##VIDEO ID:v__QxK17gtw## e e e e e e e e making a mess let the record reflect we have reconvened with all members present for those are able please rise for the pledge and I ask you remain standing after the pledge pledge to the flag the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible Li and justice for all and let's take a moment to remember um couple long time Madison resent we lost over the past few weeks Elma trusty lifelong Madison resident passed away on December 30th age of 93 she was known by many names of course Thelma mother grams Grandma mother thalma ta Thelma with all those names has left an incredible uh imprint on the hearts of all at newer and anyone who attended events at Rexford Tucker senior apartments you couldn't miss her because she was the one working the room with a big smile giving out candy and I had to check my title at the door because she truly was the mayor of chatau theory um she was also e the even right up uh to a year ago first one on the dance floor when the music started so I had many a dance with dma and you would also see her at all the chicken and fish fries at B Beth I would when I get my meal there I would tell tell her please get the dessert I don't need it and I would get home and there be extra desserts in the bag is tell my had to do it and she would also always say mayor keeping an eye on you so she was born 1931 North Carolina moved to Madison as a young child when her mother passed away in 1941 she was raised by Aunt Bert and Uncle Raymond graduated Madison High School Elma excelled not only as a track star but also a majorette radiating joy and energy that Drew people to her which she did right up into her death bed her love for music and dance was a reflection of her vibrant spirit and After High School she worked for uh Bell Labs we also lost Elizabeth Betty ianone mother of Madison Pharmacy owner and Madison volunteer Frank I onone she died on January 1 at age 85 born in 39 grew up in East Orange in Springfield and after graduation went to Katherine Gib SEC secretarial School met her husband Frank senior on a blind date they lived in Hillside then settled in Floren Park where they raised their son and daughter and she was a stay-at home mom for many years before uh working at Macy's as a legal secretary and then also various pharmaceutical companies he was also a dedicated volunteer at jbws best Jersey battered women shelter for over 20 years in addition to her son Frank she's survived by her daughter Christa her spouses along with five grandchildren and then also Joanne Marie Benedict lifelong Madison resident died on de December 30th age 80 survived by her son Christopher and his wife Donna and her longtime companion arst scobo and five grandchildren five great-grandchildren was a graduated Madison High School began her career at chub life insurance and then the bisco and then later Etna in parpan and after 25 years there retired and helped people as a credit counselor and she was a huge fan of el Elvis Presley taking many trips to graceand in Memphis with her companion Arthur so let's take a moment to remember Thelma trusty Betty Anon Joanne addict and let us also remember those who have lost their homes and think about the First Responders fighting the overwhelming fires and all those who have died during the fires in Southern California thank you [Music] can I have a motion for the executive minutes of November 13th 2024 second all in favor I and a motion for the regular minutes of November 13 2024 second any discussion or Corrections all in favor I I welcome all to our first regular meeting meeting of the new year after a reorganization meeting and apologize we were delayed a little bit executive and uh as we enter this new year we look back on another great Madison holiday season that we just wrapped up we kicked off the season on the day after Thanksgiving with the amazing parade and tree lighting store owners welcomed Shoppers from near and far throughout the December Shoppers were also greeted with music on Thanksgiving weekend while some lucky Shoppers were surprised with gift certificates from the DDC at Santas and the weekends leading up to Christmas and then on December 19th just ahead of the winter solce we um gathered at the tree at Waverly Place for interfa Faith Gathering recognizing the day with when the the darkness is the longest and then on the 29th on the fifth day of Hanukkah we came together for what is now a multi- deade Madison tradition of lighting the um manora and today the signal at the official end of holiday season has um come as the the lights are now off of the tree on Waverly Place and the tree will soon be uh going onto another life and on January 2nd as I mentioned we held our annual reorganization meeting as council members uh Eric range and Melissa Hanahan started their new terms congresswoman Mikey Cheryl gave the O of office before she had to head head out to uh DC to take her own off o own oath for a new term um actually last Monday I attended the chattam burrow um reorganization meeting Mikey Cheryl was not able to attend but she had a great video that was done in the back of heartley Dodge so Madison was there with Mikey in spirit and I've said this before that you know no one does reor reorganizations meetings better than we do starting with Gerald deine Rockefeller Dodge who gave us this great room in the great building to have the meeting in the clerk Liz Osborne who has to manage all the re appointments and the many moving Parts some that I make move more than often all too often uh Michael peser in the back there for supporting Logistics and also many of the staff in this building stepped up to get things ready and uh for the setup and cleanup and uh for those that missed the um the meeting we brought back the spotlight kids who were here in December for the annual Drew Forest Carol and they returned to do an amazing job on the national anthem at the opening the meeting so thank you for all that made a special day I'm going to come down below in just a second here all a few years ago a few years ago I created the uh mayor's hero award uh this was recognizing uh residents who stepped forward in a single act when help was needed and this was followed by what is the mayor's hero Legacy award this is to recognize those whose work has made a lasting difference in our community past recipients include Carmen Toto Jr gy ruckle's house Wy kirkus logger Kathy culus Bob culus father George hunt and Jack Lux so tonight we're going to recognize a new Legacy hero someone who has quietly but impactfully made a difference in our community and with others come on down and come on up got a I've got to say a few words before I give you this award though Martin so today we are uh recognizing we can spin around so we can get you on yep he is a very modest man as you can tell but today we are recognizing longtime Madison resident Martin heler as mayor's Madison leg Legacy hero and you truly have been a hero a quiet one at that and because you've certainly never done this for recognition you have done it to make a difference a community and even to the fact that we had planned to do this at a reorganization meeting but you were off helping some someone and so you couldn't be here um Martin you have a lifelong record of giving to make a difference but my first experience was in the time after super storm Sandy and as people in the audience may know that we adopted the Town of Union Beach as they recovered from the storm they were devastated so much of the support came from Martin he supported the drive to raise funds so they could buy lumber for restoration but then the word came back that the the funds were a challenge because they couldn't get Lumber so what did Martin do he arranged to get the lumber there with truckloads with plywood so they could start the repairs on the house all delivered to Union Beach that next summer we started a program to send Union Beach children to Camp Martin again was there to give the children experience of a lifetime as they were still recovering from the death Devastation again done very quietly I think he even said don't tell anyone I want to be anonymous but here I'm letting it all out and then when time out the adult daycare center was about to close Martin was there to give life to a program that was so important to those taking care of their elderly parents it gave ability for that program to last many more years and of course there's a latest Act of generosity saving the Masonic lives a building that will be celebrating its 200th anniversary your $1 million donation has given this building a new life not only preserving the street skate but also giving us a new Senior Center within the building the building is now the mark K Center in honor of your late son someone who was inspiration to many and the senior center will be the Peggy hel senior center in memory of your wife and I know until her passing in 2019 she was right at your side making a difference for so many a legacy hero in her own right so Martin I want to thank you for doing everything you do to make a better life for all thank you all thank you I'm very very proud of this award and I thank and I thank the municipality the me members of the mayor and Council for their recognition of my efforts that I tried to make Madison a better community and it is a good community and I want to tell you something kind of exciting I with the mayor's help met with a noble laurate who's a friend of mine who wanted to move to Summit and last Saturday I had him come visit Madison and I asked the mayor to come to talk with his couple a noble Laureate and the and he agreed to move to somebody he made a bid this morning on a house and he's a partner with another Noble LA and if we can land two Noble La in madis not Summit what a bonanza that is what a compliment it is for this community so I hope he gets yep we hope that that contract offers accepted and uh anyway thank you all for your recognition I'm sincerely appreciative of thank you thank you so much [Applause] [Music] thank you Martin Take Care thank you Martin I think we should call it ton night at this point that was so but we won't we will go on to reports from committees Public Safety oh I got to change the order here Finance of burough clerk council president early thank you mayor I'll start with the burough Clerk's report the 2025 June primary this year will be rescheduled from June 3rd to June 10th that's the Republic law 2024 section c 107 in observance of the Jewish holiday of shav candidates for municipal office and County committee must file nominating petitions in the office of the burough clerk by 4M on March 24th 2025 that's the 71st day preceding the day of the June primary election for the general election please contact the burough clerk with any questions and here in Town cat and dog license renewals are underway licenses must be renewed by the end of January moving on to finance we have an important reminder from the tax department the first quarter property taxes are due February 1st we are pleased to announce that we collected 99.64% of the 2024 property taxes special thanks to Chrissy and Hattie in the tax collection department for doing such a great job in 2024 the finance department has two important project projects in the works over the coming weeks finance will be working on both the annual debt statement and the annual financial statements the debt statement shows the amount of Municipal debt including school debt as a percentage of total assessments of property in the buau the annual financial statements are the first documents that reflect the actual financial performance of the buau in the prior year these documents get further refined and become our Municipal audit the annual Financial stat statements or AFS also help us during the annual budget process as they give us fund balance performance for the prior year so speaking of the budget uh I have said before the budget season is here but Jim wants to say emphatically budget season is here so that's in bold we have no presentations this evening but to reiterate our budget schedule will look like this going forward on the 27th our next meeting there'll be a presentation from Public Works the water utility electric utility and Utility Fund balances on February 10th there will be an initial Municipal budget review and presentation from the fire department on February 24th we will have department head presentations although I believe that meeting we discuss is actually on Wednesday the 26th of February and on March 24th we will have a final budget presentation as well as a strategic planning discussion and introduction of the budget lastly on April 28th we will have a budget hearing and a vote for adoption as we've mentioned before this year the burough is under State review for our Municipal budget so it is possible that the introduction and adoption dates may change that's all for today thank you and before we go on to the next report I I just realized in my excitement to recognize Martin heler I forgot to announce the employees of the month so the employees month of January are jaline steinheimer and Matthew marrow the uh they are EMTs that recently responded to a difficult call where they use their very uh special knowledge to recognize the serious problem with the patient and their quick action and recognition of this problem saved the patient's life it was recognized by the uh Atlantic Health also so you see them please congratulate them as our employees of the month and now we will go to uh Public Safety Mr Ring I mean no no we'll go to uh Public Works and Engineering Mr Lander again we'll get this uh Public Safety safety you're Public Safety it will be corrected at the next St so take take three Public Public Safety Mr landrian all righty from the police department police Personnel are currently in the process of completing full Department training on the use of force addendum C which encompasses the deescalation the Police Department administrative Personnel are currently in the process of completing mandatory year reports that include submissions to Mars County the police department has installed new interview new interview equipment for both the first and second floor interview rooms that were part of the 2024 Capital Improvement plan the police department is in the process of two new Patrol Vehicles is in possession of two new Patrol vehicles that were ordered as part of the 20 two 2024 purchase and are currently being outfitted and finally police command Madison police Command Staff will be meeting at the end of the month with public school officials as part of the quarterly District security meeting hey from the fire department the 2024 fire department responses included 264 incidents this included 981 fire calls and 1,183 EMS calls as a reminder during the year of 2024 the fire department took over Ems for the month of December the fire department responded to 212 EMS calls with 93 patients transported to the hospital on December 12th the fire department responded to an assist at a second alarm fire in Mars Township an accidental fire at that location severely burned a Contractor on January 9th the fire department hosted another successful blood drive a total of 34 pints of blood were donated and finally the fire department is getting ready to roll out their new residential knockbox program presently you have probably seen these KNX boxes on outside of businesses and schools thank you mayor thank you and now public works and Engineering Mr range thank you mayor from the engineering department this evening uh the cook Avenue parking reconstruction project is largely complete and a reminder that the lot is fully open uh final construction and planting of the rain Gardens will be completed as weather permits the installation of the solar carport project at the MRC is moving forward uh con construction permitting is almost complete and we anticipate construction to begin in approximately 30 to 45 days emergency repairs to the DPW garage roof trusses has been complete and along with much of the work for the repairs of the roof of the Water and Light Building the engineering department is also working on preparing documents and Grant submissions for SE several upcoming Pro projects including the next phase of the Memorial Park Trail improvements Traffic Safety improvements at several locations throughout town and bid documents for interior repairs to the Water and Light Building uh with a bid packet for that project expected to be released in the spring from d DPW this evening a reminder that your Christmas trees can be put uh to the curb for pickup by the DPW uh they should be free of tinsel lights and other ornaments uh and because remember they are not collected by the garbage pickup uh they are recycled here uh by the DBW Department pickup will continue through January 31st residents can also bring their Christmas trees and other yard race to the recycling center on Saturday February 1st from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to help us keep the ice enjoyable for all at the rosale skating Pond we ask that no one throw or leave anything on the ice including trash tools or other items if you do clear Ice uh if you do clear the ice of snow uh please shovel it to the sides do not leave piles of snow uh on the ice as they create an uneven skating surface remember the rink is O only open and a aailable for skating when the flag is raised and Clos closes nightly at 10: p.m. you can also check the status of the ice at rosenet.org and last Monday January 6th and on Saturday January 11th there were two minor snow events uh here in the burrow Crews were able to pre-treat roadways to prevent icing conditions and lastly tonight from the building department in the month of December uh the building department processed 150 permits uh which were prepared with a construction cost valued at $9.2 million 50 certificate of approvals were issued 10 certificates of occupancy were also issued including four for new single family homes and six residential additions 500 inspections were booked and completed and 45 Oprah requests were processed that's all tonight from building engineering and DPW mayor thank you utilities Mr pus thank you mayor welcome public uh from the water department the water department continues to replace meters around town additionally focusing on the troubled or bad Plumbing sites now while metertech continues their scheduled Replacements to date there's been 5,000 approximately 5,000 MERS replaced and changed there's 400 left to go some of them have challenges inside the structures that need to be addressed by plumbers hopefully that'll be finalized in the first half of 2025 uh curve boxes have been dug and replaced at seven locations to Aid in the replacement of water meters testing and Sample valves are being replaced in the wells as regular maintenance along with air filters a new cl2 induction line was installed at ew very exciting 6-in water main brake was dug and repaired on hoit Street the brake was a crack around the main at a service connection due to ground movement from frost the repair clamp and service tap were used and service was reconnected several large meters have been replaced upcoming events and activities uh water service Replacements is scheduled for this week on Rose Avenue uh another thing that we have in the planning stages uh considering the potential developments at Drew and geralda and elsewhere around the buau a review of the bureau's water utility long-term capacity and infrastructure to support growth will be under update planning review this will be part of the utility committee's meetings from the electric utility utility uh standby was called out eight times Transformer was replaced on rdale uh disconnected power to a house on North Street because it was flooded due to a broken water pipe uh since the last council meeting all the lights on the cook Avenue parking lot are now up and running hopefully you'll uh notice the uh classic historic looking lights over there it's a beautiful Improvement uh relay upgrade of circuits like the Kings Road substation continues crews are doing markouts responding to emergency repairs replacing lights and new connections when we receive a cut in a card upcoming events uh EV fast Chargers will be installed in lot three the schedule is already in place and the electric utility has removed wreaths and lights from the posts and as you heard before they took down the Christmas lights on the tree on wly Place unfortunately and one more thing mayor from the recreation activity committee uh uh councilman range talked about the flooding of the uh rosale skating rank a number of the community groups that actually skate and the schools have been out there practicing which is fantastic uh the ski ski Club started a couple of weeks ago uh the registration is complete with 250 skiers and 40 chapons it's a fantastic program I been through it with my kids um and the spring schedules have already been set and distributed to all the relevant groups and as of the end of 2024 the MRC user fees had been totally collected that's all thank you very much great to hear about ice skating yeah it's ready right let's go right Community Affairs Miss Hanahan thank you mayor uh Downtown Development commission will have its reorganization meeting on January 16th this week um Thursday it is open to the public and is held in uh just down the hall planning is also underway for the Madison Green and clean which will be held on Saturday April 26 and more information will follow the Chamber of Commerce will hold a fundraiser for a comedy night on January 21st it's a bring your own bring your own booze and food um but it's a comedy uh show on the 21st and tickets are $35 Madison NJ chamber.org uh supposed to be a great show Rose City chocolate walk February 8th at 1 Taste of Madison February 24th at 6 at the Madison Hotel those tickets are available at Gary's wine Marketplace and online at Garry's wine.com the Madison Community Art Center is as busy as ever uh with the Wednesday Open Mic series continuing in 25 there is uh live music and popup shop which uh showcase which continues on January 18th at 7 p.m. the Film Society of summit will be showing the Benjamin Netanyahu documentary the BB files on Sunday January 19th there's a Red Cross blood drive on January 29th and later that day the Madison environmental commission will present a lecture on oops what to do with invasive plants purchased at Garden Centers so that's it thanks thank you and for those that are doing dry January I guess you can bring your own soft drinks too yes okay and uh Health Mr Forte thank you mayor during the month of December the health department inspected 35 retail food establishment ments investigated five complaints and one communicable disease a rabies clinic was held with 67 total dogs and cats vaccinated as a reminder all dogs and cats must be licensed with the burrow which is something that popped up when people came to get their animals uh vaccinated they weren't licensed uh for information on pet licensing please visit www.r.org the health department is seeing an increase in respiratory illnesses with emergency room visits increasing the health department is still offering flu vaccine for individuals who are interested please contact please call 973 593 uh 3079 for more information the health department would also like to remind individuals that the following a actions are protective against bird flu there have been no cases identified in New Jersey and risk to humans is considered low but it has occurred in other places of the country avoid contact with dead birds call 1877 WN warn D to report sick or dead birds do not inest products made from raw milk and avoid feeding cats and other pets raw meat cats are known to be susceptible to the bird flu which they can pick up from the raw meat thank you mayor thank you any uh Communications and petitions none received mayor we're now on our first of two invitations for public comment this one is limited to our two uh discussion items or the resolutions on our consent agenda so these are the one items you can uh comment on we're going to have a presentation on the police department arrived to together program and then we have a presentation on the parks master plan uh design followup and these are the resolutions that you may comment on um and just I I didn't read at the reorganization meeting I did not read the uh titles of um resolutions and that consent because those are all routine ones so now we are into the less routine one category resolution 40 is appointing truck driver Joseph Forte to position of Equipment Operator 2 and this is at uh salary based on the collective bargaining agreement resolution 41 is appointing Thomas Hunt the position of Public Safety telecommunications officer also uh consistent with collective bargaining agreement resolution 42 is uh authorized in renewal of shared service agreement with senior center of cadams to provide uh senior programs and also supporting some of the Capital Improvements resolution 43 is approved um license application by Drew University on various dates resolution 44 is uh approving the Little League parade to be held on Saturday April 5th at 12:00 noon mark your calendar resolution 45 is authorizing annual stien of $3,000 to Bonnie Mahi for assuming additional duties to implement an enforce tree protection permit process resolution 46 is approving a special event permit to allow use of Memorial Park parking area by Karen jodano on various dates in April through uh December NE this year uh resolution 47 authorizing a contract for motor gasoline through Mars County Co-op pricing Council not to exceed $150,000 on funding available through the 2025 budget resolution 48 is Award of special uh motor contract for rock salt to Atlantic salt of L Massachusetts also under the Mars County Co-op an amount not to exceed $120,000 funded through the 2025 budget resolution 50 is amending resolution 13-22 which was authorizing establishment of petty cash funds for uh burough custodians and this one is uh eliminating the Public Works uh petty cash fund as it's no longer needed resolution 51 is approving raffle for Madison High School PTS so um March 12th resolution 52 is appointing Hillary Barbosa to the uh position of technal assistant to construction code official known as Taco uh in the building department and this is a annual salary of $60,000 resolution uh 53 is approving a film permit for Winger Productions uh for filming it was on January 11th at 159 Garfield Avenue so you may comment on those resolutions or the two discussion items if you wish to comment on those you step up to lecturn state your name your address and then the uh item you are commenting on and try to keep your comments to three minutes but we do give you a one minute grace and stop you at 4 there will be another comment period late in the meeting when you can comment on any topic anyone wishing to comment please step forward seeing none I close this part of the meeting and we move on to our agenda discussions Chief Misha and the arrive together program thank you mayor and counsel uh before I get started we have a small small video just to give you a background an overview of the program that will play for you it's 2 minutes [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right so the arriv program as you've seen on the video here um there are there's a lot of towns in the state that have it we're fortunate enough in Madison to be one of those towns um a little brief history the arrive program stands for the alternate alternative responses to reduce instances of violence and education the program recognizes the importance of addressing mental health concerns with compassion understanding and specialized expertise this program pairs a mental health clinician which we use from mha or the Mental Health Association of New Jersey with a police officer to be dispatched on certain categorized calls specifically to calls where the patient is in mental crisis and only when to see in is safe the call is then turned over to the clinician to work with the patient and provide resources and guidance to get the necessary treatment that the patient needs so the history with the arrived program in Madison late 2021 former councilwoman Deb Cohen reached out to me and said hey John you should look at a program that is is in West Orange she gave me a uh a link she's a teacher there and um which was later found to be the arrive program where she said you know I think it's pretty it can be pretty beneficial in town um where the mental health condition goes on calls with the police officer so I thought it was you know first I heard of it so we did some research on it and in the coming months I was in communication with assistant prosecutor Meg Rodriguez from from Mars County and other County Chiefs to get the discussion going see if we can get something similar and started in Mars County um what we were seeing postco was in town here and throughout the county even throughout the state uh that a large number of our calls were for mental Mental Health crisis people needing assistance and I felt that if there was more that we can do as police officers and police leaders to better help our residents and better equip our officers to handle these type of calls I was in full support of it largely I wanted to provide my officers with another tool and their tool belt to handle these type of types of calls more effectively and to assist our residents in getting all the help that they need I also saw the immediate need of ongoing training for our officers to Better In better to better deal with these calls so in mid 2023 as you saw uh on the on this on the video here the prosecutor's office notified us that the arrived program was expanding Statewide and Madison was one of the first on the list to be a pilot program uh in our County this program is fully funded as you all know by um department of human Human Services grant money with no cost to participating towns to participate and be considered though the prosecutor's office looks at the following population of the town the volume of calls concerning emotionally disturbed suicidal Etc categorized calls the interest of Department leadership with having a clinician on board with a with an officer to respond to these calls and also to continued training of CIT which stands for Crisis Intervention training and this this training uh provides techniques for law enforcement officers to work with people who are experienced Mental Health crisis and uh I'm happy to say that 3/4s of our department is will be fully trained by the end of 2025 and in 2026 our entire department will be trained so we we really committed to this training so beginning in November 2023 with the full support of the mayor council burough Administration uh an agreement was signed and Department policy was put in place for our M for Madison to be part of the arrive program uh with three three other towns called the M towns Madison Mars Township uh Mars Plains and Madison mors Township mors Plains and marown um I should know that right uh due to uh us being in close proximity and since Handover Township have jumped uh jumped on board so you asked how to program works there's two mental health uh clinicians mha mental health clinicians that that are assigned to the m towns and they are assigned to each town on a rotating basis we have one that works 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. one that works 3 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. um anything that any calls that are categorized in this arrive uh as a arrive call and the clinician is not working obviously the officer handles it as we would normally and there's a a followup which I'll go over very shortly that the clinician uh that the clinician does um these clinicians are also housed in our headquarters they have a workstation uh the right the right inside mingling with the officers they're basically part of our uh Department family and I'm proud to have such a great partnership with mha and the prosecutor's office uh in this endeavor so there's two main functions of the aride program there's the response and as I mentioned before the followup and I'll just cover these very briefly the response just what it is to provide individuals in crisis with whatever help that they need quickly and effectively and um that's by teaming up with an officer to address the uh the Mental Health crisis that someone's going through next there's the followup the followup is where the arrive the arrive team not only handles A dispatch call with a crisis in progress but then also follows up with the individual um to ensure that they are doing well they don't need anything additional and they have the support that they that that they need this Focus approach uh supports both the individual facing a mental health crisis and also protects the officer responding to these calls historically with Mental Health crisis calls officers were being dispatched to the same residence on multiple occasions we found that after the commencement of the arrive program we've seen a lot less than this uh our interestingly enough our calls for emotionally disturbed person EDP calls decrease over 30 % from 2023 to 2024 since we had the arrive program so this is actually going to be our second full year 2025 second full year in this program we also saw a decrease in use of force on these type of calls after being uh involved in the arrive and officers being CIT trained we have seen a dramatic drop of for uh of use of force on these calls in 2024 we responded to approximately 100 arrive type calls including responses and follow-ups and there was Zero use of force incidents with our officers in all four towns there were over 400 arrive calls so all the four M towns that are utilized in the arrive program and there was only one use of force so I think it's pretty uh awesome um and lastly I just want to thank the governing body and the burough Administration for their cons uh continued support of our officers our department and our utilization of the arrive program Chief couple comments and we'll ask the council for some others but uh um certainly this this is a a great story which um we've talked about this quite a bit uh we had a uh Workshop down of the league we didn't have a great turnout but I uh wanted to make sure we we tell the story multiple times because you are truly making a difference and um we've got a lot of people be watching this at home and they should be really proud of um your work the work of your office ERS and this partnership we have um couple of the things that were uh shared I you know I I I shared a friend's thoughts what I um a mother who we I know through my children her son and my children were together in child care her son now suffers um from mental health issues and is of and on on the street and her biggest fear is getting that call someday that the wrong person answered the door when it was a crisis to know that there's a program such as this is is so important and and and I think we also talked at the uh conference about the two side of of this uh not to go into much detail but I um it was shared about the one call that was a potential suicide by police that um and the teamwork to deescalate not only save that person's life but I can only imagine that if the officer had been forced to take physical action and then to hear the story behind that person and why they were there would have been devastating to that officer so we we it it is such a strong program for everyone involved so yeah it comes back to the training and and um you know if for dealing with these types of calls that you know our officers can confidently respond to these calls and deescalate the situation I mean that's our obviously making this sure to scene safe but our priority is to to not we don't want to use Force you know and to talk them down and you know we have great officers and they've really uh bought into this to the to the uh CI CIT program and the arrive program so you know we're doing great things out there and helping our residents Chief I can't thank you enough for pushing this forward and carrying it through know uh 26 years on the ambulance I responded to enough of them and they are by far the toughest type of situation to be in uh it's not only dangerous for the patient it could be very dangerous for the First Responders this is a great step forward for everybody's safety and well-being so thank you so much for this it's much appreciated coms John yeah Chief uh thank you we we certainly always sit here and think that we've got a lot to be thankful for in Madison and a lot to be proud of and I think this is more of that um you know certainly I think all of us uh are extraordinarily proud of the work that all the public safety team does here in Madison whether it's fire uh EMT uh police but this is something that I think we should be especially proud of I think um you know it's it's um it's a fact that there's a mental health crisis in the country and I think a lot of people fall through the cracks and then they get stuck in the community and you you guys have to deal with them so I think it's good that a program like this exists to make it so that those interactions with your team are safe for both them and you and your officers so thank you thank you Tom one more comment you were commenting on the followup too so the followup is key our our own staff does a followup and then hopefully directs these people yeah correct you know for years um and it was a process the you know the the the individuals really weren't getting the help that that they needed with um you know sending them to the hospital and getting released and we would go back you know um so what's great about the follow-ups are now the arrive clinician they'd have a you know mental health clinician on scene at the initial call the response and then the followup is after the fact hey did everything go good are you getting the treatment you needed the medication are you seeing you know uh are you seeing who you need to see and uh as we said as I said in the uh the numbers I just pulled them up today and I wish I had more for you we're still compiling everything but um we saw a 30% drop in those type of calls from 2023 to 2024 and I fully believe that a a big part of that is the followup that those patients and individuals residents whoever are getting the help that they need and they're not calling us anymore for that so you know it's a it obviously you know lucky it's working lucky we're lucky it's working thank you any other comments just reinforce one other thing very that um you know the arrive program eventually would have arrived to Madison but it was you was chief that took a suggestion and reached out and research that made it happen had his part of a pilot program so another thing to be very proud of and one subtle other thing to to be proud of is attorney general Matthew platkin is a Madison product graduate of Madison High School so thank you very much G for uh taking the time to share this great program thank you for having me now we'll shift on to our uh Parks master plan Tom salaki I don't know how I follow up to that but uh Tom parks are very important for mental health parks are very important and safe Parks as well so um so I'm here this evening just to kind of give a general update to the council um some of you have been uh more involved than others um and uh so I just want to give a brief I'll keep it under 15 minutes but we're we're moving along quite nicely um as we learned you know the process of public input takes longer I think we had a pretty aggressive schedule in the beginning and then we realized how long it took for people to respond and give us feedback and ask them again so um but we're moving along we should have things wrapped up this winter um so this is kind of just an update for you all I um and so there's two I should also say the two phase one which was the analysis you know information gathering that is uh post Michael posted online as is the phase two which is more or less this booklet which you're going to see tonight which is the jumping into the concept design okay so again uh we're looking at at Summer Hill Park Central green Livy Park and Del Barton right those are the four Parks identified um so this is part of this presentation is what we showed to the public when we had our design review um back in November and so we went over with them talking about the different phases so right now we're in the phase three you know or or area three which is the concept design so we've done the kickoff Community design day um once we get feedback from the public but we're working on now is the final concept and then we finally launch into the Improvement plan um and so what we did um the inventory analysis just to kind of give a overview we looked at physical conditions um we talked about the peoples and places around the parks vegetation within the parks and around and the history of each Park um and then so we using that information we jumped into the public input and this was during the summertime some were we able to make it we had a very hot day uh we did it uh we were going to have it in the Parks where there were thunderstorms that day so we moved into the courtroom um we had a really nice turnout um for some to get some Community input and how we did that was um we looked at we had different uh what we call public design shett so you can see here we had different boards set up around the room um and we asked people different questions um we had a board that said picture preferences and it was like all right of all these pictures what do you see as a preference for your Park what what do you what intrigues you what do you like to see in the par then we had a priorities board and we had listed priorities all different kind of priorities and you put a sticker on what was your most important next important third important and the last one was this idea of Love change right what do you love about the park what would you like to see change we didn't want to say love hate so we did love change because a little more positive so um we got a really you know you can kind of see some of the examples of the boards here we got a lot of good feedback from that um and so overall in the Parks we you know it was the focus was really like uh pedestrian Trails was a picture preference picnic benches and Gathering spaces seating natural tree canopies so there was a theme coming up right there was this idea of passiveness there was this idea of Nature and that was for all four Parks um and so the the preference pictures for summerh Hill as you can see up top people walking trees with Trails a nice Bridge uh Livy same thing picnic benches areas to sit signage Delbarton Park maybe like a more fun Woodland style play but again Pathways nature uh Central green signage Pathways seating so you know we had these going on at four different times of the day and this was kind of a big recurring theme throughout all of them um and then so then we looked at priorities and we said what are these are the list of priorities we said you know you know accessibility art dogs ecology we kind of did everything right we don't wanted to cover the gamut of of what we were looking at there um and so Central greens was uh ecology walking and passive regation there was playground safety and walking ecology access passive wreck and ecology so again it's all the same thing so I'm going to kind of go through this part a little more quickly um and then we looked at this was the more difficult part it's like um how do you categorize people's personal comments right so we found that it was super easy for us to read the comments and to learn from that as designers but it's really hard to uh uh quantify that and put in a spreadsheet so um but we were able to kind of put things in categories and you can see here like a big you know the love of central green the natural beauty the change is we need to get rid of the debris and the weeds um we love the community adjacency of D arttin Park but we really need a playground that's not in disrepair um for Livy it was the love the community adjacency maybe remove the invasives for summerh hill was a quiet nature too many invasives and dead trees and then we launched into the the fun part the design part so we took all that information from the public we took our analysis right and and it's two separate Elements which is important because Community might come back to us and use this example I think when we meetings like they want a skate park but our analysis might say you can't put a skate park in any of these parks for these reasons right so but what the skate park common tells us is they want to place May where teens can hang out and have a good time and play game you know so we we can glean from that information of what type of space we can design it might not be a skate park but it might be something that's designed for that particular group of kids there are some blank pages here because it's meant to be printed so if anyone would like a printed copy uh let me know um so I'll go quickly through here again giving the overview of the designs and then they're online we can even go into dep and I'm more than happy also to like host a separate meeting with any council member that wants to talk about it to get feedback um said that um okay so again for each Park you know what we did is from the design board this is what we presented to the public in our in our follow-up meeting in November and it was um we printed big Boards out and we showed them that you know here's the analysis we were looking at we were looking at the bikability walking to it we showed them the analysis um and the feedback that we got from the public and then we gave them kind of brief overview so this is Central green so this gives you an idea of where central green sits and we talked about you know looking at the main entrance to the connection Mark again this is the concept big level we went to the public with we emphasized them like this was the fun time this was the time for them to like look at it don't get you know don't ask questions like what kind of brick are we going to use and are the are the benches going to be wood or concrete it was more about like do you want an entrance here or not um do you want a trail there or not do you want more trees or less trees right so so for for Central green it was it came down to they just wanted really clean access um it's it's a beautiful natural space but it needs to be enhanced it needs to be maintained even though it's it's a woodland it's it was never a woodland originally so it's grown up with invasives um and there is a lot of uh debris there's actually like a Dumping Ground back here for any of you who are up with your Madison history all the neighbors are so uh there's might be a little archaeological dig in the north where it says add native understory um but the idea here was like maybe we just do a simple really clean Trail that's easy accessible easy to maintain and then some more informal Trails throughout and we really focus on creating a healthy Forest because that's what people loved about and so we did some sketches for them to give them what that might look like right so this is coming in from down here from Greenwood you know maybe it's just a clean trail with with split rail fence and some planting U maybe we do a little informal log gathering with all the down trees that are in there around the trees uh around the central tree maybe it's just a a a Crossing the dry stream bed there with some mulch Trail so a lot of it was um simple elements that are enhancing what's there um and we got a lot of good feedback for this actually it's funny because Central green during the analysis or the First Community input in allow people this was like the crowded poster we had like every neighbor I feel like come it felt like every neighbor at Central green because they're like we love the nature you know we they didn't want to do anything too much that was going to scare the birds away um but um again comments like that it's like the trail people walk in the trails won't scare the birds away but if there's nothing for the birds to eat that might scare the birds away so it's it's it's looking at um the concern in a different way um so then we look at Del Barton um Del Barton was another great you know Community involvement one where people were out and talking about um what they wanted and didn't want um same type of analysis overview um and then Delbarton we also looked at the larger context so we have Delbarton Park which is you know proper down Ballfield and end you know but there is all the municipal land that that leads kind of behind DPW and behind Staples which is over there um and some of the new Mr uh Memorial trails are proposed between the Staples and um and you know Del Bart so we did want to look at the overall context just to say like this is a great Community neighborhood park that's actually if you were to link it to other areas um it's a an amazing resource not just for this Del art neighborhood but for others as well um and accessibility is the hardest part right now there's no parking there um there's you know there's street parking but if you know it it's very limited um but if we can have a really successful Trail Network again simple not a huge intervention but if you have a simple Trail Network that can connect to where um other people live right we have the new housing going in front of Madison what's the Madison Madison Mall yes yeah so you know so we have a population that's over there that is underserviced by Parks but they're actually not it's actually right here there's just no formal connection right so um and then the next slide we we zoomed in a little more in depth you know talking beyond that and saying you know a lot of the comments we got was about the playground and maybe we just you know maybe the playground stays where it is because it's shaded but maybe it's an appropriately designed playground that can handle seasonal wetness because that it's wet it's like the lowest part of town um so there's no getting around that um but we actually got interesting comments ments about you know from uh some neighbors who are actually baseball dads and you know saying like none of the Little League kids are going to hit into the Outfield they're never going to do it so maybe we can activate that and it can be you know he said maybe we put the playground there we thought maybe we can do a picnic area as a central node ofet when families come for a little league game the little kids can be playing in the playground maybe the mom and dad are in the picnic bench and it just activates this park a little bit more simple interventions Pathways this is probably the most progam one um that we're looking at because of the playground element that was a big emphasis Livy Park um same type of analysis page um and so this was an interesting one because it no one knows it's a park uh because it looks like someone's yard because it was someone's yard it was it was a piece of property right and so again though this wasn't you know people weren't asking for big things they just kind of wanted there was a what a rain Garden there that was kind of overgrown and weedy they wanted it maybe to feel a little bit more like a park but not necessarily activated so maybe just creating new edges creating more formalized areas for picnic maybe creating a stronger connection to the school so that the school maybe can use it as uh as a resource right um and so you know we looked at maybe actually pulling in a sidewalk coming in from the existing sidewalk um up that slope there still leaving access for maintenance in DBW creating a picnic Terrace maybe creating an Upper Overlook where there used to be a structure because that what's interesting is some of the foundations if you've been there are still there from the old structure so it's kind of this like telling of History um we looked at this idea of maybe making like an ornamental Orchard of like native witch hazel trees or something so it's not an orchard in the sense of apple picking but it's something that gives it lends itself to this Suburban formality it won't look out of place um but it also starts to define the park and give it edges but keeps it open because people like the openness of it we don't need a lot of trails up here because you can walk on the grass and then Summer Hill Summer Hill is you know the largest park in the in the uh four here um same type of analysis um a lot of this was just like we love Trails there but they're not um either wellmaintained or they wash out or they're not in the right area um love the idea of a lot of reforestation removing old trees um just circulation in general um and then we actually have two plans we're going to zoom in a little bit more because it's so big but this idea of again Summer Hill is a huge Park and half I bet half of Madison doesn't know it exists um so it's just a great great res and that's actually a nice thing because it no one wants it to be this big bustling thing they want to go there as their own little Central Park to kind of go for walks right but this enhancing of the access you know so we were kind of looking at like how do you make the entrance on Ridgedale Avenue feel like a park entrance you know and and have it be safe so maybe we look at Recon during that um people were really drawn to this idea of the ruins that are there now which are not very safe but they're really interesting we're Rose City and we have Greenhouse ruins on this property um it's just a really wonderful opportunity and so we kind of looked at that as this knuckle piece in the overall Park so you know 90% of the park is a forested trail Woodland and we have this kind of Upper Hill there the Summer Hill right where maybe we reactivate this these Greenhouse Terraces clean them up make them safe but not necessarily make them an event space um maybe it's a reforestation project but it's done so on a Terrace element so people can actually experience the forest as you step down the hill um and then um looking also Trails right so a lot of the trails the way they were laid out weren't necessarily um taking existing grading into uh consideration so maybe reconfiguring trails and reworking certain trails and adding additional Trails so you can actually do full loop and then really quickly we looked at two options of recommendations again concept level recommendations of fixing the very interesting uh circulation of Summer Hill which is a one it's not a oneway it's a two-way road that is the size of a one or smaller so if you've ever driven into or through Summer Hill you realize that um but you know this option was looking at maybe turning the road into a one-way Road as it is and coming up having the parking all on the left side on on the same side of where the main activation is having safe Crossings and having it come down all one way so that traffic comes in and through um with Trails connecting to it and then the alternative again these we're not saying you should build the last one or this one we're just thinking of options okay um this one is saying maybe we actually make a you know a beefier two-way entrance on Ridgedale um and we increase you know maybe we have a traffic walk across to uh Bernette and but the idea here is you have a two-way entrance it comes around your Loop it you have a double stacked parking and you can have a drop off and you can have a turnaround and then we actually maintain the road off here um because it's kind of it's used as the residents for the garages that don't have access but the rest of the road maybe remains as gravel for fire emergency and DPW but it's not necessarily A driveth because that is the most dangerous part quite honestly with Trails Crossing it um people using as a cut through you've ever been you they're zipping down the hill um so again looking at Alternatives and we we actually got interesting feedback um for both these there was no preference um we would love to hear uh kind of engineering's thoughts on on that um but the idea of trails and walkability and access was like the key thing for Summer Hill so we feel like looking at Trails is super important but also looking at the vehicular circulation is just as um and that is a Year's worth of of work I don't think I was under 15 minutes I'm sorry um but these are online to review I can print any copies out if you let me know I can I can deliver them here um and I would love if you all want to get together and sit and talk more about it in one of the committee rooms I'm happy to do that um you know because this is a process and we're in the Final Phase now where we've made our adjustments per the public comments we're compiling our list of you know um grant opportunities and just saying you know feasibility studies and things like that and then that launches us into the final recommendation okay so we're hoping to get that wrapped up within the month of February and have itot lot of good work and just for the record you did it in 16 minutes did very well um Bob yeah first of all it was magnificent the way you did this not only with the way you got the input from the public but now with these designs that you came up with I don't know how the heck you drew all those but they're amazing um just a general question the space behind the Madison athletic fields that's a big open field um I don't know if it's in your scope right now it's not listed in these it's not but would would that be something that you might consider down the road I mean there's the Madison I think we last I looked at it was 222 Acres of Parkland we have so there's lots of there's lots of opportunities Tom would be more than happy to look we we we wanted to because of uh trying to be mindful of um managing the process and coming up with a master plan that that could could be delivered as opposed to overreaching we kind of yeah and at the same time these were actually we've said before like these four Parks the public kept asking like why are these four and I don't know why these four but my you know post rationalizing is that they're actually all very four unique Parks yeah right and we have other Parks like each of those throughout Madison so it's almost like setting up a framework for like do one for livsey we can repeat that at another Park elsewhere in town that's similar to livsey kind of a thing which is nice I think it's good good point Rachel thanks Tom when you say I don't know how you did that the level of effort that Tom and his firm have put into this I just want to say on a personal level far exceeded the scope their their fee their proposal so Tom I want to thank you I know you didn't like put me up to saying that but it is it is it is like so EV evident that your love for this town and your love of you know designing beautiful landscapes for this town it really shines through in this work because it it goes far beyond the scope as was conceived of in in this proposal and so I think we certainly chose the right firm to do the work uh a lot of it was on your back and I thank you for that but it's great work and congratulations on this presentation and I want to say that you know I think we're a little out of you know we just talked tonight about mobilizing for the the trail construction for phase three trails in Memorial Park but Tom's vision for it the his firm's vision for it is like much better than our engineering plans for it uh we did things a little backwards we engineered the plans we drew the trails and then we had a landscape architect look at it and say Here's a great Trail Network so you know I know that there's a grant we received to build the trails as they're drawn up right now but I think it would be a missed opportunity if we didn't look get a way to incorporate some of your findings for the Del Barton adjacent Trails into Memorial Park trails phase 3 which and is a little you know it's not too far different from what you're showing but it is different I think we have the phase three drawings as well I talked about that so um I I hope that there's a this is sort of putting it out there whether it's to our you know however we're going to manage this I I think we should see if there's a way that we can benefit from some of this great work and not construct something that's that is a design that's not as good as what what we would hope for so which is why you do a master plan right exactly so and just another to reinforce especially related to D arton and the trails there uh one of the things that complete streets has recommended and we're hoping to do is in a couple of areas uh introducing uh three-way and four-way stops and one of them would be on Niles which is a cut through and it would be right at where you have that access to um Memorial Park in that little green area Midway up uh NES I think opposite durwood maybe but uh again that shows how all these things can connect and getting people from point A to point B to enjoy our great green spaces I actually think uh one one of the residents mentioned is we had the you know the map up they were talking well you know you could you start there and you could take that road to that Park and then you can take your bike through go there and they're starting to connect all the pieces and you can literally go from one side of Madison to the other you know we have Safe Streets between them all so it is actually a nice little it's a mini Emerald necklace you know we're not Boston but Aspire listen yeah Tom thanks so much and um I had the opportunity to join those public input sessions and uh first the the the PE there were a lot of people there and their input was so interesting and also a wealth of History uh was shared there so it was a great Community Gathering gaing and it just sort of shows that those Gatherings also move into these Parks right that's where they want to be um so I really appreciate you and your team being so open and it was a fun process it was not boring it was all handson and really great so little kids to seniors were all there sharing their input so I appreciate that and absolutely to Rachel's point like the connectivity is super important so whatever we can do to help that let's make it happen other comments obviously more work to come so thank you very much posted all right thank you thanks Tom again reminder that Tom has offered to spend more time if you have want to sit down with them and get more input all right we move on for ordinance the hearing and since this is a first meeting of the year we have none so now we're on to our second of uh invitations for public comment this is when you may comment on any topic again the same meeting uh rules apply as far as stepping up the Le turn state your name and address trying try to keep your comments at three minutes but we give you that one minute grace period anyone wishing to comment please step forward seeing none I close this part of the meeting we move on to introduction ordinances will the clerk pleasee read the statement the ordinance scheduled for first reading has a hearing date set for January the 27th 2025 will be posted in um will be published in the Madison Eagle posted on the bulletin board and made available to members of the public requesting copies I call up Ordinance one for first reading ask the bur clerk to read sen ordinance by title ordinance 1 2025 ordinance of the Bureau of Madison adopting an amended Redevelopment plan for certain properties Lo located at Block 33 3 Lot 2 as shown on the official tax map of the burough of Madison pursuant to the local Redevelopment and Housing law njsa 48 12 A-1 to 89 mayor I move ordinance 1-22 second Council discussion so this this is uh tweaking the um Redevelopment plan that was put together for what is known as geralda one um as happens almost every time with any Redevelopment plan as you do the initial um plan and it gets designed out um there's some modifications that have to happen to uh make it work as Sports analogy often goes the team was great on paper but they had to play the game on grass and so this a same sort of thing the initial plan looked great but it had to be refined to meet the uh the needs of ight such as Gres and so on any other comments I'll just underscore that the adjustments are quite minor so um it it's uh minor things that uh do not substantively change the the scope or the nature of the Redevelopment plan thank you any any other comments roll call vote please miss Erin yes Mr Lander yes Mr range yes Mr harm pus yes Miss Hanahan yes Mr Ford yes okay we move on to consent agenda resolutions where the 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 and full in the minute mayor I move resolution 40-2 2025 through R 53-22 second do that need to be pulled or questions Tom I just wanted to comment on 42 2025 that hopefully this is the last year we have to renew with chatam in chatam and hopefully we get back we get that back to Madison are we not on the resolutions yet yeah so yeah so the um the long-term plan is uh probably that we were hoping to continue the Rel relationship with um the inste of the chadam but with a in Madison with a new home that's what I meant mayor sorry not to not to stop the relationship thank you any other comments uh mayor just one for me uh when when it's time to vote on this I'm just going to recuse myself and abstain from 40-25 40-22 oh the name there we go thank you any other comments and roll call vote please M erlick yes Mr landrian yes Mr range yes Mr harm pus yes Miss Hanahan yes Mr foron yes with that caveat on 4025 2025 okay there is no unfinished business approval of vouchers where the clerk please read the voucher from the current fund 5,237 78116 from the general Capital fund $171,200 48,1 343 and from the Electric Capital fund $ 38,1 149 even from the water operating fund $ 27,5 18675 from the water Capital fund $2,221 125 and from the trust $3,725 23 the total is 6,445 19339 Mayor I move approval of the vouchers second discussion roll call vote please M yes Mr landrian yes Mr range yes Mr harm pudus yes sonan yes Mr Fort yes under new business I'd like to make the following appointments requiring um Council confirmation um and these are all Board of Education leagues on appointments oneyear terms through December 31st 2025 complete streets David Duran DDC Dr Steven sindle emergency prep Kelly Browning Recreation Eric Fontes and sustainable Madison David Duran mayor I move approval of the forging appointments second all in favor I objections unanimous thank you may I move to adjourn all in favor I I thank you