traffic. Did you hold it for me? Yes, we did. Yeah. Thank you. You look tan. I always say you lounge around the pool. I wouldn't say lounging. I hope so. All right, she's ready. Apologies. Thank you for waiting for me.
All right. Thank you. It's 7:04. I call tonight's council meeting to order. Roll call. Bennett. Leosa here. Millie here. Sasso here. Skiara here. WKI
here. Matthews here. Please rise and join us in 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. Okay. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the annual schedule of regular meetings. Herefore adopted and posted on the public bulletin board at the municipal building, emailed to the Herald News, the record, the Gazette, and all persons who've requested the
mailing of such since November 19, 2024. Approval of the minutes. Have approval of the minutes for the regular meeting of June 4th and June 18th, 2025. So move second. Motion by WKI, second by Skier. Any comments?
Pro calli? Yes. Yes. Sasso, yes. Mey, yes. Leosa, yes. Matthews, yes. Motion carries. Public comment and now open the meeting to the public. Anyone desires to be heard on agenda items, please raise your hand to be recognized. Come forward to
the microphone. State your name. Seeing no one, I entertain a motion to close public motion of the meeting. So moved. Motion by Skira, second by WKI. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Adoption of capital ordinance number
2370-25. An ordinance to authorize the purchase of mobile radios and related equipment for use by the Hawthorne Fire Department, Hawthorne volunteer ambulance corps in and by the burrow of Horththornne in the county of Pake State of New Jersey and to appropriate the sum of 74,000 from the general capital
surplus fund of the burrow of Horththornne for such purpose. Now open a meeting if anyone desires to be heard regarding this ordinance. Please raise your hand, come forward to the microphone, and state your name. Seeing no one, I entertain a motion that the public hearing on this ordinance be
closed. That be resolved, this ordinance was posted on the bulletin board on which public notices are customarily posted, published in the record, and made available through the burough website and available to the public. Now therefore, be resolved, this ordinance be adopted, and the clerk is authorized to advertise the same according to law.
Have a motion. So move motion by me, second by Leosa. Discussion. Uh Eric, is this it now on radios for a while? Every meeting we're doing radios and
something that was part of a group of two resolutions and introduction of this bond ordinance. And now that that's why I had it off. Um,
thank you for that report. Any other questions? No, that's it. Roll call. Leosa, yes. Mey, yes. Sasso, yes. Skiara, yes. WKI, abstain. Matthews, yes. Motion carries.
All business. Joe will start your way. All right. This is an oldie but continues to come up every year. The pool manager's parking should not be on the road or the path. And yet continues
to park there. That that path is used for people to walk on, not to park on. I have a picture. I will send it. You don't need to show me. I'll we'll take care of that first thing in the morning. Thank you. Because I see that we're close. Al back in town. Yeah, it's there's an old Al story. We
used to argue about that. I remember Councilman Berllola was like, "No parking there. We pay a lot to get that surface done." And then Al did not like that answer. And we know what happened there. And now the same. And I know I saw that they were closing
early today and I have no idea. Feal incident. A fecal incident again. How many is there? Are we closed more days than we're open so far? No, not really. Pretty damn close.
No, no, we're only closed for two days the last time. Two and a half days and then this happened late this afternoon. Okie do. That's all I have on old Mike. No, not tonight. Reena,
I have a question. Eric, I know tonight we're doing the New Jersey DOT uh road program tonight, but when are we going to do the regular program? And specifically, when are we doing Frederick Avenue? We talked about that. It was supposed to be I think last year, but
it's it's in the contract. I don't know. Defer to the engineer. I don't think we have a specific schedule for the contractor. It's been contracted. It will be done this summer or early fall. But so it it is contracted and the
contractor will be working through the list of streets. Okay. So it is going to happen this year. Maybe that's a better question. Yeah. 2025. Okay. Thank you. And old business of u affordable
housing. Um, council, could you just bring us up to speed on our number of um requirements? We all read the papers, the digital papers that are seeing other towns that can reduce their numbers uh greatly, and I'm sure that
you're working hard to reduce our numbers. Would you bring us up to speed, kindly? Uh, yeah, you and I spoke earlier uh today. To be honest with you, I don't read any of the uh digital comments that are out in the world.
social media or any of that. Um what I understand is that people are reacting um on Facebook and other platforms to these notions that there were towns saying we have reduced our numbers to
three and five and seven units of housing. We did the same. The submission that we made to the state of New Jersey, our original assessed number of units that we needed to address was 405.
The final product that we submitted to the state was 28 and we reduced our rehabilitation number from 105 to six. So we only have to rehab six units of housing. that is we have money available
to individuals who have substandard housing units who may wish to rehabilitate. So that money is in place. Then for new construction, we reduce the number from 300 to 200 to 23.
And all of those 23 units can be built strictly with the pan chemical and Hawthorne Chevy sites without overdeveloping either of them quite frankly to get there. So, you know, when
people are saying what town has reduced its number to whatever, um, we did the same. We've reduced ours. The difference between our town and some of the others is that we are confident we can back up our number. Um, we did
not put in a number that is subject to easy challenge. Some towns are going to get challenged right away and they're going to have a hard time sustaining their numbers. We won't because we literally identified the only two redevelopment properties in our town and
said, "Yeah, that we have redevelopment properties." Some towns have chosen to ignore clearly developable sites and claim zeros and they're all going to get challenged by fair share housing. Now, we might get challenged, too, but
you know, we excuse me, we think we're sustainable. and Richmond, we think our numbers sustainable. I think it's an outstanding job. Thank you. My hats off to you. But just again for our residents clarification, the
numbers that everyone's espousing, they're all on We don't have any paper, but it's digital papers. It's great because they're all so arduous um on every town. These numbers that are being put on us by the state, these are over the next 10 years. Correct.
Correct. Thank you, Mike. Outstanding job. We appreciate the hard work that you've done for us and that we try to do for our residents. So, thank you so much. Thank you. Um especially when the $100 million that was set aside has disappeared.
Thank you so much. You talk about Trenton's money. Yeah. The fund got raided. Yeah. Not by us. No. I'm just being snarky. I can't help it. You're doing a good job. Thank you, Dominic. I'm okay.
Old business. Eric, uh, where do we stand with our residents reimbursement from B&B? You forgot about it, didn't you? Um, I I'll have to check. Yeah, I did. All right. I told them they had to get it done, but
I I neglected the check today. Can't we write them a check for $35 and and short the bill next time? I look at Michael smiling. Not my problem.
They've been This is going on for seven months now for one garbage bill refuge container. Okay. New business. Dominic will start your way for new business. Okay. Marie, I'm good. Thank you.
Reena? No, I'm good tonight. Mike? Nope. Thanks. Joe. Um 93 May Street was just recently purchased and whoever purchased it. They're just I don't It doesn't look like they're working on it anymore and the grass is really high.
Can we have prop 93 May? It was the gentleman uh who was the Ford collector. He came here a couple times actually. He uh I believe he passed away.
Well, maybe that's why it's grass. No, no, the house was sold to somebody else. It was sold pretty quick, too. Is it one in from the corner? The one that we've had gotten complaints about. The gentleman came and talked about uh when we were making the um the bamboo ordinance. Yes.
Okay. Anything else? Uh yeah. Um, North 13th in Mohawk. The road is breaking up. That was quick. It No, it doesn't look like it was done. It looks like it was a PSEG
from the crown to the curb. Mhm. And now the asphalt's just crumbling. The that side or the other side? It is not the jiggle side. It is the other. So, this is the side that the PSEG paved or is it the other side? It looks like it was the recently paved side, not the
not paved side. Okay. Is it right at the joint? Oh, it's it's the whole that whole section of asphalt is just crumbling away. It's they're not potholes, but they're large like where they put the
asphalt on top just crumbling off. That's it. And I had one, Eric, uh, a double pole removal, but the one that needs to be removed is probably about a 30° angle. Now, it's been called in by two neighbors, and public service is not
addressing it. 44 came in, I'm sorry, I don't have the whole number, but if you could ask our rep to say, why didn't you respond to the two neighbors that called them in? That's all we have. So, we'll turn to the administrative agenda presented by Mayor Lane.
Thank you, Mr. President. On June 30th, I scheduled a meeting with Eric, our chief of police, lieutenant and sergeant of the traffic bureau, DPW director, and Frank Dumbrosski, Boswell's traffic engineer, to discuss
and address the truck routes and recommendations for signage to be posted throughout town, specifically addressing Fair View Avenue and Gothal Hill Road. We discussed signage for all of the Hill Streets. We and we will be purchasing
and appropriating signage and post for installation. We also discussed signage at the curve on Gala Hill Road, specifically warning signs and line street painting on Goffel Road, Gael Hill Road approaching Gran
View Avenue and Fair View. Three immediate measures that we re that were recommended by Boswell's traffic engineer is mobilization of variable message signs with appropriate driver feedback messages, additional and
upgraded signing messages and enhanced striping on the shoulder in and around the curve. We are looking at all this. Yesterday morning, Christian Health dedicated the traffic light at the corner of Cedar Hill Avenue and Sikamac
a in honor of Mayor Richard Goldberg. It was a nice program and a testament to Mayor Goldberg's devoted community leadership and service. I want to thank Christian Health Doug Strike and Steve Dumpy and Bergen County Executive Comm
Executive Jim Tedesco and B and and Bergen County and Wyoff Mayor Rudy Bonstra and the Wyoff Township Committee for all working together to make this light a reality and create a lasting tribute to Rich.
On my way back from the Richard Goldberg traffic light dedication, I approached Fair View Avenue to my right and I witnessed two very large dump trucks on the side of the road. They had pulled over. They were pulled over by the police
department. Not more than 5 minutes later, I witnessed a large cement truck entering Fairview Avenue from Greenwood Avenue after passing the electronic sign saying no turning onto Fair View, 4 limit. And the road is posted twice on
the top and at the bottom. No trucks over 4 ton. Then then other cement. Another cement truck attempted to go up Fair View. It was unbelievable that the trucks all ignored the electronic sign and the
signage posted at the top and bottom of Fair View. Total disregard. We had two police vehicles on Fair View yesterday pulling over all the large trucks. All of these trucks were given summones. In the month of June, there
were five tickets given out over for overweight. In the month of July to date, there were 14 summones given out. In the month of June, there was 186 tickets given out on North Wong Drive.
And for the month of July to date, there was 626 62 tickets given on North Watung. I want to thank our police department. They will continue to be enforcing and giving drivers tickets. Last week, I sent letters to mayors of
our our neighboring towns, North Hen, Prospect Park, Franklin Lakes, Whiteoff, and Wayne, asking their help in monitoring these their streets for the heavy t heavy vehicles over Forton.
Mayor George of North Halen telephoned me to confirm his support and to assist in monitoring the heavy trucks going through North Halen into Horththornne. I also received a call from Mayor Johnson from Halen offering his support as well.
Next week I'll be meeting with Mayor Rudy Boomstra from Wyoff to discuss the matter further. GPS routes potentially send them through those towns into Horththornne as it's a shorter route to the highway.
Tonight we are introducing an ordinance to limit the weight on on numerous roads in the town. We will be introducing a separate ordinance for vehicles and traffic under section 505-3 with violations and penalties and variation
various additional sections of town. The milling and paving of North Wong Drive is going to be happening shortly and I told our engineer that the guide rails will be removed by the contractor and they will be turned over to the burrow.
Please, please consider donating to the Hawthorne Day. This year's event will take place on September 27th. This event is possible because of the generous donations by our businesses and residents. If you would like to be a
vendor, please see our website for information or call Ellen at 973-4271168. To those of you who have already generously donated, thank you. Also, I instructed the engineer to take up to take all of the brick pavers that are
being removed on Lafayette Avenue and place them on a pallet to store them in the rear of the DPW yard for the burrow's future use. I did not want those to be thrown away. Horththornne's hometown hero banner program has launched. Horththornne will
honor our veterans and active duty military members in fullcolor banners displayed throughout the burrow. For details, please go to our website. I want to thank Kirsten Manzo, Annie Hall, and Len Metsler for all the hard work
that they did to make this project underway. For those of you looking to get rid of to get a real ID from DMV mobile unit, please go to their website
at te l e g ov. NJ pal as it is updated frequently with appointments. On Monday, there were 112 appointments available in Oakland for for October 2nd.
And that concludes my report. I'll turn it over. Excuse me. I just We're laughing October second. You're just reporting it. Nothing to I turn it over to my attorney, Michael Pasqual. Thank you, mayor. Um much of my report
was going to be addressing the affordable housing. I don't have to do so now. So, thank you. Um I also have nothing particularly new to report on the spoil the matters. They are pending in the superior court and we will be looking to transfer our municipal
matters to the court uh to the superior court. I do want to address the ordinances tonight. 2371 is the one the mayor just spoke of where we are modifying the definition of what
an overweight vehicle would be to include both the gross vehicle weight and the registered gross vehicle weight so that we capture the vehicles in both ways. Um that is the first. Secondarily, we are identifying a series of
additional roadways that will have the new 4 ton weight limit imposed. Some of them quite frankly on the list for the first time uh surprisingly not on the list previously, but they are there now. So, uh kudos to our traffic bureau for
identifying these locations. The the other ordinance is 2372 and that is a modification to our violations uh schedule. There are a lot of summones that are issued that are not necessarily
payable at the window we call it in in the trade meaning you get the summons and you can pay rather than come to court. Uh in order to do that you have to establish an amount of a fine. So this ordinance does two things. It makes
a number of other ordinances that are existing now payable by setting forth an amount. All of our parking, for instance, except for those regulated by state statute, like handicap parking, which is a state law, $250
and it grades up. Uh all of our parking will be raised to $54. Previously, some of our parking was as low as $34 where 23 that would go to the state and
we would keep 11. So, we uh decided as a group and it was a meeting put together by Nora Corey, our court administrator. She really spearheaded this and and good for her to do that. Uh we were joined by our prosecutor uh Ellsworth Crus as well
as the mayor Eric, myself uh Lieutenant Macowski and uh Sergeant Dalo. So what you'll see is a series of fixed fines which would encourage people to simply pay the violation
rather than have to appear in court. there's some things that we don't want to make payable at the window because we do want people to come to court and answer to what they did um to make sure that we are in fact sending the message needed. But again, on things like
parking and the like, we're looking to do that. So that's the purpose of 2372. Again, want to thank Nora for her hard work putting all this together, and I do strongly recommend it to you. That may or would conclude my report,
but tomorrow night is opening night at the band shell. Tomorrow night, July 10th, the doo-op sounds and classic stylings of the Emerald Experience,
who played back when my parents were dating. My father used to sing Back Up with them once in a blue moon. Um, but they they've been around for a while. They performed at four Pasqual Brother
weddings. Only first weddings, no second or third. And they um they're here. They're performing a tribute to their late friend Josea tomorrow night. 7 o'clock at the band shell. Should be a nice event to kick us off on Sunday,
July 20th. because of an event I always encourage everybody to go to. Anybody who's actually shown up has said she this is a phenomenal vocalist. Her name is Sivon Arbell. She's from Israel. She is a brought here by our friend Richard
Schneider and she just sings beautiful jazz melodies um that are just incomparable. Beautiful voice. So if you've not seen her perform before, please come out. That's Sunday, July 20th. And then we come back on July 24th
with our big events, the Super Amaz event. And on the 27th, we have Captain Jack. And I want to thank the committee for all their hard work putting all this together. Uh I thank Lori for snagging us some food trucks for the events, for
the big events. So, thank you. And uh again, please come out tomorrow night. Should be a beautiful night. Uh looks like we may avoid the the bad weather and if we do uh you'll you'll enjoy the night. So again, Burough Banshell 7
o'clock. Be there or be square. Sorry, that's a 50s thing. Groovy. Yeah, that concludes my report. Thank you, Michael. And now turn it over to our engineer, Joe Burn. Thank you, Mayor. uh the 2024-25
uh roadway improvements uh specifically the uh the road program and the local aid project. Uh the bureau is set to award the combined 2425 local aid project to uh Smithi Asphalt Construction Company. Uh tonight that is
resolution uh 122-25 uh the 2425 uh road program. Uh that project is expected to begin construction sometime within the next two weeks.
Uh the Lafayette Streetscape phase three project uh construction is ongoing on the base bid and work for the alternate bid is on hold until authorization is provided. Uh Wagro Fields uh two and three bleacher improvements. Uh work has
commenced on that project. uh survey layout is set to start in the coming days uh to lay out elevations. Um the Franklin Field Emergency Repair um the final installation of the replacement panel will be performed once
a PO is issued and the uh Hawthorne hockey rink improvements demolition is expected to start uh the week of July 14th. Um, we will await direction from the bureau on when the boards will be
delivered uh while the tariff situation is addressed. And that concludes my report. Mayor, thank you, Joe. Now, I'll turn it over to our administrator, Eric Mau. Well, thank you, Mayor. Uh, the county tax administrator has certified the 2025
tax rate for the burrow. It's 74.4 4 cents per $100 of assessed value for municipal uh taxes, including the library, and $3.14.4 overall. Um tax bills will be mailed to
property owners in about 2 weeks. Uh because of the delayed mailing, uh the administration will present a resolution at our next council meeting, um extending the grace period until September 3rd. Um, as me, uh, well, I
guess Michael took care of that one and that one. Um, resolution R116, um, adds a AAA pedestrian safety grant to the budget in the amount of,20 both as a revenue and an appropriation.
Uh, the New Jersey local public contracts law allows governing bodies by resolution to authorize the entity's qualified purchasing agent, if it has one, to make purchases up to a maximum bid threshold, uh, which is adjusted for inflation every 5 years. As of July 1st,
um, 2025, that maximum bid threshold rises from 44,000 to 53,000. Resolution R123 would make that change for Hawthorne as your QPA. Okay, I thank you for your trust should you should you decide to adopt this resolution. If not,
I'll still keep approving things up to the 44 and be quite happy to do it. Um, our NGIB short-term construction loan for the 2024-25 road program has closed, allowing us to submit our costs
for reimbursement. Long-term financing will be issued after construction has been completed. Uh the most consequential information I have to report tonight is that the actuary for the state health benefits plan is recommending a 36%
rate increase for 2026 for local government participants in the program. This would be financially devastating to local governments like Hawthorne and our employees who contribute a share of the premium. Uh having heard rumors of a massive rate act uh rate hike, I had
scheduled a meeting with our employee union reps and our insurance broker uh to let them know we intend to seek a lower cost cost alternative to spare both our taxpayers and our employees such an outrageous increase. We had that meeting uh yesterday.
I have requested claims experience from the state that we will need to shop for other carriers. Once we have a better idea of our options, I will call a meeting of the council's insurance committee uh to discuss them. And that concludes my report. Thank you, Eric. And now, Mr. President,
will answer any questions the council may have. Joe, I have nothing. Blake? Yes. Yes. Yes. Um first, um maybe Joe or Eric can share what you mean by the tariffs related to the boards.
I I can address the tariffs. Well, you you can be added to the list of people I'm inquiring about. What? Yeah. Uh the boards are coming from Canada and the president of the United States of this country, America, did impose tariffs on imports from many
other countries. We pre purchased them and they've been we weren't shipped. They remain in Canada. But it's not a new purchase since the tariffs have been enacted. It's when they cross the border. It's when they cross the border. So the the tariffs will apply. So we've been paying storage in Canada.
Yes. For the last two two and a half years, right? None of us the last none of us saw tariffs coming. So um the tariffs are now in place and we're not going to have much choice but to pay them because
So how much is the tariff? Is it 10 15%? We right now they're estimating it's about 10,000. there. Um, we are holding off a short while for delivery because there have been on andoff negotiations for resolving.
That's right. With Canada. So, if we will wait as long as we can to see if if there's a reduction before having them shipped, in which case I don't think it'll drop to zero, but with with any
luck, it will drop uh somewhat. But we quoted a price. It was a was a price including but the problem the problem becomes it's really a matter of contract law where there is an unforeseen increase and in this case it was clearly
an unforeseen increase. It can and will be passed on to the purchaser and they're not going to ship us the boards unless we bear the cost anyway. Um you know it it becomes a real problem. We have no choice do we? No, it's an
unfair. And when's the latest we have to make this decision since we're looking to put it up? Well, yeah, we're we're looking towards, you know, a um later this month. Maybe in in the next week or two um before um when our storage
money uh runs out. Uh I I know our contractor will be a little flexible, but we have to get the work done before the start of the school year. So, I have a question. Is our storage money contracted for the amount of time or since we All right. So, the question I have is
that if we take the boards early, are we getting back any money from the We're taking the boards late. In fact, all right, that's the answer. And in fact, um I I invested an additional $500 to store a little longer to see if the negotiations would play
out because otherwise they would have had to ship by the end of June. Wow. So, you donated $500. Thank you. Not me personally. I invested $500 of the town's money to the burough's money and what's our coordination
hopefully saving a a portion of the uh $10,000. What's our coordination with the board of ed about the timing that we have to be able to uh we we have to finish before um um September uh you know before September.
So, I mean, the the contractor can begin work on demolition and and any concrete repairs that are are necessary, but they will need the boards in order to install them, right? And and what's our projection of how long the boards would take once we say about they say I think they said,
Joe, about two weeks to install. Yeah, that's correct. No, no, when we say send them down, shipping about they say uh two or three days. Okay. Shipping time. Okay. uh please keep us all apprised about the the progress on okay what the status is on
we will get them in time we will get them installed well whether whether we're going to be paying this additional money whether whether we we uh h have to pay all or a portion of the $10,000 remains to be seen okay so uh another question another
subject um this 36% increase in health insurance I know this happens every year we are we're getting strangled. Every municipality is getting the same thing. I find it unbelievable that the state continues to do this to us.
Um where they will put a a you know an arm lock on other things, but as far as health insurance free willing, you know, raise it as much as you want. So options are going to still being in the state plan or going to other providers. Explain to me real quickly.
You just said it. We we we it's we went to the state plan because they dangled the really low rate in front of us. That's what they they dangle you in and then you know hammering us ever since. They ham you right afterwards. So the we need our claims experience because people will not quote without having
claims experience. So we're requesting our claims experience. Um we hope to have that by the end of August and then um our broker will shop with other with health insurance funds and with private
insurance carriers. Um we will figure out the best rate best option we have and there may be several options with positives and negatives in which case I would want to um discuss that with the insurance
committee um because you know because we're all in this together um and and depending on the nature the the unions if if it's like forlike coverage they don't have much of a say if if if there
ends up being differences in plan and and other things they may object and they may object and lose or they may um I understand I understand how it's what they they don't want to see a 36% even
for even for the unions where they have you know they pay a relatively small percentage because their employees don't make as much money and under the chapter or 78 scale they pay less. A 36% increase is big for everybody. Absolutely. And it's and it's even
bigger for the people who are paying uh 25 30 or 35%. And so they're going to be wi they're going to be with us. I mean they will look at the details because they have to represent their um employees but but
they're in they are probably depending on on the options we come up with will be on our team for doing this. They will not they will not be looking to we want to stay with the stealth state health benefits plan because if they oppose that that's
the outcome it it's not like if if we say no to a cheaper outcome that suddenly another cheaper outcome will will materialize. We we'll be looking at every and there's some and there's some tweaks and and and semi-creative ways of
of of of packaging things which we talked about yesterday with the unions. They suggested some we we said we will look at them. We'll look at everything um to see that it makes sense um what makes the most sense for both us and our
employees both those represented by unions and those not represented by unions. Okay. So if I could just uh ask one followup um as far as the claims. So there someone's going to come in and
evaluate what our history of claims are and we would be our rates would be based on that history. Am I correct? Yes. All right. So that's what I that's what I thought it was. I wanted to make sure. Right. So if we had a clean year, nothing outrageous. Yeah. Our rates will be his history has been that we have not
had clean years, you know. No, but I but I understand. But compared to a 36% increase. Yes. we you know that's and and we may decide that even if it's close even if there aren't you know because there some of the union one of the unions they've
heard that there's going to be 60% increase over three years um you know 36% is this year then that isn't a huge increase each of the next two years but it's still a big increase if if this isn't going to stop um we may be better
off opting for something that even if there isn't much of a savings that um promises more stability going forward. And that's one of the things that we'll have to evaluate. Um the unions may choose to uh
weigh in on or you know offer help in in in come you know and in in evaluating it. Um but we will have to make some decision based on the options and it'll need to happen fairly quickly. If we get the claims experienced by say the
beginning of September, we have to be out by January 1st, we have to notify the state by November 1st. So we we will have maybe a 8week period of time from from when we have claims experience to get quotes to get uh um make decisions,
right? Um pass review it by the finance committee, review it with the unions and make a decision. Now, is that 36% based on our claims history or just across the board? Everybody's getting across the board. Okay. It's it's across the board and and this is a recommendation from their actuary.
I mean, it's conceivable that the uh that the whoever oversees it on behalf of the state can choose to do something different. But if they choose to do less than than a 36% increase, that only increases the chance that there's going to be a big increase the following year.
Okay? So, um, you know, it's information. It isn't an out out and out decision yet. Um, it's a good way to close the $5 billion gap that we have in their state approved budget. Go.
All right. I do have one more question related to this. So, sorry. Sorry, folks. Um, you holler. I know, but he likes me. Uh, Michael, um, would you do me the kinds of favors and explain for the
public the, um, because I'm getting a lot of feedback to me about their concerns about us building or not us, a developer building on the pan chemical and I tried to explain that there's a lot of steps
that there has to be made before that can actually h before a shovel goes in the ground for that to happen. Could you just take me through the process so we it's publicly said and then we can repeat it when we need to? Sure. The propertyy's in the hands of a private entity. So therefore, the burrow
doesn't have ownership control, but it does have in place a redevelopment plan or at least a redevelopment ordinance which will allow us to create a redevelopment plan. So the first step in the process will be to work with a
developer to try to come up with a plan for the redevelopment of that site that would control the number of units, number of parking spaces, things like that. We would then create an ordinance that would allow for development of that
site. And that is going to be an ongoing matter. And frankly, if we don't reach agreement, it could end up in the courts no matter what. But we would work to try to get that in place. Even once that
happens, there is still the process of getting a site plan approval by the planning board. The planning board would need to approve at the county everyone who has a say about it. And the property needs to be cleaned to a residential
standard. That's the point. That's what everybody's concerned about. You're talking about a a chemical site, correct? That has been contaminated the ground and making it u viable for residential. Correct. So, the steps that they need to get to that point
and then the burrow does other things obviously with developer and things like that. So, um you know the cost involved for them to have to do it is quite substantial. But we we're told that the cost of the cleanup is estimated to be $1.2 million.
Okay. Um in the grand scheme of things, it sounds like a lot of money. It's not. Um it's it is significant, but not when it comes to this type of issue. So, uh that cleanup will be ongoing and no different
from look, we we saw the redevelopment where Cola is now. we saw the redevelopment of were 204 Wagroids. Both of those sites were in fact super fun sites, right? They were significantly contaminated sites. They were cleaned and they've
been put back into productive reuse. So, what you'll see at this site is is the same thing. There is the good news at a site like this is the groundwater infiltration is not such that it's coming off site.
And that's where you really run into big problems. So everything and Raina knows this better than me, but the contamination at least controlled is contained within the parameters of the site. Okay. Now there's going to be no doubt some
soil removal, some debris removal, things like that and that all has to get out of there. But you know it all is under the opices of an LSRP who's going to make sure that it meets all of the requirements of the DBA. Do you happen to know how long they're
testing? I mean they're going to be testing periodically I'm guessing but it depends on how they approach the problem but they're probably going to be testing for for decade or more to come maybe. Oh so they could still build on it. Oh sure that we have testing going on at
any number of sites in town. So it has to be clean to a certain level. And there'll still be continuous testing. Yeah. Afterwards, I want to get clear. There is testing. So, we have test sites all over the place. Uh I think 204 Wag and Coler sites both have test wells
that are tested periodically. We get the results. Okay. Um so, yeah, that that does happen. Okay. Thank you, Reena. Just following up about the tariffs. Um the latest I just sent New York Times
the deadline between the negotiations with the US and Canada is July 21st. So that seems to be the deadline. So that's in two weeks. So it might be in line, but it's a 25% tariff, right? That's what it says.
They're trying to negotiate that. Okay. I mean I mean obviously we can't insert ourselves into the negotiations but we will but the the uh um the vendor on this has been will work with us to do you know they're
they're the one that said there's that you know we might be able to save some of the tariff you know with with a little bit of extension of time. Um so we have to work with the vendor, our contractor for installation
um and see what happens between the two national governments uh um in in resolving their issues. Thanks. You know, I just wanted to clarify when you mentioned $10,000 before you were not talking about the tariff on the
storage. You were talking about the storage amount, correct? No, 10,000 is is is the tariff estimated tariff amount under the current um temporary tariff that's in effect,
but the material is paid for, right? The material south is paid for. The material other than the tariffs the tariff. So, we have no choice really, right? I know we have no choice. I um What if Dominic drives up there and picks it up? Put it in my basement. He He'd have to smuggle it across the border, but uh Oh, okay. Can't just be
Yeah. No, the problem is it's not a delivery chart. The storage amount has crossed the border exponentially over the last two years that we've been storing the product, but um ouch that's uh painful and I know we have no choice. Same thing with the honestly the 36%
increase on the health insurance so painful. But some of us that buy our own insurance on the low side, the only latitude you have we have is adjusting the coverage you choose to buy. It's so uh painful. I
keep using that word. It's painful. It's not fair. It's painful. I'll take the tariff over the uh I I I'm going to have to agree with you, Eric. Ouch. We are we all done here? Yeah. It's up to you. Wow.
It's just not fair to um our recipients, our our employees. Um it's so unfair. Just want them to hear that from us that we don't it's not us. It's there should be tort law. There should be tort on how
much they can charge us. Our our employees know that it's not us. I know. But there should be some limits on it. Jeez Louise. The the the the artifices of balancing the budget including what they did with the mansion tax and other things is is
just Is the budget balanced when it was planned? I know. I appreciate you. Dominic Joe, wake up. Um, the debris on Grand Avenue, I know it's from the construction on Lafayette.
Is it possible to comp uh compliant it more? I mean, we're losing parking spaces for local businessmen over there. If we can shorten it up and, you know, they're all over the place. They've just taken advantage of the street. Is that possible? Uh, I'll reach out to my guys in the contractor. I'll see what we can do.
We can combine. You know, it's poor Puzzo. Please lo those old parking spaces. So that's all I have. I'll pass. That concludes our report. Mr. President, I have a motion to record the administrative agenda.
Hell yeah. Motion by me, second by WKI strongly. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Introduction of ordinances. We have ordinance number 2371-25. An ordinance to further amend and supplement chapter 505 vehicles and
traffic article 2 traffic regulations section 505-16 trucks over certain weights excluded so as to modify the definitions contained therein and section 505-65A schedule 12 as to additional locations
there. Be resolved. This ordinance is now passed first reading and said ordinance be further considered for final passage at the meeting of the governing body at the mun building 445 Lafayette Avenue Portthorne New Jersey on August 13, 2025. And at said time and place, all persons interested will be
given an opportunity to be heard concerning the same. And the clerk is hereby authorized and directed to publish the ordinance in the record at least once one week prior to said hearing with the notice of its introduction time and place when and where said ordinance would be considered for final passage.
Got a motion. So move me. So Frank have a question. Mike they can't write some of this until this is adopted on the streets that we're now identifying. No. Right. But on other streets, absolutely.
Okay. And this is just for example, Fair View is already on there and that's where we've been writing. Actually, the total is now 26 in the past two weeks. It's because the number keeps growing. Okay. So, yeah, the streets that are listed in this ordinance are additional streets,
the ones that are Okay. So, I have a question. Um, Michael and I were talking. Um just want to get clarity around delivery and pickup of materials and materials
you know on these such streets because you know there are vehicles that need to go up like delivering of appliances and and furniture that I understand delivery but like other materials like a landscaper or any type of other services
or even a plumber maybe a truck or electrician might be hanging over four tons. and they're doing like a service. So, and there's no definition for materials under the state law, right? The definition, you know, and you and I talked about this to try to make
it as fine as to pick up all the possible reasons someone would be on the street. The real issue becomes one for the enforcement of the police is your destination on the street. more. Alternatively, and we talked about this, if you had to get
to Charwall Place, you can't get there unless you go on to Fairview. So therefore, there will be times where you will have an Amazon truck, a UPS truck, or heavier trucks like a furniture delivery truck on those streets. You
just those are inevitabilities of life. Um the key is not using those streets for cutth through purposes and to cut down the incidental traffic. Um you know where you you obviously can't stop a
moving truck from going to someone's house, right? I just wanted to get that clarity for the residents and people are you know asking questions about that just basic services because it's a service. It's not like a material delivery like it's a service. So we just wanted to get
clarity that you know we can't prevent everybody thing not going up those streets because people do have to have lives and have we have an adjusting ordinance now where the 4 ton is in effect but if you have a bill of lightading that says you have to
go to this house on that street then you're you're good and then when you finish the delivery then you you you leave that street and right it's about the purpose of why you're on that street sounds like correct the examples you gave where people are just cutting through. They're not doing
business. They're not delivering like concrete to make a new patio or a new side. They're all cutting through. So, I just wanted to get that. Yeah, you'll never eliminate the traffic, but you can't eliminate the cut through traffic and that's really the
goal of this. Uh unless you have business on that street, you don't belong on that street. We're also talking about a 10,000 pound vehicle versus an 80,000 with a truck that's full of gravel. Yeah. I mean, somewhere in the middle is still just as dangerous, but
but you I agree, Frank, but you also understand today there was there was a truck with a it was a landscaper with a big box in the back of it that they were towing. Police pulled them over, asked
them for their license. Uh they had a Brazilian license. They didn't have a New Jersey license. The truck was unregistered. So what they did was they towed the truck. They had a it was needed a heavy duty truck to to come in, a heavy duty tote
to come in and pick up the truck and drive it to wherever the tow company's yard is. So, you know, it's not uh just a dump truck or a sand a cement truck or something. It's, you know, many
different ones. So, okay. Thank you for that. Roll call. Yes. Skiara, yes. Sasso, yes. Millie, yes. Leosa, yes. Matthews, yes. Motion carries. Ordinance 2372-25,
an ordinance to further amend and supplement chapter 505, vehicles and traffic, article one, general provisions, section 505-3, violations and penalties and under various additional sections noted here under so as to set forth penalties and
certain violations under said chapter be resolved. This ordinance be now pass the first reading and said ordinance be further considered for final passage at a meeting of the governing body in the municipal building 445 Lafayette Avenue Horththornne New Jersey on August 13th 20125 at a set time and place all
persons is interested will be given an opportunity to be heard concerning the same. The clerk is hereby authorized and directed to publish the ordinance in the record at least one week prior to the hearing with the notice of its introduction and time and place when and where said ordinance would be considered for final passage. Have a motion.
So moved. Second. Was that not me? It was me. All right. Scar and me. Any discussion? Yes. Joseph, how did we come to the parking fees of $54? And I'm curious. I asked the question
and I'm going to follow it up with another question. The 54 actually is because 19 goes to the state. So if you subtract 19 from 54, you get 35. I'm That's why that's why the odd number of
54 is that we we collect $35. Did we do a market basket? Cuz I did. Did we do a market like New York City? If you don't alternate side of street parking is $65. Yeah.
Why wouldn't we have seaside park? You park illegally or you park and your meter runs out. It's $69. We uh when we met the recommend you're hearing going up 36% going up there's nothing I hate more
than people who park illegally. It really burns my butt. I understand that but you know the police did not identify parking as a a a significant problem that we needed to raise. I bring it up every week. But I understand you do, but they did not
identify it as something where they felt it should be a higher fine, which you see in some towns. Shore communities do it because frankly it's a money grab for them. Um, we were not looking at making a money grab on this because often times
the people who are parked are our own residents who made a mistake parked on the street when it's street sweeper day, things like that. $54 will remind them not to. So that's really what the thinking was. Rather than making
when you make it right onto Lafayette in front of Celtic Corner and it says no stopping and standing and the person's parked there unloading their cars, that's a safety concern and we're only going to slap them with $54. Yeah, it's actually a significant
increase from what it was before. So um I don't know. This was the recommendation that came from our PD in meeting with the prosecutor, myself, the mayor Eric, and the court administrator.
Um, if the ordinance committee wants to take a look at the numbers at a later, I'm just saying when we pick when we choose to pay the court clerk or when we want to choose to pay someone, we do a market basket. Was a market basket done
here? No, we did not. We did not. We looked at the fact that we had one series of charges already on the books at $54 and that we determined to bring all of our charges to that 54. Um,
again, Joe, it's it's hard to compare the apples and oranges here because overtime parking in Patterson is not the same as overtime parking in White Goth. You really can't necessarily Asbury Parks or Seaside Heights or whatever.
Again, they do parking there because they support their economy on people like us who go there. That's who does the illegal parking, right? I disagree. Know that I disagree cuz I would like to just see what the market basket is in our communities, our surrounding
communities, our like communities, Pompton Lakes. That's not that's a very likefor-like community. And I just think that if we compare those communities, I'm not saying do Seaside Park, don't do Asbury, do like for like because if not, I'm still I'm gonna vote no. I already told the council president I was voting
no. Okay. Well, there was two purposes of this ordinance. The main purpose was pay at the window. Cut down on the people in the courtroom, less time in the court itself, and to lighten up their load. Second one, we already had 54, so they
just made them all 54 except for there's a couple hundreds in there for some more serious things. if you want to do a survey and and bring it to the ordinance committee and we'll talk about raising the number. But this was a recommendation that came from You want me to do the survey for your organizations?
I'll be happy to do the survey. We can ask our professionals to do it. Yeah. But I'm just saying I'm not professional. You're not not in this not not in this field. I'm saying Joe is you vote yes for this and then you are a culinary school grad. You are
a hospital uh patient advocate extraordinaire. I believe you were the patient advocate of the year for the state of New Jersey, were you not? Many years ago. He was on CNN. I know. I remember. So, all that said, we can ask, mayor, if
that's okay, we can ask. So, I will not throw the baby out with bath water. Yes. Come on in. The water's fine. No, no, I'm not going over there. Roll call. Quick. Wow. Leosa, yes. Millie, yes.
Sasso, yes. Skiara, yes. Waki, yes. Oh my for the introduction. No baby in the bathwater. Roll this. Okay. Oh, wait. Matthews, yes. Motion carries. See K.
Resolutions. We have agenda R16-25 through 123-25. R16-25 is chapter 159. AAA pedestrian safety enforcement detail. R17-25 is to redeem a tax sale certificate. R18-25
is to oppose the fair share housing mandate. R19-25's band shell performers. R120-25 is change order 2 and project closeout for the leadline replacement project phase three. R121-25
is to approve the transfer of PD rack truck to the Hawthorne Board of Ed. R122-25s award the 2024 2025 NG DOT road program to Smith Sandi and R123-25s authorized the bid threshold contract
award limit. Have a motion. So move second. Motion by Mey, second by Skier. Any discussion? I have a question. I know somebody was not in favor of one of them. Me? That was you. Okay. Frank.
Yeah. Rain question. Um R21. Um I know the PD the the vehicle was 2004. So we're transferring it to the board of ed
with no payment of consideration. Um the determination was that its value was so low that to it would be more useful to the bureau as a whole if it was given to the board of education. Okay. And we have and we have the rack truck.
The police have the rack truck. That's okay. That's what I wanted to understand. So this is one of the it's a older older vehicle. It's the white box truck actually that's in the back. Okay. All right. Thank you. CO one. What what was we got the one during COVID funding for
the other wreck truck, right? What was the total of the tariffs estimated? $10,000. And and in my eyes, we have to pay the tariffs because I think the value of that rack truck now
is about $10,000. I'm voting no on it. Go for it, Joe. We'll call WKI. No on 121-25. Yes. On all others.
Skiara, yes. Sasso, yes. Millie, yes. Leosa, yes. Matthews, yes. Motion carries. Reports of special counsel committees. Joe, we'll start your way. I have no report.
Mike. Um, Hispanic Heritage, we had a meeting. Uh, we discussed uh what our initial plans are and our projection to where we're going to have the event this year. Looks like we looks very good to have it out down at the band shell. In fact,
today I was out with the committee chair and we secured a number of new sponsors that are new to the burrow. So, we're pretty happy and we have some more that are willing to get on board. So, we're pretty excited about that. Um,
and uh, that's all I had to report. Great. Um, just two things. Just want to um, announce that we had the annual June environmental program last year, last month, June 9th, and we recognized two businesses and one of them was Fist Ally and uh, Carlos Bagels as being our two
green businesses in Horththornne. Um, they came to the ceremony. Um, we followed up with Carlos and I just want to highlight our citizens, um, Mike and Janet Turo for their work that they did with us with the antiideling and we had presentations from the high school uh,
STEM, their watering can and the Roosevelt School and Jefferson in the high school. So, it was a really nice evening. We've announced um, the winners of um, the green businesses and citizens and the uh, students being recognized last week. Um second is um we
partnership with the Horththornne Chamber of Commerce and the green team. We are by local campaign uh find the Horththornne Bay. Really proud to say last minute um we did add another business um Albine Balcon um the new
Albanian Turkey uh food grocery. Uh it's on 300 Lincoln Avenue. So we're up to 32 businesses participating with us. Um, so it's a really great it's in that strip mall. So now we have the Aqua person and the CR Bakery and we have the Hairhub.
So it's a really nice four businesses. So in that cluster area and then we have the Crystal Marketplace on uh Lincoln and Manurva. So we have some new businesses. Really proud to say we're up to 32. So everyone's really impressed. So just get out and find the bee. The big event um celebration is at the
farmers market on August 3rd at noon. So, come on down. You have to be there to win the grand prize. And if you're not there, then um you won't get the grand prize, but we'll get other prizes as well. So, just come out and support the local businesses. Thanks.
And Marie, um no reports, just to give um our residents an update, the new burough website is coming down to almost being ready to roll out. It's going to be spectacular. um at our clerk Lori at the helm and Lisa Sloopmaker. Very excited.
It's going to be so user friendly that even I know how to use it. So, I'm very excited. Very soon, next few weeks, we're we're coming down to the final hour. So, thank you so much, Lori, for all of your hard work. And uh Lisa, so appreciated. Thank
come and slide into home. Thank you. That's it. Dominic, I wanted to comment on Mayor Goldberg's but I the mayor took my thunder but it was a nice event and our mayor had a nice speech very short very nice it was
shocking but it was very good very nice mayor. Thank you, Councilman. Uh, planning board meeting for last even or first of the month was cancelled due to the holiday and the Chamber Farmers Market is in full swing and the shop
local program is in effect. Uh, as Reena mentioned, the Find the Bee program is ongoing and the car show is next month. More to follow. What date you know yet? Does it? Yeah, I do, but I don't have it on me. Okay. Thank you. Wait one second.
I can answer that. Ann Marie's got it in her phone. One second. One second. Although you didn't make the other board meeting on Tuesday. I was working. Okay. It is August 9th. August. No, 17th.
It's a Sunday. Yeah. I thought it was the 24th. Maybe. Okay. Next meeting. We'll get back. That's why I said more to come. Yeah. I thought it was all right. It may not be in writing. Okay. Okay.
I have I have a we have um the flyers are out August 17th. Go to my office. It's in my office. In the chamber texting me August 17th. So there you go. It is. It's official. Wow. Okay. There you go, Dominic.
Okay. Correspondents. We have none, but we have bills. Have a motion to forward the bills to approve the bills and forward them to the treasurer for payment. So move second. Motion by me, second by Skira. Any discussion on the bills? Roll call.
Leosa. Approve. Sorry. Yes. Millie, yes. Sasso, yes. Skiara, abstain on Ridgewood Press. Yes. On all others. WKI abstain on the fire department. Yes. On all others. Matthews. Yes. Motion carries.
Public comment. Now open the meeting to the public. Anyone desires to be heard, please raise your hand, be recognized, come forward to the microphone, and state your name. This will be very brief. Hold on. We'll get your microphone so that this way gets recorded. We'll hear you, but the microphone
won't price from 5 10 to 15. 70% of the population in this town are 65 or better. And in their situation, they're trying to downsize. That's $30 for the year if you
have three garage sales. Where's that money going? It's kind of been that way. So, I don't know what established those fees way back when. A while ago, a long many years ago. So, I I don't know. Well, you you talked about it two meetings ago. That's why I'm bringing it
up now. No, he mentioned it because people were not necessarily applying for the permits, but as far as the progressive uh nature of it, I I believe it went back to some people were basically having weekly garage sales. Um Yeah. Well, and your neighbors would say, "Geez,
I understand it's not a business." Well, some people were treating it like it. So that's why they limited it to a certain number. And then a progressive thing was really to say, "Really? Just have a good one once a year." So if I had three garage sales in five years, would that Oh, no, no, no. It's per year.
I understand that. Very per year. But if I had three garage deals, one year, and then five years elapsed, I mean, when you construed that as a a business, No, no. The business was
pay $30. I mean $15 for the third garage sale. Well, if you only have one in the first year and then you have one five years later, it's another $10 because it's it's it's a per year item. That's what I'm saying. Okay. We'll show you next meeting. Okay.
Anyone else wish to be heard? Come on. Okay. Seeing no one else, I entertain a motion to close the public portion of the meeting. So move. Second. Motion by WKEI, second by Skier. All in favor? I. Motion carries. The next council meeting
is Wednesday, July 23rd at 2025 at 7 p.m. Have a motion to adjurnn. So moved. So moved. Motion by Wetki, second by Sierra. All in favor? I. Motion carries. We're adjourned.
When is