e e for [Music] good evening if you all please take your seats this is the Ridgewood Village Council public Workshop the date is April 2nd 2025 time is 7:31 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 pin here council member whites here council member wiad here mayor vaganos here will you all please join us in a salute to our flag Al to the flag of the United States
of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we have a very special night tonight we have a lot of great stuff going on and so we're uh we're going to bring the
entire Council down into the well so that we can make a very very spe special presentation Franchesca will you and your family and your coaches please join us [Applause]
join us here the audence for those of you who are unaware Francesca is a state wrestling champion and for those of you who think
that this is a common occurrence we have had another state wrestling champion 65 years ago she is the first state wrestling champion from Ridgewood High School in 65 years and it is
[Applause] she is small but she is mighty and so it is this council's honor great honor to read a proclamation in her
honor whereas Francesca gusa came to Ridgewood High School in the fall of 2023 bringing with her a humble yet quietly impactful presence and whereas Francesca's arrival fostered an
especially strong sense of camaraderie which endeared her to her teammates creating a closeness and unity previously absent and whereas Franchesca demonstrated her unwavering dedication to the team by volunteering to wrestle
boys in the lowest weight class 103 pounds if necessary even when it meant competing at a weight disadvantage of at least 10 10 lb per match whereas Francesca's abilities as a wrestler and her Fierce competitive
Spirit became evident as she tore through the 2023 2024 season winning tournaments and earning a spot in the 2024 state championship match and whereas after her second place finish in
the 2024 state championship Francesca made it her ultimate goal to become a state champion and dedicate herself tirelessly to achieving that dream by competing in tournaments Across the Nation and
internationally and whereas Francesca's preparation and perseverance led her to excel during the 20242 season serving as ridgewood's Dependable 106 pound wrestler in team duel and dominating the
boys varsity lineup while winning nearly all the girls tournaments she entered including the prestigious girls beast of the East tournament the most difficult tournament on the east coast and whereas Francesca's
extraordinary accomplishments earned her another opportunity to compete for a State title this past year where despite being down three to nothing in the third period She exhibited remarkable determination and skill to triumph over
Madison ruchie of Jackson Liberty by a score of 11 to5 securing her place in history as Ridgewood High School's second ever State wrestling champion and the first in over 60 years now therefore
be it comp proclaimed by The Village Council of the village of Ridgewood that they extend their most heartfelt congratulations to Francesca gusa for her extraordinary achievements her indomitable spirit and her profound
contributions to the the school's wrestling program on behalf of an exceptionally proud Community Francesca [Applause] congratulations before I hand this over to Franchesca and her coaches I just
want to say I'm a girl dad and my girls competed so I appreciate this more than you can possibly imagine state championships don't just happen they take talent but
they take so much hard work it's unbelievable thank you so much for all of your efforts and making all of Ridgewood proud and I'm going to turn it over to your coach first uh yeah my name is Tory Watson the head coach just want to kind of speak on
behalf of our program we have a lot of our uh team members here real quick would you guys stand up real quick our environment on the team is a family atmosphere we support each other uh the support comes both ways I want to thank those guys for supporting Franchesca I want to thank Francesca for
valiantly you know representing us throughout the year at the state tournament and you know in everything that she's done we're super proud of her and you know it's great to be [Applause]
here um I just want to say thank you to everyone who helped me get here um especially my family and I want to thank my teammates for being really welcoming and supportive when I joined a couple years ago and um I'm really appreciative and blessed to have this opportunity and
really grateful thank you let's get some pictures you can ab come join us good to see you good to see you so proud all of you every one of you nice job
every one of you guys good job y good job good job I love the way you support your team this is great see nice job nice
job here we go here you guys down on the side [Applause] [Music] so Happ thank you second one no I don't think so
no I just had two copies that's say two championships and before we by the way how much fun was that that was that was a really really special time thank you all we really let's do this again okay before we get to our regular
part of our meeting we have a presentation from Ridgewood High School students who have done an incredible project for us that they want to present to us so if you will all step up take a seat over here come
on it's a big night let me just are those mics on there it should be a little green light okay check yours and I will and I will let you know you must speak directly into the mic or else you won't
be heard okay so if you will introduce yourselves give us your name your grades and why you are here so that everyone knows um hi I'm Danielle and I'm Esme Daniel your last name hos hris okay um
we're here presenting uh we're both in our AP environmental science class at Ridgewood High School so are you seniors yes we actually have a slide introducing ourselves sorry and I screwed that up stick around there'll be more of
those tonight I did profile all of you guys for the students before you got here um so our sustainability project is about the trash bins at Veterans Field there are three members in our group um Zoe couldn't be here tonight but she's a senior at rhs she'll be attending Ramapo
College majoring in environmental science and journalism some of the things she's involved in are she's in band and she's also in the color guard and she's a youth ministry volunteer hi my name is esma hendris again I'm a senior at rhs um I'm not sure where I'm going yet but I want to
either major in biology or architecture with a a minor in environmental science and I'm involved in swimming at both the YMCA in the high school and I'm also a Valley Hospital volunteer I'm Danielle hos I'm a senior at rhs I'll be attending the University of Delaware and majoring in Global
Studies with a concentration in the environment I'm also planning on minoring in music I'm involved in pretty much every single band activity that there is and I'm also on the Varsity softball team where I'm a pitcher and where I've noticed that there's a need at Veterans Field for more trash bins
and recycling bins so our mission is to replace the trash bins at veter Veterans Field with better quality ones we'd also like to replace the recycling bins so they're closer together and Our intention is that people will actually throw out their trash and recycle more since the
bins will become more accessible the problems we noticed are that there are few trash cans in comparison to the size of the field they're misplaced and found where they might not be needed and they are not found where they are needed um there are many trash cans condensed in some areas
where whereas there are long stretches with fewer or no trash bins um some of them are poorly made and some of them are recycling bins there might be one um so that begs the question what do you do when you only have trash and there's a recycling bin when you only
have Recycling and there's a trash bin or when there's nothing nearby overall the situation is not as accessible as it could be so this is just an overhead view of Veterans Field and we just went around the field and we marked off where all
the trash cans are currently and as you can see they're all concentrated around the left side of the field and there are none on the right and we kind of had an issue with this since there is the entrance to the field over the bridge and there's also the parking lot and
there are no bins there and we think that people have to carry their trash and it's not very accessible and there also no recycling bins I'm sorry to interrupt but are the yellow ones where you think that additional bins need to
be that's where the trash cans currently are okay and what's the green um oh those are just on the Google Maps yeah this is just a screenshot from the Google Maps yeah and so as you can see we added two more stars on the right
and we'd like to place sets of recycling and trash bins at each of the locations cuz currently there are only trash bins and we'd like to put two by the entrance and also we'd like to put two in the parking lot since Rood high school students stents especially seniors they
park there when they go to school and also parents who have children they're dropping them off them off for sports or they're coming to watch a game they might have trash and we thought these would be good places to put them and this is just a photo I took of
one of the bins so as you can see there are holes so smaller pieces of trash could fly out there's also no bags there's no Tops on them as well and we just thought that it would be a good idea to have bins that are are better suited for the
area so so far we've already surveyed the field and also people who use it I've spoken with some varsity JV and freshman baseball and softball players and other people who use the field um I've also spoken with Margie DS who
agreed that this would even be something useful for you guys to use as council members who are around this area a lot um I've selected we've selected ideal trash bins to use and we've met with Mrs winegrad to put
this into motion um we've also started to put this project into action at rhs we've spoken with um Damen Smith who oversees the trash collection at rhs uh to select bins which we'll show you in the upcoming slides um just to do this
at the varsity football field um and our last step is to put this into action at Veterans Field which is what we need you guys for um we so as we saw we've already taken note of the types and number of trash bins
throughout vets field we've also been researching what kinds of garbage garbage bins would be best for this and which would be the most cost efficient so we could do the physical setup ourselves if if necessary and it would most likely be a onetime assembly and it's fairly simple and we think it
would require not much upkeep which would be almost identical what's already needed for them we also have a we also have a grant that's being put towards the other part of our project but unfortunately it's only available to be used on ridgwood public school campuses and but we think that pursuing this
project at Veterans Field is just as important so we were pointed in your direction by our principal Mr Nas and we hope that you'd like to invest in this project this is an image from a magazine we were given by Damen Smith to use for the football field um there's as you can
see very distinct recycling bin and a trash bin that have lids and that it I mean just looking at it it looks much more sturdy and accessible than what's already there um and we would be purchasing two like each of these to put
up at at the field um they're each $600 so two of them at each specific Place we've selected 11 places which is subject to change based on what what you guys also believe is is important or necessary so this this total is subject
to change and also subject to change if it's decided to do it in more places or something along those lines so what are the benefits of this project so we believe that for the environment this will minimize the
amount of litter and trash flying out out of the bins and it'll also eliminate the mix of trash and recycling in one bin accessibility wise it also makes it easier for people living near or visiting the field since they'll be more clear place better throughout and we
also think it'd be aesthetically beneficial since the field is used for a lot of sports and it's locationally close to town hall so it would be a good look for Ridgewood overall our main request from the council would be funding since part of our mission is based on getting full
endorsement and financial support another way you can help is by providing us with in with permission and materials to apply for grants that can fund this we hope that you understand our needs and ideas for this project and would like to work with us questions Council I'm impressed with what you've
presented um I do want this to be an educational experience for you in the Apes class in the advanced placement uh environmental class so what I would like to do is introduce you and set up a
meeting with the parks supervisor because that's the department that picks up up garbage in vets field and I think you could learn from him his name is Matt andula uh why cans are PL placed where they are but you could tell them where
they're missing and also um there may be limits to the amount of weight that can be in a can because of um what's called uh occupational safety and health requirements um they can't we can't ask
our employees to lift more than a certain amount of weight um and you'll also learn from him when they pick up how many times a week do they pick up um are there problems I would also like to introduce you to our recycling
coordinator Sean Hamlin because for instance we have we have recycling cans downtown and when I looked in one of them today there were straws and cups and things that were not bottles or cans
um so if there's a way to label the the receptacles I think that's helpful not that I've ever seen labels that fully answer my questions for instance as you walk out of this room you'll see three
receptacles in the back when you look at them can you tell where plastic film would go can you tell where a napkin would go with food on it there's um a need to educate the public how to use
Recycling and uh so I think you would learn an awful lot from those two department heads and I would like to set that up for you but good start we've also already reached out to Sean Hamlin um I just want to let you know but but I
would love to get the email or some kind of form of communication from you after right there are many considerations that we in the public don't consider um and when recycling has garbage in it regular garbage it's
become contaminated and cannot be recycled so we really have to think about that but thank you so I just wanted to add a little bit of background because I've been lucky enough to meet with the students was great they've done such a good job for everybody from Richwood High School you should be so
proud of them and the way they've represented it they have met with Nancy um Damen Smith by way of background is the facilities head at the board of education and he's been very beneficial to fun story they didn't let us meet together until they had met with us
separately um and he was very he expressed a lot of the same concerns about the physicality of picking it up and we have sent the presentation to the police because the public is listening um after Boston and the bombing there the sad unfortunate fact is that the police are very involved in this because
we have massive events out here and so every everybody has seen it and is going to aine on it from that and Nancy um the girls presented to the fields committee yesterday and it went over really well um almost too well and Fields took it from zero to 1,000 that they want
garbage cans everywhere at every Park every starting tomorrow um so that's just a little bit of background additionally uh we talked about funding and I'm not kidding the um the fields the fields committee is the primary user of our fields and this in addition to
the paring and there was such a um an embracement of this idea it went from all the elementary schools need better garbage to everything so there's clearly a need and it seems so obvious and so clean but it was just presented very well by the girls additionally do you want to tell them that all of the sports
groups seemed amendable to donating donating tell them they they we said that the timing of this and the the cost of it all of the um Representatives said they would be amendable to making a donation because it's in their vested interest to
keep it so it was um it was good I was trying to whisper donate it but uh so we did do all that clearly there's things and details and the purchasing power would probably be greater if the village purchased them all even if the Board of Ed was interested because we have better purchasing
power that's what I want to add as background because it's been so exciting to watch them and you guys do you want to tell them a little bit about how when at fields that you went yesterday and presented to the subcommittee yeah when we presented we were kind of expecting there to be a lot more questions and a
lot more um things that they wanted us to change maybe but everyone was very supportive and very very much agreed that this was something that was necessary and it was it was very nice to to know that other people were also on
our side about about this situation yeah I'd just like to say I think this is an awesome idea and it like what's cool is that like you you're not only saw a need but you put this project together and came here to do something about it and for that I
commend you because that's how things get done it's just stepping up as you did and you have been the Catalyst for this and I and I can't see why it won't happen I think now it's just a matter of figuring out the details but but you did this and it's just great so congrats thank
you so I've spent a lot of time out of vets over the years and for anybody who has walked up to an overflowing garbage can and said Somebody's got to do something about this we have all seen
this and yet nothing was ever done about it until now until you came along you figured this out and it was something that we all passed by every day and we'd put the piece of garbage on top of the
piece of garbage and it would all fall on the ground but that's not going to happen anymore because as you've seen everybody's on board you came up with a great idea you put together a great presentation and we are fortunate enough
to have you helping us figure this out I have a saying many have heard me say it many hands make light work you guys have helped make this Village a little brighter a little cleaner a little better today thank you so much for coming tonight thank you for having
let's give them a big round of applause and I can tell you this is going to happen so thank you very much and students we would love for you to stay but trust me when I tell you you'll be happy you're [Laughter]
leaving but you've all come and made this a very very special night so thank you all very much and without further Ado let's go to public comment Heather Heather I don't have a screen so could we reach out to Mark to
see if we've got anybody Mark is there anyone interested in participating through hybrid Denise mayor put her on she still on mute Denise are you there is there a technical problem nothing
okay but he may not have joined because no but he has him back there okay he has it back there it's just on my screen I mean if if Denise is watching I I I don't want to jinx us it looks like a pretty quick agenda and so we'll open it up again probably not too late absolutely absolutely um anybody from
the audience seeing no one I'm going to close public comment and I'll even I'll even leave a caveat if we get her if we can get her in during the manager's report or the council reports we'll squeeze her in so and with that let's go to the manager report thank you mayor um
good evening everyone unfortunately tonight we start off with some um troubling news uh as you may have read in recent articles uh since Friday the village of Ridgewood was notified at 530
p.m. on Friday by the State Department of Health uh that two of our three three Public Health Grants that we've received over the last number of years were being frozen uh these are federal grants um
this no doubt has to do with the initiatives in Washington right now uh to freeze and cut back on government spending um it's worth noting that New Jersey um announced on Monday that they would be suing the federal government uh
fighting the suspension of nearly 11 billion dollar in Public Health Grants that were Frozen um that were applicable uh to municipalities and counties throughout the country uh New Jersey will be joining 22 other states in this
lawsuit um trying to claw back the $350 million of funding that was earmarked for New Jersey now people have asked me well how does this affect Ridgewood um prospectively the funding that is no
longer available amounts to just under $170,000 it impacts two full-time employees in our health department and it affects over 34 programs that the health department here in Ridgewood administered so I am working closely uh
with Dawn and our health department um to try to get answers not only from the state but also from our federal officials on whether or not this is going to be permanent I don't think we'll have a conclusive answer to that until this lawsuit is heard um but we
are currently um in a holding pattern we are not spending any of these dollars that have been allocated um and we are working with um Heather's office on the Civil Service process relative to uh the potential with the two employees so
again this is unfortunate news um I don't think this is necessarily the way to do business at the end of the day we knew that these grants uh would sunset at the end of June um in one circumstance and in the with regard to the other Grant uh the
Sunset date was March of 2026 um so we would have prepared to either take on these programs reduce programming decide how we were going to um address the staffing needs moving forward um but this abrupt spending
freeze that we were notified um on Friday at 5:30 p.m. um is certainly a hardship that we're dealing with here um at Village Hall so I wanted to bring the council and the public up to speed on that um also in some equally unfortunate
news um we had a working house fire yesterday um on Norgate Drive The Ridgewood police Ridgewood OEM obviously the Ridgewood fire department all responded uh shortly after 3:30 p.m. yesterday
uh we had mutual aid from Hocus Glenrock woff pamis Valley Hospital Emergency Services Bergen County Mutual Aid coordinators and Northwest burkeen incident safety officer um we also thank fairw and Midland Park as they were covering uh fire headquarters for the
rest of the town during the emergency um the fire is still under investigation we did have one resident uh who lived there who was transported to Valley hospital um and by 600 p.m. last night the site was cleared but I just want to publicly thank uh chief judge and the members of
The Ridgewood fire department uh for their prompt response to this emergency um the 911 dispatcher actually advised the resident to evacuate the home um which they found her outside when uh when they arrived uh so I just want to thank all who were involved in that
response um especially our own RFD we also have the monthly report from Millennium strategies this is our grant writer uh I just want to highlight two numbers uh for everyone tonight uh we currently have pending $4.6 million in
Grant applications that we're waiting to hear back from the various agencies um and just this year since the first of the year we've applied for an additional $823,000 in Grants so um I just want to thank all of our department heads and our employees who are involved in this
process um hopefully the federal government chooses not to freeze any other grants uh that are applicable to Ridgewood uh but we are aggressively pursuing various Source sources of funding uh to offset the burden on our taxpayers we under item 10 E1 tonight
will be applying for an additional Recreation Grant um through the Bergen County open space trust fund this has to do with improvements that are slated for 2026 for Citizens Park uh we're looking to replace the original fencing which as I understand it is from the
1960s um we're also looking to make some improvements to the baseball field there um with some sun shelters to go over the player benches uh we're also talking about some drainage improvements and possibly bump in parking on North Monroe but that's a work in progress at this
point um so that application um will be considered next week uh by resolution and we will make that application before the end of the month uh today myself the mayor and the deputy mayor had a meeting with New Jersey Transit down at the train station um obviously for over a
year now we've been talking to New Jersey Transit about the improvements that need to be made underneath the Trestle um under Franklin Avenue um we had four representatives from New Jersey Transit out there today um they asked us to work with the village engineering department uh to come up with a scope of
work um specific to what the village wants done at that location um especially the um condition of the underpass itself underneath the tracks um we have some drainage issues there we have some Rust issues there uh so we've asked Chris rudis haser put together a
scope of work that we will submit to New Jersey Transit and hopefully they can move on those improvements uh before some of the other improvements that the village has planned at the train station take shape just a few announcements tonight uh the village shred day event will take place on Saturday April 5th
from 8:00 a.m. till noon or until the trucks are full this will be held at the Gren pool parking lot limit of five boxes or paper bags per vehicle the is for confidential documents only please stay in your vehicle no walk ups allowed and place items for shredding in the
trunk in a paper bag or cardboard box and there'll be folks there to assist you please do not put any of the shred material in plastic bags online registration for Gren pool and the tennis pickle ball badges begin on April 1st through Community pass you can also
secure them in person Monday through Friday at the stable from 8:30 to 4:30 Gren Badge Office will be open on Saturday May 10th and May 17th from 10: to 12: at Gren pool as a reminder the two-day per week irrigation rules are
now in effect odd-numbered areas for irrigation are Tuesday and Saturday and even numbered addresses for irrigation are Wednesday and Sunday no irrigation is allowed on Monday Thursday or Friday yard was season begins on Monday April 7th please check the village calendar
for your collection area Village Hall will be closed on Friday April 18th in observance of Good Friday there'll be no garbage or recycling pickup on that day and the recycling center will be closed the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce presents Easter in the park at vanas
Square on Saturday April 19th from 11:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. there'll be an eggh hunt Easter bunny pictures music games vendors and more please check with the Chamber of Commerce for more information the rbsa opening day parade
will take place on Saturday April 26th the parade will begin at 9:00 a.m. at the Ridgewood train station continue down Ridgewood Avenue to Maple AV an end at Veterans Field 2024 daffodil festival and Earth Day Fair will take place on Sunday April 27th at vanas Square from
11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and finally upcoming Village Council meetings April 9th is a public meeting April 23rd is a work session both begin at 7:30 p.m. and I will make note that we anticipate introducing the 2025 Municipal budget next week at the April 9th public
meeting that's all I have mayor thank you Keith and let's go to council reports let's start with Siobhan and before we start sioban I just want to thank you for working with those terrific students and helping them put together a fabulous presentation um it's not surprising it's just always nice
when you do stuff like that I just want to say as an Alum and a parent it's so nice to work with our public high school and um we feel I know Mike and I feel very lucky to live here for a lot of reasons but when you interact with the kids and the students they're just so awesome aome um I want to thank
everybody for supporting them being so nice to them um and clearly Our IT department supported them a lot too which is great so thank you to rid High School um I don't have a ton of reports because it's only been a week um but we did have a Fields meeting on Monday on
sorry yesterday that went the girls clearly presented and it went well a couple things to highlight um April 26th is opening baseball day uh last day Keith is April 27 and there's a lot of discussion for the upcoming maroon Father's Day tournament on June 13th
14th and 15th we did have a discussion about further enhancing some of our lightning detection uh Communications and we're going to be working on that I know that the Board of Ed sends notes out but we have spring fast smoothing weather I'm sure you all saw um the storm that came in the other day I want
to thank everybody on the fields committee for obviously working with the young students and the topic of um removal and recycling of waste was a big discussion um I also want to let people know that the fields uh meeting is
typically hybrid the next month we're going to take um the fields committee to shedler and we're going to have an in-person meeting there so the sports groups can see the space to see if they have any idea for a possible future tenant it will be in person and obviously it's a public meeting if
people wish to come I just want to remind everybody that you need to wear appropriate shoes because there is no hardscaping and not to park on the property um so we're very excited to see what the fields committee Community thinks about the house we're not going to be discussing the field we're going
to be discussing the house their potential future user and lastly um I want to thank Frank and Heather for participating in the council chat and just tell a very nice story that um members of the hilt Foundation who love
Paul by the way came to speak to us that they felt that there needed to be better signage in Village Hall and again it's a small but obvious thing every time I come to Village Hall someone is lost here someone's wandering and and I mean like every single time for like two years someone's like could you tell me
here so the members of Hill felt that they there would be beneficial to improving some of the signage and they made this recommendation to put it in the elevator and our internal staff did it and it's so obvious and Hilt is so happy so I'm telling that story not as a brag but clearly we have open accessible
hours where you can come and talk about anything and clearly we're lucky to live in a place where people respond to it and we have internal Sign Making so Dylan's not here tonight but thank you for making the sign and for everybody who makes all these intimacies happen because we've been we've taking photos
with the the sign and everyone's so happy about it so thank you thank you Paul for sharing the hilt recommendations with us and everybody who hasn't been to one of these chats and wants to bring up something please do so because we're available for it thanks Shavon Frank I have nothing Evan
uh I too have nothing nothing n my committees have met in the last week since we've been here look at this Pam okay um for Richard High School sustainability day which is going to be April uh 25th rich calby and I are going
to be speaking to the students and that should be fun um with regard to slow-mo may there's not going to be registration or signage for that this year uh but uh um we do encourage you to do slow-mo May
on your own because it's good for the environment and we do encourage that be aware that we are not suspending um enforcement of our ordinance which prohibits um letting your grass grow
higher than 10 in so bear that in mind um the planning board met on Tuesday to consider a minor site plan uh brought by the new owner of 245 East Ridgewood Avenue that's that Charming building
across from foxes it has like gingerbread on it and it's like a little cottage with a couple of extensions on either side and um their plan is to build out the back and not touch the front which I was very thankful for and
um the the planning board voted unanimously in favor of it uh and none of my other committees met since our last meeting so that's all I have thank you Pam and there are two things I'd like to just mention tonight um last night I had the distinct honor of being
in these Chambers um to meet with the planning board to swear in one of their newest members and I took a moment to say hello to every member of the planning board and putting aside for just a moment that these are people who dedicate their time their free nights uh
time away from their families to help their neighbors figure out how to best use their property um as I looked in the eyes of each of those members of the planning board I saw a killer planning board these are exceptional individuals
they are really smart they are accomplished they are empathetic but this is um I I have appeared before a number of planning boards in a former life this is a very very serious planning board we are very
fortunate to have people of this caliber serving our community and I and I wish you all well when you when you appear before them but you don't need my good wishes you will have them um uh the second thing I want to take a moment to celebrate is the end of Ramadan for
those of you aren't aware Ramadan is an annual uh uh time holy time in the Muslim faith where uh the Muslim Community fasts from water and food during all daylight
hours now you can imagine and by the way it changes time every year so in the summertime it's a very long fast and it is to remind them of how fortunate they are and that there are those far less
fortunate than they are um it last for 30 days and the end of uh the end of Ramadan is is a huge celebration as you can imagine it's called Eid Eid and they celebrated Eid this weekend and they can
go back to their regular lives and their regular eating schedules but I want to wish the Muslim Community in Ridgewood well and I admire their strength and their fortitude for their dedication to their faith and to this fast and with
that we will get on with our regular agenda and so Keith take it away thank you mayor we have no items under Ridgewood water or parking tonight uh so we'll start under budget the first is an award of contract for tree irrigation Services throughout the village uh we
received bids on Wednesday March 26th we had five registered plan holders The Village received three bids in return the low bidder was for $79,200 this will cover in the residential areas 26 sessions for 400 trees in the CBD 53
watering sessions for 45 trees and on Crest Road where we did the work up at the view 53 sessions for 30 trees and again the amount is not to exceed 79 295 questions everybody good go okay the
next item is to renew our contract for spatial data logic this is a software platform that is used in the building department the health department and the village clerk's office this is a not to exceed expenditure of $58,500 everybody good yeah I just want to
comment that we we received continuous feedback about needs for improving our billing department software technology such as sdl will be helpful to us and I want to thank everybody who's been working on it but for the public that's watching it the more that we can streamline the transactions through
Technologies such as this the better it'll really improve our building department okay and the next four items all have to do with the water pollution control facility uh the first is an award of purchase for a 4in submersible trash pump uh contract to be awarded to
Rapid pump and meter surface under the Pake Valley sewage commission uh contract bid not to exceed $63,500 of a purchase of Furnishing and installation of a digestor gas safety equipment uh Village this is for the water pollution control facility as I
mentioned uh this is to deal with the methane gas produced by the treatment process uh this is a critical safety feature that is necessary um and again this is to Rapid pump and meter service uh for the purchase of two new gas
sediment traps $19,600 capital accounts questions yes Keith it says um on page two that the current ones are no longer functioning and so when they're replaced how will that impact the environment aka the
smells um I I mean we're we're getting through but there's an urgency to getting these ordered and getting them installed um so i' I've talked to Chris I mean they're again they're they're making doe down there but this is going to um improve the quality of the situation there good thank you
okay next is the award of purchase Furnishing for installation of two G digestor roof gas swivel connections um this too is being awarded to Rapid pump and meter service through the P Valley sewage commission contract not to exceed
$4,530 and that this funding is available through Capital as well everybody good yeah you know I am relieved to see us renovating the water pollution control facility it's out of sight and out of mind for most T most of
our taxpayers it's in fact in Glenrock and you you may not have seen it but a lot of a lot of work goes on there and this is vital to health so and and I just want very important and I just want to remind the council when we talked about Capital back in
2024 we knew that 25 was going to be a heavy Capital spend on the water pollution control facility the facility down there was um renovated in 2005 that was a long time ago um and these pieces of equipment are running 24 hours a day
7 days a week 365 days a year so um you know Chris had spoken to me last year about some significant investments in this facility um and we're pleased and and appreciative of the council for supporting these initiatives because you don't think about the water pollution
control facility until there's a problem and then everybody's thinking about the water pollution control facility so we want to uh we want to make doe so the final one is an award of purchase of three Pen Valley sludge pumps um these are are wearing out and in need of frequent repairs um so we're going to
need to buy three new ones uh this is the total amount is $224,400 um this is again to Rapid pump meter service through the paake valley sewage commission Co-op and available in capital everybody good yeah I just want
to say that um this reminds me of uh the Water Department that all the toys that they buy are not cheap everything's expensive uh we have nothing under policy tonight so we'll move to um operations one is authorization for an application for the Burgen County open
space grant funding round for Field improvements at citizen Park um I mentioned this earlier tonight uh our request is for a matching Grant of 99,354 for citizen Park um keep it mind too uh
not only do we have to approve this application by resolution we're also required to have a public hearing on this um and Heather has made the arrangements uh to conduct that public hearing um at a future meeting everybody good I just I just want to tell you one fun story for the
Alumni Association we hang the graduation banners and often you get ass signed the night before it's all secret and one year I had citizens and to line up the the banner so they were all even was so hard so fact that if you ever go by there you know when the graduation
goes up you it's sort of straight but not really and it takes hours for the alumni to get it so if you look at it particularly on the Godwin side you're going to see the fence and how irregular and old it is and so this is money well spent and I'm sure it'll improve the streetcape for the Neighbors as well
because take a look at it when you're at that light and think about making banners level and and our plan is obviously we're we're presenting these resolutions to you tonight because we have a deadline at the end of the month and we have a public meeting next week so we have to get these in but once this
fan once this plan is finalized um we're going to have Nancy come in and make a formal presentation to the Council of all the different improvements that we're proposing for next year at Citizens Park okay that's great okay and then so I just just want to mention the public hearing and also these
resolutions are going to be considered at a special public meeting on April 23rd because we have to hold the hearing before we the resolutions it's still in time to get the Grant in so it'll be a public hearing specifically on each one
of these Grant applications and we'll do it during a special public meeting on that day there you go and Heather thank you for making sure that we get all this stuff in on time the way it needs to be
done because all of this stuff is kind of behind the scenes for us but we know you're always taking care of it we appreciate it and the next item on the agenda is the historic preservation trust fund Grant through Bergen County for
2025 and here we're seeking a matching Grant of $599,500 that The Pedestrian tunnel is located at 6 Garber Square I think of Garber Square as being over by totik at that intersection um I'm not real sure where
it begins and ends but The Pedestrian tunnel is several yards away could you check that address this is to test Paul because I always say Paul which is which is Garber and he tells me stop talking to
about and I'm not sure I'm not sure that that has an address that's right I'm wondering I'm wondering if the train station address is six Garber and that's the landmark address but we will Heather and I will call KAS it tomorrow
morning make sure we're squ away all right and mayor that concludes my portion of the agenda great we have two items for a closed session tonight though great anybody else let's go back to public comment anybody from the audience no Mark let's see if we can get
Denise back got Denise we got Denise Denise are you there mute we'll get her I did that hello any luck Mark no luck mark could it be on this end over here
because our screen does not look like it normally does come on over and take a look no it's not good on ours and and and Pam just pointed this out that that may be the problem I didn't think it could be but
oh there you go oh call right I do not Mark can you get her tonight do you think or no he's gonna change your status okay but should should we wait I think there a question yeah let's let's
let's give it a minute okay see what we can do a quick Shing along while we're waiting he said yep that's not not a terrible idea I got a number I do I
do I'm gonna why don't you tell say what we were doing here we go Denise I'm going to call you on my cell phone while we try and figure this out and we'll we'll put your we'll put it up to the mic and go from there I can hear everything you're
saying well there you go and now you are at the mic and so let's let's do this I won't call it the oldfashioned way but we can do it like this so if you would state your name and if you're a Ridgewood resident thanks everybody for your flexibility I'm actually on three
different devices so I'm pretty sure it's not my side no no it's fine it's all good okay that's great uh well thanks for the flexibility um and I have a few things I haven't been on lately um name name and Ridgewood resident yep Denise
Lima and I am a rwood resident um I'm gonna stay with the environmental I thought it was great to have uh all the girls up this morning earlier today talking um just you know if anybody rides around Ness uh the tree coverage all the planting just looks absolutely
fabulous so great job to everybody there um 20 Pond I saw uh an article about that um I think maybe Keith you had posted something and we actually just happened to be there earlier this week um it definitely I think last year we
did some evasive plants removals but the needs more clean up more water is pretty stagnant if you have a committee you know wants to get together volunteer please include me happy to contribute to making that a little bit better um the
Town garage reimagined I saw something on Bryant Park um that we might want to think about you know modeling it after they uh change every season they have the winter popups and shops um they have ice skating for the kids they alternate
they now just laid all the grass out for the park you know so it's kind is always alternating and and reimagined through the years and I just happened to saw see that so I thought I would um share that with everybody um also anybody that's following the electronic billboard out
on Route 17 in Ridgewood um that same company that's uh we have the lawsuit with they have a screen that's on Route 22 in Union that actually has sound bird sounds so that the birds don't land on
the screen and damage the screens so anybody that's following that or anybody that's listening I think we not only have a light pollution issue but I would ask them some questions about sound pollution and uh if that's something they would bring into us uh uh at that
at that um Route 17 juncture and then last meeting I think Keith you talked about um with Rich calby that we have 121 vehicles that are are monitored through Verizon connect
GPS and I I think I think I always talk about the Fleet Management here when when I think about 300 or so OD employees and the amount of vehicles we have it just seems like a very large ratio and it would be good to have somebody give a a brief overview
especially with budget season where all these vehicles are by Department must have nice to haves because I just feel like the ratio 40% % seems pretty high um and so you know at a future meeting maybe we can do a deeper dive or through
the budget session not really sure um those are my topics thank you for letting me speak tonight and thanks for being here Denise have a good night thank you anybody else let's call it tonight we'll
entertain a motion for to go into Clos session oh excuse me oh I'm so sorry were there any responses to Denise yes thank you Denise for mentioning the billboard situation because I forgot to say that the Zoning Board of adjustment issued its annual report to the Village
Council and to the planning board and one of their requests for the coming year is for standards on the placement of billboards and so we will be taking that up at our next planning board meeting and the other thing that they
requested they being the zoning board um was uh addressing fencing um narrowing certain types of fencing and augmenting other types of fencing so we'll be addressing those with regard to 20 Pond
I went there today with Carol balowski and um I wouldn't say the pond is full but I think that big storm brought us a lot of water it's a kettle Pond and as you probably know Denise um since you
live near there Deputy Mayor if I may just keep in mind too Ridgewood water activated the well at that location um so they utilized some groundwater um to help the pond oh wonderful um so that it was natural with the storms and then somewhat man-made um it's it's not
chlorinated water it's it's groundwater um so Ridgewood water did that as they activated the well today but that that Park certainly needs some love and care um we saw some garbage and um yeah the invasives are really
threatening the ho ecology there which is sad and I I wish we could address that um I like the idea of of seeing what lessons there are to be learned from Bryant Park for uh our properties
along along Franklin turn uh Avenue so thank you Denise anybody else uh mayor I just want to address the uh the vehicle question um Denise ordinarily I would agree with you with the vehicle count um however Ridgewood is somewhat unique in
the fact that we do our own trash and sanitation uh and recycling pickup so the entire fleet of um collection vehicles in addition to our parks department Fleet our folks who are out there in the field on the sewer side uh Ridgewood water which is covering all
four municipalities not just Ridgewood our Police Department we just onboarded uh three additional vehicles uh to cover the schools with the special law enforcement 3 officers that we have um so our census of vehicles um is very
much managed um we actually have reduced certain um Municipal departments in their their requests Andor their total vehicle inventory since I've been here um but again we do a lot of things inhouse here in Ridgewood that
municipality who has private garbage collection or private recycling collection or Subs out some of their services wouldn't have that same type of Fleet inventory percentage um I don't think it would be a bad exercise uh to have Rich detail our Fleet inventory um
so that is something that I will definitely talk to him about um but I do think we're somewhat unique in the fact that we provide a lot of these Services inhouse as opposed to subcontracting everybody good Heather be it resolved by The Village
Council of the village of Ridgewood that the Village Council meet in close session on April 2nd 2025 at 7:30 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter of the agenda can be reached and that said Clos session be held in the caucus room on the fourth floor of the Ridgewood Village Hall 131 North Maple Avenue
Ridgewood New Jersey and be it further resolved that the matters to be discussed in Clos session are limited to Personnel matters to include interview of historical architect and appointments to boards and committees these matters are allowable under njsa 10 col 4-12 Etc be it further resolved that the minutes
of this meeting shall be made available to the general public when such matters have been deemed completed by resolution of the Village Council may I have a motion second all in favor I I I anyone opposed go
thanks Mark thank you for helping the girl [Music] e for