##VIDEO ID:EGNhfTVoOdY## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening forgive us for running late we had um several matters in close session that took us longer than expected we apologize for the Delight so let's begin this is the Ridgewood Village Council public Workshop the date is January 8th 2025 the time is 7:42 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 Deputy Mayor parin here council member whites here council member windrad here and mayor vaganos here will you all please join us in a salute to our flag I pledge aliance 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 and before we go to public comment I'd like to call up George Petrus come on up George why don't you have a seat right over here and press the button on the mic and why don't you introduce yourself okay if you have to speak right into the microphone to be heard so if you could pick this up there you go okay good evening everyone my name is George petris I'm half Greek half American now since I live here more than half of my life and um I'm the new owner of uh the former Greek Tumi in uh East Ridgewood Avenue and very soon are you're going to have a new Greek restaurant from with flavors from the island of calos and um you're from calos right George I am from calos yes uhhuh and and how long have you been thinking about open a Greek restaurant uh many many years many many years but it was meant to be and uh thank you for the opportunity it has been it has been my pleasure um working with you on this and um and I have seen how you have transformed um what was its Greek to me it is no longer its Greek to me it is meltemi why don't you tell everybody what MMI means uh Meli is a uh Northern Northern wind in the agnc that happens only in the summer so if it happened that you were in Greece some place in the aan and there was a big store that was AI mhm yeah and why don't you tell us uh a couple of the items you plan to have on your menu so that people get an idea of what kind of place this is going to be okay um stuffed uh grape vine leaves mhm uh from my Island um a slow cooked Lum stuffed with rice that it Cooks overnight uh stuffed calamari with feta cheese and calamari and spices and I know you talked about a lot of fish correct oh yes yes yes yes lots of fish you know not the uh ordinary uh average Greek restaurant has um Plenty of Fish different kinds uh upon availability you know whatever we find in this season that's what we're going to serve sometimes it's cheap sometimes you know more expensive but but it's going to be fresh uh um I go to the market to the fish market twice maybe three times a week um I'm I'm prepping now a refrigerator to uh maintain my fish to uh the best possible temperature uh um yeah yeah and everything is going to be fresh uh uh handmade to order it's going to be good it's going to be good and I see you've got workman's clothes on I gather you're there working on the place well this is my um this is what I do for living I'm a pluming contractor so so this is what I've been doing but now soon I'm going to do what what I love to do you know well on behalf of the council and the entire Community we wish you lots of good luck and we all look forward to your opening up thank you thank you great thanks so much for coming tonight thank you I may or if I may before we move on to the public portion um each new business owner in Ridgewood receives a letter from my office when they receive their certificate of occupancy inviting them to come to a council meeting to introduce themselves to the council and to the community and I expect uh Mr David Arabia from corkran Infinity properties to be with us at next week's meeting to introduce himself to the council and to the people of Bridgewood great thank you so much Keith and we're going to take something a little out of order tonight we have Beth mcmanis who is um The Village's affordable housing consultant and so we're going to take her uh actually no we're going to do public comment first forgive me so I'm going to open open it up to public comment I don't think that's on Cynthia green light Cynthia O'Keefe Ridgewood president I'm sure everyone's writing high on the accolades from Monday's meeting where we had some dignitaries here to talk about how great Ridgewood is but I think a new year is a time to reflect on ways to improve to do things better more effectively more efficiently and make smarter choices and the reality is that new beginnings also require things to end just yesterday our Surgeon General VC Murthy was urging Americans to rethink how we are living our lives these were his parting his parting prescription for our country and Ridgewood talks about being green but we are actually if we're still talking about Turf were not green each of you took an oath attesting that you would be fair just and impartial but what do those words mean if they aren't backed up by anything and they're still antiquated thinking where you know matters of Health are concerned I don't think that we can sit here today and talk about artificial turf fields which I've talked about many times at many of these meetings you've had experts write to you and still it's falling on deaf ears and it's unfortunate and unfortunately um and I'm going to pick on you a little bit Frank you uh at the League of Women Voters um during the election time you spoke about Turf being safe you made a declaratory statement saying the EPA said it's safe crumb rubber was never talked about for the shedler property and you said you read that application cover to cover and that it was well thought out and thorough were your words and you spoke about um environmental leadership as one of the pillars of your campaign having our village be the standard that other towns will look to for guidance I'd like to know from from you and from everybody else how are we supposed to do that if we're still selecting and choosing things that don't make good sense healthwise for our children our children don't consent to be on these fields so I'd like you to answer that question tonight for everybody and there were many disclaimers in that EPA report there was uh two versions of it and I read them cover to cover and I'd like you to um elaborate a little bit on that and I'll bring it um up week after week until I get my answers um so I you know you said you're going to be a new voice but I want to know what a new voice is saying if we're just saying the same old message we talk about trees this is last year's calendar but we're talking about cutting down the trees all the trees at shedler by the end of the day you will have cut them all down that's our protection for our neighborhood 500 people wrote a petition and signed it and said they were unhappy with this overdevelopment plan so I'd like to know if that will be um part of your your you know process for this year to make um different choices smarter choices thank you thank you Cynthia Jan Krugman Ridgewood resident as a Ridgewood High School alum now pursuing a degree in Environmental Studies I've learned one undeniable truth prevention will always be more effective than a cure kilan excuse me if you could make sure you speak you have to speak very close to the mic to be heard thank you we can build all the pfas filtration plants in the world but if we continue approving projects that emit these toxins any so-called progress is nothing more than a mockery of change I want to talk about artificial turf as well the same artificial turf that my gym classes were taught on initially called chem grass artificial turf or astr turf was created by the Ford foundation and Monsanto Industries in 1964 the technological design Remains the Same today the vast majority of these fields are built with rubber crumbs mostly made from recycled tires in 2007 the nonprofit environment and human health found 25 chemical compounds in crumb rubber including carcinogens and endrin disruptors that same year the California environmental health hazard assessment released a report concluding that ingestion of these chemicals posed almost three times higher risk of cancer unlike traditional grass fields artificial turf creates a heat island due to its inability to vaporize water and cool the surrounding air athletes report burns from the heated Rubber and their shoes melting on contact this heat intensifies the release of p and methane exposing student athletes to Dangerously high concentrations a study revealed that children exposed to past experience effects comparable to lowlevel lead exposure we're talking about developmental delays permanent disabilities and Childhood Cancer the quote natural alternative infills artificial Turf companies have begun to uh advertise present similar risks these infills are typically made of silal sand coated with acrylic polymers which break down into carcinogenic materials and plastic debris paulos claim that pofs are everywhere and therefore should be exempt from regulation by that logic should we have ignored the dangers of lead in hindsight should we have dismissed the science because lead exists in everything our dish wear or paint even the Earth's crust with the 1978 lead based po poisoning prevention act be met with the same criticism how about the 1986 Banning of lead and plumbing the lead contamination Control Act of 1988 a 1995 ban on lead solder and food cans how about the 2008 to 2011 regulations limiting exposure through children's products are these useless Endeavors I don't think so the reality is every step of prevention creates an extreme drop in average lead blood levels in 1971 there's an average of 18 micrograms of lead per de kilter of blood whereas now it's just barely over 1 microgram I'm willing to bet those who benefit from the profits of lead products probably pose the very same talking points that Paul Vinos and his Sports Club lobbyists have been regurgitating to the public now in the face of annual flooding and drinking water advisories as Ridgewood receives an award for its construction of past treatment plants please don't let yourself be drawn into this manufactured Sports culture War by clubs that prioritize profits over safety thank you thank you good evening um Amy mccambridge I stand before you tonight not just as a resident ofu but as a parent a professional soccer trainer in rid for 17 years and a veteran as a young Marine I learned firsthand how chemical and biological agents impact the human body how invisible poisons destroy lives devastate families and leave communities completely broken this is not a debate about sports versus nature this is about life itself it's about health it's about safety and it's about trust right now ridard has three artificial Fields each filled with past forever chemicals that poison our soil flood into our rivers and contaminate the water that we drink these chemicals don't degrade they don't disappear they accumulate in our bodies and our children's bodies and in the land and water that sustain us the science is clear studies from Mount C and other leading institutions spell out the dangers ke fast causes cancer Boston has banned tur Fields altogether because they refuse to gamble with their residents lives yet here in Ridgewood you look the other way you ignore the science you ignore the warnings and you gamble with our children's future how do you justify this how do you reconcile the fact that you guys are suing Dupont and three mil from contaminating our water with past when in fact you are dumping the same ingredient pasas back into our rivers and soil through these turf fields it's hypocrisy at the highest order it's Reckless but it's not just the chemicals we're fighting against with every tree you cut down and every patch of grass you replace with artificial turf you steal from our kids you steal the shade where they play the air that they breathe and the land that they are meant to inherit you may not see the destruction today but our children and our grandchildren will see it they will pay the price for your indifference and they will suffer because you choose convenience over courage and for what for one more Hollow accomplishment This Land Is Not Yours to do what you please with it belongs to all of us and to the generations yet unborn you will not be the ones to live with the poison water the dead soil and the devastation Left Behind the burden will fall on our children and our grandchildren I have seen the cost of inaction it is written in the faces of the dying in the tears of mothers who bury their children and in the silent grief of communities betrayed by those withholding the truth and I'm here to tell you the truth the choices you're making right now are not just shortsighted they are danger dangerous and unforgivable and where are the leaders supposed to protect us where's the Board of Education whose sacred duy is to safeguard our children and our mayor you once stood as a champion for environmental justice I'll tell you where they're here but they're silent what keeps you quiet is it convenience complacency or is it something worse a choice to gamble with our health our environment and our children's futures for the sake of appearance and profit you owe this community answers because right now your science silence is a betrayal a betrayal of the children who trust you betrayal to all the families who believed in you and a betrayal of the very land and water that sustains us all so I ask you when the next Generation looks back at this moment in time what will they say about you as Leaders will they remember you as Leaders who stood for Truth For Life and for their future with full transparency or will they call curse your names knowing you were the ones that failed them make Mo no mistake you guys work for us and if you choose silence again we will not forget because if you won't fight for the kids in the Community we will thank you thank you Amy anyone else seeing no one I'm going to close public comment would anyone like nope I have no one online would anyone like to respond I do I appreciate your tenacity and I completely agree with you thank you so I want to say something I'm going to make a joke first thank you for your public opinion I've never been accused of being silent before um I really appreciate the advocacy and I'm just going to add some information I did tell you Amy if you want to email me if you guys want to meet and get together um I don't want to belabor the shedler turf debate but there's some highlevel things first of all the village currently uses a different Turf than the Board of Ed so the Board of Ed uses field Turf and we use a vendor named Shaw we are using a different fill so we're different bodies and there's different differences within that that being said with Cynthia to start with not all the trees are coming down at shedler the plan from the original purchase has always been let's let's pretend it's a grass field trees were always highlighted to come down and there's a significant amount of invasive trees and we will deal with them separately an invasive tree can become hazardous the worst example is like an ash tree so we are taking trees down but we are doing a significant significant replant and we understand that but that was the plan from the beginning to the end it was purchased with full consent and public money to be a park with the field and trees were always coming down and the replant this Council Bonafide it and made it even higher additionally we've the trees that are there we've spent significantly the sugar maple we' spent over $6,500 making sure that that tree at the end of its life is maintained and healthy so I just not all the trees are coming down it's not that way and and this Council while we have the turf thing which I'll get to the plan was always to remove it always to have a playing field and that was what caused the public to support the purchase of the property additionally um the posos isn't just this is more for the public it's not one thing it's not not all poses are equal there's 5,000 different versions and we are sensitive to posos for a myriad of reasons we are meeting and partnering and sourcing trying with P friendly turf it's not happening we've met with three or four of them we're looking to minimize some of the fill we've had the samples here so we are aware of it um in Additionally the lot of the studies that are highlighted is Crum rubber we're not using Crum rubber that's never been an option for us it's not ever been in this Council or any other council's plan and the expert that did reach out to us Sarah Evans when we reached back out to her we were unresponded to so I don't want to like you know hold wait hold on one excuse me this is what I was going to say I I do want to do want to have more of a back and forth I am you know I voted yes for the turf I believe that that's a good solution I believe there are issues with twice a year we shut these fields down and spray them with lots of lots of chemicals grass and turf have an equatable where people can't go on it for 24 hours so there is a discussion I'm available but we are trying to pump as much information out there as possible and I really want to be defensive of this Council about being silent but I also want to be mindful every meeting I can't go back and go over the same amount of detail so if you want to email me we can get together that's fine to say that we haven't contact to the professional Sarah Evans never wrote us back I don't know if you had any success with her Pam not yet um we we are we are reading and taking everything and you know that's what we're doing so I just wanted to add those points I'm trying to see if I'm mentioned anything and I just want to say you know it is we are listening it's just at the end of the day factoring all that in I am still the proponent of the turf at shedler and I know that's not favorable but that's why I also feel that there's the Board of Ed there's looking in town other areas on the board of ed they're looking at turfing as well and expanding their Turf profile so this isn't just a council issue it's a community issue um but if you want to email me we can get together we can hash out some of the details I just think this is not crom rubber there's very many versions of posos and when we speak in absolute statements like all the trees are coming down that's just not true anybody else yeah I'd like to say something now I don't have my notes in front of me so I'm doing this from memory but the report that the EPA which is that's the federal agency that's governed to look after our health did a report that was they there was a multi- um part report done over multiple years the most recent one was done in April of 24 and in that they had four conclusions which they highlight where they could they basically compar compared people that played on Turf to people that played on grass and they also did comparisons of people to the general population and in all those cases all the hard metals and stuff that you quoted and lead and all that they was not detectable in the people that played on it they um they looked at both the the air quality they tested the people's urine and blood and it wasn't there so when I say safe and I went back and looked Cynthia and one place in the report it does say use the word safe in the other parts because of how a scientific report is written it won't use the word safe but it says it's comparable to the general population so that means either the entire general population is not safe or it is safe and so when I use the word safe to to say it is as I'm comparing it to that additionally um the report also looks at other primary reports and quotes them from other agencies around the world and to me what was significant is how many of the European um things that's similar to our EPA say similar things that there's no problem playing on Turf and if it's repeated again and again and again and most recently too I don't know the date of the magazine but the one that goes out for our national parks and recreation all also references the same survey that I'm referring to and says it this shows that it's safe to use artificial turf and the other thing that I want to say is to say to to be like oh if if we had this prestine Forest it would be good but you're not looking at what grass fields also Encounter of how many herbicides and pesticides are used and the dangers that have been established I mean Monsanto it as you mentioned is also horrible with Roundup and all that stuff that's what goes on fields and the thing is is that grass as a plane field is not grass in a meadow and so what's important as well is that the the consultant that this Village hired quotes a study of that grass use at a th000 hours per year that the and this is available in the appendix of the the application for the field that want to ship and what it says is at a th000 hours of usage a year the grass actually becomes dangerous because the grass is wiped out and it gets pitted so it it it's when you want to have a grass field you you have to limit its use we're not in a in an opportunity to do that because as Siobhan said that you'd have to rotate the fields and I just what I really want to emphasize is is in my mind that taking liquid chemicals pouring it on a grass field is going to soak into the ground and potentially cause more issues than an artificial turf and so what the EPA did look at is all the tire crumb and all that nasty stuff that that we're not going to use but I think it's important that they say that now Pam's going to say but that didn't address um posos and the only study that I've been able to find so far ironically is from Sweden um and I can bring in that article but it looked at 10 artificial turf fields around stocko and the thing that I think that is significant in that study is it said that they don't see any um detectable um it doesn't impact human health because they had no detectable leeching of the posos from the artificial turf and I'm quoting that so I don't want to say that that's specifically what it said but that's my recollection and with that I will now say I'm done I have to disagree the EPA report says in its introduction this is not a risk assessment that's what report 2 says they are not concluding that it's safe it was limited to crumb rubber which we are not going to use in Ridgewood nobody has studied the Alternatives except for the manufacturers so we don't know what they're going to bring um um the sample size that the EPA used is ludicrous it was such a small sample size um and uh the the idea that we would open up our athletes and children to um posos which by the way we may soon have to regulate in our sewage in our discharge um this is something that doesn't break down like the things that you pour on grass like lime and um fertilizer those things break down quickly not posos and uh what what the report also never addressed was the effect on the environment um it's undeniable that that artificial turf creates a heat island and by the way children are much more susceptible to heat uh to to heat stroke than adults because they don't sweat and um and kids are uh um closer to the ground so that when the voc's come out of this fake field um they're they're the ones breathing breathing them in the particulate matter um the PM 2.5 that comes out of these fields uh is particularly bad for people who have asthma or any other kind of respiratory problems um the list goes on and on about the potential risks that these fields pose and I I just can't count it's approving it Pam just one quick thing the the I'm referring to part three not part two of the report part three is what came out in April and just if you're I will argue that little kids do sweat and next time my daughter is out playing I'll send her over to your house and you can see just and I know Evan had something to say so yeah thanks so much I mean listen I I came here two years ago new to the issue um and I sat down and I talked to my friends in the shedler community I talked to Pam I talked to folks um on the other side of the issue um listen I came out that a lot of the dangers that you're suggesting are are fact were inconclusive um you know we can go back and forth on the EPA report um but the federal government is taking no action to ban Turf I'm not aware of any state level uh in New Jersey or elsewhere to ban Turf um and candidly I mean I looked at this issue not just as a councilman but as a parent um I was actually late tonight to our closed door session because I was dropping my 12-year-old son off at soccer practice on a turf field so some of the more pointed language I did take exception with tonight that we're being hypocritical um I'm not being hypocritical you may disagree with me but I'm not being hypocritical um similarly you know this idea of death ear I listened to my shedler friends I listened and read as much as I could on this topic it's not depth ears We Just Disagree this is an issue that reasonable people can disagree on as again there's no broad prohibition no conclusive studies that I've seen across the board on this issue that has changed my mind that says that somehow we should be able to uh or we should ban Turf um there is danger from having kids not out on fields and anybody who has kids in this town knows what happens when we have a rainstorm sports are candled for the next week or two and then when you go back the fields are like the surface of the Moon because they're cratered because people tried to play anyway um so I continue to support Turf I continue to support those on the other side of this issue and I'll continue to use language that I think is respectful to both sides um because I do think reasonable people like my friend Pam my friend Franken disagree on these issues thanks everyone um I'm sorry your name was was it Killian Jillian I'm so sorry I didn't I didn't hear it so I just want to clarify one point that you made I have never said that any of these chemicals should be exempt from regulation ever not lead not pasos and just for further Clarity my my last name is pronounced vagianos so and that's all I really have to say on the subject so with that we can now move on and uh and we will go to our affable housing consultant Beth mcmanis for Beth if you could turn the microphone on and speak in the microphone yeah because we can hear you but the people on tele there people on television would you prefer handheld would you be more comfortable with a hand no okay not really great then you have to be really close be be prepared to hold on to the microphone there you go okay all right so folks thank you very much my name is Beth mcmanis I'm The Village's affordable housing planner and tonight I want to uh give a brief presentation about the fourth round of affordable housing which is starting right now uh essentially I would say it uh probably start on the 1 of this year and so there are uh there's really one action that I'd like the village to consider for this month and then we can talk about some next steps in the future technology and action we able to get yeah gab can you just manually push a push a button or something Gabriella will take care of it for the record she did remind me to turn on the remote and I forgot so uh see she went to school for a long time she knows these things okay um so first briefly you know I'm here to talk about affordable housing but just so folks are clear why are we talking about affordable housing in New Jersey it's because we have a constitutional obligation it goes back to case law back in 1975 that requires municipalities to create opportunities for affordable housing there's been a lot of case law rules and laws adopted since then but that's when all of this started the big reason why municipalities engage in the process because it is technically voluntary is because you want protection from Builders remedy litigation which essentially uh is when municipalities are sued for not providing their affordable housing obligation it's a very strong tool that developers can use to undermine the municipality zoning and to essentially get approval for larger denser buildings that are other otherwise permitted and so going through this process protects you from that and when we talk about affordable housing what are we what am I talking about in New Jersey it's really two types of affordable housing the two types of obligations and you'll hear me uh go into more detail later the first one is a rehabilitation obligation and that is essentially um an estimate of substandard units in the municipality occupied by low and moderate income households it's calculated based on census data and American Community survey data for each municipality in the state that's one type of an obligation the other one is a new construction obligation or a round so you might hear things like and I'm going to say it many times the third round obligation the fourth round obligation that's that new construction obligation and really when you when if you're reading articles in the state about affordable housing that the that's the number that people are referring to the round or the fourth round and that is it's it's very at its most basic level it's defined as the number of new affordable units that must be created in municipality in order to be compliant that said it's really much more complicated than that because there are bonus credits and adjustments Etc but at its most basic level that's what the round or the new construction obligation is it's new affordable housing units to be created while the rehabilitation obligation addresses what already exists in the town and so in order to participate in this process and to get that protection from Builders remedy litigation what that means now in 2025 because we're responding to a new Fair Housing Act is what that means is first the municipality simply needs to declare its participation in the process and that's ultimately that's what I'm hearing to talk to you about tonight and you do that through declaring your affordable housing obligation via a resolution by the end of this month after you do that um the next steps very broadly are to adopt a housing plan that addresses that obligation and to submit the supporting documents that help to implement or fulfill the terms of your housing plan and so that's that's really it's it's broken down into two very uh basic tasks which is to declare your obligation and your participation and then to submit a housing plan uh later in the year and so for this overview as I said briefly we're responding to a new Fair Housing Act in New Jersey but more specifically the Housing Act was amended and it created this new judicial oversight program for affordable housing referred to as the affordable housing dispute resolution program for those of you that might be familiar with COA or the Council on affordable housing uh the Fair Housing Act eliminated COA it closed the Council on affordable housing and essentially replaced it with this judicial program the program as folks are referring to it so COA is no more and now we're working through the program as I also said the first step is for the village to adopt a resolution prior to the end of this month for the governing body to adopt a resolution that sets forth your fourth round affordable housing obligation and that and that means your fourth round that new construction also means your Rehabilitation obligation and I'll talk to folk I'll talk to you about that in a bit once we submit that obligation or that resolution to the program there's a process for folks to object to it uh that is spelled out in the ACT But ultimately if there is no objection to Our obligation uh it becomes uh uh it is applied the day after that objection period or on March 1st if there is an objection then there's a month-long period for the village to work with the program and the ejector to determine what the affordable housing obligation is I can't give much detail on how that's going to go because this is a new process but that but that is there that is the framework laid out in the bill but most importantly what i' what I would propose folks focus on is this resolution that's due by the end of the month declaring the affordable housing obligation know that there is this objection process that may be relevant depending on what happens but then the next major Milestone very simply is to submit an adopted housing plan now I'm going to be back here before the governing body and before the planning board multiple times between now and when that housing plan gets submitted and so the content of that plan how we're going to address our affordable housing obligation these are critical questions but they're just not for this point in time they're for once we know what our affordable housing obligation is so let's stick a pin in that and focus on that in in Spring and uh in early summer of this year so as I said with the affordable housing obligation there's two broad categories the first one is the rehabilit obligation essentially as I said before estimate of low mod income households um in substandard or overcrowded units and that is newly calculated for our round from 2025 to 2035 and then the second type of affordable housing obligations are these uh these new construction or these rounds now the previous rounds the prior round and the third round as it's referred to from 1987 through 19 excuse me 2025 they've already been calculated and they're already addressed and satisfied Through The Village's housing plan documents and it was 229 for the prior round and 664 for the third round for a total of 893 and those obligations have been satisfied um for the fourth round that also is newly calculated I would say that's the that's the most important part of the resolution that's going to be adopted now as I had I've started to allude to one thing I want to be clear about because The Village's numbers are are so very large but not withstanding that the village has has been compliant uh it started its compliance in 1990 and remains compliant today and I want to highlight that because uh I think that starts to illustrate that even though our affordable housing obligation is quite large that's okay because the rules anti the rules that that we that we use to meet Our obligation an anticipate this scenario and provide accommodations for built out municipalities that frankly Ridgewood has taken advantage of in the past and we're going to continue to do so in the future so all that background aside let's talk about the task at hand and that is adopting a resolution by the end of this month that does uh first declares your participation in the fourth round process it says you want to participate you want to be protected from Builder remedy litigation and two uh uh expressing or declaring your affordable housing obligation now this is not an obligation that the village needs to start uh calculating from scratch if you will instead the Department of Community Affairs has put together a calculation for every single municipality in the state now it is non-binding it is required that municipalities evaluate the dca's work and uh correct it if necessary and and I do have some corrections that I I think the village should account for in its resolution that said I I do want to be clear that our latitude with changing the affordable housing obligation is somewhat limited we have to be consistent with what's outlined in the Fair Housing Act we can't just simply say uh we think it should be two units without basis for example so let's start with the rehabilitation obl ation first DCA calculated it to be four units um and that is based upon data set forth by uh census American Community survey and these data sources in the manner in which the number is calculated are really subject to minimal interpretation it's very it's pretty it's clear as to how uh DCA conducted the number it's clear or conducted the calculation it's clear what data sources they used and quite frankly I don't have any any corrections to it I don't have any alternative ideas for how they should have calculated that number Beth that's not calc it's not based on an examination of any of the buildings in our in our town correct nobody came to Ridgewood it's hypothetical correct it's based entirely on on these federally available data sources okay thank you um and and I will say in addition if there was a correction to the data I think there's going to be very limited impact given the small obligation of four units and so as I said earlier I recommend that the village accept this rehab obligation of four units and simply cite the dca's report for it for the new construction obligation for that fourth round obligation DCA calculated 427 units and I've gone through all of their data sources and I do find that there's an opportunity to correct that number from 427 to 394 and all of those Corrections are based upon what's referred to as the land capacity factor and that is dca's efforts to identify developable land in the municipality and they did so using a variety of of data sources I think that they did so generally consistent with The Fair Housing Act but but that they uh fail to account for certain conditions uh in this municipality and and across the state as well but our Focus here is on what they failed to account for in Ridgewood and that is essentially that they have identified lands as being developable which I think frankly are not developable and they include uh properties uh that equal about 7 Acres in the community which doesn't sound like a lot however it's seven of eight Acres that they identified as being developable I think I I recommend that the bill the village indicate in its uh resolution to the state are indeed not developable and those uh eliminated properties fall into really three categories the first is that the land that's identified as developable is within the flood way or the flood Hazard area or the special the special flood Hazard area also known as the 100-year flood plane so those those lands and those properties were identified as developable I recommend they be eliminated the second category are uh lands and I should say pieces of properties that are really used as buffers and you're going to see an example of this in the following slide for land surrounding the park and ride so this is property which is literally undeveloped however it is not available for further development because of its current use and configuration and then the third category is land that is really just too narrow to be developed for affordable housing or really for any building type of of any intensity aside from perhaps a utility building or perhaps one single family home so these are lots that don't have the configuration and or the area to really support any amount of measurable developments and on this slide you can see examples of each of those three categories the property shown on the left the left picture that is actually The Village's firehouse on East Glenn and the legend I'm sure is a bit hard to read but the area in uh in blue for example is the flood Hazard area and so as you can see it's the entire property uh we also have land that is within the flood way that's one example of land for those reasons I recommend be eliminated the image in the middle is a strip of property owned by The Village but between the elementary school and single family homes that property is uh I recommend be eliminated because its configuration is simply uh inadequate to host affordable housing or any type of uh development of significance in addition it's location between the sports fields and the single family homes also serve as a buffer between that active Recreation Area and the single family homes so for those reasons I think that property and and others similar to it should be eliminated and then the property on the right is what I had cited before these are uh pieces of the wooded buffer surrounding the park and ride property that I think are also not available for further development and and also are already serving an existing purpose which is as I said to Simply Be A buffer between the active Park and Ride lot and the single family homes uh that surround the site located to the to the west or the uh The Woodlands that are serving as a buffer to the adjacent commercial use located to the East and so these are three examples that I think illustrate all of the all of uh examples of all the reasons why I'm recommending those seven of eight or specifically uh reducing the developable land from 8.15 Acres down to one acre should be reflected in The Village's resolution which leads to the reduced affordable housing obligation down to 394 now as I said before uh The Village's obligation is really quite large and and that's okay in from the perspective of there are uh rules that simply anticipate the scenario and we've gone through this in the past uh this being a vacant land adjustment so for example your third round plan that was adopted in 2020 cited a prior round and a third round obligation of 8 uh 93 units and that was adjusted down to 55 units and more specifically it's adjusted down to a 55 unit RDP realistic development potential which has a certain set of uh requirements requirements that the village must satisfy that obligation the remaining obligation the mathematical difference is subject to a much lower requir enironment in the sense that the village looks to uh adopt for example overlay zoning where where appropriate but there's no one for one accounting for the unmet need and so that's how the third round plan was structured again 893 down to 55 and I would expect the exact same scenario to apply to your fourth round we're going to take that uh 394 for example the obligation that that I'm recommending and that will be adjusted down uh to uh a figure that reflects what is actually vacant and developable that said I want to say that the vacant land process is very different than the process we're talking about this evening about the land capacity factor and Beth what is your recommendation for the council this evening this evening what I'd like to recommend is that the council consider uh consider the the data in the presentation which indicates that there are properties identified as developed aable that I recommend uh do not that the village push back upon in its resolution State seven of uh of these eight acres are undevelopable and as a result are obligation is reduced from that which DCA calculated reduced from 427 down to 394 and just to be clear um for the folks who may not have had the benefit of some of the pre-reading that I know we all did by agreeing that Our obligation is 39 4 we're not agreeing to facilitate the building of 394 units we're merely using that as a starting point for what the statute requires and then will subsequently be submitting a plan as to what we think is feasible given the fact that rdwood is a heavily developed uh municipality already because clearly I don't know where you'd even shoehorn that many in you know or even a fraction of that but that's the next phase and that's not we're approving tonight we're just approving this we would push forward saying this is what is calculated under the statute now let's talk about what's realistic after that that's exactly it this is just the total obligation the adjustment is specifically intended to be a later step that will be conducted in really as soon as our obligation is confirmed uh by DCA and and then we'll talk about that as part of the housing plan which must be adopted by June 30th of this year so that adjustment process how we're going to meet the obligation is not intended to be uh addressed in this resolution instead that's part of the second phase of this so you're going to come back before June yes and discuss with us in the same way you discussed with prior counsel how that our the number 394 is equivalent to that 893 number correct correct that was ultimately reduced to 55 and you will come back to us with a recommendation before June on how and if and what number that 94 may be reduced to is that correct absolutely yes I'll come back to talk to you about not only how is the adjustment uh what the number is adjusted down to but and then importantly how are we going to satisfy it and that's and that's really where the I would say the policy making starts this process we're in now is is quite technical but the next step is policym and decision making as to uh development decisions in Ridgewood great questions mayor I just think it's important especially so that this is not this information that Beth has supplied the village tonight first in close session to the council and then to the public so that it's not misinterpreted misreported or misunderstood we had a number that was developed by the state of New Jersey of the 427 based on your initial criteria based on the land capacity factor in your professional opinion that number is going to be reduced to 394 now we're going to pass a resolution uh presumably on January 29th so that you can meet the deadline that that resolution gets submitted to the state it's going to outline how you got to that 394 number and then from there the work of your firm is going to commence to further reduce that number down to the realistic development potential am I correct in saying that yes the only correct because the the language that I would recommend is we're correcting the DCA number from 42 to 394 and then we're going to adjust what I hope is 394 down to an RDP and an unmet need Bas on what's realistically developable in the village yes what we're doing now is a correction what we're doing later is an adjustment which are they're very technical terms and I'm sorry for that but just in terms of making clear the record uh I just want to put those those are the correct verbs to use essentially right so 394 is not our realistic development corre moving forward and I just want the public to know that so it's not misrepresented or misunderstood thank you I know ke I think now you said it I've said it you've said it because I do want to make sure this is not intuitive that it's Crystal Clear that we're agreeing to what the statute says but then the real work starts after this to figure out what's actually feasible and what's not so thank you for repeating it but I do agree that there's a lot of room here for the public to get some misinformation and I want to make sure that they they don't do that and and just in terms of historical demonstration the last third round was 893 and the achievable was 55 so and that's that's a a significant Delta between those two absolutely and I I can't speak to the the scale specifically but I think the that the fourth round is going to be similar to the third round in that respect and just one last thing I think who everybody knows is that we are mandated by the process at this point in time to as Beth said to agree to participate in the fourth round to determine what our RDP is going to be and that's basically what we're going to say in the resolution okay other questions or comments thank you Beth thank you very well thank you so much always appreciate your guidance on this issue which is fraught with interesting possibilities thank you very much good night everybody great good night and let's move on let's go to our regular agenda Keith take it thank you mayor um I'll try to be brief tonight uh acknowledging that we do have a lengthy agenda but I do want to start uh by congratulating you mayor Deputy Mayor parin um now councilman uh Mortimer and councilman whites on his appointment as Speaker uh president protemp um at the reorganization meeting Monday night um was one of the few times I didn't get to speak so I'm sure the public was thrilled about that been killing you but uh and I know that councilman whites was especially excited about my lack of uh speaking part on Monday but I do want to just congratulate you publicly look forward to another year of uh productivity and success here in the village of Bridgewood thank you very much speaking of that productivity uh very pleased to report that the process has begun to demolition the Town garage on Franklin Street uh they've been working out there for the last few days I assume it'll take approximately um to the middle of next week uh for the building to be completely raised uh we will then uh work with the lsrps to talk about next steps um and we will have um once they are cleared out of there uh we will have some Village staff doing some cleanup on the property as well uh to make it as aesthetically pleasing as the Environmental Testing commences um I do want to mention that um central dispatch has received a grant um there the grant is going to cover the yearly service cost for maintenance and up upkeep to the Central Square 911 system um it's also going to purchase new upgraded equipment uh so that we are in compliance with the state's Next Generation 911 platform uh we're going to be transitioning uh to that in the spring of 2025 and the technology that's associated uh with the purchase of this new system will allow for location based routing um which will actually be able to identify which side of the house in a single family home someone is in if they call 911 um and which desk someone is calling from in a more office type of environment so the technology is going to be extensive um and the grant that they've received uh is going to pay for the Lion Share of this new technology over at Central Dispatch so I want to thank director Pomroy and his staff there for their advocacy in soliciting this grant um some good news this morning uh the village conducted their bond sale offering in the amount of 27 m212 th000 in general obligation bonds which consisted of um over 15 million in general improvement over 11 million in water utility bonds and 418,000 in parking utility bonds we had 11 participants in the bond sale offering a net interest cost to the Village between 3.41% and 3.21 3% the successful bidder was Robert W B and Company out of Milwaukee Wisconsin offering price of 28,5 42,4 $53 resulting in effective interest rate of 3141 per. by comparison our 2023 Bond sale came out to a rate Inc interest rate of 3166 so we are more competitive than we were in our last Bond sale back in 2023 um also pleased to report that on December 20th the remediation effort at habernickel Park for that small area near the playground it was about a 5 foot by 5 foot area that had tested positive for an arsenical compound uh was remediated uh through the assistance of Matrix New World engineering uh the site was excavated the soil was taken to a uh depository that accepts those types uh of soils and we are in the process now of closing out the paperwork and that case with the njde and we anticipate that within the next 45 to 60 days that will be accomplished and we'll be able to take down the remediation signage that's up there at habernickel Park last week the Veterans Field lighting project commenced right behind Village Hall here uh we already started to put in the footings for the lights and the light poles have been delivered so you'll see them laying out there on Veterans Field and we're looking forward to having this project done complete and operational by the start of the spring season uh for our sports teams on tonight's agenda uh the council will be discussing the updates to the tree ordinance in addition to the requested Bust Stop shelter um near Ridgewood High School uh so glad we're moving forward on those two initiatives as well and finally uh just a few announcements the village is selling our annual parking permits in the lobby of Village Hall please remember to bring your driver's license and a copy of your registration for the cars which in which you wish to purchase a permit for uh we cannot issue the permits without those required documents Christmas tree pickup has commenced Tuesday on the east side and Thursday on the west West Side from January 2nd to January 31st wreaths and garlands will be collected with regular garbage you may also drop off your Christmas tree in the section of the Gren Park uh the Gren pool lot designated for Christmas trees the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce Restaurant Week starts on Sunday January 12th and runs through Thursday the 16th also commences the following week from January 19th to the 23rd great way to enjoy a delicious meal at a reduced price while supporting Ridgewood businesses The Village will be closed on Monday January 20th for Martin Luther King Jr holiday the recycling center will be also be closed that day and there'll be no curbside bulk pickup that week reminder about snow removal all sidewalks and residential districts snow must be removed within 24 hours of the snow falling um and if it is snowing when you leave your home in the morning um our sanitation and recycling folks are asking you to please put your garbage cans at the end of your driveway until you have a clear path to them we appreciate your cooperation in keeping all of our village employees safe and finally upcoming Council meetings January 15th is our public meeting January 29th is our work session both begin at 7:30 p.m. and that concludes my report mayor thank you Keith and let's go to council reports Siobhan sure so um I was not here Monday so congratulations uh to the Newbie Frank like you as an end cap over there and of course of course welcome back and it's very exciting and to Evan in your continued role um I'm going to have a private conversation with Lorraine who I believe is already taking a vacation next week but um congratulations and it it's lovely I'm so excited for the next two to four years however that works out um so um I have a couple updates um one next week on uh Tuesday January 14th the ridgwood public library will be hosting a movie called Patrice and I'm going to be quick but um within the abilities Community it's incredibly hard to navigate a marriage and so when two special needs people want to become married their entitlements from the state based upon their classification become affected and the library and this is happening a lot within our young adult special needs community so um there'll be a speaker and um Paul Aronson's going to be there Diana stold and a couple her boyfriend's name is Matt it's hosted by access if anybody has um would like to be there it's going to be wonderful it's at 6:30 on J January 14th additionally um everyone will be in the community receiving the details of the Martin Luther King committee um it's a full weekend I am a prior member I'm very um proud of what the committee's done there's a series of events it'll be posted on social media and I want to thank the MLK committee and Jan Phillips for letting us know about this if you could attend any or all events it's a lovely weekend and there's something for everybody so and that is obviously Martin Luther King weekend which is f begins Friday January 17th um I wanted to briefly take a minute and thank and congratulate Heather um Evan and I both had on our campaign agendas Communications and while we've done a lot on social and video um old school minutes are very meaningful and I know Heather and the clerk's office worked really hard to encapsulate um Chatters like me who make the minutes even longer EV Evan got away he got off easy so um the minutes are complete and they're up to date um these are housekeeping issues but they're really diligent and I just want to say thank you and congratulations to the clerk I'm so excited that we're finishing and starting 2025 um yesterday morning the fields committee met and I want to congratulate Mary Lou handy who is the new rep from the field side um it was a wonderful meeting and we discussed many things including the lighting project and some initiatives including that the Board of Ed has hired an architectural firm to begin looking at um the feasibility of whether or not BF can be a full-size regulation to field um so that was very exciting um we also heard from rasa who is still very much willing ready to be recognized as adult members of the fields policy so I want to thank them for attending and of course Nancy and Keith cook um lot of activities going on and girls flag football continues to expand at such a rapid rate so you know we continue to see more and more constraints for recreation across the board um I too want to briefly say goodbye to one of the longest lingering issues in Ridgewood I believe the garage became an issue when I was a high school senior which is kind of bananas because I'm very far away from that and I want to thank everybody including Pam and open space who attended Mr Bosler who's been I think on open space since the Inception we had a crew there we watched it it was freezing and I want to thank everybody including engineering water and all the people who issued the permits it's it's really exciting to see that important Corner breathe and if you get a chance drive by and begin to use your imaginations as to what you think it should be um and lastly I just want to be brief because I did watch and receive several calls about a statement made on Monday night um prior to serving in this Village Council I was a member of One Village one vote and this is repeatedly comes up in conversation I'm extremely proud of the effort of which I was one of five people and I just want to reiterate for the record one Village one votes primary purpose was to address three things within our village increase voter turnout improve school safety by reducing foot traffic and save money to the taxpayers it prevailed I'm incredibly proud of it it is not just mine so when things are said about it it belongs to four others myself um and I'm very grateful to them all members of that petition committee serve this Village and all of them um did a great thing and and the public was asked a very important question and it prevailed additionally voter turnouts really up we are now sitting here with the highest female vote getter ever on the Village Council highest that's that's a big deal highest male vote getter and Sheila Brogan on the board of ed is the highest vote getter ever in Ridgewood so I want to um I'm not going to go back and forth and when things are said but I want to be clear three splintered points on the splintered campaign by five people all of whom are still serving this Village and I'm just grateful to them and grateful to see voting numbers and congratulations to the highest vote Getters ever thank you Siobhan and I'm gonna ask Frank do you have any I know you haven't met with any committees yet but I didn't know if you had any report you wanted to give and don't feel obligated I was going to say that um my first committee is tomorrow and that's open space so I'm excited about that excellent so that means the next meeting I can report on it and I too am excited that uh the village garage got torn down I was there and it was cool to watch The Claw I sent Keith way too many pictures of what I looked at um and then today I was over at TD Bank across the street and it is already so much nicer to just look across the street and see that gone so thank you to everyone thanks Frank Evan yeah I I will be quick none of my committees have met since the holidays um actually so sioban you did steal my thunder but I actually might be able to one up you so I actually asked Keith to pull the numbers in terms of the number of Voters and listen and I you know when when you know comments were made about you know moving the election I you know I I'm I'm always open to reevaluating my positions um but in 2018 before you and and your cohorts got involved there were less than 5,000 people that voted that year um this year or I guess last year um there were almost 15,000 people that voted um I firmly believe that the only thing better than democracy is more democracy yeah um and I find it hard to argue against having more people vote um and so I completely agree with you Siobhan and and thank you again and your personal capacity and all your cohorts for doing what I think was a tremendous service um to the Village um in terms of really boring stuff I do want to bring up and I I I don't think we brought this up before but I know you did put this out in a in a release Keith in terms of our AAA Bond rating um being issued um which I think dub tailed nicely with your comments today about our bond offering this is probably the most boring thing we talk about and also amongst the most important things that we can um do as as a Village Council the fact that we're paying such little interest in our debt means that we have more money to spend uh on things that we want to do in the town to better the village as a whole um if you read through the report that granted us our AAA Bond reading um they were effusive in their Praise of our fiscal management and our fiscal responsibility now you're not going to see any of that stuff uh you know kind of broadcast all over the place because it is boring but it is incredibly important to the well running of this Village um and as boring as in Keith I'll tell you I'm super excited for it I might be the only one but I'm incredibly excited um and I really want to congratulate you um I know um you know Bob isn't here tonight on him I thought it was um a really really great um thing um finally I will just go back to one of my earlier comments before this election I was in fact the largest vote getter I believe in rid now I could point out that this was an election year with a presidential election which drove up you know the voter registration but again anyway but again um I do think it was a really great vot to turn out and again a really good sign that that more people are getting involved thanks Evan Pam okay planning board met in December and we considered the uh R Waters application to build a posos treatment plant on the east side on Saddle River Road there are several adjustments that have to be made the road needs to be widened a little bit to uh accommodate trucks and some trees will have to be removed and replanted there were also questions about storm water management and how would that go um but we are uh um the hearing went well I would say uh let's see then also there was a uh an application for a minor subdivision and consolidation of property at 248 briercliff Lane the board voted on the on the resolution um I could not vote because I hadn't been there for the presentation so but it did pass uh and then um green Ridgewood and the green team will meet tomorrow night uh in the in the senior Lounge downstairs at 7:30 uh Central bus Central business district advisory committee met last month and we discussed uh several of us had gone to the downtown New Jersey conference in uh Montclair and so we were summarizing what happened there for people and uh the good ideas that we learned about in terms of affordable housing development um and the interplay between Improvement districts and Chambers of Commerce um we meet tomorrow again uh at 8:30 in the morning via zoom and the the um the link is on the agenda on the website uh let's see I wanted to congratulate our firefighters who got the uh CPR Save a Life award um there were several of them and uh so it's gratifying to see that their work really relates re results in patients lives being saved um the special improvement district steering committee continues to meet at uh approximately every other week we are conducting a feasibility study and we hope that that will come to fruition soon um I did want to note that downtown it's not a Ridgewood project but I saw that psng is replacing a lamp post that was knocked down in front of the bus station La on in the summer of 2023 and uh I'm glad to see that going back up I do urge people to attend the Martin Luther King Day Celebrations I always go to the one at method United Methodist Church on Monday morning 10 to 12 because all all the Interfaith leaders speak and each one brings a different perspective to whatever the topic is and it's very thought-provoking and and moving and worthwhile and that's all I have thanks Pam um uh my committees did not meet over the holidays but I want to begin by welcoming Frank Mortimer to um our merry band here um I I think that you're going to be an incredible asset um just your first comments from the deis um whether you agree with them or disagree with them you can tell that this is uh a person who is incredibly intelligent very well reasoned works very hard researching um and is very well prepared and that's so important and again I I don't really care what your positions are um but I do care the way you compl support yourself and um you're going to set a new standard for us and that means more to me than you know so so welcome um and and I do want to take a moment um to comment on the fact that um I disagree with Siobhan that it was you and four people it was you and four people and a majority of the of the residents who voted that year to move this election um for all of the reasons that you said so it was it was you started the petition but it was really up to the to the village and and the point that that Evan brought out um and again yes we know that more people vote in the presidential year but to go from 5,000 to 15,000 um uh you know you you you said more democracy um yeah and I I have a I have a saying that that Pam my my English major friend is going to winet but more democracy is more better and and and and I stand by that because the more people who are voting and I really don't care how people vote but I do I have one personal pet peeve that even in this highly contested presidential year in this incredibly well-informed Community three out of 10 people did not vote three out of 10 registered voters didn't vote it's unacceptable um but the fact that that that one Village one vote referendum passed handily um uh made it so that many more people are voting and that is always a good thing so and with that let's go to our regular agenda Keith mayor at this time I'd like to call up director calbi um and Lonnie if you're going to come up too um we have 24 items under Ridgewood water tonight so we have a um very active agenda when it comes to Ridgewood water help heading into 2025 so uh we appreciate your Indulgence and trying to get through um a lot of these annual contract Awards tonight and um we'll start off with that hopefully Rich doesn't sit in a broken chair and I set it up too good evening mayor council good evening Rich happy New Year and to you uh joining me tonight is Yolanda McCullum Yolanda is a environmental engineer on our staff um she's with me tonight because a lot of what's in front of you is her work um She's Taken um since she's been with rard water taken it upon herself to take over all our contracts do the annual bidding and renewals um so before you tonight for the first time we we have almost everything that we do on an annual basis instead of coming to you peace meal over the course of the year so it's good thank you for being here tonight and is it Alana well Yolanda is my full name but I go by Lonnie too I'll answer to each I just want to say Lon was my first Tire here and I did really well with that one right Rich that's true so proud of himself so we're going to take turns going through these um Lonnie's going to start with the first one and we'll go back and forth and please any questions along way okay so um item one is for U most of these are are like Keith said going to be the annual contracts um a couple are Capital Improvements so the first two are Capital Improvements um item one is for water service line main to curb Replacements this is the contract that supplements our distribution and maintenance Crews so that we can keep up with the demand for lead service line Replacements on the Utility side when initiated by the customer or to get ahead of Paving projects or when our crews get redirected to other demands on November 14th we received five bids and selected the lowest responsible bidder based on unit prices which was Conquest the contract will be a not to exceed amount of 200,000 and funds will be accounted for in the water utility capital budget questions anyone no let's go okay item two is for the East Side distribution water main replacement project this is sort of phase one of the upcoming P treatment facility at Eastside but this is the non-bank funded portion we elected to prioritize this water main replacement to align with the raw water main installation that will also be required to transmit water from eastle River and Salem Wells to the new posos facility this way the roads will only need to be resurfaced once following the water main and the raw water main um installations uh on December 18th we received nine bids our design consultant arcadis reviewed the bids and recommended award to the lowest responsible bidder matina and sun in the amount of 2,673 th000 funds will be allocated under the water utility capital budget questions let's go item three this is for our annual tree maintenance services contract on no November 14th we received three bids and have selected the lowest responsible bidder almstead tree and shrub care company in an amount not to exceed $80,000 and funds will be allocated under the water utility operating budget questions I I have one here I'm just curious what what is tree maintenance for Richwood water so we you can answer better than I but the Landscaping there's two kind of landscaping contracts one is for General Landscaping one is solely for tree maintenance and um rich I don't know how so it it's a couple Services it's tree trimming when necessary and removal of hazardous or down trees on the properties within the four municipalities that rid water serves got it so it's on Ridgewood water property yes okay got it thank you and just to give you an idea it's pretty low our hazardous budget buget line item that we maintain for the village I me is about 60,000 so okay thank I was impressed with do you have a comment question no I had exactly the same question as as Frank had good so it doesn't when you say trimming do you mean pruning selective pruning based mostly on hazards um identifi by us or by neighboring properties you know a lot of our properties name Residential Properties all set keep going next item is Furnishing and delivery of sodium hypochlorite this is the disinfectant we utilize in the drinking water this is for Award of year two of a contract that was awarded last year for the first time um the amount of $284 per gallon and a not exceed amount of $124,000 for the year and it is funded through the water utility operating budget questions let's go okay next item is our annual Lin stop inv valve insertion services this is also year two of a 2-year contract year one was completed last year this is an award uh to Conquest construction not to exceed amount of $100,000 and this is also from the water utility operating budget everybody good go ahead next is servicing repair of portable water wells and pumping facilities this is also year two of a two-year contract recommend an award to William St off company in a ntic seed amount of $500,000 for the year and this is also funded out of the water utility budget everybody good yep let's go okay um item seven is one of the new new bids we did uh as far annual pipe and apperences contract not new as in new but rich not a not a um second year so this is the first year we received three bids on November 13th and we award this bid in sections based on the sum of unit prices for that section as is typical for this contract so we awarded to all three biders um their sections that they had the low bid on Capital Supply Raritan group and Ferguson Waterworks for a total not to exceed annual amount of $415,000 funded from the water utility operating budget questions continue item eight is for the annual infrared asphalt surface repair contract we received five bids on November 14th and selected the lowest responsible bidder based on unit prices Atlantic infrared for a not to exceed contract amount of $175,000 funded with the water utility operating budget also questions so I have a strange question because we get a lot of questions about Road surfacing do we ever like go and look at their roads or is that because it's bidding that's not necessary go and look at what um with for their repairs after they do them or before you know to see like what's your work product uh well like for the infrared one we our crews went out and marked each one so and then they and then they document the the final other places they other places um because we get a significant because the public I'm sure we get a significant amount of complaints about repairs right you know through and do we do anything with the bidding process to demonstrate that they're you know we vet I mean we vet them and make sure that other like for instance Glenrock was very happy with this company so we kind of get that information we do get that feedback look for it yes I just never know in the bidding process if it it's just lowest or if you actually call some of the references yeah when we say lowest responsible we do we we do check okay yeah definitely good y good question anybody else on that no good continue Lonnie okay on item nine is for the annual concrete pavement and sidewalk repair contract we received five bids on November 14th and selected the lowest responsible bidder based on unit prices Conquest construction uh was the low bidder for a total not to exceed amount for the contract of $50,000 accounted for in the water utility operating budget questions go item 10 is for our annual cold water meters and accessories contract we received one bid on November 13th from Rio Supply our current vendor and selected uh Rio as the sole responsible bidder for Award of year one of a two-year contract in the amount of 22 223,50 70 um with funds being allocated in the water utility operating budget questions go ahead item 11 is for the annual asphalt trans repair contract uh we previously had this one lumped in with the infrared but it turned out the contractors that specialized in infrared didn't really do the trench we need trench uh repair like in two-hour you know windows and it was a they weren't U compatible as well so we separated it out and we got uh better uh results so this is for asphalt trench repair uh we received four bids on November 14th and selected the lowest respons bidder based on unit prices Conquest construction uh big winner for a total not to exceed annual amount of $50,000 with funds being allocated from the water utility operating budget questions what's the difference between trench repair and infrared so the trench is the um either the base course or the top course of just the asphalt material that to fill the what they dug up and then later on to get the absolute smoothest sealed surface they'll come back and infrared it with the with the heat um so if it's a old row that's going to be resurfaced we may not require infrared or we probably won't but if it's a newer road that has been resurfaced within the last 5 years then we'll they'll designate that spot if it's only been base paved um with the trench repair then we'll come back in infared cool thank you councilman it creates less of a seam and more of a flat surface um whereas doing trench work is more patchy let's say go ahead okay um item 12 is for the annual pest laboratory analysis Services we received four bids on November 13th and selected the lowest responsible bidder Pace Analytical services in the amount of [Music] $9,809 fast we don't have any of the equipment in the current plan it's probably about a year or two away right now we're focusing on VOC testing in house yeah that'll be reflected in the in the other lab testing um bit it actually isn't yet but I'll get I I guess I'm done with that one anybody else no go ahead okay so for the for the non-pos for the for the laboratory analysis Services uh we received four bids uh on November 13th selected the lowest responsible bidder also Pace Analytical in the amount of oh wait I'm reading that um in the amount of $177,700 um the voc's as Rich mentioned will be um tested inhouse they're part of this bid but they'll be removed once we're fully certified so that's what we're getting toward I don't know if you have a date on that or so our our lab chemist has been approved by the New Jersey D for this method she just needs to complete the audit um whereby they'll send her actual samples to to test and and review her results good anybody go ahead okay the next item is landscaping services for J water facilities this is the award of the second year of a 2-year contract this is uh in the amount of $149,950 and this is out of the water utility budget questions let's go next item is servicing repair of electric Source this is for our licensed electrition this is also year two of a 2-year contract of aor Electric Inc in the amount of $250,000 for the year not to exceed um this also funded out of the water utility operating budget questions let's go next item is water billing and data collection um Compu till this is the service that provides our our billing mails the bills collects the money um May the lock box and back to Ridgewood um we had a three-year contract with two one-year options we're looking to exercise the first option year and award a not exceed contract to comput till for so when you C when you come before us and give us um data on how much water our residents are consuming it's based on the billing that Compu is doing for us it's it's based out of their Billing System from the reads that we we do on the road and then enter into their system they have a proprietary software that we utilize for that anybody else let's go next item is Award of a source contract to Granger this is our annual purchase of various supplies for the water utility this is an amount of not to exceed of $65,000 and this is also funded out of the water utility operating budget is this mostly janitorial supplies it references janitor well that's just a small piece um this could be various items uh it could be dehumidifiers for a pump station it could be Parts like safety vest safety vest cleaning equipment they offer a slow of products good thank you continue next one is uh an award of Cooperative purchase to brain Stone Industries this is the layer below all the pavement um this is for purchase of stone um backfill material and there's a recommendation not to exceed of $100,000 for the Year this is also funded out of the water utility operating budget questions let's go next item is our annual contract with h company this is also a Cooperative contract Hawk does the maintenance of all our pH um disinfectant sodium hypoc chloride and phosphate analyzers these are at all our treatment facilities to monitor the concentration that's being entered into the water uh to make sure we're meeting all state standards this is an amount to O seed of $74,900 this is also funded out of the water utility operating budget questions they're monitoring from afar I see they're in Colorado and they come twice a year they come twice a year do surf they have a local branch here in New Jersey ah okay good Nationwide let's go next one is our annual software support um contract for our ska vendor Emerson um last year was the end of our three-year contract we're looking for Award of a new three-year contract would not to exceed yearly price of $ 22,5 4946 and this is also funded out of the water utility budget questions continue next item is our annual hydrogeological consultant services this is for our hydrogeologist for do various services this is the amount not to exceed $109,000 for the year 2025 this is the firm wsp um this is also funded out of the water utility operating budget questions go next is a new service for the Year this is our customer collection service this is also with the firm Compu till it's a soul Source award to Compu till in the amount of $53,000 for the Year this is to start a collections program utilizing compy till as a third party service we estimate we have a rear of close to $1.76 million in uncollected Revenue um this goes back to covid when we weren't allowed to shut down customers um and then furthering Through The Years with a winter termination program that the state enacted we're now looking to move on this a rear amount we did a pilot program with computel before the end of the year with 10 customers and we're able to collect from all 10 without even having to go to a shut off questions good yes to me okay uh item 23 is for a change order from our last main to Cur main to curb service line replacement contract uh we are requesting an additional amount of 49,000 for a total contract amount of 200,000 funds are accounted for in the water utility capital budget as we had anticipated up to $250,000 to fund this critical lead service line replacement work for the Utility side M to curb portion questions go our last item is the reimbursement of an overpayment for an account um this is a Ridgewood account um the house was sold and we received a duplicate payment from both the owner's attorney and the title company so we need to reimburse uh one amount back it's the amount of $1,481 198 everybody good good thank you both so much um I will say Lonnie this is your first time here but in 16 minutes you got us to spend a little over $6 million um uh pretty smoothly so um rich I might bring her with me next time just saying good job thank you thank you thank you guys I'm going to stick around for Landfield disposal okay I don't know if you know this but I am a Ridgewood resident also so welcome to the new council member and um I always like to come to these meetings I don't come to all of them obviously I come when I need to but I enjoy them so thank you I think I think he needs you more just you know saying thanks for being here thank you mayor we have nothing under parking utility tonight uh under budget Award of contract 2025 Recreation program instruction uh this is Rec recommendation from Katie fry our Recreation supervisor to uh reappoint uh various vendors for 2025 to um continue to operate our Recreation programs are outside vendors any objection questions okay item two I'm going to kick back to Rich so this is our annual contract for the landfill disposal of our Solid Waste um this is for rear yard garbage and for bulk garbage that's collected by our employees um this is an annual contract um we're looking for year two of the contract and not to exceed an amount of8 72,8 60 to the uh firm iws um and this is out of the operating budget for the village questions good item three is a Rec recommendation from The Ridgewood Police Department for the purchase of equipment and service for vehicles uh requesting to award a purchase order to Winter Ford of Cherry Hill to purchase install and repair Vehicles purchased in 2024 including Police emergency lights safety equipment and other equipment that is put into our police cars this is being based on a state contract and they've had excellent record of service from this vendor this is a contract not to exceed $60,000 everybody good let's go item four is relative to the replacement of the underground fuel storage tank and fuel system project at the Fleet Services Division location on Chestnut Street as the council knows we previously awarded a contract to bets environmental service for not to exceed $769,900 gallon single wall carbon steel tank filled with oil uh that was encountered during the project we did the remediation that was required and did the excavation work um however it was enlarged the area that we needed to restore uh was larger than anticipated um it exceeded the was exceeded by about 65 square yards so the total charge for this recommended change order is $3,835 on that contract good questions and that that uh facility is up and running um both Chris Razer and Mike Jun are very pleased with the outcome and I know all the employees who have to fuel up their vehicles over there um are happy with the upgrades that were made so you had a $769,000 contract you found an extra tank got that out and the change order was only $3800 this is the second change order okay so just check item item uh five on the agenda is to accept a donation uh to the Ridgewood community center this is a monetary donation um each year the recreation department volunteers um and members of the community uh work at the Ridgewood run and they uh man the water table and as a thank you uh for that endeavor the New Jersey Masters is donating a thousand dollars back to our community center that's great and I I just want to say and I think Frank does as well thanks to Liz cloak who always does this this is great and you know it's sometimes everyone loses their effort and she always pulls through because she knows this money's coming she makes sure it's manned that's right and and I've manned that table on on Fairfield before it's really fun it's a great way to see the race item six on the agenda is a recommendation from Parks and Recreation director Nancy beos to purchase a diamond SE trailer uh this is um going to be purchased from Hampton RV sales out of Newton New Jersey this is a dump trailer will be used to transport the new mini loader uh purchase price is $2,575 and the funds are allocated through the 20123 capital budget everybody good item seven is is a recommendation from The Ridgewood Police Department for a shared services agreement with the burrow of paramis to maintain the new motorcycle unit which consists of two motorcycles that have been previously approved by Council uh the buau of paramis has a Certified mechanic who is able to work on these um and the alternative to do it privately is significantly more expensive than doing it with pamis which the labor rate is $150 per hour during normal business hours and 225 if it's out for an emergency questions let's go okay moving on to policy uh we have three items tonight uh first is authorization to install a New Jersey Transit bus shelter at Ridgewood High School and authorize the execution of the app foret agreement and by the way we do have concurrence uh from the county and from the Ridgewood Board of Education on this project anybody have any questions on this my only question is are you going to let robt now um I can actually I think she emailed me and I responded to okay great so yeah so I think she's in Loop um item two under policy is to amend chapter 260 this is who who who I did have a question on the B bus shelter have we gotten a picture of what these bus shelters look like it's going to be we're requesting a similar bus shelter to what's on North Monroe near the tennis courts ah so it's a little bit more decorative than the traditional New Jersey Transit bu shelter okay okay but not a lot more I'm familiar with that one okay it's not custom but it's slightly more decorative um item two is to amend chapter 260 which is the tree protection ordinance and for this discussion I'll turn it over to council member winterr and to uh Mr Rogers okay it's not just me because so I wanted to say um that upon taking my role as shade tree uh liaison about two years ago they uh the sentiment from the committee was they felt that the first ordinance which at that time was required by ngdp was good but there was room for improvement and a um a very um thorough comprehensive and exhausting effort occurred with both Pam and Lorraine of how we could modify it um there were some elements in here that came out that you know we need to beef up the ordinance but we also need to beef up enforcement hence the word tree Sheriff which is a very real request each year in the budget um you know you saw the presentation by George Wolfson which showed even with the tree protective ordinance there's a lot of workarounds and things like that and there needed to be a refining of it so Shay Tre met voted voted again fought came back and at a certain point we sent George Wolfson who I want to give an extra big thank you because he really went into the ordinance Review Committee with lawyers which I am not and and uh Pam and Paul and they tried to strike a balance of how we could do this where we could make it a little bit have more teeth but also not make it punish the the homeowner so the example that you know we always use in shade tree is that a brand new homeowner buys it and they find a tree that's in need of removal how do you do that so they remove it so it doesn't fall in their brand new house or hurt them and yet make sure that a new restorative tree gets planted we talked a lot about equivalence um so not all trees you know have the same humph to it and environmental impact and we've heard a lot about the big trees and their impact so if you take down a a big oak or a big large tree and you put in a dogwood it's not going to do its environmental horsepower so all of that is encapsulated in here it's gone through many iterations I'm very proud of it um you know I don't know I don't think we want to go through and read it line by line I don't know if we want to let the public know and see if there's any change yeah the one the one point that I'll make um is that in section 26-8 um there has been verbiage added to the ordinance that allows for a licensed tree expert to come out and evaluate a tree um but it also needs to be verified by The Village arborist or his or her designate which could be someone from our Parks division so I I think that's important um I I do think that we were experiencing some situations where people were coming in for permits and they were getting something written out but it wasn't necessarily verified here there'll be that added layer of making sure that the tree that's proposed to be removed will actually be verified as needing to be removed and I think that's an important point I I think that's fine the red lines yours the ordinance committee everyone's who who like I I who's I can go back to that this was the latest inre that's fine that's I mean look I think for the public the shade tree in the essence because it gets very treey in there and they've I really am proud of them because they've balanced a lot too if it the changes are fine that's fine uh you know I'm fine with all the changes in the red line if anybody else has any input I would like to circulate it back to them before the vote next week I I don't know how anybody feels if there and keep in mind this this will only be introduced next week if that's the council's intention it won't be adopted until the February me my go my goal is to introduce it I think it's great I just want to say it's a wonderful and and I like all the extra additions and the size of the tree the one thing that I wanted to to bring up and it's not to make any changes because I think we should go through with this but is the enforcement as you say the tree sheriff and not just for this ordinance but we have a lot of quality of life issues and let's face it in Ridgewood it's mostly about first world problems right so this and and then at some point when we have a leaf blower ordinance and things like that it having some actually enforce that I think is key and like in here I'm sorry but to say the director of Parks and Recreation um I don't Envision Nancy beos driving around giving summonses for trees and so I think that in the future we need to really address a realistic way that residents can report issues and that needs to be more than just 9 to5 Monday through Friday and that we can have somebody that can actually enforce it and make sure that these things that we codifying are happening so through you mayor to councilman Mortimer a lot of that is going to be discussed at budget okay um it's already been identified um by multiple department heads including Parks and Recreation engineering because they issue the permits um you know that the um the intention I think of the shade tree commission and having met with George within the last few weeks um is that we need this in place and then we need the enforcement power to make sure that this ordinance is is being met um that being said it takes resources to do that um and how we assign those responsibilities are going to be impacted by some of the budget discussions that we are about to undertake excellent and that's why I wanted to separate it because I didn't want to slow this down because it is wonderful so and just I mean I know you know this Frank that you know the idea of putting the directors of the departments in charge of being able to issue um summonses for enforcement or their design allows them to delegate that within their department so that it can be taken care of I wouldn't expect Nancy to be out driving around looking for that either however however I do have I do have a department director who issue Summit this regularly too actually so you know it really depends on the structure of the department and how and how they operate and also I'm not saying this but when something goes wrong with the removal I mean it does accelerate we've had clear cutting on property where it's gotten all of us have gotten these emails so I don't you know I don't clearly I'm glad everybody you know looked at it readit today is what the eth yes so I don't how do you want to do this it could be introduced next week when is when is the shade tree meeting uh the 14th all right so the following meeting the following night we could list it for introduction okay and if it if there's any feedback from shade tree oh no no they voted they're not going to do that but we'll know that going into the introduction night um so can I get any any like little edit copies to whoever and by by Monday can I get a clean copy sent to me for them yeah sure okay like no red line that might like I think I think the red line highlights where they want to see where the changes are so that you need a clean copy I need a clean copy okay and I want to say this because the committee and this is important the committee as a working committee put George and George has been at the table and they were good with the essence of it so I don't want to give them got it they don't need to see all the changes Red Line form um so we'll have the feedback from shade tree if there is any y the the day the day the the introduction and if there's any modifications that we need to you'll probably have it instantaneously on the I'm sure I'll have it Tuesday night before I go to bed to your point Frank yes Staffing is is a big consideration and in the first go round one of the reasons we didn't have the arborist appr approving removal of trees was we couldn't conceive of him having enough time um because he's to he's pulled in so many different directions well especially if he has to validate what all the um the licens arborist they're saying that so I I already see a lot of his time being used um and in also in terms of enforcement I must have called up Engineering 10 times in the past couple of years saying hey there's a tree coming down on such and such a street do they have a permit and if Chris rudish haser is isn't in ask yendi Anderson she knows and they go and check and and Chris or somebody will go out there right away catch them when they when when the stump is fresh and you can tell whether it's really dying or viable or not we should all be call if we if you see a tree being taken down Call engineering well I think that's part of you know looking at it through a resident's eyes they might not know to call Chris so maybe one of the things we should also talk about is how do we publicize or communicate you see this this is who you should call oh if you see something say something yeah and I and I think I think actually I know that that's on Carol's radar once this is adopted to be able to message this out what this means for the residents how to apply for the permit what the process looks like but we didn't want to do that until the new ordinance was introduced fun fact shade Tre is going to issue some fun facts on Arbor Day and um you know this is one of the bullet points we want to you know after access had a holy dedicated committees they felt this was good it is a line item and and keep in mind awareness is a huge Mission and education of shade tree and to Pam point we do get people who call us and say this looks wrong and then you know I'll call and it can be wrong so the more people know about this the more information the better it'll be and hopefully if the Press is picking this up it'll amplify it and there'll be a discussion because it's a good thing and it you know so I I just want to say thank you again um to all the lawyers and Keith and it was one of those meetings I was so ssy to be boxed out of as you guys hashed it out and a big thank you to George wolson all set so the next item uh wait wait wait not all set I would like to were any changes made to the penalties no no that this has not gone back to shade Tre yet from George okay I think we should be looking at the penalties at the same time okay SE it it would take a different would take a different action but we can but if you can add that to the Sha tree commission yeah I mean they're gonna some of them are going to be like $1 million but no we can we can go to penalties we can yeah well I think the issue is then Pam do you want to hold this until we it's a separate it's a separate ordinance there just want to make sure just want to make sure good okay let's move on let me just make a note and you're you're not going to forget no I'm writing it down now okay next item on the agenda um actually excited about this um I want to thank uh Jeremy kimman our OEM coordinator and chief judge from the fire department uh they have been in talks with the folks at Valley hospital and since Valley closed back in April here in Ridgewood and relocated to pamis um the par paramedics have been located in pamis and they also have a unit in woff um what this is going to allow us to do is have a valley paramedic Squad assigned to 33 Douglas P place at our EMS building um so that they can have a quicker response here in Ridgewood uh so this agreement will allow for an additional paramedic unit ALS 404 uh they'll respond uh from Ridgewood from Douglas Place uh to ensure that we have proper paramedic coverage here in the village um the fire department has seen an increase in paramedics uh paramedic calls um and because of the distance obviously there's a delayed response in getting here than there was when Valley was operational here in the village uh both Valley and Ridgewood through these discussions uh thought it was beneficial to create a fourth paramedic unit um from Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Stage it here in Ridgewood uh they'll have access to the Douglas Place utilizing the kitchen and common area and bathrooms um it has been agreed that the garages bedrooms and offices are not part of the access agreement this will be a one-year trial period and quite frankly they're already staging from from the location um and uh this will formalize that relationship sounds like a terrific idea everybody yeah I think it's great and I think it's going to really serve our residents well so great job to everyone that made this happen good thank you and thanks to Valley yep um next item under operations uh we have some recommendations for amendments to Val various salary ordinance uh this has to do with contractual obligations uh where the range needs to be modified for calendar year 2025 questions okay let's go item two under operations is to establish a stop sign at Heights Road and Avendale Road uh this is being recommended by engineering and the police department so just seems strange I had the same question oh yeah me too uh uh we do um in Chris's memo he said that uh there was um uh a Stop Bar and um double yellow line painted on here and he says we do not know who installed the Stop Bar and tail and now we are putting a stop sign there so it is it is a mystery it is a mystery um however after proper valuation uh one of two things could have happened either the stop sign could be added which is the recommendation or black paint could have been taken up to the intersection and cover up what was painted I don't think it's the but there is a uh there is concurrence that the stop sign is warranted it it's more that somebody had the foresight to put the bar in and now we've agreed to finish the job and put the stop sign in it just seems the tail may be wagging the dog on whatever do let's do it but it's a very strange story yes so and let's move on concurrence on the stop sign all yep absolutely um item three is authorize application to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs for the local Recreation Improvement Grant uh for improvements to the Gren Park Skate Park uh skate park was added uh down there the stable back in 2015 uh did sustain damage during the 2021 flood event and obviously the constant use from orders which as you can understand there's some wear and tear there uh the Grant application will be for a $100,000 maximum award and the grant funds will go towards crack repair resurfacing painting of the rink and the purchasing of some new equipment to supplement this gate rank questions I just think it's great as as always being at uh the parks and rec meeting it's amazing that how much use that Park gets so it's really great that we're and the beauty of that is it keeps them off other public spaces where we really don't want skateboarder so it gives them a place to go um the next few resolutions are requests from uh share Inc um for Community Development block grants the first is for roof repairs at 130 Prospect Street in the amount of $115,000 the second is for 10 is for roof repairs at 104 Cottage Place for $43,000 next is a request for an endorsement uh from the Children's Aid and Family Services uh for a new generator at 29 Washington PL $16,578.84 $29,000 everybody good yep good mayor that concludes my portion of the agenda thank you let's go back to public comment good evening uh Ann loving Ridgewood resident um very much agree with um councilman Mortimer talking about enforcing an ordinance uh the tree ordinance there's so many ordinances in this town that never get enforced like overnight parking on the street the Airbnb ordinance I mean people advertise their airbnbs like just totally ignoring it the lawn watering um I think recycles are not supposed to be out before like 4:00 on the day before there people put them out whenever they feel like it so I'm all for the tree ordinance enforcement and I certainly do hope that other ordinances could get a little T and I just also wanted to say something about the um the one Village one vote initiative that uh former councilwoman Reynolds talked about on Monday night it needs to be pointed out that um of course that vote passed with a great um with a great majority not taking that away but as a result zero citizens can vote on the school board budget when the election is in November it took away our right to vote on that so that's a very uh serious loss in terms of democracy as far as I'm concerned thank you thank you in anyone have any oh wait we have a excuse me so sorry didn't see you stand up am I okay you are absolutely you are better than okay yeah great uh good evening mayor and councel and happy New Year everyone hope it's a great year coming up um my wife and I had a occasion recently to attend a Ridgewood Board of Education meeting and I realize that the board of education's budget is multiple times what your budget is but I will say this about the Board of Education when you were in the room attending a meeting of the Board of Education in person you can hear what everybody on the day is saying in that room it is relatively embarrassing that we still have a situation that those of us who sit in this room can hear every other word that is said up on the de and I don't understand it I don't understand what is the matter with the Acoustics and the sound system in this room one of the problems is that many of you turn away from the mic like this and you're speaking to other people on the de rather than talking into the microphone when you do that those of us in the room cannot not hear you the people on the de that you're speaking to can hear you but those of us who are in the room cannot hear you when you do that and it to me it's disrespectful for those of us who are in the room and I'm sure the same holds true for those who are watching on TV that is difficult to hear when you move away from the microphone so please keep that in mind you need to speak in directly into the microphones I know that the mayor encourages everybody to do it but I sit the back of the room you know I'm a regular attendee of these meetings and I watch people they turn to speak to the person next to them and then all the sudden we can't hear and I'm sure that the same thing happens to the people who are watching on TV another thing that I will say after attending Broadway shows over the holiday is I think these are the wrong microphones I think these are noise cancelling microphones intended to be used in noisy environments and that's why you have to get up close to them I would suggest maybe you try one different style microphone and see if that helps that you can hear when you move back I see people in Broadway shows and see people at the Board of Education meeting they're not right up on the microphones yet you can hear them so I don't know whether it's the wind screen on here that is the improper wind screen or the design of the microphone is not proper but if you have some money in the budget try out at least one microphone different microphone every single microphone in this room is the same every one of the microphones here if you turn away from it you can't hear the person who's speaking so ask Dylan to try a different microphone and see what happens as I said I think these may be noise counseling micrones that are designed to be used in noisy environments where you don't want to pick up a lot of the background noise so um uh the other thing I want to say is that I appreciate the installation of The Pedestrian crossing lights at north south Irving Street and East Bridgewood Avenue but I will say this when you were standing there and you push the button you don't know whether the lights are operating I realized that you didn't put in the audible probably because of the residences in the area you don't want to disturb them but if there's some sort of visual indicator that can be put near the button so you can make sure that the light did come on and I'm not suggesting that people push the button and just walk out into the street they've got to look but it would be nice to know that the that the lights are lit and the way the configuration is there when you're getting ready to cross the street the lights are facing in the other direction and you cannot see whether they're on in in any of the places where the button is again happy New Year and we hope at least I hope that you get the microphone situation straightened out thank you so much and boy before you go just a question so uh and thank you for the observation when we speak directly into the you said you said at one point you only hear every other word when we speak directly into the microphone it's fine okay and I'm not saying we shouldn't look into another microphone I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't it wasn't it was it's only when when somebody turns away from the microphone to face the to face someone else on the deas for example right and to your point Mr Mayor you've really got to get close to the microphones there's some of you who sit back from the microphones and we we we can't hear we just listen if there's a better microphone my neck hurts from leaning forward like this this is very un again I think I don't think these are the right microphones for this sort of environment I think they've got to be more sensitive these appear to be no noise cancelling microphones from from uh I think directional mic is what it is they use on Broadway are the ones that come around from the ear to the mouth and that's how you can dance right but the Board of Education you know I'm in that room and I can hear every word that's said I I I can't and they turn to talk to one another and I can still hear I this room I maybe it's thetics of the room the Acoustics are terrible but but but this is a different issue I see Keith writing so I know that he is looking he's he's got this on his list to look into so thank you very much for the OBS it's it's really difficult to hear M Miss winegrad stood up tonight and leaned it it just makes it very difficult for us to year very difficult I heard my back earlier this weekend I'm sorry I've been like stretching I warned everybody we've been than you so much I do I do think um piloting um and it's obvious it's me and we the worst and I'm sorry about that we know we try but we had a proposal for a lapel so could we could we demo it and see if the Improvement is I mean theel ones because you can yeah you okay you're doing it I would say don't try the lapel ones because people walk away with them they go to the bathroom things like that if you got the kind that goes around the ear it's easier to take off and and you're more aware of it and you're not going to walk out of this room with it um that's why I would point if this is a directional mic that might be the issue that you can get different mics that pick up sounds like this and not just Heather and I will have a conversation with Dylan and and this arm is just too short oh my gosh and we can demo them for free I'm sure yeah so all right he's goingon to look into this I just I just have one other comment and I I don't know that it's well known um but back in February of 2024 an uh Governor Murphy signed into law um an approved bill that eliminates the vote on school budgets for type two school districts in April elections unless it exceeds the tax levy so that requirement to vote in April is no longer there based on that legislation um unless it exceeds 2% which applies to the the school districts that hold their elections in November as well um so that might be a bill that you want to you want to look up because apparently Murphy signed that into law good and we have one other commenter uh on hybrid access Cynthia you're up hi everybody um I just wanted to clarify a few points can you hear me please can please state your name oh Cynthia o'keef Ridgewood resident um so I just first I want to say thank you to Pam for um reinforcing some of the you know negative um contributors um when it comes to artificial or synthetic grass artificial turf um the few points I wanted to make and I did personally speak to Dr Evans at the end of September um and she is available and I also don't think we should just limit you know our research and due diligence to one person there are many experts that have done peer- reviewed studies on artificial turf so that's number one um and I did speak to her at length she is also a sports parent but she understands that there are known carcinogens and neurotoxins and fun fact for all of you Al Turf has P it is the plastic in the Extrusion PL uh process in making the turf so it is not not necessarily the infill although that is also um contains chemicals so there there we go with that so Al Turf contains pasas it is the plastic which also sheds microplastics hundreds of pounds per year so therefore bad for the environment and I know um you know Frank you might have been part and Pam might have been part of the green Ridgewood um research that David refkin presented back in April where um the group um said that they were against Turf so it's interesting um that we can then go say oh I'm dropping my kids off at soccer I'm not concerned about it that's um and by the way nobody who was Pro Turf called dord rkin back when he reached out to you to um to talk about the um the negative impact so that's um one part um the field for 2017 which was eight years ago yes there was a proposal to put coconut infill that was 8 years ago so are we going to just say oh but that was on the um the plan and we're just going with it also the field size was much smaller so when I made a I guess a bit of a joke saying all the trees will come down probably at the end of the day in my mind seeing what I've seen so far with the shedler overdevelopment plan you will there will be a reason to knock them all down oh this one's half broken that one looks sick and they're all going to come down um unfortunately whether that's true or not I hope my prediction doesn't stand true it would be really sad so the field size either more than doubled or doubled um so which would mean that there are more trees coming down when you have a bigger field and you also have to fit walking paths and other things Park amenities into that plan okay so the 2017 plan was smaller fewer trees would have been taken down so I think we've like exhausted that topic and you're right Shaban we talk about it all the time but facts are facts um so All Turf has past we've said that and by the way the um Synthetic Turf council is a council made up of turf vend vendors who Lobby in Washington millions of dollars are spent on Turf so of course they're going to tell you anything you want to hear Bill Turf is in a major lawsuit right now based on lying and manipul ating information to uh communities and municipalities that spent tax dollars and other monies uh buying their Turf and they said it was you know better than sliced bread we all know it wasn't and unfortunately they are being sued in a class action law lawsuit Cynthia if you could finish up your thoughts yes well you know I have a lot of them and I like to share no I understand but you're you're well past your three minutes which is why I want to give you an opportunity to oh sorry I didn't hear the I understand I understand go ahead okay so so really I just you know obviously timely administration of justice when it comes to health and safety and I thank you all for your continued um you know hopefully we move forward in a positive direction and that you know um our neighborhood concerns are really taken to heart thank you thank you so much Cynthia does anybody have any comments yeah I do um since Mount siai keeps being brought up um if it's also on their the blog that they do so yes that we've talked about the art icial Turf but they the same people also write about the dangers of playing on grass that has um all these chemicals that I'm talking on and the recommendation they make is not to have children play on grass that's treated with chemicals so when you look at their blog they're listing all the dangers that exist in the world and so it's you know it's not that it's just about artificial turf that they're focused on thanks Frank anybody else uh yeah because it's New Year's and you know everybody thinks of how do you want to do this better I want to say a couple things um shedler is more than a turf field it is a massive open space that we purchased 15 years ago and nobody not an athlete not a historian has been able to use or experience it in 2017 I think the plan was read in 18 actually not only did that plan highlight Turf but then that Council and councils funded for Turf the capital each year wasn't like that just stopped the funds that are available now were built by prior Council so it was funded attributed and done um in terms of overdevelopment I'm particularly Sensi of this prior to this council plan leting what you know was plan L A controversial plan two plans were submitted to the state one was significantly overdeveloped which we've all seen and had to be fettered out you know by the public had a pickle ball court had multiple amenities and was rejected for being overdeveloped that's problematic because the whole land was used um in addition to that it was not given to the public or any of the Committees um my goal for shedler and you know we're we're effectively at a disagreement right you know it's like when you you talk to your teenagers and you're like dude I don't want to fight anymore there's that's really how I feel I mean there's there's been a vote it occurred many months ago um the majority has supported orded Turf it now needs to travel a separate process what the town and everybody all we we really need to get real about getting people in the house talking about the Environ minim minimizing how much asphalt goes in there there's other environmental things there's other things that will take out trees so my goal for shedler is to say this I have listened I assure people I hear them shedler is not a field it is a complicated project that is pass du to the public who has paid heavily for it and we need to remember that when we talk about the field we have to start talking about the house because now we're going to be looking at deferred maintenance so um I have voted yes to Turf I have my reasons I've tried to articulate I'm available uh we do not use field Turf as a village that is not our vendor and I will try to address these things but shedler is going to go given the number of votes here on a path and that'll hopefully happen this year not just for the field but for the whole thing so um my New Year's resolution is to remind the public that this is a park with many amenities and there's many things that cause the trees to come down and we can't just take this project and make it Turf versus grass it just can't be that um for me it can't be I mean I'm I'm listening to it all the time but so my New Year's resolution is if we want to talk about this we should talk about the totality of the park and we should honor the history but hopefully send it to shipo soon soon you know hopefully remediate that land and make it safe I mean there's so much agreement on things in shedler and we just can't get Beyond again like the teenage thing I don't want to fight I just want to remediate it make it safe and make it public anybody else good let's entertain a motion for adjournment oh let me do it good guy I make motion so moved so moved there you go second all in FA all in favor let's go new guy needs to learn how to say the right words