January 7th, 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 littlefallsenj.gov. Electronic
provisions have been established for the public to participate during the public comment portion of the meeting. Mrs. Kra, can you call the role, please? Council member Patel, present. Council member Murphy, present. Council member Habitz, present. Council member Veneri, present. Council President Scoba.
All right. First up tonight, we have some special guests here from the Clifton Health Department. So, I'm going to turn this over to John Beagle who's going to provide a a report. So, John, turn it to you. Thank you, Sarah. Um, good evening everyone. My name is John Beagle. I'm the health officer for the Township of Little Falls. With me
tonight is Jennifer Kidd and she's our projects coordinator. So, we're just going to go over the um the annual health report. It's something that we're required to do and something that we like to do with the community. So if maybe Jen if you could give Mr.
Pace report. So um I know everybody does not have one at home maybe but basically what this talks about is our activities uh from the Clifton Health Department. What we have done in the township of of Little Falls. The
the third page is really riveting information because that's my letter. So, I'm not going to read that tonight, but I know if you're really bored one night, you could read it and you'll you'll get a lot of information out of there. Um, and then we have on
page eight is, you know, what does the health department do? I think some people have have an idea of the health department maybe just does food inspections, but we do so much more than that. Uh some of the things that we do as far as animal control with um animal
bites, rabies control, bloodborne pathogen, communicable disease investigation, emergency response, etc., etc. So, recreational bathing. So we with the recreational bathing, we go to inspect at least once a year a public uh
bathing facility and every week we have to receive a report from the lab making sure that the water is safe to swim and you know that's something a lot of people don't realize that we do. Okay. So I'll have Jennifer talk about
something and then I'll I'll just finish what I'm going to do and then I'll go to Jennifer. So, we provide animal control for the township of Little Falls. Uh, this is a 247 operation, never a day off, never an hour off. We work very closely with our police department,
whether it be a response to a dog bite, loose animal. Uh, we had a bald eagle actually last year in um in the township and our animal control worked with the police. We did catch it. So, those are just some of the things that we do to
respond. But again, we are 24/7. Anytime the police will call us, we respond as and it's last year we had 95 um calls to to Little Falls. We have a animal shelter if anybody ever wants to come see our animal shelter. It's on the
city of Clifton uh city hall property, 900 Clifton Avenue. We house dogs, cats, and any other animals that we do get. We've had an alligator, snakes, all these funky things, but I don't like
snakes. So, um, so animal control and we work with a group called Friends of the Shelter. Friends of the Shelter is a volunteer group that, uh, adopts our animals out, and they do a background check to make sure that we just don't adopt anyone. We want to make sure we
have one adoption and that's a forever home for those animals. So, we're very very successful with placing animals um pretty much for throughout the year. We also have the environmental division. So, as far as food inspections, public
pools, like I said, any type of tattoo parlor, uh we we do all that. And last year, we did over 125 inspections. That also includes the Montlair State food
eeries that are in Little Falls, which that's majority of the food establishments in in Little Falls. So, we we do that as well. And then lastly, what I'll talk about is our nursing division, which the nursing division is
um what they do is any type of communical disease investigation. I mean, we knew the popular one as far as COVID, but we do numerous communicable diseases. Uh, we receive lab reports. We deal with the doctors. We contact the patient. Sometimes we're the first one to contact the patient
saying they have something and we try to trace back where um, you know, they did get that communicable disease and then we'll try to make a a safe environment for everyone. Our nurses also do community um audits at the schools to
make sure that everyone is in compliance. So sometimes a school might be in 100% compliance. That doesn't mean everyone has a vaccine. That means um people have vaccines and also a um a
release if it is a religious exemption for for the vaccine. Uh so I know rabies has been uh in the limelight. We have a very uh strict policy on what we do with if someone is is is exposed to someone
uh we work with the state and our nurses will be in contact with that individual every day and if we had to we would have to go to the house. At this time I'm going to bring Jennifer Kit up to talk about um some of the other programs that we do. I just want to thank Councilwoman
Patel for heading up our health advisory committee. Um we started that I guess the end of last year or this year we really started. So we meet um every two months and um myself and somebody from my staff will usually come up and we'll
discuss with our committee some of the events. Also like to thank John Pace for helping us with our senior outreach. we have doubled and tripled the amount of people that we have seen. So, that's it's a really good thing. So, thank you to to everybody, mayor and council also
and Vince. But, thank you everybody for helping us. Jennifer, is that one on? I'm not sure. Oh, there there you go. Great. Good evening. Um, as John said, my name is Jennifer Kidd. I'm the project coordinator at the Clifton Health Department. Um, and I'm
just going to talk about some special projects um that I help to oversee at the health department. Um, the first being our new podcast that we have um, Clifton Health on Air. It's on page 10 of the annual report. We started this initiative last year. Um, we were trying
to look for more innovative ways to educate the public about public health. Um, we actually interviewed Mayor Damiano um, last year and we're excited because we were able to publish over 30 separate episodes um, of our podcast. So, if you get a chance um, you can
check us out. We're on all um, of the streaming services and if you'd ever like to be on our podcast, we would love to have you. Um, also um, accreditation is a big part of what we do at the Clifton Health Department. um we became
nationally accredited um in November of 2023. We're very proud of that designation. It's it's a pretty prestigious designation. We're the sixth local health department in the state of New Jersey to become nationally accredited. Um and it just shows that we
are um not just meeting standards that are set, but we're really setting really like the gold standard for public health um in the nation. Um so we actively um work on accreditation really on a daily basis. We have to um submit annual
reports um to the public health accrediting accrediting board um and we will be applying for a reacredititation in 2028. Um, also we wanted to bring your attention to what our um, health
education division does um, because this group of young women is very active in the township of Little Falls. If you turn to page 20 um, that gives you um, a bit of an overview of what we provide in the health education um, division. And like John said, we've been
very active at the civic center. Um, yes. So, thank you to Councilwoman Patel and John for getting us um into the this the center these last couple of years. We have a lot of fun with your seniors. Um and uh you can see if you look on
page 22 of the annual report, just some of our highlights um that we were able to accomplish here in the township of Little Falls. Um we provide homebound um flu shots uh to your residents and we were able to do that this past year. Um
we continue to distribute uh CO 19 test kits um throughout the community. Um we were at the St. Patrick's Day party at the Civic Center this past year and we'll be at your party this coming Friday I believe is your spring fling.
Um you can look at some pictures on page 23 of the report where we helped put together a co 19 memorial um in May and we're going to be doing that again for you this year um this up in a few weeks actually. Um we're at your um local
community events like Oktoberfest and your street fair. Um and we also were very busy providing um a couple of different presentations to your to your students in town. We were we do the don't get vaped in program to help
prevent um children from picking up the dangerous habit of vaping. And um we also were able to start a mindfulness program uh with the third graders. We were able to reach all of the third graders in the township of Little Falls with our mindful Monday. Oh no, actually
we I think we do wellness Wednesdays for Little Falls. We do we do Mondays in Clifton. Um and we got some really great feedback um on the mindfulness program or our wellness um Wednesday programs uh here in town.
Um if you go to page 21 that shows you um about our social media um outreach that we've been doing. Um another thing that we did this past year which was new is we um established a Facebook and
Instagram page for the Township of Little Falls. So if you don't follow us um make sure you're following us on those um both of those platforms um because there's uh it's pretty active. We we definitely um are are posting to um both Facebook and
Instagram on a regular basis for for Little Falls. And then lastly um we just wanted to uh bring your attention to our social services division um which is on page 27. This is a brand new division that we have um in the city uh that we
have started offering to the township of of Little Falls as well. um after co 19 we were able to to make the case for um establishing um a social services division within within the health department. Uh we've been working closely with um the United Methodist
Church. Uh we do some some outreach work um and and um also working to put together hygiene kits and and um food packages for for families that are in need. We've been working very closely with the Banyan School. Um we we've been
doing a lot of programming with them and actually they come to um some of the students come to the health department every Monday morning and they do some administrative work with our administrative division and it's been a really great partnership with them. Um and we also have brought the mindfulness
program to uh to Banyan as well. Um and um I mentioned the um the mindfulness for kids program and that we were able to reach um 100 oh and we also did your fourth grade. So we did 105 third grade students and 100 fourth grade students
um last April and May. So we reached over 200 children with that program. Does anybody have any questions for John or I? some easy questions maybe.
I I I I do have to say um a few weeks ago we were not in such a good mood because we received information that our funding was cut um federally and that would have meant that we would lose six people really six quality people. Our
health education division would have really been impacted. Our social services would have been impacted. So, we uh went to the city uh council in Clifton and mayor and asked them if they could budget for those positions and the
community came out in droves and the love and support was great and therefore that they put it on the budget. So, I have to give kudos to our mayor and council for that. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Beagle or Mrs. Kidd? Mayor, I don't have
so much a question as I do a a comment or just a debt of your gratitude. We want to thank you for the services that you provide to our residents here in Little Falls. You do an outstanding job. You're extremely responsive. The entire department is an asset to this town and I just want to thank you for everything
that you do day in and day out uh for all of our residents here in Little Falls. It's our pleasure really. We we met some really great people and we helped people along the way and that's what it's all about. So, thank you, Mayor. Councilwoman Patel, if you have anything you want to add? No, I ditto owe uh the mayor's remarks. It's been a
pleasure working with John and the entire team. Um I'm really excited about what we've been able to bring to Little Falls and continue to look forward to the future and working together and bringing even more things. I do want to acknowledge uh the health department because last month for my job, I was at
an event that the Clifton Health Department was at. The Boys and Girls Club of Clifton actually honored the health department for all their work. And so Mr. Beagle and his team was recognized and I have to say the crowd gave him a standing ovation because they really were grateful for the work that
was done and Mr. Beagle brought up the fact that the budget was cut and how the team fought to make sure that his entire staff that was there that night was able to continue the work that they're doing. So we definitely do appreciate the work that you're doing and taking the time of course tonight to be here for us as well. Appreciate it. Uh, Councilman
Murphy, they covered mostly everything, but I just want to mirror some of that as well. I know we just did our fire department bloodborne pathogens training with the uh, health education department and uh, thankfully the mayor and council over in Clipton were able to keep them because they do a fantastic job and the whole department really loves all the educators. We have some of the same ones
every year. So, it really is nice to see all them and the throw candy. They throw candy at us. That's why we come back, right? Even though it's mandatory, it's really the candy. But, no, I just wanted to thank you and your team. They really do a great job. Thank you. Appreciate it. Well, we look forward to the next
report. So, thank you for being here tonight. Okay. And Councilwoman Patel, you're going to mention the upcoming events and everything. Yes, I will. All right. Thank you. So, uh, Mrs. Krauss, with the the minutes, we're going to split them. Okay. So, can I have a motion and a
second to approve the minutes from March 24th? So, move. Second. What? You weren't you were here for that? No. So, yes. No. No. All right. Motion by Councilwoman Habitz. Second by Councilwoman Patel. Uh, roll call,
please. Council member Patel. Abstain. Council member Murphy. Abstain. Council member Habitz. Yes. Council member Vaneri. Yes. Okay. So, now we're going to do the second one. Uh, can I get a motion to approve the minutes from April 14th,
please? So, moved. Second. Okay. Moved by Councilman Murphy, seconded by Councilwoman H. Habits. Roll call, please. Council member Patel. Yes. Council member Murphy. Yes. Council member Havitz. Council member Venturi. Yes. Okay. So, Mayor, your report, please. Yeah. I have a fairly brief
report this evening. Uh, two things that I have been reporting on for quite some time. I'll do it again tonight. I'll be short on the first because I know I'm sure you'll have a few words to say, but the light at the intersection of Francisco A and Cedar Grove Road is finally operational. Uh we got through
our oneweek period of the flashing light and have now been with a regular light cycle for about the past almost the past week now. I can tell you I use that intersection more now than I have in the past because I feel a lot more comfortable going through it. I had kind
of two routes to get to my office and now they both feel exceptionally safe with that light now being added at that intersection. So, uh, kudos to everyone who got that done, particularly you, Councilman Ventier, who spent a lot of time, sent a lot of emails, and, uh,
certainly went through a lot of grief to get that operational. So, uh, thank you for that. Uh, my only other update is the parking lot in the middle of town, the former Stanley Street parking lot, uh, behind PNC Bank. Unfortunately, we are continuing to hit the same
roadblocks with Verizon that we have been. We have the high voltage wires. PSEG has completed their portion of the project. We are still waiting for Verizon to move the low voltage wires over to the new poles. Once that happens, we'll finally be able to remove
the poles. We'll then be able to pave the top coat on the lot and actually have it striped. It is striped now, but with the the formal striping that will be there without the big boxes around the the spots that are dangerous because there's poles or elevated uh manhole
covers or catch basins. So fingers crossed we'll get that done within the next couple of months, but Verizon has not only been slow to respond to the site, they've been exceptionally slow in responding to emails. Uh so we continue to plug along, we continue to remind them regularly. Um, unfortunately it
seems to no avail. Uh, but we'll continue to to push through to get that completed. Hopefully in less years than it took for the the traffic light, but at this rate, uh, I I don't know. There's a lot to be desired with how responsive Verizon has been. Um, that's all that I have unless there's any questions from the council that I can
answer. Any questions from the council for the mayor? All right. Thank you, mayor. Council President is not here tonight, but he did want me to remind everyone that the spring the spring fling is coming up on Friday, May 2nd from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. at the Little Falls Civic Center. Little Falls
residents are free. Non-residents it's $20. So, if anyone is interested, you know, please reach out to Mr. Pace over at the Civic Center. So, um enjoy that. And the other thing, too, is uh now that we're getting closer to May, the veterans uh banners are going to go back up. So, I know we're looking forward to that as well as we get closer to
Memorial Day. So, look for that on the street soon from our DPW department. All right, so let's turn to council member reports. Uh, Councilwoman Patel, you want to start us off? Yes. Thank you, Councilman Cherry. Um, I just really do want to thank the health department
again. Um, it really has been a pleasure working with them. They do bring so much to Little Falls. as I will list all of the things that are upcoming. Um, on Wednesday, April 30th, between 5 and 700 p.m. here at the DPW, Clifton Health
Department is holding their rabies clinic for dogs and cats. So, you just have to walk in. There's no appointment required. On May 16th at 9:30 a.m., we will do now our second annual CO 19 memorial. That's
going to take place at Wilmore Park. They're holding an autism awareness kind of festival on Saturday, May 10th, 2025 from 1 to 4:00 p.m. at the Clifton Fire Station 5 on 51 Brighton Road. There's
going to be activities and all the trucks will be out there for the children. They're holding a paint and sip event on Thursday, May 22nd, 2025 at 6 p.m. at the Little Falls Civic Center. You're going to be able to enjoy a short
presentation on skin and sun safety and then enjoy mocktails while you get to paint. Um, if you anyone is interested in attending, you do have to reserve your spot. You can contact Ashley Peralta at
2017390665 or contact me and I could take care of that for you. And then finally, the public health committee is going to meet on May 14th um at 6:30 p.m. right here in town wall town hall. That is all I have. Councilwoman Patel,
do you also want to check with the health department or even your health committee? Uh May 23rd, we have the concert in the park and we have tables set up. So, if anybody's interested, just uh let us know because it would be great if you know the committee or the health department can attend. Absolutely. Okay. Uh Councilwoman Habitz. Thank you,
uh Councilman Veri. Um so, two library updates of new things that are coming to the library. Um, there will be a style and fashion of Audrey Heburn on uh the 4th at 1 pm. Join Robbie Amado as he
takes us through the looks and fashion and personal style of Audrey Hepper. Um, register at the library's website if you'd like to join that. Um, also on Wednesday, April 30th at 11 a.m. there will be another uh edition of the Royal
Tea Party Club uh talking about all things Royal. Again, please register at the website if you'd like to attend. Um, as per usual, you can see all of the great events uh that are upcoming at the library on their website and on their social media pages. Um, I would like to
thank the Little Falls Girl Scouts and our Shade Tree Commission uh for planting our annual Arbor Day tree at Wilmore Park uh that took place Friday night at 5:30. Uh this year's tree was planted in honor of Phil Simone, our
former DPW uh superintendent. Thank you to our DPW for their assistance with planting the tree and thank you to our police officers and uh Phil's family for attending. Uh lastly, less than three weeks from now, we have our farmers market returning. Uh we have some great
returning vendors as well as some new uh that will surely be favorites very soon. Uh opening day is May 19th at 9:00 a.m. uh right here in our municipal lot. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Hlett. Councilman Murphy. Thank you, Councilman. Uh short and
sweet. Tonight we have a domestic violence awareness committee meeting uh next Tuesday, May 6th at 7 p.m. in the upstairs room of uh town hall. So go ahead. Thank you, Councilman. All right, I have some updates, too. I'm going to go through um real fast. Don't worry, I'll try to keep this moving. Uh as the
mayor said, finally with the traffic light that is finally up and running. You know, after our last meeting, I got a phone call the next day to basically say that we're moving ahead with it. So to finally see that happen, I really am glad because it was a long process like the mayor alluded to. I also want to
thank the Little Falls Police Department because they did a lot of leg work too behind the scenes with all the documentation and paperwork that had to go to the county and so many others throughout this journey. But it did finally happen and hopefully people realize, you know, they're going to make that intersection a lot more safer. Um the other thing too I did want to
mention is we're in the process as we've put on social media the speed limit on three particular roads um Stevens as well as Maine and Longill are changing from 35 mph to 25 mph. This was something we did on our end with an
ordinance and the county also approved it on their side. We are just waiting for the signage to come in so that we can make all the necessary changes and then more communications are going to go out along with coordinating with the Little Falls Police Department. I I do want to emphasize because it's always interesting when you um see on social
media all the traffic experts that are complaining about how going from 25 oh that can't happen. Everybody's going to drive fast. But just want to mention something so that to put in perspective when people complain about 35 to 25. You know, a pedestrian has, just so you know, and these are all documents that
you can find AAA, uh, NIH, and so many others, pedestrian has roughly a 10% chance of serious or fatal injur injuries when the vehicle is going at 25 mph. However, when it's 35, that risk increases by 30%. So, by us slowing down
the traffic, we're making it safer, not only for the motorists, but also more importantly, our pedestrians as well that are on our streets. So, you know, please be mindful of these changes and there's going to be enough notification to make sure now all our county roads are at 25 miles per
hour. Lastly, I did want to mention, as I alluded to a few minutes ago with Councilwoman Patel, May 23rd is our annual concert in the park. It starts at 6 p.m. and it will run till about 9. We have two bands already signed up as well as about three food trucks um working on
a fourth. And then there's also an opportunity for local organizations or businesses that anyone wants to have a table at the event. So I'm working through that right now looking to send out the communication by the end of the week so that we can recruit some more attendees for this event. And then the
next day on May 24th is our annual Memorial Day parade. Uh started the the process as well of confirming the participants this year, working on some bands and some others. And at some point next month as well, I'm going to set up some time to connect with the fire department, the police department, uh
DBW, and the rec center just to outline all the plans for that day so that we're coordinated. Um, mayor, I want to turn it back over to you because I believe you had a proclamation you were going to read for Arbor Day. Thank you, Councilman. I do indeed. We have a proclamation and all my
excitement about the traffic light finally being on. I skipped right over reading the proclamation. But this past Friday, April 25th, uh was Arbor Day and as you'd indicated, we planted a tree in honor of Phil Simone with the assistance of our Girl Scouts in town. And I'd like
to read a proclamation in honor of Arbor Day. And it reads, "Whereas in 1872, J. Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the planting of trees. And whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first
observed with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska. And whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. And whereas trees can reduce the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the
temperature, clean the air, produce lifegiving oxygen, and provide habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees are a renew renewable resource, giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products. And whereas trees in our city
increase property values, enhance the economic vitality of business areas, and beautify our community. And whereas trees wherever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal. Now therefore, I, James Belelfford Dami, mayor of the township of Little Falls,
do hereby proclaim April 25th, 2025 as Arbor Day in the township of Little Falls. And I urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and woodlands. And I further urge all citizens to plant trees to gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this
and future generations. Thanks, Mayor. So, at this time, I'm going to ask for Mr. Leonard Shavinsky to come up. We're going to have a discussion about the tree removal and forest management ordinance that's in process. If you could just say your name for the
record, if you don't mind. uh this evening. Thank you, mayor and council for the opportunity to speak. Uh first I'd like to just mentioned thank you mayor for the proclamation echoed thousand times over this week. I heard it over and over
great. Um we're going to speak about a few things. One is we're going to talk about tree removal replacement ordinance that was mandated by the New Jersey Department of Just Hold on one. Yeah, it sounds like it's not coming through. Want to
just push that up a little better. There you go. Good. Thank you. So, we'll start off by talking about the MS4 tree removal replacement ordinance which was mandated by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Uh, this deals with our um process of
storm water management. And so, this is a U mandated ordinance that requires permitting for the removal and replacement of trees within the township of Little Falls. It's mandated across all communities uh and all municipalities and burrows in the state of New Jersey. Um, and we have been
working uh with the township shade tree commission and council uh president Scoba and Councilwoman Hletts to kind of make some sense out of all this and where we're going to put it in place. It is continually uh moving forward. We have a proposed draft that will be
reviewed by the council members I think shortly. Uh if there's any questions about that, you can ask again. But again, this was a mandated ordinance that was passed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. anyone who receives storm water management uh dollars has to abide by
this regulation. So just be aware of that. Uh the next part of this was is the uh their ordinance which actually put in a feebased process for permitting and that was something that we drafted through and again there'll be some discussion as to uh the costs and fees
involved with that and again that should be uh in my recommendation placed under the chapter 218 stormwater management ordinance. So that was my recommendation to uh the township. We also have a shade tree ordinance that we are changing
which is our trees. There's just a draft. There's minor changes that are going on with that. It relates back to connecting it to uh chapter 218 of the storm water management plan. Um, next we're going to go speak about
the fact that in 2024 with uh Council President Scoba and Councilwoman Habits, we were able to finish up our annual report for 2024 for the uh shade tree um requirements for the state of New Jersey for community forestry. Uh what happened
was is we were able to meet that by receiving our communities uh what's called continuing education units. They were provided through uh the DPW and myself and another um consultant that works with uh with my company. In terms
of uh New Jersey urban and community forestry, there is a grant that is available. There's actually two which the community has the opportunity to take advantage of. There is a community forestry management plan that has to be rewritten that's coming up in 2025. It has to be finished by December 2025.
that will include it's in previous years it has been in a five-year rotation. So last year we had it done was 2019. Everyone was given a substantial uh option to move forward without having any issues with COVID. So it was extended in 2025 as a new deadline. Uh
there is a $5,000 grant available to pay for that. Um and we have connected with Millennium Associates uh which is the group that does our consulting for um grants grant writing. So, I've been speaking with Steven Shaheen, who is their representative in terms of
applying for those dollars. Tied to this uh community forestry management plan is also what's called a uh inventory and a tree inventory in the town of Little Falls would basically uh calculate all the trees that are here within public rightways. Give their condition, their
rating, and then some information regarding uh accessible planting sites and so forth and so on. That would also be given a grant of about $15,000. We're not sure exactly where that's going to come out yet, but that uh funding would be extremely helpful in supporting that other part of the contract, which again
is a full municipal um tree inventory. Okay. And on that note, I think we have just one last thing to mention and that is is um in current situation, uh the township has been working with the Sha Tree Commission as they did celebrate
Arbor Day on um Friday the 24th. 24th 25th 25th. Thank you, mayor. Uh Friday the 25th to honor Phil Simone. Um and as the shade tree has been active again, it's great to see that happening and thank you the council and mayor for
their support on that and we continue to look forward to putting this management plan in place. Just so you understand the reason for the management plan is it provides liability for anyone who's involved in overseeing it as a volunteer or a paid employee within the community. there's a liability umbrella that substantially supports them in case
anything should happen as a uh injury or damage from a sidewalk trip or fall or from a tree uh that fell or damaged personal property or an individual within the community. So, that's part of the umbrella that gets covered under this plan. That's about all I have for you.
Thank you, Mr. Shinsky. Does anyone have any questions? Councilwoman Havs, did you want to touch on anything on your end? I just wanted to say thank you for all the work that you have been doing for the township. Um, I know that, you know, it takes time to do this whole plan and we really are grateful to have
you. Um, and I also wanted to announce that while we were talking about Arbor Day and all the things that we've done through the community community forestry management, uh, we were able to get back our tree city designation. Uh, so we are just waiting for the placards and we
will be bringing that up um front of the council at that time to uh, place the placards. Yes, that was as Councilwoman Haba said, that was part of this accreditation report that we did in 2024. We were able to re regain our status as a tree city USA. Thank you so
much. Thank you. And uh just as I heard about the street light and I heard about the mayor with Verizon, it's the same thing when we work with the state on different levels of uh activities with the trees. So, we're all in the same boat, but we're all moving forward. We're tenacious. Thank you and look forward to seeing this ordinance.
Appreciate your time. Have a great evening. Thank you, Mr. Wel. Anything on your end? Uh, just very quickly, um, as you all have u uh may have seen uh with the affordable housing uh litigation that's ongoing, uh the group has now
filed a federal complaint uh with regard to um the obligations. The hope there is that in bringing those claims into the federal court that there would be a more receptive ear at that level which would
not be constrained as much as the state court uh level judges are. Um the litigation as you may recall uh at the state level has been relatively
unsuccessful to date uh to stop or curtail the obligations under the under the Fair Housing Act amendments. Uh however, the belief is that a lot of those decisions were rendered in accordance with an
application of New Jersey court rules and uh court mandates which the federal courts are not hamstrung by. So the hope is that there would be once again a more receptive year that complaints recently been filed and uh as time goes on I will
keep the uh mayor and council updated. Uh nevertheless, even though that litigation continues to go on with regard to the um fair housing act and its obligations
for this round, uh nevertheless, the township has to do its due diligence as part of the act as it currently exists. So, um, the township, as you may recall, back in January, you, uh, passed a
resolution with regard to the affordable housing numbers for the township, uh, based upon, um, Mr. Barry's report as township planner to reduce the obligation from the DCA number down to, uh, a number based upon actual, uh,
available land down to 174. Uh that number was then brought before what's known as the program which is the uh mediation arbitration arm of the courts hearing these affordable housing
numbers. Uh that matter was uh heard and uh the mediator/arbitrator, former Judge Broken uh wholeheartedly, hands down, I think is one of the best decisions I've ever gotten from Judge Broken.
um that and where to go get a cup of coffee in Clifton. Um that he wholeheartedly agreed with our position. Um the builders association attempted to uh scuttle our our our very good faith uh position in
reducing those numbers. Judge Broen didn't buy it. Uh the special adjudicator, Mr. Burgess, didn't buy it. And so, uh, we now have an order that's now been approved by Judge Delsardo. This is how crazy this is. It goes to
former judge program to then judge Sardo, who is now uh given his seal of approval on the 174 number. However, that's not the end of the matter. There's more. It's like a late night
commercial, except you're not buying a rotisserie chicken um maker. Um we now move into the next phase which is the housing plan phase and this is where once again Mr. Barry the township planner township planner is working very
diligently to do uh to review the township's actual vacant land to get what's known as a vacant land adjustment. in essence saying that there this is not like as if you were in western New Jersey where there's acres and acres of
available open land. Um much of Little Falls has been developed and therefore there is limited vacant land for development to then adjust those numbers and then to deal with how we can um properly apply those numbers for the township. That's still in the to be
determined phase that will be coming up. So ultimately my point to all of you is that it's a win. I don't want to say it's a win for the township. It's really not. What it is is reality. Uh so that we've taken the DCA number which was
clearly not reality and we brought this a little closer to reality and now in this next phase in terms of the housing plan we then bring it more into the realm of reality and application that's to be um that's to be handled in the
next couple months. So sometime end of May beginning of June May or is that what we had talked about? Um uh an uh housing plan will be presented uh it has to be presented to the
planning board and it presented to the council for uh final approval. So uh that's uh going to be something coming up on your agenda. Thank you. Council Councilman. Mayor, go ahead. Yeah, I got to tell you it was an
extremely disheartening process to go through in the sense that we got word ahead of our hearing with the builders association that what they had been doing was offering a blanket I think it was 4% reduction uh to municipalities
finding that to be a reasonable reduction in what municipalities were asking for. And sure enough, we showed up to the hearing and their offer was a 4% reduction in our 285 number. And the fact that they were willing to take such
a blanket approach across the entire state or any municipality in which they came and intervened to to see this number stay where it was. um really just went to show me that they were not really looking for a fair number from
each municipality because they didn't take into consideration any of the factors that Little Falls is dealing with versus any other municipality that they may have intervened in and and and were looking to, you know, reduce this or you prevent people from reducing
their number. Uh and it was extremely frustrating. Uh, and I almost laughed out of the gate when they said, "Well, we're willing to consider a 4% reduction." And it was shocker. That's what we had heard you do. And sure enough, did I think I think I did
laugh and uh again, it just really goes to show that they're not really in it for the fairness of the municipality and they're not looking at the factors that may impact each municipality individually. uh they're more concerned with bulking these numbers up to frankly
unreasonable figures because even the 174 while closer to reality as you you'd indicated is still quite a stretch for us to to get there and accomplish that no matter how diligent we may be in the future. Uh so a little bit frustrating that that was the approach that they had
taken but uh certainly a thank you to council and John Barry for their their work in having this number reduced at least out of the gate. Again, not over, but certainly a great first step. It's progress. Keep us posted, please, councelor. All right. Can I have a motion and a second to open the meeting
to public for agenda items only? So moved. Moved by Councilwoman Patel, seconded by Councilwoman Habitz. This is a voice vote only. So all those in favor say I. I. I. All oppose. Mrs. Krauss, can you read the public comment, please? 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 three 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 actions 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 open. Seeing no one on the chat or in the chambers. Can I have a motion and a second to close the public comment? So
moved. Moved by Councilman Murphy, seconded by Councilwoman Woman Patel. All those in favor say I. I. Can I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda at this time? So move. Moved by Councilman Murphy, seconded by Councilwoman Habitz. This is
a roll call. All those in favor? I. Right. Oh, ro I'm sorry. No, I did a roll. There's a roll call. I'm sorry. It's a roll call. My bad. My bad. I'm sorry, Mrs. Crazy. Can you read the role? Council member Patel. Yes. Council member Murphy. Yes. Council member Havs. Council member Venter. Yes. I messed up on that one. I apologize. Don't worry.
We're We're keeping a record. I know. Thank you. I'm sure he's watching at home. Can I have a motion and a second to open a meeting for public comment for general matters only? Moved. Moved by Councilwoman Patel, seconded by Councilman Murphy. All those in favor say I. I. Mrs. Krauss, read the public
comment, please. 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 three minutes. However, if appropriate, you may be granted additional time and the sole discretion of the council president. Members of the public who have joined the meeting virtually and 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. The floor is open. If anyone at the chambers or on the chat would like to come forward with a question. Seeing no one, can I have a
motion and a second to close the public comment? So moved. Moved by Councilwoman Habitz. Second. Seconded by Councilwoman Patel. This is a voice vote. So all those in favor? I. Can I have a motion and a second to adjurnn this meeting? So moved. Moved by Councilwoman Patel. Second by
Councilwoman Habitz. This is a voice vote. All those in favor say I. I. I. This meeting is adjourned. Thanks for everyone.