mayor would you like to proceed yes please good evening this is the meeting of the bough of Highlands mayor and Council regular meeting on Wednesday December 4th 2024 the notice requirements provided for in the open public meetings act have been satisfied notice of this meeting was properly
given by transmission to the as Park Press in the Two River times and by posting at the burough of Highlands municipal building and filing with the B clerk all on January 1st 2024 items listed on the agenda are subject to change please stand for the pledge of [Music]
Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all I will now do vot call council
member santes here council member CH here Council melck here council president sheski here mayor bran here thank you um first we have approval of minutes November 6 20 24 meeting minutes council member santes Council M
yes Council melck yes council president meski yes mayor Bulan yes motion carries to approve November 6 2024 meeting minutes next we have November 6 2024 executive session minutes I'll offer I'll second council member svantes I'll
second Council melac yes C Mel yes Council peski yes mayor buan yes motion carries to approved November 6 2024 executive session minutes next we have consent agenda mayor would you like me to read the resolutions by title yes
please R 24204 amending resolution 24178 entitled approving request for waiver of alcohol ban for Community Center rental R 24205 authorizing shared services agreement between the burough of Highlands and the burough of sebrite
for municipal court services R 24206 authorizing appointment of Michael lnch as forming sub official R 24207 authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract for professional Emergency Medical Services between the bur of irland and JFK Medical Center for EMS
Services R 24208 authorizing the execution of shared services between uh Services agreement between the burough of Highlands and the burough of Atlantic Highlands for basic life support response R 24209 approving closed out change order and declaring acceptance of the contract
for the improvements of veterans part veterans Memorial Park project r24 to10 authorizing execution of a transportation agreement with the county of mamit for the special citizens area transportation system r4211 authorizing
the submission of an application for the state and local cyber security grant program for cyber security resources for federal fiscal year 2024 r24 to2 authorizing sale by public auction by municip of municipally owned property
r24 to13 acknowledging receipt and review of the land use board consistency report for ordinance 0249 R 24214 authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract for professional Engineering Services in connection with improvements to Overlook
Park and Frank Hall Park r242 um 215 rejecting proposal received for the land use board engineer position for the 2025 calendar year and authorizing read advertisement for Sol to solicit proposals for the position of
L use board engineer for the 2025 calendar year r24 216 approving a membership application for the highlands fire department r24 217 authorizing the preparation submitt and execution of a T-Mobile home town grant for hudy Park R
24218 authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract for grant writing services in connection with the T-Mobile Hometown Grant R 24219 author in payment of bills R 24220 providing for the transfer of surplus funds I have a question sure about uh
r242 213 what is the land use board consistency report uh that is consistent with the master plan so because of the um the ordinance that is uh about clearly
demarking where utilities are um that has to be consistent with the master plan so that because it's a a a ordinance based for land use it needs to be approved as consistent with the master plan by the land use board it's a
formality but it's what we need to do okay good thank you all right any other questions the L board engineer that we have is moving on no we only got one uh when we solicited
bids we only got one application so uh we wanted to have more than one application for any position so we rejected bid and then are going to reapply I think we already did if I'm
not mistaken uh to read vertise for it to solicit more than just one the one who applied the one that we used last year or carel I don't one bid to me is not a competitive bidding process
on that same line like how how much longer would we keep that open if the The Proposal is out or the oh no it'll be done before uh what was the timing on that the opening date would be the 20th the opening date would be December 20th yes and at the end of that period if
there was still just one would we continue to move forward with that same bid I just I appreciate with the idea of getting with in one bid just saying that indefinitely if there's still one B like our yeah we wouldn't continue continue and continue got it awesome perfect
thank you any other questions on anything on the consent agenda then I will offer it second council member sames yes council member yes Council M yes council president chefski yes mayor bran yes motion
carries to adopt resolutions r224 through R 24220 next we have public hearing of proposed ordinance 02418 designating restricted parking in front of residents occup by person with disabilities any discussion from the
board here okay um this is for a handicapped parking space outside of 13 Shrewsbury Avenue um is there any comment from the public regarding this ordinance for designating handicap
spot seeing none I will close the public portion and I will offer this ordinance second council member santes yes council member CH yes counc M yes Council peski yes mayor ban yes motion carries
02418 passed on second and final reading next we have 02 2419 amending chapter 21 zoning and land use regulations Section 21- 58 plat and plan details uh this is the ordinance that we were discussing that had to get land use
board approval for for um consistency with the master plan and this is uh just updating our ordinance to uh to show that when you're doing a subdivision that all utilities need to be clearly marked out
um and that's that's pretty much the bones of what this ordinance was about any discussion from the board this coming about through um the building department yes okay that's op no oh okay then I'll will open it to
the public any questions on this ordinance see none I'll close the public portion and I will offer this ordinance I'll second council members atanes yes council member CH yes CC melck yes
council president meski yes mayor bran yes motion carries 0 2419 pass on second and final reading next we have other business Central business district fo plane design guidel good evening everybody it's the community rating system coordinator
Kathleen Shaw here and I just wanted to as we're approaching the end of the year talk about the uh flood plane design guidelines so much work was done during 2024 to amend the central business
district Redevelopment plan bring the flood plane guidelines to match what you have in your chapter 21 that was adopted in 2022 it was one was approved the other one came in so we really needed to get
it all on the same um plane which was finished in September so starting um as kind of an extracurricular for me I started in the
Summer with the passion of what the central business district could be um with the new flood plane regulations having elevated mixed use buildings which you don't see very much of in the Jersey Shore but it is our future the
future of that and you have a unique opportunity here that I wanted to emphasize that you have a Redevelopment area right now going at the same time with these new flood plane regulations so the challenge was how do we
let the public who live here how do we let investors know what it looks like because there aren't very many examples so the challenge came in there was a lot of collaboration with Stephen Winters
our flood plane administrator and uh mayor Ruan myself trying to scour nationally some trend lines for elevated mixed use structures what do they look
like how are they constructed how do they come about so using a very very robust um planning document from Boston which was over 700 pages of
technical drawings of um retrofits along Boston Harbor with is a very challenging area if anyone has been in Boston they're very old buildings so there was a tremendous amount of work
that was done there that we collaborated on used what was most appropriate for Highlands for our elevation our flood plane elevation and so this design guideline shows the public what a new
mixed use building with event space underneath with permeable surface where there could be farmers markets mariachi bands there could be Textile Art shows underneath um parking we have an example
in there of three lots there are Highlands Lots on Bay Avenue we didn't stretch them they're there and there is a new building with 17 parking spaces underneath for mixed use so you've got
10 apartments in one of the renderings you've got event space down below you've got elevated event space which so many of the residential units have done here with rooftop Decks that you see so it was a way to bring kind of excitement
and a new Benchmark so to speak of what Bay Avenue could be we've had a few sessions that been flood plane oriented the end of June and there was a lot comments from people well this is this
is what it is and this is the only thing you could do and that is not the case so I'm hopeful this is on our website um and it's a little bit over 40 pages there's flood plane
tools diagrams how to wet flood proof how to dry flood proof how to do elevators all the Technical Resources back to FEMA there so it's a comprehensive guide um besides the collaboration that we had here in
Highlands Mammoth County Planning has reviewed it their name is included in it so they have reviewed it and it's it's a guideline document that will help people with visioning I'm excited to say that while I was doing
this um somebody came into the Construction office who's already been before the land use board um and they kind of Switched gears with their specialized Engineers which I'm excited about because Engineering in the flood
plane is a specialty not everyone we come to find has that background so they put together a whole technical team and we have coming I'm hopeful the very first of 2025 our first elevated mixed
juice building on Bay Avenue and it's you know already through the land use board it's in the Redevelopment area so once everything's finalized they will go ahead with the process to be designated as the redeveloper and in concert with this our
team in the building and housing um office together with members of the governing body we put a process together so that individuals who want to invest in Highlands know how I like to put it this way how you get on the dance more
how do you start you know if it's if is existing building and you're going to do some substantial improvements you go to the Construction office if it's going to be a new project now they know it's on the website thanks to Nancy tr's technical help for me I'm grateful for
her um there's a process on there so that everyone knows like I like to say how to get on the dance floor if you don't know how to get on the Dance Floor you're not going to dance so the goal was to make it very user friendly so that we can um attract people I always
feel in my experience with downtown revitalization once you get one up there yeah ready to go so it's an exciting time um I I wanted to to come just to mention it um everybody got it in their
um emails and and it is on the website it's under projects and Redevelopment the design manual um it's something that I think will be very helpful on many many levels you know in town thema books
are not the easiest if you pick one they're all 175 pages with rules and code numbers this gives you that reference but it gives you a visual diagram of
what it is to elevate the exterior circulation of a building things one thing to say it it's so much better to look at it in my in my opinion so I just wanted to bring that um to everyone's attention it's on the website and we'll
be using it as time goes on you know to help projects that are you know in the design phase or just interest phase it should help them focus in on the tools that could be used so I don't know if anybody has any questions it's probably
not something you'd have questions about but I just wanted to um be sure that it was showcased before the end of the year absolutely and I want to say uh working so closely with you since you've been uh here doing this great work with CRS that
I cannot thank you enough for all of your hard work putting this together it's it speaks for itself as soon as you open it up just very impressive very impressive document absolutely and I think it will help a great deal to investors as as they're already coming
to have a plan of what can be yeah there they they drawings renderings they're not plans that you would just take out and okay this is what I'm going to build but it gives you an idea of the square footage and it uses Highlands Lots which
I think is very important so thank you for your comments and um happy end of the year for everybody thank you [Music] and I guess I'll move to my
report um reminder again our website address has changed to Highlands nj.gov uh for emergency services in November uh First Aid had 34 calls fire 24 and
police 620 uh for code enforcement uh seven sorry five summons were written uh warnings were three reports 18 inspections including reinspection was
15 permits 10 and oppr requests answered five for the building department um inspections were 71 of which uh 53 passed 11 failed one was not ready and we issued 37 permits
from the building department um I guess the the grants are probably done for the year um we netted out at uh 1 million 980,000 410 which is a nice tidy sum of
money um to help with our projects and Endeavors for infrastructures parks and all the other good stuff planning tool uh for burrow events we've got uh the tree lighting is this Friday it's going to be cold but at
least it's not going to be rainy so that's a good thing um also on Sunday uh December 8th from 9il 12:00 p.m. there's a free pan pancake breakfast over at
olph um and they uh meeting SL Jim Hall and then there's a visit with Santa over at the fire department and that's going to be Sunday December 22nd at 1 p.m. they're doing a Toys for Tots drive so
if you would like to participate in that program um please bring an unwrapped toy to the following locations by December 21st and those locations are Lusty Lobster off the hook and Shore graphics
uh moving on to our recent election congratulations to cantes and shalak for uh for getting reelected uh without any opposition I would like to add uh also for our
referendums our public questions uh the flood wall question was defeated by 77% of the electorate uh with 579 saying yes where uh
1,959 said no our second referendum question was about uh continuation continuing with the regionalization with sebrite and that was approved by 96% of the electorate uh with
2510 saying yes and 360 saying no um moving on to assessments everyone has should have gotten their newly assessed uh numbers in and the 2025 preliminary
assessment is one incredible numbers 1 b422 million and change and that assessment is up over $260 million from way for um we are going to be having a
special meeting on the 11th 7 p.m. here and that will be run by the tax assessor who will answer a questions and explain how assessments are done it's not necessarily that you've made improvements to your home it's also
other things come into in into account such as recent sales um how valuable your land is or how valuable your property is uh so he will be here to explain all of that it will be recorded as all of our meetings are
and it will be put up on our YouTube channel the following morning um current projects well it's kind of it's December so there's not really a lot going on Although our um the Rey living Shoreline at Veterans
Park we got our approval from uh D just this morning uh so we also have to get approvals from the Army Corps uh on that so we're going we're
going forward which is a a good place to be uh also uh Portland Road That was supposed to have started but there's been uh some conflicts with the the depth of the gas lines from New Jersey
natural gas so those are it's in are they still in the process you still working on where we're [Music] in okay so what happened here for is
just that there's certain areas of Portland Road where the gas line is very close to the road it's not as far down as some places as it should be I I guess you could say right right so it's too close to the
curve and it's too high okay so we're looking to rectify those issues before we take on any storm water management at no cost to the burrow which is always nice that they're going to relocate these lines on their dime not on
ours yeah exactly um the asset activation um that was a grant from the New Jersey uh Eda and that is with our planner now I know that there's been a couple of uh of uh
site visits to the clam plant and uh we're hoping to have that wrapped up if not by the end of the year January for sure um we haven't really gotten started on that us do Grant safe roads for all that's that comprehensive Transportation
safety action plan uh for the entire buau and that was funded with um the whole project is nearly $1.5 million and uh the federal government gave us a grant of
1.1 million and the county gave us a grant for 295,000 to get that completed uh looking over to saying projects for 2025 so far what we are looking at is uh the creation of
Overlook Park that's on Route 36 to update Frank Hall Park um as you may have might have heard earlier we've uh are starting with um that's where we awarded Colliers uh engineering to start
uh getting those going for us we're doing the two parks together because they are literally right around the corner from each other and we're hoping that uh when we go out to bid we'll have we'll get better costs because the contractor would be able to be working
at Bol Parks either one after the other simultaneously depending on what's going on um Jones Creek J dredging we're still waiting to uh connect with the county on getting that done uh Marine
Place uh that's another one that we're going to go out to bid in the winter time so that we could do work in the spring um same also applies with Shore Drive pedestrian improvements which is basically sidewalks from water witch to
Willow where none exist at the moment and then the last one that we have here is uh Washington Avenue Paving which is just a mill in pave of Washington a from uh Marine place to cheerful place I'm trying to see let me see
grants one and okay grants one uh but they're yet to be permitted and awarded and the first one is uh the lyen waterwood bay and Snug Harbor this is an estimated 1.7 million project to improve drainage on these
roads and we have uh 1.3 million from dot local Aid so we're just waiting for D approval of the project and the other one we just heard uh this earlier or I should say late November
and that was uh Grand Tour drainage improvements it's very close to what we're doing on Portland Road and we received a grant for uh $217,000 and the ones we're still waiting to hear back from is uh that
very large FEMA uh brick study brick award which is uh a $16 million project of which 12 million of it is in uh the FEMA Grant and that's for um solving for drainage
issues from mamils as well as within uh the burrow um and having an added a pump station in Snug Harbor I think the uh environment Al assessment is should be completed around
March of 2025 uh the other grant that we're uh really excited about and hopeful to get it's a planning Grant and that is for uh reconnecting communities and it's for an elevated walkway which would span over Route
36 and uh that would be uh we're looking for it to be joining from water witch to kouan field so it would give people access pedestrian access to to kouan which is largely inaccessible except by
a car so there's no sidewalks on that side of the street at all and there's no way to cross the highway there in a safe manner although people do it all the time um the American firefighters grant for
the new radios I do not believe we've heard we've heard back from them yet and then we are also looking for a grant for the uh a pump truck for the fire department and Community rating system
as Kathy just went through um if you are looking for that uh design guidelines you just on our website you just go to projects and redevelopments and just click on that link it's right on the first Banner as soon as you open up our website and uh
you'll be able to see this uh wonderful compilation that she did and that is my report for [Music] November if there is not anything else does anyone else have any questions or comments or can we go to public portion I just want to ask one question forget
and I think I knew will that allow bikes yes pedestrian and bicycle overpass it's very similar to what is uh is there at Sandy Hook oh okay hopefully better designed than that
one cuz that one's pretty ugly so we're going to go for a really nice looking sharp uh all right okay public portion individuals wishing to address the council shall be recognized by the presiding officer and shall give their name address and the
group of any they represent although the council encourages public participation it reserves the right through his presiding officer to terminate remarks to and or by any individual not in keeping with the conduct of a proper and efficient meeting if any individual refuses to connect themselves in the 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 employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or discipline of any specific or perspective or current
employee there's a three minute time liit for your comments no one okay seeing no seeing no comments I will close public portion executive session executive session will
be held following the regular council meeting prior to each executive session the coun burough Council will convene an open session at which time a resolution will be adopted in accordance with njsa 10 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 the private consideration is deemed required and is permitted because of the following noted exceptions set forth in the ACT litigation be it further resol that is anticipated that the mans to be
considered in private may be disclosed to the public at a later date by no need for privacy well when need when the need for privacy no longer exists I will make that motion second all in favor I I thank you
um executive s ented in at 7:34 and I will motion to adjourn the public meeting all second