good evening this is the Village Council public Workshop the date is July 10th 2024 the time is 7:30 adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by a posting on the bulletin board in Village Hall by mail to the Ridgewood news the
record and by submission to all persons entitled the same as provided by law of a schedule including the date and time time of this meeting roll call Deputy Mayor parin here council member Reynolds here council member Whit is absent
council member Winograd here mayor vaganos here will you all please join us in a salute to our flag iedge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for
stands one nation under God indivisible liy andice for and before we begin I just like to say that uh out of an abundance of caution uh line has stayed home because she may have been exposed to covid and so uh she
is participating remotely and now we will go to public comments and now we will go to public comments one up yeah press over here we moved
it just make sure the green lights on when you get to the mic at the bottom there'll be a a green light on if it's on like the base of the microphone all the way down at the bottom Dylan he's got it got it hello perfect
Russell fenza 228 em at Place R New Jersey 07451 128 3281 I don't like coming to meetings so obviously I'm here I mentioned this a few times that I did mention to some of you individually but I'll just go over
briefly what do we have three minutes um number one is street signs when we're putting up street signs now and we've been doing this for years I know on my block it had to be at least 20 years now we just got one sign up we don't put the cross street there we should go back to putting the two signs
up it's very helpful for people especially out of town is when they're coming out there what the hell street am I on they don't know let's go back with that number two the shredder I brought that up a few times let's get a shredder in town put it in the recycling center we're closed on Wednesdays we can let
other towns come in on a Wednesday open it up I know we can make money on it we can let businesses come in on a Wednesday when we're closed we can make money on this it'll pay for itself let's get an in-house Shredder I don't believe any other towns have it I'm not 100%
sure on that but I know we go outside to buy and so the companies go outside but if they know every Wednesday they can come to Ridge with the shred I think it'll pay for itself the other thing I mentioned is the pave the recycling lot uh that lot is always got holes in it they're always patching it up uh
everybody goes in there you got to bump along with it let's Wednesday's a good day to if it may take longer than that I don't know how many days it'll take but at least a Wednesday when it's closed you can go in and do whatever you got to do and get that done uh next is and I see it's on the agenda tonight uh
Ridgewood water but let's fix the water problem I moved here in 51 with my parents when I was 7 years old uh in September 51 so from 1952 on we've always had a water shortage in fact we had to do our own private Wells so we could have water to water our Lawns it
goes back that far and it never ended it's still here and continues with us to this day so let's figure out something if we got to buy water from hackin saac it's United Water whoever they are now the French name or whoever they are let's get water I know we use hathor water too how does Focus to it I mean I
don't know where they get their water from but they're very small town and they seem to have plenty of water all the time the next thing is a and since I got some time if uh the governor or the president decide to send illegals to
Ridgewood I heard rumor to that effect where would we put them now I know we got Valley Hospital over there would that be a Valley Health Center rather or the Ridgewood Campus of Valley Health is over there and I'm sure that's a building could be used or do we use our schools we put them in our schools and I
know we would have to fund it so where would the money come from and how would we fund this if we had to do this is anybody given thought to that and what's the consequences of that if if Murphy or the president decide hey we're just going to send them to ridgwood New Jersey they got an empty building over there can fit a couple hundred people in
there they got a school system that they rent out over on Glenn school on the other side of the highway they they can take that back and we can use that school and they kick those people out as tenants and we can use that as a put all these illegal people I call them illegal you can call them whatever you want uh these are serious issues I don't
know if you think about it maybe you don't even think about it maybe it doesn't come to your mind it always comes to my mind when things like this occur because I know eventually down the road you're going to get stuck with it because on the national level they can't seem to do it or handle a problem thank you so much and have a nice evening everybody thank you
Russ anybody else seeing no one I'm going to close public comment would anyone like to comment M on Russ's recommendations uh mayor just a few comments uh to Mr fenza he and I actually had a lengthy conversation at the Memorial Day service about some of
the issues he brought up tonight um we have had some internal conversation about placing a shredder at the recycling center no decisions been made uh We've also talked internally about the um Paving of the lot at the recycling center and whether we incorporate that into our Paving program for capital in
2025 um as far as the purchase of water uh we do purchase water from violia hathorne burrow and from pic Valley Water Commission um however the distribution of that water within our system is needs to be our next Focus so
the council ear earlier this year uh approved a contract to do some hydraulic modeling uh to determine what the best course of action is to move water that we do purchase from outside vendors and within our well system um from Tower to Tower within the Ridgewood water system
so that is to be an area of priority now that we're closing up in the next two years on the posos treatment facilities um and that will be a focus and lastly um on undocumented uh folks coming to the Village the mayor and I actually had an extensive conference call right
around New Year with the governor's office uh we do have an action plan and Direction um it involves direction from the state police and from State OEM uh that if we do have folks who are brought to Ridgewood or are reliant on our transportation system in or out of
Ridgewood we do have protocols that we will follow which are outlined by the state police um I also do appreciate having uh street signs with the cross streets on them and uh I have not heard that we
have stopped doing that if that's a new policy I'd like to know about it I'll I'll check with Rich Charlton at signal to see exactly how we've been handling that thank you yeah I have to say Russ I really liked your recommendations um I I feel the same way that Pam does about
the street signs I don't know what the cost is I don't know how many we need to put up but I'd certainly like to find out um the shredder I I it reminds me of uh the uif yeah the the styrofoam densifier um and I I'd love to see the arithmetic on that I'm sure that um if
you toss that over Sean Hamlin's way he he'll he'll jump on that and obviously you know Paving the recycling lot and Heth spoke about the other things but thanks for those very good suggestions and let's move on what are we doing manager report
manager report manager report um first of all mayor I would just like to um extend a lot of thanks uh to the Ridgewood Community uh today marks my one-year anniversary as Village manager here at Ridgewood um I have to tell you that I've had the awesome opportunity uh
to meet some great people uh sharing the successes of this municipality um and also face some significant challenges that we continue to work through um without question Ridgewood is a very special place with a lot of community engagement um vast resources a lot of
Pride and a lot of tradition and um I want to thank the staff here at Village Hall and all of our village employees uh for working with my office um to continue to get the job done and best serve the residents here in the village and I look forward to tackling the challenges as we enter into year two um
I also want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the 4th of July committee uh for an outstanding job both with the parade and the fireworks um truly Ridgewood outdoes themselves each and every fourth of July and that was certainly on display last week um next
Thursday uh we will have an exciting announcement in conjunction uh with d commissioner sha lerette uh with r wood water uh so we're looking forward to that um but as we know Ridgewood water has been a leader um when it comes to water quality and building out our posos
treatment facilities and we'll have an exciting announcement to share with the residents and the customers in the service area next week uh the mayor and I had the opportunity with Chris ruteshouser to meet with County engineering and the County Administrator Tom Dutch yesterday um at One Bergen
County Plaza with regard to the West Glen sidewalk project um I know I've received a few emails from the residents on West Glenn um we are currently in the process of evaluating the best way to do this project and the safest way to do
this project um in coordination with the county uh the county does have some concerns about adding retaining walls in the county Right Way um on the eastbound side of the street and we are in discussion right now with the D of the possibility of adding those con uh
sidewalks to the westbound side of the stre so more to come on that um as we work with the D to seek those approvals I want to thank the Ridgewood Police Department for an outstanding junior Police Academy I had the opportunity uh to attend their graduation recently um I
have to tell you the police officers who work with these kids they take them on field trips they treat they teach them about law enforcement and the importance of Public Safety and police work um and I just want to give kudos to Chief lions and his team in the police department for an outstanding program little tidbit
on um where we are with Millennium strategies and our pursu pursuance of grants in the village um we were earlier this year awarded a $68,000 grant uh for an ADA accessible playground at Hackle
Park um but I think it's of it should be noted that our grant applications that have already been submitted um for consideration to various government a agencies and other Grant programs now
totals over $4.7 million in pending applications that we're waiting to hear back on and we are currently in the Pro in progress of submitting another $475,000 in pending Grant applications
so all told um we will have well over $5 million um in pending Grant applications by Labor day of this year so we're working hard with millennium um our department directors are identifying areas that we can pursue these grants um and we're looking forward to some
positive results in that space um I want to thank the residents for their cooperation with regard to early morning collections um obviously the heat has been very oppressive of late and um we appreciate the residents cooperation and trying to keep our employees safe as we
try to get through these various heat waves uh the Ridgewood police department has placed advertisements out for class three special police officers uh we are in the process of identifying eligible candidates to take on those roles that will be assigned to the Ridgewood Public
Schools come September uh so we're working closely with uh Dr Schwarz at the uh Bridgewood public schools and chief Lions um to interview these potential employees over the summer months so that we have them in place after Labor Day uh looking forward to
the announcement of box car opening at the Ridgewood train station uh for light Refreshments in the morning to service our commuters uh they'll be working with local businesses to buy those Refreshments um and then be able to provide them um under the box car Banner at the train station so look we're
looking forward to the grand opening of that um in the next month or so um I do want to extend um some acknowledgement uh to Mitchell sarrow who is a native of Bridgewood and will be joining Team USA
he actually leaves tomorrow uh he will be participating in the Summer Olympics in in Paris in the men's fencing um sporting events so we look forward to Mitchell's um participation in the Summer Olympics and we wish him much
success found out uh late this afternoon uh that we will not have to send out estimated tax bills we received the rate from Bergen County um Tax Board late this afternoon uh that'll be about a $5,000 savings doing one mailing instead
of two um and by the end of this month the regular tax bills should be in the mailboxes of residents throughout Ridgewood um and lastly uh tomorrow parts of East Glenn Avenue will be closed uh due to resurfacing efforts and concrete work um we've coordinated with
engineering and the police department uh we've put that information out to the public uh this evening um so we're asking people to just be patient with us it's one day of uh of disruption tomorrow uh but we're hoping that everyone will take a little extra time follow the detours and we appreciate
everyone's patience as we make a long-term Improvement in that space a few announcements the Ridgewood Guild is continuing to provide their live music downtown on Friday nights through Labor Day music in the park sponsored by destination Ridgewood is happening on
Saturday evenings from 7:30 to 9:30 at vanis Square uh the cash shell concerts begin at 8:30 each Tuesday and Thursday night through the end of August the Ridgewood Guild free movies in the park commence on Wednesday night at 900 pm at
vaness Square Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce is holding their Farmers Market through October 29th 8:30 a.m. to 2: pm. each Sunday at the train station on the West Side the Ridgewood Guild uh art and the park taking place the first Friday in
August from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. uh Gren pool is now open daily from 11: a.m. to 700 p.m. and every day I look out my window in my office I have a beautiful full view of Gren pool and I can tell you with the uh with the temperatures being what they are uh the pool's been
packed over the last couple of weeks and finally Village Council meetings upcoming Janu uh July 17th public meeting at 7:30 August 7th work session at 7:30 and August 14th public meeting at 7:30 and that conclud concludes my
report mayor thanks Keith uh sioban sure um I have a couple quick updates um so last week we met with four of our interns who are working on a Parks inventory assessment um this is in conjunction with Pam and the parks
department in open space working the master plan and I want to thank our interns I want to thank um Jim Bosler from open space Frank from Parks mer and we are beginning to work um what we want our parks to look like online and so the
general idea is I'm new to town I want to go to a place that has a play structure and a walking path and do they have these amenities and that'll be for the website but it'll also be when we have a catalog of all of our amenities in a readable form a touchstone for us
for budgeting you know does it need this should it have that that's where the recommendations come so next um Wednesday on July 17th our interns will be back they will be presenting here um so I hope everyone's very excited about that and next week very nice to them
when they show up thank you to everybody on that um also with Lorraine's permission I've met with a couple citizens and she's been meeting as well and we've been having some ongoing discussions about pedestrian activated crosswalks um and a more holistic
approach to crosswalks in general so I want to thank everybody who reached out to both me and Lorraine and I think several other council members but we are going to be gathering information not only on The Pedestrian activated but some ways to enhance crosswalks obviously you know just a little bit of
information longer the crosswalk the more dangerous it is so um I want to thank Keith and the police for providing us information and thank you Lorraine it's always fun wherever you are out there and so um additionally um uh last
week we talked about the joyo uh field trip and there was an expression from access to look inside the shedler house because it is available space and they want to see it through the access lens so on July 17th we will be taking a field trip with our access um group to
look at it from possible improvements some ideas that they have for accessibility the special needs population is constantly looking for space they um you know joyu is in the buer building and this is a great idea so I'm very much excited and if one of
you wants to come from the council only one of you can come I'd love for you to be a part of that it's on July 17th and then um we are having a housekeeping meeting for parks and wreck and I just wanted to announce this because we typically don't meet over the summer but
we want to make sure we've had um large meetings with lots of minutes we want to do a cleanup move all our minutes and that meeting will be on July 17th it'll be on zoom and it's published and we really don't have an agenda other than housekeeping and making sure that we're
all set and everything is published and lastly even though you announced it I did want to wish Keith a happy anniversary and say thank you for a wonderful year um even the bad things were very well dealt with and I'm very excited you're here and happy anniversary thank you
sioban Lorraine hello can you hear me yep okay so I don't have too much I just want to piggy back with what sioban said in August we will be talking about crosswalks and pedestrian activated signals we're
getting some information and hopefully by our August work session we'll have a lot to talk about um I wanted to remind everybody cash R shell Tuesdays and Thursday nights at 8:30 in July and August you should go there I know it's
been really hot but uh the bands are great and let's see my last thing last but not least is you know congratulations to Keith on Surviving a year at the Village as Village manager it's not easy as I'm sure he will tell
you but I think he's done a fantastic job and I look forward to the future and everything he's laying the groundwork for now and hopefully we'll come to fruition in the next year so and that's it thank you lorine thanks lorine Pam
thank you um I missed the last meeting so I kind of have a lot of uh catching up to do with updates I certainly want to thank Keith for this past year and I hope we have many more going forward thank you um also the July 4th
celebrations were just such a slice of Americana it was a total pleasure all day long um my cheeks hurt from smiling um and so I want to thank Tara Masterson um and Lee gilsen and saltiel
and their many volunteers all the sponsors of the the events um it it was really just wonderful no wonder we had so many people from out of town coming um okay the central business district
advisory committee met in June uh we discussed marketing the downtown beautification of the downtown uh how the new blade sign ordinance will work out um possible refurbishment of the bus
station also possible Transit Village status especially this we didn't discuss this then because it hadn't happened yet but you've probably seen in the newspapers that the Gateway tunnel project is going forward that can really
mean a lot for Ridgewood um so that that plays into Transit Village status if we wanted to pursue that um and speaking of beautification I also wanted to thank the shade tree commission for mulching
downtown you'll see that the trees are really leafing out beautifully the ones we planted what uh two years ago year and a half ago they don't look so scrawny anymore um and let's see uh and the gator bags
are filled so they're getting water which is so important during this heat wve uh the open space committee um we had a Park walk of Looney Park and maple field the last week of June and that was Bob lasy one of our members who gave
that one that was really fun the next one is this Saturday July 13th at 10:00 a.m on uh as I say Saturday our chair Jim Bosler will be giving the Walk of Grove Park that's our big biggest park
in Ridgewood and um you'll if you're driving you need to park on birkshire Road in The Lawns and then walk on Grove Street to the trail head you'll see everybody congregating there uh and then
after that there's a July 27th parkwalk uh at Gren so we'll we'll be meeting at the bridge at 10:00 a.m. Fran BTO who is our Le who's our member from the planning board will be giving that
Park walk this morning I had the pleasure of swearing in the new directors of the Chamber of Commerce and they're just such an active group um they're always improving what goes on in our business
community so it was it was really nice to have that privilege and as as uh Keith mentioned there will be the sidewalk sales that's going to be August 1st through 3rd the Super Saturday is
August 3rd and they're going to have all kinds of events and things great stuff for kids uh so take advantage of that um as Keith also mentioned movies in the park that's the guild is putting that on tonight is Barbie that's what we're
missing um and green Ridgewood and green team will be meeting tomorrow night in the SC senior Lounge that's all I have thank you thanks Pam um I don't have much I I do want to comment on Fourth of
July um This was um the biggest turnout at the parade um certainly since covid and and uh from what I am told in recent memory um it was also um while tickets are still being counted um these were
the best sales of tickets for the 4th of July since covid um and also in recent memor so we had a really big turnout so you know huge kudos to um legal senon uh Taran Masterson and the entire Fourth of
July committee I mean these guys are going all day and um you know here's the thing they begin planning on July 5th for next year so um it was really uh just it's such a privilege to live here
um this um my youngest daughter who's now in her 30s has always said look I'll spend I'll spend different holidays in different places but on the 4th of July I want to be in Ridgewood um and that's why so it's really great um and the only other thing I want to comment on is I want to
thank Keith for joining our little Merry band of renown because um he's helped change the game here and uh I don't I think that you know while while this Council can be divided on different issues this is something we're all
unanimous about we are grateful that you are here um we appreciate your leadership we appreciate your Stern hand on the wheel um on every issue and what seems to be your Limitless patience with
all of us so thank you so much Keith and and as Pam said we wish you many more years here thank you it's a pleasure to work here and now let's get on with the rest I just have um two announcements by all means um so the first is and this
has been on social media and various places on our website as well the um candidates who may people who wa may wish to run for Village Council candidate packets are available in the village clerk's office uh the deadline
is August 22nd um so you still have plenty of time if you're interested in running there are three seats up for election so um certainly come and uh come to the Village clerk's office we'll give you the packets we'll explain to you what you need to do there's plenty of time to
still run if you wish to do so in addition I did want to mention that um Kevin O'Brien who was a uh councilman here uh several years ago in the uh 90s he um recently passed away on June 25th
he um lived in Ridgewood he uh raised his family here he did grow up in New England moved here with his wife and then um he served in the Navy he was also in finance marketing and strategic planning in his career after he sold his
house here in Ridgewood he did move to wo for four years and for the um last five years of his life he's actually living in Orlando in a senior living community so I just wanted to mention to everyone that he did recently pass away
and he was certainly a um a dedicated councilman when he was here and he was actually on the economic advisory committee one of the first people who served on that committee thank you Heather and let's get on with our agenda
Keith thank you mayor um we have nothing under Ridgewood water this evening nor do we have anything under parking so we'll move right to budget um the first recommendation tonight from our director of Public Works Chris Rutter Houser um is for the award of contract for the
Fleet Services Division uh these are for purchases of various parts materials and supplies uh that are necessary to maintain the village Fleet uh this is available through the New Jersey state Cooperative purchasing program and it's not to exceed $210,000 for the purchase of these parts
and materials any objection well good okay next is for the Kingsbridge Lane pedestrian bridge structural repair this is Prof for professional Engineering Services um Chris is making a
recommendation to the council uh that we retain a qualified professional engineering firm uh to review the shop drawings and to do the field inp inspections for the bridge project uh lahita engineering prepared the initial design drawings and technical specifications that were bit out and he
is recommending that they do the uh review of the drawings and the um inspections for the project for at a not to exceed of $ 22,240 any objection and we're going to get to item 8 C5 which is the the rejection of the bids but I'll talk
about that when we get to it well I was wondering is there oversight of the removal of the S of the USS this is oversight of the replacement of them I'm sorry I I missed your question this is this has to do with oversight of um the
replacement of the usds right no this has to do with the Kingsbridge Lane pedestrian Sor yeah we're on we're on item two so this is for the um for the review of the shop drawings submitted by the vent or the ultimate you know what I'm looking awarded bidder and then the
uh the field inspection yeah this this is the first set where they got mixed up okay okay uh the next item on the agenda under budget is item three which is Award of a Professional Services contract to Matrix New World engineering
this is for lsrp services relative to the soil testing and any type of remediation recommendations for the shedler project okay um just to bring everyone up to date on that we did have soil testing done um we are waiting for the report uh
from Matrix I did speak to Melissa um who's the environmental scientist and project manager today um she indicated that sometime next week she anticipates that we'll have a report on the balance of the testing and that's where we'll need the lsrp from Matrix to review that
those testing results both what we have already for the burm and the balance of the project and make recommendations and speak to the D about any potential remediation and this is not to exceed $14,800 for the lsrp services
okay moving on to item four uh this is with regard to the award of a contract for post approval engineering support construction monitoring and inspection services for the replacement of the fuel system at our public works department um
this is being this recommendation is being made by Chris for mckk engineering uh who prepared and designed the drawings that were bit out he's now recommending that they provide these Services uh for the fuel F system replacement and the removal of the
underground storage tanks uh this is not to exceed for the engineering inspection aspect of this $2,230 any questions good okay um next up is the recommendation to re reject all bids for
the Kingsbridge Lane pedestrian bridge structure repairs um just to give a little history on this project it's been discussed a lot on the deis uh bids were received on Wednesday June 26th they were reviewed we had eight registered plan holders who were eligible to bid
only three submitted bid packages the bids ranged from $482,000 um the low bid was received from Fred devans construction company of Ringwood New Jersey again the quote was 482 814 however the low bidder submitted a
defective bid package the bid Bond and consent of shity were not provided on the village forums the noted defects were reviewed by attorney Matt Rogers and he concurred with the recommendation to reject the bill the bid um both other
bids that were submitted exceed the budget for the project therefore none of the bids are able to be awarded Matt I don't know if you want to add anything else on the the low biders package no the low bidder just so everybody knows the low bidder submitted um a bond form
for the maintenance Bond and the performance bond that was not the form that was provided in the bid package our bid package expressly stated that no other form of performance bond or and when it applied to the maintenance Bond no other form of the maintenance bond is
acceptable to the village with that wording and the failure to do it failure to provide that by the low bidder the bid had to be rejected and there is some extra wording in our an our bond form that further protects the village than what was
provided so in that regard we had to reject that bid so the time frame uh from here is if the council rejects the bids by resolution which um would happen next Wednesday night at the public meeting um Chris would then Vis the bid
package advertise it it would be rebid in August um he recommends a 2 to three week uh bid window um at that point we would receive bids we would review the bids and likely award the contract in September after discussion at the first work session in September after Labor
Day good okay um the next item is authorize rebid for infrared ashall repair in addition to trench patching and miscellaneous curve and sidewalk repair uh the village went out
to bid on Wednesday July 3rd uh we received no responses to this bid package albeit we did have five registered plan holders none of them were responsive uh Chris is recommending a resolution to the Village Council for consideration of rebid at our next public
meeting okay um under policy uh deputy mayor perin uh asked that this agenda item be added for the establishment of an ad hoc flood committee for the village so Pam turn it over to you um based on my conversations with each
person individually here on the de uh and and uh Keith's extensive conversations with residents who have been flooded out in their homes uh we thought that a a flood Committee of
residents who have been flooded representing the various neighborhoods that have been flooded would be a very good way for them to express what's happening to them and for them to
receive uh information from the village about what options are are open to us uh going forward we thought that was a really important um communication vehicle and
um I also spoke with green Ridgewood uh because there is a resilience uh subcommittee there and and some of the people have developed some real expertise and understanding um and you've seen them here uh presenting on
the Storm waterer ordinance for example uh however green Ridgewood is working on several uh areas at once and one of them being reaching out to the other communities in Bergen County uh to to
have a broad-based um understanding of flooding and and perhaps come up with some kind of solution so um there would be overlap there should be correl uh cor um
collaboration uh but there's a need for this kind of committee and I would urge anybody who has the time the energy and the passion to apply to the clerk's office to um be a member of this
committee the way I'm seeing it it would be like seven residents um uh a representative from our engineering department and somebody from the council to be a liaison um and we'd have to work up a
mission statements some bylaws uh we'd have to think about how often they meet um and I think somebody there should be a liaison from Green Ridgewood as well as one of those seven members I think that would give good
cross-pollination um and how I don't know how long we should leave open the the um application period four weeks we're here in the middle of summer with half of our population gone so I didn't want to close it too soon I was thinking
four weeks yeah I I would yield to Heather for a recommendation on that um maybe maybe do it like the week after Labor Day just because this way if people are away we can put it on the website now and uh you know then anyone
interested can certainly fill out one of the citizen leadership um you know volunteer forms and then we'll go from there may may I also recommend I know we have a list of those people who attended the Army Corp meeting the 140 or so
people if we send it out to that group I'm sure that we will so so we have all those folks in an email list now so we can communicate out to to that population I think that' be great um I I I fully support the the deputy mayor's uh position on this um my experience in
dealing with flooding and other communities is that it's very beneficial to have a residential face to this um so it's not just government officials or elected officials talking to the different levels of government whether it be the D the Army Corps of Engineers
our State Legislative delegation our federal delegation um it does it's meaningful when there is representation from people who are actually affected by flooding and that they've experienced that uh that financial hardship that physical hardship that emotional hardship um and
that they can speak on behalf of the other residents of the community who have who have been similarly affected um so you know I I look forward to to to working with you uh Pam on this endeavor um I think getting a mix of folks um from across the community um so we're
talking about residents who may be affected by the Hocus Brook by the Saddle River and then also you know we have a a good group of folks especially on Hope Street and in that area who are affected by by storm water um and how how the backup of our storm water system um impacts their homes as well so I
think we need to get a cross-section of of folks um who actually are physically affected by this and you know have been affected and have had to deal with FEMA and and and other government agencies but um I do think there's a benefit to having a residential phase to this yeah I think there are areas even on the west
side that have been subject to either storm water flooding yeah storm water flooding mostly yep so I think this is a great suggestion um I'm really happy that um you brought this to us and and I think
we're all going to support this completely yeah um I'll work on a mission statement as a draft and and maybe we can put that up along with uh whatever you're putting on the website do okay do you want to establish the committee with a resolution or just go
straight out the hawk good question because I would I would think it would be more Bonafide putting it as a resolution and then detailing you know the membership like you said I'd love to see I I think it's awesome I think it's a great idea fully support it but we should have the flood committee should
have representations from each body of water you know you don't want to have just because flooding is different and not be too rigid with it but I would you know and if you need help you have seven so it's odd which is fine but you might want to say two appointments from Saddle
River two appointments from you know the Hocus Brook that kind of stuff Heather how did how were previous ad hoc committees established we haven't had many and really ad hoc I think is a finite period of time where they serve I
think this is an ongoing issue with Ridgewood and so perhaps it shouldn't be ad hoc it should actually just be I don't know how what you want to call it but a committee to deal with flooding and um you know so and have it as an ongoing committee because I don't think
you know the solutions are going to come in one or two years it maybe many years but you know and you may have turnover and then you'd have to establish also um I agree with council member rrad to do a resolution you just have to establish what kind of terms you want these people
to serve you know you wanted two years stagger terms something like that um that kind of makes sense right um but that's up to the the council to decide uh of course Heather having done this for so many years says all of the insightful things that we don't think
about and forget about and in fact what I might recommend is um uh Heather if because you do deal with this perhaps you can make some recommendations in terms of terms um things along those lines to fill in the G the administrative gaps that we are less
familiar with sure there's also uh one thing I've never quite understood is some committees are formed by ordinance and others like like shade tree are by resolution and um sometimes that happens
because of the statut authorization HPC is a statut Comm and so is Green Team I think so that usually is the reason why we do it we can't hear Matt you have to talk into the microphone I'm sorry Lorraine
um that um it goes that important anyway no going um sometimes there I think what we've done such as historic preservation uh that is established by a statute and when that happens we do it by ordinance because the ordinance follows the
authority that the statute gives the committee so we use that as the basis so so we can check that through but I think with this one this is strictly a resolution so if if if maybe if we can come to agreement to call it the flood advisory committee yep that would authorize Heather to put the
advertisement for membership out there and then in the meantime uh Deputy Mayor maybe myself Heather and and you can sit down and sort of we can get this down on paper amongst the three of us um and then we can bring that back to the council but I don't think that should
hinder advertising for for the positions for those who might be interested I think we could get the resolution ready by next week I really do I mean what with the last committee we created by resolution term you don't know the terms or any maybe four years yeah as long as you agree on the terms now because we I
mean we could just do that now because we've done this before so when I joined here we changed the terms of shade tree because we all felt the three years was random and then we do four years I can send you the one we did for pride and it has all the questions to ask but remember when you and I were trading off
shade tree we all sort of universally felt four years was the best term and i' just like to see it move forward so it's official and bonified and has the name and the structure uh in terms of the name um and I put this out there because we have um non-residential flooding
issues and we have residential flooding issues and this is really a residential flooding committee that perhaps the residential flood advisory committee again that's that's a just a just a thought because again you know we we
talk about all the different kinds of flooding and and this committee is not is not being put in place to address um the other types of flooding that we have so residential flood advisory committee I kind of like the the two-year
terms um four year four years kind of scares people off I think four years is a long time to commit and you know two years might be easier the only thing is if you do want to stagger them then you'd have some one-year terms to begin and some
two-year and then move forward from there so and um I think council member winterr made a good um comment when she she said that you should have from all over and so maybe limiting it to two two and two and this way you get a good
crosssection and then you have your Green Ridge with person is the seventh person I think um it's a good size I think if you went up to like nine or 10 people it gets harder and harder to have everyone work together as a as a team at
times because everyone has such Divergent um issues and Views so I think a seven member with our engineering uh council member and possibly our village manager design as well would be beneficial so is is everyone in
agreement with that yeah okay so we'll do two years we'll do one year for for one from each of those sections two for the other that'll be rotating then when those one years are up it'll be a two-year to begin with staggered terms
and then we also have the green Ridgewood rep and we have the the um the council rep engineering rep and then I I think it would be beneficial to have the village manager designated there so this Deputy Mayor and I had this discussion you know I I would staff this committee
and then there'd be a representative from engineering as well okay okay good can I ask a question yeah instead of doing like the onee and two-year terms would it make more sense to do threee and twoyear because like one year by the
time you like even start your one year is up it almost doesn't make sense for a one-ear term the reason we've done it with the inceptions is because everybody you don't want everybody starting at zero and ending at two so with an Inception no I totally understand that
but I'm saying have some of the appointments be a three-year and some of them be a twoyear that's interesting then that way everybody is there at least for two years and then some people get you know one additional year and
then when the two years is up then you get new people in or if they want to continue then they continue yeah so is it going to be a is it going to be a three-year term and then no I think a two-year term but just for the initial
half half of them are threee and half of them are twoe and then at the renewal then everybody's twoe right so instead of doing a one-ear start you do a two threeyear start and then and then after the completion of the first three-year term for half the membersip it Sugg okay
um and I wouldn't limit it to bodies of water though because we certainly have a problem on Hope Street it it's it's not just River think that would be the um what did you call it the storm water flooding yeah so that would be the third
it would be hokus Brook Saddle River and then storm water so the rivers would take four spots Pam two and two and then the remaining three of the storm water gets two right okay gotcha so every got everyone at large does that sound good
to everyone yeah sounds good okay we can okay we can put it together let's go in a resolution all right next okay uh next under operations we have another right of access agreement um this is um being proposed by Verizon Wireless it's yet
another small Wireless facility uh this one will be placed in the vicinity of 756 East Ridgewood Avenue terms and conditions are simp SAR to the prior agreements where is 756 again I meant to look this up I didn't I didn't Google it
I'll be honest it's it's it's got to be close to the duck pond yeah yeah that's 1,200 right yeah and so 800 is south Pleasant to Kennelworth so before that 700 is closer
to the high school right okay and then um lastly uh we have authorization for the 2025 Municipal Aid Grant application um engineering has submitted this to the
New Jersey Department of Transportation uh this is an application for a section of South Pleasant Avenue between East Ridgewood AV to Grove Street uh this is for resurfacing of South Pleasant uh this section of South Pleasant um
between Grove Street and Houston um was part of the 2024 Grant award application and it connects two Village Schools uh this area that is being proposed for now was last resurfaced in 2002 Chris is looking for a support
resolution um I just wanted to clarify that the bike lane is on both sides of the north south Road the the south Pleasant it just is it's word a little funny saying
the bike lane would EX extend North to Somerville school so it kind of sounds like it's only on one side of the street but when the when we were talking about it when we had presentation it was both I'll confirm that with him tomorrow um but that would be part of his plan not
necessarily uh referenced in the resolution okay and mayor that concludes my portion of the agenda thanks Keith and let's go back to public comment uh good evening mayor and Council boy a ling 342 South dering Street uh 756 East
Avenue is at the corner of circle circle just so you know that okay uh Mr fenza's comments about the shredding remind me that several months ago I sent a letter an email to the manager and suggested
that the village have an electronic shredding day maybe not as often as the paper shredding day maybe once every year 18 months and I know there was some extensive research done on that by Mr Hamill but I never received the
response back as to whether the village was going to undertake that offering or not uh believe Mr Hamill got back to me twice had done an extensive amount of research on it uh but at least I was not told whether any decision was rendered as to whether this offering was going to
be made available to the public so at some point in time if we could just uh close the loop and uh let me or anybody else who had made that inquiry know uh whether or not that service is going to be provided I would appreciate it uh also as a followup uh my wife and I have
noticed on several occasions during our walks of our dog that there is what we believe to be a hazardous condition at the intersection of Hope Street and Spring Avenue and the condition is that there are crosswalks painted across Hope
Street but no crosswalks at that intersection are painted across Spring Avenue and the traffic on Spring Avenue for those of you are familiar with the area moves very very quickly particularly at times when people are trying to get their kids to the high
school and to Somerville school and is quite dangerous if you were at Hope Street and you were trying to cross over Spring Avenue because the absence of crosswalks means that nobody slows down to stop for you um personally I don't
understand why no crosswalks are ever paint painted there there's a crosswalk across Spring Avenue at Maple there's a crosswalk across Spring Avenue at South Irving there's a crosswalk across Spring Avenue at vanine why no crosswalk was
painted at hope I don't know but I'm hoping no pun intended that that can be fixed relatively quickly it seems like an easy fix to me thank you very much thank you Boyd anybody else Russell fenza 228 em Place Rood New
Jersey 07450 2803 281 I just noticed your three minute clock up there very nice makes a lot of things easier with the Bell anyway uh since I lived here since 1951 the bridges on Glenn Avenue lywood
Avenue Ridgewood Avenue and Grove Street all came back out of the result of flooding that took place in the 50s and 60s I don't know what the dates are on the bridges but we had some hurricanes back then and it was complete and the bridges were much narrower than they are today basically two cars went across
these are much wider bigger and they increased the size of the roads and everything else to accommodate for that flooding that took place back then obviously it still floods yet today but not as much I would say as it would have if those old bridges was still there
again on those four rows all those bridges were replaced due to flooding and what whatever else also since we got some time here uh the Ridgewood public schools on the Ridgewood Athletic Field where they play football is a constant problem they have artificial turf there
and I think uh maybe twice this year it was uh was overrun with water and everything else three times three times thank you mayor uh I don't know what the solution to that is but we got to get something I don't think artificial turf is the way to go maybe we got to go back to Grass
uh but again I don't know I think the Army Corps of engineering is looking into that uh I don't know what the situation is on that or where it stands but uh something should be done and that has always been a problem over the years so that's nothing new but the flooding
still continues and uh one comment you did make you did speak to it said to the governor about the the illegals uh what what was the result of that when you're done we'll address all of your issues I'm sorry when you're
done we'll we'll you'll discuss that a little I'd be very interesting to hear what he has to say and what was uh said about that and what was agreed to and since I only got a minute and six seconds left I will depart thank you very much it's been a pleasure this evening you all been very nice and uh
it's a pleasure working with all of you thank you always good having you Russ thank you thank you anybody else now we'll go to our hybrid access Susan you're up um hello um Susan ran um 705
Kingsbridge Lane um congratulations Keith for your oneye anniversary I will Begin by saying that thank you um um thank you um thank you for your work as well in responding to my emails today um
I just have a question in regard to the well I have a few comments um one is regard to the foot bridge I saw the rejection but I also saw that there was some sort of bid for a construction um like for an Outsourcing
to the construction um and stuff um for structural repair how does that affect the bidding or is it independent of the bidding um I just don't want to find out later that that the bids will be
rejected again because the structural repair um found something else and now they have to rebid Etc um I also the second is regard to the flooding yes I'm very interested in joining the flood committee because I've always been very
focal about it but I also want to highlight the Salem Ridge area area also has storm water um flooding that whole area cuz I remember when FEMA came and we went down to the Village Hall we had
to you know residents gathered and I was shocked how many people like from East Gate or Westbrook were there with um storm water flooding so you know when you're looking to find people you have
to also consider that area too not just hope street but also that area because they also get affected with the storm water um and then this is just I know we you talk briefly about the um having
some sort of education for um pedestrians and drivers um my son attends um the steps program which I always say but the other day I dropped them off and as I was leaving I
nearly watched someone get hit on Franklin a people stop for them but then one guy decided to go in the turning lane and Barrel through because he didn't want to wait and almost hit the pedestrians who were crossing the street
and I don't know if there's enough cops in staff to just go and drive around because I've seen you know bad drivers all the time in Ridgewood and you just ignore but I mean there has to be something something that has to be done
to try to make people safer on the roads I understand people are in a rush but I mean people were beeping the horns trying to tell this person there's someone actually in the crosswalk and he slammed on his brakes before he hit them
but again this shouldn't be near misses there has to be some sort of better protection for pedestrians to cross um and I mean I know there was a Facebook post about that but it's just
not at Gren pool it's elsewhere in Ridgewood that has to be addressed and that was pretty much it thank you thank you Susan anybody else and with that we're going to close public comment would anyone like to
address any of the questions raised by the audience uh mayor just a few things um first of all to Mr loving uh Sean's last name is Hamlin just to be clear um and he did not recommend at that point to move forward with the electronic shredding but we did discuss revisiting
it when we go into our next budget cycle so that should close the loop on that particular issue um I will send to Sergeant Torino the head of our Traffic Division uh the concerns about the crosswalks so I'll send that to him tonight or tomorrow and have him take a look at that and see if he has any
further recommendations for that intersection um Mr fenza I just want to stress um and you know I get emails about this some somewhat frequently um about the high school Fields um both Stevens and Stadium I I just want to
stress for to you and to the to the other residents listening at home uh that the Village Council nor the manager's office have any jurisdiction over deciding what to do with fields on Board of Education property um so both Stevens and Stadium Field which is the
main football field for the um or the main Athletic Field I should say for the high school that would be under the jurisdiction of the Board of Education to decide what the future holds for the surface whether it's grass whether it remains Turf um whether they relocate fields or any of the discussions that
have happened strictly falls under the five members of the Board of Education and the District administration um the um discussion that the mayor and I had with the governor's office was really direction that if people are if undocumented individuals
are brought into any municipality in the state of New Jersey the municip ality really has very little jurisdiction over that um while the mayor did bring up providing some temporary services for folks especially during the winter months because that conversation
happened in late December um it really is the jurisdiction of the State Police um to deal with those undocumented folks who are who are brought into um local jurisdictions I think there was an incident or a situation I should call it in salkus um I think there was another
one in Edison and that that's what prompted the phone calls especially to the municipalities that had major transportation um hubs like we do with the train station here in here in Ridgewood um Susan I appreciate the the comments about my first year uh the
contract that was agreed to tonight that will be on for resolution next week is the oversight of the bridge construction when it happens um so they will look over the shop drawings that are prepared um by the um successful bidder once this
project gets bid uh they will also do the field inspections um during construction uh so that's a separate contract from the uh construction firm that's awarded the bid to actually make the repairs um the flood committee again I think we we discussed that extensively
tonight um and I think that's all I had and Russ I'm sorry sorry I just wanted to add to Russ um well we don't have any jurisdiction I do sit on a joint board uh named fields and I did want to let you know that there's a small group of
citizens working on a donation to help the Board of Ed do an enhanced feasibility study so because it's a pervasive problem everyone knows it's a problem um sometimes even analyzing how big the problem is needs money so we
have been um diligently working as a committee to try to help and offer those things through some private donations through some people um who have some ideas locally those meetings if you want to get more involved in them are on 700 a.m. on the first Tuesday of each month
we've suspended for the summer but if you write me and you want to come feel free and I did and I feel all of us will want to say this I just want to say to Suzanne how sorry I am that we rejected the bids we had to and I know this whole Council when I got the packet I was so bummed and I'm really sorry about the
delay but I'm really grateful for Matt Rogers advice because it's the interest of the village but I I want to thank you for your patience and just say I think I speak for the whole Council that we were truly bummed that this was a hiccup that we have no control over and that's it yeah I want to Echo um Siobhan's
comments we were we were all it's taken us so long to get to this point we were very disappointed that we had to reject the bids um and Russ as to the two issues you raised first as to flooding um the the flooding situation um at the high school um really doesn't have
anything to do with um with the turf and the best example of that is here at vets and maple field when vets floods which is grass people feel floods which is Turf and it takes the same amount of time for them to dry out so it's really
not a turf or a non- Turf issue and that's a whole different um can of worms but um like I said it's really doesn't affect the flooding it's really the the nature of the waterways uh that are there and the limitations that D places
upon us because if we the more there are certain things that we can do to help flood flooding here that will only exacerbate flooding Downstream which is understandable why we're not allowed to do that and as Keith said in terms of um any um uh we have a plan that in terms
of undocumented people um being dropped at our door our because it's not our jurisdiction there's not much we can do but our goal is to ensure that those people are safe while they are here um and so in winter months it becomes a
very very serious issue so that's that's where our Focus lies and and mayor I will tell you as part of our discussions with the Army Corps of Engineers we do plan to have a serious conversation about maple field and you know at some point every 10 or 15 years the turf
needs to be replaced um that will be a discussion point with the Army Corps as to you know how their hydraulic testing and how the study progresses and what their recommendation comes down to for when maple field does need to be
replaced with Turf what decision the mayor the uh Village Council um has to make at that at that juncture um so you know there there is a difference when you're deciding whether or not you know you agree or disagree with turf fields there's a bigger decision when you're deciding turf fields in a flood zone and
those are two really distinct decision-making processes regardless of where you Fe where you fall on the turf issue um as a general as a general um best decision for the village yep anybody else no and with that we'll entertain a
motion for adjournment so moved second all in favor I I opposed thank you thank you