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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=Kif_-MeVvEI

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make my notes and ask question. >> Like to call the meeting to order, please. >> Johanna, will you read the statement of compliance? >> This the notice requirements of the open public meeting act for this meeting have been satisfied.

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A copy of the annual meeting notice was sent to the press of Atlantic City Courier Post, posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building, the municipal website, and filed in the office of the municipal clerk. Please turn off all cell phones. >> Please stand for the pledge of

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allegiance. >> Attention salute. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

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>> Johanna, please take the role. >> Mayor Collins, >> here. >> Commissioner Blumbberg, >> I am here. >> Commissioner Horn, here. Welcome everybody. Uh we will begin with a presentation from Ever Solar. Pat, do you want to introduce this at

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all please? Sure. Um so Mr. John Pit called contacted me and said that he had this wonderful >> Could you turn on your microphone please? >> Thank you. Sorry. Um Mr. Pittz contacted us advised that he had this wonderful

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program regarding solar. Um, I hadn't talked to Ellie briefly and I thought that this would be a good idea for her to come and actually do the presentation here at uh the municipal uh meeting and let them know about the savings that

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there could potentially be. >> Thank you so much for that introduction and thank you all for taking the time to to listen to me today. Um, it's been wonderful working with your staff so far and I'm very excited to present on this um state program. So, my name is Ella KDman. I work for Dimension Energy.

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Ever. Solar is kind of our customer-f facing brand, but we are one of the largest community solar developers throughout the state of New Jersey. My role at Dimension, uh, I'm a manager of partnership and community impact is to make sure that we are educating New Jersey residents about the state program in a, you know, meaningful way. Um, and

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also that we're doing our best to maximize our impact in the state as a developer. Um, so we have projects throughout the state. We build them on massive warehouses throughout New Jersey. And I'm here today to talk about uh two projects that we have that are being built in the process of being

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built in Carney's Point Township that um offers you know residents throughout the Atlantic City utility territory uh the opportunity to s 45% on their or up to 45% on their monthly utility bills. Um so please feel free to stop me at any

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time. I have a few slides going through the state program and those projects. Um but would love to answer questions as I go as well. So, just to give an overview, I don't know how familiar everyone is about community solar and the state program. It's been around for around four years

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now, but it's always surprising. It's it's not it's not a program that a lot of people have necessarily heard of. Um, and so this is a state program uh that was is run by the board of public utilities. The governor actually just, you know, passed to expand the program

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in 2026. But as the developer, we build 1 to 5 megawatt community solar farms on large-scale warehouses throughout the state. Through the state program, we are then allowed to connect directly to the local grid and sell our electricity at a higher than wholesale rate um in return

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for participating in the state grid. We're required to pass along a portion of our profits at as a discount to New Jersey residents who subscribe to our project. Um key elements of their this program is that it's accessible for all. It's not income. There's no income

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eligibility. The only real requirement is that you are an investor own utility customer, so ACE in this area, and that you don't already have solar panels on your roof, which talking to a lot of people here, this is clearly a very forward thinking community, and a lot of people already have that. Um, but the goal of this program is really to make

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sure that folks who have historically been left out of the clean energy, renewable energy economy can participate in some way. So, um yeah, kind of went through this and and the state program. Um a key factor of this program is that, you know, you you don't change your utility

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provider um through this program. It would continue to be uh ACE or Atlantic City Electric. Um, but this would just show up as a monthly discount on your existing uh utility bill statement each month representing that you're participating in the state program and therefore um receive discounted uh

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energy each month. So really what I'm here today is to talk about two projects. one of which we are currently in the process of constructing will be online this August and a second project that will be that we are going to be starting the process of constructing in the fall. Um and folks

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will see savings within you know the next year or so. Um so they're both located in Carne Point Township. Um we've actually sent out a letter to their residents uh this past April um notifying their residents about the opportunity to enroll in the program um

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and the two projects. And so, you know, finding out a way to best educate folks about this program and that it's legitimate and that it's, you know, run by the state is something that, you know, we found municipal partnerships to be a really beneficial avenue um towards

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towards letting people know that this is this is something that's available to them. Um, and so we were hoping to replicate something similar that we did in Carnese Point and make sure that, you know, all of the residents in Margate are also aware of the opportunity um that's here on these two projects.

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So, just to give you a sense of why I'm here, um, you know, we found, like I said, that partnering with local municipalities, sending out mayor's letters, kind of notifiing residents about this program, um, is a really effective way to let people know that,

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you know, this program is legitimate and that this this is available. Um, we've done several uh, municipal partnerships in the past that have been really successful. Like I said, most recently with Carne's Point. I spoke with them today. They've enrolled over a hundred of their residents um, on the local

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project. We've also worked with Union Township to send out a letter. Um, and we've also worked with the city of Leyonia. Um, so these are all kind of examples of how effective it is to really get out the word with these types of partnerships. Um and another thing

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that you know is really important to us is that we're having we're making a real impact in the areas that we are working with and so providing a per enrollment donation to the city. We were talking with the uh Margate green team about what we could do with that funding um to make sure that you know these projects

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and their impact are staying as local um and just you know maximizing it as much as possible. So, I heard that you all might have some questions about the state program, how we've partnered in the past. Um, and I would love to answer them.

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>> Yeah, absolutely. >> What if you already have sold? >> So, that's the one thing that doesn't allow you to qualify for the program, unfortunately. Um, we as a company never our policy is to tell people if they're able to get solar on their own roof, they they should. That is the best thing

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for the environment, you'll see the most savings. Um, this program is really to fill the gap for folks that aren't able to do that. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Do you have to speak into this? >> Yes, please.

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>> Because it's being recorded. Do you uh Kathy Heightsman 22 South Adams? I'm happy to see everybody. Um do you have lease versus ownership and what is the difference? >> Absolutely. That's a great >> because there are a lot of people that

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>> Yeah. A lot of people can't afford the solar panels. >> Yeah. So we lease >> absolutely. So we um own the solar panels themselves. Uh we are a developer owner and operator. So, we own the project throughout its lifetime, which

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through the state is guaranteed 20 years. So, that's how long the discounts will last. Um, and then there's an op opportunity to potentially extend to 30 years. But we own the panels and we lease the roof space um from, you know, the owner of the building. Um, so

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there's really no risk um from a subscriber perspective in terms of, you know, they're not paying anything. We don't even take we don't take credit card information when you sign up. we're not legally allowed to by the state's regulations. Um there's no fees to cancel if anyone, you know,

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decides that this isn't a benefit that they are enjoying for some reason. Um but really there's no financial risk to those who subscribe. Did that answer your question? >> No. >> You own the pan. >> You own the panels, but you rent the

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roof from the owner. So I'm a homeowner. >> You're going to rent my roof. How much do you rent my roof for? Does it match the panels? >> So, we are not we don't do any residential solar. We are not leasing any residents. >> So, excuse me. I think that the

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confusion here is that the way I understand it, you're you're not putting solar panels on our houses. This is all about deliver how energy is delivered through the grid to our houses. There'll

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be no panels on our houses. So if you sign up, you're not signing up to have solar panels, traditional solar panels put on your house. >> Yeah. >> You're signing up for their delivery system, which in theory is supposed to

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save you money. Is it is that correct? >> Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for clarifying. We do no construction. There's no difference in how your electricity is supplied to you directly through this program. It's just acknowledging acknowledging that you're signing up for the program. It's like I think of it as kind of like a farm

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share. We look at your historical usage and we say okay this portion or this many panels of the solar farm that's this this home subscription and the amount of electricity that's produced from that portion of the full solar farm represents is represented as a discount on your existing utility bill. So you're

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getting that electricity for cheaper than you would if you were not part of the program to represent that you're, you know, participating and that clean energy really or that solar energy is the fastest, cheapest, and it's really, you know, great for the environment um form of renewable energy out there.

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>> Sher Lillianfeld, Wellington Avenue. Um you said 45% discount. Does that fluctuate? What does that depend on? Is that like guaranteed for 20 years? Because if it's 45% discount off my bill, guaranteed for 20 years, it seems

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like a no-brainer. So, where's that number based out of and what's the guarantee? >> Yeah, that's a fantastic question. So, we actually bid in our projects to the state program at a specific discount. Um, so for one of the projects, we bid into it promising that we would provide

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a 45% discount. The second project is a 42.5% discount. Um and so that's where the number comes from. The state has actually decided in this expanded program that they are going to determine the discount. So all projects moving forward they provide a 25% discount for

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low to moderate income families and a 20% discount for um no non-load to moderate income families. So this is really the last um discount of its kind from a previous trunch of the program. And so how the discount works is the discount is guaranteed throughout the

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project's lifetime. um what will fluctuate is the savings will fluctuate because that's based off your credits are based off of the value of electricity at that time. So as you know your ACE rates increase you actually will be saving more money because it's a

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a fixed percentage not a fixed amount. So if I sign up today is it 20% is it 42.5 and I know it depends on my income. Let's just assume I live in Margate and >> yeah, >> I'm not okay. I live in Margate. So,

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what is it going to be if I sign up today? >> If you sign up today, we have spots left on our 45% discounted project. So, we have around a 100 spots left on that project and then around 800 spots on our 42.5% discounted project. And we do it by, you know, the highest discount

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[laughter] first come first serve. Um, and so it's on your electricity supply and demand. So there are elements of your bill that will not be included of this that like the utility solely provides. So we don't like to say like your entire like it doesn't cover your gas for example. Um but based off of the

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value of the electricity that the farm produces that your is yours. It will be a 45% discount. >> So if I give you my bill >> Yeah. >> and I give you myself, you'll be able to tell me what that discount is before I sign up. Yeah. >> It's a 45% discount.

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>> Okay. [laughter] I'm checking. >> No, I love it. No, I absolutely love it. >> Sam Lashman, Hanover Avenue. Uh, you you are a provider and let's say Atlantic Sea Electric is the transmission company. So, this is just like us buying

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from another provider and AC Electric has a delivery system, the wires. Is that correct? >> Um, I'm trying to make sure I fully understand your question. the the delivery provider and the wire

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>> and the actual uh how we buy electric. We it's I think it's been separated by the uh public utilities. You don't have to buy from Atlantic City Electric, but they're the delivery source. >> So, you're an alternate delivery source

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or you're an alternate provider, but Atlantic City Electric owns the wires and they deliver all the electric. >> Exactly. So, it's comparable to any other provider, whoever has the lowest rate,

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but we all that anybody that has wires from Atlantic City Electric pays Atlantic City Electric for the transmission. >> Yeah, absolutely. And Atlantic City Electric continues to be your main provider. Say the electricity goes out or a wire goes down, like they are still

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your utility service. And the reason that we only work with investor owned utilities is because they're the only ones um that are required to participate in the state program uh via legislation. So we don't work with co-ops or things like that. But yeah, exactly. All the wires and everything continues to be

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Atlantic City Electric. We do not become anyone's utility provider. >> Yeah. >> I'm sorry. So, I'm like, like when you put solar panels on your house, when you sell that house, there's this whole complicated thing about the contract and

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this and that. >> Yeah. >> If I sign up, sell my house. It's just a contract I have while I own the house paying that electric bill. That's nothing I have to worry about if and when I sell my house, right? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> And no, yes, it's not anything you have

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to worry about um when you sell your house. Again, you can also cancel at any time with no fee. Um, we we ask that it can sometimes take 1 to 3 months. The subscription, if you moved within um one of the investor own utilities, you can request for it to follow you. Um, so

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it's connected to your utility account number, not necessarily like your house or anything. So, when you sold, they would get a different utility account number and it would be cancelled. >> I have a question. >> Yeah, absolutely. So the discount is applied to the supply portion of the homeowner's electric.

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>> Mhm. Supply and delivery. >> Okay. Is it applied to all of the electricity they use, >> let's say, in a given month, or only the portion of electricity in that given month that is assigned to them from your solar farm? >> Only the portion that's assigned from your

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>> Some people are getting under the impression that their entire electric supply bill will be cut by 45%. >> That's not what this is, right? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, you sign two documents when you sign up. One is your disclosure form that allows us to communicate with the utilities and what

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we do is we look at your historical usage. Um, and that's based off of an annual basis. So, for example, in the summer months, you will be receiving more credits. In the winter months, you'll be receiving less because it is based off your historical usage. We assign that much of the electricity or

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panels from the solar farm to you and then it's a discount on that energy that's produced. So absolutely you're correct that it's not we're not saying that you're at we'll be you know cut the whole bill by 45%. It's a 45% discount on the value of your solar energy credits

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>> and and do you try to make that value equivalent to 100% of your historical usage or no? >> Yes. >> Yes. Um and if you know there's a drastic change in your usage for some reason um you know we can you can contact and we can try to resize your subscription

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>> [clears throat] >> um at that time and they also the credits for example say you the farm produced more than you used they they roll over. >> Kathy Kathy Heisman again uh I had solar panels on my house on South Washington so I'm very familiar with the that's why

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I asked you the other questions. What happens if the weather's bad? We had a lovely winter this past winter, as we all know, with very little sun. So, because when I had it, I had to pay extra money because there wasn't enough sun generated from the panels. What do your does your company do? Or, god

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forbid something happens to the company, what happens? >> Yeah, absolutely. That's a fantastic question. Um, so in the winter months, we do produce less electricity, so your savings will be lower. the 45% discount will still be the same, but the farm will just be producing less electricity

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and therefore your savings will just overall decrease. Um, and then in the summer months when it's producing more, you'll see higher savings. Um, so there's again no direct um like you will never be paying more than if you didn't hadn't signed up for this program

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because if you're using if it's producing less, you're just paying then the normal um Atlantic City electric rates for the amount of electricity that you know the credits don't cover because again we don't take any credit card information. There's we're legally

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not allowed for your it's legally not allowed by the program that your bill ever be higher than if you weren't participating. >> Elliot, quick question. >> Yeah. >> If the city doesn't opt in, um are the residents still able to uh receive the

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savings through the program? >> Yes, absolutely. Um so the goal of our partnership is to educate as many residents as we can about this program and its benefits. um because this is new and I think because of a lot of the questions that you have brought up, folks see solar and a lot of people

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don't necessarily think it's a legitimate program. Um they're not aware that this is a statebacked program. There are a lot of questions um that you know leads people to not dig in further. So yes, absolutely anyone would be welcome to enroll. Um our goal in the

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partnership is just to increase um education about the program and uh these two projects, the opportunity So, I just want to clarify, we don't actually need to endorse this. We as long as we u allow for like maybe a link

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to your website. Um that would be something that you would be looking forward to or we don't actually have to endorse or advertise for you. You might have some issues there with uh you know um you know cities partnering with

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certain companies. >> Yeah, absolutely. You don't have to, but we probably wouldn't send out a letter to all the residents because it coming from us just isn't effective. Um, like through this partnership, we would pay for all of the mailing, all of those types of fees, and it just wouldn't be cost-ffective for us because people

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don't respond from a flyer from us. We've just found unfortunately, um, you know, what one thing to highlight is that we don't have, you know, any issues with you sending out another mailer or anything with a different solar developer. we have no issues around exclusivity um or anything like that,

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but we have found that it's really helpful if folks are being educated about the program to then have, you know, that direct um like call to action of where they can sign up and actually see those benefits. And we are I I don't want to speak out of term, but we are definitely one of the highest discounts

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available. And like I said, these are our last two projects like this, and I know other developers are in very similar circumstances where um if folks wait a year to sign up, they'll be receiving a 20 or 25% discount. So, absolutely. Um

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I I just would say from past experiences, most, you know, our hope is that more residents are educated about this in Margate. >> Thank you. Thank you for coming. Thank you so much. >> Sorry. Can I ask what are the next steps

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in terms of determining if >> So I'm gonna I or you know Gross will meet with our administrator and probably bring in our green team and then Okay. Um you know hopefully maybe contact you next week. >> Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate your

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thoughtful questions and opportunity to present. >> Yeah. Thank you for coming. [laughter] >> All right. All right, we will move to our engineering report. Ed, >> thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. Starting out on our dredging program, there's an ordinance on for adoption this evening which will

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finalize the PE uh the fees for private dredging under the city's citywide permit. So, that's a big step. Um, we already have issued verbal approvals to a couple private uh dredgers who are doing some dredge work in town and we have an application ready. at a

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[clears throat] future meeting, uh hopefully even possibly the next meeting, we'll be able to go over in a little more detail the city's website for dredging, which um we're working with city staff now just to put the final touches on that, which will include, as I mentioned at the last meeting, um a trove of information

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related to the program, maps, applications, uh copies of the permit plans, permit documents, uh any anything would need to participate um and get their private property dredged under our permit. So, another milestone on that

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front. The Amherst Avenue pump station project, we've uh submitted our permit applications to D and Army Corps. So, we're on track there um to get this project out to bid in the fall and move towards the construction phase. Our new

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public works building is um being advertised for bids today. So, that project is now officially out to bid. Um we'll have a pre- bid pre- bid meeting next week and um you know we look forward to receiving bids on that project to get that project into the

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construction phase as well. under the wershed improvement plan. We had a public presentation um a couple meetings ago and we will need to schedule a second public meeting at some point in the future to comply with state requirements under our lead service line

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um outreach program at the August 20th meeting. Um we plan on giving an update on the program, how many lines we've replaced, you know, that kind of a thing. Um, and we'll be uh looking to start up phase two and restart phase one in the fall. So, we thought that would

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be a good point to just provide the public with an update on where we are on that major initiative. Uh, flipping over to page two, the Bloom Pavilion deck renovation project is out to bid. We have our bid opening scheduled for that project next week.

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The Lifeguard Headquarters expansion project is moving into full engineering design. We went through the schematic plan um with the beach patrol and we're moving forward now towards bid documents um on our own citywide dredging project

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phase one which will be dredging of the city's areas that are under our jurisdiction. That project is being advertised for bids next week. So phase one of the dredging projects going out to bid. Another major milestone on the dredging front. Our Brunswick Avenue beach ballhead replacement project is in

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design and we did submit a grant application for the reconstru reconstruction of Winchester Avenue from Belmont to Huntington under the 2027 DOT state aid. So that we are awaiting um the state's review. We did move our 2024 road

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program into closeout phase. So we continue to um complete and close out projects. As I mentioned, the lead service line phase one project is on hold until September. The Atlantic Avenue bike lane painting project, as you may have noticed, we did have the

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bike lane symbols put down this week just to provide some more definition and clarity with that newly paved section between Mansfield and Huntington. The rest of the work is scheduled to begin the first week of October. The Vent Avenue parking lot project, we did have our pre-construction meeting on

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June 30th. That work is scheduled to begin in the fall. And then the last item on the list is phase two of lead service lines which we recently awarded. We will be scheduling a pre-construction meeting and like I said uh at the end of August we'll provide everyone with a more detailed update on where we are with that overall program. That's my

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report. >> Thank you Ed. We'll now move forward with our department head reports. Chief Adams, would you begin, please? >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh it continues to be obviously, as everybody can see, a busy summer for all of us, all the departments. Uh, with that said, if

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anybody needs assistance from the fire department for smoke detectors or any other safety concerns, please feel free to reach out to us at 6098225562. I have to say, you know, what a great event public works had yesterday. Um, the touch a truck event. Uh, once again,

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outstanding event for the kids and for everyone. Um, I even saw a couple public works guys having a good time at the end. But um uh you know and I can't say enough about the the work that public works has done. Uh you guys are dealing with the issues of keeping our beaches clean and beautiful and you do a great

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job each and every day and I just have to say hats off to everybody at the public works department. Um the beach patrol uh there has been a number of rescues this year. uh a lot more than normal and we attribute that to the

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ocean conditions and the rip tides and rip currents have been pretty severe this year. There is a very deep gully and a sandbar and the gully is so deep that kids actually get in trouble trying to get out to the sandbar because it's in cases it's almost over my head to get

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out there. So, uh please follow the lifeguard's orders. only swim at guarded and protected bathing beaches during the hours of operation 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p p.m. I can't stress that enough and the importance of making sure that you follow the lifeguard's orders because

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they are the professionals. They know the conditions of the water. They know what's safe for you and they know what's not. So, please listen to them and follow their orders. Um, tomorrow night it's kind of a nice new event. The Margate City Beach Patrol will be hosting the first annual Atlanta County

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Beach Patrol Challenge which will deal with the five Atlanta County beach patrols and it is a different competition than what you're used to. It is beach flags and a surf dash competition. And if you've never seen this type of competition before, it's

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really pretty cool. Um the guards all line up probably 10 or 12 across the ground and they're actually facing the opposite direction and they're laying down and they have to jump up and then run down the beach to another location where there's a rubber hose in the

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ground simulating the beach flag and they battle for that and it's pretty cool competition. If you've never seen this, please come out tomorrow night at the Granville Avenue Beach. It'll be kicking off at 6:30 p.m. The concept is that this year it's the Atlanta County

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beaches. Hopefully next year it's all 15 South Jersey beaches that get invited. Uh, another thing is on Friday, August 7th, the Margate City Beach Patrol will be hosting the 80th annual Margate World

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War II Memorial Lifeguard Championships. So, it's the 80th year for this event. It's a great event. Uh again, this will be also at the Granville Avenue beach this year. Um so please if you get out there, it's a great event. It's all

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South Jersey beaches from Brigantine to Kate May that will be participating. Um but a great event for everyone. The lastly, I'm just going to touch base u on the air quality. We've been dealing with the smoke from the Canadian

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wildfires in our area and the actual air quality. I've been monitoring it and dealing with the Atlanta County Health Department and talking with them. Our air quality is around 108 right now, which is just at the borderline of what they call unhealthy. So, if you have any

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underlying conditions, health issues, you should really shorten your length of time and activity outdoors. And with that said, keep your windows closed. Um, they're expecting tomorrow to be a little worse than today, but we won't know that until we get the actual

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prediction and forecast. But if you feel any issues or have any concerns, please get yourself indoors to air condition and be safe out there. And that's all I have. Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you, Chief Scott. >> Just one question for uh Ed. Really, I

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know that we're going out next week for bidding on the dre. Can you give the public an idea when that revenue will occur? >> Well, we'll be out to bid um like I said, next week. probably award the project um in August. Um September we'll

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be you know putting contracts together having pre-construction meetings. The idea is that dredging would be starting sometime in October. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yeah. Since last meeting we've had a couple events. Um we want to thank everyone uh for coming out to the tough

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event last night. I thought it's a great for the kids. Uh they have some party slides and uh we had a lot of trucks out there which uh it looks like the kids really enjoyed. Um we also got beach stock which roll right into our Fourth

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of July weekend. We hit uh our trash numbers were on par if not more than past years which has been pretty busy. July 5th we hit 3.5 million gallons of water. That was our high for the year. Um, and with our meter program, we're

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76.84% growth. And that's all I got. >> Okay. Thanks, Don. Donna. >> Hello. >> Construction activity remains strong. Year to date, the building department has issued 550

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construction permits and permit updates, which is 40 more permits than this time last year. This month, the department has scheduled 261 construction inspections, issued six certificates of occupancy for major construction

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projects, and issued 49 certificates of approval for other construction projects. And that is all that I have to report today. >> Thank you, Chief Henson. >> Thank you, mayor, commissioners. Uh, first of all, I'd like to say the police department is coming off an extremely

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busy period since the last commission meeting. I would say volume peaked during the 4th of July weekend. The police department is responding to over 2,24 calls for service since June 25th. This includes arrests for various offenses, including aggravated assault, trespassing, disorderly conduct, and

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warrant arrests. We've had 280 motor vehicle stops resulting in 152 summones being issued for moving violations. 805 parking summones have been issued since June 25th. So, we are in the thick of it. I think we all know with the historic crowds we saw over Fourth of July that it is really busy around here.

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On Sunday, July 19th, I want to remind everybody that the new regulations regarding ebikes take effect. The most up-to-date information regarding ebikes is available at njdmv.com. The police department will begin enforcing the new laws as part of the officer's daily patrols. Enforcement

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will include traffic violations involving operates of ebikes and especially helmet enforcement. There are still some gray areas regarding the registration and outofstate ebikes. The the state has kind of had some guidance, but it's not great guidance. Uh NJDMV is

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taking appointments for registration of ebikes. I've actually had a couple of officers go out there and they've registered their own ebikes. They did say that there is a substantial delay in both getting an appointment and the time they spend out there. So again, when it comes to ebikes, there's still a lot of

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gray areas and we will do the best we can with the new laws that are coming out. Lastly, I just want to remind everybody that Margate along with a lot of communities are seeing an increase in car burglaries and car thefts. Almost all of our incidents involve unlock unsecured motor vehicles with the keys

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in it. As I always say, lock your homes, lock your cars, and we can prevent 98% to 99% if not 100% of the stolen vehicles that we have in town. The people that are going around, they know what an unlocked unsecured car looks

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like. And most of the time it is for a joy ride. We are limited in what we can do regarding a pursuit of a stolen car with the laws that are in effect in the state. We do have approximately about a 100% retention of finding the cars. Again, we

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always find the cars. We're lucky enough between Easy Pass, Ring cameras, other departments, uh, license plate readers, we always retrieve recover the cars, but if the keys weren't in it, we could prevent it. That's all I have. Thank you, Chief Pat.

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>> Good evening. Uh, I'll give the finance report first. Um the current fund is at 13 million $20,579. Capital fund is at $688,490. The water and sewer fund is at 5,453,120 and the trust funds are at 1,840,879.

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year-to- date the year-to- date interest earned on the current fund is $244,528. The water and sewer fund would be 38,679. So, um so far this year for beach fees, we've collected $380,312.

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Uh parking fees 4,982, ambulance 182,464, construction at 165 786, recreation would be 198,

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excuse me, 559. Um all of them show a pretty good increase with the exception of construction with a decrease of about $22,447. Uh the budget status, the current budget is at um 42 was at 42,664,983.

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We paid out 21,871827. The balance is 20,793155. And then the water and sewer was 6,855 um 855,000. The paid so far out of order and utilities has been 3,216,943. The balance is 3,638,56.

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Um, we recently had um a review of the S&P uh credit rating for uh note sale. Um, the city's credit rating was recently reviewed by S&P Global in connection with the city's upcoming bond anticipation note sale. Um, we received

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a long-term rating of uh A+, which is the second highest rating on S&P's long-term credit rating status. Uh, upon S&P's recent review, they confirmed the city's AA plus long-term rating with a stable outlook. The outlook represents

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the S&P's expectations that the rating will not change in the next year or two given the city's stable operations and the robust tax base. For the bond anticipation notes, um S&P assigned a short-term rating of SP1

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plus, which is the highest rating on S&P short-term rating scale. Together, the ratings reflect the city's strong economic profile. Again, the stable financial operations, strong reserve position, and good policies and practices, which more than offset the

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city's elevated per capita debt and climate risks. The strong rating will allow the city to borrow money at lower interests as compared to many other towns in New Jersey. The average rating of a municipality in New Jersey is actually double A. We're a little bit higher than everybody else. Uh one level

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lower than the city's everyone else pretty much one level lower than the city's rating. So, um from my standpoint, um I've been busy finishing up contracts. Um I did help establish the note sale. uh been dealing with legal and personnel issues.

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Uh met with the auditors for final questions uh before they actually issue. Um attended the fire department and TPW nights out. They were excellent. Um and I've been dealing with health health insurance proposal negotiations. So um one thing I did want to bring up and I

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apologize for the reason the withdrawal resolution from the HIF did not make our agenda in time. So we will have to be introduced from the floor. Um and it's recommended by both of our insurance brokers that we withdraw from the um

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Southern Coastal Hiff at this point. Um and uh look for a different uh healthcare provider because um both of our uh brokers have advised that they could find us a cheaper rate at this point. So um we would be pulling out as

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of November 1st. So, that will need to be introduced uh from the floor when we do the resolutions. And again, I apologize it didn't make the agenda. And that's all I have right now. Thank you, Pat. Joanna,

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>> uh at this point in time, I have nothing to report. >> Thank you. I have one more. I apologize for the finance. Um we did receive a total of $36,989 in Park Mobile revenue. So from from May to July to date.

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>> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. >> I do want to state that we are still waiting to hear from the county about our tax rate. Tara's not here to say that and when we do, we will have a

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resolution stating when the extension grace period will be. >> Great. Thank you. All right. All right, we will now open up public comment. If anyone has any comment on any items discussed during this workshop meeting, please step forward. >> Sher Lillianfeld, Wellington Avenue.

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This one's for Palma. Hi. Um, you mentioned about the permits, the construction permits, and you said it's 40 more than the same time last year. Can you give any indication whether it's still mostly tear downs and rebuilds? Because that's all I'm seeing.

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not seeing like like do we still look at the same kind of trajectory of just tearing down and not a whole lot of rehabs and things like that. [clears throat] >> I think there's a variety, but I would have to check the exact numbers for each type if you wanted to.

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>> Yeah, you can follow up with me. I was just curious cuz I'm I mean this has been going on for so many years. I'm like this has to kind of slow down soon and it still doesn't seem like >> slowing down. Exactly. So, just curious um from your numbers. Okay, I'll follow

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up with you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Sh. >> Good evening everyone at Burger 9402 Amherst Avenue. I didn't get a chance after Beachtock immediately after Beachtock to come in and thank all the individual department heads that made this such a success this year. Uh we did have to push it back a day because of

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the weather. Uh but uh the police department, fire department, beach patrol, and most especially the folks from public work turned on a dime and uh made the event on Sunday even better than it could have been on Saturday. Uh the most um attended Beachtock we've

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ever had and uh successful as well for the vendors, everyone who was there and our national sponsor uh Jetty and the Ben Gravy Pineapple Classic has already renewed with us for 2027. So, thank you very much for all of your efforts. It really was a spectacular day and never

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could have happened without the input of every department that participated. So, thank you. Thank you. >> Hello, Jody Singer, 9510 Amhurst Avenue, Margate Mariner. Um, real simple request. I'm going to speak in behalf as

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the president of the HOA. We really appreciate that there are urinals on the street on Amherst, but we as the mariner are still having issues where people are still urinating, especially in the main parking lot. One really simple request that would really help if you could just

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buy reflective signs to put on the enclosure, the brownwood enclosure, because I've literally stopped people mid-stream, literally, and I'll say, "There's bathrooms right there." And they'll go, "I didn't know that was a bathroom." Simple. You can get them on

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Amazon and just reflective, put it up there, male, female, whatever. One, that's one easy one. Another thing, um, not as simple, but hopefully could change the lives of people on Madison Avenue. Um, when you turn down Madison

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Avenue, there is an old pole, which I think was a roing zone at one time during a certain time when Memories had it. What's happening is all these 18-wheers and trucks are coming to deliver beverages, food. They pull up

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further because those spots are not designated anymore as loading zone and they block all the residents in. We're not dealing with Teddy's people. Teddy would always be receptive to me with anything, but these are drivers. They're rude. Well, the the the owners either

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get trapped in their condos cuz they can't take their cars out or they pull up and they can't get in because these 18-wheelers are just constantly dropping off merchandise during the week. So, it may be possible in that one strip. It looks like it could hold four cars if

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that could become a loading zone during certain hours like delivery time. This way, the trucks can just pull up, do their deliveries, and get out. That's my second easy request. The third is not about the mariner, just a concerned citizen. The stop sign at

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Winchester and Jefferson is very dangerous. I've seen other stop signs that have the um solar where they have blinking. You cannot see the stop sign because the tree is so big there. I've asked multiple times if that could

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be cut back. I've even left letters in the owner's box, but it's an accident waiting to happen. You cannot see that stop sign until you on top of it. And it's simply because the tree is too big. So either get the reflective so at least it's blinking or just somehow get that

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tree cut back. You did it a few years ago and it really helped. But now it's bigger and bushier than ever. And that's it. Three simple request. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Jody. Hey, is there a motion to close public comment for workshop?

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>> Motion. >> Second. >> Mayor Collins? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Horn? >> Yes. >> Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Mayor Collins? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Horn?

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>> Yes. I'd >> like to call the meeting to order, please. Johanna, will you read the statement of compliance? >> The notice requirements of the Open Public Meeting Act for this meeting have been satisfied. A copy of the annual meeting notice was sent to the press of

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Atlantic City Courier Post, posted on the bulletin board in the municipal building, the municipal website, and filed in the office of the municipal clerk. Please turn off all cell phones. >> Please stand for the pledge of allegiance.

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attention to it. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Joanna, please take the role.

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>> Mayor Collins, >> here. >> Commissioner Blumbberg, >> I am here. >> Commissioner Horn here. Is there a motion for the approval of the June 25th, 2026 regular and workshop meeting minutes? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Mayor Collins? >> Yes.

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>> Commissioner Blumbberg? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Horn? >> Yes. >> All right. We will now open up public comment for resolutions and ordinance adoption only. So, if anyone has any comment on any of the ordinances up for adoption or resolutions, please step forward.

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>> Uh Kathy Heitzman, 22 South Adams. uh ordinance number 15 of 2026 to repeal and replace chapter 203 outdoor dining. Could you explain a little more detail about that? I haven't been around. So, >> so um

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this this is for ordinance adoption. So, the introduction of the ordinance. I can have Pat go through um I don't know if you want to do it now or before in the other public comment. Um any So, the way in introduction goes is the ordinance gets introduced here. We vote for it to

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be introduced uh from now until the next meeting is where we get um feedback from anyone that reads it. They can email us, reach out and then we have a public hearing at the at the next meeting we have the public hearing where feedback from residents, anybody can lead to

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input and changes before >> Okay. Thank you. Um but uh Kathy maybe after the meeting if you just want to talk to Pat he can explain the >> So any other comment for ordinance adoption or resolutions >> Dennis Gornki 7702 Mhurst Avenue the

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ordinance 11-2026 and that's concerning the uh citywide dredging plus also other um money being asked for other departments. I like to address the first part of it, the $5.2 million for

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the city dredging. Last week I asked or last meeting I asked questions about cost and everything. This 5.2 $5.2 $2 million dedicated to phase one. Does that include the bids that are going to go out for the dredging to be completed

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or this is that in addition to the $5.2 million? >> This is the amount we bond to be able to cover the the bids. >> The bids plus the uh including the cost for surveying, construction, planning, engineering, preparation of plans.

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>> Yes. >> So it does not exceed 5.2 million. We bond it for 5.2 if the bids come in. That's you'll hear Ed sometimes be say the bids came in over our threshold and we reject them. So, >> okay. Well, that's I'm just trying to get an idea because I asked what's this project going to cost and he has nothing

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after phase one. So, phase one's 5.2 whatever. Okay. Question concerning phase one. We're talking about Washington Avenue as being part of the dredging areas. Is there any part of Washington Avenue where there are businesses going to be involved with?

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And if they are, what businesses are going to be involved with this dredging? >> Yeah. So, phase one includes uh from the Margate Bridge to the Orient Canal and then a small portion uh that is extends out past Washington Avenue. It's >> there's a pavilion there's a pavilion that extends out.

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>> Yeah. So, it's nowhere around there. It's actually further further out. That's the city's responsibility. >> No businesses that are involved in that dredging area. You just said from Washington >> all the businesses have to dredge privately. They have >> so there has to have businesses already put their applications in.

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>> Businesses are already dredging on their own under the city's permit but they pay for the dredging. >> Okay. Now my concern is that first thing in under this one I don't own a boat. I don't not near the bay. What that part of the land that you're dredging the

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city doesn't own. Am I correct? It's stateowned. >> No. >> No. We dredge from the state is responsible for their their area. >> Is that part of the state area or you're telling me that's all Margate's area? >> We only pay for Margates area. We don't pay for the state's area. They have their own.

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>> So what you're dredging is all Margate properties. >> Correct. >> So what can what is a taxpayer that doesn't have a boat who doesn't live live by the bay? What am I getting out of this? Because I don't think the majority of people in Margate own boats. >> Well, I think there's a there's a couple

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things. one. Um it's just like paving a road that you may not drive on. Um we're responsible for um for all of our waterways and roadways. Some of the areas, if you, you know, talk to any voters out there, there's some areas, uh Scott has mentioned it many times cuz,

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you know, he's very familiar with it that it's very dangerous and we're uh it gets so shallow that we're getting close to having a fatal accident out there if we don't dredge. So, I think from a public safety standpoint, that's important. The other the other aspect is that our Bayfront homeowners uh pay a

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significant portion of our real estate taxes and they don't have access to the to the water because the uh the situation. So, um from the standpoint of uh you know, it's been discussed about potential tax appeals because they're they're not waterfront property because

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they can't use their boats and and their waterfront. So, >> um, >> so I think there's, you know, looking at it from from many different aspects, but, um, like I said, it's it's no different than us maintaining our our roads, our, uh, >> it is the difference because the person

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buying that home on the bay has an option prior to buying it to see if the waters are deep enough. Okay? I mean to go in and buy a property unless you've lived there for 20 or 30 years but that property on day sure has been turning over constantly in the last couple

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years. So if they didn't feel it was that how can I say they're going to come on your dredging beyond your dredging to have it done. If you felt that it was that bad why didn't they have their own dredging done years ago it was that bad? >> All of those homeowners have to pay for

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their own dredging. We do not dredge. Do you know about approximately how far from the the bulkhead? >> It varies. Yeah, it varies. But yeah, there's there >> individual slips are their responsibility. >> So you're not So there's not you can go actually up to their slips to um up to

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their slips or close to their homes or are you going to be 30 or 40 ft from it? >> Again, I said it varies. I think it depends on property line. There's a property line in the water basically. We go up to the property line and that's our portion and it's equivalent to a city street and then there's private property just happens to be in water and

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they dredge their private property. >> All right. That's all right. Okay. Thank you. By question going into the part of this where it goes into the funds for different departments. Um I don't know if the gentleman he's was here. He's gone now. I was just

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questioning this $125,000 truck for public works. public works last year had bonds in that four vehicles. This is a vehicle that's brand new. Is this a vehicle being replaced under this uh

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11-2026? Well, I have it when it says there 125 truck just like if I go under fire under the fire department, they're asking for $30,000. >> Yeah. So, I mean, I don't I don't know specifically which vehicle uh is under

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consideration here, but um we're constantly replacing all of our old vehicles that are out of service and in need of repairs. >> What vehicles were replaced last year? That's what I'm trying to say. And the year before that, >> we replace them every year so that we don't have to replace 30 at once. So, we replace a few every year. >> So, that that's what I'm trying to say.

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Is this vehicle something that's been in service that's being replaced? I believe all of our vehicle there's no new vehicles being added that have not been um in service. >> Okay. So, >> and we just I believe at the last meeting we talked about um our gov deals auction that just got us $80,000 by

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selling the old equipment that's out of service. >> Well, that's my that's my question. You have >> All right, let's get to the police department where we go down to vehicles which we had ordered two years ago and last year, equipment, furniture, and

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holding cells. $500,000 So my question is how many vehicles are we buying out of this 500,000 equipment? What equipment are we buying for furniture for the firehouse? And the other thing is like renovation

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to holding cells. >> How many people are in your holding cells now? >> Well, if I can if I can explain it. First of all, our cells have to be compliant with the New Jersey Department of Corrections. Right now, our cells are out of compliance, although we're still allowed to use them. And we have to have

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a certain amount of cells, and it's only four cells. So, as part of a renovation to get them Department of Corrections compliant, we have to have a contractor come in to modify our current cells to be compliant with the New Jersey Department of Corrections because we do hold prisoners when they are under

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arrest. They are watched, like I said, while they are processed. So, again, it is an extensive project. Also, our building that we are in, we are currently in the old waterworks. It was built in the 1920s. I barely have facilities for my female officers. We

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try, we attempt to like the public works, fire department. Every few years, we try to recycle our vehicles and we sell our vehicles at govdealss.com. It usually takes about a year to get one new police vehicle with the amount of

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electronics that we have to have on now besides a motor vehicle, an MVR computer, uh, and all that. It's a very sophisticated, a car is a very sophisticated piece of machinery now. So, we try to recycle them and we have city miles all the time in our vehicles. And we have almost 10 year old vehicles

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sometimes that we try to rotate out. And I have to say since I become chief, I have depleted our fleet that we barely have enough vehicles for the police officers that I that I have. >> So how many vehicles are you replacing at this time out of the 500,000? >> I believe we have two on order.

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>> Two on order. Yes. >> At what? 70,000 75,000. >> Correct. >> Okay. So it's 150,000. So the rest of it's going to be for renovation of the cells, which I would take would be the majority of it. >> Well, and I >> or is it the uh >> furniture? We have to renovate our

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dispatch area. We are speaking with our IT representative. We are trying, like I said, we're trying to update our building as best we can. So, again, we have been, as you, as you know, we've renovated two firehouses. We're getting a new public works building. We're kind of last on the list. We're just trying to stay, we're just trying to stay

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afloat at this point. >> Mr. Corinowski, you are more than welcome to do a walkthrough of the police department at any time. We recently walked through and >> I don't we don't even have a water fountain in my door. You need to stay in the cell. >> Why don't you? I'll join you there.

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Okay. [laughter] >> There you go. That'd be great. All right. The $220,000 has that been spent already for the IT updates. I don't know who's that responsible for. >> We can't spend any money until the bond is approved. >> Okay. So, this is what's going to be

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ordered. 220,000. So, this has information tech equipment, cameras, and fiber cable for where here or for the city. >> It's for the entire city. It's firehouses. It's video cameras

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>> maybe. Okay. That would be nice to put that on your 11 desk 2026 cuz basically it just says information, tech, equipment, cameras, and file. >> So, this is this is prepared by bond council and they put on there what their requirements or what they're supposed to.

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>> Okay. But I understand that. But we read this because we it's not on the sheets that come out here at the meeting. It's not on the website. I'm asking questions because I know $220,000 working with telecommunications that builds a call center the size of Verizon

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without a thousand people in. And if you're telling me if it's over for engineering, for fire departments, for different buildings, then yes, that makes sense. Okay. All right. One other question. In the past, there's a resol

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um an ordinance out 20 to 26 for salaries. Why is that so late? Because in the past, it used to be in 2025, 2024 when I back looked at it, it was either the first ordinance or within the top 10 contract. >> Yes. So, uh this was a contract

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negotiation year and uh contracts expired without being complete and they're still ongoing. So, that's why there's a delay. >> Okay. And why when these contracts are being why is it not just two years, some are one year, some are two years, some

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are three years, some are four years. Why the difference in the number of years in these contracts? Especially when 2027 is an election year coming up. Why aren't they out for one year or two years? >> Why four years? Typically our union

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contracts are three or four years and that's where um where the negotiation started and beyond that >> that's union that's union but I'm saying there are contracts that are not >> right typically that's what happened and then the the contracts rolled over and our administrator negotiated and um you

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know I'm sure >> this is part of negotiations they negotiated a four-year contract >> so people negotiated just one year >> there have been there have been some there have been some people that decided that they would rather go year by year and there are some uh some that decided

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they wanted to do or the unions decided they wanted to do four >> well unions are different okay I'm not saying for union but I'm saying for regular salary employees they can do 1 2 3 4 whatever in the negotiations >> I can't force them I can't force them to agree upon something they don't want to >> but I'm saying you as negotiations you

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can say to them here's for two years if they want four years that's negotiations are you telling me they can just say four years or do you off just give them what they want that's I'm trying get to. >> So, we're trying to gain some consistency here, >> right? >> Um, so the people that got contracts, >> right,

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>> received the same like basically as as the unions did. >> So, everything's equal across the board. >> Okay. Well, now I'm not seeing that. When I looked at some of them were pay shoved through already from last month, they were two or three years, some got four years. That's what I'm saying. That's not consistent. If you're telling

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me it's consistent, it would have been oil two, all three, all four. So, Dennis, I believe uh what not to put words in Pat's mouth, but I believe what Pat tried to do was replicate the union contracts into four-year deals, and some of the employees >> asked to have lesser terms.

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>> Well, that's what that's what I'm asking. So, it's not consistent through the board trying to make it all equal. That's what somebody asked for. >> Okay. >> I think you're being semantics here. I think that they are equal. They just may have a shorter term. Like the the terms and conditions within the contracts are

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fairly equal. Not not they're not wait some people work 40 hours some are working >> 35 hours. >> I'm talking about a percentage increases. >> What's that? >> I was talking about percentage increases. >> You're talking about percentage. I'm talking about contracts that if you're making them even even would be everybody

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works 37 and a half hours or works 40 hours. Okay. All right. And one other question. I've gone back. Why are we only have one meeting in July and we force through all these resolutions and all these ordinance in one meeting when

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usually in October the rest of me have two. >> Now we have one. >> Uh I believe this is three years in a row that we've had one July meeting because the 4th of July holiday falling you know on the the meeting >> second. I understand that we could have had it on the 9th. Why not the >> then we'd have backto-back meetings. Um

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>> the last meeting we have was the 25th. I can see not having it on the second because of the fact the third is legal holiday for the fourth. >> Mr. the the schedule's made up by our clerk. She set up the schedule. It was approved back in December. >> But that's I'm asking a question. Why

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are we at one meeting? That doesn't mean if if the if you say there when you look at the reading, it says the commissioner's meeting is held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. Well, that was what was decided upon and voted on back in December of 2025.

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>> Who voted on it? That's what I'm guessing. >> This commission. >> This commission. Okay. So, you commission to have one meeting in July. Then, don't you think then with the number of ordinance and the number of resolutions should be not as many in July? We're only having one meeting.

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>> So, again, we don't we don't plan that. It's all about the timing as we do bond ordinances as they time for the project. So, it was very critical that we got the bond ordinances in when they were so that we could put the dredging out to date. >> But you didn't know you were going to try to force these through in 2025 at

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December. >> I in December of 2025. I would have hoped that I told Ed I was hoping in February we had the bond ordinance for dredging, but we didn't because of other complications. So, it required again D approval and Army Corps approval and all these things. >> But still, why can't why can't you not

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have two in July? That's my question. Why do we only have one and every other month two? >> The reason we only have one, sir, is because there was a schedule put out and that schedule said one meeting. If we wanted two meetings, they they could have had two meetings, but we'd have to

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advertise and do everything according. >> Well, you could have done well, in the past, prior to the three years, you did have two in July. I >> I wasn't here then. I can only say what was approved. >> Mr. the the meetings are set ahead of time. At the bottom there is a clause that

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says there may be a variation of the meetings. What happened with Junth being a national holiday, we couldn't have a meeting that day. So what we did is we >> in June, >> that's Friday, June,

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>> right? We were off on Thursday. So what happened was we combined the June meeting and the May or the June meeting and the July meeting in between. So there were three weeks. If you look at

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the schedule, there's three weeks till our next meeting because of the number of Thursdays. >> I'm confused. The 18th was a Thursday. You said you were off July June 18th. We were we were closed for Junth. So we were not Friday. That's Friday.

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>> We were not able to upload our advertising and get all the work that gets processed after the meeting done on Junth or on June 18th. So we combined the June 18th meeting with the July 3rd

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meeting and made it June >> 25th. >> Wait a minute. You took the June 18th meeting and combined and you moved it to June 25th >> and moved the July 3rd meeting back to June 25th. So we had one meeting for the

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two dates. >> So Dennis, just to just to summarize, in the fourth quarter of every year, the clerk will send out a schedule for the entire year's commission meetings. We will look at it. She will say, "There's a conflict here, conflict here. What do you say we do this, do this, do this?" We, the three of us

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>> all look at it. [laughter] We vote on a We vote on a meeting. You were working. It's a working holiday. The 18th. That's a Thursday. >> The day after a meeting. The day after a meeting, city hall is closed. And if city hall is closed, the day after a meeting, the with the file uploads, we wouldn't be able to get our our Zoom

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audio, all of those things to the website. So, that was the issue on that day. So, >> okay. So, you moved it to the 25th. Two weeks from the 25th would have been July the 9th. Why not July 9th? Why July 16th? We decided to combine the meetings

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and the commissioners. >> Okay. Well, that answer my question. So, you didn't want to have two meetings in July. Combining it doesn't make sense to say you're going to have one meeting in July because you're combining the July meeting and another meeting. I only have one.

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There should be two meetings with the number of resolutions you've had. >> There is no statute that says how many meetings we need to have. Mr. Gordon asked. Well, Miss Casey, then people want to hear what's going on, not hear something a month ago and then wait a month to hear something else. And now we

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have to wait till what? Uh, weeks. All right. Thank you. Do we have any other comment on resolutions and ordinance adoption? >> Is there a motion to close public comment on resolutions and ordinance

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adoption? Motion >> second. >> Mayor Collins, >> yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg, >> yes. >> Commissioner Horn, >> yes. >> Johanna, will you proceed, please? >> [snorts] >> May I have a motion for the introduction

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of ordinance number 14-2026, an ordinance amending chapter 257, vehicles and traffic of the code of the ordinance of the city of Margate City, County of Atlantic, state of New Jersey. Motion >> second. >> Mayor Collins,

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>> yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg, yes. >> Commissioner Horn, >> yes. May I have a motion for the introduction of ordinance number 152026, an ordinance amending amended to repeal and replace chapter

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203 outdoor dining of the code of the city of Margate City, County of Atlantic, state of New Jersey. Motion >> second. >> Mayor Collins. Yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg, yes. >> Commissioner Horn, >> yes. May I have a motion for the

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introduction of ordinance number 16-2026? An ordinance fixing the salaries and wages and compensation of certain officers and employees of the city of Margate City, Atlantic County, New Jersey. Motion

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>> second. >> Mayor Collins, >> yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg, >> yes. >> Commissioner Horn, >> yes. May I have a motion for the adoption of ordinance number 8, 2026, an ordinance amending chapter 257,

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vehicles and traffic of the code of the city of Margate City, County of Atlantic, state of New Jersey. Motion >> second. >> Mayor Collins, >> yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg, >> yes. >> Commissioner Horn, >> yes. May I have a motion for the

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adoption of ordinance number 9-2026, an ordinance amending chapter 257, traffic and vehicles of the code of the city of Margate City, county of Atlantic, state of New Jersey. Motion >> second. >> Mayor Collins, >> yes.

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>> Commissioner Blumbberg, >> yes. >> Commissioner Horn, >> yes. I have a motion for the adoption of ordinance number 10, 2026, an ordinance amending chapter 132, fees of the code of the city of Margate City, County of Atlantic, state

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of New Jersey. Motion >> second. >> Mayor Collins, yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg, yes. >> Commissioner Horn, >> yes. May I have a motion for the adoption of ordinance number 11, 2026,

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bond ordinance appropriating 7,169,500 and authorizing the issuance of $6,811,25 in bonds and notes of the city of Margate city for various capital improvements or pursuit purposed author authorized to be

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undertaken by the city of Margate City in the county of Atlantic, New Jersey. Motion >> second. >> Mayor Collins, >> yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg, yes. >> Commissioner Horn, >> yes. May I have a motion for the

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adoption of ordinance number 12 2026 bond ordinance appropriating $5 million $580,000 and authorizing the issuance of $5,580,000 in bonds and notes of the city of

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Margate City for various capital improvements or purposes authorized to be undertaken by the city of Margate City in the County of Atlantic, New Jersey. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Mayor Collins. Yes.

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>> Commissioner Blumbberg. Yes. >> Commissioner Horn. >> Yes. And may I have a motion for the adoption of ordinance number 13, 2026, bond ordinance providing for various water and sewer utility capital improvements by the city of Margate City

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in the county of Atlantic, New Jersey, appropriating $2,622,500. Therefore, and authorizing the issuance of $2,622,500 bonds or notes of the city for financing the cost thereof. >> Motion.

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>> Second. >> Mayor Collins, >> yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg, >> yes. >> Commissioner Horn, >> yes. May I have a motion for resolution number 168 2026 authorizing bill payment and claims? Motion

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>> second. >> Mayor Collins, yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg, >> yes. >> Commissioner Horn, >> yes. >> May I have a motion for resolution number 169 2026 authorizing payment to Kmar Home Center? >> Motion. >> Second.

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>> Mayor Collins. >> I abstain. >> Commissioner Blumbberg. Yes. >> Commissioner Horn. >> Yes. >> May I have a motion for resolution number 170 2026? Resolution requesting approval of items

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of revenue and appropriation NJS4A col4-87. Motion >> second. >> Mayor Collins. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg. >> Yes. Commissioner Horn. >> Yes.

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>> May I have a motion for resolution number 171 2026? Resolution requesting approval of items of revenue and appropriations NJS 4A colon 4-87. Motion

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>> second. >> Mayor Collins. Yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg. Yes. >> Commissioner Horn. >> Yes. May I have a motion for resolution number 1726? Resolution requesting approval of item

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items of of revenue and appropriations NJS48 colon 4-87. Motion >> second. >> Mayor Collins. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Horn. >> Yes.

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>> I have a motion for resolution number 173 2026. Resolution requesting approval of items of revenue and appropriation NJS4A col4-87. Motion >> second.

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>> May I have a motion for the consent agenda which >> I'll wait the vote for >> 173. [laughter] >> Mayor Collins. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg. Yes. Commissioner Horn. >> Yes. May I have a motion for the consent agenda which consists of resolution

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number 174 2020 six through resolution number 192 2026. Motion >> second. >> Mayor Collins. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg.

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>> Yes. >> Commissioner Horn. >> Yes. May I have a motion for resolution number 194206? A a resolution that was presented from the floor. A resolution authorizing withdrawal from Southern Coastal

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Regional Employee Benefits Fund. Motion. >> Second. >> Mayor Collins. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Horn. >> Yes. Before we open up public comment, I just wanted to um Kathy, as we were going through that resolution on the

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outdoor dining, I just I felt um it was worth mentioning that Pat can go into more detail with you, but the idea was that the state passed the um outdoor dining regulations uh dur era uh outdoor dining that became

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permanent. they were no longer um accurate with what our old uh ordinance stated for outdoor dining. So, it was amended to to be in more compliance with the state. So, for the last five or six years, we have been approving and

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granting um the zoning applications for outdoor dining based on the state law. um outside of our ordinance. This basically just kind of solidifies the state law into our ordinance and changes the wording of ours to match. So again, >> Pat,

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>> so it's it's not changing how we've been enforcing the ordinance because of the co era u changes. So um I think that just a summary as we were going through it I felt was worth mentioning before we move forward. But um Pat does have more information and would be happy to to

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meet with you. But I realize we have executive session tonight, so you might not catch him at the end of the meeting if you don't stay till after. So with that, I would like to open up public comment. If anyone has any public comment on any topic at all, please step forward.

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>> Good afternoon, Sam Lash from Hanover Avenue. I have a question about uh if you can answer it, the status of the master plan study. Do you know where that is? Um, does that mean Roger? >> Do you have an update, Pat?

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>> Roger's not here. He's been handling that. >> Sorry, Roger's not here. He's been uh pretty much taking the the lead on that. Hasn't gone out to bid as far as I know. >> No. So, it went out to bid. It was It was awarded. >> I do know this past week they had an initial kickoff meeting with one of the

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the committees. I don't think there's been any in-depth discussions yet, but >> Okay. Um, >> kind behind on that. Sorry. Well, I thought it went out and I didn't know if it came back. The recommendation came back. >> Uh, have been no in-depth conversations regarding it. At this point,

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>> uh, good evening again, Ed Burger. Uh, speaking on behalf of Marley Business Associate, Mayor, thanks for the explanation, quick explanation of what's going on with the outdoor dining. I I did try to read through everything and and I I don't have the skill set to dissect uh city code, but uh the question I had

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for you is uh uh [clears throat] is there anything in the rewrite of the ordinance for outdoor dining in the vision of those that actually have the insight into what the words mean on the paper that would interfere with the way business is being done by the currently

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being done by the bars and restaurants as they are in compliance at this point? So, >> do you foresee any any changes that would have to change somebody mid-season to have to change the way they're doing business right now? >> And um to be honest, we've been trying to get this on the agenda for months and

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I think it was because we wanted a thorough review from various departments to make sure it was not going to interrupt or disrupt our businesses. Um I do I would suggest you know read it, push it out to people as I know you already did through uh the business

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association to say read it. Um because that's what this twoe period is for for us to get feedback from people like you and the business owners to say this doesn't sound good. what what does this mean and get some clarification >> is is there is there a deadline on this just out of curiosity because of the

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states um because the expiration on the states if we go another week or two or >> you know from conversations with Roger even over the years I believe this just it just mirrors the state standard since co so again I don't think it will it changes anything we do it just mirrors that state standard that came out so I

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don't think it will affect anything in the way we do business >> okay thank you and you know if it would have my only recommend ation would have been is to make it retroactive the end of the summer season as you know normally when you vote it becomes immediate rule. You know I would just say if there were going to be any

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changes between now and anybody foresees any that the effective date of the new resolution should be after the close of the summer season giving us the offseason to work on it. Yeah, thanks Makes sense. Thank you. >> Steve Jazaki, Lancaster Avenue. Um, I

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have some green team activities, a sustainable margate. Um, things I'd like to mention. Uh, I talked with Pat about this and at our last meeting we talked about having a boat trip out into the bay with you guys. Um, our idea is that

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there are things happening out there that we want to educate. We don't know what your level of education is out there, but Scott and some of us are very familiar with the bays. We know what the bird activity is out there and um other things. And I think it's a good opportunity to see where the dredging is

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going to take place and and exactly what's happening and knowing the history. Scott would be fantastic to bring with us because he could tell us the history. My concern is that we are losing our local knowledge with all of us that are leaving the island and the

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new people that are coming who don't know uh what we have to offer. I mean this is a major ecological area that is important to the sustainability of the not only bird species but the insect population and other things that are

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vital to keeping Margate what it is. Um, we we think we we would like to rent the Captain Robin. It holds 25 people. If we need to, we'll do two trips. But I think it would be a good opportunity to get

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everybody who is in the city to bring up familiar and get us all on the same page. So, I want that for your consideration to think about. And I'll be talking with Pat about details and logistics. Um,

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I want to thank Ella for showing up being here. One of the things with sustainable Jersey or Margate is energy and I think this is a good opportunity for people to actually have solar uh power that's not committed to being

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on their roofs and it just moves us into the future a little bit more. Um, I think she did a fantastic job. Um, being out on the on the bay, um, I do the osprey counts and out of the 22

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nests that are here, we only have 11 birds, 11 chicks. That's not good. And when we did further back around Skull Bay and into Pleasantville and things, we surveyed 14, zero chicks. So, something's happening back there that

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one of the things that we'd like to discuss during this boat trip and it's pretty significant. Um, last night I went to the emergency meeting emergency management meeting that was held at Ski Beach. Uh, Chuck Barard who was our emergency management.

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They all had, you know, Margie Bettner, Longport, they were all on the gave a little um talk about emergency management, what to do during the hurricane and hurricane preparedness. Um, it was a good idea because usually when we have it in the down beach areas

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like in Margate or Vet or you know like we get nobody really shows up for this but they held it during the beach concert which I think was fantastic because they had a captive audience and they got to learn something. So I thought that was a great idea. Um

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the skip the stuff law is going to take place August 1st. That's where uh comp um restaurants and businesses, they don't automatically put the plastic knives and forks into the bags for the takeout. Now it has to be asked for is

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no longer uh straws are automatically served in drinks. They have to be asked for. They're not saying that you can't do them, but you have to ask for them. And that's going to hopefully cut down on a lot of trash. and also it'll cut down on business expense because they don't need to supply that stuff

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as much. Um uh another thing we want to we we're continuing to work on, we haven't talked about it for a while, are the leaf blowers, the gas power leaf blowers, especially the backpacks.

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We feel really unnecessary for the small properties that we have over here on these properties that are 40 foot wide, maybe 60 feet deep. We really it it is so disruptive to be around your house and to have noise

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touchable levels 85 plus and wind velocities up to 100 miles an hour to blow this stuff away. So, I'd like to bring that up to move forward and alert contractors

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about how we feel about this. And I really would hope that you guys would be on board and start moving. We are having meetings about this with other cities cuz the duster levels and when you're outside, it's just unnecessary that I I mean, I have an electric leaf

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blower and that does a great job. So, um, that's it. >> Okay. Great. Thank you, Steve. >> Kathy Heitzman, 22 South Adams Avenue. I wanted to see if we have an update on the Bleivvo property and Tequila Sunrise

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because we haven't had a meeting and I wondered how things were going with that. Olivia has filed an appeal in the federal court. His motion for a stay of enforcement ordinances was recently denied. Roger

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not here this week and he's but he'll be back next week and we do plan to start hitting that with some violations now that the stay is not there is an act of appeal. I don't know what the court appellet court will do,

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but I believe we're in very strong position that we are correct. And then there's some people been critical perhaps of the process, but the rules of Justice Brian slowly they got one of the best we've got one of the best law firms in South

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Jersey representing him. It's been a battle, but we won really battle. So now we're moving forward for enforcement and uh hopefully that'll become a cumulative finding. We understand that he is trying to sell the

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bill. So we'll see where that goes, but it's been a it's been an unhealth and I know that it's you know it's not as fast as people like to see this. That's our that's our justice system

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regarding tequila. I believe it's sort of leveling out now. I know we've had extremely busy. Margate is now the one of the leading shore town. We have I believe 13 liquor establishments in the lock cabin. You see the crowds on the

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weekend. Seems like Thursday night is now a new Friday night. Uh so all of our bars and restaurants uh our police chief has implemented a program now that he analyzes over the weekend all of our establishments. I

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don't want to speak for Matt. He can do that but I think our police have really done an excellent job on trying to control and tamper down Louis. Uh but we do have many many visitors. You know, we get people out on the street in a few

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state, I'm sure, to the radio and death. But I think all deal has pretty much settled down. I realize some of the people on that street are never going to be happy. It's not that quiet little old basically deliver that once was. That's

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changed. But all the whole I think we made a lot of progress. Even I understand their air conditioning. So you close the windows and they can have air conditioning on this one.

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>> You said it very eloquently. [laughter] Hi. Um, Janet Angelo, 30 South Washington A. She's awesome. >> Simone, 30 South Washington Avenue in it, too. >> We would just like to bring up um it looks beautiful. The Washington Avenue

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uh the whole project went well. >> I don't know who had something to do with it. Everybody did. And it was it's this beautiful blame. Okay. Well, then there's the man. >> Go ahead. >> It's beautiful. It's very beautiful. >> Thank you for your comment,

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>> but but there's a little more. Who was responsible for picking the trees? Out of curiosity. >> It was a collaboration. Um, frankly, it was a collaboration with the green team um with the tree selection.

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>> Well, there's a problem. >> Okay. >> Big problem. These are the this is the tag off and not that matters. This is the tag off the tree. They are red sunset maples. They grow at 12 to 24 in a year high and

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wide and the roots should be 20 ft away from anything. It's going to raise them pavers in no time. I mean it could be 5 years whatever those trees are going to be. The ones across the street on the side where the dentist office is are um

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tally pear trees. They stay small. They're there. They've been there forever. I've been there for a very long time. And but I'm like, who put a maple tree up? All the trees are maples. It's it's like >> and we're going to be responsible for the paver >> for the pavers. So the roots are going to pull them all up

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>> and and they put them right down the street, >> the whole entire street. >> One in 10 years. The thing was huge. Plus, we park we park on the sidewalk. So, that thing grows. She's not going to be able to park.

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>> Yeah. Do you know I mean, are they planning on really >> Yeah. I mean, there would be, you know, there would be a maintenance component to this. And I believe we have maples planted elsewhere in the city. If I remember, I'm just trying to remember back from there was a lot of dialogue on what trees to plant on that street. Um,

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and I know we went through multiple options and I think I couldn't tell you exactly where, but I know there are I believe there are um the same trees planted elsewhere on another city street um that they f thought were appropriate and for this location.

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>> Well, that's not appropriate. >> Yeah. So, who So, here's the here's the biggest question actually. Um, I called the um public works department a couple of times. She called. You never

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get a reply back. I don't know. We've actually walked in to visit people at the public works department and I don't know and go down here and go over here and we're wandering around and nobody can give us an answer for anything that we ask about. We were asking about the

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street lights. When were they getting turned on? That was a month and a half ago. I got nothing. I mean, eventually they went on. That was nice. But [laughter] it's not my job. It's not my job. That's not my job. Whose job is it to have the street lights on from Washington?

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>> Can I Can I just comment on the street lights? >> Yeah, the one is out. It was >> The street lights are beautiful. By the way, >> it was one of the hardest struggles I've ever had to deal with. It took emails between myself and Ed and Lance Electric. It got a little testy at

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times, but to get those lights, I forget the word they electrified or whatever it was. >> Energized. >> Energized. >> It took, you would not believe what it took to get it. And I think the delay was on a lane city electric side, >> but the one is still not working. And that is where the kids >> I know

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>> congregate. And that's that's one of the things we're still working on with the lane. >> But but it's not even that the lights weren't on and that you were arguing with them. That's fine. But no one wanted No, everybody was pointing this way, that way. I don't know. Uh go here,

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call them, call public works. I'm like, can we just have a name or a phone number or somebody to >> Yeah. So I think my recommendation to get uh >> Pat will get your contact information. Pat's our administrator. So he oversees all departments. So that way no matter

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what question you have, he can direct it to the right the appropriate people. >> And who is the builder or the construction people done with that street? Because our driveway is still not repaired. >> They broke it and we have a big gap.

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>> Like so where would we go with those kind of things? Well, I I can take I can take your information down your location. The contract's not closed out. They still need to do the other side of Washington Avenue. The contractor paused for the summer. They will be back. We call We have a punch list of items that just need to be addressed before we close out the contract.

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>> Punch list guy. >> What's that? >> Are you the punch list? >> Yes, I'll be the punch list guy. Yeah. And um I'll just take your address down. We'll make sure that you're added to the punch list. So, >> 30 South Washington. >> 30 South right right across the street. >> Yep. They'll be back. >> And then are they also going to come back and like finish the crosswalk? They

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didn't put any lines in the crosswalk on Pacific. It's there's lines on every other crosswalk. >> There's more striping that has to be done. The bike lanes are going to be painted green. So, there's a little bit of work that still has to be good. >> Yep. >> Can we get a trash can? I >> was tired of picking up trash. >> It It's ridiculous.

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>> We can talk to public works about that. >> I was told they >> if I can get a hold of them. I'm just kidding. [laughter] >> They said they might knock them over, but they're bolted to the ground. So, but they they put one on the other side of the street, but they're on our side of the street. The whole entire street

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every day. >> I I live here all year round. I go out, pick up trash, throw it away. It's fine, but it'd be nice to have a trash can. >> Um >> the bike lanes mean nothing. >> Yeah, they're they're not everybody's biting by them. >> Going this way on a oneway.

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>> Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. Zooming this way on a oneway. So, it's it's horrible. How many >> you don't like it? >> Out of curiosity, how many summons were issued, do you know, chief, >> to the children that are out of control

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with your 10 p.m. curfew that they completely ignore? >> Well, like I said, it's it's a lot of times, like I said, I don't have the don't have the number with me, but again, you have to realize when you deal with a juvenile, if we take a juvenile into custody, >> I know you explained that to me already. >> It's a huge project. And I have 28 people in my police department. I am

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one. >> I know. I have six people working per shift. So again, I do the best I can with the with the people I have, but every time I take one juvenile off the street, it may become my responsibility and takes an officer off the street. So we do our best. >> No, I know. But have you issued any this

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year? Do you know? >> I don't know how many we we have issued them. We also do curbside adjustments. >> Okay. >> At the same time, so there's certain things that make it a little bit easier for us. >> I think the lights helped >> a tremendous even have lights at the playground now.

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The lights helped. The reduction in traffic is amazing. >> I'm working on it. I'm always working. >> It's great. The lights are It's beautiful street. I love it. Um I'll I'll never move. They'll take me out in the box. But uh um so you are the punchless guy. >> 30 South.

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>> Yes. >> Driveway crosswalk. They're going to come back and do all that and we'll see about getting a trash can. >> Perfect. [laughter] >> But at least I could throw it in there. But uh thank you. No, >> thank you.

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>> No. What was there? We don't >> bike. Don't need a bike rack. >> No. No. We're good. >> The main thing is though, they need to look into these trees. >> You're in luck. >> There's a member of the green team right there. >> Oh, yeah. >> These trees are going to

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>> It's going to take so fast. Like I said, she's not going to be able to park her car >> and people are not going to be able to walk. It's supposed to be 20 ft from car >> and we're like what, 3 ft? It's horrible. It's >> really bad. >> But thank you. >> Thank you.

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>> Thank you. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Uh yeah, I'll I'll take I'll take ownership of those trees. >> Uh Dennis and I had had multiple conversations on the proper tree. Now

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trying to find the proper tree to plant in this town is very difficult. You mentioned about the calorie pears. The calorie pears are an invasive tree and they start to spread. It's also on the invasive species strike team list. So they're no longer coming up soon. I'm

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not sure when, but the cow pairs will no longer be able to be sold in New Jersey along with a bunch of other ones. So I am willing to take on your recommendations. We have looked and looked and looked. Now we the the red

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maple is actually the tree of choice to plant when with all the new with all the new construction going on. That is the recommended tree. We um no longer are taking the cow pair and we're we phased out the uh crate myrtle as well because that also is these are Asian trees.

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>> Yeah, we may I heard that we may have palm trees soon with climate change happening. But also one of the things that we we we are searching for is to bring back native species that are going to protect and and um habitat for the um

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butterflies and the and the bees and and uh the important things that are going to sustain about the bird population and keep everything flowing in the in this town because as I mentioned before we are on the North American fly zone and

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we have to not be so human centric as to think of this is our land because if we destroy what's here by just being grabbing everything we're not going to have the ecology that made this in the first place. So I would be happy to take any

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recommendations you have. I mean we do a lot of uh research on this. So, but right now and I don't think that they're going to grow that fast because we have been growing them and >> how long did it take >> within 10 years? >> I had one

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must speak into this speaker. >> So, Steve, let's take this conversation. Obviously, it's a great recommendation. We now have to come up with a solution between you, Ed, and and Pat. >> We'll see what happens >> and we'll Yeah. >> Thank you.

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Is there a motion to close public comment? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Mayor Collins? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Horn? >> Yes. May I have a motion to go into executive session resolution number 193 2026

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pending of future contract negot pending of future contract negotiation. Motion >> second. >> May I ask everyone to leave at this time? >> Leave the vote. >> You will Oh, Mayor Collins.

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>> Yes. >> Commissioner Blumbberg. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Horn. >> Yes. You will be invited back after close session. motion from second proposal for what's Terry from a insurance

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>> Sky View Health Plan. >> Sky View Health Plan. Uh we're taking no action right now. It's just for education. >> Motion. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Kathy made the motion. Why did you second it? >> Yep.

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>> Everybody. >> Mayor Collins. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Blumbber. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Horn. >> Yes. >> Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Mayor Collins? >> Yes. Commissioner Blumbber. >> Yes. >> Commissioner Horn, >> yes.