okay we're going to get started 7 o' this meeting is called to order in accordance with the public with the open public meeting act notice of this meeting was provided to the home News Tribune the star leer and the Highland Park planet on January 8th 2025 and was
posted on ball website at www.hpborrow.com and on the bulletin board of B Hall 221 South 5th Avenue in Highland Park New Jersey and has remained continuously posted as required by law before I exit her to my right and
left of council chambers attorney can you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance yes I pledge Ali to the flag of the United States of America the repu for it stands one nation God
indivisible with liy and justice for all mayor Foster here council member George council member ha here council member H here council president kiman here council member here council member Vargas here feral attorney here FAL
administrator here um on discussion tonight we have the league of New Jersey municipality resolution support publishing of legal notice on Government website and I just want to go into why this is here why the
star lger as of three weeks ago is no more they closed they officially closed their door the Bergen paper is closed matter of fact there's an article in ASB park frest today where they're going on strike against the union because of unfair practices but there's no print paper anymore anywhere in the state of
New Jersey um so everybody went digital because we are all in the digital RM and we're stay we're still paying the paper fee to the newspaper company which they're digital like us the league has decided that this year that they're
exploring instead of the towns continue to pay we're paying about average on the lowest and the average is about $700 a month so instead of paying that money out we p our legal notices on our website and we can dedicate a page on
the website for all legal notices for example as a business owner I have I work with the city of Newark and I have business with them and Jersey city and what have you and on their website you can just go and put everything that you
want done if you want to bid on an item that you can go and just bid there so everything is on they have a portal that's just dedicated to notices so everything is there so say we have a contract coming up for road construction you would go there and you'd find out you have whatever it is that we normally
put in a newspaper it's there so I'm just bringing that example here so we would save the money of advertising in the newspaper which I just read which is the High um the star Leisure and the Tribune the home news I think is our
primary and the home news so instead of doing that we just post it up and we have a dedicated page so anyone can go there and find it because if you're going on the electronic for these items you're going to the same place you're going to go search for it
anyway so my proposal is that why wait until November or January of next year when the league finally make a decision we'd be saving money that that monthly cost that we do now we' be saving that so this is why this is
here yes and and if I may um I also want to say just as as a sometimes what ends up happening too is that as the mayor stated many people who want to do business with the many municipalities are not able to because they can't find the information so there's been uh a
very large amount of people that have been kept out of the business municipalities and unless you're in an inner circle of where they get the information there are some municipalities you still cannot even access their contracts so I you know I always say to people more than marrier
and especially if you have even qualified contractors within town the borrow of Highland Park would it be great to give them a chance to do business with their own borrow thank you mayor that's all I want to say can I sorry yes sorry I just want to add we
currently do put the notices of bids we don't put every legal notice on our website but we do just just to be clear that we do that now so we'd be adding additional notices like when you have to notice for Bond ordinance or notice for other purposes so I just wanted to let
you know it's not like we do none of currently Noe okay um I'll just I'll say to I think we should put it on the web page I think we should put expand it on the web page and I think we should do newspapers as well I think that there is value to
supporting newspapers beyond the fact that it's just legal notices I think there's value in US doing anything we can to make sure that some newspapers electronic form or not survive and I think that's value to the public and I think it's worth money spent but I also
think it's connecting to people who are not necessarily interested in the business of the day they're interested in the announcement of the meetings they're interested in in something um about what's coming up um and things like that and so I'm not sure I'm ready
to sort of pull the plug on on on electronic newspapers yet I think I think electronic newspapers are going to be the the that's where people the small place that people have left to get news are the Star Ledger the home news
tribunes electronic sources the record all of those we ought to be paying less because than than print ads but I don't know that we are but I I I'm just not sure I'm ready to pull the plug on that because I think newspapers are a public
good I think there's some there value in having newspapers and us contributing in saying that there is some press function that is important so council member H yeah I know I agree with Matt I mean I like the idea of having more flexibility that um I think
I expressed to council president Kim Chan is that well that's why I here yeah yeah thank you um when the league hands down these um you know they sound really good and and and there's always good in them um but it it I I I'm also I also
get wary of kind of the continued disinvestment from from media so I you know is oh is this a is this a um is this attached to a I can't remember this a bill yes the bill is coming so it's going to be I I believe
because there are towns where poor paying $56,000 a month the larger towns were getting like really clobbered and in this economic climate where we have less to deal with I think more towns are going to go in favor of them posting it on their page rather or do the the
thought the two the two thoughts that came up at the meeting was one we posted actually three we posted on our local page the county takes out a page and it's posted and the County news news and then there's a state so you have three opportunities so you have your local
Township your county and the state so it be advertised there and it would be a a cost savings to town who are paying a salary in some towns just to have this go out on a monthly based paying more than a salary to have it go out on a monthly basis they're paying many person
salaries one of one town was paying $334,000 a month another was paying $56,000 a month for those towns yes I would if I was them I would be like clamoring to have this done so the discussion will continue this will go through to the assembly and the
companion bill through the Senate so decision will be made this year so I guess what I'm hearing um I'm no it's only two persons that spoke others Jason I as with the mats on this one um and that was my initial thought when I guess when Stephanie first reached out about
this was um you know I think it' be beneficial to have it in more places rather than fewer get as much notice in the board out as as we possibly can but also I was just thinking about how you just he have heard over the past few decades that newsrooms are being slashed
um I I don't think um that's a good thing for democracy I think a free I mean you know press is Free Press is vital to to um keeping this thing going um and I know it's not a lot of money but I think it's money well spent so I
was going to encourage going and both uh posting it on our website as well as contining to publish it on the newspapers websites so when uh so say for example hypothetically speaking should the league should it pass the assembly and the Senate and it come state law you would still want to have
it posted because the state law is going to read that say the county would take a uh be posed on the county and on the state so we would still go ahead and pay regular news I'm just asking well to because this is the three-prong approach would the county still do
newspapers the county would have it on their website they would dedicated page on the county I'm off for the county paying for newspapers they're not doing newspaper the county will the count is GNA save money and they're going to have it on their website the state will have it on their website so there'll be no
newspaper being done everything is electronic so just like how they're doing it electronically now because there's no physical newspaper you hold in your hand you still have to go to Home USB star lger and look it up then you're still going and look it up so in 1996 there were
57 reporters covering Trent today there's seven the fact that there's that decimated number of people um makes me want to make it as easy as possible for reporters to be able to find access to this and I think that centralizing it in
a in a new having it in in a newspaper is one thing we could help the same anyone else um can you can you explain again how much exactly would we be saving per year no per month around
700 so we would be saving $700 a month times times times 12 times 12 and do we know how many people actually get they read the Public Notices in those papers and then they are then so we we don't
there's no way for us to gauge whether this is actually even effective no we don't have where we say Highland Park clicks right it's amount of clicks to say do analytics to say this is how many people are utilizing it we don't right right so so that that's the question
right and um what don't quote me on this but what they were saying is that the readership on the online paper is not up it's still it stays flat across Ross the board so there's no uptick on readership on any
online portal it's not it's just not there right right because I think people in general are looking for information we used to receive information because we used to get the newspapers and everything now people are looking for specific information so if they're looking for like when are Highland Park
meetings they're going to be searching that and it makes no difference if they're going to find it on some newspaper online or on our own website um I mean I am I'm in support of just keeping it on our website because if we're going to save money and if we have
no way of gauging how people are accessing the Public Notices for Highland Park specifically then we might as well just put that on the website I think that's a fair point and I guess it's kind of an odd thing to say that in order to support um you know
sustaining the press that we should pay for ads I think I guess if the the policy goal is to kind of help support a um media so they continue to to provide news coverage and do investigative
journalism keep an eye contribute to the check the various checks and balances that sort of I think keep things in a good place um to just come out and have a policy that that does that but I think until we have that sort of solution to sort of like that then rather than just kind
of be one of you know potentially many towns that sort of just take that Revenue Source away um I'd be hesitant to do that until there's replacement I feel like there was something at the state level where they do provide some sort of um financial support for
journalism but it's escaping me I mean I would just be hesitent to just take this away if I may add to that um the bills that have been coming out Unfortunately they have been trying to give municipalities more power or more
Bud like this is what come about and we're kind of unfortunately because newspapers are dying they're trying to figure out other ways to get legal notices done and that's why they're giving the power to the
municipalities so while I understand the sentiment and I appreciate it I think what's happening is we're sort of at the for Road and I think the bills that are coming out are supporting that hey municipalities and County and state we're going to figure out a central
location with information is and you know we're going to completely eventually do away with even the requirement for even publishing an and I think that's where you know I think that's where the direction is going sure no I understand Min
understanding it's the the law is permissive or the the the bill is permissive so you know I think it would be up to us to kind of make that POS policy we think it's a worthwhile thing to continue doing but you I think there's an adequate replacement for that I would prefer to keep it as
is well what I'm hearing you saying is that you want to keep it as is until there's a state law no I think my understanding is well as to take a look at the legislation I haven't closely read that one but my understanding is that' be permissive so we would continue to have the option to publish um if we we choose I don't think
they're limitting right I don't think that there's a I don't think that the current bill says you can't no but it's it's it's basically changing everybody to go into another alternative form of communication where the municipalities own it and they're not spending the money into the newspapers and that's
really what is going on it's been a big change it's been going on they've extended the bill um for a little bit for people to figure out what to do but it's going to be eventually be just the municipalities that's going to be the end goal and what they were looking at
um at the leag conference is the municipality posting the county posting and the state posting so those are the three options that's on the table you know but it's um I would be quite comfortable to have us post and if
there's a county and there's a a state posed because we have to be Financial stewards of the monies that we are we are held responsible for and responsible being responsible is to make sure that you know this $88,000 that it cost us a
year just to publish and because that it currently cost us now to publish could be well used on some maybe a Rec program or something else that we could put this $8,000 into creating more programming for for our town and our
people in our town but um I think that if what I'm hearing is that the majority of folks who are here tonight is saying that they're comfortable evening as it is until the state make an official decision and even if the state makes a
decision is it I'm hearing that you would still want to put it in on the home distribute star ler blah blah blah that that's my position so yeah I I I don't want to
participate withdrawing from newspapers might as well until there's like some other kind of broader Remedy or things seem to turn otherwise turn around there's another source of revenue for newspaper for newspapers so we we no taxpayers money
because we feel sorry for new people who print newspaper that's what I'm hearing in the very basic because that's what I'm hearing basically there are other ways of supporting Free Press besides giving them our money from the no not giving them taxpayers money or taxpayers money yeah taxpayers money it's the only
way it doesn't have to be through Public Notices I mean I think that we really have to think about what we're doing in Highland Park and if we can allocate that money towards something else that will benefit the larger Community then
maybe that's what we should consider I mean I would say that $8,000 is is an investment Comm look newspapers our society our society Society without newspapers has taken a serious ser and I think we see it
locally every day um there you know I'm looking at the state laws or the proposed bills regarding legal notices this one's not up yet I mean I would be interested to see you know how I mean Steve Sweeney tried to do didn't no yeah yeah
um uh yeah I would be interested to see kind of how how a bill you know well they're working they're working through the mechanisms of it so we don't supersede state law so when the state law comes out then we would have to fall in
line anything else on this all righty so we're just going to table it until wait for the state to make a decision that's what we are saying so just a point of clarification at a work session are we supposed to
make decisions no I'm just asking I'm asking for yeah I that I'm I'm comfortable waiting so that's that's all I was asking it sounds like there's going to be a bill forthcoming considering that they they're reaching out to IP alties um yeah and we can express our
concerns to the sponsors maybe or support well yeah yeah yeah in order to get there Al righty okay so it's tabled until the bill comes out all righty now we're going to move
into our 20125 goals and priorities and I know you all are can't wait for have the this happen Stephanie's going to be cheering this session um tonight and I know she has sets of notes and stuff that she want to
go through I had put some of my ideas and what I would like to see together as well and as we go about sharing and putting our ideas and we have two scribes that's going to be taking notes for us we also have a a sheet that we can go up and add to and everything else
like that but basically we are looking at what it is that we want to accomplish in the next n months because March is already here so we're looking at if you accomplish those you could check them all and if you accomplish those ideas or proposal in the next nine months you you
you just check it off your bucket list for example I think a good example is that um we've been looking at um Rules of Order and we started looking at that that would be something that's in Stephanie's pocket as our council
president one school and so our council president is looking at that say by say you look at it another time you say okay you know what this is what we want to do and it's adopted and that's a check off that would be in her bucket so it could be very shortterm things it could be things
that would be accomplished in the next three months the next six months or the end of the year or it could be the next 18 months or more because some goals obviously are going to take longer I'll share with you one that I had when I was in charge of Public Safety we had um we
wanted us to do like a forensic audit of our police department and what that auditing was is you know when Princeton did the study and I went and I got a copy of it when we look at saying we look always look top down but this study
was bottom up so when we could say from we had conversations with everybody to see what needs to be changed it took Princeton 10 years to get their audit completed of their Staffing and their equipment and everything took them 10 years but when I was there we started
with the the we started with the him her or the pronouns and we started looking at that and that was one fix then we went in and revised the outdated language so that was a piece a part of it that we started to look at just fixing the language and getting it up to
date and um then the next thing was like how do they acquire equipment or how do you do the next bunch of Staffing how does new officers come on what kind of training was being provided I don't know where it is right now but that was a
part of a that was going to be a long-term thing because we all know we had issues at various points in our PD and one of the ways to identify those issue was to not go top down but bottom up and try to identify where those issues are and that was what I was
working on then so that's why that's a 10year thing but each year there was something that I could check off the box so some of you may have things that are say instantaneous within this year some of you may have two or three years or
even longer so for example um you're on the planning board and your I vision of the town is to redo X Y and Z the planning board takes about say good 20 25 years to get everything done that you would have on the bucket if you're on the planning board so th those are the
kind of areas that we need to think what we can do now because we have this big pie how do we do pieces of it now and long-term sub we will have a check off list when you get to certain areas that you can check off for example on mine
here I have mine was for South Third so I was putting ideas like what can we do for South Third and we know that the RFQ and Al third and you know stuff like that so we can say okay the first quarter we did X the second quarter we
did y the fourth quarter we did this and so we can check check oh we can check check all the different things like I had on here the that's coming later don't be oh yeah this at the end this is your fortune yes fortune cookies and so
we if you look at the road diet the road diet is taking forever but there pieces of the road diet that's being done so that's something like that is going to be a a long ter a longterm shortterm plan because the state told us the dot told us that upper ritin would not be
done until 2028 that's a long-term plan but there pieces P of it that will be done this summer and there are pieces of it that was done last year so those are the areas that we're going to look at as we look at our bucket and look at our reorg
sheet and say okay this Falls in my bucket but it also falls into council member hell's bucket and how do we do Economic Development with Public Safety with DPW Pur sewer system and how does that all come together any
questions and Madam president so are yours um okay thank you everyone this is my first one so be easy and AD Bo um did you guys uh see the email right that I had sent around
with the chart or so you guys um but I just want to remind everybody please speak up a little bit just because relying on that mic so I understand you're just you're being casual but I was thinking that speaking we do have some folks at home
okay okay okay can I also just is it where's the camera coming from because if you're going to be jaring you should be in a place where people can see you that's not a bad idea I you want you want to sit here and you want sit here I mean I just I want you to be like you're GNA be chairing it so I want people to
see you right now over there where are you you're right here I think it's this I think is that I think you should no you're right here see you on TV yeah my back is come here can we get those charts
was those out before I thought that's what you said that they were supposed to F nothing we got that but they were supposed to fill them out that's so I'm happy to try to go print them out but if they're not like I I well don't we have notebooks people can just write there
your list and I printed up a list so people will oh okay yeah did anyone bring it no I did not bring it I so why don't we just use these notepads and people can take notes and then they they turn them in and then they'll be written up for
us okay well it had dates and everything and we're using the chart you got not I got there's a box right here thank you
so first let me just go over the okay so kind of like the outline for tonight for the goal setting session you know we kind of work together to identify a set of goals or priorities for 2025 and then we're going to include
some M year targets um as I had put on the chart you had the one section that was until June June 1st and then you have another that will end December 31st 2025 and kind of like what I had said in
the meeting the gold is because hey maybe somebody else may have Redevelopment or Health and Human Services next year and we're going to do these goals and priority sessions again next year so maybe you may have some
different goals or so that's for your portfolio um and then we're going to focus on what we want to achieve this year rather than how we're going to do it so for larger goals you identify kind
of like a sub goal that is achievable so whatever you want to do a uh was it splash park you'll identify maybe an area maybe for your goal for the end of the year and maybe I want I want some plans I want some plans in hand or you
know something uh and you organize your goals and priorities by your Council committee area so my finance everyone we all know our committee areas and then we look for um like the mayor said look for
goals and priorities that's um cross cutting and that you know we will work together and as you was Dove tail and into other um in other areas so then and then um that last
chart that I have put on my sheet that had said identify Revenue um potentials and area opportunities with each Council committee so I actually added this in here this year as chair of Finance we
know you know there's you don't know what's really happening on the federal level um which trickles down to the state level being very tight and so forth and so on so I really think what we're doing kind of like the goals and
priorities as well that we can at least come up with one Revenue opportunity and it doesn't have to be actual like Revenue it can be review your fees of you know your fee schedule it could just be review review that um it can be not
actual but maybe you know you cut something somewhere um in an area um and then review the meeting process next steps and then we're all gonna have our
opportunity to put forward goals and priorities related to your committee again and then the mayor has Administration and she put some as well and then encourage listening and reassure the group that they will have the opportunity for feedback and
comments and then Terry and the clerk will take notes then the admin which is uh council president the mayor and the business administrator uh committee will draft the gos and priorities and document it
and circulate it so similar whatever we put on the flip chart tonight so does anyone want to share first maybe we should go in accordance to our church well you're first then that's the let's
see well I was gonna pick on hell because he said a long thing I was like typical Professor hell hell a lot ready but was but yeah so mayor no you can go ahead
this I don't want to mess up your system okay question you want me to try to do flip chart notes take handwritten notes like what what's flip chart would be greatart okay so I'm going to do my best to car I'm going to do shorthand but I'm gonna try to capture do you want
me to write if you have to take notes well I'll take notes up there okay we have the repor not GNA be all l so I'm GNA start with economic development okay so um
so I start I started I I I started a lot with what you did right and so the track SE Redevelopment in Third Street um my number one goal is to support mayor Foster's goals and obje I think you put objections I did I
I but I will fix that um it for I fixed it addition in addition to that um I came up with a bunch of things that I thought Economic Development could do and or or put down so identify and hire the Third Street consultant firm in um uh in
conjunction with Terry um uh and the Third Street stakeholder committee devel Third Avenue I have to tell you you said it three times I just had Third Avenue stakeholder committee
so so we formed a stakeholder committee for for Third Avenue and um we'd like to sit down and develop a action plan for them um I'd like to hold all the required stakeholder planning board zoning board and Council public hearings that we need to make Third Street happen
um Third Avenue sorry Boulevard that street over there the um uh uh uh I thought it'd be interesting to use Placer AI which is this this Tech that
we have um to see how uh when the development starts when things happen what does that happen to traffic hold on so we don't know which ones is for six months and we don't know which one is that's gonna come later all of these well all the ones I'm reading right now I want to be done by June 30th
and then the second set would be done by 31st that's I broke it down into by 30th and the 31st okay so these are I you wrote it allot so I'm not going to go crazy but the final goal by June 30th is we
have plans we got plan we got Stu so he's gonna be checking off a bucket in six months in by June 30th right okay um uh so other things related to track C and Third Avenue
um uh are trying to develop some materials highlighting the various tools that we have for HB businesses so we ought to be able to explain to them what place or AI is what Beyond main is what Eda grants are so we ought to be able to be able informational session so not as
like actual materials like I think we have a bunch of different things that we're giving to that that we can give to businesses and as we're recruiting new businesses to go into the new developments and as we're recruiting businesses everywhere I think some materials that would say here's this
here's this and here's this we got to create oh so you want a pack it to give out I want to I want three pages I don't want to pack something a really business someone who's starting a business who has a million things to do can read in in 30 seconds and he wants
to elevate his so this is for existing but also potential potential new right like you think like like like a punch this like I'm moving to town this is what I need to do to open my business this this this this and this um well so that's coming later okay this is what what I'm thinking about now is will
you just let everybody just shut up and let him speak and then we'll get to that what I what I was thinking is is this would be about the things that we have these are the things that we already have that are available to Highland Park businesses and we ought to be able to push it to businesses and push it to people saying if you come to Highland
Park you get this in addition to being in Highland Park right um and then in also in terms of of South Third um as necessary or as needed I'm happy to do more walking tours um people seem to like those walking tours so I'm happy
and that cost us nothing that cost us that's yes um well you have to put armor on no I'm just kidding um so so um uh so then by December 31st some other goals
for for the track C in South Third um uh make sure that Main Street has identified um event planning in Far farmers markets during construction periods so what are their their I mean that's going to have to be fluid because we don't know exactly when those things are going to come but I'd like to make sure that Main
Street knows what they're doing if South Third is is in some stage or if the the track C is is is building I'd like to have them what are you g to do right and work with them um uh and then um um
other thing that uh wanted to do by the end of the year was direct Outreach to local businesses um just walking down the street knocking on the door and saying um you know that there's these developments coming you know that there is this where you don't know or um
there's a whole bunch of things coming right next door so we should tell them face to face and Outreach face to face so direct Outreach to local businesses about Redevelopment particularly about South Third and about track SE so um and then you know I flushed out a couple
other things that are sort of I think we can do some of them by June 30th but we could continue to December 30th as well yeah so I don't know that's that's track c um uh for um uh upper re upper rariden
was another one of the mayor's priorities um my number one goal is to support mayor Foster's goal OB you go love it good at that right that's number one and I spelled it right this time so that's a good um uh you know this this
is again um as upper Reon happens we have to develop the list of local residents um uh around the potential projects that's an easy sort of pull um uh because we're GNA have to reach out to them as as there's a upper RAR development we have to have neighborhood
public meetings so um uh I thought by June 30th we would be able to identify the um uh the the local stakeholders which we you know the local residents um uh and then by June by December 30th to
have the various required meetings for planning zoning and and public hearings about some upper R in development but at least have the ones with the folks in the neighborhood that assumes we have projects coming assumes we have Pro if we have projects if we don't have a project we don't have a Mee doesn't make
any sense okay um and then uh so that was up and then on uh windbridge have for the NPP um uh so we just turned in our our our to the county our fourth year uh
plans and budget they haven't technically said yes to it yet but they will and so we just have to get that approval that's one of the goals um uh I think that we should be working with a stakeholder committee and Communications team um specifically on MPP materials
about things for residents because one of the things in the MPP plan for this year is that we're we're moving to porch uh uh grants so people can get grants to to to make if they're in the district they get porch grants to fix up their porch um so we need to do some sort of
Outreach to to Residents um um about the about that we've done a lot of Outreach of businesses but we because the grant also allows us to do it for residents we got to do that as well um uh one of the things that that was in the mayor's uh
goals was to to do a branding um Concepts and to come up with a branding plan for MPP um uh I think just organizing that with stakeholder committees professionals and Consultants about what do we brand Woodbridge Avenue um you know what are what are the
different ways that we could go about branding Wood Bridge Avenue um next is continue the business facade grant program expand the MPP District stakeholder committee membership um is another goal we have a really really good group of folks but I think we could add a couple people to that um in before
June 30th we have to start planning uh the 2025 Woodbridge Avenue car show I want a car show this year yes yeah you said it you said it it's here um I would love to make sure that we purchase the best snowflakes in the
history of snowflakes another sort of Big Goal we'd love to have the the fantastic about to be at the state house again clapping is standing up all day yes exactly just like um uh we have to do out um we have
to do Outreach uh to businesses um on Woodbridge Avenue about both Beyond Main and Placer AI we have to make sure that they know um and how to engage with that um like to do direct Outreach just like the direct Outreach I wanted to do with Main Street to do that up at MPP um uh
there's there's Fair much of what we've done on MPP or what we want to do on MPP we're sort of waiting for County Road improvements we're waiting for the county to figure out what how that's going to play itself out so we have to monitor that um I think that we have the
ability to do some additional um either repainting of existing um Street Corner art um or finding new Street Corner art within the MPP District um that's part of our budget um uh and I know rugi is working on this already but doing uh us
using again Placer II to look at um uh uh traffic and monitoring on Liber J um uh and then um um a lot of the way that I foresaw that is that in up through June 30th we plan
these things and then after June 30th we Implement these things so the goal is that we up through June 30th we we figure out how to do it and then after June 30th we actually make it happen so I'm not going to go through all of those um molach gra was another place um we talked about a long-term capital and and
non- capital strategic plan um one of the things about Molly we we we have some money from MPP but we don't have enough to rebuild everything we don't have enough we don't so we have to figure out how to either find that money or we have to prioritize about what is the steps that we're going to do with M
MRA um we know it needs to be fixed um uh one of the things that the the the stakeholder committee has really uh talked a lot about is sort of cameras in the in the park so that's a discussion tab I don't know it's an action item but it's to to to figure out um how that
might work um because having cameras might make it a little bit safer but again a discussion item not a an action item um uh and so again thinking about up through June 30th to sort of develop this strategic plan for Molly MRA and
then um as appropriate afterwards into December 30th to start implementing what can we Implement what do we have the money to do what where do we need to find the additional money so um so that would be in the second half can I keep
going no I for the par remember the cdbg but I mean I could let yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so um next up is shared services and and the bottom line in shared
services I think that there might be some possibilities of of shared services around Economic and Business Development I just don't know what they are so what we need to do is research that to see if there are has anybody ever done shared services for for a sid or anybody done
shared services for for economic development um and I don't know the answer to that so I would like to research that and figure it out quick answer to shared services on Redevelopment that has been done okay um there's been two municipalities that we've done one for um as far as the s
that gets complicated has to do with taxes that go back to that so but absolutely that I I literally think it's a it's it's worth exploring I just it has to be explored because I don't know what that's that would be that um
um what so so before June 30th to do that exploring and then after June 30th to come with to the council with some proposals to say here's some ideas that that might work and let's let's flesh those out and see um you know which of
the proposals has you know the the the most interest among Council and seems possible and if there's nothing that's possible there's nothing that's possible but the goal would be to sort of come up with an idea or two to float out about shared services around Economic Development um uh okay so the things
that are not that I that I went um next is is Main Street Highland Park um so one of the goals um uh to work with Main Street Harland Park to identify and recruit additional board members um uh they need some additional board members
um so it's a got to identify and recruit them to get them on the board um uh so uh Stephanie came up with a really fun idea about the sale of the month where we pick um different places in Highland Park and um you know this sale is
because councilman this is councilman hs's favorite thing at this store and so you get a 4% discount or something like that so it's Pizza something like that always piz okay um uh again one of the things I really want to work on in
economic development is sort of Direct business engagement so direct engagement with Highland Park businesses meaning not by Electronics but by showing up at their door and saying hello um so I'd like to develop with ruia um a plan of how we're going to get what what time we
have what time constraints we have how do we go and knock on a bunch of different businesses um continue supporting ongoing events um that that um Main Street does um again identifying space and infrastructure needs for the transition of farmers market to South
Third um again identifying programming and structure needs for Main Street um at South Third and the potential track SE community space so those are another things that we have to to work on just so everybody knows Main Street is well represented on our stakehold committee
stakeholder committee for South Third um so we fully expect that you know we'll be able to to do that um uh one of the things that we talked about at Main Street and talked about another place is sort of um uh is is develop a a a mock
business creation process so let's say that somebody wants to create a business in Highland Park what do they need how do they do that and where's the steps um and so that would be something that would be um I can't resist but telling you two's already got a trft well why do you think I put it on my cuz he want to
check someone I got I know she's already working on it so I gotta I got a head start right I could resist she yes and so I think that would be a wonderful thing so you have we have seven items so far some of these I I have ideas of how we might regroup some of these to make
but that would be at the end that would be yeah at the end when we when we go look at everything together collectively yeah but these are all things okay um uh uh track day was another thing um um obviously um you know the planning board
is looking at at the Redevelopment study um we react to that as as as as that happens um after that happens there's a negotiation process um so we have to continue to monitor that um as it goes along um before June 30th 2025 I hope
Uber is up on W Avenue um it's up it's up they have cars in there now I drove past it this evening he wants to scratch it off mayor I I yeah I'm just saying that you can scratch it off tonight so he's completely moved I I don't know that he's completely moved he dropped in on
Manny he basically said this week is move week okay great because I saw T yeah there's a sign up in the old spot that we've moved right and a sign up for the new one future home of right but until I see this is move week so they're
not what I'm hoping is that when I see Mr uy in the front window that we'll know that he's moved so that would be nice to make sure okay bucket soon to be checked off he's going to have a big old check off bucket I want to get stuff done well
anything that happened January first um uh again you know the end of the year is all development stuff um uh then we have the Cleveland Avenue Redevelopment there's a lot of work to do with staff to complete work on a Redevelopment um
concepts for Cleveland Avenue which is um you know up by there we have tons of stuff to do so that's on the to-do list um uh and then um uh and then sort of I put in its own separate thing sort of how to start a business in Highland Park I think that
would be a nice thing to be able to give people to say here's how you start a business um that's it that's what I got all righty so the shared service one is your income your what that's your income
right that's your income savings you know Stephanie's challenge to everybody with a revenue or a yes Shar Services my income I I had another one in but I'm not gonna give it to you it would have been very easy no it was your fees your fees your
area in code in code to review code enforcement code enforcement fees all right I'm you know I think that's an interesting one um in light of the how to how to start a business like so I think that that that could be part of how to start a business but I think it's a good idea to some of those but also or
to look and see if we're under yeah or to see if we that's a good idea so um I I got this so you got this you want to go next oh no I feedback
feedb feedback yeah back we did say put back feedback which was just say that um I fully support your goals and objectives of supporting the mayor's goals and objectives I think it all sounds really great and I think um especially I just wanted to highlight I
think um that track C and um Third Avenue Plaza is should be our top priorities I think those are things that can happen in the not too distant future and again should just really prioritized because I think that can really provide some concrete deliverables to just
really provide a shot at arm to the to the community I think it's going to bring such Vitality to the downtown um provide much needed housing including affordable housing um and boost our local businesses so I mean in ter so it's outside of my bucket but I just want to
you know second everything that you're saying and just make a pitch to that that push those items yeah and how many you have I I I I have 10 it's not a
competition right there's 10 but I'm that business support that could maybe those could go it goes to other areas as well there's a lot it makes sense because we have yeah Wood Bridge versus the rest of town right yeah you have Woodbridge you have
downtown you have upper R you have a lot nor nor what did you have a question I I don't have a question as much as I have an idea that kind of for this particular bucket I know that you mentioned um regarding the idea of having like a special discount um named
after like a council person or something like that and I was just wondering um because I had written actually written this down on my list um the possibility of having like a mar like a farmers market dat discount um if we can
approach um businesses that um are in that area perhaps to get a discount on Friday specifically because I know while the farmers market is great um I know everybody kind of gravitates towards the market and uses those food trucks and we
have so many restaurants um on ridan Avenue that are kind of like oh what about us so I'm just wondering if we could flow the idea of having a specific um of going to the businesses and proposing if they would give a discount specifically on Friday like a Market Day discount just to attract some consumers
their way as well um can I take it one step back because I think it's a really important idea that we try and engage bricks and mortar businesses more with farmers market right because I do that separation between the farmers
market and so so like for example one of the things that that this Placer AI one of the things we're working on is what happens to other businesses during Farmers Mark do they get more or do they get less right and so we'll have the actual data that will help us okay make that determination like and there may be
a business that just you know booms on Farmers Market Day and May maybe there's not maybe we'll just we'll have a have an idea but I think the idea of integrating them I'm a little the only reason I'm a little reluctant is I don't want to go to a bricks and mortar business and say you know the food
trucks are are here but we want you to give a discount you know or something like that but I absolutely 100% agree that some sort of um way of trying to integrate those two was a really and and highlight the bricks and mortar businesses on Farmers Mark it's really really just to kind of make Friday
day everybody coming market and businesses and just incentiv special day so um I could agree with you more sorry Norma that you know the food trucks are okay but the
people who are paying into the bid and um who have put who are put in out constantly that we need to find a a way to incentify those people for example you know we might say the barber shops in town you get a 10% off or a 5% off
barber shop and they go out and do some flyers or the nail shops or whatever wherever people shop you can incentivize to get more people going into the downtown business but as council member hell said place that AI is going to be informing us but there could be other
incentives that we incentify to you know not just on fers Market day yes we want get all these people coming in but maybe if they have a coupon that they can buy they can come back another time utilize those kind of right but related to that so that maybe it's not so much of a competition between the two we do
something special like on a separate day I think kind you were almost getting at so so we could have like downtown Sundays where maybe we have some kind of programming in hope that Plaza that'll be up and running soon and then maybe have a discount there so hope we get a big draw on people coming in Sunday as that's the day to come so Highland Park
hang out get a bite to eat get a bubble te um yeah because I'm really concerned that you know we have people who are paying in to a bid in the the in the special Improvement districts and we want to make sure that those brick and
Martyr business are getting the most the biggest bang for their book councilman um uh on on the um councilman h no thank you I'm telling you he a
comment so so real quick for the economic development team whatever additional ideas you guys have give it to him and maybe he wants to add it to his goals or so later or so I'll try to I'll try to believe it or not this will make sense to me okay okay I have we
already did nor did I did all Economic Development yeah support the car show a th% all cars any cars vintage electric whatever it's awesome yeah yeah that's that's it's super
cool I had more councilman H has I raed my hand has been recognized excuse me um this is really no no I I'm I'm with Jason this is it's it's all really exciting um one thing
that um is it worth ever having um like a quarterly downtown you know bid Property Owners convening or twice a year I feel that a lot of the proper you know we're always faced with like these like atlarge Property Owners you know who don't operate
right um maybe and then this may be happening so I'm sorry but maybe there's like a you know a regular convening of of of property just so they know what's going on and we can recommend you know hey want you PID your building or wanted you do these faad improvements there's
incentives that I um uh I don't want to step on meain Street's toes but I'd certainly like to have a conversation with Main Street about how to effectuate that because I think I think I think there's a lot of I think having something with
the the the people paying in the Sid um is is a really really good idea um I mean um maybe maybe I'm just brainstorming right and all that but but maybe there's a way of not having it as a meeting but having it as a tequila
contest or you know something that would draw people in like like a dinner right like like have it have it some like a restaurant we along those lines be not just that you get that we just asking you to come to a meeting we recognize and maybe we
can afford to frozen food and stuff like that like you know give out awards for best sidewalk clean I just wanted to add I think it's a really interesting thought because I do feel badly the one time of year they hear from us it's like and
here's your bid tax you know you know and and we here's some things we did but you know we always try to but so having and we kind of taking that approach businesses too so it's a good you know like we don't want only time it's like we need you to fix your sidewalk or
whatever we want to be adding value helping them and I think that fits in overall with one of the fundamental goals is a lot more face-to-face touches with people that are in the bid and the people who are in the in in the businesses right so that it's it's it's that we're we're out on the street
knocking on the door saying hello and having those conversations and relationships so that when we do send the bill or when we do ask for the you know or something like that they it's not just asking a stranger so I think that's really I think that's a nice nice mixw did get it um I just one I just had
one other thing um uh oh I had um I had something about that um just with the um you know with the food trucks that's an interesting I don't really have a whole lot to add there but it is interesting because I know that there are you know some of the some of
the vendors or even some of the farmers Market who have really developed a client base here you know are looking for brick brick and water and and and often can't can't find anything so um maybe there is a way to kind of maybe we can retain some of these you know um
businesses you know um and help you know help encourage them to say why don't you why don't you plant your flag here in par yeah that that's happened a couple times with food trucks is that they have they have explored some they haven't we haven't success that hasn't been successfully yet but I know at least two
instances of a food truck who was exploring trying to be bricks and B in park you know they just for whatever reason couldn't make it work but always and I like the food I don't honestly I do not know I I agree there's a fairness issue you know someone's paying into the bid and that's a thing and they but they
also get the full-time benefit of p park too um but I think the kind of gig economy when it when it comes to when it comes to uh the food trucks is an important thing for us to consider you know I I don't wouldn't know what the
approach is but you know I mean the gree trucks existed in New Brunswick for a thousand years and they had their own self-sustaining you know economy there and then I think the city helped facilitate them when they need to you know be elsewhere so uh yeah no that
was the mayor you have been reced speaking of um she have three minutes yeah I'll make it quick mine is three mine is 3 minutes okay passport program we had a program called the passport program many years ago and it was to Sayes restaurant week and each
you would have a passport to go into each restaurant you get a sampling and you buy stuff for 10 bucks and you get your passport stamp you go to the next place next place and there'll be a grand prize at the end I think that would be one way to encourage people to have a program that they're going into this restaurant they're getting these stamps and it's a passport look like a passport
and they're sampling all these food and it's a way to g generate revenue for the business that's one the other one is the car show last year when we worked on the car show um I spoke with mayor Bush at l in matachin and they do the car show if
we're looking at this to generate income or to have more money spent in Highland Park it's not it's just a night out for people to show their cars just want to put that out there because it does not generate a not he said not even a pack of gum it generates nobody spend because
they come they have their setup they bring their food and that's all they do so it's just a nice thing so that's that um you have three minutes upper rarin upper rarin you said that um upper rtin I think you can go and do the roll up because we're going to be doing the
striping this year so that's a conversation to say leave some flowers with people in the area and just let them know that coming soon blah blah blah this is going to happen so you have an opportunity to inform people yeah before there's um you still have a minute and a
halfing me I forg I remember I think you have to let her get her points out and then address them one by one so so the idea of of of um letting the the residents of upper rare to know what's coming in terms of the road stuff as a way prior to letting them know
what's coming it's Redevelopment stuff it's a good idea and snowflakes I found the guy at the league for the snowflakes okay all right have add them to our le as we as the list continues to grow I'm sorry counil councilman H one more thing and
then we're going to move I forgot what I was going to say no the the reason why I was talking about the property kind of convening party is because um even through through DPW uh you know we run into this you know it's like some buildings are not retrofitted to have modern you know ENT entry and access
points for trash and everything like that so to hear those concerns I think because we never get it from the property because we hear it from the from the tenants um so that even that was that's
n anyway I'm sorry I meant to tie it like to go next counil sure sure public works works okay so you have two income things I'm just keeping note so 1231 if you're all right so PR you may not be thrilled
with my Revenue razors here um but but we we will think this through more um uh so for public for public works and Public Utilities there's a couple things that are in in the works and um some things that we would like to start um you know this has been ongoing for uh a
few years but uh obviously we have our River Trail uh exploration committee currently I I think the survey work is complete or the initial phase of the survey work uh with the river trail is complete through our consultant uh and um the next step is to have the
committee uh I guess mobilized ter I think that's this is a fair time I mean we we definitely gonna have to figure out this year what our next move is this is such a big project we're gonna have to break it down but this is important you know this is a longterm
you know what is important we hear the river trail I'm sorry the connector Trail me I'm sorry so for those at home this is the we received um uh uh funding for feasibility study and Survey work um uh on a connector trail from Donaldson
and Johnson Mars and uh um we have we have seen in in public setting a kind of a you know a rough uh draft of kind of the root of the trail but nothing specific nothing about materials or you know any of the lighting or any of that
um but moving forward though uh so now that the survey work is complete and we have a better hand on the properties that the survey that would be affected did they finish we finished basically through the grant all the as much as we could accomplish with the money we had
on Boundary surveys some geologic for especially where the ramp has to be but we're really still in a chicken and egg and we're gonna because you know I would hate for us to spend a lot of money on the design we have a host of Permitting issues so I tend to think we're going to
have to like knock on D door to try to get some assistance with how does a town navigate a project like this like it's a little big for us um and to talk to the county too I think so I think there's I can we could talk more about like I
don't have exact ideas for June 30th for the end of the year but I think some a couple of strategic DP meetings you know to kind of get some guidance as to how to do this yeah so so we we we said um you know we said early on that this was not going to be you know eventually that that we did not want this to be a
Highland par PL infrastructure project want to bring the county want to bring the state in as best as we can um it's a really difficult you know project for us to carry out on our own so um uh we do need to we need to have these meetings with uh you know with with the county
and see what their level of involvement can be uh and then take it from there um you know we haven't priced out you know obviously we don't have a number on the you know ultimate cost because there's no design um but there's going to be you know a lot of considerable uh work so
this is a multi-year goal but it's uh it's it's in progress um and just on that um uh Parks development so one thing that we can check off is uh you know we we completed
a pocket park and this is you know this was a good lesson in in why it's so important to prioritize things on our goals because uh you know a seemingly tiny part because you know there were things that you know kind of fell above it uh it was hard to priority you know
it's the first man I think we should stay with the the the the river trail oh sure because if you have gone through phase one say it's five phases and you've gone through five the phase one you can say check phase one is done right and then you need to
meet with different stakeholders so those are the next phase the next phase so you want to say first quarter I did this second quarter third quarter fourth quarter something like that okay you know I mean yeah that makes sense before you jump on into the next thing just because we're trying to get the goals together so you know where you are at
each time right no no no that makes sense thank you mayor uh so for the river trail the next step is to review the consultant um survey work with the committee um uh and through the committee uh we can
identify next steps so let's have that be a spring 2025 so June June 30th meet by meet with the committee okay okay yeah yeah yeah okay that's doable check that
one the next pH is you want to say meet with the county and the state and you know blah blah blah BL blah blah then take it in these phases so can we do um can we set County County and state just to cover there were some meetings of that nature as part of the the the
current iteration of the study but yeah we could I think we could say certainly by the end of the year we could convene a second round of those meetings you know part of the problem is again which thing should we do next you know if we
really want to make this happen right um I think we need to get a sense of of kind of toes in the water as far as having a you know well yeah we we would need to before we did any design work or any like like you say any additional investment I think we
need to know that part um so that U I think there are some key meetings we can have thanks getting coached by uh our fearless leader here thank you thank you
no no no this this is good uh okay so um next is um sorry I hate to be Nick but phase two is the the county and state Partners right correct so that's phase two and
then phase and then phase three is what oh I thought we were going to stop at two okay I thought we were doing June 30th year phase three well phase three because what if we we we say we find a way to get a pot of money so we can move some stuff you know what I mean so you want to have that phase
three would be the I guess would be contracting the design you get getting consult I wouldn't permitting is that's the I really think we need on this one I because you know it's kind of it's circular because then they go well depends on what materials you're using
so it's like you constantly get in this Loop so one of the things I haven't had a chance to you I think our consultant team can meet with our committee and together we can figure out what we think is realistic for 2025 in terms of what
the next set of meetings I agree with you mayor though if we can identify like our next need for money so money if I'm going to ask and if I'm doing the ask like today I made I did the ask again so if I'm out there always begging money I need to have an idea like okay this is
happening this is why I need to beg run for a lot and I'm doing it a lot so you know put it all out there so I can see it so it's in my head Terry you're gonna whatever patch that one up on the dry and then real researchview I think a lot of you when
we get to them I think we I was hoping you would be open to my input like well might be realistic to the extent that I'm involved with some of these um you know so I think this is an important one if we want to see this happen every year we're going to need to just SLO slog
slog to make it happen absolutely um and I I hear what you're asking I think it's it's not an easy like thing but I think we could say if we had $300,000 what would we do next in this project I think and then that could be at least we have in our Hip Pocket the
next time we have an opportunity for Grant or you know um and that's how we got where we are now is we have this idea and to do a feasibility study and we got that money so um we're much further along than we would have been
without okay all right thank you is that is that a you're done yeah no no no no that's it that could be one person's could be one yeah it could be one uh so next is
uh DPW um we want to look at um and we're we're trying to get a me together this week but we're we want to look at um bolstering our our our labor force uh at DPW particularly for downtown detail um we this was something we
talked about you know um uh you know having having two permanent you know workers assigned to uh to to just keep their you know maintain the downtown that's fantastic yeah right that would be you know Economic Development baby do you have openings now I thought you had
open no this would be addition the road I just I just saw opening I'm like get money Street program clean clean streets to for the one person we have so we
going to bring some stuff in here I would say I would I would know you make it you're absolutely right I would say you know that this is the kind of these are the kind of quality of life and you know and economic development you know it all it all ties together that kind of raise up our our economic
vibrancy of course when we put new stuff in we want to make sure it's clean exactly exactly yes especially with the plaza right so yeah we really need to look at that I mean you know trash pickup is always is you know it's no one's fault but it's just always an issue particularly on the weekends um if
it snows I mean like you know in in in the winter time there's every other week it seems like there's a Monday holiday or it snows and it prevents us from doing something that has to be put off um even pothole filling is is is a challenge because there's not time you know most of the time they Reserve that
for Wednesdays because that's the day that there are pickups um but if it's a short week a Monday holiday then that goes away so you know hot holes did get filled on vuler today so how many bodies are you we were talking about two right I mean it
doesn't have to be all in one year it could be you know over you know we can look at existing you know there's ways we could do this but I think or maybe we there there are companies you can hire to do that work to so we can look at all those options
to make a decision together what you know but this has been on my bucket this a long time I know yes yeah but it's hard because it's it's energy and time and money and all that but you know we will have the new
developments we will have additional we have opportunities to to to address those needs so there may be ways to leverage that to make so for this I mean this is the exploratory year um and you know we're going to have a budget
discussion I think uh so let's um we can put June um to you know produce you know at least an initial report or proposal on our findings you know potential costs uh and
then just tied to that though is the truckar truck some money coming the work yeah that's so that's one that we can check off we may have some more money coming in I I'm waiting for a letter okay cool I just found out today that we may have
a little bit more money so yeah we have we have some grant funding but the amount we have isn't enough so then you got us another pot so I got to see if I can blend them so we can cover with full and I might have another pot okay but the problem sometimes the timing doesn't work out um
but hey beggar can't be shoo and this is no small Fe getting one you once you get the money then you have to go they got to build yeah which is hard oh they have to build so a lot of times they're not sometimes you look out and there's one kind of like with the
fire truck we kind of L out with that there was one that was a basically met our needs that was available um but yeah so just to be advised I know and I know just it's not always easy especially specialty equip and I told Terry that you know um a lot
of times are going to be feeling a lot of belly aches so they might have stuff that we we can look at that's gently used or has been used as ordered and have not received so might be an opportunity Steph the trucks we have now are 30 years old so that's gently used
so is that no no no no I don't mean like that I mean like people and they not getting any money any we have some and we're trying to get more gr money to do that so is that that's not a part of what they already have income for them that's just kind of
like well I consider grants it's inome it's inome it's know do I'm sorry I I can I can tie re I can I can bring it yeah yeah I'll tie some Revenue too because I think there are ways for us to at least offset the
costs for some of these or or tie or tie Revenue raisers to to a lot of these um I can need all that too but even if the garbage truck is 100% that's like a big yeah covered big feather like we gonna try to go after a grant offset on across
the EV shuttle so there are ways not that that list because it's kind of one in process but you know that's well it'll be finalized this year so yeah I would say yes um then we just have um so we need
to be Ser we need to get serious about our water sewer infrastructure oh that's the putting a plan together for our Capital Improvements I know Terry uh we've been doing you know' done a lot of thought into this and um I've been you know we've been working with Mike um uh
at DPW so by June 30th I mean I think that we're in the capital plan right will be some I will say I think to tie it back to economic as everybody wants to I have asked and I know you weren't able to come to the meeting this week but one of the things we're talking about with the
utility is what are the water and sewer issues like let's get the sewer and water line addressed under the plaza so we never have to rip it up for waterm or maybe in front of track C like what needs to be done there you know and TR
so tying some of the prioritization to our Economic Development and our reel um so that's they're getting us a proposal for that no I would hope that all of these are are kind of viewed in that context of you know kind of P well in the best case yeah sometimes you know sometimes we have to chase after like
the worst leaky pipes and then no choice but that's a big one right that's like this is big but I think there going to be this is a that's that's just ongoing and that we have we are not it's not only just required is I mean not a good idea it's required basically just
there's a timeline for how long you have to replace your water remains they they gauge out at 120 150 years so that seems like oh that's forever for now but no it's here you got miles of them you got to start somewhere so this would be
really the first year so we can check you know we can we can cross that off when the council has a you know really deep understanding of the road ahead you know what some of the issues are and then and then we can talk about options and what how how want to proceed um so
that's before June 30 so that's good I'm gonna wrap up soon I'm sorry um just uh uh we talked about DPW I did the brand new um and this could obviously depend a lot on the fiscal you know health of the
State uh but is to you know really uh Source you know site locations for potential splash park or uh kind of performance space in Donaldson Park um that's a conversation that you know I really would love to
have with the county uh there's a lot of um you know there's existing infrastructure there everyone always talks about the flooding but that has nothing to do with it um you know these materials are meant to meant to withstand water um uh I think having you
know either you know we we lost the Pavilion down there um and there is a lot of space back there so it might be interesting to you know at least get a better sense now this this would be a park Improvement um
yeah an Amphitheater and a spray park spray park has been on a lot of people's minds for a long time and that kind of a long time yeah right right right yeah so so that would be you know that that would be a CH you know we work together that but that's something that you know I
kind of committed to because it's just been it's been bandied about about for a long time and we can probably just look into it so that is um you know I would say even fall um 2025 you know for at
least a report back on on what's possible so meeting with the county talking them oh the last thing and this isn't anything that will cost anything um but uh thank you for um uh so uh the mayor
and council president um uh agreed to so we have a through the Highland Park Housing Authority we have the Highland Park affordable housing Corp uh which was a required Financial agent that we had to create when the Housing Authority
underwent its uh rental assistance demonstration conversion through Hut what that what that is what that program is is that it provide it allows our public housing authority to retain public ownership and public stewardship while partnering with a private um Bank
uh to help pay for Capital needs they needed a new roof they needed new bathrooms I mean it was like you know in public public housing you know there's just no money for it so however one of the upsides is that this affordable housing Corp which is basically you know just a required you know
uh Fiscal Agent right entity is also stocked with you know um some really great housing thinkers in the state a couple folks who used to be at DCA um Ron Wong uh who's on our who was on our library board um Jason row who helps you
know write U affordable housing plans all over um and so this entity would be kind of just advisory um uh with Administration legal mayor mayor council um to make recommendations on our affordable
housing plan which is do this year we have a real opportunity June June 30th so that's a June 30th goal our plan is due June 30th we've we've hit the requisite um Benchmark so far by passing the resolution um but there's a lot of
really creative ways to meet our obligations and our obligations are modest so I think that there's um just a you know without building monolithic things everywhere there's some really cool cool ways that we can uh yeah right ad use um you know two
family um you know infill that type of thing where you know most town they try to just knock out their obligations through building something big and we can't do that and also um you know we're going to get we're going to get units
from from Redevelopment so um uh so that that I think that'll be you know having their inside and input I think would be really important can I ask a question on affable housing plan that we have to adop by June
30th um do accessory dwelling units help in that yeah they do they're in there they're in the law we got to we get credit but they have to be like de restrict de restricted not like you have a garage I'm glad that came up because that was one of the things I wanted us to talk about tonight
so so if Habitat for Humanity comes to town does a home and there's a shed in the back they they could they could also turn that into a Adu but they would manage the the deed restrictions on it the 40 years for
rental so I mean you can still build an Adu but it's only going to count as an affordable housing credit if it's if it's an external restricted no no no regular person's gonna do it right it's it's a lot to manage so do we need to
move forward on some version of accessory dwelling or we don't have them have sort of them kind of there's a state law that is on the move that would we don't have to have the plan would say
we're gonna do this or that if we decide that adus are a good idea we can implement it after the plan has adopted okay so the plan is say this is how we're g to do it and then we can AR and so we'll have to weigh out and just to be clear there is going to be I'm just
going to use a promo for next week uh reso on to hire clerk Kon H to actually do the work of drafting the plan with the input of us in the committee um so I hope you will support that next week in the interest of this June 30th deadline you know uh so we're gonna
probably highlight a bunch of ideas we'll figure out what we need to do to meet Our obligation but we might tee up some ideas that are just good ideas we don't necessarily need it for Our obligation but IDE okay um and and and just and just for what it's worth I did I just since we
have this opportunity um I did just want want to mention sustainable Highland Park is working on a gas powered leafblower ordinance with a Consortium of uh you know representatives from Board of Health and and um uh so that is
um you know and this would be treated like you know no no action yet but this this there's it would be in the um we would be working on it and kind recommendations recommendation education that kind of phase you know um so no no no formal action yet but that that's
good so they're not disenfranchised minority workers right yeah yeah a lot to consider right yeah I remember when Phil bought this up a while ago to it's been on their list for a long time back yeah they wanted to so there's a couple things on here that have been kind of
goals for a long time and they've seemed reasonable and you know support them so I you know it's we're just going to you know some of them need to do due diligence but they're really leading that effort um and similar to the plastic bag um ordinance where there was you know a survey kind of Outreach
seminars educational you know stuff so we'll see that this year so I don't have a timeline necessarily um but I did just want but that would be an ongoing list yeah thank you I have I for your um Revenue one I
had I um so like bulk pickup I know we have a certain amount that it's free I know I know I'm on camera but this is just an idea I know someone that lives in like Maple another there both pickups are
free but you don't have to do that but I'm just saying anything excessive pass through my list past three what are the fees for that what do we I mean some of us we have like fees that deer that's been there forever that we just it it is
what it is but you know maybe we can look at that exercise or so they do the you know they they have the free pickups but maybe yeah I I I mean yeah if I know I only got one or two pickups I'm going to be very you
know CAU thing your labor goes back to your labor and where you're managing the people and you know no that's a really good idea okay we will um explore Public Works Community why I still think you're on public I have a question yes regarding
the possible Le lower ordinance can you just give us like a scope of what they're thinking about maybe is that right so other so so some other towns have put in you know to play some guard rails on when gas power gas
powered leaf blowers uh commercial commcial gas powered commercial leaf blowers and Equipment uh can be used certain times of day certain times of year I think we really starting to hear a lot about it uh during the pandemic when people were home and people
realized like these things run all day long and it's noisy it's you know it's not it's you know it's not healthy for us or for the workers um and um it does make sense to to to have some you know
kind of guard rails in place um uh you know when it comes to the noise and just the activity and you see it too I mean some of these some of these double long trailers that we see kind of taking up the intersections those didn't exist 15 years ago so like now it's like I mean
so it's it's increasing like it was it may have been a problem before but now it's just off the charts I mean it really I would agree that that's um you know but yeah a lot to consider so we have to we have to give it find if we have a problem or not we're we'll walk
slow hear anymore right we're going to walk slowly um so you're talking about more like time versus the actual equipment that's used or both it that's that's going to be that that's what we're working on sustainable we're looking at what some of the other you know towns like Maplewood Princeton they
have you know similar you know uh similar efforts that didn't do an allout ban um but it did did put restrictions particularly during like you know spring and fall really do see a lot of activity I just want if you want to Bone up on it sustainable Jersey they have a new
action all about this so yeah and so that gives you and you can get variable points so you can do just education you could do an ordinance you don't have to do all of it to get the points so I think that's one of the things they were we were hoping to guide them towards so we can also collect some points along
the way one of the things that we spent a lot of time so far this year doing is getting Jacob up to speed with the administrative sustainable Jersey actions that we do and how that fits in with what sustainable Highland Park wants to do for these actions so I'll send the link around basically this is
what gets us our sustainable jury certification um we are among the leaders in the State uh and it does open us up to more funding so um Council for there's there's some Revenue uh because if we can get more grants out of out of out of this environmental work then
that's a good thing um and uh one of the major drivers was people in the pandemic when they start at 7 o'clock in the morning people just get upset because say was too early but if you're a landscaper and this is your only way to make live it somebody's going to have to
be convenience in inconvenience because this way you're taking food off people who have children to feed you're taking away from their place and I think that needs to be a great consideration when we make these these whopping changes that we live nice and comfy but don't have the same option and sometimes these
people have two jobs they start out they start and then go to the next one no question often times that's what it is we're coming of ways you can approach the situation based on what the group Mak sense um I did just want to mention stack
shade tree advisory because that's important um so we did we did just go out to you know we we we accepted a new um uh uh tree planting consultant um uh for the tree planting project uh SJC lawn care so that's good so we'll be
working with them that's not that's no that's um uh but then FYI the community forestry ma management plan um is a Five-Year Plan uh um done with the shade tree advisory committee uh that we are Dev that we have to develop this year
and check off okay um so that's it's important for some of our liability issues with respect to n tree maintenance and so forth so that's a big it's an undertaking stack will take a lot of lead but we are also getting a grip hopefully yeah we have a lot of trees aging out
planted at the same time 100 years ago so I'm hearing the complaints y thanks everybody thanks for the questions too um thank thanks Matt for
that um Jason okay thank you council president um so I'm relatively new to the Health and Human Service World um so I'm still getting my footing but I sort of broke
down um sorry Jason the chart oh no worries Health and Human Services so yes so new did that still find getting my footing um and um but I broke this down I think into three main
categories um the first up was Health um oh let me just like step back for a second just to say that pretty much all of my uh goals and priorities within my bucket should be more or less in a three to six month time frame um there's no like
really huge long-term things at the moment um but uh so anyway let me dive right into it move things along so first up was Health um a number of priorities there uh one of the first projects I talked about in the first boort of
Health meeting this uh year was consolidate and update the bar's health code provisions has apparently they're scattered across um the current code so it's a little bit hard to navigate um but also um some a lot of expertise in this are in the Board of Health had
identified a number of areas where we may not have kind of the current uh standard requirements and practices and I guess you know in terms of Revenue this may be one of the few areas that I think there are opportunities with my my bucket would be to if there's any fees or anything we find that somewh sorely
outdated um perhaps they there may be some opportunities for updates there I think by and large a lot of this was looking at just sort of um consolidating and put it together so that it's easy to find everything and understand everything and then to make some um substantive updates where we feel like
you know um we're falling a little bit shy of what is sort of the standard practice um another goal within the health area um was to make mental health part of the work of the Board of Health so it's something that they have taken on in the past um
you know they and they continue to do so uh but we thought it might make sense to kind of tackle physical mental health holistically address them together so um you know we may have form a subcommittee but um and we had in the past there was
the mental health uh commission uh which was just a temporary um uh Body by resolution so we thinking this might be an opportunity to bring that back then again also without having yet another board in commission so we keep things from getting too unwieldy and make it a little easier to manage these issues and
I haven't had an opportunity to discuss it with the full Board of Health just yet um uh but you know the chair was open to it so those discussions have begun that's something that we're looking at and I'd like to see happen um and then the last in the Health Arena also the Board of Health um was uh you
know so they reached out and um expressed uh you know an interest in hearing from what the Council of mayor's priorities would be uh for for them um and what immediately jumped to mind for me was uh I think it would be very
helpful for them to kind of stay rest and stay up to date on all of the um uh well any health policy updates coming out at the federal level so that if there's a need to uh ensure that our
residents have um access to information that is uh grounded in medical fact and science yeah that's going to be a task for 2020 that's be you identify that as a
possible area where it might be good to have some more information accessible to our didn't even say anything we just know what it is so those drink unpasturized Moon
that's why I have a burm in my brain yeah all right so that was hell um some manageable goals there I think and again nothing that should you know well I guess that last one might be a little bit sort of an ongoing basis one
would require an ordinance at some point I guess yes so you get the work done first half oh yeah because then it gotta go absolutely so that'll that'll so hoping to maybe have kind of a rough draft we have you know one person with expertise in this area kind of looking
at it and last I heard there maybe a third or half of the we done so you know oh you're F I was thinking that was ambitious for six months but if they're already started yeah the work has already begun and you know hopefully you know time committing from know this volunteer is you know graciously
offering up their expertise hopefully we'll have you know a product that we can work with the coming months and take it from there um I know they're looking at like other municipalities um Health codes to you know kind of try make sure that we're up to date with our
requirements um so moving on the next area um second of the three is accessibility um and first which is probably going to be a joint effort with my colleague Norma would be to get the new community center bus um have that up
and running as soon as possible um so I know we approved the funding for that I was apparently looking for additional funding opportunities to support that but um you know that's certainly priority you know amongst the many things I have to do but hopefully that was something that will come to fruition in the coming
months um another uh priority within the accessibility bucket was um making it safer to get around our sidewalks um through improved snow and ice removal strategies um particularly downtown so I
talked about this with Matt um her uh to specify uh a couple of potential ideas to maybe um rework how we enforce matters um and uh or maybe just new strategies for just
dedicated for bringing on additional staff to kind of help maintain the downtown maybe that can become a function that they do behalf of you the entire down town all businesses residents or at least get those Corners wait but this is the corners
doing snow they're doing yeah but but it would be great if you know we weren't right laborers to that oh yeah right yeah so we have to see you know exp that you know that's just you know one possibility so try there's different ways to approach it
but I think the the goal at the end of the day is to try to like develop um some new strategies to make sure that we don't have gaps and still and Ice roll down um and then staying kind of in that lane of making it safer to get around our sidewalks is just there's some
sidewalk and paver repairs downtown and next to public buildings such as the library um I know that's sort of being explored so like to continue to um stay on top of that um and implementing the safe roots to school grants which you that one is probably a little bit more longer term and it's something that's
certainly been um in the works for one we might be able to bang out this year just took 10 years yeah I mean out ofis is largely out of our hands but hopefully now we're able to move those forward so I guess that one maybe is three to six month thing but hopefully
that'll be something that we can do in the next year or two um I mean have you for the sidewalks what do we want to do by six months from um have a I'm sorry I should have asked are we talking about you're kind
of generalized downtown sidewalks make them better that sounded like maintenance to me I was just trying to is there something specific well are you talking about in reference to the snow and ice removal or just what you're saying okay well so I just have heard that there's like for
instance in front of the library there's a few uh of the papers sort of out of place mostly maintenance it's mostly oh yes I'm sorry yeah that wasn't clear it's mostly the maintenance to you make sure that things are in good shape um but I see a lot of other hands one up please add
to active chair oh oh I'm Sor this is we're looking at you going cuz I was thinking too cuz where he's coming from um of course Beauty may you have the Flor I'll
go first okay I totally messed up like our work sessions this is okay go ahead you fre I was gonna add that this past snowfall in front of Well
Fargo it was dismal that's what I was thinking of when I was talking about and I think that we should have something for vacant properties that we have a maintenance plan so when they're not here to take care of their own property we have to have something written and so we will send them and say if you don't
remove this within 24 hours based on our ordinances we will do the work and we will tax you that kind of thing we can do that and I I not it I'll talk to you it's comp I know it is I know it's
not as simple as I said now is doing private cleaning of sidewalks that's and not doing the other things you know I get it or maybe we can hire somebody we do that now we do do that now that was just spitballing so that to six months
we would have like an updated plan to we should be fine settle on either like a particular strategy like that or maybe I maybe Main Street could have hire someone to kind of take care of it for all the businesses sometimes do that
there's can I go now yes you have the floor I'm sorry I'm just I'm waiting for you to talk just looking at you because I'm not used to the downtown focus and the enforcement maintenance and all of those things what Matt was saying earlier about hiring additional laborers specifically focusing on downtown I I
would love to see an a a a set of bodies that their job is yeah cleaning up fixing up doing everything in downtown like if if I think that's a worthy expenditure where we have a dedicated folks that their entire job is to make
sure Soup To Nuts from all up and downtown that that the garbage is is where it's supposed to be the if if they need to get you know notes to people about snow they you know like if we had a a downtown cleanup team was part of
the D I think that would be a nor it would be expensive but I think it would be something worthwhile we need a downtown Zar maybe there's something tiles and tree Gres and all any of those things right I mean maybe that's a something that would maybe there's a partnership with Main Street and that
could do something like that but I but some sort of dedicated labor force to cleaning downtown I think would be we have to figure out like like is it two can two bodies do like I don't think two bodies could do everything and shovel for everybody you know so but they can
certainly back up for the Wells Fargo budet and you know we can so I think there's a lot lot of merites this whole but it's it's gonna cost and so we got to figure out time Stephanie said she pay no problem oh I forgot she's just
writing check she got de Pockets oh unfortunately I don't have cops grants for DPW I have a question for okay are we taking up too much time I may need a bio break at some
point there yeah are we are we and I'm I'm not making a suggestion but are we are we ever are we thinking about expanding the community center um well I know I know oh yeah I'm happy
to talk about the community center because that was part of my belov bucket for for a while leave that report okay yeah that I'd love to hear more about expanding the community center
yeah that idea remember we got a big space going downtown we do space ourselves up Jason putting on a new roof this year know
put yes we can certainly move to the next one um and and thank you for your comments because I do also just want to say that I agree it's a worthwhile expenditure I think it will have benefits to help everyone be able to get around safely but also enormous economic
uh development talking about the labor yeah just bringing it back to kind of that's my goal and he has half of the support here I guess we love your we have to make sure we manage it right we know how it's
going to work what the what the expectations are you know it's not just a matter of hiring two people we have so like the only goal so yeah that three to six month goals to maybe start to figure out like what's those strategies that we're going to pursue and then Implement
and what's good about the public works and Public Utilities committee also is because you know it's Phil who has a lot of expertise there and then thatt you know who is the pulse of the downtown and can you know that's going to be uh oh the third thing just yet so staying within
accessibility um a couple smaller ones um um so one thing I want to look at and this again something I spoke about with Matt H briefly uh was partnering the burough and affordable housing Corporation to address certain maintenance issues um at the Cronan
building um because I we've heard some complaints that some again some sort of like sidewalk the building South theer Housing the yeah went all fancy
and we like what it's not for seniors only that that that one disil yeah yeah yeah um so yeah I think that there are some accessibility improvements needed to some like the immediate surrounding perimeter um just sidewalks again around
the back entrance and some cutouts uh but I don't think it's exactly clear who's going to be primarily responsible for that so trying to ascertain where we can dedicate resources to me those improvements um we've been talking about a
lot yeah uh supporting this Highland Park schools glow program which is the growth and learning outside walls program um the what program well I'll explain the glow which teaches students across ability levels um on how to develop
skills necessary to lead a productive and independent life outside the classroom so I know something the commission universal access was looking to support financially this year it's worthwhile V so um I think that's just part of the budget process sorry it's not a revenue razor but that would be using some of like I guess some of the
commission's expected budget um yes yes yeah they have well that's good they want to have that that good amount of money and use some of it for this very worthwhile program at the schools so you know I think that's also just good
spirit partnering with school the I jumped the gun I she asked me about I said just do it this year oh put in your it's in your budget do it yeah yeah yeah yes they lost track of it last year oh okay and the goal now to
just oh oh yeah maybe almost not should we have a little B break uh can I move to for do you want to wrap that last idea up I can wrap it up pretty quickly okay wrap it up quick and then we go for a break oh one other thing was to start
scoring audio signals at Key downtown intersection that'll make it safer for blind and visually imp yeah Woodridge will have that least one check off Woodbridge Avenue there 11 that's fantastic so I guess like maybe we'd start thinking about where we can
find funding to support those improvements for maybe know that's that's do make sure you're in compliance with sabage observers that was a big thing when we had them went to take them out is this not that we didn't have them
before yes that was that was the inspiration oh wait the last last are was human relations um so uh we have brand new co-chairs that's been in great shape under Norma's leadership past years yeah this is number three so yeah we're in the third yeah he's just gonna wrap
his go through this quickly um so we have the brand new co-chair taking over um help them get up and running we want to continue existing programming and build on that um start exploring and some new initiatives centered around bridging divides bringing people together I think everyone can agree
right now feels especially divisive and divided especially come coming out Washington and that doesn't help anyone certainly doesn't make for a strong successful Society so looking forward to seeing some new efforts there to just sort of uh help push back on that and bring people together um and build a
stronger Community here in high par um and then the other other thing was just to help I we have a number of vacancies on that on the commission on the human relations commission so um we will have a new one soon but we still have plenty of vacancies so we identify and recruit some additional memories that was it so
so a five minute party break about that yeah the state had did a whole thing on it I know we're getting towards oh yes can I move for extension of our meeting yes I need verbal we move to
extension all in favor okay extend for another half an hour we still have to follow all the laws okay so are we done Jason I'm done if anyone had any questions or comments or concerns I'm happy to that's to kill
them yes I know did you do Reven or did you I know I know I have this pfolio and I know your what is this the PE purchas orders we we get you really don't have anything like you're not really spending
anything so and there may be some B of he fees right that's what the thing while as we're going through the he fees for for inspections or whatever like he's gonna look at oh oh yeah that is yeah I remember that okay okay okay we'll look for opport I
should have brought a green pen Stephanie and we're trying to like increase cost for you know our local businesses but to the extent that there may be some severely outdated fees that are not so you're just going to review review B
personally and then um what about the mayor's well I know that's been like they had a grant a while ago oh sorry that was really that's been really quiet so that's like so I'm
getting the H back and running but yeah that's um the the mayor's Wellness like it it fell fell under me but um I met with Dr Lacy maybe about three weeks ago and he was no it was in December and he
was really concerned when the bird flu was going and that's when there was real information coming out of Washington and he was talk into the folks there cuz he was monitoring and watching what's going on so he said he would if there is a need he would call an emergency meeting
of the team the me the emergency all the doctors on the team he would call that meeting um I saw him maybe three weeks ago and um information is sketchy at the most that he can get out of Washington
so they really don't know but the local monitoring amongst different medical profession different state that going on so should there be something that they're where if they can sell a state by state but they won't have that direct information of what's exactly happening because that has been Clos them to keep
us in the dark so if I if they only come together like doing the pandemic or there's an emergency and that that team comes together yeah okay no no just just a comment about the mayor's Wellness uh was that would that be under Health and Human
Service yeah it is um no because I thought that was a really I that when when that was functional remember it was really cool you know we used we used cable access we um recorded programs with loc chefs you know in the kitchen yeah I remember that
yeah it was like healthy healthy eating so there was there was there was an economic development comped GA used to do um well like six a.m. morning at Kinetics but um no it was it was it was
cool at the gym it's a it's the um uh yeah I do remember the wall no the um 6 a.m. I look like death worked over oh my god um well well the mayor of Woodbridge also was he received like award for that
or something I don't know but I think get I thinkon or something so we met somebody um a couple years ago woman Kristen Fields who was really interested started coming to some events and she was really interested in you
know doing kind of a healthy eating kind of you know um uh you know let's get healthy Highland Park you know stuff like that um so I don't know I love that idea I think let me say this I don't know that program you guys are
describing it's great Mr by saying that the piece where Dr Lacy is involved with the medical profession at St Peters at Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas that is not that P that's right they're looking at infectious disas of Health
fun that's another piece the piece that that falls under my preview it's not that a better resources or at least and he and and for lack of a better term he does not he's not going to do the day today
yeah but if there's something major coming up on the horizon and to keep us in the loop he will be there to share but like for to come do this cooking blah blah blah okay all right all
right I'm sorry council member Vargas I don't know how much you're gonna need that but okay so being that I am new not just to the council but to this bucket um I the goals that I wrote down were more personal goals that I
things that I have to do in order to get to know my different my different committees a little bit better then that will help me formulate my longer term goals so um obviously I support mayor Fosters all her initiatives and goals
like I only heard two people say I'm watching you with you I actually I had it down here um it okay anyway so um may we
have all we need okay I'm watching I'm thank you thank you okay so what I did was I listed I listed all the different um you know all the different uh committees that um that I oversee and also what their responsibilities are just as more as a reminder to myself
kind of like this will help me stay focused and will help me get to know you know what I need to be doing um a little bit better so one of the things that I want to find out from the recreation department um is you know how how how is
the enrollment um registration in the in the adult and youth programs track is has it been growing has it been decreasing I would like to know like how that's go you know how that's going and and based on that we can see okay so this is okay if it's not growing why isn't it growing maybe we need to are
the prices too high are we not offering attractive uh you know um programs so those those are the types of things that I would like you know that I would like to explore um again it's affordability an issue um I would like to see what the
percentage of increasing fees has been from year to year to kind of gauge where we should be at should we be increasing our um we did that we did that I remember should we be increasing our um our fees um and if we are going to be
increased how will that impact I know we have lower rates for families in need how will increasing those rates um will impact them do they have to raise them so it's it's a lot of basically it's a lot of research that I have to do in order to figure out where to go they
have a lot of that if you request yeah yeah have to sit down with with with him and just get it all um same thing with summer camp is you know is it has our summer camp been growing um have they made I know that one of the important
things that is SW swim is a huge thing um and I from my understanding is we don't have like a solid swim program in our Recreation Camp um and I would like to explore the ideas I know you brought up that through email a possible partnership with
Piscataway with other places um so I would like to sit down with with their leadership and find out um how we can strengthen their swim program because swimming is such a vital um skill for kids to have and since we don't have a community
um pool um and so it might not some it might not be something that's accessible to a lot of people so I would like to explore how we can how we can make that work for more kids in in the community at particularly in summer camp because that's generally where most kids learn
to swim in summer camp so um I would like to explore those ideas with them um yeah just jump in you might know more about this because was your just so yeah just to give a little background from what little bit I know um about the
swimming part is that the summer camp prior to the pandemic did offer um swimming and I think if I remember correctly they went to um I think it was an Edison municipal pool definitely the pool was in Edison they had some kind of arrangement where they would take the kids once or twice a week so certainly
that could be something to explore again um but yeah then also just the idea with the um scway pool was uh and that could be a potential partner for the summer camp program but also like they offer justed members ship to BU there um for their residents and somehow we partner
with them to offer the discount yeah I just wanted to add you mean the Clark pool and also the oak oak oak the oak we us to take them to Oak press okay the oakrest okay I I believe those are the two programs it is I think and Clark
okay yeah the Clark pool community pool is right in the border and they have a I think a lot of that kids go there too right yeah the is like right down it's off of Inman and then off featherbed is the clar one which is right around the corner yes yes so again
just writing a list of things for me to to research um regarding the Department of Aging um how can we engage more of our senior community there's been times where I walk in there there's like they have great programs but there's not a lot of people um coming so how can we
make it is it an accessibility issue are there uh seniors living in that area that can't that don't drive how so I would like to meet with Kim and find out um you know what's some of challenges are in if she knows in getting people to
the senior center and how do we get the word out about the great services that they have they have amazing programs and services so how do how do we get more people um into the community center um you know have we considered
um partnering with with other senior centers in other in other towns to collaborate on bigger programs perhaps um which would you know which would be maybe make it more affordable but then if that but but if the program is in the other Town it might be more expensive
because we might have to invest in transportation there but depending on the program it might it might worth and it might balance out um I would love to see um more involvement with between the youth community and the senior community so I would like to um see if we can
develop some programs to bring those those two together I know we have um down at the community center we often have Edison High School and matachin High School comes in and they do programs I know they do that for the um lunar year how can we involve our high school kids here in hland park in the
senior center and getting them to do programs whether it's music dance or theater just as something to that effect so wait is this all 6:30 2025 I mean these are kind of shortterm goals because I kind of okay so this is I would say June right yeah
yeah yeah that's what I'm saying okay do your evaluation but it may take you a little longer to figure out okay what do we do you know yeah on boarding and assessing I think that's a good yeah I think yeah yeah fresh eyes yeah one of the
ideas was you know um and some of you might have the answer to this is do we have I know that the supermarkets um they offer like a senior um discount um program but do we have like anything like that for the local restaurants is that something that we can explore as
well to have like a senior day or something to that effect um the nail salon used to have senior days I know they used to have some of them have like a senior menu yeah I'm just again just curious about these things um regarding Park
stock I would love we're you know that's right now that's being organized right now I would love to diversify the musical acts a little bit more that's something that they're exploring right now um one of the ideas I would like to pitch to them um is to actually have a a
kids musical act what hey order yeah Order in the Court so I would love to have um I would love for them to have uh kids musical act one night um for Park stock you know a family night where
everybody can calm down I don't think that's been done in the previous one and I'm not sure if that's hard but I think it would be nice to have made like professional like Mr like a Mr R like kind we we ever have Mr R I don't think
so we had Mr R A many EV but something like that yeah but I get I I wrote it down right yeah so maybe yeah maybe we could have that par music F we perform sometimes at the 4th of July oh yes and the community center
too yeah but there are others I'm sure that there are other artists that outside I like to diversify also the we tend to use the same people over and over in Highland Park for things so it would be nice to give somebody else an opportunity to um to shine as well um
the teen center um how can we uh I would love to work with um Ashton a little bit more on this um perhaps um coming up with a mentorship program that includes council members um and just um mentoring um some of the youth that might be interested in
going to politics and what better place to start but you know the local level um so perhaps that's something that we can explore um that's kind of that can tell what your teen advisory that's what the mayor teen
advisory does yeah main team um it's too late I like yeah I know she has a committee yeah kids who are interested they come over okay all right perfect um I these the some of the things that I
wrote were things that I know that Ashton was working on and I just want to work with him and Kim like the community garden initiative that um I think was going to happen last year we like to see that happening some mental and physical wellness programs um perhaps just I feel
like the team Center has a lot of poent a lot more potential than maybe we can be exploring some of the things that they can that they can bring to the table um regarding the municipal Alliance um I just had the first meeting um last week I recorded on
that and just exploring ways of making the community more aware of what the municipal Alliance actually does and um and its Mission really because his mission is about substance you know substance use which is something that
members of this community um to suffer from so how do we how do we get the information out exploring ways of really getting the information out and creating some programs that would be beneficial um transportation I want to explore with um with the with him if
there are any limitations that do was the you mention something about the bus trans there was something with the bus oh the bus had broken down and um messed thank you nor for bringing it
up it's really really really really oh no I'll wait for the end okay fine and um just exploring is it how is it going is the transportation being over utilized or underutilized anduze how we get you know can we get more
people to use it is it more beneficial so um that's one thing and the needs somebody mentioned before about healthier I was thinking of a healthier Community initiative um of partnering we have so many gyms in Highland Park um
and maybe there is some kind of program that we could develop um to get people you know to be healthier in general in Highland Park um and also encouraging the youth to um you know to to be healthier in general that might be something that we could
work on with the yeah commission okay the Arts commission um really they're they're doing so much of their on their own already you know they have the windows of understanding that that that they're working on they're working on a lecture on Workshop series they're still
at the cwork decal project I think is picking off this spring um and we would all love to see more murals downtown um so that's part of that's part of the goal and helping them secure some more some more grants for these projects
projects um let's see I would love to establish some kind of like Highland Park Arts and Cultural month um where we would like organize um you know working with with other commissions that tend to intersect to bring some kind of
month-long um series of of Arts and Music and things like that not sure that it's absolutely necessary because there so much that goes on um during the summer in Highland Park but perhaps it's something that we can explore in the up season just thought it's in the tie in that's in
the um let's see um just contining our work with um co-sponsoring the events of art commission this is pertaining to the Arts commission just you know there they have some events coming up um and they're should be exploring more co-sponsorship opportunities such as I
know that they're working with the pride Center but with the human relations commission um sustainable High Park hisorical commission and um I think it's really really important for a lot of the commissions to be working together because a lot of the work interet and
just I it it kind of adds to the workforce because some of these commissions have are very low in membership so perhaps if we do more join programming we could really join forces and get some stuff done
um and the longterm goal which is not gonna be by December um is it would be nice if we can find a dedicated indoor space for arts and um and performances I know it's been a really long-term goal for the Arts commission to see a space like this
I don't know how we would go about it but it's something that should be in our minds and perhaps um we could start working towards that goal um performing arts or Visual Arts both it's on on Art Space actually New Brunswick just um
just announced that they they're opening up they bought some property in they got a grant or something and they're developing another small venue for um arts and performance art as if they needed another one yeah on George Street actually it's gonna be on George
Street what they want yeah what do they they want like a place like to work they a place where they could hold um you know art exhibits um small performances poetry a dedicated Art Space a cultural
art space it's not unheard of I mean New Brunswick has a couple of of places like this and even though they have like two theaters they're just um developing another one I just read in the paper that um they received um some money a grant or something like that to open up
a place in George Street and they're rehabbing this property there so I think it was a property was a former bank or something and trying to remember the details but I just saw it um yesterday deeper so just something to think about that perhaps that we can make happen at
some point um the historical commission as you know Terry knows that we are um they're trying to secure a grant for a history project called um community history project and they're working on that so hopefully they will get that
that Grant project um and let's see once again it's another commission that working with um the Arts commission and human relations commission I would also love to speak to them about perhaps working with the
Department on aging and maybe curating some stories and history of the members of the of the senior just to get them more involved and we have a lot of history in our town so maybe it's perhaps something that they could work on together um and that is some of the
other ideas you know that I have is um more e Economic Development I already me mentioned the market discount um I mentioned the healthier Community um program and basically just getting to my my goals are just getting to know the
commissions better the work my work um and helping them helping them grow and how can we think about getting more volunteers on these commissions and Boards so that we can get the work done um so I'm open to ideas on that and how we can do the Outreach in the
community um to get people excited about being on these that's pretty much what I have I the rest are just ideas for myself that I can develop later Jason oh yes so um love those goals and priorities I think
they're fantastic um a couple things I just like add like some Legacy projects or goals and wishes that I had for my couple of years with that uh bucket would be um so I know we we made some improvements to the community center the
freshh paint the um brand new flooring um and on Deck would be the roof and the bathrooms there are need of I just gave you something you write it down the house to get finished and
then for it try to get the out for the well you could say have it Complete because you never know that thing yeah you got to stay on top of that there no another issue you got all these other people who wants a whole Plaza built
he's and these two working you're trying to the mayor I didn't see nothing about my buing on her list don't put that in it's already that's iot that's a couple of other wish list
items for I know Kim had mine for the commun center in that space the well that that's the dream that would be fantastic talk to like a rooftop like Gard Plaza or just a full second floor need an elevator that that's that's just you know Dare To
Dream um but some smaller things the the ceiling from because there was a little bit of weak TR so the ceiling like the tiles and what not are not in the best of shape so know that's something that she's hoping to complete all maintenance it in yes Terry is tired she's like just
get tired I'm sorry very technical on this replace the ceiling tille and one more thing from Kim's wish list that I'd like to see happen Kim's wish list the uh the little um outdoor
space outside I think she wanted to freshen that up to make it a little bit more she has she on her list she spoke to me about that yeah I remember she mentioned that one time too yeah oh yeah oh my God now that you mention that I feel so bad I feel like she probably
like prob like that when Stephanie was our Council Le she never got that I remember that when you said it now I remember her going I have one for noral it's a money one okay uh oh we need to update our facility use fees
fees for the community center building oh yes and we will it is we give it away for free for bid fundraiser events and only $125 morning we have like a nonpr we have a nonprofit fee but I don't want to get
into the details but we need to including our fees penit users but you can't have a full scale 250 person event and get a room for free it just doesn't
make we need to to they pay they have to they couldn't get it for 300 bucks somewhere else like 120 sry you get Farrow morning and there's going to be a fee clean up by hourly yes they have to have a person stay we have criteria and Kim we need to
re R the entire thing that was done back when I was that was my all the fees we've been talking about is the one that I think we have to address protocols the rules because we have nice new interior there yeah that's
true so yeah so so use policy also use policy update the kitchen use policy Poli yes yes yes I'm I'm sorry real quick just one quick thing on the Arts commission so they used to have a Gilla Arts Club for kids which was just
like kid Focus Arts programming which was fantastic um the person who spearheaded that had since resigned from the uh from the Arts commission so I me know I guess goal would be to see that brought back and I know there's a new
member or two potentially uh you know they might be willing to take that on okay now stop yes it's 926 not uh I mean last my time there they hadn't quite yet but that was like that was gold we have some new people in the Arts commission I wonder if they'd
be willing to I can take one person that might you know that express interest talk about that offline any more time sorry to extend the meeting we're gonna do another 10 minutes extension what I can't you're done no I haven't I haven't went through
you haven't went through Public Safety hasn't went through anything 105 here well so are we going to I think 105 9 I don't have that much I have the shortest can we say compromise a
10 okay yes yes I'm gonna go real okay you don't have any to go no well most she still we have q and questions I just had one question yeah no you have a question if it if if possible and I don't know how we want to approach this but I mean this prob the mayor we have
open if there's ever any money at the federal level ever again that happen someday I mean would we be able to keep the you know potential second floor on the community center as a as a long-term goal to just
have yeah yeah I mean we can't okay you go no no no we don't have just but like what I'm saying keep dreaming right keep yeah that thing was over a million dollars at that time it was over that was more than a million
dollars just to put a top on before over a million elev that was almost seven eight years ago but I will say when I talked to last time I this came off I talked to and they said it' be cheaper to just buy buy a building
and build something than trying to build on top right that's what I was just saying efficient put it on top top deck yeah outdoor parties I know you want to build an elevator just for the we can
get I mean no I know it's your old I miss it it's it's bubbling over um pickle ball tour oh that's right that was well there were supposed to be a pickle ball recreational yeah pickle
ball everyone in town could be money makert right the courts are there the county build the court the we we just need to implement the program pickle wall program and that's a that's a revenue generator
pick trust me I got all my PO ball stuff because I used to be down there doing my pick ball yeah I played on the Asian team they were good I'm gonna freak him out and say I suggest checking out the last two-thirds of this meeting all right all right council member no I
have that's all oh so you just raised other one is we want money fundraisers generator and she said riew the fees and and you have a new program for potential Revenue want to review all the
to all the youth program to all the programs to see like where we're at with that and then you mentioned Municipal Alliance right bringing that out do they they did have a program that they would do to satisfy remember around prom and drunk driving and then so they used to
do that you mean the demonstration yes they stopped doing that a while back because they don't have any Partners or they just from my understanding because I did ask when I met from my understanding is that it was I could be wrong but it was under the
recommendation of the board ofed because very because the cops were involved they did not yes all right and no cops are allowed on their property I mean it was done outside though wasn't it it's on school property it's on school property
and they have their guns and we're not going to allow our officers to take off their guns to do a public service and there's a new Need for officer to be ready and we're going to tell them to take their guns and put them in their car that's not going to work I had this conversation okay okay all right and
then one other one other I'm just because I I feel like I'm old now too all these old things none of it exist anymore I had I had kids that went through high school and they did they did experience that
program but my two younger ones did not experience that program and I was wondering why and I found that just recently the board of edit does not want officers in the school so also for the Arts commission right so I remember the windows understanding was born out of everything
I think that came out of Co and it was and it was a it's an initiative with that the New Jersey New Brunswick cultural center right right right so but there it was around everything that was going on and and then we started it here and then
it because we wanted to do something with right in window and it started out to do something and then expanded to new brunwick mouin Woodbridge and it just came out of here and just kep BL in yeah so what if they because they I remember them if they like a response to most of
the things that's going on maybe with the Immigrant community and different things through ART yeah right they usually there know could be an idea you know if it dies or not that's up to you guys but that was just yeah I think that their theme this year is um climate
change oh okay is I every year they pick like a theme but I think this year is um is climate change okay all right and that's it may so you're done maybe next year that's yes I'm done with my
comments council president your my turn so mine I only have a few in my bucket but Revenue rers to Ure everyone um for me one of the ongoing
things that I just I don't know why I haven't I'm so sorry um the ethics board um Jen normally sends me the list and um you have one member so it's easy yes yes I have one member but maybe we can do a
little bit yes Build It Build It Build It build it you need members yeah I need me Members build it kind of like even for myself refresher on it yeah they meet once a year remember that whole thing so maybe twice twice so maybe the goal would be to build it and then meet
once or twice no tce for even for all of us to kind of understand this board our functions in that meeting maybe they should be meeting more than once but yeah that's where we're going um rent
control Outreach I know um I had spoke with councilman hsh about that last year so kind of on both on both ends when we talk about for tenant and landlord um Outreach awes and you know
and for cross Silo purposes C just sustainable HP that that's a points opportunity for us too yeah yeah y um then one shared service for this year
that's the 2025 so in m is to re riew again which has been reviewed again is the Shar services with the courts so just review whatever was done in the past I want to see where that went what happened who did we speak to
who we didn't speak to maybe the mayor has that um and then um just saw some old memory bag because it might be an Easy Share right that's a hard one you got do very
very well that's that's why that's a probably all year long the benefit like it may not so just kind of research on that and then one of our um biggest kind of not
really expenditures but where we're down in Revenue as per what we're projecting because there hasn't been any building is to help back to Redevelopment is the UCC fees which we coming in and finance so if we get that kind of is a
collaboration there you start building the fees start coming in and we can yeah because you remember I think yeah you're in finance at that we were kind of down and then that's all I have I mean pass the
budget that that's definitely that's the biggest one yeah pass the budget and then lastly I mean I guess that's just for council president and the mayor probably put that in it like support you all and then if you need any
help or you know the mayor there and if she asking for a wish lft have it ready and all of those fun things and um I think that is it for any questions don't find no
thank mention a couple of just yes would you like safeties just in honor oh public yes yes yes and not but I know there are going to be things that actually either come up in the budget or longer term um looking at the fire department you know we need to look at
our fire department ordinance to reflect we now have a career uh fire chief but our ordinance doesn't come for so we're going to have to you know with sopus teams help figure out that and that's just a body of work that has to get done uh but then related to that um we're
going to have to continue just like the police department's been Staffing up it's very likely you'll see a request for a fourth full-time firefighter again slowly building our forces up so that we can respond to the growth in our
community that's coming with Redevelopment and also just our current demands just like the police is very busy the fire department is very busy um so those are two GNA write them down um that just I know are going to come up in the course of this year um with the
budget um and hopefully both will be I would hope the ordinance would be at least we're all under consensus that we have the ordinance we like by June and then we move to adopt everything before the end of year and I know the safe roots and some
of those projects and are on the radar for that's a cross cutting one for Raritan is cross cutting huh that's what I said I was safe safe that was my short hand for um um and that one of the things we're
trying to do is look at the complete streets part of the yeah everything's an action I'll send I'll send the list around and if you find anything that conforms to to what your portfolios are doing it's you know it's
easy may not have to be extra we may just be under counting our our credentials so you sent yours around to all of us yes I did yeah we cops the cops I
mean we're implementing the cops Grant yeah yeah yeah that's that's already done but but but the hiring isn't no work let me tell you yeah what the pH oh yeah yeah we have a plan as long as Washington can't take that money
back Che it ain't clear yet what are the not anything else that we have to add I know there's nothing else a public discussion is there any public
discussion there are there is one mayor there's one person on zoom out this long so do you wan to yeah now so do you want to just say whatever you usually said no public 21 minutes three minutes per
speaker limited to items on the agenda which we did not have an agenda comments from people attending in public will be heard first followed by those attending on Zoom agenda please uh raise your hand if you're at home would like to give
comments chat G I see no hands man see that there's none may see that there's none may I have a motion to close public participation second okay roll call council member Hal yep council
member H yes council president kiman yes council member pan yes Vargas yes and motion to adjourn yeah you can all in favor all right see you guys next
week mayor mayor yours can you read yours out loud oh wait a you no no no she's just reading hers out loud she's the only one that has to read hers out loud oh no I'm not doing that
then I'm not doing that if they want to read if you guys want to read them