##VIDEO ID:26K-Xr_hAwI## the following is the agenda for the regular burough council meeting of the burough of pson lakes mayor and Council a municipal Corporation in the county of pay the meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. on January 22nd 2025 in the Municipal Building 25 lenux Avenue Pompton Lakes New Jersey consistent with the open public meetings act the meeting will be open for public comments and shall be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Burrow's Municipal Andis stand for a flag slute I pledge allegiance to the FL of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all have a moment of silence for the passing of councilman Cruz's mother thank you in performance with the open public meeting Law Public Law 1975 chapter 231 adequate notice of this meeting setting forth the time date place and purpose of this regular meeting through notice posted on the Bolton Board of the municipal building mailed will have requested and paid for same and published in Suburban Trends roll call please mayor here Council here EXC yes councilman pinton here councilwoman Kent excused excuse excused I'm sorry Council hilber here Council here with us this evening is our B attorney David and our B administrator thank you it's always my honor to swear in one of our own and one of our uh uh new sergeants coming in Edward Bartlett so I'm going to come down Edward why you come up bring your family [Music] something right ahead though I state your name hi Edward Bart to solemnly swear to solemnly swear I will support the Constitution of the United States I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey iare true faith and Allegiance I will declare true faith and allegiance 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 I will Faithfully I will faithfully impartially impartially and and justly and justly perform all the duties of perform all the duties of police Sergeant police Sergeant according to the best of my ability according to the best of my help me so help me go congratulations [Applause] no your Bible be bad to Ste a Bible SL this close this [Music] [Applause] congratulations [Music] congratulations okay whoever wants out before I start the meeting now's a chance oh [Music] okay we'll move on to our next uh item which is a proclamation for Andrew Silverstein you know he's been a valued member of our our our volunteer groups for the last 35 years which you're going to hear about when I read his Proclamation when you talk about Volunteers in Pompton Lakes he's he's the name that would come up involved in numerous places numerous boards putting his time and energy in as much as he can and everything he can do it's what Pompton Lakes is made of it's what makes Pompton Lakes PPT and lakes all the volunteers in our groups do that nobody's getting collecting a paycheck they're all putting their time and energy in to make the betterment of our community so with that I'm going to read a proclamation for him and then I'm going to ask him to come up and we'll say some more things whereas the bur of Pompton Lakes recognizes Andy Silverstein a longtime resident of Pompton Lakes for his generous volunteering service and valuable contribution to our community Andy was elected as a member of the Board of Education in 1982 during his tenure Andy served as the president of the board and of the high school was acknowledged for achieving the national Secondary School recognition in 1987 a program honoring the nation's top performers School celebrating their excellence and accomplishments and he served as a member and chairman of the board of adjustments from 1985 through 1991 offering his assistance and guidance to those families interested in making improvements to their homes he served the secretary Vice chairman and chairman of the planning board from 1992 through 2018 during his tenure serving on the planning board Andy was involved with the Reconstruction of the shopping center after a devastating fire from the Inception and establishment of the Redevelopment agency in 2015 Andy has been the appointed chairman through 2024 contributing to the revitalization of the downtown and within Pompton Lakes Andy has had the trust and respect of those he has served and the opportunity to serve alongside uh numerous Mayors including mayor Spiner mayor Roman mayor Simer mayor murin mayor Cole and myself that's a big list of Mayors right there to be involved with Andy reside resided in Pompton Lakes from 1975 through 2018 where he and his wife Nikki raised their daughter Amy who graduated from Pompton Lakes High School Andy and his wife Nikki now reside in milington New Jersey and continue to volunteer and serve in many capacities for various organizations that door has to be left open now therefore I Michael Sarah mayor of the burough of Pompton laks do hereby congratulate Andy Silverstein on his longtime years of volunteer service and as accomplishments for the burough of Pompton Lakes We Wish to continue happiness and success I do hereby declare January 22nd 2025 as Andy Silverstein day in the burrow of Pompton Lakes well I'll take one without you're going to be in it ready [Music] sorry okay so all the people in this room know how hard ad's work including his wife who spent how many meetings and time and energy to have here um know Andy's been a friend he's someone I can rely on to call and I can tell you that from the bottom of my heart he's always had the best of comp in his mind he's always asked and reached out when he had concerns especially when it came on to the Redevelopment board to try to get the projects done I can't tell you how many meetings myself in mik faio and other members of the Redevelopment have taken thank you for okay you want you sit okay I was a little disappointed everybody got up and the left but um you know I think mik overstates a bit um I couldn't have done any of this we couldn't have been on any of these boards without the help every member that was on this um it's easy when you the chair to get the credit and the recognition but if you look at the dozens and dozens of people that served on those boards during my tenure all of them contributed to what we've accomplished um I also wanted to thank K and Lor over there um we the Redevelopment agency they're the brains behind the operation as I told them when they came in um you know I think I think you know when you when you work on some of these boards and some of these projects are controversial um not everybody's going to agree with what what's done not everybody's going to agree with every decision but I can tell you that every member of the Redevelopment agency has the best interest of the town in mind um it's interesting how on each of these boards especially the land use boards there's different things you're trying to accomplish as the mayor said when you read the proclamation the board of adjustment is one that gives you a lot of pleasure because you're helping people with their homes you're helping them and sometimes saying no but in general you know you're trying to help them you know stay in P Lakes either make putting an addition on putting pool in all all those different kinds of things that help um planning board um is a little bit more esoteric I think you're dealing with you know the overall master plan and you know certain um variances and things of that nature um and the Redevelopment agency was something new for all of us um we we started that from scratch um I think though that you know when you look at the board of ed um that's where I think people should try to spend some time because you can really make a difference on the board of that um I think the national recognition we got was terrific but even there the dozens of people that served on that board the the superintendence we had you know names that probably some of you don't even remember Rico Cil okay whose famous way of closing the schools when it snowed was throw out the cat and the cat came back went for school was really very easy um John Copco who was a terrific superintendent who I did learn when I did some of the research through this passed away um and that was sad to learn um but when we accomplished things on the school board not only that um we were able to redo the auditorium um and kind of put it back the way it was um so I think I I I think we've accomplished a lot as a group and it takes everyone in town to do this I was just fortunate enough to be someone that was able to chair it so I thank you I thank all of you up there and all the people up there that serve before you um I look back at that mayor's list and said wow the all the way back there man that's a long time ago uh that's a long time ago but thank you and I really appreciate it thank you for your time [Applause] thanks so I'm going to change things just a little bit because we do have a presentation in a minute but is anybody here to just say congratulations to Andy on anything they did I'll let you come up real quick and say something it's not step right hi um I'm Abby Novak do I give my my yeah okay 128 wh Avenue pton Lakes New Jersey and I had the pleasure of um working uh under the chairman um on the Redevelopment agency I and we also worked on the planning board together and uh Andy and I do a lot lot of work with sub uh Comm uh committies committees together and um I have to say Andy I just marveled at how he could run a um run a meeting because a lot of times it wasn't an easy meeting to run and he was very decisive and uh always could hold his own we didn't always agree but he always asked you have any anything you want to say Abby and I always appreciated that because a lot of times I I kind of knew he was probably not thinking on the same way because we different perspectives but he would always uh listen to my perspective and I I so appreciate that so thank you thank you so much thank you anyone else like to just talk about the presentation seeing no one okay thank you guys anybody wants to leave we're going to do uh a little presentation now you're welcome to stay for the whole meeting if you'd like that's not a problem at all if you want out now's your chance you want to say something yeah sure come on about Mr Silverstein excuse me about Mr Silver oh it'll be next we'll do [Laughter] that see you guys thank I'll talk to you I would stay for the whole meeting got two hour drive yeah I get you okay so let's move on uh motion I have a motion with advit and consent of uh Council to appoint James P pamco Paco as an alternate burrow prosecutor to serve for a one-year term ending December 31st 2025 can I have a second second councilman venon all in favor I against okay that leaves us now to our affordable housing presentation and we have Sam here who's hi s nice to see you again haven't seen you in a while it's going to be fascinating to see how good evening everybody we have and if you point at theall turn off remember to's whereabouts for over 4 hours my favorite Channel how did you know substanti but they say one is all right we're all on the same page okay we're ready son whenever you're ready just introduce yourself tell you tell the door and um let me get it started and then [Music] okay good evening everybody uh my name is uh San chavan I'm from h2m and I'm your affordable housing planner so thank you very much for having me and uh appointing me um so I'm going to talk about our M uh State mandated fourth round affordable housing obligations and the next step so this first slide I'm just um uh giving you a synopsis I'll give everyone the background information um what fourth round obligation means how what we uh can meet the fourth round obligations and what are the next steps um okay so uh municip uh can everyone see the screens yep okay so municipalities have a constitutional obligation to provide affordable housing uh this was mandated Through the Fair Housing Act of 1985 which was a legislative response to the exclusionary zoning uh Landmark Mount laes cases um and uh this provided the basis for establishing uh the Council on affordable housing which was a state agency to administer Municipal compliance and um you know if you look at this I purposely it started 38 years ago uh round one the SEC second was um uh you know from 93 to 99 and the third round there were numerous iterations um uh so I just um basically uh you know it's it's for the past 20 20 years it's just been um so much of uh iterations and uh you know so this process has been around for almost 40 years now and uh we in the uh the burrow has continued to strive to maintain compliance uh although it has intermittent participation in the round one and two but uh the all the iterations of uh round three the burrow uh has been actively participating and um took a lot of initi I atives to be in compliance now we are in the fourth round so what is fourth round so fourth round is the period from 2025 uh projecting ahead to 2035 uh the governor uh signed this bill which we call the a4s uh 50 which got signed on March 20th of last year and it eliminated Kaa completely and created new process IES and um there were uh updates and changes to the previous rules and uh this legislation also set forth um a specific uh set of guidelines um now uh the legislation Enlisted the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs or DCA to provide calculations which were given to all of us by October 18th 2024 and the legislation also set forth certain mandatory guidelines now when just giving you an idea what does this affordable housing um consist of so there are two parts to it one is the prospective need so that means from In the period from 2025 uh to 2035 uh towns need to provide realistic opportunities to contain affordable housing um there is a certain number that was calculated by DCA and it's calcul ated at a regional level and uh pton Lakes uh belongs to region one which includes municipalities in Bergen County Hudson p and susex and um the uh the legislation allocated uh every Town's obligation B uh based on three factors and I had uh shared an U memorandum just explaining the processes for your understanding and I apologize it was very dense but I tried to simplify it but there are three factors one was the land capacity of a municipality the equalized non-residential value and income and everything was calculated as I mentioned at a regional level and that number uh for pton Lakes was 106 unit so before you go on a little bit just because we have some new people and people will be watching just explain in in a very simple form what COA means and what it's what they're trying to do with COA sure so uh Co is like I said it was a state agency um Council on affordable housing uh since the past 10 years um The Authority has now been given to courts so what we are required um it's mandatory that every municipality has to provide affordable housing for low and moderate income and the number is determined by the state it's not determined at the municipal level and what that does is uh compliance with that um provides us uh protection from Builders remedy lawsuit or uh you know uh nobody can come and challenge us saying that uh we do not provide housing for low or mod income so that is the whole um requirement and that's mandatory um as for the fair housing act so municipalities um are required to be in compliance um as so so that compliance there are two um aspects the first is what what we call prospective need and you probably went to the league and heard uh these uh names been thrown around and what prospective need basically uh means it's that an opportunity needs to be provided uh for housing um for the need from the period of 2025 through 2035 so for the next 10 years the third round obligation was uh took care of everything from 1995 to 20 uh 25 1999 to 20 uh 2025 um so this prospective need was calculated as I mentioned at a regional level and um it was the number that is allocated to to the burrow is 106 units and as I mentioned previously um as per the legislation it was uh calculated taking into consideration three factors one is the income at a regional level uh it looked uh at the four counties that I just mentioned it looks at the land capacity as per the DCA and it also looks at uh what your uh equalized non-residential valuation was so basically what your commercial and Industrial properties um the value of that is what was um examine and it was for the period from 1993 to 2023 so how things have changed um in the past um 25 years for you and that calculation by the state was um calculated to be 106 the second aspect it's not as pressing as this in in that you can fund a program and or participate in County programs and the burrow has been doing that but this looks uh at what is um the existing deficient housing uh that is currently occupied by low or mod uh income and that number they generated uh for us at 45 now the legislation also gives us an opportunity to examine these numbers um so we have an option whether we agree with the 106 numbers or we think that it should be lower and these calculations have to be obviously done within the framework of the legislation that I just mentioned the A4 bill um what we started to do was um which we've already conducted um is the analysis to really see what is truly our number and to establish our own numbers and that analysis I basically put together together in a uh memo I believe that was circulated and it's going to be a part of the resolution that our attorney drafted and then the next step is uh when you look at okay here's the number that um the state is giving us so we have we have to ex um determine to see whether we truly have land that can realistically develop or uh present an opportunity to accommodate uh this affordable housing and that's called the vacon land analysis and we've just started conducting that um and I I'll go into details um as we move along this presentation so DCA uh gave locations of uh developable land we all know Pon Lakes is fully developed right uh so they identified four properties which um they present Ed all that data it was Ava it's available for all of us to review which is great so um we didn't have to go through identifying we just had to go through their data and they identified four properties which then we went ahead and further analyzed so first was if you look at the slide to the extreme left is block 1001 uh lot 20.01 which is the tilen Quarry site now that was included in the third round plan so that's that um num property is eligible that's fine but then there are these three uh Parcels which is uh 1,9 and 10.01 these were uh basically do right away um it's not um it's not a developable property and um there's no Street direct Street access it's to the rear of Residential Properties and then the one to the right uh block 8705 and lot 15.01 that is the location of a municipal uh pump so we excluded these three properties and um that basically reduced the units uh by just one unit to 105 um then we also looked at the equalized non-residential value which I just mention and identified they had uh the DC had identified as commercial properties that uh were uh inappropriately classified because there were either utilities or utility right of way um so we removed all of those properties uh which then further reduced the obligation by one more unit to 104 so um instead of 106 our conclusion is that it should be 104 um now that 104 uh is is the resolution so a by state um this the state requires us to adopt a resolution prior on or before January 31st so that's why we're here tonight so the DCA calculations is 106 our calculation is 104 now these there are different mechanisms uh in an affordable uh housing plan uh and I'm not saying that's what we should do or not do I'm just giving a overall um overall just an overview of how uh what are the mechanisms that are available as per the statutes um one of it is Redevelopment plans we just had a conversation about the Redevelopment agencies uh we identified uh plenty in the prior round as well um perhaps Zone excuse me zoning and um the prior round enabled us to establish an affordable housing Trust fund so you know we could use that money to have group homes perhaps 100% affordable um you know there are many ways uh that um one could uh present mechanisms to address um our need um one change with the new legislation is in the past uh for example if there was a developer who wanted to I don't know build six units for example and then there would be some affordable housing obligation they could do a payment in L where they could pay money to the town um that unfortunately we can't do that as per the new legislation I mean there were talks that um they might change that but I'm not sure if anything happened uh since the last time I checked uh I don't know if our attorney certainly nothing formal at this point right so just so everybody understands we did have that option in the first in the last round where we some you could buy out for some units we had a number put in place that they would buy out right now at this moment you can't do that in this new round there is talk of changing out like she said but right now nothing correct what does that mean projects that were already in the pipeline are under the previous rulings anything going forward anything that hasn't been so so what that means is anything that was a part of the prior they could continue doing that from 2025 onward so whatever is to address the fourth round we can't use that option so and we've used that in the past is why I included it um to give everyone an overview of what the legislation says um another change is that uh in the next four years um we need to commit using all the trust fund revenues um so that's I mean that that typically happens um so but it's just uh then another thing that has changed um uh are bonuses so for example in the past if you provided say we had a developer right he provided 100 I'm just putting this number out there 100 units okay 15 of those units were affordable um they could get a town could get 30 credits for that um that has changed um they don't uh allow that for the fourth round uh but you can get credit for being in a Redevelopment Zone um special needs um senior uh which was an important change in the past senior housing was restricted to just 25% of your total obligation so for example if your obligation was 100 units for example you could only build 25 now it has changed to 30% so it's a slight increase um and so we should get some benefit from that from the definitely from new senior housing building because we were 100% in the last round correct so we should gain the 5% correct so if there are any extra that we couldn't aw off um you can use that in this round um and uh the bonuses which was also in the past um so it's nothing new that they are eligible on units that are built or committed so you know if we have like a read weapon agreement or some some some commitment that's good enough to get us credits um and this is my preliminary read but I that's I mean um I would um request our attorney to correct me if I'm wrong no no absolutely okay so so this is basically how we can meet the obligation and then the last is what are the next steps and I have to my right um you know what the deadlines are so um we are required to have a binding resolution uh on the obligation so we have a meeting tonight and we intend to adopt that what this does is it provides us some form of protection nobody can you know sue us or anything like that so kind of a protection um we're required to uh adopt the fourth round affordable plan by on or before June 30th 2025 so we have next 5 months to do that and then um we are when you adopt a plan there are also uh implementing ordinances or uh mechanisms or agreements or what have you those uh need to be done we have more than a year now but March 15th 2026 and um all of that needs to be uploaded on uh to the state within 48 Hours our administrator sent a latest email from DCA about how you know how it should be done etc etc so now um I'm going to talk about what your role is right so um Your Role uh as a burrow Council on or before Jan 31st declare number so whether you agree with the 106 or whether you agree with the 104 and then when the housing plan gets prepared uh it is the role of the planning board as per the New Jersey land use law to adopt any kind of master plan or element however the fundamental difference here is you as the governing body you endorse the housing plan um and then once that process goes through as a governing body you'll adopt a spending plan what a spending plan means is um we recognize that these are our obligation this is how we are going to um uh prepare for that and these are our trust fund monies that we would allocate and this was something that we prepare but your responsibility we as in your Consultants will prepare but your responsibility as a governing body member is to adopt the spending plan and any kind of supporting resolutions and ordinances and that deadline is March 2026 um so again what the next step would be will we've started assessing what's your vacant land so really to give a true number is how much of land is truly available so that's what would be a part of our uh affordable housing plan so this is it from me um I'm ready to take questions any concerns so thank first thank you for making the presentation uh so you know tonight we have a resolution to adopt what she's talking about for tonight and then between son and Michael they'll work out the future of how we move things forward and then it'll come back to us at some point you know to be voted on again so I'll open it up to you guys you have any questions for her about I just have one question I'm curious to know um when we when we implement this and we have you know we're there's building going on in town now and they have affordable housing how many years are those affordable housing is it for life or no for 30 years 30 years so they so for any for us to get credits um they have to have a deed restriction um uh for 30 years and then what happens to the number what happens in 30 years like 30 so there are different ways um I mean one of my towns what we did is um the Deeds were expiring you can um do um you can uh extend that or um or uh or they just go back into being uh in the market has it always been 30 years round two was 20 years so back in the day of the uh the period from 93 uh to 99 that I talk about the round two it was 20 years but um the numerous iterations of round three it's always been 30 years so it changed thank you and it's better for us to have 30 years any other questions that's yeah I do um you talked about credits how does the credits work so the credits one credit per one unit uh so they different uh correct for the most part it's one credit uh one credit per unit now if you have a group home a qualifying group home the credit is the bedroom so it just depends but for the most part it's one uh one apartment or one house or one whatever it is you get one credit for it okay and uh the other question I had was calculated a regional level region One Bergen Hudson Pake and Sussex how can those diverse counties all be the same I mean how could they're not susex they don't want it to that compare I I I don't disagree with you but that's something that has always been um I mean as far as I know I've been doing this for more than yeah it's the state the state uh has these regions so it's always been like that so we're part of um so for example region one is Bergen Hudson forsake and suex two region two is SX Morris Union and Warren again counties not similar at all it's unfortunately that's how it is I can't see how Sussex and Hudson would be the same valuations and um it's just what it is it is what it is it's an odd henus sense to me yeah so one of the things we we've had conversations in the past one of the things that really helped us was the group homes that we had but we did lose one or two group homes in the last couple years and that affects our numbers a little bit um so you know there's good and bad to group homes having them in your neighborhoods but at the end of the day credit wise they're they're good for us because it counts per bedroom in a group home which is a little different um and we also get one additional bonus which is much better which has which is good for us now but we do need to provide at least whatever Our obligation will eventually be that you know a realistic development potential will be we need to provide um uh at least 50% uh family uh family units you not a group not a group home yeah all right any other questions and uh taxwise coming into the burrow the affordable units pay the same tax of they they do not no they're affordable they're affordable you can't assess them okay thank you thank you son for thank you very much for your time thank thank you okay let's move on um motion open the meeting for public comments councilman venon council president Paul Dory all in favor against anyone from the anyone from the public like to address you step up just yeah go ahead she's going to have to you can talk right here so I just I just wanted I have Sho thing so sure you can ask her sure so you say they they expire after 30 years correct so then can do we have anything that's expiring I would say no right I um I don't think we do maybe seven six or seven years yeah but not now yeah not right now could could those six or seven in six or seven years could we use those fireing units to fulfill a new obligation that's a good question I don't know yes the not as as uh as of now but there'll be fifth round and sixth round definitely okay that's a good question yeah I guess my question would be then does the HOA itself have a do they have to accept that do they have to so if they're a part of an HOA does the HOA have to accept them as as affordable housing after 30 years well um I I would defer to our attorney because I might make a mistake but my understanding is cuz I've done this for one uh my towns where um was that um the the the first thing is that if it's expiring um if we need to know as the municipality and then we get um the first dip if you will and if someone wants to sell it for example if it's um it's a ownership that's I'm most familiar with um they so so for example if they bought a house for 30,000 and today it's 300,000 right they just get the the difference they don't get all all of that um there's a 95 5% um so that's they're selling right now for fair market value and they're also renting them so that's that's an issue and there's no one to contact there's no one to call okay so that is more of Enforcement issue well they're yes but they're owned they're not also not a rental property they're not a so I've done this in one of my towns where the neighbors always helpful but they want to be anonymous so we got an anonymous call that somebody was renting so we basically at that time sent the inspectors out and they basically caught them and that unit then got sold to somebody um who's uh who deserves it because this person but for our purposes that's Administration portion of it but for our purposes these are the important things like if there are um if there are units that are expiring then we have an opportunity to uh talk to them they they may want to extend or they may not want to extend I mean I defer to our attorney if he thinks anything else yeah I agree and if there's someone doing that they they could be report it to the billing department and then it would check into that into to the town to the town that that someone thinks they're renting out a COA unit they're renting out you're not allowed to rent out a COA unit oh I know that yeah so that's it you question second second oh sure sure open not not no no go ahead you can ask this just general question go so 12 okay so um anyway um I'm speaking as a as as myself but I have been a member of the Redevelopment Agency for 10 years prior to that I was um member of the planning board and open space and they I'm here to because under the we've been around we developed an agency for 10 years and I've been there since conception and um during that time we've had you know two two um 2007 we had the um master plan and in the within the master plan we talked about um design standards and I've been mentioning design standard as as as you know um for quite some time so I hoping 200 uh7 we had design stand uh standards that were required or suggested that we develop them for redevelopment and I guess other development within town and then in 2017 we had the master plan reeval um reexamination and again I'm just going to read it on page 30 it is recommended that the burrow consider developing design guidelines addressing all types of development possibly in the form of a pattern book that provides visual examples such a document can guide the typ just go over to the microphone too so we can hear you know go perfect thank you um okay there we go such a document can uh guide the types of design elements that the barrel finds to be aesthetically acceptable the guide should include but not be limited to building materials facade treatments Street Furnishings parking layouts and options hard and soft landscape elements green infrastructure um lighting and and signage so um these are in our plan documents we have been in we've been working as a a um Redevelopment Agency for 10 years and we don't have them and uh last year I had a little bit of hope that we were going to finally get them in 2024 Andy who we just recognized and I met with um Kristen um Russell I believe her last name is from Kier and we discussed um putting together a presentation for you I think all of you um on the um cost of what design standards would be so I was hopeful and that was in Spring of 2024 um but I found out in November that that it wasn't in the budget so here we are in 2025 we have no design standards and I think it's a big missed opportunity because we have you know we've we have things in progress we have we have uh construction that's been completed big a big project that's in the process and things coming down the the pike plus we have opportunity for renovation but without design standards we lack planning and uh without planning we're just not going to do as well as we could have so with that said I would like you all to take a look again at the opportunity to have design standards and to give us that tool so we can speak with you know with a vision One Vision rather than look at what each individual contractor brings to us because then we are having we're implementing their vision and of course their vision is not cohesive it's their individual um Vision that you know self- serving mostly so um with that said I don't know if anybody understands what design well some sure some of you do I'm just going to jump in real quick we have design standards take a look we we if you saw last year last week's meeting I usually don't answer now but just because she came and presented just what saying but I'll I'll answer when you're done okay so so I so I would I would really like us to have that uh going forward because what we're doing is we're giving out a lot of variances with each project but there Varian that are asked um without a comprehensive plan in mind and I can't think that that would be the most appropriate way to go about changing PPT and lakes and changing it like changing it for the best so I I think it's I I don't want to quote what I heard but I don't think it's that much money compared to what we're doing in town and it would really make a huge difference now I I know that we had I think um daddy um forgetting her last name yeah well she gave us um Point Pleasant's uh design standards and um I tried to ask access them from point Pleasant's um website but they're no longer available to the public or they weren't when I checked so I just went on and did a Google search I got New Providence uh design standards and it's such a comprehensive um you know piece of information and you can I'll just can I give it to you all give it to Liz and she'll give it to us okay because um I mean not that this is the be on the Endo but it's pretty good and I think that it would be wonderful if we could get meet with like some of our committees sh Tre our historic um agency or commission and really put together something comprehensive for palton lakes and so we could all speak all of our even like you know we could have our Redevelopment we could have a planning or zoning everybody speaking with one voice with one vision in mind and of course you know a little nod to the Past because we have a really wonderful past with uh a positive outlook for the future we could really have some wonderful things in pmpt and lakes and it's not too late I mean not and and the things that we have done I mean I'm not saying that they're bad I'm just saying that let's take a look and make sure we're doing it the best way we possibly can okay thank you anyone else from the public life please step up hi I'm Judith brck 21 Albert Street and I'm back to the street signs I think a lot of the street signs are in you know or up um they started in the north end of town by Ringwood Avenue so cluk Street has a sign and Willard Street has a sign says Willard avue I live on Albert Street there's still the old sign and what I'm concerned about is it says very small street but if there's an emergency and stuff it's really hard to see the sign you know for fire or ambulance or so that's what I'm complaining that okay thank you you anyone else would public like to address seeing no one can I have a motion to close the public session council president Alor councilwoman kilberg all in favor hi against okay Abby uh we are it is in the budget this year to do we are in the process of putting committees together from all the groups you mentioned to do design standards I do have the Point Pleasant design standards which I can give to you uh Kristen did come to the uh meeting last week the council meeting to present the idea of how we're going to go about doing that and what how it's going to be what what we're we're we're envisioning is uh members from this board members from the planning board members from the zoning board members from the Redevelopment board with input from other groups who want to come to those meetings can also put input she put together a plan then this Council will vote on that plan and then that will be incorporated into everything we do as we move forward so I think all boards including this this board agree that we do need it it's it's something that is needed just to give us a direction on which way we're going and Kristen when we spoke to her Pro you know before this all took place said the only deficit she sees in the whole Redevelopment plan that we have here is that piece of it so we are going to implement that in the process has started Mike is in this budget right this year right so it is in this budget this year to do that okay uh street signs uh unfortunately we couldn't get them all in at one time this year uh in the spring they'll be putting in the second phase of of all the street signs and they'll be in is that correct Mike yes uh so by the end of probably the spring of next year all the streets no you can't unfortunately um uh uh all the street signs will be put in and every street will have a new sign both sides um so everybody should have new street signs by the end of spring okay um okay where are we uh motion approve the following minutes Clos meeting minutes January 8th regular meeting minutes January 8th I have aot a motion second who first the you were first I I thought I heard somebody else you the first I'll second I didn't I from that all right so councilwoman kilberg and councilman vett uh all fa favor I against uh authorizing of payment of bills uh as listed below can I have a motion motion councilman venon councilman Hinton all in favor I against uh does anybody need anything remove from the consent agenda oh well I had seven but uh administrator answered all my question I'm going to jump all over that okay Le go ahead go for it we have the mayor and the B Council has REM agenda consisting of propos resolutions where mayor and councel B of does not desire to remove resolution for individual action from that agenda now therefore be it resolve the following resolutions on the consent agenda are here by approv resolution 25-65 to 2583 motion to approve the resolutions so moves councilman hint Hinton what was who was councilwoman kilberg all in favor I Against all right ordinances list can we group these field no no no can't group The Field ones the oh well yeah for for final action later yeah okay go ahead Liz we'll start with the first orance 256 ordinance amending chapter two of the revised General ordinances of the bar P Lake governing workplace cond motion to approve ordinance 25-6 for introduction motion council president Paul Dory second councilman Hinton discussion discussion go ahead can you just give us the general overall thank you uh this ordinance is in response to a prior uh discussion amongst the governing body that governs volunteer workplace conduct uh specifically first responding agencies and establishes a policy for uh discipline so uh this is uh this was the ordinance that we had discussed as a group uh and is on for introduction it in a in a phrase it brought is the umbrella of organiz of of Municipal organizations that are now uh responsible to adhere to the workplace workplace conduct policies sote in line with what expectations of employees would be yes and what would what would be a disciplinary action is it prohib prohibiting from volunteerism is it it is all those that are listed within the uh uh on the top of the third page termination suspens I retraining written written reprimand or verbal reprimand depending upon the severity it is not Progressive it's not so if there was an so let's just say hypothetically someone is found to have broken the code conduct and is sent for training and then the following year repeats the same pattern we go back to training or can you escalate it to the next it's not you can escalate it at that point you can go to suspension termination depending upon the severity is that written out yes okay yeah and in in in most cases we would consult with our labor Council on the type of discipline who has also reviewed this order yes they have looked at it so normally just so the council knows when when there is an incident like that we ask our labor Council to give us their advice on what they recommend to us doesn't mean we have to do it but it's a recommendation from somebody who is in that field and I'd say 90% of Follow that that recommendation uh and and usually the administrator would bring that to us information in the Clos session on what we're going to do and this covers all volunteers also it does anybody who's a volunteer in the town will all the volunteers get a copy of this or rules and rs or do and don'ts I was going to conclude by saying the burrow will distribute this to all volunteer organizations and first responding agencies it covers first responding agencies as well yes it does specifically the fire department and the first state Squad okay um and are we asking that when the materials are distributed that whoever is either the chair of a certain committee or in charge of a certain group um perhaps one meeting they dedicate to highlight we have a narrative or a script that we share with them so that that information can be and are we having anyone sign I've read the code of conduct absolutely but yes to both um and just to tack on to that we are in the process of updating our employee handbook um so this ordinance will specifically be put into the handbook which will then be given to all the appropriate but our volunteers don't get the handbook no right right but so I going to council president's Point are we going to have volunteers sign off on they understanding what we're talking about I mean that would only protect us wouldn't it you can hand it out but if they don't acknowledge that they've read it or that they understand the information how would we know that they even right we'll come up with some sort of distribution process um and acknowledgement okay yeah we'll work with the attorney okay okay all right roll call [Music] please yes councilwoman yes councilwoman yes Council yes ordinance 25-7 an ordinance amending chapter 29 of the body General ordinances that the B ccil makes and amending the tree removal protection and replacement ordinance to include an exemption from invasive Tre motion to approve ordinance 257 for introduction Council councilman uh who was that venon I'm sorry councilman hon councilman venon uh was a second uh any discussion on that this is what we talked about last meeting okay just a quick it doesn't have to be as thorough as the first one yep just uh this exempts invasive species uh from the tree ordinance uh specifically with having to pay a fee and move planting or uh enforcement with our tree replacement schedule this is determination from our Forester yes at the discretion of the burough Forester on on what specifically is an invasive species okay roll please yes Council yes counc yes counc yes 25-8 an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a Cen for calend year 2025 State Statute okay Mike give us what that's about before I believe you need a a oh I'm sorry motion to approve motion council president Paul dor councilwoman kilberg thank you mayor uh this is a standard ordinance that we adopt every year uh the state law authorizes an increase in current year Appropriations based on consumer price and index that is 2.5% for 2025 um it allows the burrow to pass an ordinance to increase our budget Appropriations in the coming budget uh by an additional 1% to the maximum of a 3.5% increase over the prior year appropriation so to put it simply we cannot raise our operating budget by more than 3.5% from last year and this ordinance uh extends it from 2.5% to 3.5% thank you any questions concerns okay uh roll call please yes yes yes yes final adoptions we going to take them one at a time one at a time yeah okay ordinance 251 ordinance authorizing the mayor B cl to execute a lease amended with P rale little Le motion to approve ordinance 25 5-1 for final adoption motion council president paor councilman uh Hinton roll call please do we have a public he are just going to stay yeah we need a oh there is no it's not listen all right um motion to open the meeting for public comment on ordinance 25-01 we can't do 02 and 03 at the same yeah let's let's let's group them let's start over okay minut 251 02 03 and that was it yeah 03 ordinances for to execute a lease Amendment for Pompton Lakes Riverdale ly Pompton Lakes Riverdale Soccer Association and the pton lake Youth Organization okay motion open meeting for public comments on just these ordinances 2501 2502 and 2503 motion council president Paul dor councilwoman kilberg all in favor anyone like to discuss just these three seeing no one motion to close the public session motion councilman venon council president paor uh all in favor I I against roll call please on all three 2501 2502 2503 who make the motion uh venon and council president paor I'm sorry venon and Jen okay to adopt okay to adopt yes to adopt or close public that was to close public session you need a motion oh I can I have a motion to approve I thought I said this motion to approve ordinance 251 2502 2503 motion council president pador councilwoman kilberg all right roll call please I'm sorryi and kber was to adopt okay Council H yes councilwoman H yes counc yes yes okay so now we're ordinance 25-4 correct ordinance authorizing the mayor and burough clerk to execute a tower lease agreement and repeater utilization agreement with North Jersey police radio Association we have to open yes motion to open the meeting for comment public comment on 25-4 motion council president paor second councilman um Hinton uh anyone from the public like to address just this ordinance seeing no one motion to close the public session on ordinance 25-4 motion Council venon second councilman hiton uh roll call please uh motion to adopt now oh I'm sorry that's where I get screw me too motion to adopt ordinance 254 motion council president paor councilwoman kilberg roll call please coun yes Council yes Council yes counc yes okay Sal of the employees of the in the county state motion to open the meeting for public comment on ordinance 25-5 motion councilman venon second council president pador anyone from the public like to address Justice ordinance 25-5 please step up J trumau 130 Legion Street um what do you mean by fix does that mean adjust or does that mean keep them the same and they can't be changed okay I'll answer it the end thank you anyone else motion to close the public session on ordinance 25-5 so moved councilwoman kilberg second councilman Hinton uh Mike you want to answer that question just simply put those bolded within the ordinance are are those that needed to be fixed uh whether it be to lower the minimum or to increase the maximum range uh the remainder of the positions are the same okay okay where I a motion to approve ordinance 25-5 for final adoption motion council president Paul dor second councilman Hinton roll call please Council hint uh yes yes yes yes okay under my report I have a motion uh with advice and consent of council to appoint Anna deg Gro as a part-time crossing guard can I have a second second councilman venon all in favor I I against motion with consent of council to appoint Michael filetto as a member of the Board of Health to fill an unexpired term until December 31st 2027 can I have a second second councilwoman kilberg all in favor I I against uh motion oh no we're going to skip three when we I would like a full Council here for that vote so uh because it's important board so and I'm going to appoint motion to appoint Chris Foster as class 4 member of the planning board to fill an unexpired term until December 31st 2022 there's no motion on that one no um is it alternate too oh y thank you thank you thank you for reminding me yes uh that is to be uh not a class four that's to be an alternate two Liz okay this is Chris Foster this is Chris Foster yes alter yeah the planning board last night they decided to go that rout yes is that open position though yes because they moved qu [Music] this is for the planning board planning board so the only alternate right now should be Sean uh alternate to okay yep okay under my report um I attended the planning board meeting do we need to vote on that I don't think we voted did we vote no it's just anointment no that's an appointment sorry um I attended the planning board meeting which is just a rear meeting um and we'll be adding some new members to that board I attended the open space meeting which uh there was a long discussion and I thank Michael and our engineering for coming and explaining the whole will field uh talk there that was there intented environmental uh protection I mean environmental club meeting I want to thank uh our DPW for the storm cleanup uh you know normally I get a lot calls if if things are not done right on the storms from residents and I got zero calls this year except for a couple on kofax Avenue but kofax Avenue is not done by our guys it's done by the county so you know all in all they did a great job and I I have to thank the residents for getting their cars off the street that's real important when we're plowing to make sure the cars are off the street you know we're pretty lenient on letting your cars park whenever you want during the year all we ask is during a snow emergency you remove those cars we are going to ticket if you leave your car on the street so there was a couple cars left on on WQ Avenue they were ticketed couple left on Ringwood Avenue you know it's tough for the plows to get around but all in all they did a great job and I want to thank them for that uh like we we met with our our planner about some upcoming uh uh events that we'll be having and that is my report short report uh council president Paul Dory thank you um so I met again with a representative from the VFW to discuss the upcoming Flags project for the street along W you have uh and have reached out to the B administrator and asked that we put that on for the first February meeting they would like to send someone in to come in and walk the council through the selection of flags placement of flags um and put a finalization on that so they can move forward and have them up for the spring uh I want to remind oh I attended a a Paint and Sip fundraiser for the first aid Squad uh which was well attended so I want to thank the first aid squad for their efforts in continuously putting programs out there to uh raise funds for their needs and for all that they do for the community I also want to remind everyone that we have a community dinner at the church which is open to all residents it is free to attend that is this coming Thursday night and also um we have an event coming up on January 30th which is a Thursday it's being sponsored by the Pompton Lakes prevention Coalition they are hosting a Hardwood Classic at the Pompton Lakes High School double header game with prizes contests um and other activities in between the games as well as concessions this is an opportunity for the community to come together and spend a night out with activities and Sports in a drug and alcohol-free environment so we're very excited uh that this is taking place this week the information is on social media so I ask that you do please make best efforts to attend and root your teams on uh and I had a representative from uh MRC reach out to me to see where we were at and if you want to discuss this in your administrator's report um they have uh I guess we haven't really gotten back in touch with them to let them know if we're ready to move forward with the upgrades to hfield park he did want to bring to my attention that because of where we are with delivery times they're looking at approximately 12 weeks out from order to delivery so if we have some type of a working time frame with moving forward with that uh we do need to take into consideration that from the time we make a decision to move forward it could be up to Poss possibly 3 months uh before we have the equipment delivered um and then I just want to bring back attention to this motion that was skipped I'm not sure why it was skipped we you know we we had it on here I have some concerns with the the way that some of these uh recommendations are made we have a a resident who now has asked twice through the last two appointments for that board to be considered he has uh emailed numerous Council people and for whatever reason he's being overlooked and and this name was put in and uh then this motion was pulled so I'm I'm just not sure why we do that and I'll explain that it's my motion I'll I'll decide who gets on the motion and uh that's a very un let say no it's my it's my job is oh I'm sorry I think you're finished okay so um and you know it's my Motion sounds a little bit childlike I thought you had a report finish your report resident don't talk to me like that while I'm giving my report you just told me that so go ahead no you go ahead you go ahead and tell us all why you only choose your friends for all these boards it is now it is cuz I'm going to get interrupted over and over again anyway so I'm waiting are you finish report I'm finished thank you so now I'll answer your question I didn't ask you a question okay well I'm going to answer it it's the mayor's appointment you guys vote and on consent this is an important board a Redevelopment agency I have two Council people missing they should be part of that agreement that discussion that's an important part for this town I'm not going to let two people missing have an opportunity to speak on this so I'm putting it off and and you say I have lots of friends most of the people on the boards are my friends that doesn't make them someone who can't be on a board because they're my friend so that that is my answer to you uh councilman hit you have some motions you want to start with them um do you want me to start with yeah whatever you want okay um motion to approve the request of pump the leges Riverdale little Le to con conduct the annual parade that leaves pump the Lakes High School parking lot Saturday April 5th 2025 at 12:00 noon and marches through the business district to Joe grill little Le complex near the South End of town for opening ceremonies during the parade the police department will temporarily close the route portions of this route include County Roads notified to say County for road closure can I have a second second councilman Menon all in favor I I against next motion motion to approve request to close the herfield Park tennis courts to the public for the Lakeside School gifted and talented team to hold an annual Statewide remote control solar car competition race on Tuesday May 20th 2025 from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with a rain date of May 22nd 2025 can I have a second second council president Paul dor all in favor I against motion to approve a carnival license application by the pump Lakes El chapter 1895 to be held at 15 perinad pumpt Lakes New Jersey on the following dates and time Thursday August 21st 2025 from 6:00 p.m. through 10 p.m. Friday August 22nd 2025 6:00 p.m. through 10 p.m. Saturday August 23rd 2025 400 p.m. through 10 p.m. and Sunday August 24th 2025 400 p.m. through 10 p.m. no alcoholic beverages to be served uh at any cost Carnival were on the premises of the lcy during the conduct of the carnival no licenses granted under this article may be assigned or transferred by the lensee violation of penalties subject to F you want to read that last part oh the application to be reviewed inspected by police fire prevention first aid construction official and the health department can I have a second second second Council vendon all in favor I look at you you got a lot to say here you got another like L school it's your big day when I was a boy motion to approve P the Lake's prevention coition Walk For Hope in conjunction with the stigma-free campaign and mental health awareness month to be held on May 18th 2025 rain or shine registration is at 900 a.m. at the pump the Lakes High School walk to begin at 1100 a.m. from pump the Lakes High School to ranoa and ending at Hurstville Park and returning to the pump the Lakes High School using the same reversed rout walk rout approved by police County permits not required police fire and first aid notified have a second second councilwoman kilberg all in favor hi hi yes okay thank you now a report like I'm tired I'm sure you are um I went to the uh open space meeting that uh unfortunately councilwoman Kent couldn't make she was ill and uh the mayor came at that open space meeting on January 9th and um he gave a pretty much a report on um all the goings on that are going on uh with open space will of field Improvement project pville park Lakeside Park upgrades Lakeside Park uh meller acquisition upgrades um and the open space 2025 reappointments correct um at the time there was some questions in open space and mayor Sarah advised um that the mayor and Council voted to move forward with allocating the funds for the project explained that there is no yes no vote on the project now I've constantly had an issue with that um only on allocating funds to the project I mean the F the project was never approved by this Council we are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a project that was never voted on by this Council now the analogy that you had made at the meeting was that in road work as our administrator would say uh agreed um we don't have a vote on roadwork but road work is necessary work this project in Willow field isn't as necessary as road work um this is just something that the little league had wanted and I can understand in the beginning in order to make applications to the D we needed to allocate funds for the engineering of it but this project is just continually go through without a vote from the council that we even want this project and this I just don't understand that's the process on how it's done we vote on the money from open space being spent that's what we vote on correct but I mean the project itself was never really brought up to the council that we want to do this project this project has just been no well the vote is to to put the money to do the project that's Ved I thought that we voted we get to vote when when we decide on like the plan when it's we do when there's there is when we're given you know how much it's going to cost and then we decide we want to appropriate the money or not vo on the money yes we vote with the money we vote on approving the project 100% no we vote just on the money spent correct well there will be a bond ordinance in the near future and that's to appropriate funding for the project and then uh afterwards in a meeting in the near future uh the governing body would hopefully be uh authorizing the award of a bid for the project so those are the two formal actions that are required of this governing body correct I think and that's our that's the vote Yes or no you know what I mean when you're well it's yes or no on those two things yes yes so I mean but if it was a no like if someone wanted to vote no on the project they would vote no for the if that's what they wanted to do yeah they could do that right yes because we had a vote in open space to allocate another 150,000 to the project if the project was approved by the council but so it as you know the open space is Advisory board on how to spend the money so what they're requesting is us to spend that money so we vote to spend that money if we want to spend that money we don't vote per project on the actual project so in the past we haven't voted on Pro when we do the Muller project for example when we fix that up we're not going to vote is the m project a project we want to vote on yes or no we're going to vote do we want to put the money from open space to spend to fix up the project that's what we're going to vote on and the rest of the money that's not a full and complete what we that's a separate one for the bond ordinance yeah yeah so but we always vote on whether or not we're using open space funds but there are numerous votes that take place after that for the completion of the entire project yeah the whole thing doesn't completely begin middle and end and reside in voting yes on open space money no no not but that starts the project and then the next step would be him to go out to bid and we'd vote on that part of it but we've done projects where we haven't used open space money and we vote on that too I don't think we then I remember any projects where didn't did improvements on Styles Park without using open space funds while I was sitting up here I work with Kevin Bo on it yeah but we didn't vote on that we didn't vote on it as a council on that awarded we awarded it them to do it but we didn't vote on it but that's our no if you vote no on that then well that's what I'm saying vote no on the on the award yes you you would vote yes or no on the award of the bid and and the bond and that would be your yes or no vote cor correct yeah okay that's I we said from the beginning yeah I'm just learning okay and I'm questioning okay um because at the last meeting we had a straw pole straw pole to move again to move forward so the administrator could move forward with something because there steps after we talk that he has to follow up okay because I went to Robert's Rules and it says uh about straw Poes which are votes taken just to find out what people think about a proposal right but not resulting in action that's correct that's correct it is not a formal you you have not taken formal action when you do a straw poll the straw poll is only to make sure there's enough support that warrants the business administrator taking the next steps before bringing which will ultimately lead to bringing something back to this board for formal action okay because so far we have the fund Advisory board and the shry committee that was against this project but obviously that doesn't seem to have any bearing on anyone's individually it could if you're an individual everyone has their own vote if they're going to fund the project or not okay that'll be at a later date yes okay um I also attended the MUA meeting and uh very interesting uh just lot of questions I'm learning that also um one of my main questions was with all the fires out in California if anything forbid was to happen like that to us but we have a water supply we would have empty hydrants and they assured me that the with our wells and our water uh aquifer underneath we wouldn't have a problem at all so that was reassuring and then um one of our council members who lives in the south end of town who was concerned about odors um I asked about the odor sometimes coming from the MUA and uh they said they're doing a lot of venting they're doing a lot of work to alleviate those ERS in the South so uh but U Learning the terminology and when they gave me the chart on how many millions of gallons pumpin Lakes uses per year like over 300 million gallons it's thought right away that I need to turn my sprinkler off you know it was just unbelievable the amount of water that the town does use um so that was very interesting um and I was talking about I was asking questions about the sewage capacity of the plant itself for all these new projects that we have coming up and um from all the projects that we have now coming up we have plenty of sewage capacity for that so those were some of the interesting questions I needed to ask um and then I uh attended the shade tree commission uh as a citizen for the first time and um councilwoman can't couldn't make that either so uh basically the sh tree commission is just delegating out the work that their past member Mr Hinton did so uh well I have an actual question since you were there the is it a gentleman named Amy is it or Andy Andy Andy Dixon so was there someone else at the meeting that was supposed to be asked to be on wasn't it Amy Liz no kayn kayin o Conor I don't have that information is the next one that wants to come on okay and uh you were you couldn't make the meeting and uh an needs to be uh the chairman an tanell needs to be sworn in again okay but so there is another name that that an put forward to us K she wants to move a position too she want want to an alternate position she wants to move an alternate into a regular position I believe all right so we'll have to get that straight with where she wants okay it'll be on the on the first meeting in febrary February okay and um I just was uh watching channel 77 today I was watching the Zoning Board of adjustment meeting uh great picture no sound I don't know if anybody looks at Channel 77 to make sure everything's running smooth but first I've heard of it have we heard that yet l or Mike I don't live in town today and all right so we'll look into it you know we do have problems so just bringing that up and um want to say the DPW did a hell of a job with the last snow um 9:00 in the morning I was having breakfast there was a knock on the door and I want to thank uh young Logan and his sister Juliana asked if they can shovel my sidewalk and I said no problem they're um Len school kids Juliana's a fifth grade and uh her brother is I guess third grade is it a nice job good cost me a few dollars but so I can knock on your door and I can get paid for shovel yes you can all right want a shovel my snow that's all right good and uh let's see oh one last thing a resident called me about um out on his walks a lot of the sidewalks aren't shovel now from what I understand from uh Dan Ro residents have 48 hours to shovel their sidewalks and we're past that now so I was wondering is there somebody this property so we are we are proactive so somebody wants to call and make a complaint about a sidewalk we'll go investigate it but we don't drive around looking for sidewalks so if a resident feels it's unsafe they should just make a call to the building department and then they'll send somebody out all right does the property maintenance man does he do uh ride around town he doesn't have the time they're part-time they don't have the time to do that they're busy doing inspections you know if there's an issue and we're called in for some house or for some sidewalk or whatever it is they will definitely go look at it but they don't drive the whole town after it's not a v it's just one man John lber correct well it depends who could do it it could be the it could be the build supervisor sou could do it all so would ride around he could yeah sure but but John himself Lindberg does not do no he does not drive around looking no looking for issues right okay that's my report thank you uh where am I councilman Von oh no I'm sorry councilwoman kilberg um I would like to First send my deepest condolences to councilman Bobby Cruz and his family on the loss of his mother um I would like to say thank you to Andy Silverstein for all his years of service to the town and I would like to congratulate Sergeant Bartlett on his promotion um at this month's Library board meeting they passed a resolution to support a fiscal year 2025 Pate County open space farmland and historic preservation Grant application for $100,000 if awarded this would bring the total grant money to 700,000 for the work needed at the library so keep our fingers crossed um I attended the Environmental Protection committee meeting and they are starting to plan this year's River cleanup that will be held on Sunday May 4th um I attended my first planning board meeting last night and I look forward to working with everyone um Recreation uh you can avoid the cold and walk indoors at Lakeside Middle School Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. through May 4th 2025 get fit classes are held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 7: to 8:00 p.m. it's $40 for 10 classes or a $5 drop in fee and classes run through March 6th pickle ball is Saturdays at Lincoln school until February 1st from 9: to 11:00 a.m. the drop in fee is $15 a person and I just have one question last year around this time we um we were told that the Civic Center was going to be worked on and would be done in a few months and then it was supposed to be done by the fall and I haven't seen anybody do anything to funny we I was just asking our administrator about it and uh they're waiting on the final one permit is that right Michael uh yes we're waiting on the plumbing sub code to come in uh we have everything else that we need uh to give out the permit and at that point it's up to our developer uh to start the project so uh we're definitely moving ahead this year uh we had issues with um we had issues with some of drawings that had to be corrected uh with our construction official and it took some time to do that unfortunately uh Meridia had gone through a change in Architects uh change in Project managers so that just delayed it a little bit and where does the um permit come from uh the burrow oh yeah well shouldn't take that long we're very close we're close we're getting is that your report thank you that's my uh councilman Bennett thank you mayor I also want to congratulate Sergeant Bart on his uh promotion to to Sergeant tonight um heartfelt thank you to Andy Silverstein for all your years of service to our community uh I started my public service here in Pompton on the planning board with with Abby actually back in 2013 and then recently I served with Andy on the RDA board um you you will be missed Andy uh speaking of RDA we did not meet this this month our next our meeting is next month uh and historic commission is meeting next week lastly I want to recognize the Steel Magnolia a Girl Scout sponsored all girls robotics team uh they had an amazing performance last uh weekend winning four out of five matches uh the team is currently ranked 14 out of 52 teams in our league the next meet is uh the league tournament at Delbarton on Sunday March 22nd and M matter for uh just for uh clarification the historic commission had reached out to myself and Michael about a tree that had fallen on the uh ice building in the back here next to Moss Library cross the library and we are going to remove that tree so that's that's good thank you B attorney nothing this evening mayor M report thank you mayor short report uh the finance committee is meeting on Thursday January 30th uh to have a preliminary review of our Municipal budget this year uh we've been working very hard on our budget uh over the past few months uh with our department heads um with our CFO and our auditor I think we're in a good place right now so uh we are meeting with the finance committee and expect perhaps uh Council discussion uh in late February or if not early March uh so that is forthcoming and just to address council president Poor's question on the playground um I did speak to MRC Recreation uh not too long ago and I am intending on bringing forth the proposal uh for the project at on workshop at the next council meeting uh so we can then begin the Contracting phase uh get it on order and construct it this spring uh late spring early summer uh so we are moving on that can you just bring me up to speed on where we left off with phase one are we moving phase two ahead of phase one now we are moving phase two which is the playground ahead of phase one due to delays with our storage shed renovation project uh with the D permitting team um coin incidentally I just spoke to the mayor today we got some feedback from the DP after we had submitted our application um and I'm going to be scheduling a meeting with our open space Liaisons uh Mr hon and Miss Kent to talk about the direction that we want to move forward with with the project at which point we will bring back to you guys to make a decision on um there was some concerns with structural analysises and uh the the flood permitting uh that we have to address so are we thinking that it's possible to see completion of phase 2 in 2025 and we might not be starting phase one we are hopeful that phase one will be done this year still as well as phase two cor that's correct okay that's great we're doing everything we can phase two will definitely be done this year that that's the playground perfect um so I'll come back with further updates any further guidance on phase three from the county do we know what the start date for the uh bridge is uh we don't have an official start date for the bridge I don't believe the count went out to bid for the project yet uh but they have told us that it will be completed this year uh West Lennox a pedestrian bridge next year um so we're just going to time that up with our burrow engineer to get our Trails replaced hopefully in 2026 uh we are looking at maybe uh supplemental grant funding and uh it's in our open space 5year plan as well uh to provide funding for that but that's to be seen okay and we and we did meet with the county two weeks ago to talk about um flood gauges with with our OEM director to see we'd like to keep the flood gauges on the bridge but the problem is there's no stanions underneath to attach the flood gaug on so we're going to see how we can work that out because it is a vital part of what our police do do during the flood event to drive up and see that gauge and know where we are uh so uh there's more discussion with the county on how we can make that work any questions for the administrator nope all right up on you again Mike uh sa County thank you uh just a simple uh workshop for tonight uh in your packets you have a letter from the faay county uh engineering department uh every year Pate County reaches out to its municipalities to seek input on the road resurfacing program for the uh preceding year uh so we did get a letter from P County they're looking for feedback for their 2026 Road resurfacing program uh you do have a a chart in your packets which delineates what roads they they are replacing this year uh unfortunately our requests from last year uh were not included in their plan for this year um so I just wanted to get consensus tonight uh I spoke with the burough engineer and the superintendent of Public Works we are again recommending uh to the county uh on a priority basis to number one resurface Cannonball Road in its entirety and number two to resurface Hamburg Turnpike uh from Ringwood a to Riverview Road uh which is in pretty poor condition and lastly we are recommending that the county uh lookit all of our crosswalks on Wan qav uh for certain improvements so we just wanted feedback if anyone had any suggestions or concerns I have a question um you want to um they want to resurface canonball road is that up to DuPont place or is that actually up to Mountainside Drive uh we would specifically have to look at our tax maps to see where the county jurisdiction and uh but it was our stance to replace the whole uh stretch of cannibal I know what you mean but because no one really wants to own that little tiny piece of property you know so it's it's it's something we can maybe convince the county to help us with Y we'll look at that tomorrow before we send in our official letter just to put a marker on specifically where we're requesting to thank you um but thank you uh just going back to the crosswalks some of the county crosswalks have to be restriped I think I think you know they always do it in the spring but sometimes they get to it very late they're starting to disappear now so two three months from now could we could lose some crosswalks on some major roads so they should probably just take a look at that we thank you any other questions about that NOP okay motion to open the meeting for public comments motion motion councilman Benning council president Paul Dory all in favor against anyone from the public like to address please step up no no okay good evening ladies and gentlemen uh first of all uh aliv angelista uh speaking as a resident right now 24 hours on a sidewalk cleaning address 48 need an address pardon me address Ringwood Court P to Links New Jersey um on your question the burrow line is where our last Municipal hydrant is on cannal road so when you go up cannal past the entrance to mountain side you'll see a burrow hydrant on the right hand side that fire hydrant is ours okay when we go beyond that it becomes the dupon property and they had their own hydrant system in there when that plant was in operation which their hydrants are still there but they're not active okay on your subject with the MUA I'd already met with the MUA before the fire just to meet the new superintendent and the new foreman and we discussed those issues and just so you know we have besides having an excellent Municipal Water System okay um we have some major pipes on major roads which is a great thing and then we have ranches off of them we have three interconnections with three different towns butake Valley Water Oakland and wanako which we use during the uh acne fire we also um we also maxed out our system we have a 1 million gallon water tank on on the Mount okay and um the other thing is uh during that fire in 1997 we were pumping 7,000 gallons a minute out of Lake gz using four fire Pumpers two 2,000 gallon per minute Pumpers and two 1500s my point is this we are replete with lakes and rivers around this town so we can go to draft okay which FDNY went back to after 9911 because they had gotten rid of all their ability to D draft and they went back to it because the need is always there okay so we can draft out of the wanu river we have a draft point back there we draft out of herfield park anywhere where there's the water we practice down at the pton lake all the time all right so we have that covered and uh very nice gentleman to work with the mua's done an excellent job in our town and I'm very proud of that now speaking of that very proud of our residents mayor I have to concur with you on this snowstorm okay first of all I put out on Facebook and I have 3,200 um likes on our site and I know the police department put it on Facebook Michael I think you put something out on the burough site as well uh asking people to plan ahead move their cars make arrangements get their cars off the streets at the height of the storm I did a windshield survey I drove around town and I'll tell you the streets were empty it was amazing how empty the streets were I checked with the police department the next day I believe there were 25 summonses in total that were issue which is a phenomenal low number of of sumes which means the public listened to us they apply it only helps them getting their cars off the road and uh that went very well the other thing was um the police chief called for a phone notification we did a reverse phone notification and that goes out to over 4,500 people in town and um the other thing was the cause up the street now plowing and salt DBW did a great job of what our residents don't understand and people don't understand this in general there are different types of Snows there's very wet snow heavy which just wasn't it was a lighter snow it was easy to plow which was great but the unfortunate part was salt doesn't work below 15° so you can salt all you want and when it gets 15 degrees or lower it's not going to react and work now they looked at towns like to compared it to Oakland Oakland brins their streets okay and that brine makes the surface slippery where the ice me the ashb and that's why their roads were a little bit cleaner it it uh interacts with the with the salt that's put down and they get a little bit more of an action of heating to melt that ice so in some spots we were down to ashva other spots that weren't some was County some was Municipal but in any event uh overall and I agree with you it was just an excellent uh excellent response to the storm uh the other thing I'd like to say uh as a res i' like to talk about ordinance 2506 that's the one M amending chapter 2 to revised General ordinances governing workplace conduct we were distributed and given a booklet about five years ago in the fire department okay I'm a member long time member there and we had a sign for it and it was the policy and procedures Handbook of the burough pton l so what I'd like to know is this ordinance amending that policy and procedures handbook is it taking the place of it is it something that's not covered because that that handbook was replete from from A to Z with issues within departments like ours especially in the area of affirmative action right affirmative action is a federal law it's not a burough ordinance it's not a state ordinance it's federal law and the thing is you just can't say all right we're going to talk about um affirmative action we should have training for affirmative action in the police department if you don't have it already burrow the first state Squad fire department DPW everybody and we have such an interaction with the public we should have affirmative action training number one number two we signed for those they should have the signature of the guys that receive those booklets but most important I want to know that that's not going to be in contrary to what disordinate says they've got to be part and paral this is a little bit if it's it's if it's related to that issue at the f fire department which I'm not going to discuss but if it's related to that issue it's a little bit of the Barn Door being closed after the wor got out because you know we've been there 100 and some years and these issues over the years have come up and and come and gone and again the handling of an issue is more important than the issue itself and I think that has to be looked at and that's all I'll say about this ordinance can we get copies are there copies of this ordinance are there here tonight or do I have to pick one up we'll answer it okay thank you anyone else from the public like to address please step [Music] up J trumbower 130 leading Street um as far as a snow removal I think everybody did pretty good um can you guys tow a car it's been abandoned there for couple of months across from my house if you want to know which one it is is the one with all the snow still on top of it um Mary you brought up a couple months ago about the YMCA and Wayne just wanted to see if there's any progress with that and just seeing if we were going to talk about the cameras of the parks you brought up a couple months ago it was like $190,000 you were to talk about just any progress on that sure thank you anyone else from the public like to address seeing no one can I have a motion to close the public session motion H and councilwoman kilber all in favor I against al thank you for all the nice comments I agree with everything you said about uh what we were talking about the storm and and all the uh other stuff um the handbook I'm going to let Michael jump on that a little bit uh because I don't we we've updated that handbook correct or will be updating that handbook I believe that uh the matter might be more appropriate for a Clos session uh but uh yes it work in conjunction with the handbook all right so we we'll get more back to you on that we're going to have a close session on that um Jay thank you uh uh to start with uh if a car is unregistered or unlicensed uh they you can call the police department if they don't have an updated registration or a license plate on the car they can tow the car and then it would be removed so uh you could always call the police department and have them just take a look to see if they even do that and they can do that uh the YMCA yeah we're we're working out the final agreement there will be uh that will be happening um I'm understanding by I spoke to the mayor again that uh they're just putting the final touches together and what the costs are going to be and I think we're going to talk about some internal fees that we might be picking up and then our residents yes will be able to use it cameras any update on the cameras M uh Bond ordinance for the next council meeting Bond ordinance for next Council okay great okay okay personel no uh privilege of the floor I'm sorry privilege of the floor okay thank you motion to adjourn and to close session motion council president Paul dor councilman Von all in favor against thank you everyone for coming see you good night see Frank session councilman benon counc president Paul Dory yeah okay in close session we discuss Personnel a motion to adj motion second benon Council woman Gilbert all in favor I yes okay thanks