This meeting this meeting is called Order. In accordance with the open public meetings law, in accordance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975, adequate notice of this meeting has been provided. This meeting of Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025 was published in the Courier News and
Star Ledger and placed on the burough's website and bulletin board at Burough Hall. A copy of this notice is available to the public and a copy of this statement shall be included in the minutes of this meeting. Mayor Brian Gallagher here. Council members, Terresa Bonner is excused this evening. Andrew Ki
here. Glen Zeny here, Randy Pittz here, Gina Stravik here, and Roger Vroom is excused this evening. All right. Uh, please stand for the salute to the flag. And we have an honored guest here tonight, a young man named Paul Fusen. Uh, he's from Troop 83
and he's working towards his communications badge uh on his way to Eagle. You got it. Awesome. So, anytime you're ready. 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. Awesome. Thank you very much. Okay. Motion for approval of the minutes of August 18th. So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll call.
Council members Andrew Ki. Yes. Lensen. Yes. Randy Pittz, abstain. Gina Stravik. Yes. Okay. Uh, no departmental reports or notices. Uh, proclamations. We have two. We do not have anybody here to accept them. One is for ovarian cancer
awareness month and the other is uh, diaper need awareness week. Uh, Kevin, we'll make sure that they get those two get into the right hands. Sure, Mayor. Thank you. Uh, committee reports. Let's start with Andrew. historic advisory committee met this this month. Uh we had a conver in well
in August. Um we had a conver they had conversations about uh the ongoing re renovations at Burrow Hall and the work that's uh that's gone on there. Uh as well as discussions about the upcoming um uh there's like a historic activity
weekend that's coming up where we're going to across Somerset County. They're doing a few things and we're participating in it which is great. Uh and our plaque and monument uh map also came up again as well as our you know section of the environ the master plan when we get to it. So good. Excellent. Great. Thank you, Gina.
Uh the board of health has not met for the summer. Uh the uh Somerville rescue squad continues uh its good work to the community. Um they will be dedicating next week a um ambulance to the memory of Roy Gunselman and um Glenn Barry. Uh
so they're having their internal festivities, but uh it's very nice to see uh our our locals who gave so much time and energy to the rescue squad and uh on Royce behalf of the fire department to be honored in this way. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. Go ahead.
Great. Thank you, Mayor. Uh the environmental commission sent out their quarterly newsletter uh this August that highlighted many of the recent activities including uh mostly the work to expand native habitat, increase biodiversity, and engage the public through the Petersbrook Restoration
Grant. So, be on the lookout for things happening down there between High Street and uh Bridge Street. And there will also be opportunities to volunteer to help out there this fall. Uh registration is also open for a seminar entitled Climate Proof Your Yard that is co-hosted with the Native Plant Society
of New Jersey, which will be held here on September 15th at 7 p.m. You can find all the details out on the socials uh and on the website. The next meeting will be held uh next Tuesday, September 9th, right here at 7 PM. And then for
the fire department, they've been very busy this August. They had 50 different calls uh including building fires, elevator alarms, gas leaks, and 31 different fire and carbon monoxide alarms that they've responded to, which brings the department's total uh calls to date uh to 450.
And then I have one note that I'm going to read from the recck department as well. Uh the recck department will be holding a senior lunchon uh at the American Legion Post 12 for any residents 55 and over. Uh it will be
held on October 5th from 12 to 2. And it says to join them for lunch with from local restaurants to help shape next year's senior programs. Come share your ideas for classes, events, and activities that you would love to see in 2025. There will be a basket raffle and
other great things happening there. Uh, you can always call to find out more. 9087046985. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you, Rick. I've no uh police department updates and with Dana from the DSA being in the
audience, I'll leave it up to her. All right. Uh, with that, let's go into introductions. Uh, we have with us tonight uh Dana Kessle, and uh we've asked her to uh uh to to come to the council. um to introduce herself. Uh she
is the new executive director for the Downtown Somerville Alliance, the DSA. And uh I will say you've hit the ground running. Um there's a a lot uh in the air uh with the Jazzfest coming up. Uh it's it's there's a lot. It's and I know
you're very very busy. Uh but you do it with enthusiasm. You do it with a smile. And uh and and I think our town's in good hands. Our downtown's in good hands. So, if you want to come up maybe and just talk a little bit about you and uh give give us a a brief background.
Um, so my name is Dana Kessle. Um, I uh am a former um high school history teacher um and um you know, district administrator um done everything from funded programs um I was a high school principal um and I owned my own
business. I owned a Goddard school for many years. My husband and I also own a business in Rawway, New Jersey. Um, and uh, you know, I kind of had spent over 30 years in public education and I saw this opportunity and it's a lot of
transferable skills. Um, a lot of what we do in terms of grants, in terms of initiatives, in terms of events. Um, you know, if you can run a high school, you can pretty much run a a a business. Um,
and so, um, you know, there are a lot of very very cool things happening. Obviously, we've got the Central Jersey Jazzfest coming up in two weeks. Um, a lot of great talent that's coming. We expect um between four and 5,000 visitors to the downtown area. Um,
fingers crossed for perfect weather um because it's rain or shine. Um, and a lot of other events that go on. But the DSA isn't just about events. So, there are four pillars that really define our work. One of them, of course, is marketing and increasing foot traffic.
And that's where the events come in. But they all have to do um one or one of three things. They have to be a um or at least two of the three things actually. They have to drive foot traffic and that foot traffic has to somehow translate into increased restaurant or retail
sales for our downtown area and that increases the economic vitality which increases the entire stature of the burrow of of Somerville. Um so we have organization things that we work on um to keep um our office running. Um we are
a small but mighty office. Um I have two people who um you know report to me and and do various things. Um we're working all day long into the nights into the weekends. It's a lot of work especially from um you know I'd say May to the end
of September. Um so that's a lot of what we're working on but there's a lot of other things that we do too. There's the grants because we do want to do a lot of infrastructure and beautifification projects um throughout Main Street on Gordina on Division um which will again
increase um you know foot traffic, make people feel safer, make it feel like it's just an amazing place to come and hang out. Um and then there's other types of things that we're working on, initiatives. One of them recently is a dog friendly a downtown Somerville dog
friendly initiative. Um, and this is a both a fun one, but it will translate according to all of our research in increased retail and restaurant sales in the downtown area. Research shows that now 70% of all American households have
a pet. The large majority of those are dogs. Um, and that people spend a great deal of money um on their pets. Um, and that they tend to spend a longer amount of time in areas where their pets are welcome. Um, and so that will involve
some infrastructure things that we currently don't have like dog waste stations and green areas um for dogs um to, you know, feel comfortable in, do their business. Um, and so we're working on that. And then we're going to have a big kickoff
event and we're in discussions right now with the Somerset Patriots. Um, we're actually my entire staff is going to the Bark in the Park event tomorrow night. Um and um they're coming to our offices September 10th to discuss collaborations and sponsorships. We're also in
discussions with Wakeern for the same thing. Um so it's just building up a lot of these kind of interest in what we're doing and there is an enormous amount of interest right now. Awesome. Excellent. Thank you. Great. Comprehensive and enthusiastic and that's that's uh that's our
downtown. So wonderful. Thank you. Appreciate that. Uh at this point, uh we'll open up the meeting to the public. Uh can I have a motion, please? So move. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Council members, Andrew Kiy. Yes. Glenda, yes. Randy Pitts,
yes. Gina Stra, yes. Public portion is now open. Hearing none, I'll ask for a motion to close. So move. Second. Discussion. Roll call. Council members Andrew Kiy. Yes. Glen Deny. Yes.
Randy Pitts, yes. Uni Stravik, yes. Okay. Ordinance for public hearing and adoption. This is ordinance number uh 2767 amending ordinance number 2661 authorizing and encouraging electric vehicle supply service equipment uh and
make ready parking spaces and creating chapter 107-17 entitled electric vehicle supply service equipment and make ready parking space regulations. Um, this is an ordinance that uh that that contemplates obviously the uh uh the proliferation of EV uh
charging EV vehicles um and anticipates it um not only from a consumer demand standpoint but also from a uh a life safety standpoint. So I'll ask for a motion for the public hearing to open the public hearing. So moved. Second
discussion. Council members Andrew Kiy. Yes. Glendon. Yes. Yes. Randy Pittz. Yes. Gina Stra. Yes. All right. Public hearing is now open. Hearing no public comment. Uh ask for a motion to close. So moved. Second.
Discussion. Roll call. Council members. Andrew Kiy. Yes. Glen. Yes. Randy Pittz. Yes. Gina Stravik. Yes. Okay. And a motion for adoption, please. So moved. Second discussion.
Yeah. I got something. Uh so last time we this came up and we spoke about it um we had talked about maybe amending some of this language making it a bit more specific for combustible materials. I had also asked some questions about the uh parking deck uh exclusions and
prohibitions. I just uh at this point I'm curious uh you know we say parking facilities located within a mixeduse structures are prohibited from having electric vehicle chargers. Which parking decks that we currently have uh would be prohibited from having that under this?
Are there any that are already built that would be prohibited from having an electric vehicle charger? Uh so that is one where you have mixed use. I don't think we have parking decks under mixed use buildings. Do we?
It says under or adjacent. We've got the parking deck adjacent to the edge on Main Street, but it has been built for a couple of years now and it has charging stations.
Right. That's the only deck that I'm aware of that has other than the one here. Right. So, what prompted this change? because I thought we had um endorsed the state standards and so if you recall there was a very large
discussion both at the planning board and at this council table um right the what prompted it was uh the development here the last building here and it's a essentially I'll for lack of a better term I'll call it a podium deck so it's a deck underneath a residential
unit a residential building um the the data nationwide is showing when these things burn. Um, it compromises the structural integrity of a parking deck uh or it has the potential to compromise
the uh integrity. So, so not only we deal dealing with a parking deck, then we're dealing with all of the residential units above a parking deck. And our emergency services looked at that and said, "Time out, folks.
both OEM and fire and I would imagine squad would would have some some of those same concerns. Um we can't we can't allow this without either uh an ability for this fire to be put out which right now there there really isn't
a way to put out EV fires. Uh it's it's containment at best. Um so so FD looked at it and said we we not only have a problem with that type of structure where you have residential
above it um from a firefighting perspective but from a life safety of all of those residents and the structural integrity not only of the deck now you're talking about the structural integrity of the building as well. So that's what precipitated all of this conversation. um many discussions
at the planning board uh along with our fire professionals um they've weighed in on this and said this is a good thing for us to implement and put in place. Um we've had many discussions here about
this as well. So we've introduced it and now it's up for adoption. So yeah, I don't think anybody here disagrees with trying to protect people. I I don't think anybody disagrees with our fire professionals on this. I just think we need to have eyes wide open that what we're doing here a little bit
um some of this re requirements these requirements seem a little egregious uh and not exactly uh feasible from what the language is using in here. The other one uh is that this is going to cut down on the amount of electric vehicle parking that's going to be allowed in town. It's just we eyes wide open.
That's what this will do. Uh it's not to say it's a bad thing or a good thing. I'm just saying that these the way it's written will reduce the amount of electric vehicle chargers that are able to be built in town. The the and that's not the intent and that was discussed at the planning board
as well. The the intent here is to ensure that if there is a parking deck created that it's a parking deck that doesn't put uh a residential or commercial space at risk. And this doesn't preclude the developer from putting it outside, making a parking
there a separate outdoor. No. Uh, no. But but it it would have to be pushed away a certain amount of feet from from the building. So those options it it makes sense and that's kind of what we did. We created options that you know what we don't want is it
underneath. Um what you know second best is okay you can put it adjacent to it but you can't put the EV charging next to um if there is structured parking if it's kind of a hybrid you have the ability to put the the uh uh the EV
parking outside of where the residential units are. So, so we created those options with that full understanding that we there are issues behind it, unintended consequences and and the planning board I think took great pains to try to account for a lot of that. So
can we um can we make one revision um in 5D where we have the sentence the high heat covering may consist of a high heat rated ceramic tile used in steel smelting factories or used in aerospace industries to protect vehicles entering
and exiting orbit. I understand that this is as I read it just an example of what we are saying could be used as a heat rating tile or a heat resistant coating and that the next sentence says the high temperature heatresistant coating shall be approved by the fire marshall. Is it necessary
for us to make such an example? Could we remove it? The language about requiring ceramic tiles efficient enough to protect aerospace vehicles entering and exiting the orbit. While I understand the intent being we need something resistant to high heat, it just uh
well, it says may feels a little silly to say in this context. I mean, that should not heat resistant approved by the fire marshal. It could be that. It could be anything that's high temp heat resistant.
You know, I just don't want folks thinking that's the only solution as it is obviously an extremely expensive one, if even feasible, viable to Well, I I think it says the high heat covering may consist of high heat rated ceramic tiles and and I think to your to
your point, the fire marshall the the heat resistant coating shall be approved by the fire marshall. Right. That creates that. Yeah. Which is why I'm saying, do we need the example? Because the example just feels like uh a little over more than what is needed in this situation.
Do we have the ability to change it at this point, Jeremy? If it's you could enterain, but I think the discussion is valid on whether or not it's necessary. So, so we would begin D with the high temp
temperature heat resistant coating shall be approved by the fire marshal. No, we begin D with the way it begins. We just remove remove the one sentence with the example in it. The one that says the high heat covering may consist. We just take that one sentence out. Okay.
And leave the sentence that says the rest of the language that's in there already. Okay. The sentence ends with the word orbit. Yeah. Ends with the word orbit. Yes. Good catch. So should the adoption go to
a vote on adopting the So what should we we should entertain a motion to amend? Yeah. I I think just to have it on the record. All right. So I make a motion to amend by removing the one sentence from 5D. Second. Uh discussion.
Roll call. So this uh this ordinance will not go back to the planning board with this amendment. It's not substantial. Vote is just Just on the amendment yet. Thumbs up or down? Yeah. Council members, Andrew Ki, yes.
Uh Glenn Deny, yes. Randy Pitts, yes. Gina Stravik, yes. Okay, so now uh vote for the amended. Correct. Further discussion. Yeah, because the motion's on the table for it already. The amendment has been
approved. So now, roll call. Uh do you need a public hearing on the amendment? Okay. Motion to open a public hearing. So moved. Second. Discussion. Roll. Uh roll. Council members. Andrew Ki. Yes. Glendon A. Yes. Randy Pitts. Yes. Gina Stravik.
Yes. Okay. Public hearing is now open. Hearing none. I'll ask for a motion to close. So move. Second. Council members Andrew Kien. Andy Pitts. Yes. Okay. So uh this is a vote on the
ordinance with the amendment as noted. Roll call. Council members, Andrew Ki up. Yes. Do we have a motion? Second on that. Yes. Yeah. We had to get We had to get it up to the public hearing. Okay. I'm sorry. Uh I I'll just repeat myself. Andrew Ki,
yes. Glen Deny, yes. Randy Pitts, yes. Tina Stravik, yes. Okay. All right. Uh consent resolutions and to be pulled off for further discussion. All right. Uh 236 awarding a contract to
we timberman under source well contract for an OD for a trailer mounted self-contained vacuum debris collector uh as noted 237 is accepting the resignation of Nir Petty's Jackson effective August 16th uh and request for payment owed to the burrow for acrew
time use in excess of the amount allotted in the amount of $1,179.36 due October 1. 238 is awarding a contract to Absolute Fire Protection as per quoted date August 21 in the amount of 1,474,99 with a trade of $414,000 for a sale
amount of $1,60,99 under Sourcewell Co-op. Uh, quote, as noted for one E1 Cyclone 75 foot rear mount aerial. 239 is approving chapter 159 from the National Opioid Settlement Trust. 240 authorizing a van with
advertisement to be placed next to the business located at 133 East Main. 241 is supporting the T-Mobile Hometown grant application submission by the DSA for artistic improvements to the Gardina walkway. 242 is amending resolution 2 240903266
adopting OPER request form and appointing record custodian substitute to custodian subcustodians and alternates. 243 is requesting the planning board to review the B5 zone specifically on route 22. 244 is approving change order number one to a
contract with PNO Gordano construction for Carol Pager playground improvements for $7,36 for a new contract amount of $213,358. 245 is a authorizing the sale of surplus property being a 2009 Dodge Charger SE
through municip in accordance with state cooperative pricing system. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second. Roll call. Council members Andrew Ki. Yes. Glen, yes. Randy Pitts, yes. Gina Stravik, yes. All right. Who's got bills and vouchers?
Roger's not here. Well, I doing this on the fly. I was not prepared, but it looks like uh we have a bills list totaling $358,92.97. Uh grand wires and manuals to totaling 4,900 491,754.79
[Music] for a grand total of $849,8476. And it's hard to read big numbers. Is that a motion? I will put that in a motion. Uh yes. So uh we motioned to pay bills in the
amount of $849,847.76. Second discussion. Roll call. Council members. Andrew Ki. Yes. Glendon. Yes. Randy Pitts. Yes. Gina Stravik. Yes. All right. Uh Mr. Ki, I will ask you for a motion to adjurnn. I make a motion to adjurnn. Second.
Discussion. All in favor? I I post this meeting is jered.