##VIDEO ID:cg7xelWYMZ0## great so the public hearing for the Little Falls New Jersey Green Acres Park development application for Amity Park the hearing is now open if anyone like to speak on this matter please come forward you're welcome to speak we have one resident would you like to come forward thank you hi my name is Nancy Friedrich and I'm on the open SE committee and I just wanted to say how thankful I am that we're considering getting funding for Amity um I have to live in the neighborhood of Amity I have for more than 20 years walked my dog around it my kids play sports offing at the fields and it is I would say used even more every year you know the basketball court especially there's almost always people if the weather is decent enough not even warm enough but decent enough um for people playing basketball so thank you I really look forward to great thank you for coming before us councilwoman Hab do you have anything you want to add to this application um I just want to say I think that it's going to be great for all the residents um the addition of uh resurfacing the basketball courts which is much needed and as our resident um alluded to they get it gets so much use um the first phase of this which we did last year is also going to be uh upgrading the playground and then we will be doing where the current ter tennis courts are it will be an allpurpose uh surface uh which will be able to accommodate Flor FL hockey soccer kickball Four Square uh volleyball Hopscotch there's many things that can be done there and can just be a free play area and rower ler that's all I have thank you seeing no one else come before us the public hearing on the township of Lies New Jersey Green Acres Park development application for Amity Park is now closed thank you welcome everyone to the township Council Workshop meeting Monday February 3rd 2025 this meeting is now called to order all please rise to salute to the flag to the flag the United States of America and to the repic it stands nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all thank you you may be seated Madam Kirk uh clerk please read the statement to public notice take notice that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in accordance with njsa 10 Colin for 8 and njsa 10 4-10 as follows a notice of the meeting was prominently posted on the bulletin board at the municipal building located at 225 Main Street Little Falls New Jersey on January 14 2025 a copy of the notice was sent to the north Jersey Herald and News and the record on the same date additionally a copy of the notice was filed in the office of the Township Clerk on said date a link and a telephone number to join the meeting virtually can be accessed on the township website at www. lfjc electronic Provisions have been established for the public to participate during the public comment portion of the meeting thank you at this time please call the RO council member Patel president council member Murphy pres council member habitz council member vaner pres council president scova president uh before we get uh begin I just am very happy to share with you we have one of our own who got engaged councilwoman Patel we wish you all the best on behalf of the mayor and the council to your future endeavors uh we're glad you'll be staying in little FS council president mayor the floor is yours thank you council president this evening we have two proclamations to read the first of which is a proclamation recognizing Black History Month and reads whereas the township of Little Falls takes pride in recognizing February 2025 as Black History Month celebrating the many notable contributions that people of African descent have made to our country and whereas in 1986 Congress passed Public Law 9924 for designating February as National Black History Month to bring awareness to black history and whereas we celebrate the diversity of black people whether they self-identify as African African-American or black and whereas we recognize this year's theme of African-Americans in labor to recognize and celebrate contributions and breakthroughs from black professionals and whereas each black family has a unique and interesting story which although we may not be able to fully understand we can listen and show that we care treating each other with respect and empathy and whereas we encourage all people to recognize these issues by standing in the Gap at every opportunity and Bridge barriers with fearlessness and determination to improve lack of representation of black people and whereas today we celebrate and affirm the contributions of all black people to our community throughout our state and the nation and now therefore be it resolved that the township of littlefalls does hereby Proclaim February 1st through March 1st as Black History Month and calls upon the people of littlefalls to continue our efforts to create a world that is more just Equitable and prosperous for all and the second Proclamation we have this evening council president is the national nutrition month Proclamation which I have been trying to live by the past couple of months as I have been dieting in an attempt to uh lose a few pant sizes so this we have our national nutrition month Proclamation and it reads whereas food is the substance by which life is sustained and whereas the type quality and amount of food that individuals consume each day plays a vital role in their overall health and physical fitness and whereas there's a need for continuing nutrition education and a widescale effort to enhance healthy eating practices now therefore I James bord Damiano mayor of the township of Little Falls hereby proclaim the month to be National nutrition month in the township of Little Falls and I encourage all citizens to join in the campaign and become concerned about their nutrition and the nutrition of others in the hope of achieving optimum health for both today and tomorrow that's all I have council president until the items to be discussed thank you for doing those two very important proclamations C have a motion open a meeting to the public for General matters and agenda items some move moveed by councilman Murphy second by councilman haets all those in favor I all those opposed Madam clerk anyone wishing to address the township Council May uces to the council president it is preferred if you give your name and address for the record comments are to be limited to 3 minutes however if appropriate you may be granted additional time in the sole discretion of the council president members of the public who have joined the meeting virtually and desire to provide comment shall raise their virtual hand in the zoom application the meeting moderator will cue the members of the public that wish to provide comment and the council president will recognize them in order members of the public who have joined the meeting by calling in must press star six to mute and unmute themselves and star 9 to raise their hand members of the public who have joined the meeting via the zoom application must click the reactions icon and then the raise hand icon once the process is complete we will return to the regular order of business thank you the floor is now open Steve Pier anyone in the chat room see no one thank you see no one come before us in the council chambers have a motion to close the public comment so move move by councilman Batel second by councilman Ben Cherry all those in favor all those opposed motion carries mayor discussion on on number one please absolutely council president the first item this evening and only item is the resolution authorizing submission of a Grant application with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres Program for Amity Park playground updates and as this council is aware as we've all been here since 6:30 uh tonight we had our open hearing for the improvements to Amity park playground uh as indicated which is a requirement Green Acres Grant we had one individual from town one resident has come up and speak in support of this project also a member of our open space committee and zero individuals question or have any negative comments about improvements to a park at Amity this application is a resolution uh in order to submit our Green Acres application for Grant funds to assist us in making improvements to Amity park that is action item number eight or letter A today that is on this evening's agenda any questions from the council mayor uh give us a timeline when this comes before the governing body the processes uh because one would think okay you can start to break ground tomorrow morning so you want to run through the processes of how this works sure that's great question and this applies to most if not all grants that we actually see in the municipality uh oftentimes there is a process in which to apply for a grant and this one in particular also requires a public hearing although many do not uh and that's why this one's a little bit different than others uh but there's a timeline in which Grant applications must be submitted this one is due uh in the upcoming month and it will be submitted timely once it's submitted we often times can wait three six even nine months to hear whether or not the municipality was successful in obtaining or securing that Grant and oftentimes while we may ask for X dollars uh after review and after determining their their total budget and the total number of applications we oftentimes will not get 100% of the grant that we are seeking uh grants also have uh various terms depending on the type of grant that we seek for example some grants may be willing to cover 100% of the total costs of what ever the total project cost may be others may have 75% 55 50% 25% or some somewhere in between of what they are willing to cover meaning there's some grants and I believe this is one of them as a Green Acres application that will only cover up to 75% of the total project costs and the municipality has some share that they must uh pay themselves again that's a share often times in these types of grants that we can fund from open space dollars which we uh are able to each year as part of residents taxes we are also often times able to meet our local obligation with other similar grants that are not or separate from this Green Acres Program uh so these are great grants they're oftentimes a big dollar amount grants but Little Falls taxpayers do have some skin in the game again oftentimes we can fund it with with open space dollars to not impact residents so like they don't see any direct cost associated with the the little f portion or little false share once we do find out whether we secure a grant again sometimes 3 six nine months after an application is submitted uh there is then a period of time where the engineers then really need to design the uh whether it be a park or whatever the submission was for and it's only then after several months of design and final design being approved that that project can then go out to bid we got to an open and fair bidding process uh where contractors can submit their bids and the lowest responsible bidder is then selected after that process again this is several months usually after grants are awarded projects are designed and then the applications are opened after waiting for a period of time we receive those applications from contractors and our attorney and clerk often time review them to ensure that they're full in full compliance I meet all the legal requirements and all the insurance submissions are are are appropriate and that everything was completed accurately uh at that point once we do award the bid to a contractor we then have pre- construction meetings we set timetables and what we expect the the contractor to complete the entire project by uh and it's only then at that point that we then give them a notice to proceed at which time they then begin the work so while we are now the first week of February in 2025 applying for this grant it is highly highly unlikely that ground will be broken on this grant until well into the 2026 calendar year uh so while we're all excited to make this application and hope for the best in securing a a large Grant to to offset our cost to make an improvement uh these are not improvements that we see within a month or two of a grant being applied for never mind even received uh so there is certainly a delay in that but every dollar that we're able to secure in a grant like this offsets any dollar that we as Little Falls taxpayers need to put into a project or an improvement like this thank you mayor at this time have a motion uh to approve resolutions A and B move moveed by councilwoman habetz second second by councilman Murphy Madame clerk please call the role for Resolutions A and B council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member Hab council member vent Cherry yes council president scova yes have a motion to approve the following application for Jake Bassinger so move moved by councilman Murphy second by councilman V Cherry Madam clerk call the rooll council member Patel yes council member Murphy yes council member habetz council member van Cherry yes council president scova yes councilman Murphy would you like to lead us off with Council reports please sure council president thank you uh just real quick we have a domestic violence awareness committee meeting tomorrow we are changing the time from 7 to 6:30 and this month it is on Zoom so if anybody wants to join uh just shoot me an email also we got an update today on the calendars uh they will begin getting delivered uh the week of the 17th so they're in process being printed everything was finalized I know that's a little bit further out than we had anticipated so if anybody does want the recycling schedule for the month of February uh you can go on our town website on the Public Works um tab you'll be able to click on Recycling and on there is a file under quick links for the 2025 uh February um printout of the recycling schedule on the calendar for that month that's all I have council president thank you thank you councilman Murphy councilman vent Cherry thanks council president first I want to say congratulations my nothing but the best um just one quick update um as I mentioned last week's meeting the Ramadan lighting ceremon is going to take place on Sunday February 23rd um just working out some of the details I spoke with our DBW superintendent this week as well as Tyler CER on the rec department just give him a brief update but I'm hoping to send out an email this week uh to them as well as the mayor and some others just with all the details for the event so that's it for me thank you councilman V Cherry Council woman havets thank you council president I would also like to congratulate my colleague uh welcome to almost married Club um then lots of luck with that and I'd also like to say thank you to my colleagues on the council uh for approving the resolution as the open space Le aison um really is important for the things that we're able to do for our Parks and Recreation that's all I have um I think I hope the uh open space entertains um raising the uh raising what is charged to the residents in the near future that hasn't been done in a long time we have had discussions as a committee about it and there'll be more to come in this share thank you Council Mel the floor is yours uh thank you council president thank you to all of you I'm sure you'll hear me complain a lot while I try to plan this wedding um just two quick updates the Clifton Health Department is going to hold a heart health screening that's going to be February 26th between 10 to 12: pm. it will be at Clifton City Hall um they're going to screen for blood pressure glucose cholesterol you do have to register so you can contact Kimberly finkler at the health department and call her at 973 986 8678 the flyer and the date are going to be posted on the Township calendar so you can also access that information there and then on March 13th at 10:00 a.m. the Little Falls public health committee we're going to held our own event it's going to be at the LI Little Fall Civic Center and it's going to to be an educational program to combat Seasonal effective disorder so I spoke about it briefly last time but we've solidified the date Dr Joe from cor Chiropractic right here in Little Falls she's going to lead that program there's going to be information um some exercises and then a 10-minute guided meditation to help combat the symptoms um that's all I have council president thank you Council Patel Chief thank you uh March 12th will be our Irish day luncheon uh which will be our corn beef and cabbage and we'll also have zi for those that don't like to eat corn beef which I don't know who they are because I who doesn't like corn beef but having said that we're doing something new on the flyer we're actually put a QR code on the flyer this year which is going to be interesting we're going to see how that works with our seniors if they could log in and respond to the flyer uh to the event and we'll monitor that um I think that's going to be uh something going forward that hopefully we could do with all our events to get the data going into Excel files and making it easier to contact people in the near future have a motion to open the meeting to the public for agenda items so move move by Council Mel second by councilman V Cherry all those in favor those opposed Madam clerk anyone wishing to address the township Council may do so through the council president it is preferred if you give your name and address for the record comments are to be limited to 3 minutes however if appropriate you may be granted additional time in the sole discretion of the council president members of the public who have joined the meeting virtually and desire to provide comment shall raise their virtual hand in the zoom application the meeting moderator will cue the members of the public that wish to provide commment and the council president will recognize them in order members of the public who have joined the meeting by calling in must press star six to mute and unmute themselves and star 9 to raise their hand members of the public who have joined the meeting via the zoom application must click the reactions icon and then the raise hand icon once the process is complete we will we will return to the regular order of business thank you madam clerk the floor is now open no one in the chat Miss D see no one come before us in the council chambers Kev a motion to close the public comment so moved moved by councilman habits second by councilman vent Cherry all those in favor I all those opposed I do want to thank the two residents that joined us tonight for our meeting and uh thank you to Mr Cardone M DPO and Mrs Krauss for helping me put this meeting together this evening have a motion to close moved by councilman Patel second by councilman Venter all those in favor all those opposed motion carries