first I'd like to thank everybody for coming out tonight on this uh it's not snowy and icy now but the cold damp evening and watch CC in mik only if you want to Mike
how are you that's a grip right there is that what you ask about oh no you you want to open
left hand on the Bible right hand up I want you guys gather around that over here ready ready repeat after me I Michael Ivy I Michael Ivy do solemnly swear do Solly swear that I will support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of New Jersey of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith that I will bear true faith and Allegiance and allegiance to the to the same to the same and to
the governments established and to the governments established in the united states in the United States and in this state and in this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly and justly perform all the duties perform all the duties of the office of councilman of the office of councilman according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God congratulations
want to introduce who's here with you tonight and uh the floor is yours my lovely wife Carri my oldest yeah you can everyone always her not me my oldest Shane my daughter brenn and this is Owen promise you
I just have a few words I'm not a public speaker and this was not blessed by car so so uh I just want to thank the council for having the confidence in me to fill the very large shoes of Jo Gard uh thank you for all the great lasting work you did for the town over the years um I also want to thank my family last few years have been quite challenging and different so appreciate everyone can follow me in these uh this next PATH uh so I recognize that this is not the standard way to become a council member
so I want everyone to know that this year will not only be for me to get accustom to how the town Town operates but also to gain the trust of the residents to show that I have their best interest at heart I look forward to meeting many more of the people in the community and listening to any and all view points at the end of the day I want Wars planes to be a place where these guys would also want to raise their own kids so thanks again let's get to work and these guys need a go to bed
I thought you were kidding when you were going to you said you were going to say that you were but here just a little something for you I know this is nothing with everything that you're going to be dealing with over the next few years and uh but it's just a little something for so thank you I uh we do have a little something for Mike to get him off the ground we do have an official pin your Mars Plains pinned for you we have this is I expect to see this on
every day 20 to get a couple pens I hope you run out of ink soon with them and and of course the bag and actually the bag was designed by Joan and very nice we do have your your name pack your name what right here do we have it no but a real one this is timing you know timing and is Andel pin also for your name on so Mike best of luck to you congratulations thank you for coming everybody
we have no minutes just the approval of the consent calendar thank you mayor hello everybody all right of consent agenda reports Grant wrer January 2025 resolution 2025 d39 entitled B clim resolution limousine owner licensed School number L3 d466 d225 resolution 20254 entitled bur moris
spr's resolution of support to submit a Grant application to the FY 26 pedestrian safety enforcement and education fund grant program to obtain traffic speed control devices resolution 2025 41 resolution authorizing disposal of surplus property I received quotes to hydro rake community park and wat ponds from the following Lake man management Sciences 48 hours over 6 days equipment
transportation fee total 9,881 aqua clear LLC 48 hours over six days equipment transportation fee total nine that's there I'm assuming it's $99,900 okay that a purchase s to be is to Lake management Sciences PE box is 23.95 ranville New Jersey in the amount of 9
881 guys when they do this you got to go check looks like a mve from ch ch bang beautiful boat just hand thing and it works having received quotes for a zero turn mower from the following Fred Small Engine Sales Inc 15,1 199 handyman 15238 24 they Pur order to be issued to Fred Small Engine Sales Inc Lemon burnit Street Livingston New Jersey in the amount of $5,199 that a purchased order
be having received the quotes for the plow for the sewer truck from the following Westchester Machinery 7,100 FDR hitches $733 64 a&k Equipment Company Inc $766 they purchased order be issued to Westchester Machinery 278 Old lwood Road Landers New Jersey in the amount of $7,100
having pulled the Council on January 31st 2025 the mayor was authorized to sign the FBI's nomination of Law Enforcement Officers to amend the National Academy program for the Federal Bureau Investigation in which Chief Koski is nominated thank you mayor thank you sir is there a second second second by Nancy roll call please Mr corz yes Mr BR yes mrst yes Mr iy yes Mr yes m
at this time I'd like to invite members of the public to your name and address and concern da Burrows 24 so I just have a couple of public safety issues I'd like to address um I've been a resident of mors plains for 26 years uh I live on Hill as as I stated in that time uh while there's been a limiting parking for 3 hours
during the day on the street it's never ever been enforced until about a year and a half ago uh when they started titing uh residents of Hillview AB are now required to purchase an on street parking sticker for the right to park in front of our houses uh while the $5 fee isn't prohibitive I feel that charging residents uh for parking is long the bigger issue though um is that the name of the street and the town are printed on the sticker so I have a daughter who
Parks her car in the street when she's home from college several weeks ago she was at the Walmart shopping center and see her NOS two men watched her exit her car and enter the store when she came out they were looking at the parking sticker on the back of the car which has her street and town uh I feel that this is safe and unsafe and unnecessary so my suggestion is changing the stickers immediately to eliminate the street from the sticker you can
instead use a permit number or some sort of code for the street example HV for uh I'm not sure how many streets are required to purchase permit but this doesn't seem like a difficult be interested in the in the cheap Kos feelings on that safety issue I don't think that yeah I don't think that it's anything that anybody thought of at the beginning coun decided to put these in
place last year can I don't know what they put on or what they're required to put on the sticker abbreviations the traffic committee this this came up because uh we did have these parking limits but we knew that a lot of residents were parking in the street and there was a reluctance on the part of the police officers to body because they didn't want to ticket
residents for parking on their own street so it was an optional it's an optional sticker that you can buy if you need to park on the street if you have a driver that's big enough and you don't need to then you don't need to S right but if you prefer to have that option to park in the street without getting a ticket it would be5 so we didn't think that was and you said it wasn't it's not it's you know in principle it's it's annoying but so I guess it's a way for them to see that this person belongs on Hill you Avenue that they're a resident but you make an excellent point and we're gonna have to look administratively about how we can fix
that I felt the same way about the red stickers on the back of my I was a new driver or absolutely yeah I wouldn't put it on the car so I hear you thank you for bringing that up I think we all broke that yeah is there a way we could like make colorcoded stickers they have stickers already I'm sure that they're they'll be able like so it doesn't have a street name
are they or I like idea fure something yeah we'll definitely look at it we consider and the reason why the street was there is because we didn't want people using a parking p as a resident to go par closer to the train station but allow you again Nam point right some driveways are narrow you know kids home from college
or multiple children and not room your driveway but yeah something we'll definitely take a look at great thank you uh the other issue I want to talk about is everybody's favorite subject the uh Abomination that the McDonald that will be going in Street um I feel that the burrow bear some responsibility to mitigate the adverse effects that this will have on neighboring streets specifically I'm requesting improved signage at the intersection of mountain way until you indicating that this is a oneway street we very often get people
coming up the long way up our street I feel that this will increase with uh with McDonald's I'm also requesting speed tables be installed before the McDonald's is built to mitigate the increase in delivery drivers and drive-through customers speeding downhill you have to cut out of the traffic on speed well speed tables have been requested for our street in the past and Deni uh the problem is that um with with
car speeding and Vehicles driving the wrong way um this will certainly increase with the addition of this McDonald's Street that's response yeah we got it written down and certainly take a look we have projects coming up over the summer here something be consider
which we're going to try and very another couple weeks said yeah I'll say that we had a meeting this week we plan to meet much more frequently than they had been meeting since all the new traffic issues are arising so you got a couple second definitely top of Mind absolutely yeah thank you for your comments Dave yes thank you Dave
Nancy yelt 349 Lane um I would like to know what the process is for changing an ordinance the ordinance committee have to take a look at it make a recommendation depending on what the ordinance is whatever the changes are and what kind of ordinance it is specific I just was wondering what the whole process was like for changing an ordinance what has to be done in order to change
an ordinance uh it goes through the ordinance committee uh some go through uh the planning board because there plan development ordinances some do not go through the planning board the governing B can make those decisions themselves without checking to see if it follows the master plan or not consistent or not with the master some just get taken care of right here yeah so just to expand on what the mayor said right so uh the particular
ordinance let's say 14-23 right which which does have to do with L use right so if uh if uh the the council or somebody on the council wanted to introduce changes to it um we would do so um and then we would send it to the council for their review um and then because it is has to do with land use as the mayor said it would go to the planning board they would review it the master plan committee review it and then it would ultimately come back to the council But ultimately the um the authority over ordinances and what's in
the ordinances lies within the council so um and as the the chair of the ordinance committee um that as I mentioned last week and I know you were here um it is it is top of my list to do um you'll you'll hear more about it when we get to my report but there okay so does the change or the request for the change can it come from a resident or it can okay thank you
sty hi Lorie Pama 12 Lindy Lane hi Lori hi all right so um we we hear a lot about the unoccupied buildings in town as being a concern um which had me curious about the process for vetting interested applicants um and so I wonder I have a few questions related to that
um does an interested party for how does a I'm sorry when does initiative party first approach the town so anybody who is interested in whatever piece of property building or whatever usually starts off with zoning officer the zoning officer okay okay and um is there all right so that is is that
a defined like always the most most of the time somebody will come in make sure it's a permitted use foot square footage of the building maybe parking doesn't need variances for for the use that they're looking it fit in the zone there's a bunch of questions so when you say they'll come in and ask those questions their call and they'll call specifically the zic us first
okay okay and then um all right and then is that when those contacts happen when the zoning officer gets those calls what happens next do they Loop in the council to say there's interest in certain properties at at some point people do get involved either are professionals members of council the
department committee head will will be notified if there's somebody interested usually not until something is with a tenant and a landlord signed a lot of people ask about a lot of throughout the bur so okay so somebody so not every inquiry we don't know about every inquiry that that goes through the okay so someone may just have a general question call the zoning officer get an answer and then they don't pursue anything somebody else might call and
then it turns into more and then the zoning officer would refer them to the plan board you know they have to determine whether it's a use a permitted use or not right and then they somebody are usually a real estate agent or somebody will come in and ask for the proper paperwork that they have to whatever buildings whatevering okay but ultimately though it's a
decision for the landlord to make if it's a pered use right if they want to accept the burrow decides whether it's a permitted use or not no no if it's a permitted use right if it is if it is a permitted use then the land lord and the Tenant decide the terms and well yeah that has nothing to do with the the terms of any lease or yeah we don't do any of that stuff it's really a permitted use or a non permitted use and maybe what sort of varant is parking liting whatever you know could be handicap it
could be all kinds of okay so may need adjust the zoning officer his job is to when you go in there to see where you're going to go to constructed office if you're in compliance if you need something different he may say you got to go to the board of adjustment variances ches use Etc if it's something larger you may have to go to the to the planning board which by by the way does have somewhat power to um change use of right not but he'll make that that
determination and so now that's really helpful to know that they help kind of get them to the right to land in the right place but to n's point so if a landlord if the discussions with a landlord and there's no issue about use being it's a permitted use already according to the landlord then how does the town find out it just it just happens like you you do grand openings so I'm thinking but if it's the same use really there is there is not a lot of
process if a restaurant is coming into a restaurant in the same building right so that kind of just moves forward right if it's a change of use there is a process for a change of use if it's a restaurant now it's going to become a beauty salon or whatever the case may be there's a process for that there is okay because a restaurant requires more parking I'm just using these for examp yeah they require more parking whatever
okay no I just but just for clarification when somebody comes in to use your example with an interest on a piece of property in the town and the zoning off let's say for example they say you know no it's not a permitted use you would need to use VAR or it is a permitted use but you may have a problem parking or Ingress regress or whatever the case may be it doesn't go it's not I don't want you to get the the idea that it then goes from zoning officer to this board to as a because what would happen
is it may die there it may never make it out of that room right but if there's interest by the person who came the property owner or the contract purchaser whatever his his his standing may be then he would submit an application and the application would be either to the planning board or the Zoning Board of adjustment and then that board or whatever the board is that's handling that application if it be for a restaurant or a car wash or whatever it may be that's the the governing body or that's the the body that would hear the
application and and ultimately decide on um a lot of times those applications never make it to this Bo if ever um so so when there's an interest in a piece of property again the mayor's correct it goes to the zoning officer but there's really not a mechanism that then comes to this board it goes either to planning or zoning and it may never make it there but but the next triggering event would be an application by that property owner to that board and then you would have hearing and everything which I know everybody in this room is now familiar
yeah so so that's kind of the process there but but U okay no that's that's really helpful actually I didn't have all that context so I appreciate that and then so it never may never come to the scor like you find out maybe from the property owner that hey we or or from any one of the other committees through your representation on those to say we now have somebody applying for that property or whatever right but on the planning board just so you know on your statute Mar always a member of the plan there's always a member of this
Council that serves on it as as what's known as a class to so I don't want you to think this board has no idea we're going on but we hear it through through those various channels but but but nothing goes directly to us this body politics it's a different board that makes that decision correct absolutely no and they have separate powers that we can't trample upon here kind of checks and balances separ people don't understand too is that the landlord does kind of the commercial
real estate marketing for their property they try to they try to attract penants and that whole transaction of who they're trying to attract if they want to go down this path or they want to go in this direction we really have nothing to do with okay no that that makes a lot of sense and then sorry to Circle back to McDonald's but do we know how the how like was the application the first we knew about that this or was there were the questions of the zoning officer or something about that use I'm sure it
came through the zoning officer at some point that trigger okay all right good now thank you just just you it's not I also don't want you to get the conclusion that when somebody comes into town it just goes directly to the Zone officer and that's it a lot of times especially a large scale application it won't just go through the zoning on sometimes there'll be some discussions with the bur engineer and things like that long before an application need to even submitted which is common because somebody's not going
to want to come in on an application and spend oodles and oodles of money on what has absolutely no chance of Ever Getting improved so a lot of times Property Owners will come in and say to the B attorney hey what what do you think if we bring a car wash here and not forget you got no parking your lighting's a disaster and then it'll just die I mean nobody's going to spend the money that but uh you know that that sometimes happens to so it has as much to with the person applying as to who
they go to but they'll usually take a town office that makes sense right to get the answers they need to see do I want to move forward they're going to gauge the temperature of the town before they come in right usually not always but sometimes that happens okay I really appreciate the thoroughness of that answer thank you so much thanks Lor question hi uh Pam di d i s m o
r hi Pam hello I just want to Echo I Haven planned on notes or anything so I'll be brief I just want to Echo what Mr burough had said is I'm also resident of Hillview and so Paul and Jess and I'm not speaking for everybody is anybody else here from I was gonna get up and do the same thing exactly so so just saying raise your hand that that that we are short Street and we are often used as a cut through to Simons already and just in the past I mean I remember when my daughter was she's now senior in high
school um but when she was little we had this big orang neon orange thing the end of our driveway and the green dude with the hand saying slow down because um we were we're the first house we're the first house with the book bench in our front drive um right across from Joy linois so people crean around the corner and then pick up speed like you groming it as they come past to our house so I just wanted to emphasize what he was saying that it's already an issue it's been an issue it's been worse lately like I'm out there I feel like that that old lady or what I was shaking my fist
to people like Slow Down slow down you know and then I've also witnessed many people going the wrong way on the street um and they kind of come in and um and people cut through the church parking lot I'm honestly guilty of it sometimes myself because um we're right there and that's like our across the street um just in order to to try to get around the BL um so that's really it just wanted to emphasize what Mr said and put some highlight on it thanks of the speed cable I'm sorry um I don't
want people driving like Dukes of Hazard but yes yeah I think so yeah I think we need that we um we also just tried and over drive with a a kids cross right more of a rumble strip is that what they call itumble strip roadway so there's two sets of these Rumble type strips there they also
haveen they're just so for the first time the B of resolution to support application where are those devices going to to go chief so we have a project right now that
we're looking at the funding would be for you sometimes you may see our speed radar sign out try to get it also calculates data and gives us you know time of day when being issued so that battery in that system dies depending on the volume of traffic go by it very quickly use a solar power unit that we put on some of our travel roadways Mal Styles maybe things that they're fixed units so would have to go out and change batteries all the time so we have a a concept of more you know highly traveled streets and then our portable sign be
used on some of the Z location itself been talk at the planning board about changes to speed speed Avenue with with bikes going up in traffic safety so would town the Barrow be asking for Grant they going to Grant to handle any of that change along speed Avenue for the McDonald's is going to be responsible for what mdon
get approved the already rece the flashing beacons un the bureaucracy do we looking four to five months before any of the project isly motion year but the funding has been placed to 75% 25 share so we'll install one of those our Mar Flags which hope keep well some more attention when you push the button the sign will activate alert
traffic there what what we found is that um on speed Avenue if the first car does stop for you there another car behind it intent on passing on the left to the right so this will hopefully illuminate a little further down the roadway alert further down traffic place so originally Paul just so this we started this before McDonald about whatever um so we originally got funding two of them one for Hill and one for rosale there's
going to be two of them but we're going to try to see I don't knowwhere Mike I know because with the chur parking right there I can't any time turn my street somebody coming out of that parking lot making a speed get speed three or four times last couple months I've almost got head and they uh
they used to block those those interest ways off the gates school hours they do say again during school hours bled off and then they open them up yeah helpful for president this is people exiting exiting the parking lot yeah that first driveway they make that
mdon yeah certainly some additional signs over there it's a hill thanks Paul thanks Paul appreciate it well it's a hill day I wasn't going to speak but my name Jessica or 15 help you hi so a few things first um I was here pre
Christmas and talk to you all so I don't need to go into any of that again but I just wanted to touch on a few things first off Mr veros just scared the crap out of me with his um comments about his daughter and I am terrified and as a single woman who lives on Hillview Avenue with two small children um that is really scary I do not have a permit on my car um I unfortunately do disagree I think that people who don't live on our street should have to have the permit not us um but I understand that they need to figure something out and $5 is not a lot
of money but it's just a principle um but my other concern is my question actually it's probably to you again sorry is there any opportunity that we can have are we in a school zone on Hill Avenue because my house backs up there I mean I live on school property I open my gate and I'm there so is it a school zone you put a speed we have no school sign there's one sign on there's a difference between a school zone as far as vehicle traffic concerned and then there's a difference between the school
zone of like a drug free school zone so there's different I just wasn't sure like if we could put like a school zone sign on our street maybe that would help people slow down because of the double charging like the speeds are just so I me yeah we could add signs everywhere but it's my experience that all these signs just become white nois at a certain point in time when you add especially when you add too many it's too much for different Motors to take in um and Len you're trying to change driver beher um with signs when they're already set on this is my destination
this is where I need to go and you know some streets just become you that's the way I need to go to where I get so sometimes signs you know increase signs doesn't always need increase okay no and I appreciate that I just didn't know I am um you know terrified terrified for what's to come um when McDonald's moves in there and I really hope that we as a town have some strong plans put into place to keep my children and the other eight children and 10 children live on our street safe um you know my my car
was one of the ones that got robbed we were part of the five cars that got broken into on Hill few years ago um right I know one two burs too right no so our cars got broken into and now we're putting stickers it's own like I'm really thankful we're going to change those stickers thank you um but you know please let us know if we can help because I'm willing to talk to anybody about my thoughts and ideas and want to bring that so thank you all for your time than
no else we'll move on reports of committees and department head finan this Ur cl's office is still receiving applications for their entry level and Min assistant uh the job posting closes on February 14th and the information is on the very website we are still waiting for 150 residents or so to send in their R certificates for their dog Li lies last year they registered 599 dogs so
far we're at 482 but waiting for those R certificates U they can't process your license without it registration is open for existing community garden plots but you have to register and pay by February 24th because they have a waiting list for space so those plots will go if you don't grab your space and they're still working on lengthy Oprah requests uh lengthy and time consuming Oprah requests Park parking permits as you um annual insurance payments and filing
for certain Community organizations and you probably got in the mail a property tax estimate card that was mailed out to all barel Property Owners last week I believe work continues in preparation for the annual budget meetings in March and um that's pretty much it public safety thank you mayor uh met quickly with uh Sarah and the courts this week she let me know a couple of the cases that are coming up and said you know I can come by and kind of see
how things are run so that's exciting I'll definitely take that opportunity um spoke with Chris Shay fire prevention Chief um starting those new hours so he's hoping that he can like I was saying get some of those extra inspections in with that extra hour in the morning catching people before they go to work so uh excited to catch up with him the next week or two and see how those new hours are going uh fire department got their new ladder truck back uh which is great because they do use that to assist a lot of the other fire departments in the area I Know Chief Rango was happy about that uh
Chief still waiting on one or two things for his budget but he was uh hopeful that he should have that the next day or two so once we get that we can start to dig in and look at that as well um earlier this evening we had the uh police officer interviews we had two fantastic candidates uh we're feeling very confident that uh you know we're going to hire one of them so we're hoping that will be one of the things that can start to address some of the issues of people speeding by having an EXT officer out on the streets we will have some extra eyes on that we did have
a traffic committee meeting as well went over some of the objectives for the year one of which was they're going to come up with a essentially a version of complete streets for Morris Plains um for those of you that don't know that essentially is a multi-step process when there's any changes made the streets are sidewalks um we are definitely hoping to tackle some of the issues on Hillview um on Glenbrook whether it's different lines you know shoulders on the streets Etc but that is absolutely
pop of Mind in addressing some of those traffic safety issues we're also going to be meeting much more frequently to my knowledge they met twice a year in the past uh I'm pushing to make that about every 4 to six weeks with all the issues coming up as the as the chair of that I really want to make sure we're addressing those issues uh next week we've got a cons conceptual plans committee meeting with the where we um going to be meeting with Dave Schultz again who's going to be presenting a couple options for the possible renovation of the police and Firehouse
or a possible new building off site um I think Chief wanted to say a little something and then I know uh mark from the fire department wanted to speak as well I mean as far as me with Rec c meeting so I want to thank the burough Council and the mayor for taking the time out of their busy schedules to meet with our our candidates this evening to find young men hopefully we'll move forward that resolution at the end of the meeting here um and then just wanted to thank the mayor and councel for the
recogition of Sergeant Jeff Hawkman 25 years of Serv the Bor Jeff started when he was 18 as a police dispatcher um and I age now but you can do the math but Jeff's been a great asset recently moved into our our Traffic Unit and is doing a stellar job throughout his tenure as a supervisor not only like I said had a ceremony and impact on the borrow itself but on our on our staff here as well so thank Jeff again for his contributions in 25 years of service to the B go ahead thank you yeah once again thank you Jeff and certainly has been an asset
to everybody res and the bur itself thank you Chief good evening couldn't be here this evening he's taking his class this evening so just wanted to throw some statistics numbers got yet so as of an hour ago uh we're up to 46 calls for the for the year um we uh last Friday as I'm sure a
lot of you know we had the gas leak on Glenbrook Road couple houses up from uh the library from about I believe 6 7 a.m. to 300 p.m. we had 14 calls for service for smells of gas um and every call got answered no calls were missed but just uh think about that 14 times you know people have to drop what they're doing people have to leave work not me but U
not anymore so just uh just keep that in mind 100% volunteer we we Dro Friday guys spent almost all day at the firehouse uh one last thing we had a training session on Monday evening um we're lucky enough to have a homegrown boy that uh came back to visit family for a couple days he offered to do a training class for us while he was here um he started in the fire department
here Morris blains as a junior 14-year-old worked it into a career of Baltimore County um so he was and uh he's detailed to their fire academy for a lot of their training so he like I said he was home uh he gave us about an hour lecture on um mental stress training basically how to prep your mind to respond to an emergency prior to the call actually coming in so it was a very good class
and we're lucky enough to have Daniel Webster still coming back to the town when he's home yeah that's that's so commendable that they do come back and pass on that Priceless know that they do G in these other places and in his position and to know that he started here and now he's training the younger guys in the older guys seasoned veterans like yourself Mark you know I mean that's just fantastic way to get back absolutely that's all I had just want to
throw the numbers out Chief I just I just want to say on that training so as you know my my son obviously is a junior firefighter he came home from that training um and he couldn't be more excited than to come in and tell me all about what he learned about you know mental stability thinking about stuff so you know to you and the rest of the department for organizing that you know I kudos to Daniel right you came back to to doing that and uh you know passing him on to Next Generation so thank you very much for what you guys do thank you great work
thank uh Public Works group we're really good at embarrassing our kids shake his head the whole time so um talk to our superintendent John today um we're expecting some more snow uh this weekend and you're watching a very large storm next week so they've been very busy they plowed and salt it uh three times from the last time I did
my report and we'll be out again this weekend and next week so keeping up a good job keeping our streets clear and keeping you guys safe I live up the top of the mountain ways I'm always happy to see that very dry and you know snow cleared when I go down uh they continue to work on our town Vehicles pick up garbage throughout the town they cleaned uh some of the drains the storm drains got kind of clogged with leaves and sticks they took down Christmas decoration and chipped last of the Christmas trees I do still have one on my back deck so I don't have to wait
till spring to get rid that rain um I guess there were some people put some pallets over at community park they got rid of those that we do use those for um bonfire but it's a little early no no no more pallet right no more pallet period oh okay we get the nails there and we had an issue with black tires so no more pallets no more pallets period stra from the good um they uh repaired some stuff over
the community center um they they had a tree fall in the community garden for gardeners they got rid of the tree and fixed the fence so we appreciate that uh and they did do some cleanups with some leaves during the non snow days there was Community Park was one of the last Parks get cleaned up so they P the leaves up to M Le and we appreciate all the work and you'll see you around around tomorrow or not Saturday Sunday tomorrow be sunay so thank you good thank you public buildings and ground Mr
say thank you mayor being here a couple of years I served on I think all the committies and I can tell you now I'm with public building ground and one is a shade tree learned so much um the commission there likes to take a proactive approach um to to f with dead branches and dead trees um we had an incident on Johnson Road where you know the took down the line and jcpnl had to go there um they work
together with the DPW in our our forest many times uh DPW is capable of doing by the way we got the best DPW Department that you can hear everybody they do everything pool everything you can imagine keeping our streets black with there snow um so they take a very proactive approach towards that um one commissioner at the meeting there was no rec I have little from sh Tre pointed out that in the last 10 years we lost
about 5% of our caty Mar looking to replace it as many trees as possible and they're also looking to go with more indigenous trees but I you know I think it will be also very very nice I think our next meeting n at our next meeting
at our next meeting uh I I did invite the chairman and the vice chairman one can come one has a conflict and he's going to educate the council you know especially with the budget coming up it would be nice to hear from all the prominents so we can uh better determine what to do with taxpayer money is our responsibility we you guys put us here we have ation to you and uh I don't have very much more than that because we had
a meeting last week I can talk a lot more but really I'll give you Public Health sanitation and swords Mr ivy on your first report thank you uh so I had a busy week uh trying to on board as much as I can understand what uh how this town operates got to meet a lot of the great staff out fact that keeps us this machine running uh so the mun Municipal Alliance met on February
3rd and I got to see all the great work that they're doing for the community uh they have um all of the Year events allocated and fully funded you know working a schedule uh one main thing that they're very proud of was the Steven Hill will be bring bringing his speak sobriety speaking engagement uh to Morrison High School for the seniors on May 23rd he had an event in September um and the principal Mark Manning uh really wanted it to come back so they were able to um bring him back just for the the senors graduating um the last scheduled presentation of seven habits for highly
effective teams will take place on Valentine's Day February 14th at the BR School library um the bound way school is having the tawon do program for kindergarten first second graders during the school day um that'll extend through uh the 20th of this month and the lead program is progressing well uh with the fifth graders Sergeant Hines will be ordering the blood alcohol content goggles uh so the kids can understand the impacts of being impaired uh and be introducing scooter safety which I'm sure everybody knows can be uh certainly
well um spent effort well spent uh the Valentine's Day all great dance hosted by the team Center will be tomorrow night at the community center um and then lastly like art said uh snow's coming probably a lot more than we've seen in a quite a few years um it obviously increases the risk of heart attack Cardiac Arrest we don't want anybody dropping dead so uh please be careful when shoveling take breaks live live properly listen to your body your heart rate will jump up really fast and you're not expecting
it may he's only been here a week that's shoes have been filled he doesn't have much confidence he says it'll go down now all right well whatever we'll see uh ordinances in public utilities Mr Houston thank you mayor and uh Mike you're stealing my thunder there man the new guy I like it um all right so just a just a few updates on uh some comments
uh in the past so the January's meeting uh Miss K and last week M schroer asked about ordinance 14 2023 um so specifically last week M Sher asked to review what zones drive-throughs are allowed in and suggested that our current definition of minor major subdivisions needs to be revised um I can tell you that um as I mentioned that ordinance along with a few others um are being looked at U by the ordinance of Public Utilities committee um we intend on providing
requested edits for the Council planning board to review um uh also I'm going to be meeting with uh with our committee our engineer and the heads of the planning board and zoning boards uh to review our checklist a through G which hav been updated since 2019 uh we're going to look for potential ways to make it easier for residents to apply for changes as well as some outdated practices such as the amount of hard copies required or the this in set a list of structures needs to be provided um again last week Mrs Miro
asked some questions in regards to air quality our engineer Bill Ryden answered the question but just to put a finer point on it uh and both the resolution for McDonald's uh pb24 and in our code it has statements about environmental performance um also per our code more expains code section 13 article 52a 24.1 our performance standards are defined in there um and it it says as a condition of the approval of any application the
applicant shall supply evidence satisfactory to the approving board the proposed use will conform fully with all the applicable performance standards stated here in um so if you want to find out more about that um you can go to EOD 360 I'm happy to provide the link if anybody wants to reach out um but that's where it is um uh Mr CHL asked about fines and penalties and Mr ran answered those accurately but just to direct what part of the code those are it's section 13 article 7.1 uh and then I'm also looking into a
preconstruction meeting um for McDonald's to to find out the date and times um and ask that they uh they they have a public session um so that the public can be part of those meetings they can be informed of a timeline for construction I know that some of the utility companies have already been over there doing some investigative work and disconnect the utilities which is part of the normal process before doing any destruct or demolition uh just on the planning board update uh so the planning board has their monthly meeting uh coming up this
Monday February 20 uh sorry February 10th uh which is going to be here in this room at 7:30 p.m. uh the agenda is already posted on the website uh the zoning board um they're going to have their monthly meeting on Monday February 24th again here in this room at 7:30 p.m. uh the agenda is going to be posted uh probably in a week or so um smcmua update as you all know they've been doing water work they've installed so this week they've installed a water main on Maple Avenue in D Road and they've
done water main testing on burps drive next week they're scheduled to continue water main testing on Maple Avenue and perform water main testing on Styles uh they will also connect the water main on Birch Drive to the water M on Mountain Way and begin service line transfers um un affordable housing as the council voted to approve the resolution last week and as the mayor reported we have successfully submitted our counter number of uh 102 affordable units on time as per the timeline and
state statute so we are all in compliance with that um on training I mentioned last week that declaratory judgment prot us a little future litigations yes yes thank you we did that passed the resolution on Thursday and then Friday that was correct yeah the the mayor's point deadline was January 31st so we met that deadline um so we're doing what we're
supposed to be doing and as as the mayor said we're also adding a little protection in there for ourselves as well um uh so as I mentioned Tyler and I actually went down to the uh New Jersey League municipalities newly elected orientation uh and it was a crash POR in all the things we need to know about Ser on Council um it just barely scratch in surface of what we need to do uh but it was a very good high level overview uh which covered things like budget purchasing procurement Labor Relations role of clerk very very important role
uh Oprah and ethics so you don't know anything about Oprah and ethics and conflicts of interest so it was very enlightening for Tyler and I to go to that so appreciate the opportunity to do that um and then lastly just general comments uh Chief Bellis uh covered it already but just a little bit more detail um on February 1st there were 14 calls I had 13 14 calls uh to the fire department reporting the smell of gas PNG and the fire department responded quickly and determined The Source was a 12-in main
gas leak on glenberg road actually right in front of my house um our fire prevention Chief Chris Shay Fire Department police officers and crew of about 15 psng workers all responded quickly and they repaired the leak inside of the day and without interruption to any of the residents so a big thank you to our fire department for running all around that day responding to all the calls uh and to uh Chris Shay for being on scene and ensuring that are
safe thank you we have no introductions of ordinances we have no ordinances on second reading we do have a resolution um the following is a resolution authorizing a conditional offer of employment to amelo Erikson to the burough Mars Plains Police Department whereas the police department of the bur Mar Plains is desirous of hiring one police officer to serve Within the police department and whereas the chief of police has advised the
burough councel that there is in fact a need for one police officer uh within the Bureau of moris Plains Police Department and whereas the buau councel at its February 6th 2025 public meeting had the opportunity to interview uh amilio Ericson and has agreed to extend a conditional offer of employment to Emilio Ericson to serve as police officer within the Burrow's Police Department now therefore be it resolved by the burough Council on this sixth day
of February 2025 that one the chief of police is hereby authorized to extend a conditional offer of employment to Emilio Ericson uh to serve as a police officer here in the buau of moris Plains Police Department and that that uh employment is conditioned upon amelo Ericson successfully completing training course at the mors County public safety train training account um and that alelo Erikson shall begin receiving
a pro-rated Academy salary of $4,525 and3 for whatever salary is appropriate under the buau code or enabling statute and three that this resolution shall take effect immediately somebody like to move that resolution is there a second so so move is there second second second by Art R call please Mr Cortez
yes Mr yes Mr H yes Mr iy yes Mr yes M yes uh we have no unfinished business we do have new business I think it's new business Joe right is this new business or old business of old well we'll go in the middle how's that um first of all Joan thank you for your uh clim as of council number here in the
B moris Plains Joan was sworn in on January 31st 2019 to replace an open seat on the burough Council and was reelected as the incumbent for the next two elections during her time on Council Joan has been the chair of Public Health sanitation and stores Public Works buildings and grounds Joan was on the website development committee which brought our website into the 21st Cent she also served on the business development committee to help improve our downtown area and probably was known
best for being the the new market manager of the farmers board adding many new vendors and activities to help it become a huge success and I know I'm missing a whole bunch of things John but I'm sure that you will fill that in but my sincerest thanks for all your dedication and hard work as a member of the B Council it's people like you that truly make this community a community of car so if style and and art would give me a hand and have a little something for you
and why don't you come on up as long as sitting here while we're doing this so as a longtime standard tradition tradition here in the bur we we offer you this chair Joan to be comfortable in in your days that you're not uh at our Council meetings or any other committee
meeting um but really once again thank you very much it's so deserving and really best of luck to you moving forward everything going meant a lot here having you here up days for so many years making PL way is so thank you very much the floor is yours go ahead
so I don't have big speech I know everybody wants to get home um because on the reorg meeting um you know I did have some remarks I you know once again just wanted to thank everybody in the community um for your generosity and kindness many of you know I resigned from my role actually I've been retired for a month
tomorrow um because of um of circumstan my family my husband is ill and um I work a full-time job and I needed to unfortunately get rid of something on my plate um and the First Choice you know it it was hard this is something that I loved doing um you know I remember being 10 years old and driving with my family through Washington DC and looking out the window
at the capital building and saying I want to do something that's going to help people I want and at that point I thought it was my day job you know and things that I volunteered in but it wasn't until um I got the role um when the when uh councilman car became mayor that I realized that this was it now this is what I dreamed about as young child and seeing your kids here today and um just the joy and and just even
having them see you be you know had a role in with the town and that's they're going to go that's my dad at that event and that's my dad helping cut that ribbon like that's what it's all about you know I mean it's a lot of work what we all did and do up here um preparing for these meetings going to meetings being here helping with hiring new officers and and getting new equipment for the fire department and everything
that goes into making this town run but at the end of the day we all love doing it right and that's not going to stop for me I know i' step down from my role but I'm still on the Centennial committee I'm going to be helping out in some capacity with the farmers market and I'm going to continue to be involved and what I love here with this crowd is that when I first started in 2019 these seats were empty right I mean we really didn't have people come and then obviously with the
pandemic nobody was here even us um and a lot of the communication that people received was because there was something posted on the bulletin board outside you know and I think we've come a long way do we still have a lot more to do hell yeah um but I think with people and residents getting involved coming up here and asking questions like I know that's not easy like I was in those seats before I got on Counsel and I was scared to come up here and ask a question but you guys are doing it
continue to do that continue to be involved continue to ask questions because this is all whether you're council member whether you're elected whether you're the mayor whether the chief of police this is our community and we have we want it run a certain way we have to be involved so I'm going to continue to be involved and um help this community and thank you for putting your trust in me
how's it feel wonderful does anybody else have anything to oh yeah thank you that chair stays here now
here does anybody else have anything to say about the we do have coffee and he here so everybody please feel free to to stick around I do I had the pleasure of serving official with the police contracts and it was let me tell you it was nine months of tremendous work sometimes hours you know 10 20 hours a week a month I'm sorry and and I can tell you she was
instrumental Dynamic she brought uh the corporate side into that and it helped so much with the negotiation I think we had had a great team uh was Mrs Kelly Jo and myself and uh it was some accomplishment and everybody you know to have something work everybody has to leave the people happy somewhat and that's the way it was Jo was a big part of that so thank you yeah I just sorry no no sorry um I
just want to say to Joan that um you know you you and and ncy were a lot of the reason that I chose to run um for office and uh you know until you showed up at my door that day I I had no idea I even wanted to do this and it been three years two and a half years you know I'm here now and a LGE large part of that is because of you um so thank you very much for inspiring me to do this and and uh you know like you said we still have a lot of work to do and and uh but thank
you for for Paving the way appreciate it so Jo when I got on the council you were already on for a year so you were really my mentor and my example um and I know you you kind of breaked it up here on your own and so we became a little bit of a team and um you really inspired me you always had some so much professional advice from your work that you brought to our decision making and our and our discussions and I think
because of your um communication skills we really opened up and started having more collaborative conversations as a council and really discussing things and and not being afraid to come forward with you know a different opinion and I really think as a result of that we made better decisions as a council and I think we continue to do that because of your example um and it was just such a joy to be with you at the Farmers Market to see that grow and just so so many beautiful days and so many happy people coming to shop there and it was really
that's really been such a joy and I thank you for all the time and effort you put into that it's it's a great it's a great thing for all of us thank a lot of same stuff there but the corporate you know what we brought here was great we almost like kind of our HR person St I do appreciate that I do uh your dedication but I did appreciate your sense of humor like you really had a
good quick with you know we were in a real serious situation so but yeah I appreciate all that work that we did together and you'll be missed and I know your family support number one so pray that goes well there I'll be very quick but just sort of echoing what Bill said I remember the night that um I officially met met you and Nancy together and you both really inspired me I could feel your passion
for Morris Plains and I could feel how much you cared and I really connected with that and that really you know made me want to stand up as well and be that example for my family for the residents of Morris Plains um and and you always just had such a great attitude and you have a great smile and a great laugh and uh you know thank you for helping kind of guide us and Mentor us and just being such a great person
than everybody said all the same same things but it's it's funny that when you first reached out to me to be on the council like Bill never in a million years I thought everybody up here was you just had to look up to them so when you reached out uh I was like I'm in trouble why does Joe need to do and she scared the cramp out of me uh so yeah that's that started the whole ring so I really appreciate that I'm here where I never thought I would be so thank
you once again thank you very much enjoy well deserved thank uh moving forward we have no vouchers we have no executive session so I have a motion toj so move second second by all in favored is always yes the eyes have it please join us right down the hall here for uh for some cake and coffee thank you celebrating both of them