He is happy 6:30. Let us get started. Pledge allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all. >> I hereby announce that this meeting is being held in accordance with chapter 231 of the open public meeting act. Proper notice of meeting dates has been given to the Morris Newsby Morris County Daily Record and posted on the Bolton
board in Burough Hall. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. President, >> Mr. Jer, >> present. >> Mr. Lombardi, >> present. >> Mr. >> Here, Miss Mer. Next topic, the business approval of the
minutes from the January 12th meeting any issues with the minutes as they were sent out. >> I move that the minutes of the reorganization meeting be approved and circulated.
>> Second. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yes, >> yes. >> Moving towards the comments from the public. If anyone has any comments,
please step forward and state your name and concern. Seeing as there are none, I close this portion of the meeting. moving forward towards the budget. Susan was able to send out a document
that I put together regarding what our um request was from a budget standpoint for 2026. Um and I layered on where we had a budget for 25 and a spend by category.
Same thing for 24 and for 23 as well. Just showing that an overall standpoint for a request of $900 more dollars year-over-year is% um and we've been pretty much flat the prior two years.
Are there any questions uh in greater detail about any specific line for the budget? >> I have a few questions. >> Anybody else? >> I think it was a great presentation.
Yeah, I mean thanks for putting the sheet together. >> Uh just a couple questions. So yeah, um >> I guess like my general comment about the budget is that if we're just basically rolling over from year to year, I think that
>> you know I have no issue with the budget. Um, but I think that we're I'm worried that we, you know, with all the push back we get from the council that we're still not addressing this idea of need and how we're justifying our need. So, just as
an example, like um, you know, we're increasing numbers like why why you know they're going to ask why are we increasing that or why are we um, you know, moving moving this this number from here to here? Why are we not
pruning um as much as we did in prior years? Like what's the justification for the numbers is what I'm worried about that they're going to ask about. Um I don't have any problem in terms of if you know rolling it over the numbers are basically the same as last year.
My issue is that it doesn't seem to be anchored into the kind of need that I had talked about a year ago when we did the budget. You know, as to us trying to project ahead what it that we're going to do in the year. Obviously, that projection is
not going to be perfect. There's going to be unforeseen things. But like for example, if I'm budgeting for my house, I try to think about, well, what do I need to do for the coming year? What are the things I know I have to do? And then sometimes, you know, the water heater breaks. Okay.
Well, I guess I'm not going to uh, you know, put the new backsplash on. Instead, I'm going to have to do the water heater because that's more important. this seems to me to be like a normal way to budget and and I'm worried that we can't explain that with this to
the council. So, I just like to talk a little bit about what we're going to say if you know if that criticism is made because that was that was a criticism that was made last year at the budget meeting was that we do we hadn't justified according to mean what what we're doing.
Right. Sure. So, if you look at the table below, this shows where the increases were year-over-year. So, right off the top, the biggest thing that we had year-over-year was the
amount of memos we received, almost a 50% increase year-over-year. So, the work that we've brought in is greater. What made us not go over budget is the incredible partnership now that we have with our DPW.
Picking what trees that they could do versus what Dave could do allowed us to do a lot more from a budget standpoint than we've ever been able to do in prior years. The big thing is look at the tree planting 24 versus 25. 16 trees 24 42
and 25. So for me these are this would address any concern and if there is more concern I can walk through any type of request from the council to kind of move forward if we do have any other concerns. Um my other sheet here from
what our plan and goals are from the 2026 budget standpoint I kind of highlight what we would use this funding for. Um my main focus as it was last year and moving forward is the continuation of planting trees. There was a time period where because of
various different diseases, we weren't able to plant as much just because of the way that the budget was. This is these are the things I want to continue. I would love to see this year when we talk about this again next year instead of 42, I'd love to see over 50
in that line. The tree fertilization is something we've done in the past to a certain extent. Um, if you see across the board, it's been pretty stagnant, the same number in 24 and 23. When you look what we did in 25 with the money that we still had allocated because of
the partnership with DPW, we were able to do an insane increase in fertilization to to say that now our trees are protected down the entire from the merchant block down the entire avenue and every high visibility tree
that people see coming down 53 or in the center of town, trees that are lit up for the holiday season, everything was fertilized. So for me, if there is any concern from the council on any of these line items, I'm more than happy to walk our council leaison through it and
address any concerns. >> So yeah, I mean I I don't disagree that I think it's I think I've said it multiple times. I'm glad we're planning more. Um I think that uh that's great. My my issue I guess here's how to explain my issue. I've tried to explain
it before, but let me just I'll try it again. There's way more tree work that we could spend money on in town than we're budgeted for. If you went around trying to find tree work in town, you could find three, four, five, $600,000 worth of tree work. No problem.
>> I would agree with you on that. I mean, I I've shared even with you that it with $5 million, I probably wouldn't be able to touch every tree to the extent that I would love to. >> So, we agree then. So, then the question the council has is how are we
prioritizing what it is that we are doing? Because if we don't have a system to prioritize that work, it it looks like we're doing it based on we're allocated this much budget and we're just going to spend
down the budget, not that we're addressing issues in terms of what the priority is or the need is. This is why I asked us to look at the US Forest Service risk management manual. I've said a bunch of times that I think that we need to evaluate when we have memos
their risk and um the likelihood that they may fall out what the diameter is. There's I think there's a there's a process that needs to go into the budgeting that's like otherwise it looks like they give us a chunk of money and then as we can see like things get
rearranged based on what we need but we basically spend the whole amount right so again like I I it's it's not like I have a problem with the way Mike that you did like that the budget is done if you're doing it according to that method but it's
without having the work prioritized How do we know that? So, for example, this year we need to spend only $30,000 on pruning. Frank, you said at a prior meeting that if we continue to prune like we were and didn't do rotational pruning that you I think you said um
well, you're going to see what an emergency is something to this effect. So, now it seems like you're saying you don't think that anymore. Maybe you changed your mind. I'm not sure. >> No. So, I I didn't change my mind as far as >> Frank. So, I'm just a little bit confused. And again, it's not like I'm
not I think we need to have a we need to think about this in more detail is what I'm saying more more carefully about how we're rational like why our pruning in 2024 was $50,000. Now it's gone down to 30. So really what's happening the prior years and I
looked at some of the information with Karen things were just being class instead of being split out to the correct and expense line items things were just being lumped into pruning and cabling. So one of the things that we talked about was I'm going to make sure
with her that we're allocating the correct expenses to the correct lines. So just because it was that let's say in 24 and 23 it's just that the items weren't allocated to the correct buckets.
>> I think there's a a I get your point Rob but there's a huge uncertainty here with trees right we've had drought conditions which we know are going to in fact in impact trees we don't know how much they're going to impact it could be you know could be
this year it could be next year could be three years we don't know there could be God forbid, knock on wood, you know, a hurricane Sandy that comes through, we're going to have clearly emergency light work that we need to do. I think without, you know, this crystal ball of
what we're going to know where we need to spend, I think this is a good thing. I think the methodology we use going forward, you know, whether it's a risk matrix or something like that, I think that's separate and apart from the budget. I think that the budget with the
justification that Mike said is a good step for the council. We can address any questions they have and as we go through the year, you know, or maybe in the first quarter, in the second second quarter, by by the summertime, right, by when we do all the plantings, maybe we do need to make some prioritization
about which trees come down or which trees get pruned or which trees get fertilized in some sort of um approach. I just um I just don't know that there's a way to do it any different than we're doing right now. And I will say like, you know, you you make a point
regarding, you know, which line items and how the expenses are classified. You I I can tell you this right off the bat. This storm storm damage parks, for example, there was a tree that we all knew about whatnot park. It was defined that split. Obviously, that fund was
never put into that specific line item. That is one of my things that I'm going to work through this year with Karen to make sure that those funds are allocated into the correct spend bucket for the budget. >> Yeah, I think I think that's important. So, I guess my last comment on it would
be this that I get your point Maryann that there's uncertainty. Um I think that part of the issue with not having any kind of priority system is like let's just take pruning for example. Let's say that there's something that we're gonna we're gonna prune because a resident says, "Hey, there's a deadwood
in front of my house and it's a relatively small diameter uh branch." And we we go and we spend on that, right? Well, maybe that isn't even from pruning. Maybe we need that money later. But even if we don't run
out in pruning, how do we know we might that that money might not have been better used for a different priority, say in takedowns or, you know, something else. >> So, I'm totally with you there. So what I will say that the example that you just did, so some of those examples, if you look back at kind of how we handled
last year, when memos come in and we take a look at them, obviously some of these smaller diameter trees are easier to get to trees were not done by Dave last year in Greenwood. Those were trees that were parsed out for the road department to take care of and that's
going to continue as just some of the ongoing work that we have going on with them now is. So that's what's really going to continue to help us stay within our budget numbers. If if you recall when we ended 24, there was still an aotment of work that needed to be done
that we weren't able to do from the financial standpoint that we had. We carried 14,000 plus dollars year-over-year and still finished right within budget. That work with the DPW gets us to where we need to be here.
>> Okay. Well, I mean, I've said what I had to say, which is that I think prioritization system is one of the things the council has asked us to do. So, I mean, that's really all I can say. We don't have time to do that right now. I asked for it a year ago. So, um it's not going to get done tonight. Obviously, I think I said the same thing
last year. So, here we are again voting on the budget. I think it's important that we look at that because uh it would help to, you know, allay some of the criticisms that um have been made about our process. if we had, you know, this
is why we're taking this, this is why we're pruning this, this is why we're taking this down because we think it's a, you know, severe risk, whatever it is. Um, otherwise it looks like people complain and we go and we cut something and then in the past it's happened that
we had to come at the end of the year and ask for more money and I think that's we didn't have to do that last year. I agree with you, Mike. But that's happened I think the two years prior. So I think that is, you know, what the council is worried about is going to happen again. And part of the reason we
were able to do what we did is because there wasn't the storm damage that we' had in some of the previous years, right? Where at the end of the year we get a big storm and then we had to and the parks too have been relatively um minor. So
those are my comments. What about the rotational pruning Frank that you said that we should be doing? Are we how do you feel about this? I feel good kind of good because uh the road department has picked up a lot of the pronun
that to be contracted out. They've done a number of streets and they've been a real boom. If we didn't have them, we certainly have been over the budget this year. But that's been a real real
savior in my in my mind and they're able to do it and it's good. Uh so good. I'm glad that you you're you come around the mic doing I uh I think that the other thing is you know I know
I keep banging this drum but I have to we had management plan. One of the things it's supposed to be doing is to um helping us control our costs and think about how to manage some of the risks. So that' be another thing it could help us with walking us through this and thinking about this. So and the rotational pruning of course that you
originally found came from our 2014 management plan. So that's all I have. Thanks Mike for the sheet. I know it took you some time. I appreciate it. I get a chance to look at it this afternoon. >> This is no problem. I do this literally every day. This is this is this is the easy stuff for me right here.
>> Very well done. Thank you, Mike. >> Um, so what I would like to do then is uh take a vote on the requested 2026 budget and proposed this to our council leazison to take to the council during
the budget planning season. Is that a motion? >> Yeah, I ask for a motion. Second. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. J. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lombardi. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Mier. >> Yes. >> Miss Mer. >> Yes. >> March. >> Are you going to go and present to the council about this budget? If I'm asked to I will. I'm moving forward. There are no
communications. Moving forward to the Foresters report. As Dave is not here, I guess I will play Forester this evening. So, memo 26-02. Um, this tree was located on Silvin Drive across from the Idaho Wild Pool property.
I did attach a picture for reference just to so that everyone can understand as this was quite a treacherous uh journey to get to this since this lot is not in the best shape. Um but what I will say is the the homeowners behind
the property had a lot of concern regarding this tree kind of coming down taking out their fence. Uh they had been in contact with the mayor. Uh so they the homeowner and the mayor had reached out to myself to take a look at this.
Obviously this was a tree that really the road department could not get in there and take care of uh on Tuesday, January 20th. Uh our forester and myself went through uh and took a look at everything. This was kind of deemed as an emergency. The the work was done that
same week. This was a 12 to 24 inch tree. As you can see in the picture, uh the entire tree was pretty much uprooted and really just kind of hanging on uh by the small cow or 12 to 24s behind it that were holding it up.
>> And just uh to refresh everybody's memory, this was before the storm. So there was concern that the storm was going to bring it down completely. So >> correct that and we wanted to ensure that this didn't happen to the resident again. uh as there is a strip of
property next to this resident's home um that is a town easement that did have a small caliber tree land on the homeowner's air conditioner unit. So we wanted to ensure that that did not happen to this same resident again.
>> Mr. Lombardi, this was a take down. >> Yes. No. >> No s. I thought you did a great job documenting that with the email that you sent and the picture. I hope that if we have to take something down like between a meeting in the future, we can do that same thing. I think that was really
helpful and cleared up why we needed it. The picture would understand why that was. >> No, absolutely appreciate that. >> Okay. Then uh our second memo of the month uh 2603
uh four commissioner Dlerard pulled in four trees to be reviewed for pruning and one takedown. So uh the trees are on Cork Road. One is in the wooded area closer to the street. It was a take down
uh for takedown. It's a 36 plus inch tree at 1040. Uh the next one is on the same road again. It is a prune 24- 36 at 620. Then we have one Brier
Cliff Road 24 to 36 in prune. And then on uh 11 Overlook Trail, two prunes uh 24 uh excuse me 12 to 24 at 4.85 85 each uh for that total to be 3250.
Uh so for this evening with the two memos for work, the allocated spend would be 37.85. >> Can I just ask Frank? I wasn't quite clear on which trees they trees they were exact because there's a lot of trees in there. Um so was it the very
large the port road? Was it the very large one? They're big oaks. There's >> one that had the dead dead like that kind of rotted on it. That's completely dead. >> That's right. Directly opposite part >> and then towards toward you go towards
202 there's another big old that's really rotten on the bottom >> and that's that's gone. And you know that's going to be the new Centennial Park in that area. So
take care. Even that second one has some >> very big dead limbs in it. >> And you see there was a limb that I thought you meant but I wasn't posit. Thank you.
>> May I have a motion to approve the forers report? >> Roll please. Do you second? >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes, >> Mr. D. >> Yes, >> Mr. Lombardi. >> Yes, >> Mr. M.
>> Yes, >> Mr. Yes. >> moving forward to the old business section. There was one item on the agenda just under grant. Um what I will say regarding uh this topic is the grant
committee is in the process of reviewing any and any possible grants that are available for us to uh put in. Um so this is a more to come area. This could kind of stay on here. Um and we will
give updates as they come in. Uh like I said, we're working through this So there's no specific grant, it's just grants. >> So what we have a couple that we're looking at right now. Uh one of the things I want to try to prioritize from
a grant standpoint is trying to find ones that do not require a matching fund of any sort. Uh so like I said, more to more to come on this uh topic. I'll just put in my plug again to say
that um the $5,000 in matching for the green communities grant which is the uh the grant that they're trying to get us to apply for that would give us our management plan um that can be done through volunteer hours. So um the
volunteer rate is $37 an hour and one of the things you can count as long as the grant is being discussed is all of your shade tree meetings and you have two years to do it. So, um, by my math, $37 an hour by five people by an hour roughly meeting a month would be about
4,500 of the 5,000 that we would need through just through volunteer hours. So, um, I don't think we should not apply for grants where there's matching if we can match them with that easily with volunteer hours. No, I do agree with you there, but I'm saying I'm talking more 5,000 I'm okay with as far
from a budgeting standpoint, but I'm talking like larger scale matches and things as such. >> Yeah, there's there's four areas of grants. One is green communities, one is the New Jersey UCF stewardship grants, the third is leafing out grants, and fourth one is trees for schools grants.
So, that's what we're looking at right now. I've done some research um on it, but Mike and I um talked about it a little bit. there's more work that needs to be done to get the devil, you know, the details. They're also there's a bunch of them we're looking at. The one
other component that we're looking at is the non-urban eligible programs, right? Because we know we don't qualify for the elig uh the urban area ones. There are some that have some non-urban areas in it. So, we have to do a bit more research on it, but there there's
definitely some out there, but we just need to go into more detail. It's not to find them all. You have to go on a couple of different websites and things, but there there's some work. We've made some progress on it. It's just not ready to talk about it today. >> I I don't understand why no one even
asked me for the like, you know, I've done research. I've reached out to um people who could do the treat survey. I have all the numbers. >> You said you were going to share with us. >> I said if you if you wanted me to. No, asked me for it. I'm happy to give it to you. >> In the last meeting, you said you were sharing it,
>> right? If you wanted to look at, you could have just sent me an email. That is >> I just assumed you're going to share. So, yeah. That would be nice. >> No one's blaming anyone here. So, what what we'll do then is please just send the information for the grant. >> We voted for the grant last July.
>> Correct. And >> so why isn't that our priority? We voted for it. Why isn't it our priority? >> You could have also taken it to a grant writer in town if it was approved. >> What are you talking about? So, if you approved the grant, if you wanted to do the the leg work on it, why don't you
meet with the town grant writer and take care of it? >> So, you're saying I should I I have I'm able to go and do this all by myself with no more approval from the SH Commission. >> They voted on it. Yes. >> Okay, great. I'll do it. Thanks. >> Okay, moving forward to uh new business.
Uh so just one of the items that I just wanted to call to everyone's attention based on uh the first memo uh that we had that we reviewed the 26 02 um this is now a newly acquired uh property for
the burrow. Uh so there will be some more work to kind of come in this property with hopefully the majority of it being handled by our road department. There are a couple trees in here that you will be seeing memos for across the the next couple months as the budget
allows. I just wanted to give everyone a little update on uh that. >> Anyone else have anything for new business? >> Just a question. Is this the property that they they were hiring outside consultants to help with the landscaping
over there? >> No. So this is the property across the across the street. So the property that they're hiring um architects for for you know kind of landscaping design. That's the original ID wild pool property. >> Okay. >> This is
>> in theory kind of a semi part of ID. >> It was this was the >> in theory the overflow parking lot. There's kind of like a gravel area. Um this piece of property also connects to an easement. So, there's some work that the the road department will be doing in
there as well as in here just to kind of clean it up, make it look a little presentable. I mean, you could just kind of see in the picture at the bottom right hand corner, there's obviously a lot of like down debris. >> Uh you have to do a lot of hopping over things to kind of even get to some of the trees in here. So,
>> okay. >> Actually, now with the snow on the ground, it's probably the easiest to kind of get into here because some of this is quite swampy. >> So, outside of what they're >> correct that okay
>> that's all that I have uh is is there anything else? Okay, seeing as there's uh nothing else for this evening, I ask for a motion to adjourn this meeting. >> So move second, please. and Mrs.
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Thank you everyone. Have a nice evening. >> Thanks.
>> You'll have to come off very quick. >> This one's very nice too. >> Thank you, Michael. I'll layer on some prioritization.