##VIDEO ID:4GBvFlnfXlE## I thought was one yes for you have now love three three is the charm three is a charm oh that's well it's it's early this is well you're on okay nice to see you nice to see you oh I see you for good evening this is the Village Council public Workshop the date is January 29th 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 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 morber here Deputy Mayor parin here council member whites here council member winegrad here and mayor vaganos here will you all please join us in a salute to our flag I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all for those of you are unaware The Village recently suffered a tragic loss John Patrick Quinn worked in our parks department and died suddenly in his sleep two weeks ago at the age of 34 he was an exemplary member of our staff who was valued and appreciated by all who worked with him he loved working for the village so much that his family laid him out in his casket wearing his village of Ridgewood sweatshirt it was very touching he left behind his wife Maggie and his 8-year-old daughter pton John was what you would call a girl dad he spent all of his free time with pton playing games and braiding her hair Payton and John actually had a YouTube channel together that highlighted their father daughter Adventures will you all please please join me in a moment of silence as we bid farewell to a man who served our dedic our village with dedication and integrity thank you all so much before we begin we have a couple of things we want to get to first I would like to acknowledge troop 7 Boy Scout Troop 7 would you all please stand who are here working on their Communications Badges and we are so happy to have you here and um I know you've been working with Evan so thank you so much for being here and thank you dads for bringing them by so have a seat and enjoy the show such that it is and now um we have a very special moment um will you all please join me in the well and I would like to call up um the Bergen County Commissioners who are here and the members of the sports organizations who helped us finish our lighting project so I'm going to tell you a story we have this beautiful vets field behind us and we decided to put new Lighting on it that would be much better for for our sports teams and our neighbors um it's state-of-the-art lighting and when we got into it we realized we had a funding shortfall and the funding shortfall was going to result in the fact that the entire field would be lit except for the girls softball diamond and so this Council reached out to the Bergen County Commissioners the wood Board of Education and the sports organizations here in town and every one of them came through and said we're going to help finish this project because none of them would let the girls softball field remain unlit and so will you all please join me in a big round of applause for these people who came through for our community we have with us Bergen County Commissioner Mary amaroso Bergen County Commissioner Tom Sullivan forgive me and counsilman from mid lacrosse Ramon haset from football Scott Mueller from baseball and forgive me and and for Maroons first name clay and and and here's the part that was especially touching to me some of these Sports organizations have no skin in the game in girl softball they did not hesitate when they said well that can't happen we're in right from the start so again I I can't tell you how much that that means to me to our Council to our village it's amazing what we can do when we all hold hands together we can get everything done so thank you all for being here it was really um such a great experience and Mary do you have something for us of course I do of here you go you know you're thanking us and we're going to thank you and congratulate you for completing this project you know we are so proud when our County open space money goes to these wonderful recreational projects projects and I didn't even know was girl softball that's a double yay um D and yes go ahead I'm a girl dad three girls so you better do the right thing Paul right but but but we are so proud of what you've done using open space money along with everything else and I'm glad you got to light the girls softball absolutely here and I'm going to pass the mic down I'd like everybody to say a word or two I just said my word thank you for having us in rwood mayor uh thank you for the town and thank you for everything you do like I said I'm a girl dad and this means the world to me um my daughter's a student athlete played ball I had the opportunity to go to the college and play ball but she she decided to study which was a good move so I appreciate everything you do for your town and and a girl soap Bo program thank you um just on behalf of the Ridgewood lacrosse it's just one Village it's a town we go about it as one attitude of working together we have each other's backs when we need it we can Rel on one another and look to pass it on thank you on behalf of rard junr football I would like to thank the mayor and councel for this recognition but most importantly for for putting to forward this project you know as a board member as a as a coach as a parent as a girl dad so many elements that you've covered with this project you know the safety issue right those lights that were there before they were construction lights they were made for for roadside construction they were loud they they polluted the air and you found a way to to light the whole field and do it in a way that doesn't disturb the neighbor so thank you very much congratulations I have a little bit more to say because I have a lot more skin in the game uh as far as the softball goes I want to thank uh the mayor and councel because you got we were doing it for baseball and to also get the softball together um is mindblowing so I would also like to present a check to the Village Council uh for $177,000 for because again we have more skin in the game it's our program but uh we'd like to thank you and I want to thank the Board of Ed and the village of Ridgewood governing bodies for completing this project but just as important thanks to the employees that made it happen um the rbsa appreciates the dedication and hard work and steadfast collaboration between rhs athletic director's office and also the parks and rec staff they work day in and day out scheduling Fields maintaining facilities communicating with the public and working together for the good of the whole Community these new lights will not only benefit the high school and Recreational Sports both children and adult but also the Arts that use the cash our shell including The Village's Fourth of July celebration so thank you guys for pushing and we really appreciate it yeah on behalf of the maroon soccer club we are thrilled to to participate Like Richard lacrosse said this is really one town and this is an opportunity for really demonstrate teamwork one of our core values so uh we are thrilled to participate and help out all the sports groups and want to thank the the mayor and the Village Council for their continued effort to improve uh the sports environment here which is so important for our kids these days so Maroons are thrilled to participate give him a big round of applause thank you thanks so much Mary thank you Tom thank you thank you look at this this is who said there's no money in politics good to see so much oh guys could uh guys um they would like they would like a picture so if we could all if we could all resume our spots Tom Mary they want to get a picture you well that was certainly nice wasn't it and we are now going to continue the nice stuff and we are going to move something up that's further down on the on the agenda Sharon will you please go to the microphone over here and tell us what you have for us tonight please give your name your address and tell us what you have not address oh excuse me just that you're a Ridgewood resident okay hi my name is Sharon Gil senon and if you could speak right into the microphone that would be how's that better much better okay my name is Sharon gilsenan 65 North vanen Avenue um I am the President of the women Gardeners of Ridgewood we are currently celebrating our 100th year uh we were s we were founded in 1925 in honor of our 100 years received a generous donation of a Tuscany Blu Stone bench which requires no maintenance it's dry laid and is at no cost to the Village uh photos were submitted to the parks department we are hoping this can be placed at one of the Village Gardens that our club maintains which include the Ridgewood library and Hab nickel Park I in touch with Nancy Bigos and I would like to specifically thank Nancy and the parks department for her help and making this a reality she has always been a strong supporter of our club and our efforts thank you to the council for your consideration tonight um I believe you have a picture of the bench we do it is absolutely beautiful okay do you need any more information on no you know what and and if I had thought this through I would have kept us out there but we're going to take a walk again so that we can get some more pictures and thank you personally okay come on thank you that's very nice St it's okay here we go Sharon thank you so much excellent beautiful all right thanks mayor if I may well Sharon is still here um just want to call the council's attention to item E1 on the agenda it's on the second page it's one of the last uh items in the packet um this is the paperwork to back up Nancy vos's request to accept this donation from the women garders so if the council does have any questions for for Sharon now might be the time to to to ask those questions questions anyone um yes where would you suggest we put the bench um well Nancy has suggested putting it on the lawn between Village Hall and the library um um another suggestion was to put it by the pond at H habber nickle Park um I guess ultimately it's up to you and to the parks and recck department is where you think it would best be placed is there any other questions and nany's having ny's having ongoing conversations with key stakeholders about the location so she'll finalize that but tonight would just be the um concurrence to accepted donation right and it's beautiful just want to that is this s you guys hear me yes no no is mine working better we are testing out some new mics that um Evan and sioban have so please let us know if they're working okay any better now yeah okay I'm GNA do both um so I just wanted to expressly say happy anniversary 100 years is a big time thank you it's a big year for us because we have so many young volunteers I wanted um to highlight that she's in charge of the women's gardening program which benefits a lot of our parks and because you're doing a civic's bag if you want to see a picture of the bench all that information's in those binders but it is beautiful um I was so excited and I just want to say an extra big thank you and potentially tap you into some lovely people who may want to also work with you to improve our Parks okay well the uh person who's donated the bench offered to have it on display which no cause to the Village uh the day of the garden tour which is Sunday June 8th because uh our mayor has proclaimed that the uh women gardenwood day in honor of our 100th anniversary so um we're going to have little extra things going on the day of the garden tour and throughout the year so thank you thank you sure thank you Sharon okay thank and we'll move on and we'll go right to public comment anyone Sean mcy Ridgewood president thank you and I'm just here to celebrate 89 no 79 years of jeree so um believe D Knight's now at 82 in March and I'm very excited I can see a couple of former Daz night guys up here unfortunately I see one jamere member they are she's one of the best uh two two you don't have your glasses I'm so I'm so fixated on your prior life go there don't go there on your prior life that I'm not going to be able to talk about but um I just wanted to say I hope everyone uh decides to come and enjoy the show uh it's three nights there's an unpaid night that's uh for seniors like our uh counselor uh they can show up on Wednesday night Go for free or an at will donation but um I hope uh everyone understands that the efforts of 250 volunteers rais $250,000 in scholarship money last year and this is need-based scholarship and it's a wonderful thing that Ridgewood has such Traditions as D night has such Traditions as jury and uh of course the Board of Ed Falls underneath your uh group as well so I'm thankful to ridgwood in general for such a great tradition and my wife now 20 years involved has been uh a Star Wars volunteer as well so thank you thank you Sean and thank you for all your efforts and Rosie's efforts um that this is an 80-year tradition it goes from generation to generation and you your family and your Compadres in this effort just carried on decade after decade to raise such needed money for scholarships for our students thank you so much good thank you thank you anyone else from the audience seeing none will'll go to public comment sarup you're up you're on mute there you go can you hear me yes we can good evening mayor and Council thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak uh remotely my name is sarab Dan I'm resident of rwood and I'm a member of board of education but today I'm not speaking on behalf of the board I'm speaking in my personal capacity as one individual board member um I believe the agenda on the uh for the board resolution and the actual agreement um may have a disconnect in the public uh in the transparency binder so I'm I'm just requesting the village manager and the attorney to just cross check and confirm that the transparency binder and the member of Village Council have the updated uh agreement the resolution seems to be correct because the resolution shows 10 year and 10 year uh renewal but the agreement that's provided in the transparency binder is the older version with 5 years and it had some changes in the insurance and liability Clauses so I just wanted to confirm that everybody has is the right copy or right version thank you thank you SB anyone else seeing none I'm going to close public comment does anyone have any responses for anyone uh who spoke tonight do you have any uh anything on on uh the board board of ed uh joint venture agreement Heather I know there were revisions to the agenda that were on the day is tonight um the agreement that is attached to resolution 25100 is the the latest edition from the Board of Education correct um I don't know I have to see hold on just to bring the council up to speed after Monday night's Board of Education meeting on Tuesday uh the superintendent office actually sent over an executed copy of the agreement um so that's the one that was that was shared yeah it it is this is not it it is 10 years as Mr Donnie mentioned so we'll be sure that the proper one is signed okay all good Heather is that the same one that was circulated earlier it's the same it's just it said five years and five years it's 10 years and 10 years correct okay so and now we're going to move on and um it's at this time of year that U we like to deliver a state of the village the things that we've done the things that we're looking forward to doing and so if you will indulge us going to take a few minutes to take a recap and a review of this past year which 2024 was another very good year for our village there were many accomplishments and achievements that made it Sparkle just a little bit brighter with your Indulgence I'll take a few minutes to go over just some of those highlights of 2024 as I did last year let me Begin by saying how fortunate we are to have a council that is as dedicated hardworking and just plain smart as the one sitting before you tonight they only do it for one reason for love of this wonderful place we all call home the accomplishments of this V Village rest upon the foundation created by this Village Council Pam steady smart environmentally conscious and most importantly detail detail oriented in a way I could never be as everyone here knows Evan inight ful No Nonsense and as careful with your money as he is with his own sioban still the hardest working member of this Council whose problemsolving approach to our work has been invaluable and while the rain has stepped down from this Council she is a part of every Milestone achieved in 2024 then there's that new guy Frank who in just a short time has shown himself to be as detail oriented as Pam as hardworking as Siobhan and as insightful as Evan I think he's going to work out just fine we are five completely different people all with the same goal making this Village a great place to live but the success of this council is working with great people and here in Ridgewood we have the best it is through the tireless efforts of our incredible staff who are always always ready to go the extra mile for the people who live here that the dreams of this Council are turned into reality for the vast majority of them it's not a job it's a mission and we should all be grateful to them for making our village as wonderful as it is let's take a moment and give our staff a big round of applause [Applause] and now let's take a look at some of the accomplishments the council and staff have achieved in 2024 let's start with flooding which in the last few years as we all know has become a much larger problem with flooding events increasing in both severity and frequency and while even one flood in your home is too much many families in our village have experienced repeated flooding in their homes but with the assistance of our congressman Josh Scot Heimer The Village has engaged the US Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a study and propose long-term solutions to this issue let's be clear they're referred to as long-term solutions for a reason safeguarding our homes and infrastructure from the ever worsening flooding that has plagued us can't happen overnight but this is where we begin in the meantime we've started a flood committee comprised of residents who have been adversely affected by flooding and there are actions we can take in the short term most recently we hired a company to hydrojet the storm water system on Hope and Gilbert streets that have been plagued by severe flooding during heavy storms they removed an incredible amount of roots rubble and silt that had been clogging the system for years the removal the removal of this debris will have a significant impact on flooding in that area for years to come and hydrojetting our storm water system in problem areas will continue in the spring Additionally the village is working to remove any downed trees and other obstructions in our above ground waterways that can make the situation worse most significantly behind the environmental leadership of Deputy Mayor Pam perin and our green Ridgewood committee we've passed what may be the strongest storm waterer management ordinance in the state special thanks to Joan Hubertus and David refkin for their guidance and hard work on this project let's move on to what I will call Old business old business are those matters that have been hanging around for years that probably should have been taken care of years ago first on our Hit Parade is the Kingsbridge Lane pedestrian bridge which has been closed since 2021 awaiting structural repairs well it's not waiting any longer back in October a very large crane took it away for long awaited repairs we anticipate they will be bringing it back sometime this spring all shiny and new next up the town garage which has been sitting dormant and not very attractive in our beloved downtown since about 2007 this past October the village took ownership of the property and a couple of weeks ago the building was demolished we've begun remediation of the site at the expense of the prior owner that will be followed by two years of required Environmental Testing by the DP and while we're on the subject of demolishing stuff we also Knocked Down The Barn at habernickel Park that was in such poor condition it should have been raised years ago the bus station on Oak Street has been in disrepair for so long that it has become structurally unsound and we've had to keep it locked for years in the coming weeks this will also come down and will soon be replaced eventually we will look at the possibility of moving to the train station to create a Transit Hub to better serve our community and for the past SE several years the peace Library the train station concession stand and the former taxi stand on Broad Street are all Village assets that have been vacant no we're not going to demolish them instead we leased them all out bringing Revenue into the village and our library both the taxi stand and peace Library have been renovated by the new tenants and the train station concession stand was brought back online providing a valuable service to our residents who commute next up the view is one of ridgewood's local gems with Incredible views of New York City it's an attraction to both residents and Neighbors from surrounding communities unfortunately through the years it had become an attractive nuisance for the Neighbors both above and below the view so in 2024 working with area residents we increased the frequency of police patrols and enforcement of parking ordinance in the area significantly we also created a buffer zone with plantings that would protect the residents at the bottom of the hill from any flying debris without detracting from the Splendor of the look out from the lookout at the top and while this will required will require continued vigilance by both our police department and maintenance by our parks department we are committed to working with area residents to keep this precious local Landmark beautiful safe and clean and working with American Legion Post 53 we dedicated the gold star fames monument in vanes park this October for those of you who are unaware a gold star family is one that has lost a family member serving in our Armed Forces we are for forever grateful to American Legion Post 53 for the this work on for their work on this project to test Giuliani and Lyn Brady for their Timeless design to former American Legion Commander Bob peoli and current Commander Lou Francis for their leadership and dedication to this effort most of all to those families who sacrificed a loved one defending our great nation if you haven't seen it yet please stop by it is moving memorable and reminds us all of what some families have sacrificed for the freedom we enjoy every day moving forward I am particularly proud of the partnership being forged with the Board of Education it began with providing full-time special police officers in the high school and both middle schools in addition to enhanced security these officers are a welcome addition to our schools that allow our students to build important relationships with them in a non-confrontational setting the benefits of these relationships show themselves during each school day and will and will endure long after our students have graduated I look forward to working closely with the board of education on many projects in the future that benefit both our community and our taxpayers speaking of which as you saw from this evening Even's moment of appreciation with the help of the Board of Education we're putting in new lighting at vets that's that's being installed as we speak and will use less energy and have less spillage of light onto neighboring properties I want to take a moment to again thank the the county of Bergen the Board of Education and our local sports organizations that helped make this project a reality we asked for their help and they all came through when we work together like this there's nothing we can't get done next Ridgewood water under the leadership of director Rich calby was recognized as a leader in the industry by the New Jersey D for its work on water conservation and posos initiatives in 2024 it was the first water company in the state to receive the de award entitled our Waters worth it our aging water infrastructure has been neglected for so long it probably should have been included in the old business section of this discussion but that's all changing as we speak Ridgewood water is in the midst of upgrading this aging system with a new pumping station to ensure that the boil water advisories of last summer do not recur and in the past year alone Ridgewood water has installed and replaced more than 32 miles of new water mains and begun construction on four new posos treatment facilities when our 7-year posos remediation project is finished at the end of next year Ridgewood water will begin its long overdue systemwide upgrade currently in the planning stages to begin in 2027 and our beautiful Central business district we have begun the process of helping our local downtown shopping area evolve in this ever expanding Amazon economy first pamin is leading the effort to start something called a business improvement district this will provide our downtown with additional funding to better compete and Thrive I want to be very clear about this next part and absolutely no C lost to taxpayers we also changed our CBD zoning this year to make it significantly easier for businesses to open in town that zoning ordinance also allows for different types of businesses to open that Amazon and the internet can't compete with like micro breweries and other gathering places where people can just go and have fun it's going to be a better CBD when we're done with it and listen there's lots of other stuff we built new sidewalks on East Glenn Clinton and and Clinton avenues for a safer walk to school we expanded senior programs in in town so that Ridgewood isn't just a great place to raise your kids it's also a great place to live once your kids have grown we also expanded recycling programs for styrofoam vegetable oil and shredding these expanded programs are a win-win for our community by protecting the environment and saving our taxpayers money and then we entered into an agreement with Mawa to operate their health department shared services programs with other towns like this save our taxpayers even more money going forward shared services with other communities and the Board of Ed is the future of cost Savings in this village with all the going on our parks department Department planted over 300 trees in 2024 and here's one of my personal favorites our amazing Ridgewood Library serviced somewhere between 15 and 20,000 visitors per month in 2024 per month this past year our fire department provided CPR and defibrillator training to dozens of our staff and residents and and in recognition of our residents who served in the military we expanded our CBD veterans Banner program check it out to see if you recognize any of your friends and Neighbors on the light posts in our Downtown special thanks to Joan monton who made sure that we got it done this year we also introduced the my Ridgewood app so we can all navigate Village Services easily right from our phone and the village also expanded the reverse 911 notification program to include an additional 3400 residents and we did all of this and more while maintaining our AAA Bond rating and a tax increase of just 2.74% which was well below the rate of inflation the list goes on and on and on as I said it was a very good year in the village but now let's take a moment to look ahead at what's on the horizon in 2025 we're building a new Pavilion at habernickel Park that'll provide much needed shelter for the young families and athletes that enjoy the park in 2025 Ridgewood water will break ground on the last four posos treatment plants all of which as I said earlier will be completed by the end of next year when these plants are up and running we will have reduced posos in our water to undetectable levels undetectable and this will all be done before 46 other states and much of New Jersey has have even begun to comply with the new stricter feder federal regulations to reduce posos levels in our water supply bear in mind posos is not a Ridgewood water problem it's a worldwide problem affecting every inhabited continent on the planet we're way ahead of the curve on this one shedler Park this property was first purchased by The Village in 2009 and has been at a standstill for more than 15 years another project that could fall into the old business category that should have been completed years ago in 2025 we will ensure that the property complies with all D standards and we will build the park that our village needs deserve and has been waiting for for far too long the Warner Theater this was a tough one it was heart-wrenching to see it go but with every end there's a new beginning and the dream of many in our community is to give our theater New Life by turning it into a Performing Arts Center let me be clear this is by no means a done deal it will take the en entire Community holding hands together to make this dream come true and while it won't be easy I believe it can be done we've already started on this path and I hope to bring you more news on this front as 2025 progresses stay tuned as we begin to walk down this road together and finally there is something that I believe is more important to all of us than everything I have discussed thus far during the last couple of years we've worked very hard to change how we speak to one another in this room so that we focus on the issues that affect us not the people who discuss them and that we speak to each other with the respect that recognizes that we are all Neighbors in the same community in the past the tendency for many was to launch personal attacks on those who've disagreed with us but in this room in these council chambers we've made tremendous strides in speaking to each other in a respectful way when we disagree I personally person Ally applaud each and every one of you who no longer engage in personal attacks who passionately promote and defend the positions you take on the issues that come before us who care enough about our village to be here and engage with us we need you here our community needs you here and we are all grateful for the change in tone let's face it as tonight's state of the village shows we can get more done when we aren't fighting with each other constantly at the same time however these personal attacks continue outside of these council chambers on a handful of social media sites and in other incredibly frightening ways most recently one individual attacked a candidate for Council by trying to get him fired from his teaching position at an ivy league university it seems inconceivable doesn't it but it isn't the first time this has happened these personal attacks have become the norm they've gone mainstream the thinking goes something like this if we can't change someone's mind on an issue we will make it so difficult and so painful ful for those who dis disagree with us that we will keep them and others like them from speaking out it is designed to stifle dissent discussion and the free flow of ideas and it works at our last council meeting it was suggested that the reason we had so few candidates running for Village Council and the Board of Education was the cost of engaging in an election campaign and in an interesting way that suggestion was correct but it's not the financial cost that keeps people from running for local public office it's the personal cost through the years I've spoken to many people about running for councel the vast majority of whom say why would I ever subject myself and my family to that kind of personal abuse the vast majority of people cannot afford to be confronted with these kinds of personal attacks the kind where their character their careers and even their children are attacked and placed in Jeopardy the cost is just too high friends what are we doing here is this really what we consider to be acceptable this Council won't tolerate it in this room and this Village shouldn't tolerate it in this community going forward I'm asking that we all stick to the issues when going online and stay away from these kinds of personal attacks and for those of you reading such personal attacks online let those who continue to engage in them know that this is no longer acceptable in our town this this is how we end this this is how we stop the personal attacks this is how we engage more people in making this Village the best it can be this is how we move forward let's always make it about the issues not the people I want to thank our community for placing their faith and trust in Us by reelecting Pam and I to this Council and for electing Frank this past November I know I speak for Evan Siobhan Pam and Frank when I say that we will work very hard for our community every single day thank you all so [Applause] much and now we will move on with our agenda and we will go right to our village manager's report um thank you mayor um first um circulating in Shan's passing them down uh the signed contract the agreement with the board of education on the field lighting so you'll have some time to review that before we get to the special public meeting um again as Heather pointed out there's just those two time frames that are adjusted in that new agreement um under my report tonight uh first I want to thank Carol Bowski and Beth spinato in my office for the tremendous job they did in preparing this year's 2025 Village calendar uh it's been received by all residential homeowners and I know that there's a lot of excitement about the somewhat new design it's in color this year the uh topic or the theme of the Council of the calendar this year um is the um Arts of Richwood uh so we've gotten some good feedback about that too highlighting fine artists performing artists musical artists here in the village um so we're excited about the 2025 calendar and if anyone needs a copy of it we do have some additional copies Siobhan's holding it up we do have some additional copy copies upstairs in the village manager's office um I want to thank excuse me was that a paper calendar you were holding just just asking never mind sorry go ahead um I want to thank the folks who put together the program um on Sunday at Ridgewood High School celebrating the Lunar New Year um had the opportunity to attend the festival this past weekend it was a great event um certainly um highlighting the festivities the performances were outstanding uh the uh the crafts that were being sold and the food were exceptional so I just want wanted to thank the committee for the invitation uh we certainly had a great time uh very pleased to report that in enclosed session tonight we will be talking about the uh potential siment of two uh labor contracts our Blue Collar contract and our White Collar contract we have uh proposals for memorandum of agreements on both um and we'll be discussing that in closed session more to come at our next council meeting um as to where we settled those contracts uh we are continuing with our 20 25 budget preparations our next budget meeting is this coming Monday night um we have been meeting uh with the Departments during the day we had our Capital meeting last Thursday so we're finalizing that budget as we move forward um and I had a meeting with Bob Rooney our Chief Financial Officer and his staff uh where we made some additional Cuts following our first budget session with the Village Council so the budget is a work in progress uh this afternoon we were able to post the second round of responses to the questions that were submitted by the public relative to the shedler soil testing issues um so those responses are now on the shedler page on the Village website so I call the Public's attention to that if you'd like to read through those and see both Matrix our soil testing company and The Village's responses to those many questions um we also had a pretty significant accident uh this past earlier this week at Kennelworth and Laurel Avenue um we we are in the process of working with the police department to review uh what caused that crash it appears um that someone blatantly ran a stop sign um but through the efforts of Chief lions and Sergeant Torino who heads our Traffic Division uh they are doing a complete review of that location uh to councilman Mortimer this will be added to the seesac um agenda yes um I did receive a memorandum that you'll be able to share with cesac from Sergeant Torino today um they talk about some of the initiatives that signal and the police department have already taken to try to enhance safety at that intersection um and some of the recommendations that they are going to make and they want to discuss with the committee so just want to rest assured to the public that we are working through this and we are trying to come up with some tangible solutions to increase safety in that Corridor um just a few reminders tonight uh first of all we are in the midst of snow season uh just a reminder that all sidewalks in residential districts uh snow must be removed within 24 hours uh for garbage and recycling pickup during snowstorms um we are asking in the case of Sanitation that you please bring your cans curbside this helps protect our employees from having to walk down icy or snow covered paths um so if it is snowing or it is icy out uh please bring your canisters curbside uh we heard about Jam bit tonight from Shawn uh 2025 jambur will celebrate Viva Las Vegas it'll be held February 6th 7th and 8th at BF Middle School uh to purchase tickets you can go to rhs j.org all Village offices and departments will be closed on Wednesday February 12th and mons Monday February 17th in observance of President Lincoln's birthday and President's Day there will be no garbage or recycling pickup and the recycling center will be closed on both days please check the aformentioned calendar uh to check on pickups during that two-e period the Valley Hospital the Ridgewood public library and the ridgwood health department are proud to continue a partnership designed to bring Village residents up to-the minute health and wellness education and events for the whole family on Thursday February 13th from 7: to 8:00 P.M please join a virtual program entitled when to see a cardiologist if you're interested in signing up for this program you can go to valleyhealth.com events or call 1800 825 5391 and lastly upcoming Village Council meetings February 5th is a work session February 10th is a public meeting February 26 is a work session all start at 7:30 p.m. Village Council budget meetings Monday February 3rd Wednesday February 19th and Thursday February 27th budget meetings begin at 5:00 pm here in the council chambers and that concludes my report mayor thanks Keith let's go to council reports sioban sure so I want to begin by by thanking the Martin Luther King Committee of Glenn Rock and Ridgewood um they're one of the longest standing celebratory committees in New Jersey and on Martin Luther King day um we had the pleasure of attending their event uh which the theme was Be Love do justice and I want to thank Reverend Jan Phillips and everybody who made the series of events happen um if you've never been to it I would strongly recommend checking it out um we met with uh stigma free I've swapped with Paul and now I am the Stig free and I want to thank the health department and um we had a large discussion about how to begin the discussion more holistically en rid of what is stigma free and how to challenge it and have a discussion uh so one of the things to combat stigma is to talk about it and we are going to be adding a tagline um where you know you often see the stigma free and it's green and we now have a toolkit as to why it's green and where that graphic came from um but the committee is moving towards the of striving to be Stig free because stigma free is a discussion and we're going to be working on that uh we have a couple interns working on several graphics and we're looking forward to our next meeting so thank you to Dawn and everybody and stay tuned we did just get ready talk about implementing movement and wellness and I'm still going to insist that we're going to do like almost a seventh ining stretch up here because this Council stits too much so stay tuned for that um I also uh with Keith we kicked off the residential flood advisory committee so um prior to this Council all flooding efforts had been uh focused rightfully on municipally owned assets Fields um infrastructure and we have seen an increase in flooding like a significant increase in the scale of flood and the frequency of flooding so um Pam got it started I'm the new liaison and we met with two people from the Saddle River are on the committee two people from the Hocus River and then storm water because storm water flooding is a significant part of that and tonight you will hear some of the continued work that will go on in the Hope Street kind of rado's uh not to personalize it but in a good way Jerry's neighborhood um so I want to say thank you to everybody who made that happen and we're working on our next step the first meeting was really more how we're going to meet when we're going to meet and it's open to the public so stay tuned on that and thank you to everybody who volunteered um I also want to just briefly um add to what Paul said and thank the fields committee um I am the fields rep and over the past two years a huge Mission there has to been to improve the quality of our existing fields in addition to adding a potential new field at shedler um so it meets at 8: a. I think we win for the earliest sometimes longest meeting and I want to thank our Sports Partners the Board of Ed our staff professionals um it's where a lot of this discussion comes out of so thank you to the fields committee for doing the improvements out here and Haws and all the other good work you've seen coming out of that and lastly um I I want to wish everybody celebrating um a lunar new year happy year of the snake I was unable to attend the event on Sunday because it was my mother's 82nd birthday happy birthday mom um but thank you to everybody and I hope you have a wonderful happy new year thanks Shon Frank yeah I um so I had my first seesac meeting which I really enjoyed um that was on the 16th we heard from the public um including the preschool from friends on Highland um that there was some speeding there which um observes speeding that led to an accident um we heard updates from the Richwood police as well as engineering and um and that's what I think is really cool about seesac and I would encourage um all residents to come to it because in one room you have the the police you have engineering um me and then the committee so then that way we can really address issues and take them forward to find uh potential Solutions so what they had discussed was um traffic issues um and then just what what they've observed and what the recommendations are site obstructions um where those are we're working on getting those resolved so that our intersections are easier to see um sidewalks we talked about them and then the East Glenn in Oak intersection uh the next meeting is on February 20th as Keith mentioned there was an accident and we will be discussing that on the 20th I did meet with those neighbors today um at the most recent accident and and so I could see the intersection myself and understand their concerns so it'll be great to share the memo that Keith referenced with the group then um last night was parks and wreck which is still has to be one of my favorites um and the best news that I can say is that the Pavilion that we've talked about at Hackle is getting delivered on Friday hooray um and that uh and actually speaking of Tabernacle 2025 will Mark the 10-year anniversary of Health farar being at the gate house um so stay tuned for some things that'll be happening to celebrate that and that uh and then also we talked about how the um the field that was renovated down at Haws is done and we're going to just keep it closed until about April so it's rock solid for kids to play on come this spring and that's that's it mayor you're off to a flying start thank you thank you so much Evan so I'll be brief um so first um I was able to attend the aapi uh Lunar New Year event it was as usual fantastic uh to everyone celebrating Happy Lunar New Year um really one of the my favorite events of the year and that's just the food is great but the camaraderie Community is just fantastic um we had our kickoff Fourth of July um planning uh group uh meeting on Monday night um really want to thank terara masteron and everyone else follow with that really great group of folks um and we're literally planning this far in advance uh for the July 4th which I have no doubt will be another wonderful wonderful wonderful men um finally um my favorite topic to talk about Keith I want to thank you for kicking off the budget season I thought that first meeting we have is excellent I can only hope the rest of the department heads are as disciplined as the ones we heard from on uh on the past monday um but I'm looking forward to the next round of budget hearings and do appreciate all the professionalism um and courtesy of your staff thanks EV see I told you was really careful with your money U Pam the green Ridgewood advisory committee uh which is our um Environmental Group hosted The Hub meeting which is um several Bergen County towns their uh environmental um commissions and our speakers were two people rich calby and Michael Kors from Ridgewood water and they spoke so well I could see all the other towns were jealous um and uh we also had a speaker uh Lois Krauss about Leaf blowing and microplastics we had people from five counties and so the reach is really Beyond Ridgewood and we had an incredible crowd and I think everybody was felt very inspired green Ridgewood will be meeting this month on Thursday at 7 30 in the senior Lounge downstairs on the first floor the public is welcome and uh every time we get a bigger crowd uh let's see the um special improvement district steering committee for uh for our business Community met this week it was a very productive meeting and so we're all pretty excited about what can come out of our feasibility study here um I also uh really appreciated the Martin Luther King celebration it's quite a tradition the music was just joyous and the speaker was was um you know very enlightening I would say uh the planning board met last week and we had our reorganization and we voted again to have Richard Joel be our chairman and uh new Vice chair is Michael Stern and that's all I have thank you thanks Pam let's get to our regular agenda Keith take it away mayor ton sorry mayor tonight we have um some items to discuss before we enter into the special public meeting um the first is a resolution that needs to be passed and sent to the division of local government services in Trenton for the extension of various file filing deadlines um one is to extend the required due date for the annual financial statement from February 10th to March 7th the next would be the budget introduction date to extend it to March 31st and the last would be the budget adoption date to extend it to April 30th this is performa um this has been um these dates have been extended annually by dlgs for years uh for whatever reason the most recent local Finance notice requires us to pass a resolution to extend these dates that has not been the requirement in the past uh so we're not doing anything that we haven't done in Prior year it just requires a formal action of the governing body which is listed on tonight's special public meeting so that's the first item the next and this would be for 2 three and then also for policy B1 and I'd just ask Gabriel in the back if she could place the uh put the screen on and place the PowerPoint up so this all has to to do with the Veterans Field lighting project which the mayor um explained much of it earlier in the meeting uh but the first resolution is Award of contract under the Educational Services Commission of the New Jersey Cooperative purchasing contract lighting upgrades for the girl softball field on Veterans Field this is to award a contract to musco lighting um musco is the vendor who we contracted with to do the initial phase this would be a phase two and the total contract cost to musco would be $258,000 if we could go to the second slide thank you Gabriella uh the second is to authorize a shared services agreement with the Board of Education again we circulated uh that final document um previously but I just want to clarify because there were some questions that came out of Monday night's Board of Education meeting relative to the cost so phase one which was previously awarded was a $700,000 contract to musco uh that was to do all of the field lighting that you currently see um outside this building it was a 2024 capital budget item um and that was going to cover all of the softball fields um I'm sorry all of the soccer fields and addition to the varsity baseball field the desire of the council was to move forward on an exped schedule um before next year's round or this year's round of capital uh to move forward with the softball field so what we did was we went out and tapped some other Community Partners as was discussed at the top of tonight's meeting but I just want to quantify exactly where those sources of funding are and what the amounts are so we have roughly $440,000 in open Capital relative to park development um that we're working with Bob Rooney office on we have a $103,000 grant from Bergen County open space trust fund which was awarded to us for the Veterans Field lighting project the board of education on Monday night committed $80,000 um from their um Capital fund to enter into a shared services agreement uh to offset the cost for phase two and then we have a $177,000 donation which was uh provided tonight from our BSA $110,000 from Maroon soccer $10,000 from junior football and $110,000 from Bridgewood lacrosse for a total of $270,000 the musco portion of this contract comes out to 258 uh there are a number of items that we need to cover in those outside of the musco costs um excavation um we have signal working through uh some of the electric upgrades that were required in partnership with psng so that accounts for the balance of that amount but I did want to just take you through the financing of this so everyone understands clearly who has contributed what the amount is and how we got to that number Gabrielle if you could move to slide three okay the next piece to this okay is what is going to happen as part of phase two so on the left side of the screen you'll see green circles uh they highlight the polls that are currently out there and were part of the phase one project okay um the yellow poles which there's three of them on the right side um have currently been retrofitted uh they're existing poles with new lighting attached to them moving to phase two those three poles will be eliminated the hardware that is utilized that has been affixed to them will be reused on what will be EST Lish us four new poles which are highlighted in red and those will provide the adequate lighting for the varsity girls softball field in the upper right hand corner of the field so phase one as it stands today funded the green poles and retrofitting the yellow poles as part of phase two we will be removing those yellow poles and replacing them with the red poles any questions about that what's what's timing when is all this happening you're going to award the contract uh tonight hopefully uh we're going to give uh the notice to proceed to musco tomorrow and we are still on point to have these lights installed and operational before opening day of baseball that's fantastic which I want to say is April 26th if my memory Serv isn't correct all right um and then finally um the next resolution that's on the agenda this evening uh during the special public meeting is the formal acceptance of the four donations from the respective sports groups if you go to slide next slide and again you know we did this at the top of the meeting but I I just want to publicly say um thank you uh to all the different entities uh both the nonprofit groups and the our partners at the county and at the Board of Education um for working with us uh in this endeavor uh from my perspective this was truly a Community Partnership everyone came together together everyone put some skin in the game uh to bridge the gap and complete this project and as councilman whites indicated uh you know having this done before the spring season uh so our kids can enjoy it this coming spring uh will certainly be something special any questions on anything pertaining to the vets lighting project I'm just waiting because it's a work session that's grant money Evan which is awesome and private donations which softens everyone's tax dollars hear any objections from no it's just eting for it come on and by the way I just I just want to point out and I I think it's worth highlighting um I did ask Scott Mueller uh to share his um registration numbers as of uh yesterday um as of yesterday there are 9 15 Ridgewood student athletes who will be participating from kickball um all the way up to um minor to um Junior Baseball um and senior softball um so that runs from the time kickball starts all the way through 8th grade uh 915 participants um and then within that 105 travel softball athletes 194 travel baseball athletes and then when you pivot to the high school program which obviously um Ridgewood High School uses um the the the 90 Field behind this building as their varsity baseball field um and then the softball field which we highlighted earlier 70 students are enrolled at Ridgewood High School in the baseball program from freshman to Varsity and 44 students are enrolled in the softball program from freshman to Varsity for a total of 114 high school students who will benefit uh from the improvements made out there so all told you know you're you're well over 1100 students who will uh around 1100 students who will be able to participate this kindergarten all the way up to to a big deal just wanted to highlight that and with that if there's no questions on Veterans Field uh we're going to Pivot to operations I'm going to ask Beth mcamis who is our planner for affordable housing uh to come forward and talk about the resolution that's being put forward tonight relative to the fourth round affordable housing obligation for the village of Ridgewood so Beth if you'd come forward welcome Beth hi Beth make sure you the mic there you go thank you good to be back all good go third time charm uh so tonight we have a a resolution on your agenda to uh that really accomplishes two things the first is to if you could speak closely and you have to speak it's kind of annoying I know that's okay thank um the resolution does two things the first thing it does is it declares your participation in the fourth round process so that you can essentially formally enter the process and begin the various steps and two it handles that first step which is to declare your affordable housing obligation and so those are the the two goals of the resolution presuming the council passes it it will be submitted to the affordable housing dispute resolution program and the fourth round process will officially begin the uh the affordable housing obligation that's set forth is for the fourth round meaning it's from for the years 2025 through 2035 and there are two types of affordable housing obligations that every municipality has and that this resolution addresses the first is the rehabilitation obligation and that is the estimate of the number of low and moderate income households that live in Ridgewood that are also living within substandard units so units that are overcrowded lacking proper kitchen facilities Etc um the second type of the affordable housing obligation is referred to as the new construction obligation and that is the uh the prospective need is another word for it and so it's the anticipated number of new affordable units that are uh necessary in Ridgewood between between 2025 and 2035 now we have a new Fair Housing Act this year uh that was adopted by the state that really lays out this process and one of the things that act did was it said that the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs should calculate Municipal affordable housing obligations but they're not binding so it's incumbent upon every municipality to do your due diligence review the details of those uh calculations and then through this resolution declare essentially that you you agree with what DCA did site their report or uh or not inside your own data and so in Ridgewood it's it's a little bit of a mixed bag so for our Rehabilitation obligation DCA calculated that number to be four units and I've gone through the data in their methodology for doing so I think they've done so correctly and I think there's very little room for interpretation and so this proposed resolution simply accepts that 4unit Rehabilitation obligation for the fourth round uh the DCA had calculated an obligation of 427 units UNS and I've gone through the data uh that DCA used to calculate that number and I think there's uh one aspect of it for which DCA made some errors and uh should have better estimated uh in this case it's the amount of developable land that exists in Ridgewood now the Fair Housing Act has a has a a methodology for doing so but there is some room for interpretation and as look at what DCA did what I would recommend is that The Village's resolution not site the 427 but instead you cite an obligation of 394 units and that reduced obligation reflects my recommended changes to the amount of developable land in Ridgewood and so essentially it eliminates properties in the flood Hazard Area Properties in the flood way and properties whose configuration is really not appropriate for new development so if you think about maybe a buffer an existing buffer for non-residential use or perhaps a skinny lot that might have perhaps 40 ft of width it's not adequate to support uh a multif family development or an affordable housing development and so this resolution uh would cite that analysis it would it includes a report that I prepared that goes through each of the lots that DCA identified and indicates whether essentially uh whether it's correct or whether they fail to account for say the the floodway as an example and then what the resulting obligation is which of course as I said is 394 units and the last thing I want to say about the obligation although I'm happy to answer any questions is while your number is 394 units and I think that's uh that's quite large for a town like Ridgewood uh I do want to I hope put folks mind at ease because Ridgewood has already done and you will continue to do what's referred to as a vacant land adjustment and that is something that is not appropriate to be uh addressed in this resolution but instead shall be addressed as part of your forthcoming housing plan and in that process The Villages obligation will be I think ultimately dramatically reduced in order to reflect the amount of development that is anticipated and the amount of uh vacant and developable land land that exists at this time and just for uh uh just for an example in the third round uh the village took a vacant land adjustment and at that time you were adjusting your prior round and your third round obligation which was uh over 850 units combined and your adjusted obligation was 55 units just for just for context so as you think about this 394 unit number I think admittedly it it feels perhaps a bit too large a bit overwhelming but that number shall be adjusted I can't guarantee much in life but I can guarantee that that number will come down through the vacant land adjustment process and as we get to the housing plan stage of this we'll talk in much more detail about how to do that and what it means for the village uh and then of course how to satisfy it as part of your housing plan and you and you should know the um is if you pass this res resolution that means you're participating in the process and there are various other deadlines but the next big deadline is June 30th and that is for submission of an adopted housing plan and when do you expect to bring us back what you think our our actual what our actual numbers going to be it's not working all Evan see if this orange light's on again bear with us we're testing out some new mics not at all I guess we're we're going um so when do you think um we will have an idea from you what that adjusted number will be so uh I've already started putting together that data and I would anticipate uh within a month or so I should have an estimate now things may change as as developers and Property Owners uh make suggestions or land uses change but I should have a a sense as to that in in about a month or so and just for the sake of clarity for folks at home I know all five of us have been breathed pretty extensively and Beth you've done a really nice job I think taking a complicated subject and making it really palatable for us but just to be clear by agreeing tonight to 394 we're simply agreeing that that's what the obligation is calculated should be calculated to be under the law but that's not what we're going to agree that we actually need to come to a plan to build that's that's the next number that we're going to be talking about right yes that's correct and in fact the resolution uh makes uh in at least one paragraph but I think a few of them it reserves the right to take that vacant land adjustment and it also just puts everybody that's reading the resolution on notice that while we we declare This is Our obligation we're fully expecting to do a vacant land adjustment right and again I think I I I I don't know if I speak for everyone but I suspect I do I mean 394 for a town as developed as rid is preposterous it's just not acceptable um we've got to find something within the law that makes sense and that's really the next step that I know we'll be talking with you in close session and coming back with a you know coming back um publicly on it probably in the next couple months but again Beth thank you so much for your work on this my pleasure and other questions I I just want to say sort of echo being new up here you this is a very cumbersome State um navigatable lots of information I want to I also want to thank the League of Women Voters for they've done a lot to educate the community um I love the differentiation between sha in May when you said that um just I really want to Echo what Evan said that we we understand how built out r it is and in the third round this number at that time was 850 units and by the time we went to achievement it was 55 so the current number tonight that we're reading in is um 394 four 427 is what they came from and then the recommended is 394 so those are big numbers and when they go out into the community I just want people to remember the Delta between 850 and 55 and I just really want to say thank you um it is it is a heavy read this sub this is how thick the one packet is and um I look forward to our next step thank you through through you mayor um you know this is a very difficult topic to try to oversimplify uh but I spoke to a reporter about this today in light of this agenda item and what I said to the reporter was we start the state had us starting at 427 we've adjusted to start at 394 but this is just a starting point because as we go through this process entitled a vacant land adjustment which is essentially assessing where there are developable properties in Ridgewood for this use that number is going to inherently go down and as sioban pointed out during the third round that number went from8 something to 55 um we anticipate with Beth's guidance and assistance that that's going to happen here again um and I think that was the best way to describe it and I think it's the best way to describe it to the public public that this is a work in progress but this 394 is a starting point that we fully anticipate to be reduced by a significant number other questions or comments yeah I think I still sorry I think I still see the number four and five is not changed not in the new one if you don't have the new one in front of you you had stuff to put into your that was that was correct they all say four it should all say four it doesn't which resolution okay the 2597 97 on which page yeah on the um third page paragraph three fourth line down still refers to five units corrected oh she is good did you look at the [Music] new the new one in front of you this evening yeah what well we'll make that I mean if the amendment hasn't been made on the one that's signed and we we'll make sure that it says four on both correct one that sign that's all I did mention that the deputy mayor was detail oriented I believe just saying sorry anybody else all good Beth we can't thank you for guiding us so carefully and so thoughtfully through this um we have all met with you um so that you could make this understandable um because it is incredibly complex and thank you tonight for your clear and succinct explanation it was wonderful thank you so much my pleasure um thank you very much we'll be in touch as we uh get into this next phase looking forward to it would be too strong a statement but you you know what I mean I gotta thank you very much everybody have a good night thank Beth and with that we will entertain a motion to suspend the work session and convene our special public meeting so moved I'll second hold on Mortimer yes paron yes whites yes wad yes sanos yes this is the Village Council special public meeting the date is January 29th 2025 the time is 8:56 6 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 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 council member uh Deputy Mayor pin here council member whites here council member windrad here mayor vaganis here I move that a portion of the Village Council closed session minutes of December 2nd 2024 having been reviewed by the council and now available in the village clerk's office be approved as submitted second Mortimer yes parin yes whites yes when grad yes and vas yes the following resolutions number 25- 97 through 25-11 are to be adopted by a consent agenda with one vote by The Village Council uh they will be read by title only accept the village of ridgewood's fourth round affordable housing obligation extend deadlines for annual financial statement 20125 annual budget introduction and 2025 annual budget adoption accept donations from various sports groups lighting upgrades as a girl softball field and Veterans Field award contract under Educational Services Commission of New Jersey Cooperative purchasing contract permanent lighting at girls softball field on Veterans Field authorized shared services agreement upgraded lighting at the girls softball field on Veterans Field uh with the Ridgewood Board of Education I have a motion so moved second Mortimer before I say yes I just want to um say I think it's so great with the the how many how much of the community came together to for the donations for the lights and I think it really just illustrates that Ridgewood is about sports and that's what the majority of the Ridgewood residents do and it just shows to raise the kind of money that we did how important it is and with that I say yes parin yes whites yes Winograd with many thanks to everybody who helped yes and vaganos yes through through you mayor before we adjourn um Heather those minutes were for December 2nd okay I don't know if councilman Mortimer wants to revisit his vote because he wasn't on the day he wasn't in that meeting okay yeah so I just want to flag that for you so you'd like to council member you'd like to abstain on that actually he was at that oh he was he was that was the reorganization yeah oh that was the the the meeting with the new Council correct okay we just Matt and I just wanted to make sure that we were covered there oh good we're covered I motion to adjourn no motion to adjourn the special public meeting and reconvene the work session what she said okay so second okay so who made the motion mayor you made the motion okay okay hold on uh Mortimer yes parin yes whites yes wiad yes vaganos yes and now we will move back to our regular meeting agenda Keith mayor under discussion tonight uh under Ridgewood water we have the establishment of water department annual maintenance fees um as listed in the resolution any questions on that nope okay item two under Ridgewood water is to establish interest rates for deliquent payments to Ridgewood water uh this and you will find this in two other uh resolutions that we're going to discuss tonight further down in the agenda establish establishes an interest rate of 8% on the first $1500 188% on the balance over $1,500 for non-payment of bills beyond the due date for all bills in excess of $50 authorized and directed to change to charge 6% uh penalty on any fiscal year deliquent in excess of $10,000 as opposed to the taxpayers for non-payment of property taxes and you'll find this to be consistent in in a few of the other resolutions this evening any questions on that consistent with what you trailed off at the end so this is consistent with the Statue okay sorry no isue everybody good yep good okay the next item is under parking and this is a memorandum from Chris rudish Houser a village engineer requesting to change parking ordinance in and around the peas Library building um after discussions with central dispatch uh they are requesting several clarifications to the parking regulations along Library Place course of Terrace and the parking lot at the southwest corner of the pe's library um you can see in the ordinance that is attached and proposed um that they are looking to um add the section that would allow for uh the parking lot adjacent into the P library at of course of Terrace and then as you get to the next page uh the three easternmost parking spaces on the north side of the eastbound direction of the library place as it approaches Garber Square the spaces shall be unmetered and Placer accordingly section g uh the northernmost two parking spaces along the west side of the library place on its approach to the turn into Garber Square the two spaces shall be unmetered and Placer accordingly these will be reserved for uh Central and then all the parking spaces in the parking lot at the southwest corner of the P Library building um and then parking prohibited on Library Place on both sides from Garver Square to 182 West uh feet West thereof with the exception of the parking metered spaces for Northwest central dispatch any questions on the changes to the ordinance yeah I just have a question um this change is only U for clarification doesn't change the substance that is correct that is correct any questions beyond that okay uh moving on to budget uh we have W of contract under the north Jersey Wastewater Cooperative pricing system and the Pake Valley sewage commission for additional storm system cleaning and TV inspection for sewer Mains uh council member winegrad mentioned this earlier in the meeting this is to continue the uh investigation relative to the conditions of the storm water collection system on Hope Street and Spring Street um we found that there have been a number of obstructions uh we've used rapid pump and meter service who can be contracted uh through this Co-op to perform this work uh it's a not to exceed amount of $40,000 and this will kick back up in the spring once the weather gets a little warmer and hope we're hopeful that this will bring all of the issues over in that section of town to fruition so everybody good yeah I just want to State the obvious obviously there's been um the public can't see a serious um since my time in the council lovely expression from the residents in this neighborhood which we are very grateful for um we're acting uh clearly flooding is a very big issue this area not only affects the residents are there but it goes all the way to multiple V Board of Ed assets and um effectively the more improve the storm water system is there the existing one the better the flooding will be so um first I I want to thank Pam because she really got this started and two I just want to make sure that the council understands that this isn't just the residents but also the assets of the Board of Ed will be improved with this and lastly um I want to thank our engineering department where this is not the most Pleasant work and they really made it happen and that was repeatedly said in some of these lovely emails that we all got so that's it and um also just in case this happens in the future um this contract does say that if confined space entry is not that confined space entry is not included in this proposal um so I think there are situations where that could happen and we might have to come back and make an adjustment and just a special thanks to Jerry Moore um from that neighborhood who organized the residents and made sure that everyone was kept informed and everyone was kept on t so again all part of everybody doing their part for the village and for their neighbors so thanks very much Jerry great next up is the award of contract for the disposal of recycling materials for 2025 this contract is being proposed to be awarded to Atlantic Coast Recycling in amount not to exceed $72,000 I'm so glad they're back in business yeah yes next okay next up is a memorandum from Nancy beos our director of Parks and Recreation with a recommendation to award a contract for the gr and pool Waters Edge Cafe for the summer season uh this was advertised eight packets were picked up only one was returned and she's recommending the award to Legacy hospitality and Entertainment Group of Wayne New Jersey and this will be for 2025 with an option for 2026 and so this is going to be a new vendor compared to what we've had historically right yeah yeah look at the menu yeah I saw I was looking through it it looks great um I know that they have um they have uh locations elsewhere have we I assume we've done some homework checked with them they're in good standing I I The Proposal on its space looks wonderful but have we just done any due diligence on any um places where they currently have a contract I I believe she looked into them and was satisfied okay do you want to go around and taste their food at the other places I was wondering if that was part of the would would you guys like to lead a committee on that we'll call it the fries for troll okay uh next up is an award of contract for our annual maintenance for software for the finance department uh this is a proprietary software for Edmond and Associates not to exceed $25,000 item five is to authorize the rental of two trucks for the sanitation department uh this is for the continuation of those rental trucks um through the sourcewell Cooperative purchasing program uh not to exceed $7,300 per month for total of $73,000 for 2025 questions good let's go Sean we'll talk more about that when we get to our our budget meeting with sanitation okay um next up is to establish 2025 significant sewer discharge fees um 2023 and 2024 the rate was maintained at $4.70 per 1,000 gallons of flow in excess of 10 19,500 gallons per year is discharged from commercial properties uh those water meter consumptions are based upon two winter quarters uh Chris reviewed this ordinance um and is recommending that for 2025 we increase the rate from 470 to 485 per thousand gallons questions okay good okay next up is establish the interest rate for delinquent taxes and non-payment of Assessments for other Municipal leans for 20 25 and set the grace period um this again is the um same percentages that I discussed under the water account good okay um next is to establish interest rates and delinquent payments for significant discharge bills for 2025 um again same percentages as for the other two number nine is to authorize electronic tax sales uh by the tax collector and we do this every year right yes this is all proor y all good y item 10 is to authorize the collection of tax over payments and delinquent amounts that's per the resolution yep good number 11 is to authorize the tax collector to charge for a mailing of tax sale notices we good okay we have nothing under policy this evening under operations we discussed the acceptance of the donation of the Natural Stone bench if we have any further discussion on that and then finally uh we have a memorandum again from Chris ruteshouser uh proposed through Street designation for birkshire Road in response to an investigation that was performed by The Ridgewood Police Department Traffic Safety Bureau uh Chris is recommending that this roadway be designated as a through Street um and shall permit The Village to install stop stop signs at the intersections of the street entering onto Burkshire Road there's a memorandum from Sergeant Torino attached and a proposal of the ordinance all good that concludes my portion of the agenda mayor and so we will return to public comments uh good evening a boy a loving Ridgewood uh I was at that accident and I would like to say this the fire department is the best you've got to be at one of the things to see when they arrive everybody knows exactly what their job is exactly what to do and they work very quickly everybody is attended to who needs to be attended to it is just poetry in motion so if you're out and about and you happen to stumble across one of these things you should go I know that there was some comments made about the size of the fire department budget it is worth every cent I go to a lot of these incidents and I go to towns where it doesn't work in Ridgewood it works let's fund that department let's keep that training going because they know what to do they save lives again you've got to go to one of these things and see them in operation to understand it is very important to fund an operation like that thank you thank you thanks boy thank you boy and I'll pass that on to chief judge tomorrow yeah we we are we are aware and so proud of our fire department and so fortunate to have them um and to be led by uh uh chief judge and yet it's always nice to hear it so thank you so much anybody else seeing no one we're going to close public comment and we will entertain a resolution to go into closed session so moved second I have to read it oh be resolved by The Village Council of the village of Ridgewood at the Village Council meet and close session on January 29 2025 at 7:30 p.m. or soon thereafter as a matter on the agenda can be reached and that that set close session be held in the caucus room on the fourth floor of the rid of Village Hall 131 North Maple Avenue bridgwood New Jersey and be further resolved that the matters to be discussed in closed session are limited to legal matters to include Valley Hospital added assessments and Personnel matters to include Village managers office building department blue collor Union negotiations and white collar Union negotiations these matters are allowable under njsa 10 col 4-12 at SEC and be a further resolved that 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 I'll second okay um all in favor I anyone opposed okay thank you let's go [Music] per