I'm ready. Everybody ready? I'm ready. I'm going to start the recording because I'm going to say it's it's 7:0. Good evening everyone. Tonight is the mayor and council regular session agenda for Wednesday, September 25th, 2025.
This meeting is also being conducted telephonically. The dial in number is 4254366365 access code 213563 hashtag um hashtag and it's also can be viewed on the Ramsey YouTube channel
which is visible on our homepage the Ramsey Burough homepage. May we have roll call please? Mayor Dylan is not here. Councilwoman Cusk here. Councilman Gutward here. Councilman Kilman here. Councilman Papo
here. Councilwoman Poppy here. And Councilwoman Woods is not here. Thank you. Can we stand for the flag? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The New Jersey open open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of all citizens to have advanced notice of and to attend all meetings of public
bodies at which any business affecting the public is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, notice of this meeting of the mayor and council was published in the Bergen record and the suburban news on Wednesday, January 15, 2025.
May we have approval of minutes, please? I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes from the work session held on June 12th, 2025. I'll second that. Any comments on the minutes? Not hearing any. May we have roll call,
please? Councilwoman Cusk, yes. Councilman Gutwer, I will abstain as I was not in attendance that evening. Councilman Kilman, yes. Councilman Pablo, yes. Councilwoman Poppy, yes. Thank you. May we have approval of the
communications? Yes. This is Councilwoman Cusk and Council President Cusk. Uh, Council President Kilman, I'd like to make a motion to accept the communications as presented in our agenda. Thank you. Thank you. I will second that.
Um, any comments on the communications? Not seeing or hearing any. May we have roll call, please? Councilwoman Cusk, yes. Councilman Gutter, yes. Councilman Kilman, yes. Councilman Papo, yes. Councilwoman Poppy, yes. Thank you. It's
time for public comment. Anyone wishing to address the governing body, please give your name, spelling the last name and address, please. in an audible tone and address your comments to the chair. There will be a fivem minute time limit per speaker unless reduced because of the volume of business on the agenda.
Please note public comment is your time out of respect and fairness to all. There will be no interruptions or questions answered during your time. No time will be seated to anyone else and no time will be saved for later use. Any responses may be given during the governing body's comments later in the
meeting or as directed by the chair. The burough clerk is the official timekeeper. Do we have There's no one in the room today. Is there anyone on the phone who has any comments? All right. Second call for public
comment. And third call for public comment. Not seeing anyone in our room and chambers and not hearing anyone on the phone lines. We'll close public comment and we will do we have no we don't have any uh advertised public hearings for
final consideration ordinances that is. Um I will say that the mayor has made several appointments. Um she has appointed Joseph Rotolo. How do I say that right? Ramsey Rescue Squad and Emma Hunt to the
Ramsey Rescue Squad as well. Moving on to consent resolutions, Councilman Michael Gw. Uh, thank you, Council President Kilman. Uh, be it resolved that resolutions 115 2025 through and including 123 2025 having been
considered by the governing body of the Bureau of Ramy B are hereby passed and approved. There are no special permit requests this evening, but there's a block party request. The Lette family of Bird Street is requesting permission to hold a block party on Thursday, July 3rd from 3 p.m.
to 9:30 p.m. Thank you very much. Regarding resolution 117205, which uh talks about the 2025 liquor license renewals, I open the uh phone lines and the room to any comments
regarding those. Not hearing or seeing anyone. I close that. Only one council. Okay. Thank you. Um, can we have a roll call on the consent resolution? I'll second that resolution. Oh, sorry. No worries. Thank you, Ben. Can we have a
roll call on the resolution? Councilwoman. Councilman Gutwer. Yes. Councilman Kilman. Yes. Councilman Papo. Yes. Councilwoman Poppy. Yes. There are no special presentations, so we'll move right into committee and liaison reports, finance and
administration. Once again, Councilman Gutler. Uh, thank you, Council President Kilman. I want to start off by uh just congratulating Joseph Rollo and Emma Hunt on their appointment to the Ramsey Rescue Squad and thank you for their service to the burough. Uh, my report
this evening starts off with the library board. Uh the 2025 summer reading program uh kicked off today uh with a um kickoff party from 2 o'clock to 4:00 at the library. Uh there will be dozens of events for all ages over the summer and
a reading challenge will be the focus. Uh the library will be making presentation Thank you. Sorry to the residents of the Woodlands on services the library can offer uh for the residents. Uh, the library board is going to be honoring
the many years of service to the library and community of of Emily Renie with a special event on June 27th. That's this Friday at 11:30 a.m. Uh, at the library, Emily served as president of the Ramsey Public Library Board of Trustees from
1998 to 2015. And library has decided to name the meeting room the Emily Reny Community Room. For the recreation commission, fall rec soccer registration is open for play beginning in September. Men's and women's softball leagues continue through the summer. Uh there's
registration available on team snap, civic wreck, and the burrow website for adult pickup soccer. Summer camp at Finch began this past Monday, the 23rd, and will extend to July 25th. Uh the home run derby um was cancelled last
month earlier this month due to inclement weather and registration is open for the 47th Jack McKe and Memorial Ramsey run on Saturday, September 20th, 2025. The Ramsey Farmers Market, the market is open from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. through November. Uh the strawberry
festival was on June 1st, was successful, and there will be a peach festival on August 3rd, both sponsored by the Women's Club of Ramsey. uh come check out all the great vendors that are in attendance at the market each and every Sunday. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge a great job done by the Ramy
High School for their graduation this past Friday, June 20th. The weather cooperated and Mr. Big and moved the program right along. So, they were done in one and a half hours and much kudos to the graduating class as 70% of the 200 students graduating class received
the presidential award for attaining a 3.5 or greater GPA through their high school years. Good luck to the students graduating from Ramsey High School and all the students in Ramsey who graduated from the elementary and middle schools. That's my report for this evening. Thank you, Council.
You got Next, we will report public safety. First off, I want to congratulate Mr. Ollo and Ms. Hunt on their appointments to the Ramsey Rescue Squad. And to echo
Councilman Gutweter, I really enjoy the Ramsey High School graduation. It is a wonderful small town experience. Um I I f thought the students were incredibly supportive of each other. It was great to see. And then following that um the
senior gala and the rife gala uh the next day are also uh real real um solid components of our Ramsey community and love to attend that and see those folks there. Um regarding the public safety, the Ramsey emergency services complex
project is undergoing further review and assessment. The responsibility of the design group is to stay within the budget parameters initially estimated notwithstanding the current rise in inflation and construction costs. When their work is complete, it will be presented to the full mayor and council
and then the public. Once the proposed plan and bid package is completed and reviewed within the bureau, it will need to be submitted to the state office of controller for their review prior to going out to bid. Currently, there is no
estimated date for this to occur. And that concludes my reports. Um, does anyone have Councilwoman Woods's report? Did she give that to anyone or did she have one? No. No. Okay, then we'll move on to
Councilwoman Judy Cusk in Utilities, Buildings, and Browns. Thank you very much. Congratulations to and thank you to Joseph Rtolo and Emma Hunt for their Ramsey Rescue Squad service. Also want to thank Stacy Tosny for her service on the design review board as we accepted
her um her res resignation in our communications tonight. I also want to thank our wonderful Ramsey response personnel, the police, OEM, fire uh cert rescue ambulance as Ramsey supports a cooling center which was at the library
today due to um a power outage and I'm informed that the power has been restored. So the cooling center is has been released but um people just dropped everything to to support this. So tonight my report will be an update regarding our planning board shadri commission and the board of public
works. At the planning board meeting on June 17th there were four waiverss approved. There was a public housing for the 2025 housing element and fair share plan. The planning board adopted the 2025 housing element and fair share plan of
the master plan. This is on our agenda this evening. A soil movement resolution was approved as well. The next planning board meeting will occur on the 15th of July 2025. The next shade tree commission is scheduled for the 17th of July 2025. The board of public works
last met on May 19th. The next meeting, I'm sorry, it met on June 16th. The next meeting is in mid July. Purr and polyfllorinated substances are a group of chemicals used to make fluoropolymer coatings that resist heat, oil, stains,
grease and water. There are US EPA POS water quality limits which impact our Ramsey water supply. H2M our architectural and engineering firm is working with the Ramsey water department regarding treatment approaches at our well treatment facilities at Arrow Road
in Darlington, Brookfield, North Central, and Spring Street. The I bank in New Jersey is the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank and it's involved with funding projects related to POS contamination and drinking water through the New Jersey
water bank. This program provides lowinterest loans to municipalities and water systems for environmental infrastructure improvements including POS treatment. Our projects were submitted to the I bank for consideration as we continue to work for
the value of our bureau. I bank indicated they are still reviewing the environmental planning document for lead service line replacement. The board of public works continues planning and implementing regarding the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protections lead service line replacement legislation. This
project requires that all lead service lines served by the water system be replaced by the year 2031. And lastly, the consumer confidence report CCR. The 2025 CCR report summarizes the results of the 2024
drinking water quality data and it will be available for re view for viewing on the Ramsey website starting on the 1st of July meeting the NJD requirements. The report documents that there were no water quality violations during the 2024
calendar year. Hopefully, everyone received the postcard in the mail. Thank you very much, President Kellen. Thank you, Councilwoman. Next up is public and governmental relations. I turn it over now to Councilwoman Sarah Poppy. Thank you,
Council President Gilman. I would first like to congratulate and thank Joseph Routollo and Emma Emma Hunt on their appointments to the Ramsey Rescue Squad. Thank you for your service to our community. I had the honor of attending
the high school graduation this year. I would like to congratulate all of the graduates. I was very impressed with the um speeches that they uh presented to us. They were very moving um and well
done and relevant even to people like myself. So, thank you for those heartfelt words um to our speakers at the graduation. Uh the Ramsey Municipal Alliance held the Narcan training this
past Monday. Um it was well attended. There are probably about 22 people there. I'd like to uh send a special thanks to the ambulance corp because they were really able to show up and support the uh county
presentation with real life examples. They brought CPR dummies and they really um really enriched that program quite a bit. Um so I was thankful for their attendance. Um the pool commission will be putting a
freeze on the out of town um memberships at the end of this week. So if you are from out of town and you would like to get a membership, please do so by Friday. Uh the Independence Day celebration will be at Finch Park on
July 3. So I hope everyone will attend. Um the 16th of July is the next pool commission meeting and the 28th of July is the next municipal alliance meeting. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, Counciloman. Health,
Education, and Social Services. Councilman Glenn Pablo. Thank you, Council President Kilman. Uh just a brief update. First, congratulations to Joe and M on their appointments. Uh for Reife, uh we had our gala event on 621
was previously mentioned. Uh thank you to everyone here that helped support and volunteered uh your time for that. It's one of those events that we've had for about 13 years now ongoing, which is always a uh end of the year type of event that we like to have and was well
attended by all the rifers that uh that went. uh for board of ed. They had their graduation as everyone mentioned on 620 and congratulations to all the 2025 graduates. It is uh just excellent to have a great night when you have something like that because it's one of
those events that um that uh from this community it's it's getting everybody out there and the speeches were very good and again uh it was just a great event to go through and I think the timing was very good too. It wasn't too long of an event to go through. Um and for environmental they submitted their
their grant for the second half of their grant which is about $1,500. Uh they received $1,500 already from the state. So, uh the second half went in and that will conclude my update for tonight. Thank you, Councilman. Um Mayor Dylan had every intention of
being here, but she was held up in a business meeting in New York City. I did not receive anything from her. Did anyone else here in the dis receive any comments? All right. Not seeing any. We'll move directly to burough administrator uh Mr. Bruce Jose
who is on the telephone. Uh thank you council president. Just a couple um comments on some of the resolutions on the agenda tonight. Resolution 120 endorses the bureau's fourth round housing element fair share
plan. In accordance with the state of New Jerseyy's fourth round affordable housing obligation signed into law by Governor Murphy in 2024. Municipalities are to adopt the fourth round housing element fair share plan prior to June 30th of 2025.
This plan was prepared and presented to the planning board in the public and was adopted by the planning board at a public meeting on June 17th. As council woman mentioned earlier, this resolution endorses the plan that was adopted by
the planning board. Resolution 121 is also associated with the forefront affordable housing spending plan. Uh this is for submitt and it requests the affordable housing program and the report and the court to review and approve the aformentioned spending plan
of the burrow. This again is in accordance with the fourth round municipal obligations in the New Jersey statute. Resolution 122 on the agenda authorizes the bureau to enter into a professional services agreement with Boswell engineering for preparation of a
watershed inventory report as required by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection as part of the tier A municipal general permit. A water shed inventory is required. Boswell Engineering has submitted a proposal to these services and in consultation with
the burough engineer. The recommendation is to award the contract to Boswell in an amount not to exceed $23,000 for the professional service agreement and watershed inventory. And that will conclude my comment. Thank
you. Thank you, Mr. Mosaic. Counselor, any comments? Nothing. Thank you, sir. Um, Miss Bendan, the only thing I would say is that our next meeting is not until July 23rd as we start our summer schedule and the second meeting uh for
the summer will be August 20. All right. So, one meeting 27th, I'm sorry, 27th. One meeting in July and one meeting. Correct. Thank you very much. We don't have any introduction of ordinances. Is there any unfinished business.
Is there any new business? Not seeing or hearing any. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Have a second. I'll second. All in favor? Thank you. Thank you very much, Bruce.
Thank you for for calling