[Music] have I'm making this announcement in compliance with the open public meetings act chapter 231 Public Law 1975 laws of the state of New Jersey the burrow clerk has prepared to schedule the meetings of the governing body of the bur of Kenworth for the year 2024 the bur clerk has posted a true copy of the schedule on the bulleon board located at the front entrance of B Hall and has mailed two copies of this schedule to the local source to store lger and the home News Tribune and is maintaining a copy of this schedule in her office during the year 2024 accordingly the notice requirements of the open public meetings act have been satisfied in regard to this meeting please stand for the salute to the flag I to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with Li and justice for all is there a motion to accept oh I'm sorry roll call um mayor car present councilman Bo here councilman pestrella here councilwoman jerno here councilman Morrow here councilman scarice here councilman Zimmerman here is there a motion to accept and approve the following minutes of the work session of December 6 2023 February 7 2024 and the council meeting for October 1st 2023 February 28th 2024 March 6 2024 and March 20th 20 2024 motion second roll call councilman Boy Yes councilman finella yes councilwoman gardana pno yes councilman Mora yes councilman SC yes councilman Zimmerman yes okay tonight is a really special evening is we're going to celebrate the 100th birthday of our resident Mary Joan B Barnett or cick and I'm going to read a proclamation for her and she's here with her family today and we're so happy that you're here and so happy to share this amazing Milestone with you and your family Mary Joan Barett was born on the 27th day of April in 19 24 to Joan and Helen Barrett and was raised in Bon New Jersey with her two siblings Jack and Muriel and Mary Joan Bernett married Frank cick on July 31st 1943 and had four children Joanne Barry Susan and Robert in 1953 Mr and Mrs cick moved to cworth residing at 736 Summit Avenue and miss cerick being a forward thinker purchased her second home at 1 17 West Denver AV in Wildwood Crest in New Jersey in 1971 following the death of her husband Mrs cerick worked as a waitress at the cth Holiday Inn and the king's court in Springfield and as a probation investigator for the county of Union in Elizabeth New Jersey for 24 years before retiring in 1999 Mrs cerick is the proud grandmother of eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren Mrs cerick has been a proud resident of Kenworth for the last 71 years serving as a member of the kennworth Little League alongside her husband who was the president during the 1960s as well as a member of the Kor Senior Citizen Center and the devoted parishioner of St Teresa's Parish Mrs cavri traveled to Ireland England Africa Australia New Zealand numerous countries in Europe and all across the United States highlighted by a week-long ra rafting trip at in the Grand Canyon that must have been amazing cherishing those trips with her family and friends Mrs cerick is an Avid Reader reading numerous books a week by her fam famous favorite authors James Patterson and John Grisham Mrs cck loves music with big bands and especially anything by her favorite Frank Sinatra the many events in her lifetime include the Roaring 20s the Great Depression World War II the Vietnam War the Korean War the war on ter terrorism and Mrs cavri is a proud Patriot of the United States and always has her flag flying high in front of her home now therefore be it resolved that the mayor and Council of the B of cworth wish to honor Mary Joan cerick on her H 100th birthday and to hereby declare the date of April 27th 2024 as Mary Joan cerick day throughout the burough of cworth and witness hereof I mayor Linda Carlovich have he to sign my name officially and cause a steal the bur of cworth to be fixed on the 17th day of April 2024 happy birthday thank you I'm so is a wonderful town I love it it's been good to me so happy to he that me too I've been there since I was 3 years old so not 100 years but you I'm working my way up there a ways to go mayor I think you should have made her stand up the sign person that's okay she can this is her she can do whatever she wants wishing you many more am amen invite the uh countor planning board chairman um for a presentation um Mr pno here do reports gonna update us on what the planning board is doing on oh you know you could splp that around I did two weddings and I just didn't want the back of that to be in their pictures so I turned it around thank you congratulations happy birthday we get a new stand better work good you know I just felt like when they're they're doing the wedding pictures it looks [Music] yeah well I guess I can get started right so um just give me one second yeah just give me two minutes [Music] the C kind to follow something like that right we should only be so ly I'll explain U mayor Carlovich council president zerman governing body Madam clerk uh thank you for giving me uh a few minutes of time to bring you up to speed on some of the things that are going on I thought it was important to hear exactly uh what's going on at the planning board level and every once in a while I I know we have our Council uh liaison um that delivers the messages but there's some innerworking things that maybe uh uh you need to know and uh it's important that uh we all understand what's going on first the planning board myself the chairman Vice chair and the entire planning board want to um actually say thank you to um council president uh Zimmerman and mayor Carlovich for doing an outstanding job on picking DMR as the planner for um uh the Redevelopment associations uh not Association the Redevelopment project um at first was we took a look at everything and we were um instructed to do a uh a resolution was set out to for us to do a study and what have you we jumped at the chance to do that it was probably the protocol to do it um once we got involved in it we we took a good hard look at what was going on um and on March 14th uh we had a resolution to appoint our staff our planning board members um to that Redevelopment study while in the inum of talking to DMR um Fran and Brian Fran the planner Brian the attorney we recognized that a lot of work was already done there was a fee set aside for our planner our attorney our engineer um to the tune of about $20,000 and we thought thought that that was quite a reasonable sum of money based on the amount of work that they had to do however looking into it further we had a time to look at the work that they already prepared we passed the resolution everything was fine uh there was no problems then we had a meeting once we had that meeting we found that it's better to work alongside someone than against someone just like we're doing tonight and that we do at the planning board level so uh what we determined that there's no reason to do things twice and three times and four times so I had a conversation with our planner and uh our vice chair and at our meeting we discussed that we could get better results by turning the ball over to DMR working alongside DMR not in front of DMR but making sure we have a seat at the table so we could keep the burrow in lock step with everything that's going on so I wanted to bring that to your attention because what that does is um Kevin O'Brien who is our planner uh was gracious enough to have probably a 4-Hour conversation with me and when we were doing this we were going back and forth what if what if what if and I he then said look we could run with us but it would take a little bit longer time than need be the only people that would suffer here are the taxpayers because we need to get our ducks in a row so at a minimal cost of that $20,000 he's waving almost I would say close to 80% of it but has some work that he has done and will continue to do don't please if it's on the record that I said 80% I don't know what the round number is but it's it's a heck of a lot less than 20,000 so what I wanted to bring to you tonight is that the planning board is working uh lock step with DMR we're going to make sure that everybody on our board is going to be um wide-eyed and open eared to everything that that DMR is doing and when we did our homework DMR is a Class Act um you did a great job in in in vetting that in vetting that uh uh company so I wanted to uh also tell you that I know on more than one occasions I may have said or I have said not may have said that we have a lot of experience in the planning board whether it be just as planning board members or our backgrounds and uh today a very good friend of mine uh said to me you know you said more than one occasion you have 100 over 100 years of experience on your board and I thought about that and we do and I would like the governing body to be able to tap into that anytime you like because from contractors to Architects to risk management um to Engineers they all sit on the planning board that that you picked and that you allow to help uh get the burrow in in shape or do the right thing here for the borrow um so I talked to the vice chair Greg David and I told him that I was doing this tonight I asked him if he could be present but he couldn't however um I just wanted you guys to understand that we see the need for getting this done immediately so what we also did on 14th we created a special meeting for the 29th of this month so we will meet again on the 29th to put all our ducks in a row uh to create another resolution of everything that I just said which will be ready for you for your council meeting on the 1st so we try to any time we may have lost we FastTrack that not sitting on our hands so I just wanted to present that to you if you have any questions I I'll certainly take them but if not thank you for the time I want to thank you for all your hard work and streamlining this and moving it along quickly um everyone knows we have these tax appeals over our head um and I'm grateful to to you and to the whole planning board and especially Kevin for um working with everyone working together and for the best of the Barrow thank you so thank you yeah thank you for your time that night when we had that meeting with everybody and you know we were trying to work our way through this and for everybody be able to at the end of the day move forward for the town and and get along and and you know I kudos to the to the planning board and to you to to do that too which it's a big help and and it's it's you're right it's for the best of the Town by for sure thank you very much thank you thank you just so the public knows the development you're talking about the I'm sorry I I should have said that but I thought we yeah it's okay implicit yeah thank you the meeting on the 29th sorry Rich real quick is it 7:00 or what time 6 well 6:30 you know what I'll get back to you because sometimes when we have a special we don't have a workshop so it may be at 7 I'm pretty sure I'll check while I'm pretty sure it's at 7 John but it's going to be quite quick you know we don't have other any other business when we do a specialty just attack that thank okay thank you okay Finance report councilman finala thank you mayor um basically I'll save my report for uh when we discuss the budget okay uh Department of Public Works councilman Bo um it's been a crazy couple days so I don't have too much I'm just going to run through real quick uh the DPW collected and disposed 220 tons of solid waste for the cost of $16,995 collected and transported 71 yards of mixed vegetation for a cost of $1,597 uh collected and transported 26.5 tons of loose recyclables uh for a cost of $2,853 uh we received the revenue check for $956,000 councilman Zimmerman thank you mayor I just want to Circle back if I can uh to Pat real quick with the uh with the Department of Public Works just um two things I know um there's a lot of I I've gotten a lot of calls and and feedback on us downsizing to the one bulk pickup and I know you were working and and we as as our DPW committee and so was uh a councilwoman jirano with Greg about a possible alternative with drop off and and and so there is something that we're trying to do to remediate not having two bul pickups and I don't know if you just want to expand on that a little bit so that people are aware a little I think it's premature right now we have to have a meeting we're going to let talk to Greg first and then we'll come right but it's not like we're just going to have one we're looking for a possible alternative so so that people are aware of that only because right now I know a lot of people are up in arms about it like to just qu it we're working on the reason we have to delay and discuss is because the budget's already been place I think there's a lot of things that we have to talk about and work out before we can want people to know that right it didn't go by the wayside and we're still working on it okay and people just I'm going to remind people that they do have that option to come in at any time of the year and there is a fee but it costs the burrow to get dispose of the items so it's not a you know Money Maker for the burrow we pass fees on because it does cost the burrow but we do have that they can um have items picked up from their curb every Friday and um or they can drop it off they just come to the clerk's office and pay the fee so that's any time of the year just a reminder which is a nice service not every offers that correct just so people know there's Alternatives out there and it's not totally just one which we're going to do in the fall after the garage sale correct correct so moving on to uh Public Safety um I have a report from Chief Seuss thank you chief for the month of March kth police farm and answered 969 calls for service and 109 109 911 calls there were a total of 210 hours of overtime which was for patrol overtime which was 90 hours and dispatch overtime which was 120 hours the count Police Department conducted 282 hours of training which included firearms training uh user which is Union County Emergency Response Team training juvenile justice training woman in policing conference and supervision training for our newly promoted officers there were two sick days for the month of March and no sick occurrences and no on the job injuries for March March was another busy month as the C Police Department responded to se several shoplifting calls at the Acme we had a half dozen attempted burglaries of at various different areas of town half a dozen thefts of or attempted thefts from motor vehicles and 15 arrests for offenses ranging from possession of a weapon to domestics warrants and assaults Kenworth also responded to approximately half a dozen flock alerts which led to two arrests for receiving stolen property and the flocks are the cameras at Boulevard of Michigan that anytime that something's entered and the car passes through it scans the license plate and sends a message directly back to our Dispatch Center camera Police Department is starting to accept applications for the Youth Police Academy which is scheduled for this summer to be held from June 24th to June 28th any korth Resident or berley student in grade 7even through 11th grade is eligible to part participate information is on various kenart police department social media sites or you can contact the kenart police department SRO Brett Byron for more details I just want to congratulate Brett Byron for being our new school of resource officer I know when we promoted Brian pikon to Sergeant at the uh last set of promotions uh that last meeting two meetings ago um she she has taken the place of officer pikon in the high school and I heard she's doing a great job is so kudos to officer Brett Byron lastly the cworth Interfaith Council will be holding our annual Day of Prayer on Thursday May 2nd at 700 p.m. in the Council of Chambers no it's on Zoom it's on Zoom okay so it's going to be on Zoom disregard the council chambers we can post that's the other one this one's on Zoom you got confused unless I have them confused but I think it's on this one will be is going to be on Zoom but I'll make sure that I get the zoom link to everyone on Council and also to Angela so she can post on website yeah so told me that now no worries so we straighten it out Thanksgiving one the Thanksgiving service is here I don't have to worry about the Thanksgiving one well yes you do you do so this will be on Zoom unless you hear otherwise but there'll be a link on the B website to uh expand on that once uh our B clerk tack I'll get the information to everybody thank you and u d local houses of worship along with businesses Civic and Community leaders will be joining to celebrate the theme this year of community commitment and collaboration any and all canorth residents are invited to attend and participate also we have on the agenda tonight our new uh table of organization ation for the police department It's actually an existing table of organization that kind of has been up and down but this reflects probably for the past few years the way the police department is being run so that's why we're going to have it on tonight and that's the ranks that we currently have that's all I have mayor thank you councilman hey planning zoning Council Memorial all right thank you mayor um in relation to what the chairman of the plan board was saying before that special meeting at 7:00 p.m. which I guess if it changes we'll have it posted uh but this video will show 7 but that's so far April 29th 7:00 p.m. right here all right so uh Light report tonight for uh zoning and enforcement uh we look back at the last month and it was actually pretty slow we had 11 zoning applications they were filed for various outdoor accessories as you can expect in the spring a few sales of some properties and some fences April already has 11 so we're seeing an increased amount of activity again what you should expect a report on what all that was about in the next meeting regarding complaints we've had many many over the last I'd say 6 weeks or so about flooding issues going on in town we've invited Our Town engineer tonight to come chat with us a little bit about some of the things going on uh you know from a uh non-engineers perspective I can tell you we have a few things going on on a regional basis that will be a lot harder to crack as if they're nuts uh and then you have things that are done more on a focused Lo local basis where code enforcement can help out and we'll talk about some of those things uh based on what we're hearing from the public tonight as well as some existing projects we already know going on so Tony thanks for coming um we'll have a lot to talk about in a few minutes here um on Code Enforcement itself we saw four four complaints loged for the month of May excuse me March uh we had some property maintenance issues and one uh dead tree causing a hazardous condition to a neighboring property all have been addressed on zoning we had three complaints uh all related to the same single family dwelling that was being used as an illegal multif family dwelling uh also has been addressed uh that's what I have for uh zoning and planning but I would like in this moment to thank Jill good for her service to the burrow as our CFO I served was my second year now on the finance committee and you have been a rock a trusted partner somebody I think we've all relied on uh we're going to miss you you're leaving us in great hands with Ken but I wish you well in your retirement and Conquer that next chapter thank you that's it mayor I I agree thank you Jill thank you Jill great job okay Recreation and fire uh councilman gice thank you mayor um nothing to report from the fire department uh for recreation we have a townwide Eastern EG hunt was a hug Suess probably the best turnout ever had about 380 kids that participated uh Middle School base full season is uh going well so far the record is 1 and two the next game will be this Friday the 19th away at Scotch Plains uh Middle School tracking field is also going smoothly the next meet is also this Friday 19th away at union Catholic um following is a list of student athletes that did well at the April 11th meet uh we have Bobby cill first place boy 1600 M with a time of 5 minutes 38 seconds um Olivia Levy first place girls shot put with a distance 25 ft 3 in Alysia laavo first place girls 1600 M time 6 minutes 52 seconds Morgan um CL second place girl 1600 M 7 Minutes 31 seconds uh Romeo caretto second place boys 100 meter 12.7 seconds Mattis and maguana fourth place boys long jump 15 ft 1 in Alisia laavo fourth place cars long jump 12T 10.5 in summer camp registrations are now open to the general public registered through Community pass currently there's 148 kids from uh 101 families in town that have already signed up there're only 32 spots remaining um there was some discussion about the fireworks and if they can go over the field or not the school did not um say that they could not launch there they were just uh inquiring so Mike I don't know if they ever reached out to you vinc their VA you can let them know um if you have any reservations because it's on you know because of the construction going on as long as they uh and the fireworks company once we decide as long as they're okay with it they can uh continue to uh have fireworks in their location so we have have um I look into the state Cod we need 70 ft from structure for every 1 inch of shell so I believe we're using 3in shells so I don't think the building is going to impact that be the same distance from the building where we set up so it's just really up to the school with the tur I think that was their biggest bigger concern was us with a stray uh shell going on a tur damaging the tur I don't think anything the instruction that that's what they raised to me they didn't say and I and you're right in the wording that came to me was not you can't but please look at other options because they're concerned with putting in the new Turf um and just like you said Mike that that debris would get on their new Turf I did reach out to the county I just haven't got heard back yet about using blackw Park so that could possibly be changed your tune they said it's um school will be fine um as long as the fire department was good with it um Ian it doesn't change for us because it's as long as the distance from the structure is the same yeah I mean probably I don't think it's be moved a little bit um Ros park though has a turf field and they been they they have they have grass they have grass maybe mixed up the town there was a town at uh Springfield maybe Springfield then anyway it was it's a local Town um investigate if they take any precautions um but they've been shooting the fireworks over turfield with no problems um also as the last we could have if they have we could bring you go to haror Freight get part that's I say thinking if that's a make or break thing I think that would be safer than Black Brook uh even logistically the rec department would not be able to do hle what they could do because of space limitations more things that could potentially Catch Fire I would agree right no I mean iord they do their fireworks 25 ft from any overhead instruction so granford pretty much 25 ft outside of the tree line um at their at their fireworks that's County par I did some measurement on a mapping software so if we went in the corner of the lake you pretty much have right field of the baseball field and stuff not the softball field you have probably the whole in field as well as another 30 or 40 50 ft maybe into the Outfield all the way across and then you have to par on you have a lot of spectator area that you would be outside of that 210 ft that that 210 ft structure were spectators so you do have the room to do it down there um but you know just a matter what you guys want to do so I just wanted to M me map everything out just get an option uh so there's probably more room for spectators down there youd be one general area but there is a lot of room probably talking anywhere 300t by 200t section for spectators all right so it's a viable option it's a viable option okay that's good to know we didn't know we discussed all right good so and County so I wouldn't see why I think that the count doesn't the County do the fireworks in Cranford in the park I don't know think the township of Cranford does those fireworks they're County fireworks firor yeah and and and also the county does pick up the County Police for there because if it's on County property our police County fireworks would wouldn't be involved at that point maybe for traffic very very slightly but it will be County Police that do the the county park everyone thinks it's but it's it's not it's a county matano park is also a County Park and and that's not Elizabeth's fireworks that's the County's fireworks too and we want to entertain and I mean as the governing body that you want to entertain these options want well I mean I'd rather have the school first well could I just want to weigh in because that came up at the school board meeting last Monday night um they have a real concern because there's a lot of money being invested and it's a brand new field and should something happen it could impede on their warranty for the new field so it even though you know you never know but the trash being on it people walking on it and the fireworks and whatever the debris that comes down the debris that comes down people don't walk on it and it's BR well whoever is cleaning it up and you don't know how they're picking it up I'm just saying and that's one of their concerns is that could that infringe on the warrantee that's going to be brand new there um cuz I'm I'm sure they have you know a pretty lengthy warranty for for that new um field and maybe the the the tarp is something we could ask about as well um a lot of tarp a lot of tarp that's a huge tarp and chief chief sciri like I know you guys go up on the roof you check it with the with the tower truck I know some debris has come down that's been lit before how how you know what's how much stuff over the the since we've been doing fireworks has there been debris that's been on fire that could burn through a tarp and on this this field I don't know that you have an issue with the fireworks that go up and come down the shells spend shells I don't really know if that would damage field but you always take the risk Rosel Park did have a couple years ago one of the tubes dipped over and it shot fireworks sideways and it hurt did inj some spectator well if that leaned over and you had a live firework that shot for field definitely so I don't know yeah and the field is actually a no fly zone there's no people on the field because of the proximity but you're right it could could technically go that way I'd imagine the firk compan is inured but the warranty would be a different right right I mean they definitely land on the football field they definitely yeah yeah no L like the cars are covered with Ash and debris right I mean there's options we can W the field down prior I don't know that help or that the other thing you want to keep in mind is that these turf fields require a special piece of equipment to clean you can't just use a leaf clover and then even after you clean it you got to now have someone inspected for density because of all the rubber pellets and because the sweeping machine will move the pets around right right so they have to check for density level make sure no one get form so those are expenses Factor sounds like we have some issues having this at the school yeah I I think we have to really start I I I I'm still waiting for the county I did Count I did already if they would sponsor it there I'm waiting to hear back from them that's a nice option so the county will sponsor it at blackbrook Park it's a County Park and yeah I mean we would need Port John there's a lot that's going to go a lot more too they us the stages and stuff I I have a call on to them so hopefully um I we'll be able to work something out that's the best I can say right now um I'll do my best to uh see if they'll they'll help us out um is there anywhere else that we could have them that anyone's aware of I I it ask but I was thinking you know when you go down towards where Roberto was and you make that left going back to behind MC yeah like those buildings have huge empty parking L you they're all privately owned privately owned you need 210 ft from structure uh or from Spectators so you really don't you fig your average street is 30 ft wide so you're not really so like flexi van wouldn't be an option no there no there's there's there and and that yeah privately owned properties people are not going to yeah there'll be a liability issue for whoever have people come in they're not going to and they store school buses there too yeah you're going to be you're going to be 200 right yeah it's too tight so there's no other option yeah unfortunately the area I thought about that too I did think that was cross my mind but then I'm hearing all this Buzz about private property but Hey listen you know what it's always worth having a conversation I mean you know I think that I could reach out to them and just sort of ask them if they would even consider entertaining something like that um that's a huge piece of property up front lots are big enough that you we could do it and then that one is not really gr I want people walking around that grassing area right would there be parking people would have to I mean everyone that comes to the fireworks would then be parking right driving there so is there enough is there enough for parking and fireworks yeah they have they have to be in the garage or something they have a lot of right right they got the park I mean I think it's at least worth the conversation I mean you know what's the worst case they say no you know can't Hur to ask I'll do it I'll do it but I think once they develop it that it well it might be different but we're one year at a time if that's the only way we can do it well it looks like uh in the future the uh fireworks might um we might have a challenge unless we really do partner with the county and do something in blackbook park because I agree that that front part of that property will be developed at some point and we won't that'll take away that uh option golf it's not turl they have events there so if they have an event scheduled for you know Sunday now what are you going to do and and and to block it off to set up to stop golf that place the golf is backed up there on weekend and there's a parking issue there too to have it there um that parking lot isn't big enough to host fireworks black most people walk streets will be and you can park in a residential area for blackrook and Wate and there's the park them lot up top where you can do everything at the top you just need to get by the PE cheese place that too yep all right well I'll work on that do walk I can get a measure walk it off and you can see how much area have spectators okay oh yeah that would all have to be blocked off yeah I'll do that for first off call and just ask if they're willing to entertain the idea and then I'll call you and we'll do that and see if yeah years ago when I was young there was fireworks there I don't you know but that was a long time ago I that you're not older than me black oh no I do remember in the black did it oh he did it I thought it was yeah right years they did shoot shells no I know they did that's why I thought they were sanctioned they so they were just I think it those guys right I don't think I think you're right it wasn't that big a turnout so I but it they were good fireworks actually I do remember that um I had a couple questions on um some of the consent agenda uh 113 we took care I'm sorry uh 115 Redemption I was just trying to understand the proc sure what happens is if somebody doesn't pay their taxes it goes to a tax sale they have the up to years to Poss for close they start pay taxes and then the homeowner has to pay back lean holders to get that pay sometimes the property is selling and the closing company will pay together the property so I think in this case that I'm not sure if the property is selling or the property owner is but they have to um have an interest in the property to uh redeem and um resolution gets done and then uh it's satisfied it gets recorded at the county and then the lean is removed over the property okay I thought from my reading I thought we had back 60,000 um well that nothing would come from the the town unless we were holding a a premium which is sitting in our trust account but it's it was the lean holder money to be oh okay to the municipality okay just curious about that um and 117 we're getting uh our matching Grant so that's $170,000 do uh on a building I what remember that's a it's an application so it's not um okay and this is uh we it's an application but this is the one that just came actually right right you just got it yeah a lot of work mean but I was like I don't know if there was what really needed to get done oh there's a big hole in the roof so it's that uh it it's kind of General repairs cuz we also didn't know exactly what we would get so we kind of lumped several things in the front steps if you noticed yeah uh things buildings a little more I mean we there's probably lots of things we could do if we got but we did if you want to announce mayor but we did just find out we got um you can announce it 50 50,000 right 50 we did we found out just after uh this was you know was submitted and we just found out and did you get my email about the video I'm making on the is that is I have to make a short video Revenue amount 759 from the state of New Jersey that's our so every every year we uh we send out a report I'm currently doing it right now we sent a report out to D saying exactly how much was recycled in the town of town and it doesn't mean what DPW recycled means anyone so if someone did a tear off on a roof shingles are recycled concrete recycled someone whatever we PVE a road the contractor knows off that road heyle side as even though he's doing the work we never see any bills like or I should say for he's recycling that and that's all tonage reports that we have to send out and then based on our numbers the um the D Awards gr money to every single municipality and County and the majority of this money is funded through a $3 tax per ton on Solid Waste okay so it's like we're getting our money back great and um with they amend um doing the uh employment titles and the salaries we just eliminated three positions I know we kind of passed that already didn't no we did you know what change title now this is back sorry we had um we we didn't change any of the stuff we sorry it's coming back because we did find that um in the wre Department the it didn't line up and we needed to modify the titles and create the positions that we're going to have and for one thing for the most part it's been summer camp but we recently added um homework club so what we decided to do is come up with um um the flexible um job titles so that we can use them and we can use those same titles so if you notice it's um program counselors that program is whatever program the rec department or any other department may run it's a program counselor is there homework cup counselors summer camp counselors and we created three of them based on the tear and you know we for summer camp for example they do have those same three tiers so that's really all it is doing and it kind of brought them up to date to really in line with what we're doing it should have been included we didn't realize that it was out a date when we did the others so these were the last ones hopefully you won't see this again for a long time um but that's all that's changed just those guys want to make sure didn't miss anything it's a more professional it sounds nice right instead of just playground leader or supervisor that's all questions that's all I have the report May okay thank you councilman Education Health and Human Services Council G councilwoman giodo pno thank you mayor um so I guess I'll start with the Board of Education and as everyone knows our superintendent uh Mr Arlington U put in his resignation um and a new job his job has or the position has already been posted April 11th so applications are being accepted um interviews can be set up and um so already the board is being very proactive and assertive in finding the right person to fill that position um Mr Arlington was with us 5 years I don't know if a lot of people realize he was there that long and and um on behalf of the burrow I'll thank him for his service when I was there Monday night before uh we knew of his resignation they were presenting a lot of Staff members from both brle and Harding for outstanding service teacher of the year and the sixth grade uh government also got up and received awards for all of their service as President and Vice President and treasure and to hear these young sixth graders speak so eloquently and comfortably in front of a packed room um there had to be 50 people there I didn't know what I was walking into um so it was really nice and it's a testament to the teachers and um you know you always say it starts from the top whether it's good or bad so uh I think Mr Arlington did a very outstanding job while he was with us and I hope we get someone um to keep that bull going especially during the construction and the new phases that will be going on in both breely and Harding um for the library we have been working very closely with the board and the director there to transition some of the financial responsibilities from the burrow that are strictly related to the library um because they are more autonomous entity and they will be picking up some of the um basic costs for uh DPW work that's done there payroll Insurance um retirement benefits things like that so that the the the library will pretty much handle their own expenses as well as um their programs and such and relieving that financial burden from the burrow so we're still working out the little bit of details but um it's all transitioning very easily and thank you to Jill and to Ken um but Jill's right there with all the answers um that they needed to know what certain things meant um as far as the senior center I see that Greg's been over there stiffing it up um um Shirley's really qu cracking the Whip and um getting ready for the grand reopening that will happen during the um the uh street fair and uh next week uh April 22nd is the um health nurse comes to check for blood sugar blood pressure so anybody could go it's free correct uh surely um but you if you read their plethora of events going on there um it's just extraordinary so I urge every senior to get out and go see what's going on and if you have questions about anything the phone number is 98276 1716 uh the Board of Health has their meeting next week on the 25th so I'll be attending that and anything going on there I'll uh bring back to the meeting for the next Council and that's all I have thank you councilwoman uh barl engineer thank you may just have one thing to rep and about the drainage issues um Maplewood uh you know road work is well underway uh all the storm ERS been installed um some pumps that are cusing some problems out there now draining theore SW store so all those ponding issues that were going on will be taken care of uh the curves are going to go in next and then they'll finish up in Paving uh they prob probably will be out there another week to two weeks they should be wrapped up um next thing uh talk about I know there's been a lot of complaints about storm water and drainage and flooding issues um just so everybody understands how the uh kind of the evolution of our drainage system now the storm s K are probably like 80 years old or maybe even older um at the time they were installed they were designed for a particular rainf um so you know anytime you get a storm that that exceeds that that capacity the storm start take in and that's why you get these backups and sometimes streets flood um you know we've been getting over the last couple of years a lot of these high intensity storms I think that's why you should probably seeing a lot more localized flooding um there's really no easy solution to like fix a particular Street sewers are all connected Street to Street town to town um some of our sores go through uh franford some of them go through Union you all ultimately end up in the Norway R uh River uh another piece of it is when that the level of the river Rises that backs up the system and the water has nowhere to go um the solution is really more on a regional basis uh again it's really difficult to fix a particular Street um but with that said when when there is an issue or a particular Street if it seems to be flooding frequently you do investigate it you look for blockages collapse pipes C the pipe flush it make sure there's the blockages um but um you there's really again there's no really no easy solution uh the open streams or the open ditches are all regulated by DD and they're heavily regulated we really can't go in to do much with those streams short of just cleaning them out we can't go in we can't increase the capacity uh we can't widen them again we can take out the sil cleaning snags or or ring trees but uh there's really not much we we can do with those um the ultimate solution and I if everybody's aware uh back I don't know maybe uh maybe 10 years ago the Army Corp of Engineers did a stud on the entire Broadway Riv base and they came up with like six solutions to to solve this uh PL on a regional basis uh they did they made a recommendation problem is Congress and the part um really where you can put your effort is uh you know put pressure on your your your representatives to fund the project because that that's still to the solution um it's again it's really difficult to do this on a mobiz basis uh it's got to be on a regional basis but if anybody does have a problem just my information is on the website just send us an email we'll go out with DPW we'll look at the situation see if there's anything going on that's that's causing the problem so that's kind of you know show Tony I had a resident from the north side Northwest side of town um I'm not sure if it was Wilshire or bass or the the area over there that where Penbrook would back up to the doer property that whole area is I guess a flood zone but flooding more often and I think Harbor went out there and a letter was given to the resident that Harbor would present a plan to the burrow uh governing body this was uh back in October I'm not sure if we've gotten around to seeing the plan uh if it's been developed by Harbor but there was some indication to this resent at least that there would be something we could do we did we did a walk we didn't prepare the report yet but we really didn't find anything going on there we we it we didn't find any block we didn't find anything really going on there that would causing a problem um one Tre we didn't care of that's me is it I mean we did walk in rep I've been dealing with this for 18 years the last street right yes this what it I did have the county go out and clean the property the count property behind Dorset Drive um and they are going to do some more work back there that will hopefully um move the water along a little bit better in that part of town they also did some work on Dorset Drive as well um the next plan now that they've cleaned out I I actually sent some pictures of property that we would be responsible to Greg and he's taking care of that um is to remove these those two big round uh concrete cylinders that that are uh running underneath that um I guess it's a bridge like a foot Bridge like a right for bikes um because what's happening is a lot of debris is getting stuck there so the county feels that if they remove that that'll also help and and the good part of this is that this is now on their radar and something that they're going to monitor so they'll be checking it regularly and if it needs to be cleaned out and there's anything that the county can do they will take care of it and maintain it uh now and they did go out and I have they send me pictures so I know they were there um so hopefully all these little things can help however um our engineer is correct that this needs to be handled on a regional level there's really nothing kind of worth just us onto ourselves can do um there's been a lot of work and agree that Congress needs to fund they've come up with many solutions um not just one and uh but this comes at a great cost in a lot of municipalities along the way everyone has to get on board so I think the storms have become more severe and more intense that towns 10 years ago that might not have jumped on board or jumping on board now um however we still need funds and it's billions of dollars um I I can't I don't even know the exact number but it's it's definitely significant and it's a significant project it's really the federal government needs to come in and help us out just I don't understand what happens in front of my street that for some reason there's for Forin what street do you live on I don't understand what happens that the water once it reaches a point it just bubbles over storm drains and floods my it could be what uh I'm not sure not engineer however if the if the river is already flooding there's nowhere for the water to go so it's the it could be backed up three towns down the river um I'm not sure why but I am something that start charging from the stream that that stream little sh it rises very fast right you only need a short sto uh storm that rises it's search charging into the P so it's coming up com up from the stream the p and they come that's the problem but we have a um we you have a a award project which I've fixed that intersection yeah it just been delayed and we're putting the pressure on the contractor to get out to get out there and do it if he doesn't started soon we're probably to pull it and order to somebody else uh he's promised he's going to get out there trying about for the winter but so that intersection has a particular problem um that we can we can work with to help um it may not be cure all but um years ago that section was redone before our time and I think that they lowered the great elevation which is causing the SE charge so something was modified probably correctly time and we're going to correct that there was a problem with a landscaper that was throwing brass lippings into that has been resolved and I can say that the problem is not as big as it used to be get 2T of water in my D but at some point you know when we get on a order it still starts to R and and we have to move the car we had to put he built uh two barriers in front of the garages so that the water doesn't come into the house so it's just something to live with getting up at 1:00 in the morning having to move your cars and having they're under water so it's just a pain waiting for it to receive Tony can we follow up with the contractor uh Tony it's all right Tony can we follow up with the contractor and pull it ASAP if they're not going to be responsive the contractor so we engage okay okay well odd timing right okay great um yeah I mean any little thing that we can do would obviously help and I think the mayor was being a little humble she's been involved in some of these mayor councils where where it spreading from West Orange um it is a regional problem it's a mayor's Coalition on flood control it's it's coming from all over but for some odd reason it doesn't happen in front of anybody else's house but hopefully this will do something time will tell but we got to get the contractor out there so thanks for following up let see right intersection they live close to the river yeah no it's we know my house fa I remember there show me his barricade Mi barricades water well speaking of contractors I I have a question um Tony I think it's um High Time and the sidewalks on the boulevard got fixed I mean it's been a couple years now right or at least a year that they dug the sidewalks up yeah and they look do they just look horrible I mean brand new sidewalks it's the center of our town our business district um I just feel that we got we have to put some pressure there I mean they're obviously done with the work there so and you know I think they should fix them after they're done block by block um you know I was up there over the weekend uh walked up town to have dinner and it's that's just upsetting to see our our beautiful sidewalks in our center of our town look so bad for so long and they're clearly done working there and there's two they've pretty much ruined two blocks of brand new sidewalks yeah it's black top now in really it's awful it's awful like gas I I mean I would like I would like to call them myself actually and find out why they're they're neglecting that already the one front of the center done no I'm not talking that's different I'm talking about the in front of um was that guest uh 22nd to 21st and um 21st to 20th they I would love to call them myself actually let them know how un happy can we get them done before we have the street Fair because it's very uneven and you're going to have a flood of people walking on the sidewalks what was the May May 19th May 19th it's plenty of time they have a month yeah all right I I'll put some pressure on I did talk a couple weeks ago and they said they were to it looks like they're going to have to take quite a bit of that up to fix it as well because I know they Tred to cut them in each of those squares but they haven't like they've infringed on the next square and I'm just wondering how they're actually going to fix them to and restore them to the way that they were uh I mean I'm not a contractor but it it seems like uh it's going to be difficult to happen yeah well I advise it's going to have to be I we're not we're not any L match because they're new you know they they were 20 years old then okay do way too too new to be uh you know having things that don't match right um I know that I think and was going to bring it up but one of the solutions is um we can uh place any disturbance in the street sidewalks would require a complete replacement like we don't have that ordinance right now and we kind of let get that do a lot of hor training Mark can you work tonight you got a sample from what town uh I have Berkeley Heights who got it theirs from Blue Providence they did it last year um it to yeah and they make them sign something when they do the opening permit um did I copy you I don't remember I'll send it to you I sent it to them first if they were interested so it was on tonight yeah I'll send you what they did because a lot of times they'll do half the street and then they they kind of see him and then you have a Half street that's new and a Half street that's old I know it's just a matter of time till the the sidewalks I mean you know they're brand new it's our business our business district it should be beautiful so sign something when they do the permit so up front that's going to be a total that's going to be a total rip out and and replace has to be it has to have to do it I know I emeres stop em I've never seen one as long as seven Tony you still want a seven but if you had a moratorium and they wanted to put main they have to they have to pay the whole street but you wouldn't but we but again we could haveon said if they do deserve the street it's got to be you know a complete uh reconstruction um if it's only like a patch we can make go like 10 ft on each side Mill it out blend it in um you know we can work on if the council would like we can work on put something together um and that would pretty much assure that these things get prepared yeah with the timeline too so that like this one's been sitting now for for way too long my street was paved and then I mean I don't know how many years later but they patched it up and there's all these square holes that are fixed it just doesn't look nice right the the sidewalks are the sidewalks are horrible and they've been there that way in my opinion for way too long yeah like it's just you know it's a center of town right like I said I call them by had to get the number someone wants to share me the contact I'll call them while you're on the D subject is there an update for Rich um there's this is not the public portion of the meeting so you're going to have to wait I'm sorry until the public portion to speak but you can come up and and we'll address your concerns um Tony real quick the Army Core engineer have any idea what they were proposing just more dyes and like let no I have all that information I can send it I can send it there was a lot and there's actually been another study now um a whole new on orange Reservoir and it was a long process to get orange in uh to cooperate because they don't they're part of this but they don't have flooding issues because they're Upstream however they have gotten on board but again it's coming down to Congress uh for funds but if you like information I shared some of it with councilman Morrow I can share it with you um I could have to go back on that original six um plans that um uh an Tony was talking about um I have it somewhere in email I just have to go back in my archives but those um they sort of passed them up so what happened was on those six proposals no one could agree not only did Congress not fund it but also all the towns along the river had to agree on one specific method and they didn't and it started fighting and that sort of derailed that project 10 years ago so it has since then been Revisited that I have been involved um since Sandy and now we've come up with a new plan um that everyone seems to be on board with that will work if we just need the funds and I like I said I'll share that with you um what I have so it is so I guess the people need to know that there are there it is being looked at from I I know this mayor's Coalition all of us meet every couple of months and with our higher elected officials in and municipalities I'm sorry it's a spider I'm sorry um um we it is you know it's not that this flooding is happening and no one cares and no one's paying attention it's just that it's a massive undertaking billions and billions of dollars and um you know but it isn't that I don't want anyone to think that we're not aware that this is going on you know I mean a lot of portions of counter worth are flood zones there was conversation in part of this six uh one of the things was that FEMA comes in and purchases all that property down on the north end and they take those houses down and it's wetland which is really what it was was Wetlands before they were built you know so there's been a lot of uh ideas on the table you know obviously we don't want that and no one wants that but you know um it's it's definitely people are trying to address it and people do care and we do want to get this fixed cuz you know what it's only a matter of time before Sandy and Irene come back again and we're lugging our stuff out on the front lawn and throwing our furniture out and everything else so um I just think that the process is very big and to say that this is going to be rectified stop don't do that it's um you know in anytime probably very soon is probably not really realistic um so a lot of elected officials that were really spearheading this uh mayor's Coalition are no longer um elected officials there were some people in Congress that were like had their finger on the pulse that that are no longer Congressman so so there's things that happened that sort of stalled this project so I just recently got an email within the last week of some Mayors like hey let's let's try to stir this up again so um I'm going to drag a councilman tomorrow and into that flood de with me and um these meetings but you know we're doing what we can to try to help you and and our town and ourself myself too I have I have some flooding issues as well and I'm not in a flood zone in kennworth just so you know but these the water comes so hard so fast and there's nowhere for it to go unfortunately but um okay anything else for the CFO I mean the engineer sorry I didn't get to you yet Jill that's all I have okay thank you well before I go to CFO I just wanted to um welcome Maria good um to our Barrow she's going to be our new tax collector and um I think I can speak on behalf of myself and the governing body um that we're really happy that she's coming on board she's uh got great credentials and I'm sure she's going to be great assets to count okay um B CFO um so on the tax side taxes are going do made first um 10day gra period uh we're seeing an uptick in the um Senor free program with uh getting the form certified uh besides the budget that we've been working on uh Ken and myself have been working very hard trying to uh gather all of the uh Capital needs and I'll be emailing the finance committee uh to have a meeting ASAP to start looking at some of the capital projects there's quite a few that uh the Departments have been asking for couple of the items uh have been already uh approved so we need to um get that um onto the agenda because it's a two Monon process we have to get that so I will email I work with Angela and we'll send an email out uh to come up with the finance uh committee meeting to to start great thank you very much thank you for all your hard work we're going to miss you but we're happy you're here Ken thank you okay bar attorney good evening mayor uh I have no report uh I do uh suggest that we go into executive session uh to discuss a couple of issues this evening uh one has to do with uh a global issue of access rights under certain circumstances uh to uh th property uh a possible uh subdivision that the burrow was previously exploring uh 109 North 19th Street and uh some zoning uh advice regarding uh residential districts all under attorney Cline communication okay we will do that okay now that after you want that for the end of the meeting yeah send it to the we're going to save that for the end of the meeting so I know there's some people from the public that want to get up and speak okay uh burrow administ administrator uh I do have a couple of quick first thing I'm going to say I know everybody said it but I work a lot with Jill and I think she's fantastic I really like Ken but I will really miss you Jill I really has your she it's been a pleasure and an honor to work with you this past year and a half and I don't think I would have been nearly as successful without you thank a that's nice thank you um uh just a I have a couple of quick things one is I'm just going to give everyone a heads up um that we purchased a new reverse 911 system I will say the chief I really um the chief and Lisa in finance both kind of realized we had some issues with the old one the chief went out and found this new system showed it to Lisa and I it's Fant we were very impressed loved it it's very um uh it can do so many things it's very flexible very user friendly so we um I don't mean to steal your thunder Chief but I'm just going to excited to talk about how uh the the chief been Lisa and I um and a couple of other the captain and uh Lieutenant Bryson have been going through some training I just wanted to give everyone a heads up we are in the middle of training for that um it's it's so great to use I've done some tests it's pretty exciting so just giving people a heads up we're looking for it to go live in um the beginning of May the one thing we will put out a lot of information so people will know how to to sign up we are going to go forward I'm just kind of putting the word out people will have to sign up new doesn't matter if you were signed up for the old system or not um you will have to register with this new system so we will have Flyers they'll be on the website the media sign TV channel we'll be at the street fair with some information Shirley is going to work with the seniors to get the word out and get them signed up um we even talked about um with lorine at the library that she may have some uh volunteers take like at the library she's had um a lot of people ask about doing community service so we talked about maybe if they do they could sit there and people could come and sign seniors could come and sign up at the library have some open hours so we're looking at different things we will put get the word out but I just wanted to give the heads up and so people are aware um and I'm excited for this new system um I have two ordinances I just wanted to give the governing body it heads up on that uh are kind of coming from me from my department uh one is limousine licenses we do license limousines um we don't really have the right ordinance for what we are doing and what we're required to do so I worked with uh mark and um he did draft uh a proposed ordinance I'm review I have I have not yet reviewed it which is also why I wanted to just give everyone the heads up I'm going to go through it um but then I will share that with all of you it will be coming hopefully on the May 1st and it's really um just to kind of get in line with what we should be what we're required to do okay um the next one is the Personnel policies uh when we updated the handbook last last year we knew that one of the reasons were there were a lot of inconsistencies we had in the ordinance the Personnel policies are in the ordinance in the burough code the handbook was separate um a lot of things got moved to the handbook as a requirement from our GIF just and we made a lot of updates so we need to clean clean up for um lack of a better term uh the ordinance and the Personnel policies so Bob marman did draft that he and I met today to go through some of the things I just am giving you a heads up I will share that with you um he's going to make a few changes and then I will share that with you and we are looking to put that on the May 1st uh agenda as well as part of that some other pieces um may get changed in the handbook they will be so there will be a few changes and tweaks to the handbook as well with that nothing major just new sections that may be in there I just wanted to give everyone a heads up when you get it you have questions or anything like that of course uh ask um and then uh I think that's it I a question about the handbook when you update them how do you distribute them to all the employees like they they get every time it's updated they get another copy yeah you know last time it was such a big change we gave the full Bob and I talked about depending on what they are this time we probably will distribute you'll see there's um it it'll probably warrant a whole another copy um depending in the future this is the the beauty of it is we don't need an ordinance change to make changes to these policies that's one of the main reasons all these are pulled out and only going to be you'll see the new ordinance is really kind of nothing um uh if it's a small all section you know like just one a new policy is created and it's a small paragraph We Could distribute that alone and then add it in yes but we do require that especially for this last major everyone was distributed a copy they had to sign and confirm that they received it and give that back to so uh anything else that's all okay that's all you have thank you is there a motion to accept and approve both reports motion second all in [Music] favor um we have two ordinances for final adoption tonight ordinance uh 2024-25 an ordinance amending chapter 15 departmental structures section 15-2 Police Department table of organization of the burrow of kennworth Municipal Code is there a motion to open the public hearing on ordinance 20245 motion all in favor I does anyone have anything to say on this ordinance and this ordinance only please come forward and state your name and [Music] address okay seeing no one I'd like to close the floor uh for the public hearing and adopt ordinance 20245 motion second roll call councilman Bole yes councilman finella yes councilwoman gioda pno yes councilman moral yes councilman scarice yes councilman Zimmerman yes ordinance 20245 has been adopted ordinance 20246 introduced on March 20th 2024 calendar year 2024 ordinance to establish a cap Bank njsa 4A col 4- 45 col 14 is there a motion point 14 sorry is there a motion to open uh the public hearing on ordinance 202 24-6 Mo all in favor does anyone have anything to say on this ordinance and this ordinance only please come forward okay seeing no one is there a motion to close the public hearing and adopt ordinance 20246 motion second roll call councilman Bole yes councilman finr yes councilwoman J pno yes councilman moral yes councilman SC yes councilman Zimmerman yes ordinance 20246 has been adopted okay we have the adoption of the 2024 Municipal budget um our CFO is going to do you have a statement on the budget do you have a statement I I can start and then you can go into more detail um again Joe thanks for your uh efforts and congratulations on your retirement going be Surly Miss but I know Kent can pick up the slack uh basically uh the numbers they look uh quite interesting uh the biggest uh bulk of the budget was the medical insurance for the group insurance and Deb service paying down all the uh for the capital cost of maintaining the town and and and and issuing bonds and paying off the uh the bonds um we did save some money on the GIF some the insurance that we uh switched to and some pension uh monies that uh did save us a little bit there and solid waste so basically the average house assessed at $184,500 63 unfortunately um of which part of that $31.36 is the library uh cost uh of the $271 126 $16.88 is due to the drop in net valuation and I guess in layman's term I guess I know Joe could probably explain a little more better but the Merc property let's say was 80% of our tax revenue but with the tax abatement now they're only 60% or something to that effect or 65 so who's going to pick up the slot unfortunately the taxpayer and if you want to get through one more detail um that's sometimes that's like a know a little bit of a hard topic to understand but um as councilman explain you know mer absorbed quite a bit of the taxes um and now that they're assessment U you know is lower than it's been in the past um the budget is divided into a a small so unfortunately you know they're what they're paying less of is distributed amongst the uh amongst the resents and that's just how the um taxation in New Jersey unfortunately works so it's you know it's nice to have a big taxpayer but it's also um you know the is it's a it's a liability that you know something happens where their taxes go down unfortunately the res excuse me and um not to make Po salt into the wound um from what I heard uh correct me if I'm wrong can that school referendum didn't kick in yet I think it's supposed to start next year 2025 so everybody that you they wanted that that's the residents voted it through and that will be next year says here just curious the calculations you were using for the tax assessment to go down we go up the original Publications by the Board of Ed about what the average home may have to pay for Bond referendum does that get affected by this swing so with Merk having had been part of that pool and their assessment going down does the referendum expectations on the average home should we expect that to go up well that that's the change in that value does affects the county that that's unfortunate okay so we're going to we're going to feel this again at the referendum stage because of this the leveling right the only the only budget we have not heard on yet is the county budget uh I did email the tax administrator today their budget is due to uh be adopted uh in the middle or no I think was the uh beginning of May and then what they do is then they equalize it amongst all the all the towns and they are pretty tight Li about um you know how that affects the individual town so you know even if the county budget goes up that doesn't necessarily mean that your Town's budget is going toow some towns will go up some towns go down and they they equalize it across board so that is the only component of that we don't know of yet but we'll continue to do the uh estimated tax bills um because the uh state is on fiscal year and we're on calendar year and uh we don't get a tax rate of July and we can't operate and without having tax bills out so we can do an estimate bills um probably the last um four or five years and that have to remember the bo lost a lot of State mhm we're working on that too TR to get some money back yeah I I'm going to pull over to the the board I'm not really sure how they're doing with their budget they have a budget out there yet they they have a certain timeline where they have to um pay a certain Budget on they they had a budget and then that came um that announcement came out so I know their finance committee had an emergency meeting um and they're working to either try and get some of it either reversed or um they're sending in an appeal and then whatever else they had a couple of projects they said that they were anticipating doing aside from you know the big work that's happening and there's been a sharp hook to all of that so I know they're working on it is it rumor has it do think think of some layoffs you he about I they didn't I didn't hear layoffs I heard there were some teachers that were retiring and they were not going to replace them eight teachers and this is what I'm using to try to fight the state to get us some more money CU we need those teachers mhm so I guess somewhat no they'll be filled in with part-timers and whatnot I I really have U much more to say on I mean we we really looked at every single uh budget line every Revenue line and uh we're really trying to do um what we can there's a lot of the a lot of the Cs are out of the control of the municipality um that you can't do too much of that and you just have to absorb them so um you know not as good as we would have liked but you know hopefully next year will be a a better [Music] year to okay thank you Jill is there a motion to open the public hearing on uh the 2024 Municipal budget motion second all in favor I does anyone have anything to say regarding the 2024 Municipal budget please come forward and state your name and address yes okay seeing no one is there a motion to close the public hearing on 2024 Municipal budget motion second roll call councilman Bo yes councilman finr yes councilwoman jerno yes councilman Mora yes councilman scures yes councilman Zimmerman yes is there a motion to adopt the resolution number 2024-the the 2024 Municipal budget to be read by title only motion second roll call oh Joe councilman Boy Yes councilman finral yes councilwoman gardana pno yes councilman moral yes councilman scur yes councilman Zimmerman yes is there a motion to adopt resolution number 20241 111 resolution adopting the 2024 Municipal budget motion second councilman Bo yes councilman finella yes councilwoman gordano pno yes councilman moral yes councilman scarice yes councilman Zimmerman yes next for Council consideration is the consent agenda is there a motion to approve motion second [Music] the consent agenda consists of resolutions [Applause] [Music] 2024-25 4-07 for introduction an ordinance amending ordinance number 20242 affecting employees titles salary ranges and Personnel policies for burrow employees of the burrow of kennworth was there a motion to approve ordinance 20247 for introduction motion second roll call councilman Bo yes councilman finella yes councilwoman Jana pno yes councilman moral yes councilman scarice yes councilman Zimmerman yes be it hereby resolved that ordinance 2024 -07 here to for introduced does now pass on first reading and that said ordinance be further considered for final passage at a meeting to be held on May 1st 2024 at 6:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter can be reached at the regular meeting place of the burrow Council and then at such time in place all persons interested be given an opportunity to be heard concerning said ordinance and that the burrow clerk is hereby authorized and directed to publish said ordinance according to law okay thank you is there a motion to open the floor to the public motion second all in favor I does anyone have anything to say for the good and wellbeing of korth please come forward and state your name and [Music] address good afternoon everyone my name is Paul George live at 727 Richfield app I'm just trying to figure out what what's the update on a drainage Solution on the street that has no storm water drainage on it at this time is there an update on this um evaluating you know Alternatives I about that's uh ditch did the parkway did we get in a hold of the parkway are they going to take care of that cleaning that out yeah for the rich into a ditch which is actually on private property ultimately ends up into the parkway system uh so part of the problem is we just can't go in there because it's private property and do what we want to do um again it's also like I mentioned before these uh we call them ditches but they're streams and they're regulated by so we got to you know we're looking into what we can do um we also trying to see if we can evaluate any uh alternatives to T to any existing storm sort uh so we don't really have a solution yet we're going to come back uh hopefully soon with a recommendation but um you know we can all we're also going to put you know want put some pressure on the property owner who owns the ditch to do some uh any maintenance they can do again within the DP regulations so um we still don't have really a um we still don't have an answer me we're looking at all possibilities but we don't have really have a final okay was out on the second we of mar and they cleared out all the debris that was blocking the streams that was just on their property that's right and they did say that a lot of the residents who back up against their property were dumping tree parts and back piles of leaves in the property and Parkway informed me that residents done their debris on Parkway property they can be cited fined by the state police but they said that's only if it's overly abused that's when they I think people don't realize when they're dumping leaves and debris and stuff it does wind up backing up and causing flooding issues um I know people on the north end of town know that very well um you know I I think it's important that everyone really disposes of their leaves and weeds and things like that properly because it does wind up in the storm trins it does wind up blocking things up and people flood Tony or uh Greg do we do we have a contact with the state police or the or with that that entity to maybe sign put some signage up there you know uh no dumping allowed be subject to prosecution if that's Parkway property why don't they s yeah that's what I'm saying like I'm saying the parkway do we have a do we have a contact for the parkway contact with the general foran or super I say the parkway authority that's um what two exits down right going south in Clark right um Mike SCA is his name um if you want me to I'll reach out to him and see if he'll be willing to put signs on yeah they used to have signs right off of um Market Street there along that that that little Track by where the train tracks used to cut through and you know maybe it'll deter some people from dumping there people just assume that it's it's a blank piece of property and they can dump stuff there they don't realize it's State Property the other one us to say State Property said it hurts all of us when people Dum legal dumping will be you know enforced by whatever M staff also wants to remind resid that any chain fence that orders Parkway property belongs to G parway it was there first and they installed it it's not the residents you said I don't know which house it was you said one resent was cutting the fence to bring in the grass clipping and the woods [Music] so I don't know if it was in our town or on the other side of the parkway but could we put out some kind of reverse 911 to let people know that they cannot illegally dump in Kor yeah some signage would be would be a good start just so people know that it's that it's state property and that they'll be subject to you know fines if they do dump there hopefully this clean out on the parkway will help you in the meantime so what I'm understanding is that I have to rely on proper private property owners for drainage on a burrow Street um for right now this is I'm not sure you know I didn't build we didn't build your street and I'm not really sure why this there weren't storm dra uh drains put in the street when it was built but this is uh the situation we have now but I don't pay my taxes to the private property owners I pay to the bar so every time I have a flood I have to manually pump the water out of the street that doesn't belong to me myself but the street is your property though correct the last 20 ft of it but the rest of it is not my property so it's flooding before that 20 ft sometimes it does once it does that then it backs into my garage and I have to pump it for everybody on that street which I don't believe that's fair yeah again you know It's Not Unusual um you know some streams and  like I said you know the infrastructure was built you know 80 years there is no infrastructure on that street well a ditch is is part of infrastructure stream dit drainage course again looking into Solutions um you know have everything Solutions we're looking into what's that what are the solutions you're looking into what are the options well we're looking to see if we can into a storm store um we're looking to see what we can do with the DP ruls to possibly includ the ditch or you know at least clean it and it FL properly Park already did some work already unclo C get rid of some of the degrees um so those are things we're looking at we just don't have we just don't have Loa is there approximate timeline for resents um so he know kind what they're expec yeah do CP thank you thank you okay anyone else from the public I addressed okay we can come up again if you'd like good evening everyone good evening again I live on Willshire Drive and um I've been dealing with the flood situation for about about 18 years can you just say your name again oh my name is Louisa Lor and you're your what is your house number uh it's on Willshire drug right the house number 2 for record 24 okay thank you but I've been dealing with that flooding situation for about 18 years I bought the house in 2002 mhm um but it looks like in about 2005 2006 they put in all new pipes down in in the ground they did some work but it looks like ever since they did that work the flooding problem has increased who today I well the town the town they paved brasser and at the same time they put in all a new pipes new um underground okay so but ever since that situation that they did that work the problem has I was told by the previous engineer um that there were 12 in pipes and they put 24 in pipes but the problem has gotten worse that's when i' we we have flooding just a 10 minute downpour 10 15 minutes it's all it takes a heavy rain and the water starts bubbling out of four storm drains that are in front of the house there's two in front of mine and then two on the other side and the water just starts bubbling up and it floods the whole stream I get 2 ft of water in in my driveway and it's becoming so I get anxiety attacks every time it rains and people have noticed that I just get real tense because I know what I'm going to face you know I've gotten up at 1 2 3:00 in the morning move three cars out of that driveway because there's 2 ft of water in the driveway he gets up to put my husband gets up to put up the barriers and then I get to move the cars it's just becoming a struggle I can't I can't deal with it anymore that's why I'm I've come here a couple of times mhm I've uh I've gotten emails from you um I've I've come here even in 2007 or 2008 and I was told that nothing could be done you know that it's my house and to deal with it so I was like really it's the street it's not my house that's got the issue I think that it is a flood zone and that is a big part of the problem I understand that that is the problem really I understand that I bought a house in a flood zone but I don't understand that after just 10 minutes that I've got you know a river in my drive room yeah and like I said I have a picture yeah no I what it looks like it it looks like a river and and it's it's just becoming really frustrating I totally understand that 100% I I I don't want the city to spend millions of dollars that don't exist it's it's just I want some solution I want to know why this happens why does this water back up in front of my driveway I mean even my neighbors um have we looked at this pipe Tony I guess at any point to make sure that there's no break in it or obstruction I mean we took again we did a walk through we didn't really see anything that serious that causing to the back up I mean she's saying after 10 minutes it's backing up 10 minutes it's heavy heavy rain it's just a characteristic of the water shed you know um it just has a very fast peak time uh goes up and then goes down um I do agree I think when that work was done back in 2005 we changed some of the grades in that intersection and a lot ofers that c the CH charging through the storm sord um so again we're going to be you know doing some work there you know the council authorized contract was awarded uh like I mentioned before then start the material and tomorrow to get that started and that's going to uh improve that situation hopefully that'll help you well I was told by a neighbor that was on brasser because the creek was behind her house she moved out ever since but she told me that 10 years prior that she moved the creek was cleaned out it was dredged it was and the problem you know didn't exist for quite we're not allowed to dredge the creek anymore the D will not allow that it's a big problem it is a big problem I like I there's problem many many conversation if we could go in and dredge and clean it out all the way down the river yeah she told me that that really resolved the problem for a while but they were not allowed but then I also had the issue with a landscaper think the creek was his personal dumping again another problem with residents illegally dumping grass and debris and leaves it hurts everybody people really have to know that it's going winds up in the storm sewers and people are flooding and it's causing it was I we got into arguments with this person and I know exactly who it is and so have a lot of other people here and um it has been isol thank you because he's not doing it anymore right but every time we had that flooding you could see all the grass coming up in water and I'm going you know put two and two together you're causing it has alleviated a little bit not just in korth but Downstream he's causing problems in other towns too I can say it's alleviated because the water doesn't come up as quickly as it used to but it's still there it's still flooding when you know the last couple of storms well let's hope that the work that's about to happen in the next couple of weeks gives you some relief and I'm going to pray for that I'm just you know I I love my house and I you know did a lot of work to it too and and I hate to you know someday if I want to sell it it's I can't do it because who am I going to give it to with that issue right who's going to buy it you know it's a nice house but am I going to to right I had to disclose that like I say hopefully this work that's going to be done in the next couple of weeks will will help you or at least alleviate some of this problem I guess we'll we'll have to see but I'm going to pray that it does yes so do I think about reaching out the DP and let them know how their idiot policies are causing harm to people I mean they when we dredge we cause a problem for someone else that's the problem because it just keeps going it just keeps going Dre they just don't want you to touch it they want to be natural yeah there's there's like fish and stuff in there and all that too and and so that's why they overgrown that Creek is so overgrown that you know even the backyard consider Wetlands so right but we don't worry about the backyard because but it's the front of the house that's the problem right the water starts flowing into house we got plenty of room catch the fish from on the other side of the day you're going to cost how much money you care about fish well I think it's more than just it's more than just fish but they dress it before they do it again and still turning so I would side residents come first I agree but I agree too well we still can't drudge yeah they're just an pies Galore here of what happen yeah they should they no they just oh we did they didn't they it's not just the whole street gets it's not some we're getting off topic here you TR it's open up a Pand door box here okay thank you thank you very much thank you so much anyone [Music] else hi Shirley I'm Shirley m 38 South 24th Street in Kenworth I would just like to thank all of you and the DPW and finance department and others who have been so supportive of the senior center and to me and my new role there um as councilwoman uh Giordano pero had mentioned we have uh many programs at the senior center and they are listed on the birth webbsite under the uh Department section social well no social sexual Senior Services thank you Angela for all your help with that too um there are just a few new programs I'd like to highlight uh we have a program called The Wellness Initiative for senior education um otherwise known as the wise program and this is um an Acclaim program um that's coming to the senior center starting this Tuesday April 23rd and it will be continuing for five additional consecutive Tuesdays it's an interactive program and it helps participants understand the aging process make healthy lifestyle choices manage stress and depression um and avoid medication and substance misuse and also feel confident and empowered this is a program that's being presented by prevention links uh we're very fortunate to have it uh come to the senior center we have 25 seniors registered for it and we still have a few openings if anyone else is interested um we also are having a pilot program start in June uh for three sessions June 13th 20th and 27th in strength balance and function this uh course is being taught by our yoga instructor um again we have 25 seniors signed up for it so far and if this is well received and beneficial will look at incorporating it into our regular class schedule in the fall budget permitting of [Music] course um we also have some uh craft classes that start this Friday um thanks uh to the Union uh Township Health Services dep department and I wanted to mention um during the during the street fair on May 19th and the grand reopening of the senior center from 10: to 4 we're going to have a senior Arts crafts and photography show and during that show uh seniors will have an opportunity to show their work and to sell it if they wish um we hope to have good participation in that and if anyone is interested uh please contact me at the senior center um we're really looking forward to that we have so many talented seniors and there is no cost to participate for anyone 60 years of age or older our senior picnic is scheduled for Thursday May 30th from 10:30 to 2: um all of you are invited we hope you'll join us and um any seniors in Kenworth age 60 and older are invited to attend and um please please RS Fe please um if possible by April 29th okay um then one more program um we have on June 20th and this was just scheduled at 6:30 p.m. uh Walter boght who many of you know our historian and an acclaimed author of many Kenworth books that will be coming to the senior center to do a program on the history of Kenworth through post cards and so that'll be at 6:30 p.m. again on Thursday June 20th thank you so much just real quick I know I was with you last night for that Alliance training go circling back to the first one the age group was like 55 and up for that one correct for the wise program the wise program uh for any senior's age 60 and over that's 6 older but they also get food every night right they're going to dinner or lunch it's a six-part program um April 23rd April 30th May 7th May 14th May 21st and May 28th from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the senior center it includes lunch and they if they attend x amount they get if they attend four of the six sessions they get a gift card correct so there's incentive to to it out and go to the program yes there is it's a Sho rate gift card correct um it wasn't disclosed exactly it's probably a grocery Grocery gift card and also it's not necessary to attend all six sessions although it is recommended to get the full benefit of the program but they're independent sessions so if you miss one it it doesn't matter you know other than the material you miss it's not a continuous program they're independent of one another the sessions okay okay thank you thank you very much Charley thank [Music] you anyone else oh they have 1 55 too I just want to Ken Blum finance department I just want to Echo what everybody has said about Jill it's been a pleasure working with you Jill uh it's been what 3 and 1/2 years almost 4 years now and uh just her dedication to kennworth has been amazing as tax collector this year as Chief Financial Officer and last year um but it's been a pleasure working with you and I wish you all the best in retirement and you will be deeply missed absolutely Carolyn hi car 31 North 21st Street I just wanted to uh I celebrated my birthday happy birthday in February oh um I go to why didn't you tell us before at the seniors and uh the lunches are very good it's a very nice benefit for financial reasons but also because I live alone while I have two cats so I get to eat lunch but I didn't have to cook I don't have to wash the dishes great that anyway it the senior center and especially with sh's been there total blessing that's wonderful I'm happy to hear that great thank you okay anyone [Music] else all right seeing no one I'd like a motion to close the floor for public discussion motion second all in favor I okay at this time the burrow has need to go into executive session can I have a motion to go into executive session motion second all in favor I [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music]