call to order the Open Public Meeting Act 1975 Chapter 23 according to the Open Public Meeting Act this meeting of April 9th 2025 was published in the Bergen record and her moves on January 8th 2025 and
was sent to the Rtown in addition a copy of this notice is been available to the public and is on file in the office of the clerk roll call please committee Aichi present committee woman Artolo here deputy Mayor Miller here committee
Chowinsky here and Mayor Judge here may we stand for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all thank you well welcome everyone we have a nice crowd a big crowd here tonight and uh the first thing is the approval of the agenda may I have a motion to approve the agenda i'll make the motion may I have a second a second
roll call please committeewoman Aichi yes committeewoman Arcola yes deputy Mayor Miller yes yes committeeman Tolinsky yes and Mayor Judge Gaba yes so next on the topic here is a swearing in over of our township clerk and that's
Mrs gina Kim may I have you come forward please with your family if you'd like do you want to record those no that's fine he wants to sit does he want to sit want to sit in a chair oh I love him he wants to run around
that's okay so this stuff that we're going to do that I will support the Constitution and I will support the Constitution of the United States of America of the United States of America and the Constitution and the Constitution of the State of New
Jersey and of the State of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and I will bear true faith an alliance to the same an alliance to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the United States in the United States and
this under the authority under the authority of the people of the people under the authority and partially and partially only help me get to congratulations on
Okay and the next one at least at least one was good thank you thank you congratulations your your family is beautiful thank you
very good we'll get to the second grab that where's my So welcome Mrs kim and she'll be starting a week from today on the 16th we look forward to you being here in our township and moving forward thank you
again for coming and if you want to stay that's fine with your family i know the baby's probably tired right okay so the next thing is the proclamation for autism awareness month okay so proclamation
April is autism awareness month whereas autism spectrum disorder represents a broad spectrum group of disorders that vary widely from mild to severe and is characterized by a different language social interaction communication severely limited interest and repetitive
behavior and whereas the center of the of the CDC studies have New Jersey has among the highest autism prevalence rate in the county country and whereas the nature of autism and other developmental disabilities require a variety of type
of assistance at different points in a individual's life and whereas a variety of public and private organizations and agencies strive to provide quality care support or service to children and adults with autism to enable them to live as independently as
possible and to reach their full potential and whereas each organization has a role in identifying assessing and supporting people with autisms and their families whereas the Office of Autism and Department of Human Services the state of New Jersey provides a central
location to address autism issues now therefore I Teresa Mayor Terresa Judge Crellllo the mayor of the township of Rochelle Park Bergen County New Jersey do here proclaim August 2025 as autism
awareness month april sorry April what sorry April um in the township of Rush Park and encourage our residents to become educated and informed about programs services and opportunities to support individuals with autism so this
is our proclamation for April 2025 next please mayor Judge Pavllo asks for a motion to adopt resolution number 025-125 a resolution to fly the autism awareness flag on the township flag pole may I have a motion please motion may I
have a second second roll call committeewoman Apichi yes committeewoman Arola no i vote no on all deputy Mayor Miller yes committeeman Trinsky yes and Mayor Judge Cavllo yes okay very good
thank you so this is the autism flag motion is moved the majority and here is what will be flying on the flag pole i believe probably tomorrow morning we can get it
up i'm trying okay here we go and this is what it looks like anybody else have a question this is the autism flag that'll be fine thank you to all mayor may I add something i'd like Okay i just want to go ahead announce that the flag was
donated by the Hton family here in Rochelle Park thank you to the Hton family and I'd like to say something a little bit here about the autism awareness let's get my paperwork so today's
proclamation today is a significant day for our township in a moment we are going we went through recognizing autism awareness month by a proclamation and let me tell you this isn't just another proclamation autism touches so many of our neighbors and
friends and family this month is about seeing people who they really who really are different minds ways and experiences of the world but all part of what our community as a whole is as your mayor I want to celebrate our community that
means so much to me i've lived here my entire life i've walked these streets and raised my children here in this town this place matters to me what matters most is that everyone who lives here feels like they they truly belong the
beautiful people in our town live that live with autism they are our neighbors our children classmates who we see at shop browsing in our bookstores or library they're part of our fabric of Rochaw Park and parents and caregivers i
don't think most of us really understand what they do for their children the extra worries the fights with insurance companies the IEP meetings the therapies the victories that might seem small to others but are actually huge these folks
aren't just raising their kids they are moving mountains every single day often without any notice they're exhausted at many times and they're determined and they deserve our support not just today but every day this is why this
proclamation matters it's not just words it's us saying as a township we see you we value you and we are committed to making Roshaw Park a place that is inclusive accessible to where everyone can uh thrive where everyone is
celebrated and feels like they belong because that's the place I want everyone to think about when they say Roshchaw Park is their home so I'd like to ask the township committee to join me in front of the deus more importantly with
profound respect and admiration I want to invite any Roshchaw Park families who have had special need relationship with autism to come stand with us because this moment this proclamation is about all of us acknowledging something important
together it's about saying that in our community no one will walk alone so let's head out to the front of the deis and the Rose Park families who have any autism relationship um please come up and join us thank you
all right hey buddy good how you doing good morning walter you want my hat thank you so much in my office all right so thank you to everyone with um that came this evening uh we're going to
continue on with the meeting and like I said the flag will be placed for tomorrow mr pa administrator has it and it should go up sometime tomorrow um anybody else have any comments at this point yes yes the ice cream social we'll get to that we're gonna get to that we're
gonna get to that yes thank you all right moving forward let's see we have correspondence any correspondence and I think Jen Yes jen yes uh April 1st I received the resignation of Bertha Snyder from recreation she's been on
recreation for about 30 years maybe even longer maybe longer maybe longer she resigned as of April 1st well thank you Commission mr schneider you will be very missed and uh we do tonight i do have a couple of appointments I'll be making also thank
you for the wreck and Mr miller yeah um Access for All is hosting an autism awareness ice cream social event at Hearttoart in Roshell Park the event will feature the ice cream lady with her ice cream truck along with karaoke hosted by me a sensory gym for children
12 and under and a touch a truck event hosted by our volunteer fire department it's all happening on Thursday April 17th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m at 17 Legion Place in Rochelle Park thank you very good anyone else not at this point okay
very good let's uh let's see this is discussion so we have department head budget proposals who'd like to start on that yeah james james all right maybe just sit at the table it's easier if you like yeah grab grab a turn
that mic i don't know yeah i don't know if that's manually turn it on make sure you have a red button lit up on thank you thank you all right we're on okay okay so uh before you you have uh the 2025 uh UCCC budget which uh
incorporates uh code enforcement land use and uh construction activities within the township uh in 2024 uh we had approximately $16,000 in expenditures to uh operate the office uh in the 2025
proposed uh I believe there's about $20,000 uh currently allocated i have uh no capital request for 2025 uh for uh line items uh within my department uh permit software which is a spatial data logic which is utilized to
uh issue permits violations and uh track uh all fees that come into the office uh 12,750 uh telephone which is uh three cell phones for uh an inspector and
uh uh code enforcement and two other inspectors uh $1,750 uh copy machine rental uh 2500 uh $500 for code books uh $500 for uniforms and PPE
uh $1,000 for office supplies and uh 1,000 for other expenditures uh the anticipated increases from uh you know due to obviously inflation on a lot of uh office uh items and uh there's a
slight additional fee uh that might occur for the SDL hosting services and the uh new lead module uh that we use to uh track uh the lead inspections uh we do uh currently SDL is used by six uh departments building zoning laneous
recreation lead and uh code enforcement uh some special future considerations I would like the uh committee to uh possibly uh look into is uh hiring a backup uh plumbing and electrical inspector to be to be utilized on as
needed basis and um acquire software uh to assist with tracking flood plane development permits and outreach uh it's a little costly but they're the only one in the game uh and that would be 12,000 so you know not off the you know not right off the bat but you know in the
future you know we probably you know we'll have to get something you know with all the um new rules coming down so you're now looking at for this budget uh you know look if there's money I I I highly doubt so uh you know this is the bare minimum to keep our you know our
doors open you know with salary and wages I I think we're around 200,000 uh typically we bring in between 300 and $400,000 a year so uh you know we're uh you know very below uh you know you know we definitely pay for ourselves but
that's all I have okay thank you so much anybody have any questions yeah I do um thank you for your presentation thank you for being here no problem um just a question on the code books that's for updates to the code books or is that for new code books and is that hard copies or you talking about digital digital
available so uh you know we you know depending on the year sometimes it's you know last year it was much higher because uh you know the 2021 code you know and changes uh but uh you know it's just uh you know whatever comes up you know we try using the stuff you know
online obviously uh that's available but uh you know it's it just in case you know I think last year we spent $191 uh you know for uh you know the new electrical code and Uh but uh you know this year uh we're
you know not anticipating anything but you know you never know but you know better safe than sorry you know it's not a huge amount but you know just enough just in case thank you no problem anyone else thank you Mr jim no thank you thank you okay let's see i guess the next
would be with courts i see Patricia yeah where are there Patricia hi and I meant to say this but if you could keep it to three minutes that'd be great well good evening everyone for those who don't know who I am my name is Patricia Graowski and I'm a municipal court
administrator for the past almost three years um so the reason why we had to ask for a little more money in our budget this year um is because of our case load um increased and our revenue proves it especially especially
our last month revenue um officers are issuing more tickets they're also issuing more complaints uh recently the court uh went back to resuspending licenses and registrations this is causing a lot of
people contacting the court um to either pay the fine or appear in court um also um our court sessions are heavier now uh and the reason why uh we had to ask for a little more money in um
our budget in other expenses is is because um the more people we're going to have in court uh it means that we're going to have to use um more supplies uh we're going to have to have more interpreters and I guess this is it patricia yes
could you tell the public how much approximately an interpreter is for one session um $225 for for one session one session up to three hours right and also from what I've seen correct me if I'm wrong
but I believe the court's in revenue went up 10,000 compared to last year is that correct for the month of March for the month of March just in that one month yes i So that's quite an increase exactly all right and the difference
from 2023 and 2024 revenue is 45,000 increase increase right correct very good all right any questions no all right thank you so much thank you okay mr greco I see you back
there mr greco is our fire chief evening everybody good evening good evening good evening forgive me i have to read my points off my phone i didn't have time to stop and print this evening um reviewing my budget from last year and the proposed budget for this year i
know we took a decrease however I think we should be okay um I everybody's getting hit that's just our climate right now i just wanted to touch on a few points being our annual testings which is our uh pump testing host testing and ladder testing of all the
equipment it's yearly required through NFPA there is an increase in those testings as well as uh all the companies are now implementing a fuel s searchch charge to come out to us oh so that's uh bumping
the price up a little bit we're seeing in total about $1,000 more than last year uh for all of the testings combined great as well as we've implemented a new software in the firehouse we started it the end of last year that software is going to run
about 7,500 a year uh that's in comparison to our old software was uh just about 4,000 so that's a bit difference but we get a lot more out of this software there's a lot more to it now a lot more use and versatility interdep department as well we can uh
communicate through fire prevention building department we can upload a lot of information and have a lot more available to us at the ready um my other uh my question for you I know I I noticed in the uh breakdown the
LOAP funding went down is that uh just due to removing of the ambulance core i could answer that so it's based on an actual number of um what we need to put in based on the membership and the numbers overall we know what you know
again don't forget we pay the what you've submitted is what we had in budget for this year so we had the actual number does that account for the uh yearly increase it Well we'll worry about that next year cuz again you're you're always a year behind with the low sales we're a year behind okay but
that's the actual number that we had to provide to the company okay based on your chart that you submit thank you my only other thing um I believe it was mentioned earlier and I spoke to my fire commissioner about it uh increase in our
clothing allowance line to add a line for the fire department mechanic yes we have that Mr greco um I believe it was uh we discussed it so I'll discuss I don't know if you were here G discussion on it was
that Mr holtzman at the fire department does a lot of the um mechanical for the fire trucks as well he does a lot of the repairs on the rigs whatever he's able to do obviously he doesn't have a lot of the equipment needed for some of the bigger jobs but he keeps a lot of the
smaller jobs in house which saves a significant amount of money uh the companies that repair these apparatus if we have them come in it's a minimum of $130 an hour labor rate so having uh ex- chief holesman fully certified and able to do a lot of the stuff in house does
save a significant amount of money and this is a stipen position from what I'm seeing here and it'll be 500 for the year correct okay which would get paid out uh same time of the year as the clothing allowance the year clothing allowance so you know just checking on
some of the other mechanical stuff in other towns you know um I I'm I'm guesstimating at this point there it's quite um much more significant in a dollar figure than $500 um um neighboring towns do have mechanics
also they have full-time mechanics through their DPWs we don't have that and because he has experience in this um I think he works full-time doing this correct yeah he's fully certified he's worked for fire and safety they're uh the Pierce manufacturer main dealer in New Jersey and he currently is employed
in the city of Hackinack Fire Department as their department mechanic right so this was just added tonight because it was just brought up a little while ago i don't I don't have an objection but we can actually take a vote on it if you'd like well mayor if I may so what we did
mayor is we put it within the salary ordinance that's before this committee tonight um and we didn't put it under clothing allows i put it underneath the fire department secretary because again it's still a stipen that'll get paid out at the end of the year but that's where we put it we made it a position within the township should this committee agree to
that there's a range between $300 and $600 um max right and low of 300 and that won't be paid out until such time is again you come before us and say this is the person I want this is the number we're saying 500 and then a salary
resolution gets done and that's usually done after the budget passes a couple months down the road but it's it is in there for tonight it'll be introduced thank you so under that introduction it will be the vote so you know whatever decides whatever they want to decide
it'll be there okay thank you thank you if anybody has any questions for me at any point please don't hesitate to contact me appreciate it thank you chief thank you chief okay anybody else so mayor if I may I know I spoke with um
Mr aiche from recreation as well as our through the liaison and I know they've gone through the proposed budget and their proposed programs and they're satisfied with the amount that's being allotted to recreation i spoke to our fire prevention um our fire official he's away at the OEM the current
conference down in Atlantic City but in speaking with him if you choose to have him come next meeting he will but he says again he's fine with the aotment and his ultimate goal is very much like the building department to bring in enough revenue that they're covering themselves anyway that's fire that's
fire prevention correct our office of emergency management coordinator also couldn't be here but he he is going to be asked or he has asked to be on the agenda for um our next meeting there's no other department heads i guess it's me okay do you prefer I go sit at the table okay so again uh and I'll keep it
under try to keep it under three minutes but I do have packets here as far as salary and wages go and I'll give each committee member one of these and it it's basically the cost of services to the taxpayer and I'll keep it simple and these go back to 2018 using the numbers from all the budgets um and back in 2018
the cost of your police department and this includes operating and salary and wages comes to and this was in 2018 it cost the average taxpayer $855.91 per year at $2.34 today and there's a few years in here but
currently under the introduced budget numbers the police department cost the average home $1,10.95 or $2.77 per day and that includes both with the leasing on the operating budget as well as the increase to the operating budget and I know there's been some
questions as to the increase since 2018 2019 there was this little thing in 2020 and I wasn't the chief in 2020 i became chief in August i didn't have anything to do with that budget um but I believe it was reduced down to 87800 then this little thing called CO occurred and CO
changed the world as we know and what did we and like Mr di Maria spoke about the recurring licensing fees and even Mr fire Chief Greco just alluded to it software today runs everything um I have recurring fees which include not only
the licensing fees the software fees um but also our supplies that we order for ammunition first aid defibrillator equipment and those recurring fees added up in 2024 by taking my expenditures i looked at it to $116,100.68 that doesn't
include the paper the paper clips the staples the envelopes mini for records the USB and CD ROMs that we are obligated to provide for those who ask for oper requests discovery requests they all get done through the uh police
department so again um I'm very okay with the number that's provided in the budget i'm I'm I think I actually overall have not at risk sound like Roy Riotano actually do think this is a very good budget overall for the township and I'm very okay with the number provided to the police department simply because
again in 2024 we had to outlay about $11,000 for two new police officers equipment and that would include their gun you know their sidearms their rifles their portable radios their belts their vests all of that equipment get you know when a new officer comes in we we buy
that up front we don't buy that when officers are active we do buy the provide vests that's usually done through some grant money or through bond funding um but again trying to keep it under 3 minutes uh mayor I I am very satisfied with the numbers provided so the deduction in the police department
for the 10,000 is that going to affect the training so my initial thought was when I got asked where would I cut that money was discretionary training and what we still do and will do and no it's not going to affect the training what we can still do so the answer is no the
answer is no but I want I want the for transparency i want the public to hear it we actually use forefeerture funds for that so I have to outlay the money and then I can put into the Burton County Prosecutor's Office to get reimbursement uh those numbers are not going to affect the safety of the residents or the or the the service that
we provide great so last year I don't know if everybody picked it up then um Chief Pinto said that they have to uniform two police officers i looked at some of the I think it was a little closer to 12 12,000 uh maybe a little over and the budget was cut by 10 so
we're not out there's no more police officers being hired this year that I know of knockwood right but um so that really is a little $2,000 um addition to that if you want to kind of do basic math on it but there was a
concern and I and Jim if so could this affect any training it will not it will not it will not so I just want to make sure everybody understands that all right can I clarify that so you but last meeting you said that it would I did so that was my initial reaction was look I
would cut and you said you told the officers that they would have to I would cut discretionary training so now that's they can do that though they can I will still be able to grant training even the discretionary correct okay great anybody
else have questions no okay great thank you very much you're welcome okay so then anybody else here or any other department heads I don't see anyone else here no all right thank you everybody for coming this evening
kathy do you want to speak about uh yeah you know what if we could so from finance if we'll give Kathy for three minutes hey Kathy we're good at this it's not public it's just us so what Kathy's about to speak about is we've been using Unidex here in Rochelle
Park since the year of the flood the right for horrible upgrading to Edmond software which is a system software that most towns use nowadays not many are staying on
Munidex and the Edmond software interacts between tax and finance better than the Munidex software the Munex is two different programs they really don't interact there's no GL that all right now I do a manual GL general ledger
general GL yeah general ledger so this would be all integrated there's reports that are easier for the committee to look at if they wanted to that we can run yeah you would actually be able to see as a department head is submitting their purchase or whatever yeah so
everything will be online the requisitions we can still make paper for you mayor thank you yes everybody will have access to sign one submit to you like paper too i'm sorry go ahead everybody will have access to submit online the approval will be all online
it'll decrease the paper because everything's online we can scan invoices or whatever backup to be attached to the file so that we can reduce more paperwork so I've used it i think it's going to be a
better system yeah so in speaking to Roy if I may Kevin yes and there if I may um in speaking with our CFO we would be able to bond for this because again the cost is outside the normal you know wiggle room within the budget yep to upstart it it's about 60,000 63,000 so
you're looking for a bond for this not right now but we will you know Kathy's here right now cuz it's a 16-month waiting list for us to get it oh about So I'm going to be sitting with the CFO in an upcoming week or two going over some of these bond requests and you know I can tell you the police department is
going to have a couple um cuz I didn't mention it so I I'll hijack Happy for a moment um we talked about the the trailer that we have down at the range is literally was a donated construction trailer it's filled with beehives mold and it's falling over um actually in speaking with an expert that sits up on
his desk in construction were able to provide me with some ideas and thoughts about um what we may need so I the proposal will have that those numbers to put basically a garage structure there so we could use it for both storage but put a split unit so it has AC and heat
so when we do our training cuz we do house a computer down there for the firearm simulator which I invite any committee person member if they ever want to do that you see how quick you have to make a decision um as well as some other small ink that we have to buy a new alka test machine this year at
30,000 we will be able to reimburse that via the DDF fund which is a drunk driving enforcement fund but we have to outlay it and there'll be some technology um equipment that the police department would be asking for can have the funds that are that you're seizing or any of those funds be used toward
this so they could be um but again you have to make the initial purchase okay though matter of fact that firearm simulator was actually purchased through forfeite funds years ago but so any purchase that you do and we've done that so I literally just found out yesterday I
attended a Bergen County police chief's meeting i sat on the executive board and we were talking about it the prosecutor's office is actually going to reimburse us for $2,500 that we were initially assessed additionally this year in dues and fees and that's to outfit the rapid deployment force in
light of the World Cup so I was like "All right that's a huge hit out of my budget but it's not anymore." So why again my topic about changing and what what we can afford this year under our OE I just got $2,500 back so we we we what we can submit through that and I will tell you it's become a little more
increasingly difficult the attorney general's office over the last five six years kind of does you can't purchase guns radios things of that nature um they really they prefer you buy umbrellas and and and shirts for the residents and community outreach things but they will still reimburse furniture
we bought the detective bureau $5,700 worth of furniture last year the town purchased it the county reimbursed us out of our criminal forfeite fund and those criminal funds come from people that are bad people that have been convicted of doing bad things and stealing money that we can't return to a rightful owner because we don't know who
that is right now I I do remember meeting uh with you and I went to meet our late um Congressman Pascal uh who uh yes who um Trump unfortunately passed away but I do remember him at that time
saying that there are grants that we could look at for our police department is there any way of checking with Millennium maybe and see if there's something out there that you could apply for so we're part of a certain part of our service with Millennium is I have access to their portal and they send out if not monthly bi-weekly here's the
newest grants that are out and we continue to look and I I converse with them probably on a bi-weekly basis saying "Hey if there's anything most of those grants though are not going to be listed because they're legislative it's very similar to the the one you were able to help procure through Yes assemblywoman Sween um it happened it
works the same way with the federal government if if your congress person is proactive and and truly goes to you know bang the tables down in DC they can steer money our way those are typically how those grants work so we need to be in touch with our current congresswoman and and you know remind I just talked to
her today perfect and I'll get into that a little bit all right thank you Kathy is it no I just have to let them know as soon as possible to get on the waiting list so whenever you can discuss that thank you got it thank you thank you C thank you
so Kathy um speaking with council we'd have to do a bond ordinance for that and that would have to be voted on i mean we can look into it maybe for the next meeting on the 23rd um if this is I mean it's a 16 would you say 16-month waiting list for this yeah they said between 15
and 18 months okay so I mean you know unless they hire more people they said it might be 12 months 12 months okay thank you all right anyone else nope okay perfect let's move on now to the uh the pump station and the brick grant
um Minister can you just start off with that thing sure it actually pains me to have to come before this public and and this committee um with the information that I have um as you can see and this committee was I kept you in the loop as rapidly was coming in from me from the
the New Jersey office of emergency management uh as well as I attended a international association of emergency managers meeting yesterday uh basically the administration in Washington DC through executive order has pretty much eliminated brick grants and they said if you didn't have your money in your bank
account you're never going to see it i know today there was apparently 1,300 um employees contacted at FEMA by the current administration saying you may want to strongly consider retirement or be rifted which is reduction in force as they know down in the federal government
again in a meeting I attended yesterday they said if you were awarded which we were awarded the 1.9 in grant but no money ever came through that equals no money you probably will never see it uh this current administration is considering a new brick but very far
from certain if that'll ever happen um and even the state police lieutenant in charge of the grants that you know has issued a similar letter which you all have in your packet um basically saying again if you didn't get the money you can still proceed with your projects but do that with caution then don't expect
reimbursement from the federal government so to that end I would just suggest this committee strongly still consider moving ahead on the pump station as far as the elevation of homes grants go I will not tell homeowners to go out and spend money on raising your home because I don't think you're going to see any money from FEMA i would
exercise caution you're more than welcome to elevate the home but it's going to be at your own cost so I asked this to be under discussion because I received this letter I believe yeah April 7th two days ago and it is
very specific you you know it has been cancelled and you will not receive funding so that's 1.9 million that we're not going to receive from this and I did speak to uh Assemblywoman
Swain this morning and I believe it's extreme there's three towns of Bergen County that have been affected by it and one of them is Rochelle Park and speaking with her this 4.1 million that we're looking
to do for the pump station I believe and it is my opinion anybody can comment on should go forward this pump station is in dire need thank you thank you um thank you uh the
the from what I'm understanding and correct me if I'm wrong but I got from the head of the uh DPW our super superintendent that it's pretty much held together and I'm going to quote some words here with bubble gum and band-aids and that's not a good hear or
hearing anything like that is not good so we're going to have to look at this i have fight I will fight the fight i am very good at fighting the fight when it needs to be now this is now going to be on the taxpayers's backs because the president and whoever
else was under him decided that this is not needed now it could be restructured i don't know but at this point we need to move forward unfortunately if we had a pump station go down which is quite old we'd actually from what I'm
understanding you'd have to bring in trucks to pump out the sewage good luck flushing your toilets and that's going to be a major problem it could actually and again in my opinion make this town bankrupt we cannot afford to wait on
this uh I would have loved to I I mean we worked hard i I can tell you that i was in meetings with with administrator uh pushing um and getting it and finally getting that award letter which was a tremendous relief and only to receive
this letter you're not getting it cancelled so if you feel you'd like to reach out to your legislators please feel free to do so there is a big town hall meeting tonight and I asked Assemblywoman Swain to please mention us
and mention us loud cuz the next one I'm coming out and I'm not going to be quiet i don't believe this should be on the taxpayers's back it's been many many years being worked on and I I know I I kept saying to to our administrator call Sylvia call Silia call Silia and finally
got a meeting two meetings whatever it's a disappointment but what's the biggest disappointment is that it's for helping our residents in this town and that's my biggest concern i'm sure it's the rest of the committee's concern too our job up here is to be concerned about the
residents and that's what we're going to do so with that being said if I could you know get a nod or something to move forward we're going to continue to do so does that seem to be where we want to go absolutely okay is there any comments at this point about that anybody i think
you covered it did I cover it thank you anybody else okay so that's all we have on that discussion uh and then we're going to move forward um before the administrator report if you don't mind I'm just going to go out order for one second i would like to make a couple
appointments here got a lot of papers up here so hang on one second and these appointments are for there's three openings in recreation and if I mispronounce your name I'm very very sorry but uh I have Marbel Corpal
Lata Shaku is I'm saying that right and uh Robert Frost Proce okay those are the uh appointments to the recreation and to access for all I have Deborah Kadara I see Deborah here
um so you are all appointed thank you so much again for volunteering your town i know you'll be a wonderful act um yeah what's the best word the best word would be thank you asset to the each each individual thing right
absolutely because as many people as we can get to help out on wreck and access for all I think it'll move everything forward um in a very productive way but thank you for that now administrator report please thank you mayor and first and foremost I just want to acknowledge
um autism awareness month when I first became chief we embraced this month um for several reasons and and actually since hired officer Ferui who um has grown up with his sister um and a family member
so uh the officers will be wearing their blue badges on their exterior vest carriers and who and some still have the baseball cap that we did back in 2021 when I was brand new chief so again um I also want to let anybody know we do we were one of the first towns in Bergen
County to sponsor the blue envelope program and for those of you that don't know what it is quickly it's if someone is non-verbal yet has the ability to operate a vehicle they can keep this blue envelope in their car and just hand that to the officer and it lets the officer know matter of fact um Bergen County prosecutor um Musella reached out
to me several months ago and said "Hey this program you're doing is amazing i really want to take you throughout Bergen County." and then he represented it at a at a chief's association meeting um and most towns are doing it now and it's it's it's it's a valuable program because again officers may not be able to recognize somebody um who's
non-verbal and you know it can cause a a bad situation that shouldn't be so we're very proud of that and I'm very proud of the membership of my department uh that was brought to me by Lieutenant Stapleton a few years ago and then again you know Anthony officer Fui is really uh runs with the program and he's
looking to we tried to get it in this year didn't happen but he wants to do an autism awareness like a spring run so hopefully get that off the ground and going next year all right on to my administrator's report mayor thank you for indulging me in that revaluation letters uh ladies and gentlemen you should be receiving them soon they're
going out tomorrow it's going to be a letter and a brochure the letter will be on township letterhead the brochure will be within the township envelope with that uh letter explaining to you the process of revaluation um so it is an official letter if you want to get a look at it we we can have some in town
hall as well as they've been posted to social media and on the uh TV out front by the library excuse me i am proud again just not was notified um recently this week that for fiscal year 2025 the New Jersey state local recreation improvement grant was uh awarded to
Rocha Park in the amount of $78,000 and those are for improvements to Carlock Field and Hton Hall um so that's our second uh LRIG grant in the last two years so we used we've made several improvements to Matthews Field and the Fieldhouse and we'll continue
now with Carlock and Hton Hall i thought I was going to have good news about Rochelle Avenue the repaving the milling i literally just got a text at the start of this meeting from my captain unfortunately uh county engineering told the contractor they were putting in 4in diameter pipe and
showed up with 8 in diameter pipe so the work's going to continue through Monday just not on the weekend so I apologize folks for the traffic it was supposed to be done today it's not going to be done today um however milling and paving is still scheduled for the week of spring break and that was you know through the efforts of myself and Captain Depra
pretty much telling the county we'd rather you close Rochelle Avenue and to end during spring break so as not to interfere with the school day but at least Rochelle Avenue is going to get done and we're going to have substantial drainage improvements to a small section of Rochelle Avenue that's been
problematic for the last few years uh Carl Field there's still ongoing work contractor expects to start building the pavilion on Monday again weather permitting also the spray misters should be showing up and will continue to do the work to be prepped for them so when they do show up all we'll have to do is erect those um there are some extra
costs that are coming in for this project as we've expanded again we discovered we had a lot more property behind where that shed the old shed was uh we've taken advantage of that property expanded our our flower beds the stone walls the walkway the handicap access now is actually going to be has
been improved uh there's been some changes to the wall and fencing there so we um I may have to come back before this committee and asked for small but a supplemental bond for that project cuz we budget that pretty much to the penny but with these changes it happens um but again I I I'm I think that's going to be
some a project everybody will be proud of the Botball courts are pretty much done i don't know if they're open yet but they're pretty much done so if you have an opportunity Carlock field is open uh when they're not working so again you can still use the playground in the turf field uh what we didn't mention
um with with the Bur resignation again you know I worked with Bur since 199192 after I replaced Bob Davidson 1995 as the DARE officer she was doing the municipal alliance work and working with recreation back then so I just want to say thank you to Bert there was never a time I couldn't pick up a phone and
actually you know dial four cell phones and talk to Burton and she would help me you know with our projects that we were doing through Municipal Alliance i also want to mention day camp registration is open so if you have children that are going to be participating in day camp please make sure you register we are
still looking for counselors i have very few applicants for the position of counselor um so we'd like to get some help in that regard reference to the billboard mayor i continue to reach out to Clear Channel deputy May um Mayor Miller did get me a
new contact um I got a a response to an email saying she's kicking it up to her supervisor and I should expect a phone call back this will be the third time that's happened with Clear Channel but I'm I remain on it and you know willing to try to hammer that out where we can monetize those um flips or turns as
they're called and lastly mayor as you remember or you may recall we uh had a shared service meeting with committeeman Trinsky and yourself and myself as well as members from the board of educa education and Dr denobi uh discussed was the review of a lot of the existing shared services that are conducted
between the two entities um school made it clear you know they provide their facilities for many recreation and township events national night out our concerts basketball games etc softball and baseball um we have a monument on their property that requires lighting and and water for the sprinkler systems
they you know they pay for that um but the township also provides maintenance for that monument area we salt their parking lot and the parking lot at William Street they acknowledge that the DPW cleans up the grounds after township activities we're not allowed to do that indoor union rules with the custodians but you know we acknowledge the work
done by each we also talked about the SRO agreement um and the compensation for that as well as future township development and the impact upon the board of ed um and you know talked about how the township uh may want to consider you know adding provisions to any types of developers agreements that you know a
lot for school funding if there's a population shift upwards in enrollment as our board of ad members came here and talked about it last meeting um also technology sharing you know we're the deputy mayor and mayor mentioned this before our website is in dire need of upgrading uh we talked about that with
the board of ed using their IT person who happens to be pretty skilled in that um and the possibility of moving a diesel generator i did actually get a response the big concern there is whether or not the DP will allow it has to meet the D emissions so I have to do
some more homework on that to find out if that generator can be moved from what currently generates electricity at the firehouse and and EMS/OM building to the school for our reasons that we we use that as a shelter um and I also spoke to
Boswell about they're going to look into they believe the generator spec out for the pump station and DPW building should be able to have enough power to provide that but once I get that confirmation I'll pass that along but again I just wanted to share that with the public because um this wasn't you know a
meeting had between the two entities and trying to increase the services that we already provide to you the taxpayer and that's it mayor thank you thank you so I could add to that a little bit um being you know passed on the board of education their funding
is not the greatest um so we want to do our best um their revenue they don't generate revenue that the township can so I believe it is in the best interest that we try to do a shared service it's it's not a lot but it's a it's something moving forward uh that I feel it all
comes you know together uh out of the taxes right so we have to look and see what we can do to help them it was a very productive meeting there was some nos I will tell you that some requests and I said no um but uh I think moving
forward uh sharing services does help quite a bit i believe they said they had an increase and I do see the uh vice president of the board here was it 49 children in the last couple of months right there was 49 children that the beginning of November since the
beginning of November there's 49 children i believe there was um from what I remember 11 that were special needs within that so that's quite a big um large amount of money that has to be there um for those children and we're they're required by law to do the
education of those children from the age of three with special needs that's the law so you know we all try to work together we are a community and let's see what we can do and hopefully in the best interest of everybody um that's all I have do you have anything council i'd
like to just piggy back on what you said there Teresa being at that meeting also it was a very very deep-seated concern about enrollment not just for this year but for next year they're very concerned at the school level of uh enrollment of how many students are going to be
brought into the district the number I got on that takeaway was 46 it was uh 29 at Midland and 17 vice president here and I believe she said this one I have from our meeting when we met Teresa when we were there was it an increase since we met do you
know if there was an increase in Yeah okay all right so we're close close to the same ballpark and to further further that conversation it was a few years ago that we sat in the audience here asking
for an agreement with with 12 120 over here because we were concerned that there would be an uptick in enrollment and we had brought to the table some appropriate agreements that were not authorized at that time by the council
not not to just uh um grab money from a developer but it was a safety valve agreement if enrollment went up a certain amount that these students would be covered by that development and we never got it so today right now you know
we are in the position or the school's in the position partially because of our lack of being able to get those agreements i uh I you know I was very upset about it when I was in the public i was very upset about it was on the board of ed as well as many others shared that concern that's here but we
can't let that happen we can't continue like this yes anyway thank you thank you anyone else all right very good let's move forward then may I have a motion to open to public i'll make the motion a second second
all in favor any subst okay very good open to public right now thank you okay if you can please just state your name and the town in which you reside there's a threeminut limitation if your comment the mayor has the option to extend the three minutes and if your
comments require a response that we're able to uh deliver to you this evening we will do so to power that on i don't know if it's turned on yeah just push yeah it's cordless i can run around good evening hello Mr davidson number
one about the pump station i'm devastated to hear this can you speak a little reference to the pump station i'm devastated to hear this news tonight it's something that we I can I can honestly say that I was involved in and not just because of me but throughout the number of years we tried so hard to
get this done and now this is what happens and and it's going to be a tremendous burden on the taxpayers there's no question about it at least we have a little bit of relief from that 600,000 that we have to cut a little bit not a whole bunch but and I was directly involved in that the other thing is is
that I uh so please you have to do this there's no question about it i mean if I would have never even proposed doing this as as the former administrator if I didn't think it was so so necessary to be done and believe me it will affect every homeowner in this community and
the businesses as well the other thing is that I just I'm interested to find out because of the situation with the pilot program do we know how many students are coming from that building was ahead
11 I believe I believe yeah that was the 11 so there was a total of 11 that came out of there and how about do we know what the the additional apartments because so so the addresses vary some are Von Colling some are 53 central um
Oak Oak Street apartments yeah so there it was you know but there's there's also some that are just single family residences right i mean listen you know quite honestly the town is starting to get younger you know and and the school is doing their due diligence they're going to do population study I believe
it's called demographics i'm sorry thank you yeah no I was actually looking at you Christina but you had your head down i want to be correct so thank you yes so anyways so I was just wondering what that what the numbers were there because again I mean very unfortunately I was
involved with that whole pilot program uh you know but I don't have a vote so I'll just leave it there thank you thank you Mr davidson anyone else yes hi hi my name is Sharon Steinhard i'm actually
a resident apprentice but I am here on behalf of the learning experience uh it's a proposed possible child care facility that can come into the town which I think would do amazing i've been with this company for over 12 years i
oversee the Northeast 90 91 locations with love of this could be 92 um I really feel just even speaking about education I'm an educator i have my masters it could benefit your town it could benefit everything having another
school um what's so wonderful about the learning experience is everything is all-incclusive so a family does join our facility it's not like they'd have to pay extra to have their child use soccer right that's the saddest thing if you see a child you know why didn't mommy pay for me to do it so everything is
inclusive uh enrichment food everything um I I just truly think there are actually eight families I noticed uh that attend other learning experience facilities about 10 miles 10 minutes out in both Hackinack and the Pramis locations because we don't offer that
quality child care here in the town um so yeah I just I'm here on behalf of them and I just think it would be a great addition to the Rochelle Park uh town very good thank you you're welcome anyone else street um I was I came on after the
pilot was in effect and after it had been signed we were told in the planning meetings that the majority of the housing for affordable housing would be in onebedrooms which backed up the pilot agreement that there wouldn't be any impact to the schools the majority I
think there were 23 units we needed or something there were like 12 or 13 of them would be one bedrooms one or two bedrooms and only one or two three bedrooms last year when I went through a tour over there the three bedrooms are all allocated for affordable housing and
they won't tell you how many so they weren't completely honest you should get it in writing when you if you do a pilot how many one bedrooms cuz that was the impact on the school that was the whole discussion i believe when they had um discussion on that I and I do remember being in the audience and I do remember
I was the president of the board at the time and I remember approaching and saying the same thing that you're saying where is it in writing exactly now you could have one bedroom and still have you know two children if you wanted to no you I don't think you're allowed you're you're limited by how many people
are in a onebedroom by what statute what statute would limit you on that you can't have 20 people in one bedroom well there's laws about I know I know that well believe me I know the laws i happen to know somebody who does the inspections i'm three family and above but if there was a one bedroom
does not mean you can't have one child or two children in that bedroom there's no instruction that I know of that um I wouldn't say 20 but I would probably say but it was it wasn't sold to the town like that that's my point oh you're saying that they sold it that way they
sold it to the town as the majority is one bedroom no children you get two bedroom maybe you'll have one child shut up whoa whoa whoa this person there's a comment in the audience disturbing the audience all right so everybody just everybody calm
down please all right thank you uh council um with the one and two bedrooms is there mr quinn I will ask you please she just said "Aren't you having dropped dead yet?" Who puts her in her place okay wait just everybody Okay stop or I
will close to open i will close to open please everybody stop thank you um council what what do you say on this one two bedroom well you can't have if it's a one-bedroom apartment you can't have a another room utilized for a bedroom that would probably be a fire code violation
as to the number of people that reside in a one-bedroom uh I'm not aware of any uh I don't know any laws do you know them Miss Artolo that you're stating i used to live in apartments and there was limitations i don't know the exact numbers but I could not agree that I'm
not sure but I don't know state statute of that but I can find out i won't find out if this state statue that limits the amount because it depends on the size husband and wife or you know yes you could have two people possibly three but it depends um studio apartments have
less people even though that's still considered a onebedroom it depends on the size it's not one sizefits-all but I'm just saying that there are limitations to people to the amount of people in one bedroom two bedroom three bedroom if if there is is a restriction would probably be a fire
code restriction right correct correct so maybe our fire code official is aware of how many or maybe our building code official would know that no you don't it's not a fire code no I didn't think so okay well anyway moving forward thank you for material but my point was that's
immaterial because my point was it was sold as the majority being onebedroom no kids and that's the school impact that was the whole issue so but I remember I did you just start off by saying you came in after the pilot yes so I'd like to you know maybe somebody who was during the pilot could also explain what
was happening thank you very much but I was very surprised when I went over there and I asked them how many three bedrooms she said "I don't know." This was the leasing agent and I said "Well how many are affordable housing units?" And she said "I don't know but those are all the three bedrooms." So that was a little different so just wanted to make
that thank you very much thank you okay anyone else mr hustle mine is a very simple thing um representing the parade committee i just I had sent emails to all the committee people and we just need to know within
the next week week and a half who and how many people from the committee will be marching/driving in the parade so we can put them in the Well I know I I plan on to do it i don't know if anybody everybody else I mean I know you commitments like I'll be there right
you'll be marching with Okay good so at least three yes okay perfect we may get Matt's Mustang to come out again and March is fine we'll see but I think Matt are you going to be there yes we'll be there okay so I didn't know if you had
commitments you know I'll be there thank you so much thank you thank you you're welcome anyone else hello hello everybody my name is Ian Gensler i'm a regional manager for the learning experience as well and I just would be remiss if I didn't talk to you a little
bit more about our program that we offer young families as well too um after listening to that beautiful proclamation for autism awareness here so um our centers always strive to create inclusive environments for our families
and our children and also we have a proprietary curriculum that actually also teaches young children developmentally appropriate way through ways of of what inclusion looks like as well too so I thought that was a nice little piggy back to what you shared so beautifully with us earlier so thank you thank you very much thank you anyone
else okay hang on are you with the same okay just one second i I'm going to have a resident of the town please township committee 2018 through 2023 um 33 Parkway thank you yes if you read
any of the pilot stuff if you sat on this committee you knew exactly how many three bedrooms two bedrooms and one bedroom i don't know what meeting these other people were sitting in but it was laid out to you exactly how it went thank you um and that was a warning but
there was also pilots that went on in Hackinack they did didn't get nearly the amount of kids they predicted so you never know right okay let's go with a couple things first of all the pump station i'm devastated too and I just wish when I first got on the township
committee we were told how bad that pump station was there's the main valve in case of flooding that goes out to the in case of a shutdown of the pumps so base you know basements in the sewers don't back up through town was frozen shut and
that was lack of maintenance over years um I pushed early on i want you to look into the infrastructure trust bank for funding uh they give low interest loans uh sometimes zero percentage it's a
state thing infrastructure trust bank i brought that up how many years ago i think Dean you know about it you know about that i do um did uh to the chief do the officers ever pay for training on their own uh there'll be some classes officers will go to on their own correct
um how much is in this police orphanage fund i think we currently have about 220,000 yeah okay i'm just just asking i talked to a police officer up in Fort Le they've had some millions they have millions yeah they also have officers assigned to federal so yeah we're a lot
different is any of the work being done on Rochelle for the Route 17 widening um I find it funny that that work is being done okay no and if you don't mind if you So um and matter of fact they cut
out probably about $500,000 of additional storm drain repairs uh that should be done here um they're going to who cut that up the county uh Joe Femia made an executive decision because he says "Look in five to six years we're going to be expanding that
road and we're going to have to put it all in anyway." So they're doing some band-aid and bubblegum work um but this need what's being done right now needs to be done so but this is has nothing to do with the widening project okay i'm just asking because understood uh I find
it funny that they're doing all this and then I know you laughed at the letter when we got it yeah um the other thing I want to talk about is the budget um I first got on the township committee the budgets and I may run a little over
on Mayor the budgets were bare minimum the uh governing body up there was 0% and your uh utilities even in your own home your utilities go up the non the contractual salaries go up yet
every year the same bunch was calling for a zero raise no new revenue source was coming in anywhere really nothing was being built this promise of this building being built but under a pilot agreement you know we're not getting the right amount and they would cut the budget to
the bare bone mr davidson was knows exactly what I'm talking about then came the thought of a new revenue source cannabis and I can remember being up here and two council women trying to knock it
down okay saying their SC they had a they were given misinformation let's put it that way more than they they were fed misinformation cannabis came in the revenue source came in unheard of
revenue miss correct me if I'm wrong Mr $500 and something thousands in the first year from April on and they jeopardized the retail license for Ascend by pulling their license a week before they were to start
until a Republican state senator from district 39 was hired as their lawyer then it got reinstated a week later and this helped the residents of this town well instead $1.9 million in
two years the budget explodes and I see why yours are cutting back i warned then cannabis revenue would not stay high i knew it because I had talked to a doctor about it and said was telling me about cannabis in
California when it first came out record money y and then it dwindled right the sales went down maybe we just open another facil open a facility i saw it on the thing maybe we just said I didn't have What I'm just trying to say is I
understand the budget cuts here and if anybody has sat on the township committee and really knew worked on what a budget would do you know why there's cuts up here when we were under that little bit of money the chief had bad tasers were they tasers stun guns
whatever they were tasers you're right and I fought for them $7,500 and they were denied the police department was denied that those things and you know the chief said the same thing we can work with it luckily enough
Lenrock lent them or gave them their older ones but there's cuts that's the way it is when the revenue source for the town isn't as high versus it explodes now you talk about Edmonds
kathy I spoke to you about Edmonds how many years ago edmonds cannabis money could have paid for Edmonds you know what I'm saying if it was not exploded in the budget and I understand why they're tightening the belt because the money the revenue is not where it was so I
just want people to understand they're it's moving Rosho Park forward that's all I got to say thank you thank you anyone else i have the actual housing number Walter Hton Russia Bart um chairman of
the access for all committee um I would like to thank the office staff the town council and the recreation for allowing access for all the ability to set up the sensory tent for opening day um it was a
big success um I do have to say a lot of the kids were intrigued and wanted to come in but once I explained to him that it was a sensory tank they understood and went about their business however I did have one young man who came in and
he said "Can I go in?" And I explained to him what it was and he said "Well I'm having a bad day." Oh and I said "Well then you want to go inside and play?" And he certainly did and that's what makes it all worthwhile when you get that one two individuals cuz then he
said "Can my brother come in?" And I said "Sure." And then his brother came over and saw that his brother who's not like the other kids running around playing was okay and happy he went about and played that's what my committee is
about to bring the families to the events and allow the individuals that need the separation the place to separate and those that don't can go on about their business so if there's anybody that would like to volunteer for
my committee please reach out to me i'll gladly talk to you about it and let's try and make everything better okay mr hton thank you first of all for the donation of the flag i know that Mr miller had mentioned it earlier we very much appreciate it we very much appreciate Access for All and being
these I was at the opening day baseball i saw all those children wonderful wonderful job i I just appointed Mrs kadira tonight uh to access for all she asked to be there because I believe she'd be a great asset to the event and
uh you know if you want to talk to each other about it you could um again I did see those children in the tent and I saw how loving and kind you were to them um and helping them cuz they were having a bad day right so I would have liked to
gone in i I one of these days I might climb in there too having a bad day but um there this is something that is much needed yeah and this is much needed and and muchly appreciated and thank you for moving this forward anyone else please
and if they didn't build it those vacant land basically move over hi there my name is Melissa Rodriguez i'm a regional manager from the learning experience the site that we're looking at is 120 West Prospect Street but I'm here we don't have a West Prospect i'm sorry West
Pacific sorry okay um I am here more as a parent both of my children went through the learning experience both of them are in public school now we're kindergarten or in second grade both of them are bored because everything the learning experience has to offer sign language we do we do Spanish or Mandarin
um we have enrichment programs so they went into kindergarten on a first grade reading level and I really believe as a parent and in a regional manager that the children in this area will benefit from our program okay thank you very
much anyone else mrs scadra hi Debbie Kandara 43 North Drive um I just want to piggyback off of Mr hton and I also want to thank the entire committee for uh this proclamation and
uh the whole access for all process um but now I want to speak as a parent and the reason why this is really touching my heart right now is he's going to be 30 years old my son and for many years there were many uh Roshial Park days and
events at the schools that I have three other children okay that I personally did not go to because I felt that I couldn't bring him there i personally didn't feel comfortable okay now he's a man but that doesn't take away how I
felt when he was a child right regardless of their age it is so important that we as a community are are accepting to see all children want to get together with children with well you
know special needs and work together that's why I raised my children to be accepting of all to see all children and all even adults to be accepting like that will be such an amazing process in this town and for a little one square
mile town if we can achieve this this would be a truly great thing so I personally I want to like to nominate my daughter for this committee too she's a BCBA extremely knowledgeable i'm going to have her send in her paper yes I
would i don't know yeah it is a really great thing that we're doing here and I really wish I got involved in it sooner and I I was again um afraid to branch out more because I felt that I had so many limitations and that was a mistake because I would like to see us move
forward with this and I really want to thank the committee and Mr haron for what you're doing thank you uh Mr kada I could tell you this that that this year is really where it started a lot uh to branch it was there last year really not too much but this year it's in a full
year thanks to Mr u Mr hton and um and it's for for children but it is for adults too you know if adults need to just get a timeout sometimes as we all know and I did say in in in my speech that the parents have to deal with
special needs it can it can burn them out sometimes it's a lot of work i do have a family member who special needs um and uh I watch my parents go through a lot um so uh being that being said Mr
hton has tremendous up tremendously and is getting more and more volunteers and I understand we'll be at all the events we have the Easter egg hunt coming up right I unless it rains I'm not sure yes it might be postponed till next Saturday
it may be because weather yeah cuz I know it's supposed to correct be pretty um dismal out but we're going to move forward and we're just going to keep going forward and that's what we are a community I grew up here I'm here many many years uh and I know your family
very well for all those years but this used to be a very tight community right and something happened everybody helped we need to bring it back there and that's what we're trying to do everybody here is trying to bring that back to make sure we're here for everyone no matter what your needs are special needs
just give them whatever need is right exactly debbie stay there for one second i uh I I also want to recognize I want to recognize um you for your commitment to volunteering and I I've known Debbie and I've known the family since we moved
into town in ' 87 and I've kn we've raised children together and I've watched you commit yourselves to volunteering so you have volunteered in the past right yes you have and you are and there is no days there are no days wasted and you know today is a perfect
day to start with the with the new access for all but you're going to be an asset to the town you always have been and you're going to be an asset to the kids and and you know no one I could think of better to be involved with this thank you for stepping up thank you very much I appreciate that thank you anyone
else okay anyone okay Mr hello i want to apologize to the committee for losing my temper um I'm here to listen to problems of the town i'm kind of have
a little history here you didn't shut her down and you yelled at me i you rather like I was out of order mr quinn I said everybody you stopped in time thank you thank you i I just want to apologize to everybody did
not mean to lose my temper but that person has annoyed me for years and so she got under my skin you didn't shut her down you were She was harassing the lady that was up here and you let that continue that was out of order i'm
so I lost my temper and I apologize council f first of all I have to say that we couldn't hear what she was saying you were quite loud but when when it was brought to Let me just finish sir when it was brought to the mayor's attention that she was making comments the mayor said that
so it wasn't that she ignored it it's just that we could I couldn't hear what she was saying anyway but once it was brought to the attention of the mayor she shut it down thank you very much uh as far as the uh pumps situation the
pump station the politicians were talking about this in the 50s about it was obsolete now they've said they were repaired back in the 60s because they were so bad then so it's an ongoing problem yes it shouldn't surprise
anybody today that that we knew about this 70 years ago and we didn't do anything about it thank you for taking the action today i appreciate it thank you thank you very much yes ma'am hi thank you for thank you for listening
to all of us and then we'll get out of here thank you my name is Nadia i'm also a regional manager with the learning experience and I just wanted to kind of speak to the people who we work with so I work with 12 centers and they're all owned by families who needed a place to bring their children and that's why they
opened the learning experience in in my areas um and they employ people from the neighborhoods who also bring their children into our centers as well so it just pays back and all of these families are very into all I'm hearing from
everyone here is that you want to build a community and they are always putting back into the communities around them so thank you for giving us the time thank you very much thank you anyone else oh yakabuchi on board street i just want to um go back because many of you
weren't here for the cannabis experience when it was in its founding days when it was passed um we had a medical facility that Gail had been a part of approving which was ascend when the state approved
the retail there were meetings with the state regulatory commission which I was a part of or I listened to anyway it wasn't it wasn't dialogue and so we were able to what they did first was they passed the law and said if you don't
abide by the law and pass it you have to accept all licenses now there are five or six licenses that are attached to cannabis some of them would have been very very not um conducive to this town they're high energy they're um it took a
lot more that converting to retail was the way we decided to go but you had to deny it you had to say we don't accept any cannabis except for the medical in order to decide to go forward with the retail so that's what we did we denied
it we had to we had an ordinance put in place to deny all cannabis except for the medical and with the agreement that we would develop an ordinance for retail in the future so the big brewhaha came with outside counsel we I got was lucky
enough to find the chairman of the New Jersey State Bar Association for Cannabis Regulation and Bob Davidson was smart enough to negotiate a flat fee of $5,000 to represent the town that was very very in fact Linda and I worked on that with outside counsel so it was
always going to be ascend was the only one in the state that was approved so they were the first to open it was always going to be as the other people got their act together and could open these places competition would drive their revenue down they knew that and they they told us that medical tax would
go away eventually they're not going to be taxing medical so there's just a little history there yes we did deny it all with the understanding that we were going to pass a retail license which we did and the licensing fees are they're staggered it takes a lot of time to
understand that so just to clarify that thank you very much yes and I could add to that because she mentioned um that I was there for that so um when it was first approved before that deadline came when it could be approved there was
moving targets there was not clear information and there was nothing to go by because it was a brand new rule so there were six different uses and if you said if you vote if you didn't vote or if you said yes you cannot change your mind to no but if you said no you can
change your mind to yes you couldn't undo yes for the cannabis you could not undo a yes vote because they were concerned that people might change their mind or towns townships might change their mind so we voted no for all and it
was trying to remember the timing probably about three months or so until we got everything in place and that was all the money that we were going to get and we actually ended up getting more money because we said no and we had that firm helping us and we were able to it
was unanimous yes when we changed it over and it actually benefited the town um she also mentioned that I voted for it on the planning board because it did come as a medical facility before before it was legalized for recreational use so
um I had voted yes for that on the planning board and then we had moved forward with it in the year 2021 the uh deadline I believe was in August and we had worked to get all that information get the firm in place get the highest
amount of money that we could and then vote for the uses that we thought were beneficial to the town thank you so let's just let's just let's just sum this up at the beginning it was tremendous so a lot of money as you put it right now that money that that
revenue money that was there basically is coming down and loun and we know this from our budget we knew that that was going to happen but when it first came through they knew it the whole time hang on one second so um the the what the point basically is at this
point is that we had the money there i believe the person that was speaking about it stated something it should have been used for admins or something else that's a pass right now we're looking at what the revenue is now and it's dwindling so we have to be very
careful i believe it was referring to the budget more than anything else of the revenue that we're getting now but thank you for your clarification yeah just to clarify that thank you very much andrew Matson Mr matson 14 El Dorado Court and a resident of this town um I
don't know if everybody here is a resident um I missed the good part so Michaela I hope you get the meeting up soon um I don't I hear this self- congratulatory thing going on about what
happened with cannabis and I know I see people in the meeting tonight that don't normally come and I think what's going on is there a lot of misdirection and all that really matters is they're telling you they knew the revenue was
going to go down over the course of the period of time they not only knew it they were told it and they increased what they were giving out in the budget with that hand of this money so either they didn't care there was
negligence or they knew that eventually us as taxpayers were going to have to make up that difference and they were going to raise our taxes so whoever sat down for this meeting or that meeting and got whatever lawyer to help doesn't matter that's not what's being talked
about it's the budget it's what are our taxes going to look like and who's responsible and now there's good leadership that are going to put the actual residents of this town first and they're letting us
know cuts have to be made and it doesn't matter who sat down with who way back when to bring cannabis to this town and how it was done what matters is the money was wasted that money could have been used
to help this town and I don't think it was and that's my opinion thank you thank you Miss Matson anyone else okay hearing or seeing no one may I have a motion to close the public motion may I have a second second roll
call please committeewoman Aichi yes committee woman Arola yes deputy Mayor Miller yes committee Joinsky yes and Mayor Judge yes thank you so next we have ordinances for introduction miss Kaya would you read ordinance 1229-25
yes mayor Judge Clo asks for a motion to introduce by title on the first reading ordinance number 1229-25 by way of resolution number 025-126 an ordinance to provide for and determine the maximum annual salaries of various municipal employees of the
township park and it be published in the in full in the bur's public hearing to be held on April 23rd 2025 so just to answer that for one second this is where um we have the um the stipen for the fire department mechanic
and I believe the stipen is 500 add on to this um so may I have a motion i'll make a motion may I have a second second roll call please committeewoman Peachy yes committee Arola yes deputy Mayor Miller yes committee Trinsky yes mayor
Judge Gravel yes okay now ordinance introduction of 1 1230-25 mayor Joe asks for a motion to introduce by title on the first reading ordinance number 1230-25 by way of resolution number
025-127 an ordinance to amend part two general legislation chapter 73 entitled cats and other animals of the township code of the township of Park State of New Jersey and it be published in full in a Bergen record with notice of public hearing to be held on April 23rd 2025
well Mr uh administrator would you give a little explanation on this place Jean uh yes the chickens have flown the coupe yeah the chickens yeah no more chicken now this is this is an ordinance to kind of resend that thank you for putting it that way appreciate that you're welcome
Mayor okay so may I may I have a motion please motion may I have a second second roll call please committeewoman Aichi yes committeewoman Arola yes deputy Mayor Miller yes committee Trinsky yes
mayor Judge yes all right so the next is ordinance for adoption ordinance number 1225-25 mr ma please read that mayor Judge asks for a motion to open the public hearing on ordinance number 1225-25 an ordinance to amend chapter
185 entitled land use and development regulations of the township code of the township of Rochester Park state of New Jersey so may I have a motion to open public please motion we have a second second all in favor i extensions okay open to
public for discussion on this ordinance Mr davidson sure can Mr scino Mr scino this is the This is I believe uh for
um No the uh I'm sorry what did you say James the is it for the ten tenant review yes I'm sorry tenant reviews the removal of teny review so on the land use board the uh tenant reviews have been removed with
this ordinance uh that passes so that the ten reviewer doesn't have to come in front of the land use board anymore we were losing from what I understand we were losing um u businesses by going through that um and they would just go to other towns that didn't have it quite
a few towns surrounding us don't have tenant review for opening businesses in town so to hopefully get more uh people opening our businesses and coming to our town for it we're asking this to be removed from that and we did speak to um Mr di Maria our building official and
and he recommended also so anybody else from the public may I have a motion to close the public i'll make a motion i have a second second okay all in favor i abstensions
okay have one question there is this is adopt we know the ordinance just just just a quick question or just a quick statement this is for kind of for businesses that are of the like right business to business well it's for any business that does not require a
variance or site plan approval obviously if they still need a variance or site plan approval they have to go to the board if it's a business that is a permitted use in the zone and doesn't require any relief from the board then if they will not have to appear before the board because the board really is
not approving it they can't they have no basis to deny a tenant moving into a building if it's permitted use though to as the mayor stated to remove uh what could be costly and time consuming both to the landlord and the prospective
tenant that requirement will no longer uh be uh required by our audience okay great thank you all right Miss Yes all items listed below are
considered to be routine i'm sorry we have to No no we have to vote mayor Judge Grall asked for a motion that was the Oh I'm sorry mayor Judge Gra asked for a motion to close the public hearing on this ordinance and then it be adopted with notice of final passage to be published in the Bourbon record may I
have a motion please tommy right second roll call please committeewoman Aichi yes committeewoman Arula yes deputy Mayor Miller yes chinsky yes and Mayor D yes okay so next we're going to go to
the uh resolutions all items listed below are considered to be routine and non-controversial by the township committee they'll be approved by one motion there will be no separate discussion of these items unless committee member or citizens request in which case the item will be removed from
the consent agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda as part of the general orders so we have let me just read these off so everybody gets those uh resolution and they all start with 025 we're going to go 128 129 130
131 132 1334 135 136 137 138 i have to recuse myself from 134 okay so 134 and you have to recuse yourself he
works for me in Warrington he works in Warrington with you okay no problem okay so I may have a motion recusing Miss PJ's being recused from 134 may I have a motion for all of the other including 134 recus motion may
I have a second i'll second a roll call please committeewoman Aichi yes committeewoman Arola yes deputy Mayor Miller yes committee Man Towinsky yes and Mayor Judge Kell yes okay so right now we're going to go into close session uh the matters related to litigation uh
motion negotiation and attorney client review i do not see any um action being taken afterwards so the next meeting is a public meeting on April 23rd 2025 and may I have a motion we'll come out to adjourn it after we're finished
with close session all right let's go may I have a roll call to go into close session please committee woman appe yes committee Arola yes deputy Mayor Miller yes committeeman Twinsky yes mayor Judge yes thank you all thank you all for being here this
evening we have a motion to close and to the meeting motion second roll call committee Apache yes committee Art yes deputy Mayor Miller Committee Mayor yes meeting