##VIDEO ID:ODxqexbRHvs## [Music] we're going live this meeting is called to order in accordance with the open public meeting act notice of this meeting was provided to the home you Tribune the star Leeder 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 Bor Hall 221 South fth Avenue in Highland Park New Jersey and has REM and has remain continuously posted as required by law fire exit are to my right and left of council chambers Chief can you lead us in the Pres of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all roll call Mayor Foster here council member George here council member hail council member H here council president Kim Shan here council member ponic here council member Vargas here Ro attorney Shaw here Ro administrator H here approval of minutes may I have a motion to approve minutes from December 3rd 2024 work session meeting and on December 10th 2024 regular session needed as distributed so second roll council member George yes council member H yes council president Kim Johan yes yes sorry yes council member Vargas yes Council report and I'm going to start off with council member George thank you mayor I just have a very brief report for everyone tonight I'm s George and to the Public Safety Committee and the library first I'd like to thank Ashton own six Dr Martin Luther kingram as well as our Council people that help to coordinate they honor the real importance to America leadership example temper place and activate Vis in its place on Dr Martin King's Memorial Day the police department is sponsoring the pet products donation program again in conjunction with the Edison animal shelter to help provide care for cats and dogs in the care of the shelter donations of animal friendly products to be dropped off at the police department Lobby the list of most needed products and foods are on the island Park Police Department Facebook page I'd like to thank lieutenant sodin and chief Shamy who did such a great job with the recruiting signage and advertising uh to we put out um on the internet and our websites and different um social media for the Highland Park Volunteer Fire Department membership Drive members are needed the number to call is 732 572 4323 look for the ad on the bur's website the police and fire department websites and maybe online is a way to reach a new CAD of firefighters for our more pressing needs the library has been functioning at full capacity settles into the new facility the community and media room is nearly complete and just from the renovations and improvements uh that the media room seems larger roomier and with more facilities for events displays and exhibits at the board meeting last night will discuss the increase in Services patronage online users and a successful fund drive for Library Serv Services finally uh for slack there's a meeting this coming Monday January 27th virtually uh and the 225 meetings will be the same for this year the fourth Monday of each month except May which is Memorial Day and they are still currently by zo we invite everybody to attend the conversations that are interesting and relate to uh one of our more important focuses which is on Safe cycling and walking in town and safe r thank you maam coun council member all right keeping us on our toes thank you my good evening everybody my name is Matthew h i CH the public works and Public Utilities committee uh I also wanted to Echo councilman George and I'm sure several others uh uh are gratitude for uh this own 16 Center coordination of the um of the Dr Martin Luther King celebration yesterday at the high school uh brought my nine-year-old it was a lot of fun and um you know with everything going on yesterday it was a it was a great opportunity to be together with community and just really keep in to you know to to paraphrase uh Reverend Dr King to keep her eye on the prize uh and really know what uh things look like we have to be present we have to be in the moment uh but we also have to remember our principles and move with them deliberately um including while we navigate various external forces um so much appreciated for that and mayor thank you for your for your wonderful remarks yesterday too um just a few things on first reading tonight we have item 11b which came out of the public works and Public Utilities committee uh this is ordinance number 25-21 this updates article one of the burough code to create guidance on some pump drainage and to explicitly prohibit some pump drainage Direct directly into a right of-way Street or sidewalk or I should say clarify um this ordinance came up through our environmental commission wasn't was vetted by our Public Works and Public Utilities committee which is composed of myself councilman George and councilman Hal uh and discussed here in work session on December 3rd and now finally it's here for our first reading and I encourage my colleagues to vote in favor of this um the uh uh resolution 12521 I just had a a comment on this uh in support of this is in support of our affordable housing calculations for round four under the Mount Laurel Doctrine uh this is for the round four uh is the state's guidelines for affordable housing requirements uh that affect every municipality in New Jersey uh and this is for the period of 2025 to 2035 our perspective need is 45 and our present need is 209 so what does that mean our perspective mean is is 45 that means 45 affordable homes over the course of the 10-year uh period through 20 through 2035 which is modest and doable uh two 209 uh is our current me as our present need and what that means is that these are low and moderate deed restricted households currently considered substandard or overed and in need of Rehabilitation assistance this is present need under under the mount L Doctrine in the state's fair and housing act so I really look forward I'm glad we're accepting these numbers and I look forward to uh working together uh to um about our plan for the next uh snow um it snowed you might have noticed uh the bur of Highland Park uh the the Department of Public Works uh currently provides snow and ice removal for over 31 miles of roadway so I just want to press with that several Municipal parking lots public sidewalks and bur own facilities on Sunday night I was really pleased to you know I think we all sell up the our crews out salting pre-treating roadways clearing roadways once there were once there was a a uh as well as removing snow from our burrow assets like Main Street Highland Park the walkway that goes up from from the Aly Street Bridge into H Park uh and and that is that is an arrangement that we does not gr property uh as well as our park so like top L which is new to the inventory and it was really great to see uh our crews being responsive making sure that our recreational spaces were clear for uh when the kids want to be outside in the snow uh so thank you to DP W Crews for for being out there um I do want to say that um you know plummeting temperatures Place more urgency on snow removal uh as we were up against the clock before roadways were sheets of ice so since then uh we did have some sun and obviously that the rubber on the road helps things uh continue to melt so as as things are in daylight and melting uh Crews also take the opportunity to get out of there with the plow and clear any remaining snow and do salving Dennis thank you very much I see public works too um uh so uh uh it it is ongoing but I think by by and large you're going to see black toop on most or all of the BS roadways um and we will continue to sand and S clear uh as necessary if you have a sidewalk you are responsible for making sure it's free of ice and snow and you could be held accountable if a sidewalk remains obstructed we have this is why we have wardens please contact the clerk's office if you need assistance your concern will be rooted to our code enforcement officer for complaint followup and enforcement and our sidewalk ordinances are there for a reason to make sure that our walkways are clear please please please be mindful of sidewalk clearance uh if you have a neighbor in need go that extra mile uh in Highland Park fortunately a lot of the houses are close to each other so it's not a whole lot of extra effort but we all need help sometimes uh and the buau also has a volunteer list of uh of of um snow shovelers who will will be available uh some for a fee some for volunteer but uh it does take a village we're here to help but you also have to make sure that your sidewalks are clear because we if you want to live up to that ideal of a walkable Community we have to do um because of the cold weather we continue to address water M breaks as they occur please note uh that there that there continue to be several small water man breaks that are treated uh that are repaired as they come up um and some do cause uh interruptions in service or or uh in the worst case scenario oil water advisories we do have a few of those that are that are very isolated located so they're not townwide I just want to point out two that arose today on South First Avenue uh there was a three hour water shutdown that was required to cut a section pipe on South First Avenue and this interrupted service from Parkplace to raran Avenue uh if you did get an interruption of service you received a notification on your doorway uh as well as a flyer you received a door tag um uh and um and that and that and that Interruption affected only seven residences so if you did not receive a notification did not have to boil water on Park Place right near South First a second boiler water advisory was in place um that has that has residence number 48 hour oil water advisory that started at 11:00 today uh water is on now but is not is not expect to be shut off again in regards to the First Avenue shut off in repairs uh if you were an effective Parkplace resident you also received a door hanger and a visit from middle sex water uh if you did not then you are free and clear uh trash pickup schedule because of the holiday this week um just be mindful that tomorrow Wednesday January 22nd uh there will be garbage collection in the business district North side and triangle on Thursday as usual January 23rd Southside recycling collection and on Friday as usual uh January 24th business district and Southside garbage collection sustainable Highland Park maintains and monitors and advances Highland Parks bur burough sustainable Jersey certification as a Bros designated uh Dream Team Green Team and we are meeting tomorrow on Zoom at 7M if you would like to join us uh if you want to get involved in some of our efforts adoptive drain um uh uh sry Community garbage cleanups other environmental educational activities uh and also be involved the important work of U of maintaining and growing the Burrow's uh sustainable Jersey uh certification which provides us with points and grants and other Innovative you know opportunities to make our to make our community even more green uh so we are meeting tomorrow on zo at 7 pm excuse me I uh I attended Governor Murphy's State of the State address last week and the mayor was in attendance and I wanted I was in particularly encouraged by his invitation to the legislature to pass bills including the all the allowance of addition of the addition of small homes that can to in-law suites or single on single on two family lots that's accessory dwelling units uh accessory dwelling units we talked about our our fair housing plan here accessories ding units are uh otherwise known as granny Flats they're detached uh residences that are small usually on located on a single family property so imagine if you had a single family residents with a shed that shed in the back could be transformed into the Adu if the law allows for it uh this is a really important um type of housing that can allow for family housing it can also be deep restricted it's if it's run by an agency that that that that maintains and operates housing um so that was really encouraging to hear because it's that type of zoning and innovations that are going really going to help towns uh integrate their affordable housing plant seamlessly into existing neighborhoods uh I also wanted to to um uh uh commend uh the governor's um uh desire to uh address parking minimums uh and and as well as convert uh single family into two family uh properties uh we have these all town you know Highland par is is over 60% rental I live in a single family residence that I live directly across the street from five single family detached two family homes as well as a as Garden departments what I live across the street from what I look out my window every day would not be allowed under under the existing zoning they would have to get vares so in order for us to really achieve you know housing diversity uh and keep up the type the type of diversity that we do have in town uh that promotes portability these are the types of innovations that we need to look out for so I was really encouraged to hear that uh and then just one one one last uh point the Highland Park Educational Foundation which is a local nonprofit that supports our Public Schools uh and uh issues grants based on teacher Le programs and Innovations is having a fundraiser uh on January 25th uh this Saturday I go to hpf nj.org for more information that's my report mayor thank you thank you council member hail thank you madam mayor um my name is Matt hail and I chair the economic development uh committee um so we we spent a lot of time in Economic Development talking about the Redevelopment of track a and track C and other places and and those and and and the uh creation of a pedestrian Plaza on South Third those are those are the focus of Economic Development that's really sort of um uh you know what we spend most of our time on um but I do want to point out that that in 2025 we have a number of different um specific Economic Development um tools and programs that we um that are going to be available specifically to the businesses of Pilon Park um the goal of this is of course to to help pyland Park businesses um stay profitable become more profitable bring more people in and so I just wanted to sort of mention those if you are a Highland Park business owner if you know someone who's a Highland bark business owner these are all things that are um are going to be available and and are going to be really good tools um uh coming up um they they stem out of our our grant from the neighborhood participation program um but they'll be applicable to the entire um burrow at at at Short ofstead um the first one is is something called Beyond meain which is a local Online Marketplace uh it is um a way of helping small business particularly sort of sole proprietor businesses um expand their online pres presence um it's it's creating sort of a a digital mall for for Highland Park um and so if if you are a business that has a a web presence that is is something less than you desire um if this is a a good opportunity to to sort of um help um aggregate numbers of people through um a particular site it's called Beyond Main and it's beyond.com those are um we're working with the team right now is rolling that out um uh so if you want to if you're a business owner and you are interested in that Beyond me.com all one word no caps um a second tool that we've uh are able to bring to to businesses uh uh that we're just sort of getting started with um is a platform called Placer AI or placer.ai um and this is really about um customer databases and ways of tracking where your customers come from so um it uses anonymized cell phone data and and it and it tracks folks um in a panel uh study kind of way um that that brings um a sense of where your customers are coming from when they're coming um uh and where they're going afterwards um it also has the capacity to sort of identify um uh some some broad stroke demographics of the type of folks that are coming uh into your businesses um as a way of maybe targeting particular marketing and particular marketing ideas um again you can s take a quick look at that at www.acer.com [Music] [Music] Development Authority and the middle sex County um uh Development Authority um really have an enormous number of small business programs tied um directly to New Jersey small businesses um um you know if you go to their website which is NJ ed.gov financing and incentives um there there are literally um 10 20 30 40 different programs um to Target businesses you can there's there's money available to help with relocation there's available to help with um Rehabilitation and refurbishing of existing business site there's money that's available um for helping to to build websites and help to to increase the online capacity of that um all three of those um uh uh we're we're hoping with the Eda that um later in the year we're going to have a um a program for local businesses where they can we will bring the the folks from the Eva in and and and they'll help explain all the the requirements and you know there are sign ific requirements for for reporting and and that but but help people apply for these various programs because they really do um have a a lot of potential to sort of help um particularly really small businesses which we have a lot of in Highland Park um so we're we're we're still focused on Redevelopment we're still focused on bringing um you know the the the the track day track C and others and still focused on bringing the South Street um uh South Third Street um Plaza up on board and those you know those are the the big items but but these are really really sort of brass taxs to the specific business owners um and specific businesses that we're doing all we can to sort of encourage um uh new and innovative ways of using um data analytic tools and using you know every resource that we have to try and help our our our local businesses um so take a look at those um you know if if you have any questions you can always reach out to me you can reach out to Terry you can reach out to rulia our assistant Economic Development um director she's fantastic um um and and and look for those look for those different um opportunities because um I think they can be really really helpful to our small businesses um uh and just to to piggyback on my colleague um you know the the Aus and the that's okay and parking minimums um you know that it is fantastic news that Governor Murphy sort of put the pedal on that um it's something that we've been talking a lot about in the planning board about different ways that that might work those both might work in in high part obviously there's a ways to go seeing what the state's going to do but they really are fantastic opportunities to sort of help um think about zoning in a different way that will bring about um you know the the goal of of helping people find places to live and hopefully they live in Highland Park shop in Highland Park and stay in Highland Park it's the greatest bur ever that's all I got man council member varo hi good evening everybody um my name is noral Vargas I am the chair for the recreation and arts committees um and this is my report um the son 16 Center held its annual luthan lead by example award ceremony yesterday at the Park High School it was organized by son six director Ashton Buell and this inspiring event honored the legacy of Dr Martin Luther King junor by recognizing outstanding contributions to the community service mentorship and charitable efforts we were welcomed by mayor fuster's motivational on heartville address a reminder that sometimes words that come from the heart are scried of the ones that touch us the most um this year's honor include a ray roster of welfare Pride rights Dr Jeffrey re uh Jeffrey Robinson inter Chancellor of bugar nework Coach T hovman Isabella huberg of cancer who a young leader who initiated and funded a holiday toy drive and Justin Swanson co-founder of the Swanson Foundation which supports youth through Recreational Sports program uniform school uniform exchanges and Community initiatives the ceremony is held annually it highlights the the hard work of volunteers and Community leaders residents are encouraged to attend future events and show support for these impactful efforts additionally son 6 conducts food distribution every Tuesday and Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 12: PM volunteers are always welcome to assist with food distribution or mentorship programs for more information you can contact at Buel the director at Abel hpb.com more um the Department of Community services and Recreation has several upcoming events and updates on Wednesday January 22nd a presentation on safety Texs for seniors will be held at 1M at the community center the Lunar New Year will also take place on Monday January 27th at 12m and it will include a keer lunch in by Sultan walk with kosher options available upon request followed by a dragon and lion dance on Tuesday January 28th at 11:30 a.m. featuring authentic music dancing and viant costumes the winter Recreation program is underway with activities including youth basketball league Jaz and indoor soccer along with adult Fitness and sports programs like volleyball and basketball um the Highland Park you Theater Company recently saved Beauty and the Beast junr which was well received performances this past January 9th and 12th preparations for the summer program are in progress but nearly 50% of Staff confirmed to return registration for all camps will open officially on March 1st with family information available on Highland Park rec.com and for more updates for events programs um will be coming in the February report for more information on any of these programs please email the community service director Kim McGraw Kimberly mcra hpb.com the art commission has a number of projects coming up but first they did publish their 2025 calendar they're featuring photos and art by local artist Vents and I was going to bring room with me but my neighbor took my last copy um it's a beautiful beautiful calendar but if you are interested in purchasing a calendar please um contact John Maron the the Arts commission chair at John Jaron gmail.com additionally their sidewalk decal initiative is continuing and I'm sure you've seen some around town they're quite quite beautiful and there will be more installations of these C to our Highland Park this coming spring so stay tuned um plans are also in the making for a series of lectures and workshops stay tuned for that in my next report hopefully we'll have more information and coming up is the windows of understanding initiative which was highlighted yesterday at the MLK award ceremony um and this is going to feature works of art by local youth under the mentorship of artist Alfred dley this initiative is in partnership with Z six Community Center New bus with Cultural Arts Center HP human relations commission the masing grow School of Arts and it is a multi-community and artists project with installations throughout middlex County the opening ceremony will be on February 11th at the Mason grow Galleries and closing reception on March 26 at the Highland Park Library stay tuned for more details um as this project develops I'll make sure to um keep everybody updated um the historical commission is going to meet tomorrow I have not had a chance to meet with them yet but they're um actually they their meeting on Thursday and they will be sharing with me their 2025 calendar of events and I hope to share that with you at a future meeting thank you very much that's my report thank you council member P thank you mayor I an extremely brief report for tonight um so I'm starting off tonight uh actually first let me take a step back for everyone here and everyone listening at home my name is Jason melck I am the new chair for the Health and Human Services committee um I will miss my uh here friends and colleagues over in the Arts Recreation but they're amazing hands with Norma so and I'm very much looking forward to this new uh portfolio uh so getting back to my report um so the Board of Health reports that levels of the neur virus AK the stomach bug covid-19 and various respiratory illnesses are all at elevated levels so please take appropriate precautions wash your hands and stay up to date on all recommended vaccines um and the only other item that I have to rep tonight is to I just also like to announce that the commission Soul access will be holding its first meeting of the year tomorrow at 5:00 pm that is January 22nd Wednesday uh tomorrow at 5: PM uh this year the commission will be holding hybrid meetings held on zoom and in person in Bur Hall in the Fishbowl conference room on the main floor U right opposite from uh this room right here uh and the zoom meeting information can be found on the bur website and that is all that I had to report on for tonight thank you may thank you council president before thank you mayor um my name is stepy Kim Chan and I chair Finance um my report is quite uh brief as well but I did want to touch on some highlights um from uh last year and the full report will be um available on our website but um I did want to convey my sincere appreciation to the numerous uh dedicated professional um Burl staff members and volunteers who efforts um able the uh you know such a robust fi uh Finance portfolio um that I'm honored once again uh to share um I believe their Collective work uh offers a way for government um decision makers and engaged citizens to better comprehend and assess the Burrow's financial situation the burrow last year included a 10 grants in the budget for adoption and uh more details will be on the floor report on the website and also uh last year they uh um we established a safety net for residents ensuring that they never miss a payment or deadline by implementing um auto pay when residents access their online bill pay from the bur's website they are given the option to enoll in auto pay and we continue to reduce costs through shared services um one of those shared services is on the agenda tonight for um reopt and then um do want to just uh thank our state leaders our assembly leaders for um one again um another year of anchor benefits um this was a replacement of the um Homestead rebate and uh once again providing uh you know those benefits to our residents um last year rent control I received uh one hard hardship um appeal as well and um again just wanted to touch on real one quick announcement and with my announcement R control um has been rescheduled this this thre Control meeting has been rescheduled uh to next month please uh keep a eye out on the website for the dates and times and on our on the agenda tonight 12h resolution of 12527 um tax exemption status is for a 100% permanently disabled veteran um uh thank you for your service and I would like to um also in my report um touching back on last year and going into the new year to um also appre deep appreciation to um every resident that um either you emailed me or sto me and gave uh insights and your thoughts on ways that I can um enhance my portfolio and then just wanted to thank um just wanted to wish our community that's celebrating next week a wonderful Luna New Year and year of the snake it is I was actually born this is my year year of the snake but it is told that our health will be uh very poor this year so try to take care of yourselves and that's my I'm SN too administrative report thank you mayor um the only item I wanted to report on uh what that hasn't been already mentioned is um item number 12E on the agenda which is the resolution supporting the upper RAR Avenue Road diet if you recall we discussed that at a work session a little bit ago and and the resolution essentially is supporting the latest um and preferred alternative from the NJ doot for the road diet for those of you that don't know a road diet essentially is a way of controlling traffic speed by which typically and in our case eliminating vehicle travel Lanes um in our case in favor of bicycle Lanes so upper RAR would be going from four two lanes in either direction or four lanes to two lanes one in each Direction uh with the additional of bike Lanes on either side the latest iteration that there um and that is being that the resolution supports uh has the addition of a center term Lane uh that will allow for uh dedicated left-and turns off of RAR onto the various driveways and side streets uh that as you know is a pretty busy um area um the intention is to avoid uh the potential or the likely potential for drivers who don't want to wait for people making left hand turns to utilize the bike Lanes um in either direction um the resolution also emphasizes um this council's ongoing commitment and kind of dedication to getting the speed limit reduced along this roadway and also intention to petition for additional signalized Crossings to make it safer for people to cross Ren Avenue um so I just wanted to make sure that was noted it's a large agenda um but this is something that we've been pursuing for quite some time and um if uh the council uh finds in favor of this resolution do has indicated that they will at least Implement a portion of the road diet the portion that's between the curbs that involves the striping um signage plan uh this year which is very much expedited from what was originally going to uh happen probably in 2027 to 2028 um I will mention there will be the full implementation in 2027 and 2028 which will include all of the sidewalk adaa upgrades RightWay issues um that involve the hardscaping in the concrete uh in that area that takes a lot longer to implement um but they're committed to doing both the expedited work as well as that so I just wanted to make sure you saw that one in there item number 12E um and that's my report mayor thank you B attorney report thank you mayor um I'm going to go a little bit into our rules of procedure sure last year we implemented some new rules and how the meetings are conducted um we have as you can see in our agenda we have two opportunities with the public it's number 10 on your agenda and it's number 15 so when you get to number 10 any member of the public can can come up and either in person or on Zoom can ask a question about any of the resolutions ordinances once all the questions have been answered the mayor will close the public portion and then will either answer the questions um that she has information on or she'll direct the director um who is present today to respond on to it or may perhaps you someone else on the diet or should the back you now when you go to number 15 the second po public participation that's an opportunity for members that are publicly here and members that are online to ask a question on any topic relevant to the borrow and we will follow the same procedure where we everyone puts their questions and and and or their comments on the record we close the public portion and then um the mayor decides if someone is going to respond to them she responds or that we follow date thank you mayor would you also like me to discuss ordinance number 25- 2099 sure you can go ahead um there are some there were a few questions regarding this ordinance and I'll briefly say that it's really just housekeeping um originally last year in January there was a capital ordinance that was past uh because we had gotten funds from uh do Department of Transportation New Jersey in a grant form now the funds are no longer available so what we needed to do is we need to correct whatever was voted as you know you're the legislative body so we basically have funds in a bond that was passed in 2022 to complete this transaction when I say complete it's my understanding that most of the work is done but uh there are some minor things and then vendors going to be paid in full so homework wise we have 11a which is basically cleaning up and saying hey we have this Capital ordinance but because the funds are not available we want we want to take it away and then the corresponding resolution is 12 a.m which is uh 12558 which is where we had stated to the public and also had voted this reso after we accepted bids and given it to fiser uh the company from Scotch Plains to do the work on North 4th Avenue Fenson Street and Harper Street and we basically advised everybody that those FS are coming out of V thank you thank you and now it's time for my very brief report as well and um I want to start off by congratulation to Chief nor Shamy a promotion well deserve he's been a stalard supporter of our fire department and I know he's going to continue to do as job he keeps us up to dat on all the activities that's happening in the fire department making sure that each and every one of us is safe so again a well-deserved promotion thank you and I'm going to go down a list of thank yous I want to thank Department of Public Works as we know it is brutally cold outside and on these freezing days and night we are out there making sure that the roads are safe they're salting they're doing their plowing they're doing everything to make sure that our roads are safe for to Traverse so a huge thank you to them and also I want to thank the crossing guards on these brutally cold mornings that I would not want to get up to do such a job that that they have to get up super early to do I want to say a special thank you to the crossing guards and to our police officers who are out there on the road making sure that from the least of us our little children and everyone else that we're all being safe so I thank you is very much deserved I'm going to continue with thank you and I'm going to say thank you to Senator dman and our assembly member carab bansek and sanley we received another Grant in December for another $250,000 and that's going to go towards Edo which we desperately need in our Department of Public Works so many many thanks to them for the grants and services that they have provided to us last year and I'm quite sure they're going to continue to help us in Highland Park as our needs are great and we we need a lot of things and they have been instrumental in helping us get these grants so we can continue to support our town and our residents last but not least I want to thank Ashton and everyone who came out yesterday for the MLK event I think we all needed that event I think it was therapeutic and um and as we continue to not just honor the leg Legacy of Dr King as we continue to live by some of those guidelines that was laid out for for us I think we can become a Kinder and gentler nation and we just need to keep his voice in our heads and as we Traverse Through The Years or the year let's take a moment to be kind and to be gentle with each other thank you that's my report okay and now it's time for public participation 21 minutes total 3 minutes per speaker limited to item on this agenda comments from members of the public attending in person will be heard first followed by those attending on zoom and Terry do you have anyone in zo no mayor okay no hands up at this time okay speak the microphone name and address mayor thank you members of council my name is uh Alan leedman I live on hear you my name is Leeman we live on North 7th Avenue 40 years in Highland Park this year the first time I've ever had the opportunity or the need to address counil my comment goes uh as a matter of agenda items to the administrators council member George's reports on Public Safety because the issue for me is traffic not talking about Ron Avenue the past few years some tragic events on Rarity but changes have been instituted and I hear that more are coming and that's wonderful Avenue is still Wild West I wish it get the same attention harison but that's not why I stand I'm concerned about all the intersections Park that stop sign in trouble um I'm retired as my wife is now we do a lot of walking into town I walk in the guns take classes of rures walk the dog all over so in our particular neck of the woods on the North side fifth sixth seventh eighth Avenues and ab is the principal cross street the stop sign there it is routinely ignored by drivers and and I've seen this all around town drivers treat stop signs as yields at least some slow down for their own safety they're doing it to sideswipe they're not really concerned about pedestrians we've heard about walkable Howland Park and council member H council member George talked about safe cycling safe pedestrian programs we can have none of those if we don't have traffic enforcement uh if drivers don't slow down stop at stop signs um it's a dangerous place we don't need to wait for someone to be hit or Worse on one of these side streets and side intersections um so I really I understand the police force is limited in its resources we can't have a Police Cart everyone it's not realistic I've never seen a traffic stop on eth or as routinely speed down eth to par toward Edison cars routinely ignore the stop sign of Abit and a i must been H several times myself uh the crosswalk is treated as a as a suggestion or really we stopped before the cross we have kids going to the high school and the middle school we have cyclists we have scooters we have people pushing carriages on Friday nights and Saturdays we have D industry it's a u Target Rich environment for a careless driver and I just wish the council would do something with the police department that I emailed the council member George about this in early December and and received a very rapid reply to the fact that this matter would be referred to the police department foration I haven't heard anything I'm not it's not criticism just holidays and new year but I really wish someone would look at that and see if there's an ability within our limited resources to cause drivers to obey the traffic laws time thanks very much for your [Music] no mayor have five attendees on Zoom no okay no one else seeing there's no no one else may I have a motion to close public participation so Mo second roll call council member George yes council member hail yes council member H yes council president Kim Chan yes council member panic yes council member VAR yes um council member George can you please do a followup you and the chief with um Allan's request to take a deeper dive uh I will but as Alan said um I did give him a response we put it on the calendar for Public Safety we just had the meeting to the stat uh for the start of the year um and we will be looking at some ways to do it again as you know one biggest problem is the size of the department size of the department on the street at any moment is not the size of the department there are there are shifts and tours and all stuff when you think that there may be you know 15 officers available to do traffic uh may not necessarily do so but we did we did look at it on at the public safety we do have have ongoing study for it to try and figure out some responses I uh I you know you probably I live at Town ster cut through which is the Johnson Street to avoid room 27 and we' watched cars um not only go through the stop signs but run into the stop signs so we we are uh we're well aware of it and the Public Safety Committee is working on it we did start with our meeting last Tuesday L administrator just to build off what council member George just mentioned I thought since you're a Mr sorry uh leave men since you're in the neighborhood you should be aware that in our safe Ro to school program uh northes gets a lot of attention um and in in our bip head plan and we also have hopefully a grant coming through to do um a bike lane which yes that it's good for cyclist but it has the additional impact of slowing traffic because you're constricting the roadway down um and also in the safe rout to school program um the CR Crossing at Abbot and The Pedestrian Crossing of AP at Abbot is also being looked at very carefully again we we acknowledge the speeding does exist there have been traffic studies there and so we we do have some programs that we hope to put in place um but I have to let defer to the police dep around the enforcement matter but we we are going to be implementing some improvements in that area in the next one to two years it takes some time to get to recognizing some of those concern that specific area thank you clerk please report an introduction of ordinance number 25-20 N9 an ordinance raling Capital ordinance number 24 d208 adopted by the burough Council on February 6 2024 entitled Capital ordinance providing for improvements to North Fourth Avenue Dennis Street and Harper Street project in the county of middle SEC state of New Jersey appropriating $69,950 from the Department of Transportation Municipal aid program therefore to pay the cost thereof has been introduced by the finance committee for consideration of passage on Final first reading by title may I have a motion to adopt or reject ordinance number 25299 second roll call council member George yes council member yes council member HS yes council president Kim chhan yesc member yes council member Vargas yes Clark please report on introduction of ordinance number 25- 210 an ordinance amending and supplementing article one pet waste wildlife feeding and litter waste collection and Disposal elicit connections to create chapter 356 d81 which will regulate Thum pumps and pipe drain discharge control within the burough of Highland Park has been introduced by the public works and Public Utilities committee for consideration of passage on first reading by title may I have a motion to adopt or reject ordinance number 25-21 second roll call council member George this is an importantance for a number of purposes especially uh it's m toward try and prevent those that occur on the street but it's also essential to issues with our stor motor management as well as our environment I V yes councilman H yes council member H yes council president Kim Johan yes council member Pon yes council member vgage yes now we move to our consent consent agenda and resolutions may I ask if any member of the council would like any of the following item v for a separate vote no May okay may I have a motion to adopt or reject the following consent agenda items 12 a through 12 a. council member George yes council member ha yes council member H yes council president K Shan yes council member P yes member yes resolu uh resolution requiring a separate reading may I have a motion to adj to adopt or reject resolution 1- 25-60 council member George yes council member hail yes council member H yes council president Kim Chan yes council member Panic yes council member Vargas yes and now we move to appointments Mental Health commission Marian castanza Esquire Municipal Alliance Elizabeth asosa Board of Ed representative universal access Dan batty Board of Ed representative may I have a motion to confirm move second council member yes council member ha yes council member hsh um yes council president Kim Chan yes council member pelic yes council member Vargas yes Board of Health um Board of Health gen forhe for Board of Education representative human relations commission Nikki stano our Board of Board of Health Board of Education Representative no confirmation needed on both now it's time for the second participation three minutes on any topic subject to conclude by 900 p.m. comments from members of a public attending in person will be heard first followed by those attending on Zoom I'm sure I've said this on the uh par website but since I'm here I want to pay this compliment in person thank you to the mayor board for getting us the new Supermarket in Town Super Fresh uh it's a wonderful addition to the town it immeasurably adds to the quality of life in har Park and I know it was quite some effort to get that operator to come in but it's great and everyone loves almost thank you very much everyone partip thank you my name is Eric leedman I and my family live on Harrison Avenue and I just wanted to ask where we are in terms of assessing the condition and the need for upgrading and replacing the town's water distribution system I think it's come up at least once in the pre in the prior meeting obviously it's is getting older and you know it's going to cost quite a bit of money to to fix I was just wondering where we were on assessing the situation and the need and now much is going to cost and you know longterm fion schedule that kind of thing so thank you anyone on Zoom Terry I do see a hand up Karen if you could state your name to confirm it's you com Karen anolik can you hear me okay yes um at the last town meeting I spoke about the flashing stop signs that are on the intersection of Cleveland Avenue and Madison Avenue um and that um they are they're on 24 hours a day seven days a week and they are shining directly into people's windows and I had made a pitch to have them on a timer like most um most lights around schools go off after school hours um okay and I think um Terry was going to speak to the chief of police and I'm just following up and seeing if anything has happened since the last meeting thank you anyone else okay um thank you so much seeing that there's no um one no one else has any questions may I have a motion to close public s public participation so move second roll call council member George yes council member hail yes council member H yes council president Kim Chan yes council member pistonic yes council member vus yes there were two questions that came up um the water distribution system um as we all know that the the we have aging pipes and we're doing our best we're going to be taking a look at our water we have we've had some discussions about water and um we're going to be doing a deeper dive into water distribution that's something that we going to have to look at at some point so we have been talking about it but not in great details but we're going to be discussing it in Great details this year so we will follow up with you about the water water distribution system and how we move forward would you like anything to add to that um mayor the only thing I would add to that is we do have a asset management plan there are a lot of this the state of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection um is regulates utilities pretty uh carefully and we have developed an asset management plan we are um obligated to replace there's a lifetime life cycle to water mains and they're looking to see utilities replace sections at a time so they don't find themselves at at at the end of 150 year lifespan where they have all their Mains to replace we are in the process of prioritizing the list we also try to work that list where we have known road projects coming up the best example which is not implemented yet frustratingly is Woodbridge Avenue where we were working with the county on Woodbridge Avenues uh road project and we realized we had a very large section of old water M there so we did work with the county to integrate the replacement of that main into that project we've just not gotten the project out to bid we're partnering with the county and a lot of side reasons for that so it is very important we we do work with our uh operator uh middle sex water company USA Highland Park specifically to develop a plan and we will be coming to the council with a capital plan plan related to water infrastructure generally and specifically water M thank you in regards to the flashing stop sign um that was two weeks ago and it does take some time we are actively working on having a discussion with the school to see what can be done with the police department with our chief and with Terry and the school and um as soon as they we we get to a place where this be discussed we will be following hopefully we'll they'll be able to put it on a timer and address the issue that where that is concerned there's a member a question from council member H thank you mayor uh no I just I did have a quick question uh to the mayor something that um Minister H said um uh so I'm not familiar with the timeline of of since Public Works falls falls under my portfolio I'm not familiar with with the timeline for for Capital Improvement plans but uh I would I I would imagine that that's going to go through the Public Works Public Utilities committee before it's presented to the council yes okay and don't forget that next month will be our goals and priority meeting and all of this and your plans for this year and the next five years will be will'll be act I'll be asking you to put those plans together so we can see what's in cap what's not in cap what we need to improve this year the goals that you have to get done this year and for the next five years so all of that will be addressed when we meet something about I know it's talk about the wor that's kind of like as long as I've been on I feel like I at the end of this term it will be 10 years actually feel like I'm being a senior but um as long as I've been on councel I think this was um discussed prior and it's you know it's a lot of education for someone that's not in that field and it's a big decision and even at that time I remember I still was like you know so indecisive and I know we're back here again and there been talks about you know towns are starting to sell their system this is a big decision and I I just feel like I we we need a lot of time to discuss this um you know whole Water System project too so it's going to be proberbly uh you know we will have time to assess and properly review we've gathered information over the years and it's not something that can be made lightly there's a lot involved and we are going to be doing our due deal due diligence to make sure we make the appropriate decision for our town as it pertains to our water system because as you've heard across the state Across the Nation our entire water system is is aged out and we have to look at different ways of how we provide water so we're going to be doing our due diligence here as well to make sure water is safe and and look at the cost Factor as it impact each and every one of us who are in this town and who are part of the taxpaying body we we're going to be looking at this quite closely please give us some time we will get back to everyone as we go through the various steps as we look at water at at our water infrastructure okay um I just Lo public participation yes may I have a motion to close may I have a motion to Jo this meeting so second all in favor I okay our next meeting is scheduled for February 4th at 7 pm everyone please be safe out there thank you have a good night