##VIDEO ID:hydob_K90QM## good evening ladies and gentlemen I'd like to officially call this public meeting of the mayor and Council to order at this time I would ask everyone to please rise for a moment of Silent prayer and Andor reflection as we think about two families in town who recently lost people it would be the Kimo and Hodo family and also the colado family please salute the flag i al to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands Nation indivisible and jusice for all you please not The Fire Rises to my left your right into the main hallway and behind you into the parking lot the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public that 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 bur of New Milford have caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time in place thereof posted in the burrow Hall notices have been sent to the record and the Ridgewood news 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 an accomplishment between all residents and through research and prud and 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 rooll councilman San hou here councilman Zyer here council president Duffy here councilman gry here councilman sour here councilwoman Grant here mayor patrino here and before we start we did have a closed session before this uh Open Session and I will be asking for a motion to add resolution 2025 colon 72 which is determines the burough of new milford's fourth round present and prospective affordable housing obligations basically this resolution is saying that we are contesting the number that the state of New Jersey has implemented on us uh from 114 to 108 that is six units of affordable housing but when you multiply that because affordable units are 20% it's actually three additional units that we are contesting so may get a motion to add that to the agenda tonight Mo second all favor I any oppos okay now we're going to move on with some presentations we're always happy happy to see our young people here especially when they're uh doing a great job in our sports program so we love celebrating with you so when I call your name if you will come up I will give you a certificate you just stand in the front hang out there because people are going to want to take pictures there we go Ryan bibon right you're welcome Ali celic ad an AC cross Vincent de Barry Thomas EV Chevy Nathaniel fiser no we're getting it Noah Abraham Isaac Kyle jansen's Lucas Lombardi Joshua Marcos Jaden poo and Dylan Sanchez any words you wanted to say certificate of achievement 13 full Champion your achievement reflects itself in the pride of the community best wishes for a successful future presented this 27th day of January 2025 boys really had a tremendous season we're proud of all of them they played their hearts out it came down to the last game of the season and we pulled out a win close win um every game they put their hearts out there they played to the fullest and they came together by the end of the season they were a true team friends and uh we're really really proud to see the talk you can't wait to see where they go from here the beginning take so anyone wants to exit congratulations your leg from scared I can't afford any brises good night I think about that okay usually takes longer than two minutes to get around but this is this is great s next thing on the agenda yeah right you're hungry I want to go home any you dinner uh we have a proclamation from Muslim Heritage Month Office of the mayor Proclamation whereas the burough of New Milford is proud to recognize the contributions of the Muslim Community and declare the month of January as Muslim heritage month and whereas Muslims are the world's second largest religious group practicing the Islamic faith with 1.9 billion followers representing approximately 25% of the world's population there are about 3 .45 million Muslims in the United States from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds the Muslim Community represents 1.1% of population of the United States and whereas Muslims first arrived in North America along with enslaved Africans whom historians estimate 30% were Muslim their Islamic beliefs and their practices contributed in numerous ways to the founding of our nation including courageous and dedicated military services in every major war including the American Revolutionary War whereas Muslims have made significant contributions throughout history including notable achievements in philosophy mathematics chemistry physics astronomy medicine music architecture literature and the Arts their their philanthropy humanitarianism civic responsibility and culture helped to enrich the United States socially economically and historically and whereas there are nearly 300,000 Muslim Americans in New Jersey representing one of the largest Muslim American communities in United States their contributions help fortify and strengthen the economy and diversity of the people in our state and local communities whereas the burough of New Milford supports the rights of all of its residents calls Upon Our Community to eliminate Prejudice and bigotry everywhere we celebrate the great diversity of all of our citizens and extend the promise of our country to all and now therefore I Mayor Michael patrino do hereby Proclaim and recognize the month of January as Muslim Heritage Month in witness whereof I have here and to set my hand on a 27th day of January 2025 and since we have some audience members I'd like to present it to you thank you for all that you do for our community it's not very fast not very fast but okay exk we get it good good night have a great night hey Crescent Moon Lighting on the 27th 6 there yep okay moving on appointments I'm going to do this all one instead of individually so I'm going to ask for a motion for appointments for Emilia Myers to the junior firefighter auxiliary Joseph Spina to the Zoning Board of adjustment alternate 2 Martha Mitchell environmental commission alternate 2 Andrew Lombardi planning board regular member Eileen mroy planning board alternate one Stella day Augusta Arts committee Rosemary vicaria rent leveling board tenant Jason Kelly rev 250 committee make get a motion motion second all in favor I any opposed okay thank you and congratulations to all who are appointed and thank you for your service to our bur may get a motion for the approval the minutes from the January 6 2025 reorganization meeting motion all in favor any opposed okay we have a few ordinance introductions tonight actually more than a few the first one is 2005 col 01 and when the clerk has the opportunity I ask you to please read the ordinance Capital ordinance to appropriate the sum of $822 32 for the undertaking of the Hard Castle Pond Improvement project in by and for the BG and Milford in the county of Bergen state of New Jersey and providing that such sum so appropriated shall be raised from a county Grant and from the open space trust fund of the borrow purpose of this ordinance is is to appropriate funds from the Bergen County open space Grant and the burough of new milford's open space trust fund to undertake an improvement project at Hard Castle Pond which will include repaving Park Pathways installation of new benches and trash receptacles and planting of trees may you get a motion to introduce this ordinance on its first reading motion second may you get a roll call please yes councilwoman San H yes councilman zner yes council president Duffy yes councilman gry yes councilman Seymour yes councilwoman Grant yes the public hearing on this ordinance will be at our February 10th meeting which of is in the conference room correct yes in the conference room the next one for introduction tonight is 2025 col 02 and when the clerk has the opportunity I'd ask you to please read the ordinance Bond ordinance to authorize the undertaking of ADA accessible restroom improvements at the municipal building in by and for the barbue Milford in the county of Bergen state of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $220,000 to pay the cost thereof to appropriate a Federal grant to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds okay the purpose of this ordinance is to appropriate a Bergen County Community Development Grant and authorize a bond for uh A Accessible restroom improvements in the burrow Hall May get a motion to introduce his ordinance on this first reading motion second may I get a roll call please councilman Sam yes councilman zner yes council president Duffy yes councilman graty yes councilman Seymour yes councilwoman Grant yes uh this ordinance its public hearing will also be at our February 10th meeting ordinance 2025 col 03 clar C the opportunity I ask you please read the ordinance an ordinance to amend chapter two of the revised General ordinances of the Barb New Milford entitled Administration thereby amending subsection 2-1 19.1 entitled composition of the New Milford Police Department purpose of this ordinance is to amend the composition of the Milford Police Department to allow for up to seven Sergeants may I get a motion to introduce this ordinance on its first reading motion second may I get a roll call please yes councilman sanus yes councilman zner yes council president Duffy yes councilman gry yes councilman Seymour yes councilwoman Grant yes public hearing F ordinance will also be our February Tech 2025 call 104 take away an ordinance to amend chapter 19 of the revised General ordinances of the bar New Milford entitled Parks and Recreation section 19-3 fees purpose of this ordinance is to modify fees for certain recreational programs and fees for referees and umpires cify fees for coordinators site supervisors and counselors netive motion to introduce this ordinance on its first reading motion second NE please yes councilwoman San yes councilman Zer yes council president Duppy yes councilman grotsky yes councilman Seymour yes councilman Grant yes this public hearing will also be at our February 10th meeting okay the last one is 2025 colon 05 an ordinance to amend the revised General ordinances of the bar of New Milford entitled salary adopted as ordinance 9101 and amend it annually by ordinance up to and including ordinance 20246 purpose of this ordinance is to establish salary ranges for all full-time and part-time positions uh the ordinance and full is available on the B website New Milford nj.gov uh specifically we change the salary range of the OEM coordinator which let me find yes uh so the range for OEM coordinator is now $2,500 to $7,000 and we've added a thema coordinator the range is $1,000 to $2,500 Mak it a motion to introduce this ordinance on its first reading second me a roll call please yes councilwoman San yes councilman Zer yes council president duy yes councilman gry yes councilman Seymour yes councilwoman Grant yes public hearing for this ordinance anyone want to guess that we okay moving on to item number one is schedule updates so Saturday February 1st is down on skid R which is the alumni benefit concert sponsored by the New Milford High School theater program it'll take place at 7 p.m. the location is the James africano Theater at New Milford High School for more information you can go to nmhs musical.com and I do understand that a bunch of uh alumni are coming back to be a part of that um some famous ones that might have been on Broadway so you might want to check it out a good time it's going to be February 1st and council president Duffy can't be there because she is going to be at the 24th annual comedy night fundraiser sponsored by New Milford company 1 that is at 7:30 p.m. location New Milford Fire Department company 1 which is on Center Street for more information you go to the newford fire department's Facebook page or call is she call me personally is she headlin yeah she might be headlining finale on Friday February 7th is the night of impact sponsored by the New Milford YMCA it'll take place at 700 pm at the YMCA and New Milford Zone Mel Arena will be receiving the volunteer impact award from the YMCA so that'll be a fun and special night on Saturday February 8th is new milford's free rabies clinic sponsored by the New Milford Board of Health it'll take place from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the New Milford DPW for any information you can contact uh Jo the page in the health department I add to that that uh all residents of buron County are eligible to bring their CLS and dogs in for baby shots but only the Milford residents can register their pets in New Milford on that day yes on Thursday February 27th is new milford's annual Crescent Moonlighting sponsored by the New Milford public events committee it'll take place at 6:00 p.m. at the burall lawn uh this is one of our food collection events so we ask anyone who wants to attend to please bring a non- perishable food item we'll have cans situated on the lawn that you can uh donate to uh food pantries are something that need to be you know fulfilled all year so that's why we we do this everyone you know remembers around the holiday times but once that passes we try to keep helping it along was there any events that I missed I will say it's not a specific event but or is having um is giving tax assistance advice starting in February at the library all for an appointment they will be doing it through February March until the deadline for April 15th excellent item number two is the administrator's report thank you mayor um I have an engineering update um we with the new engineering firm on Tuesday January 8th and reviewed the following projects the NJ do Road Improvement project for rosin Monroe and Marian the NJ DOT road Improvement project for stuen Clinton lywood Maple and Roosevelt we're going to work with them on a they're going to work on our joint proposal to do both to put the those two jobs out to bid together uh the Green Acres application for the lighting at williamsfield um the revision of the scope for the Main Street Improvement project project the EPA Grant application for the sewer project on Pine and use and the French Brook restoration project as far as the French book restoration project I can report that the D permit was submitted on January 17th and we are still waiting on a DAT for the pre-construction meeting for the volleyball court um back by the tennis courts moving on the 2025 departmental budget requests have been submitted and forwarded to the budget committee and the committee's is going to begin their review this week in anticipation of the budget introduction in March uh the burrow will be hosting the burden County Commissioners on June 4th for their regularly scheduled meeting as part of their efforts to make their meetings more accessible to buron County they take it on the road periodically and they're coming to New Milford on the 4th of June and the next meeting of the mayor and council is a work session which is scheduled for Monday February 10th at 7.m and it will take place in the conference room behind us that's it for me thank you a question sure um as we had mentioned to Residents anyone who had issues with their appraisal they were able to schedule meetings and I know we've been doing meetings is that going good yes going well yes we've had a number of people coming in there's been no issue with scheduling I think that they're continuing those meetings for the remainder of this week and if people still want to call for an appointment they're welcome to do that thank you any other questions for the administrative okay resolutions everyone has seen the resolutions are there any that need to be pulled for further discussion and or vote okay go around real quick comme reports start with Council women s thank you mayor um I'm going to begin with the mayor's Wellness campaign uh they submitted a healthy Town application uh uh January 17th um we'll be hearing back about our designation uh and I'll keep you updated on that green team Community trucks program is uh moving right along so far this year we've collected 228 pounds of plastic film towards our goal of a th000 pounds collected so uh when our goal is achieved by or before October 31st 2025 the buau will receive a bench so there's a benefit to that um collection bins are located at the New Milford Senior Center the New Milford Library and burrow Hall and a new metal weatherproof collection bin has been added to the New Milford DPW it looks amazing it's painted green and white and it has signage with pictures of what is accepted into the bin only clean plastic film can be accepted and residents can log on to the burough website at New Milford nj.gov and find a link to information for recycling beyond the bag on the Green Team web page and moving on to the the green team's very busy this year so they are uh working on a psng residential Energy Efficiency partnership program they've been attending training webinars uh we have uh videos produced and a websites built and that will be added to the New Milford burough web page uh within the coming weeks um and coming we're looking forward to educational programming is in the planning stages and uh we'll be looking for a letter to prepare a letter from the mayor uh including information links and that will be sent out sometime this spring the sustainable Jersey certification project is still moving forward we did achieve our bronze of certification and now the green team is reviewing uh it and evaluating submissions that were not accepted and with the goal of working towards silver certification so that we're doing a review process and the uh environmental and energy commission is working on a u Bergen Public Utilities community community energy planning Grant and they're beginning with evaluation of Municipal Fleet efficiency and we'll be having meetings with department heads and Liaisons and uh we'll have stakeholder meetings to discuss future options to reduce emissions and and uh improve efficiencies future projects related to that Grant include evaluating ways to improve Energy Efficiency in municipal buildings and Community energy programs that would benefit residents so a lot of good things going on yes so excellent thank you thank you complete councilman Z well after a many years off I I had my first meeting January 8th with the rec committee and uh they had their reorg their chairman this year is Tony Alro and their Vice chair is Brian belof uh their winter season of uh wrestling and basketball is underway and this year they uh initiated a a new program for a base a basketball clinic that would um take from kindergarten through first grade and that was uh received very well uh whereas um uh registration was closed and they had to ask for a late enrollment so that did well um the planning board had there RoR also chairman remained John Dasa and the vice chair is Jeffrey Forester uh there weren't any applications at this time but they did ask for the planner to come and speak to the board and give him an update on on affordable housing going forward U because I'm sure there's going to be something of the nail laap in the near future I don't have a report for the DPW other than the fact that you know commend them once again for doing a great job with the last snowfall that we had had and public events just to Echo what you said mayor about Ramadan on the 27th of February excellent welcome back thank you council president duy okay thank you everybody um okay uh historic commission uh working to include more homes on there ordinance there are two more going on uh the the uh commission every year applies for a grant from the buron county uh Department of History whatever uh I don't know all of it yet but I will um new projects include a Google map tour of historic homes in the burrow and the Vets Banner that we all know about and then in the fall just watch for the New Milford book coming out uh sometime in that season uh the Board of Health met um to reorganize uh they were presented um with an annual report from the health officer um and at that time we did uh they did actually uh renewed the contract with midb and Regional Health commission uh also the rabies clinic just want to mention that just so you have an idea of what the health officer does give us as far as data uh in 2024 uh these are the numbers for communicable diseases covid 573 influenza 131 Lyme disease 14 bloodborne illness 12 he hepatitis 8 and I'm sorry that was C and then hepatitis B2 so just so you have an idea of what's doing there um the fire department also U meeting this month um they are doing pretty well considering the weather has just been cold and snowy uh they ask that anybody that has a hydrant on their block or near their home uh please keep it clear for them when they're answering a fire and as the mayor mentioned uh at company on the annual comedy night which is their 24th annual it's amazing so we hope you um come and uh support that also I participated in the property maintenance department meeting and the public safety meeting that's my report thank you Council mcy thank you mayor as Chris mentioned the budget committee will be having a meeting this coming Friday uh the sh commission met and mikino uh is remaining as the chair Andy Harris is remaining as the vice chair uh that's my report now thank you counc thank you mayor um the flood advisory committee is men and uh they are eagerly looking forward to new projects this year one in particular which has been discussed before but they're excited to revisit is inviting our local officials from District 3D to come here to New Milford to discuss um the status of flooding in our flood zone in a similar manner that was held in Westwood uh a couple years ago um so that's something that they are um looking forward to hopefully starting to plan on the flood advisory committee the municipal Alliance has uh is also starting to plan Black Balloon day uh for March as the first item on this year's calendar uh and we'll likewise be looking forward to additional events this year um it's my understanding Municipal Alliance will also be working with the school board and the school district on programs to help prevent suicide and raise awareness of the dangers of suicide and the warning signs and our board of education has had their reorganization and is beginning to work on their budget for this year and that's my report thank you thank you Council will thank you mayor uh as you said the Rab's Clinic is on Saturday February 8th and I've been attending that and working there for probably 14 or 15 years now and it's always a joy um the library uh met we had a retirement party for a out retired retired um director Terry McCall on January 18th it was a it was a wonderful party the mayor was there she Terry was presented with a proclamation and a plaque and lots of wonderful speeches and we're going to miss her terribly on the other hand our new library director Stephanie elro is off to a running start and I think she's going to be fabulous I'm very excited to be working with her we uh elected the Board of Trustees elected their new offes they the same as last year Orman arena is the uh president again um the book club which uh took some time off we be zoom in February new members are always welcome and me at the library give call the library you're interested the r leveling board elected its new officers and Danielle Hinman is the new chair and the new noric Arts committee is planning its next event on May 31st it will be at the Pavilion weather permitting and the woman the broodway St who originated the role of Mrs pots in Beauty and the Beast will be be reprising at least part of her role for us along with several of the new milter high school students so it's going to be a fabulous event there will be other things as well but she will be singing with them and um I'm very excited about that she's a m Nori resident has lived here for quite a few years and is absolutely delighted to participate and so it's it's going to be fabulous great news that's excellent thank you yeah thank you I'll reveal her name later yeah I want attend your H and keep wondering who but Mar your calendar from May 31st last week I attended the historic New Bridge Landing meeting uh they're continuing to make improvements on the property and the one thing they're moving forward on this year is where their Meadow is they're actually going to be cutting a path so you can actually tour and go through the meadow which is pretty cool so it'll connect the barn area to the Demis house to the Sten house to the Campbell Christy house which is nice the other thing they asked um they requested that if they're having an event if they would be allowed to send us a application to hang a banner on River Road and I said I don't think there'd be a problem with that as long as they uh send it and I had sent them the specs for the banners and the other thing is we had contacted a number of organizations in town uh to help get a letter of support for our Grant application for Wills Feld lighting and I just wanted to thank so far all the groups that have tremendously quickly signed that letter and sent it back to us which is awesome it shows that we are a tight-knit community and this is a this is a good thing that's happening so thank you is there anything else if not I'm going to ask for a motion to approve resolutions 2025 col 63 2025 col 72 which is the open to the public oh yes you know I'm open to the public first make a motion to open to the public move second all in favor any opposed ladies and gentlemen of the public if anyone has any questions or comments related to the good and Welfare of the B the milrey uh you have the opportunity to come forward now no seeing that no member of the public wishes to come forward I'd ask for a motion to close to the public motion second all in favor I any opposed making a motion to adopt resolutions 2025 col 63 to 2025 col 72 so second all in favor any opposed is there any other business before this Council yes there I make a motion to file the committee report motion well we have a motion can I get a second second all favor I I gave my report move second all in favor I I any opposed thank you very much ladies and gentlemen have a great night