--------- foll is the agenda for the regular bur council meeting of the bur c l mayor council Municipal Corporation meeting will begin at 6 p.m. on March 12th Municipal Building 25 LX Avenue Compton Lakes consistent of the open public meetings
act the meeting will be open for public comments and shall be accordance with the terms and conditions of the Burrows Municipal Code of please stand for a flag salute allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay in conformance with the open public meeting Law Public Law 1975 chapter 231 adequate notice of the 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 have requested and paid for same and publish in Suburban TRS roll call please mayor Sarah here council president paor here
Council Cruz here Council Hinton here Council Ken here coun here Ben here is our attorney our ad okay you want to take it from here
Mike or you want me thank you uh so thank you uh mayor and Council uh tonight we are here for our 2025 Municipal budget uh presentation uh we have with us our new CFO Peter George and our burrow auditor David baky uh
from Wheel cots and Company um so I think for tonight we're just going to run through the presentation I have done something new this year and provided you all with a binder uh that H has both of our both our presentation
my internal budget spreadsheet and what they call the state budget document that goes to the State Department of Community Affairs for its ultimate approval um and then in the back of your binder I have our Capital plan uh with
all of our department head requests for for all of our infrastructure and equipment for the year uh so we're going to go over everything tonight before we jump in I just wanted to let it for the newer people here so you know Mike puts the budget together him and crew do a great job in putting this budget
together then they meet with the finance committee which they did and the finance committee sat down and kind of fine-tuned it a little bit we're not really here to change it I just I asked Michael we used to come together as a council to discuss the budget years ago and we kind of got away from that so I asked everybody to come back so we could
all kind of understand it of course you can ask questions or concerns or anything you have but this is just an informational thing more for you guys than for anybody else okay thank you um so this slide here just uh showcases all of our department heads and I would just
like to publicly express my gratitude for all the department heads they did put a lot of time and energy into all of their budget requests uh we've spent months and months and months discussing that the budgets with them uh fine-tuning
specific line items all of their Capital requests uh so just wanted to publicly thank them for all of their hard work that goes into the budget every year so thank you to all of our department heads okay uh so first we're going to
start with the 2024 budget and our 2024 tax rate and kind of morph into the 2025 budget a little bit okay so this slide here showcases our 2024 final 2025 preliminary uh
Municipal tax bill um last year the county tax rate was 0.7 uh the district school tax was 2.222 our local Municipal tax rate was 0.921 our open space was 0.01 and our
library was 0.048 for a total of 4.08 five tax rate the average tax bill for the average resident last year was $1,422 um so just want to kind of highlight what it was last year as we discuss moving into this
year this chart just showcases that breakdown uh it's really important to to show this to the residents our school makes up more than half of your tax bill um the municipal portion is only 24% of your tax bill uh so we're here to talk
about that 24% uh we the burrow don't really have any uh say on the other percentages uh so we try to do our best to keep our percentage as low as possible for the residents um this slide uh shows how we
compare to our our neighbors um so you will see uh in the last 10 years Pompton Lakes has had a more steady increase as compared to some of our uh neighbors you'll see Riverdale and Wu have had a higher percent change over the years uh
so that just shows you know that we're a little bit more steady here uh we have a good Financial system here and you know uh we're we're looked well upon upon the bond rating agencies um so just like to show that to the
residents and then that $1,998 broken down for the municipal portion that that averages out to about $215 per month for the resident and you'll see here all of the services that we provide to the resident uh garbage
collection recycling Police Department Fire Department Public Works our construction Department recreation parks playgrounds open space you name it uh $215 per month broken down our debt
service which funds our Capital Improvement plan each year uh is $182 of that $2,571 uh so broken down you know it's uh a little more than 20 bucks a month uh for
the resident to to fund our Capital plan and then our open space trust fund is $28 of that $2,571 um and as you know that funds all of our open space trust fund activities that are open space committee are stewards of and that's mandated by the
state that that percentage uh that percentage is actually uh mandated by our local ordinances uh1 yep you you could increase it if you you choose to right that that that was a
referendum at the time it's the minimum right and of course the governing body could increase that if they wish to do so at any point okay uh for the forther residents how are taxes calculated uh the municipal tax levy which consists of
Revenue and grants and our net valuation uh which is our annual assessed value of the burrow which we'll go over next ways to keep taxes stable um we're going to talk a little bit of tonight about how we're going to keep our tax
rate as low as possible ways to keep the taxes stable are to increase our Revenue you know we're working with department heads to see how we can uh provide for shared services to increase our Revenue to bring down the tax rate we could reduce the budget of course which you'll
see tonight our budget is very stretched uh and also we can utilize more Surplus if we wish to do so so after tonight you know thinking about the budget a little bit if you'd like to make some changes these are how the changes could possibly be made
uh with the budget okay and again this just highlights our 2024 Municipal tax rate uh the tax rate is calculated by our Municipal tax levy divided by our net valuation taxable Times by 100 and that
gets you 0.921 tax rate and again that was last year's tax rate as we move into uh the 2025 budget we would just like to highlight some of the things that this governing body accomplished last year and also what's
on the horizon for this year last year uh the the burrow saw the completion of the lincol a phase 2 improvements project that was funded by a NJ do Municipal aid grant of 440,000 uh so we did complete that project along
with several other Road resurfacing projects including Howard Street Maple Street babit Place acan place and herfield street so we did do a lot of infrastructure improvements last year uh we also saw the Carlo field Press Box upgraded which was a nice addition for
all of our all of our youth in town and our Sports organizations uh we did see the permit come in for our Meridia capid dagi uh Redevelopment project which you'll see in our Revenue highlights in the future slides uh happy to report that all of
our four unions agreements were signed uh last year which is a major accomplishment uh we did receive one of the largest grants amongst all of the municipalities in the state of New Jersey for our
Lincoln I'm sorry our Lakeside AB phase one improvements project uh which is resurfacing from Van a to Jefferson a uh so just notably we did receive the largest Grant in the State uh so very pleased to announce that of course we
sold our radio station for $450,000 you will see that in the revenue section as we get to it and of course we did De demolish the former A1 auto body shop and are going to work with the open space committee to restore
it to a park so thank [Applause] you now some things that we're going to have to consider as we uh consider our budget again the the Lakeside have Phase 1 Project there will be a local share
for that so we do have to account and fund for that um we do have an ADA curb ramp project coming up that was funded in part by the county we're looking at future plans for hershfield Park repairs to the Ramapo Riverbank uh by the south
end Trails of course our annual River projects we have it and computer upgrades Fleet Replacements the first aid Squad is looking for a new apparatus which we'll have to talk about our DPW desperately needs a new garage
which we will cover at some point uh our fire department is looking for vehicles aside from their apparatus they're looking for uh utility vehicles you know Etc our DPW is in constant need of
garbage truck Replacements and of course we have some open space projects that are pending that will uh require a local budgetary share at some point so those are all the projects that are coming up [Applause]
we like to share this every year I think you can all agree with this that we' like to with our budget we want to keep Pompton Lakes affordable we want to keep residents informed through throughout the process um we'd like to keep the burrow safe improve infrastructure
safety and of course our Parks um so those are some of our main [Music] priorities I'm going to hand it to Peter on uh just to give myself a break on how the budget uh is put together here on
the slide okay so we're put together with assess valuation Revenue state aid fund balance I Surplus and our tax so if we move on to the next sheet see ours value our net
valuation little down from the previous year I looked at the previous year I did see our uh vacant land actually is five less properties than in 2024 um which you know could help I also saw a resident Residential Properties
went up two two additional properties from 24 to 25 the farm stayed the exact same the commercial aspect there were there are 19 more additional properties commercially from 24 to 25 the exempt
also went up but the exempt where it's coming in and then it's coming out so but at least that that at least helps with you know trying to get our valuation higher it is down a little bit um we're looking at probably just almost
you 32% so not a not a massive drop but a but a drop nonetheless and again this this overarching number of 1.179 uh billion uh really affects what our tax rate is and what the average
Municipal tax increase is so this number does play into that uh and it's important to know that it it did go down um so thank you and this is just a breakdown of of those numbers of course residential makes up most of Pompton Lakes uh
followed by exempt and then commercial properties okay uh to get into the revenue a little bit uh so going into the 20125 budget we do have Revenue problems I would say that with this budget this year uh we have more Revenue problems than spending problems our
spending is is actually well under 2% um and really our issue this year is revenues um so we do have one-time revenue losses this year um this is the first year that our arpa covid funding has come off the books so right off the
bat we are down 187,000 in our Revenue so just that we have to come up with we have to come up for the newer people here we got Co money over the last couple years to use and there was a date we had to use it by and that date is now come and passed so
we can no longer use our Co money for anything so we use most of our covid money up but this is the hole that leaves us when when we're stuck with that so right and I would just like the auditor to explain um perhaps different ways that municipalities could have
spent the arpa money I know that you know we used it to offset our taxes but other municipalities used it for Capital Etc yeah I thought it was kind of crazy how they allow as much as they allowed so
most of the towns I see used it for Police salary and wage were some with Capital Improvements and the ones that hurt that hurt the most by this we see a lot a lot of the towns are struggling because the age goes away because they were using it for Sal of
wages not a one-time thing so now you're basically on the hook to come up with that money it was a one time deal then you do one kind of improvement you're done with it then it's not that big of effect but when you use it for Budget purposes it comes back to hurt when you
don't have it anymore so why were we not able to use the remaining balance no you you Ed up you used to up all your we used it up so so we had anticipated that remaining balance in last year's budget so with all the revenues you you
anticipate the revenues and then and whatever comes in throughout the year your realized revenues whatever that difference is it affects the following year budget so we did anticipate the 187,000 it was used to offset taxes last year and now that it's off the books
we're down 187,000 so we got to come up with that somewhere else which is a problem um and we'll we'll get into that a little bit further um can I just a quick question on the relief state a is that tied to anything related to covid-19 or is that
completely so so what happened this year was for the past 2 years the state had established what they called the municipal relief state aid fund and the governor as part of his Governor's budget address this year would assign a number you know the formula to the
municipality and municipalities would be able to anticipate that Revenue in the budget well we heard from the governor in his Governor's budget address for the fy2020 6 state budget that he and the state were taking away that Aid to the
municipalities so on top of the 187,000 that we're losing from covid we're also losing 106,000 from the state and that is dramatically hurting our budget right now and that's all towns in New Jersey everybody lost it right and then on top
of that last year to to further lower our average tax increase uh the CFO had recommended at the time that that we cancel some of our Capital project balances and return it you know return it to our budget essentially uh so we
had anticipated 880,000 of that and that was a one-time anticipated Revenue so this year we have to come up with that unfortunately so right off the bat just looking at our revenues with what was realized and what we're anticipating
this year we're down about 270,000 so we have to come up with at some other way whether going back to the previous slides whether it's increasing our Surplus it's cutting our budget it's looking for state aid Etc um and notably
you'll see on tonight's agenda with our regular meeting that there's a resolution asking the governor to to urge him to uh reestablish the state aid that's one and that's happened in the past I mean there's been tons we've been told no and then the last minute we we
do get it I don't know if it's going to happen this year or not right so just looking at our 2024 Revenue results um we did do very well with our interest on investments uh we we had anticipated
230,000 but we ended up with 422,000 Excuse me so we also say that that's an increase of almost 180% right that's a huge increase in Investments alone especially on that so we had a very good return with that um notably
our court our municipal court fines are down from last year um our parking meters are up 22,000 from what we had anticipated that's due to park mobile and park link our parking permit software our UCC construction code which
is our permits our construction permits was up 233,000 directly correlated to the Meridia permit that we received which was over $200,000 um and lastly our reserves for our sale
of assets and Pilots our pilot Revenue uh remains uh stable right now notably the pilot revenue for our senior housing which is the same amount every year the pilot Revenue that's collected for all of our Redevelopment projects um is is
not uh specifically showcased on this um and I will send you a breakdown of that um noting that I accidentally left out um but we're happy to report that all of our pilot revenues were collected in full with Phoenix advisors we are
billing the developers and following up with them and making sure that they provide all of their audits um and that they pay their bills on time um and our pilot revenue is up from last year and our our auditor and CFO can attest to
that um so all in all we had a pretty good Revenue year uh just our state Aid and our Co money came off the books and that's that's really what's driving our budget this year are those two items
what approximately is our pilot Revenue uh we could distribute it to the governing body you don't have an estimate right you don't have a round [Music] number uh I do actually hold on right so we have what's called this
pompon Lake Senior Housing corporation uh if you look on my budget spreadsheet in the beginning of the binder page two under revenues uh we have anticipated 157,000 for the senior housing we did collect
157,000 and then at the bottom uh reserve for payment and L taxes that 275,000 it is actually the the fees that we collected from our developer friends uh so that
275,000 we are anticipating again and any increase in that Revenue would be brought in as extra Revenue to help offset that anticipated Revenue difference to help lower our tax rate next year so the the big project is not on Meridan is obviously not on there
because of the uh work done to all the smaller projects that add up to the 275 and I would just like to add that 275 according to budgetary procedures you you can't anticipate more than you collected last year right so if we know
we're going to collect 315,000 this year we can't anticipate that it's against the law we have to anticipate what we collected last year and then any extra would help us in next year's budget um so all in all the pilot Revenue uh you
know uh looks good looks good and we continue to follow up with our developers and our billing company and uh you know I would add that it is helping our budget and you will see that when I get to our uh appropriation and Levy cap slides uh it really did help us
with our cap compliance which our auditor will cover when we get to that you're going to send the breakdown of what that 275 is absolutely how many projects are paying into that now besides senior housing uh four or five four I think four Lakeside Commons it's Lakeside Commons it's plum law which is
uh next to cjm it's nine Hamburg Turnpike which is by Garden Road and 525 W youav which are the four apartments that were built on the corner okay so four properties by the firehouse right right so roughly it's about 60 may be 85
Apartments total that we're talking about for that yeah and uh Phoenix advisers have generated our bills for this year with a full breakdown of what those bills are anticipated to be of course those kind of fluctuate based on
the developers revenues but we're going to send that to you and you can look at the breakdowns um you'll see that it was increased from last year and you know it's going to help our budget so thank you okay uh our fund balance um Dave do you just want to explain what fund
balance is access money that you have to use as as you please um you can see that it was ch it went down by $50,000 which was make up of those previous the previous
slide that you showed the L of Revenue was down and um that's just basically you're set aside to use in case of emergency type of thing right so so we have 4.9 million in
Surplus okay so the next slide here showcases our our fund balance history fund balance and surplus are the same thing um so so again we have 4.9 million in Surplus historically over the past few
years we've always anticipated 1.9 million in in Surplus and I would just like to highlight that we we really are in a strong financial position and that we've always anticipated the same amount of surplus we've never had to dip
into that Surplus for anything so we've always uh maintained a healthy balance of surplus you'll see since about 2016 2017 um and year over-year we've always had a net gain of surplus you'll see in the past 2 years
this year notably we're down 51,000 uh the year prior 13,000 and that's just due to stretching budgets and and inflation and again just that Surplus becomes important especially for the newer people when you're short that's where you're going to take your money from is the Surplus and if you
keep taking money from the Surplus you end up being in a bad predicament and it lowers your bond rating it lowers all the things that the town's associated with so keeping a healthy strong and I thank Michael and all our team for doing that a strong fund helps us keep our strong numbers in in outside of the town
with the federal government because those things affect our interest rates and everything else absolutely so so the more Surplus we have the lower interest rates we get when we go out to bond for future projects so that's definitely 23 is for 24 into 25 I it's only like a 1%
decrease so you're not you know especially if you look at 2016 being a loss of almost 3/4 of a million and we're only losing 50 I mean I'll lose 50 over a 3/4 of a million but and that's the year we sold all the houses and the flooding we there were a lot of buyouts and we lost the tax revenues on those
yeah 1% drop is not yeah it's not terrible might be a good idea to add the percentage because that kind of puts it in perspective instead of looking at a pro number thank you um our next slide
showcases our general Debt Service so this is the debt that we authorize for all future projects uh We've we've authorized uh since 2022 uh 7.9 million we've paid off 1.8 million in bond
interest um I'm sorry no uh 1.8 million in bond interest we've paid uh principal in the amount of 2.5 million and interest in the amount of 78400 so our debt outstanding out to
2036 is 6.4 million and you'll see in your budget spreadsheets you know we have an annual allotment of principal and interest that are due that have to be paid out of our budget um you know notably over the next few years uh that
amount is about the same but it does go down so you know a way to to produce Savings in future budgets is to not uh authorize as much debt so just wanted to highlight that uh with the debt we did have a
general note sale in 2024 uh for 3.6 million uh we got an interest rate of 4.5% uh the maturity date is June 6th of of this year and we'll have to do another note sale expl just explain for
the new what a note sale is what that means then you do a project you instead of going out bonding you're borrowing you're basically getting a Bond anticipation note for one year so every year you have to renew them
and after a while it gets pretty you get pretty high with it then they permanently Finance the usion bonds so every year you go out you pay your B's off redo them you pay a little down every year and
uh pretty much right and uh uh just highlighted on this note sale are some of the prior projects that this governing body undertook um including the pond hole our 2023 Capital plan do Highway and Alan AV
um so those are some of the projects that were included and for this for this note sale there is a budgetary requirement of note interest and that's 163,000 and that's included in our budget it's almost like a basically a
loan shortterm Lo okay is it from a lending institution bank or you go out and get bids bids from different banks GB Bank different Che and Company all these different places and whoever gives you the low the right yeah and that's
where that number came in before we get a better rating so the higher rating we have the better rate we get on these kind of loans so if we had a bad loan we could get a high rating it would cost us a lot of money just in that one year's worth of Interest right Michael just real quick where where where was the
fire truck is that in here or is that not in here fire truck uh was that last year that the year before we had we had a bonded for a new ladder truck is what councilwoman Kent is referring to yeah uh I don't specifically think it was in
this note sale um do you happen to know Dave um it could be still authorized but not isue debt I don't know did you purchase the fire truck already yeah we got it last year last year two years ago two years it's fairly new it could be part of those new
it might be in there already yeah okay thank you Che for okay uh so now as we move to our operating budget uh just to highlight some of the services that the burrow
ppon Lakes Prov provides to our residents of course we have Public Safety we have public works we have construction our first aid Squad Recreation cultural and senior citizen events garbage recycling open space administrative clerical are just some of
the uh operating expenses that are within our budget so now we are going to get into our Appropriations so first we're going to highlight our salaries and wages for the year okay so what we call General Services uh encompasses our
administrative staff our mayor and counsil salaries our municipal clerk and our elections budget um which is which is down by 23,000 um just due to some internal account restructuring um the way you
know moving money around internally uh so those those budgetary accounts on face look like there's a savings uh but we'll go over that in the next few slides our finance department budget which is our our CFO our tax collector
and our tax assessor is five uh $5,500 uh just due to Cola increases our land use which is Redevelopment agency uh environmental commission open space planning board board of adjustment and
code enforcement is down by 26,000 um that was due to a clerical error um I shouldn't say error the way that we did the budget last year when you have a shared service agreement you put the salaries in the shared service
line and we had put the salaries for the construction official both in the operating budget and in the shared service account so it was a double dip situation so we were able to fix that this year and lower the operating budget by 26,000 so we're happy we caught
that our Public Safety which is Police Department OEM our court our fire department our uh fire prevention Bureau and our fire alarm superintendent is up 144,000 uh due to all of our Contra
contractual obligations most notably our PBA officers um so that you know there is a large increase there um our DPW which includes garbage snow and streets and Roads is up by
56,000 um that's due to again contractual increases however we did lower the snow overtime um the way it works is every year when our uh budget season is over uh any excess
funding for our snow removal goes to What's called the storm Reserve um and it lapes to our storm Reserve trust uh we do have a healthy balance in the storm Reserve which is why we're recommending lowering the snow overtime this year because we have other money
that can be used for that our Recreation Department uh I found that when doing the budget we had severely overinflated our Recreation salaries uh which includes our summer camp counselors all of our part-time Recreation AIDS and our director uh so
we were able to to lower that to 45,000 and our library uh Library expenses uh salary and wages have have gone up significantly and I'll just let Dave explain how the library works yeah there's a
based on your tax it's part of your tax tax rate you get the library gets a certain amount of money and they have to use that to pay all the bills most of the time it's enough sometimes the town will help out if they have other things
going on that they need to pay for but usually it's just based on the tax ly y thank you have a question of course does that money also include also include their health benefits no that that's in the following slide which we'll showcase this is just
for the salaries which which just to note the library board had voted on a 5% salary increase which we really don't have any jurisdiction over uh so the the folks did get a 5% increase so that's why you're seeing such a large increase so when they have an issue like a couple
years ago they had an issue with their boiler and just what you were talking about their money didn't cover that the town did have to step in and help them out prob some of the people who've been on would probably remember we had to give a onetime fee to help them with some of the things but normally they try to stay within that number that they're
given just a question of course Public Safety fire alarm those the is that the boxes on the telephone pole yes are all those operable from my understanding yes and that's what the bucket truck for the fire department was for yes and still is
it still is and from what I'm hearing it's not operable is the bucket truck is in disrepair and we're discussing perhaps uh looking for a used bucket truck at this time um for for the fire alarm superintendent and the fire
department does use it too but okay what about sh Tre we could talk about that so all in all our salary and wages the police department makes up a very large sum of that so our Public Safety
which we include the OEM and our fire department Etc makes up 60% of of our budget for our salaries so a very large percentage following that is our DPW and then our our general Services uh accounts uh so
just wanted to highlight that and I think Michael mentioned at the beginning but we were lucky enough to settle our contracts you know with our unions there are some surrounding towns right now that are are having real issues with their unions and and it's going to court and you never know what's going to come from that so the fact that we got all
this behind us the next couple years is a bigger deal for us we don't have to worry about it for a little while how long are those contracts for uh we have What's called the teamsters which is the DPW and the clerical staff that expires in 2027 and our PBA expires in 2027 as
well S A two-year contract the threee yeah threee yep okay uh to get into some of our operating budgets so we just discussed salary and wages now we'll discuss operating budgets um our our general
Services budget makes up a a lot of a lot of our general contracts that we have uh which could in could include um you know cleaning of the burrow Hall we paid for our grant consultant out of that uh out of that line item our
information technology consultant um etc etc you'll see that it's down by 28,000 that's notably due to us canceling our grant consultant agreement and bringing grant writing in house and
by switching our it vendor uh saving over $15,000 in doing so so you'll see a very uh large decrease in those budgets our finance department is down 20,000 we were able to kind of squeeze the budget there uh and take out a
little bit of excess funding uh just to further you know lower our budget our again our land use budget is down six uh $6,000 on the next page our Public Safety our Police Department operating
expenses is up um that's due to all of their contractual increases with all of their maintenance vendors you know body cams uh you know machines that they have to use the equipment in their cars uh all of that all of those contracts
increase year-over-year so that's why you're seeing such a large increase inrease in that um also our fire department uh maintenance costs have gone up uh maintenance on our vehicles maintenance on the firehouse so the fire department was looking for a little bit more
funding for that purpose um so all in all our Public Safety operating budgets are up 46,000 which is still you know pretty level um our DPW accounts are up by 21,000 uh that's notably due to our
tipping fee increasing uh we had gone out to to bid for solid waste removal and our rates have increased this year a lot um you know by $30,000 which impacts our tipping fee so that's a contractual
increase that we had to sustain um you know you'll see snow removal is down a little bit we were we we were able to tighten that budget a little bit um our vehicle maintenance remains up you know we have high vehicle maintenance costs um buildings and
grounds so again all in all it's up 21,000 our Recreation dep Department uh there's no net change uh this account funds all of the general programs that our commission puts on every year um also our fireworks that we have for
Pompton day uh so we we do have a healthy reserve and healthy trust funds for the Recreation Commission so we don't feel that we need to increase that budget right now and again our our library which is a statutory obligation
um is significantly up this year and notably to council woman kelberg Point includes the large uh health benefit increases that you'll see for the library staff and then lastly the budget for all of our boards and commissions including
the flood board the planning board the board of adjustment um is is down by $3,000 we were able to kind of re reallocate some things and and cut some things out um you know so those are attorney costs also right we're going to
go over that next so all in all are operating budgets for all of our departments uh the DPW actually has the highest amount at 32% followed by Public Safety at 23 uh per. next is what we call all of our
miscellaneous budgets uh which does include legal expenses which we'll go over okay so last year we had budgeted 189,000 for legal uh we are forecasting that we can lower that to
162,000 and that's specifically due to the not having the need to negotiate labor contracts um which has a very high cost uh so that's why you're seeing such a significant savings with our legal accounts um again all of our contracts
are settled until 2027 uh so we do not need as much funding this year you know 7:30 right Steve you know 7:30 I see that now why here um next is our burrow engineer account uh we are increasing it by
18,000 that that's specifically because we're establishing a new sub account with what we're calling burrow planner um every time we have our burrow planner come to a council meeting they're Consulting on affordable housing matters on Redevelopment projects we've never
really had an established fund for that expense uh so we are creating a new sub account for 10,000 uh and then our burrow engineer account uh would be 75,000 for a total of $85,000 and again our our burrow
engineer account funds all of our miscellaneous uh project s that we have every year um all of our bonded projects have what they call section 20 costs included in those and we pay for our engineer out of those project budgets
but you know things come up throughout the year you know guard rails uh have to look at flooding issues etc etc those are where those CL when they come to the open space meetings and when they come those things that's um you will see an increase in
what we call other insurance that's our annual assessment from our joint Insurance Fund you know they have to you know Bill US every year and based on claims experience um with the whole fund uh the whole funds budget
has gone up which has impacted us uh which you're seeing an increase of 14,000 for [Music] that uh the largest increase in our Municipal budget this year is our health benefits um
you know if you recall we had launched the difference card this year uh we did have very good participation we had a third if you know closer to a half of the employees participate but those folks that didn't participate uh those premiums have gone
up over 20% per employee uh which is accounting for an increase of $310,000 in our budget our retiree health benefits account uh makes makes up a million of that so all of our
retirees uh for our benefits for life are costing us a million dollars a year uh so it's a very large increase it it's B you know born from the state it we're with the state health benefits plan um I would say that we are we are going to be
looking this year at pricing for a private plan maybe we could join a private plan uh go directly to Horizon maybe uh so we will be looking at that for for next year's budget um just the hearsay amongst my colleagues and I'm
sure Peter can attest is that we're expecting an even larger increase with the state next year uh could be 25% you know so it's dramatically impacting our budget and is the key driver in our it's the biggest driver on our country and we're hoping also by the
way that we get more people to join our card program this was the first year we brought it in so we're hoping to get a higher percentage moving forward um I also think that you will eventually have to when when doing the contracts they're going to have to start paying a little bit more than 1 and a
half% you could bring up for the retirees their chapter 78 benefits which they would be paying in you know for for their insurance while being retired I know it's a super unpopular decision for them to make but you know it to cover all the costs
especially them costing a million out of this 2.3 it almost feels like it's getting those the time where they might have to do that right just for us to get back a lot of other um municipalities they pay way more than 1.5% for their health insurance even the people that are
working so I think that when the contracts come up again for everyone that's going to have to be looked into it would be our number one priority you know when we negotiate unfortunately I thought you were going to do that for the retirees retire you can't touch it's moving forward you can't right yeah the
current current ones you can't touch but like if somebody if when the Union contract then gets resettled it's said 2027 you could then say people who were almost like grandfathered in they won't have to but then people will retire at a specific date then they have to start so the million we're paying now we're going
to continue paying that it'll probably go up because that's already paid out what they're talking about is moving forward we can change some parameters like Lisa is mentioning for people as they retire right right now we're kind of stuck into that number right you cannot change what has been is there any
joint fund that other municipalities can are in where for insurance there is so last year we had looked at joining what they call the North Jersey Health Insurance Fund uh several of our excuse me several of our neighbors are members
of that fund um we had too high of a claims experience to join meaning our employees are costing us too much with their claim with their claims um and the the fund ultimately denied us membership um but we are going to look at that this
year as well are there any other funds besides that one or there is yes uh so again our health benefits is is our largest increase in the budget and we are doing everything we can to to try to save money with that and that's across the board of the state by the way that's not
just every state every town I think it's 15 or almost 16% the insurance it's a lot okay uh moving down the list um with what we call special police and
search and rescue uh those accounts have have been zeroed out uh We've restructured those those funds into the police department budget um so that that net increase that you saw in the police department operating budget is offset a little bit by the $177,000 and
$2,000 from what we call special police which is all of your class 2 and class three police officers all of the miscellaneous expenses maintenance their gear their uniforms all of that has been shifted to the police department budget um which you'll see in the prior slides
um the account with what we call purchase of police vehicles we do have some remaining lease balances that we have to pay off with our Police Department Vehicles so that's that's why you're seeing $5,400 we do contribute $30,000 annually
to our first aid Squad uh we do have volunteer length of service award program with our first aid Squad and our fire department so we do have contributions to those members um our Solid Waste Disposal again we went out
for a new bid this year uh it's up $30,000 you know annually uh so you know a very large increase there and uh we were able to tighten a few other things in what we call our miscellaneous budgets you know most notably our animal
control and a few other accounts um moving down uh you'll see celebration of public events is down that's due to last year having what they called the fire department ceremony uh for down no this was the fire department
parade that they had for the anniversary of the death of um one of their fire department members right so they don't need that funding this year uh you'll see a very large decrease in fuel after talking with our former CFO
Natasha and with Peter here we've always over anticipated our fuel and we feel that we could significantly lower that um you'll see in my budget spreadsh sheeet our actual expenses for fuel are much lower than 370 um so we were able
to cut that down a little bit which is good news um again contractual statutory we have our pers and pfrs which is our pension systems for all of our employees you know those an those annual bills from the state have gone up
significantly most notably for the police with what they call the police fire retirement system PFS our social security matches have gone up and what they call dcrp which is a deferred compensation
retirement plan for employees that are not eligible in the pension uh uh most notably for a position like myself uh the state does not allow Municipal managers to be in the pension um you have to go in this deferred comp plan according to the we're all in that by
the way right and and any part-timer gets enrolled in that in accordance with State Statute um so you see a very small increase with that our shared service agreement budget is up uh over
$200,000 that's specifically because uh in talking with our CFO our agreement with the pumpt lakes board of education for the class three officers was always included in the police department budget um and we're creating a separate account for that that way we can better track
those expenses um so we should be clear we don't pay for that budget that the school reimburses us back for that money right so that but we budgeted in our budget right so for the class three police officers the annual budget is 220,000
and that's for their salary and wages and for their operating expenses as the mayor said all of that is reimbursed by the board uh so there's no cost to the municipal taxpayer for that um I'm going to let Peter go over the last few accounts here Capital
Improvement fund so you your Capital Improvement fund from 2024 was 140 to 25 being only 40 so a nice little decrease you know of 100,000 which is good uh other Capital which would be our down payments looks like we just almost took
that out entirely which is also good but our bond principle slowly but surely as we pay down all of our debt you see that our amounts are going to continue to drop same thing with the interest as well deferred charges we hadn't looks
like we had none in 2024 uh reverse for tax appeals with a lower tax we we lower our tax rate which it says right there then we're dropping from 36 to about 10,000 which I think we've had lower tax appeals this year is that we definitely
and and Bob could attest that we don't really have much on the horizon which is why we have uh suggested lowering the account for this year and then just to just to um just to hop up to the Deferred charges deferred charges are
what they call emergency Appropriations so during the year after the budget's adopted if we have any emergencies that come up we can adopt a a resolution I believe uh that would establish the emergency and that would defer the charge to the next year's budget right
so if we have an unforeseen circumstance a true emergency you know Bridge collapses and we have to repair a bridge immediately we could do a deferred charge but we would have to pay for that in the following year and you'll see the 40,000 which was included in last year's
budget in 2023 we had a deferred charge of 40,000 which was deferred to the 24 budget but thankfully we didn't have any last year so we're off the books with that so we get hit with larger flood sometimes we use that for for to do that what about the fire what about the fire I don't
know the fire we didn't have wheel charges on did we no no no okay um at the top of the page senior citizens programs I see an increase yes uh so annually we do contribute to our senior
groups uh St seniors and golden Ager seniors historically their budget has always been 14,000 um we had decreased it last year to try to help lower the tax rate um and we we're met with great resistance from
our senior friends we're not Happ uh so I would highly I would I would highly recommend that we reestablish the 14,000 for the seniors thank you thank you so now I can walk into the meeting
yes yes I still got to pay your do so all in all our total Appropriations um net change of 330,000 increase of under 2% which really is stable uh for expenses we I think we did
a good job with managing our expenses you know with all the salaries that are going up our health benefits it just shows that we were able to squeeze our budget to keep it under 2% um so which is where we want to be by the way you know under under 2% is is the shot is
the goal we're looking for yeah all right and then just again to reiterate some of our key drivers for the budget again five out of six of our key drivers are contractual or statutory in nature uh again our Police Department
salary and wages our Police Department operating budget our pension our Police Department pension our health benefits and our solid waste disposal contract six of those are our highest increases in the budget again five of
those are contractual or statutory in nature that we really don't have any control over right now uh we can certainly look at you know look at a few things when all of our Union agreements come up um but again we're kind of stuck with those key driver costs right now um
and again just just a a pie chart to highlight our budget in that our Police Department salaries are three .8 million 21% of our budget and our highest cost uh to the burrow um followed by our our
general operating expenses and our health benefits um again which are all key drivers and out of those contractual increases I work the percentages and it goes anywhere between 4.6% for the lowest increase up to obviously I would say the health benefits is the biggest
one at roughly 15% so you're not for the few of them you're getting the annual you know the actual was like the 3 and a half to 5% that you're going to be getting every every year for inflation and just Cola cost and things of that nature but obviously the biggest driving force is
to me is the health benefits because that's up 15% from the two years that's a so if if the state ends up giving us the money back how does that where is where does that go at the late stage in this game the the municipal Relief Fund if the governor reestablishes
it it depends if it's done during the middle of the year right comes in it goes to a reserve account and then the next year you anticipate in their budget okay so we wouldn't really use it this year then if no in other words it's too late it's too late right the governor announced he wasn't reestablishing it so
it's too late for this budget year uh I'm going to let the auditor explain what they call the cap compliance you have to increase your um budget by a certain amount of percentage from the year before the same with your
Levy tax levy can go up with a certain percentage if you don't use the whole amount it gets banked and then you could use it in succeeding years so it's kind of there a big formula that goes into
account how how it's worked but that's basically it you have a certain you're allowed a certain increase if you don't use it all it gets carried over you bank it and then you use it prior in the proceeding years right so for what they call the
appropriation Levy cap essentially what this means is we could spend another 523,000 in our budget and still be cap compliant with the state um of course we wouldn't want to do that but we are under the cap sometimes municipalities
run into issues where you're over the cap and we really would have to cut you know cut Services we had kind of seen that last year we were kind of over the cap a little bit um but we were able to get on under it but thankfully we're well under the cap this year and and there are towns that you know are over
the cut over the cap and they have to make changes they have to cut Services they have to do things this this chart here is from the state budget document this is the appropriation cap worksheet they call it I just wanted to highlight our our CFO
has advised us that with all of our Redevelopment projects since their Inception uh notably the four pilot projects if you will there is a cap uh a cap deduction that you're able to take for that and we have
never taken advantage of those uh so there's an extra $183,000 that uh increases our appropriation cap compliance we initially had thought when we were putting together the budget with the finance committee that we were going to be over the cap and that we were going
to desperately need this new uh maneuver if you will uh but all in all we ended up you know being under $500,000 under under the cap uh so we didn't really need it as much um but again back to the auditor I I believe that this would help
us with our cap bank for next year get to carry over right so it would carry over to next year so all in all our Pilots really you know helped bail us out with the budget um and again this worksheet is what they call the levy cap
uh which we are 8 $3,000 under okay uh to conclude the budget so again back to the tax rate our tax rate for last year was 0.921 uh again the tax rate is the tax levy divided by the net valuation
taxable again our net valuation taxable was down this year uh 0.32% um so all in all our tax rate is coming to 0.98 uh for this year and that's done by a lot of the hard work that were these
guys that are in front of us you know put trying to keep that number as close to what it was last year that's the key to that whole thing we want to try to keep it you know reasonable for the 24% that we're responsible for remember at the end of the day we're responsible for 24% of the tax dollars out of the tax
bill okay the rest of it is not us even though it is our town and and it's part of it it's not coming from this group here so our our proposed budget is $18 million um our tax levy is 11 million we are recommending the same Surplus
anticipated as last year so that would be 1, 950,000 uh again to keep a healthy fund balance and to keep our bond rating up again our 2024 tax rate 0.921 our average home assessment here
in Pompton Lakes did increase a little bit it's it it it it's 279,000 and again our 2025 Municipal tax rate is coming to 0.980 so all in all uh the average
Municipal tax increase for the average resident is an extra $178 per year for the resident bringing your average total tax to the to the average resident of $1,422 with no cutting of services or in
of services which is another big part of this we didn't cut anything this this chart highlights that uh throughout the past several years so you will see we were steady for some time um but again as your assessed value goes down um and
all of our all of our uh revenues decreasing you know that's the reason for this for this Municipal tax increase so again $178 for the average resident which works out to about $15 a month right
considering all the increases in health care that's I think that's pretty amazing I I also heard from the tax collector himself he said right around for the first quarter of 25 he said right around 99% of collections so we are we are doing it very well he's given
us everything I think he tries to get around 11 million a quarter he said he's right even he's either at that or even above it so I mean last year he said also there were four items on tax sale and then they were paid off within two months so I think even though yes it's a
little bit of a higher rate but we're still collecting and we're still in that higher percentage which is good th this chart just shows how we compare to our our neighbors in pic County uh those in North Jersey and and
the state as a whole uh this just shows where Pompton Lakes compares to all of our uh municipalities in the State and again this chart just highlights that Municipal tax uh increase uh from two
$2,571 to $2,750 uh just highlights our 7-year history and then lastly uh always love to include this the dollar bill uh where do your taxes go uh again average tax $1,422 for this year the Bur share is
24% but again your school is 56% the county is 18% our library is 1.2% and our open space local tax is 0.25% um making up your your average
total tax for pumpin LS so that that concludes for our budget uh I'd like to solicit any questions or concerns any questions concerns anything that up no
okay thank you thank you um so next we're going to go over our our Capital plan for this year so again we have What's called the capital Improvement fund and that trust fund Reserve uh helps pay for our down payment on any
future Bond ordinances and that down payment has to be 5% of what you're borrowing um so on the right hand side of the chart shows Capital Improvement fund we had a balance of
$83,000 going into the year we spent $38,000 of that for the willow field project and for our security cameras project leaving a balance I'm sorry and then we are anticipating putting in
$40,000 as part of the budget bringing the balance back up to 85,000 and as part of our Capital Improvement plan which we're going to go over really quick we are recommending another down payment of 35,000 so that would leave you with
the balance of 50,000 moving into next next budget year okay so for our Capital plan uh included in your binders are all of the backup materials from all of our department heads uh when I had started
here I had generated a new form for our employees every time they would like to a capital request they have to fill out the form and provide me with an official quote uh which you know wasn't really done in the past it's just a more of a formality so we can all track it
better so with the capital Improvement plan um we are looking to resurface some additional roads in Pompton Lakes uh that that final list is still being determined by our burrow engineer but we are recommending based
on our cost estimates uh 133,000 for for Road resurfacing every year we fund what we call storm water and flood control management uh which funds all of our
njde permit compliance um all of our River work uh you know and and stuff like that uh so that's we're we're recommending 40,000 for for this Capital plan we are closing in on the kofax ad
a drainage easement project which we are finalizing finally uh so we are looking for 105,000 for that there is a cost to that project that's the one that's been carried for years with Mr Pap that's been a long time coming we are looking for what we call
burrow facility upgrades notably our fire department bay doors are in significant disrepair and need to be replaced they are a safety hazard uh right now so we are looking to replace those and we are looking for supplemental funding for the Civic
Center once Meridia capid dagle is finished renovating the Civic Center we are responsible for outfitting the Civic Center so we are recommending uh 25,000 for the Civic Center uh notably for furniture for a conference room table um
you know kitchen supplies um and locker room supplies as as you know we are establishing a woman's locker room for the police department uh staff uh so again we are looking for 25,000 for that put cab Tree in there that's going to support some of our local history I won't call it a
museum but it'll be Cabinetry to hold some of our relics that people could see it there Y is that going to be restroom facilities for the police women also yes complete locker room yes shower like shower everything okay good um for our
DPW uh we are recommending a pickup truck replacement so that cost uh is 50,000 if you recall uh over the winter our Salter is in great disrepair um I Know Dan our DPW superintendent is doing
a great job trying to keep our vehicles running and operational for our residents but we do feel that the Suter does need to be replaced at this time um to keep up with our snow operations and unfortunately the cost for that is 200
25,000 for the Suter uh the DP can be used for other purposes when is absolutely yes it's right you call it a Suter but it's a dump body and it's used for garbage you
know metal collection and and other uh operations in addition the DPW is looking for tractor attachments uh last year the governing body funded a new tractor for the DPW that they're using at the fields so they are looking to
further outfit that tractor uh so we're looking for 20,000 and remember we we started a landscaping crew separate now so that we're trying to build that up a little bit so they can do a lot of the work in our parks and our fields and all those things and they're doing a good job as they started but they need the
equipment to do that uh include a bucket I'd have to look I don't think it was on the list the DPW is looking for what they call Salt preet it's my understanding right now if you put down dry salt it's
not as effective as wet salt uh so the DPW is looking for this contraption that they would put on the back of every Salter that would wet the salt that would help further uh enhance our road quality during snowstorms so that cost is
21,000 they're looking for a new air compressor uh they're looking for new radio equipment for their vehicles and they're looking for Forks uh for one of their uh larger backos so all in all the the recommended Capital plan for this
budget year is 73,000 again we did fund 796 th000 with the bond ordinance that was adopted at the last coun meeting so all in all we're at 1.4 million uh which is under
prior years Capital plans um so I would just I guess solicit any questions about what's included any questions about capital capital is what keeps Our Town moving we don't buy the equipment we're we get ourselves in a hole and before you know it you're three years in and it's going
to cost you double that to buy so unfortunately you do have to spend a little money as you are the street signs included in that it's in the budget um and then the next slide just showcases recommended projects that were submitted but have to be deferred uh we
feel that we can't fund these at this time uh we feel that we have too much going on um but as much as we like to defer you know it could also be seen as kicking the can down the road um so I would say that you know we have to
consider these items in the future you know notably the fire department they have appar apparatus Replacements that are coming up uh in accordance with their schedules the first aid Squad uh is looking for funding for a vehicle uh
we have to replace garbage trucks um the the library is looking for upgrades the the police department has vehicle Replacements that are coming up um you'll see that for the police department we are deferring the vehicle Replacements we feel that it can wait a
year um but again they they are being deferred and we will have to consider those for next year so fire department pumper replacement we just get a pumper a few years back no we got the lad truck and the pumper they tell me is going to
be 25 years old well I thought it was we had got one before they got the last no nothing they're they're telling us that the pumper is going to be 25 years next year or two years or now okay and just back on the other sheet uh the security system camera
project is that what's up on the agenda today yes and uh 33 cameras we need around town yes and that was that was previously discussed uh in workshop with the governing body and was funded
already last year last year and before I was here yes and the bond ordinance was just adopted at the last meeting that many cameras we need there's that much yes crime and misdemeanor going around town was that we've had some complaints just recently on on things that request
that amount of cameras requested from the police department or no that project generated from the administration and with the police department and in the real need of having security cameras in our Parks due to due to vandalism because our
resolutions it's 187,000 I think it said for tonight yes and this says 198,000 we always like to over anticipate which I'm sure the CFO can attest to right yes you always think
over because you'd rather be going under and if you under if you under bid anything and becomes over then it's you'd have to pay more and you'd ra you'd rather go over and then at least make it easier saying you know now I can come to you saying hey we're lower now instead I'm coming to you saying oops
I'm over in other words we don't want to come back to you for more money that's I understand that but all these cameras are going to be on internet or they will all have their own Hots spot um and will directly feed into the headquarters and we'll also be you know there was a whole
conversation but we'll be tying in with other police departments neighboring towns so they can follow suspects through our town to another town no that's that's with the uh the cameras on the police cars no no or the license pl we yeah but also on the polls that we're
putting if they're using the same systems they can then follow some some of the towns yeah but a lot of these cameras are going into Parks they're going somewhere somewhere most of them are well not all of them Lakeside Park and Carlo field and hfield park but councilman there there are what's called
license plate readers in this proposal oh that those license plate readers are in this proposal yes and they will be featured some of them will be featured at some of our intersecting uh Road ways with our neighboring towns um we are going to be looking at more of those in the future but we feel that we're going
to kind of ease into it um and the other towns are cooperating with us or not cooperating with us they are yes and we had a meeting we had a joint meeting with us and and surrounding towns just to make sure we're all in the same thank you and just back to our
deferred projects uh what was deferred uh comes to 3.5 million uh you're looking at a down pay P of 179,000 again our fund is only 50,000 uh so again we do have a lot of projects that are coming up um but we feel that
this this Capital plan as presented uh is a good start for us and uh you know we would recommend this adoption uh and again it has been vetted by the finance committee and is on for your recommendation um we will draft a
ordinance uh for this spring to to final to memorialize uh the plan um so that that leads me to the end of the presentation um again any questions or concerns um any questions for anybody
about anything it was very clear yeah very good very very good presentation thank you guys it was very good to have you guys here um you know the one thing I'll say that in the Capal you know some of our ambulances are getting older right now and we are in discussion with Riverdale to kind of help us with the
cost because we do share the ambulance quads with both of them so hopefully we can help together and get some new equipment for them too because they do need it over there also um thank you mik and I just want to add you you all have the binder uh in going through it if you
have any questions you can please call me or see us in the office um and just the timeline moving forward we are looking to introduce the municipal budget at the March 26 council meeting and the adoption will be at the last council meeting in April uh along with
the public hearing for the budget uh so again there's any questions feel free to see me at any time and uh thank you for your consideration thank you thank you thank you very much okay motion to
adjourn that councilman Cruz Cruz who second hon councilman Hinton all in favor I against okay thank you guys we got a little while 10 10 minutes Part: 2
the following is the agenda for the bur council meeting of the bough Council mes mayor and Council Municipal Corporation in the county of faade meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. on March 12th 2025 in a Municipal Building 25 line7 Thon Lake consistent with the open
public meetings act the meeting will be open for public comments and shall be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Burrow's municipal code and B please stand for a flag salop I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
Republic stands one nation under God indivisible Li and justice for all please bless this may Council as they deliberate on the best of pton lakes okay roll call please I'm sorry 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 of the municipal building May Al do all have requested and paid for same and publish and Suburban Trends roll call please mayor s here president
here Council here Council here Council Ken here Council here Council here with us this evening is our B attorney Robert and our B administrator Michael okay okay thank you so we're
going to start with under my presentations and updates a discussion on 61q Avenue uh a Redevelopment project there unfortunately Glenn Dominic our Redevelopment executive had an emergency at home and he will not be attending I think our planner is going to help us with that right um uh so we'll start the
conversation just for the public if it's your first time at the meeting this is going to be an update here there'll be a presentation and then after the presentation is done there'll be an open session and in the open session anyone from the public can get up and discuss anything they want if it's something about the project or not and that's why we'll do most of the discussion if you
have any okay with that Mike you want to say anything or store anything uh yes we have Phoenix advisors our pilot consultant company and Nick Dickerson from Colliers engineering our burough planner is here as well so who you want to go first I would invite Brian Morris
up from Phoenix to go over the presentation that's on this welcome Brian how are you good thank you so thank you uh for having us uh here this evening um as Michael mentioned we prepared this presentation uh that you all have a copy of is on the screen here
uh regarding the 61q um pilot project uh so we are engaged um by the burough to help uh review and analyze the proposed uh pilot um and our analysis really uh takes into a number of different considerations the Burrow's objectives
through the Redevelopment plan uh the fin Financial impact of the pilot uh cost benefit analysis in terms of any uh additional Municipal uh cost generated by the project and of course the need for the pilot and then the negotiations of the pilot terms uh with the goal uh
being to get the most favorable deal uh for the burrow possible um throughout those negotiations uh so um the first couple slides are just kind of background information on Pilots uh so the pilot is a payment in Le of tax that's what it
stands for and it's amount that a property owner pays to the municipality uh pursuant to a financial agreement instead of paying generally applicable real estate taxes on the Improvement portion of the property the land portion of the property is still taxable conventionally and is therefore split
between the buau county school and any other taxing districts um under the pilot agreement the municipality keeps 95% of every pilot dollar and statutorily must provide 5% to the county uh the amounts due under the pilot are are municipal
lean just like regular taxes um the term of the financial agreement is generally 30 years uh from certificate of octy but it can also be less and after the uh the expiration of that Financial agreement the payments revert to Conventional
taxes um in addition to the pilot payment which is typically based on a percentage of the entity's annual gross revenue uh there are certain statutory minimums that can can be enforced throughout the pilot uh so that ensures uh that the pilot meets certain tax
thresholds and those thresholds are all prescribed under the law they are 20% 40% 60% and 80% uh there are certain timing uh mechanisms that govern when those can kick in but they are negotiable and up to somewhat discretion
um and then additionally the municipality May charge a 2% administrative fee in addition to the pilot for the essentially for the finance office to manage the the billing of the pilot um so why do municipalities Grant Pilots um so the long-term tax exemption
law allows municipalities to Grant Pilots to projects that are otherwise uh not financeable uh or do not deliver the financial returns that warrant such significant investments in uh generally speculative real estate um
projects um a lot of uh rental uh uh income based rental projects especially on the residential side are it's difficult to attract private financing without the assistance of a pilot or in some cases we also see Redevelopment area bonds issued that's not the case in
this uh instance uh but in other towns um the there shortfalls in the capital stack so there's different mechanisms in which that municipality can help uh get the project done the goal is to promote Redevelopment in areas that need it uh whether it's fulfilling an affordable
housing obligation offsetting remedial environmental remediation costs uh or just uh you know fixing up a a blighted area or or an area that is in need of the Redevelopment to spark a further extension of a corridor uh in the town
so it's really a market driven solution to completing those objectives instead of the buau or or any municipality really expending their own funds to um you know clean up the environmental remediation or what have you the other benefit is allows the municipality
signic increase decision- making uh Powers throughout the Redevelopment process and ultimately at the end of the day it's a partnership between the developer and the municipality if the project performs better than expected both entities uh generate additional Revenue um and if the project is slow to
lease up or perform slightly worse than expected the Project's not saddled with a fixed uh conventional tax burden that could lead to an unsuccessful project or an abandoned project and you know ultimately everyone wants um the the the R development to
succeed uh so this project uh specifically is a residential project at 61q Avenue um it's about a third of an acre site it's currently underutilized and generates $6,000 in total taxes per year uh that's currently split between
the burrow County and School District the burrow is 25% of the municipal uh the municipal share of the taxes the County's 19% and the school district is 56% so the Burrows piece of that right
now is about $2,000 uh correct yeah the project will include a four-story 23 unit um uh building uh we'll have one affordable unit on-site parking and another on and off site improvements and amenities as necessary
um the total cost of the project is about 6.3 million additional benefits outside of the pilot payment include a payment in lie of affordable housing um density lower density in conformance with the uh Redevelopment plan uh
connection fees to the burrow uh improvements to the street corner and County Road that's adjacent and other development uh related fees uh that the um that the burough charges by ordinance and then ultimately the goal is to further the goals of the Burrow's
downtown PP and lakes Redevelopment plan uh so the proposed pilot um you can see is broken down into the six stages here uh again it's for a term of 30 years and each year it's based on a test of the greater amount of a percentage of
their annual gross revenue or a percentage of otherwise conventional taxes so you can see the six stages there uh stage one is for each one is for five years actually uh 10% of their revenue in stage one 10 and a half% in
stage two 11% or 20% of conventional taxes in stage three 12% or 40% convential taxes in stage four uh stage five is 133% or 60% of conventional taxes and then stage six is 133% of
their revenue or 80% of conventional taxes additionally as I mentioned the burough collects an administrative fee of 2% and must remit 5% of that to the county and again just to reiterate the land taxes are still paid as conventional taxes so the county the
school and the municipality still collect what they're collecting today um based on the land and then the Improvement portion of the pilot is is retained primarily by the burrow um and and then the goal of the stages of course as you can tell it
increases over time is because these projects often need greater assistance towards the beginning uh of the tenure while they're just getting off the ground leasing up units uh to attract private financing to make sure uh the bank or whoever is getting the mortgage
has adequate cash flow and then as the project ramps up is successful stabilized they can afford to pay a larger payment so what does that all mean uh in dollars uh on slide six there you have the 30-year uh cash flow schedule I won't go through every um
dollar but in aggregate um the pilot payments over that term are $2.75 million uh as I mentioned there's a 2% administrative fee which is additional $55,000 to the buau 5% of that must be
remitted to the county so that's 126,000 going to the county um since they are paying the land taxes still the law um forces uh the bur to give them a land tax credit uh against that that's 225,000 for net
revenue to the burrow over that time of $2.5 um million starting at about 46,000 per year and this that of net revenue uh into the budget and uh estimated to increase to about 152,000 uh and mayor as you mentioned
before the current revenue is $2,000 so so that first year would be 2,000 our normal collection would be 2,000 on the first year of the pilot would be 46,000 uh correct again this assumes full lease up and the buildings off the ground and everything so but but yes once it's fully stabilized and then as you go
through your chart here you know we end up with is that the total number at the end the 2.54 would be the total that we would collect over the 30 years y Absol yep of course just like I said all it's all based on the projections at this point but um you know we vetted the numbers that they provided looked at other rents
and comps in the area and they all seem reasonable um the next page just kind of summarizes that 30-year cash flow so again you can see the 47,000 year one the 2.5 million of net revenue over the 30-year term uh obviously it's orders
magnitude higher than the 2,000 that the burough currently generates um that 6,000 would still be paid as land tax ta um which you know as I mentioned would still be split between those taxing districts um so obviously um the
payments are significant and then also as I mentioned before if the project does better than expected if the rents come in higher uh since the pilot is based on a percentage of the revenue the burough payments would in turn be higher as well um so then on the on the last page
uh we also looked at a hypothetical 20-year pilot if the pilot term was shorter um so obviously at the at the front end the payments are essentially the same the 47 or 46 47,000 um the difficulty with the
20-year pilot is a lot of as I mentioned before the payments uh increase over time so a lot of the benefit to the burrow is typically on the last 15 years or so so you can see on the bottom right the total uh Revenue would only be about
1.2 million then once it converted back to conventional taxes the burrow payment would be about 45,000 I believe per year um so significantly less than what the pilot would be paying to the burrow so in all uh it would be about 1.75 million over a
30-year term a combination of a pilot and conventional taxes um so in addition to being less revenue for the burough um it would certainly put an additional stress on the pilot on the project excuse me a lot of lenders are looking for cash flow certainty in these
projects you know when they're uh giving a you know $4.5 million loan to get this project off the ground you know they want to have some degree of certainty that they're going to be able to get paid back through uh the performance of the project and a t full tax obligation
that could change drastically year toe does not typically offer them that security that they're looking for um so under the 20-year proposal the town itself would lose over a million dollar in just Revenue over the time over 30
over 20 uh yes yeah essenti yeah um so that typically you know just just for the group's benefit when we review these projects um you know we typically do um you know review and analyze the 30-year pilot um because
it is generating more Revenue to the buau um you know there's certainly instances where we've done shorter Pilots um typically not on residential projects maybe on for sale units or I should say rental residential units so we've done on for sale units um other
types of commercial projects um it's certainly less common it's not it's not unheard of um but uh ultimately to maximize the revenue towards the burough um that would be via that 30-year pilot um so I know I kind of threw a lot at
you there I'm going open it up to the council while you're up here anybody has any questions I I it was a great presentation very nice and simple we can understand it um any questions yes goad so last July someone from Phoenix was here and explained Pilots to us and at
that presentation he explained to us that you wouldn't typically give a 20 unit building a 30-year pilot you wouldn't give them a pilot at all according to him and then he went on to explain and he said that um usually in a
Redevelopment area you would give the first one or two projects a 30-year pilot and then you would go down to a 20 or 25 year pilot and I'm just wondering why that's changed like everything he said then isn't true do you remember who said that yes Anthony and Verso Anthony
Vero yeah and what meeting was that at the July meeting there's only one meeting in July our meeting or a planning board or we no it was our meeting um no that's a great question um you know of course I wasn't there I can't speak to the exact context you know I think from speaking with him uh
it was just kind of generalizing I mean the way that we look at it is you really do have to look at each specific project and there are different factors and different reasons why that in some cases may be true and in some cases may not be
true um you know I'm not I think that there it's a very valid point and and there's certainly again instances where that um is probably an approach that can be taken uh I mean with this specific pilot uh that we're discussing today um you know the size actually I think kind
of plays into why the pilot might be more uh necessary um you know I understand through through our review and discussions with the with the team that there's significant um amount of costs uh upfront costs fixed costs that uh normally if you're doing like a 300
unit project could pretty easily be absorbed in that cash flow but here just due to economies of scale and and just based on the fact that it's not as large of a project things like d permitting and wetlands mitigation and there were some easement issues and Road
improvements that I mentioned things like that can make a pretty big difference when your budget is $6 million you know if that alone is a million doar you know that's making a significant uh dent in in the returns you know and to Warrant that type of
investment because you know I mentioned it's a $65 million project a good chunk of it is coming from Bank financing but then a lot of it is also coming from Equity right so if you're putting your own you know $2 million into a project um you know I would use the
stock market example but that's not exactly a great example this week um but generally I mean you could return 7% per year in the stock market so you know to do something that's a little bit more speculative a little bit more risky you know um you know you need that uh extra
Financial incentive especially you know like I said with the economies of scale on this particular project and where did you get your cost estimate for the project I'm only curious because I've been reading a lot of numbers in the past 24 hours and on something else another email I read today it said
4.4 million so that's why I'm asking yeah no absolutely so I think the 4.4 million was probably from my that presentation possibly was it that the amount of the The Lending the mortgage the bank financing 6.3 total with 4.4
Bank financing I think that's probably uh what it is but in terms of the cost numbers um the developer provided their cost budget we independently review that um I can you know tell you that the first thing I did was call them and say your costs are way too high why is that
and then you know that's where we start talking about all those different fixed costs that again would be pretty easily absorbed if you're spreading across 300 units but across 23 units makes a pretty sizable impact thank you any other questions I do so if you're looking at
the year the 20 year and the 30-y year the breakdown through the first 20 years the payments on the 20-year pilot through year 20 are actually higher in year 20 versus the 30 year
uh which um I'm sorry which year specifically or in year 20 in year 20 uh yes so the reason for that is if you look at the second blue column on the 20y year proposal it's because of those 20 40 60
80 statutory phases that I mentioned that you must do under the law so you have to get from 0 to 80 whether it's a fiveyear pilot or a 30-year pilot so the idea is you just in that example you would have 80 in you're 20 whereas in
the other example year 20 is 40 then it goes to 60 for 5 years and 80 for five years so talk to me about the difference between year 21 through 30 where we don't so the difference in that is this assuming that in year 30 the fully
taxable amount on the finished project would be 152,000 or because you said it drops back down to 45 yeah so it drops so in the 20year scenario the last pilot payment is that 152 then it would convert to
Conventional taxes of which the burrow would only collect 25% for the regular um portion of the levy so that payment would drop from that 150 to
um like 45 4,000 or so so the fully taxable amount on the property is 152 which just that you're losing that 95% capture uh yeah essentially right so you're losing instead of you're from 95 to 25 right so you're losing those then
you're estimating and borrow Nets 45 in total our share so is that fair to say then in year one if this project was developed without a pilot the fully taxable amount on the completed project in year one would be 152,000
then uh it would be um it's lower just because we assume 2% growth every year in the tax rate so it'd be like about 120,000 but I I just to stress one thing is the without the pilot the real it would
be 2,000 would really be the answer because it wouldn't be developed so there would be no project so it would be the initial 2000 that we're getting now the initial 2000 that we're getting now because it would remain as is you know we reviewed the proforma and you know applied conventional tax you know stress
test to it and again it goes back to the returns I mean they could do it and make you know 5 or 6% you know return probably not even um you know but it wouldn't be it wouldn't be worth the investment you know um at least based on our review obviously I can't speak for that we have other projects that are
being proposed that are not seeking a pilot in the Redevelopment zone so what so you're you're we're assuming that if we don't give a 30-year pilot they walk away they just don't do the project uh that that is my understanding I I'm not aware of the other projects what other projects are your discussing I thought the one on
wqv uh across from the Smith building was not asking for a pilot no that the 14th story that went down smaller no stre the street oh no they're asking for a pilot yeah you told us they were not not no no no the um the Washington
building Washington yes they're not they're not across the street they're only five Apartments building whatever the Washington building yeah so that's up for development and they are not seeking right because it's five apartments right any other question the second
floor right just second floor yes any other questions I just I just want to make clear I know the answer but I want make I want you to make it clear you're working for the burrow oh yes absolutely yep you are not working for the uh the applicant no so your advice is to is
giving us the advice to make a good a good uh decision based on what's best for the bar yeah yeah we were we were brought into the process to review the information and to negotiate uh the best possible you know deal for the buau in
in my view that is this um obviously I'm a financial person so I look at it from the best being the Financial you know I can't speak to architectural you know designs or what have you but um you know and just just also to quantify it um you
know they they came in um with just the the bare minimum pilot which is 10% for the 30 years under the law so through a series of back and forth negotiations we were able to get them up to this number which actually increased uh the net revenue by
25% uh from 2 million to the 2 and half half million that you have there uh in addition those 20 40 60 80 escalators that I mentioned before you know the 80 and 60 cover the last 10 years of the pilot which I will say is generally on
the aggressive side so again another benefit for the burough so we certainly um you know got got the number up significantly to help you know get additional Revenue to the Bur and that's a good point Maria I just for the public we hire Phoenix to do all our work on all our Redevelopment projects they
collect the funds or they help us come up with the numbers because there's a lot of calculation that goes in yearly into what is collected for the pilots we found the first year and look this is a new game for us too so the first year we did this is this before our administrator was here we thought we could do it in-house and we realized we
can't and that's why we brought Phoenix on to kind of handle all that because it is complicated it's not easy to figure out and you really have to be on top of the game to know what's going on there thank you yeah just to clarify we Bill an account for the time we don't collect no you
that go that goes straight to the CFO any other questions so just from my own knowledge and not that it necessarily pertains specifically to this but in general it it could somehow impact us as taxpayers when you issue these pilots and you pull such a large percentage away from your school board and your
County taxes how does that overall impact the taxpayer in the end because you're pulling from two different pots that eventually have to be made whole yeah no that that's a great question uh it's a great question with not the simplest answer so just bear with me uh
so there's two there's two things number one is I'll go back to what I mentioned before is it's it's not really this project or the pilot versus conventional taxes it's really the pilot versus the status quo or or nothing um so that's
number one number two is both the county and the school are budget-based levies so they strike their budget and say you know just hypothetically we need $100 million to fund our budget and then they just split it and everyone pays they're
not rate-based budget so even if it was full taxes they would not gain or lose a dollar from what they're budgeting they budget and then then they collect it actually through your taxes right you actually if somebody doesn't pay you're actually technically eating that cost um
so those are the two main answers and then the other thing I will say about the school specifically is as part of our analysis and we did we do have a fairly detailed memo that I'm sure we can share with you as well that goes through um the school impact right
so that's always an important issue so uh Rucker university has put out demographic multipliers uh we use that uh based on the type of units the number of units um and again since it's 23 units and based on the type of units a
lot of Studio smaller type units uh those multipliers produce only four school children so the 2018 study which was most likely based off of data that was garnered in the Years preceding that right so they haven't done any updates on any of those studies after the
pandemic they did an update in 2018 um I will say I I your point is well taken but I will say retroactively looking back it's it's pretty accurate at least at least in most of the projects that I've looked at but that is a fair point it's has not been updated since the pandemic uh but it's the best we have
unfortunately but um you know so it's the four kids I mean I I I would say that that probably would not produce a huge impact um I I can't obviously say that for certain um I for you know for reference we've seen other towns who approve Pilots offer to share money with
the school district you know obviously that's completely up to your discretion uh so there's other ways to you know to to address those should it should it be a ask because that that number that you're giving us is based on this project as a council we're being asked to consider multiple projects over a
period of time so it won't actually be just potential for children um it'll actually be more right yep no great great point so it really needs to be looked at more globally in terms of we are talking about this project today this well but we are responsible for looking when we get to those projects we'll discuss so but I'm asking a
question um back to your original point with the county so I understand your point as how the budget is set but if we are the entity amongst the other municipalities that's steering those tax dollars over and now we're not they're
not reducing their services so at some point they have to make up for that loss in the budget right um I suppose at some point I mean they they removing more people in so we're putting a larger burden on the
services being provided by the county so I wouldn't think that their budget would reduce based on being given less money I would think that in the end it would be more of a burden on the budget wouldn't it uh I I suppose it could be I mean I guess I would look at again going back to economies of scale you know in the grand scheme of the county you know it's
not a significant you know impact uh to your point though if you look at all the projects in in totality across the it it could be um you know I I couldn't speak really on the what kind of County Services would
be impacted by this project specifically I wouldn't think very many but but again in the totality there there could be um if again it wouldn't though it would just shift how their budget is funded they would still since it's budget based
they would still get every dollar they need to fund those Services it would just be split across different towns differently so I mean you know I I don't I you know your neighbor could be doing a lot of pilots and could you know be impacting it as well you know I you know
I would have to dive more into that but okay thank you any other questions yeah I just want to thank you for explaining the 20e 30-year pilot difference in the documentations that I received uh under ordinance
2512 I have three different 30-year Pilots with different numbers was there any reason for that um all the numbers were different it could be on the number of Apartments I don't know Mike did you send out ones for different numbers is that on the as I'm talking
about yeah I'd have to look at the docum I'm not sure which one right here on ordinance 252 well all the numers were different 2512 at the end of the 30 years it was 2,472 th000 I I understand these are all estimat but that's what the number was I
thought right and then there was 2, 456,000 and there was 2, 513,000 I was just that just might be my rounding just for easier to present numbers um I was just wondering which one I'm voting on V
on 2 2.5 million rounded versus 60,000 over 30 years yeah yeah so the exact if on slide my slide six the exact is 2,456 is that one of the numbers that's the one that I just recently
received any other questions ready no okay thank you great explanation thank you so much we're going to bring up our planner now is that what we're going to do we're going to do that during the public hearing of the ordinance for 2511 okay so now that
was who all we have our experts are here right because Glenn's not here so I will open the meeting for public comments got a motion motion Von councilman Cruz all in favor I against anyone from the public May address just give me your name and address try to keep it to 5 minutes if you can Qui Step
Up thank you mayor thank you Council to be clear we're this is public comment just on the pilot anything oh this is the general public want to call me ugly call me ugly right now that's I would never do such F jacket today um I'm up here so I'll I'll I'll talk thank you Steve M M
Smith and Davis you've seen me before I'm here representing 61q Avenue urban renewal I want to thank Mr Morris for that great presentation I no issues with it it was excellent um I would supplement some of the comments that were made particularly with respect to
the the the school issue that were raised the Rucker's report unlike the Rucker parking report for example which is often criticized because of the pandemic issue traffic has changed parking has changed people working from home has changed since the pandemic people having babies and going to school has not changed since the pandemic so I
would agree with Mr moris all the projects that I do retroactively looking it's more often than not that they're accurate or actually they over State um because it order it skews based on the number of affordable housing units because it's just a fact that affordable housing units house more children than
the market rate units when you're talking apart multif Family apartment rentals um here as you know we are providing one unit um with a one uh COA um payment in Li so there's one unit out of the 23 units that are being affected uh with the respect to the impact on the
school and and the county um outside of school district dists that are Abbot districts that's you know you've seen criticism in towns like Jersey City or in municipalities where there's a Regional School District which is not the case here where you're affecting other towns budgets um I am not aware of
and I've worked on hundreds of these any pilot that has been issued only for a school district or anybody else later to claim that there was um that they've been hurt because of the reasons Mr Moore said the budget has been adopted if you're using councilwoman council president paar's example yes maybe that
would result in one you know one or two cents per household going up if there's another child um but the corresponding result is you're now getting another 25 million dollar in the door that you wouldn't otherwise which way overcompensate God bless you overcompensates that one or two cents
that goes up on the school side so yes it is left pocket right pocket but as you take out a dollar in this pocket you put a 100 in this one um so more often than not that's how you interpret these the impacts and that's why the statute was written this way because that's the way schools are funded that's the way
counties are funded and municipalities are funded in a unique way that you're able to take advantage of the unique circumstances when the anal the calculus is not uh project versus conventional taxes it's project versus no project and not that the $700 will matter but to
point of you know order you're only collecting $1,300 right now on the property not $2,000 um so that that addresses those issues um in the public comment session with respect to the ordinances I will respond to any issues with respect to the Redevelopment plan
amendment that is proposed uh but I want to end on just one finite point that that has that cannot be overstated we negotiated with Mr Morris and he did a fantastic job getting us up as much as we could um and you've see from the emails that we shared between last week
and this week with respect to the square footage that we are trying to accommodate as much as we can and go to our upper limits um where we can to accommodate the requests of the Redevelopment agency which we did for many years the planning board your Council the County planning board and trying to do the most we can these this
is the absolute most that we can do it and still believe that it will ever be financed and without a pilot all the efforts by my client over the many years and the money that they spent will be a waste because this project will not happen the property will continue to sit follow like it has been for all those
years as an isore um and will not be regenerated the way that it can be for your downtown so thank you thank you anyone else please theep up [Music] Dean Copa some of you know 180 Whitney
have pumpt lakes um I'm a little Disturbed and I I might be not 100% clear but I have heard that there's been rumance as you guys all know I sat on a Redevelopment and supported this project in the beginning what I don't understand
i' my family's been here since the 50s obvious I was born at ' 66 I really have been here this whole time I've seen this town change and the growth that we're going to is basically what is the new Norm here so what I I'm kind of having a
a hard time understanding is if we left the project as is nobody wants to build on it they don't they have their right you're going to collect $660,000 in 30 years versus 2 I think was I right five did he
say that's a no-brainer and also as a fire chief I know what these buildings are in town and I always go to bat when I see a comment oh let's leave it the way it is some of these buildings are a disaster and I've been on a fire
department for 38 years I'm think you're looking at something that's going to be built modern and bring in a lot of Revenue to this town I find it almost disgusting that this is is even a discussion I understand everybody has
questions but between the 20 and the 30 you're leaving Millions on the table or hundreds and hundreds of thousands I I'll tell you what I feel really bad for this town if you guys vote this town because I'll tell you you that's that is
like it's a disgrace there's a lot of money to be made and there's an improvement to a piece of property that's been defunct for years thank you thank you anyone else from like good evening Mikey 316 van uh I
just would like to reiterate I was going to bring up almost the same things Dean just did that whether it's a the discussion over a 23 unit I'm for redeveloping now pump the Lakes needs tax assistance you're our people to
bring it home if we don't take it the next towns will or this could go away you don't know the lifetime it has certainly we don't have that much there's no developing out there you know there's no land any other way to do this this was meant to go vertical versus
take up Green Pastures green land uh I live here over 70 years maybe more than anybody in the room certainly close or I bow my head there's somebody 30 years longer uh I was a little not distressed but when iron Ford Square went up it was
different to me I came I really did that for a good reason the family moved there and uh it brought a lot to the town and it just became part of the scenery no different this is actually down a little
low it's an iord and it has been if everybody remembers Fritz and Cooper gas station we had a mini little gas station but cars are parked there different things come and go there's no real hope
for the future of it without having this little incentive I really came up here I want to start by talking about and I wrote some notes from my memory not from THS I'm friends with all the suin of known John I'm going to say close to the
70 years let's call it 60 maybe at 10 I can remember something uh Little League sponsor in town over 50 years not his father his mother this is suan Brothers soccer I can't say 50 cuz they
came maybe 10 years after little leag and they soccer and they sponsor indoor and outdoor buildings they put the little league Edition on the building down there they bought the material or guys did the labor Lakeside Fieldhouse
the scoreboard down at Joe grill and there's numerous projects around I'm just I could be wrong on stuff too let me qualify you my wife will confirm that um one if you asked their building where they were uh housed over across from
Tony's there Recreation used to use it Christmas Eve different times different meetings the bid used it constantly for meetings uh I think they sold the coupon out of it on Saturdays the bid bucks and stuff um I'm going to call it Dupont
information sharing John had to explain to half the barrel residents I'm exaggerating but I'm sure many of you went and visited for a little education on the dupon process it like appeased you to
say good blood assistance help numerous residents on numerous Pati I'm in the car with him my wife and I going to dinner with John and an he gets a call from veto the old uh Town
Administrator John uh they had a I think it was a hurricane damaged down there and he said uh you think you can get any kind of fundraiser up there you know John what would you like I don't know $25 Walmart card something
to give people you know we pull over John go Walmart $2,000 uh senior housing Jimmy's on that been doing a great job for years does KSC golf tournament prizes and they
sponsor golf tournaments they not only get fors to go there they sponsor holes and stff they donate to everything little stuff that goes unnoticed not a little league team where you know there just behind the scenes stuff that never goes away handicap Rams little league
coach uh fundraisers golf t let talk about the biggest story I hope I don't cry to late an employee with cancer hundreds of thousand keeping her in the house for over 20 years can any
of us match this stuff I'm I'm not asking you to vote for it for this I'm just asking you to be honest for it for this because they've earned your honesty this project has the Merit but we need the side minutia to go away and judge
it's on its Merit and what is good for the town we need Redevelopment they've done everything right as far as res residents here all right so your five minutes are up oh sorry did you tell me five minutes Iz I did say that I would have talked faster you would talk for
hours anyone else in see him J Chow 130 Legion Street I guess for the 60s stuff yeah I agree with those guys but you said this is for all the other stuff yeah sure um for
25-16 $59,000 appropriation along with the 25137 1.37 million emergency appropriation uh just a little more clarity on that sure you know a couple months ago we just did another emergency
for about 65,000 um 25 131 the security cameras I've emailed and ask to see the contract for the 187,000 I understand you had a daughter congratulations
um still haven't received it to take a look at it uh I know last meeting we or you guys voted for the bond approval which was incl included with Willow Park I don't see anything on Willow Park in here but I do see the cameras immediately in just a like approval
without any discussion so I'm just a little curious seems like got SLI in but um yeah I agree with those guys about the uh 61 if few stuff on all that that's about it thank you thank you anyone else from the public like to
address up again this is on any anything you want so of course that supersedes a little bit hearing about this new this project I just need name and address oh and tasselli 5 lamber Street um so I'm a
realtor you know we usually are for building I don't have a big problem with building what I have a big problem with is all of the additional traversing through town cars
18-wheelers big dump trucks I own a store on wanu Avenue you take literally your life into your hands when you are parking if you are lucky enough to get a parking space on the street w a QQ
Avenue the cars fly down that street but yet our dear policemen will give someone a ticket for the least things that they're doing but no one's out there to see the cars
flying to see the u-turns in the middle of the street to see people not Cars not stopping for pedestrians literally whizzing by them when they're standing there and I myself will look and and you
know what the heck so what is all of this I mean I felt this way with the big building going up too where is this going to end with that mess and that risk to The
Pedestrian or the um resident who wants to utilize one of the businesses in town and it is a big Havoc for our businesses a lot of people will come right out and say you know what I just can't do this anymore I can't find a parking space um
I have to all right it's not your problem that the owner of the building that I work in I own the store in doesn't do any repairs so you know that makes another issue but I just don't know where that's all going to go
parking driving speeding not stopping for pedestrians um u-turns all of this to me is a big issue and and somehow we need to get our Police Department to figure out something to
do hide no you can't hide but you know put a car down there have a car be there at different times of the day um so that's on on wanu Avenue I live on Lambert Street we've got a school bus that is
parking there that has nothing to do with Lakeside School don't know where he's from don't know why he parks there but every day he parks there then others come that are going to a game maybe on the field so
the bus Parks here and the car Parks here and another car Parks here if you had to get well never mind us getting in and out of our street but if you had to get an ambulance in there and if you had to get a firet truck in there forget it and my neighbor is the one who prompted
me to come tonight cuz I told her I was coming for the other reason she said her mom has been in out of the hospital she almost had a call for an ambulance but they managed without it but when they looked out and realized that they would have never been able to get an ambulance in the street and this goes on this goes
on with Pompton day I make my noise on Pompton day because you block the street you can't get in and out of it um when there's games there I mean I I I'm not trying to be a sore loser here
but it does get to be a little bit in annoying um we we just need to do something to ease the traffic not add to it and that's what any of these projects are going to do um that's what I have to say thank you
anyone else from the public like to address seeing no one can have a motion to close the public session motion benon counc all in favor I against okay so I'm just going to lump all the 60 watq together thank you for all the nice comments that you made uh uh Mr M thank
you for explaining some of the situations that you know about with uh the schools you know I'm going to be the first one that jumps on the bandwagon the suian have been a family that's always come to support this town in any shape or form okay there's never been a no that I can remember from them about
anything that that somebody's asked they don't even have an office in town anymore and they're still doing what they need to do to help our community because they love this community they grew up in this community they're they're from this Community I would highly doubt that they would do anything that they would jeopardize the history
they have here but that's just my own personal opinion um Jay uh let's talk about those ordinances that you mentioned U Mike you want to talk about them 126 1237 thank you uh the temporary emergency Appropriations uh essentially
the maneuver that carries us through budget adoption to keep our services operational um so just a formality from our CFO um to again to keep us through to the budget and that's for both of those right 26 and 30 and then 31 uh he he would have to Oprah a
request if he would like to take a look at it you have to an official Oprah uh request but I will reach out to Mr trar tomorrow okay so normally you'd have to fill out an Oprah but maybe you can work something out with the administrator maybe he can get you that
information uh m t um look what you're talking about is there's two different things there's the businesses coming into town that are going to bring clientele to your establishments but then there's enforcement enforcement no matter if there's a building there or not has to be done okay uh I'm going to
ask who's my L on to please is it Lisa you I got yeah contact the chief and Michael maybe you reach out to Sor oh it's Lisa okay maybe you're G to reach out to the police chief and just let them know we'd like to see a little more enforcement and I agree with everything she said by the way because I've seen it happen I've seen the u-turns I've seen
the not stopping at Crossings um you know we we have to be I agree with you we should be a little bit more enforcement in that street because it's a dangerous area no question in my mind but that has nothing really to do with the development that's going on because they build their own parking lots within their developments that they're building
uh Lambert Street unfortunately as you know uh anyone could park on our streets at any time your street is no different than my street or anybody else's street now I will say if there's a bus parking there you should call the police department and not not to be a pain de or anything and just say there's a
school bus parked here and I don't know why it's parked here and they'll come and do an investigation school it's not well I I I would call the police let them do their paperwork and do their due diligence because I don't know any history of it or anything but if it's a guy parking a school bus there overnight because he drives a school bus he can't
do that okay there dis ordinances against that if it's just a car can't stop that anybody can park on any Street at any time and that's the one benefit that the town of pin lakes does have where most towns don't allow parking in the winter time we allow all the time it's snow emergency so that's what you
know it's give and take and I'm going to say this too because I've gotten a lot of more complaints in the last year on this most of the homes in Pompton Lakes are small homes with small driveways two cars can fit in those driveways a lot more people driving nowadays okay so there's four cars or five cars in the
house where are they going to park them they're going to park them on the streets Unfortunately they Park them on the streets maybe not in front of their house they find the next spot over it's in front of somebody else's house I know personally I don't like that either but they're allowed to do that they are allowed to park their car on somebody else's street it's not the best thing in
the world but it's just the way it is unfortunately right now okay uh consent uh consent agenda anything anybody need questions or removals or we have to approve the minutes oh I'm sorry I'm sorry no I'm sorry I we didn't do the minutes thank
you yes motion to approve the following minutes minutes February 26 2025 so moved councilwoman kilberg so second councilman Hinton all in favor I against uh authorizing bills and claims uh
motion to approve the bills and claims as listed below Mo councilman venon second councilwoman Kent all in favor I I against now anybody need anything removed or explain yes
I I need um 128 130 and 131 got those list yes okay whatever you're ready anyone else anybody else oh okay whereas the mayor and bur counil of
the bur of pton lakes has reviewed the consent agenda consisting of various proposed resolutions whereas the mayor and bur Council of the bur of Pon links does desire to remove resolution for any action from that agenda now therefore be it resolved that the following resolutions on the consent agenda are
hereby approved resolution 126 25126 through 25137 we're going to pull resolution 2518 25-13 25-1 131 correct okay motion to
approve those resolutions motion councilman venon councilman Cruz all in favor I against all right Mike I'm going to give you all three thank you mayor uh so for resolution 128 supporting publishing uh legal notices on Municipal
websites uh late last year Governor Murphy uh signed legislation regarding public noticing um regarding uh an issue that spurred out of newspaper Publications ceasing print versions
right so the issue stemmed from from newspaper Publications ceasing print versions and all municipalities public entities school districts use the print vers iions for their public noticing requirements right so you know
an ordinance is adopted a contract is awarded that has to go in the paper um so we're seeing issues Statewide that newspapers that certain municipalities are using that are local to the area are no longer carrying these additions um
causing these public noticing issues so in tandem with the New Jersey League of municipalities and the municipal clerks Association of New Jersey uh they're working on legislation with uh you know the state legislators to uh advocate for
public noticing to be put on Municipal websites um you know some municipalities already do that uh we tried tried to do that you know as well um but that would make it formal and that that would be allowed to circumvent the newspaper
issue um and I would just defer to our attorney if he has anything to add on that subject yeah I mean I think and and our clerk could certainly share with us the costs of of newspaper publication and some of the uh issues that come around it and I think the the League's
position really and a lot of Municipal positions is people are people really going to hard newspapers now to look at legal notices and we're paying a lot of money the taxpayers are paying a lot of money for the point of getting getting uh for Publications um and is that
really an effective tool for communication and is it really a worthwhile while expense and this I think that the fact that the Star Ledger stopped with the printing of a of a daily newspaper um brought this issue back up on the table again because that there are times when you have to publish in a
daily we were having to publish in a daily or Statewide paper and that was the paper that was used that ceased um so that temporary solution that temporary putting publishing on a website as opposed to in a paper sort of rais the issue again why are we doing this why don't we try to find a better
way to communicate are legal ads than that and I think that's why the league is pushing this um the other contrary argument just to get that on the table is this is a huge way of supporting local newspapers that's where a lot of the money to keep local newspapers is
coming from it's coming from public it's coming from public Publications and the concern always is there'll be less and less of those newspapers I think the fact that the Star Ledger sto publishing is telling us that that's happening anyway um and that's what sort of raised this idea so um this is
that there's going to be a lot this obviously is not something we can decide all this resolution does is express our view that that that we support the League's position which is something that the the legislature should consider does it address online most of the newspapers have have gone to an online
online does it address it that it does in part and that's where publishing online would become permitted they believe should be a permitted way for through newspapers too um but I think they take it to the next point and say is that even even even that is that really the most effective way to
communicate or is it to educate people to look at your Municipal websites I think a lot of people do look at municiple websites and expect to see pending ordinances and other things on those websites and that's the that's the answer so um yeah I I I mean I think
that's why the league sought out sort this out and sort it and and it probably makes sense from my perspective at least Mr you got any questions or oh yeah so this resolution it says whereas local government officials serve as the stewards of property taxpayer dollars
and yes we all do that Y and should no longer be required to subsidize the newspaper like our attorney said but that subsidy to pay for those legal notices is minimal mostly for the newspaper it's their advertising that
pays not necessarily what Liz has to put in our newspaper for legal mhm [Music] um what I look at and the audience can look at me also is the color of my
mustache I'm not on the website all the time I buy for the years that I stood at that Podium I buy the trends and I look at the legal section and I read what's going on in our town and also in that legal section is what's going on in
other towns so now if we were to do this and just go and put our legal notices on our website seniors who I speak for from the Golden Ages a lot of them aren't on the computer a lot of them do buy newspapers
still and a lot of them find out their news that way it's an alternate way yes eventually we're all going to go to the computer we'll all have we have at our phon but I don't agree with this at all um
so I think the real concern for on our side and I hear what you're saying you know there's a lot of people that don't do that but the problem is these newspapers are disappearing and then we're having we have to by law advertise these things and if we when they finally do disappear well we just lost one now so that was why we had we still have
newspapers now we're not legally obligated to this right we don't have to do this immediately is just in support of what right the I mean I think we're just and I'm not speaking for Michael I'll let him talk but I think we're just being proactive in the fact that if
tomorrow the Suburban Trend closes down then we're we're SC scrambling we can't have meetings if it's not posted we just can't do it so we got to we can have this in our toolbox there's other newspapers that we can no that we can use it has to be within our realm where we live can't be like sou paper um I
think this is just a toolbox thing in case something happens that we can use now if you guys are not happy with that I don't care I'm just saying I think that's why and correct me if I'm wrong Michael is that what we're trying to do here you know all I would add add is that the New Jersey State League of municipalities is there to advocate for
its Municipal uh you know its municipalities and their recommending the adoption and it's ultim just a recommendation yeah it's ultimately a pol policy decision of the governing body cor um but you know they look out for the best legislative interests of its municipalities and are recommending
that you know we look into this and just a point of clarification you know sometimes we'll see for ordinances or or contracts you know you could be looking at $400 uh per advertising cost um so you know there is a you know there is a cost to
oh of course there is a cost yeah thank you all right so uh let's let's vote on that one first and then we'll move on to the next one yeah just vote on that one first so you have get a motion can I have a motion to uh resolution 25128
motion councilman hon councilman uh bennon all in favor hi against okay now the next two Mike 130 131 thank you when you going to have the vote that is the vote was UN or was it in v no I can do a
roll call if you'd like sure let's do a roll call roll call thank you Council PA yes councilman Den yes councilman yes
councilman h no yes Council woman yes okay okay 13 25130 and 25 131 thank you mayor uh this is 25130 is a contract award uh for engineering uh construction management and inspection services uh for the
willow Field improvements project which was previously funded by this governing body at the last meeting 131 yes uh concurrently this governing body adopted uh a bond ordinance at the last meeting for our security camera
project in our parks and again this is a contract award uh to to one of our vendors to facilitate that project thank you any questions sir um I always have questions Mr Mayor go for it um is this 85,000 coming out of open space funds or
the general funds no this was bonded so this is Bond it says the account above account number c455 867 0000 has the funds what is that account that's a capital account that that was
funded by the bond ordinance that that was adopted at the last meeting okay that's all no question 131 131 to cameras yeah well we had you want to adjust that yeah he just read it yes so if you had a
question um the cameras we talked about the cameras we're looking at 33 cameras throughout town but you said this also includes the cameras for the License Plate Reader and I didn't see that in the
amount of cameras I said eight cameras for the snack stand at will field uh two cameras hfield Park three cameras hfield Park another two cameras at the parking lot hfield Park other two cameras at the tennis court the boat
launs two cameras three cameras at the boat rental building bazbo uh two at the boat wants behind the Middle School um five cameras along wuab oh we
got the idea go ahead and four cameras at Carlo field right so I was mistaken in the fact that no there are not lprs in this proposal we had met with our neighboring communities to talk about sharing the cost for that um that's a different
subject from this right right but you know this proposal was workshopped with the governing body back in the fall um I wasn't on in the fall right uh however this is what was recommended at the time um and you know when you say uh you know
four cameras at this location two cameras at the other location it's really a a one head camera with with two lenses if you will um you know two one enclosure two cameras um that's how the the vendor you know makes that but this
was discussed by the Govern govern body last year yes uh you government body didn't think it was overkill for 33 cameras all around town we actually significantly scaled down the proposal after meeting with the governing body at the time uh to take off cameras to to
make it more affordable and to to scale down the amount of uh enclosures cuz we're talking $187,000 MH and we're worrying about publishing in a newspaper some legal notices
well we can over camera the town okay who was watching who was watching all these cameras the police department yes I won't speak to the specifics due to security you know concerns how many screens that they have in there that they can watch all these
cameras or they can switch from camera to camera a lot of it has not to do with screens a lot of it has to do say we have vandalism happen in this park St vandalism happens in this park we can now go back to these cameras a month later 5 months later and see what happened now we can't do that so there's
been some conditions right now going on with vandalism in some of our parks and we just can't figure out who's doing it because we don't physically see it happening now this is in storage and we can go back and use it and I'm going to just say that you know the schools just upgraded that they're doing this program most towns are doing this program but the fact of the matter is you can keep
an eye on on your property that's basically what it's about sounds like a little Overkill to me but may may I speak or not sure so just recently has come to our attention that there's been a significant amount of vandalism that's being done to our Parks now we are going to spend over a
million dollars in in uh playground equipment and and other equipment down in our parks and I wanted more uh Patrol and I made that very clear at our last meeting and I was told that we really it's very hard to catch anybody because
you know is it 2:00 in the morning is it 5:00 in the morning is it 10:00 at night and how do you catch and that this camera system that we've approved a number of months ago should do that so it's extremely expensive and
we we're going to look like a third world country if we allow these vandals to continue on so we need these cameras because we are in a new world and and I just heard that there was vandalism to trees and and that it really upsets me because I don't want to see painted
trees with with nasty pictures and vile words that's not what we bring our children down to those parks to those Open Spaces to do and I spent 30 years cleaning up these Parks as a volunteer with all of you people in in this audience many of
you help including the sujan and I'll be darn if I'm going to not have some type of way of finding out who's destroying our our our community so I think it's very important I don't if if it's Overkill it's probably something that um I don't really think
it's Overkill because I know we had a cut down because we are very conscious very conscious of the cost and mayor knows that and I've questioned things many times on the budget so I I strongly recommend that we pass this and we adopt it and get these cameras in as soon as
possible and get the police uh involved in this and I thank you okay thank you well thank you mayor that answered my question thank you so I will do a roll call on both of those okay you can do them together oh separate
yeah do one attorney DaNell at so know do 13 yeah do 130 first and then 131 okay we need a motion can I have a motion to approve resolution 25130 second I missed was it councilwoman
kilberg councilwoman Kent uh roll call please Council yes Council Ben yes councilman Cruz yes councilman H uh yes you answer my question thank
you Council Ken yes Council yes okay 25131 have a motion motion second councilman bennon councilman Cruz roll call please counc yes councilman Ben yes
councilman Cruz yes Council H Council woman Canen answer my question so I'll say yes thank you councilwoman Ken thank oh yes and thank you yes okay ordinances no uh second
reading these ordinances have been advertised and posted on the municipal go ordinance 25-11 an ordinance amending the downtown Compton Lake Redevelopment plan as cified in section 19080 of the code of the bar of Compton
Lake motion to open the meeting for public comments on ordinance 25-11 motion councilman councilman Hinton all in favor against anyone like to speak just to this ordinance first yeah yeah okay this nice
chance come on up all right good evening everyone uh my name is Nick Dickerson I'm with Coler engineering and Designs um I guess I can just give a little overview of what is being proposed uh this evening and largely it um is an amendment to the
downtown Redevelopment um area as it applies to the site at um oh that would be uh at lot one of block 2400 um which makes some modifications to Custom Tailor uh the Redevelopment District to
that particular site so there are certain adjustments to um various bulk standards um and uh some other adjustments as well um there are some other adjustments to to the Redevelopment ordinance as a whole um
instituting a u design standards that that would apply um bur wide um that specify some things that have come up Time After Time where that we should see some things that are required as part of Redevelopment and so that is included as well
um and it's um that's about it okay any questions for the Planner on this okay mayor just a point of clarification uh as you know the ordinance in it was introduced was then referred to the planning board uh and we did receive back uh the planning board's endorsement
and I just would defer to the attorney maybe on an quick explanation on that endorsement well the process sure sure that's that that of course is a requirement when we have a when we have a Redevelopment ordinance or an amendment to a Redevelopment ordinance that' be referred to the planning board because it's a type of zoning ordinance
which is typically referred to the planning board so it was required it was referred to the planning board they were required to report back to the governing body that's of course not binding on the governing body it just it would be an issue if the planning board found it inconsistent they did not they reported
back with their recommendation as they would so that makes it ready for us to consider tonight all right any questions for the pl or what I have up yes we have a a bunch of questions go ahead well I just want to state that the planning board did vote Yes but then they also had a a
side note as to they voted um that they would they weren't really in favor of the 500t units so yeah I sit on the planning board they made a notation that they would like if possible to see the studios become one-bedrooms um it wasn't
a requirement of the uh proposition but it was a suggestion yes um and I can't speak for the uh for the uh owners but I think there has been some discussion to change that but I I can't really speak to that but that was a suggestion yes you're right did they explain why uh
there was one gentleman who was a little concerned with three Studio appointments I mean just to point out that we've you know I think all of us individually have done our research on this and the average size is between 500 to 700 or 400 so they're well within their range as far as the square footage for the
studios yeah just I think he just had philosop philosophy of of Studios a bad light I don't know why he didn't really well I just wanted to get that out there that they're well within their range as far as the square footage for Studio yes and we're not voting on that change at
all well that's what I'm confused about the recommendation was to change it and now you're suggesting maybe they will maybe they won't but we were voting on a maybe is it being changed or not are the smaller units being let the attorney answer that okay I think I think the the question for the planner is is was is
either a studio or a one bedroom within the guidelines of the ordinance of I believe the amendment would uh allow for um because there's a requirement for square feet per unit um and pre previously it was 750 ft per unit and this would open it up to uh three
different standards one uh studio and efficiency 500 ft uh one bedroom 625 ft and a two-bedroom 940 ft so all would be what per would be permitted yeah that would be the ordinance doesn't doesn't require one or
the other no developer would be able to so it's not this it's not okay any other questions so we're not voting on that change no no cuz that that it all criteria fit within the Zone the planning board indicated that
this doesn't fall within the master plan which so and I'm also confused about you made a statement that other parts of this are speaking to the language of changing the master plan in total what what amendments are being made to the master plan outside of that one
particular this is has nothing to do with amending the master plan so when you started you said that this was the approval of the changes to this particular site oh and then there was something on a scale that you said after this I'm sorry Redevelopment plan sure
yes so the way that the Redevelopment plan is written is a little unique um and but instead of amending the Redevelopment plan so that all of a sudden it's going to impact every other Redevelopment in town this is taking
like how it would apply to this one particular site and making sure that it fits that particular site without necessarily rendering every other Redevelopment non-conforming or something that maybe the council and the B does not want to see and so this is
again like a tailor made ordinance um of for that particular site so a site site specific that's correct so we're being asked to approve some things that fall well outside of what the purpose and intent of the original Redevelopment plan is and my concern is that are we
opening the door for Okay so you know and and the individual for this building was one of the individuals that was at the Inception of creating this Redevelopment plan with the purpose of it bringing retail in and one of the specifications was that there would be retail on the first floor so now we are
granting this variance that they don't have to build this with retail on the first floor is this going to you know impact at some point down the road to precedent being set for all future redevelopments that now we've allowed this and and now perhaps the next three
Redevelopment uh projects don't want to have retail on the first floor I don't think so because again this would be applying to this one site and then if there was another Redevelopment that came along it would have to go through that full process again uh to not only identify something for redevelopment but
then also go through if there has to be any amendments uh to the uh the Redevelopment plan or zoning ordinance it would have to go through this whole process so there's no precedent setting that would be made from this if I just might might council president I you know
Redevelopment is a in Redevelopment we are able to be sight specific that's unusual that's one of the reasons you choose Redevelopment over other types of zoning so you're permitted to be sight specific so from a legal perspective the fact that a site site specific is not going to create a precedent that is
binding because it's a Redevelopment from a policy perspective others may come back to you and say it was allowed here it should be allowed in our Redevelopment as well so I think that's of what you're getting there is no there is no legal precedent created by this because it is a Redevelopment and are we
well within our right going forward at that point to say it doesn't matter that we allowed it there we're not allowing it here yes okay any other questions yes I just have a couple of questions because I thought that when it moved from us to the planning board
um that they were going to be voting on each individual ask and I'm calling them ask because for two years I heard them call them variant and then at the planning board meeting I was told they're not variances so and they weren't it was just one vote for the all
or nothing so I just have a couple of questions about different ones like the like the setback the 4 feet setback so if it's set back if it takes up most of the space I'm just wondering how we're getting like Emergency Equipment in if
there's a fire how how if there's no space around the building how that I mean I'm not sure if you can answer that might not be able to I mean I just have a couple of questions I can I can help you with that the fire department over you know sees this and they they put a response in if they had an issue with
something they would put it in the writing to the planning board saying we don't believe this will work because of this reason same thing with the police department same thing with the ambulance sad they all have a say didn't see anything in writing indicating I don't know who did but each curious to know how they you know what I'm saying cuz
like if you have Apartments all around it's not like it's one house and you can run from one room to the other you're in a back apartment and nothing can get back there I was just wondering how they would I mean just questions I had you know I think those opinions from from that and I was just curious about the
off-site parking if there is actually a a anything in writing that says that they have they have off-site parking so the off-site parking will change the number if they do not get the offsite parking then they will have less departments if they do get the off-site parking then
they will have more the 23 okay actually stipulates in the in the Redevelopment plan that if they don't have off site parking it changes the number of so they're still in that I don't know and we could bring up the attorney to discuss that okay um but I don't know where they are in that but the Redevelopment and and I have a planning board director here he can answer this
too um I it was worked into the agreement if they have 17 or 23 and how it works with parking okay so you're saying that the off street parking is tentative right now from the county I don't know the answer to that I can't answer that I would hope
that the attorney when he gets up to talk he can answer that okay and the fire department did review that 4 foot all all plans go to all our departments they have a responsibility to to look at did they go through before we approved it or is they're going to go through
after we approve uh Mike is it before when it come to site plan site plan okay after so we don't actually know then well if it stipulates what are you saying it Fates if they get the parking then it's 23 units if they don't
get it then it's 17 we don't actually have the opinion from the fire department yet or the first a well no but they they will speak up it when the site plan goes and says this will work or this won't work oh we don't have it no no so if the fire department says 4 foot setback won't work that just knocks
the whole plan down I don't I don't think they have a say on the setback so I'm going to are you done we have any other question because I think the questions can be answered from the attorney thank you for your thank you so much uh well it's open to the public so name and
address uh Steve M green Smith and Davis on behalf of 61q Avenue urban renewal LLC fire department and and police department and all the other agencies that stated are part of the site plan process regardless of what the bulk standards are safety issues are Paramount over those standards and if
there's a safety issue however the building has to be built to Fire Safety Code there are many properties that don't have a backing to another road most properties don't have a backing the road and don't have circulation fully around that does not mean they don't have fire safety code compliant building
and obviously we wouldn't be able to get our co building permits and all that if we weren't building uh a compliant um building but as stated again site plan is the next step your vote here does not approve this project the next step is we have to go to the planning board under
in the normal course and get approval uh from that agency and from all the comments that are made by your planner your engineers your Traffic Engineers your fire department your police chief whoever issues a comments at that point would have to issue an approval uh with
respect to um the parking with the off-site parking we have I I updated you all last time that we've been in good Communications with the county over that since that time I have an email confirming that they are willing to grant us those parking spaces uh
obviously we are not entering in any agreement until we have a project right we can't you know we're not signing anything correct but we have emails from the county saying that we have the so how was there any further discussion regarding the other property with existing retail and residential
that is going to be impacted by this because when we look at Redevelopment and we talk about a Redevelopment plan we are in this particular instance being site specific but we are supposed to be um holistic right and what we're doing is saying that we have a a piece
of property that is blighted and in need of Redevelopment that will or could potentially turn around and render the piece of property next to it you know useless at some point with no parking and two retail stores and and a residence above so at what point do we
look at this and say are we being site specific or are we looking at Redevelopment as a whole and how do we accommodate for this problem first of all to site specificity I don't know if you've looked at the Redevelopment plan this is not the first site specific project in your Redevelopment plan it's like all fixed um this happen which is
why we have a problem because we've been asking long time to have an amended Redevelopment plan so that it is more holistic that's not going to solve that problem respectfully that doesn't solve that problem that issue as you heard from your planer tonight as you've heard from M uh uh uh Russell many times why
you're unique is you don't have Standalone document Redevelopment plan that is unheard of and you're the only one that I'm aware of we're supposed to be creating one and you are that takes time as you've heard from that from uh from your planet that that's going to take some time not this that is does not
get you around the site specific issues whatsoever you're still going to have to have sight specific changes if you're going to have a Redevelopment plan that is Town downtown why that's just the benefit as your Council has said to Redevelopment that's part of the process um with respect to the neighbor yes
there's been many good conversations I don't know if they're here um not I'm sure they can come up and and answer your question as well but I think we're um as you've heard from other public comments tonight I'm very fortunate to represent a family that goes above and
Beyond to this community as well as does everything they can to maximize the way that this property can be built and satisfy your concerns 500 you heard from councilman Cruz 500 square feet is more than reasonable for Studios your planning board and I watched the entire
video raise this issue raise the studio issue and and to whoever asked it not once did I hear an explanation other than um I guess some internal philosophical things that maybe that will attract some unwanted people which I don't think is a fair comment and I don't think it's one that should justify
a change having said that we wrote to the council last week with these points we worked over the weekend to try to accommodate that if this was the council's wish to accommodate the planning board's recommendation and we can do that because we're trying to now I'm asking you not to because the flexibility is only going to make it
better for both of us but if that's the wish we're going to make that work we cannot make it work unless these amendments are passed we cannot make it work unless the pilots changed um so you I hope that answ all your questions you just have some concerns about relying on The credibility of a planning board and
then taking their opinion and saying that we don't I I agree with it I mean we we chose these people speciically for a reason planning boards on the on the planning board the statutory yes the statutory requirement is that the planning board conduct that
investigation have their experts provide answers uh question them and then issue a recommendation to you your job is to take that recommendation and accept it not not accept it and and make a vote and I hear some size from the audience but no one up here sits on the planning
board we didn't make that I sit on the planning board Lisa sits on the plan so you don't have your information correct and I I mean as far as the sending of the recommendation I I have no illusions of trying to convince you to vote for this it's clear council president I'm trying to answer your questions and yes it is yours so I'm going to answer that
question so the planning board I have full faith in all my boards the planning board here does an amazing job led by an amazing person who's an engineer for the last 20 years we've done great projects in this town and to question our boards I I take resentment to that our boards work very hard as volunteers all the
time and to question their ability to do something is just not right I didn't question it I'm trying to agree with them and you're asking us to disagree with them I'm not asking you to disagree with any question them I'm trying to go along with what their recommendation that's what I heard you so maybe you miss the
death said okay thank you they asked us to take your opinion to the small units and I'm asking why we would contradict their opinion okay I a I have a question I have two um question um what you said after this after we vote you have to go
back to the you have to go can you explain that you have to go back to the planning board again Redevelopment is a very lengthy process okay yes we just because we're doing this by Redevelopment doesn't excuse Our obligation to still get site plan approval from the planning board so if
you vote to approve this which I hope you do the next step would for us to submit an application to your planning board for site plan approval notice 200 ft to all the uh uh residents around it uh post a notice in your newspaper or website or whatever it is is applicable at the time and then the planning board
would do its job as it does in any other situation the only difference is the zoning that they would be scrutinizing that application under would be the ones that you vote on tonight so would they then go through each one individually and decide which no no that's that's what I'm wondering what they're going to
go through is our plan is our plan compliant with your ordinance is our plan compliant with uh State storm water requirements do you have your your D approvals did the police or fire chief or anybody else raise safety issues which are Paramount above your your ordinances anyway that's what they
they're require and that's normal procedure for any project that's built in town that's the site plan approval happens after and no matter if it's a pilot or not a pilot they still have the all has to be checked out by all the groups storm water and soil and Fire and police and they all have to okay that so
now that's not the end after that there's a period of resolution compliance where we have to amend the plans based on what happened there uh we'd have to go back to the DP to get an amendment there for a 23 unit project I want to paint the scope of what my clients have been going through for
years to try to redevelop this project for this town and it's not over so they have to still go through that resolution compliance before they can even apply for a building Pro okay so now I have just one more question so if hypothetically the project itself wasn't
passed but the red but the pilot was I from what I got from the planner the last time she spoke was that this if say we said no say we voted it down you could still bring the project to the planning board and then they would
individually go through every single one of those to approve or not approve I I didn't follow you until just then so I think what you're saying is if you don't approve this we could still apply with variances yes okay that is true for all but two of these so the reason we're
here today instead of going right to the planning board for variances is because two of those deviations are what we consider use variances or D variances under your Redevelopment plan and under Redevelopment law in New Jersey I can't get those variances at planning board those changes have to come from the council that's why we're here so if you
would proove those two theoretically yes we can go to the planning board for variances for the rest what are those because I first floor I think that would might make it E you know easier because they're the ones that do this and they're the ones that know all about
it you're I'm going to disagree too because the reason we have a Redevelopment board is to do just what we're doing here the planning board is aware of the situations of what a Redevelopment board does the Redevelopment board does the leg work then the planning board has a say on what it is especially when it comes to the site plans and all those things but
it's not to individually pick apart a Redevelopment plan one piece at a time that is not our job here we're here to vote V yes or no we're not here to pick apart a plan okay but so and the reason I bring that up is because I might be okay say with you know there's there's
nine of them I might be okay with those two that you're speaking of but say there's one I'm not well then you got we're voting for all that's what I'm saying then you vote no on all of them just for that's great you vote no any other
questions I'm going to open to the public in a minute okay no thank you thank you anyone from the public like to [Music] best first I want to apologize before I say anything this is tele dcop 180
Whitney app this is televised is it not yes okay as a resident I'm appalled that there are Council people up here that don't understand the most important part that makes this place tick I'm sorry to
say it but have a right to say it cuz I've been accused of not knowing what I do nobody up here are Engineers that's why you hire people that's why you you couldn't do your business administration job because you put Professionals in there you if you're going to pick apart
every little thing you're not an engineer to make comment about what should or shouldn't be done that's what you Le the Professionals for and I'm sorry to say it but you guys are talking about spending and saving 50 p PES for an ad and everything else approve the B
you get you get 2.5 million thank you anyone else from the public please step Mike Simone watch Lin at P Lakes I don't know if you want me to address anything as whatever chairman of the planning board you can if so I'll do
that separate from my own comments okay so which whatever way you'd like to take it okay I'll I'll address um I'll address some of the questions that came up from the council persons the planning board in a normal
situation will get a project and deal with it from beginning to end because it's Redevelopment and we have a Redevelopment board it has to by the Redevelopment ordinance go to them they decide on what's appropriate for a site
how big it is how many stories what the setbacks are what conditions it has to meet for a whole bunch of reasons and once they agree to it and you guys get a hold of it and you send it over to the planning board as people
have mentioned and you say is this consistent with the master plan so that happened last week when the planning board took this application and said okay we reviewed it and I'll give you the general gist of it but uh because
again this is on the record I think it's helpful the planning board had no problem with the consistency the only thing they questioned and it wasn't a recommendation to change it was just take a look at the 500 sqare foot and see if that's okay basically that's what
it does we have no authority to change anything on the on the referral to us the only time we have any ability to change anything and it's limited into what we can change is when it comes back to us as a site plan and there we have
our own set of standards that we have to comply with and we go through the normal procedure of site plan with the exception of if someone said for example oh I don't like the color of the building that they approved at the Redevelopment agency normally at planning board we can say okay well what
what else can we do we don't get that choice anymore so there are restrictions as to what we can and cannot do during the S review but the process has proceeded properly and you got the recommend a back that it's consistent you can do what you want with the size
of this unit it has really no relevance to us okay if there's a question I'll be happy to answer it as chairman before I give my comments any question for the chairman of the planning board okay
so personal comments Now set the chairman aside when I looked at this project as something that I knew would be coming at some point I said all right we have a a very ugly looking site it's been phow for I
don't know 20 30 years it's abused in many ways by many people I don't know what the rules are but you know there's tracker trailers and cars and tow trucks and whatever somebody said they wanted Redevelopment and I'm saying to myself well you know it's a limited site they
went through a lot of effort to get the approvals from the county from the state because of uh uh and Environmental Protection Agency and D requirements and for parking and um they came back with a project which went to the Redevelopment
agency and I had nothing to say about that and I still don't have anything to say about what they did but I looked at it and I said well this makes some sense it's set back from the road so the impact on the front is not a problem at all it's not that high
considering that the property goes down they're asking for a couple of variances which I didn't think were particularly uh honorous so I thought it you know it would make good sense and I waited to see it come through uh the process everything that I've seen so far uh from
a personal point of view is that I don't I don't really see any negative to this project I I see positives in appearance you know we've got a beautiful shopping center across the away from it you got a Starbucks right there that's well maintained and you have this site and
there's another one too near that we can talk about another day bottom line is that this is an improvement to the town but the big bonus is the taxes we are getting killed with taxes it's not going to get any better if you can tell me that this project can generate over
$2 million over a period of 30 years or the project goes nowhere and we end up getting $60,000 over 30 years or whatever it turns out to be no couple couple hundred thousand over seven over 30 years this
should be a no-brainer and so I would just ask you to consider the pros as a substantial Improvement I also understand there's an issue with the adjacent property owner where there's a parking issue and I
understand and I I you need testimony on this that there's been some considerations given but the other thing that bothers me is it's like if you have a property and you don't have a parking space on your property but the mayor has a big property and you park on his spot
because he's a nice guy and says you can park there and then he all of a sudden says I want to develop that piece of property so I'm going to get a subdivision and I'm going to put a house there now all of a sudden you're out of a parking place I don't think you
legally and got an attorney here can turn around and say well you can't develop your property because I parked there so I think there's a whole legal issue there that has to be dealt with which somebody will or will not deal with as they see fit but my encouragement is that the this the
project is suitable and I think that it would be a benefit both in appearance and in taxes thank you hey thank you any what else would the public like toest up five minutes and it's and it counts from
walking from your seat uh Mike quickley vanf real quick Republicans enablers ises that kind of the connotation from the top down let's start with Donald because I'm going to him don't kid uh enablers this is you help industry
succeed you help construction succeed you help employers conceed help these guys succeed simple and help the town succeed that your role but along the way you do some good we all agree it's a good project I'm sure
you've all seen it I don't know what gets handed out and everything the other thing though on retail would you really want to try to compete with across the street you're going to get any foot traffic coming in yeah the people there will be going across street kind of good
for those businesses pick pick up some new customers you know Starbucks is going to get some probably Franks maybe some Wendy's uh the gim will get some so everybody's going to benefit over there but retail underneath usually new
construction C it's a high cost for retail footage and they got to go across the street what's going to open there ask yourself so you condemning them to have empty retail there again dooming the project just consideration thank you thank
you anyone else in the public like to address seeing no one can have a motion to close the p uh the a motion for this ordinance second councilman Ben venon councilman uh Hinton on favor I motion to approve ordinance 25-11 for final
adoption motion councilman dennon councilman Cruz roll call please I'm sorry benon and Cruz benon and Cruz yes counc no counil yes Council Cruz yes
councilman Hinton yes councilwoman Ken yes councilwoman yes okay let's move on to ordinance 25-12 okay
252 authoring tax extion taxel plan for Block 2400 L one and authorizing EX ution of a financial agreement payment in Lou taxes for with 61q urban renewal LLC pursuant to State
motion to open the meeting for public comments on ordinance 25-12 so moved councilman Pro councilman hint all favor against anyone like to address just this ordinance seeing no one can I have a motion to close the public session motion councilman vennon councilman
Hinton all in favor I against motion approve ordinance 25-12 for final adoption motion councilman vennon second councilwoman Kent roll call please Council yes Council Ben yes councilman Cruz yes
councilman H yes Council K yes Council yes okay let's move on to ordinance 2513 amend Section 3 prohibited of the
code of the ver prohibit left hand terms between 4 and 6 p.m. per motion to open the meeting for public comments on ordinance 25-14 soov councilman Cruz councilman Hinton all in favor I against anyone
like to address just this ordinance was I just question I just was there a reason just out of curiosity I don't think the last time we discussed her in the first reading was there a concern or issue was there an accident or anything no when we first when when it first went to the boards the planning board they were concerned during rush hour at 5:00
it would be hard to make that turn Okay uh so they wanted to limit that at that time that's why they is there's going to be signage there is I think it's up already it's up already cuz Haven there's ex yeah there's existing signage there and this only memorializes the
site communication I haven't seen it but yeah just put it up okay good I was just curious I just wanted to get some clarification this was just in the week during those hours just those hours yes because there's been a lot of problems on the weekends yep uh with traffic um
and people coming off of patteron Hamburg Turnpike making the right going to your house and my house on Ringwood Avenue swinging into the lanes of the opposing traffic to go around cars waiting to get into and I and I'll be honest I I made a call and and I said we
to the police that they have to address that they can't have what we call queuing on uh ring Avenue that wasn't part of the the deal so they're going to have to address that I agree with you because I I was there on a Saturday and the cars were backed up all the way to Hamburg Turnpike and they were driving
in the opposite lane of traffic to go around them which is going to cause a problem so they're going to have to address that okay but we're talking about just this one now but then that did come up okay motion to close the meeting for public comments and ordinance 25-13 Mo councilman Cruz councilman ven
all in favor I against motion to approve ordinance 25-13 for final motion councilman V second councilwoman hilberg roll call please counc yes
yes yes sorry it's my daugh yes yes yes okay ordinance 2514 anord amending chter 7 section-3 terms prohibited of ver
the toit it's been a long night it's been a long night um amending specific penalty for the violation of the prohib of for snow plowing and removal motion to open the meeting for public comments on ordinance
25-14 councilman Venice second councilwoman kilberg all in favor I anyone from the public like to address just this ordinance seeing no one motion to close the public session on ordinance 25-14 motion councilman V second Council
um councilman uh H Mr H Council Council all in favor I I against the motion to approve ordinance 25-14 for final adoption motion councilman Von second uh who was that councilwoman Kent
councilwoman Kent roll call please counc yes counc yes counc yes coun yes counc Ken yes counc yes okay I'm going to keep my report short because it's been a very long night um
I'd like to make a motion to appoint uh Paul panti as a business member to the pump Lakes preventing coalition to fill an unexpired term of 12 3125 second uh councilwoman Kent all in favor against okay under my report um I
attend did the uh swearing in along with councilwoman kilberg of our fire department uh they had a great little ceremony over in Oakridge it's you know as I said there people forget the time and energy these volunteers they don't get paid put in to protect our homes When the Call Comes the calls don't come
at 2:00 in the afternoon for the most part they come at 3:00 in the morning and they still jump out of bed and protect us so we got to keep that in mind that we have a volunteer fire department and ambulance Squad that got way Bond above and beyond so I thank them for inviting me it was a great event great food we had a great time
there uh um I had a meeting with uh our fire chief uh seeing what he was looking at the new fire chief coming in um his interest in things he'll be looking into doing I attended the uh a wine tasting for the school what was that P Lakes
Education Foundation uh great event they raised money uh for all the school programs separately from the school itself and I can tell you as having a daughter who's a teacher at middle school she needed some types certain types of computer equipment the we paid for that equipment out of their budget
that they have separate from the school so it's a great organization they raise money freely from the residents here in in in the and thank you to all the residents that showed up there was about 50 of them um and it was a great time had a lot of fun and that is my report council president Paul Dory thank you
first I'd like to thank ouro administrator uh for all his hard work on the budget that was an outstanding presentation very easy to understand very well laid out very well presented thank you thank you very much um and I just want to remind everyone real quick that the prevention Coalition has
their Diamond Classic coming up on April 5th as well as The Walk For Hope on May 18th so please mark your calendars um I've also been working with Ryan uh and we were able to bring in a member of
open space who does work professionally with grant writing to assist him on drafting the final version of Grant requests that he's doing a good job he's doing it on his own I think I have to work with him to get some commitment letters from two of our departments
maybe you can help me with that got it thank you uh and then I I think it's du next week so he's wrapping up the last little bits of loose ends on that so and that is my report thank you councilman Benny thank you mayor I attended two Board of Ed meetings I'll defer to councilman Cruz for the details a a lot
of good stuff um I want to thank the B administrator our CFO and auditor for the great job on the on the budget I know that um with the rising Health Healthcare cost to um be able to offset that uh was tremendous and lastly uh as
some of you know I'm a robotics coach and I want to congratulate and wish luck to the Steel Magnolia robotics team on advancing te dates uh will be competing uh this Sunday down in Hillsboro and that is my report thank you councilman Cruz thank you mayor um I attended the
Board of Ed meeting uh March 4th and March 11th uh for the far uh March 4th meeting um some of the items that were discussed during that meeting uh we had uh 16 CT High School uh graduations they were recognized at the meeting each received a certificate of program
completion from the C coordinator Deborah Ross um and I didn't know this and this is a good tidbit only three times participated in teamer Clifton Pake and pton lakes which is awesome okay and I'm hoping that's going to continue to grow throughout the state um there was also a presentation by Dr Jane Tannis uh she gave a presentation on the
language instruction educational program um this program establishes a bilingual program uh wherever there are 20 or more multilingual Learners and any one language classification in grades K through 12 so for example Spanish where English is your second language um right
now for example we have and just to give you some percentages so um as a percentage of the district or the town really the district for the kids attending Spanish is 88% Arabic is 4% Mandarin is 4% and other is 4% that compris is what that program OB
obviously offers where English is your second language uh for the Board of Ed meeting on March 11th I'm happy to say that there's a couple of things that are moving along we got the uh plhs HVAC system upgrades that's moving along payments have been made now to the contractor Lakeside bleacher project
first payment has been made we're going to be moving that along which is awesome um also the tenative budget was approved now there's there's a few I think you know I wish everybody would have stay to hear this cuz this really applies to everybody um so the border of Ed along
with many border EDS are suffering right now from a decrease in funding and higher health care benefits so with that being said the Board of Ed um is proposing a 3.5% tax increase okay and it's on the tenative budget right now I'm not sure
if that's going to be the final number um it's a high number and it's traditionally at least a probably a percent and a half over historically what they've done as far far as what they offer as a tax rate um and this is something they've worked through but the cost of Health Care obviously and the uh
reduction in um state aid um is creating issues for all districts across all our towns right now um so hopefully you know that will not be the final number but um I just wanted to get that out there they're looking to possibly schedule a um a meeting so the final budget has to
be approved in May they're looking in between now and may to possibly schedule meeting open to for the public so they can further explain the decisions that they made leading up to whatever percentage will be the final percentage um I know an easy reason is I didn't see it um I didn't do this I didn't do that
I recommend everybody on a regular basis from now until then check the district website the excuse that you did not know or were not aware should not be a reason for you not to take the extra steps to check the the the uh District website um I'm letting you know here they also going to have it in the notes for the
Board of Ed meeting that they're going to post if they haven't done so already so please make sure you follow through if you're curious to know why it's being done what the final percentage is going to be it will be part of my report but an informed um resident can you know
obviously um voice their concerns during the meeting and um you know it's it's the new world we're living in right now okay so that'll do for my report man and you know it's it's hard to hear that high number but we also have a great school system you know we're you know for a small little District that we are
we really pump out our students and there's a goodt as they leave so it it works both ways with with that I understand they need funding just like we're going through the same situations but at the end of the day we have a good school system uh councilman hiton um I
was attended a um meeting on the 19th of February for the MUA um they're just continuing to work on the the smell on the south end of town any answers that's uh no answers they're just continuing to work so we
hope that they solve that problem um attended a senior meeting on the 20th um seniors are just planning their trips for this year and getting organized um everybody was fine and healthy so uh that was good news then I
went on vacation for a week and uh we're happy to go see the Yankees they did good to the two games that I went to so uh that was pretty good but I want to read this from the trends that I came across on March 5th on March 2nd it was
a historic day at the high school winter track state meet of Champions in Ocean Breeze Athletics Center in Staten is Owen keading from pumpt Lakes High School joined his sister Emma the 2023
Champion as the first brother sister duo in North Jersey history to win titles at the state meet of Champions so I want to congratulate the Kings and uh and always and his sister on a fine job both two
good athletes there so that's my report thank you uh councilwoman K yeah thank you mayor um I also want to thank Mikael melli and the uh the gentlemen that were with you on the budget it's very easy to to read and I like the uh the binder
with my name on it and so but more important that it it explained you know how we went from last year to this year and how the rate changed and uh you know we'll see where where that goes but thank you very much um I also want to thank uh Mrs cassinelli she's the
chairwoman of the Shater commission she's a very hard worker she's also a member of the uh Chamber of Commerce and and uh I think back in November I did bring up the Chamber of commerce's concern about the u-turns and some of the items that are going on in uh you
know off of wanu Avenue not having enough Patrol so uh I think we talked about that I'm not sure if it's been addressed but it should be addressed because the chamber also brought that up as well so and um uh councilman Hinton
in the the Garder that he is took over 750 bulbs daffodils uh under his wing over the Wier to keep them safe which he did so now we need to plant them um we have uh a couple different groups that
usually do help us plant but uh maybe we can get some some other groups to come up and offer to take a 100 off the off of his hands so if we have seven different groups that would probably be 100 each and that would work very nicely the pmon links Women's Club they took
125 and so we need the other so who do you want them which if a group wants to handle who should they Bo Scouts Girl Scouts who should they who should they contact you me we'll contact me and and we're going to bring the bulbs down to DPW we also have extra uh we have 10 trees that
we're going to be looking for homes I think we have a we have H we might have a spot talking yeah we're going yeah we're going to work with uh and the shade tree commission has the list of people right now who want trees um but there there may be more so there
may be more trees yeah that's not no these are yeah but we're we're going to go through you we're going to go through the sh tree commission anyway so um anyway if anybody wants that they should you know reach out to me or or Mrs tasselli from
the the shry commission um I did attend uh oh and then the Shater commission is going to have uh their annual Arbor Day essay contest at the schools at the uh elementary schools for grade five and
it's cute and you're going to they write a a little essay about um their interaction with a tree of of whatever you know from their maybe their child you know of course their childhood was their children but they write they write these essays and they send it in both uh
Lincoln and um Lennox School principles have said they're going to be coming and and what happens is they we will then they will uh pick the uh the winners all the essay and yeah they yeah and then we give them the presents and their prizes
from here and uh that would be in may we haven't said a date yet we haven't said a oh we haven't said it you said a date maybe did was it April I'm not all right yeah I'll report that I'll report
yes right yeah okay I don't remember well I'll report it at the next meeting so make sure we get the right date second I think it was but okay sure well I'll definitely report it next meeting so we get the right date right place
time okay um I also uh was a part of paying the bills for the town and um the C uh in addition to what councilman Cruz said about the C the and the high school um uh students you know taking on that
responsibility of helping out when we have emergency issues uh the CT is also having courses right now if you're interested uh there may be some positions you could let me know where deorah Ross um because and the uh the
courses are at the first aid Squad so if anyone's interested let us know and that is my revie thank you councilwoman kilberg um uh mine will be really fast um the flood advisory board meeting the last one was cancelled um and I did attend the installation dinner for the
fire department it was um a beautiful event and thank you for inviting me um and congratulations to S other new positions I would just like to say something you know I would find it very advantageous for anyone who's bringing a project a Redevelopment project or
anything else in this community to want to explain it to the council because it is our job to vote on it um I the Redevelopment board they're volunteers just like you know they're people from
the community just like we are and they're not all Engineers that sit on there but they vote on the project and then want us to vote on it I just didn't think that you know some of the comments were warranted I think we need to
understand something and there there are no stupid questions N I agree okay thank you uh attorney report I have nothing administrative report which I know it's going to be very short thank you mayor all I have to report is that the researching of do Highway uh will begin
on Monday April 14th uh the first two weeks will consist of drainage improvements followed by four weeks of concrete work and we're anticipating milling and Paving uh during the month of May uh further correspondence will be sent to all of the residents so thank
you that's all any questions for the administrator just one question do we have a sta on the flashing stoplights forgot I forgot to ask that I think the church and I think also at by lakesite schools councilman deline was here we had worked out a program with the county to get a flashing light
at the church on Ramapo and the county agreed to put it in uh but uh as Council M Cruz brings up I haven't seen any word that obious the one by by the Christ Church for the crosswalker crosswalk is there one there is there one okay then
there's one there there you go now the other one was by Lake Lakeside School the truck was the place one over there because of the uh before we stop sign flash stop the flashy stop signs the flashy stop signs yes we had looked into
that's what I was referring to sorry the flashy stop signs we had looked into that with our budget um but after receiving the Grant from the do for the resurfacing of lak side app from danav to Jefferson act we decided to save cost and include it in the project which will
happen next year thank you um so at you know just to Safe cost and I'll be able to give the board of V an update cuz I know they thank you any other questions I just want to follow up on the U the grant that you just mentioned uh Michael um that includes the guard rails it does
yes yes okay thank you and I had a question for you about the lining on hfield street but I guess you'll take time to check into that thank you uh councilman Hinton was questioning the striping on one of our newly resurfaced streets I did confirm with our project
engineer uh late this afternoon that it it was done satisfactory um so I'm happy to go out there and look at it with you in person okay uh to to see what you're seeing and maybe maybe we could coordinate further thank you other okay
our Workshop thank you mayor uh I'm in receipt of a request from the superintendent of Public Works to slightly change our recycling schedule here in the burrow uh as residents are well aware uh our
recycling schedule is alternating uh on the second and fourth Wednesday and the first and third Wednesday and on occasion we have What's called the free Wednesday where there's no pickups at all and during that time our staff still
goes out and collects uh recycling from all of our dumpster locations in the B um and the DPW superintendent is requesting that we move to a true bi-weekly schedule where there is no free Wednesday anymore where residents
continuously get pick up on a bi-weekly basis throughout the whole calendar year um which would uh add four four more collections to the residents per year so it's an increase in services and our staff is already on the road collecting
the dumpsters um and from our superintendent we are done collecting by about noon uh from what I understand so he doesn't feel that it's a burden to to to move to the bi-weekly schedule but uh as we prepare our burough calendar which
is printed and mailed in June we'd like to facilitate that change uh with your approval T that does anybody have any issues with I think it's a good plan you know I just have a quick question and it's just something because I see because of the location of of where I live so there will be times where um
they will come on their scheduled time let's say at 7:45 or 8:00 in the morning and you know it's a sizable truck on Roma Avenue which has created almost a deadlock of traffic when they come in at that time because at that time parents
are coming to drop off their kids at Lakeside and also to make the right to go to Atlantic if you're on the street and the times vary so I can't say it always happens so I don't know really and I meant to mention this I really don't know you know I'm here to control their schedule they're out there to do a
job but I think they should take into consideration in specifically rain between I think yeah between that time because once they're on that street there's already bumper or bumper traffic they shut that street down Mike can we get that who's the DPW can you bring
that over and Mike um yeah I you know if we can change the schedule and it works uh only thing I get nervous about when we say that then you have other schools going to say this Street's the same this Street's the same but that is a bad street CU I've been stuck behind that trch um so uh if we can do anything
let's take a look does anybody have any concerns though with the whole program on Wednesday no okay no but we have to have a we have to have a uh education yes because that always goes with it because people are not always going to read their their calendar they're not going to know so we're going to have
have to make an effort to put it in the newspaper no but uh put it on our website I mean maybe the Environmental Protection committee um has to do a flyer I mean we have to do something I maybe we have to mention in the calendar
note the change you know Big Red Letters maybe that's a great idea maybe we could uh B yeah let's figure that out so it would start in June when the calendar goes out July 1 oh July 1 okay yeah put it on the the chan7 yeah
Channel 77 the board board will do all the normal send out to the P we can send the information out if you want that way and and and I'll talk to uh chairman Steve bag from the EPC because they're always looking to do stuff like that so they've done that in the past just put it on
face just to add we're looking the superintendent and I are looking to use our grant funding to send out a postcard ahead of thank you all right great okay motion to open the meeting for public comment Ben councilman Cruz all in favor anyone
like to address the public please step up will be roaming out I understand we're going to be repaving do highway is that going to have an effect on when the bridge is the bridge is
being replaced I mean are we going to do something that's going to get torn up at the entrance to the bridge because we're uh replacing the bridge after we repaved just just a thought yep okay anyone else from the public like to address please St up
J power 130 Le Street just a little bit confused we had this camera thing's been going on since last year I've asked plenty of questions about it at multiple meetings and it was just in a quick thing with really no
discussion and I've watched these guys go through countless ones and I think their ideas are pretty good I'm not worried about the cameras I support that fully but $190,000 is a lot of money I've worked in telec are for a decade I put a business in it I have no idea how
you're charging 33 cameras for this amount of money amongst what the infrastructure is going to be for how do we get power how does it communicate back all the other things that go with it I understand you're not Engineers I understand you having dealt with some of this stuff but those are the reasons I want to see the contract that's why I
want to see what it is and we just approved it I asked at the last meeting when we approve the ordinance for the bond if we don't approve this do we give the money back or anything like that I mean it's already approved now so it is what it is hopefully the $2 million we
can get from their taxes if we approve that don't pay for this but what are some of the questions you have uh questions wise I'm sorry for we'll answer it yeah yes anyways with the Department of Ed or Board of EDS with the changes in the federal government
and the potentialities of a lot of funding coming directly to the state does pton Lakes have a plan to make sure we're in line to request that additional funding that would come from the state rather than the federal government so you're talking about the school yes yeah we don't have anything to say over the school but I I'll answer what you but the funding yeah the funding I'll talk
ta thank you anyone else from the public like to address good question seeing no one can have a motion to close the public session motion councilman Cruz councilman benon all in favor hi uh dth Highway yes we will be repaving that but not the area where the bridge is correct
yes mayor uh we'll be reping short of the approach ways and we've been in coordination with the county Engineers office correct um about the bills you know you always have the option previous to when we uh approve anything to Oprah it's very cheap and you can get anything you need but we're going to try to get
you what you need after the fact um to answer your question about the funding the funding from us is only for us the school funding has their own school funding uh and how they do their own thing so we don't those two groups don't mix with funding um so when we go out to a project for cameras for example
and they go out for a project with cameras they're doing their own budget thing and we're doing our own budet thing so that that it doesn't get mixed up like that I wish it could because there would be a help but it doesn't work that way um okay motion to close the public session so moved councilman
Cruz second councilwoman Kent all in favor I I against privileg floor any the floor nope motion to adjourn to close session thank you everyone for coming good night all good night good night everybody thank you
Mike councilman Ben councilman Cruz all in favor I against in close session we discussed uh personnel and what was the other one um litigation litigation thank you motion toj return motion second third councilman vett councilman Cruz
councilman hiton as a third all favor hi thank you everyone