Okay. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> The following is the agenda for the regular burough council meeting of the burrow of Thompson Lakes mayor council and municipal cooperation in the county of the meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. on April 8th, 2026 in the municipal building 25 Lexus Avenue Thompson Lakes
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 Burough's municipal code and bodywork. >> Please stand for salute. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> Please bless this marit council as they deliberate on the best of Pton Lakes. >> Amen. >> Say amen. Thank you.
>> In conformance 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 in the municipal building mailed to all requested and tape for same and
published in the suburban trends. Roll call, please. >> Mayor Sarah >> here. >> Council President Kent >> here. Councilman Bay >> here. >> Councilman. >> Yes. Councilman Hayden >> here.
>> Councilman Sanders >> here. >> Councilman Bennon >> here. >> With us this evening is our burough attorney Mark Samaro, our burough administrator Michael Felli, police chief Anthony Rodriguez, chief financial officer Peter George, burrow order Dave Baky, and myself.
>> Okay, thank you. Under my presentations, uh I have a presentation from the women's club and uh you know how many members now in women's club? >> Over 100. >> They have over 100 members in the women's club. very impressive group to have 100 members in that are very involved, do a lot of things in helping
the community and helping the residents in the town. So, this is one of the things they do. So, I'm going to ask all the women's club members to come on up forward, including ourselves and our burough clerk. Maybe the burough cook can't come. She's busy. >> You want somebody else to push the button?
>> No. You want to give a speech? >> You can. >> Maybe later. >> There's a proclamation from the office of the mayor. Whereas our children are the most valuable resource and we shape the future of the burrow who shape the future of the burough lakes. Childhood
trauma including abuse and neglect is a serious problem affecting every segment of the community and finding solutions require input and action from everyone. Childhood trauma can have long-term psychological, emotional, and physical effects that have lasting consequences
for victims of abuse. Protective factors and conditions that reduce the limiting risk and promote the social, emotional, and development well-being of our children as a community. As communities must make every effort to promote programs and activities that build strong children
and families, we acknowledge that we must work together as a community in partnership to build awareness about child abuse and contribute to promote the social and emotional well-being of children and families in a safe, stable, and nurturing environment. Now therefore, I Michael Sarah, mayor of the
burrow of Compton Lakes and the county of Sith, New Jersey, do hereby proclaim April 2026 as child abuse prevention month in the burrow of Compton Lakes and urge all my fellow residents to become involved in efforts to prevent our children from being abused anyway. Thank
you, ladies. Anybody want to say anything? Thank you. No. >> Nope. >> Thank you. Okay. Next on an agenda here is the municipal budget. I'm going to start with our administrator and he's going to
get some help from our people. Okay. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Uh so, we're here tonight with the introduction of the 2026 uh municipal budget. Uh as a followup to the March 4th uh 2026 uh special budget meeting,
uh tonight uh the CFO, Burough Auditor, and I are presenting again the introduction of the 2026 municipal budget, the final adoption pending council's approval is scheduled for the May 13th, 2026 council meeting, at which
point we will take uh public comment from residents on the budget and answer any questions or concerns. Again, tonight is just an educational uh effort for the residents and uh you know, if there's any questions from the governing body at any point, please feel free to
interrupt me. Uh so, uh just again wanted to thank the mayor and council uh and the respective committees for all the hard work that they put in throughout the year, especially with the municipal budget. Uh this slide highlights all of our burrow
professionals uh including Chief Rodriguez, Burough Clerk and Deputy Administrator Elizabeth Bransnesses, Peter George, our CFO, and Dave Baky, our burough auditor, all and our burough attorney, Mark Seamero, who are all here in attendance tonight. So, we thank them
for their hard work among uh all of our other department heads and employees, especially uh with their input with the municipal budget. Uh it's greatly appreciated. again for all their hard work. So to go through the PowerPoint, we're going to start with the 2025
budget. We're going to go over historical data, major accomplishments, and then get into the 2026 municipal budget. Uh so to look at the tax analysis and review of last year's 2025 budget, the total tax rate was 4.131,
which amounts to an average tax bill of $11,553 for the average resident. And above you'll see the breakdown of your uh municipal, county, school, local, municipal, and local open space tax uh
which is all broken down here. As you can see, the largest impact here in Compton Lakes and also uh throughout most of New Jersey is our school tax. Um the municipal tax only makes up about $2,700
of again the total average tax bill of $11,000. And the library bill is is a mandate from the state. The library >> Yes. The library is a statutory uh piece of our budget uh that we're required to fund every year.
Again, this is just a breakdown again of our uh 2025 tax bill. It just shows the school, county, municipal portions uh respectively. The $2,749 that is what what is the municipal
budget portion is broken down into several pieces. We have our um municipal budget which again was $2,749 which is uh $229 per month for the average resident. Uh what goes into that includes debt
service and our open space trust fund which are some of our key highlights uh that we'd like to showcase in our PowerPoint. The debt service for last year was 1.4 million which again includes all of our capital debt uh from prior projects that we bonded for. Um
and that amounts to $214 out of the $2,700 that's in the budget. Again, only $17 per month to fund all the debt. It's 7.8% of our budget from last year. And again, the Open Space Trust Fund, which is authorized uh via a
local referendum, is $28. It's only 2 It's only $2.33 per month for the average resident to fund all of our open space initiatives, which uh includes upgrades to our parks and our playgrounds and all of the many other projects that we do throughout the
year. How are taxes calculated? The taxes uh have two sides to it. You have the municipal tax levy which uh equals our state aid. We look at revenue grants and our surplus which is otherwise known as our fund balance. And we also look at
the net net valuation which is the annual assessed value of the borrow which we'll go over in a few minutes. How do we keep taxes stable? Again, we talk about this every year, but it's all about increasing revenue, reducing the
budget appropriations, which is our spending, utilizing more surplus when available and if if allowable, and increasing state aid. Um, we did receive word from the governor's office that uh all of our state aid has remained flat
for this year, so we're not losing any state aid. We did lose state aid last year, um, but we're flat this year, which is good for our budget. The tax rate is calculated by the municipal tax levy divided by the net
valuation taxable which was 1.1 billion last year uh times by 100. So our tax rate last year was 0.983. Some major accomplishments that we've uh seen in the past year include the doors highway improvements project. We
resurfaced all of Daw's highway using a DOT municipal aid grant. We are in the process of resurfacing waterlet and Albany a uh which is expected to be completed in the next two weeks. So we're excited about that. Last year we
also paved sorry we also paved Spruce Street, Laurel A and the Hersheel Park basketball court. Um we did ADA curb ramp upgrades along Lakeside A. The Meridia Capidagley redevelopment project is ongoing and expected to be completed
this year. We have Hersfield Park phase 1 and two which consisted of the playground and upgrades to the storage building which is set to be finished uh in the coming weeks. We have the pedestrian bridge replacement at Hersfield Park which actually was just
set on on its pedestal yesterday. So, we're excited about that. Uh again, last year we funded all of new we funded all new street signs on the south end of town. The year prior we funded the north end. So that completes our street sign
replacement program. And we uh we have seen upgrades to the burrows uh civic center which is set to open in in the next month or two. And we also funded uh burrow security camera installations throughout all of our parks. So, those
are just some key highlights that we completed successfully last year. Uh, what's on the horizon for Pompton Lakes? We have this year the Lakeside A phase 1 improvements project which is in process. We're going to be paving
Lakeside A from Van A to Jefferson A. And again, we received one of the highest non-Hudson County town state aid grants throughout the whole state of New Jersey for this project. So, we're very proud of that and looking forward to that
project. We also have a grant from Pay County to fund ADA curb ramp replacements on Edwards Avenue, Riverview Road, among many other streets on the south end. So, that that is uh planned for this year. We're also
looking at future plans for Hersfield Park which include walking paths once the county finishes the pedestrian bridge project. Uh we have river projects, IT and computer upgrades. We have vehicle replacements. We are going to be funding a new
apparatus for the first aid squad which is something that we're planning for. Again, we have the DPW garage which you're going to hear about later in our meeting tonight. We have some good news about that. uh the fire department, you know, looking at apparatus replacements. We
have DPW garbage truck replacements which are coming up on the horizon. And we have open space projects such as the Lakeside Park Pavilion, the bulkhead, and the dock expansion project that council president Kent and I have been working on uh and are looking forward to
that. >> And I'm just going to jump in and say, you know, we have a great fire department volunteer and a great ambulance squad volunteer. uh they do an outstanding job and we we owe a a great deal of of credit to them, but we have to pay for the appliances that go into
that, the fire trucks, the ambulance squad, the buildings, and those things that comes from the town budget. Okay. So, that is a you know, a nice chunk of change when it goes out to to support these groups that are most very much needed in our town. >> Thank you. So, now we're going to segue
into our 2026 budget. Uh we're looking at things like keeping Pompin Lakes affordable, increased communications, um investing in our public safety and infrastructure, and upgrading our open space and public park areas. So those are some of the priorities of the
governing body for the year. The budget again consists of the assessed valuation, revenue, state aid, fund balance, which is otherwise known as surplus, and our tax levy. This slide showcases uh the assessed value of the burrow broken down by
property type. Um so it goes through vacant land, residential, commercial, what properties are exempt such as veteran deductions or veteran exemptions rather among many other uh exceptions that there may be. Uh you will note you
will note that our total assessment has been reduced uh since 2025. So that is affecting the total tax bill. Um so you know it has to do with the market. Um but if there's any questions about that
the auditor or CFO can address that. Um you know but we're seeing trends in commercial properties go down which is affecting us among you know many other things. >> And the vacant land is is the buyouts for the flood. A lot of them are the buyouts for the flood. Correct.
>> Yes. So, we have 60 vacant properties in Pompton Lakes, which you know is on the higher end. Um, usually you see about 15 to 20, >> but it it is affecting us. It only makes up.5% of the total assessment, but it does
affect us. So for the public watching at home, when when the state comes in with a program and it's a buyout and they buy a home and they tear it down, it's great for that homeowner, it's great for the town, less people we have to get into, but we also lose the tax revenue on that property that prop they do not pick up
the tax revenue, which would be a big push on my point for the state to pick up the loss of the taxes, but they don't seem to want to do that. Uh, so that's what happens sometimes. You know, it's a it's a good it's a double-edged sword there. We get rid of the homes that are in trouble, but we lose the tax dollars.
Thank you. Uh this slide just again breaks it down in a chart. So talking about our budget as many other municipalities are facing their budget. Uh all are in crisis mode regarding health benefits and many other problems which we're going to go into.
One of our issues this year is our revenue. Our revenue is down about $500,000. The three key drivers to that is our sale of municipal assets is down due to the delay of the sale of the burough's radio station which is in the final
process right now and we're expecting that to be anticipated in this year's budget. So we're not going to have that problem for next year and we're able to reanticipate that as revenue for next year. Um, we're also down in UCCC construction permits
wholly due to the fact that in 2024 we received a very large permit from Meridia and this year we have to make up for that because we had such a large amount of revenue last year. Uh, we're kind of in the hole right now. So, we're looking to recoup that for next year. We have some good projects coming up
regarding the Sujan property, the Washington building among among many other projects that is going that are going to help us for this year's budget for next year. Uh so we're looking forward to that. And the third key driver um was our interest on investments with the bank was a little
bit down. Um but we're looking at that with our bank provider right now and hoping to resolve that for next year. Here are some notable revenue results. Uh we did we did anticipate more or increase revenue on the interest on cost
and taxes and our alcoholic beverage control licenses which we increased those fees last year. Uh so you're seeing the result of that right now in this year's budget. And again the UCCC and sale of municipal assets is down.
and our reserve for pilots which is what we collect every year for all of our redevelopment pilot projects um stands at 188. We are re anticipating more for next year because those pilot redevelopment projects those pilot
amounts are increased for next year due to those developers receiving increased revenue uh as part of their projects. So, we are I think we're looking at about $220 to $230,000 for next year and it only goes up from there.
Uh right here we have our slide about our fund balance which again is otherwise known as our surplus. I'm going to defer to our auditor for a second to talk about uh where we are with our surplus. >> Hi, good evening. Hi Um, yeah, it's surplus is down just like it's down in
almost every town I've done this year. Um, has to do with what Mike was saying about the revenues being lower than we anticipated. So, that hurts. Um, we're not we had our expenses were higher, so
we weren't getting to lap money into surplus from the year before. Um, and it's just basically the health benefits that's killing every municipality and school in the state. So
hopefully it'll get better from here on out. The revenues, you'll be able to anticipate uh more revenues for your pilot and um that's pretty pretty much it to say. I mean, it's mostly just like I said, health benefits and lower
revenues for because we had the um like Mike said, the sale of the um radio station. We anticipated it, we didn't get it. So, that's money that we basically gets deducted from our fund balance. And same with the construction fees. So, like you said, there's a new
project coming or continuing that may generate more. So, be on the positive side and hopefully it gets better this year. So what the what both the gentleman said is is true. I just want the public to understand the radio station we we sold it was supposed to be sold this year. We had a little glitch
in the sale. There was something that had to be repaired and that carried us into next year. So we anticipated knowing we'd have that money for this year. Unfortunately, it didn't come in. We will have that money. It will just be next year. And the pilots that they're all talking about, as Michael mentioned, they're only going to grow from here and
get bigger and bigger. So the first year of the of the Meridian pilot when there were 80% occupancy is 350,000 just for that one project. Okay, we're looking at 188,000 for all our projects right now. So this is a big number as time goes on
and that number increases from 350 after 30ish to up to a million dollars in the 30th year. That is a big revenue boost for this town for a small community. That's where we're going to make some money back because we don't have an industrial park. We don't have those kind of options in front of us. this, you know, I understand and some
residents are concerned about the building. It's a balancing act. We're not making Hoboken here in Palton Lakes, but at the same time, we have to bring in some tax dollars to offset these costs that are just rising out of control. >> I just wanted to highlight again with the radio station. So, we're we're
reanticipating 275,000. We sold it for$450. So, that extra money above and beyond the 275 will lapse to our fund balance. So we're you we're using a strategy to try to re increase our fund balance for next year by not
anticipating the whole amount. And when you anticipate the whole amount and then it falls off for the next year, you're in the hole for that amount with within that upcoming budget year. So that's why we didn't anticipate the full amount. We could have anticipated the full amount to further reduce, but we would have
only been kicking the can. So again, we recommended against that. Again, this is just a 10-year fund balance history which shows uh our surplus throughout the past 10 years. The next slide talks about our general debt service. Our debt
service for this year is about 1,17,350. The good news is in that is that in 2 years, our fund balance for the 2028 municipal budget will be decreased about $300,000. So, we're going to see a we're going to see a a drop off there at some point.
um which we'll be able to deal with at that point. The next slide talks about our note sales. So, we do have a pending note. Uh we have to go back out to note sale on June 5th of 2026. The note amount is 4.3 million and
highlighted in this uh PowerPoint here is all of the pending ordinances. The red ordinance at the bottom is a new ordinance that's being added to the note sale and that was for the Willow Field improvements project. So that'll be in our upcoming note sale at which point it
will be considered. Uh the budget again we talk about police and fire, public works, construction and code enforcement. Uh part of our budget includes our first aid squad, our wreck department, any senior citizen events and programs, garbage collection, open
space projects, and general services uh throughout the burrow. Our appropriations for salary and wages is up in a total amount of only 253,000. Uh that's actually a really good
increase. Uh typically you see about 500,000 to a million dollars based on the CBAs, but we did have a very good year with our salary and wage budgets. Um solely due to some retirements in the police department and some other departments that we were able to
anticipate in the budget. So it did help us. Um some budgets that have been decreased include general services with the shared service agreement uh for the burough administrator. We have finance with our new shared service with Oakland for our
tax collector services. Uh land use is up a little bit. We have public safety which is up 118,000. It could be a lot worse if we didn't have any of those retirements. Um, public works is up due to contractual
increases, snow overtime, among many other things. And, uh, you'll see here at the bottom, we have our library statutory obligation, which was increased. >> And I think that you're we're going over this, but we didn't make any cuts to services and at the same time had to honor our union contracts that the
unions have. So, that number that he's promoting there is including all that. So, that that is that is, you know, I've been doing this a while. That's a good number considering we have contract negotiations for all our unions, new employees coming in, a lot of shared service, a lot of older retirees leaving
and newer younger people coming in to help us get the cost down. That number could be a lot worse if we had to. >> And to the mayor's point, uh we're on the back end of some of our collective bargaining agreements. You'll typically find, and I know the burough attorney can attest to this, on the back end of
the agreements, typically the amounts are higher. That's just typically how it's worked out. So, we seem to be managing good considering we're near the end of all of our three CBAs that are set to expire next year. Um, again, this is just a breakdown of the salary and
wages. Our police department, fire department, and OEM make up 60% of our budget in terms of salary and wages. Next, we have our operating budgets. Uh, general services is up due to computer
upgrades. county election costs which have been skyrocketing within the past two years. Um we have our finance department with uh auditing and bond council costs. We have an employee who's taking their tax collector classes and
our pilot billing costs which are taken out of this account. >> And just for the public's agenda when it comes to uh elections uh the state or the county does not pay for that. The towns pay for that. So when those increases go up, we as taxpayers in each
individual town have to pay that. You would think the county would pick up the cost or the state, they do not. And then we also have the land use uh department uh which has a slight increase. The next slide looks at our public safety including our police
department, our OEM, court, fire department, and our fire prevention bureau. We have a slight increase due to contractual software maintenance contracts with the police department among fire department equipment needs. Um so you'll see a slight increase
there. We have an increase in our public works section due to the solid waste tipping fee for recycling and our vehicle maintenance costs which have been increased in the past year due to aging garbage trucks.
We have our board of health. You'll note a a significant decrease there. That's due to our amendment to our shared service with Wayne Township where we uh authorize public health nurse services with Wayne. So, we are seeing a savings
of $12,000 there. And all of our board commission committee budgets are down. you'll see a significant decrease, but that's due to some reallocation of funding for the lake management services, which was originally included in the flood advisory board budget, but
has since been moved to the EPC budget because EPC is typically the folks that handle that. So, that's why you see that there. And again, this slide is just a breakdown of all of those operating expenses with public works being the highest among all of our departments.
And then we have what's called our miscellaneous budgets. Miscellaneous looks at things like legal, burrow, engineer services, of course, our health benefits, our property and liability insurance costs. You have unemployment,
state disability, and pension and contributions to our first aid squad and fire departments. You'll see, namely with our health benefits, the premium amounts are up a million dollars, but on this slide, it only shows an increase of
$713,000 because some of that was taken outside the cap. And also, um, we have our health benefit waiverss, which is included in this. So, the overall budgets up $713,000,
but the premiums were up a million dollars. Um, so again, that's one of our key drivers, which we'll go over in a minute. And then the back half of our miscellaneous budgets, we have our pension. Some good news for this year, our PERS,
which is our our nonp police and fire pension folks. The amount decreased, which is unheard of, but that's solely due to the fact that in 2024, we had less employees than we did in 2023. pension is always two years behind. Um,
so you're going to see that increase coming up because we have retained more staff than we have in 2023 and 2024. But the good news for this year's budget is that it was able to be decreased. You will also notice a significant increase in our shared service lines.
That's due to including the operating expenses for the shared service for for the burrow of Oakland. On the revenue side, that offsets. So although you see an increase right here, it's not increased. We're actually making $100,000 in profit this year off of that
shared service plus or minus depending on which contracts we award and where the salaries uh end up for all the new hires. >> And that's a half year of of >> that's a half year, >> right? So that's only a half year because we're not starting program till June. And to that point, uh, to the
mayor's point, for next year, our anticipated profit for that is $230,000. So, we're going to see some increase there for next year's budget, which will significantly help us. Okay. And then the last item on this
slide is our deferred charge. Uh, as you recall, last year we had to authorize an emergency appropriation for legal and vehicle maintenance costs. Again, our garbage trucks are in really bad disrepair and we had to fund extra repairs for the DPW to fix our garbage
trucks. A deferred charge means that we didn't have the money in the budget last year. We had to authorize a special emergency appropriation for this year and basically that amount has to be included in this year's budget statutoily. Um so we're having to deal
with that in this budget right now. Our total appropriations is up uh only 4.67%. That's actually really good uh considering prior years. Again, our issue this year is more so with revenues than it is with our spending. Um our
spending is pretty in check. It's our revenues that we're having problems with. Um and let me just jump in on on the spending side of it. That's the the council you see up here being smart on how they do things on spending. Okay. It can easily get out of control very
quickly, but I can tell you this council does a good job in trying to keep track of how we spend our money and where it goes. Thank you. Uh, so now we're going to look at some of our key drivers. So, five out of the seven key drivers
are contractual or statutory driven. So, we have our police department salary and wages, that's contractual. We have our police department other expenses which is discretionary. Uh we have health benefits which again is uh statutory. We have vehicle maintenance which is
discretionary. We have a significant increase in that budget. Uh we have legal. We have our police and fire pension. And we have our solid waste disposal contract which is up 25,000. So with all of our key drivers, our budget
in those accounts are up 1.3 million. However, in the other accounts that we have, those accounts are down. So, although you see 1.3 million, our spending is only up 4.67%. Because in many of our other accounts,
we were able to um sharpen our pencil, if you will. >> And just to explain the health benefits for people who don't understand, that's given by through the state program. Okay? We have no control or say on that. The state sets those numbers. So any town that's involved with the health
state health program which is many they got the same increase as us. There's no difference between our town and any other town and it's not an arguable point. It's not something we can go we are going to try to shop it out in the next year or two because you would think the state with all their time and energy they put into this benefit would give us
the best deal. That might not be true moving forward which is unusual. So we will be shopping that outside but that increase that he's talking about the health benefits is set by the state. has nothing to do with us. >> Thank you. Uh this slide looks at our total budget. You'll see that our
general operating expenses accounts for uh the most of our budget at 32% and in second is our police salary and wages and public safety salary and wages which is $4 million. Um so again, this is just a breakdown of our budget.
Uh we have what's called the appropriation and levy cap compliance. The state of New Jersey prescribes that you must be levy and appropriation cap compliant. We are uh cap compliant this year with our levy cap and our appropriation cap. We were able to take
some exceptions such as pilots and some outside the cap expenses such as health benefits and garbage and many other items which helped us be under cap. And if you recall at the last council meeting, we adopted the cap bank ordinance which again allows us to bank
our unused cap to the following year to further help our budget. So this slide and the following two slides just go over um how we came up with our cap compliance and what type of exclusions we took for the year.
So to finalize our tax uh rate for this year uh again our tax rate is 1.085 up from 0.983 from last year and the total tax summary as proposed.
Uh we have a proposed budget of 19,613,000. We have surplus anticipated at 1.9 million. We are not in anticipating additional surplus due to the fact that our surplus was decreased this year.
However, we were able to sustain the same anticipation that we did last year. So, we're not um hurting in terms of losing additional revenue anticipated in the budget. And our total tax rate again for last year was 0.983. The tax rate
for this year is 1.083. And the average residential municipal tax increase uh stands at $283.97 for an average total tax of $12,069. Now before we get into the final slides, I just wanted to highlight again and
stress one of our key drivers for tonight is the impact on state premium increases and some of our internal policies. Um, again, our health benefit budget stands at $3 million. Our
sorry, uh, one thing that we're looking at uh, in changing for the future is what our staff members contribute towards those health benefits. Um, again, our our tax increase stands at $283 with employees only contributing 1.5% of
their salary. Um, in many other municipalities, those employees contribute what's called chapter 78 contributions or somewhere in the middle between the two. And the analysis shows that if we were charging chapter 78 contributions,
rather than collecting $76,000 in employee contributions, we would be collecting $559,000, which would further lower our tax bill from $283 to $168. It's an overall impact of $115.
So significant part of our budget. Highly advise uh policy-wise to change that in the future. more to come on that, but uh unfortunately we're kind of contractually stuck right now in terms of our budget, but we are doing everything and anything we can to um
help future budgets. >> So, just for the public who who are watching this at home that numbers he was just talking about are contractual at this moment. We can't change that. So, if we tomorrow wanted to say we'll increase what they pay, we can't do that. It's contractual. They'll be up in another year or two with new contracts.
Then we'll have talks and negotiation with the unions about where we fall on that number somewhere. >> And uh why weren't they raised in the past? >> Because it was a different time. It wasn't, you know, that that was the set standard for most places to do that, you know, on the low side. Um so that's just
what we've done in the past with with our >> But other towns have risen in the past. >> No, other towns went full 78 when it first came out or just kept where they were. There there wasn't a lot of negotiation about that at the time, but now because health benefits are out of control, there's going to be a lot of talk about that moving forward,
unfortunately. >> And we will talk. >> We will talk. >> Thank you. Uh so to finalize our budget, this is our 8-year tax history. Again, we we stand in an average increase of $283.
Last year, our budget was at $178 with the prior year being at $97. So with these health benefit changes and the state health benefits plan, we are trending in a bad direction, but we do have some good revenue news for next year. We have some lower costs. We have
some potential retirements. So I do believe that with the corre correct financial planning with our CFO and auditor, you know, I do believe that we'll be able to be in a better position next year than where we are now. Unfortunately, it's just a really bad year with the health benefits and you
know, we're doing everything that we can to uh offset the tax increase with that. Just uh one last slide to highlight how do we compare how do we compare in Pompton Lakes to all of our colleagues in Pacific County. Uh so we're about
halfway uh more towards the top in terms of the average total tax. You have Wayne Township and Ringwood Burrow uh are some of the higher tax towns with uh you know West Milford and Waneku and Pompton
shortly thereafter at at uh the lower total tax municipalities in Pay County. So we're trying everything that we can do to be at the top of that list. >> Right. So the five the five towns in front of us meaning they have a better tax rate than us out of the 16 are Patterson, West Milford, Waniku, Clifton
and Little Falls and then us. And then there's 11 towns after us who who we are below on a tax rate. So, you know, that speaks volumes in in the county because the county kind of works as a team, as a group. You know, we're in good we're in a better spot than some towns. You know,
we could be better, but uh that's not a horrible spot to be in. And this slide just highlights again the 7-year tax history for the municipal tax. Um just showing you the trends uh
within the past 7 years. And my favorite slide out of the whole presentation is the infamous dollar bill. Again, the burrow only contributes 25% of your total tax bill, which for this year is $3,33. The school, the local board of
education, some municipalities have a regional board of education. Um, but we have a local that stands at 54% of your tax bill with the county following at 18%. The library at 1.3 and our open space
trust fund at only 0.25 at $28 of your total tax bill. Um, so this just showcases that although we're doing everything we can, we're only a small portion of your total tax bill. And let's forget out of that 25% are all our salaries or our police department, our
our DPW or all our ambulance and fire departments and all our vehicles. You know that that's a lot to ask out of that 25%. Um we have a great school system here. No question. People come to this town because we have a great school system. When you have a great school system, you have to pay for that. You
know that there's a cost involved with that at the end of the day. We don't have anything to do with the school budget, just so everybody understands that. they do their own budgets and they just show us the numbers. Um, we kind of work, you know, we'll talk about how we can make things better, but they're independent of how they do things with us. And then the county, of course, is
is totally independent of both of us. Thank you. Uh, so the final aspect of tonight's presentation, uh, we're looking at our capital plan for the year. So with the finance committee and with the work of our department heads, we were able to put together a comprehensive capital plan which
addresses the infrastructure and equipment needs throughout the burrow of Pompton Lakes. So included in this year's plan, we're looking at the replacement of the Department of Public Works garage. We have some promising news that we'll share as part of our regular meeting tonight with that
project. But we are contributing what's otherwise known as the soft cost of that project which has to do with the engineering, the architectural services, the soil permitting, the DP permitting among many other soft cost items that we're looking to advance this project
again in hopes of getting it fully fully funded by a grant in the future. Um we are funding uh security cameras at the recycling center. You'll see that part of that project is funded through a grant from the NJD.
So the total debt on that is only $16,000. Again, as mentioned prior in the presentation, we have the resurfacing of Lakeside A, uh, which is funded more than half by a DOT grant that we've
received. So, um, we're we're lucky to have that. We have a $165,000 grant for miscellaneous ADA curb ramp upgrades project uh through the P county open space I'm sorry the P county uh community development block grant
program. So those uh that project's looking at ADA curb ramp replacements on Edwards Avenue, Riverview Road among other side streets within the burough. We have our annual aotment for our MS4
storm water management permit services through Aqualis and also our our storm basin cleaning services through the burrow of Rimwood. So those are the two items that are funded out of out of that annual capital aotment.
We have $30,000 worth of computer replacements and network upgrades which uh seems to be required with new Microsoft licensing requirements. Um so we're working with our IT manager on that. And then we also we also have
cyber security network improvements which we will be making to our burough and police department servers for this year. Um so that's a necessary investment that we have coming up. We also have $1,500 for miscellaneous office supplies and furnishings that
come up throughout the year uh to try to offset some of the budget funds uh rather, you know, putting it in capital. Typically, in the past, we've funded about $50 to $100,000 for our river services. However, this year, we're in
the process of obtaining a new D permit. So, we were able to reduce that to only $10,000 for miscellaneous and notably emergency tree removals. Um, we do have a healthy balance in older capital ordinances. So, that's why we were able
to keep that at $10,000 rather than 25 or 50 or $100,000. Regarding vehicles, uh, we are going to be purchasing a Ford Explorer for our office of emergency management. The OEM coordinator has historically had one of
our older police cars. Um, so we're looking to upgrade him to a all-wheel drive vehicle that he can take out in the elements. So, we're excited about that and uh look forward to that uh coming up later this year. For the police department, we're funding
a new Chevy Tahoe as part of the fleet. The chief and I are working uh for future years on, you know, seeing whether we're going to buy or lease or what we're looking at. But for this year, we have one vehicle replacement and I know the police department just took delivery of a of a vehicle funded
in last year's capital plan. Um, so you know, two vehicles are going to be coming up soon, which is nice. >> I'm going to just jump in for the public again for the public when we we're talking about vehicles. If if we don't replace a couple vehicles a year, we put ourselves in a hole and then in the
fifth year when six vehicles are bad, we're we're spending way too much money. So we try to have a rotation basis. All the vehicles have well over 100,000 miles before we replace them. It's not like we're we're turning them over 30 or 40,000. But as you would want and expect, our police department need
working operable vehicles ready to go at any government time. So, it's always been my say and and and most of the council say that we try to put new vehicles in play every year because if we don't, we'll be in a hole. >> Thank you. Uh, we had the first aid
squad request $2,500 for uh, some radio replacements. We have the fire department looking for Scott mask replacements and helmet replacements. So, we have three minor requests there. And with our DPW, we are going to be replacing one of our own garbage trucks.
We did just order the rentals of the two new garbage trucks for the shared services agreement for the Burough of Oakland, but we do need to replace one of our vehicles right now. So, that's $325,000. We're also going to be purchasing uh
what's known as a service body utility vehicle, which is going to be used for more uh road projects and uh road repairs. Uh something that we're lacking right now. So, we're looking forward to that. And then we also have a lawn mower replacement, a paint line sprayer, and
we continue, as the mayor indicated, with our pickup truck replacement schedule, which is on the back end of the whole replacement schedule. I think the DPW is in a really good position with vehicles. So, for next year, that's something to consider. But, um, overall,
our capital plan stands at 1.7 million with a down payment required of $87,000. This slide highlights what our capital improvement fund balance is. Starting on 111 of 2026, which is 39,000, we are
funding in the budget 75,000 of additional capital improvement funds for this capital plan um minus again the ordinance of 87,000. That would leave a new balance for next year of $27,000. And we're hopeful that in future budgets
with better health benefits among many other changes, maybe we can have self-funded ordinances which uh don't authorize debt where we're able to fund it directly from the budget rather than go out to debt for those. Um so uh that's the capital plan. This
slide I'm not going to go over, but this highlights all of our deferred projects. Although the capital plan was requested or was approved at 1.7 million, the deferred projects was at 1.8 million. So our total capital request was over $3
million from all of our departments. So we did cut a lot out of our capital plan. It could have been a lot more. Many of these items are sorely needed, but I think the finance committee and the governing body uh did a good job in cutting and identifying what exactly is
necessary for this year to continue our infrastructure and equipment upgrades. And with that, I am finished. So, I thank the governing body and the finance committee for all their work. And if there's any questions or concerns for myself, the CFO or the auditor, uh we're
happy to address those. So, first off, I got to thank the finance committee, which is Councilman Vennon and Councilman Hinton. You know, we this is not something that just happens in one meeting. This is numerous meetings, a lot of discussions with department heads about just those wish lists that they were talking about and how maybe we can do it, can't do it this year, we'll do
it next year. You know, when when a fire department says, "I need a new fire truck," that's a million- dollar purchase, right? But if a firetruck is 25 years old, we got to start talking about that now. It's those kind of discussions that we have as we move forward to keep things going. So the the committee puts it together with the help
of our administrator and our office staff and our attorneys and our auditors and our CFOs and we all have these discussions and then we present it to the council and and to the public on on house. So I thank everybody for doing that. Um you know as I look at it when I look at the list
from say a county we live in an area that costs things. Everybody knows at home everything's costing more money no matter what you're buying where you're going what you're doing. Okay for whatever reason it is that everything's costing more money. multiply that by 100 and that's how a town has to run. So our budgets have increased too on everything
we do. Uh nothing stayed the same at all. So you know we're getting a good bang for my for our buck I think by this. And I'm going to have the chair of finance or anything you want to add to that. >> Thank you mate take question. >> Yeah I just want to add that um this this modest bud budget increase. Yes it
it our taxes will go up but when does the cost of anything go down? When I first got my driver's license many years ago, gas was a dollar a gallon. So cost nothing goes down in price. So I think we did a very good job. Thank you
to all the department heads and uh our administrator and all involved for negotiating and working with us to stabilize our taxes. We're not going to reduce taxes with with the cost of everything going up the way they are. Thank you. >> And and you know, I've been pushing as everyone knows for this redevelopment
for 10 12 years. We're starting to see the offset of that. If we don't have that money coming in in the next couple years, we're going to be in bigger holes than we we can handle at some point. We are in good times. I'm going to let maybe our auditor or our CFO speak to where how we compared to other towns in
general. But, you know, without the money coming in from these projects, we we don't have any other revenues to come in except from tax dollars. It's the only other place. And my fight and this council's fight from day one has been our taxes are too high. We all know that. We all pay taxes up here. We all
understand that. Um, at the end of the day, this is the only way we can offset it. So, before you guys ask some questions, I'm gonna let the auditor, CFO, whoever, just compare us what you see from the towns you're involved in. Pretty much everybody, like I said, everybody's struggling, but you guys are not you're
under your cap on everything. And, uh, you know, it's with your revenue coming in now, like you've been saying for from the pilot, it's going to help you a lot. and it's hard to anticipate more revenues because everything's pretty much flat like we
saw with the budget. Um so having a new revenue stream coming in is it would be very helpful. Do you >> want anything? >> Yeah, especially the um like like Mike was saying it's it it is unfortunately you know as we feed a dead horse it's
the health benefits. I I work in a town where I contribute as an employee I contribute 30% of the premium you know 30% of you know my salary goes to the premium and and we actually got out of the state health benefits but if we were still in
we would be paying you know the state like an extra $60,000 a month you know for our monthly fees and that's that is the driving force and like with the chapter 78 and even you know going unfortunately you might have to go after retire retirees as well. If they retire
after a certain date, that can at least help offset from 3 million. You could probably save the, you know, the more people contribute, the more retirees contribute, you can almost save a million dollars if you if if that's possible. So, that's that's the biggest
driving force. And to go down $113 for, you know, regular tax bill, that's that's very significant. >> Yeah, that is good. >> All right, council. Any questions from the council? I just want to just want to add um first year on the finance committee for me. It was an eyeopener. I
want to thank Councilman Bennett and I want to also reiterate everything that the mayor has said. Um yes, the wish list for the DPW Police Department and Fire Department was a lot more extensive and we really had to cut back. I want to
give Michael a lot of credit. um he's really sharpened the pencil point and he's cut a lot out and um in I just saw the paper here the other day uh March 29th uh P County budget raises taxes
again the increase of the county is at 6% they're looking at so with the increase that we have on top of the county increase of what the mayor had said about the school which we have no control over. Um
yes, taxes are going to go up a little bit, but uh we've kind of done the best we can on the finance committee with the mayor and our council and um being a senior and on the seniors, I listen to the seniors. Um they're
struggling with the taxes going up, but we as a council and Michael and uh our finance committee has done really the best we can. Healthc care costs are killing us. So, uh, I want to thank them for all the work. Thank you guys for all
the work you do. >> Any other questions from the council? Any concerns, questions, anything? No. All right. Thank you guys. Thank you for presentation, Mike. Thank you. Um, you know, it is what it is. So, as we move forward, okay. Uh, okay, Liz, you can read that. You
want to read that? >> Oh, I'm sorry. It's the We're going to do the bid now. Yes. special improvement district budget. >> We're going to do a public hearing on the business improvement district. Um I think we're just going to vote on it
unless someone has a Unless Would you like to say anything, Sue, about it? >> No. >> Okay. Does anybody have any questions in general about the bid budget? So for the audience, the bid is the business improvement district. They pay their own their their money's come from the land owners that own the properties. They pay
a little tax to the business improvement district and that money is run and controlled by the business improvement district. All we do is approve the budget. We don't spend the money. We don't collect we kind of collect the money but we get it to the bid. It is really it's just a pass through for us. But if anybody has any questions about
the bid and the budget, now would be the time to ask that. Anybody? >> Of course. Go ahead. >> I have a question. Uh my question is who figures out the bid assessments for the businesses in town that are doing the the paying of
the taxes? >> Our tax department would figure it. Mike, is it uh >> And how is that 2026 net value calculated? >> Uh which maybe Dave, do you do you happen to know? month. I'm not 100%
sure, but I think it's the assessor just assesses, >> right? The assessor assesses the property for what it is, and then the percentage that was put aside for the bid, I think it's one point, what is it? I don't know the number. Um, is taken off that tax number that goes to the
bid. So if their taxes are 10,000 and they have to pay 1% to the bid, they pay 1,000 >> because I was looking at the assessment role for people who were paying and Tilcon is paying under $600 and then their business across the
street from me is paying over 3600. So I was wondering business like why are they paying so less? >> There might be different classifications of of the businesses too. I'm not sure of that. Is that what it is? Yeah, there's different classifications of of the >> Yeah, there's 1, two, three, and four on the classification. >> So, it depends where they flow, I think.
>> So, how is that figured out then? >> It's the type of building that it is. Um, it's so so a regular building or um commercial, industrial or um >> so it goes on the building size, square
footage of the building. >> Well, the it's the assessed value and then it's our percentage of that. >> All right. So it's not the size of the business itself. >> Whereas Tilcon's a multi-million dollar outfit. >> Yeah.
>> Pays most of the big tax. >> Excuse me. >> Dupont pays most of the big tax. >> Okay. Yeah. There's a bid roll. What I was looking at, >> right? So, you know, whatever their budget is, I'd say more than half is collected from Dupont itself uh as a business. And I can tell you Dupont's
not happy about paying it because they they feel they're not a business, but they are a business. In the same way, Tilcon is a business in town. There's just different class. >> Well, Tilcon is an operating business. DuPont is a nonoperating business. >> Correct. >> They're not operating anything out of that property. >> But their classification under bid is
different, I think, than Tilons. >> Yes. >> And who determines those classifications? >> People have appealed to get out of it, but like the Susan project is is no longer in the bid. Well, when it was contributing to the bid, now being is going to be a residential. it won't be
contributing any further. So they can get out of it by not having commercial on the bottom. It has >> right they'll have if they if they don't have any retail then it becomes it can you can petition and come out. Um that that is that is part of the agreement
but the bid is set up by by the uh the board. They have their own board and their own director. Um and then uh our tax assessor does the assessing of the number to the bid. So the property owners can appeal to the tax assessor
>> if they don't have any retail. >> If they have retail, they can't. They were retail. >> Kind of like Dupont has no retail. Nothing's gone out of it. >> But they're there's a different classification for them. I don't know what it's called, but usage or whatever it is, but it's something that they're
falling under. They can't get out of it. They they they've tried. >> We know they've tried. >> All right. Thank you. Any other questions? >> No. No. Okay. Motion to open the meeting for public comments on the 2026 special improvement
district, the SID or bid budget. It's just about this uh question. Motion. Councilman Bennett. >> Second. >> Council President Kent. All in favor? >> I against. Anyone like to ask a question just about the bid budget? >> Seeing no one. Motion to close the public session. >> Motion.
>> Councilman Sanders. Councilman Hinton. All in favor? I >> against motion to approve uh the 2026 special improvement district SID budget for second reading and final adoption. >> Motion. >> Councilman B. >> Second. >> Councilman Hinton. Roll call, please.
>> Councilman Hinton. >> Yes. >> Council President Kenn. >> Yes. >> Councilman Sanders. >> Yes. >> Councilman Bennett. >> Yes. >> Councilman B. >> Yes. Okay, we're going to talk about the
municipal just for the public's uh content. At the second reading, would it be an option for the public to address any concerns or questions they have about the budget? This is just the introduction at this point. Uh motion to approve resolution 26172. >> Motion. Councilman Bennon. >> Second.
>> Council President Kent. All in favor? >> Against? >> Uh Go ahead, Liz. I'm sorry. I'm doing your job. Authorizing uh 26173 authorizing the introduction of the 2026 municipal budget to identify policy.
>> Motion to approve resolution 261 173. >> Motion. Councilman Vennett. >> Second. >> Councilman Sanders. All in favor? >> I. 26174 2026 municipal budget resolution. Motion to introduce 2026 municipal budget of the burrow of Pmpton Lakes.
>> Motion. >> Councilman Bennett. >> Second. >> Councilman B. Roll call, please. >> Councilman H. >> Yes. >> President. >> Yes. >> Councilman. >> Yes. >> Councilman. >> Yes. >> Councilman.
>> Yes. >> I'll read the statement. says the clerk has to read it. >> Yes. hereby given that the budget and tax resolution was approved by the governing body of the Burough Thompson Lakes County to save on April 8, 2026 and advertised on the Burough Thompson
Lakes website located on the homepage under legal notice as appearing on the budget and tax resolution will be held at the municipal building on Wednesday, May 13, 2026 at 700 p.m. at which time and place objections to the budget and the tax resolution for the year 2026 may
be presented by taxpayers or other interested parties. Copies of the budget are available in the office of the burough clerk at the municipal building, 25 Lennox Avenue, Compton Lakes, New Jersey during the hours of 900 a.m. to 4:30
p.m. or on the burrow's website. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. You if you'd like to stay, you can stay, but you can leave if you'd like. Thank you. Um motion to open the meeting for public comments. >> Motion. >> Councilman Betting. >> Second. >> Councilman Hinton. All in favor? >> I against. Any from the public like to
address. They step up. >> Call 120 Roma. All this information is wonderful, but where can I find it on the the uh town website? I looked for it. It's not there. I'd like to see the
kind of detail that you guys all have. Is that going to be made available to the public? >> I'll answer it at the end. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. >> Uh >> I had a question about and I don't know this is more appropriate for the next goound. There was a discussion or a mention about something called the
bureau's net valuation is down. Maybe you could explain what that means and what effect it has on our budget. >> Mhm. >> That's it. >> Thank you. Anyone else from the public would like to address? >> Seeing no one can have a motion to close the public session. >> Motion. Councilman Santers. Councilman
Hinton. All in favor? against uh Paul um I don't know if we put the full do we put the full budget on >> yes so the budget presentation along with the budget document the state budget document uh is posted on the finance department page under financial documents and historically we do share
the presentation on Facebook um so I would look for that tomorrow >> okay and then net evaluation >> yes so that looks at what is the total valuation of all the properties in the burrow and the reason that that has been significantly ly decreased is solely due
to tax appeals and the value of those properties with market trends being down especially with commercial properties. But we did have some tax appeals uh within the past year and that does affect the total valuation of the burrow. Um you know so that that's
mostly what goes into it. And another part of of redevelopment is to bring that square footage for retail up so those numbers don't go down every year. we can get better dollar in rental which brings our valuations back up and we're starting to see that especially when I think I mentioned this at the last
meeting when chain stores start coming in it brings other stores in around those chain stores and that starts to bring the square footage of people's renting up which is good for the the town it's good for the landlords and it's good for the evaluation alto together okay um motion to approve the following
minutes regular meeting minutes uh March 25th 2026 close session meeting minutes March 25th 2026. >> Have a motion. >> Motion. >> Councilman Santers. >> Second. >> Councilman Bennett. All in favor? >> I. >> Against bills and claims as listed below. Can I
have a motion? >> Motion. >> Councilman Hinton. >> Second. >> Councilman B. All in favor? >> I. >> Consent agenda. Anybody need anything out? >> No. Okay. Liz work. Here the mayor and burough council of the burough
compliment has the duty consent various proposed resolutions where the mayor and council of the burough complates does not desire resolutions or individual actions on that agenda. Now therefore be it resolved that the following resolutions on the consent
agenda are hereby resolution 26-176 through 26-184. >> Motion to approve the resolutions. motion. Councilman Hinton, Councilman Bennon, all in favor. >> Against uh final adoption ordinances
ordinance. >> Did I miss something? >> No, you didn't miss anything. I'd just like to speak uh before the uh ordinance. >> Um the planning board has not had a meeting. Uh so they did not give a referral review yet. Uh so I would ask
that this ordinance be carried to the next council meeting. >> 2613. >> Correct. 111 11 >> uh and have the uh clerk notify uh so that no further notice is uh publish published notice is required >> to carry to date and time certain at the
next council meeting. >> Okay. >> So if someone can make a motion carry that's my suggestion >> I'll make a motion to carry it. >> Councilman Betting. >> Council President Kent all in favor. >> I I >> All right. All right. So, we're going to carry ordinance 2611 till the >> without further notice to the next
council meeting which is scheduled for what is the date, Liz? >> Um, >> April 22nd, 2026. April. >> Okay. At 700 p.m. is the council meeting time, right? >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> And that's because just because the planning board hasn't met yet to discuss the order.
>> Yeah, they haven't given us the >> right. Okay. Uh, ordinance 2612, >> establishing the annual compensation for members of the Congul Municipal Authority. >> Motion to open the meeting for public comments on ordinance 26-12. >> Motion.
>> Councilman B. >> Second. >> Councilman Santis. Was that Councilman Sanders? All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone like to address just this motion or >> ordinance? I'm sorry. >> Seeing no one, motion to close the public session on ordinance 26-12. >> Motion.
>> Councilman Venon. Second. >> Councilman Santers. All in favor? >> I. >> Against. Motion to approve ordinance 26-12 for final adoption. >> Motion. Councilman Bennett. >> Second. >> Councilman, who was that? Santers. >> Santers. >> Sanders.
>> You have a question on this? >> Uh, yeah. Okay. Why not? >> 2.8% increase. >> That's what they're getting. Yes. It has nothing to do with us. >> I know it has nothing to do with us, but we're voting on yes or no. Correct. >> Correct. Why the 08?
>> I couldn't tell you. >> No idea. >> I know that uh we investigated why we approved this ordinance in the first place, but I don't have answers to the amount. Uh we'd have to defer to the
Compton Lakes MUA on that. Um but if there's questions about the statutory uh process of this ordinance, I know the burough attorney reviewed that for us. And what did he come up with? >> Correct. Uh statute uh 40 col14B-17
uh authorizes the uh municipality uh to set forth the compensation for the members not for employees but for the members. Uh so uh I I would imagine that >> commissioners you're talking >> correct correct >> commission >> uh commissioners and members to say
>> no public. Uh so uh with respect to the percentage increase I imagine that's probably what they had requested. >> Yeah I mean they typically follow the CPI index or the rate of inflation but other than that I don't >> that would explain probably a point of a
percentage >> right >> uh and that's also paid out of their funds not ours. It is also paid out of their funds, but it is also paid by the taxpayers pumps in their water. >> The rate payers, correct? Yes.
>> Correct. >> Okay. Uh motion to approve ordinance 26-11 for final adoption. >> Motion. Councilman Bennon. Councilman F. Roll call, please. >> Councilman K.
>> No. Mr. President, >> I have to recuse myself. >> Councilman Sanders. >> Yes. >> Councilman Benny. >> Yes. >> Councilman. >> Yes. >> Yep. 26 all 13.
>> Yeah. >> So that's a three vote. >> Yeah. Three to one. >> Who's the one? you. >> I voted no. >> Right. So, it's a one and one, two, three. >> And absent. >> She abstained, >> right? That's four. >> In an absence. Yep. Passes.
>> Passes. Yeah. >> It's four votes. >> Who's the fourth vote? You. >> You're a no. So, you count as a vote. It has to have four. >> It passes three to one. >> Three to one.
Okay. Ordinance 26-13. Amending chapter two of the revised general ordinances of the burough cons governing workplace com >> motion to open a meeting for public comments on ordinance 26-13 motion. Councilman Bennett >> second.
>> Councilman Santers. All in favor? >> I against. Anyone like to address just this ordinance? >> Seeing no one motion to close the meeting for public comments on ordinance 26-13. >> Motion. Councilman Vetting. >> Second. >> Council President Kent. Uh, all in
favor? >> I. >> Motion to approve ordinance 2613 for final adoption. >> Motion. >> Councilman B. >> Second. >> Councilman Bennett. >> Bennett. A roll call, please. >> I'm sorry. >> B. No. Bag and Bennett.
>> Councilman. I still really didn't get an answer on the elected officials uh not subject to this >> ordinance. Us elected officials. >> Okay, we're out of vote though now. It's too late. Got to either vote yes or no.
There's no discussion at this. >> Too late. >> Yes. You should have talked before then. >> You got me every time, don't you? >> It's a vote right now. So, it's a yes or no. >> Um no. >> No. Okay. Council President K.
>> Yes. >> Council. >> Yes. >> Council. >> Yes. >> Councilman Day. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thanks, Liz. Um, okay. Under my report. Well, we'll start off with what we've been talking about a little bit. Uh, Congresswoman Poe, who is our
representative here in our district, she's a new representative. Um, we've had some, you know, between myself and Mike, our administrator, we've been reaching out to every politician we can to try to get funding for some a building that we're going to build for our DPW garage. You know, we're looking
at costs of probably $10 million for this building. Uh, Congressman Poe has come out with some money for us. We don't know the exact number yet, but it's a good number. Um, and it's congressional, which means it comes from the federal government. They all have
each con congressperson has a little pool of money that they can use from the federal government for pet projects that they'd like to see. I got to give her credit. She's new to our town. Um she hasn't been here yet, you know, really. I've met I've met her only once and she
is coming up with some funding for us for for this project for the this is a big deal for us. So, if we can get other uh politicians to jump on board in the local side of it with the state or even the governor, you know, I'm in conversation, my the administrator, myself are in conversations with the
governor's office. She also has a pool of money she can use. Um the state representatives, the Senate and the Assembly, they have little pockets of money they can use. If we can pull some pieces of money together from all these groups, it'll really help us with this DPW. But this is a great start that we're getting some money. So, I have to
thank her for that. Um, and we'll keep you posted on what the number is, but you know, we're looking at a $10 million project, so we'd like to get it completely funded. So, we're looking for $10 million, so we'll see how that goes. Um, I attended the uh Easter egg hunt, which is always a fun event along with a
bunch of the council people up here. It's run by our recreation department. They do a great job. They're very organized. They know what's going on. The kids enjoy it. They get to take a picture with the uh Easter Bunny. So, it's just an enjoyable time all around. It's It's one of my favorite things to do because it's quick. Also, it's over
in an hour. Kids are running around and then they're done. Um uh I have to thank Meridian, the people that are building the new building here for uh the new civic center we have. We're going to be opening that, I think Mike mentioned, in the next week or two. Uh it's a brand new building uh with new
uh new uh bathrooms and new locker rooms for the police. Uh a new women's locker room, a new meeting area for us, an upstairs for storage. They've had built a staircase. They put a lot of time and energy and money into that building and it didn't cost the town anything. This was one of the
uh benefits to having them build. They said they would redo our civic center and they kept their word and I have to thank them for that. So, we will there's more to come with that building because I think there'll be some nice information coming out on how we're going to use that building. But, we haven't had our civic center open in probably four years maybe because we had
some real damage with mold and and flooding there. So, this is a big deal that we're going to get our building back and I'm I'm happy to hear that. That's that's great news. Um I met with Columbia Bank uh with the manager there uh Jean Hoffman and he just went to to meet and you know the
reason we moved the funds and I was one of the people invol some council people up here that moved our funds into Columbia bank is because they're a community bank. They're involved with the community. When we have a river walk or we have a river cleanup or we have anything there's always Columbia bank members there doing working with us.
They don't live in our town, but their bank is in our town and they're going to support our town. That's the kind of bank we want here in our town. If every bank was to be like that, that would be something else. So, I have to, you know, it was great to meet with them and I I said I always give them thank yous for being involved in our community. It is, it is a big deal that they're doing
that. Um, what else do I have? I think that's Oh, no. I'm sorry. Senior housing. Senior housing. I got a great call from the representative of senior housing who's uh organizing it. Um, and she said, "Mayor, I got to tell you, uh, you know, I've opened up a bunch of
these places and we don't really get a lot of vets or we get a one or two vets." She said she got 16 vets to join from, uh, Pmpton Lakes or nearby towns and another 36 seniors that are mostly from Pompton to to fill this building. So, we're are around 40 already with
senior with vets and seniors from Pompton. That's why we built this building in our town. You know, a lot of towns said no, they didn't want it because of all this and that. you know, with a lot of negotiation with the county that, you know, I spent a lot of time talking to them that who I wanted to be in this building. It's coming to
work and it's going to open probably in July, August maybe, and they've already started filling the waiting list. That is great news for our vets and that is great news for our seniors here. So, that I congratulate them for that. Um, I can tell you that the other buildings that we're talking about are looking to open up in August, August, September,
start taking uh uh hopefully uh they the back building as they call it is and finished in the Meridian building. They've got power. They've got all the appliances. Everything's done in the back. They're just looking for the front now to redo the front a little bit. So that you know things are moving along here finally after so many years. We're going to see some big changes here in
town. And that is my report. Council President. >> Okay. Thank you, mayor. I want to thank the administrator for the budget uh presentation and uh it was very it's very interesting. I'm sad that we're not getting any money from the Trenton. Uh
we used to get money from from Trent. We used to get a lot of money from Trenton to help a small town like this, you know, offset some of the uh of of the bills that we have. and the fact that there's such a huge increase in the uh
health benefits is really it's just unacceptable. Um we should all be writing letters to the to the governor on that one and uh maybe I'll do that tonight when I get home. But it I think I think the budget and I was a part of looking at that as well. I I think we're
for what we have to fund, I think it's um it's it's doable and uh I hope we pass it. All right. I also want to thank the members of the women's club who came out tonight, especially uh Marilyn Grimes
and Lorie Ario. They're both chair women of the civic engagement outreach community service program for their diligence in bringing in the display of then there will be about a 100 blue pin wheels which are a national symbol for in the month of April for child abuse uh
prevention month and that is to raise awareness for the prevention of the child abuse throughout the country and I want to thank the mayor and council for the proclamation to the women's club uh it's much appreciated and thank the ladies for coming out tonight and uh and receiving that award.
>> And I got to throw in our own council president here has been president for the last two years of the women's club. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> My term is coming to an end. Um I attended the C which is the community emergency response team award
event at the Pontton Lakes High School last night. Six students, two two of which are freshman and four are seniors completed their training course and they will be on the C team. The awards were presented to the students by Deborah Ross, our C director, and Alivangelista,
our OEM coordinator. Our other C members that are on the team already also attended. They wore their nice green shirts, and they met to show support for the new C graduates, and I want to thank them very much for attending. Uh, it's fishing derby season. Um, and our
Pompton Lakes is very desirable. I understand it has some of the biggest fish you ever want it to fish for in New Jersey. However, and I'm Chief, I'm going to um direct this to you. We have a ordinance that was been around for
maybe four years, maybe five years now about getting a permit if you are not a Pmpton Lakes residence to hold these fishing derbies because they make money. And we and then we also have to have an insurance form to make sure that they we
don't have a problem if someone gets hurt, you know, on the boat or or or out at Lakeside Park. If they do not have a permit, if they are out of towners and they do not have a permit or proof of insurance, they should not be in that lake and they should not be in our park. They can be if they're in the lake and
they access the lake in other parts like off of Wayne or off of Oakland. We don't own the water, but we own the park. And that that money, I mean, we're talking about money. I mean, that's that's our open space money, and it's, you know, for a small dock, it was $12,000.
So, we're not trying to make a million dollars here, but we are trying to at least keep up with the the needs of the replacement of of equipment such as that. So, that's very important that we follow that. I know in the past some
fishing derby folks had a had a derby and they they did not uh submit a permit. I do believe uh our clerk uh got one out. It was pretty late in the in the uh evening, but she did get one out to to someone last year. But my
understanding is they're they're coming up. They're being posted. And I Liz, did we get any permits? >> No. >> Yeah, they already had one, right? I think they had one derby already. >> I think they did. I I I heard they unacceptable. Unacceptable. They cannot
be they cannot use our the lakeside and they can't use our dock, period. >> So, part of that would be of a resident calling the police department to let them know what's going on. Obviously, if they're driving by to see a couple boats, they could always ask, but but you know, it's it's hard to judge who's using the lake as a recreational user
and who's using it as a fishing area. They're parking in a certain area. >> No, I agree. If there's a lot of million cars there, that would be a question right there. Yes, >> you'll see a lot of Yeah, you'll see a lot of trailers a lot of times. >> I I And there are other um areas that they can park trailers in and they're
allowed to do that. If you see that, please let the police know. Let cl let let uh our clerk know because we have an ordinance for this. We and I want it I want it enforced. So, if I may, this is the first time I'm hearing about the issue this year. I've
I've dealt with the issue in prior years and then a part of that recouping the money for the permits is because we went out and uh addressed it. So, if you do have information about upcoming uh stuff, please send it to me. Send it to my email or give me a call. Absolutely. >> And I'll address it right away to notify
them. If they're advertising and they're not getting the prior uh permits, we just give them a call >> if we have any if we have any information. We'll absolutely >> Yeah. Then if you happen to hear about it or know about it day of event, just just call the PD and we can head over there and find out what's going on. >> Okay.
>> And council president just wanted to reiterate that we recently installed cameras at the boat launch. So the the police dispatch uh have a live view of the boat launch. >> Um so they'll be monitoring that and I know the chief is on that. Uh so we appreciate it.
>> Yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chief. Thanks, Michael. I I I forgot about the the uh cameras. Um okay. I also attended the Easter Bunny egg hunt and that is a wonderful event. I want to thank all the recreation
commissioners and the volunteers, the DJ and the Pmpton Lakes Volunteer Fire Department for delivering the Easter Bunny to the tennis courts for this festivities. Thank you very much. If you were if you spotted a flying object over your house, if you're nearby the rivers,
it was the flood advisory board's drone and that was taking aerial photos of the Ramo Wanuku and Pquanic rivers and they're taking pictures of the floodway and the flood plane to determine if there are structures or trees or other delotterious um impediments in the
rivers that need to be removed to allow the water to flow through town uh should we have a high water uh event. Um, and that that and we rented that or we were contracted out for that drone. So,
we don't own it, but they they were allowed to do that. They I believe they're going to be they should be working this week. They had I think one day last week and uh they need I think 12 hours to to run this drone so that they can come back and they will be
working with the flood advisory board folks to to tell us where there should where there's problems so we can get rid of these trees uh out of the river so we don't have problems with backflow of of flood waters.
Uh I also attended the flood advisory board rain garden workshop which was last Sunday. Was a wonderful uh workshop. I want to have special I want to call out uh a special thank you to our vice chair Steve Flowman, our
chairwoman Lauren Denon, the secretary Alexa Reid, and our other flood board members. And they provided details on how to create a rain garden on your property. It was a wonderful visual presentation along with handouts on the type of trees and plants. Sometimes you
need a shady tree or shade shady plants. Um depends on the preference of your property uh to the sun and how much sun uh your property will get in that area. And they also had we had about 15 people attend uh and many of those folks were
from out of town. They were from other environmental groups. Um I think someone was some even from like West Milford. So they were far they came far away to hear this. It was a wonderful turnout. And what they what they did was they had a one-on-one discussion about the the the
properties that were involved. They also talked about roadways and um uh areas uh like along the roadways that maybe go to maybe a lake uh in their town. So it was really relevant and we have all really um our our flood board is uh
outrageously intelligent about all of these u projects and I want to thank uh I want to thank them very much. Uh e your wife did a great job. Um our CTO day was very exciting. You didn't mention I'll mention
it was very exciting and the uh change of officers is that no I'm sorry that's change of chief >> change of town officers >> change of town officers was very well attended. We had a lot of folks in the um
sitting here and watching and and come up with new ordinances or resolutions. They evidently would like want to increase some speed limits in town for driving which I thought was cute. I think uh you're going to approve that there, Mr. Councilman Hint.
>> No, I went all without >> Yeah, we did. Yeah. And they also discussed library cards, litter programs, and other they were very crafted in in their ideas for future uh considerations in the town. They looked not only are they very intelligent kids,
but they also look very official. They wore suits and dresses and neck ties, and they were professionally presented. and the vision of community was was excellent. I want to thank Mr. Patrick for his guidance on this program. He's been doing it many years. I also attended the Zoom meeting for the Pmpton
Lakes design enhancements for the downtown redevelopment agents and planning boards. recommendations on this Zoom was about an hour and 15 minutes and we discussed design concepts uh consistent with storefronts, entranceways, window styles, color
palettes and lighting requirements for the downtown area. Um the process is still going on and we will be back I guess in another month to talk about all of our comments and how they're going to be implemented into the uh into the program and it's a it's a much needed
program. We also met with the burough engineer down tree service uh and their supervisor, Councilman Hinton and I on the installation and the maintenance of the replacement trees that are required under the New Jersey State uh permit
Willowfield improvement project for the floodprone areas down off Willow Street and in the new um uh ball field complex. After our discussions and we pointed out a few things, I was extremely satisfied with the project and the progress of the
tree planting and the maintenance for sustain for the sustainability of the tree growth. And I also want to tell you it's probably one of the most beautiful complex uh sports complexes I've seen in a while. And our children are going to love playing down there. So, it's really
very nice. It's almost done, but it's it'll be done hopefully by I guess maybe they're talking about June. I'm also happy to see that the new Hersfield Park foot bridge was installed yesterday. Uh it was beautiful to watch these huge trucks go through that very narrow um
driveway. I but an inch on each side of that truck was amazing. But um it actually re it actually changes your view of the park and across the park across the the uh uh river and the merman park. And I I do want to thank uh
Michael for all of your work on the Hersfield Park the storage building because it has a new facade. It has new doors. It is 88. It will it will have an 88 compliance bathroom too. And with the epoxy flooring, it looks so amazing and
it will bring a lot more people to the park and the upgrades are going to be very positive for our um for our residents. And there that is my report. >> Thank you. And uh the design standards that you mentioned which you were part of which was good you brought that up is a is a we've picked some members of from
the planning board the redevelopment agency couple council people couple residents to kind of give us a guidance on how we'd like to see the future of our town grow with everything changing. So we don't want just haphazard colors or haphazard windows or colors of doors or anything. So we kind of have a
standard and we kind of work towards that standard. Doesn't mean they have to do exactly what we're saying but it's an idea of where we want to go in the future. So I think it's a great group. our planner is the one putting it all together and when it's all said and done like council president said we'll have a report done and that'll go to all the
boards that they can kind of follow. Okay, Councilman Hinton. >> Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Um I also want to thank Michael for all the work he's done on budget. Um far more work than I ever imagined and uh he did an excellent job.
I want to thank him for that. um attended the first time for me the Easter egg hunt. I want to congratulate you, Mayor. You did a hell of a job and uh it was really impressive to see the kids running around. It really does hark good. Uh see the Easter Bunny coming out
and getting pictures with the kids. It was a lot of fun. Michael was there with his wife and his two kids and um I helped throw the candy out and uh and it was the first time I ever saw how it worked. And um you let all the kids pick up all the candy and then we threw more
candy out for the next older batch of kids. So it was really a great time. Um let's see. We did we talk about Senator Pacio coming to the DPW? >> Not yet. We don't have a date yet. >> Well, he did come and he looked at it already.
>> Oh. Oh, no. No. I'm sorry. You're right. Yes. When we met. No, we did not. Okay. No. So, that was a it was a good thing for the senator to come and look at our situation with the DPW garage. Uh, we had an ordinance committee meeting and uh we're discussing chickens in town and
the deer. So, we'll be bringing that up in discussion. Um, let's see what else do we have. I had a senior's meeting and I want to thank the chief and the officers for coming to the seniors and they gave us a nice little packet
um from the police department and they talked about scams and um the seniors really appreciated it. It was a it was a nice presentation by the chief and his officers. So I want to thank them for that. Um, let's see. What else
do we do? I did quite a bit. Not as much as the council president has done. She's all over the place, you know, but the CTO lunchon was good and the CTO night to see the kids taking over for the council. It was pretty impressive. And
like the mayor said, they had a lot of great ideas. Um, up in the speed limit on Kfax app to 35. >> We know it's a county road. I shot that. I shot that down. >> Oh, yeah. >> He's good at that. He's good at shooting something.
>> Um, also went to uh Willow Field and was looking at the trees and stuff with the council president. And um the big issue there for us was the watering of the trees and the contractor says he's going to take care of it. So, let's hope he
puts his money where his mouth is and does take care of that. you know. Um I want to also say that the uh we're starting to add the geese eggs that's coming up. It's uh spring and they're starting to make their nests along the river. And um we've been doing it for
quite a few years and there's been less and less nests. >> And I want to thank the mayor. He goes out and addles he too. He holds the umbrella. Not the best with the oil, but he's good on the umbrella. Um, and I want to thank Frank Russo, Kevin
McGrath, uh, Ron and Julie Duncos, Mr. McNamera, they all participate in addling the geese eggs. So, um, and let people know that trout season is starting soon and we hope we're not having any contractors
in the river. So, uh, that's supposed to start Saturday. Saturday. So, um, let's see. stop. >> That's pretty much uh >> pretty much what went on. >> And thank and thank you for mentioning the addling the eggs for the public that doesn't know that. We've been doing that
now probably 16 years. The previous mayor Katie Cole started that and I jumped on it with her then and and like Councilman Hinton mentioned when we first started this program there were geese everywhere. You know, there were hundreds of geese on our ball fields and everywhere. And I've seen a great
reduction in the number of geese from the time that we've done it. So what it basically stands for is we we identify only in this time frame when there's eggs uh being hatched. Um and we put oil on the eggs which is what makes them not be able to hatch. The problem is if you
step on an egg and crush the egg, they just lay more eggs. Uh so that's that's why you can't just destroy the egg. That's why the oil has to be put on them. And what what most people don't realize is when those babies are born, they come back to the nesting site where they were born. and then their babies come back to the nesting site and that's
where the progress goes with so many. So when you stop that line it that it's a good thing. So I can tell you it I didn't think it would work initially but it has worked and I've seen a a big difference in it and I know Councilman Hinton has done it before Councilman and uh other people. So it's a short term
the geese do attack you. They come after you but it's what the umbrella is for not to hit them. You just put it up to kind of block them away. But I've been attacked numerous times. But I got to say also that when I jumped in, the mayor was already doing it ahead of time. When I jumped in quite a few
years ago, we would add at least a hundred different easily. >> And now we're lucky if we add four or five, >> 10 the most. >> And uh so it's really brought the population down. >> It has. >> We love geese. They're nice, but if they
would fly to the neighbors, >> and I'm just going to throw this out there. You cannot You're not supposed to feed the geese either. Okay, that's against against our ordinances in feeding the geese. Uh, Councilman Santers. >> Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, just one question. How do you know where they're nesting? >> We should search for them. You're going to look for them.
>> So, and that's a good point because I got geese in my backyard. Point. So, you should let me know or anybody who's on the So, there is a class you have to take. You get a card. It's a whole thing. But, um, we can't go on private property, but if the resident allows us to go on private property, then we will
go out of the eggs on private property. So, we sent out scouters. now that kind of walk the rivers and look around because they're mostly around water areas, but there are quite a few on private property. So, like for your example, you just give us the address, give us an okay, we sign a form, we're'll be on that. >> There you go. >> Good to know. Good question.
>> Thank you. >> Yeah. And if you have lunch at the same time, that would >> help. Thanks. Uh, okay. I uh also attended uh the CTO lunch. Was nice seeing all the kids there. were all uh getting ready
for uh Monday night and they uh they all did a great job on the uh being town council. Um like like they they did come up with quite a few different ideas. One we of course was forgot to mentioned was
trying to connect uh one of the trails to go to Puanic to and uh which I thought that was a good idea. Um, so it was it was nice seeing their different ideas and uh and uh they took it
seriously. Uh the BOE meeting last night uh teacher of the year was acknowledged. Uh Lincoln school was Ed Woodcock. Uh Lennox Matt Matt uh Mansbach. Lakeside was Emma Yoder. Compton Lakes High
School was Brooke Collins and education uh educational support specialist Daphne Lennis. Um like uh Council President Kent said um that six kids were uh
awarded recognized uh for uh that was prior to the board of ed meeting. Um the budget was sent to the state county superintendent for approval. So it goes through the the
board of ed once they have the tenative budget then it gets sent to the superintendent of uh um Pay County and they have to go through the budget and they'll approve it and then it'll be sent back to um our our board of ed and
they might have to make changes or leave it as is. uh the planning board is uh in 2 weeks. Uh and then and then MUA just a reminder that the hydro flushing will start April 20th and that will be
performed between 12 and uh 6:00 a.m. and it will take place for 2 weeks uh for completion. >> And that just you should mention with that that if you do have some brown water, just run run your faucets a little bit and cold water. Cold water
cold water. Okay, good. Great. Um, Councilman, >> thank you, Mayor. Uh, I'll echo my my peers uh comments about CTO day. They did a great job. I thank the kids especially for stepping up. It's not easy to talk in public. I still have troublesome times talking in public. Um,
but for those kids to go up and and present their ideas to to us, uh, it's on 77 now, right? And >> where is that, Liz? Is it up? >> Yeah. And I also send the YouTube link to the um advisor so they can share it with the students.
>> Awesome. Um so so great job with that Easter egg hunt. It was a windy but sunny day so I'll take the sun but um I wish it was a little bit warmer if it but if it was warmer the chalk would then melt onto the uh while while it was being passed out or handed uh on on the
on the uh ground there. So, thank you to the rec uh commission, the Zanta Club, and especially the Easter Bunny for showing up there that day. And lastly, congratulations to the Pont Lakes High School uh music department on a successful uh spring musical. The play was um Something's Rotten, I think it's
called. Uh it was a great show. I saw it twice. It was it was a lot of laughs, a lot of uh references to other musicals, some of which I got, most of which I did not get, but it was still funny to watch. Um, and that is my report. Mayor, >> thank you. Uh, Councilman Beg.
>> All right. Thank you, Mayor. >> Uh, first, >> yeah, good motion. >> Yeah. First, I'd like to make a motion to approve a request from the Pontan Lakes Volunteer Fire Department to hold a tag style fundraiser on May 2nd, 2026 between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. The rain date would be May 3rd,
2026 at the intersection of Hamburg Turnpike and Rareoo Avenue. Um, police have approved a traffic control plan. ANSI certified traffic vest will be worn positioned in yellow no traffic portion roadway behind traffic barrels on the P county board.
>> Yeah. The P county board of county engineering department have been notified. >> Can I have a second? >> Second. Councilman Bennett. All in favor? >> I against. >> Okay. >> All right. And with my report um I attended last month's coalition meeting.
Um they are running a sticker shock event on May 2nd. Um the Walk for Hope and Diamond Classic will be on the same day this year and that date will be May 16th. Um and again those events are to bring mental awareness um to our community and have a stigmafree
community. Um I also attended the Easter egg hunt at Hurstville Park. Again it was a great event. Um the event went very well. The kids were energized and everyone loved the Easter uh bunny. And then lastly uh on Monday night I also attended um the council meeting for CTO
day. Uh the seniors did an outstanding job. It was really good uh to hear about their concerns and improvements that they would like to see here in our burrow. And that's my report. >> Thank you. Since everybody's bringing CTO day and they did do a great job, but >> they had an open session and some of us got up there and asked and my question
to them I asked the question was when you when the seniors come out of lunch, they're walking looking at their phones and just crossing the street without looking and how you going to handle that asking the mayor who was a high school student. I got to tell you, he answered it very well. He did a great job of answering it saying we're going to do some training and we've talked about it
in school already that they should be off their phones when you're walking. So, he did answer that. True. But, you know, we've all seen it when they're walking out of her lunch that they're just walking heads down right across the street. So, they did address that though. Okay. Attorney's report. >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh my office has uh
been in communication with the administrator. I think I shared three or four ordinances uh at the beginning of this week, which I expect would be coming online uh at the next council meeting or two. Uh as you'll recall uh we discussed the solicitation ordinance
uh at the last meeting and I asked for an opportunity to do a little bit more research uh because I had certain concerns based upon uh thinking about it a little bit further in one of the commentary that we received from a resident. You know uh as everything to
do with law there's no bright line, right? So, uh, we we have to kind of gauge this, uh, to just show how ridiculous it ridiculously unclear it is. In 1965,
the New Jersey Supreme Court said a curfew at 5:00 p.m. was acceptable. 20 years later, the federal appellet court, the third circuit, said 5:00 p. p.m. without statistical evidence supporting
why you're stopping it at 5:00 p.m. is not good. Uh, and they said at that point in time, well, 9:00 p.m.'s good. and and I suppose that's probably why the ordinance uh play it safe and and and said 9:00 p.m. The reality is
we don't have a bright line, but the closer we are to 9:00, the safer we are. Um, there are no reported decisions on Sunday, but the courts did talk about justifications for rest periods.
So, I did look around our communities. Uh, Riverdale has a curfew at 8:00 p.m. with Sundays off. Uh Wayne has 700 p.m. And out of the towns that were most similar
uh for canvasing for people walking, I think those are the two closest towns to Pmpton Lakes. Then you had towns like Ringwood, West Milford, and Bloomingdale. All of which are harder to walk. >> Um and they had some earlier curfews.
You know, some of them said 6:00 p.m. Some of them use dusk as a barometer. What's the dusk? Does that play into this at all? >> Well, >> winter's a different time, 9:00 than summer. >> It could, but I think that the the greater latitude or ambiguity that's
associated with it, the greater the likelihood to be challenged is. And the goal is we want to stay out of trouble. I think that the best uh way to regulate is just encouraging the population, the residents of Pon Lakes to participate on the no knock
list because then it's their election. It's not our election and the canvasers will be uh notified accordingly and and they're all subject to it. Uh, with that being said, I wouldn't lean towards what Ringwood,
West Morford, or Bloomingdale are doing only because since those municipalities are less subject to canvases, they're not as conducive. Those are the towns that are not likely to be challenged because there aren't that many people that want to walk a/4
mile house to house, right? But here, you're more akin to Riverdale and Wayne. So, I think that your restrictions, while certainly their ordinances haven't been proven to be legal, they're a little bit more prudent than what we had
suggested at 6 p.m. and they haven't been challenged yet. And those ordinances have been on the books for some time. So, >> so you have 8 and 7, two different times. >> Correct. So, I would suggest that you do one or the other. You split the baby in the middle and go with 7:30. The closer
you get to 9:00, the safer I would feel. Uh there's obviously no guarantee you could be challenged uh and you know, god forbid you're making new law, but the bottom line is you wouldn't be uh you'd be in
reasonable good company if you stood between those other hours. Uh and based upon the research that I did, uh that's consistent. >> What about Sundays? The other towns do say uh a lot of those towns are Sundays. Oops.
>> Uh I haven't saw I I expressly had it researched if there were any decisions on it and there weren't. Um we have blue laws in Bergen County still and for it's kind of like for the same rationale
>> a day of rest. So I I think that you're okay. Again, there's no bright line on it. You could certainly get challenged on it and I can't guarantee the success, but the courts did articulate an amendability for rest
uh and with restrict uh with respect to the hour restrictions. I explained that already and I don't want to give. >> So, a 7:30 in the summer and a 7:30 in the middle of December >> are two different things. >> Are two different animals, right? >> They are two different So, I get seniors
calling me and saying it's pitch dark out and someone's knocking on my door at 7:30. You're trying to say we really can't address that time frame when it's dark or earlier. There's a reasonable argument you can make, but the more you try to thread
that needle, the greater likelihood you are to get challenged. Right? So, as it stands now, you're saying 9:00 p.m. across the board. 900 pm in the summer is a much different animal than it is in February or or or January. And certainly
that distinction was also present at 700 p.m. Uh I think there's just a little bit too much of an ambiguity associated with the dusk and dawn because
I know that I I've seen decisions previously that talked about that being a benchmark and you can't really do it at dusk in February cuz that's not really fair. you're having people stop walking in our area at 400 p.m. And as you could imagine across the country, it
isn't the same thing, right? Everyone doesn't have the same because we're not all in the same uh zones. Uh so my suggestion is keep it as a timebased issue. Uh, I would like to see it pushed
back from six o'clock and I would feel comfortable at 9:00 and the closer you get to 9:00, the more I that my advice is push it in that direction as far as you feel comfortable. We do know and and I I'm
saying this for the purposes of stating a the record uh in case anyone ever reviews this and we have the the the chief of police here. We do know that there were complaints recently about uh commercial canvasers uh mistreating residents and I know that that was one
of the catalysts behind trying to regulate this a little bit more. Um the courts did speak to statistical data associated with higher crime rates during darker hours. >> Um and I'm sure that that is
reality although I don't think that we have statistical data on it. Uh, at 9:00 the courts weren't really looking for that statistical data. At 5:00 they were looking for it enough to hold a municipality responsible, you know, liable, uh, for infringing on
First Amendment rights. So, the closer we get to 9:00, the safer we are. >> I'm going to throw out 7:00. How's everybody feel about that? >> You don't like it? Let me know. >> 7:30. Split it. >> If you want 7:30, I'd go with 7:30. >> I'll go with seven. May there >> 7? I I don't it doesn't matter to me but
you know I I did get a lot of calls a lot of complaints. >> Uh so you guys tell me what you feel. >> I'm okay with seven. >> I would go with seven. Then on there's nothing specific about holidays. >> Just you talked about Sunday, but what
about holiday? >> There's a lot of different holiday >> come on Christmas Eve >> and uh in the dark and then I had to argue with the girls. >> Yeah, they're Christmas. So Christmas Eve is not a holiday. >> Well, if we're going to specify the holidays, I think we should I mean maybe
say federal holidays. >> All right, we can do that. >> Oh, we can do that. Okay, >> I'm going to say I like seven federal holidays and no Sundays. Everybody okay with that? >> Great. >> All right, let's start with that. >> And we go to court. I'll say my attorney said to do that.
>> Oh, I know you will. >> Okay, so you can work on that, right? >> Yes. Yeah, we should have that for the next few minutes. Anything else? >> Uh, no, that's it. Thank you. >> So, just let me ask you a question. Uh, I know we're holding up on the co-op because of uh the planning board, right? Once we have that piece in, then we're good.
>> Correct. And and and this is just actually cleaning up. We don't need it uh for our plan. That's why we're we're removing it. Uh we have worked on uh there's a consent order that has to be filed and that's what gives us what's
known as the judgment of repos which gives us the long-term immunity for 10 years. Uh that's drafted already. Uh I have my associate Steven talking to San just to make sure that we got all the numbers right because these numbers kind
of roll together. Okay. >> I want to have another set of eyes on it and once S approves it, we'll get it over to Fairshare Housing. >> Once they approve it, we'll file it with court and that should be it. >> Good. Okay. Thanks. Administrator's report. >> Motion for the attorney. >> Okay.
>> Anything on the Skyler Avenue Railroad crossing maintenance? >> We have and and I wish I had that update for you. I did tell my associate, my partner David, uh who uh and I think Mike was even on the email. I told him
uh what I wanted him to do with respect to uh following up. I I gave specific instructions and I had a meeting with him and it was about the first amendment thing with the canvasing and that one slipped through the crack. So, let me give you a
followup at the next council meeting, please. >> Thank you, sir. >> No problem. >> Okay. Administration. Thank you, mayor. Uh, please be advised that the renovations to the Hersfield Park storage shed project continue to progress. Uh, this week the Bose
contractor is in the process of installing the epoxy floor base and finishing the ADA bathrooms. A change order will be pending for the April 22nd, 2026 council meeting uh for consideration for the installation of a new spotlight on the front of the
building. the sides of the building already have improved spotlights from the current contractor. Uh however, the plans and specs uh neglected to include the front of the building. So, we're looking at that for the next council meeting. Um in addition to that, I met
on site with the DPW at Hersfield Park to discuss removal of the overgrown shrubs between the basketball court and the parking lot. There's been many complaints that the existing shrubs are encroaching onto two of the backboards uh that that are adjacent to the parking
lot. And our intention is to repair and replace the existing guide rail and re rellandscape the area with a moderate height uh sort of shrub uh to replace those overgrown shrubs to provide for some sort of barrier but not too much of
a barrier. uh where you can visually see the playground and all of the uh positive improvements that we're making to the park uh not be blocked by these large shrubs. So, I'm going to follow up with Council President Kent and uh Councilman Big for open space and uh
we'll have a plan for that uh to come. Uh please be advised that the burrow has conducted a pre-paving meeting with our contractor uh regarding the resurfacing of Watervallet A and Albany A. The work is scheduled for Tuesday, April 21st,
2026 between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. and is anticipated to be completed within 1 day. So, this is a one-day project, a one-day mill and pave and then a restriping thereafter. Uh, again, during this time, access to
driveways will be restricted and traffic detours will be in effect. The burrow has provided notice of this project via social media, the burrow website, and will handel notifications to the affected residents. And just wanted to
highlight from the mayor uh mentioned before uh we're pleased to share that Congresswoman Nelly Poe has selected the Burough's Department of Public Works garage replacement project for the inclusion in the FY2027
congressionally directed spending program. The project has been submitted by the Congresswoman's office to the House Appropriations Committee in the full funding request of $8.3 million for a fully funded project. Our project was
one of only 15 selected projects from more than 70 applications from Congresswoman Poe's office. While this is a significant milestone, uh this is only a first step in the very large process that is the earmark process of
the House of Representatives. The House Appropriations Committee has proposed limiting community project funding to 1% of total FY2027 discretionary spending and final approval remains contingent upon
Congress passing the appropriations bills and including these projects. So, we will be in touch with the congresswoman's office. We are trying to get her down here for a site visit in the next few weeks to, you know, continue progress. We don't want her to forget about us. And, uh, we, as the
mayor mentioned, we are working with Governor Cheryl's office to schedule a site visit with the governor uh, in the near future. So, more to come on that. And lastly, just to reiterate again for the public, the 2026 municipal
budget hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, May 13th, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. in the Burough Council chambers. The budget and PowerPoint presentation will be posted to the Burough website tomorrow. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Um I spoke with Dan,
but uh first of all, are they holding strong on the date to finish the bridge? Do we know that? Did they respond back? >> The county is ahead of schedule and all signs point to finishing uh before summer camp starts. That's important. So, we are on track. >> And there is some damage to some of our
recreation equipment which I guess that that'll be addressed after it's all done or they should be made aware of it, I'm guessing. >> Yes. I believe Council President Kent informed me that some of the playground equipment was damaged. So, we will follow up with the county and I'm sure there'll be good good faith partners on
that to help us fix that. >> And the b the benches the the new benches that came into >> one bench was removed the other was better. >> So, they'll have to take care of that. All right. Any questions for the administration? >> No. Okay. Chief's report. Chief. >> Yes. So,
so uh March uh was definitely a more active month for the department compared to February. Um if you look over the report uh you would have seen an increase of our overall calls. Uh they went from 259
incidents in the month of February um to a total of uh 2000 I'm sorry we went from yeah up to 2,14 calls in the month of March. Um, out of those calls, we were
also uh dispatched uh to an increase in calls of about 100 calls for the month. And our officers um definitely were uh more proactive with enforcement uh conducting uh a total of 320 motor vehicle stops and issuing uh
222 citations for the month. Uh as for our investigation workload, uh we also saw an increase there slightly. Um, our arrest saw a a noticeable increase uh from four arrests in February up to a
total of 13 arrests in in the month of March. Uh, our domestic violence incidences remained uh consistent for the month at uh 12 and our bias incidents remained uh unchanged. As for our motor vehicle accidents, uh
unfortunately they rem they remain steady with uh 22 accidents reported in the month of March compared to uh 21 in the month of February. Uh from an operational standpoint, uh I would say our officers handled uh uh
several uh significant incidences including um disturbances. We had a missing juvenile that was safely located and uh investigations also tied a stolen motor vehicle uh which ended up being
connected to a larger uh theft network. On the community side of things, we continue to work with our schools um with uh ebike safety presentations. Uh we had lead instruction kickoff uh and we also conducted CPR training for uh
students. Uh I also met with uh the religious leaders in the month of uh March. Um and that continued to you know it's going to continue to strengthen our communication uh with uh with our community based
leadership. Um additionally the department is uh currently moving forward with uh intergovernmental process to fill uh one officer vacancy. Uh we currently have uh three potential
candidates and the process itself is uh as you know is uh very extensive involving thorough background investigation, coordination with multiple agencies and several levels of review uh before getting to that uh final selection. But overall the
department remained proactive uh visible and responsive uh while continuing to balance uh enforcement investigations and uh community engagement. Um, that being said, I just wanted to also um uh bring up a few dates uh that are going
to be coming up on um May 6th at 6:30 in the council chambers. um the state county prosecutor Camila Valdez along with the attorney general's office um uh the PL police department and
I'm just getting the other uh CBH care um will be um having an arrive together what they call an arrive together event hosted uh here and it'll be uh an open conversation ation almost
like a town hall o open conversation about the uh arrive together program. >> What time? >> 6:30 p.m. And then uh there should be within the coming days a flyer that's going to be uh distributed by the prosecutor's
office and a press release that'll that'll go out. Um and then um the police department is uh just to give you an update is at the final stages of our awards. So, we had to a lot of these awards we haven't given out in a in a in
a number of years. I can't even uh remember the last time or even if we gave out a valor award, which used to be our highest uh award level, but now that's the Medal of Honor that we changed in in the ordinance. So, we have a few of those, but it's a it's a total
of about 18 uh individuals that have be getting awards. So, we're just looking for some dates to put together. Um, from what I understand, we would have to have a special council meeting and I got to coordinate with the Carnival Center. Um, so I was looking at the end of May, uh,
or to doing it in May, but the Carnival Center is completely booked and there's some conflicts, I think, with, uh, with, uh, council meetings, some other stuff going on. So, it's looking like we're going to have to uh, go with the month of June. So, I'm going to work with Liz
and bur administrator >> and school, right? you got a lot of stuff going on with school to put out some to put out some dates. Uh but uh basically the the whole process took a little time because we had to make up some of these awards and then get them made put them together as the ordinance
requires a certificate uh a plaque uh and the actual award. So that is all done now. I'm in the process of getting all that framed put together. Um but I should have that done by the uh end of month or in May. But either way, I'm I'm hoping to get some dates out to you
tomorrow. Um because I know it's a lot to coordinate everybody up here for a special meeting. So, uh but it's looking at unfortunately it's going to be June, the beginning of June, either that first or second week possibly, but I'll send some dates over and hopefully we can coordinate. >> Okay.
>> Uh just one thing I have is um just I know we have cameras, you know, we're looking to put the cameras up. I'm starting to see a little bit of tagging and graffiti on certain things. I I can tell you a gentleman parked a larger boat over at the old gas station across from Lidle. It was only there one night.
They graffitied the whole thing. >> I I see it over on Thatcher's now on the uh stoops. If we see it on the camera, I I want to make an example out of out of those people, even if they're young kids, you know, do whatever we got to do, but make them understand we're not accepting that it can happen in this town. So, let's stay on top of that.
>> Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Um, you know, if we, you know, like anything else, uh, if we catch them, uh, especially and act on the cameras, we're going to go respond and and definitely do what we have to do and >> Okay. >> and enforce enforce our laws.
>> Any questions for the chief? >> Yeah. on the ebike safety. The final date that they everybody has to have their bikes registered and insured and that they have to wear helmets and all that is June. So, I thought they gave
everybody a year uh could be they gave the the uh the business owners a year to have the registrations where they have to give out the registrations. Um, off the top of my head, I don't know the exact date that it becomes uh law or compliant, but
I can send you I can send you that as soon as I leave here. Um, it could be June, >> but I just don't know. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I speak on the seniors. >> You had a nice visit with the senior. >> Yes. Yes. I I I I forgot to speak on that. The We definitely had a a very
good productive meeting uh with the seniors. Uh we had a uh pretty good turnout I would say. Um I brought along uh uh the detective bureau. Detective Sergeant Catrell who's in the audience was there along with Detective Zaku. Um
but uh it was it was good. I was able to you know introduce myself to them. Um uh we ended up having a larger conversation on uh some scams that have been uh prevalent in the area. what to look out for. Um, you know, what to do, what not
to do. Um, but to, you know, basically follow their instinct. If they feel like something's wrong, uh, slow it down because they they want to create that sense of urgency with them on the phone so that they can give them money or get money to them. You know, our advice to
them was to slow it down, hang up, you can always call us and uh we will uh come out and uh help them out. Um, Sergeant Catrell also talked to them at length about about uh some of the things to look out for and then uh we handed
out uh some uh packets for uh each person that was there um to to go over and to look at. But it was definitely uh definitely productive meeting. Got asked a bunch of questions and overall it it uh it went well. >> We want to thank you and the officers
for coming. Really appreciate it. Thank you. >> The mayor was invited too but he couldn't make it. Hopefully he can make the next >> I'll try to get to my se next senior meeting. I am a member. >> Yes, you are >> sitting member. >> We know you are. >> Okay, >> mayor. Real quick back on the thing. Um, so the broken windows theory. You're familiar with the broken windows there.
If you leave a window broken, you don't fix it, >> then other like in in cities that that fall apart. So, there's uh graffiti on the side of the theater in downtown. I've noticed it for a couple months now. um if we can reach out to the business owner please and see if we can get that
fixed. So I feel that that's been out there for a while if we were to have gotten on top of that and anything else that comes across I remember being a class 2 special and hailed and and that came it it was brought up and they jumped right on it. They weren't going
to let it sit and I feel we've let it sit for a little too long >> outside of that building. >> I feel like we've made notifications to them in the past too. I don't know if they've not been >> I don't know if property maintenance needs to get involved. >> So, no, I could talk I know and I know Sue can address this too that the one
side of that building is the uh um the cleaners which nobody owns, right? And the other side is uh the bank, I think. Is it the bank? Um so, we've reached out and they have painted it a couple times, but what you're asking is two different things. You're asking for enforcement for the graffiti and then the bid.
They're not going to be responsible for >> I'm asking for it to be painted over whoever does however they do it. not going to be us. It's private property. >> Understood. >> So, it's got to be the business owner, >> but it can't be left there for much longer. >> Right. So, I know the bid has reached out numerous times to try to get it done. It's been brought up at bid meetings. That's the best we can do. I
mean, we can't make them do it. Uh I don't know if there's an ordinance against it, is there? >> Mayor, if I may, uh we received an email yesterday from Abel Gomez of the Compton Lakes bid. Uh we directed S and John Lindberg, our property maintenance officer, to go out. The direct complaint
was with the former uh Smiling Rhino Theater. So, we did dispatch John to go look at that. >> Uh probably a notice of violation has been issued. Um and then the property owner will be required to clean it up as soon as possible, but I'll send an email
to follow up. >> Thank you. Perfect. Okay. >> Oh, one more thing. I I did speak to uh briefly the attorney that's representing um the auto body place on Cannibal Road. Um good
conversation with them. So, it it appears that um uh I know they were issued some summones, but it looks like they're looking to to to clean up the matter and and get it taken care of so we don't have future future problems. I would almost say if it becomes an issue
and it's an attorney speaking, we can almost have him reach out to our attorney, right? Yeah. >> Just to have that conversation because sometimes >> I'm not sure what what was the issue zoning issue. >> Uh was code compliance. >> So there was a couple different issues, but I think the but the summones that were issued were due to uh zoning issues
and having um I think more vehicles on the like almost having like a junkyard on the property. Uh I might be misspeaking, but it was somewhere along those lines, but they were issues. something. >> Yeah, sure. I mean, if you know I'm I'm available for them to do. >> Yeah. Only cuz when an attorney starts to get involved, you know, that means
that we should get our attorney. >> Yeah. We happen to have a uh a conversation on an unrelated matter and happened to me. Yeah. Happened to mention it >> that that he was going to end up coming here and I guess talking to the burrow about it. But I just wanted to give the delay that. Okay. >> They're they're trying to address it.
>> Any question? Any other questions? No. Okay. Uh close session. Oh, no. Workshop. I'm sorry. Workshop. Thank you, mayor. Uh, so as part of our ordinance committee meeting that occurred in March, uh, last month, I know that the borrow attorney has
produced, uh, several draft ordinances as a as a result of that meeting regarding parking, wildlife, chickens, among many other things. So as we start to digest that and bring that forth to the governing body with the ordinance committee's recommendations, the first
and fairly simple ordinance that we have uh relates to wild animals and the feeding of same. Uh so the draft ordinance that you have before you is a state template uh that's prescribed by the uh state and basically uh
basically defines uh or further defines what what the definition of a wild animal is. The existing ordinance uh defined it as all animals that are neither human nor domesticated. But we took it a step further to identify water
foul which again is any bird that frequents the water or lives about rivers, lakes, etc. or near the sea. And we also talk about again defining what a wild animal is including bears, coyotes, deer, feral
cats, foxes among among many other things. So again, the issue at hand that the ordinance committee discussed is there are residents and visitors within Pompton Lakes feeding these wild animals both on public and private properties. We do have signage on it. We are
educating the public, but we do have this problem that we're looking to enforce. Um so I'll defer to Mark on any other comments, but uh we're looking for your consent on the ordinance as proposed. So, some of the issues we're having for everybody has to understand
on private property, some people are putting out full 40 lb bags of deer feed every night. Okay? And think about the crowd that that's dragging in of deer, right? So, we, you know, we'll educate and if they don't want to follow,
convince and then if they don't want to convince, it will be ticketed. You know, that's has to be because it's not fair to the other neighbors who live around these properties that uh are doing this. And unfortunately, you know, I I brought up the geese, but you know, that's what brings geese in from other communities. There's free food coming out, you know,
just throwing food to them all the time. It's we don't want them. You know, most people don't realize probably 10, 12 years ago, we had a boy who passed away >> who played soccer was at the high school back when we had a grass field. He got
an infection in his leg from uh geese uh droppings on the on thing and he passed away from it. This is serious stuff. So, you know, we do we do want to keep the droppings off all our ball fields and all our areas and all our public spots. So, I know that's going to rub some people the wrong way and I think that's
what we're here to discuss. So, if anybody has any questions, now's time to bring up. Yeah, I did see something about the bird feeders and and how how's that going to affect because when the birds come, they they do make uh a mess out of the bird feeders and
how how will that deteriorate the the wildlife to uh >> well the the the bird feeders are are exempt because they're not targeting foul. >> Okay. So, so there, you know, I there will be some, I guess, crossover.
>> Uh, but we didn't want to o overly regulate it. Um, we we are consistent with the state statute and, uh, our ordinance definitely needed to be upgraded because originally it was only regulating public
property, not not private property as well, uh, which the, uh, the the state statute permits. So, I I I think that it's a a pretty good balance and yet it's not perfect, but it's a lot better. >> Anybody have any concerns with private park? >> Yes, >> you do.
>> I do. >> Go ahead. >> There there are a number of uh people who uh feed the deer in on private property in my neighborhood and they are concerned. They're they're very
kind-hearted people. And the problem is um the do they feed them because they they starve and and they they they we're not having a hunt. They're already here and now you're they're going into
winter. They're very limited food sources and they don't want to see them starve and >> feeding them makes them starve. >> But they don't feel that way. >> Yeah. But I understand that science shows that when you feed the animals in the offse, it makes them starve when the
when they can't find the free free food anymore. >> And it creates the ability to breed and make more deer, which then in turn starve, and it it creates a cycle. >> No, I I understand the science of it. I mean, I I really do. But I I do know that they're their kind-heartedness,
>> I'm sure they are. >> Oh, yeah. Is is very real. And they just don't because we're not having a deer hunt. We don't have a call and >> we could >> well we don't and I mean we're not even talking about that. We're talking
basically you know feeding an animal and they don't want to watch them starve to death and then there's snow and and and someone like that. So I I think you're going to have some uh kickback on that. I think you're going to have a lot because there are a lot of people who actually do feed the deer on their
property. But it's not fair to the neighbor who lives next to them. >> Well, >> who doesn't want the deer on the ground? >> Oh, I understood. And we have herds. >> We have we have herds. And >> we had that issue on on my block. Somebody was continuing to continuing to feed the deer and now we can't get them
off the scalar a run. >> But now you have you you have a lot of animals and you they'll be they'll be running around, you know, skin and bone and that makes people very angry that they you know that they're looking at this every day. >> But that's nature. But I think well >> but you know I I I know about
>> right >> when what's going to happen though too that the deer are going to start to eat plants. >> Well they do and >> now what happens is the younger generation the deer are eating plants that they never ate because the younger generation are eating
>> eating eating everything. So um I know green giants were never attacked. Now now they're getting destroyed. >> Green giant arbor vid. >> Yes. Yes. And and they're getting destroyed now. That was a plant that you could plant all the time and now you
know in the winter time that's what the deer are feeding on. >> The problem is overpopulation and by getting by the residents feeding them on their own property. It's getting them through the winter where the good Lord
would have taken them in a rough winter. But they're getting them through the winter and now you're having more and more population. There's nothing for them to eat any longer in the woods anymore. Evan Devio,
we did a survey of Pumpton Lake woodlands. There is absolutely no tree regrowth in our woodlands anymore. We're going to have a deer count coming up. Hopefully, it's after they drop their forms so that
we get an accurate count. We have an overpopulation problem. And God bless those people who are feeding them. But that's not their natural food. When they're feeding them corn, there's no corn fields around here. It's not their natural food. And when they eat
too much corn, they end up getting scientifically fact, they get diarrhea. And when they get a cold spell coming in, you think you're doing them a service, but when they get diarrhea, extreme cold, they're dying
off in the woods anyway. Oh, what happened to the little dough? She never came back because she died. So, you you can't be feeding them as much as these people are feeding. I have a big heart. I understand. But you can't you're not
doing them a service. Well, I I just don't want to see people getting fined uh before we have a thorough educational. >> No, there'll be steps involved. But I also understand because I've been through this with other things, there are some people that are just not going
to accept that they can't do it, right? >> And no matter if you educate them or if you give them a warning or if you do all those things, they're going to say, "I'm going to do it anyway." At that point, they're going to get fined. That's just the way it is. It's like speeding. You're going to get warning and warning. You keep doing it, you're going to get a ticket. Um, you know, there will be some
people that listen to the education, I'm sure. Um, and I understand, you know, there are people, the stray cats, for example, this it's becoming a real issue with the stray cats right now. And we have people taking them in and trying to
get them adopted by people, but these are cats that are horrible cats to be pets, and they're not good to be caged in a house. But in their heart, they think they're doing the right thing by doing it this way. That doesn't mean it's right. It just means that's what they think is right. I think as a
council we're going to make a decision that we think is best for the population of the town. And there will be people who will be unhappy with that. I'm sure of that. Yeah. >> Um >> but I think it's a good compromise. You can't put out 40 lbs of food and have 30 deer standing at your front yard
and where the guy next door is saying they're I have young children and I'm worried about disease. He has the right to say that also. >> That's right. Plus much corn rats. >> Yeah. No, I mean we had a problem with the coyote up there too because you know we have we have large lots and and and
one of the things that we I was I was actually reading people were trying to name these these animals and and you know you I mean they're dangerous to children. They're dangerous to your dogs. >> And when we talked to the wildlife when we talked to the wildlife the state uh wildlife guy they said well they're a
nuisance a nuisance. I said, "Well, you're not going to come and do anything." They go, "No, not unless they dig a hole or they >> Well, it's also on private property, so they have to threaten. It's a whole involved thing. >> And you got to realize also the coyotes are coming back because the deer are a
food source. >> That is true. >> The more deer you have, it attracts more coyotes. >> So, I do I hear you and I understand. And there's going to be people unhappy. Oh, yeah. >> But I think we all know, and I've been doing this long enough, you're never making everybody happy all the time.
>> No, I understand that. Many years ago, I brought in Dr. Emil Devito. Yep. >> From the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and he gave a presentation here. >> He was at the ABC meeting. >> And so, I mean, if you want us to bring him back in again, I can call him. >> He won't come.
>> And you know, I had a conversation with him as well. >> Right. >> Yeah. I was on the phone for at least a half hour with him. >> And he won't come. No. >> No. He actually I mean, I don't want to get off topic. He he was giving me places if we wanted to have a col in town where we could have it.
>> So let's talk about what the what we're asking right now. So I'm going to do a straw poll now to see how we move forward with this. And and saying that anytime we make any decisions 100% is not going to be happy. We know that, right? It's just trying to do what's the
best for the community. We all know Lyme disease, tick disease, all all these things are part of the deer population. And if I have young children and my neighbors feeding deer, I'm going to be if if that was me, I'd be very upset. Saying I don't want to take a chance that my child get sick. Um just because you want to see the deer being eating.
If they want to eat naturally, that I can't stop that. But making them come to my house is a different thing. And that's how I'm looking. You're making the deer come to your house to do that. You're not they're not just roaming around. They're they're they know there's free food. I'll be there. So, you know, that's the deal. >> They're beding down every night. >> So, I'll start on the set. What do you
How do you feel? Um, I I guess I agree. Yeah. Yeah. On the uh border of Bel. >> No, I definitely agree. >> Like I said when we did the tree ordinance, what you do on your property affects your neighbors. It's not you're not in a large huge property where
you're by yourself for miles and miles. So, I'm good with the ordinance. >> Yeah. I'm going to I'm going to have a res reservation on it. >> So, it's a yes or no. It's a no. >> Not right now. Not not the way it's unless I see a change on education and a timing on when you're going to start.
>> Well, there will be education will be passed. >> I'll take a look. I want to take a a more thorough look at that. >> Okay. >> I mean, yes, I know it needs to be done, but the aspect of it is is if we do pass this, it's up to the chief and his officers whether or not they're going to
hand a ticket out. Now, I know the chief has talked plenty of times. It's the discretion of the officer. So, it's meaningless. >> No, no. Let's discuss this. And I'm sure he's going to say the same thing I'm going to say. It's not straight to a ticket. You're not going to jail. >> If I may just intervene for a sec, the
enforcing authority is the health department, animal control officer, and the police department. So, I think the animal control officer will take the lead on this uh with the health department and police backing up, but uh we'll certainly talk about it. And >> and I think where the police will come involved is if they constantly say, "I'm
not going to do that. I'm going to keep feeding." and the health department, they can write their own ticket by themselves. Um, but if they want a little backing behind them, they might say, "Can a police officer come along with me because I'm going to write a ticket now. He won't listen." I can tell you our our our animal control person tries to work with the residents as best
as she can. She's never just going straight to ticket. She talks to them. She educates them. She gives them a chance. Hopefully, they change it. If they don't, she'll even give another chance. Then it'll be a small ticket just to make you come on board. If you're not gonna say if you're saying no all the way through that's what's gonna
end up I don't know if you want to add anything chief. >> Yeah I I mean I would have to you know when when we start going when the police department starts going on people's uh you know private property um
there's just concerns or red flags that I see in that for me. So, I don't know enough yet about this ordinance or enough um to give a you know an educated decision on it, but I I just uh um I
would have to look into it more on private property. >> Here's an example. If someone's doing it in the front yard and you're driving down the street and you see the bag of feed there, you're not going to you're probably going to call the animal control and say, "Hey, look, you noticed this." She's going to go over have the discussion and say, "Look, we have an order. You're probably not aware of it.
This is what we're doing." you know, you know, you can't do this. Um, give me two weeks to clean it all up. I'll come back and everything's good. There'll be no issues. >> Yeah. I think it's a big difference as to whether if they're putting it out right in the front of their house uh on their on their front lawn meant for that
as opposed to we're getting calls now for a neighbor because, hey, my neighbor's uh putting out food in the backyard to feed whatever. I mean, because uh let's say you have a dog, he's got cats, uh like I'm feeding my
own pets. It's in the backyard. Like, so >> if if that was the case, Chief, I think that uh it would have to go to the the animal control officer or the health department. They have to get an administrative warrant. >> Yes. >> Uh from the municipal court. So, yeah, I mean, >> there's a difference. There's a
difference if it's readily observable or if it's a a report. Uh but you know, we certainly could give them guidance on that and and help them get the administrative warrant if it's appropriate. >> Yes. >> And and I think by far the biggest thing and and I think our council president brought this up is education, right?
We're going to educate the public about this. This is not >> drive this way and then they get a ticket. There'll be a lot of education, a lot of posting, a lot of talking to people about it. Make them try to understand that I understand you feel this way, but maybe your neighbor is nervous that they don't want the deer there. You got to be mindful of the
people surrounding you. Um you know, at the end of the day. So I I it's education, but >> we we can cert certainly going to be there to document it. Uh call on like you said if we if we see it because I do believe in situations like we're talking about where they're putting the feet out on on the front lawn. Um you know
especially uh where where even you know you're talking let's say Van and Pompton AB over there brings a lot of deer there but there's a lot of cars. So now you have the influx of deer running across the street at night. We don't want more vehicle accidents and things of that nature, too. So, I think there's there's
that aspect of public safety, too, when you're bringing those deers to those uh high travel areas. And now they're, you know, not that they don't cross the street there uh on their own, but why bring them there if we don't have? >> No. And it's also unfortunate we had a
police officer die after a shift because he got into an accident with a deer cup. So, >> true 100%. >> All right. So that you got some moving powers to go there. The other option is we give councilman H gun n gun n gun n gun n gun n gun n gun n gun n gun n gun none and just >> you don't have to give me one
>> any shoot so I will >> no no no no >> okay um okay motion to open the meeting for public comments >> motion councilman Bennett second >> council hinton all in favor >> against anyone from the public like to address
>> seeing no one motion to close the meeting for public comments motion >> council vague council Sanders all in favor against yes I just like to remind everybody that this week starts the spring cleanup for the DPW. So, there'll be one garbage pickup. Uh, and then the second garbage pickup will be branches
and le and leaves. That goes on for a couple months and then we'll switch back to two garbage. Keep that in mind. Uh, motion to adjurnn into close session. >> Motion. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Approve the floor. I'm sorry. Approve. >> Okay. Motion to adjurnn into close session. >> Motion. >> Councilman Bennon. Council President uh
Kent. All in favor? >> Against. Thank you everyone. In closed session, it's open. Okay. In closed session, we discussed the personnel and litigation. Motion to motion. Council Bennett, Councilman Sanders, all in favor. >> Yes. Thanks guys.