e for no Saturday unfortunately my wife and I are enjoying the last few few days of freedom e good evening this is the r Ridgewood Village Council public Workshop the date
is August 7th 2024 the time is 7:33 at notice of this meeting has been 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 to same as provided by law of a schedule
including the date and time of this meeting roll call Deputy Mayor pin here council member Reynolds here council member whites here council member winegrad here mayor Banos here will you all please join us in a salute to our
flag I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all and tonight we're going to begin our
meeting with a very special presentation for the Ridgewood 4th of July committee we uh the council will all go into the well um can we please ask Lee gilen and salol Tara Masterson Skyler salti saltiel Chris Randi Mike jeni and Jeff
simmerman to join us so we good this working so I have the privilege uh amongst many privileges on this Council of being liaison to the Fourth of July committee uh so I get a firsthand uh and a first row seat to the amazing work that so many volunteers do and I know we don't have a lot of folks
uh here tonight uh we've got some really important ones um if all of you saw the amount of time energy and planning that goes into putting on um what I think we all agree is one of the state of Ridgewood life you'd be absolutely amazed and just uh share I think in the Gratitude I think that we all owe these
people for the amazing job that they do um with that um the least we can do is formally recognize that amazing work that you all do so we do have a proclamation that we're going to be issuing tonight and I'm going to read it's a little long but it's it's worth uh it's worth listening to so whereas the annual observance of Independence
Day in the village of WD has been celebrated for 14 years which provides viard residents as well as people from surrounding towns a day filled with patriotic events such as the memorable flag raising ceremony the parade filled with music and floats from all the elementary schools and the unforgettable
fireworks display and whereas the ridgwood 4th of July celebration committee Incorporated which was formed in 1910 as the Ridgewood independent day Association is not a Ridgewood committee but rather a nonprofit organization which fundraises obtains sponsors hires
marching bands entertainers food venors and fireworks company in order to provide an extraordinary experience for all who attend whereas many Village departments ass the Ridgewood 4th of July celebration committee by cleaning the streets for the parade putting up fencing trimming trees riding police
fire and EMS services for Safety and Security providing Inspection Services for food vendors putting up patriotic bunting at Village Hall and setting up and taking down the parade reviewing stand and where his lifelong friends Lee gelan salal and Tara Masterson both grew
up in Ridgewood and always loved the 4th of July as he created a deep pride in Ridgewood as a community and desire to run the Ridgewood 4th of July celebration committee when they were older and whereas Lee gilsenan salal and Tara Masterson have been involved with the Ridgewood 4th of July celebration
committee for the past 12 years becoming more involved over those years in trading places in the President and Vice President roles this year Tara serves as president Christ rundi serves as vice president Skyler satial serves as Treasurer legal sen satial serves as
secretary and many other volunteer members serve with the committee throughout the day and whereas the kickoff the parade is tera's favorite part of the day as all the kids and families enjoy the parade and Le favorite part of the day is when the first fireworks are set off and whereas both residents and former residents come
home to Rood to celebrate independence day and every person family or group have their own traditions on the day which incorporates the flag raising ceremony the parade and the fireworks and whereas both Lee and terara want to preserve and protect the traditions of the Fourth of July in Ridgewood which has with withstood Wars depression
political upheavals and pandemics oh wait come on in hurry up H I'm almost done perfect timing ladies and gentlemen all right so now for be it resolved that the Village Council the village of Ridgewood wishes to recognize praise and thank all of the volunteer
members of The Ridgewood 4th of July celebration committee and the co-chairs of the committee Leal Senate satial and Tara Masterson for preserving and continuing the traditions of Ridgewood on behalf of a grateful Community guys thank you all so so very much [Applause]
you wear the shirt that's awesome a picture everybody oh [Music] sorry you guys yeah that's always fun stuff so and now we will go to the
report on the shedler property testing we have representatives from Matrix the environmental consulting firm that we have hired if you guys will please come up and join us so mayor if I may um I just want to formally introduce uh Melissa Fury she
is a project manager and a senior Environmental Specialist with Matrix New World engineering and Chris pesi he is a senior project manager and is also the licensed site remediation professional
who's been assigned to this project from Matrix as well so with that I'll turn it over to Melissa to make introductions uh and talk about the the second level testing uh that was done over at the shedler property at the request of the
njd make sure your green lights are on green light is on you can hear me yep and you just have to as just as you're doing speak into the mic close to the mic yes um okay so uh when we last when we left off we were um going to be carrying out the sampling at the in the
balance of the property at the sh at shedler um we had sampled the BM uh we went back and we sampled um the balance of the property with the exception of the landscaped area around the actual house per the D's
requirements we went out there um Tom Ferell a representative from the D the Bureau of solid waste accompanied us there um while we were doing our soil sampling event and he directed us within each grid cell to locations where he
identifi I OBS observe fill which is the location that we ended up collecting our sample within each cell so our samples were collected from 1 to 1 and 1/2 ft below the ground surface within the grid um so our results indicated that we
had similar compounds um exceeding the njd standards that we identified in the berm those compounds were benzo anthene benzo pyrene and Mercury we found those compounds in eight of the
28 um grid samples that we collected and that's those are our results so far that we've we've got great thank you very much um so you found uh of the 28 samples there were eight that had exceedences
correct and uh what is the next step in um and addressing those eight those eight grid locations we are going to delineate those eight locations as um a way
to decrease the potential amount of volume that is going to need to be removed I'll let Chris um expand upon the recommendations that we're going to we're going to provide for you guys so basically we're going to collect some additional samples around each of
those samples if you could speak into the mic sure yeah it's it's a it's a little awkward but this way everyone can hear you we're going to collect some additional samples around the existing samples where we had exceedances uh essentially do kind of like a bullseye pattern around each sample uh with
samples kind of an inner ring and an outer ring we'll analyze the inner ring first if they're clean then we've delineated the extent of it if if the inner ones are still impacted then we analyze the outer ring um the idea is to as Melissa said kind of refine the area that we needs to be treated so you're
going to you're going to keep sampling around each of those eight areas in a larger and larger radius until you have clean samples is that accurate correct and then what happens then we've defined the area that needs to be remediated
which in this case is going to be removal of that soil So the plan would be to remove soil around those eight um grid sample areas correct correct and that's the extent of the work that need
that would need to be done on the balance of the property and are these the same uh types of uh contaminants that were found in the burm yes and so and again I know you don't
know for a fact but would you imagine that all of this came about at the same time yes that would make sense okay and um what about the burm um I I know that there was there were I was it seven of 14 correct samples and
they were kind of spread out correct correct what is your recommendation for remediation of the burm we recommend that you remove the BM got it and do you um when would you begin the so
there's no additional testing necessary on the burm correct um when would you uh uh anticipate beginning testing of those eight or continuing testing of those eight sample areas once we get the
approval from you guys to go ahead and get that done we can start scheduling our so so through you mayor along those lines I I had a conversation with Melissa about this earlier today um what I would like to do is once the council
has heard all of the presentation tonight I'd like the the Council to consider um based on a proposal that will be forthcoming um which I assume will have a not to exceed amount to do this testing that Chris has described tonight um I'd like authorization to add
a resolution to next week's council meeting because if we don't authorize this now we won't have another opportunity to do so until after Labor Day and I think based on what we're hearing tonight and the conversations I've had with Melissa earlier today um I think there should be an urgency
attached to this um to try to get this um further testing done as soon as possible where would the money come from from the from the $350,000 bond that the council approved for this purpose so it wouldn't we wouldn't exceed
that my preliminary conversations with Melissa is no um I think we have plenty of uh funding still available there uh to do that and then um I think we're going to have a greater conversation once we talk about remediation which may include removing soil from the property
and I just have one more question before I open it up to the council um what is what is your projected timeline for um uh completing the testing of those eight areas so from the date that
we there sample so so assume for just a moment that this gets approved next next Wednesday then you would begin about when and when would you be done do you think we would like to begin a week or two after it's been approved it's just
scheduling our our field staff to go do it um and then the samples would be on a standard turnaround time with our laboratory that we use which is one to two weeks from then so that's when we would start getting results so what would you say we would have um a report
within a month or so after you begin yeah about a month great thank you and you feel you'll be able to be on site doing the testing before the end of the month if the council were to authorize it next Wednesday yes okay thank you and now I'll open up to the council I'll open up to the council for
questions I just have a question about the eight are the eight adjacent to each other are they a cluster are they throughout the 28 the they're throughout the 28 locations 28 yeah we sort of
hoping so is it possible if they're throughout the 28 when you're sampling and you're going further out and further out is it possible you're going to find other areas that you didn't T like if you
tested in the middle of one grid and a second grid next to it was positive as you're going further out on the positive grid could you hit something in the negative grid that is now positive because you only tested like in when you
test how big of an area do test I guess well our delineation samples would probably be 5T step outs so we'd go so the the soil boring is about a 2in hole into the ground and we would do a 5 foot step out in four
directions um and we would do five like a five foot each time so that would determine our Bulls but if the original soil boring everything is fine but in the next grid as you're
going out in those 5 foot sections if you overlap on that grid that was negative and then something becomes positive is that possible that something well we would use the clean location as a delineation point too because they were all collected at the
same exact interval so you could we could use that clean location as the delineation the furthest delineation point from that hot spot mhm how does something like this H it's so weird that
it's it seems random like why is one grid posi you know I it's a good question that Siobhan asked I would have thought they would have been localized like it it makes me nervous that they weren't why not contiguous yeah um I I
mean I wasn't there when the soil was deposited there um but it could come from trucks you know carrying fill that they had just imported stuff like that moving along the site let me just jump in for a second I have been told by U Mr rudus Houser that when when the soil was
brought in that it was staged on the property and that from that staging area the soil was then moved to build the burm so that would mean that this soil was in a big area over the over the
course of the property and and and I don't know but in the same way that you found many clean samples in the burm it's kind of similar that you find many clean samples in um in the grid is that
does that sound like it makes sense and again I'm I'm I'm asking I'm not say telling yeah well we also our our samples were biased also to the obvious observed fill material so we weren't collecting just random locations um in
the report um we have a figure and you'll see the actual locations of the samples and they're not dead Center in the grid they're literally the the grid was just a a 10,000 square foot location that we
needed to be within so our samples are not necessarily represented of just the center of that location other questions so from a remediation standpoint as we stand tonight we are
likely going to have to remove the BM that's your recommendation with regard to the the level area of the property um if these testing results stand and these exceedances remain where they are
tonight we're likely going to have to remove soil from the balance of the property as well how how deep would you anticipate we have to go uh to remove what is there that's in exceedence on the level piece of the property
property so when we come out to do the delineation sampling we'll take some vertical samples as well to Define that area I would expect it probably a couple of feet I don't I don't expect it to be terribly deep okay but we do need to confirm that with the uh the sampling so the next round of testing will determine the depth correct okay and it may vary
the depth may be a little different depending on the area of the site that we're uh Excavating it's going to you know each grid that we've got a hit on we're going to have to do a vertical sample to determine the depth that great so so mayor from an administrative standpoint and I've I've had this conversation with Melissa earlier today
um what I've asked Matrix to do next um is at least on the burm area to start to solicit quotes and estimates uh from contractors who are licensed by the state of New Jersey to go on property to
remove the identified soil and then dispose of it at an appropriate location um once I have an estimate and it may just be for the burm understanding that that estimate may change depending on the delineation samples in the next round of testing um it's my intention on
behalf of the village to file an insurance claim with our environmental joint Insurance Fund um I've already had conversations with our risk manager um in addition to um the executive director of the Bergen GIF uh Dave um Dave grub
who is actually a former Village council member here in Ridgewood so he's familiar uh with Ridgewood and familiar with the property um and we're going to um actively pursue an insurance claim um we don't know what those costs are as of today um but we are certainly going to
try to recover um as much as we can by filing the claim with the environmental branch of the joint Insurance Fund Pam I know you had some questions no well I was just wondering how this affects if at all the uh archaeological
study so in in fact it doesn't and Melissa and I before I was on vacation had a conference call with Paul mcken who's our representative from Richard grub Associates who's done all of our archaeological work uh there is a proposal for the archaeological phase
two on tonight's agenda for discussion purposes um and Melissa has given Paul advice um essentially the advice was to to double double glove uh their employees when they're out performing the archaeological study but Accord to
Melissa and Paul there should be um no impediment for them to go out there and perform the phase two archaeological even while we're dealing with these soil issues anybody else do you have anything to add nope
thank you both so much for your time and for your expertise we really appreciate it okay and Melissa I'll have a uh and not to exceed amount with an abbreviated scope of work to share with the Council next week yeah okay all right thank you yep and with that we will go to public
comment uh Kim I don't think your mic is on there's a there's a little button at the base that's got it it'll be a green light when it's on are we good now perfect okay I am coming to the Village Council tonight not only as a resident of Clinton Avenue and a parent of a child who has walked safely to and from
Ridge school for the past six years but as an elementary school teacher Kim could you give us your address please sure 51 Clinton thank you um but I am an elementary school teacher with 25 years of firsthand experience supervising uh bus in both the morning and the
afternoon each day um I urge the council to keep Clinton Avenue closed each morning and afternoon for this safety of all Ridge students if the street is open to traffic I fear that it's going to become the second red zone for Ridge school which is going to be a major
safety is issue for the kids walking on our street to school I see it every single morning there are seven adults in my school and my principal on bus Duty we have the occasional police officer that's there parents simply do not care
and they do what suits them and they want to get their kids out of their car as fast as possible possible some follow the rules some don't every day there's a near Miss of an accident these kids are going to be on Clinton Avenue unsupervised each day getting in and out
of cars it's really a true fear of M that someone is going to be hurt so and I in my opinion an argument simply cannot be made that the street will be safer if it's clo if it's open as opposed to close the dot just ruled that it is present that the present
street closure is legal So for 50 years our street has been closed the kids have walked safely to and from school please keep that going for the next 50 and 100 years to keep all of our kids safe thank you thank you Kim hello mayor um anarie Agnello 31
Clinton Avenue um I have some questions about the proposed amendment to uh for Clinton Avenue um with respect to it staying that uh to establish no stopping or standing on both sides of the entire length of Clinton Avenue from 8:00 a. to
9:00 a.m. and from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. and I'm sure you put that in because you were concerned about kids jumping get parents stopping kids getting out of the car to get onto the sidewalk and um so I think there's a lot
of I'm have a lot of concerns because there's going to be a lot of traffic now diverted from West rid Avenue to Clinton with kids being dropped off there's going to be during those school hours um you know the morning and the afternoon there's going to be probably a real line
of traffic no matter which side the cars come up they're going to have to stop at the stop sign at the end of each what's that going to result in it's going to be an opportunity of how's that's going to be inter red when you have to stop for the stop sign you tell you could jump out now and then because the cars start
backing up because there's going to be a big flow I will anticipate that that they're GNA there's going to be a big flow and cars are actually going to be stopping because they're going to have to stop because they're probably going to get backlogged whether they're turning onto Godwin or onto West Ridgewood you know from Clinton so I
think the that this is going to be a real concern for how are the uh police going to determine who's breaking the law here um because it's you because you can bet that there's going to be a lot of traffic on the road so that's not
going to help the safety of the children uh we saw a video um in one of the work sessions that um that one of one of the parents that Dana did showing what happens at the Ridgewood High School where you know this on Brookside where
the the cars are you know as they're going to you know turn to go to East Bridgewood Avenue you know in front of the high school they stop the kids get out and those are high school kids we saw that video and that's pretty startling I mean there those are high school kids and the cars keep stopping
stopping stoping because it causes a whole flow so um I I don't know what's that what that is going to accomplish uh because it's it's going to really you can just imagine it's going to be a real problem and children are going to get hurt and these are little kids so these
are elementary school kids with different skills uh so that's going to happen so I really think that um you know to keep it closed now could you just speak into the microphone please it's very hard to hear you if you think yeah yeah yeah it's it's a little
awkward you have to really be close to the microphone oh couldn't hear anything sorry okay so I'm concerned that um you know that we we have the ordinance that apparently that it was approved um by the state what or for traffic that we
could keep the you know they have the sidewalk we keep the still keep the this the road closed during those those two times SP uh times and this way the children will be safe those who want to walk to school will have the side walk to walk to school but you don't have
through traffic so I think that's you know I agree that would be the safest thing I I just think that this is very is going to be real problematic you know the more I thought about it thank you anarie okay so thank you so much for your time thank you Cynthia o'keef 542 West Saddle River
Road um so I just wanted to address um a few points related to the presentation from Matrix and I see that they're gone so um obviously it's not an opportunity to ask questions but what comes to mind is the groundwater and the protection of
um the the private Wells for the people that live near the shedler property which you are all aware of um so I looked at the actual um documentation that um relates to the Mandate for disposal of solid waste
material and it says that disposal means storage treatment utilization processing or final disposition of solid waste specifically included the discharge deposit injection dumping spilling leaking or placing of any Solid Waste or hazardous waste into an on any land or
water so that such solid waste material and hazardous waste and I'm assuming contaminates it doesn't say that or any con constituent thereof may enter the environment or be admitted into the air or discharged into any Waters including groundwaters so while I haven't had a
proper opportunity to um look at all of this information I'm going to make an assumption and I'd like a confirmation at some point from somebody um that um there will be testing of maybe the groundwaters on
that property I don't know if that's available I don't know if that's possible I don't know if that's part of our remediation plan but I think In fairness to people that are living in that area um and the fact that the dumping of contaminated soil was not our
fault um we should have some kind of protection or as you know um feel confident that everything was done to ensure that um as Sean larette said water quality is you know a limited resource and a precious natural resource
and that we should all have we should all be entitled to clean and safe drinking water so that's what I would ask if that's not possible then we'll have to look at other methodologies to ensure that we as residents are safe um again we had no you know nothing to do
with this dumping whether it was legal or illegal um but I want to you know ensure that we are protected and our families are protected in that neighborhood thank you thank you Cynthia good evening Elaine D Bliss lebenson 41 Clinton Avenue back to
Clinton um the current Clinton Avenue ordinance must remain in place as a public safety measure it is a resounding success generations of Ridge students have walked to school on Clinton Avenue without a single incident we are unified
as a street and keeping this in place as a safety measure there's no reason to repeal the ordinance last year for the first time ever the RPD publicly declared it illegal and stopped enforcing it lack of enforcement led to an uptick in traffic and a call for safety measures concluding you had no
choice because of the declared illegality you authorize $600,000 in taxpayer money for the construction of a single sidewalk on the west side of the street in fact the ordinance is legal as confirmed by the Department of Transportation The Village took the novel position last year that the do
approval was required for a decades old ordinance not true the do confirmed that Clinton Avenue is a local Street not within its jurisdiction in addition there is a New Jersey state statute that directly authorizes the ordinance as cited by the commissioner himself njsa
section 4067 -6.7 was enacted nearly 60 years ago to the day and provides for closure to through traffic for 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon for safe Ingress and egress to school municipalities all over the state have similar ordinances in place to keep Kids
Safe The Village denied the statute supported the Clinton ordinance again not true the dot commissioner and staff confirmed that the Clinton Avenue ordinance Falls squarely under the state statute it's permissible and it's legal the sidewalk is all but finished you win
you got it please stop calling the ordinance illegal I'm told the village is now worried about a theoretical lawsuit by a non-resident of Clinton Avenue who may claim discrimination no such case has ever been asserted because no such cause of action exists however the village has in
fact been sued over Clinton Avenue as you know last week my family with no choice left b a civil rights lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act on behalf of my autistic adult son Daniel no one here seems to be concerned
about that very real pending lawsuit and my son what gives the east side of Clinton Avenue where we live has no pedestrian access traffic will flow against a curb we have pleaded for the ordinance to remain in place and I'm here again
pleading so that Daniel has safe access to walk to the village and public transportation without contending with school traffic we move to Clinton for a reason you need to resp that residents in this Village move where they do for a reason this free and entirely reasonable
accommodation is instead of another $600,000 sidewalk on the east side of Clinton which is a taxpayer I can't ask for I haven't demanded it the judge ordered us to settle she ordered us to get together and talk yet you put this item on the agenda knowing
this Clinton Avenue ordinance is one of our requests for reasonable accommodation why why did you do that keep the ordinance in place it's an easy sensible solution and it's the right thing to do thank you thank you
Christine excuse me Elaine sorry I I said I said Christine and Lorraine but sorry about that I apologize okay good evening everyone I'm so happy to be here with temperatures down no water in the
parking lot all good but I came to talk about trees and I would just oh I'm sorry I forgot to tell you where I live right and you didn't give us your name we know your name but everyone else does not okay Nancy Brennan Hill 136 darus
Avenue so I came to talk about the temperature and trees and if you all think that it's getting hotter and that the heat waves are lasting longer you're correct there was an article in the New York Times a week or
so ago attesting to that fact and it seems like the northeastern part of this country is getting hotter faster than the rest of the country and New Jersey
is number three in getting how fast it's getting hot compared to all the other states so we really need to do something about this and one of the simplest things to do is to plant trees so we need enough money in the
budget to plant Street trees more than we've ever planted would would be to my liking um another interesting thing that was pointed out in the article was people were saying well why is New Jersey heating up faster than all of the
other um states in the Northeast and the the reason is because of hotpots and that just means asphalt um buildings spots where there aren't trees spots that generate a lot of heat so I'm very happy that I see an
article or an agenda item where you're going to talk about putting trees in the parking lot on Cottage Place so that's just a really wonderful start I'm so excited that Ridgewood is so forward thinking to start looking at parking
lots as something that can be done to start reducing you know these absolutely terrible temperatures um there's lots of other things we can do we can start encouraging people to look at their lawn and assess whether they want to plant their own
trees um we can start some projects we can identify streets via the um Street inventory where it's impossible for the village to plant more trees as we lose them because the curb is too narrow to support these big shade trees so we
really need to get everybody involved in this you know the village the the private citizens and people are willing and the evidence for that I think is the adopted sapling last year we got about 30 people to agree to plant trees this
year we're going to get 90 and um we're still looking for tree captains people who go will go around the night before the big planting to drop off the trees in the right sight so if you've got a big SUV or a truck even
better and you'd like to be a a tree Captain get in touch with the parks people they'll be delighted to sign you up so that's it thank you very much thank you nany anybody else from the audience present then we will go to our hybrid
access audience um Dana you're up okay Dana Glazer 61 Clinton Avenue and uh uh okay so I I think I can speak for everybody on our street that
safety is the most important thing and we're very shaken about this idea of repealing this ordinance that has been in place and created a safe environment for the last 70 years uh as Elaine and other people have
mentioned the Department of Transportation weighed in that the current ordinance is permitted and valid I don't understand why the village of Ridgewood never reached out to them i' would love for you to answer that to me I also don't understand why the Village
Council attorney weighed in about this ordinance that's in place without speaking to the Department of Transportation this is an ordinance that's worked and to get rid of it will make our street
less safe and the the idea of having some sort of a no stopping no parking policy as a Band-Aid in place of this is flawed because kids are going to are young they're going to run in and out of the cars the parents are going to stop
quickly to get their kids off they're not going to pay attention and they're not going to obey this having the Street closed creates more of a safe environment and that's the most important issue here and what we don't want to see is something like what happens on broadside Avenue every
morning in front of the high school where you have K turns and kids walking in between cars and Clinton Avenue is much narrower than that so it's going to be dangerous uh you also have at the top of the street you have at South Murray kids
uh coming from south Murray kids walking across the top of Clinton Avenue and I have have not heard how this is addressed whatsoever in terms of the safety of those children If you eliminate this ordinance are you going to have a crossing guard there what are
you going to do about that uh we also have families uh with handicap members and I don't understand why this hasn't been addressed with the planning before construction began why wasn't there some ADA compliance why wasn't
that addressed so it's this is very upsetting to me uh because you're making a street that has had a perfect record for the last 70 years into a much more potentially dangerous Street and while we're all you know on board now of
course with the idea of having sidewalks we have no problem with sidewalks this is a dangerous situation that you're creating and I just don't understand why you haven't waited you know to wait for the Attorney General to you know to pass down uh a decision this should have
happened before there was any change up to our street not now so this doesn't make any sense to me and you are creating a street that is potentially dangerous and that is a very concerning thing thank you very much thank you
Dana Susan you're [Music] up um hello hi um Susan ran 705 Kings Bridge Lane um hi I'm calling um in regard to a few things
first the soil contamination I listened to the speakers earlier and they um and I have questions in regard to it I heard that they left that they said that there were eight areas that were
above the um level that um was acceptable and I wondered how many areas were close to being above and could residents get the the you know can residents have access to see how many
areas were um the levels at each area because I mean if what the levels got an F and some levels got a D minus that's still high so that was you know my question in
regards to that the next is and I know this is going to be a sore subject is the Footbridge um I wish that the level of dedication were the Footbridge fixing and I know it was the vendor not submitting the right paperwork or
incomplete paperwork was the cause last time but if the same level of dedication was given to the burn removal I just heard I'll get these estimates and ass soon as possible so we could tackle this as soon as possible why couldn't that be
done for the foot bridge and it is a sore subject but it's been going on four years of closure and that that dedication should have came from the village engine okay um the next item is the West Saddle
River um it's the beginning of August and we have not heard to when that road is going to be repaved we've been promised repeatedly regarding it but no notification as of yet has been sent out regarding the
repavement and then finally and this is just another topic of sensitivity is the flooding I believe that we are in hurricane season and there should be I know Keith has been very um responsive
to my emails but I do believe that there should be some sort of notification um to Residents and I know he sent went out yesterday which was great um but you know many residents are away they're not knowing what's
happening home because you know when you're on vacation you're not really paying attention and by getting the notices probably a little bit earlier or something um it does help them prepare accordingly and hopefully it's not a very busy hurricane season and hopefully
we do Dodge bullets for this um until the Army Corp of Engineers puts in better safeguards but you know um unfortunately you know it is the nature of the Beast of sorts that this is something that um
people have to deal with and the more preparation they have the better and that was pretty much it thank you thank you Susan Jacqueline you're up Jacqueline home 30 Carriage
Lane I'm really disturbed by The Matrix report and what was just said I'm very concerned about removing the burm will the burm will will it be removed in sections and replaced immediately for safety because I'm very
concerned that the burm is going to be removed in its entirety and left the park completely exposed As Told in the past on record by Village Police and engineer a massive burm was the only thing that can safely protect the public as seen with the recent fatal explosion
on Route 3 a wall or anything less than a burm will not protect residents so how will that be done I'm hoping in sections and that their rep the burm is replaced immediately there was also mentioning of
double glove for the workers on the archaeological project well what about the public will the village of Ridgewood finally erect signs warning the public that the site is contaminated both the burm and the
land will The Matrix report and findings be made public and posted to the Village website I think that's the right thing to do speaking of right things to do and speaking of New Jersey heating up hot spots like Route 17
shedler your green movement and preservation off efforts on the west side of Ridgewood are a Stark contradiction to what is actually happening on the east side at shedler the current plan is to decimate the entire wooded area to turn it into a
plastic artificial turf field why is the East Side treated so differently than the west side and why is your green movement very different on one side than it is on another we need more trees and we need
more plants on one side but yet you're not applying that same concept to protect the residents from issues that you already know and I I don't understand any anymore how I can come up here and say
these things as other people have as well for months over a year and we don't get answers we get thank you with a name hopefully this time you'll get it correct it's jacku and hone Paul veano's Mayor always responds
back with a simple thank you and doesn't address these questions can you please address these questions and answer us thank you thank you Jacqueline anybody else with that I'm going to close public
comment does anybody wish to respond to any I do questioners um first of all with regard to Clinton Avenue um procedurally I think it's important that everyone be aware that what is being proposed during the special public
meeting tonight is simply the introduction of two ordinances one to uh resend the ordinance that would close Clinton Avenue during the school days and the other to establish parking
regulations that mirror the parking regulations that exist throughout the Village near other elementary schools um and th those regulations that are being proposed tonight will mirror what exists around all the other elementary schools
this is just an introduction ordinances that are adopted by The Village Council need to be heard at two public meetings tonight would only be the first simultaneous to that Chief lions from The Ridgewood
police department has written to the Attorney General's office asking for a specific written opinion on the legalities of closing Clinton Avenue during the school days unfortunately and this happens all
too often when it comes to state government two government agencies the Department of Transportation and the Attorney General's office are contradicting themselves on the legality of closing Clinton Avenue police departments throughout the
state of New Jersey a number of years ago were provided written guidance based off of street closures in other municipalities I believe there were three in Bergen County uh that prompted this directive to all police
Chiefs throughout the state that the restriction and the closing of the road and limiting it to two different classes of individuals those who are members of the public who want to transcend that road verse
residents landscapers delivery people and things of that nature that that was not permissible for a police department to do or for a government agency to adopt an ordinance that allowed two different classes of people to access a street
when it's closed so we are seeking that guidance as we speak uh we have even pressed the state to expedite any type of guidance that they can give us and we're asking for that guidance in writing
so that we will have that information to provide to council before they are asked to consider the ordinance on second reading in September so I don't want anyone to think that we're rushing into anything here we understand the concerns of the
residents there is ongoing litigation that was mentioned by one of the speakers at the public comment period um we're working through that with our legal counsil as well but we have to understand a few things here um one we have sidewalks that are being completed
and I do want to correct the amount of money because I've had a number of residents reach out to me since the start of the Clinton Avenue sidewalk project this is not a $600,000 project all of our sidewalk projects that engineering are currently
endeavoring to build the price tag is $600,000 the price tag specifically for Clinton Avenue is about $230,000 so I just want to settle that piece of information is if you're driving down Clinton Avenue and you're thinking about the village spending
$600,000 it seems like an awful lot of money because it is this is multiple sidewalk projects that amount to $600,000 but we have sidewalks that are being built and we have school opening in less than a month and the police department needs to be in a position to
make sure that we have clear direction for the parents who are going to be dropping off their children at Ridge school as to what the rules are going going to be when school opens up the day after Labor Day which is why this is being listed for Council
consideration tonight with a lot of further discussion to happen before school opens once we have clear direction from the Attorney General's office so I hope that clears up some of the misconceptions that are out there um about why we're doing this but we really
need that answer from the Attorney General's office and to move in order to move forward properly um with regard to the groundwater concerns uh to miss O'Keefe um I think honestly and and Mr calbi the director of rwood water is here with us
tonight um I think the quickest way um is that if you or your neighbors have any well testing um results that have been conducted recently and that could be shared with Mr calbi that may be a proactive first step in determining
whether or not there are any concerns um relative to we heard from Matrix tonight uh but I will commit to you that I will go back to Matrix in the next few days and determine whether or not there is any further testing that they recommend uh to address your concerns We Will We
Will undertake that um with regard to Susan's comments uh first the report from Matrix once I have the final draft which I expect to have tomorrow what was provided to council tonight was in fact a draft uh that will all be posted on
The Village website as soon as it is received um I can tell you Susan that the standards that the D uses with regard to the exceedances is a very very very conservative standard so while I can understand why you'd ask about the
testing results that may just be under the exceedence level um I can also tell you that they are very conservative standards that Matrix needed to use um when evaluating this this soil with regard to West sadle River Road we have not commenced any of our village Paving
program as of yet our contractor is still in the process of doing concrete work throughout the village whether it be curbs Andor sidewalks had a conversation with Mr rudus Hower just this afternoon about the paving of West Saddle River Road and based on the way
that neighborhood is laid out and the fact that that roadway is the only way in or out of that neighborhood we are going to do everything we can to provide at least two weeks notice that it's coming and then notice a day or two before of the exact date and time when West Saddle River Road will be paved
with regard to the Kingsbridge pedestrian bridge uh Chris has gone back to our design engineer uh they are going back and forth on some possible changes to the bid specifications as you know we had three biders only one came in under
budget so they're doing a their due diligence in reviewing that before we go back out to bid but I expect in the next month or so we will be back out on the street soliciting bids to undertake that project and with regard to flooding uh we did send out a communication last
night in conjunction with OEM just so you understand our process in the manager's office if there is a heavy rainstorm um or a more serious hurricane tropical storm type of event that's imminent uh we do confer with OEM and Engineering uh so that we can put those
protocols into place um I will only put out a notification if OEM advises me to to do so and obviously Jeremy kimman is constant in constant contact with Bergen County OEM making those decisions uh before we put out any type of
communications to the public um and to miss hone uh again the um report will be placed on the Village website as soon as it's received in totality tomorrow uh the proposal um that we will be
soliciting from the um remediation contractor will be to remove the entire burm uh the balance of the property as was said tonight uh is still in question as to what will need to be removed there uh but we do anticipate that Matrix is
going to recommend and that the D is going to confirm the need to remove the entire burm um that's going to be a d requirement um any type of signage that will need to be posted there uh we will obviously follow all the DP requirements
and regulations um as to that um and and I think that's all I had I don't know if mayor if anyone else has anything to say yep I I just want to address you want to go first mat I I'll just be really quick you know while while the manager has
acknowledged that there is litigation going on with regard to Clinton Avenue it's been a long-standing practice of this Council uh for years not only this one but all the pred predecessor councils that we don't comment on the litigation during the course of the public meetings and that is something
that we keep confidential in terms of our own discussion so I just ask the the council members to make sure that they refrain from you know commenting or putting anything on the record about the litigation itself mayor I did have one other thing um with regard to to Jacqueline holes comments
uh with regard to tree planting on the east side I will tell you that there is a letter going out from my office in the next few weeks uh through Nancy beos and her team in the Parks division uh they have identified 65 potential planting
locations in in the shedler neighborhood for Street trees which would be afforded to the 2024 capital budget uh we will be sending out a letter that will include a QR code any residents who receive that letter because their property has been identified as a safe planting zone will
be able to be directed to a Google form online to request a tree should they want one planted in front of their property uh so similar to the efforts that the shet Tre commission has taken on the West Side uh we'll be doing that in the shedler neighborhood and residents should be receiving those
letters in the next few weeks stole my thunder but because Nancy's here I just wanted to address that as well we're very sensitive when Evan and I took our seats um 3.5 Acres of shedler had already been cleared and were sensitive to that area just to give you a scope
there's 212 shade trees in our budget so 212 for the whole entire town 65 of which are allocated to the east side of Route 17 shedler Salem Ridge over there so that is significant portion for one neighbor to be the recipient of the trees we're
doing that for a host of reasons but also because to help with some of the flooding so that's that in addition to that I'd be remiss in not mentioning that the overall plan is that when shedler is developed there is a significant replant that includes 96 new
Sade trees 41 Pines and 182 green Giants so if and when the plan comes to develop and execution no neighborhood would receive more trees than that ever um and we continue to cultivate and care for
the big tree which we just nominated which as everyone knows because ny's here I have to talk Trey um that does its environmental job so I just that's a serious impact in one neighborhood and I want to also just say thank you to shade tree and Nancy beos for making that happen and well Richard Waters here the
technology that allows us to pick this site is something called GIS and so we've been for the first time ever on shry able to make a more informed decision as to the best place to place it so um we're very sensitive to that and that neighborhood will be the big
time recipient unless people opt out please don't opt out um it'll be great to see all those trees be planted that's it anyone else uh yes I just have a couple questions for Keith I don't know if I heard did you talk about the paving of West Saddle River and I zoned out
yes Sor sorry so we haven't we haven't started did you which which one did you answer yes to I just want through you mayor um we haven't started any Municipal Paving as of yet okay so as I've asked Chris um it'll be a little bit of a competition between North
Monroe and west sadle river which one goes first some of that will be predicated on the start of school um because we obviously want to keep the main thorough fars um free of construction once the school year begins so but West Saddle River Road is up
there in the the top two to be paved um we do need to do some advocacy in notifying the residents because one on the day we pave they're going to be trapped so you're either in or you're out until the green light comes from engineering that you can safely drive
over the pavement so we're going to do a letter a few weeks before just letting people know that this is coming and then there'll be the the traditional engineering notification giving people a few days notice as to which day it's actually going to be paved of course contingent on weather I mean we normally
do a lot of Paving in August August is there did something happen well the contractors right now involved in concrete work so you know and we're doing thanks to you we're doing we're doing we're doing a lot of we're doing a lot of of concrete work um but they had
enough teams that Chris is work Chris is working on the schedule um I I also received notification today just as a side uh from the county administrator's office that acrian Avenue uh should be paved by mid October um so we're working
with the uh the county um that they'll notify the residents up there when when that's going to happen but they expect it to happen by mid October okay so that will be during the school year unfortunately and the other thing is the Kingsbridge Footbridge because when we originally you know awarded the contract
and we found out that the uh people had done their paperwork improperly I thought it was said we were going to go out to bid very shortly and then we would be able to award another contract in September but now it sounds
like it's going to be so Chris is going back and forth with the design engineer uh when he comes up we can we can address that since he's here tonight um and he can fill in the blanks as to as to those discussions uh but that definitely has delayed putting the uh the bid re to read vertise the bid okay
and I just want to say one last thing nothing against you Siobhan but I don't think you can compare putting in new trees at shedler when we've taken out 4 100 I mean you know taking out an old big old tree you can't compare putting
in 24 foot trees it it'll it's going to take 40 years to to catch up so I mean I know it's it's helpful it's better than not planting anything but taking down the trees those big old trees in the
first place to me is a crime and and let's just be clear we did not do that this is all done by prior councils right but so we have not taken this Council has not taken out a weed from uh from but this
Council has voted to take out an additional 280 if the plan I don't think it's 280 it's not 280 it's not 280 and and here and this is something by the way that always disturbs me numbers are bandied about whether it's
$600,000 for um for the sidewalk on Clinton or 280 trees and it's put out there please let's try and use more accurate information because what is the number because I thought that's what yon
Shon do you know what the number is so I'm not I'm not getting into the tree Warfare what I want to address is you've had all the numbers everyone with the council I often ask for those informations and they're cycling through the through the council the the decision to buy and develop shedler was made 15
years ago okay so that was whether it's a turf field or a grass field there'll be tree removal that's just the way it is three and a half acres were removed prior to Evan and I getting here okay everybody funded for development it it it's being developed your sidewalks not
being mean nothing personal took out about 60 shade trees progress and development takes out trees what I'm proud of and I want my committee to is they're they're going to be gone so we have to talk about what we're going to do next okay what shade tree wanted to do was help a neighborhood that floods
and is having a loss of trees and took 65 out of 210 212 okay 212 available trees and gave it to one neighborhood to offset that that's a good thing so yes trees are going to be removed and we can all draw swords and yell at each other but when the property was purchased it
was for development and that was decided and now what this committee with Nancy sitting here has done is tried to mitigate it and make things better the replant is a good thing it's it's it's a good thing we're going to replant is you know is development going to be part of
it yes but no other council's ever resisted developing it it was not purchased to be passive it was purchased to be developed and until Evan and I took our seats there was no serious number and accounting for replacement because the three and a half acres were cleared I don't know 5 years ago and we
haven't planted one new tree there yet so I'm very proud of my shade Tre for you know looking at it using the tools and Technology help helping the neighborhood that wants more trees and also helping flooding I think the 65 out of the 212 is a lovely thing yeah I I I don't get this argument either
respectfully Lorraine um you know on one hand we have folks who are advocating for a midsize soccer field which was going to take out a number of trees to Siobhan's point three and a half acres were already taken out in favor of that um so the idea somehow that we're going to leave this as this untouched land nobody ever said that was going to
happen I don't think anybody seriously has ever advocated for that so to Siobhan's point the fact that we're now putting Provisions in to replace hundreds of trees that were going to be taken down no matter whatever plan we agreed to is a really good thing and I think just coming out and trying to
criticize that plan in order to make some political hay on the shedler issue I just don't think it's really fair and I agree with sioban there's a lot to be proud of here in terms of the trees that we're putting up similarly I am a strong Advocate with you on on sidewalk issue trees have to come down because they're there we want sidewalks we're going to
replant them elsewhere that's a good thing the fact that we're having progress but at the same time acknowledging ecologically what we need to do so I agree completely with Shan in this and I really do think that you know this idea of just sort of throwing punches for the sake of throwing punches it's not really helpful I'm not throwing punches to
throw punches a lot of trees were taken down before all of us were on the council there could be a midsize field right now with the number of trees that were taken down there doesn't need to be any more trees than already were taken down I that's not that can't be accurate
I've seen that don't ACC that can't be accurate um I'd like to say that this was a farm there were no trees you can look at the aerial photos from 1959 there are no trees these trees grew up as
weeds they are hardly old growth um many of them were Ash and died anyway many of them um are Norway Maples which are invasive you're going to lose some trees and we're gonna save the sugar
maple let's end it with that the one and with that and with that I just have I have one comment um Elaine um and you as Matt said we cannot comment on the litigation but you said something that was I I don't think fair you said nobody
cares about your son everybody on this Council cares about Daniel and we look forward to sitting down to discuss this at as soon as is possible as soon as as soon as your attorney will agree to sit
down with us and so and so please please we are we are ready we are ready that is here again I'm not going to come in on the litigation but please don't say that we don't care we do care and and you can throw your hands in the
air but we do action I I I I understand thank you um does anybody else have any comments no then we're going to go to the manager report actually mayor EXC me um the um we have a representative of
nissia thank you sorry um to go over our annual audit and corrective action plan so mayor the uh Village Council has been provided with a copy of the 2003 audit report which has been provided by Bud
Jones and the firm of nisaia we have Bob bruny our Chief Financial Officer here along with Bud uh to discuss any questions that the Village Council might have with regard to the to the audit report um and to talk about the corrective action on any of the recommendations that are listed in the
rear of the report so Bob so just to get started uh every year we're required to have an annual audit by an outside auditor uh every government agency in the state of New Jersey has to uh submit to this process uh we have a statutory
deadline of June 30th which we met this year we've met every statutory deadline since Bud's been involved um and Bud has a required communication that he has to make to the uh council members as to uh his role in the audit what he found uh
if he if anything and he didn't uh I'm only kid uh so I'm gonna let Bud continue and and uh then I'll jump in after that thank you Bob good evening good evening bud thank you for being here sure my pleasure uh so I'm going to jump around a little bit with the report
if if you want to follow along if if not that's fine also uh on page um 56 and 57 is the uh comparative balance sheet for the current fund or the the main operating fund uh of the village so for
the regular fund within the current fund we had a total assets of of almost $16.3 million um liabilities and reserve for receivables of other assets of about uh 7 point or 8.6 million which left about 7 million
or 7,680 th000 almost in fund balance um that's an uh increase of about $340,000 of of fund balance over the prior year and two years ago fund balance was at a
little bit over $5 million so your fund balance has grown significantly over the last two years just a little bit in 2023 for the uh current fund so jump back a few pages into the the footnotes of the report and on page
um 26 we summarize the the debt situation of the village so the village has a statutory uh Authority um of $268 million that you could possibly issue in
um statutory debt you only have $71 million of statutory debt uh have the ability to issue another $197 million not that we're suggesting that you do that but you do have that ability so roughly you're only using about a
quarter of of the debt capacity that you have yes ma' does this include um debt incurred by rwood water it does um because your uh utilities both uh the Water Utility and the parking utility are are so-called self-liquidating
meaning that the revenues exceed the expenses um that debt gets removed from the net debt amount so you'll have your gross debt we removed the water utility and parking utility debt to get to the net debt because you're self liquidating
if you were not self-liquidating that would count to some degree against your net debt uh on page uh 48 is the uh comparison of tax levies and uh Collections and it shows the tax levies and collections for the last three years and I really wanted
to point out that the last column the percentage of collection it's a 99.48% it's very consistent with the two prior years 99.64% and the last item in the uh the footnotes is the next page uh page 49 is
risk management now this information is a little bit old it's uh using the December 31st 2022 financial information for the uh for the Bergen Municipal GIF but it shows on the second line a net position of of only
$312,000 uh the fund had a a change a negative change in net position of about $2.7 million in 2022 we I didn't see the 2023 um yet but I just wanted to bring that to your attention because uh if the fund were
would continue to have uh deficits in operations there may be um supplemental assessments that the the GIF might have to assess to its membership so it's it's just something to uh to keep your eye on and the last item in the financials
is the uh on page 101 is the um utility operating funds combined uh combining balance sheet and it shows the the op um the balance sheet for the water and parking utility operating funds um fund balance for the
uh water utility operating fund is basically the exact same as it was um at the end of 2022 uh it's a difference of about uh $7,000 so it's very much the same the uh parking utility uh fund balance went up about $64,000 from
$982,000 to a, 46,000 so I'm happy with the financial position of the Village um including your debt levels U we also had some um comments and recommendations in the report um none of the items um that
we've identified I would uh suggest are uh of a serious nature um the management suggestions that we have in the report probably the the the one thing that I would uh that we put in that we put in for all of our towns was related to
covid-19 funding um there's a large amount of funding that was received for the uh arpa funds and for all of our towns we just want to make sure that the funds uh are completely obligated by the end of this calendar year and then expended by the end of
2026 U and that was it if there any questions I'll be glad to try and answer I particularly appreciated the advice on the covid accounting because we'll have to be ready for that anytime in the next few
years anybody else so attached to the resolution uh is is the corrective action plan uh based on the three findings um which I have to tell you you know Bob to to your team and to all the department directors um this is as clean an audit as as I've seen in the in the
four towns where I've served um so we have a lot to be proud of um from a F Financial Management stando Point uh but we we have four three recommendations um and there's a corrective action plan attached for each of those recommendations so I'll go over it real quick if you don't mind uh finding
number one relates to the cancellation of any unused Capital funds uh or funding of any deficits that may exist um we have an ongo ongoing process we annually annually we review the capital projects where what their status is
whether we can use them for other purposes which we've done this this year quite a bit um so we are utilizing the funds and we are making certain that if there are any deficits so to speak that they're identified in any bond and note sale fundings that we have upcoming for
the year uh the second one relates to um reconciliation process from outside offices to uh uh the finance department and for quite some time now we are limited in the number of personnel that
are in the finance department um again budgetary issues um always come back and say you know we have to be careful of what our new hirings might be so we try to make the best with what we have and I have an outstanding staff could I use more
absolutely uh this is one of those areas where I could use more because uh due to the lack of personnel we are unable to perform these um internal control reviews that we would like to do um so we are in the process of developing and
it's it's an ongoing process uh of bringing the reporting in from the outside offices to Finance on a monthly basis doing the reconciliation process and making certain that the funds are agreed to what we have in our financial statement so um again ongoing process
and uh we'll get it done we'll we'll this won't be here uh and the third one is in regard to um obligations that we record for incumbrances um you're aware that encumbrances are like blanket orders for
purchase orders that we anticipate spending during the year uh so we may put out a blanket order for tires for example um $200,000 at the end of the year we may have $50,000 left and we still may have some stragglers coming into the next
year so we'll keep that encumbrance going um we get to a point in time where we look at them but we don't always look at them at the end of the year but we do review them to make certain that that there's some Integrity to them and that we're not just holding on to funds that aren't going to be used so I think in
that situation um we again it's a process that's done it just isn't done at the end of the year but uh other than that staff that came on board fantastic um but is always available to questions that we may have um Keith and I have
called him on several occasions for Direction so uh it's good work working relationship and uh we appreciate the uh input we get back from them thank you questions or comments anyone thank you gentlemen no then I I
would just like to Echo Keith's comments that in this $60 million budget uh if this was the best you could do Bud then looks like Bob Bob and his team are doing a pretty good job thank you both very very much they are and and we uh
actually changed uh teams so we had a different team come in um this year and you know a different team they have a little different style that the auto program is the same but how you do it can be a little different sure and so even more congratulations as a result
because normally a new team coming in is going to look at things differently maybe find some other things possibly and and again they did and uh we had the complete cooperation of of your employees thank you all so much have a nice evening thank thanks I just want to remind the council you will have to sign
an affidavit at next week's meeting indicating that you've read at a minimum the General comments and recommendations and let's go to our manager's report thank you mayor um I'm going to be brief only because a lot of my report tonight uh is um covered by
some of the agenda items uh that are listed before you but I do just want to update everyone uh the East Glenn sidewalk project is complete as council member winterr would call it the fake East Glenn um so that uh that is closed out we are ongoing at Clinton Avenue um
and we are hoping that at despite this week's weather challenges uh that by the end of next week we'll be able to close out that project as well uh with regard to the West Glenn sidewalks I have had some inquiries from residents in that neighborhood about the status of that
project um we are currently in the process of dealing with both with Bergen County engineering and with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection on what the best course of action is to install sidewalks on West Glenn Avenue the county has given some
resistance uh to building retaining walls in a County right of way um on the side of the street that was initially proposed uh so we have pivoted to reopen discussions with the njde about placing sidewalks on the opposite side of the road between Alpine
and Heights uh the issue there is there's a substantial drainage ditch um which um the D has regulations um that are applicable we had a zoom call with the DP and the county today to try to
talk this through uh we do have an endorsement letter from the County Administrator to place the sidewalks on that side of the street um in L of having to um build the retaining walls um on the west side so we're working through that um and hopefully by the end of this month we'll have some clarity on
what we can and can't do um but again if we had to build retaining walls outside of the counties right of way we would be building them on private property and we would require negotiation for for individual easements which with each of the property owners on that side of West
Glenn Avenue I can tell you that I went through a similar process when I was in Elwood Park and it took us three years to negotiate and get all the easement settled we don't want to wait that long especially with The Pedestrian concerns on westlan Avenue which is why we've
pivoted to talk to the D about doing it on the opposite side of the street so more to come um you know I can understand that folks are frustrated they thought that this project was going to be U but we're trying to find the path of lease resistance to accomplish the sidewalk buildout on West Glen Avenue
and lastly uh box car had their soft opening at the train station uh so the concession is open Heather and I had an opportunity to go over there this morning and they plan to do a formal grand opening once they iron out some of the Kinks uh the second week in
September so we'll alert The Village Council uh to that event uh but I can tell you while Heather and I were there I think two people came in in uh to to buy coffee and they just started this endeavor on Monday uh so we're hoping for their success over at the uh at the train station um and mayor I'm going to
foro my announcements tonight because they are sort of repetitive in light of the lengthy agenda thank you Keith let's go to our Council reports Evan want to kick it off um I too will be brief tonight um based at the same reason um Keith mentioned my none of my committees
have met in the last two weeks um so um I don't really have anything to report greaton um I have a couple things to report uh shockings so um during we we haven't had a meeting in a couple weeks and about
two weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend the award ceremony for Richard water and I was simply so proud to work with Rich calby who received this massive award and it is hold I want to just I'm gonna pass this this is very
heavy very heavy um so turn it around it's facing yes you're all a bunch of critics tonight I hope you know that so congratulations rich calby don't let them steal your thunder and congratulations to the Ridgewood water staff and um this was very exciting to
be at you know as a member of the council we often go to things and I was medium excited but I left absolutely thrilled and I think this whole Council whether I'm holding it the right way or not is super proud of you and your team and I know that Paul and I felt very lucky to be there and see it and um I'm
gonna pass this so all my critics can see how heavy it is but congratulations to Richard water it's really heavy um the second thing that I want to mention is that access is hard at work and we have access weekend coming up due to the Jewish holidays we've pushed it
out to October 19th and we're going to be expanding it through some additional programs like pullover properly and doing our regular routines with the Ridgewood Public Library um and added to that I wanted to just say thank you to
um the steps program and because the police are here we had an unfortunate situation with a concrete barrier up town and the police department stepped in and created signage and really made a better flow of traffic so thank you to the access committee for all their hard work if you don't have the date marked
down it's October 19th and there'll be more information coming on that and that's it thank you sioban Lorraine I'm going to ditto Evans comments excellent and people say we don't agree on anything look at
that okay thank you uh the planning board met last night we had two presentations um at two properties 118 Prospect Street and 1200 East Ridgewood Avenue and we approved both their applications what was interesting is
with respect to where they were trying to increase parking and and uh expand uh the spots where cars could park uh we suggested to them that they use permeable Paving and they
agreed so that's really interesting um I sat in on the library Board of Trustees meeting when uh Evan was out and that was very interesting they are continuing with their Renovations for with
HVAC um installing sprinklers painting new walls the upstairs area has yet to be finished um they are also hiring an engineering firm to help them prepare the specs for activating their emergency
generator they also have a new fish tank in the children's Library which is just beautiful um and let's see well as you've heard we are creating a new residential flood uh admin um advisory
committee and you anyone can apply in fact I've left application forms on the table over here on the side in the courtroom um the application period is open until September 3rd they're very simple forms you can submit them to the
clerk's office either by hand or electronically and the idea is to give residents who have had the Interiors of their homes flooded a voice um so that
we can demonstrate that what the problem is and that they can have a a a say in what the solutions are um we are looking for two residents who have been flooded by the Hocus Brook two residents who have been flooded by
the Saddle River two residents who have been flooded by storm water we will also throw in somebody from Green Ridgewood to be the liaison and there will be a staff person and hopefully from the engineering department
um and uh let's see what else uh green Ridgewood met on July 11th I don't really remember what we did because after that we had our annual um fun
party uh let's see I will say just to let you know New Brunswick is now the first town in New Jersey to establish a storm water utility that's pretty interesting it's going to generate about $7
million for their flood mitigation program uh let's see um CBD will not be meeting this month that's the central business district advisory committee uh and rwood Water Gave Us
Paul and me a tour of our posos treatment facilities from their um not breaking ground yet to almost done and that was the ases facility Cedar Hill
Prospect and Ravine um it was really interesting they're not all Cookie Cutter they're not all the same they are um of different capacities and they look different in every neighborhood um the open space committee
had another two Park walks in the month of July why uh we kind of got rained out on the one at Grove Park but the one at Gren pool was very interesting and was very well attended um I want to thank Nancy beos
for giving all the members of the open space committee so many historical records it's fascinating to read them and it really helps us in in crafting our our tours um the Chamber of Commerce had its
super SC Super Saturday sidewalk sale uh and I it was just a lot of fun there were a lot of people in town and it was hot as hell but it was fun um the
oh and I forgot to say about the library their new passport program where you can get your passport at the library takes about 15 minutes to apply and then they send it off to the state department and two weeks later you can have your passport this is only for firsttime
passport uh applications it's not for renewals unfortunately um one of the Librarians at the library Lissa Brooks who has been a pleasure to deal with is leaving um and I attended her going away party it was really kind of bittersweet
she is the librarian who Su who founded the sustainability Cafe and the Seed Catalog um so she left for a really exciting job uh and that's all I have thank you thank you
Pam and uh I have nothing my my committees have not met in the last couple of weeks so let's move on to the Clinton Avenue parking and opening to traffic issue mayor so I'd like to uh invite the chief and Chris up if uh if I
may I was I was going to do it but okay I means you should do it so as we discussed previously um there are two ordinances um listed for tonight with a special meeting to follow um concerning Clinton Avenue uh one is to
resend the street closure again pending the review and um guidance from the Attorney General's office and the second is if that road closure was to be rescinded that we would then have the same parking restrictions in and around
Ridge school on Clinton Avenue as we do the other elementary schools so with that I'll turn it over to Chief lions and Mr rudis Houser uh to talk about those recommendations from their depart respective departments so the parking regulations that we have around pretty much every
Elementary School at excuse me chief not good enough got to get closer there you go there we go that was too far back uh the parking regulations that are around every Elementary School currently are 8 to9 a.m. 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday September 1st through June 30th so we're recommending just
having the same parking regulations on that street that basically are on every other Street that's around an elementary school at this time um on kennworth it's 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 and 2 o'clock to 3:30 so some of
them are a little longer because we' that's why we initially were going to propose a little bit longer here because some have a little bit Kennelworth is one of those that gets an offshoot from the high school not an elementary school because kennworth even though it's there people Park all the way down so it's a
lot very little people getting out of those cars I was going to say running across my oh I'm I'm sure I'm sure they you know go different places but it's the elementary school times that this these were kind of based on when they comeing and out whereas the high school has different dismissal times and
different times so it's based really not so much on anything else but what time people and children are dropped off to school and picked up to school just so they kind of create the congestion that parking on both sides of the street or on the street would cause so they actually do the drop off and not you
know a couple streets away that's how it's all based on now there are overlaps like you said schools are close to get some are Village closer to the high school sometimes you get overlap so the times could be slightly off but but the majority of elementary schools are all this time frame cuz the school board has
made the elementary schools all the same so we tried to mirror the parking restrictions to their dismissal and admission times I am concerned about people getting confused and different about all our different parking regulations so I was looking for some
uniformity so that but it sounds like you have reasons for differences so that's why we try to keep all the elementary schools with this time frame and then the other schools whether they be BF or GW or the high school but again the high school is its own animal they
have a lot of different regulations they have no parking that we've that the councils previous councils have done because the kids are getting to the bee where they can drive so it's not just drop off and pickup they might not have a first period it's much more of an open campus almost like a college you have
people that don't show up right at 8:30 or 7:30 then you have people who do some people come midday so any anything around the high school I I I hard it's hard to say that that's uniform it's really not there's a lot of varying things around the elementary schools
this is it was just based on these times this is exactly the same at all at all the other five elementary schools the the they based these on the surrounding towns like I said if there's an overlap from another school whether it be BF and travel but there might be slightly
differences because BF lets in and out different times whereas travell doesn't however the idea around the elementary schools was to keep it uniform and base it strictly on that got it thank you no problem I interrupted you sorry oh that's
okay Chris anything else on the parking that you want to add uh as the chief said uh we're trying for consistency um it is a training effort uh when police department's traffic officers notice something uh we're more
than happy to have a discussion with them and if necessary present to the council any revie to the ordinances um an example of that is for Rich school is we have the painted do not block the box over by Murray I think that's worked out
quite well um again we've had problems in the past that had to push towards that particularly in icy weather when uh we can't get the salt out before the parents Start parking and queuing for their kids we had one storm that proved
quite a mess so as the officers relay their observations to us in engineering we'll discuss Solutions and if anything's warranted for an ordinance change we'll present it to you Chief do you want to address the uh
the resending of the uh the road closure so the primary thing I would say to that is that i' I've reached out to the uh Attorney General's office multiple different people there and showed our concerns and gave showed them the guidance that they provided and then asked for a written clarification stay
and saying we're not trying to do anything uh illegal we want to do exactly what we want and I know the dot has been giving different guidance so I was kind of trying to get them both all together here and saying if the do is saying this and the Attorney General is saying this can you please give me the proper guidance right and and just so
the council knows um I worked with the chief on Monday uh to raise that request up to the chief of staff level so the the chief of staff for the Attorney General does have our request uh for this opinion in his email box and we are
awaiting some sort of response Keith do we think we're going to get a response before September 4th oh I anticipate we will I I we've we've we've flagged this everywhere that we can um I do believe that a few of the key people that we need to talk to are on vacation this
particular week at least that's the feedback we've gotten preliminarily U but I can tell you Monday we're going to be on a full court press to try to expedite uh whatever they will provide us okay and I just want to be clear that the
guidance that you have been given by the attorney general who you answer to Is different thus far than the than the guidance we've been given from the do so far they're they are varying that's why I want to get this clarified because I'm
not trying to violate any rules or regulations I'm trying to follow the strictest guidance here and there has been other towns that I've been going through similar incidents and I won't get into them but it's all been following very close to what the attorney general has stated of uh
dealing with uh restricting access to different classes of people and I just want to stress that and I don't want to speak for Matt he can speak for himself but you know in the meetings that we had with the Clinton Avenue residence I think there were three meetings and then an on-site meeting um the both Matt and
the chief relayed to the residents that they had doubts about the legality of keeping this road Clos osed based on the guidance uh that was provided from the Attorney General's office relative to other municipalities who had tried similar road
closures so again closing the road is probably not an issue it's allowing certain people to access it during those times right that's where this becomes an issue if we would like to close the road in its entirety is a hard close that's very different and definitely within our perview to do we would still need dot
approval but it's easy to do and that was original and for comparative purposes we we do that all the time right we closed a road on Halloween but it was a hard closure yes we closed the road for the Downtown Plaza during the summer times it was a hard closure where
the Attorney General takes issue is when there are different classes of people some allowed to access and some not allowed to access that's where the disparity exists and some of the parallels to the situations in the other towns those were similar circumstances they were similar in that they had set
who can and who cannot so when we say hard closure to be clear that means if you're a resident of Clinton a and you want to go to work and you didn't move your car before the hard close you're not going to work that day yeah it would completely just like when we do uh downtown for the holidays or fourth of
July regardless of whether your business is on the street or anything is there at that time you were locked in during those times which is no Landscaping no Amazon the street literally becomes it literally becomes dead and a pedest basically a pedestrian Zone okay it's a
matter of it being close to everyone so I have a couple things first I'm going to leave the clarification and thank you for seeking it and I have no opinion because we don't have all the information but thank you for writing the letter and following up and thank you to Keith and really I think the whole Council feels there's no deter of
decision to make do you get that should this move forward and the ordinance goes I I just have a couple questions one when when do the sign existing signs come down like there's existing signs on Clinton is all they're going to come down this week there are signs that
indicate that the road is closed during school hours so right so let's so we're gon to move forward until we like we have two paths right we're waiting for clarification and then we're moving forward assuming that you know the Attorney General is going to say you know opposite of NJ so we wouldn't
remove any signs until it was finally passed until until September this just ini reading until the ordinances are it would be pass 20 days later yes so in that short term are we going to work with the school School Board to issue something because we're when I was
counting on the calendar which is something I really do and you can all make fun of me we're close to the start of school assuming we go down the secondary you know we've got this two path thing um I want to make sure that we have clear delineation for the residents and the hsas and Christine
corus that we need to let people know because if the existing signage is going to stay up we're going to have like a sign confusion situation so we're lucky we have a very good relationship with the school super intendent so we would have on my traffic department work with the schools and make sure we're out
there and forc kind of mitigating the the change we we would have to inform people of how to act and change you know for a while I would say all through September and probably into October just so people get used to it but I wouldn't think any changes happen until after yeah until it becomes
effective that regulation is still in place right the present res regulation is still in place so you wouldn't change the signage until it became if there was a change made keep in mind I'm sorry say the word no I'm just I just am concerned because
the timing you know you've got newness every time there's a new start of school you have new students you have new kindergarteners so I just want to make sure that's clear and the only other thing is I I love the shortened time I think it's much better I think it's much less intrusive on the residents and I I thought that was a little tighter for the elementary school but I just want to
make sure if that path continues you know we've got the two that we clearly communicate to the general user because as soon as we know the direction we're going to sit down with Dr Schwarz and with uh Christine corus who's the Pio for the school district and get clear
communication from the police department through the schools to those families keep in mind we're we're we're threading a needle here right so depending on what the Attorney General says School opens on the 3 it's the day after Labor Day I believe the council meeting where this
would be adopted is September 4th right so and then you have the 20day but but again we'd have to sit with the schools and sort of determine how we were going to enforce that I just want to make sure it's it's clear because I will this is my chance to tell an
anecdotal story and use up some time aan um I was the safety chair at Orchard and I do want to make a Shameless plug and Lorraine is the more we can encourage people to not drive and to enjoy the walkability side of Ridgewood this is an opportunity to include that in that messaging it is um I grew up in
Ridgewood move back it is shocking to me how many people endure massive amounts of traffic unsafe situations and the sidewalks will make it more walkable so I'm hoping you know and I think you'll do this too in all the messaging we stress that you know October's walk to school month but it really can be every
month of the year um and that's that's all that I want to say and Line's gonna say the same thing because she loves walking yeah so Kei so Keith can I ask I mean so we're meeting next week and then we don't meet again till the 4th um if we do get an answer from the attorney general office before the 4th to be able
to at least allow the Clinton residents to know what that is is there you can't you can't expedite it because if we get let's say we get let's so we're meeting next week on the 14th let's say we get a response back on like the 20th M right is there a way to potentially communicate out what that response is Bo
right sure yeah honestly I think regardless of what the response is whether it be in favor of the street closer or against the street closer I think we should make that public so that everyone's made aware of it immediately absolutely because here's where I'm going with this so um and again I don't think we can say this enough the vote tonight is not to do anything other than
to have the discussion on the agenda for the 4th we're not doing anything tonight other than ensuring we can have the discussion so I'm going to be voting yes tonight with that said I very much have a bunch of questions and some you know and I know we're not to talk about it Matt so I'm going to bite my tongue I'm
not unsympathetic and I want to have a discussion on it but I do think that that attorney general's opinion is going to be critical because what I won't do is vote in favor an ordinance that the police chief tells me he won't enforce cuz he believes it's illegal that Council tells me we can't enforce cuz he
believes illegal and we have an attorney general telling us that we can't enforce it like I I don't know how we go against that and keep our jobs right on the other hand if we do get something else from the attorney general I'd like to have a discussion to see what makes sense if something can make sense but I
don't think we can really have a meaningful discussion on this topic until we have that letter W agreed and again as I said at the at the top of my comments after the public hearing this is a procedural process tonight to introduce this ordinance so that we could try if we need to stay in line
with adopting it at the same time School opens I think that's the chief's recommendation because otherwise we're going to if we have a lot of unanswered questions is it enforcable is it not enforcable can we do it can't we do it going into the first week of of school I think we're going to have a lot bigger
problems on our hands or the police department's going to have a larger set of problems on our hands so you know from from our perspective here you know we now have two State agencies the Attorney General's office and the Department of Transportation giving us conflicting Direction on what we can and
cannot do on Clinton Avenue and we need to get that cleared up in the month of August so that we can make a recommendation to the council as to how we feel you should move forward but more importantly what the direction is to these families at Ridge school as to
what they are and are not allowed to do when they're dropping off and picking up their kids on a daily basis and I do want to thank the chief for taking the initiative to to get that letter out to the A's office because again I think that will be definitive for this Council what we do on this and I do always encourage people to
walk to school and we do a lot of campaigns more with the biking as well so we try to do the safe biking campaigns to get more people to bike and walk to school especially where the weather is nice but and and and I don't want to prolong the discussion but I during the public comment I did hear someone question what why we didn't ask
for this attorney general's opinion back in the winter into the spring when we were having the resident meetings and I'll be honest with you you know governing today is a is a challenge and you know you have to make the best decision in the interest of
Public Safety even if there's a doubt in your mind and when the chief and Matt opined that they didn't feel based on the regulations coming from the Attorney General's office were it was legal to keep the street closed you know I pressed back against them at that time because there were no
sidewalks so we could have had a situation where there was no street closure and there were no sidewalks and it was a safety risk to ask the Attorney General formally at that time to issue an opinion because if he said we had to open up the road there were no safety
procedures in place and I will confirm that so it wasn't the ideal it wasn't the ideal situation but it was the best situation at the time now here we are based on the circumstances that have been presented to us this month the sidewalks are being put in place and we await a formal response from the
Attorney General's office the bright side of that is if he determines that we can't keep the Street closed we now have sidewalks to accommodate those pedestrians and I will say without getting into specifics my decision was not made in a vacuum I contacted the
Bergen County Chiefs of Police Association and the State Chiefs of Police Association and pretty much every one of them agreed with me and have been abiding by that attorney general's recommendation in their jurisdictions and I'm talking about a close to estimated 500 police Chiefs in the state
of New Jersey um I know every situ I'm not saying situations aren't different every municipality has their own unique challenges and I'm not saying anything's different but it seems like that was there was no one who said oh no we're not going by that you can 100% close
that it's it's upon you they're like no we have to go this way that's where I came you know my decision was not made alone not to mention with the safety factor with all my very well-trained traffic officers both of which who have served on the fatal accident investigation Squad all these were
recommendations that were made to me it wasn't just my assertation that I'm the the guru of traffic I am not they are but I try to get to the right people and have the people who have the most knowledge give me the information that I can act upon thank you so much Chief and
thank you Chris you're welcome and let's move on Heather okay I want a motion to suspend the work session and convene the special public meeting so moved second yes Rey Yes W grad yes and
vaganos N yes oh sorry whites sorry I'm sorry and vas yes and so this is the Village Council special public meeting the date is August 7th 2024 the time is
9:22 adequate notice of this meeting has been 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 to same as provided by law of a schedule including the date and time of this
meeting roll call deputy mayor parin here council member Reynolds here council member whites here council member windrad here and mayor vaganos here I move the first reading of ordinance 407
second parin yes Reynolds yes whites yes winegrad yes and vaganos yes so ordered will the clerk please read ordinance 407 by title an ordinance to amend chapter 265 of the code of the village of rge
vehicles and traffic as section 265-6424 007 be adopted on first reading and that September 4 2024 be fixed as the date for the hearing thereon second parin yes Reynolds yes whites yes
windrad yes and vaganos yes I move the first reading of ordinance 408 second okay go pin yes Reynolds yes whites yes Winograd yes and vaganos yes so ordered will the clerk please read
ordinance 408 by title an ordinance to amend chapter 265 of the code of the village of Ridgewood vehicles and traffic at section 8 be adopted on first reading and at September 4th 2024 be fixed as a date for the hearing thereon second parin yes
Reynolds yes whites yes winegrad yes and vaganos yes let's entertain a motion to adjourn the special public meeting and reconvene our work session so moved second parin yes Reynolds yes whites yes
H grad yes and vaganis yes and let's get back to our regular agenda Keith why don't you walk us through this mayor at this time we have three items tonight uh to be presented by Ridgewood waterer Mr calby is with us uh to discuss each good evening
everybody hello hello thank you for the acknowledgement of the award um it was the first one given uh by the state and with over 500 Utilities in the state of New Jersey it's quite an achievement for a to be
first well deserved yeah we're all very proud of it thank you so three items tonight uh the first one is uh 15 A1 is Award of uh contract Amendment for our lead service line replacement program uh
The Firm of CDM Smith was hired in 2023 uh to complete the planning um and coordinate the agreements between all four municipalities for the Leed service line replacement program we're now looking to move forward with the next
phase of that program in anticipation of the start of the work in 2025 uh this is the implementation phase which includes developing of design and construction documents um assisting with the bidding process and providing
on-site construction management inspection services for approximately 500 Le service line Replacements throughout the four municipalities uh served by rigid water uh the cost for this Professional Service is estimated at not to exceed of
$82,700 uh funding for this project is accounted for an original water Capital uh budget any questions questions anyone did you say it's it's 500 service lines that are being replaced that would be
the first contract that's covered by this they will do the design for that and then oversee that entire implementation through construction and completion including all the communications with the uh the customers questions good okay next item is
1582 uh this is the award of soil disposal to rvh mulch Supply um every year uh rigid water is involved in many um actions throughout the system involve water main replacement water main brake repairs um right now lead service line
Replacements and other daily repairs whenever remove soil U from those operations we have to dispose of it uh We've tested uh the soil that has been removed to date um it it's come back from the lsrp as suitable material to be
removed noncontaminated um and we've got a price from rvh mulch of well they're at a w New Jersey but the site is in a different location that'll be brought to uh $325 per container truck for not exceed of $100,000 uh for the balance of this
year and this is funded under the water utility operating budget questions let's go okay the final item is 15 A3 uh this was award this is for an award of a bid um on Wednesday July 24th
rer water received 12 bids uh for water service line Replacements these are for main to curb Replacements the ones that are owned by the utility not those owned by private residences um this work is necessary um similar to what we came to
a couple months to get emergency funding for we've got an influx of residents that are deciding to replace the service lines on their own and by law we have 45 days to go in and replace our side of it so that there's no Hazard of Le
contamination so due to that we felt it was best to go out and get a bid and solicit prices to continue that work because we've already exhausted 164,000 of the 250,000 that you authorized us already um so we took bids on that the
successful bidder was Sher Property Services of East Orange New Jersey uh not to exceed bit of $151,000 um and that is funded under the water capital budget questions underwater Capital
there's a typo in the that was exactly my question yes it's water capital budget so are the ones that they're doing themselves are they like bending together as neighbors and doing them by street is it are you seeing AC and how many are opting in and how many are opting out just wondering so
right now we have 283 customers have opted into our program okay out of the 500 we proposed for the first contract um in addition to that we have 80 one that have done it on their own already um so there sufficient amount of
people that are are taking upon themselves to get it done now they don't want to wait um and sporadic right there are places where people have banded together um we had that instance downtown CBD several businesses got together did it with one contractor you know there's some cost efficiency in
that um the costs that we've been seeing are are very good they're a lot lower than we had originally anticipated so few months fast forward we're going to be coming here for the funding orance for that first contract and you're going to find it's a lot better than what we
anticipated a year ago so I love that y anybody else good thank you so much thank you um mayor mayor the next issue is under parking um if I could call the chief and Chris back up uh we're going
to talk about the uh amended ordinance proposal for parking on Overbrook Road uh Chris's office has done an extensive survey um of the affected residents in the impacted area um and those results are in the packet this evening and Chris
can walk us through those uh good evening mayor members of council um there was a request for consideration of changing some of the parking ordinances on overbook road uh in accordance with the The Villages policies when we have
such requests we poll the residents that would be affected uh in my memo to Keith for distribution to you folks um there's a copy of the tax map indicating which homes we surveyed um I
gave a deadline for responses I did get two additional responses after that deadline uh one was in favor of proposed parking changes and one was in favor of the alternate suggestion um regarding
parking permits or permitting just residents to park on Overbrook uh overwhelmingly uh the survey had 24 individual responses from 20 addresses obviously
some Partners each had a say in what they thought um were opposed to any changes uh I had only three individual responses from two address that were in favor of the parking changes that I
presented to the residents um I did notify a little bit late today uh a couple of residents that had sent a bulk email that this would be on the council agenda um I think they were a little upset that I didn't give them enough advanced
notice so if there's any questions we happy to try to answer them questions yes I don't understand how to read this map excuse me I don't understand how to read this map where are you saying you you I can't tell who on this map
answered your survey is it every house that's on this map they have the addresses in the corresponding did you get the color version or the black and white version black and white the black and white oh G whiz that's too bad I used the yellow
highlighter no wonder yeah that is a that is a village hall problem um our department is blessed with a color copier um the fifth floor is not that might change in the future to clarify such situations for you so you you pull
the people who live on Overbrook is that what's your yellow yeah there's two respons not Fairway not Hampton there are two responses from Hampton gotcha so plus two responses from Hampton we're basically just
talking about this to say it's not moving forward is is that right lorine that's that's what I'm assuming yes my recommendation would be leave things as they are based on the feedback that I received Chief you concur yeah I concur with that same is everyone in
concurrence with that yes yeah let's go the only can I just say one thing cuz so I I totally agree I think this is good thank you even without the copy it was it was a lot of information the line you're going to follow up with the two people the that we met when I I I already I followed up
with the Overbrook resident okay I'll I'll follow put the other one in CCU so you can chck in okay because we did have we had this you know with Council chat somebody came in and I want to make sure they understand that the idea has been vetted we have more information and we're not doing anything and these are the reasons why now this is in the last
just the last couple years this is the third such survey we did we did one on ranne court um we also had a residence I believe approached you Miss Reynolds about some changes on North Walnut uh correct right uh officer Sergeant Torino
and I discuss it he was in favor we did nonetheless do the survey and we were quite surprised that the majority of the people that came back in that survey liked it the regulations the way they were yeah so good thank you for conducting the surve yeah thanks for doing it gives us a very
clear picture mayor can um will you indulge me to jump around the agenda just so I can get the department heads out I would definitely indulge you all right so if we can move to uh c um eight and nine and also D1 and C8 connect
because it all to do with the special three law enforcement um assignments in the school district so C8 we just got it is okay so that's a resolution uh that has been prepared to
enter into a shared services agreement with the Ridgewood Board of Education uh for the assignment of the hiring and the assignment of Three Special Law Enforcement Officers for the 2024 2025 school year um the full agreement is not
attached to this resolution I'll have the chief speak to that I know he spoke to Dr Schwarz today regarding same uh so so we had uh drafted a a draft version of an agreement a shared services agreement with the Board of Education we sent that over to the
board of education and Dr Schwarz he sent it to uh his attorneys and they were reviewing it from what he said today they have no substantive changes but some wording and little things like that so they have every intention of passing it at their next board meeting and as soon as they have the finalized
draft it'll come back to us and I'm sure we're going to want to look at it one last time but it doesn't sound like there's any that would change dramatically enough for us to not be in favor of it they did say that they're 100% on board with the three officers as we were hoping uh a couple of months ago
um so now we're only waiting on the just the little bit of wording uh changes so if we receive that document by next Wednesday will the council permit us to put the shared services resolution on the agenda if we don't then we may have to default to the fourth which would
require a special public meeting which we have already relative to the Clinton a situation so one way or the other we'll be able to adopt but I would like to do it next week if we have it in hand it makes sense to me okay all right and then related to that is
D1 which is the ordinance change that would be introduced next week establishing the position so Chief you want to speak to that yeah so basically everything the police department does has to be approved by the governing body and basically all we're doing is changing our structure to include the
class three special position um there's not much extra wording in there I know the village attorney has has looked at it it it fine it's just basically saying that the class 3es will now fall under the police department and basically uh respond to us for all their training and
all that stuff and then go directly to the schools for their day-to-day you know any objection schedu okay and then the other item for the police department is C9 uh this is a simple housekeeping issue which is regard to the procurement of the new police patrol motorcycle a
favorite of council member Reynolds U but we just have to change the name of the um vendor that we're purchasing it from from Williams Harley-Davidson to hdp Harley LLC so that's just an administrative change that Heather will put on a resolution for next week all
right I just have a question who has their motorcycle license already oh so you have to go to a specialized school so we're sending two officers this this year um and then two officers next year so there'll be four so you know if we want to expand or at least we have four
so it'll get adequate use as to who has a motorcycle license a bunch of police officers have a Mot including myself but that doesn't allow you to drive a police motorcycle in a in a emergency response capacity I believe the village engineer
also has his motyle license compl chief on Section we we'll we'll get into that in Greater detail at another meeting there's going to have to be a lot of jokes about chips though okay should be anything else for
the chief all good okay I'm going to move to the uh the three uh engineering issues uh the first is C6 uh this is with regard to sewer fees uh for significant discharges uh this would be
an ordinance that establishes a free structure uh based on equivalent dwelling units for commercial industrial minor and significant dischargers to the sanitary system uh the rate for 23 was $4.70 per th000 gallons of flow in excess of
10,500 gallons per year discharged from commercial properties as measured by the water meter consumption during the two winter quarters I'm going to recuse myself on this matter okay Chris is uh recommending the same for this year Chris uh yes um I work with the finance
department we take a look at what our costs are and sorry we look at what our costs are and make adjustments as necessary this year they recommended that the ordinance fee rate remain the same uh the way this ordinance is set up
it has this type of annual review um so you're going to see this kind of ordinance every year some years they might go up some years like this year recommendation will be to remain the same but we need the ordinance once it's adopted Finance can build the
responsible entities for what they owe the village Chris you might not know the answer to this question but why do the commercial entities get the first
109,000 gallons for free and the nonprofits have to build get build from the very first gallon commercial entities have the privilege of paying property taxes to the Village nonprofits don't so they pay for the first drop of
water they consume and discharge that makes sense thank you all right all right the next issue uh that's affected by engineering is C12 um this is the cottage parking lot tree planting program this is something
that uh council member winegrad brought to the engineering Department's attention uh as a result of a shade tree Commission meeting so Shan I don't know if you want to take it from there and then Chris can uh discuss it further so first I want to thank engineering for being so great to the shade tree commission and um just some information
with the central business district planting coming to an end we went out and we started to look for like other places we could put trees downtown and it was wasn't really me it was Adam and Chris went out um Cottage Place has no trees right now like none and the hot
jewelry box patch of dirt is unplant which I'm hoping we can talk about hot jewelry buck as well a little bit so um because we had 12 Trees placed in the central business district in our budget not like you know actually placed we went out seeking places to find trees
and this is the recommendation that they came up um you know the cottage the cottage lot is like a big area of lots of concrete there's as opposed to like the Hillman lot which is its official name I don't know what we call it um there are trees there so the consensus
from shade tree is that this would be a wonderful expansion of the CBD trees it'd be a way to break up some of the concrete add to the Aesthetics and you know visually when you're there um just historically that used to be a field my mom told me that was owned by the B of
Ed and they sold it to the Village years ago like you know decades ago as my mom would say so um it would be nice to see some green there and that's the general concept and Chris went out with Adam and so I fully support this I'm very grateful for it and then at the end of
it even though it's not on the map if you look at the end I I'm hoping with Engineering in trees in the same discussion we can talk about that patch of dirt that no longer has a tree because the wires run under it like we could scape it do something all right that was I let me
step back I met with Adam Brown from the shade tree uh we met outside on site uh we looked at uh what he would like to propose and what Shay Tre would propose and I definitely think we can create tree wells in those two concrete Islands
they're about 4T in diameter um I just want to check with Dean as to how big a well he would feel most comfortable with for the best viability of a tree and then of course I want to discuss with him what tree species he would recommend
whether it would be an underwire or a taller one uh we really don't have any wires in Conflict uh um but I still want to see what he would recommend for a parking lot uh for somebody If He suggests a little bit of wider tree well
I believe we can do that um our normal parking spaces are quite deep um I would not hesitate to take a foot or 18 inches from each space to give an extra two or three feet to create a larger tree well again to enhance the viability of what
we plant um I'm going to probably have to draw this up a little more neater than the sketch that you may have seen with a bunch of x's on it but I think it's definitely something that um not sure if we can get it implemented this fall with the tree planting program um
we're taking bids on that on next Wednesday anyway so we'll see what we can do but I what I wanted from the council is I might even prepare for the council's consideration something like a title 59 ordinance just so the council weigh in on the recommendation and
suggestion if it's in your agreeable to you folks that certainly gives us the guidance to proceed with it I love the idea um I wonder if you would consider trenches rather than the
circular tree Wells that we normally use down uh trenches I have to be concerned about several things in the parking lot uh how the vehicles Park stor water run off and then that evil white stuff known
as snow and ice control um I'd like to make a curb tree well just to help provide like a ring or a barrier to keep cars away salt run off away from a tree uh salt is very detrimental to trees um
that's why if we have a little bit of a ring barrier it might keep run off salty water away from the tree directed to an inlet so it doesn't harm the tree that's something we have to look at and again I want to work with Dean uh listen to what his recommendations are and design
accordingly okay I mean everyone's mostly in favor of it right oh absolutely okay so then can we just briefly discuss the patch of dirt that's driving me crazy I'm not quite sure so in front of hot jewelry box on East on
Eastwood Avenue like right across from Walgreens there's a tree well and um the feedback cuz nany's here is that there's utility wires that are too close to the surface and if we plant something there it's going to interfere with the roots so it's it's unplanted UND demonstrated
you know we have this two-year thing nobody wants to put a tree in there so because you're going we need to either cover it with brick or you know we need to do something because it's a patch of dirt and when I go out and count how many are empty and I make my teenagers help me with that they're like why is
that one still empty mom I I just think we need to make the decision to scape it over if we can't plant a in it my my recommendations is if we can't plant the tree because of utility conflicts um we have to see how high they are and just put in a concrete sidewalk okay or
brick concrete I prefer why can't we put it an above ground pot we can but it's still got the dirt and then that just promotes the weeds I was told no we couldn't even put a pot there cuz I I had to asked that a couple years ago not being exactly familiar with the location
is that because it might be an intersection side obstruction it is it might be there L with the left I think it was more the utilities right underneath so close to the surface that the weight the weight of the pot was not I'm sure it's electric uh there may also
be natural gas I don't know if there's any Telco it all depends on what the markout would indicate I mean we our our ideal goal was a tree but it seems that ship is sailed so now we just have to do something so it's not dirt and a weed vest which is what it is
and I I mean I think if we escape it I'm fully support the flower pot that Lorraine's going to donate and she just found out about it so so you'll let me know and if you you want me to we'll take a look at see what
we can do okay um again I was not aware that there's utility conflict let me touch base with Dean um we do know that in past planting uh planting times uh there have been a number of tree Wells we had Utilities in okay and I think a
couple were on North Broad Street yeah we we have them all down and all identified and Dean's been great andan Department's been great so we want to finish the CBD right and say it's done and this loan Loan Tree well the only
dirt patch yes that that doesn't have a plan there are ones that are still under the warranty you know there's there's ones that are being addressed that are slightly broken but this is the only one where it's been stuck so we have to come with something for this location yes okay okay so everybody's supportive of a
resolution for next week on this good okay all right and um lastly if you would jump to E3 which is the uh taxi stand parking spaces so after much internal discussion
and a site visit with uh the police chief um the recommendation from both the police department and Engineering is to go to the loading zone to exist 24 hours a day 7 days a week uh there is no
potential to establish parking in front of the taxi stand Chris you want to just speak as to why that is uh yeah if if you look at the taxi stand now you'll see like a a concrete Island set off the sidewalk a little bit that was deliberately built because we had too
many delivery trucks hitting the building um so rather than stationing an officer from the police department there full-time we made what is known as a concrete policeman a big heavy curb it's worked uh but we don't want to park car
there there necessarily because they might be struck by the trucks right so that removes the um the vehicle parking uh the chief is recommending the 24 hours a day s days a week because rather than traditional loading where you're
offing goods and bringing them to restaurants or stores he's concerned about that being a pedestrian drop off for Uber and for Lyft and for taxis if you know to the extent that they exist anymore so Chief you want to speak to
that part of the recommendation it's also where everybody gets dropped off for the train station so I mean that's a very active you'll see people as late as 1:00 a.m. getting up getting picked up from the train stuff sometimes parking is not an issue but sometimes if it's a Friday or Saturday night and people are all parking in the legal spots for the
bar s and the restaurants that are open very late um you'll actually have a good place that people can pull over offload there's people often luggage involved it just makes sense to have a spot that's centrally loaded uh located that can be used for offloading and on loading and
which is safe and yeah it's much safer off to the side there it's a it's a good location and then with regard to the hours designated to the uh to the tenant that we have a lease with we're going to establish those two parking spaces from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. this way those
spaces can be utilized by the businesses in the evening hours when we're busier downtown all right just so I understand when you pick up your kid at the train station are you supposed to park head into the taxi stand or are you supposed
to park parallel in that loading zone so heading I mean not park but pull up yeah to pull in you should always Park head in there's really no you know parallel could get dangerous cuz if there's a second person that can come up next to you things like that head in parking always kind of works the best that being
said we've had seen people pull up with trailers that couldn't Park head in and having a loading zone there actually provided them with a spot to you know pull in with a large trailer or something especially when people are leaving they they and and Chris when the signs are re-erected once the ordinance is in place you'll be able to have Rich
add the times to those polls so that people know when it's when it's designated our sign shop is very creative and put everything on it that we need great thank you I I just have a question so I'm confused is the loading zone going to be strictly for the the
tenant leasing the taxi stand or it's for anybody it it's for anybody anybody it's for anybody the two spots are dedicated to the tenant and as Keith said from s to five okay and the loading zone will be able to be used to drop off
people to drop off Goods to across the street or if the tenant needs it it'll be available to them too cuz I thought they also requested a voting Zone but not just no I I don't think I don't think we can designate it that it just be then especially because of the uses that the chief has already described all right thank you and there was the old
idea that maybe we could claw back parking from in front of the building but the like human traffic respit is no yeah yeah okay all right gentlemen thank you okay and in an effort to uh relieve my director of Parks and Recreation as
soon as possible Nan if you'll come up uh we'll discuss your three items that are before council tonight so as as Nancy walks up uh the first item which is C3 uh is the follow through on one of
the capital requests from earlier this year which was funded by the bond ordinance that the Village Council adopted and this is for the purchase of a 2024 mini loader um which will be purchased off the sourcewell contract and Bergen County Co-op um the vendor is
Northeast arborous Supply um of Woodland Park to total amount is 109 857 N I don't know if you have anything else that you want to comment on on this purchase the parks department are very very excited about this uh addition to their Fleet it's this is a new and
upcoming multi-use vehicle and um we'll be all seasons so we'll be able to move materials soil clay bricks um logs trim leaves and snow so we're excited thank you for your support anybody want to say
no to her yeah so this is you don't have one of these no now it's amazing because it can sweep snow it can blow snow it can plow snow I'm impressed we will be too thank you and
it can do sidewalks which none of our trucks can do yes okay so in addition to that uh there are three requests tonight uh one is the purchase of the Pavilion structure for habber nickel Park uh actually purchasing the Pavilion itself the
second is a memorandum regarding the installation um and the award of contract uh for the installer and the third is with regard to the veteran Fields lights so Dan you want to take it from there um so thank you for your support in this project it's been a long
time coming this is my third opportunity to share with you this evening um I do want to let you know that I have met um both on site and in conference with both the village engineering and the signal
division as a um collaborative within both of these projects that are under our jurisdiction um I am most pleased to be able to bring um the final um structure to you um for haer nickel and
after five different various locations um and site visits on everyone and topography and Grading and measuring and distancing and traffic flow and pedestrian use and park users and
visibility and neighbor concerns this is what we've come up with and um I'm really proud and pleased with this selection um I do believe it's the best choice and it will be beneficial to
our residents um Park users and the community at large questions it's very handsome really beautiful proud I'm so so looking forward to adding this um to our Park
inventory for our residents to be able to enjoy this is definitely a quality of life for our residents handson right for them so a few factors that I just want to point out um one the placement of this um I think
was um discussed at length uh there was some residential input I did receive some corresponden from some residents who live in and around the park I shared this um rendition from engineering with them uh and I received positive
responses from the residents that this image was shared with so I think there is generally residential support for this location in the park uh secondly uh this image was also sent down to the Green Acres Program at the
njde I have a email from Nancy Lawrence who's our representative down at Green Acres uh dated Friday uh where the NJ de has signed off on this location and they're supportive of this project they did encourage us to solicit the
residential feedback I think we've already achieved that and again received uh uh what I amount to an endorsement from the residents um who vocalized any concerns about the placement um and thirdly I just want to be clear that the
usage of the the formal usage of the Pavilion will be conducted for all groups through the facilities request process that is set up at the recreation department so if the Boy Scout C group
or some other community group um I know there has been discussion about health bar accessibility to that they will be treated like everybody else uh this is not part of their lease this is not part of the area not even close to the area uh that they have a lease agreement with
the village uh to utilize the space um everybody will be treated the same however the primary purpose of this is for families to enjoy it on a more casual basis for it to be able to provide uh shelter especially in inclement weather if you're using the
playground area or if you're using the especially if you're using the ball field uh the lightning detector system goes off we have a place for folks in the park to seek shelter um so we're excited about this um and um we're hopeful that the council will look favorable tonight on both awarding the
contract uh to the to the vendor providing the structure and also to the installer so I have my first question is I'm sorry but I'm confused where where is the structure go so to the left is the is the baseball field yes to the
right uh up a little bit is the playground um the box at the extreme top if you look right behind you it might be better lorine are you saying this is where the is yes yes correct yeah so the the the top the top structure the um the
rectangular structure is the garden oh for health Barn so the barn was beyond the Gard the barn was beyond what this image shows no isn't that field currently it's not a it's not
part of the playing field it's not part of the playing field but it's it's a grassy area it's a grassy area yes and what do they use it for now it it doesn't impact any of our formal programs right n Lorraine right now that area that we have that you're seeing
what the Pavilion is slated for is really what we call an open space area um it's not a designated field it's not lined it's it's for play it's for Passive Recreation um so you know if the Boy Scouts want to
have a rocket launch it would be someplace in that area you know rather a little bit yes a little bit south and east but yes it is it is somewhat near that location right and you've gotten did you send it to like
all the residents I I think the resident that I was dealing with was sharing it with with the other folks so you're comfortable that very very pleasantly pleased that everybody sort of in support of the the location all right then I have another question so the the
structure itself is about 201,000 yes 201 207 uh 27,000 2,270 and then the installation is 215,000 okay now does that include
bathroom no okay because that's I mean I'm trying to think in the capital budget we budgeted 34,000 is that correct correct and that included bathrooms no oh it did not no just the
structure and the installation so there was no budgeting for bathrooms correct oh so is that something that we're thinking about in the future 2025 right okay be coming back and also one of the prohibitive things about that I think initially we had wanted to um or I
shouldn't say we wanted to I think initially we had envisioned this sort of replacing the barn or at least I did I don't want to speak for Nancy but I I in my mind we were taking a structure down we were adding a structure to that location it just sort of made sense I don't think any of us realized until it
was gone how narrow the footprint of the barn was and when we were talking about putting the Pavilion there it very quickly seemed like it was being shoehorned into that space which we wanted to avoid that being said we also have to worry about sanitary access um which means we have to extend
the sewer line regardless of where we put the bathrooms this is the right location for the um Pavilion based on where we will have sanitary access or where we can add sanitary lines um we may look at a
different location for the restrooms okay so and it all it all has to do with the underground infrastructure and we need to have a conversation with Engineers about that okay all right all right and then so I guess my last question question is we budgeted 340,000 so this is going to be
416,000 so where is the extra money coming there there's open Capital from the initial Hackle project additional capital for from Hackle from what for the development of habel oh okay this is pH that we haven't used this is phase
three so remember the park has had iterations of development this is official phase three right I just know that there was capital um budget monies that were set aside for other projects at haer neckel that weren't utilized and this was vetted to
me with um through the CFO so is there still more left for bathrooms or no that that will be for bathroom for but for other items yes okay yeah okay all right thank you and keep in mind we have grant money coming in too for the playground
so there'll be another there'll be phase four if you want to call it that so I got one last question so what are are where the barn was is that just going to be like seed planted grass or it was seated over and it is it is grass right
now long it's all grown in and there'll be no need to change the um the footprint of the garden either okay right and in preparation for this project we've done some soil testing up there too so I'm waiting for Matrix to get back to me with what that looks like too just precautionary that's wonderful
cuz I know that there was a lot of consternation about moving that whole garden yeah um which you know has been grown over the last 10 years and also just so you know the bonding for habernickel for the purchase of it we
are done with paying off that debt this year okay it's good to know it because same year that Liam was born so 20y year bond 20 years old um I just want to say Nancy this has been awesome to work with you on and if anybody from the council hasn't been up to see the space of the
barn you know I too thought it would be take out insert in and when I got up there it was overwhelming to see the space differently and and it has been such an advantage in the light because now the barn the garden's growing better and it is fully seated so it's like a grassy
little patch and it is a little narrow patch you know we we all were like stunned with how narrow it was um so the whole Parks committee went up there we we picked in the garden it was a lovely experience but you should go up and I think this is just such a good call and
I know sometimes we or me can be difficult in going through options I think this is just the best option and so I'm very grateful for your time and I think it's going to be great all right moving on to the um the um lighting of Veterans
Field again we've Sayed The Best For Last right um so um I can tell you that this has been a labor of love and um we we have worked with an amazing team of
professionals we've worked with um lighting Engineers from L Associates we've worked with the experts from mcow we've worked with our signal division our electrician um our engineering division
um this has been a very sophisticated upgrade um but I'm really pleased to bring you um the final figure years and that approval from mow um in the way that we're looking at it right now um
and it does include the the uh option one includes baseball and soccer um lighting for for those two facilities so I don't know what else Village manager we'd like to include
other than my memo yeah let me just speak to that so if if you look at the bottom portion of the memorandum that that Nancy prepared um we had originally budgeted uh in capital $700,000 to do the ball field um the varsity girls
soccer field was not included in the $700,000 design uh I'm sorry Varsity girl softball field was not included in the original design um at a Fields meeting that both Siobhan and I attended um I think back in the spring um it was
discussed about soliciting a quote from musco to include the girls softball field uh we did that um as you can see in option two the Delta brings the project up to 958 so it's about a $258,000 additional expenditure to light
the girl softball field we are not recommending that at this time um we have talked to mcow and we've talked to our signal Department as we do site preparation for this for this project uh everything will be outfitted in such a
way uh that we can expand the lighting project to the softball fields at some point in the future um depending on how successfully we are with attaining grants uh we're in the process of talking to psng about some of some of their Energy rebates which we've talked
about all along with this project um and also talking to some of the organizations and seeing what their contributions uh might be um we may do a change order um or we may treat it as an additional project going into 25 uh but as of tonight the recommendation
uh of both director beos and myself is to award the initial contract for the $700,000 which was what we discussed at capital budget time so are you laying the conduit everything everything is being prepared no not conduit but everything is being prepared to handle a future
expansion of Lights On Veterans Field so and that'll be included in the 700 yes yeah right but but there's no conduit there for the no but but the lights will be on the exterior of the field mayor so I think it's two
additional light posts or four additional light posts if we do option two yeah two so but they would be that that cond would be laid on the exterior of the field outside outside of the we need additional lights for that man po right and and why did we decide against
that well funding funding because it's another $258,000 to do the the conduit plus the the the pole lights so for the women's softball that's what we're discussing as option two right no I I understand that I just I
I I am I've paused and and I'm I I I will go along with it but I I I pause because we are funding the men's baseball but not the women's softball but we are there's also soccer which is mixed gender out in there I I I
understand and I know that we're going to we're going to get to this eventually what what is if you want to I'll tell we're all good with that yeah um and and we can we can make we can make jokes about it but it's again you know this is
um you know this is uh a a cause for concern for me so can I say two things um one I can say unequivocally that none of this was based on gender it was based on it was based on the geography of where each field is behind that wall
behind me that's number one number two um I think there is a concerted effort amongst the recreation department um and my office to try to um turn over some rocks with regard to grant funding and the rebates to try to expand this
project we're just not there tonight to make that recommendation to you so in order to move the project forward sign a contract with musco start to get the infrastructure built out to support this new Lighting on the field we're recommending the $700,000 award with a
to be continued as to how and when we get the funding prepared to come back to you to expand the project to the girl softball field and when might you know about that expansion so I spoke to open space this evening uh at the county in light of the fact that I knew you were
going to ask me that question um and we we should know by mid October uh with regard to the Bergen County open space Grant and we should know in September or we should have a better idea in September where we are with the psng rebates and when would this actually start to go in when is work start um I
think in the fall you you would start to see infrastructure go into the ground the electrical panels some of the work that signal needs to do um I don't think you'll see lights start to be erected the new lights on the field in earli as spring spring but my request to you is
that we have a great deal of Permitting to do yes uh in regards to this and we have to get cooperation from psng um which is probably one of our greatest challenges we need a new service put in um and that recalls you
know us our quality uh electric who is our electric subcontractor on this project reaching out to psng making all of those arrangements in the meantime um we need to have um the final drawings
prepared from Land Associates the electrical drawings done and none of the professionals at this point will move forward until they have a contract you know we we have met three times on site
out of Goodwill and good nature on their end um but they want to know that we're serious going forward with this project so I'm certainly in favor of going forward although I share Paul's concerns about equity and just doing the right thing here so I would encourage you to obviously leaning on PSG leaning on the
um on the uh on the grants I know that there was some talk about private money coming from some of the sports groups we about to see if they would close the gap because while I am going to you know I'm supportive of authorizing going forward now I don't hold this up I would very much love that when we actually do put shovel on ground we have enough you know
funding secure to do all all the fields including the women's softball field understood yeah I agree question um I I am also a little disappointed that we can't get the women's softball field included here but it looks like you're
looking to the Future and uh I hope you continue to do that yeah I I I can tell you if if we are um looked upon favorably by Bergen County um we will likely have the amount needed between the capital investment that the council decided to make in the in the spring
plus the Grant and the rateable we just we just can't make that recommendation to you until we know that those other two things are in place so there there's real possibility that come November December we can come back to you to make this project whole we're just not in a position to do that now but we do want
to get the the the um work product started outside and and I Echo what Evan said that I'm not going to hold this up obviously um I I I would like to know what the plan is in 2025 in the event that you don't get
funding from the county if this if it is the absolute intent to include the other $258,000 in the capital budget of 2025 I I believe it's the director's first
priority we both have female Varsity athletes in our families you know how I stand on this so so in the event that in the event that um we don't get County funding this will this will I'm feeling optimistic sir I beg your pardon I said
I'm feeling very optimistic I mean part of the reason we put it together so you guys could be ready to say yes listen like I said I'm not I'm I'm not gonna hold it up and Keith to your to your comment that that absolutely
gender never entered into this if we look back in history gender never does and yet women have been left behind for a very very long time but it has nothing to do with gender so if if here if I
were to say you know what let's do the women's softball field and not include the men's baseball field okay how's anybody feel about that line would do it because it cost less
I'm just I'm just I'm just saying there's it's like gee that would certainly raise some eyebrows so I I I like I said I I'm not going to hold this up but I am going to look at this going
forward that this should absolutely be funded no later than the spring of 2025 let me just ask a question when we talked about this for the budget the 2024 we only talked really about the baseball field right it didn't even
include the soccer well the baseball and the soccer oh it did include the soccer okay all of all of the all of the soccer facilities will be lit okay and and by virtue of doing that you're essentially lighting the baseball field I think there's one I think there's one
additional poll that gives you full coverage no problem the next question is is does Bergen County offer this $200,000 Grant every year yes okay well so if we if we get some or all of it this year we could also apply next year
towards the phase two right I'm hopeful if this goes well with Bergen County that before the end of the year we'll be able to come back with a recommendation to light the varsity girl softball field I can't make that guarantee to you
understand but that is the goal okay and if you want to next year as part of capital to light the secondary Girls Softball field closer to Lynwood Avenue that may be a discussion for Capital if you want to take it that another field in that that can't may be a discussion
for Capital that must be a discussion for Capital that is the girls softball home field um that has played and and that that team has a um has a
historic uh run at that field and so um this is a team that requires equal treatment with the boys varsity team I think we're all in agreement either it either gets done this year with found money or it gets
done next year with budget all I'm saying yeah okay that's all I'm saying AG great thank you let's go all right thank you good night thank you okay circling back to um C1 uh we have a few um items here from the IT department uh
the first is to replace computer equipment for the village of Ridgewood and Ridgewood water which includes um the gis department at Ridgewood water uh this would allow for the latest upgrades to the Microsoft system uh in
order to remain compliant with all of our security policies that are in place through the Bergen GIF this is an expenditure not to exceed $137,600 have either been rendered unusable pass their useful life or have become
obsolete uh not to exceed is 28,0 31875 um and again the capital budget accounts are listed at the in the last paragraph of the resolution everybody good okay let's go okay we're jumping to number seven uh this is the acceptance
of a $75,000 Grant to the Ridgewood Department coming through the American Rescue plan uh specifically the fire firefighter grant program um need a resolution to accept this to be in compliance with the
grant everybody good okay congratulations to chief judge on his advocacy uh for securing the grant uh the next item is number 10 which is the revised proposal for the phase 2 archaeological survey at the shedler
property um we have gone through many Renditions of this proposal with Richard a grub Associates uh this plan needed to be submitted and approved by the state historic preservation office uh we received correspondence from Vincent
moresa who's our point of contact on archaeological issues down at shipo uh he has approved this scope of work uh the total not to exceed is 161 $1 161,50 uh this is for uh the phase 2 archaeological which is required by
shipo and I just want to make um a point that regardless of what the long-term plan is or becomes on the shedler property this Phase 2 archaeological needs to be completed regardless of what the proposal is today versus what it might be in the future um
especially in light of the Matrix uh presentation this evening uh so I just wanted to uh to point that out and this would be coming from that same Bond ordinance that I discussed with council member Reynolds earlier okay and we have enough money we do okay okay and this can be done simultaneously it can this
is this is a long process we're we're probably not going to to know the to have a full report on the phase 2 archaeological I would venture to say January at the earliest um there's an 8 to 12 week dig there's an 8 to 12 week analysis and then there's an 8 to 12
week um preparation of the report so this is this is going to take some time which is why I'd like to to get this underway and if it's happening simultaneous with any remediation that needs to be done at the property we can accommodate that okay so I just I want
to say something here because you know when the public watches this the total cost for the phase 2 archaeological dig is 161,50 so one of the things that has always been the struggle with shedler is that by declaring the house historic we
were eligible for historical grants but then the due diligence of maintaining this is also quite expensive I also want to say that um to Keith's point you know this when I took my seat the the things that were supposed to be done with the Declaration hadn't been done so
I'm proud of this Council for finally doing this and taking the steps and um it's just it's a lot of money and we have the $2.6 million house that still doesn't have an you know any future intended use and now we're going to spend this so we're compliant with shipo
but it had we not done this it it it should have been done when the house was declared it should have been done a long time ago so it's sort of cleaning it up but I do feel feel like cuz the cost of the project has been so sensitive that I just want to make sure the public understands that the second and final
hopefully final archaeological dig is $161,000 I am kind of shocked at the cost um but I look forward to seeing these artifacts I'm very curious what is it it's just frustrating as there was never any artifacts found
conducive with the Revolutionary War we have to do it so we're going to do it but it does feel like we're just throwing good money after bad because of some poor planning as as I often do I Echo Evans comments let's go okay item 11 um is a shared services agreement with the
burrow of Fair Lawn for our styrofoam intensifier so we'll add them to our roster of municipalities we work with uh to utilize that Machinery let's go okay um item D2 is the certificate of occupancy ordinance which has been
recommended by J John Barry our munic our village planner um and has the endorsement of our construction official um Anthony Marino um I don't know Matt if you want to add anything I know you worked with John on this ordinance we did and we did it through the ordinance
um committee group and uh in an effort particularly of this Council to try and make sure that we streamlined as best we could the process for businesses opening up and and for um keeping viability to our Central business district um the
first addition here is to chapter 190 section 97 which lists um a number of um exceptions to needing a certificate of occupancy and one of the things that we did not exempt over the years was a
change of tency uh there are a few towns left that still require a CO which is an application before board uh before the planning board when there is a change of tendency and um if there are no changes to the facade or the building itself and
it's just a tendency change and it's a permitted use that's coming in this change of uh tency is not going to require a certificate of occupancy anymore it's um um going to be able to get opened up and running um as quickly
as they can get the lease sign the second half of this deals with another exemption with which is um to section 1937 and again this also talks about exemptions from site plan approval and
um this after more consideration about how best to do this um it was it was considered uh that the alterations to the facade roof entrance and exit doors windows or other exterior components of an existing building which alterations
do not change a location or extent of the walls of the building will not need um site plan approval obviously this does not apply to any buildings that are in historic districts or are designated as historic because it's still going to need if if um certain conditions are met
it still might need review by the HBC but this is for exemption from site plan and again this is an effort to try and uh allow changes to occur a lot more smoothly quickly and and properly as long as it permitted uses it meets the criteria of the
Zone I just want to say that um I I'm very pleased that the working ordinance group has has come up with this because um for many decades um Ridgewood has been a central business district that many many people wouldn't come to
because there were there were so many regulations that delayed delayed delayed the opening of a new business and this this ordinance does not take away any of the safeguards of um that the Village
needs to ensure that a business is opened the right way with all the the safety requirements that we need it just makes it go faster um which uh at the end of the day that's what our Central
business district needs and and I'm so pleased to see that this is moving forward okay all right the next item under operations uh is item E1 I'm going turn that over to Heather to present the 20 2025 Village council meeting dates
okay so we have a couple of months where we do have to change the dates so um January 25 our reorganization meeting we're recommending be on January 6th which is a Monday um two years prior in
23 obviously was our first reorganization meeting in January and we tried to do the reorganization meeting along with a work session and it really just became really late and really long so the recommendation is to make the reorganization meeting on the 6th and
then our Public Work session on the 8th obviously the first Wednesday of the month is the 1 so we wouldn't meet then um and then in February um we do need to change the public meeting to the Monday because the 12th is a holiday um and
then in addition on in October October 1st is the first Wednesday of the month and that's the first night of yam kapor so we are recommending again changing it to the Monday and this is for a work session uh Monday September 29th um I'm
also requesting that um The Village Council chat dates be March 22nd May 3rd and October 4th and the coffee with the council date is September 6th which is traditionally the Saturday after Labor
Day so um you know we we did have um um three times that we did Council chat this year and it looks like you know people did attend and so as long as the council members are willing to commit to
um be there we certainly will hold them again and this helps us the reason why we do this at this point is basically for the calendar so we can get that up and going so as long as everyone's okay with those change in dates we'll move forward with
them I assume you checked Passover dates yeah it doesn't conflict at all yes everybody good let's go okay that's what we'll do okay um the next issue is the authorization of the settlement agreement with enq which was discussed
prior in uh closed session we're good with a resolution for that for next week we talked about the taxi stand uh next is Declaration of surplus equipment uh from it this is a resolution to dispose of equipment uh from the IT
department rendered unusable past its life or obsolete uh there is an extensive list uh two pages worth of those items and Dylan is Seeking a resolution for next week next is a declaration of surplus property request from Sean Hamlin our
recycling coordinator supervisor of solid waste uh this is to declare the Surplus truck sw27 3 a surplus property the vehicle has reached the point that additional repairs are not worth the overall value and the vehicle has major
engine issues multiple oil leaks and a rusted flame rusted frame excuse me um so he's looking to declare that Surplus good and finally uh we're looking for an endorsement for a community block development Block Grant
application for 130 Prospect Street uh this is a request from Sher in um and this would allow for the labor materials and cleanup of masonary debris for the removal and replacement of the front patio the application amount for
endorsement is $1,600 good and that concludes my portion of the agenda mayor thank you very much Keith and let's go back to public comment all right hey elain D Bliss lebenson 41 Clinton Avenue I our daughter goes goes back to school on Friday to college
Steve and I are giving you our night this is how important this is to us and I'm going to cry and I'm sorry I'm going to beg you to shift your thinking on Clinton Avenue the dot has given you a gift they have told you there's this amazing ordinance exactly for the purpose of Clinton Avenue that
it is Clinton Avenue it allows for through traffic restriction for Ingress and egress to school that accomplishes discouraging parents from driving their kids to school and creating safer conditions for kids to
walk this is an amazing gift it is not in a legal ordinance at most we're talking about a potential potential conflict you all have come tonight to the Assumption the AG is going to tell you it is illegal
it is a conflict you can Advocate and that would be amazing I'll help you draft the letter you can Advocate to the attorney general you can say the commissioner of the Department of Transportation has told us this statute
applies right here for this very purpose I'm I I I am here for you I would support the village I will take my own pen out and help Mr Rogers you can advocate for it if you go to the AG and you ask for a thumbs up thumbs down is there a rule that doesn't allow for
distinguishing classes you know what they're going to tell you oh yeah there's a rule if you explain and you provide context and you say the Department of Transportation has this perfect statute on point that protects our kids and discourages parents from driving that is a gift so I'm going to
beg you here's what's going to happen and others have said I'm going to say it again cars are going to stop at the stop sign at the top of Clinton while kids bail out they're going to bail on the east side because parents want to avoid the red zone at Ridge the red zone at Ridge tried to implement a second lane
they had to discontinue it because no one would follow the rules at Mal Avenue Ridge parents got kicked off because no one would follow the rules I can tell you what the top of Clinton is going to look like and I'm going to beg you to rethink it and make the argument to the attorney general if that's what you have
to do an alternative is a oneway restriction close the East Side you've taken care of multiple birds with that one stone just like in the Willard District close the east side of Clinton Avenue and you still have one side going through that means there's no sidewalk
but now my middle schooler can get in and out to George Washington Middle School right and have a place to walk and you've given Daniel a place to walk as well and everybody on the east side because right now if you open this street there is no way to walk up
Clinton Avenue no one can walk to Ridge from Clinton Avenue on the east side my daughter from GW asked me Mom how should I walk home I have no idea traffic's going to be going like this it's going to be Bonkers again Rich parents have gotten kicked off of Maltby I'm going to
beg you to rethink this and make the pitch to the attorney general there's no rush there is no rush nobody is suing you over this it's never happened there's no rush cool it leave it and if it does get if the AG comes in and say
there's no way we can live with this then one way is the the way to go close that one side of the street for the same hours just like we do at Willard thank you all I really appreciate your thoughtfulness thank you Elaine anyone else from the
audience let's go to our hybrid access Susan you're up Susan you're still on mute hi hi can you hear me now we can all right hi um Susan land 705 kanbridge
Lane um just to piggy back off of what Elena just said um I do believe Clinton should be one way if um if all else because my son did go to Ridge school at the arise program and I know that that
area um I used to volunteer also at the r red program um Red Zone and it is really Susan could you speak a little more clearly we're having a little trouble understanding you uh perhaps uh put phone closer to your mouth let me take you off Bluetooth hold
on uh hi can you hear me better now much better thank you okay yes hi um and so I do believe the red zone atage is exceptionally difficult C I used to volunteer there so I would hope that
there is some compromises to be found for that um and that was just an offshoot from what Elena just said but I do want to go through my other points um I want to begin by sh um
thanking Siobhan for her efforts to include pullover properly and access Ridgewood I also want to thank the Ridgewood police for addressing the um for the access to the steps program yes
my son to attend steps and that was something that needed to be done um I want to follow up on Jackie holm's comments about the burn um which is is it going to be
replaced um with a new burn or a barrier um uh Susan we're losing you again can you hear me now much better okay um so the new bur the burm right now is vital it helps protect us um from
it's a safety concern for accidents it also helps reduce noise and pollution from the highway when an estimate is sent out to remove the burn will it also include getting an estimate to establish
a new burn or or put up a barrier wall that that question is for Keith um the next is most of these questions are for ke um the next is West Saddle River Road it is absolutely necessary to
have West Saddle River Road repaved before school begins way before Monroe and as Keith mentioned whoever is in is in and whoever is out is out if west side of river road is repaved after mon Row in after August in September where
are school where School children supposed to go there is only one main artery to all those dead end streets the buses use it the um transportation how are parents going to get their kids to school and is
Bridgewood Village count Hall going to pay for families to stay in hotels because they have no other way of accessing their kids to school I I mean I just can't believe that um all right as to follow up for the
um the um village council member Reynold's comments on Kingsbridge Lane I was waiting for the village engineer to discuss the redesign of the Footbridge as well as the timeline for its completion nothing was discussed can
Keith elaborate on what is the changes to the Footbridge and what is the timeline for its completion and as to follow up for the mayor's comments about the girl softball f field my girl my daughter played softball yes the girl
softball field is an afterthought in comparison to the boys and yes it is vital to put the in all fairness lights there because it is dismal the go softball field um and that's pretty much it thank you thank you
Susan Cynthia you're up you're still on mute Cynthia okay well I only just saw the unmute button thank you um Cynthia o 542 West sadle River Road I just wanted to make a few comments based on um you know some of
the items that we discussed tonight um first and foremost um when we talk about shedler shedler was purchased for passive and active Ive Recreation not just a giant Sports field so to correct
um one or more Council persons talking about the field it was for the East Side residents for passive and active Recreation not a giant Sports field so let's get that straight okay I don't
want to hear this again and I don't want any gaslighting or re um whatever his stous revision um nonsense that is continues to go on that needs to stop um passive and active Recreation right now
it is a giant field with a house and there is very little passive Recreation if I look at the plan which is not done to scale I don't even see a walking path so let's be clear on that um as for
cutting down and justifying um you know invasive trees then we would do that throughout the entire Village right uh you know this is a ridiculous justification I believe Ellie Gruber has
asked you numerous times how many trees and the last count I heard wasn't that far off from Miss Reynolds which was she said 280 it's 220 that was my last count the fact that you are planning to um
plant new growth and new trees and little bushes between the house and the um the field that's wonderful however that won't soak up the amount of water that um ends up on that property during
a a large rainstorm so let's be clear on that because I don't think you're over here looking at the property after it's rained okay so um when you get that number whoever it is Shaban or anyone else you can provide it to Ellie and to the rest of the residents who have asked
new numerous times about that um as for the um you know the um archaeological survey um that's wonderful yes it sounds expensive obviously that's not something you can
blame on the residents that's being mandated by shipo and and the njdep um I have not heard anything on the wetlands assessment that we were paying over $10,000 for to Suburban engineering um and so those are a few questions that I
have that are still outstanding in terms of um you know what's happening at shedler and the timeline um and that's really all I had to say so thank you very much oh and I do have one more thing I do want to um my heart goes out to the woman who spoke about Clinton
Street and her child and the safety and um let's not say we care and that Ridgewood cares um we have to show so it's walk in the talk action speak speak louder than words and we we need to connect with all of these people all of
the residents to let them know that we actually understand where they're coming from and you know we don't have that tone deaf you know we hear you we we do care but we're you know not really showing you how we care let's just make sure we walk the talk that's where the
rubber hits the road thank you thank you cythia Ruck you're up yeah roic H 50 one Franklin Avenue and and Ridgewood uh
regretfully I joined the meeting late just as uh Keith had mentioned if IE understood him correctly that the burm could be torn down well if my understanding is correct then I tell you
as far as Ric halib is concerned Christmas is in August I mean I have been fighting the burm for years and years and years it is a horrible horrible horrible thing that we that the
The Village the previous administration had done it's a slap in the face for the neighborhood and uh and and that is fantastic news now along with taring down the BM you should get out of get from under the Yoke of
shipo somehow find money to pay them off and then along with tearing down the BM tear down the stupid house the house is ridiculous I mean it's what a terrible terrible waste it's time for you people
to start looking at shedler 2.0 a plan that future Generations would look back and be proud of what you had done including yes a full siiz field we
need a full-sized field as quickly as we can now one of the commenters talked about passive and and and and and and active yes the active would be the fullsize field the passive could be what
the Conservancy had suggested about eight years ago of putting together an algorithm of of native trees that people can come and get educated on what to do there are so many good things that you could you guys could do so I urge you
think of shedler 2.0 now as far as the water wells that's a red hering and I'm fed up with listening about water wells being poison if you have a water well you're you're being ridiculous by depending on a water well
in Rood for water to drink if I had a water well I would talk to B Brun I would talk to Rich calby about getting together and getting hooked up to the Rood
water 50 years ago when we moved into Ridgewood we did not have sewers and you know something The Village connected us connected us to the sewers and and the cost to us was minimal okay so just get it done and
frankly Keith I think you should go to the County Board of Health and required people to connect to uh to the uh to to r with water lastly the trees another red heading I mean these are all
third fourth growth trees you know I mean when Parts get developed Parts get retree I mean there's nothing big big deal about cutting trees and this idea oh my God you can't cut down a tree so
in summary think of shadler 2.0 and I'll be writing it up because T tearing down the BM tearing down the house and converting the park into something we could be proud of for Generations would would really reflect so well on you
thank you very much thank you ruic Leo you're up hi good evening can you hear me we can hi good evening Leo Ruan 705 Kingsbridge Lane hi I just want to uh
ask um just pose one or two questions um on west side of river road just uh hoping that that can be really completed soon it's it's really difficult to drive on and we've seen most of Ridgewood has been repaved and we're just waiting for that to
happen um I've also got another question in regard to the foot Bridge um I've seen some people out here in May or June but nothing seems to have happened um just waiting on now I'm hearing there's
some redesign of the bridge going to happen do we know what what type of bridge they're going to redesign it to be nice to know but uh obviously I just want that bridge repaired or fixed it's been several years now so if we if
we can get that done um in Rich of the previous caller on shedler I mean the people who actually live here on the east side of would uh want an an active and passive part uh you know right now it's shedler
01 it's not even shedler 10 because we don't have anything on it so far so he's talking about shedler 2 let let's do what was originally asked for planned for and agreed agreed to by all the uh the uh Community here on this
side of Leo if you could speak a little more clearly or closer to the phone we can't quite understand everything you're saying oh sorry um yeah no Ju Just on shedler just want to some car was making the point of shedler 2.0 it's it's not even shedler 1.0 it's
point it's shedler .01 we there's still nothing to to do there and for the last 10 years there's been nothing to do there uh can we just have what we asked for small soccer pitch with um the a walkway and parks
for the kids uh you know that's really what we want this endless endless delay and now we're talking 2.0 let's just get something done on it that that's really the points that I want to make tonight thank you for your time thank you
Leo and with that I'm going to close public comment does anyone wish to respond to any of the I do I do um first with regard to both Susan and Leo with regard to West Saddle River Road as I said earlier in the meeting our contractor has not mobilized to pave
streets we are still in the process of doing concrete work um we don't have a schedule for Paving because quite frankly with the unpredictability of the weather it's impacted the sidewalk and the curb projects and those need to be done prior to us Paving so there is a
possibility that it will go into the school year I'm not going to deny that if it is obviously the engineering department will schedule the paving around people getting access to leave their homes both for work and for school um this is not the engineering Department's first rodeo with doing
Paving jobs obviously West Saddle River is unique because it is there is only one way in and one way out but that has already started to be planned for by the engineering department uh with regard to Leo's comments on the foot bridge I did not say that the design of the repairs
of the foot Bridge were being changed I said that Chris rudis Houser our village engineer was discussing with the bridge engineer the possibility of modifying the bid specifications because obviously we did have two biders who were outside of the budget and one who for fa who
failed to properly submit the paperwork with regard to their bonding so we're trying to Shore that up so we don't have that instance occur again with regard to miss o'keef um obviously if the burm is removed and a park is developed at the
shedler property the engineers will need to make a determination as to what best buff offers the highway from the Park area um this is not the only Park along Route 17 or other major highways throughout New Jersey um I know
sometimes we like to think that we're unique in Ridgewood but in fact if you drive around we're we're not um and we will be talking to our Consulting engineer and our Ridgewood um our village engineering department about what the best design would be I will say
that if the burm is removed you know we are likely going to have to go back and revisit the plan for the park because it's going to change the layout and design of what exists today now how dramatic that needs to be we are very
much in the infancy of dealing with this remediation process um as a matter of fact I don't even think we're into the remediation process yet because as you heard tonight we don't know what the remediation is going to be on the balance of the property um but I will
tell you you know this is is a consequence um of this D action that was taken um granted we're here to fix the sins of the past and this fill was brought here it was done under a prior
Administration we now need to correct these D exceed exceedances and I have every faith and confidence in Matrix New World engineering they have been nothing but professional they have nothing been been nothing but forthright with myself and with the Village Council now at two
meetings um and we are going to follow their directives and the D's directives and how that changes the um the topography and the design at what happens at shedler that's that's an open question right now that we're going to need to answer as we plug through this
process um with regard to um the wetlands delineation I did email um Suburban engineering earlier this week to get a status on that I do not have the report as of yet um there is some D back and forth that Village engineering
has to do with regard uh to the wetlands delineation study we actually have to pay a permit fee um so that process is underway and then we'll have the final report uh from Suburban engineering and that would be shared with the council and with the public um with regard to
Clinton Avenue uh to miss O'Keefe um I will tell you that I I do resent any implication um that there is a lack of empathy uh for the family on Clinton Avenue that was here tonight um I can tell you that there have been multiple Communications
um trying to Abate some of those issues as Mr Rogers indicated uh there's litigation there so I can't speak more than that um but I will tell you this um you know being empathetic and trying to accommodate folks when they have a
challenge um is something that we do every day um in a lot of ways we go out of our way but what we can't have is a police chief not following the chief law enforcement officer in the state of New
Jersey who is the attorney general and having our police chief not follow his or her directives um the chief like every other police officer in New Jersey is now licensed like a doctor like an attorney like a teacher okay um he's a
licensed professional in the state of New Jersey now he has always had an obligation as a police officer and now as our police chief to follow the Attorney General's guidelines and he needs to continue to do that and I will back him each and every day in that endeavor which is why we're asking for a
clear direction from the AG as to this issue on Clinton Avenue but to interpret getting proper legal advice from the chief law enforcement agency in the state interpreting that as being having a lack of empathy we're not caring about
this family I resent that yeah Keith and that was actually where I was going as well and to my friend Cynthia I really thought that was unfair um you know to Keith's Point um we can't Grant the relief that's being asked because we have a police chief that is telling us it would violate the law to do so we
have Council telling us that the ordinance is not enforcable as it's currently written while I want to help the family and we all want to do the right thing we all took an oath when we took this job not to break the law essentially um so we're going to continue to look at the issue we're going to continue to work with the
residents I applaud Lorraine I know you were involved Paul for numerous meetings with the Clinton um you know with the Clinton Avenue uh neighbors um but to say somehow that we don't care is not I just don't think it's appropriate I don't think it's right and I don't think it's fair um also Cynthia I do take
disagreement with factual assertions around when the shedler field was bought I know Paul has read the minutes into uh from back in 2005 when may yeah when mayor fund sitting at this de I think probably that same exact seat uh got up and said explicitly very clearly with no
ambiguity that that property was being bought for the purpose of a 90 foot baseball diamond a full-size field there really is no doubt on this and while Cynthia there are lots of things that reasonable people can disagree with uh when it comes to shedler rewriting history is not one of them and I want to
be very clear this this property was always meant to be a fullsize field and that's one of the reasons why I support it and I really don't think it's fair to try to change history or confuse folks who don't know the facts as well as people like yourself and people like the people on this St I I'd also like to add
a couple things um so in the statement about shedler um I want to Echo what Evan said but there was a statement that shedler was purchased for the east side of Ridgewood and nothing could be further from the truth shedler was purchased for the community with Community dollars every with a dedicated
tax that this entire Council and the whole entire Community pays for it was never none of our parks are earmarked for a specific area and beyond that we took money from Bergen County Fair all the taxpayers of Bergen County helped pay for shler was not purchased for the East Side residents of the shedler
neighborhood it was purchased for the community and again every plan has included passive and active Recreation and I'll do you one better the current plan does have a walking path and we can't get any more passive than the house it's at this point dormant and
that accounts for a lot of land so the the balance of passive and active is in the plan I understand and hear people that they disagree with the field but we do have a walking path we do have a playground we have a rain garden and we have passive elements in the existing plan with respect to invasive trees this
council is taking the approach to trees very aggressively both Pam and Lorraine have asked for the new ordinance that's forthcoming regarding trees to detail and delineate our approach to invasives and they are part of our tree management and our canopy so it's not a shedler
issue it's more of how we're dealing with it um with respect to access I too took that um personally I don't want to talk about Clinton I want to talk about the good work that this Council has done for families like mine um I think for a long time part of my platform was to
incorporate and layer the access community in to the Greater Community and we've done many things the first access dinner that I had our two Clinton Avenue negotiators Paul and Lorraine showed up they've participated with all the families everyone at this Council
has been inclusive and welcoming to every idea that I've presented from our access community and I think that that is very important for this Council to hear the public to hear and for people who are looking at Ridgewood know that a disproportionate amount of our Schoolboard budget and Public Funding
goes to special needs so we are walking the walk and we are talking the talk and I think that outside of Clinton I just want to say thank you to this Council for every idea that we've ever had whether it's from Downs to the logo to the inclusivity dinners you guys have all come from a place of yes and I
really just wanted to end that on that positive thank you note to this Council for actually walking the walk and in full disclosure at the work session in September uh there is an inquiry from the Bergen County Historical Society about potentially using uh the shedler
house uh so that will be something that we'll be we will be talking about after Labor Day great anybody else let's call it a night oh ex I have a close session resolution resolved by The Village Council of Village of Ridgewood at the Village council meeting
Clos session on August 7th 2024 at 7:30 p.m. or soon thereafter as a matter on the agenda can be reached and the set close session will be held in the caucus room of the Ridgewood Village Hall 131 North Maple Avenue rwood New Jersey be further resolved that the matters to be discussed in Clos session limited to
legal matters to include Clinton Avenue lawsuit this matter is allowable under njsa 10 col 4-12 at SEC be a further resolve that the minutes of this meeting shall be made available to the general public when such matters have been deemed completed by resolution of the Village Council may I have a motion so
moved second all in favor I anyone opposed thank you e