is 7:32 uh at this time I will call the regular meeting of the lake homo mayor and Council to order please rise for to the flag in a moment of Silent reflection United States of America the for stands
Nation indivisible andice for all please remain standing for a moment of Silent reflection thank you sunshine lovece this meting resolution by the mayor and Council on the 7th Day of January 2025
in which resolution the time and place of agenda and regular meetings commencing with January 7th were set forth notice the same was delivered to the as Park Press the coar and tap into and a copy of the notice is posted on the B website and on the bulon board in Bur Hall all meetings are open to the public roll call please council member
wty here here D here deoro here ventrice here here thank you uh at this time I'll take a motion to approve the minutes from the February 18th meeting so move second all in favor I uh opposed
extensions I don't need to oh there you go all right um right that's correct we reports of committee starting with councilwoman Al balad thank you mayor all matters are in order thank you councilman ventrice thank you mayor all Mayers are in order thank you councilman
dear thank you mayor matters inorder councilman Dano thank you mayor under the uh DPW I just wanted to uh thank everybody at the DPW for their hard work before and after the parade it's a lot of setup and clean up afterwards and um every year it amazes
me uh by Monday morning how it looks like nothing happened the day before people there so appreciate all their hard work with that thank you councilwoman skull thank you mayor all matters are in order council president Woody thank you Mr Mayor uh under my
committee uh law matters in order uh I have a statement I like to read uh in 1970 at the age of 16 I took a first a course and became a member of the South bmar First a Squad Squad that started my career in community service
as a member of the squad I always wanted to do my best but those was in need of help so I took a course and that became the first EMT in the history of South bore first a then in 1973 after the Sou fire compy lower the
AE requirement from 21 to 18 I was one of the first one to join I held many offices in the fire company as secretary for over 10 year Secretary of New Jersey state fireman Association local chapter I am a like member of both the South
bmar Fire Company and the New Jersey state firemen Association I held position of fire chief for six years 1987 88 89 and again in 9697 98 I served for 44 years until the end in 19 in
2017 in 1978 I was agged to run for Council by two members of council that were going to run as independent one was for mayor one was for councilman we all were elected and I became a councilman at the young age of 24 the younger in this town history of the town then I got
married and I started to raise a family and I stepped away from politics for a while in 1991 I was asked to be on the school board which I accepted I stayed on the school board for 5 years as vice president I became the first member to South bmore School Board to become a
member of the Belmore School Board in 1996 I ran to council run and took the office in 1996 I had been a council member ever since in 19 in 2013 I was put on the new Jor leag of municipality
h of Fame for serving 20 years now in 20 2 I'm in my 33rd year I am the longest serving councilman in the history of the town during a time my councilman I have been South planning board council
president for over 20 years during my 33 years I sered under seven Mayors 30 council members and I served three years as an independent councilman 12 years as a Republican and 18 years as a Democrat there Comes A Time in life where it's
time to move on after 33 years as councilman and 55 years of community service to the resident of South thore and Lake com the town like move up in the town I raised my family in and more importantly the town that I left I had decided I would not be running for
reelection but I will stay on to the end of my 33rd year I want to thank the resident over the years for their support I will never forget black serving the res of this big little town [Applause] um Doug I for my report I obviously knew
that you were going to make this announcement tonight um and I've kind of been trying to think about what I was going to say nobody up here really knew that this was going to happen so they didn't really have anything to say tonight um there's going to be a lot that we're probably going to say over
the next couple of months um but the one thing that I wanted to say to you um and to everybody out there is that since I took over as mayor in 2018 there is been nobody even though you sit on the left
side there is nobody that has been more at my right side um on this counselor in this town uh than you even through through Summers through parades through water projects through covid I get a
call from Doug every week or just about every every week saying is there anything in need is there anything that I can do there are a million things that you remind me of because as you said you have more experience at this at this than anybody um I could not have done
this without you and I know a lot of people that have come before me could not have done this without you um so it is Bittersweet to say congratulations um it is Bittersweet to say goodbye even though you're not going anywhere for a little while uh but on
behalf of the council on behalf of the citizens of lake comoo and South Belmore uh thank you is the least that we can say at this point um but there will be more to say as we move on throughout the year but um just congratulations thank
you um and uh I'm looking forward to seeing what you're going to do after you're done because I got plans for you pal um with that being said uh continues of my mayor's report
we officially have a date for the Lake Como mayor's bash and that is going to be July 10th Thursday July 10th at Bar Anticipation we will be sending out those invitations very soon um we are not going to announce who the business
person of the year or the business of the year is going to be because we have not told that business yet who it's going to be um but I will tell you that we have decided who our citizen of the year is going to be and that is is going to be Doug witty so congratulations
Doug we were thinking about making the citizen of the century last year for the 100th anniversary um but we uh we decided not to do that so congratulations Doug um Doug will be the citizen of the year for 2025 here in Lake Como and maybe for the
day will'll change the any impact to South bmar for you no just kidding um with that uh all other matters are in order and at this time I would like to open it up for public comments under uh for new
business that motion open for public comments second all in favor anyone wishing to speak to anything on the agenda under new business can come to the mic and do so now see n take a motion to close second
all in favor I uh under new business our first resolution 2025-the [Music] J Municipal aid grant for improvements to Mar Avenue and whereas on February 5th 2025 eight bids were received for the reference project the apparent low
bid was submitted by J's construction company of South River New Jersey now there were be resolved by the mayor and Council theor Como that a contract be awarded to J's Construction Company Incorporated in the amount of $284,800 have any questions have a second second
roll call please council member Wy yes Scott yes yes yeah yes yes thank you just as a point of order um we did publish an agenda with ordinance 2025 D2 on it um amending Park
regulation ordinance we have pulled that from the agenda for tonight and we will bring it up at another meeting um next on the agenda is resolution president Wy be resolv by mayor and Council Baro proper officers be directed and
authorized to make payments from the following account current account $ 33,6 2683 War sewer account $417 Capital General Capital fund $129 tourism account
1,690 annivers account $3,523 environmental commission account $3 68 ACA wire transfer $4 44546 83 for a grand total of 883963275
be it resolved by the mayor and Council of the burough of lake comoo that the proper officers be directed and authorized to make payment from the following account which is the New Jersey natural gas account and that is for $125.3 have a second call
please yes yes yes yes yes thank you resolution 2025-the mayor so offered resolution 2025 56 resolution of the burough Lake C Council executive sessions whereas the
bur Lake B Council of the B of Lake com must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in public meeting whereas the subjects are within exceptions to the open public meetings act and are permitted to be discussed in closed section session pursuant to njsa
10 4-12 b seven which are covered by the um attorney Cent privilege uh the session will will not be more than 30 minutes after which we will reconvene and take action if necessary thank you do I have a second second roll call
please yes yes yes yes yes yes thank you before we go to Executive session I will take a motion to open for public comments second all in favor I thank you anyone wishing to come to the mic uh to speak to anything to the council can do
so now thank you Mayor Mike Ryan 1706 East Street Lake comoo first of all I'd like to thank the mayor and Council for all that you did to make this great day another wonderful experience in the town public workers did a great job I was out Monday morning and you can see
everything was put to bed nice and tidy and they were actually handpicking up and it was left over uh so to all everybody a great shout out thanks for the mayor repres pres in uh the burough with the uh brunch on Saturday he brought a great
bit of humor uh to the event and he uh gave some very Irish Jabs that were well taken and we had a lot of laps over we'll talk about that on the records and it was it was all good it was a wonderful day um second thing which I'd
like to say is congratulations to Doug uh as the municipal chair uh Doug gave me a heads up and I was sort of Tak him back I thought he would go another two years to make 35 but a lot of waters come under the
bridge he he cited his record for you of starting out as a Republican and running and then becoming an independent and then serving on the school board and that was our first elections together back in about 93 I was running with Joe
Quinn and them for Council seat and Doug was running for school board I believe that year and then got his feet wet on the school board he came over and ran with Larry and the folks and became a councilman and then I guess the last 18
years he had the vision that he was on the wrong team and he came over Jo us on our side and he's been a family member ever since and I know that in talking to Doug there's still a lot on his plate that he wants to get through I said I believe he still have a budget that you
have to bring home number one and I think your last meeting will be December 16th so until then uh we'll watch what you're doing and thank you for all the hard work and thank you for the commitment that you made because a lot of people
don't realize you were here throwing the Hurricanes uh the superstorms when mayor Higgins was out swimming pulling people out of houses Doug was down here making sure that people had ice food and foam connections everybody played a part but
Doug stepped up in the last uh I guess eight years just about as council president I'm not sure 15 years 20 years total yeah was our last eight years here and year was Larry Larry and them but the last eight was as the council
president he's s off from job and I know that he's always had your back Mir and he's always had the the town uh first in his heart so congratulations and good luck and we'll see you on December 16 thank you you're council president under mayor right yeah so you're up
12 job seeing anyone else seeing none I'll take a motion to close second all in favor I all right um I want to thank everybody from coming out for coming out at this time we were going to close session we're going to use this as our
close session Hall uh we will return to make any announcements we need the