all right is M here he's coming all right have a COR yes good some I have to don't you want to put me oh before everything else yeah we'll get it through got you want to do on correspondence you can do before that or you want to do after that in that area
right okay right after that we put no I'll do it after all right are we ready time we got call to order the open public meeting act
according to the open public meeting act this meeting of February 12th 2025 was published in the Bergen Record and Herald news on January 8 2025 and sent to the r toown in addition a copy of this notice is and has been available to
the public and is on file in the office of the municipal clerk may I have a roll call please committee woman Puchi committee woman OTA here Deputy Mayor Miller here committee men trinsky here mayor judge Cella here thank you
mayor stand for pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence I pled to FL the United States of America and the for stands Nation God indivisible andice for
all thank [Music] you all righty so good evening everyone thank you for attending can we start off with any correspondence emry I have no
correspondence okay um Mr pent excuse me thank you mayor I do have some things to bring this committee up to speed on um on January 27th I attended the American Legion Memorial Day Parade committee
meeting uh the specific duties and responsibilities of the township and respective departments were clarified and discussed um in attendance was committee woman Jennifer aichi or parade parade liaison and of of course the biggest takeaway was we're really hoping to see some good weather and a large
turnout this year and one of the contingencies we made was uh the police department and OEM will make the final determination as to cancellation or not um for obvious reasons on January 29th I responded to a house fire on Becker Avenue and watched as our fire
department did an amazing job at quickly knocking down heavy fire conditions that involved two vehicles a vinyl fence portions of a garage and an extension into the home uh mayor crll is you know mayor you were there and Deputy Mayor Tommy Miller also came to the scene and spoke with the homeowner offering uh our
support as a Township and the resident was very grateful we've received eight applications and resumés so far for our tax assessor position I'm going to review them with our CFO I'm sorry for our tax yeah for our tax assess I will review them with our CFO and tax
collector and begin interviews uh in a very short amount of time because again Mr Tai retires at the end of March an update on our pscg efficiency grant program the air conditioning units uh Dave Brown was reached out to today by our vendors uh the ambulance and
Firehouse will see installation within the coming weeks of this month and for the municipal building right now the ETA for the rtus is March of 25 uh once that is done we can look to finally have the roof replaced on this building we've conducted an elevation of
homes I call it Grant it's part two because we have the one Grant out there already this is be for a second round we had a meeting on February 3rd with six homeowners present tetratech who was hired by the New Jersey office of emergency management it's their professional grant writer to introduce
the FEMA flood mitigation assistance program to elevate those residents homes we've asked the residents to provide us with necessary paperwork once we have that paperwork if there is interest the state and tetr will submit for the grant on behalf of the township and will be again a subgrantee in attendance of that meeting was our RP uh
roal Park officer mergen management coordinator Pete Donatello mayor judge crll and committee woman ARA update on our brick Rand Pump Station on the 31st we had our FEMA brick Grant kickoff meeting with again New Jersey Department of office of emergency management Boswell engineering
our CFO mayor C judge CLL committee Matt trinsky was also in attendance our CFO will be working on procuring funding via a bond ordinance trying to work out some particulars there so it's not to threaten the benefit cost analysis that FEMA requires uh subsequent to that
meeting on February 4th we met again with Boswell engineering where Dave Brown the mayor and committee man trinsky once again re came in reviewed the plans uh which are still being finalized uh the NJ Department of e uh the NJ D permitting is also being applied for at this
time 2223 open space Grant that's improvements to carlac field they have begun I know we sent out some social media alerts residents were notified the old shed will be removed we work with soccer on providing them some storage space inside hon hall for now there's an old office there an outdoor Pavilion will eventually be built synthetic bot
ball courts spray Mists also to be installed with new trees Landscaping park benches and trash receptacles around the complex contract of course was delayed by uh a week by public service um however I was able to reach out to my contact at PS what's normally a six week weit six week weit time we
got down to one week and uh this week hopefully tomorrow or Friday they will finally cut the wires leading to that so the shed can go but again it's all weather dependent unfortunately the snow has slowed any construction down um and again as a reminder there's two open space grants that were being combined
that'll offset the debt issued for that project update on our green communities Grant a Community forry Management plan we have letters of support for the committee I uh I know Michaela gave them to you folks tonight it's just an updated letter we made some language changes to better better uh enhance the
you the chances of us getting the grant based on the fact of some actions that I know are on the agenda for tonight and looking to go to a tree commission versus a committee uh hopefully we'll receive that Grant again which allow us to move forward with our cfmp which is
the Community fary Management plan um recently I was asked by the division of disaster recovery and mitigation environmental and historic preservation Department of Community Affairs it's a long title uh to consult on a flood mitigation project to a home on bdan street I won't share the specific
address at this time but I'll do that with you private if you'd like I will keep everyone informed as things progress and share what I learn about this program to see if we can help more residents U since the first time I'm hearing about this option to help homeowners and I will share what I know about our Township's flooding issues
with those at the DCA and those other departments listed so they know uh what our needs are in here at roal Park and that we're always looking to help our residents through grants I know on the agenda mayor there's a climate superf fund act recently residents of roal Park attended to sustainable Bergen County
Hub meeting and this item came up for discussion uh it's basically a bill that will be introduced would have fossil fuel companies pay into a super fund that municipalities get access to pay for damages from flooding and other climate disasters caused by our fossil fuel companies actions uh there this
will shift the burden from local towns to the large companies refining companies in the state the resolution of support offer tonight is one that tck has already passed and hackin Sack and Fort Lee have it under consideration uh towns outside of buron County also passed a similar resolution in support and Jersey City were some of
the examples that were provided to me I see no reason why we should not uh pass that resolution and and support that endeavor couple more things mayor I promise I'm done Bergen County open space Grant the 2025 funding is uh open
what I've looked at is and what I'm strongly considering applying for uh this year is again on the Municipal Park Improvement program with the focus on repairing and adding to the playground area at Carlock field the playground surface of Carlock has been in need of um some necessary repairs or replacement for some time now as well as adding some
additional features could be done I know there's some concerns about some of the retaining walls what I would like to do is have kers and I will reach out to cers engineering meet with their engineer walk the park kind of go over what some of our concerns are with Dave Brown and as well as what's been provided to me by the recreation
committee uh to go over those needs and then come up with a cost estimate and uh have coler's assistant applying for that Grant um I do again Ask for this committee's input on this and I know I will get it because uh the level of Engagement collaboration has been very
high and it's uh been productive as evidenced by my report of every um Endeavor that I've been a part of somebody from the committee has been there resolution um May you're going to see a walk on for Howard Avenue that's for Boswell that's the milling and
Paving portion from Paton Court to James Street as you remember we wanted the roadway to settle we wanted to wait till spring um and this will finally complete that project once the few curbs and driveway aprons are addressed um this does not this is not a final payment this is only the fourth payment uh and
we will have those other uh lists of things that need to be done has already been addressed between Dave Boswell and laforza construction again the weather is kind of slowed that down once the snow stops hopefully soon they can get to that work I know James D Marie is here so I will leave the uh his
suggestions and comments on the ordinance about outdoor dining to him and I think that's all I have right now mayor thank you thank you can you hear me thank you Mr Pinto anyone else have anything to say we're going to offset
our reports till the regular meeting but if there's any other questions or concerns I know we have some discussion that's going to be going on about the climate uh super fund act open space Grant and I know we have the fire prevention and Shri so we're going to have some of that discussion
during that period so right now any other anybody else no good all right so we adding on these two Walk-Ons here that Mr Pinto just said and that is one of was a Howard Avenue one which is
02574 this is a resolution that I was speaking about Boswell engineering for the Howard Avenue project and there's another resolution that would be added to the agenda it's 025 I'm sorry 0250 073 authorization to approve the
appointment of probationary firefighter and that was a Colin cannon that's on here also before you want to approve the agenda so may I have a motion to approve the agenda please I'll make the motion may I have a
second I'll second thank you committee woman Ora yes Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee m lski yes and mayor Judge cell yes okay moving forward we have discussion fire prevention Sean good evening heads on good evening
mayor good evening Council I was tasked with some data collection to uh request in filling our vacant fire inspector position I have all of my data if I may give it to you all and show I know you're on a rooll but if you'd like to sit at one of the tables you can do that as well that's fine too happy stand
perfect thanks Sean no she's not here tonight thank you thank you thank you thank you so within that packet you'll find a whole slew of data starting with a cover letter
beyond that will be all of our periodic inspection so that's everything we've completed initially uh for the year 2024 it's more of a visual aid I don't expect anyone to read it there will be no test later I promise thank you um it's really just offset a visual aid to show how
much work the bureau has undertaken in the last year and how much really in fact just remains following that is all of our reinspection points and then beyond that are all of our smoke detector and carbon monoxide certificates for resale homes to to sum that all up we did 298 periodic
inspections last year 223 Yu inspections 136 change of sale occupancies with a total of 657 inspection points we completed last year and that was with myself as a part-time inspector uh Fire official deont and Shelby Taylor as a
part-time inspector um beyond that sorry I lost my place here [Music] and one more there we go uh so salaries for the
for the 20 year 2024 was a $177,000 Fire official salary inspector Taylor gross $226 myself $842 uh technical assistant Amry Wells $
5,182 and pener Della Jr $416 he's on payroll for emergencies only um in case no one is available for response that total $537 and a little bit of change left over in our intake our registration fees for 2024 was
$27,400 permit fees $925 our life Hazard use rebate so we get 65% as long as the fees are paid from the state division of fire safety $2,513 40 for a grand total of
58678 and some change so we have about $5,000 in wiggle room give or take for hiring another position beyond that you'll find the Personnel activity reports for the entire year the excuse me the inspection numbers and permit
numbers attended by each respective inspector the totals the average hourly excuse me the average weekly hours worked and doing the math the bottom number is the inspections per hour to maintain the exact same Pace as last year and each inspector if it's just
myself and Shelby we have to do one inspection per every hour we work which in my opinion professional opinion is just not a feasible Endeavor it's ambitious but it is not feasible you'll find that for myself for Daryl is in there as a
reference point um the Fire official is a very administratively intense role that's more just to visual aid to show that you'll also find the percentage breakdown of each inspector and the percent of work they completed
throughout the calendar year um I have completed approximately 35 and a half% and shall be completed approximately 63.5% of the total workload for the year that is with Daryl being the Fire official and all of the administrative
responsibilities falling onto him beyond that I know it's a lot of numbers on a small page basically just compiles everything I just gave you into one page I can email this to you if you'd like just to highlight a couple of data points right now registration wise in
our RMS database we have 993 total registrations and last year as we can see we didn't get to all of them I would love to but it's unfortunately Staffing uh you'll also see our invoices build and our invoices collected Andor were
settled for penalties uh there was a gap of about where am I here I'm sorry I lost my page there was a gap of about $9,000 in registration fees not not paid or not
collected and I believe it was $2,000 in permit fees which is one of my goals for this year is I'd like to ensure the businesses are paying their respective fees they're there to offset the cost of our operations as a department in the back Sean that's an
administrative function more collecting those on that's an administrative function collecting sending out late notices making sure they're input into the computer it's aditt it's the fire official's responsibility beyond that I talk a lot about responsibilities you will find the 26 responsibilities listed
for the Fire Fire official per the division you will also find the eight responsibilities listed for the fire inspector as if giving it a quick glance the fire officials responsibilities are incredibly administrative administratively intense um I would love
to go out and do inspections while working I'm just I haven't left the office since I've been appointed on January 23rd because I'm so administratively bogged down and I don't think it's fair or sustainable for Shelby to be out doing the entirety of the field work um it's going to burn her out and
it's just going to ultimately it's it's not a sustainable um model so I come into this position I know it was a very recent appointment I know it was a very it's new for us all I come with a business first mindset I want every business in town to succeed I want them all to be here for years and
to thrive in doing so I also want them to be as safe as they possibly can and just by the numbers I provideed to we haven't gotten to about 180 inspections since 2020 that's as far back as I went um ultimately because of Staffing we're
we're part-time everything in town is or everything in fire prevention is part time and there's just there's really no workaround for it um the only way we can offset that is by by Staffing um let me just make sure I hit all of my office points
here and um it's pretty much it yeah my position now is a incredibly administratively intense and I can I'll supplement in the field where I can the on the next level of escalation if an inspector can't you know gain progress with a business but I
need an I basically I need another staff member to offset the workload thank you Sean so um I have a couple of questions for you please absolutely all right um and I knew I I will tell you in advance that I know quite a bit about
fire inspections from my late husband telling me every day about different things so you came here today from I'm sorry um you came here today for a
asking for a a fired Spector correct um now maybe you can you can tell the um de here there's permit fees correct and then there's fines yes the town gets
which one um the answer really is neither the all fees we intake go to the operations of the fire prevention Bureau that go into a trust account which one are you saying uh registration fees okay so
registration fees permit fees home resale fees all go into a fire prevention trust and that's to offset our operation costs um in theory if an inspector the new hire hopefully Works eight hours a week they would take my hours and it would be a net zero across
the board I would like them to work more if they can give me you know 12 to 16 hours a week that would be able to accomplish a lot more in the course of you know the bi-weekly um I am working I have sent it to Town Administrator a couple of ordinance changes to try and
intake a little bit more fees to offset any any wages we may may have the state reimburses um from what I understand the state reimburses for salary and wages they they actually give a portion of
what is is put into the budget and it's part of an emergency portion that the state has to give for fire um officials and in inspectors that and that is for the salary and wage part of it okay um usually from what I understand and maybe
I'm wrong correct me if I'm wrong but I understand that the the um the the uh the F the fines stay within the fire Bureau correct to be used to run any extra that you need yes
cor so the fines so any penalties we issue your's dedicated and dedicated penalties so the fire prevention Bureau retains 50% of the penalty and that's for um it has to be used for the advancement of the bureau so really it can't be used to offset salary or wages
it cannot because you're funded by the state we have to get that when it's sitting on the budget when you're looking on the budget I think it's something like 48,000 and the state or 51,000 the state came in and gave 48,000 so that little bit would then be required by the taxes and or on the
budget correct that is you have to kind of wipe one off with the other because the state is giving each municipality a certain amount for your services Protection Services okay I'm not sure if you're learn something new today you can ask you know you can ask the CFO if you
curious about it but um I'm always under the impression and then you had from the budget that I saw was you know 15,000 in extra costs right so what I understand is that that you
have a fund which I think I I would like to know what did you say was in that fund that would be for the penalty how much is in that uh there's two technically there's three accounts there's our general fund which is all of our registration and permitting fees and the life Hazard use rebates there's our 212a which is our
penalty account for fire prevention that's for the advancement of the bureau if we want to make a capital purchase of upgrading a vehicle or the fire department needs a vehicle upgraded it's reuse for fire safety education materials so things such as that that comes out of the fire prevention is
penalty money penalties fire department get retains half of the penalties and they're free to use that for equipment training the fire department the fire department will get half as well so say arguments say hypothetically we issue a $1,000 penalty 500 goes to the fire prevention Bureau for advancement of
education and such and the half goes to the fire department for training and Equipment all right I mean I looked at the budget and I do see that and a lot of towns have this Sean and I don't know how you implement it how you're going to implement it here but it does give uh
fire inspectors a certain amount of hours that they could cannot work a week so up to 15 hours up to 20 hours because you're looking from what I understand at a a salary position here no I would be hourly I'm sorry hourly I'm sorry your
salary um hourly which is between 20 and $25 depending on the Experience One understanding right correct so there are municipalities that say well you can have you know three fire inspectors um but no more than 10 or 15 hours a week
because you want to look at what you can keep in your budget and basically what it is from what I'm saying it's my opinion what the state is giving us for reimbursing your salary and wages we want to try to if possible stay within that realm of course um and then the
extra money that you get for the fines right that would be used to help the fees we pull in can be used yeah the fines the fines you keep the fines we keep and that's for the fees come to the the fees come to the to us and then that can be used to offset any you know
deficit can be but the fines you can also use fines we cannot you can use fines for fire fire related stuff that you need there for yes for equipment and stuff we can't use them for w education you just said it yeah yeah we can't use fines for wages is what I'm saying you
could no you can't use it for salary we cannot use them for salar salary so we're understanding yes yeah I make sure we're are strictly for like Capital you actually thinking of um doing anything that would be you know up to 10 15 hours a week or you looking at anything like
that um I would like him he or she whoever it is in a minimum of eight that would offset the hours I worked and that would be able to maintain the pace of last could hear eight eight minimum of eight eight per week per week that's what I worked and that would be able to keep the same Pace as last year we they
hopefully have daytime availability so it's a little easier to flow from business to business so they may be able to get a couple of more things accomplished but if I can squeeze 12 to 16 out of them that would be fantastic and keep it within the salary and keep
it within the salary that's that's the key right there we have to look at our budget too right we have to look what giving you also exactly so I mean this is something I don't know if you want to consider and this again is my opinion this would be something that I know other towns do they keep a certain amount they say okay this one can work
you can work 10 hours you can work 20 CU I see the difference you have here in the salaries I see that Miss Taylor has 22,000 yes that was uh prior to my regime that's the right word to use I'm not I'm not backdating this but I'm
looking what you gave me as information right correct so you have uh miss Shelby uh Taylor at you know 22 she would work approximately 16 hours a week she did 16 hours a week and then you you were a lot less I was a lot I was less in wages and
less in hours work as well right you did eight and yet you're telling me that even with the eight that you did and and Miss Taylor doing it you were not able to complete last year's inspection we got everything we needed to complete for the state done but there's a hand there's about 180 properties we haven't
been to in about four years is it supposed to be inspected within so many years in a perfect world we're supposed to get to everything every year but the state minimums are life hazards have to be completed well definitely life hazards understand that that's the minimum I would love to get to
everything every year that's that's the it's a it's an ambitious goal um but it's I think it's doable if there's three people on the staff it's doable well you know I I know I looked at the salary I looked at the I'm sorry I looked at the budget with
the salary and the wages that the state gives us for that I did look at that um I did look at the difference you had last year to he I know that you are uh taking over this position at the salary that was stated last year and um you know any body else have any questions
for for Sean not this time it's a lot of information I thank you for putting all together I'd like to review it absolutely can take time yeah nothing from me mayor thanks so much for being here of course so we I guess um Mr Pinto what are we going to be doing on this
one next you're going to do we make a want to vote what do we want to do on this one now I don't want to force Mr uh triny's hand because I know he say there's a lot to review but yeah if we could get a resolution on to at least allow us to look into the position and you know we've already
advertised we've already advertised you have started advertise okay and the salary that you're advertising is at 20 25 yes depending on experience correct and um I mean we could we could do a resolution on that can we do a
resolution on that too uh so you to hire or just to conduct interviews no just to conduct so we would just conduct interviews at this time we have no specific candidates I don't think we need a resolution right no you could just have a motion to authorize the interviewing of whatever
candidates have appla you don't need to do you can just have a motion how about that you can do that now yes do it now sure all right so can I have a motion to authorize to have interviews for this
position I'll make the motion thank you may second I'll second committee woman Ora yes Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee men trinsky yes and mayor judge Cella thank you yes thank you Sean right we'll go
further from here thanks so much and this is a lot this is a lot great work before Sean leaves do you want to talk a little bit about the fee schedule at you yes I was looking I know I a rapid getaway no you can't leave it I don't have that paperwork with me uh
but I have been in talks with Town Administrator of possibly re revisit in our fee structure it hasn't been updated in approximately 10 years and it it's due um it would be a relatively nominal fee basically everything would bump by about $15 so Sean you looked at other
towns um and you did a comparison in that other Town comparison did you see a bump up of $15 approximately yeah there's we're very comparable as we currently are with Maywood Saddlebrook is about $30 to $40 more um I think Carl
that was the other one I looked at they were about that 80 to $100 range basically everything's falling from 75 to $125 and you had you had Midland Midland Park Midland Park as well they're uh again about 85 I think their number was off the top of my head um
we're we're we're due for a fee race it's been 10 years and again those fees are only going to offset the cost of operating the department so the more money I can generate and I don't believe it's a burden to local businesses I don't think $15 break it down over the
cost of a year is an extra dollar and change a month basically we would go from 70 to 85 and whatever the progressive steps are the information it was forwarded to my office I believe I believe I believe the end did yes sir correct so if the if
the council wishes I can put it in an ordinance form and then you can decide whether you you know the ordinance says prepared is enough you want to make it less or more but at least you'll have a document in front of you and you can make a decision if that's how yeah that
would be fine I think that everybody can review that maybe we can get it sooner and then you know by the 26th probably the next meeting we could give you an idea sounds good if that's and then actually probably both with the interviews and perfect and uh and uh with the fees that you want to increase
but thank you Sean I appreciate everything all right anything else before you leave I think I'm good I I in for other questions all right did pretty well great appreciate it all right so here we go shry commission oh there's Michael how are
you don't [Music] mind we're going to sit sure sure not going to stay long we're going to sit again so I just want to say this discussion is about um we're we're introducing an ordinance here that's uh
121 18-25 uh which is in accordance to establish a shry commission because we already have a shry committee so I asked if you could come and a little bit hi hello mayor how are you hello Township committee I'm Michael Warren um I'm on
the shry committee and the chairperson and this is Liz Stewart she's the town arborist um so I you know we know on the docket tonight you'll hopefully be moving forward with the shry commission um we thought it was like in the best interest of the public to just come and
maybe talk a little bit about the Grant I know Dave myself uh Dean and Liz mainly Liz uh worked very hard on doing the all the paperwork and I thought maybe the public would like to know exactly what that Grant is for and how
it might be utilized and you know how being a commission might help get us that Grant uh to begin restoring the Shay tree canopy and then obviously if anyone had any questions Liz is really just a super duper expert on um all
things shade tree commission she came to our shade tree meeting last month um in January um so um we thought this would be just a nice time and in the public view just to kind of get some information about those things so where
do you want to start good you want to start want to start with the grant sure all right so you're applying for a grant hi I'm Liz Stewart AR certified ERS um you're applying for a grant for a Community forry Management plan and this would be your first plan which is a
five-year plan with the state of New Jersey the urban forestry um and it's basically your plan your tree plan every five years you would renew that so this is your first one which is exciting um what that does is once you have that plan set every year you put in an annual accomplishment
report and what that does overall is it can get you grants you know it gives you money it says that you're committed to a program and it can bring in money the other part of the grant is a tree inventory and they're requiring a tree inventory be done in some way or form to
have a management plan and to get grants so it could be as little as this one section of town we just kind of looked at it and there are this many hazardous trees and we're going to take care of them or it can be a full Street and um Town invent ventory so you can do anything that works for you but there is
a grant for 15,000 to help you just get a street tree inventory which would cover your entire town so it's worth looking into thank you you know we want to make sure also that um that the members of the committee up there and the public um
know the difference between the the the shade tree committee and the commission we really want to stress that um in any of these types of U commissions it's a collaborative effort you know I know that when people get a little um hung up on well who's really in charge of
planting the trees it's strictly collaborative there's you know um there's no one person to dictate to Dave Brown and his crew we you better plant this tree right here or else you know Dave's a part of the committee you know he missed our last meeting he was uh
just under the weather but um you know Dave's a part of the committee he you he'll come to the meetings I think it'll really streamline our communication last year the communication was a little bumpy we didn't have meetings we didn't really have any kind of uh
Direction um but um we're hoping that with the monthly meetings um you know the communication between the DPW the township committee and the the volunteers of the shade tree commission really begins to you know uh move
forward in a positive direction um anything else about the you guys have any questions I don't know it's like just want to make sure get gets to say what they have to say I have a yeah I have a question Liz I know you were part of the River Edge shade tree commission
and uh I recall reading that you helped bring in $66,000 worth of tree planting grants in 2022 if I have that correct um that yeah that's correct as a commission we wrote Our Own grants too me and another girl on there because we had the experience
but a grant writer can do that um we also brought in 135,000 for a grant for trees for schools the following year um because we looked out for that and I actually sat I guess it's a conflict I sat on the on the committee that approved the grants and we really looked
for um we were looking for who had good groups and there was only a certain amount of money to give out and if someone had a commission over committee they would get picked over someone else maybe too so it can bump you up not for every Grant if there's enough money for everyone you're going to get a grant no matter what you have but yeah you can
bring in you caning bring in some good money with um with having a good tree plan and a management plan oh great yeah and uh Liz what core principles have you observed that make shade tree commissions both effective and
sustainable you know honestly I've seen both committees and commissions do good work you know I think legally though under State Statute you do get a additional liability protection immunity immunity and
um it's you know there is the Tor claims act that also gives you it but this immunity under sha Tre commission specifically gives you um heightened immunity in case of you know for liability um and if you see any of your insurance forms come through they'll ask
you specifically was it a dead tree was it reported do you have a shade tree commission yes or no if they see yes they almost will take that and just put it in a different category and say okay you're you're good if you don't have a commission you could be more liable you know you're in a different category so
it gives you a bump up is that yeah that's how I read that um and it also gives just a commitment to your program and it gives a commitment to the volunteers and to the DPW and everyone can support each other in theory you know as long as everyone's talking and building a good Pro it's about the
program that you have and the people involved it works great the the Committees I know of do really good work but they have no they don't have a foundation they don't have they don't always have people like standing up behind them and since they're not a commission they can't do that much they
may not take minutes they they don't really get a budget they're not taken seriously they're like the last on the list for everything um and you know these are your community members so you want to give them as much support and as a commission you're giving them that support to do the best that they can
I've never seen a commission overtake their powers you know like I've never seen them say we're the commission we're going to make ordinances and we're going to do this I've never ever seen that I have to say the the difference between this year and last year I have to Echo Mr Pinto the level of Engagement from
this uh current Township committee um I think it's going to be a driving force um the liaison is the Deputy Mayor um and he is actively sending me things to look at and uh and vice versa when it comes to these these types of topics
again you know we're just Town volunteers I'm not a I'm a tree expert you know that's why I call Liz and Liz has been great um so you know uh we're finding our feet we're hopefully going to have some Arbor Day stuff coming up um and uh but you know I also signed up
for the core training uh so um I'm all set to take that class it's a five week class I'm so looking forward to it um can't wait um but it's essential yes I know I'm I'm doing I'm going to love every second of it um so I mean you know
um we appreciate you guys reconsidering this again most of you up there know this is something I've been passionate about just this past um weekend we had that snow um and uh one of our neighbors came to fix our spark plug on our snowblower I made a video about it it
was taken down you might you may have seen it you may not have seen it um but they came and um uh he's a walker in town I see him walking his dog he lives up on West dois near uh ralev so I asked him I said oh hey he didn't know who who
I was shockingly um and he said um I said to him hey I see you walking all the time what what's one thing that we could do to really make walking better in rochell park he said plant some damn trees so I asked him why he why he said that and he said he walks it's hot
there's no shade cover there's no beautification it doesn't you know he wants clean air he wants less water on on our streets all the things that you guys all know I've been talking about for a very long time up here so um but that was his number one answer and you
know a very nice man and uh it just reminded me that you know we have some good to do as a group all of us and uh you know I want to see the park return to Rell Park time so go ahead I have a question I would
assume the shade tree commission would interact also if there was any new developments coming at the town and anyel um I believe and I'll check with I don't know if the attorney a answer for you on that one I know the shade tree commission can uh as well as the we have
we also have an environmental commission um which I'm I'm also on um I know in some towns they combine the two and um the same people who are on the sh Tre commission or also on the environmental commission but I believe they do uh the
environmental commission chair has a seat on the land use board that's a voting member and I also know the Shay Tre commission also gets involved in new projects coming into town you can do that either one of you want to elaborate on that I I haven't seen because I know that was raised as to whether they it
can be combined I don't the statute I haven't seen anything the statutes that allow both to just be one shade tree there's two separate statutes and of course you can have the same people on both but they're two separate entities right and they would have to be
maintained that way if that's the direction thank you for claring finally yes it's the same members but different um commiss right commissions right so and they would have uh well as far as development it's hard to say because Shu commission is exclusively public trees
right environmental so it would be how you set that up really but they would have maybe advise you know maybe advise on a on a private construction or on a project maybe you'd have someone sitting from environmental but CH commission is exclusively really public trees as far
as the state statute goes I believe the environmental feels a lot more with um I'm sorry like plans and things like well they do Bush shrubs and all the other stuff but I think sitting on the um the board of of land use they would
also have to say and say something should come forward M um with a new building or a new construction or something am I correct with that right so you know this this is this where a little bit of a difference comes and I think that's why it has to be divided right and I know people have said well
can we put them together I didn't know there until you know researched it and said okay because we've had the environmental commission here for many many years unfortunately from what I know of I don't know previous people know but it wasn't used I don't know how
many years so we Pat it on the books in other words it's been an ordinance for a while so this would be something that we're introducing as a new ordinance and I don't think anything and this is my opinion I have no problem with having something nice for an environment right I grew up here I remember a lot of trees
but as long as that doesn't raise sidewalks right we're going to have to look at all that and make sure that nobody has tripping Fe problems sort stuff I know it was brought up about um you know budgetary right how do we work this budgetary well we have to look at all the grants that you can get
also correct so you know Mr Miller said 66 66,000 66,000 but then Liz went on to say that they also got $135,000 even that's a lot that's a lot ofy how many how many for trees it's amazing
in one year or how long um the the trees for school's Grant was 135 they were able to get um a watering tank with that and do some tree work also and get sprinklers put in so that that Grant was a little different than the usual tree planting grants for a tree planting
Grant the most recent one I got was Anglewood was about $50,000 that's like 100 trees you know if and you have a much smaller town that's like a bigger city um I'd say a town like orido might be a little more similar they do a tree planting every year they budget maybe
30,000 ho hocus similar to and plant maybe like 50 or 60 trees a year which is you know you could do that or you can just make it into all your projects you do a lot of Street projects correct and just say we're going to budget it into that street project and that's how we're going to start it that's what I started yeah but you should have a tree planting line even if it's minimal but you want
to get something regular started I know Dave was sweating over there Dave we're not planning 135,000 wor of trees we uh we were very conservative in the grant for the tree management plan I think Dave we were all in in agreement you know we're we're going to start small
because you know we are small town and uh the DPW Force you know does have other things going on and uh but we were very conservative with the number that we expect to plan each year with hopes that we can go above it maybe or we just maintain that number but it's a start it's it's a it's something we can leave
to the Future Generations here in town all right like I'm always concerned about what this town will look like in 30 years well who will inherit this something to inherit you know I won't be around forever people in this room won't be around forever but who's going to carry that on I think it's very
important to have some type of Legacy in rochell park for people to take on as new people move into town this telling you yes so um one of the things you said about having a commission is that it if you could expand on this helps towns to
take it more seriously yeah so we've been taking trees seriously for years I mean uh we had you got psng to donate uh trees at no cost to us for oldest street that was a lot of trees corre we've been adding them to
our um Paving projects some of the bigger trees that are unsafe have to be taken down we replace them we've also years before that we were um offering residents trees we were trying to come
up with a plan to have people Point plant the trees on their property rather than on the curb because it was kicking up sidewalks and we've had residents um who signed up for such a thing so we've been taking trees seriously um that is
not an issue in town I think I've been in involved in town with the town for maybe seven years something as a consultant like kind of on the side like sometimes I'm a little bit more involved in it but I think because you have a DPW crew that knows
trees a little bit more than some other towns yes I think you try to keep up as best you can but having a commission you have a dedicated group that is their job almost and their commitment and their passion it's like they're the heart behind it the program so then you have like this heart behind the program that's really promoting and educating
residents about it because I see with some of your street programs you got a lot of push back when you took down all those trees for a street you go around and people like well I don't want another tree because it was this problem and there's no education in and there is no one behind that you know like who's going to be promoting that you have
someone doing a job that has other commitments you have people in the you know in the administration or somewhere they have other things going on this is a dedicated group for trees that is what they do but so is the committee so I'm not clear on the difference can I jump
in here can I jump in too please I was just going to say I mean I I think Mr Warren said it at the beginning that how many times did the shade tree committee meet last year none how how many times did the shade Street committee liaison reach out to you to inquire about
meetings or orchestrate meetings none so I think that's what they're referring to to the lack of seriousness about resen voice and how our town looks I see that often with other committees too they get forgotten the Committees get forgotten is like their side thing they don't have to keep minutes it strictly they don't
have to keep track of their budget really they don't really get a budget um you might do that differently but you're here now you might not always be here and someone else who comes along might be like well they're just a committee goodbye but they don't get as much if you're a commission you have to have
rules you have certain rules and you have commitments and it's a little bit of a higher thing correct I mean we have a a recreation committee and they do take minutes and they put on a lot of events in during the year is doing it but they don't have to right so but if
you have a commission they need to be doing that there's there's they have to be following a certain protocol and they and they want to do it so it's not guaranteed you're right like you could have either group and yeah we have a lot of committees in town and they're very effective so for you to say that it's
not effective I'm just not understanding because we have not as it's what from what I see it's not as effective if I see an environmental commission who's running the trees they're not as committed to trees if I see a shet tree commission they are very dedicated they know what their job is shade tree
commission if I see a shat Tre committee there's always a feeling of like not really being respected or heard as much but they can you can get a lot done it depends on it depends on the group really but you have a group asking for this and they're ready to to help you
and to promote you what you want to see and what they want to see as residents um and I see like you have a good group you have a great DPW that's doing their job you know you do do good work you have an Administration that backs it up to a certain point so you know you could do what what your town needs really I'm
just here giving you what I see from other groups okay thank you yeah but it's great that you're doing that yeah you're ready for the next L go ahead it's question more for Mr scatino section 7 it's not a concern again a
question I just want to make sure that that's in line with the new tree ordinance that we passed last year I don't want to diminish any penalties that were required under that ordinance last year and if anything maybe change the section s to match that because I think we have some more little more
strict Powers when people remove trees without permission and I just want to make sure that they're in line that's all bring Mr I I didn't see that ordinance so I I can't answer it is or it isn't but that should be looked into before this is adopted and if if there's
going to be significant changes then we should hold off introducing this until the next meeting because then you're going to have to re-advertise I I Dave I don't know if you got a chance to look at this but I think the new ordinance actually has more teeth and why not give the commission the teeth that that ordinance has or at least bring them in
line together yeah I didn't read it it almost looks I mean honestly the State statue is going to overwrite anything you put right so you it looks like you mimic the state statute I Tred to yes which is great because it's very basic it gives you leeway and as long as you follow that which section you
looking oh yeah so that's so basically if someone damages a tree you're gonna you're gonna um make them pay for the value so of the TR plus any penalties on top of that so if it's like a big Oak that could be worth like $25,000 right
yeah that actually okay wanted to make sure let me just clarify that um Mr Pinto you're talking about where um Dave had to go and check the trees before they were taken down is that the one you're talking about I'm sorry if someone damages a tree or tampers like
right Dave had to go out and inspect it because that was the D that came and said okay this is new the state says you have to do it that's the one you're talking about correct but this is a state statute that would be is that what you're worried about just want to make sure that they're we're giving the commission as much teeth as that so yes
the weed set up your commission that one is for your storm order regulation okay right that's right yeah so it's a little different than that's for private because we hadm perfect that's why I was the question public and that's private and public and so we're okay with this as far as it's concerned because I didn't know that was under the storm War
that's why I saying wait a minute why were you asking that so we had to put it under because D came correct and said we had to do this and then we had to create that right correct okay we're good okay Mr Mr um trinsky did you have something yeah so
uh I appreciate everything that's been said so far and I realize that in the moment in time that we are right now right all the intentions are perfect right we have a um Dave Brown who's Superior at at working with together with the trait but
if something should happen and our time goes on and you're no longer on the commit maybe Dave is you know in Hawaii on retirement and you know whoever is here if if if we're not getting along and we're not talking um to each other is
there any oversight at that point from do we have oversight on that you can abish or the town coun we can abolish it right at any time if if the committee decides that they want to abolish that ordinance or change anything to the ordinance you you could bring that up and bring It Forward you're allowed to
do that yeah okay I and again from from a logistical concerns you know being a licensed plumber and doing a lot of mechanical work one of the biggest offenders of everybody knows one of the biggest offenders of utilities are deep proceeding roots and U Mr bonf has brought up uh a great system for
containing roots on on trees and but again having as long as everybody is is working together and collaborating it's it's you know it's not a problem but I've seen the other I've seen the other side of that you know being on the work end and uh you know and just just want to make sure that we have the ability to
undo something that has been done or have some over you guys always have the power to do that so um we've changed that a few times on different ordinances added take and deleted we just we have one in here that's taking out for the EMS building right we we can do that we
do have the power and and we never want to see that not because I really believe we all have a shared interest in our canopy so we should be definitely be making every effort to to restore that you know in a a responsible manner uh especially for the size of of of our
town our Workforce and of course our budget so you know um there's no uh you know no one is being unrealistic about what we are expecting to try to accomplish so I do appreciate your time for that I mean I see that know it's a
five five member two alternate on the commission that's what I have here okay so it's five member two alternate that actually fact mrtin just you know looked it up made sure we had that right and this is a volunteer position that would you know be looking at thank you for
volunteering for this because you know it seems like we have a lot of volunteers that are really putting oil into a lot of great Volunteers in this town we really do and um you know I actually I I have a person from out of town that said you need me to water something during the summer yes tell
them yes and I okay all right but give my number you know with with with Dave putting the bags around the trees and stuff like that to make sure they start to grow these are little things that I think you had asked some of the residents if they put water in it last year you know to help out a little so maybe the residents can which is which
is great because that's volunteering a time to I don't I I mean if anybody anybody else has anybody questions we can we can vote on it going forward here thank you so much for coming you so much for do Park don't go far Michael don't
go Mich don't go far okay I just wanted to say thanks for bringing up that climate super fund act that's why I don't want you to go too far that's next on discussion please don't leave okay I'm in trouble no no you have to come you you can sit there but I'm just saying I
don't need that so can you talk a little bit about the CL the climate fun so well so um a member of Team Rochelle Park uh Sam I call him French Sam um he's come to a couple meetings but he is kneed
deep no pun intended in the flooding issue um you know from Sprout Brook up to the s to the settle River we have been meeting with assemblywoman Swain Mr Tully um we have been going to a lot of
other towns um Team rochell Park type of uh of organizations um and making connections um trying to get some movement obviously on uh a countywide effort to uh help alleviate or mitigate the flooding
issues right just a small task um but at one of the events that Sam went to they brought up this climate super fund act and uh he sent it to me and asked if I can somehow get it to the township committee so I emailed um Mr pinto and the mayor with a copy of it just saying
hey you know here's some here's some uh information behind it who's who signed on to support it uh I guess it's making its way through the legislature and the different committees um where it would work very much like the superf fund act where you know um polluting companies
would have to commit money to a fund to help towns clean up uh messes from contaminated places and this one would be more attached to climate action um from fossil fuel companies um Mr Pinto
do you want to elaborate anymore I think you covered it all I mean honestly that's what it does and that that handout that you provided one pager was provided to each committee person okay great no we just thought if you guys would just support it what the heck you never know I mean we are a flooding community and if we can you know I think
New York got three million the exact billion but they got some some money and you know we could get some and I can help the T anyway that's the purpose of the organization so did you want to say yeah
I was just uh thanks so much for bringing this to us and I was reading up on it so if I understand it correctly it's almost like if there were large refineries in North Jersey for example uh they might have to pay fees based on their emissions and those feeds go to a
State climate fund and so if we do pass a resolution we could then apply for those funds for local flood projects so I think it's a no-brainer and I think we should do it it's worth a shot especially I know in Rell Park we have a long history and we could definitely demonstrate to the state the
need that this town has for help so keep our fingers crossed well I very much appreciate you bring thank you so much and and uh we're gonna definitely check into anybody else have a question from Mr War before he goes no please don't thank you thank you m have a great night
than you all right let's move on to the open space Grant and I believe Mr Pinto you had said this is about celd yeah I covered most of this um mayor in my administrator report and talking about again it's time to apply for an open space Grant we've seen anywhere between
140 to $197,000 given to us via those grants um I've alternated between Carlock and matthews's field and uh we all know of the Matthews field project will be was funded you know with last year so this year I'd like to do go back to Carlock
and again I'll bring in the assistance of our engineer from cers and walk the park with Dave Brown I go I said I have a laundry list of items from the recreation committee that they want to see addressed and if we can build it in come up with a scope of work and you know cost estimate I'll bring it back
before this committee to you know give me a resolution allowing me to make that application I believe that application is due by March March 30 yeah okay the intent you have to file an intent that we want to file for the but so we have a little time and I know there was it has been brought up at least to my attention
that there's problem with the turf there's some kind of tear I'm Sorry by the playground with the yeah so the playground area um is that rubberized material we've gotten estimates anywhere between 160 to $220,000 to replace it even the buckets
that Dave could buy to make spot repairs is crazy priced and that's through State contract um and you know it's probably time to look at that and again we just left a meeting and you know that's one of the things that comes up in those reports from our joint Insurance Fund as
he you need to look at these playground areas well we did and as a matter of fact if somebody God forbid had gotten hurt or can get HT we have to add address these things we do not want anybody first of all getting hurt or any lawsuits that would come from it so this is something we need to look into um
anything else that you want to bring up about it and if again you know if there's a member of this committee that has some ideas or even the public something you'd like to see down at Carlock field let me know shoot me an email give me a call we can absolutely when we do the walk through with cers
you know look to see what we can do well we also have um a project going there right at Crawfield we're also doing that too that's the current one corre from two years ago that open space project and that's Again The Pavilion um the bot ball court the spray park and uh it was removal of some large trees but just
because of the new ordinance there'll be a replacement of a lot of new shrubs and trees it's going to clean it up a lot great some park benches trash receptacles that's also included in this project that's great thank you um all right cers engineering there you are
hi you a perfect segue m space grants the just hand it right off uh So speaking about the open space grants we deal with them all the time especially with Bergen County uh the letter of intent is the first part of everything and then you get into the
nuts and bolts of it so uh you know as long as the weather holds off I'm thinking maybe next week we get together walk in and come up with a priority list of uh what could go in for the Grant application and uh set it based off of
uh severity and also dollars as well um because with it 150 is probably about The Sweet Spot that that Grant comes in at if you want to team it up with some other types of Grants we can do that too uh we'll just talk about it and see
what's what's out there um and then uh we're getting to understand everything about your town major flooding we understand I must have heard it about 15 times tonight uh and that's only in the past hour so um yeah we we're aware of
it and we can help out with all your flooding needs um it's a process it really is a process and you have to start and hit it hard um the CRS program Community rating system is is a good program to be in for the residents with
the flood insurance uh I've had many communities where I've come into town personally where they have not been a part of that we've signed them up for it and then years later they're going from a community rating of 10 which is a 0%
savings to down to about a seven or a six where you're saving about 20 25% on your flood insurance and a lot of it goes with the uh the requirements through the state for the uh D TI storm
water permit that you could use those requirements that you have to do for that and it counts for your education and everything else for your your CRS program so we'll go through that uh with Dean and and the rest of the team to see what we could do to help out and uh how
it can help the community uh and then we'll start talking about uh your Paving programs and what we're looking at to do for the really the summer and the fall I I what I Envision is uh start putting together the plans for uh whatever
you're looking to uh build this year and pave this year uh within the next couple months uh maybe have some uh information on for the next couple uh agendas for um design and so we can move forward with that but I just want to uh you know meet
with Dean and go over the different items with the DPW as well work off your priority list work off your budgets that you have appropriated or what you're looking to appropriate and uh take it and run from there okay I'm sorry you're from callers could you tell everybody
your name please oh I'm sorry my apologies my name is Carl O'Brien Carl so this is our new engineering uh yes so I am it's myself and then there's another gentleman that he's not here tonight uh his name is Ken D Janeiro uh
Ken will be the primary point of contact on the day-to-day items uh I am here as well uh Ken reports up to me uh I handle all of North Jersey uh and lower New York so all those different Engineers report up to me uh um one of the
Beauties about Rochelle Park for me personally is I live very very close and I actually shop right at that shop right yeah so who does that's a common meeting so it's it's a it's a uh it's a good thing so um you know uh we're here to
help and we just want to make sure that every day that we're here it's just one day better than what it was Prior I know you've had some concerns and issues throughout the years with a few things that's why we're here to tell you the truth and uh you know what we were
looking to do is just help you guys out in any way possible I appreciate that thank you for coming any questions no col I've been in touch as well as Ken and I so yeah and then uh with the building department we're going to be working with the building department on
uh some flood reviews with that as well uh we'll establish a a program on how we'll do those reviews what's the important things that we need I'm sor for what review uh flood flood viw yes so uh if a home is in a flood zone what
we're looking to do to help make sure that uh the the uh the home is better protected okay uh so that there is not an issue with you know they build a new house and next thing you know it's flooding again so uh and that actually
goes into your CRS program and your storm water management so it's all it's all tied together yeah James is very familiar with our CRS program I think we six now or five we we're seven yeah yes that's great if you if you guys are
already a seven you're way ahead of the norm uh I was at the flood convention Conference in October and uh the majority of New Jersey that actually participates they max out at about an eight so for you to be a seven looking
to go six you're well ahead of the curve so Kudos yeah we were awarded this year for outstanding that's fantastic yeah you you don't our town is done a lot for you meetings and it's it's very intensive to go through all those points oh it definitely is and the point system
the reevaluation that's coming up is a five-year program and it's a very intense indepth look and every page gets turned so no we've done we've done great work with that so that's that's really good okay great all right so thank you
and if you need anything we're here for you thank you so much have a great night there's um um there's outoor dining here and I have um our building official here and I'd like to just go over that a little bit more with one of the
ordinances that we have on here and that's for regulations under their licensing licensing of and in the committee's agenda you'll see James's revised or recommended revisions and there are revisions on there did see that for the outdoor cafes in the towns of fork so
there's a couple of things could you just kind of go yeah so um you know thank you for having me tonight you know uh this uh is obviously important to uh everybody uh from the township standpoint and for our local you know
dining establishment um not sure how many people are going to take advantage of uh this operation but you know every town is unique in its own way ways different areas downtown areas you know some you
know main thorough fares you know obviously some restaurants are located on you know main thorough fairs like you know West Pake street right here um so I don't think it's something that we might want to rush we might want to take
a deep dive into this and see how we could take this somewhat of a model ordinance and kind of bring it into our own for we don't affect you know or have a negative impact on our local
establishments um a lot of items in here you know it would make it very difficult for a lot of our dining establishments to really comply with um also one of the first things is everyone has to file site plan application with the board
which um is a little intense in my opinion uh so you know one of my first recommendation would be if you couldn't comply with the general stand standards for um public weight dining yeah you can make a site plan application uh but I
totally agree uh for private property they definitely should make a site plan application uh because you you know there's so many different areas on private property where this use could exist um you know and you know obviously
you know it's quite extensive but um and I don't know if you want to go through each item and I don't think this is the probably place to do it but you know maybe if uh you know they can table this and you know we could do a detailed you know look at you know what our actual
you know Frontage is on some of these you know businesses such as you know you know do they have 52 inches even you know and uh there's some contradicting items in here um you know I would think the timing you know we want to kind of sync up with our noise ordinance uh some
of these operations could you know go to 12:00 at night um you know if you have a restaurant that orders a residential neighborhood I don't think they're going to be too appreciative of people you know eating outside till you know midnight um so uh you know my
recommendation and you know having to deal with the business owners when they come in you know I would like to give them you know a more uh positive response and not something that's you know a little uh you know contradicting you know
throughout uh yes no I think it's a good uh it's a it's a very good recommendation to see how it fits into your community the only contradiction though was the 60 and 52 Ines that I saw you you believe there's other Provisions that are contradictory other than that
um yeah there's there's stuff in there about like awnings and umbrellas and other items you mean is it consistent with other ordinances no no no within here within here yeah okay I'm surprised to hear that the only one I noticed was a s but that's that either either way I
think it's a it's a good idea to uh have you see how this fits into your community I would not introduce it tonight because any change is going to require you to reintroduce and re advertise which will be you know cost money and really would be a waste of
your time so I think that uh allow this allow this to go through this process table it and hopefully you can get those changes to me before the next meeting so they can be incorporated into the ordinance and then the committee can
review it and decide whether they're in agreement with those proposed changes and just to get confirmation you know the committee's you know would want to encourage the uh public way operation uh to without a doubt or was
that the intent to put the site plan requirement for all to try to uh have as much to say over as possible just no that was this was the first yeah I know the township committee did not and it's it's not unusual for a
governing body to to say can you draft an ordinance they're not going over each provision and saying put this in or put this out they wait until they get the ordinance okay and then they'll look at it and then they'll say as you're pointing out well this wasn't really fit our community or can we change that so
to answer your question no they haven't oh this wasn't something that came as a result of a discussion that took place the discussion is taking place now okay so I wasn't sure if it came from previous you know meeting when we had boarded up there was a previous meeting Mr de Maria and that was in regards to
uh outdoor um Cafe with with a with the awning and the tent and that's where this all originated and of course with Governor Murphy turning around saying hey you could have from April to November and all that other stuff this is where it all started so um our
attorney here just you know he drafted this for our professionals to look at too to say you know should we could we just like you're doing now there's not a problem with tabling this until even next meeting and we can slide you now I understand we're doing April to November
that's what we're looking at for um where they could they could have this if it if it if the township committee so chooses to do so so we're a little bit on a clock here with that because we're in end of February going into March you have your first read your second read and then you know you're adopted I agree
to table it I don't know if everybody else we can take a motion we can I can ask for a motion to to uh table that ordinance number 121 19-25 for further review um and then it would come back
and that's the Outdoor Cafe in the township of Rosell Park may I have a motion I'll make the motion table may have a second I'll second R call committee woman OTA yes Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee men trinsky yes and mayor judge K yes all right so we're
going to table this till we get i'll survey everything and I'll get this to you by I really appreciate it thank you so much thank you James all right well just I have here um New Jersey property tax relief that this has just come out recently where it's um the
senior freeze if you are resident born before 1959 permanently disabled resident receiving self security and an anchor program they're combining the two and it's called um state New Jersey for
senior uh SE Senor senior homeowners now this will be presented um to the senior at the senior meetings on May 22nd at 1:30 p.m. at the during the meeting and uh but if there's questions about this you have already Mrs Wells has the
information in the office she did get in contact with people we're going to actually she actually has a speaker coming thank you for giving that um to try to it is a senior meeting but anybody is welcome to it everybody can come everybody can come to it and it gives you an idea of how they're
combining the two and I believe it's up to 6500 that you can you can recoup on this but there's a lot of questions and a lot of people are looking at the application saying well how do we do this and and where do we go about so this is something that um might interest
a lot of people there are there is a phone number to reach out there's a website to reach out and we can take a look at that um also on here I just want to say that um we're going to just introduce then the one ordinance for the
first read and the rest would be or adoptions of the others there's other four there right and then we have the other two that we added all right so with that being said we have a motion to open to public I'll make the motion have a second I
I'll second yes Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee M trinsky yes and mayor Judge cell yes and mayor if I can just then go over the ground rules uh if you please uh state your name and the town in which you live
in also each person will be uh limited to uh 3 minutes for comments or questions as to questions uh the uh mayor will direct the appropriate individual to address your questions or perhaps the mayor or committee person will address it itself but all questions
go through uh the mayor uh a question did come up as as to why three minutes and not four or five minutes uh three minutes has been deemed sufficient by our courts when someone challenged the amount of time that they were permitted
to speak typically in communities that have uh several people that are very engaged and attend the meetings the town's limited to three minutes because they want to give everyone an opportunity uh This Town based upon my limited experience you actually have a lot of people show up your meetings
compared to other towns uh which they only have one or two people show up uh also with respect to the time limit as you can see on tonight's agenda you have four ordinances that are for second
hearings so tonight someone could if they wanted to get up five different times and comment three minutes on each time so you know most communities consider that more than sufficient for residents to be able to address their
concerns and of course you're not limited to addressing your concerns at a meeting you could always call the township administrator or I'm sure reach out to one of the committee people so there's there's plenty of opportunity for you to do so one other report I want
to give so I can save uh Miss Boniface some time that she doesn't have to use it up on the northwest Financial issue uh the mayor uh as you know Miss bonface uh for those of you who were here at the last meeting uh asked that this be looked into the mayor directed me to
look into the sequence of events that led to the appointment of Northwest Financial our Township administrator forwarded to my office all the email Communications and the resolutions dealing with the uh acceptance and
approval of the Northwest proposal and what I can report to the public and to the township committee was that on March 19 2024 there was a discussion uh brought up by the attorney the Redevelopment
attorney in in close session uh as a strategy as to whether an outside company should be retained with respect to reviewing or preparing an analysis with respect to a pilot program which by the way is negotiable so that part of the
discussion can take place in close session what cannot take place in close session is then the decision as to whether to proceed and advertize for a professional and that decision should have been made in public as to whether
or not to go forward and seek proposals for a uh an expert in this area uh next on April 10th 2024 uh Northwest Financial did in fact submit a proposal uh that proposal should have been made to Avail available
to the public if in fact anyone requested it it's a public document and it was subject uh to Oprah uh that proposal was then apparently from what I can tell you know I wasn't here so it's sometimes
hard to know exactly what took place but it appears on July 25th 2024 that the proposal was approved but that was approved in close session and that was not appropriate the proposal should have been approved and discussed
in public however having said that and although after the fact and it shouldn't have been after the fact because the company then started performing work before before approval was made at a public meeting on October 9 2024 a
resolution was then in fact adopted accepting the proposal and authorizing the work to be performed which in essence cured the defect in the fact that it was done in close session and should have been done in public so that
being said uh there were missteps in the process it was by the action taking place in October 9th 2024 and although it shouldn't happen at times when a discussion starts in Clos session with this is permitted sometimes it then let's say takes a different
direction and rather than say well wait a minute that part has to be discussed and open sometimes they do continue to get discussed and closed so hopefully that addresses the issue and if anybody has any questions for me I'll be happy to answer from the council committee I I
believe you with a three minutes but it is it is it is my right as running the chair to say you know they can have longer if they want to correct yes okay I just want to make sure that's understood too and I will keep track and I will let you know when there's you have 30 seconds left so you're not just
cut short in mids thank you very much mayor mayor I'm sorry one last thing point a point of order I'm justo sorry I see you getting I'm sorry sorry I'm just noticing in resolution 02574 um the second paragraph it says the resurfacing of Howard Avenue from
Somerville street to patent Court that's actually it should say from James Street and if you turn to the supporting documents the engineers estimate you'll see um the limits are James Street to patent court so just if we could correct that resolution yes and that was actually tabled Mr scatino so I don't
know if there's a different point of order for that to come out yes it a motion has to be made to untable it and then it should be approved as wait what was tabled what are you talking which one of this one was tabled which one you're talking about was tabled uh O2 574 was Howard Avenue if you recall Dave
came up at last meeting and had us that wasn't this it wasn't this one this the one for the B okay my my bed then we haven't the other one's on okay it's there well then let's make sure that that that was tabled so that one needs to be that has a new resolution got okay thank you yes so this one then this
one's just the says Somerville street to pattent court it needs to say James Street okay so wait a minute no no I'm sorry so the one that was cable M that does have to be untable UNT because otherwise it will have to be carried every meeting until you take an action
on it did you change the resolution number on it I will put it back to change resolution so we'll have to go back to that one that's right 25 which change it is 02 02563 so it's 05
on the consent agenda yeah on the consent agenda so 63 changes to 57 yeah 063 should be 057 okay 063 057 okay so just before you vote on the consent
agenda I have a motion to untable that resolution and add it to the consent agenda perfect okay so we're on tbling the 057 and add to it consent got it thank you sorry Michael
please please ready thank you yes hi everyone Michael Warren uh 181 West Old the street um I just want to come up to the mic for two two quick things one I am very much in support of the ordinance to um do the outdoor
dining thing I really think rochell Park could get on board with that um especially in in my mind mind envisioning West P being at some point you know um a place where Redevelopment could occur uh that could become a real
downtown is kind of a street for us maybe at some point Rell lab there a few more homes on Rell lab but um I I hope that you guys can work around the town ordinances that Mr Di Maria brought up to to make that happen um I think it
would be attractive for businesses like that to see that we have an so when development does occur could try to track those places roell Park is a very walkable town in most of its areas and to be able to get to a restaurant without having to get into a car one we
don't want people drinking and driving you know we want people to be able to enjoy our town without having to leave and go to other places to spend money so um I hope you guys really consider that ordinance and uh make that happen within reason and um I really appreciate you
guys taking that up my second thing is to uh Miss uh to the mayor um I know last fall you and I spoke about a community garden couple of locations possible um you know team rochell Park wants to you know have some type of a community garden uh that people can come
whether it's Scouts adults people who are interested and don't have this the public space to have a garden to grow particular types of vegetables or plants or whatever um and we talked I think you mentioned the Nights of Columbus are open
and we kind of the holiday came and but I'd like to know if you know we we could still go meet with them to see if they have space for us to use yes I I I talked to Gil not too long ago I'm going to say about a month or so ago and mentioned it again okay um and he said
absolutely you can reach out to him um I think U also um Mr Santino I spoke to about it and they have a garden area in the back that actually has a watering system in it and the idea that was brought up I mean we were talking about this last year was to have maybe
residents who want to plant something they want to plant flowers they want to plant I don't know pumpkins or whatever they want to plant there's almost like little beds there and it has a watering system for it they were very abused about it but you'd have to clean it up yeah you know break it out get volunteers to do it okay um but to best
of my knowledge they're still willing to do it and of course you can reach out all right well we have a team Russell Park meeting tomorrow so I'm going to put that on our agenda to see if there are people interested and then if we can maybe do some Community out reach um together maybe we could have something at the senior center people who are
interested in that kind of community garden so appreciate that I'm sorry I'm sorry I think it was also brought up the fact that um um you know there's some people in apartments right across from there yeah I'm up no no just one let me finish
because I'm taking your time um uh there's uh people in the apartments that across the street and they wanted to do some kind of gardening and they can't really do it exact I think we talked about that um I don't know how you want to do it if it's you know a multitude of people on a first come first serve basis
but again you guys we kind of sort that out so it's at least an area to start I just want to make sure it was still available I believe so thank you very much okay anyone [Music] else than ver Ral Park um just three
quick things first I know a lot of people might mention it but the D W I just want to come in they have been doing an awesome job between the past few snowstorms I mean you get up and the snow was already off the street and I'm on the side street so I really appreciate it da the work you guys are
doing um also um at the library meeting last night a decision was made um starting in March the first Sunday in March um the library is going to be open on Sundays also this is something that a few residents have definitely expressed
an interest in so we're going to be trying it from March through June then and see on the interest that comes but we're also thinking of doing is changing some of the programs that we've run week nights or Saturdays have
some of those on Sunday because people a parents I should say that are working might not be able to get their kids there so if they're hopefully off on Sunday it might give them more options to come so as I it's just going to be 12:00 to 3 for now um just as a beginning and we'll see
if there's a bigger interest we can always expand the hours but you know we're going to see how well it works and hopefully a lot of people will make it there and you know enjoy it and my last thing of course I appreciate the committee and the police supporting us
and if there's anyone else who wants to buy tickets for the spaghetti dinner please let me know sorry thank you it helps the scouts and they do appreciate it thank you what was the time in date for that please it is uh the dinner yes on March 22nd and
there's two seatings 2:30 to 4 and 4:30 to 6 they're held at the legion the same place we've always held it and 46 is the second one right 436 436 it just gives us that half an hour to kind of reset the tables and Dean if you could let I know your officer is coming in fact
tomorrow to pick up the tickets for me but if you could remind I'll tell them tomorrow but just remind whichever officers are on that day um um two years ago they came and they appreciated being able to take out we did do that last year but I don't know if they all came
so it's just an all an option for them they can well for anybody we doing takeout but for them if they're on duty they can take it and you know we we fill the boxes for them than you thank you thank you anyone else sir thank you for looking into the
northwell financial last year I figured out a lot of stuff was in closed session that didn't belong there okay let's go into this we're going to talk about fire prevention in 2018 when I sat on the township committee I was looking at the bills
list and I saw a large purchase come out of a trust account so what I did was I looked into it sorry sorry started over just keep going I just keep going over
yeah um anyway I looked into it I took a lot of abuse from a volunteer group in this town but what I found out was the funds do not go into a trust account the funds that are paid for the
fees they go into the general funds of the town to pay for the fire prevention but they don't go in a trust account it ended up being 2 $50,000 in a trust account that was a slush fund it was a slush fund people admitted
to me it was a slush fund and I took abuse Beyond abuse right Gail so the penalties go to them I didn't know they get split between the fire department so that's stuff you may
not have to put in your budget if they have enough penalty money but the one thing I want to say is I have my paperwork for this home the the fire prevention department didn't make money for a lot of years it was
didn't did not make money okay didn't even cover itself those departments building department um fire prevention they should make enough money to cover themselves the taxpayers should not be
paying for those departments so if it's not making money it should be a shared service just like the court I've said it time and time again they should be shared services the other
thing Chief I asked you last time I brought up that um there's an extra police officer hired is that true in 2023 you had 23 officers how many do you have now including yourself
24 thank you so you misled this Township committee when you told them you were filling a retirement you weren't no you were not officer llamas was hired as an additional officer based on the township committee's approval of that and then when we did you let them know he was a
new officer adding on to the 24 were you told so Mr Miller were you told that this was an addon if I recall that was at the February 14th meeting last year they they showed the body cam footage as a
rationale to add an officer so that was um when we made the motion and it was approved to look into hiring another officer if I'm not mistaken correct my understanding was time and time again we heard this was to
fill a retirement right in this meeting the most current hire was to fill a retirement but the pre you hired the previous you hired the retirement a couple months earlier because you interviewed so you said we're hiring him
for the forthcoming retirement so you added a police officer this committee added a police that's correct this town has not grown just because you show a video with your officers cursing up the stairway not acting like officers don't
tell me the rage and all that I don't want to hear it 30 seconds Gail this is for you did you hear this statement from from the Arbiter arborist when you have a better chance of getting
grants when you have a commission you're shooting down something good in town again constantly what have you brought to the table in your five years here you're the senior member here what have you brought to the table nothing Zip Zip
Zip stop ruining the good going on thank you thank you um anyone else please Mr [Music] K jeez I'm
Noto got okay no [Music] Tommy hello Mr kingma hello Dave kingma roell Park Madison one second they're just trying to fix this please I know we have to have what they
on speed dial no it's just that the clock thing is okay I'm sorry please continue okay um at the uh last meeting I had some comments about uh the combining of the two land use boards and
afterward I reflected on it and I I thought I may have sound said something that sounded harsh and I didn't mean that at all the comment was not to get caught in a trap of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing well I went to the uh planning board
meeting recently and I found out that certain tools that had been asked for for years will be provided to the people on the board in a way of a pamphlet of the rules of the town and not and of course that'll cost a little bit of
money maybe a lot of money I don't know but um at the same time it shows that the board members are valued so at least to a certain extent I have to dial back by comment from the
last time no worries thank you and I didn't make clear that it's not always so easy to save money with your administration of land use um a lot of the expense is covered by the applicants themselves to
resc uh the expense that doesn't get recovered is if for one reason or another decisions uh end up in Superior Court or whatever and we know where that goes I do anyway um on the um on the
outdoor cafes I think there's a rule in there um I think it was letter r I'm not certain that we're not turning the outdoors into the smoking room more or less I I hope that doesn't dis I know it's been tabled but I hope that doesn't disappear I don't believe that's going
to disappear Mr K right um one other point if I could I noticed when I was looking up um certain addresses and block and lot numbers on tax mat and I got in touch
with the uh Bergen County records because that's where they're really kept and I found that uh my own house has a new block and lot number but I don't think it might not have been settled yet but in at least the one database that I looked at it was
and um so I checked other things everybody's everybody's uh property is yeah the maps the maps have been updated and no numers so I I know that um we were actually some people were worried about their they weren't going to get their tax bill because it just had the
block you know where I'm going on this right you can see all my yeah I can see this happening but they didn't get the you know the paper tax bill that usually get every month course I'm concerned with that as well and I hope that you watch it very carefully they are they are working with that Mr kma yes and I
think I'm a little bit well known about my obsessions about little little typographical errors or little smidgens of property that sort of are in one town and another and that sort of thing and everything but when I looked at the
database the first very first record is way out of line the first one I'm sorry the first record in their database I hope they revie their work and go over it again um it's it's way out of the line it's right here
yeah I would suggest you reach out to our tax assessor with that information because those maps are pretty much done uh they've been submitted to the state for approval so over here Mr kma Mr kma I would I would suggest I would suggest yeah if you found something that
you feel is that off based please forward it to the tax assessor because those maps have already been submitted to the state for approval well um maybe maybe I'm not looking at the best and that's why I think if you have a a conversation with the tax assessor maybe he'll be able to best
explain it but if you have access to the the actual official one look at the very first record I don't see how possibly a property of real property
land and improvements over the years managed to move from west faake Street to Essex Street I mean what you pick up your lot and it's impossible I think they just changed some of the the the way the map was set up on the numbering but you can
talk to Mr Tai he's our um still till the end of March you know he's an arox assessor tonight as a matter of fact yeah he was yeah he was here tonight um he left a little early but maybe you can you want to you know want to give him a call and find out you know cuz you you
have a a valid concern but well I you know it's not my property oh I understand um but I just worri G if it's the first record it starts off on the wrong foot I hope I hope they're getting it right thank you very much thank you
thank you anyone else hearing see one no one I may have a motion to close to the public I'll make the motion I have a second I'll second okay committee woman Ora yes Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee minnsky yes
and mayor Judge cell yes okay so we're going to go into the uh introduction of wardens now we took the one off we tabled the ordinance for the outdoor dining and now we're just going to have the Sha tree one um Mrs Wells would you please read that ordinance mayor judge
cello ask for a motion to introduce by title on the first read in ordinance number 1218 -25 by way of resolution number 02561 an ordinance establishing a church shade tree commission and it be published in full in the Bergen Record
but notice of public hearing to be held on February 26 2025 thank you may I have a motion please I'll make the motion may I have a second second committee woman ARA yes Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee minnsky yes and mayor Judge
cell yes okay thank you let's go over now we're going to move over to the're table that one we're going to move into the ordinance adoption correct okay so we have ordinance number
24-25 um Mrs Wells would you read that please mayor judge cello ask for a motion to open the public hearing on ordinance number 1214 d25 an ordinance to amend chapter 16 entitled first aid and emergency Squad of the Township Code of the township of Ral Park state of New
Jersey so may I have a motion please to open a public I'll make the motion open a public May the second I'll second committee woman OA yes Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee men trinsky yes and mayor judge CLL yes anyone from the
public would like to speak on this ordinance seeing or hear no one I would like to move forward we have a roll call please just a motion I'm sorry motion I'm sorry a motion pleas a motion may have a second I'll second may have a
roll committee woman CA yes Mayor de I'm sorry Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee minnsky yes and mayor judge gell yes so now we're going to move on to the uh adoption 12 thank you we're doing the
adoption on that um M well would you please mayor judge cello ask for a motion to open the public hearing on ordinance number 12152 an ordinance to amend chapter 21 entitled length of Service Awards program of the Township Code of the
township of russal Park state of New Jersey may have a motion open to public motion second please second committee women ATA yes Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee trinsky yes and mayor judge
cello yes may have a motion to adopt before I do that I'm sorry and I want to just say something so this length of service award program is for firefighters or any EMS that are in the military who are serving and this is under the um loow saap program and also
there they would get their allowance for their uniforms these are veterans that are active military that are actually there and they they go by how many calls you make to achieve your low stap number or achieve your uh uh credits to have
your uniform allowance that's given once a year so I think this is a very nice thing that we're you know everybody's hopefully going to agree to for our veterans that are serving and uh we thank them for all their service I just wanted to say um you know we this is a
good thing happening in Rell Park and we appreciate all the veterans that do everything for us and keep us safe so may I have a motion to adopt this please motion I have a second I'll second and may have a roll call committee woman ARA yes Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee
jinsky yes mayor judge cavella yes thank you so we're going down to the ordinance let's see the okay here is the L use board so it's 12 16-25 would you read this please mayor judge cello ask for a motion to open the public he
on ordinance number 1216 d25 an ordinance establishing a joint planning board Zoning Board of adjustment and amending an ordinance ordinance entitled land use and development regulations of the code of the township of Rell Park may I have a motion to open a public
please motion May second second committee woman Ora yes deputy mayor Mayor Miller yes committee Min chinsky yes and mayor judge Cal yes anybody from the public like to speak on this lus motion ordinance seeing or hear no one
maybe we have a motion to close to public and move on for the adoption of this I'll make the motion second I'd like to discuss sure so um emerging of the boards was tried about um over little
over 10 years ago and it did not work and it was split back apart part of the reason it was um put split back apart was because there were too many um cases to deal with and rather than meeting
once a month they had to meet multiple times a month the I had started on the planning board in um 2015 that's back when they were separated again so they were recovering from that um
also some applications require multiple meetings especially some big ones like across the street went on for months but not just that one we've had a a daycare center that was voted down but that me for months so if you miss a meeting you have to listen uh to the tapes of those
me the recordings of those meetings if you want to vote on that so when um the board members had to meet twice a month because there were so many cases there was a lot of backlog of listening to recorded
um recorded meetings also um you know the tenant reviews that we have actually invite residents to come to speak about the businesses that are
near their homes so um doing away with some tenant reviews would um prevent that from happening um there was one example that there was an office building and residents came we didn't realize how bad the parking of the um
the office building the workers in that office building and even the guests of that office building we did not know because the people weren't calling the police but when they were invited to come to the meeting they would talk about the issues and it actually brought that issue to the township committee for
them to address it with the police but if it wasn't for those kind of tenant reviews that the planning board had that issue would have never been known much less attempted to been resolved um so I think um this needs to be looked at more
I think trying to combine the boards with as busy as both boards are is really putting a lot on one board and it's going to um cause multiple multiple sessions to be needed and things are going to get
lost in in the in trying to accomplish more fighting offens thank you Che great so if I remember and I look back on the zoning last year and then just recently I think there that it was there
was not one of them there was nothing a couple of them there was nothing on the zoning I know there's just one coming up this time um planning had a few but the zoning was not the way that it would maybe used to be back in the day that's the first thing I did check back on some
of that just to make sure that combining it wouldn't be overwhelming not quite sure why you're saying that um you had to listen to tapes to vote Yes so if there's a case that is not in one night
for example there's multiple testimonies and it takes you cannot vote on it if you don't hear all those testimonies correct so you'd have to not read is there not minutes taken for that Al so you need to hear all the testimony
Okay so so miss Wells can go so in in with the bigger um Development Across The Street uh 200 Midland the Self Storage that's going there A lot of times the applicant will hire a Stog
stenographer and she comes and she does the transcripts so if you don't make a meeting you can read the transcript so you can read the if they exist if there is one if not you do have to listen to the to the um CD because of the fact
that minutes are not fortim you know word for word so you listen to the tape but that's true of any application anything but that's whether any board even if you had the two boards if someone missed the meeting you still have to do it right so I don't see the difference but go ahead so there is a difference though because sometimes
these meetings go to very late at night no you can do a time limit on that but go ahead we do but then you would just extend how many meetings there are that there there can be times where you don't have an application on a meeting but with all the development that we could
potentially have coming up you're going to have multiple meetings for some of these bigger projects which you normally would but yes and if you're going to combine it's going to be it's already already on the zoning on I'm sorry on
the planning board we've had multiple meetings in a month for some of the bigger applications and um because they do take they are very timec consuming for the bigger you have um a parking expert you know a traffic expert you have a
building expert you have all kinds of different testimonies to be heard so already even though there are times where there might be um a meeting where there are no applications there are multiple times where we're already
meeting more than once a month and to put that all on one one board when that's already happening with two separate boards the agenda is going to be too much for one board well I don't know if that's the case uh and I I appreciate what you're stating um but I
don't know if it's necessarily K moving in the future the tenant review board part of it was um I know I discussed it and I think the you if you have tenant review for every single tenant review they don't have to stay in ralw park they can go to
Maywood or another town and not have that tenant review there are quite a few places that don't have that tenant review this is something I looked at too I understand with the neighboring I get it but listen if you're from Rell park for long enough and I believe there are people that may apply for these
positions they may know exactly where that location is and explain that that driveway might be too big I attended the planning board meeting this past planning board meeting and it was brought up about a house um being built and the first question I asked was you
the proper was being subdivided and they wanted to build a house on it and I said well how do you get the two driveways how far are the driveways I knew exactly where that house was I knew exactly where that land was and I know what street it was on so I knew I got some of
the details I understand your concern but I believe that's the board um to decide how many meetings they want when they want it I believe I could set up the first uh night for the meeting which I'm looking probably the last week of uh last Thursday of the
month I believe we have um the planning board meeting at that time uh and I think we could if it didn't work and you went back maybe it might work this time there there might be different people on it that may be maybe a little more expertise in things that might help it
move it forward as far as the land use you know I believe this is a good thing to move forward with I think it combines the two you don't pay for two attorneys you don't have to pay for all that you can get things rolling very quickly and if you have to review stuff which you normally would have to anyway so be it
the people that want to put the time in to do that I'm hoping they would volunteer for it that's just my opinion anybody else yeah I'd like the chime in I I I appreciate your comments too Gail I I sat on the zoning board for a period of time where we heard a case over a year that with Harley-Davidson the the
cube smart that went up behind Harley-Davidson what we did was we prioritize the time certain part of the meeting for that case and then other cases that came in for a one shot deal came in they were hurt first or they were hurt earlier they we had to and we had to delegate the time and and
separate it you know appropriately one of the reasons um I think one of the other issues are that i' I saw with in the past was there was a lack of communication between the planning board and the zoning board and there was a
disconnect with if a a developer came in before and made his application before the planning board it almost seemed like I you know I can't say for sure but it almost seemed like if it didn't work out in the planning board bring it to the zoning board for a different angle
on the application and I was not involved with the planning board I was on the zoning board but the disconnect again was there it was something that was denied in zoning came through and you know got all a sudden started getting Bill say how'd that get through we're just in Z and all of a sudden something's going up and say well we
didn't hear anything on that and I you know as being a taxpayer in town and being sitting on the board it's like how do we know know how do we not know about this so with all to your point with all the development that's going to go on I think it's more important to have a streamline of communication with the people that are going to be investing
their time on this board and being the firewall for the town to make sure that these applications come in and are truly heard by you know some open eyes and open ears and not not somehow pushed aside I I just to me it makes more sense
to have a um one board for that reason we also have like any other board we have alternates and if there's going to be somebody that's going to be absent for a period of time that all those alternates will definitely be involved they're going to be sitting on on the day of stew and they're can be very much involved and take that position so if
somebody has to be out for a period of time you know the seat will be filled so for clarification on your comment the the building department determines which board the applicant goes to they don't get to choose oh it didn't work on the
zoning board we're going to the planning that doesn't work that way correct but when the application is re when there's a different angle on the property to be presented it can be presented in a different angle for a different board so
there's been times where I saw in my time on the zoning board application again that I saw applications come before the zoning board that didn't go through or didn't get approved on our board but somehow that project went through maybe it didn't get all the same
criteria it was approaching on our board but it got somehow approved on a planning board level for other reasons so it was a different it was it was very smart I guess L use um legal advice on
how they did that but it was again it was just a disconnect in communication the planning board never came to us and said hey this is what's going on and the zoning board likewise we never went to the planning board and said hey this is what's going on it was like the building department well no what what happens
sometimes is as I think as everybody knows the zoning board he hears D variances let's say someone came in for a D6 which is a height variant and they went before the zoning board and they didn't like the decision there they eliminate the D6 variants and then they go to the planning board right so it
does it can happen and typically it's that what triggers it is the elimination of the D variants or they before the planning board and they say well I don't know this doesn't look too good before the planning board let me change my application and added D variant let me increase the height or you know
something else that's going to trigger a d variant so that's how you can somewhat change shock for what you think is going to be the more receptive board right okay anybody else no okay
Sue we're going to take a do you have a motion in second yet yeah have a motion in a second so you need a roll yeah committee woman OTA no Deputy May Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee uh trinsky
absolutely and mayor judge Cav yes motion Mo pass ordinance okay so we're going to do the township ordinance um adoption uh 12 17-25 Mrs well would you please mayor
judge cello asked for a motion to open the public hearing on ordinance 12725 an ordinance to amend part one chapter 36 of the Township Code of the township of roal Park state of New Jersey this is the recreation just to make it clear this is to increase the
members on the recreation board um so may I have a motion to open a public I'll make the motion I have a second second committee woman Arta yes Deputy Mayor Miller yes committeeman jinsky yes and mayor judge CLL yes anybody from the
public like to speak about this okay hearing or seeing none motion to close the public motion you have a second I'll second committee woman Ora yes Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee man trinsky yes and mayor Judge cell yes
may I have a motion to adopt motion may have a second so all call please committee woman Arta yes Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee man chinsky yes and mayor judge gella yes motion option okay so
now this is for there's two things I want to say before we move forward here the land use uh went through the land use board went through there are uh volunteer forms on the table that Mrs Wells has left if you are interested in being on that please fill that out um if
you want to fill it out now she's here or you want to drop it off you can also do it online you can send it email it to Mrs Wells the second thing is this is two positions open by the way uh people who are applying for the Lan use board um will be we uh have a a short
interview we'll get a short interview um just to see uh I'm moving forward with that second thing is uh this is adding two more positions and there will be there's also volunteer forms up there for recreation once again we appreciate everything the volunteers do we cannot
thank you enough for volunteering your time but if you'd like to be um I believe those are two going to come in us on the board and that'll be two more on the recreation board itself if not the other alternate will move up so this will hopefully give a little bit more people to help Recreation moving forward
and all the activities that they do so now we're going to move on to when we have the resolutions all items listed below I know I'm going to untable it but I got to say this first and then I'm going to table it because we got a lot of changes that came on this all list all items listed below are considered to
be runed and non-controversial by the township committee and will be approved by one motion there'll be no separate discussion on these items unless the Committee Member or citizen are so requested in which case the items will be removed from the consent agenda and considered in the normal sequence on the
agenda as part of general orders we do have to table the one that says uh resolution 02563 correct untable untable it well it should be 057 okay so we're going to do 0572 that was the original resolution
may have a motion to untable this I'll make the motion I have a second second committee woman Ora yes Deputy Mayor Miller yes committee trinsky yes and mayor judge yes all right so may I have a motion now we're going to go from We're jumping numbers here so it's 057 M
um back up to to Z to 62 and then we're going down to 64 no we're going down to 7 71 71 71 hold on we're going down to six let's just read them all 057 uh 62 y
064 065 066 067 068 069 070 then we have 071 then we have the two additions onto here so we have
073 and 074 correct and again for 074 we just want to eliminate the word Somerville and change that to James Street and I believe it's mentioned two times I three times on the
uh and then you got it right corre uh to approve it as amended yeah so we need to approve it as amended to change that to from Somerville to Patton I'm sorry from James from Patton to James Street okay backwards I was going James to James to
Patton Court or Paton Court to James both ways it goes that same road so motion on all right may I have a motion please motion I have a second I'll second committee woman Arta yes Deputy Mayor
Miller yes committe M trinsky yes mayor judge CLL yes so the close session is matters relating to litigation negotiation and attorney client privilege the next meeting our next public meeting is February 26 2025 um of course the judge is always
subject to change we need a motion to go CL a motion please to go in a close session I'll make the motion may have a second I'll second all in favor I how long you going to be I have to make an announcement I don't think that there's going to be any action taken I believe it's probably going to be an hour if
possible okay so the township committee will be in Clos session for approximately one hour the there will be no further action other than reopening the meeting to adjourn the meeting right uh at that time if you're still here you'll be invited back into the council
chamber have ation everybody have ation to you should I'll make motion all favor I motion a minute [Music] I
done thank you guys so much right f