it is right get busy living or get busy dying you want her you can pass that to Keith it's one of the last ones i wrote all my cards you have to open
it i don't know what it says inside let's just start sorry it's good oh boy good evening this is the village council public workshop the date is April 23rd 2025 the time is 7:30 p.m
adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by a posting on the bulletin board in Village Hall by mail to the Ridgewood News of the record and by submission to all persons entitled the same as provided by law of a schedule including the date and time of this meeting roll call council member
Mortimer here Deputy Mayor Pin here Council Member Whites here Council Member Winterrad here and Mayor Roianis here will you all please join us in a salute to our flag 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 council member Mortimer would appear to be exceptionally patriotic this evening dove right into that um I know we have a public comment section coming
up but there have been some questions we know have been raised regarding u the the municipal budget and so um Keith Kasmar has prepared a short PowerPoint presentation so that he uh before that that we hope we'll either answer
questions or prompt more questions so Keith would you begin thank you mayor um and I appreciate the council's indulgence on this um since we introduced the municipal budget I guess two weeks ago now uh there have been some inquiries made to my office and I
know there's been some discussion online about the impact of Valley Hospital and the pro the campus here in Ridgewood um and how that has affected property taxes here in the village going into the 2025 budget uh so with your indulgence I just want to run through a few of these
slides i'm hopeful that they will answer many of the questions that the public has been asking about um so that we can answer those questions here tonight so prior to their move to Pamis the Valley Hospital like other New Jersey hospitals
was assessed a community service contribution based on the number of licensed beds on the campus which is often called a per bed tax the statute was passed in 2021 and signed into law by Governor Murphy the
first year the village received payments on the per bed tax was 2022 that year they received just over $481,000 based on an allocation of 430 beds in 2023 that number was increased
to 524,000 and change based on 446 beds and in 2024 the village received just under $149,000 because that number was prrated
dur before the hospital moved and relocated to Pramis following the move to premise the Valley Hospital was added to the tax roles through an added assessment by our tax assessor who's a statutory officer of the village and who carries out state
law relative to property values and assessments so the question which has been asked is how does the addition of the valley hospital campus to the tax base here in Ridgewood impact both value and taxation well first it adds $200 million in new
ratables over last year to our tax base for comparative purposes last year we added 17 million in new ratables over 2023 how does that change the net valuation of the village well in 2024
the net valuation of the village which is the value of assessed property in Ridgewood was just over 5.9 billion with the addition of Valley and the other added assessments that were added by the tax assessor last October the 2005 net
valuations total one $6.1 billion that's just over just under a 3.5% change it should be noted that there are pending tax appeals on the property filed by both the village and the valley
health system as pending litigation those matters cannot be discussed publicly at this time so how does this all impact taxes on properties here in Ridgewood well the portion of taxes paid by each property owner is further spread out because of
the additional assessed properties in 2024 there were 7,863 taxable properties in the village in 2025 there are 7,866 with the Valley campus taxed at 5.2 2 million essentially a new taxpayer
of the village the balance of the properties in town will pay slightly less of the burden the CFO does not have any discretion to include or exclude any taxable property in budget
considerations state statute must be followed in preparing the municipal budget which includes all taxable properties in the municipality in the event that a taxpayer is delinquent in their property
taxes they are subject to tax sale when a tax sale certificate is sold the winning bidder must immediately pay the municipality all taxes and interest to date and a lean is placed on said property absent the addition of the
former hospital to the tax base the increase in taxes likely would have been more than 3% this year depending on what additional cuts were made to the budget or if more surplus was used to offset a tax increase
let me say that the administrative team here in village hall would not have presented a budget with a larger tax increase than the 3% that we introduced two weeks ago having discussed it with the council
we knew what the goal was what an acceptable tax increase to pass on to the property owners here in Ridgewood would be so any information that has been put out there about a five or six% tax increase being passed on to the
taxpayers of Ridgewood by this council is false so in 2024 and this is the village only which constitutes about 24% of the tax bill the average assessed home in town is $710,168 the municipal taxes in 2024
$4,760.84 that was for 2024 in 2025 the assessment has gone up slightly to $712,700 and the municipal taxes on that property with this budget would amount to
4,91047 the difference in taxes is $14963 just over 3% on the average home over last year it needs to be noted that this anomaly with the actual tax increase being passed on to the taxpayer is also
happening with the board of education as well their budget was introduced with a 2% increase resulting in what was announced at their budget meeting as a $251 increase on the average home with the additional ratables from Valley our
CFO here at the village projects that the increase will actually be a reduction in taxes on the schoolboard portion this year and I do want to note that the school budget I believe is slated to be adopted on Monday evening so we don't have actual numbers from the
school board yet in order to develop the tax bill uh so some of this is fluid um but the same anomaly the same phenomenon that is happening because of the significant increase in added value with the Valley Hospital being added to the
assessment roles here is happening at the board of education the same way it's happening here in the village and I added this slide um because a few of the emails I've gotten on this issue especially in the last 24
hours since we sent out the eblast last night asked for the breakdown of property taxes and again I want to stress that because not all of actually none of the budgets uh that would impact this pie chart have been adopted um we're slated to adopt May 14th county
slated to adopt May 14th school board's slated to adopt Monday evening um but roughly speaking the village is 24% of what you pay in property taxes the schools just under 63% the county just under
11% the library 1.6% and then the local open space and county open space are both below 1 percentage point each any questions from the council
i mean I don't have any questions but I I think you know I I'm going to be sort of a half glass folk i haven't used in the uh Oh it's been Thanks um you know I know that there was a fair amount of discussion on this um the irony being is that many of us have complained in the past that nobody pays attention to the
budget now people are actually looking at the budgets that's a good thing um I I have to think that some of the folks that were looking to kind of find an issue um you know maybe weren't aware Keith of some of the issues around Valley Hospital again we can talk about it because it's part of litigation but it's public that valley is uh seeking
not to pay what we believe they should pay for the property but again um louder uh but again um you know there's litigation out there with all litigation there is risk um so I think we're we're doing the prudent thing here um Keith um but I think the bottom line is that
we're looking at about a 3% increase for at least our portion of the budget um versus what folks paid last year that $150 a household um there is no discussion of those numbers or no accusation allegations that those numbers are different uh for anyone as
what we've presented um certainly Keith I want to applaud you for the transparency here and as I said before just because somebody doesn't like an answer doesn't mean that it's not transparent um but I think this lays this out uh I expect we'll get some questions um maybe online and some others so I encourage to the extent we can talk about the Valley Hospital
litigation um we should give as much um information as we can um but again um I I don't I have to assume that the folks that raises issue were simply not aware of the Valley Hospital issue because that really explains it very succinctly
um I'm I'm thankful for this explanation because the community service contribution is is not an easy concept to wrap your head around and um it explains why in 2023 we were getting
500,000 or $524,000 from Valley Hospital for that contribution and so now that they are paying as a reg they should be paying as a regular taxpayer it's not all
gravy it's it's to replace that 524,000 and then some um so I think it's important and and I think the public's questions on why our taxes are going up
when we are getting so much more in revenue i I think that was a reasonable question um and Keith I wonder if the $4,910 uh is actually per quarter on the
average home um however the percentage increase remains the same it's still 3.1 i have the average valued house and um and it's the the 400 the I'm sorry the $149 increase is
annual just to be clear about that this is on the but keep in mind this is on the average home right and and it only includes this portion of the tax this is only the municipality right i mean we we don't have Okay that's what it is that's what it is we can we can
project to some degree or another and I I don't want to speak for the school board they're a separate entity and they have their own um finance team over there we can project to some degree the school um we can't project the county all the all the tax rates throughout the
county all 70 municipalities need to be set and the aortionment needs to be uh discovered before we can determine what the county portion of the taxes will be and what that impact will be on the average home in in Bridgewood um I can tell you overall the county portion is going up
4.93% we just can't equate out how that impacts the average home until the aortionment is figured out countywide okay so I struggle with the budget also um and this is just a demonstration of how difficult it is to follow and to
understand yeah and Pam to your point I know you'd mentioned this to me and I and I and you you and I was quizzical about it and then I looked at the numbers and realized oh the the $4,900 is 24% of the tax bill and that's because I'm see
because you you had me on this i'm going seems cheap um but no no that's Yeah that's that's absolutely correct so but it's interesting that you note that that whatever the perceived anomaly is which
is only perceived it would be the same both for the municipal budget as for the board of ed budget it's it because and and the same the same dynamic is occurring with both right and I think that's important to point out absolutely absolutely and and the other thing I'll
say is you know while Pam's correct the municipality has been receiving in 2023 for example a half a million dollars right so our delta to full taxation on that property is not as great as the school board who for the first time
would be receiving tax revenue from that property for the first time but I also want to stress that it's not new revenue it's not additional revenue what it is is a new taxpayer being added to the tax roles
which then has an impact on every other property t property taxpaying um lot in the municipality it lessens the burden because you have an an additional taxpayer who happens to be a significant taxpayer now involved in in
the taxation process here in Bridgewood any other questions or discussion on this point no let's go to public comment and Keith thank you so much for this this succinct and very clear explanation i hope it was
helpful i don't know if he's trying to turn this off so I'm waiting for him i'm going to leave it to Gabriella to do the IT work here okay uh Boyd a loving Ridgewood resident i will reserve my comments about the budget for the budget hearing which I
believe is scheduled for May 14th but I do want to comment on this presentation particularly with respect to the word transparency that was used by one of you and I will use a phrase that the manager tends to use quite a lot with all due
respect ladies and gentlemen on March 26th the appeal was filed by Valley the budget was introduced to the public on April 9th it is now April 23rd and the public is just hearing about this a lot
of this angst could have been resolved if this presentation was given prior to the introduction of the budget don't know why it wasn't certainly if the appeal was filed on March 26th you must have known about it within days again
the budget was introduced on April 9th i would imagine you knew about the appeal on that date why a presentation like this couldn't have been given prior to the introduction of the budget it would have saved a lot of heartache a lot of headaches this is a great presentation i just think it should have been given a
lot sooner thank you very much thank you Boyd amy McCambridge resident um I just wanted to let you guys know May 1st we will be po uh hosting a public panel featuring Dr sarah Evans from Mount Cyani Keith Fischer who's a former
Yankee Stadium field manager and a nationally rec respected expert in natural fields and representatives from the Sierra Club um these are voices grounded in science truth and lived experience voices this council in my
opinion never made a true effort to hear and now here we are the presentation was great but like Boyd said it'd be nice if we knew about it earlier um and that's where we say shady and it we're on this shady path where the trust is lost it's
lost you guys can sit up there as a unit but you represent this town these people and it's it it's pretty awful in my opinion um closed door decisions a blatant refusal to engage with the people you
were elected to represent um it's very disappointing um Mayor Vaganos when my husband and I went to meet with you you made it very clear you would not talk to us about certain things don't you represent us aren't you supposed to listen and hear what our opinions are we
didn't come in anger or anything we wanted to talk to you as a leader but you wouldn't do that there's no transparency here no humility just a steady stubborn march towards something the public never asked for and we see it now you guys were awarded a grant from
the Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund which I saw was on the tax thing which our taxpayers pay a little tiny portion for but you guys are in breach of everything that grant stood for which was to foster environmental stewardship you took it you abused it you guys like and you're in your eyes you're getting
away with it today I'm a little emotional um it makes me just so angry um 20 years ago my my husband stood on the battlefield his best friend died in his arms today and
he was at home upset and he he lost 18 men and I'm mad because that's what that's what sacrifice looks like that's what it really looks like that's what you do when you're leaders you'll
give for the people you love and the people you're supposed to serve and it makes me so sad because I don't see that here in this town that I grew up with i'm not from this country but I grew up here and I loved it and what I see now are people making these decisions that
are putting our kids at risk our people at risk and all for what a turf field for poison my youngest son is joining the Marine Corps next year at 17 and I don't know what he's fighting for anymore i really don't i wish every
single one of you could have served i really do um I think when you serve you really see the the what it means to carry the weight of irreversible decisions um and when people serve they understand we have leaders who
understand what must never have been gambled away these young men were fighting for things that you guys are recklessly destroying because what you're risking our land our water our children's future should never be in the hands of those who never understood the true cost of
loss in the time of this Earth Day it's just a slap in the face it really is to the public we are the strength of the community to the children they are the voices to the parents I love those kids i love my neighbors i love the water i
love the trees i'll do everything I can to protect it and the last thing is the water is life the trees give us breath earth is sacred my ancestors taught me that silence holds truth longer than any crown and when the voices of the good rise even the most corrupt thorns
crumble i hope we can come to a place where it's not like this dollar doesn't mean everything pushing forward turf fields that our kids could be sick on is not worth it and I hope you come to the panel i really do thank you thank you
Amy unfortunately the beeper is not working on the timer so if you wish I won't time it at all or I'll time it and say time time it and say time okay cynthia O'Keefe Rididgewood resident um you know I had a few things to say because I wanted to clarify a few
points from the last meeting which I believe was April 9th um or the last one I attended but watching somebody from my community get emotional and you know knowing she comes from such a good place you know working for a nonprofit and
taking care of animals and coaching and probably when her head hits the pillow after putting this turf council together for not well just all of you but our community because she cares you know we
don't um we show up at these meetings because we wanted a seat at the table we don't need a municipality lording over us and telling us "Well we voted on this and we're making a decision." You know again I've probably said it before you know it's
close-minded you know unfortunately I miss Green Rididgewood because uh Green Day whatever um Earth Day because I have a 95-year-old mother who required my attention and family is more important you know I'm the kind of person if you called me at 2:00 in the morning I'd be
there you know we may not agree on things but again we're not disagreeing on pizza toppings as I've said before the decisions that you are making will impact the health and well-being of real people who live in your community that
you call your neighbor neighbors and friends it's not about having the name on a back of a t-shirt and just because you don't think turf is a problem we're asking for you to keep an open mind i know when David Refkin came here and
he's the head of Green Ridgewood he put hours into a presentation he was very frustrated and I'm not going to speak for him but I watched the man come before you and you know I think Pam met with him or talked with him but she was anti-turf nobody else did what does that
say not even five minutes let me listen to you David that's disgraceful um so LA at the last meeting I did say the Shedler plan was terrible um I didn't say that oh and and by the way there are a lot of people who
agree with me and who've signed a paper petition almost every single person in that neighborhood um I think my words were minced because I didn't say that it was a terrible thing to develop a park for children and
families to play in it would have been a terrible thing if they had been playing on toxic soil and thank God for the NJD that they came in and mandated this cleanup it would have been a terrible thing if kids were playing um you we
even had a utility that dumped there uh Ridgewood Water you know again we're balancing let's sue these 3M and DuPont and take PAS out of the water i think Pam you astutely said that and pointed that out last week that um you know this
should be parkland we're making decisions over wants not needs when several of you ran on a platform called Ridgewood United what did you mean by that are we uniting the community or were you just united in running for
office so um I think we have to the time is to start walking the talk being transparent you know not finding out things later that could have helped you know I'm finishing but I'm I am going to finish what I'm saying so um you know
when we come before you we're asking for to choose people over plastic um you know I've almost come up here and begged many times and there are many people who aren't engaged in the community there are people who come week after week
because we care so you know I hope you do respect that um and at least keep an open mind and listen to us again we're not talking about having pepperoni on our pizza or plane we're talking about health issues and I hope you all come to
this May 1st gathering information session because I think you may benefit from it i know I will probably learn a few new things myself thank you thank you Cynthia anyone else from the audience no then
we go from No good hi uh my name is Dolores Carpenter i live at 265 North Pleasant Avenue um my comments tonight regard the uh proposed ordinance i'm not sure what
the status of it is right now with the bird feeding situation back uh in the private backyards after 10 years of uh the valley conflict i actually thought I would never be standing at this microphone
again as a gadfly but here I am a new issue has come up and I think I don't recognize any of the faces of the new council it's all changed since that time um
okay i have a short uh comment that I would like to read the bird feeding ban originally started with the state of New Jersey but they their ordinance has not yet been passed
and enacted ridgewood apparently uh decided to jump the gun and write and pass their own ordinance uh I didn't feel that as a resident we were at
all informed about that whole situation the original reason uh on the state of uh New Jersey hold on a minute uh on the state level of this
legislation was bears roaming in residential areas in some northern counties of New Jersey unfortunately New Jersey decided to make roaming bears a statewide issue and
included all the counties ridgewood took advantage of the statewide issue I'm sorry of the opportunity to ban bird feeding but they wrote up their own reasons bird flu Lyme
disease rabies etc were among the village council's listed hazards of wildlife and bird feeding in Rididgewood bears have been ro roaming in Bergen
County and especially in Rididgewood since I was a child moved here in 1941 wow uh we've had those issues now and then um the incidence of bear sightings has
pretty much remained static over the years in most of the state there has really never been nor is there now a state of fear in New Jersey over bear attacks or
invasion a nuisance in certain isolated areas at most also to my knowledge we have not seen any dramatic rise in the incidence of Lyme disease or rabies
certainly no epidemics in New Jersey over many years new Jersey has one of the lowest percentages of wild bird flu in the entire country and no cases in
humans that said the stated hazards of backyard bird feeders has been blown way out of proportion by community and state officials the enjoyment of watching the birds and wildlife in our backyards for
so many people for so many years cannot be undervalued or disregarded sadly humans have spent many years on this earth seeing to it that we have all but shut down the habitats and the food
supply of our wildlife especially in these heavily built up and populated areas of the country this has resulted in a tremendous hardship for the birds and wildlife in finding food on their
own although in the ordinances governing officials seem to have outwardly allowed for limited bird feeders in private backyards in actuality the rules and
regulations imposed on the residents governing their use will make it virtually impossible for most residents to continue their commitment to and enjoyment of helping wildlife i understand they're talking about having
in New Jersey 10 feet off the ground i in Ridgewood I think it's six i would have to climb on a ladder to put the bird seed in the bird feeder every day in order to do that and I don't think
that's a good idea at my age of 86 um most importantly the sudden removal of this long-term food supply from the wildlife in our builtup populated areas will result in extreme hardship physical harm
and eventually mortality to large numbers of our precious wildlife population not to mention the elimination of the peace of mind and health benefits this activity provides
for so many animal loving kindhearted residents of Ridgewood thank you thank you so much Dolores anyone else from the audience um I have a I forgot about it when I came
here but all through that uh situation with the meetings with valley this room my hearing is not great and in this room I cannot hear any of you and I couldn't hear the microphone we are we are well
aware of the if anybody is talking to me I can't hear what you're saying we are well aware of the acoustical problem that we have here in this room and uh my deepest apologies and as a matter of fact we are um at this
moment trying out some new microphones that might help but um as the people in the audience will tell you I am incredibly sensitive to this so if you can't hear us please simply raise your hand we will speak louder we will speak
into the microphone more and I will ensure that everyone does thank you and it's a pleasure to have you here tonight Dolores good and since there's no one else in the audience uh who would like to speak uh we'll go to our uh hybrid access sarup
you're up can you hear me i can perfect um thank you for the opportunity good evening mayor and council um again thanks for allowing hybrid or remote uh comments it's really And Sarb Sarb if if
you would be so kind as to speak slowly because again somehow um our hybrid access people are harder to hear so if you speak slowly we want to make sure that we understand everything you say and could I just have you state your
name please sure um uh Miss Heather my name is Sar Dhani i'm a resident of Ridgewood go ahead so uh I have four items my
first request is um there was an email that was sent out last night by the village manager and started the first line saying that there was some disinformation spreading on the social media so and then that post and the
email was posted on multiple places saying there were misinformation so two words were used disinformation and misinformation that email came out from the official account so I'm asking the village council to own it and provide
the exact place where this information or or misinformation was posted and uh please don't ask me to call you where you'll provide me that information please provide it publicly that where any disinformation or misinformation was
posted that is number one the information that I posted personally everywhere I posted the tax levy and I clarified the two unit difference in two
units what village council and the village manager has been advertising is tax rate increase on individual household for existing homes or for existing residents what I'm posting is
tax levy across the village and the reason everywhere why I posted I highlighted that you guys were posting two information on one slide one said according to inflation and the second is
this is our increase so if you are increasing your expenses in ratio of inflation then your tax levy should be increasing by 3.14% not the tax on individual
household your tax levy increased by 6.55% i stand by that comment and it is shameful that you have not acknowledged it yet and you are going after residents by po sending out an email blast and social
media posts saying that we are providing misinformation everywhere I provided tax levy and I've clarified that council is using different unit of measure than the unit of measure I'm using and that's where the difference is the tax levy for
the town is increasing by 6.55% and I'm asking you to own it accept it at least acknowledge it that's number one number two in that same email another confusion was created by and that same confusion was created in
today's presentation saying that we are saying that as a result of valley tax there's a 3.14% increase we are we never said that as a result of we are saying despite of time we are
saying even with valley hospital coming in with the new 5.2 2 million in taxes you are still increasing our tax levy so we are saying despite of we are not saying in because of or as a result of so and you are still confusing those two
things what we are saying is the will and that that clarifies on the third one and I had posted that hypothesis online i had posted that when council is probably asking the village manager and the CFO
because they can make the budget based on council wish and that's what Mr kazmar just acknowledged they said they could have created a budget based on council's wishes so if the council is saying or asking to increase on each
resident 3.14% or equivalent to inflation what happens here and and I will I will clarify that with the point that it's not same for board of effect and I'm speaking in my individual capacity I'm not in speaking for the whole board sarb Sarb um yes you've been
out of time for a while so if you could finish up your thoughts yes that's my last point so I finish up with this point so the border fed tax levy increased 2% and as a result as Mr kazmach mentioned that the tax impact on each household will be negative for
village council the tax levy increased by 6.55% and a result the impact on each household despite of valley's increase or new addition it will be 3.14% so it's how you call it how you ask for it
because you have been asking for each household 5 years the tax has increased 25% at the same time because board of saying tax levy 2% because that's where the expenses are increasing the overall increase in 5 years is 11% your expenses do not increase per household your
expenses increase for the whole village thank you thank you Sar Rurick you're up hi uh Roric Holiday uh village resident uh I'd like to change the subject if I may and this is to follow up on an email
I sent to the uh all five of you on the village council plus Keith Kazmar i'd like to read the email so it goes in into the record if you will uh I have been following what the village council is trying to do the
CBD but the nature of the beast is such that an inordinate amount of your time is spent on responding to residents gripes about small issues i call it the pothole syndrome which clouds your
ability to look at the big picture i think we need a world-class urban designer to help us look at Rididgewood where we have been where we are and where we can be i think we need an urban planner who would look at Rididgewood's
needs from a strategic point of view starting at 35,000 ft and then drilling down into the details an urban planner who would help us lay the groundwork for a vital ridgewood from an economic and
environmental point of view a few months ago I contacted Imm Design Lab a global urban design urban design company that is part of the architectural faculty of Poly Techchnico
de Milano the MIT of Italy and that has undertaken projects globally from Milan to Rio de Janeiro i've had several discussions with them and this led to an informed informal proposal from them titled enhancing
Ridgewood's urban future cop is attached all indications based on many communications with them is that they appear to be quite interested in working with us in Ridgewood on a suburban project in the United States
may I suggest that a committee of knowledgeable and interested village leaders be formed to look at recommending to you how to respond to the proposal with that in mind I'm copying to various such leaders for any insights they may have with thanks for
your consideration and uh I did send a thing to you and I made copies which I will hand to the uh uh to village hall uh now one thing that came up in a discussion with a friend of mine was
that you know the village council is so busy there they have so many problems but you cannot delay strategic plans for the short term and
one story I have is Napoleon in France Napoleon is responsible for these wonderful alas is these treeline highways that they have in France and apparently he came up with the idea when he said you know it'll be good for my
soldiers to have trees to be able to rest and get some shade and so when Napoleon told that to his field marshall the the response was as it to be expected it's going to take 20 years for the trees to grow big enough to provide
shade to which Napoleon responded "Well don't wait until tomorrow with strategic plans do not wait until tomorrow get the ball rolling get the ball rolling and work in parallel with the problems that you face day in day out now one last
point congratulations to Le and many thanks for a wonderful presentation." Yes Richard works thank you thank you Rurick anybody else seeing no one I'm going to close public comment and before I pass it along to my
colleagues I I have a few comments in response um Boyd um with all due respect you use the terms angst headache heartache had we made this presentation
earlier the truth of the matter is there was no uh uh confusion about this it was very straightforward it is Keith did a deep dive because questions arose but
those questions were unfounded and so we did not see any reason to do a deeper dive on this not to mention the fact that we held I don't know four to six um multi-hour uh budget hearings
no one showed up there was plenty of opportunity to ask questions no one was online for any of these budget hearings so there has been plenty of opportun opport and if if someone showed then it
was one or two but no questions were asked about this issue no questions not once and so we did not see a question in this when the question is raised Keith addressed it um moving on um Amy you use
the terms shady and closed door decisions not one of these decisions was made behind closed doors they were made out in the public we do not call one another to make our decisions we make them here at this day every time and if
you want to use the term shady that is certainly your prerogative but it is completely inaccurate cynthia first of all David Refkin and I discussed this at lunch for over two
hours i listen to David please by all means call him and ask him um that we are close-minded you have used that term before to which you have heard the same response we are not close-minded we simply disagree with you you referred to
this council as a turf council i'm going to refer to our newest colleague Frank frank I asked you to run with Pam and myself when I did did I ask you what your position was on Shedler no on
nothing did I ask you shortly thereafter never i found out later like everybody else did what his position was on Shedler we asked him blind Pam and I to this issue
um Dolores thank you so much for coming tonight um it was refreshing to hear your position on bird feeders i know that Pam wants to address that and with that I am done so I will turn it over to my colleagues mayor if I may um first of
all to to Mr are loving um I actually appreciate your your comments tonight Boyd um there was some discussion between my office and the attorneys who are representing us on the tax appeal matters with Valley about how far um the
discussion would go publicly with regard to this um we were trying to be cautious and sensitive to that litigation um I do sort of regret not taking elements of what was presented tonight and putting
that into the budget presentation but again I was being guided um by some of the legal opinions on trying to be cautious to best protect the villages positioning in those litigation matters so um I can appreciate what you're
saying um in retrospect if hindsight's always 2020 if I had it over to do again I I I might have went against the lawyers two weeks earlier than I did tonight um but I do hope that even in retrospect um this presentation this
evening was was helpful um to to Miss Carpenter um I appreciate everything you have said tonight about the wildlife feeding ordinance the only thing I'd like to add is that we have had many complaints to our health department here
at the village about feeding wildlife um quite frankly a lot of it has to do with deer management um I can point to uh a number of residents that council member Whites uh brought to my office because there were homeowners in town who were
constantly feeding deer whether it be bread or other type of food scraps whether it be uh spillover from a bird feeder situation um to the point where the neighbors weren't even comfortable allowing their children to go outside so
that was that was one of the drivers behind the health department's concerns our animal control officer and their concerns that were brought to the village council at our ordinance meetings that developed into this ordinance so while I understand you know
the concerns that you have with regard to the bird feeders just know that it did come this request did come from the public who had concerns about wildlife feeding um to Mr donnie um with with all due respect sir um you
know I think we have gone above and beyond in trying to provide you with all the requisite information regarding this year's budget um I have responded to you in email i have responded to you on
social media i have offered you the opportunity um which you took us up on uh to speak with our chief financial officer whose time is very valuable uh for an extended period of time where in which at the end of that conversation
you indicated you understood where we were coming from with regard to the budget presentation uh you also indicated to to Bob that you would be sending us some additional uh correspondence on this matter which we never received but to answer your
question specifically um there was a post two days ago on one of the community websites and this is the only one I could find while I was sitting up here there are others where it specifically says a six well it
doesn't even say a it says 6.6% 6% mun tax increase is off the charts so that amongst dozens dozens of other posts
perpetuating that municipal taxes in the village of Ridgewood were going up 6.6% this year are patently false as a matter of fact Mr donnie your taxes on your house are
projected to go up $23.93 based on this budget for the municipal portion equating to a 3.14% property tax increase over 2024 i don't know how clear we can be
about this and what's even more telling is as I said during the presentation that the same phenomenon is happening at the board of education where you sit as a commissioner the board of education
budget was introduced stipulating that it was 2% the average increase on the average house was $250 to that property taxpayer assessed at $712,000 and now the net effect is
likely a 1% reduction for the board of education portion of the budget because of the significant increase in assessments from Valley Hospital in the order of $200 million so I don't really know how else to explain this to the
folks out there trust me I have spent as Carol will tell you we have spent day and night trying to articulate this it's a very complicated issue we have tried to boil it down to its most simplistic form which I hope came through on the
presentation earlier tonight but this is an anomaly it is a once- ina lifetime anomaly to add $200 million to your ratable base in a town the only thing I could possibly compare this to would be the building of a new
mall to the specs of the Garden State Plaza on baron land in Warren or Sussex County and that municipality receiving this type of ratable increase in a one-year period that that that that's the way this works so I understand that
this is complicated i understand that you know um levies aren't matching increases and and all the different things that are happening here but the reality is when the taxpayer gets that bill that gets mailed to their house in July of 2025 they are going to see a
3.1% increase on the municipal taxes can first can everybody hear me on this better can you hear me dolores can you hear yes good if you c if you can't or if anyone can't please just raise your hand
i'm gonna I'm gonna turn both of them on to see if any feedback gets in is that better better no get a little closer i got double mic um so first Amy uh thank you for your comments and I'm not going to be here
May 1st um IRSVP but I am wondering are you going to be tape recording it and could you could you possibly I feel so loud could you possibly send us the link after Khloe is coming home and I have to go get her so um so if you could tape
record that and send it to us that would be great and I think the whole council would welcome that if all of us can't be there second of all I'm available for coffee anytime in Fields meeting 9:00 a.m we'll go at 7 you let me know okay and and thank you and I just I wanted to
I wanted to interrupt you before but I didn't want to so we can do coffee um secondly I believe all of us have met with David Rafkin multiple times and one of the things that this council does is we have joint boards and committees so Open Space has met with Green Rididgewood Parks has met with
Rididgewood and we have an ongoing dialogue amongst all the committees with David Ruffkin so if I don't want anyone thinking he just talks to us here but we have multiple intimate discussions with him and I haven't been yet but we're going to at some point go to help me out
here the fresh Yes I did it last year yes um lastly with respect to the bird feeding ordinance um if you need any help filling the bird feeder I I understand the logistics of it we did have a program during COVID that I was a
citizen on called Bridge of Care but we can get someone over there to help you um if you want any help it might be a nice we did this i understand just if you if you if you wanted some help Amy can you can give her my email maybe connect us you wanted
some help i understand it i mean we can't belabor all the reasons that went into it but if you needed some help in filling it I know that we have many Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts who would welcome the opportunity um and that's it um Miss
Carpenter the impetus for the prohibition against feeding wildlife is not limited to just birds it's all wildlife and okay and what brought it to my attention was my neighbors in the
Somerville area were finding that their children were coming down with limes disease and that is a very debilitating neurological disease very hard to cure very hard to diagnose
um and they wanted us to do something about it I organized a forum in uh 2020 23 we had uh pest control from the county there to talk about ticks because that's one of the ways that Lyme disease
is transmitted and we had our Tao pest management company there also um and we had the director of our health department and the outcome of that w became clear that we could either have a
cull of shooting deer like they did in uh Saddle River or we could stop feeding wildlife because deer eat bird seed and so we did a study Matt and I of all the
uh surrounding towns that have prohibitions against feeding wildlife and uh we liked the one from Oakland best but there were others in Midland Park and other towns around here many of
which are flatout bans we excuse me Dolores um Pam's Pam's going to speak okay we felt that was too stringent for Rididgewood because people like to watch birds and so we made an exception for
bird feeders in Ridgewood um and we we came up with the limit of six feet off the ground because deer can reach anything that's lower than six feet the pending
bill i I hope you don't eat bird food um it also the bird food that is spread without a baffle underneath the feeder is good for rats and we have had rat
infestations in Ridgewood we don't want any more of those and that's one of the reasons why our health department felt it was very important to restrict the number of bird feeders on property and that they must be six feet off the
ground with a baffle underneath to catch what the birds kick out when they're eating um and uh the pending legislation at the state level um is ma mostly based on
bear and their restriction is that bird feeders would have to be 10 feet off the ground as you said and you'd have to bring them in every night so you'd have to have them on a pulley system I think um and well if it ever passes we'll
we'll have to comply with that um but at this point we tried to come up with a compromise that would be um healthful for our residents and uh not to attract deer who also by the way eat our
landscaping which people spend a lot of money on in Rididgewood um and keep the rats at bay and uh and allow us to enjoy birds so that's where the ordinance comes from
yeah so I mean I if I can just I mean so I was introduced hopefully no sorry unfortunately yeah hopefully you guys can hear me better i'm trying out with the new mics um but I came about the ordinance similar to the way I think that um Pam you did as well um I met a very nice couple here in Rididgewood who
had moved to Rididgewood because they wanted a backyard and be able to have their kids play and they were afraid to send their kids outside because one of their neighbors was feeding deer um which at the time was not illegal on on private property um it was really sad to hear them talk about having to keep their young children in the house
because they're worried about their kids getting Lyme disease uh the ticks or just having foxes rabbits just walking through their backyard to get to a neighbor's backyard who is actively feeding the wildlife um you know when you hear about kids not being able to play outside people being afraid to use the backyard that's that's pretty
meaningful stuff for I think for many of us who are parents um which really I think led to a number of us kind of looking to propose this ordinance um I will say that Frank and Pam really took um I think the lead on trying to craft it as um narrowly as possible so that we could you know keep folks who were feeding birds for all the reasons um
that Pam spoke about because that's not really what we're targeting although the rap portion um I think is a really good point but understand that there is another side to this story um and that led us I think down this road of trying to come up with with what we thought was a pretty narrow or ordinance that would preserve the right to um feed birds um
but at the same time also allow kids to go outside and parents to worry less about um deer and and ticks i will say I've also been contacted by several other residents who because of our deer problem have actually proposed the call which is essentially a killing of deer um I don't really have the appetite for
that i don't think a number of us do um so we saw this as a much more lenient way to try to resolve some of the deer issues that we have in Rididgewood without resorting to that i know Saddle River did it again I don't really want to go down that road um I want to see what happens to this first but please understand this is not an anti-ird
ordinance by any stretch of imagination this is really about a safeguarding people from ticks and deer and other wildlife and folks being able to use their uh their yards and to be really specific the bird feeders are not banned in Ridgewood so there's no ban on bird
feeders it's just some regulations so that everyone can enjoy birds and see them in the backyard which I'm one of them and not have deer and when we talk about deer and this is specific and I've seen it firsthand we're not talking one or two bambies that look so cute there's
literally 20 plus deer at a time going to some of these yards and then they through the neighbor's yard and in addition to the Lyme disease they're pooping and that's part of the reason why all these kids are not outside playing so um please understand it's not a ban it's just to make it more
enjoyable for everyone and um Dolores to that to that point um both deer and rats um deer create car accidents um and and that is a danger to
the community and um but in terms of bird feeders um I I doubt that there was anybody 20 years ago who had more bird feeders um outside on their back property than than I did i had 15 20 different bird feeders and they were
lovely and beautiful and we suffered a significant rat problem at my home that I am grateful that you have not experienced and I hope no one does but it happens
and I am here to tell you about it so um believe me I understand the limitation and I understand the the issue about being 6 feet high this is a this is a balancing of health risks and and I apologize that it is it is um infringing
upon your enjoyment of your yard um Amy um I was remiss in not this is a this is a a tough day for you and uh we are all with you i know I speak for the entire council and as I have said to you before
I will say it again we want to thank you and your husband for your service to our country and for the sacrifices that you have made and that you continue to make as a result of that so we appreciate it every
day anyone else and with that let's move on to our manager's report um thank you mayor um first I want to announce that our office is very proud that this week we will be submitting grant applications to the New
Jersey Historic Trust for the pedestrian tunnel at the train station uh we'll also be submitting a Bergen County Historic Trust application for the same project and the Bergen County Open Space Application this year will be for Citizens Park as part of the special
public meeting tonight I'll be making short presentations on both those projects but I just want to thank um our team from parks and recreation and Carol and my office uh for working diligently to get those applications ready to be submitted later this week also pleased
to report that we were successful in submitting our plan for the West Glenn Avenue sidewalk project on the north side to the Department of Environmental Protection if you recall between Alpine and Heights on West Glenn uh we have
that ditch area uh which is DP regulated and at the um at the direction of the council our engineering department was able to successfully submit that plan uh for consideration for permitting to the D
earlier this week so we are awaiting a response with regard to that on the south side of West Glenn uh which is the um area that we had originally started to pursue uh installing sidewalks and we did three homes last year uh we are in
the process of putting the bid specifications out on the street for that project uh we have two neighbors that we are still working with uh one actually the property owner lives in California uh the other has some concerns about their property but we're working through both of those issues to
try to acquire the necessary easements and right of access agreements so that we can commence with that project want to congratulate the Chamber of Commerce uh and thank them on a very successful Easter in the park program this past Saturday uh also want to give a big
shout out uh to the folks in Heather's office uh who handle our insurance claims and our interaction with our joint insurance fund uh due to the successful efforts of all the departments villagewide we attended our safety awards breakfast last Thursday at
seasons and uh we were the recipient of the gold award uh for all of the safety incentive and riskmanagement efforts that we take on each and every day here in the village also want to report uh that we have developed a scope of work
for the trestle the underpass at Franklin Avenue at the at the um under the train tracks and we had asked our engineering department to come up with specifically what we wanted New Jersey Transit to do uh to address that area so
Chris Rutershouser our engineer has developed that scope of work and we will be putting a letter together that Mayor Vaganos will sign making the formal request that NJT under uh take on those improvements and finally uh we are in
the process of restarting the state historic preservation application uh for the Shedler property um had an opportunity to meet with the newly developed team on that today uh making some changes uh to the last version of
the application and I do anticipate that we'll be ready to submit that document to Shipo sometime later this spring just a few reminders um two-day per week irrigation is in effect oddumbered addresses for irrigation are Tuesday and
Saturday even numbered addresses for irrigation are Wednesday and Sunday no irrigation is allowed on Monday Thursday or Friday yardway season began earlier this month please check the village calendar to determine your area the next
council chat will take place on Saturday May 3rd from 9:00 a.m to 11:00 a.m in the caucus room here on level 4 in village hall residents can contact the village clerk's office to schedule an appointment while residents can attend without an appointment reservations will
have priority the RBSA opening day parade will take place this Saturday April 26 the parade will begin at 9:00 a.m at the Ridgewood Train Station continue down Rididgewood Avenue to Maple Avenue and end at Veterans Field the 2024 Daffodil Festival and Earth Day
Fair will take place this Sunday on April 27th at Vaness Square from 11:00 a.m to 2:30 p.m the Ridgewood Guild will be holding a spring marketplace on Saturday May 3rd Rain or Shine from
11:00 a.m to 6:00 p.m at Vanest they expect over 80 vendors to take part in that event the holiday I'm sorry the health department will be holding their annual dog rabies clinic on Wednesday May 7th at the Graden Pool parking lot from 6:00 p.m to 7:00 p.m dog renewal
are due before June 30th so make sure to renew the license all dogs must be licensed in order to have the rabies certificate validated village Council upcoming meetings may 7th will be a work session may 14th will be public meeting which
will also include final adoption of the budget and May 28th will be a work session all begin at 7:30m and that concludes my report mayor thank you keith let's go to council reports siobhan sure
sorry I have a lot in my throat um you want us to go to Frank first yes okay frank would you would you uh accommodate Council Member Wiggra um so I first want to just remind everybody about the really exciting Rididgewood High School fundraiser this is where you can get a
Ridgewood Street sign you can get it customized um and I just think this is such an awesome unique gift and so it's been published uh on through on Facebook as well as through the village site but if you were quick and want to write down
the URL it's tinyurl.compg25 streetsign also uh the Ridgewood Arts Council met this past Monday and I want to alert everybody that tomorrow night at 7 PM at the library is the artist talk and it's featuring John Luckenbill who for the
two or three people in Ridgewood who don't know who that is that's the Ridgewood High School marching band director there's no need to RSVP just show up at the library at 7 p.m for an exciting night to hear about all of his musical talents um Open Space met on April 10th um and the Green Acres
diversion we discussed that and everyone was very happy that the appraisals were sent to Greenacres for review so that is moving along parks you probably have seen some of that uh advertised as well and the dates are finalized and info has been shared the first one is this
Saturday at Dunham Trail at 10:00 a.m and Dave Sales is leading it um this was one of the most popular ones last year so I hope we'll have plenty of people attend on Saturday and as Keith said Sunday is the daffodil festival which I am super excited about this started
about 13 years ago and just continues to get bigger and better every year um and open space will be attending um to talk about the value of open space in our village the citizen safety committee met on April 17th and a few of the items
that we went through um on first was Saddle River Road the Ridgewood Police Department had sent out 130 surveys to residents regarding putting rumble strips in they only received 12 responses eight of those were against it
and four were for it so based on these results rumble strips are just being tabled for now site triangle obstructions um four more summones were sent out this past month and to date this year there's been about 20 excuse
me 37 summons sent out resulting in almost 100% compliance and that's fantastic because of how many accidents having that uh the site blocked on intersections at Kennallorth and Laurel a thermoplastic stop sign will be
embedded on both the Laurel stop signs uh that will be happening now that the weather's finally getting nice the sign uh department can get out there and we're also going to be adding intersection ahead signs on Kennallorth to alert people of that intersection there was um brought to the
committee about racetrack road and it was determined that lights are needed uh over there however as Ridgewood police dug into this the polls that would require the lights are in Hocus one half of that one side of that street is Hocus
one is Ridgewood and so when the police department contacted Hocus they stated that they had not had any complaints so it's up to HHK to request from PSENG to install the lights and so it's in their
court as they say additionally uh the citizen safety committee wants to start a safety campaign and thanks to Carol we'll be getting that launched and it's basically proactive reminders um to pedestrians and everyone just things to look out for one of my personal
favorites is the stop look and wave campaign just to remind pedestrians that they have to also control their own safety and not be on their phone as they're crossing a street the PRC board met last night parks and wreck for those
that don't know and uh and I'd like the the council and uh the manager to hear this during public comment two residents showed up to request that our pickle ball our pickle ball courts at Glenn School be increased from 4 to six and
they've measured it and apparently we can fit that and I think that this is awesome timing because if you recall part of the budget is to have that resurfaced anyway um so there's no like we're not going to make the footprint bigger it's just I guess there's additional space between the courts i
believe you're a pickle baller so you can attest to that um so really it would just require repainting the courts as well as adding two new nets and poles um and so like the PRC board thought this was
awesome and a no-brainer we're confirm Bless you we're going to confirm that we have the space with engineering and then we're going to move forward but I just think that it's awesome especially with how pickle ball pickle ball is becoming an increasingly popular sport not just
in our village but around the world um so finally um Earth Day daffodil festival this Sunday as Keith said 11 to 2:30 uh Nancy Beos has guaranteed that we will have a beautiful sunny day and uh just to put this in perspective
in 2012 which was like one of the first daffodil festivals we had 12 vendors that was it this year we're over 62 so it's guaranteed to be a great time and as I say to everyone why it's one of my favorite events is that it's spring
everyone's happy it's the first time they're outside so if you've never been please come because it's just great um and then last tabernacle the pavilion is almost done we're excited for that and so the PRC board was discussing future
uses of it how it could be rented out and still be available for the public so stay tuned for that and on this Monday those round halls will see that the field is open and that concludes my report mayor thank you frank you've been a busy member of this council we
appreciate it Evan um yeah so I can be brief apparently compared to my friend Frank um but really just three things so library met last night they're very appreciative keith thank you for the capital that we gave them uh they'll be doing some new bathrooms some new carpeting um again they'll be doing a lot more other u improvements as well
with private money um but I know I wanted to pass on the appreciation from the uh board about the capital that we um that we voted on uh Cash Shell met right before this meeting um two things I want to just bring to public attention 1st uh on May 1st so a week from
tomorrow um Steel Wheel is giving 20% of all their proceeds that night to Cash Shell so dinner lunch takeout um it's all goes to a really good cause so encourage all of you to think about uh going to the steel wheel a week from tomorrow May 1st um to get dinner or lunch um because a lot of that money
will go to the cash shell um if you go to the cashmemorialshell.com you can potentially uh if you're interested u make a donation which I strongly encourage all of you uh and while I have an advanced copy I can't give it out yet but I we do have the um schedule which they're going to unveil uh at the
fundraiser at May 1st but um a lot of great bands that are starting in June i'm probably going to talk a lot more about her from this um from this day one of my favorite new committees that I got um as part of the reorg this past year um but a lot of great work going on there and then finally I do just want also agree with Frank so one of my
former committees which I really like the Bridget Arts Council event um tomorrow um uh Mr luken Bell will be speaking i will certainly be there we encourage all of you to be there it's going to be a great event um at the library and is it 7:30 tomorrow 7 No 7 pm 7 pm tomorrow at the
library um I will be there you'll be there if Paul shows up we got to save a part so we don't have any Oprah violations but that's a nice problem to have i will be there actually all right so you take one side of the room I'll take the other sounds fair all right
thanks um I did not realize that uh Steel Wheel is donating proceeds to the Cash Out Shell that's really wonderful glenn Car um Glenn Carlo is the owner of Steel Wheel and every civic meeting I go
to he seems to be there so I'm I'm really thankful for his participation um and also he's the Chamber of Commerce president right that hasn't changed yet okay and so thanks to the Chamber of Commerce for Easter in the park it was
really fun i'm mostly outside the park on the sidewalk because uh Margie DS from our health department and I do the chalking and it's just simple fun you do have to watch out for kids who are
sitting on the sidewalk and and drawing but um even the adults if I approach them I say you know you don't have to be six years old to draw on the sidewalk and they take the chalk and they draw something nice it's fun
um so I was glad for that opportunity um I also got to attend the 300th anniversary of Old Paramis Church that church was founded in 1725 and um not just because I got married
there but they do an awful lot for our community and it was it was really a heartwarming event and uh they will be having their spring flea market i think it's May 3rd or 4th um and that's always
a lot of fun uh thank you to Evan for letting me fill in for you at the Historic Preservation Commission it was really interesting i've always been curious to go don't get too comfortable i'm not giving it up there were two homeowners of of really
beautiful historic homes who needed to modernize and yet keep the historic feel of their homes and they really did as tasteful as possible a presentation and so the give and take there is really
interesting uh we also had four applications for signage um sometimes there are suggestions that make the shop owners think wait let me go back to the drawing board so it is a a really
meaningful discussion um with regard to uh the daffodil festival earth fair i'm really looking forward to it don't forget the dog the dog parade is at 12:30 for those who
like to wear costumes um also as part of this uh Green Ridgewood is running a um student art contest and I know all the all six elementary schools are involved
and it might be also the middle schools um and you can view the entries at World Flats BA and Ballet Salon on Ridgewood Avenue um and there may be a couple of other locations so we'll be announcing
the winners at the event on Sunday looks like the weather's going to be glorious that day according to um the prediction and also yes it begins at 11:00 but as a warm-up Teddy the drummer will be there
starting at 10:00 and he is a charming performer he teaches the kids h little kids how to drum and it's just so much fun so you might want to come early um last last report um Central Business
District Advisory Committee met and we had a speaker from the New Jersey Business Action Center which provides uh all kinds of guidance for local governments and individual businesses it's amazing what a font of knowledge
this assistant director there was he gave us so many good ideas and um we were pretty inspired by the resources he described our next meeting will be May 8th at 8:30 in here in the courtroom and we will be be discussing
parking that's all I have thank you thank you Pam siobhan did you finish that law i did i said thank you uh can everyone hear me oh okay um so I don't want to be redundant but Shade Tree will be having a table at Earth Day and
Daffodil Fest and this year we are giving out um red buds and dogwood so if you're in the mood to come get a whip which is the tiniest of tiny plants um we would love to see you i also want to say with respect to daffodils uh last year we received a donation and our
intern team planted them across from Steel Wheel and so our train station is looking extra happy and the daffodils are spreading out in terms of beautifification and it's a nice reminder because um three of our interns will be graduating in June and I sent
them all a photo and they were all very very excited um a gentle reminder from stigmafree that May is mental health month um you're encouraged to go outside find your person engage in any type of effort that improves your mental health
um that we will be releasing little bits of information throughout the month and I want to thank Carol because she's here for being so helpful to stigmaree and helping us amp amplify our message and just remember that the most important part of stigmafree is talking about it and the more we talk about it and the
more we engage about it the healthier our community will be um Richard Beautifification had a meeting yesterday and we are thrilled because the pots have arrived to Main Street if you have I mean they're pretty did you see them
yeah yeah okay now they look great yeah paul did you go do your homework i haven't seen them yet okay so um we're thrilled because the pots are uniform they're stronger they can survive you know a car door um we're very very grateful because on regional
beautifification we have three professionals who helped us pick them um we did salvage 15 of the old pots and put them in satellite locations um and that sort of beg the question that if we want more uniform beautifification probably will need more pots and we are
going to be partnering with the Ridgewood Guild to seek more outside donations for this um the more beautiful and charming our downtown is the more likely it is to be vibrant and full of business um and in addition to it Ble who gave the donation to the space out
in front of Toastique has inspired some ideas amongst the committee for other professional donations so um the resident landscapers who sit on that committee are not only giving their time but they're looking forward to picking a patch and moving forward and coming forth probably the next couple months
here so corner by corner it's going to get prettier and with that we hope with each beautifification effort we improve commerce lifestyle wellness beautifification and become a more attractive place for businesses because our vacancies are on the del but we still have too many of them and we
anything we can do to fill downtown is what we're going to be doing and and I will tell you the the pots were definitely a chatter this week we probably had a half a dozen people coming in uh doing business transactions in different departments who stopped myself or Beth and and complimented uh
the new planters downtown so I mean I it's been long but I'm going to tell my anecdotal story my husband doesn't plant anything and we went for a dog walk and I was like "Oh." And he was like "They're great." And he's colorb blind legit color blind and he said they just match so well and they were so great and
he loved the fact that the larger surface area will require less watering because that's you know the watering of what we put on Main Street is a significant cost so um Paul you have till Friday to do your homework and now Evan and Frank have to go with you i I will be on this first thing in the
morning okay i wanted to um also say that uh yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the senior lunchon downstairs i want to thank Liz Cloak who came to the budget meeting invited all of us um it was wonderful and Chris from Monday came from beautifification and did a
presentation um it was delicious and wonderful and I w also in the spirit of transparency I want to let the whole council know I spoke for all of us and we're sponsoring a lunch which basically means we're going to donate the food um and you you all said yes i don't know if
you knew that but that's what we did and so um Liz will be following up and if you're wondering where that came from it was from me and lastly I wanted to say um also in addition to all the other lineups that this Sunday is law enforcement appreciation day it's a unique opportunity for us to thank
everybody who serves in this community in our county and others and I want to thank Linda Scarpa for always putting that event together and I know several of us will be there but thank you Linda and thank you to everybody who's serving thank you Siobhan um I don't have any reports but um it was mentioned that the
RBSA parade will be this Saturday at 9:00 am i urge everyone to come out it's a lot of fun rude on your favorite team players coaches um it's it's kind of a one of the nice days in Ridgewood um I
am also looking forward to the Earth Day Daffodil Festival this weekend again couple of examples of all the fun stuff going on here in town and I was also at that um lunch and learn for our seniors yesterday um a a wonderful example of
how our parks department is expanding its programming to excuse me create uh additional programs for our seniors and with that we will go to our regular agenda keith thank you mayor so tonight
for discussion items uh we have four things to talk about before we get to the special public meeting in the first is a recommendation from engineering uh from parks and recreation on horicultural supplies for 2025 uh we went out to bid for this we received one
bid back from site one landscaping of Mawa New Jersey the initial award to the vendor and the amount not to exceed $52,200 that'll be allocated to the Rididgewood beautifification team um I'm sorry total 52 Ridge Rididgewood
beautifification team will be not to exceed $20,000 and parks allocation will be $32,200 any questions on that are are trees separate from this or are they in this separate separate okay so this is just shrubs and flowers correct yes
everybody good mhm let's go all right second one is a proposal that has been submitted from Suburban Consulting Engineers this is with regard to the Shedler property for geotechnical engineering services um in discussing
this with the team at Suburban uh they have identified a need uh for a geotechnical investigation to be performed on the site uh that could be used for storm water management design as they continue to refine uh the plan
moving forward this will include a field investigation permability testing and a summary report of findings for the use in the storm in the development of the storm water management plan there's a total fee not to exceed $28,400
questions no let's go okay uh the next up is a proposal from VHB this is Laura Clifford our licensed site remediation professional on the North Walnut Street parking lot project uh located at 132
Franklin Avenue and this is for a scope of services to p prep prepare a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection hazardous discharge site remediation fund grant application uh what we have found out in our discussions with Laura is that based on
um that project at the North Walnut Street parking lot where we've review removed over 10 underground fuel tanks uh that we are eligible for up to 75% reimbursement from the D to offset
the costs of that project um all of the information that Laura requires um is readily available as this project has broken ground um and the cost to prepare the grant application is not to exceed $5,000 everybody good could you read the street
address that they have listed i want to see the street name from our friend legacy name how do you know Freling Island i live in Frley Hising dormant record that's how I know oh and item four uh the weather has um
changed over to spring and we are trying to expite our 2025 road resurfacing and repairs throughout the village uh so on Wednesday April 9th we received bids back on our road resurfacing and uh concrete work this year we had 14
registered plan holders who were eligible to bid of that 14 half seven of them were returned in response uh to the bid bids ranged from a low of about 4.1 to a high of 5.1 million and um AJ
Alexander Inc of Bloomfield New Jersey um was the low bidder at $4,169,9885 uh this will be funded through the 2025 capital budget and I just want to say that this is based on quantities so what projects are
undertaken uh will meet the available funds in the 2025 capital budget everybody good yeah i I have to me one sec i also want to tell everybody my joke today uh yeah something's this one
here 1.8 eight did you see yeah because it's um Oh got it got it got it got it okay sorry um so anyway I had to check with Pam on something clearly but um today someone was asking about um road surface pavement and we always hear about my
tires thank you this one's Thank mention and they wrote me my teeth thank you because they said the road was so bumpy anyway that was my paving joke while I looked for the information and I thought I'd add it i'm so glad we didn't miss that one
and with that we will entertain a motion to suspend the work session and convene a special public meeting so moved second mortimer yes perin yes whites yes yes and Vaganos
yes this is the village council special public meeting the date is April 23rd 2025 the time is 9:05 p.m adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by posting on the bulletin board in Village Hall by mail to the Ridgewood
News the record and by submission to all persons entitled the same as provided by law of a schedule including the date and time of this meeting roll call council member Mortimer here deputy Mayor Perne here council member Whites here council
member Wiggrad here mayor Vajanos here keith take it away okay uh Gabriella if we could um set up the PowerPoint presentation i know it's up i just don't have the ability to click so Mayor as I mentioned earlier this
year our grant application for the Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund is going to be for Citizens Park field improvements um interestingly enough do you want to gonna bring me the other clicker hold
on here there we go um Citizens Park field improvements just a little background on this project so as one of Ridgewood's oldest park properties this popular field and the original recreation amenities date back to the 1960s and are
currently in need of improvement this redevelopment will include new black chainlink fencing along Godwin Avenue and North Monroe Street two covered player benches complete with fencing and concrete flooring the refurbishing of
the back stop and two sets of spectator bleacher seating okay so if you'll take a look at the schematic here um at the top you'll see that we're replacing the current fencing with 6 ft black vinyl coated
chain link fencing um and that will go from each of the corners in the outfield uh back to behind home plate where it will meet a back stop uh we are going to replace current inner chain link fencing and length lengthen to the same length
as the one on the first base side um that'll be on the third base um side of the field we're looking to install uh two new 15 ft bleachers which will be up to safety standards um they'll have the the chain link siding on them to make
sure that people don't fall off the bleachers we're looking at covered player benches on either side of the field for both the home and visiting teams refurbishing the back stop at that location and there will be service gates
um on the field as indicated uh both in the outfield of the first base side of the field uh that will allow access for our parks department uh to get to the inner part of the field and there will be entrances both along North Monroe and at the end of Godwin
go ahead G the budget on this project um comes out to $243,555 breakdown is 474 for fencing um covered player benches including the two
polygon units that'll be needed to cover the benches four player um four player benches and two sets of 15 foot spectator bleachers come out to 90,370 installation of the covered player benches face fencing and concrete
pad just over 100,000 and the refurbishing of the back stop 5,000 we are requesting as part of this grant application that you are considering tonight from Bergen County we're seeking $121,775 in funding uh to offset the
cost of this application and then we will likely be looking uh for some contribution in the 2026 capital budget uh to be able to commence with the project next year take a look at some of the amenities um you know again we are we
are looking for um safety bleachers looking to replace with consist consistent black vinyl fencing which seems to be the most aesthetically pleasing at these types of fields and certainly the player bench covers uh which shield the players from both um
the sun in on a hot day and also from inclement weather if it starts to drizzle or rain during a sporting event and that is it on the Citizens Park improvements i think we'll separate the
two do the public hearing on this and then we'll come back to the pedestrian tunnel questions so far no okay the public hearing on the grant application for field improvements at Citizens Park is now open
uh good evening mayor and council uh Boyd Day loving uh I recall that the PowerPoint slide deck that was used by Mr rooney for the budget hearing was going to be the standard in terms of font size etc uh we could not see
basically anything sitting in the back of the room there and I would again ask that when a presentation like this is delivered particularly for those of us who are in the audience taxpayers we would like to be able to see what's on the screen so if that message should go out to all departments that are
preparing these presentations in the future it would be very helpful for us to know what's going on i'm sure I can get a copy of this presentation from Heather at a later date but it would still be nice if everybody used that format that Mr rooney used it was it was
perfect uh the other thing I'd like to ask is if the mayor would make an announcement during these public hearings that if you were at home you can comment on the public hearing you do not have to be here um if and I don't think people at home know that that I
think that they think that they have to be here so if you could just make that comment that if you're at home and you're on Zoom you're welcome to make a comment as well that would be appreciated thank you very much both good points Boyd thank you for bringing them to our attention we will be far more aware on a departmentwide basis of
the font size used at PowerPoint presentations at um at our council meetings and as you did say anyone at home is free to comment um at any open hearing such as this
one any other comments seeing no one else I move the public hearing be closed i second the motion hold on one sec mortimer yes parin yes whites yes want
to grad yes yes i did Paul just want to say because it's a workshop um before we set a standard font Keith we do have to make sure that it's ADA compliant because Bob's we need to make sure that it's standard with all the color grades like
we did with the website so if he can send that to all of us and then we can make sure that it's 100% compliant before we take it as a standard because sometimes those things happen we we we the budget presentation um we actually practiced it in here and and
looked at it to make sure that it was adequate these respective um PowerPoint presentations i felt it was fair to the public to be explained exactly what the council was looking at by way of improvements they were prepared uh by the individual departments that's not normally where the budget any
presentations that are made for this room are generated but duly noted and we will bring it up at the next staff meeting and let's move on Keith okay so the next presentation has to do with the restoration of the pedestrian tunnel at the Ridgewood train station uh this is a
Bergen County Historic Preservation Trust Fund grant um as I did mention we are also applying for funding for this for the New Jersey Historic Trust but this public hearing happens to do with the Bergen County application uh this is somewhat of a repeat of last year's
application that we made um so we go to slide two the tunnel beneath the historic Rididgewood train station uh is a vital pedestrian passageway regularly used by commuters students families and visitors unfortunately in its current
state with poor lighting peeling paint structural wear and general disrepair it creates an unwelcoming and uneven unsafe environment uh for users so you can see the photos there uh we do have some structural issues in that photo if you could just go back one
G there you go on the left hand side there um you'll see where we did some shoring uh with some some 2x4s and some plywood um that's obviously something that we we want to correct as part of this project but we also want to just improve the overall conditions at the
site some additional photographs there of some drainage issues that are creating that runoff on the right hand side under the uh New Jersey Transit sign see the same in the next slide and the last one that's the uh
that's the handicap ramp so you take it to the last slide and the village of Ridgewood is requesting $599,335 in grant funding through the Bergen County Historic Preservation Trust Fund to rehabilitate the pedestrian tunnel and that's the application that is before you this
evening it's actually 541880 oh I'm sorry did Did you change the resolution right there you go resolution changed so the total number is 541880 resolution and this is this is a matching grant
right yeah so as as mentioned when we did the capital budget uh we have $400,000 allocated uh we have some additional old capital relative to some startup on this too um so we again one of the reasons we allocated the capital
money was to be more grantworthy as we pursued these funds both from Bergen County and from New Jersey Historic Trust i think it's important to show um the county that the community is behind this so I appreciate that
so Heather the the the the correct amount of 541880 is in the resolution that's before council correct that's correct yeah the the PowerPoint presentation um was not updated with the new number from the architect questions from the council
there it is nope good then the public hearing on the grant application for restoration of the of the pedestrian tunnel at the train station is now open uh good evening again Boyd Day loving 340 well sorry Ridgewood resident um
this is a matching grant is that correct yeah i'm sorry i I need to stop i'm kind of disappointed because we are elected the five of you every time I seem to have a question you seem to refer to the manager doesn't anybody
read their packets that any of you could answer these questions why does Why do you point to the manager all the time we elected you can we I think they're just giving the manager first dibs at answering your question okay it's just disappointing that we when we ask questions of the people we
elected the You all turn your heads to the manager i know that you the manager works for you but it would still be nice if somebody of the elected officials could answer we often answer questions as you have seen many times the manager was making this presentation and so we
were allowing him mr love you have a copy of the agenda yes I do you've read it yes it says $541,880 which is a matching grant matching grant okay question answered okay and by the way Boyd I don't want to normally I don't speak while others are speaking i was nodding my head in the
affirmative at you when you said that but normally we don't actually speak like it's supposed to be you speaking to us and then we respond so that's why I generally don't respond to you but I was nodding my head at you thank you and if I asked is this a matching grant i do that so that people in the public know it's a matching grant i have read the
packet just wanted to confirm it is that okay could I could I add one more thing that we do get packets delivered at home and corrections and modifications are so we that's why we're flipping the papers there was one that was sent to our home that we pre-eread and then tonight when we came up all the changes were made
with the values in front of us so sometimes we have two numbers and we're trying to make sure it's set thank you okay 541880 here this is the Bergen County can you tell me how much you're going to be asking from the state i don't I don't have that number in
front of me but I can have Carol send it to you tomorrow that does that does not require a public hearing okay my concern is that 541880* 2 brings us to over a million dollars for the project and I don't know what you're asking for from the state
don't know what the amount is but we have to double that amount because I'm assuming that's a matching grant too this just seems like a a lot of money to me and I say this noting that the stock market is down 6.73% so far this year many of us have
portfolios that are really hurting and now we see a project like this that's going to be somewhere in excess of a million dollars i know that you hired a consultant to determine what actually had to be done here has that consultant finished their work and presented a plan
with what they estimate the total cost of this is and I'm also aware that the arts council of some sort is saying something about raising a million dollars to put in this so this becomes a destination so now we're talking about a
$2 million project perhaps to restore this tunnel and I'm just wondering if we need to spend $2 million realizing that some of it's grant money for this project is this necessary what is a historical
restoration also somebody hit the other side of the tunnel did a significant amount of damage the last time I asked this question I was told you didn't have an answer did we get that insurance money because that insurance money could also help to pay for some of this and
the other side of the tunnel the west side of the tunnel somebody hit that entrance at some time that damage has been fixed the east side has not been fixed when the west side was fixed did the taxpayers pay for that out of their pocket or did we collect insurance money for that it's this is a big project a
lot of money people are hurting because their stock portfolios are down and here we are we're spending money is it necessary to spend $2 million to make this a quote destination unquote or can something be done to bring this make it
a little bit better without spending all this money realizing that some of it's grant money so what is a historical restoration what does that entail and what did Conrad and Hickeyi tell you it's going to cost so if you recall Boyd I was the one that when we did hear a presentation on this and they told us it
would be over seven figures I said I was underwhelmed by the presentation as a result we've interviewed some consultants to come in to talk to us to see what we think this is going to cost we have to fix this full stop this is a major artery a major piece of infrastructure for Rididgewood as you know nobody likes to spend money less
than I do but this one's got to be done and it's got to be done right and to answer your more direct question whenever you do something that's been designated as historical there are restrictions on the material how the work that the work is that it gets done you have to go through shipo costs a lot of money whenever you have do anything that's historic in nature we've got to
get it right we got to get it legal which is why it's expensive by using matching grant we're going to defay the cost that it's going to cost all of us in rigid because it's not just rigid residents that use that station so understand we're being good stewards of your money but at the same point we have to invest in infrastructure especially critical infrastructure like this
we also have um split the improvements and the the loftiness of the big spend with the repairs but that repair on the east side which has been there for far too long is going to go first because it needs to be repaired and is it being paid for with insurance money or we pay for I don't I don't know about the
insurance we um we haven't gotten a full cost from that but that will be a priority number one project because we've received many complaints additionally one of the things and I'm just going to belabor it rididgewood's unique that we have a historic elements and then we have the full historic
district this is both so it is a historical site within the historic district so the preservation there is really really really important where some of our other sites that are historic like the Shedler House is historic but it's outside of our historic district this is at the
epicenter and when we have historic sites that we let lapse we're um it's not a good look for us it's it's definitely not a good look so the first point I want to make sure that like I'm sure you understand but the repair will be dealt with in a much more expeditious
way than this grant because we need to want we need to get that fixed it's unsightly it's you know it's it's awful and it's been there for too long understood and to coin phrase that you use frequently welcome to expensive however I just to me this is very
expensive again did Conrad and Hickeyi come back with a number yet so if I may now council spoken um I think it's important to point out we've changed historic architects within the last few weeks i think you may have even opined on the the change on the resolution that
we had at the previous meeting so we are in the process of working uh with the new historic architect to review what was previously prepared and what we are going to submit to New Jersey Historic Trust which is actually why I don't have a number for you tonight um because we haven't completely finished the
application um but we need to do our due diligence by the end of the week in order to submit it timely understood and I won't be labor to the point anymore again I wish to say that the economy is not the greatest and when I see numbers like this and when I particularly hear that somebody wants to come in and put
artwork in to make this a destination and turn this into adding another million it I just boggles my mind that in a bad economy we're spending all this money in a in a train station tunnel uh I don't what I don't know what benefit
the taxpayers are going to get from having all this artwork in there now hopefully that is all paid for by donations uh bless be the people who can raise a million dollars to do it um waiting for that day to see that project happen but the amount of money that's
going into this just blows my mind particularly in a bad economy thank you very much i'll I'll just say this came up first at CBDAC it has come up again and again and again and this is a disincentive for people to go to
businesses in our town if we're concerned about vacancies we need to spiff up that tunnel and it's not an easy job because of the e fllororesence the constant hydrostatic pressure that water exerts on those walls it's not
like painting your bedroom it's it's it's an important engineering structural thing that has to be figured out certainly I've been going to council meetings longer than many of you have lived in this village and I am aware that things that are done municipally
always cost more than we would do at home but still we need to hold the line someplace and spending $2 million on a pedestrian tunnel just just seems ludicrous to me thank you we haven't spent anything on this tunnel since 2011
that's like saying that I haven't bought a car since 2013 but I'm not going to go out and buy a $100,000 car i'm going to buy something that gets me where I'm going and is reasonably priced thank you i thank you could I add two other points here um and I'm going to I'm going to
ask the council um so that we can keep our uh meetings moving let's wait for the public hearing to close before we comment um and and everyone should comment but that that's how we run our meetings and uh is there anyone else in
the room who would like to comment no I see someone online mr halib come on down uh I think I have a Roric Holiday Village resident $2
million i can do it for $2 i will be more than happy to contribute $2 to go to Walgreens to buy a bunch of band-aids to band aid the the tunnel i mean this is the most ridiculous
discussion I have ever heard the tunnel needs a major redo it is collapsing it is leaking it is dangerous the roof is falling down
and you look at the I'm a student of history look at the great depression now hopefully we will not hit a great depression though we'll probably have a nice
discussion during the Great Depression some of the greatest programs some of the greatest infrastructures were built during the depression to get the economy going to say that you can't spend any money because the stock market is down
is ludicrous it is ludicrous so continue doing what you need to do as far as cleaning up the the the tunnel thank you thank you Roric anyone
else seeing no one I move the public hearing be closed mayor just two observations uh I just need a I need a second on that second and then we need to vote on this who seconded it me thank you i love that
Paul's so process heavy look at you roll calling lucy over here mortimer yes yes whites yes wiggrad yes and veterans yes and Keith before you jump in uh Boyd to your point we are all a gasast at the
cost of this um and so you and I are in the same shoes that being said um if you will remember the 800 square foot teenytiny house on the Shedler property because it was historic in nature cost
$2.6 million um and so whenever you have the word historic it's like putting the word wedding in front of something it makes it so much more expensive in this instance while we certainly would like to put this off um if you remember the
photographs in the presentation that tunnel is being shor up by 2x4s it is it needs structural improvement it is at that point that whether your portfolio and my portfolio
are up or down if the roof is leaking we got to fix it now and that's the problem with this tunnel it is leaking it is it is not yet unsafe by any means but if we
put it off at some point remember trains pass over that tunnel every day and it has water problems so unfortunately and I really mean this unfortunately we have to do this now and
because that word historical is there it is stupidly expensive so I agree with you completely council sure i just want to add in addition to all the things we've highlighted historic the central business district it's equally important that the pedestrian part is critical not
only do we have commuters going under there every day where we see a huge amount of complaints we have set up a lot of our planning in terms of housing ridgerest for example is very pedestrian driven and they use it and then for
neighborhoods like mine where I live east of the tracks but I'm zoned for westsided schools my kids kids that go to Ridge they commute through there so we have a school population going through it we have a significant elder population going in and across it and
the commuting population so it's important for everything everybody else said but on a daily basis if you were walking through there and we hear from them frequently it's just it it has to be shored up and it has to be improved yeah I mean I'll be clear i'm not going to vote to spend a million dollars on
artwork certainly I think that was being discussed to be raised privately um would encourage folks to do that it's great to beautify it i will agree to spend whatever it takes to make it safe um and I think as everyone has pointed out I want to belver the point it's not only historic it's structural you'll literally have trains going over that
tunnel um it's got to be safe and it should be here for another 100 200 years whatever it takes but this is an area again nobody likes spending money less than I do but when it comes to major infrastructure projects and safety especially something that is used as frequently as that compared to some other historic work we've done in this
town um this is absolutely the way to do it keith thank you for looking for a grant money to supplement Rididgewood resident money i always like to see that and um again I strongly favor this uh for all those reasons and and I think it's important to say that what we're
talking about tonight is the structural stuff the art was something that was proposed and has nothing to do with what we're talking or voting on tonight those are two separate things anybody else keith no mayor the only thing I was going to say is I I think it's been said from this day multiple times that any of
the art aspect of this project was always going to be funded either through fundraised dollars or through grant money specifically oriented towards the arts there was never any budget on the village side capital or otherwise to fund any of the art aspects of this
project and I think it's just important to stress that based on the comments here tonight all good yep yep let's move on heather the following resolutions number 25-27 through 25-224 will be adopted by a consent agenda with one vote by the village
council they will be read by title only authorized application for Bergen County Open Space Grant Field improvements at Citizens Park authorized application for Bergen County Historic Preservation Trust Fund Grant restoration of pedestrian tunnel at the train station
title 59 approval horicultural supplies award contract horicultural supplies title 59 approval road resurfacing and repairs and other work along various village streets award contract road resurfacing and repairs and other work
along various village streets award professional services contract geotechnical engineering services for the Shedler property award professional services contract assistance in preparation and filing of paperwork for grant application reimbursement of cost
for North Walnut parking lot cleanup may I have a motion so moved second okay all in favor no no mortimer yes parin yes whites yes wiggrad yes and Vajanos yes motion to adjourn the special public
meeting and return to our work session so moved second mortimer yes parin yes whites yes wiggrad yes vaganos yes keith mayor under Ridgewood Water tonight we have a
refund of a water overpayment on Cliff Street in the amount of $13355 questions all good nothing under I'm sorry nothing under parking this evening move on to budget we have an award of contract being recommended by engineering uh for the streets division for the disposal disposal of collected
street sweepings for calendar year 2025 uh went out we solicited quotes we had responses from two vendors ori um was is the recommended entity um they have they are actually out of New York
State but we have not been able to find a disposal facility within New Jersey uh their quote is $47 per cubic yard for disposal and the quote is the same as last year village Truck will be carding this material to their receiving facility amount of contract is not to
exceed $20,000 for calendar year 2025 questions let's go okay the next item on the agenda are vendor quotes for Pleasant Parkfield backs stop replacement uh Matt
Andrula our director our um supervisor for parks is recommending the installation of a galvanized 15x4 foot wide back stop to serve as a replacement for the one that has deteriorated behind repair um at Hawfield as you know we've
made some major investments there in conjunction with RBSA both on the placement of SAD um and some improvements to the diamonds his recommendation is to award this contract to Anchor Fence Contractors of Hillsdale New Jersey the installation will not exceed $34,450
questions um on the third whereas of this resolution it mentions three quotations did we only get two i believe we solicited three um but only
two were willing to be responsive so we made the attempt to get three which is the requirement okay so but only here it would read whereas two quotations were received so what I would ask Heather to do is if she could just check with Matt um if one was nonresponsive and then
adjust the resolution before it's considered by council at the next that's what it says on the next page so okay other questions nope it's why we have why we have the work session right there you go okay next item on the agenda is
the award of contract under state contract for gasoline and diesel fuel um this is for the purchase of fuel uh for the villages equipment and vehicle operations um this is a not to exceed contract of $400,000 to Rachel and
Michelle's Oil Company of Clifton New Jersey questions good okay the next is to award a contract for irrigation services uh for the parks and recreation department we received proposals uh on Friday March
28th there was only one registered plan holder who submitted a proposal it was sprinkler guy irrigation of Ridgewood New Jersey uh this will be funded in the amount of not to exceed $20,000 by the parks division operating budget
everyone good let's go okay and the next is a change order on the North Walnut Street parking lot project i think we discussed some of this at a prior public meeting with um Chris Rutershouser uh this is the formal change order number
two uh the site work has detected two additional US uh concrete foundations and more contaminated soil at the location uh the concrete foundations will need to be removed as a result um of what has been observed they've been
in contact with EHB which is our license site remediation professional on this project and there's an additional 1,400 tons worth of material that needs to be removed this is change order 2 in the amount of $345,400 and again I'll just remind the council and the public that this is what
we previously approved the application for up to 75% reimbursement from the D that will include this change order as well questions comments good okay and under policy
tonight we have a request from the Ridgewood Fourth of July committee uh they are looking to make a request for a military flyover over Veterans Field prior to the fireworks event this year uh there is no guarantee that this will
be approved by the Department of Defense um but they would like to make this request see if it happens this year if it does not uh they will make a similar request with the council's permission next year which I'll remind everyone is the 250th uh independence day celebration um as we
celebrate America's 250th birthday so Keith this is my committee i think I I definitely applaud and I support this it's I don't want to say it's unlikely but there's some tight time timelines there's a very big process in terms of getting FA FAA approval um approval from
a military um organiz you know military organization would do it uh you have to get a local approval this is basically just to sort of start the process to see if they could even if it's even feasible um again we're always optimistic i think it's probably unlikely for this year but I think we're trying to think ahead of using this potentially as a dry run if
we want to try this again next year because then we kind of know how this works um with that said I'm happy to present that certainly if something happens and we actually get approval we can come back to the committee you know to kind of get everyone's okay on it before we actually do it but I just want to be kind of transparent in that well
we're always hopeful i don't know how likely it is going to be for this year my understanding is by making this request we're we're now in the queue so to speak exactly it gives us the ability it gives us the ability to file for it saying we have the support of the council um and essentially you know see how see how feasible this really would
be for this year but more likely feasible for next year well and that my question would be that can we can we apply for next year now it's a good question i don't know if we're able to do that that far in advance but I think if we have our support uh from the from this council and I'll talk with Tara and
we'll see what we can do to potentially try to do do it for both should we should we to expedite it change the the So so through through you mayor the reason that I put this on the agenda after consulting with Heather is I wanted to make sure that there was
council support for this request i think we should leave the details up to myself Councilman Whites and the Fourth of July committee to figure out what the best path forward is i think the buy in of the council to want to have this happen on a forthcoming Fourth of July celebration whether it be this year or
next is what we were seeking tonight everybody good yeah I think it's fantastic i think it's great Evan i mean I think it's great i wish you the best of luck if you need anything let us know uh parachutes maybe parachuting if we can make that happen actually I did call
Tower because I loved the parachuters that we used to have it was so dramatic however it was hard to get them to land in Vetsfield and so I think this is a good solution i'm in favor of it now that we got the
lights though it should be easier right oh remember there's a lot of people laying out there um I I think we all love this idea we appreciate you doing this and all I have to say is you have a lot of fun committees we're going to have to take a closer look to stop you right there this is not me this is the
wonderful Terara Masterson and that whole group of people who do far more than we give them credit for i'd like to say it's me it's not all good let's go back to public comment and loving Ridgewood resident um first thing I'd like to say is that I am 100%
opposed to a military flyover i do not think this is the right time for us to be having like some show of military strength there are actual wars going on in this world they're very upsetting uh I just I do
not see the necessity there's a risk involved you know you see there's crashes when they do these these demonstrations um recently there was one in I think France and and somebody died uh I'm so opposed to that we do not have
need to have a dramatic show of military strength on Fourth of July you know I applaud the the soldiers the veterans who are in the parade the parachuting is fine uh disagree with you guys on that
completely and I love every part of the Fourth of July in Ridgewood a couple of other things it's so insulting to be told that nobody attended the budget meetings we attended every budget meeting remotely my husband
and I and yet you say "Nobody attended nobody asked questions." I've actually been sitting in this room when the mayor said "Look around the room nobody's here." Boy did I sitting here and we had to tell you by the way we're here so you know the fact
that people didn't come to the budget meetings doesn't mean people weren't listening and the fact that we didn't ask questions about Valley and whether they would actually pay their taxes we couldn't because we didn't know that they were appealing so how could we have
asked those questions we can't be blamed for not asking those questions and I would personally like to thank Sarabdani as well as Steve Kim for bringing up all this information i have known Mr donnie for a long time he is an unbelievably
honest man and he is a kind man and he is a respectful man and he is not lying and the last thing I'd like to say looking up Mr donny's address and talking about his tax bill I understand
that this is on public information on the internet but that's pretty specifically attacking somebody i do not think that was the right thing to do i thought that was incredibly inappropriate
thank you Ann good evening Mayor and Council um and everybody in this DAS um thank you for your service uh thank you for taking time to answer questions um it's appreciated i think we need Can you hear me well welcome sir Rob if you could
speak more directly into the mic and while we know the answer to this if you could just state your name sure heather can you please reset the clock for me i'm sorry would you please be able to reset the clock absolutely uh it hasn't started it is reset thank you and every time the mayor interrupts me if you can
reset the clock thank you so I have Excuse me my name is Sabani i'm a Redwood resident thank you so much i have two very simple questions again regarding budget and I should not take more than 30 seconds hopefully the first question
is there's a line item that says pilot senior citizen housing it is $244,764 in revenue this was not in 2024 so I just wanted to understand what
is pilot senior citizen housing and pilot is capitalized payment in lee of taxes um and it is for 2025 it is $244,764 2024 there's no mention of it so I just want to understand um I did a
Google search there was some 2014 resolution for richest with this name but richidest has existed for a long time so I'm assuming if this was richest then it would be both 2024 and 2025 so I just want to understand what is it and why is it only showing up in
2025 so that was my first question i think the question is very clear if you answered something else I don't know please let me know if you do not understand my question is very simple and I I'm requesting direct answer to that question what is this pilot tax line item not available in 2024
available in 2025 the second question again it's a very simple question and I'm requesting answer to this question not to who I am what my home's taxes are where where I work all of that in the budget presentation there is
a line item that says amount to be raised by taxes again the budget presentation there's a line item that says amount to be raised by taxes in 2024 presentation
This number was 39,658,266 in 2025 presentation this number is 42,256,311 i'm requesting to if you can explain what does it mean by amount to be raised
by taxes and how do you calculate or how do you come up with that number how does the council come up with that number which is called amount to be raised by taxes and what does this mean who is
paying these taxes in 2024 this number was 39,658266 in 2025 this number is 42,256 311 thank you thank you Sar anyone else in the
room seeing no one we'll go to our hybrid access amy you're up hi Amy McCambridge a Rididgewood resident um I just wanted to to go over what uh Mrs carpenter was saying about the recent ordinance regarding the
wildlife and the reasoning being used to justify it under the banner of public safety and safeguarding the community um Evans you said like I don't know a couple months ago about how like the kids couldn't go outside unless they had a turf field that's filled with like all
this crap that we don't even know about but that's safe but you know Lyme disease is this you and it is serious i understand that but I feel this is just another fear-driven distraction the idea that deer are somehow the primary threat to our children or our neighborhoods is not only absurd it's it's widely
hypocritical you speak about the community being scared if we're truly talking about what should concern these parents of Rididgewood it's not the deer in our parks or around our homes eating our hostas it's the poisons being poured onto our fields it's the PAS leeching into our water it's a 24 million pounds
of contaminated fill sitting across from a residential neighborhood it's the poisons in our food pesticides microplastics and chemicals that disrupt our hormones and far worse it's our rivers poisons and choked polluting everything downstream and I don't know if you guys knew but Pay River is now
the fourth most endangered river in America and we feed right into that you want to talk about real danger that's where it starts with human negligence with government approved toxins with the normalization of synthetic turf processed food poison soil it lays with our choices and human decisions that are
quietly endangering our kids far more than any tick bite ever could the truth is the deer are not the threat we are we have disrupted the natural order so severely that we no longer recognize our own role in the imbalance and I don't think you fully understand how dangerous
this is nature maintains itself through balance predator and prey growth and decay birth and death but when humans step in and force control manipulate populations remove species and poison but we can't dominate we create collapse and you guys are talking about a money
collapse you are in for such a bigger collapse like a nature collapse where you're going to see storms and fires like you've never seen before ordinances against our wildlife is not going to fix that they are not the cause there are the results and again doing this you
know during Earth Day I I don't think it would matter that people are just going to continue to do this until they realize the Earth is far more stronger than we are um it's supposed to be a time to honor and protect this earth instead this council is spending it justifying the destruction of another
part of it you can kill every deer and I know that's not what you're doing it's not going to change the fact that our children are playing on synthetic fields that reach 180 degrees and leech endocrine disrupting chemicals into the ground you can eliminate every animal in sight but it's not going to undo the
carcinogens already flowing down streams or the toxins um saturating our food so please we need to stop pretending that this is really about safety if safety truly mattered we'd all start by looking in the mirror thank you thank you
Amy jacqueline you're up jacqueline Hone Rididgewood New Jersey i I can't believe that this council unanimously is entertaining the thought of a military flyover i strongly
strongly oppose to that it's another example of this council's greenwashing for instance a single jet like an F-16 can burn over 800 gallons of fuel per hour releasing thousands of
pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere that doesn't include the wildlife disturbance that this causes it's certainly a big flash of financial costs that we should not be
doing at the moment there are alternatives to flyovers and just to come back to the contamination it's actually in our master deed which I would suspect that this council would know like the back of
their hand that Ridgewood is in a major fly path a flyover and we are already trying desperately or at least we should to clean our air of these air traffic emissions and here you are saying let's
just have another harrah of military flyovers releasing again just one of the planes releases over 800 gallons of fuel per hour it's sheer hypocrisy it's greenwashing at its best
i can't even believe that Councilwoman Pam Perin would go out of her way to say how she agrees to this i don't think this should be considered at all um we're dealing with enough contamination enough damage has been
done by the villa village of Ridgewood against the public in contaminating us please don't do this do not agree to a flyover and Evan I would not you it would be the last person that should be boasting about
adding more contamination to the air and all of the people underneath it that are there to celebrate speaking of freedom we wouldn't even have freedom to breathe the air so I strongly strongly strongly oppose this
and you should really really rethink your decision as far as adding more pollution for a simple show of we have more in Ridgewood thank you thank you Jacqueline anyone else
seeing no one I'm going to close public comment and we will entertain a resolution to go into close session could Could I just say Excuse me i do this at the end of the night forgive me i apologize i just feel like I have to um you know this is a obviously a tough
thing and I don't want to This is a workshop so workshops are where ideas come up and then detail is fleshed out so clearly there are concerns of from a fly over obviously if we had drought-like conditions that would be
concern for all of us but it's an idea and it it's tough to have these conversations um you know I'm the daughter of a Marine my brother was in the Navy and sometimes these conversations very quickly become polarized and that is what I don't want to end the meeting with we all support
our military we all understand about the intricacies of executing a specialized event like this and are mindful of how much it would cost but the most appropriate place to bring it up is in a workshop which is what Evan did and um you know that's what we're here for but
it it's becoming increasingly difficult to have a conversation because if we don't have the conversation out in front one that's illegal two then we can't get feedback from the public so I just want to make sure um it's it's a tough time in the world it's incredibly tough time
to be a military family i know this full council supports this it's an idea with many many many logistics some are environmental and some are safety but I I want to be clear it's an idea that we're considering and all of the details be worked out and I want to be very
mindful that we don't want to have the conversation be polarized into something anti-military and anti-supporting a ceremonial aspect of what they do it's very important to them and the green side of Richmond so I'm sorry i just
felt like I had to say that well appreciate that um I want to thank the commenters because you bring up things that I hadn't thought about and Evan I hope you'll bring that back to the committee their concerns yeah no I'll definitely I'll definitely bring because it it gives me pause definitely i mean
I'll certainly bring it back to the committee for thought and as I said I think if there's a possibility of doing it we'll bring it back to the full committee i do want to echo I think Siobhan your comments are really spot on that this is one of those topics where we should have a discussion as always but it's very hard to have a civilized discussion when the immediate reaction
is you're greenwashing you're terrible person you know what's wrong with you uh for coming up with or thinking about something that is probably you know somewhat popular I would think in the village um reasonable people can disagree on this as in other topics but you poison the well when you start throwing barbs right away and make it
very difficult to hear opposing viewpoints when they're attacking you instead of trying to persuade you anyone else mayor I have two things um one I I apologize Mr donnie i'm having difficulty connecting um from my laptop
uh to the to the shared folder so I can't look up that question you have about that line item but I will certainly find out and report back um my apologies on that with regard to the amount to be raised by taxation again in an effort to just try to simplify a complex process when we prepare the
municipal budget just as I'm sure the school board does the same we come up with all of the appropriations um what the spending plan is going to be what we need to expend those funds on during the calendar year at the same time we put together all of our revenue sources so what are our revenue sources
uh court fines fees and permits that are um supported uh by the different village departments um registration fees um all the different things that we raise revenue on and then what we do is we calculate that and the bridge to what
the appropriations are and where what we are collecting in fees the bridge to that is what is to be raised by taxation so that's essentially um the number um that is collected through property taxes after all of the other revenues that we
take in are are considered and that's a little bit different than the school budget because their revenue stream is not as strong absent taxation as is the village um that being said the amount to be raised by taxation this year just as
it is with the board of education is spread out over a larger tax base because of the addition of Valley Hospital and the additional ratables that have been added uh to our overall net valuations for 2025 and thereby the
tax increase as we stated at the top of the meeting we'll end with this as well um on the average homeowner in the in Ridgewood is 3.1% and the only thing I will say in closing to to to Mrs loving you know with all due respect I I've I've had and
I'll continue to say that regardless of whether I'm mocked or not uh because I think it's it's it's heartfelt but I'm going to tell you this the um the amount of conjecture that has been out there on
social media the last few days um continually trying to convince the good people of Ridgewood that their taxes are going up by north of 6% when their taxes are going up by 3.1% many of them have written to me and many
of them have been critical of the critics who are pontificating on these outlets um and asked for asked questions legitimate questions that they just wanted legitimate answers to so that they could better understand the municipal budget process um and I've
answered those individuals and many of them have asked me well how does this affect me and while I didn't take every single one of them and and run their tax calculation um I we did to the best of our ability answer that question so they knew how it personally affected them and
that's what I tried to do with Mr donnie because he's been one of the most vocal people in this space over the last few days but as I often point out one thing that I can't handle is hypocrisy
and as somebody who perpetuated sharing information about a particular resident in this town who was delinquent on their taxes and even proposed that they should not be able to participate on a volunteer board in this village and then
to have the gall to get up there and say to me that what I did to Mr donnie tonight what I did to Mr donnie tonight simply by pointing out public information as to how this would affect him so he could better understand this discussion come
on come on what I did tonight wasformational i wanted this man to understand how it affected him and his property what you did was mean and I want to take and I just want to state for the record that after saying that after
saying what was done to a volunteer in this town she just laughed out loud at me why don't we move on yeah let's let's move on um I I did want to take a moment to um recognize a a moment in time um
Jacqueline um you pointed out something that I had not considered and I don't know that I am persuaded but it's certainly food for thought and should this go further we will have a bigger
discussion about those about that issue so thank you all and with that Heather yes be resolved by the village council of the village of Rididgewood the village council meeting in close session on April 23rd 2025 at 7:30 p.m or soon
thereafter as the matter on the agenda can be reached and the set close session be held in the caucus room on the fourth floor of the Ridgewood Village Hall 131 North Maple Avenue Richmond New Jersey and be it further resolved that the matters to be discussed in close session are limited to legal matters to include potential litigation Valley Hospital tax
appeal expedited tax sale and West Glenn Avenue sidewalks these matters are allowable under NJSA 10 column 4-12 at second be further resolved the minutes of this meeting shall be made available to the general public when such matters have been deemed completed by resolution of the village council may I have a
motion so moved second all in favor i I opposed and and you know what i'm going to take a moment um there is no point in time since I have sat on the council where any member of this council has
laughed at anything that any member of the public has said we listen attentively whether we agree or disagree laughing at someone who is giving an explanation is uncalled for
and unnecessary and I have only asked for mutual respect so when if we start laughing at you by all means join in but to do that is is
completely disrespectful and and with that let's call it a night motion to adjurnn we did good