Okay, we're we're good. Let's start with the pledge of allegiance. Everybody, please rise. Would you like to lead to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible
with liberty and justice for all. This is a meeting of the Hillsdale Burough Council on the 7th day of October 2025. Notice of the time and place of this meeting has been provided to the Ridgewood News and the Bergen record. A copy was posted on the bulletin board outside the meeting room
and provided to any interested parties. Please silence all cell phones. Wait to be recognized by the mayor during the public hearing and the public comment portion of the meeting. You will need to state your name and town of residents. For the record, will the clerk please read the role? Council President Oso. Council member Kleti here. Council member Fox
here. Council member Mazuchong. Council member Rico here. Council member Troy Muk here. Mayor Shinfield here. Great. We have a quorum. Okay. Um, National First Responders Day, October 28th is coming up. I guess we could have
done this the next year, but we're we're I guess we're making sure we get it done. Um, is there's nobody here for that. Although we do have a first responder. Do we have two first responders? Nick, do you first respond at home? Sort of.
Sort of. only only when there's a trouble in the house. Um, thank you. Uh, first responders, um, I, you know, I've had a chance to go out to some of the fires and some of the
incidents that have taken place. Uh while it's never a fun thing to see that there's there's real problem and people are suffering from it, it's amazing to see most of the people that are doing this are volunteers whether it's ambulance or or
the fire department. Uh it's amazing. It's just amazing the people that just give and give in this town. Uh the police obviously um step up and we have people you know saving lives um saving property.
Please mark uh council president has arrived. Uh freshen off the concert. Yes. Yes. So would anybody else like to speak on it? We've got a a resolution. I think I signed that proclamation.
Proclamation for Okay. Does anybody have anything they want to say? Seeing nobody, uh, let's move on to the approval of minutes. First, the public meeting September 9th. Uh, Councilman Fox was absent. Uh, motion to approve.
Motion. Second. Second. All those in favor? I I opposed. Minutes are approved. Council minute meetings from September 16th. Motion to approve. Motion. Second. Second.
All those in favor? I I the minutes are approved. Initial public comment. Uh public topic uh one topic per speaker. Please state your name. Would anybody like to speak? Seeing nobody that wants to speak. Uh we'll move on to discussion from the
environmental commission. Councilman Kleti uh for tree plantings. Sure. I'm just going to provide a brief overview of what's in front of us at the moment. Uh so the project seeks contractor and landscapers to plant the trees in the time frame of October and
November 2025. The estimated cost is $10,750 which is about 80% of the available funds. U contractor will provide pricing for three native New Jersey tree species from a list provided to them uh from the environmental
commission. The locations focus uh priority on Hillsdale A and Magnolia right now in this first run including McPirick Park at the corner of Sycamore and Glendale A. The in terms of project schedule, the contractor must submit a detailed
schedule of work within five business days of the award. All plantings must be completed by November 1st. That's a little aggressive, but as long as they're done, I think by the end of November, I think they're fine from a weather perspective. In terms of quality standards, the trees must be native species as mentioned
earlier, unbranched up to four feet with a minimum of two and a half inch caliber and the trees will be inspected for health and quality prior to planting. In terms of installation and planting requirements, the contractor will be responsible for the utility markout, site safety, and property protection.
And they're also responsible for installing tree guards uh and deer protection uh immediately after planting. And finally, uh, this is a new concept which the EC is is is attempting to get into the contract. And I think it's a
good idea that the contractor be responsible for watering and tree survival during the guarantee period, which is the first 12 months. And uh, they must replace any trees that fail to survive that period. That's a summary. Great. Anybody else have anything they
want to discuss? I would just like to mention that uh ebikes has become a hot topic for everybody. Um and I ask the public as I ask members of council, we should probably start thinking about
how we want to address that. Uh we're looking at what some other towns have done and I would think in the next several meetings we'll probably be taking it to a next level. But please keep that in mind and start thinking about what you would like to see to
protect both pedestrians who are out there, the other vehicles, and certainly the riders. Uh the state has not been definitive on on ways that we should behave. In other words, there's no mandate for a
license, which I think is a shortfall. But I thought there was some guidance on how to handle certain ebikes and classifications on miles per hours and whether or not you can impound those bikes because they don't have registration. That's up to us to a large extent. We if
we set a policy, correct me if I'm wrong, Chief, if we set a policy that said if you catch somebody doing something in violation of whatever ordinance we have, we could say to you they have to it has to be impounded and and parents have to come
and collect it, right? I mean, that Yeah, look a little bit into that, but I know, you know, title 39 does have uh we have room to enforce it. However, obviously, you know, certain ebikes are considered bicycles. Yeah. So, that's what we fall into. The most
of the complaints are legal ebikes that are being held by bicycles. We don't see a vast majority of the illegal. I spoke to some people in Westwood. They were telling me that the police have confiscated. They currently have in their possession 50 ebikes. Yeah. I I Travis, I've chief, I've seen
quite a few of those high-end bikes that certainly go 40 miles an hour around town. They distinctly look different than a uh assisted motorized bike. They look more like a motorcycle, right? Yeah. And then and half the time these kids aren't even wearing helmets that
wear, you know. I actually at the parking lot of Demani over the weekend there was a bike that was being chased by one of your cruisers through the parking lot. I don't know if they ever got the kid. Did he catch him? But he was he was ripping through that parking lot and I don't know if he got
away. Yeah, we had an incident where I can talk about it later. Well, we're gonna go into the report anyway in a juvenile to one of our officers. They stop two of them that they're by very strict pursuit policies and especially with juveniles.
Yes. If you clearly identify as juvenile, you got to let them right out the risk for the benefit. And then what would you do if you if you caught them anyway? like what is your what what is your have you instructed sort of the the the troops what the
policy is if you catch somebody in blatant violation yeah if you're operating one of these motorcycles they're not bikes travel they don't certain mile per hour they require registration insurance so it's no different than a motor vehicle motorcycle you stop on the road they
don't reg is that also a plate then they have to have a plate on it they're registered interesting does the police have the authority to check a bike if they presume it being classified as one of those motorcycles as opposed to an
ebike. Yeah. I mean, you still fall under has to be a violation to stop that. Okay. To stop them. Um because you can't stop somebody in the spirit of Well, that's clearly not a motorized. Oh, yeah. If you can identify that it's
a motorcycle, not a sidewalk, then. Okay. But I said most of the most of the here are actual ebikes. They have pedals. They're just being driven outside of the the way they're supposed to. Okay.
Question. Several people have asked me for some time. Are bicycles ever allowed on the sidewalk? Anyway, so town, it varies by town. Town can restrict or they can take bicycles off
the sidewalk. Now the the only issue with doing that is you're in my opinion put through the street. Yeah. And you're also you're going to do that for ebikes that are legal that are considered bicycles. Now you're pushing children on bic which is the conundrum which is sort of what we're trying to figure out.
Thank you. What what about um could you actually pull the microphone towards you in case we This was a a discussion for the tree planting. We're going into other Well, I understand. I'm sorry I brought it up. This is going to be something we're going to have to deal with. Are those electrified scooters
considered ebikes? Because I just came back from Europe. E scooters. Yeah. They're considered bicycles. They are considered they treated the same. Thank you. The only different
Yeah. They don't quite seem they don't seem like they're achieving the same speed level as the bike, but they go pretty fast. And if they're on the sidewalk, they're dangerous. Yeah. Okay. Um Okay. Well, I'm sure we'll be back to you in your monthly report. We There's
There's no correspondence to file. So, let's start with the reports. Luckily, uh Clemente, you came in just in time, so we can go right to Memorial Field. Nick, you're up. I know that's the the topic that everyone wants to uh
talk about. Um so, we received pricing from the contractor on Monday. There was an initial number that was way above the town's budget. We have since been working with the contractor to see where we can cut costs. We looked at
individual items where costs were out of line with our estimates um and you know have them take a second look. We got a second revised number today that is much closer to the town's budget. So we uh we we are feeling very
positive that there is a path forward that we can we can get this project done with a few slight tweaks um within the the original budget that was but we're not we're not sacrificing the quality of the deliverable by reducing the costs of what they provided. Right.
Because we're not going through bid the bid process. We're going through co-op. Right. Correct. Yeah. Um, so there there are a few items where we're talking about swapping products for cheaper ones, but they're comparable. Um, for example, the the benches, trash cans, tables, things like
that. We have a similar looking product that's about half the price. We're doing things like that in order to get the the cost down. We're also looking at things like the type of retaining wall selected. Um, there are areas where we could possibly use a a cheaper type of wall. Um, just throughout the whole
estimate, there have been a lot of discussions back and forth with the contractor on ways that we can kind of save some money. Yeah. My only concern is that when you guys provided your initial pricing or estimate, I know it was an estimate, but it was valued at X, right? Uh the
contractor uh the vendor came back at X plus a certain number, 10, 20, 30%. We don't have to get into details there, but what what is the difference? is the margin that the subcontractors are billing us or is it the the type of product that they're using as opposed to
what you priced out? Is it inflation? Is it tariffs? Is it what? I mean, you know, it's it's a mix it's a mix of all those things, right? So, there there's definitely a component when you u you're going to a soul vendor to say, "Give us a price on this big multi-million dollar
project." They aren't exactly motivated to be, you know, the cheapest, right? they know that the project is theirs. That is kind of one of the things that we talked about today. We kind of put them on notice like listen, if this doesn't get close to budget, we're going to have to look at this propert
substantially from the first round because I don't think that they were expecting that as a actual viable option. Um, outside of that, there are there are definitely areas where we were being a little bit creative um in order to try to save some cost. For example, a um
they have top soil on the site but they don't have a place for it. So there's cost associated with bringing that top soil on site. Rather than doing that, we decided to increase the thickness of the top soil in common areas which has no negative effect. It just prevents them from having to get rid of it. There's a
cost associated with that. We're looking at bringing in fill from other construction projects nearby certified clean fill all you know all good soil um for other projects that either collars is involved in or that they have identified all the soil will be tested.
This way they don't have to buy import. They can just take it from another job where they're already trying to get rid of soil and both parties win. The other contractor doesn't have to dispose of it. They find a home for it and we can use it without very much cost. So, we're we're looking at all all options,
things, anything that we can do to try to get the number on budget, and we're very close. Right. And they can make a little bit less, too. Yeah. That's true. Well, that's why we went line by line through every item. Every single bit item, we went line by line, compared it with our estimate, estimated prices, and
areas where it was way out of whack. We told them, you got to take a second look at this. In your professional opinion, do you think we're going to leave money on the table by not going to bid on this? Possible. It's possible. I I I don't know. Yeah, it's it's very hard to say exactly what the the bid number would come in at. I mean, typically if you have 20
contractors bidding on a project, you end up with a cheap gas. But if you do that, you have an unknown you're dealing with. You know, you don't know the quality that you're getting. Um the timeline is obviously impacted by that. We would be out at least a month,
probably a little bit more from what we're originally talking about now. So, you know, there there's pluses and minuses. Yeah. I just want to make sure the town's protected with regards to the overall cost of this thing and not have just one all our eggs in one basket. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I think what would be very helpful
when we do plan the parks and field committee meeting that we kind of talk about the reconciliation between two the amenities in the park that in the utility that we originally approved versus where it is now. So we truly understand what's been kind of cut or or sacrificed if you will to to get to the
number. Yep. Yeah. Absolutely. We'll we'll definitely um we'll have a breakdown of everything that's changed. I I from from what I've seen so far, I I really don't feel that there's anything that we're significantly sacrificing on quality. Most of the stuff we're selecting is similar. It's just a little bit smarter
of an option. That's all. And it's just creative creative ways that we can take cost away from them without changing the scope of the project, removing items that the you know that the town wanted as part of the design. We're trying to retain all the functionality of the site that was originally designed, but you know, get
get the project in line with the budget. Nick, how much money did they allocate for the installation of the underground electrical conduits? There was a lot. That was one of the items that we told them this number does not make sense. Bingo. Yeah. Bingo.
bingo in the sense that this is not something that I necessarily think is necessary for that field because I think it puts in the minds of the residents that we're going to do this sometime down the road a future council. I think you could save a great deal of money. And you're not telling me how much they put in. How much did they put in?
It was a little over $100,000. But this was actually this condo was not for um future sports lighting. It was for the pathway light around the vehicle. What about the conduits that would allow for the Wait a minute. What about the conduits that would allow for the future
installation of lights? It's kind of one of the same if you think about where the conduit is going, but the pathway lighting is the whole deal, right? Talk about eventually possibly lighting the pathway that that circle the field that was part of the original design. So the the sports
lights if they were to go in would be in those same areas. So they kind of kind of serve a double purpose in that sense. So you're telling me that you we're we want lighting around the field but not to light the field on the path.
There was in the original in the in the design plan that was submitted to the contractor for pricing. There were pathway lights for the for the perimeter path that are similar to like the type of lights you see. Right. For safety purposes. Correct. Right. uh that that's one of
the items that we're probably considering for going because it's it's an expensive item. Pathway lights came in around half a million dollars. It's not necessary, right? If the park is closed at dusk, um we we don't necessarily need to have the pathway. It would look very nice, but it's not a
necessity. And that's one of the areas where, you know, when we're trying to make budget, that's that's a common sense change to make. Okay. So we did we did at this time we currently still have price for conduit in order to install those pathway lights in the future if we want to
right which could also be used for the camera system that the you know the burough is planning on doing. So there's a lot of there's a lot of utility to having conduit there and gives the bur options going forward as to what they can do but uh it has to make sense financially. So
if it doesn't that is another area that we consider you know removing that. Okay. But you had said to us earlier at another council meeting that it cost about I don't know 50 to 100,000 70 comes to my mind in terms of the underground conduits for lighting on the field to allow night games.
That sounds about right. So we we we estimate but that's separate from the No, no, it's all all included. Like I said, it's the same same it's more or less the same same thing. Yeah. Okay. So if you eliminate it for the lighting around the field then that
means you'll be eliminating you won't be putting any conduits and you won't have the ability to easily install electric lighting on the field. Correct. It would require excavation around the whole Right. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Anything else? Any other questions on the field? Is there anything else that we're doing? I will tell you that we spent the weekend last, not this past one, but the weekend before at the soccer field for the tournament at Centennial and other than the grass cutting, which
wasn't you're doing it because they were complaining that the it was the field wasn't fast enough, but that to a person, everyone was saying it is in spectacular shape. There's not water pooling there. Even when we were there early in the morning and there was dew
on the field, it it dried up great. And yeah, I wish you said Daniel Field was a big success. It really is. Came out great. Anybody else? No. Okay, we'll move on. Uh the fire chief is not here tonight. I
see he's on the agenda, but we'll catch up with that, I guess, at another time. Um go to the police department. Uh Chief Woods. Thank you. And also, you know, thanks for first responder
day. So, this is going to cover August 2025. Uh to start our community policing for August, we participated in the hunger drive in Shopright. You all, most of you were there as well with that. Uh tunnels tower in New York City. We had officers
participated in that. Uh we're prepping for a breast cancer walk on October 19th. It's going to start and finish at the Hillsdale Shop. Uh first 300 registrations received, we'll receive a shirt. Um it's going to be in conjunction with Woodlook Lake in the
police department. It's going to be a pretty good event if anyone's looking to do it October 19th week to Saturday. For traffic and patrol, uh we had 791 calls for service, uh 123 motor vehicle stops, responded to
19 motor vehicle accidents. We conducted 15 selective enforcement details, 15 parking enforcement details, responded to 56 medical calls. We wrote 62 written warnings were issued and 20 citations
were issued. We had four adult arrests and 149 property security checks to include schools. Our detective bureau investigated 37 cases. Uh they closed 24 of them and generated five uh charges
out of 24 closed cases and our firearms investigation unit investigated 16 backgrounds. Okay. Um council have questions for the chief. I would just say um I forwarded one on
to you. There are people that are concerned with sort of the overnight parking still in various parts of town that um just you know I don't know whether it's written warnings or whatever but they're thinking that it's just not so I do want to clarify I did receive
those complaints before I do want to clarify that if they're not receiving if we go to a street and they're not receiving anything um we do have a lot of people using the overnight parking for so if they're requesting to park overnight We're granting access. We're allowing
them to do that. So, you're saying that the residents may not see that people have actually requested it just because we are the new overnight parking port that we're using. How's that? How's it working? It's great. It's filled. I mean, a lot of people are using it. We had the same repeat, you know, fill it out for three
days, fill it out for another three days. It's the same situation it was before. Um, but I do want to clarify that, you know, just because those cars aren't being there's nothing left on that vehicle, there's a very good chance that those vehicles registered the proper way. Okay. Do do you have an idea of how many
cars are actually uh registered for overnight parking? Like even in that 3day I mean, is it hundreds or is like No, comfortably say 30 40. Okay. So, it's a little bit up from where it was when they had to call in,
but it's not overwhelming. Yeah, there's definitely an uptick in people requesting it, but uh I can get the report. Yeah, I was just curious. And I think we may have expected a slight uptick because of the convenience factor, but I think the flexibility we
kept in being able to change things if we wanted to if it was being abused, which I think is why if there is a way to get statistics from the portal or any or anyway down the road, you can so so we could see that would be great. I think it'd be helpful to see the
recidivist request. In other words, who continually puts in a request. Well, I don't know we necessarily want one of those people, but get a number for how many how many people fall into that category. Great. That's what I meant. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Not by me, right?
Yeah. I don't need anybody else with the chief. Thank you. And then uh last thing, if you do have any questions on ebikes, please go to our Instagram, Facebook. We have the state uh the board desc. Um it clarifies exactly what an ebike
is, what an e scooter is, and then what is an actual electric motorcycle. So, I encourage anyone in the town that has questions on that where to buy one for their children, please go on their website first, see if they need a helmet, see where where where it can be ridden, where it can be ridden, and just
do your due diligence before you hand. Do you have any anecdotal evidence in speaking with the chief association and speaking with other municipalities of what they're finding and how they're trying to address it? Yeah. So, it's a state, it's absolutely statewide thing. at the last uh chief's briefing last week I was at in De Mo
County. Um they did a whole presentation on it. There's a lot of larger cities there, you know, there's fatalities and stuff like that from this. Um they're in contact with whoever governs these at the state level and hope to get something changed. Now granted, nothing moves fast,
right? Um but it's definitely a topic of conversation. It's not just similar to Hillsdale B County. It's it's a statewide thing. Yeah. I think Union County doesn't allow in parks anymore. Okay. So, yeah. So, chief that document that's out there
that one pager like it says state of New Jersey and it's got what is that is those are guidelines. What is that is that state law? What? Yeah. I mean it's correlated to uh they pull that from title 39 which is governs
motor vehicle violations and also just uh whatever governs motorcycles and and bicycles. Ruckers put that together as like an easy read document. Um but that's what we're working with from the law enforcement side. You know for so it's a question of how we enforce
that, right? Okay. Thank you. Superintendent, how are you, sir? I'm good. Good evening, everyone. So, fields request for quotes have gone
out to repair Centennial Field Bites. They've only gotten one quote back. So far, the Warrior schedule has been updated to Centennial Field. Trees 100 Riverdale Street. There was a dangerous tree. I contacted PCMG
uh for it removal. on parks. I'm working with the Roll family on replacing the memorial tree for Michael Roll and Veterans Park Beachwood Park ancient trail is being repairs are being made now approximately
45 ft have already been repaired by the DPW on the Liberty Avenue side of the trail. roads. We completed stormwater basin repair on Edge Court, Valley Street, Oak Street opened firmly.
As far as signs, the new dog ordinance signs have all been installed. Updating the lightning signs, I'm just waiting for a delivery date on those. We had a request for a roll field sign to be installed at Centennial Field.
buildings. Progress is uh being made on the DPW res renovation. If anybody hasn't noticed, we started working on plankton bed retaining walls out in front of our hall. Holiday decor uh for the fall will be going out this
week. Leave season preparations are completed. I just want to remind everyone leaves are not permitted in the streets until the weekend prior to October 27th. Anyone in violation must remove the leaves from the street or would be
subject to a fine. This is a New Jersey P regulation as part of the burrow MS4 storm water regulations. Okay. Question. Have we ever given a fine to anybody who's puts out in the street before the date? No.
Not to my knowledge, but they're out. They're out everywhere. Soine that I have to follow, right? as to a schedule when the bees get picked up. Right. And you they start at the end of the month. They start at the end of the month. Yeah. So
they don't remove them. I give them a warning letter. They don't remove them. We're going to have to start finding Yeah. Okay. I mean, given the pre the volume of violators that every year we seem to have this, the fact that no
fines have been issued is rather startling. It is. It's a wolf on best superintendent not wanting to do it. Um, unfortunately it's getting out of control. Yep.
What was that date? You said not to put them out before October 27th. Prior to the So 25th, 26th, you can put them out the 25th. The schedule starts on the 27th, right? Okay. All right. 25th. Let's see. Okay.
Yeah. I have a question. Barry, with regards to the bid for the the repair of the lights at Centennial, I know you can discuss the amount of money, the other the cost that came in, right? What is the bid spec for? Is it just to repair the lights that are out or is it to
because I understand there's ballasts, there's bulbs, right, that need to get replaced, right? There's 49 there's like 49 fixtures that are out on that field. the uh quotes that I getting in are to repair the 49
fixtures. How many total fixtures are there? Because it seems it seems to me that the the big cost of of replacing or repairing these fixtures is the truck or the apparatus that you need to actually get to them, right? The height
they need a 100 foot lift, right? The lights, right? And that's a sizable chunk of change, right? So I don't understand why wouldn't it be worthwhile for us to just to replace all the lights and ballasts while we have the truck there right so we get x number of years for the lights
to be operational into the future I have that in my report I actually have the quote uh for the lights and how many lights and all that but then how we're going to actually do this um I can tell you now actually so so
this is to repair to replace 45 uh bulbs the 1500 watts, the ballast kits, um, and the metal halite bolts, $63,000. But, but those are just for the 45 that are out. Just the 45, right?
So, we're going to be applying for a grant to replace everything to to LED lighting. Okay. So, that's in my report, but the 63,000 to spend now, it's not worth it. Um, we're going into the uh winter season
now. So, we'll start uh the ground process to go to fully full LED lights. Okay. So, then you wouldn't be changing this at all. I mean, doing this because this is to replace the bulbs that you already
have. So, you want to change all the bulbs to an LED format. So, is changing to LED. Does that require anything other than changing the actual bulb? No, the whole the whole structure the whole structure changes itself, right? That's what the grant covers. Okay.
Now, Mike, I know you'll be reporting on this in more detail in the future, but would it be safe to assume that there's some meaningful assistance out there to help us with that project financially? That's from PSCG and others. Okay. Okay. Anything else for our superintendent?
No. Thank you, sir. We're going to move on to committee reports. Let's start from the far end and go across. Councilman Ruko, you are up first. Uh, no. None of my organizations have met in the last couple of weeks and I'm probably in no position tonight to even
report it if they didn't. Okay. We have the world travelers over here having just returned last night. Did you? He was in the southern part of Europe, but you were Did you attend a bull fight? That's what we Yes.
No bull fights. Okay. Councilwoman, do you have a report? Nope. None of my committees have met either. Okay, Councilwoman Mazachang is not here. Let's go on to the council president. Yes, the reccomission uh met last night. Um the mayor assigned a uh committee for
design and furnishings of the community center and uh Dan Ki went ahead and provided requirements for that community center so we can go ahead and incorporate that into our our document that we're going to pass on to a designer. Hopefully, we can leverage the designer that's being utilized by the
builder there. uh save us some costs. Um there was 150 to 200 people that attended the October Fest uh the other night. I believe there's pictures out there that with Mayor Shinfield uh in there, right? I think he attended. I was in attendance. Right. Um the Halloween parade is going
to be held on Saturday, October 25th at 9:00 a.m. It'll travel from Memorial to uh Beachwood Park. Uh there's going to be an magician there and lots of candy. And then basketball signups are on Thursday, October 9th on Community Pass.
So, please go out there and register your children for fun-filled fall. Right. Yeah. And that's it. Okay. Councilman Fox and nothing to report. Councilman Kleti, I'm going to give a little bit of a detailed update here. It's on the
electrical vehicle charging stations just so the council is aware of what's going on. But I'll I'll make this as quick as possible. Uh so on behalf of the environmental um commission uh who has been specifically Fred Reubel, Owen Peacock, Zara Thanos, Mike and I were
working on obtaining grants to install electronic vehicles charging stations that for the west lot. Uh there are two grants that are being pursued. The first is uh a DP uh is providing up to $10 million to
communities available for electronic vehicle charge stations. Specifically, we're applying for an award up to $100,000 for each publicly accessible fast charging port located near multi-unit dwellings or transit stations, which we believe the West lot
would qualify for. Uh however, this grant does not include any of the groundwork or running of the utilities which could be a substantial cost and currently we're seeking or looking at four stations. Uh the deadline is October 25th for this grant. Uh and and
and our Mike has our VA has been working feverishly to make sure we're prepared to file for that. The second grant is in regards to now minimizing the taxpayer funds necessary to put this in and cover the groundwork and the utility running. So we're also applying for a PSEG grant,
right? Uh and it's because that D grant allows other utility grants to be utilized with it. So specifically uh for the customer side make ready, which is basically the installation cost of the foundation and anything structural relating to
installing those PSEG will provide $7,500 for L2 chargers and 25,000 uh for each L3 charger. I think right now our preference is L3, but we still have some homework to do. I think Mike might have some more details on that. The incentive
maxes out at four chargers per site for a max of $30,000 for L2s and h 100,000 for L3. So, it's pretty meaningful. Uh, and for the utility side, make ready, which is bringing the utilities to the site itself and to the chargers, PSENG
will provide another $10,000 for L2 service and another 50,000 for L3s. Um so in terms of filing the grant application again for the D grant that is due by October 25th the PSEG
uh workings are are active. It includes some other uh action items which I'm sure Mike will cover and he's also looking at Mike. Are you going to cover Greenspot? You're going to cover Greenspot. Okay. So I'll leave that out of my update. Um, and then we'll be putting something in front of the council hopefully next week
for uh the the the approval to proceed with the filing of the grants. Do you know is the I thought the BPUA also had a program for preparation. Is is that Well, we're working with PSEG now and
Okay. Uh we have to get an electrician to look at the site. Now, we did look with you, mayor, in the beginning on this and they determined that it was going to be too expensive. Have we identified the spots we want? Because everything is is out there now. So, they're going to look at where the
what's the the closest to the power source, right? And the power source are actually can we use to to to do the is L3. Can we can we use the lamps? So, that's what the electrician he has to do a load sheet it's called.
Yeah. and he has to determine the power where the power source present that to PSNG its process and then map which spots are best suited for the EV charging stations. Yeah. And so once once he has that work done and he has the load sheets, we can
then submit that to PSEG, then that'll kick off their engineering process to let us know. Yeah. I have a question. Um, usually when you get grants, there's a requirement that you, you know, fund a certain part of the project. There's a matching grant. Is this a
matching grant or is this matching grant? And so it's matching. I think I think what we're looking at so far, I think there's a 90% cap on on on covered cost. So even if we spent $100,000 to get four spaces, it would be $10,000 to us
to my knowledge at this point. Yes, that's what we're looking at. Yeah. Four spaces. Okay. It's good to keep it in mind. Um, anything else? Uh, just, uh, forgive me here. I left my notes at home, so I'm doing this more modern fashion today than I
normally do. Uh, downtown cleanup. Uh, environmental commission wants us to just remind everyone Saturday, November 1st, 10 to 11:00 a.m. at Veterans Park. The event is organized by Hillsdale's Environmental Commission in concert with Pasak High School Honor Society and with the support of the DPW.
Great. And this dubtales well into the VA's turn to give us his reports and what's going on in town. That's the cleanup. Okay. Uh so we're looking at uh to go pay to go paperless uh purchase orders which will not only
speed up our payment process to the vendors uh but it will also streamline the approval process which means you no longer the council members no longer will need to sign these purchase orders every at every meeting. uh you'll have the ability to pull any PO for or
payment for more information from the bill list. So you'll get a more detailed bill list and if there is a question on any of the payments and you want that be pulled, we will pull that for you. When you sign these purchase orders, they are done after the fact. So the service has
been rendered. uh the checks already been printed and all you're doing really is you sign so you see what PO is we we went through. So the bill list will serve that purpose with more detail. Uh we're we have so
that will cost us $400 to change our system which we already have. We just have to activate it. Uh we will do a test run in the next few weeks for the next meetings. see how this uh this works and if you're satisfied that you have the information
that you need uh we'll move forward permanently. We're also installing a new online inspection appointment system and construction permit system submission. uh residents will be able to use an uh u their phones an app based system uh to
also send messages to the DPW to the borrower to us to report potholes uh light poles outage uh messages and they can um online do uh the appointments for their inspection and they'll get the
date right away. They don't have to through the website through the app through through an app. So, uh, we we're actually going to, uh, be approving this. Um, the money will be coming from the fees. So, it's not even
from the, uh, the taxpayers money. The construction fees will will be paying for it. It's about $20,000 for the system per year, but it'll be covered by the fees from the inspections. Is it is that is that limited to mostly
construction or the building department or or path? So it's uh module based uh we will start with the construction and if there's any other modules that we can add to it later but right now is for the inspection appointments and construction
permits and reporting potholes and light poles. Yeah, we'll have a sidebar talking about that after I've got some thoughts on Okay. Okay. Uh we finally separated our internet service from Verizon to Bergen County
Fiber Optic. We had we were running a shadow service for a few months to make sure that we have good service. Uh so the new service is at a higher speed, less cost, not a lot less cost. Uh the savings are only about $1,000 per year,
but we do have better higher speed and better reliability. Do we have the ability to when the contract ends to extend a drop to the schools because that's where the real savings? So there's it's a physical fiber optic
that goes in we get millennials doing did the drops. Right. Right. But they gave us a certain number of drops. Right. And then anything after that is sort of an all cart thing. Correct. So yes. So we we would have to request that and and get that service further you moved to them too and to the
DPW which we don't have that that yet. I know the fire department would like to have service as well. They don't have I don't know whether we can just drop it here and take care of it to to make that connection across the street but they have no no service. No, it's an actual physical
fiber optic line that goes in and out. Yeah. Uh the community center is coming along really well. I was there uh yesterday. The floors are are are all in. Um, is it has that done any sound dampening? Does it have the floor?
You talked before without the floors in there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, it's different now. The walls are all closed now. Uh, the community center committee is working on the decoration and name selection. At this time, uh, we are on schedule to receive the keys sometimes
in April of next year. Uh, DPW building, I think the super recovered. We're moving forward with the renovation. The money is already allocated to that. We're fixing the second floor so it becomes an office and meeting place for uh the DPW. Uh quickly
on the EV again just to add uh Councilman Bob said uh Greenspot. Greenspot is a company that does everything uh for free and they there's a 5% kickback to the borrow from the revenue. So they install so they bring in uh the
power to the station they install the station they maintain it at no charge to the borrow u and we get 5%. That's one. The second option is what we're doing right now is going through the grant uh applying for the grant. So we so we
would get full revenue from the uh charging stations. That's what the that's what the green spot is. They get a 5% cut if green% we get 5% every day for us if they do it. If Greenspot does it, we just get the 5% of the revenue.
But then you don't need to get a grant because Yeah, but getting the grant is free, right? But is there an idea as to an estimate of what are we talking about? Like if someone you said four stations I guess what is the possibility? What's the revenue on that?
Yeah. So that's what they have to the suppliers. We don't know yet. No. Uh quickly again on Memorial Field because I know this is very important. We spent a lot of time in the last week and up until about 5:00 tonight. Uh so
we are within reach of what the budget is. Uh we still have some work to do. Uh we're going to be uh utilizing uh our DPW to do some of the work uh you know the cleaning and moving some of the fencing things that we can actually work on. So we should be well below the the
budget and we will have some continues. Uh we are looking to do a deer thermal survey this winter uh to gauge the number of deer that we have in town and hoping other towns will do the same so we can get a meaning meaningful uh
regional measurement of what the problem is. U it's only about $1,000. It's done by school. That's why it's cheap. Uh they send out uh they send up uh a drone at night and they do thermal scan and they can actually see the deer.
It's hot outside. Deer. Yep. They see the deer. What do you mean what the problem is? There's too many. How many deer we have? Do we have Are we dealing with a thousand deer or 5,000? Exactly. Yeah. And where u where in town they are? Uh so I'll I'll
have more on that at the next meeting. Uh two two more things. I'm done. I missed the last meeting. So I this is you know longer than usual. Uh we are submitting for a few grants. Uh one is for the fire department uh equipment for the fire department and one for the
Centennial Field Lights. You mentioned that. Um, finally, uh, next week starting at 5:30 p.m., we are meeting at, uh, Beachwood Banshell to swear in our four promoted officers,
Chief Woods, Captain Campell, Lieutenant Abuser, and Sergeant Rooney. So, we'll meet at the band shell at 5:30. It'll be a regular meeting. So, we'll have your name placed. We'll have the table, uh, the, you roll call and everything. Uh, and then once we're done, we'll come
back here and continue our official meeting. And that's all I have. Getting it on the road. Any questions to the VA? I have a question. When you were talking about the community center, I think you said something about a naming that. So, you're working on
So, we have the committee deal with that. So, uh, we're meeting, uh, I think tomorrow or this week with a committee that Councilwoman Melissa is on, and we have, uh, five members on that committee and, uh, we we actually have only two weeks to come up with a
name because they're they're making, uh, the structure for the sign already. So, they need to know how, right? But who's coming up with the name? That's what the committee is working on. The committee is working on coming up with the name or they're working on who's coming up with the name. No, they are coming up with a name. So
right now the name that they have on the sign is called Hillsdale Community Center, right? So the committee will will come up with a name and then you have to approve it. Oh, I thought uh I mean maybe you misspoke earlier, but I thought that there was some sort of a contest or
Well, that's what the committee's working on. What? That's what I'm saying. So is the committee working on how to go out to people to get names? Well, now we were just told we have two weeks. Okay. So, so the committees got to decide
what name, how to come up with a name and what the name is and is it necessary to come up with a name? Because they need to get the size, right? But I mean, I'm asking forgetting the size issue. Is it ne in other words, can you call it the Hillsdale Community Center? Yeah, we can. That's what they have
right now as a So, they're considering naming it after someone or something or something. So, there are two conference rooms. the main room and we could use any names we want. So if Hillsdale Community Center is acceptable
that's actually what what they have as a default right now. So they need to come to the council in order to sell us on recognition or putting a name. It could be anything. could be the maple, you know, the maple room or you the oak and maple room. Could be anything, but
they need to know the size, you know, based on if it's a long name, it's going to be longer a bigger sign. Well, it's going to come before us. It's going to I'm hoping next week because that's the last meeting before. Right. Right. Right. Right. But if it doesn't come before us,
I mean, I I'm thinking what you're saying, but I'm I don't I don't I'm I'm feeling like this is some sort of a rush job to come up with a name in the next two weeks. And I think I don't know. I'm just thinking that we've waited I don't
know how many years for this community center. I think that there should be some more formal way of coming up with a proper name, whatever that is. And until then, Hillsdale Community Center is a good name. Okay.
Uh I'm just saying I don't see the rush in the next two weeks to come up with some Well, I have to give him I have to give the developer, right? But you know what I mean? Right. No, no. Like I mean, we had I think we still do have
a a committee to honor individuals, residents, the naming committee, I think it was called. I don't know if it's still in existence. Mayor, you might We disbanded it. We don't have it now, but we did have it previous, right? So, I mean, and that committee when it was in existence,
you know, took put in a lot of effort and time and if it was going to name a street or name a building here, you know, to to to come up with a name, you know, um, you know, so I'd rather
just name it the Hillsdale Community Center. I can tell you from experience with Westwood, Rididgewood, uh the other towns around us, they just call it community center. Hillsdale Community Center. They don't even say that we're going to the community center. Right. Because there's only one, right? Right.
Uh what about the building itself? Uh again, I don't know, mayor said that before we started. Is there some sort of a opportunity, competition, whatever you want to call it, suggestion box where people can suggest what they would like
to see the building name. You said that it's Yeah. Well, so we'll have to Is that part of the same? If Melissa were here, I guess we would have that discussion. She is the Because I also think that's an important big building. We'll call it the tribal.
Oh, you mean the whole tribal? Yeah. The whole complex. Yeah. Unfortunately, what are they naming it? They're called They're naming it. Okay. Yes. They're calling it the Piermont. Oh, they are? Yes. Well, it's Piermont. I mean, it's on the other side of Piermont.
That's So that's that's right. That's their building. Yeah. Okay. Puremont. That's what I thought that because they named the other buildings, but we can still call it whatever we want. That's selfish. I just thought that he said that there was going to be some kind of
Just just one thing for the VA. Great. Mike, I think just to reiterate, I think it's important for the park and fields committee when we do meet to for us to understand a true reconciliation between what was originally approved and where we are now only because we took so much
time. We solicited the community's input, this council's input, the park and fields committee. So we really need to understand what is there versus what's not there. We can do that and I can tell you the sheet that you'll see it actually has the nuts and bolts. It actually has the
type of wood, the type of fill. Uh so the main concept is still the same but the actual mechanics of it is to the penny. It's two pages long on big page and that's what the the contractors are are going to use and it's it's to the
penny. Uh so yeah we can go through all that but the main concept still the same. No problem. Okay. Any other discussion? Let's move on to the resolutions. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Uh for Memorial
Field I this is a big thing. Uh so we're hoping for the third week of October where we would have a shovel in the ground ceremony. Awesome. And get that going. Um so that's that's uh you know the mandate to the contractors to our engineers is that
between now and then we're working through all this you know detail but we need to get the shuttle in the ground. Yeah and and I agree with that. I I just don't want to sacrifice the services that we're getting or the product that we're getting. And again, I don't know, you know, I'd like to take a
look at what was actually brought down uh with regards to the original scope of the project to get us that savings, but you know, not having been able to go to bid, you're actually probably going to sacrifice margin on the contractor side
because they're going to be able to, you know, upcharge the invoice whatever they want, right? Um to a certain degree. That's sort of I look to the engineer to protect us on that to say you're totally being unrealistic with these numbers here. I just want to say we're going to have two or three less of this and you
know just so we can give you more money. Right. Well, is the committee going to be one to judge that or is it the the full council? The committee serve the council and the mayor. So, is it just you guys on the committee that are going to say this is a good savings? This isn't cut it.
That's it. Well, I think we had an original scope and I'd like to stay within that scope, right? So, I haven't seen what was Totally agree. Right. The scope is the same. That's what I said. The scope and the concept are the same. But what what Nick was uh as an example, the fill instead of spending $200,000 to move remove the
fill from uh in the area. We're keeping some of it and we're making the ground thicker, right? But a situation where hypothetically speaking, we had three press boxes and we cut it down to one press box. We're losing two press boxes,
right? You have a press box, right? But that's I guess the question is that who's sitting with who to make these decisions? That's I guess is your question is I mean we have a committee with three council people. Right. Right. Again, we haven't seen anything
yet. No, agreed. But you you intend to hope, right? You hope to and and if I understood you correctly, you hope to then come to a decision and then the rest of us won't have any input or be able to see that decision. I think
that's fair. We're not sacrificing anything because of what we what we said nothing material, but but I think it's a matter of process, right? So, in terms of in terms of going forward with this project, right? what's the remaining decision that needs to be made by the council or what will be put in front of the council
and we would just need to make sure that we update or brief the council i.e. the park and fields committee on what we've seen. Yeah. So, so yeah. So, uh tomorrow we have one last meeting to fine-tune some of the inside work and then we'll meet with the committee and then next
Tuesday's meeting uh we can actually present where we at with that. Good. I mean, I think the committee should make a report to the full council and and have that discussion. Yep. That's easy.
Prepare like a list of all the deviations that we made from the original plan, what the impacts are, that kind of summary for you to review. Good. Okay, great. Okay. Uh let's move on to
the consent agenda. Um, does anybody want to pull something? 25 244 through 2549. Seeing nobody, um, can I get a motion? Motion. Second. Second. Clerk, please read the role.
Council member Maza Chong. Council President Oso. Yes. Council member Rico, yes. Council member Trophy, yes. Council member Kleti, yes. Council member Fox, yes. The consent agenda passes. Uh, there's nothing off consent. Public
comment. Would anybody like to speak tonight from the public? Mr. Savino at 64 Westdale, please come up and talk to us. Um, I just I don't want to beat a dead horse. I'll be quick. You should have gotten an email yesterday from Fred
Rubble, the environmental commission. And I just wanted to point out the bankruptcy of the company that was recycling the turf products is I tried to do some research, but
that's a major game changer 10 years from now for disposal cost. And nobody is trying to guess what that's going to be. But something I don't know if it's too late to um look at that, but at the
back end, the disposal of this of that surface when it needs to be replaced could go it could be astronomical if there's no place to send it. Um and I think, you know, it should be evaluated before before it goes out to bid. Is
this really some is this something we want a legacy we want to leave for the future? Nick, it could be a very expensive legacy. Can I can I just ask Nick a quick question on that? This is a no no rubber fill product, right? I think a lot of the trouble with the recycling was
because of the rubber, right? But it still has plastics in it. It has plastics in it, but not still has the P pas the the forever plastics. This is this is a so I just you could make the comments public comment so yeah I just wanted to make make sure
you're looking at that while there's still might be some chance to uh re-evaluate that that's going to be I can't find I'd spend a bit of time re trying to see what might happen are there any is anyone trying to estim find right
peg what the cost will be for disposal and um I didn't see it in my quick research yeah I just wanted to bring the point that the company Tenati does, I believe, does promote the fact that this is a recyclable product that we have. He's just saying that whether or not
they'll still be in business in a decade. No, no, no. I'm saying because it doesn't have the rubber fil. What makes it a toxic product is the plastics as much as the tire. The rubber was only part of it. Okay. All right. Thank you. I guess the resident poses the question,
did we see Fred's email? Yes, we all did see Fred's email. My assumption was that that company that went bankrupt isn't the only company. Yeah, it isn't the only company. Or is it? I mean, that's maybe the environmental commission can
inform our leaison and then let us know. I just I just I was privileged to the email that came through yesterday and that's it. Yeah. Yeah. When I objected to this, this is a long time ago. It was the only company. Okay. Now, that could have changed
and the reading I did since I saw that bankruptcy doesn't seem to be another. I just want to read something off the the website real quick of Tenatis. Yes, Pivot Turf is designed to be fully recyclable at the end of its lifespan through Tenat's dedicated turf recycling program.
Uh, right. Okay. Okay. We can circle back with them and see what what that Anybody else in the public like to to comment? No. Okay. We're going to move on to council commentaries. I'll start. Uh, want to thank the sports
parents basically for doing a great job with that soccer tournament two weekends ago up the fields Centennial. It was just a wonderful two-day event. I guess it's a mid-season tournament. Uh, and it was wonderful. Uh, Patty did a great job
with the car show this past weekend. A lot of uh lot of attendance there. Uh, had a great time with that. And then also, um, we had the I guess it's October Fest, uh, Friday night. I I think I just
missed you. You you you showed up as I was or you left as I was showing up. Something like that. I showed up on time. You showed up on time. I'm sorry. Or maybe it was just a blur. Go back and get Bella or something. So, I don't want to I don't want to hear that. So, I I thank, you know, it it
always amazes me um what people give of their time for this town and what they do and uh we appreciate it up here. We appreciate it across the board. Um so, thank you. That is my commentary. Um
let's start this way. Councilman Kleti, no commentary. Councilman Fox, no comment. No commentary. Councilwoman, no commentary. Yes. As an Italian American, I want to
wish all my ItalianAmerican residents in the town a good Columbus day. I had the privilege of actually seeing his coffin on Saturday in Seilla. You know, there's there's discrepancy as to whether it was there or it's in the Dominican Republic.
It is split. Part of him, they say, is is in Seilla and the other part is in Hispanola. Okay. Okay. And they've done DNA testing of the part of him that's in Seilla and they've determined it is him or that part of it is him. That part of Okay.
Any um I before we adjourn, I just want to wish you a happy 50th anniversary this Saturday. You and Angela. Thank you. It's a great accomplishment. Congratulations. And now you have many more years together. As Angela would say, it's 50 long and
grueling years. Did Angela say that or is that you? It's a It's a joke between us. Okay. Um Okay. We have no other uh business to handle. Can I get a motion for adjournment? Motion. Second. Second. Those in favor?
I I Octo We are adjourned. October 14th is the next meeting. Reut.