Let the uh record reflect. We have reconvened with all members present. Uh council member John Forte is absent excused. For those who are able, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I ask you remain standing after the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Let's take a moment to remember few longtime Madison residents
and part of our extended Madison family who we lost over our uh past few weeks. I mentioned uh Pat Luciano at our uh last meeting, but a little more background on Pat has mentioned lifelong resident of Madison passed away on April
12th at the age of 87. As it says in his obituary, his warmth, humor, and generous spirit will be missed be beyond measure. If you anyone who met Pat know that that is him. He grew up downtown working for his father Paty at Luciano's
Butcher and Market. He went on to Madison High School where he excelled at baseball, basketball, and football. Graduated from Montlair State. He began his career as a football and basketball coach for Morris Catholic High School, then do those capacities led teams to
conference titles. He then operated uh the clothing store called The Locker Room on Main Street. I had a lot of school outfits bought there many, many years ago. Uh in fact the probably 11 Conley families kept the locker room going for quite a while. Um and that was
with his brother S. And after many years he ventured into uh real estate sanitation service sales and assistant coaching roles including CH at Chattam High School, Del Barton, Mountain Lakes and Drew University. He enjoyed uh golf, raetball
and playing cards and horseback riding which I did not know. And then we recognize Dawn Smith, a Madison resident uh pointed pointed out to me that Dawn passed away on February 2nd, born in 1934, led a uh life marked by service,
education, and devotion to family. She was a scholar, graduated by Beta Kappa from Gettysburg University, dedicated to her career to education as a uh teacher at Madison Junior School, and was a two-term council member. Um I
did not get capture her her years in the council but uh as mentioned served two terms in this room and uh had lovely uh summers in New York and shore but her heart was always in Madison. She survived by her sons Ross and Malcolm
and seven grandchildren. And we also remember Joseph uh Janosi, a lifelong Madison resident who uh died on the 18th at the age of 88, survived by five children. Uh one son, Nick, and
four daughters, Denise, Val, Jod, and Liz, and 12 grandchildren, predesceased by his wife of 61 years, Betty May. He was born right here in Madison 1936. Raised on Center Street, close-knit family with seven siblings.
Graduated after graduating Ma High School. Uh enlisted in the United States Army where he served until his honorable discharge. Married uh Betty, the love of his life, on April 4th, 1959, right at St. Vincent's. And then they built a
home right on Center Street, just a few doors from the one he grew up in. Before retiring, he was executive uh vice president operations for New York Life. Also uh mentions that he was the avid golfer and and also a great bowler
bowled a perfect game at the good old Plaza Lanes in Madison. And we also remember Carol Lieberman, the mother of Drew President Hillary Link, who passed away on April 20th after living many years with Alzheimer's. Born in 1940, Providence,
Rhode Island, graduated from Ratcliffe and uh masters from Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Um and she was a great supporter of Radcliffe for many years. Worked as a teacher, development associate, and medical editor, finance coordinator, general manager, startups,
and um nonprofit. She clearly passed her love of education on to her daughter, Hillary Link. In addition to uh Hillary, she leaves behind two children, Joanna and David, and eight grandchildren. Let us take a moment to remember Pat Luciano, Dawn Smith, Joseph Janosce, and
Carol Lieberman. Let us pass our thoughts on family and friends they leave behind. Thank you. All right, we have uh no minutes for approval, which means I can't catch my breath quite yet. But uh welcome all for those who
are attending tonight and watching from home. I want to thank uh Council President Rachel Erlick for covering for me on our annual Arbor Day uh celebration which was moved indoors on Saturday, rainy Saturday. And uh I want to thank Lisa Ellis for organizing green and clean and for all those that
participated in cleaning our downtown and also supporting the EV Expo. And other things going on on a brighter Saturday was uh April 19th. The Madison Chamber had moved um their Easter fest from the 12th, which was a
miserable day, and uh had a beautiful day to with Easter Bunny. And I was downtown for a while to see some great pictures of uh very very cute children. Okay, Stephanie, let me please come
forward for a proclamation. This is a proclamation uh recognizing mental health awareness month. Whereas mental health is essential to everyone's overall health and well-being. And whereas mental illness is a real and prevalent mental illness is real and
prevalent in our nation and half of us will have a mental health diagnosis at some point in our life. And whereas all Americans experience times of difficulty and stress in their lives and should feel comfortable with seeking help to support the and manage these
times. And whereas prevention, early identification, early intervention are effective in reducing the burden of mental health illness as they're reducing the burden of other chronic conditions. And whereas there's a strong body of
research that identifies behavioral health risks and supports specific tools that all Americans can use to protect their health and well-being. And whereas with effective treatment before stage 4, all individuals with mental illness, even serious mental illness, can make
progress towards recovery and lead a full productive lives. Whereas jails and prisons often have become the default places of custodial care for even nonviolent people with serious mental illness. And whereas every business, school, government agency, healthc care
provider, organization, and citizen has a responsibility to promote mental health and well-being for all. And while this is a proclamation from Madison, I join mayors from New Providence, Berkeley Heights, Summit, Chattam, Fanwood, Longill, Mountainside,
Scotch Plains, and Westfield united to proclaim May 2025 as mental health awareness month at our respective buroughs, towns, and cities. We stand united to reduce the stigma of mental health by recommitting our communities to increase awareness and understanding
of mental health and the steps that our citizens can take to protect their mental health and the need for appropriate accessible services for all people with mental illness. We call upon the citizens, government agencies, public and private
institutions, businesses and schools to join us in this mission. We especially support the collaboration of Cross Town Mental Health Coalition led by Debbie Merrick of New Providence representing our 10 towns and several nonprofit organizations in their efforts to paint
our towns green in order to to eliminate mental health stigma and advocate for those dealing with mental health illness. So, thank you. It's quite a quite a bit there. Thank you so much. Yes. Thank you so much, Mayor Connelly and the council. We really appreciate
this recognition. My name is Stephanie Lemie. This is my son Ty and uh I am a board member for the support network of Madison. We're a local nonprofit and our aim is to increase social connections in the community and reduce loneliness. Um
we are thrilled to partner with neighboring towns in the painted green initiative in Madison uh upcoming May. So you will see the green ribbons around town. Those are for mental health awareness. We have our kickoff party. Uh we invite you all next Sunday uh May 2nd
at the Angelus Core Building uh from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. We'll have a band and some light bites to eat and activities for kids. So we'd love for you to join us. Uh we'll have other activities uh during the month including lemonade stands. So if you see some kids uh stop
by the lemonade stands, uh we will be uh collecting monies to go uh towards uh pool scholarships for those families that can't afford it locally. We just want to thank everyone and we really appreciate you supporting this initiative. Thanks so
[Applause] much. Now we'll move on to uh reports from committees. Uh Finance and Burough Clerk, Council President Erlick. Thank you, Mayor. The tax collector reminds us that uh reminds residents that the second
quarter property taxes are due May 1st. The tax collector's office is now located in the finance department on the second floor of Heartley Dodge. Residents can bring their payments to the tax collector's office or they can leave their payment in the dropbox located in the clerk's office on the first floor. Please call the tax
collector's office if you have any questions or need any additional information. Turning to finance tonight, we will have the budget hearing, the final budget hearing and final vote to adopt the 2025 municipal budget. Nothing has changed and we passed our state
review without any issues. So, the numbers in tonight's budget resolution 141-2025 are exactly what was introduced back on March 24th. Believe it or not, the staff started working on the budget last summer and council has had six public presentations
and discussions on the budget. All materials and information can be found on the annual budget process page on Rosenet. We present the budget in multiple formats including a one sheet budget summary, the official 86page state budget document, and a newer
document created by the state called the userfriendly budget. Later this year, we will mail out a flyer that includes charts, data, and an even more simplified budget for reference. Council voted to introduce the budget on May 24th, and by state law, we have to wait at least 28 days
before we have a hearing. The state established this 28-day waiting period to make sure the public has an opportunity to review and comment on the budget. The 28-day waiting period, in short, is for a transparency. Here on the council, we take the budget and
transparency very seriously. All of the council discussions are recorded and available to view and all of the reports and schedules that are presented to the council are available on RoseNet. I believe this is an excellent budget. There are no changes to the municipal services provided to residents
and this budget includes a 2% increase in municipal property taxes. I want to thank all the members of the governing body and the public for being engaged in this process over the last several months and for offering great insights and comments along the way. Uh, special thank you to our CFO and assistant
burough administrator, Jim Bernett, for finally arriving uh, at this great milestone of the final um, vote for the budget and for your leadership along the way, Jim. Thank you. That's all, mayor. Thank you very much. And public safety, Mr. Landeran. Thank
you, Mayor. Okay. From the fire department. The fire department has been very busy for the past two weeks. They responded to 83 calls for help. Among them were two building fires, a brush fire and a backhole fire. Last week, LA the ladder truck responded to two large
house fires in Harding Township. The firefighters helped to bring both fires helped to fight both fires and they had very limited water supply as there was no hydrants in the immediate area. On April 24th, a police officer detected a
strong odor of natural gas in the area of Barnsdale. Further investigation by the officer found a damaged gas meter at 21 Barnesdale Road. The officer evacuated the house and notified the fire department. The fire department was also able to shut off the gas and ventilate
the house. On April 25th, the fire department responded to Dodge Drive where a landscaper's back hole was fully involved in fire. Firefighters quickly extinguish extinguished the fire between four and five Dodge Drive before it
spread to the brush. There was also a small brush fire on Kings Road earlier in the day. On April 25th, the fire department took part in a mini toucher truck at Madison Fire at Madison High School which was part of Take Your Child to Work Day. And this has been in the
news. The Madison Fire Department was requested to assist in response to the large wildfires in South Jersey. 4,000 acres were involved with only 5% containment at the time. The Garden State Parkway was closed in both
directions for 20 miles. 3,000 residents were evacuated at that time. The Madison Fire Department will be sending one truck with four firefighters did send four one truck with four firefighters to assist the entire day.
Okay. From the police department, members of the police community relations unit and the school resource officer will be presenting ebike safety to Madison students and parents on May 19th. The presentation will include safe riding helmets, rules, and rules of the
road. Madison officers will also be con monitoring for safe bike riding while on patrol. I think that's very important. On May 9th, the Police Unity Tour will be riding through the center of Madison on their way to Washington DC as day one of a 4-day bike ride to support police
officers who died in the line of duty. Captain Longer will be taking a will be taking part in a support service role and Sergeant Morales and patrolman Dandro will be riding in the procession. The ride is estimated to be in town at
11:30 a.m. on Friday, May 9th. come downtown to the main street Waverly intersection to show support. On April 25th, community lea community relations officer Stephanie Aquino met with met
with Sunrise Assisted Living to discuss prime crime prevention and tips and the current events in town. For any group wishing to schedule a similar event, please contact her at 973-5933034. And finally from the joint municipal court, when comparing revenue,
Madison's revenue increased by approximately 45% in March 25 compared to the same period in 24. In addition, revenue increased by approximately 25% compared to the previous month. The Madison Joint Municipal Court, including
the four towns police departments, had an increase in revenue in March 2025 compared to March 2024. as well. The revenue for the joint core increased by approximately 11% compared to last year. That's it, mayor. Thank you. Thank you
very much. And public works and engineering, Mr. Range. Thank you, Mayor. From uh the Department of Public Works tonight, the parks department continues to prepare fields for spring sports and uh began turning on field sprinkler systems. Uh also uh DPW has
repaired the water system at the community garden. The sewer department has installed new storm drains in the Maple Avenue parking lot. Uh roads department in is in the process of planting street trees throughout the
burrow and uh DPW was able to assist with the green and clean event on Sunday. Uh and also uh participated like the fire department in the take your child to work day event um at Madison High
School. Uh a reminder that this Monday uh May 5th, a week from today, uh twice a week, garbage pickup begins for the season. So mark your calendars for that. And as a reminder, all yard waste must be bagged, tied in bundles, or placed in
a container uh for pickup. And of course, yard waste bags are available here in Hartley Dodge at the clerk's office. Um and also uh from DPW from the engineering depart department uh update on the Cook Avenue
parking lot. The connecting stair uh from the parking lot to the west has now been completed and construction of the rain gardens uh commenced this week. Pavement along uh pavement condition being monitored for uh some additional
work as well. The MRC solar carport project is moving along uh well uh while the parking lot while the main parking lot is closed, access to the community garden is available via the sidewalk and parking um is available in the small
auxiliary lot and also at uh Madison High School during certain times. repairs um to the rain gardens around the parking lot will be undertaken uh as soon as the construction uh timeline
allows. Uh application for a grant for the New Jersey uh Department of Transportation has been submitted for improvements to Shady Lawn Drive. Uh espec the asbestous remediation project for the Masonic Lodge has been awarded and the
contract documents um are being assembled. Anticipate work will commence in May with a 45day completion period once work begins. A letter of intent for a grant application for design of additional trails in Summer Hill Park through the Morris County Trail Program
has been submitted and accepted as complete. Grant application uh final grant application is due in June. Uh road resurfacing uh including mill and overlay through Morris County co-op is being organized. Roads that are
slated to be done this year are uh Dogwood Drive, East uh East Street, and Harwood Drive. Bids for Memorial Park Trail phase three uh will be received in May and construction should hopefully
con uh commence late spring. Next round of grant applications for New Jersey DOT are due in June and several roads are being considered. And finally from engineering tonight, the bureau has engaged the services of consulting firm
uh which specializes in street cate streetscape design to renew uh the concept work for Waverly Place. The project will involve uh the state historic preservation office as well as New Jersey uh department of
transportation. And from the uh Madison Environmental Commission, uh the MEC and 10 vendors braved the cold on Sunday for the green fair and EV Expo uh portion of the burrow's green and clean event. Toad
Shade uh Wild Wildflower Farm held a successful native plant sale. Blue Sky Green Earth had a lot of interest in their electric landscaping uh business and the rest of the MEC and Sustainable
Ma Madison groups and the climate action committee. Uh got plenty of exercise running around after handouts and other items flying around in the wind on on Sunday. 10-year-old Maya from Chadam brought her one square foot wildflower
kits. She's decided to make the kits designed to transform a square foot of lawn because she says, "I hear adults argue about climate change. If more kids like me can make a difference, maybe we can convince adults to make a difference, too."
The MEC's next event is May 19th uh for a community brainstorm about best-selling author Doug Tam's new book, How Can I Help? Saving nature with Your Yard. Uh it will be held at the Madison Community Arts Center. The discussion
will be led by uh naturalists uh in partnership with Nature of Reading Bookshop. The event is free, but registration is required. To sign up, please go to the events page on the nature of reading website. For registration in person, uh you can do
that at the bookshop, but remember it has moved across the street from its prior location and is now located on Green Village Road in the former San Francisco clothing boutique space. And finally tonight, of note, there are two uh MEC supported
resolutions on the consent agenda tonight for the council. Um the first is a climate super fund resolution supporting a bill that is currently moving through the state legislature that requires polluters to pay for the cleanups uh from the activities that
they caused. Um the second is an update uh to the bureau's existing green grounds resolution. Um and it includes additional voluntary suggestions about leaving fallen leaves, dead wood, and other uh green landscaping uh
initiatives. We have seen as we have seen in the Drew forest, leaves and dead wood enrich soil and provide essential nutrients for insects, birds and the ecosystem. And that is all from me tonight. Thank you, mayor. Thank you very much. And uh utilities and if you
have a report for health for Mr. Forte, Mr. Henus. Okay. Thank you, mayor. Welcome everybody from the community. uh from the water department. Some of the basic services that we provide were uh taken care of
the last couple of weeks. Uh 12 2-in meters have been replaced in businesses and apartment complex. The uh water utility dug and repaired four car boxes and shut off valves to enable meter changes. The public restrooms at all the
ball fields around the burrow have been opened and are ready for use. That's great for the uh the fans and the players. Uh fountains are being turned down for the season around the burrow. The three public fountains in the
central business district plus all the recreation fields that have water fountains. Repairs are being made where areas have been affected for curbbox repairs. There was a water leak on Long Avenue. It was repaired with a 6-in steel repair clamp. water supply to the
residents was affected. A water leak has been located at the Jagger Lever property. The water department assisted with location of leak. Uh researching a possible leak at 31 way. Be well continues. Be well work continues. At this time, we are waiting the generator
completion and hopeful to perform testing this week. We continue water replacement, water meter replacement where their curve box repairs are required and we're waiting on scheduling for our valve turning to
start. from the electric utility. Uh the first report is about uh the windy weekend and due to the high winds over the weekend, the electric utility staff was busy with a few downed lines and it
also included uh downed utility pole on Vinyl Place. Now that the newly constructed 14 affordable housing units on Community Place have been energized by the electric utility, we anticipate the tenants moving in on or about June 1st.
There will be a welcoming ceremony ribbon cutting on May in May prior to the occupancy. Um then we have a little more mayor. Sorry. Okay. Uh the electric department
was busy the past two weeks working at the Kings Road substation. They continue to work there. There's a new pole that was set at the junior school for a service upgrade. There was a standby called out for emergency markouts for the water department. Uh the electric
department started work to hook up the service for the three central avenue space which is under renovation for a new uh establishment in the burrow. It's going to be a brewery. crews transfer electric from the old
pole to the new pole in Edgewood. Uh work has been completed at the Kings Road substation and is now back to normal. From the health department during the month of March, the health department completed 14 retail food
inspections, investigated two reportable diseases, and responded to 16 environmental complaints. I believe the reportable diseases were not anything of concern for the burrow. Madison will be
available in the NYU city health dashboard starting this summer. The board of health is excited to announce that we have been selected for their put us on the map challenge. This is an opportunity for small cities
to apply to gain access to local health data. The city health dashboard provides data on over 40 measures of health and its drivers for over 1100 cities across the country and we have been honored to have been selected for this
initiative. The board of health applied to have Madison showcased on the city health dashboard. The application was approved and we will be going live soon. The dashboard provides comprehensive local level data that can guide decision
making and improve community well-being. The data will provide the board with localized insights that will assist them in developing the best datadriven decisions and policies. Residents can review the dashboard at www.cityalthdashboard.com.
The health department continues to monitor several measles exposures associated with travel. The department recommends that residents who are unsure if they have measles immunity to talk to their healthcare provider. That's all. Mayor Mayor, are you going to say
something about the library opening on the 30? Um, I probably Sorry. I didn't know. Go ahead. Oh, well, the the library had a gala that was hosted by the friends of the Madison Library on Saturday that was attended by
approximately 150 people. I wasn't able to attend unfortunately had a conflict. I heard it was a very nice event and the library is 99% ready to go for the community. So, uh on Wednesday, I think they're going to open their doors to the public. So that sign that says library
is closed will be gone and people will be trafficking through there with their children and adults. They did a great job in there to make it a much different community place. That's it very much for covering that. Sure. And committee affairs miss. Thank you mayor. Uh the
next meeting of the downtown development commission will be held on May 22nd at 7:15 in Hartley Dodge. Uh the Madison Farm and Artisan Market will be open for the on Saturday, May 24th, which will be a great addition to the activity
downtown. The Chamber of Commerce has multiple events coming up. Um, this weekend is superhero day, so if you see people walking around in weird outfits, that might be why. Um, May 3rd, 10 to 5. Ladies night is May 8th, 5:30 to 8:30.
and the fire extinguisher inspection program will be held on June 10th. Uh the Madison Community Art Center is very busy. Um just to highlight if you're looking for something to do on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 11th, a jazz concert
will be held with Lorie Vega and the Soul Experience. And on Wednesday, May 14th from 4 to 6, there will or sorry, uh May 14th through the 21st, the Madison High School Honors Art Gallery will take place. So you can see the
great work of Madison High School's advanced placement visuals artists. Thank you very much. Now move on to the budget hearing. Uh I will be opening the uh meeting to the public. This is your
opportunity to uh ask questions or make comments on the proposed municipal budget. Anyone in the public wishing to make comments. Uh I now open the hearing, please step forward, state your name and address. And as always, try to keep your comments to three minutes. Um
but we will also you may have questions. We'll uh take that into account. Anyone wishing to comment on the budget, please step forward. Seeing none, I close the hearing. Mayor, I move resolution
R144-2025, resolution of the Burough of Madison, finally adopting the 2025 budget and tax resolution. I'll second the motion. council discussion. We already covered some of the background and the uh again just to
reiterate um one of the reasons why we don't have a lot of people commenting is we do such a great job of uh going through the budget from December the capital budget all the way through and um the information on the website is I
think second to none though another mayor tells me otherwise I will stick with that in the state. Any further comments? I'm sorry. We got to read the statement. Yeah. Be it resolved by the council members of
the bureau of Madison, County of Mars, that the budget here for with set forth is hereby adopted and shall constitute an appropriation for the purpose stated of the sums herein set forth as appropriations and authorize the the
amount of 15,181,120 for municipal purposes. 7 36,348 for the open space recreation farmland and historic preservation trust levy and $1,77,926 for the minimum library tax. Motion a second on that.
I'll So is that a separate resolution? That's that's just that's the official statement. Okay, then I will um move that we adopt the 2025 budget and I will second that.
Further discussion. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Move on to communications petitions. None received. Mayor.
And now we're on to our first of two invitations for public comment. This is limited to our agenda discussion items and our uh consent resolutions. If you want to comment on any other topic, that will come a little bit later in the meeting. So, these are the items you may
comment on. Uh the public power association of New Jersey, we're going to have a presentation uh on that. And then these are resolutions. R 142 authorized extension of contract on-site log and brush grinding services
with Northeast Products. Resolution 143 uh appointing Danielle Triber to a position of perdm public safety telecommunication officer at 2250 an hour. Resolution 144
um appointing Michael Ramos to position of PDM public safety uh communication officer at the 2250 an hour. Uh resolution 145 is approving property tax exemption status for tax block 602 lot
29 um effective January 1 for wartime service connected disability resolution 146 which was also mentioned in the report is supporting um sustainable land use
pledge. Resolution 147 is uh supporting the adoption of environmentally beneficial grounds and maintenance policy also described in the report. Resolution 148 is opposing uh legislation that permits accessory
dwelling units um that this was a um would be a state law that takes away local zoning control. So, we're not against accessory dwellings, but we want to do it on our u on our own basis.
Resolution 149 is calling for inter interconnection reforms to the PJM electricity market to protect New Jersey consumers and advanced clean energy initiatives mentioned in the report and we'll also be hearing a little bit more about that shortly. Resolution 150 is
authorizing change order requests from Bullet Electric for the amount of 5,000 bringing a total contract to $2,93,500 for MRC solar carport. Resolution 151 is ratifying the appointment of John Sutton as summer
intern position in the public works department at $17 an hour. Resolution 152 is ratifying the appointment of Will Bagley summer intern position in the electric utility department at $17 an hour. Uh resolution 143 is supporting
the New Jersey climate super fund act also covered in the report. Resolution 154 is awarding professional service contract to all lead NJ of Jersey City for professional uh lead based paint inspection
services. Resolution 155 is approving a p persontoperson transfer of plenary retail distri distribution license. Uh resolution 156 is uh authorizing and directing the planning board to conduct a preliminary
investigation determine if a certain real estate identified as block 3303 lot one um an area of lo need of local uh of redevelopment. Sorry.
And resolution 157 authorizing an agreement with ticket leap platform to prevent to provide event ticket processing at community arts center and resolution 158 is approving temporary science for Madison Chamber of Commerce
or uh superhero day and lady at night events. Anyone wishing to comment on any of those resolutions or the one discussion item, please step to the lect turn, state your name and address and the discussion item you want to comment on. Remember, if you want to comment on a different topic that will come up
later. Good evening. My name is Ken Dolski. I'm a resident of Paripany and I'd like to comment on the climate super fund act. I am a member of Empower New Jersey. Power New Jersey was formed in 2018 to improve
New Jersey's responsibil response to climate change. Uh we have been successful in stopping a number of large fossil fuel projects since then. Uh more recently uh we have been pushing the climate super fund act and working very hard to get towns to pass resolutions
and to get members of the legislature to sign up as co-sponsors. So I want to thank you in advance for passing this act. I also want to acknowledge that I couldn't have I didn't do this that Claire uh you know Whitcom basically did all the leg work here. I fed her some
information. Uh I wish she was here tonight. Uh I know she couldn't be but I wanted to to thank her as well. Um I do want to describe just a couple of points about the situation in terms of the driving forces behind this act. Um in case some of you didn't read all the
copious information that CLA uh gave you in support of this. Uh and basically I want to describe the forces behind the CSA. The basic force is the fact that we have been pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for a number of years. Um we are now seeing the result in terms of
uh increased cost. And the really scary thing is that the carbon dioxide that we've already pumped into the atmosphere will continue to warm the will continue to warm the atmosphere uh at least through the rest of this century. And so the costs that we are seeing today uh
will continue unabated uh for the rest of this century and there's nothing we can do about it. What's even more scary is that as the temp as the atmosphere warms every year those costs are going to increase because the uh to a certain extent the frequency and power of these
events that are climate change disruptors are basically a function of temperature. And so uh there has been some analysis of what these costs are going to uh entail and you can just Google cost cost of climate change and
you know you can see these things for yourself. Globally we're talking tens of trillions of dollars. One study said that um uh we're looking at 38 trillion dollars globally by 2050. Uh nationwide we're talking p we're talking a few
trillion dollars. We used to talk millions and billions like those are big numbers right now we throw around trillions of dollars. Uh so study said that uh by 2050 uh climate change would uh basically account for or take away uh
10% of US GDP. US GDP is now at 28 trillion. So three to five trillion dollars that we would be losing every year due to uh climate change. Um in New Jersey we're talking billions of dollars. Uh the uh attorney general has
made a statement saying that we've already been spending billions of dollars on this. Uh in New York City, an estimate was that it would cost $53,000 per family uh over time. Another factor, not just the storms that we usually associate as being the major drivers of
of cost, uh is property insurance. Property insurance has gone up 31% since 2019. I'm sure it was a factor in your budget. Uh it in 2015 10% of mortgage costs were were property tax excuse me
property insurance. Now it's about 23% one minute mortgage. Um so the fact is um we are facing ruinous costs. we will not be able to stop this. And the Climate Super Fund Act is the one ray of sunshine that we hopefully will be able
to get some money back uh for many towns and uh and help uh deal with these costs. And the feds aren't helping either. They're talking about killing FEMA, which is going to make every state pay those costs themselves. Talking about, you know, this talk about inefficiencies. So, on that cheerful
note, uh I again want to thank you for for passing this. Um I think you're going to be number 32. We have 31s already. 31 already and uh we are looking for more. So, thank you again. Thank you very much for coming to visit and delivering that message. Anyone else
wishing to comment on a uh resolution or our agenda item? Seeing none, I close this part of the meeting and Brian Bada to come forward. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Uh my name is Brian Vita. I'm the executive director of the Public Power Association
of New Jersey. Uh the PP&J, the acronym. Uh I represent nine electric uh municipal utilities in the state of New Jersey, as well as the state's only uh electric cooperative. Madison being one of the municipal electric utilities that I represent.
So today I'm going to talk about rising electricity costs. So I'm sure by now everyone has heard uh in the news. It's a topic on for everyone right now uh that electricity costs are are rising and it's not just in the state of New Jersey. It's across the entire
Mid-Atlantic. So it's a topic that's being discussed everywhere. Some background uh on electricity. So there are three major components to electric costs. First one being the energy which is the actual commodity uh the electric commodity and that
represents about 49% traditionally of of uh of an electric bill. Second component is capacity and that is ensuring there is enough iron in the ground uh enough power for to meet peak demands uh when you know on hot days in the summer when
it's you know really hot 100 degrees or whatever and and you know there has to be enough uh enough generation online in order to meet that peak demand that represents about 28% of your total costs. Third component is transmission and transmission is really the super highways uh those large power lines that
you see on those big towers. Uh, and that's really the highways that gets the electricity from the generation sources to Madison substation. That represents about 21% of total costs. But I'm going to just zero in on one of those components, which is capacity, because
that's kind of the main culprit of why everyone's electrical costs are rising. So Madison's capacity costs are actually rising 250% this year. They're going from 800,000 to about $2.75 million. And that's not unique just for Madison.
That's that's happening um across all of the entire footprint of the Mid-Atlantic. Uh however, Madison has not had a rate increase since 2010. And in spite of this $2.75 million uh cost,
mayor and council have decided not to increase rates this year. So kudos to uh you guys. U by contrast uh beginning in J June of 2025 the investor owned utilities are increasing their electric rates as follows. PSEG is going up by
about 17% JCP JCPNL is going up by about 20% Atlantic City electric 17% and Rockland about 18%. That's going to equate to about an additional uh $180 to $200 annually um in increased electric costs for the average consumer in the
state of New Jersey. Next slide please. uh PJM. So you'll hear you'll hear me talk a little bit about PJM. Uh PJM was an acronym that used to stand for Pennsylvania, Jersey, Maryland. Uh now, if you look at the map kind of to the right here, you'll notice it has
expanded from the New York border all the way down to North Carolina and out to Illinois. And what PJM is, it's a quasi government entity that operates the electric grid for about 65 million people. uh PJM the players in PJM they encompass generators the high voltage
power line owners as well as the unused customers such as Madison uh PGM's main purpose is really reliability they want to keep the lights on so they want to ensure that there is enough energy uh when you flip on the light switch or when you set your thermostat to 62
degrees which I think it's probably an air pretty um and PGM is a rulesbased organization you know they operate in rules they're they have uh oversight by the federal government, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission oversees all the PGM rules and PGM what in a in a
nutshell what they do is they manage um all the generators, the power line owners and the customers and they coordinate the movement of the wholesale power on the grid. So in essence, they're really known as the grid. Costs are going up for four reasons. Uh first,
increased demand. Second, decreased supply which is caused in part by PJM. Uh third, rule changes made by PJM. Uh that's kind of what I've talked about capacity before. I'll I'll zero in on that a little more. And fourth, um our old trend
inflation. Slide, please. So when I talk about increased demand, uh what PJM does is they put out a 15-year forecast uh of where they see demand going. And look at this chart, you'll see it was flat from 2016 out, you know, through
through even 2028. we saw a little bump up uh when you'll notice in 2023 uh PGM was forecasting 165,000 megawatts of peak demand. Fast forward to 2025 that has increased to 225,000. So we've seen
pretty much PJM revise their forecast upwards by 80%. And this is being caused mainly by data centers. We see data centers popping up everywhere across uh the Mid-Atlantic as well as economic growth. Um just a little anecdote um PSEG
actually they have inquiries for 4,700 megawatts of data centers just in their territory alone. And just to put that in perspective um the entire New Jersey nuclear fleet is only 3,000 megawatts. So it's the the
the data centers just in the PSC territory that are being um actually studied right now are are bigger than the entire nuke fleet in the state of New Jersey. Slide please. Uh decreased supply. So several um several issues
that are causing our supply to decrease. Um economics, we have the older inefficient power plants. You know, they're closing and they're not being replaced quick enough. And I'll talk a little bit more about why they're not being replaced quick enough. Uh second bullet right here is the approval
process. So there's been a slow approval process for new power plants and this is mostly caused by PJM. They've kind of bottlenecked the entire process. Third reason for decreased supply are rule changes at PJM. PJM changed their rules uh last year for on
how power plants are valued for their contribution to reliability. As I remember I said PJM's main focus is um reliability. Make sure that we you know when we flip on our light switch we have reliable power. So they changed their rules which really caused a a decrease
in supply. Uh fourth supply chain as we all kind of heard you know we hear in the news you know it's taking longer now to get materials. Uh you know transformers are hard to get. Um there's there's a lot of components that are are really um bottlenecked uh in the supply
chain process. So it's it's taking a little longer to build power plants. Uh one of the main reasons why we're seeing this decrease supply is PJM's approval process. So this is called PJM's interconnection Q process. And what they do is they study uh when a
power plant is going to be connected to the system. You know, make sure it's not causing any disruptions, make sure it's not causing any issues uh to to the grid. And what we have noticed is this interconnection Q process has largely broken down. um there's a bottleneck of
generation waiting in a connect that can't connect. Uh in the past like you know if we back up to like say 2015 2014 it took about two years for PJM to complete its study process from you know starting the study process to actually getting a shovel in the ground to build
generation. Today um these projects are waiting five years or longer. Uh they're sitting in the queue when PJM is really not acting on any of them. Uh so it's taking five years for them to even get to the study process and then after that
they still need to go through sighting, permitting, supply chain and construction. So you know you're you're looking now uh it's taken anywhere from you know 5 to 10 years to get a sizable power plant built. So that's that's a big problem. So that's one of the reasons why we're just we just don't
have enough supply right now and and that's what's causing prices to uh to increase. Next is uh PJM's rule changes. As I mentioned before, last year PJM updated their rules for capacity accreditation. What capacity accreditation means it's PJM assigns a
value to each generator um and how they can be counted on their contribution to uh reliability during peak times. And as you know, not all power plants are are equally dependable. But what was happening in the market um prices were depressed, capacity prices
were depressed probably for the last 10 years and large power plant owners uh they they were kind of complaining you know I guess the solution for lower prices when you're a generation owner is higher prices. So they complained uh that they weren't getting paid enough. So what PGM did is they changed the
rules about how how the power plants are accredited or you know how much they were um valued for reliability and almost every classification of generation supply they were decreased. Um so what happened is the large power
plant owners you know the new nuclear plants owners um they actually ended up getting paid more because their accreditation stayed the same or went up where every other classification went down. Renewables went down natural gas went down. every other every other classification really went
down. Next, our good friend inflation. Um, as I mentioned before, you know, we're seeing increased cost of materials, uh, building new power plants, higher financing costs, interest rates have gone up, uh, increased fuel prices to run certain power plants, and skilled labor shortages. So, I won't
talk much about that. We all know the ugly head of inflation. So, what happens now? So, What we're seeing in the marketplace right now is some of the older power plants are deciding to stay open. Um, not a lot of them, but some of them are deciding, hey, you know, with
these higher prices, we could maybe stay open a little longer. Uh, secondly, Governor Murphy and the Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro, um, they've been putting a lot of public pressure on PJM. As a matter of fact, uh, Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania filed a complaint at the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission against PJM. And I'll talk a little bit more about that. um how it how it got settled. Uh third is uh the FIRK federal energy regulator for commission emergency emergency interconnection Q bypass. So PJM devised some new rules um called the reliability
resource initiative where they said hey we're going to try to get 50 power plants that are shovel ready and we're going to move them through the process quickly. So it's not going to take 10 years to get a power plant. Um it's started but I don't know how quickly they're going to get power plants um
built. You know the kind of left the barn on this um on the interconnection Q process. So we'll see how that shakes out. Uh next PJM they have agreed to put an artificial price collar on future power plant market revenues and that was a
byproduct of Governor Shapiro filing the um the complaint at FK about PJM's rules. So PJM in in their settlement they decided hey we're going to put an artificial floor and ceiling on capacity prices. So, it's going to cap market
revenues. Um, they're not going to go lower than we've seen in the past. Like I mentioned, they were kind of flat for the last 10 years. Um, so they're still going to be higher than average, but maybe they'll be a little bit lower than they came in last year, but um, it's not looking that way. The market prices, as
we see now, are indicating they're going to be even higher again next year. So, we'll see how that that shakes out. And then last but not least, um we are starting to see investments tick up in the high voltage transmission lines, the superighways that are um built, you
know, they're going to transport power over longer distances and they're trying to integrate more renewable generation options with these high voltage transmission lines. Um however, those also take quite some time to get get built. Any questions from anyone? Great.
Bob. Yeah, this may sound like a very naive question. If PJM was projecting this tremendous increase in demand, why did they change the rules and do everything to be counterproductive to meeting those
demands? Yeah. Well, if you go back to I guess slide that showed the chart of the um of demand. So, as of 2023, they were kind of still projecting not a big increase in
demand. Um, and then, as I mentioned, a lot of the big power plant owners were complaining that prices were low, they weren't getting revenues, they were going to retire, and it was going to be a vicious cycle that was just going to cause more power plants to retire. And so they kind of, you know, did some
things that may have caused prices to rise and that's the byproduct. And then my second question would be this. I you mentioned about a price cap. To me, I think that's going to bite
everybody. It's going to go it's going to work against it because what I can see happening is these plants, well, we can't raise our prices enough, but there's a cap. So they're just not going to meet the demand and it's going to cause a shortage of supply. Anytime you
put an artificial price cap on any type of economics 101 will kind of say, "Hey, yeah, that's not a market. It's not a true market. So we're going to cause distortions in the market and you may see um prices going up." Uh I do see a
lot of public pressure from governors, um elected officials that are putting pressure on PJM. They're putting pressure on FK. putting pressure on state officials. Um, so I I do because consumers are going to feel the brunt of Yeah. the higher prices. So I do think
things are in motion, but is it a little too late? Like you said before, the horse is already out of the barn. It's too late now. Thank you. I was actually not no questions from the public during a
Not not even uh but uh on his way out. Yeah. Uh but yeah, but we do have a secondary comment period where you can come up and make it at that point. So if you're Yeah. Thank you for
uh Tom. Yes. Thanks, Mayor. So Brian, at the current rates before this exorbitant increase, were the electric generators not making money? I don't that explanation why so they they were making
money but in their estimation they weren't making enough okay um because so what when I mentioned the three components there's the energy which is the commodity and and then the capacity and the transmission so an integrated generation
company they usually own all three components of that that formula so the energy has the commodity has come down capacity has come down. So they weren't making as much as they thought they were, but they were still making money.
They're all public entities. They're all public entities. Correct. So why is there a requirement for them to make a lot of shareholders? Public private. They're investorowned utilities, not and the state can't regulate that
enough. They can't regulate that. Yeah. And and I actually just, you know, I looked at when PGM announced the results of the last capacity auction which caused the prices to go up. If you look at a few days prior stock prices of all these generators, you look at their
stock prices, they went vertical after all these results came out when prices went up. The only way to really save money is to start to self-generate. Self-generating is one way to Yes. And self-generate. uh because one of the
things I didn't mention so your capacity charges they're based on your peak contribution to the entire system. If you could reduce those peaks by self-generation then you would be able to reduce your costs. Can we build a nuclear power plant in the borrow
maybe Mr. Mr. Bernett is will be happy to operate it right be happy to operate by Flor Park. But yes, that's that's definitely a way to to reduce costs now because there are some small generators communities can
put in now. Yeah. Yeah. As a matter of fact, um the burrow of South River uh they put in a battery storage project uh 15 megawatts that's been working wonderfully. Uh it's reducing the peaks. It's doing exactly as it ant as anticipated and reducing costs for even
some of these data centers that are growing drawing a lot of electricity they could have small generation. Yeah. And and there's kind of a right now there's a a battle going on um at the federal level between how these data centers how much electricity they're going to use and how they're going to
really have enough generation to to not not turn the lights out. It's it's a dilemma. Thank you. Thanks, Brian. This was really helpful. And um I want to uh thank the mayor for
um being in favor of the the letter that I wrote to this effect, the the the column that was published in New Jersey Hills that attempted to make more clear to the reading public what is causing these energy cost spikes. Um and thanks for coming to to provide more background
on that. One thing I want to point out is my understanding is that one reason that had these spikes in the capacity market is because of these reliability rules that you mentioned. As I understand it, PJM derated the
reliability of gas power plants following Winter Storm Elliot, which shut down gas power plants across Texas during a freezing spell. That was that, you know, terrible storm where people died because they had no heat because
the gas power couldn't the power plants couldn't work. And so to the extent that PJM was, you know, is more accurately reflecting the reliability of gas power plants, I think
derating gas reliability was the correct response to what we have seen in these frankly changing climate where we have less predictable uh weather and more severe and frequent storms. And I want to point out that it really to my mind
gives lie to this old idea that the American Petroleum Association pushes that that gas is safe and reliable. Right? We had a heroic uh police to police action this weekend that saved a family from a you know potentially deadly gas leak. And we see now that gas
is more expensive uh because it reflects the true cost. this capacity market has reflected the true cost of uh gas power not being as reliable and frankly being more costly to operate.
So I I feel like we need to help people understand that that we have kind of bought into um some incorrect ideas about gas power plants being um the solution to the problems we have right now. And when you look at the amount of
renewables in the queue that are waiting to get on onto the grid, we can see that they will be more efficient uh to build and less costly to operate and produce extremely low cost energy uh because the market has shown that those are the power plants that are clamoring to come
online overwhelming the number of gas uh power generation that is currently proposed. So more of an editorial comment than a question for you, but thank you for um this really clear uh summary that boils it down in in clear terms for all of us. I appreciate it.
Just just one one comment on that. So um when you look at PJM's queue, uh 95% of the generation in the queue is renewable. So it's quite a quite substantial. And to reinforce again that
some people have used it to blaming the cost of renewable as the drive, but it's not. It's just it is the answer of keeping the cost down if we can just connect. Yeah. They just haven't been able to connect and like I said now it's they're looking through a span of 10
years now to connecting. It's um you also mentioned um PJM making commitment to transmitting power over longer distances. So, I want to thank you for transmitting your power over a long distance because you are a couple
hours away living in Pennsylvania, Brian. So, I uh thank you so much. I think um for those in the audience here and those watching at home, this will be uh very informative and uh help them uh not Madison because we're controlling our prices, but for those in the
neighboring towns when they see a little sticker shock this summer, what's going on? It's happening. Thank you. So, those in Caribity understand now. Okay. So, we will now move on to uh ordinances for hearing. Will the clerk please read the statement? Ordinances scheduled for hearing were introduced by
title and passed on the first reading at the regular meeting of the council held April the 14th, 2025 were posted and filed according to law and copies were made available to the general public requesting seen. I call up ordinances for second reading. Ask the clerk to read said ordinance by title. Ordinance
9-2025. Ordinance the Burl of Madison amending chapter 113-14 of the burrow code entitled housing standards to amend the lead based paint inspection fees. I open the hearing for ordinance 9.
Anyone wishing to comment, please step forward. Seeing none, I close the hearing. Mayor, I move ordinance 9-2025. Second. Any council discussion? Roll call vote, please. Yes.
Yes. Yes. Mr. Carol, yes. Yes. I declare ordinance 9-2025 adopted and finally passed and asked the clerk to uh publish notice thereof in the newspaper and file the ordinance in accordance with the law. Just one quick thing for meeting wise for people are new new here is our
general public uh comment period will be coming up after our hearings for ordinances. Ordinance 10-2025. Ordinance of the Bur of Madison amending and supplementing chapter 178 of the Madison Burough Code entitled tree protection and chapter 195 of the
burough code entitled land development and chapter 45 of the burough code entitled shade tree management. I open the hearing on ordinance 10. Anyone wish to comment, please step forward. Seeing none, I close the hearing. Mayor, I move ordinance 10-2025.
Second. Any council discussion? I just want to I I know we had a chance to hear from Gene Kovia, the chair of our shade tree management board at the previous meeting to discuss this, but I I want to thank Jean and the board for their leadership on this. This is a great example of how we've said in the
past once we pass an ordinance, it's not a closed book, right? We can come back and we can tweak it, we can improve it, we can make it clearer and better. And I think this is our second time revising the uh shade tree the tree protection orance. So, uh, a work in progress, but it takes leadership to make those
changes. So, thank you to, uh, Jean and to Shade Tree Management and the other volunteers and, uh, burough staff that they worked with to get these changes done. Further comments, roll call vote, please. Mr. Yes. Yes. Mr. R. Yes. Mr.
Harold, yes. Yes. I declare ordinance 10-2025 adopt and finally pass. I ask the clerk to publish notice there. paper and follow the ordinance according to the law ordinance 11-2025 ordinance of the bureau of Madison amending and supplementing chapter 185
of the Madison burrow code entitled vehicles and traffic open hearing on ordinance 11 anyone wishing to comment please step forward seeing none I close the hearing mayor I move ordinance 11-2025 second any
discussion vote please yes yes Yes, Mr. Carol. Yes. Yes. I declare ordinance 11-2025 adopt finally pass and ask the clerk to publish notice their newspaper and file the ordinance in accordance to the law. Ordinance 12-2025.
Ordinance of the bureau of Madison amending chapter 185-29 of the burrow code entitled vehicles and traffic to amend schedule one no parking. I open hearing on ordinance 12. Anyone wish to comment, please step forward. Seeing none, I close the hearing. Mayor,
I move ordinance 12-2025. Second. House of discussion. Mayor, I'm wondering if you could just give a little background. We talked uh about when this would go into effect and how the police would be notifying uh with some flying just for residents at uh we
we'll do some uh push out notifications especially in neighborhoods that there's been abuse and it it becomes official after publication, but we will certainly have a campaign so people are aware of it. Thank you.
Oh, this is this is once. Yes, I'm sorry. I mixed up this one with the um overnight parking which was the previous one. Ordinance 11. Apologies. Yes. For a different ordinance.
Yes. Thank you. All right. Any further discussion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Eric, yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. R. Yes. Yes. Yes. I declare ordinance 12-2025 adopt and finally pass. I ask the clerk
to publish notice there of newspaper following importance of law. We will now do a hearing for ordinance 13, 14, and 15 combined because they're all connected to uh utility connection fees. Um, so I will ask the clerk to read
those three ordinances by title and we'll open the hearing for all three. Public may comment. Ordinance 13, 2025, ordinance of the bureau of Madison amending chapter 94 of the Madison Burough Code entitled electricility to
update the electric connection schedule. Ordinance 14, 2025, the ordinance of the Bur of Madison amending chapter 190 of the Madison burrow code entitled water to update the water connection fee schedule and ordinance 15
2025 ordinance of the Bur of Madison amending chapter 155 of the Madison Bur code entitled sewer to update the sewer connection fee schedule. I now open the hearing for ordinances 13 14 and 15. You may comment on one or all as a
collective matter. Please step forward if you want to comment on any of those three ordinances. Seeing none, I close the hearing for ordinance 1314 15. I now will entertain a motion for ordinance 13, which is the electric utility
connection fee. Mayor, I move ordinance 13 2025. Second. Any council discussion? And just as a reminder, this is done on an annual basis. This is only new connections. This is not affect any all three of these do not affect any
current rates. Roll call vote, please. Mr. Eur, yes. Mr. Rand, yes. Mr. R. Yes. Mr. Harold Pis. Yes. Yes. I declare ordinance 13-2025 adopt and finally pass. as the clerk to publish notice there of
newspaper and follow the ordinance accords with the law and motion for ordinance 14 2025 which is a water uh connection fee I move ordinance 14 2025 second any council
discussion call vote please yes yes yes yes yes I declare ordinance 13-2025 adopted and finally passed. I ask the clerk to publish notice there of newspaper and file the ordinance accordance with the law. I have a motion
for ordinance 15 2025 which is the sewer connection fee. May I move ordinance 15 2025? Second any council discussion? Roll call vote please. Mr. Mr. Lander yes. Mr. R. Yes. Mr. Harland.
Yes. Miss and uh please Read uh Ordinance 16-2025. Ordinance the Bureau of Madison appropriating $28,000 from the general capital improvement fund for funding of fiber to support ongoing fiber expansion
efforts. I open the hearing for ordinance uh 16. Anyone wish to comment, please step forward. Seeing none, I close the hearing. I move ordinance 16-20. Second. Any council
discussion? Call vote please. Mr. Hwick, yes. Mr. Landry, yes. Mr. R. Yes. Mr. Harold Cutis. Yes. Miss Con? Yes. I declare ordinance 16-2025 adopt pass. I ask the clerk to publish notice there of newspaper and file the ordinance
accordance to the law. And just a little more background information on the overnight parking change. It is in effect on May 5th and flyers are going out on cars um tomorrow and will also be pushed out to uh social media and and
Rose. Thank you. And uh now we are on to our second of uh public comment. This is when you may comment on a topic including what we just heard about. So if you wish to uh comment, please step up to lect turn just as before. State your name and address and try to keep
your comments to three minutes. But we give you that one minute grace and we'll ask you to four minutes. Anyone wish to comment, please step forward. And 21 Winfield Drive, Parcipony. Um, Empower New Jersey has been looking at this problem with uh the
increasing rates and I'll just mention just a couple of things real quick. The issue of PJM having this enormous backlog of mainly renewable energy sources is a is an old story. It's been going on for years. PGM keeps promising
that they're going to improve the process and obviously they haven't. And one of the reasons is that uh solar and storage combined um as well as onro wind are now the cheapest forms of electric generation on the planet. And so PJM has
a long history of dealing with fossil fuel suppliers and suddenly they are discriminating against renewable energy providers and uh you know you can take that for for what it's worth but uh something's not kosher there. So uh
that's what I find I hear people talking about. uh you know there's an also there was an issue and I don't know if that gentleman covered it in a way that you understood it but they changed the the auction process so that each bidder and
I don't understand quite how the auctions work but different biders put in different prices and they give each bidder the highest price that anybody gets. So it's an artificial way of basically increasing costs uh for all of
these you know fossil fuel biders. So that's another issue to look at. Um as he was said they're not forcing the data centers to uh bring their own power and uh they should definitely be looking at that in this in this environment. Um and
some of the remedies are you know New Jersey needs to consider leaving PJM and becoming its own ISO. Last comment I'll make is, you know, our our board of public utilities, which I assume is supposed to be looking at electricity and forecasting demand and
preparing New Jersey to deal with these kinds of issues, seems to be totally awall here and has done nothing and in fact is getting an education from other people that I know uh on what's going on here. So, BPU is kind of worthless in
this whole process. Thank you for Thank you again for coming back up again. And uh you're welcome to Madison. It's great to have you here. Anyone else wishing to comment, please step forward. Good evening. My name is Colette
Crescus. I live at seven circle. Um I am here on behalf of the friends of the Forest as well as the MC. But the friends of the forest just really want to thank you for your perseverance and your hard work with the
um discussions. Um I did want to talk about the effects of nighttime light on insects, excuse me, and birds. Um one year ago, Chris Heepburn commented about the importance of a diverse forest area like the Drew for Forest uh to bird
migration. And currently, this is peak time for birds migrating north to and through New Jersey. Um area forests provide excellent stopover habitat. birds who rest and feed during the day. These countless birds migrating
through New Jersey need skies to survive and thrive. In fact, scientists are learning more every year about the negative effects of what they call Allen, artificial light at night on both plants and animals, including
humans. Excuse me. Uh this is not surprising since we evolved over the millennia with nights being dark and experiencing only natural light from the moon and stars. Um sadly migrating birds
are hurt in various ways over and above the many millions who die in collisions with lit up buildings. Um birds navigate using natural light and they get attracted to and confused by artificial light. Uh causing them
energy. Uh certainly they can't afford to waste energy on their long arduous u migrations. Lights can also render those important stopover sign um sites less suitable for rest and rejuvenation. In addition, artificial
light can even change bird behavior leading to males singing at new times of the day. to let artificial lights shine near natural areas such as the Madison Recreational Complex would really be a horrible thing for birds. Um, insects
also get attracted to artificial light at night, aka Allen, and are either killed outright or die slowly from the loss of valuable energy spent pursuing artificial lights. Our lighting of the night um is a key factor to the decline
of insect populations leading to less food for birds and bats and fewer pollinators for our plants. With respect to trees, they are also hurt by Allen. And not only can bright nighttime light influence a
treere's photosynthesis process, but artificial light also leads trees to becoming active too early in the spring and staying active. In the fall, uh, trees that are near artificial light at night are less healthy and have shorter
lives um than those that still enjoy the gift of natural darkness. Clearly, Allen is a problem. The organization Dark Sky, one minute, Colette. Okay, thank you. Uh, the organization Dark Sky International and others are working to mitigate it. In
fact, 17 states have laws regulating artificial lighting in various ways. According to Dark Su, uh, should only be on at night when absolutely required and be directed only to where they are needed without upward spillage. Uh they
should be warm tone since white lights with blue content are the most disruptive. And I hope you will agree that the installation of a large billboard that is lit all night and 24 hours a day next to the MRC's wildflower meadow and conservation forest would be
a very bad idea. Um Madison went to great to choose wildlife friendly yellow tone lighting to the solar carport under construction. And any lighting that is not yellow tone and is on the night um and is on all night harms moths, birds,
insects, and wildlife. And we urge you to turn off your lights at night and to protect our living ecosystem. Thank you so much. Thank you, Colette. I've heard in a another community trying to fight the nightlife that uh part of their push is the fact that uh of all
the pollution we're fighting this is the easiest one to fight that uh you know fossil fuel is going to be a longer one here we can just change the tone flip the switch. Anyone else wishing to comment please step forward. Seeing none I close this part
of the meeting. We move on to introductory ordinance. Will the clerk please read his statement? The ordinance is scheduled for reading. Have a hearing date set for May the 12th, 2025. Will be published in the Madison Eagle posted on the bulletin board made available to members of the
public requesting copies. I call up ordinances for first read and ask the burough clerk to read ordinance by title. Ordinance 17-2025. Ordinance of the Bureau of Madison amending chapter 190 of the Madison Burough Code entitled to authorize the revisions of the Bureau of Madison's
water service connection requirements. Council discussion. Roll call vote, please. Yes. Land. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Ordinance 18-2025.
Ordinance of the Bur of Madison amending chapter 95. Appendix of the bur code entitled electric department rules and regulations regarding time of use rates. Mayor, I move ordinance 182025. Second council discussion. So can I ask
a question here? I don't know if you're going to answer this or Jim. So is this something different than what we've been looking at? This is it. Just a tweak of you changed something there, Jim. Yeah. So we have to Did we already Didn't we already vote? Yeah. So, as Rachel said,
some, you know, with the tree ordinance, sometimes we fix them right over years and sometimes we fix them right away. So, this is one that we came up with something that needed a little so for um that probably didn't get
picked up microphone, but allowing solar customers to use uh time of use rates. Oh, great. Thanks, Jim. Any further discussion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Bley, yes. Mr. Landrian. Yes. Mr. Range.
Yes. Mr. Carolyn. Yes. Yes. And ordinance 19-2025. Ordinance of the Bureau of Madison amending and supplementing chapter 185 of the Madison Burough code entitled vehicles and traffic. Mayor, I move ordinance 19-2025.
Second. And again, this is another tweak of a uhly passed ordinance. Any further discussion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Yes. Mr.
Yes. Yes. Mr. Harold, yes. Yes. Consent agenda resolutions. Will the uh clerk, please read the statement. Consent agenda resolutions will be enacted with a single motion. Any resolution requiring 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 full in the minutes. Mayor, I move resolution uh 142-2025 through 158-2025.
Second. Any discussion or any that need to be pulled for? I just have a couple of comments on some of these. There's a lot of stuff packed into this one that um I just want to add some minor commentary to to your point about uh one uh resolution 148 which uh
as the the ordinance the resolution says we oppose legislation that permits accessory dwelling units. I want to underscore the fact that um from a planning perspective accessory dwelling units are a tool that I think the bureau should cons continue to consider. part
of our uh 2020 master plan update was to propose a potential considering a pilot program for ADUs in uh the right uh uh residential district town. And so I don't uh want anyone following along uh
with the actions of this council to think that this is some kind of a blanket opposition to ADUs. And I think um the the proposal in our master plan to consider a pilot program for this in the right portions properties for for town uh should should still be
considered. U and as you say, this is just a resolution that would um oppose a statemandated uh or an override of our our local zoning ordinance. Um I want to point out that
resolution 149 basically uh codifies some of the points that uh we made that were made for the presentation by Brian VA tonight. uh the call for reforming the PJM interconnection queue. This is a resolution that uh proposes some
specific reforms and will be sent to our state and congressional representatives to help underscore the fact that uh we need to make a change. I think Madison is the right town to be calling for this because we have our own electric utility. We buy wholesale electricity
and we're paying attention to where these costs are coming from. And so I hope that this resolution uh helps educate our neighbors about the issues that we're facing with this energy cost crisis. And lastly, I want to thank um Ken, our our guest tonight, and Claire
Woodcom and the MEC for resolution R153 supporting the New Jersey Climate Super Fund Act. It is far time that we make polluters pay for the damage in our state. Thanks, Mayor. Very much. Any other comments? We'll call a vote, please.
Miss yes, yes. Mr. Rain, yes. Yes. Yes. There is no unfinished business. Approval of vouchers. Will the clerk please read the voucher totals from current fund? $4,315,659.17. From the general capital fund,
$1,500. From the electric operating fund, $493,19748. From the water operating fund, $9,527.93. And from the trust, $29,37.37. The total is $4,848,921.95. Mayor, I move approval of the vouchers. Second
discussion. Pull a vote. Yes. Yes. Mr. Har There is no new business. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Mayor, I move for adjournment. In favor?