hi everybody Hello Uh okay we'll get started Uh this me this meeting is being held in accordance with the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act annual notice of this meeting uh was published in the Union County local source and the New York Star ledger said
notice was posted in the municipal building and a copy is on file with the office of the burough clerk Fire are located in the directions I'm indicating if you're alerted for a fire please move in a calm orderly manner to the nearest smokefree exit Proper notice having been given the burough clerk is directed to include the statement in the minutes of the meeting Please call the role
Councilman Petroski here Councilman Johnson present Councilman Signarella here Councilman Robbina here Counciloman Lions here Councilman Patel here Mayor Signarella here All present Mayor uh a prayer and pledge of allegiance Eternal God grant us thy help and all
our duties and perplexities We ask for thy guidance Give us thy protection in our dangers and sorrows Grant us thy peace Amen Amen 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 Okay packed house tonight You guys are really excited about the budget I get it Uh so um we have a bunch of proclamations and presentations this evening I believe I'm counseling uh Councilman Petroski and Councilman
Sigella You guys coming up with me okay cool Uh we're going to start off with the USA New Jersey state wrestling qualifiers Yeah Uh okay Coach Coach Reer you want to come up yep Go for it Show yours Yeah
All right Thank you The Roosevelt Park Recreation Department has long enjoyed a level of support that is unlike most other recreation departments We'd like to thank Mayor Signarello town council our recreation liaison Councilman Petroski Andrew Casai Ken Blum the
recreation committee the ASYC staff volunteer coaches and members I'm honored and privileged to join the recognition of their winter recreational sports awards Wrestling the season is completed The offseason has begun We are
happy to report our teams represented Rosel Park well in all three leagues We had a number of tournament place winners and champions Please allow me to offer a special thank you to the head wrestling coaches at Roosevelt Park High School Ryan Rooney and Jason Karns along with
their assistance In addition the recreation wrestling coordinator Craig Frost for all they do for the growth and development of Park Wrestling We'd like to recognize the following outstanding accomplishments The
2025 USA New Jersey Kids Scholastic state wrestling qualifiers at intermediate 75 pounds A state qualifier Paul [Applause] Toms at intermediate 90 pounds A state
qualifier Malik Gossa can come on up I thought I saw Noina an intermediate 98 pound state qualifier Jake Capello
[Applause] Next we'd like to introduce our 2025 USA Wrestling New Jersey Scholastic State Wrestling Place winner at BANM 55 lbs placing third Cole Aello
[Applause] Next we'd like to introduce our 2025 USA Wrestling New Jersey Kids Scholastic State Wrestling Champion at novice 126
lbs state champion Hunter Appello [Applause] Lastly we'd like to offer a heartfelt
thank you to the volunteer Rosel Park recreational wrestling coaches Russell Benner Pete Hillburn Bob Appell Troy McDermott John Gora Craig Montgomery and Dan Walsh Thank you Picture of you guys
You guys want to do this you guys want to come in here over here yes Thank you Next high school wrestling Let me introduce our boys head coach Ryan Rooney our girls assistant Samantha Graves and our girls head coach Jason
Karns [Applause] Evening everyone Thank you mayor and council for having us here and once again honoring the wrestling program Um
I'm going to talk about the boys wrestling program So this year I'm going to introduce our first team allconerence members We have four of them here Uh at 132 pounds We have a junior He had a season record of 16 and 11 He was an a
nice invitational runner up Took second place He took sixth place in Union County tournament as well and he earned a first team allconerence honor Diego [Applause]
Osario at 157 pounds Another junior he had a season record of 18 and 13 He took sixth place at the A Nice Invitational and qualified for the region four tournament this year by placing third at the District 13 tournament He earns first team allconerence honors for the
first time Anthony Camraa [Applause] at 106 pounds We have a junior with a record of 25 and 12 this year He took third at the A nice Invitational fifth
place in Union County eighth place in the WSAZ Invitational which is a pre a prestigious event we go to in West Virginia uh and he qualified for the region four tournament this year after placing third in the district 13 tournament as well Here in first team allconerence honors Angel
[Applause] Lopez And last but not least at 126 pounds we have a sophomore He had a season record of 25 and 10 He earned his second consecutive A Nice Invitational
title this year placed fourth in Union County qualified for the region four tournament as well by placing second in the district 13 tournament and he earns first team allconerence honors Maxwell
[Applause] Griffin everyone Uh in our first official inaugural season we are fortunate to bring have two girls represent us in the
New Jersey state championship tournament At 152 pounds a sophomore with a record of 25 and 11 She was a Bayon tournament champion third place at the Queen of the East third place in the Union She was named first team
allconerence Union County honors She was a region tourer runnerup and a New Jersey NJSIAA girls state tournament qualifier Ava
[Applause] Forstonhauser at 120 lbs was a freshman with a girls record of 33 and3 boys record of 4-0 making a combined season record of 37 and three
She was a Bayon tournament champion queen of the east tournament runner up East Brunswick Bears tournament runnerup She was an Elizabeth tournament champion and outstanding wrestler She was the Union County tournament champion and outstanding wrestler uh and named
Starledger wrestler of the year for Union County She was named first team allconerence Union County She was a region champion and finished third place at the NJSIA girls state championship Luchia Reeri
[Applause] Stay stay I was Oh yeah Okay I was gonna say I'm just gonna relocate this Thanks [Applause]
guys back basketball The basketball numbers were very good We had 11 teams practicing competing in schools throughout the burrow and county We had over 56 games scheduled and 120
participants This did not include the championships games that were held at the high school in the main gym Please allow me to offer a special thank you to the head basketball coaches of Rosel Park High School Matt Talbot and Stacy Hartsler In addition the recreational
basketball coordinators Frank Gova and Tina Schwarz for all they do for the growth and development of Rosel Park basketball Next let me introduce the 2025 Rosel Park Recreation 3 through
fifth grade co-ed basketball champions team Adams Team Adams was coached by Dan Adams and Steve Lyall Congratulations [Applause]
All right May I have Chloe Adams [Applause] kareem [Applause]
Banks Alex Demo Mason Figureroa Malia [Applause] Figureroa Joel Garcia Usuzman
[Applause] Gossma Anthony Umbria Adonis Vargas All right let's take a picture Oh no You're good You're good [Applause]
Next let's introduce our 2025 Rosel Park Recreation Boys Middle School Basketball League Champions team of Eevee coached by Fred of Eevee and Todd King
[Applause] Right let me introduce Brandon Avivi [Applause] Brian
[Applause] Batista Dario [Applause] Valdez Malik Gasama
[Applause] Alexander Gomez Noah [Applause] Ibraim Vincent King
Good job Anthony Morau I like the shorter kids Bring the wrestlers back Same here [Applause]
All right So lastly let's please give our mayor council recreation department volunteer coaches parents and athletes another nice round of applause Thank you everyone [Applause]
Okay I want to thank uh John Reeri for all you do with the recreation Um uh I know you're a wrestling coach but you put a lot of input with basketball which I appreciate I want to thank Tina Schwarz uh the recreation director who
who's doing a great job uh every year Um and her committee is very awesome So I want to thank them both um and everything And I I want to thank the wrestlers Um hearing good things Hopefully we we got a couple state champs coming up um and everything Uh
basketball looks like it's it's going well So I like to hear I know John keeps me informed with the numbers So that's always good to hear But um I just want to thank u you know the parents Um and I ran basketball for many years down there
and it's not an easy task and I like the way they do it because my biggest problem when I ran it the kids were coming in during the day and running around the halls and I had to deal with the principal every every morning the following after the game But I heard they got it under control which is good
and the program is being run very well But thank you and uh recreation Thank you very much I don't want to keep you guys here too long but I just want to say kids I want you guys specifically give a round of applause for your moms and dads They
work their butts off to do this And I just want to say uh especially of course the basketball players too but especially the wrestlers pay attention to your coaches Pay attention to the people who guide you I I've got a coach up here who I learned a bunch of life lessons from Um and you know it's going to be tough sometimes It's going to be
hard sometimes but it's going to make you a better person when you stick through it So keep up and and listen to your coaches and listen to your moms and dads All right Thank you everyone Uh do you want this what do I do this have a good night
You don't know who I am I'm Dora's daughter I'm Rosa Oh my gosh Do you know our I'm looking at you I'm like I swear you're looking at Oh my god
I know I grew up with you Like I mean in my heart you're like just you I know my mom It was the hardest job I just wanted to She's good She's feisty I keep you know I keep her feisty
Yeah You got to stop Yes My daughter she's beautiful She's 20 She's 22 Oh yeah Yeah No we're all good John is good Yes he's good Yeah
Where do you live now i'm looking at you I'm like that has to be her Congratulations This was beautiful Glad you came up Yes of course How are you [Music]
a that's wonderful Go Santa Scary when someone says "You look so different." What does that mean lady yeah I was 14 when you did that
No no I'm a cat I love it I love it I'm so happy to see her All right we get started in just a minute Uh once everybody's kind of filtered out Uh I remember what I was called you for
Oh next meeting Yeah good catch though Yeah Yeah that was in my head Yeah next meeting Okay All right guys We're going to get keep going with the business section of this Uh may I have a motion to move meeting minutes pending any corrections so moved
Second All in favor i Uh okay May I have a motion that bills and payrolls be not read and pass for payment so moved Second All in favor i All right Uh this might be a little loud but uh we'll keep
it rolling It's filtering out now Yeah there we go Uh may I have a motion to open the public portion on agenda items only so moved Second All in favor i I Anybody want to come up and speak on agenda items
hello Hey Oh sorry Cindy Mango 433 Walnut Street I just have to preface this I am not speaking for the board of education but I am providing data with the approval of the superintendent Sure Um I wanted to talk about ordinance 2815 And I know it's just for introduction
but I wanted to give some actual numbers before you think about it So I think that the important question is what is the financial burden of these apartments with pilot on the municipality versus what is the burden on the school district okay financially And so there's
been some argument over how many students are actually in these apartments I have the actual numbers from the board of education which are for 240 West Westfield Avenue there are 35 minors living there with 13 of them being registered students For 250 West
Westfield Avenue there are 25 minors with 15 being registered students For 10 West Westfield I think it is or Westfield Uh building A there's 14 minors with six registered students Building B I don't think they have
anything in there yet Yep And then I'm not sure if my place has pilot or not Um they do Okay So 450 Westfield Not sure of the number of minors but there's currently eight registered students So in total there's currently 42 registered
students in those apartment buildings Um with 74 minors So they could be homeschooled go to another school they could be too young for school So they could possibly be coming But the cost is obviously the important part So the cost for educating we just published this at
the beginning of the year kindergarten through 12 Each grade has a different price It also varies if you're in the autism program or the multiple disability program but the price ranges from 18,523 all the way up to
$32,643 per student to educate them So if you average that it comes to an average of 22,55347 multiplied by 42 students cost the district yearly 947,245.77 Just one quick question In your
calculation are there any prek students they're not included in the preschool They definitely are I have the same numbers and they would be calculated different because we get state funding for that But they didn't break it up for us It's about eight prek students Okay
So minus 8 at 22 So take 160 off So 750 750,000 Okay Um it also would depend if any of those students are special needs So if the school district cannot provide the services that they need that price can go up to$1red to $150,000 for just a
single student because they then are sent out of district to a special school that provides them with what they need So what are the chances that out of all those students none of them need that so that would be an additional 100,000 just on top of there So it's really all I wanted to present just the actual number
So thank you Thank you I know you missed me I It's been a long time bud How you doing doing all right Doing better Name and address for the record Bill Crosset 412 Galloping Hill Road Um on the budget I think the paperwork said something about a 3%
increase Do we know what that's going to mean to you and me uh so I I'm not sure the exact number of the proposed budget but I believe the I don't want to spoil it Councilman uh uh Petroski do you want to give a preview of what the number is per household do you remember off top of
them or Ken what was the final average number per house as as in for the average house is $253,000 The uh municipal tax increase is estimated to be $50.60 Reason I ask is I've been in town 20
years and my taxes have gone up 60% 60 and that's just point blank ridiculous Yep Um for the apartments and what the lady was just talking about with I guess
zero dollars going towards the school fund I got a little upset about that a year ago I came in and point blank asked this council if all those apartments were paying their fair share to include
school taxes And the answer was yes they are Okay and apparently they're not So that means it all falls on all of you all of us everybody at home Why couldn't we get the right answer a year ago
i mean I would also say given those calculations a house uh with three children is not paying their fair share of school taxes right i mean well I mean let's just say my house is $12,000 a year That's 6,000 about going to the schools If I had three kids I
wouldn't be paying my fair share right and what I would say which I think is lost in all this is the board of education is still included in the assessed property Uh it's the property value correct um the pilot is off the
gains of the revenue right um so again I would also put this in context right so of the 42 students which I believe those numbers I I'm I could double check but I believe it's seven or eight that are in preK right and it's great that we have prek but it is an optional thing that we
do and it is you know helped funded by the state So there's about over 2,000 students here right so 41 represents 2% of the population right i just I want to put things in context here but I do want to say that they're not getting paid the
improvement on property which is a significant savings Uh no disagreements So that's where the you know I'm I'm not here to advocate all the way as saying that I got the right number but there is not fair It's not Yeah And the improvements there are not there's And I
get all that Yeah but the answer I was given last year was yes they're paying their portion of school taxes I I again I would say they are because they're paying on the property taxes You're they are not getting cut So this thing that's
on the agenda is going from 0% to 20 if it's approved Yes So that means it was at zero last year That's Yes They got 0% of the pilot They got their share of the
property taxes though Yeah Okay Thank you Anybody else like to come up to speak on agenda items hi Jennifer Mano 415 filbert Um so just to clarify you said that if a threeperson household wouldn't be paying their fair share Yep I agree with you
there However I mean just by the same logic correct right these people in these apartments are not paying any share That's totally incorrect and I think that needs to be dispelled right now Can you explain that then because the the apartment owner pays taxes and
they pay the apartment owner which pays taxes right there are taxes percent is going to the school district again So again if council wants to be recognized council can ask be recognized councilman signal But my point is is 100% right
there the pilot there is no money sunded to the board of education right now But if uh Sullivan Chevrolet if they were paying $100,000 in property taxes about 50,000 of that goes to the board of education just like it always has right
um would you say that you know one for one adds up to every student no But there's you know look I'm going to use natural national averages and I don't want to take up all your time right but I don't have this the stats from Rosal Park but national households about 30 to
40% of households have school-aged children Okay if we assume that Rosal Park has the same thing that means 60 to 70% of households in Rosal Park are paying for the board of ed without having kids in the school system That's a bargain we make as a community right
that's we put it all together and we make the money The last thing I want to say is we are the ones I get beat up over taxes No offense not the board of ed right they come to me because they think I make the taxes up and down right and it's not the truth but whatever We
we assess the taxes and levy the taxes The board of ed gets what they need right if the board of ed increases the budget we go out and collect that Am I saying that correctly Andrew and Ken fully funded Fully funded Yes Anybody else
okay I am seeing no one Uh may I have a motion to close the public portion on agenda items only some move Second All in favor i Uh okay Reports of departments Uh Andrew you want to start us off with anything mayor just a couple of updates So we had in the clerk's office we had the filing deadline for
candidates for nomination on the 24th Um everything all the petitions were certified to the county clerk The primary election will be held as a reminder a little later than usual It'll be on June 10th uh as opposed to June 3rd Um couple of grant updates Um we did
receive and I believe the chief may mention this during his report We received a $7,000 distracted driver grant through the office of the attorney general and the division of tri uh highway traffic safety at the state um that is for targeted enforcement during the month of April Uh particularly for
distracted driving and particularly texting while driving Um so be on the lookout and put your phones down Uh we received notice from the county of union of a $65,000 grant uh from the Union County Infrastructure Municipal Aid Grant that will help offset uh any debt
issuance or death debt authorization as part of the capital budget uh for road work This year we also received notice from the Department of uh Environmental Protection of a little over $7,000 in funding as part of the recycling tonnage grant As a reminder the recycling tonnage grant is based on how much
material you recycle and the data is always delayed So this year's grant is based off of items recycled in 2022 Um and just a couple note on some projects going on Uh we're in the final throws of the Boy Scout Park project Um I'm sure council members will want to discuss
their individual projects going on in their areas Um but that's ongoing trying to wrap it up soon Uh likewise Avon Street and Burwin Street Uh a lot of the concrete work is still ongoing Um there's a lot of concrete work on those streets as they were pretty much totally
redone Um we are out to bid currently for several other streets um uh all throughout the community Um the streets that are particularly out to bid right now are on the east side Um but I believe the last count we had was about 24 streets that are going to be slated
for improvement this year So we're trying to kind of get ahead of the game get out to bid early um and and make that happen uh during the summertime when it's less impactful to the community Um and I there's several other updates I could provide mayor but I'm
open to any questions Any questions for Andrew okay Uh Ken we'll just keep on the days and then we'll go to the other guys Thank you mayor Uh as we mentioned the uh budget's being introduced tonight Uh it's a $50.60 increase for the average
house Uh the public hearing and hopeful adoption will be on May 1st And the uh sore rate is uh also on here tonight for second reading and adoption Uh the rate is going uh down from it was $8 last year It's going down $5 to $5 this year
Uh Ken just real quick to set context what was it before it went up to $8 $4 right so it's so there is a slight increase overall but you know we we still have to pay the city of Elizabeth annually until we get the source separation project So that attributes to
about $200,000 increase And remember this is the first year we're doing the new building cycle where we're just taking October November December uh water readings So that consumption number is down about 12,000 So uh and that's attributed to why it's a $5 rate
That's all I have Cool Thank you Ken Uh let's start off with uh Chief Ram Come up Good evening everybody Even Chief Good evening So I submitted my report uh for the month of March I would just like to
highlight a couple of uh couple of uh line items Uh from March 3rd to March 7th members of the Rosal Park Police Department participated in the ReadAcross America campaign where they read books to the students at Aldian School Robert Gordon School and Sherman schools On March 11th the Rosal Park
Police Department Community Policing Unit participated in a law enforcement recruitment fair at Kain University that was sponsored by the Union County Prosecutor's Office Uh there's a lot of uh a lot of recruits there A lot of people looking to be law enforcement officers which is impressive these days because no one wants to be a law
enforcement officer uh because of the climate the way things are right now I want to be a cop A tough job Is it too late no How old are you 37 Out I'm out Sucks And then uh Andrew stole my thunder Um but I'm pleased to announce
that the Rosal Park Police Department was awarded the uh grant in the amount of $7,000 to be used to support the distracted driver campaign that takes place in the entire month of April With the help of this extra funding the Rosal Park Police Department through increased awareness and enforcement aims to reduce
the number of accidents caused by distracted driving and create a safer community Just remember you drive you text you pay Um that's it for my report I wanted to add a couple things cuz I know I know there were some some
uh Facebook posts and some emails that I received about uh a few uh about a week ago There was a rash of catalytic converter thefts uh in our town Uh they seem to have been uh localized to the east side of town I put a PSA on our
Rosal Park Police Facebook page If you like to you know go on the page I put some uh some finer points on how to protect yourself from this type of crime what you could do if it does happen how to report it how to go about doing that and some assistance for if you have
insurance claims that that type of nature Uh that night I just want to let everybody know that our officers were out there doing their due diligence Uh unfortunately they got about seven cars before we came upon them Um we did try to make a stop on that vehicle um it it fled out of town and headed on the
Garden State Parkway Um because we have um certain laws and regulations that we have to abide by That crime doesn't constitute a pursuit Uh so therefore we could not pursue that vehicle uh any further Um uh we do have the detectives working on that case We're hoped to get
some good leads We're working with other agencies that also uh had the same type of uh incidents with the same vehicle and uh and suspects So hopefully you'll have something uh soon on that But I just wanted to put that to rest that uh we are out there We are doing our job
We're trying to uh prevent crime and uh we can only do what we're allowed to do uh to to stop it So um that's all I have Mayor Cool Any questions for the chief yeah chief What can we do better to support you because you mentioned legislation laws that prevent you from engaging in high-speed pursuits Is this
something we need to bring up at the state level or are we seeing it in other communities as well so we do have uh some advocates I was at the state chief's meeting today A bunch of the state chiefs were also talking about the same type similar incidents What we could do better what we could uh talk to our legislators about By all means if
you write to the uh the right people you know hopefully some a bill will be passed to allow that to happen Um hopefully you know things will change where they'll they'll allow us to to pursue uh for incidents like that But however it's always a safety factor
right you gota if the uh the objective is to you know try to stop them from doing that crime but you're going to chase them down and and put somebody in jeopardy uh by doing so you know it outweighs itself It's a property crime So it's a fine line So it's something
that they're trying to contend with Just just like the uh the murder of the uh detective from Newark uh where you have a 14-year-old uh boy that actually shot and killed the detective from Newark And uh there's there's some legislation bills out there where they're trying to
try him as an adult now So uh legislation always helps Okay We could talk offline a little bit further Absolutely Mayor could I just piggy back on i just want to piggyback on something because I I I don't know if it was last year the year before we had a a kind of a string of pursuits um and some of the officers were actually injured and our
equipment It's pursuits are almost a lose-lose right i mean just forget about the policy right unless you unless you immediately catch them and nobody gets harmed If you're if you know if if life is at risk of the officer if uh uh if
the equipment gets uh broken or or damaged in some way there's almost no recovery on these cases right so even if you get the per right even if you get the person who did the crime innocent bystanders as well and and and and any any risk of life right is is traumatic
But then the on the equipment side right when when all is said and done and people are prosecuted and even if they're brought to justice we as a municipality as a public entity you never get recovery Almost never get recovery because you're going to go to these people and by and large they're
they're criminals and they have nothing right and there's really no way to go after their insurance you know there's no way to go after any assets Um so we usually end up and even if insurance covers us somebody pays You know that just just something I wanted to add on where I know the chief said it correctly
Um we do pursue when we can Yeah I was about to say that there's levels So there's it's not that's not totally true that we're not allowed to pursue but it has to make sense So like we're not going to chase someone down and and kill three people because a Cadillac convertter was stolen That's property I
understand it's a no it's a no-brainer burger for me Uh so there are levels that's directed in AG guidelines and you can look at that as well if you want to Like I said I just wanted to bring this this whole thing to light because like I said I saw a lot of people that were angry that there was a crime that was
committed and you know they're feeling that you know we're not out there patrolling We're not out there doing our job but these guys were on it and they did stumble upon you know what was going on and they did take action and uh you know we could only do so much heard
Thanks Chief Thank you Yeah Nobody else That's it Like your suit Looks good Thank you Rich Thank you Chief Thank you Chief Good evening everyone So we're moving along upstairs Uh construction code element is quite busy
trying to finish up some of the larger projects We're coming to conclusion on a couple of them So for the month of March we had 165 permits Total revenue through the end of March is $142,961 We have se connection fees year
to date of $82,120 We only had five uniform construction code violations which I was very pleased with On the property maintenance side we had 10 court dispositions fines year-to- date of $2,184 15 violation violations issued for the
month of month of March and 18 court summones Uh 10 Westfield Avenue the parking garage I TCOed that building yesterday We are now in the process of finalizing documents for a temporary certificate of occupancy for building B
which hopefully I'll be able to issue tomorrow but that's up to Capidagia if they bring in the paperwork that I need for final due diligence So I will forward that information to both Ken and Andrew once that is complete I always give I'll forward them a copy of the certificate
uh for purposes of the pilot and I know that was just discussed um on the pilot Um the Hunter project is moving along quite nicely Uh inspections are continuing 404 Westfield the Fernmore project is moving along quite nicely
Their anticipated occupancy date is September So that pilot should be um on board this year for the end of the year Hunter's a little further out I don't know if they'll be completed by the end of the year I'm not sure about that For development review committee for next
week uh April 9th we have two applications one for 374 East Westfield Avenue one for 123 Grove Street And that's my report So if anybody has any questions which one are they looking at putting the net up at Hunter for the uh
uh you know I'll follow up with um follow up with Val on that I gave him all the information I gave him the company I gave him two companies Uh one up in Connecticut that I used to use when I was coaching years and years ago Um and I know he's he got a price from
the one I don't know if he actually ordered it though so I will find out Keep me posted on it please Excuse me Can you keep me posted sure Absolutely As soon as I call him I'll I'll email you Appreciate it You got it Cool Any further that's it Cool Thanks Sounds good Thank you Rich
Um Ruben thank you mayor Good evening Good evening Going to make it really quick uh short just like the way you want it So uh a couple of reminders Uh this Saturday we have the meet the burough event 1121 Uh we have sent the invitations to
all the residents We have received uh response from three residents uh that's going to show up on that day We have three businesses who's going to come as well On April 25th we have our birthday celebration from 9:15 uh at Rosen Park High School And then uh April 29 we have
surrogates office visiting uh for a presentation And uh we have been getting a lot of phone calls for uh MVC event when it's coming up or what not We don't have the solid answer to it uh yet uh when they're going to come But I have
submitted another application for month of July and month of August Hopefully they will come again Um and there were also other questions uh about Real ID Um I hopefully Andrew can help me with this Uh Real ID it's not necessary uh if
you're not flying domestically So I mean yes No you need it domestically Yes domestic You need it Sorry Um so you need it everywhere You didn't you didn't realize for that but if you're not I'm sorry Andre can you help me with this yeah So
so what we've been getting what we've been getting a combination of at Burough Hall and at the community center are people panicked that their ID if it's not a real ID is going to expire in May because they don't have a star on it They're they're worried that um if they
have even if they have a passport um they're not going to be able to fly which is not the case So the reality is if you have a passport generally speaking you're covered you go for your regular appointment and get a real ID through the regular course of action if you have a passport If you don't have a
passport and you need to fly domestically you need a real ID and you should be seeking out opportunities but otherwise your ex your driver's license isn't going to expire They're not going to take it from you or throw you in jail there But people are really calling in a panicked state that they're not able to
get a real ID appointment Um I know Rupin's followed up multiple times even this week just to try to get another mobile NBC event Um but when I tell you that the DMV opens 50,000 appointments a week and within 10 minutes all 50,000
throughout the state are taken within minutes of the portal opening It is minutes There's a level of panic throughout the state that people's IDs are going to expire in May when Real ID goes into effect It's just not the case just for whatever it's worth Thank you
Andrew And that's all I have That wasn't that short Thank you That was a good one Kevin evening I'll be short I know Andrew sent an email earlier this week just discussing the utility company pavings but I'll be brief on that Uh towards the end of next week um milling
is going to take place Uh this is the New Jersey American Water Project Uh main work that was done prior year is now going to get paved Uh that's Maggie Roosevelt uh Hawthorne West Clay That's going to get milled towards the end of next week and then paved the following week Um Elizabeth Town Gas is looking to
pave mill and pave East Kfax Hamilton East Lincoln um East Roselle uh Sumer and Walnut Avenue Oh you're butchering them tonight Sum and McGee Sorry And everyone only cares about walnut Walnut Yes that's that'll that'll be
that'll be the most disruptive Um they're going to they plan to start the week of the 14th So um notices will gladly as they get move along in that Uh we did have a so going back to the storm sewer project separation We did have a meeting with DOT um few weeks ago Went
well They had a few questions few requests of additional information Um they did ask for a analysis to justify the need to go down Route 28 as opposed to other routes Um so that's something we'll do prior to submitting an application Just make sure they buy into it Um they do have a few things The
analysis is Elizabeth made us It's yeah it's a it's a it's a tricky kind of situation Um there's it's not really you know it's an engineer justification There's also an economical justification and a settlement justification So there's a few things that kind of weigh into that um that we'll discuss with the
DOT Um but uh positive meeting with them I think moving forward uh eventually you know we'll get through them And then we have a meeting pending with uh the New Jersey Department of Around Motor Protection for the permit for the connection into the Elizabeth River So that's pending But once we have that um project will you know continue to move
as as planned On the on the good note um all of West uh Route 28 is going to be redone So this makes sense for us to go down Route 28 anyway because it has to all get redone anyway Right Right Yeah So yeah So so part of the meeting was discussed you know some of the you know paving
requirements they will likely require paving curb to curb Um but if we're you know in the median you don't have to pave the other side You just pave the westbound or the eastbound side depending on what side we're in but yeah a lot of the a lot of the roadway will get redone Unfortunately it's in Elizabeth
and not in Rosa Park but Cool Uh yeah Go ahead Is there any date for Walnut Street do you have a kind of I don't have an exact date for Walnut Street but um they're they plan to start on the 14th You're kill Kevin You're kill like I could feel the the rage the
rage emanating It's it's more like vitriolic than pilot money No the answer on hold on the answer the answer is the answer is yes No the answer is yes So So they're they're milling there a commencement date for milling is the 14th right yes I just trying to remember off the top of my head I know you just said
it So it's the 14th It's the 14th but it's a large just to be clear there's multiple roads So it's multiple roads So I you can't we can't say right now with certainty that Walnut will be the 14th but that area will be done the 14th I'll get a the 14th of November
I'll get a uh I'll get an exact schedule of the roads on you know the order of roads they're going to do I'll let you know Be careful when you walk out that way Kevin Lion's den I'll run it this way Okay cool Thanks Kevin Thank you
Um who's left uh coach Oh he had enough time No I'm just kidding Come on Come on You can knock him on I think he's the last one right did I miss anybody else steve couldn't make it last minute He's feeling sick Sorry buddy Uh Chief Fire Chief
All right I'd like to thank Mayor Signarell and town council for giving me the opportunity to provide a brief update Membership and recreation And we currently have over 480 recreational members The recreation department has 23 programs 25 employees utilizing 11
locations Homework and afterare we currently have 121 members We're transporting and chaperoning over 98 students daily After school care has 13 programs 20 employees and growing Winter sports and activity program is completed
Offseason 3rd through 5th middle school and high school volleyball is completed They had 80 participants Offseason 8U and 10U softball is completed They had 30 participants Basketball and wrestling are completed I'd like to personally
congratulate and thank all of our volunteer coaches athletes and parents for yet another successful season Rosell Park Performing Arts had 27 participants The end of the year performances were amazing CR congratulations to our RPAC
program We're in the process of finalizing our spring program As of now offseason volleyball has started on Wednesday nights at the ASYC and we currently have 56 participants The ASYC has recently hosted the
following: scout meetings recreation committee meetings public affair and community event meetings CPEG meetings PTA meetings fifth grade parent meetings recreational sports events and CPR and a AED certifications to name a few I'd be
remiss to not congratulate Tina Schwarz for being named the Burrow of Roosevelt Parks Women of the Year Congratulations Tina It's very much deserved As always you can contact the recreation department at recreation excuse me at rosopark recreation.net with any
questions or concerns That completes our April recreation department meeting I'd be happy to answer any questions Anything thanks Sanders Just John thank you very much for uh helping me with the uh recreation uh awards tonight You're welcome Thank you very much Yes
Congratulations with your daughter Great That is definitely an honor Third in the state Yes Super proud Yes Cool All that coaching you did over the years Yeah Thank you Thank you Uh okay Uh I think
that's it May I have a motion to accept the reports of departments as submitted so moved Second All in favor i Okay Please read ordinance number 2811 by title Yes mayor Ordinance 2811 is an ordinance for second reading and public hearing an ordinance amending chapter 27
of the code of the bur of Rosel Park entitled sewers with specific amendments to article 2 entitled obstructions and breaks and entitled is spelled right on the actual ordinance I believe uh may I have a motion to open the public hearing on ordinance 2811 so
moved second all in favor I would like to come up and speak on this ordinance I am seeing no one may have a motion to close the public hearing on ordinance number 2811 so moved second all in favor I I may I have a motion to adopt ordinance number 2811 So moved Second Is
there any discussion yes mayor Just short I'm not going to overdo it Uh this just holds the utility companies accountable They can't no longer just build through our sewer lines They need to coordinate with the burrow Uh because you know mother nature's not the only
one that's causing flooding So this just makes sense Thank you Councilman Anything else okay Call the RO Councilman Petroski Yes Councilman Johnson Yes Councilman Sigerella Yes Councilman Robbina Yes Councilwoman Lions Yes Councilman Patel Yes Six votes
The affirmative Mayor The ordinance is adopted Please read Ordinance 2812 by title Yes Mayor Ordinance 2812 is an ordinance amending chapter 27 section 6 subsection 3 of the code of the Burbro Park titled imposition of charges I have motion to open the public hearing on ordinance number 2812 So moved Second
All in favor i Would you like to come up and speak on this ordinance how you doing george Ramirez 500 East Clay Mhm Um quick question So it used to be $4 per unit or whatever Yep Uh now it's
five What happened to the d the extra payment that we made last year yeah So uh this is the sewer Is this the sewer bills on this yes Okay Yeah So the um I mean the extra payment went to I
guess the overage fees last year right the the extra payment was it was just split out into two payments to make it easier on the residents Yeah So the total was 8% We just split into it was an $8 fee and that was the budget for the budget last year that had to be raised So but that was because of the
lawsuit Correct Right And the lawsuit still happened So we still have got the money from the state for the three million and then that million got waved by Elizabeth Yeah So that's why it's back to normalish this year right correct Yeah So if that 4 million got
taken care of from the check that we got from the state we didn't get this check till December Yeah Yeah So it got it didn't we didn't get That's right But we had an overage No No No So we No We we struck that rate
based on the budget we passed We still had to pay all those bills last year Yeah So let me let me It's government uh budgeting is can be a pain right so we do the budgeting this year or this time of the year right so this time of the year last year we obviously didn't know we were going to get that state aid So
you need to set the budget in anticipation of the revenues you think you're going to get or not get right so keep me honest here Ken We couldn't factor that in because we didn't even know about it right it was an ask midway through the the year So basically we
tried to get it for September and then we could have probably given some sort of payment back Unfortunately we didn't get it till like two days before Christmas So it was out of the calendar cycle So I mean look the way to look at it is it could be it's $5 this year If
we didn't get that it could be six right so like the relief is coming It's just not in a repayment from last year It's so that was applied to the rate Uh the what was applied to the rate the double payment The extra payment was applied to the rate for this year It was
applied No no no It was applied to last year for um our there was two there's two things that came out of the settlement that we have to pay Elizabeth It is what we owe per the settlement in the rears and we also owe them um they meter our outflows now Okay So so the
the total payment I it's was broken out into two but it's not a double payment It was one payment semantics All of that got used for our normal sewer utility that you've been paying for for the last 15 years 4% Yeah that's the 4% and then
the overage there was the payment we paid in the rears to Elizabeth and then the flow that we owe going forward until we're off their system Does that make sense correct Thank you Yep Did I get all that right close enough
All right Cool Anybody else okay Uh may I have the May I have a motion to close the public hearing on ordinance number 2812 so moved Second All in favor i I may have a motion to
adopt ordinance number 2812 So moved Second Is there any discussion okay Please call the RO Councilman Petroski Yes Councilman Johnson Yes Councilman Sigurella Yes Councilman Robbina Yes Councilwoman Lions Yes Councilman Patel Yes Six The
Affirmative Mayor the ordinance is adopted Please read ordinance number 2814 by title Yes Mayor Ordinance 2018 is an ordinance for introduction An ordinance amending chapter 2 article 1 section 1 subsection 3 of the code of the bur roell park entitled ordinances and resolutions May I have a motion to
approve ordinance 2018 for introduction and fix the date for second reading and public hearing is April 17th 2025 So moved Second Is there any discussion yes mayor if I may Yep Um just briefly just wanted to inform the residents that this is a normal practice in government And
uh it's actually if you look up the New Jersey state statute it'll tell you only elected officials that you voted on can put forth laws and ordinances not department heads So we're we're revising this This forces the department head to
work with their committees like they're supposed to And this ordinance still needs a little tweaking And I know Andrew is not going to want to hear that But I rather vote on this right now at face value because I don't have the language or the energy to go into the tweaking right now This is going to take
a little bit more This should just be for committee members only that if the if the liaison doesn't want to do it the committee any other committee member could pick it up not any other member of council Other members of council can always put forth laws that they want but
we're talking about when it comes to committee and department heads So that needs to be tweaked a little bit more I don't have the language I would like to work with the rest of council with that but I was shocked actually when I heard a past elected official like didn't know their powers Uh so um yeah be careful
with trying to go on Facebook just to say no just to be adversarial Do a little research first Uh okay Further discussion please call the role Andrew Councilman Petroski no Councilman Johnson yes
Councilman Sigello no Councilman Roina no Councilwoman Lions no Councilman Patel yes Two in the affirmative four in the negative The motion is not agreed to Thank you Uh please read ordinance number 2815 by title Yes mayor Ordinance
28:15 is an ordinance for introduction An ordinance amending the code of the bur roell park establishing a new chapter 14 thereof entitled long-term tax exemptions May I have a motion to approve ordinance number 2815 for introduction and fixed date for second reading and public hearing is April 17th 2025 So moved Second Is there any
discussion yes mayor If I may Um I'm going to uh want to move to table this in lie of uh mayor and council Um next next uh meeting I want to put up forth a resolution that we do something for the
schools However just to be clear and just for explanation purposes the mayor what he was conveying earlier is partially correct but there's partially there's another part to it So the developers aren't paying what's
called uh the property component And when you do taxes and when you're dealing with the taxes there's two There's assessment of the land value and an assessment of of the property Now compounded and and over the years we give them a pilot Why else
would anybody want a pilot it's advantageous to do a pilot because they don't have to pay the upfront cost on the property value which is a significant savings In addition to that they're only paying on the agreement 10 to 15% whatever the burrow has set forth
in the parameters of the pilot So that means they're only paying a small component on the annual service search charge fee from the proceeds that they get I was hoping not to have to educate but unfortunately I have to educate the people Okay So the residents you are
correct It's not they're not receiving their fair share And it's one thing to say that we're for the children but our votes need to start showing that we're for the children This money could be used for children with special needs for
people that's against drugs and and and and education like you guys with the cannabis Uh for for the sports that we just seen for we even had elected officials that sat on the board so they should know how hard it is for the schools to
maintain So yes they get the 54% off of the land value only They do not get the inflation Do they do not get the the developers get a fixed rate and they save millions over time We give
them a 30-year high and gradually they the annual service charge fee goes up gradually In the first few years they don't pay it at all They pay zero So this is something we should revisit I would like to table it If you don't want
to table it you can vote it down The next meeting I still would like to put forth a resolution that this governing body says we're going to commit at least for 2026 because I do realize that Ken and and something that the mayor brought
up that 95% of the budget is already and I don't want to increase the taxes on our end but there is still a way that we could decrease the tax and we'll get to that part later So that's my end of my discussion Uh so is that a motion to table yes Is
there a second second Okay Uh please call the role Andrew Councilman Petroski no Councilman Johnson yes Councilman Sigurella no Councilman Robbina no Councilman Lions no Councilman Patel yes Four in the negative two in the affirmative Motion to table is not
agreed to Okay Motion is on a motion to introduce Okay Uh can I entertain discussion still or this is just call the role just vote it down after that or Well you you can still discuss the mo the motion on the table is the motion to introduce Oh okay So as as presented
okay so call the uh count sorry just give me one second Councilman Petroski no Councilman Johnson yes Councilman Signarella no Councilman Robbina no Councilman Lions no Councilman Patel Yes More in the
negative two in the affirmative The motion is not agreed to Thank you Please read ordinance number 2816 by title Yes Mayor ordinance 2816 is an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and establish a cap bank for calendar year 2025 pursuant to NJSA48 4-4514
May I have a motion to approve ordinance number 2018 for introduction fix the date for second reading and public hearing is May 1st 2025 So moved Second Is there any discussion please call the role Councilman Petroski yes Councilman Johnson yes Councilman
yes Councilman Robin yes Councilman Lions yes Councilman Patel yes 6 months affirmative Mayor the ordinance is introduced Please read ordinance number 2817 by title Yes mayor Ordinance 2817 is an ordinance for introduction an ordinance amending chapter 10 section 4
subsection 4.1 of the code of the Bur Rosal Park entitled recreation fees enumerated I have a motion to approve ordinance number 2817 for introduction and fix the date for second reading of public hearing is April 17 2025 So moved Second Is there any discussion uh yes I
think uh we pretty much came to an agreement We found some money and I'm okay with it uh on face value unless you guys got anything else Uh but I'm for uh government I'm for police and fire and I'm for uh uh military Um but I'm not
for zeros because that affects the tax rate as the mayor said last meeting Any further discussion uh yes Excuse me I do Um so right now it is we're offering 20% discount on to you know police department uh fire and uh
veterans So I would like to mandate that the veterans get it for the fees be waved um cuz you know they did give us service for the country So I believe that we could do that uh the bare minimum
Okay So there's a motion Is there a second i'll second it But I I just think that it's going to hurt um the the tax ratables That's why I was trying not to give anyone zeros cuz originally we had the police and fire getting zeros as well But I I'll second it Just Okay
Please call the role Andrew Councilman Petroski No Councilman Johnson yes Councilman Sigarella no Councilman Robin no Councilwoman Lions no Councilman Patel yes More in the negative two in the affirmative The motion to amend is not agreed to Okay On the floor is a
motion introduced as presented Yeah All right Uh please call the RO Andrew Councilman Petroski Uh no Councilman Johnson are we voting on this as is yeah Yeah No sorry This is this is voting on the This is a motion to introduce as present Oh yeah Just to be clear So Ken
this is the 150 that you recommended Um we're this is staying as is with the discounts and everything else right You're the 10 20% or whatever is still You guys raised the uh afterare significantly like you wanted I forget the exact details but I think it's a 100
It's 150 versus 200 Yeah Yeah Okay got it Um Councilman Johnson yes Councilman Sigurella yes Councilman Robbina yes Councilwoman Lions yes Councilman Patel yes Five votes in the affirmative one in the negative The motion is agreed to The
ordinance is introduced Okay Thank you All matters listed with an asterisk are considered to be routine and non-controversial by the council and will be approved by one motion There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the governing body so requests 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 Please read all resolutions by title Wow there's not a lot Yes mayor Resolution 10525 is authorizing the burough clerk to auction unclaimed bicycles Resolution 10625 is authorizing self-examination of the 2025
municipal budget Resolution 10725 is authorizing introduction of the 2025 municipal budget Resolution 10825 is appointing William Shinto as part-time covering plumbing sub code inspector Resolution 10925 is authorizing change order number one National Water Main
Cleaning Company for the project miscellaneous storm sewer cleaning and televising in the amount of $14,776 increase to reflect a total contract amount of $214,776 after all change orders and resolution 11025 is authorizing closeout
of the contract with National Water Man Cleaning Company for the project miscellaneous storm sewer cleaning and televising Okay we pulling anything yes 107-25 Yes sir Anything else okay May I have a motion to approve the resolutions remaining on the consent
agenda so moved Second All in favor i have a motion to adopt resolution 107-25 So moved Second Is there any discussion yes mayor If I may Yep I want to discuss on the uh current fund appropriations
property purchase of 31 East Westfield A which is the Welsh Fargo Uh and we had this discussion in close session but since it's on here I guess it's open now So um since we was talking about
tweaking the budget and and good use for uh 900k I um I wanted I I'm totally in a disagreement with this purchase During the time during close session I was for it But just like anywhere else when you
go to sit at the dining table with your family and you start crunching numbers and and your and your wife or or the husband come up to you like "Hey we should do this We should do And then we start crunching numbers You start prioritizing And once you start prioritizing you're like "Hey man n 900k we can't do it this year babe Maybe it's
something that we could do later on down the line or revisit." Now we got this money from what's called um excuse me a sales of municipal assets And of course there's restrictions with that So when
we re when we redid the uh cell tower leasing agreement we received a 900k I guess onetime payment and which is a good thing But what that means is just real quick I think it was a little bit north of that Oh a little bit more No problem A little bit more than that
estimated which is a good thing That money what that means is we could use it on capital projects roadways safe routes to school sidewalks streets potholes we could do nothing that uh consists of
operational costs Now I would be still open to purchase this property but I would rather do a share agreement with the uh owners and I and I'm not certain but if they said that um they don't want to own liability I
feel like it's not a problem for the bureau to take liability If we're going to give them a percentage we can offer them a percentage of the parking uh revenue What corporation they're not making anything right now right now they're getting taxed and they only have
the driveway What what company wouldn't want to get money or or or extra revenue so we can easily do a share agreement with them Ask them I don't think that that they want liability That's not unreal We already have liability on
every other municipal lot So this will give them more parking This will give the businesses more parking And Wells Fargo will be able to make money But to spend 900K in capital when we could probably take our time to see what is
getting spent on surpluses from equipment vehicles things of that nature that we can offset the cost of that So we're how much we're spending can probably like over a little over $2 million on the surplus I'm sure there
are projects like um the projects when we do Avon and Burwin or when we're doing Locust where the where we have to put some money towards that we're getting grants but that doesn't cover everything The part
that we're spending money on we can use that capital money on that So this will be better used if we took our time and and find those capital projects that we can that we can minimize uh unnecessary spending of the
surplus So I mean this is just something else to consider I got a whole page of things that we could probably do The DPW facility OSHA safety upgrade problems sidewalk improvements capital uh bonding We could pay down debt with that
900k So our we go up in value with you know so I know we have debt so we could pay down 900k in debt police and fire equipment etc Like I could go on and on but unfortunately we can't get that list until the end of the year when it's
required by state which I've been asking this uh body for for some time now for so I mean in in their defense they've been working on things but there are other avenues that we can utilize this 900k for and it does not have to be for
a full payment of purchasing a a land that we don't even need right now Also that land could possibly affect maybe our the number of apartments that we have to do Not certain That's what we got attorneys for but if we're they go by evaluating how
much land we have that may pay a part So there's a lot of things that we need to sit down and and consider And uh I would prefer to to table this so maybe we could have an emergency workshop of some sort uh because it's it's good that the
committee worked together but uh I would like to have a little input on this uh 900k I digress Cool Um so Councilman just a couple points of clarification there and I we don't need to debate the merits of this one way or the other I I would say investing for parking which is
at a premium is important but we don't need to debate that right now Um the the actual the original idea for this um monies was actually we tried can I say this what the original idea was yes The original idea was I don't know if I talked to council about this because we
tried we we did okay uh to buy the ADA building so the prek building right because we don't try to help out the board of ed at all ever Um what we got uh blocked by was the attorneys uh because basically there's case law out there that if a bureau uses capital
monies to buy something on behalf of the board of education it could be seen as an endound for capital right because they need to go to a referendum for capital expenditures So that was the first idea Something to do in partnership should be owned by by us in some way Um that aside
um I I don't want to get into the total back and forth of it Totally agree That was actually my first option with Wells Fargo and you'd be surprised they were not down for a revenue share Um they didn't want the liability right take the liability We tried We said we'd insure
it Back me up here Andrew They the going in position of the burrow was to lease the property Um where they I think your mic's off but are you where they where they refused to engage in that negotiation was the subleasasing
part of it right which would be the parking revenue which would be installing parking stalls and allowing people to park there They were initially very interested but they thought it was some type of municipal employees parking there And we went down the field a little bit on that and they said "Oh
you're letting other people park there." No So so so long even though we would have given them the Wouldn't we be able to invite them here so I I just want to long story short like that discussion publicly Yeah I I mean that's fine We to Yeah it's whatever I'll give the history
and then we could have that discussion one way or the other The the the deal was we thought dead Actually I don't know if I talked to Britney or Chris about this but I was like I because the thing is it really sucks for people there right because as it's set up and there's other ways you could solve it but people park there they get towed
immediately and they it looks like municipal parking right so they mistake it right they go over there they go for ice cream or they go for whatever else is there or smoothie they get towed Um uh the deal was dead I sent them a really angry email Um you know because
there's other levers we have If we really want it we could eminent domain it Um a couple months later um Wells Fargo called back and said "Look we're not interested in doing this because of the liability We will sell it." Their original proposal on selling it was um
because uh they want to keep that ATM there We'll give you a discount on the property Um I think it was like 600k they wanted to sell it for Um but we would be able to have the ATM for 10 years Rentree Rentree Exactly um council during closed session and you know some
minds have changed no big deal Um said we'd rather just own it wholly and then we have the flexibility to kick them out if and when we want to So that's the deal we kind of talked about here So collect rent Yeah So I'm getting to that Yeah So we also as part of the deal because we're losing tax revenue because
we get tax revenue from it now It's private Um instead of them giving us a discount they will be giving us was it 25k yearly or 20k yearly 18 18 Okay close Um so yeah I I'm not going to argue the merits over it I just want a couple points of clarification Yeah but
Ken could tell you that what I'm saying is true Nobody's saying you're wrong That we can This is an unnecessary 900k that we don't have to spend And if we're talking about tweaking the budget and and saving the taxpayers money then let's tweak this budget This 900k I'm not talking about for the schools this
900k can be utilized on our capital on things that we have capital projects and things that we have planned That's what I'm talking about That we may be using surplus revenue money to pay off those items and and we could
put that surplus back into the surplus or even disseminate it through the tax rate So that's what I'm talking about I'm not talking about the school This is something a little bit different So um I'm talking about affecting the tax rate and utilizing this money and we don't have to outright buy this property
immediately What's the urgency to buy it right now there is no emergency to buy it right now Is there an emergency to buy it right now i I mean if that's a question to me I would just say there's not an emergency And again let's tweak the but but hold on a second here Uh I think looking
around the corner we are going to have a completely full downtown right every storefront by September will be full right and also do we know that if this affect affects our affordable uh rate stage four could let me just finish the swing on my point
Um so so my point is is I think any of us who have been downtown on a Friday night and I'm proud of this It's getting pretty packed down there right i mean between dings I think the the investment of that is worth it I will not speak for the attorney We don't have affordable housing attorneys here but I believe
when they calculate open space it's open space broadly Well that calculation was already done now Okay So it's the the chalk line is snapped one way or the other Yes Okay Mayor may I speak sure Please So Councilman Johnson you bring some good
merits to your conversations and we could talk all day about what we need for fire department police department DPW and not I would only be on this day for this is my uh uh excuse me fourth year but uh I was sitting as a
department head for 19 years and you bring some merits as the fire chief So every department every avenue we could look every day there's something needs to be uh spent money on right and I think over the past years 10 15 years
mayor and council have done their job to try to do what's right for each community So I I think and I understand what you're saying right uh and there are other ways to pay for other items and other scenarios but I think this is
the time and uh uh that the town is flourishing All right Uh and except you know my son and and couple people I've grew up downtown and other people on the deis and I could say honestly it's the one it's been the best for I I'll go 50
years I'm 37 years I'll go with I'll go with 50 years I know I agree it looked like and and parking is a premium Yeah It is an asset we're going to have and it's not like we can't say three years from now let's get rid of it and sell it and maybe get a million and uh one for
it Right We will be bringing revenue in and it's 18,000 plus I I I have no idea how much we really make on parking So I I should know that but I I would say we we might uh it might be even Stevens or maybe a dollar a month I I don't I'm not
going to make a statement but I I think uh um we did uh most of us agreed to purchase I think we made move forward on it I understand I don't think we're being drunk sailors by spending $900,000 Um and I do believe that's to
give value of the property and it's something we could sit on and if we make a mistake right we all have erasers on our pencils We'll sell it and we only get $900,000 for it Uh I'll take the $18,000 a year and and we'll see uh that
every business uh warrants the use of that property And this is no kidding twice in the last two weeks I tr I went to get my wife some ice cream the other night and and it was I had a tough
time finding a parking spot on the on the avenue Not I didn't I was a little lazy to go to a parking lot and I tried not to park in that parking lot and I went to Chris I'm pronounce it better Chris to get a haircut and I went back an hour later to whatever and I was lazy to go park behind Dallings or whatever
So it there's positive So I I I agree with you to a point I disagree with you I need to we need to move forward tonight I don't know why we can't just table it No because this is the whole budget I'm not terrible but but that's the past 5 years We we've we got the mayor budget introduced months later
months later before April We could easily do a special meeting mayor It doesn't take two seconds but to table it and to explore those options of savings Okay Is there is that a motion to table yes I would like to make a motion to table this and then we have a special meeting and we have Ken explore those
options Is there a second i don't agree 900K is a big big chunk Okay There's a there's a second That's There's no discussion on this Please call the role on the motion to table Okay Councilman John Councilman Petroski No Councilman Johnson Yes Councilman
Sigurella No Councilman Robbina No Councilman Lions Councilwoman Lions Councilman Patel Yes Four in the negative two in the affirmative The motion is not agreed to Motion on the floor is a motion to adopt resolution 10725 Okay Uh is there any further
discussion please call the And just so now we're clear this is on a motion to introduce the budget as presented by the committee and as planned So Andrew please call the role Councilman Petroski yes Councilman Johnson no Councilman Sigurella yes To a
great budget C Councilman Robin yes Councilwoman Lions yes Councilman Patel no Four in the affirmative two in the negative The motion is agreed to Resolution is stopped It's kind of trumpy from mayor from Councilman Singerella there to a great budget
He's entitled to his opinion You want to throw some tariffs on today too it's still could be even greater It's already better than last year Am I right am I right that's right Frank There's no statue yet All right All right Order in this court
Okay All right uh reports of mayor and counsel Uh uh Councilman Johnson you can start off Thanks Thank you Mayor Good evening residents mayor and council Today I would like to start off my report with a quote by one of the
greatest civil rights persons of all times that I truly try myself to live by especially while I'm in office to serve the people This gentleman was not only a civil rights activist but a scholar a doctor a spiritual adviser a family man
and a community leader Martin Luther King Jr in which at this very time fits most suitably in nature when trying to understand me at least It's one of my most favorite quotes of
all time and I have mentioned this quote many times in the past when I first got sworn in There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe not safe nor political not political nor popular not popular But he
must takes it because his conscience tells him it's right Now some people in politics may not want to ruffle feathers or better yet shake the tree or branches because they do not because they want to play it safe Maybe because it's election season or due to political alliances But
we all must remember as to why we chose to run for office in the first place And our hearts should always vote in the best interest of the community and our family's livelihood within that community Now I can't speak on behalf of any of my colleagues on Adas but I
always I'm always going to voice the concerns of my constituency my community and most importantly my family So I would like to apologize to my colleagues and department heads in advance but I'm always going to do what I feel is right
for this community as a whole and respectfully I don't always care about party uh alliances nor ideology nor past practice or whether a person is left or whether a person is right But sometimes we as society just
need to go back to the basics of simply doing what's right or ethical versus wrong and improper especially at the local level of politics That to me at least affects the community most So I don't mind shaking a tree or a
branch especially if it's going to bear a fruitful outcome and no it may not always fit perfectly with everyone's views and or agendas However the decision we make as a governing body is all connected to the
town and is much necessary and is a much necessary entanglement to do what's right for the burrow because different perspectives help us collectively highlight what's best for the overall beloved community So at this time I just
want to thank everyone for allowing me to say what's in my heart And I know that this team on the deis Rosel Park is still heading towards the right direction And that's because people of Roosevelt Park are engaged in with our community And as officials we too are
engaged with the people to do not what is right for us personally but what is best for the overall community as a [Applause] whole Thank you Before I close my report
I would like to spotlight our recent third annual community preparation event putting life first CPR seminar which was held on March 29th 2025 at the Casano Center This event was free CPR training to 24 residents equipping them with
life-saving skills and a two-year certification This life-saving initiative created by myself was born from an unfortunate tragedy In situations like that sometimes all emergency personnel need
is just a few moments a few more minutes to arrive Those minutes can mean the difference between life and death That's why it's critical to empower everyday people with tools and training to act swiftly and confidently before first
responders get there To me this wasn't just a seminar It's a movement It's about putting life first in Roso Park and making sure our residents are prepared to protect each other when every second counts This meaningful event was made possible through the
incredible support of the Garwood First Aid Fire Squad the Roosevelt Park Police Department who provided excellent guidance and hands-on training I want to thank Director Rupen Shaw on logistics and project management Thank you And we also extend special thanks to Ner Delhi
and the Greg Johnson Civic Association for generous uhity in providing refreshments lunch and sponsored raffles which include gift cards and essential first aid supplies These types of events the burl
and I plan to do annually So please help spread the awareness about the importance of community prepar preparedness and I'm looking forward to seeing more participants next year So far we trained over 70 residents in the community and hopefully next year we
will reach 100 Uh if you need to get in contact with me you could call me at 9083031519 or email me at gson rosepark.net And mayor that concludes my report Thank you Thank you Councilman Council Metroski
Thank you Mayor Uh first of all I want to send my condolences out to Antinet Kisma and John Centur Okay Uh March 31st I attended the fire department meeting Uh as usual we discussed about the uh
work orders they have and I know many questions were asked about the the uh addition to the um Fate tooth firehouse which I got their their answers and everything Uh we're going out to bid soon on that right yes Yeah I was told So um uh April what sorry real quick
When's the new fire truck get in or maybe Dad do you know may I heard may of next year april May of 26.6 26.6 That's what they thought Got it Okay Um um on April 3rd I attended the firmmore my
place um A+ first radio which is 450 Westville Avenue which is the old uh Mammaroski brothers uh thing Um I want to thank Andrew who took me on a tour of the place Um so very well uh it's
beautiful and everything and I got to see thing which will be the future home of the historical society um once it uh it is built So um very well u run thing on uh April 3rd
Um just to let everyone know on April 9th which is next Wednesday the historical society is having a fundraiser at Downs They will get 10% of the uh whatever they make Downs and that's they'll be open from 11:00 in the
morning till 2:00 a.m Um so they will get 10% So if you can come out and support the historical society uh the Easter egg hunt will be April 19th Uh it'll be on field D which is the uh
uh Kofax Avenue baseball field Um and that'll be from 10 to 12 Um we had to change it uh because the little league parade was is uh this uh Saturday and it'll be too much of a conflict Okay I want to congratulate all the wrestlers
basketball players uh that were honored tonight and a special thank you to Lucia Reeri Uh what an honor as a freshman coming in third place in the state Very well Uh so we have her we have her for
three more years So you know um the as I said the Roosevelt Park Youth Baseball and Softball League parade is this Saturday at 4 uh which is April 5th Um um it will start at 11
o'clock at the Robert Gordon School Um so uh I I wish them a good season and everything Um and also the budget and I want to thank my u first of all Andrew Ken great job Thank you for your
guidance Um Joe Signarella Jr uh was on the committee and Rosanna Lions also on the committee Um and we worked very hard and I'm honored to get it down to $50.60 Um which uh is a big drop from
last year which was 123.97 Um and again one thing people need to know no one lost their job No policeman got laid off No no one uh got laid off No budget cuts Um people you know lost money or anything We did the
best we can And um I I'm proud to be a member of it Um um again if it next year if you want to do something with the uh pilot we could talk but hopefully it it comes up before the budget Um um again
we were 95% done with the budget and then I there was the first time I got hit that about sharing it with the school board But um I know I I just finished campaigning in the fall and I'm going to say probably 70% of the
residents asked me uh please do something with my taxes So um you know like that So you know again um I'm very proud of what my committee um and everything again Andrew and uh Ken thank you for and I also want to thank the bud
the uh uh chairmans of the committees Um you know they came in with with their budget and we worked together and we we got it and I'm I'm very proud of it and everything And uh you know like I said hopefully uh we could continue uh next
year But uh mayor that's my report Um if you need to contact me get me at jetroski rosarpark.net net 9086667821 And that's my report Thank you Thank you Councilman Uh Councilwoman
good evening mayor Whoops Sorry Good evening mayor council and uh residents of Rosal Park Um April I am excited We are going to do the meet the burrow event Hopefully if you are new to the town and you're watching this um I know that uh
Rupen did reach out but definitely come out It's going to be at 11:00 a.m at um the community center And then uh we also have community cleanup on April 12th Uh so please come out and we can get to know you and we can help the town in
that way Um I also want to thank the Union County Local Source They actually uh gave us a beautiful um layout in uh in the local source and honoring the woman of the year Tina and also all the
nominees And I'm just really I was very proud and and happy um to see that highlighted Um just for the women's night celebration I do have a date Um it's going to be May 30th at Kasa So I
will be um creating a flyer and having uh the announcement for that Um for myself I actually just want to say I'm sad to see Ner's uh close Um yeah that actually closed So I just wanted to say
to the family I used to see them when I I work at Robert Gordon and uh they were just a great family So I just wanted to publicly say they really did amazing here and it's just sad to see them go It's a tough location Yeah Yeah Um but I
also want to make a statement Um there's there's some things that are happening in Rosal Park And for me being a a a hometown girl I definitely you know started even being on council with my heart on the sleeve but also I speak
truth I stand up for the things that I really believe in for this town Um and with receipts if I could say it that way Okay so I'll just say this statement Sorry hold on one second It
says "Be vigilant and aware of individuals who actively try to create division and strife as such actions can be detrimental to relationships and communities Sowing discord is a
destructive act that can lead to conflict division and the breakdown of relationships Those who sow discord of off often use gossip lies unfounded accusations and negative criticism to
achieve their goals their personal goals They'll their selfish ambition for selfish promotion So just remember that unity and peace are essential for healthy relationships and communities And I just say where
there's bad fruit there's a bad root It's simple And I say that to the community because you have to come to the source We are open And I'll speak for myself Call me reach out to me email me but
I'll come to your house meet at the diner whatever you need Um but we are you know for us being a team is essential Um but I just wanted to say that out loud Um and if you need my number
908-7268773 and r lions at rosaltpark.net I thank you Thank you Councilwoman Counciloman Cool The environmental commission held the repair cafe event on March 23rd at the Casano Center Volunteer fixers
successfully repaired over 30 items and 50 residents attended the event They will hold their next event in the fall Uh the community garden signups for 2025 season are available Look for flyers on social media um and borrow and the
borrow or email enrollment commission rosopark.net net for more information Um planned road work within the fourth ward Um the following street will be paved or planned uh to be paved West Clay Horththornne Roosevelt Street Warren A
lower a um and beginning this month weather depending Atlantic infrastructures will begin uh roadway milling operation on Roosevelt Street Horththornne and West Clay These projects are uh restoration
work funded by the New Jersey American Water Paving will follow milling and the traffic striping will be completed as needed Thank you Andrew for these updates And that concludes my report Thank you Thank you Councilman Councilman Robbina Good evening Mayor Good evening Rosell
Park on infrastructure and safety March 29th I attended the had the pleasure of attending the New Jersey Bike and Walk Coalition Summit at Princeton University where we discussed new funding opportunities and strategies to improve trail planning and design Trails are essential for promoting health safety
and connectivity in our community And I'm excited about the potential they hold for economic growth and enhanced mobility Here are some key insights from the summit Economic impact of trails Trails boost local economies by attracting visitors increasing spending
at local businesses raising property values by three to 5% and supporting over a million jobs nationwide Bicycle tourism generates 83 billion annually in the US Local trails like the DNR and Middle Sex Greenway already contribute millions to local businesses and once
completed the Essex Hudson Greenway is expected to generate $65 million in annual economic activity Investing in biking and walking infrastructure isn't just about mobility and safety It's an economic strategy that can generate growth create jobs and
improve quality of life for everyone Upcoming bike and trail events On Wednesday April 9th Union County is hosting a public meeting on the East Coast Greenway expansion 6 p.m at the Cranford Rec Center 220 Walnut Avenue second floor This meeting will cover the
creation of bike lanes connecting Cranford Roselle and Elizabeth expanding the East Coast Greenway through Warenko Park The discussion will include route options signage and infrastructure improvements to enhance safety for bikers Thursday April 10th 6:30 p.m
community engagement on pedestrian and traffic safety at the Casano Center In partnership with Easyide the burough will host a roundt style discussion for the Street Smart New Jersey campaign While the campaign study primarily focuses on the fifth ward particularly at the intersection of West Webster and
Myrtle Avenues the session invites all community members to share suggestions questions and concerns regarding ped pedestrian and traffic safety Saturday April 26 celebrate Trails Day Join Union County Connect for litter cleanup and trail walk along the
Rawway Valley starting at 11:00 a.m at Frenchies followed by ribbon cutting ceremony tentatively uh at Boy Scout Park at 12:30 p.m Saturday May 3rd is our annual bike clinic in Toro Park The bike clinic starts at 11:00 a.m with a Toro Park
beginning at 11:30 Bob and Don Massuchi fifth ward residents and owners of B's bicycle service will be providing bike checks Certified cycling instructor Paul Mikawitz will also educate younger and new riders Rain date is May 4th For more details and to RSVP visit the Burough's
Facebook page or my Facebook page On to education and awareness April is autism awareness month with bless you With one in 36 children in the US diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder according to the CDC and one in 32 here
in New Jersey Autism affects individuals differently with varying strengths and challenges Early intervention is crucial to helping children with autism or neurodeiverse conditions develop key skills and reach their full potential
April 10th 6:30 p.m Special education parent advisory group meeting at the youth center Mains and Weineberg LLC will present on how to prepare for adulthood and independence for children with disabilities Parents of teens with disabilities are strongly encouraged to
attend If you're a parent educator or have a child with different abilities please get involved Raising awareness is key to fostering inclusion and support for families with children on the spectrum and those with neurodeiverse needs Additionally talking about education on March 27th my family and I attended
Matilda the Musical at Rosal Park High School A big congratulations to all students staff and supporters involved in this incredible production Special thanks to Mr Panetta and the parents who supported their children in in the arts It was an outstanding display of talent
and dedication and I'm extremely proud of all who participated Municipal government update The burrow was recently awarded $65,000 as part of the Union County infrastructure and municipal aid program The check is behind me This funding will help cover the cost of infrastructure
improvements and new sidewalks Additionally work has been completed to remove a hard obstruction in the sewer pipe near Lemon Monaco Perry and the corner of West Webster Avenue Uh this improvement will help alleviate flooding issues in the area of Laurel Avenue My place at first radio
redevelopment ribbon cutting Yesterday I joined BA Casaias as we celebrated the ribbon cutting for phase one of the my place at first radio devel redevelopment This project blends modern luxury with a deep respect for Roso Park's history honoring its past as the site of the Maronei wireless factory in the early
1900s Later the site became RCA where the first licensed broadcasting station in New Jersey and one of the first in the nation WDY was established Over the years it became AM Caragian Inc and then Ramarowski Brothers And with America's
250th anniversary the semiquidin centennial and Rosal Park's 125th anniversary coming up this redevelopment is a fitting tribute to our community's rich heritage For more information on upcoming activities in the county visit ucnj.org/250 Upcoming municipal events
Saturday April 5th is the Meet the Burough event at the Casano Center Whether you're new to the fifth ward or a longtime resident I invite you to join me for a conversation about what's important to you and how we can work together to improve our community Saturday April 12th spring cleanup from 10:00 a.m to noon at the Casano Center
So let's work together to keep our burrow looking beautiful Join us for this spring cleanup event Saturday May 17th is opening day at the community garden So join us in the fifth ward at 133 Valley Road to kick off the season of the season More details to follow
and a federal update in community unity Over the past few weeks I've participated in several telephone town halls and received updates from our congressional representatives including Menendez Macyver and Kaine Despite their differing views on topics such as federal spending government efficiency
the economy foreign policy and social issues one common theme emerged We're all in for a bumpy ride Regardless of political affiliation we face significant challenges However I urge everyone to avoid fingerpointing and divisiveness whether at the federal
level or within our local community The noise and distractions of misinformation and political theatrics are not helpful What's important is that we remain united as a community That means we stay committed we communicate and collaborate
not collude While decisions made at the federal level will impact us locally including funding we must focus on moving forward together Now is the time to invest in progress not dwell in the past At the local level we focus on
Chestnut Street our main street We care about our roads infrastructure parks safety schools and small businesses Let's continue working together and communicating to build a stronger future for Roosevelt Park Fifth Ward residents a reminder that vegetative waste pickup
resumes tomorrow If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to me via text phone or email jubine at roseell park.net 8622360019 Mayor folks in Rosel Park that concludes my report Thank you Councilman Councilman Signarelloo
so I'll lead off Yay to vegetation waste I had a lot this morning Uh thank you to uh uh Andrew and um Kers We're going to try to refinish the six and 700 block of woodland
uh and the concrete which all the residents wanted to keep it that way Uh so last I'm proud of this budget and um Conjo I'm going to have a little fun with you I lost a cup of coffee I going to vote yes tonight I was going for $50
You were going to vote yes I mean it's it's still lower than any of the Republican budgets So no I'm looking at two So this is this is beautiful I like like a lot of people should see this paperwork you know So I became I was a fire chief in 94 and I've been around
here this or whatever I'm looking back at this budget in 2008 $153 in 2008 2006 $113 So wow you probably would have voted one on those back then but whatever I'll leave that Do you think
why I said you would have voted for that but anyway but um um and then we had a little bumpy year in 23 and 24 but I'm proud of this budget and I respect what Councilman Johnson had to say tonight But you know we didn't buy a boat tonight We bought a parking lot It's an
asset and if somebody wanted to develop on it or we're going to use it for parking we have the options And I do believe our downtown is coming around I'm and that's why I uh supported this budget I supported this not to change
anything And I think it will help our downtown And if we have to sell the boat I mean the the the uh the parking lot The parking lot I know I'm having a little We don't have a boat No statue We don't have a statue either So and we're and and we're good So I'm
happy with this budget at $50 So anyway uh if you have any uh questions you know how to get a hold of me at jiggarella rosaark.net Um have a good night Thank you Councilman Uh I normally don't do an update but I'm going to do one tonight because I I'm I'm hot about a lot of
things Um and uh sorry guys it's going to be a little bit longer because I but I I normally save you guys the the time so I'm going to take it tonight Um I first off I want to congratulate Councilman Petroski and and the budget committee but most importantly Councilman Petroski who's been doing
this since I became mayor I'll take a little credit too because I think you know come we work a little bit together on this I appreciate that But um I I want to stress I I'm so I agree the taxes in this state are way too high
100% There are structural issues that need to be fixed that we're not going to fix in Rosal Park overnight But what I can do in Rosal Park is I can stem the tide And since I've been elected and since Councilman Trosky's been the head of the finance committee 100% could
always be better But you know what our tax increases it used to be a little over $200 a household for the two decades before I was mayor it's under it's under half of that now Okay that's fiscal responsibility We haven't filled up the roles with unnecessary roles As a
matter of fact I'd love to hire more people The only people that we've had to remove while maintaining a tight budget is doing shared services which is pragmatic which is trying to save the town money in a smart way And by the way all those people that were let go in the shared services were all given opportunities to have a have a role at
the county level Um so I'm very proud of this budget Um very proud of the track record of fiscal responsibility we have The other thing I'll say is congratulations to Ken We have probably the highest bond rating that we will ever be able to have right like we're not getting a higher one We've talked to
the the ratings agencies like we're top tier for our size Um before I became mayor every deputy chief in this town for our volunteers was riding around in a hooptie Um some
of them stopped at a red light the engine just failed Uh some of them had to be pushed Uh some of them had rust holes in them When I got elected every police chief or every fire chief got a new vehicle We ordered a new engine for them which is coming next week We have a new addition going sorry not next week
next next year We have a new addition coming out of the fire department Right we have done all of these things and continue to expand services um while maintaining a budget a good budget Which brings me to my next point I am so very
very sick and tired of hearing the accusation that this town and the municipal side does nothing for the kids or does nothing for the board of education I want to take everybody back to a time when the Anthony Sigella Youth Center was made when I was a child Um
it's seen ownership of many hands Um but uh for a long time it was ran even though it was owned by the burrow ran by the schools Uh how many years ago did they decide to to give it back Andrew three five five 2020 2020 Uh the the
board of education came to the burrow and said "We cannot This is too expensive We do not want the Anthony Cigarella Youth Center anymore Do what you want with it." There's two knock-on effects to that which is utter nonsense And I'm very hopeful for the new board and I don't want to kick the old board I
got some people on the days that were on old boards but but the level of irresponsibility from that board at that time is crazy And I'll tell you why Because I went to Robert Gordon two weeks ago to read for school kids We are packed tight And everybody can point the
fingers at developments I will reiterate there are 41 students which is 2% of the population in of student population in those developments The reason why we are packed so tight and I commend the board of ed for trying to do this is because we expanded prek without having a
building for it So you're packed in Robert Gordon you're packed in aline you're packed in wherever else and it's great that we're doing pre-k but there wasn't a coherent plan around the building So when the board of education gave us Anthony Cigarella Youth Center back not only did they lose a service potentially which we rescued they also
gave up a building with four classrooms that they could have used during the day for prek a little short-sighted from the board of education I would think right so when they gave it to us it was in disgusting disrepair We had to put about a million dollars in capital monies to that And the other lingering thing was
the services that were left for kids right uh uh after school program homework help program all things that are not necessary but are all services that the board of ed did we have started to do right and we raised the fees on it
tonight But let's not forget that does not cover all of the salaries right we are still paying as taxpayers for a good we're subsidizing after care and we're subsidizing the homework help group all of this stuff right so we can talk about
monies going directly to the school We've offered the school buildings and we were there for students and for the school when the school could no longer offer a service So I I just those accusations do not stand Can we do more going forward 100% Open to discussion
100% But the last thing I'll say when it comes specifically to pilots of the major projects one was settled in 2009 to do affordable housing lawsuit Okay it is what it is there The other couple a lot of them were started
before me But at no point did the board of ed in earnest ever come to talk about these pilots at actually getting a share of this There was never a discussion between us and the board of ed So I I love when board of ed members come and point the fingers at us even if they weren't there because at no point did
they talk to the liaison did they talk to me to say hey mayor can we pause for a second and talk about calculation where the board of ed gets cut into this I'm sorry guys I'm not going to negotiate with myself If the board of ed would like to come and be proactive and discuss these things if they actually
had a plan when it came to our students and where they should be and I'm not talking about the current board I'm talking about prior boards If they actually had a plan and they were forward thinking then we could have had that discussion We didn't sit on our hands We warned them We talked to them about it We had members on the board of
ed that worked with us but nobody came to us asking for this And I really want to say that for the record Final thing that I will rant about today is good lord we are watching ourselves shoot ourselves in the foot economically Not
talking about politics not talking about who's good or bad but what we just saw today was burning every bridge we have as partners as friends as allies All of the goodwill that our grandparents fought for in World War II just got shot
in the last three months There's a thing that's really important in this world It's called soft power It's what makes businesses want to do business with America It's the stability of the US dollars the stability of the US government the stability of our policies And all of that has been decimated over
the last three months And all of you are seeing in the 401k I'm seeing it in lost business in my business And it's disrupting every sense of our lives I'm not talking left right or so center I'm talking about stability That is what we need at the local level It's what we need at the state level It's what we
need at the federal level And what we've seen is chaos And I I cannot stay silent on that And the last thing I'll say is you might see it and 100% every government can be more efficient This government can be more efficient The state government can be more efficient The county government can be more
efficient Fixes are made with a scalpel not with a sledgehammer You have friends you have family you have somebody that's going to be affected by these budget cuts And should there be budget cuts 100% 100% There's waste in the federal government
but with a scalpel not with a hacksaw Because I got to tell you if you don't know somebody right now who's either lost a job or lost a a grant because of the cuts that are going on you will soon And if you're not feeling it yet you
will soon Mayor Sigell is done for the night Mayor Sega Rosal Park.net if you have any questions Um may I have a motion to open the public portion on any subject matter so moved Second All in favor i Thank God
Man you talk too much Oh my god Not supposed to be campaigning here dude God don't knock on my door Name and address for the record sir Frank Treza 479 Ragland Drive
Rosel Park New Jersey Thank you for taking care of the tree Happy to help You didn't even know did you i I I You didn't know I saw right in your face Can I Can I fake it yeah of course I knew Come on I knew right you didn't know I spoke I did it for you
I little guy You pile it high Um I spoke to Andrew before the meeting and seriously thank you Greatly appreciate it They're going to take a look at that other tree and the street is a total mess now because of What do you want again what street are you on
again you told me you would take sure I'll make sure Raglin Drive Yeah I was lying before It's getting done though It's getting done Yeah You said I pile it on I was piling it on Continue I like to hit you I'm I'm joking That's not a threat I know I got I got it Um no thank
you Really it's a great greatly appreciated Now I just want to there's a couple things Sure Now I don't think this would happen in our burrow but are we taking any precautions
with the charging stations downtown what you mean with like fires people are attacking them and Oh interesting Yeah Um we we are not I mean look I'm I'm going to put I really don't think it's necessary but I think it's something that should be thought of I think it's
something that should be thought of I will say this just from my political hat on for a second I believe most the targets and protests and somebody who owns an electric car are targeted towards Tesla chargers The chargers that we have are not Tesla chargers Excuse me I didn't know that You see people ride by they see chargers What do they think
yeah they're not the same So Tesla obviously has the biggest net charger network You better watch your car I don't have a Tesla anymore All right But but yes Um but that's uh Shell owns it now So Shell's getting into electric energy and they bought a company called
Volta I just Yep But I appreciate it Yeah Um you got to watch your car You ser It's crazy Liberals destroying other liberals properties to get at a guy that's trying to Never mind Yeah Anyway
it's true You're almost out of time Oh I just started two minutes bud Oh you made me forget what else I was going to say I'm sorry Oh god Oh the parking lot deal I was totally against it I wasn't for it then against it I was totally
against it but the way it was explained I think it's actually a pretty good move Okay Because banks are not going to share liability Yeah And they're not going to give you a hold harmless Yeah And they would even take a deed in L for I worked at banks 40 years They would even take a deed in le of foreclosure
for one simple reason Who do you sue who's got the deep pockets now the ATM machines are going to stay there They are That was my concern Yep All right But we're bringing in revenue We're rent We're charging them rent for it Okay Yep Now I was hoping to get a rebate for the
3 million that you got for the sore as I call it extortion fee Joe it's not funny man I'm by I'm by myself Not extortion but okay I'm by myself I paid $1,600 That's not your It's not funny I apologize Continue Damn Yeah Should be better this year though
You guys got to be looking for ways to bring taxes down We're trying No you're not Bring not bring them up Uh but I do agree now with the parking lot Yep I think it's a good deal Yep I totally did disagree with you trying to buy that building where the uh the ADA building
Yeah That was It didn't work out anyway No And it's going to cost a lot of money to put that building back together Yep All right So I think that's it I mentioned that the Chargers and How's my hair look
b+ You don't go to Veto You got to go to Demar All right I got it I appreciate that He goes to Crystal What the hell is he doing there all right 10 seconds 10 seconds Any final words uh just to thank you Oh wait a minute I want to know who those ladies were that were sitting behind me They were a lot of fun Go to
Go to Walnut Street They're there Who are they time up Time up Time up Have a good night Yeah Thank you Frank So funny George Ramirez 500 East Clay Uh a couple questions How much do we get from the
pilot total uh all like the building Do you have the Do you have the all-in number Ken anticipated in the budget We're anticipating uh 1,545,000 this year 1,500 Mhm And 20% of that's going to go towards the schools Uh they got voted down They got voted
down So how much is going to schools zero So of that pilot money zero money Yes So those 42 kids it's going to go on to the homeowners Yeah I mean have we talked through this George if if you have anything else I'm happy to talk about this but if you have any other points like I'll explain where it's
going and where it's coming from All right But I mean 1.5 and zero is going to the schools Yeah At all Like is it gonna help the schools at all is it going to help So let me ask you a question Right So if I gave any portion of that to the
board of ed right we raised taxes about $50 a household tonight Okay That 1.5 is helping you keep it to But that's exactly my point But that's for the municipal side And then you've got the school budget side which is going to increase it more So So right So what I'm
saying is is you know it's it's look it's right pocket left pocket you could say right because if we're decreasing our if if we're putting it over there it's coming out it's coming out of the taxpayers one way or the other is what I'm saying Yeah So So you could give it to the board you could give it to the
board but unless you want me to fire somebody then taxes are going up higher than $50 firing somebody but then we're paying 900,000 for a parking lot I mean didn't we just get Yeah So so let's speak I I I know you didn't make it on council so I'll explain something to you You're not supposed to use one-time
shots for your operating budget It's a bad practice for capital though But didn't we just get 50 spots from the parking garage So why do we need more parking spots have you been Have you been to Westfield or Cranford so aside from your father
who's too lazy to go to the parking lot what has those parking lot have those parking lots ever been filled to capacity that we need to get they're not owned by our parking lots Yes Yes They're consistently filled to capacity including the 50 that we just got now They're not available yet Okay So we are
going to get those 50 So why George there's seven new businesses opening in the next six months Seven And the parking lots are filled now Okay Okay So we have 50 spots okay in the parking garage How many spots do we have here you can have in in a restaurant that
could take up 10 cars right there I mean that's hypotheticals but I mean right now we've got 50 and that's costing us zero and now we're going to spend 900,000 And you just said before be careful We have we're going through some troubling times
you know the future's unclear Yeah Which means shouldn't we be a little bit precautious with how we spend money i grew up here I've been here for 37 years Okay For 30 years of my life I watched that downtown crumble and decay And there is no argument that you will say
"All right but now you're being divisive Everybody I'm not being divisive at all." And and being together but now she said that I didn't say that We're all being like that She didn't say she said that I'm not I'm I'm nasty That went out the window then Yeah No unity I
I that's not you You know what George you really showed the olive branch last year and continue to do so So you get you get what you give bud You get what you thinking for the veterans but no no discounts for the veterans We gave a discount for the veterans We just voted that down Is there anything of substance you have to say because you've got I
could say whatever I want to Go ahead Yeah No I like it It's fun I like it too Yeah I made that sign by the way When When he's done No no he's got 20 seconds You could use it Chair Yeah That's all I got to say Thank you You don't get to ask those questions Just a comment So uh
if you do your due diligence everybody who owns a piece of property in Rosal Park it's a single family home or or or a six-story building they pay taxes right they pay taxes
54% of 240 and 260 East Westfield Avenue 54% goes towards the school Run for board of ed next Next one Thank you So just that's it That's good Councilman Got it That's all That's all
you have to remember Yep Michael Ryan 515 Locust Street Um at the uh last council meeting I learned that I angered some of the council uh with my comments about
the total the maximum amount of units that could be apartments that could be built next to the train station And uh I want to apologize for that Um I uh I ex acknowledge the arrogance of mentioning
that or bringing that up in conjunction with the affordable housing and I'm I'm sorry for it I I I realize you know that was there was a rudeness to it Um thank you for saying that Ryan It's hard to you know this is not an easy thing to do
to sit down in front of 10 people down here and uh that was the first time I've ever spoke in front of council So uh I don't know if that's I'm not trying to make an excuse but uh um I would like I I I wonder if
uh um you can imagine how I feel or where my you know some of my feelings were coming from Uh about four years ago uh Roso Park directed me gave me uh gave me instructions gave me zoning gave me
you know criteria the specifications for uh um develop you know for the property that uh I intend to develop at some point And I followed those to the tea I uh I didn't I you know there was one
extra thing I asked for Uh I there was no variances that I asked for I uh and on top of that I you know contributed a park to you know to the the residents of Rosel Park which I you know
um I can't wait to see uh come to fruition someday Um and then about a year ago I was told forget all that Forget the couple hundred,000 that you invested into it Forget all the time that you put into it Uh we're going we want you to
start all over again And that was a that's a a hard pill to swallow Uh I I don't expect to receive any consideration I I I understand how people wouldn't think that I deserve any
consideration and something like that just like so what But uh my family uh goes all the way back to 1937 and that you know that's 25 years after the town started that that sort of makes them one of the founding families of Rosel Park
And on in addition to that my mother was council person for two terms She was mayor for two terms She did never got a woman of the year award but she did pay a price I would give it to She paid a price greater than any other mayor in
Rosal Park's history And uh just you know I I would like you to keep that in mind as we move forward and and you know try to come to you know to some uh resolution of what we're doing on that property
Uh it's not like um you know I'm not asking uh oh my mother was mayor How about doing me a special favor i'm not I'm not even suggesting anything like that I'm just you know uh because that's not what I want I just you know want to
the who who we've been to Rosal Park and the investment that we have into this project already I would just like to you to keep that in mind as we move forward Thank you Yep Thank you council Thanks Mike Thank you Mayor Thank
you Bill Crosset 412 Galloping Hill Road On Tuesday of this week I was driving down Lincoln going towards Chestnut and there was a police car parked on one of the side streets and I'm like "Yeah they're going after the speeders on
Lincoln There's been some crashes over there When I came back a few minutes later he was gone That happens He's got other things to do And when I got to the councilman's street a guy runs the stop sign in front of me I should have t-boned him Should have just knocked the
crap out of him but I was able to avoid him and I followed him He did uh some turns here and there and finally ended up on Galloping Hill Road going towards Five Points Used car dealer plates I got a picture of it figured why call the
cops and union because the dealership's just going to say we don't know who was driving it So maybe we take a little bit of the $900,000 and add a couple more police officers and patrol cars Do Lincoln
Galloping Hill Westfield There's been act I know you're going to say no but I'm going to say it anyway Not that way but continue But no things have got to get better I know every year I come up here and I say the speeding this year
the racing on Galloping Hill They will be in a left turn lane on Galloping Hill Road and go straight almost hit the people coming from the other direction and cut off the cars in the straight through lane So I'm asking again if we
could just get patrols get together with Elizabeth Union Union County I see Union County sitting up in five points all the time We can't do it all ourselves and I
get that So maybe we need to help Last question I got was on the apartments the first ones that opened I remember a discussion a while back where they were supposed to get the commercial area
occupied It's a or pay a fine They uh they have somebody coming Um they have So there is the fine is $5,000 a day for lack of compliance with the redevelopment agreement There is no lack of compliance with the redevelopment agreement because they built the
commercial space You can't legally say you need to have a tenant here because what are they going to do you know force they pay the vacancy fine Yeah they do pay the vacancy fine We do have an open storefront fine Um but either way they have the commercial space built and I'm not defending Look I don't I don't even like that project I wasn't here when it
got voted on Right So I'm not defending on it Um but uh they do have a uh smoothie guy that's coming in um I think planned this summer Oh smoothie Do you remember why am I asking you guys smoothie Smoothies are moving in Smoothie King something like that And
the other ones right across from Chestnut are they supposed to fill their commercial storefronts as well yeah So they have a well they have a requirement to to build 1600 16,000 square feet of retail space I I can tell you I know the commitments that they have are uh
there's a Wingtop there's a some other restaurant there's a Verizon store uh there's a dental services place and then Enterprise also Enterprise is looking at it too But that that's there's a couple other moving pieces Yeah that's DBD And then
there's going to be another restaurant there because they have a liquor license So that's all I got Thank you Cool Mayor if I may just respond Bill just to give you a heads up we are having a public safety meeting Uh it's scheduled on 21st Um so we're going to put that on agenda
Some of your concerns I will say that I have personally wrote a letter to um the sheriff and the uh Union County police whatever police uh to start trying to patrol that location and get cars over
in that and and also in an anticipation of uh um Halloween as well So uh all of these things will be brought up at the meeting uh that we're having That's I just Well I appreciate you stopping by that day and you saw a little bit of what we see every day and the invitation
is still open Anybody can come park in my driveway if you want Park on Clay and watch these crazy fools cuz it's insane I do have something to um if you're available April 10th at 6:30 Easy Ride is going to be here having a community engagement and pedestrian and traffic
safety So Easy Ride is partnered with NJTPA They have a free resource library They have temporary demonstration projects um striping traffic delineators for road dieting and that's something that I've been advocating for road dieting specifically curb extension
bumpouts just to narrow the road lane so people don't have that freedom to really race Um if you'd like to bring up your suggestions that would be the venue to do it I'd encourage you to be there And if not email me and I'll bring it to Lisa Lee the director over there so she can No problem Thank you Anybody else
got anything all right good Uh may I have a motion to adjurnn so moved No I need to You need to close the portion Whoa May I have a motion to close the public portion so moved Second All in favor i I gave up my packet too early May I have a motion to adjurnn so
moved Second All in favor all right