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let the record reflect we reconvene with all members present uh for those are able please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I ask you remain standing after the pledge iedge Al to the flag the United States of America the for it stands Nation indivisible
andice for all let's take a moment to remember member of our burough extended family and a former longtime Madison resident who passed just yesterday James Bernett III of brenwood Tennessee of course formerly of Madison past peacefully and asleep yesterday at the age of 91 born in Newark city Hospital in 1933 the only child of Dorothy and Jim Bernett Jr went to the Central Avenue School in Madison High School before transferring to Clark
prep and hanare New Hampshire and then graduated from Nicholls College in Dudley Massachusetts Jim served our country as private first class in Medic in the US Army occupation forces in Germany following World War II he was called home to be with his sick father in 1955 Weeks Later Jim's father passed and Jim received a hardship discharge so he could run a family business and so at the age of 22 with a help
of his mother Jim took over Bernett Hardware which stood on Main Street in Madison from 1896 to 1984 went there many time by father and then then by myself Jim was the third generation brunette to successfully run the business Jim had many other business interests in the town including commercial real estate he married Barbara Jules Kenley and July 4th 1961 they had two children
Deborah Lynn and James I 4th Jim later moved to Florida on his visits back to Madison I could see him when he would stop by Central lunch to check up on his many Madison friends Jim was a volunteer for Madison including serving as president of the Madison volunteer ambulance Corps during his time he's responded to over a thousand ambulance calls he also served Executive Board of Madison Bicentennial committee and the Madison savans alone and he was the ninth generation
manian we have a 10th Generation right here Jim was extremely proud of Madison and his family ties Jim's Family helped establish the Presbyterian Church of Madison in 1747 his great great great grandfather I should been for uh maias served on the Mars County Committee of safety during the Revolutionary War in addition Jim's great great-grandfather Maas Lindsley was Madison's first postmaster and was chair of the
local temperance Society in 1834 that helped change the town's name from bottle Hill to Madison the story was he might have been a tiebreaking vote and this and his uh this Madison tradition continues with his son Jim IV who serves as a CFO and assistant administrator in his final years Jim moved to Tennessee in 2021 to be carried by his daughter he survived by his daughter Deborah Bernett Howard her two
children Lucy Howard and Payton Walker and her husband Sam and survived by his son and burrow family member Jim brunette and his wife Sarah their two children Paige and Jeb Bernett and Jeb's wife Molly let us take a moment to remember James Bernett III and let us pass our thoughts on to brunette family and and friends that he leaves behind
thank you I have a motion for the regular minutes of November 25th 2024 so moved second any corrections or discussion all in favor i i
a u motion for the executive minutes of December 9th 2024 so moved second all in favor I I and a motion for the regular minutes December 9th 2024 so moved second any corrections or changes all in favor I I welcome all and also those watching at
home there people watching a reminder our next next meeting is Wednesday February 26th so that all can attend the taste of Madison on Monday the 24th and um I think it's appropriate for the temperature in this room but I was I wanted to talk about um my experience a year later after doing the seal energy audit for our home um and so quick update uh I think I shared that uh the visual test indicated that our very old
house was had no installation in the orinal part of the house so we had insulation blown into our walls supported by rebates and zero interest loans that were secured by Seal and it was the effects have been reinforced when I opened up my January uh PS Bill uh the average temperature for January this year was 5 degrees colder than January last year and my gas usage dropped by 15% so it was quite quite a good effect
so we might do a seal energy for this room and see if we can get a little warmer but uh other things going on um on January 31st I uh hosted the Tor J second grade Brownie troop they learned about uh burough government and as I always do took them through a mock council meeting they proposed an ordinance that would provide free food for all Madison residents and it was a very spirited debate that covered the need for food for everyone but also concern for the the
jobs that uh for the people who sold food and their businesses so the uh brownies Council vote did come down to a 33 tie with the mayor voting yes on the free food ordinance it looks like paying for it may be left to a future uh brownie Council and uh the employee of our month we don't always get to have the employee month right here in this room is uh fire chief Kyle Wickman
award thank you very much so um and this is you know the greatest great story of our staff going over and above on January 31st the Madison High School girls hockey team was scheduled to play at the credential Center at the last minute their trainer was not available to attend the game which meant that Madison would have to Forfeit Chief Wickman
offered to serve as the EMT for the team this allowed the girls the opportunity to play the game on the same ice used by the New Jersey Devils and they also came away with a win against Randolph so Chief thank you very much and our um anniversary is also in the Fire Department fire Captain James Blair will celebrate his 25th anniversary the burrow on February 15th so if you see James congratulate him
and that's a connection to Jim's father because James uh used to work at Central lunch as a kid that's where I first met him so hard to believe it's 25 years already for James and before I go to a proclamation I just want to share something right now and I I typically don't use my greeting to comment on actions in Washington DC but when I see they affect Madison and the impact in the communities not just in the 50 States but across the
world we cannot sit back without a response what I share here right now was reviewed by our council president and the full Council so I am speaking for all of us let me be clear we all understand elections have consequences but a strong democra democracy also has guard rails it is these guard rails that we are talking about we know the priorities of the previous administration are not the priorities of the current Administration however our founding
fathers and drafted Constitution establish three separate but equal branches of government a legislative branch to make the laws and appropriate funds executive branch to enforce the laws and the judicial branch to interpret the laws un unilaterally closing departments or resending grants by Fiat and not by congressional action violates separation of powers and is blatantly illegal putting a hold on programs or
funding while we wait for courts to sort out the challenges will shut down these projects and take away support for those who are most vulnerable state and local governments will be forced to step up hitting us all in the Walling just a few examples just think about the impact of FEMA being shut down or scaled back recovery from fires hurricanes and other natural disasters would be left to local governments had FEMA not existed for our recovery
after sanding we would been saddled with covering hundreds of thousands of of dollars and certainly our costs pale in comparison with those of Asheville and the greater LA area now dealing on their long roads to recovery trying to defund wind farms under construction will push us closer to the climate change Tipping Point to think that drilling for oil along our shorelines is better than generating power through renewable sources is downright absurd ironically
keeper oil will not come from drilling more but from good oldfashioned competition such as Renewables right here in Madison the $600,000 federal funding for the solar carport is threatened by reducing the cost savings for Madison as we work towards our goal to generate power for Madison electric utility that will power this building the way our health department works has also been affected by the actions of this Administration important
educational information that the health department rely on has been taken down from CDC websites this will will lead to confusion especially with the decentralized information which may not be consistent shutting down us Aid will not only lead to starvation and spread of disease but will feed instability as those who feed on terror will seize power over the week immigrants whether documented or
undocumented are holding children back from schools staying away from the churches for fear of being arrested for just looking like an immigrant those in our community now who live with us are now living in constant fear last year in this very room we hosted the family of Brian snik a police officer who was killed in the attack on the capital on January 6th 2021 anyone who loses a
loved one to violent crime are left with the memories and the hope that while they know they cannot bring their loved one back they can at least take solace in the hope that Justice will be served and those who committed the crime will not be able to do the same to others The Stroke of a pen any hope of Justice was destroyed and the sickness only only left with memories of their son who died for our country fear of who's next will be forever in the minds of the officers
who surv who survived that terrible day no matter what happens in Trenton or Washington Madison has demonstrated how we take care of our own Community it has been with the attitude that if we lead locally others will follow regionally but now we cannot sit back and just hope for the best while I I may not agree with much of the action that may come from the current Congress I can live with it as that is how our government works what we what we cannot
live with is to allow rule by Fiat that is not how our government works we all must work to make sure that those reelect put democracy before ideology we demand Congress and our Judiciary step up and defend the core of the Constitution separate but equal branch of the government I ask Madison residents to reach out to members of Congress and ask them to take action to defend our democracy
also let us continue always does support each other and help those in need our nation depends on constitutional guard rails and the world depends on us
Pastor Vanessa Perry please come forward my good friend have a proclamation honoring Black History Month and it's certainly no better way than to have representation from the oldest black
church in our town to accept this whereas each month of February is dedicated to observance of black history and whereas the roots of Black History Month Trac back to 1915 when scholar Dr Carter G Woodson found an organization known today as the association for the study of African American life and history and whereas Black History Month has been federally recognized by every US president since 1976 and whereas Black History Month
is annual opportunity to celebrate progress but is also time to solemnly remember the work of those who fought for that progress whereas black Americans continue to help our communities Thrive at all levels of business government military health art culture and Innovation and whereas the 2025 Black History Month theme African-Americans and labor highlights a transformative contributions of black people across various forms of Labor
enslaved voluntary ational and professional throughout US history and whereas black labor labor has been Central to building economies architectural Heritage and social institutions while African-Americans have continually to organize to combat exploitation wage disparities and discrimination now therefore I have Robert H Conley the mayor of burough Madison on behalf of the governing body hereby Proclaim February 2025 as Black History Month and ask all to continue
our efforts to create a world as just peaceful and prosperous for all on behalf thank you mayor thank you to whom truly is a good friend um for my five years it'll be 6 May 5th of this year and to all of the Council on
behalf of the community we thank you all for recognizing uh the oldest black church in Madison amen and we receive this with great pleasure and joy and I will share this this Sunday with the members which to whom we call Believers of bethl um at the 11:00 service I will read it not as eloquently as you did but I will read
it so that they know that the burrow is with us thank you all so very very much thank you for taking the time
and I know you will do a much better job and I and I would I would love to join you but as I told you a few minut I will be off with my grandchild so I will miss you on Sunday thank you thank you for we move on to reports from committees finance and
B cler council president Erick thank you mayor we have some words from the finance department to start as you know Council has had multiple Financial presentations over the last few months tonight we will continue that process we will speak with the fire chief about his budget and our new ambulance services then we will get our first look at we will get our first look at the draft sorry
at the draft Municipal budget which is developed by the burough Administration for us to review and discuss tonight it's important to note this is a draft budget and will change as the numbers are refined voting on the budget is one of the most important actions that Council takes we work hard as a governing body to be transparent and to make information available to the to the public and to Madison residents tonight we will have the third of six scheduled budget presentations on January 27th we
discussed Water and Electric utilities on at our next meeting Wednesday the 26th we will meet with department heads and then on March 24th we will discuss the municipal budget once again and review strategic planning guidelines we will have one final discussion on the budget along with the introduction of the official state budget document as per state statute we then take a four-week break so that all residents have the opportunity to review the budget document and then on April 28th we're scheduled to have a
hearing and vote to adopt the budget as a reminder all budget information is available on the annual budget process page on rosenet.org in other news the Chief Financial Officer has filed the annual debt statement with the state of New Jersey Division of local government services special thanks to tax collector Chrissy mer for help with this the annual debt statement summarizes the total debt for both the burrow and the school board and Compares it to the average of the last three years of our equalized assessed
values the annual statement or ads is available on rosenet along with many other financial documents the ads is yet another tool to help ensure towns are being fiscally responsible and transparent thank you thank you sure wonder I think that's sound of now public safety Mr landrian thank you mayor from the Police Department chief Mission and Captain Longo met with arrive representatives from the Mental
Health Association and moris County prosecutor's office on the logistics of the program going Statewide the meetings consisted of topics such as funding and hiring clinicians there will be more to come on this topic on February 4th the Madison police department hosted representatives from online policing solutions that demoed an online platform for law enforcment to include a special needs database community policing
interface and recuitment tools the database is being used by many departments including the prosecutor's office both the chador and Floren Park police departments had officers present for the demonstration the Madison police department took part in an auto theft task force Patrol on Wednesday night February 9th to the patrol targeted stolen vehicles and burgl patrols the details in the detail included members
of out of sourcing agencies and the state police and finally the police department will be conducting their firearms qualification refresher next month during the week of February 24th this month during the week of February 24th this is the first of four qualifications in 20125 from the fire department in January the fire department responded to 204 fire and EMS calls 89 people were transported to the hospital
17 home Sal inspections were performed 53 fire prevention inspections were conducted and one fire investigation completed and finally the 2004 fire prevention Bureau inspection report was submitted to the state thank you mayor Public Works and Engineering Mr range thank you mayor from uh DPW tonight uh the Department of Public Works has contined to assist the water utility in continuing the effort to complete the water meter replacement
project the parks department has taken delivery of new benches and tables for the Dodge field playground and are currently assembling them and we'll deliver them to the playground in the near future as we're all aware um since the last council meeting uh and actually upcoming this week there have been several uh snow and ice events and DPW Crews have been uh proactive and uh out on the roads when needed uh clearing parking lots roads and sidewalks throughout the burough residences
and businesses are reminded to clear the sidewalks uh of snow and ice after storms uh particularly those in the downtown area uh and also to further assist our fire department please be sure to clear fire hydrants that are on or near your property residents are reminded that curbside uh waste collections uh yard waste collections will start on Monday March 3rd which is only a couple of
weeks away uh despite the snow uh the last couple of weeks uh yard waste bags are also available from the DPW garage and the clerk's office here in heartley Dodge Memorial from the building department uh in the month of January uh 2025 147 permits were prepared at a construction uh value of $ 7,600,000 which includes processing payments
associated with those permits 52 certificate of approvals were issued and 12 certificate of occupancies were issued including one multi-unit building with six units One commercial addition uh six residential additions two whole house renovations and two detached garage uh structures they also conducted 150 or I'm sorry 550 inspections that were booked and performed along with uh
44 uh OA requests that were processed by the building department and lastly tonight from the environmental commission the Mec held a very successful Workshop uh at the end of uh January on the top 10 invasive plants that homeowners very well may have in their yards these plants which include uh Barberry burning bush calerie pear trees and Asian Wisteria are imported species that may not seem invasive at first glance but when Birds
spread their seeds to parks and forests they grow aggressively since they are imported species they have no uh natural predators and deer and local insects won't eat them the Mec has useful information on invasive plants and how you might substitute native species on roset so be sure to check out that web page that's all for tonight mayor thank you thank you and utilities Mr buis thank you mayor welcome everybody the community from the
water department the water department repaired a 6in water main break off rosale I inquired about it to see if there was any residential homes that were affected but there were none this was the line that feeds the community pool water fountains the fire hydrant and the the entire area around Memorial Park uh water meters water meters as uh councilman range said are continue to be replaced uh metertech is pretty much done uh
trying to get a few more off the list and then the water department will take over for the ones that are a little more challenging it need some uh Plumbing maintenance uh during curb we're doing curb curb box repairs the Water Department located an iron pipe service line at a house that was scheduled for for um to be changed and I asked what is the curve box those of you that don't know and I didn't know so the
curve box the underground valves on the waterline from the street going to your house and they control just individual homes during water meter replacement the last few years there there was found nonfunctioning curve boxes and the water department is repairing them accordingly uh the department is continuing normal well maintenance items for repairs and getting estimates and timelines to keep our wells functioning properly large large
meter Replacements continue one that happened recently is the pineacres Assisted Living uh home it was replaced at night due to the manner of its operations during the day so now finally has a functioning meter for the first time in two years so these appointments are largely gained through the ability of Jim Trimble thank you Jim uh the department will continue curve box checks and repairs as
needed anticipate finding more iron services and they will be replaced as we go so I asked what's an iron service an iron service is a galvanized iron steel or lead water service lines they're the property of the homeowner so they're going on the the front of your home and they're very old most of them so they are responsible for replacement and they potentially contain lead I was told most of Madison now has copper while we are in the process as required by 2021
law to confir the composition of service lines and make notifications to the property owner uh the what else did they say the department will continue curve box checks said that the water department with the burrow is updating the list of iron Services a form letter as required by law will be sent out to the property owners advising them of the iron service and replacement suggestions and requirements that's all from the
water department and from the U ility uh there was a standby call for flickering lights at 31 Albright uh there was some L some lines that had a bad contact and were shorting out standby was called out for 20 LR up Avenue for a wire that was down by tree uh Cruz pulled out one of the old Riser poles at Link in place which was hooked up temporarily in front of the movie theater building during the construction uh the
temporary service was installed for 23 Sur Lane and 56 Midwood Terrace which are both uh soon to be demolished for new uh new construction there was a new service installed at 286 294 which is the Main Street Madison mall apartments between Honda and the uh Staples Mall uh they're finally totally connected and I think they're in hopefully finishing process is a little bit roughing inside
uh there was the relay upgrade at circuits of Kings Road substations is now complete the electric Department completed annual training on bloodborne pathogens lockout tagout protection awareness and Flagger skills and safety and I didn't find out what those are so sorry about that electric Department continues to respond to calls completing markouts street light repairs and daily substation inspections and readings I
just wanted to report something from the recreation activity committee mayor uh they just finished the uh weekly ski trips for the Youth in Madison uh they successfully had five runs to Peter Mountain 50 volunteer parents it was probably I hope a great experience for them because I remember when I did it I don't know if any of you did SK Club was something that be remembered and then something you were glad when it was done uh and the last have a message
we have a message from First Energy Corp which is a division of PS they are asking for Valentine's Day not to let uh helium Metalized balloons float because they cause power outages the uh the aluminum in the balloons if it touches any power lines it conducts electricity and poses a risk to the Electric System PG said they had 109
power out last year they claimed due to the Metalized ilien balloons so be very careful if you if one slips out of your hands try and get it that's it all right thank you all right mayor Community Affairs Miss Hanahan thank you mayor um from the Downtown Development commission uh the next meeting is open to the public it's on February 20th right down the hall here in heartley
Dodge the mad green and clean is being planned and will take place on April 26th uh this evening Lisa Ellis will be presenting uh some information regarding new signage that will be added to the buau and give us a little bit of history there Chamber of Commerce big event Taste of Madison February 24th and uh the senior center of the greater chadam area where Madison residents uh can go for senior
programming is sponsoring uh shred on April 26th at the chadam middle school and on June 6th celebrating their 35th Anniversary so um there's a lot of work going on there and great programming uh the open space Recreation and historic preservation committee will meet via Zoom tomorrow night and if you're interested in learning what's going on there please join thanks mayor thank you Mr Forte thank you mayor for the month of Janu January
the health department investigated five outbreaks caused by respiratory illnesses in addition they investigated two reports of other communicable diseases they also inspected 11 retail food establishments and responded to eight environmental complaints respiratory illness remains High especially for influenza please stay home if you're feeling sick and wash hands frequently the health department would like to remind residents not to touch any birds that appear to be sick or dead if dead or sick birds are observed residents should contact 877 War D thank
you mayor you move on to Communications and petitions nothing received Commander now we're on to our first of uh two invitations for public comment this one is limited to items on our uh discussion agenda which is burrow signage presentation and also the budget hearing at fire department uh presentation and plary budget of course we can comment on those afterwards in
come on period and these are the resolutions you may comment on right now resolution 69 which is approving appointments to the office of emergency management OEM coordinator uh Robert landrian um the OEM Deputy coordinator Captain Joseph Longo and OEM assistant Deputy coordinator Chief John Misha these are uh volunteer unpaid volunteer positions resolution 70 is uh approving shared service agreement with uh
burrow Mountain Lakes to provide IT services um resolution 71 is approving raffle license for the Madison the friends of the Madison Public Library for April 26 resolution 72 is awarding contracted posital engineering for professional engineering design services for improvements to East Street Dogwood Drive and Hardwood Drive resolution 73 is authorizing use of competitive Contracting process for property tax Ral Services
uh we have been ordered to have a tax reevaluation take place next year will be certainly sharing information on that whole process in the coming year resolution 74 is um authorizing shared service agreement with the city Summit to provide IT services for a period of six months uh resolution 75 is authoring submission to New Jersey historic trust fund Grant application for heartley DOD
B Tower roof gutters and leaders and doors resolution 76 is authorized a sustainable Jersey Grant application and this is through the sustainable jersey small grants program resolution 77 is appointing Michael lus to the position of probationary police officer at salary that is accordance to PDA Association collective bargaining agreement uh resolution 78 is approving raffle license Mar Church on
March 22nd resolution 79 is awarding contract to AC Schultz of Woodbury Heights preventive maintenance repair of sewer pump station equipment uh this base bid was $1,120 and it's covered to the operating budget resolution 80 is Grant approving submission of Grant application agreement for New Jersey uh Department transportation for a Shady Lawn Drive Improvement project resolution 81 is
rejecting submissions for tree pruning and tree removal services and to rebid and authorizing negotiation the lowest responsible bidder failed to acknowledge receipt of addendum so all were rejected resolution 82 2025 is approving raffle license for PTO Kings Road school for raffle on February 28th resolution 83 is accepting the rable retirement of Madison ARS
EV director John Bowski certainly want to thank John for his years of service leading in our art center a lot of great things going on and related to that is resolution 84 is appointing Caroline romanelli for the position of acting Madison Arts invent events director she's been supporting it so she's ready to jump in there annual salary 55,000
CLA wicom 12 Fairwood Road um I wanted to comment on item number my picture 76 which is the sustainable Jersey Grant and I wanted to um
say a few words about that um the environmental commission and sustainable Madison have worked um with the support of Eric range who work with the DPW to figure out um how we could get a grant there's a $10,000 sustainable Jersey Grant and we're applying for uh gas leaf blowers I mean electric leaf blowers to replace um equipment for summer usage so that we can have a quieter healthier um summer and what's really exciting
is um amner last name I don't remember is from the sky Green Earth electric landscaping company that started up he consulted with um Us in this meeting and you can get U batteries that can be used in all kinds of equipment so if you get a battery for leaf blowers you can use it in a mower you can use it in a hedge trimmer and and so if we get this it will cover some charging items and enable the
DPW to in it's uh Landscaping um and we would have a quieter healthier medicine which would be so lovely thank you thank you very much anyone else wishing to comment on the resolutions or the two agenda items the none I close this part of the meeting then we move on to our genda discussions and our director of Business Development Lisa Ellis will do a presentation on a Gateway
way finding project which is 25 question yeah I only have a only have a couple of slides so I won't take a lot of your time um this is a request to fund just over $400,000 in the capital budget for next year for the purchase and installation of Gateway and W binding signage uh we had originally done a presentation merge did a presentation to Council
in public but so but I thought it's been a little bit I should recap for the public and for you the downtown revitalization study completed by urbanomics in 2017 recommended a complete reand rebranding process for the burrow and the Downtown Development commission a local consultant was hired and the new brands were developed through a very involved committee process initiated by the
ddc's marketing and economic development committee once the new brands were created The Next Step was to evaluate the bur's existing Gateway and wayfinding signage and create a plan for replacement consistent with the new brand standards the Gateway and way finding signage system steering committee included myself mayor Conley council member John Hoover Eric range Joe Longo Bob Duffy Kevin O'Keefe
and representation from the DDC and the Madison Area Chamber of Commerce an RFP was written and distributed and the committee selected merge to work with us to develop the new signage plan the committee worked closely with merge to create the plan evaluating multiple iterations and making changes and adjustments along the way until the plan was something that we could all be proud of trying to recap process that took
multiple years and a lot of focus dedication and thoughtfulness on the part of all involved in two minutes it's not an easy task and in no way diminishes the process or the result the final plan includes almost 200 pages of design details installation specifications sign locations Etc the final documents were shared with mayor and Council but let me know if you've lost track of the link and
I'll be happy to resend it to you the final plan was broken into four groups with the understanding that the project would have to be phased over multiple years tonight we are focusing on the two groups the committee felt were a absolute priority Gateway and parking um this would leave for leave vehicular and pedestrian and The Pedestrian
groups for future years um I don't if you know you're driven around town we have absolutely no Gateway signage at this point there's one sign left at the corner of division and Main Street the rest have all deteriorated and have been removed um it's always a little bit jarring when you see we have none and you know flen park has signs everywhere right at our
borders and chat so it's time we uh we we took this step and created some beautiful signage that will really enhance our gateways and make our parking lots easy to find uh right now we have they have names but there are no signs to indicate that so this is a will be a great first step I really uh would appreciate you in getting
this project off the ground um this is just a this is a sampling of the Gateway signs the next slide is the parking element and then the third slide is the budget and the breakdown um we think that you know there might be some ways to save on some of the installation having DPW do some of it um a lot of that hasn't been decided we have to have go out to
bid obviously on this project but we can't do that until we have the funding allocation anybody has any questions um Le I think this is a great effort you know I've been in other towns U I'll tell you one right now Lambertville where they have wonderful signing to the point where The Pedestrian signs too they make big use of that so it makes Town much more
I'll friendly or much more usable so I think this is a wonderful first step and it's definitely overdue so thank you just gonna add that um we we pride ourselves on being a welcoming Community but it's tough when you don't have a sign that says welcome to the Madison I got a step in the right direction the other thing uh Le and I had a conversation recently and this is something that always comes up um is the complaint of not enough parking in in Madison the reality is we have a
parking finding problem because our way finding for parking is uh terrible at best think about uh you know in weekends in the evenings we have unlimited parking with commuter Lots we just need to get people to get there and I often have used an example of when you you go to another town to have a dinner God forbid you leave Madison for another dinner but sometimes you might need a friend there um you don't even think about the fact you're going to park right in front you
you look you look for the signs and you find a placees park and you walk a block or two and you have your dinner that's what we should be able to do with Madison there is plenty of parking around our downtown comments gate yes those Gateway yes because we have multiple entrances town some are considered
primary and some are considered secondary depending on the location and the the intersection elements of the intersection they all um for designed specifically for different locations right we're doing
both that's proposal that's that's what correct is your blue light on you want me to ask them all again no no you we're okay we got we got it well enough okay I was loud I wasting so this is Phase phase one but two groups got it I like it thanks Lisa for fin getting it forward it
thanks Lisa I noticed one of the Gateway signs is for the mrcc which is exciting uh obviously that is a gateway because we have so many visitors to the recreation and conservation complex from other towns um in my time working with the parks advisory committee Park signage was a really big deal because we have a real grabag different kinds of signs the legs
of them get chewed up from the weed whackers like hitting the wooden sign post right so is there a followon effort to match the park signage for our other destination parks there there's no reason I mean it would have to be something that was added um along the line I think at the time we um Parks was going through um trying to create that master plan and felt that we felt
the committee felt it was putting the cart before the horse a little bit um but it's certainly now we have the standard it's very it's almost a a plug-and play and it's pretty inconsequential to have them design a park sign or a historical marker actually I had just asked them recently to uh design a adop to space sign for like the are that are by
landscaping companies and whatever they actually did that thanks thanks mayor um Lisa thanks for um kind of shepherding this through this has been a long time coming um since I chaired the working group uh back on my days at the DDC and I'm now on my second term on Council so that tells you how long this has been um kind of in the
work so um you know it was a real group effort a lot of people put a lot of time into this so really appreciative that it's finally uh coming and yes I all four both groups one and two in this um to accelerate uh kind of the process because if we do um if we spread this over the original four phases um I will be on my third term on Council by time it gets done um so I I think this
is a a great way to move forward and certainly the gateways um and the parking are definitely two priorities uh that can benefit not only the downtown but other areas as well so thank you Lisa thank you um I was just gonna Echo some of Eric's comments I'm thinking back to I think uh I left the DDC I believe it was 2004 and we were struggling with this issue of signage around town and I'm thinking this is not an insignificant
amount of money but it's probably well worth it and I think if we were to look back the reason we don't have a comprehensive signage uh scheme in Madison is is because we probably struggle with the cost over the years I think you know biting the bullet doing the right thing moving on is probably the best thing for Madison what I would say is now I mean all the signage the materials are are far more sustainable
some of the older typ hopefully it'll last for a very very very long time questions or comments so this is to be part of our capital budget Now we move on to budget hearings andman
how you doing tonight thank you for having me this is my uh second time up here for a budget um so we had actually a very busy year last year as you know we a lot of changes to the fire department um we had you can see there our busiest we've ever been 2,164 calls um obviously a lot of that has to do with the new EMF service that we've been running uh last year in April as we all know
we took over transporting uh patients to the hospital where the ambulances uh became we became a state licensed agency and our our ambulances are now State licensed um we used to just do first responder when we would back up the Ambulance Corp or if the ambulance was busy all of our firefighters are EMTs and would go and stabilize the patient or now we've moved on to where actually we're transporting patients with our or EMTs and sometimes our firefighters also um fire prevention um uh Captain
Blair was uh promoted last year he's been doing a terrific job of getting into all the businesses the schools and um catching up on everything that needed to be done uh last I think I forgot how many it was he just did last month in January he really hit the ground running um a lot of places haven't been looked at in a long time um so we do all the commercial inspections anytime a house is sold in Madison by state state law that has to have a uh make sure there's a smoke detectors and a carbon monoxide alarm uh there used
to be a fire extinguisher uh requirement which I believe was just resented by the state it just hasn't caught up yet I know there's been some questions from Realtors about having a fired extinguisher in your house don't have to have it anymore um fire safety programs we do visit all the schools let the kids come out see the fire trucks and we do a presentation for them it's very popular with the kids and sometimes we can't get to the schools they they actually come to us and we also have increased our food truck permits uh the local um movie Set actually got a good
taste of that is every day they got a new food truck that would come that Captain Blair was very excited to go up there and inspect every single truck that came and they were great they were fantastic uh company to work with that production company and I saw the emails I really do hope they come back they were fantastic easy to work with uh next slide type of calls we had we um we actually had a busy fire related incidents uh on fire related calls last year 37 is actually a lot including actually um we all know the big Drew
fire that we had that the state fire service actually um caught on um they actually notified us they saw it first um a lot of EMS calls um elevator entrapments eight where we do ring removals believe it or not we we we have special devices to help remove rings from a patients hands um sometimes we can get it without damaging the ring other times we have to cut the ring but it's it's really a neat uh device that we have um hazardous condition we get a lot of gas leaks a lot of carbon
monoxide alarms um a lot of people don't know that if you call psng because you smell gas as soon as you hang up with them they call us because they don't know if they can get there right away and so they say well you can get there in three minutes so we go to a lot of gas Lees a lot of times people are confused like I called the gas company and now there's two big fire trucks out front um all lockouts we do do a lot of lockouts um a lift assist we're we're trying to get our new KNX boox program for resal um houses off the ground for
most uh for for fall victims like we get a call sometimes where people they fallen and they can't get to the door um we're getting a pilot program off the ground where we actually can install temporary um nox boxes which you've probably seen at commercial buildings and schools and bronze box that we are the only ones that have keys to that and they're kept in um a special Vault well now we're able to get get these installed on houses and can get into
um elderly person's house that Fallen maybe someone's like parent lives alone and they want to have some way of a secure way for the US to be able to get in um I can talk about that more the next slide um oh our accomplishments we did add three volunteers last year uh we lost two but we surprisingly just got a bunch coming back um a couple one was away on Military uh he's back and then another individual that moved back into town so
we're we have three right now that are in the application process so it's it's it's starting to come around again uh the EMS division we promoted two captains Captain uh Rob Dunn is the other one he's running the EMS division and we also promoted three lieutenants Day of Service is always popular where we bring the high school kids in give them a taste of what the fire department is uh during the day matter of fact I I remember talking to you about it we actually we with interns now from the
high school seniors where we kind of hand select somebody that we think would be like like good or like be into the job uh the one we have now he he he was only supposed to be with us for half the year and he was supposed to go to the police department came in my office he goes I don't want to go to the police department he goes I love this I want to be a firefighter I'm 18 can I join I said absolutely and so now he's a member of the fire department and it looks he's he's the type of individual I think we're going to have for long long
time so we're going to expand this program and try to get into like hand select seniors that we think that would be a good fit and hopefully use that as another pipeline to promote more Volunteers in Madison um we we did a confined space rescue drill at the pitini Arsenal fire department uh pitini um interesting enough they don't just serve the base they serve the communities there's they're sorry the communities around them they're the largest career Fire Department in Morris County and they they are in do
Jefferson Rockaway all the time well they they have a lot of really neat stuff and they like to travel and they're like hey can we join Madison and whenever you guys do some training and if you guys ever have one of these big trench rescues confined space can we can we help I said absolutely why would I turn that down just kind of a long commute um the KNX boox upgrade I talked about that's been um tremendous we our keys are more secure now than ever before the keys were just in a residential a realtor lock box in the
truck we now have complete control over these keys where if the key is even removed from the Vault I know who did it when they did it and when they returned it so that's been a huge huge uh burden it was kind of when these Keys get lost it's it's not great because you have to go and and change the the cylinder in every single one of those and it gets expensive now it's switching to a digital fob where you actually you enter a special code to get the key out then you have to enter another special code to use the key fob
and if you lose the key fob 10 minutes later it's dead and so it has to go back in so that's been that's been really good for us and then we also signed a um agreement with Berkeley Heights where we're doing shared service for their confined space entries they they don't have a team anymore and they were concerned about we we have the um the abilities to do confined space we want the man holes and and the sewer plant they have to have on call people so we sign a Shar service that slide so
some of our goals we want to sustain the EMS it's doing great um it's it's doing a lot better than I knew it was going to be good I didn't know it was going to be this good they they're doing a great job I'm very proud of all of them I've gotten I think six or seven letters from Atlantic Health about them being able to recognize Strokes as fast as they do and they say time to table and so they send these these these letters and they get a brain pen so I've been handing those out to all the EMTs it's been pretty neat um keep recr volunteers um increase their the responding
to calls to get them to come out more I want to do a lot of training this year I think we had a lot of injuries and and people out with sickness last year we didn't get to train as much as we really wanted to last year and I really want to focus on training this year um we used to use something called niffers and that's what we have to report every single response to the federal government they're changing it through nearas and they're doing it at the end of the year we became uh compliant with it last year we already headed the game on that
unfortunately the software that we were using they were just told us that they're discontinuing it so after we built out the whole software package they're refunding our money and now we got to go find another software vendor which looks like we did actually just today next one um so we we didn't go too crazy for Capital this year we understand some of the constraints um the big one is is replacing our firefighter turnout gear has a has a shelf life on it and and now they're finding these forever in in it
so they want us to replace it as as fast as we can 10 years is is a good amount of time but believe it or not we're actually running out of gear we've had so much change over volunteers and just 14,500 will probably buy us about four sets which which is about a good average what we do plus we apply for Grants we got a $50,000 Grant last year that we're still in the process of using that to buy more gloves turnout uh turnout Gear helmets and whatnot um we
have up 2028 to start budgeting for uh the ladder truck um I knew managing people was going to be difficult the hardest part I think so far is managing the fire apparatus it's it's not how it was when I first got hired in 1997 I can't believe I've been here this long but we've had I remember driving around a 1981 Mac pumper you know you could drive it off a cliff and get back in and it'll still run and these things now are loaded with computers and the computers they they when once they stop making them or
once they go bad they don't make them anymore you can't find parts it's very difficult and we also found recently that we were getting a lot of bad frame corrosion and we think a lot of it has to do with the brine that was on the roads um that the rust on the bottom of these trucks is is unbelievable but they do a great job of maintaining them but it's it's it's expensive and it's very hard to maintain the trucks the lad truck uh 2008 we have a lot of problems with it um we have um a gentleman coming
in at the end of the month he's actually from Germany he's only the only ones in the country that can fix it the ladder goes up but the bucket is inoperable and with that we don't have an elevated Waterway we haven't had that working for a few months but hopefully by the end of this month it'll be running but they're expensive new new fire apparatus are are very very expensive these next slide um so just as a recap we are a combination fire department there's 14 firefighters about 16 volunteers
that kind is like the tide goes in and out five suppression 11 support we have one new volunteer I just spoke about is in high school he's actually goes to the fire academy on Tuesday nights and Sunday nights and he he's I asked him today if he's he's having a good time he goes this I'm so glad I found this like it's just a perfect fit for him and we have about 24 PDM EMTs that that work at two or two at a time or sometimes one and they they primarily the ambulance response in conjunction
with a few of the volunteers from the ambulance Corps left and I'm also very proud of the firefighters because a lot of times during the day there will be multiple EMS calls at once and the fire two firefighters will run across the street get second an ambulance and and go so that that's been working out pretty well we're always looking for more volunteers rosenet.org MFD um is that is that questions yes uh that knockbox program is wonderful because
I remember years ago we used to go to a house and you could see the person laying on the floor we used to have to take the door down break the door down so the more you can get that out into the community it would be wonderful we we I think it came to head a few months ago when we had to climb on someone's roof to go through a window for someone who had fallen down the stairs and um thankfully there was a window open but we got a grant from
um not I keep saying it wrong the um we're in the building now next to the Junior School it's not yeah the the lodge they they gave us a grant and we bought nine of these residential um they're called they're door hangers and they're they're they're expensive I think they're they're about almost $400 a piece but we're working on a program now to get these out and it's again instant access without doing any damage and the other question I is do you see Mutual Aid
calls going up this is about the most stable Fire Department in the area and with Volunteers in other Communities going down I could see you guys getting more going out to other towns at work we're we're very fortunate in this town you've done a wonderful job of supporting us and I talk to the neighboring Fire Chiefs all the time a lot of my good friends I'm very close with the moristown chief and moristown is probably our most stable partner um they don't hesitate of sending people
right away um the the other neighboring towns I was just at a meeting with East Handover and East Handover is looking to mirror what we're doing here and they it's going to take a little bit longer for them to get to the level we're at but they they're being very Pro I met with their administrator their their their fire chief they have a fire director too and a council member and they're like okay we want to kind of do what you guys are doing because it's working but it's going to take them a few years just take time but it
makes perfect sense yeah and Floren I don't know Floren Park and shadam but they all have they all have problems everybody does I mean it's it's getting the volunteers the volunteer but then getting them to respond that's been the interesting problem is they where there's a drill right now they're all there problem is is getting them to come out at night during the day Chief thanks for uh the presentation and you know know you mentioned that
other communities want to emulate us but the one thing that they don't have um and that they won't get is you um and you know certainly we can provide funding we can provide resources but um the leadership that you have provided to the department since you came um and I don't think when you were uh interviewing for the job that you were you thought you were going to be running the EMS program it
evolved pretty quickly and uh yeah and and Bob and I got together and thought that that'd be a really great thing for you for you to do so um thank you very very much for your incredible leadership and taking the resources that you've been provided and and really transforming not only the fire division but also the EMS division because I think we can be very proud of the service that we're providing our Community um and I know Jim will talk
a little bit about the the financials of it um but it is an investment that is well worth the investment for our community um and and frankly it's a service that surrounding communities simply don't have so um kudos to you and and your entire team thank you yeah we got great people in that building can't brag about them enough thank you so much Chief and um I just wanted to say thank you to Captain Blair because he has been doing so much
good work in in town and we appreciate it at Grace Church I know um we were behind and there were some issues and um you know it protects all of the you know the whole community so a big thank you to him and congratulations on 25 years have to get on that oh yeah I he he didn't tell me about that one I didn't know 25 he's catching up and and thank you for planning ahead for the truck and and everything um that's something that
we'll take into account over the next chief thanks so much uh I can never help but being complimentary when you're here I think you just do such a great job and I I believe it's probably lost on the residents uh and the uh folks who work in Madison just how important it is to have a fire department such as the one we have here with the EMS service I think there's a lot of great things that make Madison a wonderful place to live
and work and visit but you know Madison is probably one of the safer towns to live in to work in to visit because of the work that your department does so thank you very much thank you I do have a question around the tower truck I think you have it slated for 2030 um if I you know I'm involved in this for for work to some extent so if I think about the cost of a tower truck today I think it's probably like for a good one it's probably going to
shock people probably around $2 million 1.9 million right so in 2030 how much is it going to cost and it and would we think about um you know ordering it early and and locking in a cost such as we did for the truck that we were uh that we committed to earlier this year that's a great question the current lead time if from the time you order a ladder truck is 44 to 48 months um um an engine the engine that we just ordered um will
not be here till 2027 there's an interesting article that just came out from private Equity is buying up all the firet truck manufacturers and the Rev Group which is one of the big ones has 11 billion doll on their order book and they won't expand production or t 10 10 billion whatever it was but it's that's that's a great question um the there is such things as stock trucks that the dealers are ordering kind of like a car dealer would order for the floor of their dealership
and I have been approached saying hey we you guys have been a great customer we have a stock truck that won't be here till 2027 let us know we'll put Madison's name down first and it's that something like that or ordering one it's it's going to be you don't have to put any money out now it's the same kind of thing that we do now that they just want kind of like a um a note like that you're going to buy it and then if you order one custom the what want like I said it's 44 to 48 months delivery it's just
long yeah I think there's the you know the aspect of will we get a truck that's one and we need them but number two they're not getting any cheaper no so if we can get them at a price that's relatively good compared to what it will be five six years from now probably an advantage especially when you think about the fact that they're on the road for us for 25 to 30 years yeah it it's the I think the days
of the 25 to 30e truck is going to be really tough it just the the not only that but they keep changing the emission requirements like for instance the engine that we ordered um changed in price for $35,000 because of the EPA requirements that were needed in the engine so I can't even predict what's going to change with that next either I did want to say but the batteries that we were talking about we have almost converted every single one of our gas engines to battery power all of our big fans that we use are
battery powered or electric powered even our the jaws of life which used to be hydraulic and run on big our five horsepower like Briggs and Strat and fourstroke Motors we've converted all that to the same type of batteries it's all electric it's we don't use hardly any gas engines for anything any want everybody compliment that already Echo that too thank you but I have a question so the has your call breakdown
okay such a big increase in calls that maybe people weren't calling for some of these issues oh co they definitely dropped down in Co nobody wanted us in their house so people learn how to take care of themselves real fast yeah yeah yeah a lot of the the the simple calls the EMS calls EMS very busy fire calls too fire calls busiest that we've ever been yeah but you don't really like account that to anything that people to the town is much busier I traffic is
traffic is you can see just drive around town there's a lot more people okay well that's great you guys so busy number of calls is like four a day five a day yeah it's busy so busy thanks guys are doing a great job thank you thank you Chief and not to uh jump on everything that's already been said but for those that tuned in late I announced that he was the employee of the month yeah thank you that that was it was that was very thought they were kidding today when they but but it's all it's been
mentioned by Eric and others about the EMS and we just can't thank you enough for the leadership because as we' said when you dial 911 you want an answer and not just an answer you want someone at your door you want it quickly we were faced with not being able to do that and your quick management of that getting the uh pdms in and getting to buy in from your staff really has made a difference in the staff thank I I will say that I have a um a program
on my computer my office where it live streams 911 calls so I can hear like as someone calls 911 to get a head start and there's nothing more like relieving for me as as I'm listening to the call I hear the garage door going up they're already going out the door before they're dispatched so they're on the road extremely fast thank you all right thank you you have
30 seconds any questions May thanks for your kind words about my father all the grandkids were watching online and they expressed their gratitude um Dad will be greatly missed thanks again um a lot of these are repeat so I'm not going to read the slides um we have main goals of maintaining Services tax increases Capital funding making sure we're doing a stable systemic um management of the budget and not doing anything that's going
to cause a systemic issue and next slide Michael um this is a draft document we'll talk for a few minutes about EMTs it's fully funded this year in this year's budget for 12 months um Municipal revenues are back up the pre pandemic levels and fund balance did well this year next slide Michael this is budgeted Municipal revenues uh this is licenses fees daily parking interest on in taxes Ste fees construction fees and Etc and you can
see um we are going to anticipate the highest amount we have in the last six years we're way past the pandemic issues of uh 2022 2020 2021 and um are able to anticipate a lot that basically puts downward pressure on fund balance but we think Administration thinks it's appropriate next slide please this shows the revenues interest parking and court fees being up that helps us to um anticipate more in revenues and we need
to you'll see in a minute next slide shows the EMT Financial update uh revenues were collected for a seven month period we didn't collect fees for something that happened a pickup that happened in December there's still a lag in that so we collected seven months worth of revenues nine months worth of operating expenses um so uh I would say this year in the 12- month period is going to be in line with our estimates of it cting stand point about $175,000 to the
B to offer that service everybody agrees that's good service uh next slide Michael fund balance um is the best best way to look at our um long-term Financial strength and our ability to weather storms in the future and we do have some uh storms that we've talked about with electric utility and others but we're in a strong fund balance position um Ray said Jim why is S1 um um non- taxable
revenues so low that's revenues beyond what we anticipated so we anticipated $700,000 in interest revenue and we got $750,000 that $50,000 is reflected in the increase in fund balance so in the Years Around the pandemic 2020 you see we were actually negative because we thought we were going to collect this money the pandemic hit and things hit this kid through us growing um uh
fund balance and and growing our revenues you can see the increase that occurred in 2022 2023 now we can fully anticipate revenues in 2025 next slide I'm not going to go into this except to say next slide Michael that we all know Jal the Farms it's certainly in flux but next Slide the next um the seven largest taxpayers are the geraldes uh the gbr property continues to be number and that's the Redevelopment property um with over
$1.1 million in total revenue between property taxes pilot payment and alike um anywhere the rology building is number two and um there are a number of peels on these properties and um there are CH downward challenges in the office Market next slide every year we look at the tax that's generated by new ratables a new bu like the movie theater that was built
um it comes online and it wasn't online two years ago it's online now um there are tax appeals but the net difference between tax appeals that reduces cess ratables and the new construction um generates revenu and new ratables it's a little soft this year but still up and we did have the one year in 2022 where it was Zero um so um you know that that's that's good news um one more slide Michael our largest Department Appropriations the police department is
7.7 million in the other departments this is uh what it's been like uh um for the last number of years Public Works fire department garbage library and sewage treatment next slide shows graphically um what sewage treatment is like compared to the police department compared to engineering and land use and legal and the like um shows the percentage of the operating budget in the table um to the right so um just gives you kind of a
graphical understanding of where where the budget's going right how much we're spending and you can see you know top three um are you know basically over half the budget pension costs um you know continue to be a challenge um we've explained in the past that the police department has a much higher cost per employee because of the way the system works police and fire explains that so I'm not going to go into it but it is there for people who
want to read at home um and understand how it works we'll go to the next slide this is our drafted Municipal budget a lot of numbers I apologize certainly you can take a look at it online if you like but if we go to the next slide we're just going to high highlight a couple of things we talked about Municipal revenues which is the top line in yellow um we are increasing that by $412,000 or 10% that's helping to offset some of the increases on
the appropriation side existing ratables we just talked about or property taxes I have at 2% state aid is down by 83,000 um that's an estimate we haven't gotten word from Trenton but that's the kind of the word that we're hearing is that it's going to be less than prior years as you can see salary and wages in police and fire are up 7% That's a result of the collective bargaining uh cont that we settled with the police department the fire department has actually flats that entire increas
is with the police department Madison chattam joint meeting um we're anticipating an 8% increase that has to do with the flow coming from Madison versus chadam and the additional costs there that's that's that's an estimate we need to kind of get that confirmed with Chris Manic and the public library is based on our assessments and our um total assessed values and Library mill rate and for two years in a
row the Public Library's really gone up significantly 0,000 and $15,000 over two years um that's the minimum that we fund for the library it's the statutory requirement so I want to just kind of point out those numbers and then finally the um the two boxes and orange show that right now and we're really focusing on Appropriations but right now um there is a funding gap
of $345,000 in other words we're short on revenues in this current current model um we need to refine numbers and and figure things out so Michael if you go to the next slide I like Michael's little graphic I think that's Chrissy on the left collect taxes and me on the right with the the bright ideas on how to close the gap um but we need to except he has hair um so uh we need to see what changes happen we may want to reduce the capital Improvement amount we want to more fund balance and we need to continue to review
Appropriations and revenues and um in terms of comments we're using again $6.9 million of electric Utility Fund balance but as we talked about at the last meeting we're only going to generate six million so we're going to be taking out more than we put into that pot um there are concerns about the electric Market in 2026 and Beyond what's happening with the purchase of the Drew forest and how will will we that and then there is some long-term good
news we will see a full year of EMT Revenue this year and we can't anticipate that this year we can only anticipate what we received last year um there's a major bond that will be completely paid off in 2028 that's $1.5 million in 2028 that may be the money that we use to close the funding on the Drew forest or to buy that fire Tru or something else um and then um revenue from other new developments that will happen in Madison those are kind of three longterm good
news items um and the last slide is one you've seen before it's the tremendous services that Madison offers and for a 2% increase which is $524 which is less than the chai latte I get at Starbucks um we get all these Services fire department and uh police department garbage Library Health Department sewage yard waste Recreation so um I talked very fast because uh I'm
tired and I think you all want to go home as well but um I'm happy to answer any questions there are extra slides at the end that go into detail explaining fund balance and they go into detail explaining uh Conley Ville and how um the uh increase in ratables that we see every year helps to uh pay there's con right there um help helps to uh keep taxes to a manageable level um they're
available on rosenet if anybody wants to learn more or you're welcome to call me with that I'll I'll take questions or comments and Eric hey Jim I just want to say I appreciate the forward thinking that you've done here and the fact that this is very conservative because we don't know really what's going to happen the remainder of this year uh at the federal level let's be honest and that's going to impact the state and us so there cannot be any assumptions or I
don't we shouldn't be painting any Rosy pictures about what could come in so you've kept this I think very realistic and I and I appreciate that and I think the residents would appreciate it too because you don't want to get ourselves dug into a hole this year and then pay for it next year
we've got to pay the contractor
got
correct it's it's not an option these are projects that are that are happening so we would look to curtail some Capital Appropriations we would um that's probably what we would do is we'd curtail a significant amount of capital
Appropriations till we had a real full understanding as to what we were what was going to happen and if we curtail those Capital Appropriations and then six months later that money comes in wonderful we can we can we can appropriate the capital budget is is an estimate it's a budget that you all see that um you uh that we've put together as an estimate of what we think I think we'd like to come out with the road programs but when it comes to buying B Duffy's big big truck that's what we call it um it is a big that is
that a technical term Jim homage to David Ms um but uh you know to to buy Bob Duffy's big truck um maybe we wait until August or September to before we process that and the lawn mower and some of the other things that he was looking to do and some of the other projects that we're looking to fund that would be uh that would be my suggestion there and um you know worse comes to worse we'd end up floating a shortterm Bond and then in four years we have $1.5 million coming off
the budget but um with with the with the debt service but I think there'll I think there are other solutions that um we would be able to utilize um if if that happens thanksa um just a question about the EMT revenue is that the incoming money when we Bill back insurance companies is that correct exactly exactly so we started doing the service and we paid the
EMTs in December to pick people up in December when we issued bills in December early January we're getting paid now we really seven months worth of revenues nine months worth of Appropriations this year we'll have 12 months worth of Appropriations 12 months worth of revenues so we uh we believe that Gap will be about $175,000 which talking to most of you that seems like a great great great small amount to know that someone's going to be there in four minutes thank you just a
comment on the joint meeting that um somewhat of an unknown but one of the things we did improve that's a help for both towns uh prior it was last year's um flow with a potential true up which meant if you uh the flow shifted more than two% you might owe you'd owe the new rate plus making the right which never made any sense we're now on
on a threeyear rolling average which will soften any of those changes is surprisingly the flow has moving in our Direction which to gravity but uh uh um so it is you know it's unknown but at least it's been softened somewhat Tom and then John go first John go ahead so a couple of questions J thanks are we so thorough you organize
things you are good at planning conservatively appreciate that not as conservative you middle but one thing you have a very small unless I'm missing something U anticipation of an increase is health insurance so it's actually going up that's a great question I'm glad you pointed that out it's actually going up 10% but we had a little extra in the budget last year so I'm not anticipating a
big increase this year and um in ter I'm not budgeting a big increase this year which means we will spend more of it and if we spend more of it that will generate less fund balance in lapsing Appropriations so that's that slight tightening of the belt that we're looking to do to manage fund balance not have fund balance get too far out ahead so um that's a good question that's exactly how we're managing that it's going up significantly 15% this year right
15% but we're able to because of how we budgeted it last year um only put a small amount thanks for pointing that out yeah it's amazing so another small comment since you're trying to close the gap uh and you know I've asked you about this the last couple years the reserve for uncollected taxes you haven't used the money fortunately even back noted this to you before session we were pretty good in Madison so we really have to go up
$30,000 there maybe or is that 39 $40,000 it's another area I know you you had a reason I don't remember what it is but it's already so high and you haven't really fortunately tapped into it so I might help it's just the right thing financially to do that if your budget goes up by 2% the reserve for uncollected tax should go up by 2% if we are fortunate enough which we typically are to not have to use it it becomes fund balance which then becomes a revenue um B1 prior year Municipal fund
bounce it becomes a revenue or um tax relief the following year so have a cushion this year it becomes tax relief the next year so it's purely um a protection for the buau in case something bad happens and I can pull up budgets and um audits from years where we didn't collect nearly what we thought and if we didn't have reserve and we didn't have fund balance we would be in big trouble so it's it's just kind
of standard proper not rock the systemic boat thing to do with um with budgeting to have the reserve increase match the um property tax where's the line item for uh your anticipated interest for your preserves so anticipated interest would be a municiple revenue sources which is why that's up $400,000 uh line number two Tom B2 um might you put that back Michael the draft me of this whole
budget um there was so much more the interest I don't know what else is in there um interest was about um I believe about $850,000 that's court fees that's parking that's all the other items right so um so we are anticipating more Revenue than than ever before which will probably tighten our fund balance which will no doubt tighten our fund balance next year but um we
think it's appropriate to do that all right thanks Jim one more one more round right thanks mayor just a clarifier I think um you know when people hear us talking about revenues for uh EMTs I just want to make sure that the folks of Madison know that that's soft billing only and that means if you do not have insurance you will not be build so I do not want people thinking that they're going to have a cost if they dial 911 so please
if there's an emergency dial 911 there's no fee if you don't have insurance and that's not something we're looking to change thank you for reinforcing Jim I just you know in the uh finance department notes that I read at these meetings you know we go exhaustively through the budget process but I feel like the introduction of a draft budget is a milestone that it's uh
you know we made it halfway through and um I I just want to thank you for the transparency up until this point because it's so much the volume of information that we need to assimilate and digest with each of these budget presentations would be way too much to do in one night the fact that we transparently you know build up to this point of introducing the draft budget by hearing about our Capital programs from our department heads makes it so much easier to understand how we got to
these numbers and every year I'm reminded that some towns do it all in one night you see this for the first time you have no idea what these numbers mean and where they came from and it's a disservice to the residents of towns that don't you know they they don't take the care to be transparent and um sort of do a show me the money type uh program like we do here and so even I think through what some of these numbers are where they came from I can recall that we heard
from Bob Duffy and his 20 about his 20 ton dump truck right or or the fire truck that we decided to to um start that process last year so um it's not just lip service that we you know um tout the transparency that uh we model here it actually helps us as elected officials understand how we got here and it makes me more conf when we vote that I understand what what we're voting on so thank you for the work that goes
into making this all um as transparent as it can be given the complexity and the size of our budget thank you this document goes back to the 80s Robert califit it's changed a little bit I've added some lines but kept it to one sheet the numbers got a little smaller But but so you can you can go back that far and see a onepage summary of the budget of the burough of Madison and how the percentage of property taxes to total revenue like so it's thank
you I think it's important to be able to do that my dad would haunt me if we didn't do this right one other uh quick question since I kind of mentioned it when I was going through resolution facing with a evaluation how do we approach funding revaluation so typically um the year the re ation we um the state allows us it sounds scary but
to declare an immersion and over we're allowed to fund the reval over five years we've been ordered by the county to do we voluntarily doing it because of that and because of the way the state allows us we fund it over a fiveyear period so we're able to basically use fund balance and eventually pay it back through the budget over a comments see more to com but uh no no one does it better than we
do even if it's an old spreadsheet it's all in the presentation that really helps the the public so thank you now we move on to ordinance of hearing with the clerk please read the statement yes the ordinances scheduled for hearing were introduced by title and passed on the first reading at the regular meeting of the council held on January the 27th 2025 they were posted and filed according to copies were made available to the general public requesting C call the ordinances for second
reading ask the clerk to read s ordinances by title ordinance two verse uh 2025 ordinance of the buau of Madison appropriating $65,000 from the general Capital Improvement fund to purchase and install 12 solar radar signs and other pestry and safety equipment at various locations open the hearing anyone in the public wishing to comment please step forward seeing that I close the
hearing mayor I move ordinance 2-202 discussion budget part of our commitment to safer safer streets for pedestrians and drivers and bicycl roll call vote please yes Mr landrian yes Mr range yes harus yes M Hanahan yes Mr for
yes I declare ordinance 2-22 adopted and finally pass and ask the clerk to publish notice thereof newspaper and follow the ordinance accordance of the law ordinance 3-22 ordinance of the burrow of Madison amending chapter 18 of the burough code and tile of fire department regarding discip regarding the disciplinary process I open hearing on ordinance three anyone wish to comment please step forward see none I CL hearing mayor I move ordinance
3-22 second coun discussion and this is discussed last time an update of policies roll call vote please M yes Mr landrian yes Mr range yes Mr har pus yes M yes Mr for yes declare ordinance 3-22 and now we move on to invitations our second invitation for public comment this
may when you may comment on any topic and the same rules apply state your name and address try to keep your comments in three minutes but give you that one minute grace and stop you at four good evening J 27 La away I'm here representing for Drew forest and I just have a very quick invitation for anybody that would like to pick up some of our Valentine are um wonderful postcards or you can drop them in someone's mailbox they all
have a forest theme this one says Valentine you're the kind of friend I share my Branch with and this one is Valentine I think you're tremendous Ela Forest theme they were designed by drwam bethani aana class of 17 and we have five different designs so we're giving them away don't need any donations just wanted to share you're welcome to take as many as you'd like we have ordered a lot this year so we have quite a few and we've distributed them all to the uh
council members as well earlier today so you're here this evening and you want some Valentine's it's only three days away so take advantage thank you thank you very much they are great cards anyone else wishing to comment please step forward see none I close this part of the meeting and now move on to introduction of ordinances will clerk please read your St the um ordinance schedule for first
reading has a hearing date set for Wednesday February the 26 will be published in the Madison Eagle posted on the bulletin board and made available to members of the public requesting copies follow ordinance 4 2025 for first reading ask the bur clerk to read SS by title ordinance 4 2025 ordinance of the Bure of Madison amending chapter 94 appendix a of the burough code entitled electric department rules and regulations regarding time of use rates may
I move ordinance 42023 second Council discussion uh I I'm so pleased that we are finally uh moving to adopt a pilot program for time abuse rates for our electricity charges um this has been a long time coming since the you know early promise of the smart meter program this was the goal we were going to
get to time of use to help people um conserve energy save money and um put those smart meters to work so um the climate action committee has worked really hard to support Jim and both Jim Trimble Jim brette and everyone that's been involved in getting this program off the ground we heard about it last year um in the public meeting and I just want to reiterate this is a pilot program that is voluntary uh you can sign up
to participate or you can not participate uh and I especially want to thank Jim for his leadership on this the most memorable phrase I heard was that getting everyone to row in the same direction our billing company and how the meters were going to work and programming them to talk to each other was like loading bullfrogs into a wheelbarrow which has stuck with me so I want to thank Jim uh for getting us to this point thank you and Jim also shared that we I think pushed our software company a little bit but they they took
it on as a challenge so you guys are asking this is be a great progam once again here we are acting locally making that it's a pilot program you don't join it your are staying the way they are I was looking at it before Jim and I I know that it's going to be at least a good uh test to see if I enroll like my house we to use a lot ofes
light is on in the house I turn them off fast enough not but the only thing I noticed when you you have the rates in our uh agenda packet well let's see how it works out but there's the time of 3 PM to 7 p.m. rates seem a little high and that's when people tend to be coming home in the sum I think we would use the most electric but maybe maybe the offset at night when the goal is to use some services at night uh do laundry and stuff like that
that will uh offset the cost of when you're coming home to turn on your air condition or you're watching television because you just got I'm G I'm want to sign up how many people signed up Jim oh oh okay we're approving the rates this is step one but we're not just approving the program we're approving everything that's in there the rates that are in there and everything yeah it's got to be got to be rolled out again you know just the example you you brought in there the reason it goes up
in that time frame is that is a peak time and that's when we're going to make the biggest difference by cutting back if you want to come home at 3 o'cl and crank up your air conditioning this problem this program is not for you but if you want to manage your electricity charge your car overnight you know keep keep the air conditioner cooled this program would be yeah let's see how it works comments I'll just add one note there is a note at the uh the bottom here
that says the rate structure will take effect when the Chief Financial Officer determines that the right structure can be accommodated by the Burrow's Billing System so maybe my excitement or enthusiasm was like a little premature but I hope that we can accommodate this soon it seems like we're on the right track call vote please M yes Mr land yes Mr range yes Mr yes M conah yes Mr for yes
cons agenda resolutions will the clerk please stat consent agenda resolutions will be enacted with a single motion any resolution required expenditure is supported by a certification of availability of funds any resolution requiring discussion will be removed from the consent agenda all resolutions will be reflected in form the minutes mayor I move resolution r69 2025 through r84
d225 second just outlined those earlier any question may uh 75 2025 which is the grant that we are going to apply for for fixing our our Bell Tower roof how much approximately is the grant
do we already see an estimate on that Ray and I don't remember what it was no okay this is the
responsibility of the Bro not of the trust it's a team we've got there are multiple things obviously the East Wing is on our list is moving forward and the trustees is partner we are all together and the trust can't go after the grants we have to go after the GRS right that's great you guys great to getting grants do so just one thing about that if I can so before I was on the council I
was chair of the buildings and grounds committee as a member of the trustees and I can tell you that this is something that really needs to be taken care of the clock tower is in pretty bad shape as are the gutters and and the flashing Etc okay thanks John other comments call vote Please Mr yes Mr yes
Mr R yes Mr carnus yesan yes Mr yes there is no unfinished business rle vouchers will please the vou from the current fund 33474 3.35 from the general Capital fund $646 77 from the electric operating fund 9,376 and4 the Electric Capital fund 9335 from the
water operating fund $ 7,562 and from the trust 27,7 19099 the total is 678 36162 mayor I move approval of the vouchers second comments roll call vote Please Mr yes Mr land yes Mr rain yes Mr har yesah Mr yes I apologize under new business
two uh appointments did not make the agenda um just if you're comfortable like to make these appointments now because they've been chomping up a bit to get involved uh Catherine Penny of um F Lane to Madison Alliance address incep abuse term through 2026 she has a backgr including being involved central school PTO prrams and then any cerio Waverly
Place to the DDC at large appointment um on expired term through January 2026 I move approval of the forging appointments second all in favor I very much may I move to adjourn all in favor