[Music] the following is the agenda for the regular burough council meeting of Burough County Mar School Corporation in the county state the meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m on April 9th in the municipal building 25 LX Avenue Compton
Lakes consistent with the open public meeting the meeting will be open for public comments and shall be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the burrow's municipal code and bylaws please stand for the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it
stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please bless this marit council as they deliver on the best of the legs 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 list building mailed to all requested and paid for same and published in suburban trends roll call please mayor Sarah here
councilwoman Ken here councilwoman Kilder here council agenda here with us this evening is our burough attorney David Lutenber and our bar administrator Michael Dell thank you uh before we start I'd like to do a proclamation with for the women's club on on behalf of
them but before I do that I just I always like to shout out about the women's club you guys are a great volunteer group in this town you quietly do what you have to do you don't make a big fanf fair and you have a lot of members out there working and doing what you're supposed to do so I really appreciate we all here appreciate what you do and you know especially all the
gardening that I've seen recently which the town loves to see so thank you for that okay our children are our most valuable resource and will shape the future of the boron lakes childhood trauma can be have long psychological emotional and physical effects that have
lasted for for victims of abuse whereas protective factors are conditions that reduce our limited risk and promote the social emotional and development well-being of our children whereas communities make every effort to promote programs and activities that build strong children's and family whereas we
acknowledge that we must work together as a community in partnership to build awareness about child abuse and contribute to program promote the social and emotional well-being of children and families in a safe stable nurturing environment whereas preventing pre
preventing prevention remains the best defense of our children and families now therefore I Michael Sarah the mayor of Burough Pontmpton Lakes in the County of Psake New Jersey do hereby proclaim April 25th as child abuse prevention month in the Burough Pontto Lakes and
urge all our fellow residents to become involved and efforts at aiding and preventing our children from being abused i'd ask all the women's club members i know we have a bunch right here on the face come up oh you want to talk a little bit about Marie you want somebody
no about Oh no [Music] okay um as you can see by the library and outside here and it's to make everybody aware of preventing child abuse which as
mayor said is very important you have to start there so that's what we have to do and if you see the pin wheels there to remind us what they're doing thank you all for watching
thank you okay hang on liz is up there slide over everybody slide over a little bit that's perfect you guys ready one two three all right
thank you very much [Music] mr hitt's making a joke saying hi with one of the 12 people in the group i don't appreciate that thanks Okay I know you're ready for the special budget resolution 25151 resolution
ratifying introducing and authorizing the estimated annual budget in the amount of 339,100 for the calendar year 2025 January 1st 2025 through December 31st 2025 in the Thompson Lakes Community Partnership Business Improvement
District motion to introduce the special improvement district budget in the amount of 339,100,000 for the year 2025 so second Councilwoman Kilberg Councilman Dennon roll call please yes Councilman Hinton um could I ask a
question on that i noticed in the paperwork on that it said 330,000 and then it said 339,100 good question i'm going to let Mike answer that i would defer to the to the bid
representative that's here and I could I could assist if you want to come up do you know any why there's a discrepancy um I didn't bring a copy of it can I see it [Music] they're highlighted on the line if I may
to just make it easy I guess sure so the the total budget of assessment income is projected to be $330,000 i believe that the bid has uh has funds that were rolled over into this year and that's why it's $33,9100
um it looks like there was a rollover of about $9,100 if I'm not mistaken and you agree with that sir yeah we're we're um the 330 that we're getting from the taxes i I believe that's the number I've used from last year it might be a little off
depending on what was collected but we haven't collected taxes a little bit so um that was just a number that I I put in it's usually about that number it could be off by a little bit uh of what the income is but our budget yes is
339,100 and we did definitely carry over from last year the only other thing that I would correct is our budget doesn't go January to December it goes um April 1st through March 31st all right so can we
fix that on the uh Mhm i'm sorry just say that again the budget goes uh April 1st through March 31st okay okay does that answer your question yes it does okay you It was up to you to
vote thank you very much uh my vote yes councilwoman Ken yes councilwoman Kilder yes councilwoman yes just for in uh for knowledge sake for people watching at home or in the
audience the bid is a tax collected on the business uh landlords that own the property it does not come off the tax dollars of the residents here in town it's a special tax put on only for uh owners of the buildings sometimes passed on to the uh people that run the establishments but that money is used by
the biden to develop a lot of the programs you see in our town and they do a great job in in doing a lot of the programs that we put together i will also offer that they have a meeting once a month anyone who owns a business in town who would like to show up and offer some assistance or advice or something they'd like to see happen they would
more than welcome you to come down to their meeting okay go ahead oh I'm sorry why don't you tell me that before well okay and now you get to read this too
please take notice that the budget for the Ponttos district improvement district was introduced by the governing body of the Burough Pontain County Pacific on April 9th 2025 and advertised in the suburban transit public hearing will be held at the municipal building
on Wednesday May 14th at 7:30 p.m at which time and place objections to the complex business improvement district budget for the year 2025 may be presented by taxpayers or other interested persons copies of the budget are available in the office of the burough clerk at the municipal building
25 Lennox Avenue between the hours of 9 and 4:30 or you can use the burrow's website wwwenj.go okay thank you thank you Sue for coming okay okay can I have a motion to open the meeting for public comments
councilman Denning Council President Caldori or all in favor against anyone from the public like to address up in 2010 no no just need your name and address first george Papov 1104 Kfax
Avenue in 2010 15 years ago I alerted the bur burrow that the storm drain pipe at 11:02 Kfax Avenue running from the street to the lake has failed and is underwashing and eroding my property i
shared the pipe scoping and provided a copy of the robot's video recording through the pipe showing brakes separations and a significant wash out hole at the separation between the concrete pipe and the collapsed rusted out galvanized pipe this fact
warning was ignored for several years really right up today several bur burl administrators examined 11:02 and 11:04 Kfax Avenue properties but no action to remediate the damage was taken
the burl did not own excuse me they did their own scoping confirming the brakes separations and large wash out at the former connection of the pipes in November of 2023 after boring the hell out of this
council the burough administrator stated the burough was going to fix the pipe and pay for the repairs to the damage i secured the topographical survey the engineering plan by Hower Engineering in June of 2024 and provided it to the
bureau with a preliminary estimate estimate of the cost i was requested to get bids from contractors who would actually do the work the damage has occurred is due to 15 years of the burrow ignoring the wash out
problem it was known it could have been repaired or taken any action to minimize the damage since the leaking and destroyed pipe was not on my property 15 months ago the burrow went on record here in open forum the burrow
will pay for the damage by the storm drain pipe last week I was presented with a set amount of dollars and requested that I fix the damage not the burrow i sincerely request the council
and the burrow to revisit the offer of less than 25% required to fix the damage caused by the pipe wash out ignoring the problem for 15 years and now not fixing it completely is not the
right step please step up to paying for the damage to my property thank you thank you i'll answer at the end thank you anyone else from the public like to address please step up
and Pasinelli 5 Lambert Street i came in a two meetings ago and um I made a complaint about one um a school bus parking on my street Lambert Street officers did go the next day we I saw
them talking to someone hadn't seen the bus there for these maybe 3 4 weeks and today it appeared again so it needs to be addressed i also asked if there would be
considered a um a or more than a officer to find a place on Moniku Avenue to patrol or to watch the speeding buses 18-wheelers trucks and cars that go down
that street not stopping for pedestrians almost feeling as if you are able to get in and out of your car you feel like you're going to get run over because that's how fast they're going we need to you know they come
around and they ticket people for parking cuz their meter is expired and you mean to tell me you never see maybe he's not there to do anything else but you you got to see what's going on past
you while you're there pulling money out of meters or ticketing cars so I plead with you we need safety on that street okay okay thank you thank you anyone else would the public like to
address step up gardener Summit 147 Summit Avenue Pompton Lakes so I was here last week and I complained that there was a car covered on um on Glen Court right by Councilman Kent's uh house and it's been
sitting there and we couldn't tell if it was had an expired registration or not i am happy to report either through some efforts that were made here or somebody whispered to him that uh the car has been moved to his driveway and there's no cover so that's a that's a positive
which is the only positive thing I'm going to say today um on my way driving over here I I I want to know what the enforcement budget is and how you enforce the rules about parking uh trailers on properties um like a camper
trailer our pass went by a pen passing went by for the last 2 months on the corner of Van and uh Pmpton Avenue and also how do you enforce the overnight parking of commercial vehicles in residential neighborhoods now we all know from my last time up here about a
year ago about the rules it's 10,000 lb or less and one vehicle per um per uh per house but beyond that you're not supposed to park commercial vehicles on the street overnight according to the burough regulations um I see frequently
one one or two overnight on Lincoln Avenue and I just passed one i couldn't tell if they were working or not on uh Ramo Avenue but is there any enforcement at night because how do you if you don't send out a patrol to go and look to
enforce these rules how can you tell if you're just enforcing it during the day and um uh with regard to the uh the um improvements in town uh last week I asked I asked a question about uh
whether the assessments are frozen um when a u when somebody receives a tax abatement over the period of the um over the period of the tax abatement or whether the assessment goes up and consequently the taxes will go up as the percentage increases every year and I
was wondering if you had an answer for that thank you thank you anyone else from the public elective address seeing no one can I have a motion to close the public session motion councilman Hinton council President Paldori all in favor against
okay we'll start with uh Mr papov i I agree with you it's been a long process but we have to give some credit to this administration and this council for making it move forward this quickly in the last year uh we've done a lot of effort and put a lot of time and energy into what what is being done over there
i can't speak to the numbers mike I'll let you if you have want to say anything speak to the numbers um but there's not much I can say about the numbers thank you mayor all I could say is at next uh next council meeting we'll have a bond ordinance for our annual capital plan that project is included within the plan
and we're negotiating with the homeowner uh to see if we can lower the cost of their restoration to get it all within budget and we remain committed to doing everything we can for the homeowner thank you uh Miss Tanelli um I'm glad to hear the school bus is gone but then
came back so unfortunately the same thing has to happen you or me or the administration can call the police department and say the school bus is back that's what has to happen we did bring your concerns to the police department they handle how they they put out patrols um but they were told that
there were some residents concerned about speeding and U-turns and all those things downtown we can't mandate to the police set up a station there they could do that if they want and I'm not saying they will or they won't but they have to at least do upkeep on on the complaint
and I think that we're looking at that Michael is that correct we brought that to their attention so we did bring that to their attention mr semit um you started with the good news i'm glad to see the cars moved uh the second part of that is we are a uh reactive department
we have a part-time uh inspector that's here from 3:30 to 6:30 if a resident has concern about a commercial car about a car with a plate that's not on the street any of those concerns they have two places to call they can call the building department and then he will go out and look at it or if it falls under
the police department some of those uh uh items fall under the police department they will go look on it your question of do they patrol at night the building department is not out patrolling our streets all day we do not have a full-time person and that's not going to happen i would hope if our police department is driving down the street and they see something that's out
of the whack they maybe just write it down and and bring it over to our building department say "Could you check this out for me?" It looks a little weird because sometimes they don't know if it's right or wrong uh if I understand you correctly there are built-in escalators within the pilot so it's not a set flat fee it changes from
10 to 12 and I don't know the numbers you know but every couple years there's an assessment change on the on the taxes built in that's built into the pilot agreement when we sign it after 30 years [Music] okay motion to approve the following
minutes regular meeting minutes March 26th close session meeting minutes March 26th need a motion so move council approve second councilwoman Kilder all in favor i against uh motion to approve bills and uh payment of bills as listed
below can I have a motion councilman Benning need a second second councilman Cruz all in favor i against consent agenda does anybody need anything removed yes uh 25-155 and
25-158 okay okay this those those um do you have something yeah one uh 25156 okay whereas the mayor and burough council of the burough consummation has removed his consent agenda consisting of various
proposed resolution the mayor council does desire to remove resolution for individual action from that agenda now therefore be it resolved that the following resolutions on the consent agenda are hereby approved resolution 2530 to
2561 with the removal of 25 1556 and 158 okay can I have a a motion please motion councilman Dennon Councilman Hinton all in favor against resolution 25-155
award contract to Q Tech Laboratory for concrete core sampling and testing was finally improvement i'm assuming that's with the county and we have to approve it but I'll let just curious as to what exactly is this core sampling they're talking about of course thank you Councilman so the DOS highway
improvements project which is scheduled for uh April 14th to begin uh for all NJ do grant projects uh core testing of all pavement jobs and concrete are required within 7 days after paving uh to verify
thickness airvoids and compaction levels uh so attached is a proposal from a company that we use every time we get a DOT grant to do this required work thank you all right we're going to do all three and then we'll come back and vote so uh 25156
amending resolution 25132 authorizing refund of outside lane block 9518 lot i that's just a return of taxes yeah that's I was just curious as to what that was there was a clarical error
on this resolution prior uh and this is to redeem a lean on a on a a residential property thank you okay 25-158 thank you mayor uh okay yeah she was going to read it sorry authorizing
emergency temporary appropriation in the amount of $7,61 okay as the governing body knows we're still on the temporary budget the municipal budget will be adopted at the next council meeting our funding for legal uh
the temporary budget which funds 26.25% of last year's appropriations uh we need more funding to carry us through to the budget adoption for this specific sub account and it says other expenses also what were those other It's just a label it's
for legal expenses good thank you yeah okay uh Liz we'll do 25 1556 158 together a motion could I have a motion motion second councilman Hinton Councilman Cruz
all in favor i against okay [Applause] ordinances final adoption these ordinances have been posted ordinance 2515 an ordinance establishing the annual compensation for members of
the conservation municipal utilities authority motion to open the meeting for public comments on ordinance 25-15 motion councilman council president Paulori all in favor i against anyone from the public to
address just this ordinance what's that i'm resting okay motion to close the meeting for public comments on ordinance 25-15 motion second uh Councilman Bennon Councilman Hinton all in favor i against
uh motion to approve ordinance 25-15 for final adoption motion second councilman Brennan councilman Cruz roll call please councilman Cruz yes councilman Hen yes councilwoman Hen
abstain abstain councilwoman Hill yes councilwoman Polyori yes councilman L yes okay ordinance 2516 an ordinance amended chapter two of the revised general
ordinances of the burough of consummation revising the term of appointment of special police officers motion to open the meeting for public comments on ordinance 25-16 motion council Dennon councilwoman Kilberg all in favor against anyone from
the public like to address just this ordinance seeing no one can I have a motion to close the public session portion 25-16 councilman kitten second councilwoman Kent all in favor i against
motion to approve ordinance 25-616 for final adoption council presidenti councilman Bennon roll call please councilman Cruz yes yes
yes yes yes yes okay thank you okay under my report i'll start off with CTO day which is the change of officer day first I'd like to thank our our clerk and her staff for putting that all together it's
a lot of time and energy to get all those meetings and get the kids here on time and and get us all here so I thank her for that once again it's always nice to see the kids coming in with their ideas and the way they see things in the town and they brought up some ideas that came that we were interested in that came up um you know there was a little
pressure because I had the granddaughter of the ex mayor as the mayor in front of me so that made it a little more difficult but this was a very good bunch of kids you know for a high school kid to get up here and talk in public and talk forward they did a great job all of them so I I give every kid credit that
wants to come out and do it but this group actually came in with some great ideas so thank I thank them for all those things uh I attended an eagle ceremony for Alex Diaz um you know we have a very active boy scout troop in this area more so than most troops that you can ever see um and they're doing
probably six to eight Eagle Scouts a year for the last 10 years that's a lot of Eagle Scouts so I I I give the Boy Scouts credit i give the leaders credit and of course the boys that are making all that hard work in Eagles I give them credit i did a couple weddings this week
um we started our geese outing program again this year with Kevin McGrath as our leader um we've been out scouting areas looking for uh they start to nest now kind of and we'll start laying eggs soon and I can tell you we've been doing this now 15 years and we've made a
difference i I think Mr hinton can agree to me because he's part of the team that does it that we've seen a drop in the number of geese uh so if any public has nesting geese that they see kind of pairing up right now and making a little nest you're more than welcome to reach out to our burrow here or you can reach
out to me we'll get you on the list there's a very short window and when we can do this addling it's in the next 2 or 3 weeks and then after that it's a done deal we should all understand also the more geese that are born here in Pompton Lakes when they get older they come back to Pompton Lakes and then their offspring come back to Pompton
Lakes and that's how the geese population constantly builds because they come back to where they were they were born so we kind of and this is a state approved program and this is we've been doing we're one of the few towns been doing it so long and I and I've seen a difference from it so I I I thank everybody myself and a bunch of us
attended the little league parade it was always a real wet long walk um I was luckily enough to jump on the back of an ATV after a while cuz it's a long walk um but uh I thank the Little League for all they do and all the parents and all the volunteers there a lot of coaches a lot of staff a lot of kids the fields
looks great when we got down there um so the season has started just like it's done for the last 60 years here in Palton Lakes um and it good luck to all those people we had a finance meeting and I had a personnel meeting and that is my report council President Palori
thank you um I want to thank all the students that came out for CTO day as well and for my report I just have a a couple questions and clarifications on some things I've seen online recently um by way of newspaper articles that have been shared there was an article that
was shared regarding um the um oh my goodness there was an article that was shared uh regarding the property that we just approved at 60 Wiku and it stated that we had unanimously voted to allow the building to be constructed without any commercial
space but instead we had granted them the ability to put in retail space and I'm not sure what that was referring to but we as far as I understand we have no retail or office space there's no retail going in that there's no office space either though right the article stated
that we approved it with office unfortunately the newspapers don't they did a bad job on that story if it Okay i just wanted to make sure that for anyone because it did get a lot of attention online i want to make sure that anyone that read it knew that it is going to be residential only um and then there was some conversation back and forth about
the civic center which is has begun construction has begun hopefully it's going to replace a building that was definitely in need of repair uh but it was a reactive uh effort on part of the developer not a
proactive one on our end they agreed to fix damage that was done after construction began so perhaps with the new property that we've approved we can be proactive at this time i know also in the last meeting we discussed some improvements at Lakeside Park one of it
being an extension to the docking we have an opportunity to be proactive with the developer agreement this time and see if there's any way to negotiate perhaps that 60 WAB property agree to offset the cost or pay for an expansion on that docking as part of what we've
allowed them to build there and uh those are my suggestions and that is my report uh just to clarify the that was worked into the agreement with the the uh Meridian building that they're building in the middle of town they had to redo the civic center so that was actually written into the agreement the only thing we negotiated is a better deal
than what we negotiated originally in getting a second story but initially they were going to do the whole building as is so I just want to I'm asking you to clarify something you said because I sat in the meeting with our former BA and the um developer who they had sent
on their behalf and it was a negotiation that took place to fix what was damaged it was I I sat in the meeting so I know that it wasn't part of the original agreement so if you have that written in a developers agreement somewhere can you provide it to me did you provide that to her showing what exactly what it was
that was supposed to be put there for the civic center in advance of it having been repaired from being damaged yep and that that is part of the agreement yep okay councilman Cruz thank you Mayor uh just have a brief report from the board of education meeting they held last
night um the teacher of the year awards were held last night i just want to congratulate Paul Smith Pton Lakes High School sarah Elib for Lakeside Deianne Martini uh for Lennox this is her second time winning uh for Lincoln Suzanne Fra this is also her second time winning and
this award I'm not familiar with this award i'm not sure if they're doing it for the first time this year they started last year but this is for education services provider of the year award and this was given to Kelly Bachio i also want to congratulate Sophia Tortoiso for being selected as valadictorian this year for the school
and Michaela Horvath as salutorian for this year as well um and that'll do it for my report they pick that is that No way to pick it or Yes okay well we're already going to be in there yeah that's great okay councilman Hen you have a motion you have a motion when
you're ready thank you Mayor um motion to read is uh Lieutenant Kapaki to defer to the governing body on the decision to approve a street closing block party on a holiday weekend
day um you can read that yeah you want to keep going yep all right motion to approve the request from Fiorella Pazano and surrounding neighbors to host a block party celebrating Independence Day and a child's first birthday on
Edwards Avenue between Riverdale Road and Waterville app that will impact five homes activities to include music food games and bounce houses bounce houses located on the property not on public
streets on Saturday July 5th 2025 from 100 p.m until 400 p.m police fire first aid to be notified so the reason we're bringing it to the council's attention is because we don't normally do birthday parties for closing roads but she did throw in the
Independence Day part of it so that's why Liz came to me and I said "Let's bring it to the council and see how they feel about it." So I'll leave it up to you guys whatever you want to do i I don't care either so want to vote on it or We're going to vote on it but you can talk about it a little bit i mean you need a second the
street area is very contained the lieutenants I looked it up it's a small street it's a smaller area so but it it's more of a concern for the neighbors have the neighbors been notified is everybody comfortable he says it's impacting said they were that that would
be the big thing I would say i I think the bigger concern is and I'm do we want to set a precedent that we're going to do it for birthday party now she's doing both so it's not just a birthday party it is Independence Day which is a celebration day we have just have to be careful that we're not setting a
precedent that we're just going to do it for birthday close streets for birthday parties well they call them block parties we don't close them for birthday parties i mean that's just a distinction so I don't care how we want to announce it well she didn't even have to put in birthday parties that's right that's correct in there
i'm fine with you and it's it's on a Saturday it's between 1:00 in the afternoon and 400 p.m like Liz said it's a very short clock i'll second i personally don't see a problem okay uh second uh Councilwoman Kilberg and then
I'll do a roll call on it just to be safe okay councilman Cruz yes excuse me yes councilman yes counciloman yes council yes counciloman yes councilman Ben yes
thank you okay for my report um one of the I attended a senior's meeting and um now that we have our bid representative here I can ask her directly um one of you she wanted to leave um one of the
seniors had asked when bid bucks are sold a lot of times a lot of the seniors who don't drive are in the same car and they just want to make sure that usually they thought that it was only one set of bid bucks per vehicle and they were
asking if they can have being a senior doesn't drive if they could have two bid bucks you know as long as it's separate check yes separate check and that's possible separate person separate check yes okay one per person so it's not
necessarily one per vehicle no they can go after that so if they have a separate check yes they can come together okay thank you um let's see also the mayor had asked if the seniors wanted to stay in Riverdale oh yeah or come to the new civic center when it's completed and
they prefer to go stay in Riverdale if that's possible okay the parking is more convenient for them uh handicapped uh wheelchair is so much better for them to get in and out um it's just a better facility so okay you can make that
arrangement with the mayor of Riverdale talk to them yep they would appreciate that just won't say anything just keep going man that's what we're doing okay do we know the mayor of Riverdale we'll figure it out um let's see so I attended at seniors um
attended a Zoom meeting uh on the Hersfield Park bath house renovation um so hopefully that's going to proceed um the way that we wanted to um attended a CTO lunchon kids were very bright very
nice and uh wish them a lot of luck um let's see then I attended another senior meeting cuz we had two within that month and um another question brought up by the seniors was um one of the seniors
friends from Bergen County had the motor vehicle um come to the senior meeting for re real ID um so they were asking and I talked to Michael about it and uh if that vehicle can come to uh help the
seniors with real real ID being there's a certain date that has to be completed by so it's funny cuz my license is due for and I was going to get the real ID you go on their web page right now every site in the state is not taking appointments every site in the whole state is not taking appointments so uh
we through the help of Assemblyman Weber we did get the bus down here once or twice we did reach out to him again but I guess a lot of people are reaching out to him to try to get it for the same reason right but I would have supported 100% if we could get it to come down here so my I know we're working on it we'll see if we can make that happen
thank you we did look at that uh we were informed that due to the Real ID roll out deadline that it's at least a six-month wait list to come to our community but we did reach out to them okay so they're going to extend the deadline or No no welcome to the state
well I I'm I'm not kidding the whole state from top to bottom there wasn't one appointment at any time on any day well okay well if we can do the best we can for them uh I would appreciate it um at our last meeting
uh we had a vote on um resolution 25141 it was in regard to authorizing shared service agreement with the township of Wayne regarding homes to be elevated and I had brought that up um I was told by someone a long time ago but uh it turned
out not to be true that the township of Puquanic had an ordinance against buyouts and uh I went and I talked to Kevin Nelson who's the flood resilience
officer do we have a flood resilience officer no is ours yeah and uh he checked with the building department and he verified that no partic uh or buyouts um but uh I'm still not
happy with the four houses being taken down so far from Kevin Bole telling me we had 87 houses removed in the south end of town and this is going to be make it 91 and pending we still have three more that want to go um that make 94
round numbers $10,000 a year property tax which is on the low side uh that's 910,000 a year we're losing and on top of that we have to maintain those lots so um I got an email from our
administrator talking about the burrow really can't control that that's between FEMA federal and the state but um still thinking about it we have to try to come up with some ideas whereas these people it's their
option to take the buyout they take the money the house is torn down we have a vacant lot to maintain with no more property tax coming in which is killing the town um so could we do something
come up with some ideas my idea was if we can give an option to that flood victim who has repetitive loss um if we can give them a tax break for 10 years of half taxes we're not
allowed to give tax breaks unfortunately now look I agree with you 100% and what really should be happening is the state should be stepping in and saying "We're going to compensate you over a sliding scale over a certain amount of years." Well this is what I'm saying i agree if they can go for an
elevation at half taxes for 10 years and then 3/4 pay 3/4 taxes for another 10 years that might give them an incentive to stay in town i mean it's something we can push with the legislation that's what we have to do with that we have to push it up the chain it's just we need to come up with ideas so that the south
end of town doesn't become just a forest right and uh and we lose that tax revenue but you got to take and I'm not sticking up believe me I'm not but FEMA looks at it as if I get the house off the record it's less money I'm paying out in the long run we understand that but when the house is elevated it's not
in the flood risk anymore right but then the some of the seniors don't want to be elevated either because it's too high that's true and I've heard that excuse already then they sell the house and a young couple buys it the kids will run up and down the stairs the young couples
will run up and down the stair they have no problem they want to be in popular i would be willing to go talk with our assembly with you to bring it up yeah yeah i have no problem in trying to push that up the chain you know well we have to come up we just can't keep tearing houses down i know but unfortunately that's the way the laws are structured
right now to do it so that's we can't say no to that and I forgot to bring a circular in when you ran for office and it said home elevations on it you know I know that you were for home elevations yeah sure but I mean we just can't keep uh tearing homes down unfortunately when
FEMA makes an offer to someone and it's a high offer and they look at that number and they say "Well if I wait 10 years from now and try to sell it on my own I'm only getting half that." They're running at that offer they're taking it and running so we're having one individual homeowner make a decision that'll affect the town forever that is
unfortunate but it is with us not even put any input in it yep that's true we have to work on something on that that's my report thank you okay thank you uh Councilwoman Kent yeah uh thank you Mayor i just want to address uh
Councilman Hinton's uh question on that i want to say back in 1995 or so the Blue Acres program used to give the towns a percentage decrease every year so if the taxes were let's say $10,000 at the time then then the and year nine
there would be $9,500 and then year eight they would be you know 8,000 down to the year and then after that it was assumed that the towns would be able to um collectively get over that loss of those property uh taxes that were being paid um they stopped that program
because Blue Acres and Greenacres became very popular and everybody wanted to get out of the flood area so it it was done it was done so there was precedent for it and I'd love to see it done because that would help us of course you know it would help all the other property owners
so mayor if you are going to speak with Tino just remind them that's how the program started and uh I'd love to see that myself i think it's a great u idea councilman and thank you um I also I so tonight I would just like to thank the
mayor and council for the uh kind words mayor to the women's club and the members that came out i want to thank you ladies for coming out tonight and taking the time to receive the proclamation for the uh child abuse prevention month i know that they went
out into the library and to into the front of Burrow Hall and the um the pin wheels that I know I think Marilyn has it Jessica the pin wheels look absolutely gorgeous when the sun hits
the the reflective uh pin pin wheel part of it and with the daffodils in the back it's stunning so I want to thank you for your beautifification of that of that program and I know they they spent a lot of time uh putting those in and also planning the the daffodils in the past
so I want to thank you very much for all of that um I also attended as mayor said the pump lakes uh Riverdale Little League uh parade it's a great march the kids have so much energy um it's really
a thrill to be uh invited to to be a part of that whole parade uh for the second year I threw the first softball pitch i I they really have to train me on how to throw that ball better i have to be honest with you but it did go in the air this time um the fields were
beautifully manicured they were groomed amazing and and I'm I'm just very grateful that we have such amazing volunteers with the with the uh the little league and actually all the all the um all the athletic associations so I was very happy to be a part of that
um oh the snack stand was fully fully packed too and they sold a lot of lot of goodies on that one so that was fun too can I jump in one second this is something for the older people in the audience they no longer really take cash at the snack stand do you know what they take oh no venmo no so the 8-year-olds
come with their phones and they Venmo what the cost is they take very little cash out at the STAX which to me I read a STAX for many years is a big deal to me wow that's crazy i didn't know that that's funny oh thank you mayor um so I
I also attended the CTR day and again the high school students were amazingly enthusiastic and they do love this town they had some great ideas about uh fields and about um cleanliness recycling and um I just want to thank
them for for coming out and and doing that and I want to thank the teachers uh Mr patrick who who who handles that every year and he does a great job uh I also attended a DPW meeting i guess we're going to be talking about um different uh solid waste collection
pickups in the future uh I just want to address the docking uh I the the docking that is it down in Lakeside Park is broken it we can't put the docks back in because they're totally um warped and
they're very dangerous so uh we tomorrow night at the open space meeting we I did last month ask the open space members to think about putting some money towards the dock so we can purchase them and get them in immediately because if we have
boats going out there and tying to the new docks that we have they're going to wreck those so we really do have to address that and that would be I believe a $25,000 acquisition open space is only allowed to participate and apply 50% of that 25,000
because of the way the ordinance is written so we're looking at $12,500 plus or minus a couple pennies so we'll be we'll be coming back with a answer for you on that i can't I can't imagine them saying no but that's up to them and then at the next meeting we'll
be voting we'll be voting on it correct thank you um I also met with uh the DPW new landscape uh gentleman Mickey Gavin and we were and and uh our clerk Liz Francis and we're talking about possibly putting in new landscaping there um and
it it came up with a really great idea one of the things that was brought to our attention was that there is a beautiful world war I monument that is being covered so we're going to try to expose that put a little little like nice sitting garden around that and then doing some improvements to the uh
landscaping because the bushes are old they're big and uh new benches so we we got some new ideas it's the granite from the Oh the Yeah it's the gr it's the pompite so um we're we're talking about that now
okay and uh that is my that is my report thank you uh Councilwoman Gilbert um I also attended the Pmpton Lakes Riverdale um Little League parade it was a little wet and uh cold but the kids had a great
time and it was great exercise um I attended the CTO council meeting and the high school kids did an amazing job um being us it was fun it was fun to watch and they had great ideas um the flood advisory board is having a rain garden
workshop that'll be held on April 22nd at the Pmpton Reform Church at 59 Hamburg Turnpike at 700 p.m um I attended the Chamber of Commerce meeting um last night on April 12th at 2 p.m
there's an Easter egg hunt at Hurstfield Park rain date is April 13th um please bring your own basket uh May 3rd is Shreddit Day um it's 8:00 a.m to 11:00 a.m until the truck is full and May 10th is bid bucks from 10:30 to 1 in the high
school parking lot checks only $100 for $150 we're at the bid box and um I didn't write it down but I don't want anyone to forget that uh May 4th is um the river cleanup
so 9:30 9 Yeah 9:30 to 1 so hopefully a lot of people come out i just want to add I spoke with Karen today it's not looking good that we're going to do the Easter egg hunt on Saturday because of the weather we'll keep you posted we're going to make a decision tomorrow night if it the rain would be Sunday but now Sunday's not looking great either so
we're we're kind of up in the air a little bit of how we're going to do that but just if you're interested in going to that event just keep an eye on social media and we'll have more information and that's my report thank you uh Council Councilman Bennett thank you Mayor um I also attended the Little League parade i want to thank the mayor
for being there so I didn't have to throw out the first pitch I did last year horrible job much better but okay the CTO day i want to give a shout out to my uh my CTO counterpart Michaela for being the solid solidictorian as as Councilman Cruz reported uh Alex Diaz
great job on your uh Eagle Scout project he built the kiosk that's over by um Lincoln A and I also want to give a shout out to Haley Carol who is uh completed her girl gold scout gold girl scout gold award uh for
a project along the trails as well and speaking of Haley Carol she did a great job as well as her peers at the Adams family um musical performance at the Pmpton Lakes High School it was an amazing performance uh Mr napa and Mrs napa did a great job uh directing and
coordinating all of that lastly I attended the bikewalk summit in Princeton uh one of the goals is to uh make a more pedestrian friendly community and um one of the things they talked about was a um grants that are available but also there's a project
called the um East Coast Greenway which is a a path or a trail for lack of a better term that goes from Maine all the way down to Florida some of it's through like Jersey City and Palaski uh Skyway
uh others it's more east of us but there there was conversation about connecting um the Morris Canal Greenway which we have a section of in our community which would foster uh ecoourism ecoourism uh helps to generate income for local communities fostering
respect to nature ecourism strives to create a balance between tourism development and environmental preservation so there's conversations about connecting those trails to the main trail uh potentially bringing uh income and tourism to Pumpkin Lakes that is my report thank you Dave you have any
report uh thank you mayor nothing received okay administrator report thank you mayor uh please be advised that the Doors Highway improvements project which consists of the res resurfacing of Doors Highway from Riverdale Boulevard to River Edge Drive
uh will begin on or about Monday April 14th the first two weeks will consist of storm water management and drainage improvements followed by an additional four weeks of concrete and curbing work the milling and paving will occur during the month of May and residents will be
notified uh once the schedule has been finalized the ADA curb ramp replacements project along Lakeside A from Ramipo A to Chain Court will begin on or about June 23rd um again I mentioned before the
capital plan has been finalized and will be listed on the next council meeting for introduction uh no changes have been made since the budget was introduced the Hersfield Park playground uh is scheduled to be taken down uh tomorrow
uh at Hersfield Park and the installation of the new equipment will follow um early next week um we've posted notices on social media and on our website for the public um the plans and specifications for the Willow Field
improvements project are uh being finalized by the burrow engineer and we're expected to go out to public bid in the next two weeks for that we will have a pre-construction meeting later this spring to discuss scheduling with the little league and we have been in
contact with the state county about our pending grants so that project is moving forward at the last council meeting uh Mrs shortway expressed uh concerns with the plywood at 223 Wanq i worked with
South Pole and the developer uh we did we did have the plywood painted on the front of the structure as recent as this past Tuesday um so that's that improvement has been made which is a good improvement for the area uh and we've notified the developer to keep the
area clean and safe you know during construction uh the burrow shredding day is on Saturday May 3rd from 8 to 11 at the Pompton Lakes High School and then lastly I just wanted to thank the DPW
uh crew they did install four new bike racks along Wanu A which are a nice improvement they were funded by the bid and uh a meeting is scheduled with the bid and with our burrow arborist to discuss pruning and replacing trees in
the downtown uh so we are looking at that and we scheduled a meeting for that coming up and then we are working with the bid there was a trip in fall incident in front of Ry's ice cream store uh specific to the pavers and the tree grate and we're working to fix that
as soon as possible thank you i'm glad to hear we're going to work with the did and and the trees cuz I do have complaints from some of the businesses maybe we put the wrong trees in years ago and I think one of them was actually in front of this test and that was uh establishment so if we can get a better view to the windows that that would help
some of the storefronts I think so that that's a good thing when is that meeting uh I can send you the information thank you also just to announce to we are in the process of starting to um rebed our our parks and all you know all our areas it's going to take some time but you
know we'll get all new uh mulch mulch down for for all those parks any questions for the administration no nope okay thank you can I have a motion to open the meeting for public comments motion second councilman Benning
Councilman Cruz all in favor i against anyone from the public like to address it again gardener Summit 147 Summit Avenue Compton Lakes now when we had the when you responded about the parking and
I asked you about patrolling um parking on the street is a police matter it's not a um it is not a uh uh building maintenance and uh property maintenance issue so when your patrols when the patrols are out and they see a commercial truck there after 10:00 at
night or late at night or early in the morning then that should either get a warning or a ticket if it's not if it's parked overnight so it's not your part-time or however however many um your building uh your construction
official which by the way we clearly need a full-time construction official to drive around and take a look at and especially monitor the the construction in town and all and the other properties um so that was one issue and then getting back to
the uh tax assessments we understand that that the percentage of the taxes goes up over time it's in a schedule but that's not the same issue as do the does the assessment go up so a lot of times in these um in these uh
uh agreements with developers the assessment stays frozen for the whole time so I'd like to find out whether the assessment actually will increase or whether it stays frozen thank you thank you anyone else from the public lecture address seeing no one we have a motion
to close the public session motion motion councilman Hinton Council President Paul Dory all in favor uh yes uh you are you are correct some of those are enforced by the police and Mike will reach out and who's my police representative is it you maybe you could
reach out also and let them know uh that and I agree with you they if they see something they should be writing a warning on that but some of the other things uh would be like the size of a trailer and those things fall under the the uh building department even if it's in the street so there it's it's used by both groups but the police matters yes
we'll look into it Mike I'm going to reach out to you can you reach out to the pilot people to ask about that assessment question we'll have a response okay we'll have a response great thank you okay um present floor and hit close to the floor
okay we're going into close session Mike or not yes yes unfortunately we're going into close session oh we just I would like to remind everybody the ball is closed next Friday for Good Friday um and spring cleanup begins April 10th for your leaf and branch pickups april 10th is when it's today I think right did it
start today tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow okay starting tomorrow they'll start doing leaves and branches thank you a motion to adjourn to close session second second you're open i'm open okay uh in close session we discussed the negotiations of
uh insurance uh motion to adjurnn motion second who is that councilman Oh Council President Paul Guri councilman Cruz all in favor i guess okay thanks guys thank you everybody