councilman Fagan. May I have a second? Seconded by Councilman Harren. All those
in favor? I. Any opposed or abstained? Thank you. Next, may I have a motion to adopt ordinance 2025 1570, an ordinance amending ordinance 202565 authorizing salaries, wages, and reimbursements to be paid to non-contractual employees of the brow of Haden Heights. So moved.
Motion by Councilman Pagan. May I have a second? Seconded by Councilman Deore. Have a roll call vote. Yes, Mayor. Council President Morgan. Yes. I'm sorry. Councilman Addison, yes. Councilman Pagan, yes. Councilwoman
Harren, yes. Councilman Demore, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have public hearing and final adoption of ordinance 202571, an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget cost of living allowance and establish a cap bank NJSA4A 4-45.14. I have a motion to open the
public hearing portion, please. So moved. Motion by Councilman Pagan. I have a second. Seconded by Councilman Harren. All those in favor? I. Any opposed or abstain? Thank you. The public hearing portion for ordinance 2025 1571 is now open. If
you'd like to make a comment, please step up to the microphone, state your name and your town uh for the record. Not seeing any public comment. May I have a motion to close the public hearing portion? Motion by Councilman Addison. May I have a second?
Seconded by Councilman Deore. All those in favor? I. Any opposed or abstain? Thank you. Next. May I have a motion to adopt ordinance 202571 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget cost of living allowance and to establish a cap bank NJSA 484-45.14.
Motion by council president Morgan. May I have a second? Second. Seconded by Councilman Pagan. A roll call vote, please. Yes, Mayor. Council President Morgan, yes. Council Councilman Addison, yes. Councilman Pagan, yes. Councilwoman Haron, yes. Councilman Deore, thank you.
Thank you. Next, we'll move into new business. We have introduction of ordinance 20251572. An ordinance of the Bureau of Haden Heights approving the application and financial agreement for a long-term tax exemption with WHP Haden Heights
Urban Renewal LLC for block 36 lots 10 and 11 on the official Barrow tax map. The public hearing and a final adoption would be scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 at approximately 7 p.m. here in the municipal building located at 625 Station Avenue, Haden Heights, New Jersey. May I have a motion to introduce
ordinance 20251572, please? So moved. Motion by Councilman Fagan. I have a second. Seconded by Councilwoman Haron. Have a roll call vote, please. Yes, Mayor. Council President Morgan.
I'm going to vote no on this. That's because there was there's an exhibit A really has the details on. We don't have that. So don't know. Thank you. Uh, Councilman Utison, yes. Councilman Pagan, yes. Councilwoman
Harren, yes. Councilman Deore, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Again, public hearing and final adoption is scheduled for Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 at approximately 7 p.m. Municipal Building located at 625 Station A, Haden Heights,
New Jersey. Next we have resolutions 2025121. A resolution authorizing a contract to Bach Associates for Professional Engineering Services for the survey design and inspection of the fiscal year 2024 New Jersey Department of Transportation Trust Fund reconstruction of St. Martins's Avenue phase 3.
Resolution 2025122 resolution authorizing a contract for Box Associates for professional engineering services for the survey design and inspection of fiscal year 2025 New Jersey Department of Transportation Trust Fund reconstruction of St. Martins's AB phase 4 resolution 2025123 resolution to close escrow accounts and
authorize refund of planning board escrow balance distinctive image and design LLC resolution 2025124 resolution authorizing a partial refund of a community center rental deposit Harris resolution 2025125 resolution authorizing a refund of street opening permit fee to public
service electric and gas company 7 Highland A which is a county road and resolution 2025126 Six resolution authorizing payment of bills and claims for the first half of May. And we also have a closed session tonight, don't we?
We do. Motion to go in. We also have a resolution authorizing executive session of the nine exceptions going in under attorney client privileges pending litigation and I would anticipate we'd be in there about 15 minutes. So that would be resolution
2025 127. I have a motion for those resolutions, please. So moved. Motion by Councilman Pagan. May I have a second? Second by Councilman Otis. Have a roll call vote, please. Yes, Mayor. Council President
Morgan. Yes. Councilman Otis. Yes. Councilman Van? Yes. Councilwoman Haring? Yes. Councilman Deore? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry about that, Kell. We'll blame Howard. Um There you go. Even if you only knew.
I'll now open it up for public comment. This is public comment on anything at all. Please step up to the microphone. State your name in the town you live in for the record. John Cole 4183rd Avenue Haden Heights. Also 920 Kings Highway Heights. Uh before you tonight to find out uh some
information on the lighting along Kings Highway. Uh, I understand that the county has approved most of it. They're waiting for approval from the town and it's been sitting here in the Yep. Go ahead, Steve. Yep. I had talked to Craig with that. Yep, you're good. So, uh, we
provided all the information that county needs uh, specifically to PSG for the lighting to match the existing streetscape lighting and also a location plan. So, I believe it's in the works. It's beyond the works. It's all approved. PSEG has all the things. They
just need a signature to order it and get it going. I am not aware. So, yep. With the county two days ago. Okay. So, and I and I said I checked with the said they've tried to reach out to you. I've even tried to reach out. Yeah. I I did get your text
the other day, Mr. Con, and um again, the the very directness of your texts at times makes it difficult to respond. Um, it's pretty cut and dry. Not even a good evening, good morning, or anything. Yeah. Right to the point.
Well, it's it's always it's always a followup on our part. Not on yours. We've been under construction there for over a year. And it's I haven't seen any of you stop since the day that the pictures were taken. Actually, I did see Tom a couple times. We are surviving.
Not just me. I'm talking about all of us. Pizza Place, we're all down quite a bit. Okay. Uh we weren't supposed to have any closures. Every day there's a closure. And anything like a project of this magnitude, $12 million, it's going there's going to be unexpected things.
And I like I say, I've seen a lot more effort on Station Avenue that I've ever seen on Kings Highway. You begin to think you're a stepchild. In what regard, sir? Input from the town to have it done to make sure that there's no blockage. Sir, we got free laterals put
in by the county for every I realize that. I mean, we went we spent days Yeah. months dealing with this project three years ago before it started in the planning. We just poured our hearts into this. I'll give you for
instance, but you don't like when But no, like I said, I just like to give you in because nobody's been there to see it at the same time because I'm really good at doing that. No one has been there to see it. So, I'd like to show you what I'm talking play this game or else I can stop and let you make a point and then
I'll make a point. I know your point. I understand your point. This is a large project. I look forward to it being done. I think it's the greatest project, right? I'm not fighting that part of it. Right. Okay. What I'm saying is cooperation. They told me that they're supposed to have signage up. There is no
signage. Never gives directions. Just that way. You end up circling around 17 blocks in order to get back in order to get to our locations. How would you like it? You know, Wyoming Avenue. Are you familiar with it?
Okay. That's opposite my parking lot. It's actually 8 foot off of the entrance to my parking lot. People would come down. They have to turn on Wyoming Avenue coming south. Turn on
Wyoming Avenue up to um Washington. Eight blocks down Washington. Turn left again back on the Kings Highway to come back. I've asked the police, can you just move back 8 feet and direct the
cars into the parking lot that want to go into the parking lot? No. It's a safety hazard. Can't. Steve, is there any way we can Mr. Koko perhaps has identified some issues that should be directed to on this project. Is there any way we can communicate with him and
see what would be feasible to contact? I'm in contact with the county constantly. I'm in contact with the police constantly. Again, you get nowhere's that that is the avenue. The county has because all of the roads are offset, correct? You know what I mean? So, it makes it impossible. They stage
eight blocks. They're working on one block. They're staging eight blocks back. It gets carried away. I've been in construction all my life. I'm not stupid. I've been in projects. I understand it all. But there is also cooperation. There isn't that. So you So the county doesn't have anybody out
there like they they were supposed to have a police car on the stop and he sits in his car all day. There's So there's no liaison. There's no point of contact for you to call. Yeah, there is a point of contact. You contact them. They say we're going to take care of it. And that's where it lies. And I'm on the
phone constantly. You ask for signage. You been talking to sir? I've been talking to Eric and also u Bob uh Harris. Harris. Yes.
It's an ongoing thing every day. I mean I'm down nowhere to life. $4,000 a month contact that actually be responsive on this. They're responsive. They get back to you right away, but no action is done or the action works for
one day and then the next day it's right back to the same thing again. I don't have better things to do than to be on the phone every day and it's like you say, they don't they block all of the side streets so you can't get into King's Highway. It's it's been going on and on.
I mean, the pizza place is down quite a bit. I'm down quite a bit. You have no day business since the pandemic. President Cherry Hill the same things on Route 70 project. Like I say, I've seen it. I know exactly what you're meaning. It's impossible. I worked two years to
build back a day business since the pandemic only to watch it just disappear. We have seniors. That's 90% of our business. They follow detour signs. And when they get detourred three times, they don't come in. We had a lady
show up the other day. She was shaken by the time she got into the restaurant. She had to meet somebody there and she had to take four or five detours to get into it. So, I'm sure we can reach out mayor somebody who Yeah. So, the detours are issue and I'll we'll see what we can do with the work with the county. I will
call Bob Harris tonight when the meeting ends. I'll speak directly with him and I'll see and also lighting. Like I say, I'm I'm here. The lighting is is underway on behalf of all of the guy that whole avenue. They asked for me to when you requested the lighting and I thought it was a great idea by you. Right. Right. I went right away. We
talked I talked with the county. Bob Harris was on board. We pitched the idea. Bob Harris says they're just waiting on you guys. Well, I'll again I'll call them as soon as this meeting is over and we'll we'll we'll cut through the bureaucracy and we'll make sure that that's the case and we'll get it done. All right. We're not aware of any or anything else, but we'll follow.
That's that's what was explained to me. Done. PSG has approved it. They just need to sign off so they can order it. We haven't got an email with any. And I do believe that Bob Harris, he runs the entire I know the buck stops
with Bob. So he's cooperative. I'm not going to say that he's cooperative. Usually is. And so we'll see if there's anything and I think cooperatively or voices and see if there's anything that can be done to
assess. I know it's a difficult process. It'll look beautiful when it's done, but it's like I say, I'm all for it. We're all meeting we had a meeting last week. So we had a meeting last week with the county just so you know and of course there is a lot of detours they're going
to be all over and they're changing every day. So what the county is doing now they are getting better with their social media posting it every single day. That's one thing we did ask so that way you know I've asked them several times which they have listened on Mondays when I know you're spec
specifically off specifically your business both of us. No, listen. No, I'm saying your business. I knew you were off on Mondays and I asked them specifically for Can you please do what you have to do in front of Conles when you can because they're closed and they said yes
and they did do it a lot of days just show us the pizza place. So we're both Mr. Con. Are you going to let me talk this what we're talking about? So when you were saying where the police are at Wyoming, they're there for a reason. If we move back 20 feet, we're going to have a thousand cars going into your
driveway, turning around, coming back out, and having to go another way. So, that's the reason why it is where it is. And I I have talked to the county numerous times about it. I've talked to the construction officials. There is not much more that they can do. And and we've talked this I I get text messages.
We talk all the time between me and you. This is where, you know, you can say what you need to say about the police and I'm saying what I need to say about protecting everybody, not just the police there. So, as far as getting someone in, we can get people in. If we know you're having a party of 40 coming
in, we will I will personally go out there and get people in. So, this this is what we're talking about. So, it's a safety issue. So, I'm sorry, Wyoming, if it was down 20 more feet, guess what? We parked 20 more feet down and that's where people will come. So, that's we're we're trying our best with it. So, I
hope you do realize that. Just to let you know, I was promised that when they blocked and sent them down Wyoming that we would have a sign that says that you could enter in, they would come across with a couple of cones and allow parking lot entrance only. Okay? Sign has never
materialized. That's what I'm trying to say. I'm not I'm not blaming you. I'm not blaming anyone. But there's no communication. No, you just said the police. And I was just telling you from a police from a point we cannot park that much further back because we're
going to have vehicles coming into your lot where there's pedestrian cross and everything. It's not it's not safe at all. So no, we cannot do that. So we've already talked about the construction. I've personally met with you and other so this you know this this is I'm just telling everyone here now that we have
met numerous times. So this isn't the first time. We'll go over it again. I'll go over it with everybody again. We talked about it in our meeting, but we we can do it again. If it's a sign issue, I guarantee Bob Harris will be the first one to jump on on a sign issue. No problem. So, we can we can
I'll bring up I got I have the notes. I'll bring up the sign about a parking sign that directs people into the parking lot. It's like I said, he's doing his job. I know that. But there's it it's never followed up anywhere. They said that he's not been known about it all along and he's been cooperative. I'm
not saying he's not. But what I'm saying is putting a police car there just to stop the traffic doesn't help me. You know, if you got to take a eight block ride around to get back into the restaurant when you could go over, you know, 8 feet, there's no communication. None.
Okay. And the more I complain, the more we all complain. It's not I I honestly And it's not just me. I Okay. I'm here for all of those businesses. You're the you're the you are the only one that has text me. Fippo has my number. Many of them have my number. I went door to door back in the pandemic and all the other
owners all night long. Fippo reaches out to me on a regular basis yet. Have you returned this call? I do. I talked to Filipe. You know why he's a gentleman? He's a gentleman when he calls me and talks. Okay. Well, I was always a gentleman, but it didn't get me any worse because I'm sitting here tonight
with I was You're referring to me with me with anybody. I'm not getting answers from anywhere. Okay. If if if the lighting was going along that far, why didn't somebody reach out to me and tell me that the lighting's going along? Nothing. It's crickets. That's all I ever get is crickets. Okay,
Mr. I've been in this town since 1975. I've invested a lot in this town. And like I said, I'd like a little cooperation coming back. That's all I ask. Okay, Mr. Con. Appreciate it. You're welcome. Have a good night, Mr. Con. Thank you.
Any other public comment? Not seeing any. We'll move into executive I'll close the public comment portion. We'll move into executive session. Thanks. I think we're good, right? It was Yep. Yeah, we're good, Steve. Everything we're good. Yep. Thank
you very much. Awesome. Uh motion to come out of executive session. Motion by Councilman Pagan. I have a second. Seconded by Council President Morgan. All those in favor? Any opposed or abstain? Thank you. Uh not seeing anything to act on. May I
have a motion to adjurnn? Motion by Councilman Pagan, seconded by Councilwoman Haron. All those in favor. Any oppose or abstain. Thank you. Good night everybody. Who's watching?