Yes, I have. >> I'd like to officially call this public meeting of the mayor council to order. At this time, I ask everyone to please rise for a moment of sil prayer and reflection as we think about the Lavine family of New Guilford. We think about the resident who was
unfortunately struck in a crosswalk and had passed a few days ago. And we think of all the people who have the food necessity during this Thanksgiving season. Please salute the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Before we start, please note the fire license behind you into the main parking lot into my left, your
right, into the main hallway. The New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to advance notice of and attend any meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with this act, the mayor and council of the burough of New Milford have caused
notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, and place thereof posted in the burough hall and notices have been sent to the record and reviewed. The mission of this governing body is to provide essential services through the establishment and implementation of public policy that will safeguard the infrastructure. Provide fair, honest, courteous, and
professional services, establish a sense of trust and accomplishment between all residents, and through research and prudent planning, seek to minimize risk while improving our services. We are sensitive to the needs and satisfaction of our taxpayers while realizing that this governing body cannot be all things to all people within the revenue
constraints imposed by state mandates, economic conditions, and prevailing attitudes about taxation. At this time, I would ask the clerk to please call the role. Councilwoman Sam >> here. Councilman Zyler >> here. >> Council President Duffy >> here.
>> Council McCrosky >> here. >> Councilman Seymour >> here. >> Councilwoman Grant >> here. Mayor Patrino >> here. Okay. The first thing on tonight's agenda. Oh, actually before we start for the agenda, under new business,
introduce ordinance 2025 column 2. After speaking with our borrowing attorney and on advice of council, I'm going to ask for a motion to table that to our next meeting. >> So, one motion that? >> Yes, please. So, move second.
>> All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. >> So that will be on the December. >> Uh no introducing a different >> January which >> January 26 I believe is the only meeting
>> besides New York. >> Okay. >> We're not having a meeting in between >> um the 26th. >> Okay. The memorial bench ordinance will be on our January 26th meeting for introduction. Okay.
I have proclamation for National Family Week. Office of the mayor proclamation. Whereas the burough of New Milford recognizes strong families are at the center of strong communities and the status of the family has changed dramatically in the history of this nation but remains a basic moral and
economic element of society. And whereas everyone has a role to play in making families successful, including neighborhood organizations, businesses, nonprofit agencies, policy makers, and of course, families themselves. We recognize that sound family relationships are vital to the preservation of the American ideals
which are reflected in the moral and spiritual strength of our communities, states, and nation. And whereas during Thanksgiving week, we should all take time to honor the importance of families and recognize the special connections that support and strengthen families year round. No institution can ever take
the place of a family in giving meaning to human life and stable structure to society. And whereas Thanksgiving is traditionally a time for family gatherings and giving thanks for our blessings, a time that reinforces our belief in the vital importance of the role of the family unit. Now therefore,
I, Michael Petrino, on behalf of the Burough of New Milford, do hereby proclaim November 23rd to 29th, 2025 as National Family Week in our community, emphasizing the fundamental role of the family in promoting and sustaining the strength and vitality of the social and
moral fabric of our town, state, and nation. Happy Thanksgiving. Okay, moving on to appointments. Make it a motion to appoint Maryanne Basalo to rent leveling tenant alternate. So move second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed?
>> I am happy to say that for the first time in a long time, we now have a full board. >> Excellent. Congratulations and thank you, Maryanne. Under unfinished business, may you get a motion for the approval of the minutes of the November 10th, 2025 work and
close session meetings. Some move. >> Second. All >> in favor? [clears throat] >> Any opposing? Okay. We are tableabling the ordinance
and we're going to move on to schedule updates. Okay. It's holiday time. On Sunday, December 7th, is the burrow's annual annual holiday tree lighting sponsored by the New Milford Public Events Committee. It'll take place at 6 PM at the Burough Hall. This will be a food
collection event. On Monday, December 8th is our annual holiday nativity light sponsored by the new Milford Public Events Committee. This will also start at 6 p.m. and is also a food collection event. On Sunday, December 14th is our annual holiday manure light sponsored by
the Meal for Public Events Committee. It starts at 6 p.m. It is at the Burough Hall and this is also a food collection event. And a couple of side things are happening. We have the New Milford holiday home decorating contest. The registration window is November 17th
through the 30th and voting begins on December 7th. You can go online or to the police website and there's a QR code. We also have uh Santa's mailbox is open again from November 27th to December 24th. It's open to all ages. So already
send letter to Santa. Um the mailbox is located on patrolman Ray Woods Lane right outside the police station and you do not need postage and you can address it to 1 North Pole Road. There is a holiday breakfast on
Saturday, December 6th from 9 to 12:00 p.m. at the Milford High School cafeteria. Santa will arrive at 11:00 a.m. Uh there'll be crafts, treats, refreshments, and surprises. And I would go online or I would go to the high school's Facebook page and register. I
think you have to reserve that. And we have the Milford Fire Department's fifth annual Operation Santa fundraiser. It will take place on Sunday, December 14th. from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Um, you can buy a gift and
for $5 you can drop it off at company 1 at 249 Center Street on Tuesdays from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. or Company 2 on 680 Trenton Street on Thursdays from 7:30 to 9:30. And that gift will be delivered to where you prefer by the fire department
and Santa Claus. Okay, item number two. Oh, was there any events that I I missed where anyone wants to add? Okay, we move on to the administrative report. Thank you, mayor. Um, brief engineering update. We met with the burough engineer
and the contractor for the Main Street improvement project on site today to discuss the work that's been completed so far and to discuss things that needed to be corrected. There's some some issues with the work that's been done so far and we made it clear that we need to have that rectified.
The ADA renovation of the two bathrooms on the first floor hall is moving along with the completion dependent upon some material deliveries. And the first phase of the French Brook restoration project is on track to begin the first week in December. I'm not saying that. Um, and then the
only other thing I wanted to say, Burough Hole is closing at 1:00 on Wednesday and will be closed on Thursday and Friday, the 27th and the 28th in observance of Thanksgiving. And the next meeting of the mayor and council is a public session scheduled for Monday, December 15th, 7 p.m. That'll be our
last meeting of the year. That's it for Crazy, right? Can't move. >> Yes, it is. >> Has everyone had a chance to look at the resolutions? Are there any that need to be pulled further discussion or vote? If not, let's move on to council
committee reports. And let's start with council president. >> Thank you, mayor. Uh I was going to report on the fire department's annual Santa brings a gift to your house drive.
Uh but thank you. You did that. Um, I'm just going to say I uh met with my liaison this month. uh the board of health uh the uh historic commission rev 250
uh also met with the um emergency services uh roundt and um beautifification will be part of the decorating at the burl hall for the
holidays. So that's really my reason. >> Thank you. Can I ask a question on fire? Are they also collecting? They collect like toys and gift cards getting deleted. >> I don't hear anything about that. >> See that? >> Okay. >> They could be separate, but
>> I do not know that. >> Okay, let's go with >> Okay. Wasn't quite ready yet. >> Can you go to someone else? Sorry. Thank you, Mayor. Um, as uh
Councilwoman Duffy uh said, I have public events. I was going to uh announce the uh events going on in December with the uh nativity lighting, Christmas tree lighting, and the crease lighting, but
the mayor has already mentioned that. So going forward with BBW uh they're still in in uh leap collection that's full swing and uh they have uh collected uh five times uh main
brows and uh side streets three times. Uh the bathroom renovations of the burough hall is still progressing. They've uh gotten their rough electric and plumbing is completed and as uh administrator mentioned about the main
street project, it's ongoing. Planning board recently reviewed a concept plan for the redevelopment of uh a property on Madison Avenue. Uh it's a concept plan to convert a single family dwelling into
six single one-bedroom apartments. So, it was just a concept plan. uh recreation. Nothing to report on the upcoming wrestling season and uh they're in a process of updating their policies and procedures. That concludes my reports.
Thank you, ma'am. >> Thank you. >> Any questions for council me? >> I'm ready. Thank you. >> So, um I'll start with the green team. They had uh they hosted a uh home energy
outreach education uh canvasing project uh last weekend uh November 15th and 16th. They reached uh 200 homes and uh that's an opportunity for uh so that's a
partnership program that the burrows decide the green team and the burrow is to educate our residents about how to make their homes more energy efficient. Uh the energy assessments are free. They're no obligation and uh people can
find out like it helps make their uh the air quality safer, their uh energy more efficient and homes more comfortable. So we're just trying to the green team's really wanting to support our residents
to uh be able to navigate those programs because those are individual programs. Uh so we're just trying to educate them about and to make it a little bit easier to engage with those. Um what else are
they doing? The green team has also been uh monitoring the municipal buildings for their energy efficiency. So that started in 2020. Uh we had a
comm uh the burough hall uh had an initial energy efficiency of 48 100% 100 is like the goal the the perfect energy efficient goal uh and uh we were
able to see that this week this year with some um energy efficiency like LED bulbs installed etc etc our energy efficiency for the municipal building actually improved to 65.
So, so the energy assessments and the data collection like actually show how much uh like where we are and where we can make our improvements and and uh if those improvements are working. So, we
did some simple fixes so far and they're working. Um, let's see. Moving on to Mayor's Wellness uh campaign. We are going to sadly lose our chairperson because she is uh in nursing school.
She's a very quality chairperson. We're going to miss her. So, uh mayor's wellness campaign uh needs a new leader. And uh the environmental commission uh had a meeting with Sprout Farms. They're
looking uh we got a they got a preliminary site plan for the native plant garden project up at Pine Avenue. Uh it's really exciting to see like the possibilities and design uh environmental commission will be meeting
uh in the beginning of December. So we'll have a follow-up. They're going to review the site plans as a group. The site plan presentation was uh given to the uh subcommittee. They're going to uh discuss it at the environmental commission meeting and then mayor and
council will be able to have a peek at what's uh what's coming. The project there. They're looking at um doing uh native plants that are more wetland appropriate. So, it'll since it's close
to the Hackinac River up there, it'll be a nice transition zone and it'll be a nice passive park experience and educational experience and uh community energy plan uh update
that the uh EEC is working on. They're going to be uh contracting a consultant to help uh finalize the report. they've done a great amount of work already. So, we will be we mayor and council will be
looking to see presentations on that. Uh the public will be invited to those presentations and we're looking at like March for that. So, the um the final plan will need to be approved with a resolution and our deadline for that is
June. And I'm complete. >> Thank you. Any questions? Any questions for Council Sam? >> Let's go on to Councilwoman Grant. >> Thank you, Mayor. First, I'd like to mention that the ceremony on Veterans
Day was very moving. It was well attended and despite the bitter w bitterly cold weather and snowflakes. Um, it was very moving as I said and um I'm glad that there were so many people
that attended. Um now the zones are moving along beautifully. They've all met this month and things are going smoothly. The one interesting thing is that uh a landlord in town has the rent leveling board to
raise the 2% annual cap on rents. and the board which has had several landlords on it as well as tenants and homeowners uh discussed the matter and felt that although even though the um request was not formal that at this time
certainly we would not move forward with that. That's my report. Thank you. Any questions for council? >> Okay, Councilman Seymour. I just wanted to report that our municipal alliance as well as our flood advisory mitigation advisory committee
both had ended the year meetings to wrap things up and are already looking forward to working hard and getting work in 2026 on new programs and recruiting new members. And I don't know if anyone else here had an opportunity to attend, but I had a wonderful time there
watching the uh high school play. Uh the internet is a distraction. Oh, it's a Oh, it's a kitten. Uh the kids did a fantastic job as they always do. And I like to give a special shout out to Dan Creed who helped to put that together again. They did a great job. Congratulations to all of our students.
And I just want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. >> Thank you. Thanks. Any questions? Great. Let's move on. Council. >> Thank you, [clears throat] Mayor. Um I'm pleased to announce that on the behalf of the Shade Tree Commission, uh we
received a certificate of approval awarded to the burrow from Milford with the successful completion and approved fifth 5-year community forestry management plan in accordance with the New Jersey shade tree and community forest forestry assistance act. So uh
this uh couldn't have been accomplished of course without uh the help of our director of DBW, Vince Cahill. So kudos to him and uh again uh this is uh the fifth time which makes it 25 years now
that uh we're in compliance. So uh this is a very good thing. Also uh we'll be looking for two new members of the chain tree uh commission starting January. So if anybody's interested please apply. >> That's it. Thank you.
The only thing I will add is um yesterday morning there was I don't know if anyone had a chance to catch it but there was a uh Revolutionary War battle reenactment at historic bridge landing. [clears throat] Um there's video of it. So easy if you could not attend you have to watch it. It's it's pretty cool. It's
pretty cool and they're using old bridge road as if it was a dirt road. It's pretty cool. So check it out. Uh last week, um I know a number of us were at the New Jersey State League of Municipalities in Atlantic City. I took a number of classes. Um one of them was
crisis communications. Uh talked about what to do in a crisis, chain of command, how you should um talk to all your public safety department heads and how everything works and how there's assistance from federal
government, county level, state level. um also took a clean communities class on cleaner spaces. I actually went to their booth and I signed the pledge uh for litter free and so we have to organize next year we have to organize
one separate independent litter pickup. So me and 24,999 other mayors across countrywide have signed the pledge. Um I also took a New Jersey emergency services class. uh basically was the
role of state police and New Jersey OEM and how it affects uh local municipalities. It was also a very interesting class um talking about the future of New Jersey under Governor Elect Cheryl and it was hosted by former governors which was pretty cool. So they talked about their
experiences when they came in and what they see on the horizon for New Jersey and top it off. They stuffed a thousand of us in one room and we all took the JIP seminar. So, I got my GIF credits and learned
about, you know, safety and things that we need to do to make sure that um to low lower the liability of town. That's my report. >> Okay. I get a motion to open to the public. >> Motion second. >> All in favor? I.
>> Any opposed? Ladies and gentlemen, the public, if anyone has any questions or comments regarding the good welfare of Bernard, can we invite you to come up and we will give you five minutes. And seeing that no member of the public wishes to come up at this time motion to close the vote. >> All in favor? I.
>> Any opposed? May get a motion to adopt resolutions 2025 calling 250 through 2025 calling 261. >> Some move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I am going
to ask for a motion to go into close session. when we come out of close, we will not take we will take no action and immediately adjourn the meeting. So before we do that, I just want to tell you we hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving to you and your family and we'll see you
at our holiday events. >> At this time, I ask for a motion to go into close session. >> Motion second. All >> thank you.