Mary would you like to proceed yes please good evening this is the meeting of the bur High mayor and Council regular meeting on Wednesday April 3rd 2024 the notice requirements provided for in the open public public meetings act have been satisfied notice of this meeting was probably given by transmission to the as Park Press in the Two River times and by posting at the bur of Highlands municipal building and filing with the bur clerk all on January 1st 2024 items listed on the agenda are subject to change please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of alance to the of the United States of America to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and Justice first we have roll call council member svantes council member here Council melik here council president meski here mayor bruan here then we have Proclamation ARB day Proclamation second um doation for Arbor Day for 2024 whereas in 1872 the Nebraska Board of of Agriculture that special um said that the special day should be set SE set aside excuse me um for the celebration of trees and whereas the holiday is now called Arbor Day was the first observed with the planting of trees more than a million of them in Nebraska Arbor Day is observed in communities throughout the state of New Jersey the nation and the world and whereas trees can reduce erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water cut Heating and Cooling costs moderate the temperature clean the air produce Life Giving oxygen and provide habitat for wildlife and whereas trees are a renewable resource giving us paper wood for our homes fuel for our fires and countless other wood products and whereas trees in our burrow can in increase property values enhance the economic Vitality of business areas and beauty of our community and whereas trees wherever they are planted are a source of Joy therefore I Carolyn Bon mayor of the burough of Highlands do hereby Proclaim April 13th 2024 as Arbor Day in the burough of Highlands New Jersey and I urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands and further I urge all citizens to plant trees to Gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this and future Generations next we have approval minutes a March 20th 2024 meeting minutes I'll second Council M yes Council M council president shki yes mayor bran yes motion carries to approve March 20th 2024 meeting minutes next we have March 20th 2024 executive session minutes I'll offer I'll second council member yes Council melck council president chesy yes mayor bran yes motion carries to approve March 20th 2024 executive session minutes next we have introduction of proposed ordinance 02405 for Bond ordinance amending in part Bond ordinance number 02207 adopted on April 6 2022 I'm sorry um April 6 2022 provid for the phase 1 and Phase 2 sanitary sewer Improvement projects in order to increase the appropriation therefore by $3 million for pro total appropriation of $7,500,000 to increase the authorized bonds and not to be issued to finance the proportion a portion of the cost thereof by 3 million for a total debt authorization of 7, 6,592 44 and to increase the allocation of the appropriation to costs permitted under New Jersey I'm sorry njsa 48 col 2-20 authorized in and by the burrow of islands in the county of M New Jersey any questions I'll offer it I'll second council member yes Council Mel yes council president chesy yes mayor bran yes uh yes motion carries to pass ordinance o02 405 on first reading with the public hearing to be held on April 17th 2024 next we have 0246 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a c bank are there any questions on this one either this is the one with the the credit card that you keep in your drawer and you never use it unless you really need it okay then with that I'll uh I'll will offer it second council member chac yes Council mik yes council president jeski yes mayor bran yes motion carries to pass ordinance 0246 on first reading with a public hearing to be held on April 17 2024 next we have resolutions R 24091 authorizing the budget to be read by title only I'll offer it I'll second council member chillac yes counc melik yes Council pass jesi yes mayor line yes motion carries to adopt R2 2491 next we have R 2492 introduction of 20124 Municipal budget um I will offer it and just a can affirm the hear public hearing will be May 1 1 okay second Council m yes counc Melman yes Council peski yes mayor bran yes motion carries to pass R 2492 on first reading with the public hearing to be held on May 1st 2024 next we have consent agenda mayor would you like me to read the resolutions by title yes please R 24093 authorizing shared services between agreement between the bur of Highlands and the bur of sebrite for SE um Street sleeping Services are2 2494 authorized ing shared services agreement between the burough Highlands and the burough sebrite for the provision of lifeguard operations from the burough sebrite R 2495 permitting the placement of a of a remembrance plaque at Miller Beach R 2496 recognizing NJ local government week April 7th to 13 2024 and encouraging all citizens to support the celebration and corresponding activities R 2497 authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract for professional Engineering Services in connection with the Marine Place pedestrian walkway Project R 2498 authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract from professional Engineering Services in connection with the Shore Drive pedestrian Improvement Project R 2499 accepting donations of HomeTown near Banner for Bay Avenue R 24100 authorizing payment of bills I will offer the consent agenda second councilman yes yes Council Mel yes Council peski mayor bran yes motion carries to adopt resolutions R 2493 through r2400 next we have other business CRF coordinator presentation good evening everybody my name is cine Shaw and I've been functioning system do you want to stand in front of the microphone or okay can I was going to say we could get you a microphone yeah better for me not to be standing thank you so I've been working on CRS since July of 2023 um I know some of you I don't know all of you I have a background in Economic Development and downtown revitalization I actually was was involved with Highlands 20 years ago when we lifted the first homes so I don't have an extensive background in um FEMA but we've been attacking this step by step so this evening is an opportunity to bring everybody up to speed on the challenge for Highlands unfortunately it's only on that one screen so you may want to turn around as we go through this there's some housekeeping with this um you know to get the understanding that I hope to get across to the governing body leaders so the very first is Highlands has invested in a forerunner blood plane platform which allows all of your residents all of your investors to find site specific Flood information to their particular property so this is a way for you to meet the new legislative rule that you know Realtors and you know uh investors need to know that properties are in the flood zone so we've implemented um this website and built web pages on your Municipal website under flood protection information so there's a plethora of information and just to let you know that every one of these tasks become community rating system points so many of this is tied back to the actual application to get the credits from FMA but we're going to go over what it is there's a lot of misnomers throughout the community of what it is so Highlands burrow is a FEMA nfip Community um without FEMA nfip status of securing flood insurance would be extremely difficult so you are part of that program um and it involves flood plane management being part of nfip um you participate with nfip you initiated it in the very beginning of August of 202 with your flood plane management regulations that were adopted then part of your land use res um your land use regulations and we launched in 2020 for a compliant flood plane permitting process that is something that Highlands did not have um it's a full permitting process to support initiating an application in the future and of course I talked about public information and education and of course we now have under the leadership of Stephen Winters our construction official and certified flood plane administrator uh a full-blown homegrown office to help your residents and investors and I just want to take a second behind me is my super colleague Alicia Jones who's Tech assistant working with Steph Winters and part of the team in the new office that uh we've been able to make such progress on this in short order so again with more housekeeping um something that's very important I think for all of you is that the state of New Jersey unified the uniform con construction codee the UCC with the national flood insurance program nfip for special flood Hazard areas now one of the interesting things is I've met some of the Community Partners they say well we really don't want CRS because we might have to do certain things this and that and the point that I'm trying to make with this devoting a whole slide to it is the fact that it's here and these flood plane regulations must be adhere to the CRS is kind of like a bonus you could take advantage of all the things that you must do now the ordinance going back to 2022 that flood plane um management regulation that you adopted um all these benefits for CRS are something that you'll be able to capture but it's not like it's an option like well if we because a lot of people say well a lot of business people have communicated that to me well we we don't really want CRS we we don't want to go that we're fine with the discounts so it's a moot point I want to emphasiz not to jump in but just it's it's one of those things that it doesn't matter if we do CRS or not these are still the flood plane regulations CRS has nothing to do with it only the benefit that we get by joining into the CRS program is that everybody that has to get flood insurance will get lower flood insurance so it's only about saving people money right so I wanted to make a point of that and then the other thing I wanted to identify is what difference does it make for the residents and there's a lot of differences that it makes flood insurance without FEMA nfip would be cost prohibitive I mean if you were home alone in a community and you weren't participating there'd be some huge challenges for people to protect themselves you know particularly after you had some kind of a hazard um event um it impacts residents flood insurance costs properties that are not in compliance with your ordinance passed in 22 2022 they pay more for insurance without a doubt um over time the NF nfip flood plane management will contribute and make Highlands more resilient for Coastal hazards and additionally um that compliance will allow us to become certified with Community rating where there will be discounts that will be able to be levied to Residents residents that I'm going to talk a little bit about the national violation tracker which Highlands when I came on board we we had a punch list of 300 properties that are on theme as National violation list that they encouraged me must be mitigated that's that in itself is a tall order but anyone still on that National violation tracker list will never be able to get CRS discounts should we get certified it's just a you know matter of fact they're not eligible for it because it's a property that is not mitigated and those properties National violation trackers have received money from FEA so they've already received funding and been declared you know damaged so in essence that's why the Restriction is there um for that specific reason now um what is FEMA CRS a lot of people say well don't understand what it is nfip offers reasonably priced flood insurance to all properties and communities that have standards for flood plane management which Highlands does you put that in place um in 2022 um the CRS credits um Community efforts beyond the minimum standards by reducing flood insurance premiums for the community's property owners and the CRS discounts on flood insurance premium they range from 5 to 45% based on the points awarded so we have that range um I also I called the county because I want to be able to deliver back to you there's a little booklet that Mammoth County gives out shows all the points very distinctly I only have the one I'll leave it with Nancy but I will be getting enough for the entire governing body now how do we get nfip credits and insurance discounts this goes back this is you know a a little um small here we could go full screen but this relates back to for Runner and and what I want to bring out here is just give me one second because we have the 4Runner platform that all your residents can access and all your investors we have document storage inside of this platform site specific to each property so the new department of building and housing can manage this entire process that FEMA found Highlands didn't have and we have created now a full permitting process you know with accountability and forms and that's going to be question number one when the community um visit comes from um the um we also talk about elevation certificates a lot in flood plane areas many people have them I know the mayor and I had a vision early on with Michael that we're just going to get as many elevation certificates as we can get because so many beautiful properties here in homeowners have have done a lot of great work coming to find out that if the elevation certificate has even one error on it FEMA will not take it and so through forner we were able to determine early on that every elevation certificate that we actually had had errors on it and you find yeah that we had and by we had I want to be able to articulate um Council councilman melnik that CME was your flood plane administrator prior and they had 17 elevation certificates that they secured during their term and there wasn't one that didn't have theirs so um from the point of view of Steven Winters who's certified flood plane manager and construction official he did not want them in our Forerunner database that's what we're going to share with FEMA to get this credit because we'd instantly be thrown out so we initiated a you can upload your own into Forerunner and we've since changed that um you know we we are trying I know I am personally trying to work through the 17 to make Corrections on them so we can get as many as we can we're reaching out to homeowners as we go through open permits to secure them it's a laborious process but it's it's so that we can build this flood plane platform which is so important for Highlands in the future to have this base and and doing it on a digital platform I think is superb I mean I wouldn't want to do it any other way the other challenge one other thing about errors just to uh to note that the error is probably 99% of the errors on these are all due to the surveyor either not putting something on the correct line not signing it not dating it not having a seal on it I mean it's very silly um a lot of these errors just it's just sloppy simple things simple and simple to fix and but sloppy sloppiness that was allowed to just get past through and no oversight on to but just to let you know these are the types of things that we and to that note like no that would that would have been a totally different thing this is the the the elevation certificate itself is either has a blank where there should be what the number for the low floor is or if if there is a low floor or like I said not signed off on not sealed I mean it's silly really when you think about it just for people have the homeowner paid for a survey the homeowner should have a proper survey and a proper elevation certificate if they're in the flood zone and I think looking out for your residents now that you're able to ensure that before and Alicia Jones has a a terrific process we work together on it when an elevation certif it comes in we run it through the algorithms inside a 4Runner report is passed out and Alicia hands it back to the homeowner to say you paid for this unfortunately the professional you know needs to correct it you know where it gets a little dicey is some of the older ones you know long paid for long gone and they are not something we can use so we're going to is we're going to work through that it's a process and that's what I wanted to take the time to you know let everybody know that it's going to take some some time to build up our um our foundation now the other thing that's been in your ordinance since 2022 for land use is substantial Improvement and um now that we have a new flood plane permitting um review process and form that meets thema standards we are going back into your DCA uh Mitchell Humphrey's FasTrack system that you've been maintaining even when you were had Middletown as your partner and we've retained it with the new office also but we've gone back I've gone back to the tune of 80 properties to manually put in a 10-year look back on improvements because your ordinance says when you look back in a 10-year period and you have 50 % of the value of just the structure not the land that is a flag under the FEMA nfip that that property needs to be elevated so if if FEA sees you're not managing that that's a problem so we really had no way to manage it now every time a property comes in for a permit we're going back we're we're looking at their substantial improvements we've had a couple of properties that have 167% of improvements and as they have open permits we're working through that um to be sure that there's compliance so it's a comprehensive system the flood plane U Management program and it also is a means that when I anticipate I'm I'm hopeful that late spring we're going to be able to call in for our cab visit and I'm hopeful that all the things that are in Forerunner they can see that there's a substantial process here and I'm hopeful that I can remove some of the national violation property listings because many of them have been elevated so I'm diligently working on that so that we can show good faith properties violations the violations include two categories um actually three one is repetitive loss so FEMA tracks back some of them go back as far as the storm in the 9s when I was here so repetitive loss properties are flagged in that way um this is not something that the public sees uh this is something that the administration sees um and our team sees because we are mitigating it we're working to take them off so that we can move forward with this status so um having everything in there when you know FEMA comes to give us our visit is is going to be extremely helpful the other two categories are low floor you have many properties I think there are um 153 um repetitive loss properties and many of which that I've identified that have open permits right now so that's what we're working with the open permits we're not going back to the closed permits anything that's active now makes the most sense on how we can you know work towards mitigating it and then the last category was an unusual category it was um increased claims compliance which is a FEMA category called ICC and that means that a property was given money to demolish and to elevate and they did not so that's the problem with FEMA so we're working through with Region 2 on how do we I'm waiting right now on I want to share with uh the mayor and Michael is what kind of language are we going to put in the letter to send to someone we don't need to open up Panda's box FEMA wants XYZ I've talked to many people with New Jersey flood plane um Association and they're like tread lightly because it can open up you know a big problem uh we want them remediated nobody's expecting us to take anybody's firstborn child for anything it's just a matter of let's move forward it's for their benefit it's for their pocketbook what they're paying for insurance right now um could be helped I've met many people um when we first opened the office in in uh January and February who were you know a house or two away coming in getting um flood plane development permits and one was paying $37 $0000 for insurance and the other was paying 400 so there's a lot of disparities out there people don't really have a place to go so hopefully this this whole process is going to educate and equalize um you know the the status of flood protection and building a resilient community so across all those three different categories if the 300 was a starting number how many have we mitigated up until this point that we're going to show upon this new visit that's coming in one one what's your goal how many every property in the flood plane what's your goal to have in in your database well the goal is to have a solidified process that I can show them that we are this is a long range process this isn't just we're getting the status we have to show them that we have Forerunner we have a comprehensive building and housing office if everything went yeah the way way it it could go would that be everybody who's in the flood plane would be in the system they all are even your properties every Highlands property is in um Forerunner so I I encourage you to go to the Flood information page there's links right on there to the public facing portion um Michael and the mayor have access to the administrative portion which has the national violation track we're not going out there to advertise that that's a bad thing for real estate for investment we want people to buy houses in Highlands and Elevate them and take these properties off the list been on for all of this time um certainly after Sandy you could have had a property that was repetitive loss property but then it was purchased in the last 3 years and completely r a z but it's owned out and the person doesn't want flood insurance but FEMA doesn't know because they don't have the elevation CER certificate so that property could already be managed but we just haven't gotten there yet to check them off the or scratch them off the list y because once we have an elevation certificate for them then they're not in violation anymore and we could show that to them got it so this slide I just wanted I mean it's a puzzle piece CRS Insurance discount accounts everybody's like wow that's great National violation tracker properties come into play um you know the CRS activities which is your your education and all the the flood plane permitting process flood plane management and it all circles around nfip those rulings and you started the ball rolling in August of 2022 with adopting that ordinance we just didn't have a permitting process to go with it and so that is the first thing that I undertook when I started up is that we have to build one and um that turned into you know a whole new office which I think is the most dynamic way to go um having your construction official also be the certified flood plane manager is of critical importance and I could say that um with expert Authority because I I worked with it a short time when it was disjointed in different locations and it was extremely challenging to to handle and to make any kind of Headway with so I think um you know totally moving in the right direction um with Forerunner um this slide just there's workflows if you did have a hazard um event these handheld um iPads that the office has can go out there and flood damage assessments can go right in on a mobile app on site so not only are we collecting substantial Improvement data but should there be an event you could go out right in the field and capture that so it all goes into this module which can be extracted for different things for few so it's uh it's a Dynamic tool to be able to use in the field um all the work flows are in there and the whole building and housing office all the subcode officials work with a flood plane checklist every Electric System that has to go in has to be above the base flood elevation so this is all things that are kind of new to some of the contract here it wasn't as stringently looked at but it's critically important the other thing we found is using flood proofed materials there were quite a few projects since the office opened and they were not using FEMA blood proof materials and their new construction we can't have that so things are folding together using this tool and using the new office and as I U mentioned we've got the mobile app for inspections that they can bring out there the data's all in in real time um this goes to your residents and your investors this is the look of the page this is 140 Bay Avenue I just pulled it up but this gives you an aial view there's pictures of the property there's also um the mod 4 data that's in there um any particularly warnings that are with the with the property this is a sight pafic flood elevation uh I met with your OEM head um Mr Kane and we changed the OEM pages instead of going to the FEMA map service which I don't like because there's way too many pages and this gives you a userfriendly site specific you can toggle the nfip maps um we've had actually with the mayor's property she the property is actually in two zones and we had questions on it and we were able to you know use the toggle switch in uh Forerunner to do that and um it site specific information to me I mean I've I've been on the phone with Realtors and they're like wow I I got that right there I yes and then the office is available if they need you know information on construction standards excuse me Kathy I I have I have my own home up here right now now how do I ascertain you go down if we're in compliance keep going up go up if you go up should have where your I mean I think it is but I I'm I'm sure it's so new you know it's just going to give you your site specific elevation your um base flood elevation Your Design elevation which is your free board one foot above we have one foot in our ordinance so that's all been predetermined in the algorithms here I let's not talk about it I already said to Steve if yeah yeah it's changing smile Mr unbelievable I know so this is a slide working together for resilient Highlands you know compliance with our flood plane management we've got elevated properties your ordinance since 2022 calls for non-conversion agreements for space below the base flood elevation the BFE and Alicia Jones is on that with everyone that comes in um this has to be a deed restriction according to your ordinance filed with Freehold on record so that a buyer or anyone else understands that the property below this sample house right here um has a non-conversion agreement it's not covered by flood insurance and that goes for properties which we have a lot where there are cars underneath so that is something that wasn't happening before and that would have been a problem you know going forward with CRS so all the new forms that are on your website that Steven Winters uh we collaborated Stephen and I on a lot of them and they're all on there for flood planes um review process and also for the UCC you know regular construction forms they ducktail together now where are we in the process so this is a little housekeeping I'm going to cruise through this August of 22 I've said it several times you adopted the flood plane management regulations June I came on board to begin the process um August of 23 Highlands requested there 300 we didn't know until we got them of the national violation properties and um at the same month we quickly invested in a forerunner flood plane platform um courtesy of the leadership of of the governing body you know for the future and then in November of 2023 we um obtained the national violation tracker list now getting it um it's it's a guarded database but we had permission cuz we planned ahead that this data would be integrated into Forerunner and it's you know only available for the administration not for public so we were able to get that done and in December of 2024 um I'm sorry I got the wrong date up there thanks Alicia um we secured the UCC permitting FastTrack software that's something we did not have the access to until December so that was um tremendous getting the office set up and to be able to go back to see the substantial improvements um we collaborated on all the construction flood plane permitting forms and the public information there's 30 pages of public information that's available on the flood plane protection site and um I did create a CRS strategic plan that's going to be constantly updated you know depending on what it is we're up against now I think initially I was planning on going through every construction jacket here and that I determined is world hunger so instead of world hunger we're working with open permits you know to to catch them when there's an opportunity to make a mitigation change you know going back when there's no open permits we' just be in a conversation the other thing that was exceptionally important for um FEMA nfip and Community rating is to have a procedure on how you keep your elevation certificates you must say when you require them where you maintain them everything is maintained in Forerunner so as a resident calls with a question or I get emails to flood plane management the questions come from the site to me I answer them I add that into the log and the activity inside a forerunner because that's the other thing that CRS says what residents have you spoken with them have you done it in person have you done it by email so this flood plane platform rolls all that together so we have kind of One-Stop shopping for now into the future you know to maintain these kind of records and of course which was alluded to the only thing constant in life is change so as flood plane regulations change we will be able to just integrate them in here with the right changes to algorithms and calculations and be able to move forward with these and most of all if we did have a hazard event that data could be recorded all in one spot which was not something you had the capability for um is there is there some uh review of those entries since they're manual entries you're making those entries I'm assuming a review yeah like I think we just discussed like how you know we've got all these elevation certificates that are incorrect from prior organization anything manuals subject to error who's who's checking to make sure these new entries are are accurate I know that they're not the same thing but so you enter Ste check okay just want make sure that there's a process that that's doing that kind of audit so that we don't find ourselves two years down the road and it's like here 1600 no I'm sorry doesn't until all the fixed and it okay so when you upload it it scans it and it says there's an error here there's an error here and there's an error there and then so they just get they don't even let them leave the window just makeing sure yeah absolutely yeah very good you know the the algorithms um often times give you errors that are not what SEMA calls gigs so we're apprised of all of them we want the most accurate elevation certificate Steve winters also works in nison and Mammoth Beach I believe and um he had one error and they're in the CRS program and they threatened to take them out so this is attention to detail is important and Forerunner gives you the parameters and of course the office is responsible for the flood plane permitting process not me I'm simply trying to organize the flow of it so we have the most accurate and comprehensive information working with your FastTrack government system and um Forerunner okay um in March of 2024 of course the office opened January 2nd and we've been rocking and rolling with new permits and the first report um I submitted and it's in the Shar drive and we went through properties that were elevated um we're marking that in Forerunner many properties were elevated 2016 2023 um we may not have an elevation certificate but we're noting them as elevated and I'm re-calibrating the substantial Improvement because it has to be recalibrated that's something I have to do manually so I'm going through every report um or every permit and creating um a spreadsheet which is manual but the only way that I can track it now because Forerunner has has everything outside of the special flood Hazard area on the hill and outside of the flood zone as well as everything in so I track everything every permit that comes in through the um FastTrack permitting process so I have digital access to that as well as what's in Forerunner and I collaborate with Alicia and Stephen Courtney and the subcode officials all the time so that's how we're building it and as I mentioned possible community Assistance visit in Spring of 2024 um we recently were identified with Middletown Highland Boro was identified with Middletown and Brick Township as a pilot program for low floor FEA is trying to take low floor properties off of the national violation tracker so we have a special form and I had an incredible Revelation being on that Zoom call with Steve and FEMA Region 2 in that it gave me hope because I was tremendously challenged with 300 National violation trackers to mitigate but both uh brick and Middletown have substantial numbers of national violation properties too and they work at them so that's why I'm hopeful that with our strong process we can open the door and begin this um in late spring of 2024 that's my hope I hope I can deliver it to you it's not something that I can deliver without all the back data that we've been starting so um that's pretty much the overview the last thing that I didn't um make a slide for is that um I got involved with the mayor and with Michael that you have the Bay Avenue Redevelopment area you have a new zoning official here and you have two other development areas Captain Cove and um chadon and I realized that there were a lot of permits coming through not only they in the flood zone but they're in the Redevelopment area so there's there's been a whole uh relooking at how that process is going to work properties that are in your central business district Bay Avenue Redevelopment area have a lot of challenges to meet the the flood plane um management regulations that you you've um set the bar on so um that is going to be the most dynamic way that Highlands can make progress in that Redevelopment area because as properties come in you know they will be insured in the Redevelopment area they'll be elevated and they'll be you know meeting the requirements for mixed use building which is flood proofing not elevating so you know we're working on all of those um angles with it and so I think I think it's a a tremendous time for Highlands um I just have to say being here in the '90s and and getting a grant to I wrote the first grant in New Jersey to elevate homes and we did Elevate six of them um I I moved on to the Bayshore office afterwards there was no repeat money it was a one-time demonstration project but when I came back which I visited I I live in the Bayshore area and I knew there were so many properties being elevated but just to see you know what happened um when I remember everything was Bungalows and now it's it's a whole different um terrain completely we just need to be sure that that uh flood plane permitting process is adhered to and that we can move forward you know to bring Economic Development to this town which it already has with but I think the importance is doing that um 151 scattered site um Redevelopment area called Bay Avenue your cenal business district that's a real terrific window of opportunity for Highlands so I don't know if you have any other questions I feel free to meet with you to work with you on how how to navigate you know Forerunner it's play with it a little bit it's it's pretty intuitive what's on there um um if there's any questions you can always email me my email is on the flood protection information it's flood management at Highlands Borough and you can call me anytime so I thank you for the opportunity to brief you on where we are and I know that there'll be um you know another time when Steven Winters and I will probably be able to give you an overview a little bit more about the Construction office and and all processes that have been um created so thank you for the opportunity thank you K very good is that what I was you that's you just and that just walk through is that available for us so we can post it to the site the event that somebody was I'm going to be posting it on the website she'll be putting in that same section yes was also on the shared Drive of the burrow great under the Construction office it's already up there properly but yeah and we'll be there on Monday Monday excuse me yeah I for the open house Stephen and I are both coming yes excellent excellent and you're going to give that other uh uh pamphlet to Nancy so she can scan it over to the and I'll be getting more from Bridget ner at um MTH County I've got to call in to her well and it's something that we could have electronically that we can put that onto the flood plane site as well let me do that I'll get it for you yeah that's that's sa the better okay let ask yes for sure okay well that was comprehensive thank you very much Miss Kathy you're very welcome okay what's next the The you want me to talk about I've been doing some meting sure okay all right so um I don't know how many people know but the uh middle of May the uh uh 16th 17th and 18th uh we're going to have roaring on the highlands in the highlands there will be boat races and they will be in the river on shrewbury River the uh HBC is uh taking care of this but I've been at several meetings all the uh powers that be in the town from uh the uh chief of police uh the uh chief of um the fire department Mr siza Paul Murphy we're all there uh there's a lot of coordination that needs to be done Friday night of of it's a it's a full weekend kind of thing but the actual races are on Sunday Sunday they start at 10:00 with the smaller boats and then at 1:00 it's the larger boat the smaller boats will kind of be going in a smaller Circle all of this will be published more you know on on Facebook and all it by HP uh and the larger ones will go down further towards uh the um one Willow Marina down there uh they start a little ways P of bars and uh the company that runs this uh has their insurance the town of Courts has theirs we have the uh the U First aage Squad is involved um so it's coming along the one thing we're waiting on is the um Coast Guard to give final approval there there doesn't seem to be any problems with it for the people that are dealing with the Coast Guard and that includes uh Chief Burton um it should be coming any day now now when that happens the council we're going to have to make a resolution sure to allow for it but it it should be I hopefully by the next meeting that we're at so on Friday night uh they'll be coming in and the the boats and their trailers will be at the um old Doris and Ed's parking lot uh there's enough room there to put the boats there so uh they're encouraging the various restaurants to have uh meet and greet with the the boat Racers uh at different spots in town the boats will be go into the water at Baker's Marina uh he's renting a crane to put the boats in the water um they already have 20 20 Racers that have signed up for it and they expect a lot more so we meet every Monday and uh that's about as much as I can tell you right now about it but it's going to be a very very exciting thing and Saturday also as well too they like to there'll be a boat parade not all the boats but just a couple of them they'll Park in certain areas where people can bring their kids and they let the kids get on the boat and the the owners you show them things um on private property on private property yes right exactly um so uh it it looks to be a fun weekend of course the weather uh hopefully but it's it will be rain or shine um and the only thing that stops them the race is lightning right so even if it's the wind it doesn't matter and uh these boats go so fast especially the larger ones they don't cause wakes they're like kind of out of the water and just the the motor is in and flying this way so um that's it for now next meeting I'll have more info to give everybody but uh it's it sounds like it's going to be a good fun weekend and another thing to make Highlands a really cool place cool place to make AOL and that's okay next we have mayor's report I sent this to you all rather late because I was getting reports back from the different departments uh late as well so let's as we do start off with uh Highlands Elementary news um the students raised $3,600 for their uh kids heart challenge um the new uh hvc HVAC rather uh will be uh actually is being installed now over spring bre break they hope to be finished by Friday um so that's really good also uh the play um Frozen kids version is going to be uh April 19th and 20th so get your tickets now before they sell out uh for Henry Hudson News uh their PTO raised an amazing $32,000 for their uh gift auction which is a tremendous amount uh well done PTO also the spring Sports have started for both the middle and the high school and sports include baseball softball track and field and Tennis so go to a game and r on our Admirals for uh Emergency Services uh the first aid Squad answered 32 calls the fire department 13 and the police department a hats off at uh 721 in the month of March which is a lot a lot yeah um exactly um code enforcement um we had seven summons eight warnings uh 26 reports 24 inspections seven permits and uh five Oprah uh answers for our illustrious new building department we've had 65 inspections of which 58 passed five failed and one were not ready ready for permits issued during the month that number is 49 uh DPW continues to do its thing uh keeping parks and beaches in public places up to Snuff uh burough events continue to check the recreation uh Department calendar as well as um The Business Partnership link which is Highlands nj.com for event information an update on the sanitary sewer project that I promise will end at some point in time um we hope to start Paving some of the streets uh that are completed in the spring um the raining work on the county portion of Bay Avenue is to uh finish from Atlantic to North Street and then a small portion near Veterans Park and and bars um then the county will pave all their roads which is uh Bay Avenue Lyon and that little small section of water witch where the businesses are they are planning that for uh before school starts in the fall then planned for April is uh Mains and laterals on water witch between Recreation and Bay and uh finish installing the Wells on Bay Avenue between Atlantic and north um one thing that's not in the report but I just was discussing with um DPW earlier is a lot of people have been asking why are they installing Wells on Bay Avenue when they didn't install Wells on Bay Avenue from water witch to Atlantic and the answer to that is those Wells that they're putting in go through the process of dewatering which takes the water out of the earth so when they're digging they don't hit mud they hit Earth uh the sewer the sanitary sewer on Bay Avenue is a lot lower in the ground um in the section from Atlantic Street all the way through to South Street so that's why they had to do the dewatering process with all the wells there um just so if someone approaches you and asks you why they're doing something different there than they did in other sections that's the reason why um other projects that got underway and then sort of had to Halt over the winter is uh the updates to vets Park That was supposed to get going this week but the rain sort of uh knit that in the bud can't be um doing Concrete in the rain uh then that'll slide us right over to uh Marie Street and Bayside Drive same thing going on there where uh they were ready to start working and then the monsoons came and uh uh earlier we awarded um engineering for both the uh Marine Place elevated walkway as well as the show Drive um improvements um um no other updates going forward and I had the CRS update that uh Kathy is still working diligently as you guys now know exactly how diligently she's been working on this and um we'll get a clip of this presentation and make that available on the website for anybody that wants to watch it uh when we're offline and that's my report um the only other thing I really have to to offer is on March 18th Stephanie from h2m and and I met with the residents of central Beach um the whole area down there about the issues with the SE project um they were able to vent and we were able to give them uh some updates as to how it's going to be going further it was about two hours um and I think it went pretty good I think it kind of kind of calm and fears and hopefully we'll get them to pave and finish sometime this year and uh that's pretty much all I have to offer for tonight I did get positive feedback from a couple of residents who uh were there that night they said it would that was much appreciated to be heard in a uh in an open form does anyone have anything they want to add no yep I'm good public portion public portion um individuals wishing to address the council shall be recognized by the presiding officer and shall give their name address and the and the group of any they represent although the council encourages public participation and reserves the right through his presiding officer to terminate remarks to and or by any individual not in keeping the the conduct of a proper and efficient meeting if any individual refuses to conduct themselves in a proper manner they will be removed from the meeting the council will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointments termination of Employments negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or discipline of any specific or perspective a current employee there's a three minute time limit for your comments good evening uh Joseph Doran 102 Valley Avenue um I was really expecting to be just a spectator tonight but uh a couple couple of hours ago I got a video from Mr Fark who uh showing me some uh runoff water coming from mam Tel's down uh North Peak Street um there's a a big drainage pipe at the top of North Peak street that funnels water from mmad hills um I'm not sure why he sent me that but could you send that to us oh yeah I have I have it on my phone okay M I'm saying could you send it to us so that we can get it to the engineer because yeah I will I'm it that sounds very odd so he was showing me all this water going down North Peak street down the the the gutter part of the street which isn't supposed to do that so it's going through the world together as it's designed to do okay right and he's he had been claiming to me that water was running across from there down his property from the hills down onto my property um so I sent him a video back of what's going on on my property and then he called me and this the third call that I've gotten from him in the last I guess 10 days or so he's never called me out of any concern whatsoever about what's happening down on my property until recently so I'm just making a statement I'm just yeah um I have to kind of laugh I said well Charlie is the rain coming out of the sky and it's coming onto your property and then funneling down to my property where else is it going to go he's he's yet to fully Abate the erosion problem right with Sil fence and hey bells that can only do so much with the amount of water we've been getting and that's and it's not the first time that we've been getting this kind of water over the last couple years um so on one hand he's admitting and on the other hand he's telling me the water's coming from mmed hills I said if if it's contributing to the problem it's not a whole problem sure your property on a same slope where's the water going to go so I'm just making a statement because I get very upset when I talk to him because it's hard for me to reason with him as to what's happening and I wind up screaming at it that doesn't do me any good right that's not good for you either yeah I said Charlie this is the rain is it's coming out of the sky and it's coming onto your property if there's anything coming from ahed hills it's just maybe compounding it but it's not a full problem and I said to him when it comes down heavy from the sky is when I really have the problem because yesterday it rain pretty good yesterday I didn't have a problem yesterday I didn't have a problem until today right okay yeah yesterday was more of a strady way rain and today was just but it wasn't down that I was expecting so um but all of a sudden he's concerned of what's happening on my property and just wants to blame m m Hills that it's well sure yeah sure not not anything he did what's that not anything that that Charlie has done or not done on on he's he's he's innocent definely in his mom so um I think we all know that that that hearing's coming up the L use board um in May um I don't I know what he's going to come up with but uh we'll find out we'll find out anyway I just wanted to make a comment that was that was all I to say thank you thank you sir yes please proba getbody no worries I said no worries at all just one you when you can you'll have okay executive session executive session will be held following the regular council meeting prior to each executive session the burough Council will convene an open session at which time a resolution will be adopted in accordance with njsa 10 col 4-13 no formal action will be taken during the executive session resolution to enter executive session be it resolved that the following portion of this meeting shall not be open to the public be it further resolved that private consideration is deemed required and is committed because of the following noted exceptions set forth in the act the potential litigation be it further resolve that is anticipated that the matters to be considered in private may be disclosed to the public at a later date when the need for privacy no longer exists I will make that offer second council member yes Council M yes counc peski yes mayor bran yes motion carries to enter executive session at 808 thank you everyone please exit and thank you any I'll second all in favor I thank you meeting adjourned at 8:11 I was