do that here on the resolution. Yeah. If you want to take it upstairs and then email. No, no, I'll follow you on Yes.
All right. I'll take care of please something. Good evening everyone. This meeting is being held in accordance with the public laws of 1975 chapter 231. In adequate notice, this meeting
has been provided by a notice sent to the Asbury Park Press, the tour times in the Star Ledger, and posted in the main lobby of the municipal building and on the municipal website. OBMA authorizes municipalities to conduct public meetings through the use of streaming services and other online
meeting platforms. The Redbank Council is meeting in person as well as providing an option for the public to participate via Zoom video meetings. Please note that the option to attend is being provided as a courtesy. Therefore, if Zoom becomes unavailable during the meeting and it cannot quickly be fixed.
Council will continue with the remainder of the meeting. For those joining us via Zoom, please raise your hand during designated times to be recognized for comment. Whether you appearing in person or via Zoom, you must provide your name to be recognized. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance.
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. Roll, please, if Mary. Council member Bonitakis,
here. Council member Cassidy, present. You. Council member Facy Blackwood, here. Council member Forest, present. Council member Jano here, Deputy Mayor Tuganiano here, and Mayor Portman
here. Real quick before we go ahead with this proclamation, Ben, will you um I know we spoke about something earlier. You want to just say a few words? Uh yes, Mayor, I just wanted to report that um fortunately uh he doesn't live in town anymore, but a longtime
resident, Ivan Palanski, former uh school board member for many years and school board president on the Redbank Regional Board as well as Burough School. unfortunately he lost his son last week, Jonathan. Um, and so that's terrible news for his family. Um,
you can, if anybody wants contact information, they're certainly welcome to reach out to me either through the grower email or you can contact me at my phone number 73258197. Thank you, Ben. On behalf of the where they are, just help them. Yeah. Anyways, that served on this council for 12 years.
Yeah. So, we're uh we're sending our love and support for Ivan and his family. Thank you, Ben. All right, we got it. Julie, we got a few more of your peeps draggling in, but you ready?
Uh, first up, we have a proclamation honoring the 2025 Russberry Award winner, Julie Flores Castillo. and I'll read it now. Uh, proclamation honoring honoring Julie Flores Castillo, recipient of the 2025
Russberry award. Whereas, Mayor Portman, Deputy Mayor Trianiano, and the entire governing body are pleased to honor Julie Flores Castillo, a lifelong resident born and raised in Redbank, whose tireless dedication to community has resulted in her receiving the
prestigious 2025 Russ making a difference award. And whereas established in 1997 by the late Russell Bry, managed and hosted by Ramapo College of New Jersey, the Russ Berry Making a Difference Award honors Garden State residents whose outstanding
community service and heroic acts have made a substantial impact on the lives of others. And whereas since she was 14 years old, Julie Flores Castillo has advocated for immigrant rights, student rights, and the constitutional rights of all Americans. and whereas is a proud
graduate of the Redbank burough public schools and Brookdale Community College and will graduate from Ruters University in 2026 with a degree in political science. And whereas Julie currently serves as lead youth organizer for American Friends Service Committee's New
Jersey immigrant rights program, lifting a legion of young people into higher education and advocacy. And whereas Julie Flores Castillo is a daughter of Redbank who embodies all we hope and dream for. Therefore, I, William Portman, mayor of the burrow of Redbank,
on behalf of the governing body and a proud community to hereby recognize Julie Flores Castillo and commend her for her outstanding leadership, perseverance, and heart. May your light always shine as a beacon of hope from Redbank to the world.
You want to say a few words? Yeah. This one. This one. Everyone can hear me, right? Okay. Pick it up if you want. Yep. There you go. That sounds better. All right. Well, I just want to thank the entire Red B
Council and everyone here for showing up and it's such an honor to have this proclamation. Out of all the awards and recognitions that I've been given, I think this one's the most meaningful one because I was born and raised in this
town. My parents both immigrated here at 21 and 24. I'm actually wearing my mom's shirt where I was even born. Um, just and it just shows how long she's been in this community. and I always thank her and my parents and my family for settling in this amazing town. I'm so
proud of what this town has been and that last line of me being a daughter of Redbank and it it just means so much to me. So I wouldn't be here without my friends, my family, everyone who supported me through the school systems and most importantly all the community
members who have helped me and encouraged me. I'm not just me. This welcome and the award that I was given is not just remembering me and all the work I've done. It's made up of all the community here in Redbank. So I dedicate this to the immigrant community, to Redbank, and to everyone else. So thank
you so much. We're take a picture. Why don't you get everybody in the push? You got Dr. Dr. Susie Wyman is here, the head of the Boys and Girls Club, the Dr. Rumage. They want to come up. Yeah, I think we should do a big shot. I
think everybody should make it. Come on. Come on. Come on. [Music] Squeeze. I'll get behind. Okay. Perfect. One, two, three.
two question. Thank you. Maybe make any more sense. Well, I will say I'm assuming for those of you that came to see Julie that her part of the uh agenda is done. You're welcome to leave now. You're welcome to
stay. We always love to have people here. We'll be going over some very exciting budget resolutions. So, you know, don't everybody leave all at once. Actually, everybody can leave all at once. Actually, it' be much quicker that way. Yeah.
So nice. I'm so proud of you. Billy Brian's desperately trying to get an over the shoulder photo of your face. I see what's happening. There you go. You don't need to ask me to hug her.
By the way, Brian, um I sent you a WhatsApp video. Did you see it? Uh a resident Nory Griffith made this really cool video about Redbank, but I didn't want to send it on my Samsung to your iPhone because Oh, he he sent it to you. Okay. All
right. Good. Okay. Can I have a motion to open the floor for public comment on agenda items only? So moved. I'll second it. All in favor? I. Ben, you got anything? Anyone online? There are, but no hands raised.
I have a motion to close the public comment on agenda items only. Some move. Second. Second. Favor. I can I have a motion to approve the minutes from 58 2025? So moved. I have a second. I'll second it. All in favor?
I. Ordinances. This is our final reading. Public hearing of 2025-07 bond ordinance providing for improvements to various municipal buildings in and for the burough of Redbank in the county of Mammoth State of New Jersey appropriating 350,000
therefore and authorizing the issuance of 322,500 bonds or notes of the bureau to finance part of the costs thereof. Can I have a motion to open the floor for public comment on this ordinance only? I'll make such a motion. Second. All in favor?
I have a motion. Just real quick. This is I'll kind of just give a brief explanation to H1. Uh this is improvements to the municipal building for H HVAC system upgrades. Uh potentially a new generator installation
and courtroom audio visual improvements. Good. Thank you. Love that. I feel much better now going forward. Yes. Yeah. Um, are any of these improvements going
to become on brand energy efficient? Any heat pumps? Uh, is fossil fuels? If so, how much? Any battery backups being discussed in this? And you can tell me no, but I'm just saying I have to ask. Uh, I don't want to necessarily say no, but I think that it'll be part of the
discussion. Okay, that's fair. Thank you. All right. Can I have a motion to close the public comment? We didn't do that yet, did we? I'll make that motion, Mr. Mayor. Second. Second. All in favor? I All right. Um, can I have a motion to
adopt uh public hearing 2025-07? I'll make that motion. Can I have a second? Second. Roll call, please. Miss Mary Moss. Council member Bonitakis. Yes. Council member Cassidy, yes. Council member Facy Blackwood,
yes. Council member Forest, yes. Council member Jon, yes. Deputy Mayor Figiano, yes. And Mayor Portman, yes. Next up is a final reading for and public hearing for 2025-08.
Another bond ordinance providing for improvements to municipal parks in and for the burough redbank in the county of mammoth state of New Jersey appropriating 1,57,000 therefore and authorizing the issuance of bonds toting 1,340,000
or notes of the bureau to finance part of the cost thereof. Wow, that's a mouthful. Can I have a motion to open the floor the public hearing on this ordinance only? So moved. I have a second. Second. All in favor? I
I mayor. This is upgrades to count basy basketball courts and baseball fields uh including the engineering design and construction work. Useful life on this is 15 years and section 20 cost which is
our professional service cost out of this is uh anticipated to be 150,000. You said including engineering for is this the design design work and bidding. All right. Are we changing the
what's the design work for? For the specs for the fields that have to be bidded out. Okay. And the resurfacing of the basketball courts. I gotcha. All right. Uh can I have a motion to close the public hearing on this ordinance only?
So have a second. Second. Favor. Hi. I I just forgot I can do this now in this form of government. I'm going to make a motion to approve public hearing 2025-08. Does anyone have a second? Sorry, I was saying that.
All right. Roll call, please. Second, Mr. Forest, was that you that second? Yes. Wow. First. Council member Ponitakis. Yes. Council member Cassidy. Yes. Council member Facy Blackwood. Yes. Council member Forest.
Yes. Council member Jano, yes. Deputy Mayor Trianiano, yes. And Mayor Portman, yes. All right. Next up is a final reading and public hearing for 2025-09 capital ordinance providing for
improvements to Marine Park for and by the burough red bank in the county of Mammoth State of New Jersey appropriating 1,500,000 to pay for the cost thereof. Jim, what's the what's the explanation on this one?
This is u I'm sorry. This was the water and sewer utility improvements you just read. No, Marine Marine Park. Yep. Uh Marine Park. This is replacement of water manes and other sewer infrastructure improvements at Marine Park. Um this is inclusive in the Marine
Park project. This was at the request of uh former water sewer Bobby Holiday to upgrade the uh hydrant and main that goes into the park there. It's like the first invocation of the name of Bobby Holiday, right? How are we
going to do anything that Bobby Holiday, you know, how are we going to disagree with Bobby Holiday? Right. We moved on to legend status now. Right. Right. Okay. Okay. So then, um, can I have a motion to open the public hearing for 2025-09? I'll make such a motion.
I have a second. Second. All in favor? Anyone online? Jim. Do I have a motion to close the public hearing for 2025-09? So moved. Have a second. Second. All in favor? I. Do. I have a motion to
approve 2025-09 capital ordinance providing for improvement Spring Green Park. Moved. I have a second. Second. Roll call, please. Council member Bonitakis, yes. Council member Cassley, yes. Council member Facy Blackwood,
yes. Council member Forest, yes. Council member Jano, yes. Deputy Mayor Triiano, yes. And Mayor Portman, yes. I should mention all of these uh ordinances that we've approved and the other ones we're going to approve hopefully uh they were all introduced on
May 8th. And uh one more ordinance. This is the final reading and public hearing for 2025-10, a bond ordinance providing for various 2025 water and sewer utility acquisitions and improvements by and in
the burrow of Redbank in the county of Mammoth, state of New Jersey, appropriating $750,000 in bonds or notes to finance part of the costs thereof. Can I have a motion to open the public hearing on this ordinance only? So moved. Have a second. Second. All
in favor? Hi and Mary this is forwarding our lead service line project that we have in town and there's also a resolution tonight which would be awarding contract for phase three of that. Excellent. Anyone uh their hand up
online? Nope. Have a motion to close the public comment on this ordinance only. Move. Have a second. I'll second that. All in favor? I I motion to adopt. Can I have a motion to adopt 2025-10 bond ordinance providing for various
2025 water and sewer utility acquisitions and improvements? So moved. I have a second. Second. Roll call, please. Council member Bonitakis, yes. Council member Cassidy, yes. Council member Facy Blackwood, yes. Council member Forest,
yes. Council member Jano, yes. Deputy Mayor Trigiano, yes. And Mayor Portman, yes. Uh, jumping to our resol just say something. No, I'm hearing things. Um, jumping to our
resolutions. Can we do these on the consent agenda or would anyone like to highlight any of these and and do it separately? If I can the only one to, you know, kind of stand out and just make the public aware of, you know, while we've had a good relationship with Montana working
through the lead service line project, there is a new contractor that's being awarded under phase three because of their bid that came in for that project, that portion of the project. So, we will continue to work with them as much as we did with Montana and make sure that they
have that they uphold the same standard that we've had with the contractors that working on that project. And that was 25-112. Correct. All right. Okay. Thank you for that clarification, Jim. Can I have a motion to approve 25-106
through 25-113 on the consent agenda? So moved. I have a second. Second. Roll call, please. Council member Bonitakis, yes. Council member Cassidy, yes. Council member Facy Blackwood, yes.
Council member Forest, yes. Council member Janome, yes. Deputy Mayor Triana, yes. Mayor Portman, yes. Can I have a motion to open the floor for public questions or comments on any topic?
I'll make such a motion, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Ben. Can I have a second? Second. All in favor? Hi. I I online, Jim, give them a bit in case they're fumbling
with their hand raised button. Right. All right. Now, I have a motion to close the public comment. I make such a motion, Mr. I have a second. Second. All in favor? I I We don't have any. Oh, let's uh Yeah,
that's right. able to go over our comments. Christina, start us off. Nothing big for me, but wishing everyone aful and reflective from the Memorial Day weekend. Thank you, Councelor Cassidy.
Mr. Mayor, um briefly, Memorial Day is here. Um I invite anyone 10:00 at 90 Mammoth is the fire department's annual remembrance. If you'd like to attend, it is uh an important uh occasion. And that is followed by our uh downtown uh
remembrance I believe at 11:00 over at the old burrow hall. Uh Saturday acknowledging to the Elks is honoring Bobby Holiday um and our local first responders. Um I believe you can buy tickets. I I can't say for sure, but either way you shake it, it's a good chance for me to congratulate Bobby
Holiday again on uh his retirement and another fine year as our burough's fire chief. And finally, Mr. mayor because um you know I've been under the weather so I'm home today. It gives us an opportunity to balance your anti-at agenda. Your pro dog agenda had to end
at some point and uh Cilantro has joined us for council uh meeting today. So it's about time we had a little feline representation in the burrow of Redbank. Um and I'm happy to offer that. Thank you, David. By the way, you look like crap. How are you feeling?
It it it has not been my uh favorite day of my life. I'm going to bed after this. And I I want to be clear for the record. I have a cat as well. It's just not as cool as my dogs. But we do I do own a cat. Well, if you own a cat, you've never
brought them up at council times. So, I think that perhaps maybe you should speak about your cat a little more openly, Mr. Happy here, to be honest. All right, Nancy, you're up. Oh. Um, I'd like to thank Jim and um,
CPW for installing the bike racks all around town. Um, I noticed that they're popping up everywhere. This was a result of a grant that we received last year. And one of the cool things that's going to get installed outside Bora Hall is a bike repair station. I see the areas
being set up for that. So, thank you, Jim. Uh, the complete streets advisory committee is meeting tomorrow. We have lots of cool things um on the agenda. Um I don't know if I'm allowed to say this. I attended a traffic study meeting about Dr. James Parker Boulevard. Um it's an
intersection that is sort of near and dear to me and it keeps coming up and I keep giving presentations about it, so I feel like I should talk about it. Um the traffic engineer stated it's a challenging intersection but he came up with some proposals that I think reflect a good balance protecting pedestrians,
cyclists and allowing the movement of cars. um attended the sustainable Jersey energy task force meeting, learned about new energy actions and various um state agencies with their with their actions as well for um various programs like uh
promotion of heat pumps and other energy things that are coming from the state. That's all I have. Mayor. Oh, I wish everyone a a good Memorial Day weekend. Thank you. All right. Um let's see. got some announcements from Parks and Red. Um, we have hiphop
classes available. If you want information, call us or go to our website. Um, we still have some room available. Uh, Chair Yog senior center was seems to be doing well. I think I walked by a class of that today as I was coming over and crossing our new crossing with the blinker. Thank you
guys for doing that. Um, seems like in the senior center that people regularly try to run me over. So, the lights seem to help actually. So, I do appreciate that. You still got to be careful, of course. Yeah. Um, getting back to my announcements, uh, let's see. We have a summer series
of movies coming back. Uh, we got jazz on Thursday nights coming, I think, to the, uh, which park it's the, uh, Riverside. Riverside Gardens. Riverside Gardens, right? Um, and we have Redbank Garden Tours and Tai Chi classes coming. So, we've got a lot of
busy stuff happening. Oh, and so the Westside jazz concerts are also going to happen this summer. I don't think the the dates are announced, but it's all on our website or call department of recreation. And also, mayor, thank you for making allowing me to make the announcement about former Councilman
Ivan. Um, you know, we're in regular touch and when I first started coming to these council meetings, I believe he was serving up here. So, um, terrible, terrible experience for his family. That's it. Thank you, Ben. Laura,
I Well, the big news is the library um elevator passed inspection and it's running. So, let's go. I know it's been a couple years, but we're excited about those little things. Little things that can get us happy. The Eisner Lab is open and it's had a
lot of people going for tutoring appointments. They've been doing a lot of on-site technology troubleshooting there. That's working really well. Um they this in April they welcomed 4,287
patrons to the library and they gave out 41 new library cards. Um so they are really busy over there. They're going to cook off their reading summer reading program color our world June 28th. Um and then on June 11th they're going
to have exploring our colorful world. And then on June 24th, they're going to have Bob Ross painting party. What's happening at the library and Saturday we had the dog walk on Broadwalk. Um, and that was very well attended. They had Louis legacy there.
And I think all those dogs got adopted, I think. No way. Which I'm very excited about. They were so cute. Yes, they were very cute. Um, and um, we had chickens there for the first time and had to take care of chickens with the chicken ordinance. Adopt a chicken too. No, the chickens.
Um, and we I think they collected some money for um lunch break for dog food, cat food, money for that. And the Girl Scouts have helped us out with that also. So, that's been really good. And that's about it.
Thank you, Laura. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, just a reminder to everybody um to connect online with the burrow. Uh, check out Redbank River Center. They're doing some great programming of the Broadwalk. Um they just announced line dancing that'll take
place on the Broadwalk from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. on May 29th, June 26, July 31st, and August 14th. Uh so definitely be on the lookout for uh River Center information. Uh River Center also recently launched um an advertising
campaign, Redbank, Your Downtown. Um it's super cute. The font's almost Mr. Rogers Neighborhood like. Um, and they actually will be having that ad campaign on New Jersey Transit. Um, so I've already seen the ads on the back of buses in town. And there's actually
going to be a New Jersey Transit train car that is wrapped advertising Red Bank going up and down the Northeast Corridor. So, we're just pumping out a lot for two square mile town, which is great. Uh, yeah. Nancy, you have your hand up. Yeah. One quick question. Sure. Ever center be using Placer AI again this
year? I'm unsure. Okay. Yeah, I'm unsure. So, uh, but yeah, so, you know, thank you again to, uh, Brian Donahghue. I appreciated the Red Bank Green poll, uh, putting it to bed once
and for all. Uh, you know, I think when you're making legislative decisions and, uh, when you have 70% of over a thousand people replying saying they either 50 over 50% loving it, 5% indifferent, 15%
liking it. I think 70% of people uh on that scale supporting something is a great number. Uh and that's what we've experienced out in the town as well when we speak to residents and when we speak to people in the burrow is that they are very supportive of having that community
space. And uh I just want to once again commend Marin, the new executive director of River Center for the amount of programming she's bringing to the Broadwalk, free programming. So, uh, I look forward to everybody taking advantage and more community partners, uh, being out there. Thanks.
Thank you, Kate. Um, I've noticed an uptick in, um, ribbon cutings, which is a good sign. Ribbon cutting bank. Hopefully, uh, hopefully we'll lessen the traditional churn that we have here and, uh, these will be
successful businesses. Yes, I was at the um the dog walk on on the broadwalk um this weekend. There was clearly no catwalk on the broad um just saying. I'm just throwing that out there. Right.
Should be a cat walking across the Yeah. Right. Couple slink around at night looking for garbage um on Broad Street, but otherwise no. Um yes, I am looking forward to uh Memorial Day. um of celebration this weekend on
Monday. Yes. As as Dave mentioned, we're doing the uh we're honoring the firefighters here at Burough Hall at 10:00 and then at 11:00 um we move the uh stuff over to Mama Street um to the monument there. And
once again, I have invited uh former mayor Pat Mana to come because I can't think of anyone who's better equipped to speak about Red Bank than that guy. He's been here his whole life and dedicated a majority of his life to the town. So, it's an honor to have him come and and
speak with us. Um, other than that, um, I got nothing else really. My son's graduating in a few weeks. Very excited about that. And, um, a couple of his friends just won Bassy Awards last night. So, shout out to Jay and Zelda. And that's all I got.
Jim, what do you got for us? Yeah, Jim. Mayor, council, I just want to thank everybody for getting those uh bond ordinances um on the agenda and through to adoption that will obviously help us into this budget season continuing the good work and um also for
awarding the contract to Underground Utilities Corporation to continue with the lead line service replacement project. Um Mammoth Street improvement project is carrying on. Unfortunately, weather like today and yesterday definitely sets us back. I think, you know, in totality, we're we're probably
behind schedule maybe about a week with the weather. Um, but some of the feedback that I've gotten from the Mammoth Street businesses is that they're really satisfied and very happy with the construction company. I've gone out several times to talk to the contractors out there. They're great guys. They brought their whole crew.
they fully um mobilized here and they are working pretty quickly uh as as they move along in front of the businesses and very cognizant of the fact that the businesses need to stay open so they're working with the owners as best they can. Um,
one thing that we've started to kind of round table and put out and we've been discussing with um both deputy mayor Triano and the CEC, which is the community equity engagement uh committee is putting out an RFP request proposals
for Burough Hall for the vestibule out here um for a mural artist to replace one of the signs that's out there and to make it more of an engaging um mural there that in you know encompasses the
theme of we are Redbank uh which is uh to celebrate the diversity of Redbank. So, we'll be looking for submissions for that and that will go through the community engagement committee. And I met with a company um we're always
looking for pedestrian and biking enhancements, how we can make safety paramount in that discussion. And I met with a company uh this past week to potentially bring in a product that we had been hearing about. It's called the
safety stick. Um, we're seeing about possibly doing a pilot around town in four or five different areas that we feel are particularly uh troublesome as far as where parking violations happen, where people park close to crosswalks or making sighteline issues u for
pedestrian and bikers. And what this is is a solar powered um uh camera that captures license plates and issues citations. Uh it's something that's used in other cities throughout the country um in Boston and uh there's
about seven or eight municipalities in New Jersey that are generally u urban that uh have to live with both right biking or or all three biking pedestrians and vehicle vehicular traffic. And of course our parking enforcement can't be everywhere all the
time. Uh so that's why we want to focus on problematic areas that we feel um could have safety enhance there. So we're looking into that a little bit further potentially on the next agenda. I'll look to put some sort of agreement. God bless
and uh some agreement that was we're finding a kid back here. Yeah. Um so we'll potentially have something on the agenda then. And I just wanted to also Nancy I wanted to give you credit to you. you um you attended
that conference to present about Redbank and all the the complete and green streets. Oh, the sustainable city Jersey conference. And from that conference, you know, the great work that Redbank was doing was recognized and then somebody reached out to the National Center for Safe Streets to Schools.
That's right. and the national center reached out to me as the manager of Red Bank wanting to offer us an available $10,000 scholarship to do some urban tacticalism. So, we did agree that the intersection to focus on is the
intersection of River and Leighton um to do some sort of urb urban tacticalism, tactical urbanism. Wow. Yeah, um to do enhancements there for pedestrian enhancements, looking at the
design that we already had for bumpouts that was rejected by NJ DOT for the grant. Um and to do it in a different way by utilizing paint and uh other delineators there um and getting a little bit creative in an art artful way
uh to slow down traffic. So I think it was your attendance at that conference who highlighting the good work that Redbank is doing and then obviously I had a call with the national center um out of UNCC Chapel Hill um just the other day. They're looking they're very excited about the project that we are
proposing and we have a quick turnaround time on this of July 1st. So yeah, we hope to get that money in and then get the product out. Yeah, we need we need to stop raining for a good solid. Um so again that's good. And then the last thing is the summer hours. We are doing
summer hours again in Pearl Hall and senior center and parking um where we will close on noon on Fridays but uh some of our hours are extended during the week and that'll go from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Okay.
So sir, thank you Jim. Could I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. I have a second. I'll second that. Exive session. We do need to adjourn to executive session. Oh, I didn't see another. Okay. Um, let me correct that. Well, we already got a
second. What do I do? I can I amend it? Yep. All right. A motion to adjourn to executive session. So moved. Have a second. Second. All in favor? What are we doing? Can we just have a two-minute break? Yeah, sure. This executive session will take approximately 15 minutes. Topic is
affordable housing compliance, specifically Locus Landing. Uh there will be no action taken after executive session. Thank you. Thank you. Locust Landing. Yeah. Locust like the
cricket. Hold on a second. Got to shut that down real quick. We have to call Dave. Yep. If you just wanted, do you want a copy of it?
Stay next to the bed.