Susan I believe it's Susan Ruan I see your hand is still raised not hearing from you so I think we're going to move on anybody else seeing no one I'm going to give Susan one last chance Susan are you
there okay we're going to close public comment and move on Keith did you want to address the issue regarding uh oh hi oh there you go come on in yeah sorry there was no on mute for a long time all good we got you I couldn't impress that well good hi
sorry about that um I just want to say thank you for putting please your name Susan your name we we know that you're a Ridgewood resident so yeah Susan ran rwood resident I just wanted to say thank you for putting the foot bridge on
the agenda tonight I saw that and I'm hoping um that it will I'm not certain what the next process is I believe um this tonight is the discussion and then another meeting is the approval um but then hopefully um you
know hopefully work can commence soon afterwards words with this um because I know people keep asking me when the foot bridge is going to get done as if I have any input on that all right thank you thank you
Susan and with that we'll close public comment so thank you mayor um with regard to the West Glenn sidewalk project was actually part of my report but I'll I'll state it now um I sent a letter to all of the affected homes along West Glenn that
currently don't have sidewalks um and we've been able to start the phase one construction project which are the five houses down from North Monroe I mean there there is a stretch of sidewalk but just below that I want to say it's 228 down to 210 um so that
project is currently underway we probably have seen it um those properties did not require any type of retaining wall so in an effort to we had the contractor he was still under contract with the village in an effort to not lose time and resources and his
capab ities we authorize those five homes with regard to the stretch further down you have talked to the county and honestly we probably haven't spoken to the county in maybe since summer Midsummer and that's because we're cons we're looking at the options with the
njde of moving the sidewalks to the other side of the street and the reason we're doing that between Alpine and Heights so that require that would require njde approval because there's that drainage ditch in front of those three properties so we can't move the
sidewalks to that side of the street without njde looking at a plan that the village has gone through a few Renditions of what we might want to do there and talking to the the reason we're considering doing it on the other side of the street is the county expressed some concern about placing the retaining
walls in the county right of way so the options there are to move the retaining walls further onto the property outside of the county right of way and onto the private property owned by the homeowners there's a couple issues with that first
those folks are going to lose a considerable amount of Frontage in the front of their homes secondly we're going to require easements from each one of those 10 Property Owners I think it's nine or 10 in order to build the retaining walls on their property rather than in the county RightWay we're trying
to avoid that I've gone through a similar easement project when we did an intersection during my time in Elwood Park took me three years to get all the all the easements there were more than this situation but you have to realize we're then in a position where Matt would have to negotiate with each of the property
owners the conditions of the easement and then they would all have to be ratified by the council so it's a timec consuming process that's why we looked to the D to see if doing it on the opposite side of the street was something that they would approve and we're still in those discussions between the engineering department here in the
village and the njd so all the affected households all the affected households received a letter they should have received it yesterday or today um outlining maybe Saturday or today to uh outlining what the options were and where we were in the process but we're still talking to the county we're still
talking to njde and we're hopeful to have a resolve within the next month or two as to which direction we're going to go so I hope that answers the question I need you to come up to the microphone please I know it's not protocol to ask a follow-up question but at the section
that is height and down there's no Verge right the Green Spa uh spot that allows the snow to build it's just the walkway with the walls right there right which means we gain three feet is there a
consideration of maybe just doing similar on that because right now you have a sidewalk to Nowhere right you got the worst part not covered but if you're talking about easing on other properties other people's property that I get it's it's not fair to them and and again I I'm
speculating here this is not anything anyone said to me but I think everyone in that section of West Glenn generally wants sidewalks okay and they want them in the right of way yes once we're encroaching further on their property I'm not totally optimistic that
everybody's going to be totally on board with that no I because they're going to be losing Frontage in front of their home so so these are that's the discussion that we were trying to avoid having to happen by talking about the oppos the Northerly side of the street yes but if you lose the Verge you're losing you're gaining three feet which
means that that wall can come further towards your property versus their property so it doesn't change their current agreement is just gets rid of The Verge just for those five houses just a thought understood thank you and
and by the way just to add to that we've already we needed County approval to get to do it on the other side of the street and they have already given us that so that is at the moment our first option
so if we get D approval to move the drainage ditch there I would say that that is the likeliest and least disruptive option but again we're all on the same page we desperately need sidewalks we we actually have a letter signed by the County Administrator he
and I met one day after work up there and we walked the northernly side of the street which is where the the drainage ditch is between Alpine and Heights um and he went back to his office and within a day or two we had a letter endorsing that concept from the county of Bergen that the mayor then uh
forwarded to the D so they know the stance of the village they know the stance of the county on where we would like the sidewalks it's just whether or not from an environmental standpoint they'll approve some walkway or sidewalk on that side of the street and that that's that's the discussions that we're have those are the discussions we're
having now between the engineering department here at the village and the D and with that why don't you just into your and with regard to the to the bus stop by the high school that's on tonight's agenda so the Village Council will will consider that but um so mayor tonight first I just want to take a
moment uh to formally congratulate Officer Jeff KAS on his retirement today uh Jeff spent 20 years with the Ridgewood police department and 27 total years with the village we wish him a healthy and relaxing retirement today I had a call with Matrix new world
engineering this is our environmental consultant uh and we spoke about the public Outreach plan that they are in the process of creating relative to the Shel property we expect the plan to be submitted to the D by the end of the week uh while this was ABS not
absolutely required uh with the neighbors inquiring we've already submitted to Matrix over a hundred questions that need to be answered um in public in response to the uh to the public inquiries um and Matrix is sifting through and working through
those 100 questions we're going to respon respond to the residents who submitted them as soon as possible uh but we also feel that moving forward with this project it's good to have an approved public Outreach plan approved by the njd so we're working along those
lines also in the shedler neighborhood some good news uh last week the engineering department AC accepted the rebids of the Kingsbridge Lane pedestrian bridge uh the low bid was 45,7 $16 there were two options built
into the bid specification one was to remove the bridge and repair it off site the other was to repair the bridge in the field there was a $200,000 um breakage to remove the bridge and fix it offsite and then
reinstall it and that is the option that the engineering department is recommending to the Village Council this evening uh it'll be discussed on tonight's agenda and if the it is in proper order which we expect it to be this should be award Ed at next Wednesday night's council meeting the environmental firm and demolition crew
uh will be conducting an on-site assessment of town garage this coming Friday so if you're driving down frankone Avenue you may see the start of some activity on that property uh we should have a preliminary schedule for work sometime next week last week um as
I mentioned I sent the letter to West Glenn Avenue residents regarding the installation of sidewalks in that corridor as I mentioned earlier tonight phase one has already started um that's that'll cover five houses with new sidewalks and the
balance of the project as I mentioned earlier is contingent on D Andor County approval um I'm pleased to report tonight that the Ridgewood police department has been awarded a grant for bulletproof vests uh this is from the
Bureau of Justice assistance this is the Patrick lehe bulletproof vest partnership program uh it's administered um by the doj and reimburses local government up to 50% of the cost of the body armor vests purchased for new law
enforcement officers this has been in existence since 1999 and more than 13,000 jurisdictions across the country have participated in this program for a total amount of $573 million in federal funds to support the purchase of vests
across the country um our grant award is for 6,900 1344 and again that'll be a matching Grant to purchase vests for our new officers this past Thursday September 26 The Village conducted a bond
anticipation note sale consisting of 26,39 725 uh broken down roughly uh 16 million were General Obligations 8.5 million was relative to the water utility and 93,000 for the parking utility there were four
participants in the bid uh the rate ranges went from 2.84 to 3.08 n the successful bidder was Jeff at an offering price of 26 m397 25 with a net premium of
235 million uh 920,000 resulting in an effective interest rate of 2.84 one which I have to tell you looking back at the interest rates and I had Bob our CFO do an analysis um this is the best we've had had in a long time um and it puts us
in good stead moving forward when it comes to our bond rating uh clearly our AAA Bond rating helped us in this endeavor um and again this is one of the best bids uh that we've seen in a long time and finally um I just want to mention um that if you do see some work
over at the Chestnut Street Garage uh starting Circa October 7th uh we are in the process of removing the underground storage tanks at that location uh little disruption in the fleet we're going to be working with the burough of Hocus uh to help fuel up all of our Municipal
vehicles um and I want to thank the governing body and Bill Jones over in Hocus he's the administrator there uh for working with our engineering department to make that happen uh but if you do see some disruption on Chestnut Street uh that's a project that we expect to take between four and eight
months uh depending on the environmental report that comes back um but we appreciate your patience when you're traveling that area of the village that's all I have mayor thanks sioban sure so um I don't have a ton of reports but I did just want to report on
uh yesterday and how the gold star Memorial was donated in vess square I want to thank the American Legion um so the the donation was at 4:30 and it was beautiful um it was a very somber day the weather sort of matched the
dedication um I want to thank everybody there's too many people and when you list them all you leave one out but um most of the council was there at prior councils were there and it was a absolutely beautiful dedication in our
town um just to blor it a bit that war memorial was um designed and donated to our town by Henry bacon who designed the Lincoln war memorial it's a little known fact that he summered here worked on a library in Patterson and that's pretty big time um to have that kind of
architect donate something here in addition to that the work that came out yesterday just matched it so beautifully um it was incredibly powerful Maria Bombay did such a good job I want to thank her especially for sharing her very personal story um and I will also
say that my brother was in um the USS Navy when uh the Persian Gulf War rang out and my parents you know we went from Blue to Lumineers in one day when Saddam Hussein invaded and there's a lot of sentiment that within the American Legion you can go very quickly and
obviously gold star families going from Blue to gold is the ultimate sacrifice I just want to thank everybody um if you've never been to the event you should go um I did today while I was walking the dog run into two friends from high school who saw the social medias and went to see it I would
encourage everybody if you haven't seen it to take a moment take your kids talk about it and um I just want to say again thank you for that and then lastly for those who are celebrating the Jewish holidays this week I want to um thank this Council for moving the meeting and
I want to wish them shatova to them and their families in the new year thanks sioban lorine um I haven't had anything since last Wednesday's meeting I just want to remind everybody that Sunday October 6th
is Project Pride removing all of the summer foliage and planting the fall if you can help we'd appreciate it because it is kind of double duty so we're removing and replacing so it is a lot of
work um but if we have a lot of people it'll go quickly you can email me at L rennolds rdwood nj.net thank you thanks lorine Pam open space had its last H
Park walk of the Season it rained and uh we have four three or four more that we're going to do in the spring reaching the parks that we couldn't get to but the few in the Hardy came out and it was still fun um uh and the the gold star
events there were two um I also thought they were very moving and Mark d'angelus spoke so feelingly about what it was like the day three men came to their door and told them that their father's
not coming home so it was very moving that's all I have thanks Pam um I also just want to mention gold star was a very special special day um if you have not seen the new monument um you should definitely
swing by and spend a moment contemplation it's it's really beautiful and for that I want to thank three people um first bob peoli for whom this was a lifetime achievement he worked so
hard he spearheaded it without him it's not there and of course test Julian and ly Brady who were the designers donated their time um uh this was their creation and we are so grateful to them so um
please stop by and see it I I know you'll be glad that you did I also want to welcome our new Deputy clerk Atia Hall there you go um uh who will be who will Who has replaced Eileen young and
those are big shoes to fill but I know that AA will be doing a terrific job she's off to a running start so welcome and thank you for being here with us and with that we will go to our regular agenda
gentlemen you're up so come on up guys so as the uh Village Council is aware uh there have been a lot of concerns about Oak Street and East Glenn Avenue and uh North Maple West Glenn Avenue North Maple Avenue and East Glenn um at the direction of the
council I know these gentlemen were here a few months ago uh there was an extensive traffic study conducted um in conjunction with the county and tonight we have Chief Lions Captain Ender and Sergeant Torino to report out on the findings of that
study Chief so after an extensive uh study that was conducted with um Chief if you could too far away you know I'm just not used to being so close to this microphone and and the problem is when you turn that way yeah that's that's going to be harder too yep so this is
all good for you to know remember so I'm going to turn over to uh Sergeant Ray Torino who actually uh conducted this study under Captain Ender and uh let's see um you know what kind of solutions we can come up with for this intersection sorry good to see everybody again I'm
probably gonna have to stand up from time to time so I'll try to talk loud I just feel like when I'm giving you guys a lot of data here's the issue Mark Mark will give you a handheld and then okay yeah we'll get you handheld we'll start because we want the people at home to
understand here yep and the handheld is coming right now all right EXC all right so to start it came to our attention that East
Glenn and Oak was having a tremendous amount of crashes and when we started looking into it we couldn't help but notice that there is an intersection that is very close to uh Glenn and Oak which is Maple and East Glenn so we
realized that we couldn't really make adjustments to one intersection without dealing with the other and these are some of the solutions that we came up with but just to get everybody's gimbals correct and we can understand really what we're looking
at we have East Glenn in Maple Avenue and I'm going to be talking a lot about North Maple going northbound we have Oak Street Oak Street goes north and south and we have West Glide so I just want everybody to kind of understand our surroundings we're going
to be talking about Brien place a little bit which is a cut through between Maple and Oak and everyone can kind of understand Mast and Lynwood so everybody knows our area of what we're going to be talking about today just a little review North Maple
Avenue at East Glenn it is controlled by a County Traffic Light uh it's eastbound westbound East Glenn has two lanes of travel entering the intersection it has a straight and right lane uh as well as a Lefton Lane both of these left lanes
are sensor controlled if anybody's been at that traffic light if you go to the left only lane it senses that you there you will get a lead left Ren if you are not there the lead left green will not come up um East Glenn Avenue is one of the main
thoroughfares going east and west in Ridgewood one of the other ones is Barber Square which Le the Godwin and the other one is aan Avenue we had Glenwood Road for a little while um Glenwood Road would get you up West but as we know a couple years ago you can
only come down Glenwood Road so we don't have a lot of options and we have a lot of traffic flowing to East GL Avenue uh our Rush Hour volumes on East Glennon Maple uh are heavy specifically during rush hour because that is the main
thoroughfare that goes to Route 17 if you're from the west side of town if you're from Midland Park you use West Glen Avenue to East Avenue to get to Route 17 so we see a lot of traffic in the rush uh rush hour times from the
county study which they only did the basically the prime hours the heavy hours of traffic they did their study between 7 and 1100 a.m. and 2: p.m and 7 p.m. 14,000 Vehicles utilize the
intersection of East Glenn and North Maple Avenue that's coming from all directions so so that was all movements going in and out of East Glenn and North Maple Avenue during those hours so that is it's quite a lot of traffic for only
the what is that eight hour period 9 hour period of time did you say 14,000 vehicles in an 8 Hour stretch correct just check so with North Maple Avenue here's
our problem Northbound traffic on North Maple Avenue is seeing heavy backups at the intersection of East Glen Avenue especially during those peak hours Vehicles attempting to turn left or go west up the hill uh onto Easten Avenue
they clog the intersection it's a very narrow intersection and do not allow vehicles to go straight through the intersection to continue North to go into hus uh when two or more vehicles are queuing to make that left turn Vehicles going straight they can't proceed and we
have serious traffic backups heavy southbound traffic prevents uh gaps that would allow for consistent left turning vehicles to go up the hill so basically they're at a standstill until the light goes from green to red and then they
turn left on the red to go up the hill I personally have sat probably three to four light cycles uh sitting waiting for the light on North Maple Avenue going northbound many drivers will go up Masten to uh to
Oak and then head down to Oak and go back to Glenn to then make their left turn we I sat there at a couple different days and watched that I could actually sit in front of the apartments and see Vehicles turn right from Lynwood Avenue and sit right from Masten shoot
all the way down Oak Street to try to go left to go up the hill so they're avoiding North Maple Avenue so then let's talk a little bit about Oak Street at East Glenn Avenue it's controlled by a stop sign and the
flashing red light uh at Oak Street northbound Oak has two travel Lanes uh a left only and a straight right southbound Oak Street has one travel Lane which is fed from Brien
Place eastbound westbound East Glenn Avenue each have one Lan of travel uh that have the right away at the amber light approximately 11,300 vehicles uh utilize the intersection from those same
hours 7 to 11 a.m. and 2: PM to 7:00 p.m. so here's our Oak Street problem Oak Street in East Glenn Avenue has seen an increase in motor vehicle crashes over the last few years motorists attempting to avoid delays on North Maple Avenue are utilizing Mast place in lywood Avenue uh to the then travel
North onto Oak Street uh southbound motorists on Maple Avenue uh are using bride and place to cut the traffic light and go up to Oak Street here's our crash analysis over
five plus years on Oak Street in East Glenn and really this is where we really started to have to take a look at things 2023 we had 11 crashes within the confines of Oak Street and and East Glenn
Avenue of those crashes 11 five of them were initiated uh this year alone at Northbound vehicles uh six in 2023 I believe this is 16 here and 13
for vehicles coming in the southbound Direction over the last five and a half years excuse me what do you mean by initiated so Northbound vehicles on Oak Street initiated this crash is a right angle crash so vehicles that were traveling
north on Oak Street entered the intersection when they should not have so they didn't have to write so they were at fault yes okay this just gives a quick breakdown of our times a day for our crashes it's quite mixed but after 11:00 a.m. you see that there's an influx from
11: to 7 this is what we received from the county it kind of breaks it down into 15minute increments it gives you all the movements during those periods of time left turns vehicles that went straight through right turns it actually gave us
a pedestrian breakdown but what I want to point out is when we go to North Maple and Glenn one of the things that we're trying to do is create movement on North uh on North Maple Avenue going
northbound if we create better traffic flow then we can get vehicles moved through the intersection and we won't have vehicles going to Oak Street to avoid the traffic light so what we have during our peak hours going
northbound we see that all these left turning vehicles are trying to turn left to go up Glenn Avenue 150 vehicles are attempting to turn left during a 1hour period of time to go up Easten Avenue during the PM
hours 147 vehic are attempting to turn left up to East Glenn Avenue those are the vehicles that I think we could assist in making those movements to prevent those traffic backups if you are somebody who avoids
North Maple and East Glenn Avenue to make your left it's because you sat there three or four times if you're going there and you have a lead left or a lead green to go up that hill you might actually return there because you know how difficult it is to go to Oak and Glenn but now you're going to have a free
flowing green light to make that turn so these are the movements I'm talking about this is the intersection looking Northbound Pio hocus up here you see how narrow it is so if you have two vehicles that are queuing there's no movement we have no
movement that's able to go by when you have two vehicles queuing to go left during those nine hours 957 Vehicles attempted to turn left to go up the hill shows uh I believe during that period entering the
intersection is 3,431 Vehicles exiting or vehicles that are coming at us coming southbound so these are our movements these are the one I pointed out before 28% of the vehicles that are going north are making a left turn onto East Glen
Avenue here's our peak hours 150 during 8 and9 and 147 during the 5:00 p.m hour I spoke to the county I spoke to our options with adding a left movement or a left uh a left turn arrow to
Northbound North Maple Avenue and she was very receptive to it um there are a couple options we can do we can add this T that they have and add the green left Arrow or she said we can actually do a test cycle and we can
just have the green arrow that will be a lead for five to eight seconds it needs to be a minimum of five seconds and we can see how it works out so without having to change anything all we would need to do is change the cycle if we change the
cycle it would be 5 to eight seconds of just green for northbound traffic that means anybody turning left could turn left and you'd have a free flowing Northbound for 5 to 8
seconds that creates the needed gaps for those left turns so now we're at the Oak Street and the Oak Street movements here we're looking southbound so brighten I'm standing close to brighten and we're looking at southbound traffic
we have 265 Vehicles I'm sorry 421 vehicles that are entering from brighten off of South Maple Avenue to enter this intersection 320 of them are making
right turns 94 are going straight only seven are going left take a look at Northbound this is where we see some of our biggest issues we have two lanes of travel going northbound we've got the left turn lane and we've got the straight or
right there's a lot of movement here you've got 126 Vehicles going straight 536 going left these are the ones that we can we can change if we utilize Maple and
Glenn I think we can lower this number tremendously this is where we are seeing our crashes here and here is where we're seeing all of our crashes so the two things we do we add the lead green on North Maple and East
Glenn and I'm proposing we either limit the turning onto brighten from southbound Maple up brighten or take away all the traffic coming up riding completely and we take away uh
almost 400 cars at the intersection of open left another issue we saw is we did a traffic study back in 2016 and we actually got some decent speeds because there's a hill going east we actually saw some decent speeds coming down that hill so if we want to make this
intersection safer we can add warning signage and we actually have one of these on standby looking for a location to place it and Rich and I from signal actually spoke and we think that this would actually be a great location for
vehicles coming down the hill after the underpass of one of these speed relay signs so in summary these are some lowcost solutions to minimize traffic at East Glenn and Oak Street while maximizing the control of North Maple Avenue at East Glenn County will approve
most turn restrictions if police or the village deem it a solution to create safer traffic flow County advised that we could attempt a test phase with that green it wouldn't be Arrow it would just be the lead green uh and any Municipal Street made one way is completely under
our jurisdiction to do so uh I'd want to bring to your attention Glenrock just made Highwood Avenue it's Park on one side Avenue Avenue gas St so it has been to
work uh again promoting the movements on North Maple Avenue will decrease traffic delays motorists will be attracted to the uh signal controlled intersection and they want to make safer more convenient movements um uh the decreased volume utiliz the intersection of Oak
Street at East Glen Avenue should yield a decrease in crates which is what we want this is why we're doing this uh and we will be able to quantify uh and track the success of it or we don't and we have to do something
else um I know that was a lot of data thrown at you but really what we want to do right now what I'm proposing is that left lead Arrow count is on board for the one thing we might need to talk about
is what I propose is a oneway coming down brighten so there would be a do not enter from South Maple to Brien that's eight driveways on Brien that would be affected uh by that so
once they come out of their driveway they would have to come up um they could only I'm sorry they could only go down to South na they wouldn't be able to go up to so we would be taking away upwards
of that was 400 vehicles in a seven hour period you're talking probably if we did it a one way 600 Vehicles a day that would be not utilizing a dangerous intersection we had a seesack meeting
after after um s Hill not sill I'm sorry after Glenwood became a oneway a lot of those residents from Brien were concerned that there was going to be added volume utilizing brighten because those vehicles cannot go up lenward anymore so
I'd be interested to see what their thought was on making it a one way because I do remember two or three residents that were concerned about the volume and if you're telling a resident that 50% of the vehicles that utilize your street may disappear overnight
I'm not I don't want to put words in their mouth but some streets might like that so Chief is that a survey we can undertake with those residents on Brien yeah if we prepare the letter and show the options we could do that right
and and weigh out the increased traffic that they may or may not have seen since the initial change yeah I don't believe we with the sacrifice of the fact that they'd only be able to exit coming down to South M correct I think you might have to also include the residence on
Oak because don't they use Brien to so they would be only only when they enter from South Maple so they would have to go to uh East Avenue to enter Oak once they leave their driveway they would be free to go either Direction when they leave their driveway Ryden would have to
only go uh up to I'm sorry down to Maple right do people coming down to Maple does anybody ever then make a left on Maple or they only go right like it's no many of them so from Brien from going down brighten so that would be going
east on brighten yes they do they do make that left that seems very like I don't think I would ever try and do that you see it more in the AM PM rush hour time when uh East Glen backs up at the traffic L of maple okay that seems crazy
I mean I I bet that Brien avoids that because typically with Maple going south you get a wall and you can't get in so I mean the reality I'd love to hear from them but and this was awesome um they're they're probably not going that way because the backup heading south is
just so intense and they will never get a gap that's what I was thinking so if you make it a oneway going to Maple if I lived on brighten I don't want to go to Maple I want to go up to Oak and somewhere because trying to come
out on Maple unless you're going towards Ridgewood that's easy if you're going to hocus that seems scary to me what we did see on one of these slides is let's see I'm trying to see the Turning movement
so the Turning movement is seven making a a left turn that's supposed to be a left I know it's upside down but you see the seven under southbound okay so during those seven hour period that seven hour period of nine hour per whatever it was only seven Vehicles turn left from Oak onto Maple going east
onto East Glenn going eastbound so not a lot of people utilize that okay um well first of all I want to say thank you for putting all this together it's great information I just want to clarify because in the beginning we said
approximately 11,300 V vehicles are utilizing this intersection every day for those eight hours but I don't see how those numbers in the pages beyond that total up to
11,000 are they different time periods yes so I have a I have another sheet that see we go here so if you look at all the Turning movements no if you look through here yeah could going to give you those
numbers this is the breakdown I tried to just give you a close glimpse of some of important ones okay and so the numbers do add up to and for reference we we did that speed study in 2015 and I'm trying to
think if I wrote down we got a volume of what utilizes the average daily total of East Glenn every day and I think for a 24-hour period it was 14,000 that just utilize uh West Glenn in either both
combin both directions so 14,000 in a day you have West Glen Barber Square Ray if you could speak into the mic sorry being one of the only East West thorough fares 14,000 is actually not a surprise okay well I mean I'm I'm totally on
board with the lead green for five seconds 8 seconds whatever it is and I would like to see what the Brien Place residents feel about making it a one way I I like the idea of a do not enter onto
Brien from Maple but making it a one way I don't I don't know how that would you know how they would feel I'd like to see about that yeah it would have to be one or the other so you can't so I there's no way
of making it just to do not enter like you can come out of your driveway and go either direction but people from South Maple can't come up correct it needs to be a one way or nothing the other op option was to make it a no right turn during the busy hours I think I showed you you know what the busier crash hours
were right we could do no right turn from 7 AM to 7 pm. and then they could but honestly it's very difficult to enforce that exactly people are going to say well it's only a no right turn I'm going to do it anyway it's not going to
turning on a one-way street that has a little bit of a negative connotation and it's a pretty big ticket okay thanks questions yes uh in order to create the lead green it's not it's not and by the way it's not a lead
Arrow it's just lead green so if we if we go from the lead green to the left Arrow we would have to update the poles that currently sit on the intersection we currently have 8 inch
stanions to support the t uh which we saw on here to support the weight you would need to add 10inch poles I think I told you guys uh maybe it was a seesack I said it was about a a nine to 12-month turnaround to order those I talked to
Rich from signal he has one or could have one and he has a good relationship with County engineering as well um and they said if they work together they could possibly make this work quicker than other towns so the the phases would
go start with the lead green see the Improvement then do what we need to do to put the lead Arrow because the issue is when you only have a lead green you can have a sign that says lead green but
you don't really know when that opposite direction gets their green light so there's that hesitation to do I go do I not go am I making this left turn when I think I only have the green but they so there's a little bit of weariness to keep it too long without
making it just the without adding the left Arrow I believe East Ridgewood Avenue and pleasant just has a lead Green East Ridgewood Aven Avenue Van vanine I'm sorry has just the lead green
very successful um the one Prospect also the arrow though correct yeah and that's that's been very successful and and Prospect Prospect and maple also because that's my neighborhood had the same um South
Highwood because everyone was using that as a cut through yes and um I mean I think I think this is the way to go for sure on the light I think we all agree with that and I fully support the idea of looking at the one way with the resident letter I'd love for the resident letter to include some of this
information because I think there'll be an exchange for them I mean they clearly don't love the traffic that goes through there um but this this was really helpful and I think it's great I just I think it's going to really relieve a stress point there and the sooner we can do it the better because I'm imagining a
lot of this is student traffic as well with the school and session um and were any of these accidents uh involving pedestrians no uh during this fiveyear period we've had no pedestrian incidents there
great first thanks so much for this really comprehensive report I think that you can see that the Council has no questions on your recommendations um and it's certainly um eye openening to hear the numbers
11,000 cars I I have I I would have no clue you know I I didn't know if you're were talking about a week um so you know we we all learned something um I and again I I know we all want to go in that direction meantime I do have a question about the Oak Street intersection and I
know that this will alleviate take a lot of stress off of that intersection but that is such a bad intersection is there anything and and again putting aside for just a moment it's County Road that we can do to make that better because
that's a scary place yeah yeah and I'm I'm hoping that this is a good start to that um there was talk of you people will come and say just put a traffic light there we are
600 feet from another major intersection and while you'll control traffic with a traffic light you're going to see massive delays if we do that because again I'm not even sure if it warrants it because there's not as much traffic
that would be needed coming from um coming from Ryden to actually put in a traffic light there um there's definitely more things we can do in terms of of narrowing maybe the roadway with paint things like that speed reduction coming down uh eastbound on
East Glenn um that's big two we spend a lot of time there actually some of the sidewalks that are going in are actually going in some of our favorite hiding spots when we sit on West Glen by Alpine there's going to be sidewalks there now so we do spend a lot of time because again it's a downhill every time we stop
a car they go ah just going down the hill okay just hit your brakes tap your brakes and slow down what could be done for Speed reduction coming down West Glenn because that's yeah I mean that's
really the the issue our our our speed enforcement can definitely spend some more time there putting that uh speed sign up could definitely help they really work the speed signs really do this yeah we do I've been behind a lot
of people with those speed signs and you watch them just drop as soon as they see their speed they're like I didn't think I was going that fast so so what do we have to do to get some speed signs so we have so we actually have uh one ready to go that we've do yeah we had to send we
had to send one back for work it's now back in our possession sitting its signal and ready to go I think this would be a good location for it and and we have approval from the county to put it there so these don't these don't need approval uh so we should be good to go
um we can do that prior to any other recommendations thanks thanks for being so forward thinking on this because this is something that well I was just making a comment you can jump in you can jump in after me
I think Pam's gonna Channel Evan because he's gonna be so bummed he's not here oh sure sure because that's his neighborhood uh but really thanks for being so forward thinking on this um I mean again you know I you know my my my greatest concern is is the speed on on West Glenn and and you're and you're
ahead of curve so to speak and with that I'll turn it over to the deputy mayor because I believe she has a question correct so I agree with you the issue we have is on top of that sign we have a solar panel a lot of that area is
nothing but shade so I I actually if you see once you get past the Trestle that's really a lot of sun everything going up that hill it's almost shade on both sides do we not have a flasher further
up we do but this uses a lot more this is constant that flasher only uses when somebody hits that button my my the reason I ask is because it we have power lines there yeah that could we not tap into that because I I agree with Pam
that while it's nice to have it down by the art Barn yeah um you know that's that's when they've already been going 50 m an hour for a while if we can if we can get them to slow down further up and again you're the traffic guy so that's going to be more for signal to see if
they can tap into it with the versions that we got I believe they are solar but I'm sure like everything else there's kits that you can you can switch it over to uh power outlet so I'll talk to Rich and we'll see what we can do yeah I think that I and again I you know I
defer to the rest of the council and to you guys but um that's certainly something that that I I agree with Pam completely on that would be uh more effective there I will say we have to be careful not to go too far because then you have people who slow
down and speed back up yeah it's a limited range because I've seen it on Glenn a million times you watch them hit the brakes and they go very perfectly for a good 200 300 yards and then they start creeping back up so we want to be probably a little further away from that intersection I agree with both of you
but we can't go too far like many streets because then people like oh I slowed down for these intersections when this is the primary I leave it to you I leave it to your discretion I think we're all on the same page so anybody have any other questions so mayor through you just to summarize police department has the authorization to
survey brighten and get the feedback from the residents uh inclusive of all the information that you've shared with the council to share with the residents and then to move forward on the lead green uh for the test phase at the intersection a and um and the um speed
signs speed signs okay great all right gentlemen thank you so much we really appreciate your work on this mayor one other item real quick uh Chief Lions asked me this afternoon if he could just uh bring the council up to speed quickly um on his recruitment efforts uh for new
police officers uh we had another retirement today as I mentioned other the management report uh and he just wanted to update the council as to where we are with that so very quickly as you you know um last year I came to you and said we needed to hire a substantial amount of officers to stay where we are
unfortunately due to recruitment efforts and the way Civil Service works it's been very challenging to do that so we've only actually been able to hire three out of the eight so we will still be proceeding trying to get more but this is kind of an impassioned plea if you will um we need more people to take
the civil service test we need to get the word out more because we are in desperate need of getting these officers here trained and ready to go we still have two more retirements coming up before the end of this year and then more slated for next year that's in addition to the people we were already
trying to hire with the eight of from last year so we we are just really trying to kind of get like a PSA and this is a perfect time to say it civil service tests are coming out you can take that also if you're an alternate route candidate we're we're we're trying multiple different areas and routes to
get police officers because this is not a quick turnaround like many professions we're looking at a solid Year from the time we hire people to the time they actually would count towards personnel and Staffing but I just wanted to give you that kind of heads up of that we're still uh it's not that I asked for an
amount of officers and I was like ah no I don't really need those we desperately need those and we've been trying very very hard it's just um situationally has become very challenging to find uh people that are willing to take this job right now and willing to go through the regular standards that are being imposed
um I'm sure that perhaps we could put this in our e newsletter Keith we have I know uh the chief has spoken to Carol about that I think we did it once in the spring um we can certainly do that again um Chief and I actually were interviewed
by a local podcast uh this past week and we had to identify some of the challenges that we're facing and as you can tell by the chief's presentation tonight uh this is uh this there's an urgency to this and it is certainly one of our identified challenges um so again
I think we're looking for the Public's assistance the council's assistance in trying to spread the word and encourage people to sign up for the um for the civil service exam or as an alternative uh if someone is pursuing the alternate route through the police academy uh
there's that option available to them too if they would like to come to Ridgewood and be considered and and if I may recommend I know that um the average salary of a police off officer who's been with us for 10 years is not insignificant um and I believe that
posting what that average salary is after 10 years today would Garner all of the applicants that you'd like because I don't think that anyone is aware that they see what the starting salary is but
they don't realize how quickly people move up salary-wise and salary is always a driving force so Keith if I may recommend in your in your e newsletter sure posting that because I believe that
will help significantly as it did for example when we when we raised the starting salary for grade and pool lifeguards we had a lifeguard shortage until we did that so um Paul that's my
contribution Chen I have two ideas um so one have you gone to the high school when they have the college number and set up a table because the non-traditional path with the cost of college is becoming a discussion so that's part one if you wanted any help with that I mean people are really um
you know Community College is value added and they we really could partner with our local high school we could also partner with I believe the superintendents have like a board of superintendents we could come up with a one-pager like highlighting all the good reasons not just the salary but you know
the lifestyle and how this is now really happening to many communities and you forego the cost of like you know college out of state and things like that the other thing is that the League of Women Voters has an education committee and they're going to be running a forum on
the non-traditional College path and you should definitely connect with them um and I can help you with that but I think I think everybody on the council should start to think of like audiences of young people that could help with this and I think our local high school I remember when we did the Alumni
Association um did all all three of you go to Richard High School two so the statistic when when we did that was 74% of our fire and 75% of her police went there so it's largely homegrown but we could do I'd be willing to help you get an education letter connect you with the
league um and just amplify it that way so and the test is only offered every three years is that still true or no uh no they've changed how the Civil Service testing works now so they've been doing almost yearly tests for new new hirees so and I couldn't tell you exactly sometimes they February and sometimes
July but um I they're pretty much yearly now that you can take the civil service exam so um we would we started putting together flyers and just starting to get our names and stuff out there to Ridgewood High and everything this is very new to us we've always been an
agency that had a list that had no end so we could just keep and now it's a very different world and a very different uh pool of applicants jobs now are mostly you know work from home things like that so it it's it's become difficult ult so we're just kind of stepping into this world so any help
would be greatly appreciated because we do want to get the message out and yes the salary is fantastic but there are a lot of other perks and you know you get to make a difference into the community and it's a fantastic Community to work in so you we want to kind of get that word out and that message to everyone we can yeah I'll I'll email you tomorrow
with some ideas but I think it's a great message it's a great profession we're grateful that people assume it and if you need any help I'd be more than willing to help them apply it great gentlemen thank you so much of course have a good night mayor next on the
agenda we have some items from Ridgewood water like to introduce director calby along with Michael drulis our public policy consultant Rich before you get into your discussion items uh can you just take a moment to to brief the Council on any
progress since last Wednesday night with the short-term Solution on Glenn definitely thank you good evening good evening gentlemen nice to have you here thank you so just a a quick update uh following up from the uh boil water
advisory that happened the weekend of the 20th uh Mr kbark myself and a few members of Staff attended the Midland Park council meeting on Thursday the 26th um there was a a warm reception by the mayor and Council there
on they asked questions we presented um similar to to what we did the night before here um and they were very appreciative of our efforts and for us being there to answer the questions of their public and for themselves um
moving forward from that um been in constant contact with our hydraulic engineer we expect to have answers this week on the short-term Solutions once we have those we'll forward them uh to your attention also Midland Park asked that
we share that with them as well and they're looking to share that with their residents um through their email blast and I imagine you could do the same thing here Communications are improvements are hitting the ground um Full Speed Ahead thanks to Mr
kasmar and the team um here locally in Ridgewood the sharing of information is already going into the database um Mr kmar has asked the other towns to share as well we haven't seen that data share to date but we're hopeful that we'll get
that that can make the system 100% complete for all four municipalities but right now Ridgewood itself will be getting there before anything on the Ridgewood side all departments have shared their data it's currently being um vetted through the gis Department uh
the gis division over at the water department uh so they're in the process of cleaning it up so to speak um and we're hopeful that we'll have that all migrated into the reverse 911 system by the end of this week um and then that call that we talked about alerting people to the fact that they've now been
entered into the system uh will occur and how they opt out should they choose to do that because they've moved or for some other reason uh there'll be clear Direction on how they'll be able to accomplish that by going to either the water homepage or the village homepage there'll be a top Banner it'll be one
click they'll fill out a form explain why also share with us why also they're opting out um so that we have a record of that for the future and um and then they'll be removed from the system if they show choose so uh last week you said that um you estimated that about 50
to 60% of the uh households we service are in the reverse 911 system do you have an estimate in the numers going I don't I don't have the number yet but because we're removing duplicates got it but the number is going to be significant that's good to hear and what I'm looking for from GIS is a breakdown
of not only only uh phone numbers but also how many emails we've been able to call through this process because as I mentioned last week and as we reported to the mayor and Council in Midland Park on Thursday night every future reverse 911 activity is going to include a phone
call a text message and an email should we have those phone numbers and emails in our system got it and we also talked about some a short-term solution of a pump correct to bring the water from low ground to High Ground how are we doing
on that so far that's the answer we expect this week from the hydraulic engineer because he asked to evaluate that in the model and make sure that pump's not competing against another pump that they'll communicate together and that we'll truly get the full effect
that we want that solution to have good thank you both for moving so quickly on what was a very difficult situation and we did receive an email from the D tonight there were no violations during the course of the event um so that's good news yes and um they
are sure they are anxiously awaiting the answer from the hydraulic engineer as to whether or not this um design concept can work um so that they can move on considering it and approving it excellent any other questions let's move on okay thank you with that I'll move forward to the
agenda items the first item is the award uh Professional Services contract public policy consultant um to my right here tonight is Mr Michael drulis um as he does every year he's come tonight um as we discuss this item um The Firm of
murer drwes has been providing the service since 2018 uh to rid water in the village of Ridgewood a public policy consultant has become an important part of our daily business um most both Mr drwes and his assistant Ryan berer provide daily
oversight assistance and guidance across all policy initiatives and played a key role last year and we'll continue through this year in collaborating with our with our local elected officials down in Trenton um in the hopes of obtaining some dollars uh towards posos
and affecting any future legislation in regard to the that regulation and pths to help us complete are very important projects the funding for this comes out of the village operating budget uh the annual amount for the next contract year is
$34,200 it's an increase from last year's amount of3 2,400 hours Mr drwes provided a letter with goals for the coming year and a summary report of what was completed for the prior year so happy to entertain any
questions while he's here that you have on any of those items which comes out of rid wat's operating budget that's correct okay yes um I just want to say I find your summaries are so helpful and the Outreach to the legislators was just
terrific this year I really appreciate it other questions or comments money well spent thank you thank you I agree with Pam uh Michael thank you so much I I don't know how we would operate without your inside track
at the state house um really helps tremendously I do have one question um your hourly fee I gather that this this is this $34,000 uh number is not a flat fee it is you will be buing buing us hourly and if it's less it's
less or or is that the way it is forgive me no mayor it's a it's a flat uh retainer oh it is a flat retainer so if it is if it is less than whatever that the arithmetic turns out to be it is still $344,000 if it is more than that
it is still $34,000 correct good just want to to understand thank you very much anybody else good thanks so much Michael thank you uh moving on to the next item um authorized change we Professional Services for posos treatment facilities
East Side Main and Mountain additional design and construction Administration Services um on July 26th of 2023 a contract was awarded to arcadis us Inc uh for the design of the last three posos facilities those facilities are
East Side mountain in Maine the east east side facility here in it requires the installation of raw water mains to connect two Satellite Wells to that treatment facility similar to similar to what we're doing at other plants we've decided since those improvements for
those Ry water mains are on County Roads and that the county now requires that you pave curb to curb that we take advantage of opening up the road and replace the distribution Mains that're in those roads at the same time they are
asbest cement Mains they are an age that they need to be replaced so we're therefore recommending a change order to arcadas to include that work in that project to take advantage of opening the road just once and Paving the road just once so this is an additional change
order in the amount of 164,00 870 and this funding is available on the Ridge Water capital budget any questions yes I have one the terminology I don't quite understand so this is design and construction
Administration and construction oversight what is the difference between construction Administration and construction oversight Administration is everything to do with the contract documents once it's awarded the contractor submits what are called shop
drawings that are reviewed for all the perces they're going to purchase and actually install the piping the hydrants the valves answering any questions or requests from information that the contractor issues the other services are actual oversight in the field overseeing
the installation of those items so two distinct Services usually done by two different individuals somebody in the office administering somebody in the field that has field experience with construction thank you welcome anybody
else our next item number three on the agenda is also a change order this is change order number two uh for professional Engineering Services for the as Cedar Hill and Wharton Dyke and Prospect P fos water treatment facilities otherwise known as the big
four M McDonald was the engineer record this project actually started back in 2021 uh change order number one was approved in 23 as a result of additional work required from New Jersey Department Environmental Protection and for additional changes resulting from flood
plane issues uh change in the flood plane rules um requests from the D and the cultural issues at the Cedar Hill facility Mt McDonald is requesting additional amount of 98,6 120 uh to complete the contract and
the final Design This is also funded out of the rid water capital budget questions everybody good let's go okay final item for rer water is the refunding of an overpayment uh to an
account uh the customer in this case made a payment in error in the amount of $2,284 31 um to on the account on July 11th of this year and we have documentation to support that error and asking for re
approval to make the refund to the uh customer well good good thank you rich thank you I'm going to stay up here um Mr Hamlin's here we're going to discuss the approval of the next long-term recycling contract
um as you may recall we were here months earlier for your approval for the month-to-month contract that we're going by with Atlanta Coast Recycling now that their facility is fully operational up and running um Mr Hamlin will review The Proposal um it's very favorable and
estimates that it will save us um a lot of money on annual basis recycling welcome Sean thank you Council thank you for having me um I apologize it was my error I forgot to send you guys a copy of the pricing
formula so thank you that'll explain a little bit more about how the process works but this is a pretty standard contract we've uh we've always been under contract with them since we since they've been our vendor and they've been very fair to us
and um right on the front page of uh of the formula you can see what the average yearly savings are going to be so it's kind of a no-brainer there are a little bit of uh language that has to be changed in the in the actual contract but um but they are going to work with
us on doing that um because it was language language that was in the other contract but they deleted it from this contract but it's it's very it's very standard but this is uh this is going to save us a ton of money you know and
um if you want to I also I also I don't know if you have it I sent you guys a uh a breakdown of the pricing that we were paying when AC when ACR was down and uh and it was it was a lot and so what this does could you just give the council and the
public a little backstory there sure so everybody understands why we're here having this discussion tonight we'll do so Atlantic Coast uh recycling burned down in 2020 and it took them a long time to rebuild their facility the uh the owner Fred Patron
was he he worked with us he went out of his way to go to to find other um places for us to bring our recycling to and work within a formula that was not his formula but it was beneficial to us and
it wasn't going to a lot of these places actually don't pay you for your recycling but you know they were they were allowing us to bring our material there empty our trucks and then uh Atlantic Coast Recycling we bring their trucks and bring it to
another facility and process process it themselves so they were really doing the work behind the scenes and that's why we really have such a great relationship with them and uh but the numbers that we were we were paying the we weren't paying the Tipping fees that other towns pay
them but we were still paying a lot of money and uh and that's why I gave you the breakdown like um you know in 2022 you know we were paying a lot more than than we're paying now since we went
back to them in 2023 it was even worse um just for example I'll give you February and March totals we were we paid uh $8,300 for that month and under their formula we would have paid 3700 for that
month so right there that's a $55,000 savings almost so over the we did all the math based on the based on this contract and this formula and um we're looking had a yearly Savings of about 47
$46,500 which is pretty significant terrific so like I said it's it's pretty it's pretty standard but this gives us a structured price you know the price is always going to
fluctuate but within this formula it will make it a lot worse than if we weren't if if we were just out there going by the actual market value and uh and not what um what they their pricing formula is
so um we're still making money a good amount of money on um on mixed paper and cardboard comingled as long as they're as long as they're mixing glass and aluminum and Plastics the markets for Plastics
are in there it's just not there and glass the same way the only thing that we're really making money on in the mix is aluminum and that's saving the price from being out out rageous got questions comments I just have one question sure is the the shred
day in this new negotiation a bonus shred day or did the old contract give us a shred day the old contract gave us a shred day it's one to one yes okay thanks anybody else yes did we have long-term contracts before the fire yes
yeah but we we didn't want we didn't know when they were going to open up their their pricing formula again we wanted to get them paid so uh after the after we knew that they had a they had reopened again we had to do the short-term contract just until we got
this hammered out and now that they're back and they're open and they're also saving us a ton on fuel and damage to the trucks not having to go to nework anymore it's been a blessing everybody good yep thank you gentlemen thank you so much Sean thank
you ladies and gentlemen mayor continuing under budget item two is the disposal of ground yard waste and grass clippings um during this year's vegetative growing season uh the quantity of materials collected by The Village has exceeded uh what we had
initially awarded by resolution number 2493 we anticipate we'll need an additional $10,000 to dispose of the additional yard waste from our current vendor rvh questions well good okay next item is
Award of contract under Bergen County contract for rock salt um this recommendation comes from our village engineer uh attached as a resolution for initial purchase of rock salt for The Village's upcoming snow season this year's quote for untreated rock salt is
$747 cents per ton last year's quote was 78.75 so it's $41 per ton decrease uh this would be not to exceed $80,000 and we'll run into the 25 budget and how often does that how often does that exactly
we'll take it let's go uh item four under the budget items is the award of bid for the Furnishing of laboratory analysis services for the water pollution control facility Our Lake View Compost Facility and the Parks and Recreation division grade and pool
facility bids were received on August 28th there were six plan holders four responded with bids ALS Group USA Corp um DBA ALS environmental is the apparent low bidder Chris is recommending the award of the Reference Laboratory
analysis Services contract to ALS group um they've submitted all of their forms and this is going to come out of the 2025 operating budget not to exceed $ um it's become evident that the playing surface drainage and overall condition at hawfield South Pleasant park has
continued to deteriorate excessive use extreme weather conditions and an increased need for open space and the continuing use of the playing fields on consistent basis have accelerated the decline uh the village of Ridgewood and the Board of Education um both utilize
this space uh For Recess physical education classes on the board side and primarily by rbsa r a and maroon soccer club on the village side uh earlier this spring rbsa gifted a proposed ball field renovation in the amount of $12,500 to
renovate the baseball diamond at this location um that is slated for work in Spring of 2025 at this time uh Parks and Recreation has met with the presidents of rbsa and the maroon soccer club and all are in agreement that the condition
of the larger field needs to be addressed in the fall with the renovation of the baseball field to take place in the spring attached is proposal 24674 from sport care out of Bridgewater New Jersey to complete the renovation uh
escnj purchasing Co-op um has a contract on this and this proposal is to not not to exceed $97,400 over $101,000 in it this account holds deposits of proceeds from all programs including camps and Clinics conducted which are to be used for field
maintenance so this is not going to hit the actual operating budget nor is it going to hit a capital account this is going to be funded exclusively through fees collected by the recreation department and again it's not to exceed $97,400 we we are responsible for the maintenance of hosfield we are
responsible for the what the maintenance of hosfield both the baseball diamond and the uh atra even though it's it's partially owned by b b correct well I asked Nancy beos this very question 85% of it is owned by The
Village it it's just strange it's a strange situation and you know people who sometimes call it like South Pleasant park that's what it's called but we it's actually ours and just when I first took my seat and we were going through with the fields committee which is the worst field for the Board of Ed
and which is the worst field for us meaning where do we get the most complaints both in District and out of district and we um this was our worst where Orchard was The Villages the board of ad's worst so we took a field trip and it's in need of a lot of attention it's been over utilized for sure it is
it is ours pretty much so it's the right away it's pretty much what yeah is the board no no no no I'm and I'm not I'm not saying so you've got the top part and the lower part but the lower part is the one that's in the worst shape got it
thank you very much and I I I personally went to the field after a Fields meeting I guess in the spring um when this was a topic I went by myself but it there there there are significant uh trip hazards especially for soccer um on the
playing fields there so um this is this will definitely be a partnership with the village stepping up to repair the soccer field areas and then with rbsa coming in to to deal with the uh the improvements to the to the diamond um
when we're looking at the the aerial photo are we looking at the area was one and two rather than three or is it all those areas it's all the areas but the grass where the bulk of it is on one so
when you look that's the worst condition and then all of the donations made by rbsa effect three and two how often does that area flood I think there's a pump house there I don't think it does really and there's Wetlands below it but I don't think
that's part of it I see okay I mean we have we have sprinkler systems there too I'm I'm not aware of any flooding Heather do you have any recollection of any claims on this field no right okay good all right good let's go okay so move along with that uh item six is the
award of contract for the printing of the 2025 Village calendar um we had multiple biders for this and the recommendation from our communications director is printology in Midland Park not to exceed $12,700 I have a question how much did
we pay last year uh 16,000 in change okay so all of the bids have come down since last year correct okay um so my question is I should I should clarify this is a this is a quote process not a not a bid
process right we always go with the lowest quote or bit I don't understand why we're going with the third third highest so it's it's my understanding that the two lower quotes um we're not
confident that the experience is there the cre the design creation Printing and mailing of of a calendar townwide is a significant Endeavor um and I think the concern was that we wanted to make sure that we had confidence that the vendor
was going to deliver on all of those aspects of getting this out to the residents I mean why was the confidence level low did I mean we've never used them did somebody go out and check
references and one I can tell you that we've we The Village has dealt with them not on that endeavor before but we've dealt with them for other functions and um I I I I think there was reason to believe that the confidence level was
that we should go with the bidder that's being recommended okay but the lowest bid it says the village has never done business with them correct so why wouldn't we at least go out and check references and see if anybody else has
ever hired them for a particular purpose similar to this and if they were happy or unhappy I mean we we can a lot of money but we're talking $4,000 but $4,000 is $4,000 and we typically always
go with the lowest bid yeah I I I will tell you that you know the I'm a little taken aback by the fact that the low bid is 8253 only because I can tell you that generally speaking when we do the budget
um the budget mailer and now we've just priced out the mailer for the communications that we talked about last week where we can have people go and sign up for the various communication tools that we have it's $5,000 right there so I I I I agree it's low I'm just
saying did anybody and now you're talking about a calendar you're not talking just you're not talking about an 8 and a half by 11 follow piece of card stock right I mean I can I can have car if I will check with Carol tomorrow to see what additional due diligence she did there um and I can I can let you
know okay thank you and and I I had a similar concern to Lorraine but I I looked at exactly that that that one was seemed like an outlier in price however second lowest quote was in line and it's
someone we have used I grant I I understand it's printing stickers it's it's not the same thing I'm I'm not in the business of talking about any professional service provider at the de but I will be glad to share
with you offline the feedback that we've gotten gotcha thank you I I don't want to it's it's just not my it's not my way to say things no n on the I get it all right so we'll hold that one then um number seven Award of contract for the
restoration of Kingsbridge Lane pedestrian bridge uh we received bids on Tuesday September 24th six registered plan holders uh were eligible to bid two returned bids um as I mentioned during the manager's report uh there were different options for how this project
could be undertaken option A was the bidder had the ability to remove the old bridge from the site rehabilitate the bridge and then reinstall it the low bid was $455,900 with a high bid of $492
26150 uh the other alternative was to reab rehabilitate the bridge in place and the bids range ranged from 492 21650 to a high of 653 8205 low bidder uh which was received for option A which is
what engineering is recommending was from Fred devans construction company of Ringwood New Jersey with a quote of 455 820 uh the work for this project is going to be funded through two capital budget ordinances uh 3895 and
3991 and Chris's recommendation is for option A questions I'm just curious if this is the same bitter as last time that didn't fill out the paperwork properly or is it I will confirm that for you tomorrow I
honestly didn't with some of the water things that were going on I I didn't do a comparison Lorraine but I can I can take a look at it I'm just curious if the same bidder came back right yeah and in this case we only we only received two back so I have a
question um do do these plans include ra I I know we discussed this I just forgot raising the bridg at all to avoid no same kind of damage that it would sustain the first time no okay and do we have a
timeline like how quickly uh we'll know that at the pre-construction meeting and then I can let you know but we won't that we won't know that until the uh until the bid is awarded okay and that'll be next one Wednesday and right so if you if you award it next week I'm sure Chris will issue a notice to proceed shortly after that and then we'll get a a preconstruction meeting on
the books okay all right okay um item eight is uh Bob bruny's recommendations for outdoor Cafe licenses and uh dining Corral fees for 2025 questions notice we've went two or three years without an increase on this
so uh this is what he his recommended adjustments are going into next year well when I read the memo first and it said 25% I thought wow that's really Hefty uh but then when I look at the numbers it's
like $25 quite so bad and I can't think of any outdoor cafes that have 20 seats are there oh there are many sure there are many okay even absolutely I would venture to say all the oh absolutely all
the dining Corral have easily have 20 seats yeah but Corrals are different than than the cafe their seats go I'll just go off the top of my head that that um uh uh Sol the successor to Pearl's going to have more
than 20 I have more than 20 at it's Greek to me uh uh Pancake Cafe um Park West Tavern um uh uh daily treat steel wheel I mean I mean there there are a
lot of places okay so any questions or concerns with this I think that that given the normally I would have looked at this and been concerned about the 25% increase but given that it has been and I and I always say this about price increases
you need to do it every every two years and now it's a gradual increase but when you hold it for five it it leaps forward like this so what I'm going to recommend that uh perhaps Bob take a look at this in two years so that the
the increase is more nominal it'll get us to the same place it just doesn't seem like as big a joke understood so we're all good okay and item nine is Award of contract for landscaping services for Crest Road uh this is actually for the
view okay we've been we've met with the residents of both Crest and Hill Crest and in light of um the need for an additional buffer especially because we have folks who are up at the view debris
litter different things happen um and end up in the yards in the residents down below um we have worked with toad Landscaping contractors well we solicited quotes but we've had uh after receiving the quotes we've had extensive conversations with toad Landscaping
contractors um they are looking to um increase the buffer zone there in areas where it's appropriate to plant and that should be stressed because it is a pretty steep uh incline on that Hill uh but their proposal is for $38,988
uh they we've worked with them in the CBD to plant trees down in that area um and uh Nancy beos and Bob bruny are both um pleased with their performance thus far um and we'd like to do this in the month of October as we also do our tree
planting throughout the village Keith I want to thank you for your work on this when you sent around an email to us saying Beyond this the the the um cleanup it's also the policing and and
it's just very responsive government since we met with the residents the police department have issued over a 100 tickets up at the top so just to put in perspective you know the What the residents were saying was happening at that meeting and what they were frustrated about and concerned
about it was well heard by The Ridgewood police department and chief lions and and Captain Ender uh they've responded and and made sure that they've uh cleaned up some of the issues that are happening up there on Crest Road near the view it should really uh improve the
quality of life the the enforcement piece of this was really a missing uh Cog in all of this and and I was so glad that that um Chief and his staff were there to hear what was going on directly and they they're the ones who came
through with um how to deal with this from that perspective so all good and lastly under policy uh we have the request for the New Jersey Transit bus stop at Ridgewood High School I think Robin explained it better than I even could so um but that's the that's the
next agenda item here uh for consideration I have made contact with NJ Transit uh they did indicate that they were in favor of this when it was last discussed uh by The Village Council um and that they would continue to honor this request if it was something we
wanted to move forward with sounds great where would it go so in front of the essentially in front of the high school by the tennis court by the tennis courts by the tennis courts great so I I just have a couple questions first of all thank you Robin and anything that we can do to reduce
the traffic which means encouraging safe busing would be great because the high school is a serious Hazard with that you know the movement around there I I would like to get a picture from New Jersey Transit so we can let um like Dr Shin's house who has a new Resident and across
the street now and can we do that we could okay great and then we can keep Robin happy and the neighbors happy any objection wait I can't believe R's not gonna be super psyched about that okay so I believe that this no it's it's good I I believe this needs to be
established by ordinance um so Matt you and I can can talk about establishing that um set it up introduce it adopt it and um that that's going to take a little time it's a two- Monon period to introduce adopt and then for it to go into effect and then once it's adopted we can send it to New Jersey Transit so
that they can do their thing okay she's a lawyer she's got it I really do want to see what it looks like too yeah sure um we want a nice one yeah pretty and own top whoops we're good let's go to public comment uh good evening mayor and
Council Boyd a loving Ridgewood resident with respect to the presentation about the traffic situation on North Maple I distinctly remember that when Mr rudower was here he indicated that the county had advised him that if a green arrow
were to be put in place that the roadway would have to be widened I know that a green arrow was not proposed tonight what you're talking about is a lead green which is something different but in no part of the discussion this evening or the presentation by the police department Department was there
any mention made about perhaps needing to widen the road if a green arrow was put in place um just like the council to explore whether the county has dropped that requirement or that was an oversight in tonight's discussion whether that would have to happen and if
that has to happen whether there would be property acquisition that would need to take place or is there some other way to do it again uh Mr rudish shazza had mentioned it during his presentation it seemed to be absent from tonight's present presentation in tonight's discussion the manager mentioned
demolition at the Town garage got a lot of concerns about that particularly since there is an eating establishment right next door to that building that has outdoor dining and I'm wondering what plans will be taking place to
ensure that the dust in any hazardous particulate manner that is coming from that building does not spread into the neighborhood uh Ben and Jerry's is right there there are a lot of children who hang out outside in front of Ben and& Jerry's at those picnic tables that building is
within 50 ft of that area uh I am hoping that many many precautions will be taking place to ensure that the demolition that goes on there does not spread dust or contaminants anywhere in the area additionally there is a parking
lot nearby and I'm concerned about people who Park their cars there during the day are they going to come out and find that their cars are loaded with a material that they don't know anything about so I've seen houses in the village that are being demolished that tents are
put in place don't know what plans you have if you have any plans at all but please consider the fact that there are children who are at Ben and& Jerry's and that there are people's cars who are in the parking lot and take whatever precautions you need to ensure that that dust if there is any which I expect
there will be does not spread Beyond a a design ated area and and make anybody sick I'm quite surprised that the work that's going to take place at lower H concerns the
soccer field but I heard no mention of any donation by the soccer club don't know what that's all about but I wish that that could be explored as well if the field is going to be renovated to facilitate their play
perhaps they can give a donation and my final uh comment is about a point of order I Know M maylander typically does not permit walk on that take place during Council meetings and I counted there were two Walk-Ons tonight that meant that there were two items that
were discussed that were not on the agenda don't know whether the council has changed that policy or not but I know from attending meetings since the year 2000 that Miss Mander never permitted that and I was surprised that she permitted that tonight thank you thank you than you boy anybody have any
oh here we go sorry forgive me good evening and loving Ridgewood um a couple of things first of all I appreciate uh councilwoman Reynolds arguing about the $4,000 because $4,000 is $4,000 and along those lines I've been
thinking a lot about the uh the report last week that the the that the renovations of The Pedestrian tunnel under the train tracks would cost $1 million um that's not including the additional $1 million for all the artwork that was
suggested um I use that tunnel many times a week I was in it today uh it's well lit uh now we have mirrors so I can see if somebody's coming around the corner I understand it needs to be painted there's some Shoring up but I'm
hoping that you can and pair down that $1 million it seems outrageously expensive and I'm I'm betting there's a way that that can be cut down a little bit because that's just an awful lot of money and the last thing is regarding
Crest Road and the view um there there is a a small Cadre of people myself included who go up there on Full Moon night and we don't throw trash over um but I do know there's a lot of trash that goes down there it's a beautiful place to go watch the moonrise on Full
Moon night uh the plantings I'm hoping they're not going to be really tall trees that are ultimately going to block The View because although I realize that um the disrespectful people you know do throw trash up there a lot of people do
really enjoy the view so hopefully the trees that are going to be put in to provide a better buffer for the houses below won't ultimately Wreck The View thank you thank you an anybody else from the audience no let's go to our hybrid
access nidy you're up is that right can you hear me you are good okay this is I haven't done this in a while so hi okay I'm Niti mystery and I'm a Ridgewood resident and I live near Glenn AV and
I've been in touch with Keith over the past week um and regarding the West Glenn sidewalk installation um and I also spoke with someone at the County engineering department as well as someone at the DP and I was given some timeline and
information that's a little different than what's being presented today so uh perhaps I didn't speak to the right person but um I'll continue to follow up um I have a few questions there are currently sidewalks being worked on on
the eastbound side of West Glenn um these were unfortunately dubbed the sidewalks to Nowhere um are there plans to connect that stretch of West Glen all the way down to Heights or will that unfortunately remain a sidewalk to no nowhere if the plan is to move forward
with sidewalks on the stream side pending de approval um also and not to be negative I just need to quickly remind anyone everyone that while it's nice to get sidewalks anywhere at any time the most dangerous
stretch of West Glenn remains untouched and as far as I know there's still no plan um and it's still as dangerous as ever so it's still there and I hope that the motivation and the enthusiasm to come up with a resolution for that um
stays as strong as it's been um and another question or a few more questions I have is what do you think is the timeline to complete phase two are plans that have already been submitted to the D how much uh time uh do you anticipate
getting an approval what happens if the timeline for completion Falls outside of 2024 uh specifically what happens to the money that's been allotted towards this specific project on this specific stretch of West Glenn does it get
carried over or does it have to go through the same uh budget approval process as it had to go through to get approved for this year um so yeah those are just um some of the questions I had and um I do appreciate the sidewalks that are being installed on Westland um
all sidewalks are wonderful and we'll just encourage the community to be healthier and walk and get out there and I do think sidewalks everywhere make us all safer so that's it thank you thank you nidy Susan you're
up hello Susan Ruan excuse me my throat um I'm a Ridgewood resident um I I've been watching the presentation tonight um I want to begin with um Glenn
a and maple I take that road almost daily to drop off my son in town at steps and I can tell you that is just a mess so I'm glad the police are addressing it and I do believe some something needs to be done there because
you know it it's just crazy um all and then after they're done looking at that I think they should look at Glenn a and Northern Parkway because again I think people use that as a cut through I know I do to avoid all the
lights on Glen and there's consistently accidents there too so I'm not certain why and it's a little bothersome um the next is um the foot Bridge which of course I knew that was going to come up
um I just have questions and I wish the engineer was there tonight to explain exactly what's going to happen with the foot bridge when they take it away what are they taking away and what are they
going to be um repairing of of away and how long he estimated for it to be the completion also are they going to do the ramps I thought that was something of a discussion um I thought even though it's
not going to be wear chair accessible or ADA Compliant the ramps leading into the um the bridge will have to be ADA Compliant so I'm not certain um if that's also going to happen again I'm
not certain what included in the bids because of course that's you know that's nothing that we're pring to but again I wish the engineer was here to explain more on what was going to happen with the bridge
all right thank you bye thank you Susan anybody else and with that I'm going to close public comment responses mayor just a few um to Mr loving again the um the lead green was
the topic of convers ation tonight I do recall Mr rutus Houser uh talking about how a green arrow would be more involved I think well he didn't discuss um the widening of the street Sergeant Torino
he did discuss the need for a complete um replacement of the pole there to support that type of infrastructure so I don't think we're at that point yet um but in as we move forward with this and we study the lead green and see what the
success rate is of that we will continue the conversation about any INF infrastructure improvements that are necessary or any improvements to the pole structure that's there to support that traffic light with regard to the demon uh the demolition at Town garage um I've connected our Public Works folks
and our engineering folks um with all of the contractors uh who were provided to me um through our attorney who represented us on this issue um and we're in discussion uh with representatives from the prior owner um
as they begin this assessment which again as I said earlier tonight will begin on Friday um I do want to stress that in addition to our Public Works and Engineering people um having access to the professionals who will be there from the prior owner it's important to note
that this project is being overseen by an lsrp who's working for the prior owner so there are going to there will be environmental oversight to make sure that all of the necessary requirements as they clean up this property and as
they demo the Town garage are properly met um with regard to Haws um I can't speak about a donation to the soccer assoc from the soccer association uh I don't know if council member winr has any any more information on that um but um I can tell you that the
rbsa donation was something that was discussed way back at the end of last year um and we do appreciate their offer her to assist with the improvements to the baseball field I will tell you I I very much honor and respect um Heather
and her procedures when it comes to the agenda um I don't think either item tonight was a walk-on because there was no action necessary by the council it was simply updating the council and the public one on a challenge uh that the police department has in recruiting new
police officers no action needed to be taken and with regard to the update by Mr calby as to the boiled water advisory emergency that we experienced last weekend uh again just trying to take every possible opportunity to be transparent share
information reassure the public and make sure the council is up to date on exactly where we are on some of these critical issues that are facing the village uh with regard to the um renovations to The Pedestrian tunnel one thing that has been conveniently left
out um in recent reports and Mis loving your comments tonight is that since we endeavored to take on this project we have constantly talked about this project being offset by historic grants we have an opportunity to make application to the New Jersey historic
trust we have an opportunity to make multiple year applications before the project actually breaks ground with from the Bergen County uh open space uh historic trust portion um just like we've done I'm
sorry just like we did when the prior Village Council and the prior Administration made applications for the shedler house that's how a significant amount of that 2.6 million dollar that was spent on the shedler
house much of it was financed through grants and we will endeavor to do the same with the infrastructure improvements to The Pedestrian tunnel the artistic aspect of it as I think was very ably presented by jeie Johnson last
week will be exclusively fundraised um and I've told Jean from the beginning that I don't necessarily see um us making a recommendation to the Village Council to finance any of the artistic aspect of that project um and she is committed with her team and she has a
very able group of people the deputy mayor and I meet with them approximately once a month um and she has a very able group of people there who are committed to trying to fund raise uh to bring that project to completion so I think as we talk about this publicly we need to give
the full picture and the full picture is that there are costs associated with doing this project they were presented by Conley and hickey but we need to make sure that we're also talking about the grant opportunities that are available to make that tunnel the best it could be structurally architecturally and
artistically um with regard to the view uh we were very selective working with Matt andula from our Parks division um and also with toad Landscaping about making sure that we picked appropriate tree species to be planted up at the view uh so that we helped establish the
buffer zone to protect the residents down on Hill Crest but at the same time weren't planting trees that were high Growers so to speak that would inhibit the view from the the view from the view from The View so we're careful about that as well um Susan with regard to um
the pedestrian bridge um I can't speak to the actual specifics I can certainly get that information from Chris and and and pass it on to you as to exactly how that project is going to be undertaken um and then to Nitti we've had a number of back and forth conversations this
week um with regard to the sidewalks on West Glenn as I said at the top of the meeting we had the opportunity to build sidewalks in front of five residents uh currently there are sidewalks to Nowhere the path will be the paath to Nowhere will be a little longer
uh by the end of next week when the construction company pulls out of West Glenn Avenue and we have sidewalks in front of those five additional homes I know you have taken it upon yourself to reach out to County engineering and you've reached out to the
njde um I can tell you that as I said at the top of the meeting the answer Remains the Same the county has some concerns about putting retaining walls in the county RightWay the alternative to that is going and encroaching on to the actual property owners's private
property which would require easements and we would need to negotiate with each of those Property Owners I think there's nine or 10 of them in order to achieve those easements I anticipate having done this before that that is a long arduous
process which is only going to uh postpone the amount of time that we can get these sidewalks installed on West Glenn Avenue the county has endorsed the concept of placing the sidewalks on the opposite side of the street between Alpine and Heights along that drainage
area um in front of those three homes uh we verbally I think the mayor was with me when we had a conversation with two of those homeowners uh to let them know that we were considering this and our engineering department has been exchanging ideas with the D about how to
best accomplish this um with regard to the F financing of it there was a capital Bond ordinance that was introduced very earli in the year or west Glenn that money stays intact there's no need to reapproved into 2025 those same monies
that were approved by this Village Council will continue to be there and we'll be able to expend those um monies in order to build the sidewalks regardless of which side of the street they end up being on um and I think that's all I have mayor I just want to piggyback on a
couple of things with the West Glen sidewalks yes it'll be five additional houses with a sidewalk to Nowhere if you're going down towards Maple but those five houses now will be able to come out of their house get onto a
sidewalk and walk up to M uh Monroe which is huge any kids or whoever living in those houses can now ride their you know scooters up and down the sidewalk it's it's a huge Plus even though in the
opposite direction it is a sidewalk to nowhere but going up to Monroe it is a huge positive and that's that's a great point and that was actually brought up by the five residents that we that Yovan and I were out there talking to was they were they were they understand that the
challenges going down towards um going down Glenn but they were very pleased that they'll be able to access North Monroe and the schools in that area with their children and that type of thing great and then with the comment um Mr loving I don't think anybody was talking
about even with the T if it's a left turn nobody was talking about making another Lane so I don't think anyone has any thought of taking property away what I think Ray
Torino you know was trying to explain is that currently we can do a delayed uh green and hopefully it'll help and if it does because it takes a while to get the tea by the time we get it the idea is is
with the arrow without the arrow you never the person who's making the leftand turn does not know when the other people have a green but when you have that Arrow when the arrow turns
yellow then those people that are queuing in the left turn will know that the people coming from the other direction are going to have a green light in a second so it's it's helpful even without having that extra
Lane if that makes sense so I'm so glad lorine said that without being sensitive to the sidewalk to Nowhere when we made the decision um it's a sidewalk to GW to Ridge to Parkwood to Robin's house who's having a party just leave were there and
we also feel very strongly as a council that capital in this year people want to see so we did a like we did award a significant amount of money to that effort and the sentiment I think from the whole councils people want to see that so those five additional houses are
are great right and they really will be not really helpful with the downtown side or the high school but for the Middle School crew and below it was very important um with respect to donations from our Sports Group we have a meeting with Fields tomorrow um and we are going
to give them these numbers they came tonight to us and they're going to see them our sports groups are always generous and they tend to take turns in terms of donations I will say that they've had $25,000 held up in donations with the Board of Ed which we'll have a
report on tomorrow and just keep in mind while it's called soccer traditionally for small-sided play there is interplay between flag and Lacrosse so you know because when you get into small-sided they just want to run drills so it's used by more than just soccer fields are
used by more with the expansion of R jfa into girls we'll see more drills being run elsewhere so um I do want to say thank you to our sports groups um this whole project would have been more expensive because it has two baseball diamonds and we've held part of the
$65,000 that they donated to make this less expensive for the taxpayers and and mayor I have to just say in response to council member wgr's comments I've as as I've said many times from this dayas I've I've worked in three towns before this and had a lot of exposure to other
municipalities and this is without question the most generous place where Sports organizations make contributions to offset costs like Field improvements lighting improvements um this doesn't
happen other places in other places it's solely on the municipality or the Board of Education to upkeep and maintain I see he is Shak her head because she came from another municipality too um this is always
exclusively on the backs of the municipality and the Board of Education this is a unique and special place in the fact that you have these Sports organizations these thriving motivated Sports organizations here in Ridgewood who are willing to put
skin in the game and make contributions like rbsa did this year and like other groups have in the past to offset the burden on the taxpayer um it's a gift and I think the fact that they're willing to do that and that they continue to do that it's something very special about those sports groups here
in Bridgewood everybody good let's go okay be resolved by The Village Council of Village of Bridgewood at the Village Council meet and Clos session on September 30th 20124 at 7:30 p.m. or soon thereafter as a matter on
the agenda can be reached and it said Clos session will be held in the caucus room of the Rood Village Hall 131 North Maple Avenue rwood New Jersey be further resolve that the matter to be discussed in Clos session is limited to Personnel matters to include fire department 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 have a motion so moved second all in favor I anyone opposed
okay thanks okay hang on